BottleGourd with Milk

Sometimes,tasty curries might not look and sound good. This is one such kind of curry/kura.I am sure all those who try this curry are going to make this one more than once.Making this is very easy and can be made in less than 15 Min’s.

To make this curry,add and toast popu.Once dal is golden brown ,add peeled and finely chopped(bite size pieces) of bottle gourd and 2 tbsp or as required milk to cook gourd tender but not soft and mushy. When gourd pieces are tender and cooked season with required salt and add 2 tsp of grated jaggery or sugar for that extra taste if desired. I generally like this curry little bit sweet. It tastes divine when served with rice.

Coconut Chutney

I always knew 2 types of coconut chutneys -one that is made with green chillies to eat with tiffins and one this one with popu and tamarind to eat with rice. This is every one’s favourite in our house . To make this,add and toast popu and grind half of this popu with a fistful of defrosted frozen/fresh grated coconut with a teaspoon of thick tamarind paste. Mix the remaining popu with prepared chutney and enjoy with rice or with anything you like.

Almond -Carrot Muffins

Eggs entered into my kitchen only few months back. That is because of my daughter because I am trying to give boiled egg to her from past few months. Earlier I bought eggs to make cakes out of those ready mixes for my cake decoration classes.She doesn’t eat most of the time .But sometimes,she eats little bit or at least tastes. That is enough for me to feel happy that at least she tried a little bit of healthy food. Even though it was difficult for me to resist the smell ,I tried giving her scrambled egg and omelet.But she did not like any of them. She tries eating boiled egg sometimes. For those sometimes, I shop eggs in my regular grocery shopping as I don’t want to give up trying . I am hoping that one day she will eat egg.Cakes and muffins have come up into my kitchen in the same process (giving her egg). Yesterday I tried these Almond – Carrot Muffins as part of those trials. As always she tried. But I don’t know yet,if she is going to like or not. I have to wait and see.To make these muffins,I used

Ingredients

1.5 cups of flour
1.5 cups of sugar
3 eggs
3/4 tsp baking powder
1 big carrot grated
1 cup almonds toasted for about 8 Min’s in the oven at 350F and then chopped
1 stick salted butter
1/4 cup milk(or as required to form smooth batter)

Method

Sift together flour,salt(if using unsalted butter use 1/4 tsp salt) and baking powder.
Beat the softened butter and sugar. Add eggs one each at a time , beating till fluffy each time. Add grated carrot,1/4 cup of milk and mix until combined to form a smooth batter.Stir in chopped almonds. Scoop out one teaspoon batter into a greased muffin pan and bake at 350F for 20 Min’s or till muffins look golden in colour.

Beautiful flower arrangement by Lakshmi

Lakshmi of Springblossoms has posted this beautiful floral arrangement.
SpringBlossoms Flowers Unlimited: New Trends with Candles#links – NYT > Home and Garden – Forbes.com: ForbesLife News .
You can enjoy many more such kind of beautiful arrangements in her blog .

Okra with Peanuts and coconut

Today I experimented okra with coconut and peanuts. I was inspired to make this recipe from the famous “Bendakaya pakodi kura” which is popularly served in weddings. But that dish involves deep frying pakodis ,which I was not intersted today. So, with a little imagination I skipped the pakodi part and seasoned with ground coconut~green chilly paste and the result ,we liked this one better and Iam now going to make this as often as possible.Making this curry was very easy and in almost no time at all.

All I did was chopped 15 clean okra/bendakayalu,heated a skillet with one teaspoon oil,fried fistful of peanuts,took them out on a paper towel,then add and toast popu,added chopped okra. Let it cook till okra circles are tender. Now,grind about 1 tbsp of grated coconut with 2 green chillies,1/4 tsp cumin seeds and added this to the cooked okra. Seasoned with required salt and finally added the fried peanuts before stirring everything gently and served with hot steaming rice.

Super Soft Mallige idly

Mallige Idly is totally new to me.I never heard of this or tasted this before. After reading Seema’s Post on Mallige Idly,I bookmarked it to try once. These idlies are super soft and fluffy. Thankss Seema for the nice recipe. Usually I make idlies with idly rava . But this time I tried this recipe from here and this one is very easy.This is my entry for RCI -Karnataka hosted by Asha.

Vinayaka Chavithi Subhakanshalu వినాయకచవితి సుభకాంక్షలు

picture courtesy from telugudanam.co.in and telugu translation courtesy from lekhini.org

Cauliflower and Beans kura

Inspired by Mahanandi’s Gasagasalu ~ Bendakaaya/Okra ~ Poppy Seed Curry, I tried poppy seed red chilly powder on beans stir fry just as Indira did on okra and we liked it. So,I decided to give it a try on another kura today and the result is very good. We liked this too. Thanks Indira for another good recipe. Poppy seeds were almost never used in my mother’s kitchen. Even in my kitchen,there were times when the poppy seed jar was lying unused till days and weeks and finally ending up in trash. So,I stopped buying . Again,I bought poppy seeds recently thinking to use in some korma recipes. Thank you Indira,my poppy seeds have to never end up in trash again.

To make cauliflower~beans kura, I used

1 cup washed and cleaned cauliflower florets.

1 /2 cup finely chopped beans

1/2 of a medium tomato finely chopped

popu

salt as needed
poppy seed+ red chillies powder( As per Indira’s recipe -> Dry roast 3 tablespoons poppyseeds in a skillet along with 3 dried red chillies and pound into a fine powder)

Method:

Add and toast popu in a skillet. Add veggies and salt as required. Cover and cook till tender. Sprinkle water if necesarry in between. Add poppyseed powder,stir and let cook for 2 minutes.Serve hot with rice

Tomatillo Pachchadi

Tomatillos are more like raw unripe tomato. Until recently I was thinking it to be a raw or unripe tomato only.But,seeing the outer husk,I was surprised because I do not remeber seeing any such husk from unripe tomatoes that I ate back in India. After googling,I found out that tomatillo is a relative of tomato.More information about tomatillo can be found here

Never mind dear tomatillo. I still feel the taste very similar to the much known unripe tomato .So,I continued to use it as a raw tomato only.

I learn’t this recipe from my mother in law.Even though making this chutney or pachchadi, I would suggest eating this after 5-6 hours or make it in the morning to eat for dinner as it would taste best when the tomatillo pieces absorb the flavours well by that time.

To make this, I used

3 small tomatillos

1 tbsp mustard seeds

4 dry red chillies(adjust according to chily variety)

salt to taste

popu -> 1 tsp oil,1/4 tsp asfoetida

Method:

Soak mustard seeds and red chillies together in a cup of water for 30 min’s.

Grind soaked mustard seeds and red chillies together into a fine paste using little or no water.

Remove husk,clean and chop tomatillo into fine pieces. Add these pieces to the ground paste. Add salt and stir well. Heat one teaspoon oil in a pan and add 1/4 tsp hing or asfoetida.Add this to the pachchadi and stir. Serve with rice.

Tastes best after 5 – 6 hours.

Upma with leftover Idlies

Idly has become our standard breakfast these days. But, today I was so busy with other things that I skipped my breakfast.So, I had 3 idlies leftover waiting for me. I heard about idly upma but never did myself. Today was the day to try out this one. I made this as a snack in the evening and tasted good.So,Iam sharing it with you all.

In a heated skillet ,I added popu ->1 tsp each of chana dal,urad dal and mustard and 1/4 tsp of cumin seeds in 1 tbsp oil.When dals are fried till gold in colour, add 1/4 tsp of finely chopped ginger, 2 green chillies chopped and 3 curry leaves along with half of a medium sized onion finely chopped. Saute everything till onions are cooked. Now add powdered idly ,season with required salt and stir. I added some soaked and boiled chanaa.