Break!!!

Dear friends,
I'm taking a short break from blogging as I'm in the process of planning a birthday party for my son Kavin which is on April 28th. Will resume blogging on May 5th.Until then, take care. Will miss you guys.....

Red cabbage Beetroot curry

I had this curry in a restaurant and was so suprised by the combination of vegetables. I have never cooked red cabbage and this curry gave me a chance to try that. This is such a healthy dish which can be had with plain rice or rotis. As for me, I liked it more with curd rice.

I do not know if this is the right name for this curry as it had another ingredient ...red chori. I thought if I include that also, then the name would become too big. Anyway, If anyone else out there does this curry and knows the name ,please let me know too. I'll be really thankful for that.

Ingredients:

Beetroot- 1 (medium, cut into strips)

red cabbage- 1 cup(shredded)

Red chori- 3 tbsp (cooked)

onion- 1/2(small,chopped)

green chillies- 2(chopped)

coconut-2 tbsp(shredded)

curry leaves

Procedure:

Heat oil in kadai and fry mustard seeds,urad dal and channa dal. Then add onions and cook till transparent. Now add beetroot, green chillies and some salt. Add very little water. Cover and cook until beet is almost done. Then add red cabbage and stir fry until done. Finally add cooked red chori,coconut, required salt and curry leaves. Blend everything together.

Chicken Liver Masala

chicken liver is a very good source of protein, vitamin A, vitamin C, riboflavin, niacin, pantothenic acid, vitamin B6, folate, vitamin B12, iron, phosphorus, copper and selenium and a good source of thiamin, zinc and manganese.

Chicken liver does not appeal to everyone. But if you do like it, You will surely love this dish.This curry goes well with rice and rotis.

Ingredients:
Chicken livers- 1 box
onion- 1(medium,sliced)
ginger garlic paste- 1 tsp
green chillies- 2 (slit)
tomatoes- 1 (medium,chopped)
corriander poeder- 1 1/4 tsp
cumin powder- 1/2 tsp
pepper powder- 1 tsp
curry masala powder- 1/2 tsp
turmeric powder- 1/2 tsp
curry leaves- few
lemon juice- 1 tbsp

Procedure:
Open the box of livers and discard all the blood in it.Cut chicken livers into bite size pieces(vary size according to preference). Take care not to leave the blue or green vein with the liver. Some livers may not have the correct shape, it might be slimy. Don't worry those can be cooked too. It helps in getting the masala.

Heat oil in kadai and fry onions until golden brown. Then add ginger garlic paste and fry for a minute. Now add chillies,curry leaves and turmeric powder. Next add tomatoes and all the masala powders. Cook till the raw smell goes and oil starts to seperate. Now add washed chicken livers. Add required salt and mix well. Close and cook for 5 to 8 minutes. Open lid and stir again. Cook for a few more minutes. You can tell that the liver is done if it is no longer pink in color on the inside.Careful, don't overcook liver as it tends to get hard and little bitter. Finally add lemon juice. Blend well and switch off gas. Serve with any dish of your choice. Today I had with parotta. It tasted good too.

Quick Muttai Parotta

Muttai means Egg in Tamil. This is a very common dish sold by the road side vendors. I have already blogged about this (veetusamayal.blogspot.com/2007/03/kothu-parotta-pachidi.html) , but this is a short cut way to do it. This recipe does not require chalna and can be done in 15 minutes. Good for a quick snack or dinner. I could not take a good picture as my hubby was already starving.Will update with a nice picture later.

Ingredients:

Frozen Parotta- 2

eggs- 2

onion- 3/4(medium,sliced)

ginger garlic paste- 1/2 tsp

curry leaves- few

turmeric powder- 1/4 tsp

green chillies- 2(chopped)

tomato- 1(medium,chopped)

chicken curry powder- 1 1/2 tsp

chilli powder- 1/4 tsp

pepper- little less than 1/2 tsp

salt

corriander leaves

Procedure:

Heat tawa and cook parotta as per package directions. cool and tear it into small pieces. Heat oil in kadai and fry onions,ginger garlic paste,chillies,turmeric and curry leaves. When the onion turns golden brown, add tomato and all the masala powders. Cook until raw smell goes. Move this to the side of the kadai . Crack and pour eggs in the kadai. When it is 3/4 th done, add parotta and mix well. Add required salt. Using two spatulas mince the parottas and cook till done. Finally add corriander leaves and pepper. Blend well and serve with onion raitha.

Red Chori curry

This is another curry I do regularly . There are two versions : gravy type and dry type. The gravy type is similar to 'puli kuzhambu'. The dry version can be eaten as a evening snack or as a side item for rice. I'm not good in giving a nice write-up about the recipes I'm blogging. But this curry tastes really good. You will agree with me once you try this.

Gravy Type:
Ingredients:
red chori- 1 1/2 cups
onion- 1(medium,chopped)
brinjal-3(cut lengthwise)
tomato-1(medium,chopped)
chilli powder- 1 tsp
corriander powder- 2 tsp
cumin powder- 1/2 tsp
turmeric powder- 1/4 tsp
tamarind paste- 1 1/2 tsp
curry leaves
coconut milk- 1/4 cup

Procedure:
Soak red chori overnight and cook it with some salt and turmeric powder. Heat oil in kadai and fry mustard seeds & urad dal. Then fry onions and brinjal until half done. Now add tomato, curry leaves and all the masala powders. Fry until raw smell goes. Then put tamarind paste, required salt and the water used to boil chori. Bring it to a nice boil. When the brinjal is cooked add chori and coconut milk. Allow it to boil for one more time and switch off gas. Serve with hot rice.

Dry Curry:
Ingredients:
Red Chori- 1 cup (cooked)
onion- 1/2 (small,chopped)
red chillies- 2 (broken)
curry leaves- few
grated coconut- 3 to 4 tbsp

Procedure:
Heat oil and fry mustard seeds,urad dal and channa dal. Then add onions and cook till transparent. Also add red chillies and curry leaves. After a few minutes add chori, required salt and coconut. Mix well.

Turning Older!!! Another B'day!!!

Yes, It was my birthday yesterday and my hubby suprised me with cake and flowers. As my son is also April born, my birthday is not intresting anymore. Still, I enjoyed this one as my son is now old enough to sing the b'day song, blow candles and cut cake. Here is another reason ,When my hubby got this cake there was no one in the store to write on it. Few others did not get the cake because they could not get the wordings on the cake. So my hubby asked permission from the worker there and got the icing bag(I forgot the name of it) and wrote it himself. The people standing next to him gave him so many oooo's and ahhhh's and followed the same. Although the writing is bad I'm happy that he did it for me. The day ended with a heavy dinner at Carraba's Italian restaurant with my friends.

Beans Parrupu Usili

Hi Guys, It's been a while since my last posting. Things are going hectic with my hubby's new job, planning for my son's b'day party, looking for a daycare,spring cleaning.... Phew! I'm sorry that I've been missing all your recent posts. will get back to routine soon.

Here is another simple curry to go with any rice dish and especially with sambar. I do not know the authenticity of this dish. I read in some cookbook that it is more popular in Andhra. But this dish has always been a regular in my household. It is mostly done with kothavarangai ,okra or beans(if anybody else knows to do with a different vegetable, please let me know).

When I was young, my sister and me would want to eat only the dal and not the vegatable, so my mom used to fry the dal alone and mix it with white rice and ghee. This curry tastes great with plain curd or curd rice. My hubby who had never eaten this before marriage became a great fan of this dish later. Try it, I'm sure you will love it.

Ingredients:

Beans- 1 cup(chopped)

onion- 1/2 (medium,chopped)

red chillies- 2

curry leaves-few

channa dal- 1/4 cup

Procedure:

Soak channa dal & red chilli(1) for 1 hr and grind it coarsley with salt.Boil beans with very little water & salt until half done. Heat oil in kadai and fry mustard seeds urad dal, red chilli. Then add channa dal and fry until raw smell goes. Now add beans and a pinch of turmeric. cook till done. Finally add curry leaves.

Okra Potato Curry

Hey Guys! I'm posting this after reading the comments of my fellow bloggers for the okra recipe. I'm really sorry, I never knew this is such a common curry. I also laugh at myself for thinking that I came up with something new. Thanks Guys for enlightening me on this.

Ingredients:
Okra- 20
potato- 1
onion- 1/2(medium,sliced)
tomato- 1/2 (medium,chopped)
salt
turmeric powder- 1/2 tsp
sambar powder- 1 tsp
cumin powder- 1/4 tsp
curry leaves

Procedure:
Heat oil in kadai and fry mustard seeds, urad dal and channa dal. Then fry onions and okra with some turmeric. Fry until half done. Add potatoes and fry for another 5mins. Add salt and tomatoes. Close and cook for sometime. Add the curry powders and blend well. Keep sauteing now and then, taking care that the curry dosen't stick to pan. Cook till done. finally and curry leaves. Can be served with plain rice,sambar or rotis.

Tip: I usually cut my okra and spread it on a white paper and rest it for 2 to 3 hrs. This helps to reduce the slimyness of the okra. In India , my mom used to spread it on a newspaper overnight. But I'm not sure if the ink on the paper is ok to come in touch with food. So, a plain paper or a brown paper bag does the trick.Try it. You will surely be suprised.

Vegetable Noodles

Capsicums were on sale in our nearby grocery story. I mostly buy only the green ones but when the other colors were also in the same price I wasted no time. Immediately grabbed one in each color. I was planning on doing something really special with it. But, due to lack of time and to fix something simple I made noodles. I normally add eggs and shredded chicken, but considering the heavy breakfast and lunch I had today I decided to go totally vegetarian. And here is some for you...

Ingredients:

Any noodles- 1 pack( not the maggie one)

Baby carrots- 10

red,green,yellow and orange capsicums- 1/2 of each (cut into strips)

cabbage- 1/2 cup (shredded)

spring onions- 2 stalks

onion- 1/2 (medium,sliced)

garlic- 4 (minced)

red chilli flakes - 1/2 tsp

soy sauce- 1 tbsp (or even more if you like)

pepper- 1/2 tsp (you can use white pepper too)

salt

Procedure:

Prepare noodles according to package instructions and cool. Heat oil in wok until smokey hot. Then add onions and saute for a minute. Then add carrots and garlic. saute for 2 to 3 minutes. Now add all the capsicums and saute for some time. Do not over-cook the vegetables. It has to be crisp. Add all the flavorings like soy sauce,salt, red chilli flakes and pepper. You can also add 1 tbsp of tomato sauce to give the noodles a little tangy taste. Finally add cabbage and saute for 2 mins. Then add noodles and spring onions. Toss well. Check for sesonings and serve hot .

Variations:

You can also add mushrooms, broccoli, snap peas and bean sprouts .