Corn Rava Kesari

In stores here, we get corn rava. while shopping i will pass by it and never think of doing any recipe from it. My MIL told me that she will that in wheat upma. So i decided to do a sweet with this and the result was fabulous and healthy too. No need of color as it is in orange color itself.

Ingredients:

Corn rava - 1 cup - Roasted

Sugar - 2 cup

Water - 1 1/2 cup

Cardamom powder - 1 tsp

Cashews - 10 - broken

Raisins - few

Ghee - 2 tbsp - for frying

         - 1/2 cup for kesari

Preparation:

1. In a nonstick or hard bottomed pan, heat ghee and fry cashews and raisins. Remove.

2. In the same kadai, add water and let it to boil.

3. Add rava and stir it continuously.

4. Add sugar and fold in continuously to remove lumps.

5. When very well cooked, add ghee and stir till ghee floats on top.

6. Add fried cashews and raisins and remove.

7. Garnish and then serve.

Note:

1. If served hot, it tastes great. When cold, it was not that much tastier.

2. I make bars. After removing from the stove, I transferred it to a greased plate. Cool and then cut into diamonds or whatever shape you want and then serve.

Potato Rice - Yummy Rice

I came across this potato-rice-pulao from Vardhini blog. I wondered how can a rice be done with potatoes. Really superb and quick jiffy rice and delicious too. Thanks Vardhini for this delicious rice.

I cooked it as a one pot meal. Here comes the recipe. I didn't made any alterations to the recipe.

Ingredients

Basmati rice - 1 1/2 cups

Oil - 1 tbsp

Cloves - 2

Cinnamon - 1"

Onion - 2 medium - chop fine

Green chillies - 4 - slit into 2

Ginger  - 1/2" piece or 1 tsp ginger paste

Potatoes - 2 large - sliced fine

Salt

Cilantro - 1 bunch - cleaned and chopped

Method:

1. Wash and drain rice. Soak rice in water for about 20 min.

2. Heat Oil in a pressure cooker and temper with cloves and cinnamon. 

3. Add onions and green chillies followed by chopped ginger. Saute until onions are pinkish.

4. Next add the potatoes and salt.Saute well for 2 min.

5. Add the key ingredient which is the coriander leaves and mix well. 

6. Add rice and required amount of water. 

7. Pressure cook for 2 whistles.

8. Cool, open and then serve.

Variations:

Vardhini has told that it can be done with eggplant. Want to try with eggplant and post it here.

Egg Paneer dry curry

Paneer and egg are rich in proteins. Egg and paneer gravy sounds interesting. While surfing the net, I got this recipe from IcookIpost Blog.

It tastes great with roti, naan, chapathis... 

Here is my version of this recipe.

Ingredients:

Paneer (cottage cheese) – 200 gm 

Onion – 3

Eggs - 2 

Capsicum – 1 medium - chopped

Ginger –garlic paste – 1tbsp 

  

Red chilly powder – 2 tsp 

Turmeric powder – 1/4 tsp 

  

Tomato – 1 big - chopped 

Tomato sauce – 1tsp 

Soya sauce – 2 tsp 

Oil

Curry leaves or coriander leaves 

Method of Preparation: 

Heat oil in pan. Saute ginger-garlic paste and  chopped onions till onions turns pinkish.

Add tomatoes, capsicum, red chilly powder, turmeric powder, salt  to it and cook till tomatoes are mashy. 

Simmer the flame, add egg to it and scramble it well.Add tomato sauce and soy sauce to it. 

Finally add paneer cubes to it. Cover and cook with little water for sometime. 

Remove from heat and garnish with curry leaves. 

Serve hot with Lachha Paratha, Roumali Roti or  Rice. 

Bottleguard Rice/ Sorakkai Rice

This Sorakkai/ Bottle guard Rice is famous in kongunadu region. This rice is similar to Arisimparuppu sadam which I have posted earlier. Here comes the recipe.

Ingredients:
Bottle guard/ Sorakkai - 1 medium

Rice - 1 1/2 cups

Small Onion - 2 cup - chop fine

Green Chilli - 4

Curry leaves - few

Tomatoes - 2 - chop fine

Sambhar powder - 1 tbsp

Salt

Grind to a fine paste:

Garlic Flakes - 15 to 20

Curry leaves - few

Sombhu - 1 tsp

Cinnamon - 1"

Cloves - 2


To temper:

Mustard seeds - 1 tsp

Oil - 5 tbsp

Method:

1. Grate the skin of bottle guard / Sorakkai and chop fine.

2. Heat oil in a pressure cooker and temper with the given ingredients.

3. Add small onions, green chillies and curry leaves.

4. Cook till onions turn pink.

5. Add tomatoes, turmeric powder and cook till mashy.

6. Add bottle guard/ Sorakkai and cook till they are tender.

7. Add sambhar powder and cook for a while

8. Add rice, required amount of water and salt.

9. Pressure Cook for 2 whistles.

10. Cool, open and then serve hot.

Variation:

1. Add only small onions for this rice.

2. Always serve it when hot.

Mutter Paneer

Here is the Mutter Paneer recipe from Vardhini. I have made some attempts in mutter paneer before. But the result doesn't been great and good. But this recipe from Vardhini is really mouth watering and yummy and delicious too. I have made few alterations for this recipe that I have shown here in bold italics.

Here comes my version of this recipe:

Ingredients:

Paneer – 200 gms

Peas – 1 1/2 cups - Boiled

Coriander powder – 2 tsp

Cumin powder – 2 tsp

Chilli powder – 1 tsp

Turmeric Powder  – 1/4 tsp

Garam masala - 1/2 tsp

Salt

Kasuri methi – 2 tsp

Milk - 1/2 cup

Cashews - 6

Peanuts – 6 -  skin removed 

To grind to a fine paste: 

Oil - 1 tbsp

Onion - 2 medium

Ginger - 1"

Garlic - 7 to 8 flakes

Tomatoes - 3 medium

To temper: 

Oil - 1 tbsp

Butter - 6 tbsp

Cinnamon - 1"

Cloves - 3

Method:

1. Heat oil in a kadai, add chopped onions, ginger, garlic and tomatoes. Cook till onions are translucent and tomatoes are mushy.

2. Cool and grind to a fine paste along with cashews and peanuts.

3. In a kadai, heat butter together with oil and temper.

4. Add the ground paste and let it to boil.

5. Meanwhile add all the spice powders ( tumeric, chilli, coriander, cumin and garam masala) and salt.

6. Add Kasoori Methi and Peas.

7. Allow the mixture to boil for 5 - 10 min.

8. Add paneer pieces and milk.

9. Let it boil for 2 min. 

10. Serve with Roumali Roti, chapathis.

Semiya Payasam - Happy Diwali To All

Ingredients:

Semiya – 1 cup – Roasted

Sugar – 1 cup

Milk – 1 litre

Cardamom powder – ½ tsp

Cashews – 8

Raisins – ¼ cup

Ghee – 3 tbsp

Method:

1. In a tall vessel, add milk and boil. Wait till it is reduced to half.

2. Add semiya and cook well.

3. Add sugar and mix well.

4. Add cardamom powder and mix well and switch off the stove.

5. In a small kadai, heat ghee and roast cashews and raisins.

6. Add roasted cashews and raisins in kheer.

Lemon Rice

Lemon rice is remembered by all during the  tamil month "purattasi" as this rice is common in perumal temple.
Also this rice is called as "kattu sadam" in kongunadu areas.

Here is the recipe for lemon rice.

Ingredients:

Rice - 1 cup

Water - 3 cups

Onion - 2 big - chop fine

Red chillies - 4

Curry leaves - few

Lemon - 1

Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp

Salt

To temper:

Oil - 2 tbsp

Mustard seeds - 1 tsp

Urad dhal - 2 tsp ( i use more ured since i like this crunchiness in the dish)

Gram dhal - 1/2 tsp

Method:

1. Wash, drain and soak rice in 3 cups water for 20 min.

2. Transfer this rice into a pressure cook and cook it for 2 whistles. The rice must be soft and firm but not mushy.

3. Heat kadai, add oil and temper with the given ingredients.

4. Meanwhile take juice from lemon.

5. When onions are translucent, add turmeric powder and salt. Lower the flame.

6. Add lemon rice, fry for half a minute and switch off the flame.

7. Add rice and mi well.

Variation:

1). Can add peanuts at the time of serving. It adds a great taste to rice.

Ragi and Oats Roti

In kongunadu, only ragi roti is eaten by most. So i planned to add oats to add more nutrients to the roti. It is healthy too as it is given here to post delivered women for milk as well as for weight reduction.

Here comes the recipe:

Ingredients:

Ragi flour/ Finger millet flour - 2 cup

Oats  - 1 cup ( powder it )

Onion - 2 medium - chop fine

Carrots - 2 medium - grate it

Red chilli powder - 2 tsp

Curry leaves - few - chop fine

Coriander leaves - few - chop fine

Oil

Salt

Method:

1. Mi all these to form a not stiff but not soft dough using water.

2. Heat a tava, sprinkle some oil, spread it and lower the flame.

3. Take a medium ball and place in the hot tava and spread as a thin roti.

4. Apply oil on both sides and cook.

5. Serve with coconut chutney or raitha or else it can be eaten without any side dish.

Variations:

1. You can add green chillies instead of red chilli powder.

2. You can also add grated cucumber.

Arisimparuppu sadam/ Lentil Rice

Arisimparuppu Sadam is a famous dish in kongunadu areas. Whenever there is no vegetables in home, they will cook this dish which is quite easy and can be prepared in jiffy manner.

Here goes the recipe.

Ingredients:

Ponni Pulungalarisi/ Ponni boiled rice - 1 cup

Tuvar dhal - 1/2 cup

Small onion - 2 cups - slit into 2 each

Green chillies - 4 - slit into 2

Curry leaves - few

Tomatoes - 2 - chop fine

Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp

Salt

To grind:

Garlic - 10 - 12 flakes

Cinnamon - 1"

Cloves - 2

Sombhu - 1 tsp

Jeera - 1 tsp

Curry leaves - few

To temper: 

Oil - 3 tbsp

Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp

Gram dhal - 1/2 tsp

Urad dhal - 1/2 tsp

Method:

1. Wash and soak rice and dhal together  for 15 min.

2. In a pressure cooker, heat oil and temper with the given ingredients.

3. Add onions, green chillies and curry leaves and fry till onion is well cooked.

4. Add tomatoes and fry till mashy.

5. Add turmeric powder, salt and required water and rice, salt.

6. Close the cooker and keep weight.

7. Pressure cook for 2 whistles.

8. Cool, Open and then serve with Brinjal Potato Poriyal. A perfect combo of both.

Variation:

1). If you want to omit spices ( cinnamon, cloves and sombhu), then while grinding add pepper ( 1 tsp) and add them. This gives rice a different taste.

2). Instead of tuvar dhal, you can also add green gram dhal and thatta payiru ( red choli beans/ cow beans).
If using cow beans either pressure cook it 4 whistles instantly and add or soak it overnight.

3). You can also omit tomatoes and cook.

Curd chutney / Curd Pachadi

This curd chutney ( dont know how to name this dish as this is called in kongunadu as "thayir thalichadhu") is a popular dish in kongunadu area.
The people here will do this when there is excess of curd in their home. Lets go to the recipe now.

Ingredients:

Curd - 2 cups

Onion - 2 medium - chop fine

Green chillies - 4 - slit into 2

Curry leaves - few



Salt

To temper:

Oil -  2 tbsp

Mustard seeds - 1/4 tsp

Gram dhal - 1/2 tsp

Urad dhal - 1 tsp

To garnish:

Coriander leaves - few

Method:

1. In a bowl, whisk curds and required amount of salt. Keep it aside.

2. Heat kadai and temper with the given ingredients.

3. Add onions, green chillies and curry leaves. Stir it till onions are transparent.

4. Remove from the flame and allow it to cool.

5. Add this mixture to the whisked curds.

6. Garnish and serve with idlis, dosas along with coconut chutney.

Tip:

1. Always cool the onion mixture before adding it to the curds, otherwise it will curdle.

2. This chutney along with coconut chutney gives a best combination for idlis and dosas.

3. Don't add water to chutney. If curd has water in it, remove it and add salt.

Before i take the photo, my hubby had finished half of it. So the bowl has only little one.