One Pot Sambar Rice.

Ever had days when you absolutely couldn't bring yourself to spend more than 5 mins next to the stove? Well, I have those days sometimes and the result is this dish AKA Kootan choru. Easy, wont take more than 5 mins prep.

You need a pressure cooker to make this one. So keep one handy before you start.

Potatoes: 2
Onions: 2
Capsicum: 1
Green Chilli: 1
Carrot: 1 (optional) or any veg that goes into a sambar.
Tuvar Dal: 1/2 cup
Rice: 1.5 cups
Tamarind: a lime sized ball, soaked and extracted.
Hing
Turmeric powder
Sambar Powder: 2tablespoons
Salt

Cut the veggies into big chunks and throw into the cooker.
Add the dal, rice, turmeric, hing, salt and sambar powder.
For regular raw rice, you need 3 cups of water to 1 cup of rice. So, for this quantity you need 6-6.5
Measure the tamarind water and for the rest, add plain water.
Cover the cooker. Leave it on until about 4-5 whistles.
Once the cooker has cooled, mix the whole lot and pour a teaspoon of ghee and some corriander leaves.
This is a really healthy, wholesome meal.

Banana Snack-- Again!

So, the banana toast has been a hit and now I have way too many bananas at home and not enough bread. Ideally this recipe is done with the Kerala Banana/Plantain. But I just made them with the regular ones.

Banana- 2 sliced medium.

Ghee/Butter- 2 tsp

Sugar: 2tablespoons

Heat a heavy bottomed skillet/pan.

Pour the butter/ghee and immediately add the banana pieces. Do not stir yet.

Add the sugar over the banana pieces. Let them sit for a minute or two.

Once the pan is a lil smoky and you can smell the caramel, try and turn the bananas around.

If you fail, simply toss the pan. Let it sit for a minute.

Remove it onto a plate and you are good to go.

Dont miss out the caramely bits. These are to die for! :-)

Yummy Banana Toast

I know that it has been a loooooooong time since I blogged a recipe. Well, here's one for an easy yummy snack!

Bread Slices: 2, Buttered on one side. I prefer white.

Butter: for bread and for toasting. Lets say, 2 tablespoons.

Banana: 1 Sliced.

Honey: 1 - 2 teaspoons.

Cinnamon: a dash. [optional]

--Heat a skillet/pan - something that is thick.
--In the meantime, butter the bread slices and place the sliced banana pieces on a slice and pour the honey over it. Sprinkle the cinnamon powder.
--Place the other slice over the bread with banana.
--On the heated pan, add a knob of butter.
--Place the bread on the pan and hold it down with a flat spoon/spatula.
--Wait for a minute or until the side has browned.
--Turn over the bread and add more butter. Hold it down until the side has browned too.
--Cut the sandwich and serve.

The method is similar to cheese toast. You can substitute the banana with Cheese, onions and chilli for a really nice cheese toast.

Paneer... Kadai Paneer

The most favoured accompaniment to almost every kind of roti. I am ALL for shortcuts. However, there are some things you should take time for. One of them is this dish. By time, I mean 5 minutes. Before you cook, get this powder ready. Here's the recipe.

Jeera : 1 teaspoon
Peppercorn : 1/2 tsp
Fenugreek Seeds: 1/4 tsp
Corriander Seeds : 1 tablespoon
Red Chilli : 2 [More if you prefer heat]

Put the whole lot onto a pan, dry roast them on a medium heat until the spices release its fragrance.
Cool the mix, powder it and store it.

This is Kadai Masala that can be used for Paneer and vegetables. I usually make this for twice the quantity and store it. Saves me a lot of time. Now, onto the paneer gravy.

Paneer: 250 grams
Onion: 1 small finely chopped
Tomatoes: 2 medium finely chopped
Garlic: 4 cloves finely chopped
Green Chillies: 2 finely chopped.
Kadai Masala:  2 tsp
Salt: To taste
Kasuri Methi/dried fenugreek leaves: 1 tsp.
Oil: 2 tablespoons

Heat Oil and sautee the onions until they are almost done.
Now add the garlic and green chillies and stir for a minute.
Add the tomatoes, kadai masala and stir well.
Cook this until the tomatoes are done and you can see the oil leaving the sides of the pan.
Add the paneer at this point and cover it and cook for about 5-8 minutes.
Stir in between to ensure the paneer/gravy is not burning or sticking to the pan.
Garnish with corriander and serve hot with rotis.

Time Out and back now...

Had been a hectic month and now back to some regular blogging. Lemme start with something simple. How about some Pickle? The green mango one! Here's the recipe.

Raw sour green mango - 1 large or 2 medium Chopped finely.
Salt: a teaspoon [This could be more or less depending on your salt and the mango. So fix it.]
Red Chilli Powder: 1.5 tsp
Ground Fenugreek Seeds: 1 tsp
Asafoetida/hing: 1/2 tsp
Gingelly Oil : 2 tablespoons [If you dont have this, go buy some! Not worth making the pickle without this]

Add salt to the chopped mangoes and leave it to soak it all up for an hour.
Now Heat the oil, and when it is at a high temperature, add the powders and take it off the flame.
Pour the oil mix into the mangoes.
Taste to fix the hing/salt. Your pickle is ready.

This pickle is great with Idli/dosa/curd rice and even bread! If you know my brother, you are nodding your head :-)

P.S: I have absolutely no idea how to tell if a mango is raw or slighly ripe. Trust your shopkeeper or ring up S and ask him!

Penne in White Sauce.

The easiest way to get this dish done is to use the bottled white sauce. The trouble though, is the presence of eggs in the sauce and a general lack of flavour! Here's what I do to make a nice penne in white sauce.

Penne: 2 cups, Boiled al dente/ just a little under done.
Butter : 2 tablespoons
Flour: 2 tablespoons
Milk: 1.5 cups
Garlic: 2 pods, finely chopped.
Italian Mixed Herbs: 1 tsp
Pepper: 1 tsp

Pre-heat your oven to 180 degrees
Heat the butter in a pan, add the garlic and fry for a few seconds.
Now add the pepper, herbs mix well.
Add the flour and fry for 20 seconds.
Now pour the milk all at once and stir well, until smooth and without lumps.
Bring this to a nice thick consistency.
Put the pasta in this sauce, mix well and move to an ovenproof dish.

You can top this pasta with some sauteed carrots, beans, capsicum and peas.
Again, top with some nice cheese and parmesan.
Bake this for about 15 minutes, until the cheese is golden and delicious.

Spring Onions

We found some really fresh Spring Onions and couldn't wait to cook with it. However, I wanted to make something really quick and uncomplicated. Here's what I did.

Spring Onions : 3 bunches chopped
Onion: 1/2 sliced thin
Fenugreek Seeds/methi: 1 tsp
Red Chillies: 2 broken
Oil: to fry
Sambar powder: 2-3 tsp
Hing: a small pinch
Besan: 2 tablespoons.

Heat oil in a pan, add the methi and red chilli when the oil is hot.
Now add the sliced onions and fry for a few minutes.
Now add the spring onions and saute for 2-3 minutes.
Add the Sambar powder and saute for a minute.
Add the Besan and stir well. fry for a few minutes.
Now, add some water until you get some gravy.
Allow it to boil for 2 minutes. Add salt to taste.
This is great with Rotis.