Butter Tofu Masala - without onion and garlic

Well, I was stumped when I heard of this recipe. My sister-in-law's mother had made this for us when we visited her for lunch and I don't think we would've realized if it had not been for her telling us. This butter tofu/panneer masala uses bottle gourd in place of onion and garlic in the traditional recipe.

I did refer this recipe. That blog is worth bookmarking and following as it has really interesting, unique recipes.

Ingredients :

1. 200g tofu cut into cubes - you could use panneer
2. 1 small capsicum cut into cubes of similar size as panneer/tofu
3. 4 medium sized tomatoes
4. 1 tsp cumin seeds
5. 1 tsp oil
6. 1 tsp kasuri methi
7. 1/2 tsp garam masala powder
8. 1/2 tsp cumin powder
9. 1/2 tsp coriander powder
10. Salt to taste
11. 1/2 a bottle gourd grated
12. 1 inch piece of ginger
13. 1/4 cup cashew nuts
14. 1 tsp kasuri methi
15. 2 green chillies
16. 1tsp oil
17. 1 tsp powder made by dry roasting the following 
1. Cinnamon Stick 1 inch
2. Cloves 4
3. Cumin 1/2 tsp
4. Coriander seeds 1.5 tsp
5. Pepper Corn 2 tsp

How I made it :

1. Dry roast the ingredients under 17 and grind them into a fine powder
2. Blanch the tomatoes by immersing in water and bringing to a boil until the skin gets all wrinkled. Drain water and keep aside.
3. In a pan heat oil from step 16.
4. Add the ginger.
5. Add green chillies and kasuri methi. Fry for a minute.
6. Add the cashew nuts.
7. Fry for about 3-4 minutes till the cashews brown.
8. Add the grated bottle gourd. 
9. Fry for about 5 minutes on low. 
10. Cool this mix. Add the tomatoes.
11. Grind to a fine paste.
12. Heat 1 tsp oil from 5. 
13. Add cumin seeds and 1 tsp kasuri method. Fry for a minute.
14. Put in the capsicum
15. Fry till almost done and then put in the tofu cubes and toss till covered. The intention is to stiffen the cubes with little coloration.
16. Put in the ground paste.
17. Add the red chilli powder, cumin powder, coriander powder and adjust salt.
18. Fry on low, covered, for 10 minutes. Mix in between.
19. Add garam masala, fry for 30 seconds and cover. 
20. Serve hot with rotis.

Triple M - Methi Malai Mattar

I had plans of making methi egg burji today but when I got home, Pras said he had eaten egg for lunch. I remembered the peas that I had bought and the pack of fresh cream that I had opened for the Butter Karela Masala. So, here goes the recipe for one of my favorite white curries - methi malai mattar.

I had made a similar recipe Methi Peas Panneer sometime back. It is similar except in this one I did not use cashews.

Ingredients (Serves 2 as a side dish):

1. 1 cup peas - I used safal frozen peas. 
2. 1 inch cinnamon stick
3. 3-4 cloves
4. 1 tsp cumin seeds
5. 1 tbsp oil
6. 1 bunch methi leaves
7. 1 small sized onion
8. 4-5 medium sized cloves of garlic
9. 1 inch size ginger
10. 4 green chillies
11. 150ml fresh cream
12. 1/4 cup milk
13. 1/4 cup water
14. Salt to taste
15. 1/2 tsp garam masala powder

How I made it :

1. In a mixie jar, blend together the onion, ginger, garlic, green chillies and fresh cream.
2. Put the peas in a microwave safe bowl and zap them for about a minute. 
3. In a kadai, heat oil.
4. Add cumin seeds, cinnamon stick and cloves.
5. Once the cumin seeds change colour, add the chopped methi leaves.
6. Fry for about 4-5 minutes till the bitter smell goes away.
7. Add the mixture from step 1.
8. Add the green peas.
9. Let it fry on slow for about 8 minutes. Stir in between to ensure no sticking. When inhaled, there should be no raw smell of onions nor ginger nor garlic.
10. Add water and milk to get desired consistency.
11. Add salt.
12. Fry for about 2 minutes.
13. Just before turning off the heat, add the garam masala. Fry for about 30 seconds and then close the lid.
14. Serve hot with rotis.

Tips :

1. You could use kasuri methi instead of fresh methi leaves. You may not need to fry them as much as in step 5 above. Use about 5tsp of kasuri methi.
2. To get more volume, use cashews as in the recipe Methi Peas Panneer

Butter Karela Masala - Republic Day Cooking

I came home thinking that I had to make something which reflected the colors of the Indian flag to honour Republic Day. I came home to see Karelas aka Bitter Gourd. So that was my green component. For saffron I immediately thought of butter panneer masala or the likes. For the white I thought of making some ghee rice. In the end, I decided to incorporate all the colors in one dish - butter karela masala. It was awesome and over in minutes. We had it with romali rotis - to add another white dimension.

Ingredients (Serves 2 as a side dish):

1. 2 medium karela/bitter gourd
2. 1 large onion
3. 6 cloves of garlic - biggish ones
4. 1 inch fresh ginger
5. 4 small to medium tomatoes
6. A small handful of cashews
7. 1 tsp khus khus/poppy seeds
8. 1/2 tsp red chilli powder
9. 3/4 tsp coriander powder
10. 1/4 tsp garam masala powder
11. 1/4 cup milk
12. 1-2 tbsp fresh cream/malai
13. salt to taste
14. Oil - 1/4 cup

How I made it :

1. Soak cashew and khus khus in little hot water for 15 minutes.
2. Clean and finely slice the karela into rounds. Salt and keep aside to let the bitterness out. I skip this part in order to get the most out of the karela as I believe that salting it takes out some of its goodness.
3. Grind the onion, ginger and garlic to a fine paste.
4. Grind the tomatoes separately along with cashew and khus khus.
5. Heat oil in a kadai.
6. Fry the karela pieces till cooked.
7. Take out and in same oil, add the onion paste.
8. Fry till raw smell goes away - about 3 to 4 minutes
9. Add the tomato paste.
10. Add the red chilli, coriander and garam masala powders.
11. Fry till fat separates - about 5-7 minutes
12. Add the milk and fry for a minute.
13. Add salt to taste along with the karela pieces.  Watch the salt if you had salted the karela pieces earlier.
14. After a minute or so, add the fresh cream. Mix well and turn off heat.
15. Serve hot with rotis.

Republic Day in my kitchen

After cutting the veggies, I noticed the stem of the naturally reddened capsicum which also screamed out Indian Flag. Call me colour blind if you will :)

Whole wheat pancakes with Strawberries and Whipped Cream

A classic breakfast. Thanks to the hubby for taking this scrumptuous picture.

Ingredients (Makes 4 pancakes) :

1. 1 cup whole wheat flour
2. 1 egg
3. 1 tsp baking powder
4. 1.5 tbsp sugar for the pancakes
5. 1/8 tsp salt
6. 1/2 cup milk
7. 1/2 tsp vanilla powder/essence
8. 1.5 tbsp melted butter

    For topping

1. 1 cup of strawberries, pitted and sliced
2. 200ml fresh cream
3. 3 tbsp sugar for whipped cream

How I made it :

1. In a bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, sugar, vanilla powder and salt.
2. Beat the egg and add to this mix.
3. Add milk, melted butter and mix well. DO NOT add the baking powder until you have the toppings ready and the tawa/griddle hot.
4. Make the whipped cream as described below.
5. Now, heat your tawa.
6. Add the baking powder to the batter and mix well.
7. Pour a ladel of batter onto the hot tawa. Keep heat on low. Cover the pancake.
8. After a minute or so take off cover and flip the pancake. 
9. Cook on low for another minute.
10. Serve hot with whipped cream and strawberries. 

Alternate serving suggestion - maple syrup, honey, milkmaid

To make the whipped cream topping :

1. Take two similar sized bowls.
2. Put ice cubes into one.
3. Place the other bowl on the top.
4. Pour in the fresh cream.
5. Beat with hand mixer/blender on high until soft peaks are formed.
6. Add sugar while continuing to beat.
7. Turn off once sugar is well incorporated
8. Do not over beat the cream, it will turn to butter.

Tips :

1. Add the baking powder only and only when your tawa/griddle is hot and the toppings are ready as well.
2. Do not over beat the cream. It will turn to butter.

Potato and cauliflower stew

I love appams with stew. When I was a kid, mom used to make appams with sweetened coconut milk. So, I love my appams with anything that has coconut milk or a hot spicy coconut chutney.
I made this stew with appams for breakfast 2 days back and Pras said it was just perfect.  I use the ready to mix Palappam Mix from Double Horse for the appams. A 10 minute mixing job and after an hour, you get great appams. I use my regular kadai to make the appams.

Ingredients (Serves 2) :

1. 2 medium to large potatoes cut into smallish 1 cm cubes
2. 10 florets of cauliflower - make smaller florets out of them.
3. 100ml thick coconut milk
4. 1 small onion chopped
5. 2 green chillies slit through
6. 1 tsp mustard seeds
7. 1 sprig of curry leaves
8. Water
9. Salt to taste
10. 1/8 tsp turmeric powder
11. 1 tbsp coconut oil
12. 2 cloves
13. 1/4 tsp garam masala (optional - I did not use)

How I made it :

1. In a biggish vessel, heat water with turmeric powder and put in the cauliflower florets. Boil for about 2 minutes and drain. Keep aside. This helps ensure that any worms float up.
2. Heat oil in a pressure cooker.
3. Add the mustard seeds and let them splutter. You could loosely place the lid over the cooker to prevent the mustard seeds from going into those hard to clean places in your kitchen.
4. Once the spluttering has stopped, put in the curry leaves and green chillies.
5. After a minute, put in the cloves.
6. When you get the aroma of the cloves, put the onions and fry till they turn translucent and pink.
7. Add the potatoes and fry for about 4-5 minutes on low.
8. Add the cauliflower florets. Mix well.
9. Add just enough water to cover the veggies.
10. Add salt.
11. Give one whistle on high.
12. When the pressure releases, turn on heat.
13. Pour in the coconut milk.
14. Adjust salt.
15. Add a little more water to get the consistency required. Stew should be a little viscous and not too watery. If you get too much water in, you could smash a few potatoes to thicken the stew.
16. Optionally you could add 1/4 tsp garam masala
17. Serve hot with appams.

Tips :

1. If the stew becomes watery, smash a few of the potatoes to thicken the stew

Upcycled - dal cutlet

Leftovers is something we face from time to time. This time I had leftover cabbage dal. I was torn between making dal parathas or trying something different. I am just back from home and keep thinking of mom's droolworthy cutlets which she sells at her cafe. So I thought of trying out a dal cutlet. Here's my upcycled dal cutlet recipe. Do try it and let me know how it turned out.

Ingredients :

1. 1 cup leftover dal - I had dal with cabbage but used it all the same
2. 1 boiled potato mashed
3. 1 tsp ginger garlic paste - optional, don't add if already present in your dal
4. 1 chopped green chilli
5. 1/4 tsp garam masala - optional
6. 1/4 tsp amchur powder
7. Maida/Corn flour - enough to make the mixture come together
8. Salt to taste
9. Oil for frying
10. Breadcrumbs - 1 cup

How I made it :

1. Mix all the ingredients from 1 to 8 together. 
2. Ensure that the mixture is not watery. I usually make my dal a bit thick and leftover dal does get thick. It should be like the same consistency of may be the aloo mixture for aloo paratha as in the picture shown.
3. Heat oil.
4. Make small balls out of the mixture. 
5. Cover with bread crumbs. 
6. Shape into any desired shape. I made small discs as tikkis.
7. Fry on medium heat till dark golden brown on both sides.
8. Serve hot with tomato sauce or pudina chutney

Watermelon lemon cooler

Ingredients (Makes 6 glasses) :

1. Watermelon - the dark green variety 1 and 1/2
2. juice from 2 lemons
3. 3 tbsp sugar
4. A pinch of salt
5. Pudina/mint leaves to garnish

How I made it :

1. Cut the watermelon. 
2. Chop the pulp into small pieces which helps expose the seeds. Take the seeds out.
3. Add lemon juice and sugar.
4. Juice the mixture in your juicer.
5. Pour into glasses.
6. Garnish with fresh pudina/mint leaves.

Tastes best chilled.

Mutton Kheema/Meat Balls in Coconut Gravy

This is one of my favorite recipes. The combination of meatballs with coconut is droolworthy and goes with rice and roti/chapatis. It is something that my mom makes whenever I visit home. I love to steal the meat balls as they are getting steamed atop the vessel on which rice is cooked.

Ingredients (Serves 6) :
Difficulty : Medium

1. 500g mutton minced
2. 4 medium onions - finely chopped
3. 3 medium tomatoes - finely chopped - preferably the country variety
4. 20 curry leaves
5. Salt to taste
6. 10 tsp oil

To grind :

1. 3 tbsp garlic paste
2. 3 tbsp ginger paste
3. 1/2 a small coconut scrapped - about 1 cup of coconut
4. 2 tsp red chilli powder - this won't be spicy so adjust accordingly
5. 1 tsp coriander powder
6. 1/4 tsp turmeric powder
7. Water as needed.

How I made it :

1. Grind the ingredients under the "To grind" section with as sufficient water.
2. Wash the mutton mince and drain all the water.
3. Run the mutton mince once through the mixie once. Keep in the fridge.
4. In a cooker, heat the oil.
5. Fry the onions till golden brown.
6. Add the ground paste and fry till the raw smell goes away. 
7. Add 2tbsp of the fried masala to the mutton mince. Let the masala continue to fry.
8. Add sufficient salt to the mutton mince and mix well.
9. Make balls out of the mutton mince mixture and place on a microwave safe plate.
10. Microwave on high for 1.5 minutes.
11. Turn the balls and microwave on high for another 1.5 minutes.
12. When the fat separates from the masala, add tomatoes and curry leaves.
13. Fry till fat separates. 
14. Add the steamed meat balls.
15. Adjust salt.
16. Add enough water to get sufficient gravy.
17. Pressure cook on high until 1 whistle.
18. Garnish with coriander leaves and serve hot.

I served it with both rice and chapatis. 

Khara Pongal/Venn Pongal - Happy Pongal

Here's the recipe for the Khara Pongal that I tried from here this pongal 2013.

Ingredients :

1. 1 cup sona masoori rice
2. 1/2 cup moong dal
3. 2 tsp cumin seeds
4. 2 tsp whole pepper corns
5. 1 inch ginger julienned
6. 3 cups of water
7. 2 tbsp ghee
8. 1/2 tsp cumin seeds
9. A handful of cashew nuts
10. A sprig of curry leaves
11. A pinch of hing
12. Salt to taste

How I made it :

1. Soak rice and dal together for 30 minutes. 
2. Pressure cook rice+dal+cumin seeds+ginger+pepper corns+salt to taste on low for 15 minutes.
3. In a pan, heat ghee.
4. Add cumin seeds, hing, curry leaves.
5. When cumin seeds crackle add cashew nuts and fry till light golden brown.
6. Add dal+rice mixture and serve with sambar or chutney.

I served mine with mom-in-law's arachavittu sambar.

Mom-in-law's Arachavittu Sambar

My mom-in-law makes sambar every other day and it is almost the same each time. My hubby hogs when he gets his mom's sambar. Today, I decided to make my mom-in-law's version of sambar to go with Venn Pongal. I find it a rather tedious process but it is all worth it when your husband says "The sambar is delicious, it's the best dish on the plate".

Ingredients :
To grind :

1. 1/2 cup grated coconut
2. 4-5 sambar onions
3. 4-5 pods of garlic
4. 1/2 tsp methi/fenugreek seeds
5. 4 whole red chillies
6. A large pinch of hing/asafoetida
7. 1/2 tsp coriander powder

For dal and veggie mix :

1. 1/2 cup toor dal 
2. 2 tbsp skinless masoor dal
3. Veggies - I used 2 carrots cut into bite sized pieces and 2 brinjals quartered. You could use ladies finger, white pumpkin or drumstick too
4. 1 potato (optional)
5. 1 medium onion chopped
6. 1 largish country tomato chopped
7. 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
8. 1 tsp coconut oil
9. 1/2 tsp mustard seeds
10. 1 sprig curry leaves
11. 2 slit green chillies
12. Salt to taste
13. Chopped coriander to garnish

How I made it :

1. Dry roast coconut, small sambar onion, garlic, methi seeds, whole red chillies, cumin seeds and hing. Add coriander seeds if you have. Else, add coriander powder in the end. This would take about 8 to 10 minutes with constant stirring to get a dark golden brown color on the coconut. 
2. Once the mixture cools, grind with enough water
3. Pressure cook the dal with turmeric for about 15 minutes on low flame.
4. In another pan, heat coconut oil.
5. Add mustard seeds and let them splutter.
6. Add curry leaves and split green chillies.
7. Add finely chopped onion.
8. When onion is  pink, add vegetables of your choice. I added carrot and brinjal.
9. When the veggies are half cooked, add chopped tomato.
10. Adjust salt and add the ground mixture. 
11. Add this to the dal and give one whistle on high.
12. When pressure releases, add chopped coriander.
13. Serve with rice or chapati or idli or dosa.

I served mine with Khara Pongal.

Sakkarai Pongal recipe - Happy Pongal!

Happy Pongal everyone.  Here's one of my favorite recipes. It is easy too. I always used to wonder why my sweet pongal

1. Did not have the semi solid like consistency that it is supposed to have
2. Did not have the dark color 

I found the answers to both these questions

1. Need to add enough milk/water when boiling the rice and dal mixture
2. Need to use the darker jaggery

I got the answer to 1 from here.

Ingredients :

1. 1 cup rice
2. 1/2 cup yellow moong dal
3. 2.5 cups of milk
4. 2.5 cups of water + 1 cup to mix the jaggery
5. 1/4 cup ghee
6. A pinch of salt
7. 3/4 to 1 cup jaggery
8. A handful of cashews
9. A handful of raisins
10. 1 tsp cardamom powder

How I made it :

1. In a pan, heat a tsp of ghee and roast the dal till fragrant.
2. Soak dal along with washed rice for about 30 minutes.
3. Pressure cook the dal+rice mix with 2.5 cups each of milk and water with a pinch of salt for 15 minutes on low flame.
4. Grate or break jaggery into small pieces. The smaller the pieces, the sooner it will take you to get a golden syrup saving energy. 
5. Add 1 cup of water to jaggery and boil till all the jaggery has melted. 
6. Pass this through a strainer and keep aside.
7. When the pressure from the cooker has lifted, add the jaggery syrup and mash the rice and dal mixture. 
8. In a pan, heat the ghee, add the cashews and raisins and fry till cashews are light golden brown. Mix in the rice, dal and jaggery mix. 
9. Sprinkle with cardamom powder and serve.

I like this cold but it does taste good warm too. Add a little milk when heating up as it has a tendency to lump up absorbing all the liquid.

As it is the festival today, I also made the khara version from Nag's blog and served it with my mom-in-law's sambar.

Buy Nilgiri products online

Have you heard of http://www.nilgiritea.in/index.php/ yet? Well, you should check them out. I ordered a kg of orange pico tea and it was promptly delivered and well packaged too.

They've started home made chocolates too. So now, you don't need to wait for a known person to visit the place to pick up your favorites, you can just get it online.

Strawberry ShortCake recipe (Eggless)

I absolutely love short cake and I was dying to make this after eating the famous biscuits and gravy in the US. The biscuits reminded me so much of the short cake that I made them as soon as I got a weekend free after getting home.

Here's a pic of the short cake that I made last year.  Do try this one and I'm sure you wont stop making this. I owe this one to one of my mom's close friends who taught me how to make this one along with nan khattai. She is an amazing cook like my mom but does a lot more baking that my mom does now.

I got the recipe from here as I did not remember what I had learnt.

Ingredients (serves 4):
For biscuits :

1. 1 cup maida
2. 1/2 tbsp baking powder
3. 1/4 tsp salt
4. 1.5 tbsp sugar
5. 1/2 stick/60g butter chilled
6. 1/3 cup of milk or fresh cream

For filling :

1. Whipped cream  - instructions below
2. Homemade Strawberry preserve - as per liking

How I made it :

1. In a food processor, mix in the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar.
2. Add the butter cut into small cubes with the processor on.
3. Wait till the flour mixture resembles coarse bread crumbs
4. Add milk little by little till the dough almost completely comes together
5. Take it out of the processor and knead on a lightly floured surface till the dough is smooth and less sticky.
6. Preheat oven to 200 degree C.
7. Roll out the dough into a 1 inch thick rectangle.
8. Cut out circles or into sqaures, place on baking tray, brush with a little milk, sprinkle a little sugar and bake for 15 minutes.
9. Serve with whipped cream and fresh strawberries. I served it with my homemade strawberry preserve

Whipped Cream :

Ingredients :

1. 200g fresh cream

2. 3 tbsp sugar

How I made it :

1. On a ice bath, place a glass bowl. 
2. Pour in the fresh cream into the bowl and beat on low speed.
3. It takes about 8 minutes to get whipped cream with soft peaks. Add the sugar once you feel that the cream has begun to thicken.

Eggless Moist Chocolate Cupcakes

I've been itching to bake since I've been back from my US trip as I did not get to do much there with the absence of an oven. Last week I made strawberry shortcakes which were absolutely yum and this week since I am going to meet my Guddu darling, I made eggless chocolate cupcakes. I hope he likes them. I adapted the recipe from here.

Ingredients (For 6 cupcakes):

1. 1/4 cup maida
2. 1/4 cup wheat flour
3. 1/4 cup ragi - I used sprouted ragi flour from Manna
4. 1/2 cup brown sugar or 1/3 cup white sugar
5. 1 tsp vanilla powder
6. 2.5 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder - I use the one from cadbury. The weikfield cocoa powder does not satisfy the chocolate urges that I get.
7. 1/4 tsp salt
8. 1/2 tsp baking powder
9. 1/2 cup water
10. 4 tbsp neutral oil
11. 1/4 tsp instant coffee powder
12. 1 tsp vinegar

How I made them :

I made them in 2 batches as I have only one 6 cupcake tray.

1. Sift the maida, ragi, whole wheat flour, vanilla, baking powder, cocoa powder.
2. Add the salt and brown sugar. Keep aside.
3. In another bowl mix in the water, oil, coffee powder and vinegar.
4. Heat the oven to 180 degree C.
5. Prepare your cup cake moulds and place liners if required. I have a non-stick tray and hence don't always need the liners.
6. Mix the dry with wet ingredients as your oven is almost heated up. Don't fold or mix too much. Just enough to have a well mixed dough.
7. Pour spoonfuls into the moulds until 2/3rd full.
8. Bake for 17 minutes in middle tray. If you do not have a rack try placing the cup cake tray over any other inverted cake moulds/cooker vessel that you may have.

Cool on a wire rack and serve.

Tips :

1. Use only cadbury cocoa. If not, you will get the same taste that you get when you eat the Chocolate cakes at cafe coffee day which I don't like.
2. Mix the wet and dry ingredients just as the oven is almost at 180 degree C as the trick is to get the mixture into the oven as soon as possible. The baking powder starts to work as soon as it meets the wet ingredients. The longer you take to put it into the oven, the lower the cake will rise.

Bombay Toast

It's a sunday and I consider bread and egg the ideal sunday start. So this sunday I decided to make bombay toast. I made them with olive oil, which is neutral and does not affect the flavor of the dish. I used to think that extra virgin olive oil should not be heated up but after watching Aditya Bal do it on "Olive it up", I decided that I too could do that once in a while.

Ingredients (For 5 slices of bombay toast) :

1. 3 eggs
2. 5 slices of bread - I used Nilgiris multigrain bread, taking advantage of having a Niligiris 1905 store near my place
3. 1/4 cup milk
4. 1 tbsp sugar
5. 1 tsp vanilla extract
6. a pinch of salt
7. Olive oil/Butter - 2 tbsp

How I made it :

1. Beat the eggs, milk, sugar, vanilla extract and salt together.
2. Heat a tawa.
3. Add some olive oil to the hot tawa.
4. Dip a slice of bread in the egg mix ensuring that it absorbs quite a bit of it and place this on the tawa.
5. Let it cook for a minute on each side on low flame. 
6. Repeat with other slices of bread.
7. I served mine with my homemade strawberry preserve. 

Spicy Mushroom and Egg curry

Well, I wanted to eat something really spicy when I got home after work. I remembered Namratha's spicy egg curry which I've made quite a few times before but I also had a pack of mushrooms which I had to finish so I combined the two together and the result was quite good.

Here's a pic of what went into my dabba so sorry for a not-so-good picture.

Ingredients (serves 2 as a side dish to chapatis):

1. 2 hard boiled eggs
2. 200g mushrooms cleaned and quartered
3. 1 large onion finely sliced or chopped - I sliced them finely with my new Pure Komachi series knife
4. 1 large country tomato
5. 1 tsp garam masala powder
6. 1/2 tsp red chilli powder
7. 1/2 tsp coriander/dhania powder
8. Salt to taste
9. 1/2 tsp mustard seeds
10. water - 1 teacup
11. 1 tbsp oil
12. Chopped coriander for garnish

How I made it :

1. In a pan, heat the oil.
2. Add the mustard seeds. Cover and let the spluttering stop.
3. Now add the onions and fry till the turn pink.
4. Once onions are pink, add the mushrooms and cook them as per your liking. I wait till all the water that they leave our evaporates.
5. Now, add the tomatoes, red chilli powder, coriander powder, salt and let the fat separate.
6. Add about 1 teacup of water and let it come to a boil.
7. Drop in halved boiled eggs and the garam masala powder.
8. Cover and let it simmer for about 8 minutes.
9. Garnish with chopped coriander and serve with rotis/chapatis.

Eggless Ragi Pancakes

What better way to get back to blogging than with a healthy recipe? Here's what I made for breakfast after being inspired by Appu's ragi pancakes. She made them in a jiffy when I decided to drop in for a cuppa chai :)

Ingredients : (makes 3 pancakes)

1. 1/3 cup ragi flour
2. 1/2 tsp baking powder
3. 1 tbsp sugar
4. A pinch of salt
5. 2 tsp olive oil or any neutral oil
6. A little less than 1/2 cup of milk
7. A few dried pumpkin seeds - I usually pop them in the microwave for 2 minutes and once cooled, store in an airtight container. These add some texture to the pancakes - tip borrowed from Appu
8. 2 tbsp butter/oil

How I made it :

1. Mix all the ingredients from 1 through 7 to form a smooth batter
2. Heat up a tawa or griddle.
3. Lightly greast hot tawa with butter/oil
4. Pour a ladleful of batter.
5. Cover for 45 seconds
6. When you lift the lid and see nice holes, flip and cook for another 45 seconds to 1 minute.

I served these healthy pancakes with my homemade strawberry preserve. It was my first attempt and I did not add enough sugar so the preserve was a bit tart.