VEGETABLE UPMA

This is a nutritious and light evening or morning meal. It takes about 20 min to make. You can add any vegetables that are readily available at home. You need semolina to make this. Its a south Indian dish.

Ingredients:

1 glass of Semolina
1/2 cup of chopped vegetables (carrots, beans, peas, corn pieces)
4-5 curry leaves
1 green chilli or red chilli
Salt to taste
1 large onion chopped (optional)
Water
2 tbsp of oil

For Tadaka:

1 tsp of mustard seeds
1 tsp of urad dhal
1 tsp of channa dhal
Hing powder (if you are not using onion)

Method:

1) In a pan, add one tbsp of oil and add the rava or semolina. Fry it by stirring gently for about 5 min until the semolina turns light brown.
2) Place the fried semolina aside in a plate for cooling.
3) In the same pan, add 1 tbsp of oil add mustard seeds, urad dhal, channa dhal.
4) Once the mustard seeds sputter, add the chilli and the vegetables. In case you add onion add the onion and chilli. Fry the onion until golden brown and then add the vegetables. Cook the vegetables for 5-10 min on low flame until they are half cooked.
5) Add water (1 1/2 glass of water for 1 glass of Semolina) and salt.
6) When the water just starts to boil, add the rava little by little and keep stirring so that lumps are not formed.
7) Turn down the flame to the lowest, cover the dish and let it cook for 5 min.
8) Add the curry leaves and your upma is ready to be served with chutney or pickle. Serve it hot for it to taste the best.

Your yummy upma is ready!

Rema

DIAMOND CUTS

This is a very simple dish. You can make this and have with your afternoon cup of tea. These are few of things that were made as a part of the Diwali preparations along with an array of sweets and other sundry items.

Ingredients:

1 cup of All purpose Flour
Salt as needed
1 tbsp of Jeera seeds or ajwain seeds
1 tsp of sugar
4 tbsp of Butter
Water as needed
1 tbsp of Red chilli powder
Oil for deep frying

Method:

1) In a vessel add the flour, salt, sugar, jeera or ajwain seeds and red chilli powder.
2) Add the butter and mix well with hand so that the butter melts and merges with the flour mix.
3) Add water little by little and make a fine dough similar to the one used for chapati(not too stiff). If the water is of excess add a little more flour to make it less watery.
4) Make a lemon sized ball of the dough and roll out with a rolling pin exactly like how you would make a chapati. Using a knife make crisscrossing lines on the base, so that you get diamond shaped pieces of dough.
5) In a pan, heat oil for deep frying. When the oil is ready, check it by placing a very small piece of dough on the oil, if it sizzles immediately the oil is ready.
6) Deep fry the diamond pieces and your diamond cuts are ready!

Diamond Cuts

You can have them with your afternoon cup of tea. Or if you like it with your dips or ketchup, you can serve it with the same. It takes about 15-20 min to make from scratch. Enjoy!

Rema

MYSORE MASALA DOSA

This is the specialty of most of the south Indian restaurants and a favorite for the dosa lovers. It is a little spicy but the aroma of the garlic chutney with the potato subzi inside a hot crisp dosa is unforgettable and unbeatable. Here is the recipe for all you dosa lovers who want to recreate the magic at home!

Making the dosa batter:

For making the dosa, we need fresh dosa batter. I usually make the batter at home by soaking two glasses of idli rava(sometimes its more than 2:1 depending on the variety used) for one glass of urad dhal. If you are not able to get idli rava you can use normal rice instead. Just before soaking, dry roast the rice until it turns slightly brown(My mother in law let me know this tip). Soak the rice/Idli rava and urad dhal separately in 2 pans for about 6-7 hours. After soaking them, wash thoroughly and grind the urad dhal to a fine paste and add required amount of salt. Slowly by adding the idli rava grind this whole thing to as fine a paste of possible. Sometimes if the idli rava is coarse, the dough remains coarse or else it comes out as a very fine paste. Its best to know which suits best depending on the kind of Idli rava you get. If its coarse its best to use rice itself. For the dosa the batter that we have ground can be used immediately. But for idlis, the batter has to ferment outside for atleast 12 hrs to get really soft idlis.

After preparing the batter this way or if you can purchase fresh dosa batter, we can proceed to the next steps.

For the garlic chutney:

1 garlic
2 red chillies soaked in water for 10 mins

For the chutney, grind the garlic pods after peeling them along with the red chillies. Your chutney is ready!

For the potato subzi: 

I want to refer to a previous post of mine titled Dhal and Potato Subzi for the recipe. Its a very simple recipe. Takes about 10 min to make if you have boiled potatoes at hand.

Making the Dosa:

 Next I will refer to the actual recipe for making dosa with the batter. You need a really hot flat plate (Teflon coated) and you can sprinkle some water on it to check if it is hot enough. If the water sizzles away instantly the pan is ready! You can take a scoop of the dough which is semi-liquid and add it at the center. you make circles starting from the center going slowly outwards. The dosa slowly increases in size and if the batter is over you can quickly add a little more. Make a medium sized dosa (ensure it doesnt cover the entire pan, for starters it could be difficult to handle a really large dosa!). Once the dosa has browned on one side invert it by placing a flat paddle under the dosa and flipping it gently.

Wait for about 1 min after flipping to remove the dosa onto a plate. The longer it stays the crisper it gets! But watch out that it doesn't burn.

Serving:

After placing the dosa on a plate apply a layer of garlic chutney on the interior of the dosa and stuff with the potato subzi. I have served here a plain mysore dosa(it doesn't have the stuffing inside) along with tomato chutney.

For the Tomato chutney:

Ingredients:

2 ripe tomatoes
1 green chilli
Small amount of fresh corainder leaves
1 tsp of red chilli powder
1 tbsp of urad dhal
Oil
Salt to taste

Method:

1) In a pan, add oil and add the urad dhal. Allow it to slowly turn light brown.
2) Now add the chopped tomatoes, chilli, corainder leaves and fry well. 
3) Fry until the oil starts to separate from the sides.
4) Add salt and red chilli powder

Just before grinding

5) Grind it to a fine paste by adding very little water if needed.

Tomato chutney is ready!

Do let me know how this recipe turned out and if you have any queries.

Rema

BISIBELE BATH

Today I am sharing here the recipe of Bisibele bath. This dish originates from the state of Karnataka. It literally means hot lentil rice in Kannada. You can modify the recipe to suit your taste (chillies) and use the available vegetables.

Ingredients:

1 cup of Rice
2/3 cup of Tuar dhal
2 tbsp of Sambar powder
lemon ball sized tamarind
Salt to taste
Hing powder
Turmeric powder
1 tsp of Sugar
1/2 cup of chopped carrots
1/4 cup of peas
1/2 cup of chopped beans
1/4 cup of capsicum chopped
1/2 cup of chopped potato
1 large onion chopped finely

To Grind:

1 tbsp of Dry coconut powder
2 red chillies
1 tsp of Tuar dhal
1/2 tsp of til
1 tsp of Corainder seeds
1 tsp of Cumin seeds
1 piece of Cinnamon bark

Method:

 1) Pressure cook the rice and dhal together in a pressure cook for 2-3 whistles. The quantity of water for rice is 1:3 and 1:2 for dhal.
2) In a pan soak the tamarind in water
3) Into a large pan, add the tamarind water by pressing the juice out of the soaked dry tamarind. Or you can use tamarind paste if available directly with water.
4) Add the chopped vegetables into the tamarind water. Add sambar powder and salt to it.
5) Add hing powder, turmeric powder and sugar.
6) Allow the vegetables to boil until its well cooked and raw smell of tamarind leaves.
7) In another pan, add a tsp of oil and fry all the dry ingredients(add the dry coconut after all the other ingredients are fried well).
8) Add a little water and grind the fried ingredients to get a fine paste.
9) Add the cooked dhal to the vegetables and add the paste.
10) In a pan, fry the chopped onions in little oil or ghee till its golden brown.
11) Allow the vegetable mixture to come to boil before adding the fried onions and mixing well.
12) Add some water as the sambar has to be little watery.
13) Add the cooked rice to the sambar and your bisibele bath is ready. Serve it hot with chips, pappad or raita.

RAITHA

In a vessel, add chopped onion, cucumber and add a little salt. Add chopped chillies and corainder leaves. Add curd just before serving.

HOMEMADE PIZZA

Hi! Just yesterday we made pizza at home, for dinner. I made the pizza right from scratch. You need to get a few things right for this wonderful and filling dish that anyone can savor. First thing being the dough, which needs to be really soft and tender after allowing it to rise for 2-3 hrs. Secondly the ingredients for the toppings especially if you would like to re create a particular type of pizza.

Let me start with the recipe for the dough:

Ingredients:

250 gms of All Purpose Flour
1 sachet of instant yeast (about 11g)
Warm water
1 tsp of sugar
Salt required amount
2 Tbsp of Olive oil

Method:

1) In a large pan, add the flour, sugar, salt, yeast and mix gently.
2) Add the warm water little by little and mix the dough to form a good sized ball of dough(which shouldn't be too watery, if it is add some more dough)
3) Add the olive oil and coat all over the dough, so that it forms a non sticky and fine dough.

Now we need to let the dough rest for 1 1/2 to 2 hrs in a warm and moist place. You can cover the mouth of the vessel with a wet handkerchief. The dough rises slowly and starts letting out  a different smelling gas! You can gently knead the dough after 1 1/2 hrs to release the gas and the dough returns to its almost original size.

Next using this dough, I made four balls of dough after kneading the dough gently for a minute. You can preheat the oven for about 1/2 to 1 hr at 230 celsius. Let the balls stay inside the pan for 10 to 15 mins. The more the dough stays in to raise the more fluffier and tastier the pizza becomes. So you can leave the dough to stay for few more hours to rise. you can also store the dough made in freezer for later use. That way, you can make the dough and let it stay in the fridge until the day you feel like having a pizza!

 After about an hour the flour almost doubles in size and is ready to be rolled into pizza bases.

For making the Pizza:

Take the ball of dough and using some flour knead it well to make a circular base by patting it from center outwards with your fingers. And in the edges you can pinch it a little upwards. Brush a little olive oil on the base before adding the toppings.

Ingredients: 

Kimball's garlic and tomato pizza sauce
Hunt's fresh tomato, basil and oregano tin
Olive oil
Capsicum slices
Mozzarella Fresh Cheese (Made from Cow's milk)
Pepper powder

Method:

1) Take the base that you have patted out of the balls that we rolled. Spread a thin layer of olive oil on it.
2) Apply a layer of Pizza sauce on it and place a few lumps of the fresh tomato pieces on it.
3) Apply a layer of grated cheese on the entire pizza and apply small amount of olive oil around the pizza. You can apply the pepper powder also if you want.

4) Transfer the pizza to a pan to place in the oven. The oven is preheated at 230 celsius for half an hr.
5) Bake the single pizza for 10- 15 min. If you like crisp pizza allow it to stay for a little longer (you can roll out a very thin pizza base for crispness).

You have a very yummy margherita pizza ready!

 A slight variation to this very simple recipe is the addition of capsicum pieces, which adds to the flavor and makes it look very colorful.

I hope you will try out these pizzas and let me know how you liked them!

Rema