Sambar

Ingredients:
Toor dal

Oil

Cumin Seeds - 1 Tsp
Mustard Seeds- 1 Tsp
Onions - 1 Big

Minced Ginger

chopped Garlic - 4-5 cloves
Turmeric - 1/2 Tsp
Chili powder
Sambar masala (I use MDH) - 1 Tsp
Thick Tamarind pulp - 2 Tsp
Tomato - 1
Asafoedia(Hing) - 1/4 Tsp
Vegetables – eggplant, carrot, potatoes, coli-flower, drumsticks etc
 

Sambar

 
 
Procedure:
1. Cook daal in pressure cooker with asafoedia and turmeric powder. Give it 3 vessels.
2. When daal cooks, make sure to beat it to make it smooth.
3. In a vessel, put oil and add the seasoning of mustered and cumin seeds, when they splutter, add onion and saute till it becomes golden brown.
4. Add salt, chili powder and 1 Tsp sambar masala.
5. Add tomatoes and chopped vegetables, add water.
6. Boil it for at least 20-25 mins to cook the veggies .
7. Add tamarind pulp.
8. Adjust salt as per taste. and add 1 Tsp of sambar masala again and boil for some more time.


Your hot, spicy and tasty Sambar is ready :)

इडली (Idli)

साहित्य:

• २ वाटया तांदूळ,
• १/२ वाटी उडीद डाळ
• १/४ चमचे मेथ्याचे दाणे
• मुठभर पोहे / तयार शिजवलेला भात (optional)

कृती :
तांदूळ आणि उडीद डाळ वेग-वेगळी भिजत घालावी.उडीद डाळीबरोबरच मेथ्याचे दाणे भिजवावेत. साधारण ६ ते ८ तास भिजल्यावर mixer मधून पहिल्यांदा तांदूळ मग उडीद डाळ आणि मग दोन्ही एकत्र बारीक करून घ्यावे. तांदूळ बारीक होण्यासाठी  जरा जास्त वेळ लागेल.

वरील मिश्रण १० ते १२ तास भांड्यात झाकून ठेवावे.
इडली करताना त्यात चवीप्रमाणे मीठ आणि २ चमचे  कढवून गार केलेले तेल घालावे. मग  इडली पात्राला तेल लावून त्यावर मिश्रण घालावे म्हणजे इडल्या खाली चिकटणार नाहीत.

१५ ते २० वाफवल्यानंतर बाहेर काढून सांबार आणि नारळाच्या चटणी बरोबर खायला द्याव्या. 

टीप:

१. उडीद आणि तांदूळ जेवढे जास्त वेळ mixer मध्ये फिरवाल तेवढी इडली मऊ होते.

२. उडीद डाळ आणि तांदूळ mixi मध्ये फिरवायच्या आधी तासभर मुठभर पोहे भिजवून तेही वरील मिश्राणाबरोबर बारीक करून घ्यावेत. पोह्याच्या ऐवजी तयार भात घातला तरी चालेल. त्यामुळे इडल्या हलक्या होतात. 

Oven roasted chicken drumsticks

Ingredients:

• 6 chicken drumsticks (leg pieces)
• 1 eggs 
• 1 cup bread crumbs 
• salt and chilly powder to taste.
• Butter 
• 3 Garlic cloves

Over roasted chicken drumsticks

Preparation:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
• In bread crumbs add salt & chilly powder , you can add whatever spiced you want.
• Beat the egg & add salt & chilly powder to it.
• In a pan melt the butter, add chopped garlic
• Pour melted butter garlic mixture over the chicken. Dredge the chicken piece by piece in the egg, then the bread crumbs, until all pieces are coated.Bake in the preheated oven for 15 minutes, then turn pieces over and bake for another 15 minutes. Remove from oven and drain on paper towels. Enjoy!

Curd Rice

I have one South Indian colleague in my office who always bring rice in her lunch box and mostly it is curd or tomato rice. I will post the recipe of tomato rice in other article separately.

Today after heavy breakfast and with the lazy weekend mood, I decided to prepare something light for lunch and the idea of curd rice came to my mind and thought of trying it for the first time. It is very easy-to-make recipe with the guarantee that it will never go wrong. It is specially good to eat in the summer as it can provide soothing feeling to your stomach.

Curd Rice

Ingredients:

• Thick yogurt/curd: 2 cup
• Rice: 1.5 cup
• Green Chili : 3
• coriander

For Seasoning:

• Ghee/Oil: 2-3 Tsp
• Cumin seeds: 1 Tsp
• Mustard seeds : half Tsp
• Asafoetida (Hing)
• Red chili - 2
• Finely chopped ginger : 3/4 Tsp
• White gram (Udid Daal) : 2 Tsp
• Salt to taste
• Sour cream or heavy whipping cream as per taste.

Curd Rice

 Preparation :

1. First whistle the rice in pressure cooker for 3 whistles. Add more water than usual while cooking to make it softer. Let it cool down completely.

2. Now add curd, chopped coriander and green chillies and mix it well. and keep it aside.

3. For Seasoning, Heat the pan and lower the flame. Then add some ghee or oil as per the choice. Ghee gives better taste though. When ghee becomes hot, add cumin seeds, mustard seeds. Let them splutter then add red chillies, chopped ginger, some udid daal and hing.

4. Pour this seasoning to the curd mixed rice.

5. If available, you can add some sour cream or heavy whipping cream. It will give nice rich flavor to your rice.

Notes :

1. Udid daal will give crunchy effect to the rice.

2. If you want to make your rice with more curd-gravy, add some water to your curd before mixing it in rice. If you put sour/whipped cream, it will also solve the purpose.
3. Curd rice tastes great with any pickle, chatni, rayata or even with any daal or meat dish!

Varanphal

Chakulya( Varan Phal)
Ingredients:

For Varan:

• 1 cup toor daal
• 1 tsp kala / goda masala (use red chili powder in case)
• 1/2 tsp garlic chopped
• 1 Tsp Tamarind
• 2 tbsp grated jaggery
• 5-6 curry leaves
• 1/4 tsp turmeric powder
• 2 pinches of asafoetida
• 1/4 tsp mustard seeds
• 2 tbsp oil
• salt to taste

For Phal:

• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 tbsp oil
• salt to taste

Method: Soak tamarind and jaggery in 1/4 cup water. For phal dough mix wheat flour with oil and salt and knead firm dough. Keep aside till daal gets ready.

Cook Dal with turmeric powder in pressure cooker till soft. Mash it and mix with soaked ingredients. Now heat kadhai with oil and add mustard seeds and asafoetida. Now add curry leaves, dry coconut, garlic and masala (do not let it burn). Immediately add daal in it. Add salt and water and bring it to boil, simmer. This varan should be thinner than regular daal.
Now at the same time start rolling small portion of dough like chapati but little thicker than that. With the help of knife cut the chapati into diamond shapes ( like shankarpale), crosswise. Put these shapes in boiling daal. Repeat the same procedure immediately. Let this boil on low flame till the phal completely cooked. Add water if required.
Garnish with chopped cilantro and serve hot with ghee.

Jeera Rice

Soak Rice for 40 minutes before you start working on this recipe.

Ingredients:

• Rice - 1 Cup
• Water - 2 Cups
• Cumin Seeds - 1 Tsp
• Green Chilies - 4
• Oil- 1 Tsp

Preparation : 

1. Heat oil in a pan
2. Add cumin seeds,green chilies , and coriander.
3. Add water twice the amount of measured and bring the it to boil 
4. Add salt.
5. Add pre-soaked rice bring it to boil till 90% of water is absorbed add fried onion and saffron color
6. Reduce the flame to minimum and cook covered for 5 more min and you will have awesome jeera rice

Spinach Soup

Ingredients -

Bay leaf - 2
Ghee - 2 tsp
Cumin seeds - 1 tsp

Garlic cloves - 3 

Green chillies - 1

Milk - 0.5 cup

Oil -  2 tsp
Salt - to taste
Small Onion- 1
Small Tomato - 3
Spinach - 1 bunch
Water - 3 cup
Whole black pepper - 8

Preparation:

 Use fresh spinach leaves for that yummy taste. 


1) Wash spinach leaves with water and chop them roughly. 

2) Crush garlic cloves, chop green chili, onions and tomatoes. 

3) Heat oil in a nonstick pan, add black pepper first and 1 pinch hing. Add crushed garlic cloves, green chilies and then onions. After onions are little transparent, add tomatoes.

4)Once tomatoes cook for some time (in 2 mins) add chopped spinach and let it cook in the open pan for some time (4-5 mins). Do not overcook spinach also do not cover the pan otherwise soup will lose its green colour as well as the taste. 

5) Once the above cooked mixture is little cold, blend it in the mixer with some water. Do not add all the water now, as it would be difficult to blend the mixture with too much water. 

6) Once the mixture is nicely blended, add some water to make the mixture to the soup consistency.

7) Now in another pan, add some ghee, then cumin seeds, 1 pinch of hing, bay leaves and then pour the pureed mixture in the blender. Add salt according to your taste. Add water according to how you want the soup thicker/thinner. Add some milk and let the soup boil and then simmer for some time (2 mins) before serving.

8)Soup is ready to be served. While serving sprinkle some black pepper powder and a dash of cream if you want.

Enjoy this hot yummy and healthy spinach soup.