Mix Veg Curry

Happy holidays!!

I love holiday season in US. The whole environment is so festive with all the decorations, Christmas trees, lights… 

Can’t believe 2017 is almost over. 
Years are just passing by… Only the serials I am watching seem to be stuck in time :D

Anyways, mix veg curry is again from oggarane dabbi cooking show. The curry came out very tasty, lip smacking, just like the ones available in restaurants in India.    

Procedure is tad lengthy. You can always use frozen veg to cut down the time. But sweet corn may not go well in this curry. 

Do try!

Tomato Dose

A different take on our very humble, regular, everyday breakfast - uddina dose. Just add tomato along with masala, you have a different tasting dose. Tastes tangy because of the tomatoes. I would say it will be good not to over-ferment the batter, so that sourness is mostly form tomatoes.

I think tomato dose is popular in Tamil Nadu. It is very easy to make if you already have dose batter. I followed this recipe from Sihi Kahi Chandru’s cooking show - barjari bhojana.. it tasted really good.. Do try!

Carrot - Spinach Rice bath

Presenting one more flavorful, delicious and easy-to-make rice bath, again from oggaranne dabbi cooking show. As I say again and again, I am overwhelmed at the variations one can make in rice baths just by changing few vegetables and few ingredients here and there. Rice baths are easy to make, tasty and a definite crowd pleaser, perfect for potlucks.  

This bath is low on spices, healthy and a good lunch box item. My daughter just loved it!

Do try!

Badnekayi(Brinjal/Eggplant) Pulav

I am a sucker for pulavs. I try to make each and every version I come across either online or on TV.. It is fascinating how just change of vegetables and few spices here and there can bring about so many varieties... 

Badnekayi Pulav is again from oggarane dabbi cooking show. It’s fairly easy and comes out very tasty. As usual, instead of cooking it all together, I cooked rice separately and then mixed with the masala. 

Do try!

Masala Bread/ Palya bread

Presenting another appetizer which is easy to make, unbelievably tasty and kid friendly. Palya bread/ masala bread/ bread sandwich are some of the names it goes by in local bakeries in Bangalore. 

I found this recipe looooong time back in one of the first blogs I stumbled upon.. it had very basic and handy ingredients. Over the years I have seen many variations with more ingredients, but I find this recipe simple and good enough. Do try! 

Vegetable Spring roll

I was planning on making some special Indian sweet or savory snack for Deepavali. Since Deepavali is already here, I’ll go with whatever I have on hand :) 

I had tried this recipe sometime back and it turned out to be very tasty. The procedure is fairly easy and although tedious, makes a great appetizer for a dinner party/potluck. Rolling takes a lot of time, and if you have some help in that area, making this is very easy. You can also roll this and freeze before hand, frying just before serving. 

Do try!

Happy Deepavali!!

Capsicum dal(tovve)

Looks like I’m having a marathon of recipes from oggarane dabbi!! Here comes one more! and there are many more :)

My love for dal makes me try every other variation I come across... It’s amazing how such a humble dish can be presented in so many varieties by just changing few ingredients here and there.  

This dal is made from moong dal and capsicum. It has onion, but can easily be skipped for festivals. Healthy, tasty and can be cooked in no time. Perfect for busy weekdays. 

Do try!

Avalakki(Poha) bisi beLe bath/BBB

This recipe is again from Oggarane Dabbi cooking show. 

This is one flavorful dish made with fresh spices and vegetables. It is also much lighter on the tummy since it is made with poha and moong dal. There is onion in the recipe. But you can easily skip it for festivals. Original recipe makes everything in the cooker directly, but I made it separately. Have it with some ghee, chips/boondi. 

Enjoy!

Vegetable Pongal

These days I am hooked onto Oggarane dabbi cooking show. Every day there is something new I’d like to try. I like the hosts candid opinion, which makes it easy for me to try only certain dishes and not everything. I must have tried some 6-7 dishes already and I have only been watching the show for like a month.

One of the dishes that I tried was Vegetable Pongal which was shown as pancahrangi pongal on the show. It is a wholesome one pot dish. Very healthy, very tasty and gets done in a jiffy. Easy enough to prepare on a busy working day, yet fancy enough to serve your guests at dinner parties. 

Do try!

KodbaLe

Kodbale is a fried snack made during festivals. My mom makes this for Ganesha chaturthi. This is my mom’s trademark recipe. It is slightly different than regular kodbale. My favorite. My daughter’s favorite too. 

It is a little time consuming, and you don’t get enough quantity for the whole lot of work you put in, but the taste makes up for it.  

And it’s Ganesha habba season again! Happy birthday to my dear blog!!

Make this kodbale for this festival season and enjoy!

Happy Gowri and Ganesha habba!!!

Mavinakayi Chitranna - Raw Mango rice

I only knew one way of making mavinakayi chitranna, which is make tadka with mustard, urad dal, chana dal, hing, peanuts green/red chili and turmeric, add grated raw mango, sauté and mix with cooked rice. But I recently got to know about this recipe (through a Kannada sangha we are involved with), which is slightly different, but definitely more delicious than what I make. The recipe uses methi seeds, which makes it unique. I particularly loved the subtle methi taste + tanginess of raw mango. 

This recipe is from another favorite food blog of mine, which has many authentic Karnataka recipes. 

Make this delicious mavinakayi chitranna for upcoming festival season and enjoy!      

Peanut-Capsicum Kurma

Capsicum always suits well in curries for chapathis. This recipe is from one of my favorite blogs, where in almost all the dishes I have tried have turned out good. 

Generally we use cashews to get the thickness in North Indian gravies. But this recipe uses peanuts! This gives a very unique taste and also a nutty taste in every bite. It turned out very tasty. And the second time I made, I added some panner cubes(not in the picture) as per my daughter’s wish. Even that tasted very good in the gravy. Do try! 

Kothu Parotta

I have never tasted kothu parotta before. I am always skeptical trying out new dishes at restaurants. Lest I try something new and it doesn’t turn out as good as my expectations, then my whole “restaurant going” experience is ruined. The kind of hunger I’m in when I go to restaurants, I’m in no mood to wait nor to try out anything new.

For new dishes, either I try from frozen section at Indian stores, or I try to make it at home, or I taste from my husband’s plate when he is trying out something new :)

So I find this kothu parotta in frozen section. I bring it home and open it, only to realize that it’s just plain parotta cut into fancy strips. That's when I googled for it and found out about salna. 

Parotta(malabar parotta) is basically maida based flaky paratha(bread). It is little time consuming to make from scratch. But is easily available in frozen section at Indian stores. Kottu parotta(vegetarian version) is made by sautéing parotta pieces in salna(tomato based gravy) and some vegetables. 

It turned out very tasty. Both my husband and daughter loved it. Do try!

Salna - Tomato Salna

I’ve never tasted kothu parotta or salna before. I don’t know how it should taste. In fact, I only got to know about its existence very recently. But I know it is a popular choice in restaurants. And the recipe I followed tasted heavenly. 

Salna is basically a tomato-onion based curry which is served with ghee rice/jeera rice, chapathi, poori, parotta(flaky ones). It is also used in kothu parotta(which is going to be my next post). 

It is moderately easy to make. My husband, who has eaten kothu parotta in restaurants before, liked this taste better. 

Do try!  

Ash gourd peel chutney - Sambanda 5

One more chutney recipe made out of vegetable peel, this time with (ash gourd)white pumpkin peel. Easy and tasty. This goes well with rice, could also be eaten with dosa, idli or chapathi. Do try!

Check out other vegetable peel chutneys here: 

Bottle-gourd peel chutney 

Ridge gourd(heerekayi) chutney 

Mangalore soutekayi(cucumber) chutney 

Healthy Spinach-Moong Dal Palya/Sabzi

My husband is the kind, who brings home a chocolate, will make sure our daughter gets a big chunk and enjoys in her enjoyment. And he does it very often, more than necessary, IMO. 

I, on the other hand, make sure I only get healthy snacks, make sure that her chocolate/sweet intake is limited during the week. Whenever she asks for an extra chocolate, I retort immediately - do you ever ask for more vegetables, then don’t ask for more candies. Or when she takes more than half an hour to finish her lollipop(no kidding!), slurping it endlessly until the stick starts to break apart; I don’t forget to thank her brain for being so eager to spoil her teeth, followed by a very long lecture on the bad effects of eating junk food :)

Then,

..

..

I put her to sleep, take handful of chips from my hidden stash and eat it feeling - ‘life is beautiful’ :D . Thankfully, I’ve come to senses with respect to ice cream bars and have stopped buying them. Otherwise every night(well, almost) I would’ve put my feet on coffee table, turned on some good TV, and have eaten one ice cream bar. 

Happy Mother’s Day, everyone!! :D

Coming to the recipe, Spinach-Moong dal palya has got to be one of the healthiest food out there. I don’t think it is made in Udupi-Kota region. I only got to know about this while browsing for other recipes. It turned out very tasty. Very very easy. My daughter loved it too. I am a happy mom :)

Do try!  

Horse gram(hurali) chutney

In Udupi cuisine, dals are not extensively used in sambars, but are used in making chutneys. Horse gram chutney, toor dal chutney to name a few(actually, I only know these two :) ). 

Horse gram is claimed to make the bones strong(source - Veena :D). It is used in rasams, uslis(stir fry), chutneys, idli. You need an acquired taste to enjoy this. I didn’t like hurali(horse gram) as much when I was a kid, but nowadays I am a big fan. 

Do try!

Baingan bartha - using oven roasted baingan

These days I am really hooked onto kannada serials. We had subscribed some Indian channels when my parents had visited. 

My mom was in the habit of watching these melodramatic serials, that specialize in storyline :) As my brother says, one cannot help but wonder what kind of a brain can come up with such stories. And then the story basically goes round and round in an infinite loop. Once in a while it goes in a tangent giving the illusion that it might end, but it would just start going in a different circle, this time a bigger one. Anyways, I had the time of my life making fun of these serials during my last visit to India and I was secretly hoping that I would enjoy it  equally this time around watching it with my mom. But my mom herself had given up watching these serials, saying that the storyline is getting worse by the day. The one serial in particular that I was making fun of, has still not ended, after 3 long years!! And guess what, the story is STILL THE SAME. A boy and a girl are married and nobody knows about it except these two, even after 3 YRS!  WOW!! Just so you know, these serials are aired everyday. That is (365-weekends) * 3 days. I must say, this kind of dragging is an art :)

Moreover by just watching the advertisements of these serials, you pretty much get the gist of what is happening. You don’t have to watch the whole serial. Still how so many seemingly intelligent people are hooked on to it, is a mystery to me. I was very intrigued to find out. Two new serials started right after my parents left. And I started watching them, you know, to solve the mystery :D 

I had warned my husband that if at all he wanted to remove the service, this was the time, before I start. But he wanted to keep the service for “cricket matches”. Now it’s too late. I am two months into these serials and there is no turning back. He has no choice, he has to watch it with me :) I can see myself getting pulled into it, curious to know what is going to happen today, but nothing happens, and I know what should happen. The thing that is supposed to happen, happens only after 2 or 3 weeks. So what happens everyday? basically nothing, but it is giving the illusion of something is happening. 

Now I think, I somewhat debugged how it is done. Basically you tell the story before hand. For example, in one of the serial I am currently watching, you are already let know, that by the end of a particular day, both hero and heroine are supposed to get married. Suppose that day starts today in “Serial Time”. Remember time is an illusion. 1 day of Serial time = could be easily 1 month of real time. It starts by people saying that something important is going to happen today. Then every 2-3 days(remember it is still the same day in Serial Time), there is a new twist, preventing that thing from happening. Then finally everything sorts out and after 3 weeks or so the day ends and they get married. So everyday people(like me) will turn on the serial hoping that the couple would get married today. But it’s postponed for tomorrow. I think that’s how they are keeping people hooked on to their channel. 

With this new found knowledge, I plan to watch further to see if it can really keep my interest going or it’ll just die down soon. I’ll keep y’ll updated :)

Coming to the recipe, 

Since I no longer have gas stove, I had stopped roasting eggplant for certain dishes. But roasting is roasting. The taste of the dish drastically changes by this one procedure. This particular recipe oven roasts eggplant. And the job was less messy compared to roasting it on the stove. The dish turned out lip smacking. Do try!

sabbakki rotti/ sabudana thalipeeth

I don’t think there’s anybody who is unaware of Hebbar’s kitchen. So much popularity in such a short time. Hers to-the-point videos make any complicated recipe look like a piece of cake. 

I have only tried couple of her recipes, though many have made into my bookmark folder. 

Sabbakki, as I knew, was used only in payasa(kheer), or sandige(fryums). Long time back, before blogging, I had tried sabudana vada, which had turned out very tasty and crunchy. But it had taken really long time to fry, which had put me off in trying it again. 

Then I saw this video of Sabudana thalipeeth(sabbakki rotti), which looked pretty easy, like all her other videos. The dough was almost same to what I had tried before, so I knew it would be tasty. And making rotti is anyways less complicated than frying. So I tried and I  must say, I was not disappointed. Taste was awesome! But time taken to cook was not as quick as regular rotti. 

If you don’t roast it thoroughly, it breaks apart very easily while flipping. It is very filling. So I would advise making small rottis, and roast two rottis at a time.

Do try!

Mixed Veg Curry - Restaurant Style

I had tried this Mix veg curry long time back. It turned out very creamy and tasted just like in restaurants. I used frozen mix veg bag along with some other cut vegetables, to increase the volume. This dish is perfect for feeding a crowd. Relatively quick, filling,  uncomplicated and tasty!

Do try!

Spinach Pulav

This recipe is similar to the last recipe. Almost same recipe, just change in vegetable, gives you a very different tasting rice bath. It is very easy to make and a good option for lunch box. 

It tastes like palak paneer mixed with rice and kids will love it. I felt addition of potatoes or fried paneer would’ve gone well with the taste. 

Do try!

Corn Pulav

It’s interesting how change of vegetables can change the flavor of rice baths drastically. I tried couple of rice baths from the same blog, with almost similar masala, but just change in vegetables. I was very happy with the outcome. I just tweaked the recipe a little bit. Other than that everything else was followed as in original recipe. 

Corn makes it very likable for kids too. 

Do try! 

Spinach Chutney

Presenting another healthy and tasty chutney recipe, that I had tried sometime back. Very very very tasty and very easy to make. Adding garlic tadka is like icing on the cake. 

I might have added more palak than required(in the original recipe), as my chutney was much greener than the original recipe. It took me a good amount of spinach to make a decent amount of chutney. But you can always reduce the spinach and add more masala like in the original recipe. 

Enjoy this yummy chutney with some hot rice in this cold weather!

Sweet Potato(Genasu) Bajji / Bajji batter

I wanted to post something special for New Year. I thought so long and hard as to what to post, by the time Sankranthi was here :) 

Sankranthi came and went, but I am still thinking. Frustrated, I opened my laptop today and decided to post something and just be done with it :) 

Thankfully I found Genasu bajji(which I had completely forgotten), which I recently learnt from my mom. 

This is my mom’s trademark recipe. Unlike other bajjis, here you add freshly ground masala, which gives a very unique taste. I’m glad to share this special recipe with you’ll today. 

Happy New Year! Happy Sankranthi!!