BISIBELABATH

Bisibelabath or Sambar rice, was not my favourite one till I get married ;). I tried preparing this dish for my hubby's lunch box, since he was bored with all regular foods prepared by me. Luckily, he liked this one at my first attempt and then on it's my favourite recipe hehe..
Now let's move look at the recipe. This might have slight variations than original version. But this is the way I liked it.

INGREDIENTS:

Rice - 1 cup
Toor dal - 1/4 cup( or even little more than that)
Diced Veggies - Carrot, Potato, Beans,Peas ( or any combination that you like)
Big Onion/Red Onion - 1
Tomato - 1
Tamarind Juice - 1 cup
Curry Leaves, Green Chillies, Coriander Leaves, Salt - According to taste
Ginger Garlic paste - 1 spoon
Turmeric powder
Chilli powder - 1 Spoon
Coriander powder - 2 Spoon
Oil, mustard seeds - Seasoning

METHOD:

Cook rice+toor dal together, keep aside.
Boil the veggies in less water and keep aside

Heat oil in a heavy bottomed vessel and sputter mustard seeds.
Add curry leaves, green chillies. Fry a little and add onions.
Saute till onions turn transparent. Add ginger-garlic paste, saute till raw smell goes.
Add tomatoes-boiled veggies-turmeric+chilli+coriander powder one by one. Mix well
Add turmeric juice and boil till raw smell goes. Adjust salt at this stage.
Mix in the boiled rice+toor dal.

Garnish with coriander leaves and Ghee(Optional)

Serve hot with Onion/cucumber raitha or boiled egg or any side dish with less masala

Peas Pulav

INGREDIENTS:

Big onion - 1 chopped
Green chilli - 2 (vertically cut into four)
Curry leaves - few
Frozen Peas or fresh - 1 cup [if you want to add dry pea, soak for atleast six hours before use]
Coconut milk - 2 cups
Butter/Ghee - 3 spoons(or more according to your taste)
Cumin Seeds - 2 spoons
Basmathi rice - 2 cups
Salt

METHOD:

Wash the rice twice or thrice in water, drain the water and keep aside
Heat butter in a pressure cooker.
Add cumin seeds. Once cumin seeds fry add curry leaves, Green chillies. Fry for few seconds and add onions
Fry till golden brown. Add peas and fry for few seconds.
Add the drained rice and fry (if possible add a spoon of butter/ghee )
Fry for few seconds and add 2 cups coconut milk and 2 cups water
Add salt and adjust according to taste. Mix well
Close the cooker lid and leave till 3 whistles, switch off the stove.
After few minutes open the cooker lid and mix well

Notes:
Curd with boonthi/Curd with cucumber will be good combination for peas pulav
Fry few onion pieces in butter/ghee and add to the top of peas pulav [if u dont worry about calories!! ;) ]

Egg Paratha

Ingredients:

Paratha - 6 no ( Easy paratha in my recipe can also be used)
Egg - 2 or 3
Red Onion or periya vengayam- 1 (if its small, 2 needed)
Tomato - 1
Ginger garlic paste - 1 spoon ( optional)
Green Chillies - 2 (cut into small pieces)
curry leaves, coriander leaves
Chicken gravy - 1 cup
Mustard seeds

Method:

Tear paratha into small pieces and keep aside
Heat oil in a pan and add mustard seeds
Once the mustard seeds spurt, add onions(cut into small pieces) and green chillies, curry leaves
Add tomato after onions turn brown or fried well
Tomato should turn soft and should leave the sides of the pan. Add ginger garlic paste
add the eggs to it and fry well. when the egg is half cooked, add the torn parathas
mix well. Using dosa flipper(dosa thiruppi) chop the parathas well inside the pan.
Add the chicken gravy and chop well
After the paratha mixed well with egg and the egg is cooked, add coriander leaves and turn off the stove

Egg paratha ready!
Onion raitha and chicken gravy will serve good with egg paratha

Easy Paratha

I feel very bad for missing the delicious tiffin item paratha or parotta in India. This managed to compensate the taste. Thanks to Kamala Aunty in Melbourne. She taught me this. Its very easy to make.. here goes the paratha..

Ingredients:

Maida or Plain Flour or Self raising flour - 2 cups

Instead we can use wheat flour too for this paratha. Believe me! it tastes delicious

Salt, Water, Ghee or butter

Method:

Mix the flour with salt.
Add warm water to it and mix well.
Knead well the dough
The consistency should be same as for chapati
After kneading the dough well, add 2 spoons of ghee or butter to it knead again
keep it aside

leave it for atleast 2 hours. 4 hours will be fine enough

Paratha:

Form equal sized balls from the dough
Roll it using the rolling pin as we do for chapati.(round sized)
The thickness of the paratha should be less
Spread ghee or butter on the rolled paratha and fold into half
It should look like a semi circle.
Apply ghee again on it and fold into half
It forms like a sector or triangle.

Flat the folded piece using the rolling pin.

Heat the tawa or dosa kal and Cook paratha just like chapati. when it is half cooked, apply ghee on both sides. Tastes good with vegetable kuruma or chicken salna :)

Chicken Kolambu

My mom style chicken kolambu. My roommates at chennai are fans for this kolambu. It tastes wonderful with idli, dosa and rice. It acts as good medicine to cold and cough too... Whenever I feel like getting cold or cough, will have one cup of this and sleep well. The cough and cold will run away from.. magic of my mom :) here goes..

Ingredients:

Chicken - 1/2 kg
Red Onion - 1 (big one. If small 2 will do)
(if shallot onion or chinna vengayam is available, then 20-25 peeled onions will
be required)
Garlic - 10 pods
Ginger - 1 inch
Curry leaves - few ( Optional)
Coriander Powder - 4 spoons (adjustable according to taste)
Chicken masala - 1 spoon
Green chillies - 2 (Adjustable according to hot level)
Coriander leaves for garnishing
salt, turmeric powder, cooking oil

Method:

Preparing Onion-garlic masala:

Heat 2 spoons of oil in a pan. Fry the onions and 7 garlic pods(need not cut them into pieces if shallot onion used) till they turn golden brown and a good aroma of onion fills the room
Allow it to cool
After cooling, grind them along with coriander powder.
keep it aside

Grind the ginger and the remaining garlic pods and make a paste

Kolambu:

Clean the chicken and marinate them with turmeric
Heat oil in a pan
Add Green chilles, curry leaves, ginger garlic paste
After the raw smell goes, add the chicken
Add chicken masala and fry well.
After 3 minutes, add the onion paste and mix well
Once mixed, add 2 cups if water to it. The gravy consistency should be less thick and little watery. Adjust accordingly while adding water
Add salt and close the pan with a lid and allow it to boil in a medium heat till the chicken is cooked well

Once the chicken is cooked, switch off the stove and garnish with coriander leaves

Note:

While grinding the onions, add 4 inch if coconut cut into pieces. This will add more taste to the kolambu.
Since Coriander powder and garlic are added well, this can be used a chicken soup.
Drinking this hot will relieve nose block and cough :)

Simple Chicken Fry

This is a very simple fry but tastes delicious!! my mom's recipe.. Hope you love it too :)

Ingredients :

Chicken with bone- 1/2 kg (Cut into small pieces)
Ginger-Garlic paste - 1.5 spoons ( or u can use ur desired quantity)
Chicken masala - 2 Full spoons or desired quantity
Turmeric powder
Salt
2 spoons cooking oil

Method:

Wash the chicken and apply turmeric powder
Heat the oil in a pan and add ginger-garlic paste
After the raw smell goes, add the chicken and the chicken masala
Fry till the water comes out of the chicken
Simmer the gas and close the pan with a lid
Mix every 30 seconds
Do this till the chicken is fully cooked.
Little water can be added if needed.
After cooking, the fry should not look watery.
Tasty Chicken fry is ready..

This is the excellent side dish for all types of rice, especially Sambhar rice!

Tips: If coconut cut into small pieces along with the chicken........ you cant imagine the taste.. worth trying

Banana cake

This is the most tasty cake. Banana is such a superb fruit that adds good flavor and taste to the recipe.
The recipe is same as the Dates cake. Instead of dates we use banana in the recipe.
we can use 1 large banana or 2 small banana to mix with the cake mix.