Semiya Halwa (Vermicelli sweet)

This is one of the sweets my mom specialized in.

Ingredients:

Semiya (vermicelli) - 1 cup
Milk + Water - 2 cup
Sugar - 3/4 cup
Ghee - 2 tbsp
Cashews & Raisins - fried in ghee

Method:

• Fry vermicelli in little ghee under low-med flame till you get nice aroma and also golden color.
• Simultaneously, boil milk + water in soup pan.
• Add fried vermicelli to the boiling milk, stir and allow it to cook completely. Cooking hardly takes 3-5 mins.
• Cook completely but not overcook.
• Now, add sugar and stir continuously till this mixture gets thickened. This hardly takes 8-10 mins.
• Add ghee, fried cashews and raisins. Mix again.
• Pour this mixture in a ghee greased plate and allow it to air dry.
• When its almost dry, cut it into desired shape and allow to dry completely.
• Now separate the pieces and transfer into a container.

That's it! Simple yet Rich tasty sweet is ready!

Serve immediately since no one can wait to taste it!

You can preserve them for few more days in refrigerator.

Spicy Pongal

Ingredients:
Rice - 1 cup
Moong dal - 1/2 cup
Pepper seeds - 8 - grounded
Ginger - 1/2 inch - Chopped finely
Green chillies - 2 long - cut into thin circles
Curry leaves - 1 sprig
Zeera - 1 tsp
Oil - 2 tsp
Ghee - 1/2 tbsp
Salt
Water - 3 cups

Method:

• Heat oil in a steel vessel and do the seasoning with zeera and curry leaves.
• Add ginger, chillies, pepper powder and saute.
• Now add pre-washed rice and dal mixture to this.
• Add water, salt and ghee.
• Put this vessel in pressure cooker and cook as you cook rice for 3 whistles.

You can do directly in Pressure Cooker/Pan also.

Serve this hot spicy pongal as it is or w/coconut chutney/pickle/rasam/chilli powder mix.

One of my friends in California served this with Red chilli powder mixture. She did this with red chilli powder mixed with salt, lemon juice and mustard zeera seasoning.

Pappu Chaaru (Sweet Lentil Soup)

No vegetables left with you except onions? No problem, now also you can do a mouth watering dish!

Ingredients:
Toor Dal - 1/2 cup
Drumsticks - 6 pcs frozen (optional)
Onions - 2 med (sliced)
Garlic - 10 pods
Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
Zeera - 1 tsp
Curry leaves - 2 sprigs
Green chillies - 4
Red chillies - 3
Hing
Tamarind - small lemon size
Sugar / Jaggery - 1 and 1/2 tbsp
Oil - 1 tbsp
Ghee / Butter - 1/2 tbsp
Corriander leaves - Little (optional)
Salt

Method:

• Pressure cook toor dal with 1:2 water.
• Heat oil in a soup pan and do the seasoning with mustard, zeera, chillies, curry leaves and hing.
• Add garlic and saute. Then add onions, salt and thawed drumsticks. Saute till onions turn transparent and you get good flavor from them.
• Now add mashed dal, tamarind pulp, sugar and water.
• Bring the mixture to boil and look for consistency.
• Taste for salt and sugar, and adjust accordingly.
• Finally add ghee and corriander and close with lid to condense the flavors.

That's it! Flavorful Pappu Chaaru is ready to serve with white rice/pongal/curd rice.

Pappu chaaru with Fresh Home-made Butter... umm... it ROCKS!

We used to eat all the onions and garlic with curd rice if my mom is not near by! :*)
Ofcourse, after seeing that, she used to scold us since we ate all without leaving it to others ;)

Chana fry

Ingredients:

Carrots - 2 cups Diced
Chana dal - 1/2 cup
Grated Coconut - 1/4 cup (fresh/frozen)
Green Chillies - 3
Red chillies - 2
Garlic - 6 cloves
Mustard seeds - 2 tsp
Urad dal - 2 tsp
Zeera - 1 tsp
Curry leaves - 1 sprig
Oil - 1 tbsp
Salt

Method:

• Pressure cook Chana dal with just enough water until its tender but not mushy. Drain if any water.
• Cook diced carrots in microwave until they are tender.
• Heat oil and do the seasoning with the above mentioned ingredients like mustard, zeera, urad dal, red chillies, green chillies, curry leaves and garlic.
• Add the carrots and salt and saute them for 1 min.
• Now add the chana dal and fry another min.
• Now finally add grated coconut and fry until the aroma comes from it, like 1 more min.
  

Thats it! Simple and delicious, colorful and healthful Carrot dish is ready to serve.

You can do this dish with either Chana dal or Carrots or both.

Hey, if you end up with more drained water from chana dal, don't worry, you can make Senaga kattu ( like dal rasam).

Preserve the above water in a dish. To this you can add water if its too thick for a rasam consistency. Boil it if you add extra water. Add salt and season with zeera, red and green chillies, curry leaves and garlic. You can serve this with white rice. This really tastes awesome with nice flavor of garlic.

Simple Carrot Rice

Ingredients:
Rice - 1 cup
Carrots - 4
Onion - 1/2
Zeera pwd - 1/2 tsp
Coriander pwd - 1/2 tsp
Turmeric - 1/2 tsp
MTR Puliyogare pwd - 1/2 tbsp
Mustard - 1 tsp
Zeera - 1 tsp
Curry leaves - 1 sprig
Green chillies - 2
Red chillies - 2
Oil
Salt


Method:

• Cook rice with double the water, little salt and oil. Fluff with fork and keep aside till it become warm.
• In the mean while, heat oil in the pan and do the seasoning with mustard, zeera, curry leaves, red and green chillies. Add coarsely chopped onions, turmeric and salt. Saute it till onions become transparent.
• Add grated carrots and fry under med high for couple of mins. Add all the above spicey powders. Do not overcook carrots. Leave it bit crispy.
• Now, the final step follows... add the cooked rice and mix nicely. Garnish it with fresh coriander or onions.
  

Enjoy as it is warm or with your favourite kurma and raitha as we did :)

I did Mixed Veg Kurma with baby potatoes (really good stuff), carrots, peas and corn.

This is my first entry to JFI-Rice hosted by Sharmi of Neivedyam. Hope she will accept it!

Spinach with Garlic and Methi

As we know, Spinach is a rich source of vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin E, vitamin K, magnesium, and several vital antioxidants. For this beautiful green Spinach, the addition of Garlic and Methi seeds enhace its flavor which you can't stop licking it before serving ;)


Ingredients:
Spinach - 1 1/2 bunches
Mustard - 1 tsp
Zeera - 1 tsp
Curry leaves - 1 sprig
Methi seeds - 1 tsp
Garlic - 3 pods
Onion - 1
Tomato / Puree - 2 Tbsp
Green Chilly - 1
Zeera pwd - 1/4 tsp
Coriander pwd - 1/4 tsp
Chilli pwd - 1/2 tsp
Turmeric Pwd - 1/2 tsp
Garam masala - 1/4 tsp
Oil
Salt

Method:

• Heat oil in pan and do the seasoning with mustard, zeera, methi, curry leaves, chilly and garlic. Add the chopped onions and saute till transparent. Put the turmeric powder and stir.
• Add the chopped spinach and cook until it is 3/4th done.
• Add all the above mentioned spice powders and saute once.
• Now, add the tomato and cook by covering under medium heat.

That's it! Hot FLAVORFUL Spinach Curry is ready to serve with rice :)

PS: When cooked, the volume of spinach is decreased by three quarters.

Ridge gourd peel fry (Beera pottu vepudu)

This is my mom's recipe which we used to eat in our childhood. I remembered suddenly after these many years and so I started doing this... This came simply superb. Besides this, my mom used to make curry and chutney with this peel. I need to do them sometime later. Meanwhile, enjoy this recipe :)


Ingredients:
Peel of ridgegourd
Garlic pods
Mustard seeds
Zeera
Urad dal
Green chillies
Red chillies
Curry leaves
Salt
Oil

Method:

• Wash the peel and grind coarsely with green chillies and some salt without using water.
• Strain the water if u get any from it.
• Heat the oil in the pan and do the seasoning with mustard, zeera, red chillies, urad dal, curry leaves and garlic.
• Then add the grinded peel and fry until it just changes the color from light green to dark green or little brown.

That's it, tasty peel fry is ready! Enjoy with hot rice along with ghee.

Beetroot Rice

Bored of doing pulavs and fried rice? But want to eat Indian spicey nutritious rice item?? Then this is for u... Long time back I too felt this way, and searched for this kindaa recipe... Then I found it from Spice trail... Thanks Spice Trail!
Here is my version of it...
Ingredients:
Rice - 2 cups (uncooked, preferably Basmati)
Beetroots - 2 med size
Onion - 1 small
Tomato - 1 small (or tamarind paste - optional)
Mustard seeds - 1 tbsp
Jeera - 1 tsp
Urad + chana dal - 1tbsp
Curry leaves - 1 sprig
Red chilli - 1
Green chilli - 1
MTR Puliogare Powder
(tamarind rice powder) - 1 tbsp (for extra spice - optional)
Turmeric powder - ½ tsp
Coriander powder - ½ tsp
Zeera powder - ½ tsp
Red Chilli powder - 1 tsp
Cilantro - for garnishing
Oil
Salt

Method:

• Cook rice with double the water, little oil and little salt. When it is done, fluff it with a fork and allow it to become warm or cool.
• In the mean while, chop onions and beets.
• Heat pan and add oil. Do the seasoning with mustard, zeera, urad and chana dals, green and red chillies, and curry leaves.
• Then add chopped onions, saute it for one min, and add turmeric, zeera, coriander powders. saute for one more min and then add finely chopped beets.
• Fry for one min and then cook covered with salt added.
• When beets are done, add the MTR spice and fry for a min.

That's it, u r almost done... remove it from flame, add it to rice and serve it in plate! :)

PS: Basmati rice has such a nice flavor which sona masoori lacks. And also, basmati is thin and long which is soooo appealing! So better use basmati when u r doing Rice items.

MTR puliogare powder is so spicey, so do care while using it! But this is a delicious, spicey powder which u can't leave it if once tried :)