Hesaru kaalu/Moong Daal Pulav

I love pulav and this idea striked me while moong daal was soaked to make curry. Bored of curries, I thought of trying anything else and ended up with this pulav. Rich in protein and fibers, it did not taste bad either. So here it goes

The below serves 2-3 people.

You will need :

Minimum 8hrs Soaked moong daal - 1/2 -1 cup
Basmati rice - 1 cup
Oil - 3 spns
Onion - 1 med chopped
Bay leaf - 4 med
Pudina (mint) - 7 to 9 leaves (optional)
Green chillies - 3 or acc to taste
Ginger - 1/2 inch
Garlic cloves - 1 big or 2 med chopped/paste
Cashews - few (optional)
Fennel seeds ( soampu) - 1 spn
Cumin seeds (jeera) - 1/2 spn
Cinnamon sticks - 1- inch sticks (2 nos)
Cloves - 5
Coriander powder - 1 spn
Salt to taste


~ Steam cook the soaked moong daal - keep aside to cool
~Cook basmati rice and keep it aside to cool.
~Grind well ginger/mint/green chillies/cloves/cinnamon sticks/fennel seeds with no water.


Method :

- Heat oil in a large shallow pan and add cumin seeds, bay leaves, cashews, onion and garlic and fry till onion turns translucent or golden.
- To this add grinded spices including coriander powder and stir well for 3-4 mints to remove the raw flavour of spices.
- Now to this add the steam cooked moong dal, salt and stir fry gently for about 5 mints on med flame.
- Lastly add cooked and cooled basmati rice, mix well & its now ready to be served hot.

Any yogurt raita (sauce) works as a good side dish to this.


NOTE :
~Cooked rice should be cool and dry before mixing to avoid lumps.
~Steam cook can make moong daal soft (not soggy) if soaked for min of 8 hrs.

Vegetable Puff

Well, this time its vegetable puff, one of my hubby's favorite so I do it so often I find it to be easiest of all appetizers/snacks.
You can make puff pastry at home but felt it was a mess and also a little longer process if you want that perfect shell. So I use the frozen puff pastry sheet available at local grocery like Walmart. 1 box can make 18 medium sized puffs!!



Filling for 9 puffs

Oil - 2 spn
Carrots chopped - 2 spn
Beans chopped - 2 spn
Potato chopped or mashed - 2 spn
Peas - 1 spn
Green bell pepper (capsicum) roasted- 2 spn
Whole cumin - 1/2 spn
Fennel seeds - 1/4 spn (optional)
Onion - 1/2 cup
Garlic - 1 spn ( 2 spns optional)
Ginger - 1/2 spn
Hot Tomato Sauce/Ketchup - 1 spn
Coriander powder - 1 spn
Cumin powder - 3/4th spn
Garam masala, mango (Amchur) powder, chat masala and red chilli powder - 1/2 spn each
Cilantro - 1/4 spn
Salt to taste.

Method :

Its time to thaw pastry sheets and pre-heat oven to 400 deg.

- Boil all vegetables except bell pepper, strain water and keep aside
- Heat oil in a pan ; add cumin, fennel, garlic, ginger and onion and fry till golden brown.
- Now add all spices, hot sauce, salt and stir for a minute.
- To this add boiled vegetables, roasted bell pepper, cilantro mix well.
Filling is ready now. Cool it before stuffing.


How to stuff :
Each pack has 2 sheets and each sheet can make 9 puffs.

~Take a sheet and cut them vertically first into 3 long strips (use folding as proliferation/mark)
~ Now cut each of these horizontally into 3 equal parts ( square)
~ Now keep the cooled stuffing in center of each and you can either fold them over or across and seal the edges tightly. ( I have folded across)



Keep them apart and bake for 15 minutes or till the shell turns golden brown.

Serve with hot sauce!

Sweet Biscuit

Ingredients :

Maida (All purpose flour) - 1.5 cups

Baking powder - 1.5 tsp

Sugar powder - 3/4th cup ( less or more if you choose)

Butter - 3 tbspn (melted)

Chopped nuts - 2 spns (Optional)

Curd (yogurt)- 2 tbspn

Milk - 1/4 cup ( or little more to mix)

Salt - 1/4 tsp

Method :

- Sift flour, baking powder, sugar, salt , nuts in a big pan and mix well.

- Now add melted butter, curd and mix well again.

- Start adding little milk at a time to make firm dough and cut them into 4 quarters.

- Take each quarter at a time, roll them 1/4" thick (or to size of chapati rolls) and cut them into desired shapes. (You can sprinkle little flour while rolling to avoid dough from sticking to rolling pan)

- Grease a foil sheet with little butter, put them on cookie pan and arrange these cut shapes at 1 inch distance.

- Pre-heat the oven to 400F and bake cookies for about 10-12 minutes or till the top of cookies starts to brown up.

- Remove from oven, let it cool and harden for 5 minutes before you eat.

Tips : Khara biscuits are made same way, except that we add desired spices to them instead of sugar.

Channa Masala

Among the people I have known Channa Masala is the favourite including mine. I thought preparing though was the most difficult part unless I learnt to do it... Now I feel its one of the easy gravys I know when we have lots of guests at home! Will post the recp for your trial and error :-)

Ingredients :

Kabul kadle (channa) - 1.5 cups ( soaked over 8+hrs)
Oil or butter - 3-4 tbsp (oil) or 2 tbsp (butter)

Tomato - 2 big or 3 medium ( boil and puree with no water)

Onions - 2 big or 3 medium (boil and puree with no water)

Chopped onions - 1 cup seperate

Chopped garlic and ginger or paste - 1 spn each

Methi powder (Fenugreek powder) - 1/2 spn

Garam masala powder - 1.5 spns

Dhaniya (Coriander) powder - 1 spn

Red Chilly powder - 1 spn (or acc to taste)

Cumin powder (jeerige pudi) - 1/2 spn (optional)

Salt to taste

Coriander to Garnish

Method :

- Boil the soaked channa with little salt and drain the water completely & keep it aside.

- In a large pan heat butter or oil on medium, add onion-ginger-garlic and fry till golden brown

- To this add tomato-onion puree and stir well for 5 minutes ( puree can splatter once its in the hot pan - so reduce heat to low while adding them)

- Once it starts boiling , add all masalas(dhaniya-garam masala-redchilly powder-methi powder) and stir for another 5 minutes.

- Now add boiled channa to this, keep stirring and bring it to boil ( you can now add little water to adjust the consistency you need)

- Add salt and garnish with coriander.

Serves - 4-5

Tips : You can boil tomatoes and onions and puree them together.

Baathina Pudi / Vegetable Baath Powder

I am glad I make huli / saaru / baath pudi at home than buying or wait for somebody send it from India as it looses aroma/freshness very fast. My memory goes back to days when mom would ask me to help her roast dry ingredients on low flame and I would increase the heat just make it happen a lot faster...this way I have ended up burning dals/chillies many more times than I can remember. After marriage, I can never think of leaving anything on high heat just to wind it up ASAP!!

Among all, our famous huli / saaru / baath or any masala pudi takes lot of patience as it has to be roasted on low flame till all the ingredients are roasted well in and out! Also home-made is obviously fresh and remains so for 2-3 months and you can prepare it again once its over.

Finally, after all my stories here it is :-)) ... Bhaatina pudi is almost same as huli pudi with minor changes and is much ligther in color.

Ingredients :

Dry red chillies - 2 cups

Kadale bele (channa dal) - 1 cup

Uddina bele (uradh dal) - 1/2 cup

Chakke/Dalchini (Cinnamon) - 3.5" stick

Menthya (Fenugreek) - 1/4 cup or little less if you choose

Dry coconut - 2 tsp (optional)

Method :

- Roast all the above ingredients seperately on low/ med-low with a drop or two of oil till you smell the aroma from each one. Cool them for few minutes, then grind to a fine powder and store them in an air-tight container.

Huli Pudi / Sambar Powder

Huli pudi is the used in our homes almost on daily basis. So if its getting empty soon, to prepare them is the next major project. Best of this project is the wonderful aroma it brings and you dont have to worry for next few days/months. The worst part is the sneezes it gives to one and all in the house while being roasted/grinded - but aroma is worth the sneeze LOL :-))

Ingredients :

Dry red chillies - 2 cups
Dhaniya / Coriander seeds - 2 cups
Kadale bele (channa dal ) - 1 cup
Uddina bele (uradh dal ) - 1/2 cup
Menthya (Fenugreek seeds) - 1/4 cup or little less if you choose
Chakke/Dalchini (Cinnamon) - 1" stick
Dry coconut - 1/2 cup

More of cinnamon than mentioned above - 2.5" (OPTIONAL)
Cloves - 3 (OPTIONAL)
Jeera (Cumin seeds) - 1/2 spn (OPTIONAL)
Sompu / Saunf (Fennel seeds) - 1/2 spn (OPTIONAL)


METHOD :

- Roast all the above ingredients seperately with a drop or two of oil on low / med-low flame till you smell the aroma of each one. Cool them for few minutes, then grind to a fine powder and store them in air-tight container.

Note : Freshly grated coconut gives an amazing taste but it has to be used immediately if not can get stale (can refridgerate upto 1 day).

Also fresh powder is usually spicy for first few days. So might want to try little at a time.

The original pudi ingredients are " from dry red chillies to dry coconut powder" . Mentioned as OPTIONAL are the ones which I add along with the original to give it a more personal touch and offcourse taste. It is the same powder used for bisi-bele baath.

Tomato - Eerulli (onion) Gojju/ Tangy curry

Tomato-Onion gojju has always been a safe bet for chapatis, rottis and even as side dish for yogurt rice. I personally feel jaggery brings the magic into making it more "chat-phat" :-)

Ingredients :

Tomato - 2 big or 3 med (Chopped)

Onion - Equal to tomato (Chopped)

Red chilly powder

Tamarind pulp - 1/4 spn (optional but suggested)

Jaggery - Small piece or 1.5 spn if grated

Mustard to season

Uradh or Channa dal to season

Green chillies - 2

Curry leaves - optional

Coriander (Cilantro) to garnish

Method :

- Heat oil in a pan on medium - add mustard, dal & green chillies - to this add chopped onions and keep stirring till it is about to turn golden brown.

- Immediately add chopped tomatoes and keep stirring once in two minutes till the tomatoes are soft and mushy (do not add water)

- Now add jaggery, red chilly powder, tamarind - mix well and let it boil on med-low for 2-3 mints after jaggery has melted. You can now add little water ONLY if you want to thin the consistency of gojju.

- Add salt and garnish with coriander.

Serves : 4

Tips : -Take it easy while adding green chillies/red chilly powder. You can add little of both or just one of them.

-Also you can cut on tamarind if need be since we already have tomato.

-Jaggery can be substitued with little sugar.