Kitchen-Kollections

This is a delicious recipe and highly simple one to make.

Ingredients

8 small brinjals
4 green chillies
1 onion
Curry leaves
1/2 teaspoon of ginger/garlic paste
Putnalu pappu powder – 2 tablespoon
Popu or Tadka

1 teaspoon Mustard seeds
1 teaspoon Urad daal
1 teaspoon chana dal
1 teaspoon jeera
2 red chillies
Red chilli powder
Salt
Turmeric

Method

Wash the brinjals properly and cut them lengthwise. Its better to put the cut pieces in salt water as it will help in getting rid of the bitter taste. Cut onions and green chillies and keep it aside.
Take a deep pan and add some vegetable oil. Add mustard seeds and let them splutter. Add chana dal, urad dal, jeera and red chillies. Keep stirring and after they become a little brownish in color, add onion, green chillies and curry leaves. Add ginger garlic paste. Let the onions cook for a while. Keep stirring it until onions become soft and translucent.

Add the brinjal pieces and stir so that the pieces are covered with oil. Let them cook for a while. After they become a little bit tender, add salt, red chilli powder and a pinch of turmeric. Again for next 10 mintutes, cover it with lid and let it cook.
In the end when the pieces are properly cooked, add the putnalu powder and mix it well. You can add an extra teaspoon of oil because the powder will absorb the oil. Cook for 5 minutes and more and thats it its done! Serve hot with rice or chapati! Enjoy!

I learnt gulab jamun recipe from my aunt when i was a little girl. It took her almost 2 hrs to make 25 gulab jamuns..i was amazed and surprised at her patience. But when i tasted those delicious perfect rounded gulab jamun..i understood. One needs to perfect the art of making round balls! haha jokes apart I love making and eating gulab jamuns. It took me 4 years (i was still in school then) to perfect the art of making round balls. I used to make it for my mother because she had a sweet tooth..hmm..probably she ate too many and ended up having diabetes. Since then i stopped making them…and now almost after 10 yrs I tried again..so here it is the good old recipe of Gulab Jamun.

Ingredients

MTR gulab jamun mix or any gulab jamun mix you get in indian grocery shop

Cardomam seeds – 1 tsp

Sugar – 2 cups

water – 1 cup

Ghee – 2 tbsp

Oil

Method

1. Make a smooth dough with half cup of water and make sure the dough is really really smooth. You can use ghee to smoothen it. After it becomes soft, leave it for at least 10 minutes. Make balls by gently rolling each portion between your palms into a smooth ball. Place the balls on a plate. Cover with a damp yet dry kitchen towel.

2. First of all, you need to make the syrup first. Mix 2 cups of sugar in 1 cup of water and heat it. Keep stirring it so that the sugar dissolves properly. Heat it for at least 20 min. Add cardamom powder or kesar if you have and lower the heat.

3. Take a deep pan and pour oil into it. Heat it on high for a while and then keep it on medium heat. Put in the balls into the hot oil from the side of the pan, one by one. They will sink to the bottom of the pan, but do not try to move them here and there.  After about 5 mins, the balls will rise to the surface. The Gulab Jamuns should rise slowly to the top if the temperature is just right. Now they must be gently and constantly agitated to ensure even browning on all sides. If the balls break that means the dough was not smooth enough. So make sure the mix is smooth.

4. As soon as you take the gulab jamuns from oil, put them in the syrup. Keep stirring them. After a while the gulab jamuns will soak completely in the syrup and thats it..gulab jamun is ready to be gobbled up!!

Semiya payasam is a traditional indian sweet made up of rice/vermicelli cooked in milk. It has rich and creamy texture. The sweet smell of cardamom enhances the taste. In india, it is quite common dish during festival days. Here is the recipe..

Ingredients:
1 cup roasted vermicelli 
2 cups milk
1/5 tspoon saffron stands (mixed in warm milk)
1/4 cup cashewnuts (roasted in ghee)
cardammom powder
1 cup Sugar

Method:

Heat milk in a thick bottomed pan and let it boil on medium heat. Once it boils over then switch it to medium low heat till it reduces to half. Keep stirring till at regular intervals.

Add the soaked saffron and sugar to the milk and let it cook for another 4-5 min. Add roasted vermicelli and chopped cashewnuts to milk and let it cook for another 4-5 min. Keep stirring it so that no lumps are formed. Serve it hot!

Sandwich Tikki Squares

This is another quick breakfast recipe especially if you have kids. Kids generally spend a lot of time eating so they will definetly enjoy these little squares. I used  this amazing coriandar mint chutney or you can call it a spread. Here is the recipe..

Ingredients 

Coriander and Mint chutney or spread
2 bunches of coriander leaves
half cup chopped onion
two green chillies
1 tbs salt or salt to taste
1/2 tsp red chilli powder
Half cup of curd or Butter milk
 
Method

Mix all the ingredients listed above in a grinder and grind them properly. It will be almost like a paste. Keep it aside.
 
Potato Stuffing

Ingredients

1 cup Boiled potatoes
Salt to taste
1/2 tsp red chilli powder
1/2 tsp dhaniya powder
1/2 tsp thinly cut green chillies
 
Method

Mash the boiled potatoes and add all the spices and green chillies. Mix them properly. You can add a spoon of corn flour in the potato mix. This will help in binding the mix. Take a spoonful of this mix and make small cakes or tikkis and fry them in a pan with vegetable oil till they are properly roasted. This is the method of making a tikki though!

Take two pieces of bread and  spread the coriander and mint paste on the bread. Place a slice of lettuce, a slice of Tomato,Onion and the Fried Potato cake or tikki. Add little bit of unsalted butter and keep one more bread slice on  the top and Toast in toast maker for a half minute. If you do not have a toast maker at home, you can toast the sandwich in pan.  After its roasted, apple some butter on to the top and serve it hot. For children, you can cut the sandwich in squares..otherwise you can eat it as it is with hot cuppa of tea! Enjoy!

Mushroom dishes are quite easy to make and they taste really good. Its my husband’s favourite dish (mine too..) and he is quite an expert in making yummy stir fry dishes. He makes mouthwatering portbello mushrooms sandwich which are definetly out of this world mmmm..well..here is the quick recipe of Mushroom stir fry with pearl onions. Its a tasty starter or snack..it goes quite well with fruit juice!! Pearl onions are available in any grocery store..i have used white ones in this recipe.

This is going to be my entry for JFI- February Onions

Mushroom Stir fry with pearl onions

Ingredients

1 pack of mushrooms

half cup pearl onions

Sweet red and yellow bell peppers (1/2 cup each)

Green chillies(split long)

Chilli powder

salt to taste

seasoned salt

Coriandar leaves (1 cup)

Balasmic vinegar (1 tbs)

Method

Cut the mushrooms and wipe them clean with a wet cloth or paper towel.  Add two tablespoon oil in a pan. Heat it and fry the onions and Pepper. Keep stirring them so that they are properly fried. Add Salt and Chilli powder.Add the Pearl onions and fry for 5 mins then add Mushrooms and fry for few more minutes. Now add half table spoon of Balsamic vinegar, one tbs of Hot and chilli Sauce(tomato ketchup). On medium heat fry for 10more minutes. Add a little seasoned salt and garnish with coriandar leaves……………..YUMMYYYYY its ready to eat!!!!!!

Dondakai Curry or Tindora curry

Ingredients

2 Pounds Dondakai
2 tsp Popula karam
2 tbsp Oil

Method

• Chop dondakai in long thin slices.
• Add 2 tbsp oil in a pan. Once the oil is hot enough add all the chopped dondakai. Keep mixing and stirring the curry pieces. After the pieces begin to soften add salt to taste. Do not cover with a lid if you like a fried taste 
• After about 20-25 minutes the pieces would soften and now you can add chilli powder and popula karam.
• Add chopped coriander leaves and curryleaves.  Mix and leave it on for a while.
• This can be served with rice or chapattis.

Popula Karam 
 

Ingredients

1/2 tsp vegetable oil
1 tbsp urad dal
1tbsp chana dal
1/4 tbsp mustard seeds
1/4 tbsp jeera seeds
6-8 menthulu
tamarind -size of half a lemon
3 tbsp groundnuts
4 pinches HIng (Asefotida)
10 Red chillies

Method

• Take a medium depth pan and add  1/2 tsp of vegetable oil.  Roast urad dal, chana dal, mustard seeds, jeera seeds , menthulu, hing, tamarind, and red chillies. Roast this mixture till the seeds start to turn light brown.
• While this is going on, take another pan and dry roast the peanuts [make sure that they are roasted well and are dry and are not too oily.
• Once both the above steps are complete keep them aside to cool.  Grind them into coarsee powder.
• Store the powder in airtight container.  This powder can be used for most fried version of almost all vegetables. Mostly I use it for potato , dondakai, bhindi, egg plant , cauliflower….