Onion-Peanut chutney

This chutney tastes awesome with idli/dosa especially,rava idli.

Ingredients:

=========

• Peanuts / groundnuts - 1 cup
• onion - 1 big
• garlic - 4 pods
• curry leaves - 4 Sprigs
• til/sesame seeds(white) - 1 tsp
• tomato - 1 medium sized( bangalore variety)
• green chillies - 3
• red chillies - 2
• oil - 2 tsp
• mustard seeds - 1 tsp
• split urad dal - 1 tsp
• tamarind - 1 inch piece(can add little more as per taste)
• salt - to taste

Method:

======

• Dry roast til and peanuts on a low flame.Set aside to cool and remove the skin of peanuts.
• Chop onions,green chillies and garlic.
• Heat 1 tsp of oil,add onions,garlic,curry leaves and saute till the raw smell goes off.
• Add green chillies and chopped tomato and saute for another 3 min.
• Switch off the flame.Add the tamarind into the kadai and set aside to cool.
• Add the above ingredients in a mixer and grind it.(just pulse twice or thrice)
• Add the roasted peanuts,til ,salt to the ground mixture and grind again into a fine paste with little water.
• Temper with mustard seeds,curry leaves and split urad dal.
• 
  

Serve with rava idli.

kashi Halwa

Kashi Halwa is this wonderful dessert that is also a standard feature in Kannada wedding feasts.It is mostly served with Idli and Pongal for breakfast and its very easy to prepare in 20 min.But otherwise it is a mostly made as offerings for gods during festivals and special occasions.

To prepare this halwa,we need ash gourd which is mature.It has to be very firm and not spongy.

This recipes serves 2 for one time

========================

Ingredients

=========

• Ash gourd (grated and squeezed completely) - 2 cups(Do not throw away the water .You can use it as a stock. )
• Milk - 3/4 cup
• Sugar - 1 cup
• Ghee - 2 tbsp
• Cashews & raisins - 7 each
• Edible colour - a pinch

Method:

======

• Wash the ash gourd,remove the seeds and skin.Grate it and squeeze out the water.
• 
  
• Add milk to the grated ash gourd and pressure cook for 3 whistles.
• 
  
• Heat 2 tsp of ghee in a non stick pan and add the cooked ash gourd.Mix a pinch of colour in 3 tsp of milk and add into the pan.
• Saute till the excess milk evaporates and then add sugar.
• 
  
• Keep mixing till the sugar is totally absorbed by the melon and it starts to leave the sides of the pan.
• Add 3 tsp of ghee and saute till its absorbed by the halwa.(Do not allow to thicken so much...as the halwa thickens with time).
• Garnish with roasted cashews and raisins.

Serve hot.

Chakkai kottai molagootal

Method:

=======

1. Peel off the skin of the jack fruit seed and chop it into two pieces.
2. You can also use koorka (chinese potato in English)and ash gourd along with the jack fruit seeds.

To be ground into fine paste with little water

================================

Shredded coconut - 1 tbsp

Jeera - 1 tsp

Red chillies - 2

• Pressure cook 1/4 cup of tuar dal ,mash it and set aside.To cook koorka see below.
• Pressure cook a handful of jackfruit seeds and ash gourd with a pinch of turmeric powder.(2 t o 3 whistles).
• Add cooked tuar dal,koorka ,salt to the cooked veggies.
• Mix well and cook till it boils.
• When it starts boiling add the ground paste.
• Cook for another 2 min.
• Temper mustard seeds,curry leaves and split urad dal in coconut oil and pour over the molagootal.

Cleaning the koorka

==============

• Wash the koorka well to remove the mud.
• Pressure cook for 3 whistles.
• Set aside too cool and peel off the skin .
• Chop into small pieces.

Serve hot with rice.

Chakkai puli pachadi (Jackfruit pachadi)

This is the jack fruit season.And you can try out a lot of recipes with ripe jack fruit. Here is one such recipe which is a traditional one .This is an excellent side dish for rice and molagootal.

Cleaning the jack fruit is a tedious process.Apply oil in your fingers to ease the process.But nowadays you get the jack fruit pieces in ready made packets .You can use that too.

This recipe serves two.

Ingredients:

==========

• Jack fruit slices - 7 to 8 whole pieces.
• turmeric powder - a pinch
• jaggery - as per the sweetness of jack fruit.(if the fruit is so sweet,this can be skipped)
• salt - to taste
• red chilli powder - 1 tsp
• oil - 1 tsp
• mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
• curry leaves - a sprig
• split urad dal - 1/2 tsp
• hing - a pinch
• tamarind extract - extracted from a lemon sized tamarind

To be ground into a coarse paste with little water:

===================================

• shredded coconut - 1 tbsp
• green chillies - 3
• mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp

method:

======

• Remove the seeds of jack fruit and cut the outer part into slices.(Do not throw away the seeds.You can replace veggies in molagootal with the jack fruit seeds)
• Add the chopped slices in tamarind extract along with turmeric powder and red chilli powder.
• If the jack fruit is not so sweet,add jaggery too along with the slices.
• Cook covered till the slices become tender.
• Add salt and the ground paste into it.
• Mix well and cook for 2 min.
• Temper with mustard seeds,hing,urad dal and curry leaves.

Serve with molagootal and rice.

My vishu - Year 2011 - April 15th

Rajma methi pulao

Ingredients:

=========

• Basmathi rice/Sona masuri - 1 cup
• Onion - 1 medium sized
• Tomatoes - 2 big ,ripe
• Green chillies - 3
• ginger-garlic paste - 1 tsp
• Methi leaves - separated from stalk and washed
• Rajma - soaked overnight and pressure cooked( 3 whistles)

Reserve the stock after cooking rajma.

• salt - to taste
• oil and ghee - 1 tsp each
• garam masala - 1/2 tsp

To be crushed in a pestle and mortar

==========================

• Peppercorns - 8
• cinnamon - 1/2 inch
• cloves - 4
• elachi - 2
• aniseed - 2 pods(optional)
• saunf - 1/2 tsp
• jeera - 1 tsp

Method:

======

• Soak rice in water for 10 min and the drain the excess wwater.
• Heat oil and ghee in a kadai.Add the crushed ingredients along with chopped onions,green chillies ,ginger-garlic paste and saute till the raw smell goes off.
• Add chopped tomatoes and saute for 3 min .Add the methi leaves sand saute again for 2 min.
• Add turmeric powder,salt,rajma,garam masala and saute for another 2 min.
• Add the rice and saute till it becomes slightly dry.
• Switch off the flame .Add 2 cups of stock (diluted with water if needed )
• Mix well and add the ingredients into a rice cooker .
• Cook and garnish with chopped coriander leaves.

Serve hot with raita and papad.

Aloo pudina

This recipe serves two.

Ingredients:

=========

• Potatoes - 4 medium sized
• Oil - 1 tbsp
• Cumin seeds/jeera - 1 tsp
• Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
• Turmeric powder - a pinch
• Salt - to taste
• Coriander powder - 2 tsp
• Red chilli powder - 1 tsp
• garam masala powder - 1 tsp
• lemon - 1/2 a lemon
• Mint leaves - 2 bunches

Method:

======

• Wash and pressure cook the potatoes ( Just 2 whistles will do)
• Peel off the skin and chop into cubes.
• Add oil in a non - stick kadai and add jeera,mustard seeds.
• When it splutters add the potato slices along with turmeric powder,red chilli,garam masala and coriander powder.
• Mix well and cook covered for 5 min till the masala gets mixed well with the slices.
• Open the lid and cook on a low flame till it gets roasted slightly.
• 
  
• Separate the mint leaves and wash well.
• Add the pudina leaves into the kadai.
• Keep mixing for 3 to 5 min till the mint leaves turn light black.
• Switch off the flame and squeeze lemon juice (as per your taste ).

Serve hot with rotis.