Kitchen-Kollections

Dondakaya Chutney

Ingredients

1 cup chopped dondakaya pieces
2 green chillies
1 tsp tamarind paste
1/4 tsp jeera
1 garlic finely chopped or 1/4 tsp garlic powder
a pinch of turmeric
Salt to taste
1 tsp oil

For tempering
1 tsp oil
1/4 tsp mustard seeds
1/4 tsp jeera
1/4 tsp chana dal
1/4 tsp urad dal
a pinch of hing
Curry leaves

For garnishing
Finely chopped coriandar leaves

Method

• In a pan, add 1 tsp oil, jeera, green chillies and chopped dondakaya pieces. Add turmeric and salt and let it cook for 15 minutes. You can place a lid on it so that the pieces are well cooked.
• Blend the cooked pieces along with tamarind paste in a blender and transfer the paste into a bowl.
• For the tempering, in a pan add all the tempering ingredients one by one and pour it on top of the paste. Mix it well and garnish it with chopped coriandar. Thats it..its done! Let me know how it turned out!

Murukulu is one of my favourite tea time snack. Its easy to make and the crunchy texture makes it even better. Generally fried urad dal is used to make murukulu but I used gram flour or besan and rice flour. here is the recipe

Ingredients

1 cup rice flour
1/4th cup gram flour
Salt to taste
1/4 tsp red chilli powder
2 tbs sesame seeds
1 tsp jeera or fennel seeds
3 tbs ghee
water for mixing the dough
Murukku maker
Oil for deep frying

Method

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl and make sure that the dough is soft enough to pass through the small holes of the murukku maker. Heat oil in a deep pan. Put sufficient amount of dough in the murukku maker and make concentric circles on a foil sheet. let it dry for few minutes and then carefully lift each one and deep fry in hot oil. Fry till it is golden brown in color and carefully put them on a paper towel so that oil is soaked. thats it..enjoy this tasty snack along with a hot cuppa of chai!!!!

best part is its one of the best teething snack for kids!!! try it out for sure and let me know!

Artikaya or plainly plaintain is one vegetable i used to hate when i was a child. Somehow the look was not at all apealing to me…my mother used to force me to eat it but i always used to refuse to even look at it. She is one fantastic cook..but with a kid like me..it was like hiting a stone wall..now i have better understanding of what she went through.My head spins whenever i see my son refusing to eat..well..thats another story…hmm

plaintain is good for you kids….and of course for everyone of us. Its full of rich nutrients..minerals especially magnesium. This one is a simple curry…easy to prepare. Its good for diabetes patients too as it has dals and yogurt. Try it out and let me know..I will post the pic soon…

Ingredients

Artikaya or plaintan – 1 cup cut into small pieces.
Shredded coconut – 2 tbs
Chana dal or Senagapappu – 2 tsp
Yellow lentil or Kandipappu – 2 tsp
Ginger paste – 1
Green chillies – 2 ( shallow fried)
Jeera or fennel seeds- 1 tsp
Coriandar seeds- 1 tsp
Salt to taste
Buttermilk - 1/2 cup
Coriandar leaves for garnishing
Oil

Method

Soak the dals for 1 hr. Peel plaintain and cut into small pieces. Meanwhile, add 2 cups of water in a vessel and bring into boil. Add the plaintain pieces, salt and pinch of turmeric. Cover it with a lid and let it cook for about 10 minutes.After the pieces are well cooked, drain them using a strainer and keep the pieces aside.

Grind the following into a smooth paste – Soaked dals i.e. chana dal and yellow lentil, ginger paste, jeera,coriandar, fried green chillies.
Take another deep pan and add the cooked plaintain pieces. Add the paste and mix it well for 5 min. Then add buttermilk and let cook it for 10 min. Add salt according to your taste  and add the shredded coconut. For tempering, take a small kadai or pan, add oil, 1 tsp  mustard seeds, 1/2 tsp fennel seeds  and 2 red chillies. Fry for five minutes and pour on top of the plaintain mix.

Garnish with chopped coriandar leaves and serve hot with either hot steaming rice or chapatis/tortillas.

These delicious almond biscotti have been my favorite ever since I tasted them in one of the starbucks cafe’s. I always wondered how the biscotti can be so crispy. So I searched all over the net and finally found this recipe from the famous website www.allrecipes.com . I have modified the recipe a little bit..but the final product is almost same as we get in the cafe…next i am going to try our own desi namkeen variety..keep watching this space.

Almond Biscotti

Ingredients

1/2 cup butter , softened
1 1/4 cups sugar, divided
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tsp almond extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4th tsp salt
1/2 cup chopped roasted almonds
2 teaspoons milk

Method

• In a mixing bowl, cream butter and 1 cup sugar. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in vanilla and almond extract. Combine dry ingredients; add to creamed mixture. Stir in almonds.
• Line a baking sheet with foil and grease foil. Divide dough in half; spread into two 12-in. x 3-in. rectangles on foil. Brush with milk and sprinkle with remaining sugar and chopped almonds. Bake at 375 degrees F for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown and firm to the touch.
• Remove from oven and reduce heat to 300 degrees F. Lift rectangles with foil onto wire rack; cool for 15 minutes. Place on a cutting board; slice diagonally 1/2 in. thick.
• Place slices with cut side down on ungreased baking sheet. Bake for 10 minutes. Turn cookies over; bake 10 minutes more. Turn oven off, leaving cookies in oven with door ajar to cool. Store in airtight container.

I wanted to post recipes specially the ingredients in English so that its easily understood by all but in many places i have used some telugu terms. Although
I am planning to post a glossary..it will take some time..till tht time check this link..

A Telugu-English dictionary

http://dsal.uchicago.edu/dictionaries/brown/

Hi all… I started writing this post when suddenly my son started pushing me as well as the lappy… so i showed his milk bottle to him..and now he is rolling it and playing with it..he should be drinking from it!! Hmm..well  here is another curry variety of cauliflower. Cauliflower is low in fat and high in dietary fiber. It releases a peculiar pungent flavor when cooked or steamed. So to avoid that flavor..you can add chopped coriander leaves..

Yellow moong dal(hindi) or pesarapappu(telugu) or yellow lentils are rich in protein and carbs. All you have to do is to  soak them for 15 min and add when the curry is just about to be done. It gives a crunchy taste to the curry.

I will start with the recipe now..this is another of my MIL favorite.

Ingredients

1 cauliflower (florets separated, washed, and kept in salt water for sometime)
1 cup chopped onion
1 chopped green chilli
1 tsp ginger garlic paste
1 cup soaked yellow split moong dal
a pinch of turmeric
salt to taste
1 tbs oil
chopped coriander for garnishing

For tempering
1 tsp fennel seeds or jeera
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp minapapappu or gram dal

Method

• Take a deep pan and add oil. Once its properly heated fry fennel seeds, mustard seeds, turmeric and gram dal. Once they turn light brown, add chopped onion and green chilli.
• Once onions are cooked, add ginger garlic paste and mix well.
• Now add cauliflower florets and mix well so that oil is coated well.
• Add salt and cover it with a lid so that its cooked faster.
• Remember to mix it carefully so that the florest dont break.
• Once the florets are cooked, add the split moong dal and mix it well.
• Cover it with lid and let it cook for exactly 5 minutes and then switch it off.
• Garnish it with chopped coriander and serve hot with either chapatis or rice!