Cooking with Spice

Nutritious dosa

ds0612 — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 23:16:18 +0000

After serious of tries I finally got the hang of this special dosa. This nutritious dosa is rich in calcium..vitamins..and it has lots of fibre in it. Its good for babies too…specially teething babies. This dosa is made up of four flours..wheat flour, rice flour, corn flour and yea of course my dear friend Ragi flour. Here are the ingredients and the method -

Ingredients

1 cup Whole wheat flour

1 cup rice flour

1 cup corn flour

1 cup ragi flour

2 tsp jeera or fennel seeds

1 cup finely chopped onion

1 cup chopped coriandar leaves

Salt to taste

Oil

Method:

Since this is thin dosa batter, you can’t spread it like you do for a normal dosa. The tava or the griddle needs to be really hot. Take a spoonful of the batter and spread it on the tava in a circle and then take another spoonful and spread it in the center. There will be gaps here and there but thats how the dosa looks like. After a minute..turn it around..dont let it cook for more than few seconds otherwise it will be very crispy. The speciality of these dosasa is that they are light weight..easy to make and very very soft. You can make these dosas for breakfast/lunch/dinner or even snack. You can serve this dosa with milaga podi or tomato chutney or ginger chutney or even pickle! I generally mix this batter and i keep it in the fridge and use it for atleast 3-4 days. Best part is that my son loves it and eats it.

Experimenting with Baby food

ds0612 — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 01:35:16 +0000

I am going to post some of my recipes which my son has liked so far. Like many moms, i also searched over the internet for indian vegetarian baby food recipes..many of them are complicated..some i tried my son didn’t like..As my ped says..just to avoid any allergies..one has to slowly introduce new foods and see if there is any reaction. So please all of you moms..exercise caution while experimenting with baby food.

Well..back to baby food..One thing which my son likes is Ragi or finger milet. Its very easy to digest and its also a rich source of calcium and protiens. Besides proteins..growing babies need lot of fat for their brain developement (Acc to my ped). So i give whole milk yogurt to him and he just simple devours it. I introduced yogurt when he was around 6 months. I know its pretty early but I just gave him a half spoon..ended up eating half baby cup of yogurt. He kinda liked it so i contined.another thing which you moms have to remember is..look for the clues which babies give..whether they like or dislike a certain type of food..they will immediately show it.

I hope to keep adding to the baby food list. For now, i am in the process of gathering the recipes..will post them soon.

Pesarattu with yellow lentils

ds0612 — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 01:05:19 +0000

I am posting after a long time because of one obvious reason…i am due in august So most of the time goes by in relaxing..so did not get much time to post few new thing which I tried recently. One of the recipe is of Yellow lentils or moong dal attu or pancake (you may call it). Here is the recipe -

Ingredients

1 cup soaked yellow lentils ( 1 hr is enough for soaking)

2 dried red chillies

Salt to taste

Method

Grind lentils with the chillies into a smooth paste. Add salt and mix well.
Heat a griddle and spread the batter evenly in circular movements so that it becomes a perfect round.
Sprinkle some vegetable oil on the corners and with a spatula, invert it so that both sides cook well.
Serve hot with either sambhar or some chutney.

Home made chana masala powder

ds0612 — Thu, 21 May 2009 02:33:57 +0000

My own version of chana masala powder…

Ingredients

cumin seeds – 100gms
black cardamom – 10 gms
small cardamom – 5 gms
Star anise – 1 gms
black peppercorns – 25 gms
dried red chillies – 5 gms
dried ginger/soonthi powder – large pinch
grated nutmeg – 1/4 no
cloves – 5 gms
cinnamon – 5gms
amchur powder – 5gms (optional)
Method

Roast each ingredient seperately till dark brown.
Roast all except nutmeg, ginger and amchur powder.
Pound to a fine powder.
Transfer it into a box with tight lid and it will retain its freshness.

Orange chutney

ds0612 — Fri, 01 May 2009 23:00:11 +0000

I am sure very few people know that there is chutney made out of oranges!!!! Atleast I never imagined that till my MIL made it in front of my eyes. She made it real quick and I was out of words when i first tasted it with hot steaming rice. In california you get oranges almost the entire year..one can make this chutney with either clementines or cara cara oranges. This chutney can be used as a spread too…i am sure kids would love it…so try it out!!

Ingredients

1 orange – peeled and deseeded.
2 dry red chillies
1/2 tsp minapapappu or urad dal
A pinch of inguva or hing
1/4 tsp jeera
2 tbs tamarind paste
3 tbs nuvvula podi or fried sesame seeds powder
1/2 tbs bellam or jaggery
Salt to taste
2 tbs oil

Method

Deseed and peel off the skin of oranges.
Take a deep pan and add oil, red chillies, urad dal, hing, jeera. Add the oranges. Add salt. Fry for 5 min till the juice comes out.
Add tamarind juice and jaggery. Cook for 10 more minutes and let it cool down.
After its completely cooled down, grind it into smooth paste and the chutney is ready!

Vankaya perugu patchadi or brinjal chutney in curd

ds0612 — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 18:28:39 +0000

This one is another from my MIL recipes…i ate this chutney for the first time..and it really tasted good. Try this out and let me know how it came out!

Ingredients

1/4 tsp Mustard seeds
1/4 tsp jeera
1/4 tsp minapapappu
2 dry red chillies
A pinch of turmeric
8 slit brinjals or vankaya
1/4 cup water
Salt to taste
2 green chilli
1/4 cup chopped onion
3 tbs Roasted mustard powder
2 cups curd
Chopped coriandar for garnishing
2 tbs oil

Method

Wash and slit brinjals vertically. Keep them in salt water for 20 min and then wash them again.
Take a deep pan and add oil, mustard seeds, jeera, minapapappu, dry red chilli, turmeric. Once mustard seeds start spluttering add chopped green chilli and onion. Fry till onion turn translucent.
Add brinjal pieces and add salt. Mix it well and let it cook for 15 minutes. Add water also.
Once the brinjals are properly cooked, take them out in a dish and let it cool.

Once the brinjals are completely cooled, add curd and coriandar and mix it well. Add 3 tbs roasted mustard powder and again mix it well. It goes very well with hot steaming rice.

Beans Curry

ds0612 — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 19:16:58 +0000

There are many ways of making french beans curry like the most common one – french beans with tomato. But this time i tried with besan or gram flour. It came out very well. Try this recipe and let me know how it came out!

Ingredients

1/4 tsp Mustard seeds
1/4 tsp Jeera
1 tsp Ginger garlic paste
Salt to taste
A pinch of turmeric
1/2 red chilli powder
1/2 tsp dhaniya powder
2 cups chopped beans
1/4th cup chopped onions
3 tbs senagapindi/besan
Chopped coriandar for garnishing
3 tbs oil

Method

Wash and chop beans. Take a deep pan and add oil. Add mustard seeds and jeera. Once mustard seeds start spluttering, add chopped onion, ginger garlic paste, dhaniya powder and turmeric.
Add beans and salt. Cover with a lid and let it cook for 15 minutes. Lots of water will come out. Now remove the lid and start frying so that water gets evaporated.
The last step is adding besan or sanagapindi. Mix it well so that beans are well coated with the powder. Fry for 10 more min.
Garnish with chopped coriandar and serve hot with either chapatis or steaming rice.

Vankaya menthi curry

ds0612 — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 19:49:50 +0000

This recipe is one of the many vankai recipes in my MIL recipe treasure. For this recipe, there is a special powder which has be grinded seperately. Here is the recipe

Ingredients

Menthi powder to be grinded
1/2 tsp methi seeds
1/4 cup dhaniya
1/4 cup kandi pappu
1/4 cup minapapappu
1/4 cup sanagapappu
8 red chillies
1/4 tsp inguva
Salt to taste

3 tbs oil
6 methi seeds
1/4 tsp mustard seeds
1 cup chopped onion
2 chopped tomatoes
20 vankai – slit vertically on both sides- should make a plus sign. soak for 30 min in salt water and wash them.
Method

Take a deep pan and add oil. Add methi seeds. Once they turn light brown add mustard seeds and let them splutter. Add turmeric and add vankai and mix well so that pieces are well coated with oil. Add salt as per your taste. Cover with lid.

After the brinjals are half cooked, add tomatoes and again mix it well.

Add 6 spoons of the powder and mix well. Cook for 15 more minutes.

Garnish it with coriandar and serve it hot with rice.

Anapkaya/Bottlegourd curry

ds0612 — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 22:08:12 +0000

This recipe is from my MIL treasure of secret recipes. I never thought that adding curd in the curry would increase the taste manifold! I ate this curry two or three times and I was ready to share it with everyone. I don’t know think anyone has heard of orange chutney..at least not me. I heard of orange marmalade..orange jam but chutney!!! That would be my next recipe and guess what this recipe is also from my MIL treasure!! So here goes the recipe…

Ingredients

2 cups anapkaya pieces
1 cup chopped onion
2 tbs curd
1 tbs tamarind paste
salt to taste
1/2 tsp Red chilli powder
1/2 tsp Dhaniya powder
Curry leaves

For tempering
1/4 tsp jeera
1/4 tsp mustard seeds
2Methi seeds
1 clove
1 cinnamon
1 illiachi

For garnishing
Finely chopped coriandar

Method

Take a deep pan, add 1 tbs oil, add mustard seeds, jeera, methi seeds, clove, cinnamon stick, one green illiachi.
After mustard seeds starts spluttering, add chopped onion and curry leaves. Fry till onion turn translucent.
Add the chopped pieces and add salt, red chilli powder and dhaniya powder. Add the curd and mix it well.
When the pieces are cooked properly, add the tamarind paste and mix it well. Cook for 15 min more and keep stirring in between. Garnish with chopped coriandar. Serve hot with either phulkas or rice.

Bittergourd fry curry

ds0612 — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 23:48:02 +0000

There are quite a few people who don’t like bittergourd even a bit!! At one point of time, i was one of them..but now i have turned into a big fan of Bittergourd. Why? because of simple reasons..its good for me..it is a rich source of iron. And if cooked properly, it tastes really awesome. There are quite a number of Bittergourd fry curries but one of my favourite version is with gram flour. The curry comes out a bit dry but it tastes yummy with hot rice. This curry takes a lot of time because of the soaking time. But its worth the effort and the wait!! Try it out this recipe.

Ingredients

Bittergourd peeled and slit in the center
1 cup chopped onion
A bunch of curry leaves
Salt to taste
A pinch of turmeric
1/2 tsp Jeera
1/2 tsp Mustard seeds
1 tbs Gram flour
Oil

Method

First wash the bittergourd, peel the skin off and make a slit in the center. Sprinkle salt and turmeric and keep aside for 1 hr.
After 1 hr, squeeze the juice out of the pieces and keep them aside.
Microwave on high for two minutes so that the pieces dry off a bit.
Take a deep pan and add 1 tbs oil. Add mustard seeds and jeera. After the mustard seeds start spluttering, add chopped onions,curry leaves and fry till onions turn translucent.
Add the bittergourd pieces and fry for a while. Add salt and red chilli powder.Cook for 10 minutes.
Sprinkle gram flour and mix it well. Cook for 5 more min.

Thats it! curry is done…try it out with hot steaming rice and it will surely taste delicious.