Gummadikaya Barada

This is very famous recipe from my village. Easy to make, healthy and also it is supposed to increase the math brain of ours. Almost every household in our village has either an engineer or doctor from each home. Part of the reason they mention is because of the food we eat like Gummadikaya barada and Bhendi fry. So here goes one of the traditional recipes:

Ingredients
Gummadikaya (Winter melon) - 1 piece.
Chana dal - 1/2 cup
Moong dal - a fistful (or more depending on your taste)
Cumin seeds (Jeera, Jeelakarra)
Oil
Mustard seeds
Asafoetida
Green chillies
Red chillies
Red chilli powder
Salt to taste
lemon juice or citric acid (if you are planning to use the citric acid them use less salt)

Method of preparation
1) Scrape off the chilka/pottu of gummadikaya (winter melon) and chop it into big pieces.

2) Prepare the gravy by grinding the dals(chana dal, moong dal) along with Jeera (cumin seeds, jeelakarra), asafoetida. Grind them coarsely and not too soft or powder type.  You can also soak a fistful of chana dal in water for sometime (like 15-20 minutes) to add to curry.

3) Now add red chilli powder, salt required for the curry to the above powder and mix them. Add sufficient Oil to it so that it looks like the following photo: The mixture should resemble like a paste.

4) Now take a kadai and add oil to it. Add mustard seeds and let it splutter. Now add asafoetida, jeera and green chillies to it.

5) Add the winter melon chopped pieces and also the soaked chana dal. Add turmeric to it and cover and cook for two minutes. Winter melon here (USA) cooks very fast, so be mindful of the time you are cooking it. Keep it for less than two minutes. If you are attempting this curry in other places (like India), then cover and cook for sometime until the winter melon pieces are half cooked.

6) Now add the dals mixture we prepared. Add 2-3 cups of water (add more until the dals are totally soaked). Cover and cook for 5 -10 minutes, by stirring in between. If the gravy is becoming very thick, then add some water again. keep it on stove till the dals mixture is cooked properly. Oil will float on top once the dals and melon are cooked. Adjust the salt (or citric acid) and chilli powders if required. Switch off the stove and take it in a serving bowl. Add tadka on top of the curry with Oil, mustard seeds and red chillies.

The best combination of this curry is to have it with Rice, mudda pappu and challa pulusu. You can eat the curry just with rice and it will taste good.
Note:
1) If you like the tangy taste then I would recommend adding less salt and add citric acid. This will give a special taste to the curry.
2) You can do the same curry with Dosakaya (Indian cucumber-yellow) by replacing the winter melon with dosakaya in the above curry recipe.

Let me know how the recipe turns out. Also please let me know if I am missing something.

Jeera Rice

Ingredients
Cooked Rice - 1 cup
Oil/Ghee - 2-3 spoons
Cumin Seeds - 2 spoons
Green chillies - 3 or 4 (depending on your spice buds and also on the spiciness of the chillies)
Cashews - roasted or fried in little oil
Coriander leaves - chopped
Salt to taste


Method of preparation
1) Cook the basmati rice(Grains separated).
2) Heat ghee in a kadai and fry the cashew nuts. Transfer them into a bowl. 
3) Heat the oil in the kadai ,add jeera and sauté till brown. 
4) Add green chillies and sauté for 2-3 minutes. Add the cooked rice and mix well.(You can add a few tbsps of ghee if you want.)

5) Garnish with cashew nuts and freshly chopped coriander.

Aloo rasedar/Potato gravy curry

Well I tried this last week. It came out so good that I did not get a chance to take a picture of it before it finished. I made poori's along with the rasedar curry. So here goes the recipe:

Ingredients
Potatos - Boiled, peeled and chopped into chunks - 6 pcs
Onion - 1 large - chopped into very small pieces
Tomatos - 1 large - chopped into small pieces
Cashew/Badam/walnut powder - 1-2 spoons
Oil - 3 spoons
Red chilli powder - 2 spoons(or according to your taste)
Salt - 2 table spoons (or according to your taste)
Cumin seeds - 1/2 spoon
Ginger garlic paste - 1 spoon
Method of preparation
1) Take a kadai and oil to it. Let it heat and then add the cumin seeds to it.
2) Now add onions to it. Once the onions are almost done, add ginger garlic paste to it. Fry until the raw smell is gone for the gg paste. (this may take few seconds or a minute)
3) Now add the cubed potatos along with tomatos also.
4) Add rest of the ingredients along with two cups of water. Mix them all and cover and cook for couple of minutes.
5)  Once the tomatos are also done and the gravy becomes thick, you curry - aloo rasedar is ready. Garnish with coriander and serve hot with Puri or Roti or even with rice.

Let me know how it turns out.

Vegetable Utappam

Well this is an indian tiffin (can be used as breakfast or snack time). We can also say that these are the Indian version of pancakes (not sure if pancakes over here are born first or the utappam :) ).

Ingredients
Rice - 2 and 1/2 cups
Urad dal - 1 cup
Chana dal - 1/2 cup
Moong dal - Depends on your flavor (can add from a fistful to 1/2 cup)
Green chillies - 2 or 3
Onions - 1 chopped finely
Tomatos - 1 chopped finely
Grated carrot - (optional)
Peas - (optional - I did not add this)
beans - (optional - I did not add this)
Salt to taste - (1-2 table spoons)
Oil  - 1 spoon for veggies and some more for frying utappam

Method of preparation

1) Soak rice, urad dal, chana dal and moong dal in water for few hours (probably soaking them in the night and grinding them in the morning is a good idea).

2) Grind the soaked mixture with little water. Make sure it is not too liquidish type.

3) Fry veggies in a table spoon of oil for 2 to 3minutes until they are undercooked but almost done. (include green chillies also). Add some salt and your veggie mixture is ready to add to the utappam base.

4) Now add the veggie mixture to the utappam base. and you are now ready to do yummy vegetable utappams.

5) To make utappams: Take a flat pan and put it on stove. Once the pan is heated sprinkle few drops of water and clean it with either paper towel or with a onion. Add 1/2 spoon oil in a circular motion to cover the surface of the pan. Now add a laddle full of batter in the middle. Spread out the batter to make a circular shape. Now add little oil along the edges of the utappam and cover it with lid for 1/2 minute to 1 minute. Remove the cover and turn the utappam on the other side. Add little oil to the side so that it comes off easily. Remove the utappam from the stove once it is done and serve hot with either Tomato chutney or any chutney you like.
Note: I could not take photos this time of the utappam made as they were finished faster. I will try to add pictures of how to make utappam later.

Tomato Tupp curry

Well this is one of the simple to do but makes you feel that you made special curry. I am sure that you will get more compliments for it. People who love tomatos, will surely be a fan of it. So here goes the recipe.

Ingredients
Grape tomato's
Jeera (cumin seeds)
Onions - 1 (chopped lengthwise or small)
cashew paste/powder - 1 spoon
poppy seeds - 1-2 table spoons
Oil - 3 table spoons
Red chilli powder
Salt to taste

Method of preparation
1) clean the grape tomato's and put an X mark with knife on top of the tomato'ss so that the gravy and taste will be nicely blended with tomato's.
2) Take the poppy seeds with very little water (probably 1 tablespoon water for 2 table spoons of poppy seeds or a little more). Grind it into a nice paste.
3) Now take a kadai/pan and add oil to it. Let it heat and now add cumins seeds to it. Now add onions and saute them until they become translucent or golden brown. Do not over cook it.
4) Now add the X marked grape tomatos to it. Let it cook for a minute or two covered. Now add the popy seeds paste, red chilli powder, salt and water to it (for gravy).
5) Give it two more minutes and then add cashew powder or paste. Add enough water to it, because cashew powder thickens the gravy. If desired, add a spoon or two of yogurt to it for nice taste.
6) Once tomato's are cooked, which means you curry is ready to serve. Transfer the curry into a serving bowl and garnish with deep fried onions and coriander.

This curry goes good with rice or roti or parathas. So enjoy it with anything you like. Let me know if you find it good. Thanks for trying.

Coconut - Putnalu Chutney

 Well this is a simple recipe which I make at home. Only problem with me is taking out the coconut from the kuduka(coconut) itself. So the other day I saw the coconut pieces frozen from an asian store. I immediately picked it up. It got a nice use from then. I can make coconut chutney in seconds. well other than ingredients list the method of preparation should be very easy.


Ingredients
Coconut pieces (either fresh or frozen) - if frozen, put it in microwave for a minute or so.
Green chillies go very well with the recipe but I had green chillies with no spicyness, so I aded little fried red chillies also. So vary the spicyness depending on what you have.
Chick pea dalia - Putnalu - a fistful or less may be
You can also add a little cashew for making the thick chutney if you like (Optional)
For tangyness - you can use either tamarind pulp or yogurt. I used one spoon of each (yogurt as well as tamarind pulp)
Salt to taste
For Tadka:
Oil - 2 table spoons
Mustard seeds - 1 tea spoon
Cumin seeds - 1/2 tea spoon
Chana dal - 1 or 2 table spoons
Asafoetida - two pinches
Red chillies - upon your taste
Curry leaves - few

Method of preparation
Grind all the ingredients except tadka items. If needed, add some water while grinding. Do the tadka on stove and add all the ingredients under tadka. Add tadka to the grinded mixture and your chutney is ready.

The chutney can be accompanied with many items or tiffins like Dosa, Idli, utappam or upma etc. It can also be used as a side item with rice. We had the hot vegetable upma so here is our version of coconut chutney with upma photo.

Kadai Paneer

Well as I told you before, I am very lazy person. My husband loves kadai paneer outside so I attempted at home last month and it came out nice. Since then I made it atleast couple of times more. So here goes the recipe which I made.

Ingredients
Paneer - 200 grms - chopped in cubes (can be raw or can be fried ones, whichever your taste buds prefer)
Capsicum (Green) - 1 or 2 - chopped in cube(square) shapes
Onion - 1 - Chopped in cube shapes
Capsicum(red) - 1 - Optional in cubes shapes
Tomato - 1 or 2 - Chopped either cubes or vertically
Cumin powder - 1 table spoon
Coriander Powder - 1 table spoon
Red chilli powder - ask your tastebuds
Salt - I will also leave this to your tastebuds
Oil - 3-5 table spoons (depends on your choice again)
cumin seeds - 1 tea spoon or less
Kasoori methi - very little - smashed in hands
Cashew powder - 1 table spoon (optional)
Ginger garlic paste - 1 tea spoon (optional)
Turmeric - 1 tea spoon


Method of preparation
1) Keep all the vegetables cubed and ready. Take a kadai and add oil to it.
2) Add cumin seeds to it. Now add Onions to it and fry for a minute. Add ginger garlic paste and fry till its raw smell is gone.
3) Now add capsicum (both color if available) and fry for a minute.
4) Add all the powders and masala's and also add tomatos. Do not stir more otherwise the tomatos get very mushy.
5) Add little water if the curry is too dry. Add a little kasoori methi by crushing between your hands.
6) Once the vegetables are cooked, add paneer to it along with some water and cashew powder. Cover and cook them for five minutes and turn off stove. Cashew powder will give thickness to the gravy.

Your curry is now ready. It can be served hot with roti. Garnish it with coriander and dried onions. You can be creative at this step. Good luck and as always please let me know how it comes out.

Capsicum curry with peanut powder

Well this curry is really easy to do and nothing much different than doing a regular capsicum curry. So here goes recipe in simple words. Do the tadks by taking one or two spoons of oil in a kadai/pan. Add jeera and then add capsicum pieces chopped. Add 1/4 spoon turmeric, 2 tablespoons red chilli powder (modify this according to your taste). Mix and let it cook for some time. Once the capsicum is almost cooked, add salt and peanut powder. If required add 1/2 cup water to it. cook for another two minutes and your curry is ready. Can have it with Roti or Rice.

Happy Diwali (2010)

Hope you all have a happy, joyous Diwali with the blessings all the goddesses on you and your family. 

Happy Diwali

Paneer Curry

I am very lazy person. So the easy I can do the better it is. Especially when I don't want to cook and want to have something which is tasty and special. Paneer curry can be done very quickly without any rigorous effort and makes you feel you did cook something special. Neat haaa..... so here it goes my simple paneer recipe. I generally use only garam masala only. You can vary the ingredients upto your taste. You can either use cumin and coriander powder combination as most of the websites mention or you can use garam masala or both of them. Wake up your creativity to satisfy your taste buds.

Ingredients
Paneer - chopped in cubes (you can shallow fry it or use it as is)
Onions - finely chopped - 1 big or two small
Tomato paste/fresh tomatos - 2 full spoons/2 big ones (finely chopped)
Red chilli powder - 2 spoons (or upto your taste buds)
Kaju powder/paste - two spoons
Oil
Salt to taste (1 and 1/2 spoon)
Cumin powder - (jeera powder) - 1 spoon
Dhania powder - 1 spoon
garam masala (optional) - 1/2 spoon
full cream (or full fat milk) - 1-2 spoons

Method of preparation
Add oil in a kadai and then add onions. Fry them until they become translucent. Now add tomatos and salt. Salt makes them cook fast (tomatos). Leave them on flame for couple of minutes by stirring in between. After tomatos are cooked, add little water along with kaju paste/powder. Mix in between. The base will become little thick. You can add all masalas (cumin, coriander, Red chilli, garam masala) to the gravy. Finally before taking off from stove add paneer cubes to it. leave it on for couple of minutes and then serve it hot with roti.

Paneer curry goes best with Roti, paratha, naan etc. But you can have it with rice if needed.

Besan Laddoo

As the vinayaka chavithi celebrations are going on... we get to enjoy lovely food everyday with nice bhajans in the evening. One of those days, our relative cum friend Vani got this besan laddoo. So here goes the recipe as well as the picture of it.

Ingredients

Besan:  Cashew/Badam powder ratio should be 3 cups to 1 cup

Sugar - 4 cups

Ghee 

Water - less than 4 cups

Elaichi/Cardammom powder

Method of preparation

1) keep a kadai and add the sugar and water to it. This is make the sugar syrup ready. The sugar syrup which is ready should be of gulab jamoon syrup.

2) Take another kadai or pan and add ghee to it. Now add besan to it. fry besan until nice aroma starts coming or until light brown color. At this point add the cashew or badam powder.

3) Now add half of the the warm sugar syrup to the above mixture.

4) Remove from the stove and keep aside. 

5) Add elaichi powder and dry fruits at this point.

6) keep the remaining sugar syrup on stove until it becomes thick.

7) Add the thick syrup now to the mixture. Mix everything.

8) Now wet your hands with ghee lightly and then start making laddoos.

Pita pockets - Instant lunch

last week on Saturday my husband was insisting on eating something different. The previous day we got some nice falafel and pita pockets. I asked my husband to get some hummus and made these  nice tasting and quick lunch. You might need to buy some ingredients to make it but its healthy, tasty and nice variety to give it a try. So here goes the recipe which I tried.

Ingredients
Pita bread - makes 2 pita pockets with one full bread
Roasted red pepper hummus - (you can add your flavor of the hummus to it)
Cucumber
Tomato
Falafel (we bought the big falafel packet from costco. You can use your own or get different flavor)

Method of preparation

Pre-preparation
      - heat falafel in microwave as per the instructions
      - peel and chop cucumber and tomatos to small pieces
      - Cut the pita bread into two pieces.
Carefully open the pita bread in the middle and apply the hummus to it. In a bowl, smash the falafel, add chopped cucumber and tomatos. If you like you can add onions also. Stuff the mixture into the pita pockets. Do not overcrowd it.
Heat a tawa on medium flame. Put these pita pockets prepared and turn sides once the side becomes a little golden brown. This will give a nice feeling of having it hot. If you do not like eating hot, you can skip this step.

Hope you enjoyed the recipe.

Fried Rice with small difference

For this month Lalitha puja potluck I did this recipe. Looks like it came out good. So wanted to share what I did.

Ingredients
Onions
Potatos
Green beans
Green peas
Carrots
Rice
Biryani-pulav masala
Salt to taste
Cashews
Cardamoms - 2-3 in no.
Cloves - 4-5 in no.
Bay leaves - couple
Cinnamon sticks - couple
Oil
Water
For color:
1 or 2 spoons of milk
pinch of cooking color (yellow of orange)


Pre-preparation
Partly deep fry all the veggies except peas. Vegetables should be partly fried (meaning partly cooked) after frying in the oil. Alternatively, you can just brush the oil over veggies and heat them in oven until they are half cooked.


Cook rice with the consistency of water you do to make it seperate. For example if you are using basmati rice the ratio of rice and water should not exceed 1:1and1/2. It can be 1:1 depending on which cooker you use. I added one spoon of cooking oil, Salt, and green peas to it. Cover it and cook it until the rice is totally done. After the rice is done or when it is almost done, add milk which has the color dissolved lightly. Cover it for another minute or so. This gives the hotel touch of color to some part of served rice.

Method of preparation
Take a kadai and add oil to it. Add cumin seeds, bay leaves, cinnamon sticks, cloves and cardamom to it. Add onions and cashews to it and fry until onions are translucent. Now add all the veggies. Add salt and biryani-pulav masala to it. Remember that you added salt already to the rice so make sure you are not adding much salt here. Add cooked rice from step 2 of pre-preparation to it and mix it lightly. Make sure you are not breaking the rice or over stirring. Serve it by garnishing with fried cashews, onions and coriander as you desire.

Chikkudukaya/Broad beans Cauliflower curry

This one is my favourite simple curry which is delicious and quick to make.

Ingredients
Chikkudukaya - either fresh or frozen
Cauliflower - big florets
Tomatos
Red chilli powder
Oil
Salt to taste
Cumin seeds
Mustard seeds


Method of preparation
Take oil in kadai and let it heat up. Add mustard seeds and after they splitter add cumin seeds. Add cauliflower florets as well as chikkudukaya along with red chillie powder. Now mix and cover it until it almost done. Add tomatos and salt at the end of it. After totmatos are nicely done turn off heat and trasfer to a serving bowl. Have it with rice or roti.


Terminology
Chikkudukaya - Broad beans
Cauliflower - phool gobi (hindi)

Gongura-Mint-Moong dal

I used Electric pressure cooker for it and I am going to tell you the same recipe here. You can use a regular kadai on stove and cover and cook it. People can avoid Onion and garlic if they dont like it.

Ingredients

Gongura leaves - 1/2 cup

Mint leaves - 1/4 cup or even less

Moong dal - 1/2 cup

Green chillies - 3 (you can use red chilli powder also)

Salt to taste - I used 1 and 1/2 spoon

Oil - 2 table spoons

Turmeric - pinch/less than 1/2 tea spoon

Cumin seeds - 1/2 tea spoon

Onions - 1 medium sized, finely chopped

Garlic - 2-3 pods peeled and chopped.

Method of preparation

1. Connect the electric pressure cooker to the socket and click the "Menu" button thrice to get to "Browning" mode. Click "Start".

2. Add oil and a minute later add cumin. Now add garlic and green chillies, stir it. Add onions to it a minute later and then let it saute for a minute. Now add washed gongura leaves, mint leaves, moong dal, turmeric, red chilli powder (if neccessary). Add 2-3 cups of water according to your desire.

3. Change the mode of the cooker to "High Pressure" by clicking "Cancel" to cancel current mode and then hitting "Menu" twice. Now click on time twice to increase it to 3 minutes and then click start. When the water starts heating up, add salt to it, mix it and then cover it up. Your dal is ready in 5 minutes or so. After the pressure is down, transfer the contents to a serving bowl.

Tindora with vellipayakaram

I had this vellipaya kaaram which my mom brought last year. But it became very hard that I cannot add it in the rice and eat it. So I remembered somebody saying to me that, hotel people generally add vellipaya kaaram to get nice spicy and tasty tindora fry curry when they offer in buffet or catering. I just tried to follow it in my own way. Since my vellipaya kaaram was hard as rock I did put it in water and microwaved it for 30 seconds then I had to   try to soften it by hand so that it becomes dissolved and form liquid. For others, I would recommend you can add the vellipaya kaaram directly or if you want can add a little water to it, after adding vellipaya kaaram to the curry. So here is how I made it:

Ingredients
Tindora - 1 packet frozen (use fresh if you have, its less time to cook and tastes better with fresh than frozen)
Vellipaya kaaram - 2 big table spoons
Cumin seeds - 1 tea spoon
Oil - 3-5 table spoons (depends on quantity of tindora)
Salt to taste
Red chilli powder


Method of preparation
1. Take a kadai add oil to it.After oil is heated add cumin seeds. Add Onions and tindora at the same time one after other.

2. Now cover and cook for a minute. Now add salt to it and then cook until the tindora is almost done. Stir in between as there are chances that the onion is going to burn off, if you do not keep an eye on it.

3. At last Add the red chilli powder (if desired) and water which has vellipaya kaaram(you can add just vellipaya kaaram only). Stir it nicely so that it gets coated to all the tindora and until the water is evoparated.
Your curry is ready to serve.

Terminology
Tindora - Dondakaya (telugu)
Cumin Seeds - Jeelakarra(telugu), Jeera (hindi)
Vellipaya Kaaram - Powder made with garlic pods. will post the recipe of my mom soon. You can get it in stores also. Tastes good and spicy. People who love the taste of garlic will love this.

Capsicum Kura podi curry

Ingredients
Capsicum - Chopped in cubes
Kura podi - Upon your taste
Oil - 2 table spoons
Salt to taste - Probably 1-2 table spoons
Cumin seeds - 1 tea spoon

Method of preparation
Take a kadai and oil to it. Once the oil is heated add cumin seeds and then capsicum pieces. cover and cook for two minutes. Once the capsicum is little cooked, add the kura podi and salt to it. Mix it. Cover and cook for another minute and then remove from flame. Now the curry is ready to be served with rice or roti.

Terminology
Cumin seeds - Jeera, Jeelakarra
Salt - Uppu, namak
Kura Podi - Curry powder
Capsicum - Shimla mirchi

Palakura Peas Pappu/Spinach Peas Dal

I did this dal last week and my family loved it. So wanted to share this recipe with you all. Hope you try it and like it too. I did not have amchur powder at home so I replaced it with chat powder I had. But you can use amchur powder if you have it.

Ingredients
Spinach - washed and chopped
Peas - 1/2 cup
Tomato (optional) - 2 small
Toor dal - Cooked
Turmeric - 1/2 tea spoon
Cumin seeds - 1 tea spoon
Oil - 1 table spoon
Salt - 1 and 1/2 table spoon (you can add more depending on your taste buds)
Red Chilli powder - 1 and 1/2 table spoon (you can add more depending on your taste buds)
Chat masala - 1 table spoon (alternately you can use amchur/lime for sourness)
Coriander powder - 1 table spoon

Method of Preparation
1) wash and cook dal as you do regularly. Take a kadai, add oil and heat it. Add cumin seeds and then spinach and peas to it.
2) stir for a  minute or until spinach comes close, add tomatos to it. Add rest of the ingredients including salt to it. Add Dal also.
3) At this point make sure you mix in between and then cover the kadai, because it might spil on you. Once everything gets mixed properly and is at a good heat rate, then switch off the stove and take it in a serving bowl.

Your simple dal is ready to serve and eat.

Dondakaya kura podi/Tindora with curry powder

This is another simple recipe which I love doing it.As it takes less time to cook than a fry curry, less oil and tasty as fry curry. So enjoy the recipe.

Ingredients
Dondakaya - 1 frozen packet, Cleaned by running water over it.
Kura podi - add it depending on the taste you like
Oil - 3 table spoons
Cumin seeds - 1/2 tea spoon
Salt - 1 table spoon (or more if you want it)
Turmeric - 2 pinches.

Method of preparation
Add oil in a pan and let it heat. Now add cumin seeds and then the cleaned frozen tindora packet. Cover it and cook for few minutes. Now open the cover, and add salt to it. Mix it. Cover and cook for few minutes until the tindora is tender and stirring in between so that tindora is not totally burnt. Lastly add curry powder to it and then mix it thoroughly. If you want more spicy you can add red chilli powder also at this point. cook for two more minutes and you should be ready to serve it with hot rice and dal.

Terminology:
Tindora - Dondakaya
Curry Powder - Kura podi
Cumin seeds - Jeera, Jeelakara

Beerakaya Sprouts Curry

This curry is an excellent healthy, quick, easy and tasty option to make at home. If you wish to follow manthena satyanarayana raju policy of avoiding oil and salt (he asks us to avoid turmeric too), please do so and add more lemon juice than mentioned. This would compensate the needness of salt.


Ingredients
Beerakaya/Ridge gourd - 2 long ones
Moong dal Sprouts - 1 -2 cups
Tomatos - 2 medium sized
Oil - 2 tablespoons
cumin seeds - 1 tea spoon
Turmeric - 2 small pinches
Red chilli powder - upto your taste ( I added 2 tea spoons)
Dhania/Coriander powder - 1 tablespoon
Salt - to taste (I added 11/2 table spoon)
Lime/lemon juice - 1 table spoon


Method of preparation
1) Peel the skin and chop beerakaya into small pieces. Chop tomatos into small pieces.

2) Take a kadai and add the oil to it. After it is heated, add cumin seeds and then add beerakaya pieces, tomato pieces along with sprouts.

3) Add all the powders to it including salt and cover and cook until the beerakaya is tender. It might take 6-12 minutes depending upon how tender the beerakaya is. Your curry will be ready.

Serve it with hot rice or roti. Garnish with cilantro if desired.

Sorakaya Sprouts Curry

A healthy nutritious and tasty curry to go with either rice or roti. We had it with both.

Ingredients
Sorakaya/bottle gourd - 1 long, peeled, and chopped into small pieces
Moong dal Sprouts - 1 cup
Oil - 1 and 1/2 table spoon
Cumin seeds - 1 tea spoon
Red chilli powder/Green chillis chopped ( I did not have green chillis at home yesterday so went with red chilli powder option)
Dhania powder - 1 table spoon
Salt to taste (I used 1 and 1/2 table spoon, you can use according to your taste)
Lime/lemon juice - 1-2 spoons

Method of preparation
1) Take a kadai or pan and add oil to it.

2) After it is heated, add cumin seeds to it. if you are planning to add green chillis then add it at this point. Add sorakaya pieces and spouts to it. Add a little turmeric and then cover and cook until sorakaya pieces are almost done.

3) At this point, add red chilli powder (if you wish to) along with salt and dhania powder.Optionally you can add tomatos at this point and cook for a minute until they are nicely done.

4) Just before turning it off add lemon juice to it. Your curry is ready to serve and eat.

Sorakaya Perugu Pachadi/Sorakaya Raita/Doodhi yogurt chutney

Ingredients
Sorakaya/Doodhi - Peeled, Chopped and Boiled in water
Yogurt/Perugu/Sour cream
Salt to taste
Coriander

For tadka
Oil
Mustard seeds
Red chillies
Cumin seeds

Method of preparation
1) Peel, chop and boil doodhi pieces in water . Add salt to water if you want the pieces to be a little sour.

2) Take a serving bowl. Add doodhi/sorakaya pieces to it along with Perugu and salt to taste.

3) Prepare tadka by adding oil to a small bowl. After oil is heated add mustard seeds. After they splutter, add cumin seeds, asafoetida turn off.

4) Crush the fried red chillies either with pestel and mortar or in blender. Add tadka and the red chillies crush to the serving bowl. Mix everything nicely so that the taste spreads out evenly.

Your raita is ready to serve.

Veggie Penne Pasta

Ingredients
Penne Pasta
Capsicum
Onion
Marinara Sauce
Olive oil

Method of preparation
1) Boil Penne pasta in a water as per the instructions on the pasta box. For me, I did

2) Take a kadai/wok. Add olive oil and then after it is warm, add chopped onions capsicum to it.

3) after a minute or two when you feel that they are cooked but they are stilled crunchy, add marinara sauce.

4) Boil it for few minutes or until it is heated.

5) Now add drained pasta to the above mixture. Adjust salt and red pepper flakes if needed.

6) Mix it properly and let it stand for a  minute or two and serve hot. While serving add some cheese on top if needed.

Kakarakaya curry (Bitter gourd curry)

This one is a simple recipe to make at home. I just tried it and it turned out to be tasty along with the combination of plain dal, tomato rasam and rice. So here it is:

Ingredients
Kakarakaya (bitter gourd) - 5 chopped in small pieces
Onion - 1 big chopped
seseme seeds powder - 4 tbsp
tamarind pulp/juice - 1/2 cup
cumin seeds
oil
red chilli powder
salt to taste ( 2 tbsp)

Method of preparation
1) Add oil to kadai and let it heat.
2) Add cumin seeds and now add kakarakaya(bitter gourd), onions at the same time. (it takes time to fry bitter gourd and in the meantime even the onions gets cooked nicely).
3) Add salt to above and let it fry.
4) once you feel that bitter gourd pieces are fried properly you can add red chilli powder and tamarind pulp to it.
5) after a few minutes add seseme seeds powder to it. If you want to have a little dry curry then leave it as is, if you want to have a grave one then add little water/tamarind pulp according to your taste.

Your bitter gourd curry is ready to serve.

Mango avakaya/pickle - In-laws recipe

Doesnt it look awesome and tempting? The mango season has started back in India and it is the time when we too want to eat the newly made chutneys, whether they may be instant or they are for long term. So I got this raw mangoes from store the other day and decided to it for my baby's first birthday occasion. Guess what the total chutney above is finished. I was happy. So here is the simple recipe for above:

Ingredients
Raw Mangos - 2 washed, peeled and chopped into very small pieces
Red chilli powder - 3-5 tbsp (depends on how spicy you like)
Salt - 3-4 tbsp (definitely use less salt than red chilli powder)
Turmeric - 1/4 tbsp
Fenugreek powder - 1-1and1/2 tbsp
Oil - 3 table spoons
mustard seeds - 1/2 tbsp
asafoetida - 1/4 tbsp
Red chillies - 2 no. cut into small lengths

Method of preparation
1) Take a serving bowl and add mangos chopped into it. Now put the salt and mix them thoroughly with hand. Try sqeezing the mango pieces after you mix it. This will mix the mixture nicely.

2)Now add turmeric, red chilli powder and fenugreek powder (menthi podi). do not mix it now.

3) Prepare for tadka by adding oil into a small tadka bowl and then add mustards seeds. Wait until they splutter, add asafoetida and red chillies and turn off the stove.

4) Add tadka to the mixture in step 2 and mix everything. If you feel that you need to add more oil, you can do so by adding little warm/hot oil to the mixture. Your chutney is ready. You can directly serve it or you can wait for few hours which will make then mangos taste even better as they grasp all the flavors nicely.

Cucumber carrot yogurt dip/chutney

I wanted to take a nice picture but with the camera I have the following is the only picture which was looking good. This item can be accompanied with biryani/fried rice or with normal rice or roti. Tastes good, healthy and natural (mostly). This is my way of doing this chutney, I will mention about the authentic way also after I collect the correct details soon.

Ingredients
cucumber - 1
Carrots - 2
Yogurt - 2 cups
Dahivada raita powder - 1 spoon
Oil - 2 spoons
mustard seeds - 1/2tea spoon
urad dal - depends on the crunchiness you want (may be 1-2 spoons)
Coriander - depends on your taste - 2-3 spoons (optional)
curry leaves - Optional
Green chillies - Optional (chopped very small probably one or two)
asafoetida - a pinch

Method of preparation
1) Peel the skin off of cucumber and grate it to your desired size. Now squeeze out the additional water out of it and take it in a serving bowl.
2) Now add grated carrot and yogurt to it. Mix them well.
3) Add salt if desired or you can add lemon juice and spinach as an alternative to it.
4) Put tadka in a small bowl. Add oil, after heated add mustard seeds. After mustard seeds starts splutter, add green chillies, asafoetida, urad dal, small portion of curry leaves.
5) once urad dal is turning light brown or crunchy turn off heat and add the tadka to the yogurt mixture. Add coriander also to it mix it and serve chilled if needed.


Note: If you feel yogurt mixture is thick or if yogurt is little sour  then add milk to it. This will make the thick to thin paste and also compensate the sourness of yogurt with its sweet taste. 

Beauty Tip: After you squeeze juice out of cucumber grated. Apply it to your face and leave it on for few minutes and wash away with warm water. This will make your skin look and feel smooth. Frequent apply will result in much better results.

Tamarind Pulihora/Chintapandu Pulihora

This is one of the traditional item which I am a little lazy to do as it consumes a little time. Since it is my husband's favourite, I decided to do it on his birthday and give him a surprise. So here goes the recipe.

Ingredients
Tamarind
Peanuts
Oil
Green chillies
Red chillies
Urad dal
Chana dal
Asafoetida
Mustard seeds
Cooked Rice
Turmeric
Salt

Method of prepartion
1. Cook the rice beforehand and spread it in a flat vessel
2. Soak tamarind for 1/2 hour or heat up in microwave and leave it for few minutes. Then squeeze out the juice of it very hard and then start boil it in vessel with little water. At this point you can also add some peanuts to the tamarind juice while bringing it to boil. Boil it till it looses the raw smell of it.

3. Prepare tadka by adding oil to a small kadai. Then add mustard seeds and let them splutter. Now add asafoetida chana dal (depending on how crunchy you want), urad dal (very less), peanuts, green chillies , red chillies. At end add turmeric and salt to this.

4. Once they are done then spread it on the rice along with the tamarind juice prepared (after boiling). Now mix it either with hand or with rice spoon. Mix it thoroughly so that all the ingredients get mixed up with the rice properly.

Your tamarind pulihora is ready to serve.

Optional: You can also add curry leaves to tadka which will also taste nice.
Tip: This pulihora tastes better after preparation and leaving it aside for few hours. As the sourness of tamarind slowly gets soaked into and mixed up with rice slowly as time passes. We used to enjoy the actual taste of rice in the evening or as snack in the afternoon (when prepared in morning).

Happy Ugadi

Happy Ugadi to all the visitors.
May this new year bring lots of happiness, prosperity and good health in all our lives.

उगादी की शुभ कामनाएं
ಹ್ಯಾಪಿ ಯುಗಾದಿ
ഹാപ്പി ഉഗാദി
ஹாப்பி உகாதி
అందరికి ఉగాది శుభాకాంక్షలు. ఈ నూతన సంవత్సరం అందరికి సంతోషం, ఆరోగ్యం, వృద్ధిని తేవాలని ఆశిస్తున్నాను.

Chikkudukaya/Broad beans Cabbage Curry

This is another recipe to the simple curries. Healthy, easy and fast to make it. Now-a-days I am trying to follow Manthena Satyanarayana raju's diet. I cannot say I can follow it totally but slowly trying to reduce the usage of Oil and salt in daily consumption and finding alternatives for it. so lets see how it goes.

Note: will post pictures soon.

Ingredients
Chikkudukaya (Broad beans, tuvar)
Cabbage - 1/2
Tomato - 2 no. - optional
Oil - 3 table spoons
turmeric - 1/2 tea spoon
red chillies/green chillies/ red chilli powder - add them according to your taste buds. I added 2 hot red chillies and 4 green chillies.
Salt - 1 - 1 1/2 table spoon
Jeera - 1/2 tea spoon
chana dal - 1 table spoon (or may add more if you like crunchiness in between)

Method of preparation
Just like any other simple recipe, do the tadka by adding oil in kadai.
After it becomes heat, add jeera and then add chana dal. If you are planning on adding green/red/both chillies then add it now. fry for a minute and add Chikkudukaya and Cabbage chopped ones to it. once the vegetables are little cooked, add tomatos and salt to it. Garnish with coriander and cilantro to get nice flavor, smell and healthy. Enjoy your curry with rice or roti.

Sorakaya/doodhi Cauliflower

Ingredients

Sorakaya - 1/2 - 1 no. long (peeled and chopped)

Cauliflower - 1/2 - 1 no. (seperated into small florets)

Tomato - 2 no.

Onion - one small

Carrot - 1 small - optional ( I grated it but you can choose your own style)

Red chilli powder/Red chillies - according to your taste

turmeric - 1/2 tea spoon

Oil - 3-4 table spoons

Jeera/Cumin seeds - 1 tea spoon

Salt - 1 - 2 table spoons

Method of preparation

1. Take a kadai and put it on stove (switched on obviously :) ).

2. Add oil to it. Once oil is heated add jeera to it and onions if desired.

3. Once onions become little translucent, add sorakaya(doodhi), cauliflower and carrots. Remember not to turn excessly as cauliflowers may become mushy very easily.

4. Add turmeric and red chilli powder. and turn once.

5. Once the vegetables are almost cooked, add salt and tomatos and heat it for another 2-4 minutes.

6. Garnish with coriander and curry leaves and serve it with rice or roti.

Vacation

Hi all

I went to a small vacation to India. You can imagine how busy the life will be when on vacation to India along with two infants. But the trip went well. Major trips we went in India were Vijayawada, Basara and Thirupathi. We had our son's second birthday party celebrated grandly at Hotel Peppermint (Lakdi Ka Pool) in Hyderabad.

While we are still in jetlag, I posted some pics from India in my other blog - shireesha.blogspot.com. Will be back with lot more recipes soon. My cousin (Soni) generously has given me some quick healthy and tasty recipes. I am going to post them intermittently along with my other recipes, until then Namaskar for now.

Happy New Year 2010

Happy New Year 2010