Red Spinach Dal - Toor dal and spinach (Keerai parupu)

Dal (Lentil) prepared with spinach is a very tasty dish. This can be prepared with any type of Spinach of your choice. This goes well with Rice or Roti. This dish is not only delicious but filled with health benefits abundantly (Protein & Vitamins). This is very easy and simple dish. Only pain taking job is cleaning the spinach leaves. Spinach leaves and stems are used differently for different dish.

You may use the leaves along with the stem, chop and use. Else use the leaves and cook the stem for some curry. Lets see how to prepare this dish.

Ingredients:

1. Red Spinach leaves as desired or available spinach (Washed and separated)
2. Toor dal 
3. Shallots 5 to 10 (small onion)
4. Green chili - 2 or as desired
5. Asafoetida - 1/4 tspn
6. Turmeric - 1/2 tspn
7. Cumin powder or crushed cumin - 1 tspn
8. Salt to taste

For Tempering

1. Oil of your choice 1 tbspn
2. Mustard Seed 1/4 tspn
3. Curry leaves 1 sprig
4. Dried red chili - 1 (optional)

Preparation:

1. Add all the items from the main ingredients in a pressure cooker. Add adequate amount of water
2. Pressure cook on high for 1 whistle, and simmer for 5 - 7 minutes. I like my dal mashed well. Turn of the heat.
3. Let the pressure go by itself, open the lid, check the taste and add anything required. Turn on the heat and keep in sim. You may mash it with spoon if needed.
4. You may add some hot water if you find it too thick
5. Prepare the tadka / tempering pour on to dal mixure and mix well, turn off the heat.
6. It can be served with hot steamed rice or roti.

Egg chili masala (Pan fried boiled eggs)

Dear friends,

This is a recipe from my mother which I altered a bit. She use to pack this in our lunch boxes to go along with rice. This usually is a side dish and tasty. It's very easy and not rocket science. Anyone can try their hands on this one. Here is it for you guys.

Ingredients:

1. Boiled eggs - 2 to 4 as per the servings 
2. Oil to fry (oil of your choice)
3. Whole or crushed Cumin seeds - 1/2 tb spn
4. Pepper powder less than 1/4 tb spn
5. Red chili power less than 1/4 tb spn
6. Salt to taste
7. Chopped coriander leaves / spring onion for garnishing (optional)

Preparation:

1. Cut the Egg in half, and dice or you may use it in halves, keep aside
2. n a large flat pan, heat oil. Keep the flame to the lowest
3. Add the cumin seeds saute for 30 sec
4. Add other masala powder with salt saute for another 10 sec.
5. Place the egg with the yolk facing down
6. Cover and cook for a minute, turn the other side repeat the same.
7. Garnish with greens and serve hot.

Note:

• Ensure the egg slices get coated with masala
• You may alter the spices with fennel / little garam masala / oregano for different flavour
• Do not use kadai, as the eggs need to be placed on a flat surface.

Sweet Poha Balls (Aval urundai)

Dear Friends,

This is a south Indian delicacy during my grand parents time. I am not sure if this is prepared in cities but definitely in country side. I remember my grand mother making this sweet aval urundai for breakfast or as evening tiffin after school.

It;s prepared from pressed rice, jaggery, banana, grated coconut. It hardly take any time to prepare this sweet balls. I am sure kids would like this dish for a change.

Ingredients:

1. Pressed rice 1 cup - do not use paper thin poha for this
2. Banana small 2 - small yellow bananas available in south India would best suit
3. Sugar - as per taste
4. Grated coconut - 1/4 cup
5. Grated Jaggery - 1/4 cup

Preparation:

1. Wash the poha couple of times to remove the dust. Strain and put in a large bowl
2. Add all ingredients, including the banana and mix well. Use your hands to smash banana and mix well.
3. Add more sugar / jaggery if needed. Make small balls and serve immediately.

Note:

• Do not let this dry, as it loses the moisture. 
• Wash the poha well so it;s soft to make the balls.

Easy Cauliflower Burji (Gobi ka Burji)

This is a dry sabji for cauliflower lovers.  It's my own recipe, this is quick and simple. You may add your variations to it, to make it colorful. This goes as side dish for Rice or Chapati.

Ingredients:

1. Grated Cauliflower (Gobi)
2. Oil for frying
3. Cumin seeds - 1/2 tb spoon
4. Asafoetida - a pinch
5. Curry leaves - optional
6. One small onion - finely chopped
7. Salt to taste

For Masala:

1. Fennel Seeds (Saunf) - 1 tb spn
2. Green chili - 1 or as per taste
3. Ginger - 1/2 inch
4. Garlic - 6-8 pods

Preparation:

1. Grind all the masala items to a coarse paste with little water
2. Heat oil in a kadai, add cumin and/or mustard seeds
3. When it starts crackling add curry leaves and onion
4. Cook the onion in low heat till it turns translucent and light brown
5. Add the masala paste saute for couple of minutes.
6. Add salt, and cauliflower , mix well
7. Sprinkle little water, cover and cook in lowest heat, for about 5 minutes.
8. Mix everything and check for seasoning, add salt if required.  

Tapioca Gravy - Kappa Curry

Tapioca is abundantly found in Kerala and around the Kerala border of Tamil Nadu. Tapioca is one of the staple food during my childhood days and I love it. This is a a slightly spicy thick gravy which can be served with rice. I learnt this from my grand mother. We also prepare tapioca fish curry, I will post the recipe separately.

It taste best when prepared in clay pot and with fire wood as fuel. Due to city life we now prepare this is pressure cooker.

Ingredients:

1. Washed & cut tapioca chunks. (Remove the root from the center as you keep cutting.)
2. Crushed garlic pods - 3 to 4
3. Turmeric powder - 1/4 tea spn
4. Crushed Jeera - 1 tea spn
5. Red chili powder as per taste or green chili
6. Tamarind juice to taste - very little
7. Salt to taste

Tempering:

1. Coconut oil - 1 tb sp
2. Mustard seed
3. Curry leaves
4. Whole Red chili - 2
5. Finely chopped small onion (shallot) - 1
6. Spring onion - optional

Preparation:

1. In a pressure add all items mentioned in the ingredients list, pour sufficient water to cover tapioca. Water level should be above the ingredient's level as we need gravy also should prevent it from sticking at the bottom
2. Cook on high flame for 1 whistle, then reduce the flame cook for 7 - 10 minutes. [Tapioca should be cooked well, this will make the mashing job easier]
3. Turn off heat after 10 minutes, open the cooker when the all the pressure is released.
4. Mix everything well, and mash the tapioca as desired. You may add hot water if the gravy is too thick.
5. Check seasoning, and add as needed. If anything is added keep it on low flame and bring to a boil again.
6. Do the tadka, pour on top and mix well. This taste well with rice.

Carrot Cucumber Dosa for Summer

I would call this is as cool Dosa :) I learnt this from my friend when I visited her once. It tasted

amazing, and I made slight changes to it. If you have dosa batter and bored to have plain dosa just spice it up. You or your kids won't be disappointed. Lets see how to prepare it.

Ingredients:

1. Left over dosa batter
2. Grated carrot, cucumber (you may also use beetroot for a beet color)
3. Finely chopped green chili
4. oil for dosa
5. Salt

Preparation:

1. Mix all the ingredients to the dosa batter, add little water if the batter is too thick. Do not add too much of water as cucumber oozes out water.
2. Add little more salt as now you vegetables in it.
3. Heat a tawa, pour batter and spread it out to form thin dosa evenly, reduce the flame
4. Sprinkle oil on top, 
5. Turn over and cook the other side for less than a minute. 
6. Serve hot as it is or with chutney

Remember to cook in low flame as we want the dosa thin and crispy, this also prevents it from browning overly.

You may also want to check out Egg Dosa Recipe here.

Radish Sambar - Sambar with mooli

Hello All,

Radish is consumed as salad, and made parathas. This is a simple tasty sambar made with Radish as main ingredient. You may use white or red radish which ever is available. Whole dish is prepared in pressure cooker reducing the cooking time, with a final tadka.

Ingredients (Servings 4)

1. Radish peeled & sliced- 2
2. Small onion - 8 to 10 whole 
3. Tomato - Small or medium sized cut in large pieces
4. Moong dal - 1/2 cup (you may use toor dal or masoor dal if you like)
5. Tamarind juice
6. Sambar powder as per taste - 2 tb spn to 3
7. Salt
8. Coriander leaves along with stem preferred

For tadka (Tempering) - Oil, mustard seed, whole red chili, Curry leaves and a pinch of hing (Asafoetida)

Preparation:

1. In a pressure cooker add the washed dal, radish, onion, tomato, little tamarind juice, sambar powder .
2. Add water and salt. check the seasoning as this would change after cooking too. 
3. close the lid, and after first whistle reduce the heat. Cook for 5 - 7 min and turn off heat
4. Once the pressure is gone, open the cooker check for seasoning. Add accordingly
5. Switch on the flame, add coriander leaves
6. Make tadka and add to this, bring to a boil switch off the flame
7. Serve this with rice.

Easy Broccoli Pasta in white sauce

As we all know Broccoli is one of the popular vegetable in the whole world used in salads or consumed raw which is nutritious. It has plenty benefits to offer for mankind. You may prepare this as a  a cold dish or hot. I will post another cold salad recipe with pasta and broccoli.

This Recipe needs to items, one cooked pasta and white sauce. There are plenty of videos available on preparing white sauce. You can follow this as well by Vah Chef. I will share my experience and tips here.

For Pasta:

1. Fusilli (Spiral Kind)
2. Broccoli Florets - small
3. Carrot finely sliced - 1
4. Capsicum chopped - of your choice
5. Garlic finely sliced or chopped as preferred - 4 pods
6. Olive oil 
7. Salt, pepper, oregano or other available pasta seasoning
8. Chopped parsely / Spring onion (optional)

For White Sauce:

All you need is butter, warm milk and maida. Butter and Maida should be of equal quantity with milk being 10 times of butter. I usually take some more milk as the sauce thickens quickly. You may add seasoning as desired like pepper, salt etc.

Preparation:

1. Boil a large pot of water with salt in it, add broccoli florets to it cook for 2 - 3 min max. Do not over cook the florets should be crunchy without losing lot of nutrients.
2. Take off the florets and finely chop them
3. In the same water boil the pasta stirring intermittently, it would take 5 - 7 minutes for the pasta to cook depending on the brand and the quality
4. Strain the pasta and sprinkle little olive oil to prevent it from sticking. Keep aside

Making Sauce:

1. Milk should not be boiling hot, you may heat milk and turn the heat off once it reaches the boiling point
2. In a sauce pan Heat the butter and add maida , keep the flame to the lowest. Keep stirring the mixure till it gets cooked and the nice aroma arises
3. Add the milk little by little and keep stirring, to prevent lump formation
4. Increase the flame, keep mixing the sauce would come to a boil shortly 
5. At this time add salt & pepper, switch off the flame.

Note: The sauce would thicken if we keep it for long, I always add lot of milk and have the sauce liquid like consistency, so it would be correct when we add to pasta.

You may serve pasta with vegetables with hot sauce on top, or do the following.

In a large wok, heat 1 spoon of olive oil. Toss the garlic saute for a minute, all vegetables and stir for 30 second add pasta and mix well. Add all the seasonings too, after that pour the sauce and turn of heat. Mix well and serve immediately.

Quick veg clear soup for Beginners

We all love clear soups be it Veg or non-veg. I am a huge fan of clear soups but didn't know how to

prepare. I like baby corns usually steam them and eat them as whole. So tried making some soup. you can use vegetables of your choice.

I didn't use vegetable stock as I cooked the corn while preparing soup. If you are using vegetable stock you might want to steam the corn first. Let's see the required items and the steps.

Ingredients:

1. Washed and sliced baby corns
2. Vegetables of your choice, you can pick from these sliced or chopped finely (Carrot, Beans, Any capsicum, Broccoli, Chinese cabbage or Indian cabbage, Garlic, Cauliflower, Snow Peas)
3. Lime Juice - 1 tea spn
4. Spring onion chopped
5. Sliced Celery stem (optional) - this gives nice flavour
6. Salt & pepper as per taste

Preparation:

1. Heat water in a large pot
2. Once it boils add the baby corn and let it cook for 5 min.
3. Once it's cooked add Carrot & beans and cook for another 3 min
4. Then add all soft vegetables cook in medium flame for 2 - 3 min including celery
5. Add lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste
6. While serving sprinkle chopped spring onion and other soup seasoning if you may have.

All in my house enjoyed this is rich in nutrients and light on stomach. 

Multigrain dosa (Dal, Rice, Chick Pea, Wheat)

We have dosa lovers all over India. This is a very nutritious dish as this dosa is made with different grains unlike traditional dosa.

Ingredients:

1. Idli/Dosa Rice (1/2 cup) 
2. Urad Dal (1/2 cup)
3. Chick Pea (1/4 Cup)
4. Toor Dal (1/4 Cup)
5. Any other dal of your choice
6. Wheat Atta (1/4 cup)

Preparation:

1. Soak all ingredients except atta for 5 - 6 hrs. 
2. Grind urad dal separately, with less water to a nice smooth thick batter
3. Grid other soaked grains, as whole or in batches as per the mixer / grinder size to a fine batter with water. 
4. Add wheat atta, add water as required mix well (Consistency should be light not thick or watery)
5. Let it ferment for 8 hours or overnight
6. Add salt and mix well
7. Prepare thin dosas by cooking both sides. The dosas should be thin and crispy. 
8. Serve with chutney or any side dish of your choice.