Eggplant and Tomato curry

Though eggplant is one of our favorite ones, we generally dont make any curries using this one..But once we got an opportunity to taste this curry long back, since then it has been in minds ..even we got the recipe from that friend who served us ..but time flew without even turning on to this one...finally this is the minute..after several months...This is the recipe adapted from Varehvah.com. Check out varevah.com, they have plenty of recipes and the youtube version makes our cooking easier and its truely inspirational. you got to taste this great combination of eggplant with groundnut...REALLY!!!

No of Servings - 5

Ingredients

1. Eggplant - 4
2. Onion - 1(chopped)
3. Tomato - 2 (chopped)
4. Green chillies - 2(1 is enough if you dont want soo spicy)
5. Red chillies - 2
6. Ginger garlic paste - 1/2 tsp
7. Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
8. Coriander powder - 1 1/2 tsp
9. Chilli powder - 1/2 tsp
10. Curry leaves
11. Seasoning items - Oil, Mustard and Cumin seeds
12. Groundnut - 20-25
13. Sesame seeds - 1 tbsp

Method

1. Fry eggplant in oil till it changes color. Make sure you cut eggplant just before putting it on oil. Otherwise it changes color and also oil color
2. Heat oil in a pan and add seasoning items
3. Add red chilless and green chillies
4. Add onions and saute for 2-3 mts. Mix the turmeric powder and look for the color it gives. (you can add salt now with onions which helps in speeding up the process)
5. Add ginger garlic paste if you want the flavor of garlic
6. Add the chopped tomatoes, coriander powder, chilli powder and cook for 5 mts till the tomatoes are thoroughly smashed.
7. Add the fried eggplant
8. Meanwhile heat oil in another pan and fry groundnuts in very low flame(groundnut should retain its color and not be roasted brown).
9. Add sesame seeds when the groundnut becomes soft and can be broken down...
10. Grind the ground nut and sesame seeds in a mixture and add it to the boiling eggplant mixture.

This eggplant curry goes ver well with rice or roti...Flavor your lunch with this egg plant recipeyou will love it for sure

Doughnut Muffins

Its nice to start off a weekend with something fresh and sweet(it would be ideal if its less time consuming...)This recipe uses only the basic baking ingredients and nothing extra...In general, baking is simple but the skill requires lot more trials.. Baking method has to be followed very strict to get the final perfect result in softness, flavor, taste and tenderness. though I'm not very good at taking pictures...it tasted very good and off all, our little judge made his judgement favoring us....

No of Muffins : 10

Ingredients

1. All purpose Flour - 2 cups(~10 0z)
2. Baking powder - 1/2 tbsp
3. Baking soda - 1/8 tsp
4. Refined sugar - 5 0z
5. Butter(softened and cooled) - 3 oz
6. Eggs - 2
7. Nutmeg powder - 1/2 tsp
8. Milk - 1 cup
9. pinch of salt

Method

1. Sift all dry ingredients (all purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and nutmeg)
2. Soften butter in microwave and mix it with sugar when it is cooled down. Beat the mixture until it becomes light and creamy
3. Beat the eggs and add one at a time to the sugary mixture.Beat well between additions
4. Add half of the flour and milk to the creamy mixture and fold the ingredients well before adding the remaining half of flour and milk
5. Preheat the oven to 350F and grease the muffin pans with baking oil
6. Spoon the mixture into the prepared pan filling each hole to about 3/4 full
7. Bake for 15-20 mts (till it becomes light brown or firm to touch)
8. Allow to cool the muffins on the rack

Topping

1.Mix the cinnamon powder and icing sugar and sprinkle over the muffins after it is cooled down

mmmm...yummy in tummy.....:)

South Indian 'Khuska' with Vegetable Kurma

As the title says, its one of the most popular South Indian recipe and you can taste this delicious food in almost all sourashtrian wedding receptions...I think the basic recipe comes from Kerala as coconut is the main ingredient...And not less to say, Vegetable kurma is the perfect combination of Khuska like Vegetable Fried Rice and Gobi Manchurian...The spiciness of kurma will add more flavor to the khuska.. Its snowy weekend here and we were craving something spicy and this recipe flashed at mind...It was truly delicious and made the perfect weekend...

No of people : 4

Khuska

Ingredients

1. Basmati rice - 4 cups
2. Onion - 1(big, chopped)
3. Peas - 1 cup(optional)
4. Green chillies - 3
5. Pepper powder - 1/2 tsp
6. Green pepper - 1
7. Garlic paste - 1 tsp
8. Ginger paste - 1/2 tsp
9. Spices
10. Cloves - 4
11. Cardamom - 4
12. Bay leaf - 2
13. Seasoning items
14. Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp
15. Garnish - Mint leaves, Coriander leaves
16. Salt - as needed

Method

1. Heat oil in a cooker (with the lid open) and add seasoning items and spices
2. Add green pepper and saute till you can lightly sense its flavor(like adding this green pepper to this recipe because of its flavor)
3. Add green chillies and onion. Saute till the onions glaze at you...
4. Adding salt now will speed up the process.
5. Add ginger garlic paste and mix it well
6. Its the perfect time to add peas and pepper powder
7. Add the mint leaves and add water(preferable ratio for basmati rice:water 1: 1.5 )
8. Allow water to boil and add the cleaned basmati rice
9. Close the cooker lid and cook for exactly 10 mts(Start with high flame and when the first whistle comes, reduce it to simmer)
10. After 10 mts, switch off and move it away from that burner(to avoid over cooking)
11. Wait till the pressure is released..

Enjoy your lunch with the spicy vegetable kurma

Sakara(aka) Sweet Pongal

Its pongal month and how can we pass without making sweet pongal..Though we dont generally celebrate pongal at our home, we wanted to celebrate starting this year as a way of adding our cultural thought in kids life...Yes..and it makes more sense too as we are from Tamil Nadu where the pongal festival is the grand festival celebrated throught the state....As the weekend started, we planned to prepare pongal for festival and do pooja at home(as the weather is worsening day by day in chicago, its a very good idea to plan a day out...but still Adharsh kept on asking 'Where are we going for Pongalo Pongal...Kids are fun always...)..Though we made 4 pongals on that day, the one which came out very well is sweet pongal and heres the recipe...

Ingredients

1. Rice - 1 cup
2. Moong dal - 1/2 cup
3. Jaggery - 1 cup
4. Milk - 1 1/2 cup
5. Ghee - 4-5 tbsp
6. Nuts like Pista, Cashewnut, almonds, raisin - 4-5 tbsp

No of people - 4-5

Method

1. Boil rice with water in 1:2 ratio. you can boil the rice in a cooker with lid open
2. Once rice is cooked add milk to the rice and stir it well. Leave it in low flame and stir it once a while so that the rice doesnt stick to the bottom of the cooker
3. On the other stove, boil the jaggery till it melts down to liquid state(you can add some water for easy processing)
4. Add the jaggery to the rice milk mixture and stir it once a while to make it non stickable.
5. Heat ghee in a pan and add the chopped nuts to the mixture. When the added raisin pops out, remove it from the flame and add it to the rice mixture..

Thats it .its so ooo simple and sweety ...good to go...enjoy the treat...

Rava Dosa

This is one of the easy recipe which we didnt know till this time...All these days we had been using rava dosa mix and not knowing it would take no time to prepare the fresh mix.and no hassles of soaking the rice overnight and fermenting the flour.. ..So its a surprise recipe which came out very well and ofcourse ..it tasted very good....think of this dish when you dont have planned anything for the dinner and still want something good...

No of Dosa : 5-7

Ingredients

1. Rava(Semolina) - 1cup
2. Rice flour - 1 cup
3. All purpose flour - 1/2 cup
4. Green chillies - 2(chopped)
5. Onions - 1(chopped)
6. Ginger - 1/2 tsp
7. Cumin seeds - 1 tbsp
8. Pepper powder - 1/2 tbsp
9. Salt - as needed
10. Asafoetida - a pinch

Method

1. Mix all the above ingredients in water and make it watery
2. Heat the dosa tava and spread oil/ghee as per your taste
3. Spread onion on tava and sprinkle the watery mix all over the onion
4. Wait for 2-3 minutes and remove it from the flame once it gets cooked

Taste your dosa with tomato chutney which would add more taste...

Banana Walnut Muffin

A new year which is filled with hopes and wishes..Wishing you all a very happy, prosperous and bright new year...We had our precious moments last year as our little princess, PRISHA was born on her dad's birthyday...As she is growing and the elder one, Adharsh is occuping most of her time, we believe we will get some time to try out new recipes..wishing to post atleast a recipe/week and improve the quality of pictures...and heres the first recipe of this year 2011 ....

Ingredients

1. All purpose flour - 1 cup(5 1/2oz)
2. Baking powder - 1 1/2 tsp
3. Pinch of salt
4. Bananas - 2 large(riped)
5. Walnut - 4 oz (3/4 cup)
6. Milk - 5 tbsp
7. Butter - 2 tbsp
8. Egg - 1 (Beaten)
9. Vanilla essence - 1/2 tsp
10. Superfine brown sugar - 2 1/2 oz (1/2 cup)

No of muffins : 8

Method

1. As you start with all baking recipes, sift all dry ingredients which is all purpose flour, baking powder, salt, sugar
2. All walnuts to the mixture and keep it aside
3. Mash the bananas softly and add milk, butter, vanilla essence and the beaten egg.
4. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and gently stir untill just combined( not much)
5. Spray the mufin pans with the baking oil and spread the paper liners(optional)
6. Divide the batter evenly in the muffin pans and bake it in preheated oven, 375 F for 22-25 mts
7. Let the muffins cool it in the rack when you get your appetite ready for this yummy breakfast recipe..