Masala peanuts…on a rainy day!!!!

First of all, sorry guys…had been off from the blogland for quiet sometime because of my tight schedule in my project…second…there is restrictions in accessing net from work as I’m fortunately/unfortunately in a project which has strict policy from accessing net…so you guys may not get a menu from me on a daily basis..i will try to post atleast on weekends….I do cook you know and take pictures of those….so…there will be some interesting posts infrequently from my end…so watchout…

And offlate, It has been raining in Chennai for past few days....as part of “karthika deepam” …...and I thought of enjoying my hot tea with something spicy….....so…here I go with a spicy and crispy masala peanut…


Ingredients:

1 cup of raw groundnut
2 tbsp of kadala maavu(gram flour)
½ tbsp of pepper powder
½ tbsp of chilli powder
A pinch of Asafoetida powder
Salt to taste
1 pinch of food color (optional…I’ve not added as it was not available at home..it gives a nice and red color coating)


Method of preparation:

1. Wash the raw groundnut with water and keep it aside
2. In a bowl, mix all the ingredients mentioned above and to it add the washed groundnut. Mix them well so that a uniform coat is formed on the wet peanuts
3. Microwave the above for 3-4 minutes. Stir it once after 2 mintues..



Enjoy with your evening tea…

Uzhundu vadai

Here is another one snack to be prepared on a rainy day and enjoy with a hot simmering cuppa of Tea..Emh..The uzhundu vada...

How to make this yum vada..here is the method of preparation:

soak 1 cup of uzhundu dhal (black gram) for minimum of 1 hour. Grind it with no water/little water.

To this dough, add chopped onion, green chilli, pepper seeds, salt to taste, curry leaves, a small piece of ginger chopped into fine granules. Also one can add little rava to get that crispiness.

Apply water on your palm and take a small amount of the above mix and press it and put a hole in the center and throw it gently into a kadai with simmering hot.

Allow it to fry deeply and gently turn it over to the other side. Once it has become golden brown and crispy, remove it from the kadai...and

there you go...the hot and crispy uzhundu vada..

One can enjoy with cocunut chutney.

Molagha (Green pepper) bajji

During rainy season/ for that matter whenever there is a downpour, I would love to have a hot cuppa of Tea with Bajji/vada....and enjoy the rain with it...What an awesome idea !!!

So these few days Chennai has been experiencing some showers...and i prepared this for the family..Emh..they loved it and it disappeared the moment i filled the plates...


So ingredients:

1. Gram powder
2. chilli powder
3. food color (optional)
4. Salt to taste
5. aseofodia - a pinch
6. turmeric powder - 1/2 tbsp

Mix all the ingredients and add little water to bring it into a thick consistency

Slice open the green pepper into two halves.

Smear or dip the sliced green pepper into the dough and put it in a kadai filled with hot oil. Allow it to deep fry and turn over to cook the other side.

Nice crispy and crunchy molagha bajji..Enjoy with cocunut chutney...

Butter biscuit - Microwave cooking

This is the first biscuit i have tried in my life..and of course, with my new microwave oven.

Ingredients:

1 cup of maida
1 tbsp of ragi powder
1/2 cup of butter
3/4 cup of powdered sugar
1 tbsp of vanilla essence
Curshed cashewnut/walnut/badam (optional)



(before baking)
Method of preparation:

Melt the butter in microwave mode for 1 minute.

Mix maida with melted butter and mix it well. Then add powdered sugar and mix it well with hand. Add the vanilla essence (or any essence you have at home). I felt that my butter addition was little bit more so i added 1 tbsp of ragi powder (optional). mix it well for sometime and keep it in refrigerator for 1/2 hour.

(Yummy cashewnut biscuit)
After taking from refrigerator, mix it well for somemore time and make it into small balls and press it down.

Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 180DC. Keep these biscuits into the oven after you hear the beep. Increase the timing to 20 mintues.

Voila..yommy crunchy crispy biscuits.


I just embedded couple of cashewnuts and badam on top of the plain dough for decoration.



My children loved it. This was a surprise for my children....they were very hungry when they came back from school..and they finished off the plate after 2-3 grabs...

Kappa story continues...Kappa dosa

HAHAHA...

Even if the kappa (tapioca) thoran/poriyal is still left out, here is one more chance of finishing it up.


The kappa dosa:

Pour rice dough and make a perfect dosa...

then apply the kappa thoran on top of the dosa and smear some ghee or cooking oil.

Allow it to cook for sometime. Then close the dosa into half so that it comes as a semi circle shapped one.



Smear ghee/cooking oil and cook for some more time...



Lotsa of kappa dosa....enjoy

Kappa puzhunghiyathu/ boiled tapioca

Simple and easy to make.

Chop off the skin of tapioca. Wash it thoroughly with water. Cut it into small pieces and boil it with little salt.


You may have it plain

Aloo Parantha/Aloo paratta

I learned this from my cook. I tried it on Deepavali for morning breakfast. Something special from my side to the family.

For stuffing:
Ingredients:

1. Potato - 1 to 2 chopped
2. Salt to taste
3. Mustard seeds - 1 tbsp
4. Onion - 1 to 2 chopped
5. turmeric powder - 1 pinch
6. Chilli powder (optional)..I have not put as children will reject it saying "Spicy"
7. Green chillies chopped ..(optional ...same reason as above)
8. curry leaves and coriander leaves for garnishing.
9. Ginger and garlic - chopped

Method of preparation:

1. Boil the potatoes with a pinch of salt
2. In a heavy bottom kadai, pour 1 tbsp of cooking oil and heat it. Splutter some mustard seeds, urudhu daal seeds, kadalai paruppu seeds till it turns slight brown.
3. Add the chopped onions, chopped ginger pieces and garlic pieces, curry leaves and turmeric powder and salt to taste and let it get fried till light golden brown.
4. Add chilli powder/green chillies at this stage and let it also get deep fried.

5. After this, add the smashed boiled potatoes to this and mix it throughly. Garnish it with corriander leaves.


To make paratta:

Mix 2 cup of wheat flour with required water to make it as a dough for making chapathi's.

Take a big ball of wheat dough and first flatten it into a small circle. Then take a small ball of the stuffing and keep it in the center of the flattened wheat dough and cover this stuffing by making a small pouch of the wheat dough. Then once again press it down and flatten it into a chappathi size circle.

In a preheated tawa, pour some ghee and then place the flattened paratta and allow it to cook for some time. Then turn over

and smear some more ghee on its surface and allow it to cook. If you see it will come out nice and glossy...


and ofcourse, the smell haunts the whole kitchen..

Varey waah!!! khiya masa khai




You can enjoy with curd and pickle.

Masala dosa

This is an item which is easy to make and my children loves to have.

How to make Masala dosa:

Ingredients for making the masala:

1. Potato - 3 to 4 chopped
2. Salt to taste
3. Mustard seeds - 1 tbsp
4. Onion - 1 to 2 chopped
5. turmeric powder - 1 pinch
6. Chilli powder (optional)..I have not put as children will reject it saying "Spicy"
7. Green chillies chopped ..(optional ...same reason as above)
8. curry leaves and coriander leaves for garnishing.
9. Ginger and garlic - chopped

Method of preparation:

1. Boil the potatoes with a pinch of salt
2. In a heavy bottom kadai, pour 1 tbsp of cooking oil and heat it. Splutter some mustard seeds, urudhu daal seeds, kadalai paruppu seeds till it turns slight brown.
3. Add the chopped onions, chopped ginger pieces and garlic pieces, curry leaves and turmeric powder and salt to taste and let it get fried till light golden brown.
4. Add chilli powder/green chillies at this stage and let it also get deep fried.
5. After this, add the smashed boiled potatoes to this and mix it throughly. Garnish it with corriander leaves.



Pour the rice dough
on the tawa and make it to spread in a circle shape. This is called Dosa.


Apply the masala on top of this Dosa. I pour some oil/ghee on top of it. Then fold it into half to give a semi circle shape.


Emh...delicious masala dosa....

Corn, Corn and more Corn

The whole family loves corn in one form or the other..ranging from corn soup, popcorn, or simply the boiled corn...my DH got a heap of fresh corns from the supermarket..and my DS was behind me "Corn tha ammey... tha ammey!!!"...

I just removed the silk (threads around and at the top of the corn) and the husk (greeny leaves surrounding). The kernal is the one which we eat..the shinny yellow ones..I always wonder God's creation. How these yellow corn seeds are arranged...perfect alignment..following a perfect line...as if the seeds are sewed together with a string....



I washed it and throwed it inside my pressure cooker with little water and added salt to taste. Pressure cooked it for 2 whistles...
The kernels looks transparent and glossy and shining.........lovely yellow pearls........

One can relish the boiled corn just like that..or once can apply little butter on its surface...or even more..if one wants to have a kick, enjoy with an application of salt+ chilli powder + lemon juice on top of it..emh...yummy...