Okra Fried Rice

     
          Everybody loves okra (lady'sfinger or vendikkai) at home, at least in mine, add it to a sambar or make a curry, I have no complaints. But,I never thought that I could make a rice with it, okra being the slimy one. I had jotted down this recipe very long time back and totally forgot about it. When I pulled it out today, I noted that I didn't have a couple of ingredients needed for the dish, but that didn't hold me back. My mind was made up to make it, one way or the other, and so finally I ended up making my own version, it's a very simple and easy one, all those okra lovers out there should definitely give this a try..

Cauliflower And Methi Paratha

 
          I try to make parathas at least once in two weeks, an ideal weekend lunch or brunch. As the parathas  have some kind of vegetable stuffed with, I usually serve it with some pickle, curd and a salad on the side. I've never tried anything other than aloo parthas or radish parathas, this is my first attempt to make these cauliflower parathas, the thought of grating the cauliflower so finely had put me off, but my new food processor made the job easier. I added methi for the extra flavor, and for a first try they turned out to be too good..

Bottlegourd In Peanut Sauce

          Bottlegourd or Sorakkai in Tamil, is a very bland vegetable, because of that, it can blend itself into any kind of dish, be it sweet or savory, it gets it taste from the other ingredients. Usually I make a kootu or dal or more kuzhambu with it, today for a change I made a peanut gravy with the vegetable. I was not too sure of the finished dish, but it turned out to be really rich and delicious..

Chana Thakkali Kuzhambu

          Only very few dishes go well with everything, like idlis, dosas, rotis, puris, pulaos or just mixed with plain white rice, this is one such, usually I make it without even adding the chana, just with some small onions. Today I added chana and made it protein-rich, you can make it with brinjals, potatoes and even with mushrooms. This definitely tastes different from the usual chana masala, so try this, I am sure you'll like it..

Chocolate And Carrot Cupcakes

   
          I am a novice when it comes to baking, have not yet tried my hand in anything fancy yet. The most I have done, is some brownies, muffins and some simple cakes. These cupcakes are again very easy and a no-fail recipe,  if I can do it, then anyone can do it. My daughter loves anything with chocolate, a dark chocolate lover, so I made it a chocolate cupcake and I added some grated carrots, just like that. It turned out very spongy and yummy..

Beetroot Soup

          The cold weather here makes one crave for some kind of soup, either the creamier version or the lighter soups. Personally I like the clear soups, spiced up with lots of pepper, sometimes even the hot rasam is more than welcome. As a kid I used to like beets just for the color, loved the tongue turning pink after eating them, liked to have them with curd rice, just to see the white rice become pink. Usually it's the beetroot poriyal and on occasions the beetroot halwa, especially when my amma made it and gave me hot, hot. Today's soup is the husband's favorite, it's one simple and easy soup with literally very few ingredients..

Cracked Wheat And Spinach Idli

          I was telling my daughter the other day, that when I was in school, most of the days my breakfast used to be idlis and some days I had taken that for lunch too, and how I used to be bored with them. My daughter replied, saying that I was very lucky, that I had idlis every day, she's one big idli fan, she even went one step further, saying that she would go on an idli marathon for a week. This being the case, I make idlis very often, but try to make some variation in them, one such is this cracked wheat idli. I added some spinach and chana dal to make it more interesting and more nutritious..

Beans And Chow-Chow Curry

          The other day, I was making some rotis and dal for dinner, and, coming to the vegetable part, I had a chow-chow and some beans in the refrigerator. Not wanting to make another dal or kootu with the chow-chow or a beans poriyal, I made this curry putting together both the vegetables, not really knowing what the end result would be. But, it turned out to be good and even worthy enough to be blogged here..

Blackbean And Guacamole Wrap

          Whenever I make guacamole it is either for spreading it on bread for a very filling sandwich or for making these wraps. It makes a good meal, when you add some black beans and some vegetable like broccoli or asparagus. I usually use the flat-out bread that we get here for the wrap, but you can use tortillas or some thick rotis, or even fill some pita-pockets, or just make a sandwich with some baguette..

Guacamole And My First Award

       
          Avocado is a tropical fruit, native to Mexico, it's high in fat content but mostly the good one. When ripe, the fruit has a buttery texture and a bland taste. Usually it is used for making sandwiches, in ice creams and milkshakes too. But in our house, it is mainly used to make this, Guacamole, a spread when we use it on bread, a dip when we use it with tortilla chips. You can buy it in stores, but it tastes best when made fresh at home..

Minty Dal

          Rotis with dal and some vegetable is our dinner on atleast 2 or more days in a week. But sometimes we get bored with the same dal, and want to have something different. I added some mint to the dal, it gave it a nice flavor and was a little different with a squeeze of lemon juice. Give it a try if you like mint..

Long Beans Masala Usili

          Usili is a dish which has both vegetable and protein, all rolled into one yummy curry. It can be made with many vegetables, I made the usili with long beans and it's a slightly different version, this is a recipe that I got from Dakshin, a cookbook by Chandra Padmanabhan, I love all her recipes. This goes well with the More Kuzhambu that I had blogged earlier..

Kerala Style More Kuzhambu

         When you are bored with sambars and kootus More Kuzhambu comes as a change, it's usually made with ladysfinger or okra, chayote or chow-chow and pusinikkai, or even without vegetables. Today I made it with pusinikkai or white pumpkin, but it's a slightly different version, with sesame seeds and cashew. I had jotted down this recipe from the Hindu newspaper, many years back, it was mentioned as Kayhuli, a Kerala recipe. It has very few ingredients, but that does not grade it down in taste..

Pepper And Jeera Aval Upma

          Aval or Poha is beaten rice which can be used in number of dishes, of all of them upma is the most common. It comes in handy on those Sunday mornings, when you wake up late and want to do something fast. Everyone has their own version, this is how I make,with pepper, jeera, garlic..

Quinoa Salad

          After all the heavy festival and party food we'd been having, thought of doing something healthy with quinoa. Quinoa is a grain-like crop whose seeds are edible, it can be cooked like rice and can replace rice in many dishes, can read more about it on the web. We usually have it with sambar or any curry or even with plain curd. Today I just made a simple salad with it, making it a complete meal..

Brinjal Garlic Thokku

          Long time back,I had tasted homemade brinjal pickle at a friend's place, until then I didn't know that brinjals can be used for making pickles, it was very good, would try to get the recipe from her someday. Today, when I was wondering what to make with brinjal and garlic, for sending it to the Dish it Out-Brinjal n Garlic event hosted by Sangee, this thokku idea popped out. This is a very simple thokku, made with very few ingredients and the process is easy too..

Cracked Wheat Sakkarai Pongal

          Sakkarai Pongal is a favorite dish in our house, especially my daughter really loves it. Although it's loaded with calories from the ghee added, at least jaggery is better than white sugar. Usually it's made only with raw rice, but I replaced it with cracked wheat, making it a little more healthier, so enjoy it, a little guilt-free this Pongal..

Banana Cranberry Cake

          I had always been thinking about baking this cake, especially whenever, I had some very ripe bananas lying around, but somehow didn't bring myself to do it, until now. Even so, I was a little doubtful about the taste, but, then being a food blogger, I thought I should give it a try. And the end result, well the cake turned out to be really good with a nice texture. I added some dried cranberries and the sweet crunchy taste in between made the cake taste even better..

Brinjal And Mochai Curry

          Brinjal or eggplant is one versatile vegetable, which can take many avatars and enact each one of them very gracefully. You can see it in almost all of the world cuisines, and in our own Indian kitchen, either in the simple sambar, poriyals, or in the more exotic baingan barthas and gutti vankayas. Fresh mochai or field beans is available in India during the Pongal season, and here in the US, throughout the year, one can find them in the frozen section of the Indian stores. Brinjal and mochai get along very well in any dish, a  marriage made in heaven..

Soy Chunks Kurma

          Soy is another way to get protein in our diet, either in the form of soy milk,soy chunks, soy beans or tofu. Many of us don't like the taste of soy milk or soy beans, at least in my home. But soy chunks and tofu are acceptable if cooked in kurmas or added to noodles or rice. This recipe is once again a very easy one, with minimum ingredients, but tastes great..

Black-Eye-Beans Dal

          Protein is a must in our daily diet, either in the form of the South Indian sambar or kootu or in the form of dals. This is a simple dal, not many ingredients and not much time in the kitchen. Blackeyed beans is one of those dals that doesn't even require pre-soaking, so always comes in handy on those days,, when you have to come up with something on short notice..

Vella Puri

       
           As the name suggests, it's a puri but why vella(white) puri, no clue, might be the white dot-like things that appear on the puri when it's fried. The dish is popular in my husband's family, one of his favorite tiffins and I got the recipe from his sister. The traditional recipe calls for soaking parboiled rice for an hour, grinding it coarsely with tuvar dal, red chillies, coriander seeds without adding much water, adding cumin seeds and making puris, sounds like too much work eh.. Came up with this short-cut, no regrets taste-wise..

Cauliflower And Peas In Mustard Gravy

 

          I have tasted vegetable curries cooked with mustard paste at a Bengali friend's place, liked the taste, it was different from the regular kurmas and gravies, the taste of mustard is very unique. I have added tomatoes in this gravy to suit my taste, almonds and poppy seeds to make the gravy thick, try this out..

Podi Idli Upma

       

          Everyone has their own version of idli upma, adding some seasonings, vegetables and so on. I was not a big fan of this dish made from leftover idlis, until I tried this one at my friend's place. My daughter became an instant fan, so nowadays, this upma is a must after the day I make idlis. Very simple to make, and very tasty too..