Paruppu Usili/ Patoli (Beans with steamed gram)

Two days back I tried Palakura Pappu and not pachadi since I did not have the ingredients. I added a little too much palak and that dominated over other flavors. I should try it again to get it right.

Today I made Patoli from "The Best Vegetarian Cookbook", Cooking at home with Pedatha.
It came out well. But I made a few mistakes, probably because it is my first time.
I steamed the dal in a pressure cooker, but the bottom of the cooker burnt :( Luckily this dint pass on the burnt flavor to the dal above it, so I was able to get most of the dal mixture. May be I should place the dal in a smaller vessel inside the cooker and steam it. Also, I added a little extra asafoetida. But it tastes delicious. I love it and I love Pedatha. It tastes like my paati's Paruppu usili

2 recipes over. 59 to go :)

Julie and Julia + My similar venture with "Cooking at home with Pedatha"

I am sure everyone watched Julie and Julia this summer. I came out of the theater ravenously hungry. I did learn a lot of new things like the mushrooms should be apart from each other in the pan, for them to brown.
I actually read the book "Julie and Julia - My year of cooking dangerously", two years ago. I am inspired to make my final boring semester more delicious and colorful. I am going to try out all the recipes from a South-Indian cookbook: Cooking at home with Pedatha. This is a collection of vegetarian recipes from the traditional Andhra Pradesh kitchen. I love AP food and I am going to try them. I am not setting any deadline for this because I already have infinte other deadlines to handle.

So the first recipe is going to be "Palakoora Pachadi" or Spinach chutney. This is made from spinach and tamarind extract. I will share with you frequently the list of recipes I tried from the book and my experiences.

Refreshing Desserts

My recent favorite: http://diettogo.com/blog/dessert-anyone-master-chef-shares-his-favorite-dessert-recipes
This is a chef's collection of his favorite and refreshing dessert recipes. He calls his dessert recipes "refreshing". I found it very interesting, because normally people call the healthy soups, salads, smoothies and juices refreshing, not a dessert. And desserts are meant to be rich, sugary, buttery smooth, fine and rich which satisfies your palate and fills your appetite. But his dessert choices are indeed very light and refreshing, delight yet sin-free. It includes strawberry shortcake, merlot-poached pears, panacotta with berries.

Enjoy these fruit delicacies with no guilt.

Aromatic Indian Green Curry

This might sound like the Thai green curry, but it is not. We are not going to add any lemon grass. It has the rich flavor of coriander. It is a very mildly spicy dish.

Ingredients
-----------
To grind
--------
coriander leaves - 2 cups
green chillies -2
lemon juice - 2 tsp
Ginger garlic past - 1 tsp

vegetables for the gravy
------------------------
1 cup cut baby corn
1 cup chopped carrots
1 cut capsicum
1 onion finely chopped

Other ingredients
------------------
oats - 2 tbsp
Oil - 2 tsp
Salt to taste



Method
-------
Half-boil the vegetables. Grind the mentioned ingredients. Heat oil in a pan and saute the onions till golden brown. Add the vegetables and oats. Bring it to a boil and simmer and cook covered for 5 min until the vegetables are boiled completely. Now add the coriander paste and salt to taste. Bring it to a boil and remove from fire.

This tastes good with rice or rotis. It is very healthy and tasty too. I got this idea of using oats to get the consistency from a Tarla Dalal's recipe. Do not add too much of oats; the gravy will become pasty (like uncooked lady's finger :) )

Summer Special

I love summers for the bright sun and the cold drinks. My grandmom gets us coconut water everyday. Mom makes fresh lemonades. And not to forget, all the juices in college and on the way. Summers are the best. But it can be really troublesome if you do not keep your system cool. The skin also loses a lot of moisture and tans. Proper food takes care of us.

I have two nice summer recipes : Mint lemonade and Strawberry Banana Smoothie.
Lemonade refreshes your system and the smoothie keeps you full and thirst-free while maintaining the beauty of your skin.

Mint lemonade (Serves 4)




Ingredients
-----------
lemons - 2
mint leaves - 5
Sugar - 2 tsp
Water - 4 cups

Method
------
Extract the juice from the lemons. Chop the mint leaves and place it in the lemon extract. Leave it for 15 minutes.
Filter the mint leaves and add sugar. Mix well. Divide the extract equally in 4 glasses. Add cold water or fill it up with ice.

Strawberry Banana Smoothie



Strawberries are rich in Vitamin C and antioxidants.

Almonds are rich in Vitamin E which is the main food for skin. Both of these help to keep your skin healthy and shining.

The bananas keep you full for longer.

Ingredients
-----------
Bananas - 4
Strawberry - 4
Strawberry essence /syrup - 3 tsp
Vanilla - 1 tsp
Almonds - 2 to 4

Method
------
Cut the bananas in to halves and place them in a mixer. Add the strawberries, strawberry syrup and almonds and grind well. Add the vanilla essence and grind for a few more seconds.
Pour it in milk shake glasses and serve.

Have a fantastic summer.

Bhakri (with Rice)

I am trying to get better at this, especially the pictures. Try this one.

I am on a vacation to India (atlast). I thought initially that I'd give a list of dishes to mom and eat them one after another till I burst :) But the problem is that she is an expert cook and she will probably make all of them in a single day and make me eat them. So I decided to cook something different everyday during the vacation. This is my first trial.

Bhakri

Ingredients
------------
Rice flour filling
------------------
Rice flour - 1 cup
Water - 1 cup
salt to taste
Oil - 1 tsp
Green chilly
coriander leaves chopped - 2 tbsp
mint leaves chopped - 1 tsp
grated carrot - 1/2 cup

Rotis
------
Wheat flour - for making the rotis.

Method
-------
Mix water, salt and wheat flour to make rotis. Make the balls out of the dough.

Boil the water, salt and oil in a tava (heavy bottomed vessel) and add the rice flour. Mix well until the mixture leaves the sides of the vessel. Remove from heat. Add the grated carrot, chilly, coriander leaves and the mint leaves and mix well. Make 6 balls out of it.


Roll the roti dough. Place the rice flour dough at the center and fold the sides to make a small bag. Now roll it again using a rolling pin.





Toast it in the tava with a teaspoon of oil.
Serve hot with Sabzi or Tomato ketchup .




This is the first time I tried this recipe. My mom helped me a lot, infact she made it all so fast. There were no difficulties. Make sure that the water is boiling and then add the rice flour or it may form lumps.

Kesari (Kesari Bath) - Semolina Pudding

This is a colourful and delicious South Indian sweet which is simple to make. My grandmom makes this whenever we have unexpected guests and very little time :) We love it.

Here's the recipe

Ingredients

Semolina (rava) 1 cup
Sugar 2 cups
Water 3 cups
saffron 10 strands
cashewnuts, almonds, pistachio, dried grapes
ghee 2 tbsp
orange food colour

Method

Dry roast the rava till it is golden brown. This is a must-do or there will be lumps in the kesari otherwise. The nice aroma of the rava fills the room. Boil the water in a heavy bottomed pan. Add the rava and stir until the rava is completely cooked. This will take about 5-10 min. Add the sugar and food colour and keep stirring. Add a little ghee if it becomes sticky. Remove from fire

Heat the ghee and roast the dried grapes, cashews, almonds, pistachios and add them to the cooked kesari.

Decorate with saffron on top.

This is quick and easy and fit for all occassions. It looks very grand too.