Coconut Milk Pulav

 One of the very simple yet rich tasting pulavs I fell in love with instantly when I tasted it at my friends place. InstaPot makes it even more simple. 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! 

OraLu Chitranna/ green kaayi saasive chitranna

 We also make kayi sasive chitranna, but differently. This masala uses green chilies and the ingredients are roasted before grinding. I really loved the flavors and the convenience of making this. You can keep the gojju(masala paste) ready beforehand and mix it with rice (just like puliyogare gojju) whenever needed. This is ideal for festivals. Enjoy! 

Mavinakayi Chitranna - Raw Mango rice 2

I’ve already posted a recipe for mavinkayi chitranna(raw mango) which can be found here. Mavinkayi chitranna and lemon rice are very similar, one uses raw mango for sourness and other uses lemon.

I came across another unique way of making mavinkayi chitranna(link given below). A special blend of spices is roasted and ground and added along with mavinkayi. It tasted more like a mix between puliyogare and chitranna. Very tasty. Do try! 

Cabbage Rice

This is a very simple rice bath with simple flavors and can be made in no time. Cabbage is generally not liked by kids. But sneak it in a rice bath, they’ll not mind, hopefully :)

Along with cabbage, I added capsicum and chick peas for extra flavor. Do try!

Aloo-Matar Pulav

This pulav is THE TASTE I wanted to achieve all these years. Hence I am writing a very detailed recipe on what exactly I did to be able to recreate next time. For people who don’t know about my struggle with pulav, they can refer here to get the inside story. Now I can sleep peacefully :)

To top this, a “sone pe suhaaga” kind of a deal is - this is a 1 pot meal. I made this in InstaPot. This recipe is from Hebbar's kitchen(link given below). 

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! 

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! 

Nellikayi(Amla) Chitranna

Happy New Year! Happy Sankranthi!

This year I want to start off with something healthy. I got this recipe (again) from Oggarane Dabbi cooking show. Nellikayi is supposed to be very healthy. Most Ayurvedic lehas(that I know of) have nellikayi in them. 

Nellikayi has an astringent taste. I tried many recipes with nellikayi recently. Out of all the recipes, this recipe stands out. This recipe is a good way of including nellikayi in your diet.

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!

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!

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!      

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! 

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!

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!

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!

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!