Kakarakaya with Onion Besan base

Ingredients
Kakarakaya (Bitter melon) - Scraped little bit and Chopped into big chunks
Onions
Besan
Oil for deep fry as well as for tadka
Jeera (Cumin seeds)
Tamarind paste
Red chilli powder
Salt to taste

Method of preparation
1. Take a vessel for deep/shallow fry. Add oil to it. Let it heat and then fry bitter melon's until they turn their color to golden brown. Take them out on a plate with paper towel so that extra oil is absorbed.

2. Fry onions with a spoon of oil and grind them to a paste. To this paste add besan salt, red chilli powder and a little tamarind paste. Mix them all to make it a nice thick paste.

3. Add a teaspoon or two of oil and after it is heated, add Jeera to it. Now add the onion besan paste to it. Add enough water/Tamarind paste. Adjust salt and chilli levels according to your taste.

4. Add bitter melon to above. Cover and cook them until you feel that bitter melon has got taste of the paste. (should take appr. from 2- 10 minutes of time, depending on your stove and taste).

5. Garnish with coriander and mix it. Serve hot wit rice.

Sandwich with Ginger Tea

I was hungry in the afternoon and was looking for something tasty and healthy. Found bread, so though of making some sandwich with garma garam ginger tea. Here is how I prepared.

Sandwich Preparation
Ingredients
Bread
Onions
Tomatoes
Cucumber
Capsicum
Cilantro
Oil - 1 tea spoon
Salt to taste
Black pepper

You can use the sandwich maker or if you don't have one then you can use Tawa to heat the sandwich until it is toasted correctly to your taste.







Method of Preparation
1. Take small pan and add oil to it. after it is heated, add the chopped vegetables. for a minute or two until they are partly done.

2. Add salt and black pepper powder to it. Your stuffing is ready.



3. Put the stuffing on one bread piece and then place another bread piece on top of it. Now place the sandwich in sandwich maker and close the cover.



4. Your healthy, tasty and quick sandwich is ready to eat. Have it with tomato or green chutney along with Ginger Tea.



Ginger Tea


Add little water in a small bowl and add tea powder to it. (for 1 cup I generally add 1/2 tea spoon tea powder). Add sugar depending on your taste. I add Ginger grated at this point. once it comes to boil, I add milk to it to make it enough for all drinking people. Filter it and serve hot.

Muddakura

I love the taste of this simple yet tasty, quick and easy to do item. This can be considered as dal or as a curry. Best combination for this is rice and pachi charu/chintapandu charu.Try it and let me know;



Ingredients
Chana Dal, Toor Dal - 1:1 ratio
Moong dal - just a pistful of it(optional)
Palak/Thotakura (Amaranth leaves)/Chaama kura(Taro leaves) - Chopped
Turmeric
Green chillies
Red chillies
Salt to taste
Besan/Senagapindi
Tamarind juice
Oil
mustard seeds
Cumin seeds (Jeera)
Asafoetida
Urad dal
Curry leaves
Coriander leaves

Method of preparation
1. Cook all the three dals until they are just done but not totally mushy or total soft. For example: if you are using pressure cooker, and in general you need 3 whistles for dal to be cooked then for this item, try switching off stove at 2 whistles.

2. Take a kadai and heat oil in it. Add mustard seeds and let them splutter.

3. Add cumin seeds, green chillies, red chillies, curry leaves asafoetida and at last add the green leafy vegetable you picked (Palak/ amaranth/taro leaves chopped).

4. Wait for two minutes or until the leaf is cooked and then add the cooked dals to it along with turmeric and salt.

5. Add tamarind juice extract (just enough to have a little bit of sour taste, lot of it will make the curry taste sour)

6. Wait for a minute and then add besan to it. The curry will become a little thick at this point. Turn off the stove.

7. Add tadka to the top of it, by heating oil and adding mustard seeds, cumin seeds, asafoetida, red chillies, curry leaves, urad dal.