White Pasta with vegetables - Italian Style

This is a delicious dish that can be served as dinner with vegetables of your choice.

Ingredients
Pasta ( Hollow tubular ) See the picture.
Chopped Vegetables - Onion, French beans, Carrot, bell pepper your choice, Tomato (remove the pulp )
Garlic paste little ( optional )
Olive Oil to give authentic Italian taste (optional ) can use regular cooking oil too
Black Pepper crushed
Butter as per taste
Mayonnaise / cheese ( either of them is needed for white pasta)
Salt to taste

Preparation

1. Cut all the vegetables long and thin. Can steam carrot, beans with the color still retained, or just half cook with very little water.
2. Boil water and add the pasta with little salt for 8 - 10 minutes with occasional stir. Do not over cook. Take one and poke with fork to check if its done.
3. Drain the water from the boiled pasta, and run cold water on top a little. mix with little Olive oil or what ever oil you use to prevent them from sticking.
4. Heat butter in a pan, add the onion saute for a minute add other vegetables except tomato and saute for 2 more minutes. Add salt at this stage.
5. Add pepper, mix well add the tomato toss a little bit. Add the pasta. Toss again, do not saute so much this would break the pasta.
6. Add mayonnaise/cheese toss well, check the salt. Add salt / pepper if needed. 

Its done, and ready to be eaten. Serve hot.

Dry Prawn Fry

This is a delicious dish, and if you are sea food lover you would definitely like it. It can be prepared in different ways, I have given the recipe for the dry one here. You can use any type of dried prawns, I have used tiny ones.

Ingredients:

Cleaned dry prawns as much as you need.

Dry Prawn Fry

Onions finely chopped. (preferred the small onions, called sambar onions)
Whole red chillies 2
Mustard seeds
Curry leaves, a bunch
red chilly powder (optional)
Soy sauce (optional) 
Oil for frying
Salt to taste

Preparation

1. Wash the prawns drain the water and keep aside.
2. Heat oil in a fry pan or kadai, add mustard seeds and let it crackle.
3. Add Curry leaves, red chillies and onions saute until the onions turn pinkish color
4. Add the red chilly powder if needed, and then the prawns and saute for another minute for it get mixed well with the onions and the masala.
5. Add salt, sprinkle little water, if its too dry and do not let the spices burnt. cover and cook for 2 - 3 minutes
6. check the taste, if needed add more salt or chilly powder at this stage.
7. Add 1/4 tsp of Soy sauce and saute for another minute.

Cleaned Prawns

Meals

Fried small onions

 Serve hot with Plain rice or meals.

Rice Pancakes

This makes a great breakfast when served with chutney. Can be prepared easily with left over rice.

Ingredients
2 cups leftover cooked rice, or just cooked rice.
3/4 cup besan (Bengal gram flour)
1 tsp finely chopped green chillies
1/4 cup rice flour
1/4 cup chopped coriander leaves (optional )
1/2 tsp asafoetida (hing)
1/4 tsp turmeric powder (haldi)
Finely chopped onions (optional)
Salt to taste
Oil for cooking

Preparation

1. Mash the rice little bit if its not cooked properly.
2. Combine all ingredients except oil with enough water to make a thick batter
3. Heat a non stick tawa, pour a ladleful of  the batter onto it.
4. Cook on both sides using a little oil
5. Repeat the same with the remaining batter to make more pan cakes

Serve hot.

I hope you will all like this. I just love it. Post your comments.

Appam with Appam podi / Appam flour

This is an authentic dish of South India, especially Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Can make for breakfast or dinner. Goes well with any curry potato, chicken, egg etc. Also can be eaten with banana stew.

Ingredients

Appam powder pack any brand. usually comes as 500 gm pack. For 2 members it can be used twice.
Little yeast (Baking soda )
1/4 tbsp sugar
Water
Oil for frying
Salt to taste

Preparation:

This consists of 2 steps. Preparing thick porridge (Kappi ) and then batter for appam.

Preparing Kappi:

1. Take about 50 gm of appam powder in a vessel mix well with water to form a thin batter without lumps. 
2. Heat it in low flame stirring continuously so that no lumps are formed again, the water would start reducing
3. Keep doing it until it forms a thick porridge consistency, remove from flame and let it cool

Preparing Appam Batter

1. Need to ferment yeast. Take little yeast less than a tbsp, and mix with 2 tbsp of luke warm water, add 1/4 tbsp sugar let is dissolve. Cover and keep aside for 10 minutes.
2. Take the prepared porridge / kappi add the fermented yeast, 200 - 300 gm ( half the packet ) appam powder
3. Pour water and make a thin batter ( dosa batter consistency ) keep for 10 - 12 hours. Best is to prepare evening and it would be ready in the morning.
4. You would notice the batter has risen a bit due to the yeast, if you do not see and change, keep it for few more hours it depends on the temperate of the place.
5. Once its ready add salt to your taste and mix well keep for 30 more minutes before making appam.
6. Heat the appam pan, grease with little oil pour a spoonful of batter and swirl it around to get the shape. Cover the pan and cook on medium flame until its cooked. ( Add little water if the batter is too thick )
7. Repeat the same to make few more. Serve hot with desired dishes.

Note:
The time to ferment will depend on the temperature of the atmosphere. So check the batter to see whether it is rising. If it rises quickly, proceed with the further steps early or wait till it rises, if it is rising slowly.

Summer Delight - Chilled Cucumber Curd Rice

This dish suits well for summer, and kids would love it. Healthy and digest easily. you can also make this dish with left over rice.

Ingredients
1 cup cooked rice
1 cup fresh curd
2 tbsp milk ( Optional )
1/2 cup grated cucumber without seeds
1/2 cup grated carrots
some coriander leaves finely chopped (optional)
Salt to taste

For the tempering
2 tbsp oil, 1 tsp mustard seeds, 2 - 3 whole red chillies broken into pieces, little asafoetida (hing)

Preparation

1. Put the rice in a large bowl and mash well with hand or a potato masher till smooth
2. Add curd, milk, cucumber, carrot, coriander and salt and mix well. Keep aside.
3. Heat oil in a pan, add mustard seeds and let it crackle
4. Add red chillies , asafoetida and saute for a few seconds.
5. pour this tempering over the curd rice mixture and mix well. Refrigerate for atleast 1 hour.
6. Serve chilled.

Simple and easy one isn't ? :) Have fun. 

Fish Curry in Mustard Sauce

Bengali Dish - Fish in Mustard Sauce

Goes well with steamed rice or boiled rice. Can use any fish either sea or river.

Ingredients

1. Mustard paste fresh ( should be soaked atleast for 2 hrs best would be overnight)
2. 4 Tb Sp Mustard Oil ( can also use Extra Virgin Mustard Oil )
3. Green chillies 4
   
4. Whole red chillies 2 - 3 ( Optional )
5. Turmeric Powder little
6. Fish pieces according to your servings, cut in 1 / 1.5 inch thick
7. Salt to taste

Preparation

1. Grind soaked mustard seed with green chillies to a very smooth paste, add water little by little as needed. Paste should be in tomato sauce consistency.
2. Place the cleaned cut fish pieces in a kadai or non stick cooking vessel
3. Pour the ground paste on top of fish pieces.
4. Sprinkle salt, turmeric powder and mustard oil mix well so the fish pieces are coated.
5. Put the red chillies on top and let it marinate for 15 - 20 minutes
6. Heat the pan , cover and cook for 7 - 10 minutes. Occasionally turn the fish pieces.
7. Once done cover it and leave for 2 minutes before serving.

Note:

• To check if fish pieces are cooked, use a fork
• Gravy would usually be thick, if needed can add little hot water while its being cooked to get a good consistency.

Hope you enjoy it !!

Thanks.

Indian recipe - Vegetable Upma Plain

This can be eaten as Breakfast. Easy to cook and healthy.

Ingredients:

1.  Sooji ( Rava ) roasted or plain 250 gm.
2.  Green chillies according to taste , can use 2
3. Chopped one small onion
4. Finely chopped vegetables such as carrot, beans, capsicum, peas. Do not use Potato.
5. Small piece of ginger, finely chopped ( Optional )
6. Mustard seeds 1 Tb Sp
7. Curry leaves optional.
8. 2 Tb Sp oil for frying
9. 1 Tb.Sp Ghee optional
10. Water - 3 times the quantity of Rava/Sooji
11. Salt to taste

Preparation:

1. If sooji is not roasted, dry roast slightly. 
2. In a kadai, heat oil and add mustard seeds. Let it splutter
3. Add curry leaves, onion with green chillie and fry for a minute in medium flame
4. Add ginger and fry for another minute till the aroma goes off.
5. Mix all other chopped vegetables. Cover and cook for 2 - 3 minutes.
6. Add water and bring this mixture to a boil, can let it cook until the vegetables become tender
7. At this stage ghee can be added, if needed.
8. Finally add roasted sooji/rava and stir well slowly in a slow flame. until the mixture thickens. If you feel its still uncooked or hard, sprinkle little more water to it.
9. Leave it covered for a minute. 

Upma is ready to be served.


Note: Ghee softens the upma, and tastes well. can be eaten with salads or just it. If ghee is not added it would be slightly dry can be eaten with any curries, or banana or sugar.


Happy Cooking !!!