Sodhi

Ingredients

Moong Dal – 1 cup boiled & mashed
Coconut gratings from 1½ coconuts
Vegetables like carrot, beans, peas, eggplant, drumstick (cut into long pieces)
Potatoes boiled, peeled and cut into long pieces.
Pearl onions – 100 gms
Garlic pods – 2-4 (optional)
Turmeric powder
Salt to taste
Green chillies
Ginger
Lemon – 1

Get Cooking!
1. Extract coconut milk from the gratings of 3 consistencies – 1st, 2nd & 3rd extracts.
2. Boil all the veggies in the 3rd extract (the thinnest milk)
3. Meanwhile, fry the peeled pearl onions & garlic pods. Add to the boiling mixture.
4. Add in the mashed moong dal & the 2nd (medium consistency) extract.
5. Grind the green chillies & ginger into a paste.
6. Add the turmeric powder, salt & green chillies- ginger paste. Bring to a boil.
7. Add the 1st extract (thick coconut milk). Switch the heat off immediately.
8. Squeeze the juice out of one lemon and mix it up.
9. Serve with rice & ginger thogayal, potatoes cooked like french fries

Tips

There are many variations to the above dish. Some could add spices like somph, cloves, cinnamon, cardamom to the sodhi as whole spices or powdered or ground to a paste. Some even temper the dish with mustard seeds, broken urad dal. One other variation to the dish is to use black peper seeds instead of green chillies.

Sprouts Pulao

This is a healthy combination of rice and sprouted legumes that provides protein, iron, folic acid and vitamin C. Cooking Time 15 mins
Preparation Time 20 mins
Serves 4

Ingredients
cooked long grained rice – 1 cup
sprouted legumes, parboiled – 1 cup
cloves -2
Asafoetida powder – 1/4 tsp
Green chilli – 1 chopped
grated ginger – 1 tsp
Capsicum – 1/2 chopped
Spring Onions – 4 to 6 chopped
Turmeric powder – 1/4 tsp
Chilli powder -1 tsp
Dhania powder – 1 tsp
Oil/ghee – 1 tbsp
Salt – to taste
Tomato – 1 chopped
Chopped cilantro – 2 tbsp

Get Cooking!
1. Heat the oil/ghee; add the cloves, asafoetida and sauté for a few seconds.
2. Add the green chilli, ginger, capsicum and spring onions. Sauté for 2 or 3 minutes
3. Add the turmeric powder, chilli powder, dhania powder and the sprouts and mix well
4. Add 1/4 cup water, salt and simmer over a slow flame till the sprouts are cooked.
5. Add the rice and toss well.
6. Serve hot, garnished with chopped tomato and cilantro

Tips

I added in roasted cashews, raisins & grated carrots – extra nutrition? Tried it with even some paneer cubes.

Oats- Rava tabilabilla

Variation to the tabilabilla.

Ingredients

Rava ½ cup
Oats ½ cup
Tuvar dal 1 tbsp
Chenna dal 1 tbsp
Urad dal ½ tbsp
Jeera about 1 tsp
Salt to taste
Red chillies
Green chillies
Ginger
Mustard seeds
Asafoetida
Oil

Get Cooking!

1. Soak the tuvar dal, chenna dal and urad dal for a while. Grind to a coarse paste with the jeera and keep aside.
2. Dry roast the rava. Mix it in with the oats
3. Saute some mustard seeds, the chillies in some oil. Add the ginger.
4. Pour in 2 cups of water. Let it boil.
5. When it boils, add the dals paste while stirring. Add salt.
6. Then add the oats-rava slowly taking care that no lumps are formed.
7. Keep stirring, till the oats-rava is cooked.
8. Let this cool down a bit.
9. Make small patties with the oats-rava-dal mix that has been cooked.
10. Heat a tawa, place the tabalabilla on the tawa, cook them on both sides, pouring a little oil around them, flipping them now and then
12. Once both sides are golden brown, take them off the tawa. Repeat this with the rest of the mix.
11. Serve with chutney, sambhar.

Thank you!

This post is a little late in coming. Apologies for that.

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I got runner’s up for the most beautiful header award. Congrats to Priya who won.

Thank you to one and all who took the time to vote for me

Alu Bath

Ingredients
Potatoes – peeled & cubed
Rice
Salt
Turmeric powder
Cumin seeds
Green chillies – slit
Curry leaves
Asafoetida
Oil

Get Cooking!
1. Wash the rice and drain the excess water. Keep aside.
2. In a little oil, sauté the potatoes till they are golden brown.
3. In a wok, heat a little oil. Add the cumin seeds,some curry leaves,slit green chillies.
4. Toss the potatoes & washed rice in.
5. Add the salt, turmeric powder. Mix everything in.
6. Transfer into a vessel and pressure the rice.

Tips
You could add some roasted peanuts and/or cashew nuts to the rice. One could reduce the green chillies and add red chilli powder instead.  This comes out great if the rice is open cooked instead of pressure cooking it – though pressure cooking is good too Sometimes, I like to cut the potatoes like french fries and fry them up before making this rice (yummy ) Basmati rice works good or any long grain rice can be used.

Mysore Bonda

Ingredients
Urad Dal ½ cup
Chenna Dal 1-2 tsp
Salt to taste
Green Chillies
Black pepper seeds
Coconut cut into thin small slices
Ginger
Curry leaves
Oil

Get Cooking!
1. Soak the two dals separately. Drain the excess water.
2. Grind the salt, green chillies, ginger, urad dal to a smooth batter using no water as much as possible. If need be, sprinkle water.
3. Mix in the curry leaves, soaked & drained chenna dal & the black pepper seeds.
4.Heat oil in a wok on medium heat.
5.Wet your palms, roll the batter into a ball (say the size of a small golf ball) and drop into the oil.
6. Flip the bondas so they are uniformly cooked. Take them out when they are golden brown.
7. Place on tissue to drain the excess oil.
8. Serve with ketchup , chutney and /or sambhar.

Tips
To get the right consistency of the batter, put a drop of it in a bowl containing water; if it floats, then it is the right consistency else it has to be ground a little more.

Cutlet

Ingredients

Potatoes  boiled, peeled & mashed
Chick peas/Chenna   soaked,boiled, drained & mashed (or use the canned ones: drain, rinse & mash well)
Tomatoes  finely chopped
Beans finely chopped
Onions finely chopped
Peas
Carrots grated
Cahew nuts
Peanuts
Salt
Chilli powder
Garam masala /Chat masala
Cilanto chopped
Wheat flour
Oats flour (grind oats in a mixer)
Bread crumbs
Oil

Get Cooking!
1. Nuke the onions, beans, tomatoes, peas in the microwave separately.
2. Mix in all the ingredients except oil & bread crumbs to make a thick mix. Add as little or no water as possible.
3. Make into patties.
4. Roll the patties to cover them completely with bread crumbs.
4. Shallow fry/ grill (some even deep fry) the patties.

Tips
I had no bread nor bread crumbs. So, I rolled the patties in dry roasted rava and used a kuzhipaniyaram kadai to get the cutlets done. They came out nice and crisp on the outside and soft in the inside You could add grated cheese to make the patty too. The ingredients one adds to make the patty is left to imagination and availability. Potatoes, chenna add bulk. The flours help bind everything. I remember having cutlets that had raisins in them too.

Where is my trumpet?

Well, I have never posted anything here other than recipes. No stories leading up to the recipes. Nothing. This is “zara hat ke”

Though it is not really time to blow my trumpet as yet, no harm in keeping it ready ?!?

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All the best to all the nominees out there in all the categories

Thiratupaal

Ingredients
Milk – lots of it (at least 1.5 to 2 litres)
Sugar/Jaggery

Get Cooking!
1. In a huge thick bottomed vessel (preferably non-stick ), pour in the milk. The size of the vessel should be such that it can contain twice the amount of milk taken such that the milk does not boil over and spill or splatter around.
2. On a low heat, boil the milk taken stirring occasionally to avoid browning.
3. When the milk mostly solidifies, add sugar/jaggery amounting to about ¾ths the amount of solidified milk in the vessel.Mix it in well.
4. Keep heating this stirring now and then till the mixture gets solidified and bubbles up.

Tips
Some add cardamom powder but I personally prefer just this as it tastes pretty yummy Typically a good dish to prepare in a slow cooker. A sweet that does not require much attention just the occasional stirring Just right for lazy bones like me

Oats Dosa

Serves 4

Ingredients
Oats 1 cup
Besan ¼ cup
Sooji ¼ cup
Fresh buttermilk  2 cups
Onions 2 finely chopped
Green chillies finely chopped
Cashew nuts broekn to smaller pieces
Black pepper seeds – Jeera 1 tsp crushed coarsely
Salt to taste
Oil

Get Cooking!
1. Powder the oats in a mixer.
2. To the buttermilk, add the powdered oats, besan and rava, salt. Mix thoroughly.
3. To this add the pepper-jeera, cashew nuts, green chillies, onions. Mix these in well.
4. Pour the batter onto a hot griddle like you would make a rava dosa.
5. This goes well with onion chutney.