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Archive for the ‘Vegetarian’ Category

Aloo Tikki (Potato Patties) & St.Martin’s day

16 Nov

Last Thursday on Nov 11th,  Riya’s Kindergarten Team, have remembered St.Martin’s day . The parents and children have been invited to a beautiful children playground, which is located on top of the hill close to Kindergarten. It was amazing to listen to the Music band and songs from little voices. The parents too did join with them. The Interesting part was everyone marching with the Latern lamps and singing St.Martins songs.

Being an Indian, I always like to present and highlight Indian food to foriegners when I am invited to a get together. Aloo tikki is a Indian appetizer made with potatoes and some spices. It is a crispy, crunchy and soft spicy delicacy. Everytime when I present a food with Potatoes to my Western friends, it was a big hit and this time too.

Here goes the Recipe..

Ingredients:

  1. Potato – 250 gms, boiled, peeled and smashed
  2. Cumin ground- 1/2 tsp
  3. Garam masala – 1/2 tsp
  4. Chat Masala – 1/2 tsp
  5. Chilli ground – 1/4 tsp
  6. Corriander ground – 1/2 tsp
  7. Green chillies – 1, finely chopped, (add more if you like have hot)
  8. Groundnuts – 1/4 cup coarsely ground
  9. Raisins – 2 Tbs
  10. Corriander leaves – few sprigs, finely chooped
  11. Salt for taste
  12. Oil – few Tbs
  13. Bread crumbs – 1/4 cup

Method:

  1. Add the smashed potatoes and add all the rest of ingredients except oil and Breadcrumbs.
  2. Make small balls out of this potato mixture and slightly flatten .
  3. Now coat the patties in the breadcrumbs on both sides and keep it ready.
  4. Heat the griddle or a flat pan. Apply few drops of oil to the pan.
  5. Now add  Potato patties to the pan and cook in a medium flame for 3-4 min on both sides.
  6. When it is golden brown color on both the sides remove from the pan and serve it with Indian chutneys and dips. Coriander and mint dips goes well with this.

Some pictures from St.Martins’ day 2010….

Wow!! Cute Cat Latern. The children and teachers should have put lot of effort to make this beautiful one.

This Skeleton has come directly from Halloween …

Hey!! Look at it. Mine is so beautiful.

Children singing songs with the paper latern electric lamps.  These Latern’s are sophisticated and safe for the little ones to carry and play with.

 
6 Comments

Posted in Starters, others

 

Sundal – Healthy Protein Snack

08 Aug

Green and Yellow peas Sprouts

Sundal is a South Indian snack made out of Beans , Peas , Chick peas  and some kind of lentils. It is served in the evening and also prepared during some festivals. To make Sundal, the Legumes is soaked for atleast 12 hours and then steam cooked, follwed by seasoning.

These days, I have started sprouting frequently because of its high nutritional benefits and easy to make them. It is nice to have them harvested by myself fresh from my kitchen. These tiny little plants are rich in fibre and easily digestible.

Today, I am posting Sundal with 2 different types of legumes.

Green and Yellow peas Sprouts Sundal

In India this Peas sundal  is also called by the main ingredients used in it as Thenga Manga pattani Sundal (Coconut, Mango, Peas Sundal). It is very popular snack served in paper cones in beach side.

Green Gram Sprouts Sundal

Ingredients:

  1. Lentils or Peas or Beans – 2 cups ( Sprouts or Pulses soaked overnight)
  2. Oil – 1/2 tsp
  3. Mustard – 1 tsp
  4. Urad dhal – 2 tsp
  5. Dry red chilli –  2 nos
  6. Curry leaves – 2 strands
  7. Asafoetida – 1/4 tsp
  8. Ginger – 1 tsp, finely chopped or grated

Optional Ingredients:

  1. Coconut – 1/8 cup, fresh shredded coconut
  2. Raw Mango – 1/8 cup, cut in to small pieces

Method:

1. To make sprout, Soak the Pulses overnight and wash them. In a wet thin kitchen towel tie them and keep them covered in a vessel. Let them be in a dark place like oven. Sprinkle little water over the towel everyday. After 2 days you can find the sprouts.

2. Pressure cook the pulses or sprouts with little sprinkled salt on them. Now do the seasoning by adding the oil to the hot pan.

3. Add the mustard and wait to crackle. Add urad dhal and mix for minute. Add chilli, asafoetida, curry leaves and stir for a minute.

4. Now add this seasoning to the cooked pulses. You can also add the optional ingredients for a rich taste.

Tip : 1. You can also make the sprouts and store it in a air tight box in the freezer for weeks.

2. You can also mix different types of legumes or sprouts and make  a Mutligrain Sundal.

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This post is participating in the events  Let’s Sprout by Priya and Celebrating Independence Day 2010 by Akila.

 
11 Comments

Posted in Snack, Vegetarian

 

Adai – South Indian Protein pancake

03 Aug

Pulses are the main  source of protein for vegetarians. People in India include atleast one varitety of legumes in their daily food consumption. Adai is pancake made with different variety of lentils and  rice. Everytime when I make this, I like to include different variety of lentils.  I have also choosen Chickpeas sprouts and Rice along with other 5 kinds of Indian Lentils. Its one’s own creativity to add number of different pulses.  So, Just go ahead and use whatever lentils you have.

Here is the Recipe..

Ingredients:

  1. Coconut – 1 cup, fresh coconut cut in to small pieces
  2. Onion – 2 nos, finely chopped
  3. Coriander leaves – 1/4 cup, finely chopped
  4. Asafoetida – 1/4 tsp
  5. Salt for taste
  6. Oil – few spoons

To soak and grind:

  1. Chickpeas Sprout – 2 cups
  2. Moong dhal – 1 cup
  3. Toor Dhal – 1 cup
  4. Masoor dhal – 1 cup (red lentils)
  5. Urad dhal – 1 cup
  6. Chenna dhal – 1 cup
  7. Rice – 1 cup
  8. Dry red chilli – 2 nos
  9. Garlic pods – 3

Method:

1. Soak the chickpeas overnight and tie them in a thin kitchen towel and leave it in a dark place for 2 days.  Sprinkle water atleast once in  a day. After 2 days you can see nice sprouts.

2. Soak urad dhal and rice. Soak the Moong, Toor, Masoor and chenna dhal together with red chillies and garlic for 2 hours.

3. Now drain all the water and grind the ingredients coarsely by adding little water. Grind Rice and Urad dhal together finely.

4. Mix up rest of the ingredients and the batter.  The batter should be thick.

5. Heat the griddle and pour some batter and spread it in a circular motion. Add few drops of oil to the sides.

6. Turn it to both the sides and cook for atleast 3 min in a slow flame. Serve it hot with Chutneys.

Tip: 1.  Grinding Adai batter coarse may give a good texture and nice taste.

2. Adding small pieces of coconut in Adai makes crunchy and can feel the individual coco taste in between.

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This recipe is participating in Let’s Sprout contest by Priya.

And its Award time. I would like to sincerely thank dear Rani from PranisKitchen for sharing with me this following Award. Thanks Rani.  Rani has got good collection of native Kerala Recipes.

Thank you friends for your time in reading this post.

 
8 Comments

Posted in Vegetarian

 

Spanish Tapas

29 Jun

Patatas Bravas

Patatas Aioli

We wanted to try our first Tapa in Spain, but had no idea before about tapas. There were lot of small retaurants in Barcelona on the road side which were named as Bars. We tried our first tapas in one of these Restaurant. Tapas is a small sized snack and can be had before meal or along with meal.  Tapas can be had as  starter or an appetizer. Spanish Omelette and Garlic shrimp is among  the popular Tapas .

The two dishes which I have posted here is nearly same, only the sauce topping is different. Patatas Bravas is topped with tomato puree sauce and Patatas alioli is topped with Mayonnaise sauce. Bravas and Alioli  where tasting great with the fried potatoes.

Ingredients for the potato base:

  1. Potato – 3 medium, peeled and cut in to bite size pieces
  2. Olive oil – 5 Tbs
  3. Garlic – 5 cloves, minced
  4. Salt for the potatoes

For Bravas sauce :

  1. Olive oil – 1tsp
  2. Tomato puree – 1/2 cup
  3. Chilli flakes – 1/2 tsp
  4. Salt a little
  5. Oregano – 1/2  tsp, dried

For Aioli sauce: Mayonnaise sauce

  1. Egg yolk – 1
  2. Olive oil – 1/2 cup or any vegetable oil
  3. Lemon juice – 1 Tbs
  4. Salt – 1/4 tsp

Method for potato base:

1. Add the oil to the hot pan and shallow fry the potatoes. Add salt and garlic and cook till the potatoes are soft. approx 15 – 20 min.

( You can also serve the potatoes at this point. It tastes wonderful.)

Method for Bravas sauce:

1. Add oil to the hot pan and add tomato puree, chili flakes and salt and let it cook for 15 minutes. Cover it with lid and cook.

2. Add the oregano when it is done.

Method for Aioli sauce : Mayonnaise sauce

1. Add the egg yolk and start whisking, slowly add the oil and continue. Add the lemon juice and salt and do whisking .

you can see the sauce gets thickening . you can also refrigerate it and use it later.

Tip: Adding more olive oil may sometimes makes the sauce bitter. So it is better to add few spoons of olive oil and remaining with vegetable oil.

 
10 Comments

Posted in Spain, Starters

 

Cucumber Kootu (Cucumber Lentils Curry)

25 May

The best way to consume Cucumber is to eat it raw and having it in salad. As it contains 90 % of water content and helps reducing the heat from the body. During rainy cold season, I would like to always make warm food (or) When I have abundant quantity of Cucumber,  I prefer to go for this Cucumber kootu. Kootu is a semi solid curry made by combination of lentils and vegetables. This recipe is influenced from my mother.

Ingredients:

  1. Cucumber – 1, medium size peeled and cut in to small chunks, remove the seeds if it not tender and soft
  2. Onion – 1, medium size finely shopped
  3. Lentils – 1/4 cup (Moong dhal, can be tried with other lentils too)
  4. Oil – 1 Tbs
  5. Mustard – 1 tsp
  6. Cumin – 1/2 tsp
  7. Urad dhal – 1 Tbs
  8. Asafoetida – 1/4 tsp
  9. Turmeric –  1/4 tsp
  10. Dry Red chilli – 3 nos
  11. Curry leaves – 1 strand
  12. Salt for taste

Preparation:

1. In a vessel add the lentils, cucumber, onion, turmeric, salt  and 1 cup of water and pressure cook it and transfer it to a bowl.

2. Do the seasoning.In a hot pan add oil, Mustard and wait to crackle. Add urad dhal, cumin , dry red chilli, asafoetida  and curry leaves and stir for 2 minutes in a medium heat.

3. Now add the seasoning to the cucumber kootu and mix it up. It is ready to be served with Rice or as an side dish.

Tip : 1. A spoon of clarified butter and Rice mixed with this Cucumber kootu would give a wonderful taste.

2. Also good combo with Indian bread

3. If the Cucumber skin is tender, use it in the recipe as it also contains nutrients.

 
18 Comments

Posted in Side Dish, Vegetarian

 
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