Friday 25 May, 2007

From My Kitchen


Brinjal,the one vegetable which husband hates the most but i love the most,Its been a year since i had this curry,haan, no,not because i think pati is parmeshwar and that i need to eat what he eats,Nah,no ways,just that i am too lazy to make two curries and i just discarded brinjals from my kitchen:(((( but no,Not anymore, i had this huuuuuuuuuuuuuuge craving for a nice brinjal curry whe i saw fresh bhaigan at Madiwala market and i brought them home and in the name of RCI i made Gutti vankaya Koora,my mom's version,the one which i loved always, Infact i guess there is a song also in a telugu movie which i donot remember, and this time i just made sure to make only this curry and hubby had no choice but to have this,And guess what, he ate it with out a word and after finishing the dinner he cleared the table,shifted the remaining curry in to a box and put it in the fridge,why???? because he wanted to have it next day also,yayayaaaaaaaaaaaa,welcome back brinjals:)))


Now for the recipe.I took 5 medium sized brinjals and these are the ingredients which go into the filling. Two medium sized onions and 2 green chillies and ginger garlic paste. Saute the onions in a pan along with the G&G paste,chillies for about 3 minutes,till the onions are looking almost golden yellow,take them out into a plate and let it cool.

Dry coconut powder, and groundnut powder {fry the groundnuts without oil and remove the rusk on it} and garam masala powder,add these three to the onions which we fried before and add corriander and salt and red chilli powder to it,now the filling is ready to put in the brinjals:)
Make cross cuts to the brinjal at the top and please do not remove the tail of the brinjal!!!!! and then fill the masala into it.

take a wide pan and add oil to it,drop the stuffed brinjals into it taking care ,the filling should not fall into the oil and the remaining masala can be just added to the pan,adjust the water content so that the brinjals can cook properly and cover it with a lid for about 10min.
and while you mix it at intervals make sure to do so carefully without splitting the brinjals .
When the oil starts showing from the sides its time to say that curry is ready:D shift it carefully to a serving dish and garnish with corriander and serve it with hot rice or chapathis.


Pacchi pulusu,the one kind of dish which i love on a hot summer evening,this is one more speciality of the villages of andhrapradesh,made in different ways,i remember the third day of my wedding, one of the aunt of my husband was requested specially by everyone to make her trade mark pacchipulusu,now she took a big vessel,took a few red chillies,added onions to it,few strands of corriander,jeera and starting crushing it all with hand,for a long time and then added it to the tamarind juice,added salt and a piece of jaggery and then did the tadka with a little oil,jeera, rayi,chilli flakes, curry leaves and dont forget to add a little haldi at the end to the tadka and add it to the tamarind juice, ready,pacchipulusu,hot rice and papad,and have a simple dinner:)
My final entry for RCI-Andhra Hosted by Latha of Masalamagic

Sunday 20 May, 2007

Hubby In the Kitchen

The other day i was down with severe headache and hubby decided to help m!!!!!! in his own style,i dont like one more person in my kitchen,it must be either him or me but then that day i couldn help it and took him in as my Assistant and we made this.
When ever i went to my village situated near to the banks of Krishna District as a child i was mesmerized by the sheer beauty of it, My peddamma {my mom's elder sister} took care of us for two months in summer, and those were such blissfull days,No tensions or egos,as kids all we did was to play at the banks of river krishna,jumping into the water from the trees,swimming, going to the fields and milking the cows,with time we stopped going there,Maybe because the innocence is lost and with time the egos became larger than life and comfort factors kick in,and so does TIME.A typical dish which peddamma always prepared was mulagakaya koora palu posi {drumstick curry with milk added to it} i hated it then, Like in all typical village households they grew vegetables in the garden or in the fields and every house had a drumstick tree and lot more others.
Today when ever i go to the food world or subhiksha in Bangalore i find pale thin and odd looking drum sticks and i get reminded of the food which once i hated, and now i cook it regularly.

Recipe for paalu posina mulaga kaya koora {Drum stick curry with milk}

4 Drum sticks, 2 big onions, 4 green chillies, Half a spoon of jeera, two pods of garlic,a cup of milk,salk to taste and red chilli powder.



My dear Hubby cutting the vegetables

Ready now:)


Take oil in a frying pan and add some cumin seeds and mirchi,while the cumin starts fluttering add the onions and drum sticks, add haldi powder,salt and fry it for a minute. Tehn turn the heat to medium and cover it with a lid and let the onions be cooked for atleast 10min, do keep checking once in a while. The rawness in the onions will vanish as the water generated is evaporated while cooking.the taste in this curry depends upon two ingredients, if you have noticed,i have not added ginger garlic paste as common for curries, The reason is that we add powdered jeera and garlic pods.

Garlic and Jeera ready to be powdered


Once the onions &Drum sticks are cooked add the powder to it.(hubby doing it}


And then after about two minutes of adding the jeera powder add the red chilli powder,for this curry adding mirchi means the curry is done,yes,you can see the oil seeping in,You can end the story here,errr,i mean you can stop the cooking here and happily eat thsi curry with hot rice,or you may ask "Where is the milk part honey" Hahahaha,thats the twist in the story, instead of stopping here you can now add a cup of milk.

Adding milk at this time will only thicken the gravy further, i just add three big spoons of milk and keep it on heat for two more min and mix it well,When the gravy thickens remove from heat, shift it to a serving bowl,garnish with coriander and server with hot rice:)
I am sorry mom that all through my college life and untill i got married i hated this curry and was adament that i wont taste it also,but now this is one of the regulars in my kitchen and it helps increase my Iron content in the body:)

Ready,Come join me for dinner;p



And then comes the other dish which you notice in the picture at the begining of the post,well its my comfort food again,majjiga charu as it is called in my family,its a simple addition of tadka with onions and green chillies to the curds, sometimes when i just hate going into the kitchen i make this and hot rice with this and papad by the side makes a complete meal in itself:) enjoy the slide show. Curds mixed to make a batter consistency or make it like a thick butter milk {choice is yours,i like it in thick curds format,i just mix it and add onions,jeera and corriander, make a tadka of green chillies,cumin seeds,jeera and very little methi seeds,when these start spluttering add a pinch of hald and curry leaves to the tadka,add it to the curds,mix salt:) done. Another version of this is you can add onions,and green chilli paste,but i like my green chillies to be fried in the tadka,so this version. enjoy the meal:)

These two would be my entry to RCI Hosted by Latha of Masala magic and to the spring fling hosted by Trupthi of theSpice who loved me.





Thursday 10 May, 2007

Aloo kurma

Potatoes have been my all time favorites and the aloo kurma is the one dish which i miss the most from my mom's kitchen.A rich gravy made of dray coconut powder,garam masala ,poppy seeds or khus khus and dahi this is a common dish at most of the family functions or gatherings,at my home whenever a guest comes who is a strict vegetarian mom makes puri and alookurma and its spelled as aloo khorma here in Hyderabad in many households who speak urdu or hindi. I donot know if it qualifies for RCI hosted by lovely latha of masalamagic but i will certainly send it too apart from my other recipes which i am already getting ready with,this rich gravy has been a part of food flavours of moghulai and nizam era, and you can find a good description of khorma from here which says......

Ingredients

Potatoes,i took 5 small ones{boiled,peeled,cut into peices,3 big onions, 2 tomatoes, elaichi,lavang and shahjeera { to add spice to the curry}

Green chillies,salt, ginger garlic paste,red chilli powder, very little haldi or turmeric, fresh coriander, three table spoons of garam masala, one half of greated dry coconut or khopra and 3 spoons of khuskhus powder {all the ingredients or masalas can be changed acc to the tastes,i like the khorma very rich and spicy.

Heat oil in a wide pan and add shahjeera,elaichi and lavang to the oil . and then add the green chillies,the onions,add ginger garlic paste,salt and turmeric and fry the onions for about two min or till they turn to golden color.











Add the boiled potatoes into the skillet and let both be mixed properly and then add the garam masala, khopra powder,khus khus powder, and add a glass of water checking the consistency,remember the potaotes are already boiled,we need the water only to get a rich gravy,keep that to mind for the proportions.

And now add two tomotoes and chilli powder to the gravy,cover the lid and let the gravy be cooked at a low heat atleast for 10min { i prefer 15min} remember this is a slow cooking process} do keep checking one or two times and mix it well.

When the dish is almost done add two spoons of curds or fresh cream {curds is prefered} and let it simmer for a while, mix well and garnish with corriander at the end.
I love Aloo khorma with puris or hot rice and pepper rasam along with this dish is my all time favourite.

Wednesday 2 May, 2007

pesaravadalu

Hubby comes home at 4pm,the snack time and its become a challenge for me to stop him from opening the fridge for chocolates or wafers ,all the while i am slogging in the kitchen with some experiment,Yesterday it was raining here and i made these pesaravadalu after talking to mom on phone.

How to make it......
1 small glass split moongdaal soaked in water for about 5hrs with a tablespoon of rice.
1 onion cut into small pieces

Pudina and cilantro

salt to taste

ginger and green chillies

Grind the moongdaal into coarse batter along with a piece of ginger and 3 to 4 green chillies, when you put it into mixer,use the ripper button for a sec and take out a part of coarse daal and grind the rest of the daal smoothly, mix both later and result you have a coarse daal,remember not to add water while grinding the daal,add cut onions and pudina and cilantro along with a tea spoon of garammasala and salt. Make small size vadas on your hand and leave them into a hot pan of oil, fry them till brown and result is what you see here:)




And hubby finished them in a few min when presented with onions and lemon:) they taste good when hot,but if you keep them for a longer time they become soggy,happy munching all of you:)

welcome

I have never been into a kitchen to cook till last year and my wedding changed it all,when i got married i hardly know how to make rice in a cooker but now i know i can make a good meal for people who visit us,all this was a challenge,it still is,I am known for taking up challenges,and for me cooking has been one too,for someone who never knew the diff between urad dal and chana dal i have come a long way. Most of my learning was done on phone,yes,whenever i had to cook i just promptly called up mom and took instructions and made it the way i could,whatever the recipe,it did endup fairly ok and thankgod for a husband who is a fussy eater but still wouldn make a face and eat quietly just because he cannot even cook that rice i was talking about,oh i have been lucky:)
And one more guide for my cooking skills were the food blogs,what a great help they had been, i am starting this blog to chronicalize my first time experiments of various recipies and how they turned out to be, when i read about it all many many years later i am sure it will bring out a smile on my face:) so welcome to maintivanta.

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