Saturday, June 28, 2008

Veggie Quessadillas

These days all I have been doing is trying out recipes from other food blogs .One such is Dil Se..Divya's Cheese Quessadillas. I am a big fan of Mexican food and have it at least once a week.Divya's recipe (original recipe goes here) inspired me to experiment on my own. Here goes my recipe.

Ingredients
Mixed vegetables - carrots,beans,capsicum,onion/spring onion etc - 1 cup chopped
Coriander powder - 1/2 tsp
Cumin powder -1/2 tsp
Salt - as per taste
Shredded Cheese - 1/2 cup
Butter (optional)
Tortillas -at least 2

Preparation:
Chop all the vegetables into small pieces. I used carrots,beans,spring onion, red capsicum and cabbage Any capsicum red,orange,green can be used and other veggies can be added as well.In a pan,heat oil,add chopped veggies and saute.Add salt,coriander powder and cumin powder,little tomato sauce/puree/ketchup and stirfry till the veggies are cooked and dry.Keep aside.


Heat butter in a tawa/pan,add a tortilla.As one side gets cooked flip to the other side,sprinkle with cheese,then sauteed vegetables as the next layer and cover with second tortilla.Top the second tortilla with butter.Roast till the butter melts. Flip to the other side and roast it as well. The cheese inside will melt and hold the tortillas together. Cut into wedges and serve hot with sour cream.








Monday, June 23, 2008

Easy Vegetable Stew

Yesterday I was making rice noodles/idiappam and made veg stew to go with it. Usually I am too tired and lazy to relish what I cook.But one taste of the stew and I patted myself that I have entered the next stage of becoming a good cook.I was so proud and excited and happy and everything that I wanted to blog it ASAP.Alas,I had other familial duties,so I had to wait till today.Here goes my recipe.

Ingredients:
Potato - 1 big,
Onion-1
Green Chillies-2/3
Ginger-1 inch piece
Mixed vegetables -carrot,peas,beans,cauliflower,sweet corn peas- 1 cup
(I used these vegetables -fresh as well as frozen ones)
Coconut Milk - Thick milk of 1/2 coconut
Salt - as per taste

Preparation:
Chop all the vegetable into square pieces. Add squarely chopped onion,slit green chillies,chopped ginger and salt to the veggies. Add little water just to cover the veggies and boil them.Once boiled add the thick coconut milk to them and check the salt.Heat the stew.Do not boil after adding coconut milk. Garnish with curry leaves and few drops of fresh coconut oil. Serve with idiappams or appams.
You can prepare coconut milk by grinding scraped coconut and very little water in the chutney jar of your mixer and the filtering it.Otherwise mix warm water to coconut milk powder.

This is a Kerala dish. The recipe varies from region to region,area to area, and sometimes house to house.This recipe is actually from the Thrissur/Trichur side and is so far the easiest.



This is my enty for AFAM-Coconut for this month.

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Zucchini Pancakes


This is an experiment that I tried after seeing Nupur's- Cucumber Pancakes.I had zucchini and sort of substituted them for cucumber. Below is my version.
Ingredients:
Zucchini - 1 peeled and chopped very finely or grated
Ginger -1/2 inch
Onion -1 medium
Green chilly-2
Coriander leaves - 1/4 cup
Riceflour - 1/2 cup
Rava- 1/4 cup
Yoghurt -1/4 cup
Salt - as per taste

Preparation:

Finely chop or grate zucchini,ginger,onion,green chillies and coriander leaves.Mix in Rice flour,rava,salt and yoghurt to form a dosa like batter.You can even add pepper powder if you want by reducing the chillies. Add water or more yoghurt if needed. Prepare dosas on a tawa and serve hot with chutney.


Saturday, June 14, 2008

Carrot Raita

This is a typical konkani preparation.The only difference in method is people in Karnataka add sprouts to it and call it a Kosumbari whereas Konkanis in Kerala especially Trivandrum areas add curd and use this raita as a side dish in lunch.This dish beats the summer heat.

Ingredients:
Carrots-2 medium
Green chilly-1 chopped
Coconut scraped- 1/2 tsp
Curryleaves- few
Salt -as per taste
Curd/Thick buttermilk-1/2 cup

Seasoning:
Red chilly- 1medium chopped
Methi seeds-1/4 tsp
Mustard - 1/2 tsp

Preparation:
Scrap and chop the carrots into 1/2 inch long thin pieces.(This chopping into correct size is important. It improves the appearance and thereby the appetite).In a bowl add chopped carrots,coconut scraped,salt, chopped greenchilly and curryleaves.Mix well.Keep aside.






Heat oil in a kadai, add mustard.As it splutters, add red chilly pieces and methi seeds. Stirfry and add the carrot mixture.Saute till the raw smell of carrot goes.Turn off the gas and let the mixture cool. Once cooled add the curd/thick buttermilk, adjust the salt and serve chilled.

This is my entry to JFI-Frozen Yoghurt hosted by Siri's corner





Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Gobi Manchurian-Dry


This is a recipe that I got from Spice India online.I did not have all the ingredients and was lazy for some extra chopping. So I modified it and here is my version.Do not worry - it sure turned out good which prompted me to publish this post.

Ingredients:

Cauliflower- 1 medium broken into flowerettes

Onion-1 small chopped

Maida/Corn flour - 1/2cup

Ginger-garlic paste-1/2 tsp

Chilli flakes-3/4 tsp

Ginger- 1/2 inch chopped

Garlic-1 clove chopped

Green chilly- 1 medium chopped

Soya sauce- 1 + 1 tsp or as per taste

Tomato Ketchup - 1-1and 1/2 tsp or as per taste

Salt - as per taste
Oil-for frying

Preparation:

Chop the cauliflower into medium flowerettes.Wash and place them in salt water.In a bowl mix maida,salt, chilli flakes(red pepper flakes as they are also known),ginger garlic paste and soya sauce with a little water. Add to this the gobi pieces and mix well such that each gobi is coated with the batter. Heat oil and deep fry each marinated gobi flowerettes till they turn golden brown. Keep them aside in a paper towel.

In a pan/kadai,heat oil,add chopped onion,saute,add chopped ginger garlic,green chilly,saute. As the onions turn brown, add little soya sauce and tomato ketchup/puree/sauce mix well, add the fried gobi pieces and mix till they are coated with ketchup. At this point the mixture dries up or continue till the gravy is absorbed by the gobi pieces. Serve hot as an evening snack.



Potato Raita -Potato in Curd

This is my favourite potato dish.Actually I like anything with potatoes.I can have it as an any time snack.This is one dish I do not want to experiment with as I love it as it is and is simple to prepare.

Ingredients:
Potato-1 big boiled
Green chilly-1 medium
salt- as per taste
yogurt/thick buttermilk- 1 cup

seasoning:

curry leaves-few
mustard-1 tsp
jeera- 1/2 tsp

Preparation:
Boil,peel and mash potato.To this add chopped green chilles and salt. Mix well. Add the curd/butter milk.If the mix is thick you can add little water and mix well.Season with mustard, jeera and curry leaves.Serve.This can be served as a side dish to any meal or even as a dip with dosa.


This dish can also be prepared with gooseberry,if you do not like potatoes.You boil the gooseberry, de seed them and follow the above recipe. It is good for stomach as well.

Saturday, June 7, 2008

Simple Spinach Curry

This is dish that will go for lunch or dinner or as a dip in breakfast.The kiddies will love this and is the simplest way to get veggies in them. I got this from my mother who got it from someone.

Ingredients:
Spinach cleaned and chopped:2 cups
Tomato:1 medium chopped
Onion: 1 medium chopped
Salt : as per taste
Curry leaves- a few
Red chilly: 1 chopped and deseeded


Preparation:
Clean ,chop spinach hap hazardly.Take a pan or kadai, put spinach and chopped tomato and onion and salt.Mix well and boil till it reduces in amount and gets cooked.Cool and blend into a fine paste. Season with mustard, curry leaves and red chiily.Serve hot with idlys,rice and chappatties.Top with ghee while serving hot.

Experiment No:1 -Add fried paneer pieces and avoid seasoning to get a simple palak paneer.
Experiment No:2- Add cooked sweet corn,avoid seasoning and garnish with pepper and shredded cheese.

Thanks for visiting my Blog

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