Methi-Paneer Rice and FAHC

Left over rice who doesn’t have ?  Last week we had been busy with events at office and cultural events over the weekend from our sangha in Singapore. Admidst of our kids final exams for non-tamil- speaking kids (hindi/gujrathi….). Generally getting home late not eating enough or eating most junk ended up lot of food were leftovers. leftover rice with sambhar or rasam is not the one likeable if the quantity of rice is a large bowl, even wasting a morsel of rice could which could have helped a little child to fulfill his hunger many of them who just have one meal a day.  Its tough to make understand  these values to our kids not to waste food.

Coming back to food making a family happy with the food at the same time satisfaction of not wasting food at my home is only attained by using left over rice for fried rice, chitraanna, masalebhath….

Last week I happen to get fresh methi, palak and gogura leaves which were irresistable same time i get all the fresh ones and its makes really hard for me to decide which one to cook. So my family is been having continuous green dishes with palak panneer, Gongura pachadi, Moolangi palya and now its methi rice. All are our favorites now I need to be lucky to get so fresh too esp the methi leaves. 

All you need
Cooked rice - 2 cups
methi leaves - 1 bunch
paneer cubes - 1 cup
Black Chick peas/ Kala chana boiled - 1 cup
Capsicum cut lengthwise - 1
potatoes cubed and boiled - 1 cup
onions cut lengthwise - 1 big
Vangibhath powder - 1 tbsp
Cinnamon - 1 inch
cloves - 4-5
green chillies(optional)
mustard seeds - 1 tsp
channa dhall - 1tsp
urad dhall - 1 tsp
ground nuts - 10-15
Asafoteida/hing - 1/8 tsp
Amchur/Dry mango powder - 1 tsp
salt and sugar to taste

Method

•  Sprig out the leaves from the stems of Methi/fenugreek

• Wash in salt water and let the water strain out

• Heat oil in Kadai, add groundnuts, channa dhall, cinnamon stick, cloves wait for a while until they change color

• Add the remaining unrad dhall, mustard, hing. Fry oinions and chillies once the mustard splutter

• Add the methi leaves and fry until they are cooked once the leaves wilt there will a lot of  water just continue frying on medium to high flame

• Add caspsicum, boiled potatoes, paneer cubes, kala chana salt, vangibhath powder and amchur powder and fry until all are blended well

• Continue frying on high flame until the masala flavours into the dish

• Mix the left over rice, stir well and serve hot with raita of your choice.

 

Heres moolangi palya, vegetable fry with radish and radish greens garnished with grated coconut.

Before I take leave few words on FAHC as i was writing this post i recieved an email from Indira of FAHC funding take a look

feedahungrychild.org is a not-for-profit charitable organization formed in a collaborative effort of the like-minded people from all around the world.  It aims to replace the empty plates of the underprivileged children and replace them with ones of food.  While FAHC addresses the holistic needs of each children it supports, it believes illiteracy, malnutrition, and other concerns can only be addressed when hunger is appeased.

Immediate Mission:

• Join the fight against global poverty.
• Help feed hungry children one by one.

Larger Vision: feeahungrychild.org aims to improve the lives of a good many underprivileged children in their efforts to support themselves, their families, and their communities by giving them the chance for better food, better education, better healthcare, and other welfare.

To contribute by donating smilies/chipin please visit FeedaHungryChild also visit Indira’s Mahanandi for details of how this event works.

Thank You

RCI Oriya Cuisine

This cuisine is very new to me and I loved to explore the tastes of their food. I realised the food variety ranges from use of dhall  to vegetables with a very unique combination of spices which enhances the flavours of food. The sweet is mostly made of cheese or milk based which varies from kalakhand to rosgullas..More about oriya cuisine at Wikipedia

I have tried all the recipes from 123Orissa.com with some changes for our taste. This is my contribution to Lakshmi from VeggieCuisine’s RCI, this month we are celebrating Oriya cuisine hosted by Swapna from Swad of India

Vegetable Biryani/Khichadi

• All you need
  1.5 cup Rice
  3/4 cup Lentils/masoor dhall
  2 Potatoes cubed
  1 cup carrots/beans/peas
  1 cup Peanuts
  1 Tomatoes
  10 Cashewnuts
  1 cup grated coconut
  1 teaspoon Cumin seeds
  4 Red Chillies
  1 cup Onions sliced
  4 pieces of Cinnamon
  4 Cardamoms
  1/2 cup Curd( i skipped)
  Salt & Turmeric Powder

Method:

• Soak Rice for half an hour 
• Grind the grated Coconut with Cumin seeds and chillies.
• The recipe used the extract of the ground paste but i preferred to use the grounded paste as it is
•  Take oil in a kadai  add cinnamon, cardamom fry until fragrant
• Add rice, lentils, peanuts, cashew fry for sometime until all look slightly coated with oil
• Add water along with the ground paste, salt and tomatoes.Let it boil now add the vegetables
• Pressure cook for 3 whistles. Serve hot.

This turned out delicious khichadi and tasted close to our Bisibhelebhath.

Phul Gobi Do Piaji

All you need
1 Cauliflower
cumin powder - 1 tsp
Ginger paste - 1 cube
 Vinegar
 garam masala - 1 tsp
Tomato - 1
Red chilli powder/green chilli paste - 2 tsp
 Onion - 1
panch phoran - 1 tsp
Salt

Method

• Cut the cauliflower into medium size pieces. marinate with ginger paste, cumin powder and chilli powder/green chilli paste and vinegar for an hour

•  Heat oil in a kadai and the panch puran spices and fry onion .

• Add  the cauliflowers into the pan and cover it with tomato pieces. Add the garam masala and salt for taste

• Cover the lid and lower the flame until cauliflower is cooked fully.

Bhanda kobi Khofta Curry

All you need
Cabbage - 1 cup shreded
onion - 1 sliced
gram flour - 1/4 cup
coriander leaves - 2 tsp
corn flour - 2 tsp
baking powder - 1 tsp

gravy
onion - 1 big
tomatoes - 1
ginger paste - 1cube
chilli powder - as per taste
coriander leaves for garnish
garam masala - 1 tsp

Method

• Mix cabbage, onions, salt and chilli powder and coriander leaves. let it stand for 5 mins

• The cabbage mixture will is slightly wet now, add gram flour and corn flour along with baking powder mix it well

• Deep fry the cabbage pakodas in oil and keep aside

• Make a gravy by grinding the half onions, tomatoes and ginger

• Take a kadai with oil fry remaining onions tomatoes along with the ground paste, and chilli powder and salt.

• Add 1 cups of water and let it boil, the tiness of gravy depends on liking once it reaches a gravy consistency do a taste check 

• Add the pakodas and serve hot with rotis/rice

I extremely enjoyed exploring Oriya Cuisine and my family were pleased with the outcome of every dish, Please visit Swapna’s blog for the roundup of the event.

ಶೆಂಗಾ ಚಟ್ನಿ ಪುಡಿ/Peanut Chutney powder and Me Me

My blogger buddy Archana tagged me for this Me Me  about 7 random facts. 

1. I am crazy about collecting mysore silk saris basically light weight silk saris ha ha even though i rarely touch drape it around once a year or two i do keep buying them and i can never resist the different shades of colors. Last year I stopped myself  from visiting the shops at little India, then seeing a crowd range at Haniffa i couldn’t stop myself and again ended by buying 2 saris one is yet waiting to be adored.
2. I am crazy of bags I buy and change bags every 4 to 6 months. Whenever there are stalls put up near by our neighbourhood we call it passar mallam here unlike the melas/jattare in India. We get to eat (not really for me) and buy all the nice nice stuff from clothes to kids toys to kicthen usage which i love to gaze at. Apart from the eating stuff, only wished there were some chat stalls too. Even though i hardly buy any stuff i would love to stroll around the stalls.
3. I love to gaze at the plant store/ horti garden  store and buy atleast 4 every time i visit and half of them do not survive the weather here. yet do not stop buying them making my hubby really check his pocket now and then. looks like the green thumb is not taking my side yet. Travelling up and down to office i keep looking out at the private houses where they would have grown beautifull plants and trees which I love to own one day when I return  to India :).
4. Hazy reactions. I really do not know at times how to react to people I give very blank face, while the other person is expecting a rection from me gets an unexpected gesture, I really hate myself during such stupid reactions. I should call it a dumbo which I repent later but what is the point? I still can’t figure out why I behave hazely at some situations.
5. My first mysterious sambhar was a hilarious experience. I hardly know the name of any of the spices I stayed away from the kitchen most of the time. The first time my hubby asked me to prepare sambhar from scratch how is that was a big question mark.  he: i am gonna invite our cousin too, prepare our style of sambhar rather than using the sambhar powder
   me: hege?? how do i
   he: add some urad dhall, some coriander, little chilli, hing, a bit of jeera fry and grind with coconut thats itand prepare  as usual
   me: oh got it i added how much urad you guess– i think a small 1/2 of a cup ha ha
   he : are you done
   me: yes voagarne hakthini. i just need to to tadka
   me & he: at Lunch oh sambhar does taste good, finish
   me: its me who prepared
   Evening at living room watching tv all of a sudden hubby heard something bubbling sound what is it check the kitchen oh the sambhar has started fermentation ha ha ha rolling laughter after how much of urad dhall did you add? oh well i just added half a cup thats it………………. we laughed and laughed then that was the first time, even today this is one of the exp my hubby loves to tell others my first exp of sambhar.But I can’t figure out how it started fermentaion? The wild yeast should have died during the grinding and heating process right. Anyways it left me a very hilarious experience.
6. I hate clearing bills and filling them at the right place. Lucky my better half clears it and gives only the most important ones which i still have to file. But what i do? I keep it in a most open treasure my h calls it as the open secret draw where i keep dumping until almost to the brim. oh the day come for me to file them, i spread them all over my room and start filling. this is real crazy isn’t it? why is it i am like that i am damn lazy for filling one document to search for the right file and file it at the  right moment that is when he hands over me the docs i am either frying up some culnary in the kitchen or trying to color my hair or simply because i am lazy so what am i supposed to do take the docs neatly pull open the draw align it and continue……….
7. I do not love or fancy pets but i can admire them from far, I am damn worried half the time whats going to happen to my kids even when they touch or play with any of them leave alone bringing any home even though my daughter loves it. 2 years ago my h’s friend bought a hamester on the pretext of my daughters pleasure,  yeek i just hated the look of it finally was very happy leave it out as could not handle it. Now we just say your brother is too young no pets until he grows up and you can handle pets.

Thats about Me and only Me. I tag  coffee, Sunita,  Suma,  Ramya, Bharathi, lakshmi and heres a spicy chutney powder with iddilis and dosas. Continue the Me me whoever want to join in. I am certain many of them already have been tagged.

All you need
1. peanuts roasted and skin removed - 2 cups
2. seseme seeds - 1/2 cup
3. garlic cloves - 4-5
4. dry chillies - 3/4 cup ( according to taste)
5. curry leaves - 1/4 cup
6. asafoteida - 1/8 tsp
7. desicated coconut - 1/2 cup
8. sugar, salt and tamarind paste to taste

Method:

• Dry roast all ingrediants seperately from 2 to 5
• Powder peanut to a coarse powder keep aside
• Powder all fried ingredients with salt, jaggery and tamarind to a fine powder
• mix asofoteida , desicatted coconut. Store in airtight containers.