Pakke Pakke Tamatar/ Ripe Stuffed Cherry Tomato

In the book Vegetarian Fare at Taj there are delicious pictures some of them are doable at home some need a lot of thought process for substitutes but the pictures are wow so very delicious!  One such a dish is Kacche Pakke Tamatar!

The others that I have already attempted are VendakaiMelugu Peretti, Waal/Long Beans in Butter Garlic Sauce, Wok Fried Lotus Stemsand Assorted Veggies in Honey Chilli Sauce, Zunka Bhakar , Idli~ Old Wine in a New Bottle! Slowly plan to attempt them all.

I could not get kacche cherry tamatar, which is raw cherry tomatoes and so I made it as a pakke pakke tamatar.  You could use 1 cup of raw  cherry and 1 cup of ripe tomatoes. 

Baby Corn Stir Fry

My kids like corn but somehow they do not enjoy baby corn.

   It is a perpetual quest to make baby corn in the form they will enjoy. One of my recent endeavors has been Baby Corn Stir Fry.

This was for the first time that I had tried making snacks for evening but I was saving it up for the last day of BM.

The girls were not aware of the presence of this new member in the fridge so they had had their snack. But I still heated the container in the microwave and as the younger one was stepping out to play came back in reverse gear to check what was cooking.

Egg-less Buttery Cookies~ A Sweet Punch

When Priya posted her egg less buttery almond cookies I could not resist them. I had such a craving for them that I baked them immediately.

 Me and follow recipes? Surprised are you not?

Well there are times when I do follow recipes, but you are correct I did not follow it to the T made a few changes to suit our tastes and my pantry contents. I baked them 3 times now.

Black and White Wednesday and Vada Pav~~ A Blog Hop #8

For Today's Blog Hop, a fantastic way to make new friends, which happens to be Radhika's brain child  I was paired with Rinku Naveen ,of Rinku’s Kitchen. Do visit her for delicious dishes especially recipes from Kerala. I have bookmarked quite a few from this wonderful Blog.

After Diwali and the sweets that we (read I) had eaten I wanted to make something savoury but something deep fried in continuation with the festive season.  Deep frying in my place is some kind of a rarity because being asthmatic I suffer a lot after frying.

 What better than Vada Pav. Filling and delicious street food made home and as kiddo said Indian Burger an explanation she gave her friend and exactly as Rinku has described.

Palak Chakali~ Blog Hop #6

F or today’s Blog Hop the brain child of Radhika I am paired with Suchitra of  Simple Indian Food. Not only does Suchitra have an enormous number of recipes she has also featured new budding bloggers in her blog.

I have bookmarked quite a few recipes to be tried later.  But being festive season I was keen on trying some savories. But savories I wanted had to have some health quotient in them, what better way to have them but to add veggies.

Healthy Savoury Dosa~Bloghop Wednesday

There are 2 events around which my kitchen revolves these days they are ….
First is my Event – The Lets Get Stuffed ~Bell Peppers or Capsicum and second is The BlogHop Wednesday!

I expect all of you my dear friends to don your thinking hats and send me exiting entries for stuffing the Bell peppers or Capsicum. Here are some of mine.

And yes I am a part of this exciting experiment started by Radhika of Tickling Palates. We are paired with different partners every other Wednesday and this week I am paired with Kalyani also known as Mom Chef!
 
The title suits her to the T or should I say C? Amazing recipes & pictures!

I was totally at sea for I was just seeing each recipe seemed better than the earlier one! Finally I choose the simple Healthy Oats Dosa or The Savoury Oats Dosa!!

Here is Kalyani’s recipe …

Here is mine as usual I had to fiddle with the ingredients. My husband’s my best critic and friends words not mine so I was expecting a total failure in the system so I was quite amazed at the results!!

My daughter, the younger one loved it and polished off 3 small ones. Mind you I am not complaining she is most welcome it is a BIG COMPLIMENT! The “kurkur kombdi“ that is the loosely translated as the brooding hen or clucking hen eating without complaints!

Ingredients:
1 cup Oats, crushed
1 tblspn rice flour
½ cup Rava
1 tblspn barley flour (optional)
¼ cup besan/kadli hit/chana daal flour
Salt
Chopped green chilies (optional)
Chopped coriander
1 onion, finely chopped
½ cup butter milk
Oil
For tempering: Mustard seeds, jeera/ cumin seeds, and hing/asafetida

Method:
1. I soaked all the dry ingredients in the butter milk and since the batter was not the consistency needed for dosa hence I added water.
2. Let it stand for 15-20 minutes.
3. Make the tempering by heating the oil and spluttering the mustard, jeera/cumin seeds/jeerigi and hing/asafoetida. Pour in the batter. Mix well.
4. In the batter add the chopped onions, coriander, chillies and salt.
5. To make the Dosa: add a ladle full of the batter on the non-stick tava lightly greased.
6. Spread lightly. Cover and cook.
7. Flip on the other side cook and serve with chutney or as kiddo had with tomato ketchup.
After the first Dosa I did not use oil at all.

Thanks Kalyani for this wonderful inclusion in my daughter’s diet and Radhika for I have the opportunity to meet new friends and try different recipes!

Please do send me some entries for my event here.

Archana

Alu Vadi or Taro Leaf Roll

My mother in law was an expert in making what is called Alu Vadi in Marathi! You could call it Taro leaf roll. In Kannada it is called Shavi yelli.

MIL used to grow her own alu for making this dish. Once I remember asking/telling her that one of the leaves leaf was big and why was she not cutting it. She told me that she was waiting for the other 2 to become a bit bigger so that she could make Alu Vadi and not to worry this one would not wither off before they were sizable. She was correct they were exactly the same size when she finally cut them.

At my request she showed me the method of making them. I try to imitate her but “Abhi Deli bhout door hai”!

Bhendi fry

I like to watch the channel now known as TLC and one day I happened to watch one of Anjum Anand's episodes "Indian Cooking made easy". I had till then not heard of her and I just went under hook, line and sinker. I now make it point to watch all the reruns and Google her recipes.
In one of her episode she has shown "fried okra ". Okra / lady finger/bhendi is one of my favourite vegetables so I tried it out.


My Mom had always drilled that washing bhendi makes them slimy while cooking so I run the kitchen napkin dampened a bit on the length of the bhendi and then repeat the same with the dry end. Time consuming but very effective.


Now Anjum Anand cut her bhendi lengthwise I prefer round ones. She deep-fried her bhendi in lot of oil I fry them but in lesser oil. She applies all the masala later to the bhendi I prefer to marinate the bhendi so to speak.


Ingredients:
½ kg bhendi ,cut
2 tsp Jeera/cumin powder
1 tsp dhania/coriander seeds/haviza
I tsp amchur/ dry mango powder
Red chilli powder (adjust as per taste)
Salt
A little sugar
2 tbsp besan/kadli hit/chana daal atta
Oil to fry
Method:
1. Apply all the dry ingredients to the bhendi and let it stand for 20-30 minutes.
2. In a deep kadhai heat about 2 tbsp oil .
3. In the hot oil add about a tsp of the bhendi mixture and let it fry a little.
4. Move the bhendi to the sides around the oil and add the next batch.
5. Repeat till all the bhendi are done. Always moving the centre ones in the oil to the edges.
6. When the bhendi at the side becomes crisp remove them in a bowl. So you need not use absorbent paper and your bhendi is well-drained. Also there is no leftover oil that you have to throw out.
Serve hot tastes good with rice or just as a plain snack.

Kothimbir Vadi

Suddenly today morning I decided to make "KOTHIMBIR WADI" since I love coriander in any form I am quite surprised I don't make it often. The entire process of making the vadi to frying them took 30 to 45 minutes simple and fast. There are no proportions the quantities suggested are not measured you can adjust all the ingredients as per your taste.

Ingredients:

¼ cup oil

10-15 cloves of garlic, crushed

A big handful of coriander after chopping about 1 cup

½ cup water

¼ cup besan/kadli hit/chana daal atta

Salt

¼ tsp haldi/turmeric

1 tsp chilli powder  

 Method:

1.       Mix the besan/kadli hit/chana daal atta, haldi/turmeric and chilli powder with a little water to form a paste with no lumps.

2.       Grease a plate with oil and grease a base of a flat bowl. Keep aside

3.       Heat ½ the oil and fry the garlic till reddish.

4.       Next add the coriander and fry till the coriander wilts a little.

5.       Pour a little water in the pan and add the salt.

6.       Add the besan/kadli hit/chana daal atta paste stirring with one hand as you add the paste with the other.

7.       Cook till the mixture dries up and forms a lump in the centre of the pan. (I prefer to add a blob of the mixture on the plate and flatten it, after it cools a little the vadi if done it comes off the plate easily).

8.       When this is done transfer all the mixture to the greased plate and pat the mix with the bowl's base. Use some oil on the base if needed.

9.       Cool the mixture. Cut in pieces.

10.   Now comes the most difficult decision and the use of the rest of the oil. To fry the pieces in oil or not…. To be or not to be.

11.   If to finally decide to fry the pieces shallow fry them on a non stick pan. And watch them diappear.

Dhokla

Dhokla

Dhokla the very word lights up my husband's face. He is willing to eat it night and day.  When we were newly married I remember making 3-4 tins of dhokla and dumping it in the fridge. He used to come home from work before me  and he would eat it with or without the accompanying toppings.

Somehow these days I just could not turn out a proper Dhokla and the poor dear used to still eat it( he does eat a lot of my failed experiments so this is not an exception). As a result we started buying it from the local supermarket.

Yesterday I decided to dig out the old recipe and make Dhokla.

Steaming time: 20 minutes.

INGREDIENTS:

TO SOAK:

2 cups besan/kadli hit

1 cup rava

2 cups buttermilk

  TO GRIND:

1 inch Ginger

8-10 cloves garlic

3 green chillies

OTHER INGREDIENTS NEEDED:

Salt

 2 tsp Sugar

Turmeric

1 tsp Eno's fruit salt

3 tblspn +2 tsps (to grease) oil

2 tblspn of Phodi/ vagani made of popped mustard, hing/asafoetida and sesame seeds

Coriander

Freshly grated coconut

METHOD:

1.       Mix all the ingredients to soak in a big bowl as the batter is going to ferment and rise and let it stand for at least 6 hours.

2.       After 6 hours put the 2 tsp oil in the mould and keep aside (do not grease as yet).

3.       Mix well the rest of the ingredients except the Eno's fruit salt.

4.       Get your cooker heated with enough water to steam the batter for 20 minutes.

5.       In the mould that you have added oil for greasing, add the Eno and mix with your fingers till the Eno is well mixed with the oil. Grease the sides of the mould also.

6.        Pour the batter in the mould and continue mixing till the Eno is well mixed in the entire batter.

7.       Transfer the mould to the cooker and steam (without the whistle) for 20 minutes.

8.       Serve topped with freshly grated coconut, coriander and the  phodni/ vagarni made of 2 tblspn of oil, mustard, hing/asafoetida and sesame seeds.