Chana Dal with Lauki(Bottle gourd)

Dals/ tovve are my favorite. I never knew that dal can be made with chana dal also. I’m also not too fond of bottle gourd in traditional south Indian sambars. This recipe is an amalgam of both, in good ways. Extremely tasty and easy. Have it with rice, ghee and pickle and some fryums(sandige) and enjoy your winter break! 

Do try!

Happy holidays! Happy New Year!!

Veg Burrito Bowl

My husband loves chipotle burrito bowls. Burrito bowls are easy to prepare at home. If you are hosting a party, you can prepare all the side dishes in advance and still have time to dress up and look fresh :) You can easily feed a crowd. Taste bhi health bhi kinda dish. 

Do try!

Happy holidays!!

Minestrone Soup

What better to savor than hot minestrone soup on cold winter nights. Especially when it can be done in less than 30 min hassle free in Insta Pot. Add everything, set IP for 6 min on high and piping hot soup is ready to be savored. Pair it with some garlic bread and you have a filling, quick lunch/dinner. You can pressure cook this too. Same procedure. 

Happy Thanksgiving! 

Rave rotti

I don’t know what I was thinking when I stored upma rava in the spot where I generally store idly rava. It was bound to happen sooner or later that I soaked regular uppit rava instead of idly rava while making idli. Not knowing what to do with the soaked rave, I asked my mother. She suggested I can either make rave dose or rave rotti. I had never tried rave rotti before, even though many people had given me the recipe. I really loved the taste. It was crunchy and soft at the same time. Very easy recipe. Even kids will love it.

Simple breakfast item.

Do try! 

Zucchini stir fry

My cousin, a novice gardener, started growing crazy big zucchinis and gave some to me :) I hardly use zucchini in my everyday cooking. So I got creative and googled for recipes… [that’s the creative best I can get :D]. I found this recipe in one of my favorite blogs. I was sure it is going to turn out great. Basically you just toss sliced zucchini in spiced besan flour and pan roast it. I might’ve used more besan than necessary, hence mine tasted more like zunka. Tasted exceptional nevertheless. Do try and include zucchini in your everyday cooking. 

Bread masala

So one day, casually browsing I came across bread masala video on Hebbar’s Kitchen and my daughter who was close by saw it and insisted that I make it for her. It looked easy.. so I gave it a try.. It tasted soo good! Generally making pav bhaji is easy, but this is easier than that. This is perfect for lunch box for kids. You can make masala previous day and add bread pieces in the morning, mix and give it for lunch box. 

Do try!  

Capsicum Rice Bath

Here’s another unique rice bath with simple taste and simple flavors. Very easy to make, and tastes like a variation of vangi bath. Makes for a great lunch box item. Onion can be skipped for festivals. Do try! 

Raagi Rotti

Hallelujah!! 

Finally, finally, finally I mastered the trick of getting perfect rottis. I like my rottis crunchy and soft at the same time. They never came out that way. So as usual, anytime I see some new technique online, I would try.. try.. try. But my search has ended with this particular recipe on Udupi recipes website(link given below). Do check it out, it has some great Udupi recipes I refer to on and off. 

My ragi rottis were so hard and chewy before. With this method they were crunchy when hot and soft after cooling down. The trick is - use soaked avalakki(poha)! I had seen in some places people put cooked rice in the dough, probably for the same reason. Poha is so much better and easier. I have followed the recipe for most part but for few things here and there. Do try! 

Enjoy hot rottis with some butter and chutney. 

Inside Out kayi kadubu

This year Ganesha Chathurthi is falling on Labor day. Everybody can take it easy with the preparations.  

Anyways, when you make kayi kadubu, there is a very good chance that some extra dough is remaining; if it’s stuffing you can eat just like that. Or it can be just that you find making kayi kadubus extremely tiresome and tedious and you don’t even want to venture into it. Or you just don’t have the time or patience to make kayi kadubus.

Yet, you want to eat it or want to make something for habba - then this recipe is for you. 

I don’t know what it’s called or if it is even made anywhere else. I call it inside out kayi kadubu. My mom gave me this procedure for finishing up remaining dough. I found this extremely easy and tasty. It isn’t exactly quick, but chances are of it going wrong are very small. Do try! 

Happy Ganesha Chathurthi everyone! Happy birthday dear blog!  

Gojjavalakki/ Spiced Poha

Happy Krishnashtami! 

Gojjavalakki is basically crushed poha mixed with puliyogare-like masala. One of the very popular devara-prasadas served in temples. Very simple to make. This particular recipe makes masala from scratch. You can also use any other puliyogare mix instead of the masala below. 

Do try! 

Instant Sambar mix

Ladies….… hold on! This one is too good to pass. 

Imagine you are traveling away from home and want to prep something that your husband can easily cook, or you come back from work or in general are too tired/ bored to cook anything, or you want to send something with your kids when they are going away for college.. you can make sambar in matter of minutes! yes, it is possible with this Instant sambar mix. All you have to do is boil some vegetables and add this mix, sambar is ready! So easy! Keep this mix handy in your pantry and you can whip up a simple lunch/dinner in no time. Do try! 

Nellikayi(Amla) mosarabajji/ gooseberry raita

This is one healthy raita. Easiest of all, I must say. This was shown in oggarane dabbi cooking show long time back. 

This raita was claimed to clear all mouth ulcers... and it works!! I tried it on myself and there was instant relief. Do try! 

AvarekaaLu saagu/ Hyacinth beans saagu

Growing up my mother never made anything from avarekaaLu. Probably that’s why I always liked eating anything made with avarekaaLu. AvarekaaLu mixture is my all time favorite. One day I’ll learn how to make it! 

This versatile saagu makes for a healthy side dish for dose, chapathi, poori or rice. I used dry avarekaaLu and soaked it overnight. You can also use frozen or even fresh, if available. Healthy, tasty and easy. 

Do try! 

Majjige saaru with sorekaayi/ Bottle gourd curd based curry

Majjige huLi, I know, majjige saaru, no. The only difference I see in the recipe is Majjige huLi generally doesn’t have onion or garlic, Majjige Saaru does. I found this recipe online and I wanted to try out this new method. Taste was really good. Tasted more like a curried version of majjige huLi. If you like majjige huLi and don’t mind onion-garlic flavor, you will definitely enjoy this. 

Do try!  

InstaPot Aloo Pulav

Presenting another simple rice bath - simple only in ingredients but rich in flavor - Aloo rice bath. It was a big hit in my family. I made this in InstaPot. Quick and easy. 

Do try! 

Broccoli Stir fry

Not everybody likes broccoli. But what if you make pakodas with it? *ding-ding. What if you don’t deep fry but make a sabzi instead, with the same spiced besan mix? *ding-ding-ding-ding. Bingo! 

Broccoli actually doesn't taste as bad as all the kids make it out to be. It goes really well in Indo-Chinese dishes as it tends to take up all the flavors and becomes juicy when stir fried. I was surprised when my daughter kept asking for more and more broccoli from noodles. So I browsed for more broccoli recipes, and I came across this sabzi from showmethecurry. I suppose jhunka is prepared in a similar fashion.

This is an extremely simple recipe, and tastes great - more like a healthy version of pakoda. This would be a great way of introducing broccoli in everyday Indian cooking. Do try! 

Paduvalakai Sihi huLi/ Snakegourd sweet curry

Sihi huli literally means sweet sambar. It is eaten with rice. This is popular in Udupi region. As the name suggests this huLi is more on the sweeter side. Many sambars are made sweet in coastal region and you need a bit of an acquired taste to enjoy these.

This particular huLi is made with paduvalakayi(snake gourd), coconut and jaggery. This is extremely easy to make. 

Do try! 

Matar Paneer

Just like chole, matar paneer is another popular north Indian curry which is loved by everybody. I followed Vah chef’s recipe for this as all his north Indian curries come close to restaurant taste. This curry can be had with both chapathi/poori and fried rice. 

Do try! 

Mint Pulav in InstaPot

Presenting another one-pot/InstaPot dish - mint pulav. 

Advantages of cooking in InstaPot - vegetables were perfectly cooked… onions too. Flavor was retained. 

Instant? Not really! 

Less baby sitting - if you call turning off the cooker on time baby sitting, then yes! I really don’t get this guys! It took me 1 hr from start to finish, how is that instant :)

Anyways, rice bath was flavorful…  Enjoy! 

Aloo Bonda

Anyone for aloo bonda? Hot spicy aloo bonda and coffee… yum! 

Like samosa, aloo bonda is universally loved! 

Making this is little more time consuming than regular pakodas… but if you prepare palya(stuffing) before hand and keep everything ready, you can prepare bondas in no time. 

Do try!  

Vegetable fried rice

Presenting another one of my favorite Indo Chinese recipes - Vegetable fried rice. I was thrilled to find this recipe in one my favorite blogs(link given below). I just tweaked it a little bit - like adding celery, and adding green sauce instead of green chillies. 

Celery, like I mentioned in my last post, definitely enhances flavor. But this recipe has another key ingredient - white pepper powder, which also gives a very unique and authentic flavor to the dish. Do not skip this. 

Overall preparing this is very easy. Comes out extremely tasty. Do try! 

Schezwan Noodles

Noodles are anytime welcome in our house, lunch or dinner. I personally love anything Indo-Chinese and Hakka noodles tops the list. 

To get an extra kick out of plain Hakka noodles, add schezwan chutney, which I found out about in a recipe online(link given below). 

I also followed a tip given by Vah chef, that to take any Indo-Chinese dish to the next level, to get that authentic taste, use celery. Yes, celery definitely enhances the taste, and I would highly recommend it for any Indo-Chinese dish, be it noodles or fried rice. 

Now, one more personal tip - generally you cook noodles and then run them in cold water and then add little oil and use them later. To avoid all these steps, I sauté all vegetables and keep everything ready, then I cook noodles, take them out of water and add them directly to the wok. This saves lot of time and energy :)

Do try! 

Enchilada - Method 2

There’s already one recipe for Enchilada, which can be found here. What’s different in this recipe is enchilada sauce is made from scratch and I have also used refried beans, which gives authentic flavor to any Mexican dish. Sauce and refried beans are very easy to make. 

Enchilada Sauce recipe can be found here - Enchilada Sauce

Refried beans here - Refried Beans

Do try!

Palya bun

Happy New Year!! 

Presenting first ever post for this year - Bakery style palya bun. 

Baking is not that intimidating as it sounds/appears. Right ingredients, right measurements and an oven - you can pretty much get it right. These days I am seeing in cooking shows that a pressure cooker can also be used for baking. Add salt and the plate that comes with the cooker, then take out the gasket and cooker weight from the lid, close, pre heat and bake at high temperature. 

Last year, after my friend’s high recommendation, I added bread machine to my kitchen collection. Now I highly recommend it to others. All you need to do is add all the ingredients and turn on the machine. You’ll get a freshly baked loaf in a matter of hours. It tastes same as store bought ones, plus added advantage of no preservatives. Do consider :)

Moving on, for this recipe I made bread dough two ways. First one from scratch - kneading with hands. Second one from bread machine, using dough setting. Today I’ll give the procedure for making from scratch. Do try and enjoy! May your year be filled with good food!