Coconut Rice

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Ingredients

1 cup raw Rice (cooked in such a way that each grain is separate)
2 Tablespoons grated coconut (fresh/frozen)
1 teaspoon oil
1 teaspoon urud dal (black gram dal)
1 teaspoon chana dhal (bengal gram dal)
2 tablespoons peanuts (ground nuts)
3 to 4 green/red chillies(adjust to your spice level)
pinch of asafoetida
few curry leaves
salt to taste
Method

1) Heat oil, fry urud dal, chana dal and ground nuts until they turn brown.

2) Add green/red chillies, curry leaves, asafoetida fry for few seconds

3) Finally add grated coconut and salt and mix with rice.

Serve with any vegetables curry/gravy or as it is.

Curd (Yogurt) Rice

Ingredients

1/4th cup rice
1/4th cup broken wheat
1 teaspoon minced ginger
few mustard seeds
pinch of asafoetida
2 green chillies
1/2 teaspoon Oil
Curd (Yogurt) and salt
Method

Pressure Cook rice and broken wheat in 1 1/2 cup water and mash with Yogurt and salt. For tempering, heat 1/2 teaspoon oil splutter mustard seeds,add green chillies,ginger and curry leaves and fry for few seconds and mix this with the rice.

Serve cool with your favourite pickle.

Variations

You can use half milk and half yogurt if you like to reduce the sour taste and 3/4th milk and 1/4th Yogurt if you are going to eat the rice after many hours

Aloo Jeera

Saturday, January 24, 2009

This is very easy to make. No need to keep stirring in a pan and keep watching all the time to make sure it will not burn.

Here is the recipe
Ingredients

4 medium Potatoes chopped thin and long along with skin
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
1 teaspoon red chilli powder
1 teaspoon coriander powder
salt to taste
1 Tablespoon oil
Method

1) Add oil and cumin seeds to the microwave safe container and heat at high for 1 min

2) Now add chopped potato and chilli, coriander and turmeric powders along with salt and mix them nicely and cover and cook in microwave until it is cooked. Garnish with chopped coriander leaves.

You can use this as a side dish with rice or Rotis/chapathis.

It got cooked in 12 mins for me and i just stirred once inbetween. It turned out very tasty and I just spent less than 5 mins totally.

Tips

I used a big rectangular shaped microwave safe container which has cover so that all the potato pieces are separate and will cook evenly and also no need to stir many times in between to allow the pieces at the bottom to cook.

You can add paprika(mild chilli powder) instead of chilli powder and can give kids as it is.

Rice with 3 bell peppers (Capcicum)

Monday, January 19, 2009

If you have not tried this then it is something which you have to try. This is one of those quick to make with great health benefits. I used 3 colors(red, yellow and green) of bell peppers or capcicums for this recipe but this can be made with any one color.

Bell peppers are low in Saturated Fat, Cholesterol, and Sodium, high in Dietary Fiber, Vitamin A, Vitamin C, Vitamin E, Vitamin K, Vitamin B6, Potassium, Manganese, Thiamin, Riboflavin, Niacin, Folate, Pantothenic Acid and Magnesium

The nutritional value of bell pepper makes it ideal for Maintaining optimum health & Weight loss. They are good for eye sight, heart and lung health.

Ingredients

2 cups raw rice (cook in such a way that each grain is seperate)
3 to 4 large Bell peppers (I used red, yellow and green) (thinly sliced)
1 Tablespoon Ghee(Clarified butter) or oil
1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds
curry leaves (optional)
1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
pinch of asafoetida

For Spice Powder (Podi)

2 whole red chillies (adjust to your spice level)
1 teaspoon coriander seeds
1 tsp black gram dal (minappappu)
1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
1/2 teaspoon pepper corns
4 cloves
1 " piece cinnamon stick
2 Tablespoons sesame seeds
2 Tablespoons cup roasted groundnuts
Method

Keep the rice in pressure cooker, meanwhile prepare for the spice and vegetable mix.

1) Heat 1/2 teaspoon oil and add cumin seeds and black gram Dal, once Dal turns light brown add red chillies, coriander seeds, black pepper, cloves and cinnamon and fry for a min. At the end add roasted peanuts and sesame seeds and fry for few seconds, remove from flame and cool

2) Grind the above ingredients into powder and keep aside

3) Heat 1 tablespoon Ghee, splutter mustard seeds add curry leaves, asafoetida and turmeric powder.

4) Now add the sliced Bell peppers and fry for 3 to 4 mins. Do not fry for long time to maintain the crispy texture. Add the spice powder and salt and mix for a min.

5) Mix the above spice/vegetable mix with the rice and server hot with Raita

Notes:

This can be made with most of the vegetables like carrots, beans, peas etc

Broccoli fry (Curry)

Friday, January 16, 2009

Some facts about Broccoli are it is high in vitamin C, vitamin K and soluble fiber and contains multiple nutrients with potent anti-cancer properties including diindolylmethane and selenium. Broccoli is usually boiled or steamed, but may be eaten raw. The benefits of broccoli are greatly reduced if the vegetable is boiled more than ten minutes.

I started liking this when I had first time in one of my client's home in UK, they just steamed with little bit of salt. it was crunchy and not cooked too much. From that day I started buying Broccoli and made many variations in Indian style. If you want to reduce weight this is a great vegetable to eat because it contains very less calories.
Method

Fry it for less than 10mins with littie bit of oil and salt. Add some drops of water if required in middle so that it will not burn. If you like it spicy just add some chilli powder.

Notes

1) You can garnish with grated coconut at the end

2) You can also use pressure cooker to steam them but make sure they are half cooked then only they taste good. I have tried cooking completely but it did not taste good

Tomato Soup

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

This soup is very quick to make with fresh ingredients. This is same as the Rasam I posted before but with some less ingredients to make it quick but still fresh and great taste.

Cooking time : 10 mins
Serves : 3

Ingredients

3 large tomatoes
4 garlic cloves
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 teaspoon cumin powder
1 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
1/2 teaspoon sugar
2 teaspoons corn flour
1 teaspoon dried basil
salt to taste
Method

1) Blend tomatoes,garlic & cumin powder with 1/2 cup water into very smooth paste and keep aside

2) In a pan heat olive oil, add the tomato paste and bring it to boil. Meanwhile mix 2 teaspoons corn flour in 1/2 cup water and add to the pan and cook for couple of minutes

3) Now add sugar, salt, pepper and dried basil and serve hot.

Yellow Fried Rice with peas

Friday, January 9, 2009

I was in hurry today but need to make something for lunch very quick and made this very simple rice with peas and great blend of spices. It is very very easy to make, delicious & packed with flavors. I was able to wrap up in 5 mins and kept in rice cooker which got cooked by the time I got ready to work.

Ingredients:

* 1 cup basmati rice
* 1/2 cup green peas ( I used frozen peas)
* 2 cups water
* 1 Tablespoon Oil ( I used Ghee to get nice aroma)
* salt to taste

Spices

* Pinch of asafetida
* 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
* 1 teaspoon mustard seeds
* 4 whole red chilies
* 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
* 2 bay leaves
* 5 to 6 cloves
* About 1 inch piece of cinnamon stick
Method

1) Wash the rice, drainand keep aside.(if you have time it is better to soak rice for 15 mins to 30 mins)

2) Heat Oil (or Ghee) in a pan and splutter cumin and mustard seeds. Add all the remaining spices and fry for 30 seconds or less then add green peas and salt and fry for 2 mins

3) Add rice and fry for another minute and then add water and cook until rice is cooked. I used rice cooker to cook this since i did not have time to monitor pressure cooker or to cook directly in the same vessel.

This goes well with Raitha (perugu pachadi) but I just packed lunch with plain Yogurt :-)

Notes:

you can use vegetables like beans, carrot etc along with peas.