HUNISE HANNU AVALAKKI

This is a very tasty dish and Poorvi's one of the most favourites! Very simple and easy to make too. Inspite of this I don't prepare it often. I dont know why!

Recently I remembered this suddenly on Krishna Janmashtami day, since avalakki is supposed to be Krishna's favourite. So I did prepare it.


To make this you need:

Ingredients:

Avalakki/Poha 1 cup
Water 1 cup
Tamarind paste 1/2 teaspoon (thick paste)
Salt 1 level teaspoon
Jaggary powder 2 teaspoons
Sarina pudi 1 teaspoon
Ingu 2 pinches
Oil 1 tablespoon
Mustard seeds 1 teaspoon
Curry leaves 8-10
Raw coconut 1/2 cup (grated)
Peanuts 2 tablespoons (roasted)

Procedure:

Run avalakki in a grinder for one or two seconds to a coarse powder. Doesn't matter if a few of the grains are not ground at all.

Now take water in a bowl. Add salt, tamarind paste, ingu, jaggery, sarina pudi and mix till salt and jaggery dissolve. Add ground avalakki and mix well. Leave it for about half an hour, while stirring the contents with a spoon once or twice in between so that the grains are separate.

Keep a kadai on flame. Add oil. When it is hot, add mustard seeds. When they sputter, add curry leaves and add the contents of the bowl. Keep stirring till the contents are mixed uniformly. Now add grated coconut and roasted peanuts and mix well.

The dish is now ready to eat. It will not be hot, but just warm since there is no need to cook it. If you want to have it hot, microwave for a few seconds.

It may not stay for more than one day even if you refrigerate it because of raw coconut. So you have to consume it soon.

BREAD ROLLS ! THE MOST RELISHED !!!!!

 As you know, this is one dish in the world, which can never be disliked by any one. Those who are on a diet also cannot resist and end up eating 3 or 4 pieces, though just one piece itself is quite filling. But I wonder why this is an unheard of dish. What I mean to say is, I have never come across anybody mentioning that they ate bread rolls in some restaurant.

Here goes the recipe!

Ingredients:

Bread slices                           8

Water                                     1 bowl (for dipping the bread slices}

For the stuffing:

Potatoes                                4 medium

Onion                                    2 medium

Salt                                        1 teaspoon

Red chili powder                  1/2 tsp or more

Amchur powder                    1 teaspoon

coriander leaves                    3-4 tbsp finely cut

Procedure:

Boil potatoes and mash. Chop onions finely. Add salt, red chili powder, amchur powder and chopped coriander leaves. Mix well. Take a fistful of this stuffing and  roll them as shown in the picture.

Now dip a slice of bread in water and take out immediately. Squeeze well between palms. Place the stuffing on the slice and cover it fully with the soaked bread. Roll it as shown in the picture. Follow the same procedure for all the slices. (Some people remove the edges of the bread so that the fried roll looks smooth. But I dont take them out since I dont want to waste them)

Deep fry in oil to a brown colour. Serve/eat hot with tomato sauce and/or pudina chatni. I can say this serves 4, but it can serve just two ;) 

This is to be eaten immediately when the bread covering is still crispy.

Making bread rolls is a bit long and messy process, but all the trouble is worth. In case you are expecting guests and you want to treat them with bread rolls, you can make the rolls with stuffing the previous day and store in the fridge. You can fry them after the guests arrive.

Enjoy!

WALNUT DATES CAKE

Basically there is not much difference in the proportions of the main ingredients we use for any variety of cakes. This is what I feel. When you add different items like dry fruits and nuts, there is another small step to follow. For example, for this cake, I microwave the dates for just 10 seconds to make it soft. I soak crushed walnuts in two teaspoons of milk, mixing it often, again to make them soft. By doing this, you can cut the cake into neat slices, or else the hard nuts come in the way and crumble the cake. That is why while baking Christmas cakes or fruit cakes, all kinds of nuts and dry fruits are soaked in rum for two days. (Rum gives the cake the special flavor).

So, here is what you need for this cake.

Ingredients:

Maida 1 cup
Sugar 3/4 cup (here I add 3/4 cups instead of 2/3, because, the dates also give sweetness)

Butter 3/4 cup

Eggs 2

Essence (I use pineapple)-1/2 teaspoon

Baking powder 1/4 teaspoon

Walnuts about 100 gm or 1/2 cup- crushed to small pieces, softened with milk

Dates Cut to small pieces, eg. size of a peanut, microwaved for 10 seconds


Procedure:

Preheat oven to 180 F

Sieve maida with baking powder. Powder the sugar.

Break eggs into a bowl and add the essence. Beat well with a hand mixer. Add butter and beat well. Add sugar, mixing it continuously with the mixer. Add maida, mix well. In the end add walnuts and dates and mix lightly till they are equally distributed in the batter.

Pour into greased tray and bake for about 50 minutes. (I love to sprinkle sliced almonds on the top. This is actually optional)

In spite of soaking in milk, you get crisp pieces of walnuts while eating and it is.............. just delicious! Let me see who will try this first........... :)

ALU METHI PULAV

This is quite a simple dish. Long back Anu mausi had prepared something like this. I do not remember how exactly she made it, but on that basis, I tried this and it turned out very tasty.







So, here are the

Ingredients:

Rice (jeera rice or plain) 1 cup; here I have used unpolished red rice... healthy rice :)
Alu 1 medium
Kasoori methi 1/4 cup or
Fresh chopped menthya soppu 2 cups
Potato 1 medium
Onion 1 big
Grated coconut 1/2 cup
garlic 2-3 pods
Ginger 1/2 " piece
Green chillies 1 or 2
Cinnamon 1/2" pieces 3 or 4
Clove 8 pieces
Black pepper 4 or 5
Cashew nut a few pieces
Tamarind paste (thick) 1/2 teaspoon
Water 3 cups
Refined oil and/ghee 2 tablespoons
Salt about 1 1/2 teaspoons

Procedure:

Wash rice and drain water and leave it for half an hour.

Soak kasoori methi in hot water for about 15 minutes.

Cut potato into 1/2" cubes

Grind together coconut, onions, ginger, garlic, green chillies, black pepper, one piece of cinnamon, and 4 pieces of clove into a rough paste.

Fry cashew nut pieces in ghee to a golden brown colour.

Heat oil in a pressure pan. Add remaining cinnamon and cloves and fry for half a minute. Add the ground paste and fry till raw smell goes. Add potato and fry for one minute. Add soaked kasoori methi or menthya soppu and fry for one minute. Add rice and fry for one minute. Add water (you can also include the water in which you had soaked kasoori methi ). Add salt and tamarind paste. Pressure cook till you get 3 whistles. When done, transfer to a bowl and garnish with fried cashew nuts. Serve hot with raitha.

PANEER SABZI

Dear Shru and Poo,
It is a long time since I posted a recipe. You know that I was busy with so many other things. Just as I was planning to post others from my list, Nanda told me that she has tried most of my recipes which turned out well and that she was waiting for more recipes from me. That made me act soon.

So here it is -one of the easiest and tastiest dishes, which goes well with rotis. All you need to buy is paneer. All other ingredients are mostly available at home. You can buy and store paneer in the freezer for quite some time and it becomes handy in emergency- that is, when you have no time to buy vegetables or when guests arrive unexpectedly or in short notice. So, try this.

Ingredients:

Paneer 200gms (one block cut into 1/2" cubes
Oil or butter 1 tablespoon
Onions 3 (medium sized)
Garlic 3-4 pods
Ginger 1" piece
Tomato 2 medium sized
Tomato puree 3-4 table spoons
Jeera 1 teaspoon
Dhania powder 1/2 teaspoon
Haldi 1 pinch
Red chilli powder /2 tea spoon
Salt to taste
Garam masala 1/2 teaspoon
Coriander leaves 2 tablespoons chopped

Procedure:

Grind together onion, garlic, ginger and tomato into a paste. Let it not be very smooth.
Put oil or butter in a kadai and heat it. Add cumin seeds After it turns brown, add dhania, haldi and mirch and immediately add the ground paste. Fry till raw smell is gone. Add tomato puree and fry for about one minute. Add about 1 cup of water and saslt and bring to boil. Add paneer cubes (many people fry them, but I dont), and boil for 3-4 minutes. Add garam masala and coriander leaves.

Serve hot with rotis. This quantity serves four.
(There are different varieties of paneer masala where poppy seeds, cashew nuts are used. But I make this in a simple way)

BABY CORNS IN TOMATO SAUCE

Hi Shru and Pooh

It is a long time since I sent you a recipe. Had got very busy with so many things as you know.

I had brought home some baby corns and some how didnt feel like making sabzi for rotis. So I thought I would make something else with that. It turned out very tasty. So here it is for you to try!

Ingredients:

100 gms baby corn (about 10 pieces)
garlic 2 big pods or 4 small pods
ginger 1/2 "
green chillies 2
oil 2-3 tablespoons
salt, about 1/4 teaspoon
tomato sauce about 4 tablespoons

Procedure:
Take out the covering layers of the baby corn. Add 2 tablespoons of oil in a thick kadai or nonstick kadai and heat. Add baby corns and roast for about 3-4 minutes till golden brown. Keep then aside.
Add one teaspoon oil to the kadai, add finely cut garlic, ginger and green chillies one by one and fry for a few seconds. Add tomato sauce and bring it to boil. Add salt. Add roasted baby corn and mix well. Remove from fire. Serve hot. (Eat it hot! All recipes say serve hot, does it mean that you should not eat?) :)

Of course this masala is the same as that we use for making manchooris. The difference is, here we dont make pakodas out of the corn as we do in manchoori. No deep frying is involved. Still the corns remain crisp.

This can be used as a starter also or as an evening snack while it is raining or when it is cold outside.

Try this with Alu also. Let me know how it tasted.
love
amma

HOOKOSU (PHOOL GOBI) PARATHA

Dear S and P,

You need a bit of time and patience to make this hookosu paratha. But definitely it is not difficult. If you keep the main stuffing material ready whenever you have time, and store it in the fridge, you can prepare it whenever you feel like. If you feel it is time consuming, you can distribute the procedure over different timings, if you like. You can store the ready stuffing for about a week in the normal compartment of the fridge.

After you buy cauliflower, separate the florets, soak them in luke warm salt water for about a hour to remove insects if any and then wash again with ordinary water. Drain the water and allow them to dry on a clean cloth. See that there are no water drops sticking to the florets, because it is important that the stuffing is dry or else it is difficult to roll the parathas.


Ingredients:

1 cup wheat flour
Enough water to knead
4-5 big florets (to get one cup of gratings)
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon red chilly powder
1 teaspoon garam malala
1/2 teaspoon amchur powder
1 bunch coriander leaves cut into fine pieces
Oil to roast the parathas.

Procedure:

Knead the flour with enough water, to get a dough that is suitable for plain parathas. Grate the florets, taking care that there are no big pieces which may obstruct smooth rolling process. Add salt, chilly powder and coriander leaves and mix well.

Now, take a ball of the dough, the same size you take for plain parathas. Divide it into two balls of equal size. Knead both balls round, again of equal size. Take about 1/5 the quantity of the stuffing and spread it on one of the rolls. Cover it carefully with the other roll to fit properly and then press softly with hand. Roll it again softly taking care that the stuffing does not peep out.

Roast this on a hot tava adding about half teaspoon oil on both sides.

It is best served hot with tomato sauce, green chilly pickles and/or thick curds.

You can make about 5 parathas with this ingredient.