Cabbage - Green Peas Poriyal

Poriyal is a dry stir-fry kind of vegetable dish where you saute, steam or roast the vegetables with seasonigs. Poriyal is a very broad term and there are quite a lot varieties in Poriyal. Its a popular side dish in South India.

This cabbage green peas poriyal was made by my mom when my parents were here in the US for 2010 summer. My husband and I absolutely loved it, especially with roti. Its a simple yet healthy and tasty dish.

Ingredients
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Regular green cabbage - finely chopped, 2 cups or as per your requirement
Dried green peas - One small cup, soaked over night (Frozen peas is also good with cabbage)
Onion - 1 medium, finely chopped
Red chillies - 2 medium or as per  your taste
Mustard seeds - 1/4 teaspoon
Urad dhal - 1/2 teaspoon
Curry leaves - 3 - 5, washed
Coconut - 1/4 cup, shredded (I use frozen shredded coconut which I get in Indian stores, which when thawed tastes and smells just like fresh grated coconut)
Turmeric Powder - 1/4 tsp

Method
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Add water just enough to cover the soaked green peas and pressure cook on medium for 1 whistle. If you let it cook for more than a whistle, it ends up as a mushy mess. If you dont own a pressure cooker, you can cook it over stove top in a sauce pan until the peas is just cooked but still has a bite to it.

Heat a large pot or a pan (preferably with a lid). Add any cooking oil (  I use corn oil), and when the oil is hot enough, add the mustard seeds, urad dhal and red chillies (split into pieces). When the mustard seeds are done cracking and urad dhal is roasted, add the curry leaves followed by the shredded cabbage. Add the turmeric powder and sprinkle little bit of water. If you had just washed the shredded cabbage, there is no need to add water. Too much water makes the poriyal mushy. Toss everything to coat the cabbage with the spicy goodness.

Check every 5 - 7 minutes and stir so that the cabbage doesnt stick to the pan. If it starts sticking to the pan, sprinkle some water and stir. When the cabbage is almost done and still has a bite to it, add the peas. Add salt to taste, stir everything together and close the lid for about 2-4 minutes. This gives enough time to the peas to absorb the flavors.

When you are about to kill the heat, add the shredded coconut and stir together. Turn off the stove and sprinkle more curry leaves, if  you like.

Optional - When you add the cabbage, you can also add finely chopped carrots. This gives a nice color, texture and taste to the poriyal.

Enjoy!!

Roasted Veggies over whole wheat Pasta/ marinara sauce

Well...I am back after a zillion years. I tried this dish for dinner and loved it so much. I was kind of inspired by this panini that I have from my favorite Italian restaurant in my neighbourhood, Umbertos. They have this tasty garden panini with fresh mozarella, roasted veggies like mushroom, eggplant and onions. Its filling and I thought 'hey, why not use this on a pasta..that cant go wrong'

Ingredients
Onion - 1 medium, sliced
Zucchini - 3 medium, diced
American Eggplant - 1 large, diced. If you dont like the tartness of eggplant, sprinkle salt on the cut pieces, place on a colander and rest it on the counter for about 10-15 minutes. The salt brings out the tartness. Then rinse thoroughly and use.
Mushroom (any small mushroom) - 1 to 2 cups
Garlic - 2 medium cloves, roughly chopped. You dont want to mince the garlic, as the smaller pieces tend to get charred under broiler
Red bell peppers - 2 medium, cut into thin wedges
Olive Oil spray
Salt to taste
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
Dry Basil - 1/4 teaspoon


Method
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Pre heat oven. In a large bowl, toss all the veggies and spray with olive oil. Add salt, basil and pepper and mix well to coat all the veggies.

Arrange the veggies on a baking sheet and make sure they are not piled. We want the veggies to get roasted and caramelized, and not steamed & soggy. I use two large baking sheets and arrange them. Remember to coat the baking sheets with olive oil.

Place the trays under broiler for about 20 minutes. After the first 10 minutes, take them out carefully and toss them so that they get roasted evenly on both sides. At the end of 20 minutes, if you see some of them still not roasted, keep them in for another 2- 3 minutes. But make sure you dont burn them.

The roasting time varies depending on your broiler. Its safe to check them every 7-9 minutes, if you are unsure about your broiler.

After they are done, they would look and taste perfect with all the caramelized flavor. Serve them over your favorite whole wheat pasta and marinara sauce.

I like whole wheat penne as it is easy to eat and love home made sauce. If time is your problem, try Rao's marinara sauce (no..I dont work for them or represent them :) ). It tastes great and is the best store bought sauce ever. I read Giada De Laurenti's marinara sauce (sold at Target) is also good, and not as expensive as Rao's. I need to try Giada's sauce yet.

Enjoy!!!

Vellai Paniyaram

I love this dish as a weekend snack. This does not call for a lot of oil, if you use a non-stick appam dish. I just use non stick cooking spray. I had always enjoyed this dish at Annapoorna restaurant in Coimbatore.

Ingredients

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Idli batter - quantity depends on how many paniyarams you would like to make. Roughly about 2 tsps of batter per paniyaram. Do not dilute the batter.

Onions - 1 large, finely chopped

Ginger - 1 small piece (1/4 an inch) , grated

Green chillies - 2 0or 3, as desired, cut into two pieces (yes thats it, I will tell you why)

Cilantro -a handful, finely chopped

Curry leaves - 5 or 6, chopped

Non stick cooking spray

Split Urad dhal - 1 tsp

Channa dhal - a handful, soaked in water for about 30 minutes. Optional

Salt to taste

Method

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In a saute' pan, add the cooking spray and urad dhal. When the urad dhal is roasted, add the onions, green chillies, ginger, half of the chopped cilantro and curry leaves. Saute' until the onion is half cooked and a little soft. Turn off the heat.

Mix the above with the idli batter and remaining curry leaves and cilantro. Add salt sparingly. Please note that the idli batter already has some salt. Mix well.

The paniyaram batter has to be in the same consistency as idli batter. The paniyaram becomes oily if you dilute the batter.

This is for people like me who don't like super hot and spicy food. The reason why I cut the chillies into two large pieces is, when you saute' with onion, all the spicy goodness of the chillies mix well with onion. So if you don't like super spicy food, you don't to bite into tiny little pieces of spicy chillies in your paniyaram. It is easy to pick large pieces of chillies instead of picking 10 tiny pieces :) from your paniyaram.

If you are making this for kids, after sauteeing the onions, you can just discard the large pieces of chillies. The paniyaram will not be bland as the chillies have already rendered the flavor while cooking with the onions.

Now lets make the cute little paniyarams.

Heat the appam pan. Carefully spray the cooking oil and when the pan is hot enough, add the paniyaram batter in each cup (kuzhi). Let it simmer and cook until one side is slightly browned.

Using two forks, flip the paniyarams. Continue to simmer and let the other side get browned slightly. Close the pan with a small lid for about a minute, to make sure that the paniyaram cooks uniformly inside.

Remove one batch and continue with the others. The paniyaram is now soft inside and slightly browned outside.

Serve hot with any chutney and a cup of hot masala chai !!

Happy Snacking

Bhel Poori

Who doesn't love Bhel poori. I ate Bhel poori and other chaat stuff almost every other day at Hot chips, saibaba colony with my best friend Priya, when I was in college. And ate more bhel poori from the chaat place near my house lol.

Ingredients

------------

Plain puffed rice (vellai pori) - 200 gms

Onion - 1 large, finely chopped

Tomatoes - 2 large, finely chopped. Optional - you can discard the juice

Cucumber -2 medium, peeled and finely chopped

Carrot - 2 medium, grated

Potato - 1 medium, boiled, peeled and diced. Optional

Frozen whole corn kernels - a handful or two, thawed. Optional

Plain Sev - as per your taste

Plain pani pooris - broken into bite size pieces, Optional (You can skip this ingredient if you don't find them in the store)

Cilantro - a handful, finely chopped

For the Bhel poori paste

--------------------------

I bought store bought sauces and mixed them. I will try to make the sauces at home and post the recipe soon.

You can add the following ingredients as per your taste and spice level

Date chutney

Cilantro chutney

Chaat masala (this one is spicy)

Method

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Mix the bhel poori paste ingredients listed above, in a small cup and set aside.

In a large salad bowl, mix onion, tomato, cucumber, corn, carrots and cilantro.

Just couple of minutes before you serve, toss the puffed rice, plain sev, bhel poori paste and the veggie mixture well. Make sure that the paste coats all the other ingredients.

Garnish with cilantro and sev.

Enjoy with a cup of hot masala chai!!

Corn - Cucumber salad

You don't need summer to enjoy a light, fresh and flavorful corn salad. This is a simple yet healthy and tasty salad that you might enjoy as a snack or as a side-dish.

Ingredients

------------

Frozen whole corn kernels - thawed, 2 small cups

Cucumber - 2 medium or 1 large, peeled, diced

Onion, red or yellow - 1 large, finely chopped

Carrot - 2 medium, peeled and grated

Tomato - 1 small, finely chopped (You can seed the tomatoes, discard the juice and chop, if you like)

Cilantro - a handful, finely chopped

Salt - to taste

Lemon juice - 1/2 a teaspoon, as per your taste

Method

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In a salad bowl, combine corn, onion, carrot, tomato and cilantro. Add salt and lemon juice as per your taste. This can be served immediately or refrigerated for about 30 minutes and then served.

You will instantly fall in love with this colorful flavorful salad :)

Marinara Sauce - Recipe II

I have already posted recipe for Basic marinara sauce in my Eggplant parm page. I tried this one and turned out to be quick, easy and very tasty too.

Ingredients

-----------

Tomatoes - 6 Large, cut into chunks

Garlic cloves - 3 medium or 2 large, minced

Onion - 1 large, finely chopped

Fresh basil - 3 handfuls or Dried Basil - 1/2 a teaspoon (alter as per your taste)

Sugar - couple of teaspoons, to balance the tangy tomatoes

Salt - to taste

Parsley or cilantro - optional, a handful, finely chopped.

Part skim mozzarella cheese - shredded, as desired

Parmesan cheese - a tsp or two

Cooking oil - a tsp

Method

--------

In a large soup pot, heat the oil and add onions and garlic. Saute' until onions become soft. Make sure you don't burn the garlic.

Meanwhile, in a blender, add the tomato chunks and basil. Pulse couple of times and add water if required. Blend until it becomes a gravy consistency. It is okay if you see some small tomato chunks. It will make the sauce look more home-y and rustic :)

When the onions are done, add the tomato and basil puree'. Add part of salt & sugar and let it simmer for about 15-20 minutes until the sauce starts thickening. Add more sugar and salt as per your taste.

Optional - If you think your sauce wont thicken, add a tsp of all purpose flour when you saute' onions.

Finally, add the cheeses and let them melt. Stir well and turn off the flame. Add parsley or cilantro.

This goes great with pizzas, pastas, lasagnas and eggplant parmesan.

A quick tip when you cook pasta

I always use whole wheat pasta. Cook as per the package instructions and drain. If the recipe calls for parmesan cheese, add the cheese when the pasta is still hot so that the cheese sticks to the pasta. The pasta gets all that wonderful flavor.

Toss the pasta into the sauce just a few minutes before you serve. Again when the pasta is still hot :)

Happy Cooking!!

Ada Pradhaman

Wow..its been so long I blogged..So I decided I will come back strong with Ada Pradhaman ! :)

Ada Pradhaman is a popular dessert/ payasam variety in Kerala. You could just make this payasam in 10-15 minutes.

Ingredients

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Coconut milk (unsweetened) - 1 can

Ada - 1 packet (200gms)

Jaggery - 1lb (as required)

Ghee - 2 tsp

Raisins - as required

Cashewnuts - as required

Slivered almons - optional, as required

Cardamom powder - couple of pinches ( I make my own cardamom powder which is fragrant and fresh. See below)

Regular milk - optional, as required

Method

-------

Cardamom powder

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Take a handful or two of whole cardamoms and half a tsp of sugar in a spice blender or the smallest jar of your Indian mixie. You could use coffee grinder too but make sure you have one separate for grinding coffee :) unless you want cardamom flavored coffee ;). Blend until it becomes a coarse powder. I use this all the time when I make tea or any Indian dessert.

Optional - You could include a pinch of saffron when you blend cardamom. It gives this awesome aroma and flavor when you add this to payasam.

Ada Pradhaman

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Boil about a litre of water in a large vessel. Cover it with a lid and let it boil in a high flame. This just quickens the process. Add the pack of Ada to the boiling water. Stir every 2-3 minutes and let it cook until soft. Turn off the stove, drain and rinse with cold water for a few seconds to stop cooking. Keep aside in a colander.

Dissolve jaggery in some water (until the water covers the solid jaggery). Use your hand or a fork to stir continuously until the jaggery is dissolved. You could make this simple by soaking the jaggery in water for 5-10minutes. Then the stirring becomes easier. Filter the jaggery water in a tea filter or clean thin white cloth, to remove any impurities. Keep aside.

In a pot with a heavy base, heat a tsp of ghee. Add the jaggery water and let it get warm. Add half of the coconut milk, a pinch of cardamom powder and the cooked ada. Stir every 2-3 minutes and let this boil. Once the liquid boils and the raw smell of jaggery is gone (this takes about 5-7 minutes), add the rest of the coconut milk and a pinch of cardamom powder. Let it boil for about 3-5 minutes. By now the payasam would have got thick. Turn off the heat.

In a small pan, heat ghee and roast cashew nuts, slivered almonds and raisins. Add to the Payasam.

Optional - When serving, if you find the payasam to be too thick, add a little amount of boiled milk (as required) and stir well.

Enjoy :) !!