Channa Pulav / Biryani

In the past week some of you might have seen that my blog went topsy turvy. That's b'coz I made a bad decision of changing my template. Although I really liked my new template , it was too hard for me to make the alingment and colors work right. I spent an entire day experimenting and finally I gave up. I decided to stick to my original one atleast for the time-being.Ok , I hear you all saying.... "What's cooking ?". So, let's move to it. Today it is Channa Biryani or Pulav. The recipe is not any different from our regular pulavs. But adding channa instead of the vegetables is the only variation. It's quite a change from the usual dish. My normally complaining hubby itself enjoyed it. So, you can get the idea that it was pretty good. Now to the recipe....

Ingredients:
Basmathi Rice- 2 cups
water- normal ratio is (1: 1 1/2) where 1 is rice and 1 1/2 is water. But my cooker needs a little more water, so I follow (1 : 1 3/4)
Oil- 2 tbsp
cardamom- 2
cloves- 2
bay leaf - 1
cinnamon stick - 1"
fennel seeds- 1/2 tsp
star anise- 1
Onion- 1/2 (sliced)
Tomato -1
mint leaves- chopped (handful)

corriander leaves- chopped (handful)
Potato- 1 (skinned and cubed)
Channa - 3/4 th cup
ginger garlic paste- 1 tsp
green chillies- 2 (slit)
turmeric- 1/2 tsp
chilli powder- 1/2 tsp
salt- as per taste
coconut milk- 1/4 cup (optional)

Procedure:
Soak channa in water overnight. Next day boil it in a cooker until 3/4 th done. Drain and keep aside.Heat oil in a cooker and fry all the spices. Next add the onions and saute until golden brown. Then add ginger garlic paste and green chillies. After a minute add potatoes and fry for another 5 mins. Next add tomatoes, mint and corriander leaves.

Saute until the tomatoes are mushed up. Then add turmeric, chilli powder and salt. Saute until the raw smell goes. Next add coconut milk and water. If you are adding coconut milk count that also as water and measure it accordingly. Close the cooker and allow the water to come to a boil. Don't put the vent yet. After a few minutes add rice and channa. Mix well and close the cooker again. When you see the steam coming up consistently put the vent on and keep the flame in medium. Set the timer for 8 minutes and then switch off the gas. Wait for the steam to subside. Open the cooker and give a good mix. Add some lemon juice (1 tbsp) and corriander leaves. Serve it hot. I did mine with cucumber raitha and some chips. Here is another closer look. Hope you give it a try and enjoy it too!

Pongal

Pongal is a very important festival for the south Indians. You can learn all about pongal here. Actually, I made this in eleventh hour for the RCI event: Festival foods hosted by Viji who is the owner of a great blog Vcuisine.

I have posted 2 types of pongal here. Sakkarai pongal and ven pongal.
My sakkarai pongal does not have that deep color as I used the light colored jaggery . Usually, I get the dark brown jaggery but I couldn't find it in the store this time.

















Sakkarai Pongal:

Ingredients:
Raw rice- 1/2 cupsplit
moong dal- 1/4 cup
water- 2 cups
milk- 1/2 cup
jaggery- 3/4th cup
elachi- 2 (crushed)
cashews- 4 (broken)
raisins- 7 or 8
coconut scrapings- 1 tbsp
ghee- 1 tbsp

Procedure:
Wash rice and dal together. Add water,milk and pressure cook for 1 whistle. Meanwhile, melt jaggery with little water and allow to cool. When the pressure is off, open cooker and mash the pongal. Add jaggery syrup to pongal according to your taste level. Heat ghee in a pan and fry elachi, cashews, raisins and coconut scrapings. Fry them and add to pongal. Steaming hot sweet pongal is ready.

















Ven Pongal:

Ingredients:
Raw rice- 1 cup
split moong dal- 1/2 cup
water- 3 1/2
milk- 1 cup
salt - as reqd
cashews- 5 (broken)
jeera seeds- 1 tsp
peppercorns- 1 tsp
ginger- 2 " (crushed a little)
curry leaves- few

Procedure:
Wash rice and dal together and pressure cook it for 1 whistle with milk, salt and water. When the pressure goes off, mash the pongal. Heat ghee in a pan and fry cashews, jeera-pepper mixture, ginger and curry leaves. Add this to pongal and mix well. Serve it with sambar and coconut chutney.See you gals. Have a great weekend!!!

Vinayakar Chathurthi 2007

Ganesh Chaturthi, also known as Vinayaka Chaturthi is the auspicious day when Lord Ganesha was born. It is on this day when the supreme god of wisdom and good fortune bestows his presence on earth. Ganesh Chaturthi falls between August 20 and September 15 and this festival lasts for ten days.

On this day, idols of Lord Ganesha are decorated elaborately inside homes or outside for people to view and offer their prayers. Coconut, jaggery, modakas, and red flowers are offered.

Vedic hymns from the Rig Veda and Ganesha stotra from the Narada Purana are chanted. Here are some of Lord Ganesha`s favourite delicacies that you could offer him on this day.(Information courtesy: Sify.com)

Although we celebrate Chathurthi every year, there is one year that is so close to my heart. That year is 2003. The reason behind that is.....around that time we were trying for a baby. So, every festival was celebrated with tons and tons of requests to all the gods and especially to my favorite - Pillayar/Ganesha.


I wanted to do something like rangoli for that chathurthi but I finally ended up doing this. The outline was drawn by my hubby and we both did the rest together.

It started like a fun way to kill time, but we were very happy with the end result. We kept on chatting until 2 am that we did not realise the hours flying by.

After a week's time I confirmed with my gynac about my pregnancy. So that is the unforgettable Chathurthi for us so far.

This year I had too many things going on the same day of the festival. Our city festival, Kavin's gym class, friend's coming over for dinner, pooja decorations and cooking.

Phew!!! Anyway, I could start my work only after 4pm. I managed to do all the work except the Kozhukattais. Finally, my hubby pitched in and he did the kozhukattais. Everything was completed by 5.45pm and we did pooja by 6pm. Although, I made pongal, sundal and idllis for neivedhyam I could not take any pictures.

Anyway, here is the recipe for the Sweet kozhukattais that I....sorry my hubby made.

Ingredients:
Riceflour-1 cup

Coconut grated -2cups

Jaggery- ½ cup

Cardomom powder- ½ tsp

Salt – a pinch

Oil- 4 tsp

Procedure:
Bring 2 cups of water to a rolling boil. Add a pinch of salt and 2 tsp oil to the water. Add this to the riceflour and mix well till it gets a dough consistency.When it is cooled add some oil to that and knead it into a soft dough.Make small balls out of this. Now for the filling melt jaggery with a tsp of water. Then add coconut and cardomom powder in a pan and heat it. Remove from heat and allow it to cool. After sometime oil your palms and make small rice flour balls. press the rice flour ball in the middle and make a cup . keep the coconut ball inside this and close it. The final shape should be like a modhak. Steam this for 5 to 8 mins . Remove and cool it.

Urad dal kozhukattais:
Ingredients:
Urad dal - 1/2 cup

green chillies - 1 no (finely chopped)

curry leaves - 1 twig(finely chopped)

Oil - 1 table spoon

Hing - 1/4 teaspoon

salt to taste

mustard seeds - 1 teaspoon

Procedure:
Wash and soak urad dal for 1/2 hour. Drain well and grind coarsely adding salt and hing adding 2 tablespoons water. Heat oil in a kadai and add mustard seeds ,curry leaves, green chillies and the ground urad dal. Cook on a low flame stirring well for 5 minutes. Switch off gas. The filling is ready. For the outer cover, flatten the rice balls like a small plate. Place a small amount of filling in the middle. Fold over and seal the edges. Steam them for 5 to 8 mins and serve.

Vaangi Bhaat and kosambaris

It's been 5 months since I have participated in any event. Actually, this is the second event I'm participating. Most of the time, I come to know about an event after it's deadline only. But this time, Asha gave me lot of reminders and 'Thanks' to her for making me participate in this. so, here goes.

My contribution for RCI: Karnataka hosted by my dear friend Asha.
The dishes I chose are :Vaangi Bhaat, Carrot kosambari, cucumber kosambari and Uddin vade.

Vaangi Bhaat:
For this dish , I followed Asha's recipe exactly. But after doing 'step 2' I did not get a gravy. The masala powder I added absorbed all the liquid. After that I sauted the dry paste with the cooked brinjal for another 5 mins adding 1 tbsp of oil. Other than this, everything else was exactly from her recipe.
This is the first time I'm trying vaangi bhaat and believe me...this tasted so good and smelled awesome. The only thing I would do next time will be , adding a bit of turmeric . 'Thanks' to Asha for sharing her recipe.

Ingredients:
2 Cups Rice, cooked and cooled
2-3 Long purple or green Eggplants cubed
1/4 Cup Tamarind Juice,
Salt1/2 tbsp
sesame Seeds (Til)1/2 tsp
Fenugreek Seeds

Roast and Powder:
2 tbsp Dry Coconut
1 tbsp Coriander Seeds
1 tbsp Chana Dal
1 tbsp Urad Dal
2-3 Dry Red Chillies1/2 tsp Hing (asafoetida)

To season:
1 tbsp Oil and Ghee
1 tsp Mustard Seeds
1tsp Chana Dal
1 tsp Urad Dal
Curry Leaves
1-2 Dry Red Chillies
1 tbsp Peanuts slightly crushed (optional)

Method:
Fry eggplants with little oil and salt until almost cooked.Keep aside. Season,when peanuts are reddish add tamarind juice, cook until thickish and add in ground masala. Simmer until oil floats on top and add eggplants.Add sugar,salt. Cover and cook until eggplants are tender, you have a nice pasty gravy with a shine! Cool slightly. Mix with rice gently as not to break the eggplants.Adjust the salt.

Note: You can roast coconut and Til seeds seperately, pound slightly,add in the end to mix with rice.

Carrot Kosambari:
Ingredients:
Carrots-2 ( finely grated)
moong dal-1 1/2 tbsp(soaked for 30 mins)
green chillies- 2
corriander leaves- few
coconut- 2 tbsp(grated)
salt- as reqd
lemon juice- (opt)

Procedure:
Mix all the ingredients and season with mustard seeds, hing and curry leaves.

Cucumber Kosambari:
Ingredients:
cucumber- 1 (finely chopped)
moong dal-1 1/2 tbsp(soaked for 30 mins)
green chillies- 2
corriander leaves- few
coconut- 2 tbsp(grated
salt- as reqd
lemon juice- (opt)

Procedure:
Mix all the ingredients and season with mustard seeds, hing and curry leaves.

Adhirasam

Here I am with more smiles. Yes, one more Award from my new friend Sobila. Thank you so much for encouraging me. I'm not sure if I'm worthy enough for this award. But my heartfelt thanks to you for remembering me and sending me one. So, here is one more dessert item for everyone to enjoy.
Today it is adhirasam. In my childhood days I used to eat the batter as it is even before frying it up. This sweet dish brings me memories of a prank I played on my cousin. This is what that happened. Everytime I got an adhirasam to eat, my cousin would tap my head and take it off from me. As he was older I was scared to speak against him . So, I let go 4 of my adhirasams. After that, I lost patience. So, the next time I put some tamarind in between 2 adhirasams. As usual he grabbed that also. Then....You should have guessed it. He spit out everything and started chasing me. Ha ha ha...See how crooked I've been.
Ok let's get going to the dish. Actually, I did not make this sweet. My MIL made this during my India trip. I wanted to take more step-by-step pictures but I missed a few steps. So, here is what I got for all of you.


Ingredients:
Raw rice - 1/2 kg
Jaggery- 1/4 kg
elachi- 4 or 5
sukku- little
oil- for deep frying

Procedure:
Soak rice for 2 hrs in water. After that ,decan all the water and dry it on a clean towel for sometime. The rice should not become completely dry. After that grind the rice in a mixie. The end product must be 95% smooth powder and 5% coarse powder. Sieve this powder and get the flour ready for adding jaggery syrup.

For the jaggery syrup, add 2 tsp water with the jaggery and keep boiling it for sometime. You have to switch off the gas just before the string stage (kambi padham). Decan the jaggery syrup if there are any dust particles in it. Then add sukku powder and elachi powder. cool it for sometime.

Then add it to the rice flour little by little. Keep stirring constantly until you don't see any white flour left. Jaggery syrup can be added as per taste. The consistency should not be too thick as the jaggery will thicken when it is completely cooled. Allow it to cool completely. When you are ready , take a small scoop of the jaggery rice flour .



Oil your palms and make a ball with the flour. Then flatten it on a ziploc bag. Here my MIL used banana leaf. Carefully remove it from the leaf and deep fry until you get the dark color. You can take it a little earlier too if you want it that way. Drain the adhirasam's on a tissue paper. Now it is ready to eat hot or cold. You can store it outside for more than a week without refrigeration.

Pudhina Pulav

Today I felt a little better after my one week of sickness. I wanted to eat something good but I had no vegetables in my fridge except capsicum ,mint and a potato. So, here is what I came up with. This is the first time I tried pudhina pulav after being tempted by many of my fellow bloggers. I could not decide whether to use only mint or corriander. Finally , I used both 50/50. The end result was too good. My house was filled with good aroma that reached the streets. If you have not tried this before, take my word. Try it. You will not be disappointed. So, here is the recipe...

Ingredients:
Basmathi rice- 2 cups
water- 4 cups
mint- 1 small bunch
corrinder leaves- handfull
garlic- 4 pods
ginger - 1 " piece
coconut- 1/4 cup grated
elachi-2
Cloves-2
bay leaf- 1 big broken
cinnamon stick- 1" (2 pieces)
star anise- 1
fennel- 1 tsp
potato-1

green chillies- 3 or 4
onion- 1/2 sliced
ghee- 1 tbsp

Procedure:
Grind ginger,garlic, mint, corriander leaves, chillies, coconut and fennel seeds. Heat some oil and ghee in pressure cooker. fry all the spices and then onions and potatoes. Then fry the ground paste until you get a good aroma. Don't over-fry it. Just do it until the color changes from deep green to light green. Add required salt and rice. Fry for a few minutes. Add water. Check for seasonings and close the cooker. Wait until the pressure comes. Put the vent and keep the flame on medium. Wait for 10 to 12 mins. Switch off gas and open cooker when the pressure completely subsides. Open cooker and mix well. Finally ,add fried cashews . Serve with onion raitha.

Bisebelabath

This is not a dish I make regularly. My first try was 3 years back. After having terrible experiences I gave up the idea of doing it again. Recently I saw bisebelabath in many blogs and was tempted to try it again. Luckily, it turned out good. Thanks to all my fellow bloggers who inspired me to give it another try.This is my friend's recipe which was sleeping in my cookbook for awhile . Here it is guys if you wish to try.

Ingredients:
Rice-1 1/2cup
Toordal - 3/4 cup
Vegetables - 1 cup ( carrot, beans, peas,brinjal,drumstick)
Small red onions- 1 cup
Tomato - 1 medium size
Tamarind paste- 2 tsp
Sambar powder- 1tsp
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Salt - To taste
Water - 4 cups

Dry roast & Grind:
coconut/copra - 2tbsp
Corriander seeds - 1tbsp
red chilli - 4
channa dal - 1tsp
jeera - 1tsp
pepper - 1tsp
Methi seeds - 1/4 tsp
khuskhus - 1/4tsp
elachi - 2
cloves - 2
cinnamon - 1" piece

Procedure:
Pressure cook dal with some turmeric,hing and a spoon of oil. Heat some oil in cooker and fry the onions until transparent. Then add brinjal and drumstick and fry for 5 mins. Now add tomatoes and the rest of the vegetables. Cook till the tomatoes are soft. Then add tamarind paste, sambar powder and the ground powder. Add required water and boil for sometime. Then add dal and washed rice. Mix well. Check for salt. Pressure cook for 4 whistles. When done, top with some ghee and mix well. Garnish with corriander leaves.

Tomato Pulav

This is the simplest of any pulavs. It gets different names as per the region that prepares it. My mom dosen't prepare tomato rice in this way. She makes the tomato paste seperately and then mix with plain rice. But I prefer to do one pot dishes and save some time. Moreover, this way I use less oil and the grains stand apart well in the pressure cooker method.

Ingredients:
Rice- 2 cups
pattai - 1"
cloves- 3
elachi-3
sombu-1tsp
star anise-1
onion-1(sliced)
ginger garlic paste- 1 tsp
tomato-2(chopped)
mint leaves- 10
chilli powder- 3/4 tsp
water- 4 cups

Procedure:
Heat oil in cooker and fry all the spices. Now add onion, ginger garlic paste and turmeric powder. Then add mint leaves and tomato. When the tomato becomes soft put chilli powder and saute for few more minutes. Add washed rice and water. close cooker. When the steam comes consistently from the nozzle of the cooker put the vent and keep the gas in medium. Switch off after 10 mins. wait until pressure subsides. open cooker and sprinkle corriander leaves. Serve with raitha.Here is another view...

Peas Pulav

During my school days in India my grandmother used to make peas pulav on weekends. Boy oh boy , my tummy would start rumbling just smelling it cook. You could get the flavor in every bite. It was absolutely DELICIOUS.I miss that taste even now. The version I make is good too, but definetly not upto my grandma's. But if you try this recipe you will surely not be disappointed. I can guarantee you that much.

Ingredients:
Basmathi rice- 2 cups
cloves- 3
elachi-3
pattai- 1" piece
bay leaf- 1
rose mokku- 1
sombu- 1/2 tsp
peas- 1 1/2 cups
onion- 1/2 (sliced)
ginger garlic paste- 1 tsp
green chillies- 2 (chopped)
salt
water- 4 cups

Procedure:
Heat equal parts of oil and ghee. Fry all the spices. Then add onions,ginger garlic paste and green chillies. When the onions gets cooked but does not change color add washed rice and fry for a few minutes. Then add peas, required water and salt. Close cooker and wait until vapour comes out of the cooker nozzle. Put vent on top,keep gas in medium and cook for 8 to 10 mins. Switch off gas. wait till done. open cooker, mix well and add chopped corriander leaves. Finally fry some cashews and add to rice.(I did not do it today , but adding cashews will make your rice look rich and definetly taste good).

Egg Fried Rice

This is one of my the most favorite foods. Back in India, my sister and me would almost eat it everyday. We had a fast food restaurant close to home and we gave good business to them. After moving to US, I really missed the fried rice that I had in India. The rice we get in chinese restaurants were definetely not the same. In due course, I got accustomed to that taste also. For sometime I was doing the fried rice the chinese way. But soon I got tired of it. Then one day I went to an indian-chinese restaurant and had chicken fried rice. It was awesome and tasted similar to the one we have in India. After that I figured out the recipe and started doing it at home. Since then it is our family favorite.

Ingredients:
Basmathi rice- 2 cups
baby carrots- 8 (can use regular carrot )
beans- 10
capsicum- 1/2
cabbage- 1/4 cup(shredded)
spring onions- 2 stalks
minced garlic- 2 tsp
eggs- 2
soy sauce- as required
sesame oil- 1 tsp

Procedure:
Cook rice with 4 cups of water. Spread on a big plate and cool. All the grains should be seperate. Heat oil and sesame oil together in a wok. when the oil is smoky hot add finely chopped carrots, beans and garlic. cook for 3 mins. Then add capsicum. fry a minute. Move the vegetables to one side of the kadai and add eggs to the wok. Scramble them after adding some salt and pepper. when done mix with vegetables. Do not over cook vegetables . It has to be crisp. Add rice,salt, soy sauce and 1/4 tsp pepper. Toss everything well. You can add crushed red pepper if you want the rice to be spicy.
If you want chicken fried rice, reduce the amount of vegatables and add cooked,shredded chicken. To make schezuan fried rice , add some chilli paste and tomato sauce.