Mushroom Capsicum

Ingredients:

• 450 gm Fresh Mushroom
• 1 Capsicum (medium sized)
• 2 tsp Red Chill Powder
• 2 tsp Dry Coriander Powder
• 1 medium Onion
• 1 medium Tomato
• 1 Green Chilli (cut into small pieces)
• 1 tsp Oil
• 1 tsp Cumin-Mustard Seeds
• 1/2 tsp Turmeric Powder
• Salt to taste

Steps

1. Wash mushroom and cut into two pieces.
2. Trim onions, capsicum, tomato in square pieces.
3. Pour oil in a pan and add cumin and mustard seeds to it.
4. Mix green chillies and onions.Saute till golden brown.
5. Add capsicum and then add tomato, cook till soft.
6. Then add mushroom, turmeric, red chill powder, coriander powder, salt.
7. Mix it well, cook until the mushroom became tender and then turn off the flame.

Tip: Add some garam masala in the end if you like it spicier.

http://www.indobase.com/recipes/category/capsicum-50.php

Banana Pancakes!

This is a recipe I got from the Net. I just added the additional banana slices to make it tastier - it worked! Very simple and high-energy breakfast.

INGREDIENTS

1 cup all-purpose flour (I use atta)
1 tablespoon white sugar (good if you can powder it in mixie)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg, beaten
1 cup milk
2 tablespoons vegetable oil (You could do away with this. Or just use 1 spoon of healthy olive oil)
2 ripe bananas, nicely mashed
2 more bananas, make very thin round slices


DIRECTIONS

1. Combine flour, white sugar, baking powder and salt. In a separate bowl, mix together egg, milk, vegetable oil and bananas.
2. Stir flour mixture into banana mixture; try to reduce lumps as much as possible.
3. Heat a lightly oiled griddle or frying pan over medium high heat. Pour or scoop the batter onto the griddle, using approximately 1/4 cup for each pancake. Spread it like dosa, though not too thin.
4. Now put those thin round slices of banana all over.
5. Cook until pancakes are golden brown on both sides. Yes, turn over to cook the side with the banana slices too - they should turn a little caramelized, that's the yummy part!
6. Serve hot - spread honey on it to make it even tastier! Maybe kids may like jam with it too.

Mango chutney

From Reshma again - Thanks!

Mango Chutney (manga chammanthi in Malayalam)

1 raw or a little ripe mango, cut into small pieces for grinding in the mixie
3 small pieces of ginger
2 green chillies or 3 red chillies
6 curry leaves
5 shallots (sambhar onion or small onion)
4 spoons of coconut
Salt to taste

Grind everything together.

A great side dish for ganji, rice, chappathi, idli, dosa and whatever you want to eat with...

Quick breakfast or evening snack

From Reshma - Thanks!

Avalakki mixture (Aval nanachathu in malayalam, the former is my Kannada translation)

1 plate of Avalakki (beaten rice)
4-6 spoons of scraped jaggery
4-6 spoons of scraped coconut
Mixture of milk and water - Enough to soften the avalakki, do not make it a paste

Mix everything.
Ready to relish..

Great dish from leftover chapathis!

From Bhuvana - Thank you!

This is an excellent filling meal, if you also break an egg into it towards the end and stir well - it becomes like kothu parotta, the beloved dish of hostel days :)

The quantity below is enough for 2 people - am counting 2 chapathis per person. I made them fresh when I tried this out.

Ingredients

4 Chapathis (either fresh or extra from the previous meal)
1 big onion
2 tomatoes (you can use hot tomato sauce instead of fresh tomato)
3 green chilies
1 Tea-spoon pepper powder
Curry leaves
Coriander leaves
Oil and mustard for seasoning
Salt to taste

Preparation

1. Cut the onions, green chilies, tomatoes separately and keep it aside.
2. Cut chapathi into small pieces and keep aside.
3. Take a non-stick or any kadai (pan), add oil and mustard for seasoning
4. Add green chilies, curry leaves, onions and sauté. Fry until the onions turn brown.
5. Add tomatoes & salt to taste and cook well.
6. Add chapathi pieces and pepper.
7. Keep it in low flame for 2 minutes and mix well. Add corainder leaves at the end.

[Note: Use less chili or pepper powder, if you don’t want it spicy.]

Brinjal Gothsu - a traditional Tamil side-dish

From my friend Usha - Thank you!

Brinjal Gothsu - a traditional Tamil side-dish (alas nobody makes it anymore except at some weddings)

Ingredients:

Brinjal( Big variety) - 2
Tamarind - half the size of a lemon
Mustard seeds - 1/4 tsp.
Dry red chillies - 2
Green chillies- 2
Curry leaves - few
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp.
Salt - as per taste
Hing
Rice flour - 1 teaspoon (optional)
Oil - 2 tablespoons

Method:

Brush the brinjals with oil, poke them in a few places with a fork and roast them on direct, medium flame. Turn on all sides by holding the stems till the outer skin turns black. When cool peel the skin and gently rub under running water to remove the small black parts. Mash it slightly and keep aside.
Soak tamarind in water and extract pulp.
Slit green chillies and red chillies.
In a kadai, heat oil and add mustard seeds, green chillies and red chillies, hing, turmeric powder and curry leaves. Now add the tamarind extract and salt and allow it to boil till its raw smell is diffused and slightly thick. Now add the mashed brinjals and allow to cook.

Excellent combination with Ven pongal , idli, arisi upma and curd rice.

Appam!

The classic Kerala food because of which the world forgives us so many of our faults :)

This is my mother's recipe (there are mild variations from house to house) she makes excellent appams - and I have added my own modifications to it.

Ingredients

1. 1 cup uncooked rice
2. 1 cup cooked rice (or 1 cup paper avalakki (beaten rice/poha/aval) moistened with water - this is my experiment - and turned out successful - made the appams crispier, see photo. To balance, you could add half a cup cooked rice and half a cup poha)
3. 1 cup coconut grating (this is half a coconut)
4. Yeast - 5-7 grains
5. Coconut water (optional) My mother stores coconut water in a bottle each time she breaks a coconut, and stores it in the fridge.

Procedure: The Soaking and Grinding

1. Soak the uncooked rice in water and leave it for 8 hours. I usually do this in the night so that I grind in the morning. In winter I keep it for fermenting during the day. Sona Masoori works fine.
2. Then grind the soaked rice, cooked rice/avalakki, and coconut gratings in a grinder. If you have coconut water, add it while grinding. Grind in a mixie if you are using these measurements - one cup rice is too little for a 2 kilo wet grinder. In the mixie it may not come as smooth, but it is okay if the batter is slightly grainy.
3. Heat a little bit of water - and when it is lukewarm, add a few grains of yeast into it - around 5-7 grains will do.
4. When the mixture is well ground to a smooth paste, transfer it in a big open-mouthed vessel, leaving enough space for the batter to rise.
5. Now add the yeast to it, a spoon of sugar and salt and mix real well.
6. Cover the vessel with a thin cloth (old tee shirts are ideal) and leave it to ferment in a warm place, for 8 hours. I usually keep the vessel on the top of my fridge stabilizer, just like I do with dosa batter - remains warm throughout. The other option - heat a glass of water in the microwave/oven, take it out, switch off, and keep the batter inside, open. The steam inside keeps it warm for a while. I did this twice for the appam in the photo, morning and evening, because it was made on a winter day.
   When the batter is ready and smells fermented (that slight toddy smell!), stir well and make sure it's pouring consistency, more watery than dosa batter. Add salt to taste.

Procedure: The Making of the Appam

1. Now heat the non-stick appam pan, the deep one as in the picture (ask for Appam Pan at the shop). Pour a deep-spoon-full of batter into the center when it is hot and the steam has started to come.
2. Take the pan off the fire immediately and twirl the batter around until it spreads in a circle, evenly - see picture. I didn't want that thick soft center - if you want that, add more batter so that some of it will flow down to the center. If the pan is too hot, this mix won't spread, if it's not hot enough, all the batter will flow to the center without cooking.
3. Cover and cook. If your pan's non-stick is not working too well, cure the pan in the beginning by adding a little oil, heating the pan and draining off the oil.
4. Take the appam out when the edges start to brown.

See also Vegetable Stew - that's what goes best with this!