Barley Broccoli Salad
Ingredients
- Barley 1 cup
- Broccoli crowns 1 cup
- Vegetable stock 3 cups
- Oil 1 tbsp
- black pepper 1 tsp
- Garlic, crushed 1 tsp
- sliced onions 1/2 cup
- soy sauce 1 tbsp
- Salt to taste
Procedure:
- Bring the vegetable stock to boil and add the barley to it. Reduce heat to medium low and cook for 30 minutes. Barley should be cooked by then.
- Heat oil in a saute pan on medium.
- Add the garlic and let it brown.
- Add the onions and let them brown.
- Saute the broccoli.
- Add the powdered pepper, soy sauce and salt.
- Add the cooked barley.
Crispy Dosa
The proportions for the batter are from vahchefs recipe on youtube. It takes 24 hours from soaking grains to ready-to-eat state
Ingredients
- Long grain rice 2 cups
- Urad dal 1 cup
- Chana dal 1/4 cup
- Methi seeds 1/2 tsp
- Salt to taste
- Oil for cooking
Procedure:
- Soak the rice, dals and methi seeds overnight or for 8 hours.
- Grind the mixture using approximately 2 cups of water.
- Cover the batter and let it ferment in a warm place for 12 hours.
- Preheat the tava. I usually preheat it at medium high for 5 minutes on electric range.
- Take 2 cups of fermented batter in a separate vessel and add water to it to form a pancake batter consistency. Add salt.
- Spoon 1/4 cup of mixture on the pan and spread it.
- Let to cook on medium high for 1 minute, add a few drops of oil around the rim of the dosa.
- Carefully seperate it from the pan using the flat dosa spoon.
To make the dosas:
Ammini kozhikattai reinvented
Made this dish for little Bee. Change of texture from the regular rice grain.
Ingredients
- Long grain rice 1 cup
- Water 2 cups
- Milk 1/2 cup
- Hing 1/2 tsp
- Pepper 1/2 tsp
- Vegetable oil 1 tbsp
- Salt 1 tsp
- Grated ginger 1 tsp
- Grated carrot 1/4 cup
Procedure
1. Rinse the rice 3 times and soak overnight in 2 cups of water.
2. Add the milk, hing, pepper, vegetable oil, salt and grated ginger and grind into thin watery mixture.
3. Stir the above mixture on medium heat in a saucepan for 10 mins. Stir constantly.
4. Add the grated carrot and continue stirring till the entire mixture turns into dough (around 2 minutes).
5. Cool the dough for 30 minutes.
Steam
7. Bring 1 cup of water to boil in a steamer/pressure cooker.
8. Form the dough into 1″ balls and steam for 8 minutes on medium-high.
If using pressure cooker to steam, remove the weight from the lid.
Idli moulds are ideal for this.
Enjoy with coconut chutney or gotsu.
Spinach paratha
This is a gourmet paratha.
Ingredients
For dough:
- Whole wheat flour 2 cups
- Oil 5 tbsps (very essential)
- Salt 1 tsp
- Water 1.25 cups
For filling:
- Spinach 5 cups
- Oil 1tbsp
- Salt 1 tsp
- chili powder to taste
Procedure
To make dough
- Mix the wheat flour, salt and oil till the mixture becomes crumbly.
- Add the water gradually and knead the mixture into a smooth dough (around 10 minutes).
- Apply a thin coating of oil around the dough to prevent drying.
- Cover and let it rest for atleast 10 minutes.
To make filling:
- Chop the spinach leaves and saute them in the oil.
- Add the spices and let the mixture cool.
- Squeeze the water out of the spinach
Roll out and cook the parathas.
- Take a ball of dough. For a shphere around 2 inches in diameter.
- Roll into a 5″ circle with long uniform strokes.
- Use all-purpose flour for dusting.
- Spread 1 tbsp spinach mixture.
- Pull dough inwards and press at center gently to for a triangle.
- Roll out into thin triangle around 1.5 mm thick.
Cook
- Heat griddle on medium high.
- Place paratha.
- Cook on each side for 1 minute.
- Baste surface with ghee or butter.
Tip: Try the same covering with any vegetable filling of your choice.
Aloo Gobi
This seemingly easy dish is quite deceptive. Until recently I used to always end up with mashed potatoes with cauliflower mixed in. Not anymore. Here is the recipe:
Ingredients
- Potatoes 3 medium
- Cauliflower florets 3 cups
- Onion (sliced) 1
- Cilantro 1/4 cup
- Basil and/or parsley 1 tsp (Optional)
- Lemon Juice 1 tbsp
- Salt 1/2 tsp or to taste
- Pepper 1 tsp
- Chilli powder/Cayenne pepper 1/2 tsp
- Turmeric 1/2 tsp
- Oil 2 tbsp
- Water 1/2 cup
Steps:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a baking pan with foil.
2. Wash and peel potatoes, cut them into pieces that are approximately 1 inch in each dimension. Place them in a bowl of water.
3. In a mixing bowl stir in the salt, pepper,chili powder turmeric, herbs and 1 tbsp oil.
4. Mix the potatoes, sliced onions and cauliflower florets into to above mixture and spread on the foil. Sprinkle 1/2 cup water on the mixture.
5. Cover the roasting pan with silver foil and bake it for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes uncover it and bake it for a further 20 minutes.
6. In a pan heat 1 tbsp oil. Add 1/2 tsp mustard seeds. Once mustard start popping add 1.5 tsp of cumin seeds. Stir in the baked mixture and let the flavors mingle for 5 minutes. Stir occasionally. At this point it should be done.
Ragi Roti with Bell Pepper Curry
For Roti
Ingredients
- Ragi flour 1 and 1/4 cups
- All purpose flour 1 cup
- Oil (olive or vegetable) 2 tbsps
- Salt 1tsp
- Water, (lukewarm) 1 cup
Procedure
1. Mix the ingredients to make a dough
2. Roll out into 7 inch diameter rotis/tortillas.
3. Cook on griddle/tava.
For Bell Pepper Curry
Ingredients
- Green Bell Pepper, diced 3
- Besan 3 tbsps
- Onion, finely chopped 1/2 cup
- Oil 1 tbsp
- Black mustard seeds 1/4 tsp
- Cumin seeds 1/2 tsp
- Turmeric 1/2 tsp
- Chilli powder 1/8 tsp
- Salt to taste
- Water 1 tbsp
Procedure:
1. Preheat a pan, dry roast the besan on medium. Stir continously. Take it off the heat once it starts browning. It takes around 7 minutes on my electric burner.
2. In a seperate pan, heat the oil.
3. Add the mustard seeds, once they start spluttering add the cumin seeds. Once the cumin seeds start browning add the onion.
4. Add the chilli powder, turmeric.
5. Once the onion turns transclusent, add the green bell peppers.
6. Once the bell peppers are cooked add the salt and roasted besan. Stir continuously.
7. Sprinkle the water and reduce heat to medium low. Let it cook for 5 minutes.
Spinach roti
Ingredients
- Wheat flour 2 cups
- Oil (olive or vegetable) 2 tbsps
- Salt 1tsp
- Water, (lukewarm) 1 cup
- Spinach 2 cups
Procedure
If using food processor to make the dough (I use the metal S-blade.):
1. Put the flour, oil, salt in the food processor and pulse the contents so they are blended.
2. Add the chopped spinach and pulse the contents to blend. Mixture will have a coarse texture and a green shade due to the spinach.
3. Add the lukewarm water and switch on the food processor. Mixture should form dough.
4. Roll out into 7 inch diameter rotis/tortillas.
5. Cook on griddle/tava.
Neer Dosa
Ingredients
- Raw rice 1 cup
- Coconut (fresh, frozen or dessicated) 1/2 cup
- Water 3 and 1/2 cups
- Salt
Method
- Soak the rice for 2 hours in 5 cups of water.
- If using dessicated coconut, put the dessicated coconut in 1 cup of warm water and let it stand for 2 minutes.
- Grind the rice and coconut into a thin batter using a total of 3.5 cups of water.
- Heat the pan on medium-high for 5 minutes.
- Pour the batter one ladle at a time. No need to spread the batter. The mixture will start forming holes as soon as it hits the pan. I ladle as much batter as will spread the entire pan.
- After 1 minute, pur drops of oil at various spots on the dosa. Flip it over after 4 mins and cook for 1 more minute on medium high. It took around 5 minutes per dosa on medium high.
Raw rice puttu
I have finally arrived at this recipe after multiple trial and errors.
Ingredients
- Raw rice 1 cup
- Coconut (freshly grated or desicated) 1/2 cup
- Salt 1/2 tsp
- Water 3 cups
Special implements
Puttu kodam
Procedure
Making the rice powder
1. Wash rice 3 times and let it soak in 4 cups of water for 1 hour.
2. Strain the water and spread the rice on a towel that will abosorb the water on the surface of the grains. I spread it on half of the towel and cover the rice layer with the other half of the towel. Let it sit for 15 minutes.
3. Grind the rice as fine as you can. The finer it is, the better the texture of the puttu.
4. Heat a pan on medium, once the pan is warm add the powdered rice. Reduce heat to medium-low and stir the rice powder continuously for 5 minutes . At the end of this step you should be able to draw a line with the powder. The powder will still have a moist texture. Empty the powder into a mixing bowl.
Making the rice mixture
1. Add the salt.
2. If using the fresh coconut add it as is.
**If using desicated coconut, warm 1 cup of water in microwave for 30 seconds. Add the desicated coconut and let it sit for 2 minutes. Strain out the coconut and add to flour.
3. Mix the rice powder + coconut and salt. Usually the coconut should have enough moisture. The consistency of of the mixture should be crumbly and without big lumps.
Steaming
Bring 2 cups of water to a boil in the puttu cooker, put half the rice mixture into the cylinder. Steam on medium high for 5 minutes.
Bread Upma
This is a recipe my mother makes and it is super delicious. I make it with homemade white bread that adds to the taste. It is great for a weekend brunch.
Time to table: 30 minutes
Time of active effort: 10 minutes
Ingredients
- Oil 2 tbsps
- Mustard seeds 1/2 tsp
- Cumin seeds 1 tsp
- Asafoetida 1/8 tsp or a pinch
- Turmeric 1/2 tsp
- Red Chilli powder 1/4 tsp
- Cilantro, chopped 5 stalks with leaves
- Onions chopped 1/2 cup
- Tomatoes, canned 1/2 can or 3 fresh tomaoes diced
- Salt 1 tsp
- White bread, cubed 10 slices
Procedure
1. Heat 1 tbsp of oil in a pan on medium heat and add the mustard seeds.
2. When the mustard seeds start spluttering add the cumin seeds and asafoetida.
3. Add the cilantro and mix with the above mixture.
4. Add the onions and saute till they become transclusent.
5. In a separate mixing bowl, mix the bread cubes, salt, turmeric, chilli powder and 1 tbsp oil so that the spice mixture coats the bread cubes.
6. Add the diced tomatoes to the sauted mixture and continue sauteing for 5 mins. reduce heat to medium low.
7. Add the bread cubes mixture to the sauted ingredients and let it cook for 10 minutes. Stir every couple of minutes. If the mixture is too dry sprinke 1 tbsp water. The bread pieces shouls start browning.
Serve and enjoy.
