Happy Audha Pooja

Pav Baji

Thanks to our friend Nanda for this recipe.

Need
Hotdog buns/Dinner rolls/Plain burger bread- Any white variety of bread would do. I used hot dog buns
Onion - 1 1/2
Tomatoes -2
Green chillies - 3
Ginger Garlic paste - 1 tbsp

Potatoes - 2
Capsicum -1
Cauliflower - 1/2 head
Carrot -1
Beans - 5 or 6

Unsalted Butter - 1/2 stick(do not use the sweet cream variety)
Lemon Juice - 1 tbsp

Pav Baji Masala - 3 tbsp
Turmeric , Chilli powder, Salt- as required



How to

• Chop the vegetables to small chunks and boil them in pressure cooker for 3 whistles.
• Once cooked, mash the vegetables and take care not to make them into a paste.
• In a kadai, heat oil and add ginger garlic paste.
• Add one of the choped onions to it, once they are cooked add the tomatoes.
• Cook the tomatoes till you see the oil coming out.
• Add turmeric, chiili powder, salt and the Pav Baji masala with little water.
• Once the curry sets well, add the vegetables to it and mash them again to blend well with the masalas.
• Taste and add more masalas as necessary.
• Top it off with a spoon of butter and a drop of lemon juice.

• Serve hot on bread with raw chopped onions.

Toast the bread with a little butter before serving.

Kaju sweet

This is the easiest and tastied recipe ever for cashews.
The whole preparation took less than 15 mins

Cashews - 1 cup
Sugar - 1/2 cup - 2 tbsp(minus 2 tbsp)
Water - 4 tbsp
Plate greased with 1/2 tbsp of butter/ghee

1. Save 4 cashews from the cup and grind the remaining to a fine powder.
Make sure your blender is totally dry.
2.Heat a heavy bottom pan, turn on the heat to medium-low and add the sugar
3. Add water to the sugar just so it can cover it up.
4. Start your timer now.
5. Check the water every 30 secs.
Hold a plate vertically tilted . Take the water in a fork and drop the water on to the plate.
The water should stand and not flow down.
That is the consistency we want to reach. This shouldn't take more than 4 mins on the timer.
6. Now is the time to add the cashews. Add it evenly and make sure there are no lumps.
7. Stir well . When taken and dropped with a spoon, the paste should now look like a blanket coming down.
When you see this consistency, switch off the stuff. The timer should show somewhere between 9-10 mins.
8. Pour the paste onto a greased plate and allow it to cool for 15 mins.
9. Dont worry about the stickiness. Cooling the mixture helps. Once cooled, shape them like small boats(this is easy) and put 1/4 th of a cashew in between.

Sura puttu

Sura (shark steaks) - 1/2 lb
Onion - 1/4 lb
Green chillies - 3
Garlic (smashed) -3
Salt
Oil - to cook
Tumeric powder - a little bit

Add the fish with turmeric to water in a pan and heat.
Allow the water to come to 2 boils.
Remove the fish from water and mice it with fork and knife. Discard the water.
Cook garlic, green chilies and onion. Once the onion turns translucent add salt and then fish pieces. Fry for some more time.
Easy and tasty sura puttu is ready.

my herb garden - Thai Green chilli

Plants with their new produce bring out a lot of joy in me, even if it is a hot spicy chilli. So when my small thai green chilli plant that I planted few months ago, bore 2 long green chillies, it lit up my day immensely. There is so much happiness in watching something grow to which you contribute even a little.

Homemade Kulfis- Badam Kulfi

This simple recipe yields one of the yummiest kufis ever. I couldn't wait till the kufis were frozen and just drank down the mixture right away.

Ingredients

Condensed Milk - 1 can
Evaporated Milk – 1 can (equal portions of condensed and evap. milk)
Heavy Whipping Cream – 2 cups
Almonds - 1/2
Pistachios(optional) - 1/4 cup
Cardamom Powder – 1/4 tsp
Saffron (Optional )
Popsicle cones/Ice Cream cones

1.Grind 3/4 of the almonds until it becomes a nice soft powder.
2. Grind the remaining almonds coarsely(to small bits).
3. Beat the condensed, evaporated milk and the whipping cream in a blender for about 5 mins, then add the almond powder and beat for another minute or so.
4.Transfer the contents to a bowl and whip the mixture and add the almond bits and a tbsp of cardamom. This will give a nice crunchy texture to the kulfi.
5. Fill the ice cream cones with this and freeze for atleast 6 hours.

Serving.
Once the kulfiisz are frozen, take out and thaw for 10 mins. Alternatively, you can also dip the cone's bottom into warm water. This makes it easier to take the cones out.

If you dont' have ice cream cones, can just freeze it in any freeze resistant container and scoop it with a ice-cream scoop.

Mango Kulfi
You can add Mago Kesar pulp to the mixture to get a tasty mago kulfi.

Millaga Bajii/Chilli Fritters

Nothing can beat the Millaga baji's at Chennai beaches.
This is just an attempt to make something vaguely similar to those. I used Anaheim chilli peppers for these. to my dismay, I realized didn't have a kadai big enough to hold a whole chilli and had to cut it into half :(

Ingredients
Anaheim Chilli peppers - 4
Gram flour - 15 tbsp
All purpose flour- 1 tbsp
Baking powder -a pinch
Chilli powder - 11/2 tbsp
Salt

1. Boil water with salt and soak the chillies for 5 mins
2. Heat oil in a kadai
3. Make a thick batter for gram flour, all purpose flour, baking powder and chilli powder salt.
4. Dip the chillies and fry
5. Serve with ketchup or chutneys

Easy Crustless Quiche for breakfast - All veggie

The "La Quiche" french bakery here, is our favorite hang-out spot and they have the best Almond butter croissants around. Next to that ranks their quiche, especially the Spinach Quiche.

Since I like copying my favorites to my kitchen, I googled for an easy quiche recipe and ended up with this one. It is really easy to make and makes a wonderful breakfast on weekends. You can use any combination of ingredients here - vegetables, olives, pepperoni, sun-dried tomatoes, mushrooms. The list is endless and limited by your creativity alone.

What you need

Muffin pans

Eggs - 4
Milk - 3/4 cup
Fresh Cheddar cheese grated - 1/2 cup
All purpose flour -1 tbsp
Butter - 2 tbsp
Salt and Pepper

Vegetables that I used
Carrots- 2 (finely grated)
Cabbage - grated 1/2 cup
Spinach - 1/2 cup finely chopped
Shallots - 3

1. Preheat the oven to 350'
2. Saute the vegetables to make them soft. Dry saute without oil should be enough
3. In a large bowl, beat the eggs, milk and then add the cheddar cheese, salt and pepper, all purpose flour. Mix all together and lets call this batter.

4.Grease the muffin pan with a little butter
5. Add a sponful of vegetables and then add the batter till the brim on all the pans.
6.Bake for 20 mins, or until the top of the quiche becomes a little brown.
7. Allow it to cool once done.
8. Taking the quiche out of the muffin pan without breaking is a trick. I used a tooth to scoop the outer surface and then a curved spoon to take it out.
9. Enjoy with Tabasco sauce

Chicken Lollipop

Ma most favorite chicken dish.



The recipe follows the below video to the most part, with a bit of personal touches here and there
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAwUCvm5egg

Chicken wing drumettes - 10

Eggs -2
All purpose flour/Corn flour - 1 tbsp
Bread crumps -5 tbsp
Chilli powder- 1 tbsp
Salt
Oil - for deep fry


Ginger - 1 inch finely chopped
Garlic - 5 finely chopped
Chilli Garlic paste - 1tbsp
Soy Sauce - 2 tbsp

1. Wash and scoop the chicken wings to look like a lollipop, so that there is more flesh at the top and just the bone at the bottom.
Will add pictures of this later
2. Take a medium sized bowl. Add eggs, chilli powder and salt, beat it and dip the wings. Allow this to sit for a while.
3. Heat oil in a kadai for deep frying. Rub the wings in the bread crumbs and deep fry in the oil.
4. Take another kadai ,heat 1 tbsp of oil. Add the ginger and garlic and then the chilli garlic paste and then the soy sauce.
5. I also added a bit of red color powder at this point and probably 3 tbsp of water
6. Add the fried chicken pieces to this mixture and coat well
7. Wrap with aluminum foil and serve

Mutton Kuzhambu

This is one of the basic mutton curries. Not much grinding required here. I believe this is the way it is made in villages too. I have some nostalgic memories of my aunt, making it in huge vessels for the village fair. Lamb can be used as a substitute, but it doesn't have the distinct flavor that mutton does.

Mutton - 2 lbs

Ginger Garlic paste - 4 tbsps
Onion - 1 1/2 Big - Coarsely chopped
Tomatoes - 1 Medium - Finely chopped
Potato -1 Medium (Optional) - Medium size pieces

Dry Garam Masala - Cloves, Cardamom, Cinnamon
Fennel Seeds - 1 1/2 tbps ( this is a must)

Turmeric, Chilli powder , Corriander powders - as required
Gingelly oil - 1tbsp - optional

1.Clean the mutton ,smear with turmeric and allow to rest for 10 mins
2. Add Chilli powder, ginger garlic paste ,1/2 tbsp of salt to a pressure cooker , mutton pieces. Add water to cover the mutton pieces and allow 6 whistles.
-You can skip step 2 if you are in India.
3. Add oil to a kadai and add all the dry garam masala and fennel seeds. Then add the onions and fry for atleast 15 mins.
4. Add tomatoes and allow it to mix well.Now add the ginger garlic paste.
5. When the smell of ginger garlic paste is gone, add cumin, chilli powder, corrinader powder. Also add the potatoes and salt.
6.When this all mixes well, add the mutton pieces and coat well.
7. Add a cup of water.
8. Transfer the contents to a pressure cooker and allow 3 whistles
--You can skip step of you have enough time to allow the curry to boil. That should take 30-45 mins on medium flame.
9. Remove the whistle, reduce the flame to low-medium and keep stirring. This allows the curry to leave out oil.
10. Once you get the disered consistency, add a spoon of gingelly oil(nalla yaennai) and serve.

Crab curry /Nandu Masala

Made this awesome Nandu curry. Had postponed this recipe for too long now and had to try it today.
Turned to be much easier and quicker than I had expected.

Ingredients
-------------
Nandu /Snow Crab- 1lb
Onions -2 medium - finely chopped - as small as possible
Tomatoes - 1 1/2 medium -finely chopped
Ginger Garlic paste - 3 tbps
Turmeric powder
Chilli powder - 2 tbsp
Cumin powder -1 tbsp
Corriander powder - 1tbsp
Any packet mutton masala -me used MDH / Garam masala
Coconut - 1 cup


Wash the crabs , break it up , coat it with turmeric powder and allow it to set.

Use a big enough vessel to fit the crabs in. Fry onions and once browned add tomatoes.
Then add the ginger garlic paste.
Once the mixture comes together well, add a little water and add the turmeric powder , cumin powder, corriander powder and chilli powder and the mutton masala powder
Allow the powders to mix well with onion-tomatoes. Close the lid tell that is done.

Now add the crabs, coat it well and add 1 cup water. Add more water so that crabs sink in.
Close the lid and allow the crab to cook for 15 mins, stirring in-between.
The curry should start leaving oil by now.
Add the ground coconut and allow it cook for another 5 mins.
The curry is done. Garnish with cilantro and serve. Goes well with Idly/Rice.

It actually tastes better when it is a day old.
Also, add a spoon of ghee just before serving with rice.

Gobi Manchurian

This was my favorite back at college. Since our hostel mess didn't have it on the menu, we used to buy this from a road-side vendor near the hostel. I guess the cost was Rs.10 and being the thrifty student I was, I would buy either mollaga bajji, black forest cake, egg puff or this depending on the budget at hand.
After I started venturing into the kitchen, I have tried this a couple of times and failed miserably. And again, Uma , who I have started idolizing by now, blessed me with her insight into this and boom I got it all right. Here is how I got it right.

What goes in
Cauliflower - 1 medium head
Green chillies - 6
Garlic - 5 pods
Ginger - about an inch
Onion - 1
Green Bell Peppers - 1
Turmeric powder
Chilli powder
Soy sauce
Salt/Aji-no-moto

For the garnish
cilantro, Green Onions

For the batter
All purpose flour/maida - 1 cup
Corn flour - 2 tbsp
Rice flour - 1 tbsp (optional)
Salt

Preparing the Cauliflower
Cut it into medium florets and soak in hot water for 5 mins. Spread the florets evenly on a plate and microwave it for 5 minutes. The florets should be partially soft and not mushy.

Mix the batter with the ingredients given above and beat it well until you see all the lumps gone. The batter shouldn't be too thin. It should be thick enough to coat the florets evenly. You should be able to see the coating. Add the florets in batches.

Heat oil in a kadai and fry the florets in batches.


1.Cut the onions into medium slices and chop the garlic,green chillies and ginger very finely.
2.Add oil in another kadai and fry the green chillies, ginger and garlic in medium heat. This will give a mild garlicky taste the recipe.
3. When the onion is half done, add the capsicum.
4. After the capsicum is cooked well , add 2 tbsp of Heinz tomato sauce. Adding more of this will make the manchurian soggy. Add some turmeric and chilli powder according to taste.
5. Add some chopped cilantro.
6. Finally add salt and some soy sauce
7. Add the fried florets to this and add some soy sauce , and a pinch of ajinomoto and toss well. Make sure all the florets gets the even color.
8. Garnish with more cilantro and green onions.

இனிய புத்தாண்டு நல் வாழ்த்துகள் -Menu today

Menu today
drumstick sambar
beans porriyal
potato porriyal
butternut squash pachadi
Medhu vadai
vadam (missing in the pics)

& Gulab jamun

Ran out of applams :(

Chilli Idly

This post is for Idli lovers like me.

Idly - 8 nos
Green chillies -3 Onions - 1 finely chopped,Tomato paste- 2 tbsp,Ginger Garlic paste
Carrots, Cabbage - a few grated pieces ,All indian spice powders available in your pantry
Olive Oil

1.Make the idlies in the usual way.
2.Cut each idly into 4 quarters
3.Arrange them in a baking tray, lined with aluminum foil. (picture shown)
4.Drizzle Olive Oil over , so that the pieces get coated evenly
5. Pre-heat the commercial oven to 350 and then bake the idlies at 350 for 10 minutes and then briol at 450 for 5 minutes. This should give a crispy brown texture to the pieces

If you don't have the option of using a commercial oven, you can always deep fry the idlies and skip steps 3,4,5

6. Fry a little oil and fry mustard till it splutters. Add the green chillies, onions, ginger garlic paste and fry till done. add any vegetables - carrots, cabbage etc
7. Add some tomato ketchup. You can also add mashed tomatoes after removing the water.
8. I love corrainder. So I add a handful of it.
9. Add turmeric powder, chilli powder, garam masala, cumin powder.
10. Add a few drops of water and fry.
11. Now add the idlies from the oven and coat evenly and you are doneeeee