Crunchy evening snack

I dont make deep fried snacks often and my first kiddo was asking me for Karthigai vadai one evening. It was quite late in the evening, so i didnt want to make it. But, since my kids rarely ask for something, i made this, as this is quick to put together. They both loved it.  My cousin Aruna used to make this. She used to make this with wheat flour. I added besan (chick pea flour) for some extra protein. I dont know if it really matters when it comes to deep fried snacks, but i try :)


Ingredients :

Whole wheat flour - 1 cup
Besan / Chickpea flour - 1/2 cup
Red chilli powder - 1 tsp
Salt to taste
Hing
Turmeric powder (optional)
Curry leaves (optional)

Method :

Mix all the ingredients well. Add water little by little and keep kneading till you get a pliable dough.
Divide them into small  pieces and roll them into rotis. Now poke them with fork so they dont puff up when you deep fry. Cut them into small pieces and deep fry.

Curry leaves and/or chopped methi leaves/spinach can be added to the dough.

Healthy Masala Peanuts (Microwave)

This recipe is adapted from Mallika Badrinath's microwave recipes book. My husband and my mil both love this. As it is low fat and rich in protein, i make it often as evening snack.




Roasted unsalted peanuts - 1 cup

Besan / Chickpea flour - 4 spoons

Redchilli powder - 1 spoon

Salt to taste

Hing - a pinch

Oil - 2 spoons

Water - few spoons

In a ceramic bowl, heat a spoon of oil in microwave for a minute. Add the roasted peanuts and heat it again for a minute or two. Make sure it is not burnt. Add besan, redchilli powder, salt, hing, another spoon of oil and mix well. Sprinkle some water to make sure the peanuts are coated well with this besan mix. Heat them in microwave till they are crispy. Heat in small intervals to cook them uniformly. Stir occasionally. Enjoy with a hot cup of tea :)

Crackling Spinach - A Healthy snack / starter

First of all, i wish you all a very happy and prosperous new year! I know it's a little late, but i had so much to catch up both at work and home after a week long vacation towards the end of last year.


I thought i will post a healthy recipe for a good start :) I hope 2011 is not as bad as 2010 and i get to post more recipes this year. I saw this recipe in Pari's blog and wanted to try it immediately. It just looked way too tempting :) One catch was, it was deep fried. I thought of trying a low fat version and it came out really well. I just toasted the spinach on an electric griddle till it was dry and crunchy and it was really very tasty and crunchy. I can imagine how much tastier the original deep fried version would be. I will try it some day, but not in winter :)





Ingredients :


Baby Spinach - about 40-50 leaves
Sesame seeds - 1 tbsp
Red chilli powder - couple of pinches (as desired)
Salt to taste
Rice flour - 1 spoon



Method :

Wash the baby spinach and pat them dry with a paper towel. Cut into thin strips. Mix the rice flour. The original recipe called for corn flour and i substituted with rice flour as i didnt have corn flour. Heat the griddle at 400F and spread the spinach on it. Let it toast till they are dry and crinkly. Toss in between once or twice. Note that the quantity will reduce almost into half on heating. :-(





Once they are dry and crinkly remove them and keep aside in a plate. Do not cover. Now heat a small pan with a spoon of oil (Sesame oil will be good). Add sesame seeds and red chilli powder and cook for a minute. Add the dry spinach mix and salt and toss well for few seconds. It was awesome. My kids asked for more when it was done. Need i say more? :)

Mango oatmeal aval upma / Mango oatmeal poha

Ingredients :

Poha / Aval (thick that doesn't need soaking) - 1 cup
Oatmeal - 1/2 cup (optional)
Raw mango - 1 (chopped into small pieces. Reduce the qty if it is very sour)
Green chillies - 4
Roasted peanuts - handful
Salt to taste
Mustard seeds, urad daal and channa daal for seasoning
Hing - a pinch
turmeric powder - 1/4 spoon
Curry leaves and Cilantro (Optional)

Method :

Wash the aval / poha in water and keep it aside. Heat little oil in the pan and pop mustard seeds. Add hing, turmeric powder, urad daal, channa daal, green chillies, peanuts and curry leaves and fry till the daals are golden brown.  Add the chopped mango pieces and saute till they are cooked. Add water if required. Add the wet poha and the dry oatmeal. Add salt and sprinkle some water. Sprinkling water helps in cooking the oatmeal and prevents it from becoming mushy. Garnish with cilantro.

Note : I had given an alternate email id for the feedburner and i had not checked it in a while. I just saw that there are recipe requests and wishes from some of my readers in that email id. Thanks for all the wishes and i will try to get to the recipe requests as well. Sorry for not responding earlier.

Vegan Banana Nut Muffin

 I haven't tried a whole lot of baking from the scratch. One day my little one was bothering my first son when he was doing his homework and my husband was on the phone, so to distract him i told him let's make muffins together as he loves muffins. So, he was my little helper and my first son got some peace and quiet :) We both(?!) made this muffin together. To start with i dont buy eggs and since i dont bake, i didnt have a whole lot of ingredients with me either, so i decided to make banana muffins since we always have bananas at home. I digged in my recipe collection and found a small paper with all the ingredients i normally have, but the note didn't have any measurements. Great! I could've checked in the net, but i was just feeling lazy and decided to go with trial and error and it turned out really well. Now i know how our moms fix things with what they have :-)



 

Ingredients :

Ripe Bananas - 2
Sugar - 1/2 cup
All purpose flour - 1 cup (heaped)
Canola oil / Vegetable oil - 1/4 cup
Almonds (chopped or sliced) - as desired and it is optional
Baking soda - 1 spoon








Method :


Mash the bananas well with a fork. Add the sugar to this mashed banana and mix well. Now add the flour and baking soda and mix well. Add the almonds finally and mix. You can use walnuts also or you can avoid nuts. The muffin batter will be quite thick. I used canola oil since i didnt have vegetable oil and all the recipes i have seen have always mentioned vegetable oil, but this tasted good also. Now grease the muffin tin with oil or line it with cupcake liner and drop the batter in it. Dont fill it completely as it will raise. I filled only half and you can see how big the muffin is.

Heat the oven to 360F and bake the muffins for approximately 20 minutes. Insert a skewer to check if it is cooked inside. The above measurements yielded 8 delicious muffins.

I liked this recipe since it uses very few ingredients that we usually have at home and there is no butter :-) I had my doubts but it was super moist, soft and fluffy. I noted down the measurements immediately as this one's a keeper :-)

Next time, i am gonna try the same recipe with whole wheat pastry flour or 1/2 all purpose and 1/2 whole wheat flour.

Karthigai Vadai

My mil makes this vada for Karthigai (Festival of lights) every year. I was at my inlaws during the first Karthigai and i saw my mil and her sisters make this vada. It is a delicious combination of Medhu vada and Daal vada :-) When she was here last time i made it with her help and it was quite easy to make. So, i decided to follow the family tradition and do it from this Karthigai and it came out very well. My husband and my boys loved it and i hope you like it too :)

Ingredients



Urad daal 1.5 cups

Channa daal 0.5 cup

Red chillies 6

Hing 1 small spoon

Curry leaves - a handful

Green chillies - 3 (optional)

Salt to taste

Cilantro - a handful (optional)



Method :



Soak 1/2 cup of urad daal and 1/2 cup of channa daal together in water for 1 hour. Remove the water and let the daal dry in a clean, dry cloth or paper towel. Now, soak the 1 cup urad daal for 1 or 2 hours. Grind the urad daal with redchillies and little water. If you are going to add green chillies later, reduce the redchillies. 3 or 4 should do. Grindt to the consistency of medu vada batter. To this batter, add salt and add the dried daal mix, chopped green chillies, curry leaves and cilantro and mix well.

Take a pan and heat oil for deep frying. Shape the batter into vadas and deep fry till golden brown. The addition of the daal mix makes it very delicious. Perfect with hot tea on a cold rainy day :)

Healthy spicy roti with added Protein

Hi everyone!! Hope you still remember this almost abandoned blog. I keep thinking that i should start blogging regularly, but never happens. With all the things going on right now, the blog takes the backseat as always. We have relocated and the commute to work has increased. So, i'm trying to get used to the new routine, new place, etc. End of march, i travelled to London and Chennai to visit family and on the way back i got my mom with me. The last two times my mom came here was when i had my boys and it was hectic for her taking care of us and also the kitchen .This time i thought i should not let her enter the kitchen, but work got way too hectic and i had some issues with my hand and as usual, she ended up taking care of me (us). I could only make something for her once in a while. One day, i made this spicy roti, which was already tried and tested before she came. She loved it. I hope you all like it too.


Ingredients :
Wheat flour : 2 cups
Besan + Oatmeal : 1 cup
Salt to taste
Red chilli powder : 1 spoon
Onion - 1 large (finely chopped)
Spinach/Methi leaves - 1 small bunch (finelly chopped)
Water : as required
Turmeric powder - few pinches (optional)

Method : Mix all the ingredients except water and set it aside for few minutes. Add water little by little and make it into a pliable dough. Cover it and keep it aside for 1 hour. Divide the dough into small discs/ balls and pat them in wheat flour and roll them into thick rotis. Cook it in a hot tawa for approximately 30 seconds. Flip and apply few drops of oil. Cook for another 45 secs to 1 min - basically it should be cooked well and golden brown. Flip again and apply oil on the other side. Both sides should be golden brown.

Tastes good with just yogurt and pickle, if you dont have time to prepare any gravy :)

Back after a long break with a recipe : Black eyed peas gravy

Hi everyone! Sorry for disappearing for a long time. Things got very hectic and i could not find time to update the blog or check other blogs. Inspite of this, it was nice to stay in touch with most of you all through mails and FB :-) It is going to be hectic for atleast one more month as we are moving to another house and you know how it goes with a move. I didnt want all of you to think i have abandoned this blog and thought of doing a quick post. My friend G taught me this recipe and we all love it. It goes well with both Rotis and Rice.

Black-eyed peas gravy :

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

Ingredients :

Black eyed peas - 1 pack (frozen) (I think it is approximately 1 lb)

tomatos - 2

Onion - 2

red chillies - 5

dhaniya / coriander seeds - 1 spoon

grated coconut - 3 spoons

Salt to taste

Cilantro - to garnish

Method :

Grind dhaniya, redchillies and coconut with little water and keep aside.

Pressure cook the black eyed peas.

Cut onion and saute in little oil and when it is translucent, add chopped tomatoes and saute till the tomatos are well cooked. Now add the cooked black eyed peas and the paste. Add salt and little water and cook till the raw smell disappears. Garnish with cilantro.

I shared this recipe with my mom and she tried it and loved it :)

Idli made healthier!

I read somewhere that idli is one of the top ten healthy breakfasts in the world. I decided to make it healthier by replacing a part of the rice with oats and after few experiments i found out that 1/3rd of rice replaced with oats produces almost the same result. You can taste the oats and if you dont like oats you may not like this. It is soft and fluffy, but regular idlis are fluffier and whiter. That's something i can live with :)

Ingredients :
Parboiled rice (Idli rice) - 2 cups
Urad daal - 1 cup
Methi seeds 1 spoon
Salt to taste
Water
Oats - 1 cup

Method :

Soak Rice and urad daal + methi separately for 6-8 hours. Just 15 minutes before grinding it, soak the oats in just enough water to cover it. Grind the urad daal + methi first till you get a fluffy batter. Remove it from the grinder / mixer. Add rice and the soaked oats and add enough water and grind it well. Mix this with urad daal batter and add salt and mix well. The batter should not be too thin. It should be little thick. Let it ferment overnight.

Apply few drops of oil in the idli moulds and steam it for 15-20 mins in the idli cooker.

To check whether it is done, insert a fork. It should come out clean.

Note : Depending on the brand of rice and urad daal use the quantity may differ. Use the rice and oats in 3:1 proportion. After couple of days, you can use the same batter to make dosas and with added oats you get golden brown, crisp dosas To make dosas, add little water to the batter to make it slightly . I forgot to take pictures of the dosa.

Onion Methi Pakora

I saw this in t.v. The chef said it was chennai style pakoras, so i had to try that immediately :) I modified the original recipe with whatever ingredients i had with me at that time. It was good and i never tried the original recipe after that. The original recipe had a mashed potato and cilantro in it. I substituted cilantro with methi leaves as i love the slight bitterness it gives and i skipped potato.


Ingredients :

Onion - 1 large
Methi - 1 small bunch
Turmeric powder - 1/2 spoon
Hing - 1/2 spoon
Red chilly powder - 1 spoon
Besan -1/2 cup
Rice flour - 1 cup
Water - 1/4 cup
Ghee - 1 spoon
Oil to deep fry

Method :

Finely chop onions and methi leaves. Mix salt, chilli powder and hing and set it aside for few minutes. Meanwhile, heat the oil for deepfrying. When it is ready, add the besan and rice flour to the onion methi mix. Add the ghee and sprinkle the water and mix them well. I used little water (about 1/4 cup only) and the mix was just damp and crumbly. Now drop small pieces of the mix into oil and fry till they are golden brown. It was really too good :)

Enjoy with a cup of tea on a rainy day!

Crispy Cornmeal Dosa

First of all, i want to thank all the readers for your comments and i apologize for not stopping by your blogs. It is little hectic now and will continue to be hectic till april end and i'm hoping i'll get more time after that. I don't miss your recipes though, thanks to google reader :)

Here is something that i tried recently and was fairly easy and approved by my kids as well.
Since it was my first time i did not add any vegetables in it as i did not know what to expect.


Ingredients :

Corn Rava (Cornmeal) - 1 cup
Riceflour - 1/2 cup
Buttermilk - 1 cup
green chillies - 3 (finely chopped) - optional
Salt to taste
Cumin seeds - 1 spoon
Water - as required

Method :

Mix all the ingredients and set it aside for a minimum of 1 hour.
The batter should be of rava dosa consistency. Watery.
Heat (non stick) tawa. Keep the stove between med high and high. Stir the batter and start spreading the batter from outside. (Opposite to how you make regular dosa).Since it's a bit watery, the batter will start running towards the center forming polka dot holes. If this does not happen, your batter is thick and you need to add more water. Spread little oil on the dosa and wait till the wet batter look disappears and flip the dosa and cook it for another minute or so.
Unlike rava dosa, the dosa gets thicker in the center, but it is still crisp like rava dosa, but not as thin as it. Adjust the heat while cooking to get the golden yellow colour consistently and also stir the batter before you make each dosa.

See how crispy it is? :)

It is heavier than Rava dosa and takes little more time than it.

Tastes good with chilli powder or chutney.

Moongdaal sambar

Moongdal is easy to digest and my first son likes it better than toor dal. Lemon rasam is his favorite. I tried this sambar once and he kept asking for more. It tasted great with idlis and tastes equally good with rice too. Since it is quite easy it has become a regular at our place now.

Ingredients :
Moongdaal - 1 cup
Onion - 1 medium
Tomatos - 2 medium
Salt
Green chillies - 4
Sambar powder - 1/2 spoon
Mustard seeds, hing and curry leaves for seasoning
Cilantro for garnishing
Tamarind paste - 1/2 spoon (optional)

Method :

Pressure cook moongdaal with chopped tomatoes.Heat little oil in pan, add mustard seed, hing and curry leaves. Once the mustard seeds pop add green chillies and saute for a min.Add onions and saute till they are translucent. Add the cooked daal, sambar powder and salt. Add tamarind paste if you want to have it with rice. Let it boil till the raw smell of sambar powder disappears.

Tastes good with Idli, Dosa and Pongal

Jangri / Imarti

Hello all! I am back after a nice vacation. We went to Orlando for a week and it was a good break for me. This was my little one's first trip to orlando and he has been chanting shamu and mickey's names even in his sleep :)

Anyways, i am back with my favorite sweet Jangri or Jaangiri also known as Imarti in north india.

Jangri is a family favorite, but i did not know we could make those at home. They look complicated, dont you think? One of my friends shared jangri recipe couple of years back and that was the first time i came to know that it was made out of urad daal. Somehow seeing urad daal as the main ingredient made it less appealing as i could not associate it with a sweet. So i decided not to try it ever until i saw this. Raji's recipes remind me of my mom's cooking all the time and i'm a big fan of her blog. When i saw jangris there, I just could not resist and i wanted to give it a try. I made these for our wedding anniversary. Since it's a family fav,everyone was happy. I need to work on the shapes though.

I made only minor changes to the original recipe.

Ingredients :

Urad daal : 1/2 cup

Sugar : 3/4Cup

Cardamom powder - 1/2 spoon

Saffron - a pinch

Orange food colour - 1/2 spoon.

Method :

Soak urad daal for couple of hours and grind it with little water. It should be of vada batter consistency and fluffy. Mix orange food colour and keep aside. Heat sugar with water just enough to cover it. Heat it just till it boils. I tried boiling more and once it cooled down, it became hard and i had to redo to get the sugar syrup. I made the sugar syrup similar to the syrup we make for gulab jamuns. I didn't go with any string consistencies. Now heat oil for deep frying. Take a ziploc bag and poke a small hole (depending on the thickness u want). Take the batter in ziploc and squeeze them slowly in the oil. Keep the heat between medium low and medium. Once the jangri is fried, drain it and add it in the sugar syrup immediately. Let it soak for a minute or little more than that. Remove and spread it in a plate.

Enjoy for now and worry later about the calories ;-)

Microwave Milk Peda

Hope you all had a wonderful Diwali!

I made these pedas and i took the recipe from Lazzat and it was easy and yummy. I followed the recipe with very slight moderation.


Ingredients:
Milk powder - 2 cups
Sweetened condensed milk - 1 can (14oz)
Butter - 3 spoons
Cardamom powder - 2,3 pinches
Saffron - few strings
Unsalted Roasted Nuts (of your choice) - to garnish.

Method : Take the butter in a microwave safe bowl and melt it for a minute. Add the milk powder, condensed milk, cardamom powder and crushed saffron and mix well. Heat in the microwave for approximately 5 minutes stirring every minute. You should heat it till you get a slightly crumbly texture as it will harden up little more when it cools down. Let it cool.

Apply some ghee to your palms and roll them and flatten them. Garnish with nuts.

I did not have the patience to wait till it cooled down so i could not get the perfect shape :-( Also, it tasted great but i could still smell the milk powder slightly, probably because i used a different brand this time as i did not find Nestle milk powder. That didn't stop me from eating them though :-)

Along with this i made Ribbon Pakoda and Channa daal payasam for diwali, but i dont have a good pic of ribbon. Will post the payasam soon.

Sending this to Sweet Series

Mani Kozhakkatai / Ammini Kozhakkatai

Lot of people call this Ammani kozhakkatai and i find that name funny, so i will stick to what we call it at home. Mani means beads and they kinda looks like beads and my grandpa's nickname was mani, so i like it this way :-) This is my favorite snack and it's healthy too.

My grandma and mom used to make it with remaining dough after making Modakams and Uppu Kozhakkatai for Vinayaka Chaturthi. It was my favorite so i used to ask my grandma to make it frequently for us as evening snack and i used to help her in rolling those mani kozhakkatais. When i shared my memory with my first son, he got all excited and said he wants to roll it too and he helped me with it. With that, we also invited some trouble. My little one wanted to join the fun and as we were rolling the kozhakkatais, he was busy squashing them and making them flat. We still managed to make a decent no. of kozhakkatais and both my boys loved it. I have decided to make it often as evening snacks for them.

For the dough :
Rice flour - 1 cup
Water - 1 cup
Salt - as required
Red chilli powder - 1 spoon (optional)
Oil - 1 spoon
To grind :
Urad daal - 1/2 cup
Green chillies - 3
Hing - a pinch
For the seasoning :
Mustard seeds, hing, urad daal and curry leaves.

Method :

Dough :
Boil water. Reduce the heat and add the rice flour, salt and oil and stir till you get the dough like consistency. Remove from heat, cover and let it cool. Apply oil to your hands, add the redchilli powder and knead well. Now roll the dough into small balls. Steam them in Idly cooker or Pressure cooker without the weight for 7-10 minutes.
For Mani kozhakkatais,
Soak urad daal for about an hour. Grind it into thick paste with greenchillies and hing.
Place this paste in idli plates and steam for 10 minutes. Once it cools, crumble it.
Heat little oil, add mustard seeds, curry leaves and hing. Once the mustard seeds pop, add a spoon of urad daal and fry till golden brown and add the crumbled urad daal mix and salt and saute for couple of minutes or till well cooked. I like it when they are brown and have the roasted look and cook till i get that. Add the mani kozhakkatais and mix well and cook for another minute or two. This was an instant hit with my kids.

Sending this to Srivalli's Kid's Delight

Navarathri Wishes and Sundal Recipes

Happy Navarathri to y'all. I am so surprised that i'm posting this on time ;-)
Ok ok let me tell you the truth...these recipes were in my draft since last navarathri!! :-O
Better late than never..

Navarathri always brings some good memories. My dad's house they did not have golu so my mom followed that and did not keep Golu till my niece was born :-) For those who do not know what a Golu is, check this link. This 3D Golu is something new. Usually it is just 2D. My mil keeps Golu every year, so i follow that tradition and keep a teeny tiny Golu here. I dont have any golu dolls here and i just use the ones i have and set up a small golu.


My childhood friend R lived across our house and they celebrated Navarathri in a grand way. She used to wear Pattu pavadai everyday and her mom dressed her li'l sister as Krishna, Radha etc., everyday. I came home one day and threw a huge fit that we should have golu at our house too and i want to wear Pattu pavadai (Full skirt in pure silk) everyday too. My mom and grandma were surprised because i never liked pavadais. The next year they setup Golu at our house too and i was quite happy and satisfied and didn't care to ask after that. We never continued that tradition though due to one reason or the other.At our house, we celebrated Saraswathy pooja in a grand way. I always got some new outfit for Saraswathy pooja and my mom would decorate a arisi padi like a woman. She had nose and ears made out of wax and she would attach it every year to the padi and draw eyes with kajal and draw lips (not sure if she used lipstick or kumkum) and then fill the padi with rice and keep coconut on top of it like head and decorate it with chutti. I loved watching that. She had earrings attached to the wax ears and would put some necklace or chain too. It was a pretty sight. She used to invite all our relatives and neighbours for tambulam. It is a tradition in tamilnadu, to ask the guests to sing during navarathri. It can be an enjoyable experience or a torture depending on who sings ;-) My brother always stayed out of it... Me and my cousin V (who is a great singer) always made the best out of it..If it was good, we enjoyed it and if it was bad, it was no torture for us..we both would run to the next room and giggle to our hearts' content, much to the annoyance of my mom and grandma :D But, what we hated was, every house we visited they would make sure to take revenge on us and asked us to sing too. I was not as good at singing as my cousin,but i did pretty good when i sang with him. So, i hope no one ran inside and laughed at us :-) My cousin used to hate me for this for years because i always used to force him to go with me as i was scared to sing alone :) You can check out how talented he is here

Along with these things, navarathri always meant sundal. Sundal is a healthy snack for kids, rich in protein and very filling.I make it quite often at home. Here are three sundals and all sundals are made pretty much the same way except one that is sweet and i cannot stand it and i have never made it.. :-)

Here are some recipes with slight variations :
Quick fix Sundal :
If i forget to soak for sundal the previous night channa daal or peanuts come to my rescue. I prepare both sundals the same way.

Ingredients :
Channa daal or Peanuts - 1 cup
Green chillies - 3 or 4
Salt
Mustard seeds,
Urad daal, Curry leaves and Hing for seasoning

Method : Soak channa daal or peanuts for 1 hour. Boil it in water till it is cooked but not mushy. (Add salt in water for Peanuts)Drain the water. In a pan, heat little oil and pop mustard seeds. Add urad daal, hing and curry leaves and fry till the daal is golden brown. Add the cooked channa or Peanuts and add salt as required and saute for couple of minutes.

Thenga Manga Pattani Sundal or Marina Beach Sundal:

I love peas sundal, the Marina beach style - with coconut and raw mango pieces.
Ingredients :
Peas - 1 cup
Green chillies - 3 or 4
SaltRaw mango pieces - as required
Grated coconut - 4 spoons.
Mustard seeds, Urad daal, Curry leaves and Hing for seasoning

Method : Soak the peas overnight. Add a spoon of salt in water and boil the peas in water till it is cooked but not mushy. Drain the water. In a pan, heat little oil and pop mustard seeds. Add urad daal, hing and curry leaves and fry till the daal is golden brown. Add the cooked Peas and add salt as required and saute for couple of minutes. Add grated coconut and raw mango pieces and mix well and saute for another minute.

(Channa) Chickpeas Sundal - Method 1 :

Method 1 is same method as above. Substitute Peas with Channa, but you can pressure cook the channa in salted water.Rest is the same. You can add some grated coconut. It is optional.

Chickpeas Sundal - Method 2 :

Ingredients : Chickpeas - 1 cup

Green chillies - 3 or 4

Salt

Curry powder - 2 spoons

Mustard seeds,

Urad daal,

Curry leaves and Hing for seasoning

Method : Soak the chickpeas overnight. Add a spoon of salt in water and pressure cook the chickpeas. Drain the water. In a pan, heat little oil and pop mustard seeds. Add urad daal, hing and curry leaves and fry till the daal is golden brown. Add the cooked chickpeas and add salt as required and saute for couple of minutes. Add 2 spoons of curry powder and saute till the raw smell disappears. This is very spicy and yum and my favorite version :)

I am back with Oats Rava Idli

Hello everyone!! Sorry for disappearing all of a sudden. I was not planning to take a break and was thinking of blogging atleast once a week, but i just could not squeeze in any time. Usually when i take a break from blogging, i used to blog hop atleast, but i could not spend a minute on blogging or blog hopping. I really missed a lot of yummy recipes, yummy events and so on.
I hope i can get back to blogging (and blog hopping) now..atleast once a week.

Some of you have given me some wonderful awards and i truly apologize for not acknowledging them here. I am sure it's gonna take me some time to recollect all of them. I feel little lost now.

Hope you all are doing good and thanks for those who were checking on me. I will start visiting your blogs regularly too.
I thought i will start with a healthy, tasty recipe...

Oats Rava Idly :
Toasted Oats - 1 cup
Rava (Sooji) - 1 cup
Yogurt - 1 cup
Water - as required
Salt - as required
Mustard seeds, urad daal, channa daal, hing for seasoning
Eno salt - 2 spoons


Method :
Dry grind toasted oats.
Mix it with rava, salt and yogurt.
Add water as required. The consistency of the batter should be similar to idly batter.
Let it sit for an hour.
In a pan, heat little oil and pop mustard seeds.
Add urad daal, channa daal (Approx 1 spoon each) and hing and fry till they are golden brown.
Add to the batter.
Add 2 spoons of eno salt and sprinkle some water and mix well.
The batter will raise and look like fermented idli batter.
Pour them in idli plates and steam them for 15 minutes.
When you insert a skewer, it should come clean.

Tastes yum with chutney and/or moongdaal sambar.

I have included a closeup photo of the idlies to show how soft and fluffy they are.

They tasted very good too. I liked them better than the regular rava idlis and my kids loved them too.

Puli Sevai / Tangy Tamarind Rice Noodles

Hi everyone, I am back (kind of!). For those who sent me mail or left scrap wondering where the heck i was, i am here and alive :-) Thank you for checking on me. It was way too hectic in may, both at work and at home. I keep checking on all your recipes in my reader whenever i get a chance, but i could not leave any comments nor could i post anything in my own blog. I usually blog or blog-hop after my kids goto sleep. I could not do it as i was extremely tired and i tried to post something few times before their bedtime, but everytime my little one sees me in front of the pc, he squeezes himself between me and the pc and asks for hai potayo (Wiggles Hot Potato) or the big comfy couch and both the songs keep ringing in my ears all day that i am scared i might sing it out loud at work one day!! :D

I will be out next week, so no blogging or blog-hopping again for another week. Are you thinking i'm nuts for coming out of a break to say i'll be taking another break? :-) But, before i go into the silent mode again, i'll post a yummy, quick and easy recipe..

Ingredients :

Instant Sevai Mix or Rice noodles - 250 gms (I always use 777 brand)

Red chillies - 3

Tamarind paste - 1/2 spoon

Turmeric powder - a pinch or two

Mustard seeds, Urad daal, Channa daal, Curry leaves and Hing for seasoning

Salt to taste

A handful of roasted peanuts and Cilantro - for garnishing

Method :

Boil water in a large pan. Add the Instant sevai or Rice noodles in the boiling water and let it sit for 5 minutes. Drain the water and chop the noodles with kitchen scissors. In a pan heat little oil, pop mustard seeds, add turmeric powder, urad daal, channa daal, chillies, curry leaves and fry till the daals are golden brown. Add some water (approx. quarter cup) to the tamarind paste, dilute it and add this tamarind water let it boil till the raw smell goes and it thickens. Now, turn off the stove and Add the boiled noodles and salt. Mix well. Garnish with cilantro and roasted peanuts.

Sending this to MM:Ravishing Rice hosted by Nags and started by Meeta.

See you all soon!