Potato and peas masala

Peas and potato masala is one of my family's favorite recipe. It goes well with almost any dish. Be it calorie conscious chapathis or flavor rich pulav. Even with plain sambhar or curd rice this dish tastes divine! 

Now being season for fresh green peas it can easily make your day..

Do try out!

Ingredients:

Potato or baby potato - 250gms 

Onion - 1 big chopped

Tomatoes - 1 big chopped

Green chilli - 2 or 3 slit 

Chilli powder - 1tsp

Turmeric - 1tsp

Coriander powder - 1tsp

Salt to taste

Oil - 1tbsp

Mustard -1tsp

Jeera- 1tsp

Curry leaves few

Coriander leaves to garnish

How to proceed:

Boil potatoes and peel them. We can add baby potatoes as whole and big ones can be mashed up lightly to make small pieces.

In a wide pan or kadai add cooking oil and temper mustard and jeera and add few curry leaves

Saute onion and green chillies until glassy onion is glassy

 Add tomato and green peas and cook until tomatoes get soft

Now add all powders, viz chilli powder, turmeric powder, coriander powder and salt

when raw smell of chilli powder changes add boiled and peeled potatoes

Mix well and let it cook for few min

Garnish with coriander leaves

Notes:

A little amchur or chat powder can be added for extra zing

When fresh peas are not available soaked up dry peas can be used.

Happy cooking and eating!

Mutaikose thovaram

Muttaikose Thovaram - Mildly spiced Cabbage with coconut , a great accompaniment with rice.

As a child, I really hated cabbage. I did not like the bland taste of Cabbage.. But today I often cook cabbage. This recipe was adapted from my MIL, the usual way of cooking in my native, Nagercoil. It did surprise my city friends too, just like how it surprised me.. Its a try worthy recipe.

This goes well with Sambhar rice or any south Indian gravy with rice.

Ingredients:

Cabbage - 2 cups, cut into thin strips
Fresh Coconut - 3 or 4 tbs
Jeera - 1 tsp
Green Chillies - 2 nos
Moong Dhal - 1 Tbsp
Mustard - 1 tsp

Curry leaves - 1 sprig

Salt to taste

Oil - to saute

Method:

To Grind:

In a small Mixer, grind together coconut, green chillies and Jeera. Do not add water while grinding and grind only until a coarse mixture is formed

To Proceed:

• Pressure cook the cabbage with 1/4 cups water for one whistle. (Instead, we can cook it on stove top also, but it will be more time consuming)
• In a kadai, saute moong dhal and mustard in oil until they splutter and add curry leaves, once it becomes crisp
• Now add the cooked cabbage from the cooker and cook until the water gets reduced. 
• Add the ground coconut mixture and fry a little until the raw smell goes.
• Serve hot.

Note:

Even after the food gets cold, its tasty, so its a perfect lunch box recipe.

You can Substitute cabbage with any vegetable like carrot, beans, broad beans etc..

Enjoy and do let me know how it worked for you!!!

Chocolate Pancake

Layered Chocolate Pancakes - Absolute Delight!

Pancakes are the western version of our beloved Indian dosa. My first experience having a pancake was when we visited the Darjeeling. The menu card sported "butter pancake" and I gladly ordered it as I thought it was some sort of cake made with butter, to my surprise, it was just a maida dosa, which my mom often made, topped with small cubes of butter!
Pancakes are much easier to make than dosa, no fermenting, so can be made anytime. It can be had for breakfast or even a mid evening snack. It has a very good taste too. I don't like to add eggs in my pancakes, which makes them even better, even for my vegetarian friends to relish them.
I have tried making a variety of pancakes including berry pancakes, banana pancakes, plain pancakes and chocolate pancakes. Should say that chocolate pancakes were the best.
These pancakes can also be made without the layers and white chocolate filling. Its just an additional effect to enhance the taste of the pancakes. Its best to stack up two or three pancakes and relish it!
So, here's how I made them:

Ingredients:

For the Pancakes:

1 cup flour [I used half cup whole wheat flour (atta) and half cup all purpose flour (maida)] 

Half cup Chocolate powder (you can use dark/light cocoa powder, or even chocolate mix powders like milo, complan, nesquick)

1 tablespoon Oil (any neutral oil will do)

1 tablespoon sugar (can be reduced or even omitted according to taste)

1 teaspoon vanilla essence (it gives a delightful flavor)

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 cup milk (can be replaced by soymilk or nut milk also, for vegans) 
1 pinch salt

For the White chocolate filling:

Any white chocolate slab (like milkybar or Cadburys Dream - It can be omitted though I recommend adding some for a rich taste)

Half cup grated coconut (can also use dried coconut powder) 
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon milk or coconut milk or cream (I used plain milk)

Method:

For the Pancake:

• Mix the flour, chocolate powder or cocoa, sugar, baking powder and salt in a bowl.
• Mix the oil, water and vannila essence in a small bowl and mix thoroughly
• Add the liquid mix to the dry mix. Mix well using a spoon. Add milk if required.
• Set aside

For the white chocolate frosting filling:

• In a mixer, blend coconut flakes till they form a buttery texture. Scrape down the sides as necessary.
• Once it gets a creamy form, add vannila essence, any white chocolate slab(a little piece of milkybar will do) and sugar and blend again.
• Add a little milk or cream to make it semi-liquid or spread like consistence

How to proceed:

• In a hot pan, pour a spoonful of pancake mix, making it in a small round shape
• Add butter or cooking oil as desired and flip the pancake once it gets cooked
• Keep the stove in low flame as chocolate gets burned quickly in high flame
• In a plate, place the pancake and layer it with the white chocolate frosting mix
• Make another pancake, roughly the same size of the first one and stack it over the frosting white chocolate mix
• Apply another layer of white chocolate and top it with another pancake

Note:

For vegans, you can avoid milk and add coconut milk or any nuts milk instead. 

The layered Chocolate Pancakes are ready!!!

Enjoy and do let me know how it worked for you!!!

Orange Marmalade

A small bowl of fresh marmalade with fresh orange!!!

This recipe makes 3 jars like these

Last week we got a bag of oranges and I was wondering how to best use them without wasting! Well, got an idea to try out Jam or Marmalade from my dear hubby.. so read recipes online and offline but was not sure if I could really make it. The recipes simply seemed so complicated! but luckily got a simpler recipe which needed no pectin or preservatives and no difficult heart-breaking cooking terms.. so gave a try and was happily surprised to get the marmalade intact!

A must try for all who doubt your cooking skills :) and definitely you will love the freshness in taste compared to the store bought Jams and Spreads. Also, its cheaper too.. about 6 oranges gives you around 3 bottles of Jam.

Ingredients:

Oranges (Any type of orange, bitter ones also can give u good taste) - 6 nos
Sugar                                                                                                    - 1.2 kg (roughly 6 cups)
Lemon                                                                                                  - 1 nos

The orange skin floats atop on the marmalade!

Water (as required)

Method:

• First wash the oranges well in clean water to remove any dust particles
• Drop the oranges in a big pan and add water to cover them. Add a lemon along with the orange and set to heat. 
• Let the oranges simmer for about 2 hours. Do not boil them or cook them. Slow cooking gives the best results
• After the oranges gets bloated up after 2 hours, remove them from the pan and cut into halves and scoop out the pulp along with the seeds (if any) and add it back to the pan and set to boil
• Now wash the orange peels/ skin and remove the white layer inside the skin using a spoon and chop the orange skin into small pieces
• The orange mixture would have boiled by now, remove from fire and let it cool down a bit.
• Place a muslin cloth in a strainer and strain out the juice from the orange pulp mixture. 
• Around 5 cups of concentrated juice will be obtained from the mixture, (if it seems less, add extra orange juice or water to it to make 5 cups) 
• Now put the chopped orange skin, extracted juice and the sugar back to the pan and stir until the sugar gets dissolved
• Bring to boil with occasional stirring to prevent scorching. Make sure the stove is low to prevent over flowing
• After about 20 min, you will find the mixture turning into a darker shade. Boil until you get one string consistency
• To test, place a drop in a cold saucer and place in freezer for 2 min to see if gets set. (If it gets set, you can remove from fire, if not continue boiling till you get to that stage.)
• Let it cool for a minute, stir gently and remove any froth if present
• Pour into glass bottles or jars or cans and leave about half inch head space
• Seal it as you like and let it set out overnight. 
• Refrigerate once you break the seal and start using them.

Note:

This recipe makes about 3 Jars of Marmalade.
The white layer under the orange peel gives the bitter taste, for those who like the bitter sweet taste, do not remove the white part. 


Do send in your feedback and let me know how things worked!

Nei Appam

Nei Appam

Nei Appam - Aromatic sweet delicacy while cooking. The bowl has the finished Nei Appams.

Appam has always been an all time family favorite. As kids, we used to love these soft, round sweet balls to relish as an evening snack.  After wedding, I was more than glad to discover that my hubby was also fond of them. Bonus, my MIL was an expert in making these Nei appams! (though my mom made them, I never attempted to try them out before marriage)

Whoa! so the first time I tried it out was in my hubby's ancestral house in my native, Parakkai. Thanks to my MIL for sharing this recipe, which has never failed me so far. Now my one year old loves to eat them too :)

Ingredients:

Raw rice            - 1 cup

Jaggery             - 1 cup

Yelakai             - 3 or 4 pods

Ripe Banana         - 1

Sukku               - a pinch

Method:

• Soak raw rice in water for an hour
• In a mixer, add soaked rice, Jaggery, Yelakai, Sukku and ripe banana and grind to a smooth batter.(consistency would be that of dosa batter)
• Let the batter stand for an hour or so
• Add ghee in Paniyara kulzhi and once its hot, add the batter in the ghee (do not add batter to fill the kulzhi as the Appams will raise when it gets cooked)
• Serve hot

Note:

• If you dont have paniyara kulzhi, you can make small droppings in hot oil, heated in a kadai. The taste and shape will differ slightly, but it still will taste great
• If the batter gets watery, add a little rice flour to get the consistency. Too much watery batter will absorb more ghee and spoil the taste
• Taste the batter before you cook to check out the sweetness
• The Nei Appam, if stored in an air tight container will stay fresh for about a week. It can be stored at room temperature itself.