Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Aviyal

Aviyal is one of my favorite recipe, especially the one made by my mom. Most of us in our childhood days, will hesitate to take vegetables. Me too don't like any kind of vegetable. But after tasting this aviyal, I loved it a lot. Me and my brother will love this aviyal. If its aviyal that day, it will get over very soon from the container. That much we love this aviyal. So learnt this making from my mom.



I have tasted this aviyal in many different versions, but this is the one I love most, the one we make in my hometown, that too by my mom. Try this and you will also love it a lot.




Ingredients:

Carrot - 2 big
Beans - 8 to 10
Brinjal/Eggplant - 2
Drumstick - 1
Potato - 2
Raw Banana (Valakkai) - 1
Curd/Yogurt - 1/4 cup
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Mustard - 1 tsp
Urad dal - 2 tsp
Curry leaves - 1 sprig
Salt - to taste
Coconut oil - 1 tbsp

For grinding:
Coconut - 1/4 cup (grated)
Onion - 1/2 medium size
Garlic - 2 o3 3 cloves
Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
Green chillies - 3 or 4
Curry leaves - 1 sprig

Note:
a) Cut all the vegetables to about 2 inch length or of equal length.
b) Let the curd/yogurt you use be little bit sour, instead of fresh curd.
c) You can use any vegetables of your choice as I had listed above, except beetroot, mushroom, cauliflower kind of vegetables. Also you can use any kind of potatoes. I used  only few of the above listed (carrot, raw banana, potato, drumstick)

Method:

1) Heat a pan and add about 2 cups of water. Let it boil. Then add all the cut vegetables.



2) Let the vegetables cook.  Meanwhile add all the ingredients for grinding in a blender.



3) Grind it to a paste and keep it aside.



4) Once the vegetables are cooked, strain the excess water from it. (Do not waste this water as you can use this water for making soup or in any other cooking)



5) Now heat a pan and add the cooked vegetables. Also add the curd, ground paste, turmeric powder and salt. Mix it well.



6) Now do the tempering. Heat a small pan, add coconut oil, mustard seeds. Once it splutters, add urad dal and curry leaves.



7)  Add this to the vegetables.



Tasty and authentic aviyal is now ready. Can't resist myself from having it.


Monday, March 26, 2012

Spicy Mushroom Potato Curry

Mushroom and potato makes a great combination. This mushroom potato curry will be spicy and has tangy taste too. This will be very tasty with white rice. You can also taste this with idli or dosa. These combinations were also too good.



Ingredients:

Mushroom - 1 cup or 200g (cut to quarters)
Potato - 1 big or 2 small
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Chilli powder - 2 tsp
Dhania/Corriander powder - 3 tsp
Tamarind - 1 small ball size or 1 tbsp paste
Mustard - 1 tsp
Toor dal - 1 tsp
Fenugreek - 1 tsp
Curry leaves - 1 sprig
Gingelly oil/Sesame oil - 3 tbsp
Salt - to taste

For grinding:
Coconut - 3 tbsp
Onion - 1 (medium size)
Tomato - 2 (medium size)

Note:
a) Boil the potatoes, peel the skin and cut to cubes. (Do not overcook, let it be half cooked)
b) Soak the tamarind in warm water for about 10 mins or add water to the tamarind paste and make about 1 cup of juice from it.

Method:

1) Heat a pan. Add the oil and add mustard seeds, fenugreek and toor dal.



2) Add the curry leaves and mushroom.



3) Saute it for about 3 mins and add the cooked potatoes.



4) Add the turmeric powder, chilli powder and corriander powder.



5) Meanwhile grind the coconut, onion and tomato and keep it aside.



6) Mix the dry spices very well with mushroom and potato.



7) Now add the ground paste to the mushroom potato mixture.



8) Let it cook for about 2 to 3 mins, until the oil oozes out of it.



9) Finally add the tamarind juice and let it boil for about 5 mins.



Delicious and spicy mushroom potato curry is ready to taste.

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Cauliflower Potato fry (Aloo Gobi fry)

Potato and cauliflower together makes a great taste and a tasty recipe. This tastes very good even with cure rice.



Ingredients:

Cauliflower - 1/2 flower
Potato - 2 medium
Onion - 1 (finely chopped)
Chilli powder - 1 tsp
Dhania/Corriander powder - 2 tsp
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Mustard - 1/2 tsp
Urad dal - 1 tsp
Curry leaves - 1 sprig
Oil - 2 tbsp
Cilantro/Corriander leaves - to garnish
Salt - to taste

Note:
a) Pre-boil the potatoes and cut to cubes and keep aside.
b) Cut the cauliflower into florets. Soak the florets in warm water for about 5 minutes, rinse in cold water and keep it aside.

Method:

1) Heat a pan, add oil. Once it is hot, add mustard seeds. Let it splutter and add urad dal and curry leaves.



2) Add the onions saute it until it turns brown. Then add the florets.



3) Also add the turmeric powder, chilli powder and corriander powder.



4) Mix it well. Add salt and water and let it boil.



5) Once the florets become tender, add the cooked potatoes and mix it very well. Let it cook for about 3 minutes.



6) Finally granish with cilantro.


Delicious potato cauliflower fry is ready for your taste buds.

Monday, March 19, 2012

Strawberry Banana Smoothie

This is a recipe, especially for kids. If kids refuse to take banana, just blend them and make a smoothie of it and give them. They will never refuse to have this smoothie.



Ingredients:

Strawberry 4 or 5
Banana - 1
Milk - 1 glass
Sugar - 2 tsp

Method:

1) Slice the banana and put all ingredients in a blender.



2) Blend it well.



3) Serve chill.


Yummy smoothie is ready in minutes.

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Vegetable Fried Rice

Many of us love fried rice and we love to eat it especially in restaurants. We can make the same fried rice with the same taste in our kitchen and its very easy too. You can make any vegetable kuruma or any gravy of  your choice for this fried rice.



Ingredients:

Basmati Rice - 2 cups
Onion - 1 cup (finely chopped)
Green chillies - 4 or 5 (slitted)
Mixed vegetables - 1 cup (finely chopped carrot, beans, capsicum/bell pepper)
Spring onion/Green onion - 1/2 bunch (finely chopped)
Soy sauce - 2 tsp
Ajinomoto/MSG - 1/2 tsp (optional)
Butter/Ghee - 1 tbsp
Salt - to taste
Oil - 2 tbsp

Method:

1) Heat a pan. Add butter/ghee. Also add 1/2 of the chopped spring onions.



2) Now add the rice and roast it for few mins. Add about 2 cups of water for 1 cup rice. Also add salt and 1/4 tsp of ajinomoto to it and cook it in electric cooker or pressure cooker. Do not overcook the rice. See that rice is cooked as all grains are separate and keep it aside.



3) Now heat a pan, add oil, chopped onions and green chillies.



4) Saute if for a minute and add the remaining spring onions and the chopped vegetables.



5) Saute it for about 2 mins, add soy sauce, salt and ajinomoto.



6) Let it cook well for about 3 to 5 minutes, until the vegetables are half cooked and becomes tender. (Do not add water)



7) Finally add the cooked rice.



8)  Mix it gently and garnish with few spring onions.


Tasty and homemade vegetable fried rice is ready now.

Sunday, March 11, 2012

Cucumber Sabzi

Summer is heading to start. We can keep our body cool by adding watery vegetables in our cooking even. Cucumber is one of the most common we all love to leave it as it is, without any cooking even. As an alternative we use them for salads. In this recipe, cumcumber is used to make a simple and tasty sabzi. This will be very mild in taste, not much spicy. So we can mix this sabzi with white rice and give for kids also. This can be had with spciy curries like tamarind curry. That makes a balanced and tasty meal.



Ingredients:

Cucumber - 2 medium (cut to 3 inch length)
Pepper - 1/2 tsp
Pepper powder - 1 tsp
Rice flour - 1 tsp
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Curry leaves - 1 sprig
Ghee - 1 tbsp
Salt - to taste

Method:

1) Heat a pan. Add the ghee, add peppers and curry leaves.



2) Then add turmeric powder, pepper powder and the rice flour.



3) Now add the cut cucumbers.



4) Mix it very well so that every piece of cucumber gets coated very well. Then add water and salt to it.



5) Let it cook until cucumbers gets soft. Add more water if necessary, as rice flour will absorb water.



6) Remove from flame, once it is well cooked and becomes thick.



Cucumber sabzi, with great taste is now ready to taste.

Friday, March 9, 2012

Vegetable Soup

Soup is one of our all time favorite starter. Also soup is very good for health. This vegetable soup is healthy and also easy to make.



Ingredients:

Water - 4 tumblers
Mixed vegetables - 1 cup (any finely chopped carrot, beans, peas, cauliflower, mushroon, cabbage)
Onion - 1/2 onion (finely chopped)
Ginger garlic paste - 2 tsp
Spring onions/Green onions - 1/4 cup (chopped)
Cilantro/Corriander leaves - 4 or 5 sprigs (chopped)
Ajinomoto/MSG - 1/2 tsp (optional)
Milk - 1 cup
Corn flour - 1 tbsp
Pepper powder - 1 to 2 tsp
Salt - to taste

Note:
a) You can add any of the above mentioned vegetables. Just add what you have, all mixed up to about 1 cup. I used carrot, cauliflower and mushroom.
b) You can skip adding ajinomoto/MSG, but it gets a really good flavor to your soup.

Method:

1) In a sauce pan, add 4 tumblers of water and let it boil. Then add the finely chopped vegetables, onion, ginger garlic paste and ajinomoto/MSG. Let it boil and half cook the vegetables for about 3 minutes. (Do not overcook the vegetables)



2) When its almost half cooked, add the spring onions, cilantro and the salt.



3) Then mix the corn flour with water and add to it. Also add the milk.



4) Let it cook for about 3 to 5 minutes and finally add the pepper powder.



Hot vegetable soup is now ready to taste. For great taste, serve hot once its ready.