Homemade curry powder

I was on a cleaning spree and cleaned up my pantry and fridge. I saw that there was a loner in the fridge, a big green capsicum. I then quickly made this sabzi with homemade curry powder/ podi potta kaai which tastes yummy and delicious. You can make the powder and store it for a few days (approx.15 days) in the fridge. The method to make this delicious curry powder is very simple and is as follows.

Ingredients:

Corriander Seeds - 1 tbsp
Cumin seeds - 1/2 tbsp
Black pepper - 10 count
Dry Red chillies - 5-6
Urad Dal - 1 tsp
Chana Dal - 1 tsp
Poppy seeds / Khus Khus- 1 tsp

Sesame seeds - 1/2tbsp

Cinnamon - 1 inch piece

Cloves - 2 

Dry coconut/ Copra - 3 tbsp

Fenugreek / Methi seeds - 1/2 tsp

Curry leaves - 7-8

Method:

• Dry roast all these ingredients until a nice aroma comes out.
• Cool them and grind them to a medium coarse powder.
• Add it to vegetables like capsicum, potato, brinjal/ eggplant and serve with Rasam rice.
• Enjoy!!!

Kesari Baath

Hello all..

Happy Republic Day!!

 Welcoming fellow bloggers and all lovely readers with my first recipe post of the year. A sweet post. I made Kesari Baath, DH's favorite sweet.  It had been a while since I had prepared anything good for DH. A sudden wave of sympathy for him and Lo and Behold..Came out this yummy Kesari Baath..A very simple recipe and easy quick steps. The final product, I promise, will be a yummy, mouth melting Kesari Baath.

Ingredients:

Sooji/Semolina/Rava - 1 cup
Milk - 2 cups
Ghee/ Clarified Butter - 1and1/4th cup
Sugar - 1 cup
Cashews - 7-8
Golden Raisins - 7-8
Orange Food color - 1 drop

Method:

• In a shallow fry pan, add 2 tbsp of ghee and roast the cashews and raisins, drain out the ghee from them and set it aside.
• In the same pan and with the same ghee, add the sooji / rava and roast it till a nice aroma comes out of it and set it aside.

• Heat milk in a sauce pan and allow it to boil. Once the milk boils, gradually add the sooji and keep stirring it well ensuring no lumps form and a creamy consistency is reached.
• Also add the cup of ghee right after this step and blend all the ingredients well to make a smooth and a creamy  mixture.

• Keep stirring the mixture gently for about 5-6 minutes to avoid burning of the mixture at the bottom of the pan.
• Once the sooji is cooked, add the sugar, food color and the roasted cashews and raisins.

• Mix all the ingredients well and serve hot.
• Hot, yummy and delicious Kesari Baath is ready to melt in your mouth.

Serving Tip:

• Before serving, warm the Kesari Baath (if cold) and add a tsp or two of ghee on top and garnish with silvered almonds.

Notes:

• You can add any food color of your choice.
• You can adjust the level of sugar according to your sweetness level.
• You can also choose to NOT add food color and make it a white sheera.
• You can add small pineapple pieces or banana pieces to have a different variety of Kesari Baath (add it before adding the food color).
• The quantity of Ghee can be altered but the taste may not be as good as the one with the required quantity of ghee specified here.
• Best to serve it hot with an additional tsp of ghee.

Mixed Dal Tadka

I have been so busy plus idle for the past few weeks. I am craving for good home food prepared by Mom. But life as a wife in America is all about food cravings and missing dear ones. Left with no choice I had to prepare some yummy but simple food for myself and DH. What better dish could be comforting than making Dal and Rice. I made this yummy dinner for the both of us and trust me..It was so very relaxing!!

Ingredients:

Toor Dal - 1/4 cup
Moong Dal - 1/4 cup
Masoor Dal - 1/4 cup
Turmeric powder - 1/8 tsp
Medium Tomato - 1 - Chopped
Mustard seeds - 1/4 tsp
Cumin seeds - 1/4 tsp
Red chillies - 3-4
Curry leaves - A few
Red chilli powder - 1/4 tsp
Asafoetida - A pinch
Cilantro - To garnish
Oil / Ghee - 1 tbsp
Salt - To taste

Method:

• In a vessel combine the three dals and add a pinch of turmeric powder and salt and pressure cook it for 3 whistles.

• In a wok, heat oil/ghee. add the mustard seeds, cumin seeds, red chillies and curry leaves.

• Once they crackle and splutter, add the chopped tomato and cook on medium heat until the tomatoes are cooked well.

• Add asafoetida, red chilli powder and turmeric powder to the tomato mixture.

• Mash the cooked dal and add the dal to the tomato mixture. 

• Mix it all well.Garnish it with cilantro.

• Serve hot with Rice and Roti.. Enjoy the simple and comfort food that gets ready in no time.

Sending in this entry to Serve It Series - Serve It - Pressure Cooked. This is my first entry for any activity in the blogging world. Hope to participate in many more such entries..

   

Its's all about Pressure Cooking!!

We are all familiar about how important pressure cookers are in Indian cooking. It is one of the very important things in our kitchen on which we are completely dependent. In India, the leading pressure cooker brands are Prestige and Hawkins.

This blog post is just a brief review on both the pressure cookers. Prestige pressure cookers have been one of the leading brands in South India. They are outer lid pressure cookers. Recently,they have also introduced inner lid pressure cookers. They have introduced many lines of cookers based on different materials they are manufactured from. The most used model is the prestige popular pressure cooker. A new line called prestige deluxe is equally good. Ideally stainless steel pressure cookers are the best. Hard anodized pressure cookers are in demand today due to its excellent non stick properties and minimal to no wear and tear. One more successful model of prestige pressure cookers is the handi model. It is very useful model and we can use it like the regular handi's to make main gravy dishes. All the models look very nice and are very safe to use.

For all living outside India, make sure you buy enough spare parts of the models you have at home. The important spare parts are the safety valve, weights, steam vent (whole assembly) and gaskets. Handles are also available as spare parts and are very handy to keep.

Hawkins Pressure cookers are also one of the leading brand. Many find it useful but some find that the inner lid locking is a little tricky and cumbersome. They are long lasting and have a very good safety locking mechanism. The hawkins company have quite good models like the classic model, contura and futura model. They also have hard anodized and stainless steel versions. I personally like the contura model a lot. I own one too. Futura model is classy and looks very sleek.

Pressure cooking is very energy efficient and time-saving. It is advisable to invest in a good pressure cooker of your choice. Pressure cooking with separators makes cooking faster and multiple things can be cooked simultaneously. Separator cooking is supposed to be one of the healthier ways to cook food. 


Pressure cooking is a method of cooking in a sealed vessel that does not permit air or liquids to escape below a preset pressure. Since the boiling point of water increases as the pressure rises, the pressure built up inside the vessel allows the liquid to rise to a higher temperature before boiling (wikipedia).

So this was a short write up about pressure cookers. We can have a discussion on which pressure cooker models you all use and which one did you find the best. Please do leave all your comments or you can even e-mail me at gayu.kitchen@gmail.com.


Hope to see you all again with a new blog post. Till then, bye and take care..