MIXED KAALU PALYA

I am backkkkkk...updating blog after 2 years....uffff...hello friends...hwr u all ??? Feeling great tobe in touch with you all again 👍

My today's special recipe is from Karnataka "mixed kaalu palya". Kaalu means pulses. Here, we use 4 types of pulses I. e. Green gram, Kabuli Chana, black eyed peas & grean peas. We soak them & cook them & blend them in masalas to make a healthy & delicious curry which will be dry & goes well with rotis/dosa/rice. I adopted this recipe from LIFE IS MARVELOUS. 

Ingredients needed:

1 small cup Hesaru KaaLu ( Green gram )

1 small cup Kadale Kaalu ( Kabuli Chana )

1 small cup Alasande KaaLu ( black eyed peas )

1 small cup Bataani ( Green peas )

1 big onion or 2 small onions — finely chopped

1 big tomato or 2 small tomatoes — finely chopped

Seasoning :

3 tspns -> Oil

Mustard seeds – 1 spoon

Cumin seeds – 1 spoon

Chana dal – 1 spoon

Urad dal – 1 spoon

Byadgi Chilli – 1 broken into 2 slits

Green chillies – 4 to 5 ( based on spicy levels consumed at home )

Red chilli powder – 1 to 2 tspns

Salt as required

Method:

[1] Soak all the pulses mentioned above like green peas, Green gram, Kabuli Chana, black eyed peas overnight.

[2] Boil all the pulses soaked, in pressure cooker upto 2 whistles and cool.

[3] Now take a pan and season the ingredients mentioned under seasoning, add, Chopped Onions and fry till little golden color and then add tomotoes chopped and fry till tomatoes fully get cooked, it gets mushy at this stage, now add boiled pulses, chilli powder, salt and close the lid.

Let it cook for 3-4 mins.. At this stage, check and stir well to avoid bottom of the pan getting burnt..

This goes well with Chapathi and dosas.

(Prepared sandwiches using mixed kaalu palya+cheese spread+cucumber&tomato slices as filling👌👌👌)

Happy cooking :)))))

MASSOPPU SAARU !!!!!

Massoppu saaru is a Karnataka delicacy that too B'lore delicacy. We use many varieties of leaves in this dish. That means taste bhi...health bhi. This recipe is in my wish list since long back.Once my best friend's mom made this dish when i recently went to meet her. I just fell in love with it. Actually you should add either BBB powder or rasam powder to it.I mean original recipe demands it. Bur knowing my taste, aunty didn't add. After coming back, i tried both the varieties. But liked aunty's version very much. One more think i felt is i added less bunch leaves. I added one bunch of amarnath leaves, palak leaves, methi leaves each. But i felt i should have added 2 bunches each & a bunch of dill leaves too. In this recipe you should use only leaves, not stems. 

( here i added BBB powder)

INGREDIENTS:-                                                                                     

Toor dal - 1 cup
methi leaves, chopped - 1 or 2 bunch
palak leaves, chopped - 1 or 2 bunch
amarnath leaves(green), chopped - 1 or 2 bunch
dill leaves , chopped - 1 bunch (i didn't add)
onion, finely chopped - 1 medium
tomato, finely chopped- 1 medium
green chillies, slitted  - 2 if spicy, 3 if medium spicy
turmeric pow - 1/2 tsp
salt to taste
coriander leaves, chopped - 1 or 2 tblsp
Tamarind - gooseberry size
BBB pow/rasam pow - 1/2 tsp (optional)
cumin pow - 1/2 tsp

TO TEMPER:-

mustard seeds - 1/4 tsp
cumin seeds - 1/4 tsp
garlic, chopped - 1pod
garlic, smashed - 1 pod
curry leaves - 4 strands
long red chilly - 1
ghee - 1 tblsp

METHOD:-

1. Wash & pressure cook toor dal+all chopped leaves+onion+tomato+green chillies+turmeric pow to 7-8 whistles.
2. Mash them finely.
3. Add tamarind extract, salt to taste, coriander leaves, cumin pow , BBB pow & bring it to boil.
4. For tadka, heat ghee in a pan, splutter mustard seeds, add cumin seeds, garlic chopped & smashed, red long chilly(cut it into 3 pieces), curry leaves & fry until garlic turns light brown.
5. Temper it to dal-leaves mixture & mix well.
6. Serve hot with rice/rotis.

HAPPY COOKING :))))))))

BEANS PALYA !!!!

This is my best friend's mom's recipe. This makes simple beans stir fry awsome ! It goes well with rice/chapathis. For this beans should be tender & that is very important.

INGREDIENTS:-

beans, chopped - 1 cup 
onion, finely chopped - 1
tomato, finely chopped - 1
garlic, finely chopped - 1/2 pod
green chilly, slitted - 1 or 2
long red chilly - 1
curry leaves - 2 strands
mustard seeds - 1/2tsp
oil - 1 tbl sp
salt to taste

METHOD:-

1. Finely chop onion, tomato,garlic, slit green chillies.
2. Heat oil in a non stick pan ,mustard seeds and add chopped garlic and slitted green chillies, long red chillies, curry          leaves n saute till curry leaves changes its colour. 
3.Then add onion and tomato and saute till tomato becomes mushy. 
4. Now add chopped beans (beans should be tender) and very little water (add water only if it is necessory) and salt.
5. Mix well and cook in medium to small flame...keep mixing inbetween as we are adding very less water to it. 
6. Serve hot with rotis/rice & dal.

HAPPY COOKING :)))))))

AVARE KAALU KURMA !!!!!

My today's recipe is from CHITRA AMMA'S KITCHEN....and the recipe is AVARE KAALU KURMA that goes well with rotis. Here instead of avare kai i used southavare kaalu as suggested by my friend. I dont know exactly what it is but i bought it from Chikmagalore market. It looks like fresh thingalavre i mean fresh navy beans. Pic is given below....

I pressure cooked them for 4 whistles but i felt i should have continued for 2 more whistles to get soft cooked beans. Anyways recipe tasted great ! So, sharing it here with you all today.

INGREDIENTS:
Avarekaalu – 2 cups
Curd – ½ cup
Salt – 2 tsps
Fresh Corriander leaves - 2 tbsp
Finely chopped tomatoes – optional for garnishing.( i skipped this)
For Seasoning
Cooking oil – 2 tbsp
Finely chopped onion – ¼ cup
Mustard seeds – ¼ tsp
Bengal gram dal – 1 tsp
Cashew nuts – 10
Curry leaves – a few
For Kurma Masala Paste
Grind the following ingredients to a fine paste:
Fresh grated coconut - 1/2 cup
Coriander seeds – 2 tbsps
Garlic – 4 pods
Fresh ginger – 1’’
Cloves – 6
Sambar powder – 1 tsp (or green chillies – 2)
Turmeric powder – ¼ tsp
Cumin seeds – ¼ tsp
Cashew nuts – 10
Soaked Poppy seeds – 1 tbsp (optional)

METHOD:

1. Boil avarekai until tender and keep aside.
2. Heat oil in a pan and add mustard seeds.
3. When it splutters add Bengal gram dal and fry till golden in colour.
4. Add cashew nuts and roast till golden in colour.
5. Add the chopped onion and curry leaves and cook till the onion is glassy. .
6. Now add the ground kurma masala paste and fry it, until the oil separates out.
7. Add the cooked beans, a cup of water and salt and cook.
8. Blend in the curd and cook for a few more minutes.
9. Garnish with fresh coriander and finely chopped tomatoes.

Enjoy the hot kurma with poories, chapaties or ghee rice!

HAPPY COOKING

VEGETABLE SAAGU !!!!!!!!!

My today's recipe is from the blog CHEF AND HER KITCHEN. Veg. saagu goes well with chapathi/poori/dosa/idly. It is a polpular side dish of Karnataka. You will get set dosa & saagu in almost all resturas/darshinis of Karnataka.

Ingredients:

2 cups of finely diced Mixed Vegetables(Carrot,Potato,Beans,Green Peas,Cauliflower)

1 Onion,roughly chopped

1/2 tsp Mustard seeds

2 tbsp Oil/Ghee

Salt to taste

To grind:

1" Cinnamon stick

4-5 Cloves

1-2 Marathi Moggu

1/2 cup fresh grated Coconut

1 tbsp Khus khus

1 tbsp Fried gram

5-6 Green chillies

a handful of chopped Coriander leaves,optional

1 tsp Oil

Method: 

• Heat a tsp of oil in a kadai/pan and add green chillies and fry them, but be careful as the whole green chillies might burst.You can make a small slit if you want to avoid bursting.Add cinnamon,marathi moggu and cloves to it and fry for sometime.
• Grind the fried ingredients with grated fresh coconut,khus khus, fried gram, coriander leaves and make it into a smooth puree.
• In a cooker,heat oil crackle mustard seeds and fry chopped onions until pink.Now add vegetables and fry until they are slightly crisp.
• Add the ground masala and fry until the mixture leaves the oil and then add enough salt and 1 - 1.5 cups of water and pressure cook for 1-2 whistles(do not over cook).Once the pressure is released add lemon juice to it and give a good stir.

Serve hot with Poori or chapathy or Set dosa or Atukula dosa.

Notes:

1. You can even add vegetables like cabbage, knol-khol to saagu. My aunt suggests to add even add beetroot but I usually don't add it as it changes the color of saagu, but you can add while preparing the red color sagu.
2. The addition of  Khus-khus is optional but it adds a nice richness to the gravy.You can even add cashewnuts if you want.
3. This sagu would be slightly greenish because of the usage of green chillies and coriander in the recipe.If you want it to be red in color, skip green chillies and coriander in the recipe and add red chillies and tomato while grinding the paste.Also, replace lemon juice with tamarind pulp at the end.

HAPPY COOOKING :))))))))

IDLY 2 !!!!!!!

I adopted this recipe again from my favourite blog VEG. RECIPES OF INDIA.  

Ingredients

• 1 cup basmati rice or sona masoori rice or regular rice
• 1 cup parboiled rice
• ½ cup urad dal/black gram, skinned whole or skinned spilt
• ¼ cup poha/flattened rice
• ¼ tsp methi seeds/fenugreek seeds
• water as required
• salt
• oil to apply to the idli moulds

Instructions

1. pick and wash both the rice and urad dal.
2. soak the rice and poha in water for 4-5 hours.
3. soak the urad dal with methi seeds separately for 4-5 hours.
4. drain the soaked urad dal. reserve the water.
5. grind the urad dal, methi seed with some of the reserved water till you get a smooth and fluffy batter.
6. grind the rice to make a smooth batter.
7. mix both the batters together in a large bowl or pan. add salt and mix well.

1. cover and let the batter ferment for 8-9 hours.
2. after the fermentation process is over, the batter will become double in size and rise.

1. gently mix the batter.
2. grease the idli moulds.
3. pour the batter in the moulds steam the idlis in a pressure cooker or steamer.

1. if using pressure cooker remove the vent weight.whistle.
2. steam for 10-12 mins or until the idlis are done.

1. remaining batter can be stored in the refrigerator.
2. serve the steaming hot idlis with your choice of chutney or sambar or your choice of side dish.

HAPPY COOKING :)))))

INSTANT ONION RAVA DOSA !!!!!!

I adopted this recipe from VEG RECIPES OF INDIA. Yummy , quick  & easy to preapare  dosa. A must try recipe.

Ingredients

main ingredients:

• ½ cup unroasted rava/sooji/semolina)
• ½ cup rice flour
• 2 tbsp all purpose flour/maida or whole wheat flour/atta
• 1 green chili/hari mirch, finely chopped
• 1 medium onion/pyaaz, finely chopped - about ½ cup of finely chopped onion
• 5 to 6 curry leaves/kadi patta, chopped
• ½ inch ginger/adrak, finely chopped (optional)
• water or buttermilk as required - i added 2 and ¼ cups water *check notes on how to make the buttermilk
• 9 to 10 black peppercorns - crushed
• 1 tbsp chopped coriander leaves (optional)
• salt as required

for tempering

• 1 tsp oil
• ½ tsp mustard seeds
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• oil or ghee as required for roasting the dosa

Instructions

1. take the rava, rice flour, all purpose flour, green chilies, ginger, onion, coriander leaves, crushed black pepper in a mixing bowl.

1. heat 1 tsp oil in a small frying pan. crackle the mustard seeds first. the mustard seeds should pop before you add the cumin seeds. then add the cumin and curry leaves. saute for a few seconds till the cumin browns.
2. add this tempering mixture along with the oil to the other ingredients in the bowl. add salt.

1. pour water or buttermilk and make a thin batter without any lumps. the batter should not be thick or of medium consistency. if the batter becomes too thin, then add some rice flour to slightly thicken it. keep aside for 15 to 20 minutes.

1. heat the tava or non-stick pan. smear a bit oil with a slice of onion or a small piece of fabric or paper napkin.
2. with a ladle pour the dosa batter from the edges towards the center.
3. sprinkle ¼ or ½ or 1 tsp of oil from the top.
4. let the base becomes golden and crisp. flip and cook the other side. when both the sides are cooked, remove the dosa from the pan. prepare all the dosas this way.
5. serve the onion rava dosa hot with coconut chutney or vegetable sambar. onion rava dosa has to be served immediately.

Notes

*to make the buttermilk - dissolve 3 to 4 tbsp of yogurt in 2 cups of water. whip the buttermilk very well before you add it to the other ingredients.

HAPPY COOKING :))))))

SAMBAR FOR DOSA, IDLY ETC !!!!!!!

INGREDIENTS:

cooked toor dal - 1 handful
spring onions - 2 bunch
coriander leaves , chopped - 1 tbsp
tomatoes , riped - 4 medium
sambar powder - 2 tsp
mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
curry leaves - 4-5 strands
salt to taste

METHOD:-

1. Wash & puree the tomatoes in mixer.
2. Separate onions & leaves of spring onion & chop leaves finely.
3. In a pan, add cooked toor dal+pureed tomato+onions+chopped spring onion leaves & bring it to boil.
4. Dilute sambar powder in 1/4 cup water & add it to the pan+add salt +chopped coriander leaves & mix well & cook till onions are cooked.
5. Temper it with mustard seeds & curry leaves. 
6. Serve it with idly/dosas.

HAPPY COOKING :)))))

and here's an tip:-

1. You can use left over DAALITHOY/DALl instead of cooked dal here.
2. Add vegetables like brinjal. drumstick etc to enhance the taste of sambar.

IDLY !!!!!!!

Idly is must breakfast at my mom's place. My father wants idly-chutney for breakfast everyday. I think he can make world record about this :D So, preparing snow white & soft soft idlies is not at all difficult for me. I am using my mom's measurement for making idly. Here i presented idly with SAMBAR & i will my SAMBAR recipe in next post seperately.

INGREDIENTS:-

urad dal - 3/4 cup
rice rava - 1 & 1/4 cup
salt - 1tsp

METHOD :-

1. Wash the urad dal twice & rinse in enough water atleast for 1 hour.
2. After one hour grind this urad dal to a smooth batter in grinder using enough water ( please use grinder only & don't use mixer. If you are using mixer urad dal-rice rava ratio should be 1:1). Batter must be like dosa batter.
3. Remove the urad dal batter & keep in a wide vessel. Choose a big vessel such that there is enough space for the better to rise well.

4. To this batter add salt & rice rava (wash & drain the rice rava once) & mix well. Your idly batter is ready. Close the vessel tightly with a lid & keep in a warm place. Keep it for fermentation for 7-8 hours in summer days  & 10-11 hours in cold days.

5. Next day the batter would have rasied very well.

6. Mix it well. Pour one laddle full of batter in each idly mould.

  
7. Steam it for 20 mins. (insert a knife in one idly after 15 mins. If it came out cleanly then switch off the stove . Otherwise continue steaming for futher 5 mins)

8. Keep the mould outside for 5 mins & then demould idlies.

9. Serve it with SAMBAR / chutney /  your choice of pickle. ( i served it with SAMBAR).

HAPPY COOKING :))))))