Only two days for the New Year to come,and at this point I am very happy to announce you that I am hosting an event for the first time in my blog and the credit goes to Srivalli of Cooking4allseasons!! Yes! For the next fresh month January of the very new year 2009,I am going to host the event of  Microwave Easy cooking, fondly referred as MEC.So far,this event has been very useful and a hit among the bloggers...thanks to Srivalli,for bringing up a nice theme:)Hope you all will send me entries that will overflow my mail box!

And the Theme is MEC: Paneer.....

To participate in this event, please make sure of the below points:
1. Cook any dish in Microwave using Paneer. It can be a starter, Main Course, Side dish or Sweets/Dessert.
2. Link back to this post and  MEC: Announcement.

3.Kindly use the attached Logo.
4.Send in your entries with MEC:Paneer as subject line,to tvijayanand1904@gmail.com with the below details:
Your Name:
Blog Name:
Dish Name:
Recipe Type:
Post URL:
Picture
Last date for sending in your entries is Jan 31st.

Round-up of the event will be posted on February 1st week.

You can send as many entries as you want,and if you already have a dish in your blog which satisfies the needs of the event,you can send that also,but kindly repost it in your blog for the event!

5.Non blogger's entries also are welcome! Send your recipe and picture of the dish to the given mail ID...

     "Now A Recipe from my friend Sangeeta!

Channa and Batura

Channa Masala:

Ingredients:

To Grind:

Method:

1. Soak Channa overnight.

2. Boil channa in cooker adding Little salt until soft.

3. In a pan add oil,fry bay leaf,add the onions,fry till light brown

4.Now add the mashed potato and mix well.

5. Add the tomato mixture and the masala powders. Mix till it leaves oil.

6. Add the boiled channa. mix well

7. Add water (u can also add the water in which we boiled channa) according to the consistency required

8. Boil the channa for 10 mints in low flame.

9.Serve with batura.

For batura:

Maida - 2 cups

Wheat flour - 1 hand

Curd - 2 tbsp

Salt,water - As needed

Method:

1. Knead the dough
2. Roll into desired size,bit thicker than our normal pooris and fry the baturas.
3. Serve with channa masala!

I am not able to post my recipes this month and missed some of your posts also,kindly bear with me for another 2 weeks,I will be back as usual!!!

WISHING ALL MY FELLOW BLOGGERS AND READERS A HAPPY AND PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR!!!

Ingredients

Method:

1. Make a thin batter of the all the ingredients except onion.
2. Heat dosa pan and sprinkle the onions and then pour the batter to make dosa.Sprinkle little oil.
3. Cook in medium flame and no need to flip,when the dosa becomes golden brown,take out and transfer to the serving plate.
4. Enjoy with sambhar or any chutney.

Notes:

Killu Adai (Pinched rice rotis with toordhal)

           This is a recipe which my mother learnt from her mother and my mother used to make, when I was young. She says,this is one of the dish, in those days the house wives used to do with all of the ladies in the house helping in this one.

       Yes,those days...people used to live as a joint family and every lady member in the house will share the house works.So this recipe was easier to make for them.

         As the name indicates,the rotis were made and pinched with hands to small pieces..sitting and chatting in the evenings,they enjoyed doing this.But I din't do that ..I chopped with knife:)

         So this is how I made this dish:

Ingredients

• Rice(I used ponni par-boiled rice) - 1 cup
• Toor dal                                  - 1/ cup
• Small onions                            -  3/4 cup chopped
• Jeera/cumin seed                     - 1 1/2 tsp
• Green chillies                          -  3-4 chopped
• Curry leaves                           -  1 sprig
• Coconut grated                       - 2-3 tblsp
• Salt  as needed

Tempering:

• Mustard                -  1 tsp
• Coconut oil           -   1 tblsp

METHOD

• Pressure cook toor dal with enough water for only one whistle and drain the water,keep aside(Cook in lowest flame and only for one whistle!)
• Soak rice for atleast 3 hours and grind with little water and salt, to a fine paste.
• Heat a  heavy bottomed vessel,with the rice batter and keep stirring in low flame,till it reaches just a dough consistency(Non sticky)(No need that it should get cooked)

• Knead the dough with your hands and make rotis over a greased surface.
• Transfer to a hot tava and cook both sides.
• While cooking sprinkle some water, to make it soft and to get cooked easily.

• Repeat for all rotis,the same procedure and let it cool for some time.
• Meanwhile,chop the onions and green chilles and crush the jeera/cumin seeds and keep a side.

• Chop the cooled rotis into small pieces as shown in picture and keep a side.
• Heat a broad kadai and add the coconut oil.Add mustard,followed by green chillies and curry leaves.Then add the chopped onions.

• Fry till golden brown  and then add crushed jeera,followed by the chopped rotis.
• Fry for 2 minutes with 2 pinches of salt and a little water sprinkled.
• Add the cooked dal and mix well in low flame.
• Lastly add the grated coconut and little more coconut oil,mix well.Fry for a minute in high flame.

• Serve hot!Will taste divine with rice,dhal and coconut oil combi!!

      This dish I am sending to Linda of Out of garden,for her JFI - Toor dal Event!!

                    My mom-in-law tried this out  after watching this in a TV cookery show,4 years back . She uses microwave idly steamer, since I don’t have that, I have given here stove top method. The stuff part is up to you,use your creativity to experiment and suit your tastes.

                   Usually I make idiyappam with the ready mix(rice flour) available here in Singapore(BABA’S). Comes out really soft and moist. I usually prepare the basic white idiyappam and with that I mix tot make sweet(sugar+coconut+elachi) and savory-lemon/puli(tamarind)/paruppu(dhal)  any one of these varieties.  So for a change(okay,may be for blogging) I tried this out after 4 years ,though I wanted to try it out for long time.

                 If  you have guests at home,you can make this for Breakfast/dinner along with some thing else. I made coconut chutney with this as side dish. Was tasting great!

Ingredients:

For Idliyappam

For stuffing:

To grind to Coarse paste:

To temper:

Method:

For Idiyappam:

1. Boil water with oil(just till the bubbles start appearing in the sides) and add this to the flour(add salt if theres no salt in the mix) and make a smooth dough just like our chapathi dough. It should be non sticky if the consistency is right. Keep covered till you need.

For stuffing:

1. Boil/steam cook vegetables with salt,turmeric and red chilli powder till done.
2. Grind the coconut first then add jeera/fennel,onion and green chillies(if only u or not adding red chilli powder) and grind to a coarse paste,with only very little water.
3. Heat kadai/pan with oil and temper with the tempering items given and then add the veggies and stir fry for a minute.
4. Add the ground  masala to this veggie and cook in medium low flame for 3-4 minutes till the raw smell disappears. remove from fire.

To make stuffed idiyappam:

1. Fill in your idiyapam press with enough dough and take a greased idly plate and draw a single layer.
2. Keep one or two tblsp of the prepared stuff above it and again layer it with the idiyappam to completely cover the stuff.
3. Repeat it to fill the idly plate and steam this for 3-4 minutes.
4. Serve hot with coconut chutney to rise your guest’s eye brows .

Sorry If I have bored you all with too many pictures.

I still have to perfect mines,so that the stuffing doesn’t shows out.

                  From this day I will be posting some of the recipes from my friend sangeeta. We both are friends for more than two years and I will be then and there visiting her place and have enjoyed her cooking....!!! And I am very happy to bring you her version of recipes to you all....

                 My version is Instant rava dosa adapted from Prema's cook book,and hers is a very authentic ,different way,her mother-in-law used to do for years!!

               Other than this recipe,she will be mostly bringing you north Indian and authentic  Sindhi recipes with us all!! (And to make this special I will be posting her recipes in a different font from mine...).Hope you all will give equal support as you give to mines...

Rava dosa ( Soaking version)   :

Pictures and recipe From : Sangeeta's Kitchen

INGREDIENTS:

Method

1. Soak maida, rava and rice flour along with jeera, greenchillies and curry leaves for 6 -7 hours. The water level should be above the mixture.

2. At the time when you are going to prepare dosas, season with mustard and pepper and add it to the dosa batter along with salt,onion,curry leaves and coriander and mix .

3. Add a handful for rava to the batter and water , to make it to pouring consistency(thin).
4. Heat tawa spread oil , pour the batter in the outer in to a circle, so that it spreads in the inner sides.

5.Add oil over it and turn it the other side. wait till it gets crispy.

6. Enjoy with potato Masala and chutney.

Rava dosa (Instant version):

               Mine is a fata - fat version,if you feel like eating rava dosa,this comes handy, and taste wise no compromise also!!

The differences between the two are the soaking part and the ratio of the ingredients....

But as  both I have tasted,they are equally good...:)

I always use little ghee for making rava dosa,as it gives a restaurant kinda flavour!!! And I don't flip the dosa,as it gets cooked easily.

              You can find the recipe,exactly here.

One more angle of dosa!

                   My version of arisi upma,is using arisi noi( Means broken rice), is a simpler version which has very few ingredients and can be done in a jiffy! Some days you don't feel like spending more time in cooking right?! That time with very less time spending in kitchen you can do this...That too I use electric rice cooker for this...so it comes out really fluffy!!

                And side dish thengai (coconut) thogaiyal ,is a perfect combo for this!  So here we go for the recipes:

First  Coconut Thogaiyal:

Ingredients:

Method:

1. Fry urad dal and red chillies, till golden brown and cool down.
2. Wet the tamarind in water and microwave in high for 20 - 30 seconds, to make it soft ( gets ground evenly).
3. First add all the items without water and grind it in the mixer.
4. Then add the required water and grind to a smooth paste.
5. Consistency should be thick like thogayal.. This needs no tempering...Don't you think its simple?

And this tastes divine with a divine flavor!!!

Now For Arisi/Rice Upma :

Here's picture of broken rice,its available in grocery stores....

Ingredients:

To Temper:

Method:

1. Wash the rice and add the required water and salt in the electric rice cooker and mix well.
2. Also temper  with items  in the "To Temper" table...mix well
3. 
4. Cook as usual you cook rice in electric rice cooker, once done open and mix well.
5. Now its all ready!!
6. OPTIONAL: You can add little coconut gratings or just a teaspoon of coconut oil and mix well, after opening the cooker.
7. But this tastes simply superb! 

      Idiyappam is our family favourite… My kid and my hubby loves the simple sweet idiyappam mixed with sugar and coconut though.. But I love the savoury versions better and don’t even touch the sweet version. I love all the tangy version like lemon,tamarind… And this one too… My  mom makes this for dinner and she makes 3 varieties –sweet/this mild paruppu idiyappam /tangy version. Since I make idiyappam for breakfast always,I either make only sweet or with tangy version. This version of paruppu idiyappam takes some work,so I make in weekend mornings. Its healthy too.

For idiyappam dough

Ingredients

Method:

1. Take the flour in a wide bowl and mix hot water as needed,using a spatula. Let it get cooled until it turns warm enough to knead.
2. Make a smooth dough without lumps and it should be non sticky. Not too firm too. If its very stiff,then it will be difficult to press through. So add water if needed. Keep covered.
3. I got these lovely bamboo mesh like things,meant for steaming from my periya maami.
4. Its very handy,it easy to handle/manage and the cooking is done very fast. I like it!
5. You can use idly plates very well,so grease the idly plate/mesh with few drops of oil. Press the idiyappam in a circular way,make sure you don't layer too much. Grease the idiyappam press too (inside) to enable easy pressing.
6. Steam cook these just till its cooked,dont over cook(Takes one minute,if you keep Inside after the water boils),coz that will make  the separating part bit tougher.Make batches until u finish the dough.
7. Now the basic idiyappam is ready.

For Paruppu Idiyappam

Ingredients

To temper:

Method:

1. Chop onion,tomato and green chillies.Cook the moon dal just till soft. Don’t over cook and mash.. It should be seen as shown in the picture.
2. Heat a pan with oil and add the tempering items. Add onion and fry till transparent.
3. Add the chopped tomatoes and fry for a min in medium flame.
4. Now add the dal and give it a quick stir..
5. Lastly add the grated coconut and salt and mix well for a minute.
6. Now the dal is ready
7. Take the prepared idiyappam in a wide bowl and tear it roughly. Add the prepared dal and mix gently taking care not to mash the idiyappams. Add few drops of edible coconut oil for extra flavour.You can add sesame oil too while mixing (2 tsp)

IDIYAPPAM WITH COCONUT AND SUGAR

     Mix idiyappam with coconut and sugar as needed and add elachi powder a pinch  and a tsp of ghee if you like. Enjoy Instantly!

Notes