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!

Masala Idly

Happy Holi to all my blogger friends!!
Potato is everyone's favorite at my home. Yesterday, I thought I would make Masala Dosa for dinner, but when went into the kitchen, slight change in the menu..he he...I made 'Masala Idly' - potato stuffed Idly. 
It was so good, you have to believe and easy to make, especially loved by my family.
Ingredients:
Idly Batter 
Potato - 4 nos
Turmeric - a pinch
Salt to taste
For tempering:
Oil - 1 tsp
Mustard - 1 tsp
Hing - a pinch
Curry leaves - 5 -6 chopped
Method:
Boil the potatoes, Peel off the skin, mash them and keep it aside.
Heat oil in a pan, when hot, add mustard. 
Once splutters, add hing, curry leaves and turmeric.
Add potato, salt to taste.
Quick mix it and close with lid.
If you have Idly Cooker, Pour 2 tsp of Batter in the Idly plate, then put 1 tsp of  potato mixture on it and cover it with 2 tsp of the idly batter. Arrange this stuff in all the racks.
You can use small bowls if you dont have these plates to make them too. Pour out the batter in each of the plates in the same way as explained above.

Place it in a pressure cooker (no weights reqd.) with little water underneath ( take care since lots of water will make the idlis in the last plate soggy and too little water will burn the bottom of the cooker!) or use a steamer. Cook for 10 minutes in high flame and then lower it for the last 5 min.

They are done when a little stick/fork pricked in the middle comes out clean.

Cool them for 1-2 minutes and then serve warm with any chutney/tomato ketchup/sambar. We had it with Mango Chutney.

Masala Idly is not spicy and this recipe is great for kid's breakfast.

Note:
I made this unspicy Masala Idly especially for my kid. If you want it spicy, add cut green chillies in tempering. You could add Onion also. If you want cheesy, sprinkle cheese over the potato when stuffing into batter.


Sending this to a wonderful event Toddler's Breakfast Ideas hosted by Sowmya

Thavala Adai ( Rice & Dal Cutlet)

Thavala Adai is my Mom's recipe which we had very recently and even my son enjoyed eating it. I learnt from her last week when she was with me. I remember my mom making this when I was young as I don't like Rice Upma for some reason. Still now, I don't like it, so Thavala Adai is the next version of Arisi/Rice Upma in form of  cutlet.

 I want to thank my mom as she had so much patience guiding me through out this preparation & process!!
We prepared Orange peel kolambhu as a side dish for this. The combo was truly a heaven for all of us :-)
We could give this Cutlet to kids too as we are using Pepper instead of  red chillies. Its filling food and healthy too!!
Everyone from 2 yrs to 70 + could have this. I guarantee this as my 2 yrs old son and my Dad had fun having this Adai alias Cutlet (I introduced this Adai as cutlet to my son).
Now lets go to the recipe.
Ingredients:
For coarse grinding:
Raw rice - 2 cups 
Toor Dal - 4 tsp 
Chana Dal - 2 tsp
Jeera - 1 tsp
Pepper - 1 tsp
For tempering:
Oil - 2 tsp
Mustard seeds- 1 tsp
Urad dal - 1 tsp
Hing - a pinch
Grated Ginger -  1 tsp
Curry leaves - 5 - 10 leaves
Red chilli (optional) - I didn't use it.
Coconut (optional) - I didn't use it
Salt to taste
Water - 11/2 cup
Method:
Coarse grind the ingredients given under "For coarse grinding" - Rice, Toor Dal, Chana Dal, Pepper, Jeera(Cumin seeds).

Heat Oil in a pan and add mustard seeds. Once mustard splutters, add urad dal, hing, grated ginger and curry leaves. 

Add water and salt  & once it comes to boil, put the ground rice and dal mixture to it. Stir it till everything gets mixed and semi solid form(thick). 

Close it with lid and let it cool for 15 -20 minutes.
Once it is cool,  take out a ball and flatten it like the shape of ural dal vada (put a hole in the centre like that of donut).

Heat a pan and deep fry the adai's till golden brown on both sides (I used only less oil).

Serve hot with any chutney or podi or pickle or kolambhu or just eat it like a vada or donut :-) - my son is showing how to eat just like that!! LOL

I feel you don't need any side dish at all for Thavala Adai. I am so glad I made this Adai under her guidance and we cheered our memories while eating them!!
This is very easy recipe. You could coarse grind the rice & daal in the night and prepare this Adai for next day breakfast. 
Note: If you have time, you could soak the rice for 1 -2 hours and dry it, then coarse grind with the dal. Adding coconut and red chillies gives nice flavor and Spicy touch to Adais.


Sending this to  A.W.E.D. Indian event by DK, guest hosted by Ayisha, Walking through the memory Lane event by Gayathri and to the B for Breakfast event hosted by Charitha.

Also sending this to My Legume Love Affair #33 event by Dee of Ammalu's Kitchen and Bookmarked Recipes - Every Tuesday (Volume 32) hosted by Aipi and Priya.

Being a kid's foodie, sending this to Toddler's Breakfast ideas hosted by Sowmya

Thanks to Charitha for Participation Award in the event :B for Breakfast event Round up

Palak Kadhi in Yoghurt Gravy for Tried n Tasted

Its been 5 days since I had time to blog. I had already decided to make Palak Kadhi from Aipi's blog for Tried n Tasted :-)
But my kid going to school from last week turned out to be very tough time for me.
This is the first time, I'm leaving all by himself, and his crying when leaving at school hurts me. Hopefully, he will be okay in a week...
Okay, back to our Aipi's blog, She's amazing, not surprising to anyone. Her recipes are very much mouth watering and am happy to share one of Aipi's recipe with Tried n Tasted!!
I had Spinach with me and made Palak Kadhi for yesterday's dinner. My husband is not a big fan of Kadhi and he had Palak Kadhi with Parathas, I was happy to see him asking for more Kadhi..Hurray!! Thanks to Aipi ;-)
You could find the recipe from the wonderful blogger Aipi's "usmasala" - Palak Kadhi
The yummy Spinach Kadhi was like this!!

Sending this to Tried n Tasted of Aipi's usmasala blog  hosted by other wonderful blogger Priya

Mint rice with chickpeas

Mint/Pudhina which is highly fragrant is high in iron and fibre. Recently, I made Pudhina rice with chickpeas which is again a good source of protein. I added some coriander leaves too!

Ingredients:
Mint  - 1 cup (washed)
Coriander leaves - 1/2 cup (optional)
Chickpeas - 1/2 cup (soaked in water overnight and boiled)
Green chilli - 2 or 3 
Garam masala - 1 tsp
Hing - a pinch
Cumin seeds/Jeera - 1/2 tsp
Butter - 1 cube
Cooked rice -  1 cup
Salt to taste
Method:
Grind  Mint, Coriander leaves & Green Chilli and keep the green paste aside.
Heat butter in pan and fry jeera, hing and the green paste.

Cook till the raw smell goes off.
Now add the cooked chickpeas, garam masala and salt to taste.

Stir it till the chickpeas gets mixed to the masala & green paste.

Add the white rice into the pan and mix it till the rice is all coated evenly into green!!
Mint rice with chickpea is ready to be served. It goes well with raita.

Sending this entry to  Herbs and Flowers in my platter hosted by PJ