Bottle Gourd Chutney (Sorakaaya Pachadi)

This is very simple chutney with limited ingredients that can be done easily in a short period of time.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup Bottle Gourd Pieces (without skin)
• 10 Green Chilies
• ½ tsp Lemon Juice
• 1 tsp Sambar Powder
• Few Curry Leaves
• ½ tsp Cumin Seeds
• A pinch of Turmeric Powder
• A pinch of Asafetida (Inguva, Hing)
• 1 tbsp Oil
• Salt

Preparation:

Heat oil in a pan and add bottle gourd pieces + cumin seeds + green chilies and sauté well for 5 minutes. Then add curry leaves + turmeric + asafetida + sambar powder and mix well. Keep the mixture on medium low flame for 5 more minutes and turn off.

Keep aside to cool. When the contents cool down, blend them into a fine paste by adding lemon juice and salt. Add very little water if needed.

That’s it!! Great tasting chutney is ready!! Enjoy this yummy chutney with either rice or chapathis.

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Pineapple Paayasam

Yesterday was my hubby’s b’day. So I prepared this yummy payasam for the occasion. It tasted so good.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups Pineapple pieces (I used fresh)
• ½ cup Vermicelli
• 1 cup Milk
• 1 cup Water
• 1 cup Sugar (can be increased if more sweetness is desired)
• 1 tsp Ghee
• Few Cashews, Cardamom Seeds and Raisins
• Few strands of Saffron

Preparation:

Add pineapple pieces and sugar to a blender and grind into a soft pulp. No need to add water. Keep aside.

Dry roast vermicelli until it turns into golden brown in color and keep aside.

Boil milk in a bowl or pan. When it starts boiling, pour the fried vermicelli and water. Mix well and allow cooking for some time until vermicelli becomes soft and cooked.

Finally pour pineapple pulp into the vermicelli mixture, mix well and turn off the flame after 2 minutes.

In a different pan, heat ghee and add cashews + cardamom seeds + raisins and sauté well until cashews become golden brown in color and raisins bubble up. Pour this mixture on top of the prepared paayasam and mix well.

Enjoy this yummy paayasam at room temperature or chilled.

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My Blog Roll

Hi Friends,

Hope you're all doing fine. You might have felt my irregularity in visiting your blogs these days. The reason was: I've been busy compiling a comprehensive list of all the blogs I know. I hope I covered most of them. If I miss any please remind me to add. Here is the new blog I created for the purpose.

http://bloggerschamber.blogspot.com/

Please visit this blog and check if your blog is included. If not, leave a comment on that blog so that I can add your blog asap. Thank you. 

I created this blog so that I can keep in touch with all the blogs and be attentive to all the updates. :) Let me know your valuable opinion on this.

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Bottle Gourd (Sorakaaya) Perugu Pachadi

This is a very simple recipe that can be done within 10 minutes. It tastes so delicious and goes very well with rice or chapathis.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup Curd/Yogurt
• ½ cup Bottle Gourd Pieces (without skin)
• ½ tsp red Chili Powder
• Few Curry Leaves
• A pinch of Turmeric Powder
• 1 tsp Oil
• ½ tsp Mustard Seeds
• ¼ tsp Cumin Seeds
• Salt

Preparation:

Boil bottle gourd pieces either in pressure cooker or microwave.

If using microwave: add these pieces to a microwave safe bowl, pour ¼ cup water, cover and microwave for 5 minutes or until the pieces appears cooked.

Whisk yogurt until smooth, add turmeric + chili powder + salt. Mix well and keep aside.

Heat oil in a small pan and add mustard seeds. When they splutter add cumin seeds and curry leaves and fry well. Add this to the prepared yogurt mixture. Mix well.

Finally add the boiled bottle gourd pieces and mix well. Adjust salt. Let it stand for half an hour before eating it with rice/chapathi.

It tastes so delicious. Yummy!!

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Orange Rava Dosa

One day I tried to make orange juice in a weird way. I took out orange wedges, put in the blender and blended finely. Then filtered it to extract juice, but could get only a glass full of juice with so many oranges and more of orange pulp. I didn't want to waste the orange pulp, so thought of using it in some recipe and stored it in the refrigerator for a day. The next day I got the idea of making dosas with the pulp. DH and kids laughed at the idea of an orange dosa, but they agreed that it tasted great when I made it.

A closer shot

Ingredients: 1 cup Rice Flour 1 cup Semolina 1 cup Orange Pulp 3 or 4 Green Chilies Few Curry Leaves Few Cilantro Leaves 1 tsp Cumin Seeds Salt Oil Preparation: First grind green chilies + curry leaves + cilantro into a fine paste. Keep aside. In a wide bowl mix together rice flour + semolina + orange pulp + cumin seeds and make into a thin batter. Add salt as required.  The batter should be pouring consistency. Add the green chili paste to the batter and mix well. Heat a non-stick pan. Then take a ladleful of batter, first pour around the edges of the pan in a circle and quickly fill in the circle to make it into a big circle.  Pour some oil around the dosa and let the dosa cook for a while.  Then flip it over and pour some more oil (optional).  When it is cooked on both sides, remove from the pan and transfer to a serving plate. Repeat the same process until required amount of dosas are done.  We enjoyed our dosas with Peanut Chutney.  Yummy!!

I am sending the heart-shaped dosa to "Hearts For St Valentine's Day Event", hosted by Priya.

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Celery Fritters

One evening we wanted to have a quick snack that is healthy and yummy. So I thought for a while and this snack idea came into my mind. And Voila! A delicious and healthy snack was ready within short period of time.

Let's go to the recipe:

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Spiced Peanut - Flax Powder

I recently prepared a different kind of peanut powder to which I added some ground flax seeds and some black pepper. It tasted so yummy and felt good.

Ingredients:

• ½ cup Peanuts (I used Planters Peanuts)
• 2 tbsp Ground Flax seeds Powder
• ¼ cup Coriander Seeds
• 1 tbsp Black Peppercorns, whole
• 1 tsp Red Chili Powder
• 1 tsp Cumin Seeds
• Salt

Preparation:

Dry roast all the ingredients except chili powder and salt. Keep aside to cool.

When the contents become cold, grind them into a fine powder by adding chili powder and salt.

Enjoy this yummy powder with steaming hot rice and a dollop of ghee.

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