Color Poori

Got time to explore yet another dish during the holidays. Turned out really good, doesnt change the taste as much as you would think...just the color! Here is the recipe and detailed pics..Color Poori

* Boil chopped beets in little water and let it cool, grind it to fine paste

* Same with Carrots

* Same with Spinach

* Make sure U add very little water while you boil or try steaming if that makes it easy.

* Mix each one with poori flour (I use King Arthur Traditional whole wheat flour) and make separate doughs.

* Make pooris with individual colors or mix colors and pattern them.

And I used Indian Atta and the same veggie pastes and made color rotis.

Turned out very colorful and soft, please check out the pictures..Color Rotis

Mysore Pak (Paak!)

Certain recipes I feel like I want to do often, some may be like once in few months, some I wont even want to try again...this one I made it after 14years...may be will try after 14years if sugar and ghee is allowed to cook in that decade :-) More pictures...Mysore Pak

Quick recipe I grabbed from web...
* 1 cup besan with no lumps...add 2 big spoons hot ghee...mix well and sieve again..till no lumps
* Add 2cups sugar (but I did < 2) and half cup water and boil well and bring to single thread consistency
* Heat ghee in another stove
* Add the besan to sugar syrup and stir well and keep cooking for few mins
* Add hot ghee every few minutes (over all 1 cup ghee for 1 cup besan)
* Once the ghee oozes out, turn off and pour in to a plate or tray soon and within few minutes, you can slice it
* Let it cool and serve or if people like, you can serve hot too!!

Pasta Sauce (Red Pepper)

Easy sauce recipe, almost similar to our chutney taste, so I liked it. Please find more pictures..Pasta Sauce Ideally it will be a rich recipe if you add lots of butter/cream or shredded cheese. I just made it to our taste. You could alter it by adding tomatoes to make it more red.
Recipe
* Little onion and garlic chopped. I added more onions to comp off the pepper taste
* Chopped red bell pepper...one big
* Saute onion, garlic in little oil and then add red capsciums with little water, cook halfway
* Then add black pepper, red chillie powder, salt or any other powders to your taste
* Grind with little cashews and let it boil for few minutes. Then add little milk and it is done!

Mango Black Bean Salad

Recently I found this one from foodie.com, I have been wanting to use this bean due to its high protein content, but takes a while to cook. Now I know to cook it in my tiny cooker, presoaked and cook for 15mins! Mix your favorite salad veggies with the cooked bean, top it with lemon juice, salt. Something to spice up if you need it to be spicy. Just 2 pics: Salad

Fresh Salsa

Fresh home made salsa that can be used as a dip for tortilla chips or we could eat like salad as well. Very easy recipe.
* Tomato Salsa : Fine chopped tomatoes, red onions (little), jalepeno pepper (little), cilantro, lemon juice, salt
* Mango Salsa : Fine chopped hard ripe mango, red onions (little), jalepeno pepper (little), cilantro, lemon juice, salt
* Guacamole (green one) : Ripe Avocado, red onions (little), jalepeno pepper (little), cilantro, lemon juice, salt

More pictures :Fresh Salsa

Tomato Onion Thokku

Very simple recipe and easy one...goes well with rotis, dosas, curd rice. Good one for travel, lasts long.
* Add few spoons oil to non-stick tava
* Add mustard and urad
* Then add fine chopped onion, fry for few minutes and then added tomatoes. (I chopped both in food processor, so it was quick)
* After few minutes add red chilli powder and salt
* And cook for long time, till it thickens.
* Store in tight container in fridge and serve when needed!
Few more pictures..TomatoOnionThokku

Mixture

Though not my cup of tea, was excited to try this recipe. Will be adding roasted peanuts later. It is like those one time trial recipes, way too oily. Just take a peek at few more detailed pictures...Mixture

Potato Salad

First time I got blue potatoes with other 2 regular potatoes (red and white, though both look white inside) from Trader Joes. Blue is rich in antioxidants as per Blue Potatoes 

 Recipe:

* Ingredients : Zuchini, red bell pepper, corn, blue potato, regular potato, toppings like lemon, salt, etc

* Peel and dice potatoes and steam them with little salt, then save it in a bowl.

* Steam corn with little salt and add to the bowl.

* Add the rest of veggies (cut into cubes), add toppings like lemon juice, salt, chilli powder, chat powder.

* Mix well and serve.

Somehow I wasnt upto potatoes in salad but wanted to try this one. You may want to add some red onions to make it like a chat item or you could add some crispy stuff on top it. More pictures...Potato Salad

Fruit and Nut Balls

Glam's new site tend.com has some great healthy power snacks, found this one there. Very quick recipe.

* 1 cup dry apricots, 5 or 6 prunes, 5 or 6 dates, half cup walnuts and almonds dry.
* 2 spoons chia seeds - ground and few spoons shredded coconut.
* Grind chia seeds in mixie and add all of the ingredients to a food processor
* Run it on pulse mode for few seconds and then transfer to a bowl and make balls.
* If you like, freeze it for few minutes and have it.
Very easy and quick one, high in fiber and is yummy too! More pictures....Fruit and Nut Balls

Beet Usili/Beans Usili

One of my top hit porial - Beet Usili as well as Beans Usili. Very easy to make if you have the dhaal paste ready! I generally grind and save it in freezer for 2 times and use it within 10days.
* Soak half cup toor dhaal, half cup channa dhaal for an hr and then coarse grind with 4 red chilies and big jeera.
* Generally I like to grind in food processor as it grinds the dhaals evenly unlike mixie.
* Grind it without water and save it in the freezer half of it.
* Add the rest half in a steamer plate and steam in idli vessel for 10mins with little salt on top of it.
* Add few spoons oil to tava, add mustard, urad and one or two red chillies and then add the veggie you want to use and cook for few mins, add salt.
* Add the cooked dhaal (use fork to split it) and then saute for few mins till it becomes crisp.
* Serve hot, it goes well with curd rice or by itself too.
More pictures...Beet Usili/Beans Usili

Quinoa - Sprout Salad

A colorful salad similar to my other salads..added green moong sprout, cooked Quinoa, raw veggies - mango, bell peppers, Cucumber, zuchini. Topped with little chat masala, red chilli powder, salt, lemon juice. Mix well and serve. More pictures...QuinoaSalad

Veggie Dip

Atlast got time to post this one..pictured it long time back! Made 2 kinds of dips.
1. Hummus - Soaked, boiled chick peas, g.chilli, salt, roasted sesame seeds - grind into paste (optional - roasted garlic)
2. Greek yoghurt dip - Greek yoghurt, cottage cheese (grind), few spoons cilantro chutney - mix all well.

Greek yoghurt dip was my favorite dip! Use it with tortilla chips or steamed broccoli, steamed asparagus or raw veggies like carrot, zuchini, cucumber. Few more pictures..Veggie Dip

Quinoa Payasam! (kheer)

Was tempted to try this based on my friend's mom's recipe, turned out really yummy. I liked it for the fact that it is made out of jaggery rather than sugar. Quick recipe..it is just similar to semia or almond kheer.

* Cook Quinoa in pressure cooker

* Boil milk in a pan and then add cooked quinoa

* Add little saffron, elachi and melted jaggery. Boil for few minutes and turn it off.

I just used random ratios!  Few more pictures...Quinoa Payasam

I know people in US know this grain, for others here is what Quinoa looks like

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quinoa#Overview

Dates Milkshake

A quick and easy health drink...Dates Milkshake Just mix few chopped dates in milk and blend it in hand blender or mixie.

Kollu Rasam (Horse gram)

Havent used this lentil in many years now, recently heard a lot of health benefits. So thought will try some recipes. Easiest is to substitute your regular rasam's toor dhaal with Horse gram (Kollu). Just few pictures...Kollu Rasam. This dhaal needs longer cooking time and also I used the hand blender and mashed the kollu and tomato, so rasam was well blended and yummy!
For details on the rasam recipe, please check out my earlier posting...Rasam Recipe

Sweet Poha (Aval)

Sweet poha..quick and easy sweet. Here is the recipe..
* 2 cups thick poha, soak few mins depending on the poha you buy. Strain the water.
* Add few spoons coconut, little elachi
* Melt 1 cup or less jaggery with very little water and mix it in the above.
* Initially it will be wet and after an hr it will split.
More pictures...Sweet Aval

Flax Seed Podi

Goes well with rice/idli/dosa. Easy way to use flax seeds in an Indian way! Have been wanting to post this for the past 2weeks, was running short of ingredients. Atlast made it this weekend and used it the same day for my guests. And it turned out good! Here are the pictures...Flax Seed Podi

Strawberry+Apple+Banana Smoothie

Most refreshing drink...I just loved it! Tried with greek yoghurt, sugar, apple, strawberry, banana...just blend it and drink right away. You could alternate yoghurt with milk. You could substitute sugar with agave nectar or honey. Try to use over ripe bananas, that adds sweetness, Enjoy! Few more pictures...Smoothie

For those of you in the US, check out Trader Joes or Whole Foods or any food store for Greek Yoghurt and see the protein content, it is way high compared to the regular yoghurts we buy. It goes well with some veggies in raita or fruits in smoothies. Somehow I dint enjoy the taste of greek yoghurt by itself.

Kesari (Sooji Halwa)

   

Just a few pictures which I took long back...Kesari

I know most of you might be making it already. Based on a cousin's request, posting this recipe now, very easy Indian Dessert....I use 1:1:2.5 cups for Rava:Sugar:Water as ratio. Please modify according to your taste and ingredients (as sugar in India is diff textured than here)

* Dry roast 1 cup white rava in mid flame - well (this you can do ahead and save it in a box)
* Measure 1 cup sugar and add little powdered elachi to it
* Add ghee to tava, roast cashews and save it in a cup
* In the same tava, add 1/4th cup water and boil, then add saffron
* Turn off, leave it for few mins
* Then add to the same 2.5 cups water and bring to boil
* Add rava slowly by stirring and then in few mins, when dry, add sugar, stir till it thickens
* Then add ghee and keep stirring, then turn off
* Transfer to a greased plate. Slice it and place cashews.

I do this in a non-stick pan, so it is easy to stir.

Peanut Chutney

Tried this from a different blog, 2 steps that I dint do well on..
* Roasting peanuts
* Adding tamarind.
More pictures...Peanut Chutney
I liked the chutney very much. Please take time to roast peanuts well.

Glam launched foodie.com today and I found some interesting recipes there. Check it out when you have time..

http://entertaining.foodie.com/
http://healthy.foodie.com/

http://entertaining.foodie.com/spotlight/spabettie.com/2011/08/18/tomato-basil-beanballs/?title=VG9tYXRvIEJhc2lsIEJlYW4gQmFsbHM=

Raagi Idli

U wont believe how much excited this morning I was to see the raagi batter raised! People in colder places making idlis will know how hard it is to ferment and also depends on the hand too :-) The idlis turned out good too, so it made my day already! Here are the pictures...Raagi Idli
Quick recipe..not sure if google+ pictures shows it well.
* Soak 2 cups raagi previous night in warm water, doesnt seem soaked even next morning, it's ok
* In a vessel, soak rice and urad together (2 cups rice and 3/4th cup white whole urad) next morning.
* Add raagi to grinder first, grind well and in the same, add the rice, urad and grind all well
* Add salt, ferment it.
* Make idlis, server hot with spicy side dish.

Sweet Boondi

Have been having these pictures for a while, decided to post them now as I keep forgetting the ratio of water/sugar! Quick recipe on the boondhi for ladoo..

* 2 cups besan + water, just mix and make a medium thin batter
* add oil to tava and when hot, pour it in boondhi spoon (karandi!)
* That will make the rounds and cooks fast.
* Make it crispy if you want to use it for kaaraa boondhi (will post it soon)
* And remove them from oil using the right gadget! (a proper strainer, makes life very easy :-))

Syrup - for 1 cup besan, 1 cup sugar if it is for boondi. For ladoo, add more sugar.
Making sugar syrup is tricky too if you are making ladoo.
Otherwise just add half measure water to sugar, keep boiling, add saffron and cardamom.
After it starts to crystalize on the vessel's wall, pour it on top of the boondhi and mix well.
Soon it will dry and boondhi will look like this...Ladoo Pictures

Another one I tried which I dint want to try again..too oily...Jelabi Pictures

Radish Raita

Wishing you all a wonderful year ahead! Thought of sharing a recipe as it has been a while since I posted one. More pictures...Radish Raita
Watch out for sweet poha next...aval with jaggery, excited to try it out, havent done that so far.