Chutney Pudi Paratha

For the times when plain Paratha can get boring and you don't want to spend time preparing the stuffing/filling, this one is a easy way out. Usually I use chutney pudi made at home. We can also use MTR Chutney Powder instead. (Yes, it's the same chutney powder served with Idli, Dosa or Upma).

Ingredients:
1/2 cup chutney powder
2 cups wheat flour
Salt
Cooking Oil

Preparation:

• Add salt and water to wheat flour, make dough. Make small dough-balls.
  
  
• Press out dough-ball using rolling pin, spread little oil and then chutney powder over it.

• Roll stuffed dough and round it up.
  

• Press out stuffed dough-ball again.
  

• Cook the parathas both sides applying little oil.

Serve it with ghee, curd or any side dish.

Egg Rolls

It reminds me of our snack time at office. Everyday we used to order rolls from the American Corner (Brigade Road, Bangalore). It always used to be either rolls or pizza in the evenings.

Ingredients:
1 cup wheat flour
1 capsicum - cut thin and long
1/2 onion - cut thin and long
2-3 green chillies - chopped
1/2 tomato - chopped
Coriander leaves - chopped
3-4 eggs
1 tsp oil
Salt
(above measures sufficient for 5-6 rolls)

Preparation:
Add water and salt to wheat flour and make dough. Make Rotis and set them aside.

Heat oil in a pan. Add green chillies, onions and capsicum, saute till its light brown. Add salt and cook it for 2-3 minutes. Set the filling aside.

Beat egg and pour to pan, to make omelet. When half baked, place Roti on the omelet. Leave it for 1-2 minutes. Take out egg coated Roti from pan, add the filling, dress it with chopped tomatoes and coriander leaves. Roll it and serve.

Stuffed Brinjal

There are two kinds of Bharwas I make. One is of just stuffing brinjals/egg plants with the masala and stir fry (no gravy) and this one with the gravy. The gravy itself can be prepared with onions and tomatoes or onions, peanut and coconut.

Ingredients
For stuffing:
7-8 small brinjals/egg plants
1 & 1/2 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp jeera powder
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
1/2 tsp chilli powder
1 tsp garam masala
2 tsp lemon juice
salt

For Gravy:
A handful of peanuts
1 onion sliced thin
1/4 cup coconut
2-3 green chillies
2-3 cloves garlic
2 inched ginger
1 small cinnamon stick
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 tsp jeera seeds
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
salt
2 tbsp cooking oil

Preparation:

• Wash the brinjals/egg plants and make + incisions in each of them
• In a bowl, mix all the masala ingredients: coriander powder, jeera powder, chilli powder, turmeric powder, garam masala, salt and lemon juice
• Stuff the masala mix in the brinjal incisions
• Heat a tsp of oil in a pan, stir fry these stuffed brinjals and set them aside
• For the gravy, heat 2 tsp oil in a pan
• Add all the gravy ingredients and stir fry them till they are light brown(cinnamon sticks, ginger, garlic, peanuts, green chillies, onion and coconut) and let it cool
• Add salt and grind them to paste
• Heat 1 tbsp oil in a pan, add mustard seeds and jeera seeds, let it splutter
• Add the paste and fry it till light brown (add water if you want to make it more thin gravy)
• Add stuffed n fried brinjals to the gravy and let it cook for 7-8 minutes

Serve it garma-garam with Rotis.

Plain Coconut Chutney

There are so many variations of chutneys. A chutney can be made out of almost any ingredient. I've also tasted Andhra style Brinjal, Cauliflower & garlic chutneys. To start with, here's the recipe of plain coconut chutney.

Ingredients:
1 cup Coconut shred/pieces
3-4 green chillies
1 tsp oil
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
salt

Preparation:
In a mixer/food processor, add coconut, green chillies with salt & water and grind it. To season, heat oil in a small pan, add mustard seeds and let it splutter. Add this tadka to coconut mix.

Coconut chutney goes very well with Idlis, Dosas and with any other dishes with which you will like touch of coconut.

Honey! I baked you a cake!

There was this planning going on since a while, to start baking. I remember my Mom baking varieties of cakes; butter, coconut and spicy cookies at home, when we were kids. We demanded some variety in our everyday snack. Rather, I demanded, my sis is of good kind and not a troublemaker like I was. So, a little bit of interest and a situation given, finally I baked. And, as a friend said, my Mom's baking genes helped :)

Ingredients:
1 cup Margarin

1 cup Maida/All Purpose Flour

1 cup powdered sugar
2 Eggs
3-4 drops of Vanilla essence
1/4 tsp baking powder


Preparation:
Mix the baking powder with maida. If you are using icing sugar, you could use 3/4 cup. If you are using the grainy sugar, grind it to powder.

Beat margarin until its texture turns to soft and flowing. Add sugar and beat it until the mixture blend and is consistent and you don't feel the grains of sugar. Add eggs and beat the mixture again till its soft. Start adding maida/all purpose flour little by little while you beat. Beat the mixture again to consistent blend, then add a few drops of vanilla essence.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. If the oven has an indicator, it will indicate when it's ready. Otherwise preheat it for 15-20 minutes. Apply some butter/margarin to a baking bowl to grease. Spread some maida over the grease and shake off any extra flour from the bowl. Pour the beaten cake mixture to the bowl. Bake it for 30-35 minutes. Usually you would know when to take it out by the smell. You can test the texture by piercing cake with knife. Take bowl out of oven and allow it to cool for 10 minutes.

Wait! That's not it. After 10 minutes...

...of course don't wait, dig in.

Yogurt n Masala Bread

Wanted to try out a new snack/breakfast idea with bread. I had heard of a recipe long time back about yogurt and onions with pinch of chilli powder spread on bread. That sounded a little plain, so wanted to spice it up adding a few more ingredients to it. Well, it was a very pleasant and fruitful trial.

Ingredients:
1 bell pepper/capsicum - cut thin and long
1/2 red onion - chopped
1-2 green chillies - chopped
1/4 cup Paneer - grated or diced to tiny cubes
1/4 tsp red chilli powder
1/4 cup yogurt
5-6 bread slices - toasted
1 tsp cooking oil
Salt

Preparation:
Heat oil in a pan. Add onions, green chillies, bell peppers and saute until they are translucent. Add salt and red chilli powder and let it cook for 2-3 minutes. Add grated paneer and turn off the heat.

Toast bread slices with pinch of butter (butter is optional, you can toast it plain too). When serving, spread a thin layer of yogurt on toasted bread and then spread the masala prepared (with onions, paneer and bell peppers) on bread.Do not spread yogurt on bread and store for long time, bread can become soggy. Spread it just before serving.

Steamed Dal Rolls

That's a nice fancy name given to what we call as Nucchina Unde in Karnataka. These Dal rolls can be prepared using only Toor Dal or mixture of assorted Dals. Just Toor Dal tends to make it feel heavy to be eaten, mixture of Dals helps keep it a little lighter. The best part is there is no frying involved.

Ingredients:
1 cup Toor Dal
1/4 cup Chana Dal
1/4 cup Yellow Moong Dal
1 red onion - chopped
3-4 green chillies - chopped
Curry leaves
Coriander leaves
Salt

Preparation:
Soak the mixture of all three Dals for 2 hours. Drain out the water completely, add curry leaves, coriander leaves, salt to the Dal mixture and grind it coarse (not fine) with very little (almost no) water. The base should be thick and not like usual batter texture. Add chopped onions and green chillies to this paste. Make rolls by pressing the dough between your palms. Apply little cooking oil to Idli plates (or any other plates you usually use for steaming). Place the roles in the plates and steam them for 10 minutes.The traditional combination is - it is served with Majjige Huli (in Kannada) or Mor Kozhambu (in Tamil). Majjige Huli is made out of yogurt and vegetables. Or we can even serve with ghee and chutney.