tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-280124162024-03-06T22:12:34.162-08:00Cooking PleasuresEvery Dish From My Kitchen Is A PLeasure To CookMeena Kandlakutihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04846817657201018416noreply@blogger.comBlogger60125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28012416.post-56349207668077563532007-09-19T10:18:00.001-07:002007-09-19T10:39:23.966-07:00To All My Readers and Friends....<div align="justify">From long time Iam not blogging regularly. The reason behind it is we are expecting a new member in our family after few months. So due to initial nausea and sickness, Iam away from blogging. But apart from this good news, another sad news is my css is not working for some reason. The look of blog is not same any more. Iam unable to find the reason, since every thing in css code looks fine. Anyways, since it may create some inconvenience to the readers, i decided to go with some other new design and required changes. Till then Iam sorry for little incovenience. Though, I was away and even with this inconenience, my readers were never away from me and also continued giving mails and appreciating my work. Iam very very thankful for all of your response. Though unable to respond to each one of your mails, iam reading them and publishing them too.So THANK YOU one and all and I promise to come back soon on blogging regularly.</div>Meena Kandlakutihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04846817657201018416noreply@blogger.com18tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28012416.post-6723005513637034772007-08-06T10:55:00.000-07:002007-08-07T10:53:59.232-07:00Whole Wheat Pasta (Simple Meal)<div align="justify"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-azY-J_PbbLvON6fnQhlU1Sf2g2eqd1P48Sp8emqcwMbGCNjuzTHJLA6txNg2M9jV25fEArHdQ-4dZHO5kqSRo-cx771g9Uwxogrtg9LPFiUtCTUdjUAIbqrkbx3FAr14xDo2/s1600-h/pasta.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5095650891992776226" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-azY-J_PbbLvON6fnQhlU1Sf2g2eqd1P48Sp8emqcwMbGCNjuzTHJLA6txNg2M9jV25fEArHdQ-4dZHO5kqSRo-cx771g9Uwxogrtg9LPFiUtCTUdjUAIbqrkbx3FAr14xDo2/s400/pasta.jpg" border="0" /></a> Pasta is one of the Italian dish, which is, famous almost through out the world. From the time Iam married, I never tried this till recent time. I heard about it a lot. Then, I learned with two to three trials on cooking pasta, that it can be cooked with any seasoning of our likes. Now you know me..:-)) I added my very own basic spices used for making a any simple upma to the pasta. And end result for very very yummy. Iam happy with this because my son too started liking pasta. Now its been adopted by both of us (mother and son) very much, it has become one of our favourite meal. For first couple of times, though I have choosen Italian made as I heard it is the best one, I went for just plain pasta. But this time I went for Organic Whole Wheat Fusilli (made in Italy). I choose fusilli upon other textures. I believe , I liked whole wheat pasta more than others. Now I stick to this! Its worth the cost! Iam sending this entry to <a href="http://malluspice.blogspot.com/2007/07/summer-express-cooking-event.html">Express Cooking Event</a>, hosting by mallugirl of <a href="http://malluspice.blogspot.com/">Malabar Spices</a>. I sincerely thanks her for reminding me of this event. Iam very much happy to participate in this event :-)</div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify">For two persons: (here for me and my son)</div><div align="justify">~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~</div><ul><li><div align="justify">1 cup pf whole wheat pasta</div></li><li><div align="justify">1 quater / 1 liter / 32oz of water</div></li><li><div align="justify">Salt a/c to taste</div></li><li><div align="justify">1/4th tsp mustard seeds (aavalu)</div></li><li><div align="justify">1/2 tsp cumin seeds (jilakara)</div></li><li><div align="justify">2 garlic pods (cut and crushed)</div></li><li><div align="justify">1 small onion (Cut onion into small pieces, just as you do for upma)</div></li><li><div align="justify">2 green chillies (slit and cut into small pieces)</div></li><li><div align="justify">1 stem curry leaves (karivepaku)</div></li><li><div align="justify">1 big tomato ( sized into small cubes)</div></li><li><div align="justify">A dash of pepper</div></li></ul><p align="justify"><strong>Method For Cooking Pasta:</strong></p><ol><li><div align="justify">Bring above specified amount of water into full boiling with little salt.</div></li><li><div align="justify">Once the water starts full boiling, add pasta and cook with open lid, stirring occasionally.</div></li><li><div align="justify">Cook till about 10 minutes approx. But do check the pasta in between , to know wheather it is cooked well. </div></li><li><div align="justify">Just take one piece of pasta, press and see wheather you like that chewing consistency. If it is ok , remove from heat or else cook till it reaches texture as you desire.</div></li><li><div align="justify">I like little crunchy texture, so I stopped after 10 minutes of boiling.</div></li><li><div align="justify">Drain water and allow the pasta to cool a little, till you prepare the seasoning. </div></li><li><div align="justify">If it sticks to each other, then just rinse once in cold water and keep aside to drain.</div></li></ol><p align="justify"><strong>Method For Seasoning The pasta:</strong></p><ol><li><div align="justify">Heat a wok, add 2 full tsp of oil (I used olive oil, which is best for such meals).</div></li><li><div align="justify">Now add mustard seeds and cumin seeds, green chillies and curry leaves one after the other as mentioned, giving time for each to splutter.</div></li><li><div align="justify">Now add onions and fry till they turn transparent. Add garlic and fry for 1 more minute.</div></li><li><div align="justify">Now add tomato and sprinkle with pepper powder and very small amount of salt(as already salt is addded to the pasta while cooking). Pour little water (say 1/4 th cup) and close lid.</div></li><li><div align="justify">Allow to cook, mix in between, till tomatoes are soft. Just check the taste for salt and spice. if you think you need little more add here, respectively.</div></li><li><div align="justify">Now add drained pasta and mix well with other ingredients. Close lid and decrease the heat. Allow to cook for couple of minutes more or till all other spices get well with pasta.</div></li><li><div align="justify">Before removing from heat, just check the taste and if needed add like salt or pepper.</div></li><li><div align="justify">Serve hot or warm. This is best one for kids also who like pasta but desire for spices:-)</div></li></ol>Meena Kandlakutihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04846817657201018416noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28012416.post-80183613232902187232007-07-20T09:17:00.001-07:002007-07-20T10:03:36.436-07:00Simple Black Eye Beans Salsa (Alasanda guggulu )<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgX0WO8tQHsxBC-xgUSo75XcjSweSI_HTya7v0HAM4PPtUyY-5Ltk_6Absq7C1QZ-UdNVR_28y55BrLyAK16jxXK8cw8EWDQcLdU_AqgUXrvGjRtULte0-XIYF1JPWXZIeKe-Ri/s1600-h/beans_salsa2.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5089315519029268770" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgX0WO8tQHsxBC-xgUSo75XcjSweSI_HTya7v0HAM4PPtUyY-5Ltk_6Absq7C1QZ-UdNVR_28y55BrLyAK16jxXK8cw8EWDQcLdU_AqgUXrvGjRtULte0-XIYF1JPWXZIeKe-Ri/s400/beans_salsa2.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><p align="justify">"Beans salsa" sounds healthy right? Yes!! it is a very healthy snack and also can be very light meal anytime. It is also good for those who are trying hard to reduce all that extra fat. Unlike using any of sauce in salsa, I made this giving like spice touch. Its simple to prepare any enjoy anytime. If you have less patience or no time or want to eat healthy , then you are at right destination. Lets see the preapration.......</p><p>Ingredients:</p><ol><li>Black Eye Beans (Alasandalu) 1 cup</li><li>Tomato medium sized 1</li><li>Black pepper 1/4 tsp</li><li>Dry Red chillies 2</li><li>Onion 1 medium sized (or half if it is big one)</li><li><div align="justify">Tamarind Juice 1tbsp(thick juice --I used one which we use to pake pulusu pulihora) or( 2 tsp lime juice)</div></li><li>Fresh Cilantro 1 tbsp</li></ol><p>Method:</p><ul><li><div align="justify">Soak beans over night. Wash next day in cold water and pressure cook with little salt upto two whistels.</div></li><li><div align="justify">Drain any water and allow to cool down.</div></li><li><div align="justify">Meanwhile, cut onions and tomatoes into small pieces and set aside separately.</div></li><li><div align="justify">Take beans in a large bowl. Crush red chillies and mix with beans.</div></li><li><div align="justify">Also mix tamarind juice or lime juice and refrigerate for 1/2 hr.</div></li><li><div align="justify">Just before serving, remove and mix with tomatoes, onions, cilantro and desired pepper and salt.</div></li></ul><p align="justify"><strong>Note:</strong> Beans can be substituted with any kind of other means or murmura (puffed rice). Red chillies instead of green chillies really got that spice I needed in my dish. You can always vary salt and spice according to your taste. So enjoy this simple diet.</p>Meena Kandlakutihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04846817657201018416noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28012416.post-49391396405825858602007-07-06T12:15:00.000-07:002007-07-06T15:55:17.385-07:00Nellore Chepala Pulusu (Nellore Fish Curry)<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRWonepOgePALKQF0MmsoeMg-ExS0lcZEGZTYiSrZHN9Erxk3PrQizd93NPu-n5K94NS5n5ORTmaWf9GGmGgAuHflTrvJcr__34q8T8Edfu1gcvmAynkJf2dqafRKl3o4LqDuM/s1600-h/chepala_pulusu10.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5084165724486754162" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRWonepOgePALKQF0MmsoeMg-ExS0lcZEGZTYiSrZHN9Erxk3PrQizd93NPu-n5K94NS5n5ORTmaWf9GGmGgAuHflTrvJcr__34q8T8Edfu1gcvmAynkJf2dqafRKl3o4LqDuM/s400/chepala_pulusu10.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div align="justify">"Nellore Chepala Pulusu" ! As soon as I hear this name I get water in my mouth. It is very very famous in Andhra Pradesh. My mother prepares fish curry as I prepared Vankaaya pulusu, instaed og brinjal she adds fish peices. Even that too taste good. When I visited my Mils's place two years ago, I tastes this curry prepared my her. From then on wards I just wanted to learn this to perfection. I could achieve that by now; though I like the one prepared by her. Iam waiting for next chance;-) Well, by now you would have gone through above pulusu podi. That is key ingredient in this recipe. So lets get into it with out no delay. I hope you will enjoy this , coming weekend. All you need to do.....<br /><br /></div><div align="justify">Ingredients:</div><div align="justify">----------------</div><ul><li><div align="justify">1.6 to 2 lbs fish ( I used King Salmon here. This taste little sweet compare to cat fish)</div></li><li><div align="justify">2 big tomotoes ot 3 medium tomatoes (choose those which can get much juice out of it)<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1Xw5kVx2Fjx7FwjHdbXeeFIZhGp0NhFinNiA9LA86-dCoK5uAGI45epLAMDPg0zxTBnPg3kwuyxlvHDCxjs_Lsrkv_eEEhqLKbtw7TwHscGSEjfHj2E3M_oKMmHykAclymlVz/s1600-h/chepala_pulusu6.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5084189793483480978" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1Xw5kVx2Fjx7FwjHdbXeeFIZhGp0NhFinNiA9LA86-dCoK5uAGI45epLAMDPg0zxTBnPg3kwuyxlvHDCxjs_Lsrkv_eEEhqLKbtw7TwHscGSEjfHj2E3M_oKMmHykAclymlVz/s200/chepala_pulusu6.jpg" border="0" /></a></div></li><li><div align="justify">2 medium lemon sized Tamarind</div></li><li><div align="justify">2 tsp Ginger-Garlic paste</div></li><li><div align="justify">2 tsp dry Coconut powder</div></li><li><div align="justify">2 tsp Turmeric powder </div></li><li><div align="justify">2 to 3 tsp <a href="http://cookingpleasures.blogspot.com/2007/07/sambaar-podi-pulusu-podi.html">Sambar powder </a>or Pulusu Powder</div></li><li><div align="justify">1big Onion</div></li><li><div align="justify">1/4 th tsp Hing powder (Inguvaa)</div></li><li><div align="justify">Oil for cooking (1 tbsp)</div></li><li><div align="justify">Salt as required</div></li></ul><br /><p align="justify">Method:</p><ol><li><div align="justify">Clean the fish with salt especially on the skin side. Cut into desired size of pieces. Drain all the water.<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2ILXYrxz9MglZotunuTgBcniJKGzwZRjGhbKvMUPcwOldDgN_vO133Qv_c-gwNdVfW7J-wcIOC-5c6hQQLNfL9efmq52a39T99GoS3REbtEoVU_OQuTzQ_1vHXskBSavF2F_2/s1600-h/chepala_pulusu7.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5084190386188967842" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2ILXYrxz9MglZotunuTgBcniJKGzwZRjGhbKvMUPcwOldDgN_vO133Qv_c-gwNdVfW7J-wcIOC-5c6hQQLNfL9efmq52a39T99GoS3REbtEoVU_OQuTzQ_1vHXskBSavF2F_2/s200/chepala_pulusu7.jpg" border="0" /></a></div></li><li><div align="justify">Marinate fish with salt, turmeric powder and pulusu podi. Coat the mixture to the fish pieces properly. Set aside till all other prepartions are done.</div></li><li><div align="justify">Soak tamarind in warm water till it becomes soft. Extract the juice and keep aside.</div></li><li><div align="justify">Make puree out of tomatoes. (or elase you can also put tomatoes in hot water for a while. Peel the skin and squeez the juice the juice.)</div></li><li><div align="justify">Cut the onions into thin long pieces.</div></li><li><div align="justify">Grind ginger, garlic and dry coconut into paste and set aside.</div></li><li><div align="justify">Mix tomato puree and tamarind juice to geather. See the taste. If you feel more tamarind juice is necessary than soak again and take juice and mix with this. It is very important step here. As this will make difference in the taste of the gravy.</div></li><li><div align="justify">Take a wide and depth pan, so that fishes are not broken and can be turend easily.</div></li><li><div align="justify">Heat oil and fry onions till light brown. Add ginger-garlic-coconut paste and fry for few seconds. Now add hing here and fry for few seconds.</div></li><li><div align="justify">Add the tomato and tamarind puree and allow to boil. Now add the marinated fish into it. Mix well and close the lid and cook on high heat for 10 minutes.</div></li><li><div align="justify">Decrease the heat to medium. Open the lid and turn the fishes very carefully or can mix whole thing by holding the handels. </div></li><li><div align="justify">Taste for spice and salt. If you feel you need more add salt and pulusu or sambaar podi little more here . Mix slowly and allow to cook on medium heat for 5 minutes more.</div></li><li><div align="justify">Once you think the taste is set, decrease the heat to low for 2 minutes and remove from heat.</div></li></ol><p align="justify"></p><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5084184244385734530" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFVQBeX0bfJYS8ZwDSSttFVugVNEpkHUv8nZ8rLhCwXFUtLpsh1_0dNi820218fg_ChFNc9jB2HmNh3n-0rmm9_t6oTXF_Rk4Dx88pL4u3MXFChUhzKLV9IjdpiSy45d7AFWTu/s400/chepala_pulusu8.jpg" border="0" /><br /><div align="justify"><strong>Note:</strong> This goes well with hot plain white rice. Also can be a enjoyed as a dip for idli's. Try to choose salmon, tuna or any other oily fishes which has very less mercury and are high in omega 3 fatty acids which increases HDL level.</div>Meena Kandlakutihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04846817657201018416noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28012416.post-66298048116606735202007-07-06T10:26:00.001-07:002007-07-06T12:15:15.825-07:00Sambaar Podi / Pulusu Podi<div align="justify"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2JRTfqP6Y4Go1hYiQ8YgpEpegwuDZ196aIEiE1NxYStrfZ3psXh1dN4zenMYhicHVsq_c0HQL54KfBqvWtJqyZPN5UhzxiWA8MjXMGpQz0hfmNNqQuiPtyZlgqxEG3KNuSjEU/s1600-h/chepala_pulusu3.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5084152586181795586" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2JRTfqP6Y4Go1hYiQ8YgpEpegwuDZ196aIEiE1NxYStrfZ3psXh1dN4zenMYhicHVsq_c0HQL54KfBqvWtJqyZPN5UhzxiWA8MjXMGpQz0hfmNNqQuiPtyZlgqxEG3KNuSjEU/s400/chepala_pulusu3.jpg" border="0" /></a><br />This is my first post on spice powders (podi) which are widely used in Indian food, especially in South India. Well, Iam glad and happy to start with this spice powder called "Sambaar Podi" since it is widely used in my kitchen. Speciality of this powder is it can be used in preparation of varoius dishes. Following are the list, in which prepartion, I use this powder(podi).<br /><br /><ul><li><div align="justify">Sambaar </div></li><li><div align="justify">Chepala Pulusu</div></li><li><div align="justify">Vankaaya Pulusu</div></li><li><div align="justify">Kodi Guddu Pulusu</div></li></ul><p align="justify">Apart from above mentioned dishes, you can also use this in some general curries just as an added spicy falvour by reducing the amount of use. Well my next immediate next post is "Nellore Chepala Pulusu" in which this podi is the key ingredient and results in very very tasty curry. When ever we invite our dear guest for dinner or lunch at our home, sambaar will be the one of the compulsory dish among others I prepare. Even if I want to avoid for one time, I can'nt. Beacuse that is the most enjoyed dish by my guest. Thi podi preparation I learned from my mother_in_law. If you prepare once in said amount (below) then it can be used for 3 to 4 times. So lets get into the preparation. </p><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqJlec1CxnDi3OPbX-9bLKf4CZE5Cs6HXamXh_dxG7FvkNybFiTcqdshxJcSW-r6VEpPhUBvwO9X4gpl6IiS3zM2BR7brtzyG6mGTpT0EzHX8Y3rkHTPNY4qSeGcd3MdNiPCoe/s1600-h/chepala_pulusu1.jpg"></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYKKcnS62xBxA3NTrysh5JmX4EZSs724PDYhgrNoOj9-7C7GAuS5C3cS7TikRqhZZAh_9eQe6IY-RnFFnAE_I0GVwLllC3F3Y4YcBXNGafYmFJ3i-040XzWM1V16bIw0A4Eusv/s1600-h/chepala_pulusu2.jpg"></a><strong>Ingredients</strong>:<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaGBdTfPU1MEueXS3eCKOz-1SsM3TcnfN9oWFbB0FYhUyBXVfjtRa7x4-HT3KlV6UEoGQM19HY7nLqvikXmJ8EIkWSLeSBdBDLedi52O0g8Qfkma8zkxQNMRFoe6ShQMeF-h_d/s1600-h/chepala_pulusu1.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5084161592728215378" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaGBdTfPU1MEueXS3eCKOz-1SsM3TcnfN9oWFbB0FYhUyBXVfjtRa7x4-HT3KlV6UEoGQM19HY7nLqvikXmJ8EIkWSLeSBdBDLedi52O0g8Qfkma8zkxQNMRFoe6ShQMeF-h_d/s200/chepala_pulusu1.jpg" border="0" /></a></div><div align="justify">-----------------</div><ul><li><div align="justify">1tbsp Dhaniyaalu (Coriander seeds)</div></li><li><div align="justify">1 tsp Menthulu (methi seeds)</div></li><li><div align="justify">2 tsp Pachichenaga Pappu (split chenna dal)</div></li><li><div align="justify">1 tsp Jilakara (cumin seeds)</div></li><li><div align="justify">1/2 tsp Miriyaalu (whole black pepper) </div></li><li><div align="justify">12 to 15 no's Endu Nirapakaayalu (dry red chillies)<br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5pyewT5EM6irrknWP6sXFS_b_2IKpE_ujQZ-GvFM05wITnzgCb62VC-QcGbXDbDdGdipw4RrK5tMQsyPeC_-_xipLnheaJKoZAt18wxPzox1stx-bJrkmmvF35VAefrFt14o4/s1600-h/chepala_pulusu2.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5084162026519912290" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5pyewT5EM6irrknWP6sXFS_b_2IKpE_ujQZ-GvFM05wITnzgCb62VC-QcGbXDbDdGdipw4RrK5tMQsyPeC_-_xipLnheaJKoZAt18wxPzox1stx-bJrkmmvF35VAefrFt14o4/s200/chepala_pulusu2.jpg" border="0" /></a></div></li></ul><p align="justify"><strong>Method:</strong></p><ol><li><div align="justify">Rosat each one mentioned above separetly till all the raw smell dissapears.</div></li><li><div align="justify">Allow to cool them.</div></li><li><div align="justify">Grind all togeather to fine powder.</div></li></ol><p align="justify"></p><p align="justify"><strong></strong></p><p align="justify"><strong></strong></p><p align="justify"><strong></strong></p><p align="justify"><strong></strong></p><p align="justify"><strong></strong></p><p align="justify"><strong></strong></p><p align="justify"><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">Note:</span></strong> If you want to adjust spice according to your taste, just grind the red chillies separately into powder first. Keep aside. Add this to aother spice powder as much needed. Or else you can add red chilli powder directly in the dish. </p>Meena Kandlakutihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04846817657201018416noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28012416.post-56479416661748152252007-06-28T15:01:00.000-07:002007-06-28T16:15:48.466-07:00Eggs in hot gravy (Kodi Guddu Koora)<div align="justify"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwWmVnvrCtlXcW6U0kqCEXOySTRvH5iib7VrT4sbGqbmqwtZkFYzPLkBq4uxWqG27WQIzSSkHxM6QC_1NGxhui2awfQznYK2es0Gj8OgW6rhSCHTHA9hes11C16SxcBoLtlyVl/s1600-h/eggcurry1.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5081239782311321234" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwWmVnvrCtlXcW6U0kqCEXOySTRvH5iib7VrT4sbGqbmqwtZkFYzPLkBq4uxWqG27WQIzSSkHxM6QC_1NGxhui2awfQznYK2es0Gj8OgW6rhSCHTHA9hes11C16SxcBoLtlyVl/s400/eggcurry1.jpg" border="0" /></a><br />Eggs are good for health! Eat daily an egg! Give children daily a boiled egg! Eggs are..........errr! What Iam talking about? No No No....don'nt worry! Iam not going to say anything more about eggs than this. Since I know, that every body know, that eating boiled eggs as often as possible is good for health! For every body:-)) Indeed, most of us know the importance of good food i.e., what to eat and what not to eat etc. All we need is "Execution" which is most difficult part. We often face that problem. All the time we talk about good food and bad food etc, but forget to follow what we say to others. Well, here I don'nt say that one should stop saying to others about good things what we know. After all, god gave us this gift of communicating with others, to spread good things. But, before saying to others, lets do first and then say!! What do you say?? Hope you all agree with me. Now I stop here and proceed to the recipe before I my self deviate from one topic to another:-) Ok! Coming to the recipe,this is another egg curry yet very simple one to prepare. The name "hot gravy" since, almost all the ingredients used are in paste form adding required spices making the gravy hot. This is another dish which will be perfect to serve for a lunch or dinner party. So lets get into the recipe. <div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"><strong></strong></div><div align="justify"><strong>Ingredients:</strong></div><div align="justify"><strong>-----------------</strong></div><div align="justify">6 Eggs </div><div align="justify">2 Big onions</div><div align="justify">3 Medium sized tomotoes</div><div align="justify">2 to 3 Green chillies</div><div align="justify">2 Tbsp yogurt</div><div align="justify">2 Flat tsp red chilli powder</div><div align="justify">1/2 Tsp garam masala powder</div><div align="justify">2 Flat tsp coriander powder (dhaniyala podi)</div><div align="justify">1/2 Tsp cumin seeds</div><div align="justify">2 Tsp of ginger & garlic paste</div><div align="justify">Few curry leaves</div><div align="justify">1/4th Cup of fresh cilantro</div><div align="justify">Salt as required</div><div align="justify">Oil for cooking (1 tbsp)</div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"><strong>Method:</strong></div><div align="justify"><strong>------------</strong></div><ol><li><div align="justify">Boil eggs untill they are completely cooked ;remove skin and keep aside.</div></li><li><div align="justify">Cut onions and tomatoes roughly and make puree of each separately(do not add any water here).</div></li><li><div align="justify">Take a container. Heat oil. Add cumin seeds.(here instead of cumin seeds, you can also add cuimn powder ). Once they start spluttering add curry leaves and wait till they turn crispy. Add green chillies and fry for a second.</div></li><li><div align="justify">Add onion paste and fry till it turns light brown in color. Here it takes more time than usually you fry onions. </div></li><li><div align="justify">Add ginger garlic paste and fry for 1 minute. Add tomato puree and salt. Mix well and cook untill all the water part evaporates.</div></li><li><div align="justify">Add all other spices stated as red chilli powder; garam masala powder; coriander powder. Mix all well togeather.</div></li><li><div align="justify">Cut eggs into half and add them in this gravy. Mix well once. Close the lid and allow to cook on medium heat for 5 to 8 minutes roughly. So that eggs get this spicy masala into it. </div></li><li><div align="justify">Once you see the gravy is togeather leaving sorroundings of the container, add yogurt and mix well. See no lumps are formed here and eggs are not broken further. Allow to cook on low flame for 3 to 5 minutes. </div></li><li><div align="justify">Add fresh cilantro. Mix well. Keep on sim for few 1 minute and remove from heat.</div></li><li><div align="justify">Serve hot with plain rice or any pulav or mixed vege rice or naan or biryaani or simple roti or pulkha. Goes well with all thease.</div></li></ol><div align="justify"><strong><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5081242415126273698" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjabd-EPGfdCA0hYLqlNv7qw3kwQ1Ph-MJ1ip8ehIW1PSVD3Hxn50FHX03hgh9rrwCddd2qmTKrbraC1SprZdixGqgpoKG5-apisfT76CCm_3fQdcFob-une6jRoHLnHKqVd0GX/s400/eggcurry2.jpg" border="0" /></strong></div><div align="justify"><strong></strong></div><div align="justify"><strong>Note:</strong> Always you can vary the spice levels in this dish. For example some may want to go for less red chilli powder, some may want to omit garam masala powder etc. So enjoy the dish with this or your own proprtions of spices.</div></div>Meena Kandlakutihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04846817657201018416noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28012416.post-16547339111286199212007-06-12T14:47:00.001-07:002007-06-12T16:41:33.786-07:00Indian Version Of Chilli Chicken<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRRymnH0WwMYeZXlG5Km0iFfBuFlMwfbWqQyQ9RaFox47RzHQop5sMmLT5dgLQcU9GvQjVGVSZ5YFIHLV1irEkl0sf1u52XJoXPTPd4MZuVXScTmOFd3xrgcHfPXLHWxS2fZc1/s1600-h/chilli_chicken1.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5075305396588530418" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRRymnH0WwMYeZXlG5Km0iFfBuFlMwfbWqQyQ9RaFox47RzHQop5sMmLT5dgLQcU9GvQjVGVSZ5YFIHLV1irEkl0sf1u52XJoXPTPd4MZuVXScTmOFd3xrgcHfPXLHWxS2fZc1/s400/chilli_chicken1.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div align="justify">The word in the "Chilli Chicken" it self says that it is "Hot" 'n' "Spicy". Why I added "Indian"<br />tag to this name? Well it is much Indianized recipe. I will tell you some thing! When ever I try to cook some thing away from Indian kitchen, finally I end up making it Indianized. I think my hands are more friendly to the spices:-) which are used a lot in Indian Kitchen! Is the same with any of you too? If answer is "Yes" then Iam not surprised. Since, I understand the love and effection we all have towards our basic habits, unknowingly hidden some where in our minds, with which we have grown up, though we some times try to deviate ourselfs to new things which we want to adopt. And its is very very hard to leave them behind. Now! you all know "Basic Habits" here I mean reffering to the food! ofcourse!! After all we are all foodie's:-) What ever we talk, what ever the story we share, what ever ...ever....ever.......what ever!! we end up with our food post. With such an intention, Iam proceeding towards my todays post. So here I go..</div><div><br /></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"><strong>Ingredients:</strong></div><div>-----------------</div><div>3lb chicken (cut into small pieces)</div><div>2 big onions (cut into very thin layers)</div><div>2 medium tomatoes (cut into long and thin pieces)</div><div>3 tbsp yogurt(curd/perugu)</div><div>2 tsp dark soya sauce</div><div>1 tbsp corn flour (mix in some water to form paste with out any lumps)</div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div></div><div>1 stem curry leaves</div><div>6 green chillies (chopped into small pieces)</div><div>3 tsp red chilli powder (adjust to your spice if needed)</div><div>2 tsp turmeric powder</div><div></div><div></div><div>1 tsp ajwain</div><div></div><div></div><div>1 tsp cumin seeds</div><div>3 garlic cloves (cut into very small pieces)</div><div>2" ginger (cut into very small pieces)</div><div>2 tsp coriander powder</div><div>1 flat tsp garam masala powder(optional)</div><div>Lemon juice extracted from 1 lime</div><div>2 tbsp finnely chopped cilantro</div><div>salt as required</div><div>Oil for cooking (prefferably 2 tbsp)</div><div> </div><div> </div><div></div><div><strong></strong></div><div><strong>Method:</strong></div><div>-----------</div><div></div><ol><li><div align="justify">First step is to marinate chicken for 45 minutes to 1 hr. Wash chicken well. Drain all water. Mix curd, salt, turmeric powder, chilli powder, soya sauce, corn flour paste, cumin seeds and 2 tsp of oil. Mix all togeather well, so that each pieces gets well coated with the rest of the mixture and set aside.</div></li><br /><li><div align="justify">Meanwhile, chicken gets marinated, make other ingredients ready as mentioned in the ingredients section.</div></li><br /><li><div align="justify">After 45 to 60 minutes, take a wide and little depth pan. Heat oil. Add ajwain and green chillies. Fry for few seconds. Add curry leaves and fry till they turn crispy. Now add onions and fry till they turn to light brown on thw whole, in color. </div></li><br /><li><div align="justify">Now add ginger and garlic pieces and fry for few seconds. Add the marinated chicken into this and mix well. Fry the chicken for 3 to 5 minutes on high with out closing the lid. See that bottom is not burned.</div></li><br /><li><div align="justify">Now close the lid and reduce the heat to medium and allow the chicken to cook for 10 more minutes. Here if needed add very little water, as chicken will release some water on its own. Just see the bottom of the content is not burned.</div></li><br /><li><div align="justify">Open the lid , add tomatoes and mix well. Close the lid again and allow the tomatoes to be cooked and the its juice gets into the rest of the contents. Cook approximently for another 5 minutes.</div></li><br /><li>Add coriander powder and garam masala powder here if u need and mix well with rest of them. Allow it to cook for another 3 to 5 minutes. Finally, mix the lemon juice and cilantro.</li></ol><p><strong>To Garnish:</strong></p><p>While serving, sprinkle with fresh cilantro and 1 green chilli cut into small pieces on the top of the dish.</p><p align="justify"></p><p align="justify"></p><br /><p align="justify"></p><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5075320978729880322" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUzg_Va7EHfMMtw-pZx0jFuYxzE6yt0w0k2QIT8lExN2d0amXu5kJH3GIGRb4hQjFtc7Z4oaolKxJGdvTTu5ACGAf2uitSe1CpWqMGWQf4FOaDGXHeMUY4nVRcpDQyPZOvmV-d/s400/chilli_chicken4.jpg" border="0" /><br /><p align="justify"><strong></strong></p><p align="justify"><strong>Note:</strong> You can make onions and tomatoes into paste and can mix while marinating. Also vineger is added in chinese chilli chicken while marinating. You can avoid coriander powder and garam masala powder. Also can add green and red pepper while frying the chicken. This will lead to near by recipe of Chinese Chilli Chicken. Also in actual recipe of chilli chicken, the marinated chicken is deep fried first and the tossed in soya sauce and tomato sauce and and cooked with peppers for a while. That is exactly what is served to us in restaurants. To avoid deep frying and according to my spice taste, I Indianized this recipe:-)</p>Meena Kandlakutihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04846817657201018416noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28012416.post-62456043285545502432007-06-11T07:31:00.000-07:002007-06-11T09:19:29.432-07:00Soft and Crispy Dosa with Tasty Aaloo Curry(Rice pancakes with Tasty Potato Curry)<div align="justify"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRdfyVobqHr_MpS_rplRTBbxJCAa1f7Kg0RR0WsAHsBYjilcShtqoCkK4imXUjgo16sAZ9ZvkbbEFdSVNzZ5syqSXU36-XdTmQ8ignYF7IFT8BsMGO9RZeejxXx2lBUUtKfzAg/s1600-h/dosa_aaloocurry1.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5074816036604758706" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRdfyVobqHr_MpS_rplRTBbxJCAa1f7Kg0RR0WsAHsBYjilcShtqoCkK4imXUjgo16sAZ9ZvkbbEFdSVNzZ5syqSXU36-XdTmQ8ignYF7IFT8BsMGO9RZeejxXx2lBUUtKfzAg/s400/dosa_aaloocurry1.jpg" border="0" /></a> Today Iam back with all time favourite of South Indians "Dosa". It is not just favourite down south but Iam sure through out India. Because I know many north Indian friends who just love to have thease crispy yet soft pancakes with peanut and coconut dips(we call chutneys). Along with such chutney namely "Peanut Chutney" and "Aaloo Curry" which is wrapped in the dosa and served to the customers in almost every South Indian restaurant. This Aaloo curry recipe is adopted from my mother and I love to have with dosa's any time:-) Dosa can be prepared crispy or else soft like cotton to touch. I know they are meant to eat:-) Some like crispy as we say paper dosa and some like very soft. Both thease can be made with same measures of ingredients. So lets get it into the details of thease recipes.<br /><div align="justify"></div><br /><div align="justify"><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">Recipe Of Dosa</span></strong></div><div align="justify">-----------------------</div><br /><div align="justify"><strong>Ingredients:</strong></div><div align="justify">----------------</div><div align="justify">2 cups of rice (sona masuri)<br /></div><div align="justify">2 cups of urad dal (black gram )<br /></div><div align="justify">1/4th tsp of fenugreek seeds (methi seeds)<br /></div><div align="justify">A pinch of Baking soda( for soft dosa only)<br /></div><div align="justify">Required water<br /></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"><strong></strong></div><div align="justify"><strong></strong></div><div align="justify"><strong></strong></div><div align="justify"><strong>Method:</strong></div><div align="justify">-----------</div><ol><li><div align="justify">Soak togeather rice, urad dal and methi seeds in a big container with water , 1 or 2 inches more the level of contents for 6 to 8 hrs.</div></li><li><div align="justify">After that rinse all togeather in cold water for several times.</div></li><li><div align="justify">Grind to soft paste in 2 to 3 rounds with the help of required water.</div></li><li><div align="justify">The result should be soft batter which should flow easily. The consistency should be more than idli batter.<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0cAIBo3mTR_cHqlrH0f1YWyqmqzDIZaEjCLXramTWIjfNQe9W7kZ_jdWjH07aoudaIYBS_WhOFaSab9I-G4WENSxfkJeQ9eHRYdq-C0vkGDPeKDlt9L3FRM1_DU1b2H6OOkfM/s1600-h/dosa-spoons.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5074831416882645698" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0cAIBo3mTR_cHqlrH0f1YWyqmqzDIZaEjCLXramTWIjfNQe9W7kZ_jdWjH07aoudaIYBS_WhOFaSab9I-G4WENSxfkJeQ9eHRYdq-C0vkGDPeKDlt9L3FRM1_DU1b2H6OOkfM/s320/dosa-spoons.jpg" border="0" /></a> </div></li><li><div align="justify">Ferment the batter for overnight or for 8hrs. I keep in the oven with out any heat for over night. It is well fermented so far:-)</div></li><li><div align="justify">For soft dosa, add baking soda in the batter and required salt and mix well. Add little water if needed. See the consistency after fermentation.</div></li><li><div align="justify">Take the pan or tawa heat well. Spread few drops of oil on tawa and then immeditely spread the dosa batter starting from the center of tawa in a round till the table spoon of batter is spread completely. The spoon you use should be round , depth one as shown in above pic.</div></li><li><div align="justify">Pour little oil around the dosa and allow to cook at one side. Once the top side is dry just dip the flat stick in the oil, which will make the job easy to turn dosa around. Now cook another side for few seconds , fold the dosa into half and remove from the heat. </div></li><li><div align="justify">For crispy dosa, just spread the batter from the middle into very thin round. Pore little more oil all around the dosa and cook on high heat. Once up side is dry, turn around to another side and cook for 1 minute. Close into half and remove from the pan. Thus you will get crispy one.</div></li></ol><p align="justify">--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------</p></div><p align="justify"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5074834577978575570" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYnqdUQQpNRg_ro31gJTT6JWFp2tQwKIiHaNGl72zJly6yI_T14wFhDDRjZgMMc6oLFUtO6vWuK1mz1GqBwnL8SIBUCiCnM5M9dB8ylX_ZfoakTkkOvQ8QJ1ZUG0sCbm6TDq-0/s400/dosa_aaloocurry3.jpg" border="0" /></p><p align="justify"></p><p align="justify"><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">Recipe Of Potato Curry:</span></strong></p><p align="justify"><strong>Ingredients:</strong></p><p align="justify">4 to 5 big potatoes</p><p align="justify">2 big onions</p><p align="justify">2 to 3 garlic cloves (crushed)</p><p align="justify">4 to5 green chillies</p><p align="justify">1 stem curry leaves</p><p align="justify">A pinch Asafoetida powder (hing or inguva)</p><p align="justify">1 tsp mustard seeds (aavalu)</p><p align="justify">1/2 tsp cumin seeds(jeera or jilakara</p><p align="justify">1 tsp turmeric powder</p><p align="justify">Salt as required</p><p align="justify">oil for cooking (1 tbsp)</p><p align="justify"><strong>Method:</strong></p><ol><li><div align="justify">Peel the skin of potatoes and cut into cubes. Wash them and keep them separately.</div></li><li><div align="justify">peel the skin of onions and cut into long and very thin layers. Make a long slit in between of green chillies.</div></li><li><div align="justify">Take a wide and little depth pan. Heat oil and add mustard seeds followed by cumin seeds and green chillies. Fry for a little while and add curry leaves. Fry till they are little crispy. </div></li><li><div align="justify">Add hing to this and onions. Fry the onions till they turn soft. Here onions should not be fried till brown. </div></li><li><div align="justify">Add turmeric powder followed by potatoes. Mix every thing well and sprinkle salt over the potatoes. Pour little water, so that base is not burned. Do not mix here any thing.</div></li><li><div align="justify">Just close the lid and cook on medium heat for 2 to 3minutes. </div></li><li><div align="justify">Now open the lid and mix every thing. Salt should be mixed well. Pour here some more water but very little if required. Close the lid and cook until the potaoes are done.</div></li><li><div align="justify">Remove from the heat, Sprinkle some cilantro from the top if needed. Serve hot with dosa. This curry also goes well with chapathis too.</div></li></ol>Meena Kandlakutihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04846817657201018416noreply@blogger.com21tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28012416.post-35720944678093908962007-06-05T14:39:00.000-07:002007-06-06T10:12:43.791-07:00Uppu Chekkalu / Vadappalu<div align="justify"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmSM5vzqQKaGCy41tX7oLHf32Q9b1yiUaSmy-1uROInD2B7MXpEiwhqTzelRMo1z1ZGizQ4XDF06jk1u-pqFVyqipURfbv2dAloVCTKtkg2LG8x5J7OoRxn0DiDiGH5kELYN4Y/s1600-h/chekkagarelu7.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5072703544055319138" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmSM5vzqQKaGCy41tX7oLHf32Q9b1yiUaSmy-1uROInD2B7MXpEiwhqTzelRMo1z1ZGizQ4XDF06jk1u-pqFVyqipURfbv2dAloVCTKtkg2LG8x5J7OoRxn0DiDiGH5kELYN4Y/s400/chekkagarelu7.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div align="justify">Uppu chekkalu is another Andhra Pradesh snack which is perfect for any evening to have with hot tea. We south Indians have apractice of having it along with any rice item too or just like a time pass one which is enjoyed while watching a movie, gup-shup(chatting) with friends or family etc. I mean here, murrukulu, uppu chakkalu kind of foods are meant to be enjoyed any time:-) This is a simple recipe yet easy one to prepare adopted from my mother. They are made using riceflour, maida, all purpose flour etc. Here I go with recipe.....</div><br /><div align="justify"></div><span style="font-size:130%;">Ingredients:</span><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-size:130%;">------------------</span></div><div align="justify"></div><br /><div align="justify">2 cups rice flour / all purpose flour( if you want more crispy just go with rice flour or else can use all purpose flour. Another option is to mix chickpea flour/ gram flour with rice flour in 2:1 ratio for little soft uppu chekkalu being crispy).<br /></div><br /><div align="justify">1 medium sized onion (cut into small pieces)<br /></div><br /><div align="justify">1tsp ajwain /carom seeds (optional)<br /></div><br /><div align="justify">1 tbsp split yellow peas / channa dal(thine chenaga pappu) (soak in water for 1 hr before preparation) or handfull of skinned and split peanuts(versenaga pappu)<br /></div><br /><div align="justify">1 tsp red chilli powder / 4 to 5 green chillies paste<br /></div><br /><div align="justify">Salt to taste<br /></div><br /><div align="justify">Oil for cooking </div><div align="justify"></div><br /><div align="justify">White sesame seeds (nuvvulu) </div><div align="justify"></div><br /><div align="justify">1 stem curry leaves<br /></div><br /><div align="justify">Water as required<br /></div><br /><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-size:130%;">Method:</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-size:130%;">------------</span></div><br /><div align="justify"><strong>Step1:</strong><br /><br /></div><p><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5072717167691582066" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuZbD-EM13ONz2KQGU88VC6zIdsvh4N52CDnCMerf5p9qW_JYlWow_X7y49WCto-GxZwBOUrf5uqRzKvPSZoWqE2wEGuew3QQd4wzNRp80m0wHhGlWRFQsKbzdBIQa3qE080nh/s320/chekkagarelu1.jpg" border="0" /></p><br /><p align="justify">Mix all the ingredients and add 1 tbsp of hot oil into the mixture and mix well with a spoon untill no lumps are left over. Then make a dough with the help of required water. Dough should not be sticky.</p><br /><p><strong>Step2 & Step3:</strong> </p><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5072727256569760418" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9VVHaJGCeJcPTEu8K05ZXAUFo0L5hLlcO-yLGxx_SWbEUfzkWy4-zP9meNa1pm0uFAw6SKmKIkqhwf7-ab-Z-_D4gnz1CyAeMixeQYdwySIffEXDFQ4fQET2y9QCRbnZrXMDv/s320/chekkagarelu2.jpg" border="0" /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5072721806256261762" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSzt6bu4uRFW3Z4WIaw2_niDJKUeZb09-I-NfMCm3rt-PCfpUeYVzIMwChcm95fTUnINLqXejG8xUZy4hPElWsWROUY9mfHv_eykL_kBB3MN-dNuR1AyZPOUyxktnJAnVUGN79/s320/chekkagarelu3.jpg" border="0" /><br />Make a small lemon size round ball out of the dough. Take any container whose base is round enough to press on the ball. Also take a soft plastic cover or ziplock cover. Clean the cover and spread over a roti maker or any flat and soft base thing. If you have roti maker then just put this ball on plastic cover on the roti maker top and press into thin flat round, using little oil to remove it . Or else press with the container as shown in above pic and spread with your fingers dipped into water.<br /><br /><p align="justify"><strong>Step4:</strong> </p><p align="justify">Heat the oil for deep frying , take this flat round from the plastic cover with the help of fingers dipped in the water and allow it to slide in the oil slowly. Start with one, once you pickup, fry 2 to 3 at a time. Remove them and drain on paper towel to observe excess oil and transfer into another container. If you are well practiced with such foods then its time for me to put the fullstop:-)) These can be stored in air tight conatiner for longer fressness. So Uppu chekkalu / vadappalu( at our mother's side in telangana we call vadappalu) are ready to have with hot tea.</p><br /><p><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5072724653819579026" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaefbETdnF2lbB_rur5Bz9JXs5lWAHeOZnw4GS1Y3xhPN8Fmt4xTk6GbSrmpiocI7LtwERHruiwo1iU82NE7W9_0X6cqH1FxTFCFubsi2ysNkY1ODKBVOcbzqrNLhvAgR7U36D/s320/chekkagarelu6.jpg" border="0" /><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong></strong></span></p><p><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong></strong></span></p><br /><p align="justify"><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong>Note: </strong></span><span style="font-size:100%;">Instead of channa dal, peanuts can be substituted. If you are lack of sesame seeds, still you can go with this recipe with out those. Because the day I prepared this I had no peanuts and no sesame seeds in my store. Also remember always go with white sesame seeds, as black are more sweeter than white and are not suitable for such savouries.</span></p></div>Meena Kandlakutihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04846817657201018416noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28012416.post-91011496005233424392007-06-04T11:43:00.000-07:002007-06-12T12:26:24.986-07:00The Foodie BlogrollHI Friends!. I just found this new foodie blogroll . As soon as I came to knew about it, thought this is one of best way to knew about other foodie's in blogger world. So why late ...so go ahead and just click here to join the roll....<a href="http://www.leftoverqueen.com/the-foodie-blogroll">http://www.leftoverqueen.com/the-foodie-blogroll</a>.<br />So see you friends in blogroll:-)) Jenn of The <a href="http://www.leftoverqueen.com/">Left over Queen</a> has got this idea of building up the foodie blog roll. Great idea. Good going. Well done Jenn:-))Meena Kandlakutihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04846817657201018416noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28012416.post-28714265189403735962007-05-29T15:05:00.000-07:002007-05-29T16:27:36.560-07:00Gongura Pachadi / Chutney<div align="justify"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfhb0qUz8eiKsp8Zwy_h6p51705L1Q2J1f-q592ob5z9_HEhJ0lXb9_Rkhz42L4d6FjVat41HwqiXXDhs10uz-nQgiblsLiv2l25FfIk_0SYXQmWVMfIiK2BOhUnhMamirYqQf/s1600-h/gongurapachadi1.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5070109697041207874" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfhb0qUz8eiKsp8Zwy_h6p51705L1Q2J1f-q592ob5z9_HEhJ0lXb9_Rkhz42L4d6FjVat41HwqiXXDhs10uz-nQgiblsLiv2l25FfIk_0SYXQmWVMfIiK2BOhUnhMamirYqQf/s400/gongurapachadi1.jpg" border="0" /></a> Gongura Pachadi or chutney is no doubt an "Andhra Special" dish. In olden days this used be one among other special dishes on any special occasions for Andhra People. Iam happy that thease leaves are easily available in Indian stores here(United States). Today Iam going to present two methods of preparing Gongura Pachadi. One is a simple & fast method; another one is little elaborated which Iam presenting with some pictures. Before proceeding I would like to say this is another versatile food item; since you can prepare Gongura Pachadi; Gongura Vepudu; Gongura Pappu from thease sorrel leaves. Below both methods are adopted from my mother and mother-in-law respectively. My mother does the same way with a little variation. I.e., aadding black chenna in pachadi. Soak the channa overnight ; wash them next day ; fry in little oil and add them after grinding all the ingredients i.e., to the paste. This we used to have with Jonna Rottelu (jawar ki roti). Soon I will blog how to do the jawar ki rotti. Some times, we distribute this as "prasadam" in Saibaba temple. Iam sure some of you who have visited or visit saibaba temple frequently, can notice this as one among other "Prasadam" served at the Baba Temple. You can try this variation too; and can have with hot rice or chapathis.</div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"><strong></strong></div><div align="justify"><strong></strong></div><div align="justify"><strong></strong></div><div align="justify"><strong></strong></div><div align="justify"><strong></strong></div><div align="justify"><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">First Method:</span></strong></div><div align="justify"><strong>--------------------</strong></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify">Ingredients:</div><div align="justify">--------------</div><div align="justify">2 big bunches of gongura (red sorrel leaves prefferably)</div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify">1tsp mustard seeds (avaalu)<br /></div><div align="justify">3 or 4 tsp coriander seeds (dhaniyaalu)<br /></div><div align="justify">6 dryred chillies (endu nirapakaayalu)<br /></div><div align="justify">1 tsp Methi (menthulu)<br /></div><div align="justify">A pinch hing /Asafoetida(inguvaa)<br />Salt as required<br />2 tbsp of cooking oil</div><div align="justify"><br /></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"><br /></div><div align="justify">Method:</div><div align="justify">----------</div><div align="justify"><ol><li>Separate gongura leaves from the respective stems. Wash and keep separately till all the water is drained.<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7m3n4j_3C4toidgrQ4NCk4aSKk3SyiKhLHbY-OF1l_Q10YJek9hxLWTXssZv6gHhcERBmvtPrb5swllE5YE8PGSxZJFtX_LPdXLMYT8M-q-_ParPawRiW7_V6pRE-7OXW0Y1M/s1600-h/gongurapachadi2.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5070121418006958722" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7m3n4j_3C4toidgrQ4NCk4aSKk3SyiKhLHbY-OF1l_Q10YJek9hxLWTXssZv6gHhcERBmvtPrb5swllE5YE8PGSxZJFtX_LPdXLMYT8M-q-_ParPawRiW7_V6pRE-7OXW0Y1M/s320/gongurapachadi2.jpg" border="0" /></a></li><br /><li>Take deep fry pan. Pour some oil (2 tsp) warm up. Add gongura leaves and fry till all the water is evoporated as shown in beside picture.<br /></li><li>Since the leaves are sorrel , no need to add any tamrind pulp or tamarind itself.</li><br /><li>Take out the fried leaves and keep it separately.</li><br /><li>In the same pan, heat oil and add mustard seeds , coriander seeds, dry red chillies, methi seeds and hing respectively, one after the other.<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh09bniEtx2ccUhF2UVhKIQXDHH6Ky86eycZSqHRrmoVm59q-C5lbTfT8o-Kfn-ZsyX2NPMVDP77xb8R-E4mKnHgAy-rux6BpC90pES9boOwG2X_7vcvLt3-14dha1XDyWDF1F8/s1600-h/gongurapachadi3.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5070117793054560866" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh09bniEtx2ccUhF2UVhKIQXDHH6Ky86eycZSqHRrmoVm59q-C5lbTfT8o-Kfn-ZsyX2NPMVDP77xb8R-E4mKnHgAy-rux6BpC90pES9boOwG2X_7vcvLt3-14dha1XDyWDF1F8/s320/gongurapachadi3.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /></li><li>Fry till the seeds starts spluttering. Now add fried gongura to this and mix well.<br /></li><li>Swith off the stove. Here at this stage you can just make paste of it using pappu gottam (which is used to mash any dal cooked in the pressure cooker) or else after it cools down make paste of it in a grinder with required salt.</li></ol></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"><br /></div><p align="center"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5070119051479978610" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik9dQ8w1fnUxtBQLAyEZysWwa9_ViGcWbrV4cdkDlFCL3nDsJTte1TM-dP7Cun9vwSGItmiv8pIGyTDvwDlMkZK498DyPw-J82e5Muz0_3UrU74ZOSYvAyPvYtBpE5QpO0QS2w/s320/gongurapachadi4.jpg" border="0" /><span style="font-family:courier new;color:#ff6600;">Gongura Pachadi (before grinding it into paste)</span></p><span style="font-family:courier new;color:#ff6600;"></span><p><span style="font-family:courier new;color:#666600;"><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">Second Method:<br /></span>---------------------<br /></strong></span><span style="font-family:courier new;"></span></p><ol><li><span style="font-family:courier new;color:#666600;">Same till 4th step of first method.</span></li><li><span style="font-family:courier new;color:#666600;">Fry dry red chillies, asafoetida or hing and mustard seeds in oil.</span></li><li><span style="font-family:courier new;color:#666600;">Add the leaves to this and mix well and remove from the heat. Grind to the fine paste.</span></li></ol>Meena Kandlakutihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04846817657201018416noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28012416.post-20748772494735166132007-05-23T11:42:00.000-07:002007-05-23T14:23:46.014-07:00Chicken Regular & Gudur Chicken<div align="justify">Hi Friends! Iam back to blogging world ! Truely speaking I was never far away from it. I used to and Iam going through all my fellow bloggers new recipes, events and articles frequently. Due to my toddler activities and other work at home, it is very hard for me to join my regular blogging. Also I thought of changing my blog look..tried this and that, but finally Iam in love with my old blog. I started liking it more as more I started looking for new designs:-))<br /></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"><br /></div><div align="justify">Coming to details of my trip; It was very good; especially in terms of quality of time I have spent with my near and dear. Thanks to KA (of Krishna & Arjuna's World) who gave some tips on travelling. I took care of them and had good and safe journey overall. While going we three went togeather, so there was no problem, but inreturn I was with my naughty toddler, which was also good unlike I expected:-) What all I got for my kitchen from home are some new cooking dishes (aluminium based), two aluminium pans (chapathi and dosa pans) replacement for non-stick pans. And we brought a new change in our kitchen i.e., we totally free of micro oven and successfully living with out it from one month. It was easy for me to get rid of it, as I used to heat some food and boil vege's only; which Iam doing on regular stove now. As I heard, cooking with micro oven means like keeping our head in it. Ofcourse in today's world we are totally surrounded my electronic equipments; And it is very very hard to get rid of all this and live in a natural environment which is healthy. But I think all we can do is atleast try to get rid of those things with out which we can really live. So let's try! and make our earth worth living for every body and for our self too:-))</div><br /><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5067846988010590690" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjm7uwNDpPNtr7d8ejgd9Itgsg5-FYKjx7Kp8dxDlw6Q5_r849XvI9RVUrGD0avgMKpQ-x_ElUGOG2xdBNT09L5U8W-1hH7tBkxQ8W4V-l4MM54qMIAT_U1suIDOUITQrNwfz1x/s400/chicken_regular1.jpg" border="0" /><br /><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify">Friends..I wanted to share some above mentioned things with all my readers..hope you enjoyed reading it and may be helpful to you in your lifes. Today Iam here with a simple chicken recipe which is very regular at many of our homes unlike butter chicken; ginger chicken; chicken in cashew nut sauce.... etc. Most of the sunday's we cook this in our homes though not special but equally tasty as good as others. Thus, I gave this name as "Chicken Regular"! And another one "Gudur Chicken" is my MIL special recipe which we enjoy with dosa when ever we visit India. This I did not take any photo yet. I will add soon when I cook. Here comes both the recipe's.....</div><br /><br /><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">Chicken Regular<br /></span></strong>-------------------------<br />Ingredients:<br />-------------<br /><br />Whole Chicken<br /><br />2 medium onions<br /><br />3 to 4 medium sized tomatoes<br /><br />1 tbsp ginger-garlic paste<br /><br />2 tsp turmeric powder<br /><br />3 tsp chilli powder<br /><br />2 tsp coriander powder (Dhaniyaala podi)<br /><br />1/2 cup curd<br /><br />Salt a/c to taste<br /><br />1 to 1 1/2 tsp garam masala<br /><br />1 tbsp cilantro<br /><br />Oil for cooking<br /><br />Method:<br />-------------<br /><br /><ol><br /><li>Wash chicken and cut into desired pieces.</li><li>Then marinate chicken with curd, 1/2 tsp oil, 1 tsp salt for 40 minutes.</li><li>Meanwhile, cut onions and tomatoes into thin slices and keep aside.</li><li>Heat oil in an big vessel. Add onions and fry till light brown in color.</li><li>Add ginger-garlic paste and fry of couple of minutes.</li><li>Add turmeric powder and mix well with onions.</li><li>Now add marinated chicken to the vessel and mix well. </li><li>Fry for 3 to 4 minutes. Add needed salt as already some salt is added while marinating chicken. Mix and allow to cook for 3 to 4 minutes more.</li><li>Now add tomatoes and chilli powder, garam masala powder and coriander powder and mix all togeather well.</li><li>Close the lid and cook on medium heat untill all the tomato juice get into the chicken along with other masala.( Approx about 5 to6 minutes)</li><li>Open the lid and add required water if you want more gravy .(At this point you will come to know how much to add)</li><li>Finally add cilantro and sim the stove for 5 more minutes. Before swithching of the heat check for the salt and chicken is well cooked or not.</li></ol><p><strong>Note:</strong> Chicken is cooked very fast, so whole process may take 30 hr to 40 minutes</p><p>-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------</p><p><strong><span style="font-size:130%;">Gudur Chicken</span></strong></p><p>---------------------</p><p>Ingredients:</p><p>---------------</p><p>Whole chicken</p><p>1 big onion</p><p>3 medium tomatoes (ripe)</p><p>1tbsp ginger-garlic -coconut paste ( grind ginger, garlic and dry coconut pieces togeather to make paste)</p><p>Corinader powder (Dhaniyala podi)</p><p>3 tsp chilli powder</p><p>2 tsp turmeric powder</p><p>3 to 4 cloves (lavangalu)</p><p>1 bay leaf</p><p>2 Cinnamon sticks (dalchina chekkalu)</p><p>salt as required</p><p>Oil for cooking</p><p>Method:</p><p>--------------</p><ol><li>Wash chicken and cut into small pieces(or as desired).</li><li>Take this washed chicken in a wide and deep container. Add turmeric powder and salt and mix well.</li><li>With out adding any water put this on stove and on medium heat with covered lid cook the chicken.</li><li>As chicken will release some water no need to add any water to it.</li><li>Cook until almost all the water is evaporated.</li><li>Add chilli powder at this stage and mix well. Do not put any spoon to mix it. Just mix it holding the container.</li><li>Decrease the heat and allow it to cook for 2 miuntes and remove from heat. Keep this aside.</li><li>Take an another vessel. Heat oil. Add cloves bay leaf and cinnamon sticks. Fry for few seconds</li><li>Now add onions and fry till light brown in color. Add ginger-garlic-coconut paste and fry for 2 minutes.</li><li>Now add the tomatoes , mix well and cook till they are soft. Add little water here if you want more gravy . Now add cooked chicken and mix all togeather well. </li><li>Allow to cook for 5 minutes approx. Remove from the heat and serve hot with hot dosa.</li></ol><p><strong>Note:</strong> Till 5th step you can cook chicken always and can refrigerate for later use. Or else can fry in little oil with desired pepper or chilli powder (chicken fry) and can have with sambar rice.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"></div>Meena Kandlakutihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04846817657201018416noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28012416.post-29339389208957113412007-05-07T00:10:00.000-07:002007-05-08T12:51:29.158-07:00Iam Back after Long Break!<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrU75SBvF_yJ9Rl3LsNPEEv-ZCRRaLoFSl9hlnaRbGgvCl6LsQ7xRmqDaKjzf6MydlFzD-U4AzMwphv68HIBHvCR3pLuGD4ujJpXKuboIlAnSiCxpTlYX36QXTXVkVzcW5xM6Y/s1600-h/DSC_0010.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5062278430906188674" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrU75SBvF_yJ9Rl3LsNPEEv-ZCRRaLoFSl9hlnaRbGgvCl6LsQ7xRmqDaKjzf6MydlFzD-U4AzMwphv68HIBHvCR3pLuGD4ujJpXKuboIlAnSiCxpTlYX36QXTXVkVzcW5xM6Y/s400/DSC_0010.JPG" border="0" /></a> HI Folks! Iam back from India few weeks ago, but took time to blog here. Now you know the reason :-( Anyways its hard to come back here, all alone (ofcourse with my little one)..but knowing some one dear are waiting for us, brings us back. I thank to all those who mailed me and left comments and enquired about me. Though I was not blogging any recipes; I was seeing all my fellow blogger sites regularly. I think lot of recipes to try a head; missed lots of events..but hopefully, I will catch you all soon , with lots of traditional and healthy home made recipes. Hope to see you soon...once Iam done with my left over work! Until then Happy Blogging!!Meena Kandlakutihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04846817657201018416noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28012416.post-7602476960611033152007-01-31T12:06:00.000-08:002007-01-31T15:52:26.672-08:00Chicken Biryaani & Perugu Chatni (Hyderabadi Special)<div style="text-align: justify;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlvMqwSX6bvdAKq5KKHc9EMpoJnXSMOipyCqfikVGo9gknahNo-HdlJ5mADLmSEjc0mhfD2k8Og5Hs8Tqmgc6z8SFHfxTOYd8WFmBDea3dZD49touRCpr8epjFByLzzTTuPqSK/s1600-h/chicken_biryaani_03.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlvMqwSX6bvdAKq5KKHc9EMpoJnXSMOipyCqfikVGo9gknahNo-HdlJ5mADLmSEjc0mhfD2k8Og5Hs8Tqmgc6z8SFHfxTOYd8WFmBDea3dZD49touRCpr8epjFByLzzTTuPqSK/s400/chicken_biryaani_03.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5026289964401659794" border="0" /></a>Hi Friends! Today Iam back with my native place special dish "Chicken Biryaani". This is very special to me, because my mom is expert in cooking this dish and enjoyed by all of our family members on some special occasions. As the dish is almost cooked, every body comes to know about that. How? "The Aroma by which whole house is filled". And now, as a saying in hindi "Petme choohe doudrahe hey!!" every body goes directly to the dinning table and eagerly awaits for my mom, that when she will be back from the kitchen with a dish full of biryaani:-) I learned this dish from my mother. Till now I cooked several times for my family members and friends. Once I mentioned in food meme, this is one of my favourite food among those five. Generally, this is served with perugu chutney (yogurt spicy dip) or with any chicken gravy or masala gravy wich is given with the parcel of biryaani at any restaurant in India or Hyderabad. So today I go with the step by step traditional preparation of Chicken Biryaani .<br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />Ingredients For Marinating Chicken:<br />----------------------------------------<br />Whole chicken 1 (skinned)<br />Pudina (Mint Leaves) bunch 1<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlTtbsUJlRjtbbCzV_ZEoXlU_UCvv0y6cFvlbcCX7DBmUEvspVarCVMaFOBp6oxkc-ek9vUyykmomB-ucx6vXpebI3tnG9d5YtZUktsiXkuo5Trw9P5qAmfRfDO9TmIu7tVRTL/s1600-h/chicken_biryaani_05.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlTtbsUJlRjtbbCzV_ZEoXlU_UCvv0y6cFvlbcCX7DBmUEvspVarCVMaFOBp6oxkc-ek9vUyykmomB-ucx6vXpebI3tnG9d5YtZUktsiXkuo5Trw9P5qAmfRfDO9TmIu7tVRTL/s320/chicken_biryaani_05.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5026319406402473890" border="0" /></a><br />Cilanto or Coriander bunch 1<br />Yogurt 1 cup (prefferabley 1 or 2 days set before yogurt) (can use low fat yogurt too)<br />Ginger-Garlic paste 2tbsp<br />Green chilli paste 2 to 3 0z (or make paste of 100gms of green chillies)<br />Elaichi or Cardamoms 20 no's (remove skin and make powder in a motar of 20 elaichi's)<br />Sajeera or Ajwain 1/2 tsp (they looks like cumin seeds but are little tiny and in double color which are not fennel seeds)<br />Lavanga or cloves(dried) 2<br />Bay leaf 2 (if small) or 1 (if big)<br />Cinnamon Sticks or Dalchini Patta 2 to 3<br />Salt a/c to taste (See the content and mix the salt. Just check with your finger tip dipped in marination and taste. Generally based on chicken and rice content)<br /><br />Method For Marination:<br />--------------------------<ol><li>Wash the chicken well several times, drain water competely.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhkbdwrZ52M9umIUVMLu6n1GvYSppdTjkQ77VJJE11xfzm9hRw0ZbEEiDg59faXyokwEfSeYqbf9jGF0ayYcqGr5NcC9qbY_4iJ6LqyrJuP9GvmCioKk3-NOpPMNNVeWoLK_kQ/s1600-h/chicken_biryaani_07.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhkbdwrZ52M9umIUVMLu6n1GvYSppdTjkQ77VJJE11xfzm9hRw0ZbEEiDg59faXyokwEfSeYqbf9jGF0ayYcqGr5NcC9qbY_4iJ6LqyrJuP9GvmCioKk3-NOpPMNNVeWoLK_kQ/s200/chicken_biryaani_07.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5026323168793825202" border="0" /></a></li><li style="text-align: justify;">Taken the chicken in a wide and deep pan (same pan in which you are planning to cook biryaani).</li><li>Cut cilantro and mint bunches into small pieces.</li><li>Mix with chicken. Also mix all above mentioned ingredients along with salt.</li><li>Mix well every thing with chicken and keep aside. Marinate for minimum 1/2 hr (if you have plenty of time and plan this dish in advance, then better to marinate for 45 minutes)</li></ol>Ingredients For Rice preparation:<br />-----------------------------------<br />Basmati or long grain rice 5 or 6 cups (above chicken consistency is sufficient for 5 cups and 6 cups rice also)<br />Saffron strands(or kunkum puvvu or kesari) a pinch of<br />Big onions 2<br />A cup of whole milk (also can take reduced fat milk)<br />Oil for deep frying<br />2 tbsp of Ghee or clarified butter (optional)<br />2 small lemons<br />Water as required<br /><br />Method For Rice Preparation:<br />-----------------------------------<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPY6D8PWwQnzcMOCnj127Sg6ZTV87erDyw2huujU4zHgQd2-jreqUzqCnW2ev7gllMy3BQePt6GbViekyDMqOLO6Vwjb-BESXkzR1WNqo1nR9klJk_ilPZIVrLMe01keOsMA1c/s1600-h/chicken_biryaani_06.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPY6D8PWwQnzcMOCnj127Sg6ZTV87erDyw2huujU4zHgQd2-jreqUzqCnW2ev7gllMy3BQePt6GbViekyDMqOLO6Vwjb-BESXkzR1WNqo1nR9klJk_ilPZIVrLMe01keOsMA1c/s200/chicken_biryaani_06.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5026328601927454658" border="0" /></a><div style="text-align: justify;">Cook rice in 1: 1 1/2 ratio (i.e., for 1 cup of raw rice take one and half cup of water). Drain rice on a paper or in any mesh container. Soak saffron strands in cup of milk and keep it aside. Cut onions into very very thin and long pieces. Deep fry them in the oil batch by batch. (Becareful here, as you deep fry onions , oil suddenly raises up, then decrease the heat. That is why it suggested to deep fry them in smal batches , till they turn into golden brown in color. drain them on a paper towel and finally remove them in a plate. Take juice out of lemon's and keep it aside.<br /><br />It is suggested to prepare rice and deep fry onions in advance or prepare them while chicken marinates. Because, rice should be dried completely before proceeding to the main dish preparation. But also remember, first prepare chicken marination and allow it to marinate while you prepare other things. So plan accordingly in advance. Pour <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhP5e8tqRgQN8jyrMCpeE9V2cJW97LGv3SQhwnCHsH6hfWThHAd1id_1mz4ywY_71vImYTTE415qrcyv2Q5R-X-O5L6yYEywvsZTgx2Za8XI0hEY-UlmUr1iMrxjnkfKCYABnst/s1600-h/chicken_biryaani_08.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhP5e8tqRgQN8jyrMCpeE9V2cJW97LGv3SQhwnCHsH6hfWThHAd1id_1mz4ywY_71vImYTTE415qrcyv2Q5R-X-O5L6yYEywvsZTgx2Za8XI0hEY-UlmUr1iMrxjnkfKCYABnst/s200/chicken_biryaani_08.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5026332703621222354" border="0" /></a>very little amount of oil(same oil used to deep fry the onions) in the chicken marination to avoid it from burning. <span style="color: rgb(255, 204, 0); font-weight: bold;">Now, after the rice is dried completely, place a layer of ric</span><span style="color: rgb(255, 204, 0); font-weight: bold;">e on the chicken(which is kept for marination). pour some saffron milk on the first layer rice. Spread some deep fried onions on it. Ag</span><span style="color: rgb(255, 204, 0); font-weight: bold;">ain, place a layer of rice followed by saffron milk and deep fried onions. Repeat this till all the rice is placed in layers.</span> Here divide the oinions and saffron milk equally for all the layers of rice. Once all the layers are over, on the top layer make some small wholes with your two fingers (say about 5 to 6). In that wholes, pour some oil in which onions were deep fried. (Here you can also add ghee along with oil for more taste). Pour the lemon juice all over the rice from the top.<br /><br />Now, the final step is very very important in the birayaani preparation. We need to cover the pan with a plate which is equal size of the pan with some heavy weight on it so that no air can go inside. In olden days, they used to cover the pan with a plate and used to cover the complete edge with the dough by twisting itall around with the help of little water. <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcvSgVP-73r7uJkpgIeJ3NGfNcmgM6PR4f2TzApc_bpGx6nU7clo0KRqPD5R-o3ghvG7Yj9ZpPsailMuqyB6xB0LV8oScUmcT8MWeFNFmn_EyK8KA1MEGjRY8z8VeW6fYsCF7o/s1600-h/chicken_biryaani_04.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcvSgVP-73r7uJkpgIeJ3NGfNcmgM6PR4f2TzApc_bpGx6nU7clo0KRqPD5R-o3ghvG7Yj9ZpPsailMuqyB6xB0LV8oScUmcT8MWeFNFmn_EyK8KA1MEGjRY8z8VeW6fYsCF7o/s200/chicken_biryaani_04.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5026337230516752354" border="0" /></a>And finally used to put some heavy weight on it. Another method is, take a clean, washed long cloth. Wet the cloth, twist it completely and tie around the edge of the pan. But, I followed simple method here. I covered with a flat plate which is little bigger than the pan in reverse direction and kept a heavy weight (used a heavy weight stone). I made sure that no air goes into it. But always if possible follow the ancient method, if not follow my easy method:-) Am I Confusing u??? Anyways...cook this on medium heat about 20 minutes. never increase the heat or decrease. Finally you will start getting the aroma, once the dish comes to end of the preparation. Reduce the heat to low for 5 minutes and remove from the heat. Just before serving, mix whole thing well. To avoid any problems in mixing whole thing always preffer large, wide and deep container to cook. It should have enough space to mix the whole thing properly. Chicken Biryaani is ready:-)</div><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSEpjz8j3Ro8rx2v05G_LAX6b5zM0Vx2KIbipkov9j2dBZYzVMWBXoBkv8gL4v3i_iGRvRcKEJkDYGcPV1ebQbAMdLO9mXeTNUOeyrWlfXIEPtCPwijUVaK7hzcV3k4CIgSlb7/s1600-h/chicken_biryaani_01.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSEpjz8j3Ro8rx2v05G_LAX6b5zM0Vx2KIbipkov9j2dBZYzVMWBXoBkv8gL4v3i_iGRvRcKEJkDYGcPV1ebQbAMdLO9mXeTNUOeyrWlfXIEPtCPwijUVaK7hzcV3k4CIgSlb7/s320/chicken_biryaani_01.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5026338141049819122" border="0" /></a><br />Perugu Chutney Preparation:<br />---------------------------------<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilXHhOS2IUUXj2LeWNUCM_ZdsWfZLeQh_mb0XxZ-4VcgHiwen89YLN6jnJzA_pWxsrdmUm3mL5SV1bHndNPOL45OP0Y4f2StNWjg-3FzLj11c-eSbw4rJh8AZGZaWNp56bp1ji/s1600-h/perugu-chutney.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilXHhOS2IUUXj2LeWNUCM_ZdsWfZLeQh_mb0XxZ-4VcgHiwen89YLN6jnJzA_pWxsrdmUm3mL5SV1bHndNPOL45OP0Y4f2StNWjg-3FzLj11c-eSbw4rJh8AZGZaWNp56bp1ji/s200/perugu-chutney.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5026340043720331266" border="0" /></a>Take 2 cups of fresh yogurt. Add 1/4th cup of mint leaves diced very finely. Add 2 ro 3 green chillies cut into very very smal pieces. Finally add required salt and water according to your desired consistency of chutney or pachadi. (you can also add cucumber pieces (skinned) and onion cut into very very small pieces just before serving). Prepare this in advance before biryaani preparation starts. Serve chill perugu chutney with hot biryaani rice.<br /><br />Biryaani can also be cooked with not only chicken but also with mutton and for vegetarians with different vegetables know as vegetable biryaani or some name it as vegetable pulav. Ofcourse pulav has it own preparation method again. Biryaani also taste best with any chicken gravy or if you want have simple then go with perugu chutney. So friends, go a head and plan this for your next party or for your dear family on weekend or any day. Make sure you have enough time for this. I enjoy this preparation too. And ofcourse the final step where I get my favourite aroma which pulls me, where ever Iam in the house towards the kitchen. So here I present a plate of chicken biryaani with perugu pachadi for you and only 'YOU' !!<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhwyodbU_W-UBoIzfhlXCbbo2ikH4Zm-4rvJxNroB0wdn5cSireHEFLn4p_y9tciQ9yyJFUUvKrms2qdaOVww3-XcUOYFutj6O7a-XBXF_uHLbVY75_mjckvN9VAyc-Ct6z7Qa/s1600-h/chicken_biryaani_02.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhwyodbU_W-UBoIzfhlXCbbo2ikH4Zm-4rvJxNroB0wdn5cSireHEFLn4p_y9tciQ9yyJFUUvKrms2qdaOVww3-XcUOYFutj6O7a-XBXF_uHLbVY75_mjckvN9VAyc-Ct6z7Qa/s320/chicken_biryaani_02.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5026342393067442194" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br />Note:</span></span> Click on the images to see a better picture and idea. To make this dish more rich, add boiled eggs cut into half from top of biryaani and cover the pan.To enjoy this more keep some cut lime pieces to squeeze in the rice and some roughly cut onion rings to chew them in between:-)<br /><br /></div>Meena Kandlakutihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04846817657201018416noreply@blogger.com22tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28012416.post-68858249597087292872007-01-29T13:29:00.000-08:002007-01-29T14:37:48.297-08:00Recently Tried Fellow Bloggers Recipes<div style="text-align: justify;">Recently I have tried few recipes of my fellow bloggers. As usual I did'nt take any photographs of those to show you all, how great was the outcome. I know, Iam Lazy...I agree a bit;-) But more than that, when ever I think of trying any new recipe..I will be very busy in collecting all the ingredients. And once I prepare the dish..Iam more busy than before to eat that and also to know the opinion of my family members and how much they are happy with the dish. Since this time too, I failed to take any photographs, I thought, I will not post any thing related to this. But sooner or later I realized that, even mentioning of recipe names which I tried and saying my opinion about them, really matters to all those who missed out to cook them, and hopefully they will give a try atleast once. So, following are the recipes which I thoroughly enjoyed (cooking as well as eating:-)) <br /><ol><li><a href="http://www.nandyala.org/mahanandi/archives/2006/05/23/the-arisiupma-trilogy-guest-post-by-janani/">The Arisiupma </a>: When I was looking out for some different breakfast, which I have never tried and also should be easy one too cook, I got this recipe from <a href="http://www.nandyala.org/mahanandi/">Mahanadi.</a> This recipe is a traditional one, which actually belongs to Janani Srinivasan from Toronto and Posted By Our Dear fellow blogger Indira. Friends this is a must try recipe. I prepared this with par boiled rice. First I made the basic ingredients, grinding parboiled rice to coarse with dry red chillies, urad dal , toor dal, peppercons and cumin seeds. You know what, I prepared this base and stored it in closed box and cooked after one week of time. It was so fresh, when I cooked the upma the taste was too good. As Indira said in her post, this can be taken as it is with out any chutneys or any other dip. Yes! It si 100% true. It was great as it is. Thank you Janani for such a nice traditional recipe and Indira for posting and making all of us known about this dish.</li><li><a href="http://food-forthought.blogspot.com/2006/10/quick-fix-peas-stir-fry.html">Peas Stir Fry:</a> This was really quick to make and enjoy any time side dish. This one I made for our evening snack with tea. This was really good. Usually, I just fry cooked peas in little oil with desired pepper and salt. It is my favourite. My mother used to give this when I come back from college. It is really a comfort food, after a long tired day. <a href="http://food-forthought.blogspot.com/">Ashwini's</a> Peas stir Fry was more tastier than mine. So friends, just go with this when ever you really want to have some thing tasty and left with little time. Thank you Ashwini for such a nice real quick fix:-)</li><li><a href="http://indianfoodrocks.blogspot.com/2007/01/nutty-green-beans.html">Nutty Green Beans</a>: This is the latest one which I have tried. When ever I prepare with beans I generally go for my recipe <a href="http://cookingpleasures.blogspot.com/2007/01/happy-pongalsankranthi-and-healthy.html">Beans fry</a> for easy and healthy one. But adding some masala and groundnut powder to it really gave a zing to the taste. Thank you <a href="http://indianfoodrocks.blogspot.com/">Manisha</a> for such a wonderful recipe. I tried with out the Kanda Lassun masala, but added all those ingredients which are in masala powder mentioned by her. It was very good and we enjoyed with hot chapathis and rice too:-)</li><li><a href="http://recipejunction.blogspot.com/2007/01/crisp-brown-paper-dosa.html">Crisp & Brown Paper Dosa</a>: This was another real good breakfast. We enjoyed thease dosa's for dinner. Friends with little variations I cooked them. Like I did not add besan and did not go for fermentation of dosa batter. Though it was a typo mistake by Seema, it really served as a quick dinner. Thank you <a href="http://recipejunction.blogspot.com/">Seema</a> for clearing my doubts about fermentation. The picture of this dosa, taken by seema really makes any one to try this soon:-) More than that, to eat soon;-)<br /></li></ol>Thank You Friends for all those nice dishes. I don'nt promise this time, as I already did and did not post this recipes with picks:-( But will try to post next time, with some other intresting, new and delicious recipes of fellow bloggers with pics of course:-) Enjoy! and will be back soon with a hyderabadi traditional recipe.<br /></div>Meena Kandlakutihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04846817657201018416noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28012416.post-81845532988105499492007-01-22T13:07:00.000-08:002007-01-22T21:14:41.806-08:00Kajjikaayalu (Stuffed Halfmoon Dumplings)<div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyCLlcoYWJpp502MTi9WFD9CmzzHuCQwY2uzSwCmEQV2LYoNbmMu6kGhVASJRqcXSXh3OpyOJUWQasdny_Ir5z_g24xCaRdKdLEDc9Qsht1q3akiDHdW8InHCypj-hlJPhtm6d/s1600-h/kajjikaayalu_08.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5022965839938614738" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: pointer; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyCLlcoYWJpp502MTi9WFD9CmzzHuCQwY2uzSwCmEQV2LYoNbmMu6kGhVASJRqcXSXh3OpyOJUWQasdny_Ir5z_g24xCaRdKdLEDc9Qsht1q3akiDHdW8InHCypj-hlJPhtm6d/s400/kajjikaayalu_08.jpg" border="0" /></a>Kajjikaayalu are one among those traditional sweets made during festivals, namely "Sankranthi" which falls in Jan; "Ugadi" in Mar/Apr ; "Deepavali" in Oct/Nov etc. Also made especially for marriages in India. This recipe I adopted from my mother. The speciality for this recipe is, they are made for my marriage with same stuff which is wrapped by the flour and are deep fried.Usualy, the stuff inside the kajjikaayalu varies. Some prepare with simple semolina, coconut and sugar mixture; and some also add peanut powder , chickpea flour etc. You are going to know about this mixture contents today in my recipe, which really makes kajjikaayalu more rich in taste. In Hyderabad we call it "Garijelu". But this sweet is famous with the name "Kajjikaayalu" all over Andhra. So with no delay further, Iam happy to proceed to todays recipe with detail explanation and pics to help you, in understanding and preparing this sweets.<br /></div><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><br />Ingredients: (Makes Upto 20-25 no's Kajjikaayalu)<br />---------------<br />Maida or All purpose flour 1/2kg<br />Fresh Coconut 1 (or 1cup grated dry coconut)<br />Ravva or semolina (generally used for making upma) 1/2 cup<br />1/4th cup chickpea powder/ putnala podi (can add even 1/2 cup as you desire)<br />1/2 cup peanuts<br />10 to 12 Elachi' in No's<br />kaaju & kishmish (dryfruits) 1/4th to 1/2 cup<br />Sugar(fine) 1 1/2 cups (or as per taste)<br />1 tbsp ghee or clarified butter<br />Oil for deep frying and preparation<br />Water as required<br /><br />Method For Preparing Dough:<br />--------------------------------- <ol><li>Take maida in a deep vessel (enough to need freely) . Make a whole in betweet(some space with your fingers upto 3 fingures length). Heat one table spoon of oil and add in this whole, with a help of spoon mix the oil with flour well. (Caution: take care not to burn your hand or fingers here)</li><li>Knead the above maida with required water to form a dough. Here this dough should be little harder than puri. Keep this aside.</li></ol><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: center"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgOkuAvTOkUz4HQBzYwjxCQyAO1uLiUIeI-3b0_JmkYy7ezCCRJgkSk8Y3czBwRmxjkkW04f78L6TqiXnD_85rtrzfc0QRMr-1rjE_b8YlCeCVOGPnxZeo86uf1bu4mBhW5TNJ/s1600-h/kajjikaayalu_02.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5023012642197239282" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: pointer; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgOkuAvTOkUz4HQBzYwjxCQyAO1uLiUIeI-3b0_JmkYy7ezCCRJgkSk8Y3czBwRmxjkkW04f78L6TqiXnD_85rtrzfc0QRMr-1rjE_b8YlCeCVOGPnxZeo86uf1bu4mBhW5TNJ/s320/kajjikaayalu_02.jpg" border="0" /></a><span style="COLOR: rgb(255,204,102);font-family:courier new;" ><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Left:</span> Dough ready to be filled <span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Right:</span> Filling & Dryfruits are ready to be wrapped</span><br /></div><br />Method For Preparing The Filling:<br />------------------------------------- <ol><li>If you have fresh coconut, then separate the coconut from shell and make small length wise pieces and dry them in sunlight for 2 to 3 days. When they dry completely ,roast them till the raw smell disappear and make powder in a food processor or grinder. (Or else use ready made dry coconut powder available in Indian stores or in any other stores)</li><li>Fry semolina or ravva in a 2tsp of ghee till all the raw smell disappears.</li><li>Roast chickpeas, powder and keep it aside.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfN3n53bHumA2pL6F5KxyqNQDa823gH8phPBvLhBqIPh159mP0LecA4NPmEBKAQcCHUhOCq3iZcMaLs86FAyzwj3l3gSKTCm1nMZe5EfErf6xRGVxUQ_WQuF_Ph9MgpTPDgq0-/s1600-h/kajjikaayalu_01.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5023009670079870434" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; CURSOR: pointer" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfN3n53bHumA2pL6F5KxyqNQDa823gH8phPBvLhBqIPh159mP0LecA4NPmEBKAQcCHUhOCq3iZcMaLs86FAyzwj3l3gSKTCm1nMZe5EfErf6xRGVxUQ_WQuF_Ph9MgpTPDgq0-/s320/kajjikaayalu_01.jpg" border="0" /></a></li><li>Roast peanuts, remove skin, powder them and keep it aside.</li><li>Remove skin of elachi and powder them.</li><li>Fry dryfruits in 2 to 3 tsp of ghee or clarified butter.</li><li>Mix all above powders togeather and measure the amount. For example, if above powders make 2 cups then add 1 1/2 cups of sugar to it.</li><li style="TEXT-ALIGN: left">Finally add dryfruits to above mixture and mix well. Keep this filling aside.<br /></li></ol><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: center"><div style="COLOR: rgb(255,255,153); TEXT-ALIGN: right"><br />(<span style="COLOR: rgb(255,204,102);font-family:courier new;" >In Picture above) Roasted Powders : </span><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Left:</span><span style="COLOR: rgb(255,204,102);font-family:courier new;" > Peanut powder + Elachi powder </span><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Above:</span><span style="COLOR: rgb(255,204,102);font-family:courier new;" > Roasted Dry Coconut powder </span><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Below:</span><span style="COLOR: rgb(255,204,102);font-family:courier new;" > roasted Chickpea powder </span><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Right:</span><span style="COLOR: rgb(255,204,102);font-family:courier new;" > Fried semolina</span><br /></div></div><br />Method To prepare Kajjikaayalu:<br />------------------------------------<br /><span style="COLOR: rgb(255,204,102)">Step1:</span><br /><br /><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_8hDTvyjOp6iP1RwP5PfE8Ym_Fui4tMAISrI-s78jkJBRRwB9ww_WBQGnA0P5EDV5VXsraXxVaq6oBQqn3B4aocTtye9zofG35zIXpY6nduoVw38XtSlk-qiuzDa8FSYg6yAT/s1600-h/kajjikaayalu_03.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5023016975819240962" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: pointer; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_8hDTvyjOp6iP1RwP5PfE8Ym_Fui4tMAISrI-s78jkJBRRwB9ww_WBQGnA0P5EDV5VXsraXxVaq6oBQqn3B4aocTtye9zofG35zIXpY6nduoVw38XtSlk-qiuzDa8FSYg6yAT/s200/kajjikaayalu_03.jpg" border="0" /></a>Make equal rounds out of the dough. (Approx 20 rounds). Take a round, flatten it like puri (little thin) spoon it with mixture, as shown above. Remember the spoon amount should be same for all the fillings. Here you can choose the amount to be filled. I like kajjikaayalu to be filled completely with the mixture, so I used more.<br /><br /><span style="COLOR: rgb(255,204,102)">Step2:</span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuDTkIe9DmP-mj7YZufcwTUUSxXtQq_3h7SDfviqK0m0aBgGFsYBBE9by44jh_tczAN3FApyW1XwIV75Fp8RPAd7bD024s_uFgB8pdgKYEqs9-a1-_KCK7L5ujJk9BUNb0OQfr/s1600-h/kajjikaayalu_04.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5023017001589044754" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: pointer; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuDTkIe9DmP-mj7YZufcwTUUSxXtQq_3h7SDfviqK0m0aBgGFsYBBE9by44jh_tczAN3FApyW1XwIV75Fp8RPAd7bD024s_uFgB8pdgKYEqs9-a1-_KCK7L5ujJk9BUNb0OQfr/s200/kajjikaayalu_04.jpg" border="0" /></a></div>Fold into half and close with the help of little water as shown above. Press the complete one end firmly.<br /><br /><span style="COLOR: rgb(255,204,102)">Step3:</span><br /><br /><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: center"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnfz_jU58MoQu-htBWr5KGM2m5CMQdJQrNZ4I6m3r5DPFfV9cBszX64_utS86n5X4QvEvGmmsykQZXCdN-iqva3trVAJJBaRCzf_c8kG0TSF7mtSoCyFjgd4D-8GMDmdGtMTz1/s1600-h/kajjikaayalu_05.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5023017023063881250" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: pointer; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnfz_jU58MoQu-htBWr5KGM2m5CMQdJQrNZ4I6m3r5DPFfV9cBszX64_utS86n5X4QvEvGmmsykQZXCdN-iqva3trVAJJBaRCzf_c8kG0TSF7mtSoCyFjgd4D-8GMDmdGtMTz1/s200/kajjikaayalu_05.jpg" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyn6oDZcPI_DJkR-bQvsrl4Lu-XS1LkdMqrQE0c7ucXe5URdf5YfnQr9sDDOVBomOX08wnCCwUAgRv2bd3G-LEgiYVM2rQ05Yah0XfBtEReB1tzWeyaz4Jq71HxL4r8GO8mN1H/s1600-h/kajjikaayalu_06.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5023017031653815858" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: pointer; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyn6oDZcPI_DJkR-bQvsrl4Lu-XS1LkdMqrQE0c7ucXe5URdf5YfnQr9sDDOVBomOX08wnCCwUAgRv2bd3G-LEgiYVM2rQ05Yah0XfBtEReB1tzWeyaz4Jq71HxL4r8GO8mN1H/s200/kajjikaayalu_06.jpg" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7gbPOVE_UGHDaCug3n2-hzTJn1aL0T_R2Dezn05aT2TORVbt4cxrb0e3Vh0-8vf5_cf31PNRTjvuQ7f9qhalvQGt8bVVubMuQFLmgWMq8cXIQJ3PfOrxUviTU81ZW8aT9DtXf/s1600-h/kajjikaayalu_07.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5023017048833685058" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: pointer; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7gbPOVE_UGHDaCug3n2-hzTJn1aL0T_R2Dezn05aT2TORVbt4cxrb0e3Vh0-8vf5_cf31PNRTjvuQ7f9qhalvQGt8bVVubMuQFLmgWMq8cXIQJ3PfOrxUviTU81ZW8aT9DtXf/s200/kajjikaayalu_07.jpg" border="0" /></a><span style="COLOR: rgb(255,204,102);font-family:courier new;" >Above:Kajjikaayalu First Batch Is Ready For Deep Frying</span><br /></div><br />Twist the complete one side end with your fingers as shown in the above pictures. You need very little practice to do this. <span style="COLOR: rgb(255,204,102)">Enarge the pictures above by clicking on them to have a clear view.</span> Make batches , each batch should have same number of dumplings. It makes your job easy to divide them and store them. Slowly slide the duplings into oil for deep frying. See that oil is heated well prior to deep frying, so that dumplings does'nt absorb more oil. Fry them both the side on medium heat through out. Remove them once they are well fried into another plate witha paper towel on it, to absorb excess oil. Before you fry another batch and take them out, let the first batch of kajjikaaylu get dried on the paper towel. remove them and now keep in the container to be stored. Now!! Kajjikaayalu are ready to have with mudda pappu (cooked and mashed plain toordal with little salt) and little ghee on top. (this used be our breakfast for some days at my mom's place after they are made. Try this for sure. This combo is great (Kajjikaayalu with mudda pappu) You will just love this and will stick for sure:-))<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMDn-XN5K168GI2uXIaj-F8QoM45oMe4V4h0XhHdNc5sz8i11-Z6y_rc5Jr6dQaUNiu0nVYe2hLRd3E_717ZQm8DmoJP6vCFYgt4J8BlLDocUkQZ4rhpPrkkWCZdBJotLOnEoR/s1600-h/kajjikaayalu_09.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5023020905714316882" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: pointer; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMDn-XN5K168GI2uXIaj-F8QoM45oMe4V4h0XhHdNc5sz8i11-Z6y_rc5Jr6dQaUNiu0nVYe2hLRd3E_717ZQm8DmoJP6vCFYgt4J8BlLDocUkQZ4rhpPrkkWCZdBJotLOnEoR/s320/kajjikaayalu_09.jpg" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:130%;">Note:</span> Store in the air tight container for freshness. You can enjoy eating this sweets for one week long. For more crispyness, make the flat round thin and see the mixture does'nt come out of it. </div></div>Meena Kandlakutihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04846817657201018416noreply@blogger.com20tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28012416.post-32553434372900581942007-01-14T14:41:00.000-08:002007-01-14T15:33:54.698-08:00Happy Pongal/Sankranti And Healthy Beans Fry<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsx_W-GRu9SMpUpAtKbMcGBwLqbdJTfWcNwrQlp5K0wF3cZLaRnzZr9r53MFTuEtLDGTGEOu1V5hjznlgNVwBwihVpFX_D8lhKuTzJwbk5wn8AGY5QZrcMoKFF-5mKA7i4d9s_/s1600-h/bean+fry.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsx_W-GRu9SMpUpAtKbMcGBwLqbdJTfWcNwrQlp5K0wF3cZLaRnzZr9r53MFTuEtLDGTGEOu1V5hjznlgNVwBwihVpFX_D8lhKuTzJwbk5wn8AGY5QZrcMoKFF-5mKA7i4d9s_/s400/bean+fry.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5020021828835767746" border="0" /></a><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Wish U A Very Happy Pongal / Sankranti to all my readers and my dear blog friends. Tomorrow we are going to celebrate sankranti. And today whatt we call is Bhogi. At my In-law's place we eat non-veg on bhogi and only vegetarian food on Sankranti. Generally, some days before the festival itself, actual preparations starts. Like preparing murukulu, appadalu and many different kinds of sweets and will be stored for the whole month to enjoy the food just like children, elders enjoy flying kites, before and after the festival. At my mom's place we all used to join my brother's as they fly kites we used to shout from back irrespective of who lost the kite:-)) It was great fun and I miss badly now. For bhogi at my Inlwas place, we prepare Dosa with spicy chicken curry. Last year at this time we were at my inlaw's place to celebrate this festival. Friends, dosa with chicken curry is very famous in Gudur and real tasty combo to eat. I shall post this combo some day after I come back from India or some time soon...I hope it to be today. But, unfortunately this is not that day. But today my post is quite opposite to the above I mentioned. Its a simple Beans Fry. This method can be applied to some other vegge's too. Like Goruchikkudu, Chikkudu, Dondakaaya and any kind of beans. I think it is also said to be Poriyal in Kerala. If Iam wrong please forgive me my friends and do correct me:-)<br /><br />Ingredients:<br />--------------<br />2 cups of Fresh Beans (cut into 1 to 2 inches)<br />3 to 4 dry red chillies<br />1/2 tsp channa dal<br />1/2 tsp urad dal<br />2 tsp chickpea powder/putnala podi(chick peas are roasted and made into powder)<br />2 small garlic cloves<br />1/4th to 1/2 tsp mustard seeds<br />1/4th to 1/2 tsp cumin seeds<br />1 full stem curry leaves<br />1 to 2 tsp fresh grated coconut<br />A pinch or two Hing powder (or desired. I recommend not more than that)<br />1/4th tsp turmeric powder<br />Salt as per taste<br />1 tbsp Oil for cooking (or as required)<br /><br />Method:<br />-----------<br /><ol><li>Cut Beans into above mentioned size and wash them. Now micro wave or pressure cook or boil on stove in the water with some salt (approx 1/2 tsp) until they are almost cooked.(Here If you want them not to be too soft then boil till they are half cooked) Drain any water if left and keep them aside. Here salt is added, so that it does'nt loose its color, which is optional.</li><li>Keep ready all the ingredients. Like wash dals in cold water for few minutes and drian water completely and keep aside. By doing this dals will be liitle soft and easy to chew. And cut garlic into tiny pieces.<br /></li><li>Heat oil in deep pan, add mustard seeds. Once they start spluttering add cumin seeds and fry till they change color. Now add, dry red chillies (crush them little while adding with your hands) channa dal, urad dal (lentils) and hing. Fry for till dals turn into light golden color.</li><li>Now add curry leaves and fry till they are in crispy texture. Add boiled beans to it and mix well with other ingredients and fry for few seconds and cover the pan for couple of minutes, for beans to be settle down a little.<br /></li><li>Remove the lid, add turmeric powder and required salt(be careful here, if you have already added some salt while beans are boiled) and fry for few minutes. Add grated coconut and mix well and fry again for few seconds.</li><li>Finally add chickpea powder/putnala podi as desired from above mentioned amount in ingredients. Mix well with all the ingredients and allow it to rest for 1 to 2 minutes.</li><li>Remove from heat and serve with hot chapathis or hot plain rice or as a side dish.</li></ol><span style="font-weight: bold;">Note:</span> Instead of beans try the same with various beans like Goruchikkudu, chikkudukaaya, dondakaya etc.<br /><br /></div>Meena Kandlakutihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04846817657201018416noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28012416.post-52837058737425342542007-01-11T15:32:00.000-08:002007-01-25T12:11:07.735-08:00Tasty Cabbage Curry<div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify">Today Iam back with some simple curry yet tasty one, from my MIL. This vegetable is rich source of fiber. Also it is useful for the new mothers to get relief from the pain they get while feeding milk or from engorged breast. Though it has some uses, many of us hate eating this vegetable because we are left with very few methods to cook this. How ever we cook it taste the same..this is what exactly we think. But my view changed when I tasted this curry. I took this recipe from my Mil. The dal or lentil part of this recipe really makes it more tasty. But I like cabbage when it is cooked with just some popu or tadka with chapathi then rice. It serves as best side dish. But today when I went to prepare usual cabbage fry just with tadka for chapathis, I found Iam not left with any chapathi flour. Too late to know haa..;-) Then I rememberd this recipe told long back by my MIL and I cooked it only once. So I cooked this with little variations, suitable to be taken with plain white rice. For thsi all I need is..<br /></div><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUCL6eN_oaqgcumm56kmFO6CmN0M6OE1tqwmoHgxYFBCNLatZPub8cFKMPicHBjfPNtGgy1nevFiHidhLmYWNj3jN6hSqWBh9HfiK58uecaC9GV7CtGOVSRz-ZRSbrIudsllni/s1600-h/cabbagefry_01.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5018924542001051042" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: pointer; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUCL6eN_oaqgcumm56kmFO6CmN0M6OE1tqwmoHgxYFBCNLatZPub8cFKMPicHBjfPNtGgy1nevFiHidhLmYWNj3jN6hSqWBh9HfiK58uecaC9GV7CtGOVSRz-ZRSbrIudsllni/s400/cabbagefry_01.jpg" border="0" /></a>Ingredients:<br />---------------<br />1 Medium sized cabbage<br />1/2 cup or 4oz or 125ml uncooked moong dal or pessarpappu or green gram( washed)<br />1 Small onion or 1/2 of big onion<br />4 to 5 Green chillies (as per ur wish)<br />2 garlic cloves<br />1/4th or 1/2 tsp mustard seeds(adjust to ur spice)<br />1/2 tsp cumin seeds<br />1 tsp flat turmeric powder (or less If u want)<br />Hing a pich(optional) (Inguva) (obtained easily in Indian Stores)<br />Salt for taste<br />1 tbsp Vegetable oil (or as per ur taste & choice)<br /><br />Method:<br />-----------<br /><ol><li>Cut the cabbage into small pieces, and grate them to fine or in a food processor bit by bit. Wash and keep it aside to drain the water completely.( You can enlarge the picute above a see)</li><li>Meanwhile, wash the moong dal in cold water several times and micro wave for 15 minutes with enough water to be cooked. Or can cook on stove directly. When I cooked in micro wave no water was left and it cooked as I desired. I.e., it should not be over cooked nor completely smashed as we cook in pressure cooker. So take care of it.(Can see in above picture) Keep it aside.</li><li>Cut onion into thin slices and slits to the green chillies. Crush the garlic cloves or ito tiny pieces.<br /></li><li>Take a wide pan, heat oil. Add mustard and cumin seeds respectively. Once they are done spluttering, add green chillies, crushed garlic and hing. And fry for few seconds.<br /></li><li>Now add onions and fry till light brown in color and they should be soft. They should not be over cooked.</li><li>Now add grated cabbage and turmeric powder , mix with all other ingredients and cover the pan with lid and allow it to settle down and half cooked.<br /></li><li>After it is cooked for 3 to 4 minutes, add dal or green gram along with desired salt and mix well.</li><li>Cover the pan and cook for another 5 to 8 minutes, so that cabbage is cooked competely.</li><li>Serve with hot plain rice, some papadams and spicy yogurt mirchis which are deep fried. Thus completes your any time meal. It was our today's meal:-)<br /></li></ol><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_LBWrYW1EMc648lmjMJXPLUejx6V8OEJCx4E0QdCr8ED71bvN2MSBCbwTJrHalUYiMFm-sKdrhRUlUljC9sKcb0fj3MZmyIgvPC2mhlgZqGGtdmMKkKSd80HI07gJX0_4N29x/s1600-h/cabbagefry_02.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5018930469055919538" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: pointer; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_LBWrYW1EMc648lmjMJXPLUejx6V8OEJCx4E0QdCr8ED71bvN2MSBCbwTJrHalUYiMFm-sKdrhRUlUljC9sKcb0fj3MZmyIgvPC2mhlgZqGGtdmMKkKSd80HI07gJX0_4N29x/s400/cabbagefry_02.jpg" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:130%;">Note:</span> Timings mentioned above or in any recipe of mine is approximate one, not exact timing. So do take care while cooking to avoid any over cooked or under cooked dish. </div>Meena Kandlakutihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04846817657201018416noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28012416.post-83000002286248574842007-01-10T10:24:00.000-08:002007-01-10T11:57:12.524-08:00Happy New Year 2007<div style="text-align: center; color: rgb(255, 204, 204);"><span style="color: rgb(255, 204, 204);font-family:courier new;" >Hi</span><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: rgb(255, 204, 204);font-family:courier new;" > My dear readers, blog friends and every body there</span><span style="color: rgb(255, 204, 204);font-family:courier new;" > ,</span><span style="color: rgb(255, 204, 204);font-family:courier new;" >reading this right now..Wish U All A Very Very Happy New Year and Have A Great Time In Your Kitchen, Cooking Wonderful Dishes </span><span style="color: rgb(255, 204, 204);font-family:courier new;" >and</span><span style="color: rgb(255, 204, 204);font-family:courier new;" > </span><span style="color: rgb(255, 204, 204);font-family:courier new;" >Sha</span><span style="color: rgb(255, 204, 204);font-family:courier new;" >ring With All Of Us!! </span><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJBvAKj1MdDZMZPE1C6jS5MUEKpXUEoQOjZnSK4EjpkfaMTjNuhc0rUmtpaiY9XWq35UdTGfV9cl3Ci0iyNcLI1U4PLRCaTp8ybigNX7nWkKy_8tqt0w9K07bU5d4yXk9prt6W/s1600-h/DSC_0050.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJBvAKj1MdDZMZPE1C6jS5MUEKpXUEoQOjZnSK4EjpkfaMTjNuhc0rUmtpaiY9XWq35UdTGfV9cl3Ci0iyNcLI1U4PLRCaTp8ybigNX7nWkKy_8tqt0w9K07bU5d4yXk9prt6W/s320/DSC_0050.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5018483624953410962" border="0" /></a><span style="color: rgb(255, 204, 51);">Above: My Son and The White Duck trying to chase each other</span><br /></div><br />I have taken a small break from blogging, as I was little busy in moving to new home. Now we all set, though not every thing organized yet, but the work is progressing slowly. And another news is, Iam going to take a two months long break from feb of 1st week to apr 1st week. Now this is for my India vacation. But before that in thease 3 week period, I will be posting some of my recipes, which are ready to be posted from long long time:-) Thank you friends, for all the wishes, I got from my dear blog friends. Once again I wish all the success, peaceful life, tons of happiness to all my readers and dear friends. From long long time my Atlanta trip and Orlando trip photos are pending to be posted which I said I will do long ago. Enjoy some of them here.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfk282_ntA3IlFWdhxTinN7GWCNvhUj5Wdn3lk6cR5bWxKMouGFTzuXY1Oj7vs-z_1VCi06c5NZEk2lDx6cer8C25dLVUE8KUc2Wzk5PgKYICmmRjsODsVvnQ_UGBT-8Bjy9Mp/s1600-h/DSC_0164.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfk282_ntA3IlFWdhxTinN7GWCNvhUj5Wdn3lk6cR5bWxKMouGFTzuXY1Oj7vs-z_1VCi06c5NZEk2lDx6cer8C25dLVUE8KUc2Wzk5PgKYICmmRjsODsVvnQ_UGBT-8Bjy9Mp/s320/DSC_0164.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5018475189637641442" border="0" /></a><span style="color: rgb(255, 204, 0);">Above :Two Wahles At Orlando Sea World</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 204, 0);">Below: Luanch PadB At JF Kennedy Space Center, from where recently they launched the space shuttle.(Click on the photo to see more clear picture)</span><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgedZBNu-xtv_NXpMxFFjyqUELaIm8-_yW99wxMjCZniUG-FmeIYgqgrrTtY6y4M4JsShoCvOJqBgZrgMwC6NbBvzr1Z4T89_xH1b7s3NiUih1vlKx4z9AC5fEJTSc-kCh02iqa/s1600-h/DSC_0268.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgedZBNu-xtv_NXpMxFFjyqUELaIm8-_yW99wxMjCZniUG-FmeIYgqgrrTtY6y4M4JsShoCvOJqBgZrgMwC6NbBvzr1Z4T89_xH1b7s3NiUih1vlKx4z9AC5fEJTSc-kCh02iqa/s320/DSC_0268.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5018476194659988722" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTr43hbfmhD-6A2izlLuNVMKmyUHaIGiOzgH5lJEoW8laTQXUnfW70XLUkZJzIHB8HKyCoCtLnzZDAqkYuEy5nMLEokugf-kclL8WE9cqB1FKkVPQveQ9BrocZcDV9zYNjs99A/s1600-h/DSC_0316.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTr43hbfmhD-6A2izlLuNVMKmyUHaIGiOzgH5lJEoW8laTQXUnfW70XLUkZJzIHB8HKyCoCtLnzZDAqkYuEy5nMLEokugf-kclL8WE9cqB1FKkVPQveQ9BrocZcDV9zYNjs99A/s320/DSC_0316.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5018478071560697090" border="0" /></a><span style="color: rgb(255, 204, 0);">Above: Sample of a space shuttle explaning about its parts seperatley in detail</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 204, 0);">Below: Two Lovely parrots at Animal Kingdom</span><br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhS2wUGHA_OaKg9qxQKvd6-cHuOwQlwhAR2nm3-Cz-vSOSvos0-FjBOpNEPiCOughNRHBFaBjBbbjJB1i0yzA0H3bBT64B9p0bCgtJ6M9u80xo5MwejXnOmSprb6NBnPHg15V1X/s1600-h/DSC_0052.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhS2wUGHA_OaKg9qxQKvd6-cHuOwQlwhAR2nm3-Cz-vSOSvos0-FjBOpNEPiCOughNRHBFaBjBbbjJB1i0yzA0H3bBT64B9p0bCgtJ6M9u80xo5MwejXnOmSprb6NBnPHg15V1X/s320/DSC_0052.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5018481902671525234" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhM9wShVHoVbidnu3hCfioXQFoADV7DqT-vEn7UtBpkOSDlwSOWmnJDBVFgfJualSxgZdpS5AGfj1O9MMUuNn1IBfHulKVv6dMkKw0ermRukIOQGxB-oRI49H_AsuvJ_Oa2S4La/s1600-h/DSC_0060.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhM9wShVHoVbidnu3hCfioXQFoADV7DqT-vEn7UtBpkOSDlwSOWmnJDBVFgfJualSxgZdpS5AGfj1O9MMUuNn1IBfHulKVv6dMkKw0ermRukIOQGxB-oRI49H_AsuvJ_Oa2S4La/s320/DSC_0060.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5018482551211586946" border="0" /></a><span style="color: rgb(255, 204, 0);">Above:Pink Flamingoes standing on one leg (In telugu it said to be Konga Japam--> means Standing On One leg and doing meditation or prayer)</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhM5FF40itRvdBvNDYFMSfPt7i5hUfwfyg1m-YzwHuly00j2Lm_P0Qb5NiLqJjSnXgJAY1YPFgndeovZdfuMGOPZe5QXTd3HMthNu6ZkLMi3flGw9oeT8tY6vNW1SeEne7ofj2Z/s1600-h/DSC_0348.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhM5FF40itRvdBvNDYFMSfPt7i5hUfwfyg1m-YzwHuly00j2Lm_P0Qb5NiLqJjSnXgJAY1YPFgndeovZdfuMGOPZe5QXTd3HMthNu6ZkLMi3flGw9oeT8tY6vNW1SeEne7ofj2Z/s320/DSC_0348.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5018478556892001554" border="0" /></a><span style="color: rgb(255, 204, 0);">Above: Parade at disney land</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 204, 0);">Below: Some of photogrpahs taken at Atlanta Aquarium (which is said to be the world's biggest Aquarium which has all types water species, which in deed not yet completed and take 2 new species every month I guess)</span><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiF_krau7pJFY49rt0xVByhdW5Hv2AtSEf0AJEBztsf5qJCyNTvXpSrJXXAlhVQNt7Xux1JxNHK9vhOYsDrBe4oC_beDvCRf9Xs7SEZJWwHXtRckPP0nh3B-ATqB66xe5GTANHq/s1600-h/DSC_0481.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiF_krau7pJFY49rt0xVByhdW5Hv2AtSEf0AJEBztsf5qJCyNTvXpSrJXXAlhVQNt7Xux1JxNHK9vhOYsDrBe4oC_beDvCRf9Xs7SEZJWwHXtRckPP0nh3B-ATqB66xe5GTANHq/s320/DSC_0481.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5018479600569054514" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGdgQAZyOCRXusZbeaWmKGDkE1F8d7jIl8GGZHYs3FffJg5GdUfAL_DDKTYqN-SXqKgH7k2L9DxOQE1Hw2qIgZ_F4pFKOpj3N5Snudf8gliTGtsqUPe4i1-XvM-upm762B-WFv/s1600-h/DSC_0515.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGdgQAZyOCRXusZbeaWmKGDkE1F8d7jIl8GGZHYs3FffJg5GdUfAL_DDKTYqN-SXqKgH7k2L9DxOQE1Hw2qIgZ_F4pFKOpj3N5Snudf8gliTGtsqUPe4i1-XvM-upm762B-WFv/s320/DSC_0515.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5018480133144999234" border="0" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: rgb(255, 204, 0);">Above: Jelly Fish which is said to be dangerous one though looks beautiful but can kill any thing with its tentacles(Unbelievable!!)</span><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiO-_npTWRgDATKqyKmDOBB-MemK574mBdQZ9UQXaVKZOb8JArDzcGGxkbrZmXCsgokBx60bCR_BeKDok9ElDEz3YTxlZvCvgkSLK2YJK1m-_q4N-V_eBH8jUg1YpjL62fQVIMb/s1600-h/DSC_0408.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiO-_npTWRgDATKqyKmDOBB-MemK574mBdQZ9UQXaVKZOb8JArDzcGGxkbrZmXCsgokBx60bCR_BeKDok9ElDEz3YTxlZvCvgkSLK2YJK1m-_q4N-V_eBH8jUg1YpjL62fQVIMb/s320/DSC_0408.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5018479179662259490" border="0" /></a><span style="color: rgb(255, 204, 0);">Above: My son trying hard to catch the fish with his little hand</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 204, 0);">Below : Two photos taken from inside the flight returning from Atlanta to Sanjose (one:Beautiful Mountains Second: Spread of clouds and can see one of the wings fo the aeroplane)</span><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNJ1JtRPCh32aW0CFs6u7Np7OLCSKJmDxUBUxQyKAJ8xwrK5hD2fcZlFDbGq7-YpNSHtFn2gS1m5YAF4NHMQ6ycaXZcx-YJ2fKIkPi7-SRPNsATYV83reSWfzBsyNtl2DNTLsy/s1600-h/DSC_0582.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNJ1JtRPCh32aW0CFs6u7Np7OLCSKJmDxUBUxQyKAJ8xwrK5hD2fcZlFDbGq7-YpNSHtFn2gS1m5YAF4NHMQ6ycaXZcx-YJ2fKIkPi7-SRPNsATYV83reSWfzBsyNtl2DNTLsy/s320/DSC_0582.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5018480627066238290" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqvK9aZoGkPdIEOzUJeqt_j8FwERz9GO9YfPlwW8KUBDCKBEY69AUsE70L91Nck1z4v9B_FfEyHG9D0OAiXzlUrFIZ-x4w3Z35mKgSsBhfrNYpf657uHXaNgJdSsTF7D0Svv27/s1600-h/DSC_0592.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqvK9aZoGkPdIEOzUJeqt_j8FwERz9GO9YfPlwW8KUBDCKBEY69AUsE70L91Nck1z4v9B_FfEyHG9D0OAiXzlUrFIZ-x4w3Z35mKgSsBhfrNYpf657uHXaNgJdSsTF7D0Svv27/s320/DSC_0592.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5018480974958589282" border="0" /></a><br />Hope you all enjoyed thease some of photographs taken in our trips among many other hundreds of them. Enjoy!!<br /></div></div></div>Meena Kandlakutihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04846817657201018416noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28012416.post-60397605642582155742006-12-19T12:54:00.000-08:002006-12-20T09:14:07.220-08:00Tri Color Bell Pepper Fried Rice & Bell Pepper Chutney<img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5010345568901752530" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: pointer; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjR10P9SCDcUEA0tq0v4sWdMajdxzZOBlXY3PUEjCkuUrhjo0wvRmiG8C1oIs_kOooGQh4AqFnlWtDBXV0RfAOtEV0UC6iMDI6V1dkFVHTrawPu-c13GH_64jrzGezGmSLQZC1l/s400/bellpepper_friedrice_01.jpg" border="0" /><br /><div>HI Friends,<br /><br /><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify">I changed my blog to beta version today. I found some changes in comments. Like, those who have chaged to beta version, there names are not shown and converted as Anonymous. Iam sorry about that. So, my request is please do mention your name when you leave a comment. So that I will know you and can reply back. This thing, to say,I really found strange. Can any body say the reason why?? Thank You:-))<br /></div><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><br />Coming to today's post, Iam here with two recipes at a time. Bellpepper FriedRice & Bellpepper Chutney. Though, both are prepared at different times (I mean day too!!). But thought of posting at a time, togeather, since both are co-related with there names starting with same vegetable i.e., Bell Pepper:-) To say about fried rice, I had to beg my brother "Ravi" for this recipe. After reading this recipe, you may think do any body really need to beg for this?? Answer is "Even I thought the same thing after he told me the recipe":-)). It such an easy, yet, very delicious recipe. I should say, Instant Fried Rice. But I thank him for such an easy and wonderful recipe. He actually cooked this fried rice with peas and beans as vegetables along with bell peppers, for my son's cradle cermony. Each and every guest of ours enjoyed a lot:-) Next is Bell Pepper Chutney. I read many post on Red Bell Pepper Chutney. I found all of them very intresting. Since I had above three bell peppers (tri color) in store, which are actually bought to prepare fried rice, with left over ones, I went and prepared the chutney. It is really good as our fellow blogger and dear friend Indira of "Mahanandi" said (in her words) "Red Bell Pepper chutney goes well with any break fast dishes like idli, dosa, upma, rice or chapathis". <a href="http://www.nandyala.org/mahanandi/archives/2006/06/20/red-bell-pepper-chutney/">Here</a> is her version of Red Bell Pepper Chutney. Though my version is completely different from her's, I was much inspired by her recipe to prepare this chutney. Thank You Indira:-) Iam also sending thease recipe's for <a href="http://kalynskitchen.blogspot.com/2006/12/holiday-cooking-with-herbs.html">Kalyn's Kitchen </a>most happening event "<span style="color:#cc0000;"><strong>Holiday Cooking With Herbs</strong></span>". </div><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/1836/1051/1600/400908/Holiday%20Cooking%20With%20Herbs.jpg" border="0" /></div><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify"></div><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify">With not much delay here I go with both recipes.....<br /><br /><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold"><span style="font-size:130%;">Bell Pepper Fried Rice</span></span><br /><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold"><span style="font-size:130%;">-------------------------------</span></span><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold"><br /></div></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOG6whBsRIyDzTlDevXFhzcil9uud7u_nGHpEsy3J5bd7jDdwNIcBGirewY6NAxVwhI2O27VyD29anb3DE0y30wue-DFMULGxvBFzWgk2Nem0IBw-QXuJx_zoUhNsGSuEmnfA9/s1600-h/bellpepper_friedrice_03.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5010353334202623714" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: pointer; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOG6whBsRIyDzTlDevXFhzcil9uud7u_nGHpEsy3J5bd7jDdwNIcBGirewY6NAxVwhI2O27VyD29anb3DE0y30wue-DFMULGxvBFzWgk2Nem0IBw-QXuJx_zoUhNsGSuEmnfA9/s400/bellpepper_friedrice_03.jpg" border="0" /></a><br />Ingredients:<br />--------------<br />3 small sized bell peppers different colors( I took green, orange & red: used 1 small green pepper;1/2 of each orange & red bell pepprs. Since they both were big)<br /><br />2 Cups Basmati rice (or long rice)<br /><br />1 Medium sized white onion<br /><br />2 Green chillies<br /><br />1 tsp Cumin seeds<br /><br />2 tsp soya sauce (or even less if you don'nt like the sauce taste and flavour)<br /><br />Oil for cooking (1 Tbsp or 3tsp)<br /><br />1 to 1/2 tsp Freshly grated pepper(or as per your taste)<br /><br />Salt (as per taste)<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKuivp_uFM-763Awitahp5xCb-Gw6OteaPztL16P1G-F6-gT2jjMc6Do7U-cLDURYlAEOx-o92pzgkh9CoOclzDGDlRcTmXI-a15fTWUGw8NRjHUY9YI9iris0DdDsN5Mmki3b/s1600-h/bellpepper_friedrice_04.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5010361374381401858" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: pointer; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKuivp_uFM-763Awitahp5xCb-Gw6OteaPztL16P1G-F6-gT2jjMc6Do7U-cLDURYlAEOx-o92pzgkh9CoOclzDGDlRcTmXI-a15fTWUGw8NRjHUY9YI9iris0DdDsN5Mmki3b/s320/bellpepper_friedrice_04.jpg" border="0" /></a><br />Method:<br />-----------<br /><br /><ol><br /><li>Rinse rice in cold water only once (to avoid them from breaking).</li><br /><li>Cook in pressure cooker with 1:2 ratio (i.e., if 1 cup rice then 2 cups water).</li><br /><li>Cook rice with 1/2 tsp cumin seeds in it and 1 to 1/2 tsp oil(for rice grains to be separate from each other)</li><br /><li>After rice is cooked, allow it to cool in a wide plate.</li><br /><li>Mean while, cut bell peppers into thin & long pieces & don'nt forget to deseed them.</li><br /><li>Cut onion also into thin & long pieces. Cut green chillies into small pieces. keep all of them a side.</li><br /><li>Take a wide non_stick pan(because, in non stick when you fry any vegetables, on high heat , they take less oil), heat oil, add another 1/2 tsp cumin seeds and fry till they start spluttering.</li><br /><li>Now, add green chillies and fry for 2 seconds. Add all three bell peppers and fry till they become little soft yet little crunchy too. This is very important here, to enjoy their flavours while eating fried rice:-)</li><br /><li>First fry them for 2 min with open lid. Then cover the lid and allow to cook for 2 to 3 more minutes.</li><br /><li>Once they are cooked as desired, add salt and pepper. Mix well and fry with open lid for couple of minutes.</li><br /><li>Now add soya sauce and mix well. Finally, add rice bit by bit (i.e., in small portions) and mix well with other ingredients. Use some wooden spectula to avoid rice from breaking.</li><br /><li>Fry for 2 to 3 minutes with open lid and serve hot.</li></ol><br /><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Note:</span></span> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnUDmmxb4fjLOP68B73C1doS1QyGKBGLz6Nwq0h0G5_f62U-llC6aSeRJ0UpTih5n8c4jWrY8TLOPcx9Z365PXrEIXsqefpIT7nrdegXiTj7mgrIYBe03CJOc-0RCc0FRMmnAn/s1600-h/bellpepper_friedrice_02.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5010360343589250802" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; CURSOR: pointer" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnUDmmxb4fjLOP68B73C1doS1QyGKBGLz6Nwq0h0G5_f62U-llC6aSeRJ0UpTih5n8c4jWrY8TLOPcx9Z365PXrEIXsqefpIT7nrdegXiTj7mgrIYBe03CJOc-0RCc0FRMmnAn/s200/bellpepper_friedrice_02.jpg" border="0" /></a>You can add peas & beans(if fresh vegetables cook them before and keep aside). They really make dish more rich. Also you can add soya granules (soaked in warm water for 1/2 hr and add to the dish with other vegetables). I cooked only with bell peppers, to know there flavour more and enjoy them. It was very good with oit adding any other begetables too:-) Also, if using fresh pepper, then add carefully, since fresh pepper will be more spicy than others.<br /><br /></div><br />----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br /><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold;font-size:130%;" >Bell Pepper Chutney:<br />-----------------------------</span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMSDFLOxwvE31w1lfZoGvZ8ViCOlqBGWcz3PGNb61godLqiXLva34iBDpnMm81G0duur30QiR5Lf1kUuAiIRG6qMQ7ivZuadwJyK40hlAi73CCdVLPnUoA5Wh60HLc-Bz7zKBW/s1600-h/bellpepper_chutney_01.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5010367297141303090" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: pointer; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMSDFLOxwvE31w1lfZoGvZ8ViCOlqBGWcz3PGNb61godLqiXLva34iBDpnMm81G0duur30QiR5Lf1kUuAiIRG6qMQ7ivZuadwJyK40hlAi73CCdVLPnUoA5Wh60HLc-Bz7zKBW/s400/bellpepper_chutney_01.jpg" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:100%;">Ingredients:<br />----------------<br />2 small size green bell pepper<br /></span><br /><span style="font-size:100%;">1/2 of orange and 1/2 of red bell peppers of medium sized<br /><br />2 tsp chenna dal<br /><br />2 tsp urad dal<br /><br />1 lime size tamarind</span><br /><span style="font-size:100%;"><br />1 big stem curry leaves<br /><br />1 tsp cumin seeds<br /><br />4 to 5 red dry red chillies<br /><br />3 tsp oil<br /><br />salt to taste</span><br /><span style="font-size:100%;"><br />Fresh cilantro to garnish<br /><br />Method:<br />---------<br /></span><br /><br /><ol><br /><li>Before proceeding, wash and soak tamarind in warm water till other preparations are done.</li><br /><li>Cut bell peppers into roughly small cubes. Do not de-seed them.<br /></li><br /><li>Heat oil, in a wide and little depth pan, add cumin seeds and fry till they start spluttering. Add channa dal and urad dal and fry till they change into light brown.</li><br /><li>Now break and add dry red chillies and fry till they start changing color into dark. And add curry leaves and fry for few seconds.</li><br /><li>Now add all cut bell peppers and fry till they become little soft.</li><br /><li>Finally add soaked tamarind and fry for 1 minute and remove from heat.</li><br /><li>Allow the contents to cool and grind them bit by bit with desired salt in a food processor into a fine paste.</li><br /><li>Finally garnish with fresh cilantro. Enjoy with chapathis, hot plain rice, idli, dosa etc.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEih4xU0b0LciZ2OcnI-I5Q9t7fNBbCiQ4klKE0LAgVX0JfkrPNQkpG3Zbqz13j-PPnT31C5ZV-ypvwaBL0OY42bCRefvBLmbHGV5CHFbQfBjgBv3oi8KnT0t8eZVd6OyE6TUQC8/s1600-h/bellpepper_chutney_02.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5010366223399479074" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: pointer; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEih4xU0b0LciZ2OcnI-I5Q9t7fNBbCiQ4klKE0LAgVX0JfkrPNQkpG3Zbqz13j-PPnT31C5ZV-ypvwaBL0OY42bCRefvBLmbHGV5CHFbQfBjgBv3oi8KnT0t8eZVd6OyE6TUQC8/s320/bellpepper_chutney_02.jpg" border="0" /></a></li></ol></div>Meena Kandlakutihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04846817657201018416noreply@blogger.com25tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28012416.post-1165951820014421192006-12-12T10:49:00.000-08:002006-12-20T10:09:34.202-08:00Coconut & Mint Chutney (Kobbari-Pudina Chutney)<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/3612/2960/1600/564171/coconut.jpg"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: pointer; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/3612/2960/400/523230/coconut.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: center"><span style="COLOR: rgb(255,204,0)">Coconut is offered to god as Prasaadam in our Indian Culture which is symbol of Purity. I.e., As we remove all the external fiber on the coconut and break it and offer to the god, one should remove all the desires from heart and offer our soal to god.</span><br /></div><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/3612/2960/1600/927183/coconut_mint_chutney_03.jpg"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: pointer; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/3612/2960/400/336450/coconut_mint_chutney_03.jpg" border="0" /></a>Hi Friends, now a days Iam little slow in blogging, though I have got lot of recipes to blog. The reason is we are shifting to new apartments this month end. So I was quite busy in searching an apartment. And we got one. Finally moving this month end to new apartment. After that , again I may be bit slower in blogging. Now you know the reason:-)) Anyways, coming back to my cooking world, this weekend we got two big sets of whole wheat bread from costco. So, Iam into preparations of chutneys for our daily breakfast i.e., Bread Sandwage. In the preparation of, this series of chutneys, Iam planning to blog a couple of chutneys useful for Bread Sandwage. Thease chutney recipes are adopted from the one and only book from which I usually adopt.."<span style="COLOR: rgb(255,204,102)">Shehzad Husain and Manisha Kanani</span>" 's "<span style="COLOR: rgb(51,204,0)">Healthy Indian Cooking</span>" book. You may wonder, why I always adopt from this book only. The secret is I have got only couple of cook books with me. So I keep trying from them on and off. Then why not from other cook books? This question may rise in your minds. And my answer is why should I? When I have got so many blogger friends and there blogs which has got bundle of variety, traditional, authentic and recipes from all over the world. You know what, when ever I visit any book store, and find good cook book and want to purchase...finally I end up coming out of the store with out any cook book:-))...Thanks to all my blogger friends for sharing wonderful recipes. Before coming to the recipe, I would like to say some thing about coconut.<br /><br /><span style="COLOR: rgb(255,255,255)">You know it is said that the origin of coconut is from our own mother land "<span style="COLOR: rgb(255,204,0)">India: Rajasthan and Maharashtra"</span>. Though it is unclear, but the fact remains always as a fact. Now this coconut is widely used all over the world and became necessary in our daily food. In India, as soon as we remember coconut, we remind of<span style="COLOR: rgb(0,153,0)"> "God's Own Land"</span> Kerala. In kerala, coconut is used widely in different ways. To say, in the form of oil, which is used for cooking food; hair oil, which many of us still use; coconut water for instant energy especially in summer, which becomes must for many of us in india. You know what I miss coconut water here a lot. Though we get here in different forms...in tins, in Inidan stores and other general stores too...I always miss buying coconut water by the road side and having them after a tired afternoon, returning from shopping or from school or college in hot summer. The water are so sweet and has become very precious here for me atleast:-))....But thanks to blog world, here that sweetness which I miss is compensated by many blog friends from Kerala, with there traditional recipes, in which coconut becomes necessary one. One such blogger friend, Ashwini from "Food For Thought" is hosting </span><a style="COLOR: rgb(255,255,255)" href="http://food-forthought.blogspot.com/2006/12/jfi-for-coconut.html">Jhiva For Coconut</a><span style="COLOR: rgb(255,255,255)"> in new year i.e., In Jan, 2007. Thank You <span style="COLOR: rgb(255,204,0)">Ashwini</span>, in advance for this event. And also thanks to Indira of <a href="http://www.nandyala.org/mahanandi/">"Mahanandi"</a> who originally started this event.I hardley said some thing about coconut but words are less to describe this versatile Ingredient and also great food as it is. But to know more about coconut, click on following link..</span><a style="COLOR: rgb(255,255,255)" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coconut">here</a><span style="COLOR: rgb(255,255,255)">. Today's my post is <span style="COLOR: rgb(255,204,0)">Coconut-Mint Chutney</span>, which serves as best base for bread and this is my entry to the Jhiva For Coconut. Also, I found, it was great with any hot rice or vegetable pulav. Here comes my recipe....</span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/3612/2960/1600/284896/coconut_mint_chutney_01.jpg"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: pointer; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/3612/2960/400/609799/coconut_mint_chutney_01.jpg" border="0" /></a><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Ingredients:</span><br /><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">----------------</span><br />40z fresh mint leaves<br />12 tbsp desiccated(dry) coconut<br />2 tbsp sesame seeds (prefferably white sesame seeds)<br />1/2 tsp salt (or as required)<br />1 cup natural low fat yogurt<br /><br /><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Method:</span><br /><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">----------</span><br /><ol><li>Finely chop the mint using a sharp knife.</li><li>Put all the ingredients into food processor or blender as shown in above pic untill smooth.</li><li>Cover and chill.</li></ol><span style="font-size:130%;">Note:</span> "This delicious chutney can be made in advance and will keep covered for up to 5 days in the refrigerator" as author says. It was great with toasted whole wheat bread. Bread was warm and this cold chutney as a base on bread with thin slices of tomato's made complete break fast.<br /><br /></div>Meena Kandlakutihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04846817657201018416noreply@blogger.com22tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28012416.post-1164745960136722702006-11-28T11:45:00.000-08:002007-01-25T12:11:53.367-08:00Masala Brinjal Curry (Vankaaya Masala)<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3612/2960/1600/vankaayamasala_11.jpg"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: pointer; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3612/2960/400/vankaayamasala_11.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3612/2960/1600/vankaayamasala_03.jpg"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: pointer; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3612/2960/400/vankaayamasala_03.jpg" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3612/2960/1600/vankaayamasala_02.jpg"><br /></a><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify">Hi Friends! Iam back after a short trip to Atlanta & Orlando for Thanks Giving Holidays. We had a very good time there. I hope same with you too:-) I will update some of my trip photographs in my intoduction post after some time. Right now as I said..I will be back with good recipes in store, today Iam here with one of the traditional recipe and all time favourite from my mom's kitchen called "Vankaaya Masala". We call this recipe vankaaya Masala (brinjal spices), since masala(spices) used in this recipe is the key for this tasty dish, ofcourse Brinjal's should be very tender and fresh once to get more taste and flavour to the dish. I thought to blog some specific recipes with photographs as main, to explain the dish. One I did mooli paratha and now Iam going to do with this recipe. With no delay..here I go....<br /><br /><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Ingredients For Main Cooking:</span><br /><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">-----------------------------------------</span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3612/2960/1600/vankaayamasala_04.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; CURSOR: pointer" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3612/2960/320/vankaayamasala_04.jpg" border="0" /></a><br />..Fresh Brinjals 10 to 12 of same size<br />..1 big onion<br />..2 medium lemon sized tamarind<br />..1 big stem curry leaves<br />..zeera or cumin seeds 1 tsp full<br />..1 tbsp fresh cut cilantro<br />..oil for cooking (2tbsp) (you can decrease if you want to 1tbsp, but for more taste 2tbsp)<br /><br /><br /><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Ingredients For Masala:</span>(you can see all masala powders in below pic togeather)<br />---------------------------------<br />..2tsp white sesame seeds roasted powder (Nuvvula podi)<br />(here I roasted sesame seeds and mixed with<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3612/2960/1600/vankaayamasala_05.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; CURSOR: pointer" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3612/2960/320/vankaayamasala_05.jpg" border="0" /></a> other powders in blender since I did not had its powder ready)<br />..1tsp cumin seeds roasted powder (Jilakara podi)<br />..1/2 tsp Methi seeds roasted powder (menthula podi)<br />..2 or 2 1/2 tsp Coriander roasted powder (Dhaniyala podi)<br />..2 tsp Dry coconut powder (kobbari podi)<br />..2 or 2 1/2 tsp Red chilli powder<br />..2 tsp turmeric powder<br />..Salt as per your taste (I recommend 2 to 2 1/2 tsp salt)<br />..2 tsp Ginger-Garlic paste<br /><br /><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Method:</span> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3612/2960/1600/vankaayamasala_06.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; CURSOR: pointer" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3612/2960/200/vankaayamasala_06.jpg" border="0" /></a><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold"><br />-----------</span> <div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify">Cut onions roughly and fry in little oil in a wide and deep container till they turn to brown in color. Or else the traditional method is Fry onion whole on flame all around if it is possible and keep aside. I follow first method here. In india the another method. Keep thease onions aside. After it cools down, add this to above all masala ingredients in a blender or grinder and paste them. If needed you can add little water. Keep the paste aside.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3612/2960/1600/vankaayamasala_07.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; CURSOR: pointer" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3612/2960/200/vankaayamasala_07.jpg" border="0" /></a>Wash the brinjals and do not remove the tail. Since they help while eating brinjal or vankaaya in the curry. You can just grab a full one brinjal into your mouth with the help of tail:-)) But ofcourse again its your choice:-) I prefer keeping them as it is. Cut each one of the brinjals across. See here they are not cut completely till end. That means brinjal should be one, not four pieces. You can check in the beside pic. They are waiting to dip in the masala;-)<br /><br /><br />Wash the tamarind and soak in a warm water till tamarind becomes soft.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3612/2960/1600/vankaayamasala_08.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; CURSOR: pointer" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3612/2960/200/vankaayamasala_08.jpg" border="0" /></a> After that take juice out of it. Here, the tamarind juice should be thick. In the same container, in which you fried the onions, heat the recommended oil or as per your requirement and taste for main dish to cook. Add jeera or cumin seeds and fry until they start changing color. Cook this dish on medium heat. Now add curry leaves and fry them. Remember they should be crispy. Now add cut brinjals in to the container and fry till they turn into dark color all around. See the brinjals should not break.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3612/2960/1600/vankaayamasala_09.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; CURSOR: pointer" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3612/2960/200/vankaayamasala_09.jpg" border="0" /></a>Now add the masala paste to above fried brinjals and mix well. See again brinjals should not break into pieces. Cook for 2 minutes with closed lid so that masala or spices get into the cut brinjals. After that add tamarind juice and mix well. Do not add any water here. That is why tamarind juice should be taken a/c to your gravy requirement. I.e., if you want more gravy than soak little more tamarind.<br /><br /><br />Allow to cook whole thing on medium heat till the brinjals are cooked well.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3612/2960/1600/vankaayamasala_10.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; CURSOR: pointer" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3612/2960/200/vankaayamasala_10.jpg" border="0" /></a> They should be soft and cooked well. Remember, brinjals are cooked fast like fish. Finally, add cilantro and close the lid and cook on low heat for couple of minutes and turn off the heat. Here, you can taste the gravy and can add required chilli powder, salt and coriander powder if needed. The Vanakaya Masala is ready to serve. This dish taste more better the next day or another day. So if you have some work next day than you can prepare this and keep aside (no need to refrigerate) and can enjoy next couple of days if you are going to cook in lots:-))<br /></div><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">My Variations:<br />-----------------<br /></span>You can replace brinjals with fish pieces too. My mother cooks the same way for both fish and brinjals. Only difference is here you add brinjals first, where as If you use fish than add it after all the the masala and tamarind juice is cooked togeather and cook till fishes are done. Though brinjals are cooked fast, remember fishes are even cooked more fast comparitively.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Note:</span><br />---------<br />You can prepare all the spice powders by roasting them individually and powder them and can store, so that, when ever you want prepare this dish you can just add masala powders or spice powders then, which can save your time and energy. Also add methi powder still less if you want, since it gives little bitter taste, if added more. Recommended amount in this recipe is fine. Enjoy the dish:-))<br /><br /><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold"></span></div>Meena Kandlakutihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04846817657201018416noreply@blogger.com21tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28012416.post-1163625732417164282006-11-15T12:43:00.000-08:002006-12-20T10:14:59.458-08:00Dryfruits Sesame Bar (Dryfruits Til Chikki)<div style="TEXT-ALIGN: center"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3612/2960/1600/water_mark.2.jpg"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: pointer; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3612/2960/400/water_mark.2.jpg" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3612/2960/1600/sesame_dryfruits_chikki_02.jpg"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: pointer; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3612/2960/400/sesame_dryfruits_chikki_02.jpg" border="0" /></a><span style="COLOR: rgb(255,204,0);font-family:courier new;" >Black Sesame Seeds & Dryfruits(Baadam,Kaaju and Kishmish) Jaggery Chikkis</span><br /></div><br /><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify">This recipe is adopted from TarlaDalal's Calcium Rich Recipes. As soon as I read this recipe, I was very much eager to try this out. Because, it is rich in calcium and very much good for growing children. Also, the recipe was very simple to try out. So why late?? With little variations in the recipe (or in correct words, I used some extra ingredients, to make it more rich in calcium as well as in taste). This is also another entry to the <a href="http://towardsabettertomorrow.blogspot.com/2006/11/jihva-for-jaggery.html">Jhiva For Jaggery</a>, going to be hosted by Kay of "Towards A Better Tomprrow". Actual version name was Badaam Til Chikki. Since I added kaaju and kishmish (another two dryfruits), I renamed it as "Dryfruits Til Chikki". Sesame seeds, one of the ingredients in this recipe, is rich in calcium. I.e., is the reason for choosing this ingredient. You can read more about sesame seeds and black sesame seeds <a href="http://www.acupuncturetoday.com/herbcentral/blacksesameseeds.php">here</a>. The another main ingredient used here is Jaggery or Gud or Bellam. This is used from ages in Indian culture especially for preparing sweets. It contains not only calcium, but also protiens, vitamins, iron etc. So here I go with the recipe....Before that A Very Happy Thanks Giving Holidays to all my readers and fellow bloggers. Iam going on a short trip on this vacation. I will be missing all your daily post for thease few days...but I will return with same enthusiasm, with which Iam ready to go for trip:-)) and will return with lot more traditional, religious and other intresting recipes to blog. And will catch you all at..Kay's Jhiva event for Jaggery. Happy Holidays!! Enjoy!!<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3612/2960/1600/sesame_dryfruits_chikki_01.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; CURSOR: pointer" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3612/2960/320/sesame_dryfruits_chikki_01.jpg" border="0" /></a><br />Ingredeints:<br />--------------<br />Jaggery or Gud or Bellam 3/4th cup<br />Black Sesame seeds or Nalla Nuvvulu 1/2 cup<br />Dryfruits 1/4 cup (mixture of Baddam, Kaaju & Khishmish)<br />3tsp Ghee (I used cow ghee)<br />Little water (If required)<br /><br />Method:<br />-----------<br /><ol><li>Grate Jaggery and keep aside.</li><li>Grind or grate dryfruits too and keep aside (as shown in above pic)</li><li>Roast sesame seeds till they turn into light golden color (which acutually not much visible as golden color, but can find out when they start changing color, so roast for few minutes)</li><li>Roast dryfruits too, separately not with sesame seeds. Allow to cool them both.</li><li>Take a flat plate or on any flat surface, grease it with 1 tsp of ghee.<br /></li><li>Heat 2 tsp of ghee in a container, and add grated Jaggery to it. Stir continously, untill it melts completely and should become thick enough for makking chikkis. Just as we do for sugar syrup. But see that, If you put a drop in the syrup it should form a hard ball.</li><li>Remove from the heat and add roasted sesame seeds and dryfruits and mix well.</li><li style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify">While the jaggery melts, if you think the syrup is less for making chikkis, add 1/4th cup of water and heat till syrup consistency. Or elase can take little more jaggery if needed.</li><li style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify">Pour the above mixture on the greases surface and roll with greased rolling pin. (Here I greased the chapathi making pin with little ghee and rolled over the mixture)</li><li style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify">Cut them into diamond or square or any other desired shape after it cools down. Healthy, rich in calcium Chikkis are ready to serve for children or any body as a snak or a sweet:-)<br /></li></ol><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Note:</span> Out of this praportion, I got 20'no chikki's. If you make more than store in a airtight container for long freshness. </div>Meena Kandlakutihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04846817657201018416noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28012416.post-1163114651421969722006-11-09T15:23:00.000-08:002006-12-20T10:16:17.939-08:00Egg Dosa (Egg Double Toast) & Jaggery Dosa (Gud Dosa/Bellam Dosa)<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3612/2960/1600/eggdosa_guddosa_03.0.jpg"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: pointer; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3612/2960/400/eggdosa_guddosa_03.0.jpg" border="0" /></a> <div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify"><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: center"><span style="COLOR: rgb(255,204,0);font-family:courier new;" >LEFT: Jaggery/Gud/Bellam Dosa RIGHT: Egg Dosa</span><br /></div><br />Gud Dosa or Jaggery Dosa and Egg dosa were our breakfast yesterday. They both are easy in a way, can be prepared on finger tips:-) Jaggery Dosa and Egg Dosa, I prepared using regular Atta flour or Wheat Flour. But both can also be prepared with actual dosa batter. I prepared once, egg dosa was heavy and superb, but jaggery dosa with actual dosa batter did'nt turp up that well. But as soon as I try next time and taste it...I will blog that too. Now coming to this breakfast, Gud Dosa or Jaggery Dosa is my entry to the <a href="http://towardsabettertomorrow.blogspot.com/2006/11/jihva-for-jaggery.html">JFI Jaggery</a> going to host by Kay of Towards A Better Tomorrow. Thank You Kay, being a busy mother, took this work to do a round up. I appriciate it very well and wish you all the best:-) I will re-post again on dec 1st a/c to her rules. Anyways...coming to recipes, here I go...<br /></div><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: center"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3612/2960/1600/eggdosa_guddosa_01.0.jpg"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: pointer; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3612/2960/320/eggdosa_guddosa_01.0.jpg" border="0" /></a><span style="COLOR: rgb(255,204,0);font-family:courier new;" >LEFT: Batter of Jaggery Dosa RIGHT: Batter of Egg Dosa</span><br /></div><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold"><br /></span></span><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Ingredients For Egg Dosa:</span><br /><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">---------------------------------</span><br />1 egg (raw)<br />little less than 1/4th cup wheat flour<br />1 tbsp milk (or less/more as required)<br />Salt a/c to taste<br />Chilli Powder 1/4th tsp or less (a/c to your spice taste)<br /><br /><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Method:</span><br /><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">------------</span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3612/2960/1600/eggdosa.0.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; CURSOR: pointer" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3612/2960/320/eggdosa.0.jpg" border="0" /></a> <div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify">Mix all the ingredients with the help of desired milk into thick batter just like we do for uttapam. Make sure the pan you use is wider so that the dosa cooks well. You can also make two dosas, out of this batter. It takes little more time than an omlette to be cooked. Since it becomes double in size, the batter should spread into thin circle on the pan. Spray oil on the pan and then spread this batter. Cook both sides well and serve hot with tomato ketchup or any tomato chutney. It was like double bread toast with one big omllette:-) Important thing to remember is don'nt add any water..just use milk for making batter.<br /><br /><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Ingredients For Jaggery Dosa:</span><br /><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">----------------------------------------<br /></span>1/4th cup fine grated Jaggery/Gud/Bellam (or as required can increase or decrease amount)<br />1/4th cup wheat flour<br />1 tsp roasted sesame seeds/Nuvvulu<br />Water as required<br /><br /><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Method:</span><br /><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">-----------</span> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3612/2960/1600/guddosa.3.jpg"><img style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; CURSOR: pointer" height="320" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3612/2960/320/guddosa.2.jpg" width="219" border="0" /></a><br />Mix all above ingredeints except sesame seeds to make a dosa batter with the help of required water. Mix untill, Jaggery or Gud or Bellam competely dessolves into the batter. Heat the pan, spray oil and spread this batter on the pan. Make sure the circle should be little thick, not like regular dosa. Since we use jaggery here, to avoid it from sticking to the pan, the spread of batter should be small, so that the dosa becomes little thick. Spray sesame seeds on both the sides before the dosa is cooked. i.e., when one side is almost cooked, before turning to another side, spray sesame seeds and press them into the dosa with wooden stick (or which ever your using to make dosas) Reapeat the same other side too. Remove from heat & have when it is warm. With the touch of sesame seeds, the Jaggery Dosa was too tasty:-))<span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold"><br /></span></div>Meena Kandlakutihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04846817657201018416noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28012416.post-1162854674446437652006-11-06T14:13:00.000-08:002006-12-20T10:17:40.808-08:00Okra Bake (Bendakaaya Bake)<div style="TEXT-ALIGN: center"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3612/2960/1600/benakaya_bake_03.jpg"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: pointer; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3612/2960/400/benakaya_bake_03.jpg" border="0" /></a><span style="COLOR: rgb(255,204,0);font-family:courier new;" >Okra and Tomatoes Baked Dish</span><br /></div><br /><div style="TEXT-ALIGN: justify">Few weeks back, we three went to our usual bookstore called "Barnes and Noble". We do visit other book stores too like "Borders". But apart from our choice, my son loves to visit B&N. Because, he has got lot of freedom over there, to choose his own books, irrespective of choice, size and language. Any book which appeals to the eyes my darling 18 months old son, is his choice. He gets freedom there, which his mom, i.e., me don'nt give at home, by restricting him from touching many things:-)) I think, this happens to all those poor toddlers, for whom, home is very little place to explore new things and do trial & error. Ending this mother and son, daily story and switching back to the world of food, I was going through some cook book for diabetics. I really don'nt remember the author, since I was just giving a glance, I found some recipes in that book, of which most of them are baked one's. Since, it has less oil, less cholesterol and all suitable for diabetics. Now a days it has become a big problem. Because other than family history of diabetics, it can attack to any body irrespective of age bar, say from 10 yr old to 90 yr old. So, it has become necessary to take lot of precautions for our good health. In that perticular book I found this simple recipe of Okra ("Bendakaaya" or "Lady Finger" or "Bendhi"). I even don'nt remember the ingredients, the author mentioned. So, I just added my flavours to it. It is easy to cook and you need to use your hands almost "No"!! Since, it is a baked dish. And this is my entry to the <span style="COLOR: rgb(255,204,0)">Saffron Trail's</span> <a href="http://saffrontrail.blogspot.com/2006/11/wbb-7-baking-for-breakfast.html">WBB#7 Baking For BreakFast</a>! As our friend <span style="COLOR: rgb(255,204,0)">Nandita</span> said "Explore baking with any thing like sweet, Savoury, Spicy etc...". My okra Bake comes under Spicy options. This goes best in breakfast with chapathis or parathas, also easy and fast to prepare for busy morning:-) So lets go to the recipe....<br /><br /><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">Ingredients:</span><br /><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">---------------</span><br />1 lb Okra (Bendakaaya)<br />2 medium sized Tomatoes<br />1 big Onion<br />1 to 2 tsp Chilli powder<br />1 tsp Coriander powder<br />1tsp Turmeric powder<br />Salt as per required<br />oil (use low cholesterol spray oil ) I use palm spray oil<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3612/2960/1600/benakaya_bake_01.jpg"><img style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; CURSOR: pointer; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3612/2960/400/benakaya_bake_01.jpg" border="0" /></a><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold"><br />Method:</span><br /><span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">----------</span><br /><ol><li>Wash, top and trail the okra, cut into 1cm in pieces.</li><li>Cut tomatoes and onions into small pieces.<br /></li><li>Mix all ingredients and keep in the baking sheet, spray oil from the top as shown above.</li><li>Preheat oven for 10 to 15 minutes on 350 F.<br /></li><li>Bake for 1/2 hr to 40 minutes on 350F, until okra and tomatoes are cooked well.</li><li>Stir in between to avoid burning.</li><li>Serve hot with chapathis.</li></ol><span style="font-size:130%;">Note: </span>The day I baked this dish, from then onwards when ever I get okra, I bake it. Every time I bake this dish, my son & my husband have it, almost, before I serve chapathis. They taste great as it is and can be served as side dish too.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">My Variations:</span> You can add other masala or spices to this dish. Onions are optional. I baked okra once with onions and once without onions. Both were yummy and little crispy.<br /></div>Meena Kandlakutihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04846817657201018416noreply@blogger.com16