Shallot(baby onion) chutney

A tasty chutney for the yummy idlies and dosas.

The speciality of this chutney,it gets along with rice, phulkas and dosa, idly. Amazing isn't it?

Shallot chutney

10 Shallots (baby onions, peeled and chopped into halves)

2 Tomato (cut into 4 pieces)

1 Inch long ginger(peeled and chopped)

3 Green chilies (slit)

2 Red chilies for colour (non spicy variety)

25 grams peanuts

A few curry leaves

2 tablespoon chopped coriander leaves

1/2 tablespoon mint leaves chopped

Salt as required ( I have added 1/2 tsp)

1 tablespoon gingly oil 

Tips

I have used raw peanuts, it's been lightly roasted with other ingredients.

You can add tamarind if the tomatoes are not sour. I have not added as the tomatoes were sufficient for the chutney.

Method

* In a heated pan pour little oil add peanuts, broken red chilies, green chilies, ginger for a few minutes.

*Add chopped shallots, cook it for a while,add tomatoes.

* It's time to add coriander leaves, curry leaves and mint leaves. Toss. Add salt. Off stove. Let it reach room temperature, transfer to mixer jar. Coarsely grind.

* Adjust salt. Transfer to a serving bowl, I have used a small bharani.

Serve with idly or dosa.

Do try, share and like.

Apple cucumber and feta cheese salad

Salads are great source of energy boosters and filling food. A good salad should consist of fresh vegetables and few ingredients which makes it an easy option.

I was really feeling hungry by evening. It's neither lunch time or dunndi time. I picked whatever fruits and vegetables from refrigerator. 

Here you go..

Apple cucumber salad

Ingredients

1 apple(deseed and cut into cubes)

1 orange(cut into halves and squeeze juice)

1 cucumber(chop into cubes)

1 carrot(peel and chop into cubes)

50 grams feta cheese (crumble to small pieces)

1 tsp chopped parsley leaves

1tsp chopped ajwain leaves

1/2 tsp chopped mint leaves

1/2 tsp hand crushed pepper

1 tsp olive oil

Tips

Orange juice add a mild flavour and freshness to the salad.

I have not added salt as feta cheese has a lot of cheese sufficient for salad.

Method

In a large bowl mix in all ingredients and toss. Serve.

Tinda aur aloo subzi

A quick subzi with phulkas when you have less time in hand. Yesterday I was finishing many of the pending work and so ended up making a simple subzi for phulkas.

Tinda aur aloo subzi

Ingredients

5 tinda, soft and tender, cut into thin slices

2 medium sized potatoes, wash, peel and slice into long pieces.

1/2 tsp jeera seeds

1 tsp coriander powder

1/2 tsp turmeric powder

1/2 tsp red chili powder

1 red chilli broken into halves

1/2 tsp hand crushed pepper

A small piece of chopped ginger

1 green chili sliced

1tbsp sunflower oil

Tips

*Use fresh, small  tindas for better taste.

Method

* Wash, peel and chop potatoes into thin long pieces. Keep aside.

*Cut tinda into 8 pieces.

*In a kadai pour oil add jeera, red chili. Once jeera splutter add potatoes, mix in cook for about 4 minutes.

*Now add tinda, turmeric powder, salt,  jeera powder, coriander powder and red chilli powder. Toss.

*Add green chili,ginger and toss.

*In low flame cook further, if needed add 1/2 cup of water. Close lid and cook for about 5 more minutes or until potatoes and soft and tender.

*Garnish with chopped coriander leaves. Serve hot with freshly rolled out phulkas.

Lobia paratha

I had almost two cups of lobia(Karamani)gravy made for the previous nights dinner. To which I have added 4 heaped ladleful whole wheat flour (atta). Knead into a soft dough by adding 1/2 cup of warm water.

Leftover subzi's and gravies can be incorporated with atta and rolled into parathas for breakfast. It's saves much of your time,adds more nutrition and food is utilised without losing its freshness.

Lobia paratha

Ingredients

2 cups lobia gravy ( smash into soft with a wooden flat surfaced mattu/potato masher)

4 heaped ladleful whole wheat flour (atta)

1/2 cup warm water

3 tablespoon ghee

Tips

You can use any leftover dal for this delicious paratha. We are not going to stuff it, it will be simply blended into atta and rolled into parathas.

Method

* Use a wooden flat surfaced mattu/potato masher and coarsely ground lobia gravy.

* Measure atta and add to the lobia gravy, knead it will be large crumbles. Once you reach that add warm water a little at a time, knead further It quickly turns out to a soft dough. Keep aside.

* Divide the dough into 12 equal parts. Roll out parathas.

* In a heated griddle pour a little ghee, place the parathas,cook both sides into golden brown. Serve hot with curd and pickle.

*It's best suited for kids tiffin box.

Fruit punch

Best suited for morning breakfast when you have to leave for work. A blend of freshly cut fruits made into a colourful smoothie on the go. Grab it and enjoy the tangy, sweet, smoothie! 

Fruit punch

Ingredients

10 seedless black grapes

1/4 cup muskmelon, peeled and cubed

1/4 cup papaya, peeled and cubed

2 tablespoon fresh ruby red pomogranate seeds

5 ice cubes

1cup of water

To garnish

Mint a small piece

Tips

Use freshly cut fruits

Method

* Mix in all the above fruits, a cup of water, a few ice cubes, blend into a smoothie. Serve in a tall glass or bottle. 

*No sugar ,no honey is added.

Pumpkin, paneer mixed vegetable subzi

Buying a whole pumpkin from the vegetable vendor and then trying to figure out in what dishes this pumpkin can be incorporated is a task in itself. 

Yet, again a pumpkin dish for roti subzi. Since it s a mixed subzi the quantity of pumpkin is very less.

Pumpkin, paneer mixed vegetable subzi

Ingredients

( Wash, Peel and thinly slice the following vegetables)

50 grams yellow pumpkin

1 green bell pepper

1 potato

2 large tomatoes(cut into 4 pieces)

5 to 6 sem (hyacinth beans)/Avarakai

2 long beans

6 to 7 fresh green bhindis

100 grams paneer grated

2 green chilies

A small piece of ginger thinly sliced

For tempering

1 tbsp ghee/gingelly oil

1 dry broken red chili



1/2 tsp turmeric powder 

1/2 tsp red chili powder

1/2 tsp coriander powder

1/2 tsp jeera powder


Tips

Use as many varieties of different vegetables for this subzi, it tastes awesome.


Method

* Wash, peel and thinly slice all vegetables. Keep aside.

* Grate paneer. Keep aside.

* Use a kadai with lid, pour oil/ghee add panch phoron, let it splutter, add onion, green chilies, ginger and saute, add potato, pumpkin and rest of the vegetables. 

*Mix in, close lid and cook for 5 minutes, toss gently in between so that vegetables don't get stuck in the bottom and burn.

* Open the lid, add turmeric, red chili, jeera and coriander powder. Mix in. Add salt.cook further for another 6 to  minutes, in low to medium flame. Once potato is soft and tender.  Add grated paneer, toss and add chopped coriander leaves. Off stove. Serve hot with phulkas.

Moong Dal with vegetables

The comfort food for most of us is simple dal, roti, salad.

I wanted to have a budha bowl for dinner but ended up making a simple meal.

Moong Dal with vegetables

1 cup moong Dal ( dry roasted)

1 onion chopped

1/2 cup cauliflower florets chopped

1 tomato chopped

A few long beans chopped

2 green chilies

A small piece of ginger chopped

1/2:tsp Turmeric

1/2 tsp red chili powder

1 tsp dry coriander powder

1 tsp jeera powder

Salt as required

For tempering

1:tbsp ghee

1/2:tsp jeera

1 tsp coriander leaves chopped

Tips

Roast moong dal for better flavour.

Method

*Dry roast moong dal and keep aside.

*Chop all vegetables into very small pieces.

*Pour ghee in pressure pan add jeera, let it splutter. Add onion, green chilies and ginger.

*Once onion turn traslucent, add rest of the vegetables. turmeric powder, red chilli powder,jeera powder and dhaniya powder. Mix in add 3 cups of water,

*Pressure cook for 1 whistle. Adjust salt, garnish with coriander leaves. Serve hot with phulkas.

My journey as a food blogger.

#foodbloggers

My story so far...

Self learning is a great experience if you know where to look for answers. I was fascinated by the terms used by my fellow food bloggers who are techies while I am a foodie with undying passion for learning.

Going through some of the well written articles I have really started understanding these alien jargons.

I now think you don't have to be good at everything, but you can excel in the area of your interest. A lesson I have learnt from my food blogging. When passion and the fire burning under your belly for achieving you are in the right track.

Baby steps before leaping into the vast ocean of music, it's like solo singing without any background music, just to be sure you are auditable and making small waves.

The correlation between these two are to be explored.

What's your food blogging journey?

How do you describe your learning experience?

Where do you refer for help when you are stuck with a topic?
https://jayanthisindianrecipes.blogspot.com/?m=1

Jayanthi's Indian Recipes

Peas and garden fresh palak parathas

Fresh peas is plenty available during winter. We have frozen peas by removing the shell when peas was very cheap a few days back. I have tried making parathas with fresh peas and freshly plucked palak from garden.

Paratha dough

2 cups of whole wheat flour

Water to make a soft dough


Ingredients for the filling

1/2 cup green Peas

1 bunch of fresh palak

A piece of grated ginger

2 green chilies

2 teaspoon chopped coriander leaves

Freshly ground

1tsp jeera powder

1 tsp coriander powder

1/2 tsp red chili powder

1/2 tsp turmeric powder

1/2 tsp salt

Tips

*Soak peas in hot water, drain out excess water,keep aside.

Method

*Grind green peas, palak, coriander leaves, green chilies and grated ginger to a coarse paste.

*Pour a little oil in kadai add coarsely ground peas paste, red chilli powder, salt,coriander powder,jeera powder and turmeric powder. Mix in. Cook till any excess water is completely reduced.

* Take a large lemon sized dough make a small thick disc, fill in 3/4 tbsp peas paste. Fold and roll out parathas.  About 10 you can roll out.

* In hot skillet pour little ghee, place the paratha, cook for 2 to 3 minutes. Flip and cook other side until golden brown. Serve hot with pickle and curd.

You can make it for children's lunch box. It remains soft and tasty.

Pancake

Pancakes are best option as evening snack for teens, you can make it healthy and add fruits to make it more delicious. 

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups maida/whole wheat flour

2 brown/white eggs

1 cup milk

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup sour cream

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt I used rock salt(sea salt)

4 cubs butter

15 black dry raisins

Maple syrup for serving

Tips

Sieve maida or atta for better results

Keep the butter outside, we are going to use it for greasing the skillet.

Method

*Combine milk,sour cream,eggs, sugar and vanilla. Use a whisker and whisk until all are combined. You may notice small lumps of sour cream. Don't over whisk. 

*Mix in flour, baking powder, raisins and salt.  Fold in until there are no flour remain. The consistency of the batter should be somewhat lumpy.

*I need skillet or tawa place butter, reduce flame to medium. The butter should bubbly and brownish.  

* Pour ladleful batter and cook pancakes. It will take about 2 to 3 minutes to cook, you will notice bubbles on the top of pancake, flip and cook the bottom till golden brown.

*Remove any excess butter from the skillet. Repeat making rest of the pancake batter. You can make 7 to 8 medium sized pancake.

Serve warm with maple syrup

Pesarattu (green moong and chana dal dosa)

A healthy breakfast with whole moon dal, chana dal and boiled rice. Something which really require less effort and a quick breakfast for children. But it need little preparation the previous day. Like soaking grinding and let it ferment. But unlike idly/dosa batter this batter need less time to ferment.

Pesarattu is a kind of dosa originated from Andhra. I make it by adding few more extra ingredients.

Ingredients

1 cup whole moong dal

1 cup chana dal

1 cup boiled rice

1/2 cup rava

4 green chilies

A piece of ginger

1 tsp jeera

2 tbsp of chopped coriander leaves

salt as required

A little hing powder 


Tips


You can add chopped onions it tastes good.


Method

* Wash soak green moong dal, chana dal and rice together for about 5 to 6 hours, grind into a coarse paste by adding green chilies, ginger and hing. Once done add rava, mix in and keep aside.

* Leave it over the kitchen counter, let it ferment for about 6 to 7 hours. 

* Morning add chopped coriander leaves and mix well, if needed add little water. Mix in.

*In a hot griddle pour one ladleful of batter, spread into thin dosa. Cook both sides till golden brown, add gingle oil or little ghee. 

*Enjoy pesarattu with coriander chutney with little jeera tadka. Its yummy!

Chow Chow(Chayote) and koorkai((Chinese potato) molagoottal (A coconut based gravy)

A old story my Dad will narrate to me as a kid, is the koorkai farm we had in our village. 

Now in my tiny apartment I try to recreate our lost glory.

Owning farmland in our village and harvesting rice to most of the vegetable needed for the family. Good old memories of my Grandmother growing different varieties of spinach and the large mango tree we had in the backyard, where we cousins used to climb and get bitten by red ants!! The sweet tamarind tree, and the sweet cold water from the well. Memories and memories of  childhood days, lingering fresh in my mind.

Coming back to a coconut based gravy my Mom is the ultimate master in making. I have never tasted a better version of her molakoottal. She has the ultimate royalty to certain dishes. 

Well, its ditto copy of my mothers recipe, which I as a teen her assistant learnt from her. Till today I follow her recipes, as they are authentic and nailing her dishes are the biggest challenge.

Chow chow koorkai molakoottal

Ingredients

1 Chow chow(Chayote) peeled and chopped into cubes.

15 koorkai (boiled and peeled. Chopped into halves.)

10 long bean ( chopped into 1 inch long pieces)

1/2 cup moong dal, pressure cooked.

1/2 tsp Turmeric powder 

Grind together

1/2 shell of small Coconut grated

1 red chili halved

1/2 tsp jeera

1/2 tsp raw rice

For the tempering

1 tsp coconut oil

1/2 tsp mustard seeds

1/2 tsp urad dal

A few curry leaves

Tips

Boil and peel of koorkai, or you can scrap the peel and chop into pieces. 

Peel the chayote, sometimes the outer skin is little rough.

Method

* Grind coconut, jeere, rice and red chili together by adding a little water.

*Cook moongdal by adding a cup of water in pressure cooker for 2 whistles. Keep aside.


* In an earthen pot of stoneware add vegetables, turmeric powder by adding 2 cups of water and cook. Once done add peeled koorkai. Mix in. Keep aside.

*In a small pan pour coconut oil, add mustard seeds and urad dal. When mustard splutter add curry leaves. Off the stove. Keep aside.

* Mix in cooked vegetables, moong dal and coconut gravy, Use a ladle to mix well, bring to boil, add hot water if the gravy is too thick. adjust salt. Finally pour the tempering. Serve hot with steamed rice.

Sulaimani chai

A freshly brewed cup of tea without milk is the most delicious drink when you walk the Royal roads of Thiruvananthapuram. My home town, in and around Padmanabha Swamy temple which is walk able distance from my parental home. 

Well, talking about Sulaimani tea which is from the Northern part of Kerala especially Kozhikode. It dates back to the Arab traders who constantly visited the coastal Kerala for trade purposes. 

It was a delicious cup of tea they used to talk and finalize business ventures unlike today where we end up having freshly brewed beer!

Sulaimani chai is brewed to beautiful amber shade and served with liberal dose of lemon. A piece of basil leaf or mint leaf floating the drink is not a surprise to many of the tea lovers. A dash of freshly ground ginger, cinnamon stick, cardamom and clove is all it takes to make this tea. 

Sulaimani chai

Ingredients

1 tsp tea powder

2 cardamom (crushed)

2 clove(crushed)

A small cinnamon stick(crushed)

A small piece of ginger(thinly sliced and crushed)

2 tsp sugar

2 to 3 glasses of water

Half a lemon extract

2 basil leaves

A small piece of lemon grass

Tips

*Use cold water for making tea. Once the spices are boiled in water the flavours are better enhanced.

* I have used garden fresh basil and lemon grass. You can use mint if it's available.

Method

*In a saucepan pour two cups of water,add crushed ginger, cardamom,clove and cinnamon stick. Bring to boil.

*Add tea powder and sugar.

*Once the concoction turns into golden brown, off stove. Add basil and lemon grass.

* Strain the tea in cups, add lemon extract and serve hot.

I love this herby, spicy tea.

Carrot cake

The Delhi carrots I bought were made into salad, subzi and finally cake.

I did few additions and tried the new recipe.

I have added quite a few ingredients dear to me to add zing to the carrot cake. 

Reduced sugar as I prefer very less sugar in my cakes. Plus the granulated sugar we use is highly sweetened.


Carrot Cake

Ingredients

200 gram maida(sieved)

1/4 tsp rock salt

150 grams sugar granules, powdered

6 brown eggs

1 two baking soda

150 grams unsalted butter

50 grams grated carrots (red variety)

50 grams (A large piece of grated ginger)

20 grams Coco powder

10 grams nutmeg powder

10 grams cinnamon powder

20 grams coffee powder (I used instant)

1/4 tsp garam masala

Garnish

10 grams each of walnuts,cashew nuts and almonds roughly chopped

Tips

Keep all ingredients handy, I grated carrots and kept them ready, then started measuring each ingredient.

Note any ingredients you used, so that it's helpful next time. As I did record a few changes in the original recipe.

Method

* Preheat oven to 180 C.

* Grease the baking tin by applying butter and dust with maida.

* Beat the eggs separately, till fluffy. Keep aside.

* Mix in butter and powder sugar. I used cake beater. Once it's mixed together added eggs, and then gradually added sieved flour.

*While doing so I used a flat spatula to scrap the sides. As they were sticking. Finally added all spices, coffee powder and baking soda.

* Once it become fluffy added grated carrots and orange juice. Mixed them also. I folded them into the batter. Poured into baking tin.

*Garnish with chopped almonds, walnuts and cashews. 

*Bake for about 50 minutes  in 180 C preheated oven.

*Once it reaches room temperature remove from baking tin, place it on a serving tray, spread the icing sugar and use different nozzles to design.

*I don't use icing sugar. I prefer plain baked cakes without icing.

Kothamalli podi (Hara dhaniya powder)

My mom is an expert in making most of the palghat cuisine dishes, her precision, measurements and ingredients added with such accuracy is highly appreciated. When I write everything with the accuracy of a math teacher. my mom uses eyes and hands to measure!

One of her masterpiece is rasam which I have yet to nail. Another one is kothamalli podi ( hara dhaniya powder) 

Ingredients

1 bunch Coriander/Hara dhaniya leaves

8 red dry chilies (4 spice, 4 non spicy )

2 Green chilies

A small piece of chopped ginger

A few pieces of dry tamarind (a small gooseberry size)

2 tablespoons of chana dal

2 tablespoons of  urad dal

1 small piece of hing cake

A few fresh curry leaves/pudina leaves (added for flavour)

Salt (I use rock salt ) as required

Gingelly oil 1 tsp



Tips

Use fresh dhaniya, curry and pudina leaves for better flavour.

Make sure you use tamarind which is not too old, we get fresh crops here, which is bit sweet and not dark.(Very mild brownish)

Method


* Pour oil in kadai add dals, red chillies, ginger, green chilies, hing piece, and in slow flame dry roast, add tamarind, and roast further for about 2 minutes, towards the end add dhaniya/pudina/curry leaves. Off stove.

*Once it reach room temperature, grind to a semi dry powder, add salt. 

*You can divide into two parts and powder if needed. Enjoy kothamalli podi with steamed rice and ghee. It's yum!