Moong Dal Laddoos

These are called “Pesara Laddoos” or “Pesara Sunni Vundalu” in Telugu. We usually prepare these during festive seasons.

Ingredients: (makes 12 medium laddoos or 6 big laddoos)

• 1 cup yellow Moong Dal (Split Green Gram) (Pesara Pappu)
• ½ cup Sugar
• ¼ cup Ghee (Clarified Butter)
• ¼ tsp Cardamom Seeds

Preparation:

Dry roast moong dal until it turns reddish brown in color. Keep aside to cool.

Powder the sugar in a blender and keep aside.

Grind the roasted moong dal into a fine powder. Mix it with the powdered sugar, add the cardamom seeds and mix well.

Melt ghee and pour into the prepared dal mixture and mix well. When the mixture is still warm due to the warm ghee, make laddoos (balls) out of it.

Leave the laddoos on a plate to dry and harden. These laddoos can be stored in an airtight container up to 20 days.

I am sending these laddoos to “Sweet Series – Chikki and Laddu” event being celebrated at Mythreyee’s place.

I am also sending this to “Sunday Snacks - Fix It” event hosted by Pallavi.

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Baked Puri

Healthy way to eat Puris

As I have promised, I am presenting the recipe for Baked Puri. I got the idea of baked puris from here. It is so simple and healthy way to cook puris. But I should tell you: these are not so soft and fluffy like deep fried puris. The baked puris taste so crunchy like papads and may taste little different than the deep fried puris. The only good point is that these are baked (I mean no oil), not deep fried! Try this only if you like crunchy stuff.

Ingredients: ½ cup Whole Wheat Flour (makes 2 puris) ½ tsp Oil Salt and water as required Preparation: Mix the flour, oil and salt. Add water and prepare stiff dough. Knead well. Divide the dough into 2 balls. Roll out into thin puris and prick with a fork to let the air out. Arrange the puris on a baking tray. Bake in a hot oven at 250c for 10 minutes or until puris become light brown in color. Enjoy these puris with desired curry or just sugar. If desired, spread butter on top of the puri and enjoy. We enjoyed our puris with vegetarian chili. The only difference is: I substituted white beans and pink beans with garbanzo beans (chick peas) and kidney beans (rajma). Rest of the process is the same.

As these make perfect breakfast item, I am sending these to “WBB-Combi Breakfasts” event being hosted by Lata of Masala Magic. This event was started by Nandita of Saffron Trail.

On a Different Note:

1. Dear friends Kitchen Flavours and Anjali have passed me this beautiful "Wylde Woman Award". Thank you so much for thinking about me friends!
2. Dear friend Suma Rajesh has passed another pretty award “ARTE Y PICO”. Thanks Suma!

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Jai & Bee’s Carrot – Pear – Ginger Mocktail

I have seen this mocktail in Jugalbandi’s place long back and bookmarked to try. Now when Zlamushka has announced that we will be cooking Jugalbandi’s recipes for Tried & Tasted event, I definitely knew what to make.

I think, no introduction is needed for the wonderful duo Jai & Bee, who own a great place called Jugalbandi, where they share their amazing talents in many fields. They have so many delicious and gorgeous recipes in their blog, not to mention stunning pictures.

Carrot – Pear – Ginger Mocktail is such a refreshing, healthy and filling drink. And so colorful too! We liked it so much. Thanks for the great recipe Jai & Bee! I didn’t make any changes to the original recipe which can be found here.

This is my contribution for this month’s “Tried & Tasted” event at Zlamushka’s.




This is also my entry to “MBP Fruit Fare” event at Aparna’s. MBP was started by Coffee of Spice Café.




I am also sending this to EasyCraft’s “Color in Food” event. I chose the color ORANGE as the mocktail is bright orange.

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Potato Stew

I have prepared this curry long back and is taking rest in my drafts. I thought this would make a perfect entry for Srivalli’s Curry Mela.

Please Note: Again I used canned black-eyed peas in this recipe (I like to use different kinds of beans and peas as they are healthy and filling). If dried black-eyed peas are used, make sure to soak those for atleast 5 or 6 hours before cooking.

Ingredients:

• 6 small Potatoes, peeled and cut into cubes
• 1 small Onion, cut into thin strips
• 4 or 5 green chilies, cut into small pieces
• 1 can of Black-eyed Peas (1 cup dried Black-eyed Peas)
• ½ cup green Peas
• 2 small Tomatoes, cut into small pieces
• ½ tsp Turmeric
• ½ tsp Cumin Seeds
• ¼ tsp Cardamom Seeds
• 1 tsp Garam Masala
• 4 whole Cloves
• 1 tsp Ginger + Garlic Paste
• 1 tsp Rice Flour (to thicken the curry)
• 2 tsp Oil
• ½ tsp ground Cinnamon
• Salt and water as required

Preparation:

I used pressure pan to cook this stew. Add oil to the pressure pan. When it is hot, add cumin seeds + cardamom seeds + cloves + ground cinnamon and fry well.

Then add the chopped veggies (onions + potatoes + green chilies + tomatoes) and fry for 2 minutes.

Later add the black-eyed peas + green peas + turmeric + ginger-garlic paste + garam masala and stir well.

Add salt and some water just to soak the contents. Then close the pressure pan with the lid and leave it until 3 whistles. Then switch off the stove.

When all the pressure is gone, open the lid carefully and stir the contents well. If the curry is too watery, add the rice flour paste (made by mixing rice flour with some water) when the curry still hot and mix well. Adjust salt and transfer the curry into a serving bowl.

Enjoy this stew with rotis or rice.

This flies off to Srivalli’s Curry Mela.

I am also sending this to EasyCraft’s “Color in Food” event. I chose the color yellow as the stew looks yellow.

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Vegetarian Chili

This is a blend of so many healthy ingredients and of course, tasted so great too! Madhu (my hubby) made this gravy to go with rotis.

Please Note: Here we have used canned white beans and pink beans. If using dried beans, make sure to soak the beans for at least 5 or 6 hours before cooking them. 1 can of beans can be substituted with 1 cup of dried beans.

Ingredients:

• 1 can of White beans
• 1 can of Pink beans
• 4 or 5 Cloves
• 2 cloves of Garlic
• ½ tsp Turmeric
• 1 tsp Garam Masala
• ½ tsp ground Cinnamon
• ¼ cup Capsicum, cut into small pieces
• ¼ cup Carrots, cut into small pieces
• ¼ cup Celery, cut into small pieces
• ¼ cup Zucchini, cut into small pieces
• A handful of Spinach leaves
• 1 medium Tomato, cut into small pieces
• 1 small Onion, cut into small pieces
• 3 or 4 green Chilies cut into small pieces
• Handful of Cilantro
• ¼ tsp Cumin Seeds
• 1 tsp Oil
• 1 tsp Rice Flour (to thicken the gravy)
• Water as required
• Salt to taste

Preparation:

In a pan, heat the oil and add cumin seeds along with garlic + cloves + cinnamon and fry well.

Then add all the veggies along with the cilantro + white beans + pink beans and stir well. Add turmeric + garam masala + salt and mix well. Pour some water, cover and leave the pan on medium flame for some time.

Mix rice flour with little water and stir well so that no lumps are formed. Pour this liquid into the curry to get the consistency of gravy. Leave it for some time, stir well and switch off the flame.

Transfer the gravy into a serving bowl. Enjoy this vegetarian chili with chapathis.

This is my contribution to Srivallis Curry Mela.

And I am also sending this to Sunitha’s “Think Spice….Think Favorite” event. My favorite spice is “Cloves”, which I use in many recipes. I like the strong aroma and hot and pungent taste of the cloves and of course its medicinal values.

I am sending this to EasyCraft’s “Color in Food” event. I chose the color Brown as the chili looks light brownish.

This is also my contribution to "Eat Healthy - During Pregnancy” event hosted by Sangeeth.

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Italian Tomato and Basil Soup

I know, I know! This is my last minute entry for the two events: Dhivya’s “AWED: Italian” event and Dee’s “Herb Mania – Basil” event.

I got the recipe from here. I made minor changes to the original recipe such as using milk instead of whipping cream and dry basil flakes instead of fresh basil as I don’t have them on hand. Still, it tasted so great and refreshing.

Ingredients: (Serves 1 person)

• 2 medium tomatoes
• 1 tsp dry sweet basil flakes (available in stores)
• 1 tsp Olive Oil
• ½ cup milk
• Salt and Pepper to taste

Preparation:

Chop tomatoes into small pieces. In a microwave safe bowl, combine chopped tomatoes + basil flakes + oil + salt. Place the bowl in the microwave, cover and run the microwave for 5 minutes (or according to individual MW settings).

Then stir well and leave it for some time to cool. Later transfer the contents to a blender jar and blend until soft. Add a little water if needed. Finally add the milk and run the blender again just to blend them well.

Remove and transfer to a serving bowl, sprinkle black pepper powder and enjoy.

If hot soup is preferred, reheat the soup in the microwave and slurp.

Note: This soup can be prepared on stove top too. Just follow the procedure and instead of microwave use the stove to cook the tomatoes. Rest of the process is the same.

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Lemony Fruit Shake

This drink is a yummy combination of fruits, milk and ice cream with lemon. A little tangy, a little sweet and delicious drink.

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Click...Click...Click!

Here are my two clicks for two events. This is just my humble attempt to participate in these two events.

The above picture goes to Jai & Bee’s “CLICK: August 2008 (Citrus)”. I used an orange, a lemon and a lime for the click. My daughter called them as “Traffic Lights” as soon as she saw the click. I was surprised and looked at the picture again and she was right! In ascending order, these are Go (green), Get ready to Stop (yellow) and Stop (red, of course not pure red but close enough). So the above title “Citrus (Traffic) Lights” occurred to my mind.

Next about the other click:

The above picture goes to Pooja’s “Theme of the Week – Saffron, White and Green (Independence Day)”.

I tried to get a look of the great Indian Flag. For that, I used some oranges to get the saffron color, rice for white and limes for the green color.

The saffron stands for courage, sacrifice and the spirit of renunciation; the white, for purity and truth; and the green for faith and fertility. (Source: Maps of India)

Hope you like it! You would be wondering about those blue things on top of the rice. Those were just some blue colored cereals I used to represent the Dharma Chakra in the center of the Indian flag.

On a different note:

My dear friend Swati, who always makes my day with her sweet comments, has bestowed these beautiful awards on me. So nice of you Swati!

Another dear friend Sireesha, who never misses to leave a nice comment on my posts, has passed me another beautiful award. Thanks dear!

Now it’s my turn to pass these pretty awards to these friends, who are always encourage me to do more with their sweet comments. I know the list is too long, but they all deserve it.

Kamala
Laavanya
Madhavi
Meera
Mitr_bay Area
RamyaBala
Sangeeth
Sireesha
Sowmya
Sra
Srivalli
Suma Rajesh
Trupti

Congratulations friends! Enjoy!

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Tale of a Tangy Soup (Pachi Pulusu)

This is a kind of sambar that is very easy to prepare and is a blend of three tastes like tangy, spicy and sweet. We call it as “Pachchi Pulusu” in Telugu.

Ingredients:

• 1 medium Onion, chopped lengthwise
• 1 Tomato, cut into small pieces
• 4 or 5 Green Chilies, cut into small pieces
• Some Cilantro Leaves
• 1 tsp Tamarind Pulp
• ½ tsp Turmeric Powder
• 1 tsp Sugar
• 2 tsp Rice Flour (to thicken)
• Salt and Water as required

For Seasoning:

• ½ tsp Mustard Seeds
• ¼ tsp Cumin Seeds
• 1 tsp Bengal Gram Dal (Chana Dal, Pachchi Senaga Pappu)
• 1 tsp Black Gram Dal (Urad Dal, Minapa Pappu)
• 1 broken dry Red Chili
• A few Curry Leaves
• 1 tsp Oil

Preparation:

Heat the oil in a deep bottomed bowl and add the mustard seeds to it. When they splutter add the cumin seeds along with the dals + red chili and the curry leaves. Fry for some time until the dals turn golden brown in color.

Then add the chopped veggies (onion, green chilies and tomato) and stir well. Add a little water to this, cover and let it cook for some time until the onions become translucent.

Later add the tamarind pulp + turmeric + sugar and mix well. Adjust the salt too.

Add more water to this, cover and leave it on medium flame until it boils and a nice aroma comes out.

This soup will be very thin at this stage. So to make it a little thicker: combine rice flour with a little water and pour this mixture into the soup. Stir well so that no lumps are formed. Leave the bowl for 5 minutes.

Garnish with cilantro and enjoy with steaming hot rice, ghee and some papads.

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Potato Chain and Some Sweet Moments

Tasty Potato Chains

Today, I want to present one yummy, new snack I have prepared long before I left on vacation that has been taking rest in my drafts. Hope you like this new invention of mine!

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