I have already posted the recipe of bisi bele bath which my mom prepares. Here I am telling you my version of bisi bele bath. It is a great one pot meal which goes well with potato chips. It is my all time favourite rice dish. I can have this for 3 course as well 😉 I never tried adding onion or garlic for bath, but today gave a try… trust me adding a few pieces of onion and garlic gives a good taste and flavour. Even though preparing this is a lengthy process, it calls for it… give it a try….

Ingredients

• toor dal/ togari bele/ yellow pigeon peas-1 cup
• sona masuri rice- 3/4 cup
• vegetables- 1 cup ( i used carrot, potato,  green peas, capsicum)
• onion-1 small
• garlic-3 pods
• oil- 1 tbsp
• butter/ghee-2 tbsp
• jaggery-1/2 tbsp
• tamarind- a small ball
• to make masala powder
  • coriander seeds- 2 tbsp
  • dry coconut- 5 tbsp
  • urad dal- 2 tbsp
  • channa dal-2 tbsp
  • red chilli-5 ( I used byadagi)
  • fenugreek- ¼ tbsp
  • cinnamon-1 inch
  • cloves-3
  • khuskus- ¼ tbsp
  • oil-2 tbsp
  • for seasoning
    • mustard seeds- ¼ tbsp
    • ground nuts
    • cashew nuts
    • curry leaves
    • ghee-1/2 tbsp

Method

1. Chop vegetables and soak toor dal in water.
2. In a wok fry dry coconut till golden brown in colour, keep aside. Add a tablespoon of oil and fry red chilly for 2 minutes and remove. Fry all other ingredients like coriander, fenugreek, urad dal, channa dal, khus kus, cinnamon, and cloves separately in little oil and keep aside. When they become cool, grind to a fine powder.
3. In pressure cooker heat a tablespoon of oil, add onions and garlic. Sauté onions till they turn transparent.
4. Add vegetables, dal, rice, water (approximately 1 liter), salt, turmeric powder, tamarind, ground masala powder and mix well.
5. Add a tablespoon of butter or ghee and close the lid. Pressure cook till 4 whistles.
6. In a small pan prepare seasoning with ghee and garnish bisi bele bath with the seasoning.
7. Serve piping hot with potatao chips, raita or khara boondi.

Note:

• Add more water when cooking to avoid burning. Bath absorbs water later on.

Ladies finger/ bhendi/ bende kai is one vegetable which I never liked preparing till I came to know how to get rid of its stickiness. I usually prepare bhendi and onion sambar, bhendi subzi to go with rice. I never tried any curry to go with roti. Finally a day came when I prepared aloo bhendi as I had only potato and bhendi stock in my kitchen… it is very easy and must try recipe…

Ingredients:

• Potato- 2 medium
• Ladies finger/bhendi/bende kai- 20
• Onion-1
• Tomato-1 big
• Red chilli powder- ½ tbsp
• Jeera-1/4tbsp
• Oil- 1 tbsp
• Salt
• Lemon juice- ½ tbsp

Method:

• Cut potato in cubes and pressure cook for 2 whistles.
• In wok heat oil, add bhendi and fry for 2 minutes in high flame to get rid of stickiness.
• Chop onions and tomato finely and keep aside.
• In a wok heat a tablespoon of oil, add jeera. When jeera splutters, add onions and fry till transparent. Add tomato and sauté till tomato become mushy.
• Now add potato, salt and cook for 5 minutes.
• Sprinkle little water and add bhendi, cover and cook for another 5 minutes.
• Add red chilli powder and sauté for a miute.
• Finally add lemon juice and cover.
• Serve hot with roti with slices of onion. 

I made this when I had very less vegetables at home to prepare sambar. Jeera is one Indian spice, when added to any dish gives a nice aroma and taste. Jeera rice is very easy to prepare and can be prepared when you are in a hurry… you do not require any curry to have it with jeera rice.. Simple raita goes well with it…  try this easy rice and enjoy!!!

Ingredients:

• Rice- 1 cup
• Shahi jeera-  1/2 tbsp
• Cardamom- 1
• Cinnamon- small piece
• Salt
• Oil and ghee- 1 tbsp

Method:

• Cook rice and keep aside to cool.
• In a wok heat ghee and oil, add cardamom, cinnamon and shahi jeera. Sauté for a minute.
• Do not allow jeera to crackle as it gives bitter taste.
• Now add rice and salt, sauté till rice becomes hot.
• Jeera rice is ready!!!!!
• Garnish with fried onions and serve hot with raita.

Note on preparing fried onions

• Slice onion finely, sprinkle ½ tablespoon of corn flour and mix.
• Soon after mixing with flour spread onion in hot oil and fry in medium flame.
• When the onion turns light brown in colour, take it out and strain in tissue paper.

My childhood always consisted of lots of sweet dishes, be it store brought sweets or homemade sweets like kheer, halwa, hayagreeva etc etc…. 🙂  my mom usually prepares channa, moong and vermicelli payasa… it had been a long time since I tasted this payasa… So when I had to prepare sweet for guest, I made this payasa.. it tastes good when you serve it piping hot… Here comes the recipe.

Ingredients

• Moong dal/hesaru bele- 1 cup
• Milk of one whole coconut
• Cardamom- 2 crushed finely
• Jaggery- 1 cup (adjust according to your taste)
• Ghee- 1 tbsp
• Cashew nuts and raisins

Method

• Dry roast dal till nice aroma, pressure cook till soft and keep aside.
• Meanwhile prepare coconut milk from grated coconut and keep it ready.  
• Now fry cashews and raisins till golden brown, keep aside.
• In a kadai add dal, thin coconut milk, and grated jaggery, bring to a boil and simmer for 4 minutes.
• Add first coconut milk, cardamom powder, fried cashew nuts, and raisins,mix well. Keep stirring it for 2-3 minutes.
• Hesaru bele payasa is ready to be seved !!!!!

Notes

• On preparing coconut milk:
  • Grate coconut and grind it in a mixer adding required amount of water to a very smooth paste.
  • Place a muslin cloth on a large bowl and transfer the coconut mix to it.
  • Squeeze the cloth till you get milk.
  • In a separate bowl take ½ cup of water and immerse cloth along with coconut paste. Again squeeze it to get thin coconut milk.
  • To make thick payasa, you can even add 2 tablespoon of rice floor diluted in water.
  • Do not boil payasa after adding thick/ first coconut milk.

I always wanted to try some recipe using baby corn, but somehow I couldn’t prepare. Last week when we went for vegetable shopping, I found fresh baby corn in super market and bought a small pack of it to try baby corn Manchurian or any gravy. Yesterday the day came when we invited my husband’s boss and his friends over dinner. When I was browsing for the recipe I found one interesting curry in Racks kitchen. For my first experience it came out really well. I served baby corn curry along with plain and butter roti.

Recipe

• Baby corn- 15
• Garam masala powder- ½ tbsp
• Red chilli powder- 1 tbsp
• Turmeric powder- a pinch
• Oil & ghee- 1 ½ tbsp
• Coriander leaves for garnishing

To grind 1

• Onion- 1 big cut into cubes
• Tomato – 2 medium
• Ginger- 1inch
• Garlic-4 pods
• Green chilli-1

To grind 2

• Cashew nuts-12

To temper

• Bay leaf-1 small
• Cloves-3
• Cinnamon- small piece
• Elaichi/ cardamom – 3

Method:

• Pressure cook baby corn for 4 whistles, keep aside. Meanwhile soak cashew nuts in warm water for half an hour and grind to a smooth paste.
• Fry cubed onions in oil and grind along with tomato, green chilli, ginger and garlic.
• Heat oil in a wok; add all tempering, fry for a minute. Add the above mix and sauté for 3 minutes.
• Add turmeric powder, red chilli powder, garam masala powder and mix well.
• Fry in low flame till oil leaves.
• Add cashew paste and fry for another 3 minutes.
• Add cooked baby corn, milk and bring to gravy consistency. Bring to boil and switch off the flame.
• Garnish with fried capsicum, onion and fresh coriander.
• Serve with roti 🙂

when I was browsing for some Indo- Chinese recipe, I found this Schezwan fried rice. When I read the recipe it looked bit difficult and time consuming. But being a foodie I wanted to try this fried rice. It took approximately 3 hours for me to finish including chopping vegetables. But when I tasted it all tiredness went away 🙂 You can prepare the Schezwan sauce in advance which will save your time. Enjoy this fried rice with any manchurian of your choice. I prepared vegetable manchurian. I referred to http://www.chefandherkitchen.com/ for the recipe. 

Ingredients for preparing Schezwan sauce:

• 10 medium sized Garlic pods
• 10 Red chillies
• 3 tbsp. finely chopped Garlic
• 1 tbsp. finely chopped Ginger
• 1 tbsp. finely chopped thick Coriander stems
• 2 large Tomatoes, roughly chopped
• 1 tsp Soya Sauce
• 1 tbsp. Vinegar
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp Pepper powder
• Salt to taste
• 2-3 tbsp. Oil

Method:

• Remove the stems of red chillies and soak them in warm water for half an hour.
• Grind the soaked red chillies with garlic pods to a fine paste.
• Grind tomatoes to a smooth puree.
• Heat oil in a pan and add finely chopped garlic and sauté  for a minute. Add finely chopped ginger and coriander stems and saute til the raw smell of all the ingredients go away.
• Add pureed tomatoes and simmer for a while and then add ground red chili paste and fry  until the raw smell of tomatoes and red chili- garlic paste goes away and it leaves the oil in the edges.
• Add  vinegar, soya sauce, sugar,  pepper powder and salt and mix nicely and  simmer for another 2-3 minutes. Store  it in an air tight container in refrigerator. 

Schezwan Fried Rice

Recipe:

• Basmati rice- 1 cup
• Ginger- 1 tbsp
• Garlic-4 pods
• Thick coriander stems- few
• Schezwan sauce- 3-4tbsp
• Soya sauce- 1tbsp
• Vinegar-tbsp
• Black pepper powder-1/4tbsp
• Oil- 3 tbsp
• Chopped vegetables- 1/2cup ( I took carrot, capsicum, beans and spring onions)

Method:

• Soak rice in water for 15 minutes and cook. Refrigerate the rice for 1/2an hour to help in retaining shape when mixing.
• Heat oil in a wok over high flame and add finely chopped ginger, garlic and coriander stems, fry till crisp.
• Add spring onion white and fry till soft in high flame.
• Add finely chopped vegetables except capsicum and fry for 2-3 minutes. When they become little crisp, add capsicum and fry in high flame till all vegetable become crisp.
• Add salt, pepper powder, vinegar, schezwan sauce and mix well.
• Now add cooked rice,spring onion green and mix again gently till rice is hot.
• Serve hot with any Manchurian!!!!!

I had half a loaf of bread in my refrigerator and what struck suddenly is preparing bread masala. But its common and I had prepared this many times. So this time I had to try something different which I have not prepared before. When I went inside kitchen I found good amount of potato in basket and what came in my mind that time was stuffed bread pakoda. Bread pakoda is very easy and tastes great with tomato ketchup. Having said that, stuffed bread pakoda is also very easy and tastes great when had immediately. People with weight and cholesterol issues can sacrifice their diet for a day and enjoy this snack 🙂

Recipe:

• Bread slices- 8
• Potato-2 big
• Onion-1 small
• Green chilly-1
• Coriander leaves- few
• Garam masala powder- ¼ tbsp
• Salt-as required
• Lemon juice- ½ tbsp
• Mustard seeds
• Curry leaves-few
• Oil-1tbsp + for frying
• Gram flour/besan- 1 cup
• Turmeric- a pinch
• Red chilly powder-1/2 tbsp

Method:

• Trim the sides of bread, cut into triangular and keep aside.
• Pressure cook potato for 4 -5 whistles, when cool, grate potato and keep aside.
• In a pan heat a tablespoon of oil, add mustard seeds, when they splutter add curry leaves and green chilly.
• Add finely chopped onion and sauté till light golden in colour. At this stage add salt, garam masala powder and mix well.
• Transfer the above mix to potato and mash well.
• Apply thin layer of potato mix on bread slice, place another bread slice on it and press it gently.
• Meanwhile prepare besan batter and keep it ready. The batter should be slightly thicker than normal pakoda batter.
• When the oil is hot, dip bread inside besan batter and fry it till golden brown in colour.
• Transfer to tissue paper and serve hot with tomato ketchup.

You have nothing to eat at home with coffee or tea???? Try this …. My mom used to prepare a box full of this snack and which was getting emptied within 3-4 days:)  I can guarantee the same even at your home. Especially kids will love to have this.

Recipe:

• Whole wheat flour- 2 cups
• Salt- as per taste
• Hot coconut oil-4 tbsp
• Oil to deep fry
• Sugar- 1 cup
• Water-1/2 cup + extra to knead the dough

Method:

• In a bowl mix together whole wheat flour, salt, hot coconut oil and mix. Now add water and prepare semi soft dough. Cover and keep aside for 15 minutes.
• After 15 minutes prepare thin roti from the dough and cut it into small diamond shape.
• Meanwhile bring oil to smoking hot, transfer the roti pieces to hot oil and fry till golden brown in colour.
• In a separate pan add sugar and water to prepare thick syrup. The syrup should be very thick so that when you transfer tukkudi to syrup it forms crystal on it and gets coated with it.
• Once all the batches are done, transfer tukkudi into sugar syrup and mix well.
• Remove and store in a air tight container.

Even though there are different ways of preparing capsicum masala, I kept it very simple and basic. I used minimum ingredients and prepared tasty capsicum masala. This goes well with plain roti or chapathi.

Ingredients:

• Bell pepper/capsicum- 3 medium
• Onion-1 chopped finely
• Tomato- 1 big chopped finely
• Garlic- 4 pods
• Garam masala powder- ½ tbsp
• Kitchen king masala- ¼ tbsp
• Coriander powder- ¼ tbsp
• Red chilly powder-1/2 tbsp
• Turmeric – a pinch
• Cumin seeds- 1/4tbsp
• Salt
• Oil-2 tbsp

Method:

• In a pan heat a table spoon of oil, when hot add chopped capsicum and fry in high heat till crisp and keep aside.
• In same pan, add a tbsp of oil and add cumin seeds. When cumin seeds splutter, add garlic and sauté for a minute. Add finely chopped onion and fry till golden brown.
• Add chopped tomato and sauté till tomato become mushy. Now add all dry ingredients such as salt, turmeric powder, coriander powder, garam masala powder, and kitchen king powder, red chilly powder and mix well.
• Add little water and cook in medium flame for 3-4 minutes. Now add fried capsicum and cook for another 2-3 minute. Check the seasoning and add a dash of lemon juice.
• Serve hot with roti or chapathi.

After preparing palak parata I still had 10 long and big palak leaves in my hand. I had two options, either to keep it inside refrigerator and use in any gravy or prepare some snack from it. Having tried palak pakora the onion pakoda style, I thought of trying it in different way. Trust me palak pakora with sliced onion tastes heavenly. Will post the recipe soon.

Recipe:

• Medium sized palak leaves- 10
• Gram flour- 1 cup
• Rice flour- 3 tbsp
• Salt- as per taste
• Red chilly powder- ¼ tbsp
• Turmeric powder- a pinch
• Cooking soda- a pinch

Method:

• Wash and drain remove water from palak.
• In a mixing bowl combine all dry ingredients and mix. Add water and make a thick batter. The consistency of batter should be such that, batter should stick to palak leaves.
• When the oil is heat, add palak leaves coated with besan and fry till light brown in colour.
• Remove and drain in tissue paper.

In Managalore and Udupi upma and poha is a very famous breakfast. It is easy to prepare yet fills your stomach. This is had with thick and cold yoghurt. Even though it is easy, I prepared this after 2 years 😉  so instead of having only upma, have upma with poha and enjoy Managalore cuisine.

Recipe for Vegetable Upma/ sajjige

• Semolina/rava- 2 cups
• Mixed vegetables- carrots, French beans, green peas
• Onion- 1 small (chopped finely)
• Tomato-1 small
• Water- 3 cups
• Ghee- 1 tbsp
• Slit green chilly-2
• Curry leaves- few
• Mustard seeds- ½ tbsp

Method:

• In a pan heat a tbsp of ghee and fry semolina till light brown in colour, keep aside.
• In same pan, heat a tbsp of oil and add mustard seeds. When they splutter, add curry leaves, green chilly, finely chopped onion and fry till onion turn transparent.
• Now add all vegetables and fry for a minute. Meanwhile boil water and add to the vegetables. Add salt and turmeric, close the lid and cook for 7-8 minutes till the vegetables are cooked.
• When the vegetables are cooked, add fried semolina and mix well. Add water if necessary. Check for salt and cover the lid for another 2-3 minutes. When the upma becomes thick its ready!!!!

Bajil

Ingredients:

• Poha/pressed rice/avalakki- 1 cup
• Grated coconut-1/2 cup
• Salt- according to taste
• Sugar- 1 tbsp
• Sambar powder-1/4tbsp (optional)
• Seasoning
  • Mustard seeds
  • Urad dal
  • Dry red chilly-1 small
  • Curry leaves-few
  • Coconut oil-1 tbsp

Method:

• In a bowl add grated coconut to this add the seasoning, salt and sugar and mix well with your hands.
• Now add pressed rice and mix again till it becomes soft.
• Serve with vegetable upma and curd 🙂