Moong Dal Laddu/Pesara Sunni

This is my sister’s recipe learnt from her motherinlaw.Its easy to make and also comes out good.

For this we need :

Moong dal 1 cup

Rice 2 teaspoons

Sugar 1 cup

Elaichi Powder a pinch

Ghee 1/2 cup

Roast moong dal and rice in a kadai on low heat until they turn golden brown.

Leave them aside until they are at around room temperature and grind them into powder.

Grind sugar separately into powder along with elaichi pods if you do not have elaichi powder.

Meanwhile we can heat ghee until its transparent and liquid in consistency on low heat.

Mix all dry ingredients in a bowl and add ghee slowly checking if it is enough to make round balls.Leave them aside for few minutes for the ghee to settle down.

We can use urad dal also instead of moong dal with the same proportions.

Chutney Podi

Chutney Podi/Idly podi can be used with any tiffin.Usually I use it with idly or dosa because it is loaded with lentils and very good protein food for my kid.She loves it with ghee.recipe is as given below

Urad dal 1cup

fenugreek 1teaspoon

Red Chilli 1 cup

Channa Dal 1cup

Fried gram just a few 1 spoon

Dry roast all ingredients until they turn a little brown and grind all of these into a fine grind powder.Serve it with ghee and enjoy

Pesara avakaya

It’s been a while since I posted any recipes in blog these days. One of the reasons was because I was busy with my sister for the past few days with the entire sister talk, going around,taking care of kids, with little cooking and of course some was shopping too. I met my sister atleast after two and half years as both of us were not in the same country for all these days.So, there was so much for us to talk, laugh, share, fight and enjoy all the fun. I am very lucky to have such a nice sister. We are only two sisters and with no boys in the house we don’t know how it would have been if we had a brother.But, may be I strongly feel we wouldn’t have had that intimacy and fun as we sisters had.

Today I’ll be sharing some recipes which my sister made. About my recipe here , I feel my mom makes the best Andhra pickles on this earth. One of her all time famous pickles is this pesara avakaya.All these years being in US, I missed my moms pickles. But after my sister came to visit me, she brought back those good old days by replicating the pickle exactly with my mom’s taste. To our surprise it was the first time even she made this pickle. I will say, any pickle lover should taste this pesara avakaya.It is just so heavenly that you cannot stop eating it until the pickle is over. This has been our family favorite for many years.

As making this pickle is very easy, we make this in very small quantities each time we make so that it has that fresh taste every time.

To make this pickle

1 raw mango chopped into bite size pieces
2 cups moong dal powder (My mom usually sun dries for a day or two. But as we could not dry them in sun ,we dry roasted the dal and powdered it.)
1 cup red chilli powder
¾ cup salt
1 tsp mustard powder

Method:

Mix all these ingredients with little oil and keep it covered for a day. After a day, season it by frying a table spoon of mustard seems.2-3 dry red chilies broken into small pieces and hing to taste in a table spoon of hot oil.

Vegetable Pongal

I usually make this vegetable pongal for our weekend brunch as it is a power packed one pot meal that satisfies everything we usually have in a full course meal.It has lentils,vegetables ,spice seasoning and most importantly our staple food ,rice.

To make this vegetable pongal,

• Take equal measure of rice and split mung lentil(or can be increased or decreased according to taste)
• Roast dal and rice in a tsp of ghee ,cook till soft.
• In a deep,wide pan,heat a tsp of ghee and saute 1/2 tsp each of mustard and cumin,till mustard seeds pop.Add leaves from a sprig of curry leaf.Saute.
• Add choice of vegetables like chopped carrot,beans,green peas.Tomato can also be used.
• Add finely chopped green chilly,saltand pepper to taste.
• Cover and cook till veggies are soft and tender.Sprinkle water if needed.
• When done,gently stir in cooked lentil-rice mixture.Stir.
• Add fried cashewnuts and few cilantro sprigs finely chopped.Serve with yogurt or any other choice of accompainment.

As suggested by Latha of masala magic,I am sending this vegetable pongal to Suganya’s WBB – Healthy Eats and Meeta’s Monthly mingle – One dish dinners.

Thank you Latha.

Grits Idly

Grits is made by finely grinding corn kernels that are dried and hulled.More information about grits can be found here.I have been using this grits to make idlies like rav idly.It has now become a part of my common breakfast menu these days.

To make these idlies,

• Dry roast grits till nice aroma comes and grits turn to very light golden colour.
• Remove from heat and add desired amount of grated carrot and finely chopped beans.Few sprigs of cilantro finely chopped can also be stirred in.
• Add and stir yogurt to this mixture just enough to make the batter thin like a cake batter.
• In a pan,heat a tsp of ghee,add a tsp of cashewnuts and/or peanuts and fry them till golden.Then,add half tsp each of mustard and cumin and let mustard seeds pop.
• Add this to the mixture.Add salt to taste,stir and leave it overnight so that the mixture is ready to make idlies the next day morning.
• Make idlies as usual and serve with any chutney.

Aritikaya Bajji(Plantain Bajjis)

Assorted Bajjis,Muri mixture(bhel puri) and Spiced raw mango slices.These are the street foods that come into mind when I think of my very own native vizag beach. Ask any vizagite and the first thing they miss apart from their family and friends is these street foods.Even I am one among them.No wonder everytime I visit vizag now,I visit beach only to have these street foods. How ever much we try to replicate the taste,it is only an effort but not the exact one.One such effort I made in the recent times is this aritikaya(plantain) bajjis stuffed with onions

Bajjis are a deep fried snack where vegetables most commonly such as onion,potato,plantain,eggplant,ridge gourd are cut into thin round discs and are dipped in little spiced chickpea – rice flour combined batter.Other veggies and greens like cauliflower ,cabbage and spinach are also commonly used.

To make the ones I made ,

Ingredients:

1.5 cup chick pea flour(besan/senagapindi)

1/2 cup rice flour

1 tsp red chilly powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp carom seeds roughly crushed(cumin also can be used)

Pinch of baking soda

1 medium sized plantain peeled and cut into round discs

To make the batter,mix all the dry ingredients,add water little by little while stirring until the batter reaches thin pan cake batter consistency.

To make bajjis,heat 1 cup or enough oil to deep fry in a pan.Dip plantain circles in the batter to coat both sides then gently drop into hot oil.Repeat in batches for the remaining discs .Deep fry in medium flame,till golden on both sides.Drain on to a paper towel and bajjis are ready to stuff.Can be had just as it is with any pickle like avakaya.

For the stuffing, dry roast one tsp raw peanuts.Let cool and crush corasely with hand.Finely chop half of a medium onion.Add a pinch of salt,chilly powder and 2 tsps lemon juice.Also add one or two cilantro sprigs finely chopped .Let this stand for a minute.

While the bajjis are still warm,make a slit and stuff with the prepared onion mixture.