Aloo broccoli curry

Ingredients
Potatos - 3 potatos
Broccoli - 2 cup
Tomato - 1/2 chopped
Oil - 2 spoons (Use olive oil for healthy reasons)
Mustard seeds - 1 spoon
Jeera /Cumin seeds - 1 spoon
Chana dal - 2 spoons
Turmeric - 1/4 spoon
Red chilli powder - 1 and 1/2 spoon (depending on the spice level of yours and your powder)
Salt - 1 spoon

Method of preparation
Take a kadai and add oil to it. Once the oil is hot, add mustard seeds and let it splutter. Add jeera and chana dal after it. Add the chopped potato and broccoli to it. cover and cook for 5 minutes. Broccoli and potatos both cook fast so check in between so that they do not stick to the pan. When the potatos and broccoli are  almost done add rest of the ingredients. Add dhania powder also (optional). Your simple curry is ready to serve.

Semiya Payasam/Kheer

I have the photos and recipe ready since many days but because of my laziness I kept postponing adding it to the blog. But here it goes: I hope lot of people knows the recipe already.

Ingredients
Semiya/Vermicelli - 1/4 cup or a fistful
Milk - 2 cups
Ghee - 2-3 spoons
Sugar - 5 spoons (adjust sugar quantity depending on your sweet levels)
Dry fruits (Cashew/Raisins/Badam/charoli,chaarapappu) - a fistful or according to your taste.
Badam powder/Cashew powder - one spoon each (optional)
Elaichi powder - 1/4 spoon

Method of preparation:
Take ghee in a kadai. Roast the dry fruits and keep it aside.

Now add semiya to rest of the ghee. Roast the semiya (this will make it cook faster and taste nicer). Add milk after the semiya is roasted.

Keep stirring in between until the semiya is cooked. Now add sugar. If the milk is at a stage of boiling, add dry fruits, dry fruits powder and elaichi powder to the payasam. Your payasam is ready to serve. You can serve it hot or cold according to your taste and timing.

Note:
1)You can get roasted semiya from store. In that case, you do not need to wait until the semiya turns brown or roasted. You can add milk after few seconds of adding the semiya.
2) Do not worry about the semiya quantity being added. After payasam is done, the mixture will solidify and you will feel like you have added more semiya. 

Navaratri Specials - Prasadams

Devi Navaratri Specials:

Day 1 - Crached wheet seera/Cracked wheet halwa
Day 2 - Seera/Sooji Halwa
Day 3 - Carrot Halwa/Gajar ka halwa
Day 4 - Corn flour Halwa, Pesaru pindi Laddu
Day 5 - Besan Halwa
Day 6 - Maida Halwa
Day 7 - Kesar annam
Day 8 - Moong dal Payasam/kheer
Day 9 - Mysore Pak

I will try to post the rest of the sweet recipes soon. My MIL makes Mysore pak very good, tasty and crispy version just as store bought one (sometimes even better than that). I will present the recipe to you all. I need to make it too to get out of my trial fever of mysore pak. So next post Mysore pak, a photo tutorial... coming soon.

Carrot Halwa

Ingredients
Carrot - 2 grated
Sugar - 5 spoons
Milk - 1/2 cup
Ghee - 2 spoons
Dry fruits - fried in ghee
Method of preparation
Take a kadai and add ghee to it. Once it is hot, add the cashews or dry fruits and keep them aside. In the same ghee add the grated carrot. Keep it on medium flame and keep stirring in between until the carrot in almost done. Because carrot is grated, it should be done much faster. Now add sugar to it. Mix it properly. Once the sugar is melted, add dry fruits and little milk. once the mixture thickens or at least if you see no more liquid then turn off heat and your Gajar ka halwa is ready to serve. I found this method to be fast, easy, yummy to do.

I have tried another recipe which is a little lengthier process (adding grated carrot in milk and then heat it until the carrot is totally cooked). We will get the same taste as compared to lengthier if we add Kowa at the end of the preparation. Good luck and let me know what you think of the shorter version of Gajar ka halwa.


Note
1) you can use khova instead of milk. Add it almost to the end.