Kothamalli thuvayal and simple aloo curry

The recent terrorist attack in the popular mumbai hotels has been a really shocking and awful incident.Its so painful to note that so many innocent people lost their lives to these cruel attacks. Lets pray for them and my heartfelt sympathies to the families of the victims.

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We have a filling brunch on most of the weekends. And for last weekend ,I made dosas. Its mostly sambar and aloo curry for the side dish. But this time, my hubby insisted on making his favorite kothamalli thuvayal or coriander chutney for the dosas. It was a good combination indeed. kothamalli thuvayal goes well with rotis and rice too. I thought of posting my recipe of aloo curry too which is always there when I make dosas. I am very fond of this combination.

Kothamalli thuvayal

Ingredients

Coriander- a large bunch(chopped)

Tuvar dal- 1tbsp

Channa dal- 1tbsp

Udid dal- 1tbsp

Dried red chillies- 8

Asafoetida- a pinch

Grated coconut- 1tbsp

Salt to taste

Tamarind- a small piece

Oil- 1tsp

Method

Heat oil in a pan. Add the asafoetida,chillies and then the lentils(dals). Saute well till they turn a little brown. Then add coriander leaves. Mix well ,add salt and keep sauteing till the leaves wilt.Add coconut and a small piece of tamarind and mix well.

Cool a little and sprinkle few drops of water and grind them to a paste.

Aloo curry

Ingredients

Potatoes- 4

Onions- 1 chopped fine

Green chillies- 2

Turmeric powder- 1tsp

Salt- 1tsp

mustard- 1tsp

Cumin seeds-1tsp

Grated coconut - 1tbsp

oil- 1tsp

Method-

Peel the skin from potatoes and cook them in a pressure cooker. Cut them in cubes.Heat oil in a pan. Add mustard and cumin seeds. Then add green chillies and onions and saute till onions turn a little brown. Then add turmeric powder and salt. Add the potatoes and mix well. Add grated coconut. Cook till every thing mixes well and the potatoes are soft.

Serve the potato curry hot. You can store the coriander chutney /thuvayal for a day or two.

Red cabbage chutney

Thuvayal or chutney is very popular side dish in tamil nadu. It is made with lentils, bottlegourd, ridge gourd or cabbage. I started buying this red cabbage only after coming to singapore and usually used it in my salads. I once made a simple stir fry, but somehow I did not like the taste. It was quite different from the usual stir fry we do with the green cabbage. I buy it very rarely.
When I bought it this time, I was wondering what to do with it. I suddenly remembered a hot chutney with green cabbage , my friend made for me once. And then I got the idea of making thuvayal /chutney with it. I knew it was going to be good. It tasted really nice and I think I am going to do this whenever I buy this one.

Ingredients-
Red cabbage- 200 gms(chopped fine)
Tuvar dal- 1tbsp
channa dal- 1tbsp
Red chillies- 8 to 10
Mustard seeds- 1tsp
Asafoetida- a pinch
Salt to taste
Oil- 1tsp

Method-
Heat oil in a pan. Add the red chillies,tuvar dal and channa dal. Stir till they turn golden brown. Then add the chopped cabbage. Keep stirring till it cooks well. Add little salt. Cook for another 2 to 3 minutes. Cool a bit and grind it to a coarse paste sprinkling a little water before grinding. Season with mustard seeds and asafoetida. Mix well.
You can have this with rice, chapatis , dosas etc.

I am sending this to Sunshine mom's Fic purple event.

Rava Semiya Idli

Though being a south Indian, idli is something I make very rarely as we are not too fond of it. Whereas idlis with rava or rava and semiya is liked and enjoyed by everyone at home and I make it quite regularly too.
It is less time consuming and does not require a longer fermentation period. This is a instant snack and can be easily prepared when you have guests.

Ingredients-
Rava- 2 cups
Semiya- 2cups
Curd/yogurt- 2 cups
Baking soda- 1/2tsp
Salt- 1tsp
Mustard- 1tsp
Udid dal- 1tsp
channa dal- 1tsp
Cashews- 2-3 broken(sauted in ghee)
Oil- 1tsp
Asafoetida- a pinch
Ghee- 1tsp
(Its your choice to add green chillies,coriander,grated carrots,peas,grated coconut and curry leaves)

Method-
Add ghee in a pan. Add the rava and semiya and saute for sometime till it turns a light golden brown. Then add the curd/yogurt.Mix well and leave it for for around 2hours. Then heat little oil for tempering. Add mustard, udid dal, channa dal and asafoetida. Add this to the rava semiya mixture. Then add baking soda, salt and cashews(others if you are adding them). Leave for another 20- 30 minutes.
Pour this in idli moulds and steam them for around 15 to 20 minutes. Remove them from the idli mould. Serve them hot with sambar and chutney.

A new blogger friend Indranid has shared some awards with me-Inspiration awards,butterfly awards, hardworking blogger award,360 foodie,great buddy,good job , I am a chocoholic awards,kreative blogger,perfect blend of friendship award. See pictures in the award link above.

Flaked rice with milk- No cook version

Flaked rice or aval or poha can be used in a number of ways. I usually make it for breakfast with onions and potatoes. But todays recipe is a no-cook version. When you are really lazy to cook something, you are alone and you are hungry, this one comes to your rescue. We usually have this for breakfast when we have had something really heavy for dinner and you want to have something light the next day. You can also have it as a evening snack just as a filler. You can really use your imagination on what all you want to add into it. This is how I do.

Ingredients-
Flaked rice/poha/aval- 1 cup
Almonds- 3-4nos
Cashews- 3-4nos
Milk- 1/2 cup
Sugar- 1tsp
Cardamom powder- a small pinch.

Method-
Wash the flaked rice. Drain the water and keep for around 10 minutes till it becomes soft. Now add sugar and cardamom powder. Powder the almonds and cashews in a mixer. Add it into the flaked rice mixture. Add boiled and cooled milk. Mix well and serve.Your snack is ready.

Black eyed bean rice / chawli bhaat

One pot meals is the so called comfort food for me. This one is so filling as well as nutritious. I make this quite often using different pulses like kabuli channa(chick peas-white or black),moong or butter beans. Its very easy to make and you can have it with plain curd or some raitha or just papad /chips.

Ingredients-
Black eyed beans- 1 cup
Onions- 1 finely chopped
Ginger garlic paste- 1tsp
Green chillies- 1 finely chopped
Tomatoes- 1 chopped
Turmeric powder- 1tsp
Red chilly powder- 1tsp
Coriander powder- 1tsp
Garam masala- 1tsp
Salt- to taste
Oil- 2tsp
Mustard seeds- 1tsp
cumin seeds- 1tsp
Rice- 1 cup

Method
Wash the rice. Drain the water and keep aside. Soak the beans for 1 hour.
Heat oil in a pressure cooker pan. Add mustard and cumin seeds. Add the green chillies and ginger garlic paste. Then add the onions and saute till translucent. Then add the tomatoes. Mix well.Add turmeric powder,chilly powder,coriander powder, garam masala and salt. Sprinkle some water. Mix all the ingredients well and cook for 5 minutes.Then add the rice.Mix well and required amount of water. Pressure cook the rice.
Serve hot with curd.
I am sending this to Srivalli's rice mela.

Semolina bread

Bread with semolina, I was quite surprised when I saw in Anudivya's blog few days back. The post was wonderful with lovely pictures and a detailed procedure. It sounded quite easy and I decided to make it.
I have seen the semolina flour at the local grocery stores. It is a very fine powder and am sure that would yield very good results. But I used the normal semolina/rava bought from the indian grocery stores which was readily available with me that time. It was granulated and not a very fine powder. So I grinded it in a mixer to get a fine flour. I could knead that into a smooth dough. I kept checking every fifteen minutes whether it was rising. And finally I got bored. I just left as it was and went out with my son to buy some groceries and have my favourite cappuccino at McDonalds while my son munched away the french fries. And then when I returned , I saw the dough had risen beautifully. So that was three hours.
The bread came out beautiful. The crust was soft and could be neatly cut into slices. It wasn't chewy exactly, but I loved it with my favourite mixed fruit jam. I followed divya's recipes with minor changes here and there.

Ingredients-
Semolina/Rava- 3 cups (grinded to a smooth flour)
Instant dry yeast- 1 envelope
Sugar- 1tbsp
Salt-1tsp
warm water- 1 cup
oil- 1tsp(preferably olive oil, I used sunflower oil)

Method-
Mix together semolina flour, sugar,salt and yeast. Add warm water and knead into a smooth dough adding a little oil. Knead for 5 to 10 minutes. Then coat it with oil and keep it covered allowing it to rise for 2-3 hours.
It doubles in volume. Then just fold the dough for a couple of times. Set it in a loaf pan. Allow it to rise for another 2 hours preferably.(It was already late in the night , so I couldn't wait for a long time.)So I just rested the dough for hardly an hour. But it woul be better till you wait till the dough rises to the edges of the loaf pan.
Preheat the oven at 180c. Bake the bread for 35-40 minutes. Crust should be golden brown and should sound hollow when you tap it. Thats when the bread is baked.

Allow it to stand for sometime. Cut into slices. You can store in refrigerator for a longer period. Toast before you serve. Tastes great.

Pav bhaaji,some awards and meme

Pav bhaji is an all time favourite at my place. I make it so frequently, but never actually quite blogged about it. The reason being, it was polished off before I could even take a photo. An irresistable so called street food ,indeed.
Now, the photo which I have put up is the pav bhaaji my sis made when she was here. We had it for dinner and we loved it as we have always...

Ingredients-
Potatoes- 2 chopped
Capsicum-1 chopped
Carrots- 1 chopped
Peas- 1 cup
Onion- 1 finely chopped
Tomatoes- 2 finely chopped
Ginger garlic green chilly paste- 1tsp(more of garlic)
Red chilly powder- 1tsp(you can add more if you like it hot and spicy)
turmeric powder- 1tsp
Pav bhaaji masala- 2tsp(any brand, I used everest)
Coriander powder- 1tsp
Salt to taste
Oil- 2tsp
Butter- 1tsp+ more for toating the buns/pav
Pav/buns- according to requirement

Method-
Cook potatoes,carrots,peas and capsicum in a pressure cooker till tender enoughto mash them.
Heat oil and one spoon of butter in a pan. Add Ginger garlic green chilly paste. Then add onions and saute for sometime. Then add the tomatoes. Saute and cook tomatoes till they are soft and mixed well. Then add turmeric powder, red chilly powder,coriander powder. Add the cooked vegetables and mix well. Mash the vegetables well with a mechanical masher or the spoon you are using to stir. Add the pav bhaji masala.Keep stirring till the vegetables get mixed well with the masala. While serving, squeeze lime on it and garnish with raw onions,coriander leaves and butter.
For the pav- Cut them into halves. Apply little butter and both sides. Sprinkle a little salt and red chilly powder(optional). Toast them on a hot tava.
Serve the bhaaji with the toasted pav. Serve hot.

Some awards-
LG and Vij have passed me some awards-
360 degree foodie award
Hardworking food blogger
Great buddy award
Kreative blogger award.
LG has also passed me A perfect blend of friendship,Good job,Inspiration award, I am chocoholic,Butterfly award.
See the picture in the Awards link.

Also a pending meme -
7 things I say often-
1.laksh, please...(maximum of my time running behind my 1 year old, asking him not to do this or that..)
2. Good boy(thats something which I say quite often,encouraging my son to stop doing some mischief he is upto)
3.O god(when I have forgetten something)
4. Hey bhagwann(when I am tired or amused)
5.yenna ( means "what" in tamil, I mostly use it to begin a conversation)
6.when will I finish all the work(seems to be never ending)
7.Hello

7 things I did before
1.spend lot of time reading lovely books(something which I have not done for sometime now)
2.Worked for a couple of years before I got married.
3.Had a great time with friends during my post grad and when I was working.
4. Did a lot of handwork and craft when there was lots of time when I was newly married.
5. Learned to cook.
6. Learned to drive but never practiced..
7.Visited malaysia and bali with my hubby

7 things I do now
1. Blog
2. Spend time with my son.
3. Cook and the usual house activities
4. Experiment new cuisines and baking
5. Chat with friends while I take my son to a nearby park.
6. Watch tv
7.chat with my hubby atleast for 30 minutes everyday after he returns from office(to update him and get updated with all news)

7 things I want to do

1. Work
2. Learn more of baking techniques and cake decoration
3. Learn to make greeting cards and other new crafts
4. Teach my son(lots of things in my mind..lets see)
5. Travel to all interesting places atleast once in my lifetime.
6. Resume my reading habit
7. Enjoy every moment.

7 things which attract me about the opposite sex
1. Patience
2.maturity
3.understanding(understand before I say something)
4. Talks a lot with a good sense of humour
5.practical
6.Decent and dignified
7. knows what to do at the right time and right place

7 favourite foods
1. Dal chaval
2. Almost all sweets and chocolates
3. Cakes
4. Green chilly pickle
5.Pizzas
6.Anything with paneer
7.All chaat items

Carrot payasam- A healthy dessert

If you see, many of my recipe uses carrots. I buy them every week and add them in whatever I can. Its one of the healthiest food, I believe. Carrot payasam or kheer is a favourite dessert at my place and the goodness of nuts adds to the nutritional values of the already healthy payasam.

Ingredients-

Carrots- 4 nos

Milk- 1 litre

Sugar- 1 cup

Almonds- 5

Cashews-5

Saffron/kesar- few strands.

Ghee -1tsp

Method-

Soak almonds and cashews in warm water.Boil the milk.Cuts the carrots into small pieces. Add the saffron strands. Sprinkle some water and cook them in a microwave or cooker till they are tender. Grind the nuts and carrots to a smooth paste. Heat ghee in a pan. Add the ground paste and saute for sometime. Add sugar and cook for some more time. Then add the boiled milk and keep stirring till it thickens(quantity of milk should reduce a little.)

You can serve this warm or cold. I love it chilled.

Some awards-

Kitchen flavours ,Uma and vidhas have passed me some awards. Thankyou so much for passing them to me. They are wonderful.

I would love to pass it to all my blogger friends who visit creative saga regularly and give me encouraging comments. There is meme too. Will try to do it in my next post.

Rice and lentil cake

I have always admired the beautiful baking recipes by pearls of east. This idea of savory cake using rice and lentil sounded really interesting. I wanted to make it as soon as I saw it. So I made this for a sunday brunch. Its actually a traditional oriya recipe called poda pitta. Hers has come totally brown while mine is white in the inside. The probable reason must be because I used light brown sugar. So the batter was creamish in colour. You can try adding jaggery. But anyway, it is the taste that matters. We enjoyed it. Thanks for the lovely recipe.

Ingredients
Raw rice- 1 cup
Whole udid dal- 1/2 cup
Light brown sugar- 1 cup
Grated coconut- 1cup
Black pepper powder- 2tsp
Cardamom powder- 1tsp
Ginger chopped to small pieces- 1"
Salt- to taste
Ghee - 1tsp
Baking powder- 1tsp
Raisins- 8 to 10
Dates- 3-4 chopped
Cashews and almond- few- chopped fine

Method-
Soak the rice and udid dal overnight. Grind them to a coarse paste next day. Keep aside for 2 hours.Put together sugar, baking powder, cardamom powder, pepper, ginger and salt. Add them to above mix. Then add grated coconut, raisins, date, and nuts and mix well. Grease a baking pan with ghee and pour the batter. Preheat the oven at 180c and bake for 30 to 40 minutes till the knife comes out clean.


Cool for sometime. Slice and serve.

Coconut milk pulao

I made this pulao many months ago when I had first seen it is illatharasi's blog. She had used the microwave. I used a pressure cooker and made minor changes to the recipe. This is how I made.

Ingredients-
Rice- 1 cup
Onion-1 chopped
Ginger garlic green chilly paste-1tsp
Mixed vegetables-1cup chopped fine
Coconut milk- 1cup
Bay leaves- 1
Cinnamon- 1"
Cloves-2
Cardamom- 2
Cumin seed-1tsp
Oil- 1tsp

Method-
Wash the rice and keep it aside for 10 minutes.Heat oil in a cooker pan. Add cumin seeds and the spices. Then add the ginger garlic paste and the onions and saute till they turn translucent. Add the mixed vegetables.Saute for sometime. Add the rice and coconut milk and mix well. Add required amount of water and pressure cook.
Serve the rice hot with raitha.

Coconut jelly/pudding

My sister and I made this for a dessert one day. We bought a packet of orange flavoured china grass. We were looking for a recipe, and then I had a packet of coconut milk sitting in my pantry for sometime. So we thought of adding that. And it was a good idea. The taste was really good. We loved the coconut flavour in the vibrant orange coloured dessert.

Ingredients-
China grass/agar agar powder- 1pkt (plain or flavour of your choice)
Sugar- 2 cups
Coconut milk- 1 cup
Cashews and almond- broken to small pieces(optional)

Method-
Boil 5ooml of water. Add the agar agar. Keep stirring till it dissolves. Then add the sugar. Lower the flame and stir to dissolve the sugar. Remove from flame. Add the coocnut milk and stir to mix well. Pour them in jelly mould. Add the chopped nuts. Allow to cool and refrigerate.
After it solidifies(gels), invert on the plate. Serve chill.

Kitchen flavours has passed me some awards- Inspiration award, good job,chocoholic,butterfly and friendship. Thanks you for showering so many awards to my blog.

Ragi biscuits

I saw this recipe in aayis recipes and loved the idea of baking biscuits with ragi. It is quite healthy too.
I had a packet of ragi and really did not know what to do with it though I had come across a few recipes. Making biscuits sounded good to me, but somehow I never managed to make nice cookies. They always became flat after ten minutes of baking. I never came to know the reason behind the failure.
But this time,it really came out good. I followed the exact recipe, just sprinkled a few drops of milk as it seemed to be a bit dry. A good winner recipe.

Ingredients-
Ragi flour- 2cups
Powdered sugar- 1 cup
butter- 1 cup
Cardamom powder- 1/2tsp
Baking powder- 1tsp
Milk(optional)- A few drops

Method-
Roast the ragi flour for 5 minutes. Take care that it does not burn.
Then add powdered sugar, melted butter, cardamom powder ,baking powder and mix well to a dough.
(cardamom gives a really good flavour to the biscuits. As soon as I added, I could smell the typical sweet smell coming from the Indian bakery shops)
Make small balls from the dough. Flatten a little. Place them on a baking paper on a cookie tray.
Bake them at 180c in a preheated oven for 20 minutes.
Cool them and store in a air tight container.

Blogroll and other useful sites.

I will be adding more sites as time permits.If anyone wants to be listed here, please leave a comment. Please do add my blog in your blogroll.
http://creativesaga.blogspot.com/

Indian and International Food Bloggers
Lg of taste of mysore
priyanka of Asankhana
Priti of Indian khana
Sukanya of sukanya's musings
Uma of Essence of Andhra
Divya kudua of easycooking
Pearls of east of anyone can cook
Jayasree of Kailas kitchen
Jayashree of experiments with food
Cham of spice club
Divya vikram of dil se
Laavanya of cookery corner
Anudivya of A little bit more
Kitchen flavours of yummy food
Sireesha of mom's recipes
Usha veg inspirations
Vani of illatharasi
Happy cook's My kitchen treasures
Sia of Monsoon spice
Srivalli of cooking for all seasons
Srikar's kitchen
Easycrafts simple Indian food
anrb of recipies by pedhakka
Srilekha of me and my kitchen
Cynthia's tastes like home

Other interesting food blogs
Food and drink slideshow
Sweet and simple bakes

Food blog aggregators
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Food world
Colours of India

Peas paratha

As I said before, when my family was here, I had a great time. My granny used to cook a complete south Indian meal and my sister , north Indian delicacies . So I quite relaxed myself and enjoyed good food.
My sister made this parathas with green peas for lunch one day and they tasted great. A good healthy one , loved by children as well as grown ups, so thought of sharing it with you all.

Ingredients-
For stuffing-
Green peas- 1cup
Ginger garlic paste- 1tsp
Coriander powder- 1tsp
Garam masala-1tsp
Oil-1tsp
salt to taste

For the paratha
Wheat flour- 1cup
Besan/gram flour- 1tbsp
Salt-1tsp
oil- 1tsp

Ghee to brush on parathas.

Method-
For the stuffing-
Heat oil in pan. Add the ginger garlic paste and then the peas. Add the rest of the ingredients. Sprinkle little water. Close the lid till it cooks well. After sometime, try to mash the peas with a mechanical masher or blend it in a mixer.
Add the besan in wheat flour along with salt. Add water and make a smooth dough using little oil.

For assembling-
Make small balls on the dough. Roll a ball into a circle. Spread little stuffing on it. Roll another ball into a circle of same size. Place it on the stuffing. Seal both circles on the sides with little water.
Heat a tava. Place the paratha on it. Brush little oil on the upper surface. Turn on the other side and brush some more ghee.Cook well on both sides.
Serve hot with any gravy or curds.

Eggless Orange bread

Everything around me seems to be very hushed and depressing after the strident days of laughing, cheering and chatting. My family left for India yesterday. Its only me and my baby now. Hubby is still on a official tour.
I had made this cake for my sis. Everyone loved it. I dont have my camera with me now, so this was taken with my cell phone. I couldn' t do more justice to the photograph. Thats all I could get. The eggless cake with the orange flavour is definitely worth trying. It tasted great.

Ingredients-
Plain flour- 1 and 1/2 cup
Baking powder- 1tbsp
Butter- 1/2 cup
Condensed milk- 200gm/half tin
Orange juice- 1 cup
Brown sugar- 3/4 cup
Orange rind- 2tbsp
Cashewnuts- 5 broken to small bits

Method-
Mix together the sugar and butter till creamy. Add condensed milk and orange juice and mix well.Add the flour and baking powder and mix well to avoid any lumps. Fold in the orange rind and cashewnuts. Preheat oven to 180c. Pour the batter in a loaf pan and bake for 40 minutes till the skewer or knife comes out clean.
Add few drops of milk or orange juice if the batter seems to be very thick.

Kalakand

After seeing cham's ooey gooey sweet, I had fallen in love with it. Never knew the recipe was so simple. Cham has given many versions of the kalakand recipe. Later I saw it in LG's blog and the version she had used sounded quite simple. So I decided to go ahead with that version. It came out really good and tasted great too. Pistachios would have been more appropriate for garnishing, but I did not have them. So I used almonds instead.

Ingredients-
Milk- 1/2 litre
Condensed milk- 200gms/half tin
Vinegar/lime- 1tbspn

Method-
Boil the milk. Add vinegar slowly. The milk starts curdling. Collect the curdled portion /chenna in a strainer.Wash it with running tap water. Drain the water. Heat a pan. Add the chenna and mix the condensed milk. Keep stirring it till it forms a thick mass. Pour it in a plate. Allow it to cool. Cut into pieces. Garinsh with almonds or pistachios.

Mutter paneer

I love paneer in any form. Palak paneer, mutter paneer and paneer bhurji are something which I make quite frequently.
When I made mutter paneer last time, I decided to use up the tamarind chutney which I had made for dahi vada. I did not add tomatoes, but the tamarind chutney imparted a nice sourness to the gravy. One of my friends later told me that tamarind is used in many gravies including dal makhani. It gives a taste much better than the tomatoes. One can add a combination of tomatoes and tamarind in a proper ratio to suit ones taste.
We had it with parathas.

Ingredients-
Onion- 1 chopped
ginger garlic green chilly paste- 2tsp
Tamarind pulp- 1tbspn
Coriander powder- 1tsp
Garam masala- 1tsp
Turmeric powder- 1tsp
Chilly powder- 1tsp
Paneer- 1 cup of cubes
Peas- 1cup
Oil- 1tbsp
Cumin seeds- 1tsp
Salt to taste.

Method-
Chop the onions and grind them to a paste. Heat oil in a pan. Add cumin seeds. Then add the Onion paste and the ginger garlic green chilly paste. Saute for sometime. Add the turmeric powder,red chilly,coriander powder , garam masala and salt. Add tamarind pulp with a
2tbspn of water and cook for 10 minutes. Then add the paneer and peas and cook for another 15 minutes till the sourness reduces.
Serve hot with hot rotis.
Divya has passed me this cute little award which says"I am a chcoholic".Thanks a lot divya.