Tomato Raita

Raita can be one good addition to any meal. Raita can be made with raw vegetables / cooked vegetables. Today we will make tomato raita. It is easy to make, colorful, and tastes delicious.

This raita goes well with sambhar, kootu or chappati. You can use whole tomatoes or tomato puree. With the Puree it is a smooth mixture and also it has a good color.




Ingredients
Tomatoes - 2 large / puree - 3 tbsp
Mustard seeds
Curry leaves
Urad dal - 1tsp
Hing
Green chillies - 2
Cilantro (Coriander leaves)
Yogurt - 1 1/2 cup
Oil, turmeric, salt

Method
Take oil in a pan, add mustard seeds. When it splutters add urad dal, when the dal turns brown add hing, curry leaves and green chillies. Now add the tomatoes, salt and turmeric and cook well till all the tomatoes are nicely mashed. Add finely cut cilantro mix well and remove from fire. The tomatoes have to be completely mashed and should look like this.


Cool this mixture and add it to yogurt and mix well. Enjoy the Yummy Raita

Cauliflower and Peanut Kootu

This one is my moms receipe. I am not a big fan of cauliflower but this dish I really like because my mom makes it real spicy and also it tastes amazing with Tomato Raita, and to finish the meal Curd Rice with the kootu on the side MMMmmmmmm!!!



Kootu is like Sambhar only thicker. This receipe can also be made using beans / carrot and peas / cabbage or all the above vegetables mixed together instead of cauliflower and peanut.


Ingredients

Toor Dal - 1 cup
Cauliflower - 1
Peanut - 1/2 cup
Channa Dal - 2 tbsp
Urad Dal - 2 tbsp
Pepper - 2 tsp
Red chillie - 2 (since pepper is added this is already spicy so u can skip the red chillie if u don't want it too spicy)
Coconut - 2 tbsp
Tamarind Paste - 1 tsp
Curry leaves, cilantro, mustard seeds, Hing, turmeric and salt.




Method

Soak peanut for an hour. Seperate the cauliflower flowerets and wash them. Cook toor dal, cauliflower and peanuts together.

In a pan fry channa dal, urad dal, pepper and red chillies till they are brown. Cool this add the coconut and grind to a smooth paste.

Take oil in a pan, add mustard seeds, when it splutters add hing, curry leaves and 1 cup water. When the water boils add the tamarind paste and turmeric. Mix and let it boil for a while till the raw smell of tamarind has gone. Now add the paste and mix. Then add the dal, cauliflower and peanut, salt and mix well u can add a little water if you feel it is too thick. Garnish with cilantro.







Serve hot with rice or Chappati

In the picture Kootu is served with Rice and Tomato Raita

Modak

Modak is Ganeshas favorite sweet. Modak can be made it lots of different ways like fried or steamed, using rice flour or wheat flour, with different kinds of filling in the modak.

As a kid our neighbor used to make modaks for sankasti and always send some to our house. One of my favorite fillings was a spicy filling with powdered peppercorn in it. When it was time to do aarti I would eagerly be looking at the door to see if aunty is bringing the modaks.

Now that I have started doing the pooja myself I always try to make some sweet. So this time I tried making modaks. I made fried modak using wheat flour with coconut filling. The recipe for the coconut filling is from my friend chitra. It is a perfect measurement. Thanx chitra for this wonderful recipe.

Ingredients

For outer covering

Wheat flour - 2 cups

salt, oil and water

Mix all and knead into a dough and keep aside.

For filling

Coconut - 3 cups

Sugar - 1 cup

Cardamon - 3

Ghee - 2 tsp

Cashews, raisins

Put all the ingredients in a pan and cook till the mixtures is completely mixed and leaves sides of the pan. keep aside and cool.

To make modaks

Make small balls of the dough. Roll them using a rolling pin the size of a puri.

Add a couple of spoons of the coconut mixture in the center

Now bring the centers of the puri together, like a semi circle

Bring the left side of the puri together to the center.

Now do the same thing on the right

Join the whole thing in the center in the shape of a modak.

All the time making sure that the mixture is all inside.

After all the modaks are ready. Deep fry them in oil till they are golden brown.

Paneer Masala

One of my friends made this masala for me when she came to my place for a visit. It is very versatile, the base masala is the same and you can add your own variation. You can make this masala ahead of time and refrigerate it and just before serving mix all the remaining ingredients and microwave it. Thanks Vinita for this wonderful recipe.


















Ingredients
Onions - 2 large
Tomatoes -4 medium
Ginger - 1 1/2 inch
Garlic - 4-6 pods
kasoori methi - 2 tsp
MDH Kitchen King/Garam Masala - 2 tbsp
Chillie powder - 1 tsp
Cream - 1/2 cup
turmeric - 1/2 tsp
Paneer
Capsicum - 1 small(cut lengthwise)
Onion - 1 small(cut lengthwise)

Method

Take olive oil in a pan. Cut the large onions and add it to the oil. Add chopped ginger and garlic. Fry till the onions are completely brown in color( this is very important as this adds flavor to the dish). Now add chopped tomatoes and again cook till it is fully cooked, the tomatoes have to be completely mashed. Switch off the gas, cool the mixture and grind. This is the base masala.

Now take a little oil in another pan. Add the small onion cut lengthwise and fry. Once done remove it and keep aside. Now add the capsicum and fry it and keep aside. Fry Paneer.

Before serving add all the fried vegetables and paneer to the Masala Paste. Add kasoori methi, garam masala, turmeric, chillie powder, salt and cream and mix well and microwave this mixture for 3 minutes or cook the whole thing on the stove top for 3 minutes. Serve with parathas/rice.



Variation : Another way to do this is instead of adding paneer,onions and capsicum for the same mixture add Cooked rajma.

In the picture I have served Paneer Masala with Mixed Rice

Mixed Rice

Came across this receipe accidently. I had some left over rice without any side dish at home so just tried to mix together a few things at home and the final result was yummy!!! After that day this has kind of become a main dish rather than something made of left over. One masala that i really like and try to always have it in my kitchen is MDH Kitchen King. It is really good and adds a good flavour to any dish.

I am sharing 2 of my dishes that i make using this masala that go well together

Ingredients for Mixed Rice

Basmati rice - 1 cup

carrots - 2

Capsicum - 1 large

Peas a handful

Onion- 1 large

Beans a few

Garlic - 2 cloves

mint leaves a few for garnish

MDH Kitchen King Masala- 2 tbsp(adjust as per taste)

salt

Olive Oil 3 tbsp/ Butter

Jeera -1 tsp

Method

Wash the rice, drain all the water and keep aside. Cut all the vegetables Lengthwise. Boil 2 cups of water. Take oil in a pan. Add Jeera and onions and fry till onions are brown. Add capsicum and garlic and fry some more, now add the remaining vegetables and cook for a minute. Add rice, salt,masala and mix well. Add the warm water and chopped mint leaves and cover and let it cook in medium heat.

When done serve hot with raitha or chips

Potato Halwa

The first time I tasted this dish was in a temple in India. We all enjoyed it so much we tried to make it after coming home. Well after that I forgot all about it until recently when I was in a friends place she was talking about it and it brought back a lot of memories. Well I then tried it during the festival season and here is the yummy receipe.

Ingredients

Potatoes - 4 boiled and grated

Sugar - 1 1/2 cups (adjust as per taste)

Milk - 1 cup

ghee - 1/2 cup

Cardamom

Cashews

a little food color

Method

Fry the cashews in ghee and keep aside. Add potatoes, sugar, milk and some ghee to a pan and keep stirring. Continue stirring and adding ghee gradually until all the ingredients come together. Add cardamom, cashews and color and mix well.

Serve hot

Instead of sugar and milk use condensed milk for a richer halwa

Avial

Avial is a traditional Kerala dish. It has lots of vegetables and is also easy to make. In my house my mom made avial everytime we made bisibelabath because that is considered a good combination. Later on when i started cooking i realised avial tastes excellent with Mysore Rasam, so now whenever i make mysore rasam i make avial. Since it has lots of vegetables the quantity that u get is also a lot but in my house it is never enough. Another popular combination with Avial is Adai (a kind of dosa made with a mix of all dals).

The receipe that i have is given to me by a friend of mine who is from kerala, but she has made some changes to it to suit her taste and i love this receipe because you really can't go wrong with it. It tastes YUM!!!!

Seen in the Picture is Avial with Mysore Rasam.
For Rasam recipe go to http://www.saviskitchen.blogspot.com/


Ingredients
Carrots -3
Potatoes -3
Beans -a few
Drumstick
Plaintain(raw banana) -3
Chow Chow/Choyate/Squash -3
Snake guard -3
peas - a handful
yam
Pumpkin
Coconut -3 cups
green chillies as per taste
cumin seeds 2tbsp
sour cream/curd (personally i prefer sour cream)
curry leaves


Method:
Cut all the vegetables. It is really important to cut all in the same size as they can cook evenly.


Now add all the vegetables in a vessel, add some water, curry leaves, turmeric and let them cook. Do not add a lot of water as the juices from the vegetables will also help cook them.

Meanwhile grind the coconut, jeera, and chillies to a fine paste, in the end add 1/2 cup of sour cream and grind it one last time just enough for everything to mix well.

When the vegetables are cooked add the paste and salt and mix well. If desired sprinkle with coconut oil.

Now it is ready to eat

Variation : Instead of fresh coconut i use dry coconut so it gives the nice coconut taste. In this case you need not sprinkle coconut oil