Honey Lemon Chili Dip
Hot meets cold! Edible chillies topped with honey lemon syrup served along with homemade tomato sauce.
Ingredients:
- 6-8 jalapeños (or other hot peppers/chillies)
- 2 chopped tomatoes
- 2-3 chopped green chillies
- ranch sauce
- sugar
- honey
- pepper
- salt
- water
Method:
- heat up a pan, pour 1 cup water & add 2 chopped tomatoes
- once the water gets evaporated & you get a squashy consistency, add it along with 2-3 chopped green chillies (depending upon your hotness endurance), pepper & salt for taste and 1 teaspoon ranch sauce to a mixer/blender & grind well
- in a bowl, add 3 teaspoons honey, a teaspoon sugar & a teaspoon water & mix well and set aside
- cut the jalapeños into half as shown in the above picture & remove all the seeds (or atleast most of them)
- boil them in hot water for a short duration
- remove from heat & pour the honey syrup on top of these jalapeños
- serve alongside the tomato sauce
Notes:
- Caution: this recipe is quite on the hotter side
- to decrease the hotness:
- use lesser green chillies
- remove maximum seeds from jalapeños
- boil in hot water for a longer duration (to an extent you don't lose its shape)
Oats Laddu
Here's presenting an oats, brown sugar version of this traditional Indian sweet.
Ingredients:
- 1 cup oats
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 2 teaspoons cardamon powder
- 3/4 cup ghee
- few cashewnuts
- ice cream essence (optional)
Method:
- saute cashews, set aside
- partially roast the oats in a pan/bowl adding like 1/2 cup ghee, stir nicely to mix ghee evenly throughout
- remove the oats, add it to a mixer/blender & grind partially (to an extent where oats are not completely powdered)
- add it back to the pan/bowl & heat it in low
- add 1/2 cup brown sugar, 2 teaspoons cardamon powder, a spoon of ice cream essence, the sauted cashewnuts, remaining ghee & stir well
- Remove from heat, make round balls (please read notes below) & serve
Notes:
- If you are unable to get it ball shaped, don't give up :).. as the temperature goes down, the mixture will help better in shaping, but don't wait until it gets too cold, then it might become to hard
- After making the balls, set aside for a few minutes while it gets harder & then erve
Pineapple Mudding
Pineapple M.. N.. O.. Pudding. Close but not there yet!
Ingredients:
- 1-inch pineapple slice
- 2 teaspoons unsalted butter
- 1 teaspoon caramel sauce
- 1 teaspoon milkmaid
- 1/2 teaspoon honey
- 1/4 teaspoon vanilla essence
- 1/2 cup milk
- few raisins
- sugar
- few red cherries
- whipped cream
Method:
- chop the pineapple slice into smaller pieces
- add the chopped pineapples, 2 teaspoons unsalted butter, 1 teaspoon caramel sauce, 1 teaspoon milkmaid, 1/2 teaspoon honey, 1/4 teaspoon vanilla essence, 1/2 cup milk, few raisins, sugar for taste & few red cherries into a mixer/blender & grind them thoroughly
- decorate it with whipped cream & red cherries
- serve cold/room temperature
Pineapple & Potato Curry
A spicy blend of potato & pineapple, served with rice.
Ingredients:
- 1 cup chopped pineapples
- 1 finely chopped potato
- 1/4 cup chopped onions
- 1/4 cup minced spring onions
- 1/4 cup corn
- 1/2 tomato, chopped
- 2 teaspoons ginger garlic paste
- 2 teaspoons soy sauce
- 2 teaspoons cooking oil
- masala powder
- turmeric powder
- chilly powder
- salt
- water
- ghee
Method:
- add 2 teaspoons ginger garlic paste, 2 teaspoons soy sauce, 1 finely chopped tomato & water in a food processor or blender and process until smooth.
- saute 1/4 cup chopped onions and 1 finely chopped potato in cooking oil
- add the spice mixture prepared in the first step, 1/4 cup corn & required amount of water to soak the pan contents
- add masala powder, chilly powder, pinch of turmeric powder, salt & ghee for taste
- add 1 cup chopped pineapples & 1/4 cup minced spring onions
- cook until all the water gets evaporated
- Serve with rice.
Notes:
- modified this recipe that I found in http://vegetarian.about.com/od/maindishentreerecipes/r/pinepotatocurry.htm
Black meets Red!
A blend of black beans, red peppadew peppers, millet, parsley & chives.
Ingredients:
- 1 cup black beans
- 6-8 red peppadew peppers (I got them from whole foods)
- 1/2 cup millet
- 1/2 cup minced parsley
- 1/2 cup minced chives
- 2-3 minced garlics
- cooking oil
- black pepper powder
- salt
- water
- few cilantro
Method:
- pressure cook 1/2 cup millet & 1 cup black beans separately
- once cooked, in a pan, pour 1/2 cup minced parsley, 1/2 cup minced chives, 2-3 minced garlics, 4-6 red peppadew peppers & saute in 2-3 teaspoons of cooking oil
- add black pepper powder & salt for taste
- add the cooked black beans & millet & mix nicely
- garnish with cilantro & leftover red peppadew peppers
- serve hot
Khaman Dhokla
Gujju, here I come... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhokla
Ingredients:
- 1 cup gram flour
- 1/2 cup yogurt
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
- green chilly paste
- sugar
- salt
- turmeric powder
- water
- mustard seeds
- cooking oil
- curry leaves
- cilantro
- seasame seeds
Method:
- to a bowl, add 1 cup gram flour, 1/2 cup yogurt, 1/2 teaspoon baking soda, 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice & desired amount of water to get it to batter consistency & set it aside for an hour
- then add turmeric powder, sugar, salt & green chilly paste for taste and mix thoroughly
- steam cook this for like 20 minutes or until the batter has hardened up well enough with no existence of raw batter
- separately, heat up a pan, add 2 teaspoons cooking oil, add mustard seeds & wait until it pops
- then add curry leaves, cilantro, seasame seeds & pour it on top of the cooked batter
- cut it into square/diamond shaped pieces (just the way you'd cut a birthday cake) before serving
Subramaniapuram Idly
A savory cake made of semolina & a variety of vegetables (in other words, cousin of Kancheepuram idly :P)
Ingredients:
- 1 cup Semolina
- 1 cup yogurt
- 2 minced green chillies
- 1/2 cup minced red cabbage (or white)
- 1/4 cup minced chives
- 1/4 cup minced parsley
- 1 teaspoon urad dal
- 1 teaspoon moong dal
- pepper
- salt
- asafetida
- water
- cooking oil
Method:
- To a bowl, add 1 cup Semolina, 1 cup yogurt, 2 minced green chillies, 1/2 cup minced red cabbage (or white), 1/4 cup minced chives, 1/4 cup minced parsley, 1 teaspoon urad dal, 1 teaspoon moong dal & desired amount of water to get it to batter consistency; mix well
- add salt, pepper & asafetida for taste & continue mixing
- apply oil to the idly plates & pour the batter into each idly dip
- steam cook for like 20 minutes or until you find the idlies thoroughly cooked & there are no signs of raw batter still
- serve hot
Notes:
- Feel free to use other veggies if you don't have the ones specified here; eg. tomato, corn, cilantro, green peppers, carrot
Sago Vadam
Sago based Papadum blended with spices & spring onions made in traditional oven.
Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup sago
- 1/2 cup rice flour
- 2 green chillies
- 1/2 teaspoon cummin seeds
- 1/2 teaspoon seasame seeds
- 1/4 cup minced spring onions
- 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
- asafetida
- salt
- water
- cooking oil
Method:
- soak sago in water for atleast 2 hours
- preheat oven to 250 degrees
- pressure cook or set sago to boil
- separately, in a cup, add 2 green chillies, 1/2 teaspoon cummin seeds, 1/2 teaspoon seasame seeds, salt, a teaspoon water and nicely mix/mash them
- add this mixture to the rice flour, add some more water to get it to a batter consistency
- once the sago has been cooked, pour the rice flour mixture into the pan containing sago
- add 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice, asafetida, add some more water if required & cook further until the water gets evaporated & you get a thick gummy solution
- in an oven sheet, pour 1 spoon of the gummy solution & flatten it nicely into an oval shape, the better you flatten, the better it gets baked; make several such papadums depending upon the size of your oven sheet
- keep it inside the oven for like 30 minutes; remove after papadums have been baked well (please read notes below)
- heat up oil in a pan, once heated, deep fry these papadums
- allow it to get to room temperature before serving
Notes:
- the time you need to bake largely depends on the size of papadums & its thickness, so my numbers above may not work for you
- oven heats up food using conduction, so the borders first get heated up & it slowly gets to its center; so make sure the center of the papadums have been baked well before removing it
Thai Pongal
Pongal made with Thai rice, coconut milk, urad dal, shredded coconut & pineapple. Happy Thai Pongal to you all :)!
Ingredients:
- 1 cup Thai Jasmine rice
- 1/2 cup urad dal
- 3 1-inch jaggery cubes (more, the sweeter it is)
- 1/4 cup coconut milk
- 1/2 cup shredded coconut
- 1 1/2 cups milk
- 2 teaspoons ghee
- few pineapple slices, finely chopped
- few raisins for garnishing
- water
Method:
- add 1 cup jasmine rice, 1/2 cup urad dal, 1 1/2 cups of milk & 1 1/2 cups water into a vessel and set it to boil (or pressure cook)
- separately, heat up another vessel, add 3 cups of water & add the 3 1-inch jaggery cubes into it & keep stirring until the jaggeries have dissolved well & the water color has changed
- add the cooked rice/urad dal mixture into the jaggery water & mix well
- if you don't have coconut milk, grind 1/2 cup shredded coconut in a mixer along with 1/2 cup water, filter/squeeze it through a cloth to extract the coconut milk
- add few pineapple chops, 1/2 cup coconut milk & a teaspoon of shredded coconut & mix well
- once cooked, separately heat up 2 teaspoons ghee on a pan & add few raisins & pour it into the above mixture
- decorate with pineapples & shredded coconut before serving
- serve hot
Quinoa Payasam
Blending quinoa with traditional south Indian pudding.
Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup quinoa
- 3/4 cup brown/raw sugar
- 3 cups milk
- 1/4 teaspoon cardamon powder
- 2 teaspoons ghee
- few cardamon seeds
- few cashews
- few raisins
Method:
- Pressure cook or set quinoa to boil
- separately, add 3 cups of milk to a pan & heat it up
- add 3/4 cup brown/raw sugar & stir well until it gets dissolved
- add the cooked quinoa & 1/4 teaspoon cardamon powder to the boiling milk & continue to stir
- saute few cashews & raisins in ghee & garnish the above solution
- serve hot/cold
