Mixed dhal Dhokla

I learned this recipe from my neighbor, shukla Aunty. Mostly she prepares everything from scratch and would be more than happy to share her detailed recipes. I would immediately memorize and write down, while we swap our best dishes on weekends. On the other day she taught me to make dhokla from scratch. As I wanted to try on my own, she suggested using my 6 inch cake pan to steam this dhokla (as I wanted to try it first before buying a proper dhokla maker). Believe me this is a very easy one, just like idly. The dhoklas came out very soft and fluffy, but little bigger than the usual:) we can arrive at the correct thickness if using lesser batter or  a dhokla plate.

Ingredients:

Rice - 3/4 cup
Channa dhal - 1 cup
(Bengal gram)
urad dhal - 1/4 cup
(black gram lentil)
moong dhal - 1/4 cup
(green gram lentil)
salt - to taste
Indian plain yogurt - 1 cup
ginger - 1 inch
green chilly - 2

Garnish:

lemon - 1/2
sugar - 1 tbsp
Sesame oil - 2 tbsp
sesame seed - 1 tbsp
mustard - 1/2 tsp
cilantro (chopped)- 2 tbsp
green chilly - 3
asafoetida - a pinch
ENO fruit salt or baking soda - 1/2 tsp

Method:

Soak the dhals and rice together for 4 hours.
Grind together, add salt and curd / yogurt.
Let it ferment in room temperature for 8 hours or overnight.
Grind ginger + green chilly and mix with batter.
Keep refrigerated till we need.

Steaming the dokhla:

Take out 1 1/2 cups of batter in a separate vessel.
10 minutes before steaming the dokla, add the ENO or baking soda.
(I added ENO's fruit salt. Actually the authentic version won't call for ENO or baking soda. Just the plain fermented batter is enough).
Coat the dokhla pan or a small cake pan with a tsp of oil
Finely chop the chillies and mix few with the batter.
Pour into the pan.
Steam cook for 20 - 30 minutes or till a chop stick comes clean.
(see the photo for steaming technique. we can do it inside pressure cooker without placing the pressure valve also).

Garnish:

Take out the dhokla and place on a serving plate.

In a wok heat oil and let mustard splutter. Then switch off and immediately add sesame seeds,hing (asafoetida), finely chopped cilantro,curry leaf, chillies. Saute for a minute. Mix lemon juice, sugar, salt and add to garnish. Now pour it over the prepared dhokla. Slice and serve.

Alternatively, we can slice the dhokla and add to the fried seasoning.

Serving suggestion:

Serve as snack with tea.
Makes a good breakfast also.
Cilantro chutney is a good side dish.
The next day, I sauteed the left over dhokla like idly uppuma and that too tasted yummy with  a dash of idly podi:)

Note:
 In this recipe instead of the mixed dhals, we can just use channa dhal alone to get the traditional dhokla.
Very good dish for people looking for protein rich , less oily spicy snacks.

Ridgegourd greengram koottu

Instead of the regular green gram lentil ( paasi paruppu, moong dhal) I added some sprouted green gram to the ridge gourd koottu and it turned out great.

Here is an easy way to include more fiber to the regular ridge gourd poriyal.

Ingredients:

ridge gourd (peerkan kaai) - 250 gm
sprouted green gram - 1/2 cup

To grind:

shredded coconut - 1/4 cup
green chillies - 2
cumin - 1 tsp

To temper:

Mustard seed - 1/2 tsp
black gram lentil (urad dhal) - 1 tbsp
oil - 1 tbsp
curry leaf - 1 sprig
onion - 1 (1/2 cup chopped)

Sprouting:

Wash the green gram and soak it for 6 hours. Drain the water now.
Choose a new cloth (thin small towel) and wash it with water.
Place the wet cloth over a colander and put the soaked green gram, tie the cloth using a thread. Place this bundle inside a vessel and keep closed for 24 hours.
Open the pack and now we can see the green gram sprouts. Rinse again and keep refrigerated till use.

Method:

Peel the skin of the ridge gourd. Chop it into small cubes.
Heat oil in a wok and add the mustard , urad dhal. After the mustard splutter put the curry leaf, finely chopped onion and let it wilt.
Add the sprouted green gram and cook for a few minutes. Now add the chopped ridge gourd and cook covered with a tbsp of water.
Add required salt.
Grind the items given and add to the vegetable.
Let it come to a boil and switch off.
Ridgegourd koottu is ready!

Serving suggestion:

Serve as vegetarian side dish with any rice or chapati.

Note:

*This koottu can be prepared with / without sprouted green gram.
Dry green gram can be soaked for an hour and pressure cooked for 3 whistles to cook it. Add the cooked green gram to the koottu and do the same.
*Channa dal, green gram lentil can also be used instead. The regular version calls for green gram lentil (paasi paruppu).
* The skin of ridge gourd (peerkan kai thol / peel) can be used to make peerkan kai thol chutney.

Whole chicken fry (Indian style)

In India some popular non veg restaurants attract the customers by displaying this mouthwatering red colored crispy whole fried chicken or whole tandoori chicken by lunch and dinner time. I am always attracted by colorful foods and love to try at home than eating out. Instead of the deep frying technique they use in hotels, I make this by shallow frying.   Recently I made this whole chicken fry remembering my mom. Many years back, I learned this recipe from my mom and it is always handy for me. Mom was always praised for her newer cooking styles and hospitality. Happy cooking makes delicious meals and pleasant memories and it is true with us always. Passing on this for all the chicken lovers out there:)

Marination:
Whole chicken -  1.5 kg (3 lb)
lemon - 1
salt - 2 tbsp
red chilly powder - 2 tsp
black pepper powder - 1 tsp
cumin powder - 1 tsp
garam masal powder /curry powder - 1 tsp
ginger garlic paste - 2 tbsp
turmeric - 1 tsp
red food color - 2 pinch (optional but looks good)

Clean the chicken after removing the skin.  The wings can have some skin on.
Wash well. Prick all over using a fork.
Apply salt and lemon juice and keep aside.
In the mean time mix all the other ingredients for marination and rub over the chicken and insert some marination inside too.
Keep this marinated chicken for 1 hour or inside a zip lock pouch and keep refrigerated overnight. (I fried after 1 hour, didn't do overnight marination this time).

Frying the chicken:

Heat a heavy bottom wok with 1/2 cup oil. (Frying in ghee or butter is the best. Coconut oil also makes the chicken tastes good). Or use any frying oil.
First put the breast side down and fry in medium flame for 10 minutes.
Flip carefully and put a tight lid. Cook covered in low heat for 15 minutes.
Again flip and cook covered for 10 minutes.
Now take out  the lid and fry in medium heat both sides, till it is completely fried and becomes red.

Whole chicken fry is ready!

Note:
More care should be taken while flipping the chicken, if the wok is not heavy.
Keep the wok in the back burner and hold tightly while flipping.
Always fry the chicken in low to medium heat.
Cook covered and ensure if it is completely fried before serving.
Time taken : 40 minutes in low - medium heat.

Whole fried chicken served.

Serving Suggestion:

Serve hot with briyani or kushka or parotta and raitha.
Squeeze 1/2 a lemon over the fried chicken before serving.

Lemon juice

Here is a simple lime / lemon juice for the summer. My amma used to make this drink whenever there was a guest, as we there is a big lemon tree in my appa's house. At first we had a large lime variety called 'Malta lime' and then we planted this country lemon tree there. That was our everyday cooldrink in childhood during summer and I love the way how amma used to make it in large vessel for many. Happy memories and cool cool drinks linger in our minds forever !

Ripe Lemon fruits are bright yellow and oblong in shape. These lemons were as big as an apple:)

Ingredients:

Lemon or lime - 1 (big)
water - 6 cup
sugar - 3 tsp per cup of water or more
rose essence - 1 drop
ice cubes - 3 per glass

Method:

Dissolve sugar in water and squeeze the lemon to it.
Add the rose essence and filter the juice to remove any seeds.
Keep refrigerated till use or serve immediately.
Pour in glass tumblers and serve with ice cubes.

Lemon juice is ready!

Note:

1. Some people prefer adding salt instead of sugar (1/4 tsp per glass).
2. This plain lemon juice can be enhanced by adding plain soda (carbonated water).
3. Adding a tsp of nannari sarbet (Indian sarsaparilla sherbet)syrup to this will taste great.
4. This plain lime juice tastes good with white sugar only.
5. If refrigerated, serve within a day to ensure fresh smell.

Potato fry

Potato is a must for us at least once in a week:) Here is my amma's (mom) favorite potato fry, which she would make along with sambar or lemon rice often. She would always use coconut oil in most of the cooking like tempering, that would take this usual potato fry to the next level. I too love the coconut oil flavor in this fry. Try this and enjoy!

Ingredients:

Potato - 4 (200 gm)
red onion - 1
coconut oil - 2 tbsp
fennel - 1 tsp
red chilly powder - 1 tsp
garam masala powder - 1/2 tsp
salt - to taste

Method:

Peel and cut the potato and onion into small cubes.
Heat oil in a thick bottom wok and add fennel.
After it starts becoming mild red, add the onion and saute till it wilts.
Then add the potato and fry for 2 minutes.
Reduce the heat, add salt and cook covered.
After it is cooked and starts turning little crispy , add the chilly powder and masala powder. Again stir till raw smell vanishes.
Switch off.
Potato fry is ready!

Serving suggestion:

Serve hot with sambar rice, curd rice, lemon rice or chapathi.
Makes a good side dish for lemon rice for picnics.

Alfredo sauce

Fettuccine pasta with alredo sauce is our favorite whenever we visit any restaurant. One day I wanted to make some pasta at home and bought a bottle of the alfredo sauce but it tasted different than what we tasted. Then I learned that the restaurants make it fresh always and it is very easy too. There are many ways to prepare this milky white satin like alfredo sauce. I wanted to try one with cream cheese, as I heard from many about that. Then I got the basic recipe from cooks.com and modified it according to need. This is the basic alfredo sauce without alcohol and broth. This sauce tastes similar to the restaurants and now I am confident that I can make a decent alfredo sauce whenever we need.

Any cream cheese can be used. I used a low fat version.

Fettuccine pasta in alfredo sauce.

Ingredients:

(for 2 people)
unsalted Butter - 2 tbsp
cream cheese - 4 tbsp
all purpose flour - 2 tbsp
salt - to taste
pepper - 1 tsp
garlic powder - 1/2 tsp
Italian seasoning - 1/4 tsp
mozzarella cheese - 3 tbsp
whole milk - 1/2 cup or more

Method:

Heat a wok and add butter. Keep the flame in low. Add the flour and cook for a minute without changing the color. Add milk and bring to a boil. Then put all other ingredients and mix well. Cook till cheese melts and sauce looks like smooth.

Serving suggestion:

Cook pasta according to directions in the package.
Add the alfredo sauce to the drained cooked pasta and mix well.
Top it with some more shredded cheese and serve.

Chicken biriyani in cooker

Briyani in cooker is not traditional, but surely a good method when we have to prepare in a small quantity or for a lunch box. My mom would prepare dum briyani only for festivals as it was a time taking process back then. As a 12 year old, I started involving in cooking with mom when I fell in love with the vast ingredients she would use for briyani:) She would like me to keep the kitchen and store room neat, stocked up and organized...may be that was the first lesson before chopping veggies:) After learning her vegetable briyani in cooker, I started preparing chicken briyani in pressure cooker cooker too, which was more easier (till I learned the wedding briyani). On seeing this she too started making cooker briyani quite often. Slowly it became a family favorite meal like a kichadi. My younger brother is a huge fan of my briyanis and would wake up on a Sunday earlier (by noon), only if I say I am making briyani or some non-veg dish:) Just like any sister, his smile makes me more enthusiastic and I tried to comfort him with his favorites always. So a few weekdays too, I would get up very early and prepare this for his lunch box to cheer him up. Recently he browsed through all my recipes and couldn't find his favorite cooker briyani recipe while suggesting his friends and asked for a recipe. Dedicating this simple, easy and quick briyani to venkatesh ,his colleagues and all:)

Chicken briyani with onion tomato pachadi (raita).

Ingredients:

Chicken - 1/2 kg

Other Ingredients:

Basmathi rice / Jeeraga samba raw rice - 1/2 kg (3 cup)
salt - to taste
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
chilly powder - 1 tsp
Red onion - 1 (big)
green chillis - 6 (slit).
Lemon - 1/4
water - (rice x 2) - 2 = (3x2) - 2 = 4
(this is for cooker. For dum process it is 'minus 1')
curd - 1/2 cup
garam masala / briyani masala powder - 2 tsp

To temper: (whole spices)

bay leaves - 2
cashew nuts -10
raisins- 10.
ghee -  5 tbsp

Masala 1:

Tomato - 2

Masala 2:
cilantro- 20 tender plants
mint leaf -1 cup leaves
green chilly - 10
cashew - 5

Masala 3:

Ginger - 2 inch
Garlic - 1 full

Preparation:

Buy chicken red meat(thighs, wings, drumsticks with skin and bone). Breast piece won't give the proper taste.
wash and clean the chicken and cut into big pieces.
Add curd, turmeric powder, salt, chilly powder and marinate for 1 - 3 hours.

Wash the rice and soak it for 1/2 an hour.

Grind all the pastes separately.

Chop onion, chilly into long thin slices and keep aside.

Method:

Heat ghee  in a broad vessel or cooker.
Add the bay leaves and items given under tempering.
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.
Then add the cilantro , mint paste and cook till the oil start oozing out. Now put the marinated chicken and add salt, powdered garam masala. Cook covered in low heat till oil separates. Check the taste now. It should be little more salty.
Now add the soaked rice and uncut green chillies to the cooker vessel along with the prepared masala. Squeeze some lime juice over. Fry for a minute.
Before this start boiling the require water separately and pour water to rice, mix well. Let it come to a boil.(Boiling the water before adding helps in evenly cooking the rice , otherwise sometimes we get some uncooked rice while making briyani).
Close with the cooker lid and put a pressure valve.

(I use a cooker vessel inside the cooker and pour some water around the base cooker, just like idly cooking. Mine is a 10 liter cooker, but we can prepare it directly in cooker if we have a small pressure cooker).

Wait till a whistle comes. Reduce the flame to medium and cook for exactly 5 minutes. Switch off and open lid once the pressure is gone completely (5 minutes).
Add a little ghee over the biriyani and wait for 5 minutes. Don't stir for first 5 minutes (makes it mushy).

Chicken biriyani in cooker is ready!

Serving suggestions:

Take out the briyani carefully without mashing the whole rice and serve hot.
Serve hot chicken biryani with onion raitha and a gravy / fry.
Serves 4 people or more people.