Sweet Corn Pulav

Recipe will follow soon....

Lunch Box Menu- Tomato Pulav and Brocolli Curry

I always wonder, how bloggers make the food and take pictures at the same time.The best part is post the pictures the same day. I have always tried but in vain. Last week, I made tomato pulav and Brocolli Curry for the box and kept the same for us. The box was so colorful with Bright red and Green for the side box. Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

Rice - 3/4 cup
Onions- 1/2 cup ,Sliced long
Tomatoes- 2 small or 1 Big ,
GInger- Garlic- 1 tsp
Green-Chillies- 2 slit long
Coriander Powder - 1/2 tsp
Cuming Powder - 1/2 tsp
Turmeric powder - a pinch
PattaiCinnamon stick - a small piece
Cloves/Krambu- 2 pieces
Elaichi - 1
Bay Leaves- 1
Curry leaves and Coriander leaves for garnishing.
Oil and salt as needed.


Method
1) Wash the rice and soak in water for 10 minutes.
2) Take a pan with oil and add Cinnamon Stick,Cloves,Elaichi,Bay leaves ,Then add sliced onions and green chillies and let it fry for couple of minutes. You can add little bit of salt to onion, so that it will fasten up the frying.
3)Grind "Ginger-Garlick-Tomatoes" in a mixie and pour it in the pan .Fry for some time.
4) Add Masala powders - Turmeric powder- Cumin powder - Coriander Powder and salt.Add Curry leaves which will enhance the flavor.
5) Now add rice-without soaked water and fry for 1 minute. Let it marry all the flavours and add salt.
6) Now add the water. For 1 cup of rice: we can add two cups of water. For this 3/4the cup of rice 1.5 cups of water and salt and keep in electric cooker or just pressure cook it.
Tada..Its ready.

Now comes Brocolli Curry: This is the simplest veggie of all.

Ingredients:

Brocolli - 10 florets
Mustard - 1 tsp
Urad dal- 1tsp
Long red Chillies - 1
Asafoetids- 1 tsp
Curry Powder- 2 tsp
Oil and salt.


Method: 1) Boil Brocolli in water for 10 minutes and keep it aside.
2) In a pan with oil, add mustard - wait till it splutters and add urad dal,Long red chillies.
3) Add Boiled Brocolli with salt and fry for 5 - 10 minutes . Add Curry powder and asafoetida.


Tomato Pulav with Brocolli goes well together.

Spinach with buttermilk gravy/Keera Morkootu

After I came here to US, It seems am losing my hair daily. Without vitamin supply, I cant survive here.We can't just rely on tablets alone, so I started including spinach in our diet.Atleast 2-3 times a week is a must to have greens.Since spinach is much cheaper in US than India, I get it often. Spinach is a good source of iron.I love 'kootus' and my hubby is dead against coconut-greenchillies combination. So, I always make him 'porichakootu ' which is 'coconut-uraddal-daniya-milagavathal' combination. So for a change with "vethakuzhambu' , I did this spinach with buttermilk gravy /Keera Morkootu.


Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

Spinach - 1 or 2 bunch ,Chopped finely, Washed

Coconut- 1/2 cup

Greenchillies- 2

Jeera- 1 tsp

Curd/Yogurt- 1 cup

Mustard-1 tsp

Long red Chillies/Milagavathal - 1



Method:-

1) Grind Coconut,greenchillies,jeera and make in to paste

2) In a kadai with oil, put mustard and wait till splutter. Put urad dal and Long Red Chillies and add spinach/Keera and fry till it cooks well.

3)Add the paste in to that Keera and let it cook for couple of minutes.

After switching off the fire and keep it on the side.Add Yogurt/Thick Buttermilk over the top and mix it. Serve it hot.

Ta..Da Spinach with buttermilk gravy is ready.

South Indian Thali...

Manathakali/Drumstick Vathakuzhambu,Thakali/Tomatoes Rasam without Puli/Tamarind,Keera Morkootu,Vadams,Rice

Eggless Dates Cake

Who doesn't like sweets or cakes...I always love them but was so poor with the to-do stuffs. Normally I dont get sweet stuff in my kitchen. Always its a struggle to make a simple payasam/Kheer except the vermicilli which I have mastered recently. Even I was ready to go for Cake classes in Chennai but didn't get time for that. So after all the thinking I put in to make something sweet, I went for eggless dates cake.

Though I love eggs, my hubby is no-eggs-at-home person. I have to make a cake without egg.My sister does awesome cooking.Once she gave me this dates cake ,so the idea struck me to just re-do it again and see how it works.
To my fear,it came out so perfect at the end. I referred Aayi's recipe.Thanks yaar.





Ingredients:

1 cup All purpose Flour
18 Seedless Dates
3/4 cup milk
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup oil
1 tea spn baking soda

Also, thanks to Aayi's recipe. If I din't see baking soda and put baking powder instead of it, it would have gone thick.But I love this texture.

Method:

1)Soak dates in Warm Milk.
2) After 10-15 minutes,once you know its soaked well,put it in blender and mix it well with sugar.
3) In a big bowl, add All purpose flour,oil,baking soda and the mix the dates blended with milk and sugar.

Preheat the oven at 350F. Bake the cake in a greased oven proof dish for 35-40min (or till a knife inserted in the cake comes out clean).