Veggie bread cutlets and Awards!

Bread cutlets can be prepared in many different ways. We can add just onion and spices or to make it more nutritious we can add vegetables. In this recipe, I am using oats bread. One interesting accompaniment with the cutlet is raitha.

Here is a recipe for bread cutlets.

Ingredients:

Bread - 4 slices

Potato (Cooked and mashed) - 2 big

Carrot (Grated) - 1

Beetroot (Grated) - 1

Beans (Chopped finely) - 10

Garam masala - 1 tsp

Green chilli (Chopped finely) - 2

Salt

Lemon juice - 1 tsp

Coriander leaves (Chopped finely) - 1 tbsp

Oil for shallow frying

Method:

Boil potato, peel and mash. Keep aside.

Grate the carrots and beetroot. Add chopped beans to this and steam add

ing a little salt, till they are cooked. Squeeze out the water from the vegetables.

Soak bread in water and mash it.

Now mix all the ingredients together. Take care that the mixture is not watery. In case it is then add bread crumbs to the mixture.

Take a small quantity and flatten it to any desired shape.

Heat a pan. Add little oil and fry the cutlet on both side till it turns golden brown.

Serve hot with raitha, sauce or chutney.

Preparation Time: 30 min

Serves: 4 people

Awards:

We are truly honored to receive these awards from our dear friend Jay!

Vanilla and Sugar Cookies

Hello everyone! Its indeed been a real long while away from the blogging world! Missed it much. So back with this cookie recipe inspired from one of the cookery videos by Laura Vitale. My elder son loves cookies and I have always wished to prepare some for him at home rather than buy from the market. So here it is!

Ingredients:
Wheat flour: 2 cups
Sugar: 1 cup + 1/2 cup for rolling the cookie dough
Baking soda: 1/4 tsp
Baking powder: 1/4 tsp
Salt: A pinch
Unsalted butter: 1 cup
Milk: 1/4 cup
Vanilla extract: 1 tsp

Method:
Preheat the oven to 180 deg C. In a large bowl, mix all the dry ingredients. Then incorporate the butter into the flour mixture. Add milk slowly into the flour till you get a smooth batter. Make small balls and roll it on sugar till evenly coated. Place it on a baking tray lined with baking sheet. Bake for about 15-20 minutes.
Relish the cookies and watch out for the top layer!

Preparation time: 30 minutes
Quantity yield: 15

Beetroot Pancakes / Beetroot Dosa

Yesterday we were bored of eating rice and chappathi/paratha for dinner. So decided to have something simple yet nutritious and tasty. My husband mentioned about beetroot cutlet at his office canteen. Based on that he came up with this quick recipe for beetroot pancakes/dosa. It tastes very good with onion-tomato raitha.

Here is the recipe.

Ingredients:
Beetroot - 3 Grated
Cornflour - 2 tbsp

Rice flour - 2 tbsp

Salt
Curry leaves - few finely chopped
Green Chilli - 2 finely chopped
Yogurt - 3 tbsp
Oil

Method:

Mix all the ingredients to form a thick batter (more like idli consistency).

Heat a tava (griddle).

Pour a spoon full of batter on the griddle and spread it as thin as possible. You can use your hand to spread the dosa.

Pour a tsp of oil and roast both sides.
Serve hot with raitha.

Serves: 2
Preparation Time: About 20-25 mins.

Note: Alternatively leftover dosa batter can be used instead of corn flour and rice flour.

Banana Peel Thoran

I have been thinking of posting this recipe since a long time. Generally when we make banana chips, we have a lot of peel that goes waste. Instead, the peels can be used to make a wonderful and nutritious thoran. Here is the recipe.

Ingredients:
Nendran banana peel - 1 cup
Cowpea (Black eyed pea) - 1/2 cup
Mustard - 1 tsp
Urad dal - 1 tsp
Curry leaves - few
Salt
Oil - 2 tbsp

To grind:
Coconut - 4-5 tbsp
Green chilli - 2
Cumin seeds (optional) - 1 tsp

Method:
Soak the cowpeas overnight.
Grind coconut, green chilli and cumin seeds and keep aside.
Chop the banana peels into small pieces. Cook the chopped peels along with the the soaked cowpeas, salt and little turmeric adding enough water.
In a pan heat oil. Add mustard. When it splutters, add urad dal. When the urad dal turns pink add curry leaves. Then add the cooked peels and cowpeas and fry for a minute. Finally add the ground coconut chilli mixture and fry for another minute. Serve hot.

Serves: 2 people
Preparation time: About 20 mins

Vegetable Gratin and Second Anniversary

Dear friends...its been really long since our last post. We have been so busy with a new addition to the family. Have missed you all so much. Good to be back. Since it is actually our 3rd anniversary today, thought I will post this dish.

When I was at our company meet, I had this dish for the first time and liked it very much. Unfortunately I didn't know the name of the dish When I googled I got confused between 2 different dishes vegetable casserole and vegetable gratin. The dish that I ate, looked more like vegetable gratin but the recipe required me to add egg. Since we do not eat egg, I substituted it with cream ( which is used in vegetable casserole).This recipe is adaptation from both the dishes. Hubby loves this dish a lot :)

Ingredients:

Brinjal (Sliced into rounds)- 1 medium sized

Zucchini (Sliced into rounds)- 1 medium sized

Potato (Sliced into rounds)- 1

Red Onion - 1 (Sliced into medium chunks)

Carrot - 2

Bell Peppers - 1 small

Cream - 1 cup

Milk - 1/2 cup

Grated Garlic - 2 tsp

Grated Cheese - 2 tbsp

Salt

Pepper or Oregano to taste

Method:

Preheat the oven to 200° C. Place the vegetables in a baking dish. Mix milk, cream, garlic and salt and pour it evenly over the vegetables. The vegetables should be fully covered with this mix. You can add more cream or milk if required. Bake this in the oven for about 10-15 mins. Remove and stir the contents once. Then bake again till it turns light brown. At this point add the grated cheese and bake again till the cheese turn brown.

Remove and add pepper and/or Oregano and enjoy.

Preparation time: About 45 mins.

Serves: 2

Our blog's first anniversary and Seven cups

Dear fellow bloggers. Today is our blog's first anniversary. It has been a exciting journey into the blogging world so far and we thank all our fellow bloggers and well wishers who have supported us throughout and made blogging a happy experience. Hope we get more and more support from all of you in future as well. Happy blogging!!!

We are celebrating this happy occasion by preparing Seven cups. The name seven cup has been coined because it has 7 cups of ingredients.My mom makes wonderful sweets especially her seven cups always turn out perfect. She is here now, she made this delicious treat. Here is the recipe for you all to try and enjoy!

Ingredients:
Besan (gram flour) - 1 cup
Refined Oil / Ghee - 1 cup
Freshly scraped or dessicated coconut - 1 cup
Milk - 1 cup
Sugar - 3 cups

Method:
Grease a plate/pan(or a deep dish) with ghee and keep aside.
Fry besan in abt 1 tbsp of ghee till you get a nice aroma.
Combine the rest of the ingredients and place on a medium-low heat constantly stirring.
Cook until the mixture thickens and leaves the sides of the pan. This might take about 15-20 min.
Immediately transfer the contents to the greased plate/pan.
Once the gram flour is aromatic, tip the contents of the bowl into a wok. Keeping the flame low at all times, constantly keep stirring the contents till reduced to nearly half. For the quantities specified, this takes 15-17 minutes.
At the end of 15 minutes, immediately transfer the contents of the wok onto the greased baking sheet.
Press evenly and cut into desired shape.

Preparation Time: 30 mins

Pudina / Mint Rice

I had a bunch of mint leaves lying in my fridge for a long time. To finish the whole bunch at a shot, came up with this simple yet tasty pudina rice. Here is the recipe.

Ingredients:
Vegetables like Potato, beans, peas, carrot etc cut into lengthwise (1 inch pieces)- 1 cup
Onion chopped - 1 big
Rice - 1.5 cups
Cinnamon - 1 small piece
Cardamom - 1
Cloves - 2
Mustard - 2 tsp
Cumin seeds - 2 tsp
Fennel seeds - 2 tsp
Oil/butter
Salt

To Grind:
Pudina/ mint - 1 big bunch
Tomato -1
Garlic - 1 pod (big)
Ginger - 1 inch piece
Cinnamon - 1 small
Green chilli - 2 (can add more based on the hotness)

Grind the above ingredients to a fine paste without adding water and keep aside.

Method:
Roast cinnamon, cardamom and clove till you get a aroma. Add this to the rice and cook the rice with enough water and keep aside.
Heat oil/butter in a pan. Add mustard. When it splutters add cumin and fennel seeds. Then add the onion and fry for few minutes. Then add the vegetables and fry till they are cooked a little. At this stage add some salt and fry for some more time. Then add the ground pudina mixture and fry till the oil separates. Add 1/2 cup water (little less is also fine based on the quantity of vegetables) and cook the vegetables. When the vegetables are cooked add the cooked rice and mix well. Adjust salt. Serve hot with chutney or raitha.

Preparation Time: 30 mins
Serves: 4 people

Godhumai/ Broken wheat Pradhaman

Main ingredient for any pradhaman is coconut milk. Kerala,being the land of coconuts, has variety of pradhamans. I have blogged about Pazha Pradhaman earlier. Here is the recipe for another popular pradhaman with broken wheat.


Ingredients:
Broken wheat - 3/4 cup
Jaggery - 1 cup
Coconut milk - 1 cup
Cardamom powder - 1 tsp
Water

Method:
Pressure cook the broken wheat using 3/4 cup water.
Melt the jaggery with a little water and strain to remove any impurities.
Boil the jaggery syrup and add the cooked broken wheat. Boil until the mixture is thick.
In a separate vessel mix 1/2 cup coconut milk with little less than 1/2 cup of water.
Add this to the boiling mixture. Let it simmer for 5 minutes.
Add the rest of the coconut milk and remove immediately from heat.
Stir in cardamom powder.

Note: If the pradhaman thickens too much, a little milk can be added. Adjust sweet accordingly.

Preparation Time: About 25 mins
Serves: 5-6 people

Manga Kootan/Mango Curry

'Manga Kootan' is an important dish on a Vishu day. It can be prepared either with raw mango or with the ripe ones. When using ripe ones you can omit jaggery. The vellarikai from Vishukani can also go into this wonderful dish. But here since the vellarikai is not available, I have used only raw mango.


Ingredients:
Raw mango cut into big chunks - 2 medium sized

Curds - 1 cup
Jaggery - as per taste (Consider the tanginess of the raw mango!)
Mustard - 1 tsp
Fenugreek seeds - 1/2 tsp
Red chilli - 2
Oil
Curry leaves - 7-8
Salt


To Grind:
Coconut - 1/2
Red chilli - 4-5
Green chilli - 3-4
Fenugreek seeds - 1 tsp

Method:
Fry the red chilli and fenugreek seeds in a little oil till the fenugreek seeds turn red. Cool and grind with coconut and green chillies. Curds can be used to grind. Keep this aside.

Cook the mangoes in enough water with turmeric powder and salt. When the vegetables are cooked add a small piece of jaggery to balance the tanginess of the mangoes. Add a few curry leaves. Mix the ground paste in the remaining curds and add to the cooked mangoes and boil. Remove from heat.

Now for seasoning, heat oil in a pan. Add the mustard seeds, methi seeds and red chilli cut into small bits. When the mustard crackles, add the curry leaves and pour the tempering into the manga koottan.

Enjoy with hot rice!

Preparation Time: 25 mins
Serves: 8 people

Vishu

After a long break its good to be back again. What better time to start than Vishu! Wishing all our readers and fellow bloggers a happy vishu/puthandu vazhtukal.

Vishu is the Malayalam New Year day, marking the start of the harvest season. There are a lot of customs associated with Vishu. More information about Vishu can be found here.


Vishu falls during the summer vacation in India and its so much fun with all the kids around. It has always been one of my favorite festival as we cousins used to gather at our grandparents place to celebrate it. In the pooja room a elaborate Vishu Kani would be set with all the vegetables and fruits of the season and the beautiful 'kanikonna'. Early morning patiyamma (grandmother) would wake us and closing our eyes would lead us to see the kani. And of course we would get a lot of 'kaineetam' from our uncles and aunts ;).

Then the best part would be the sadhya which is a elaborate vegetarian meal served on plantain leaf. Dishes are usually prepared from jackfruits, mangoes, pumpkins, and gourds besides other vegetables and fruits, which are in plenty at that time of the season. Here are some of the items that are traditionally served.

Manga Kootan/ Mango Curry
Inji Puli (Recipe coming soon)
Olan
Aviyal
Erissery
Thoran
Koottu
Sambar
Pachchadi
Rasam
Prathaman
Nendran Chips/ Banana Chips
Sharkara varatti/ Sharkara upperi
Pickle
Pappadam

Jamun Burfi

This recipe is my mother's. 'Jamun' burfi gets its name from the ready made Gulab Jamun mix powder, which is being used along with other ingredients to make this awesome sweet dish. Just when, I've been having a bunch people hopping into our home to keep our spirits high, this winter, I asked Amma, what sweet may be prepared. Thats when she sprung up with recipe which calls for jamun mix...I had half a packet left in the fridge, which I had left untouched for few days now. Thought that this was the best way to surprise everybody instead of the same good old jamun!

Ingredients:
Instant Jamun Mix- 1 cup (I'm using MTR)
Milk- 1 cup
Ghee- 1 cup
Sugar- 2 cups
Cashew nuts and Almonds- Few
Cardamom powder- A pinch

Method:

In a heavy bottomed vessel, add half the quantity of ghee, milk, sugar and the jamun mix. Mix all the ingredients well so that there are no lumps at all. Now, on medium heat, bring this mixture to a boil and continue stirring it till it attains a thick consistency. The color of the mixture will turn roasted brown. Add the remaining half of the Ghee and mix well. Add thin slices of cashew nuts and almonds to it. Add the cardamom powder too. The mixture will leave the sides of the vessel. Transfer it onto a greased plate. You may run the knife on it when it has cooled for about 10 minutes. Absolutely delicious burfi is ready to be served!

Preparation Time: 45 Minutes
Quantity yield: 15

Sabsige Soppu (Dill leaves) Chutney

This one comes from my MIL's kitchen. Its another, one of those typical South Canara dishes. I love it for another fact that Dill leaves help relieve my kiddo's occasional Colic pain. It helps pass the accumulated gas in his tiny tummy which is the actual cause for Colic. It soothes his delicate stomach walls and helps increase his digestive power too. Its an easy to do dish and good to taste!

Ingredients:

Grated Coconut- 2 tbsp
Sabsige soppu- Few leaves (only)
Tamarind- 1 inch peice
Hing/Asafoetida- A pinch
Dry roasted Channa dal/Chickpeas lentil- 1 tsp
Red Chilly-1
Salt to taste
Oil- 1 tsp
Urad dal- 1 tsp
Mustard seeds- 1/2 Tsp
Curry leaves- Few

Method:

Grind Coconut, Dill leaves, Tamarind, Hing, Dal and Red chilly to a fine paste. Add salt to taste. In a pan, heat the oil. Add Urad dal and Mustard seeds. When the mustard seeds splutter, add the Curry leaves. Season the Chutney with this tempering. Enjoy with Rice, Idly or Dosa!

Preparation Time: 15 Minutes
Serves: 2 people

Kai Murukku

Kai murukku evokes memories of wedding. This is one of the important 'Cheeru Bakshanam' (Snacks given to the grooms side during wedding). This is a hand made snack and hence require a lot of patience. Amma prepares one of the best murukku. I admire the way she makes them so evenly. I have tried them and somehow never mastered this art ...

Here is her recipe.

Ingredients:
Rice - 6 cups
Urad dal (fried and powdered) - 1/4 cup
Cumin seeds (crushed a little) - 3-4 tsp
Butter - 3 tbsp
salt
Oil - for deep frying

Method:
Soak rice for 10 mins. Then drain water thoroughly by keeping it in a colander for 10 mins. Then powder it in a mixer-grinder till it becomes a fine powder. Sieve this further. Sieving is really important to get a fine texture and also to remove any impurities.
Mix the rice flour, urad dal powder, salt, cumin seeds and butter. Add enough water to make a soft batter.


Take a small lemon size dough and use your index and thumb fingers and sprial in circular motion either on news paper or paper towel.


Heat oil in a frying pan.
When it is very hot, carefully slide the murukku and fry on both the sides till they are golden brown.
Drain and remove to a tissue lined container.
Enjoy the fruit of your hard work :)

Preparation time: 40 min
Yield: 30

Paruppu Urundai Kuzhambu

This is an interesting curry made in most of the tamil Iyers and Iyengars. 'Paruppu Urundai' is nothing but koftas made with toor dal. These koftas are used as a substitute for vegetables. This is a wholesome and healthy curry.

Here is the recipe.

Ingredients for Paruppu Urundai:
Toor Dal - 3/4 cup
Red Chilli - 2
Salt
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Chopped Onion (optional) - 1/4 cup
Grated coconut (optional) - 1/4 cup
Chopped green chillies - 2
Rice flour - 1 tsp
Asafoetida - 1/2 tsp

Method for Paruppu Urundai:
Clean and soak the dal for 2 hours.
Drain and grind the dal along with red chilli, salt and asafoetida into a coarse firm paste.
Heat a little oil in a pan and allow mustard to splutter. Add green chilli and onions and fry till the onion turns golden brown.
Add the ground dal paste. Stir till it changes color.
It might stick to the pan, but still keep stirring till the raw smell of dal goes.
When done, remove from fire and add grated coconut and rice flour. Mix well and prepare small balls.


Ingredients for Kuzhambu:
Tamarind - 1 small lemon sized
Red chilli - 1
Toor dal - 1 tsp
Channa dal - 1 tsp
Fenugreek seeds - 1/2 tsp
Mustard - 1 tsp
Asafoetida - 1/2 tsp
Curry leaves - 4-5 strands
Sambar powder - 2 tbsp
Gingely oil - 2-3 tbsp

Method for Kuzhambu:
Heat oil in a pan, season with mustard, asafoetida and curry leaves. Add red chilli, fenugreek seeds and the dals. Add sambar powder and fry for 5 sec. Immediately add tamarind extract and salt. Allow to boil for 15-20 min. Then slowly drop 2 balls at a time into the boiling gravy. When the balls are cooked, they will float to the top. Boil together for few more min.

Preparation time: 45-50 mins
Serves: 4 people

Roasted Brinjal Mosaru Bajji

This recipe has been passed on to me by my sister...who has learnt it from her MIL. It is indeed one of the tastiest 'avtar' of Brinjal! It doesnt require any cooking, except for roasting the Brinjal. Traditionally, this was done in the 'Chulha' where, they would just leave the Brinjals on the red hot coal. They would have, for example, cooked rice and put the fire off. Yet the heat present in the Chulha is sufficient enough to roast Brinjal! Well, in our gadget-savvy kitchen..we have the oven! We have to basically bake it for about an hour at 180 deg centigrade. Of course, in case you have a gas stove, you could just expose the Brinjal to the open flame and it would just take few minutes.

Ingredients:
Big Purple Brinjal- 1
Yogurt/curd- 1 1/2 cup
Salt to taste
Green chillies- 2 chopped
Coriander leaves- Few
Oil- 2 tsp
Urad dal- 1 tsp
Mustard seeds- 1/2tsp
Red Chilly- 1 (Broken into pieces)
Curry leaves- few

Method:
Apply oil around the Brinjal and place in a tray covered with Aluminum foil. Pre-heat the oven to 180 deg C. Once, the desired temperature is attained, place the tray inside the oven and leave it for about an hour.


After an hour, take the tray out and let the Brinjal cool for few minutes. You can easily peel off the skin and keep the pulp aside. To this add Yogurt, Salt, Green chillies and mix well. In a pan, heat oil. Add Urad dal, Mustard seeds and Red Chilly pieces. Once the mustard starts to splutter, add the Curry leaves and pour this seasoning to the Brinjal-Yogurt mixture. Mix well and garnish with Coriander leaves. Enjoy with Rice!

Preparation Time: 1h:15Minutes
Serves: 2 people

Lemon Rasam

One of the much sought after Rasam in our home is Lemon Rasam. This rasam may be relished with hot Rice and roasted papad or each sip may be enjoyed like a soup! With winter very much in, this rasam is always relished with a bright smile to lighten up the dark days!

Ingredients:

Cooked Toor dal- 2 cups

Chopped Green chillies- 2

Chopped Ginger- 1 inch peice

Curry leaves - Few

Coriander leaves- Few sprigs

Turmeric powder- A pinch

Salt to taste

Ghee- 2 tsp

Urad dal- 1 tsp

Mustard seeds- 1/2 tsp

Red chilly- 1 (Broken into pieces)

Jeera/Cumin seeds- 1/2 tsp

Hing/Asafoetida- A pinch

Lemon- 1

Method:

Take the cooked dal in a vessel and add Green chillies, Ginger, Curry leaves, Coriander leaves, Turmeric powder and salt. Mix well and bring it to a nice boil. In a small pan, heat ghee. Add Urad dal, Mustard seeds, Red chilly pieces and Jeera. Once the mustard has stopped spluttering, add Hing and pour this tempering to the Rasam. Finally, Before, serving, squeeze a lemon and enjoy!

Note- You may crush some garlic and add to the tempering. Thats a differet experience altogether!

Preparation Time: 30 Minutes

Serves: 4 people

Avarekaalu Akki Rotti

Its Avarekaalu season here in India and its wonderful to be here during this time :). I can try many of my favorite dishes with this tasty beans. Avarekaalu or Hyacinth beans is a favorite of any kannadiga. During the season, you can see in every house people buy these in loads and they all sit together to remove the beans from their pods ... A variety of dishes are prepared using these beans like sambar, usli, uppittu (upma), nippattu (snack), rotti...the list goes on.

Akki Rotti is perhaps a unique dish of Karnataka. Though it might sound similar to Thali peet of Maharashtra, this dish is prepared only with rice flour as a main ingredient. This is one of my favorite breakfast items. Generally it is prepared with only using onions and other spices but during Avarekaalu season you cant miss using them.

Here is the recipe.

Ingredients:
Rice flour - 3 cups
Chopped onions - 1 cup
Freshly grated coconut - 1 cup
Avarekaalu (cooked) - 1 cup
Chopped coriander leaves - 5-6 tbsp
Chopped green chillies - 2
Minced ginger - 3 tsp
Cumin seeds - 3 tsp
Salt


Method:
Mix all the above ingredients in a bowl and then add water slowly to make a thick dough as in the picture.
Since the rice flour does not have the elastic nature of wheat flour, it cannot be rolled out. Instead you have to use your bare hands to flatten them either directly into a pan, or use a moist cloth or plantain leaf. Here I am using plantain leaf.
Apply oil over the plantain leaf and your hands as well. Take a handful (large lemon sized) of dough and flatten it using hands over the leaf.


Heat a tava. Transfer the flatten rotti onto the tava and after 2-3 sec remove the leaf. Pour a tsp of oil and let it cook for 1-2 minutes and then turn the other side and pour a tsp oil and cook for another 1-2 minutes.
Serve hot with chutney or brinjal ennegai (Recipe coming soon ...).

Preparation time: About 4-5 minutes for each rotti.
Serves: 5 people

Uppu puli dose

This is a variety of dosa prepared in South Canara district of Karnataka. It has an assortment of spices which is ground with Coconut and added to the Rice batter. This imparts all the flavors and the aroma to the dosa. The speciality of this dosa is that we do not use Urad dal. Instead, a tablespoon or two of coconut gives the softness to the dosa.

Ingredients to grind for the Dosa batter of 3 cups of ONLY Rice:


Grated Coconut- 2 tbsp
Coriander seeds- 1 1/2 tbsp
Jeera/Cumin seeds- 2 tsp
Red chillies- 4-5 [If they are not of the hot variety, you may add more chillies which gives dosa the unique color; unfortunately, the chillies, I'm using are real hot...hence, added only few :( ]
Tamarind pulp- Extracted from a Lemon sized ball of Tamaind
Jaggery- 1 tbsp (Optional)

Method:
Grind the above mentioned ingredients to a fine paste and add it to the Dosa batter which has only Rice. Keep for fermentation for about 6-8 hours. Check for salt and pour a ladle full of batter on the hot tava. Cove and cook the dosa on one side. You may relish this with a dollop of butter or jaggery!

Preparation Time: 5 Minutes for the dosa
Serves: 4 people.

Green fritters

I have been thinking of posting this since a very long time. I love experimenting in the kitchen and this is one of the results of my experiments :). I have made a few changes (or added my own ingredients) to the usual bajji recipe and this is a hit with my family.

Here is the recipe.

Ingredients:
Thinly sliced onion - 1 big
Besan - 6 tbsp
Corn flour - 5 tbsp
Rice flour - 2 tbsp
Salt
Asafoetida (Hing) - 1/2 tsp
Oil - For deep frying

To grind:
Curry leaves - 5-6
Coriander leaves - A small bunch
Green chilli - 1
Tamarind - a small piece
Ginger - a small piece
Cumin seeds - 2 tsp


Method:
Grind the masala ingredients adding very little water to a fine paste.
Take the rest of the ingredients in a bowl and mix the ground paste and make a thick batter (bajji consistency) adding little water.
Heat oil in a frying pan.
Dip the thinly sliced onions in the batter so that it is thinly coated in batter, and put it in the hot oil. Fry till golden brown.
Serve hot with sauce or chutney.

Preparation Time: 25 mins
Serves: 2 people

Easy Mixed Vegetable Curry

This one is a true life-saver, when we have few unexpected guests :P It is totally my Amma's recipe and I'm just reproducing it the way it is. Its easy to make, achievable in a limited time and is great accompaniment for the Rotis and Poori too. The list of ingredients may be huge but, the method is simple. Do try it, for a change!

Ingredients:
Cooked vegetables- 1 1/2 cup (Carrots, Beans, Green peas, Cauliflower, Potato etc..)Oil- 2 tsp
Jeera/Cumin seeds- 1 tsp
Hing/Asafoetida- A pinch
Onion- 1 small chopped (Optional)
Turmeric- 1/2 tsp
Jeera powder/Cumin seed powder- 1/2 tsp
Dhania powder/Coriander powder- 1/2 tsp
Salt to taste
Coriander leaves- For garnish

To grind:


Grated coconut- 1 tbsp
Green chillies- 2-3
Garlic- 2 pods
Ginger- 1 inch piece
Onion- 1 small
Tomato- 1
Poppy seeds- 1 tsp
Cashew nuts- Few
Dates- 4-5
Cardamom- 1
Pepper Corns- Few
Saunf/Fennel seeds- 1 tsp
Bay leaf- 1/2 a leaf
Cinnamon- 1 inch piece
Clove- 1

Method:
Cook and keep aside vegetables of your choice. Grind the above mentioned ingredients to a fine paste and keep aside. In a vessel, heat oil. Add Jeera. When it starts to emit its aroma, add the paste and let it boil well and cook it for about 10 minutes on low heat. Now, add the Turmeric powder, Jeera powder, Dhania powder and Salt to taste. You may add water to adjust the consistency of the gravy as per your choice. Let it boil well and cook for another 5 minutes. Add the cooked vegetables and mix well. Garnish with Coriander leaves. You may add a dash of cream too! Serve with hot Rotis/Pooris!

Preparation Time: 30 Minutes
Serves: 4 people