Cucumber-Onion-Tomato Raitha

This is the raitha that I usually make along with biriyanis and mixed rices. Thought of sharing the recipe for the same.



Ingredients:
Curd - 250 grams
Onions - 75 grams
Tomatoes - 25 grams
Cucumber - 75 grams
Salt - to taste
Sugar - 1/2 spoon
Coriander leaves - few

Method:

• Beat the curd well.
• Finely chop the onions, tomatoes and cucumber.
• Mix the chopped vegetables, curd, salt and sugar.  
• Mix well until the salt and sugar is dissolved.
• Garnish with coriander leaves.

Note:
The raitha would be good if the curd is sour.
Mix the ingredients just half an hour before serving.
Optionally we can also add little pepper powder.

Khushka Biriyani

What is Khushka??? This term refers to ” Khushk “ in Urdu, which means plain or dry. Rice cooked dry or plain boiled is termed as Khushka Rice. This is a staple in most Hyderabad Muslim households and served with an accompaniment of spicy dry or wet curry.  The same rice when cooked with meat stock takes the form of Khushka / kushka / Kuska Biryani. Kuska is cooked only with onions and tomatoes without any veggies or meat.

Me and H don't prefer a non-veg biriyani without any meat pieces in it. So I tried a veg Khushka.
For the flavor of non veg we can add chicken broth and mutton masala powder for extra spice. For vegetarians, we can add vegetable broth instead of chicken broth. The biriyani tasted spicy and delicious.

Ingredients:

Basmathi rice – 1 cup
Coconut milk – 1 cup
Water – 3/4 cup
Yogurt/Curd - 1/4 cup
Ghee - 1 tbsp

Onion (large) – 1 (finely chopped)
Tomato (large) – 1 (finely chopped)
Ginger garlic paste – 2 tsp
Green chillies – 4

Mint leaves– 1/4 cup (chopped)
Coriander leaves - 1/4 cup (chopped)
Curry leaves - few
Bay leaves – 2

Cinnamon – 1″ stick
Cloves- 3
Cardamom – 1
marathi moggu - 2 nos
star anise - 1
Fennel seeds – 1/2 tsp

Oil – 2 tbsp
Butter or ghee – 1 tbsp
Red chilli powder – 1 tsp

Coriander powder – 1/2 tsp
Garam masala – 1/2 tsp
Biriyani masala – 1/2 tsp
Salt – to taste

Method:

• Wash basmati rice, drain excess water by placing them in a colander. Now spread the rice over a kitchen towel and gently pat dry. 
• Now heat 1 tbsp (table-1) in a pan, add the rice and fry for 3 to 4 minutes over low flame. After frying it will look shinny and toasted. 
• Transfer the content to the rice cooker bowl and keep aside. This step is not a must but if followed will yield good results.
• For 1 cup raw rice : its 2 cups liquid (my case its 1 cup coconut milk + 1/4 cup yogurt + 3/4 cup water.
• Pressure cook the rice for one whistle.
• Heat oil and ghee in a pan, toast bay leaves, curry leaves, cinnamon sticks, cloves, cardamom, cumin seeds, fennel seeds, kapok buds, star anise and fennel seeds. 
• Add the chopped coriander leaves, mint leaves and green chili, fry till they turn crisp. Add the onions and fry till translucent (do not brown them too much).
• Add ginger garlic paste, tomatoes and cook for 2 minutes. 
• Add salt and the other powders. Mix well, heat it for 2 minutes and switch off.
• Grind the mixture to a soft paste. In the same kadai pour one spoon of oil, add the ground paste and heat until the paste thickens.
• Mix the rice and the paste and garnish with little mint leaves.

Hyderabadi Khushka is ready!!! I served this with boiled eggs and raitha.

Sprouted Moong Methi Pulav - using broken wheat

I tried this combination for the first time. Well as I have pointed out earlier I have decided to include sprouts in my menu. So this time I tried a different combination and it turned out to be fabulous. Even H who doesn't like both methi and broken wheat gave me a thumbs-up. That made my day.

This would be a ideal dish for diabetic patients also. Broken wheat and methi leaves are a good combination for curing diabetics.





Ingredients:
Broken wheat - 150 grams
sprouted moong - 75 grams
methi leaves - one bunch
onions - 50 grams
tomatoes - 30 grams
peas - 30 grams

green chillies - 2 nos
ginger/garlic paste - 2 tbsp
Oil - 25 grams
cloves - 4 nos
cinnamon - 1 inch stick
cardamom - 2 nos
nutmeg - a pinch
fennel seeds - 3 grams
bay leaf - 1
Salt - to taste
coriander powder - 1 tbsp
garam masala powder - 1 tsp
chilly powder - 1 tsp



Method:

• Finely chop the methi leaves, onions, tomatoes and green chillies.
• In a pressure cooker pour oil. Add the cloves, cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg, fennel seeds and bay leaf. Fry for 30 seconds.
• Add the onions and green chillies, fry until they turn translucent.
• Add the ginger/garlic paste. Fry until the raw smell leaves.
• Add the methi leaves and fry for about a minute.
• Add the tomatoes, peas and sprouted moong.
• Add salt, coriander powder, garam masala powder and chilly powder. Mix well.
• Add broken wheat and water. The ratio of broken wheat : water is 1:2.
• Close the pressure cooker and cook for one whistle.

Sprouted Moong Methi Pulav is ready!!! Serve with pickle and raitha

Notes: 
We can also garnish this pulav with fried cashews and raisins.
Broken wheat can be substituted with rice also.

Sending this to nivedhanam's dish-it-outlentils-and-garlic.html and cooksjoy

Papaya Parippu Curry

In our native we have so many papaya trees. So now and then my MIL makes this curry. I rarely get raw papayas here. This time when I saw a raw papaya in market, I immediately bought it and made this curry. This curry will be a good combination with rice and some thoran.

Ingredients:
Raw papaya - 200 grams
Toor dal - 75 grams
Coconut (grated) - 75 grams
Cumin seeds – 3 grams
green chillies - 2 nos
garlic - 3 pods
tomatoes - 25 grams
salt and turmeric powder - to taste


To temper:
Oil – 10 grams
Mustard – 5 grams
Curry leaves - few

Method:

• Soak the toor dal for 30 minutes.
• Clean the papaya, discard the seeds and cut it into cubes.
• Slit the green chillies and chop the tomatoes.
• Pressure cook the toor dal, chopped papaya, tomatoes, green chillies with salt and turmeric powder.
• Pressure cook for just one whistle. Since we have soaked the toor dal, it will get cooked fast.
• Grind the coconut, cumin seeds and garlics by adding little water into a smooth paste.
• Open the pressure cooker, Add the grinded coconut paste, mix well and boil the gravy. Check for salt.
• In a kadai, pour oil and add mustard. Once mustard splutters, add curry leaves and add the same to the gravy

Papaya Parippu Curry is ready!!

Sending this to nivedhanams dish-it-outlentils-and-garlic and cooksjoy

Ashoka Halwa

I saw this recipe in Roshni's blog and had immediately book marked it. With Valentine's Day around the corner, I thought this would be a nice one to make. It came out delicious and the procedure is relatively easy.

The moong dal : sugar : ghee ratio recommended is 1 : 2 : 3. But I used only 2 cups of ghee. It tasted pretty good with that as well. But ofcourse, it will be better with more.



Ingredients:

Moong Dal - 1 cup
Sugar - 2 cups
Ghee - 2 cups
All Purpose Flour/Maida - 4 tbsp
Caradamom - 1/2 tsp
Orange food colour - a pinch
Cashews - a few
Raisins - a few

Method:

• Cook the Moong Dal with enough water in a pressure cooker till it is well cooked. It should be mushy. If it still has its shape, just run it in the mixie.
• Heat a little ghee in a pan. Fry the cashews. Keep aside.
• Add the raisins and fry and keep aside.
• Add the maida and stir till it gets a slight brown colour.
• Now add the Moong Dal and stir till it starts to come together.
• Add the sugar, cardamom powder, food colour and 1 cup of ghee. Mix and keep stirring till the sugar melts and the ghee is almost absorbed. Make sure there are no lumps formed.
• Add more ghee and stir again.
• When the halwa starts leaving the sides of the pan, its done, switch off and garnish with cashews and raisins.

Delicious Ashoka Halwa is ready!!!

Batata Song ( Potatoes in coconut gravy)

Batata song is a delicious konkani dish. Batata song has a tasty gravy of coconut, red chillies and tamarind. Heat from red chillies and sourness of tamarind form very tasty combination. This tastes great with rice as well as chapathi.

But I made a slight change in the recipe. Instead of tamarind I added tomatoes. And the gravy was lovely.



Ingredients:

potatoes - 5-6 medium sized
onions - 2 medium sized finely chopped
red chillies - 8-9
coconut - 3/4 cup grated
coriander seeds - 1 tbsp
tomatoes - 2 medium size
oil - 3-4 tsp
mustard seeds - 1 tsp
haldi/turmeric - 1/2 tsp
hing - 1/2 tsp
salt - to tatse
coriander leaves - few

Method:

• Boil and peel potatoes. Cut them into small cubes.
• Dry roast red chillies and coriander seeds for a minute.
• Grind red chillies,  coriander seeds, tomatoes and grated coconut to a smooth paste adding little water.
• Heat oil in kadhai. Add mustard seeds. When they splutter add haldi, onion and hing.
• Fry onion till it turns translucent.
• Add masala paste which we prepared earlier.
• Add a cup of water. Let this simmer for 2 minutes. Add salt.
• Add potato cubes and mix well.
• Keep on medium heat for few minutes till thick gravy consistency is formed.
• Garnish with coriander leaves.

Delicious Konkani style Batata Song is ready!!! Serve with chapathis.

Tomato Pulav with Coconut Milk

Another one of mixed rices which can be made in no time provided coconut milk is ready. I do this often and pack it for lunch box. Tomato pulav and potato fry is a lovely combination which all at home love to have any time.



Ingredients:
Rice - 2 cups
coconut milk - 1 cup
Onion - 100 grams
tomatoes - 100 grams
ginger/garlic paste - 20 grams
green chillies - 25 grams
cloves - 3 nos
cardamom - 2 nos
cinnamon - 1/2 inch stick
fennel seeds - 5 grams
Oil - 20 grams
nutmeg - a pinch
bay leaf - 1
coriander powder - 5 grams
garam masala powder - 2 grams
turmeric powder - 1 spoon
salt - to taste
Coriander leaves - few
Mint leaves - few



Method:

• Wash and soak the rice in water for about 15 minutes.
• Meanwhile chop the onions and green chillies.
• Grind the tomatoes in a mixer into a puree form.
• In a pressure cooker, pour oil. Add the bay leaf, cloves, cardamom, cinnamon, fennel seeds and nutmeg. Fry for about 30 seconds.
• Add the chopped onions and green chillies. Fry until the onions turn translucent.
• Add the ginger/garlic paste and fry until the raw smell disappears.
• Add the ground tomato. Add salt and turmeric powder. 
• Fry until the tomato + onion mixture becomes a thick paste and startd leaving the sides of the cooker.
• Add the coriander powder and garam masala powder and mix well.
• Add the soaked rice. Mix well and fry for about 2 minutes.
• Pour the coconut milk. For 2 cups rice we need 4 cups of water. We have poured 1 cup of coconut milk. So we will pour 3 cups of water.
• Mix well and check for salt.
• Wait until the water boils and half of the water is absorbed by the rice.
• Close the lid of the presseure cooker. Cook for one whistle, then simmer the stove and cook for 5 minutes.
• Once the pressure is released, open the lid of the pressure cooker and shift the rice into another container.
• Garnish with coriander leaves and mint leaves.

Delicious Tomato Pulav is ready!!! Serve with potato fry, raitha and papad.

Sprouted Moong salad

I have decided to include sprouts in our menu. Sprouts have a lot of health benefits. Sprouts are incredibly nutritious; especially for those on a raw food diet. Studies show remarkable levels of B Vitamins, as well as Vitamins C, E and A (up to 15 times the original content!). Sprouts can be eaten at any meal to help the digestive process along and keep raw living nutrition pumping through your blood.

I started with a simple salad and here's the recipe



Ingredients:
Sprouted green gram - 100 grams
Carrots - 25 grams
Onions - 15 grams
Tomatoes - 15 grams
salt - to taste
Garlic - 2 pods
Lemon juice - 2 tbsp

Method:

• Soak the green gram in water for 24 hours. After 24 hours you should start seeing sprouts popping up. Now drain the water and keep the green gram in a container with lid for another 24 hours. The green gram should have little moisture. Once the sprouts are ready store in refrigerator and use as per your needs.
• Chop the onions, garlic and tomatoes into smaller pieces.
• Grate the carrots.
• Mix the sprouted green gram, chopped onions, garlic, tomatoes and carrots with salt and lemon juice. 

A Healthy Salad is ready!!!

Note:
You can also add chopped green chillies or pepper powder to get a spicy effect.

Linking this to nivedhanams dish-it-outlentils-and-garlic and cooksjoy

Lemon RIce

This is another one of my favourite mixed rice. This rice can be prepared in 5 minutes of course wih cooked rice available. Lemon rice with vadams or with some nice fried vegetable like fried potatoes or fried chenaikizhangu or fried chepankizhangu will taste yummy.........

In Karnataka lemon rice is served with coconut chutney ground with roasted gram dal. This was a surprise for me. But when I tasted this combination it was great.



Ingredients:
Rice - 150 grams
Lemon - 2 medium sized
Oil - 25 grams
mustard - 3 grams
urad dal - 3 grams
channa dal - 3 grams
groundnuts - 15 grams
green chillies - 5 grams
ginger - 5 grams
turmeric powder - 2 grams
coriander leaves - few
salt - to taste



Method:

• Cook rice with water ratio 1 :2 with salt for 1 whistle. After done, transfer to a broad bowl and add a tsp of oil and mix carefully once and keep aside.
• Squeeze lemon and collect the juice. Heat a kadai/ pan with oil, add mustard, once spluttered, add urad dal, channa dal, peanuts. Fry till golden.
• Then add green chillies, ginger and turmeric. Give a quick stir.
• Switch off the stove.
• Pour this over the cooked rice and pour the lemon juice.
• Mix well and if needed add more oil.
• Garnish with coriander leaves..

Lemon Rice is ready!!!

Malabar Chicken Biriyani

The complete credit of me becoming a good chicken biriyani maker goes to my MIL. I too love Chicken Biriyani. So I was very eager to understand the tips and tricks that goes in. I have made this some 50 times over the years and now I have various recipes for making Chicken Biriyani. Now I can make chicken biriyani in the morning and pack this for lunch. H boasts about this in his office.

The recipe that I am presenting here is the authentic malabar chicken biriyani recipe with no short cuts and so takes about 1.5 to 2 hours for the dish to be ready. Now over to the recipe.



Ingredients:
To marinate chicken:
Chicken - 15 pieces weighing around 600 grams
Ginger garlic paste - 25 grams
Green chillies (crushed) - 10 nos
turmeric powder - 5 grams
freshly ground masala powder - 5 grams (please see recipe below)
yogurt - 10 grams
salt - to taste

Home made masala powder:
Fennel seeds - 10 grams
cloves - 20
Cinnamon - 2 inch stick
Cardamom - 4
Star anise - 1
whole pepper - 10 grams
mace - 2 nos
salt - to taste

For the rice:
Jeeraga samba rice or Basmati rice - 350 grams
Ghee - 25 grams
cloves - 2 nos
cardamom - 2 nos
cinnamon - 1/2 inch stick
fennel seeds - 2 grams
whole pepper - 2 grams
grenn chilly - 4 nos
star anise - 1
mace - 2
bay leaves - 2

For chicken masala:
Onions - 200 grams
Tomatoes - 50 grams
Ginger/garlic paste - 5 grams
coriander powder - 25 grams
masala powder - 5 grams
chilly powder - 5 grams
curry leaves - few
mint leaves - few
coriander leaves - few
Oil - 50 grams
freshly ground masala powder - 5 grams
Cashewnuts - 15 grams
Raisins - 15 grams
Salt - to taste



Method:

• Dry roast the ingredients under "Home made masala powder" and powder them in the mixer. Store this in an airtight container. This can be used for other meat curries also.
• Marinate the chicken with the ingredients under "To marinate chicken" and keep it aside atleast for 2 hours. Marinating overnight would give best results.

• Lets prepare the rice first. Wash the rice and soak the same for about 30 minutes.
• In a pressure cooker pour ghee and add all the spices mentioned under "For the rice". Saute for about a minute. 
• Add the soaked rice and fry for about 5 minutes until nice aroma comes out.
• Add water. I used the ratio of rice:water as 1:1.75. Add salt and mix well.
• Wait for about 6-7 minutes. Until the 75% of the water has been absorbed by the rice. 
• Now close the pressure cooker lid and cook exactly for one whistle. 
• Once the pressure releases, open the cooker and spread the rice in a wide mouthed vessel.

• Finely chop the onions and tomatoes. 
• In a pan, pour oil. Add the chopped onions. Fry until the onions turn brown. 
• Add the ginger/garlic paste and the tomatoes. Fry until the tomatoes turn mushy.
• Add the coriander powder, chilly powder, masala powder, curry leaves, mint leaves and mix well.
• Now add the marinated chicken, mix everything well and cover and cook until the chicken is finely cooked. We need not add water since the chicken will have enough water.
• It will take at least 30-45 mts for the chicken to be properly cooked. When the chicken is done, check for salt and masala. Switch off the flame.

Final Layering:

• Fry the cashewnuts, raisins an little onions until brown in ghee.
• Take an oven safe, wide mouthed bowl.
• Grease the base with little ghee. 
• Add a layer of rice and top it with the prepared chicken masala. Pour the gravy over the chicken pieces. Add the fried onions, cashewnuts, raisins and coriander leaves. 
• Now add another even layer of rice above this and top again with the chicken masala and the fried onions, nuts, raisins and coriander leaves. 
• Repeat the process keeping in mind that the top layer should be of rice garnished with onions, nuts, raisins and coriander leaves. 
• Now seal the bowl with an aluminum foil and them cover with the lid. Bake it at 180 C for around 10-12 minutes.

Delicious and spicy Malabar chicken Biriyani is ready!!! Serve this with boiled eggs and raitha of your choice.

Rava Kesari - 100th Post

Yippeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!! 100th Post.. I am so happy.

Rava Kesari would be the first sweet that beginners will learn to cook. This is a fabulous sweet which is very easy to make. For me too luckily I have not struggled much to learn making it. But I have seen many who run into trouble or don’t get it right. The major trouble you get when making is getting lumps. There are two stages in the process where there are chances to get lumps..One is while adding rava to boiling water and the second one is while adding sugar to cooked rava. But the key is add slowly rava or sugar and stir properly&constantly.



The first time I made kesari, I made it with 350 grams of rava and the quantity was sooo much that I stored in fridge for about 10 days and ate it. So this was a lesson for me. Kesari needs to be made with little rava as the end result is triple that of the rava quantity.  So over to the recipe.




Ingredients:
Rava - 200 grams
Sugar - 250 grams
Water - 2 cups
Ghee - 100 grams
cardamom powder - little
cashew nuts - 25 grams
raisins - 20 grams
Kesari powder (optional) - a pinch



Method:

• Heat a pan (non stick to make it easy) add ghee and fry the cahews and raisins and keep aside.
• In the same pan add 5 teaspoons of ghee and the rava. 
• Fry in medium flame,with constant stirring until a nice aroma comes (the rava will start turning golden brown). Transfer the mixture to a plate and set aside. 
• Add the water to the pan and bring to boil.
• Add the fried rava little by little to the boiling water and keep stirring simultaneously.
• Take care no lumps are formed, keep in medium flame and stir well.
• Keep in low flame and cook covered for 3-4 minutes or until the rava gets cooked well
• Add the sugar,kesari colour and keep the flame in medium and stir well.
• As soon as you add sugar, the rava mixture will again become watery and you may notice 2-3 lumps again formed. Stir well as in a way to mash those lumps.
• Stir in medium flame for 4-5 minutes and keep adding the remainin ghee till the kesari forms as a whole mass (doesn't stick to the pan at all).
• Add ghee fried cashews,raisins and cardamom powder. Mix well

Delicious Kesari is ready!!!

Notes:
Grease a plate with ghee and spread the kesari in it and after cooling down, draw as diamonds with a knife.

Thengai Sadam

Thengai sadam aka Coconut Rice is a very easy to make recipe. Ideal for lunch boxes. Thengai sadam, kadugu maanga (a pickle) and potato fry is my favourite combo. I add fried urad dal and bengal gram dal which makes it very flavourful.



Ingredients:
Rice - 150 grams
Urad dal - 25 grams
Bengal gram dal - 25 grams
Coconut (grated) - 75 grams
Oil - 25 grams
mustard - 5 grams
Green chillies - 2 nos
curry leaves - few

Method:

• Cook rice with ratio 1:2 (adjust the water ratio according to the rice variety you use) for 1 whistle. Add a tsp of oil and required salt and fluff the rice.
• Heat oil in a pan. Add mustard.
• When mustard splutters add the urad dal and gram dal. Fry until the dals turn light brown colour.
• Add the green chillies, curry leaves and the grated coconut.
• Saute until the coconut turns light pink in colour. Switch off the stove.
• Add this to the salt and mix well.

Delicious Coconut Rice is ready!! Enjoy this with some roasted vegetable and vadams/papads.