Gojjavalakki mix

 Happy Janmashtami!! 

Here’s an instant gojjavalakki mix I fell in love with. This gets ready in less than 20 mins. And with the mix ready, all you need to do is add in hot water. This mix comes in real handy while traveling, or for lunch box in busy mornings, or for just quick breakfast/lunch or dinner. 

This is one of my favorite breakfast items. Do try! 

   

Mooli Fried Rice

 One major change that happened in our household in the last two years is the increased consumption of root vegetables. It all started during lockdown when I started sending my husband for grocery shopping instead of going myself, instructing him to buy vegetables with longer shelf life. And ever since it has only been beetroots, radishes, potatoes and onions in our house. How much of only these can one have. He doesn’t like carrots, so I’m spared there. Even after telling him again and again to get some variety, he somehow manages to bring only these.. if this is his way of getting away from doing chores, it’s working!! I tag along these days and make sure he is not even around vegetables when I’m shopping. 

Coming to the recipe, I was intrigued when I saw this recipe for Mooli fried rice in another one of my fav blogs. And since I always have lots of mooli in the house(thanks to hubby), I gave it a try. The taste was very unique and moolangi complimented the Indo Chinese taste soo well! And one cannot guess there is moolangi in this dish. Perfect for sneaking in vegetable for picky eaters. 

Do try! 

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! 

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! 

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! 

Veg Hakka Noodles in Instapot

I’m probably joining in late to this Insta pot craze culture :) To be frank, I was not that impressed.. It’s good, it is convenient, but instant? Not really.. my pressure cooker does the same thing.

I admit, I haven’t explored it much… just been using it to make big batches of something. Well, it surely has its advantages, like vegetables aren’t mushed like in a pressure cooker, and you don’t need to babysit..etc. Currently I am exploring more and understanding why everybody is going gaga over it..

So recently I tried Hakka noodles and wow! was it convenient. Everything happened in 1 pot - no separate pot for cooking hakka noodles, then strainer for straining, then again a wok for making it... As easy as dump everything and cook. But aren’t you supposed to strain starchy water.. like for health reasons.. or is it just for rice? gah, I don’t know.. I’ll stop pretending to know :) 

Taste wise, it was good, vegetables were neither mushy nor crunchy. In the original recipe, vegetables are sautéd and taken out before cooking the noodles, keeping them crunchy, but I just put everything together. Noodles were starchy when hot, but was good after cooling down a bit. 

Do try! 

Quesadilla - easy lunch box recipe

Quesadilla makes for a perfect lunch box item, especially for kids. Adults can equally enjoy it too. Easy peasy, and can be made in a jiffy(less than 10 min) for busy weekday mornings. I’m sure every house has their own recipe for this. Here’s mine.. 

I generally make stuffing before hand and use organic whole wheat frozen tortillas(from costco, with just 5 ingredients, no preservative).

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!

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!

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!

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!

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! 

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!

Eggless Blueberry muffin

After success of using flax meal as an egg substitute in Chocolate cake, I’ve been following more of regular baking recipes(with eggs) and replacing eggs with flax meal, instead of searching for eggless version. I’ve grown out of baking powder+baking soda, which most of the eggless versions have as an egg substitute, as it leaves an after taste in your mouth. Flax meal doesn’t do that. 

I had a box of blueberries from Costco, which nobody wanted to eat. Hence I decided to bake this blueberry muffin to use it up. The muffin rose beautifully as seen in the picture. 

The recipe is fairly easy. This also makes a good item for your kid’s lunch box or snack. Make mini muffins and you can easily fit them in their tiny lunch boxes, or take them for a kid’s potluck. 

Do try!

Sabsige Soppu Bath/Dill Rice Bath

I had a big batch of sabsige soppu(Dill) in the fridge which needed immediate attention. I had recently made rotti with it. And that’s all I know to make with it. I had tried making sabsige saaru once, but was not too sold on the taste. So I took refuge in Google and found one recipe I liked. Generally when I like something, I always make sure to read the comments to see if anybody has tried and tested it. Many did on this one, so I went ahead with it...

This is one healthy bath, I tell you! Tasted good too. It uses freshly ground pulav powder. And there is no onion-garlic in this recipe. Perfect for festivals! It had a tinge of bitterness from the dill leaves, which made it unique compared to other rice baths, which I loved. I would say the taste was close to menthe soppina bath(methi leaves rice bath). 

There is another rice bath that my friend makes with dill. Hopefully I’ll be able post it soon. 

Do try!

Tomato Bath - Version 2

This is the second version of Tomato Bath that I like. Check out Version 1 here. My cousin Archana gave me this recipe. Freshly ground masala with red chillies(instead of green chillies) and coconut gives this a very unique taste. It tastes good on its own and doesn’t need an accompaniment like raita or anything. 

Do try!

Green Moong Dal Rice Bath/Hesaru kalina bath

Yet another rice bath which is very simple, tasty and very very healthy. You can sprout the moong dal to make it even more healthy. 

This rice bath is bland compared to pulavs and biriyanis, but tasty nevertheless. 

It’s great for potlucks and lunch boxes too.. 

Enjoy!!

Puliyogare(Or Chitranna) Gojju/Paste

My mom makes awesome Puliyogare powder from scratch, which I am too lazy to learn. In one of our conversations she told me that the major difference between puliyogare powder and rasam powder is indeed the addition of sesame seeds.. then it suddenly occurred to me why not put some sesame seeds to the rasam powder and make my own puliyogare gojju..

..and that’s what I did here.. 

The trick in bringing puliyogare gojju to a gravy consistency is addition of water, which lot of people miss out on. Even when I am making puliyogare from MTR dry powder, I put some water and boil it to a gravy consistency. Puliyogare comes out better this way and mixing also becomes easy. 

This gojju can be used as chutney with dosa, chapathi and also like pickle with curd rice. My mom used to take chapathi with this gojju for long travels. It has a pretty good shelf life... and can be stored even longer when kept in the fridge.. I’ve never stored this long enough to know exactly how many days it stays :)

When I proudly told mom about my “invention”, she said what I just did was chitranna and not puliyogare.. hehe.. 

It tastes awesome, whatever you call it :)

Do try!