Egg Curry

This is a very simple egg preparation, you can vary the spiceness in this by altering the portion of red chilly powder. This goes well with any rice dishes and I especially love it with any Rasam variety. 


Preparation time: 30 minutes 
Serves: 2 


Ingredients:
1. Egg -3 
2. Onion - 2 
3. Tomato -2
4. Garlic - 4 to 5 pods
5. Ginger - small piece about an inch
5. Red chilly powder - 1 to 1.5 tablespoon
6. Salt - to taste
7. Oil - 3 tablespoons
8. Coriander leaves(Cilantro) -  for garnishing


Preparation:


1. Hard boil the eggs in water.
2. Meanwhile prepare a wet masala paste with all other ingredients except oil and coriander leaves.
3. Once the eggs are boiled, peel them and make smaller slits. This is to make the masala blend with the eggs
4. Heat oil in a pan and add the wet masala paste and cook until raw smell leaves (around 5- 6 minutes)
5. Now add the boiled eggs and mix until it blends and cook for 4-5 minutes.
6. Garnish with coriander leaves.

Spicy egg curry is ready to be served. It goes well with Rotis, Rice, dosas or idlies. 

Paneer Masala Dosa

Dosa is one of my favorite all time food and just love it with even a simpler chutney. But my husband is not a lover of dosa, until it has something special. So to make us both happy I decided to try some stuffed dosa, and with Paneer at home, how could I miss the scrumptious paneer dosa :) Dosas came out very well and crispy though I had used the store bought batter in this preparation. 


Preparation Time(for masala) - 30 minutes 

Ingredients:
For stuffing masala
1. Paneer (Cottage cheese) - 100 gms
2. Beans - 20
3. Carrot - 2
4. Onion - 1 medium size
5. Tomato - 1/2 medium size
6. Red chilly powder - 1 tablespoon
7. Garam Masala powder - 1/2 teaspoon
8. Turmeric powder - a pinch
9. Salt - to taste
10. Oil - 2 tablespoons
11. Coriander leaves - handful
For Dosa
1. Dosa batter
2. Oil -as required


Preparation:
This is a very simple and similar preparation to ordinary Masala dosa. 
How to prepare Masala?
1. Finely chop all vegetables (beans, carrot, onion and tomato).
2. Grate paneer into fine pieces.
3. Heat oil in a pan and when hot, add onions and fry until transparent.
4. Add tomato and saute until it is cooked fine.
5. Add beans and carrot and cook them for 5-6 minutes. Since we chop them finely, it cooks easily.
6. Now add the spice powders - turmeric, chilly and garam masala and cook until raw smell leaves.
7. Add required salt and the grated paneer and saute for not more than 3-4 minutes. Paneer will get cook fast as we have grated it finely. 
8. Garnish with coriander leaves.

How to prepare Dosa?
1. Heat dosa pan and use 2 ladles of batter and spread it thin (this will make your dosa crispy).
2. Spread 1/2 tablespoon of oil around the batter and close it with a lid to allow cooking for one minute.
3. By now the dosa would turn into golden brown.
4. Now spread the stuffing masala prepared earlier in middle of the dosa and start folding it. You can choose a shape of your choice :) 


You can serve it alone or with Chutney's or Sambar. I prepared a three chutney's to compliment the dosa and they came out yummy as well!!

MOGG - A Mocktail

MOGG - I Just abbreviated it from its ingredients - Mint Orange Ginger Grapes. Its been a long time I experimented my hands on the fruits, so decided to blend  the fruits that I had at home with some healthy ingredients to make a tasty and healthy mocktail. This is my 100th posting on the blog that makes this mocktail even more special :) 

Servings - 4


Ingredients:
1. Orange - 3 
2. Grapes (red)- 15
3. Ginger - 1/4 inch 
4. Mint Leaes - 3
5. Sugar- 3-4 spoons (vary according to your taste)
6. Salt - a pinch

Preparation:
1. Peel orange and add all other ingredients in blender and blend it with a glass of water.
2. Filter the juice and serve it (with ice cubes if required). 

You can store it in refrigerator and serve it as required. 

Drumstick Leaves Curry (முருங்கைகீரை பொறியல்)

I am not really a big fan of drumstick leaves, but really got excited when I happened to see this in Indian grocery store recently. Though I knew cleaning up the leaves is a huge task, I decided to go for it and the dish came out well.

Drumstick leaves often has a bitter taste for which we use coconut to remove excessive bitterness. This is a very basic dish from the leaves, but please take care to clean the leaves well before use.

Servings -4 

Ingredients:

1. Drumstick leaves - 1/2 pound

2. Onion - 1 finely chopped

3. Red chilies -3 to 4

4. Mustard seeds - 1/2 teaspoon

5. Urad dhal - 1 teaspoon

6. Asafoetida - a pinch

7. Oil - 1 tablespoon

8. Coconut - grated 4 tablespoons

9. Salt- to taste

Preparation:

1. The very important step of this dish is to clean and separate the leaves from stems and wash them thoroughly and drain it.

2. Heat oil in a pan and season it with mustard seeds, urad dhal, asafoetida and red chilies.

3. Add onions, drumstick leaves, salt and saute it well. Sprinkle little water and cook the leaves by closing a lid in medium flame.

4. When the leaves are cooked add the grated coconut and mix well.

Healthy, tasty drumstick leaves poriyal is ready to be served. 

Chow Chow Pachadi (Raita)

Here is a very simple recipe with chayote squash (chow chow or bangalore Kathrikai as we call it back home). I never thought this vegetable in raita, until I saw this recipe in one of the cookery shows and definitely wanted to give it a a try. It really came out very well.


Preparation Time: 20 minutes

Serves: 3-4 
Ingredient:
1. Chow Chow (Chayote Squash) - 1
2. Grated Coconut - 3 tablespoon
3. Red chilies - 3
4. Cumin seeds - 1/2 tablespoon
5. Mustard seeds - 1/2 teaspoon
6. Curry leaves - 2 to 3
7. Curd - 4-5 tablespoon
8. Turmeric powder - a pinch
9. Oil - 1 tablespoon
10. Salt - to taste
11. Curry leaves - 3 to 4

Preparation:
1. Peel the skin and grate the squash finely.
2. Cook it with little water for 6-8 minutes in the microwave or stove
3. Meanwhile, make a fine paste of coconut, red chilies and cumin seeds and little water.
4. Add this paste to the cooked squash and cook it again for 4-5 minutes in microwave or stove.
5. Add the required salt and curd.
6. Season it with mustard seeds, turmeric powder and curry leaves.


Serve it with any rice. It would be a nice combination with any pulav and briyani as a variation from regular onion raita.

Wheat Halwa (கோதுமை ஹல்வா)

Godhumai Halwa (Wheat Halwa)... the only sweet I crave for anytime. My avva (grandma) prepares this sweet for me every year on my birthday. She makes it finger licking good and any guest to our house for whom we have served this sweet, has definitely packed it too when they left :) Of course the main ingredient of this recipe is whole lot of love, affection and patience to prepare the dish with the most care. I had been carving for this sweet sometime now, and took the recipe from her and tried it for the first time..voilà... It turned out as yummy as I wanted it to be... but definitely missing my grandma's love in it.
Try this recipe yourself and enjoy the delicious sweet. You will need lots of patience and slow cooking process to make this dish a success.  


Preparation Time : 1 hour


Ingredients:
1. Wheat Flour - 1 cup
2. Sugar - 1 1/2 cups (if your sugar is not so sweet, you can use 2 cups of sugar)
3. Ghee - as required
4. Cashews/Almonds/Pista - chopped 2 -3 tablespoons
5. Kesari Colour - small pinch
6. Saffron - few strands
7. Cardamom - 3 to 4 (powdered)

Preparation:
1. Add colour to the wheat flour and prepare a batter by mixing with water. Do not make it watery, keep the consistency of Bajji batter. 
2. Dissolve the sugar in 1/2 cup of water and bring it to boil. Keep stirring until it forms a thick syrup. To determine if you reached the right consistency drop some syrup in cold water and it should float without sticking to the water.
3. Now add the batter you prepared earlier to the syrup with continuous stirring. Reduce the flame to low.
4. From this step is where your patience is very important :). You need to frequently stir and never leave from your stove. 
5. As you see the flour gets cooked and turns into solid consistency,  start adding Ghee - 2 tablespoons at a time, and keep stirring. You will have to keep adding more as it becomes dry.
6. You will now see the halwa coming out well without sticking to the pan and leaving the ghee around. 
7. Now its time to add the garnish. Fry the chopped nuts in a tablespoon of ghee, and add it to the halwa along with saffron strands and the powdered cardamom.
I added 2 more tablespoons of ghee finally, to give it enough moisture. You can reduce ghee as per your like.
Yummy yummy halwa is ready... 


Tips:
1. This sweet tastes richer and better only if you let it rest for atleast couple of hours. Believe me, it becomes so delicious on the second day :)
2. Store the halwa in air tight container in the refrigerator and just heat it for couple of minutes before you serve. The frozen ghee will leave the halwa give it an appealing look and finger licking taste. It will stay good for 7 - 10 days if refrigerated. 
3. If you have added more water when preparing the batter, and the halwa remains watery, you can sprinkle some flour as you keep stirring to bring it back to the consistency.
4. In this preparation, I had to use Atta flour, and the taste was as good as using the whole wheat flour. 

Paneer Egg Masala

It was a Sunday afternoon with just egg and paneer at home. I wanted to make something different, yet tasty and simple and decided to marry the egg and paneer for a spicy dish :) Here is the recipe for the hot dish.

Preparation Time: 30 mins

Quantity for 4 servings

Ingredients:

1. Paneer - 250 gms

2. Egg - 4

3. Onions - 1 finely chopped

4. Tomato - 1 finely chopped

5. Red chilly powder - 1 tablespoon

6. Coriander powder - 1 1/2 tablespoon

7. Ginger/garlic paste - 1/2 tablespoon

8. Garam masala - 1 teaspoon (Optional)

9. Oil - 3 tablesoon

10. Salt - to taste

11. Coriander - for garnishing 

Preparation:
1. Chop onions and tomatoes into fine pieces and cut paneer into small cubes
2. Break the eggs in a bowl and beat it.
3. Heat oil in a pan, add onions and fry well. Add ginger garlic paste and fry well until raw smell goes
4. Add the chopped tomatoes and cook well.
5. Now add the powders one by one - red chilly powder, coriander powder, garam masala and salt and cook for 2 minutes. 
6. Add the egg mixture and mix well to form scrambled egg mixture for 2 minutes. 
7. Its time to add the paneer cubes to the pan and stir well to cook along with the spices in low flame for 5-7 minutes until paneer becomes soft. 
8. Hot and spicy paneer egg masala is ready. Garnish with coriander leaves.


I served it with hot  Simple Rasam  for the afternoon and it was a perfect combination. We also had it with roti for dinner. 

Mushroom Coriander masala

Here is a simple and tasty dish from the marriage of coriander and mushroom :) It was a very good combination with rice and also will go well with rotis/chapathis/dosa/idly.
Preparation Time: 30 minutes

Quantity given is for 4 servings. 
Ingredients:
1. Mushroom - 250 gms
2. Onion - 1 medium
3. Tomato - 1 medium
4. Red chilly powder - 1 1/2 tablespoon
5. Coriander powder - 1 tablespoon
6. Turmeric powder - a pinch
7. Fennel seeds - 1/2 tablespoon
8. Oil
9. Salt to taste


For masala
1. Coriander leaves - 2 handful
2. Ginger - 1/2 inch
3. Garlic - 2 cloves
4. Fennel seeds - 1/2 tablespoon

Preparation:
1. Wash the mushrooms, dry and cut them into pieces. Chop onions and tomatoes into fine pieces
2. Prepare a wet paste with the ingredients given for masala. If you prefer to use green chilies instead of red chilly powder, you can grind it with the other ingredients.
3. Heat oil in a pan and when hot, add fennel seeds and onions and fry until it turns golden brown.
4. Add tomatoes and saute well. Add turmeric powder, red chilly powder, coriander powder and cook for couple of minutes
5. Now add the mushrooms and mix well. Let it cook for 5 minutes in a medium flame. 
6. When the mushrooms are half done, add salt and the ground mixture and stir well.
7. Close with a lid and cook for another 5-7 minutes in low flame
8. Garnish with coriander leaves and serve.


Tips:
1. You can vary this recipe with other vegetables like potato/cauliflower and also with chicken/mutton.
2. Add some roasted coconut when you grind the masala for an enhanced flavor.

Rice roti

This is one of my favorite items for the fact it can be prepared in a lesser duration when I am so lazyyy:) 


Preparation Time: 15 minutes


Ingredients: (quantity for 6 rotis)


1. Rice flour - 150 gms
2. Onion - finely chopped (2 handful)
3. Green chilies - 3 finely chopped 
4. Coriander and curry leaves - finely chopped 1 tablespoon
5. Salt to taste
6. Oil


Preparation:
1. Make a dough (in chapathi dough consistency) with Rice flour, onions, green chilies, coriander, curry leaves, salt, oil and water as required.
2. Rest it for 5-10 minutes

3. Make balls from the dough.
4. Spread few drops of oil in a clean plastic sheet and start spreading the ball on top of it to make an even circle

 5. Heat the dosa tawa and spread few drops of oil and start cooking the roti. Turn sides until and cook until it becomes golden brown on each side.

Hot rice roti is ready to serve. I served it with a simple mixed Chutney (made of onion,tomatoes and coconut).