Dates and Nuts Barfi

Recently my friend Veena had made this easy and healthy barfi, which I really liked. There is no added sugar and it is full of flavor. Almost like an energy bar. And so so easy to make. Do try and enjoy your holidays, guilt free!

Happy holidays!!

Happy New Year!!

Masala Puri

One plate Masala Puri and one plate bhel puri, on a rainy day in monsoon season, was my most cherished snack cum dinner back in Bangalore. 

My parents never let me and my brother eat road-side food and hence we never tasted chats for a very long time. Chats were/still is thought of to be prepared in unclean environments. Then when my father got to know about this chat-angadi with proper infrastructure and visibly convincing cleanliness, he started bringing it home. He used to bring a big pack of masala puri and bhel puri, packed to go, coming back from his office. Assembling them was my job. I can still remember the fragrance of the ragda that’s added to the masala puri, that would make me want to dig in asap, right out of the container.

With the temperature dipping in the bay area, what better to eat than our very own spicy Masala Puri.

Masala Puri is one of those chats, which even Mumbaites might not know(I might be wrong). It’s basically crushed chat-puris served with peas-ragda(gravy) with typical chat garnishing. 

When I came across this bangalore-style masala puri recipe in one of my favorite blogs, Swampaaka, I jumped with joy. Because whatever recipe I’ve tried of this blog has come out well so far. I was sure this would come out good too. It turned out better than my already high expectations. 

Do try!

Mini Apple Pie

Wow! my 100th post!! Never thought I would stay this long. For something that started out as a time pass thing, 100 is a long way to have come. 100 is a small number for 5 years, as compared to other food bloggers who have reached this number in a matter of months. But it’s still super special for me. It’s giving me a strange sense of accomplishment :) 

Thanks everybody for taking the time to read, like and comment your thoughts and suggestions, here and on FB. Thanks for motivating me to keep going.   

And it’s a pleasant surprise that my 100th post coincided with Thanksgiving! Happy Thanksgiving! 

I had tried this mini apple pie recipe(posted in ED group on FB), sometime back. I really liked the concept of making mini pies. It is perfect for individual servings, and looks cute. Work wise it is very tedious making each pie separately. Doing 1 whole pie is much more quicker, IMO. So if you are in a time crunch, make just 1 whole pie and later cut into slices. If not, make these mini versions and impress your friends and family this holiday season. 

For the pie dough, I followed Martha Stewarts’s recipe, stuffing is from the blog mentioned below.

Enjoy!

Palak Paneer

I’ve tried palak panner many times from many websites, but nothing came close to the ones available in the restaurants. With my daughter’s growing taste buds, I wanted her to try out various Indian delicacies. This girl who wouldn’t even touch the tip of the spoon which touched palak paneer for its green color(it’s a different story that I still force-feed her a few teaspoons), started showing interest in various Indian curries, including palak paneer, in restaurants. That gave me an incentive to try out this dish at home again. 

Vahrevah is a trusted website for these kind of dishes. Any dish from this blog has never disappointed me. I like all the tips and tricks Vah-chef gives. His palak paneer was no exception, it turned out very good. 

The only drawback is, to make a small quantity(a little over what is seen in the pic below), I used the whole box of spinach from Costco. So this is not exactly something you should consider when cooking for a crowd. 

Do try!

Szechwan Rice

I had tried Szechwan rice recipe long time back. But when I wanted to post it everybody else was posting it.. this has happened with other dishes too, many times... 

Spooky, right? get it, halloween, spooky. Get it? Am I even getting this “get it” right? get it? :D

This is what my almost 8 yr old is into these days - she is all the time saying ‘get it?’ jokes. She is doing a much better job though. Like the other day she said, “careful! you are folding the folder, get it? folder, folding”

Anyways, coming to the recipe, this is an easy recipe when the sauce is prepared before hand. I am always hesitant for eating this dish out in the restaurant, as it is generally very very spicy. So when I came across this recipe in ED group on Facebook, I wanted to give it a try as I can adjust the sauce according to my taste. 

The rice came out very good and not as spicy as in restaurants. 

Do try!

Seemebadnekayi(Chayote) Chutney - Sambanda 4

One more chutney recipe. This time it is Seemebadnekayi(Chayote). I have tried 2 kinds of chutney from this veg. Both came out good. Giving the first one here. It is very much similar to Sorekayi(Bottle Gourd) chutney. Tastes similar too. It goes very well with rice. Do try! 

Sweet Potato Fries

Another easy and healthy snack which “hides” the real vegetable under the disguise of fries. It’s so tasty and easy, you can make it in no time. 

In my native place, whenever any of us kids said we are bored or don’t know what to do,  the elders would say “genegu beyisu hogu”, meaning - go cook sweet potato. I have no idea why that is linked with boredom.. should ask somebody the logic behind that phrase.. 

Coming back to the recipe. You cut sweet potatoes into thin strips. Put some spices and bake - it’s as simple as that. Kids will love it for sure..  

Do try!

Mangalore Soutekayi(Cucumber) Peel Chutney - Sambanda 3

One vegetable - 3 dishes - sambar, chutney and tambli(coconut-buttermilk based curry popular in coastal Karnataka).

One of the things I love about Udupi cuisine is that no part of a vegetable is wasted if it’s considered even remotely edible. I guess we didn’t find a way to cook coconut shells, or jackfruit skin :) 

Anyways, this is another sambanda(chutney). I didn’t know chutney could be made with this peel, until my relative pointed it on my FB post. Other vegetables peels with which you can make chutney can be found here(bottle gourd peel chutney) and here(ridge gourd peel chutney).  

I found this recipe in a blog, where many traditional udupi recipes can be found. 

If you are a chutney-rice combo lover, then you’ll definitely like this. 

Do try!

Vegetable Cutlet

My very first taste of cutlet was from Hotel Diana in Udupi, when I was a little girl. My grandfather had taken me for a treat. Cutlet and gud-bud ice cream. Yum!!! 

I have had tried making cutlets many times. But they never came out dense like in restaurants. The vegetables would leave out water and the cutlets would turn soggy. Then I got some tips from my husband’s aunt and from Manjula’s kitchen. Which was adding mashed potato mix or corn starch. I added both. Cutlets turned out wonderful. Pretty easy to make too. Liked by kids and adults alike!! Do try!

Also, it is Ganeshana habba season again. One more year of blogging! Happy Birthday Dear blog!!

Happy Gowri and Ganesha habba!!!

Maddur Vade

Yippee! Yippee!! Yippee!!!

Mornings are fresh 

I am stopping and smelling roses 

Hills are alive

Life is back to normal 

Why you ask? 

School has reopened! 

Why so much happiness, you ask? My little brat, when asked what she’d do for summer  holidays had proclaimed that she’s going to eat my head! and true to her words, she did that. You see, this is what happens when you don’t keep your kids occupied. They get BORED! And no school or camps either! And I am pretty strict when it comes to letting her watch TV. So, nothing to do.

Generally I jump in to help my kid whenever she utters the B word(B stands for BORED, in case you are gasping). This summer I tried something new. I said, “Be bored, it’s okay”. 

You see, when I was little, my mom never ran behind me to keep me busy. Me and my brother hardly had any toys, except for few board games. But we still kept ourselves busy, separately. Let me rephrase that, we LEARNT to keep ourselves busy. Yes, there were other kids in the neighborhood to play with, but not everyday. So when my little one was demanding my attention day in and day out, morning through night, I said, “Enough is enough! Now you are old enough to play alone, go play by yourself!”. All she could say was “I am bored”, with a long, mopey face. I said, “Be bored, it’s okay”, frustratingly. She didn’t understand what it meant, I didn’t either :). But that became my mantra for the whole summer. And now she knows that, that is the only response she’ll get from me when she utters the B word... So now she has stopped! God works in miraculous ways :D

Coming to the recipe,

Maddur Vade is a famous appetizer from Karnataka. It is served in the restaurants in the evenings in Bangalore. 

It should be raining outside and you should be eating hot, hot maddur vade along with some hot, hot filter coffee. That’s how it’s supposed to be eaten :)

The recipe itself is very easy. Frying takes a lot of time though. 

BTW, they are not supposed to be green, I made them that way :)  

Do try! 

Mixed Veg Saagu

Sometimes tasty dishes don’t need lot of masala. Simpler versions are better. I used to do mix veg saagu with lot of spices like coriander, jeera etc. I always found the masala to be overwhelming, but still continued as that was the only way I knew. Many mix-veg saagu recipes out there are also similar to what I do.. When I was browsing for a different version of mix veg saagu, I came across this recipe which looked much simpler on the masala.  The taste came out good too. It’s also richer as it has cashews. 

Do try!

Set Dose/Set Dosa

All these days I was using my regular dosa batter, pour it thick, and make set dose. It would come out good, but it didn’t have that restaurant taste. Then I came across this interesting recipe with different proportion of urad dal and rice. The dosa came out very soft, fluffy and airy. The taste was also very close to the restaurant ones.   

The only catch is (as the blogger points out), dosa batter becomes thin as it ferments. Then you’ll need to adjust by adding rice flour. Hence the batter should be ground thick. 

Enjoy set dose with some veg kurma(my next post) and chutney!

Tomato Dal

Here’s a restaurant style dal, which my friend actually got from a restaurant chef. Simple dal, tweak a little, and you’ve got an extraordinary tasting, restaurant quality dal. 

Dal is my favorite comfort food. 

Dal + Rice + Ghee + Papad + with the side of pickle = heaven! simply heaven!!

This goes well with plain rice or jeera rice. 

Do try!

Yard Long Beans Curry

When it comes to vegetables, I often feel stuck using the same vegetables again and again in different dishes. There are so many choices in Indian stores these days, and I don’t know what to do with most of them. Like for example there are so many variety of greens, and I only use spinach and methi. And there are these other vegetables I haven’t ever seen in my life. Well, I speak as though I handled a lot of vegetables growing up.. I didn’t. I was one of those I-will-not-enter-the-kitchen types. Anyways, I digress. 

Yard long beans is one of those vegetables which I had no clue... I am not sure what it is called in kannada. It tastes close to alasande. But I’m really not sure. 

When I googled for recipes, I came across this interesting one. The taste came out very good. Very unique. Very simple to make. My daughter loved it too... What more can I ask!

It goes very well with chapathi. I make it as a side dish along with some rice bath; they go well together too. 

Do try!

Quinoa Pulav

My pulav is not as disastrous as it used to be. Somehow something seems to have clicked. One thing I’m avoiding is cooking-everything-directly-in-the-cooker altogether. Now I cook rice first and then mix it separately with the masala. That could be the reason for better taste. 

Coming to quinoa. Many in my friends circle have cut down on rice and have switched to quinoa. My husband also prefers quinoa. I’ve started substituting rice with quinoa in my rice baths. The way I cooked quinoa before made it somewhat bitter and chewy, and I was also not particularly impressed with the way these baths turned out. But then I came to know(from showmethecurry) that I was cooking it completely wrong. Washing and soaking quinoa is a very important step, never to be missed. It takes the bitterness away. 

With the new technique quinoa turned out very soft and pulav came out very tasty. 

Do try!

Easy Cauliflower Curry

Okay, I’m out of my cooking slump. I must’ve tried at least 10 new dishes in the last month. All came out well. Hopefully this cooking “josh” continues. 

I came across this recipe online and was very impressed with the simplicity of this dish. It tastes good and can be made in no time at all, well almost. It goes well with rice and chapathi. 

Do try! 

Tawa Pulao

Tawa pulao, or Pav Bhaji Pulao. This is another recipe from my drafts. Had tried it long time back. This recipe is from Tarla Dalal. I love her easy to follow short videos on youtube. 

I had never heard of this dish before. I was intrigued how pav bhaji masala would taste with rice. I didn’t think they would go well together. But it tasted good. Different than other rice baths for sure. 

If you are having a pav bhaji party or chat party, this(along with some raita) could serve as an additional dish to go with the theme. 

Do try!

Corn Capsicum Curry

Life’s become busy... doing what? can’t tell for sure :) There is nothing in particular I can account for, just busy running errands, daily chores, being a soccer mom, setting up a routine for daughter’s homework and MAKING SURE SHE FOLLOWS IT!!  

A spring break thrown in the middle didn’t help much either. It’s funny how children when home = all your free time spent on them. Blogging has taken a back seat. I am not trying out many new recipes lately. Whatever little I try, I am not finding the time nor energy to set up and wait for the pictures to be taken by hubby. Anyways break is over and we are slowly crawling back to our routine.

I was digging out my drafts to see if I can post some of the old dishes I tried. I found this capsicum corn masala. Even though the masala used is pretty common among many north indian curries, addition of corn makes it taste slightly different. And corn makes it likable by kids too. It goes really well with Chapathis and fried rice. Do try!

Easy Mango Custard

Aah.. Welcome Spring! Days are longer, weather is warming up, summer is almost right around the corner, mangoes are going to be there.. :) Not that this recipe needs any fresh mangoes, canned mangoes does the job and it is available all year round. But yeah, fresh mango pulp will definitely make a difference.

This is a super easy recipe, which tastes really good. Perfect for dinner parties and potlucks. Make this for your next party and impress your friends and family. Don’t count the calories :)

Do try!

Enchilada

Tried this Enchilada recipe(with minor modifications) sometime back. It came out really good. Capsicum-red kidney beans-corn-cheese filling, rolled in whole wheat tortillas, topped with cheese and baked to perfection... every bite bursts with flavor and makes you want for more..

It is very filling. Perfect for potlucks and a total crowd pleaser. Do try!

Carrot Chutney(Fake Mavinkayi Chutney)

Some snacks can only be enjoyed with mavinkayi(Raw Mango) chutney. Like biscoot(urad dal vada without hole) for example. Then there are some dishes which go to a whole new level when savored with mavinkayi chutney, like regular dosa, ottu shavige(rice noodles), dodna(steamed rice dosa, popular in coastal Karnataka region). 

Couple of my trials at making mavinkayi chutney have failed in the past. I was not getting the ratio of raw mango pieces to coconut right. Either it was too sour, or the texture itself was too runny(not enough coconut?), and when the texture was right, one could hardly taste the sourness from the mango. What to dooo? Then my mom came to my rescue and told me this recipe. She said you cannot tell the difference between carrot chutney and mavinkayi chutney when done right, and she is absolutely right. 

This recipe is very simple, just like any other chutney. Do try!

Heerekayi(Ridge gourd) Peel Chutney/ Sambanda - 2

This is another popular sambanda in the kota region. Sambanda is the best way to use up vegetable peels((heerekayi, in this case) after using the vegetable for other dishes(like heerekayi chatti or dal). 

Probably this is The Sambanda(as in, people think this is what you are talking about when you say sambanda), while sorekayi chutney is a variation from the original. The procedure and spices are slightly different than Sorekayi chutney. 

While in the first method, the flavors are more raw and fresh; in this method the flavor is more cooked. Here you roast and add some urad dal and dhania along with the ridge gourd peels and pulp. 

Both the methods could be incorporated with any vegetable. 

Bisibele Bath

After Bisibele bath powder,  it is only logical that I put the recipe for BBB. That way I will have the recipe complete, from start to finish. 

Bisibele bath is a signature dish from Karnataka, made out of dal, rice and vegetables. A wholesome one pot meal. 

BBB tastes best when the vegetables are crunchy, dal is properly smashed, the masala is fresh, and you can taste the tadka.. There are many ways one can do this, ranging from very elaborate to very easy..

Which method I follow, depends on the kind of affection I have for my hubby on that particular day, and also the amount of time I have on my hands.. 

I am giving you all the methods I know of..

Do try!

BisiBeleBath Powder

Bisi Bele Bath is a popular Karnataka Dish which needs no introduction. It is made out of vegetables, lentil and rice and is a wholesome meal in itself. You use BBB powder for flavoring, which is a special blend of spices roasted and ground to a fine powder.

The Bisi bele bath powder available in Indian stores is pretty good and serves the purpose very well. But if you want to take it up a notch, try homemade BBB powder. Homemade is always homemade. You can smell and taste the freshness... 

I found this recipe in a FB group. The only change I did was to reduce the red chili quantity, otherwise everything else is the same. The blogger has other authentic Karnataka recipes, which I intend to make sometime soon. Check out her link below.

Enjoy!