Indian Style Corn Salad

Indian Style Corn Salad

Corn salads and salsas have been very popular as side dishes or summer favorites in western countries; and no doubt it is one of the most delicious and healthy snack. So, I thought let give it an Indian twist.

Ingredients

One can of corn or 2 corn ears steamed

1 small tomato

1 small red onion

1 small green pepper

6-7 stems of cilantro

2 stem of green onions

Croutons or chana chor garam (Indian snack found in Indian stores) or dry corn

Salt, pepper, olive oil, 1 tablespoon lime juice, 1 teaspoon of roasted cumin powder, ½ teaspoon red chili powder

Method

·         If you are using the canned corn then drain it and pat dry it with paper towel when ready to mix it. If using fresh steamed corn then with a knife cut through and get all the corn.

·         Finely chop all the veggies, for tomatoes I recommend taking out the seeds and then cut it and pat dry with paper towel so it is not to watery.

·         Now take a bowl mix corn and all other veggies and season it with salt, pepper, splash of olive oil, lime juice, cumin powder and red chili powder

·         At the end add the chana chor garam preferably, but if you don’t have it add croutons

·         Garnish it with fresh cilantro………..mua mua this salad will smell so good and will taste even better.

Tips

Tips is that there is no big tip this time, but yes you can always add parsley instead of cilantro, but that will change a taste only a bit.

Next time…………one of the most favorite Indian fast food pav bhaji coming your way…………. :)

MASALA KHICHADI

MASALA KHICHADI

It’s been a while I have updated on my blog, I started this blog to be consistent; but things are not always same in life. So now that I am back I would like to start from where I left. 

My recipe today is masala khichadi.

Ingredients

1 cup jasmine rice or any Chinese rice is fine

½ cup split moong daal green one

1 medium potato

½ cup any store bought frozen mix vegetable or any veggies of your choice like cauliflower, eggplant, carrots, French beans etc.

1 medium red onion

2 green chillies, 1/4^th inch of ginger, 3 cloves of garlic, few curry leaves

Salt according to taste

½ teaspoon turmeric

½ teaspoon of red chilli powder, garam masala and coriander powder.

½ jeera/ cumin seeds and rai/ mustard seeds

1 dry red chilli, 1 clove, 1/6 of cinnamon stick, 1 tej patta

½ tablespoon clarified butter or ghee and ½ tablespoon of oil

3 1/2  cups of water

Pressure cooker

Method

·         First cut all of the veggies except onion and soak them in fresh water.

·         Wash rice and moong dal and soak it in water.

·         Take a pressure cooker and heat it on the stove.

·         Add the oil and ghee in it.

·         After it heats up add all the dry spices clove, cinnamon, red chilli, tej patta, curry leaves and then jeera/ rai

·         Once they sizzle add onion, green chillies, ginger and garlic

·         Let the onions get a little golden brown color a then add all the other veggies.

·         Now add all the dry spices salt, turmeric, chili powder, and garam masala and coriander powder.

·         Mix everything and add ½ cup of water and let it come to a boil.

·         Now add the washed rice and moong daal  and rest of the 3 cups of water, or if u think u need more add some more.

·         Now mix it and close the pressure cooker, depending on the quality of your cooker it should take on average 3 whistles. So after three whistles turn off the stove and let it sit for 15 minutes. Then you can enjoy your masala khichadi with yogurt or buttermilk tempered with jeera, curry leaves and green chillies.

Tips

·         Normally the water ratio for rice and khichadi’s is one to one. One cup of water = one cup of water.

·         You can also add more water and make it a little water, a lot of people like it that way.

Next time nice Corn salad with an Indian twist………..:)

Foodie Tadka: Plain Khichadi

Foodie Tadka: Plain Khichadi: "Khichdi Today, I will share my khichdi recipe. There are normally two type..."

Plain Khichadi

Khichdi

            Today, I will share my khichdi recipe. There are normally two types of khichadi that can be prepared one simple and the other one is spicy masala khichadi. Khichdi is a very common and favourite dish of many Gujarati families and now not only Gujarati families but it has started being popular all over the world. So, lets see how easy is to make the plain khichadi that can be spiced up with any vegetable recipe of your choice.

Ingredients

1 cup jasmine rice or any Chinese rice is fine

½ cup split moong daal green one

¼ tablespoon salt

½ teaspoon turmeric

½ tablespoon clarified butter or ghee

Pressure cooker

Method

1)      Take the rice and split moong daal mix it and wash it properly for about 3 times with normal water.

2)      Place it in the pressure cooker and add all other ingredients salt, turmeric and ghee

3)      Make sure to add up to half of your index finger water on top of the rice and daal level.

4)      Place it on high flame and let the first whistle blow and then bring it down to medium for about 7-10 minutes while blowing two more whistle.

5)      Depending on the type of the pressure cooker you use when you turn the flame on medium you, might have to blow whistle by your self.

6)      After turn the stove off and wait for 15 minutes before you open the cover, it gives time to settle down.

7)      Open the cover and it’s ready to serve, next time depending on the consistency you like you can add more or less water.

Tips

1)      This is the plain khichadi and it can be accompanied by yogurt curry and cooked vegetables .

2)      Some of the vegetables that can be cooked with plain khichadi are potato and eggplant, onion and potato, green tuvar and potato etc.

Recipes for all these nice vegetables are coming soon………..so lease keep coming back to my blog and support it…….till next time enjoy this recipe.

Spicy masala khichadi will be the next recipe…………..:)

Spicy Sooji (UPMA)

Spicy Sooji (UPMA)

Hello,

            First I want to wish everyone a Very Happy New Year, may this New Year bring new beginnings for you, lots of luck, happiness and stay healthy. Since it is a brand new beginning for all of us, I thought today I‘d give a nice healthy breakfast recipe. Though this once I eat for any time of the day, it feels me up for sure.

            There are many variations to this recipe as well, but today I will give a quick version as I know living away from our country and working full time it is hard for everyone to spare the time that they actually would wish to spend cooking. I will also add some other variations that can be done to this recipe in my tips section.

Ingredients

1-cup sooji (cream of wheat – coarse)

½ cup beated yogurt or ¾-cup buttermilk

½-cup water

1 small onion sliced or diced

1 green chili finely chopped

1-tablespoon urad dal (black gram without skin)

1-tablespoon chana dal (yellow split peas)

1-teaspoon mustard seeds

2 tablespoons peanuts

5-6 curry leaves

Pinch of turmeric

Pinch of hing (Asafoetida)

2 tablespoons of oil

Salt to taste

Method

1)      Take a pan to medium heat and put oil in it.

2)      Once the oil is heated, add ingredients in the increment of 5 seconds, urad dal, chana dal, mustard seeds, curry leaves, hing, and peanuts. Wait until tempered properly.

3)      Add green chilies, onion and sauté them till translucent. Then add turmeric.

4)      Add sooji, roast it, until turns light pink, and give nice aroma. At that point, add salt to it.

5)      Now turn the flame to low and add the yogurt or buttermilk while stirring it and then add water.

6)      Turn the flame back to medium and keep stirring until it starts getting thick. Turn the gas off right before you think you got the consistency you want. Its ready t serve hot.

Tips

1)      You can garnish it with cilantro

2)      You can always add other vegetables as per your liking. Some that are commonly used are green peas, carrots, green peppers, tomatoes etc. Add these vegetables after you sauté the onions usually.

3)   You can add rasins and cashews for garnishing.

Try and Enjoy until next time..........for Khichadi recipe...:)

Sooji ka Halwa (Sheera)

Sooji Ka Halwa (Sheera)

Today, since it’s the last day of the year 2010 and a new beginning for 2011. I thought I‘d treat you guys with a dessert recipe. It is sooji ka halwa or sheera. It is usually cooked in Indian households when there is prayers, festivals, or if someone is going to start to do something new a job, business etc. Since, 2011 is going to be a new beginning for everyone in the world what better than a dessert that will will bring good luck, happiness, and many opportunities to be successful this year.

There are various versions of sooji halwa that people make, but personally, I like it with milk as it gives a nice richness to it. A lot of them make it with water itself, and that gives a more smooth texture verses the milk.

Ingredients

1 cup sooji (Cream of wheat) use coarse not smooth one

1-cup sugar

½ - ¾ cup of ghee (clarified unsalted butter), or use unsalted butter

2 1/2 cups milk

2-teaspoon cardamom power

2 tablespoon of finely sliced almonds

2 tablespoons of roughly chopped cashews

Two table spoon of raisins

6-7 threads of kesar (saffron) warmed up in 2-3 spoons of milk.

Method

1)      Take a non-stick pan (If you are beginner) or any pan if possible more on flatter side, it will help to cook faster and heat it up on a medium flame.

2)      Add ghee to it, when it heats up add sooji to it and roast it till it starts giving you nice aroma and starts turning light pink in color. You will need to constantly stir it as if you do not it will start turning brown color.

3)      At that point of time turn the heat low and add milk slowly while stirring it so no lumps form, also add the saffron milk and sugar.

4)      Now you can turn the heat back to medium and stir it until it gives you nice thick consistency. Keep in mind that even after you will turn the gas off sooji will be soaking up the milk, so make sure you turn it off right before the type of texture and consistency you want.

5)      Add cardamom and other nuts right when you turn the gas off and give it a good mix.

It is ready for you to serve people like it hot or cold, depending on your preference.

Tips

1)      You can always make fruit halwa by adding fruit of your choice right after the sooji is roasted, add the fruit, give it a nice stir, and then do the same steps after them. Some great fruits that will work wonders are pineapple, apple, peach, strawberry etc. you can always try one of your favourites.

2)       You can slight roast your dry fruits in 1-2 tablespoon of ghee and then add them at the end of the process.

3)      You can always use water and a bit less ghee if you want to keep it figure friendly.

I hope you all of you will like this recipe and next one will be the spicy version of sooji…...Enjoy! J

The Mysterious Spice Box (Dibba)

Hello,

Today I am going to talk about the very famous Indian spice box also called Lakadiyu in Gujarati and masala dibba in Hindi. Every Indian family has some special spices in the house all the time, in India there is a season when most people buy and store these spices for the whole year.

The spices in the box mainly are Turmeric, Red chili powder, Cumin seeds, Mustard seeds, Garam masala powder ( made of five whole spices), coriander powder, and carom seeds (ajwaein).
Other commonly kept whole spices are Cloves, Cinnamon sticks, whole Pepper seeds, Tejpatta ( Cinnamon leaf), Bay leaf, Cardamom.

Having all this spices do not mean we use all of this when ever we cook, they used as needed. Though I know all of this spices are not commonly available in regular grocery stores, but if you are new to cooking a trip to Indian grocery store buying them all in small packs will not hurt and will last a long time.
Also, I wanted to mention that Indian food does not mean spicy all the time, we can always cook in mild flavours. 

See you next time with a easy recipe just like ABCD..........it's a dessert