Monday, September 30, 2013

Chayote Kootu | Chow-Chow Kootu Recipe


I always love to make kootu. It can be made in just 10 mins or so. Amma gave a simplest recipe for making kootu. Put all the ingredients in a pressure cooker and finally temper it… the kootu is already in mins. I love to have it with plain rice, chapathi and dosai. This kootu will make u addictive when it is had with any kuzhambu along with pappad and steamed rice topped with ghee. I served it with karamani kuzhambu (Recipe Coming Soon) and steamed rice. Hummm!!! Delicious..

Check out other recipe for kootu.


Preparation time: less than 5 mins
Cooking time: 10 mins

Friday, September 27, 2013

Aatukaal Paya | Mutton Paya | South-Indian Style Paya


Are you a pure vegetarian? Then am sorry, this post is not for you. I must say this disclaimer for the vegetarian readers because some of the pics may look yuck. But for the non-veg eaters!!! Here I come… this must be a visual treat for you. 
  

Paya is something which is made with smoked lamb/goat leg. I got these lamb feet from a Mexican shop. They call the lamb feet as paya as like we call in India. The lamb feet have lots of hairs in it and it is very difficult to clean. Hence it is burnt out to get rid of it. In India, I used to get the smoked leg which the butcher used to make in the shop. He has a stove and he directly flames the hairy parts in the leg. Here in US, they give it as such and I need to do the smoking part. If u gets the smoked leg, wash directly and start cooking.


Traditionally the lamb feet are cooked very slowly using wood or charcoal. I still remember my neighbor doing this the day before till the whole night. It’s been cooked in slow flame till the morning. This gives a smoky flavor to the lamb feet and it tastes delicious when it is served with the curry.
Lamb feet are very nutritious and it can be given to the convalescents for recovering from illness. It has lots of protein and calcium value. Lamb feet has good source for Vitamin B12 also. I have heard that it is also served for people with fractures to recover from it.



Serve this delicious-spiced Aatukaal Paya with Idli, Idiyappam, Dosa, Parotta, aapam. 

Preparation time: 30 mins(for smoking it)
Cooking time: 1/2- 1 hour

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Gulab Jamun Recipe | Indian Sweets Recipe


I rarely make Indian sweets at home. The first sweet I tried was Rasmalai which was a grand success and it flew away in just ten mins. I took me around five months for me to make one more Indian sweet at home. It was TH’s Birthday and I wanted to make some cake at home. But unfortunately I had a sprain and I could not able do anything special on his Birthday. This makes me worry and I tried my best to make these Jamuns which is TH’s favorite sweet in the world. I made it simply using MTR mix and I wanted to share the happy occasion on my wall post. 


Preparation time: 10 mins
Cooking time: 10-15mins

Monday, September 23, 2013

Cabbage Chana Dal Fry | Muttakos Kadala Paruppu Varuval Recipe


Cabbage Channa dal fry is something which I learnt from my MIL. Amma usually makes cabbage fry with the onion-tomato masala and the twist with the channa dal gives crunchiness to the cabbage fry. You need to careful while cooking with the dal. If it doesn’t cooks properly it will spoil the entire taste of the dish. Take care to cook the dal properly. I used my microwave oven to make it easy for cooking. Use ur kadai with a cup of water to cook the dal, if u don’t have microwave oven at home. I served it with More kuzhambu/Moor Kuzhambu


Preparation time: less than 5mins
Cooking time: 10-15 mins

Friday, September 20, 2013

Garlic Chicken Recipe | Indo-Chinese Recipe


Chicken and Fish comes to my mind whenever I think for the menu on every Sundays. And usually it will be Fish fry or gravy, chicken gravy or fry when comes to the recipe. These routine recipes got to a boredom stage and the idea :idea: of making Garlic chicken struck me when we had an outing and the friend of us prepared this garlic chicken. He made the chicken to perfection and it was really sooper soft and awesome. =P~ And yeah, I mentioned here “HE” isn’t it???… That’s not a typo. The rule for the outing is all the guys should prepare their favorite dish… and he was so kind enough to make two dishes for us…*smile* TH prepared Egg Fried Rice by himself and obviously I guided him for chopping the veggies and for the preparation things. Don’t ask the story about the mess up of kitchen after that … wofff!!! :((Egg fried rice along with the Garlic chicken was the highlight that day… Good old days!!!:( hmmmm



Here comes the recipe for the delicious Garlic Chicken…  Check out other Indo-Chinese recipes.

Preparation time: 5 minutes
Cooking time: 10-15 minutes

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Cheesy Garlic Bread Recipe - Quick & Simple Garlic Bread Recipe


Garlic bread is something which am greatly impressed with. We used to buy the Instant garlic bread from Walmart for our snacking things. On a good day I came to know abt the recipe for this delicious bread and from then on the first snack which comes to my mind is Garlic Bread. I sometimes make this for the breakfast too.


If u have left out bread at home and ur not in a mood to make sandwiches or toast, try this out and am sure you will love it. It can also be served as an appetizer for the parties at home and it is really easy to prepare.



Check out the recipe for chilli cheese toast

Preparation time: 5-6 mins
Cooking time: 3-4 mins

Friday, September 13, 2013

Chocolate Muffins Recipe | 100th Blog Post


I wanted to share something new which I haven’t tried it before. You must be asking me, why, wats spl??? Yes!!! This post is something special to me. This is my 100th post and am so excited!!! I must thank all the readers and friends for the constant encouragement. Your feedback means a lot to me. Keep posting it...



On this happy occasion I thought of sharing a sweet recipe with you all.  But something insisted me to post a recipe which I haven’t tried before. Yeah, its muffin… this is my first muffin recipe, which is a basic one. As a chocolate lover, I tried a simple and easy chocolate muffin. You can innovate it by ur choice of adding more and more ingredients. 


Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 20-30 minutes

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Vada Curry | Side Dish for Idli and Dosa


I always used to miss my lovely Chennai =(( .The flavorful degree coffee ~O) – pattu sarees – malligai poo – panju mittai – milagai bajji – sundal – my all time favorite thalapakatti biryani and the list goes on and on, it never ends ;;). Whenever I think of the busy morning schedules in my home, I remember the suda suda Vada curry =P~ which appa used to buy from the nearby hotel. It will be very useful for amma to cop up with breakfast in that hurry burry situations. I always have a love towards that vada curry.  It is always made with masala vadai dunked in spice-full gravy. I must say this to be the perfect combination for idli and dosa when you are in full swing to enjoy ur breakfast. Trust me!!! *smile*


Vadai is usually done by deep frying the batter in hot oil. But here, just to reduce the amount of oil usuage I have followed the steaming process which never compromised with the taste as the deep fired vadai does. 

Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 20 - 30 minutes

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Energizer | Instant Energy Juice


Energizer…. Yes!!! The name says it. It has all the basic ingredients to cut down the heat and to get the instant energy after a tiresome work. I mostly used to make juice with fruits at home to beat the heat. When I asked amma for a different juice, she insisted me to add few veggies to make a fresh veggie juice and there I came up with the recipe. You must to be wondering why I named the juice like this. The answer is, try the recipe and you will know why.



Cumin powder added to the recipe helps in digestion and the black salt helps to cut down the heat in the body. If u doesn't have black salt, use normal white salt. Pepper powder gives the spiciness to the juice. This juice is a blend of all sweet-spice-flavorful ingredients..

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Andhra Pesarattu | Green Gram Dosai Recipe


I was waiting for a long time to make pesarattu and blog it. TH doesn’t like it and he never gave me an option of making it. And now it is my turn. No time to make a batter for idli or dosa, here comes the pesarattu… It will definitely help you, trust me. It doesn’t require fermentation time. You can grind the green gram and make the dosa as such. You can even store the batter for days. 




 I haven’t tasted this delicious recipe, since I went to Hyderabad. I must thank the Telegu fren of mine for introducing me to this recipe. We were roaming in the streets of Hyderabad searching for a perfect breakfast after a tiresome journey.  We wanted to taste something different and authentic food of Hyderabad and she called me for a road-side shop making hot and spicy pesarattu. That was the time I got mesmerized. Yes!!! I must use the word mesmerize.  It was really awesome. 


We went to the shop, where we need to stand and eat at the corner of the road. The best part is, I can able to see the way he is making the pesarattu. It was very neat and clean. The way he is trained to make a pesarattu was unbelievable. He makes around 5-7 pesarattu in a minute or so. It was served with a filling of upma inside and hot ginger chutney to the sides. From that day I would never ever miss the chance of having pesarattu whenever I visit Hyderabad.


Check out the Tomato Thokku Recipe which I served with Pesarattu.

Preparation time: 4-5 hours 
Cooking time: 2-3 minutes