Spanish Omelette

For this third and last day of BM #50 I am choosing from a List_of_potato_dishes. I was looking for something different and easy to try. So I picked up Spanish omelette.

I invariably end up cooking omelette every other day for dinner. H loves to have omelette with sambar rice. So I was all the more interested to try a different version of omelette. I followed the recipe from here

Spanish omelette is a delicious omelette. It generally includes a lot of vegetables and I have chosen a simple one here. This would serve as a wholesome breakfast as it includes eggs and lot of vegetables. We can also add cheese to it but the version I am giving below doesn't include cheese.

Ingredients:

Oil - 2 tsp
Potato - 50 grams (1 small)
Onion - 50 grams (1 small)
Tomato - 30 grams (1 small)
Capsicum - 15 grams (1/4 from a whole capsicum)
Salt - to taste
Pepper powder - 1 tsp
Eggs - 2

Method:

Peel the potato and make very thin slices - as thin as possible with a knife.
Beat the eggs and keep it aside. Add salt and pepper powder needed for the eggs while beating.
Take a frying pan - one suitable for making omelettes. Pour oil. Since this omelette is spanish, olive oil is recommended. But I used the normal coconut oil which I use regularly at home.
Spread the potato pieces and place them in the pan. Cook them in medium flame. The idea here is to cook the potatoes in oil. Leave it for about 2 minutes.

Meanwhile chop the onions, capsicum and tomatoes. After cutting the onions, split the layers so that we get thin pieces of onions - similar to that of potatoes.

After 2 minutes flip all the potato pieces. By this time one side of the potatoes should have become light brown. Leave the flipped potatoes for 2 minutes.

Now add the chopped onions and capsicum pieces. Saute for one minute and then add the tomato pieces.
I noticed that my pan had started to show some black patches. So in order to avoid burning, I sprinkled little water and closed and cooked the vegetables in the pan for about 30 seconds. Ideally the vegetables have to be sauted and cooked in oil. Add salt and pepper needed for the vegetables while sauting.

Now spread the vegetables in the pan evenly and pour the beaten egg carefully so as to cover the entire vegetables.

Pour 1 tsp of oil in the sides. Cover and cook in medium flame for 1 minute.

Serve hot!!!! Delicious Spanish omelette is ready!!!

Karadayan Nonbu Adai

For the second day I have taken List_of_snack_foods. I was confused as to which item to pick up from this list and finally decided on Adai. Karadayan Nonbu - a festival followed in brahmin (Iyer/Iyengar) houses was around last week. For this festival they make a special type of sweet and savoury adai of which I am a big fan.

Savithri Vratham or Karadayan Nonbu is generally observed on the day when the Tamil month Masi ends and Panguni begins. Married women observe a fast on this day for the well being and long life of their husbands. Unmarried girls pray to be blessed with a good husband. There is a particular time, (the time changes every year), at that time, the women tie a yellow charadu or thread around their necks and break their fast by eating these special adais with unsalted butter.

Before going to the recipe I would like to share the story behind Karadayan Nonbu. The story behind observing this Vratham is that, Princess Savithri, daughter of King Ashwapati, married Satyavan a penniless prince. She also knew the fact that Satyavan would live only for a year. Three days before the destined day of Satyavan’s death, Savithri vowed to fast. On the last day, when Yama the God of Death came to take Satyavan’s soul, Savithri prayed to him to either take her with her husband or to leave her husband behind. Impressed by Savithri’s love and devotion, Yama agreed to grant her any boon other than Satyavan’s life. Savithri asked for a son. Yama granted her wish. But how could she have a son without her Satyavan and hence Yama was forced to give back Satyavan’s life. Thus Savithri rescued her husband Satyavan from death. It is said that later she broke the fast by having these adais

Ingredients:

Rice Flour – 1 cup

Grated or powdered Jaggery – 1 cup

Cardamoms – 3 -4

Coconut cut into small pieces or grated – a handful

Ghee – 1 tsp

Water – 1 1/2 cup

Method:

• Dry roast the rice flour till light brown on medium heat. 
• In a Kadai, heat the said 1 ½ cups of water with the grated jaggery.
• Once the jaggery dissolves completely, remove from heat. Strain impurities and place it on heat again. Let it start boiling. 
• Once the jaggery water starts boiling add the coconut pieces and cardamom powder and roasted rice flour. Mix well without forming any lumps.
• Add a tsp of ghee and mix well. The whole flour should become a round mass. Remove from heat. Let it cool a little.
• Grease idly moulds. Knead the dough a little to make it smooth.
• Make small balls out of this mixture and flatten them. Make a small hole with your finger in the middle. Place in idly moulds and steam for about 10 mins. Once cooked the Adais will have a shiny appearance

Adai is ready!!! This is generally had with a dollop of plain butter. We had it as snacks with tea.

Note:

• Cowpeas / Karamani is generally added to this adai. Pressure cook the Karamani, mash them coarsely and add it to the flour before steaming.

Falafel

For this week's Blogging Marathon I have picked "Pick one Category, do 3 or Do one from each category". I decided to do one from each category. Today I have picked up List_of_fried_dough_foods. Valli has requested me to pick up recipes which are not Indian. So here I am posting FALAFEL - a traditional middle eastern food

Falafel is a deep-fried ball or patty made from ground chickpeas, fava beans, or both. I have used chick peas here. I found many variations of this recipe in internet. After reading all I understood that it is basically our vada made with chick peas (kondai kadalai in tamil).   

From internet I also understood that most of the time falafel is used as a patty inside a sandwich. But for us it tasted more like vada and we enjoyed it as it is. Also falafel is made in various shapes like balls or donut shaped. There is also a tool available in the name of "aleb falafel" to shape these falafels. Falafel is a very famous street food. 

Another change or I don't know if I should say improvement - is that I have tried to capture some step-wise snaps :-). At least for the important steps. Will try to do so more often. I understand that step-wise snaps are more helpful for my readers but most of the time I make recipes in hurry. I will have to plan more efficiently my future recipes.

Ingredients:

Dried chickpea / Kabuli Channa - 150 grams

Onions - 1 medium

Coriander leaves, chopped - 2 tbsp

Garlic - 3 pods

Salt to taste

Cumin seeds - 1 tsp

Red chilly - 2 nos

All purpose flour / Maida - 3 tbsp

Oil for deep frying

Method:

Wash and soak the chickpeas overnight or atleast for 8 hours.

In a mixer take the soaked chickpeas (without water), along with onions, garlic, cumin seeds, coriander leaves and salt. Pulse into a coarse mixture

Transfer to a bowl. Add flour an mix everything together. 

Form into small medium sized patties. Heat oil in a kadai and deep fry in batches.

Drain into tissues and serve hot.

Falafels are ready!!! Serve with sauce or chutney of your choice. We had it plain!!!

Notes:

• While researching on Falafel I also saw that Falafel (falafil) in arabic meant pepper. So adding pepper powder would be an apt choice I believe.
• I added only 2 red chillies. But after preparing the first batch we felt it needs to be more spicy. Chick peas has a very little sweetening taste so I added 1/2 tsp of chilly powder for the remaining mixture.
• The mixture can be refrigerated as such or make patties and refrigerate and fry them just before serving.

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing this BM

Chettinadu Biriyani | Vegetarian

When I heard of colorful dishes the first recipe that came to my mind is biriyani. That is colorful as well as all time kids favourite at my place. But I have already posted Biriyani recipes.
Egg biriyani
Khushka biriyani
Malabar chicken biriyani

But then I have never posted a vegetable biriyani. Yeah its a rare occurance in my home. That is when I came across this chettinadu biriyani recipe in Srivalli's space. Tamilnadu - an Indian state has very varied types of cuisine wherein the chettinad cuisine is very famous for its spicyness and tanginess. I am also an avid fan of Chettinad recipes - that too non-veg recipes.

In chettinadu biriyani recipe the spice ingredients that bring out a difference is marathi moggu, and star anise. I just got these spices from the store but as Srivalli says I am not sure if the marathi moggu I got is the actual marathi moggu.

If you don't get this marathi moggu, the same can be replaced with extra cloves. It might not give the exact taste. Also, in chettinad recipes the Jeeraga samba rice is used instead of the basmati rice. The jeeraga samba rice is available in the name of Jeera rice in some of the stores. I always use Jeera rice for making Biriyanis and fried rice since somehow we both don't like basmati rice... Another speciality in chettinadu cuisine is using shallots (small onions) instead of the bigger ones.

Ingredients:

Jeeraga Samba Rice - 3 cups
Mixed Vegetables - 2 cups
Small onions / Shallots- 3/4 cup
Tomatoes, finely chopped - 2 nos
Green Chillies - 4 nos
Ginger Garlic paste- 2 tbsp
Red Chilli powder- 2 tsp
Coriander powder- 2 tsp
Turmeric powder- 1/4 tsp
Pudina / Mint leaves- handful
Coriander leaves- handful bunch
Spring onions - few
Cashew Nuts- 20 nos
Ghee- 2 tbsp
Salt to taste
Water- 4 and 1/2 cups

Spices:

Bay leaves- 2 nos
Cinnamon stick 1" piece- 2 nos
Cardamom- 4 nos
Cloves- 6 nos
Marati moggu- 1 no
Annachi poo / Star Anise- 1
Javitri / Mace - 1 no
Oil- 1/4 cup

Method:

• Wash the rice and soak for 30 minutes.
• Wash and dice the vegetables like potato, carrot into medium cubes, cauliflower into medium florets, slice green beans into 1" lengthwise and some green peas.
• Peel and chop the shallots. Chop the tomatoes. Fry the cashewnuts in ghee until golden brown. Clean and chop both pudina and coriander leaves. Slit the green chillies into half.
• Heat oil in a pressure cooker, add the whole spices to the hot oil and saute for 1 minute.
• Next add the shallots, green chillies to the pan, saute until onion turns pale. Add the ginger garlic paste and saute until raw smell leaves. Add the mixed vegetables to the pan and fry for 3 minutes. Add chopped pudina and coriander leaves (reserve some to garnish) to the pan and saute for 1 minute.
• At this stage add chopped tomatoes, red chilli powder, turmeric powder, coriander powder to the vegetables and mix well until tomatoes are tender. Add water to the pan, slightly cover with lid and bring vegetable mixture to boil.
• When the water reaches rolling boil stage, add drained rice along with required salt to the pan. Stir well to combine everything and cover with lid, Pressure cook for 1 whistle then lower the flame and cook for 2 minutes.
• Once the pressure falls, remove the lid, garnish with fired cashews, coriander leaves and spring onions.

Serve with onion Raitha

Note:

• I served this with raita and boiled eggs.
• In chettinadu, this is usually served with pickle, raita.
• If jeera rice is not available, use short basmati rice
• I added spring onions since it was growing in my kitchen garden. This is not part of chettinadu cuisine.

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing this BM

Batata Poha

Poha and Paav is like Idli and Dosa for the Maharashtrians. I have spent some years of my childhood in Maharashtra surrounded with so many marathi people. I have seen everyday along with a bottle of milk, a packet of paav gets delivered. They start their day with a tea and paav.

That reminds me - in maharashtra we used to get milk in bottles. Daily half litre glass bottle used to be delivered with milk. And we have to return the previous day's bottle. So that was recycling of bottles. It would have been good if that trend had continued. I don't know why milk was introduced in plastic covers later... 

So we have all these famous paav related recipes like paav bhaji, vada paav, batata paav, masala paav, misal paav etc.... Hmmm I have to post all these recipes. And since Maharashtra is one of the largest potato farming state, the maharashtrians use potato in almost all their recipes. Batata is potato in Marathi.

Batata poha is again served with plain paav or paav roasted in ghee. Since I didn't get paav I served it along with bread slices. I am posting this for kid's delight - colorful dishes since I felt yellow and red are a good color combination. This recipe has potato and groundnuts. 

Ingredients:

Poha / Aval / Beaten rice - 250 grams

Potato (cubed) - 150 grams

Onion (finely chopped) - 75 grams

Green chilly (finely chopped) - 1

Curry leaves - 1 sprig

Mustard - 1 tsp

Cumin seeds / Jeera - 1/2 tsp

Peanuts - 2 tbsp

Turmeric powder - 1 tsp

Oil - 2 tbsp

Salt - to taste

Method:

• Rinse the poha in clean running water. Use a strainer to rinse the poha. While rinsing, the poha absorbs enough water and it becomes soft. The poha must become soft but remain intact, whole and separate. If the poha does not become soft, sprinkle few drops of water on the poha in the strainer.
• Sprinkle the turmeric powder and little salt in the poha. Mix gently.
• Roast the peanuts in a small pan till they become crunchy and keep aside.
• In a kadai, heat oil. Before sauting the aloo/potatoes, just sprinkle some salt and mix it well with the potatoes. Immediately put the potatoes in the hot oil. By using this technique, the potatoes will have salt in them and yet do not loose water and become moist before sauting.
• Saute the potatoes till light golden color and crisp. Keep aside.
• In the same kadai, add the mustard seeds to the hot oil.
• When they splutter, add the cumin seeds. when the cumin seeds sizzle, add the onions. Saute the onions till they become translucent and soften.
• Now add the curry leaves, green chili and roasted peanuts. saute for a minute.
• Add the fried potatoes and then the poha. Mix gently with the rest of the mixture.
• Saute the entire poha mixture for 2-3 minutes on a low flame, stirring gently in between.
• Switch off the flame and cover the pan tightly with a lid for the poha to get steamed for a few minutes.

Note:

• We can also add lemon juice to this poha. Once the poha is done, sprinkle approx 1 tsp lime juice on the batata poha. Mix it well with the poha. Or serve the batata poha with cut lemon pieces.
• We can also garnish the batata poha with little grated coconut and coriander leaves.

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing this BM

Semiya Pulav / Vermicelli Pulav

I am participating in BM #50. And this week I have selected colorful dishes for kids :-)

Since we need a colorful dish I thought of preparing a colorful rice item for lunch box. But I have already posted pulavs and biriyanis. That is when I saw a pack of MTR semiya wherein a recipe of Semiya pulav was given. And I imediately thought of trying it.

I have also seen this recipe in Rak's kitchen. So combined both the recipes and made it in my style. This is the first time I used MTR semiya. The usual semiya I use is very thin when compared to MTR semiya. So kids after tasting this semiya pulav said its veg noodles :-). But they loved it thorougly.

This recipe can be made very quickly and would be a good idea to serve for guests with raita and pickle.

Ingredients:

Vermicelli/semiya(roasted) - 350 grams
Mixed vegetables (chopped) - 100 grams
Onion - 50 grams
Tomato - 40 grams
Mint leaves - little
Coriander leaves - little
Coconut milk (thin) - 2 cups
Salt - to taste

To grind to a smooth paste:

Cardamom/Elaichi - 1
Cinnamon - a small piece
Cloves - 1
Star anise - a small piece
Fennel - 1 tsp
Ginger - a small piece
Green chillies - 4
garlic - 5 pods

To temper:

Ghee - 4 tbsp
Jeera / cumin seeds - 1 tsp
Bay leaf - 1

Method:

• Roast the vermicelli with a tsp of ghee in medium flame,evenly with out changing its colour(if it not raosted vermicelli),you can also skip this part too
• Grind the items given under ‘to grind’ table to a smooth paste with very less water.
• Heat a heavy bottomed pan (I used pot shaped cooker) with ghee and temper with the items given under ‘to temper’ table.
• Add sliced onion fry till onion turns just transparent and add the ground paste. Fry in medium flame for 2-3 minutes,taking care to not to burn it.
• Add the chopped veggies along with tomato(if desired) and the mint and coriander leaves and fry in medium flame for 3 minutes. Add the coconut milk and bring to boil,add required salt
• Then add the vermicelli.Let it boil till it absorbs all the coconut milk and then keep the flame in lowest possible and cook covered for 4-5 minutes.
• Garnish with cashews fried in ghee if you want,or just simply with chopped coriander leaves… serve hot with raita of your choice!

Note:

• If you make the pulav with proper care/just like we make our rice pulav, you will get an equally yummy,delightful pulav.
• Vegetables I used are-carrot,beans,capsicum and cauliflower.
• Don't cook for long time than mentioned as it will make the vermicelli sticky. Also increasing the water/coconut milk will make it sticky and gooey. Using less water ratio and cooking in low flame is the key to get it nice!
• You can grind the mint leaves along with the grinding items.
• You can use ginger garlic paste and add the whole masalas while tempering and avoid the grinding part,if you are lazy to do grinding!

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing this BM