Gobi Manchurian Dry

"Gobi Manchurian" can be found in almost all Indian restaurant's menu as this is such a popular dish. Every one mistakes this to be a Chinese dish but this is a pure Indian dish. To my knowledge there is no dish as "Manchurian" in Chinese restaurant menu except in India. Manchuria - The historical name of a region of north-east China. May be this is the reason we call it as a Chinese dish or may be this dish incorporates lots of Chinese ingredients like soy sauce, ginger and garlic. Why bother about the name when the taste is very excellent. Here is the recipe for this dish.




Ingredients:
Gobi / Cauliflower - 1 small cut into bite size florets
Garlic finely chopped - 5 cloves
Ginger finely chopped - 2"
Onion finely chopped - 1/2 cup
Green Chilies chopped - 4
Ketchup - 3 tsp
Chili Garlic sauce - 1tsp
Con starch - 5 tsp
Red flood colour - 1 pinch
Soy Sauce - 3 tsp
Cilantro Chopped - 1/2 cup
Oil to fry
Salt as required


Method :
In a bowl make a paste out of con starch , red food color, chili garlic sauce , 1 tsp of soy sauce, salt and little water. Add cauliflower florets to it and mix it. Deep fry the florets until golden brown and set aside. In a non- stick pan heat 2 tsp of oil and saute onion for 3 mins . Add garlic, ginger and green chilies and fry for 2 mins. Add ketchup and remaining 2tsp of soy sauce and mix for 2 mins. Now add the fried cauliflower and mix until all the sauce is coated well on the gobi. Now add cilantro and give a quick mix and now transfer to a serving plate and enjoy it hot!!!!

Rava Idli and Saagu

This is a karnataka special dish. Rava idli is always served with saagu only in karnataka. This dish is so popular in bangalore. You should get to taste the rava idli at MTR a famous restaurant in bangalore, they are so awesome ans taste so good ,no wonder they are the creator of this famous rava idli.

This Rava idli recipe is pure home made , though many ready mix easily available in the store but nothing like home made one. This is very tasty and goes very well with saagu. If you does not wanat to prepare saagu you can very well have with coconut chutney and it would taste equally good. Here goes the recipe for rava idli and saagu.

Rava Idli:

Ingredients:

Sooji rava - 1 cup

Vermicelli - 1 cup ( you can use 1/2 cup if don't like the vermicelli taste)

Onion chopped - 1 small

Channa daal - 2 tsp

Mustard - 1/2tsp

Cashew broken small pieces - 2 tsp

Cilantro Finely chopped - 1 cup

Salt

Cooking Soda - 1 tsp

Yogurt - 1 cup

oil - 2 tbsp

Procedure:
In a big kadai add oil,when its hot season with mustard and channa daal. Add cashews and fry for a min. Now add onion and keep frying for 5 mins.Reduce the flame to medium and add salt , sooji rava and vermicelli and fry until rava and vermicelli turns light burn.Add the cilantro. Allow the mixture to cool completely. Mix yogurt, water and cooking soda and mix well and set aside for 10 mins. The mixture should not be too thick or too watery. Add water to the mixture accordingly. Grease idli plate with oil and spoon the mixture and steam cook. Serve hot with Saagu or coconut chutney.

Saagu

Ingredients:

Potato cubed - 1 small

Peas ,carrot,any vegetable of your choice - 1 cup

To grind:

Green chilies - 2 slit

Garlic - 3 cloves

Clove - 2

Cinnamon - 1"

Fried Gram - 3 tsp

Coriander powder - 2 tsp

Cilantro - 1 cup

For seasoning:

Mustard

Curry leaves

Oil - 3 tbsp

Salt as required

Procedure:

Boil the vegetables in microwave in high power for 4 mins and set aside. Heat oil in a pan and season it with mustard and curry leaves. Add the grinded paste and mix for couple of mins. Now add the boiled vegetables and salt and mix. Cook covered in low flame until the raw smell is gone. Serve with rava idli.

Chicken Biryani

This is my way of preparing this delicious chicken biryani. I used to cook this way for quite a long time. Everyone in my family and even my friends love this biryani. My brother used to call me as "biryani master" just b'coz of this biryani . I usually prepare this dish quite fast and preparing briyani has always been easy to me. When ever I decide to quit eating non-veg ,just the thought of this biryani does not allow me to. I am a very great lover of biryanis so atleast once in two weeks I would prepare this dish. Here is the recipe of the delicious chicken biryani . I am drooling now.

Ingredients:

To marinate (for half an hour)

Whole cut Chicken - 1lb

Yogurt - 1 cup

Chili Powder - 1tsp

Coriander Powder - 2 tsp

Cilantro Chopped - 1/2 cup

Mint Chopped - 1/2 Cup

Lime juice - 1 tsp

Salt - little

Other Ingredients:

Basmati Rice - 2 cups

Onion Chopped - 1 big

Tomato chopped - 2 medium

Green Chilies Slit - 3

Bay Leaves -3

Cardamom - 2

Clove - 3

Cinnamon - 1/2''

Oil - 5 tsp

Salt as required

To Grind:

Garlic - 10 cloves

Ginger - 2"

Clove - 5
Cinnamon - 1''

Onion chopped - 1/2

Procedure:

Wash and soak the basmati rice for 10 mins. In a cooker heat oil and add the bay leaf,Cinnamon,cardamom and clove. When you get the nice fragrance add the onion and green chilies and saute for 5 mins. Add the the grinded paste and saute well. Add the tomatoes and mix for 3 mins. Now add the marinated chicken and give a good mix. Add salt Cook in slow flame until the oil seprates. Add water, for 1 cup rice I added 1&1/2 cup of water. When the water boils add rice and close the cooker and cook for 10 mins. Serve with onion raita and chicken gravy.

Sabudana Upma / Sago Upma

This sahudana upma or called javvarisi upma in tamil is not so famous dish . First time my hubby had this dish when he was in college and again when I made it. I got this recipe from my sister. This is a different to the one they usually make with potatoes, this dish is made with moong daal. I would consider this one as a snack rather than a full meal. This is very good for evening snack and can be made quickly provided you have soaked the sabudana is advance . Try this upma and you would really enjoy this snack.

Ingredients:

Sago/sabudana/javvarisi - 1 cup

Yogurt - 1/2 cup

Yellow Moong daal - 1/4 cup

Ginger chopped - 1 tsp

Green Chili - 2 slit

Mustard - 1 tsp

Curry leaves - 5

Salt as required

Oil - 2tsp

Cilantro

Procedure:

Soak sago in yogurt and little water for nearly 4 to 5 hrs and drain the excess water. Boil the moong daal ,make sure its cooked but not over cooked not mushy. Heat oil in a non-stick pan and season it with mustard and curry leaves. Add green chilies and ginger and fry for a min. Add the soaked sago and keep mixing it until it turns transparent ,now add cooked moong daal and salt and give a good mix. Garnish with cilantro. This tastes yummy by itself. Enjoy!!!

Crispy Okra fry/Bhindi fry

This is a delicious crispy deep fried okra. It is sooo yummy even kids who hates okra would love it. This is a great dish on its own but tastes very good together with sambar rice or plain daal especially. This very simple recipe,only deep frying okra consumes time. Try this recipe and you would love it. Sorry the picture didnt come out good.

Ingredients:

Okra or Bhindi - 1lb

Besan or gram flour - 4 tsp

Rice flour - 2tsp

Chili Powder - 1/2 tsp

Asafoetida - 1/4 tsp

Salt as required

Oil for deep frying

Procedure:

Wash okra well and pat dry them. Cut of the crown and tail part and cut to small pieces length wise. Mix with gram flour, rice flour, asafoetida, chili powder and salt , no need to add water. Heat oil in a pan , when it is hot deep fry the okra little at a time until crisp and drain on a paper towel.Serve with daal rice or sambar rice.Enjoy!!!

Spicy Egg Curry

This is an absolute delight and simple dish to prepare. This is an great dish it goes with anything you name it like rice, parota, appam and even as a side dish for briyani. I made this dish for kerala parota and it was a great treat. I opted to prepare this dish as I was lazy and this sure was a easy and quick. I served this dish with frozen kerala parota and it turned out to be a wonderful dinner. Here is the recipe for egg curry.

Ingredients:

Egg - 4

Onion Chopped - 1 medium

Tomato chopped - 1

Green Chilies - 3 slit

Coriander Powder - 2 tsp

Chili Powder - 1/2 tsp

Garam masala - 1tsp

Turmeric Powder - 1/4 tsp

Cumin Seed - 1tsp

Ginger Garlic paste - 1&1/2 tsp

Coconut - 1/2 cup

Cilantro

Oil - 3 tsp

Salt as required

Procedure:

Boil the egg and peel , make sure you peel it when it is still hot otherwise it would be hard to peel. Make 2 to 3 shallow slits on the egg so the egg can absorb the masala and set aside. Grind the coconut and keep aside. In a pan heat oil and add the cumin seed, when it splutters add onion and fry for 5 mins. Add ginger garlic paste and mix well. Add tomato and green chilies and cook till the tomato is well done. Now add all the masala powders one by one and fry well by sprinkling little water. Close and cook until the raw smell of the masala is gone. Add the egg and give a good mix and last add the coconut and close and cook for 5 mins, add water according to the consistency you need. Garnish with cilantro. Serve hot with parota, rice or chapati.

Tomato Fry

This tomato fry is very good side dish for the stuffed parathas. Basically stuffed parathas by itself is a very wonderful dish and you wont need any side dish for that. They can be eaten with pickle or just plain yogurt. This tomato fry is not too spicy and very simple and goes very well with stuffed parathas and for even chapati. Try this simple recipe when you are out of vegetables and this dish takes only very little time to prepare.

Ingredients:

Tomato chopped lengthwise - 6 medium

Green Chili slit lengthwise - 3

Ginger Chopped - 2 tsp

Coriander Powder - 2tsp

Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp

Cumin Seeds - 1 tsp

Cilantro

Sugar - 1tsp

Salt as required

Oil - 2 tsp

Procedure:

Heat oil in a non-stick pan and add cumin seeds and when it splutters add green chilies and ginger and mix for 2 mins and add the coriander powder and turmeric powder ,give a quick mix and add tomatoes and salt and mix and be careful that the tomatoes should not become mushy. Close and cook in reduced flame for 10 mins or until the tomatoes are cooked. Add sugar now, increase or decrease depending on the tomatoes. Garnish with cilantro. Server with suffered parathas or even plain paratha. Enjoy!!