Tomato Baath/Tomato Rice

Yet another Baath & a family favorite is Tomato Baath. The day we have tomato baath for lunch, we have all members of the family fasting from morning to savor it with cool raita. We (MIL&me) do not use basmati rice here, coz the end product is kept moist. You can add a handful of basmati rice just for fragrance) Here is our version,

Ingrediants :
Time taken to make tomato rice with preparation : 45mins

Rice (Ponni/...) : 250g (you can add a handful of basmati for fragrance)
Water to cook rice.
Over ripe big tomatoes : 5
Masala:
Mint Leaves/Pudina : 1 bunch (small)
Coriander Leaves : 5 lines
Wet coconut grated : 6-7tbsp
Cinnamon Stick : 1'' piece or 1tsp of powder
Cloves : 5 or 1tsp powder
Ginger: 1.5'' piece
Garlic : 1 big pod (old) or add according to the taste
Red Chillies according to the hotness levels. I use 10 chillies.
Note:
Take note cloves +Chilli= more Spciy. Use chillies accordingly
Tadka:
Oil : 2tbsp
Chana Dal and curry leaves

Preparation:
1. Puree tomatoes and keep it aside.
2. Fry cloves, cinnamon, red chillies in a drop of oil and grind it with rest of the masala ingrediants with little water to make a smooth paste.

Procedure:

1. Heat oil in a pressure cooker pan or any large pan you have at home which is used to cook rice. We do not pressure cook (you can if you want) tomato rice, so use a big vessel.
2. When oil is sufficiantly hot, add chana dal and when it turns red, add curry leaves.
3. Add tomato paste and keep stirring till 3/4th of the water from the puree is evaporated
4. Add masala paste and sautee. Fry till the 3/4th of the water content in it is evaporated.
5. Resulting liquid is a semi solid with less water.
6. Add required water to cook rice. Add 1 cup of water extra as it is cooked openly and to keep the rice moist.
7. Add salt and bring the water to boil. Check salt levels.
8. Add washed and drained rice when water starts to boil.
9. Cover the vessel with a lid and cook stirring in btw occasionally.
10. Keep checking the rice grains, it takes about 20 mins for the rice to get cooked.
11. You can pressure cook the rice. We find the opend cooked rice taste much better than pressure cooked tomato rice.
12. Once the rice is cooked, switch off the stove, cover the lid and let it aside for 10 mins.

13. Serve it with your choice of raita. A simple onion, tomato yoghurt raita will go well with this preparation.

Tomato Rice goes to MEETA for her one dish dinners event.

Mint flavored Maddur Vada/ Maddur Vade

If you have travelled by train from Bangalore to Mysore you would have not missed eating Maddur Vada. The aroma of the vada makes you to buy atleast one, and u end up buying two more (if you like it). The recipe of maddur vada has a twist here with ingrediants chosen to make it more tasty. You can prepare these vadas before hand and serve (if you are still left with anything in the container) when you are watching a movie. This will go to Mansi of Fun N Food for her game night event party.

To make 30-35 maddur vada you need the following :

Rice Flour-2cups

Peanut, roasted, deskinned, powdered coarsely-1cup

Roasted Chanadal/pottukadalai/huridakadale/dalia (powder)-1cup

Semolina/Rava/Sooji-1cup

Besan/kadalehittu- 1 cup

Onions finely chopped - 1 big

Pudina/Mint Leaves from 5 lines finely chopped

Ginger grated-1tsp

Garlic grated-1tsp

Coriander leaves : 5 lines finely chopped

Curry leaves from 1 line finely chopped

Cinnamon powder 1/4tsp

Clove powder : a big pinch

Salt, Chilli paste (or red chilli powder), according to taste

Oil for deepfrying.

Procedure:

1. Mix all the ingrediants and leave it for about 15mins. Mix it to a firm dough using enough water.

2. Make lemon sized balls and pat them to make a round

3. Dip it into hot oil and deepfry till golden brown.

4. Heat oil on a low flame. This will make the snack crisp.

5. Serve with chutney or it is tasty enough to eat on its own.

BBB aka Bisibelebaath

BBB aka Bisibelebaath (Bisi=Hot, Bele=dal/lentil, baath=rice) is most famous in Karnataka. Infact, one of my friend who appreciates Bangalore for wide variety of food was amused when she first saw the food list in one of the darshini (fast food chain). She says 'it started with chow chow baath and continued with series of baaths ending on BBB' She exactly remembered what she read and the list goes..chow chow baath, khara baath, tomato baath, masale baath, vangibaath, bisibelebaath..whew...she said..astonished at the varieties of 'baath' availability. Among all she loved BBB and I have heard from many good reviews about this BBB from many people. It is one of our favorite too. It was on demand from hubby recently. He does not crave for anything (should I say? he is over fed coz of blogging :P), but his craving for BBB started a week ago. Finally this auspicious weekend was chosen for cooking BBB.

Few other friends had also requested for BBB recipe, so here you go with the making of BBB:

Ingrediants :

Rice : Toor Dal 1:1

Vegetables : carrot, kohlrabi, frenchbeans, peas, tomato, pearl onions

Tamarind Paste - 2tbsp, Salt

For Masala :

Chanadal : 1tbsp

Uraddal: 1tbsp

Coriander seeds : 1tbsp

Methi seeds : 4seeds

Nutmeg powder : 1/4tsp

Poppy Seeds : 1tbsp (Singapore people can use cashew nuts)

Dessicated dry coconut : 5tbsp

Red Chillies : 15 (adjust to your spice level)

Clove : 4

Cinnamon : 1'' stick

MTR BBB powder : 1tbsp (optional, it adds good flavor)

Tampering :

Ghee : 2tbsp

Cashewnuts :10

Curry leaves from 1 line

Hing

Procedure :

1.Wash and drain rice and toor dal separately. Do not mix.

2. Cut vegetables in desired shape.

3. Pressure cook dal, rice and vegetables separately.

4. Roast all masala ingrediants except dry coconut. Grind them with little water to a smooth paste.

5. Prepare tampering in a separate vessel and keep it aside.

6. In a heavy bottomed pan, add ghee (1tbsp) and when it is hot add tamarind paste and masala paste. Let it boil, when masala gets cooked, add salt, followed by dal, rice and vegetables. Bring them to boil. Add more water to make it a bit watery. Once salt, sour levels are adjusted, add tampering and switch off the stove. Cover the vessel and let it stand for 5-7 mins. Once the flavors are settled, serve it with raita and potato chips . Another closer look:

Garlicky Rasam Powder

I love this simple rasam. Amma says it is good for ladies who have given birth (1-3 month post delivary period). Fresh garlic scores good points as a natural antibiotic and also due to other medicinal properties of garlic, garlic added food plays an important role in postpartum care. It is eazzy to make and it comes handy when u are cooking a hurried up dinner/lunch.

Meeta's theme for this month's montly mingle is 'comfort food'. She defines comfort food like this: " It's the type of food that picks us up when we are down, warms us when we are feeling lost and cold and blurs out the bad mood. The first mouthful takes us straight back to the familiar, the good; to the time when all was well.

My rasam falls under two categories : 1. under meeta's definition 2. my definition for comfort food 'which gives comfort (less work) for hands and less work for stomach to digest..so comfort for hands and stomach...so I decided to send this to Meeta for her Montly Mingle.

Ingrediants for Rasam Powder :

Garlic pods : 6 (old and fat) If they are new and thin, take more qty
Red Chillies : 10 (adjust them depending on the hotness level u want)
Jeera : 1/2tbsp
Oil : 2 tsp

Peel garlic and remove the skin. Blend garlic+chillies+jeera. Now heat oil in a thick bottomed pan, add garlic chilli jeera mix and fry till there is no moisture left. It looks like this when it is done :



You can store this in a air tight container and use it whenever you want to make rasam.

To make Rasam you need these :
A spoonfull of rasam powder and 1 cup cooked dal. You need tamarind paste and salt to taste. Just mix all of them and boil it.

Adjust salt and sourness if required. Add tadka with mustard and curry leaves. Do not boil the rasam for a long time. Make only little qty or as much needed. Serve it with hot rice.

Brown Rice Uttapam/Brown Rice Pancake

Little did I know the benefits of eating Brown Rice before I bought a bag of brown rice from Bangkok!! Why Bangkok?? u must be thinking!! On one of the lonely evenings of an office trip to Bangkok, I entered a super market just to kill time. I thought of buying a packet of potato chips flavored/seasoned with thai red chilli paste. I was amazed to see the variety of Brown Rice samples, and its wide availability there. Went around to see 7-8 varieties of brown rice. Itchy hand u see... ;) to buy something different, this pack of brown rice got a good seat in my suitcase. hmm..this was a year and half back. This packet of rice was still there in the corner of the cupboard waiting to be cooked and kept teasing me whenever I opened the cupboard.

One fine day I took enough courage to cook brown rice. So I thought of making dosa. umm...safer option ;) Onion uttappam tasted better than plain dosa with brown rice dosa batter. Do give a try ! You will like it.

WHFoods has complete description about brown rice and its nutritional value including its health benefits. Website says " the complete milling and polishing that converts brown rice into white rice destroys 67% of the vitamin B3, 80% of the vitamin B1, 90% of the vitamin B6, half of the manganese, half of the phosphorus, 60% of the iron, and all of the dietary fiber and essential fatty acids". I concluded .... -it is time to make brown rice uttappams for breakfast!! Here you go with the recipe

For Dosa Batter :

Wash and soak 3 cups of Rice (2 cups brown rice+1cup white rice):1 cup of urad dal for 5 hrs. You can add fenugreek seeds and chanadal if required. Adding 2 tablsespoons of sago gives crisp dosas. Grind them to smooth batter, add salt and let it ferment for 7-8 hrs or overnight. You can take a smaller cup or bigger cup for measurement depending on the qty you want to make.

Uttappam :

Onions chopped finely from : 5 onions

Green Chillies Paste from : 20 chillies

Coriander Leaves finely chopped

Curry Leaves finely chopped

Salt

Mix all the above to dosa batter and make small uttappams. Alternatively, you can make small dosas and spread the onions over dosa. Enjoy hot dosas with chutney and sambhar.

My 5yr old likes to eat it with ghee...:D this was his plate. He wanted me to show his fishy plate to u all... :D

ಕರಿದ ಅವರೆಕಾಳು/Deepfried Surtipapdi with Chivda

Avarekaalu/Surtipapdi is widely used by Kannadigas in various preperations from lemon rice to sambhar to snack. In Karnataka avarekaalu becomes available in the market from mid-december and attains peak in January and gradually decreases. One of the delicious snack is fried avarekaalu with Chivda. You can just season the fried avarekaalu without using chivda too.



All you need to make this snack is :

1. Peeled, deskinned surtipapdi/avarekaalu - 1cup (to deskin papdi soak them in water for 2hrs)
2. Pressed Rice/avalakki/poha/avval - 1/2 cup
3. peanuts, pottukadalai/roasted chana dal/dalia - 1cup each
4. dessicated/grated dry coconut -2tbsp (for garnishing only, do not deepfry)
5. Dry red chillies - 1
6. Curry leaves from 1 line
7. Salt, turmeric and red chillipowder according to your taste

How to make :
Fry all ingrediants from 1-6 in the order mentioned, they may look like this when fried


Add salt, turmeric and red chillipowder to the fried ingrediants and mix. Garnish with grated dry coconut. Your snack is ready to be served with a cup of hot coffee or tea. Enjoy it!!!

Sesame Peanut and Jaggery Mix for Sankranthi

HAPPY SANKRANTI TO YOU ALL.

The word 'Sankranti' is derived from sat and kranti, meaning "good movement". More information can be found on Wiki . This period of the year also has agricultural significance. It is the harvest time !! Sankranti is a time to distribute new year crops among your family, friends, and neighbours. We in Karnataka distribute ellu (sesame) , peanut and bella (jaggery) mixture along with sugarcane and banana or a fruit which is available during the season among our friends. As kids we just waited for amma to dress us up appropriately in silk skirts with some good jewelary and off we went streets after streets distributing ellu bella packets. I miss that time of my past now. I took my 5yr old with me in the evening to distribute ellu bella to few Indian neighbours. It was a good experiance to learn their way of celebrating Sankranti.

This is was the last cup of sesame mix which I saved for taking pictures. My son loved eating them and R relished it. Though it can be made at any time of the year, festive mood is an added bonus and excuse for eating more. Here is how we make this wonderful mix which can be served as a snack too :

Peanuts : 1cup (roasted and deskinned)

Dalia/roasted chanadal/pottukadalai/huridakadale : 1cup

Coconut scrapings/dessicated/coconut pieces (dried coconut only) :1 cup

White Sesame seeds : 1cup (fried till they are light brown and fragrant)

Jaggery : 1 cup (cut into pieces or powdered which ever is convinient)

Mix all of them and voila! your snack is ready to eat!! Store in a airtight container

Garlic and Curry Leaves Chutney Powder

Think of Spice ..event has given a favorite spice of mine to think for this month. I love garlic, and I would add it to as many dishes as I can as long as garlic suits to the dish perfectly. One among them is chutney powder or Chutney Podi.



Ingrediants :

Roasted Chanadal/Huridakadalae/Pottukadalai - 1cup
Grated dry coconut -1/2cup
Red Chillies - 10 (adjust according to your taste)
Tamarind - 1/2tbsp
Curry Leaves (dried/roasted) - 20 leaves or 2 lines
Garlic Cloves- 3

Procedure :

1. Roast garlic, curry leaves, red chillies without oil on a pan
2. Leave tamarind on hot pan till it is warm. Remove any fibre or seed from tamarind or best is to use a seedless and cleaned tamarind.
3. Take garlic, curryleaves, tamarind, salt and red chillies in a blender. Blend them to a coarse mix. Remove it from the jar and keep it aside.
4. Take roasted chanadal and grated dry coconut in the same blender and blend till you get coarse mix. Mix both the powders well.
5. Blend the mixed powder in the blender to get a fine powder. I keep my final powder a bit coarse as I like it that way.
6. You can choose to tamper the Chutney powder (in such cases you may want to preserve the final powder in the refrigerator)
7.Enjoy this podi with hot rice, stuff it in to make stuffed podi parantha, sprinkle over dosas (esp masala dosa) , add it over idlis....many ways to relish it.

Tampering : Heat oil and add mustard seeds and once it stops popping, add hing and remove it from stove. This tampering can be mixed with chutney powder.

This goes to Sunita for her Think of Spice Garlic event.

Sago Halwa

I wish you all bloggers a very happy and prosperous new year. Welcome 2008!!!

It was a long vacation that I took for myself from blogging. This is my first post for this year. Sago halwa is one of the easiest halwa to make and amma used to make this at home once in 15 days. We used to get treated to simple desserts on tuesday or friday which used to be her special prayer days. Vermicilli halwa, payasam, sooji halwa...are other desserts that she made on such occassions. Remembering those weekly celebrations fondly and seeking all the blessings was the way to start our new year. We watched Taare Zameen Par, a very good movie directed and acted by Amir Khan on New Year's day. It was a good start to new year.

Ingrediants :

Sago - 1 small cup

Sugar/Brown Sugar - 1/2cup or depending on your sweet levels (threshold??)

water-4 -6 cups (use same cup for sago and water)

Milk - 2-4tbsp

Ghee 2tbsp (optional)

Food Color-1pinch

Cashewnuts and grated dry coconut for garnishing

Procedure :

1. Fry sago on a hot pan. When u see sago poping up like popcorn, remove them from hot pan and add 2-3 cups of water and bring it to boil.

2. Keep stirring the mixture to prevent it from sticking to the vessel or use a nonstick vessel to cook. Add more water if required. Do not make it watery as you might end up with payasam and not halwa.

3. When sago is fully cooked, add color, sugar, and 1tbsp ghee and mix thorougly.

4. Bring this mix to boil. Add 1tbsp of milk and mix again.

5. The sago, sugar mixture at this time should be thick at this time and it no longer sticks to the vessel.

6. Grease a plate with teaspoon of ghee. Add the hot sago mix to the plate and spread it.

7. Fry cashewnuts in remaining teaspoon of ghee and garnish halwa with grated dry coconut and cashewnuts.

8. Allow the halwa to cool down before you cut them into pieces and serve. You can serve them at room temparature or chilled.