Avarakkai Soya bean koottu/Flat beans Gravy with Soya bean

I love Flat beans/Avarakkai very much, I buy lots of them in its season and cook curry & gravy often.

One of the recipe with flat beans that I do is arachuvecha koottu /gravy with any chickpeas. This time I tried the gravy with soya bean. It has all the flavors of coconut, coriander, peanut in the Flat bean and Soya bean & it makes yummy combo with rice and papad.

Ingredients:

Cut Flat beans - 2 cups

Soya bean - 1/2 cup(soaked overnight)

Moong Dal - 2 tsp

Salt to taste

For Tadka:

Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Cumin seeds  -1 tsp

Urad dal - 1/2 tsp

Chana dal - 1/2 tsp

Hing - a pinch

Curry leaves - 5 -6

For grinding:

Red chilli - 1 (you can add more if you want it spicier)

Coriander seeds - 2 tsp

Chana Dal - 1 tsp

Pepper - 1/2 tsp

Peanuts - 1 tsp

Urad Dal - 1/2 tsp
Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp

Coconut - 1/4 cup

Method:

Pressure cook Flat beans, Soya beans and Moong dal together.

Fry and grind the ingredients given under 'For grinding'.

Heat oil in a pan and add mustard seeds. Once it splutters, add all the other ingredients under 'For Tadka'.

Now add the cooked beans and ground mixture into it. 

Add salt to taste. 

Let it cook altogether for 10 minutes.

Its all yours now. Its heaven when you eat with rice and Papad. Believe me!

Quick Refreshing Salad

Here's a refreshing salad for the summer!! It is so simple and quick recipe, just mix and serve :-)
Ingredients:
Cucumber - 1 sliced
Strawberry - 6 nos sliced
Lettuce  - 1/2 cup
Cabbage - 1/2 cup
Walnut - 2 tsp
Orange - 2
Salt to taste
Pepper - 1 tsp

Method:

Mix all the above ingredients, squeeze one orange into it, garnish with walnuts & orange and serve chill. Its a great treat and healthy salad for the summer!!!
I made this salad for one of the ladies get-together and my friends enjoyed the salad too much :-)

Sending this to Fun N Sun hosted by Radhika

Took a break and back to blog world with a recipe "Soya Pulao"

Here I come with "Soya Biryani" after a month break...Oooh...
This recipe is so easy and my son loved it so much.
Ingredients:
Soya chunk - 2 cups
Onion - 1
Gingergarlic paste - 1 tsp
Coriander leaves - 1/4 cup
Pulao masala - 11/2 tsp
Jeera - 1/2 tsp
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Salt to taste
Cooked basmati rice - 2 cups
Butter/Oil - 1 tsp
Method:
Pressure cook Soya chunks with turmeric and salt. Switch off after one whistle. That should be enough.
Squeeze out the water from the chunks through the drainer(I used pasta drainer) and keep it aside.

Heat oil in a pan, add jeera into it. Add Onion and once its light brown, add ginger garlic paste, salt, coriander leaves. Stir it till the raw smell of ginger garlic paste is gone.
Now add the Pulao masala (I used MTR Pulao masala). Let it cook for 5 - 10 minutes till the masala gets coated into the chunks. You could add chilli powder if you want it spicy.
Add the cooked rice and mix it well. The Soya Pulao is ready to eat.
It goes well with onion raita.

Gobhi/Cauliflower Paratha

I love Cauliflower/Gobhi, either dry curry or in gravy form. I thought I will give a try to Gobhi Paratha and it was a huge hit at my home. I saw so many versions, finally landed up in Manjula's Kitchen. It came out so well. Thnaks to the wonderful recipe from Manjula ji. I am glad my parents too enjoyed the paratha!!!!My kid also had fun eating it :-)
Here goes the recipe which I got from http://www.manjulaskitchen.com/2008/06/21/gobhi-paratha/ in video. Just one change, I did not add green chilli in the filling. If you want it spicy, you could add it though.

Ingredients:

• Dough:
  • 1 cup whole-wheat flour
  • 1/2 cup water (Use more as needed)
  • 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• Filling:
  • 2 cup shredded cauliflower
  • 1/2 teaspoon ajwain
  • 1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds (Jeera)
  • 2 tablespoons chopped cilantro (green coriander)
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
• Also needed:
  • 1/4 cup whole-wheat flour for rolling
  • Oil to cook

Method

Dough

1. Mix flour, 1 tsp of melted butter/oil, salt and water together to make a soft dough 
2. Knead the dough for a few minutes on a lightly greased surface to make a smooth and pliable dough.
3. Set the dough aside and cover with a damp cloth. Let the dough rest for at least ten minutes.

Filling

1. Mix all filling ingredients together by hand. After mixing let the filling settle for about 5 minutes. I used food processor, but very carefully to avoid too much moisture in cauliflower.
2. Squeeze the cauliflower mix in order to take out as much water as possible.

Making of paratha

1. Divide the dough and cauliflower mixture into 6 equal parts.
2. Roll the dough into 3 inch diameter circles. Put the filling in the center. Seal by pulling the edges of the rolled dough together to make a ball. Proceed to make all six balls.
3. Each ball needs to settle for two minutes before rolling. Note: If you don’t wait long enough the cauliflower mixture will seep through the edges when rolling the parathas.
4. Heat the skillet on medium high. Note: An iron skillet works best. To see if the skillet is ready, put a couple of drops of water on it. If the water sizzles right away, the skillet is ready.
5. To make it easier to roll the balls, first roll them in dry whole-wheat flour.
6. Lightly press the ball on the sealed side and keep it on the topside when rolling. Roll the ball light handed in to 6 inch circles. To reduce the stickiness on the rolling pin or rolling surface, sprinkle dry whole-wheat flour on both side of the semi-rolled paratha.
7. Place the paratha over the skillet. You will see the color change and the paratha will bubble in different places.
8. Then turn the paratha over. Paratha should have golden-brown spots. Wait a few seconds and put 1 teaspoon of oil over paratha and spread the oil on the topside. Flip the paratha and lightly press the puffed areas with a spatula.
9. Flip again and press with the spatula making sure the paratha is golden-brown on both sides.

Ginger Grape Juice

It was kind of weird for me to be away from blog world for a week..
Woohoo..I am back now from the hectic week!!!
I made this Ginger Grape Juice recently as the weather was warm and shining sun :-)
Happily we all had the juice. Also shared with my neighbor too!
Coming back to the recipe....
Ingredients:
Grapes - 1 cup washed
Ginger - 1/4 inch - chopped roughly
Whipping cream - 1/4 cup
Honey - 3 tsp 
Sugar - 1 tsp
Salt - a pinch
Mint - for garnishing


Method:
First grind the ginger with Grapes, then add whipping cream, honey, sugar and salt.
Transfer to a glass, you could add ice cold water to dilute in the form of juice and garnish with mint. Its ready to be served.
Trust me, it was so yummmm.....

The colour looked so pink, so thought it would be apt to send this recipe to Food palette series Pink hosted by Akheela

Also sending this to Dish Name Starts with: G hosted by Akila

Also sending to "Healthy Recipe Hunt - 3" event hosted by Kurinji

Paneer Butter Masala - USmasala

Yesterday I planned to do some side dish for roti with paneer as I always have paneer at home...
I remembered seeing lots of colourful, yummy paneer recipes in Aipi's USMasala. So digged into Aipi's blog, made Paneer Butter Masala. When my husband is back from shopping, he asked me if I ordered from any restaurant ;-)!!! It was a great applause for me.. I would like to thank Aipi for her detailed & yummmm... recipe.
Just that I added heavy whipped cream instead of evaporated milk.
Please visit her link for the recipe:
http://usmasala.blogspot.com/2010/08/paneer-butter-masala.html


Here's a glimpse of Paneer butter Masala!!

Sending to bookmarked recipe hosted by Priya's Bookmarked Recipes - Every Tuesday Event.

Ginger Thokku - Reposting and award

Reposting Ginger Thokku for Akila's event "Dish Name starts with G"


Ginger is one of the very best spice, also has antibacterial properties which we use it from tea to recipes.
Its my favourite spice too which I save it in freezer & grate it in whatever side dishes I make.
I met my friend in Bhajan yesterday, she had brought Ginger Thokku, it was too yummy & healthy recipe.
I got recipe from her & made it today, which I would like to share with you all.  
Ingredients:
Ginger - 4 inches - cut into pieces.
Tamarind - 1/2 tsp
Jaggery - 1 tsp
Turmeric powder - a pinch
Oil for frying - I used gingely oil
Salt to taste
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
For Grinding:
Urad dal - 1 tsp
Chana dal - 1 tsp
Red Chillies -2 nos 
Hing - a pinch
Curry leaves - 5 -6 

Method:
Heat oil in Kadai and fry urad dal, chana dal, red chillies, hing, curry leaves. Once its done, keep aside.
Fry cut ginger in kadai separately and let it cool.
Grind dal mixture, ginger, tamarind, salt in mixer.
Heat oil in kadai, put mustard seeds, curry leaves. Add the ground ginger paste & turmeric powder when mustard seeds splutter. 
Fry till the mixture is cooked(the raw smell would be gone quick as we have already fried all these ingredients).
Now add jaggery and switch off the stove.
This goes well with dosa, idly, Pongal or with white rice as well..
Ginger Thokku tastes little ginger hot, little jaggery sweet & little sour tamarind  :-)

I thank Akheela of Torviewtoronto for such a beautiful award for participating in Food Palette Series- Brown

Sending this to bookmarked recipes  - a wonderful event hosted by Priya and Aipi

Also sending to - Sara's Feb 2011 event- Healing foods Ginger and Garlic
                                                                  Healing food page

Tangy puffed rice

Pori/Puffed rice is all time favourite for everyone from kids to adults. Its almost always available at everybody's home. I wanted to post something for Kurinji's puffed rice event. Usually, I make bhel puri. Last week, I made puffed rice with mango chutney and potato for evening snack & it had very huge welcome from my family. Here goes the recipe.
Ingredients:
Puffed rice - 2 cups
Olive oil - 2 tsp
Salt to taste
Mango Chutney - 2 tsp
For garnishing:
Fried Paneer cubes - 1/4 cup
Tomato - 1 sliced
Sev - 2 tsp
Ingredients to make Mango Chutney:

Mango - Cut small - 1/2 cup

Chilli - 1 or 2 (depend on your spiciness level)

Hing - a pinch

Method:

Grind the above ingredients with salt to taste and the mango chutney is ready.

All the veggies below cut small:
Potato - boiled - 1/4 cup
Tomato -  1/4 cup
Cucumber -  1/4 cup
Green chilli -  2 (optional)
Onion - 1/4 cup
Method :
Mix all the vegetables and Mango chutney with Oilve oil in a big bowl. 
Add puffed rice, salt & green chillies into the bowl.
Garnish with Paneer cubes, Sev & Tomato.

Sending this to Kurinji's Healthy recipe Hunt # 2

Green Apples baked with Brown Sugar

Eventhough the fact that the apples are good in Potassium & Vitamin A, somehow, I am not a very good fan of Apples.....Recently, I baked green apples with apple sauce prepared with brown sugar.
It was very tasty..Trust me...You got to try if you haven't!!
Lets see the recipe.
Ingredients:
Green Apples - 2 big nos
Brown sugar - 2 tsp
Butter - 1 tsp
Ground Cinnamon - a pinch
Water  - 1/4 cup
Method:
Preheat the oven at 300 degrees.
Peel one apple and slice it into small pieces. 
Boil water in the pan and add the sliced apples. When you see the tender apples, add 1 tsp of brown sugar & a pinch of ground cinnamon.

Stir it till the apples absorbs the sugar, add butter and off the stove.
Peel the second apple and cut it lengthwise. 
Transfer the sugary apples and cut apples into the pan & bake for 30 - 40 minutes. 

Serve the Baked Apples hot.

Sending this recipe to Food Palette Series - Brown hosted by Torview & Dish name starts with G hosted by Akila 

Apple Veggie Salad

My lovely sister who lives nearby brought green apples today.  I thought of making a salad with it. I added few veggies and heres a quick, healthy, easy recipe of "Apple Veggie Salad" which I would like to share with you all!!

Here goes my recipe:
Ingredients:
Green Apple - 1 - grated
Radish - 1/4 cup grated
Yellow Cucumber (Dosakai) - 1/4 cup grated
Spring Onions - cut small- 1/4 cup 
Carrot - 1/4 cup grated
Honey - 1 tsp
Pepper - 1/4 tsp
Oilve Oil - 1 tsp
Salt to taste
Coriander leaves to garnish
Method:
Mix all the ingredients given above, garnish with coriander leaves and serve this yum yum "Apple Veggie Salad".

This goes to the Innovative Salad Event # 2 hosted by Pia

Kanchipuram Idli/Steamed Rice Cake

Kanchipuram Idli -  oooooh....those yum yum cakes....I have been making Idlis, but somehow K-Idli slipped off my mind all these time...Don't know why! I still remember my mom used to make the K-Idli, when we(me, my sis & bro) were young and it was a feast for us as its mess free and yummy. 

My Idli batter was little sour, so didn't fit for Dosa. Myself and my Mom decided to make Kanchipuram Idli. Thanks to my mother who reminded me the steps to make this healthy, and heavy filling recipe. 

I would like to tell you the whole process of the batter too. You could add 2 tsp of curd when you are preparing this Idli. This is a delightful Idli for kids too, as this is a steamed one and in the shape of cake. We had our toddler boy cut this cake and first he was surprised and gave a look at me why the cake is not sweet. But later when I told him this is Idli cake, donno what he understood. He sat down and had 2 pieces of cakes.

Ingredients:

Idli rice  - 2 cups

Urad dal - 1/2 cup

Fenugreek seeds - 1 tsp

Cooking soda - a pinch (optional)

Curd  - 2 tsp

Salt to taste

For Tempering:

Cumin Seeds/Jeera - 2 tsp

Hing - a pinch

Grated ginger  - 1 tsp

Cut Green Chillies  - 2 (optional) - I didn't add this

Pepper - 2 tsp

Cashews - 8 - 10 chopped

Curry leaves - Roughly chopped - 6 -8 

Oil - 2 tsp

Method:

Soak rice, urad dal and fenugreek seeds for 4 - 5 hours.

Grind Urad dal/fenugreek seeds and rice separately into fine paste, then mix them together.

Add 2 tsp of salt into the batter and give a nice stir, ferment it overnight. (I put the batter container just inside the oven to have it fermented as its cold mostly here).

Heat 2 tsp of oil in a pan, add all the ingredients given under tempering.

The batter would have raised few inches after fermenting.

Now add salt, curd, a pinch of b. soda and give it a stir.

Mix the tempered ingredients into the batter, again mix.

Grease a steel bowl with Oil(I used gingely oil). Pour the batter into the bowl.

Pressure cook(no weights necessary-just steaming) for 20 minutes.

Cool it off for 10 minutes.

Use knife to loosen the sides of the steamed mould, then turn upside down on a plate.

Cut them and serve hot with chutneys or Idli Podi or Ketchup.

Note: If you have Idli batter thats sour, you could just add the tempered ingredients and steam it in a greased bowl. You could also add urad dal, mustard seeds  for tempering. Its all your wish!!

Sending this to  A.W.E.D. Indian event by DK, guest hosted by Ayisha,

Walking through the memory Lane event by Gayathri &  My Legume Love Affair #33 event by Dee of Ammalu's Kitchen

'Spicy' Brinjal Flat beans Curry ( Baingan Papdi Subzi)

The reason why I have put 'Spicy' within quotes is becoz I had forgotten the taste of Spiciness,
may be 2 -3 years...one reason being my Hrishi who is just 2 yrs and my hubby also is not a big fan of spicy food. 
So I have a habit of having 1-2 green chillies with whatever I eat, be it roti or rice...also its healthy to have green chilli as it has Vitamin C to protect us from cold!!
Anyways, now I come to the point that I made spicy Brinjal flat beans curry as I have not yet started feeding brinjal to my kid. It came out 'good' spicy and yummy, the secret ingredient was ground ginger and mustard to the curry. This time I did not have green chilli, just enjoyed my subzi with white rice and papad.
Here goes the recipe! 

Ingredients:
Brinjal - 6 nos - roughly cut into 4
Val papdi - Frozen 2 cups
Mustard seeds - 2 tsp ( soaked in water for 1 hr and ground to paste)
Ginger - 1 small piece (ground to paste)
Salt to taste
For tempering:
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Ginger - 1 tsp grated
Green chilli -  3 -4 slit
Curry leaves - 3 -4
Red chilli - 1 -2
Urad dal - 1/2 tsp
Chana Dal - 1 tsp
Oil - 2 tsp
Method:
Pressure cook Brinjal and Val Papdi for 2 whistles and Drain water, keep aside.

Heat Oil in pan and add mustard seeds, once it splutters, add all ingredients given under tempering.

Stir in the pressure cooked papdi and brinjal into the pan.
Add little oil and salt to ground mustard and mix with ground ginger - This is to avoid bitterness from mustard. 
Now add the mustard-ginger mixture to the pan followed by salt.
Fry for another 5 -6 minutes. 
Off the Stove and cover with lid.
The "Spicy" Brinjal Flat Beans Curry is ready to be served with roti or ghee rice.
Note: The mustard and ginger flavor in the curry gives yumm taste!!!Enzoy.

Sending this to Only Original recipes event hosted by Nivedita and Pari

Thanks to Akila from Learning to Cook for sending me Participation award!