Thondekai Palya

Thondekai which is known as tindli/tinda in hindi is R's favourite, when it is prepared in palya. Palya is a side dish that is dry and no gravy. As a kid, I used to call it as mini cucumber. One of the dry palya which is easy to prepare. It goes well as side-dish with rice and sambar or with chapathi.
Everytime I cook this, I alternate the way I cut this veggie. This time it was sliced horizontally. If I cut it horizontally R asks "Oh I like it vertically". If cut vertically then its opposite. So I alternate everytime and this time convinced him that, last time I had cut it vertically.

Ingredients:

Thondekayi or Tindli - 1/2 pound

Urad Dal - 1tsp

Channa Dal - 1 tsp

Mustard - 1/2 tsp

Green Chillies - 4

Curry leaves - 10

Coconut grated/powder - 1Tblsp

Oil for tadka

Ginger (grated) - 1/2tsp

Coriander Leaves for garnishing

Salt to taste

Directions:

1. Slice the thondekai either vertically or horizontally.

2. Heat oil in a pan, add mustard and wait for it to splutter.

3. Add channa dal and urad dal, fry until it turns slight brown. (make sure not to burn it)

4. Add ginger pieces, green chillies, curry leaves and fry for a min.

5. Add thondekai slices and fry for 2 mins.

6. Add salt to taste, cover and cook for 5-8 mins on low flame. (In betwen stir the contents, sometimes it can stick to the bottom and get burnt)

7. Garnish with coriander leaves and grated coconut

Enjoy the side dish.

Happy Yugadi

Yugadi habbada shubhashayagalu!!


While Sankranti is about Yellu Bella and Yugadi is all about Bevu Bella
Bevu - Neem
Bella - Jaggery
Bevu symbolizes the bitterness that we experience in life. Bella represents the sweet and happy moments in life. Bevu-Bella together symbolizes the balance in life. Every year on this day abhyanjana snana is a must. That is this day starts with oil massaged bath. After offering the prayers, parents bless their children by offering bevu-bella mixture and wish there is more bella than bevu in their life.

I remember swallowing bevu-bella and drinking glass of water immediately. Those who have not tasted the bevu, should give it a try. It is known for its bitterness and also its medicinal properties. Here in US, we cannot find neem and hence last time I had used the bitter-gourd or hagalakai with jaggery.

Since work is keeping us busy, we could not celebrate yugadi elaborately like back home. Missed obattu..but just made simple chitranna, kosambari, palya and kesari bath.

Best part of Yugadi for us was the daffodils that started blooming the same day. Below I have posted some of the photos.

Vegetable Biryani

Ingredients:
Basmati Rice – 2 cups
Onion – 1
Tomatoes – 4
Ginger garlic paste – 2 tsp
Mint leaves – 1 cup
Biryani leaves – 4
Saffron threads- 1tsp
Oil – 3Tblsp
Butter 1 Tblsp
Raisins, Cashews - 2 tsp (optional)

Vegetables
Potatoes – 1
Cauliflower – 1 cup
Broccoli – 1 cup
Peas - ½ cup
Lima beans – ½ cup
Carrot – ½ cup
Red/Green Peppers – 1 cup

Spices
Black Pepper – 1 tsp
Roasted Cumin powder – 1 tsp
Cardamom powder – 1 tsp
Red Chilli Powder – 2 tsp
Curry Powder – 2 tsp
Garam Masala – 2 tsp
Turmeric – 1 tsp

Directions
1. Soak the saffron in warm milk for more than half an hour.





2. Add water and little salt to rice and cook until it is almost done but not yet.

3. Fry each vegetable separately in oil until they are 75% cooked. Keep aside the vegetables. Potato should be cooked instead of frying it.
Fry raisins and cashews in little oil and set aside.

4. Prepare the mixture as below.

i. In a pan, heat oil and add the Biryani leaves. Add chopped onions and fry
until translucent.
ii. Add ginger-garlic paste and fry for a min. Add all the spice powders.
iii. Add mint leaves and sauté for a min.
iv. Add tomatoes and cook for 5 mins.

5. To the above mixture add the fried vegetables, raisin, cashews, butter and add litter water and cook for 5 mins.

6. Preheat the oven to broil at high. ( You can also use a pressure cooker on low flame)

7. In a aluminum pan, layer 1/3 rice and pour 1/3 saffron and then 1/3 of the vegetables mixture as shown in image.

8. Repeat this 2 more times and cover the lid. Let this sit in the overn for 60- 90 mins

Server veg biryani with raita.

Palak Paneer

I am not a big fan of Palak Paneer and resist ordering this whenever we go to Indian restaurant. But I & R want to include as much greens in our diet as possible.So had picked up bunch of spinach at the grocery. Spinach Dal, Mosappu (mixture of all greens), fried spinach, spinach sandwich were getting routine. Thought of trying out palak paneer for first time. Searched on web for recipe. Among the recipe's I read, I came up with this simple one, which turned out spicy, tangy and yummy. Just right for our palette.

Ingredients:
Bunch of Spinach - 2
Paneer – 300 gms
Onion – 1 big
Oil – 3 tsp
Tomato puree – ½ cup or 4 tomatoes
Ginger Garlic paste – 1 tsp
Garlic clove - 2
Garam Masala – 2 tsp
Curry Powder – 2 tsp
Green Chillies – 2 (slit-open the chilies)

Directions:
1. Wash and blanch the spinach.

( To blanch the spinach:
1. Boil water in a pan. Immerse the cut spinach in the water for 3-4 mins.
2. Remove spinach from pan and immerse in cold water).

2. In a blender,puree spinach and garlic cloves.

3. Fry the chopped onions in oil until it turns light pink.

4. Add ginger-garlic paste, green chillies, garam masala and curry powder and fry for a minute.

5. Add tomato pure or chopped tomato and cook for 5-6 mins.

6. Paneer can be added directly to the above mixture. I like my paneer fried in little oil.

7. Next add the blended spinach and salt. Cook for 10 mins on low flame and add water to get the desired consistency.

Serve the palak paneer with chapathi or kulchas.

Broccoli Akki Rotti

Akki Rotti





Akki is rice in kannada. Rotti was always thought to be poor man's breakfast, when I was growing up. During all our summar holidays we were in Kodihalli, a village near Mandya district, next to Bangalore. We had lot of relatives in that village. We were invited to each relative's house for dinner or lunch. I stilll remember when they used to give this curious smile when I said Akki rotti with the eerulli tomato gojju made at my ajji's house was my favourite. Because akki rotti was common there. Anyway, back during our college days masala akki rotti was nice lunch box recipe.
I guess akki rotti is very authentic to Southern parts of Karnataka.

R allows me to make rotti like this as these are not available in Indian restaurants here. He is against rice in any form and I always try to sneak in the rice recipes. This time I tried broccoli in this masala rotti and it was yummy.



Ingredients:
Rice flour - 4 parts
Wheat flour - 1 part
Half cooked Broccoli - 1 cup
Chopped Onions - 2
Coriander leaves - 1/2 cup
Cumin seeds/jeera - 2 tsp
Chopped Green chillies - 3 (if you like it hot)
Salt to taste.



Directions:

• Mix all the ingredients with water to get the below consistency where you can create a soft ball out of the mixture.

• Take handful of this mixture and place it on a clean wet cloth over a cutting board or chapathi board. I used a new hand-kerchief in the image below.

• Using your palms, pat the rotti ball so that it spreads into a round shape as shown below.

• Heat Dosa pan and spray little oil onto the pan.
• Now lift the cloth in both hands and place the rotti onto to the Dosa pan and gently lift away the cloth as shown below.

• Slowly cook the rotti, like dosa or pancakes on both sides, with little oil on each side.
• Before turning the rotti to the other side, wet the top side with little water and cook until there is no wettness inside the rotti.

Optional: Pour a spoon of ghee on top of hot rotti and aroma increases your appetite.
Serve rotti with spicy chutney or a hot pickle.

Veg Fried Rice

Veg Fried Rice

Came home from office and had decided not to cook anything today. Wanted to finish the left-over rice from yesterday and also the herekai saru was waiting in the refrigerator. Veggies of small proportiones were sitting in the refrigerator. So why not fry them quickly and mix with the rice. I had to do this before R comes home. He feels the exhausted, if I am cooking, can you believe that!!. Kind of gives him the feeling that there is work at home too.. :)

So finished cooking my fast version of veg fried rice in 25 mins, packed chapathis for tomorrow's lunch and cleaned up the sink, so he wont know I did anything today. But I could not get rid of the garlic and stir fry aroma of this recipe. He walked in directly to kitchen to check whats on the stove. I was caught again in action :).

Ingredients:

Veggies - 2 cups

Cooked Rice - 2 cups

Garlic - 1 clove

Chilli Garlic sauce - 2 tsp

Curry powder/Chilli powder - 2 tsp

Turmeric - 1/2 tsp

Lemon - 1/2

Coriander leaves for garnishing

Salt to taste

Oil for frying

Directions:

• Heat oil in a pan and fry the chopped garlic for 2 mins.
• Add all the cut veggies and stir fry them at high flame for 5 mins.

• Add chilli garlic sauce or chilli powder & tomato sauce, trurmeric, little salt for veggies and fry another min.
• Add cooked rice and salt to taste and mix it well. Let it stand for few minutes, constantly stirring the entire contents.

Garnish with coriander leaves and add the lemon juice.