Veggie Delight

Experiments in cooking !!

Wednesday, August 30, 2006

Paneer Mango Kheer !

I came across this recipe in a magazine some time ago and made an attempt today. It turned out very tasty and we enjoyed it a lot. Here goes the recipe:

Ingredients:

Mango - 1 medium sized
Milk - 2½ cups
Sugar - 1½ cups
Sooji(Rava) - ½ cup
Ghee - 5 Tbs
Cashew - 10-12
Almonds - 8-10
Cardamom as required

Procedure:

1. Peal the skin and cut the mangoes into small pieces
2. Fry the sooji with a spoon of ghee and set aside. Similarly fry cashew and almonds too.
3. Take the milk in a wide vessel and bring it to boil.
4. When the milk is well boiled add the mango pieces and continue heating.
5. At this stage the milk will start to crackle as in picture below. Donot bother, this is paneer for the kheer ! (Ok that is not a good picture).



6. When this paneer boils with the milk add the sooji and stir well.
7. Once the sooji is cooked add the sugar. Let it melt and mix well.
8. Now add the ghee and cardamom.
9. Remove from fire add almonds and cashews.

Yum, Yum Kheer is ready!!!

Note: If I am to do it again I would cut the mangoes still smaller.

Paneer Mango Kheer:



This is my entry for JFI#5 hosted by Vineela under the theme 'Milk and Milk-products'

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Ghee Roast Dosa with Onion Chutney

Dosa.... ssh.. this is one of my favorites.

Here is the recipe for one type of Dosa - Ghee Roast.

Ingredients :
(for Dosa)


Boiled Rice (Idli Rice) - 4 Cups
Urad Dal - 1 Cup
Fenugreek seeds - 1 Tbs
Aval (Poha) - 1 Tbs
Salt
Ghee (Clarified butter)

Procedure : (to make Batter)

1. Soak rice and urad dal separately in water for 4 hours.
2. Grind Urad dal for about 40 minutes adding water as required. Remove it when the batter almost rolls into a ball in the grinder/blender and set it aside. Take care that it does not become too watery.
3. Grind rice adding the required water. This might take about 20 minutes.
4. Mix with the urad dal batter.
5. Add salt and mix thorougly with hand. This helps in better fermenting.
6. Let it stay overnight and it should be fermented next day showing an increase in quantity.

Note: I usually use the same batter for Idli in the first two days.Adding poha make the Idlis soft.

Procedure :(to make Dosa)

1. Heat the tava. Pour the batter in the center and spread it across in circles.Pour oil across the outer edge.
2. Let it cook in medium heat until slightly brown. Turnover & cook the other side.
3. Turn again & while still in the tava, apply a coat of ghee (as required).
4. Serve hot with the chutney below.

Ingredient:
(for Onion Chutney)


Pearl onion - 15 to 20 (or) One large onion slit length-wise.
Tomato - 1 chopped
Red Chilly - 2
Bengal gram - 1 Tbs
Oil - 1 Tbs
Salt to taste

Procedure:

1. Heat oil in a pan. Add bengal gram and red chilly, fry for a minute.
2. Add the onion and fry till transparent.
3. Now add the tomato & saute till it cooks.
4. Let it cool. Add salt and blend.

Note : Do not add water as the tomato loosens it.

Ghee Roast with Onion Chutney :



This is my entry for WBB #4 hosted by Pavani of Cook's Hideout

Check the other versions of Dosa
Sudhav of Samayal
Menu Today
Foodie's Hope

Sunday, August 27, 2006

Happy Ganesh Chathurthi !


Happy Ganesh Chathurthi to All !!

Ganesha is the God of wisdom and prosperity and is invoked before the beginning of any auspicious work. Known by varied names,he has an elephant face and human body. Ganesh Chathurthi falls on the 4th day after no-moon in the month of Shraavana (lunar Hindu calendar).The festival usually falls in the month of Aug/Sep.

As with any other festival, this is celebrated with a grand naivedhyam,a Sanskrit word meaning 'to offer' to God. One can see kozhukattai (Modakam is Sanskrit) in every household in varied forms. One other main side snack found in all Kannadiga household for every occassion and festival is 'Ambode'. Being prepared on special occassion, ambode will be devoid of onions.

The recipe for Ambode is:

Ingredients:

RedGram Dal(Thur Dal) - 1 Cup
Broken black gram - 1/2 Cup
Bengal Gram(Channa Dal) - 1/2 Cup
Red Chillies - 3/4
Asofoetida
Curry leaves
Salt to taste
Oil for deep frying


Procedure:

1. Soak thurdal & broken balck gram together. Separately soak Channadal. Let it stand for 1/2 hour.
2. Drain the water out of the soaked dals.
3. Grind these dals together with asofoetida, salt and red chillies into a coarse paste. Use little water if required. Add the curry leaves.
4. Make small balls of the dough and flatten it with a mild press.
5. Heat the oil in a pan and fry both sides until golden brown.

Note: The dough should hold together.It should neither be watery nor too hard.

Ambode

Friday, August 25, 2006

Cabbage Curry

Curry, a sauceless vegetable dish is a regular item in any Indian menu.This dry curry is served with main dish while the one with gravies goes well with Indian bread.Curry being part of the daily meal one out of of the '5 A DAY' rule is met.

These curries are flavored either with coconut or onion and goes well with the South India mainstay of sambar or rasam. Just to break this routine and for those conscious of high cholesterol in coconut, this is a slightly varied version of 'cabbage curry'.

Ingredients:

Cabbage - chopped
Red Chilly - 1
Peeled broken green gram - 1 Tbsp
Salt to taste

For Seasoning:
Mustard
Cumin Seeds
Broken green gram
Curry leaves

Procedure :

1. Soak 1 Tbsp of peeled broken green gram in water for about 15 minutes
2. Take the desired amount of cabbage and chop into small pieces.
3. Add the seasoning,red chilly in a pan with little oil & let it splutter.
4. Now add the cabbage and the soaked greengram in the kadai with sufficient water for it to cook.
5. When the cabbage is half-cooked add salt.
6. Continue cooking till water evaporates & curry becomes dry.
Enjoy the curry...

Cabbage Curry:

Wednesday, August 23, 2006

Corn Soup

The market being flooded with Corn, I went hunting(browsing !!) for a new recipe.One that caught my attention is the baby corn soup. With some modification to suit my need, this 'Corn Soup' took shape.

Raw Materials:

4 cups water
1 tsp ginger-finely chopped
1 garlic-finely chopped
1 green chilies-finely chopped
1 tbsp coriander leaves-finely chopped
2 tbsp cabbage-finely chopped
2 tbsp capsicum-finely chopped
2 tbsp carrot- Grated
2 tbsp peas
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp soy sauce
3 tbsp oil
salt as required



Production:

1. Pressure cook the corn and let it cool.
2. Remove the kernel from the cob & blend into a smooth paste in blender.


3. In a pan stir fry ginger, garlic and green chilies for 1-2 minutes.
4. Add the capsicum & corn paste and stir fry again for 2 minutes.
5. Now add salt,pepper,soy sauce along with water
6. Stir constantly till it thickens slightly,then add the cabbage,peas and carrot.
7. Remove from heat,add coriander and serve hot.

Final Product:



I like this with variety of veggies in it and an instant success with my hubby too!!

Indian Curry beats Aspirin !

Here is more reason to go the traditional way of eating Indian food. A new research has found that eating curry is a better cure for a headache than aspirin.Also it comes without the unwanted frill of 'side-effects'.

Spices such as Cumin, Turmeric and Paprika, all of which are used in curries, are particularly rich sources of salicylic acid - the main ingredient in aspirin, the study said.

Continue reading 'Indian curry beats aspirin'....

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Orange Peach Smoothie

Unable to contain my smoothie craving after reading this in My Cook Book, I headed to the kitchen.Not having any banana or blueberry,this Orange-Peach smoothie took shape.

Raw Material:
Peach - 2
Orange - 1
Curd/Yogurt - 3 scoops
Suagr - 4 Tsp

Production:
Peal the peach,orange and blend with sugar in the blender till smooth. Add the yougurt and blend again to mix properly. Add a spoon of honey to taste. Serve chilled.

Final Product:

Mangoe Milkshake

This easy to make Mangoe Milkshake is a real soother for the summer heat.Mangoes make your body hot and my Mom usually insists on taking milk/yogurt after we have a mangoe. This pupose is also easily met in this milkshake.

Raw Material:

Mangoe - 1
Sugar - 6 Tsp
Milk - 7 Oz (obout 400ml)



Production:

1. Cut the mangoe into small pieces after pealing the skin.
2. Add the cut pieces along with sugar and very little water in a blender
3. Blend till smooth.
4. Now add the milk after pouring into a serving jar and stir completely to mix well.Can also be done in the blender.
5. Serve chilled

Final Product:



I like it with couple of pieces of mangoes in the shake !!

Veggie Delight !!

This blog is inspired by a host of food blogs(I shall slowly start linking them) that I came across in the past few days and also this article from the pages of 'The Hindu'

Not being an expert, I shall do the updates from my daily cooking and anything interesting related to food that I come across. The title is inspired by Subway's sandwich by the name and also implies it will showcase only Lacto vegetarian items - me being one.

Happy Cooking !!