Sweet corn soup - Indo-Chinese style

Sweet corn soup recipe – Indo-Chinese style.

Ingredients
1. Mixed vegetables - Finely diced carrot, Green beans , Cauliflower All together 6-8 cups (Fresh or frozen) Approximately 2 small packets of frozen veggies.
2. Cream style sweet corn cans -2 Nos
3. 2 cans of baby corn
4. Frozen sweet corn – 4 cups
5. Water as required
6. Soy sauce - 1 Tbsp
7. Green chili sauce- 2Tbsp
8. Pepper to taste
9. ½ of Maggi Sweet corn soup packet powder - Optional
10. Maida or corn flour – 4-5 tbsp
11. Salt to taste
12. Olive oil – 2tbsp

Please note that this makes about 10 quarts of soup. So you can reduce the quantity accordingly. I had divided the vegetables equally among 2 medium sized pressure cookers.



Method

1. Boil all the vegetables from 1 thru 4 in a pressure cooker with enough water Put couple of tbsp olive oil and little bit salt as well.(.I usually put water just enough to cover the veggies and cook them for 1or 2 whistles. The vegetables should not get mashed up too soft. Alternatively you can cook them in the microwave too.)
2. Open the pressure cooker lid after it cools down. Add pepper, soy sauce, green chili sauce and Maggi soup packet powder
3. Add some more water and bring to boil.
4. Mix Maida/corn flour with enough water to make thin paste and add it to the boiling soup slowly little by little. You can see the soup thickening.
5. Simmer the soup for another 3-5 minutes and turn off the stove.

Tangy Tomato baath /rice

Tangy Tomato rice/Baath

Ingredients
1. Cooked white fluffy rice – 2.5 cups
2. Red Chilies – 3 -4
3. Green Chilies – 2
4. Tomatoes – medium size – 2 finely chopped
5. Onion – Medium size - 1.5
6. Tomato paste - 4 Tbsp
7. Oil – 8- 10 TBSP
8. Salt to taste
9. jaggery /Gur powder – ½ tsp (Optional)
10. Vaangi baath powder or Garam masala – 2 -3 tbsp ( depending on how spicy you want it)
11. A pinch of Haldi/Turmeric powder
12. Water- 4-5 tbsp

For seasoning
13. Mustard - 1 tsp
14. Channa dhal – 1 tsp
15. Karipatta or Curry leaves – 4 or 5
16. Cinnamon stick into pieces - ½ inch
17. Garlic – 1-2 cloves (Optional)
18. Roasted Cashews - 15-20 pieces (Optional)
19. A ping of hing

Method

1. Take the oil in a pan. Add mustard seeds and let it sputter
2. Add Garlic cloves, Green chilies and Red chilies and fry them for a minute. Make sure the stove is on low heat.
3. Add the channa dhal, hing, Karipatta and cinnamon stick pieces and fry for another 20 seconds.
4. Add cashews ,haldi and mix well.
5. Add the Onions and fry until golden brown.
6. Add the salt as required.
7. Then add the chopped tomatoes and fry for 2 -3 minutes until it is cooked softly.
8. Add the water, tomato paste, vaangi baathpoder/garam masala powder, and jaggery and mix well. Boil it for 5 minutes until the raw smell tomatoes are gone.
9. Turn off the stove and delicious Tomato baath is ready to be served ,

Tip : Enjoy this rice with some cool cucumber raitha.

Instant Apple pickles

Ingredients

1. Granny smith or any sweet-tart apples – 2 ( Chopped into small pieces/chunks)
2. Salt to taste
3. Red chlli powder - 2-3 Tbsp
4. Turmeric
5. Oil – 304 tbsp

Seasoning
6. Mustard seeds
7. Methi powder – ¼ tsp
8. Hing a pinch

Method
1. Take the cut apple pieces in abowl. Add salt and turmeric poder and mix well.
2. Warm the oil in a pan
3. Add the mustard seeds and let it sputter.
4. Add the hing and methi powder and make sure the methi turns browns and the raw smell is gone.
5. Turn off the stove and add the red chilli powder ro the seasoing and mix well.
6. Pour the seasong mixture on top of the apple pieces in the bowl.

Apple Gojju

Ingredients
Apple Gojju

1. Granny smith or any sweet-tart apples – 2 ( Chopped into small pieces/chunks)
2. Gojju Powder/ Pudi or Saarina powder/ pudi – 3 -4 tbsp (depending on the how hot the powder is )
3. Dry coconut/kobri grated – 5 tbsp
4. Tamarind paste – 1.5 tbsp
5. Jaggery/Bella – 3 tbsp
6. Oil – 3 tbsp
7. Turmeric/Haarsina powder – 1 tsp
8. Water – 2-3 cups
9. Salt to taste.

Seasoning
10. Mustard seeds
11. Curry leaves/Kari patta
12. Hing – a pinch

Method

1. Take 3 tsp oils in a vessel
2. Add the mustard seeds and let it sputter. Add rest of seasoing ingridients.
3. Then add the grated coconiut/Kobria nd fry for a minute.
4. Then add the cut apple chunks. And salt. Fry it for 304 minutes ij he oil.
5. Add about 1.5 cup water and cook apples until soft.
6. Then add tamarind paste and boil for 3-4 minutes.
7. Then add the gojju/rasam powder, jaggery and boil for another 5 minutes until the mixture syarts buubling (You can smell the gojju aroma)
8. Turn off the stove

Tip : The quantity of jaggeryand tamrind can be increased ordecreased accoring to one’s taste depending oh how sweet-sour you want your gojju to be. Enjoy the gojju with Chappatis/rotis or rice and dal/thovve/pappu.

Vegetable Saagu

Vegetable Saagu recipe

Ingredients
1. Mixed vegetables - Diced cabbage, carrot, Surti paapdi (Avarekaalu)or Lima beans ,Green Beans – All together 3-4 cups ,Potato – 1 medium finely diced
2. Cilantro/Kotombri – ¼ of a bunch
3. Cumin seeds/Jirge - 2 Tbsp
4. Cinnamon - 1 inch
5. Khus Khus /Ghas Ghase - 3 -4 Tbsp
6. Green chilies – 8-10 depending on how spicy you want it.
7. Fried gram dhal(Hurgadle or putani in Kannada) – ½ a handful
8. Grated coconut – ½ cup
9. Oil – 3-4 Tbsp
10. Lemon Juice – 1.5 tsp
11. Salt to taste
12. Water as required
10.

For seasoning
13. Mustard - 1 tsp
14. Urad dhal – 1 tsp
15. Karipatta or Curry leaves – 4 or 5
16. A ping of hing


Method

1. Boil all the vegetables in a pressure cooker with enough water .I usually put water just enough to cover the veggies and cook them for 2 whistles. The vegetables should not get mashed up too soft. Alternatively you can cook them in the microwave too.
2. Drain and preserve the water from the cooked vegetables.
3. Grind ingredients 2 thru 8 with water as required to chutney consistency.
4. Take oil in a vessel. Sputter the mustard seeds. Add hing and curry leaves.
5. Then add the ground chutney from Step 2 and fry it in the seasoning for a about 3-4 minutes until the raw smell goes off
6. Add the vegetables with some of the water from the cooked vegetables and boil for another 5- 8 minutes. You have to add the water little by little so that the saagu can be of thick consistency. Once the saagu starts bubbling and you can turn off the stove at that point.
Enjoy the saagu with hot pooris

Tip : You can fry onions , 2-3 cloves of garlic and grind with the rest of ingredients for the saagu paste/chutney , add garam masala and make it into a vegetable kurma .

Adai Dosa

Adai Dosa

Ingredients

1. Rice– 4 cups
2. Red gram/Toor dal/Togri Bele - 2 cup
3. Bengal gram dal/Kadle Bele/Channa dal – 1 cup
4. Moong dal/Heasru Bele/Green gram dal – 1 cup
5. Urad dal/Black gram dal?Uddina Bele – 3 Tbsp
6. Ginger – One inch
7. Red chillies – 2
8. Green Chillies -2
9. Grated coconut (Optional) – ¼ cup
10. Cilantro (Optional)- ¼ of a bunch
11. Salt to taste
12. Water as required for frinding the batter
13. Oil as required for making the dosas.

Method

1. Soak rice and dals ( 1 thru 5) separately overnight in water.
2. Grind the dals and rice separately to a batter of coarse consistency (Like Idli batter) by adding water as required. Add salt to the batter to taste.
3. Grind ingredients 6 thru 10 with water separately and add it to the batter. This is optional. You can just add salt to the batter and make the dosas and omit adding this.
4. This batter does not have to be fermented and can be made into dosas immediately.
5. Before making the dosas add some more water to the batter so that it is not too thick or watery. Should be in-between.
6. Heat the dosa tava/gridle on medium flame.
7. Take the batter in a ladle and pour it on the tava and spread the batter with the back of the ladle starting from the middle going outwards in circles. The dosas do not have to be too thin as you really cannot spread the batter too much.
8. Then take 1.5 tsp of oil and put it along the edge of the dosa and in the middle. Let is cook for 2-3minutes. The edges will start becoming glen brown and it is time to flip the dosa.
9. Cook the dosa on the other side and crispy delicious Adai are ready to be served.

Tip: If you have batter reaming and it becomes sour after couple of days. You can chop onions and add it to the batter and make the adai. Also this is a modified version of the adai that my mom makes. The one she makes back home is the original adai and it is made thick and crispy and just eating one aid will make you full. You can also add grated Carrots, finely chop mint leaves and onions to the addi dosai. When you spread the batter, spread this veg mixture on the dosa and cover with a lid. Then flip the dosa and cook the underside.

Stuffed Bhindi/Okra

It was raining last evening after I came home from work and the damp weather kind of put me in a mood to cook something warm, crispy and spicy and at the same time I did not want to make something healthy and avoid any deep fried dish. . I opened the fridge and saw the Okras and decided to make some crispy stuffed Okras and some Tomato Rasam/Saaru. So I whipped up the ingredients for both the dishes and had them ready for dinner by about 7:30 PM. We enjoyed our delicious dinner watching the monsoon/autumn rain. It was just wonderful! Here is the recipe for both the dishes. Please try it out and post your feedback/opinion on the blog.

Crispy stuffed Bhindi/Okra /Bendekayi

Ingredients

1. Bhindi/Okra – 25 Nos,
2. Besan flour/Kadle hittu - 1 cup
3. Red Chili powder – 2Tbsp
4. Amchur Powder – 3 Tbsp
5. Jeera powder – 1Tbsp
6. Shania/coriander powder – 1tsp
7. MDH Tava fry masala or any Garam masala – 2 Tbsp
8. A pinch of Haldi/Turmeric powder
9. Sugar (Optional)–A pinch
10. Salt to taste
11. Water as required
12. Oil – 5- 6 Tbsp

For seasoning

13. Mustard - 1 tsp
14. A pinch of hing

Method

1. Wash the whole Okra and pat them dry in a towel.
2. Mix ingredients 1 thru 10 by adding water little by little to form a thick paste.
3. Slit the Okras in the middle starting little away from the head thru the end.
4. Use a small spreading knife to take out the stuffing and fill the slit Okras (See Picture)
5. Take a large frying pan/Tava. Put 4-5 Tbsp oil and shake the tava to spread the oil.
6. Add mustard and hing and let the mustard sputter on low heat.
7. Put the Okra in the pan one by one and cook on low to medium heat. You can close the lid and from time to time you can sprinkle little bit of water so that the Okra and the stuffing inside gets nicely steam cooked.
8. The Okras are cooked when they turn golden brown all sides.
9. It takes about 20 -25 minutes.
10. Enjoy the yummy crispy stuffed Okras
11. Turn off the stove and delicious huli avalakki is ready.

Tip: You can use a non-stick tava or a thick bottomed pan. If you do not like the dryness of this stuffed okra dish you can sauté onion and tomatoes in a little bit of oil and add it to the stuffed Okra. This goes very well with rotis/Chappatis.