Seattle University is hosting Thanksgiving dinner party tomorrow at the university function hall. And on request, Vijay and I had volunteered to prepare some dishes. The main attraction for us was university’s restaurant style big kitchen. Working with big burners and cooking food for people the size that would get invited to a celebrity’s wedding… it was work but we had good time today. Prepared our favorite winter comfort foods Aloo chole and chakli (murukulu) for the party.
We food bloggers, those who practice Indian cuisine have our own language of ingredients and recipe names. Sometimes finding them on the web becomes difficult, you have to wade through page after page. Indian ingredients names can be last names of some people or an acronym of a software program. Oh, you will find all sorts of weird things with that name except of course what we are looking for. Google custom search engine, evil:) Goggle?s latest offering, really can help us out with the search. We can create our own search engines and can customize by including and excluding sites.
Very useful I thought, so created one for us, Indian food bloggers. The total number of sites came to about 95 (including Bawarchi) and I’m sure I’ve missed quite a few. Compared to when I started last year (only 3), this year has seen an incredible number of creative and talented Indian food bloggers and numerous regional recipes. With this engine we can search and find easily what we are looking for. Although the focus of the search is Indian food blogs, I haven?t excluded any sites, and you can search food blogs from all around the world easily from this search engine.
If you’d like to add custom search engine (Food Blog Search – India) to your site, here is the code: Copy and paste. Just replace “[” and “]” with “< " and ">” respectively.
(Elise of Simply Recipes has created one for all of us foodbloggers worldwide and the code for it is: here.)
Google CSE Search Box Begins
[form id=”searchbox_001213341704229786495:dqqot2dwwog” action=”http://google.com/cse”]
[input type=”hidden” name=”cx” value=”001213341704229786495:dqqot2dwwog” /]
[input name=”q” type=”text” size=”25″ /]
[input type=”submit” name=”sa” value=”Search Food Blogs-India” /]
[input type=”hidden” name=”cof” value=”FORID:1″ /]
[script type=”text/javascript” src=”http://google.com/coop/cse/brand?form=searchbox_001213341704229786495%3Adqqot2dwwog”][/script][/form]
Google CSE Search Box Ends
Search Box will look like this:
Along with the custom search engine, for the community, I have also created a comprehensive list of all food blog sites practicing Indian cuisine, under the name of ‘Mahanandi’s Food Blog List’. Check it out.
If I have missed any, please let me know and I will add the sites to the list. Thanks.
I’ve always found this dish convenient to cook, for I do not have to worry about the stickiness or falling apart at the touch – ness of taro root. Traditionally in India, boiled, sliced taro is fried in an iron skillet on stovetop. Most of times, end result would be a big, shapeless mush. Tastes good but not that appealing to the eyes. Baking and broiling really suits taro. If you haven’t tried it yet, you must now. Perfection, I tell you. Crispy and gold colored, usually forgettable taro becomes an unforgettable taste.
These oven baked chaama dumpa vepudu/fry make a satisfying and nutritious side dish when served with rice and dal/sambar/rasam or yogurt combination. Moreover, it is the ideal dish for these cool winter days. Oven cooking brings that much needed warmth to the home and also to our bellies.
Recipe:
Boil (or steam cook) taro roots in water until they become tender. Overboiling makes them extremely mushy so keep checking and remove them before they turn to mushy soft. When they are cooled enough to touch, peel the skins. Cut each, crosswise about quarter to half-inch thickness.
In a vessel, take one or one + (your wish) teaspoons of oil. Add and mix salt, red chilli-garlic powder and turmeric to taste. Add and toss the cut taro root pieces. Spread them in rows neatly on a foil covered baking tray and bake them at 350 F for about 10 minutes. Also broil each side for about 2 to 5 minutes, until they are golden-brown. Remove and serve hot.
While boiling and baking, pay attention to the time and the cooking process. Overcooking in water or overbaking may result in mushy or blackened taro root chips instead of golden, crispy perfection.
I have postponed blogging about this recipe as long as I could. A dal with Tindora (Dondakaya) and toordal – it may sound preposterous and audacious, but people do prepare it in Andhra (Nandyala), and there are some who like it. In case of me, I like it mainly because everything Indian is precious to me now.:)
If you are one of those who would cook tindoras in a pressure cooker or by adding water to the curry, then you might like this traditional Andhra tindora dal recipe as well. Tomato dal with tindora touch is what this tindora (dondakaya) pappu is.
Recipe:
Cut:
10 tindoras (dondakayalu), cut thinly crosswise, like coin shape
(Discard red colored, ripe flesh ones)
10 to 12 green chillies – finely chopped
1 medium sized onion – cut into chunks
1 medium sized tomato – cut into small pieces
Pressure Cook:
In a pressure cooker, take 4 fistfuls of toor dal and wash them first. Add the cut vegetables, ¼ teaspoon of turmeric, tablespoon of tamarind pieces and 2 cups of water. Cover and pressure-cook till two or three whistles. Turn off the heat and wait for the pressure to go off. When all the valve pressure is released, open the lid. Add about ½ teaspoon of salt. With a wood masher, mash the dal to smooth consistency.
Do the popu or tadka:
In a dal-pot, heat a teaspoon of peanut oil. Add and toast 6 each-curry leaves and dried red chilli pieces, one teaspoon each of- minced garlic, urad dal, cumin and mustard seeds – in the order mentioned. When mustard seeds start to dance, quickly add the mashed dal from pressure cooker and mix. Cover with a lid and let it sit for few minutes for flavors to mingle well.
Serve:
Serve a big serving spoon size rice on a plate. With similar kind of spoon, serve dal. Sprinkle one teaspoon of ghee. Mix rice, dal and ghee with hand. Shape into small ping-pong shaped rounds. Like a truffle, savor each round. A curry, pickle or papadam on the side not only enhances this experience a lot, this is how the rice-dal combo is eaten in many Andhra households.
“One remarkable thing about Rajasthani recipes is, without the usage of Onions and Garlic, the dishes that are prepared are remarkably tasty. One such dish which stole my heart is Methiwale Kabuli Chhole (Chick peas with fenugreek leaves). This curry is prepared both in dry and gravy version. But my suggestion is to prepare semi gravy version. If you taste this once, you would love to try this out again and again.”
– Writes cooking guru Sri Hemant Trivedi in his introduction to chickpea-fenugreek curry. As weather turned to cold and gray, kitchen and food have become my source of warmth and comfort, among other things. Chickpeas are one of my favorite winter comfort foods and I am always on the lookout for new recipes to try with this wonder legume. The methi chole recipe from Trivedi’s fabulous website sounded interesting and I gave it a try last weekend.
Of course I had to alter the recipe to suit my tastes. I have added onions, omitted ginger-garlic, and I prepared the curry with fresh green chickpeas. Trader Joe’s, the nearby grocery shop carries fresh green chickpeas in frozen section. One-pound packet was available for $1.99. Like freshly shelled peas, fresh green chickpeas taste good, and when combined with potent fenugreek, they made a great combination. Chana masala infused with fenugreek magic is methi chole. Give it a try.
Recipe:
2¼ cups of green chickpeas (chana, green garbanzos)
(of which ¼ cup removed and pureed to smooth paste – to thicken the sauce)
2 cups of fresh methi leaves (fenugreek leaves)
4 big, ripe, juicy tomatoes – cut to small pieces
1 onion – finely chopped
Seasoning:
1 tablespoon of chana masala powder
Salt, chilli powder, turmeric, jaggery (or sugar) and amchur powder – to taste or ½ teaspoon each
1 teaspoon of ghee
In a big saucepan, heat ghee on medium heat.
Add and saute onions to soft.
Add fresh methi leaves and cook for about two minutes, until leaves collapse.
Add the green chickpeas and tomatoes. Stir in the pureed chickpea paste, and all the seasoning. Add about 2 cups of water.
Cover and cook for about 20 to 30 minutes, stirring in-between, on medium heat, until the chickpeas become tender. Serve the methi-chole warm with chapatis.
This recipe can also be prepared with dried chickpeas (soak and cook them to tender first and follow the recipe steps mentioned above).
Green Garbanzo Beans – purchased at Trader Joe’s, frozen section.
Fresh Methi (fenugreek leaves) – purchased at Indian grocery shops
Recipe source and adapted from – Sri Hemant Trivedi and from ‘Spice is Right’
Mahanandi is going to have its one millionth visitor today.
I began stat counting on June 2005, about one and half years ago and the number of visitors at that time was around 50 to 100 a day. Now Mahanandi is averaging about 5,000 to 6,000 visits and 14,000 to 16,000 page views a day and the number is constantly increasing. Reaching first million is a special benchmark in a blog’s history and the blog world ritual demands a post honoring the visitors who made it possible.
Thanks to all of you who have read and supported this site with words of encouragement and links. In return I want this post all about you, the visitors. You already know me through my posts and I would like to know you as well.
Who are you?
Where are you from?
Say hello and please feel free to share about yourself, your cooking interests – one sentence or one full page (forget about Mahanandi). This day is for you.
One of you going to be THE millionth visitor and for you, this special friendly rose.
Added on Nov 13:
First of all, I want to thank you for saying hello and letting me know about you. It is humbling and overwhelming to see such a response from you all. Some of you are regulars like me hanging in the web world and some of you drop by occasionally. If I ever wonder who you are, the affectionate note you have left will be my handy reference guide to know more about you.
I remember reading, “Food is like music. The possibilities are endless, and the learning curve never ends. They both satisfy the soul and make us feel good to be alive.”
I am glad to be around a group of positive people who think alike. Thank you!
Video guided tour of Pioneer Square and Seattle Underground
Bong in Food blog world:
A bong, a mom and a cook ~ Bong Mom’s Cookbook
Calm inducing, anxiety reducing Kava Kava tea – from Evil Jungle Prince
One needs bong to sit through this semi homemade true Halloween Horror ~ From Manolo’s Blog
Just like dear Supriya (Tweety) of Bengaluru, I also prepare upma often, at least once a week for lunch or dinner. Rice and roti are good but sometimes I feel like taking a break from those two and upma usually comes to my rescue.
Upma recipe is very forgiving. We can make it as elaborate, nutritious (by adding lot of vegetables, nuts etc) or simple (just plain water and some salt) as we like. One thing the recipe does need is a pickle or chutney on the side. A meal is healthy when it’s homecooked and upma is pleasing when it’s served with chutney on the side. One such simple and easy chutney recipe that taste terrific with upma or for that matter all varieties of breakfast items is coriander-pappula (roasted chana dal) chutney.
Pappulu or putnala pappulu (Telugu) are sold as ‘dalia’ in US. See this label here. I always thought the name dalia is a North Indian one, but not so says Anita of ‘A Mad Tea Party”. So now the question is who calls pappulu or bhuna chana ‘dalia’? Which Indian language is it from? Or unknown to us mere mortals, Indian grocery wholesalers have a separate language to confuse us more?:)
Edited to add:
Thank you Darshana and Madhuli for clearing the confusion. Dalia is a Gujarati word for pappulu or bhuna chana.
Recipe:
1 cup of roasted chana dal (Pappulu, dalia, bhuna chana)
1 bunch of fresh coriander (cilantro, Kottimera)
8 green chillies – short, Indian variety
1 T of tamarind juice or limejuice or to taste
1 T of coconut fresh or dried (optional)
1 teaspoon of cumin
½ teaspoon of salt
Take them all in a blender, add about half glass of water and grind to smooth paste. Remove to a cup.
Do the popu or tadka:
Heat a teaspoon of peanut oil in a tadka pan. Add and toast in this order – 5 curry leaves, half teaspoon each of urad dal, then cumin and mustard seeds. When seeds start to splutter immediately add the popu to chutney. Mix and serve with breakfast items.
If cabbage has a mini me, it would definitely look like a brussels sprout, I think. To compensate what they lack in size, they got lot of that cabbage sp(t)unk. Somehow this tiny, tightly wounded veggie brings out the bad in people here. Blah, eew, yuk, is what you hear often with the mention of brussels sprouts. Blanching them whole and buttering them up, I would say yuk too. My way of preparing brussels sprouts is different and cooking curried way makes this winter season vegetable pleasantly pleasing.
For our lunch today, I saut?ed the brussels sprouts with potatoes and fresh green chana (garbanzo/chickpeas). Little bit of chillie and little bit of garam masala, together with sweet taste of green chana – one tasty curry was ready for chapatis.
Recipe:
15 fresh brussels sprouts – outer leaves removed and finely chopped lengthwise
2 medium-sized potatoes – Boiled to tender, skin removed and quartered to cubes
½ cup of fresh green garbanzo beans (green chana/chickpeas)
1 red onion – finely sliced lengthwise
Green chillies to taste or 6 – finely chopped
Garam masala, coconut powder, turmeric and salt – to taste or 1 tsp each
Popu or Tadka Ingredients:
Cumin, mustard seeds, curry leaves – ½ tsp each
In a big skillet, add and heat a teaspoon of peanut oil. Add and toast tadka ingredients first. One by one add and saut? onions, green chillies and garbanzo beans. Add in brussels sprouts. Stir in garam masala, coconut powder, turmeric and salt. Mix. Cover and cook for few minutes until the sprouts start to wilt. Add in cubed potatoes. Cook covered for another 10 to 15 minutes on medium heat, stirring in between, until the sprouts reach the tenderness you desire. Keep in mind just like cabbage and cauliflower, brussels sprouts also release unpleasant odor on overcooking.
Serve hot with chapati or with rice.
Fresh, green garbanzo beans – Frozen section, Indian grocery & Trader Joe’s
Recipe Source: My own creation
“Mustard greens originated in the Himalayan region of India and have been grown and consumed for more than 5,000 years. Mustard greens are a notable vegetable in many different cuisines, ranging from Chinese to Southern American. Like turnip greens, they may have become an integral part of Southern cuisine during the times of slavery, serving as a substitute for the greens that were an essential part of Western African foodways. While India, Nepal, China and Japan are among the leading producers of mustard greens, a significant amount of mustard greens are grown in the United States as well.”
– Says the WHFoods, a website which provides unbiased scientific information on nutrient-rich World’s Healthiest Foods. If you think history of this green leafy vegetable is impressive, check out the detailed nutritional information listed. It has antioxidants like Vitamins A, C, E to mineral – Magnesium, that would help to deal with lung problems (asthma) etc, – almost everything that a health(label) conscious person desires in a vegetable. Not only that mustard seeds (aavaalu) that we use regularly in our tadka and mustard oil comes from this vegetable.
When it comes to cooking mustard greens, the famous Punjabi’s ‘Sarson da Saag’, is THE recipe. Mustard Greens (Sarson Patta in Hindi), spinach and paneer along with traditional Indian seasoning are all cooked together. Like Punjabis, the end result is attractive and vibrant – in a nutshell, wholesome food experience. Give it a try!
Recipe:
1 bunch fresh, baby Sarson (mustard greens)- chopped
1 bunch fresh spinach – chopped
10 green chillies – small Indian variety
1 small onion – finely chopped
1 tsp of ginger-garlic paste
1 tsp of cccc powder (cumin-coriander-clove-cinnamon) or garam masala
15 cashews – roasted and powdered
15 paneer cubes – grilled or pan-fried to light gold
Limejuice to taste or 2 tablespoons
Turmeric and salt to taste or ½ tsp each
1. In a big skillet, heat a teaspoon of ghee. Add and saute the sarson, spinach and green chillies. Within 2 to 3 minutes, the leaves start to wilt and come together. Turn off the heat and remove them to a plate. Let cool and then take them in a blender or food processor. Grind to coarse paste by adding a pinch of salt.
2. In the same skillet, add and heat a teaspoon of ghee. Add and saute onions to gold color. Add and fry ginger-garlic paste for few seconds. Add pureed sarson-spinach-green chilli and half cup of water. Stir in cashew powder, garam masala, turmeric and salt. Mix thoroughly. Cover and simmer for about 10 minutes on medium-low heat. Before turning off the heat, add paneer cubes and sprinkle in limejuice.
Serve hot. Tastes great with rice and roti or chapatis.
I purchased these fresh, baby mustard greens from an Asian grocery shop (Uwajimaya).
Recipe adapted from: Basant. I have added cashews to bring some nutty sweetness to the curry.
Hair-on-fire to Klingon to Genghiz Khan – different avatars of Narakasura
“Happiness isn’t good enough for me! I demand euphoria! That’s the difference between me and the rest of the world!”
– Vidya of Foodie Confidential from Tsuruoka, Yamagata, Japan.
“One of the big lessons, I have learned from my mum is not to have the ?it will do? attitude towards a given recipe. Don?t bother cooking a given dish if you don?t have the right ingredients.”
– Dilip of Garam Masala from London, UK.
Nursing student, mother, food blogger and she has a gorgeous kitchen
– from Newfoundland, Canada, Trupti of The Spice Who Loved Me
Ghutti coffee and more from Palo Alto, California – Alison of Full Tummy.
Once upon a time, like many of us in present time, a housewife was struggling with the question, “what’s for lunch?”
Adding to the stress, it was almost month end, everything in her kitchen cupboard needed refilled. To do that she had to wait until the salary comes home. What she had was few young brinjals from her backyard garden. Even the pleasant pale purple color of brinjals couldn’t lift her spirits up. Nonchalantly she plucked the brinjals and dragged herself into the kitchen to prepare something. She opened the cupboard, added everything that was available there to the skillet to roast. Wonderful aroma from roasting lifted her spirits a little. She had to powder them so pounded away her frustrations. In exercise induced endorphin daze, she thought of a novel way to cook brinjals and made a plus shaped cut in brinjals. In a big skillet, added the brinjals along with powdered ingredients and a glass of water. Covered the vessel and let it simmer while she went to freshen up. When she came back what she had in the pot was a delicious stew of brinjals. So fragrant and so pretty to look at. Her face glowed like a warm sapphire and at last she smiled at her ingenuity. Thus, a new recipe was born! Saving housewives everywhere, whenever they are low in spirits or things in kitchen cupboards.
I am sure this must be the story behind the ever-popular stuffed brinjal curry of India. Like the designers to dress stars at Oscar night, all the famous spices and ingredients in Indian kitchen come out, but here to dress the already gorgeous shiny starlets – the fresh, young brinjals. Needless to say the recipe rocks!
Recipe:
Roast or toast in an iron skillet:
Needed: quarter cup, tablespoon, teaspoon, ¼ teaspoon and a hot iron skillet. One by one or all together, however it’s convenient for you, roast the following items listed below. Take care not to black or burn them. Ingredients quantity is for 12 brinjals.
– Quarter cup each of:
Chana dal, urad dal, sesame seeds, grated coconut and peanuts
– Tablespoon each of:
Coriander seeds and cumin
– Quarter teaspoon each of:
Cloves, cinnamon, black peppercorn and fenugreek(methi) seeds
– 15 dried red chillies (for 12 brinjals)
Once they are cool enough to touch, take them all in a mixer. Add a tablespoon each of – jaggery, tamarind juice and a teaspoon of salt. Blend them to smooth consistency.
Baby Brinjals:
12 young fresh looking brinjals. Make two cuts in each brinjal, one horizontal and one vertical Like plus (+) shape. Keep one end intact. Check this photo for reference.
(The brinjals I’ve used for this recipe are young and tender, too small to stuff. So I directly added them to the skillet after making a plus shaped cut. If these were somewhat medium size, I’d have stuffed them like I did in this method.)
Cooking:
Heat a tablespoon of oil in a big skillet. Do the popu (add and toast few curry leaves and a teaspoon each of cumin and mustard seeds).
Add the cut brinjals to the skillet and also the masala powder you have grinded earlier. Add about a glass of water. Stir in turmeric and salt-½ tsp of each. Cover and cook on medium-low heat for about 20 to 30 minutes, stirring in-between. When brinjals are cooked to tender and masala sauce thickens up a bit – time to turn off the heat. Let the curry sit on stove for another 10 minutes like that, giving more time for the flavors to mingle well.
Serve warm with rice or roti.
This recipe is my mother-in-law’s. Even without ginger-garlic and tomatoes, it tastes great and she usually prepares this curry with pulagam (rice+split moong dal+salt) or jonna rotte (sorghum roti) combination.
Stuffed Brinjal:
Gutti Vankaya Kura (Stuffed Brinjal Curry I)
Nune Vankaya kura (Stuffed Brinjal Curry II)
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