Brinjal whole fry

This is a very simple recipe I tried after preparing the stuffed masala egg. I thought of replacing the eggs with eggplant and the result was awesome. We can serve it along with ghee rice, as the masala we get at the end will be very tasty to go with anything. Try this and enjoy.

Stuffed brinjal fry.

Ingredients:

Brinjal (small)- 6
oil - 1/4 cup
(sesame oil or EVOO)
onion - 2
ginger garlic paste - 1 tbsp
salt - little

Stuffing / Filling:

Garam masala - 1 tsp
(I used sakthi biryani masala powder)
chilly powder - 1 tbsp
coriander powder - 3 tsp
salt - to taste
turmeric powder - a pinch
lemon juice - 1 tbsp (optional)

Method:

Slit the brinjal longitudinally without completely splitting.
Mix the filling with a tbsp of water and stuff inside the brinjal.
Keep the remaining masala aside.

Heat oil in a thick bottom wok.
Place the brinjals and let them fry for a minute. Turn and do the same for a minute.
In the mean time, chop the onions into thin long pieces and add to the frying brinjals.
Add ginger garlic paste, little salt and left over masalas to that. Close tightly and cook well in low heat. Stir gently once in a while.

Nearly after 15 minutes, we can see the oil separating from the brinjal masala.
Switch off.

Stuffed brinjal fry is ready.

Serving suggestions:

Serve as side dish with chapthi, roti or any paratha.
Makes a great combo with ghee rice or coconut milk rice.
Also tastes good with curd rice.

Spinach rice (Keerai saatham)

Spinach and Asian food are inseparable. I am sure each Indian lunch box can tell a different recipe for this humble spinach. I mix rice and the spinach to make a kind of 'variety rice'.  I like this recipe very much because of its simplicity and lesser time consumption.  Here goes the recipe.

Keerai saatham served with cauliflower  stir fry.

Ingredients:

Rice - 3/4 cup
Any greens / Spinach - 1 small bunch.
(Any keerai like thandu keerai, mulai keerai, muringa keerai, pasali keerai,ponnan kanni keerai, arakeerai, sirukeerai etc)
Green chilly - 2
onion - 1/2 cup
garlic - 2 cloves
cumin - 1/2 tsp
shredded coconut - 2 tbsp (optional)
mustard - 1/2 tsp
sesame oil - 1 tsp
ghee - 1/2 tsp (optional)
salt - to taste

Rice:

Take the rice lesser than we normally consume, as the spinach makes a good filler in this recipe.
Bring to boil some 3 cups of water. Wash and add the rice to the boiling water. Put a pinch of salt and reduce the flame. Let it cook. After the rice gets cooked, strain and remove the water.
Keep the cooked rice aside. We can cook the rice in pressure cooker or rice cooker also. But I prefer the above method to prepare any 'variety rice', as it will yield very separate grains.

Method:

Carefully clean the greens and put them in a broad vessel. Wash thrice or more times to remove all dirt. Drain water and chop finely.
Heat oil in a wok. Let the mustard crackle. Then add the chopped onion, chilly, garlic and fry till the onion becomes soft.
Then add the finely chopped greens and stir fry. Don't close the vessel. Sprinkle a little water if necessary. After it gets cooked and almost dry (in 5 minutes), Switch off, add the salt, shredded coconut and cumin seeds. Mix this with the cooked rice along with a tsp of ghee.
Mix well and serve.

Serving suggestion:

This can be prepared for lunch box. Don't add coconut during hot weather in packed foods.
Serve with any spicy side dish like brinjal fry or cauliflower fry.
Serves 2.

Peanut chutney

Peanut chutney is a famous chutney among South Indians. Some call it as 'sivappu chatney' or 'kara chutney' that means 'red or hot chutney'. My dad loves this very much and after a long time I made it along with idly. It has to be made with more dry red chillies and tamarind to make it super hot. Here goes the recipe.

Groundnut chutney.

Ingredients:

peanut - 1/2 cup
shredded coconut - 1/2 cup
dry red chillies - 10
tamarind - an amla size
salt - to taste

To temper:

oil - 1 tsp
mustard - 1/2 tsp
urid dhal - 1/2 tsp
curry leaf- 1 sprig

Method:

Dry roast the peanut and let it cool.
(If using roasted peanuts, then skip the above step).
Remove its skin by gently rubbing. Keep aside.
Now add a drop of oil in a wok and roast the dry red chillies till they smell good and turns crispy.
Grind all items given in ingredient list along with the roasted peanut and fried chillies.
Add some water (less than 1 cup) to get a thick and somewhat runny consistency.
Again heat a tsp of oil in a wok and crackle the mustard seeds, immediately add the urad dhal and curry leaves. Fry till the dhal turns red, pour over the prepared chutney.

Verkadalai chutney is ready!

Serving suggestion:

Makes a great combo with idly or dosai.
Serves 4.

Other info:

As some are allergic or hesitant to peanut, don't try this chutney for a get-together.
Some get giddiness , if they take lot of peanut. In that case give them a chunk of jaggery  immediately. May be it is a home remedy for people who can't take much peanut.

Reposts for events

I am re-posting the following fried snacks for Radhika's Deep fried snacks event.

1.Thengai paal murukku.

2.Masaal vadai.


3.Vazhai kaai bajji.

Who won't love a plate of deep fried snacks in this cold weather? Hope she gets a lot of entries. Happy hosting dear!

Thavil vadai

Thavil vadai is an unique kind of vadai in Tamilnadu.  Some people call it as thaval vadai or thavala vadai ,aiming to describe the shape of that vadai (thavil - a musical instrument). This is how we explain in our house, if any one know the proper meaning of the title please let me know:) Moreover this vadai should be made with many lentils and rice, which makes the recipe more interesting.

Recipe source: amma.
Also inspired by :  Subbu's kitchen and Kitchen queen. Thank you friends!

Ingredients:

Channa dhal (Bengal gram)- 1/2 cup
black gram (ulunthu / urid dhal) - 1/2 cup
Red gram / thuvaram paruppu / thoor dhal - 1/4 cup
Rice - 1/4 cup
dry red chillies - 3
ginger - 1 inch
shredded coconut - 2 tbsp
asafoetida / hing - a pinch
salt - to taste
oil - to deep fry

tempering / tadka:

Oil - 1 tsp
Mustard - 1 tsp
Curry leaves- 1 sprig
cilantro - a handful

Method:

wash and clean the dhal and rice, Soak the urad dhal separately and others together for 2 hours or till soft.
Grind the urad dhal to fluffy stage, without  water.If needed add a tbsp of water. Then take  it out. Grind the other dhals and rice without water to a thick and coarse batter along with other ingredients except oil and coconut. Mix with urad dhal batter.
Heat a tsp of oil in a wok and add mustard seeds. As they crackle add the chopped cilantro, curry leaves and pour over the batter. Add the shredded coconut .
Take a lemon size ball of the batter and flatten it slightly. Deep fry it in oil by flipping both sides in medium heat. Don't  fry it in high heat. Give ample time to let it cook completely. As soon as the vadai turns mild red , drain oil and take out.

Thavil vadai is ready!

Serving suggestions:

Serve hot with coconut or cilantro(malli) chutney.

Amla Jamun

Amla - Indian gooseberry - Periya nellikkai (Tamil).
Here is a quick and  healthy dessert  using the Indian gooseberry.  This is my mom's recipe and she used to prepare some jam varieties also using amla. I used frozen amla, which we get in Indian grocery stores. Keep them handy to satisfy that sugar cravings:)

Ingredients:

Amla - 15
crushed jaggery - 1 cup
water - 1cup
honey - few tbsp

Method:

Bring one cup water to boil. Add the amla and cook well.
In the same time bring 1/4 cup water to boil in a separate vessel and dissolve the jaggery. Filter and remove the impurities.
Add the jaggery solution to the cooked amla and start heating till it becomes very thick syrup. Put off fire and let it cool.
Then add a few tbsp of honey and preserve in a clean dry container.
This can be kept for 6 months if refrigerated.

Serving:

Amla jamun makes a healthy dessert.
This sweet tastes great the next day only, as it may take a few hours for the bitterness to change.

Tips:

*There is another variety of gooseberry also, which will be smaller in size and tastes very sour. My mom used to make a jam out of it. For that jam, Mom would add sugar instead of jaggery and that 'nellikkai jam' would taste incredibly great.
*We can totally avoid the jaggery and add honey to the cooked amla to get a healthy amla jamun. But I have not tried it yet.

Mushroom biriyani

I have an endless love with biryanis and this is a vegetarian version, which I tried recently.  I prepared this one day for hubby's lunch when I wanted to pack something nice for him. Hope you all like this mushroom biryani.

Vegetables:

Mushroom - 10 numbers
(Use button mushrooms only)
fresh green peas - 1/2 cup .

Ingredients:

Basmathi rice - 1 1/2 cups
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
Red onion - 1 (chopped 1/2 cup)
Lemon - 1
red chilly powder - 1 tbsp
Biryani masala powder - 1 tsp
(I used sakthi biryani masala)
ghee - 1 tbsp (to add at the end)

To temper:

Bay leaves - 1
cinnamom stick - 1 inch
cardamom (crushed) - 2
cloves - 2
Any cooking oil - 3 tbsp
cashew nuts -5
raisins- 10.
salt - to taste

Masala 1:

Tomato puree - from 1 tomato

Masala 2:

cilantro- 10 stems
mint leaf -1 handful.

Masala 3:

Ginger - 1 inch
Garlic - 2 cloves

Preparation:

Wash and clean the mushrooms. Cut each mushroom into thin oval slices.
Wash the green peas / sweet peas and keep aside.
(Defreeze the green peas by putting it in water, if frozen).

Wash the rice. Add more water than required and bring it to boil. Reduce flame, add salt and cook it to stiff grainy consistency. Then drain all the water using a colander. Keep the rice aside.

Grind all the pastes separately.

Chop onion and keep aside.

Method:

Heat oil in a flat bottom vessel.
Add cinnamon stick,cardamom ,cloves, bay leaf , cashew, raisin.

Then goes the chopped onion .

Fry it till golden brown and add the ginger garlic paste and stir well till the raw smell goes.

Now add the tomato paste and cook till the oil oozes out of it. Add all the powders given.

Then add the cilantro , mint paste, red chilly powder,biryani masala powder, salt and cook till the oil start oozing out. Now put the vegetables and cook till the mushrooms are done.This will take 5 minutes only.

Now add the cooked rice and squeeze some lime juice over.

Sprinkle the ghee and close the vessel.
Heat the vessel in very mild flame for 10 minutes. Switch off!

Mix well now and serve.

Mushroom biryani is ready!

Serving suggestions:

Garnish with chopped cilantro , mint leaves.
Serve mushroom peas biryani hot with onion raitha .

Note:

We can make this biryani without green peas also.
I used canned mushroom here. But the fresh one tastes great.
cooking time : 30 minutes.