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.

Ullipaya/ Onion Jhulka

Onion lovers will love this recipe. As it is fast to make and tasty to eat. This is dru curry and can be accompanied with any liquid item along with rice or with roti.

Ingredients
Onions
Chick-pea flour (Senagapindi, Besan)
Red Chilli powder
Green chillies (optional)
Salt to taste

For tadka:
Oil
Mustard seeds
Cumin seeds

Method of preparation
1. Do tadka by taking a kadai or pan and adding oil to it. Add mustard seeds after oil is heated and let them splutter. After they are done, then add cumin seeds. Add green chillies (optional).

2. Now add onions and let them turn golden brown.

3. Add Red chilli powder and Salt at this point and mix it.

4. Lastly add chick pea flour as needed until the wetness of the onions is gone and mix.

5. Garnish with coriander and serve.

Snakegourd Yogurt pickle

Potlakaya Perugu Pachadi ki true translation is Snakegourd yogurt pickle. This is another simple and easy to make and tasty sides. I feel its healthy too.

Ingredients
Snakegourd - 1 chopped round
Green chillies -3-4 chopped small(depending on your taste)
Yogurt
Salt to taste
Oil - 2-3 teaspoons
Mustard seeds
Jeera/Cumin Seeds
Urad dal
Asafoetida
Curry leaves
Coriander leaves

Method of preparation
1. Boil Snakegourd chopped pieces in water added with salt until the pieces are totally done/well cooked.

2. Drain the water and take the boiled snakegourd pieces in a bowl. Add salt, yogurt, green chillies, Coriander leaves.



3. Take small bowl for tadka and do tadka by heating oil and then adding mustard seeds, jeera, Curry leaves, Asafoetida and urad dal. Switch off when the urad dal turns lightly brown.

4. Add the Tadka to the mix done in Step 2. Mix everything and then serve it with Rice, roti or with any biryani.

Quick utappam

All credit goes to a MAA TV show called "Maa Voori Vanta". I saw that yesterday afternoon and tried it at home. It came out good. I should say it can be used as quick snack or as breafast. Try it whenever you have time. So here goes the recipe:

Ingredients
Maida (All purpose flour) - 2 table spoons
Senagapindi (Chick pea flour) - 2 table spoons
Biyyampindi (Rice flour) - 2 table spoons
Onions - Chopped - 1/2 cup
Tomatos - Chopped - 1/2 cup
Green Chillies - 3-4 depending on your taste, chopped
Coriander - 2 table spoons
Ginger - 1/2 table spoon (Optional)
Jeera (cumin seeds) - 1/2 tea spoon (I added Jeera powder instead)
Salt to taste
Oil
For topping use karivepaku podi or any podi of your choice.

Method of preparation:
1. Take chopped tomato, onions, green chillies, coriander, ginger(optional), Jeera or Jeera powder, Maida, Senagapindi, biyyampindi, salt. Mix all above with hand.

2. Add little water and make sure it is not watery. It should be a not too loose and not too think consistency. (little think than dosa batter). Adjust salt and others according to your taste.

3. Take a tawa and let it heat. Spread small amount of oil on tawa. Now add a laddle or two of the batter mixed above and spread it like utappam (not too thick and not too thin like dosa).

4. Add very little oil on top and let it heat. once the edges are done (or changes color), then turn the utappam onto other side and spread a little oil on the edges of the utappam.

5. After both sides of the utappam is done, add Karivepaku podi or any spicy/soft podi of your choice on it and serve with chutney.

Try with and let me know how it turns out.

Note:
1. Although in Show they mentioned only two table spoons I added little more of the powders to make the batter kind. You may adjust all the quantities depending on your like.

2. I would also recommend adding grated carrot to make it little healthy dish. :).