12 CAPSICUM TOMATO MASALA

Capsicum Tomato Masala is a dry gravy that goes well with rice as a side dish and as well as with chapathis/rotis.

Capsicum( Bell Pepper) - 3 ( I have used half of green capsicum and red capsicum)
Onion - 1 big chopped fine
Tomato - 2 chopped fine
Ginger garlic paste - 1 tbsp
Chilli powder - 1 tbsp
Mustard seeds - 1/4 tsp
Urad dhal - 1/4 tsp
Cumin seeds - 1/4 tsp
Salt as needed
Oil - 1 tbsp

Wash and cut capsicum into medium chunks(pieces). 

Heat oil in a frying pan and add mustard seeds, urad dhal and cumin seeds... when they pop out add chopped onions and fry till golden brown, next add ginger garlic paste and saute for a minute.... then add chopped tomatoes... press and fry till they are mashed and pulpy. Now add chopped capsicum and fry till they soft and cooked( before they turn mushy and are still firm)... now add salt and chilli powder... mix and fry together for 3 - 4 minutes and serve as a side dish.

Read more of "CAPSICUM TOMATO MASALA"

8 CARROT CHAPATHI AND MY OTHER CARROT ENTRIES

Carrot Chapathi... a idea got from my carrot poori... since was not in a mood for frying poori's... i just added the carrot juice and mixed in as a dough for chapthi.
Chapathi flour - 2 cups
Carrot - 2 or 3 medium
Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
Chilli powder - 1 tsp
Salt as needed
Oil - 1 tbsp

Peel and chop carrots into thick pieces... add very little water and grind to a smooth paste.... If needed strainer with a strainer to extract just a thick juice.

In a mixing take flour, salt,cumin seeds,chilli powder and oil... mix well with hand.. Add the carrot juice little at a time and prepare a soft chapathi dough... apply some oil on top ... cover and keep aside for 20 - 30 minutes...
Heat a tawa or griddle... take a small ball size of dough and roll as chapathis... place on the tawa and cook both sides. Serve with any dry curry/gravy and enjoy your healthy carrot chapthis

Sending this entry to Sanghi's

FIL with Carrot

Also sending my other entries to the same event

Carrot Halwa

Carrot Kheer

Carrot Kosambari

Carrot Poori

Carrot Uttappam

Carrot Chutney

Carrot Sambar

Carrot Poriyal

Carrot Rice

Masala Papad

Peanut Sundal

Masala Bread

Veg N Cheese Quesadilla

Read more of "CARROT CHAPATHI AND MY OTHER CARROT ENTRIES"

12 EGG DUMPLINGS

This is a recipe shared in by my dear friend Athi... kids just loved it.

For the filling:
Eggs - 4
Green onions - 1 bunch( optional)
Grated cheese - 3 or 4 tbsp
Salt as needed
Pepper powder - few spinkles
Oil - 1 tbsp

For the cover/dough:
All purpose flour/maida - 1 1/2 cup
Sugar - 1 tbsp
Salt as needed
Yeast - 1 tsp

Sauce:
Vinegar - 3 tbsp
Green chillies - 1 chopped very fine
Soya sauce - 1 tbsp

Mix in all the sauce ingredients to serve as a dip for your dumplings.

In a mixing bowl add flour and salt.sugar and yeast and mix well... add warm water to mix in to make a thick dough....cover and set it aside for 3 - 4 hours ..the dough will rise in double the size.

Wash and clean green onions and cut the roots... just chop the bottom part and green part seperately... This is little similar to my

Green Onions Poriyal

recipe, but we are not going to use that quantity..No need to add much... this is just a photo to show how it looks.

Heat oil in a frying pan and add the onions part from the green onions and fry for 2 - 3 minutes... next add the chopped green onions and fry till it is cooked for 4 - 5 minutes... Break eggs one by one and add the pan... also add salt required and pepper powder... just fry the way you do for the scrambled egg recipe... when done switch off flame and add grated cheese. Cool it.
Take a small part of the dough and roll with a rolling pin to spread it out little... take one or two tbsp of the egg mixture and place in the middle... with your fingers pull the dough from all sides to cover up and press well to seal it up... repeat until you are done with the mixture.
You can place them in the idli plates or steamer and steam in for 10 - 12 minutes... or add them in boiling water until they are cooked.
Serve with sauce and enjoy your dumplings.
Can use any stuffing as a variation.
Sending this entry to

Event for Eggs

Read more of "EGG DUMPLINGS"

4 COCONUT KARA CHUTNEY

Coconut kara chutney or Thengai kara chutney .... goes well with idli's and any type of dosas.
Coconut grated - 3/4 cup
Red chillies - 4 or 5
Tamarind - a small piece
Roasted peanuts OR fried channa dhal( pottu kadalai) - a handful
Salt as needed

For tempering:
Oil - 1 tsp
Mustard seeds - few
Urad dhal - few
Curry leaves - few
Red chillies - 2 broken and or can use some chopped onions ( tastes great)

Heat 2 - 3 drops oil in a small frying pan and add red chillies... saute for few seconds( do not let it to burn or turn black)... immediately add tamarind and remove... add this along with grated coconut, roasted and skin peeled peanuts OR fried channa dhal( pottu kadalai/split dalia) along with salt and little water in a mixer/blender. Grind to a paste and transfer to a bowl.. Temper it with the tempering ingredients... can add some chopped onions(small onions tastes great) and fry till golden brown and add to the chutney... tastes good.

Read more of "COCONUT KARA CHUTNEY"

11 RED BELL PEPPER(CAPSICUM) CHUTNEY

Red Bell pepper( Capsicum) chutney
Red bell pepper - 2 medium
White Sesame Seeds - 1 1/2 tbsp
Urad dhal or Channa dhal - 2 tbsp
Garlic - 4 or 5
Cumin seeds - 1 tsp( optional)
Red chillies - 5
Tamarind - 1/2 inch piece
Salt as needed
Oil - 1 tbsp

This is a light variation of my capsicum(

green bell pepper

)chutney. Photo sent in by my sister Vimala. She tries a lot of chutneys with many vegetables which all tastes good with dosa/ idlis and also a good idea to reduce coconut intake.
Wash and chop bell pepper/capsium into thick chunks.
Heat 1 tbsp of oil in a frying pan and add urad dhal/channa dhal and fry for few seconds ... next add cumin seeds, red chillies and seasame seeds... fry till everything turns light brown and remove. In the same frying pan add chopped bell pepper and fry for 2 - 3 minutes, next add garlic and tamarind and fry till the capsicum is soft and mushy... cool ... then transfer to a blender/ mixer with salt and grind to a paste.... If needed can also temper with mustard seeds, urad dhal and curry leaves. Serve as a side dish or dip with any type of dosa's or idli's.

Also sending this to

Simple Indian Food

Read more of "RED BELL PEPPER(CAPSICUM) CHUTNEY"

29 GUL GUL(KUL KUL) AND AN AWARD

Gul Gul/Kal kal is sweet prepared mainly during christmas. It looks great and just melts in your mouth. I loved this sweet when I was a small kid itself... usually got lots of them from many friends who prepared this dish at home for Christmas. Also many friends who we could not meet druing christmas , would get this after our christmas vacations.

Today is my younger son Harsha's Birthday so making this sweet. Both my son's love this dish as well as hubby. Whenever I make these, he is the one who helps me a lot in rolling the gul gul.

To prepare this simple sweet we need

All purpose flour/Maida - 2 cups
Semolina/sooji fine - 4 tbsp
Sugar(granulated or powdered) - 1/4 cup( can add more if needed to make it more sweeter)
Baking powder - 1 tsp
Melted butter - 2 tbsp
Coconut cream(thick coconut milk) - enough to mix in ( around 3/4 to 1 cup)
Egg white - optional ( I sometime don't use them)
Salt - a pinch
Oil for deep frying
Fork
In a mixing bowl... mix in butter and baking powder... to it add all purpose flour/maida nd sooji fine... mix well with hands and also add in sugar and a pinch of salt... Add coconut milk little by little and mix everything to a dough consistency( not very hard and not very soft too). Cover with a wet cloth and set aside for 5 - 10 mts. Then take a small marble size of dough and a fork. Press the dough at the back of the fork(also to flatten them).. press with fingers lightly. Then from one end roll the dough just like rolling a mat... Now you can see a nice ridged curl at the back( where the dough had been pressed). Repeat this step to all. Heat oil in a frying pan and drop the shaped curl dough into the oil and deep fry till crisp and light brown. You can store them in a air tight container at least for few weeks.

Thank you

Kavitha

for passing on this lovely award.
This award comes with the following rules:
1) Add the logo of the award to your blog.
2) Add a link to the person who awarded it to you.
3) Nominate at least 7 other blogs (Only if you like).
4) Add links to those blogs on your blog.
5) Leave a message for your nominees on their blog

I like to pass them to

Gayathri

Sanghi

Shama

Lavanya

Super Chef

Simple Indian Food

Srivalli

Also sending this to Srivalli's

Mithai Mela

Read more of "GUL GUL(KUL KUL) AND AN AWARD"

5 EGYPTIAN PALACE BREAD

This dish can also be called as a simple desert with bread.
This weekend we had a dinner get together at one of my friend Athi's place. She had made this desert. The recipe was so simple and also tasted great. She got to know about this recipe from one of her colleague who was an Egyptian. Don't know why it got it's name as Egyptian Palace Bread.

Bread slices - 8
Butter - 2 tbsp(melted)
Honey - few tbsps(enough to spread to soak as a layer))
Walnut - 1/2 cup

Serve with ice cream...best goes with Coffee Icecream.
You might also need a pyrex glass tray or any aluminium foil tray.
First remove/cut the edges/crust from bread.. preheat oven to 300 degrees.


Grease the tray with butter and place 4 bread slices to form a layer....spread/apply honey on top and brush in to spread all over ... crush/chop/grind coarsely walnuts... spread over the honey to form a layer... on top place the remaining bread slice to cover up and form a layer... spread/brush in butter on top. Place in the oven for 10 - 15 minutes or until it is crisp and brown. Remove and cool. Later cut them into slices and serve. This is one of simplest and tastiest desert that you can make . We all enjoyed this dish some as it is, some with coffee ice cream and or vanilla ice cream.

Reposting this entry to send it to Srivalli's

Mithai mela

Read more of "EGYPTIAN PALACE BREAD"

15 SEMIYA PAYASAM(VERMICELLI KHEER) AND MY 300TH POST

I am very happy to post my 300th entry with a sweet delight. I would like to thank some of my friends for their support and tips. First thanks goes to Kavitha and then, of course my mom,sister Vimala,sister-in-law Priya,other good friends(to mention some-Senthil, Gayathri, Athi, Sheela,Geetha, Prema,Ramya, Sheeba, Kaamsi,Selvi, Ponni, Sangeetha, Amutha,Priya - will stop or the list will be going on),and readers like you for encouraging me in various ways to reach this level.


To come up with the dish semiya payasam , a simple sweet commonly prepared in many house.


Thin vermicelli - 1 cup
Milk - 5 cups
Sugar - 3/4 th cup
Cardamom powder - a pinch
Ghee - 2 tbsp
Cashew and raisins - few
Saffrom - few strands( optional)
Rose essence- a drop( optional)

I always buy thin variety of roasted vermicelli for making semiya payasam(Vermicelli Kheer).


In a thick vessel add milk and allow it to boil...when it reaches to a point where it is about to spill, reduce flame and keep stirring until it reduces its volume little bit. Now add roasted vermicelli(lightly crush the vermicelli to break into pieces and then add) and let it to cook for around 3 - 4 minutes ... next add sugar and keep stirring in for another 3 - 4 minutes ... add cardamom powder and also saffron and remove.
In a small kadai heat ghee and add cashew and raisins..fry till light brown and pour it on the payasam... Can also add a drop of rose essence for good flavor. Serve hot or cold. Most of the time the payasam gets thickened when prepared ahead of time. Then, just heat/warm up a cup of milk and pour ...mix and serve.
Once again thanking you all for your support and encouragement.
PADMA

Also sending this to Srivalli's

Mithai mela

which was announced today, so sending in my 300th post with a sweet delight to "MITHAI MELA"

Read more of "SEMIYA PAYASAM(VERMICELLI KHEER) AND MY 300TH POST"

4 PANEER N VEGETABLE BHURJI(MASALA)

As I mentioned earlier that this paneer bhurji

click here for recipe

was one of my mom's invention(trials and errors in her kitchen) many years back when we were very young. For her paneer dishes was something very new. Most the days the spoilt milk was always shown the place in the sink, until she read about an article in a book about making paneer. Slowly she started to try and make some new recipes out of it. This dish was a big hit in my house, but the quantity you get was very less for a family of more than 3. So adding some vegetables along with this dish gave some extra quantity without changing the original taste. This was mentioned by my friend Gayathri, who tried this dish after seeing my post.

Paneer - fresh crumbled or grated ( 1 cup)
Mixed vegetables - 1 1/2 cups chopped(I have used carrots, green capsicum and frozen green peas)
Onion - 1 big chopped fine
Tomato - 3 medium chopped fine
Green chillies - 2 slit lengthwise
Cilantro - a handful( chopped)
Chilli powder - 1 1/2 tbsp
Dhaniya/coriander powder - 1 tbsp
Jeera/cumin powder - 1/2 tbsp
Salt as needed
Oil - 1 tbsp
Jeera/cumin seeds - 1 tsp

In a kadai heat oil and add jeera/cumin seeds...wait for few seconds and add onions and fry till onions turn golden brown. Add the slit green chillies and tomato. Saute and cook till the tomatoes are mashed well and cooked very well and the water almost goes off. Next add mixed vegetables and keep stirring until they are soft and cooked. Now add all the powders and mix well, then add the grated paneer. Mix well,finally add salt and chopped cilantro.
Always the fresh crumbled paneer tastes great for this dish.

Sending this post to

Simple Indian Food

Read more of "PANEER N VEGETABLE BHURJI(MASALA)"

15 KAMBU (PEARL MILLET) DOSA

Kambu-Tamil; bajra, Bajri(Marathi), sajje-Hindi & North Indian Languages; sajjalu -(Telugu);

Pearl millet is well adapted to production systems characterized by drought, low soil fertility, and high temperature. It performs well in soils with high salinity or low pH. Because of its tolerance to difficult growing conditions, it can be grown in areas where othe or wheatr cereal crops, such as maize , would not survive.Today pearl millet is grown on over 260,000 km worldwide. It accounts for approximately 50% of the total world production of millets. Pearl millet grain is comparatively high in protein and has a good amino acid balance. It is high in lysine and methionine + cystine levels. It contains twice as much methionine than sorghum, an important trait for organic poultry production. The grain is also comparatively high in fat, and linolenic acid comprises 4% of the total fatty acids.(source wikipedia)

Kambu dosa-This dish is very common in my native. They also used to prepare kambu rice. As a kid never used to like them and used to show funny faces looking at it. We always liked the thin and crispy dosas, and not adai/pesarattu/ragi/kambu dosa's.
For soft kambu dosas

Kambu/peart millet/bajra flour - 2 cups
Urad dhal - 1 cup
Methi/fenugreek seeds - 1 tsp
Salt as needed


Wash and soak urad dhal along with methi seeds for 2 hours. Later grind to a smooth paste.
In a big vessel mix in flour along with water to a batter consistency, add in the urad dhal paste and salt...(or an other way is after you are done grinding with urad dhal to a smooth consistency, add in the flour with little water in the grinder itself and allow it to get mixed in that itself, so run for another couple of minutes...remove and salt) mix well. Allow it to ferment over night. Next day heat a tawa/griddle, take a ladle full of batter and pour in as dosas...spray some oil and turn to cook other side.



For slightly crisp dosas:
Kambu/pearl millet/bajra flour - 1 1/2 cups
Raw rice - 1/2 cup
Urad dhal - 1/2 cup
Methi/fenugreek seeds - 1 tsp

Wash rice and dhal , soak together with methi seeds and followe the same procedure as above.

In India mom and grandma used fresh kambu/pearl millet. They used to soak and grind them. Here in US, we get just the flour. They also come out well.

Sending this entry to Shama's

Grammathu Kaimanam

Read more of "KAMBU (PEARL MILLET) DOSA"

4 BRINJAL FRY

Simple brinjal fry/vankaya vepudu

Violet brinjal - 5
Onion - 1 small chopped fine
Channa dhal - 1 tbsp
Mustard seeds - 1/4 tsp
Urad dhal - 1/4 tsp
Curry leaves - few
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
Chilli powder - 1 tsp
Sabji masala - 1/2 tsp( optional- I used this)
Salt as needed
Oil - 1 tbsp
Remove stem from brinjal and cut into thin long pieces( or as you like), immerse them in water until needed.
Heat oil in a frying pan and add channa dhal, mustard seeds, urad dhal and curry leaves...when they splutter up add chopped onions and fry till transparent... next add chopped brinjal slices( drain water) and keep stirring. Also add turmeric powder.. reduce flame and keep frying... it will start to slightly change in colour and shrink. Add salt and the powders... cook till it is soft. DOn't allow it get to get very soft and mushy. Serve with rice.
Alternatively you can add in some tamarind pulp when frying. I did not use any... It tasted real good.

Read more of "BRINJAL FRY"