Thank you!

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

I wish to thank Poonam for organising the Avant Garde Bloggie Awards. It was a great effort. Kudos to all those who helped out in getting it done – the nominees, scrutinisers. Most of all I thank all those who voted to make it a successful event.

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

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 ?!?

This is campaigning for votes Was in two minds whether to do it, and well…you can see the result!

Please do take your time to vote for me if you think I deserve it in this category.

Here is the link for the Avant Garde Awards for the most beautiful header

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

Not so two minutes noodles :)

Ingredients
Maggi Noodles 1 pack
Tomatoes chopped
Onions chopped
Peas
Carrots diced
Beans sliced thin
Oil
Salt

Get Cooking!
1. Cook the noodles in water (do not add the taste maker it comes with). Set aside to drain the excess water.
2. In a pan, add some oil. Sauté the onions.
3. Add the tomatoes, toss around till they are cooked.
4. Add carrots, beans, peas. Toss them around till they are cooked.
5. Now add the taste maker to this along with a wee bit of salt.
6. Then add the noodles that has been set aside; mix it carefully.

Tips
Instead of using the taste maker; you could use some soy sauce (add less salt if that is the case). Be creative with the spices you want to add…whatever tickles your tastes buds – chilli powder, turmeric powder & garam masala even

Stove Top Mac & Cheese

serves 2

Ingredients
Elbow macaroni 4 oz
Butter 2 tbsp
Flour 2 tbsp
Salt ¼ tsp
Black pepper about a pinch
Milk 1 cup
Shredded cheddar cheese 1cup

Get Cooking!
1. Cook macaroni to al dente according to package instructions
2. In a saucepan, melt butter over medium heat, then stir in flour, salt and pepper.
3. Slowly add in the milk. Stir and cook until bubbly.
4. Stir in cheese until melted.
5. Drain macaroni and add to cheese sauce and stir to coat.

Tips
You could add about softened low fat cream cheese to the sauce just after the milk boils. Add it by the teaspoonfuls stirring constantly. Reduce heat and simmer until the cream cheese melts. Stir occasionally.

You could add minced garlic/ mustard/paprika/even a pinch or 2 of garam masala   just before adding the shredded cheese and simmer for a couple of minutes stirring occasionally.

I like to experiment with various cheese varieties and various short pasta types.

Tomato Oorupindi

Thogayal in tamil, oorupindi in telugu or chutney to generalise?!?

Ingredients
Tomatoes 4-5 chopped
Red Chillies 1-2
Salt
Mustard seeds
Urad dal
Asafoetida powder
Curry leaves
Tamarind
Oil

Get Cooking!
1. In a little oil, roast the tomatoes till the moisture disappears and the tomatoes become a thick paste stirring often to avoid charring. Set aside to cool.
2. Sauté the mustard seeds, red chillies, urad dal, curry leaves, asafoetida. Cool
3.  Grind this with a little bit of tamarind and salt to a fine paste.
4. Serve with rice or rotis.

Tips
You could add a bit of black pepper seeds and reduce the amount of red chillies. The amount of tamarind to be added depends on the taste of tomatoes used The amount of urad dal, personally I use more as I like the crunchiness to the oorupindi. You could microwave the tomatoes with a tsp of oil stirring occasionally instead of doing it on the stove

Bean Casserole

Red kidney beans & cauliflower baked in creamy cheese sauce.
Serves 6

Ingredients
Rajmah 1 ¼ cups boiled
Onion 1 chopped
Cauliflower 4 cups finely chopped
Tomatoes 3
Tomato Ketchup 2 ½ tbsp
Worcestershire sauce 1 tsp (this is what I replaced )
Cheese 1 ½ cups (150 gms) grated
Cream ½ cup
Oil 2 tbsp
Salt & Pepper to taste

Get Baking!
1.Put the tomatoes on a plate and microwave for 3 minutes. Remove peel after they cool. Chop finely.
2.Take the onions, cauliflower and oil in a dish. Mix well and microwave for 6 minutes.
3.Add 1 tsp of salt and ½ tsp pepper. Add the tomatoes, boiled rajmah, ketchup and Worcestershire sauce. Mix well. Check salt and pepper.
4.Add half of the grated cheese.
5.Mix the other half of the cheese with cream. Add ¼ tsp salt and ¼ tsp pepper. Pour cream over the vegetables and spread gently.
6.Set oven at 180°C and preheat.
7.Place the vegetables in the oven at 180°C for 25 minutes. Bake till golden brown. Serve hot.

Tips
I replaced the Worcestershire sauce with some red chilli powder, garam masala. I had also tried chat masala once.
The recipe’s salt content can be reduced as I found it a bit too salty for my taste especially since I used cheddar cheese.

Tomato Gojju for tomato rice

Ingredients
Tomatoes (pureed or finely chopped)
Oil
Salt
Chilli Powder
turmeric powder
Mustard Seeds
Red Chillies
Green Chillies
Ginger grated or finely chopped
Curry leaves
Chenna Dal
Broken or whole skinned urad dal
Asafoetida
Peanuts and/or Cashew nuts (optional)
 
Get Cooking!

1. In a kadai, take some oil, sauté the mustard seeds, red chillies, green chillies, ginger, asafoetida, curry leaves, chenna dal, urad dal and peanuts till the dals are golden brown.
2. Add the tomatoes with some salt, chilli powder and turmeric powder. Mix them well
3. Cook well until about the time the oil leaves the sides of the kadai. Keep stirring off and on to avoid burning!
4. Mix with rice and serve as tomato rice or serve as a side dish for rotis, idlis or dosas
 
Tip(s)
You could add finely chopped onions and sauté before you add the tomatoes in which case, it might not last that long. You could also add some daniya powder with the tomatoes or replace chilli powder with sambar/rasam powder…just experiment and you will get the combination that suits you and your liking
Try the pai podi

Karadai – Vella Adai

Made as an offering on “karadaiyam nombu”

Ingredients

Rice flour (made as in step 1) roasted 4 cups
Cowpeas more than ½ cup upto ¾ cup (prefer the red variety)
Coconut 1 half slit to small thin pieces
Jaggery 4 cups
Cardamom powder from say 10-12 pieces

Get Cooking!

1. Soak, wash, drain the rice, and grind to a powder which is not so coarse and not too fine.
2. Slightly roast the cowpeas. Steam and drain the excess water.
3. Take 10 cups of water, add the jaggery and dissolve it. Boil this.
4. When it boils well, add the rice flour little by little while stirring to avoid lumps.
5. When it gets to the point where it is half- cooked and becomes like dough add the cardamom powder, coconut slices, steamed cowpeas. Mix well. Switch the heat off.
6. Make circular patties of the batter which is about ¼ “thick. Make a whole in the middle like that in a donut.
7. Steam these patties. Once cooked, they look glossy.

Tips
Quantity of water to be used is according to the quality of the rice. Depending on that, water should be 2 to 2 ½ the quantity of rice. If you don’t have cowpeas, you could use tuvar dal.You could use the rice flour u get in a grocery store, just roast it well before.

Panch Phoron (Bengali Five-Spice)

The distinct aroma of Bengali cuisine is mostly due to the blend of spices known as panch phoron. Panch means “five” and phoron is “flavour” or “spice”, hence the common translation Bengali Five-Spice”.

Ingredients
nigella seeds 1tbsp
black mustard seeds 1tbsp
fenugreek seeds 1tbsp
fennel seeds 1tbsp
cumin seeds 1tbsp

Combine all spices in a jar, store away from heat and light.

Tips

Some variations may substitute anise for the fennel seeds or wild mustard for cumin, radhuni seed for mustard, and possibly black cumin for nigella.

Chilli Paratha

This makes a wholesome meal in itself!  

Ingredients

Frozen parathas -6
Chickpeas -1 can
Capsicum (red &green) – Julienne
Tomato -2 chunky pieces
Onion -1 thinly sliced
Ginger-garlic paste- 1tbsp
Chilli powder-2 tsp
Dhania powder- 2tsp
Garam Masala -1 tsp
Cinnamon
Cloves
Bay leaf
Lemon juice
Butter
Cilantro
Cashew nuts

Get Cooking!

1. Heat butter in a kadai, add cloves, cinnamon and bay leaf & sauté
2. Add onions, sauté for 2 mins. Then add the ginger -garlic paste, sauté again for a while
3. Add the capsicum and tomatoes, sauté well.
4. Now add chilli powder, dhania powder, garam masala and salt.
5. When the raw powder smell goes, add the can of chick peas
6. Meanwhile cook the frozen parathas as per instructions and cut into bite size pieces
7. Add this to the masala. Cook until the paratha and masala get mixed well
8. Switch off the heat and mix some lemon juice.
9. Garnish with coriander leaves and cashew nuts.

Tips

I added small, boiled cubes of potatoes. Added other colours of capsicum.