Recipe world

ಕನ್ನಡದಲ್ಲಿ ಓದಲು ಇಲ್ಲಿ ಕ್ಲಿಕ್ ಮಾಡಿ.

Very rarely I prepare upma at home; coz we both have a dislike towards upma, may be due to hostel life! :D But sometimes, we would love to have this easy upma prepared in my native style. This upma will be done using only tomato and onion. May be the name Tomato Upma suits for this recipe ;) This upma is ideal for breakfast as well as evening snacks.

Preparation time: 20 - 25 minutes

Servings: 2

Ingredients:

Semolina / sooji rava - 1 1/2 cup

Tomatoes - 2

Green chillies - 2 (adjust according to taste)

Onion - 1

1 lemon

Sugar 2 - 3 spoons

Salt to taste

Grated coconut (optional) - 1/2 cup

For seasoning: oil - 6 spoons, urad dal - 1 spoon, mustard seeds - 1 spoon, turmeric - 1/4 spoon, 8 - 10 curry leaves

Method:

Chop the onion, tomatoes and green chillies and keep them ready.

Take around 4 cups of water in a vessel and bring to boil.

Roast the semolina in a heavy bottom pan till light brown and allow to cool.

Transfer the semolina to another vessel and heat the heavy bottom pan. Add oil and do the seasoning with urad dal, mustard seeds, turmeric and curry leaves.

Add chopped green chillies to the seasoning and saute for a while; then, add the roasted semolina, chopped tomato and onion and saute for 3 - 4 minutes.

To this, add 3 1/4th cup of hot water and mix it well. Close the pan with a lid and allow to cook.

Open the lid after 2 minutes and mix it nicely. Add salt, sugar and lime squeeze for taste. Add grated coconut and mix well. If needed, add little more water and cook it for 2 - 3 minutes. To get a nice aroma, you can add 1 spoon of ghee when it is almost done.

Enjoy warm upma with a cup of hot tea!

ಕನ್ನಡದಲ್ಲಿ ಓದಲು ಇಲ್ಲಿ ಕ್ಲಿಕ್ ಮಾಡಿ.

Wish you all happy & prosperous new year :) I am bit late to say this since we were on vacation. This time, we celebrated the new year in our native. Hubby had took a week off and we enjoyed our time in native for couple of days. While we were leaving from Bangalore, it was bit chill and we went with enough winter clothes. But from the day when we reached native, it was really hot! While coming back, our luggage was heavy with the stuff from native and these winter clothes :) Every time we are back from native, it will take at-least a week to adjust to the routine life here..sometimes, I feel like going back to native again! But after leaving the job, that feeling is reduced a bit :)

Coming back to the recipe, Kadag Puli is a kind of sambar or curry which goes well with rice. Since we won't add any lentils to this sambar, it won't take much time to prepare. Adding of cucumber will give a nice aroma and taste to this Kadag Puli.

Preparation time: 20 minutes

Servings: 3 - 4

Ingredients:

Half of a medium size cucumber

Grated coconut - 1 1/2 cup

Mustard seeds - 3/4 spoon

Dry red chillies - 2 (adjust according to taste)

Turmeric - 1/4 spoon

Tamarind - 1 spoon or to taste

Raw rice - 1 spoon

Pinch of asafoetida

Sugar or jaggery - 1/2 spoon

Salt to taste

For seasoning: oil, mustard seeds, curry leaves

Method:

Peel and cut the cucumber into small cubes. Add 1 1/2 cup of water and cook it on medium flame.

Grind the grated coconut, mustard seeds, red chillies, turmeric, tamarind, asafoetida, washed rice, sugar / jaggery and salt into fine paste.

Once the cucumber is cooked nicely, add the ground paste and allow to boil for 4 - 5 minutes. If needed, add water to adjust the consistency.

Heat oil in a small wok and do the seasoning with mustard seeds and curry leaves.

Add this seasoning to Kadag Puli. Check and adjust the taste. You can add few drops of lime squeeze for taste.

Serve this Kadag Puli with hot rice!

Tips:

For this recipe, cucumber can be substituted with Ash gourd also.

ಕನ್ನಡದಲ್ಲಿ ಓದಲು ಇಲ್ಲಿ ಕ್ಲಿಕ್ ಮಾಡಿ.

During our childhood days, very rarely we used to get bakery food at home. We loved chocolates and bakery food more than anything else which was prepared at home :) Couple of years later, my mother mother learned preparing cake using pressure cooker. Then, she started preparing cake whenever we want! Especially, we loved the cake prepared using different colors :D She tried adding different flavors and dry fruits in her next experiments. Even now, we prepare the same cake with slight variations.

This cake can be prepared very easily using pressure cooker. This time, I have prepared it using oven since I didn't had a wide vessel to fit in the pressure cooker. It came out very well in oven also! The only difference you can observe is when you use pressure cooker, base of the cake will become slightly dark in color; whereas base color won't change when oven is used.

Preparation time:1 1/4 hours
Yield: 1 round cake

Ingredients:
Maida / All purpose flour - 2 cups
Powdered sugar - 1 cup
Milk powder - 1 cup
Unsalted butter - 1 lemon size
Baking powder - 1 tsp
Cooking soda - 1/2 tsp
Milk - 2 cups
Cinnamon powder - 1 tsp or few drops of vanilla essence

Method:
Sieve all purpose flour and baking powder 1 - 2 times.
To this, add powdered sugar and milk powder and mix it well.
Melt the butter in a wok and pour it on the flour mixture and mix it nicely with your hands.
Now, add milk little by little and prepare the cake batter. No need to add the whole quantity of milk; add it till you get the dosa batter consistency.
One main tip here is to mix the batter in only one direction. Don't mix the batter in different directions.
Finally, add cooking soda and vanilla essence or cinnamon powder and mix it without lumps.
Transfer the batter to the greased baking pan and add some dry fruits, if you wish.

- Baking in Pressure Cooker:
Transfer the cake batter to a wide pan which will fit in the pressure cooker.
Heat the pressure cooker (without closing the lid) without adding any water.Put the pan inside the cooker and close the lid. Don't put the weight on the lid, just close it with a steel cup.

Keep it on simmer and cook it for around 40 - 45 minutes. Since we cook it on low flame, cooker won't get burnt.
As we didn't put the weight, anytime we can open the lid to check whether its cooked. After cooking it for 30 - 35 minutes, just open the cooker lid and insert a knife into the cake. If the batter won't stick to the knife, its the sign that the cake is cooked.

- Baking in Oven:
Transfer the cake batter to a greased baking pan.
Preheat the oven to 350 F and cook the cake for about 50 - 55 minutes. After cooking it for 40 minutes, keep checking it for every five minutes.

Allow the cake to get completely cool. Then, remove it carefully from the baking pan.

Icing:
Apply the icing after the cake cools down completely; otherwise it will melt.
I have done the icing with cocoa powder for this cake. Mix butter and cocoa powder with sugar powder for taste and beat it nicely. Apply it to the cake and delicious cake is ready to eat!

Tips:

You can substitute cocoa powder with horlicks, winner or any other powder with chocolate flavor for icing.
If you are using food colors for this cake, divide the cake batter into 2 - 3 portions and add different colors for the same. Pour one color batter after another to the baking pan. Better to use dark color to the base so that the base color, if becomes dark won't be visible ;)

ಕನ್ನಡದಲ್ಲಿ ಓದಲು ಇಲ್ಲಿ ಕ್ಲಿಕ್ ಮಾಡಿ.

This snacks resembles the memories of my childhood. I was born n brought up in a joint family. So, myself and 2 - 3 of my cousins we of the same age group. Daily, we used to have some snacks after coming back from school in the evening. Poha seasoning was our favorite snacks those days and most of the days, we used to demand for the same :D

Even when I was working, I used to carry this poha seasoning for my lunch box. Although its not a stomach filling snack, I was preparing it for lunch box on some lazy days ;) There, it was a big hit! My colleagues were fond of this poha and they used to finish my lunch box whenever I carry poha! And I was satisfying myself with somebody else's lunch box :)

This poha is a perfect snacks for evening time with a cup of hot tea or coffee.

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Servings: 2

Ingredients:

Thin poha / Paper Avalakki - 2 1/2 bowl

Groundnuts - 3 spoon

Urad dal - 1/2 spoon

Dry red chillies - 2 pieces

Mustard seeds - 1/2 spoon

Coriander seeds - 1 1/4 spoon

Big pinch of turmeric

Green chilli - 1 (adjust according to taste)

Curry leaves 8 - 10

Salt to taste

Sugar - 2 spoons or to taste

Oil - 4 spoons (I prefer using coconut oil)

Grated coconut - 1/2 or 3/4 cup

1 medium size onion

Water - 1/2 cup

Method:

Cut the green chilli into medium size pieces; chop the onion finely.

Transfer the poha to a mixing bowl. Add salt and sugar for taste.

Heat oil in a wok. Add groundnuts, red chilli pieces, urad dal, mustard seeds, coriander seeds, turmeric, green chilli pieces and curry leaves.

Once it starts spluttering, pour the seasoning on the poha. Add 1/4th cup of water to the wok to clean it and sprinkle the same on the poha.

Also add grated coconut and chopped onion to the poha and mix it nicely with your hands. Add little more water, if needed. Don't add too much water, otherwise poha will become mushy mushy.

Check the taste and add salt or sugar, if needed.

Serve this poha seasoning along with some spicy snacks. Some people love to have it with curd also!

ಕನ್ನಡದಲ್ಲಿ ಓದಲು ಇಲ್ಲಿ ಕ್ಲಿಕ್ ಮಾಡಿ.

This is one of the rice variety which I usually prepare for hubby's lunch box. Recipe is also very simple, and it won't take much time to prepare. If you have no time to prepare a side dish or raita, simply it can be had with plain curd also!

Normally, mint leaves will get spoiled within very few days even if you keep them in the fridge. I want to share a nice tip with you to avoid the spoiling! Clean the mint leaves and grind them in a blender along with little salt into fine paste. Add little water, if needed. Then, transfer the paste into a glass bottle and refrigerate it. It will last for at-least a month or more :) I will use this paste for chaat items, chutney, rice items, etc.

Preparation Time: 25 - 30 minutes

Servings: 2

Ingredients:

Rice - 1 1/2 cup

Mint leaves - 1/2 bunch

Green chillies - 3

Ginger - 1 inch

Garlic 3 - 4 cloves

Grated coconut - 1/4 cup

Cardamom - 2

Cloves - 4

4 - 5 small pieces of cinnamon

1 medium size onion

Potato - 1 halve

Water - 3 cups

Oil - 3 tbsp

Lime - 1 halve or to taste

Salt to taste

Method:

Peel the potato and cut into small cubes. Soak it in water to avoid becoming oxidized.

Chop the onion thinly lengthwise. Grind the grated coconut, ginger, garlic, mint leaves and green chillies fine paste.

Heat oil in a thick bottom pan and add the cinnamon pieces, cloves and cardamom. Roast them for few seconds and add the chopped onion.

Fry the onion on low flame till it becomes brownish. Then, add the ground paste and potato cubes.

Saute it for 3 - 4 minutes until the raw smell is gone. To this, add the washed rice and saute it for 1 - 2 minutes.

Now, add required amount of water, salt and lime squeeze. Transfer the mixture to rice cooker / pressure cooker and and cook them.

Serve it hot with raita or simply curd!

Tips:

If you have used more water while grinding the paste, add little less water while cooking. Adjust the quantity of water according to the rice which you are using. Don't make it too mushy.
For garnishing, you can use some cashew pieces roasted with little oil.