When I came to US, I was longing for home cooked meals for a few days. Everything about this place was very new to me. One of my husband's cousin had invited us over for dinner and his wife had prepared this karela sabzi. I took the recipe from her and as both I and my husband love karela, this dish features at least once a week in our menu. It is unique dish as a mixture of hot- bitter-sweet and spicy flavor can be found in this one dish. It is not a very time consuming recipe and goes fabulously with dal-chawal or kadhi-chawal.
Ingredients
2-3 bitter gourds
oil
1/2 cup jaggery
1 teaspoon mustard
1 teaspoon white sesame or til
2 teaspoon poppy seeds or khus-khus
1 tablespoon raisins or kishmish
1 tablespoon broken cashew nuts
salt for taste
pinch of asafoetida
pinch of turmeric powder
3-4 fenugreek seeds
chili powder for taste
Method
Scrape the skin off the bitter gourd and cut it into thin round circles. Apply 1 teaspoon salt and keep aside for 20 minutes. Squeeze the juice from the bitter gourds. If you want a crispier version, deep-fry the bitter gourds in oil till brown. For a healthier version, oil a pan and saute the bitter gourds on a medium flame till brown on both sides.
In another pan, heat 2 tablespoon oil and add mustard seeds. When the seeds splutter, add asafoetida and fenugreek seeds. Add the cashew nuts and saute till brown. Add sesame seeds and fry till brown. Add poppy seed, raisins and saute for a moment and mix in jaggery. Add 1/4 cup water and turmeric powser and chili powder. Get the jaggery mixture to a boil. Add the bitter gourds and mix well. Serve hot with rice.
Preparation time:40 minutes
Serves: 2
Eggs make a great breakfast and snack item. I have fond memories of childhood when my mom would return from office at around 6 PM the evening and serve delicious egg omelets with bread as evening snacks. The tangy tomatoes, the crunchy onions in the egg omelet and the spicy Maggi tomato ketchup applied on the bread slices would make a delicious sandwich. Earlier my husband was not very fond of having eggs regularly for breakfast. Thanks to our visit to the beautiful Requa Inn and experiencing their wonderful breakfast egg preparations, scrambled eggs and omelets have become all time breakfast favorite at my home. Recently we even tried the brown organic eggs available in Costco and found them to be better than the regular white eggs.
Vani of Mysorean sent me the information about the Show me your Omelet event and I am sending this recipe for the event hosted by Divya.
Ingredients
3 large eggs
4 tablespoon chopped onion
3 tablespoon chopped tomato
other optional vegetables (sauteed mushrooms, peas, spinach, corn, beans)
1/4 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon chili powder or as desired
1 chopped green chili (optional)
4 tablespoons of chopped coriander leaves or cilantro or chopped parsley or chives (whatever is available on hand)
butter or oil
salt for taste
Method
Wash and break the eggs in a bowl. Beat it with a fork, spoon or a whisk for 3-4 minutes or till they are frothy. Add rest of the ingredients except the chives(if used) and the butter. Heat a pan on medium or low heat and coat it well with butter or oil. Spread half of the omelet mixture in the pan and let it cook for 2-3 minutes till it is light brown on the bottom. Flip the omelet and let it cook on the other side till light brown spots appear. Remove the omelet on to a plate and garnish with chives. Powdered parmesan cheese can also be used as a garnish. Serve hot with toasted bread, tomato ketchup and mustard.
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Serves: 2
The activity-filled long days of the summer season can make one very hungry during the early evenings. Instead of opting for the oily and spicy farsans (which everyone loves to eat !) Handvo can be a tasty snack . It can be also stored for a day or two in the refrigerator. So this has been a summer treat at my home during many good summer days. Also it is a great accomplice with Chai on cold rainy and winter days.
When I think about Handvo, I fondly remember my college friend R's mother who used to prepare this dish very often and give it to my friend in her tiffin. I loved Handvo as much as she relished my mom's dosas and idlis.My Handvo recipe includes a variety of lentils and a variety of seasonal vegetables can be added to this dish. Apart from the lentils I have also tried adding a handful of whole wheat while soaking the lentils and it has turned out very tasty. Because it is baked and not steamed it has a crispy and crunchy texture from outside and a soft flavorful texture on the inside. I am sending this recipe to the event "My Love affair with Legumes-Fifteenth Helping" hosted by Sia and Susan.
Ingredients
For soaking and fermentation:
1/2 cup urad dal or split and husked black gram
1/2 cup toor dal split pigeon pea
3/4 cup chana dal or split Bengal gram
1/2 cup moong dal or split and husked green gram
3 cups rice
1/2 cup ragi or black millet flour (optional)
1 teaspoon methi or fenugreek seeds
1 1/2 cup curd or 1 cup sour butter milk
Spices:
3 green chilies or as per taste
1 tablespoon chopped ginger
1/2 teaspoon haldi or turmeric powder
1/2 teaspoon red chili powder or as per taste
Vegetables:
2-3 cups of grated vegetables (mostly bottle gourd is used, but one can be as creative as possible ..I use which ever vegetables are on hand- cabbage, cucumber, carrot, zucchini, pumpkin, peas, spinach and fenugreek leaves. If you are using fenugreek leaves, then omit the fenugreek seeds)
1/4 cup grated or chopped coconut (optional)
1/2 bunch coriander leaves
salt for taste
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
4 tablespoon lemon juice
For seasoning:
pinch of asafoetida or heeng
2 tablespoon white til or white sesame seeds
1 tablespoon mustard seeds
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
10-12 curry leaves or kadipatta
3 tablespoon oil
Method
Soak the dals and rice (and wheat if using it) and methi seeds for 6-8 hours. Grind it together into a coarse paste. The batter is much coarser than the regular dosa or idli batter. Add curd or buttermilk and 1 teaspoon salt and mix well. Keep the batter aside to ferment for 6-8 hours or overnight. The batter should be kept in a warmer place to ferment. In winters, I warm the oven to around 100 degrees and keep it overnight in the warm oven.
After fermentation, mix in the vegetables, coconut, chopped coriander leaves, sugar and salt for taste. Mix in all the spices and adjust the chili and salt as per taste. Heat oil in a pan and add the mustard seeds. When they start to splutter add the asafoetida, cumin seeds. Then add the sesame seeds and curry leaves. Add the seasoning to the batter and mix well. Add the lemon juice to the baking soda and stir immediately into the batter.
Grease a baking tray and pour the batter evenly into it. Bake the handvo for 50 min to 1 hour at 350 degrees. I like a crisper version, so I bake the handvo till it is all brown on the bottom. Serve hot with coriander-mint chutney.
In the summer season we find papdi vegetable in abundance at the Indian store. Both I and my husband are a great fan of papdi and gavar vegetables which are available in the summer season in Bay Area. Goda masala can also go a long way and add extra flavor to the papdi sabzi. So if goda masala is available readily on hand, you can sprinkle a little on the sabzi. A pinch of garam masala can also make the sabzi more flavorful and spicy. This sabzi can also be made with potatoes. If you are in love with the potatoes, fry one or two chopped potatoes in the masala before adding the papdi. At my home we use papdi along with tomato and onion and various other masalas to make the sabzi. But my husband likes the stir fry with the original flavor of the papdi and a mild flavor of coriander powder. So now I have now learnt and adapted to making the stir fry version which my husband calls the Maharashtrian version as opposed to my North Indian Papdi Sabzi version!
Ingredients
3 cups papdi
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
Goda masala or Garam masala (optional)
1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder
3/4 teaspoon coriander powder
1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
pinch po asafoetida
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon chili powder or desired
2 teaspoon oil
Method
Wash and remove the ridges of the papdi. Chop the papdi into half inches pieces. Heat oil in a pan. Add mustard seeds and when it splutters, add asafoetida. Add coriander powder, turmeric powder and chili powder. Fry for a moment and add the papdi vegetable. Add 1/2 cup water and cook for 10-15 minutes till the papdi is soft and well cooked. Sprinkle goda masala or garam masala if desired. Serve hot with rice or roti.
Preparation time: 30 minutes
Serves: 2-3
I found this recipe in Lakshmi's Blog - Taste Of Mysore. I had made a similar dosa with Azuki Beans also called 'Bagdo' in Konkani. So, I was very interested when I saw this recipe in Lakshmi's blog. Any pulse dosa takes a little longer than rice dosa, so it needs to be cooked for a longer time on a medium flame. I had some sprouts which I had kept aside to make salad and I used those to make this dosa during the weekend. It turned out to be a great breakfast treat. Thanks Lakshmi for sharing the recipe!
Last weekend we had a hearty breakfast with my friend V. She had made great sabudana kichidi and this chana salad as a side dish. The tomatoes used in this salad are from their own kitchen garden. They also grow jalapeno and many other herbs like mint and coriander in their garden. My husband loved this salad and it has become a regular at my place. It is very simple to prepare and yet very nutritious.
Ingredients
1/2 cup chana
1 medium onion
1 tomato
lemon juice for taste
salt for taste
2 green chilies
Method
Wash and soak the chana overnight or for around 8 hours in plenty of water. Pressure cook the soaked chana till it is soft but also remains firm. Let it cool down. Chop onion and tomatoes into small pieces. Chop the green chilies finely. Mix the chana with chopped onion, tomato and green chillies. Add salt for taste. Mix in lemon juice just before serving.
