Mahanandi

Of all different colored bell peppers, I like the red ones. Red bell peppers are matured green bell peppers and when bell pepper ages, not only the color but the flavor also changes. They become sweet, which is a surprise. Usually maturing into red signals the more fierce kind of flavor in vegetables, but here they mellow.

This favorite chutney of mine is prepared by roasting red bell peppers, onion and dried red chillies and by blending them including peanuts, jaggery and tamarind juice. The result is one of the flavorful and easiest Bharath-inspired chutnies you will ever try. Tastes superb with all the breakfast items, like idly, dosa, upma and also with rice, chapati or as a spread and dip for snack items.

Recipe:

Cut to big chunks:
2 big red bell peppers
1 medium sized onion
6-8 dried red chillies
2 garlic cloves

Roast:
Heat about 1 to 2 tablespoons of peanut oil in a skillet.
Add and roast the cut vegetables and dried red chillies on high heat. The vegetables should be very well browned and soft. Remove them from heat and allow to cool.

Meanwhile, Soak tamarind, and Roast Peanuts:
– Small Lime sized tamarind in half-cup of warm water for about 10 minutes. Or microwave for 30 seconds – This is to soften the tamarind, so it can grind well.
– Roast half-cup of peanuts until golden and remove skins. Store-bought un-salted, roasted peanuts are fine too.

Blend, in a blender or in a mortar using a pestle:
All the roasted vegetables
Tamarind, along with the water it soaked in.
Half cup of roasted peanuts
½ tablespoon of powdered jaggery
¼ tsp of salt or to taste
Grind them together to coarse puree, without adding any extra water.

Remove to a cup and serve with your favorite breakfast/lunch/supper items.

Besan Dosa and Red Bell Pepper Chutney

Recipe Source: My own creation

Zucchini Kurma

When we buy vegetables that are in season, they reward us with incredible fresh flavor. I guess, as if saying thanks for saving them from a fate of an artificial light enhanced, wax coated, every 30 minute sprinkler spray hell of 24-hour open, chain grocery shop environment.

Zucchini is one such vegetable. My first few times cooking this vegetable, the result was not good. The vegetable went all weepy with no taste or substance. I thought what a loser and why would anyone pay good money to buy this. Keep in mind that we don’t get this vegetable in India. After a year break, the next spring, I couldn’t resist giving them another try when I saw the farm fresh, tender skinned and no waxed zucchinis in an appealing shade of pale green. They rewarded me for buying them fresh. The curry with them tasted good, almost like ridge gourd, my favorite vegetable from India. I guess that’s why people often say moving to a new country is a learning experience. Everyday is a new day to find out something new about people, traditions and particularly about food.

We can get zucchini that is freshly picked for the day from neighborhood “Rulli Brothers” grocery shop. I like to cook them by baking & broiling for few minutes or as traditional Indian curry. This is one such recipe where zucchinis are cooked with other fresh vegetables like bell peppers, new crop potatoes, carrots and springtime tomatoes. A satisfying taste and filling side dish suitable to any time of the day.

Recipe:

Cut and chop:
Fresh Zucchinis – 2, cut into big bite sized cubes
Bell Peppers – 2, cut into small pieces
Baby potatoes – 6 to 8, cut into cubes
Carrot – 1, cut into cubes
Tomatoes 6 to 8 or 1 pound cherry tomatoes – chopped
Onion – 1, chopped into small pieces

Heat in a large pan over medium heat:
1 tsp of peanut oil. To it add and toast
1 tsp of each – minced garlic, cumin, mustard seeds and few curry leaves (tadka)

Add and cook:
First onion, then tomatoes until they soften.
Next, 1 cup of overnight soaked dried green peas
Also all the chopped vegetables – Zucchini, bell peppers, potatoes and carrots
Add 1 cup of water and mix. Cover and simmer for about 10 to 15 minutes on medium heat.

Stir in:
1 tsp of each – red chilli powder, salt and turmeric or to taste
1 tsp of cumin-coriander-clove and cinnamon powder (CCCC)
1 tsp of amchur (dried mango) powder
Mix to combine. Simmer another 10 to 15 minutes, covered on medium heat, stirring in-between.

Serve warm with:
Chapatis or parathas.

Zucchini Kurma with Chapatis

Basil on My Kitchen Windowsill

We would have been broke if we had used herbs from the local grocery shops for our daily cooking. 🙂 The herbs in these stores are that much expensive. 10 tiny finger-length branches in a cute little box would usually sell for 2 dollars and some change. The more upscale the grocery chain is, the pricier the herbs are. First few years here, I mostly cancelled the herbs from my shopping list. Later, I started growing them myself. A must to grow would be mint, and some summers I also grow basil and cilantro.

For this summer, I have planted basil in a small container. Kept it on my kitchen windowsill, where it gets plenty of sunlight, and watered it regularly. After a month, the container is full of well grown and overflowing basil. So, the time has come for the first harvest and for a flavorful meal. With trimmed branches of basil, some spinach and cashews cooked together, I prepared a special sauce for pasta for lunch. A different taste from routine tomato sauced pasta. If you like pasta in pesto, then this recipe is for you and the sauce is as good as it looks.:)

Recipe:

1 cup of basil and 1 small bunch of spinach
Medium red onion and tomato – one each, cut into big pieces
6 to 8 green chillies and 4 garlic cloves – sliced into big chunks
Half cup of cashews
Salt and peanut/olive oil to your liking
Pasta of your choice

1. In a skillet, heat a tablespoon of oil. Saut? onion, garlic, green chillies and tomato to golden brown. Remove and keep them aside.

2. Saut? spinach, basil until they wilt in the same skillet. Remove and keep them aside. Wipe the skillet clean, add and dry roast cashews to golden color.

3. When they are all cool to touch, take them all in a blender, add a teaspoon of salt and puree them into smooth mixture.

4. Heat a teaspoon of oil and pour in the pureed mixture. Stir in half to one cup of water. Have a taste, add salt if needed and simmer for about 15 to 20 minutes, until the sauce reaches the thickness you desire.

5. Meanwhile bring water to a boil in a large pot. Add and cook pasta until aldente usually for about 5 to 10 minutes. Drain and add the pasta to the sauce. Stir to combine and serve piping hot.

Pasta in Basil-Spinach-Cashew Sauce with Hard Boiled Eggs
From Pot to Plate for L.G’s Green Blog Project

Green Beans, Shelled Indian Beans, Baby Lima Beans

Here in the US, farmers’ markets are usually bursting with fresh green beans during this time of the year. When we first moved here, during my getting to know the US veggies better phase, regular staple in my kitchen was curries and pulaos prepared with frozen green beans. Frozen green beans are cheap, already cut and cook easily. Taste not that good, still I bought them. But after a year of frozen stuff, I had enough and I’ve sworn off green beans entirely. Then, I discovered the farmfresh green beans of springtime and how good they tasted. From then on, along with radishes, beans became a springtime staple at my home.

My recipe here is same as the old classic, the favorite of Indian cookbook authors, where beans are cut into quarter inch length pieces, saut?ed with onions and green chilli-coconut paste. To this basic recipe, I have also added two other types of shelled beans to increase the nutritional value as well as taste. The shelled Indian beans (Papdi Lilva, the middle ones in the photo above) are available in frozen section of Indian grocery shops here, year round and baby lima beans; you could get them from regular grocery shops. They both taste little bit sweet and starchy, compliments the mildly woodsy taste of fresh french beans.

Sauteing the three-bean curry

Recipe:

Fresh Green beans – 2 cups of chopped quarter-inch length pieces
Shelled Indian broad beans – ½ cup
Baby lima beans – ½ cup
Onion – 1, finely chopped
Green chillies- 4 to 6 and coconut powder, a tablespoon – made into smooth paste
Turmeric – ½ teaspoon
Salt to taste
For tadka or tiragamata:
1 tsp of peanut oil
1 tsp of mustard seeds, cumin, minced garlic and few curry leaves

Heat peanut oil in a kadai or a wide pan. Add and toast the tadka ingredients. Add and stir-fry the onions for about 2 minutes. Add the green beans, Indian beans and Lima beans. Cook, covered for about 5 minutes on medium heat. Beans will soften within 5 minutes by cooking in their own moisture, sort of like steam cooking. At this stage, stir in green chilli-coconut paste, salt and turmeric. Cover and cook on medium heat for another 5-10 minutes stirring in between. Serve hot with chapatis or with rice and dal.

3-bean curry with chapatis

More about Indian Bean Seeds, Papdi Lilva or Chikkudu Vittanalu – Here

Sandwich Fillers and Crunchy Side Snack
Hothouse Cucumber Slices Pickled in Lime juice, Salt and Black Pepper

This is a simple version of cucumber pickle that I often prepare at home. I usually prefer long, smooth, thin skinned cucumbers for this pickle. Mainly because they taste great and I don’t have deal with thick, ugly wax coating that is common on ordinary cucumbers.

How to:

Cut one cucumber into thin rounds.
In a bowl, squeeze 2 or 3 cut limes. To the juice,
Add and mix salt and black pepper powder to taste or about ¼ teaspoon each.
Add and toss the cucumber slices to coat with juice.
Store in a clean jar. Stays fresh upto two weeks, when refrigerated.

Going to be busy for few days for Memorial Day Weekend. Have a great holiday or a neat weekend, my friends!

Yesterday, I was browsing through the nutritional guidebook – Wellness Foods AtoZ of UC Berkeley. The authors mentioned in that book, that radish-the root vegetable, has less than 25 calories per cup and supplies impressive amount of vitamin-C: 29 percent of the daily requirement in 1 cup of red radish slices. Not bad, right.

When it comes to cooking these red ping-pong ball sized beauties of spring, I have a strict dietary preferences. I don’t like them overcooked or raw. Overcooking usually results in no flavor and raw means the smell. Simple 5-minute stir-fry is a perfect way to enjoy their crisp flavor without the loss of nutrients and is the most common way I prefer. Because I do buy them almost every weekend during springtime from local farmers market, I had to come up with different ways to prepare this completely new vegetable (We don’t get this veggie at Nandyala). One way I make it more enticing is stir-frying it with baby potatoes and baby lima beans. Good and easy recipe with delicious crunchy results.

Recipe:

12 to 15 fresh red radishes – ends trimmed and sliced into medium thick rounds
6 to 8 baby potatoes – Boiled in water until just tender and quartered into 4 chunks
½ cup of baby lima beans – or any kind of beans like chickpeas/nuts of your liking
1 onion – finely chopped
seasoning
1 teaspoon of red chilli-garlic powder
½ teaspoon of each – turmeric and salt (or to taste)
For popu or tadka
1 teaspoon of peanut oil
½ teaspoon of cumin, mustard seeds, minced garlic and few curry leaves.

1 Do the tadka – Heat one teaspoon of peanut oil and add and toast tadka ingredients – cumin, mustard seeds, minced garlic and curry leaves.

2 Add and sauté onions, radishes and baby lima beans for few minutes on medium heat, stirring in-between, until they reach the crunchy/soft consistency you desire.

3 Stir in quartered potatoes and the seasoning (chilli-garlic powder, turmeric and salt). Cook for a further couple of minutes.

4 Serve hot with chapatis or with rice and dal.

Radish-Potato Curry Salad with chapatis and tomato dal

Ravish the radish – One

We love going to the local farmers/flea market on Sundays during spring and summer here. They are the only natural atmosphere, which come close resembling to the vegetable markets of my hometown, Nandyala, India.

Back home at Nandyala, most of the produce sold in markets usually comes from neighboring villages or from the farms around the town. Whereas here in this small city in the USA, where we live now, most of the produce comes in boxes and crates from Oregon and California, even at the local ‘Farmers Market’. Thriving small farms are rare and few, it seems, surprising; after all this is midwest, the heartland of America.

But there are a couple of stalls that sell limited variety of produce and fruits, which are truly locally grown and from real soil. We usually buy whatever they had available that week from them. Along with some fruits and veggies, yesterday I purchased radishes, green onions, corn and I prepared pulao for lunch today with them.

Fresh corn, green onions and red radishes, they all have a very delicate flavor and they don’t take well to overcooking, particularly red radishes. Pulao is perfect recipe for them, lightly sauté and mix them with cooked basmati rice, sprinkle some limejuice, viola… delicious colorful meal with fresh spring flavors will be ready.

Recipe:
Cook:
1cup basmati rice in 2 cups of water
Wash, cut and chop:
1 bunch of fresh radishes – quartered
1 bunch of green onions – finely chopped
1 fresh corn – husked and kernels chopped
1 red onion and 4 green chillies – finely sliced lengthwise
1 fistful of fresh green peas – shelled from pods
Prepare or Take Out From the Pantry and Fridge:
1 teaspoon of ginger-garlic-cilantro paste (GGC Paste)
1 teaspoon of clove-cinnamon- cumin-coriander seed powder (CCCC Powder)
½ teaspoon of salt or to taste
Few sprigs of fresh cilantro – finely chopped to garnish
Lemon/lime juice to sprinkle
Sauté, Mix and Serve:
Heat 2 teaspoons of peanut oil or ghee in a big pan or kadai on medium heat. Add the GGC Paste and CCCC powder, sauté for few minutes, until they leave the raw smell. Continuously stir and take care not to burn the masala. Add all the veggies listed above and sauté for few minutes, until they soften. Add the cooked basmati rice to this sautéed veggie mixture. Sprinkle in salt and finely chopped cilantro. Mix thoroughly. Serve hot with a curry and a cup of yogurt for a light meal.

Baingan Chole with Chapatis

Hummus and baba ghanoush got together and baingan chole is born. In plain language, chickpeas and eggplant are cooked together with super fabulous results for a Punjabi style chole. Recipe is simple and almost same as chole preparation.

Recipe:
Soak, Cook and Puree:
– Soak 2 cups of chickpeas in water, overnight.
– At morning, pressure-cook chickpeas in enough water until the chickpeas are tender, but not mushy.
– Drain Water. Separate half cup of chickpeas and puree them into smooth paste. Keep the remaining aside.

Jumbo (Italian) Eggplant

Cut, Chop and Prepare Masala:
– Wash and cut big eggplant into bite sized cubes.
– Chop 1 onion and 2 tomatoes into small pieces.
– Make a smooth paste of 2 garlic, few springs of fresh cilantro and small piece of ginger.(GGC Paste)
– Prepare one tablespoon of cloves-cinnamon-cumin-coriander seed powder. (CCCC Powder)

Saute, Stir-in and Cook:
– Heat one teaspoon of peanut oil in a big pan. Do the popu or tadka.
– Add and saute onion, tomatoes, GGC paste, CCCC powder and eggplant cubes, in that order.
– Add the pureed chickpea paste and pressure-cooked chickpeas.
– Stir in 2 cups of water, one teaspoon of each – salt, red chilli powder, amchur powder and turmeric.
– Close the lid and cook on medium heat for about 20 to 30 minutes, stirring in-between.
– Serve warm with chapatis or with rice.

Lunch Scene at Singari’s Home

“Salsa is a combination of raw, cooked, or partially cooked ingredients that are blended but not cooked together,” says Mark Miller, author of “The Great Salsa Book.” The ideal salsa is balanced, he adds. “Salsa ingredients are like notes you can hear distinctly…. Nothing should dominate too much; accents are fine, but avoid extreme accents.”

Inspired by Cinco de Mayo festival celebrations last weekend, I’ve prepared a Mexican mango salsa following the traditional mango salsa recipe. But I’ve replaced the black beans with grilled fresh corn. Striking colors and exotic flavor blends of mango, corn, chillies make this salsa a dramatic dish to behold and to taste.

Recipe:

1 ripe mango – peeled and finely cubed
1 fresh corn – grilled and the kernels sliced
1 medium red onion or shallot – finely chopped (and washed in water)
2 to 4 green chillies – minced
Few sprigs of cilantro – finely chopped
1 lime – juice squeezed and
¼ teaspoon of salt or to taste

Toss them together and serve with tortilla (corn flour) chips.

Mango Salsa, Corn Chips and Cumin-Salt Flavored Lemon Soda
A Refreshing Snack for Stephanie’s Garden Party

Salsa quote: Source

Vegetables which are at normal prices at our local grocery store now are banana peppers and baby red potatoes. Banana peppers are mildly hot and the new crop, baby red potatoes are mildly sweet. These two are cooked in tomato gravy thickened by the addition of creamy-white, rich poppy seed (khus-khus, gasa gasalu) paste. The taste of the curry is like that of made with almond paste.

Banana Pepper, Baby Red Potato, Poppy Seeds(Khus Khus, Gasa Gasaalu)

Recipe:

Heat in a big saucepan, over medium-low heat:
1 teaspoon of peanut oil

Toast to do the popu or tadka:
1 teaspoon each of cumin, mustard seeds, minced garlic and few curry leaves

Add and Saut�: (listed in order)
1 onion – chopped
4 juicy tomatoes- chopped
8 baby red potatoes -peeled and cubed
4 banana peppers – cut into small rings crosswise

Stir in:
¼ cup poppy seeds(gasa gasalu)-finely powdered using a spicemill/coffee grinder
1 tsp of ginger-garlic-coriander paste
2 tsp of cumin-coriander seed-clove-cinnamon powder
1 tsp of salt
½ tsp of red chilli powder and turmeric

Add 2 cups of water and mix well. Cover and cook on medium heat for about 15 to 20 minutes, stirring in-between. When the gravy reaches the consistency you desire, turn off the heat. Let the curry sit for 10 minutes and serve warm.
Tastes superb with chapatis or with rice.

Banana Pepper- Baby Alu Curry with Chapatis ~ Our meal today

The recipe that was in my mind to be tried is Sury‘s sweet potato dessert or Ranga Alur Puli. The fabulous food blogger, Sury from Delhi, not only writes about food but also studies American English. She recently published her first book “Making Out in America” on American vernacular. Congratulations Sury!

Few weeks ago, she blogged this recipe in her blog. The name of this sweet, the way it was prepared and the traditional Bengali aspect, all captured my interest. When I read her recipe, I did imagine the taste and I couldn’t wait to give it a try. Finally today I prepared this delicious sweet.

I did change the recipe little bit. Instead of adding flour and sugar to sweet potato pulp, I mixed it with gulab jamun powder. Also in addition to traditional coconut-milk-sugar fudge filling, I added some chocolate chips and butterscotch chips, just to create variety. I’ve been preparing gulab jamuns in this way, so I applied the same idea here.

Steam-cooked sweet potato (yam)

Recipe:
(for 15 pieces)
For Dough
1 medium sized sweet potato (yam)
1 packet of gulab jamun powder (100g)
For Filling
½ cup of coconut fudge (coconut-milk-sugar halwa)
¼ cup of chocolate chips – plain and butterscotch
To Deep Fry
2 cups of peanut oil or ghee
For Sugar Syrup
1 cup sugar
2 cups of water
1 teaspoon of rose water
¼ teaspoon of powdered cardamom

Chocolate Chips, Coconut Fudge, Sweet Potato-Gulab Jamun Dough & Dough balls

Preparation:
1. Cook the whole sweet potato on steam until just tender. Remove the skin and mash the sweet potato to smooth paste.

2. Take gulab jamun powder in a vessel. Mix it with sweet potato paste. The moisture of sweet potato is enough to prepare a firm dough. After a rest period of 15 minutes or so, divide the dough into big marble sized rounds.

3. Make a dimple by pressing the dough ball with your thumb. Fill the dimple with a teaspoon of coconut halwa(fudge) or with chocolate chips. Cover the hole with dough from the sides; roll into smooth round ball. Prepare all the dough balls like this and keep them ready for deep-frying.

4. Meanwhile prepare sugar syrup. Take sugar and water in a big pot. Bring to a boil. Let simmer for few minutes (5 to 10 minutes maximum on medium heat). Have a taste and add more sugar if needed. This is just plain sugar syrup, do not thicken the syrup and do not cook it for longer period. Just before turning off the heat, stir in rose water and cardamom powder.

Deep Frying the Jamuns

5. Heat oil in a kadai or in a saucepan. Deep-fry the jamuns until golden on medium-low heat. One tip is, keep the heat medium and do not overheat the oil. Deep-fry the jamuns, slowly. The color changes from light gold to much deeper color gradually within 3 to 4 minutes. If the colour changes to brown immediately after dropping into oil, it is a signal that the oil is too hot. In that case, reduce the heat or turn off the heat for few minutes. You need to cook these slowly on moderate heat because the dough should get cooked evenly inside also.

6. Remove the jamuns and place them on a paper towel to dry off any oil that’s attached to them. Quickly and gently drop them into sugar syrup. Take care not to spill the oil into sugar syrup.

7. Keep them soaked in syrup for about 15 to 30 minutes. Jamuns will absorb the syrup and will increase in size a little bit. I would like to serve gulab jamuns cold, so usually, I keep them in the refrigerator for one hour before serving.

Sweet Potato Gulab Jamuns (Ranga Alur Puli) ~ For this week’s “Indian Sweets 101“
They tasted great, just like I’ve imagined, particularly the coconut halwa filled ones (shown above) and the ones filled with butterscotch chips.

This is my contribution to “Blog Party – Bite Sized Desserts” hosted by dear Stephanie of Dispensing Happiness.

First time I tasted wild rice was at a restaurant in Houston. For main course there was an entry with wild rice. I’ve heard good things about wild rice and I wanted to give it a try. Try we did. The restaurant version of wild rice was full of butter and had some toasted pine nuts. The portion was small, but we loved it so much, decided to cook it at home. Then we found about the price; wild rice is not cheap, I can tell you that. It’s an indulgence for us and I like to cook it once in a while.

My version is very simple. For 1 cup of wild rice, usually I’d add 2 and half cups water, a quarter teaspoon of salt and ghee. I cook it just like regular rice in a rice cooker. The result is very fabulous, nutty, chewy wild rice. Though it looks like ‘Basmati gone black’, the taste of wild rice is unique. It has its own unique smell and texture. You can’t gobble up, each grain beckons you to slow down and enjoy it. Try it, if you haven’t already.

Wild Rice with Eggplant Chole ~ Our simple lunch today.

Eggplant Chole: Recipe Replace aloo (potatoes), with jumbo eggplant cubes. I’ve got the idea of cooking eggplant-chickpeas together from Mika’s blog.
Wild Rice Nutritional information – click here.

We lose by generalizing everything. Unity and showing strong front is important but preserving the diversity and maintaining our own uniqueness is also equally important, I think. Indian cuisine is such a broad term. Can anyone say they know all the regional food varieties of India? I guess not. If we don’t talk about our regional cuisine, who will and how would anyone know about the difference in our cooking. I see lot of new Indian food blogs coming up everyday. Generalize to your heart’s content, but don’t be shy to highlight your regional specialties. That would make the recipe more attractive to the readers and give them the feeling they are trying out something unique, in my view.

See, for example, from India – we go to Andhra Pradesh, my home state in India. Though the general term is Andhra cuisine, there are 3 regions (Rayalaseema, Kosta and Telengana) and each region has its own specialties. Lot of diversity out there, even in one state. Example is this recipe. Cooking vegetables like potatoes etc., in tamarind-chilli sauce is the specialty of Kosta (Coastal region) of Andhra. They call this Tamarind-chilli sauce “Pulusu“. It is the base sauce for all kinds of vegetables, in that region. The saying is, “give something to kosta people, particularly the Nellore district, they would find a way to add tamarind to it”.

The ‘pulusu‘ tastes like as if ‘old western’ kind of faction war happened between tamarind and dried red chillies. To compensate the sourness of tamarind, more hot chillies are added. Unbridled war wages on between these two strong tastes and there is no mediator to calm it down. Thickening agents like coconut or peanut paste are big no or rarely used. The pacifier of course is the poor vegetable that is added. How high this war can go on, which one dominates the taste of ‘pulusu‘ – it all depends on housewife’s mood that day. Imagine sucking on a lime wedge and simultaneously eating a dried red chillie – that’s how this pulusu tastes. You are alerted so prepare it at your own risk.

Recipe:

8 to 10 baby potatoes
1 medium sized onion and 10 to 12 cherry tomatoes – finely chopped
For sauce:
1 cup of tamarind juice – (medium thick – home made version)
6 dried red chillies+3 garlic cloves+1 teaspoon of cumin – Make a smooth paste of them.
1/4 teaspoon of turmeric and salt to taste
Popu or tadka ingredients:(1tsp of each, cumin, mustard seeds and few curry leaves)

Boil potatoes in water, just until tender. Remove them and strip the outer skin. Prick the potatoes in multiple sites with a fork so that they can absorb the sauce.

In a big pan or kadai – heat one teaspoon of peanut oil. Do the popu or tadka (toast mustard seeds, cumin, curry leaves). Saute onions and tomatoes for few minutes until they soften. Stir in red chilli paste; saute it for few minutes until it leaves the raw smell. Add the tamarind juice and another cup of water. Stir in salt and turmeric and also the pricked potatoes. Cover and simmer them for about 15 to 20 minutes on medium heat, stirring in between. Wait until the sauce reaches the consistency of thick lava. Turn off the heat, and serve the pulusu with chapatis or with rice and ghee.

Baby potatoes in tamarind-chilli sauce and chapatis

I’ve added a tablespoon of powdered jaggery to this curry, forgive me my dear Nellore friends and readers. I know you will sneer at me, I know it is a big no-no, adding any kind of sweetener to the curry. But my poor body won’t tolerate that kind of slow burning heat.

This is my entry to “The Spice is Right – Ancient Spices” food blog event, started and hosted by my favorite food blogger, very talented chef Barbara of Tigers and Strawberries.

Back home, a breakfast is still a breakfast. It is not brunch, lunch or supper. Breakfast items are few, and everyday one of them is prepared and eaten by 9 AM. My mother never uttered the words – “I’m not feeling well today and not making any breakfast for you”. As a grown up, living in a silent world with plenty of time to reflect back, now I realise, my mother like me, must had several reasons to slack off, if she wanted to. But she never did. I am sure many of you can relate to what I am talking about. That kind of devotion was given to us when we were children. This is the reason why I often mention ‘amma (mother)’ as recipe source. If I have the courtesy to write a cookbook author’s name as recipe source for a blogged recipe, why shouldn’t I return the same courtesy to amma, from whom I learned most of my cooking from.

Colorful idly with carrots and chana dal aka masala idly is one of her recipes. Finely grated carrots and chana dal along with green chillies and cumin etc. are added to the leftover idly batter for a next day morning breakfast. Imagine the taste of upma, and these idlies almost taste like that. Steam cooked in round shape, they are a pleasure when served hot with chutney and sambar. Though they are a breakfast item back home, here I often make them on a weekend for brunch, lunch or for supper.

Recipe:
This is same as idly preparation except that we add bunch of other ingredients and change the lilly white, cloud like plain idlies into colorful, somewhat dense masala idlies.

(for 16 idlies)
3 cups of Idly batter
(urad dal and rice ravva(cream of rice) in 1:2 ratio, soaked, grind into smooth batter and kept overnight for fermentation)
Ingredients to add to idly batter
1 cup of grated carrot (1 big carrot)
¼ cup of chana dal (soaked in water for atleast an hour)
¼ cup of coarsely crushed, roasted peanuts or cashews
¼ cup of finely chopped cilantro
2 to 4 finely chopped or minced green chillies
1 teaspoon of cumin and few curry leaves
¼ teaspoon of salt or to taste

Mix the ingredients with idly batter thoroughly. Fill the round impressions of idly plates with this batter. Place the idly stand in an idly cooker and steam cook them for about 20 minutes or until the batter sets completely. Remove the idly stand from the cooker, run a spoon under each impression and separate the cooked idlies from the impressions. Serve them hot with peanut or coconut chutney and sambhar.

Masala idlies with peanut chutney and shallot sambhar

For more detailed recipe of idly, about idly stand, idly plates and idly cooker etc., – click here

(Imitating Rachel Ray’s 30-minute meal episode narration
for this month’s IMBB-Make it in 30 minutes)
Hi I’m Indira Singari, I’m going to prepare a 30 minute meal today. Spaghetti in spicy cherry tomato sauce. Who said we couldn’t have pasta in a spicy sauce? You know, I’ve tried commercial pasta sauces but my tastebuds, once you are used to spicy stuff, it’s tough to go back to that kind of childhood bland, flat taste. giggle… ok enough of chit chat…

Going to the pantry area… Grabbing 2 pints of cherry tomatoes. You know, I like cherry tomatoes. They have a very thin skin and have more zing than the romas. I bought two of these boxes for 99 cents each from the local grocery shop. What a deal, you know. gigggle…

Next thing on the list is, pasta – I’m in the mood for thin spaghetti. So thin spaghetti it is then. Also to add to the tomatoes… here is a teaspoon of cumin, 5 dried red chillies and 4 big garlic cloves. I see some nuts in my cupboard, ya…grabbing those…hmm…Quarter cup of watermelon seeds and a tablespoon of chironji(sara pappu), just to give that extra nutty sweetness to the tomato sauce. It’s going to be one Yum O sauce… giggle… I’m also going to add boiled and sliced eggs to the pasta as a side dish. 4 eggs are enough…

Garbage bowl is a handy one, I can carry all these in this big bowl and later when I am chopping I can dump all the waste like eggshells etc in the bowl. Believe me, it’s one handy thing to have by side. … giggle…

Ok… first cooking the pasta: place the big saucepan on the burner. Fill two thirds of pot with water. Nothing is wrong with tap water, so fill it up. Drop 2 teaspoons of salt into water and cover with a lid. Bring to a boil. Also in other saucepan, take pot full of water, add eggs and pinch of salt, cover and cook them.

Prepping the cherry tomato sauce: It takes at least 5 minutes for water to come to a boil, so in the meantime, we prepare tomato sauce. Let’s go…Separate 10 cherry tomatoes from the box and keep them aside. You are going to see what I’m going to do with them later. Ok, back to tomatoes. Take the remaining cherry tomatoes in a blender; add cumin, garlic, dried red chillies and a teaspoon of salt. Blend them finely. This is going to be our spicy sauce… it took less than one minute, the time it takes to open a can of tomato sauce. giggle…

Now cooking the sauce: heat a teaspoon of EVOO.. that means extra virgin olive oil giggle…and drop one or two finely minced garlic. Also watermelon seeds and chironji (sara pappu). Sauté them till golden, then add the pureed spicy tomato sauce and one cup of water. Close the lid. Hmmm that starts smelling good. Cook this mixture on medium heat for at least 15 minutes, stirring in between.

Checking on the water — the water is boiling ready now. Add the pasta, you know, some people like to break the pasta to half before adding to the water. But I like them long, so here they go into the boiling water. I’ll wait for 5 minutes then I remove them. Checking the other pot…the eggs are cooked perfectly. I’m going to take them out of water with a big spoon.

Now getting ready to plate the meal: everything is coming together perfectly, ahh… the smell… I wish you could smell the tomato sauce… all that cumin, garlic… it’s like heaven in here. giggle… Ok, slice the cherry tomatoes we kept aside, to halves. Place them on a round plate to the edges. Peel and slice the boiled eggs into thin strips.

Pasta is cooked perfectly… slurping one spaghetti…al dente, just perfect. Pour the whole thing into a colander to drain the water. Add the spaghetti to the spicy tomato sauce and stir. Look how beautiful it looks… Wheaty white spaghetti in ruby red tomato sauce… Gorgeous!

Plating: Grab a couple of forkfuls of pasta and place them on the plate. Arrange some more sliced cherry tomatoes and some egg slices around the pasta to give that pretty look. Our 30-minute meal is ready. For dessert I’m going to have one of those muffin sized Mango Halwa pieces, I prepared yesterday. Just perfect to end the meal.

Tasting: Yum O…not only appealing to the eyes, this super simple meal has everything going on for it. It has carbos, nutty fat, eggy protein and veggies in the form of cherry tomatoes. Even more its spicy…taking a bite…hmm… loving it.. giggles…

Hey I’m Indira Singari, you can prepare a great, satisfying meal in just 30 minutes. See… Signing off…(Camera focuses on the meal.)

30 minute meal – Spaghetti in Spicy Tomato Sauce served with cherry tomatoes and boiled egg slices

Ingredients
2 fistfuls of thin spaghetti
2 pints of cherry tomatoes
4 garlic cloves
5 dried red chillies
1 teaspoon of cumin
¼ cup of watermelon seeds and chironji (sara pappu, charoli)
Olive oil and salt to taste
Additions: 4 boiled eggs- yellows removed and sliced thin

Thanks “Too Many Chefs” for hosting this month’s IMBB event.
Tagged with: IMBB24 + 30Minutes