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Andhra

October 13, 2008
4:15
On The Sauce, And a Reminder
» ‎ when my soup came alive

When I went home two months ago for a short visit, I met a cousin of mine from the US whom I had not seen for the last five years. The conversation veered round to food as it often does and we found ourselves discussing the cooking shows on TV here. This cousin grew up in the US and the shows here must have come as a big culture shock.

As the conversation progressed, her expression deepened from one of puzzlement to shock to utter disgust. She had watched a programme that morning where salad was one of the items on the menu. " ... And then she put in an entire bowl of mayo into the salad! An entire bowl. And she added apple, corn, cabbage {some other stuff which I don't remember now}, oh yes, carrots, and olives! Now tell me, Sra Akka, olives? And she (the lady featured in the programme) has the gumption to say very blithely that this mayonnaisey stuff is ideal for a weight-loss diet? No wonder these people eat like this and then wonder why they're not losing any weight!"

The less said about our TV shows featuring home cooks the better. I have nothing against the recipes involved, but find it hard to control my laughter when I hear the nutritional/weight loss advice that comes with it. As my cousin has ranted for me, I won't be adding more on that count. I only hope she's not provoked into another rant if she ever comes across this blog and reads this post - like that virtuous TV cook, I'm not going to make any claims as to its goodness or its unbearable lightness of being. It is, however, going to make her happy, I hope. And for me, it was a conscious experiment in Western vegan food - it's tofu mayonnaise and I'm sending it off to MBP-Sauces, originally conceptualised by Coffee.

What is mayonnaise?

I found the original recipe here. However, as I didn't have any sugar substitutes, I used ordinary sugar, so I can't confidently call it vegan.
Further, I had some powdered mustard seed (the pickling variety) and that's what I used in place of stoneground mustard. Even the one teaspoon that I used imparted a hint of bitterness to my mayo though that wouldn't deter me from using it.
I used a teaspoon of pepper too.
In place of the cider vinegar, I used some mirin as it has been lying unutilised in my kitchen since January.

Ultimately, the tofu mayo was made with:

250 gm silken tofu
1 tsp "strong" mustard
1 tsp pepper
Salt, to taste
3-4 tsp mirin
Juice of 1 lemon
3 tsp sugar

Put all ingredients into the food processor and process till creamy.

It's mid-October and we're at the halfway mark for My Legume Love Affair-Fourth Helping. Don't forget to send in your entries! The details are in the sidebar.

MBP-Sauces Silken tofu MayonnaiseThis feed contains copyrighted photos and text from http://www.whenmysoupcamealive.blogspot.com. If you are not reading this material in a feeds aggregator or by e-mail subscription, the site you are viewing may be guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact srablog (at) gmail (dot) com.

October 12, 2008
14:30
Paneer Bhurji
» ‎ Siri's Corner

7:01
Moong Dal Kichidi
» ‎ Essence Of Andhra
Kichidi (or Pongali as we call in Telugu) is a staple food in many Indian households. This is usually served as breakfast during weddings too. In our case, we mostly eat this during dinner time. And we like our kichidi to be little spongy and soft, so I add an additional cup of water than the regular 2 cups water for 1 cup of rice. My version is little different than the authentic version.
Ingredients:
- 1½ cups Rice
- 1 cup Split Moong Daal (Pesara Pappu, Yellow Lentils)
- 1 small Tomato
- 1 tsp Black Pepper Powder
- A small piece of Ginger
- 1 tsp Ghee
- A handful of Cilantro
- 3 or 4 small green Chilies
- 6 cups Water
- Salt as required
For Seasoning:
- ½ tsp Mustard Seeds
- ¼ tsp Cumin Seeds
- ½ tsp Black Gram (Senaga Pappu, Chana Dal)
- ½ tsp Bengal Gram (Minappappu, Urad Dal)
- Some Curry Leaves
- 1 tsp Cashews
- 1 tsp Oil
Preparation:
Chop tomato, green chilies and ginger into tiny pieces. Keep aside.
Combine rice and moong dal and wash well. To this add the chopped veggies along with black pepper powder + cilantro and add the required water (6 cups) and salt.
Pressure-cook this until 3 whistles. When all the pressure is gone, add seasoning + ghee and mix well.
For seasoning, heat oil in a pan, and add the mustard seeds. When these pop, add the cumin, Bengal, black gram dals along with the curry leaves and cashews and stir until the cashews and dal turn into golden brown in color. Add this seasoning to the cooked kichidi.
Finally add ghee to the kichidi to make it more aromatic and mix well.
Enjoy this kichidi with desired chutney and some papads on side.

This is my contribution to two events:
“Lunch Box Special” event hosted by Vandana Rajesh.

“My Legume Love Affair: A Fourth Helping” an event started by Susan of the Well-Seasoned Cook and hosted this month by Sra.

On a different Note:
Dear Priya of Easy N Tasty Recipes passed me this beautiful "Butterfly Award". So sweet of you Priya! Thank you!
The rules of the award are:
- Put the logo on your blog.
- Add a link to the person who awarded you.
- Nominate 10 other blogs.
- Add links to those blogs on yours, and leave a message for your nominees on their blogs.
I am passing this award to:
Anudivya
Cham
Kamala
Laavanya
G. Pavani
Ramyabala
Sangeeth
Sowmya
Shreya
Vaishali

5:00
Vegan Mofo Day 12: Split Pea Soup
» ‎ Cook's Hideout

I made Split Pea soup with Sweet Potato and Kale from talented Susan's blog Fat free Vegan. I visit her blog just to see what's cooking in her kitchen. Her pictures are treat to eyes and the recipes are healthy and easy to follow. I made this soup in the pressure cooker and followed the recipe to the T except I used MTR Madras Curry powder instead of Maharajah curry powder. Soup is very flavorful and healthy. My son loved it too.

October 11, 2008
8:52
Jowar Ladoo
» ‎ Talimpu

Jonna Laddu ijarupmilat Ingredients: Jowar Flour 1 cup Rice Flour 1 tbsp Powdered Sugar 1 1/4 cup Cashews 2 tbsps Raisins 1 tbsp Ghee 2 tbsps or as necessary Method of preparation: Heat a pan, add ghee and cashews. Once cashews start to change color, add raisins. Remove and reserve the fried cashews and raisins for later. In the same pan, add jowar flour and rice [...]

8:05
Vegan Mofo Day 11: Indira’s Dum Aloo
» ‎ Cook's Hideout

I don’t know what restaurant makes this good Dum Aloo, but this recipe is just out of this world.. Spicy, creamy, tangy gravy with the yummy baby potatoes goes perfectly well with rice or roti. I did not make any changes to the recipe except I cut down a little bit on the red chilies and peppercorn. Recipe needs a little prepping ahead, but Indira points that out in her recipe, so I was prepared for it. I’m going to make it again when I see those tiny potato beauties. Thanks Indira.

PS: Will upload the picture soon.
October 10, 2008
11:50
Vegan Mofo Day 10: Bento Bowl
» ‎ Cook's Hideout
We had spicy tofu bento bowl for dinner tonight. Recipe is adapted from Vegetarian times magazine.

Ingredients:
(Serves 2 people)
For Spicy Tofu
Tofu – 12 oz. pkg, drained and cut into 1" pieces
Soy sauce – ¼ cup
Chili sauce – 3tbsp
Sesame oil – 2 tsp

For the Salad:
Brown Rice – 1 cup, cooked
Mixed Salad greens – 1 cup
Avocado – 1, sliced thinly
Soy sauce – ¼ cup
Ginger – 1” piece, grated
Lemon juice – 1 tbsp

Method:
- Whisk soy sauce, chili sauce and sesame oil in a bowl.
- Heat 2tsp oil in a large sauté pan. Dip tofu in the chili mixture and fry in the hot pan for 8-10 minutes, tossing to make sure that all sides are browned evenly. Remove and keep aside.
- To assemble the salad: Whisk soy sauce, ginger, lemon juice in a small bowl. Mound half the rice in a serving bowl, top with the mixed greens, avocado and tofu. Serve with the sauce.

9:14
Yam and Amaranth Stems in Tamarind Sauce
» ‎ Talimpu

Kanda Thotakura Kadala Pulusu ijarupmilat Ingredients: Yam 6 (2-inch pieces) Amaranth Stems 8 (3-inch pieces) Onion 1 Green Chiles 2 Tamarind 2 inch sized ball Jaggery 3 tbsps (grated) Coriander Powder 1 tsp Cumin Powder 1/2 tsp Turmeric Powder a pinch Rice Flour 1 tbsp Salt to taste Talimpu: Chana Dal 1 tbsp Urad Dal 1 tsp Cumin Seeds 1 tsp Mustard Seeds 1 tsp Broken Red Chiles 3 Curry Leaves 5 Asafoetida a [...]

4:17
Oats and Coconut Milk Pudding
» ‎ EgglessCooking.com » Eggless Recipes » Eggless Baking » Eggless Cooking
Palada Pradhaman (pudding) is a very famous sweet dish in Kerala. It is made using rice flakes, jaggery syrup and coconut milk. These days the rice flakes (called ada) are readily available in Indian grocery stores. Also originally whole coconut is grated and ground to extract the milk in 3 stages, which is called the first milk, second milk and third milk. But nowadays both coconut milk and coconut milk powder are readily available, making the process of preparing pradhaman very easy.

I found this recipe for preparing Oats Pradhaman in a magazine. As I have mentioned earlier the recipe calls for coconut milk prepared right from scratch. So I have modified the recipe to simplify the procedure by using store bought canned coconut milk. The pradaman was yummy. It did not taste like oats at all.

Ingredients Quick cooking oats - 1/4 cup Jaggery, powdered - 1/4 cup (or more if you have a very sweet tooth) Water - 1/2 cup Coconut Milk - One 13.5 fl.oz can Coconut oil - 2 teaspoons Cashew nuts, broken into small pieces - 3 tablespoons Raisins - 2 tablespoons cardamom powder - 1/4 teaspoon
Step-by-Step Procedure 1. In a heavy bottom sauce pan add the powdered jaggery and water.

2. Once the jaggery dissolves completely, pour this syrup slowly into another vessel so the impurities in the jaggery will remain in the bottom of the sauce pan itself.

3. Now clean the sauce pan and transfer the syrup back to the sauce pan itself.

4. Let this syrup boil for 2 minutes. Now add the oats to the syrup and let it boil for another 3 minutes. By this time the oats would have cooked.

5. Now add the coconut milk to the oats/jaggery mixture and combine it well. Once it boils, switch off the stove.

6. In a small frying pan add the coconut oil. Once it heats add the cashew pieces and raisins and fry until golden brown. Add this and the cardamom powder to the oats pradhaman.

My Notes 1. Those who have ate oatmeal (or oats kanji) would know that oats tends to get sticky. I think toasting the oats in a dry skillet for 2 minutes before adding it to the jaggery syrup would make it less gooey.

This is my entry for Vaishali’s Sweet Vegan.
Related Posts

October 09, 2008
19:00
Instant Cucumber Pickle
» ‎ Essence Of Andhra
Whenever you crave for a pickle that involves no frying or grinding, then try this pickle. I used green American cucumber for this pickle. This is so easy to prepare with easily available ingredients.

Ingredients:
- 1 small Cucumber
- 1 tsp Sambhar Powder
- 2 tsp red Chili Powder
- A pinch of Turmeric
- 3 tsp Oil
- Salt
Preparation:
Wash the cucumber well and wipe off with a paper towel. There should be no moisture as this pickle tends to attract mold if wet.
Then peel its skin and chop into fine pieces. Transfer these pieces to a dry bowl.
Add all the rest of the ingredients to these pieces and mix well with a clean spoon or spatula.
Leave it covered for 30 minutes so that all the ingredients blend well.
That’s it! The yummy cucumber pickle is ready to be eaten. Enjoy this pickle with steaming hot rice.
This pickle can be stored in the refrigerator for 2-3 days. Never leave it outside when not using.

Updated to Add:
Sending this yummy pickle to Sunshinemom's "FCI: Brown" event.

On a different note:
Check out my daughter’s blog to hear her singing! Yes she is a part of chorus in her school and learned a lot of good songs. Here is the link: CRAZY WORLD OF ART.

6:45
Matar Paneer
» ‎ Zaiqa

Paneer is perhaps the only kind of cheese most commonly eaten in India. It has a sweet smell, kind of rubbery with a mild flavor and the best form of protein source for vegetarians in their diet next to Soya protein(TSP_TVP). It is a block of condensed milk solids made my curdling milk (low fat or high fat) with acid, [...]

6:18
Vadapappu Chanividi Panakam
» ‎ Talimpu

Vadapappu Chanividi Panakam ijarupmilat Ingredients: Split Moong Dal 1/2 cup Jaggery (mashed / grated) as required Rice Flour 1/2 cup Peppercorns 1 - 2 Method of preparation: Soak moong dal in water for half an hour and discard the water to make vadapappu. Mix rice flour with grated jaggery and little bit of water to make thick dough called chanividi. Roll the dough [...]

5:49
Semiya Payasam & Rava Laddu
» ‎ Indian Food & Andhra Recipes from Sailu's Kitchen

Festivals reflect the cultural diversity of India, a land of many religions. Festivity denotes - new clothes, rangoli/muggulu, mango leaves thoranam, smell of camphor and incense sticks, family get...

Read rest of the story at my blog, http://sailusfood.com.

4:23
Dasara Subhakankshalu
» ‎ Cook's Hideout

Wish you all a very Happy Dasara.

This is my humble offering to Ammavaru.

8:05
Cilantro Tamarind Pickle
» ‎ Talimpu

Kotthimera Chintapandu Avakaya ijarupmilat Ingredients: Cilantro 2 cups packed Tamarind Extract 4 tbsps Whole Red Chiles 10 - 15 Mustard Seeds 1 tbsp Fenugreek Seeds 1 tsp Salt around 1/2 cup Oil 1 cup Method of preparation: Clean, wash, remove stems and pat dry cilantro. Once completely dried, cilantro needs to be finely chopped. Heat tsp of oil in a pan, add mustard seeds, fenugreek seeds [...]

5:25
Vegan Mofo Day 8: Pasta with fresh vegetables
» ‎ Cook's Hideout
This recipe was on the box of Barilla whole grain rotini. It looked and sounded easy enough for a quick weeknight dinner and so here it is.
Ingredients: Pasta – 8 oz. (any short pasta should be fine, I used whole grain rotini)
Broccoli – 1 bunch, chopped into florets
Carrot – 1 medium, sliced
Onion – 1 medium, thinly sliced
Peas – 1 cup (thawed if using frozen)
Cherry tomatoes – 2 cups, halved
Garlic – 2 cloves
Red chili flakes – ½ tsp
Dried Oregano – ½ tsp
Basil – 5 leaves (I used dried)
Parsley – 1 tsp, chopped (I used ½ tsp dried)
Salt & Pepper – to taste

Method:
- Heat 2tbsp olive oil on medium flame, sauté garlic for few seconds.
- Add onions and sauté for 5 minutes.
- Add broccoli, carrots and peas; season with salt and pepper and sauté for another 5 minutes.
- Meanwhile cook pasta according to package directions.
- Add 1 cup of pasta cooking water and simmer until the veggies are tender.
- Add tomatoes, spices and cook for 2 more minutes. Add drained pasta, 1 tbsp olive oil; mix well and serve either warm or at room temperature.

4:37
Cuisines, Celebrations and Communalism
» ‎ Indian Food & Andhra Recipes from Sailu's Kitchen

In the past few months, bomb blasts in Delhi, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Bangalore have caused an unprecedented unease in India. This has cast a shadow on the Eid, Navratri and Durga puja celebrations....

Read rest of the story at my blog, http://sailusfood.com.

4:15
Golu Photos and Rice Flour Puttu
» ‎ EgglessCooking.com » Eggless Recipes » Eggless Baking » Eggless Cooking
It seemed like Navarathri started just now and it’s already the 9th day, Saraswathi Pooja. Happy Pooja holidays everybody. We prepare a lot of sweets and sundals these holidays, but “puttu” is very important and our favorite too.

This puttu is different from what the Keralites prepare. It’s made with rice flour, grated coconut and jaggery. The process is also time consuming but worth every effort. Traditionally it’s prepared by soaking raw rice in water, draining it, spreading it on a cloth and powdering the rice, while the rice is still damp. But to make the process more simple store bought rice flour is used. This is especially prepared on a Friday and is distributed to everybody who visits our home to see the Golu. I’ve prepared it successfully a couple of times 3 years back, but now I have totally forgotten the procedure. Fortunately my mother is here and she prepared it this time. It came out very well and I wanted to record it before I forget it once again.

(Click on the image to see a bigger view)

Ingredients Rice flour - 3 cups Water, hot - as required Salt - a pinch Turmeric powder - 1/4 teaspoon Jaggery, powdered - 2 and 1/4 cups Coconut, grated, preferably fresh - 1 cup (or even less) Cardamom powder - 1/2 teaspoon Pachakarpooram - a pinch Cashewnuts, broken into small pieces - 1/4 cup
Step-by-Step Procedure 1. Toast the rice flour in a dry skillet until hot.

2. Boil little water (around 1 cup) with salt and turmeric powder.

3. Sprinkle as much water as required in the toasted flour little by little. The correct consistency is, you should be able to form balls, but at the same time you should also be able to crumble it back into powdered form.

4. Steam this flour mixture for 20 minutes. My mother filled little water in a big frying pan, placed a small trivet in the bottom and used the vegetable steamer which came alongwith my electric rice cooker to steam the flour. Wet a cotton cloth and pour the prepared rice powder in it and cover by bringing the ends of the cloth over the flour and place it on the vegetable steamer and close the frying pan with a lid.

5. Once the flour is steamed, transfer this mixture to a big plate and spread it. If it has lumps sift it using a sieve.

6. Meanwhile in another vessel add the jaggery and water just enough to cover the jaggery and melt it.

7. Sieve the jaggery solution to get rid of any impurities.

8. Again pour it back in the vessel, add the coconut, cardamom powder and pachakarpooram and let this mixture boil.

9. When a drop of the jaggery syrup is dropped in cold water, you should be able to form it into a ball. When you reach this consistency switch of the stove and remove the vessel from the stove.

10. Now add this mixture little by little to the steamed flour and simultaneously mix the flour and jaggery syrup with the other hand using a spatula. I have a big wooden fork which is simply perfect for this job. Be careful because the syrup will be very hot and it will scald your skin if it drops.

11. In a dry skillet toast the cashew pieces and add it to the prepared Puttu.

My Notes 1. The above measurement gives a fairly big portion of Puttu. You can try it on a small scale with 1 cup of rice flour, 3/4 cup of powdered jaggery and 1/4 cup of grated coconut.

2. Cashewnuts can be toasted in ghee. Heat 1 tablespoon of ghee and fry the cashews in it and add it to the Puttu. This keeps well for a week.

This is my entry for the following events:
1. Vaishali’s Sweet Vegan.
2. Srivalli’s JFI-Festival Treats.
Related Posts

October 07, 2008
22:29
Gongura Pachadi/ Sorrel Leaves Chutney
» ‎ Sreelu's Tasty Travels

Gongura Pachadi
Gongura Pachadi or Sorrel leaves chutney is a traditional Andhra pickle, no marriage in Andhra happens without serving this pickle, its our favorite at home here and thanks to warm weather we in bay area are very lucky to enjoy this delicacies week after week.

Ingredients
1 bunch of Gongura/Sorrel Leaves
5-6 Garlic pods
1 red onion chopped into cubes
5-6 Green chillies
1 tbp Haldi/Turmeric
Salt according to taste
To Make in powder
3 tbsp Channa dal
3 tbsp Urad dal
8 red Chilies
1 tbsp Dhania
1 tbsp Methi

Process

1. fry all the dry ingredients until they release a aroma for few minutes
2. Grind all the ingredients and set aside .
3. In a pan add 2 tbsp oil and fry cut and cleaned Sorrel leaves along with red chilies, turmeric.
4. Grind the above paste along with tamarind and garlic into a paste.
5. Add the prepared masala and salt to the above paste and mix well.
6. Add red onions cubed to the above paste this is however optional but sure does add a flavor once the onions are soaked in the sorrel paste.
7. Serve hot with rice or roti's.

Also wanted to thank everyone who have left me comments and email asking how I was doing. I am doing fine its been crazy at work and home. Hope to keep blogging more frequently.

21:39
Pesara pappu Payasam (Moong dal Payasam)
» ‎ Madhu's vantalu

After a long break, I am finally back to blogging. Though i love posting recipes, since i was away for so long I was too lazy to get back. But my friends kept pushing me to get back to blogging. So, here i am finally after six months. Not sure how often i will be [...]

19:00
Sia’s Goli Baje
» ‎ Essence Of Andhra
As the deadline for Zlamushka’s Tried & Tasted event is approaching, yesterday I went for a stroll in Sia’s Place. As we all know, Sia is admired not only for breathtaking pictures but also for her delicious recipes. So after spending at least an hour (seriously!) at her place, trying to make a hard decision what to select, this Goli Baje recipe caught my attention. This was so easy to make and tasted delicious too. Thanks for such a wonderful recipe Sia!

Goli Baje served with Cilantro Chutney
I followed her original recipe to the letter. The little changes I made were, adding dried ginger powder instead of fresh ginger as I don’t have it on hand and using all purpose flour instead of maida/plain flour as suggested in the original recipe.
Anyway, I will give the recipe in the way I did.
Ingredients:
- 1 cup All Purpose Flour
- 1 cup Buttermilk
- 4 small green Chilies
- ½ tsp dry Ginger Powder
- ¼ tsp Baking Soda
- Salt to taste
- Oil to deep fry
Preparation:
Mix all the ingredients above except oil and make a thick paste.
Keep it covered for 2 hours (Sia suggested to keep it for 2-3 hours).
Heat the oil in a deep-bottomed pan. When it is hot, take small portions of the batter or paste with a spoon and drop carefully in the oil. Be careful not to burn your hand.
Deep fry them until they turn golden brown in color. Keep the flame in medium setting.
Serve hot with any desired chutney and a cup of hot tea/coffee.
These Goli Baje tasted so soft and delicious too. Thanks for the yummy recipe Sia!
In the original recipe Sia suggested to serve these with coriander chutney for which also she provided a recipe. But I didn’t make her chutney as I have the cilantro pickle we made some days back resting the refrigerator. So I used that pickle for dipping these yummy Goli Baje.
Goli Baje served with Cilantro Chutney
I am Sending these Goli Baje to Zlamushka’s Tried & Tasted: Monsoon Spice.

And these also go to “WYF: Party Food” event hosted by Easy Crafts.

Wait, wait! I forgot one more event!!!

These Goli Baje are also my contribution to Hima’s “Sunday Snacks: Fry It”.

17:10
Did you know..
» ‎ Siri's Corner

16:46
Legumes All The Way!
» ‎ when my soup came alive

I know it's a month-long event, and it's only the beginning of the month, but I was beginning to get anxious when no mails announcing contributions for MLLA-Fourth Helping arrived in the first few days of this month. The only legume dishes being made, it seemed, were those in my kitchen and I was wondering if posting all of them would be seen as hogging space, and attention. After all, I'm the host, is it right for me to post so many? Funny how the ethical dilemma of a host in the food blog world plays out - a real-world host is expected to make as much as s/he can, but would that be deemed an attempt at monopoly in the virtual world? What do you think?

I tried quelling these qualms for a few days by accepting an invitation to a certain social networking site and immersed myself in locating cousins and friends, having them discover me and the messages that dot our pages, how much of ourselves we are revealing, whether I should put up a picture, risk revelation, but the call of the blog is too insistent and loud to ignore. Funnily enough, it calls out as stridently even when I don't have my usual wit-/humour-/anecdote-laden (and yes, humility-laden) pieces to say, which leaves me feeling blue and wondering how I can sustain the blog ...

A couple of these dishes are rediscoveries, and one in particular was one I used to classify as "Oh-that-same-old-tiresome-must-eat-but-why-the-hell-should-I" salad. Made with moong bean sprouts, some tomato, some cucumber, an eighth of a medium-sized onion and a simple garlic-steeped-in-lemon juice dressing, it WAS zingy, but wouldn't have featured here except for Aparna's insistence.

The other rediscovery was of tomato pappu, or toor dal made with tomatoes. I know there are a number of recipes out there for this very basic, very typical Andhra dish, those even simpler than mine, but when I cook old favourites, the standards I aspire to are my grandmothers', not out of any unreasonable, fanatical loyalty to tradition but simply because they tasted better.

All you have to do for this recipe is this:
In a pressure cooker (or pan),
- take half a cup of washed toor dal (pre-soaking will help it cook faster and softer in a shorter time)
- 4-5 chopped tomatoes (the sourer varieties would be nice),
- 1 cup of tamarind juice (extracted from a small fistful of tamarind soaked ahead of cooking time in a cup of water)*,
- some more water,
- a small onion, chopped up
- 1 or 2 green chillies, slit
- a pinch of turmeric

Make sure the dal is well covered by the water(s) but not overwhelmed by it.

Let it whistle 2-3 times and then cook it on simmer for another 5 minutes.

Let the pressure drop on its own and mash it as much as you can.

Add the salt and some red chilli powder, if you like, at this stage.

If it's too watery, thicken it down by cooking it some more on medium heat, uncovered.

Temper with mustard, cumin, split and hulled urad dal, crushed garlic and curry leaves in a teaspoon or two of oil. You can even add a tiny bit of onion to the tempering. Garnish with some chopped coriander.

* In fact, you can even cook this without the bother of the tamarind extract - you can simply plop the tamarind into the pressure cooker along with the rest of the ingredients and mash it all up together. Accomplished cooks do that but I've not had much success this way.

** I find that adding the tamarind juice after the cooker's opened and then boiling it down works best.

And now we come to the discovery of the day - a moong dalma. You may remember my Orissa posts but soon after those, I acquired a book on Oriya cuisine and adapted this recipe from there.

Green gram/moong dal: 1/2 cup
Potato: 1, peeled, cubed
Small brinjals: 2, cubed
Drumstick (the vegetable): 1/2, cut into 1-inch-long pieces
Cubed radish: A fistful
Cubed carrots: A fistful
Red chillies: 2
Mustard seed: 1 tsp
Cumin powder: 2 tsp
Salt
Water: 1-1/2 cup
Oil: 1/2 or 1 tsp
Turmeric: A small pinch
Dry-roast the dal, wash it.

In a pressure cooker, or pan, place the dal, turmeric and all the vegetables except the drumstick.

When you sense the cooker's about to hiss (or just before the dal reaches the crumbly stage), remove from fire, open carefully and add the drumstick. Close it again and let it hiss once. Temper with the mustard and red chillies. Add the cumin powder. Mix well.

Eat well! And Happy Dasara!

Don't forget to send in your entries for My Legume Love Affair - Fourth Helping, originally created by Susan. The details are in the sidebar.

My Legume Love Affair Tomato dal/pappu Dalma Oriya cuisine Moong Dal Blogging Event hosting MLLA - Fourth HelpingThis feed contains copyrighted photos and text from http://www.whenmysoupcamealive.blogspot.com. If you are not reading this material in a feeds aggregator or by e-mail subscription, the site you are viewing may be guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact srablog (at) gmail (dot) com.

8:27
Mustard Drumsticks
» ‎ Talimpu

Ava Molakkada / Ava Pettina Munakkada ijarupmilat Ingredients: Drumsticks 10 (4 inch sticks) Whole Dried Red Chiles 5 - 8 Mustard Seeds 1 1/2 tbsps Cumin Seeds 2 tsps Garlic 3 pods Ginger 1 inch piece Onion 1 small Tender Curry Leaves 4 Salt to taste Oil 1 tbsp Method of preparation: Lightly scrape drumsticks. Remove stems, remove seeds and tear red chiles. Peel and roughly chop onion, garlic [...]

6:36
Vegan Mofo Day 7: Carrot Cake Cupcakes
» ‎ Cook's Hideout
My first attempt at making the carrot cupcakes from vegan cupcakes take over the world was a major disaster. I later found out from my colleague that there is a typo in the recipe and the amount of flour needs to be increased from 2/3 cups to 1 2/3 cups. So I tried again and they turned out pretty good. My husband and son are enjoying them everyday since.

Vegan baking seems to be much simpler than baking with butter and eggs. There is no need to cream the butter until light and airy, no need to add eggs one at a time or even worry about the shells getting into the batter.

Ingredients:
All purpose flour – 1 2/3 cups
Grated Carrot – 1 cup (from 1 large carrot)
Sugar – 2/3 cup
Canola oil – 1/3 cup
Soy Yogurt (plain or vanilla) – 1/3 cup
Pure Vanilla – 1 tsp
Baking soda – ¾ tsp
Baking powder – ¼ tsp
Ground ginger – ¼ tsp
Ground Cinnamon – ¼ tsp
Salt – ¼ tsp
Chopped Walnuts – ¼ cup (I used cashews instead)
Raisins – ¼ cup

Method:
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Line a muffin tins with cupcake liners.
- In a medium mixing bowl, mix in sugar, oil, yogurt and vanilla.
- Sift the dry ingredients (flour, baking soda & powder, spices, salt) on the wet ingredients and using a wooden spoon mix until well combined.
- Stir in grated carrots, walnuts and raisins.
- Using an ice cream scoop, scoop the batter into the muffin tins. Bake for 26-28 minutes or until the cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes, remove onto a wire rack; cool completely and frost them with vegan cream cheese frosting.

4:49
Janthikalu - Andhra Savory Snack
» ‎ Indian Food & Andhra Recipes from Sailu's Kitchen

The queen of Andhra pindivantalu (festival foods prepared with flours) would undoubtedly be Janthikalu, a classic traditional savory snack. No auspicious occasion, picnic or a family get together is...

Read rest of the story at my blog, http://sailusfood.com.

4:43
Bargavi Gari Gruhapravesam!
» ‎ Amma Cheppindi

Last week we attended our friend's Gruhapravesam. So wanted to share their Menu for lunch. No onion, garlic and limited masala is their theme. Bargavi garu thanks for inviting us.............. Puja Prasadam: PanchamuratemSatyanarayana PrasadamKobbari mukkalu drizzled with sugar Lunch Menu: Motichoor LadooJangiri PulihoraWhite Rice PoppadumsGheeKobbari Pachadi DappalamVankaya Senaga Pappu

9:20
Chukka Kura Pappu
» ‎ Talimpu

Chukka Kura Pappu ijarupmilat Ingredients: Khatta Palak / Chukka Kura 2 small bunches Toor Dal 1 1/2 cups Green Chiles 4 Garlic 4 pods Turmeric Powder 1/2 tsp Salt to taste Talimpu: Urad Dal 1 tsp Mustard Seeds 1 tsp Cumin Seeds 1/2 tsp Broken Red Chiles 4 Curry Leaves 8 Asafoetida a pinch Oil 1 tsp Method of preparation: Wash toor dal under water thoroughly and pressure cook in 3 [...]

7:19
Vegan Mofo Day 6: Beanball Sub
» ‎ Cook's Hideout

Today’s lunch is toasted sub with leftover bean balls and marinara sauce (from Day 2) on hoagie rolls. Again recipe is from Veganomicon.

I made a batch of Seitan last night so I don’t have to scramble to make dishes for Vegan mofo. I followed the recipe from Veganomicon to the letter; I have 2/3rds of it in the fridge to be used sometime this week and 1/3^rd of it frozen for a later use. So in my blog’s horoscope this week I see a post with seitan in it :0)

4:15
Eggless Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies using Silken Tofu
» ‎ EgglessCooking.com » Eggless Recipes » Eggless Baking » Eggless Cooking
(Click on the image to see a bigger view)

I thought of taking a “baking-break” for at least 2 weeks because of a couple of baking disasters. But I found out that I’ve sort of become a “baking addict”. Moreover when surrounded by a lot of cookbooks it’s really very hard to resist the temptation. Recently I bought “The Taste of Home Baking Book”. It’s a neat book with more than 700 recipes, 600 photos and also has a lot of baking tips. Earlier I have tried 2 recipes from “The Taste of Home” magazine and both of them were great success. So I was sure that the recipes from that magazine are tried and tested.

The German Chocolate Cookies recipe was so simple and I was also tempted by the description provided. It said that the cookies were chewy and have a wonderful bakery-shop flavor. I have baked eggless chocolate chip cookies earlier and it was the crispy one. Since I have a few successful recipes in the “silken tofu-cocoa combination”, I wanted to try this recipe too using silken tofu. I’m very glad that I found this recipe, because the cookies turned out very well. The description given is 100% true. These eggless chocolate chip cookies are chewy definitely have a bakery-shop flavor.

Ingredients German Chocolate Cake mix - 1 package, 18.25oz (I used Duncan Hines) Silken tofu, pureed - 1/2 cup (1/4 cup for each egg to be replaced) Butter - 1/2 cup (1 stick), melted Quick cooking oats - 1/2 Semisweet chocolate chips - 1 cup (6 ounces) Raisins - 1/2 cup
Step-by-Step Procedure 1. Preheat oven at 350F/180C.

2. Melt butter in a saucepan on stove top or in the microwave oven.

3. Remove the tofu from the packet and blend it in a blender until smooth. Pour it in a liquid measuring cup to measure 1/2 cup of pureed tofu.

4. In a large mixing bowl, combine the dry cake mix, butter, oats; mix well.

5. Stir in the chocolate chips and raisins.

6. The dough is has the consistency of chapathi dough or play dough.

7. Grease a tablespoon and drop the dough using it 3 inches apart onto ungreased baking sheets.

8. Bake for 9-11 minutes or until set.

9. Cool for 5 minutes before removing to wire racks.

10. Cool it completely on the wire rack before storing it.

My Notes 1. Raisins can be replaced with chocolate chips as well. But the combination of raisins with the chocolate chips is very good.

2. Instead of dropping the dough on the baking sheet, you can also roll it in your hand to get perfectly shaped cookies.

3. I baked my cookies for 11 minutes. If using a non stick baking sheet, 10 minutes is enough. The cookies look undercooked, but they cook on the baking sheet itself once outside the oven. So don’t be tempted to put them back in the oven. After 5 minutes transfer the cookies to a wire cooling rack.

4. The cookies actually don’t have a golden brown color. It’s more of a dull cocoa powder color.

5. Some cake/brownie mixes have animal fat like lard. Be sure to read the ingredients list before buying.

This is my another entry to the Egg Replacement - Silken Tofu Event.
Related Posts

October 05, 2008
20:37
lazy Sunday..:)
» ‎ Siri's Corner

19:00
Coconut Pickle
» ‎ Essence Of Andhra
This pickle is one of my favorite pickles. Whenever we get fresh coconuts during festive seasons, we make sure to have this pickle. This time hubby dear made this pickle, which was delicious.

Ingredients:
- ½ shell of a fresh Coconut, cut into small pieces
- 2 tsp Coriander seeds
- 3 or 4 dry red Chilies
- ¼ tsp Asafetida (Inguva, Hing)
- ½ tsp Tamarind pulp
- A pinch of Turmeric
- 3 green Chilies
- Salt as required
- 2 tsp Oil
Method:
Pour the oil in a pan. When it is hot add coriander seeds and fry till golden brown. Then add red and green chilies and stir well. Fry till the chilies lose color.
Finally add the coconut along with the turmeric and asafetida. The coconut pieces shouldn’t be
fried for a long time.
Transfer the contents to a different plate and let it cool. Then grind the coconut mixture into a coarse paste by adding salt. Add tamarind during halfway of the grinding process. Add little water if needed.
Enjoy this yummy pickle with hot rice and ghee.

On a different note:
Check out my nephew's blog "COMP DAILY" to read about some technical doubts and tips. There is a lot of information regarding so many computer related issues in his website. My nephew has just finished his Intermediate and joined BITS Pilani to pursue his studies in B.Tech. I must say he is a pro for his age in computer related issues .

9:32
Vegan Mofo Day 5: Bell Pepper Rice
» ‎ Cook's Hideout
I made this bell pepper rice for today's lunch. It is a very easy one-pot dish, great for a weeknight dinner too. I bought a bag of gourmet bell peppers from BJs, I used half of them in this dish.

Ingredients:
Basmati Rice - 2 cups, soaked for at least 30 mins
Bell Peppers - 4, chopped into 1" pieces (I used one each of red, yellow, orange & green peppers)
Red Onion - 1 medium, chopped
Tomato puree - 3 tbsp
Biryani Masala paste- 1 tbsp (I used Patak's brand) (optional)
Garam Masala powder - 1 tsp (I used MTR brand)
Red Chili powder - 1 tsp
Salt - to taste

Spices:
Shah Jeera - 1/2 tsp
Cinnamon stick - 1' piece
Cloves - 3
Cardamom - 2
Bay leaves - 2
Method:
- Heat 2 tbsp oil in a pressure cooker, add all the spices and saute for 30 seconds until they are fragrant. Add onions and fry until reddish brown.
- Add peppers and increase the flame to medium high. Fry the peppers till they turn slightly brown around the edges, about 5-8 minutes.
- Add tomato puree, biryani masala paste (if using), garam masala, red chili powder and salt; mix well and cook for 2 minutes.
- Add rice along with 2 1/2 cups of water (thats the measure I use for my basmati rice, it might change depending on the type of rice you are using). Cover and cook for 2 whistles on medium-high flame, should take about 8-10 minutes.
Serve hot with chips.

18:00
My Kitchen Garden this 'Summer' was fun!!
» ‎ N e i v e d y a m

I had loads of fun this summer which I thought of sharing with you pals. Parents were here from India, and Chicago is a great place to hang around. We went to lot of sightseeing before Diya was born.

I had created a beautiful kitchen garden in my patio with tomato, jalapeno and mint. All were a great success. I enjoyed a yield of almost more than 10lbs of tomatoes and 4 lbs of Jalapenos. Here are some pictures.

My Mom enjoying the first harvest of cherry tomatoes.

Apple Mint flowers

My Patio

This is little Diya's hands holding Rakhi when she was 12 days old and It was her first Raksha Bandhan celebration with her little brother Jai.
Neivedyam is a food blog full of innovative recipes.I wanted a traditional and ethnic name for my blog, which will represent not only food, but also the Indian culture and values in just a word and so was the name "NEIVEDYAM" born. Couldn’t find anything better. NEIVEDYAM means "Prasadam" the sacred Food offered to God. This blog has state-wise specialities and festive foods from India and International fusions too.

15:02
Vegan Mofo Day 4: Ada (Mixed Lentil Pancake)
» ‎ Cook's Hideout

Today's Vegan dinner is Ada - Mixed Lentil Dosa (pancakes!!!) with peanut chutney. I used Chana, Toor, Moong, Urad & Masoor dals (1/3 cup each).

9:31
Corn Chips Chaat
» ‎ Talimpu

Masala Mokka Jonna Chips ijarupmilat Ingredients: Corn Chips 1 cup Tomato 1 Onion 1 Green Chile 1 Roasted Peanuts 1 tbsp Red Chile Powder 1/2 tsp Coriander Powder 1/2 tsp Lemon Juice 2 tbsps Cilantro few sprigs Raw Mango (grated) 1 tbsp (optional) Salt to taste Oil for deep frying Method of preparation: Remove stems, wash and finely chop green chile. Peel and finely chop onion. Wash and chop tomato. Clean, wash [...]

10:07
Vegan Mofo: Day 3-Orzo Pilaf
» ‎ Cook's Hideout
This dish came together as I tossed in everything that I thought would taste good in a pilaf (pulao). Quick and easy recipe.

Ingredients:
Orzo Pasta – 1 cup
Onion – 1 medium, chopped
Potato – 1 large, diced
Frozen corn – ½ cup
Frozed Edamame – ½ cup
French cut beans, frozen – ½ cup
Miso – 2 tsp Ground
Cumin – 1 tsp
Chili powder – ½ tsp
Salt and Pepper – to taste

Method:
- Cook orzo according to package directions.
- Cook potato in little water in microwave until fork tender.
- Heat 2 tsp olive oil in a sauté pan, add the onions and cook until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add all the frozen veggies along with the potatoes (drained) and cook on medium high until the edges start to brown.
- Add cumin, chili powder, salt, pepper and orzo. Mix well and let the flavors mingle for a couple of minutes.
- Add miso paste mixed in 2tsp water to orzo and cook for another 2 minutes. Serve warm.

7:47
Bell Peppers Stir Fry
» ‎ Talimpu

Butta Pacchi Mirapakayala Kura ijarupmilat Ingredients: Small Bellpeppers 6 Ginger 1 inch piece Salt to taste Talimpu: Urad Dal 1 tsp Cumin Seeds 1 tsp Mustard Seeds 1 tsp Broken Red Chiles 4 Curry Leaves 4 Oil 1 tsp Method of preparation: Peel and mince ginger. Wash, remove stems, remove inner seeds and chop bell peppers into quarters. Heat oil in a pan, add all talimpu ingredients in [...]

18:07
Kaddu Ki Kheer
» ‎ Zaiqa

Eid-ul-Fitr Celebrations after the month of Ramadhan Eid Mubarak Everyone! Alhamdulillah its been a wonderful Eid, May Allah accept all our Duas and make us better Muslims inshallah. I prepared Kaddu ki Kheer on the second day of the celebrations of the Eid-ul-Fitr, after coming back from work. Its a pity that its not a public holiday on [...]

15:35
Dried & Tested
» ‎ when my soup came alive

As much as I would like to be a gee whiz in a supremely well-stocked and efficient kitchen (notwithstanding the fact that I can do a lot to improve my end of things), one group of aids I'm learning to do without is dried herbs, which mostly smell of tea.

A thoughtful friend who knew of my fondness for cooking brought me several containers of dried herbs from the US, all well within their best-by dates. Reconstituted or not, most of them smelt of tea. It was only the oregano, I think, which retained some semblance of the original smell. I had them for years, finally gave up on them and threw them away. When I recently went to Thailand, I trawled the Net for good spice stores, went to one and brought back some kaffir lime, some lemongrass, galangal and some basil. Happily, everything except the basil performed well right from the beginning - a soup I made smelt gloriously of lemongrass and galangal, a paneer recipe to which I added kaffir lime took on its aroma and the basil smelt like tea. I haven't thrown it away, though - I'm a hopeful soul.

It's not often that I see exotic-to-India herbs such as thyme, rosemary and even parsley at my neighbourhood store, so when I saw parsley this week, I thought of the baby potatoes at home and picked up a packet. I sprinkled a bit of it over my breakfast of scrambled eggs, but they didn't seem to go well together - I hadn't chopped up the parsley well enough, but still ...

Then a couple of days later, I washed about 20 baby potatoes, boiled them with their skins on, let them cool, peeled them, rinsed them once and tossed them in a pan over fire with 2 tsp of extra-virgin olive oil to which 6 cloves of minced garlic had been added. After making sure the garlic got distributed evenly among the potatoes (during which process I added some salt), I added about a fistful of finely chopped parsley and sauted the potatoes some more - maybe for a couple of minutes. Then I took them off the fire and tried not to wolf them down.

Don't forget to send in your entries for My Legume Love Affair - Fourth Helping, which I'm hosting this month. The details are in the sidebar.

Herbs Dried Herbs Garlic Potatoes ParsleyThis feed contains copyrighted photos and text from http://www.whenmysoupcamealive.blogspot.com. If you are not reading this material in a feeds aggregator or by e-mail subscription, the site you are viewing may be guilty of copyright infringement. Please contact srablog (at) gmail (dot) com.

10:42
Vegan Mofo Day 2: Pasta with Beanballs
» ‎ Cook's Hideout
This recipe from Veganomicon is very tasty and easy to put together. I had some cooked kidney beans that I froze sometime back and it took minutes to make these (Opening a can of beans would have taken the same time).
Ingredients: Cooked Red kidney beans – 3 cups
Vital wheat Gluten – ¼ cup
Plain Breadcrumbs – ½ cup
Soy Sauce – 2tbsp
Tomato Paste – 2 tbsp (I used 1 tbsp crushed tomato instead)
Olive Oil – 2 tbsp plus more for frying
Garlic – 1 tbsp, minced
Lemon jest – 1 tsp
Dried thyme – ¼ tsp
Dried Oregano – ¼ tsp
Marinara Sauce - 4 cups (either home made or store-bought)
Pasta - 8 oz.

Method:
- Mash the beans until there are no whole beans anymore. The texture should not be too smooth.
- Add all the other ingredients and mix with a fork to combine. Then using hands, knead the mixture for 1 minute until everything is completely mixed and firm. Roll into walnut size balls.
- Preheat a large sauté pan on medium. Add ¼“of olive oil and slowly drop in the beanballs. Cook for about 15 minutes, tossing often, until browned on all sides. Remove and drain on a paper towel.
- Remove all but 2 tbsp oil in the pan. Slide the beanballs back into the pan and slowly a

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