Chutney For Medu Wada And Medu Wada

Chutney For Medu Wada

I read about this special chutney for the medu wada in the cookery book that I have and tried this. It tastes amazing with the wada obviously not as nice as sambar (wada sambar being my favourite). But I was in kind of wrapping up mode that time and hence didnt want to prepare sambar so this chutney made nice alternative.

Ingredients

1/2 Coconut

1/4 Cup Chana Daal

6 Green Chillies

1 Bunch Corriander

1/2 Cup Curd

1/2 Spoon Mustard

1/2 Spoon Udid Daal

A pinch of Asafoetida

1 Spoon of Oil

Salt to taste

Method

• Grate coconut and grind it in mixie with green chillies, corriander leaves, chana daal(one used in chivadas) and salt.
• In this mixture mix curd
• In a small pan heat the oil and let mustard and udid daal splutter in it. Also add Asafoetida.
• Mix this oil into the chutney and serve.

Notes

I used coconut water itself while grinding coconut so that it tastes nice and i dont need to add sugar.

You can also add Red Chillies into the oil for even better taste but i didnt have it so had to skip that.

Medu Wada

Medu wada is my all time favourite and if you know that guests are coming in the evening even by afternoon this is something you can try. This time I really managed to get real crisp and nice medu wada with little help from the book.

Ingredients

2 Cup Udid Daal

2 Green Chillies

4 Spoon Coconut Pieces

1 Onion

Salt to taste

Oil

Method

• Wash and soak the udid daal for around 5-6 hours.
• Once daal is soaked enough, remove the excess water and grind to fine paste.
• Add Salt, finely chopped green chillies, finely chopped onion and coconut pieces and mix well.
• Heat oil in a pan and fry the wadas on low flame.

Notes

Fry the wadas immediately after grinding the daal so that wadas are not oily.

When you put the wada in the hot oil it should float instantly, otherwise add little water to the mixture and loosen the mixture and mix really well.

One can also add little ginger but i prefer non gingery flavour for the wadas.

Tofu Burger and Masala Daal

Tofu Burger

I was very inclined to prepare the burger at home but didnt want to try any meat burger. So thought of preparing paneer one. But then the indian grocerry store was little far from my place so thought to try it on tofu. The burger turned out quite well and the mildness of tofu vanished in the spcies and other things that I added.

Ingredients

4 Burger Buns

100g Tofu

2 Onions

1 Tomato

1 Fresh Red Chilli

4 Cheese Slices

1/2 Cup Lettuce

Ranch Dressing

Salt and Pepper

Oil

Method

• Cut the Tofu into cubes
• Heat oil and keep the flame on low.
• Add tofu pieces and cook till light brown in colour.
• Add onion slices, red chilli into it and cook till onions are slight brown in colour
• Add salt and pepper and stir well. Divide the mixture into 4 portions
• On each bun keep the cheese slice and add the portion of the cooked tofu mixture.
• Spread the lettuce, tomato Slice, couple of drops of tomato ketchup and one circle of the ranch dressing.
• Close with the upper portion of the bun and serve.

Notes
I cooked tofu on very light heat which helped me keep it soft. The Spicy Chilli, ranch dressing helped in supressing the mildness of Tofu.

Masala Daal
This Spicy daal was something I just experimented out when I was in pune. It turned out great. Actually mom dad loved it and then when I came here even ajoy liked it :) So thought of posting the recipe


Ingredients
3 Cup Tur Daal
1 Onion
1 Tomato
6-7 Garlic cloves
1/4 Spoon Mustard
1/4 Spoon Jeera
1 Spoon Red Chilli Powder
1/4 Spoon Turmeric Powder
1/2 Spoon Jeera Powder
1/2 Spoon Corriander Powder
1/4 Spoon Garam Masala
Corriander Leaves for Garnishing
Butter cubes
Salt to taste
Ghee

Method

• Cook tur daal with 1 cup water in the cooker.
• Heat the oil and let the mustard and jeera splutter in it
• Add finely chopped onions, garlic pieces and fry till onions turn translucent.
• Add turmeric powder, red chilli powder, jeera powder, corriander powder and garam masala and mix well.
• Add tomato and cook till tomato is completely done.
• Add in cooked tur daal, salt and mix well. Cook for couple of minutes with constant stirring
• Add enough water for getting desired consistency to the daal and bring it to the boil.
• Garnish with corriander leaves.
• While serving serve with little butter cubes on top.

Notes
While cooking daal I dont mix too much of water, that way the cooked daal when added to masala completely soaks the taste and aroma.

Garden Salad and Idli

Garden Salad

This was salad that I did impromptu with all the ingredients I had at home. The result tasted good and lettuce too this time was quite good.

 

Ingredients

1 Cup chopped Lettuce

1/2 Cup Pineapple

1/2 Cup Mango

1 Boiled Potato

1 Tomato

1 Fresh Red Chilli

1/2 Spoon Oregano

1/4 Cup Pickled Cucumber

2 Spoon Vinegar

Salt to taste

Method

• Add chopped lettuce to the bowl
• Add chopped pineapple and mango in it.
• Add finely chopped tomato in it.
• Remove the cover from boiled potato and add the small cubes in the bowl
• Add finely sliced red chilli in it
• Cut the pickled cucumber into small pieces and add in it.
• Add Salt to taste, oregano and vinegar
• Mix well and serve.

Notes

I had cut all the stuff and added to the bowl and then around half an hour before dinner I mixed in oregano and stuff well. I thought otherwise all the flavors might get mixed in each other and wont taste as good as I would like :) and that proved right because the next day in lunch box it didn't taste as good as it was for dinner :)

 Idli

I have seen quite a few people buy the readymade dosa or idli batter. But I guess I dont like the taste. There is nothing as good as compared to home made stuff. And Idli is something very very easy to prepare. You just need to plan a day ahead thats all it takes. Rest is easy.

Ingredients

1 Cup Udid Daal

2 Cup Idli Rawa

Salt to taste

Oil

Method

• Soak Udid Daal and Idli Rawa for atleast 8 hours.
• Strain the water from the Udid Daal and grind it in the mixie to fine paste.
• Strain water from the idli rawa and grind it to fine paste too.
• Mix rawa paste and udid daal paste well and keep aside for atleast 8 hours
• In the morning, mix in salt really well
• Heat the water in a cooker - without lid
• Grease the idli pan and add the idli mixture in there.
• When the water in the cooker starts to boil put the idli stand into the cooker and cook for around 10-12 minutes on high flame with lid closed but no whistle.
• Open the cooker and let the idlis cool down a little. Separate idlis from the pan and serve with chutney/sambar

Notes

Here since everything is AC and we maintain low temperature, I did keep the mixture on top of hot water container at night. That works perfectly well.

Dont forget to remove the cooker lid immeidately after idli is done so that the vapour doesnt cool down inside the idli making it moist

Berry Nutty Chocochip Cake And Thick Poha Chivada

Berry Nutty Chocochip Cake

Well this time around in Cosco I found fresh cranberries and since I love cranberry juice I thought of buying that packet and trying it out.. The first bite of cranberry and I was sure that I cant have it as it is and have to make something out of it. And then after searching for lot many recipes, none were appealing enough to try out. That is when I decided to try my own one from the few ones I read.

Ingredients

2 Cup Maida

1 Cup Sugar

1 Cup Cranberries

1 Cup Choco Chips

1 Cup Mixed Nuts

1 Cup Grapes

1/2 Cup Melted Butter

1.5 Spoon Baking Powder

1/2 Spoon Baking Soda

1 Egg

4 Spoon Chocolate Sauce

Salt to taste

Method

• Chop the mixed nuts, cranberries and mix them with choco chips and keep aside.
• Sift through Maida, Baking Powder, Baking Soda and Salt couple of times.
• Preheat oven to 350F/180C
• Grease the loaf pan/any other baking pan with butter
• In a large bowl, take this sift through mixture, add in sugar and mix well
• Add in melted butter and mix with hands to form a crumbly mixture
• Grind grapes in the mixie to get its juice. Add in the mixture in bowl
• Add egg and nuts-berry=chocochip mixture. Mix well.
• Pour the batter in the previously greased pan and bake it in the oven over 350F/180C for 45 minutes.
• Let the cake cool down and then sprinkle the chocolate sauce over its top and serve.

Notes
Dont worry if the batter isn't of flowing consistency, its normal. The batter in this case is more of a moist thick mixture.
I already had the mixed nuts bottle at home so I used that one, but you can combine any kind of nuts like cashews, almonds, walnuts, peanuts.

Thick Poha Chivada
Chivada (Mixture) in general is weak point for all most everyone i guess :) This one is very common preparation we end up preparing. Even more than one with thin poha (though i like that one too).


Ingredients
2 Cup Thick Poha
2.5 Spoon Red Chilli Powder
1/4 Spoon Sesame Seeds
1/4 Spoon Jeera
1/2 Cup Peanuts
1/4 Cup Pootane Daal(Chanaa Daal)
1.5 Spoon Sugar
7-8 Curry Leaves
4 Spoon Cashews
4 Spoon Raisins
1/4 Spoon Mustard
A pinch of Asafoetida
Salt to taste
Oil

Method

• Roast jeera and sesame seeds over low flame for around 3-4 minutes
• Dry grind jeera, sesame seeds and sugar to form fine powder
• In a big pan, mix the above powder, 2 spoon of red chilli powder, cashews, raisins and salt to taste. Mix well
• In a pan heat oil over medium flame
• Fry pohas in small batches by adding them in another strainer (steel or aluminium one) which is dipped in the hot oil
• Drain them on the kitchen towel and keep adding them to the above masala mixture when 2-3 batches are on towel. Mix well
• When pohas are fried completely, strain out the remaining oil and heat it in a pan (around 2-3 spoon)
• Fry groundnut till they turn reddish in it. Keep them aside.
• In same oil, add mustard and let it splutter.
• Add Asafoetida, curry leaves and futaane daal(chanaa daal) and roast it for around 2 minutes.
• Add in fried groundnuts and remaining 1/2 spoon of red chilli powder and add this mixture to the chivada mixture prepared earlier. Mix well.

Notes
Use litte oil at a time and add some more oil when half way though. The oil turns black after frying poha, so it would help in reducing the remaining quantity that we need to throw away.
Using strainer helps in taking out pohas easily after they are fried.
I drained the fried pohas over kitchen towel so that it can soak out oil, but one must make sure to transfer them to masala mixture when it is warm and before it cools down

Dhokar Dalna

I had been meaning to cook it ever since I had it in Kolkata at relative's place. I wasnt feeling all that great that day so couldnt enjoy it to fullest but whatever I had was sure good enough to motivate me to make it. So finally after almost an year I get chance to make this.

Ingredients

2 Cup Harbara Daal

2 Tomato

2 Green Chillies

2 Spoon Ginger

5 Garlic Cloves

1/2 Spoon Jeera

1/4 Spoon Turmeric Powder

1/2 Spoon Jeera Powder

1/2 Spoon Corriander Powder

Oil

Ghee

Salt

Method

• Soak the daal overnight and keep aside.
• In a mixie, grind the daal to smooth paste. Keep aside
• In a pan, add in couple spoon of oil and let jeera splutter in it.
• Add in 1 spoon of grated ginger, turmeric powder, salt and daal paste we made earlier. Cook till daal separates from sides of the pan.
• Grease a plate and pour the daal mixture over it and spread uniformly. Let it cool.
• Cut the diamond shaped pieces of this daal and shallow fry them in oil. Keep aside.
• In a mixie, grind tomato, green chillies, remaining 1 spoon of ginger, garlic cloves to fine paste.
• Heat a pan with spoonful of oil and add the above ground tomato paste in it. Cook till mixture is cooked.
• Add in jeera powder, coriander powder, salt and 3 cups of water. Let it boil.
• Add in earlier fried daal dhokas in it and let the mixture simmer till dhokas start absorbing the gravy.
• Garnish with spoonful of ghee and serve.

Notes

I didnt make the gravy too spicy and hence didnt make use of garam masala. Instead I kept it light and let the dhoka taste through the gravy. Worked out quite well.

Mung Daal with peel Aappe

Mom had made these yummy aappe few times and we all liked it a lot. So this time i told her to show me the recipe. The aappe are easy to make and really healthy and tasty.

Ingredients

1.5 Cup Mung Daal with peel

2-3 Green Chillies

2 Garlic Cloves

1/4 Spoon Ginger piece

1/4 Onion

Two pinch Garam Masala

Handful Coriander Leaves

Salt to taste

Oil

Method

• Soak mung daal in water overnight.


• In the morning take out all the water from the daal and add it in the mixer.


• Add in green chillies, garlic and ginger. Grind to fine paste


• Add in finely chopped coriander leaves and onion


• Add in salt and garam masala and mix well.


• Heat Aappe Pan and grease it well. Add in spoonful of mixture in each, sprinkle drop of oil on each aappe and cook covered for 2 minutes on medium flame till the sides separate from the pan.


• Flip the aappes and cook without cover for another 2-3 minutes till the other side is done too. Serve while warm.

Notes

The daal can be soaked for couple of hours as well, so if making it for evening snack you need not have to soak it in the morning itself and these can be made on few hours notice.

Harbara Daal Vada and Dosa

Today I wanted to try something new for breakfast, and an recipe I had read somewhere few weeks back came to my mind. So these vadas I made for breakfast using the fresh mint from my patio garden. In the evening with remaining batter I made Dosas and they turned out equally good so here is recipe for both.

Harbara Daal Vada

Harbara Daal Dosa

Ingredients

2.5 Cup Harbara Daal

4 Spoon Green Chillies

4 Spoon Coriander Leaves

4 Spoon Pudina

4 Garlic Cloves

Salt

Oil

Method

• Soak harbara daal overnight.
• In the morning, in the mixer grind the daal, green chillies, garlic cloves, coriander leaves, pudina and salt together into fine paste.
• For Vada: Fry them by dropping spoonful of batter into the hot oil, brown on both sides over medium heat
• For Dosa: Mix in water to thin it out, drop it on greased pan and spread it. Cook till both of sides till brown.

Notes

If you are going to make vadas, its better to make them immediately after making the batter otherwise they might get oily. That was another reason I made dosas in the evening when i had batter left from the morning.