Semiya Payasam

Happy new year 2011!

To start with the new year lets start it with a sweet dish. Let happy moments taste in all our mouth as well :)

Semiya Payasam. This is a very easy and common dish which all of us know. So how do you do it? Here is my version of the Payasam or Kheer.

1. Vermicelli - 1 cup
2. Sugar - 1 cup
3. Milk - 4 cups
5. Elachi - 1
6. Ghee - 2 tbsp
7. Cashew - 5
8. Dry grapes - 10

Heat ghee in a pan, fry the cashew and grapes till golden brown and keep them aside. Now add the vermicelli to the remaining ghee in the pan and fry them till they also turn golden brown.

Add 2 cups of boiled milk to the fried vermicelli. Let it cook for 5 mins. When the vermicelli is cooked add sugar and stir. Add the remaining cups of milk and bring to boil. Add elachi powdered, cashew and grapes. Turn off and serve hot or cold according to your taste.

For additional flavor add milkmaid.

The yummiest and easiest dish, you know to cook or new to cook. easy and best sweet :)

Mixed Dhal

Everytime when the dinner is chapathi, the next question on all women's mind is what is the side dish. We all would like to have something different each day.

Having said all these, when you are back from work, you feel oh my god, what can i do quickly? Here is the simplest dish for you.

There are always different versions of Dhal, this is one of them.

Here it goes:

1. Toor Dhal - 1/4 cup
2. Moong Dhal - 1/4 cup
3. Masoor Dhal - 1/4 cup
4. Channa Dhal - 1/4 cup
5. Urad dhal - 2tbsp

Pressure cook all the above. when the cooker is steamed, simmer and cook for 10 mins in low flame.

When it is cooled and cooked, small all the dhal's together.

In a frying pan add little oil, saute Jeera and urad dhal, add 2 oninons chopped, 2 tomatoes, 2 green chilles and saute. Add 1 tbsp sambar powder, a pinch of turmeric and salt to taste.

Garnish with coriander leaves and serve hot with chapathis.

Quick, easy and delicious dhal ready.

Act Quick, try it out and let me know.

Happy cooking!

Tomato chutney

This would be one of the favourite dish for all kids and adults. It is an easy dish for anyone to prepare.

Ingredients required:
1. Tomatoes - 5 to 6
2. Ginger garlic paste - 1/2 tbsp
3. Chilli powder - 3-4 tbsp
4. Salt to taste
5. Oil - 1/2 cup.

Easy cutting for this receipe. Slice the tomatoes to 4  quaters.

Heat oil in a pan, add the ginger garlic paste, saute for a minute and add the tomatoes. Once the tomatoes are 3/4th cooked, add the chilli powder and salt. Simmer and close it with a lid. Cook till the oil seperates on top.

It would taste yummy with Idly and dosa.

The best part of this chutney is it would stay good for 2 - 3 days without refrigirating. So a good go for the working mom's :) the kids would love it!

Egg Curry - Muttai Mas

Muttai Mas is how my mom calls this dish, short form of Muttai masala. :)

This is a plain egg curry dish, which tastes yummy with any fried rice or chapathi.

So, here it goes.. All you need is,

1. Egg - 4
2. Onion - 2
3. Tomato - 2 big sized
4. Turmeric powder
5. Chilli powder / Sambar powder - 1&1/2 tbsp
6. water - 1/2 cup
7. Salt to taste
8. curry leaves - 5
9. coriander leaves
11. Mustard
12. Urad dhal
13. Oil - 2tbsp

Boil the eggs and shell them out.

Heat oil in a pan, add the mustard and urad dhal. Once they splitter add onions and cook them till they turn brown, add tomatoes. When the tomatoes are completely cooked, add turmeric, chilli powder, salt and water. Let it boil. Simmer and cook for 5 mins.

Cut the eggs into 4 and add them to this mixture. Cook for 3-4 minutes, so that the yolk slighlty gets dissolved with the gravy. It adds on to the taste.

Serve hot with chapathi's or rice.

Sure all would like it :)

Stuffed Capsicum - Yennegai capsicum

Its long time since I posted something. I tried out something yesterday which turned out to be too good, so was reminded to visit this place to post it :)

It is a north karnataka dish which I learned from my friend. It tastes extremely yummy!

The things required are:

1. Small capsicums - 4 nos
2. Big onion - 2
3. Tomato -1
4. Coriander leaves - 1/4 cup
5. Ground nut roasted - handful
6. white seasame - 1 tbsp
7. Jeera - 1/2 tbsp
8. Green chilly - 1
9. Red chilli powder - 1tbsp
10. Coriander powder - 1/2 tbsp
11. Garlic - 4 cloves
12. Salt to taste
13. Oil - 6-8 tbsp.

The preparation is very simple. Make a hole in the stem side of the capsicum and remove all the seeds and leave them hollow.

Now grind all the ingredients from 2 to 12 into a coarse paste.

Stuff this paste into all the capsicums. Heat oil in a non stick pan and place these capsicums on it and cover the pan with a lid. Cook for 3 mins on medium heat. Then turn the capsicums to the next side and cover and cook. continue the process till the capsicums are cooked roasted. If there are ground paste left, when the capsicums are half cooked, add the paste to it and cook together.

The color of the paste also would turn brown and would look mouth watering.

Remove from heat and serve hot with Jolad roti or Chapathi.

Nothing would be left out at the end of the day. It would fly in minutes. Do give it a try :)

I would definitely want to thank my friend for such a wonderful dish.

Thanks Roopa! Thank you so much! :)

Kutti Kozhukattai

This is a kids special recipe. Kids love it and its very easy to prepare as well. You need:

1. Rice flour - 1 cup.
2. Grated coconut - 5tbsp
3. salt to taste
4. water
5. Mustard - 1/4 tbsp
6. Urad dhal - 1/2tbsp
7. Curry leaves - 6 to 7
8. Oil - 2 tbsp

Mix rice flour,coconut and salt together. Heat water in a bowl. Add very hot water to the mixture and mix it with a spoon to make a thick dough of chappathi dough consistency. It would actually be softer than that.

Now make very small balls out of this. And bake these rice balls in the idly cooker for 10 to 15 mins. You can either serve and have as it is or heat oil in a pan, add the mustard, urad dhal and curry leaves, leave for a few seconds and add this to the kozhukkai and mix.

They would look lovely to see, and tempting for kids to eat as they look very small, smaller than a grape, so kids would play with it and finish all of them before you turn.

Do give it a try and you will know the magic to make kids eat :)

Peas Fried Rice.

This is a very quick and easy dish. This is something which i would prefer doing it for lunch to office. It tastes good and takes the minimum time :) It would also serve as a good dish when you prepare a whole menu for a grand dinner or lunch party.

Lets see what are the ingredients:

1. Onion meidum sided - 2 thinly sliced.
2. Garlic - 12-14 cloves.
3. Green Chillies - 4
5. Bay leaf - 1
6. Oil - 5tbsp
7. Peas - 1/2 cup
8. Rice - 1 cup
9. Water - 125ml
10.Salt to taste.
11. Coconut milk - 100 ml

Preparation of Coconut milk: This is something which most of them know. In case if you are new to cooking, then this might help you. Grind half a grated coconut with a glass water. Then filter the liquid and remove the coconut. Use only the coconut milk.

Preparation of peas rice:

Heat oil in a pressure cooker. Saute the bay leaf, when it turns brown add the onion, garlic and green chillies and cook till the onion and garlic are half brown. Add the peas and cook for another minute. Add rice and cook for a minute. Now add the coconut milk and water. Both together should be in 1:225 ml ratio with rice.

Add salt to your taste and close the pressure cooker. Cook for one whistle and simmer it for 5 minutes then. Remove from heat.

Serve hot with pomogranite salad! The color of the rice is also exciting for kids white with green balls :)

It would taste yummy! It will be everyone's favourite soon in your house as well :)

Try it out and leave me your commnets.