My dear friend asked me to post oats upma recipe. So, before posting the recipe I wanted to try it out in my kitchen and get it approved by my biggest critic (husband). I tried this upma today morning… and got thumbs up for the taste and texture. I used Quaker Multigrain Oats but can be made with regular oats as well.
Once, my dietician told me that bottle guard is such a rich vegetable for weight watchers. It directly fights fat deposits in the body and there are so many weight reduction medicine in the market which have bottle guard extract as their main ingredients. I don’t know how much this is true and kind of believed her and try to include bottle guard in my diet at least twice a week – bottle guard payasam, soup, sabzi and kofta. Here, is kofta sabzi.
I had been to my relative’s house and my SIL was mentioning about poosanikai thayir pachchadi. I never heard of it because both my mother and my mother-in-law never made this pachchadi. It sounded so interesting and decided to try it out. It came out so tasty and without much effort.
My daughter loves orange… and anything that has orange flavour. She has been asking me to make orange cup cakes for a very long time and today I had the drive to please her. The muffins came out very good and everyone liked it so much especially my daughter you simply loved the tart, tangy cranberries. I got the recipe from here, made slight changes and yummy cup cakes were ready to serve.
I first tasted mor rasam at my in-laws’ place, I only heard of mor kuzhambu and kadhi.. never about mor rasam. My MIL makes this rasam so flavourful. She uses lots of ajwain / omam.. and she tells me this is good for cold just like jeera milagu rasam. So, here is my mor rasam recipe…
My Mother-in-law is born and brought up in Maharashtra, so many of her recipes would have that maharashtrian touch. My mother never made sabudana tikki or vada (courtesy no internet). So, I had my first sabudana tikki after marriage at my in-laws place and I liked it very much. And now I make it every now and then for my little princess. You can shallow fry it, deep fry it, bake it, steam it…. no matter how it is made… will still taste good.
I made this once as a filling for Aloo sandwich and it became an instant hit with my husband and daughter. Now, they ask me to make this as a side dish for chappati / roti. Its a very simple, easy and quick recipe and can be used as a filling for parantha, sandwich and samosas. I make it really spicy and tangy.
Dhokla is my favourite evening snacks… can be made quickly with very minimal ingredients. I like the sweet and sour taste with spicy chilli and tamarind chutney. I make this often because there is hardly any fat/oil, it is completely steamed and requires only gram flour as main ingredient.
Punjabi Chole is a spicy north Indian main course recipe which can be had with rice, pulao, roti or parantha. Its very simple and quick to make. I, personally, like to use onions for garnishing than in gravy. When I googled about the properties of kabuli channa, I learnt that Chickpeas are source of carbohydrate, vegetable protein and soluble fiber. They contain lecithin a type of fat that reduces cholesterol and improves memory. Very rich in mineral that helps to treat fibromyalgia and weakness. It is said chickpeas must be present in the diet at least twice a week.
Bisibela bath is a prominent karnataka recipe which is like a sambhar rice but with lots of flavour and aroma. This should be take really piping hot else you will not relish it. I wanted to try this out in veragu arisi which is very rich in fibre in comparison with rice. It came out so well and yummy… I served it with sweet potato fry, papad and poosanikai thayir pachchadi.
Paneer Butter Masala is my daughter’s favourite side dish for roti. When ever we eat out… my little one would order for PBM and would make sure that the order is for spicy gravy and the gravy should be really red in colour as she thinks that pale yellow / orange gravy will be sweet in taste. I took this recipe from here and made very little changes and my daughter simply loved it. I make this recipe without cream.
Ginger, with its strong and spicy aroma, has its own place in Indian cuisine. It may be used fresh or dried, powdered or pickled or in the form of juice or oil. No, wonder ginger is the classic Indian household favourite. Ginger improves absorption and assimilation of essential nutrients and aids in digestion. It also helps break down the proteins in your food. Ginger protects the stomach against ulcers by promoting mucus secretion. Today, I made inji pachchadi and it tastes best with rice and any sambhar.
Bored of baking sweet / sugary cookies, I decided to bake some spicy biscuits… and got this recipe from my friend and it came out so cute, lovely and spicy that every one at my place liked it. It doesn’t have any raising agent and required very less fat. My husband prefers spice over sweet and so he liked it so much… crunchy and spicy khara biscuit.
I read about Anjeer Halwa in Tarla Dalal’s web page and made very minimal changes to suit my taste buds… and since I had anjeer at home thought of trying it. Fig has got so many health benefits… they are high in potassium so helps to reduce insulin level and have anti-diabetic properties, rich in calcium and strengthens bones. They are so good to treat acne prone skin… one can go on and on about benefits of fig. Here is a easy, quick and simple fig halwa recipe…
Lemon rasam really tastes yummy and can be make in a jiffy. We use lemon in place of tamarind for the sourness. I generally grind tuvar dal, tomatoes and curry leaves together for this as it enhances the flavour and this way my little ones takes both tomato and curry leaves (both are so healthy and I have seen people pick these two out… that list includes me too).
Dosa / idli milagai podi or molaga podi is a flavourful condiment for dosa and idli. It is also used as seasoning / flavouring for podi curry. Well, at my place it is used in so many recipes that sometimes I think of getting it ground in a mill in kilos. My husband can eat it just like that. Apart from being used as a substitute for chutney and sambhar, one can use it in kathrikai (brinjal), vazhakkai (raw banana) or cabbage podi curry as this milagai podi has loads of flavour. Generally, channa dal, urad dal, til, whole red chilli and salt are the main ingredients of this podi; but I also add kollu (horse gram), tamarind, jaggery and asafoetida to enhance the flavour – spicy, tangy and sweet. I was watching some cookery show in Podhigai and learnt about the benefits of kollu (horse gram) and decided to use it in my dosa milagai podi. Note: Kollu is not advisable to pregnant women.
Here is the ingredients to make bisibela bath podi/powder which can be used to make bisibela bath. You can grind and store it in an air tight container in refrigerator for almost a year without loosing any flavour.
The best way to give green leafy vegetable to kids is to hide them in some recipe. My little angle won’t have methi, palak, batua or sarson sabzi. So, I started adding it to the dough and she would simply love it. She can go on having any green parantha and calls all green paranthas as methi parantha. I am very happy since she started have these green leafy vegetable in some form.
Also called drop cookies, these are probably the simplest cookies to make. They are called drop cookies because the dough is soft enough to drop off the spoon on to the baking sheet. Created in the 1930s, these were originally called Toll House Cookies.
Payatham paruppu (Moong Dal) masiyal is a prominent south indian side dish … which can be had with rice and ghee. Masiyal is made in many ways… this one is like sambhar and can be made with or without any vegetable…. Today, I have not added any vegetable, but this kind of masiyal tastes so good if cooked with sennai kizhangu or karunai kizhangu.