Monday, October 29, 2007

Vegetable Biriyani

I am not going to go into the difference between biriyani, pulao and all. I know you can easily look it up on wiki or even "google" it. So I am just going to give you my recipe of what and How I make biriyani.

Most of the dry spices can be bought in regular stores or you can even look them up in your ethnic food stores.

Depending on how mushy your rice becomes use either 6 or 8 cups of water for 4 cups of rice. Since I used sona masori rice instead of basmati, and the brand I used takes lot of water I used 8 cups. However I usually follow 1.5 cups of water per 1 cup of rice.
Rice – 4 cups dry
Water – 6 to 8 cups
Red Onions - Onions – 1.5 cups sliced
Roma Tomatoes – 2 medium chopped fine
Mixed vegetables – 1.5 cups ( mix of carrot, corn, bean, peas)
Ginger Garlic paste – 1 Tbsp.
Mint – few sprigs
Curry Leaves – 6
Green Chillies – 4
Lemon Juice – 4 Tsps.
Garam Masla – 2 Tsp.
Red Chilli Powder 1 tsp.
Salt – To taste
Butter – 2 Tbsp.
Oil – ¼ cup
Dry Masala:
Cloves – 8 (2 per cup of rice)
Cinnamon – 1 inch piece
Cardamom – 4 (1 per cup of rice)
Japatri ( mace) – 2 crushed to pieces
Marathi Mogga ( badi Elaichi) – 2
Cumin Seeds – 1 Tsp.
Dry Bay Leaf - 2

Procedure:
- Wash rice and soak it in water.
- Mince curry leaves, mint and green chillies together.
- Heat butter and oil in a pan. Add all the dry masala. Fry for 30 seconds on medium flame making sure they don’t burn.
- Add curry leaves, mint and chilli mixture to this. Stir and fry for 20 seconds.
- Add onions and ginger garlic paste.
- Season with just enough salt for onions and cook till onions are soft.
- Add mixed vegetables to this. Season with salt. Cover and cook till vegetables are tender.
- Add garam masala, red chilli powder and sauté till the raw smell of hcilli powder is gone.
- Add tomatoes and lemon juice. Cover and cook till tomatoes are soft.
After this you can cook in two different ways
Procedure 1:
- Remove rice from water and add it to the cooked masala mixture. Stir till the rice grains are mixed with masala.
- Add 8 cups of water to this. Season with salt. Water should be a bit salty.
- Cover and turn the heat to high and bring it to a boil.
- Turn the flame to low and cook till rice is done. To check if you stick a spoon it should come out dry.

Procedure 2:
- Add 8 cups of water and rice together to the masala mixture instead of frying the rice first.
- Follow the rest of the steps as above.

Starting at the top from left:
Cumin seeds, bay leaf, garam masala, cardamom pods broken
cloves and cinnamon, japatri ( mace), Red Chili Powder, Marathi Mogga



Final Product - I am no food porn photographer;)

Sunday, October 28, 2007

Tomato Rasam or Tomato Chaaru

We call it chaaru. I think rasam came from Tamilnadu. What's in a name? Dolly keeps asking me for this recipe and I keep forgetting to post it.

There are several different versions and a million other ingredients you can use to make this. My mother in law makes it with tamarind extract, rasam powder and garlic. As simple as that.

You can make rasam powder at home. You will have to wait till I find the ingredients from the oldies. However, run to your local Indian or any grocery store that sells these instant powders and get yourself "MTR" brand rasam powder.

Ingredients:

Water - 4 cups
Tomato - 1 large chopped fine
Lemon Juice - 1 tsp.
Curry Leaves - 4 leaves
Rasam Powder - 2 Tsp.
Mustard Seeds - 1 tsp.
Cumin Seeds - 1tsp.
Asafoetida( Inguva or hing) - 2 dashes
Salt - as needed
Oil - 3 tsp.

Procedure:

- Heat oil in a sauce pan. Add mustard and cumin seeds.
- Once they start poppin' out ( called spluttering;)) add hing, curry leaves. Turn the flame to medium-low now.
- Add tomatoes and cook them covered for 3 - 5 minutes till they are soft. Stir in between to make sure the tomatoes are not sticking to the bottom of the pan.
- Add salt and rasam powder and turn the flame back on to medium to medium - high.
- Add water, stir and bring it to a boil.
- Turn the flame back on to low and let it cook for 5 minutes.

Rasam ready :)

Dosakai Pappu

Give me any vegetable and I will make a pappu put of it ( basically lentils with veggies). This one is with Dasakai. Not sure what It's called in english but that's what we call it in telugu land. I was surprised t find this vegetable in my local Asian grocery store under Japanese vegetables category with the name "Dose-Kai".Hahaha funny I know.

Anywho, my cousins were visiting this weekend and I served this pappu with Goruchikkudu kaya koora, rasam and fried vodiyalu (dried lentil fritters depp fried).

Ingredients:
Kandi pappu ( Toor Dal ) - 1 cup dry cooked with 4 cups water
Dosakai - 1 medium sized cubed.
Green Chillies - 3 - 5
Onions - 1/4 cup cubed (Optional)
Garlic - 3-4 cloves chopped roughly
Curry Leaves - 4 to 6
Mustard Seeds - 1 tsp
Cumin Seeds - 1 tsp.
Turmeric - Pinch
Red Chilli Powder - 1/2 tsp.
Salt - As needed
Oil - As needed



- If you look at the picture above, you can see that there are seeds in the center of that vegetable. Scrape that off completely and you will get something that's next to it.
- Heat oil in a pan. Add mustard, cumin seeds. Once they start to splutter add garlic, curry leaves, green chillies and onions.
- Saute for few minutes and add the dosakai.
- Add slat and turmeric and 1/4 cup of water. Cover and cook till the veggies are tender.
- Add chilli powder and fry for 30 seconds.
- Add the cooked lentils to this(you can add any extra water you have left over form cooking the lentils).
- Cover and cook on low heat for 5 minutes.
- Uncover and cook till you get a thick stew like consistency.
- Turn off stove and serve with hot rice and some melted butter.

Friday, October 26, 2007

Goruchikkudukaya Koora (Cluster Beans Curry)

Before I start the recipe, just wanted to let you guys know that I added links to Rayalaseema and Kadapa on to the left side. Because I will keep using them a lot in my write-ups and I don't wnat you to go, "What the heck is Kadapa?" :).

Today I made this curry for lunch. Goruchikkudu is also called as mattikkayalu in Rayalaseema region. I found out that they call it cluster beans in English after I came to this country. In Hindi, It's Guvar. I used to buy them fresh but lately I realized, the frozen variety are much better and they are already pre-cut for you.

So here is a recipe that one of my neighborhood aunty use dto make in Kadapa. She used to add dried coconut powder but I did not as mom's on a diet.

Ingredients:
Cluster Beans - 1 Lb
Red Onion - 1 cup finely diced
Green Chillies - 6 (increase or decrease this per your spice level)
Garlic - 3 cloves crushed
Curry Leaves - 8
Putnala Pappu (Dhalia) - 2 Tbsp.
Senagapappu (Chana Dal) - 2 Tbsp.
Cumin Seeds - 1 tsp.
Mustard Seeds - 1Tsp.
Turmeric - Pinch
Oil - as needed
Salt - Per taste



Procedure:
- Roast Senagapappu and putnala pappu.
- Grind it with green chillies and half the curry leaves.
- Heat oil in a pan. Add mustard, cumin seeds,curry leaves and garlic.
- Saute for 30 seconds and add onions.
- Season with salt and turmeric and saute till onions are soft.
- Add the beans and half cup of water.
- Cover and cook on medium to low heat till the beans are fully cooked.
- Add the ground putnalapappu powder to this and mix well.
- Saute till all the water is evaporated and beans are well mixed with the masala.

Remove from heat and serve with hot rice and some sambar or pappu.

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Macaroni Salad

I am not a big fan of sugary gooey macaroni salads. So I came up with this one which uses the left over ingredients from the fried egg sandwich I created the other night. Feel free to increase, decrease, add, remove the ingredients the way you want. This is all about your personal taste and style :).

Ingredients:

Macaroni - 2 cups cooked
Onion - 4 Tbsp. minced
Tomato - 1/4 cup chopped roughly
Sun Dried Tomatoes - 1/4 cup chopped
Garlic powder - 1/4 tsp.
Dried Basil - 1/4 tsp.
Olive oil - 2 Tbsp.
Salt and freshly ground pepper - per taste

Procedure:

- Mix everything except macaroni in a bowl. Set aside for 5 minutes.
- Add macaroni. Mix well. Adjust seasonings and serve.

Fried Egg Sandwich

The quantity for ingredients below makes 4 sandwiches. Me and my familia are not a big fan of runny eggs. So the nicely cooked eggs and the sandwich. We had it with macaroni salad and pickle on the side.



Ingredients:

Whole grain bread - 8 slices
Eggs - 4 large + 2 egg whites
Onions - 1 small cut into circles
Tomato - 1 small cut into circles
Romaine Lettuce - few leaves
Mayonnaise - 1 Tbsp.
Spicy Mustard - 1 Tbsp.
Chilli Oil - dash ( optional)
Salt and pepper - per taste
Oil - as needed.



Procedure:

- In a bowl, whisk 4 eggs and the 2 egg whites with slat and pepper.
- Make an omelette with the eggs in a wide skillet. You can do individual small ones. I made one big one and cut it into 4 parts.
- Mix mayo, mustard and chilli oil.
- Toast bread and spread the mayo mixture on one or both sides as you need.
- Arrange omelette on one side and lettuce, tomatoes and onions on the other.
- cut in triangles and serve.

Monday, October 22, 2007

Lemon Rice

There are 3 different ways that I make lemon rice.

- Kadapa Way with putnala pappu (Dhalia) podi and ground green chillies and ginger
- Easy way with basic popu(tadka)
- Mother in law's way with roasted ground fenugreek, mustard and cumin seeds.

Yesterday I did the easy way. Here is a picture of the ingredients.



Ingredients:

Rice - 2 cups (Uncooked)
Green Chillies - 5 cut into small pieces ( adjust this according to your spice level)
Curry leaves - 8 to 10
Ginger - 1 Tsp Grated
Senaga Pappu ( Chana dal) - 2 Tsp.
Minapappu (Urad Dal) - 2tsp.
Peanuts - 1/4 cup
Dried Red Chillies - 2
Cumin Seeds - 2 Tsp.
Mustard Seeds - 2Tsp.
Asafoetida - Pinch
Turmeric - 1/4 tsp.
Lemon Juice - 4 Tbsp. (Adjust according to your taste)
Salt - to taste
Oil - as needed

Procedure:

- Cook rice with 4 cups of water and keep aside.
- Heat oil in a wide skillet. Add mustard, cumin seeds and asafoetida.
- Add senagapappu, minapappu, dried red chillies, curry leaves and pea nuts.
- Saute them for few minutes. Once the lentils start to turn golden brown, Add green chillies, ginger and salt.
- Cook for 30 seconds. Add lemon juice and turmeric.
- Turn the flame to low and mix the cooked rice to this mixture. Adjust seasonings.

In Kadapa, they would always serve this rice with a dryish wet potato curry. Since the family is on all sorts of diet, we rarely cook potatoes. I did serve with some dondakaya fry. Recipe for it later :).

Friday, October 19, 2007

Comfort Food - Bisibela Bhaath

My colleague asked for this recipe last weekend. Since I never made it before, I came up with a recipe of how it should be made and gave it to her. She said it turned out awesome which is always nice to hear. So I decided to make it today and changed couple of things around than the original recipe but here it is.

As I mentioned earlier, anything with rice is comfort food for me. And when you add lentils and vegetables, hmmmmm.........

Note:
1. If you do not the instant bisibela bhaath mix - here are the standard ingredients that go into making the powder.
- Coriander seeds, cumin seeds, curry leaves, Chana dal (senagapappu/bengal gram), asafoetida, dried red chillies.

2. I bought bisibela bath mix which has tamarind pulp in it. So I did not use tamarind paste. If you buy the powder add a table spoon of tamarind extract to this.

3. I added edamame instead of green peas.

4. The mix I bought was very salty so I used very little salt. You can adjust this mix according to your taste.


Ingredients:

Toor dar/Kandi pappu ( lentils) - 1 cup dry
Rice - 1.5 cups dry
Ground nuts - 1/2 cup
Green chillies - 3 slit length wise
Carrot - 1 cup cut into 1/2 inch strips
Green beans - 1 cup cut into small pieces
Edamame - 1/2 cup shelled
Corn kernels - 1/2 cup
Red pepper - 1 diced
Bisibela bath mix - 3 Tbsp - 5 Tbsp
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
Inguva ( asafoetida) - pinch
Dried red chilli - 2
Curry leaves - 6
Salt - to taste ( the mix had salt so I used very little)
Butter - 2 tsp.
Oil - 4 tsp. +2 tsp.
Water - 1/2 to 1 cup


Procedure:
- Wash and cook lentils with 6 cups of water. If you have a pressure cooker you can use 2 cups of water and cook it for 2 whistles.
- Wash and cook rice with 4 cups of water.
- In a wide pot, heat oil and butter. Add ground nuts and fry them till they turn pale brown.
- Add green chillies and all the vegatbles.
- Season with little salt and saute for 2 minutes.
- Add 1/4 cup of water, cover and cook till vegetables are tender.
- Add the bisibela bath mix. Mix well with veggies.
- Add cooked lentils and mix well.
- Add cooked rice 1 cup of water and mix well. Make sure the heat is on medium to medium low.
- Turn the stove off and serve hot with papadams.

I served it with oven baked crinkle fries:). I will post pictures for this later tonight as the battery died while uploading them.

Edited to add: I added the picture of the veggies. I do not have any pitcures of the final product because the familia finished it off before I could take a picture of final prodcut.

Thursday, October 18, 2007

Suji's Vegeterian Gumbo

I add my "Suji's" tag to any dish I create based on a traditional recipe. I have to for veggie and grocery shopping this weekend and when I checked my freezer and pantry, I had few things. After debating for 2 minutes as to what to make for dinner, here is what I came up with. I served this gumbo with brown rice. Also, I think I will add some shrimp next time ;).

Ingredients:

Cut Okra - 1lb ( I used frozen cut okra)
Ready cut diced tomatoes - One 15 OZ can
Chick Peas - One 15 oz can
White onions - 1 cup finely diced
Red bell pepper - 1 finely diced
Celery - 1/2 cup finely diced
Garlic - 3 cloves minced
Salt - to taste
Water - 1 cup
Butter - 2 tsps.
Oil - 3 Tbsp.

Seasonings:
Paprika - 1 Tbsp.
Red Chili Powder - 1.5 tsps.
Oregano - 1tsp
Rosemary - 1/2 tsp.
White pepper - pinch
Nutmeg - pinch
All spice - pinch

Procedure:

- Heat butter and oil in a skillet or wide bottomed pot.
- Add garlic, onions, celery and bell pepper. Season with slat and saute till soft.
- Add everything under seasonings and saute for one minute.
- Add the tomatoes, okra and chickpeas.
- Stir the pot or pan without using the spatula.
- Add the cup of water, adjust seasonings, cover and cook for 15 minutes on medium-low flame.
- Check in between but do not mix too much.
- Remove the lid to see okra is cooked. You will notice that okra is not sticky at all (something about canned tomatoes sourness).
- Now cook on high for a minute or two till you get a thick consistency.

Remove form heat and serve over hot brown rice.

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Penne Alla Vodka and Curried eggs

I committed a crime last night. You see, I swore I will never do anything to original Italian recipes. Oh well I lost it last night. I got too creative. Granted it wasn't a perfect match but the dish was good. And no, I don't make my sauces from scratch all the time. Especially anything that involves liquor like Vodka. I have alcoholics in the house who will finish those before I get the bottles to the kitchen ;).

I pressure cooked beaten eggs. If you do not have a pressure cooker you can cook these eggs in frittata style.

Ingredients:

Whole wheat penne pasta - 2 cups dry
Vodka Sauce - 1 heaping cup
Large Eggs - 3
Egg whites - from 3 eggs
Onions - 1/2 cup sliced thin
Olive oil - 1tsp + as needed for pasta
Curry Powder - 1 tsp. ( I bought Mccormicks brand)
Garlic powder - 1/4 tsp.
Red Chili flakes - per taste
Salt - as needed
Freshly ground pepper - per taste
Butter - to coat a pan

Procedure:

- Beat eggs, egg whites with curry powder, garlic powder, slat and pepper, 1 tsp. olive oil till well blended.
- Transfer this into a butter coated vessel and pressure cook for about 15 minutes till cooked.
- Loosen the edges of the vessel and transfer it into a plate. After cooked it should look something like below. Cut it into bite size pieces and keep aside.



- Mean while, cook the pasta according to package instructions with oil and salt. When the pasta is 3/4ths cooked, heat oil in a wide skillet.
- Add red chili flakes, onion slices and suate till onions are golden brown. Season them with salt.
- Add the steam cooked egg pieces to this and saute for 30 seconds, remove form the pan and keep aside.
- Bring the pan back on to the stove and heat the vodka sauce. If the sauce looks too thick add 1/4 cup of pasta cooking water to it.
- Add the pasta to the sauce and mix well for a minute or to.

- Transfer the pasta into a bowl and add the curried egg on top.

Monday, October 15, 2007

Black Bean and Corn Salad

My grocery store carries black beans which are brown in color. Don't ask, they are just dark brown but the can says black beans. Whatever.

I made this salad for my mom as she eats only salads for lunch now a days. Dressing is very very easy too. If you do not have balsamic vinegar, just use regular lemon juice.

Ingredients:


Black Beans - 1 can ( 8 Oz)
Corn Kernels - 1 cup ( If using frozen kernels, microwave them for 1 minute)
Tomatoes - 1/2 cup seeded and diced fine
Red Bell Pepper - 1/2 cup diced fine
Yellow Bell Pepper - 1/2 cup diced fine
Red Onion - 1/2 cup diced fine
Jalapeno - 1 seeded and diced

Balsamic Vinegar - 2Tbsp.
Olive oil - 1 tsp.
Salt and freshly ground black pepper - to taste

Procedure:

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl and serve chilled :).

So easy even a caveman can do it;)

Sunday, October 14, 2007

Chicken Curry - Part One

There are a gazillion ways to make chicken curry. None of them involve curry powder event hough it's called a curry. You can play with your spices with these curries. Here is my try for today. This is a little gravyish curry. You can have it with roti or hot rice.

The red chili powder I use is very very spicy. You can adjust the quantity depending on your taste palate :).

Ingredients:

Chicken - 2 lbs - Boneless and skinless cut into bite size pieces
Ginger and garlic paste - 1 tsp.
Yogurt - 3 Tbsp.
Lemon Juice - 1 tsp.
Turmeric - 1/2 + 1/2 Tsp.
Red chili Powder - 2 tsp.
Garam Masala - 1 tsp.

- Marinate chicken in above spices. Cover and refrigerate for at least one hour. Mean while, get your other ingredients ready.

Grind to paste:
Coconut- 1/2 cup grated (I used frozen grated coconut)
Green chillies - 2
Coriander leaves - 1/4 cup
Coriander Seeds - 1 tsp.
Cumin Seeds - 1 tsp.
Cinnamon Stick - size shown in the picture :)
Cloves - 7
Cardamom - 3
Water - 1/3 cup


For the curry:
Red Onions - 2 cups finely diced
Tomato - 1 medium finely diced
Red chili Powder - 2 tsp.
Turmeric - pinch
Oil - as needed
Salt - to taste

Procedure:

Heat oil in a thick bottomed dish. Saute onions till golden brown with little salt.
Add red chili powder and turmeric and saute for 30 seconds. Add tomatoes, chicken, the ground coconut paste and mix well. Add1/3 cup of water. Cover and cook on medium flame till chicken is tender. Remove the lid, season with enough salt and cook till you get a thick gravy. Turn of the stove and serve hot.

I used a pressure cooker because meat comes out much tender when cooked in it. You could cover and let it cook for 1 whistle.

Thursday, October 11, 2007

One more of Jaden's dish ( or is it Jeremy's)

Jaden goes to extreme lengths to get certain recipes (you know dating guys from different countries). When she doesn't get a recipe from the guy directly she harasses his wife to get it for her :). This is one such recipe and boy am I glad she took the trouble to get it. Here is her recipe for Dukkah.

I decided to try it simply because it has two of my favorite ingredients: Chili flakes and garlic powder. I didn't have malden salt so I used regular salt. I modified the quantity a bit because I didn't want to make a pound of dukkah as we are leaving for a 5 week trip soon. And I also used this on a different vegetable. I used what in English is called bottle gourd. It's called Louki in hindi, anapakaya or sorakaya in telugu. You can get it in any Asian store.

Ingredients:

Anapakaya - 4 cups - diced
Oil - as needed
Salt - to taste.


For Dukkah:


Almonds - 1 cup toasted in the oven at 375 degrees
Cumin seeds - 1 Tbsp toasted
Chili flakes - 1 Tbsp.
Garlic Powder - 1/2 Tbsp.
Lemon Zest - pinch - dried in the oven

- Grind them all into fine powder and keep it in an air-tight container.




Procedure:

Heat oil in a wide skillet. Add the anapakaya pieces. Season with salt. Cover lid and cook on medium-low heat for 3 to 5 minutes. remove the lid off and cook till the pieces are tender but not too mushy. Sprinkle 2 Table spoons of the dukkah on the vegetables and turn the stove off. Mix well and check taste. If you are like me who just falls in love with the dukkah because it smells so good, add 2 more Tbsp.:).

Sunday, October 7, 2007

Jaden's Silver Noodles

I am addicted to Steamy Kitchen. I am so close to stalking her and her blog :). When she posted my favorite noodle recipe, I had to try it at home. It came out very good except I forgot to add spinach. Here is her recipe.

It took me so long to try it because I had to go get me that julienne peeler first. Prabu tried, "I can cut them for you like that without the peeler." No thanks hon, I haz my peeler ;).

Verdict from the family is that I should include these noodles on my menu rotation. Now Prabu is hoping, I will try different things on the menu when we go out instead of ordering glass noodles every time.

Here are the sad pictures :).

Saturday, October 6, 2007

Cooking for the week

I had a lovely day today (Check the details here). So I decided to end it by cooking and prepping some meals for the week. After V went to bed around 8 at night I started cooking. I was done by 11 pm and mom helped me clean up.

I don't have recipes for everything yet but here's what I made.

1. Menthaaku Pappu ( Lentils with Fenugreek Leaves)
2. Beerakaya Pappu (Moong Dal with Chinese Okra)
3. Sambar
4. Rasam
5. Carrot with fenugreek leaves
6. Zucchini Curry
7. Long Beans stir fry

And tomorrow, I have 5 more things to cook, and prep some more. Will post recipes and pictures soon.

Thursday, October 4, 2007

Maggi Noodles

My cousin Vittal called me couple of weeks ago asking for this recipe because my nephew wanted it for dinner :). I gave him the recipe on the phone and I thought I would share it here.

These are like Indian version of Ramen Noodles. They recently came up with whole what noodles with sambar tastemaker. I tried that variety today and boy was it good. You can use frozen mixed vegetables if you want but I used fresh ones today. I used a big carrot but use small or medium.

Ingredients:
Maggi noodles - big pack ( has 4 sets of noodles)
Water - 3 cups
Carrot - 1 small diced
Green beans - 1/3 cup cut into small pieces
Corn Kernels - Handful
Napa cabbage - 4 leaves chopped
Onions - 1/4 cup
Zuchhini - 1/4 cup diced
Garlic powder - 1/2 tsp.
Red Chili powder - 1 tsp.
Cumin Seeds - 1 tsp.
Salt - to taste
Oil - 3 tsp.


Procedure:
Bring water to a boil in a deep vessel. Add the noodles and taste maker and cook till noodles soak up all the water and are soft to touch. Mix well so that the tastemaker masala gets into the noodles ( don't over do it though)

Heat oil in a wide skillet . Add cumin, garlic and red chili powder.
Add onions, and all other vegetables. Season with salt.
Cover and cook on medium-low flame for 5 - 8 minutes till the veggies are soft.
Once the vegetables are cooked, add the noodles to this mixture.
Mix well so that noodles and veggies are blended in.
Check for seasonings.
Serve hot.

My parents like to use ketchup on the side with this but let me tell you that using ketchup on this dish is a crime in my book. It tastes great just the way it is. Add hot sauce or something if you want but not ketchup. It ruins the whole taste. Also Prabu likes chips with it for the crunch factor :)

Wednesday, October 3, 2007

Pictures

At the request of a dear friend I am going to slowly add pictures to the dishes I make. I suck at taking pictures and I blame my camera. I have put in a request at Husbandville for a new and NICE camera (did someone say SLR?). I expect it to arrive in 2 - 4 years. So please bear with these pictures till then. If you cannot wait that long then please flood my husband's inbox by requesting him to comply to my request

~Sincerely
Suji ;)

Comfort Food - Tomato Pappu

There is something really soothing about a big bowl of hot rice, tomato pappu, neyyi(clarified butter/ghee) and some Andhra avakaya. I get the avakaya from my aunt ( Mom's elder sister) in India with an appadam on the side. She makes it the best and none of these store bought ones give that taste.

Let's get to the tomato pappu recipe. It's super simple. I use roma tomatoes for this because they give slightly tangy taste compares to the beefsteak variety.

Serves 4
Ingredients:
Kandi Pappu(toor dal) - 1/2 cup
Roma Tomatoes - 3 diced into big chunks.
Onions - 1/4 cup diced into big chunks
Green Chillies - 3 sliced length wise
Garlic - 3 cloves crushed
Salt - To taste
Turmeric - pinch
Red chilli powder - 1/2 tsp - 1tsp ( depending on your palate)
Oil - as needed

For Popu:
Curry leaves - 4
Dried red chillies - 2
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp.
Cumin seeds - 1 tsp.
Inguva ( Asafoetida) - pinch

Procedure:

- Wash the lentils and pressure cook it with 2 cups of water, tomatoes and green chillies for one whistle.
- If you do not have a pressure cooker. Cook just the lentils in a pot and add tomatoes and chillies to the pan in the next step.
- Heat oil in a wide wok. Add the popu ingredients. Once the mustard seeds start sputtering, add garlic and onions and saute till onions are soft.
-Add the cooked lentil, tomato and chillies to this.
-Add salt, turmeric and red chilli powder.
- Check for seasonings and cook on medium-low till you get a thick soup like consistency but not too watery.
-Remove from heat and serve it with hot rice.