Chatpata fruit salad

Ingredients
Kiwi: 2
Pomegrenate: 1
Plantain banana:1
Small banana:2
Papaya:1/2
Sugar: 1/2 cup
Chat masala:1 tblsp
Pepper: 1/4th tsp

Preperation
Cut all fruits into small cubes. Take out all pomegranate seeds all into a big bowl. Powder the sugar and all it, chat masala and pepper into the fruits. Mix well and serve.

Gajar Halwa

Ingredients:

Indian red carrots: 1 kg
Sugar 1 to 2 bowls
Khova/mava: 100g
Elaichi: 6 to 7
Ghee: 4 to 5 tblspoons

Preperation:
Grate carrots to thin shreds. in a deep vessel, preferably a large pressure cooker as you need lots of room to stir, pour in ghee and stir fry the grated carrots till the raw smell of the carrots are gone. Then add in crushed khova and sugar with crushed elaichi seeds. Mix in very well till it reaches its thick consistency. It will take around half an hour for the halwa to reach its desired consistency. You can garnish it with sliced almonds and pistachios if desired. Serve hot. 

Puliogere

Ingredients:

PULIOGERE PASTE

Puliogere powder:3-4 tblsp
Tamarind paste: 1 bowl
Jaggery: 1 bowl (crushed)
Dry coconut: 1/2 cup (powdered)
salt: to taste

Tampering: 
urud dal: 1 tsp
chana dal:1tsp
peanuts nut: 1 cup(roasted)
curry leaves: 2 strands
oil: 5 tblspoons

Cooked rice: as much required.
[1 tblspn puliogere paste would be enough for 2 bowls of rice in case required, can add more].

Preparation:
Simmer the tamarind paste to become thick. Add jaggery and stir for it to melt. As it melts, add salt and puliogere powder and mix well. This will turn it into a thick pulpy form.Off the flame and add dry coconut powder. Mix well. In another pan, heat oil and put in all the dals. When they turn brown add roasted peanuts and curry leaves. add this to the paste and mix well. You can keep this paste for more than a week.

Take in cooked rice and 1 to 2 tblspn of puliogere paste and mix well. add salt if required and chopped coriander leaves if preferred.
N.B-> jeera rice or basmathi rice is best suited for it but here in the picture i used picture i have used boiled rice.

ALTERATION:

Powder thick Poha/Aval. Wash the powdered poha. keep aside for it to fluff up. Mix in lemon juice and salt into it with chopped corriander leaves. In a vessel, heat oil, pop in a tsp of mustards and jeera. Put in some chopped onions saute till soft add a tblsp of puliogere paste mix well add the fluffed up poha/ aval powder. mix well. Serve.

KAPPA or tapicoca

Ingredients:
Tapioca: 1 kg
garlic pods: 5 pods
turmeric powder: 1/4rth tsp
salt: to taste
coconut: 1/2 bowl
mustard seeds; 1 tsp
curry leaves: 1 stem
oil: 1 tblsp
Procedure:
De-skin, Cut and clean tapioca. In a pressure cooker add tapioca, turmeric powder, garlic and salt with required amount of water. Pressure cook till 3 whistles. Wait for the pressure to go. When done. drain the water into a cup and keep aside. Mash the tapioca. Add the drained water, bit by bit to make sure the tapioca is moist. It is fine if the tapioca seems water at this stage. Add in coconut . Meanwhile in a small vessel heat oil. add mustard and curry leaves. add it to the tapioca. Mix well and serve. It is a typical Kerala dish. KAPPA!

Bitter guard crisps

Ingredients:
2 bitter guards: cut into circles 
red chilly powder: 1 tsp
turmeric powder:1 tsp
garam masala: 1 tsp
salt: to taste
corn flour/rice flour: 3 tablespoon ( pref. corn flour)
oil : to deep fry
Proceedures:
Wash the cut bitter guard rings. Add in the red chilly powder, turmeric powder, garam masala powder and salt . Mix well. After which only, add corn flour or rice flour to coat each rings dryly.it should seem dry coated. deep fry each rings in smoking hot oil and yummy bitter guard crisps are ready. It's yum as a  side dish with rice. 

Murukku

Ingredients
Rice flour: 1 cup
Gram flour (Besan): 1/2 cup
Split black gram powder ( urud powder)=  1/4th cup
cumin seeds (Jeera): a pinch
Sesame seeds (Til): a pinch
water: as required
salt: to taste
Oil: to fry
Proceedure:
Sieve all 3 flours together. Dry roast them till the flour is cooked. it may take a while. Keppt the mixture aside for cooling. When cold, mix in the rest of the ingredients in which the water should be added enough to make the mixture into a tight dough. Put the dough into the mould and press in into the hot smoking oil. cook for at least 2 minutes for the murukku to be crispy. 
Yum murukku ready. 

Lemon Rice

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Ingredients:

Cooked rice: 1- 1.5 cups
Lemon: 1/2  (if want real tangy, then 1)
Onion:1 ( chopped)
Turmeric: 1/4 tsp
Salt: to taste
roasted peanuts: ( a handful)
oil: 2 tsp
mustard, curry leaves and dry chilly: ( for tampering.


Preparation:
                     Heat a vessel, pour in oil. When hot, add the tampering ingredients. Then add chopped onion and sauté for a minute or so and then add a pinch of turmeric and salt. Meanwhile, squeeze lemon juice. 

Make sure this onion mixture and rice have completely cooled down. Mix the onion mixture, lemon, rice, peanuts and coriander leaves( if you preffer) and serve. 

N.P-> You can avoided peanuts if not preferred. This makes a yum lunch to school for kids.

Parippu Vada or Lentil snack or Dala vada

Lentils are very healthy ingredients in any diet. It could be called small powerhouses of nutrition because of it high protein and phosphorous contents along with minimal fat and other mineral presence as calcium, iron etc. Even though i am not a fan of deep fried food, occasional frying is of course acceptable. Parippu vada is a typical Kerala snack any malayalee relish on drooling, especially on rainy days. i wouldn't call this an authentic recipe as i have added little twists i and my family enjoy. So here goes:



Ingredients:
Tuvar dal or pigeon lentil or sambar parippu: 2 cup ( soaked overnight or min 2 to 3 hours)
Curry leaves: 2 stems
Onion: 1 chopped
Ginger: 1/2 tsp
Garlic: 3 to 4 cloves( this avoids the gastric problem that can occur due to the lentils)
Green chilies: 2 long, chopped
Asafoetida powder( kayam) : a pinch
Red chili powder: 1 tsp
SAlt: as required
Oil : for deep frying

Procedure: 
Drain the soaked dal and pat them dry. If water presence are there then the vadas are to break. So to be on the safer side drain the dal and keep in the draining position for say 1/2 an hour so even the little droplets will drip off. 
Make a paste of gralic (garlic bits would ruin the taste).Now put in all the ingredients (except for oil of course) in a grinder and coarsely grind the mixture.If you love coriander leaves you can add a bit of them too. Its easy to do so as the dals are soaked. Take in the paste in a vessel and heat the oil. wet your palm to avoid the paste sticking on to the hands.Take small portions and make a small puffed disk shape of it and dip them in the hot oil. Be careful to see if you dont burn them. Serve them with chutney or ketchup! 

Dal Namkeen or Crispy Fried pulses

Pulses are a very important part of Indian diet. It does have a lot of nutrition values to it too. 'Namkeen' which literally means salty snacks are some fried salty or rather tangy, tasty snacks found in almost every Indian household. Here, I have used split Chick pea to make this dal namkeen. It is crispy, tangy, spicy and absolutely yum! Another positive thing about this dish is that, you can keep it for a few days without a problem. Make a huger quantity of it and you can munch on it later on for a few days or even weeks. 

Ingredients:

Split Chick pea or channa dal: 3 cups (soaked over night) 

Oil: to fry

Seasoning:

Salt: to taste

Asafoetida powder: a pinch

Sugar: 1 table spoon

Pepper powder: 1/4rth Tsp

Coriander powder: 1/4rth Tsp

Red chilly powder: 1/4rth Tsp

Citrus crystals: a few 

Garam masala powder: 1/4rth Tsp

Jal jeera powder (optional):1/4rth Tsp

Chat masala: 1 tsp

Procedure:

In a grinder, put all the seasoning ingredients and run it for say a minute. Heat the oil for deep frying and slowly put in the soaked, drained split chick peas or chana dal for frying. Please be very careful as it is going to violently splat at the beginning. After a while you would notice all the dal floating on the oil, indicating it to be fried, remove it over to a cloth to absorb the excess oil. When done, place it into a deep vessel and pour in the powdered seasoning. Mix well and store it in a dry container. Serve when necessary. 

N.B-> You can substitute the split chick pea or channa dal with any other pulses as Tuvar dal (split pigeon pea), Moong dal( split Green gram), Bengal gram, Black gram, green gram (Moong ) etc.

Smoothie punch

During the summers, I rather look for something to drink than eat. So while fishing the internet for some good recipes, I came through this tempting Italian smoothie.

The fruits I used in this recipe had a very strong sour taste to it but the final smoothie, was absolutely yummy, especially the vanilla twist.

You can very much substitute the fruits used in here with any fruits you have at home irrespective of it being a sweet or sour dominant fruit, but yes, if you are using a sweet fruit make sure to reduce the sugar quantity.

Ingredients:

Strawberry: 7 to8 in numbers Slit in the middle

Mango: 2 (peeled and diced.)

Orange: 2 deseeded

Sugar: 1/2 cup

Vanilla essence: 1 drop

Preparation:

Mix the strawberries, mangoes and oranges with vanilla essence and sugar in a bowl and keep aside for 2 hours. DO NOT ADD WATER. Make a smooth paste of the mixture and refrigerate it before serving. If the smoothie tastes too sweet, add a little water to it. But the best would be to alter the sugar amount initially than adding water.

Idli and chutney

Idli basically belongs to Tamil Nadu. But The whole of South India has adopted this dish with their own twists.
Idlis are basically steamed food made of raw rice or Semolina( rava or sooji).
As a whole, Idli is a very healthy dish as it is made of healthy ingredients and is steamed. 
To make it more healthy i have added a bit of vegetables to my version of Idli.


Ingredients:

Idli:

Raw rice: 1 cup

Urud dal (deskinned and split black gram): 1/2 cup

salt: to taste
chopped Vegetables: 1/4rth cup( optional)

Chutney:

Coconut: 1/2 cup (scraped)

Green chilly: 1

salt: to taste

Mustard seeds: 1/4rth tsp

Curry leaves: 1 stem

Dry red chilly 1 or 2 de stemmed

Oil: to garnish

Preparation:

Idli:

Soak raw rice and urud dal for at least 4 hours. Grind them into a paste using adequate amount of water. Please make sure the paste is thick. Keep it for fermentation overnight. While about to prepare, you can add vegetables of your choice to the mixture, but make sure they are chopped well and it doesn't rule the taste of the idli. In a deep vessel boil water for steaming. Pour portions of the paste into the desired moulds (preferably idly moulds) and cover the lid for steaming. Steam for 5 to 10 minutes, depending on the size of the mould. check if the idlis are done by pricking it with a tooth pick. if it comes out clean, then idlis are done!

Please do not de mould the idlis immediately after taking out the steamer as it needs to be cooled before separating it from the moulds. use a butter knife or a spoon for the de moulding purpose and serve with chutney.

note-> you can add vegetables of your choice into the idli paste if you desire.

Chutney:

Grind scraped coconut, salt, green chilly and a little water in the mixer-grinder till a smooth paste of the ingredients are made. Pour it on to the serving bowl. Heat a little oil, preferably, coconut oil, splutter a few mustard seeds, curry leaves and dry chillies and pour over the chutney, serve with hot idlis...

YUM!

Uthappam chat style!

Uthappam is a typical South Indian dish. Traditionally, made of fermented white rice and urud dal ( split black gram) paste. The taste of uthappam would be that of a dosa but with crunchy steamed veggies over it.

Dont know about others, but for me, uthappa is always a way to utilize the left over dosa bacter. After preparing dosa for a day it so happens the bacter to be left for the next day but, with variety lovers as my family, dosa the next day would be a total no-no.

Besides this, i faced another problem that my family doesn't like uthappam much unlike me. SO, i thought about a twist to mix what they love to something they don't like. And i mixed chat flavour(Indian sweet sour street food) to uthappam and THERE! they loved it!

Ingredients:

Fermented raw rice and urud dal( split black gram) bacter: 2 cups

Onion: 1, chopped.

coconut: 1/2 bowl.

coriander leaves: a handful, chopped.

Jeera (cumin seeds): 1/2 t-spoon

Mustard seeds: 1/4rth t-spoon

chat masala: 1 t-spoon

salt: to taste

Oil: a little

Preparation:

Heat oil and splutter mustard and jeera. Add onion and a bit of salt for onion to cook fast. Then add coconut, chopped coriander leaves and sauté for a minute add salt and chat masala and the topping is ready.

In a nonstick pan pour a deep spoon full of bacter( as making pancakes) and spread the bacter over the pan by rotating the pan and not with the help of a spoon. Then immediately spread a spoon full of topping over this cooking pancake and put the lid over for it to cook. when done make sure to over turn it so that the topping be a part of the uthappam. Serve!

Note: you can add tomatoes, capsicum, corn(chopped), and other veggies and flavours of your choice. But i made sure of adding coconut to maintain the "South indian Touch. The filling is totally upto your taste.

Besan ladoo in a healthier avatar.

Besan ladoo is a typical North Indian Desert. It is easy to make and rich in flavours. The main ingredient of a Besan Ladoo is 'chick Pea flour'. Even though, it is listed as one among the favourite deserts of Indians, I wouldn't possibly tag it as healthy. The reason is the amount of Ghee (clarified butter) used in a typical Besan Ladoo.

So, I thought about making this recipe a bit more healthy. And VIOLA! It was better than the original. This version of the Besan Ladoo i made was much less oily, it didn't make me feel bloated, and the dusty texture was excellent! So here goes the recipe.

Ingredients:

Besan (chick pea flour) : 1 cup

Ghee( clarified butter) : to the max 5 t-spoons

Sugar : 1/2 cup

Powdered cardamom: 1/4rth tsp (optional)

Preparation:

Sieve the besan to separate small lumps from the rest of the powder. Heat a pan and roast (without any kind of oil or ghee) the besan till it turn medium brown. Please make sure the flame is low and you have to keep stirring, as the powder has a chance of getting burnt quickly. Besides the colour, a perfectly roasted besan powder emits a cooked and a pleasant smell indicating its done. When done, keep aside for cooling and then sieve again to make sure you get the fine besan powder at the end. Meanwhile powder the sugar with the cardamom powder. When done mix the roasted fine besan and the powder sugar. with you hand mix well.

Now is the tricky part. Keep adding the ghee t-spoon wise till you can make small balls of this dry mixture. you need to press hard with your hand to make the balls so make sure to keep trying every moment you mix a t-spoon of ghee. Make small balls of the mixture and your besan ladoo is done.. but if the ladoo is glossy means that the proportion of ghee used is more than needed.

It took me 3 tries to reach the perfection. But all for good!YUM!

Puttu and kadala or steamed rice cake and Bengal gram gravy

Ingredients

(Puttu or steam rice cake:)

Roasted Rice flour: 1 cup

Water: enough to soak wet it

Salt: to taste

Coconut: for garnish

(Kadala curry or Bengal gram gravy)

Kadala: 1 cup (soaked overnight)

Coconut: 1/2 cup grated

Corriander powder: 1 tablespoon

Chicken masala powder( optional): 1/2 tspn

salt : to taste

Mustard: 1/4th tspn

Oil: 1 tspn

Dry red chillies: 2

Curry leaves: 1 stem

Preparation:

(Puttu)

You can get instant puttu powders in the market or roast the rice flour till a slight yellow colour tends to appear. When cooled. Mix water and salt then little by little add to the roasted rice flour while you mix the mixture with hand. Wet the rice till you will be able to make a non sticky ball when tried.

If you have Puttu mould, then place the steel net in the base, fill a bit of coconut, the rice mixture, a little coconut again rice mixture, till the mould is filled and then steam it.

If you do not have puttu mould then take coconut shell. fill the base with a thin layer of grated coconut then fill in the rice mixture, then again fill grated coconut and steam.

Remove the mixture on to a plate. If in a puttu mould, remove with the provided stick else slightly dab the coconut shell with its open mouth facing the plate. yur puttu is ready.

(Kadala curry or the Bengal gram curry)

Preassure cook kadala or bengal gram toll crack appear on them. This is an indication of it becoming soft. When done, blend coconut, coriander powder and chicken masala (optional) with little water to forma smooth paste. Pour this paste into the preassure cooked kadala or bengal gram and let this mixture come to a boil. When boiled, let it simmer on medium flame till it reached a gravy consistency. Splutter mustard in oil . Also put in curry leaves and dry red chilly in the spluttered mustard and oil and then garnish the gravy with it.

this curry or gravy is best suited with steamed rice cake or puttu. A taste of kerala breakfast.

You can also substitute rice flour with wheat flour or sooji(semolina)

Biscuit delights

 Ingredients:

Marie biscuits: 12

Powder sugar: 2 bowl

green colour: 3 to 4 drops

Vanilla essece: 1 t-spoon

Scraped Coconut: 1 small bowl

Milk: as required

Banana smoothie: 1/4th cup

Sugar balls: for decor

Red colour: for decor

Preparation:

Powder the Marie biscuits in a mixer grinder. Mix 1 cup sugar, essence and colour to the powdered Marie biscuts. Pour in milk, little by little to form a smooth dough. Meanwhile, in another bowl mix coconut with the banana smoothie ( add yellow colour if required). Make small boats off the dough. pour the banana smoothie in the small provisions. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours. Decorate with red colour and sprinkle sugar balls and there!

banana dates surprise

Ingredients:
Dates: 12 numbers seedless
Milk: 500ml
Bananas: 2
Sugar: 1/4 th cup
Strawberry sauce: 2 tablespoons
Almonds: for decor
Yellow colour: 1/4th pinch

Preparation:
Make a smooth paste of the dates. Please note to not soak the dates prior to making paste because this will take away the crunchiness of the dates. after making the date paste, it can be noted that some dates are still there as lumps and these act as little surprises in the smoothie. Use milk to make the paste. Make a paste of bananas too in the blender, separately. While making banana paste with milk, add sugar and colour.

In a glass pour in the date smoothie first and then the banana smoothie. Then pour a tsp of strawberry syrup. With a small rod, pierce the side to get the texture. Pour another tsp of strawberry syrup on top and decorate with almonds.

PS_> if there is no syrup, it is fine. you can use other syrups too as black current, other berries etc.

Momos / Dumplings

Ingredients:

(for the dumplings)
Maida(plain flour): 1 cup
Salt : to taste

(Filling)
PS-> the filling can be of your choice. A typical Chinese filling like the one i mentioned in "Spring Dosa". But if this is the first time you are trying make the filling as simple as possible. I made a sweet momos here.
Sugar: 1/4th cup
Coconut: 1/4th cup
Cardamom: 2 crushed( optional for flavouring)
Can also opt 1 or 2 drops of vanilla essence instead.

Decoration:
Red colour

Preparation:

Make a smooth dough of the flour and salt. Keep aside for 15 minutes. Mix coconut and sugar, if other filling, make it ready. Please make sure the filling is cooked and are ready to eat.Roll small balls of the dough with a rolling pin into small chappathis. place a little of the filling in the middle and start making pleats of the sides as done in a sari. When the other end is met, slightly press in the middle to form a pouch. Make the steamer ready. If don't have a steamer. Place a huge vessel with water and in it a small vessel without water. Dip the "mouth of the momos in red colour and place for steaming.. Let it be for 15 minutes and your momos are ready to be served.

Poha vada

Ingredients:

Poha: 1 cup

Besan/ chick pea flour: 1 tblsp

rice flour: 1 tblsp

Salt: to taste

Onion:1

hing/ asafoetida: 1 pinch

Corriander leaves" 1 tsp

Curry leaves; a few

Jeera: 1/2 tsp

Ginger garlic paste: 1 tsp

oil; to fry

Preparation:

Wash poha and keep aside for at least 10 minutes. mix the rest of the ingredients into it and wish a few drops of water, make a dough. Make small discs off it and deep fry. Serve.

Bread stuffs

Ingredients:

Potato: 2 medium

Onion:1

Tomato:2

Garlic:3 pods

Ginger: 1 inch

Red chilli powder: 1 pinch

Turmeric powder: 1 pinch

SAlt: to taste

Oil: to fry

Bread: as req.

vermicelli: for coating

Preparation:

Pressure cook potatoes and mash it. In a pan, heat oil, a tblsp. Put in chopped ginger garlic and stir till the raw smell goes. Put in onion and a pinch of salt and saute till softened. Add tomato and stir till softened. then add powders and coriander leaves if available. Mix this mixture with the potatoes away from the flame. In a small plate, pour a bit of water. Take the bread, cut its side and place them over this water, on both sides, press it with hand to ooze out excess water. Place it away. Take a ball of potato mix and place it in the middle of this squeezed bread and with the hand roll it into a ball. Its ok if a small mixture comes out and rolls with the bread. Then wet this ball again and roll over the roasted vermicelli and dip fry. Do the same with the rest and serve!

Chappathi pizza

Ingredients:

Onion:1

Tomato:1

Capsicum:1

Oregano

Cheese: 2 slices

chappathi: 1/2 cooked

Ketchup: 1 tsp

Preparation:

Separately cook onion, tomato and capsicum. In a pan. place the half cooked chappathi, spread ketchup and spread onion, tomato, capsicum over it. Sprinkle salt, oregano, chilly flakes and pepper. Place cheese over it too. Cover the pan and heat for around a minute. serve.