Vella Puri

         
           As the name suggests, it's a puri but why vella(white) puri, no clue, might be the white dot-like things that appear on the puri when it's fried. The dish is popular in my husband's family, one of his favorite tiffins and I got the recipe from his sister. The traditional recipe calls for soaking parboiled rice for an hour, grinding it coarsely with tuvar dal, red chillies, coriander seeds without adding much water, adding cumin seeds and making puris, sounds like too much work eh.. Came up with this short-cut, no regrets taste-wise..


Need To Have

• Idli Rava - 2 cups
• Rice Flour - 1 cup
• Tuvar Dal - 1/4 cup
• Coriander Seeds - 1.5 tablespoons
• Cumin Seeds - 1 teaspoon
• Dry Red Chillies - 4
• Curry Leaves - 1 sprig 
• Oil For Deep Frying

Method

          Soak idli rava with just enough water for 2 hrs. Soak the tuvar dal for the same time, grind it with the chillies, coriander seeds, cumin seeds and curry leaves. Add this to the idli rawa along with the rice flour, salt and mix it to form like puri dough. Grease a plastic sheet with oil, take a ball of dough, flatten it into puris, slide it into the oil. 

          This puri takes some time to rise up in the oil, once it rises, press slightly like we do for the regular puris, to puff it up. It takes slightly longer to cook than the usual puris, cook on both sides and remove. At home this puri is served with a tomato chutney and an onion-garlic raitha.

Tomato Chutney
          Saute onions, tomatoes and red chillis, grind, season it with mustard seeds, urad dal, asafoetida and curry leaves.

Onion-Garlic Raitha
           Season oil with mustard and curry leaves, add  an onion and two cloves of garlic, both of them sliced finely, saute them well, add turmeric and chilli powder, mix well for a minute. Cool and mix in curd and salt.

Note
If the idli rawa is very coarse then reduce it to 1 cup and add 2 cups of rice flour.
If the final dough is sticky add little more rice flour.
When grinding the tuvar dal, let it be to a chutney consistency.

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Baby Potatoes In Tangy White Gravy and the Winner of ‘Only’ Cookies and Cakes

Hi All!

There are days when my mind is not able to decide what to cook. I had the baby potatoes lying with me, so I knew I had to finish them, but how? That I was unable to decide! My MIL is visiting us and she told me that she wanted to have Mosaru Avalakki (dahi-poha) for  dinner. So, without knowing what I would make with the potatoes, I put them for boiling and simultaneously started preparing for the avalakki. I soaked the poha and kept all the other ingredients ready and while I was doing that, looking at the dahi/curds, I suddenly had a vague thought and then knew what I wanted to do with the baby potatoes. One ingredient led me to cook a very tasty, tangy and quick to make recipe, hence, decided to share it here.

 

I served it with phulkas but I’m very sure that it will taste great with hot parathas and even a lightly flavoured rice too.  I make something similar with Okra too which one can check here.

Since this was an unplanned dish and I was not too sure about the end result, I have not clicked the in process pictures.

I also want to thanks Priya Mahadevan of Now Serving, for gifting me such a beautiful Paper Mache bowl which I’ve used as a backdrop in the above pic. 

Ingredients

(Serves-4)

250gms washed and boiled baby potatoes

3/4cup curds

2-3 green chillies

small piece ginger

1garlic pod

1tsp cumin

handful of roasted and peeled peanuts (I always have them)

2-3tbsp clarified butter

salt to taste

a pinch of sugar (optional)

Method

Prick the boiled potatoes, this ensures that the flavours are absorbed by the potato else cut them into half.

Grind together peanut, 1/2tsp cumin, ginger, green chillies and garlic. Now add the curds and give one or two pulses in the mixer to combine all the ingredients.

Add a cup of water to the yogurt mix.

Heat the clarified butter and put the remaining cumin seeds, once they splutter, tip in the potatoes, salt to taste and sauté.

Add the curd mix,sugar and bring the gravy to a boil. If you find the gravy thick, pour some more water and mix.

Cover the gravy, let it simmer for 10-12 minutes.

Serve hot.

 

Note- I’ve not peeled the potatoes as all the nutrition lies in it’s peel but one is free to use peeled potatoes also if garlic is omitted, this recipe can be cooked on fasting days.

For better taste use a little sour curds.

And now for the winner of ‘Only’ Cookies and Cakes, it is entry number 36

The winner is Ambreen. Congrats dear. Pls contact me with your address and phone number in India at cookingoodfood@gmail.com within two days.

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Cauliflower And Peas In Mustard Gravy

 

          I have tasted vegetable curries cooked with mustard paste at a Bengali friend's place, liked the taste, it was different from the regular kurmas and gravies, the taste of mustard is very unique. I have added tomatoes in this gravy to suit my taste, almonds and poppy seeds to make the gravy thick, try this out..

Need To Have

• Cauliflower - 1 medium size 
• Fresh Or Frozen Peas - half-a-cup
• Tomato Puree - 5 tablespoons
• Panch Phoran - 2 teaspoons
• Almond Slices - 1 tablespoon
• Yellow Mustard Seeds - 11/2 - 2 teaspoons
• Poppy Seeds - 2 teaspoons (white)
• Turmeric Powder - 1/2 teaspoon
• Chilli Powder - 1 teaspoon, more or less to suit your taste
• Coriander Powder - 1 teaspoon

Method 
          Grind mustard seeds, poppy seeds, almonds, tomato puree, turmeric powder, chilli powder and coriander powder into a fine paste. Cut the cauliflower into big florets.

          Heat oil, add the panch phoran, let it splutter, then add the cauliflower and peas and salt. Mix well, cover and cook till the cauliflower is half-cooked. Now, add the paste, stir well, add water, cook for five mins or more till the vegetable is cooked completely. Check for salt, remove and serve with rotis.

Note
Panch phoran - mix equal amount of mustard seeds, cumin seeds, fennel seeds, onion seeds or nigella or kalonji and fenugreek seeds.
Cook the cauliflower till done but not mushy.

Update
When I cooked again for updating the pictures, I used 3 tomatoes, I had used a bigger cauliflower.

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Podi Idli Upma

       

          Everyone has their own version of idli upma, adding some seasonings, vegetables and so on. I was not a big fan of this dish made from leftover idlis, until I tried this one at my friend's place. My daughter became an instant fan, so nowadays, this upma is a must after the day I make idlis. Very simple to make, and very tasty too..


Need To Have

• Idlis - 6
• Onions - 2 medium 
• Green Chillies - 2 or 3 
• Idli Milagai Podi - 1 tablespoon, more or less depending on spice level
• Sesame oil - 2 teaspoon

For Seasoning

• Mustard Seeds - 1/2 teaspoon
• Urad Dal - 1 teaspoon
• Asafoetida - a pinch
• Curry leaves - few

Method
          Chop the onions and slice or chop the chillies. Break the idlis with hand and mix the idli milagai podi and sesame oil, keep aside. Heat oil, do the seasoning, add the onion and green chillies, saute for a few mins, add the broken idlis, mix well and serve warm.

Note
The onions and the idli podi give the taste, add atleast half the amount of chopped onions as broken idli.
While mixing the idlis do it on low heat to prevent sticking or you'll have to add more oil.
Can also add cashews with seasoning for the nutty taste.

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Baked Couscous and Cottage Cheese Rolls

 

Wishing all my readers and friends a Very Happy New Year. I pray the God almighty to help all fulfil their dreams and wishes. I also hope and pray that the year brings in more peace and harmony through out the world.

I’ve just returned back after visiting my parents and the temperature and weather change is trying to show it’s effect on my body and I’m trying hard to push it. I know I’ve not been able to acknowledge a few entries sent for ‘Only’ Cakes and Cookies, have patience, I’ll make it to your blogs in a day or two. I could not do it as my dad’s computer was not functioning properly.

I am overwhelmed by the response my first cookbook review received. Do understand the word ‘response’ should not be identified with the number of comments, in those terms my blog is amongst the back benchers, LOL,… ‘response’ clearly means the page views the post received and the many mails I received congratulating me on my effort. I’m motivated to make more attempts in this field. I also want to thank all my blogger friends and others who stopped by to leave a note for me for the review post, I’m touched and your encouragement means a lot to me.

 

This is my first post of the year and I wanted to start on a healthy note and at the same time I also want to tell myself that over hoarding food items and cooking excess food has to be avoided this year.

It so happened that I was left with couscous salad made for the book review and some soaked couscous too. I was unable to bring myself to innovate something that could help me bring them to good use. To increase my despair, the milk I had got curdled while boiling and I had fresh cottage cheese too, to be consumed. I decided to combine the two products and add a few more ingredients to it to make it more tasty and then make some rolls, which I could use for snack and lunch box. Instead of frying the rolls I preferred to bake them to keep them low calorie.

To my delight the rolls turned out crispy and crunchy and the kid loved his snack box. It was appreciated by his class mates in the school. As for me, I was surely happy as all the leftover was consumed in a healthy and tasty way and the kid ate nutritious food too, surely a blessing in disguise.

Ingredients (makes 25 pieces)

2 cups soaked couscous (I used the couscous salad)

250gms grated cottage cheese

3finely chopped green chillies

2-3tbsp finely chopped cilantro

finely chopped capsicum (green, yellow and red)

1 small onion finely chopped

1tsp carom seeds (ajwain)

2garlic pods finely chopped

salt to taste

bread crumbs

corn starch

Method

Mix all ingredients and shape them into rolls.

Roll the couscous roll in corn starch and then dip them in water lightly.

Roll the couscous roll in breadcrumbs and keep aside. Repeat the procedure with the remaining rolls.

Preheat the oven at 190C. Grease a baking tray and align 7-8 rolls and bake them for 12-13mins. In between turn them once. Bake till golden brown in colour, do not over bake.

Serve hot with some salad and tomato sauce.

 

Tips

If you find mixture wet, mix a potato else refrigerate for an hour and then make rolls.

I’ve baked the rolls but these can be shallow/deep fried too.

I’ve kept the flavours very subtle, one is free to make it more flavourful and spicy.

Sending the rolls to simply.food’s

Vardhini’s New U

Priya Mahadevan’s  event guest hosted by Priya Sreeram

Kalyani’s Kitchen Chronicles, guest hosted by Veena Krishnakumar.

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‘Only’ Series Event Announcement For January

Dear Friends!

First of all wishing you all a very enjoyable day as we step into a new year tonight. I hope and pray that the coming  year brings all the happiness and sunshine in your life. I really wish that all your dreams come true and sorrow stays miles away from you & your family.

With a positive note in life and wishing that we all stay very fit and fine, I’m announcing a very healthy event for this month …’Only’ Sprouts.The event will be guest hosted by Priya Mitharwal of Mharo Rajasthan Recipes, the details of the event can be checked in her blog later today.

The giveaway is sponsored by www.tarladalal.com.  There will be two giveaways Cooking With Sprouts and Stir- Fry which the winner will get and will be shipped only in India.

                                                                                        

 

Gear up to cook tasty and innovative food using sprouts and start the year on a healthy note. Good luck to all.

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Broccoli and Potato Fry

           Usually it is just the potato fry or the stir-fried broccoli, thought of bringing them together in this fry with a little garlic and black pepper, the end result was really good. People who find it hard to swallow broccoli alone can try this combo..

Need To Have:

• Broccoli chopped - 2 cups
• Red potato - 3 medium sized
• Garlic - 3 pods 
• Turmeric powder - 1/2 teaspoon
• Chilli powder - 3/4 teaspoon
• Pepper powder - 1/4 teaspoon
• Curry leaves - a few
• Mustard seeds - 1/2 teaspoon
• Jeera seeds - 1/2 teaspoon

Method:

          Chop the potatoes with the skin. Heat oil add mustard and jeera seeds, add the potatoes, saute for a few mins, add the salt, turmeric and chilli powder, mix . Add the chopped garlic, mix and cook without covering. Cook the broccoli separately either in the microwave or stove-top. Once the potato is cooked add the broccoli and pepper powder, mix well cook for 5 more mins. Add curry leaves, mix and serve. Goes with rice, roti and dal.

Note:
Don't cover when the potao is cooking, it'll become mushy.
When I updated the pictures, I had used the regular potatoes, not the red ones.

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