Saturday, January 29, 2011

Seema Vankaya Talimpu





An easy, tasty, and healthy main/side dish it is. My mom being a great cook and all has one small but potential flaw with her school of thought, that "she knows it all". So there were very few things that she wanted to try by knowing from others' cooking. If only she would be willing..we would have tasted all cuisines at home. But nevertheless she is always the best cook and the best mom as is everyone's mom to them. One such tasty "talimpu" that we missed all those years, is this week's entry " Seema vankaya tamlimpu". One of those days when I usually called her up and asked her what can be done with "Chayote", she gave me a recipe which she learnt from her big sis-inlaw. Hmm now this thing must have tasted heaven if she did learn it from her and not just that if she was sharing it then I thought this was special . Above all the recipe was just plain simple that it could be cooked in 15 minutes.
what you need
3 medium size seema vankaya/chayote
1 small onion diced
Seasoning                                                                              
mustard
curryleaves

Special powder                              
Dry coconut 2 tbspn
6-7 dried red chillies

Fry the dried chillies in just a bit of oil. Powder the coconut and red chillies and keep aside. Peel,wash and cut the chayote into 1/2 inch trapeziums ( just to give you the exact shape). Now add oil to a frying pan and season with mustard seeds and curryleaves. Add the seema vankaya pieces fry them for about 5 minutes and add enough salt. Add diced onions now and stir. Now cover the pan with a lid and wait till the vanakya piecs become a bit soft. Finally add the powder to the pieces and give it a stir. that is it, our talimpu is done. You can eat it with hot steaming rice as a main dish or a side dish if you wish.
Now tell me was that not easy??

Saturday, January 15, 2011

Bhogi Dosa and Pitikipappu koora




Hope you all had lots of fun along with lots of special Sankranthi dishes. I know most of you must have started off the day with Sweet Pongal. Back home where I am from we start eating dosas with a special curry called "PitikiPappu koora" since almost a month before Sankranthi. Hmm the thought of dosas and pitikipappu makes me run towards the kitchen and make some. Well there is enough dosa batter for 2 more days so there is always time. So for those of you who are wondering what this "weird sounding" dish is I will give a brief description of what it is made of, and how it is made. The curry mainly is made by using beans for which I still have to look up the botanical name. The beans are called Anapakayalu ( not the AAnapakaya/sorakaya), and look just like chikkudu. Usually in the winter season when the anapakayalu become available they are boiled just like " Ground nuts"/Senakkayalu and eaten by removing the outer layers. But the more tender pods are pressed off their sheaths and sundried so that they can be used for later. The fresh ones are for the current season, and the dried ones for the later. Anyways that is how I got the dried pods here in the US. Here is the recipe for the curry.
Ingredients:
1. 2 cups of dried beans (pitikipappu)
2. 4 medium sized potatoes peeled and diced
3. half onion diced
4. 2 medium tomatoes
For the Masala
2inch ginger, 6-7 garlic cloves
1 clove, 1/2 inch cinnamon, 5-6 pudina (Mint) leaves
dried coconut2 tbspn, 1spn chillipowder (2 if mild)
3tbspn peanuts (fried and skin peeled off)

Now for the making, just grind the masala ingredients into a fine paste.
In a pressure cooker add 2 spns oil, and season with mustard, curryleaves. Follow with Onions, and then the dried pappu. later add the potatoes fry them for a bit, and then add the masala fry a bit, and finally add tomatoes diced followed by 3 cups of water. Put the lid over the pressure cooker, and let it cook until one whistle. Take it off the heat let the pressure reduce, and then once the lid is taken off garnish with cilantro. Eat it with dosa or chapathi and you will find the road to heaven!! Here are some pics with the ingredients and the finale! You can see Suhaas's hand digging into the dosa without any further delay!!


Friday, January 14, 2011

Sankranthi Subhakankshalu!

Makara Sankranthi Subhakankshalu !! to all my dear readers! Here is a pretty picture of Lilies from my garden for the colorful festival! Will be back tomorrow with today's Sankranthi Special at my home!

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Palak Paratha



This one I got from my dear Bro out of the blue yesterday night. I know he is a good cook too but yesterday's paratha turned out surprisingly tasty. It was green which is why scored so well. Simple, quick and healthy too! Without wasting any more time here I am giving you the recipe for the paratha.
Ingredients
1. whole wheat flour - 2 cups
2. 1tbsp oil
3. pinch salt
4. 2tbsp yogurt
5. 2 handfuls of spinach chopped
6. half of an onion/medium size diced very fine
7. 1tsp chilli powder

Making the Paratha
Mix all the ingredients and try to make dough ( it will be a bit soft with the onion and spinach but dont worry). You donot have to let it sit for a while. So make a big lime sized balls from the dough, and start pressing them just like usual chapathi. Just make sure you use lot of flour while pressing so that it wont stick. You can try to make it thin or thick as other parathas, but I would go with thin since it can be well made easily. Fry it on a thick pan just like usual chapathi ( Me I would add lots of oil to fry it but the choice is all yours). There your Green Paratha is ready to be devoured..is it a strong word to use??? No not at all once you see the result. Try it with any curry or just eat it plain.
Ciao for now.
Sunitha

Ha's Pepper Chicken





Dearest Ha (Harini) is a wonderful cook apart from being a wonderful human being that I would one day want to be. Although we share memories of 2 decades, our culinary sharing started a few years back. Here is one of those recipes she shared generously with me. As the name might suggest "Pepper Chicken" is definitely spicy, but so tasty that I ended up eating one and half cups of rice. So my diet conscious friends beware of the carbs you might suck in !
Here are the ingredients that Ha wanted me to add and nothing else (usually I try to customize, so this time I strictly followed her rules).
1) 1lb Chicken
2) 1 whole garlic clove
3) 20 Pepper corns
4) 3 Cloves, 2 inches cinnamon stick,
5) 1 tspn Jeera
6) 2 tb spn Dhaniya seeds
7) 6-7 Dried red chillies
8) 3 tb spn dried shredded coconut
9) Half onion medium sized
10) Curry leaves 10

Here is the process
Fry the pepper corns, Jeera, Dhaniya, Red chillies in a bit of ghee/clarified butter. First grind them into fine powder, add cloves, cinnamon, coconut, and then finally garlic and Onion. Now in a pan or pot add 2tbspn oil, add curry leaves, and the washed and cut chicken. Add a bit of turmeric, salt and wait till the water evaporates off the chicken. And now is the time to add the magic masala we grinded a while ago to the chicken. Stir the masala into the chicken, and leave it on medium heat uncovered for a while, say about 10 minutes. later add a cup of water, and cover with a lid. wait till the masala and chicken is all cooked and then take the lid off. Let the water evaporate, and then finally add some cilantro leaves if you like. Believe me this one needs nothing else to make it good! And once you are done eat it with rice or chapathi and let me know how you liked it.

Am back



Happy and Prosperous New Year 2011 to all my friends! Albeit a little late in entering a new post, I am here with some thing right. let me see if I can stick to my new year's resolution..hmm I am trying to tie myself up with my statements so that atleast this will make me stick to the resolution which is posting a new recipe every week at the least ( Wondering what my other resolutions are Never mind). So here I am with the new Year wishes as my first post for the Year and here is a lovely picture of one of my favorite corners of my home ( had been into home improvement last year, which included our fireplace. So The Buddha sits there giving insights into my day to day life.) If you are wondering what else I was into in the past year, here is a briefing. Into my cute kiddos, into home improvements ( improvements were actually done mostly by dear Hubby, but who did the planning, myself ofcourse), and into a pet project that had its lid closed for almost two years ( will let you know more in my future scribblings). so the gone year had its share of happiness and sorrow, had a new entry into the family, but then lost a family member, lost some friends. Hopefully I never have to lose anyone, ever. To a bright, cheerful year with no natural and man made disasters!!! Check for two mouth watering recipes " Palak Paratha" and oooh so spicy " Pepper Chicken".