Brown rice spinach pongal

Making a pongal with spinach and brown rice is one of my favorites. I have coined this recipe for our own taste and I am sure it will be liked by you all too.

Keerai pongal with eggplant curry, pappad

Ingredients:
brown rice - 3/4 cup
green gram dal (moong dal) - 1/2 cup
water - 4 cups
spinach - 2 cups (chopped)
salt - to taste
turmeric powder - 1/8 tsp
hing - a pinch
ghee - 1 tbsp (while serving)
Tempering:
ghee - 1 tbsp
cumin - 1 tsp
black pepper - 1 tsp
green chilly - 2
curry leaves - few

Method:
Rinse the brown rice , dhal and soak for 30 minutes - 1 hour.  This helps in easy cooking. Pressure cook the rice and dal together with water, salt and turmeric powder.
In another cooking vessel, temper the items mentioned. Heat 1 tbsp ghee. Add cumin, black pepper , chopped green chillies, curry leaves and saute a little. Add the cooked rice+dal.
Chop the spinach finely. Put the chopped spinach and add some more water to cook.
Switch off , as soon as the spinach gets cooked. Add 1 tbsp ghee and mash gently with a  spatula and serve hot.

Serving suggestions:
Serve as lunch.
Good side dishes are coconut chutney, baingan ka parta, sambar, pappad.
serves 2.

Winter recipes

Here in the part of globe where we live, the winters are long and cold. Having a hot cup of chocolate milk before bed is our favorite during this season. Weekends need a hot masala chaai at flask and some spicy fried Indian snacks or homemade cookies to munch on. Any food needs a little more spice level :) Also cooking during winter is a joy for me, as it is the best indoor entertainment :) Keeping a balance between cooking good foods as well as little calorie conscience will work for any season, but winter needs something extra. So I plan on making some foods that suits this weather.

Have a look at my suggestions and enjoy the virtual winter treat !

Chicken tomato soup (chennai recipe)

Crab kulambu (Tuticorin recipe)

Perfect kuzhambu for winter

Goat leg soup (clear):


Idiyappam with paya:

Add caption

Tandoori chicken:



Milagu kuzhambu:

Sukku Kuzhambu:

Scrambled egg chapati:

Add caption

Masala tea:

Bhel poori (snack):

Kara sev (fries):

Baked masala peanut:

Enjoy !

Mutton varuval (in pressure cooker)

Here is our family recipe for mutton curry or varuval. It is easier than my version of preparing this curry in a thick wok (kadai).
I call this my family recipe (or Tirunelveli version), as my amma and mother inlaw both do the same way.  My MIL's mutton gravy is one of the best. We will definitely need a pressure cooker to prepare this gravy.
After buying my small pressure cooker, I too started following this method.
Here is a very easy way to make a delicious mutton varuval using pressure cooker.

Try and enjoy this Tirunelveli mutton curry  

Ingredients:
Goat meat (with bone)- 1 lb
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
ginger - 2 inch
garlic - 1 whole
curry masala powder - 2 tsp
red chilly powder - 2 tsp
coriander powder - 6 tsp
tomato -2
brinji leaves -2
Red onion- 2
curry leaves- 1 sprig
cilantro - 1 handful
mint leaves - 1 handful
sesame oil - 2 tbsp
fennel - 1 tsp
salt - to taste

Method:
Rinse the meat and cut it into small pieces.
Pressure cook it with turmeric and handful of water. Cook for 8 whistles in medium heat (after 1 whistle reduce to medium).
Open the pressure cooker after it becomes cool. It should be cooked perfectly by now.
In a kadai , heat 2 tbsp sesame oil. Add 1 tsp fennel seeds and after it turns red add brinji leaves,curry leaves, chopped onion. Let the onion get cooked and becomes mild pink.
Then put cilantro and mint leaves one by one .
Add the ginger garlic paste and saute for a while.
Then add finely chopped tomato and saute till it gets cooked.
Add chilli powder,coriander powder, garam masala powder and saute again.
Add this to the cooked mutton in pressure cooker.
Put enough salt and pressure cook till 1 whistle. Reduce to low heat and cook for 5 minutes.
Open the cooker. If there is some excess water, then cook it without lid in open fire and take out the mutton gravy. It should be a thick curry.
Garnish with chopped cilantro.
Mutton varuval is ready!

Serving suggestion:
Serve as side dish with plain rice , coconut milk rice, ghee rice.
Tastes very good with idli, dosai or parotta.

Mixed vegetable poriyal

A colorful bowl of side dish is always attractive. We can see 'mixed vegetable stir fries' in any cuisine in the world. In USA, any grocery store will have these chopped frozen vegetables that are easy to cook. Those packets makes the cooking very easy. But in India , our mothers had followed a different way to get those colorful vegetables. I follow the olden method and I reserve a small piece of many vegetables I use everyday to make a poriyal or aviyal that weekend. Instead we can make this poriyal with a store-bought pack or fresh too. Anyways try this and enjoy a Tamilnadu poriyal and let me know how you like it !

Ingredients:
Cabbage - 1 cup (shredded)
carrot - 1 (diced)
fresh green peas - 1/2 cup
cooked channa dal - 1/2 cup
green beans -10
shredded coconut - 2 tbsp
green chillies - 2
curry leaf - 1 sprig
onion (chopped) - 2 tbsp (optional)
ginger (finely chopped) - 1 tsp
oil - 1 tsp
salt - to taste
mustard - 1/2 tsp
cumin - 1/4 tsp

Method:
Shred the cabbage into fine pieces. Chop the carrot into small cubes and green beans to small pieces. Peel and wash the green peas (pachai pattani).

Heat oil in a wok. Let the mustard seeds pop. Then slide in the onion, ginger, green chillies, curry leaves and saute for 10 seconds. Don't let it get red.

Then add the finely chopped veggies along with green pea and stir fry for a minute.
Immediately sprinkle a handful of water. Add salt and cook covered till the vegetables are done. Tender crispy cooking making the poriyal more tasty. So don't over cook them. Then add the cooked channa dal.

Now sprinkle the shredded coconut and cumin seeds. Mix well and switch off.

Mixed vegetable poriyal is ready!

Serving suggestions:
Serve as side dish with sambar rice or any rice.
Serves 4.

Happy New year,

Wishing all a
beautiful, Prosperous , peaceful and Blessed
Happy New year,
May God protect us all and
Bless us with a happy life,
Happy New Year
Love,
Viki.

Merry Christmas,

I am wishing all  Blessed Happy Christmas,

Merry Christmas!
Love,
Viki

Masala tea and homemade tea masala powder

Hi Friends ! How are you all ? I am very glad to blog again after a few months.

India is famous for its chaai (tea ) varieties. Indian teas are quite different from any other countries'. It is usually prepared with more milk (see recipe below). We make many teas like mint tea, ginger tea, cardamom tea etc. Most of the teas are made with fresh ingredients by grinding them. But keeping a masala for chaai at hand will make our job easier.  Here is one Tea masala recipe for this cold weather. I make this tea masala powder in small batches and keep them in freezer  to preserve the fresh smell.  I find it as aromatic as any famous store brand. Hope you all love my version and enjoy a cup of tea with me :)

Home made tea masala

Spicy masala tea ! My every morning happiness is putting a flask full of masala tea in his office bag :)

My new collection....cute Indian tea cups. Bought this in a nearby Indian grocer shop for $12. (2013)

Have  a look !

Ingredients:
Cardamom seeds - 1 tbsp
cloves - 1 tbsp
cinnamon -1 full roll
star anise  - 2
ginger powder - 8 tbsp
bay leaf - 2
black pepper - 1 tbsp

Method:
Dry roast all items one by one (except ginger powder) in medium heat without browning.  Let cool and grind to a fine powder in an Indian mixer. Store in airtight container and for more freshness, keep this masala refrigerated.

Indian masala Tea recipe: (2 cups)
Milk (2% or low fat) - 1 cup
water - 1 1/4 cup
sugar - 4 tsp
Indian black tea powder (or leaves) - 2 tsp
tea masala powder - 1 tsp

Method:
Bring water to  a rolling boil. Add tea powder and it will give  a reddish brown decoction immediately.  Then add boiled milk , sugar and tea powder. Bring it to  a boil and switch off. Filter immediately and pour into tea cups.
Serve immediately!
Microwave version : Put everything in the recipe together in a microwave safe bowl and cook for 3 minutes. Filter and serve. (Personally the stove top method is my favorite).

Note:
Some times I use my 'All spice powder', which I use for cake preparation also to make tea. Here is the basic ingredients for that.

All spice powder
Cinnamon - 2 roll
cardamom - 1 tbsp
cloves - 1 tbsp
nutmeg - 1/4
mace - 1
cumin - 1 tbsp
black pepper - 1 tbsp
ginger powder - 1/2 cup

Dry roast (everything except ginger powder) and grind and enjoy another version of masala chaai.  Add some fresh mint leaves while making tea for more flavor.