Andhra Pradesh Plate

It was First day of August and the First State was Andhra Pradesh. Its the very first day of the challenge #28states28plates and #28states28days. So it was a very basic arrangement. 

For breakfast, I prepared Biyyam Rava Challa Upma. A very simple rice rava upma with buttermilk.

Biyyam Rava Challa Upma Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 cup rice rava
• 1 cup whisked curd
• 1 cup water
• 2 red chili 
• 1 tsp chana dal
• 1 tsp urad daal
• 1/2 tsp mustard seeds
• a pinch of asafoetida
• 10 curry leaves
• 2 medium onion sliced
• 2 tbsp chopped coriande rleaves
• 3 tbsp oil
• 1/4th tspn turmeric powder 
• Salt to taste

Procedure

• Mix water to curd and give a good whisk. Buttermilk is ready. You can use 4 cups of Buttermilk instead.
• Add rice flour to this, mix, without any lump. Cover and keep aside for 15min.
• Heat oil, add red chilly, chana daal, utad daal and mustard seeds.
• When daal turns brownish, add green chili, curry leaves.
• Now add sliced onion with salt,so that onion is cooked faster.
• When onion is cooked,add carrot and saure for a few min.
• Once onions are cooked, add rice rave mixture and cook in medium heat. Keep stirring to avoid making lumps.
• After that  make the flame low and cover the lid.
• Meanwhile stir it so that it is cooked properly.
• Once the buttermilk is absorbed, keep cooking in medium heat for another 5min, keep stirring.
• Its ready. Garnish with chopped Coriander leaves.

For lunch plate: Rice, Kalagaya Kura, Roasted and Boiled Mug Daal with salt and Poornam Boorelu.

Dry Roast Mug Daal or Yellow Lentil. In a cooker  take roasted daal, add turmeric powder and salt, ad 2 cup water. Now boil in cooker,  for 2 whistle. Once cooked mash daal. You can add water as per your desired quantity. 

Kalagaya Kura Recipe

Its a mix vegetables curry in Andhra style.

Ingredients

• Red Pumpkin cubes, 4 cups
• Brinjal cubes, 1 cup
• Yam cubed, 1 cup
• Raw Banana cubed, 1 cup
• Sweet Potato cubed, 1 cup
• Onion
• Green Chilly
• Curry Leaf
• Red chilly
• Coriander Powder
• Turmeric powder 
• Jaggery

    For Tempering/tadka:

• Mustard seeds
• Cumin seed
• Urad daal
• Curry Leaf

Procedure

• Heat oil,add mustard seeds and cumin seeds, split urad dal.
• Once dal turns red add curry leaves and saute for a few seconds. Add the chopped onions, green chilies and saute till the onions turn brown.
• Add all the vegetables, mix well with the onions. Cook without lid for 4 mts. Add turmeric powder, red chili powder, coriander powder and salt and mix.
• Cover and cook on low flame for a few min. Keep mixing once in a while during the cooking process.
• Add half a cup of water and jaggery and mix. Place lid and simmer till the vegetable are completely cooked.
• Garnish with fresh coriander leaves.

Poornam Boorelu Recipe

It is Andhra Pradesh special sweet stuffed fried balls.

Ingredients 

         For The Dough:

• Soaked Chana Daal 1cup, 4-5 hours
• Water 2cup
• Jaggery
• Coconut grated or dried dessicated coconut
• Cardamom powder

   For the batter:

• Urad Daal, soaked in water for 3hrs
• Rice, soaked in water for 3hrs, or rice flour
• Salt, a pinch
• Oil for frying

Pocedure

• Cook chana daal and water till 3 whistle. It should cook completely. 
• Strain water. In a mixer, churn into a smooth paste.
• Heat a vessel, add daal paste, Jaggery and cardamom powder. Keep stirring until daal mixture thickens and a soft dough is formed. 
• Make small balls and keep aside.
• Take urad daal and rice in a mixi jar and turn into a smooth paste, add water.
• With a hand blender or spoon, mix again. This will make the batter airy and fluffy.
• Dip each daal ball in this batter and dip fry in hot oil.

It was an easy, simple platter from Andhra Pradesh. 

Do check my other state plates.

Take Care.

28 States 28 Plates in 28 Days

Last month, August 2020, I celebrated as Independence Month. So I took a challenge on my own, it was #28states28days and #28states28plates.

I cooked a full meal plate from each state, alphabetically, from 1st to 28th August. It was fun to cook so many different recipes. Although my family got tired of eating such huge arrangements, everyday. 

I will start writing about each state plate from tomorrow. I will keep updating the links here

1. Andhra Pradesh
2. Arunachal Pradesh
3. Assam 
4. Bihar 
5. Chhattisgarh 
6. Goa 
7. Gujarat 
8. Haryana 
9. Himachal Pradesh 
10. Jharkhand 
11. Karnataka 
12. Kerala 
13. Madhya Pradesh 
14. Maharashtra 
15. Manipur 
16. Meghalaya 
17. Mizoram 
18. Nagaland 
19. Odisha 
20. Punjab 
21. Rajasthan 
22. Sikkim 
23. Tamil Nadu 
24. Telangana 
25. Tripura 
26. Uttarakhand
27. Uttar Pradesh
28. West Bengal

This challenge has taught me a lot about different states culture and food. There is similarities in every states food history.

I have kept here vegetarian eecipes only, so that any person with any food choices, can prepare them. I have kept simple dishes, as there was time constraint because I was cooking before leaving for my office in the morning; also I did not buy ingredients as per recipes, I cooked as per the ingredients available to me .

I had fun. Hope you have fun reading the recipes and a few stories. Do share your feedbacks and encouraging words.

Lockdown with Milk Bread

It's lockdown situation and I need to go office for essential services. So most of the time worried about health of my 2-years old and everyone's mental peace.

So cooking and feeding my folks with something tasty and something they are missing eating.

Today it was a simple one. Milk bun

Ingredients:

Flour or Maida 1.5 cup
Milk 1/2 cup
Salt 1 tsp
Oil/Soft butter 2 tbsp
Powdered or Castor Sugar 2tbsp


Instant yeast 1 tbsp
Warm milk 1cup
Powdered or Castor Sugar 1tsp

Procedure:

Soak yeast and sugar in milk for 5 min.

Sieve flour, salt and sugar. This will make the flour airy and will help in rising the dough.

Add milk, yeast mixture to flour. And knead into a soft dough.

Add oil or softened butter. Knead again.

In a deep bowl add oil and keep your flour dough. Cover your bowl with a tissue paper and keep it air tight. Keep in a warm place for 1-2 hour.  Let it rise and become double in size.

After that, knead again, you can use a little flour. Repeat the procedure of keeping in a covered bowl in a warm place. Let it become double in size again.

After 1 more hour, knead the dough again and you can make a few small balls from the dough. Roll each ball and give it a shape of a small ball again. If you want to make bread, no need to make small balls. You can knead and keep in the baking bowl.

Keep your baking tray ready, spread oil. Now keep the flour balls in the plate, keeping a gap of 1 inch. Cover it again and keep in warm place for 1 hour and let these balls rise again.

Preheat the oven. Bake at 180 degree for 20 mins. Depending on your plate and oven, you may need to adjust time a little. So try with 15mins. Then test once. If required, bake for another 5mins.

See it's so easy. Have your home-baked hot bun. See its so soft. Enjoy the lockdown with this hot bun and tea. You can spread butter or cheese, to increase the taste.

Stay at home. Stay safe. Keep visiting my blog and my Facebook page for lockdown recipes.

P. S. You can make  pizza from this same bread dough.

My 2-years old's FIRST pizza, he was super excoted

Rajasthan diary 1 and a beans story

After a long time, I am here with a story and a recipe from my kitchen. These last few months were "baby-mom-care" period; we were going to doctor's place frequently either for me or for baby's check up. Now, enough about health diary, let me tell you about something I love. Traveling is one thing, which works as a energy booster for me. I need fresh air and change of view, at least once a year. That was the requirement till I was not a Mother; now there is a PAUSE button, for the time being.

Lets talk about our first trip, after marriage, you can say: our honeymoon, was to Rajasthan. It was a cold morning of November 2015, we started our journey. This was the first big tour for both of us, all planned by us. I was super excited to make the itinerary, to book hotels and to make all travel arrangements. Our route was: Jaipur- Udaipur - Mount Abu - Udaipur - Jaisalmer - Jaipur. But as it was our own tour plan, at the end, we did some changes.

We reached Jaipur on 28th November 2015. It was a cloudy winter morning. We booked uber and went to our pre-booked hotel. The route from airport to hotel was beautiful, full of green and flowery plants . Loved the street lights and hanging flower pots on the road. It was a disappointment at first sight, as we saw the hotel. But the interior was okay. Anyway we stayed in Jaipur for less than 12hours. We went for a stroll, visited the nearby museum and had street food.

Started our journey by morning flight

From left: our shadow stuck on the screen; hotel interior; science meuseum funny looking small observatory; Jaipur Airport garden; me in the uber cab mirror ;)

Regional science meuseum photo shoot

Early morning in train, just before reaching Udaipur

Chhole Kulche in Jaipur, a street food

Udaipur is a lovely city; royal palaces and artificial lakes are the attractions. But what I loved more was the street food, aloo paratha and sabji. Hot paratha and sabji on a winter morning made the journey memorable. After visiting almost all the famous places, we started for Mount Abu in the afternoon. The road passed through a hilly area, the driver was saying all the robbery and other accidents happened in that area before, ooooooo too much for a romantic gateway. Anyway reached Mount Abu hotel late night.

City of palaces and lakes

City of gardens

Dal bati churma in Udaipur

Morning breakfast with aloo paratha

We were shivering when we reached Mount Abu; the famous hill station of Rajasthan, was very cold. I must thank the hotel owner, who was very friendly and helpful. He sketched out the whole tour for Mount Abu for the next day. As we had our bus from Udaipur to Jaisalmer at 9PM so there was not much rush, at least that's what we thought. After enjoying the lovely hill station and after trekking till toad rock, we were done for the day. Oh, there in Mount Abu, we came to know about husband's promotion, so the joy was doubled.

Toad Rock and lake in Mount Abu

Temple in the hill station

We said our bye to Mount Abu and started for Udaipur, to catch the bus. We were supposed to reach by 8PM and so I started to check the tickets leisurely. This was the one booking, which my husband did and while we were on the way to Udaipur from Mount Abu, I found out, the bus time was actually 7PM!!! What the @#$%. So my dear R got tensed as well as the driver (so nice of him!!). He took the speedometer to highest possible point, we were checking the time after every 5 minutes and there was a tyre puncture, full movie style. At this point we were sure that the bus would go and we would not reach Jaisalmer on time. This first big trip, without any guidance, was full of events but not at all monotonous. Those were the time when we saw how helpful some strangers could be. Our cab driver talked to the no. given in our tickets, convinced the driver after a long discussion that, we would be waiting outside Udaipur, near high way, which would go towards Jaisalmer. Finally we reached there on time, the driver waited till we got onto the bus and finally we took a deep breath. The night passed with banana and bread and the sleeper bus reached on time to our destination Jaisalmer.

The time in Jaisalmer was one of the most surprising, beautiful, romantic, royal and memorable time. Why? Will tell you in my next post.

For this post, let me write a new recipe. It is about a very common vegetable, name Sim or Flat beans.

At our home, we had different recipes with sim: sim aloo bhaja/ flat beans potato stir fry, sim posto/ flat beans in poppy seeds, sim sorshe/ flat beans in mustard sauce and different mix vegetable things. But this time, at my home, here, I made sim bata or flat beans paste. The result was, my father was asking me after eating, what is it? It is tasty but I am unable to understand. My father is a very good food critic, as I have mentioned before also. Ao the recipe was a hit.

What you will need for this simple but tasty recipe:

Sim or flat beans - cleaned, cut in half size; you can use variety of flat beans together. You can take 1 bowl full.

Onion - 2, medium, peeled, cut in big pieces

Garlic - 4/5 , cleaned and cut

Green chilly - 2 chopped

Mustard oil

Salt as per taste

Kalo jeera or onion seeds

Onion, garlic and gree chilly chopped 

Turmeric powder, kalo jeera, salt

Flat beans cut in half

Now heat a kadai or pan. Pour mustard oil, 2 tables spoon, add kalo jeera. Once it starts to splatter, add onion garlic and chilly. Stir for 2mins. Add the vegetables, add salt. Now mix it, cover and  fry for another 4mins max. It need not be fully fried.

Stir fry everything

Once fried set it cool and then paste it

Keep it aside and let it cool down. Now you can use a food processor or a shil-pata. Grind it and make a smooth paste.

Sim bata

You can have with chapati or steamed rice. Just to increase the taste, add a little mustrad oil and green chilly before eating. Voila!

 It is a  very short recipe. Hope you try it and ahare your experience with me.

Just something more: yesterday Rahul, my hubby, prepared Angur or grapefruit chutney, as the fruit was too sour to eat. He cut the fruits in small pieces, added salt and chilly. It was superb. You can try this same way for any sour fruit.

My mother and Jackfruit fish with potol bata

Last few days, I was too busy to write anything. Last Tuesday, when my Brother-in-law left for their home in Assam the house became very quiet for a few hours (till the baby did not start screaming). Oh yeah, my boy has completed 4months and communication skill has reached a level where I get fade up with his continuous screaming and cooing. He will scream when he is happy or hungry or sleepy or irritated. 

See, all my topics, now a days, ends in my baby's story. May be all sleep-deprived nuclear-family new mothers are like that.

Last week we went to Pondicherry, with our 4month baby. The experience of this journey, I shall write in my next post. The interesting thing is, when everyone was worried about the baby, my mother was worried not only for my baby, but also for her one and only baby- ME!!! I scolded her for worrying so much, but I was happy to see there is always someone, for whom my health is no less important than my baby; otherwise, now a days, no-one thinks about me (yeah I am jealous- are you kidding!!!).

Me and my mother, we are not like other lovey-dovey daughter-mother. Most of the time, our discussion ends in "me getting irritated and Ma getting annoyed". She will say most of the time, my daughter is not a girl like. I will keep on thinking, my ma is too much dominating. But the fact is we both are like tom-jerry (can't decide who is Tom & who is Jerry). We cannot live a day without talking to each other. There was time, when I used to call my Baba and say, aajke jhogra hoi ni Ma-er sathe, bhalo lagche na, ache kothay heroine ( today didn't fight with mom, so not feeling good, where is the heroine). Yeah I call her other than MA, when I am in too good mood to argue with her.

Ma

My mother was a Primary school teacher. She was very good in teaching small kids, I had my personal experience also. She used to do all household works, cooking different food items for me and baba for breakfast and lunch, then within 10AM she used to reach school after a walk of 30mins. After the school time, she used to come home, taking care of my studies and our dinner. Her cooking is very good. No, it's not a daughter's words, these are the words of my cousins and my husband as well. She never taught me cooking, but a few things, I remember, she used to ask me to do, which I used to hate. One of them was, grinding spices in Shil-pata.

Pointed gourd grinding going on

She used to say, grinding spices using this stone, adds better taste and texture to any recipe. I realized recently, how true her words were. Day before yesterday i prepared Paka potol bata, using this recipe. This time I used the shil-pata, the taste as well as texture of the food was much better than last time. You can have, Paka potol bata or ripe pointed gourd coarsely grind, as a side dish. Recipe you can find here.

But in main course we had fish gravy. It was rohu fish, cooked in the gravy of jackfruit seed paste. You read it right. My husband was surprised whe he heard the ingredients of the gravy. It was unique and tasty. Back in our home, dried jackfruit seeds are available during summer. After eating the ripe jackfruit, we will clean the seeds with water and then seeds will be sun-dried. These seeds are used in many foods. Seeds are rich in iron, which is really good for health.

So here are the Ingredients required for the fish gravy.

INGREDIENTS:

1. Rohu fish - 4 pieces, big
2. Onion - 1 medium, peeled and chopped
3. Green chilly - 1 chopped
4. Jackfruit seeds - take out the dry outer layer, cut in 4pieces, 1cup full
5. Dry Coconut flakes - 2 tbsp
6. Poppy seeds - made paste using the shil-pata, 2tbsp
7. Mustard oil
8. Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp
9. Turmeric powder
10. Salt
11. Water

Now the process of cooking.

• Wash the fish pieces. Marinate the fish with salt and turmeric powder. Shallow fry in hot mustard oil, in a kadai. Some people like, deep fry fishes even in curry or gravy. Keep aside the fried fish. Always fry fish in smoking hot oil. Using mustard oil, enhances the taste of fried fish.

• In the oil, if quantity of oil is more after frying fish then keep only 4tbsp oil in kadai and rest you can use later. Add chopped onions. Fry in medium heat, when onion becomes brown, add the chopped jackfruit seeds and chilly. Cover and keep frying in low heat. Stir occasionally. After 5mins, add the dry coconut flakes. Stir fry for another 3mins. Switch of the flame and make the mixture cool. Take this fried mixture and poppy seed paste in a small grinding container and make smooth paste. Add a little water if required.

• In the kadai, add 1tbsp oil, you can use the oil which was kept aside after frying fish. Add cumin seeds. When it starts to crackle, add the jackfruit seed paste. Keep frying in low heat. Once oil starts coming out, add turmeric powder and salt. After mixing everything, add water as per your gravy requirements. Add 2cups more water, than you require for gravy. Keep boiling the gravy, till it reaches the desired consistency.

• Add fried fish pieces. Stir once carefully. Keep the heat medium. After 2-3mins, switch off the flame. Gravy is ready.

• Serve with hot steamed rice.

So here is today's recipe with love of a mother. Keep loving your mother and enjoy your motherhood too. Bye.

Change of life and a new herby recipe

The aloo paratha crossed halfway to my mouth, when he screamed.... Aaaaangeeeeeeeeee..... 1year ago, in this situation, nothing could have distracted me from that aloo paratha; but now (sigh!), paratha went back to the plate and I started running towards the car holding him in one hand and umbrella in another (forgot to mention it started raining at the time he started crying). Finally he was calm after an ample time of feeding.

Yeah that was my son, who was screaming as soon as I started eating paratha. He will say ( or make a clear sound similar to) Aange which means I am hungry; we, the new parents understood this word once he was 3weeks old.

After having a baby, life has become upside down, in a good way.  We have put a PAUSE in so many things, a few things specially for the new mother. Weekends movie-marathon, planning sudden trips, eating anything, wearing any dress, sleeping whenever I want and there are many more. See, there is a big PAUSE now for all these, pause for a few months only. This "a few months" may be 6 months, 12months or 36months, completely depends on individual parents. There was a time, I used to require 8hours of sound sleep in a dark room. But now my body has evolved to cope up with 4hours of sleep (that too not continuous!) with light on.  If I get 2hours of continuous sleep within 4AM to 7AM, I am fully fresh and capable of doing all the household works. Parks of being a Mother! Even I am writing this post, during that good-night-sleep-break.

The thing is life changes and in the beginning of any new journey we will struggle to adjust with the change. But the struggle is worth it! The smile of that small face and the touch of those little fingers make all my efforts priceless.

Today's recipe is also something I tried for the first time.

It is a herb which is good for lactating mothers (Fathers, please don't complain, you know how your better-half is struggling, so don't be upset if they get more attention). These are Dill leaves. It is widely available in Bangalore but has a pungent smell. One of my neighbor, in our apartment, Priyanka, a very jolly and caring person, told my mother about this. Her mother-in-law is also very sweet and caring. She not only prepared the shaak for me but also sent me a bunch of those leafy vegetables. I liked the dish. So thought to prepare it in our bengali way. I have used a mixture of whole spices which are good for a lactating mother and helps to make the smell of the vegetable less.

What you will need:

• Dill leaves : a bunch
• Tilauri 1 small cup; tilauris are sun-dried lentil dumplings, which are available in bihar and Jharkhand. My friend Juhi, whenever she goes home, brings for me. I am in love of these tiny dumplings. You can fry and have with rice.
• Potato 1 big
• Onion 1 big
• Chilly 1 or as per your taste
• Garlic 4/5 cloves, chopped.
• Salt
• Turmeric powder
• Mixture of spices, 1 teaspoon each: Cumin seeds, Fenugreek seeds, Mustard seeds

Before I explain the recipe, one fun fact about these herb: One tablespoon of dill seed contains more calcium than a cup of milk. So, you see, if you don't like to drink or can't drink Milk, there is a herby substitute.

The recipe goes like:

1. Chop the leaves along with the tender stems, discard the matured ones. 
2. Peel and cut the onion and potato in small cubes. 
3. Heat oil in a non-sticky pan. Fry the tilauris.  Keep these aside.
4. Now add a little oil in the pan again, if required and heat it in medium flame. Add the mix whole spices. Once the seeds starts to crackle, turn the flame low, add the chopped garlic, once it starts to become brown, add chopped onions. Stir fry till it changes color.
5. Add the potatoes. Fry it for 3-4 min.
6. Add the chopped herb. Add tilauri. Sprinkle salt followed by turmeric powder. Mix everything carefully. Cover.
7. Keep stirring. The leaves will leave water, which will make the potatoes soft. Another 5mins and you can see the green color will become darker. Once the water is dried, potatoes are soft, check the taste of the leaves. If the raw taste is gone and it is a little sticky, your shaak is ready. 
8. Enjoy with rice and daal.

For all the lactating mothers, enjoy this period and do a favor to yourself, don't compare your health and lifestyle with others. Enjoy each moment and don't regret for the things you are unable to do now. Within blink of eyes, babies will be grown ups and will be in high schools. Then college and then job, finally they will get out of your house and will get settled somewhere else, with their other half. That's life, keeps on changing.

Hope you enjoyed the recipe as well as the post. See ya!

Birthday of a foodie and Broccoli recipes

Happy birthday to you.....Happy birthday to you...Happy birthday happy birthday... Happy birthday to you...birthday song for the birthday week; me , mother-in-law and brother-in-law Banjit, cut our birthday cakes, had tasty foods and enjoyed the gifts.

Our birthdays are always special for us, but how much are we crazy for the day? Just answer this simple questions: Do you start counting days one month prior to your day? Do you wish yourself at midnight by making birthday card? Does all your close people get annoyed with your birthday countdown? If your answer is YES, give me a high five. I am crazy for my birthday and credit goes to my Dhaligaon mama (Dhaligaon is the place where he used to work).

My birthday is in july, which used to be summer vacation (it used to be heavy rainy season) time during student life, which means I used to celebrate at home without worrying about classes and homeworks. But there was never a fancy cake on my birthday because: 1st- during my childhood, there was no cake shop in my hometown; 2nd- my Dhaligaon mami used to bake for me. Their house was 1.5hr journey from our place. Mama and mami used to bring cake for me till my high school, every year. Once, it was raining very badly; my ma told, I would bake a cake for you, your mama wouldn't be able to come in this weather. I was waiting near the window, I told, mama would come with my cake. Within 10 mins, I saw, mama and mami coming, in his scooter, wearing raincoats. When they entered our house, they were fully drenched. But I was jumping because my birthday cake arrived on time. That was the love from my mama and mami. Every birthday, while cutting cake, I will fondly remember mama. He kept promise to a small kid in that harsh weather and the kid learned the value of trust. He made me realize, how special my birthday was. And I fell in love with my birthday celebrations. Love you Mama.

This year also I made a big deal about my birthday. I am glad that my hubby darling made the day special. Surprise gifts started coming from the (birthday-energy-annoyed) hubby, one week before my birthday.

Birthday card from my 3months old baby 

Gifts from hubby

My baby also behaved those two days: 2nd July (mother-in-law birthday) and 3rd July (mine), so I was able to cook. Foods of 2nd July were simple, as my mom-in-law liked.

Foods

    

Cake & gift

We had in lunch: bhaat, potol bhaja, paneer broccoli, broccoli bhaji, mishti kumror chhakka, daal (plain rice, fried pointed gourd, paneer with broccoli, broccoli stir fry, pumpkin stur fry, daal).

3rd july was my day and I don't know to have a simple birthday food(guilty!).

Cake and lunch

Dinner and baloons

As you can see, there was plenty of food. Lunch was: bhaat, potol posto, palak pata bhaja, pasta chingri mach diye, chaal kumro aar mishti kumro bhaja, macher dim bhaja, daal (plain rice, pointed gourd with poppy seeds, spinach fry, prawn fettuccine, fried ash gourd and pumpkin, fish egg fry, daal).
We had pancakes in the evening.
Dinner: Veg fried rice, chhole, paratha, fish, rasmalai.


So the my birthday was spent well, with two cakes, loads of gifts and lots of food. That's the birthday of a foodie.

Here is today's recipe for two of the birthday foods, fried ash gourd, spinach and pumpkin, veg fried rice and broccoli stir fry. For the recipes of rest of the foods, I will update soon. OK, not soon, because I am struggling with my baby daily, to make habit of sleeping at night; so during day tome, I need to play, dance and talk with him, so that he doesn't fall asleep.

FRIED ASH GOURD, SPINACH & PUMPKIN:

Ash gourd and Pumpkin, peeled, deseeded and cleaned, cut in long and thin strips ( you can cut in shape as per image).

Spinach leaves, whole, washed and soaked in water.

For the batter:

Rice flour

Turmeric powder

Kashmiri Chilli powder

Salt

Water as per thickness requirements

Oil

Mix all the ingredients for the batter. If you don't have rice flour, you can uae gram flour or all purpose flour. But rice flour add the crunchiness in the fries, also it is healthier than other two types of flour.

Kashmiri chilli adds a vibrant red color in the yellow batter ( which we get after adding turmeric powder). It is very mild spicy.

The batter should not be too much thick; you should be able to coat the pieces of the vegetables, but there should not be thick layer on it.

Once batter is ready, heat oil in a heavy and deep bottomed kadai. Once it is completely heated, dip the pieces of vegetables inbthe batter and deep fry in oil. Keep the flame medium. Once the color of the fries become light red in both sides, take it out and enjoy eating crunchy fries.

Ash gourd & Pumpkin fry

Spinach fry

BROCCOLI STIR FRY

Broccoli 200gm, cut the broccoli florets in 2 pieces, dont make it much small; soak in boiled water for a few minutes.

Potato 1big or 2medium, cut in strips of size as per broccoli; 

Onion 1medium, thin sliced

Chilly 2 or more as per your taste

Salt, oil, onion seeds and turmeric powder.

Heat oil in a non-stick pan. Keep flame low. Add onion and chilly. Once onion turns light red, add broccoli and potato. Saute. Add salt and turmeric powder. Saute properly. Cover the pan. Keep on checking and keep stirring after 3/4 min. Once broccoli and potato becomes tender, you can increase the heat once vegetables turn brownish, you can transfer the content into a bowl. Enjoy with roti or rice.

VEGETABLE FRIED RICE

Biriyani Rice 2 cups (washed and soaked in water for 15mins, mixed with 2teaspoon refined oil and salt). This will help to make the rice non-sticky.

Broccoli 200gm, cut the broccoli florets in 2 pieces, dont make it much small;

2 Carrots, thin sliced

15/16 French beans, cut the beans into 1inch pieces.

Peas 1 cup

Green chilly 2

Coriander leaves, chopped, handful for garnishing.

Ghee 2 tbspoon

Onion 1 big, peeled, chopped in small square shapes.

3 tbspoon barbecue seasoning

Ghee 2 tbspoon

Cook the soaked rice in a pressure cooker. You will need 3 cups of water to cook rice. Put the flame in high, one whistle and immediately turn off the heat. Let the gas pass and open the lid. Sread the rice in plate. You need to make it completely cool, otherwise while making the layers for biriyani, rice will become soggy.

Soak the vegetables in hot water for 5minutes. Now in a thick bottomed kadai, heat oil. Add chopped onions chilly. Saute. Once onion turns brown, add the vegetables and salt. Cover and Stir fry in between until the vegetables become soft. Add cooked rice, seasoning and salt if required. Increase heat and saute a few sec. Add ghee. Mix rice and vegetables carefully and slowly, without breaking the rice. Have the fried rice with veg curry or chicken curry.

That's all for today. Typing this post from last 3days. Finally finished in a hurry, otherwise it might not get posted tonight. See ya all. Good night. Hope you like the recipes and the post as well.