Quick Green Chutney

When you want to make chutney and you don't have much time on hand, this will save the day. In fact this doesn't involve the stove at all, except for the seasoning! We made this when we were out of cooking gas and made idlis in the electric rice cooker.

Ingredients:

1. Roasted gram dal (Pottu kadalai in Tamil; Kadale pappu in Kannada) - 3 tsp.
2. Grated coconut - 1/2 cup
3. Green chillies - 2
4. Coriander leaves - a handful
5. Salt - to taste
6. Oil - 1 tsp.
7. Mustard - 1 tsp.

Procedure:

1. Just grind together all the above ingredients with a little water and the chutney is ready. 
2. Season with mustard spluttered in oil.

Variations:

1. M-I-L adds garlic and ginger to the same.
2. Mom reduces the coconut and increases the gram and calls it 'healthy'. Trust me, its not tasty though!

Onion Chutney

For all those who want a coconut-free tasty chutney. Mom invented this for dad when he was ailing and it tastes yummy! Tastes very good with dosas!

Ingredients:

1. Onions - 3 or 4 medium sized
2. Urad dal or whole urad - 2 tsp.
3. Red chillies - 3 
4. Tamarind - 1/2 inch piece (negligible amount)
5. Salt - To taste.
6. Oil - 3 tsp. + 1 tsp. for seasoning
7. Mustard - 1 tsp.

Procedure

1. Chop the onions.
2. In a kadai, heat oil and roast urad dal till it turns brown.
3. Add the chopped onions and fry for a long time till the onion turns golden brown. Add the red chillies and fry for 30 more seconds.
4. Grind the above together in a mixie along with salt, tamarind and little water.
5. Season with mustard seeds spluttered in hot oil.

Groundnut Chutney

M-I-L's recipe and G's favorite chutney....until he got married! Tastes best with Idlis or Ragi Dosa.

Ingredients:

1. Groundnuts - 1/2 cup
2. Jeera - 2 tsp.
3. Garlic - 6 pods
4. Grated coconut - 1 tbsp.
5. Red chilles - 2 or 3
6. Oil - 3 tsp.
7. Mustard
8. Salt - to taste
9. Tamarind - 1/2 inch piece ( very little)

Procedure:

1. Dry roast the groundnuts till the groundnuts start changing color.  Add jeera and red chillies and roast for half a minute more. You may add 1 tsp. of oil while roasting jeera and red chillies.
2. Grind the roasted groundnuts, jeera, garlic pods, coconut, tamarind piece and salt in a mixie with little water.
3. Heat oil, add mustard. When the mustard splutters, season the chutney with it.

 

Kondakadalai(Chickpeas) Sambhar

I don't believe I'm blogging this! This is mom's invention and I love it!

Ingredients:

1. Kabuli Chana (Chickpeas) - 1 cup ( soaked for 4 hours)
2. Chana Dal - 2 tsp.
3. Dhania (coriander seeds)- 2 tsp.
4. Dry red chillies - 3
5. Solid Hing (Asafoetida) - 1/2 inch piece
6. Curry leaves -  1 sprig
7. Grated coconut - 3-4 tsp.
8. Tamarind - the size of a small lemon ( didn't know how to put it in words, so borrowed from age-old recipes) 
9. Mustard - 1 tsp.
10. Oil - 1 tbsp.
11. Salt - to taste

Procedure:

For the masala:

1. In a kadai, add 2 tsp of oil and roast chana dal, dhania, hing, red chillies. Add curry leaves in the end.
2. Transfer these to a mixie, add grated coconut and a little water and grind into a paste.

For the sambhar:

1. Pressure cook the chickpeas with water till the level of the chickpea and a little salt. Do not drain the water after it is cooked.
2. Soak the tamarind in warm water and extract the pulp.
3. Heat oil in a vessel and add mustard.
4. When the mustard splutters, add the tamarind pulp and boil till the raw smell of tamarind is gone.
5. Add the chickpeas , ground masala and salt.
6. Bring to a boil. Boil for 2-3 minutes and turn off flame.

Serve hot with Rice.

Plantain Pith Soup

Picked up this idea from a road-side soup stall in Chennai. If you live in Chennai, soup stalls are a common sight. I was surprised to see one in Bangalore too, outside Total Mall on Airport Road. This soup gives you a "taste bhi, health bhi" feeling! Doesn't look very tantalizing though...Any suggestions for making it not look dirty brown are welcome!

Ingredients: 

1. Plantain Pith - 4 inches long
2. Garlic - 6 pods
3. Onion - 1 medium sized
4. Butter - 2 tsp.
5. Corn Flour - 3 tsp. dissolved in 50 ml. water without lumps
6. Salt and Pepper - as per taste
7. Coriander leaves - for garnishing

Procedure:

1. Finely mince the plantain pith , garlic, green chillies  and onions.
2. In a kadai, heat the butter and lightly sauté the garlic, green chillies and onions.
3. Add the plantain pith to this and continue to sauté for 2-3 minutes.
4. Add around 100 ml of water, close and cook for 5 minutes.
5. Add more water ( around 800 ml) and bring to a boil.
6. Add salt and pepper.
7. While it is boiling add the corn flour very slowly and keep stirring. The soup will start thickening. Stop when the required thickness is reached.
8. Remove from flame and garnish with very finely chopped coriander leaves.

Variation:

The soup stalls serve the soup garnished with fried cornflakes. They go crunch-crunch. Add them if you like it that way!

Butter Cookies

I really don't remember when I learnt this recipe and from whom.All I remember is that I eagerly tried this out as soon as we bought an OTG and it was a big hit.

Ingredients:

1. Wheat flour or Maida - 2 cups
2. Powdered Sugar - 2 cups
3. Melted butter ( or soft butter at room temperature) -  2 cups
4. Powdered Cardamom seeds - 1/2 tsp
5. Baking soda - 1/2 tsp.

Procedure:

1. Sift the flour with sugar powder and baking soda in a bowl through a sieve.
2. Add Cardamom powder to melted butter and pour this slowly into the flour and gently mix. Add enough butter to make a soft dough. The dough will not be elastic, instead it will be slightly coarse and slippery.
3. Roll out small balls of around 2 cm diameter and flatten them like patties. Let the patties be around 1 cm thick. You may wish to use a cutter to shape them. Arrange 5-6 of them in a baking tray. Place them slightly far apart as the cookies will increase a little in size while baking.
4. Preheat the oven and bake for 15-20 minutes at 200 degrees C. 

Chinese Veg. Steamed Rice

First tasted this dish in Wan-Ley, a small, dark, scary Chinese outlet in Indiranagar. You get this in Beijing Bytes too but doesn't match the level of Wan-Ley.
Tastes yummy with Manchurian gravy. Its bland and soothing to the tummy and induces good sleep! Quick to make and a good choice when you want to use up vegetables.
Somehow I never found the proper recipe for this on the net, so just improvised. And it worked!

Ingredients:

1. Jeera rice - 1 cup
2. Ginger Garlic Paste - 1 tsp.
3. Chopped vegetables ( Carrots, Cabbage, Beans, Cauliflower, Baby Corn, Capsicum, Spinach etc. - cut into 1 inch pieces) - 2 cups
4. Corn Flour - 3-4 tsp dissolved  in water.
5. Soya sauce - 2-3 drops
6. Ajinomoto - 1/4 tsp. (Optional)
7. Oil - 2-3 tsp.
8. Salt - to taste

Procedure:

1. Cook the rice and vegetables in a cooker using separators. (Cook rice with a little more water than usual to make it starchy. Add water till the level of the vegetables while cooking). After cooking, keep the rice aside and separate the vegetables and the stock.
2. In a Kadai, heat oil and fry the ginger garlic paste. Add the vegetable stock to it and bring to a boil.
3. Slowly add the dissolved corn flour till it thickens. Add salt, soya sauce and ajinomoto.
4. Add the vegetables and boil for 2 minutes and allow it to thicken further. 
5. Mix the cooked rice into this. It should look like broth.
6. Serve with Manchurian Sauce.

Veg. Pasta with White Sauce

Starting off with my personal favorite!

Sorry....No acknowledgements to mom, grand-mom, m-i-l etc. This one comes directly from common sense and two of the five basic senses - the sense of smell & the sense of taste. Oh...taste reminds me....one big thank-you to Ruchi for the idea of using corn flour to thicken the sauce and hence reducing the cheese content.

Ingredients:

1. Pasta (Macaroni/Penne) - 125 g
2. Milk - 250 ml
3. Assorted Veggies - 250 g (You may use some or all of the following or maybe add your own, based on your choice and availability of veggies. Most of these are available at Namdhari's):
• Broccoli (small florets)
• Red, Yellow and Green Capsicum (cut into 1/2 cm X 2 cm strips)
• Baby Corn (cut into 2cm long strips)
• Corn Kernels
• Black Olives (gutted and sliced)
• Mushrooms - boiled, cleaned and cut into 2cm long strips (stalk included)
• Italian Basil - 10 leaves
4. Fresh cream (I use Amul tetra pack) - 100 ml
5. Cheese cubes (I use Britannia) - 1
6. Corn Flour - 2-3 tsp. dissolved in 50 ml of cold water
7. Olive Oil - 1 tbsp.
8. Dry Italian Seasoning (I use Keya) - 1 tsp.
9. Salt - as per taste.

Procedure to cook the pasta:

1. Boil 500 ml water in a vessel.
2. To the boiling water add pasta and 1 tsp. of salt
3. Allow to cook on a low/medium flame.
4. While this is cooking, get the sauce ready  (see below for procedure), but keep an eye on this so that it does not get overcooked
5.  After it is cooked, drain the water completely.

Procedure for the sauce:

1. Heat Olive Oil in a pan.
2. Add all the veggies and basil leaves and sauté them for 2 minutes on a medium flame.

 

Pic 1: The sautéed veggies

1.  Add the milk and allow to cook on a low flame. Keep stirring occasionally.There is no need to lid it.
2.  When the milk starts boiling, test if the veggies are tender. Add salt as per taste and stir well.
3.  Add the dissolved corn flour slowly to the boiling mixture and stir. The sauce should thicken.
4.  Add 100 ml of fresh cream and mix well.

Pic 2: Sauce is ready

1.  Add the cooked pasta and mix it so that the sauce blends well with the pasta.
2.  Add the dry Italian seasoning and mix lightly. Remove from flame.
3.  Grate the cheese cube and sprinkle on top and serve.

Pic 3: Finallly...Yummmmmm...!!!




Tips and Tricks:

The trick:
Make sure you time the cooking of the pasta and the sauce in such a way that both are ready at the same time. That is the ideal way of making pasta.
The tips:
Any delay in making the sauce might result in the pasta getting overcooked. In such an event, drain the hot water from the cooked pasta and allow it to cool under fan.
If pasta is taking more time to cook, turn off the flame under the sauce and wait for the pasta to cook.
Or, pre-cook the pasta on the previous day, drain off the water completely and refrigerate it. Just make the sauce on the d-day and add this pre-cooked pasta...tastes equally good,

Variations:
1. Do not worry if any of the veggies or basil leaves are not available. Add your choice of vegetables. For a more plain version, you may use French beans, carrots etc. For a more exotic version, please experiment and let me know.
2. You may replace olive oil with butter or any other cooking oil.
3. I like to use Penne or Macaroni (although the pic shows Fusili ;-)) because the sauce seeps into the holes and tastes better. You may use any other variety of pasta too.

Please add a comment to this blog if u try this recipe and let me know how it turned out for you.