Mango pachadi/ Mango sauce

Its been a really longtime since I updated this blog. Okay its not I don't cook anymore, ofcourse I do , and its definitely not the time excuse either. With 24 hours in a day, I certainly can not do a blame game on that. Its just that I always forget to take a good picture of my recipe and I end up not updating my blog. But today I thought I will post something anyway even with one of my 'not-so-good' photos, something better than nothing anyday right?

Ingredients

• 1 big raw mango
• Jaggery (or brown sugar) as needed
• 1/4 tsp salt
• cumin seeds
• ghee(melted butter)
• 1/2 tsp chilli powder / or a small slit green chilli
• curry leaves
• grated coconut 1/4 cup(optional)

Pre-cooking

• Peel the mango and cut into pieces

Method

• Mix all the ingredients mentioned above except coconut,cumin seeds ,curry leaves and ghee
• Sprinkle some water and keep it to boil in a saucepan.
• Cook till the mango is all mushy; take care to check in between.
• Alternatively you can keep it in a pressure cooker and keep it for 2 whistles.
• Add the grated coconut to this mixture
• Heat ghee in a saucepan and add cumin seeds ,curry leaves when hot.
• Drizzle the mango sauce with this.

Serving suggestions

• Serve with any bread or rice 

Tips

• The quantity mentioned in the ingredients are rough; Might vary depending on the sweetness in the mango.

Eggless Banana Muffins

This is my second attempt in baking a muffin. My first one was a disaster because of the high oven temperature and the wrong oven rack. Silly me and metric conversions !

The eggless banana recipe that I got from here is a very easy breezy one and you can make it in a jiffy. I didnot like my muffin shape though..thanks to the mismatch between my oven tray & paper cups.

Ingredients

• 1.5 cups all purpose flour
• 1/4 cup sugar(original recipe calls for half a cup)
• 1 banana
• 1 tsp butter
• 1/2 cup warm milk
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda

Pre-cooking

• Pre heat oven to 180 degree C

Method

• Mix the flour,baking powder and baking soda
• Put the butter in a mixing bowl and mix the sugar with it thoroughly
• Mix it with mashed banana and milk
• Now add the flour mixture slowly in parts to the wet banana mix and turn it so that all the ingredients are blended.
• Do not over mix.
• Pour in the muffin trays till half and bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes clean.
• This yields 12 small muffins

Serving suggestions

• Serve warm with honey or cream

Tips

• Take the muffins out from the tray after they are cooled completely
• Remove the muffins from paper cup only after they are fully cooled

Dum Briyani(Layered Briyani)

Dum Briyani is layered rice, where rice and vegetables are cooked separately and slow cooked to diffuse the spices into them. It has a unique flavor compared to the normal vegetable pulav that we make as a one pot meal.
I had always wanted to try this at home but it seemed like a big process whenever I intended to do it. But it is not that tough as it looks like. But today I finally made it from this recipe with little modifications.The preparation time is more only because of the slow cooking that we do. So you can easily sit back with a book when that is going on :-)

Ingredients

• 2 cups basmati rice
• 1 cup of veggies cut length wise 
• 1 onion(cut length wise)
• 1 tomato
• Spice powders- a tsp each of chilly, coriander & turmeric powders
• 1 tbsp of garam masala
• 1 tsp of chopped ginger garlic
• a cup of curd/yogurt
• whole spices(Bay leaf, cinnamon,pepper,jeera & cumin seeds)
• one bunch of pudina
• 2-3 green chilies slit
• few strands of fresh coriander leaves
• salt to taste

Method

• First wash the rice and drain the water. Let it sit for around 20 minutes.
• Take the yogurt in a large bowl and add all the spice powders,half of the garam masala and little salt.
• Mix thoroughly and add the vegetables to it.(Add water if your yogurt is thick)
• Refrigerate this for 30 minutes
• Take a stock pot/pressure cooker and fry the whole spices with ghee/butter.
• Add the rice and fry again for a few minutes.
• Add salt & water required for the rice.(1:2 ratio)
• Cook till rice is done(you can pressure cook it too).Rice should be fluffy and not sticky. Keep aside and do not cover it.
• Take a kadai and add little ghee or oil, add ginger garlic and fry for a few minutes.
• Add pudina leaves , green chilies and onions one by one.
• Cook till onions are golden brown.
• Now add the tomatoes and fry for a few minutes.
• Then put in the veggies along with the yogurt.
• Cook covered in medium heat till the veggies are tender.Add the remaining garam masala & enough salt for this mixture.When this is done, then comes the fun part of layering !
• Pre heat oven to 150 degree Celsius and line a baking tray with aluminium foil.
• Add half of the rice, then the vegetables and then the remaining half of rice on top.
• Press firmly so that everything sits tight. You can sprinkle some fried cashews or fried onions on top.
• Cover the tin with aluminum foil again and keep in the oven for around 30 minutes.

Serving suggestions

• Serve hot with raitha of your choice

Tips

• The oven time varies depending on your quantity and flavor. Adjust accordingly.

Banana Fritters

Pazha bajji in tamil or pazham pori in malayalam is typically a kerala dish. It is a very simple yet delightful snack to be paired with a cup of tea. It requires minimal ingredients and can be made as a quickie when you have unexpected guests. It tastes best with nenthram pazham but you could also do it with a regular banana.

Ingredients

• 1 banana - I used nendram pazham
• 1 tsp of salt
• 1 tsp of turmeric powder
• 1 tbl of sugar(adjust according to banana's sweetness)
• 1/2 cup maida or all purpose flour

Method

• Cut the bananas into the desired shape(round or vertical). Traditionally they are slit vertically.
• Mix the rest of the ingredients with enough water to make a batter that is little thicker than dosa batter.
• Dip the bananas in the batter and deep fry it in oil

Serving suggestions

• Drizzle with some honey and relish it hot

Neer Urundai / Water Balls

"Neer Urundai" literally means "Water Balls" . These are rice delicacies cooked directly in water. These are made from par boiled rice and are a rich source of vitamin B and protein.
These are very light snack and could be a light breakfast or dinner. 

Ingredients

• 1 cup of par boiled rice (idli rice)
• Pepper corns/Jeera
• 1/2 cup coconut
• Salt

Pre-cooking

• Soak the rice in water for approximately 4 hours

Method

• Grind the rice with water and salt like we do for idli/dosa
• Once the batter is formed, heat a kadai and add it.
• Stir continuously in medium flame until the dough becomes soft.
• You should be able to make balls out of it. That is the consistency.(It is in the same consistency as kozhukatai dough)
• Boil water in a stock pot.
• In the meantime make small balls out of the dough.
• Once the water starts boiling add balls to it in a batch.
• Balls are done when they start floating and change colour.
• Drain the water properly and keep for serving.
• These neer urundais can be eaten directly or season them with cumin/pepper fried in ghee as below:

Serving suggestions

• These taste best when hot.

Tips

• Take little care when making the dough. Do not burn them in the pan.
• While adding the urundais to the water, do not stir it until they are settled down.