Baby Corn peas Kaju gravy - Creamy, delicious side dish recipe.

Ingredients:

1. Baby corn - 200 gms
2. Green peas - 150 gms
3. Potato - 1 Big - diced.
4. Onion - 2 big - Finley chopped
5. Tomato - 3 big - finley chopped
6. Coriander leaves - a handful
7. Whole spices - Cinnamon stick, cardamom, bay leaf , star anise - 2 /3 nos each
8. Saunf - 2 tsp
9. Cumin seeds - 2 tsp
10. Turmeric powder - 1 tsp
11. Kashmiri red chilli powder - 2 tbsp
12. Sugar - 1 tsp
13. Salt as required
14. Cashews - 80 gms
15. Oil - 2-3 tbsp
16. Green chillies - finely chopped - 2 Nos (Optional)
17. Ginger garlic paste - 1 tbsp

Method:

1. Boil the green peas and baby corn for 2 whistles on high.

1. Bring 100 gms of water to boil. Once it comes to a  rolling boil, add cashews and allow it to soak for 45 minutes.  Once it cools down to room temperature , grind it into a smooth paste.

2. Add oil in a pan and before it gets too hot, add the whole spices. Let the spices infuse their aroma into the oil. Jeera, saunf and the whole spices.

3. Add the finely chopped onion and green chillies. 

4. Once the onions turn brown, add tomatoes.

5. Add the ginger garlic paste and cover and cook for 5 minutes or until the tomatoes turn mushy. 

6. Once the tomatoes turn mushy, add a cup of water and allow it to boil.

7. Add the turmeric powder and kashmiri red chilli powder.

8. Allow it to boil for a couple of minutes and then add the diced potatoes. 

9. Cover and cook for 15 minutes or until the potatoes are done. 

10. Check on the potatoes. Once the potatoes are done, take it off the flame and mash it with a potato masher. I prefer this method, rather than grinding because, by this way, the gravy will have body and texture. Body from the potatoes and the texture from half mashed onions and tomatoes. if you have excess water, remove some, mash and then add the water.

11. The below image shows the mashed mixture. 

12. Place it back on stove and add the boiled green peas and baby corn. 

14. Add the excess water back to the gravy 

15. Allow the mixture to boil well once the mixture starts to thicken, add the ground kaju paste. 

16. Mix well. allow the mixture to boil for 2-3 minutes.

17. Add coriander. 

18. Serve hot with Rice or roti. 

Ghee podi idli - Yummy with a twist

I used 12 medium sized idlis, which would serve 3 medium portions.

I used fresh idlis to make this. the below recipe works better with stale idli (a day old), especially when you leave it in the fridge overnight. It will be easy to crumble the idlis , the crumbs will be minute and uniform. in case of fresh idli, crumbling is a little challenging. 

Ingredients: 

1. Cooked idlis - 12 Nos

2. Curry leaves - 2 sprigs

3. Onion - 1 large - finely chopped

4. Idli Milagai podi - Gun powder - 3 tbsp

5. Salt - As required

6. Ghee - 2-3 tbsp 

7. Hing - 1 tsp 

Method:

1. Crumble the idlis well.

2. Add Ghee to a pan and allow it to come to a medium heat. 

3. Add curry leaves and fry for few seconds. Add Hing and the finely chopped onions. 

4. Fry the onions in ghee until golden brown. Frying the onion until golden brown is crucial, or else, it will not mix well with the idli crumble and all that you will end up with is chunky onions, which is a big no-no.

Add a pick of salt for the onions.

5. Once the onions are golden brown, add the idli crumble and mix well.

6. Add the idli milagai podi and mix well. Add a tablespoon of ghee before serving to enhance the aroma.

7. Serve hot. 

Mint Pakoda - Crispy Snack

Ingredients:

1. Gram flour - 150 gms
2. Rice flour - 50 gms
3. Corn flour - 2 tbsp
4. Chopped Mint - 1/2 cup
5. Chopped coriander - 1/2 cup
6. Green chillies - 4 nos
7. Ginger - an Inch sized piece
8. Red chilli powder - 1 tsp
9. Ghee - 2 tbsp
10. Hing - 1 tsp
11. Salt - as required.

Method:

1. Add the chopped mint and coriander leaves to the mixing bowl.

2. Grind the ginger and chilli to a nice smooth paste 

3. Add the flours, ginger chilli paste, hing, red chilli powder, salt and ghee

4. With the moisture from the greens and the ghee , try to incorporate the dry and wet ingredients. The moisture be enough to form a dough. if you still see crumbles of raw flour, please sprinkle some water and form a smooth ball of dough as shown below.

5. Pinch small irregular pieces of the dough and drop it in hot oil and fry until golden brown. the more the asymmetrical pieces, more the beauty of the pakodas. 

Serve hot. 

Tasty Onion Paratha

Ingredients: This makes 5 medium sized parathas.

1. Wheat flour - 75 gms
2. Maida - 75 gms
3. Onion - 1 small finley chopped
4. Coriander leaves - chopped - a handful
5. Turmeric powder - 1 tsp
6. Red chilli powder - 1 tsp
7. Cumin powder - 1 tsp
8. Coriander powder - 1 tsp
9. Garam masala - 1 tsp
10. Salt - as needed



Method:

1. I have taken half wheat flour and Maida. On a healthy note, we can use 150 gms of wheat flour. Add all the flours, dry spices and salt in a mixing bowl.

2. Chop the onions very finely. finer they are, easier the rolling. Add the finely chopped onions and coriander leaves.

3. Without adding any water, try mixing the wet and dry ingredients.the moisture from onions due to the addition of salt will ooze out a little and try kneading the dough with the same. once you have mixed well and still the flour is crumbly, sprinkle some water and start kneading until it forms a smooth dough. 

4. The dough need not rest. we can start rolling it immediately. Make small balls out of it and roll it, like normal roti. The thickness and evenness of the paratha depends on the amount of onion. if you are ok with thicker paratha and you like onion flavor, you can go ahead and use a medium onion. but using a small onion and chopping it finely gives a  good balance. 

5. Cook it on hot Tawa, smearing some oil on both sides.
Serve it hot with pickle, curd or dhal or side dish of your choice.

Stuffed Bread Bajji/ Stuffed bread Pakoras.

Ingredients:

1. Whole wheat brown bread - 4-5 Nos

For batter:

1. Gram flour - 150 gms
2. Rice flour - 40 gms
3. Red chilli powder - 1 tbsp
4. Hing - 1 tsp
5. Salt - as required.
6. Sodium bi carbonate (cooking soda) - a pinch.
7. Water - 50 gms.

For Green Chuteny

1. Coriander leaves - A handful
2. Green chillies - 5-6 Nos.
3. Lemon juice - 2 drops
4. Black salt - as required
5. Curd - 3 table spoons

For red chuteny

1. Onion - 2 nos medium
2. A small piece of tamarind.
3. Garlic - 2-3 cloves
4. Red chillies - 5 Nos
5. Jaggery - powdered/ Shredded - 2 table spoons.
6. Urad dhal - 1 table spoon
7. Salt - as required.

For potato stuffing

1. Potato - 250 gms (Boiled and mashed)
2. Green chillies - 2 nos finely chopped
3. Coriander leaves - finely chopped 2 tbsp
4. Hing - a pinch
5. Salt - as required.
6. Turmeric powder - 1 tsp
7. Red chilli powder - 2 tsp

Method:

1. Put all the ingredients under the green chutney tab into a mixer jar and grind smoothly. Green chutney is ready.
2. Heat a tsp of oil in a pan and add finely chopped garlic, once it starts cooking, add the red chillies and urad dhal. Once they all turn golden brown, add the tamarind piece and saute just for a couple of seconds. Remove from heat. If the oil is still remaining in the pan, add the finely chopped onions to it, else if the oil is dried out, add a tsp oil and then add the onions. saute until the onions are nice and completely cooked. remove it off the heat and allow it to cool. Add salt and jaggery powder and grind it into a paste. Spicy red chutney is ready.

3. Add all the ingredients under the batter, except soda bi carb and mix well, Add water little by little and form a free flowing, nice thick batter so that it could coat the breads well.

4. Boil and peel the potatoes. Add all the ingredients under the potato filling and mix well. To it add a tablespoon of green and red chutney. mix well to form a smooth mixture.

5. Add the oil required for frying and let it heat up.

6. Take a bread slice and apply green chutney on it.

7. Take another bread slice and apply red chutney on it, 

8. Add a dollop of potato filing. and spread it on the slice on which we had applied the red chutney, such that the centre of the bread has a thick filing and thin towards the end. do not spread it till the end , it will squish when we place the other slice on top and press it. 

9. Place the green chutney side downwards, such that the green chutney touches the potato mixture and seal the bread tightly. 

 10. add a pinch of soda bi carb to the batter and mix well. 

11. Now dip the bread into the batter and coat the bread with batter well on both sides. 

12. Add the bread carefully to the hot oil and fry it until golden brown on both sides.

13. Bread bajji / pakora is ready. 

14. if you feel , stuffing a whole bread, placing another one on top, dipping and frying is a little heavy and tedious, you can follow method 2. 

15. Take a single slice of bread. Apply green chutney on one half and red on the other. 

16. Place a dollop a potato filling on the red chutney side and spread it.

17. Now slightly wet your hands and dab the rear side of the bread with water. do not soak it. just dab it.  Now bring both the edges of the bread together and tightly fold the bread, such that it forms a triangle.

18. Now dip this in batter and deep fry it.

Hot bread bajji is ready to serve. the red chutney or green chutney or tomato ketchup will go well with this.