Beet Root Rice

Arun's favorite lunch during school days was the BeetRoot rice prepared by MIL. It is very nutritious, tasty and easy to prepare.Even today he takes beetroot rice for lunch every fortnight :)

Ingredients:
1. Beet Root - 1 (big)
2. Green Chilly - 2 (round cut)
3. Curry leaves
4. Mustard
5. Salt
6. Oil - 2 teaspoon
7. Rice - 1 cup

Recipe:
1. Peel the root and grate it medium small.
2. In a kadai, add mustard, curry leaves, green chillies to heated oil.
3. Mix the grated beetroot and saute for 5 minutes in medium flame.
4. Add salt and continue for 1 more minute.
5. Then cover it and leave in medium flame for about 10-15 minutes.
6. Mix the boiled rice with the beetroot till no white spots appear in the rice.
7. Serve hot.

Boiled egg sprinkled with salt and pepper, Potato chips are good sides for this dish.

Potato Stew (Kerala Style)

My MIL lived in Kerala for two years. She loved God's own kingdom so much that she almost turned a mallu :).  Her cuisine became rich with some Kerala dishes. I love her simple Potato Stew very much. Here is how I make it.

Ingredients:

1. Russet Potato  - Two

2. Onion - One (long cut)
3. Green Chillies - 4 (long cut)
4. Curry Leaves - 5 leaves
5. Garlic - 1 clove (disc cut)
6. Coconut oil - 3 tablespoon
7. Coconut milk - 1 cup
8. Salt

Recipe:
1. Boil the potatoes; peel and cut it in cubes.
2. In a kadai, heat 2 tablespoon coconut oil.
3. Add the potatoes and fry for a minute.
4. Add onion, garlic and green chillies and keep frying.
5. Add salt and add the coconut milk. Pour half cup water and boil covered in low flame.
6. When the coconut smell subsides, add curry leaves and one tablespoon of coconut oil.

Serve it hot with Puri or Roti!

Pasta

I never learned to cook pasta. Couple of years ago, we tried the BreadBowl Pasta from Dominos. It was delicious! From what it looked like, I tried to cook pasta one day, like an experiment. Alas! The experiment was not bad. I have been mixing and matching various things. I think this post is my simple way to make pasta. Check it out.



Ingredients:
1. Pasta (any kind) - 1/4 lb (nothing is hard and fast.. just see if it will be enough for two)
2. Carrot - 1/2 cup (long cut)
3. Capsicum - 1/2 cup (long cut)
4. mushroom - 1/2 cup
5. American cheese - 1/2 cup
6. Pasta sauce / Ragu - 1/2 cup
7. Salt
8. Olive oil - 3 tablespoon
9. Ground black pepper - 1 teaspoon

Recipe:
1. Boil the pasta with salt and 1 teaspoon olive oil in 2qt water and drain it. Keep aside
2. In an uncovered pan, pour olive oil. Fry the vegetables till they become tender. Add salt as needed.

3. Add the pasta to the fried vegetables and mix in low flame.
4. Sprinkle the black pepper.
5. Add pasta sauce and mix well, again in low flame.

6. When coated well, add 1/4 cup cheese and stir well till it melts.
7. Pasta is ready!



To enhance taste sprinkle cheese and serve it hot!

Loula Puri [Inippu Vadai]

Day before yesterday was a Friday! Friday evenings usually begin with a snack. This Friday I prepared our favourite sweet, the Sourashtrian Loula Puri! Loula, pronounced as 'low-lay' means thin. But the apt word would  be sweet. Because this is a vada type of thing that is sweet. This sweet is made usually on Varalakhsmi vrath.

Ingredients:

1. Maida - 1 cup

2. Sugar - 1/4 cup  (I make it mild sweet always :) )

3. Rava - 2 tbsp

4. Cashews (broken) - 15 to 20

5. Oil

Recipe:

1. In a bowl, mix the maida, sugar and rava with water. The mix should be like dosa batter.

2. Keep the mix aside for 4-5 hours.

3. In a kadai, fry cashews till golden brown.

4. Transfer the cashews to the mix in the bowl.

5. Heat oil in kadai.

6. Take the batter in a deep spoon and pour it in the oil. Make sure the spoon is deep enough to make a decent size puri.

7. Fry till light golden brown and then dry it in tissue covered bowl.

Agasthir Ounty [Vendakkai Kuzhambu] {South Indian Okra Stew}

My MIL is here with us. Such a joy to have her here. She is a very good cook. She has lived in many cities of TamilNadu. Also a few years in North India. Her cooking has so much variety. I will introduce the basic sourashtrian 'ounty' with Ladies Finger flavor prepared by her.

Ingredients:

1. Tomato - 1 big

2. Okra - 15 to 20

3. Mustard - 1 teaspoon

4. Ounty powder - 1 tablespoon

5. Tamarind - A ping pong ball size

6. Toor Dal - 1 teaspoon

7. Gingelly oil - 1 ounce

8. Salt

Recipe:

1. Heat the oil in a cooker and pop the mustard seeds.

2. Add Toor Dal and bring it to a golden brown.

3. Add the chopped tomatoes and fry till they get smashed.

4. Add the cut okra. The cut size should be about an inch. Fry for a couple of minutes.

5. Add Ounty powder, salt and extracted tamarind water.

6. Add a cup of water and mix well.

7. Put the lid on and bring it to a whistle under medium flame.

8. Switch the flame off and wait till the steam is out.

9.  Open the lid and boil the ounty for 5-10 minutes on a medium flame.

10. The ounty would have sufficiently thickened by now.

11. Serve it hot with white rice.

Quick Rotti Halwa

In 2009 I tried Rotti Halwa with tea rusk.The taste was ok-ok. Last year I tried it with white bread. Arun used to tell me how my cousin in Kendall Park made this once. I created a short cut version of it based on my mom's idea ;-)

Ingredients:
1. White bread  - 3 slices
2. Sugar - 1.5 cup
3. Cold water - 2.5 cups
4. Ghee - 3/4 cup
5. Cashew nut - 10 nos.
6. Cardamom - 6 nos.

Recipe:
1. Medium toast the bread slices.

2. Grind the bread to crumbs in a blender. This should be about a cup.

3. In a cooker, take two spoons of ghee and add the bread crumbs. Fry for 2 minutes.

3. Add cold water and keep boiling till the bread crumbs become soft.

4. Add sugar and mix it well.
5. Add half a cup of ghee and close the cooker with its lid. Keep on medium flame.

6. Wait for 8 whistles and switch the flame off and remove the lid after the steam is out.
7. The mix will be watery now. So keep stirring it for 30-45 minutes on medium flame. The mix will be semi solid now.
7. In a kadai, add two spoons of ghee and fry the cashew nuts.
8. After cashews become golden brown, put it in the cooker along with some cardamom.

You must be wondering how this is quick?? This has taken more than 1.5 hours!! Well, the traditional way of making this halwa does not involve pressure cooker. This will easily add 4-5 hours of stirring!! Now you do the math... Ain't it quick?? :)

Coimbatore Egg Masala

Hi Friends,

Today our friend Vinoth Roy brought his parents to our house. His parents are visiting US for the first time and are really enjoying their trip. They are from the Northern part of TamilNadu. Arun and I were thinking how to serve them with a different taste. We picked the green pulav, about which I will talk later. To suit this we thought of a egg gravy. In our hunt for a new type of gravy, I hit upon http://pachakam.com/recipe.asp?id=4582&RecipeName=Coimbatore%20Egg%20Masala. Hey don't go there yet. Listen to my changes...

Ingredients:
1. Eggs - 6-8
2. Onion - 1
3. Tomato - 2
4. Ginger Garlic paste - 1 tsp
5. Sambar powder - 2 tsp
6. Chicken Masala powder - 1 tsp
7. Cumin powder - 1 tsp
8. Coriander powder - 1 tsp
9. Turmeric powder - 1 tsp
10. Ground pepper - 1 tsp
11. Water - 2 cups
12. Sunflower oil - 2 tbsp
13. Salt

Recipe:
1. Boil the eggs. Slit for masala to penetrate.
2. Heat the oil in a pan and saute onion, ginger garlic paste till the onions turn brown.
3. Add finely chopped tomatoes and make a paste. Add salt as required.
4. Add the sambar powder, chicken masala powder, cumin powder, coriander powder, turmeric powder and the ground pepper to the paste.
5. Add two cups of water and let it come to a boil in 5 mins with medium flame.
6. Add the slit eggs, stir and cover and cook for 10-15 mins. The masala powder smell should have gone by now.

Serve with white rice or chappathi or variety rice.