Biriyani - D version

Today D prepared Biriyani .. Photo looked very awesome and with the look itself it can be seen that it was very tasty ...

Here goes the recipe

And here it goes :)   

Thamble puddi

Hearing the word 'Thamble Puddi', my taste buds are on. And till today of all the thamble puddi which I had tasted till now , I liked only the ones which amma make it. Now my kids also like it. Even dungu was eating it saying 'i love it' So the request was put across to Amma to make it. I told  I will make it with her guidance. But inside my mind, i wanted her to make it, because I knew that if I make it will not be tasty as she does it. So I took the role of the helper and she prepared it.


Fry urad dal till brown

Fry corriander powder till the raw smell goes. Now a days, we get coriander powder, so we use it directly. In olden days , not so very old, but when I was small, I remember we using coriander seeds, fry it and powder it. And I still remember the happiness in amma's face when we started getting coriander powder in market and she was mentioning, its easy to prepare now. 

Fry coconut With chilli and grind it. Coconut also we get it scraped ready made. 

We need to fry the coconut till it is brown. And then grind it to a mix like this. Wanted to take a photo with amma. As she was not agreeing, took only her hand :)  

You can see Dummas hand also. 

Add tamarind and salt. mmm. Tamarind and grind again. Never we used to buy tamarind. We had a big tamarind tree in our tharavadu, and i remember eating tamarind directly from the tree.  We used to get tamarind from our relatives. Those were the valuables which they used to get us. Home made tamarind bulbs. 

Once its done, mix all the powder in to the coconut mixture one by one. 

Thamble Puddi ready !!! 

Mix veg curry - Sudha's style

Yesterday night decided to make chappathi. Was lazy to prepare some side dish also as it was too late when  I went to kitchen for preparing dinner. Amma was also there with me, so wanted an easy dish. So i resorted to my pressure cooker recipes. I have found it easy , as its so simple.  Put all the vegetables in the pressure cooker , add spices and then take some whistles. And its done. The mix of the spices will make the curry taste different everytime I make it. 

The curry came good yesterday. As usual, my daughter is my testing agent. I love her so much as my TA, because she has never said a dish as bad till today.  When eating, she said .. Amma, its so very tasty. write down the recipe so that you can remember it. Ok dear, I am putting it here 

Fry onion in the presssure cooker with little oil

Add ginger pieces cut in to small pieces 

Add chilli powder, pepper powder, cumin powder, garlic powder , salt 

Mix till the row smell goes off 

Add vegetables. I added potato, carrot, beans, peas and brocolli 

Put water just to cover the vegetables and take four - five whistles 

Once cold and taken out, add yogurt and mix. 

Curry ready 

Yellow dosa

Rice , toor dal , urad dal -- 

Grind with chilli , pepper and haldi powder . 

Onion green chilli 

Kappa

Baby corn manchurian

Aalo curry with coconut ( kukka ghessi)

It's a Konkani dish and we all love it a lot 

Boil potato and dal in a cooker 

Grind coconut ,dry red chilli and turmeric and mix it with the dal and allow it to boil. Add a couple of green chilles .  

For seasoning use mustard seeds and fenugreek seeds and jeera seeds. 

Vegetable Fried rice

Quick  and easy veg fried rice 

Chopped carrots and beans and Fry in oil

Add garlic pieces 

Add vinegar 

Salt and pepper 

Add rice and mix well 

Add spring onions 

Cutlet - D version

D prepared cutlet today ..

Carrot, Beetroot - grated and fried 

Doesnt it look tasty. 

Oh My, I am hungry 

Gobi Manchurian - by D

Paneer Aaloo Peas Cutlet

A quick snack for the hungry ones 

Mash Boiled potato, green peas  (frozen, microwaved for 5 min) , Paneer together. 

Take oil in a pan and add the mix and chilli powder, pepper powder, garam masala powder and salt to taste 

Make small parititions and dip it in Egg and cover it with Sooji ( Bread crumps are required, as I didnt had it, used Sooji) 

Fry in a frying pan 

My Pasta - Sudha's version

So tempted to eat pasta. Pasta is there in the shelf, but no sauce. Cant wait till I buy the sauce. I tried pasta in this way.

Fry Onion and Tomato and then Bell pepper
Add chilli powder, Pepper powder  and Salt
Add boiled pasta.




Its ready !!  Easy Pasta 

Perfect Pasta

My cousin Deepa  is my Guru in pasta making. Twice she had taugh me how to make it. But I havent learned it full. It is in my to-do list still. 

So here it goes, the Pasta making as demonstrated by Deepa 

All fresh vegetables cut finely  

Oil in a pan and fry it well 

Put the other vegetables 

Put Pasta (pre-boiled) 

Add Pasta sauce. 

This is the sauce which was used during the preparation 

While writing this I can taste the yumminess of this pasta. I want to make it and eat it. Will try it some day. 

Idiyappam Stew

I always had the impression that making idiyappam was a very tough job. But off late I have found that it is also easy. The important thing to note is to mix the dough as it is said in the pakcet. With hot water and exact quantities.

Once the dough is fine, making the Idiyappam is very easy.

         

Idiyappam without Stew  -  No way.  I prepare Stew the easy way. Cut  the vegetables required . I usually take potato, carrot , beans and Green peas (frozen) and boil it in the cooker.  Put one or two green chillis

Once boiled,  add salt. Mix maggi coconut milk powder in hot water and pour it
Pour a little of coconut oil and add hing.


    

Egg Curry

Egg Curry -- a dish which i love making and also eating. Ahh, the smell of Egg curry is quite awesome. 

Steps goes like this 

Boil Eggs 

Fry Onion till soft 

Add tomato, garlic and green chilli 

Add Chilli powder, Garam masala powder, And coriander powder , Pepper powder 

Salt to taste 

Add eggs and boil it 

Kadala Curry

Kerala Style kadala curry -  I learned it after coming to Dublin. Always used to wonder how the kadala curry tasts so yummy in hotels. When I make it at home, it never tasted like this 

Now with no option of hotel food, started checking for recipes and made kadala curry one day. 

Fry onion in oil 

Add Tomato and ginger 

Add Masala powder. I used Brahmins powder as shown below 

Add little grated coconut

Salt, Chilli Powder, Pepper powder -- all to taste 

We like Kadala curry with Chappathi or Idli.
I didnt know that Idli and Kadala curry combination will taste so good.  Believe it, its tasty

Fried Eggs - Sudha's dish

Eggs have always been my favourite, in any forms I can eat it. Egg curry is my favourite. Whenever some one visits us, I make egg curry. As usual, never the taste is the same. But the taste is always good and I get good appreciation for that.

I tried this dish one day , as I had boiled eggs.

Cut the eggs to half
Make paste of chilli powder, salt and pepper powder.
Apply it on the Egg and keep it for sometime.
Shallow fry in a non stick oven with a little oil



A quick snack for tea time or a side dish for dinner time.
Easy Peesy 

Egg Biriyani - My version

After coming to Dublin my cooking has improved a lot. The main reason being there is no much variety of food outside. Restaurant foods are very expensive and after eating once or twice we feel bored. Hence we started trying many things at home , reading the recipe from net. 

One thing I realized that if we follow the recipe from the internet wihtout any deviations, the food will taste good. If we try to improvise something by adding extra items, or  not adding any items it will not be as good as it was intended to. 

I dont remember the website from which i got this recipe. Hence will write it down. Biriyani Rice was prepared in advance.

Heat oil and add onion and allow it to soften.
Add the spices - cardamon, cloves, bay leaf,etc
Add ginger garlic paste and mix it well until the raw smell goes off.
Add the vegetables and mix well. I cooked the vegetables before.
Add biriyani powder and salt, And curd.
Mix rice

For making Egg version, I made egg burji in another bowl and then added it at the last. We can add boiled egg also.

Curd was the main ingredient. I didn't know that until recently that curd could be added. It changed the taste wholly.

Paneer Manchurian varieties

My cooking has a very big advantage. Food will not taste the same when I make it. Even if I am making the same food the next day, it will taste different. May be because I decide the ingredients at the time of cooking and dont go with the normal to-add ingredients. 

The following Pictures shows the same. Paneer Manchurian prepared in more or less the same way, is looking very different :)  

   

 

Vegetable Fried rice

This is the first time I liked the fried rice which I prepared. Always it used to taste awful with all the sauces I used to add ( tomato, soya, etc)  

I tried this time from the recipe here 

http://www.vegrecipesofindia.com/veg-fried-rice-recipe/

Added oil, and fried garlic pieces in that. 

Mixed vegetables and then added Soya sauce, and salt, and pepper 

Then rice and spring onion. 

If needed, we can add a little bit of vinegar. 

Came out very well. First time in my life. 

Chilli Paneer

We love Paneer. Its not simple love, its love beyond words can express. So we try and make different dishes. One day, I took paneer, cut in to small pieces and seasoned with chilli powder and salt and it was an awesome treat for us.

Today was the day to make Chilli Paneer
recipe from here
http://indianhealthyrecipes.com/chilli-paneer-recipe/

Usually I put the paneer pieces just like that, without frying in oil.But today for a change, dipped it in Corn flour and fried it. It really had given the dish a boost of taste. The paneer was tasting good. 

Fry ginger in oil 

Cut vegetables and Chilli

Fry in oil 

And add Soya Sauce, Vinegar, Tomato sauce and Chilli sauce. 

Everything in moderate quantities. 

And then add Paneer pieces. 

It was very tasty. 

Paneer Butter Masala

It was my daughters suggestion yesterday to make Paneer Butter Masala. Usually I prepare it in my own way ( read it easy way)  with some onion and tomato and spices mixed. But yesterday thought will check some recipe online and make it properly.

http://indianhealthyrecipes.com/paneer-butter-masala-restaurant-style/
got this link and felt it is easy.  By now, you would have known that I am a lazy cook. I dont like speding much time in kitchen, so always go for easy options.

With this recipe in hand, I started cooking. Even when the first stage was over, my daughter came and tasted the mix and mentioned it is awesome. That itself was yummy.

Initially I put only paneer. Then felt it will be colorful if we put green peas also. Hence I added frozen peas microwaved for 4 min.

It came in very good. I loved it.The whole family loved it. We had it with chappathi.