Kandi Pachadi / Lentil Chutney / Toor Dal Chutney

I love this recipe. Not just is it easy to make but tasty too. Also adds for a quick side dish. If you have another dish to make that goes with rice and easy and quick to make for a party, this is definitely the one. The added advantage is that you don't have to think twice when it comes to health or whether or not someone among the guests has food allergy. 

So here goes.............

Dry roast toor dal/ kandi pappu about a small glass ( glass used to drink tea, or you could take about a small cup. I guess this measurement would be universal). Once the dal turns golden brown, add about 5-6 red chillies ( the number of red chillies would be based on how spicy you want it to be ) and about 2 table spoons of jeera/ cumin seeds and roast the whole thing till the dal turns a shade more of brown ( make sure you don't burn the dal ).

Let it cool and grind the whole thing by adding enough salt, about a table spoon of it ( if the salt is less, you can add more later, but adding more in the beginning would make the dish very salty and uneatable ) and 6-8 cloves of garlic. 

Once you grind the whole thing into powder, add enough water to it and grind it into paste. Make sure you don't keep the consistency very light, at the same time remember that the dal absorbs lot of water. So keep these two points in mind while making it into paste.

Now heat oil ( about 3-4 tabelspoons ) and add a pinch of hing/ asafoetida/ inguva and a tabelspoon each of urad dal/ minapappu, jeera/ cumin seeds/ jeelakarra,  rai/ avalu/ mustard seeds and once the dal turns golden brown, add curry leaves and now add the seasoning to the ground paste.

Have it with rice and ghee/ butter. 

Cauliflower Pickle

The recipe I'm going to share today is very easy to make and would definitely be liked by everyone who likes eating pickles and chutneys.

This post is for my sister Tanuja who recently asked me for it. So here it is Tanu. Enjoy !!!!!!!!!!

Now this is all you need to do. 

Cut cauliflower into small pieces as shown in the picture above. To it add red chilly powder and salt according to your taste. I have taken a small cauliflower. To it I added about 2 and 1/2 table spoons of red chilly powder and 1 table spoon of salt. Mix well and squeeze lemon juice about 3 table spoons ( again this can vary according to your taste ). Mix well again.

Now heat about 3-4 table spoons of oil in a small kadai/wok and to it add a half a teaspoon of hing/inguva/asafoetida ( while making chutneys and pickles, adding a little bit more hing than the regular use, improves taste. You can skip this if you don't have it ). Now add a teaspoon each of jeera/jeelakarra and rai/mustard seeds/avalu. Once the mustard seeds start sputtering, add curry leaves ( optional but adding then gives more taste ) and add the whole thing to the pickle and mix well.

This can be stored in fridge for about 3-4 days. Try it out and let me know how you liked it.

Until the next post guys, stay healthy and happy !!!!!!!!!!!

Tomato Dal

Dal is a must in our daily meal as I make sure my 2-year-old son has it almost everyday. So I try to make different types of dal each day so that he doesn't get bored eating it everyday.

I am sure dal is a must in daily meal in some households. So here is tomato dal. The procedure is the same for Cucumber Dal. 

First wash toor dal and add enough water and add cut tomatoes, curry leaves, cut green chillies to it and then pressure cook the whole thing for five whistles. 

Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a wok/kadai and to it add a pinch of hing/asafoetida/inguva. Then add urad dal/minapappu and once the urad dal turns golden brown, add jeera/jeelakarra and rai/mustard seeds/avalu ( urad dal, jeera and rai all a tablespoon each would be sufficient ). Once the rai starts sputtering, add the boiled tomatoes, green chillies and curry leaves. Now add a teaspoon of haldi/turmeric powder/pasupu, a table spoon of salt and a teaspoon of red chilly powder/lal mirch powder to it and the whole mixture boil ( amount of salt and red chilly powder can vary according to your taste ). 

Now add the cooked toor dal and add a little water to make it lighter in consistency. Add about a table spoon of tamarind pulp to it. Let the whole mixture boil for about a 5 minutes on a low flame.

Garnish it with coriander leaves.

Your dal is ready. Have it with rice and ghee/butter. 

Till the next recipe, Happy Cooking Folks!!!!!!!!!!!

Carrot curry

I love this dish. It is not just healthy but tasty too. Now there are two versions of it and two methods of making it which I'm going to share here with you guys. 

Now in the first method, cut the carrots into small pieces, like you would for a curry and pressure cook them by adding water (  water should be enough to submerge the carrots in it ) for 2 whistles. 

Heat 2-3 tablespoons of oil in a wok or kadai and add a pinch of hing/asafoetida/inguva, urad dal/minapappu about a tablespoon, a tablespoon of chana dal/senagapappu, a tablespoon of jeera/jeelakarra and a tablespoon of mustard seeds/rai/avalu. Once the dals turn into golden brown colour, add red chillies about 2-3 in number ( depending on how spicy you want it. Then add curry leaves and once the red chillies and curry leaves turn dark in colour, add the boiled carrot pieces. 

Add a tablespoon of salt, a half-teaspoon of turmeric powder/ haldi/ pasupu to it and mix well. Leave it for 2 minutes on low flame and then add grated coconut ( you could just cut half the coconut into small pieces and grind them in the small jar of mixie to get grated coconut ). Remember to add the grated coconut after taking the curry off the stove as heat changes the odor and taste of coconut.

Now the other method of making this dish is to heat oil in a pressure pan ( not the cooker, but the pan. It is more flat than the cooker and smaller in size ) and then add all the seasoning stuff I mentioned earlier ( chana dal, urad dal, jeera, rai and hing, also red chillies and curry leaves ). Then add the raw carrot pieces ( not boiled ). Add a table spoon of salt and pressure cook the whole thing for 2 whistles. Once the steam is gone,  put it back on stove and add half a teaspoon of turmeric powder and mix and leave the thing of low flame for about a minute or two. Remove the pan from the stove and then add grated coconut.

The first method is a traditional way of making the dish. The second is the easiest way of making it. I like the first method since the taste comes out very well, especially when the dals in seasoning and the chillies are crunchy, while in the pressure pan way of cooking they become soft.

The carrot curry is ready. Let me know how you liked it. Until the next post, Happy Cooking Guys !!!!!!!!!

The first method goes like this 

Cucumber Dal.

This post is on request from my brother who is in NewZealand and asked me if I could post some easy-to-make recipes. He loves dals and pickels. So Krishna this is for you.

I used country cucumber here which we get in India. 

First peel the cucumber skin and cut them into medium-sized pieces. Then wash toor dal ( kandi pappu ) and add water, cut cucumber pieces, green chillies ( one green chilly into three parts ), curry leaves ( 4-5 in number ) and pressure cook the whole thing for 5 whistles. 

Take a wok ( or kadai ) and add about 2 tablespoons oil ( how much to add is your choice, could be 3-4 tablespoons too, but more than that would make the dish oily). When the oil heats up, add one half teaspoon of hing ( asafoetida or inguva ), add 1-2 teaspoon  urad dal ( minappappu ), once the urad dal turns a little brown, add 1 table spoon of jeera ( jeelakarra ), 1 table spoon of mustard seeds ( rai or avalu ) and once the mustard seeds start sputtering, add the cooked dal with cut cucumber pieces, curry leaves and green chillies.

Now add a table spoon of turmeric powder, 1 table spoon of salt and 1 table spoon of red chilly powder to it ( the amount of salt and red chilly powder to be added can vary depending on your taste ) and let the whole mixture boil for a minute. If the whole thing is too thick to boil, you could add water to it depending on how you want the consistency to be.

Your dal is ready. Enjoy it and let me know how you liked it. Happy Cooking!!!!!!!!!!!!

Corn Pakodas

Ok guys, this is my first blog after a really looooooooooooong time. I have last posted in 2011. 

I am finally back after a really long break from blogging, with me busy all along changing diapers and nursing my now 2-yeard old son. Now he's old enough to give me an hour in a week to blog again. I must admit I have enjoyed every minute of these 2 years doing everything I did.

Coming to the recipe, I have made these pakodas enough times that I can say for sure that the taste is registered in my son's brain. You can make them bland or spicy as you want them and the ingredients can be found everywhere, that's the best part.

Ingredients:

Corn kernels : 2 cups ( would serve 2-3 )

Green chillies : 2

Curry leaves : 2 sprigs

Coriander leaves / Cilantro : a small bunch

Onions : 1 medium ( finely chopped )

Ginger : 1 cm piece

Salt : As per your taste

Oil : For deep frying the pakodas

Rice flour : 3 table spoons or more based on the requirement

Procedure:

Grind green chillies, ginger piece, curry leaves, cilantro in paste. To that add the corn kernels and salt as per your taste and grind the whole thing again. 

Depending on the size of the wok you use for deep frying, you can decide how many pakodas can be deep fried at a time. I used a small wok and at one time I could only put in 6 pakodas maximum, as you need space to turn them over.

Take enough paste for one round of pakodas to be deep fried and to it add 1-2 spoons of  rice flour and mix. Remember we are mixing the rice flour here only to make sure the pakodas don't separate. Also remember that ground corn kernels have water in them and they tend keep leaving out water over time and your batter / paste gets lighter in consistency as you keep it for long time. And if you add rice flour to the whole mixture, you end up adding more and more till you use up all of the batter. So to avoid that I advice to take enough batter / paste for one round of pakodas and to that add required amount of rice flour.

Now make small balls and make patties out of those balls. Deep fry them and remember these pakodas absorb lot of oil. So try to squeeze out as much oil as you can while removing them from wok and put them on tissue so that any left over oil is absorbed.

Serve them with tomato sauce or ketchup. 

Here in Hyderabad, we get sweet corn through out the year. So I have used that so that when I make pakodas out of it, I get this mixed taste of sweet, salt and spice. You can make these pakodas with country corn as well. 

Know the nutritional facts about corn.

Don't forget to leave your comment and let me know how you liked them. Also, share any useful tips related to this dish.