Mixed Vegatable Curry

Time to post one more recipe, one I made last week.

I had these vegetables left over. Didn't wanna waste them. My mom always made this curry and I loved it.

Time to share it with you guys.

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

Ingredients:

• Vegetables : I used Tomatoes, Country Cucumber, Brinjal (Aubergine), Country Beans.
• Onions : 2 medium-sized onions, chopped length-wise.
• Green chillies : 2-3, slit along the lenth.
• Curry leaves : 4-5 ( optional, but I wouls suggest using it, gives out such good aroma ).
• Oil : for seasoning, about 2 tablespoons.
• Asafoetida, Urad dal, Chana dal, Cumin and Mustard seeds : one teaspoon each for the seasoning.
• Salt : for taste.
• Turmeric powder : One teaspoon.
• Red chilly powder : 1-2 teaspoons depending on how hot you want it to be. You could also avoid this in case your chillies are very hot. Better eat green chillies fried in oil than eat red chilly powder.
• Coriander.

Procedure:

• Heat oil in a kadai or pan and it to add asafoetida, urad dal, chana dal, cumin and mustard seeds in that order and once the dals turn golden brown, add onions, green chillies and curry leaves.
• Once the onions turn pink, add country beans and aubergines/brinjals, tomatoes and country cucumber.
• Add turmeric powder and salt and stir well. Now add about 1/4 cup of water to this and cook it covered with a lid.
• Your dish is done once the vegetables are cooked soft. You can add more water and cook till the vegetables are soft. Now add coriander to it about 2 minutes before removing from the flame, mix it well and cover it.

You dish it ready. Have a healthy meal.

P.S : Country cucumber and country tomatoes are usually sour and whenever there is a sour ingredient being added to a dish, make sure it is done after the other ingredients are cooked soft or make sure you add water when you mix everything at a time. Otherwise, the other ingredients in the dish would be half-cooked. You wouldn't wanna eat a half-cooked dish, would you??????????

Love

R

Paintings

Going through the old pictures taken in the last trip, I came across these pictures of paintings. We stayed at The Viceroy Hotel in Mysore. They had these beautiful paintings hanging at every corner in the hotel and each bedroom had one of these beautiful paintings.




The above painting was hanging in the main lobby behind the reception. People in Mysore are so proud of their heritage.

This was the painting in our bedroom. It was like a woman sitting there ready to play music any minute. It was as if she was waiting for us to settle down so that we could hear some nice melodies.

These two paintings, above and below, were again in the lobby right next to the lift. There are not many views from the hotel. These paintings made up for those missing views.



The hotel is right in front of the Mysore Maharaja Palace and rooms at the top have a great view of the palace especially at night when the lights are turned on in the Palace.


If you plan on staying in this hotel or for that matter any hotel in Mysore during the Dassera festival, make sure you make reservations atleast 2-3 months in advance.


We visited in July and many of the rooms were occupied. They have an off season from July through August, at which time you might be offered a room for lesser price.


The location of the hotel is perfect. It is not just in front of the Palace but also is quite near to the Chamundi Hill and also St. Phelomena Church which are few must see locations in Mysore.


Oh, and by the way, there is one more Palace in Mysore, Sri Jayachamarajendra Palace which houses the Art Gallery and we missed this.


You make sure to visit this and I'm pretty sure you'll love it if you are an art lover.


R

Lemon Rasam

Wondering why I'm posting mostly liquids these days? I just have a great liking for them and since now it is winter and it is chilly outside, these liquids warm up the body.

Ingredients:-

• Toor dal : a handful
• Tomatoes : 2-3
• Curry leaves : 4-5
• Green chillies : 2-3, cut into half and slit along the length
• Ginger : a small piece, finely chopped
• Ghee or butter : 2-3 tablespoons ( for seasoning , you can limit the number of tablespoons to 1 or 2 as well )
• Urad dal, Cumin seeds, Mustard seeds, Asafoetida : one teaspoon each
• Rasam powder : 2 teaspoons ( you can use the multi-purpose powder, the recipe of which you can find in this blog )
• Salt : for taste
• Turmeric powder : half teaspoon
• Lemon juice : juice of 1 small lemon would be fine

Procedure:-

• Pressure cook toor dal.
• Mash the tomatoes with hand and add water to them and squeeze the juice.
• Now add that mixture of tomatoes and lemon juice to the cooked toor dal and add turmeric, salt and rasam powder and let the whole mixture boil for about 15 minutes. Add more water to tomatoes initially so that after the mixtures boils, you wont run out of water.
• Now heat butter/ghee in a pan and to it add asafoetida, urad dal, cumin and mustard seeds.
• After the mustard seeds start spluttering, add curry leaves, green chilles and finely chopped ginger.
• Now add this to the boiling mixture.

Garnish it with chopped coriander. I'm quite sure you will love this recipe.

Love

R

Avial - My style

Hey I'm back again with another recipe. This time it is one of my most favourites. My every recipe has a story attached to it and so has this too.

I first tasted this recipe during my friend's baby's naming ceremony. She is a Tamilian and they had this feast arranged for the lunch and one of the dishes was Avial. I liked it so much that I instantly tried it out the next day. I have made it quite a number of times and each time I made some additions to this dish. Finally, I think that this recipe is ready to be posted for all of you guys to enjoy it.

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

Ingredients:-

• Vegetables : carrot, potato, beans
• Curry leaves : 6-7 leaves
• Green chillies : 3-4 split along the length ( depending on how spicy you want it, you can also skip this but then the dish would be very sweet, but again it is your choice )
• Yogurt : 4-5 tablespoons, made into thin consistency by mixing water ( pretty much like butter milk )
• Coconut : fresh, grated about a small cup
• Oil : for seasoning
• Asafoetida : half teaspoon
• Cumin and mustard seeds : 1 teaspoon each
• Urad dal : half teaspoon
• Salt : as per your taste , I put it about a table spoon
• Coriander leaves : for garnishing

Procedure:-

• Pressure cook the vegetables and keep it aside.
• Heat oil in a wok or pan and add asafoetida, urad dal, cimun and mustard seeds in that order and when the mustard starts sputtering, add curry leaves and split green chillies.
• Now add vegetables and add salt to it and mix well.
• Now add butter milk to the veegatbles and let the whole mixture cook for about 10 minutes.
• Now add coconut and and mix it well and let it cook for about 2 minutes, not more than that as that would let the taste of coconut ruin.
• Now garnish it with coriander.

Your Avial is ready. Eat it with rice or roti, however you would prefer it to have.

Let me know how you liked it.

Till the next post, Chao................

Love

R

Sambar

This is a sambar different from the Udidpi sambar that I posted previously. So here goes.......

Ingredients:-

• Toor dal : one small cup ( I took one handful ).
• Radish : cut in circles or rather slices.
• Bottle gourd : cut into pieces of medium size.
• Tamarind : about the size of lemon, soaked in 2 cups of water. If you are using readymade tamarind paste then take 2 teaspoons and mix it in 2 cups of water.
• Salt : as per your taste.
• Sambar powder : about 3-4 table spoons ( can be djusted according to your taste, I like it hot and spicy ).
• Coriander : for garnishing, finely chopped.
• Oil/Ghee : 2 tablespoons ( for seasoning ).
• Asafoetida : half teaspoon.
• Cumin seeds : 1 teaspoon.
• Mustard seeds : 1 teaspoon.
• Curry leaves : 2-3 strands.

Procedure:-

• Wash toor dal and pressure cook it along with the cut vegetables.
• Now squeeze the tamarind juice and add it to the cooked dal and vegetables.
• Add sambar powder and salt along with the coriander leaves and let the whole mixture boil till the liquid becomes semi-thick in consistency.
• Now heat oil/ghee in a small pan and add asafoetida, cumin and mustard seeds and once the mustard seeds start spluttering, add the curry leaves and add this seasoning to the boiled sambar.

Your sambar is ready. Have it with rice.

P.S :- I would prefer using butter/ghee for seasoning than oil. It tastes better and is also healthy.

Pumpkin Curry - Indian Style

The other day my Mother-in-law showed me how to make this wonderful dish. Ever since I've been trying to make it and finally did it today.

Try it and tell me how you liked it.

Ingredients :-

• Pumpkin - cut into small pieces.
• Oil - for seasoning , about a tablespoon.
• Urad dal, Cumin seeds, Mustard seeds and asafoetida - for seasoning, about a teaspoon each.
• Red chillies - 1 or 2 ( optional ).
• Ginger - 2cm in length.
• Coconut - raw, about one small bowl grated or cut into pipeces.
• Green coriander leaves - 2 bunches.
• Green chillies - 2 or 3 ( depending on how hot you want your dish ).
• Curry leaves - 2 strands.
• Salt - for taste.

Procedure :-

• Heat oil in a wok or kadai and add asafoetida, urad dal, cumin and mustard seeds, red cihllies and curry leaves in that order.
• Once the urad dal turns to golden brown, add the cut pumpkin and toss it well and then add salt to it and cook it covered till the pumkin is soft. Remember when cooked the pumpkin is soft but doesn't become paste.
• Now grind ginger, coconut, green chillies and coriander and add the paste to the cooked pumpkin pieces and mix well. Leave it on flame for about 2 minutes.

Your pumpkin curry is ready. Eat it with hot rice or chapathi or bread.