Green Grape Juice

The grape juices that I have tried till now were dark purple in color. So just wanted to try my hand at making juice out of green grapes. Though the real reason was I was feeling a bit lazy to pick out grapes and eat them, so juice sound more appealing at that time  ;).Lucky for me it turned out well.

Ingredients

Green grapes - 2 cups

Sugar - 4 tsp

Water - 1/2 cup

Process

1. Wash the grapes well.
2. Put them in a blender, add water, sugar and blend. The sugar qunatity will depend upon sweetness or sourness of the grapes. Be careful with water, adding too much will loose the grape taste.
   
3. Filter the pulp out if your not the pulp person :)

ChanagaPappu vesina Dondakaya Vepudu

Its a tindora (dondakaya) with chana daal. Yet another recipes that I have taken from my mother's cooking. What I like in this recipe is the chana daal, so in my version I use more chana daal when compared to my mother's. Though I don't use measurements, I am trying my best to provide them as best as I can. So do feel free to make changes according to your taste and mood :)

Ingredients

Tindora/ Dondakaya - 4 cups

Chana daal - 1 1/2 cup

Salt

Red chilly powder

Turmeric powder

Karvepaku or curry leaves - 4 to 5

Process

1. Prepping tindora - cut the ends of each tindora and then length wise into 4 pieces.

2. Prepping chana daal - wash them and then boil them till become soft enough to bite through.
3. Heat a pan and put some oil in it. When oil is hot enough add the curry leaves, fry for sometime and then add the cut tindora. Fry them till they become soft.

4. When tindora are cooked or soft enough, add salt, red chilly powder and turmeric powder according to your taste. Mix well and fry for sometime.
5. Now add the chana daal and mix well so that they are coated with spices. Fry well. Since the chana daal have been pre-cooked, you don't have to worry about it being undercooked. Just make sure the tindora are cooked well.

Hope you enjoy :)

Vegetable Kurma

A easy recipe if you have the frozen mixed vegetable pack :), otherwise you need to spend a lot of time prepping the vegetables. But overall a good and versatile dish that goes well with rice dishes like veg. pulav, pudina rice as well as plain rice and roti.

Ingredients

All vegetables 1/2 cup each
ChoppedCarrots
Green Peas (shelled)
Cauliflower florets
Chopped potatoes
Chopped green beans
Chopped onions - 1 big
Chopped Tomato - 1 big
Ginger garlic paste - 1 tsp
Salt
Turmeric powder
Red chilly powder
Coconut milk - 1 cup
Garam masala
Yoghurt or curd - 1/4 cup
Tej pata or Bay leaf
Cinamon stick
Cloves - 3-4
Crushed cardamom - 3-4
Chopped coriander leaves

Process

1. Add little oil in a deep dish and heat
2. Add tej pata, cinamom stick, cloves and cardamom and fry. Then add onions and fry.
3. When the onions become translucent, add the ginger garlic paste and fry till their raw smell is gone.
4. Then add the chopped tomatos and fry till they become slightly soft
5. Add the vegetables and fry for approx. 5 mins.
6. Now add the spices - salt, red chilly powder, turmeric powder and garam masala. Fry for another 1-2 mins. Now add the coconut milk and cook for sometime.Also add the yoghurt.
7. Add water just enough to cover the vegetables and cook till the vegetables are cooked. I generally use the cooker. So I cook for 3 whistles.
8. Once done garnish with the chopped coriander. All done :)

Pudina Rice

Another special from my mother. My mother used to make this for special occasions with vegetable kurma. But I make this quite frequently :). So here goes the process..

Ingredients

Basmati Rice - 2 cups
Water - 4 cups

Fresh pudina or mint leaves - 1 cup

Salt

Garam masala
Ginger garlic paste - 1 tsp

Thinly sliced onions - 1 big

Tej Pata or Bay leaf

Cloves - 3-4

Cinamon stick

Crushed cardmom - 3-4
Fried cashew nuts

Process

1. Wash the rice and soak in water for 15- 20 mins in water.
2. Take deep frying pan, and heat little oil. Add tej pata, cinamon stick, cloves and crushed cardamom. Fry for some time and add onions.
3. When the onions start to beome a bit translucent, add the ginger garlic paste and fry till the raw smell of the ginger garlic paste is gone.
4. Now its time to add pudina. I generally finely chop the mint leaves. fry for sometime.
5. Drain the water from the rice and add to pan. Stir in between but make sure not to break the rice.

6. After some time, add 4 cups of water and cook. I use the electric cooker at this point. You can use the stove top rice cooker, but maker sure not to add too much water or the rice will become mushy. if not using a cooker, use a lid to cover the pan, stirring in between.

7. Once the rice is cooked properly, add the fried cashew nuts and mix well.

The ususal accomapniments I use for this are raita or vegetable kurma. Hope you enjoy :)

Pachi Pulusu

A recipe taken from my mother and a favourite of mine. Its an easy recipe not taking more than 10 mins and requires no cooking except for the tadka or popu. It goes well with rice. Give it a try when you are in a time crunch or too lazy cook something elaborate.

Ingredients

Tamrind juice or pulp or concentrate

Water

Finely chopped onions

Salt

Sugar - 1 to 2 tsp

Red chilly powder

Cumin seeds or jeera

Coriander seeds

Dry red chillies 2-3

Black mustard seeds

Karvepaku or curry leaves

Chopped coriander leaves

Process

1. Take 3-4 cups of water and mix the tamarin pulp init. the amount of pulp depends on the sourness you want.

2. Add the chopped onions, salt, red chilly powder and sugar.
3. Make the tadka now. Heat little oil in a small pan. Add mustard seeds, jeera, corriander, dry red chillies and curry leaves. Fry for sometime.

4. Add the tadka to the tamarind water and garnish with coriander leaves.
5. And enjoy :)

Jeera Baigan

Its a recipe I came up with when I didn't feel like spending lots of a time cooking. Its a really simple recipe goes well with rice as well as rotis. Hope you enjoy it :)

Ingredients

Chopped Brinjal - 4 to 5 cups
Roasted cumin or jeera powder - 2 tbsp
Black mustard seeds
Salt
Coriander powder - 1 tsp
Urad dal - 2 tsp

Process

1. Put some oil in cooking pan and heat.
2. Add the mustard seed and lets them pop. Then the add the urad dal and stir till the urad dal becomes slightly golden.
3. Add the chopped brinjal ( I used 1 big fat brinjal). Let it fry.
4. Add salt to taste, cumin powder and fry for some time. Keep stirring to avoid brinjal being stuck to bottom.
5. When brinjal starts becoming soft, add the roasted jeera powder.

Note: You can change the spices measurement according to your taste. Various other combination of spices will also work well I guess. Have to keep trying ;)

Mango Ice Cream

Its very hot and humid here in NC, USA. So a tasty Ice Cream would be awesome in this weather. Why late, lets start....

This is a very simple way of preparing Mango Ice cream but I use readymade ingredients to prepare.

Ingredients:

Mango Pulp 850 gms (Available in Indian Stores)

Condensed Milk 396 gms (Available in Walmart)

Cool Whip cream 226 gms (Available in Walmart)

Procedure:
Mix all the three ingredients in a vessel and put it in freezer.




After 24 hrs take it outside and Mango Ice Cream is ready!!!!!!

This is kind of instant Ice cream preparation but trust me it tastes very good :)

Rava Dosa

I like Rava Dosa very much not only because it can be prepared instantly but also I like the unique crispy taste of it. This is the most simple variety of Dosa family. So lets start...

Ingredients:

Rice Flour

Rava (Suji)

Onions

Jeera (Cumin Seeds)

Salt

Green Chillies

Coriander Leaves

Preparing the Batter:

Take rice flour and suji with 70+30 ratios into a bowl. Add cumin seeds, nicely chopped onions, green chillies, Coriander leaves and salt according to your taste. Add water, I usually don't measure water but I just did this time so that it will be helpful for the first timers. If you make 70:30 (rice flor:souji) ratio in a cup, then add 2 cups of water. Note that rava dosa batter should be very thin because we don't spread with spoon on pan as we do while preparing regular dosas.

Preparing Rava Dosa:

Leave the tava/pan on medium heat for some time (for 5 mins approx.) and put the batter on the tava with a bowl or glass or even a big sppon. Here is the tricky part, as I mentioned earlier since we don't spread like normal dosas, make sure that the batter spreads(put evenly) when pouring the batter on the pan.

Put oil around the dosa and also in top of it and leave it for some time. Note that rava dosa takes time to get cooked. Holes on the dosa indicates you are on track :). Flip it after some time and cook the other side.

Now your golden brown crispy rava dosa is ready :)

Fish Cakes or shall I call it 'Fish Tikki' :)

Till I came across the recipe for fish cake on Qatar airways videos, I had only heard of crab cakes and they looked delicious. I need to try them if I get a chance, so for now I am going with the fish cakes as I have the main ingredients at my disposal :) and rest altered to my taste.

Ingredients

Fish (Salmon)

Boiled potatoes

Salt

Red chilly powder

Roasted cumin powder - 1 tsp

Lemon juice - optional

Chopped coriander leaves

Process

1. Prepping the fish : I get already cleaned wild salmon fish from store. Boil them in water with pinch of salt, till its cooked thoroughly. Take out and shred it into small pieces.
2. Mash the boiled potatoes after peeling, add the shredded fish pieces, salt, red chilly powder, cumin powder and chopped coriander. Mix well.
3. I add few drops of lemon juice to get a slightly tangy or sour taste. Substituting it with amchur (dried mango) powder should also work. This can be skipped if you don't want the tangy taste to your fish cakes.

4. Heat a pan, smear some oil on it. Make small patties out of the mix and fry it on the pan.

All done guys, another simple dish at your disposal :).

Paneer Tikka - My Way

I make this recipe keeping my husband in mind when ever I am making a fish fry. He calls himself an eggetarian :). It is a simple recipe and does not need much effort, just requires a little marination time. Technically it should be grilled in tandoor or oven, but I simply pan fry it and my marination may also slightly vary from traditional marination.

Ingredients
Paneer
Plain curd/yoghurt
Salt
Red chilly powder
Turmeric powder
Coriander powder
Cumin powder

Green chillies
Corriander leaves
Karvepaku/ curry leaves



Process

1. Marinade: Beat the curd into smooth paste. Add salt, turmeric powder, corriander powder, cumin powder and red chilly powder. Grind the green chillies, coriander leaves and karvepaku and mix with rest of the marinade. If using both chilly powder and green chillies, check for the spiciness. I generally use only green chillies. 

2. Paneer: Cut them into pieces, I try to cut them in squares. 
3. Soak the paneer in the marinade and put in refrigerator for 2-3 hrs.
4. Heat the pan, smear the surface with some oil and fry the paneer pieces. These can also be put on broil for 15 mins in oven, but be sure to cover the dish with aluminum foil for easy cleaning :)

The marinade I mentioned is what I generally use, but sometimes I make slight variations based on the availability of ingredients. 

Prawn Curry

One of my favorite dishes that my mother makes. Whenever she used to make this, I was never satisfied no matter how much I ate and always worried that I will not get enough to eat ;). But now I understand, we can enjoy a dish only when we have someone to share with. This is a simple recipe but requires a little patience in prepping the ingredients and while cooking it. The first time I made this I was so worried that I was doing it wrong, as it didn't look anything like mom's. But later I realized it takes some a little bit more time. If cooked properly, the smell of the prawns will be subdued, I have tried other varieties of prawn curry but this is my only favorite so far and most of my friends who ate this liked it, including those who cannot generally stomach the seafood smell.

Ingredients

Prawns - 400 g

Chopped onions - 4 to 5 medium

Chopped Tomatoes - 1 big

Chopped Coriander for garnish

Green chillies (slit) - 4 to 5

Salt

Red chilly powder

Turmeric powder

Ginger garlic paste

Garam masala

Tamarind juice - optional

Oil for frying

Water

Process

1. Clean the prawns: The veins of the prawns have to be removed, it is a bit time consuming but it is necessary.
2. Take a deep dish, heat some oil and first fry the green chillies and onions. The quantity of onions to used depends up the amount of gravy you want. The more onions you use, the more gravy you will have and the more time it takes to cook.

3. Once the onions become slightly translucent, add ginger garlic paste  and mix well. Fry till the raw smell of ginger garlic paste is gone. Keep stirring so that it doesn't get burnt at bottom.
4. Then add the chopped tomatoes and fry for some time.
5. Add salt, red chilly powder, turmeric powder, garam masala and 2-3 tsp of tamarind juice. Fry for some time.

6. Add the cleaned prawns. Mix well. Add little water, mix and close the lid. Keep stirring in between. Cook at medium heat. 

7. Add some water to it and close the lid. Keep stirring in between. Cook till water is gone and the curry colour changes to brown.

8. When you think the prawns are done, check by breaking a prawn. If not cooked to core, fry for some more time. Over cooking the prawns can make them tough.
9. Garnish with the chopped coriander.

I generally get the pre-cooked and deveined prawns from store. Just to be sure I check them again for veins and clean them thoroughly. Since they are pre-cooked or boiled, it cuts down on my cooking time and I don't have to worry about under cooked prawns. Also, they stink a lot less than fresh ones. I once did dare to buy fresh prawns, it took a lot of time to clean and in the end I couldn't tolerate the stinking smell. What made me wonder was that my mother always used fresh prawns and the smell was never so bothersome at that time.. may be I bought a different kind of fresh prawns. Anyways, I decided to stick with the pre-cooked prawns :).

Love for Manchuria - Vegetable, Gobi and Baby Corn

Vegetable Manchuria

The second dish that I made was vegetable manchuria. I love veg. manchuria and when I saw a recipe for this in sunday edition of Eenadu newspaper, I gave it a try. Luckily for my family it turned out well both taste wise and looks wise. At first, I strictly followed the recipe to dot, but now I make slight adjustments of my own based on availability of ingredients. Here goes the recipe for the veg. manchuria:

Ingredients:

Chopped carrots - 1 cup

Chopped green beans - 1 cup

Chopped cabbage - 1 cup

Chopped capsicum - 1/2 cup

Corn flour - 1 cup

Maida (All purpose flour) - 1/2 cup

Green chilly sauce - 1 tbsp

Ginger garlic paste - 1 tbsp

Egg - optional

Salt 

Black pepper powder

Soya sauce

Oil for frying

Garnish: All these should be finely chopped

Coriander leaves

Ginger

Garlic

Green Chilies

Ketchup

Soya sauce

Process:

1. Mix all the chopped vegetables, boil them till cooked. I stop boiling them when the cabbage becomes translucent. Drain and keep the water. Note: Throwing away this water is waste of nutrients, it can be used in other dishes requiring water.
2. After the vegetables have cooled down, add ginger garlic paste, 2-3 drops of soya sauce (remember that soya sauce is salty), green chilly sauce, salt and pepper powder. Mix well using a spatula. Add the beaten egg and mix.
3. Add the 2 flours and mix well. If the mix is too thick add little water, be careful not to make mix watery or loose. 
4. Heat the oil in a deep frying pan. Make small balls of the mix and drop them in oil. Be careful while doing so.
5. Fry on medium heat. Take them out when slightly golden brown and keep aside. Check one piece to see if they have cooked to the core.
6. For garnish: mix ketchup, soya sauce with some water. Fry the chillies, ginger, garlic and add little ketchup mix. Once this is well cooked added the fried veg. manchura and add the remaining ketchup mix. Mix till all pieces are coated with the sauce.
7. Finally add the chopped coriander.

Other variation for garnish can be - substituting chopped capsicum for green chillies, using chopped onions or chopped green onions.

Note: Incase you are not able to find the corn flour, just use maida instead of corn flour and the dish will still be same. Corn flour adds a slight crunchiness to the manchuria.

Gobi Manchuria

I also make gobi manchuria very frequently. More frequently than veg. Manchuria I guess. The reason being that when ever I see a cauliflower, I cannot get my self to make anything other than gobi manchuria. So in case we want to make a gobi based curry, I leave it to my husband :). Following are the steps that I follow to make gobi manchuria:

Ingredients:

Cauliflower - cut into florets

Corn flour - 1 cup

Maida (All purpose flour) - 1/2 cup

Green chilli sauce - 1 tbsp

Ginger garlic paste - 1 tbsp

Salt

Black pepper powder

Soya sauce

Oil for frying

Process:

1. Slightly boil the cauliflower florets
2. Mix the corn flour, maida, ginger garlic paste, chilli sauce, salt, pepper and soya sauce (2-3 drops). Add water so to make slight thick paste. The consistency should be not be too thin or too thick.
3. Heat the oil. Dip each floret in the flour mix and drop carefully into the hot oil. Cook on medium heat. Take out when golden brown.
4. Garnish step is same as for the veg. manchuria.

Note:Since corn flour adds to the crunchiness. So if you skip out on boiling of cauliflower florets , they might end more crunchier than expected. This is from Hari's personal experience

Baby Corn Manchuria

The most recent addition to my manchuria dishes family is baby corn manchuria. For some reason I remembered the baby corn appetizer I ate at Ohris, Hyderabad and then the craving for baby corn manchuria started. I tried to find the fresh baby corn in stores but finally gave up and bought the canned baby corns. They were pretty good. The process is similar to gobi manchuria, we just have to substitute the cauliflower florets with baby corn.

Cooking for Taste Buds - An introduction

In my view, Cooking is a basic need, an art and a passion. I cook to survive and satisfy my taste buds:)

Since I was 10 years old, my mom used to ask me to prepare(applying the batter on dosa pan) dosa's for her once everyone finished eating and it was very interesting and challenging for me to prepare golden brown color dosas and folding into various shapes. So thats how my journey started and Dosa is and always will be special to me.

I am basically a bad eater and very picky when it comes to food. So I don't prefer eating outside as the taste doesn't match my expectations and when it comes to food I have HUGE expectations and the moment I realized this, I took cooking seriously.

From the bottom of my heart I am thankful to my mom for teaching me the recipes. It might sound formal, but without her recipes I cannot think about my stay in US. My mom is more than happy that her legacy is passed to next generation :)

I think of this blog as a single point of reference for recipes. I strongly believe that a well made dish brings Joy, so guys let us share recipes and spread joy :)

Aloo Tikki - The first thing I ever cooked

I first started making them when I was in my 10th class. Initially it started with me helping my mother by peeling and mashing the boiled potatoes. Then came the time when I started adding the salt and mirchi powder. Thus started my first small steps into the world of cooking. At first I just made plain aloo tikkis, then got bored with it started adding onions, and later on additions to it were chopped carrots, peas, chopped corriander leaves and cashew nuts. Thus, the  journey from plain to little more colorful aloo tikki. So here goes the simplest recipe I first tried.

Ingredients:

Potatoes

Chopped onions

Chopped/thickly grated carrots

Peas

Fried cashew nuts

Chopped coriander leaves

Salt

Red chilly powder

Amchur(dried mango) powder - optional

Process:

1. Boil the potatoes. Cooking them in pressure cooker is easier( 3-4 whistles will do). Can also be boiled in open vessel, when knife is pierced through a potato and it goes in easily to the other side it is fully cooked.
2. Once the potatoes have cooled down, peel them and mash them. Be careful while mashing the potatoes while they are hot. Use a spoon, potato masher or a spatula.
3. If making plain tikkis just add salt and chilly powder. Else, add the chopped onions, carrots, coriander leaves, peas and cashewnuts. Add amchur powder if you want to give your tikkis slightly tangy taste.
4. Take a small ball of above mix and make a patty out of it by gently pressing it between your palms. Note: slightly oiling your palms helps, as the mix will not stick to your palms.
5. Heat a frying pan, add a few drops of oil and fry the tikkis on both sides.

This can be served with green chutney made of green chillies, corriander and mint leaves  or with the sweet chutney made of tamarind juice and jaggery. The easiest would be going with some ketchup. These tikkis can also be used for aloo tikki chaat.

Cooking n Me

According to me the people who cook can be broadly categorized into two categories: the first - who love the art of cooking and feeding other people, and the second - who had no option but to cook. Truthfully speaking I come in the second category. Both my parents know how to cook and its my father's claim that he taught my mom the basics of cooking :). My father loves cooking and experimenting with food. During my early childhood, I have seen my father cooking when my mother was hospitalized due to jaundice and whenever he felt like experimenting. But later on due to work, he gave up on that hobby and now my mother is the only cook. When I was in India I never tried to cook or even learn it, my mother always nagged me saying "what are you going to do when you get married ?". I never cared much for that anyways. The only things that I made out of my own free will were variations of aloo tikki and manchuria. Later on in my early 20's, there were situations when I had to cook and I did. Sometimes I went wrong and my poor brother had to suffer. Even then I had no desire to learn cooking, because I had my mother and I could also go out to eat.

Just before getting married I invited my friends over for lunch and cooked under my mother's supervision. Thats was my first full scale cooking and luckily for my friends the dishes turned out just right ;). Though i never had practical experience cooking, I had the theoretical knowledge and I loved watching cookery shows. Still, with just basics and some theoretical knowledge I can't claim myself as a cook. Can I? So I should really applaud my husband for marrying even after knowing that I can't cook. But now looking back I guess he was not worried as he himself is a pretty good cook. He is pretty strict when it comes to cooking as he has certain steps to cooking certain dishes.We always argue on that and still do what we want to do :D. I don't remember, what exactly I cooked as soon as I arrived in US after getting married. But I remember my husband making sambaar after an elaborate process. It kind of surprised me, because I have seen my mother cook sambaar in such a way and more over my mother's sambaar tastes unique everyday even with the same ingredients. How she does it is still a mystery (even to her). In my early marriage days, it was mostly my husband that cooked. But as days went by I started to crave for the food that I used to have in India.. So the motivation for me to start cooking were my "Taste Buds". I am still not a great cook, I go wrong at times but found ways to rectify then except for cases when I add more salt than needed.

I am starting this blog mainly to serve as record of dishes I have cooked and turned out well. Sounds like a show-off right ;). I found the recipes for the most of the dishes online so hoping that this blog will help me keep track of those links. My cooking is kind of erratic, as I do not exactly follow the measurements or the ingredients mentioned in the recipes and, I alter them to my convenience. I also, eyeball the  measurements for ingredients based on taste and my judgement (except for certain recipes). So the recipes posted by me may not be the authentic way, but thats the way I have cooked them. I still cook for my taste buds, but I have started to enjoy cooking now. It makes me really happy when people enjoy my cooking. Hoping that this love for cooking continues and I keep posting about my experiments :).