Vegetable Burger - Easy and quick method

For the past few weeks, I have been craving burgers. I do not like to eat burgers outside mostly because they use meat and cheese in the preparation. I wanted to try out a simple vegetable burger at home which is less in calories and also more tasty. To start with, the first thing that came to my mind was Potatoes. So I prepared Potato cutlet to go in between the burger buns.



The Potato cutlet is a very easy recipe. But the problem with my cutlet was, it was not stiff enough. Though I used bread crumbs and squeezed out excess water from the vegetables, the cutlet was not stiff enough to hold its shape while eating. Who cares? I am not serving a party. I was completely satisfied with the taste. So if you are trying out this recipe for a party or to serve someone else, do take care to be sure that the cutlet would hold its shape. If anyone knows any tips for this please share it.

Ingredients:

2 Burger buns
1/2 cup chopped lettuce
1/4 cup length wise chopped onions
4 thin slices of tomatoes

For the cutlet:

2 medium potato, boiled and peeled
1/4 finely chopped onions
1/4 cup finely chopped coriander leaves
1 tsp chilli powder
2 green chillies, finely chopped
1 tsp garam masala powder
Salt to taste
1/4 cup of bread crumbs
Oil to shallow fry

Method:

In a bowl, mash the boiled potatoes.

Add all the other ingredients and mix well with hands.

Make small balls with this mixture and make flat round shape.

Roll this on the bread crumbs.

In a pan, add some oil and shallow fry these cutlets until they are cooked.

Place 1 half of burger bun, add some lettuce, onions and tomatoes on top.

Place the cutlet on top of it and add some more lettuce.

Cover it with t he other half of the burger bun and serve with ketchup.

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Intimidated by the road side shops, I made...

When I was working back in India, I used to take my office bus for commutation. Most of time I fall asleep in my return journey. But, the few time I was awake, I was intimidated by the road side biriyani shops. They have a very big vessel (Anda in Tamil) and they will prepare mostly Egg biriyani, which would taste divine, I was told.



I wanted to try Egg Biriyani at home but the option was ruled out when I was in India. But here, I tried it. I couldn't compare the taste because I have not tasted the shop biriyani. However, I can say at least, it looked like the one served in shops. Here is the recipe

Ingredients:

4 Boiled Eggs
1 cup Basmati Rice
1 tsp biryani masala pdr
1 tsp black cumin or regular cumin
1 tbspn Butter
1 tbsp Ginger garlic paste
4 chopped Green Chillies
1 cup mint
1 tbsp oil
1 large Onions
2 cup Plain Yogurt
Salt to taste
2 bay leaves
2-3 cloves
2 cinnamon stick
few cashews

To marinate the Egg:

1 tsp red chilli powder
1 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp cumin powder
1 egg
1 tsp ginger garlic paste
1 tsp besan flour

Method:

Add oil in a pan. Add the Bayleaf,cloves and cinnamon. Add some black or regular cumin seeds and onion.

Saute them and add the salt.

Add cashew nuts. Saute.

Add green chillies, coriander leaves and mint.

Add ginger garlic paste and mix well.

Add 1 cup of curd and biriyani masala powder (50g) and mix well.

Add water (2 cups) and add 1 cup of rice.

Check for seasoning and if all fine then cover it with lid and allow it to cook in a medium flame.

Meanwhile prepare the marination for the eggs (OPTIONAL) - I have prepared both ways and I liked when it is not marinated. So the choice is yours.

In a bowl, add chilli powder, ginger garlic paste,coriander powder,cumin powder, basan flour and mix well.

Add egg white to this mixture. Mix well and coat the boiled eggs with this marination.

In a pan, add butter and shallow fry these marinated eggs.

When the rice is done, mix this egg with the rice carefully.

If you want you can add orange color to the rice.

Garnish it with some coriander leaves and serve hot with raita or any side dish of your choice.

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Coconut Rice Recipe

As a kid, I bet everyone would have loved this coconut rice. But after you have reached a certain age, we tend to avoid this recipe as it contributes more cholesterol. But I think a treat now and then is acceptable. Life is full of changes. The things we loved when were kids becomes a second or last choice when we grow up. Not only types of food, this quality prevails in many things. Why is it so? Why do we have to change ourselves to suite the society? Can't we still be like kids, with no responsibilities, have fun and playing most of the time? I know it is not possible but why? Why? Why?




Coconut Rice is a delicacy. No one can deny it. It has a unique flavor that fills your kitchen pulling your husband and kids to the kitchen to take a peek. Here is the recipe for you to try out and win the super chef title!

I am sending this lovely recipe to Ramki's Recipe for rest of us event and FIC- White started by dear Harini and guest host this month by Kitchen flavours.

Ingredients:

1 cup of Basmati Rice (you can also use the normal white rice)
1/2 cup of coconut (You can use the freshly grated or the coconut powder too)
2 tsp of Coconut Oil ( you can also substitute this with Olive/Canola/Vegetable oil)
1/2 tbspn of coconut milk OR 1 tsp of sugar
2-3 green chillies, chopped
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp channa dal
1 tsp urad dal
Few Cashews or groundnuts (your choice, you can omit this too)
Salt to taste
Few curry leaves
Few chopped cilantro



Method:

In a pan, add the oil. Add mustard seeds, when it pops, add the cumin seeds and curry leaves.

Now add the channa dal and urad dal. Saute.

Add the Green chillies and nuts. If the nuts are not previously fried. Do fry them at this point.

Add the grated coconut and mix well.

Add salt and coconut milk or 1 tsp of sugar and mix well. If you are adding the coconut milk, you need not add sugar as it is sweet by itself. This gives the unique flavor to this rice variety.

Mix them well and cook it for a minute.

Meanwhile, cook the Basmati rice and allow it to cool for 5 min.

Mix the rice with this coconut mixture and Ta-da! Your coconut rice is ready. This is a very easy recipe and goes well with Papad,chips or Potato curry. YUM!

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Pasta with homemade tomato sauce

I recently prepared Matar Paneer and I was wondering how pasta would taste with its sauce(gravy). So waiting for Pasta night and tried this combination and to my surprise it tasted really good. My husband loved the taste and I was very happy that I took a shot at this.



It is very simple, the gravy/sauce preparation is as follows,

Ingredients:

1/2 cup onions, finely chopped
3/4 cup of tomatoes, fine chopped
1/2 tbspn of cashews
1 tbspn of oil
Salt to taste
2 finely chopped green chillies
1 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp cumin powder
1 tsp red chili powder

Method:

In a pan, add 1 tbspn of oil. Add the cashews and fry them till light brown.

Now add the chopped onions, salt and saute them till they are light brown.

Now add the green chilies, tomatoes and mix well. cook till the tomatoes are mashed.

Allow the mixture to cool. Grind it to a thick puree with adding very little water.

In the same pan, add the puree and 1/4 cup of water. Bring it to a boil.

Add coriander powder, cumin powder,chili powder and mix well.

Cook it in Sim flame for 10 minutes.

Now Prepare the Pasta as given by the manufacturer.

Mix Pasta with this sauce and serve hot!

If you want you can cook some vegetables separately and mix it with the sauce so that we get some crunchy effect too.

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Garlic Naan - Indian Flat Bread For Breadline Africa

Garlic Naan is my favorite Indian flat bread. Whenever I go to an Indian restaurant, I order this item. Yummy! I wanted to try this at home but was not sure how it will come out. Finally, I did try this yesterday and it turned out awesome. This is a very simple recipe but you got to do it right to get the recipe right. I also made mattar paneer to go with this and our dinner was perfect!

I don't know why, but my smoke alarm has a great feeling for my oven. whenever I switch on the oven, the smoke alarm goes off. So typical! I could only make 2 Naans using oven and I made the rest using my tawa on stove top. Either way, it tasted grate.




Ning of Heart and Hearth tagged me for baking a bread for good cause. Yes!Breadline Africa launched the Worldwide Blogger Baker Bake-Off Challenge aiming at raising $ 1 M in funds. This bake-off gives us baking bloggers the power to make a difference in this world. What do we do? Bake bread. Give Dough. Feed Africa.
Breadline Africa says : On 15 October, we launched The Breadline Africa Worldwide Blogger Bake Off.

The Blogger Bake Off is an online campaign that challenges bloggers to get involved by baking bread, and then acting by donating to end poverty. And then, challenge their readers and five other bloggers to do the same.

With the money raised, we will be supporting grass roots community projects aimed at ending poverty and hunger in Africa. We’ll be placing container kitchens, vegetable gardens and more in poor communities, sending emergency food relief where needed and helping these poor communities to help themselves.

The rules for bloggers are outlined below:

If you are tagged, copy and paste the rules into your post.

Bake bread, do something you wouldn’t normally do, and blog about it. Upload your picture and recipe.

Give dough, donate to Breadline Africa and help us end poverty.

Tag five bloggers, and ping us so we know you’ve done so.

The person who raises the most funds will get to name a Breadline Africa community kitchen and win $500 Amazon Vouchers.

There are also three minor prizes of $250 Amazon vouchers for people who receive the most votes in the following categories: Most Unusual Recipe; Most Nutritious Recipe and Most Traditional Recipe.

I prepared this Garlic Naan as it is a traditional Indian recipe.

Ingredients:

1 cup of All purpose flour
salt to taste
1/4 cup warm water
1 tsp dry yeast
1 tsp sugar
1/4 cup of milk
1 tbspn of minced garlic



Method:

In a small bowl, add the yeast to the warm water. Add sugar to make the yeast activate.

Rest it for 10 minutes.

Now add the required amount of salt and milk and mix well.

In a medium bowl, add t he all purpose flour. Add this yeast mixture and make it into a dough.

The dough must be very soft, even if it is sticky that is fine but it must be very very soft.

Cover it and rest it for 20 minutes.

Now preheat the oven to 500 degree F.

Make a medium size ball from the dough, add some flour and make it into a round shape.

Toss it between your hands. This makes shape of the naan and slightly pull it one side so that it looks more like a triangle.

If you want your Naan to be in round shape or square, go ahead.

Place the Naan in a non-stick pan and bake it for 2 min one side. Remove it, turn and bake the other side for 30 to 45 seconds.

For preparing Garlic Naan, add 1 tsp of the minced garlic to Naan dough while making the medium ball. Do the same procedure.

Apply butter immediately on the Naan and serve hot with side dish of your choice. I love this with Mattar paneer/Paneer Tikka masala/Aloo Mattar.

If you do not have oven or for some reason your smoke alarm goes off whenever you use your oven (like in my house), you can also make this Naan in stove top using the Tawa/griddle.

Make sure that you cook both the sides well in medium heat and then enjoy. What I personally felt using this method was that the Naan was even more soft. But the yeast taste for predominant. So be careful while cooking. Be sure that the Naan is completely cooked before you eat.

I am tagging

Terrasa
Lauren
Jenn
Ben
Jill

Hope you could participate guys. Happy Baking!

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Spaghetti for Thanksgiving dinner!

As I told in my yesterday's post, here is the Spaghetti and vegetable balls recipe. Actually, whenever I hear the word Spaghetti I automatically think of meat balls. Assuming that the recipe would taste awesome, I wanted to make a vegetarian version of it. I do remember Cham of Spiceclub making Spaghetti and Soy balls sometime before. The thing is, my husband is not a great fan of soy products. Leaving me no choice but to try vegetable balls.



To be honest, they did taste very good and now have joined my regular dinner list. I am really amazed at myself for trying out stuff. I am a lazy person for whom cooking was a chore. But now, I am inspired by so many to try out different varieties of food.

Let me give you the recipe,

Ingredients:

1 cup spaghetti
1 cup of vegetables, fine chopped (carrots,beans,cabbage,celery etc)
1 cup boiled rice OR 1 egg
3 tbsp chili paste
3 chopped green chillies
1 tbspn chopped garlic
1 tsp cumin seeds
3 tbsp corn flour
1 large ginger, finely chopped
Oil to fry
1 medium onion
2 tsp pepper powder
Salt to taste
4 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp sugar
1/2 cup spring onions


Method:

Add little water and steam the finely chopped minced vegetables in a pan. Steam it for 2 min and drain the vegetables by squeezing and store the water for making the sauce. This water is like vegetable stock so do not throw them away.

In a bowl add the cooked vegetables, salt, few chopped green chillies,pepper powder,ginger,soy sauce,chili paste,corn flour and mix well.

Now you can either use egg or 1 cup of boiled rice to this mixture to make small dumplings.

In a pan, heat the oil and deep fry these dumplings.

Note: If the dumpling breaks, add some more boiled rice to the mixture.

To make sauce:

In a pan, add oil. Add cumin seeds, chopped garlic and ginger.

Add onion and saute them.

Add green chili, pepper powder, soy sauce, a pinch of sugar and chili sauce.

Add the vegetable stock, required amount of salt.

Let it come to a boil.

Now, add the vegetable dumplings and coat them with this sauce.

Meanwhile cook the spaghetti as per the instruction. Serve hot with this vegetable balls and a perfect Thanksgiving Dinner is ready, the vegetarian way!

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Pasta in Chilli Sauce

After coming to the US, Pasta has become a weekly dinner for us. Atleast once in a week I cook Pasta for dinner. This makes it harder for me. If I cook pasta the same way, my big baby here is not eating. He wants variation. Cooking for him is more work than preparing for a math exam. Every meal must be different and atleast I must not have prepared it within that month. Sometimes I run out of recipes. But to be very honest, many a times my fellow foodies blog have helped me show variations in cooking.Kudos to you!



This time it is Pasta with Chilli sauce. This is the same chilli sauce we prepare for Gobi Manchurian (dry). Just added the Pasta and wow! it was spicy. You can reduce the quantity of spice according to your taste. This is yet another very easy and quick to make Pasta recipe.

Ingredients:

1 cup pasta (any type)
1 medium onion, finely chopped
2 tsp oil
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tbspn garlic, minced
1/2 tbspn ginger,finely chopped
1 tsp pepper powder
1 tsp cumin powder
1 tbspn chilli garlic sauce

Method:

Cook the pasta as given by the manufacturer.

In a pan, add oil. Add cumin seeds.

Now add garlic, ginger. Saute them for few seconds.

Add Onions and saute them.

Add cumin powder and 1 tbspn of water for the spice to cook.

Add pepper powder and chilli garlic sauce. Cook for a minute.

Add the cooked paste and mix well so that each pasta is coated with the sauce.

Makes a great dinner if you are a spice lover.

I am sending this to Presto Pasta Night started by Ruth and this week's host is Nilmandra

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Try Masala Capsicum Rice for Thanksgiving

Do you want an Indian recipe for this Thanksgiving? And do you want it to be vegetarian? if Yes, you ought to try this Masala capsicum rice recipe. I have seen many recipes for capsicum rice. But this one is the winner. If you are person who loves to eat rice, you will love this recipe.



This is perfect for a Thanksgiving lunch or dinner. The best part is, you can eat this without any side dish and it still tastes awesome. I loved it and I suggest you to give it a try sometime.

Ingredients:

1 cup cooked Basmati rice
1 cup capsicum (red,yellow, green) - what the heck? make your rice colorful!
1 tbspn of ghee (clarified Butter)
1/4 cup onions chopped lengthwise
Salt to taste

To dry roast and grind:

2 whole red chilli
1 tsp mustard seeds
2 tsp cum seeds
2 tsp coriander seeds
1 tbspn peanuts
few curry leaves
2 tsp urad dal



Method:

In a pan, dry roast the ingredients mentioned.

Allow it to cool and the blend it to a coarse powder.

Meanwhile cook the basmati rice.

In a pan, add ghee and saute the onions.

Add the capsicums and saute. Cook until the capsicums are half cooked.

Now add the coarsely ground powder and mix well.

Take this mixture and mix well with the rice.

Garnish it with cilantro before serving. Serve hot in a capsicum bowl!

I am sending this to Srivalli's Rice Mela and Mansi's Vegetarian Thanksgiving.

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Homemade Vegetable Pizza

Pizza, the Italian food loved by entire world. When I did my college, Pizza hut and Pizza was very new to me. We friends go out whenever possible to get stuffed with Italian Delicacy. As time passed by, I realized that it contributed a lot to my weight gain. I had to stop eating Pizza for some time. Now, again I have started eating Pizza, but this time I watch what I eat.



I have already shared my video on how to make homemade pizza base. That day, I prepared Vegetarian delight and Pineapple delight with the base. Here is the vegetarian delight Pizza recipe.

Ingredients:

1 Pizza Base (Check out the video for ingredients and method to prepare the Pizza base)

1 cup vegetables (tomato, green capsicum, black olives,Onions)

1/4 cup Pineapple (optional)

1/2 cup mozzarella cheese

1/2 cup Pizza sauce ( I used Marinara)

Method:

After the Pizza base is ready, spread the marinara sauce equally on the base.

Now place the vegetables and pineapples in any order you want.

Add the shredded cheese.

Bake it at 450 degree F for 12 to 15 min.

Allow it to cool for 2 min and serve hot.

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Home made Pizza base/Dough - A cooking Video

I love Pizza! preparing it at home was great fun! You should give it a try if you haven't till now. It is easy and simple to make Pizza base/dough at home and you can make any kind of pizza within minutes. Yes it is quick to make too. Do share your experiences with us. Do you make your own Pizza? Which is your favorite kind of Pizza? Mine is Veggie delight with pineapple topping! Yummy!



Note : Bake the pizza at 450 degree F for 15 mts.

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Pudina/Mint Rice/Pulao - My favorite herb recipe

Pudina/Mint is my all time favorite herb. I can eat curd rice with pudina thuvayal all day. Generally I eat this as a Pudina Thuvayal sadam(rice) but this time I wanted to make it with some additional masala and make it as Pudina/Mint Fried Rice/pulao .



The smell of these herbs are really refreshing. You can also use Mint in making Briyani to give it a rich taste. Now for the recipe of Pudina/Mint Rice/Pulao.This recipe serves for 6 people and I am sending this to World Food Day event.

Ingredients:

4 cups Basmati rice (Can use boiled rice too)
1 cup mint leaves
5 green chillies OR Red Chilli whole
6 cloves of garlic
an inch of ginger
1 tsp cumin seeds
2 Bay leaves
2 whole cardamom
a piece of cinnamon stick
salt to taste
1 tbspn Ghee (Clarified Butter)
Tamarind - 1/2 the Lemon size
2 tsp Channa Dal
2 tsp Urad Dal



Method:

In a pan, add ghee and add ural and channa dal.

When they turn light brown in color, add the chillies and tamarind and saute.

Now add the mint leaves and saute for few min.

Allow the mixture to cool and grind it with salt into a fine paste.

Meanwhile, cook the rice in a rice cooker or pressure cooker. Allow the rice to cool after it is cooked.

In a big pan, add ghee and now add the bay leaf,cardamom,cinnamon and cumin seeds.

Now add cashews and fry till they become light brown. Switch off the stove.

Now add the rice and mix well.

Add the Pudina/Mint mixture and mix well. Add 2 tsp of ghee while mixing.

Check for salt.

This is my traditional way of cooking Mint/Pudina rice/Pulao. There are other ways of doing this too.

This rice is best eaten with chips,Papad or Potato. We had Potato fry,Papad and Mint rice for our dinner last weekend.

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Spinach Rice Recipe - For all the vegan and vegetarian lovers!

I love spinach. Even as a kid, I used to eat them without making a fuzz, my mom still says. May be because of my mom's spinach recipe. But who cares, I love something healthy! Can you believe it? For a person who loves to roll in chocolates and Ice creams, this is something unusual. But, hey I naturally love Spinach! God's gift! Who else is with me? Who else love spinach like me? C'mon there must be someone to give me company!



There are a lot of varieties to try with spinach. For example, Palak dal, Keera vadai (Spinach fritters), Spinach curry. And I also came to know that organic spinach are good for health. Recently I came across a Mexican recipe for Spinach rice. As usual, I added few Indian spices and turned it to an Indian recipe! It has become very easy for me now-a-days to convert a recipe to Indian. Thanks to coriander and cumin powder!

I see many people converting to vegetarian now-a-days. I am happy! I am a born vegetarian. But now, I have started to eat eggs for some medical reasons, but still I call my self a vegetarian. Eggs are vegetarian for me. I know true vegans and vegetarians won't agree but then, I love eggs and I love to call myself vegetarian. So what do you guys say? Are Eggs vegetarian? Absolutely not vegan!

With no further adieu, here is the Spinach Rice recipe which I bet all the vegan and vegetarian lovers would vote for.



Ingredients:

1 cup spinach
2 cup cooked rice ( it can be your normal rice or Basmati rice)
1/2 cup onions cut lengthwise
1/4 cup peas and corn (I used frozen, if you are using fresh, cook them separately)
1/4 cup green pepper chopped length wise (you can also use any other color pepper)
3 Garlic flake, minced
Few fried cashews
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste
1 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp cumin powder
1 tsp cumin seeds
1/4 cup spring onions (optional)
1 tsp of Extra virgin olive oil
1 bay leaf
1 cinnamon stick
2 whole cardamom


Method:

Pressure cook the rice and allow it to cool.

In a pan, add oil, bay leaf,cinnamon stick, whole cardamom, cumin seeds. Saute.

Now add the onions Garlic and green pepper. Saute them for few min.

Add salt, coriander, cumin powder and mix well.

Now add the peas and corn. Mix well.

Add the cut spinach and cook them for 2 min.

Add pepper to taste.

Switch off the stove.

Mix the rice with this and garnish it with fried cashews. Serve hot!

This rice doesn't need any side dish. But if you like you can eat it with raita or papad.

I am sending this Spinach rice to,

Lunch box event by Vandana Rajesh. You can cook this in 20 mts and you need not prepare a side dish and most of all your kids will be eating something delicious yet healthy!

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If I say Italy, You say?

Pasta! What else? Though there is lot other things to embrace in Italy, the main thing most of us foodie remember is Pasta. Preparing any kind of Pasta salad recipe requires creativity and passion. Italian Pasta recipe has its own flavor and fans. As we all know there are different kinds of pasta, I used Rotini Pasta to prepare this salad.



Cooking during weekends is difficult for me. With my husband sitting in the sofa enjoying himself watching a movie or browsing the net, I feel lazy to even get up to drink water. Seeing this my husband volunteered to cook dinner on Saturday. OK. What's going on? Is he really going to cook? Thank god! Yes. I decided to help him for various other reasons and knowing the very fact of how my kitchen will look after he finishes his cooking.

He decided to do Egg Pasta Salad dipped in chilli sauce with some leftover vegetables. Vah! Here is the recipe,

Ingredients:

Pasta - Desired amount as given in the manufacturers direction
1 cup of Onions Sliced lengthwise
1 cup of Zucchini Sliced lengthwise
1/4 cup of tomato
1/4 cup lettuce
1/4 cup of Spinach
1/4 cup of corn (optional)
1/4 of celery
1/2 cup of bell pepper
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste
1 tbspn of Chilli sauce
2 eggs



Method:

Cook pasta as given in the manufacturers direction. Keep it aside.

In a pan, add some oil. Then add onions and saute them.

Add tomatoes,and all the other vegetables including corn and cook with little water.

Add salt and pepper.

After say 3min, add the chilli sauce and some more water to the mixture and cook in Sim flame for 5 min.

All the vegetables would have absorbed the flavour and now it is time to mix the cooked pasta.

Switch of the stove and mix the cooked pasta with this mixture.

You can serve at this point if you do not want to add eggs. Check for the seasonings and serve hot.

Meanwhile in another pan, add some oil and break the eggs in the pan. cook them with salt and pepper.

Scramble the eggs and when it is ready add this to the vegetable pasta mixture.

Mix well and serve hot.

If you feel that its very spicy, then squeeze a lemon on top!

This recipe doesn't require any side dish. But, if you want, be your boss.

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Vermicelli (Semiya) Biriyani/Briyani Recipe

Recently I came across various version of Vermicelli (Semiya) Biriyani in many of our foodie's blog. This variety of Biriyani was really new to me. The only things I have tried with Semiya(Vermicelli) are Vermicelli (Semiya) Payasam and Semiya Upma. The main thing that made me skeptical in trying this biriyani is, lumps. If you screw the process it is for sure you will land up having lumps. But, I have a cure for that now. Its easy and tasty.



To avoid getting lumps in any of the semiya recipes, fry them in Ghee/Oil till they become light brown in colour. This really solves the lump issue. The rest depends on your recipe. So, here comes my vermicelli Biriyani Recipe.

Ingredients:

2 cup vermicelli/Semiya
1 tbspn Ghee/clarified butter
1 Cinnamon stick
1 bay leaf
2 cloves
2 whole cardamom
1 cup onions finely chopped
Salt to taste
1 tsp chilli powder
1 tsp cumin powder
1 tsp coriander powder
1 cup of Mint leaves, washed
1 tsp of Biriyani masala powder(optional)/ Garam masala powder
1 cup chopped vegetables(Any kind, I used carrots,cauliflower,potatoes)
1 cup of peas and corn (Frozen is good)




To Blend:

1 small onion
1 small tomato
1/4 cup of cilantro
2 garlic
1 1/4 inch piece of ginger
1 green chilli



Method:

In a pan, fry the vermicelli in ghee. Allow it to cool.Keep it aside.

In the same pan, add the ghee. When hot, add cloves,bay leaves,cinnamon stick,cardamom and wait till you get t he aroma.

Add the onions and saute them. Add salt.

Add mint leaves and cook.

Add the blended mixture to it and cook in Sim flame till the raw smell is vanished.

Add chilli powder, cumin powder,coriander powder and mix well.

If you want colour, you can add either saffron powder or soy sauce to it.

Add the vegetables, corn and peas and add little water and cook them.

When the vegetables are 75% cooked, add 2 cups of water and wait till it comes to a boil.

Now add the vermicelli and cook in a Sim flame.

Mix occasionally so that the bottom is not burnt.

Garnish it with cilantro and little lime juice and serve hot with your favorite side dish.

Need recipes for side dish? Don't worry! You can find them in my recipe index.

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I am back with Lemon Rice!

Have you ever felt that time is running so fast? I did, recently. My 1 month vacation is over in a blink! Wow! Going on vacation is real fun and that too when you go to your native place to meet your family and friends. Nothing can equal this joy. I had a great time in India. Ate all my favourite dishes and spent time with my family. Jeez! I miss them. Though the travel time is nearly 22hrs, I managed to sleep most of the time so that I can avoid Jet lag. Visited Tirupathi and attended few functions and now I am sitting in my new apt cherishing all my memories. Yes I am Back! We shifted to a new apartment and now I have to get accustomed to this new environment and set things.

You may ask, what did you cook so soon with nothing much in your kitchen? Of course, the all time saver, Lemon Rice. This is the most easiest recipe I have ever come across, of course next to curd rice. I have tasted lemon rice in many of my friends and relatives place, but only few recipes lure me to eat them more.I am sharing my favourite lemon rice recipe which makes me eat more lemon rice even when I am on a diet.

Preparation time is 30 mts. This time is just to cook the rice, all the other preparation takes less than 5mts. For a beginner, I would suggest you to do this dish more carefully, as even a minute mistake will spoil the taste of this dish.

Ingredients: (For 2 people)

1 Lemon for taking lemon juice or you can also use the Lemon squash that you get in shop. But fresh lemon juice adds a lot of flavour and aroma to this recipe.

1 cup Rice (You can go for either basmati rice or your normal rice). If you do this recipe more often I would suggest you to go with the normal rice as more intake of basmati rice is not that good for health.

2 cup of water if normal rice OR 1 1/2 cup of water for basmati rice

1 tsp of Urad dal
1 tsp of channa dal
2 Green chillies
A few pieces of cut ginger
Finely cut cilantro for garnishing
1tsp of turmeric powder
2tsp of oil
1tsp of mustard seeds
A pinch of Hing powder
Salt to taste

Optional:
1/4 cup of fried ground nuts
1 tsp of cashew

Method:
In Rice cooker, cook the rice with the required amount of water.

In a pan, add some oil, mustard seeds. When the seeds pops, add hing, urad dal, channa dal and saute them.

Add Green chillies, turmeric powder and ginger and saute them for few seconds.

After the rice is cooked, cool it for few minutes. Add the mixture from the pan and mix well.

Add the lemon juice, salt, ground and cashew nuts and mix well.

Garnish it with cilantro and serve with papad or any of your favourite side dish.

There are many other ways of preparing this lemon rice, but this is my favourite way.

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Jeera Rice/Pulao - A simple way to cook rice

Hope you all had a great weekend. Mine went with sleeping and shopping. You know what? Now a days I am starting to feel guilty if I dint post at least 1 recipe a day. I hope everyone is feeling the same. Yesterday I couldn't post and I felt as though I did something wrong :) Anyways today I have come up with the simplest yet a scrumptious recipe made with rice. Yes you got it right- Jeera rice. whenever I feel lazy or had to cook something very fast I go with this jeera rice recipe.

Ingredients:

1 cup basmathi rice (Soaked for 30 to 45 mts)
1 tbsp butter or oil
1/4 bunch coriander leaves
1/2 cup onion
2 number gr chilli
1 tsp jeera (cumin)
1/4 bunch mint (optional)
1 pinch saffron color
1 to taste salt
2 cup water
few cashews

Method:

Heat the oil/ghee in a pan. Add cumin seeds, green chillies, cashews. Fry ill the cashews turn light brown.

Add onions and saute till they are light brown.

Now add coriander leaves and mint leaves. Add water and let it come to a boil.

Now add the soaked rice and saffron colour and salt. Mix well and let it cook in Sim flame.

since the rice is already soaked it will take only 10-15mts to prepare this recipe.

Serve hot with your favourite side dish.

Note: You can also do this jeera rice recipe the same way in a rice cooker.

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Pasta - An Italian Food Made Indian

Pasta is an Italian food made from a dough using flour, water and/or eggs. Pasta was and is the most commonly used food in many of the American homes. Why Americans, even Asians love pasta. Pasta is one of the simplest yet scrumptious food given to the world by Italians. There are nearly 350 different shapes of pasta and you can prepare them in any way you want. To know more about different pasta shapes visit Pasta and its shapes. Pasta is a delicious food by itself, and just by adding few more ingredients increases the richness of this food. To get the answers for many pasta related questions like, how to store pasta?, how to cook pasta perfectly? etc. visit the National Pasta Association.

Now for the Pasta made in an Indian way. Yesterday, I was lazy to prepare dinner. I wanted to complete my dinner preparation within 15mts. With any other food, it would have taken minimum of 30mts. So I decided Pasta is my best choice. But, I did not have any sauce or any other vegetable in my fridge to go with my pasta. My favourite Onions and tomatoes came to my rescue. This Pasta with tomato and onions is the most simplest way of preparing this food.

Ingredients:
1 medium size onion finely chopped
1 large tomato finely chopped
4 flakes of garlic finely chopped
1tsp of coriander powder
1tsp of cumin powder
1tsp of mustard
1tsp of cumin seeds
Salt to taste
1tsp of pepper powder
2tsp of chilli powder
1tsp of oil

Method:
Cook the pasta as directed by the manufacturer.
In a pan, add oil, mustard seeds, cumin seeds. When the seeds pops, add onion and saute them. When the onion turns light brown add the tomatoes, garlic and fry for 2 min.
Add the cumin powder,coriander powder, chilli powder, salt and mix well. Add 1 cup of water and cook this mixture in a Sim flame for 10 minutes. Finally add pepper powder and mix.
If the mixture becomes dry add some water to it and cook.
Now in a bowl, mix the cooked pasta and this tomato mixture. Serve hot.

This is mostly like Tomato rice recipe. Instead of Rice we add Pasta. How much more can you ask from food? So easy huh?

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Mango Rice Recipe

Mangoes originated in East India, Burma and the Andaman Islands bordering the Bay of Bengal. Around the 5th century B.C., Mango is called Mangifera indica and is known as 'king of fruit' throughout the world.The Mango tree plays a sacred role in India; it is a symbol of love and some believe that the Mango tree can grant wishes. In India, Mangoes are found in plenty during the summer season. We can make a variety of food using mango and 'Mango Rice' is one such food. I use a lot of chillies to this recipe as mango will give this food a sourness/sweetness.

Ingredients:

1tsp channa dal
chopped ginger optional
1 bunch coriander leaves
1 pinch cumin
4 cup fresh cooked rice
1 number grated raw mango
6 number green chillies

1piece ginger finely chopped
1 pinch hing
1 pinch mustard
4 tsp oil
3 piece red chilli whole
Salt to taste
1pinch turmeric
1 tsp urad dhal

Fried cashews

Method:

Cook the rice separately and keep it ready.

In a pan, add oil,red chilli whole , mustard seeds and cumin and when they crackle add channa dal,urad dal,broken cashew nuts, and saute them.

Now add hing ,green chillies,curry leaves, chopped ginger, turmeric and add grated mango.

Cook till mango is tender and then add cooked rice and mix well serve hot.

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Egg Fried Rice Recipe

Fried rice is a famous recipe from Chinese cuisine which has also taken its form Asian cuisine. Whenever we come across fried rice, the first type that comes to our mind or at least to my mind is vegetable fried rice. However, there are a different types of fried rice and they can be prepared in many different ways. I will share my way of preparing Egg fried rice. Why egg? Egg has lot of protein in it and is very good for health. You can also do chicken or any other fried rice using your creativity.

Did you know? (From WIKIPEDIA)

A boiled egg can be distinguished from a raw egg without breaking the shell by spinning it. A hard-boiled egg's contents are solid due to the de-naturation of the protein, allowing it to spin freely, while viscous dissipation in the liquid contents of a raw egg causes it to stop spinning within approximately three rotations.

If a boiled egg is overcooked, a greenish ring sometimes appears around egg yolk. This is a manifestation of the iron and sulphur compounds in the egg. It can also occur when there is an abundance of iron in the cooking water. The green ring does not affect the egg's taste; overcooking, however, harms the quality of the protein (chilling the egg for a few minutes in cold water until the egg is completely cooled prevents the greenish "ring” from forming on the surface of the yolk).

Now coming to Egg fried rice,

Ingredients:

water
salt to taste
2 tablespoons soy sauce

1 tbspn of chilli sauce
1 cup uncooked Basmati rice
1 tbspn vegetable oil /Olive oil (You can use ghee for rich taste instead of oil)
1/2 onion, finely chopped

1/4 cup of spring onions finely chopped
1/2 cup green peas

1/4 cup of green beans and carrot
2 egg, lightly beaten
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

1/4 cup of capsicum or 2 green chillies

Method:

In a big pot, add some oil and fry the rice for 1 min. Now add enough water (water level must be slightly more than the rice) , salt and cook the rice in medium flame.

In a pan, add oil, onions,spring onions, green chillies and fry them for 2 min. Now add the beans,carrot and peas and fry them for 2 min.

Now add little water, soy and chilly sauce and mix well. Allow the vegetables to cook.

Add the beaten eggs and scramble them while they cook. Add salt and pepper.

Mix the cooked rice with this mixture and add salt and pepper if needed.

Serve hot.

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Channa Briyani Recipe

I have never heard of 'Channa Briyani' until I met Poornima. She used to tell me that this is one of her favourite and she prepares this very often. So, we made her prepare this recipe yesterday for lunch and wow! it was very delicious. She learnt it from her mother-in-law and below is her version of 'Channa Briyani'.

Ingredients:

Salt (as per taste)

1 cup Konda kadalai(kabuli channa)

1 cup Basmathi rice

1 Tsp Garam masala powder

3 Tbsp Ghee

1 no Cardamon (crushed)

1 no Bay leaf

1 cup Tomato(chopped)

1 bunch of Mint leaves (chopped)

Coriander and curry leaves (chopped)

1 cup Coconut grated (½ shell)

To grind:

3 to 4 flakes of Garlic (chopped)

3 Tbspn Any vegetable oil

1 no Cinnamon stick (small)

1 no Clove

3 nos Dry red chili(as per required)

1 tsp Jeera

1 cup Onion (roughly chopped)


Method:

Soak channa overnight and pressure cook with salt. Leave for 3 hisses. After 15 min remove water and keep boiled channa aside.

In a pan take 1/2 tablespoon of ghee and fry the basmathi rice for 2 min

Grind the chopped tomato into juice and keep aside.

In a pan, heat 3/2 teaspoon of oil and fry all the ingredients under 'To grind' with one tablespoon of grated coconut. Leave it to cool and grind in mixer (Paste 1)

Grind the grated coconut with 1 cup of hot water and take the milk from it (This is first extract), Again grind with another 2/3 cup of hot water and take the milk (second extract).

In a pressure cooker, add 3 tablespoon of ghee.When ghee gets heated up add the crushed cardamon and bay leaves.When the cardamon aroma comes,add remaining chopped garlic. after a minute add the grinded paste 1.Stir for a 2 minutes. Now add the tomato juice and the garam masala.

Add the boiled channa. Add coconut milk and water so as the combined volume of the both should be of 2 cups. Now add basmathi rice, salt. Add chili powder if required. Add mint and coriander leaves. stir for few seconds. Close the lid and pressure cook for 3 hisses. Leave for 15 min .

Open the lid and mix it up as the masala may remain at the top. Serve with raitha

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