Sprouted Horsegram Kurma

Even before the age of internet and food blogs ,my mom brought the mrs.Mallika Badrinath's kurma recipes book and used to try a few recipes from it and I used to like them a lot.Personally even I like her a lot and she is my culinary idol.After marriage I grabbed a copy of that book for my use and tried a lot of recipes.Recently I sprouted horsegram for sundal/stir fry.That evening I was browsing this cookery book for a nice sidedish/gravy for chapathis and ended up noticing this excellent gravy using sprouted horsegram for chapathis /rotis and I decided to try it and finally got to have a delicious sprouted horsegram kurma for my chapathis.The recipe is very simple and super delicous.

Serves:3

Preparation time:30 mins

Ingredients:

Sprouted horsegram or kollu-100 gms

Chopped onion-1(big)

Diced potatoes-2 no

Lemon-1/2

Salt-to taste

Oil-3 tbsp

To be grind to a paste:

Dry red chillies-6(increase if you wish)

Coriander seeds-1 tsp

Jeera/cumin seeds-1/2 tsp

Ginger-1 inch

Garlic-8 pods

Small onions-7 or 8

Grated coconut -1/2 cup

Fresh coriander leaves-1 small bunch

Roasted poppy seeds/kasa kasa-2 tsp

Tomato-2 big

Procedure:

1.Sprout the horsegram by soaking it for 7 hours and then tie it in a muslin cloth and hang it for another 20-24 hours.Pressure cook for horsegram and keep it separately.

2.Grind all the ingredients given above for grinding to a fine paste.

3.Heat the pressure cooker with oil and add the chopped onions followed by salt and turmeric powder.

4.Once the onions are sautéed well add the ground paste and potatoes and saute well for another 5 mins.

5.To this mixture add the cooked horsegram along with the water it is cooked in and if necessary, add another 1/4 cup of water and pressure cook the mixture for 1 whistle.

6.Squeeze half of a lemon and garnish with fresh coriander leaves and finely chopped onion .Serve hot with chappathi or phulkha.

Oats Almond Cookies(low fat ,low sugar and eggless)

I am super excited to post this recipe because this is going to be my first post under the label baking !!! I  got my convection oven as a new year gift from my husband and tried butter cookies for the first time and it came out perfectly!!! For the second time I wanted to try a very tasty as well as a healthy cookie and finally ended up finding a great recipe from here.Immediately I tried it as I had all the ingredients ready in my kitchen.I was quite anxious about the outcome as the recipe called for less butter and less sugar .Also it had no baking powder or baking soda making it ideal for everyone.The end result was super delicious and crunchy oats and almond cookies.

The original recipe called for almond meal and oats powder but as I didn't have both I powdered my oats which I use for porridge and also ground the almonds to a coarse powder as I like a nutty crunch in my cookies.My son loved it absolutely.

Preparation time:45 mins

Makes:25 cookies approximately

Ingredients:

Oats flour-1 1/4 cup

Almond meal/coarsely ground almond powder- 1 cup

Butter-4 tbsp

Sugar-5 tbsp

Vanilla essence-1 tsp 

Milk-1 or 2 tsp if necessary

Procedure:

1.Preheat the oven to 300F or 150C .Grind the oats to a fine powder and the almonds to a coarse powder.(if you don't have almond meal)

2.Cream the butter and powdered sugar for roughly around 5 minutes using a spatula or a hand blender.

3.Mix the oats powder and almond meal in to the sugar and butter mixture.add the vanilla essence also to this mixture.Knead it to cookie dough .If the dough is too try add a tsp or 2 of milk and mix well.

4.Make small balls of the dough and place them on a baking tray.give them space to expand.Bake them for 20-25 mins at 300 F or till there are cracks on top of the cookies.

5.Store them in a air tight container for upto 2 weeks and serve as an accompaniment for tea or coffee.

Tips:

*Use more sugar or butter if you want a rich cookie.

*Baking time varies slightly with every oven.

*You can add cardamom powder also instead of vanilla essence for a cardamom flavored cookie.

Varagu kasa kasa payasam(kodo millet poppy seeds kheer)

First and foremostly happy pongal to all my friends!!!It's millets everywhere and all are posting many recipes on millets .though I have been using millets for more than two years now ,I still didn't post many recipes of millets and hence this pongal seems to be an apt occasion for a millet recipe.My mom used to make kasa kasa payasam and we used to like it a lot and kasa kasa or poppy seeds has a lot of health benefits too.So this recipe is a modification of the kasa kasa(poppy seeds ) payasam as I have added varagu or kodo millet to this payasam ,adding more goodness to the dish.It is very healthy and rich in taste and texture.

Serves:3

Preparation time:45 mins

Ingredients:

Kasa kasa or Poppy seeds-2 tbsp

Varagu or kodo millet-2 tbsp

Coconut(grated)-2 tbsp

Milk-1/2 Litre 

Sugar-1/4 cup

Almonds-4

Cashews-8-10

Raisins-8

Cardamom powder-1 tsp

Ghee-1 tbsp

Procedure:

1.Soak poppy seeds,varagu ,4 cashews,almonds for half an hour and grind it along with coconut to a fine paste.

2.Boil half liter of milk till it reduces to half of its quantity .

3.Add the ground paste and sugar and allow it boils in low flame for another 8 mins till it thickens.

4.Add the cardamom powder and switch off the flame.

5.Heat ghee in a pan and add the remaining cashews and raisins and roast them till golden brown and add it to the payasam.Serve hot or cold.

Tips:

* Increase the sugar quantity if you want it very sweet.

*Addition of almonds adds a nice flavour to the kheer so don't avoid it.

*You can replace sugar with jaggery but strain it and cool the jaggery dissolved in water before adding it to the milk.otherwise milk might curdle.

*Instead of coconut you can also add 1/4 cup of coconut milk.

*If the payasam thickens then add hot milk just before serving.

Bagara Baingan(Fried Eggplants in Peanut Gravy)

Bagara baingan is one of the classic dish that is usually served as an accompaniment for any Indian flat bread or pulao.It has a rich and creamy gravy made of peanut,sesame and coconut paste.Bagara baingan can also be made as a semi dry curry.I often make ennai kathrikai kuzhambhu which is quite similar to this but mostly for lunch with plain hot rice.So this time I wanted to make bagara baingan and ended up having a scrumptious dinner of hot phulkhas with bagara baingan .This recipe is surely a must try and even those who dislike eggplants will also like it .

Preparation time:40 mins

Serves:3

Ingredients:

Brinjal(purple variety )-11 nos

Chopped onion-1 no

Ginger-garlic paste-1 tbsp

Tamarind-1 small lemon size

Turmeric powder-1 tsp

Chilli powder-3 tsp(adjust according to your taste)

Coriander powder-2 tsp

Cumin powder-1 tsp

Garam masala-1 tsp

Salt- to taste

Oil-3 tbsp

To roast and grind to a fine paste:

Peanuts-3 tbsp

Sesame seeds-1 tbsp

Poppy seeds-2 tsp

Grated coconut -3 tbsp

To temper:

Jeers-1 tsp

Curry leaves-a small bunch

Procedure:

1.Soak the tamarind and extract the juice.

2.Slit the brinjals half way in to four but do not break them apart.Shallow fry them in 3 tbsp of oil till they are golden brown and soft.

3.Dry roast all the ingredients separately given above for grinding to a paste and then grind them to a fine paste.

4.In the same pan after the brinjals are fried , add the tempering ingredients to the remaining oil and then add onions and turmeric powder.

5. Once the onions are sautéed well then add the ginger garlic paste and saute well. Then add the chilli powder , coriander powder and cumin powder and fry well.

6.Once all the powders are blended well and cooked ,add the peanut paste,tamarind extract and the fried brinjals.then add garam masala and let the gravy simmer for 8-10 mins.

7.Switch off the flame and garnish with fresh coriander leaves.Bagara baingan is ready to be served with hot phulkhas or chappathi or pulao.

Tips:

*Adjust chilli powder according to your need.I added a tsp of chilli powder at step 6 along with garam masala as I felt my gravy required a little more after tasting it.

* If you want semi dry gravy then allow it to thicken a little longer.

* For dry roasting ,roast all ingredients separately and then you can grind them all together.

Sweet Corn Veg Soup

I am not a great fan of soups but the cool weather forces me to try one.A cup of hot soup soothes cold and cough and provides relief from those symptoms.I usually make tomato soup and this time wanted to try sweet corn vegetable soup and browsed a lot of recipes.It turned out that making sweet corn vegetable soup is very simple with few  ingredients apart from the veggies.I had some spinach too and so I added it to this soup.It tasted very yummy when served hot in this cold winter.

Serves:5

Preparation time:25 mins

Ingredients:

Sweet corn -1/4 cup

Finely chopped vegetables(carrot,French beans,cauliflower)-1/2 cup

Chopped spinach-1/4 cup

Finely chopped ginger-1 tbsp

Finely chopped garlic-1 tbsp

Butter-2 tsp

Corn flour-3 tbsp

Oregano/basil -1 tsp

Salt-to taste

Freshly ground pepper-1 tbsp(or according to your taste)

Procedure:

1.Boil all the vegetables and sweet corn in a pot.do not strain the stock.

2.Heat a pan with the butter and add the chopped garlic and ginger and saute it.

3.Then add the chopped spinach and saute well till the raw smell goes off.

4.Mix the corn flour in 2 cups of water at room temperature.add all the boiled vegetables and sweet corn along with the stock to this cornflour mixture.Add the sautéed spinach and ginger/garlic mixture too.

5.Heat this on low flame till the soup turns transparent/clear.Add the oregano/basil ,salt and pepper to the soup .

6.Serve hot with butter toast or soup sticks .

Tips:

*you can avoid spinach if you wish.i had some spinach left so I added.

*you can grind few boiled sweet corn and add the purée to this soup.

* you can add chopped green chillies in vinegar to this soup to make it a bit spicy.