A Wholesome Soup with Meat and Vegies

As the cold winter is setting in, who won't crave for a hot soup with goodness of lean meat and fresh vegetables. Add a spoon of rice or noodles this is one wholesome healthy meal for those restful weekends.

Ingredients:
1 lb Meat or Poultry, I used Mutton
2 inch Ginger piece chopped
5-6 Garlic cloves
1 tbsp Black Pepper
1 tsp Cumin seeds
A handful of chopped Coriander leaves
1 French Onion leaks - chopped
Salt to taste
6-8 cups of Water or stalk

To Stir Fry Vegies:
1 tsp I can't believe its Butter or Becel or regular Butter
2 cups sliced Carrots, Beans, Cabbage or any other vegies of choice
Salt and Pepper to Taste

Others:
3 - 4 Tbsp Corn flour
1 tsp Butter
1 tsp ginger garlic paste
Salt and Pepper to taste

Optional :
1 cup cooked plain rice or noodles

Garnish:
Finely chopped coriander leaves
Stir fried Vegies

Method :
In a pressure cooker, add meat/poultry, and all other spices along with water and pressure cook for 30 minutes for meat and 15 minutes for poultry.
Remove lid and let it simmer for about an hour.
Separate the soup from meat pieces using a large filter and discard the spices .
Keep the soup aside.
Shred the meat pieces and set aside.
Now in a wide deep pot, heat butter and add the chopped/sliced vegies and stir fry for 3-4 mins, add salt and pepper, remove from heat and keep aside
To the same pot, add little more butter and add 1/2 tsp ginger garlic paste and saute, add the shredded meat pieces along with some salt and pepper and stir fry for a minute.
Now add the soup water to the pot and let it come to boil.
Meanwhile in a small bowl mix corn flour with a cup of water to make a very dilute solution and add it to the boiling soup.
Allow the soup to become little thick and add the finely chopped coriander leaves and remove from heat.

Serving:
Assemble the soup bowls and pour soup along with some meat pieces.
If adding rice or noodles you can add it now.
Garnish with stir fried vegies, coriander leaves and a pinch of pepper powder.
Enjoy hot with crackers on the side.

Cauliflower Egg Pakora/Bhaji/Fitters

This is yet another simple easy snack to make and yet so tasty that you don't want to stop with a few. Thanks to the filling nature of cauliflower which will help from packing on the calories. I liked it so much the first time my husband made this for a light evening snack. Since then "poor man", he ends up making this for me whenever I have a urge to snack on this. I had always expressed my love for cauliflower in this blog. So here is another addition to my cauliflower list.

A simple starter, with very minimal ingredients and ease to make. Doesn't require any dipping sauce or condiments. Can be eaten just like that, to enjoy the flavours better.
With a gentle seasoned covering of crisp egg on the outer and mild soft vegie inside, this is indeed a treat for me.

Ingredients :
1 small Cauliflower, separated into 10 - 15 florets
2 Eggs beaten
1 tsp Red chilly powder
Salt to taste.
A pinch of black pepper powder (optional)
Oil for deep frying

Method:
Wash the cauliflower florets and dry them with paper towel.
Prepare the covering mixture, with beaten egg, red chilly, salt and pepper powder
Heat oil in a deep fry pan
Dip the cauliflower florets one by one into the egg mixture to coat evenly and thick and gently slide into the hot oil
Fry on medium heat for 3-4 minutes or till the florets turn brown and the cauliflower is cooked.
Once done remove the florets from the oil and place on paper towel to remove excess oil.
Serve warm with ketchup or just as it is.

Berry Banana Smoothie

Smoothies have become so regular when it comes for wholesome break fast ideas. One of the best ways to get in the daily required servings of fruits or vegetables. With berries you not only get the benefits of anti-oxidants but also fibre and other essential nutrients and adding banana gives that full feeling. Yogurt and milk satisfy the calcium needs and if thats not enough add a spoon full of protien mix to make it a booster drink to kick start our metabolism.

Since all the ingredients are easily available in our fridge, be it fresh fruit or forzen, yogurt, milk, all we have to do is to throw them in a blendor and and blend till a smooth. My two little boys, luv this smoothie, so I end up making it by demand sometimes.

Ingredients :
1 banana sliced, fresh or frozen
1 cup Mixed Berries, fresh or frozen
1 tsp Roohaza syrup or any rose syrup
1 tsbp honey
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup water
2 Tbsp plain or flavored yogurt
Add 1 tsp sugar if using plain yogurt. (optional)

Directions:
If using fresh fruits then use ice cubes instead of water.
Mix all ingredients in a blendor and run till smooth.
Serve immediately chill.

Sending this smoothie to Sanghi who is hosting FIL-Fruits event.

Kothu Roti / Parotta with Meat Gravy

AKA Muttai Parotta / Minced Egg Parotta
Kothu Parotta has some sweet memories of Nagapattinam/Velankanni beach side restaurants for me. As a small tourist attraction for those visiting Tamil Nadu, Velankkani, has quiet a festive look and the walk from the hotel to the seashore doing some petty shopping at beach side stores is a nice experience. By the time we reach the seashore our hungry belly is wanting the delicious seafood and other delicacies that this place has to offer. I have tasted the best fish fry ever in this place. They cut open a medium size fish and fry it on large tawas with marinated masalas. Not to mention the crab fry. I cannot understand how they can spice up the crab from within with out any gravy hanging out. If this is the seafood side they are nothing less when providing base foods to go with the seafood.
The Elegant Egg Dosa/Muttai Dosa, thin and crepe with beaten egg and masala on it, Parotta with Meen Kozhambu/fish gravy or the famous one and only Muttai Parotta/Kothu roti. I only remember tasting it 3 or 4 times. Often I and husband keep re chanting the memories of this. And it a must try on a visit to this place.

Procedure to make a Kothu Roti/Parotta is quiet interesting. Parottas are shredded into pieces beaten with long metal ladles on a large iron tawa, and egg, onions, gravy and other spices and ingredients are add to it and mixed to get the end result. It was totally new dish for a Telugu girl like me who has never heard about it in Andhra. Only after my marriage during the few years of my stay in Chennai I came to know it. Though in Chennai we do get this kothu Parotta, it is no comparison with the one I tasted in Nagapattinam/Velankanni. It is mostly a eaten for dinner and in Chennai/Tuticoran/Nagarcoil , you can hear the sound of making this dish in small restaurants nearly from very other street corner in the night time. In Toronto every Srilankan Tamil take out has this in there menu with added attraction of any meat/chicken to it. Again the same thing, the taste is no where satisfying near the Kothu Parotta we get in Velankanni.

This said I started to make it at home. Since we get the beaten shredded parotta/roti in the frozen food section in many srilankan Tamil stores, it makes it easy to try this dish at home.

Ingredients :
3 Fresh Parottas/Roti or Store bought Frozen Minced roti
1 Tbsp oil
1/4 tsp mustard seeds (optional)
2 thinly sliced/chopped red or white onions
5-6 Green chillies chopped
a handful of fresh curry leaves
1 Tomato chopped
1 tsp Black pepper powder
Salt to taste
2 -3 Eggs
1 Cup Meat curry (Mutton/Beef/Chicken)
Finely chopped coriander leaves
Lime wedges

Directions:
In a wok or kadai heat oil and allow mustard to splutter.
Add curry leaves and green chillies fry for 10 seconds.
Add sliced/chopped onions and fry till the onion is cooked.
Now add chopped tomato and fry till all the water from it is gone.
Now add the Minced roti or shredded parotta, eggs, salt and peeper and mix well.
Once the egg becomes hard, add the meat curry with gravy and keep stirring till all the gravy stick to the parotta and the out is dry but moist.
Add coriander leaves and remove from heat.
Serve hot with lime wedges.

Rava Laddu with Grated Coconut

Though I have a sweet tooth, when it comes to making traditional sweets I have always enjoyed them store bought or prepared by someone else.

As working women we some how squeeze time to cook for our daily meals. So taking time to make something extra like sweets or savouries is not much in my dictionary. I feel investing so much time on making these sweets is not much worth when we can get professionally made ones in sweet stores. More over sugar is one thing that is out of the menu list when it comes to a healthy diet. Nevertheless, blog hopping always inspires us to try new dishes. All the more when it is raining traditional Indian sweets in all the Indian Food blogs.

So this weekend I adventured on Rava laddu. Rava laddu is a traditional sweet made in South India..I think most of our South Indian food blogs have this in their "Sweets Recipe Index". Growing up I was not much a fan of this sweet, except when made by one of my aunt as a must for very Christmas.

Unlike most traditional sweets which take time and difficult steps to make, "rava laddu" can be made in a jiffy. It takes less than thirty minutes to make a plate full of laddus, provided all ingredients are available in our pantry. Its like you just thought to make them and in the next half hour they are ready for the family to enjoy, if you put your thought into action.

There a few different ways to make this sweet. Addition of ghee, grated coconut and milk make it moist and to enhance the flavour cardamom powder is added. After trying for a couple of times I really dicovered the secret of making moist firm laddus which are not too soft or too brittle to break. So here is the test and tried version of my Rava laddus.

Ingredients :
1 cup Semolina/Rava
1/2 cup Shredded Coconut
2/3 cup Sugar
2 Tbsp Ghee
1 Tsp Cardamom powder
2-3 Tbsp milk
2 Tbsp Cashew nuts and Raisins mixed



Directions:
Heat 1 Tbsp of ghee in a pot/Kadai/Pan, add cashew and raisins and fry till raisins are puffed up and cashew changes color slightly. Drain and remove. Set aside
Now add Grated Coconut and roast for a minute or two and then add 1/2 tbsp more ghee and add the rava to roast it thoroughly.
Keep stirring continually for 5 - 7 minutes coating the rava with ghee and mixing it with coconut. Add the cardamom powder and mix well.
Add sugar and keep stirring till the sugar is almost dissolved.
Add the roasted cashew and raisins.
Now add 1 Tbsp of milk and mix thoroughly as the rava tends to thicken up.
Remove the container from heat and spread a part of the rava mixture on a greased plate.
To this part add enough milk when still hot and mix to keep the rava moist and to make the laddus easily and to retain their shape.
With the remaining ghee keep greasing the fingers and quickly make ladoos of small lemon size.
Repeat the same with the reamining portion of rava mixture.
Usually for one cup of rava you can get 8- 10 laddus.
Store in a air tight container for up to a week.
Sending the Rava laddus for the Food blog events Sweet Series hosted by Sirisha and FIL -Ghee Sweets hosted by Sanghi

5 Spice Easy Breezy Chicken Roast

We working moms are in constant search of quick meals prepared with ease and readily available ingredients. No chopping onions, or grinding ginger garlic paste or pureeing tomatoes or making coconut paste. This dish is one of my favorite chicken recipes my mom used to make. In fact she is the chef behind this dish. And all my family and relatives used to enjoy this chicken preparation when ever amma made it.

Since it is a dry preparation its stores good too. In those days when my Dad use to work in a different province my mom use to pack this chicken for him to go in the long train journey along with my grand mother lemon rice. Since then Lemon rice and this dry chicken became my favorite that I try to make lemon rice to go with it most of the times I cook this chicken.

This time also made some mango dhal so that we can enjoy this chicken with plain rice also.

It wipes away the notion that too many ingredients or complex recipe contribute to great taste. Because with a few steps and and less ingredients this dish is so flavourful and tasty that it amazes me whenever I cook it.

Whats Needed:
1-1/2 lb chicken bone in , skinless, cut into curry size pieces
2 Tbsp Oil
1 tsp red chilly powder
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
Salt to taste
Coriander leaves to garnish

5 Spices :
1 Big Cinnamon Stick broken
6-8 Cloves
6-8 Cardamom
2 inch Ginger julienned
6-8 Garlic pods slightly crushed

Directions :
Clean chicken of any fat and wash thoroughly.
Season it with red chilly powder, turmeric, and salt, keep aside
Heat up a wok or Kadai, add oil.
After the oil is hot add the dry spices first and fry till slight color change.
Then add ginger slices and crushed garlic pods and fry all together for a minute till beautiful aroma emits.
Now add the seasoned chicken and mix well to coat it with spices and oil.
Do not add any water.
Roast till the chicken turn color and is fully cooked.
Keep stirring in regular intervals to see that the chicken is not burnt.
Once the chicken is done, garnish with coriander leaves and remove from heat.
Serve with lemon rice or plain rice with rasam, sambar or dhal.

Peanut Chutney

This is yet another chutney which is easy to make and so tasty that it goes with most of the South Indian tiffins, Idly, Dosa, Upma, Adai, Pesurattu, Uthappam, Rava Dosa etc..

Back home I use to help my grandmother grind this roasted peanut chutney whenever she made pesarattu. Now it isa staple at my home to make it as an accompaniment for Upma. Kids enjoy it too..Moreover boths my boys are peanut fans..so its hard to keep them away from the nuts when I'm shelling the roasted peanuts..

Ingredients :
To Grind :
3/4 cup roasted peeled peanuts
4-5 green chillies
1 tsp cumin seeds/Jeera/Jeeragam
A big marble size Tamarind ball
Salt to taste
Enough water to grind into a smooth chutney

For Tempering/Tamlimpu:
1 tsp oil
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 tsp urad dhal
2-3 red chillies cracked
8-10 curry leaves
1 pinch of Asafoetida/Hing/Inguva/Perumgayam

Directions:
Soak tamarind in just enough water to make it soft for grinding.
Remove stems and slit green chillies into half
Combine all the ingredeints in the grindling list with enough water and grind into a smooth chutney.
Transfer to a serving container
Heat up the small tempering vessel add oil, after the oil is hot, allow mustard to splutter and add the rest of ingredients one by one ending with Asafoetida, fry for a few seconds and spread on the prepared chutney.
Enjoy with dosas, idly, pesarattu etc.