One Pot Meal: Vangi Bhaat

                                                               Vangi Bhaat/ Brinjal Rice
                                                          A Delicacy Of Karnataka, (South India)

A really easy dish to make. All you need is some cooked rice, see that it is  Sona Masuri or some other normal rice, please, please I beg you not to use Basmati Rice or any other rice that has an aroma of  its own for they are not meant for making South Indian dishes. Once you have the cooked rice ready, all you need is some Brinjals, you can use any type of Brinjal, white, green or violet, and some freshly ground masalas to make this yummy one pot meal.

Now lets get down to the ingredients:
1. Rice 1 cup/ tumbler ( cooked) I have used red/ brown rice which more healthy

2. Brinjal about 250 gms (if you are using small brinjals you can just slit them  in four, keeping the bottoms intact. if you are using regular long Brinjals then you can slice them into tiny pieces.
3. 1 cup of peanuts, dry roasted (we would be using a little for grinding and the rest to be added as  whole at the end)
4. Fenugreek seeds 1/2tsp.for grinding and 1/2 tsp for seasoning
5. Mustard seeds 1/2 tsp for seasoning.
6, a small bunch of curry leaves
7.2  green chillies slit
8. some fresh coriander leaves chopped.
9. one small onion finely chopped
10.  Salt to taste
11.  Tamarind (a really small lemon sized) soaked in a little water.
 12. Dry coconut grated, roasted and added in the end, about 3 tsps.

 The  Ingredients for the Masalas to be ground:
1, 2 inches of cinnamon
2.2-3 cloves
3.3-4 black pepper
4. Coconut about 2 tablespoons
5. dry red chillies- 3
6. dry roasted peanuts- about 4 tsps
7. if you like you can add 2 tsps of sesame seeds (optional)
8. a few curry leaves for added taste 

Directions:
 Heat a pan pour just 1/2 a tsp of any vegetable oil, and fry all the dry ingredients in a low heat.
Take them out and leave them to cool for grinding.This ground masala can be stored in the fridge and used for making stuffed Brinjal curry  too




Directions for the Brinjal mixture:
Next  in the same pan add about 4 tsps of vegetable oil, and once hot, season it with mustard seeds, fenugreek seeds, and once they have spulttered add curry leaves, slit green chillies , and chopped onions and fry for a few minutes, keeping the flame always on low.
After the onions have changed color (don't make them brown), add the Brinjals, (either the cut ones or the slit ones) turmeric powder, salt and mix everything , and let the Brinjals fry and cook for a little while.
Remember never to keep the heat on high, and keep stirring it once in a while.
After about 5 minutes, squeeze the tamarind juice and pour the juice into the pan, and keep the pan covered and let the Brinjals cook, keep removing the lid and keep stirring occasionally.

Grind the dry masalas, and add that to the Brinjal mixture, let everything blend for a while, keep stirring lightly.

Now add the remaining dry roasted peanuts, and add the boiled / cooked rice, and sprinkle the dry roasted copra or coconut, and mix everything well but with gentle hand. 

 Transfer the Brinjal Rice into a bowl or a big plate and sprinkle the chopped coriander leaves.

This yummy one pot meal is ready to be served. 

You can serve it curds, or make some Raita with cucumber, tomato and onion, and some Papads and Rice Fritters

                          You can also make some Curd rice  if you have some left over rice

 Serves 4-5
Preparation time: about 45 mins.

Now about Brown Rice:
(Brown rice contains higher amount of vitamins and minerals. The bran of brown rice not only increases the fibre content but also contains a variety of colour pigments that may be beneficial for health. Given that different variety of brown rice contains different amount of nutrients and colour pigments, it may be a good idea to include a variety of them in your diet. You can also enjoy a variety of flavour and texture by making it a point to use  Red Rice, Black Rice and Hand pounded Rice too. Stay away from everything white, like white bread, white rice, and white flour.

Consuming a diet rich in whole-grains, such as brown rice, is beneficial to health as it lowers the risk of heart disease, diabetes and certain cancer. It also helps in weight management).

Remember if you add some more Brinjal than what has been mentioned, it doesn't matter, it is still going taste terrific. You can increase or decrease the chillies according to your taste. 

Just do it and enjoy this recipe.

  

Succulent, Creamy, Palak Paneer

                                                             Palak Paneer Or Spinach with Cottage Cheese

                                     Adding more of tomatoes would give your palak paneer a little reddish look

Everybody loves this dish, it can be had as a side dish with Rice, Pulav and Chapatti (the Indian bread).
It is also very easy to make and does not take much time too.
Different people make this in different ways, and this is the way, I like to make: 

Ingredients required for making Palak Paneer
1. 2 small bunches of Palak/ spinach
2. very few leaves  of fresh fenugreek or 1 tsp of dry fenugreek ( kasuri methi), or if don't have any of them them add 1/2 tsp of  dry roasted ground methi (fenugreek) seeds.
3.Tomatoes about 2 small ones
4. Ginger about 1/2 an inch
5. fresh cloves of garlic about 4-5 
6. green chilies 1 or according to your taste
7.3-4 cashews
8. oil about 2 -4 tsps ( don't add too much of oil)
9. Paneer, about  350- 450 gms.
10. Turmeric powder 1/2 tsp
11. Garam masala powder about 2 1/2 tsp
12. Milk if required (optionl)
13. 1 small onion
14. 1 tsp of ginger garlic paste
Since we are adding cashews, for creaminess, no need for  cream

Method:
Roughly cut the spinach, ginger, tomatoes, green chillies, cashews, very few leaves of fenugreek leaves and keep them with very little water and microwave them for about 3-4 minutes on high.
Let this mixture cool down. 
In the meantime chop the onions  into small pieces.
Chop the garlic also into small pieces and crush them a little with the knife itself

Cut the paneer too into bite size chunks and keep it aside.

Now in a non stick pan pour or regular pan, add about 2- 4 tsps of any vegetable oil/ olive oil
Once it is hot, put the onions  in it to fry, don't brown the onions, just fry  it for a few seconds, add the garlic to it. At this point you can add the turmeric powder too, and fry it for a second. 
The at this stage you can also add 1 tsp of ginger garlic paste and also the fenugreek powder if you don't have fresh fenugreek or even the dried ones( it is just to enhance the taste)

So while all this is being fried in very low heat, you can put the spinach mixture into a mixer/ grinder jar, and grind everything into a fine paste.
Now take this paste and add it to the onions and garlic etc. Give it a good stir, and let every thing boil for a few seconds. 

                                                          See how it is bubbling

Add salt to taste, and add your garam masala  and your milk too (just about4/5 tblsps). 
Because we have already added cashews to give it the creamy, milky consistency.
Now finally add the paneer pieces and let everything get mixed together, and just wait for one more boil and then switch off the gas, and transfer it into a serving bowl.

Your yummy Palak Paneer/ Spinach with Cottage Cheese is ready to be served either with Chapatties, plain Rice or Pulav. You can serve it with some quick salad made with sliced onions, cucumber, tomatoes and some lemon wedges and hot green chillies . And if you like it hotter have it with dash of pickle.

Enjoy!!

Always remember there are no hard and fast rules in cooking, let your imagination and creativity be your guide.  
Be a cook out of the box!

Kanchipuram Idly

Are you bored of making the same idly with chutney and sambhaar, and you must try this, which is easy, quick and healthy too. Although traditionally it is made by soaking the the Dhal and the Rice in a slightly different proportion and ground,  rather coarsely we can also make it with our regular Idly batter.

Healthy Kanchipuram Idlies:

Full of goodness of Black Pepper, Cumin Seeds, Ginger, Curry Leaves and a few Cashews thrown in to turn an ordinary Idly into this awesome, tasting delicacy.
Steaming them in small steel tumblers would make them come out looking like beautiful cup cakes.
See that your idly batter is really sour, as it should be very sour for this idly to taste good.

(there are no fast or hard rules in this, use the ingredients mentioned according to your taste)

                                         Look how beautiful they look:  just like cup cakes

They should be cut in to half, and mulagai podi mixed with sesame oil should be applied liberally on them and they should be left soaking  for sometime in it before eating them.


Ingredients:

Some black pepper roughly crushed

1 or 2 tsps. of Cumin seeds also roughly crushed

A few cashews broken into small pieces

A small piece of ginger finely chopped

Some curry leaves

Hing /Asafoetida
A little sesame oil and 1 or 2 tsps. of ghee

Salt would already be there in the idly batter, if it not, then add to taste.

Method:

Take some oil and a little bit of ghee and heat it in a pan

Now after it is hot put the crushed cumin seeds, crushed pepper and fry it for a second, then add the ginger, cashews, the curry leaves and hing/ asafoetida

Fry everything together just for a second.

Switch off the gas. Now pour the whole fried mixture into the idly batter, and mix well

In the meantime pour some water in your idly pan, close the lid and set it up on the stove to boil

As soon as the water starts boiling turn it to low flame/Simmer, and start pouring the idly batter into small tiny cup cake size tumblers( which are easily available in the market), which have been greased with some sesame oil.

Remember not to fill the tumbler up to the brim, always leave a little space for the batter to rise.

Arrange all the idly tumblers in the idly cooker/ regular cooker, and close the lid and let them steam for about 15- 20 minutes.
 In case you don't have these tumblers you can use any cooker separator and grease the vessel and pour the batter into it and steam. It would come out like this:

A beautiful round cake, you can cut them into squares

After a few minutes take the small idly tumblers out from the cooker and slide them gently with the help of a butter knife.

Your yummy Kanchepuram Idlies are ready to eat or should I say to gobble

The only accompaniment for this type of Idly is the South Indian Chilli Powder, also known as Gun powder or Mulagai podi. This chilli powder is available in all the big supermarkets (in case you don't know what it is or how it is made)

 This Idly can also be made by using Brown rice, which would make it more healthy.

There would be no difference in the taste.

         

Fed up of cooking the same boring way, then come here and cook out of the box.