Cantoloupe Mango berry smoothie

This is a super smoothie packed with lots of goodness and nutrients to start your day. very easy to put together for breakfast or any time and will satisfy your hunger until noon.

Here is what you need. ( serves 2)

A handfull of diced cantoloupe


3 strawberries

1/2 cup mango juice ( got from the Indian store)

1/2 cup 2% Milk

2 tsp Sugar.

4-5 Ice cubes.


Put them all ina blender and blend till smooth. Pour it into any fancy glass you have ( of course I did'nt have one) and enjoy.! :)))

I am submitting this for http://http://cookcurrynook.wordpress.com/2010/03/01/serve-me-some-juices-shakes-smoothies/

Oats upma

Bored of eating the same oatmeal everyday, Try this quick and easy Oats upma.

Ingredients:

Quick oats 1 cup
Ghee 1 tbsp
green chillies 1 chopped
Frozen peas a handful.
Grated coconut 1 tbsp
2 cups water
1/2 tsp Mustard seeds
1/2  tsp Urad dhal
1 tbsp Oil
2 -3 Curry leaves
Asafetida a pinch
salt to taste.


Add 1tbsp of ghee toa pan. Roast the oats in the ghee till fragrant. Set aside ina plate.

Add oil to apan and splutter mustard seeds, urad dal, curry leaves and green chilli. Saute for a few mins. Add the peas and hing and saute for a 2 mins. Add 2 cups of water and salt to taste. Once it comes to a boil, add the oats, coocnut and mix well. Reduce the flame and cover the pan. Let it cook for a few mins.

It may look all sticky and gooy, don't panic.

Let it cook on low fire till the the oats get separated.
Garnish with cilantro and serve.

It tastes like the good old godhuma rava upma!

Sweet Potato Podimas

This podimas is so easy to make and tastes delicious with rice and sambhar. the natural sweetness of the sweet potato wis kind of mellowed by ( duh...) the kick from ginger and chillies plus the refreshing lemon.

Try this and you will enjoy! you can add or take away the chillies according to your taste.

Ingredients

1 medium sized sweet potato
2 green chillies chopped
1 inch ginger peeled and chopped
lemon juice according to taste.
Cilantro for garnishing
Grated coconut 2 tbsp.
salt to taste
hing 1/4 tsp


tempering

1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp urad dal
1 tsp channa dal
1/2 red chilli.
curry leaves few
oil

Peel the sweet potato and cut into medium dice. Cook on stove top or microwave till soft. Do not pressure cook it as the ones available in USA become really mushy.

In a pan add oil, splutter the mustard seeds, urad, channa dal. Ad the redchilli and curry leaves. then add the hing, green chillies and ginger and saute for a few seconds. Now add the cooked sweet potato, grated coconut and slat according to your taste.

Cover and cook for a few minutes. Turn off the stove, squeeze the lemon juice to suit to your taste. Garnish with cilantro and it's ready to be apired with rice and curry.

Yumo!

Vegetable Puff

Who doesn't love vegetable Puffs? stop! If you don't you better read this post! Once you've tasted these babies you'll love it.

It reminds me of college days where Puffs were a big hit in the cafeteria.

It is such asimple snack to put together and will take you down the memory lane!

Here is what you need ( makes 9 puffs)

Pepperidge farm puff pastry sheets 1 box.
1/2 potato
1/2 onion
Frozen peas 1/2 cup
Frozen corn 1/2 cup
coriander powder 1 tsp
chaat masala 1 tsp
oil.
Cilantro as much as you want.

This is what i had at home:))

There are 2 sheets inside a box of PPF puff pastry sheet. Take 1 sheet out and let it thaw for about 40 mts on the counter.

In mean time, dice potatoes and slice onions. heat oil ina pan and add the onions. Ssaute till they are soft and a slightly carmalized. Add the potaoes, corn, peas, salt all the masala and saute. cover and reduce the heat. cook till the potaoes are soft and the peas are cooked. Garnish with cilantro.

Youcould add grated carrots, bell pepper, paneer etc if you have them in hand.

Pre heat oven to 400 F. Line a baking sheet with foil and spray with it oil.

Take the thawed pastry sheet on toa cutting board. You can open it inot a rectange. cut it inot 9 smallrectangles.

Add the filling ( approx 1 tbsp) in each of he rectangle. fold the edges over like folding a blanket. seal the edges with a lit bit of water.

Pop it inthe oven and bake for 15mts or until golden and flaky.
Let it cool for 10 -15 mts and then... you know what to do.

Curried Butternut Squash soup

Try this creamy, yummy soup and you won' regret one bit.

Tis so easy to put together.

Here isall what you need.

Ingredients:

Butter nut squah small 1

2 carrots diced

2 ribs of celery diced

1 onion thiny sliced

2 garlic cloves crushed

multipurpose curry powder 1 tsp

salt to taste.

Method:<

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Pre heat oven to 400f. Cut the BNS in half. Scoop out the seeds. drizzle a little olive oil, salt and pepper and roast the BNS for 45 mts. Let it cool.

Heat oil in a pan. Add the onions and fry till soft. add th rgarlic and saute till a nice aroma comes.Add the celery and carrots and saute for a few minutes. Add the curry powder, salt according to taste. Add 2 cups of water. Remove the flesh of the BNS and add it to the vegetable mix. Let it come to a boil and allow it to simmer for 20 -25 mts till the vegetables are cooked and soft.

Let it cool and blend it a puree of your liking. If it is too thick, add some water or half and half.

Serve with garlic bread or roll.

Egg plant Kootu

Egg plant / Kathrikai is one my favorite. Unfortunately my husband does not like it. I think people love egg plant coz whoever made it for them to taste it the first time did a pretty good job. people who don't like it.. well it's self explanatory.

I can pretty much eat it as a dry curry, kootu, bajji, in sambhar.. you name it.

Here is my version of egg plant kootu.

Ingredients:

1 medium sized egg plant
1/2 cup cooked toor dhal
Frozen peas 1/3 cup
sambar powder 1/2 tsp
1/2 tsp tamarind paste
dessicated coconut 2 tbsp

tumeric powder 1/4 tsp
salt to taste

For the tempering

Oil
mustard seeds
urad dhal curry leaves
1/4 tsp hing/ asafoetida

wash the eggplant and dice into small cubes. Saok in water, otherwise it will change color.

add water just to cover the egg plant. Add salt, turmeric powder, sambar powder, tamarind paste and cook on a low fire. Half way down add the frozen peas. You don't want to over cook the peas.

You cna increase the sambar powder/ tamarind according to your taste.

Once the veggies are cooked add the cooked and masher toor dal and coconut. if it is too watery add a little bit of rice flour mixed with water to make it thicker.

let it come to a boil. Turn off the fire. In a separate kadai, temper all the ingredients and add it to the eggplant kootu.


Enjoy with rice/ sambhar/ rasam asa side dish or with chapathi's.

Basic Tomato Curry

This is a basic tomato curry that I relish a lot. My grand mother used to make it for chappathi. It goes well with rotis, poori and even rice.

This is what you need.

Tomatoes 2 medium size
green chillies 2 slit in length

jaggery a pinch or according to taste
salt according to taste

for tempering:

Mustard seeds 1/2 tsp
jeera 1/2 tsp.
curry leaves
HIng a pinch,

Boil water in a pan. Blanch the tomatoes in the hot water for 15 - 20 mts. Once you remove the lid, you will see the tomato peel has started to come off.

Once cooled, peel the skin of the tomatoes and puree it in a blender.

Heat a pan. Add oil and splutter the mustard seeds, jeera and curry leaves and green chilli. Now add the tomato puree, hing, salt and let it come to a boil. Allow it to simmer till the consistency you want. Add jaggery at the end according to taste.

You can increase or decrease the chilli according to your taste.

Enjoy with hot chappathi's.

The Best Banana Bread ever.....

I am very happy today! You know why? I found the best banana bread ever. Thanks to Food Network!

I have been looking an awesome moist BB and found in food network. The 100 odd reviews with 5 stars speaks for itself. I followed the recepie verbatim and the results were unbelievable. Try it for yourself and you will agree with me.


Now, straight to the recipie


Ingredients

1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup oil
3 1/2 bananas, very ripe, mashed
2 tablespoons creme fraiche or sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2/3 cup walnuts, toasted and chopped

Directions

Set oven to 350 degrees F. Line the bottom of a loaf pan with parchment paper.

Sift together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Beat sugar and eggs with a whisk until light and fluffy, about 10 minutes. Drizzle in oil. Add mashed bananas, creme fraiche, and vanilla. Fold in dry ingredients and nuts. Pour into a lined loaf pan and bake for about 45 minutes to 1 hour.

Almond Chutney

 

I haven't been blogging for a long time now. With the new job, it has been very hectic and busy! However, I did try a couple of new dishes. But I didn't have time to take pics or post it. Yesterday I was watching Julie and Julia and was inspired to post this quicky.
Here is the quick and easy recipe for almond chutney.

 

Ingredients

 

• A handful of almonds (soaked in warm water for 15 min. and peeled) or sliced almonds
• 3 green chillies 
• A pinch of asafoetida
• Salt (for taste)

•  For tadka/ tempering
• 1/4 tsp Mustard seeds,
• 1/4 tsp urad dal,
• 1tsp oil
• curry leaves

Method

• Grind the peeled almonds with chili and salt in a blender.
•  Temper with the seasonings.
• Serve with idli, dosa, or upma.

Happy Eating =)

Sending this to Now Serving's Chutney Chow down

Quinoa Upma/ Kichidi

I have never heard of this Quinoa until I started to blog. To be honest, I didn't even know how to pronounce. I now know it's called "Keen- Wa" and not kinoa as I thought.

It is a grain that has been around for a long long time with lots of goodness. It is actually a seed but we call it a grain. The good thing is it has less carbs and lots of protein and fibre and other good stuff.

I wanted to give it a try as our good old upma. Lots of recipies on indian blogs said about cooking quinoa in the pressure cooker wuth 1:2 water. i tried it first and it became all mushy. So the second time I added 1and half water and let it cook like rawa in the kadai.

There is no special recipie for this upma. It is like making any other upma, throw in as much spices of your choice and veggies of your taste.

My only tip is wash the quinoa and let it stand for 20 mins so it takes away the bitterness. This is what most of the blog sites recommended and I just followed. I didn't want to experimnet with a bitter new product.

So let's get to business now. I washed and soaked the quinoa. USed onion. green chillies, ginger, tomato, peas, carrot,bell pepper and peanuts to add t omy upma.
It tasted very good and my family enjoyed it.

You can improvise it my just ading powdered peanuts, or curd quinoa, puli or lemon quinoa etc.

Try it and test it... It's good for health and taste.

Avocado chapathi

I fed my baby with some mashed Avocado. I had the the other half sitting . I did not want to eat it nor did I want it to turn black.

So I added a little lemon juice, mashed it and added atta, salt, green chillies. So basically the mashed avocado got incorporatedi n the atta.
I made chappathis the usual way and it was super duper soft.

I didn't have time to click pics and trust me those chappathis were awesome.

Olan/ Pumpin and black eyed peas in coconut milk

Olan is an traditional keralite curry. It is served during "sadhya". Again there are different ways of preparing it. I am posting the one I learnt from my mom, grandma which is how it's made in palakkad. It tastes much better the next day,

Olan Ingredients

Pumpkin- small, peeled, seeds removed and diced in thin slices

Chayote/ chow chow 1 small peeled & sliced ( ideally pooshani or elavan or winter melon is used)

Black eyed peas 1/3 cup

Coconut milk powder 1/3 cup

luke warm water 1/2 cup.

green chilli 2 slit

coconut oil 1 tbsp

turmeric powder 1/4 tsp

salt to taste

curry leaves

Roast the black eyed peas ina pan with little oil. Let it cool and pressure cook. In a pan add the cut vegetables, a little water to saok the pumpkin, turmeric, slit green chillies, salt and cook. Add the cooked black eyed peas to the pumpkin. Whisk the coconut mikl powder in warm water. Turn of the stove and the milk to the cooked pumpkin. Add curry leaves and i tbsp of coconut oil. Note there is no need to do tadka for olan. It goes well with sambhar, rice or chapathi.

Microwave carrot Halwa

Who doesn't love carrot Halwa. It is one of our family fav dessert. Gone are the days when you have to take hours to prepare in a kadai. With this method you can pull this in a jiffy. All the time it takes is to grate the carrots. i made this for Diwali and it was a big hit.

Ingredients

Grated carrot 1.5 cup

Fat free condensed milk 1 tin

Ghee 2 tbsp

Cardamom powder 1 tsp

chopped cashew nuts

Add 1 tbsp of ghee in a microwave safe bowl and mix the grated carrots in it. Microwave on high for 2 mins. Now add the condensed milk, and mix. Microwave for 10 mins. You have to stir evry 5 mins to see if it doesn't oveflow or gets too dry. Mine took 12 mins to be done. Once the halwa is ready it will come without sticking to the bowl. Roast cashews with th e remaining ghee. Add cardamom powder and cashews. There is no restrictions in the amount of ghee you use, depends on how quickly you want your arteries to clog up.

Enjoy this heavenly dessert any time.

Paneer Pasta salad with Grilled Veggies

Grilled veggies, Bread, Paneer Pasta salad

I saw this recipie in one of the food magazines and added my touch to it. It tastes wonderful and I am gonna keep making this for my lunch often. I basically used stuff that was on hand. I guess you can add as many veggies and other goodie stuff you want to this versatile salad.

This recipe has been in my draft for a long long time and never got published. This is very simple, but satisfying pasta salad.

Get ready:

• Corkscrew vegetable pasta 1/2 cup
• Yellow pepper 1/2 cut into length wise pieces
• Red pepper 1/2 cut as above
• 8 grape tomatoes
• 1/4 red onion cut lengthwise
• 8 cubes of paneer
• Olive oil
• 2 bread slices cut into cubes ( i used honey wheat)
• salt & pepper to taste
• sambhar powder to taste
• cilantro to garnish

 Go:

• Cook pasta as per package instructions, drain and toss with a little olive oil.
• Combine all the vegetables, onion, with olive oil, salt and pepper and a little sambhar powder.
• Preheat oven to 325 F.
• Line a baking sheet with foil and spray with non stick spray.
• Spread the veggies , paneer and bread cubes and bake for 20 mins till the peppers are done, tomatoes shrivelled.

Add it to the pasta and garnish with cilantro.

Time to dig in..... and bite into the wondeful colors and texture of this salad.

Thenkuzhal

Diwali is coming and we all are getting ready. iI miss diwali in home... The crackers, new clothes, sweets etc etc...

I know we all try our best to bring those memories back.

Try this thenkuzhal and you will go down the memory lane.

Ingredients.

One can use any measuring device or cup they have.

8 measure rice flour

1 measure urad dhal flour.

salt to taste, 2 tbsp butter

2 tsp Cumin seeds

Mix everything in abowl add water and make a dough like chapathi dough. Heat oil and fry them in their special " nazhi" or murukku maker.

Yummy thenkuzhal is ready.

I used a small katori.

Red Pepper paratha

I am so not used to measure each and everything when cooking. Since I have started this blog, I try to remember the neasurements. But, I forgot again today. But anyway I thought I will share this recipie.

I had one red pepper and a small chunk of green pepper left over after making sambhar. I grated the 2 peppers. Squeezed all the water out and put ina bowl. Add 1/2 tsp of ginger garlic paste, 1/2 tsp sambar powder, salt to taste, chappathi flour afew tbsp pf oil and knead till the it does not stick to the bowl.

Dust some atta on a working surface and roll them inot parathas. Heat a tava and fry the parathas with a little oil or ghee. Serve hot with any pickle and curd.

It was real delish....

Aappam and Potato stew

Aappam is one of my favorite dishes, for breakfast or as a proper dinner too. The way it is made is different in Tamilnadu and Kerala. At least very different the way my grand mother made it and from my MIL .

It goes well with Poatao stew or chutney or sweet thegai paal or sweet coconut milk.

This recipie will make 7 aappams.

Aappam

Ingredients

Raw rice 1 cup
Grated coconut 1/4 cup

Dry yeast 1/4 tsp
salt to taste

Sugar 1 tbsp
Baking soda a pinch.

Soak the rice ( I used sona msoori) for 4- 6 hrs. Grind very fine and add the coconut at the end. Dissolve the yeast in lukewarm water and sugar. Cover it and leave it in a dark place for 15 mts. it will look bubbly with the fermentation. Add this to the batter, add salt and mix. Leave it overnight. The batter would have fermented.

If you have coconut water you can add that to grind the rice instead of plain water.

Before making aappams add a pinch of baking soda and mix. The batter should be a bit more runny than a dosa batter. You need a aappa chati or any kadai to make it.

In a non stick aapa chati, add two small ladles of batter and swing it round. This way it is thin on the outer end and a bit more thick in the middle. Cover it with a lid. Remove when the sides separate from the pan, within couple of minutes.

Serve hot with Potato stew

Potato stew

1 large potato

1 onion

3 green chillies

1 inch ginger

Coconut milk powder 1/4 cup

Curry leaves few

Pressure cook potato. peel and crumble into chunky pieces. Slice onions, chillies lengthwise and ginger. In a pan splutter mustard seeds, urad dhal and curry leaves. Add the onion, chillies and ginger. fry till they are translucent. Add the crumbled potatoes, salt and 1/2 cup water. Let it boil for 5 - 1- mins. Add warm water to any store bought coconut milk powder and whisk.

Add the coocnut milk to the potato and turn off the heat. Do not let it boil as the coconut milk with curdle. Serve hot with Aappam. It tastes so good the next day with chappathi's too.

Spicy Cauliflower soup.. oh la la....

I love soups on any day, hot or cold. I tried this spicy cauliflower soup from Nupur and it is spicy...

I added a few more spices than mentioned in the original recipie.

Ingredients

Cauliflower florets 1 cup

Onion small chopped

carrot 1 chopped

tomato 1 chopped

cilantro

2 tsp cumin

2 tsp coriander seeds

1 tsp saunf

red chilly 1/2

Dry roast the cumin, coriander, saunf and redchilly till it cracks. Add alittle oil and fry the onions till translucent. Add tomatoes, carrots, cauliflower and saute for a few seconds. Add water and cook till the veggies are soft. turn off the heat, let it cool . Add the dry spices, cilantro, vegetables and put in a blender . I ground it a bit coarse so I can bite the chunky cauliflower. Ad salt according to taste. Garnish with cilantro leaves.

Enjoy your soup with your favorite bread or roll.

Apple crumble

Never tried this one before. Well, we had a lot of apples at home and many were rotting.

So I decided to make Apple crumble. I got this recipie from food network , Dave Leiberman and turned out well. It was a rainy day and got my son involved in making this dessert. The changes I did was halved the original recipie, used royal gala instead of granny smith and added some granola plus oats. Of course I forgot to half the amount of butter, oh boy it of course tasted so well with lots of butter.

Ingredients

Filling:

4 large Golden Delicious apples ( i used 2 red apples)

1/4 cup sugar
1 lemon, juiced
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Topping:

1 cup walnuts or pecans, roughly chopped
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Pinch fine salt
8 tablespoons (1 stick) cold butter, cut into small pieces

Position an oven rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees F.
Peel, core, and slice apples into 1/4-inch slices. Place apples in a large mixing bowl and toss with sugar, lemon juice, flour, and cinnamon. Pour into a lightly greased 9 by 13-inch baking dish, and spread out into an even layer. Set aside.
In another large bowl, mix together the nuts, flour, oats, sugar, cinnamon, and salt for the topping. Using a pastry cutter or your fingers, gently work in the cold butter until pea-sized lumps are formed.
Top apples evenly with mixture and bake until apples are bubbly and topping is golden brown, about 45 minutes, rotating once halfway through cooking.
Serve warm or at room temperature with vanilla ice cream.

Eggless Walnut and Date cake

I got this recepie from Aayi's recepie and added my little twist to it.

Ingredients:18 dates(Khajoor)3/4 cup milk 1cup sugar1 cup all purpose flour or maida 1/2 cup oil1 tea spn baking soda1 tbl spn cashews, walnuts dried pineapple chunks, shredded coconut
Method:Soak the dates in warm milk for 20 mts. Add sugar and grind them to a smooth paste along with the milk in which it is soaked in. Add oil and mix.Sieve together flour and baking soda. Add the flour one table spoon at a time and mix slowly. Add the nuts and mix.

Preheat the oven at 350F. Bake the cake in a greased oven proof dish for 35-40min (or till a knife inserted in the cake comes out clean).