Raw Coriander chutney

This one was prepared by my cousin when she prepared cut mirchi. Both were awesomely made. In some places it is also called kothimeeru uppu (Coriander Salt). The preparation of this chutney is so easy that I decided to post the recipe here for everybody. This chutney can be used as green chutney while making chat and also can be accompanied with all tiffins or chat items. So here it goes:

Ingredients

Coriander (kothimeeru)

Green Chillies

Salt

Garlic (optional)

Method of preparation

Grind all the ingredients in a mixie and serve it as side dish for anything. Thats all. Easy right?

Curry puffs

Easiest recipe for curry puffs. I made this yesterday for my husband as Father's day special. Ofcourse I dont make it from scratch but I use puff pastry sheets, which makes my life very easy to make these tasty puffs.

Ingredients
Pepperridge farm puff pastry sheets
very little maida or roti flour
for stuffing:
potato chopped
carrot chopped
beans chopped
batani (peas)
Garam masala - 1/2 table spoon
chat masala - 1/2 table spoon
Red chilli powder - depends on taste
Salt to taste
Jeera
Oil
Lime/lemon juice - 1 table spoon (optional)

Method of Preparation
Remove the puff pastry sheets from freezer and keep it outside for defrosting it. You can even use microwave for doing it, but I like to do it naturally rather than using microwave as it sometimes overheats it.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

1. Start by making the stuffing ready first. Take a kadai, add oil to it and let it heat.

2. Add jeera to it. Now add all the vegetables with pinch of turmeric to it.

3. Add red chilli powder, mix it and let it cook for few minutes covered on medium flame.

4. Now add garam masala, chat masala and salt to taste and mix it. once the vegetables are cooked switch off the stove. Do not overcook the curry.




5. Now the stuffing is ready lets make the puffs ready. there will be two big sheets in each puff pastry and we can make 9 puffs for each sheet. Cut the sheet into 9 by using a pizza cutter or knife.

6. Now sprinkle little maida or roti flour and make them a little bigger to stuff the curry properly using belan. Do not press harder or make the sheet thin, as it would reduce the puffiness by overpressing it.

7. Add curry to middle of the sheet and press all the sides with little water.

8. Arrange all the curry puffs in oven safe tray. Arrange them with little gap in between puffs so they have enough roof to get puffed up.

9. Bake the puffs for 20 minutes or till you see they are done by observing the color of the puffs turning slightly golden brown.





Remove the puffs from baking and serve hot with any ketchup or chutney.

Maize poha chudva/chevda

This item reminds me of my childhood. My mom n dad when they go to hyderabad exhibition they used to bring the maize poha from there and then my mom used to prepare chudva out of it. It tastes crispy and nice. Try this recipe and I can guarantee you wont be disappointed by the taste. This recipe can take a little time and patience to make but tastes very good.

Ingredients
Maize poha
Oil
Peanuts
Chick pea (putnalu)
Red chilli powder
salt
citric acid (a pinch or two)
Oil



Method of preparation
1. Take a vessel and add oil to it and heat it.

2. After the oil is heated up, take a small amount of maize poha and spread it in a bowl type spatula with holes. (I shall post the picture of what I am talking soon). Lower the spatula until the poha touches the oil. Poha will get fried like papad. Remove it after it becomes papad immediately. If you feel it is hard for you to get a spatula of that kind or if you feel it is hard to do that way, you can add poha directly in the oil but make sure you remove immediately as soon as it increases. Making it stay longer in oil will make poha turn brown and black immediately.

3. After poha is prepared add peanuts and chick pea also the same way (by adding it to oil).



4. Now take maize poha, fried peanuts and chick pea in a bowl. Add salt, red chilli powder with a pinch of citric acid and toss them till they mix up.

Now you have your timepass snack ready.

Note: If you are health conscious, you can even spread maize poha in a microwave safe bowl and heat it in microwave for 15-30 seconds (heat settings of microwave may be different).

Pesaru pindi Laddu (moong dal powder laddu)

This is my favorite laddoo. These laddoos are generally made at Batukamma festival (a 9 day festival which comes before Dussehra navratri).

My mom got pesarupindi from India. It is generally made in the mills or Ghirni places. We roast a little moong dal and then take it to Ghirni place outside to make it good and smooth powder.

I think you can even make the powder in normal grinder also. So here goes the recipe:

Ingredients:
Pesaru pindi (Moong dal powder) - 1 cup
Grinded sugar (or confectioner's sugar) - 1 cup
Ghee - to make laddoos


Method of Preparation:
Mix the moong dal powder, sugar in a bowl.

Heat the ghee and add it to the above powder.

Make laddoos by taking the mixed kind of solid powder in hands and pressing softly to make it to balls shape.

Your mouth watering and tasty laddoos are ready.

Palakura pappu/Palak Dal

Ingredients
Toor Dal (or any dal you like)
Palakura (Palak)
Green chillies
Red chillies
Onion (Optional)
Garlic (Optional)
Tomato (Optional)
Tamarind paste (1-2 spoons, depending on how sour you like)
Coriander powder (Dhania powder)
Salt to taste



Method of Preparation
1. Cook Toor dal or any dal you like.

2. Take a vessel, Add 2-3 tea spoons of oil to it (just enough to fry onions). Add mustard seeds, and let them splutter. Add Jeera, green chillies, red chillies and garlic to it. let garlic fry a little bit (it changes color, but dont burn it by frying it until it gets black).

3. Add Asafoetida a pinch to above. Now add onions and after they are fried a little add Tomato and tamarind paste to it.

4. Add Salt, turmeric, palak to above. mix it. After two minutes add cooked dal and mix it.


5. Heat it for another 2-3 minutes and then remove it. Your dal is ready. You can garnish with Coriander on top. For nice smell and taste you can also add curry leaves while doing tadka.




Our Dinner plate last night: Palakura pappu (Palak Dal), Capsicum curry with Besan, Black pepper soup (Miriyala Charu) and Rice.




Palak Dal is ready to be served now. you can garnish with coriander leaves and serve with Roti or Rice.

Note:
1. For those who have stones in Kidneys or who have been treated before for stones in kidneys, avoid the combination of Spinach and tomato. While making this dal do not add tomatos.

2. For those who do not eat garlic can avoid using garlic in the above recipe.

3. Either you can add tamarind directly while doing tadka or you can use the tamarind juice 1 spoon instead.

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.