Pongal

I know it's been amonth since I posted anything. Things have been a little crazy and I hardly take pictures of my finished recipes. I feel guilty posting without pictures :). Oh well. I promised Swetha I will post some recipes and also told my friend Smitha that I will start adding more salad recipes too. Before I get to salads, let me give you a quick and easy recipe for pongal. The traditional recipe calls for whole peppercorns but Prabu and I hate when we bite into it. Instead I usually set my pepper-mill to coarse and use that powder instead. This is traditionally served with sambar and coconut chutney.

Few more tips and pointer:

- You can always do this with brown rice.
- Add your favorite vegetables to make it more healthy and interesting.
- You can add more lentils and veggies and less rice if you are on a strict low-carb diet.

Ingredients:

Basmati Rice - 2 cups
Yellow Moong lentils (pesarapappu) - 1 cup
Ginger - 2 Tbsp. Minced
Green chillies - 4 chopped fine
Coarsley Cracked black pepper - 2 Tbsp.
Cumin Seeds - 1Tbsp.
Mustard Seeds - 1 Tsp.
Inguva (Asafoetida) - 1/2 tsp.
Curry Leaves - 6 - 8
Salt - to taste
Butter - 2Tbsp.
Oil - 2 Tbsp.
Water - 9 cups


Procedure:

- Heat oil and butter in a pressure pan.
- Wash rice and lentils together and set aside.
- Add mustard, cumin, asafoetida, curry leaves, green chillies and ginger. Fry for 2 minutes on medium-low flame
- Add pepper and fry for 30 seconds.
- Add rice and lentils to this .
- Add 9 cups of water.
- Season with enough salt. Stir well and check for seasonings. The water should be teeny bit salty.
- Cover and cook for 3 whistles.
- If you are not using a pressure cooker, you can cook this directly in a pot. Just keep checking in between to make sure bottom of the pot is not burning.

Secret Late Night Pleasures - A.K.A Corn and egg with rice

After I fed the family dinner tonight and put V to bed it was 9PM. I usually have my dinner by 7 but today it just got too busy. Since no one noticed I didn't have dinner, I decided to quickly whip me up something special. If you want to know, I love to treat myself like this. I am special to me ;). Enough talk, let's get to business.

Ingredients:
Frozen Corn Kernels - 1/4 cup
Left Over Rice - 1/4 cup
Egg - 1
Chili oil - 1/2 tsp.
Oil - 2 Tsp.
Soy Sauce - 1 tsp.
Salt - to taste
Chili Powder - 1/2 tsp ( totally optional)

Procedure:

- Heat Chili oil and regular oil in a wok. if you don't have a wok a wide skillet is just fine.
- Add corn kernels, salt, soy sauce and chili powder.
- Let it cook for a minute or 2.
- Crack an egg into this and quickly stir till egg is completely cooked. I don't like runny eggs so I cook it well.
- Add left over rice to this and mix well.

Take it to your room, get your favorite book and enjoy it all by yourself;).

Note: No pictures of this dish because it's secret. I am just bluffing, my camera broke. Till then I have to post picture-less recipes.

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.

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.

Comfort Food - One Pot Chicken Biryani

I was raised in kadapa. My dad used to bring home this awesome chicken biryani home when I was growing up there. It was and is still the best biryani I have ever had.After 12 years of cooking, I have finally came up with a biryani recipe that is very darn close to taste as to the one I had in kadapa. So here is my one pot chicken biryani recipe. If you have a pressure cooker, use it. If not you can use a 5 quart pan. However, note that I use pressure cooker only to cook chicken but I do not cook the rice in the cooker with the whistle on.

Home made garam masala tastes much better than store bought one.

One pot Chicken Biryani

Ingredients:

Mainate:
Chicken - 2 lbs boneless
Lemon Juice - 1 Tbsp.
Red Chilli Powder - 1 tsp.
Turmeric - pinch

Rice – Uncooked – 3 cups
Onions – 1 large – cut into thin slices
Tomatoes – 2 medium - sliced thin
Green Chillies – 3 slit length wise
Curry leaves – 6 minced
Mint leaves -1/2 cup minced
Coriander leaves– 1/2 cup minced
Ginger and Garlic paste – 1 tsp
Garam Masala – 1 Tbsp
Red chilli Powder – 1 tsp
Water – 4.5 cups
Salt to taste
Oil as needed
Butter – 1 Tbsp.

Dry Masala:
Bay leaf – 3
Cloves – 6
Cinnamon stick – 2 inch stick
Whole peppercorn – 4
Cardamom – 5
Cumin – 1/2 tsp
Black Cardamom ( Marathi mogga) - 1 piece
Javitri ( Mace) - 1 crushed to powder

Procedure:

Marinate the chicken over night or at least for an hour before cooking.

Heat oil in a pressure cooker with 1 Tbsp butter. Add the dry masala. Fry for 30 seconds to one minute. Do not burn them.

Add chillies, curry, mint and coriander leaves. Stir for a minute. Add
onions and saute till onions turn soft brown color.

Add ginger and garlic paste, salt, garam masala and red chilli powder and stir for
2 minutes. Add tomatoes to this and cook till they become soft.

Add the chicken and mix well. Season with salt enough for the chicken. Add half cup of water and put the lid on. Once the pressure comes out, put the whistle on for the pressure cooker and cook for one whistle and turn the stove off.

Let it rest till the whistle comes out without having to use any force. Remove the lid and turn the stove back on.

Add remaining water and rice and bring it to a boil. Mix and check for salt. Turn the flame to low and cook covered with a regular lid till rice is completely cooked.

If the cooked biryani seems sticky or mushy - take it out of the pan and spread it into a cookie or baking pan and let it sit in the oven for 10 minutes at 150 degrees.

Comfort Food - Tomato Rice

Hmmmmm... This is the best thing that my mom taught me. It might seem like blah to some but this is my all time favorite food. Here is the recipe for it that I posted earlier.

I love it with the spiced eggs and or potato chips. It's so easy to make too and very few ingredients. Try and see for yourself.

Comfort Food

I will add new recipes in the comfort food series. These are things I make for myself when I use food as comfort. I love to have them when I am watching my favorite tv shows, or working or just reading ;). And most of them are recipes including rice or pasta :)