Vegetable Pie

One fine day I was so bored to cook the same stuff over and over again and I had lots of vegetables that stayed in the refrigerator. I did not want to waste them all. Lots of vegetables and tomato puree and grated paneer is all we need to get this delicious and healthy vegetable pie. Eat this with rice or as a sandwich or just as an evening snack.



Ingredients:
Chopped vegetables - carrots, beans, cauliflower, broad beans, peas, yellow, red and orange sweet peppers, potatoes, cabbage - 3 cups
onions chopped - 1/2 cup
tomatoes crushed in a blender - 2 cups
chilly powder - 1/2 tsp
coriander powder - 1/2 tsp
turmeric powder - a pinch
grated panneer - 1/2 cup
olive oil - 2 tbsp

Preparation:

1. Microwave the chopped vegetables until half cooked and then add the masala powders and keep the vegetables aside.
2. Heat oil in pan and fry the chopped onions, add tomatoes and when it comes to a sauce consistency add the panneer.
3. Take a cake baking pan and layer it with the vegetables. Then add the stuff from step 2
4. Bake in the oven @ 350 for 15 minutes.
5. Let it cool and the tomato layer on the top will thicken to form like a topping.

Apple Cake

I am back after a long break :) Here is a simple recipe for a tasty and easy apple cake. Thanks Sudha for your eggless recipe for this cake and my strictly vegetarian mom loved it :)

My elder one who is a big dora fan loved this dora shaped cake.



Ingredients:

1 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp cinnamon powder
1 tsp baking powder
Walnuts
1 stick butter - or 1/2 cup oil
1 red delicious apple - grated
milk - if required for consistency


Preparation:

Mix all the ingredients and bake at 350 for about 40 mins.

Magic Cookies

Home made cookies !!! Don't they sound great?? They taste awesome. Here is the recipe from my friend Soumya.



Ingredients:
1) 1.5 cup graham cracker crumbs
2) 0.5 cup all purpose flour
3) 2 tsp baking powder
4) 1 cup chopped walnuts
5) 3/4th cup grated dry coconut
6) 3 tsp butter
7) 0.5 cup chocolate chips (I used the white ones)
8) 1 can sweetened condensed milk



Preparation:

1) Mix all ingredients together.
2) Preheat oven to 375 F,
3) Drop cookie sized mixture into cookie sheets.
4) Bake for approximately 10 minutes or until the dough is brown

Fish Salad

If you are trying to turn towards the healthy side of eating with minimal cooking, here you go,



Ingredients:
Lettuce leaves - handful
Grape tomatoes - 5
Cucumber - 10 slices
baby carrots - 5
Salmon - 5 pieces
ginger garlic paste - 2 tsp
chilly powder - 1 tsp
cummin powder - 1 tsp
turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
salt

Preparation:

1. Mix ginger garlic paste, chilly powder, cummin powder, turmeric powder, salt into a smooth paste and marinate the fish pieces with the paste for 1 hour
2. Bake the fish at 375 F in the oven for 20 - 30 minutes
3. Arrange the lettuce leaves, cucumber, carrots, grape tomato in a salad bowl and the bakes fish. Enjoy your salad with your favorite salad dressing

Pongal Special

Our pongal celebrations started with offering of ven pongal/sambar and sakara pongal to god.





Ven Pongal:

Ingredients:

Rice - 1 cup
Moong dal -1/4 cup
Cummin seeds - 1 tsp
peppercorn - 1 tsp
curry leaves - 10 leaves
casews - handful
ghee - 1 tbsp

Preparation:

1. Cook the rice and dal together until it mashes.
2. In a pan heat ghee and add curry leaves and the coarsely ground cummin and pepper
3. Fry casews separately in ghee
4. Add the cooked rice to the pan and mix well and decorate it with casews


Sakara Pongal:

Ingredients:

Rice - 1 cup
vellam - 1 medium sized
coconut grated - 2 tbsp
caswes - handful
ghee - 2 tbsp
elachi - 4

Preparation:
1. Fry casews separately in ghee and keep aside
2. Cook rice separate and keep it aside
3. Add very little water to vellam and heat it in low flame
4. Let the vellam completely dissolve in water and keep stirring until it reaches the string consistency
5. Grind the coconut and elachi in the mixie without adding any water so that the coconut gets grated
6. Heat the ghee in a pan and add the cooked rice, the vellam from step 4 and the ground stuff from step 5.
7. Add the casews and turn off the stove when the required consistency is reached

Chicken and Egg Fried Rice

After many tries found this recipe for chicken egg fried rice exactly like the ones we get in the restaurants in India. Everybody at home loved this.




Ingredients:

Chopped carrots - 1/4 cup
chopped beans - 1/4 cup
peas - 1/4 cup
chopped spring onions - 1/4 cup
chopped onions - 1/4 cups
pepper - 1 tsp
Basmati Rice - 2 cups
eggs - 4
finely chopped chicken - 1/2 cup
chopped ginger and garlic - 2 tbsp


Preparation:

1. Marinate the chicken with turmeric, salt and yogurt for 1 hour
2. Wash the basmathi rice in hot water. Heat 6 times water in a thick bottom open pan and add the washed rice. Let it cook for 10 minutes or until its almost done. Turn off the stove, drain the water, spread the 3/4th cooked rice in a board vessel and let it dry.
3. Add the chopped vegetables (carrots, beans and peas) in a bowl and add water just to cover the vegetables and microwave it for 5 minutes.
4. Heat oil in a pan and add the chopped onions, ginger and garlic.
5. Once the onions turn golden brown, add the chicken.
6. Fry til the chicken cooks completely and then add the eggs, adding pepper and salt fry until the eggs are cooked along with the chicken.
7. Once the eggs are done, add the boiled vegetables from the microwave.
8. Now add the spring onions and in medium flame mix the cooked rice and serve.

Stuffed Mushrooms

This is a very simple and healthy appetizer or a snack. This surely is a great treat for the mushroom lovers. Enjoy.




Ingredients:

Button mushrooms - 1 pack (From Sams Club)
Organic baby spinach - 1 pack (From Sams Club)
Butter - 1 tbsp
Garlic and herb seasoning (I use the Tone's with no salt and no msg from Sams club) - 1 tsp
Grated cheese - 1 tbsp (any kind will do)


Preparation:

1. Heat butter in a pan and add the spinach. Cook for 5 minutes until the spinach is done.
2. Add the garlic and herb seasoning and the grated cheese in low flame and let the stuffing become little sticky.
3. Wash and clean the button mushrooms. Remove the stems and use only the caps.
4. Stuff the mushrooms caps with the spinach stuffing from step 2
5. Line up the mushrooms with the stuffing in a tray and put it inside the oven and cook in 350F for 15 to 20 minutes until the mushrooms are done.

Spicy Chicken gravy and masala

This gravy turned out awesome and I referred the Spicy Chicken Masala Curry from Sailu's food and changed the recipe to my liking. The best part of the gravy is that it does not need coconut at all and still gives a thick, tasty kurma style flavor and consistency. It was great with dosa/iddli/chappatti/white rice.

The chicken masala is really spicy and has a great aroma of the Indian spices. So its a great food for the spice lovers. It tastes great with white rice and rasam.



Ingredients for the spicy chicken gravy:

Chicken breasts - 1 pound
onions chopped - 1/2 cup
tomatoes chopped - 1/2 cup
chilly powder - 1 tsp
cummin powder - 1/2 tsp
corriander powder - 1 tsp
pepper powder - 3/4 tsp
turmeric - 1/2 tsp
curd - 2 tbsp
casews - 6
curry leaves - 10
garlic - 3 pieces
ginger - same quantity as garlic
cloves - 4
cinnamon - 2 small sticks

Preparation of the gravy:

1. Marinate the cut chicken with curd, chilly powder, turmeric and salt
2. In a pan heat the cloves, cinnamon, curry leaves and casews and grind it into a fine powder
3. Grind ginger and garlic and make a paste
4. Heat oil in a pan and add the onions, paste from 3, tomatoes.
5. Add cummin powder, corriander powder, pepper powder and cook until it lets out the oil.
6. Turn off the stove and cool the contents and grind it into a paste.
7. Now heat oil again in the same pan and add the marinated chicken and let the chicken cook in it own water that it lets out.
8. When the chicken is almost done, add the paste from 6 and the powder from 2
9. Add water as much as you need and cook until the desired consistency is reached.



Ingredients for the spicy chicken masala:

chicken breasts - 1 pound
onion chopped - 1/2 cup
garlic - 2 pieces
ginger - same quantity as garlic
peppercorn - 10
cummin seeds - 1 tsp
cloves - 5
cinnamon - 2 small sticks
elachi - 3
poppy seeds - 2 tsp
red chillies - 5
curd - 2 tbsp
turmeric - 1/4 tsp

Preparation:

1. Marinate the cut chicken with curd, turmeric and salt
2. Grind ginger and garlic and make a paste
3. In a pan heat cloves, cinnamon, elachi, cummin seeds, peppercorns, red chillies, poppy seeds ad grind it to a fine powder
4. Heat oil in a pan and add the onions.
5. Then add the paste from 2
6. Turn off the stove and cool the contents and grind it into a paste.
7. Now heat oil again in the same pan and add the marinated chicken and let the chicken cook in it own water that it lets out.
8. When the chicken is almost done add the paste from 6 and the powder from 3
9. Cook until the oil separates.

Tomato Rice

A very simple dish that can be prepared in no time. The tomato rice with chips or papad is a good combination.



Ingredients:

Basmathi Rice - 1 cup
onions cut thin long - 1/2 cup
tomatoes chopped - 1/2 cup
green chillies - 4
garlic chopped - 2 tbsp
chilly powder - 1 tsp
cummin powder - 1 tsp
turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
curry leaves - 5
mustard and urad for seasoning - 1 tsp

Preparation:

1. Wash the basmathi rice in hot water and cook it in the rice cooker.
2. In a pan heat oil, add mustard seeds, urad dal, curry leaves
3. Add onions and garlic and let it turn brown
4. Now add the tomatoes and the masala powders and salt.
5. Add little water and cook until it lets the oil out. Turn off the stove. You can use this curry as a gravy for dosa/iddli as well.
6. Mix the cooked rice and the curry gently

Mushroom Manchurian

Gobi/mushroom manchurian is a very famous indo-chinese dish that serves a great combination with fried rice or noodles. In most of the indo-chinese restaurants, I like to order the gobi manchurian as dry and extra spicy and simply love it. With different trials, this recipes works great for both gobi and mushrooms. Adjust the spice level to your taste with the quantity of chilly powder and green chillies you use.



Ingredients:

Button mushrooms - 10
maida - 1/4 cup
corn flour - 1/4 cup
chilly powder - 1 tsp
green chillies - 10
garlic - 4 pieces
ginger - same quantity as garlic
onions chopped - 1/2 cup
spring onions chopped - 1/2 cup
bell peppers chopped - 1/2 cup
garlic chopped - 1/4 cup
tomato ketchup - 3 to 4 tbsp
soy sauce - 1 tbsp



Preparation:

1. Wash and clean the button mushrooms. Remove the stems and use only the caps.
2. Grind ginger, garlic and green chillies to a smooth paste.
3. Mix maida, corn flour, paste from 2, chilly powder and salt with little water and make a smooth batter. Let the batter be very thick.
4. Now marinate the mushrooms with the mix from 3 for some time. coat the mushrooms generously with the thick batter.
5. Deep fry the mushrooms from 4 and drain it in a paper towel to remove the excess oil.
6. The mushrooms from 5 can be used a dry version and can be served as an appetizer.
7. In a separate pan heat oil and add the onions, garlic, bell peppers and then the spring onions.
8. After the onions are brown add the tomato ketchup, soy sauce and then add the mushrooms from 5 and mix well.

Note: You can follow the same recipe to make the famous gobi manchurian. You can make it dry or saucy by adding some water. Cook the cauliflower separately in microwave for 2 to 3 minutes before frying it.

Szechuan Fried Rice

This dish is a typical Chinese fried rice which can be described as spicy, hot, fresh and fragrant. This is a very simple version of the Szechuan Fried Rice and is very tasty. You can adjust the spiciness level with the amount of red chillies, peppercorn and the spicy sauces you use. The mushroom manchurian makes a perfect side for this rice.



Ingredients:

vegetables (carrots, beans, cabbage, bell peppers chopped really small) - 2 cups
peas - 1/4 cup
spring onion - 1/2 cup
red chillies - 6
garlic - 4 pieces
ginger - same quantity as garlic
peppercorns - 1 tsp
soy sauce - 2 tbsp
tomato garlic/chilly sauce - 2 tbsp
schechuwan sauce - 2 tbsp
Basmathi rice - 2 cups



Preparation:

1. Wash the basmathi rice in hot water. Heat 6 times water in a thick bottom open pan and add the washed rice. Let it cook for 10 minutes or until its almost done. Turn off the stove, drain the water, spread the 3/4th cooked rice in a board vessel and let it dry.
2. Grind red chillies, ginger, garlic and peppercorn to a coarse paste without adding water.
3. In a separate pan heat oil and add the stuff from 2 and fry for a minute.
4. Add the vegetables in the order carrot, beans, bell peppers and cabbage.
5. Add little water when the vegetables become dry.
6. Cook the peas in microwave for 2 to 3 minutes and add this.
7. Next add the spring onions.
8. Now is the time to add all the sauces and salt.
9. Mix well and add the cooked rice from 1

Note: You can add scrambled eggs to make Szechuan egg fried rice or the chopped and fried chicken to make Szechuan chicken fried rice.

Alfredo Pasta with brocolli and mushrooms

Here is a famous Italian dish. Olive garden which happens to be my daughters favorite restaurant serves fettuccine Alfredo chicken, a mouth watering dish. The Alfredo sauce happens to be my husbands favorite Italian sauce too. I like to cook with any kind of pasta rather than just the fettuccine especially the kids always love their pasta shapes and have so many preferences. This time I used the Halloween pasta which has all the fancy spider, jack-O-Lantern kind of shapes and she loved it.



Ingredients: Serves 4 - 6

Pasta - any kind 4 cups (fettuccine/shell/farfalle/fusilli/rotini/penne/any fun shaped pastas)
Alfredo sauce - 1 bottle (I use the Bertolli afredo sauce available from target/walmart)
Broccoli - 1 cup
Mushrooms - 1 cup (the white button mushrooms)
cheese - pepper jack 4 - 5 cubes
Garlic and herb seasoning (I use the Tone's with no salt and no msg from Sams club) - 2 tsp
chicken slices and cubed breasts - 1 cup (optional)
butter - 1 tbsp



Preparation:

1. Cook the pasta carefully as per the package instructions. Do not over cook the pasta because then it breaks.
2. Wash the mushrooms thoroughly. I use only the mushroom caps.
3. Add water to just cover the broccoli in a microwave safe bowl and microwave it for 3 minutes.
4. Marinate the chicken with 1 tsp of the seasoning and bake it in the oven for 15 minutes or until completely cooked.
5. In a pan heat the butter and saute the mushrooms for 5 minutes in medium flame. Check if the mushroom is cooked. Mushrooms cook faster just by sauteing and lets out the water.
6. Add the broccoli from 3 and cook for 1 minute.
7. Add the chicken from 4 and toss for 1 minute
8. In low flame add the garlic, herb seasoning and the Alfredo sauce.
9. Let the Alfredo sauce cook for a while. Add water if it gets too thick.
10. Add the cheese slices and once the cheese melts add the cooked pasta from 1.
11. Mix everything gently and serve

Chapatti rolls

A very simple dish that serves best for breakfast or a simple lunch or a heavy snack. Easy to pack lunch box item and a healthy one. I made it with lots of vegetables and egg. You can also make the stuffings with the chicken keema. Here is the recipe,




Ingredients:

Vegetables - 3 cups (carrots, beans, bell peppers, cabbage, onions, green chillies)
Eggs - 2
cheese - 2 slices (any sandwich cheese slices would do)
Chappattis - 10





Preparation of the stuffing:

1. Prepare the chapattis with whole wheat flour
2. Chop the onions, vegetables and green chillies into really small pieces
3. In very little oil fry all the stuff from 2. Add little water and cook the vegetables. Don't overcook the vegetables.
4. Now spread the vegetables to the corner of the pan and add the 2 eggs and beat it to scramble it. Add little salt.
5. Once the eggs are done mix it with the vegetables
6. In low flame add the cheese slices until it melts and the stuffing becomes sticky.

Note: You can also make the chicken keema and add the cheese slices to melt on the chicken and this can be the chicken stuffing.

Preparation of the rolls:

Now spread as much of the stuffing you want in a chapatti and roll it and cut it for presentation.

Diwali Sweets

Diwali is a festival not just for lights, lamps and firecrackers, but for some mouth-watering delights as well. Each region of India has its own traditional variety of sweets made specifically for this festival. Bottomline is that we get a good opportunity to eat lots of sweets :)

Here are the sweets and snacks that I made for this Diwali,
Mysore Pak (The one in the middle of the picture)
Diamond Cuts (The diamond shaped pieces)
Adhirasam
Rava Paniyaram
Laddu
Channa Dal Vadai (This is the only kaara that I made)

Adhirasam

Adhirasams that my grandmother makes when I was little can never be forgotten. She gets us a big box of murukku and adhirasams every time we meet. I love those yummy adhirasams. My mother in law makes good adhirasams too. I called her to take her recipe and it turned out awesome.

Ingredients:

Manda Vellam (Jaggary) - 1 medium sized
Basmathi Rice - 2 cups
elachi crushed - 5

Preparation:

1. Soak the rice in water for 3 hours. Drain the water and spread the rice in a clean washed towel.
2. Grind the Rice in a mixie without adding any water. Make it like a powder. Use a sieve and keep filtering until the rice is evenly powdered.
3. Add the completely crushed elachi into the powdered rice.
4. Take water just to cover the vellam in a pan and heat it till the vellam melts completely in water.
5. Continue to heat in medium flame until you reach the required consistency of the syrup.
6. If you take a drop of the syrup and put in cold water it should form a ball. Keep checking for this consistency. Do not make it thicker than that. The consistency is very important to make soft adhirasams without cracks. Turn the stove off.
7. Slowly add the syrup to the powdered rice. Make a dough. Do not make the dough very thick like chapatti flour. MAke it little sticky because the flour continues to thicken.
8. Leave the flour for one day.
9. Make small balls and flatten it by pressing with your hands and deep fry it in oil. The adhirasams becomes pluffy and you can press the adhirasams between 2 thick spoons and drain out the excess oil and place it in a paper towel.
10. Adhirasams are initially crispy, but they turn soft after it comes down to the room temperature.

Channa dal vada

We call it aama vada. I used only channa dal for this vada. You can use the other dals too for this vada. Here is the recipe,


Ingredients:

Channa dal - 2 cups
onions chopped - 1/2 cup
green chillies chopped - 4
curry leaves chopped - 8
corriander leaves chopped - handful
fennel seeds - 1 tsp

Preparation:

1. Soak the channa dal in water for 3 hours
2. Drain the water and grind it with the mixie without adding water. Do not mash it. Grind it coarse along with the fennel seeds.
3. Mix it with salt, onions, green chillies, curry leaves, corriander leaves.
4. Make small balls and flatten it by pressing with your hands and deep fry it in oil.

Rava Paniyaram

A very simply dish again and is one of my favorites,


Ingredients:

Rava (Soji) - 1 cup
Maida - 1 cup
Sugar - 1 cup
water - 1 cup
Oil - 1/2 cup (for frying)

Preparation:

1. Mix rava, maida, sugar and water into a dosa like batter and keep it aside for an hour.
2. Heat oil in a pan and pour the batter into the oil like you make bajji and deep fry.

Diamond Cuts

A quick snack that can be used especially during travel. Comes really handy then. This is a tasty, crispy and mildly sweet snack that kids will love. My daughter loved this snack, and suggested me making traingles, squares and circles rathan than just the diamonds :) Here is the recipe,

Ingredients:

Milk - 1 cup
Sugar - 1 cup
Ghee - 1/2 cup
Maida - just enough to hold
Oil - 1/2 cup (For frying)

Preparation:

1. Mix sugar, milk and ghee in a bowl until the sugar dissolves and everything is blended well.
2. Slowly add as much maida the dough will need to get a chappatti like consistency.
3. Roll it like chappattis and make horizontal and vertical lines at an angle such that you get all diamond shapes.
4. Deep fry in oil. After removing it from oil place them all in a paper towel to drain out excess oil.

Mysore Pak

Nothing can beat the Krishna Sweets Mysore Pak. My daughter is a big fan of it too. My mom always makes good mysore pak and she says this is the easiest sweet that you can make. She makes it sound very simple. It should probably take 30 minutes maximum. Here is the recipe,

Ingredients:

Gram flour - 1 cup
sugar - 2 cups
ghee - 1 cup

Preparation:

1. Heat the pan and fry the gram flour for a few minutes and keep it aside.
2. Take sugar and add water just to cover the sugar and let it boil.
3. Once the sugar is dissolved, start adding the gram flour in one hand simultaneouly stirring the solution so that no lumps are formed. Slowly add all the flour into the solution and mix thoroughly with a big heavy handled spoon.
4. Put the ghee bottle in the microwave and heat until it completely melts.
5. When the flour is blended well with the syrup, pour the melted ghee little by little and stir constantly.
6. Initially the ghee gets absorbed into the mixture. It reaches a point where the mixture will not take more ghee and will start letting the ghee out.
7. At this point remove the mixture (which is still semi solid) from stove and pour in a broad vessel. If you let it stay more than the semi solid consistency, the mysore pak will turn hard.
8. Let it cool and make pieces.

Note: Important thing to note is that do not make the sugar syrup thick. The sugar should just dissolve in water and should easily flow. If not the mysore pak will turn gummy.

Laddu

The famous laddu's are altime favorites for almost every kid. We take our daughter to the Balaji temple here and my daughter will never forget to buy her laddu and will not give it to anybody else. She calls it a laddu temple :) I was married 6 years back and I was so much surprised when my mother in law had made a bucket full of laddus and packed for us while we left india to the USA. Those were amazing laddus and I always wanted to make such good laddus but never had the time to do so. Finally my dreams came true when I felt so good after making these laddus this time. Here is the recipe,

Ingredients:

Gram flour - 2 cups
Sugar - 2 cups
casews - handful
Ghee - Just for frying the casews
Oil - 1 cup (for frying the boondis)


Preparation of the boondis:

1. To the gram flour add very little water and make a batter. The batter should not be too thick or too watery. It should be of medium consistency like the iddly batter.
2. Heat the oil in the frying pan. Use the boondi making laddle (its a flat round laddle with small holes), to make the boondis. Keep the laddle on top of the oil at a distance and pour one big spoon full of the batter on the laddle. Tap gently with the spoon
3. Small droplets of dough falls in the oil and gets fried. When the boondis turn golden brown remove it and drain it in the paper towel to remove the excess oil.
4. After making all the boondis drop them all together inside the sugar syrup. Make sure the sugar syrup is just removed from the stove. It has to be warm. Mix it well and slightly grind it. (Dont mash it. Just the boondis should be broken. )
5. Fry casews in ghee and add it to the boondi mixture.
6. Make laddus when the mixture is lukewarm and you can hold them in hand. Its important to make the laddus when the mixture is warm otherwise, the sugar will crystallize and balls cannot be made.

Preparation of the sugar syrup:

1. Take the sugar in a separate pan and add water just to cover the sugar and turn the stove on.
2. Heat till the sugar is dissolved stirring it in between. When the sugar is completely disssoved, allow the syrup to boil until the required consistency is reached.
3. The sugar syrup when you touch with your thumb and forefinger it should form a string. turn off the stove once this consistency is reached.