Carrot tomato rasam

Rasam is one of the comforting foods in every kitchen. In some parts of south, no meal is done without rasam. Instead of having a plain rasam, let us make it more healthy by adding carrot and make it a more kid friendly rasam with that hint of sweet from carrot.

Ingredients

• Carrots peeled and roughly chopped
• Tomato ( Vine ripe tomatoes or any heirloom variety that is tangy) roughly chopped.
• 3 cups Water
• 1 inch Tamarind(Puli) or 1 tsp Tamarind pulp
• 1 tsp Rasam powder
• 1 tsp Pepper powder
• salt to taste
• Coriander leaves for garnishing
• 1 tsp sugar / jaggery

For seasoning

• 1 tbsp Oil
• 1/2 tsp ghee (optional)
• 1 tsp Mustard seeds
• 1 tsp Cumin seeds(Jeera)
• 3 garlic cloves (crushed)
• 5- 6 Curry leaves
• 1 Dry red chilly

Directions

1)In a pressure cooker, add tomatoes, carrot, salt, 3 cups water and let it cook for 2 whistles.
2) Heat oil and ghee in a sauce pan. When the oil is heated, add garlic and saute it for a min. add mustard seeds, when they splutter, add cumin, curry leaves, red chilly and cook on medium flame for 2 mins.
3) While the tempering is cooking. open the pressure cooker and with a hand blender, make a smooth sauce of tomato and carrot.

4) Add this smooth sauce to the tempering. Add tamarind paste, rasam powder and pepper powder. Adjust the taste as needed, add sugar or jaggery and let it cook for a good boil.

5) Once the rasam started to boil. Turn off the heat and garnish with chopped coriander leaves and close the lid to let all the aromas stay in accord.

Serve it with steam rice, mudda pappu ( plain boiled dal) and papad on the side. Simply delicious and very comforting during winter or on a cold flu day. With Added carrot, it has more nutrition than a regular rasam.

Carrot tomato rasam

Puffed Poori

Ask any Indian Kid for their favorite break fast item, I bet, most of them start with Poori, dosa and on goes the list. My generation had grown up on this as a favorite and now it is my kids  generation favorite too…It is amazing how recipes stay favorite as they travel generations and generations. Kudos to who ever came up with the recipe.

I used to cook it infrequently before having kids. But now, I cook it at least once every week or every other week.

If any one notice, making poori is much easier and faster than chapathi. The skill is all in kneading the dough and having the right temp of the oil to make them puff. The dough should not stick to your hands but should be comfortable enough to work. If the dough sticks to hands then it is little soft and will sip some unwanted extra oil. Dust some more flour and knead it until it is no more sticky. If it is too tight , it will be flaky and will be real hard to work through, just sprinkle 1/2 tsp at a time of water/milk and work through for the right consistency.

TIP- When doing deep fries, Add a little salt to hot oil, it will prevent foods from absorbing oil. Make sure that the salt doesn’t stick to pooris otherwise they will be salty.

Ingredients

• 2 cups chapathi/wheat/aata flour
• 1/2 cup water/milk
• 1/2 tsp salt

Directions

1. Take flour in a big comfortable mixing bowl. Add salt and mix it well.
2. Add water / milk and mix it well to form a non sticky dough (if it is too tough, it will be flaky and will be hard to work with, just sprinkle 1/2 tsp of milk and knead)
3. Rest the dough for at least 15 min.
4. Make small key lemon size balls out of the dough. keep covered to prevent from forming a cake.
5. Add 2 drops oil on the rolling pin.
6. Take a ball and roll it with the pin to form a thin even disc.
7. Note-If the dough is too soft, it will stick to the rolling pin. If it is too hard, just rub couple drops of oil on it and start kneading.
8. In the mean time, add oil to a deep frying pan (never deep fry in non stick pans, it will release toxins) and put it on a medium high heat as we are working with the dough.
9. Once all the dough is rolled up. It is time to do pooris.
10. Make sure the oil is hot enough (when the oil is hot, we see little strikes moving at the bottom. now, drop a small dough, it will sink and should rise right upwards. If it takes a few sec to rise, oil is not hot enough. When the oil is not hot enough, pooris don’t puff up) and add one rolled out dough.
11. When the pooris are raising to the top, with a slotted spoon, gently push them downward to create little pressure which will make them puff. When one side is light gold color, turn them to the other side and fry till the other side.
12. With a slotted spoon take the fried puffed poori out and continue with the process with all the remaining dough.
13. Enjoy it with punjabi chole or Andhra poori koora that I will post latter.

Poori Served With Chole

Veggie Manchurian

Todays recipe is my family favorite that is loved at anytime of the day and a popular party appetizer that is loved by all. After the  holiday season, I am back to my regular schedule. we have an  Indo-Chinese delight today. What we have is Veggie Manchurian, where all the veggies complement each other to bring out the unique flavour with their friendly combinations. What a delight it is! Just perfect to serve as a starter or as a side dish along with noodles or fried rice or a simple steamed rice  and see your family being bowled over by this sensational Indo-Chinese delight!

Veggie Manchurian for lunch

Ingredients

• 1 cup finely diced Cabbage
• 1 cup finely diced Carrots
• 1 cup finely chopped green beans
• 1 bell pepper diced (optional)
• 1 Chopped Spring Onion
• 2 Chopped Green Chilies
• 1 tbsp ginger garlic paste
• 3-4 Crushed Garlic Flakes
• 2 tbsp Corn Starch
• Oil for deep frying
• 1 tbsp Soya Sauce
• Salt to taste
• 1 tsp Pepper Powder
• Few curry leaves
• 3-4 Green chilies

Veggie Manchurian process

Directions

• Mix all the veggies in a bowl and microwave for 3 min with the lid covered .
• In a bowl take all the boiled veggies (some squeeze the water out of the boiled veggies, I don’t prefer that way since we will loose all the nutrients, instead I add some cooked rice to the veggie mix so that the rice will absorb the moisture), mix 1 tbsp corn starch, soya sauce, salt and black pepper
• Make small balls (like koftas) of the mixture .
• Heat oil in a kadhai and deep fry the balls till golden brown, drain and keep aside.
• In a separate pan heat 2 tbsp oil. Sauté onion, garlic, green chilies, curry leaves and spring onions.
• Add water, salt, pepper powder, sugar and soya sauce. Bring it to a boil.
• Mix 1 tbsp corn four with half of a cup of cold water and stir into it. Gently add the fried balls to the gravy.
• Cook the vegetable Manchurian for 3-4 minutes and serve hot garnished with chopped coriander.
  

  Veggie Manchurian served with steam rice

Crunchy munchy Spring Rolls

Any Crunchy-munchy snack or appetizer is welcome on these cold and holiday season. Here is my delicious and super-easy to make spring roll recipe! The filling is made up of lots of fresh healthy vegetables and is one of the best craved vegetarian appetizers. Get your kids to help with rolling them up – it’s fun to do. But even if you’re making them solo, you’ll find these spring rolls quick and easy to make. Excellent as an appetizer, ENJOY!

• 1 package spring roll wrappers (look for them in the freezer section of your any Asian/Chinese food store)
• 1 Tbsp. oil for stir-frying, + approx. 1 cup canola or other oil for frying
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1 red or green chili, minced (optional)
• 1 cup shredded cabbage
• ½ cup finely diced celery (optional)
• ½ cup shredded carrots
• 1 Tbsp. soy sauce
• 1 tsp. sugar

Spring Roll step by step process

Preparation:

1. Remove Spring roll wrappers from freezer and allow them to thaw while you prepare the filling.
2. Mix  soya sauce and sugar together in a cup. Set aside.
3. Place a wok or large frying pan over medium-high heat. Swirl 1 Tbsp. oil around the pan, then add garlic and chili. Stir-fry 30 seconds to release the fragrance.
4. Add all the veggies and stir-fry for 2 minutes, or until cabbage has softened slightly add soya sauce and sugar mixture and mix them well until the whole mixture is dried up.
5. Peel and separate 3 spring roll wrappers at one time from the package and place on a clean, dry surface. With one of the pointy edges facing you, place about 1 heaping Tbsp. of the stir-fry in the center of the first wrapper.
6. Roll it tightly to cover the filling and Fold the sides of the wrapper over the filling, then roll up from the bottom. Pinch the center (if necessary) to create a round, sausage-like roll (not flat). Secure the end of the roll by brushing on a little water.
7. Continue rolling in this way until all the filling has been used up. As you work, place finished rolls on a plate and cover with a damp cloth to keep them from drying out.
8. Heat oil in a frying pan over med-high heat. Oil should be about 1 inch deep. When oil starts to form thin moving lines across the bottom of the pan, turn down heat slightly.
9. When oil is ready, carefully slide spring rolls in, or place them in oil with tongs. Allow to cook 1 minute (or until golden brown) then use tongs to turn and cook the other side.
10. Place cooked spring rolls on a clean cloth or paper towel to drain.

Serve hot with any Sweet Chili Sauce as a dip. I served these to my kid with ketchup and he loved it.

Spring rolls

Sour Dosa (Pulla Attu)

There are hundreds of varieties of dosas and each has its own unique taste. Dosa in any form are my family favorite. Especially, this sour dosa (Pullattu) has a very prominent place on our table. This recipe came from generations. They are so light, crispy and just right that even kids help themselves with atleast one more serving. I made this today for my 3 ½ boy and when I am done feeding, he came to me opening his mouth not realizing that his portion is done, so I gave him another and he enjoyed it with a great pleasure. This is almost an instant dosa recipeand can be served as breakfast or snack.

Ingredients-

• 1 Cup Rice Flour
• ½ cup Maida
• 1 Cup Sour curd
• 3 Green chilies finely chopped
• 1 carrot shredded
• ½ onion finely chopped
• 1 tsp Cumin / Jeera  (optional)
• Salt according to taste

Spreaded Sour Dosa on the griidle (Left),Sour Dosa Batter(Right)/ Pulla Attu

Directions-

1. Mix all the above ingredients to a pouring consistency and let it sit for atleast 30 min.
2. Heat a flat griddle (Dosa Pan) and scoop one laddle of batter and spread outside in (regular dosas we scoop batter in the middle and spread it inside out, since the batter isin puring consistency, we should pour the batter from outside in). Put some oil on the edges and in the holes that are formed on top of dosa (this dosa may not be perfectly round)
3. Let it cook till it becomes golden brown and crunchy at the edges.
4. After 2 mins reverse to the other side and fry for for 30 sec. Make sure that the heat is on Med flame for these dosas.
5. Serve hot with ginger chutney and they will be eaten in no time.

Sour Dosa (Pulla Attu) served with ginger chutney

Curd (Yogurt) rice / Dadhojanam

Being an Andhrite, we end our meals with a dollop of curd that is usually mixed with rice. Today, I craved for this fruit flavored curd rice that tastes so yummy and delectable.

Yogurt seasoned with little spicy tempering and fruity flavor that seeps into the creamy yogurt is an absolute heart winner. A key aspect of curd rice has always been the freshly set soft and smooth home made yogurt.

I got some pomegranate and saved one for this recipe. The color looks so tempting and tastes wonderful as we bite into each seed.

Ingredients-

• 2cups cooked Rice
• 4 cups Curd (Yogurt)
• 1cup Milk
• 1 Whole pomogranate seeds
• 1 apple diced into small cubes (Optional)
• Grapes (optional)
• Pineapple (Optional)
• 1 tbsp Urad dal
• 1tbsp Chana dal
• 1 tsp whole peppercorns (Optional)
• ½ inch Ginger finley grated
• 10 Green chilies or to taste
• 4 Red chilies or to taste
• 10 Cashew nuts halved
• 2 tbsps oil
• hand full of Curry leaves
• Salt to taste

Curd rice with Pomogranate / Jewel rice

Directions-

Mash the cooked rice liberally to make it soft . Add curd (yogurt) in excess as rice tends to absorb it. Now, add milk to the curd rice (it stops the curd rice from turning sour), as it gives a more creamy flavor. Add salt to taste and set it aside.

Heat 2tbsp of oil in a Kadai and add mustard seeds once they pop up add urad dal , chana dal , pepper, green chilli pieces , red chillies , grated ginger and fry till all the ingredients are well fried.

Add cashews and fry till they are slightly brown.Add curry leaves and set a side.

To the curd (yougrt) rice, add all desired fruits. Now add the tempering and mix well. Serve it at room temp by itself or with lemon pickle.

Milk and Curd can be added more in quantity if desired

Pomogranate Curd rice served with raw onions

Nan_Khatai

Nan khatai is an egg-less light and crispy biscuit that’s loved by all ages and mainly kids.

With the holidays around, my kids day care had a thanks giving feast and I sent these cookies for their class. They came out pretty good and are liked by all. My Whole house smelled so nice. After some heavy cooking, end your cooking by sticking these cookies in the oven, it automatically freshens your house with a nice aroma from the cardamoms. No need of any room fresheners.

Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup all purpose flour (plain flour or maida)
• 1/3 cup fine sooji or semolina ( Sooji used for making upma will not do good in this recipe, If you use coarse sooji, as you bite into the cookie, you feel the coarse texture of sooji, it is highly recommended to use fine sooji)
• 1/2 cup gram flour (besan)
• Pinch of baking soda (a little less than 1/8 teaspoon)
• 1/4 teaspoon green cardamom seed coarsely powder (elachi)
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter ( Do Not Melt)
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon coarsely powdered almond

Nan Khatai process

Directions-

1. Pre heat the oven to 375 degree.
2. In a bowl, mix the all-purpose flour, gram flour, sooji, baking soda and cardamom powder and set aside.
3. Let the butter come to room temperature (butter should be soft not melted)
4. Add butter and sugar in a mixing bowl and beat for two to three minutes until light and fluffy.
5. Add the flour mix to butter and sugar mixture and knead them together to make smooth dough.
6. Divide the dough into equal parts and make them into balls.
7. Press each ball between your palms lightly; every piece should be about 3/4″ in thickness.
8. With a sharp knife softly draw a tic-tac-toe design on the top and put few pieces of almonds and pistachios and press them into the dough gently.
9. Put Nan khatai on a lightly greased cookie sheet and bake at 375 degrees for about 13 to 15 minutes or until Nan khatai are lightly gold brown.
10. After they are lightly golden brown remove the cookie sheet from the oven.  Let the Nan Khatais cool down for two to three minutes before taking them off the cookie sheet.

Nan Khatai (Indian Egg less biscuits)

Vegetable Fried rice

In our house fried rice is a quick meal any time of the day, sometimes we eat it for breakfast/brunch on weekends and in very busy days it satisfies us at dinner time. Fried rice is my family favorite way of eating rice and vegetables.

This recipe is very easy to make as the ingredients are simply stir fried for few mins, that not only retains their crunch but also their nutrition. Cooking with a medley of colored vegetables gives a great color and an immense flavor to the dish. For me,the more variety of veggies, the better it taste.

I love broccoli and started to introduce it to my kids. I am glad, my Elder one loved it, I have to work little more with my younger one.

Ingredients-

• cups cooked rice (cooled to room temp)
• 1 small onions cut length wise (optional)
• 1 carrot cut in an angle
• 1 stalk celery  cut at angle
• 1 Red bell pepper cut in strips
• 1 cup shredded cabbage
• 1 cup broccoli florets washed and cut
• 10 sugar snap peas cut in half
• green onions chopped to an angle
• garlic cloves finely minced
• eggs
• Salt and pepper according to taste
• 2 tbsps sesame oil
• 4 dry red chilies or to taste ( for todays recipe, my DH wants to have extra spicy, so I put in mix of dry red chilies and thai green chilies)
• 1/4cup Soya sauce
• Note- You can substitute frozen vegetables instead of fresh

Vegetable Fried rice ingredients

Directions-

1. Heat the  wok or a wide skillet to smoking hot, add oil and sauté red chilies(if using green chilies, good time to add them to), garlic for few seconds
2. Add onions, white part of green onions, carrots, bell pepper, celery and sauté them for 2 mins on high heat with constant stirring.
3. If the pan is wide enough to push the vegetables to a side do so (if not, remove the veggies to another plate) and in the middle of the pan, crack eggs and make a quick scrambled egg and mix well with all the veggies ( make sure the veggies are not over cooked, we want to retain the crunch)
4. Add broccoli, sugar snaps, sauté them for 2 mins.
5. Add cooked, cooled rice, pepper (if needed) and mix well. Add soya sauce and stir-fry rice till everything is mixed well. Adjust the taste if needed.
6. Garnish with spring onions and serve warm.

Vegetable Fried rice (Indo- Chinese fried rice)

Chicken puff

Today, I made another batch of chicken 65 and saved little to make chicken puff. An all time favorite for my DH and my elder son.

We are all very familiar with the street corner bakeries and the delicious aroma that will float around that area. One of my favorite items from such bakeries is the Puff. Flaky wrap and spicy filling, it’s a popular bakery food, loved by all ages. They are prepared with puff pastry like dough, and the filling varies- from vegetarian potato, to egg, chicken, kheema, mutton etc.

Thanks for the frozen puff pastry, We can make a great quick turn snack and a sure hit party appetizer.

For filling, I used chicken-65 recipe, you can use low fat chicken fry or any version of chicken fry.

Ingredients:

• 1 pack of Puff Pastry sheet (I used the Pepperidge farm frozen puff pastry)

Making of Chicken Puff

Directions-

1. There are four sheets in one pack, and they were stuck to each other. So I cut them to three strips.
2. Roll each one to a thin rectangle. Divided each strip to 4 equal portions.
3. Place a tablespoon of chicken towards one of the corner of each portion, fold, and baked them at 350°F for about 15 minutes to golden-brown.

Chicken Puff

chicken-65

Chicken 65 is a spicy, deep-fried chicken dish popular in South India as an entree, or quick snack.

There are many stories for how the name came out, I heared that it is simply the 65^th item on the menu, not sure of how true it is though. If we keep the question of how the name came about , the taste is certainly delectable to all non-veg lovers.

I call this, the Indian version of chicken nuggets.

I don’t stock Azinomotto in my pantry because of its controversies. Instead, I use the regular salt.

Let’s whip up this ever popular comforting food.

Ingredients -

• Chicken – 1 lb( Boneless chicken cut in to small pieces, I always use thigh portion as it is juicy and soft, one can use the breast piece  )
• 2 tsp Corn Flour
• 1tbsp All purpose (maida) flour
• 1 Egg
• 1 tbsp Ginger Garlic Paste
• 1 tsp Garam Masala
• 1 tbsp salt
• 2 tbsp Red Chili Powder
• 1/2 tsp Red Food Colour
• 2 tsp Vinegar
• Curd (Yogurt) – 1/2 to 3/4 cups
• Oil – For Deep Frying
• 5 Green Chilies slit length wise
• Curry Leaves – 20
• Lemon juice – 4 tbl spoon
• 2 dry red chilies
• 1 tbsp ginger finely chopped
• 1 tbsp Garlic chopped
• 1 stalk of green onions

Directions-

1. Wash and cut chicken into ½ inch pieces.
2. To the chicken add yogurt , salt, ginger garlic paste, black pepper, salt and mix well. Leave aside for 20 min.
3. Add corn flour and all purpose flour, mix well and leave aside for 10 minutes.
4. Break egg into the chicken and mix (Caution: Do not whip the egg, just mix it.)
5. Heat oil in a frying pan  and fry the chicken in batches (while frying do not over crowd). Immediately after adding chicken reduce heat and fry for 3-4 minutes. ( don’t over fry, 5 minutes is more than enough to cook the chicken).
6. Keep the fried chicken aside.
7. In a wide skillet, heat 1 tbsp oil, add Jeera (cumin) and one red chili, add ginger and stir fry in low heat for 15 seconds.Add chopped garlic and stir fry to light brown, add curry leaves stir and add chopped green  chili.
8. Add black pepper powder, cumin and chili powder stir (remove from heat time to time to prevent burn out)
   Add vinegar , keep stirring. Taste the sauce and add required salt to taste. ( The chicken already has some salt)
   add red color mixed in 1 tbsp water, stir and add 3 tbsp water or more to make a thick sauce. ( The sauce consistency should be such that after mixing the chicken, it should not be too dry or too sticky and fluid.)
9. Stir the sauce well and with heat, add the chicken and mix well under low heat so that the sauce is well coated. Remove from heat and keep mixing.
10. The water in sauce will percolate into the chicken to some extent. So wait for some time to assess if you need more heating to drive some extra moisture out.
11. Garnish with chopped green onions and lemon juice ( optional)
12. Eat as a starter, snack or with roti, rice.
13. NOTE: Dont over fry chicken. This size of the pieces should be tender within 3 minutes and one can eat straight after frying. Unnecessary frying will make the chicken hard and  dry.

You can fry excess amount of chicken and store in deep fridge for future use, not only for this also for all kinds of Indo-Chinese chicken dishes.
Add as much chili as you want. The red color is a traditional addition to dish and has nothing to do with the taste. But without the red color, no one will recognize it as chicken 65

chicken-65