Restaurant style White Color Veg. Pulao

Tried and tasted by Nivedita,

Hi All,

When it comes to rice, I go weak. I can't stop eating rice in any form, any style and any time.

If I go out to restaurants I always prefer to taste different types of rice preparation. Some I have tried and failed, some were disaster, few I could prepare almost near to the perfection. This is one among those successful recipes.

Though I have tasted this many times but was lazy to prepare at home. But last week I just planned to put my effort to recreate this restaurant style Veg.pulao and I got it almost same or according to my kids it was better than the restaurant taste.😍😊. And again I tried it this week and the result was same.

Without boasting much, I am coming to the recipe.

First time I used basmati rice and second time I used Jeera rice. If we use biryani leaves then it tastes just like Basmati. Nothing much difference except the aroma.

Serves 4

Ingredients:

Rice - 1 1/2 cup(Basmati or Jeera)

Mix vegetables - 1 1/2 cup( I have used beans, carrot and fresh green pea. You can add corn and paneer too. I love the paneer and corn in it but i didn't have)

Green capsicum - 1 medium, cubed

Green chilli - 2, slit(avoid if you want bland taste)

Onion - 1 big, finely sliced

Oil - 1/4 cup

Star anseed - 1 whole

Tej patta - 2 big

Jeera(cumin seeds) - 1 TSP

Ginger garlic paste - 1tsp(fresh made tastes good)

Salt to taste

Ghee 1 tsp+1tsp

Cashew nuts -1 tbsp, cut into pieces

Lime juice - 2 TSP

Fresh coriander and mint leaves - handful, cleaned, washed and chopped.

Water - as per the instructions on the packet. Mine is  rough measurement. Usually I take 

 1: 1 1/2 ratio or most of the times it's just an eye measurement)

DRY WHOLE MASALA - 1 1/2 TBSP:

BLACK PEPPER - 20TO25(depends on how strong the quality is and reduce if you want mild spicy taste. PLANNING TO USE WHITE PEPPER CORNS NEXT TIME TO GET PERFECT WHITE PULAO. 

Green cardamom -2(or 1 green and half of black elaichi)

Cloves - 4 to 6

Cinnamon - 1 inch 

Dry fry all the masalas and keep aside(keep it coveres to save the aroma)

Preparation:

• Wash the rice twice and soak it for 15 minutes atleast. Drain the water and keep it aside.
• Cut all the vegetables in to cubes. 

Parboil or steam the vegetables for few minutes, take care not to make it soft. 

• Now coarse powder the dry masalas and again keep it covered.
• Fry cashew nuts in 1 TSP ghee. 
• Cook the rice either in a cooker or open thick bottomed vessel. Add little salt and a TSP of ghee and 1tsp of coarse masala and star anseed. Again rice should be parboiled. 
• Just check the water once rice is parboiled. If there is still water drain it. It's safer to cook it very less water. Because if we need to remove the water,  then all the flavour will go off with the water. Or if you must drain the water, use the water to cook the vegetables. 
• Now, take again a thick bottomed and wide kadai  or another cooker pan and keep it on medium flame.(By the way, my friends laugh at me for keeping cookers of all the sizes, I have cookers from 1litre to 10litres. But I know the importance of using cooker, how it is helpful.)
• Add oil. Once hot, add Jeera and onion together. Fry till golden brown. 
• Now add ginger garlic paste. Saute it on low flame till onion gets brown. 
• Now add the boiled vegetables and saute it slowly for a minute.
• Add remaining garam masala powder and salt. Remember there is already salt in the rice.
• Mix well, add the rice and lime juice.
• Mix it slowly, close the lid and cook on very low flame for 10 minutes. Don't allow it to whistle.
• If using open kadai, then close it with thick lid and keep some weight on it to avoid the rice  getting  it burnt. 
• Once cool, spread the fried cashew and chopped coriander. 
• Serve hot with onion raita. 

It tastes good even after its cold😉. 

To make onion raita:

Onion - 1 big, finely cubed

Fresh curd - 1 cup

Salt to taste

Fresh coriander and mint leaves 1 TSP chopped finely. 

Mix all the above ingredients in a serving bowl. Onion raita is ready.

Waiting for your comments. 

Keep smiling, 

Fresh dates and dry fruits ladoo

Tried and tasted by Nivedita

Hi All,

How are you? I am happy that I could take out time for another post. Actually all these days I thought I can not type on the cellphone and I am not getting time to sit infront of the computer. But, now no more excuses. I will post the recipes from my cellphone itself.

Home made food is always the best and many food act as the medicine too. Having deep rooted culture, our India offers countless ideas or recipes as a medicine.

Here is one among those treasures which acts as magic for many diseases.

Yes, I am talking about laddoos made of fresh dates and dry fruits. I have already posted a recipe of gondh ke laddoo long back. It has it's own benefits and who can eat it. The link is  Here for the recipe. Please visit and let me know.

Now, why again this type? Because this laddoo has NO more ghee, NO SUGAR OR JAGGERY.

Easy to make and can store it for a week.

And benefits!!! From our skin care to iron deficiency to weight loss and constipation!

                

         

So, what are you waiting for? Go through the recipe, I am sure all the ingredients are in your kitchen. It takes only 20-30 minutes make these laddoos.

Recipe :

It makes 15-16 small laddoos (small lemon size)

           

Fresh dates - 1cup, deseeded and cubed

Dry fruits(almonds, cashew nuts, raisins, walnuts) - 1/2 cup

Dry coconut grated - 1/3 cup

Edible Gondh - 1tbsp, fried in a spoon of ghee.

Alalvi (garden cress seeds)- 2 tsp, again fries in the same pan.

Keep these to cool.

Put dates in a blender or mixi for few seconds to get it in to coarse powder. Transfer it into a wide open bowl. Now add the dry fruits and grind to make small pieces or even to a coarse powder.

Transfer this into the same bowl in which you kept the dates.

Add fried Gondh and alalvi and mix it properly. And take a small portion to make a laddoo of small lime size.

Eat it or give it to kids everyday with a glass of milk in the morning after the breakfast. Immunity will increase, if there is low Hb count , this will help to increase it. It's very tasty, healthy and you just can't wait one. But don't eat more than two a day.

Keep smiling,

Hubli style GIRMITT (masala puffed rice)

Tried and tasted by Nivedita
 Hi All,
Perfect weather for perfect dish of Hubli. Actually, this dish is perfect for any weather, any time. Some recipes hold a long story and history. Some recipes tell the whole tale about that particular place.
Hey, I really don't know the history of this dish and how it is connected with my Hubli-dharwad city. But we Hubli-dharwadians love this always.
Let me introduce my favourite snack -GIRMITT. (MASALA ONION PUFFED RICE).

If you enter our Hubli city, every corner you will get GIRMITT shops in the evenings.
According to my survey, I have three places where you get the best girmitt. First place goes to the "Hiremath's", whose shop is at Durgad Bail, the second place is near Unkal, the third is the shop at Manjunath Nagar, Gokul road.
The girmitt prepared near Manjunath Nagar  has the raw tomato chutney in it and tastes totally different from other.
Today, I am sharing the tamarind gravy recipe.
Let's start  making this yummy GIRMITT.

Ingredients:

Dry ingredients:
Fresh and crispy PUFFED RICE(kurmura, churumari which is our North Karnataka word) - 3 cups per serve, cleaned.
Powdered sugar- 1tbsp
Powdered roasted gram dal(puthani pudi)- 2 tbsp
Onion- 1 medium, finely chopped
Ripe red Tomato -1 medium, deseeded and finely cubed
Fresh coriander - 1 tbsp, finely chopped,
Sev(mixture) -1 tbsp, optional, I do not add as I feel it spoils the main taste.
Three long green chillies - pricked with a fork and shallow fried with dash of oil and salted.

Ingredients for the gravy :
Onion - 1 big or 2 medium, finely chopped
Curry leaves 10-15(optional), cleaned and chopped
Oil - 2 tbsp
Mustard seeds - 1/2 TSP
Cumin seeds - 1/2 TSP
Red chilli powder 1 tbsp or more if you want it spicier
Green chilli- 1 finely chopped, (drop this if you like it less spicy)
Salt to taste
Turmeric powder- 2 TSP, don't add less as this alters the taste
Tamarind paste - 1 tbsp (if the tamarind is very strong then take l/2 tbsp. Though My tamarind is strong or more tangy, I use full 1tbsp as I like the tangy taste)
Jaggery - 1 tsp powdered
Roasted gram dal powder (Dalia powder)- 1tbsp
Water -1/8 cup

Method:
Heat oil in a pan or kadai.
Add mustard seeds once hot. Allow it to splutter.
Add jeera or cumin seeds and curry leaves.
Now add onions(and green chilli) and saute it.
Cook it till the onion changes to light brown color. Now add salt, chilli powder, turmeric powder. Mix well.
Add the tamarind paste and jaggery powder and 1/8 cup of water
Mix well. Cover and cook it on a slow flame till the oil starts leaving the sides of the pan.
Off the heat and keep the gravy to cool.
Gravy should neither be very thick nor watery.
Now everything is ready to serve.
Keep all the ingredients in hand.
Remeber the gravy should not be hot. It makes the girmitt soggy.


JUST before serving,
Take a round deep vessel to mix. It's easy to mix the girmitt well.
I love this process as the sound creates nice music to hear.
Put 2tbsp of gravy in the vessel.
Add 2 cups of puffed rice. Mix it slowly for 10 seconds. Now add 1/2 tbsp powdered sugar, 1/2 tbsp gram dal powder, 1 tbsp onion, 1 tbsp tomato. Mix it fast and quick.
Transfer it to the serving plate and garnish it with another half tbsp of onion, tomato and fresh coriander(and the sev if you want). Top it with fried green chilli and serve it immediately as it becomes soggy if delayed.

Adjust the spice according to your taste.
It tastes best if gravy is fresh. I don't like to make it a day before or even few hours before.
Hope you all will make this and let me know the taste.


Keep smiling,

MY DAD AND HIS FAVOURITE MASALA UPMA.

Tried and tasted by Nivedita,

Hi All,
 

I would like to start the post with BIG THANKS to everyone.

And a very heartfelt thanks to Jagruti of  http://www.jcookingodyssey.com/, who is more than a friend, a sister and a great human being. She has a great blog with lot of vegetarian dishes. This post is because of her invitation to me to participate in her event. Thank you dear for inspiring me to start writing again. Even last year it was her event which made me to post a recipe. I know I should write and post regularly but somehow I am not getting time to do the same.

Who is that one person who is not alive but you miss him/her  so much that you would love to talk with if you get a chance? Have I gone crazy to ask this silly question? YES and NO. I am sure all of us have this feeling. There are many people in our life who depart from us for forever. My post is dedicated to that one person whom I always miss so much.  'Appaji' my father, who left us 15 years back and whom I could not talk, see or meet during his last days. I was 8 months pregnant with my first daughter and was living in UAE. Though I knew about his illness, but never imagined that his condition is bad. But when I came to know about it, doctor did not allow me to fly as government won't allow to fly at this stage. Then, he passed away. Those days still mobile phones were very new and not all could afford to buy. He was in coma before he left us. But for me he is not dead. He is in my words. He lives in my words. My only wish was to meet him once and to listen what he wanted to say me before he went. Everyone told me that  till the last minute before he stopped talking he was taking my name. And even after for many years he came into my dream either serving me food or having food with me.  My father and I shared this bond. He was a great cook. He enjoyed cooking. And his food tasted heaven. Family friends and relatives waited for a chance to taste the food prepared by him. He used to prepare  rice, sambhar, any vegetables, dosa, idly, chapati, Mirchi, girmit. You name it and he will make it for you. He always stayed away from us as his government job did not allow him to be with us. My mother, being a working woman, stayed back with us in for her job and studies. We always loved to go to his place during our summer holidays.

My father  was 6 feet tall, dark and lean man. He was a man of his words. Always polite, hardworking, caring and dedicated. Not even a single bad habit.  He was a great singer too. He was passionate about photography. He loved reading and was 100% Kannadiga. His handwriting was just like printed one.

His only weakness was he was  not very courageous person. He used to get scared of even a simple cough. May be this was the reason he did not fight his last breath.  What I did not like about him was he was not a decision maker. I wish he could have been a stronger person.  But I pity him for not enjoying his life fully. I wanted him to be there with us now to see our success and settled life. He was always worried about my brother and his future. Now how I wish I could see him enjoying  with  his grand children. He was fond of kids. He always clicked the photos of my friend's children. 

My memory with him starts from his coming home on weekends after traveling for many hours. My brother and I used to sleep off after  waiting  for him till late night. And in the morning he used to wake us up with Amara Chitra Katha story books in his hands. As I grew and started cooking on my own, I followed my father always. Whenever Dosa was prepared at home, it was me who used to make for everyone but at the end he always made me sit and make dosas for me and give. Round dosa, crispy dosa, triangle dosa, cap dosa... Ahh! I still have that taste in my mouth. This is the most closest memory about my dad and me. He always ironed my uniform and kept ready. Whenever he came early from the office, he used to prepare some or the other snacks and wait for us.

And one more what I always will remember is he introduced us to the music. From devotional songs to Gazals, all Kannada folk songs  till the current movie hits. He had huge collection of tapes. Being an officer in Information and Publicity department, he was always on tour. Most of the media people, journalists, radio artists always visited our house. His control over Kannada and English language was very good. Even I wanted to do journalism but don't know why he did not allow me to do.  
Most of my recipes in my blog are his favorite foods. As he loved our North Karnataka food very much. 
He happily ate Jowar roti everyday.  Jowar roti upma, Thaali peeth, If nothing with roti, he loved having dal roti and his the most favorite evening snack girmitt or this  churmari with bhaji,  jowar-vada. How can I forget this magic vegetable which was his favorite and he taught me to love this one Kaarchi-kaimini-bitter-gourd-sabji. 
And the list goes on. Please go through my North Karnataka recipe collection to know more about. 

 I will force myself to stop to write about him as the post may go lengthy. Coming to his favorite foods, he always loved any vegetarian food. Only once in a while he had eggs. He always loved upma. whenever he had to go early mornings for meetings or tour, he used to keep everything ready previous night itself. He will roast Semolina, keep all the required vegetables on a cutting board. Never disturbed my mom or me to wake up early and prepare it. But I always got up as early as 5 O'clock whenever he made upma. I loved his upma. I used to get up eat and again go to sleep after he left the house. 

He loved this masala upma very much. So here is the recipe of masala upma. I know it's very common and regular food but it was my dad's favorite so it is special for me. 

Ingredients:

Semolina or Suji or Bansi rawa - 1 cup(240ml)
(It serves 3 persons)
1.Oil - 1/4 cup
2.Mustard seeds - 1tsp
3.Jeera or Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
4.Urad dal - 2 tsp
5.Chana dal - 2 tsp
6.Curry leaves - 10-15, washed and chopped
7.Onion - 1 big, chopped finely
8.Green chilly - 2, chopped finely
9.Ginger - small piece, cleaned and chopped
10.Dry red chilly - 3 to 4 
11.Tomato - 1 big, De seeded and finely chopped
12.Tamarind juice - 1 tsp
13.Sugar - 1 tsp
14.Salt to taste
15.Pav Bhaji masala or Sambhar masala - 2 tsp ( The taste differs with each powder)
16.Red chilly powder - 1 tsp(skip if you don't like  the spicy taste)
17.Haldi or turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
18.Water - 3 cups or depends on the rawa.
19.Fresh Coriander  - handful and little for the garnishing
grated fresh coconut - 1 tbsp(optional) 
20.Ghee - 1 tsp for each serve.

Method:

Roast the rawa  till you get nice aroma. Take care not to burn it.
Keep it aside. 
Keep the water to boil.
Keep a thick bottomed pan or vessel on the gas stove. 
Add oil and allow it to be hot.
Add mustard seeds and wait till splutters and add urad and chana dal. Let the dals turn into golden color. 
Now goes the jeera, curry leaves and onion. Fry till onions are transparent.
Keep the flame low. 
Start adding the ingredients from NO.8 till No.17 slowly one by one, sauteing in between. 
Saute for a minute.
Add the hot water and allow it to boil for 30 seconds. Again keeping the flame on low, add the roasted rawa slowly and immediately start mixing it. Or else upma will have lumps which will taste very bad. 
now add the fresh coriander and close the lid and cook it for 3 to five minutes. Off the stove and wait for few minutes. Serve it on a plate with fresh coconut and coriander leaves. 

This simple but the most delicious upma prepared from my father made me wake up at 5 in the morning.
Miss you Appaji, you are always in my words and my talks.

These are some more recipes from other wonderful bloggers for father's day celebrations. Thank you friends. 
Jagruti's recipe who created this wonderful event : sugar free mango basil and cashew 
Sweet vermicelli with jaggery by Mina 
baingan kabartha roasted aubergine  by Nayana Kanabar. 
misti-doi by Sujata
Meat Masala Bharwan Baingan - TheYellowDaal - Mains or Sides
Ghari Rotli-Puran Poli - Mayuri's Jikoni - Mains
List is long. Please visit Jagruti's collection of 50 recipes for fathers's day for all the amazing 50 recipes. 
 
 
 

Keep Smiling,