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!!

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!

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".

Noone Vankaya/Gutti Vankaya

Although Gutti Vankaya or Stuffed brinjal can be done in a myriad ways, most recipes call for the same ingredients, except for minute differences here and there. Well, for me Noone Vankaya, as people from Ananthapur dist call it, is the best soul food that I can ever find. Usually this noononkaya is eaten with the crispy sadda rotte (Jowar rotti) made fresh on a heavy cast iron pan. Now when I look back into my childhood days, I am struck withe awe. Mom used to make fresh Sadda rotti/Biyyam rotti and noonevankaya to go with it by 7:45am, even before we were ready to go to school. I can never be her atleast in regards to the pace she kept while cooking, but I try keep her in my thoughts every way of my life, cooking being one of the important ones. Well nostalgia aside, here is the recipe for the noone vankaya!
Ingredients needed :
small brinjals 1/2 kg
onion 1/2 medium sized, sliced length wise
tamarind lime sized soaked in water

For the tiragavata/seasoning:
oil
mustard seeds
curry leaves

For the stuffing:
Dried red chillies: 8-9
cumin: 1tspn
dhania seeds : 2 tspns
sesame seeds: 3 tbspn
groundnut: 3 tbspn
dry coconut: 3 tbspn
garlic : 4 pods peeled
salt : 1 tspn
Jaggery or brown sugar : 1 tspn

Procedure
Fry the ingredients in half tspn oil except for the garlic, and jaggery part. Grind all the ingredients into a fine powder. Hmm...you can smell the garlic, the jeera, sooooo aromatic...
Now slit the brinjals into + with the stalk intact, and put them in cold water. Stuff the brinjals with the special powder. In a pressure cooker pan, add 2 tbspn oil, wait till it gets hot, add the mustard and curryleaves followed by onions. Fry them for 1 or 2 min, and then add the stuffed brinjals, fry them till they are a bit brown in color, at this point add the tamarind water, make sure it is not too liquidy, and fry the brinjals a bit more probably 5 more minutes, they will be sizzling and doing all the swish sounds.Now add a cup of water, close the lid, and wait for just one whistle. Take the cooker from the heat, release the pressure, garnish with cilantro,this is just an addition, it will still be as tasty even sans cilantro.
There, you have a mouthwatering favorite!! Another great dish unique to rayala seema, with the main seema ingredient " ground nut".
You can have this with rice/chapathi but if you can sadda rotti will be the best combination for this curry! You will not regret it, I swear.