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.

Why re-invent the wheel? A.K.A Jugalbandi's Poli

Someone does all the hard work for you and tells you exactly how to do a dish with step by step pictures. What do you do then? Well, you just print the recipe and do it that night.

I made Jugalbandi's Puran Polis last night and I am thinking with this and that Prabu will not be saying anything about my shopping spree this weekend ;) or better yet, he might even drive me to the mall ;).

I did not change anything to the recipe. Just did as they told me to . Prabu even took some left overs to work today to share with his friends :).

My pictures suck but here is the proof :P

Greek Dinner - Falafels and Hummus

I made a full fledges Greek dinner the other night. Menu Included falafels, mini pitas, hummus, yogurt sauce, and mixed vegetable couscous and for toppings I had sliced red onions and lettuce.

Home made falafels from Mark Bitman's "How to cook Everything - vegetarian". He had a different version to use black eyed peas which is what I did. It's very simple. Soak black eyed peas for an hour and grind it with some onions, chili, ginger, cumin and coriander powder. Deep fry in oil as patties and your falafels are ready.

Yogurt sauce is made with home made yogurt with mint, cucumber and salt. Puree them all together and sauce is ready.

Saute your favorite veggies in olive oil. Cook couscous according to package directions. Mix them together and you have your veg. couscous.

For hummus, I simply pureed 1 can of chick peas with garlic, olive oil and lemon juice. I topped it with some paprika.

Edited to Add this: I was debating about whether to call it greek, middle eastern or lebanese. Wiki said falafels and hummus are Greek. Oh well, what's in a name. I had good food ;).

Steamy Fries gets your bedroom steamy

I spoke to a celebrity chef on phone today. She is featured regularly on Florida channels and you know her from my previous posts(I am very close to stalking her). After I hung up with her, I was planning my dinner menu around Tex-Mex Veg burgers I bought from Trader Joe's and it hit me that I have been putting off trying Jaden's Matchstick Fries.

I made the fries exactly the way she said and let me tell you, I am definitely getting lucky tonight because in Prabu's words, "Dinner is very very very good". It's usually , "It's good" but when he adds "very" that many times you know he means it :).

I was too lazy to get my mandoline from the box, so I used the julienne peeler that I bought(Jaden made me buy the peeler).

I will upload the pictures tomorrow. There is no set recipe for the sandwich. I used fresh french bread and spread some mustard and my quick mint chutney. Cook the burgers per instructions and set it on the bread. Top it with some onions, tomatoes, romaine lettuce and your favorite cheese. I added some hot peppers I picked up from the olive bar at the store.

I served the sandwich with the fries and macaroni salad made with red pepper, celery and cucumber drizzled with balsamic and olive oil(no mayo and stuff).

International? I think so

I was just thinking about what I made for dinner few days ago and what I have planned for next fews weeks and boy do we eat food from different cuisines. So far we do/did:

American
Chinese
Ethiopian
Greek
Italian
Indian
Mexican
Middle Eastern
Thai
Vietnamese

I know I have been slacking and I will update the blog with new recipes for a Greek dinner I made the other night. Just hold on tight..