Bored of cooking simple chole with the same old basic masalas along with channa masala… today I tried the bhature chole… my sister shared her recipe with me and it turned out tasty. To get that deep blackish brown colour, I cooked my chole in a iron kadai and left it for a couple of hours…
Manga rice is very famous in Karnataka as I first heard about it in Bangalore and I was told that this rice is made on Karnataka new year / Ugadi. It is very simple to make and tastes delicious, the sweet and sourness of raw mango, sweet and creamy coconut, hint of mustard seeds and spicy red chillies. I used totapuri manga as this variety of raw mango makes the recipe very tasty.
Meeholi Bhaji is an Assamese vegetable dish and has a wonderful confetti of colours and a fabulous mingling of flavours imparted by the different types of vegetable and the five-spice mix that is typical of this region. I took this recipe from a cook book by Mridula Baljekar.
This one is a very simple rasam made with few ingredients and without dal & tamarind yet it is very tasty. It can also be had like a soup especially in winters.
Methi is one of my husband’s favourite green vegetable. My daughter likes methi is form of parantha and my husband as sabzi. Here, is a simple methi sabzi which goes well with roti and/or rice.
We always make mor kuzhambu during important festivals / pandigai (as called in Tamil). One of the easiest recipes of South India and one of my favourite too. Mor Kuzhambu is generally made with paruppu urundai or dried salty sundakkai with white pumpkin or okra (bhindi). My husband likes it with yellow pumpkin for the sweet, sour and salty taste. Here is the recipe with Keera Paruppu Urundai. I took the recipe from here. You can replace spinach with any greens. I normally soak all the dals for a minimum of 6 – 8 hours as soaked dals digest faster.
I learnt this recipe from my mother-in-law which is very different from what my mom makes. I liked this kootu as it gives more of a sambhar look and taste, it can be had with paranthas as well. Katrikkai puti kootu can be made quickly as brinjal cooks in no time.
Karuveppilai kuzhambu is so simple to make and tastes so yummm with all the goodness of curry leaves. I made this kuzhambu after such a long time and served it with aloo fry, cauliflower carrot curry and nellikkai thayir pachchadi. This kuzhambu goes well with ven pongal and arisi upma.
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.
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.
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).
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.
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.
I love pudina rice for its nice aroma and flavour. It fills the entire house with its nice minty smell and makes you feel fresh. My friend introduced me to veragu arisi / kodo millet as called in English. She told me the fiber content in veragu arisi is 10.5% as compared to wheat (1.5%) and rice (0.02%); may be that’s the reason why 1/2 cup of veragu arisi is enough for 2 adults. The method of cooking this millet is similar like rice – 1 : 2 (i.e., one portion of rice and 2 portions of water), cook it in pressure cooker for 3 whistles. It will be gooey in the beginning but after 4 – 5 hours, it will turn flowery and would be best for making pulao, vegetable rice, biryani etc. So, if you want to make pulao and all, cook it atleast 4- 5 hrs in advance. Its a healthy replacement for rice and dalia, good for weight watchers and tastes just like rice… you really can’t make out the difference except the size. Each grain of uncooked kodo millet is as small as mustard seeds and cooked grain as big as pepper corns.
Come winter… and vegetable market is so full of sarson and other greens… both me and my husband were born and brought up in Delhi… and we would eagerly wait for the winters (love Delhi winters) and my husband would go shopping sarson and methi greens every weekend and he would buy so many bundles that the look of it would make me go dizzy.. It is believed that saag should be prepared a day early, (infact, it can be kept in fridge for 2-3 days) and tadka should be given the next day… or the day you want to enjoy your saag.