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.

Masale Bhaat and bhopli mirchi chi peeth perun bhaaji/Capsicum with cabbage and shallot fry

 RCI Maharastra, food of maharastra has bought back childhood memories though we spent hardly 2 years of our stay in Pune. I loved the climate the place for its simplicity and homely neighbours. The food loved for hot sabudana vadas, chats bhel puri, various kinds of wadis, polis . I can still remember the unique taste of bhel puri was hot and spicy but the flavors were excellent. The ganesh Utsav is a big bang for the 10 days rejoicing playing music and dance with the local community gathering was loads of fun from installing the madal to decorating, distributing sweets to the last day immersing the Ganesh idol in the near by river .  

Here I tried two simple dishes which were unique in taste. I loved the taste of both the dishes. My pressure pan never gave good result as my baingan were mushy. When I make vangi bhath with Baingan i usally cook rice seperately. Next time i will opt for cooking seperately with my old way . The brinjals i used were thai brinjals which take longer time to cook than the purple ones.

                                                     Masale Bhaat                                                        

All you need:
gherkins - 1 cup
peas - 1 cup
Brinjals - 1 cup
goda masala - 2 tsp ( thanks Tee)

turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
rice - 1.5 cups sokaed for half an hour
curry leaves - 1 sprig
whole garam masala
cinamon sticks - 2
cardamom - 2
cloves - 4
bay leaves - 2

Dry roast
1/2 cup coconut,
dry chillies - 4-5

Method:

• Heat oil in a kadai/pressure pan add whole garam masala fry until masala are plump add curry leaves
• Fry gherkins for a few minutes add peas and brinjals fry for a few minutes
• Add rice and fry for another 2 minutes. Add boiled water 1.5 times rice. Let it boil add the goda masala and roasted masala
• Add sugar and salt simmer until rice is cooked.
• Garnish with coriander leaves and fried cashews

Capsicum Cabbage with shallot fry

 

All you need
1 cup capsicums
1 cup cabbage
1 cup Shallots
1cup chick pea flour / gram flour (besan)
1 tbsp peanuts powdered coarsely
4 tsp chilli powder,
1 tsp turmeric powder
1/2 tsp cumin powder
1 tsp coriander powder
1/2 tsp garam masala
salt,
sugar (optional) to taste
cilantro/coriander leaves
1/2 tsp asafoetida
2 tsp mustard seeds
2 tbsp oil

Method:

• Wash the peppers,cabagge, shallots. Pat dry with a kitchen towel.
• Chop peppers and cabbage 1/2 inch square pieces.
• Dry roast gram flour until aromatic 
• In a bowl, combine gram flour, chili powder, coriander powder, cumin powder, 1/2 tsp turmeric, salt and sugar. Do not add water.
• Heat oil in a kadai. Add mustard seeds, asafoetida and the remaining turmeric powder.
• Add peppers, capsicums, shallots and fry till they are half tender.
• Add gram flour and mix well until all the pieces are well coated with the flour. Fry for sometime over medium heat.
•  Keep tossing the bhaaji until crisp and golden. Toss in peanut powder and fry for a minute.

Garnish with cilantro/coriander leaves and serve hot with chapati.

The bhajji was delicious, the flavour of gram flour was not strong but was crisp and nice combo to the bhajji.

Recipesource: mumbai-masala.com

These are my contribution for Nupur from OnehotStoves RCI for maharastra  and Sangeeta from Ghar ka khana’s  JFI Brinjal

Stir Fry Vegetables

This is my contribution for Meeta’s Monthly Mingle. This is a very easy to stir, stir and serve hot.

 

All you need

carrots - 1 cup

asparagus - 1 cup

brocolli - 1 cup

baby corn - 1 cup

snow peas - 1 cup

garlic pods - 5 (cut finely)

soya sauce - 2 tsp

garlic- chilli-ginger- shallot -sauce - 2 tsp

salt and sugar to taste

seseme seeds - 1 tsp

olive oil - 2 tsp

• Take oil in a pan, add seseme seeds fry until light brown
• Add garlice fry until fragrant
• Add all vege cut into long strips, soya sauce, salt and sugar
• Stir fry in high flame until all vege just crunchy
• Stir in the sauces and serve hot

So this is going to Meeta

ಪಡವಲಕಾಯಿ ಕೂಟು/Pudalangai Milagu Kootal/Snake Gourd kootu

Introduction to Tamil cuisine was when i first came to Singapore. Though i did have Tamilian friends our life was not centered to food.  We make kootu, sambhar (tamil) style, kozambu as part of our weekly menu atleast once a week.Basically kootu can be made from any vegetable/greens, kootu with spinach is very tasty and we prefer eating it this way. This is the fist time i tried Kootu with snake guard taste was awesome. This is my contribution for Lakshmi’s RCI

 ————————————-*********————————————-

snake guard - 1

masoor dhall - 1/2 cup

turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp

coconut oil - 2 tsp

mustard seeds- 1tsp

red chillies  -2

curry leaves - 1 sprig

Paste

grated coconut - 1/2 cup

rice - 1 tsp

cummin seeds - 4tsp

red chillies - 4

• Fry red chillies and grind to a paste with coconut, rice and cummin seeds
• Pressure cook dhall until soft ( 3 whistles)
• Cut snake guard to medium size
• boil snake guard with some water and salt until half cooked, add the dhall  and mix well let it cook for 2 minutes
• Add the coconut paste cook until the snake guard has boiled turn off fire
• Prepare for takda, with coconut oil mustard seeds, chillied, hing and curry leaves and add to the koot
• Serve hot with rice

For the paste you can substitute red chilli with green chillies for spinach and dhall you can use moong dhall for masoor dhall.

Tofu Beensprout Fry

Tofu and bean sprout get along very well.  This was my very first vege that i had when we stayed as a paying guest. A little story behind how i learnt of tofu.  The very first time we landed in Singapore that is 10 years ago, yes it has been 10 years!!.  The owner’s wife was a vegetarian but i was very suspicious, as she told me today she will cook and i need not cook though i was reluctant to take it but finally agreed. I also was very new to the cooking world ever since from my school days to my engineering i hardly cooked any full meal. After she finished cooking she showed me tofu fry and told me i can eat this as this is pure vegetarian but i was harldy aware of what is tofu made of?? When i had a look i felt a sour smell with the bean sprout more looked like jelly kind at first look i thought it was some worm which is supposed to be vegetarian for these Singaporeans. The owner was very nice to me and explained how Tofu was extracted from soya and also had a look at the raw bean sprouts which looked so fresh wow i though to my self! The first time i had this dish i did not like the taste of it slowly i started to adapt it and now it is favourite food for my family. This is best when cooked fresh.

 

Tofu - 3 huge chunks

Bean spourts - 2 cups

onions - 1

green chillies - 1

cloves - 2

cinnamon - 2 pieces

Fennel seeds - 1 tsp

turmeric

sambhar powder - 1 tsp

salt to taste

coriander leaves

garlic - 2 pods

Cut Tofu into small chunks like how we do for paneer. Heat oil in a pan, add fennel seeds, cloves, cinnamon fry for a few minutes add curry leaves. Add green chillies onion fry until onoins are light brown. Add garlic fry for a few secs until slight brown. Add tofu and fry it on high fire until brown layer formed on each of them. Add bean sprouts, turmeric powder, sambhar powder salt and continue frying until bean sprouts change color.

Badnekayi Mullgai Palya/Bagara Baingan

This is one of the famous Eggplant Curry served with jowar Roti in north karnataka.  There are different ways of cooking this dish with different masala.  This is one masala which is liked by my family. Whenever we visit India, we try to eat atleast once at the kamats Yatri nivas where they serve hot jawar roti with baingan masala which is well known as Bakri oota.

Masala

peanuts - 1 cup

seseme seeds - 1/2 cup

grated coconut - 1/2 cup

red chilli - 8-10

coriander seeds - 2 tsp

jeera - 1 tsp

hing - a pinch

jaggery to taste

salt to taste

cloves - 4

cinamon - 1 inch stick

tamarind -  lemon sized ball

Fry all the above and grind to a thick paste

onions - 1 big

sambhar onions/madras onions - a bunch full

small brinjals - 10 numbers

2 sprig of curry leaves

coriander leaves

Slit the Brinjals into plus by keeping the bottom together.  Put one spoon of masala to the each slit.  Heat oil in a pressure pan. Add mustard seeds hing, add curry leaves once the seeds splutter. Fry cut onions until light brown, add sambhar onions and brinjals. Add all the remaining masalas on top.  Make sure there is some liquid for the steam to form in order to cook the brinjals.  This is a little tricky, allow the mixture to boil and close the pressure pans top. Cook for 1 whistle and sim the fire for 5 minutes.   Take of fire let the pressure cool for 10 minutes, Serve with phulkas or rice.

Thondli fry

  

This is one of the ways we prepare thondli fry commonly known as Thondekayi in kannada. The first time i saw this in singapore was really so happy to find the same vege that i relished with vangibhath, poladhya and palya is in town.

1 tsp mustard seeds

4 pods garlic

1 green chilli ( can add more for spicy)

1/4 kg thondekayi

1/4 cup grated coconut

1/2 tsp turmeric

salt to taste

 

The preparation is very simple. Take oil in a deep frying pan or tava to prepare takda. Add mustard as they splutter, add garlic and green chilli. Fry for a inute until garlic is light brown. Add turmeric, thondekayi, salt and stir fry. This should be stir fried for sometime before steaming in low fire. Depending on thondekayi it takes around 20 minutes. Keep stiring occasionaly to avoid sticking to the pan. once the thondekayi is cooked garnish with grated coconut. Serve with rice or chapati.  This dish is often prepared in my hometown by crushing the garlic, chilli and thondekayi give a very nice taste. If the thondekayi is very fresh and small size can be done this way, but takes long time to cook.