Chilli Baby Corn

Today I prepared this tasty chilli baby corn for lunch. The dish goes well with rice, rotis, et all. Here is my recipe. 

Ingredients : 

• Baby corn - 1 cup (Blanched and cut)
• Spring onions whites - 1 cup
• Spring onion greens - 1/2 cup (for dressing)
• Green Bell Pepper - 1 no. (cut lengthwise)
• Tomato Puree - 1 tbsp
• Thai  Sweet Chilli sauce - 1 tbsp
• Ginger garlic paste - 1 tbsp
• Soy Sauce (light) - 1 tsp 
• Vinegar - 1 tsp
• Tomato sauce - 1 cup
• Salt - to taste
• Oil - 1/2 cup and 2 tbsp

For the marinade:

• Gram Flour - 2 tbsp
• Red chilli pwd - 1 tsp
• Salt - to taste
• Water - as needed

Method: 

• In a bowl, prepare a thick batter with the ingredients given under For the Marinade section. Dip the cut baby corns and allow the marinade to get coated well.
• Heat 1/2 cup of oil in a pan and shallow fry the baby corn and keep them aside.
• Heat the remaining oil in the pan. Add the spring onion whites and saute it for a few seconds.
• Add ginger garlic paste and saute until the raw smell goes off. At this point add the cut bell peppers and stir fry them
• Now add tomato puree, tomato sauce, soy sauce, vinegar and the Thai sweet chilli sauce. Add the shallow fried baby corn and stir fry it until the baby corns get coated with the sauces nicely.
• Add salt and some water for a gravy consistency and cook on a low flame for a few minutes until all the ingredients are nicely cooked.
• Remove from flame and serve it hot. 

P.S : It has a sweet, tangy, spicy taste. In case of non availability of Thai sweet chilli sauce, chilli sauce and sugar can be used as replacements.

Eggless Cupcake (Vanilla flavoured)

I was on the look out for a recipe to make eggless cupcakes for Valentine's day. Eventually, I came across Sailu's kitchen blog. I made some small changes to it. Here is a novice's attempt. I used  a readily available fresh cream for frosting.

 

 

 Ingredients: (This recipe yielded about 24 cup cakes)

• Self Raising flour - 2 1/2 cup (The original recipe had all purpose flour)
• Yogurt - 1 cup
• Caster sugar - 1 3/4 cup (original recipe had 1 2/3 cups of sugar)
• Baking soda -  1/2 tsp
• Baking powder - 1 1/2 tsp
• Butter - 1 cup (room temperature)
• Milk - 3/4 cup
• Vanilla essence - 1/2 tsp

Method : 

• Sieve the flour, baking powder and baking soda and keep it aside.
• In a bowl, whisk the butter, caster sugar until the mixture is creamy enough. Add milk, yogurt and vanilla essence and keep whisking until the mixture becomes evenly creamy and fluffy.
• In another bowl, mix the wet and dry ingredients well so that it forms a batter without any lumps.
• In the meantime, preheat the oven at 180 deg C for about 15 minutes.
• Place the cupcake liners in the cupcake pan and add the prepared batter to 3/4 level.
• Bake the cupcake in the oven for about 15-20 minutes. (I did exactly for 20 minutes and found that the cake was cooked by inserting a fork. When you do so, the fork should come out clean.)

 I took the cupcakes from the oven and added the cream frosting on top of the cake and allowed it to settle.

Keerai Pappukura (Spinach & Lentil Sambhar)

Back after a "Sick" break. It was by all means sickening and very upsetting. Someone has been falling ill week after week and it was horrible to cope with the situation. But somehow managed to come out this sickening season and here I am ready with my new post.

 

My grandma has a Telugu connection and she coined this word "Keerai Pappukura" which is more of a keerai sambhar kinds. Here is the recipe.

 

 

Ingredients : 

• Spinach - 1 bunch (washed & chopped)
• Moong Dhal (Payathamparuppu) - 1 cup
• Chopped tomatoes - 1 cup
• Sambhar powder - 1 1/2 tbsp.
• Salt - to taste
• Water - As needed

For seasoning: 

• Mustard - 1 tsp
• Oil - 1 tsp
• Red chillies - 1 or 2 nos (based on the spice level)
• Asafoetida - 1 small piece (powder can be used when the hard one is not available)

 Method:

 

In a pressure cooker, add the lentil, the chopped spinach, chopped tomatoes, sambhar powder and water(add only enough water such that the spinach and the lentils get drenched as spinach has the tendency to ooze out water). Based on the pressure cooker's settings, cook the mixture until the lentil gets cooked nicely. Keep it aside until the pressure subsides

 

In a wok, heat oil and add mustard. Once it starts to splutter, add red chillies and asafoetida. Take out from heat and add it directly to spinach and lentil mixture.

 

Add salt now and bring the spinach and lentil mixture to boil on a medium flame. The spice would get mixed up nicely. Spinach sambhar is ready to be served.

 

Kathrikai(Brinjal/Egg plant) Gothsu

I was on the look out for a good recipe that I could prepare with Brinjal and my husband suggested that I prepare gothsu. I tried to search for some easy one and finally prepared my own version of the gothsu. Here is the recipe.

Ingredients:

• Brinjal /Egg plant - 1 cup (diced)
• Onion - 1 cup (chopped)
• Tomoto - 1/2 cup (chopped)
• Tamarind - 1 small lemon sized 
• Salt to taste
• Turmeric - 1 tsp
• Asafoetida - 1/4 tsp

• For the curry powder:
• Channa dhal - 2 tsp
• Coriander seeds(Dhania) - 2 tsp
• Dry Red Chilli - 3-4 nos
• For seasoning:
• Oil - 2 tsp & 1 tsp
• Mustard - 1/2 tsp
• Channa Dhal - 1/2 tsp
• Curry Leaves - a few

 Preparation:

• In a small cup, soak the tamarind in hot water and allow it to cool for about 10 mins to extract juice from it later.
• Heat oil in a pan and add the ingredients mentioned under the curry powder section
• Dry roast it until dhal becomes golden brown and remove from flame and allow the mixture to cool.
• In the same pan, add some more oil and add mustard. Once the mustard splutters, add channa dhal and the chopped onions.
• Saute the onions until the raw smell goes off. Now add the chopped tomatoes and sauté for some more time until the tomatoes become mushy.
• Add the turmeric and the diced egg plant and give it a nice stir.
• Next,, add the tamarind juice, salt and asafoetida to the mixture and let the egg plant boil in tamarind juice.
• In the mean time, grind the dry roasted ingredients and add 1 tsp of the ground powder to the boiling mixture.
• Once the egg plant is cooked, remove from flame and serve it hot.

It can be had along with pongal, idly, oothapam...
 

Lachcha Paratha (Layered whole wheat flat bread)

On those days when we are tired, my DH and I opt for frozen food. We use the readymade frozen parathas that are available in the market. It has made life so easy. But, I always wondered if I could make these at home with the outcome being the same soft parathas. I did try one day and it came out so well that I have decided to do it more often than relying on the frozen stuff. Here is the recipe.

 
Ingredients: 

• Wheat flour - 1 & cup & 1tsp
• Water - As needed
• Yogurt - 1/4 cup
• Salt - to taste
• Ghee - 1 1/2 tsp
• Oil  - 1 tsp

 Preparation:

• Add flour , salt and yogurt in a large bowl . Add enough water and mix well to form a soft dough. Knead the dough on a lightly floured surface for about 10 minutes until the dough is smooth. Keep it aside for about 30 minutes
•  In the meantime, prepare a mixture of ghee and 1 tsp of wheat flour for spreading on the rolled over  
• Shape the dough into some round balls. 
• Pick each round ball and flatten it on floured surface using a rolling pin to form a circle shaped one.

•  Spread the ghee and wheat flour mixture on the flattened dough.(It acts like a glue to stick the twists)
• Now, twist the dough and roll it carefully without applying too much pressure. 

• Heat a tawa and cook on both sides. Once done, give a small press on the edges of the paratha like a small squeeze for the layers to be visible.

 Lachcha Paratha is ready to be served hot.