Dosakaya pachadi

   Take a yellow cucumber thats fat and stout . Peel the skin and before cutting into pieces, taste for bitterness. Now cut  the whole cucumber into half and taste the seed as well. Sometimes they turn out to be bitter  also, which would spoil the taste of the pachadi.

 Now  after the tasting for the bitterness, cut all of the cucumber into small  squarish pieces  and put them aside

    Step 1:
  Take a pan and  add a tablespoon of oil  to it .  Now add mustard seeds,  urad dal and  methi seeds along with  hing , two redchillies  and 4 green chillies
Step 2 :
While getting the tadka ready, soak small amount of tamarind
Step 3:
 Take the tadka along with tamarind in grinder and grind it .Only the tadka and not the cucumber
Step 4
Finally add some chopped Coriander and cucumber pieces and along with the tadka paste  and just pulse it couple of times  along with salt


Enjoy the tasty and spicy pachadi :)

Mixed Fruit Short cake

Cake sounds good,when you are feeling low or for me after a very good nap in the afternoon and that too with fruits sounds yummy. I like fruits in all of the things like cake,ice cream and even cereal. They are best things made by nature with amount of sweetness ,sourness and healthiness..most important :P

Anyways here is the recipe of mixed fruit short cake which my cousin tried out from food network's strawberry short cake recipe and tweaked a little bit .

Ingredients:

All purpose flour- 2 cups
Sugar - 1 cup
Baking soda - 1/2 teaspoon
salt - pinch
Heavy whipping Cream - 1 1/2 cups
Strawberries - quartered
Kiwis - Sliced
oranges - peeled and sliced

Procedure:

Mix all the fruits in a bowl with half a cup of sugar and refrigerate it for 30 mins.
Now take all purpose flour in a bowl,add remaining sugar,salt,baking soda and heavy whipping cream,mix all of them together and pour the batter into a baking pan.

Preheat the oven to 400F and bake the cake for 20 to 22 mins until it turns golden brown.
Remove it from the oven and let it cool for a while. Meanwhile,make the whipping cream
( procedure written below).

Remove the cake from the baking pan and place it on a cake stand, bring the fruits from the refrigerator,you can see the by adding sugar fruits leaves juices , pour these juices all over the cake, so that the cake becomes moist. Now apply the whipping cream evenly all over the cake and place the strawberries,kiwis and oranges on top and serve.


Procedure to make whipping cream :

1 1/2 cups heavy cream, chilled
3 tablespoons sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon freshly grated lemon zest
Using a mixer, beat the heavy cream, sugar, vanilla, and lemon zest
until soft peaks form, about 1 1/2 to 2 minutes.

Paneer Makhani

Paneer....mmmm....it is an all time favourite of most of them. I am sure everybody enjoys eating all kinds of paneer dishes. Heres one other mouth watering recipe from my sis "SAHITYA" which is slightly different from the traditional way of using just onions and tomatoes.Enjoy the recipe of super delicious Paneer Makhani!





Ingredients:
Paneer - 20 small cubes(approx for 4 people)
Tomato puree(half a can) or tomatoes(3)(grind)
Cashew paste(Grind some cashews with water)
Ginger(peeled and grated)

Cardomom seeds
Butter or oil
Fresh whipping Cream
Garam masala
kasoori methi
salt
Red chilli powder

Procedure

1. Heat butter or oil in a pan and put grated ginger in it and let it fry.
2. Now pour the tomato puree into the pan and allow it to cook for 5 to 10 mins with a lid on top.
3. After the puree is cooked and you can see the oil or butter coming out pour the cashew paste and also add the rest of the ingredients like crushed cardomom seeds,garam masala( you can use anything ,i used home made one which contains cinnamon,cardomom,cloves) and cover the lid and cook for 5 more mins.
4. Add salt, paneer and red chilli powder(according to taste) and let it sit for another 5 mins.
5. Finally, add some cream and kasoori methi(crushed) leave with the lid on for 2 more mins, when you see the oil leaving on top it is done.
6. Serve hot with any type of bread :P .

Note: Paneer Makhani anytime tastes better if you use butter but its your choice too you can use oil if you want. :P

Samosa

Whenever I think of an afternoon snack, samosa comes to my mind.I have possibly sampled samosas in all the places around me that sell this delicious snack. Since I like to eat them very often, I found out an easier way to make samosas from *Costco tortillas at home. I am going to share this recipe with you all today. I tried this one afternoon when our kitty party group was dying of hunger, it was a super hit.

Ingredients :

Aloo (Boiled and Peeled)
Peas (boiled)
Onion ( chopped)
Green chillies( chopped)
Garlic
Coriander leaves
Cumin seeds
Cumin-corainder Powder
Amchur powder(optional)
*Costco tortillas( These are uncooked once that you get in the frozen section in Costco)

Procedure:

Samosa Stuffing:

In a pan take one tablespoon of oil, add cumin, chopped chillies, garlic and onions. Fry till the onions turn translucent and add the coriander-cumin powder, amchur powder( if you like the stuffing a little tangy). In a bowl take the boiled aloo and peas and mash them, to this add the onion mixture from the pan and coriander leaves. Mix all the of the above and add salt according to taste.

Samosa :

Take one Costco tortilla, Cut it into two halves, so that it forms a semi circle. Apply water or maida paste ( mix water in maida to form a paste that can work as a adhesive) to the semi circle. Now fold the semi circle to form a cone , fill the cone with the stuffing above and seal all the sides with water or the maida adhesive. One tortilla can make two samosas. Refrigerate the samosas for an hour before deep frying them in the oil. Freeze them for later use. For a healthier version, you can bake them in the oven at450 degrees for 10 to 15 mins. Serve hot with Coriander or tamarind chutney.

Coriander Chutney

Corainder chutney - the thought itself makes my mouth water!This is something I learnt from my kitty party group. One of the girls is gujarati and makes awesome gujju food and this is one of her creations. So one day I tried this chutney out to go with samosas. It was yum!! I am sure you will all love the taste of it. You can have it with different things like bajjiya, dhokla and my mom also tried it with aloo parantha.

Here is the list of the ingredients:

1 bunch coriander leaves
4 to 5 leaves of Mint
3 tbsp Peanuts
2 tbsp Dhaliya
2 to 3 green chillies
1 spoon sugar
Half a Lemon
Salt

How to make:

Microwave peanuts and dhaliya for 2 mins. Put chopped coriander, green chillies and mint in the mixer and grind. Now add the peanuts, dhaliya, salt and sugar with some water, grind till it becomes a fine paste. Add lemon and adjust salt according to taste and serve.

Mango Mukkala Pachadi

Summer is here! Summer is the season for mangoes all kinds raw and ripe. Well, when it comes to ripe mangoes you can eat as it is or make a juice or milk shake out of it.

There are so many different things that you can make out of raw mango. Here is one of them. And keep checking the blog for updates all the raw mango recipes coming uuup!

Mavidikayi mukkala Pachadi is one of them. Mangoes so fresh, crunchy and sour this is the recipe. People who love pickles and tangy flavor will love this instant pickle.

Procedure:

Ingredients :

Raw Mango : 2
Salt : 1/2 cup
Red chilli powder : 1/2 Cup
Methi powder : 1 to 2 tbsp
Oil : 3 tbsp
Mustards :1/2 teaspoon for seasoning
Hing : 1 pinch.


How to make it:

Cut the mango into small square pieces leaving the skin on or you can grate the mango for a different taste. Mix salt, chillipowder and methi powder with the mango pieces and keep aside.
Now heat the oil in small kadai,add mustard seeds and hing. Add the oil to the pickle mix well and set aside for 6 to 8 hrs. Enjoy it with rice, roti, bread etc,.

chaaru ( rasam ) podi

whats the easiest thing in the kitchen that you can spin off in a jiffy? ofcourse! you got it right- chaaru or rasam- as i would like to call it.
an amazing appetizer and even better digestive ,it is my all time favourite.

but for making good chaaru, you need good charu podi.and how to make good chaaru podi?

with the following ingredients:

dhaniya 3 cups
jeera( cumin seeds) 1 cup
miriyalu( pepper corns) 1 cup
kandi pappu( toor dal) 1 cup
senaga pappu( chana dal) 1/2 cup
dried red chillies 4-6

there is no roasting or frying that is required for this podi. Just mix in all the ingredients and grind to a powder.

P.S . - If you would like to eliminate the raw flavour of the podi, you may microwave the ingredients for 45 sec on a low wattage before grinding.

Kaara Podi

what is idli and dosa without kaara podi ? so here comes the recipe for making the finest kaara podi straight from meena aunty's kitchen.


For this you will be needing:

chana dal 1 cup
urad dal 1 cup
dhaniya 1/2 cup
dried red chillies 10-15
tamarind small lemon sized
methi seeds 1 teaspoon
mustard seeds 1 teaspoon
salt acc to taste


roast all the above ingredients in a teaspoom of oil on a medium flame till light brown and then grind into a semi-fine powder.

superb kaara podi is ready.

when mixed with little ghee, it makes an amazing "side" to have idlis and dosas with!!!!

Allam Pachadi(Ginger Chutney)

This is my favorite chutneys of all. Allam Pachadi goes well with all tiffins like idly,dosa,uttapam,vada etc. This is my mom's authentic receipe. Everytime I go back to India for a visit , my mom keeps my favorites ready Dosa with allam pachadi. Here is how to make it.

Ingredients :

Ginger : 2 medium size pieces
Tamarind: lemon ball size
Jaggery : 1 tbspoon
urad dal : 3 tbspoons
chana dal : 1 tbspoon
jeera 1 teaspoon
mustard : 1 teaspoon
red chillies : 4 to 5
Pinch of hing.

How to make:

Fry all the ingredients in 1 tbspoon of oil except ginger,tamarind and jaggery. Let the tadka cool down for a minute and then add all the ingredients in a grinder with salt and grind it with water.
You can add more water based on the consistency you like. Serve it with dosa, idly,uttapam.