Puliyodharai

Puliyodharai is one of the all time favorites of many food lovers. When I prepared this time, it was a big hit at home. My kid loved the dish very much.

Lets see how to prepare this dish.

Ingredients:

Tamarind - 1 big lemon sized ball

Fenugreek seeds - 1 tsp (max. of 10 to 15 count, adding more fenugreek gives a bitter taste)

Red chilli - 14

Asafoetida - a generous pinch

For seasoning:

Mustard - 1 tsp

Urud Dal - 2 tsp

Channa Dal - 2 tsp

Ground nut - 2 tsp

Preparation time: 1 hour

Servings: 4 Adults

Method:

Soak the tamarind ball in 1 to 1 1/2 cups of water overnight. 

Now, add little oil to a hot pan and roast the fenugreek seeds first. Just roast it for 2 to 3 minutes, make sure it is not roasted very dark. Keep it aside.

Add little more oil to the pan and add all the red chillies. If you are using asafoetida bar, add that also to the red chillies while roasting. Otherwise add it during seasoning.Roast the chillies in a way they are not roasted very deep. Keep it aside. 

Once cooled, grind together fenugreek seeds and chillies (and asafoetida if added)together in the mixie. Make it to a coarse paste. It need not be very soft like powder. Just make it to a coarse powder.

Now, take the tamarind extract from the soaked tamarind. In a heavy bottomed pan, add together tamarind extract and the ground mixture from the mixie. The tamarind extract can be little watery. When boiling, it will become thick.

During boiling, check for salt and chilli. The main rule in preparing puliyodharai mix is salt and chilli should be strikingly felt. If you still feel to have more flavor, add little chilli powder or salt  as per your taste. Add little oil to the mix when boiling. Allow the mix to boil until the tamarind extract becomes thick like chutney. If you take it with spoon, it should not flow like water. It should be thick.

In the mean time, add 3 to 4 tbsp of oil in a pan. Once oil is heated, add the mustard seeds. Once it splutters, add urud dal, channa dal, ground nut together and roast them together until they are golden brown. Take Care not to roast them until they become black in color. If you use asafoetida powder, add the large pinch of asafoetida to the seasoning and switch off the flame. Keep them aside. 

Dont mix the seasoned items to the tamarind extract. They will take the sour essence and you cant bite it when mixed with rice. When the tamarind extract becomes thick enough, switch off the flame. Puliyodharai mix is now ready

Prepare rice in the regular process, but make sure each grain of rice is separate. Dont boil it too much.

When the rice is still hot, transfer it to a big bowl. Add 3 to 4 tbsp of oil to the rice and wait for 2 minutes. Now add the puliyodharai mix and seasoned items together. Mix the rice and the mix together with a spatula. Make sure each grain of rice is mixed together with the puliyodharai paste. Check for salt. Add required salt as per your taste and mix it well. 

Allow it to cool for 30 minutes. Puliyodharai is now ready to be served.

Quinoa Pizza / Thinai Pizza

Among most of the precious super foods our ancestors gave us, one of the most important food we under-estimated and lost is Quinoa.

Quinoa is the world's most popular super food. It i s loaded with protein, fiber and plenty of minerals. Somehow we stopped adding this to our regular meal. I just gave a try to prepare a pizza with quinoa flour. To my surprise, the dish came out really well.

Lets see how to prepare this healthy quinoa pizza.

Ingredients:

For pizza base:
Quinoa / Quinoa Flour - 1 cup
Wheat flour - 1 cup
Curd - 500  ml
baking powder - 2 tbsp
Salt - As required.

For topping:
You can use any of these available items for topping. Any one or two items, or everything would be fine.
Garlic cloves  - 3
Olive oil - 3 tbsp
Bell Pepper - 1/2 cup finely chopped
Onion - 1/2 cup finely chopped
Cheese - 2 to 3 cups shredded
Olives - 7 - 8
Mushroom - 1/2 cup finely chopped lengthwise

Servings: 1 large pizza size

Cooking time: 45 mins

Preparation time: 20 mins

Method:

In case you have quinoa as a whole grain, dry roast quinoa in a heavy bottom pan for about 5 mins in medium flame. Take care not to burn the quinoa. Once it is cooled, grind it in the mixie to a fine powder. Sieve the flour to get the fine powder. In case you have quinoa flour, its fine to use it.

Take equal amounts of quinoa and wheat flour in a large pan. Add baking powder to the pan and mix it thoroughly with the flour. Now add curd to the flour and mix them in a way it is little watery and sticky than the normal roti dough.

If you prepare a thick and nice dough as we do for chapathi, pizza would be very hard. So let the dough be little loose, sticky and watery. Leave it for just 15 minutes.

In case you plan to use garlic, chop the cloves into very very small pieces and soak them in oil. Keep it aside.

Now preheat the oven to 350 degrees for 10 minutes. Take a large pizza pan and apply generous amount of oil to the surface to avoid sticking. In case you dont have a pizza pan, you can use iron dosa pan. I used the same.

Apply little oil in your hand and rub on both hands. Now take the dough with hand and try to spread it all over the pan evenly in the shape of pizza.

For topping, I first applied the garlic and oil on the base and spread all over the dough. Then added the shredded cheese. Then added onion, bell peppers, olives and mushroom. On top of everything, added a little of remaining cheese

Now get everything into the oven. It took almost 40 to 45 minutes for me to bake it. The pizza is now ready.

Baked Trout Fish in tomato base

This weekend, we tried a different type of fish recipe, baked whole fish. It turned out really well.
Let me share the recipe details.

Ingredients:

1 whole trout fish - cleaned
Onion - 1 large sized, cut lengthwise
Potato  - 1 medium sized
Olive oil - 5 - 6 tbsp

For Marination:
Onion powder - 2 tbsp
garlic powder - 2 tbsp
chilli powder - 1 tsp
Turmeric powder - 1 tbsp
Soy salt - 1/2 tsp
Salt - 1 tbsp
Basil pesto - 2 tbsp
Lemon - 1/2, medium sized

For Tomato Base:
Tomato - 3 medium sized
Pudina leaves - 10 count
Green chilli - 7-8

Preparation time: 1 1/2 hours

Method:

Mix together onion powder, garlic powder, chilli powder, turmeric powder, soy sauce and salt. Coat this mixture to outer layer of the fish.

Apply basil pesto to the inner portion of fish. Cut the lemon into small circular pieces and place it over the pesto. Make slits in the outer layer of the fish so that the flavor gets added inside the fish too. Let the fish marinate for half an hour.

Cut the whole potato into 8 pieces, add the onions too and toss it in oilive oil. Keep it aside.

In the mean time, grind together tomato, pudina leaves and green chilli together in the mixie and make it to a coarse paste.

Preheat the oven for 10 minutes in 350 degrees.

Now take the marinated fish, apply a little tomato base to the pan and place the fish. We added olives too.
                                  
Pour the remaining tomato base over the fish. Add the olive oil tossed potato and onion to the fish.

Set the temperature to 350 degrees and bake it for 1 hour.  The fish is now ready.

This can be taken along with cheese pasta, rotis or tortillas.

Instant Rasam

Rasam is a very common south indian recipe. Normally preparing rasam could be little time consuming, as we need to wait for tamarind to be soaked well.

Lets see how to prepare this instant rasam in few minutes.

Ingredients:
Items to be blended:
Tomato - half (medium sized)
Jeera - 1 tbsp
Pepper seeds - 14 to 15 count
Asafoetida - a small pinch
Garlic - 1 small clove
Turmeric - a small pinch
Tamarind - a small goosberry sized ball or even lesser than that
Garnishing Items:
Corriander leaves, curry leaves - For garnishing

Servings: 2 persons

Cooking time: 3 minutes

Method:

Grind together all the items to be blended in a mixie. Make it to a fine paste.

Heat very little oil in a pan. Once oil is heated, add few mustard seeds and one red chilli. Once mustard splutters, add the blended paste to pan and add 1 1/2 cups of water.

Allow it to boil. Add corriander leaves and curry leaves when boiling. Switch off the flame.
Rasam is now ready.

Chow chow Kichadi

Chow Chow (Chayote in English) is a healthy vegetable, an excellent source of vitamin B. Despite of its healthy values, not everyone like to take this veggie as a side dish. An easy way to consume this veggie is to prepare a kichadi as a side dish for idli or dosa.

Lets see the way to prepare this simple recipe.

Ingredients:

Chow chow - 1
Tomato - half (big sized)
Asafoetida - A generous pinch
Small onions - 2 to 3
Green chilli - 2
Red Chilli - 1 for seasoning
Curry leaves, corrianeder leaves - For seasoning
1 finely chopped small onion - For seasoning

Preparation time: 30 mins

Method:

Peel the skin of chow chow and cut into pieces. Remove the seed inside the veggie.
Add tomato, asafoetida, onion and green chillies to chow chow and boil in a pressure cooker. Add 1 1/2 cups of water. Allow 3 to 4 whistles.

Once its cooled down, grind together all the boiled items in a mixer jar.

Heat little oil in a pan. Add mustard, urud dal, red chilli, curry leaves, onion for seasoning. Once the mustard seeds splutter, add the chow chow mixture to the pan. Add salt accordingly. Let it boil for 3 to 4 minutes.

Now add handful of corriander leaves and switch off the flame. Kichadi is ready to be served with idli / dosa..

Spicy Prawn Curry

Prawn is one of the all time favorite for almost all non-veg lovers. Lets see how to prepare spicy prawn curry. This is a very quick recipe with less ingredients too.

Ingredients:

Prawn - 500 gm

Large Onion - 1 (big sized, finely chopped)

Garlic - 4 to 5 cloves (finely chopped)

Ginger - 2" piece

Green chilli - 3 - 4 (varies with spice level)

Corriander powder - 2 tbsp

Chilli powder - 2 tbsp

Garam Masala - a pinch

Turmeric powder - 1tbsp

Lemon / curd - For marinating prawn

Grated coconut - handful (optional)

Preparation time: 20 mins

Method:

Grind green chillies and ginger together in the mixie and make a paste. Marinate prawns with ginger-chilli paste, turmeric powder, chilli powder, lemon juice, salt and mix well. Let it marinate for 10 - 15 mins. If lemon is not in stock, use little curd.

Again, the use of chilli powder and green chilli depends on the spice level of each person.Adjust the proportion accordingly.

Once the prawns are marinated, boil the marinated prawns with very little water in a closed pan. More boiling makes them chewy.

For Dry version of the curry, please do the following:

Add 1/4 cup of water to the marinated prawn and cook it for 5 mins. Once it is cooked, drain excessive water if any and keep the prawns aside.

For Gravy consistency:

Add 1/2 to 3/4 cup of water to the marination and cook for 5 mins. Don't drain the excess water.

Heat oil in a pan, saute garlic and onion until onions become golden brown. Add curry leaves, methi leaves, corriander powder, garam masala, turmeric powder and saute them for few minutes. Now add the boiled prawn and stir for 2 to 3 mins. Its optional to add grated coconut for dry curry. In case you add the coconut, stir for few more 2 minutes.Check for salt and garnish.

In case you need thick curry, grind the grated coconut and add the coconut milk to the curry and allow to boil for 1or 2 minutes. Check for salt and add accordingly.

Add corriander leaves for garnishing. Prawn curry is now ready to be served.

Rava Laddu

Rava Laddu is a famous Indian sweet specially prepared during Krishna Jeyanthi. Lets see how to prepare this very easy and quick laddu.

Ingredients:

Rava: 1 cup
Powdered Sugar: 1/2 cup
Ghee: 3-4 tbsp
Hot Melted Ghee: 3 tbsp
Cashew, Raisins: Few for frying
Hot Milk: 1/4 cup.

Preparation time: 20 mins

Method:

Add 2 tbsp of ghee in the pan and roast rava until it becomes golden brown. Once the rava has become golden brown, remove from stove top and let it cool.

Once its completely cooled down, grind the roasted rava in mixie for few seconds

In the mean time, roast the cashew nuts and raisins and keep it aside.

Now take the powdered sugar  (beat the sugar in mixie until it becomes soft like powder) and mix it with rava, roasted nuts and raisins, all in one pan.

Mix the ingredients together well, either with hands or spatula. Once the mixture is combined well, add hot melted ghee to the mixture. Now add hot milk little by little to few portion of the mixture. Once you add hot milk, you could find the mixture getting melting. If you add more milk, the mixture becomes watery.

When the mixture starts melting a little, try to make balls with hands. Repeat to add hot milk to few portion of the mixture and make balls. Once the balls are made in luke warm temperature, allow them to cool so that they become harder to form the consitency of laddu.

Once they are cooled down, its ready to be served.