Pepper Mushroom fry with caramalised onion

Have you guys ever fought with your siblings over stuffs claiming its yours when you were a kid. Have you anytime had problem with sharing your favourite foods.I am sure most of you would have had this incident atleast once . But now we are all grown up, learnt to share things with others and it looks very silly if we fight over though we wanted to . 


But me and hari literally fought for this mushrooms when we sat for lunch.I was seriously fighting with him then but  I feel its very funny now.I know these moments keep life going. 


I had made one whole pocket of mushrooms which I think is very little quantity for gluttons like us now. I had infact secretly quaffed a few when it was getting cooked itself. I just loved this and am sure you will like it too . 

Ingredients :

Button Mushroom - 200 gms
Onion - 1 Large ( sliced lengthwise)
Ground Pepper - 3 tsp or as per taste
Soya sauce - 1 tsp
Sugar - 1/2 tsp
Oil - 1 tsp
Salt to taste

Method :

1. Heat oil in a pan and once it is hot add onions , saute it until it becomes transparent, now you add sugar and stir once.This prevents onion from getting browner.
2. Add mushrooms and saute well. Mushroom will start bleeding water. cook until it gets dried .
3. Now add soya sauce , pepper and salt.(I have used pepper powder but it tastes better if ground pepper is added).Stir fry for a couple of minutes. Done.

Simple isn't it ?

Cabbage Bonda

Frankly until marriage , I was a full time non vegeterian but ofcourse now I have it only when I crave for it. So, immediately after getting into a vegeterian family , I was taken aback by the whole lot of vegeterian dishes served  at home, some of them ,I had not even heard about.

We all know coimbatoreans are the best hosts atleast I feel. You go to their house without notice and still you will be pampered with all goodies that are home made and you can indulge yourself with no guilt.

We had gone to one of Hari's cousin's place and we were newly wedded , I hardly knew anybody at their place. But know what , when she dished out this unheard bonda and carrot kheer, I gulped everything down and without any shame trust me no shame there and its not worth seeing shame there., asked for one more round of both totally totally making Hari embarassed. Lol .

But host was delighted by that act , she said I am her best guest. She even parcelled me both and me again without any disgrace brought it home happily . hee haa haa.

This is my bonda story ... and am very happy to share this wonderful recipe with you.
 Ingredients

1. Whole wheat flour - 1 cup
2. Cabbage - 1 cup
3. Onion - 1 no.
4. Green chillies - 4 nos.
5. Salt to taste.
6. oil to deep fry .

Method :

1. Mix all ingredients except oil like bonda batter .
2. Heat oil in a pan and drip small roundels into oil , deep fry until crisp.
3. This is very crispy outside and spongy inside.

To Serve :

1. This is good if you have it like bonda but it tastes better along with onion salad and lemon juice squeezed on every bonda.

Onion Salad :

• Slice onion thinly,  mix it with chat masala and sprinkle coriander leaves.

Tada Cabbage bonda is ready.

Beetroot Chutney

This is one of the popular coimbatore recipes which I relish thoroughly.I have not used much of coriander seeds until marriage.Agreed I have not cooked before marriage.But even my mom never uses it much in her cuisine. My MIL requested me to use these seeds generously in my cooking after explaining me all those benefits.It has a special flavour and aroma which no one can deny.Try this aromatic chutney as well.

Ingredients

Beetroot - 1 large
Coriander seeds - 3 tsp.
Red chilly - 2 nos.
Curry leaves - few
oil - 1 1tsp
Salt to taste

Method

1. Heat oil in a pan , add beetroot and stir fry in medium flame sprinkling little water.
2. once it is half done add rest of the ingredients and cook until beet root is 3/4th done.
3.Cool and grind it in a mixie without adding water.

Easy peasy no?

Methi and sweet corn pulao

This is one of the easiest recipes that is under the Sun . My all time favourite lunch box rice. It can be cooked in no time and is filled with greens and yellows providing enough nutrition for the day. Let me get straight into the recipe .

I have added no spice except cardamom and cinnamon.I am so glad to send this to CWS - Cardamom seeds by Priya.

Ingrdients :

1. Sweet corn - 1 cup
2. Methi leaves - 1 big bunch
3. Rice - 1 cup
4. Water - 2 cups
5. Butter - 2 tsp
6. Cardamom - 6 pods
7. Cinnamon - 1 inch stick
8. Onion - 1 large
9. Green chilly - 3 
10. Salt to taste

Method :

1. Wash and soak the rice for half an hour.
2. Heat butter in a pressure pan and add cardamom and cinnamon
3. Add sliced onions and saute until it becomes transparent.
4. Add green chillies and ginger garlic paste and saute for a while.
5. Now add corn and methi , stir once ,add water and bring it to boil.
6. Finally add the rice and pressure  cook it for 2 whistles.
7. Open the lid once pressure comes down and serve it with papad and Raita

Eggless Mango custard

I have been wanting to try this custard for long, but no mangoes stayed so longer to make it.Every mango goes straight into my stomach leaving a slim chance for me to put my hands on it. Thanks to this mango, it would be a sin if I call this mango having hardly any taste.

I wanted to make it without eggs.Googled and googled and tried my concoctions also just to see it turned to my favorite. Heres the simple way to make it if you are an ardent lover of sweet condensed milk and your mango disappoints you with its taste.

Ingredients

Sweet condensed milk - 200 gms
Milk - 1/2 cup
hung Curd - 2 tbsp
Ripe mango - 1

Method

1.Cut mangoes into cubes , in a blender mix all the ingredients and blend it smoothly.
2. Pour this into small moulds and steam it like how we steam idli. Insert tooth pick to see if it comes out clean.Then it is cooked.
3.Keep it in the refrigerator for atleast 2 hours to set.
4.Serve chilled.

I am sending this to Mango Moods Event event hosted by Anupama .

kollu( horsegram) paruppu and kollu rasam

There is a popular saying in tamil .. elachavanukku ellu and koluthavanukku kollu means sesame seeds for fatty and horse gram for skinny.No wonder , I have started using kollu often in my diet .
I must say horse gram is one of the unexplored dals here. I have never tasted this dal until I got married. and I used to think it is a cattle feed. It is surprising to find that this tastes better and has innumerable medicinal benefits .
Recipe for rasam and dhal , both can be made just in time and the whole meal can be fixed in less than half an hour. I remember having this whenever I have sore throat which is the symptom of fever. Thadal sore throat disappears in a day and fever would have never shown its face. Try this ,I bet it works for you too. This is one of the gramathu samayals.. What happened to me errrrrr,,, trying out all gramathu samayal .. I hope I dont become one gramathu manushi .. Hee Hee .. Lets get into the recipe ..

Horse gram Dal :

Ingredients :

1. Horse dhal - 1/2 a cup
2. Garlic - 5 pods
3. small onion - 4 nos.
4. Coriander seeds - 2 tsp.
5. Red chillies - 3 nos.
6. Curry leaves - few
7. Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
8. Mustard - 1/2 tsp
9.Oil - 1 tsp.
10. Salt to taste.

Method

1. Pressure cook dal with just more than enough water for about 20 mins.
2. After pressure is down , drain the water and keep the dhal separately.
2. Heat oil in a pan , let mustard to pop out , add onion and saute until it is cooked and add garlic fry for 30 secs , add cumin seeds, coriander seeds, curry leaves, red chillies and salt.
3.Add the dal to the above mixture and add little of water and bring the dal to boil again.Remove from fire.Let it cool completely.Grind it in a mixie giving a couple of pulse.
4. Dal is done.

I am sending this to Delicious dal from India by Suma.

Horse Gram Rasam

1. Dal water -  2/3 cup
2. Tamarind extract - 1/3 cup
2. Garlic - 4 pods
3. Rasam Powder - 1 tsp.
4. Cumin Seeds - 1/2 tsp.
5. Curry leaves - few.
6. Ghee - 1 tsp.
7. Hing - a pinch
8. Salt to taste

Method :

1. Mix dal water, tamarind extract , rasam powder, hing and salt and keep it aside for 10 minutes.
2. Add ghee in a pan, add cumin seeds to pop up and then fry garlic pods.
3. Add water given as in 1 to the 2 and bring it to boil and then simmer for 5 mins.

Tried and Tasted - Malar's Beetroot Vadai

If there is one vegetable that I can eat raw,baked , cooked whatever it would be beetroot.I was not fond of this vegetable until my mom told me beetroot makes lips rosy.(Its true I have told the same to my cute little niece that she is become crazy over this veggie). I have tried everything that is possible with beetroot but this vadai.

I was so tempted to make masala vadai after drooling over Sathya's masala vada and at the same time wanted to make use of expiring beetroot in some ways.Then again I searched in google reader for beetroot and came across this fantastic beetroot vadai in malar's blog. I am so happy that after my series of flops in trying it out new recipes this one has come out strikingly well. Thanks to malar and Sathya.

I have  made a very few modifications according to my taste.

Ingredients :

Channa Dhal - 1 cup
Onion - chopped 1 no.
Beetroot - large grated 1 no.
Green chillies - 4 medium
Fennel seeds - 2 tsp.
Coriander leaves - few
Curry leaves - few
Rice Flour - 3 tsp.
Salt to taste.
Oil to deep fry

Method :

1. Soak channa dhal for about an hour or so.Then completely drain the water and spread it in a towel and let it dry for few minutes.
2. Keep aside a fistful of channa dhal and grind the remaining with fennel seeds coarsely without adding water.If needed can sprinkle a little.But make sure it is not very moist.
3. Then throw in chopped onions,fistful of channa dhal, coriander leaves, curry leaves, chopped green chillies and mix all like a dough.
4. You can add rice flour for the crispier ones.I would suggest you to add rice flour at the last if the mix has become little watery. Otherwise not needed.( I cudnt wait for the channa dhal to drain out water completely and it becomes watery so had added rice flour to get the consistency)
5. Then make small gooseberyy size round balls and flatten it placing it between your palms. This way it comes little bulging at the middle .
6. Fry it in oil in medium flame . Thats all yummy beetroot vadai is ready. If you are health conscious you can as well bake it.The result was just awesome.

Baked Thattu Vadai and awards

Hari is a big fan of snacks and as soon as he returns from the office he goes straight to the snack box .If he doesnt find anything interesting he goes really maad.I sometimes wonder how come he is not putting on weight even though he eats so much.People are really gifted and I envy such kind of people unlike me who puts on weight even if I breathe.At the same time I cant keep my mouth shut from munching something.So, I deliberately avoid stacking snacks at my pantry. But how long can one be without having all those . So I thought I will make thattu vadai and by the time I finish grinding all powders I was totally exhausted and heat was getting into me. I had no patience to stand in the kitchen also to fry everything . consequently decided to bake this off and to know the difference made a very few deep fried ones. Surprisingly, Hari was not able to make out a difference between  both the versions. Why deep fry when baked ones is as good as deep fried ones. Truly guilt free indulgence for me and a crunchy munchy for him.

Recipe goes like this

Raw Rice Powder - 1 cup
Urad dhal powder - 1 tsp.
Roasted dhal - 1 tsp.
Curry leaves - few
hing - 1/2 tsp
Salt to taste
Butter - 2 tsp.

Mix all the ingredients together and make a soft dough using water.Then make gooseberry size balls and flatten them between 2 greased plastic sheets.Preheat the oven at 200 degree celsius and place the flattened balls on the baking sheet and spray oil on each of them and bake for about 10 mins on each side.Crispy Thattu vadai is ready.

Recipe sounds simple but making those 2 powders will take time.

For Raw Rice Powder :

Soak Raw Rice for half an hour and drain the water and then dry them on a towel completely.Put it in a mixie and grind into smooth powder. There may be few lumps after grinding so sieve it to remove all those lumps.

For Urad dhal Powder :

Dry roast Urad Dhal till golden brown and powder it.

P.S : Those with little bubbles on it are deep fried .

Now award time

Menagasathiya of sashiga blog and Jai of Tasty Appetite have shared this with me. Both of them are very adorable having unique and healthy recipes in their respective spaces. I am totally honoured to receive these awards from them.Thanks Menaga and Jai .

I am very delighted to share this awards with much deserving bloggers.

Krishnaveni of Krishnaveni's Kitchen
Sushma mallya of Authenti Food Delights
Cool Lassie of http://pangravykadaicurry.blogspot.com/
Sathya Sridhar of Samayal Corner
Sashi of Sashi's Tasty Bites
Maya and Lakshmi of Yummy Team
Kiran of Sumadhara
Rumana Ambrin of Spice ur Senses

bottle gourd and cow pea curry

I have suddenly become more addicted to this naattu( country )vegetables.Back in my native I used to hate all these veggies for many reasons. My parents never make anything with hybrid vegetables or that is straight from cold storage box. Amma still says try to avoid store bought food and it is after these many years slowly starting to sink into my head.
To my surprise , most of the sites suggested this to include in your daily intake if you are on diet .
Gourd is:

•Low in Saturated Fat, and Cholesterol

•High in Dietary Fiber, Vitamin C, Riboflavin, Zinc, Thiamin, Iron, Magnesium and Manganese. Note that Wax Gourd is high in Sodium.

The nutritional value of gourd makes it suitable for:

•Maintaining optimum health

•Weight loss

Avoid including gourd in your diet if you're interested in:

•Weight gain

This is awesome right. More interesting fact I found when I wikied for Bottle gourd is I got this Pic . Isn't it beautiful ?
Pic Source : Wikipedia

Going to try this on my own after my exams are over for sure.

So now the time for recipe :

Ingredients

Bottle Gourd chopped - 1 cup
Cow Pea - 1/2 cup
Small Onion - 6 nos.
Tomato - 1 no.
Tamarind - 1 small meon size ball
Coconut - 1 tbsp.
Sambhar Powder - 2 tsp.
Oil - 2 tsp
Mustard , curry leaves for seasoning
Salt to taste

Method :

1. Boil cow pea in pressure cooker for about 15 mins.
2. Then take a pan and add oil , once oil is hot enough add mustard and let it pop up.
3. Now add onion and saute them until it changes color.
4. Add tomato, chopped bottle gourd ,sambhar powder,tamarind extract and salt .Close the lid and cook until bottle gourds are 5. done.You Can put everything together except cowpea in cooker and give one whistle which is very faster.
6. Add Cooked cowpea and coconut and boil it for a minute .
7. Now add cooked cow peas and coconut

Serve it with hot rice drizzling some ghee on it. Perfect for the lunch .

I am sending this to Delicious dals from India hosted by Suma.

Award Time

This is definitely one of the most happiest moments in my life.This blog world has identified a different me in me. Only after coming to the blog world , My paper crafts and painting once used to be hobbies have become my passion.And guess what I have made some origamy stuffs and dispayed at home . Friends who visited my house were thoroughly impressed with it and being it summer, they have started asking me to start summer classes for the kids. If it was one ,I would have taken it as a best compliment I have ever got. But when you hear the same for the third time , it really makes me to think about it.I have resolved to start up something differently for the next summer for the kids.

Followed by that,  I am drenched in awards this time which makes me doubly happy . Most of the awards have come with a Tag making me to think which is the last thing I will ever want to do. So awards that require my brain will take a little time to get posted.

This awards have been passed on to me by yummy team of yummyoyummy and Rumana of Spice ur sense.Thank you ladies , I feel very honoured dearies.Do check out their blogs for their wonderful collection of recipes.You will be amused as much as I did.

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This award has come with a couple of rules to share 10 things about me and need to pass this award to fellow bloggers.

I would like to pass on this award to aruna manikandan of Veggie Paradise,Ms.Chitchat of Chitchat@crossroads,Leena of namma Saviruchi ,swathi of Zesty south indian recipe ss of SS blogs here,Kiran of Samudhura

Ten things about me :
1. I am Pavithra Srihari ( I take this opportunity to change my name from verum Pavithra to Pavithra Srihari as there are more than one Pavithra here)hailing from a small town called Karur in Tamilnadu and settled in Bangalore after Marriage.
2. Very simple and ambitious.
3. Started my CA course after my Marriage and my final exams are on its way.Hope to complete it without flunking.
4. Passionate about dancing though not a trained classical dancer.Still regret for it.I am passionate about paper crafts and paintings as well.
5. I really hate to go out for shopping with anyone who cannot decide on a thing .That said, I am not much of a shopper at home ,but brigade road has transformed me into a voracious shopper.
6. I am a big road street foodie. The sandwich auto cart shop in chennai egmore is my fav of all.I have such favs in bangalore and coimbatore as well.
7. Biggest tamil movie buff.If you have seen Rajini and Goundamani in Mannan movie, just imagine me there waiting in the q to buy movie tickets with one glass in my goggles. Internet is made my life easier nowadays.
8. I am a person with starting trouble.Too lazy to get started on anything and once started I can easily drop of things if not interesting as well.
9. A bit egoistic.
10. of all I am a great cook.If I dont call myself after all whoelse will.

Ridge gourd milk curry ( peerkangai paal kozhambu)

This is my all time favourite .A very simple recipe has been passed down to me from my mother and when I wanted to check for the recipe in the net I couldnt find one . So, thought lemme bring it to my blog.Maybe not there considering its simplcity. Whatever I am so happy posting my yet another favourite recipe.

Food says people's culture.This is also one of the cultures that need to be cherished and conserved. I see so many blogs here though living miles apart from home land trying to make authentic home food.

That said let me get into the recipe :

Ingredients :
Ridge gourd - 1 no.
small onion - 6 nos.
Green chilli - 2 nos.
Jeera - 1 tsp.
milk - 1 cup



Method:
1. Take a pressure pan and heat oil and once oil is hot enough add onion and saute for 2 mins.
2. Now add green chilli and cumin seeds and fry for 3 seconds .
3. Add Ridge gourd and salt and stir well . Sprinkle a tspn of water and close the lid and give one whistle.
4. Once the pressure is down , add milk along mash roughly so that milk gets mixed with raidge gourd and heat it in sim for 2 mins.
Salt to taste.
Oil for tampering

Sweet, sour and spicy Sesame Powder

I was not a big fan of ellu podi until I had this version . As you all know Andhra is known for its gunpowder which is really spicy.I used to haunt the andhra restaurants here just for its gunpowder and gongura chuntney .I stayed in hostel for somedays where I was sharing my room with andhrites.Probably thats where I got addicted to this powders.I had a strong aversion to my hostel food.So I just eat my rice only with this Ellu Podi .
I dont know for some stupid reasons , I have been deprived of this podi. Now doctor has asked me to take lots of ellu in food as it is very rich in Iron.Yipppeee !!! Have you seen a doctor asking us to eat something we like.
I have had that andhra podis taste in my taste and after trying so many attempts , I captured that test .I got this recipe  from menutoday blog and slightly modified for my taste. I couldnt believe that H was having it with idli,rice,curd and with anything that is on his plate.
This is little different from what my mother makes. This is hot,sour and sweet podi.

Ingredients
Sesame seeds (Black) - 1 cup
Urad dhal - 1/2 cup
Red chillies - 6 nos.
Curry leaves - few
Tamarind - one small lemon size
Jaggery - 1/2 tsp.(wouldnt advise you to add more then it will dominate the podi)
Salt to taste

Method

1.Dry roast Sesame until it starts popping out.
2.Dry roast Urad dhal separately until it turns light brown colour in medium flame.
3.Dry roast Red chillies, curry leaves, tamarind and salt for few seconds.Take care that chillies are not burnt.
4.Grind 2 and 3 with jaggery to a smooth powder and finally add ellu to it and give 2 pulse.Ellu should not be ground for long then it will start to give oil smell.

I am sending this to Blog Bites #2 - Copy cat Edition at onehotstove by Nupur.

Tried and Tasted-Sashiga's Oven brinjal chips

Its been more than 3 years since I bought my oven but I have never put to proper use . Never even thought of trying something using convection mode.H used to say ' its only occupying space and even if we put to used iron dealers it will fetch atleast dates. But after seeing this chips from sashiga , I couldn't resist myself from trying my hands on it.I feel for not using my oven for so long. This came out exceptionally well and I wanted to thank Menaga for sharing this wonderful recipe with us once again here.

Ingredients :

1. Long green brinjal - 2 nos.
2. Cornflour - 2 tsp.
3. Chilli powder - 1/2 tsp.
4. Salt to taste
5. Oil for brushing.

Method :

1. Preheat the oven at 180 degree .Meanwhile you can cut the brinjal into thin round slices as for chips.Then sprinkle cornflour, chilli powder and salt and mix well .Place an aluminium foil over a baking sheet and rub with oil.Brush all brinjal slices with a drop of oil on each. Then place all brinjal slices without overlapping with each other. Place in oven and bake it at 180 degree for 1o mins on one side .Turn the slices and cook for about 5 mins.Keep checking to see not got burnt.

This goes so well with rasam rice and curd rice.

P.S I have actually burnt a few as slices are not even. so make sure brinjal is evenly sliced.

Capsicum besan poriyal

Capsicum has become my favourite vegetable off late. Aloo has now  been pushed to the second place after this one.We never used to get capsicum in my small town when I was young.So I was not aware of this vegetable much.Only after coming to chennai that may be in 2003 , I tasted this vegetable for the first time though I have heard a lot about it.I just fell in love with this vegetable and I have still not gotten up. One good thing about this vegetable is its so easy to cut, can be eaten raw, cooks faster and it blends well in any type of cuisine.

I badly wanted to make stuffed capsicum , but for some reason ended up making this fry .Ingredients are very similar to the one we use for stuffed capsicum but just the methodolgy is different.Guess what , this came out really well.

Ingredients :

Capsicum - 2 nos.
Onion - 1 no.
Besan powder - 2 tbsn.
oil - 3 tspn.
Salt to taste.

Method:

1. Dice capsicum into cubes and cut onions .
2. Heat oil in a  pan and once it is hot, add onion and saute for few minutes , then add diced capsicum, salt and stir fry nicely until capsicum is cooked but still it has to retain its crunchiness.
3. Meanwhile dry roast besan in a separate pan and finally add it to the cooked capsicum and fry it for 2 more minutes . Capsicum besan is ready .