Moong Dal Kichdi

Moong dal is highly nutritious and the kichdi made out of it is often considered to be a light and comfort meal in my home. After having a heavy lunch for the day, I never thought of cooking for the dinner. This kichdi is so simple and healthy which I always prefer during those situations. It is considered to be a yogic diet as this is helpful in cleansing the digestive system and assist the body in staying healthy and strong.



All you need:

Basmati Rice - 1 cup
Moong dal - 1 cup
Fresh or frozen vegetables of your choice - 1 cup
Onion - 1/2 chopped
Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Ginger - 1 inch piece (chopped)
Garlic - 2 small pods (chopped)
Coriander leaves - few
Turmeric - 1/2 tsp
Green chillies - 3
Ghee - 1 tbsp
Water - 6 cups
Salt to taste

Method:

Wash the Rice and Moong dal and add 6 cups of water to it.

Add salt, slitted green chillies, turmeric and the vegetables to the rice and dal mixture.

Stir it well and pressure cook it for 4 whistles. ( If you prefer to cook in open pot, add vegetables later when rice and dal are half done. The water measurement also changes from 6 to 9 cups).

Add ghee to a separate pan and let the mustard and cumin seeds to crackle.

Add chopped onions, ginger and garlic to the pan and fry for a minute then add them to the cooked pot.

Finally add chopped coriander leaves to give a great twist to the kichdi.

Serve it along with Plain yogurt or with a pickle of your choice.

This is my entry for WYF : Light Meal Event arranged by Simple Indian Food blog.

Vazhaipoo Roti

Here is another recipe with vazhaipoo (banana blossom) came out from my mom's cookbook. I purposely bought two blossoms this time for making Vazhaipoo Kootu and roti. This is little modified version of Akki Roti which tastes great along with banana blossoms. As it takes little extra time for preparation, its better to have this as a weekend breakfast. You can clean the flower and chop them one or two days in advance to make this work much easier. But don't forget to soak them in buttermilk and refrigerate it.

Clean the flower, rough chop it and soak it in buttermilk for atleast 30 minutes. For cleaning procedure, please click here.

All you need:

Rice flower - 2 cups
Banana blossom - 1 cup (rough chopped)
Onion - 1 (medium)
Curry leaves - few (finely chopped)
Chilli pwdr - 1 tbsp
Ghee - 1 tbsp
Salt, Water as reqd.

Method:

1. Mix all the above ingredients in a bowl to make a soft dough.
2. Grease the tissue paper.
3. Take a handful of dough and spread on the tissue paper like chapathi by using your fingers or you can directly do it on tawa.
4. Grease the hot tawa and transfer the spread dough on it.
5. Cook for 1 minute and flip it to cook for 2 minutes.
6. Now flip again to cook for another minute.
7. Serve hot with spicy tomato / onion chutney.

Easy Diwali Snacks

There is no perfect festival without snacks (both sweet and savory). I thought of celebrating this diwali with some easy snacks due to lack of time and not able to prepare. Finally, I made Chakali (Muruku), Sweet Somas and Badam Halwa. You don't believe that these are just so easy to make and tastes great. You can impress your family with these minimal items.

Chakali (Muruku):

I made this crispy muruku with rice flour and urad dal. My mom makes white muruku by not adding chilli powder or by adding 1 or 2 red chillies while grinding. I have added chilli powder to make it more spicy.

All you need:

Rice flour - 2 cups
Urad dal - 1/2 cup
Butter - 2 to 3 tbsp
Jeera - 1 tbsp
Hing - a pinch
Salt, Chilli pwdr - Acc. to taste
Water, Oil

Method:

1. Fry the urad dal until it turns red without adding oil and allow it to cool.
2. Grind the urad dal to make nice powder from it.
3. Mix rice flour, urad dal powder, salt, chilli powder, melted butter and jeera (cumin seeds) in a bowl.
4. Add water to make a dough. Set aside for 10 minutes by covering the bowl with a wet cloth.
5. When the oil is hot enough, place a hand full of dough into the murukku press and squeeze the dough to make circles.
6. When they are golden brown, dry them in a tissue paper.

Sweet Somas:

Great sweet snack in minutes for Diwali. We can make both spicy and sweet somas. Base is same, only the filling differs.

All you need:

All-Purpose flour (Maida) - 2 cups
Ghee - 1 tbsp
Salt, Water, Oil

For the filling:

Dalia (split roasted gram) - 3/4 cup
Poppy seeds - 1/4 cup
Dry shredded coconut (Copra) - 1/2 cup
Cardamom - 4 pods
Sugar - 2 cups

Method:

1. Mix the flour, ghee and little salt along with required amount of water to make a dough. Set aside in an air tight container for 30 minutes.
2. Dry fry the poppy seeds, coconut flakes and dalia separately and allow it to cool.
3. Keep 2 tbsp of dry coconut and poppy seeds aside.
4. Grind the rest of the roasted ingredients and cardamom pods into a coarse powder.
5. Add the remaining coconut flakes, poppy seeds and sugar to the grounded mixture and combine well. Now filling is ready.
6. Take a small portion of dough and knead it little bit thicker to make a small circle.
7. Place the filling inside the dough and close the edges by pressing them with wet fingers.
8. Repeat the same procedure to make more.
9. Heat the oil and fry them in batches (atleast 3 or 4 at a time).

Badam Halwa:

It takes some time for peeling the skin from almonds but remaining preparation is very easy. If you need delicious taste, then there must be some extra work, right?

All you need:

Almonds (raw) - 1 cup
Sugar - 1 cup
Milk - 1/4 cup
Few Saffron strands
Ghee - 3 tbsp

Method:

1. Soak the almonds in hot water for 1 hour.
2. Peel the skin completely and grind them into a paste by adding less milk.
3. Mix almond paste, sugar, saffron strands and 2 or 3 tbsp of milk in a bowl.
4. Heat the pan and add a tbsp of ghee and the almond mixture.
5. Stir it continuously by adding remaining ghee in between.
6. Soon the mixture will get thickened by leaving the sides of the pan clearly and gathering at the center.
7. Remove from heat and let it to cool.
8. You can make desired shapes out of it.

Wishing you all a Very Happy Diwali.

Hot Puffed Poori's

One of the all-time satisfying breakfast. Whenever I think of Poori's, I will go and prepare immediately. During my childhood, whenever my mom makes poori's - we used to wait anxiously to eat, especially those hot puffed ones. I still remember, whenever my niece hesitate to eat we used to make Poori's, which she loves and never say "no" to it. To make it more nutritious, we add mashed apples/bananas along with flour for her.

I thought of posting this recipe as some of my friends always asked me the recipe for the puffed ones. There is some tricky part while making them. Here it goes...

All You Need:

Whole wheat flour - 2 cups
Oil - 1 tbsp
Salt, Warm water - As reqd.

Method:

Combine all the above ingredients to make a soft dough.

Tips for Puffed Poori's:

1. To make Poori's from the fresh dough (Dough should not be kept aside for more than 5 minutes).
2. Oil must be hot enough to make Poori's but it should not be smoking hot. Maintain the heat at med-high levels.
3. To check the hotness, drop a pinch of dough into the oil and it must rise to the surface of the oil immediately.
4. Take a small lemon sized dough and knead it with the help of rolling pin by applying even pressure all over the dough which helps to puff evenly.
5. The kneaded dough must be neither too thin nor too thick.
6. Drop the kneaded dough into the hot oil and press it slightly by using skimmer.
7. When it starts to puff, splash some hot oil over the surface of the puffed bread by using skimmer.
8. Turn it upside down to fry on the other side after 40-45 secs.
   
9. Fry the other side for less than a minute and take it out and dry it in a paper towel.
10. Serve hot with Aloo Besan curry / with your favorite side dish.

No more worries for making hot Puffed Poori's.

Vazhaipoo Kootu (step by step pictures)

My mom used to make lot of lip smacking recipes from Vazhaipoo during my childhood. I found this flower after a long time and thought of trying all those recipes and vazhaipoo kootu is one of them.I tried to present the step by step pictures of this recipe for clear understanding.



Banana Flower also known as "Banana Blossom" has lot of medicinal values. It is considered as a blood purifying item and it is effective in curing menstrual disorders. It also increases hemoglobin cell levels in the blood. It is good for lactating mothers too. But at the same time, cooking with banana flower is a tiresome job. One who enjoyed the taste of banana flower will never hesitate to cook again.

Clean the Banana Flower:

Peel the red layers one by one.



Remove all the flowers found in between those layers.



Open the flower and remove the stamen (long stem like structure along with a petal of bud like structure) from it.



These are not considered to be edible.They will neither get cooked nor chewable.



Stamen removed blossoms on right side and whole blossoms on the left.



Take a cup of buttermilk. Cut all the florets into small sizes and soak them immediately into the buttermilk for half an hour (to avoid discoloration).



Now Banana Blossom is ready to cook.

Kootu Recipe:

All you need:

Vazhaipoo(Banana Blossom) - 1
Toor dal - 1 cup
peanuts - 1/4 cup
Tamarind paste - 1 tbsp
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Urad dal - 1 tsp
Hing
Salt

To Roast & Grind:

Urad dal - 2 tbsp
Channa dal - 1 tbsp
Dhania - 1 tbsp
Peppercorns - 1/2 tbsp
Jeera - 1 tbsp
Coconut - 4 tbsp
Red Chillies - 4

Method:
Pressure cook the dal along with peanuts. Roast all the ingredients mentioned above except coconut with a tsp of oil and let them cool.Grind roasted ingredients along with coconut. Heat the pan with a tbsp of oil and add mustard seeds. After they splutter add urad dal and one broken red chilly.Drain the florets from buttermilk and add them to the pan. Add little water, cover and cook it along with salt and turmeric powder for 10 minutes. Now add the grounded masala paste along with tamarind. Let it to boil for 5 to 8 minutes and finally add the cooked peanuts and mashed dal. Cook it for another 5 more minutes and add hing.Serve hot with plain rice.



Note: You can store those banana florets in refrigerator by soaking them in buttermilk and it stays good for 4 to 5 days.

Akki Roti

Akki roti is nothing but roti made up of rice flour. Its a very tasty and great Karnataka dish. I have a strong liking for this dish from my childhood. There is no specific timing for making this dish. I prepare, whenever i want to eat it. I like all rice flour recipes say, Puttu, Kadubu, Akki Vada, Appam, Idiappam, etc. which have an excellent taste when prepared using fresh flour.

You can prepare Masala Akki roti by adding some veggies to it. But, I like the pure white akki roti with finely chopped green chillies and karipatha. It tastes great along with onion/red chutney.

All you need:

Rice flour - 1 cup
Red onion - 1 medium (finely chopped)
Green chillies - 3 (finely chopped)
Curry leaves - 3 (roughly chopped)
Jeera - 1/2 tbsp
Ghee - 1 tbsp
Salt and Oil

Method:

Combine all the above ingredients except oil. Mix the flour thoroughly after adding salt. Now add water little by little and make a soft ball like a chapati dough. You can add a tbsp of oil while preparing the dough. Now, heat the tawa in a medium flame and grease it. Take a portion of dough (which must be bigger than the size of a lemon) and make a ball out of it.

Now, spread the dough directly on the tawa by touching water in your fingers and make sure, it is not too thin. Now add little oil over the edges and slightly increase the heat. Cook for 1 minute and flip it on the other side. It's done when you can see light brown spots on the roti.



If you are not comfortable in spreading the dough directly on the tawa, try spreading it on a grease paper or on a plastic sheet. Grease the sheet and then spread the dough by pressing using fingers touched in oil and then slowly transfer the roti onto the tawa. Be cautious, if tawa is too hot, it will burn the sheet.


For Red Chutney:

All you need:

Red onion - 4 (medium)
Tomato - 2 (medium)
Red Chillies - 4
Tamarind paste - 1/2 tbsp
Mustard seeds - 1/4 tbsp
Urad dal - few
Curry leaves - few
Salt

Method:

Heat 2 tbsp of oil in a pan. Add red chillies and roughly chopped red onions. When they become translucent, add chopped tomatoes and fry till the tomatoes get mashed. Let them cool and grind it along with salt and tamarind. Now heat the tadka and add mustard seeds, urad dal and curry leaves. Transfer them into the red chutney. Serve Red/onion chutney along with hot akki rotis.



Note: Heat one tbsp of ghee and then add it to the flour which gives a nice and fresh aroma over the flour. Adjust the salt and chillies acc. to your taste. Akki roti tastes great when served hot.

Plum Cake

I want to share my most favorite plum cake recipe with you all. I tried this cake for the first time and it came out very well. I hope everyone will enjoy this cake made from scratch.


All you need:

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups of powdered sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 tbsp of butter (At room temp)
1/2 cup of vegetable oil
3/4 cup of chopped plums (Available in stores)
1 tablespoon grated lemon or orange zest
3 eggs
1 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla essence

Method:
Beat the vegetable oil, butter, eggs, sugar and lemon zest in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium speed until creamy. Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, milk,vanilla essence and salt into the mixer and gradually beat at medium speed for 1 minute and at high speed for 2 minutes. Make sure that there is no solid part in it.Finally add the plums into the mixture and gently mix it with a spatula.

Preheat the oven to 325 degree Fahrenheit. Grease the baking pan with vegetable oil / butter. Spoon the batter into the prepared pan and bake it for 40-50 minutes. Keep checking inorder to avoid over baking. Insert a toothpick into its centre and if it comes out clean without sticking, then the cake is done. Cool the cake completely in the pan for another 20 minutes.


Now turn the cake pan upside down on a clean plate.The cake will come out of the pan like this.


Turn it down and remove the upper crust with a sharp knife.


Cut them into desired shapes as you like and store it in an air-tight container in the refrigerator.


You can serve it along with some cream on its top. Enjoy!