Fried Veggies: Many in One

We all want varieties in our meals, don't we? Who would want to eat the same fried rice for both lunch and dinner? Or who would really want to have only biscuits for tea time snacks?! We do want to try out new stuffs, but at the same time, the one working on it often ends up exhausted trying out too many varieties on the same day. So, I came up with something that can ease out things for you, but at the same time it still provides variety to everyone at home.

Using one base recipe, we can derive at below three (or even more) variety of dishes:
1. Fried Rice
2. Spring Rolls/ Fried Momos
3. Steamed Momos
4. Others: Veg Noodles, Macaroni

Many in One

At first, prepare the fried veggies in bulk and keep it aside. Next, you may decide to either cook rice  for lunch(fried rice), or prepare dough for momos for evening snacks (steamed or fried).

Ingredients:

• Vegetables: 2 onions, 2 Carrots, beans, 1 capsicum, lots of cabbage, onion springs
• Minced Ginger and Garlic 
• Salt and Pepper
• Oil for frying
• Equal quantities of maida(all purpose floor) & wheat floor for preparing momo dough
• Cooked Rice for fried rice

Preparing Fried Veggies:

• Chop all vegetables into small pieces. 
• In a large pan, add sufficient oil. Once it becomes hot, add ginger, garlic and then onion. 
• Once this turns golden, add rest of the vegetables and cook them on medium flame without adding water. You may close it with a lid for faster cooking, but remember to keep stirring it frequently.
• After around 5-7 minutes, you will notice that the veggies turn a little translucent, indicating that its cooked. It better to leave the vegetables a little crunchy. Add onion springs and cook for less than a minute. Now add salt and pepper powder. Stir well and turn off the flame. 
• Keep some veggies aside for momos and use the rest to prepare fried rice as mentioned below.

Preparing Fried Rice:

• To the same pan which has the fried veggies, add a spoon of soy sauce. Saute on high flame for a minute and turn off flame. 
• Then add cooked-and-cooled rice and mix well. 
• Adjust salt & pepper as per taste. Your fried rice is now ready to be served.

Preparing Momos Outer sheets:

• Mix equal quantities of wheat flour and maida. 
• Add salt and water. Mix well to bring it to the consistency of poori dough. 
• Keep it covered for 20mins before rolling them.

Preparing Fried/Steamed Momos:

• Make round balls out of the dough and press them flat with a rolling pin.
• Now at the center of the flattened dough, place the vegetable fillings as shown below.
• Slowly pinch and bring the edges together and seal them.
• This is now ready to be deep fried (medium flame) or steamed in a cooker (medium flame, without whistle, for 15mins).

Spring Rolls/Fried Momos

Steamed Momos

Note:

• Momos turn out very delicious when we add cabbage in large quantities.
• To get an Indian flavor, you can choose to garnish the veggies with chopped coriander leaves instead of onion spring.
• Both momos and fried rice tastes best when served with tomato/chili sauce.
• For more spice, you can add chopped green chilies while preparing fried veggies, or alternatively use hot spicy sauce.
• Instead of adding cooked rice, you can choose to cook noodles or macaroni, and add the same fried veggies to it. This gives you veg noodles/ veg macaroni and adds variety at home.

Goddu Saaru

I prepare this special rasam whenever anyone at home catches cold/ cough. Its an excellent relief for cold/cough or even fever.

Main Ingredients:

Toor Dal - 2 spoons
Curry leaves - a few
Garlic pods - 3
8-10 pepper seeds
coconut grating - 2 spoons
turmeric
half spoon rasam powder
tamarind - as per taste
jaggery - as per taste
Salt as per taste
Ghee - 2 spoons
water.

Seasoning:

Ghee
mustard
jeera
curry leaves
1 garlic pod
a pinch of hing (optional).

Method:

Roast the toor dal in 2 spoon of ghee. After a minute add curry leaves, garlic pods and pepper. Roast until they change color.

Then put this to mixie/blender. Also, add coconut grating, half spoon rasam powder and tamarind.

Transfer the contents into a thick bottomed vessel. Add as much water to get the runny rasam consistency. Add  turmeric, jaggery and salt as per taste and bring to boil. [Remember, it gets thick as it boils, so add enough water. Just 2 spoons of toor dal/coconut is sufficient for a family of 4].

Complete it with a perfect ghee seasoning - by adding mustard, jeera, curry leaves and garlic.

Serve it hot with rice. Tastes better with liberal serving of ghee and of course plenty of love ;)

Oats Oats Oats... Oats Everywhere!

We Indians do not use much of oats in our daily meals. But, these days its become quite a trend, even among us, to consume oats for breakfast. I had 2 kilos of oats lying in my kitchen shelf and I had absolutely no clues how to use them. It looked so dry and tasteless. I tried a few online recipes, but none of them impressed our taste buds.

One cool morning, I craved to eat hot spicy upma for breakfast, but I fell short of rava. Suddenly the thought of mixing some oats flashed my mind. I went ahead and tried mixing rava and oats in 3:1 proportions. To my surprize, my upma turned out so well. Another day, I mixed some roasted oats while preparing poha. Even that was a hit. My ideas went on growing. I added oats while preparing dosa/idli batter in small quantities. It blends so well that no one could guess I added oats in my dosas. 

One fine day, it was time to experiment on my chapatis. I added wheat flour and oats flour in 3:1 ratio. And bingo! There I ended up with soft fluffy chapatis as always.

Given that, oats is so beneficial to health, I want all my near and dear ones to enjoy your usual Indian breakfast, with a little dose of oats in it. Try my below tips and get healthier.

- Simply roast a large bowl of oats in a pan, until it slightly changes its color.

- Once it cools down, take half of it, put it into a mixer & make a fine powder of it. Store it in a jar.

- Take remaining roasted oats and make a coarse powder and store it separately in another jar.

- Use fine powder while preparing chapatis, paratas or akki rotti.

- Use coarse powder in Upma, kesari bath, poha or while preparing idli/dosa batter.

- You may add approximately one-third portion of oats powder to the actual main ingredient. If you are hesitant, use smaller quantities initially and you may slowly increase its proportion.

Some facts on oats:
- Oats are very rich in dietary fiber.
- They have a range of healthy cholesterol-lowering properties.
- It prevents heart disease.
- It reduces the risk of diseases like high blood pressure and diabetes.
- It is known to enhance immune response to various infections.

Idli Fries

It was raining heavily this evening and my tummy craved to eat some yummy french fries. But, given that both my kids were sleeping, I had no chance of going out to satisfy my taste buds. So, my brains did all the crazy processing and came up with this yummy idli fries.

Ingredients:
Left over idlis
Oil for frying
Chutney/sauce to dip and eat

Procedure:
Simply cut the idlis in any preferred shape. I cut them to match the size of french fries.
Deep fry them in a pan with medium flame.
Serve with coconut chutney or tomato sauce.

I enjoyed the rain and the crunchy snack... so did my kids. I never ever thought left-over idlis would bring so much delight to my taste buds. Truly scrumptious!

Appy Halwa

There were plenty of apples lying in the fruit basket at my home and I didn't know what to do with them. That's when I suddenly recalled the yummy halwa I had at one my my friend's place. It was not the right time to call her and check the recipe. So I simply tried it my own way and it did come out well. I love this simple and healthy halwa. My kids love it too. Thanks to my friend Priya for introducing this simple and yummy dish to me.

Ingredients:
Green/Red Apples - 4 (Grated)
Milk - 1 cup
Milk powder - 4 spoons (optional)
Sugar - 1 cup
Ghee - few spoons
A handful of dry nuts - Cashew/raisins/almond

Method:

• Take a thick bottomed pan and pour 3 spoons of ghee.
• Once it is hot, put the grated apples and stir. After a minute, add a cup of milk to it. With occasional stirring, cook them for around 12-15 minutes on medium-low flame. 
• Once they are all cooked add sugar and mix well. 
• At this point you may add milk powder if you wish to enhance its taste. Mix the milk powder with very little water and pour it into the pan. Cook further for about 5 minutes. Keep stirring.
• Add few more spoons of ghee when you notice that the halwa is almost done. You will see that the halwa comes out clean without getting stuck to the pan when you add ghee. Turn off the flame.
• Roast dry nuts/fruits of your choice in ghee and garnish them on top of your halwa. I added cashew, almond, raisins and figs.

Your halwa is now ready to be served. I love it chilled. My husband loves it hot. Try it the way you want and enjoy your yummy halwa.

Dry nuts Modka/Karigadbu

Ganesha festival's must-have is modka and karigadbu. It was mom's suggestion to make it healthier by adding dry nuts to the fillings. 

Here's a quick recipe of it...

Dough:

Maida: 2 bowls

Few spoons of ghee

Salt to taste

A pinch of soda

Water

Filling:

Dry nuts of ur choice: almond, pista, walnut: half bowl (coarsely powdered)

A handful of Raisins

Kadlepappu: powdered 3 spoons

Dried coconut gratings: 1 bowl

Sugar: 1 bowl

Elachi: 2-4 for added flavor

Frying:

Sufficient oil for frying

• Mix the filling ingredients together and keep it aside as shown in below picture. 
• Mix the dough by adding water and bring it to a consistency little harder than poori. 
• Make small balls and flatten them using a rolling pin(almost the size of poori).
• Fill the flattened dough with dry-nuts-filling and seal them to desired shape.
• Deep fry until they turn golden brown.

They are now ready to be served.

Nutties n Fruities

I am back here after a real long time. And here is my first mobile article. Feels sooo good to blog sitting in a crowded train :) 

I have this wonderful healthy recipe for kids. I'm sure mums, dads n aunts will love too.

It was hubby's idea, mum's recipe, my effort and Rikki's treat. Preparing this mouth-watering snack was pretty simple and a quick one.  Try it out...

Ingredients:

• Dry nuts - cashew, almond, walnut, pistachio
• Dry fruits - raisins, dates, figs
• Ghee - 3 spoons
• Jaggery - approx lemon size

Procedure:

• Grind all nuts to a coarse powder
• Cut the fruits into small pieces
• Roast them all with ghee for a couple of minutes
• Heat the jaggery with little water to form a thick syrup
• Switch off the flame and add the powder to the syrup.
• Form small round balls when the contents are still hot/warm.

Additionally you can add some khus-khus or dry coconut for enhanced taste.

Our whole family loved this healthy snack. Go give yourself and your family a treat too.

Walnut Chutney

Walnut Chutney is very very simple to prepare and it goes well with Dosa/Idli. Its similar to the South Indian coconut chutney, but far more healthier than that :) Try it out yourself...

Ingredients:

Walnuts: 10-12 in number

Ginger: 1 inch

Garlic: 1-2 pods

Green Chilli: 3 or as per taste

Coriander Leaves: 1 handful

Coconut gratings: 3-4 spoons

Yogurt: 1 bowl

Salt as per taste

Method:

Put all the above ingredients and mix it thoroughly in a blender/mixie adding sufficient water. The chutney is then seasoned with ghee and mustard. If needed add one red chilli to make it spicier.

As simple as that! Try it, taste it and enjoy it!!!

My Fav: Masala Puri

Yet another amma's recipe down here. I prepared this yummy chat over the weekend. It has too many ingredients and i keep forgetting them. So I have put it here to help myself recall when I'm lost in the immense deep world of recipes & ingredients :)

Ingredients:
Ingre A:
Potato - 2 (cooked and mashed)
Peas - 1 bowl (cooked and semi-mashed)
Ingre B:
Mint leaves - 1 bowl
Coriander leaves - 1 bowl
Ginger, Garlic - minced or paste
Green chilly 5-7 in number
Black pepper 15-20 in number - powdered or coarsely ground
Cloves 5 in number 
Cinnamon - powdered
Ajwain 1 spoon
Cumin Seeds 1 spoon
Fennel Seeds 1 spoon
Salt as per taste
Ingre C:
Onion - 2 chopped into small pieces
Carrot - 1 grated
Lime juice - few spoons
Ingre D:
Sev, Puri, Boondi, or any variety of such mixtures would do. You can prepare them all by yourself or just run to the nearby shop if you are like me :)

Method:
- Cook potato and peas (Ingre A) and mash them and keep aside.
- Use a blender/mixie to make a green paste of Ingre B by adding sufficient water.
- Now in a large thick bottomed wok, add some oil & once it becomes hot add mustard.
- Add mashed potato and peas to the wok. Also add the blended green paste.
- Add sufficient water (around 2-3 glass or more) and bring it to boil stirring occasionally. Add salt as per taste and let it boil for sometime and your pani is now ready.

Click on image to view in details

Serving:
- In a bowl, add sev, semi-crushed puri, boondi, chopped onion, grated carrots. Then, pour some pani over this mixture. Finally you can garnish it with a few drops of lime juice & some more onion, carrot and coriander leaves. Serve it hot.
- Remember to eat it hot and fresh - otherwise, the mixture becomes soft very soon and its crispiness goes away.
- Note: You can refrigerate the pani for upto 2 days and re-heat as needed.

Mangalore Buns

When I call it buns, don't imagine them to be like bakery buns. These are home made poori-like buns with a little sweet, salt and soury taste in it. Goes well for evening snacks and kids will love it.
With 1 large banana, you can prepare approx 20 buns.

Ingredients:
Banana - 1 (choose very ripe bananas with black spots on its skin)
Sugar - 1 small bowl
Salt - as per taste
Yogurt - 1 small bowl
A pinch of Soda
Wheat flour + Plain Flour - at least 2 bowls
Butter - 2 little blobs
Oil for frying

Method:
- Melt the butter in a large vessel. Peel the banana and smash it well and add to the vessel
- Add sugar, salt, soda, yogurt and mix well so that they blend together and form an even paste
- Now, to this add wheat flour and plain flour (maida) in equal quantities and mix them well until it forms a consistent dough like that of Poori dough. (Note: Wheat:Maida proportion can be adjusted as per your likings).
- Keep the dough aside overnight. (Some even prefer to keep it for fermentation for 24-36hrs for better taste).
- Next day, make small balls out of the dough (like poori balls) and flatten them with rolling pins.
- Heat oil in a frying pan and fry these in medium flame on either side until they turn golden brown.

Serve it hot (plain or with desi chutney). Also note that these buns can be prepared and stored in air tight jars for 1-2 days and has its own taste when eaten that way.

Veg Cutlet

I began drooling as my mom told that she was preparing veg cutlet for the guests that evening. I simply went "J" over it and could not resist further. I called back mom again next evening, took the recipe from her and decided to prepare it myself.

So here's the recipe for you guys to try:
Below mentioned proportion holds good for making 10-12 cutlets. Increase the quantity proportionally as per your requirement.

Ingredients:
Potato - 1 large (cooked and mashed)
Peas - 1 bowl (soaked, cooked and mashed)
Onion - 1 medium (chopped)
Beetroot - 1 small (grated)
Fennel seeds (Saunf) - 1 spoon
Ginger Garlic paste - 2 spoons
Red Chilly powder - 1 spoon
Garam Masala & Salt as per taste
Turmeric
Bread Crumbs and Maida
Cooking Oil

Method:

Part 1: Preparing Cutlet Sabji
- Pour 3-5 spoons of cooking oil into a cooking pan. Once the oil is hot, add sounf, ginger, garlic paste. Saute for few seconds
- Add chopped onion. After it turns golden brown, add turmeric and then the grated beets. Cook for a few minutes until the beets are cooked well.
- Now add cooked mashed potato + mashed peas and mix thoroughly.
- Add red chilly powder, garam masala and salt. Stir and mix until it forms an even paste with the consistency like that of thick parata fillings.
- Switch off the flame and keep aside.

Part 2: Maida batter + Breadcrumbs
- In a bowl, take some water and add maida flour & a pinch of salt. Mix well and bring to the consistency of beaten egg yolk (or like that of dosa batter).
- Keep the breadcrumbs ready in a bowl (since I didn't find bread crumbs in the store, I simply mixed the rusk bits + 1 spoon rava(semolina) in a blender and there I got a pile of powdered rusk which turned out good enough for me).

Part 3: Veg Cutlet!!!
- Make medium sized balls & flatten the cutlet sabji with hands.
- At one side of the flattened sabji, smear a little maida batter carefully and dust the breadcrumbs over them evenly.
- Place them on the hot griddle smeared with oil (Note: the side smeared with breadcrumbs are facing down). Now, on the top surface, smear maida and sprinkle breadcrumbs so that both sides get a coating of maida + crumbs.
- Its not a deep fry, so chill! Just make sure to put sufficient oil so that they get roasted well on either sides. :)

Serve the hot veg cutlets with sauce or desi chutney... along with a hot cup of coffee.

Suggestions:
- You need to roast them really long on low/medium flame so that they turn crispy and crunchy. Yummmm!
- Adding maida gives the crunchy feel. Its only optional. You can omit this part as its a little messy for beginners to smear the maida batter rightly. Just pat over bread crumbs on either side directly, place them on the tava and roast.

Neer Unde

At least a few of you would have heard of "neer dose". The ingredients of "neer unde" are similar to that of "neer dose". Just that the preparation method is a little different.

Well, I am sure most of you reading this recipe, wouldn't have tasted this before. It is a special Malnad recipe passed on to me from my mom. Try it out when your taste buds crave for something new.

Ingredients:
Dosa Rice - 1 large cup
Coconut gratings - 3-4 spoons
Chili - 3 (or as per taste)
Jeera - 1 spoon
Ginger - 1 inch
Asafetida - for aroma and flavoring
Salt - as per taste
Sufficient water for grinding
Oil

Method:
- Soak rice for up to 4hrs. Grind the soaked rice with all other above ingredients in a grinder until it becomes smooth. Add sufficient water as needed.
- Now transfer the watery mixture into a large bowl and let it ferment overnight (Neer Unde can be made instantly without fermentation. Fermentation give a sour taste which I love, but it is totally optional).
- The following day, smear a large frying pan with just 2-3 spoons of oil and heat it. Now pour the batter into it and stir continuously. It wont take too long for it to thicken. The consistency should be like that of thick whipped butter/sreekhand or like the akki rotti/papad/sandige dough.
- Smear little oil or water to your hand and make flattened balls out of this thick paste when hot.
- Place the flattened balls on oil-smeared-pan and heat it with a covered lid. Your neer unde is done once both sides turn golden brown. pour a spoon of oil if needed.

Neer unde with coconut chutney + coconut oil is my fav combination. Try out and enjoy the Malnad taste. :)

Imp. Tip: Just in case if u mess up with its consistency while preparing the dough (which is tend to happen for a beginner :D), dont worry. You can make round balls, place them in a large bowl & cook in cooker (like idlis). Even that tastes pretty good.

Scrummy Spring Rolls

Yet another Amma's recipe down here.
I prepared it a few weeks back, and it definitely suited the weather. Try it out on a rainy evening. I bet you will love it. :)

Ingredients:
- Vegetables: 1 Carrot, 1 capsicum, 1 onion, beans, cabbage
- Minced ginger & garlic
- oil for frying
- powdered pepper (as per taste)
- salt (as per taste)
- a pinch of soda (optional: makes the dish crispy)
- maida (all purpose flour) - 1 bowl

Preparing the fillings:
- Cut all the vegetables long and thin. In a pan, pour 4 spoons of oil. I used olive oil. Once its hot, put chopped onion, ginger and garlic. Saute until it turns color for 1-2 mins on high flame.
- Then add carrot and beans. Lastly add capsicum and cabbage as they are soft and thus take very little time to get cooked.
- Make sure the vegetables are semi cooked. Add pepper and salt as per taste and mix well. Now you are done with the stuffing.

Preparing the Dough:
- Mix maida, salt and a pinch of soda with water and bring it to the consistency of poori dough.

Preparing the Spring Rolls:
- Make round balls out of the dough and press them flat like that of poori size with a rolling pin.
- Now at the centre of the flattened dough, place the vegetable fillings. Wrap the dough on all sides and seal them by pressing carefully at the edges. (check the image below to see how the wrapped dough looks like). Do the same for all the flattened dough.
(Note: Be extra careful to seal well. Else, it will leak out while frying and you will end up with a messy snack.)

Frying the Spring Rolls:
- Pour sufficient oil into a deep pan for frying.
- Once the oil is hot, put the stuffed dough into the pan and fry either sides on medium flame until it turns golden brown. Repeat the process for the rest of them and you are done.


Spring Rolls: Click on image for a better view

 Serving Suggestions: Cut the spring rolls at centre and serve with tomato/chilly sauce. Serve it hot.

Aloo Palak

Ingredients:
1 bunch spinach - chopped (approx 1 big bowl)
1 Potato - semi cooked
1 tomato - cooked, with skin removed
2 chillis
2 pods garlic
1 onion - chopped
1 spoon Jeera Dhania powder
10 Cashews - soaked in water
Garlic, ginger - minced Garam masala
Ghee, Salt, Turmeric

Method:

• Keep the chopped spinach, potato (cut into cubes) and tomato in seperate vessels and cook in cooker (1 whistle).
• After it cools, peel the skin of the tomato. Blend the tomato + soaked cashews in a blender. Keep it aside.
• Using the same blender, blend the spinach + chilli + garlic together. 
• In a pan, put 3-5 spoons of ghee. After it heats up, add ginger, garlic, dhania, jeera and chopped onions. Saute for 3 mins. Add turmeric. 
• Add the pureed spinach and tomatoes. Cook for 2 mins and stir well so that they blend together. Add salt and garam masala as per taste.  
• Finally add the potato cubes and mix well.

Switch off the flame and here your are done. Aalu Palak suits best with Chapati/Roti and alike.

(Note: After cooking spinach, remove excess water in it and use it if the gravy looks too thick. even otherwise, do not waste the water as it has the grean leafy nutrients in it. ;) So use the remaining water in preparing chapati dough).

Beetroot Halwa

Another Healthy-Bhi-Tasty-Bhi recipe down here: 

Ingredients:
Beetroots(2-3 large beetroots): i.e; 2 large bowls of grated beetroot
Sugar: for 2 large bowls of beetroot take 3/4th bowl of sugar (Note: if you love sweet then you can take beetroot:sugar in the ratio of 2:1)
Milk powder: 3 spoons (optional)
Ghee: Around 8 spoons
Dry nuts for seasoning (Cashew, Badam, Dry grapes) & powdered Elachi for aroma.

Method:
Grate the beetroots and cook it in cooker (without adding water). 1 whistle is more than sufficient. If possible switch off the cooker even before it makes its 1st whistle. After it cools down a bit, try to remove the excess water in the cooked beetroot. Remember not to squeeze as that will spoil its structure.

In a pan put 4 spoons of ghee to roast the dry nuts (Cashew, Badam, Dry grapes, Elachi) until they turn golden brown. Keep them aside and to the same pan add 4 spoons ghee and add the cooked grated beetroot. Stir on medium flame for 5 minutes. Then add sugar + milk powder to the pan. Stir so that they mix well. Once the sugar melts you will notice the content becomes a little watery. So, you will have to stir occasionally until all water evaporates (on medium/high flame). The consistency should become like that of Carrot Halwa - took me around 20 mins of stirring. Once done, turn off the flame and add the roasted nuts.

You can serve the halwa hot or refrigerate it and serve chilled.

(Note: If you think you added too much sugar and halwa turned out too sweet then you can alter it by adding some grated kobri at the end and stir for an additional 5 mins.)

Heerekai Chutney

Well, I would like to call it fibrous chutney because its made of vegetable's skin and thus very fibrous and healthy. Its called heerekai sippe chutney - more famous as samandha in south kanara.

Ingredients:

1 big bowl - Heere kai sippe (thick skin of ridge gourd)
2 spoon coconut gratings
1 spoon urad dal
1 green chilly, 1 red chilly
tamarind - 1 small lemon size
a pinch of asafoetida (ingu)
2 spoon oil
salt to taste

Method:

(1) Semi cook the skin of ridge gourd and keep it aside. (can be cooked in cooker or in a pan with closed lid).
(2) Take a pan and put 2 spoons oil. Add urad dal to it. Once it turns brownish, add green & red chilly. Add asafoetida powder. Switch off the flame and then add coconut gratings.
(3) Mix (1) and (2) in a blender/mixie to form a consistent paste. Add water as needed.
(4) For seasoning: add mustard seeds and some urad dal in oil/ghee.

And there you go! Who said "all that tastes good is not healthy and all that is healthy tastes bad!" In this case: its healthy bhi... tasty bhi!

Serving suggestions: Serve it with curd rice or Dosa/Chapati/Idli.

Now you must be wondering "I use the fibrous peeled skin. well and good. But what do I do with the vegetable!!!" No worries. It can be used in making Dose. Follow my Khara Dose recipe here which shows you how to do just that.

Spicy Spaghetti

Today has been a lazy day... lazy to cook rice, but all excited and geared up to try some experimenting with spaghetti. I searched for some good recipes in the internet, but most of them wanted chilly sauce, vinegar, multi-purpose sauce and many other varieties. In my kitchen, you can simply find 1 bottle of tomato sauce and soy sauce. I have not tried other varieties of sauces for the simple reason that we seldom cook Chinese/Italian food and the sauce will be kept unused for months together and wasted ultimately.

So the below recipe is my own version of spaghetti, more suitable for Indian taste buds. Try it out, and i bet you will enjoy the new taste.

Indian Version Spaghetti Ingredients:

1 onion - chopped

1 bowl carrot - cut into match sticks size

1 bowl shredded cabbage

1 bowl capsicum - cut into thin long slices

1 small bowl onion springs - cut diagonally

1 spoon minced ginger & garlic

1 large bowl cooked & strained Spaghetti

1 spoon soy sauce 

1 spoon tomato sauce

4-5 spoons of oil

salt and white pepper - as per your taste.

Method:

Preparing Spaghetti:

Take approx 1 litre of water for around 100gms of Spaghetti. Bring the water to boil. Add a little salt. Once you make sure that the water is boiling, add spaghetti and cook for 6-8mins, stirring occasionally. Cook uncovered. Blanch with cold water, strain & keep aside.

Actual Preparation:

- Use a thick bottomed large wok and make sure to work on a high flame. Put 4-5 spoons of olive oil (or any oil that you prefer).

- Once the oil is hot, put ginger/garlic. Saute briefly and add onion.

- Add carrots, fry for a few seconds and then cabbage & capsicum.

- After they are semi-cooked, add soya sauce and tomato sauce. Stir well.

- Add pepper as per your taste requirement & a pinch of salt if the cooked spaghetti hasn't picked enough salt.

- Put the strained spaghetti onto the wok and mix thoroughly for 2 mins. Switch off the flame and then decorate with the aromatic onion springs and finally serve with love :)

Note: You can improve its taste by adding a little multi-purpose sauce and a spoon of vinegar if you have it in your kitchen store.

Its an easy and simple recipe which will for sure make your family crave for more and more.

ಖಾರ ದೋಸೆ: Khara Dose - My Fav

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- ಕೆ೦ಪು ಮೆಣಸು - 5-6
- ಕಾಯಿ ತುರಿ - 5-6 ಚಮಚ
- ಬೆಲ್ಲ - ಲಿ೦ಬೆ ಗಾತ್ರ
- ಹುನಸೆ - ಲಿ೦ಬೆ ಗಾತ್ರ
- ಉಪ್ಪು - ರುಚಿಗೆ ತಕ್ಕ೦ತೆ
ಈ ಮೇಲೆ ಕಾಣುವ ಪದಾರ್ಥಗಳನ್ನು ಮೊದಲು 1-2 ನಿಮಿಷ ರುಬ್ಬಿಕೊಳ್ಳಿ.
 ನ೦ತರ, grinder'ಗೆ ನೆನಸಿಟ್ಟ ಅಕ್ಕಿ + ಬೇಳೆಗಳನ್ನು ಹಾಕಿ. ತೀರ ನುಣ್ಣಗೆ ರುಬ್ಬುವ ಅಗತ್ಯವಿಲ್ಲ. ರುಬ್ಬಿದನ್ನು ರಾತ್ರಿ ಇಡೀ ಹುದುಗು ಬರಲು ಬಿಡಿ.
 Option: ಸಮಯದ ಕೊರತೆ ಇದಲ್ಲಿ, ಬೆಳಿಗ್ಗೆ ರುಬ್ಬಿ, 15-20 ನಿಮಿಷದ ನ೦ತರ ಥಟ್ಟನೆ ದೊಸೆ ಮಾಡಬಹುದು. (fermentation is optional).

ದೋಸೆ ಹಿಟ್ಟಿಗೆ, ಚಿಕ್ಕದಾಗಿ ಕೊಚ್ಚಿದ ಹಸಿ ಕೋಸು ಹಾಕಿ ಬೆರೆಸಿ. ಅದನ್ನು ಕಾವಲಿಗೆ ಹಾಕಿ roast ಮಾಡಿ.
Option: ಕೋಸು ಹಾಕುವ ಬದಲು, ಸಿಪ್ಪೆ ತೆಗೆದ ಹಸಿ ಹೀರೆಕಾಯಿ/ಆಲುಗೆಡ್ಡೆಯನ್ನು slice ಮಾಡಿ, ಅದನ್ನು ಹಿಟ್ಟಿನಲ್ಲಿ ಮುಳುಗಿಸಿ, ಕಾವಲಿಯಮೇಲೆ ಒ೦ದೊ೦ದೆ ಜೋಡಿಸುತ್ತಾ ಹೋಗಿ (ಗೋಳ ಆಕಾರದಲ್ಲಿ). ಎರಡು ಬದಿ roast ಆದ ನ೦ತರ, ಬಿಸಿ-ಬಿಸಿ ದೋಸೆಯನ್ನು ತುಪ್ಪದೊ೦ದಿಗೆ ಪ್ರೀತಿಯಿ೦ದ ಬಡಿಸಿ.

( ಹಸಿ ಹೀರೆಕಾಯಿ ಅಥವಾ ಕೊಸು)

ಆಲಸ್ಯವಿದ್ದರೆ, ಅಥವಾ ಅವಸರವಿದಲ್ಲಿ, ತರಕಾರಿ ಇಲ್ಲದೆ, ದೋಸೆಯನ್ನು ಹಾಗೆ ಕಾವಲಿಯ ಮೇಲೆ ಹಾಕಿ ಮಾಡ ಬಹುದು.(Plain Dose) :)

(P.S. ಕಾಯಿ ಚಟ್ನಿ, ಚಟ್ನಿಪುಡಿ, ಉಪ್ಪಿನಕಾಯಿ - ಇದರೊ೦ದಿಗೆ, ದೋಸೆಯ ರುಚಿ ಹೆಚ್ಚುವುದು.)

Nippat Masala

You have some crispy nippat at home, and want to add on some taste to it, then here's what you you need:
Nippat, veggies, yogurt

Toppings:
- Carrot gratings
- Onion chopped into small pieces
- Yogurt
- Coriander leaf (optional)

Take the nippat in your palm and smear a thin layer of yogurt over it. Then simply dust over it some carrot gratings and onion pieces. Decorate it with coriander leaf. If you love the taste of coconut, then you can even scatter some coconut gratings over it, and then you are done!

Nippat is definitely a junk food, but since you are eating it along with fresh veggies, it would probably lessen its negative effects :P At-least at the end of it, you are satisfied and happy to say that you consumed some vitamin A & E. :D

Kids will love this, and so will you!

                                                           

Picture above: Adi could not wait for too long to taste it :-)

Go Nutz

Nutz Burfi recipe coming soon!!!!! :)

Go get some cashew, badam & raisins from the store...
more details to coming soon :)