Tawa Pulao

Ingredients
Cooked Rice -11/2cups
Cubed Veggies -1 cup (I have used a carrot, 5 beans,few cauliflower florets, few pieces of capsicums and a fist full of frozen peas.)
Tomato -1
Turmeric powder-1/4teaspoon
Cumin Seeds- 1teaspoon
Chilli powder- 1 teaspoon
Pav-bhaji Masala - 2 teaspoons
Lemon juice - 1 tablespoon
Cilantro leaves to Garnish
Oil
Salt

Method
Wash and cube the veggies into uniform chunks.
Chop the tomato into fine pieces.
Sprinkle some water and microwave the Carrot-beans-peas for 2 minutes.

Heat oil in a kadai and roast the cauliflower..once it roasted, add the boiled veggies and stir fry them for 2 minutes and keep them aside. (No need to cook the capsicum)
Add some more oil in the same Kadai, and add the cumin seeds. Once they splutter, add the tomato and cook till it becomes mushy.
Now add turmeric powder,chilli powder,pav-bhaji masala, salt and cooked veggies with 2-3 tablespoons of water. Make sure that the flame is high.
Cook till the raw smell of the masala powders are gone (say 2 minutes) and add the cooked rice.Mix everything well and cook for a minutes. Garnish with cilantro, put off the stove. squeeze the lemon juice and serve hot with any raitha.

Yummy Tawa pulao is ready! Its a great make over for the left over rice.

We had it with Cucumber-onion raitha..

While returning from India in last Sep. we had a transit @ Mumbai airport. Enjoyed this Tawa pulao and Paneer curry at the airport!
We were in the waiting hall with our luggages and one chai-wala asked us about the dinner plan and he delivered this yummy food from the canteen!
Papad,onion wedges,pulao,curry everything was packed neatly and delivered with plates and spoons! We enjoyed the dinner fuss free! Mumbaikar rocks! :) :)

Puff Pastry Biscuits

Puff pastry is very versatile for a quick n yummy evening snack..when you feel like want to eat something quick, without doing much work, then these biscuits are the best choice! ;)

Ingredients
Puff pastry sheet -1
Milk-1tablespoon
Sugar -1 teaspoon

Method
Thaw the pastry sheets, roll them slightly with a rolling pin, cut into desired shapes.

Mix sugar and milk in a small bowl.

Prick holes with a fork evenly on the pastry sheet and brush the milk on the pastry sheets.

Arrange them on a lined baking tray..

Pre heat the oven on 4ooF, bake the biscuits for 15 minutes. (if you use small amount of pastry sheet, the time may be less than 10 minutes, so check them after 7 minutes)

Thats it..Hot n fluffy evening snack is ready! :)

Enjoy them as such or with tomato ketch-up or hot n sweet chilly sauce! :P :P

Tomato Chutney / Thakkali Thokku

For the past few weeks, I am getting fresh roma tomatoes in my veggie market. Tomatoes are so fresh n juicy. The bright red tomatoes are perfect for this tomato thokku, which is a universal side dish for most of the Indian foods! :)
Ingredients

Tomatoes - 8

Onion(big)- 1 [roughly more than 1/2cup of chopped onion]

Green chilly-1

Mustard seeds-1teaspoon

Cumin seeds -1teaspoon

Chilli powder-2teaspoons(adjust according to your taste)

Turmeric powder-1/4teaspoon

Sugar-1teaspoon
Oil- 2-3 tablespoons

Few curry leaves and Cilantro

Salt

Method

Chop the onions,tomatoes, green chilly into fine pieces.

Heat oil in a kadai, add mustard seeds..once they crackle,add cumin seeds and let them crackle.

Now add the onion-green chilly- curry leaves, fry till the onions become transparent.

Add in the chopped tomato pieces, turmeric powder & salt.[Don't add water, let it cook with the juice from the tomatoes.]

Cook till the tomatoes become mushy..add the chilli powder and reduce the heat to medium low..

Cook the mixture by sprinkling few teaspoons of oil and stirring in between for 15-20 minutes or till the oil oozes out.

Finally add the sugar and chopped cilantro and put off the flame. Let it cool completely and transfer it into a dry glass container.

This tomato thokku keeps well for 2-3 days in room temperature. You can store it in refrigerator for up to one or two weeks. Always use dry spoons to take the thokku.

You can have it with pretty much all kinds of Indian main course food! In short, its a side dish for all the items under my "Tiffin" label! :)

For example, it can be enjoyed as a side dish for Idli/dosa/Pongal/Upma/Rava Kichadi/Dhokla/Vegetable Idiyappam..what not?!.. :)

Also, it can be mixed with plain rice and instant Tomato rice is ready! You can have it with roti's and parathas..or enjoy it as a pickle with curd rice.

Just one reminder, adjust the chilli powder according to your taste buds! :P

Laddu

This recipe is the same as Motichoor laddu, which was posted during the Diwali time. This time I added yellow colour instead of orange! Thats the only difference. Also I didn't add baking soda.

Ingredients
Besan/Kadalai maavu -1 cup
Elaichi-2
Water -1/2 cup to 3/4cup
Rice flour -1tablespoon
Sugar- 1cup
Water- 1cup
Yellow food colour- few drops
Oil
To roast separately..
Ghee-1tablespoon
Cahsew-10
Raisins-10
Cloves-3
Sugar cany-1tablespoon

Method
Add sugar and water in a pan, heat till the sugar gets dissolved and you get sticking consistency.

Fry the cashews-raisins and cloves in ghee and keep aside.

Combine the flours with water and make a batter without any lumps. Add the food colour and mix well.

Heat oil on medium heat, pour the batter over the boondhi laddle and the tiny boondhi's will start falling. [Tap the laddle gently if needed].

Take out the boondhi once the oil stops sizzling.It takes only a few seconds. If you fry them for more than the required time, you will end up making hard boondhis which wont soak in the syrup.

So,be careful and take them out in 10-15 seconds. Drain the excess oil in a paper towel, continue the process and finish off the batter.

Take boondhi's in a wide bowl,add the crushed elaichi powder, fried items, sugar candy with the hot sugar syrup and keep it for 45 minutes to 1 hour.

Take little soaked boondhi and make the laddus.[you can apply little ghee on the palm.]

Try to mash the boondhis gently while making the laddos. Don't worry if you are not able to make the correct shapes initially, the shape can adjusted after an hour.

Arrange the laddu's in a wide plate, cover the plate loosely and keep in an airy place for couple of hours. Yummy laddu's are ready to relish! keep it an airtight container @ room temperature for 3-4days or refrigerate it up to one week[if possible! ;)]

I got tempted after seeing the post at Rathai's blog. At last I finished making them, and it turned out to be one of our friend(cum neighbour)'s Birthday! What a sweet co-incidence?! :) I wished her with this sweet laddu! We all enjoyed the laddus with the B'day cake! :P

Here is a piece of her home made Black forest cake!

Keerai vadai / Vada with Drumstick leaves

Ingredients
Split yellow peas/Mattar ki dal/ Pattaani paruppu-1 cup
Ginger- 2" piece
Garlic-2 cloves
Fennel Seeds-1 teaspoon
Green chilly-2
Onion-1 (or)Shallots-15
Drumstick leaves(washed and cleaned)~~1/2cup
Salt
Oil

Method
Wash and soak the dal for 2 hours.
Drain the water, keep a fist full of dal aside.
Take the remaining dal with ginger-garlic-green chillies and grind it to a coarse paste (without adding water).
Chop the onion and drumstick leaves finely.

Combine the onion,fennel seeds, drumstick leaves, whole dal kept aside, enough salt with the ground dal mix everything together.

Heat Oil in a kadai. Make small balls out of the vada mixture, flatten each ball slightly with your palm, and drop carefully into the hot oil.

Fry the vadas till they become golden colour on both the sides. Take them out and drain the excess oil on a paper towel. Enjoy it with a hot cup of tea!

This post was lying in my drafts for a long time..During my last visit to India, I prepared this. As it was raining the other day, it was chill and everybody wanted to munch something..our neighbours made Bonda and we made Vada. Everybody enjoyed both the snacks with garam garam chai! :)))))

Pongal kuzhambu/ 7 kaai kuzhambu/ Kadamba sambar

Ingredients
Cubed Veggies-11/2cups [I used a small piece of pumpkin,few beans, a small carrot, couple of broccoli florets, few leaves of cabbage, fist full of peas and a small potato]
Cooked n mashed thoor dhal - 1/4cup
Tamarind juice- 1/4cup
Turmeric powder-1/4teaspoon
Sugar-1/2teaspoon
Salt- to taste

To roast n grind
Cumin seeds-1teaspoon
Pepper corns-1teaspoon
Coriander seeds(Dania)-1teaspoon
Red chillies-3
Channa dhal-1teaspoon
Grated coconut-1tablespoon
For tempering
Oil-teaspoon
Mustard seeds-1/2teaspoon
Cumin seeds-1/2teaspoon
Few curry leaves
Method
1.Dry roast items given under "to roast n grind" table..

2. and grind it to a coarse powder.

3.Wash n cube the veggies into uniform cubes, cook them with enough water, turmeric powder and salt.
4.Add the tamarind juice when the veggies become tender.

5.Once the raw smell of the tamarind juice has gone, add the mashed dhal, adjust the salt, let it boil for a couple of minutes.

6.Add the roasted-ground masala, adjust the water to the desired consistency of the sambar, and let it boil for 5-6 minutes on medium heat.

7.Add 1/2teaspoon of the sugar and put off the flame.

8.Heat oil in a small pan, make the tempering with mustard -cumin seeds and curry leaves. Pour it over the sambar and serve.
This aromatic, spicy n yummy sambar tastes great with Plain Rice/Ven pongal/idli/Any kind of Dosa. We had it with Wheat flour dosa.

Ven Pongal & Vegetable Gotsu

Ingredients for Pongal
Raw rice (Basmati Rice(or)Sona masoori Rice) -3/4cup
Split moong dhal -1/4cup
Ghee-1tablespoon
Cashew - 7 pieces
Crushed cumin & pepper corns- 2 teaspoons
Green chilly-1
Few curry leaves
Hing -1/4 teaspoon
Salt
Water-2 1/2cup
Milk-1/2 cup

Method
Wash and soak the rice n dhal for 20 minutes.
Pressure cook it with water,milk and salt for 4-5 whistles and let it cool.
Chop the g.chilly and curry leaves into fine pieces.
Heat ghee in a small pan, once its hot, add the cashews let them fry for a minute. Then add the crushed pepper corn-cumin seed,followed by hing,green chillies and curry leaves.
Mix this with the pongal and serve hot with gotsu.
~~~
Ingredients for Gotsu
Small brinjals-2
Small potato-1
Small piece of Ridged gourd
Tomato-2
Tiny piece of tamarind (or) 1 teaspoon tamarind paste
Onion-1
Green chilly- 1
MDH Madras curry powder- 11/2 teaspoons (optional, otherwise increase the number of green chillies.)
Cumin seed-1teaspoon
Dania-1teaspoon
Turmeric powder-1/4teaspoon
Cilantro to garnish
Sugar-1/2teaspoon
Water-1/4cup or little more
Salt
Oil

Method
Chop the veggies,onion,tomato,g.chilly into big chunks.
Heat little oil in a pressure pan. Add the cumin and coriander(dania) seeds and let them splutter.
Now add the onion-g.chilly-tomato chunks and cook for a couple of minutes.

Then add the veggies with turmeric powder, curry powder,salt and sugar. Add the water, close the pressure pan and cook for 2-3 whistles.
Open the cooker after it cools down, mash the condense coarsely with masher and garnish with cilantro.
Enjoy with Pongal/Idli/Dosa.