Groundnut / peanut / kadalebeja chutney

 Preparation of Groundnut / peanut / kadalebeja chutney:

I call this a quick fix chutney since it is so quick with almost all ingredients readily available at home and there is no need to prepare much. This is a best accompaniment with Ragi dosa which i make often. But somehow my husband doesn't like this, he likes to savour my coriander chutney the most with almost all kinds of dosa and idli. A foodie that I am who cannot have the same recipe over and over, so once in a while I tweak this chutney along with ragi dosa. Since  he doesn't refuse it totally - a humble man he is :) thank God😇

  

Ingredients:  

1 big cup of groundnuts 

8-10 red chillies( this chutney needs to be spicy) 

4-5 shallots / sambhar onions

5-6 pods of garlic

Handful of fresh coriander leaves

A small bulb of tamarind and 

Salt as per taste  

For seasoning :  

2 tsp oil 

1/4 tsp mustard seeds. 

Pinch of asofetida (optional)

 

Method: 

Dry roast onions, garlic and red chillies separately as shown below. 

 

Grind all the ingredients roasted and mon roasted together into fine paste.

 

Season the chutney by adding mustard seeds to hot oil in a pan along with hing / asafoetida if required. You may also add curry leaves 

 

Spicy groundnut/ peanut chutney ready to serve. 

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Green gram dosa

Green gram dosa :

Green gram dosa is high in proteins and delicious to eat when you are bored of the normal rice dosa. Also it has cooling properties,hence I make it a point to make this dosa at least once a week since all of us at home have this problem of body heat.  

Recipe courtesy: thanks to my little sister for teaching me to make this dosa which she first had at her friends place.

 

Ingredients:   

1 cup washed green gram,  

2 tsp raw rice  

2inch ginger 

5-6 green chillies 

Salt as per taste 

Cooking oil - to drizzle on the dosa 

 

Method:  

Wash and soak rice and green gram overnight.

Grind soaked green gram, rice, ginger and chillies with salt

 

Let the batter be a little thick not very runny, adjust water accordingly

   

Heat a griddle and pour a ladle full of batter and swirl it using the ladle into round shape like this and drizzle some oil on top and sides of dosa to make it crisp

  

After about a minute the dosa gets cooked and its time to flip to see this nicely roasted dosa. 

Serve this dosa with any chutney of your choice. Preferably spicy ones like red chutney, tomato chutney which goes well with the bland taste of green gram.

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Muskmelon pancakes

This is dedicated to my 1.5 years old son Bhavin. Because of his picky eating habit I originated this recipe to fill his tummy and tantalise his lil taste buds. Now this is a super hit Sunday breakfast at home.

 Ingredients: 

1/2 cup cooking butter 

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 cup sugar 

1 cup maida / all purpose flour 

1/2 cup cool milk ( room temp) 

1 cup musk melon purée ( just blend melon pieces)  

Few chopped small pieces of muskmelon 

Cooking oil

Combine flour, baking powder and sugar in a large bowl 

 

 Melt butter

 

Stir together milk, melted butter and musk melon purée in a separate bowl

 

 Pour the liquid mixture into the flour mix

 

 Fold and mix well to form thick batter

 

You can add water at this stage if required. The batter should be of a thick consistency not runny. Add water Nd mix the batter well for 5 mins to get soft fluffy pancakes.

 

 Heat a griddle and smear cooking oil onto it

 

Pour in a ladle full of batter. Don't spread the batter.

The batter will start to for tiny air pockets like this. Drizzle some cooking oil on the sides and top

Arrange cut fruit pieces on the batter

Once the cake cooks on one side by making the batter dry, it's time to flip and cook for about a minute.

Plate them and brush with honey (optional) when hot. This sweet dish can be served as a breakfast, dessert with ice cream or as a snack any time of the day and get you choosy lil ones to eat something delicious healthy and nutritive too.

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Seasoned buttermilk

This is one among my comfort foods from Kerala. Very simple and done in minutes. Recipe courtesy - NDTV Good times - Love bites with Joey.

Ingredients:  1 cup of thick curds 1 string of curry leaves 2 tsp coconut oil ( must for authentic taste of this recipe) 3 chopped shallots ( small onions) Pinch of turmeric. 1/2 tsp red chilli powder  Salt as per taste

Method:
Churn the curds using a churner with 1 glass of water 

Churn well to get light buttermilk, add st and keep aside 

Heat coconut oil in a pan, once hot thrown in curry leaves, onions, turmeric and chilli powder 

Sauté them until the raw smell if onions leaves

 Pour in this seasoning onto the buttermilk

Stir well and serve with rice.  My typical meal - hot rice, veggie sambhar and this delicious buttermilk to complete the lunch

NOTE:  Variations can be made to this recipe by adding ginger, cumin seeds and garlic if needed. I do not like these flavours in buttermilk, hence kept it simple.   Don't add buttermilk into the hot pan, it will curdle. Add the seasoning into the buttermilk bowl kept separately after churning.

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Ghee rice with carrots, peas and coconut milk

This is a must try recipe. The aroma of zeera rice cooking in ghee with sweet carrots and peas will test your patience until done to grab a bite. 

Thanks to my sister for asking us to celebrate her birthday this year at home with home cooked meals instead of our regular practise to dine out and cut a cake. Isn't it so mundane? So for our homely treat we started with ghee rice along with mushroom-panner gravy and finished with shahi Tukda for dessert. Thanks to my Amma (mom) and brother in laws for their help in chopping  veggies and  being a caretaker of the day for my lil son. Since me and sis had a task of putting together a meal for 8 of us:). 

Our family thoroughly enjoyed this recipe and compliments poured in. So will your family;) try and let us know.  

Happy Birthday my lovely sis🍰💐

Ingredients:   

1 kg jeera rice ( must for this recipe. You can get this in all supermarkets)

  Ghee : 7-8 tsp 

 1 cup each of green peas and finely chopped carrots

7-8 cups of thick coconut milk

Bay leaves 2, 1 tsp of sounf, 2-3 cinnamon sticks and 1/2 lemon

4-5 slit green chillies

Method: 

Firstly, smear the pressure cooker with ghee reaching to all sides so that the rice soaks in ghee flavour. 

Heat ghee, add all dry spices with green chillies and sauté for a minute 

 

Add carrots, peas and sauté well

 

In goes thoroughly washed rice which needs to be sautéed for about 5 mins in low flame

Mix the rice well to see this blissful colour combination

After sautéing the rice, add 8 cups of thick coconut milk and 4 cups of plain water. Note : my cup measures 6 cups of rice for 1 kg. so I need 12 cups of water to cook the same. Rice cooks in 1:2 ratio. Adjust water level accordingly.fool proof method to do rice is to use the same cup for measuring rice and water you will never go wrong:)

Time to add salt according to your taste. I have used 3 tsp if rock salt here. Squeeze juice of half lime and let it boil. Once it starts to boil, close the lid and cook for only one whistle else rice will become mushy

Allow the cooker to cool and steam to escape before you open it. Then explodes the tempting 

your kitchen.

Aromatic ghee rice is ready to serve.

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