Chettinad Veg Masala

Boiled Veggies (potato, carrot, beans): 2 cups -> alternatively you can use frozen mixed veggies
Onion: 2 small chopped
Tomato: 1 ripe, chopped
Curry Leaf: a sprig
Cinnamon Stick: 2 pieces
Saunf/fennel seeds: 1 tsp
OIl: 2 tablespoon
Coconut: 1/4 cup
Corriander Powder: 1 tsp
Red Chilli Powder: 3/4th tsp (as per taste)
Turmeric: a pinch

-Boil the veggies, drain and set aside.
-Heat the oil, add the saunf and cinnamon sticks.
-Add curry leaf, onions, and saute well.
-Grind the coconut with a little water to a coarse paste and keep it ready. ONLY coconut
-Once onions are done, add the paste, tomato and all the dry masala and salt.
-Cook for 4-5 minutes or until the oil separates from the mixture.
-Add the veggies and mix well. Serve garnished with corriander leaves

Oil-Free, One Pot Dal

OK. So, Going forward, I will have posts of curries/dals for Rotis. Here's an easy peasy dal. :-)

Mung Dal/Tuvar Dal/Masoor Dal: 1.5 cups
Water: 3 cups
Turmeric Powder: 1/4 tsp
Hing: a pinch
Red Chilli Powder: 3/4th tsp
Jeera Powder: 1 tsp (leveled)
Coriander Powder: 1/2 tsp
Ginger: 1 inch piece, grated.
Garlic: 4-5 pods, crushed
Tomato: 1 or 2 crushed
Onion: 1 sliced
Green Chilli: 2-3 slit
Salt to taste

-Mix all of the ingredients in a pressure cooker. Cook for 2-3 whistles.
-Stir, add some lemon juice, coriander leaves and serve hot with rice or rotis.

Rava Dosai

This is one of those dishes which almost never gets made in my house.... I think it is because I always found it difficult to make the dosai with the MTR mix. I then found a recipe for making this and it was a breeze to make and took me almost no time to make this.

Rava: 1 cup

Rice Flour: 1/2 cup

All Purpose Flour/Maida: 1/4 cup

Salt : to  taste

Water: As needed

Tadka Ingredients

Hing/prungayam: 1/4 tsp

Jeera, Mustard, curry Leaf, PepperCorn: To taste

Ginger (chopped) : 1 teaspoon

Green Chilli (chopped): 2-3 nos

[optional: 1 chopped red onion]

METHOD:

Combine all the dry ingredients with salt and mix in water. It should be a very very thin batter, the consistency of milk.

Keep the batter aside for about 15-30 mins.

Heat some oil, add the tadka stuff and after the mustard pops, add the chilli, ginger and onion and saute well.

Add the mix to the liquid, stir well.

Take a tava, make it smoking hot and pour in a ladle of maavu/batter.

You cant make it like a regular dosa, just splash it on the pan in a way that its only one layer. Do not pour over this layer.

Add some oil or ghee and let it cook.

Flip, cook for some more and it is ready to eat.

Product Review: Priya Biryani Paste

Have you ever tried to make biryani from the scratch? I have and it is probably one of the most difficult things to get right. I love Biryani. Having lived in Hyderabad, my love for Biryani has only grown. Here, we do get to buy some killer biryani but it costs £7 a pop. For the last 2 weeks, S has been nagging on and on for Biryani and at the Indian store he found the Priya Paste and brought this home. I was very  very apprehensive. Usually these pastes taste like Vinegar and that's it.

How to make it was pretty straight forward. 2 cups of rice, 2 cups of cauliflower, carrots, beans, peas and potato, 4cups of water, salt, 2 tsp Ghee and 2 tsp of paste into a rice cooker and cook away. While making this, the fragrance was HEAVENLY! I mean, we couldn't wait for this to get cooked.

This tastes EXACTLY like a hyderabadi biryani. If you know Hyderabad House biryani then this is it. I will Definitely recommend this paste for everyone. :-) Go get it.

Paneer Burji

We were at the Indian Store, and we found a good, fresh block of Paneer. I simply could not resist buying it and I am glad I did! I usually do not prefer paneer when I am at a restaurant because of the deep frying process. However, this Burji has been something I have been meaning to make for S and he has now fallen in love with this! I am certain this will be one of the dishes he demands for a while at least. Get some store bought Naans and you are set!

Panner: 250Gms, Grated
Oil: 1 tablespoon
Onion: 1 medium, chopped finely.
Green Chilli: 2 chopped fine
Bell Pepper: 1 chopped fine
Tomatoes: 2 chopped Fine
Turmeric: 1 pinch
Red Chilli Powder: 1/2 tsp
Corriander Powder: 1/2 tsp
Jeera Powder 1/2 tsp
Kasuri Methi: 1 tsp
Lemon Juice
Corriander chopped

-Heat a pan with some oil and add the onion and green chilli. Saute with some salt.
-Once done, add the bell pepper and the masalas and stir for a minute.
-Now add the tomatoes and cook until done. You should get a nice thick, cooked paste
-Add the Grated paneer and stir well until combined.
-Finish with some corriander and lemon juice. Make sure you do not overwork the paneer.

Venthaya Keerai Thogayal

The last 2 weeks have been interesting in terms of the kind of food I cooked at home. I happened to lay my hands on a lot of keerai varieties including the original Indian thandu keerai, agathi keerai, baby spinach and of course, Venthaya Keerai. We prefer venthaya keerai either in a paratha or in aloo methi. I tried out this thogayal today and I reckon that it is a pretty awesome dish.

Methi Leaves/Venthaya Keerai: 1 bunch, washed, stalks removed, roughly chopped
Urad Dal: 1/4 cup or 3 tbsp
Red Chillies: 4-5
Hing
Salt
Tamarind: a small marble size, soaked in water and extracted or 1 tsp pate

Heat a skillet/pan, dry roast the urad dal till it turns pink and keep it aside.
Now, add a tsp of oil and roast the chillies, keep aside.
In the same pan, add the leaves and stir fry for about 2 mins until wilted and cooked.
Put all the ingredients into a blender and blend well until smooth.
Adjust seasoning and serve with hot rice/idlis/dosai.

Keerai Masial

I think this is one of the most healthy ways to eat spinach and is definitely the tastiest. I prefer to use the Frozen Spinach simply because it saves time on chopping. If you use fresh leaves, make sure to wash it atleast in 3-4 changes of water and chop as fine as you can. Also, once cooked you need to mash it up by hand/blender.

Spinach: Frozen Cubes: about 4 per person.
Salt: to taste (spinach holds much lesser salt than any other veggie. So use less and add more later)
Turmeric: a tiny pinch
Hing: 1/4 tsp
Water: 1/4 cup.
Rice, Urad Dal, Mustard Seeds, Red Chilli: For tadka.
Oil: 1 tsp. Use coconut oil for added flavour.

--Take water in a sauce pan and bring to boil with salt and turmeric.
--Add the spinach cubes and cook until it is thawed and for another 2 minutes.
--Add the Hing, remove from the hob.
--Make a tadka with Rice, Urad Dal, Mustard seeda and Red Chilli. Pour on top of Spinach.

This is a great combination with Pulisheri/Vatha Kuzhambu/Curd Rice.