Pudina Majjige Soda | Yogurt Soda with Fresh Mint | Pudina Chaas Soda

Summer is here... yippee... isn't that your first thought when the sun comes out of its winter snooze and begins to shine down with all its warmth? Well... that's how I feel in the initial days of April, until the sun really begins to scorch us poor little earthlings.

As a kid, I did not mind it though. I simply loved summers. 2 months vacation from school, it is definitely any kid's best dream come true.. well, may be except Lisa Simpson. Be it 30 degrees C or 40 degrees C, we played outdoors until we were called indoors for lunch/dinner.

Now a days, without the blissful ignorance of childhood, I actually feel the temperature outside and it makes me want to sit inside all day in the cool confines of the house and keep drinking something cool. But cool drinks aren't very healthy, right? What if there was one that was refreshing and healthy?

South Indians have housed this secret all through the ages - Buttermilk. Known for its cooling qualities, every South Indian meal in summer ends with a tall glass of mildly spiced buttermilk. Spices can range from cumin to ginger to asafoetida. Traditional buttermilk is actually the milk from which butter has been churned. I don't like that too much, so what I make is actually a watered down version of yogurt.

Add to add a little twist... add plain soda water instead or regular water and see the difference...

Pudina Majjige Soda | Yogurt Soda with Fresh Mint | Pudina Chaas Soda

A healthy low fat fresh mint and yogurt soda

Recipe Type: Beverage
Cuisine: South Indian
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 10 minutes
Yield: 2 Glasses

Ingredients:

Yogurt / Curd - 1 cup (Taste better if the yogurt/curd is sour)
Fresh mint leaves - 1 cup (washed and chopped)
Plain Soda - 400ml
Salt to taste.

Method:

Grind the mint leaves into a fine paste along with a little yogurt.
Add the yogurt, salt and mint paste to a blender and blend until combined.
Strain well and pour equally into the serving glasses.
Add the soda, stir and enjoy the refreshing goodness of this drink

Shankarpali / Shankarpole / Shakarpara (Video Recipe)

How to make shakkarpara recipe, shankarpole recipe at www.oneteaspoonoflife.com

Aren't road trips so much fun??? :D

Not knowing where you may end up, what you may end up eating is so thrilling.

We, hubby dearest and I, have more differences than similarities, but in this one matter we are made for each other. Come long weekend, and off we go. No clue of the destination, only the direction. No planning, no hotel booked, no real map in hand and no real food to eat. All we have is a hurriedly packed bag of clothes, my trusted camera, bottles of water and of course, my iPod and we are all set.

We've done instant trips to Ooty, Wayanad and our latest was to Belur. We had a long long weekend last week. I miss it already, We started on the most peaceful day of the year - Oct 2nd, with our basic necessities dumped in the car. When we started out we weren't sure if we were planning to go north or west. Finally thought of west and I'd never seen ShravanBelgola, so that became Destination number 1, With some Kunigal Tatte idlis in our tummies, we scaled the hill to see the Bahubali statue.

Halebeedu became destination number 2. The beautiful architecture of that temple puts to shame even the best architects today I think. The workmanship is awesome. If you haven't seen it, it's time to visit. Belur was our next destination. Similar to Halebeedu, the architecture is simply amazing. The only sad thing was by the time we reached Belur, night had fallen, so we could not really spend a lot of time there.

Bangalore was 5 hours away, it was 7pm, crazy as we are, we decided we should go ahead instead of returning, So off we went to Karkala, hubby dearest's hometown and spent our extremely looong weekend there.

Back to my recipe now, Monday was a holiday for me. Alone on a holiday gets boring sometimes, So what better to occupy myself than cook, right? I've been wanting to make Shankapali for a long time now. This is a traditional Maharastrian fried sweet made especially during the festival of lights - Diwali.

I'd gotten multiple recipes from my mom, mom in law, sister, her mom in law etc. I think you get the picture. I finally mixed them up and made my own recipe that turned out pretty great. Really! And I could not believe it is so easy to make. Only tricky thing is the temperature of the oil, Once you get that correct, you needn't worry about anything,

The below recipe makes 150-200. Don't worry, they are sooo yummy, they won't last too long. They stay fresh for weeks in stored in air tight container.

Video Recipe

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If you liked this, you may also like:

Modak - Steamed dumplings stuffed with coconut and jaggery.
Khova Peda - Peda (fudge) made with milk from scratch.
Coconut Laddoo - Easy to make laddoos with only 4 ingredients.

Shankarpali / Shankarpole / Shakarpara

Light and crisp bite sized sweet snacks

Recipe Type: Dessert / Snacks
Cuisine: Indian
Prep Time: 60 minutes (Includes resting of dough)
Cook time: 60 minutes
Yield: 250-300

Ingredients:

6-7 cups Maida / All purpose flour
3/4 cup Chiroti rava / Fine semolina
1 cup Milk
1 cup Ghee / Clarified butter
2.5-3 cups Powdered Sugar
1 tsp Salt
Oil for deep frying

Method:

Mix the milk and ghee and microwave on high for 30 seconds until the ghee melts. You can do this on stove too, just don't heat it too long or the mix may curdle. If the ghee is already liquid, skip this step.
Add the sugar to this mix and stir until it dissolves.
Add salt, semolina and the flour by the spoonfuls. Stir to remove lumps.
Once all the flour is added, knead the dough using your hands for 2-3 mins until it is one shiny mass.
If after kneading the dough, you feel it isn't sweet enough, then take a little milk and dissolve the required amount of sugar in it.Add this to the dough and knead well. Add a little more flour if needed.
Cover and allow it to rest for at least half hour.
Divide the dough into smaller balls and roll them out to approximately 3-5 mm thickness
Cut into diamond shape with each side of appx 1.5-2cm. You can use the crimped cutter, pizza cutter or a knife. Don't worry if the shape or size is not consistent. It does not change the taste.
Heat oil in a thick bottomed kadhai.
The oil should not be too hot or too cold. I test fried a couple to get the temperature right. Between Low to Medium heat works well. If the oil is too hot, the shankarpali will turn brown but will not be cooked, too low will make them oily.
Remove them when they turn golden brown and crisp.

Potato and Drumsticks in a Mustard Gravy (Oriya Style)

Laziness… that’s all is my excuse. It’s been a very long time since I posted. Initially, I had an excuse, I took a weeklong vacation to my parents’ house. Who blogs on vacation, right? *sheepish smile*. I relaxed whilst watching the monsoon and drinking endless cups of tea. Playing board games and watching TV. Then I had to answer 2 exams, I helped paint a school etc etc. But after that, only laziness. I have seen this quote making rounds on Facebook “Laziness is the mother of all evils, but she is a mother and we need to respect her :P”. So maybe I was just showing respect :P

At lunch the other day, we were discussing how bad the cafeteria okra was and then one colleague told us a recipe his mom used to cook okra. He said the same Oriya recipe is used for potatoes, brinjals, drumstick etc. He wasn’t aware of any popular name for the dish. Also, I got some vague quantities, so I just used my instincts with measurements. In the end, it turned out awesome. I did try it with okra, but I liked the potato and drumsticks better. The following recipe serves 2.

Potato and Drumsticks in a Mustard Gravy (Oriya Style)

Drumsticks and Potato in a mustard sauce - Oriya style curry

Recipe Type: Main Course
Cuisine: Indian / Oriya
Prep Time: 45 minutes (Includes the soaking time)
Cook time: 45 minutes
Yield: 2 servings

Ingredients:

2 Potatoes
1 Drumstick (Optional)
2-3 cloves
2 Yellow Mustard Seeds
2 Tbsp Poppy seeds / Khus khus
2 tsp Vegetable Oil
½ tsp Turmeric powder
½ tsp Mustard Oil
2-3 dry Red Chillies
Salt to taste
Water

Method:

Soak the mustard, garlic and poppy seeds in half a cup of water and keep aside for at least 30 mins.
Chop the potato into rough cubes.
Peel and chop the drumstick into chunks.
Drain the mustard, garlic and poppy and grind into a fine paste using a little water.
Heat the vegetable oil and the red chillies.
Add the potatoes and turmeric powder and stir fry them for 30 secs.
Add the drumstick and fry for 30 secs
Add the mustard paste and mix until the vegetables are coated with it.
Add 1 cup of water and salt and cover and cook until the potatoes are cooked.
Add water to get desired consistency.
Add a dash of mustard oil once the pan is off the stove and mix well.
Serve hot with roti or bread

Tomato Gazpacho | Cold Tomato Soup

Soup and Cold - It is not an association we Indians generally make. We are proud of the fact that we serve and eat "Garma Garam Khana" or "Hot hot food". We can eat hot meals immaterial of the season or the temperature outside. When we want something cold, we make sherbets or have kulfis and ice creams. The thought of a filling cold soup rarely crosses our mind. So, now, I present to you *drum rolls* "A cold tomato soup - Gazpacho".

A couple of years ago if you had asked my hubby dearest what Gazpacho is, he would have asked you to repeat the question. But a couple of years of food channels and food shows can have such an effect on a person, even someone not interested in food. He can now not only tell you what it is, but probably take over this blog and tell you how to make it :D. Ah! Such is the power of the small squarish box at home. Where would we be without the TV?

I was watching an old episode of Planet Food on this mighty little box. Padma Lakshmi was in Spain. She was with a Spanish woman who told that unlike the common belief that tomatoes are a base for Gazpacho, it really is just bread.

Tomatoes came from South America and until the Spanish conquered it, Spain did not have tomatoes, but they still did have the Gazpacho. She showed one recipe with tomatoes and one with almonds. I'm not sure how the almond soup tastes, but tomato soup is a favorite at home. Do you remember, last week I made bread rolls and asked you not to throw out the edges? Voila, those edges are the star of this ship.. oops, soup.

The Spanish senorita asked us to use stale dense bread, but, let's face it, unless we are in really big cities that have gourmet bakeries, we aren't exposed to varieties of breads. We get our regular sandwich bread , milk bread or the now famous brown bread/whole wheat bread. Feel free to use any bread you can get your hands on. Or like me, use the unwanted edges of your bread.

I think the adjustment stops here :(. We need Olive Oil. Extra Virgin would be nice, but you can use what you have. I don't think this recipe would shine as much with any other oil. I haven't tried, but if you do try and it turns out amazing, let me know.

If you don't want to have this as your meal, then just have this in between meals when you want to fill your tummy with something healthy and you don't want to waste too much time cooking, coz, seriously, this is just a 5 minute job and all you need to dirty is your blender jar.

I simply love these lazy healthy recipes. Makes me wish all healthy food was fast food. There would be no excuse to eat junk :)

Like we garnish our hot soups with croutons, gazpachos are garnished too. But with fresh ingredients. The almond one is garnished with grapes, a particular variety I believe, but I don't remember which :( The tomato is garnished with chopped onions and tomatoes. I suggest, get creative and add what you and your family will enjoy.

This recipe makes 2 hearty portions.

Tomato Gazpacho | Cold Tomato Soup

Cold Spanish inspired soup made with bread and tomatoes

Recipe Type: Soup
Cuisine: Spanish
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 15 minutes
Yield: 2 big bowls

Ingredients:

3-4 Bread slices or Bread Edges of about 10-12 slices
2 Tomato
2-3 cloves Garlic
3-4 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1/2 tsp Red chilli powder/ Pepper (Optional)
Salt
Cold water
Chopped onion, tomato and coriander leaves for garnish (Optional)

Method:

Soak the bread in water.
Remove and squeeze out the water.
Blend together the bread, garlic and tomato.
Add the salt, red chilli powder or pepper and olive oil Blend for 1 min or until creamy
Add cold water and give it a whizz
Garnish with chopped onion, tomato and coriander leaves and serve cold

Baked Bread Rolls

I am blank! Just like a paper.

There are times when you want to write but you don’t know what to write. It is called a writer’s block. Most of the times I am blank, but not about writing, but about cooking. What is that called? Cooking block? Chef’s block? Cooking lunch and dinner is pretty easy for me.

I am a chapatti/roti lover so most days it is chapatti with some vegetables that are there at home. But I hate thinking about what to make for breakfast. And then start the calls. I call up my mom and my sister and ask the same question “What should I make for Breakfast?” and I get the same answer “Please don’t ask me, I’m confused too” :(

May be the women in office face the same issue everyday too. The women’s association in office started an online competition for quick and healthy breakfast recipes. I was extremely excited, I thought with at least the 200+ women in office, I’ll get many recipes. I, myself, submitted the recipe for my oats idlis. I must say though, that competition did not do much more than flooding my inbox with emails. I barely got any new recipes. Some were not healthy, some were not quick, some I would not even call breakfast. I did win the third prize though :).

I got the idea for this breakfast recipe when on a hungry weekday evening we went to a tiny shop to eat Vada Pao and Break pakoda and my sister remarked that she prefers break roll. The idea stayed in my head and from that seed grew a tree, that tempted me to make bread rolls. As I have mentioned before, I try to avoid deep frying, so I baked it. I stuffed with a combination of potato, carrot, cauliflower, spices and cheese. Stuff it with anything that takes your fancy, the bread is your stage… :) You can have it as a snack with nice hot cup of tea on a rainy evening….*slurp* or as a breakfast.

Definitely, a kid friendly recipe. I can vouch for that. What’s not to like? Bread, potatoes and cheese :) The only suggestion I have is: have it hot, it loses its crispness once it is cold. Dunk it in some cool mint chutney or some tangy ketchup. Or like us, just have it on its own. But have it, for sure :)

Baked Bread Rolls

Bread stuffed with a vegetable mixture, rolled and baked to make a roll.

Recipe Type: Snacks/ Appetizer
Cuisine: International
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook time: 60 minutes
Yield: 12 rolls

Ingredients:

12 Bread slices
2 small or 1 large Potatoes
1 Carrot
1/4 – 1/2 cup chopped Cauliflower
1 small Onion
1 Green chilli
1-2 cloves of Garlic
1 Tbsp Coriander leaves (chopped)
2 cubes or 3-4 Tbsp Cheese (Grated)
2 Tbsp Butter
½ tsp Cumin seeds
3 tsp Oil
½ tsp Turmeric powder / Haldi
A pinch of Garam Masala
A pinch of Dry Mango Powder / Amchur
Salt
Water

Method:

1. Boil and peel the potatoes. Mash them roughly.
2. Finely chop the onion, garlic, carrot, green chilli and the cauliflower.
3. Heat oil in a pan, add the cumin seeds.
4. Once the seeds brown, add the onion, chilli and the garlic.
5. Once the onion is slightly browned, add the carrot and cauliflower.
6. Cover and cook until the vegetables are done. They should still have a bite in them, don’t overcook them.
7. Add the spices and the mashed potatoes and mix well.
8. Add the coriander leaves.
9. Remove from heat and keep aside.
10. Cut the edges of the bread slices.
11. Using a rolling pin flatten out the bread.
12. In the center of the flattened bread, add a spoonful of the mixture and the cheese.
13. Wet the sides of the bread and join them.
14. Apply butter on the roll from outside
15. Preheat the oven to 200 degree Celsius.
16. Place the rolls on a cookie sheet in one layer and cook for 10 mins.
17. After 5 mins, flip the rolls.
18. Depending on the power of your oven you may need to keep it in for more or less time.
19. It should be crisp and golden brown.

P.S: Don't throw out the edges. You can use it to thicken gravies and soup. You can also use it as a binding agent in tikkis and patties. For a soup which uses bread edges, watch out for my next post :)

Mexican Green Rice with Spicy Fried Potatoes

Work has been very stressful lately. All I want to do is get home and start blogging. But at the end of the day I have literally no energy left. In fact, hubby dearest has been cooking dinners too. It’s been raining outside, and I have no time to enjoy it :( . I’m missing watching MasterChef on TV :( . I am craving for my end of the month vacation. I hope for it to be my much needed relief. Until then, my blog will have to be my only source of relaxation. *End of ranting*

Now, back to my sane self. Forgive me, sometimes “Hyper-Stressed out-Worried Anu” makes an appearance here. This post is going to cater to those with lack of time – like me. One pot meal. The answer to a busy night. I know the name sounds simply Exotic. I’ll let you in on a secret *hush* it is only coriander rice *hush*. Yup, you heard it right. Coriander/Cilantro is abundantly available in India, albeit it’s gotten really costly off late. I pay Rs.40 for a bunch :( in Bangalore. I did try growing it. It grew too, though not enough to suffice and the heavy rains killed almost half of my saplings :( . Too many sad smileys. Isn’t that an oxymoron? Sad smiley. Or is there a more appropriate name for it?

For a lot of communities, rice is a side dish and the main is something else. But for us Indians, especially South Indians, rice is the star. Everything else is a side dish. I have seen a lot of friends for whom a meal isn’t complete if they don’t have a spoonful of curd rice at the end. If you have never seen a paddy field, I suggest you do see one, especially in or after the monsoons. That is probably the brightest green nature can throw at you. It really relaxes the eyes and the mind.

The original Mexican rice obviously uses Mexican chillies, I had no time to find exotic chillies, so I just used the regular desi chillies. They are probably a little spicier than their Mexican counterparts, so use it carefully to match your taste buds.

I toyed with the idea of different accompaniments and finally settled on the spicy potato fry. I did seriously consider the raita, but gave it to my greediness of having some fried potatoes *feeling guilty*

So on a slightly free weeknight, we enjoyed a part Mexican and part Indian meal of Green rice with spicy fried potatoes watching another exciting episode of MasterChef. Hope you enjoy it as much as we did.

Mexican Green Rice with Spicy Fried Potatoes

Rice flavored with Coriander and Spinach served with spicy fried potatoes

Recipe Type: Main Course
Cuisine: Mexican
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook time: 60 minutes
Yield: 2 servings

Ingredients:

Mexican Green Rice:

3/4 cup Basmati Rice
1/2 cup coriander leaves
1/2 cup spinach leaves
2-3 cloves of garlic
1-2 green chillies
4 tsp oil
1 Onion
1 tsp Lemon juice
1.5 cups Water
Salt

Spicy Fried Potatoes:

2 Potatoes
3 tsp oil
1 tsp Red Chilli Powder
1/2 tsp Turmeric Powder
1/2 tsp Mustard seeds
1/2 tsp Coriander powder
4-5 Curry leaves
Salt

Method:

Mexican Green Rice:

Wash and drain the rice.
Lay it out on a towel to dry.
Grind the spinach, coriander, garlic. onion and green chillies into a coarse paste
Heat oil in a pan/kadhai and add the rice
On a medium flame fry the rice until it is slightly golden appx. 5 mins
Add the green paste, water and salt
Cover and cook on low flame until the rice is cooked
Add lime juice and garnish with chopped coriander leaves and serve hot

Spicy Fried Potatoes:

Peel and chop the potatoes

Heat oil in a pan, add the mustard seeds

Once they splutter, add the curry leaves and the potatoes

Add the spices and salt and mix well

Cover and cook until the potatoes are done

You can have this with roti/chapati also

Menthe Pathrode | Methi Pathrode

I never knew gardening could be so much fun. My heart swells with pride every time a seed I sowed, breaks the mud barrier and rises up to face the earth. Those two little green leaves soaking in the sunlight, fill me with hope and love. Some of the easiest things to grow have never worked with me - tomatoes & chillies. For some reason these just refuse to bear fruit in my garden no matter what I do or how much nutrition I give them :( But there are some others which ask for nothing and just give give and give. Spinach is one of them and the other is Fenugreek or Methi or Menthe. I had my own fresh bunch of methi leaves, so I decided to make something special.

I love Pathrode. Traditionally, pathrode is made by rubbing a paste of rice, lentils, coconut and spices onto

Colocasia leaves/ Kesavina ele, rolling and steaming them. Colocasia leaves are a little difficult to find in Bangalore, they are more common along the Konkan coast of India. In their absence, Methi makes for a good substitute. Here instead of rubbing the leaves with the spice paste, the leaves are chopped and added to the paste and steamed wrapped in banana leaves. If you cannot get banana leaf, do not worry, you can just just steam them in greased bowls.

Clockwise L-R: Ground rice, Spice paste, Steamed pathrode, Pathrode to be steamed

Once they are cooked and cooled, crumble them and stir fry with a tempering of mustard and curry leaves. And don't forget to garnish with desiccated fresh coconut.

Menthe Pathrode | Methi Pathrode

A traditional Mangalore snack made by steaming rice and fenugreek/methi leaves together with a spice paste

Recipe Type: Snacks / Appetizer
Cuisine: South Indian / Mangalorean
Prep Time: 8 Hours (Includes soaking of rice)
Cook time: 90 minutes
Yield: 3-4 Servings

Ingredients:

1/2 cup White Rice
1/2 cup Red Rice
2 cups chopped or 1 bunch Methi
2-3 Tbsp Coriander seeds
1 tsp Tamarind paste
3-4 dry Red Chillies (I used 3 red chillies and added 1/2 tsp of chilli powder)
1/2 tsp Jaggery (You can use sugar instead)
1/2 Tbsp Urad dal
2-3 cloves Garlic
4 Tbsp dessicated Coconut
2-3 Tbsp Water
3 tsp Oil
8-10 Curry leaves
1/2 tsp Mustard seeds
Salt

Method:

Soak rice overnight.

Drain out all the water and grind it. It should not be fine, it should remain coarse. It will attain a sticky consistency.

Dry roast the urad dal and coriander seeds until they are slightly brown.

Add 1 tsp of oil and fry the red chillies until they are crisp.

Allow them to cool and then grind into a powder along with the coriander seeds and urad dal.

Add the coconut, jaggery, garlic and tamarind and grind into a paste along with 1-2 tbsp of water.

Add this masala to the rice and mix well. Preferably just mix in the mixer.

Add salt.

Add the chopped methi leaves and mix well.

You now need to steam this.

If using a cooker or an idli steamer, allow it to heat up and produce steam before placing the pathrode in it.

It is better to steam it wrapped in banana leaves, but if you don't have it steam in bowls. Grease the bowls before you spoon in the pathrode.

Steam on medium flame for 18-20 mins until it is cooked. Depending on the size of the parcels or the bowl, you may need more or less time. If using banana leaf, the change in colour is a good indication that it is cooked.

Allow it to cool and then crumble it using your fingers.

Heat the remaining oil in a pan. Add the mustard seeds once the oil is hot.

After they splutter, add the curry leaves and pour this tempering into the crumbled pathrode.

Add dessicated fresh coconut and mix well.

Serve hot as a snack/ appetizer.

Fried Rice with Ginger Garlic Sauce

This fried rice is so tasty, I cannot believe I never tried it before. Sigh.

When I went veggie shopping this weekend, I was extremely disappointed to see that my regular vegetable vendor has closed shop. Nothing excites me as fresh veggies, and he kept really fresh veggies. I’m still in denial. I’m sure it was a one off thing, may be a birthday or something (I’m sooo hoping it’s a onetime thing). So grudgingly I had to find a few new places to shop. To brighten my day, I picked some all colored peppers aka red, yellow and green capsicum. I even picked up zucchini and broccoli in the first shop. The next shop had more of my weekly local vegetables. I picked up some French beans and carrots. I add French beans and carrots to so many dishes – dalia, uppit, sambar, mix veg sabzi etc.

Ok, so I bought all these vegetables, but I just realized today, that I’m out of town the whole of next week and hubby dearest is not going to bother about my precious exotic vegetables lying in the fridge and by the time I come back they will be all shriveled. I had to cook them today, when they are still fresh and smiling

And I did have some wonderful fragrant Basmati rice with me. So I decided to make fried rice. Only this time, I’ve added a twist. This is my own recipe and I simply love it. Henceforth, this is how I will always make fried rice.

So grab your sharpest knife and get to work. It’s quite a bit of chopping, I accept. I julienned the peppers, French beans and carrots. I broke the broccoli into small florets. I cut the zucchini into thin semicircle slices

The recipe below makes yummy fried rice for 2.

Fried Rice with Ginger Garlic Sauce

Vegetable Fried Rice tossed with a ginger garlic sauce

Recipe Type: Main Course
Cuisine: Indian Chinese
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cook time: 60 minutes
Yield: 2 Servings

Ingredients:

½ each Red, yellow, green Capsicum / Pepper
½ Zucchini
10-12 small florets Broccoli
1 Carrot
10-12 French beans
1 Onion
8-10 cloves Garlic (Garlic cloves in India are very small, 3 of them may make 1 garlic clove abroad)
1.5” piece Ginger
1-2 Green Chillies
1 cup Basmati rice
4 tsp Soy sauce
2 tsp Sesame oil/ Olive oil
2 tsp Rice vinegar or any white vinegar
½ tsp Sugar
1 Maggi magic cube or ½ tsp Ajinomoto (Optional)
6 tsp Oil
Salt
Water

Method:

Wash thoroughly and soak the rice for half hour. Drain the water and cook it with 1.5 cups of water in a pressure cooker for 3 whistles or until done. Alternatively, follow the instructions for cooking the rice mentioned on the packet.

Once the rice is cooked, fluff it and keep aside.

In a blender/ mixer, grind together the garlic, ginger, green chillies, soy sauce, olive/sesame oil, vinegar, magic cube and sugar. It doesn't have to be a fine sauce, it can be coarse.

Julienne the capsicums, French beans and carrots. Slice the zucchini into semicircles. Break/cut the broccoli into small florets and slice the onion.

We will cook each of these vegetables separately as they have different cooking times.

Heat 2 tsp oil in a wok/kadhai. Add the French beans and carrot and fry until they are cooked but still crunchy.

Remove them and keep aside.

Add 1 tsp of oil into the kadhai and now add the peppers. Saute them until they are partially cooked, we want them crunchy.

Remove them and keep along with the beans.

Add 1 tsp of oil and now add the broccoli and zucchini and cook until they are done.

Remove and keep with other veggies.

Heat the remaining oil in the kadhai and add the onions. Once the onions are cooked, add all the other vegetables and the sauce.

Add the rice and mix well.

Add salt if required.

Karela Subzi | Bitter melons with tomatoes

Life is bitter sweet, but some of the tasty things in life are just bitter :) Bitter melon or Karela is one of them. As I have previously proclaimed, I love karela. I can eat it in any cooked form.

Bitter Melons or Karela

But the same was not the case with my sister. She hated it. But someone managed to turn her into a karela lover (Well... may not be lover, but at least a liker). And she came up with one of her own recipes. And her's is sooo much more tastier than many I've made and had over the years. Of late, I've been cooking karela only her way unless I'm in a more patient mood.

Karela Subzi | Bitter melons with tomatoes

Karela or bitter melon cooked with spices and tangy tomatoes

Recipe Type: Main Course
Cuisine: Indian
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook time: 30 minutes
Yield: 2 Servings

Ingredients:

2 medium Karela / Bitter melon
1 large Tomato (Preferably the local or NaaTi variety)
2 marble sized ball of Tamarind
1 tsp Red chilli powder
1/2 tsp Mustard seeds
1/2 tsp Turmeric powder
3 tsp Oil
1 Tbsp Desiccated Fresh Coconut
1/2 cup Water
Salt

Method:

Soak the tamarind in the water and keep aside

Slice the karela lengthwise and remove the pith and seeds

Now chop the karela finely

Heat oil in pan and add the mustard seeds

Once they splutter, add the karela and fry

Cover and cook on low flame for 2 mins

Chop the tomato finely.

Add the tomato to the pan and stir well.

Squeeze out the tamarind and remove the pulp

Add the tamarind water to the pan

Add red chilli powder, turmeric powder and salt

Cover and cook on low flame until the karela is cooked

Sprinkle desiccated coconut and serve hot with chapatis

Baked chapati chip | Baked wholewheat nachos

Chips are irresistible, and of those, I love Nachos. Loaded with beans and cheese or with simple guacamole, they are simply my favorite kind of chips. I made these cause I really wanted to eat nachos. I searched far and wide for masa harina, the flour from which tortillas are made in Mexico. But nobody carries it here. In fact, I cannot even find makki ka atta in Bangalore to make makki roti :( So I stuck to what I had. I always have chapatti atta at home. Chapati is essentially Indian flatbread that resemble tortillas. You can deep fry the chips or bake them. I baked them and they turned out crisp and equally tasty. And incidentally I had a nice ripe butterfruit / avocado in the fridge to make some yummy guacamole. 1 chapati makes around 25-30 chips.

Baked chapati chip | Baked wholewheat nachos

Baked whole wheat chips/nachos

Recipe Type: Snacks
Cuisine: Mexican
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cook time: 30 minutes
Yield: 75-100

Ingredients:

1 cup Whole wheat flour/ atta (This may make 3-4 chapatis)
Whole wheat flour for dusting
1 tsp Olive oil per chapati
A pinch Salt
Water

Method:

Take the whole wheat flour in a large bowl. Add water by the tbsp. and start kneading. Knead until you get a soft smooth dough. The dough should not be shaggy and stick to your hands.

Preheat the oven to 180 degree Celsius.

Take a small lemon sized dough ball.

Dust the counter surface with whole wheat flour and roll out the chapati as thin as you can. I suggest making a fresh chapati instead of using a leftover one. You can use leftover dough though.

Heat a tava/griddle on the gas stove, reduce the flame once the tava is hot. Put the chapati on the tava and cook until small bubbles appear on one side.

Flip the chapati and cook on the other side.

Remove from heat. Allow it to cool for 5 mins.

Cut into triangles.

Place on a baking sheet. Do not let them overlap each other. Drizzle olive oil and sprinkle the salt.

Bake for 6-8 mins until browned and crisp.

Enjoy with guacamole or salsa.