Simple Beans poriyal (stir fry)

Flat beans is called as 'nattu beans' (Tamil) or 'country style beans' in India. It has more fiber than the French green beans (popularly known as 'Ooty beans'). The flavorful Flat beans are suitable for South Indian poriyals (stir fry) and easy to cook French beans for North Indian curries and baking.

Here is the most common way to prepare an Indian stir fry. Almost any vegetable can be made as poriyal by this method. Sure it is a basic Indian recipe for starters.

Flat beans.

Beans poriyal

Ingredients:

Flat or French beans - 1/2 lb (200 gm)
Red onion (chopped) - 1
shredded coconut - 2 tbsp
mustard - 1/2 tsp
urid dhal - 1 tsp
coconut oil - 2 tsp
curry leaf - 1 sprig
cumin - 1/2 tsp
Dry red chilly - 3

Method:

Wash and clean the beans in large amounts of water multiple times to remove all the dirt / sand. Drain water and chop it finely.

Heat oil in a wok. Add the mustard seeds, urid dhal and let mustard splutter.
Finely chop the onion, chillies, curry leaf (optional) and add to the wok.
Stir till onion turns soft.

Add the finely chopped beans and stir fry for 2 minutes. Sprinkle a handful of water and cook covered for 10 more minute in medium heat. (Ooty beans / French green beans takes lesser time to get cooked). Open the lid. Let all the moisture dries up. Check if the beans is cooked but firm.

Add salt, cumin and fry a bit. After the poriyal looks very loose without any moisture put the freshly shredded coconut and stir for few seconds. Switch off.

Simple beans poriyal is ready!

Serving suggestions:
Beans poriyal can be served as side dish with sambar rice , curd rice or rasam rice, chapati.

Kashmiri pulav (II)

This is the pulav I prepared for the International festival celebrated in 'Our Lady of Fatima' Church. I prepared this Kashmiri pulav and chicken kabob along with other participants. It was a delightful experience to see the guests liking the Indian food. Here is the recipe for my friends!

Kashmiri pulav.

Cooking the rice: (for 2 or more people)
Basmati rice - 1 cup
Water - 3 cups
butter - 1 tsp
salt - 1/2 tsp
lemon - 1/4 of a fruit
turmeric powder - 1/8 tsp

Wash the rice thrice in cold water.
Soak the rice for 30 minutes.
Drain the rice and keep ready.
Bring the water to a good boil along with turmeric, salt, butter. Add the soaked rice, lemon juice and reduce flame. Cook for 5 minutes and drain the water. The rice should not be raw, but cooked and stiff. Run under cold water to make it extra fluffy.
For more details click to read how I cooked rice for pulav.

Ingredients:

Onion - 1
butter / ghee - 2 tbsp
ginger garlic paste - 1 tsp
plain Indian yogurt - 1/2 cup
salt - 1 tsp
cilantro - 2 tbsp (chopped)
mint leaf - 1 tbsp (chopped)
green chilly - 2
green peas - 1/2 cup
carrot - 1 small
saffron - few strands
rose essence - 2 drops

Spices:

bay leaf - 1
cinnamon - 1 inch
cardamom - 3 (crushed)
cloves - 3 (crushed)
star aniseed - 1
fennel - 1/2 tsp
nutmeg - a tiny bit
mace - 1 inch

fruits and nuts: (chopped)
apple - 1/2 cup
pineapple - 1 cup
pomegranate - 1/2 cup
orange - 1
raisin - 1/4 cup
tooti fruity - 1 tbsp
cashew nut - 10 (full)
almond - 4 (slivered)

Method:

Fry the cashews, almonds, raisins and keep them aside.

Heat oil / butter in a wok. Add the spices and stir till the fennel turns red.
Cut the onions in thin long pieces. Immediately add the onions and fry till it get golden brown. Add the ginger garlic paste and stir till the raw smell vanishes. Add more ghee if needed.
Toss in the split chillies, cubed carrot, peas and cook covered. Then add the required salt, yogurt. Cook in low heat till the masala gives a nice flavor and oil oozes out. Check the taste. If needed add some salt or lemon juice or red chilly powder to alter the taste to need.
Switch off and add rose essence.

Add the cooked rice and mix well. Add another tbsp of ghee over it.
Mix the fried nuts and raisin.

Peel and core the apple. Cube it into small pieces. Cut the pineapple into small cubes.

Place prepared rice in a serving tray and let it cool little. Add the chopped fruits, chopped mint, cilantro and saffron strands. Mix well.

Kashmiri pulav is ready!

Serving suggestion:

Serve as main course with any spicy curry like butter chicken or Chicken tikka masala.

Note:

To make the pulav more flavorful and rich, cook the rice with a few strands of saffron.
If prepared with a dominant red and green colored fruits, we can prepare it as a special Christmas pulav.

Spinach scrambled egg

Both of us love home made foods. So whenever we had to go for a grocery shopping or any other thing on a weekend, I finish my cooking duty before we start, so that we can have our meal as soon as we reach home. That particular Saturday we had to go out for a few hours and I wanted to make some rasam, rice and a side dish. When I checked the vegetable tray there was some spinach leaves which won't be enough to make a stir fry but  I didn't want to waste them. So I made a spinach poriyal with some eggs and it tasted richer than the plain spinach fry.

Stir fried spinach and egg.

Ingredients:

Spinach (any greens) - 30 leaves
egg - 2
Shallot / red onion (chopped) - 1/2 cup
garlic - 5 cloves
shredded coconut - 2 tbsp
mustard - 1/2 tsp
coconut oil - 1 tbsp
cumin - 1/2 tsp
green chilly / dry red chilly - 2

Method:

Wash and clean the greens in large amounts of water multiple times to remove all the dirt / sand. Drain water and chop it finely.

Heat oil / ghee in a wok. Add the mustard seeds and let it splutter.
Chop the onion, garlic, chillies, curry leaf (optional) finely and add to the wok.
Stir till onion turns soft.

Add the finely chopped greens and stir fry for 2 minutes. Cook covered for 1 more minute. Open the lid. Let all the moisture dries up.

Add salt, cumin and fry a bit. After the poriyal looks very loose without any moisture. Keep aside.
Before serving, heat the poriyal and break two eggs and pour over the stir fry. Scramble well to get tiny pieces. Then put the freshly shredded coconut.

Spinach scrambled egg is ready!

Serving suggestions:

Spinach scrambled egg can be served as a simple breakfast with sweet oatmeal.
It goes well with sambar rice , curd rice or rasam rice.

Repost for event

Priya of Priya's Easy N tasty recipes is hosting an event themed peas. I am sending my below entries for her fabulous events.

1.Green peas masala


2.Green peas pulav



3.Beach sundal

4.Urulaikilangu pattani curry


5.Pattani Kuruma



6.Paneer mattar masala


7.Moovarna poriyal


8. Masal vadai


Happy hosting Priya!

Onion bonda

Onion bonda / vengaya bonda is a spicy snack that can be seen in almost all the crowded tea shops in Southern Tamilnadu. I used to think if it is that strong flavored  fried big onion balls were attracting all the passersby:) Whenever I eat some onion rings after coming here,that flavor brings me back those memories and  I comfort myself saying that I will make my favorite onion bonda one day:) In India this is not commonly prepared in households because of the need for more frying oil and  so I too hesitate to use and reuse that much quantity of oil:) Recently I made this for us along with ginger tea on a cold winter evening and it came out just like that tea shop's:) 

Vengaya bonda.

Ingredients:

Red onion - 4 (big)
maida / All purpose flour - 4 tbsp
besan flour - 2 tbsp
green chillies - 6
red chilly powder - 1 tsp
hing / asafoetida - 1/8 tsp
salt - to taste
baking soda - 1/2 tsp
corn oil - 2 tbsp
corn oil - 250 ml (to deep fry)

Method:

Slice the onion in lengthwise to get medium thick pieces.
Finely chop the green chillies.
Place the chopped onion, curry leaf, chilly in a mixing bowl.
Add required salt and mix well without adding water.
Now add the measured flours, baking soda,hing, red chilly powder and mix well.
The water in the onion will be enough to moisten the flour.
Heat the oil in a deep frying pan.
When the oil becomes hot take out 2 tbsp hot oil from it and pour over the bonda batter. Mix well and make small orange size balls. Reduce flame. Put the balls in hot oil and fry them in medium flame. Do it in small batches (2 or 3 at a time) without crowding the oil.
The oil should be enough to cover the balls, otherwise the center will be uncooked.
The bonda will take more time to get fried completely. Frying in medium heat will ensure complete cooking till the core. After the bubbles subdue, take the bondas and drain excess oil in paper towels.
Before frying every batch of bonda heat the oil to maximum, then reduce it to medium and fry them.

Onion bonda is ready!

Serving suggestion:

Serve as tea time snack with hot tea or coffee.
It won't need any dipping.
But tomato ketchup or coconut chutney also suits well.
Makes a nice side dish with sambar rice or curd rice.

Note:

The frying process requires more oil than vadai and bajji because of the shape and size of the bonda balls. The bonda should be well immersed in hot oil to fry it completely. Water should not be added to make this bonda batter.

Fruit salad ice cream

I don't remember me craving for any kind of ice cream since my childhood except for this 'ice cream with fruit salad'. There is a bakery cum ice cream shop in my home town named Arasan ice cream parlor, which serves this fruit salad ice cream in tall glasses. They have their own versions like honey ice cream, fried nuts ice cream, ice cream cakes etc. It would be always crowded by people who want to enjoy their fabulous cakes, bakes and ice creams along with the ambiance. At that time it was the best meeting place for youngsters and We also used to enjoy this ice cream in a tall glass while dating.

It is very easy to make and we will get a grand looking dessert in minutes. Just a scoop of ice cream over finely chopped fruits will do the magic.I used homemade pomegranate ice cream in this recipe. Many a times I have felt this ice cream fruit salad to be very filling. So if we are planning to serve this as a dessert, make sure to plan a very light meal before that.

Pomegranate Ice cream with fruit salad.

Ingredients:(use any available fruit)

(for 2 servings)

Apple - 1/2 small
pear - small piece
orange - 2 pieces
green and red grapes - 6 each
pineapple - 1 round slice
pomegranate - a handful
strawberry - 2
cherry - 2
apple sauce /dates syrup / honey - 2 tbsp
Ice cream - 2 large scoops
(vanilla or any fruit flavored ice creams only)

Method:

Choose a very tall glass. Traditionally they are served in taller and leaner glasses. I have used these shorter glasses according to my need:)

Choose any seasonal fruit. But keep in mind, one should be crispy like apple the other with tangy taste like pine apple and the grapes are a must.

Finely chop all the fruits. Put them zip-lock cover and keep refrigerated.
Keep the apple and pear separately in lemon juice water to prevent discoloration.
(Put the chopped apple and pear in a bowl and pour enough water to cover. Squeeze few drops of lemon and mix well). The chopped fruits can be preserved for a few hours inside fridge. (If we want to get the benefits of fruits, start eating them immediately after chopping).

Mix all the fruits. Fill the glass half way with the mixed chopped fruits. Pour a generous tbsp of apple sauce or date syrup or honey over the fruit.
Place a big scoop of ice cream over it and top it with a cherry.
If needed insert a wafer biscuit on top along with cherry.

Fruit salad ice cream is ready!

Serving suggestion:

A tall glass and a long spoon will make the dish more attractive.
Serve as dessert or snack .
I like to have it as a breakfast itself:)

Desserts for Thanks giving

Before we enter into the next month, let me post the photos of the simple dessert table I kept for Thanks giving. It was not extremely formal but met my satisfaction to some level.

Here is how I planned the lunch....

*I started planning 5 days ahead and kept a check list as usual. It included some main points like preparing home made yogurt with whole milk, buying the ingredients, preparing desserts,grinding the masalas, preparing base masala, ghee making , marination time calculation.

*Buying some desserts instead of preparing is a good idea to reduce the stress. I bought an apple pie and some pomegranates to give it a real Thanksgiving look.

*On Monday I prepared the pistachio ice cream.

*I prepared a carrot cake and did icing to honor Jesus, saying 'Thank You'. I baked it by Tuesday and kept it refrigerated to get a even surface. Did the icing with store bought cream cheese frosting and home made colored icing, while the chicken was in the oven on Thursday morning.

I finished setting this dessert table, arranging all the dinnerware, serve ware on Wednesday, that made my job easy on Thanksgiving Thursday.

Keeping a side table solely for desserts and  dinnerware would make it easy.

*Keep all the coke / drinks in refrigerator for better taste, but leave a few in the table to give some idea to the guests.

Thanks giving cake.