Vegetable Pulav (Basmati Rice cooked and mixed with cooked vegetables)

Vegetable Pulav

This time my experiments are with a few vegetables and rice to try and make pulav... any way it seems to have come out good. I was planning to prepare kabuli pulao (pulav with Chana as one of the main ingredients), but then  I changed this to vegetable pulao since chana was not readily available. This is also a Punjabi dish which is very easy to make. I have used carrots, beans, potatoes and peas in this; we can add cauliflower also into it, but since good cauliflower is  not available now a days, i did not add that. 
The advantage of pulav is that it has all lots of vegetables and children like it a lot thus making our job easy.

Ingredients:

Basmati Rice - 2 cups
Onion - 1, large        
Carrots - 3nos
Beans - 7-8 nos
Potato -1 no.
Peas - 100 gms (fresh peas prefered)
Ginger - 1 piece
Garlic - 2-3 Cloves
Green chillies - 2 nos
Ghee - 2 tbsp
Salt as required

Spices for pulao

Cumin seeds - 1 tbsn
Blackpepper - 6 nos
Bay leaf - 1 no
Cloves - 3-4 nos
Cardamom - 4 nos
Cinnamon - 1 small

Process

Soak Basmati rice for 15 minutes. Cook rice in a pot and pour some oil that helps the rice not to break. Close it with a lid for 10 -15 minutes. Then keep it aside for draining.

Meanwhile chop the vegetables - carrots, potato, beans and cook the vegetables for 10 minutes and keep it aside.

Take a pan an pour ghee and or oil and add  Cummin seeds, Bay leaf, Cloves, Cardamom, Cinnamon, Blackpepper, and fry till they become fragrant.

Prepare a paste of the ginger, garlic, chilly and keep aside.

Add thin sliced onions and  saute the onions on a low flame till the onion became brown colour.

Once the onions become brown colour, add the ginger -garlic -chilly paste.Saute it for some time.


Then add the cooked vegetables and saute for 2 -3 minutes in low flame.


And the add the drained rice saute for 2 minute on low flame. Add salt to taste.

Fry the Cashew nuts and keep it aside. Chop the onion thinly and fry as it becomes brownish colour .

Garnish it with fried onion and cashewnuts.
            

#vegetablepulav, #pulav, #punjabicuisine, #tiffinbox, #tiffinboxrecipes

Kanda / Onion Poha (Wet Pressed Rice mixed with Sauteed Onions, potatoes, green chillies and roasted peanuts)

Kanda Poha

Another rice dish... this time a Maharastrian favourite! Maharashtra Kaanda Poha or just Poha is very popular in Maharastrian breakfast or for snacks time. 
It is made from flattened / beaten rice along with sauteed onions, potatoes, green chillies and peanuts. It is a good snack for kids...You can reduce green chillies if you are making this specially for children. 

We can make this with red rice also which is much more healthier due to fibre content in it.

Anyways, lets start off...!

Poha Ingredients:

Poha (pressed rice) thick variety - 200gms
Green chillies - 4-5 nos. (if the chillies are very spicy, then u can reduce to 2-3 nos)
Onion - 1 no. (large) medium chopped
Potato- 1 no. (large)
Mustard seeds - 1 tspn
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tspn
Asafoetida - a pinch
Cummin seeds - 1 tspn
Peanuts - 15 to 20
Curry leaves - 8 -10 leaves
Sugar - 1/2 tspn
Coriander - to garnish
Lemon - one slice
Salt as required

Process:

Wash the poha in a colander. Don't rinse too much else, it will break and become like rice. 
Add salt and sugar. Mix lightly. While rinsing, the poha absorbs enough water and it becomes soft. 
If the poha does not becomes soft, sprinkle few drops of water on the poha in the strainer till they get softened.

Roast the peanuts in a pan and keep it aside. 

Peel the potatoes and chop it into small cubes. Heat oil and saute the potatoes till light golden and crisp, and keep it aside.

Take a pan and pour 3 tbsp of oil. 
When the oil hot, add mustard and when the mustard splutters, add Asafoetida and curry leaves and saute for  half a minute. Then add chopped onions till they became translucent and soften.

Then add green chilly and roasted peanut  and sauted for a minute. 

Add turmeric powder and mix it, saute it for sometime.
Now, add the fried potato and mix it.

Add the wet poha.
Mix and cook in low flame till the poha gets heated. 

Switch off the flame and add squeeze a slice of lemon into it and mix lightly. 

Garnish with coriander leaves.

#poha, #maharashtrarecipes, #kandapoha, #indianrecipes, #pressedrice, #peanuts

Chole-Bhature (Chole - Chickpeas prepared in spicy Onion-Tomato gravy; Bhatoore - Fried bread made with Maida)

Chole Bhature

One of our all-time favourite north Indian dishes to be ordered while eating out is Chole-Bhature. This is a typical North Indian (Punjab, Delhi) dish  usually taken for breakfast!!

We recently had this @ the Sree Mithai restaurants here in Chennai and that taste made me to try this out @ home. I was confident about the chole part but not about the Bhatoora since its size is big (unlike the regular poori that we make out of whole wheat flour/atta) and it needs to puff up completely. If the bhatoora doesnot become fluffy/puffed up completely, it would have been a disaster :)
Fortunately everything came out well!!

The chole is made of Chickpeas prepared in thick and spicy tomato-onion gravy and Bhatoora is made of maida. 

Chole Bhature - Ingredients

For chole

Chickpeas - 100 gms
Coriander Powder - 1 tbsp
Red Chilly Powder - 1/4 tspn
Green Chilly - 1 no.
Turmeric Powder - 1/2 tspn
Chole Masala / Garam Masala - 1tbsn (we used Everest Chole Masala)
Asafoetida - a pinch
Salt as needed

Spices for Masala:

Cumin seeds- 1 tspn
Bay leaf- 1 large
Cinnamon- 2 inch
Cloves-2-3nos
Green Cardamom - 2 nos

For Ground paste:

Onion chopped - 5 nos
Tomato chopped - 4 nos
Ginger -Garlic Paste - 1 tbsn
Green chilly Chopped - 1no

Process

Soak the chick peas in water over night  for 7-8 hours. Drain the water and cook the chole in cooker with water and add salt in it. Keep the chole aside. 

Chop the onions and tomatoes.

Take a frying pan and pour oil and saute the chopped onions. When the onions become trancluscent, then add the chopped tomatoes. Saute it for sometime.


Make a fine paste of these sauted onions and tomatoes and green chilly in a mixie. No need to add water while making the paste as the juice of tomatoes will help in making the paste.

Keep the paste aside.

Heat oil in a pan and fry the spices mentioned above till the oil became fragrant. Fry the spices in low flame so that the spices don't get burnt.

Then add the ground paste and saute till the oil starts to leave the paste.

Keep stirring lightly so that the paste don't stick to the pan.


Add the spices   - turmeric powder, red chilly powder, coriander powder. Stir and saute for a minute.

Then add the cooked  chole into this mix. 
Pour water, add salt, if required, and stir. Allow to simmer on a low for 5 minutes till the curry thickens. Don't cover the pan.

Add a slit green chilly and chole masala into this and stir for sometime. 

Check for consistency and also if any spices or salt have to be needed. Garnish with coriander leaves

Bhature

Ingredients:

Maida (wheat flour) - 200 gms
Sour Curd/Yogurt - 3 tablespoons
Oil - to fry - around 300 ml
Water - around 200 ml
Salt as needed

Process

Take maida, add salt, add the yogurt and mix well. Add small quantities of water in between and knead to a soft and smooth dough. Cover the dough for around 2 hours.

Make medium sized balls form the dough.



Apply oil while rolling into round, oval or an enlogated shape. 

Heat the oil in a frying pan. 
Drop the rolled bhatura in the oil. Press it gentle with a spatula for it to start puffing. After a minute, turn over and fry other side. When light brown color, remove the bhatura.

Bhature is ready to be served with Chole.

#cholebhature, #chole, #punjabicuisine, #indianrecipes, #vegetarian

Sundakkai Kuzhambu (Chundangha Curry / Turkey berry prepared in Tomatoes and Shallots gravy)

SUNDAKKAI KUZHAMBU

Sundakkai  known as Turkey Berry in English. In Malayalam it is chundagha. In  Kerala  it is only mainly for ayurvedic medicinal purposes.

Many of my friends helped me to understand how to prepare this dish. Special Thanks to Bhagya Raja, Uma Kailas and +Jayashalini Mahesh for their guidance.

Benefits of Turkey Berry

1. It has the potential to kill the germs and also acts as a medicine for cold and also helps in problems related to chest and stomach.

2. It is a good tonic for liver and used to strengthen immunity power and also reduce body.

3. People who have diarrhea, stomach ache, piles, tuberculosis should use Turkey berry as a part of their food.

4. Taking Turkey Berry regularly will help in strengthening the nerves in the eyes and provides a clear vision

Ingredients

Sudakkai(chundagha)-1/2 cup

 Shallots-20-25nos

Tomato-4 nos

Tamarind –lemon size 

Turmeric powder-1/4 teaspoon

Coconut grated-1/2 of one coconut grated

Coriander powder-1tbsn

Asafoetida-1/4 teaspoon

Chilly powder-1teaspoon

Mustard-1/4teaspoon

Dry red chilly-3nos

Curry leaves-6-8 leaves

Process

Wash and clean the chundagha (sudakkai) and take a clean cloth and beat it with a hard metal so that the sundakkai gets crushedd and the seeds come out. 

Then wash the sundakkai again.

Take 2-3 tablespoons oil in a pan, saute the sundakkai and keep it aside.

Chop the shallots  and tomato and keep it aside. Take a lemon size of tamarind and saute in water and keep it aside.

Next, take the frying pan and pour 3-4 tbsn oil. Add mustard and allow to splutter.

Add dry red chillies and curry leaves. Mix well.

Add shallots and saute it till it become transcluscent.

Add coriander powder,turmeric powder,chilly powder,cummin powder and Asafoetida. Add salt to taste. Allow this to get sauteed for a min. Then add the chopped tomatoes, mix well. Allow it to cook

Once cooked add the sauteed sundakkai. Allow to cook it for a couple of minutes. Add Tamarind paste and mix well. Once it comes to boil, add coconut paste. Mix thouroughly and add water to bring it to a liquid consistency.

Boil for a min. Sundakkai Kuzhambu is ready. This can be taken with rice.

Sundakkai can also be used to prepare Vathal Kulambu for which the process is different, since in that one, Sundakkai is dried and fried for preparing the Kulambu...very soon I will try that dish also…

#sundakkai, #turkeyberry, #tamilrecipes, #indianrecipes, #vegetarian, #vegetarianrecipes