Cauliflower Pulav

Monday, May 2, 2011

Ingredients
1 cup basmati rice, onion 1 to 3 (depending on taste), one cauliflower, green chillis 1 to 3 (depending on taste), oil 3 table spoons (tbsp.), grated coconut (thengai turuval) one or two tbsp., Coriander seeds (dania),cumin seeds (jeerakam),4 cloves, cinnamon (lavanga pattai powder) 1/2 tbsp., salt to taste, ghee (nai / clarified butter) 1 tbsp., Cashews  3 tbsp., garam masala powder 1 tea spoon (tsp), mustard seeds half tsp., curry leaves (kariveppilai) and cilantro (kothamalli) to taste, lemon 1, turmeric powder (manjal podi) 1/2 tsp., asafoetida (perungayam) 1/4 tsp.

Step 1
Wash the rice a couple of times and soak it in hot water for 20 minutes.  Cut the onions into a long and thin shape .  Cut the cauliflower into small pieces (do not use the stem). Keep the stem separately to cook with other vegetables.

Step 2
Now prepare the seasoning (porichu kottal).  Take a kadai, add oil and heat. Add mustard seeds. When the mustard seeds start to pop, add green chili, asafoetida, curry leaves, cashews.  When cashews become a littl brown then add onion and cauliflower and stir fry a bit.  Add some water and cook the vegetables. For vegetable pulav, you can add your choice of vegetables.

Step 3
Take the soaked rice, strain all water out, add the ghee and fry a little.  Add 2 cups of water for one cup of rice. This is the general formula.  For 15 minutes keep the cooker in the stove and heat it. The purpose of doing a little frying for 2 or 3 minutes is that the rice will not stick to one another. After the rice is cooked add turmeric powder, masala powder, cumin, cloves, cinnamon powder and stir well. Take a wide open vessel, add all the items and slowly mix them well.  Add coconut and cilantro.

This dish is very easy to cook using ingredients easily available. In the same way you can prepare other types of vegetable pulav. Just change the vegetables You can even add cardamom elakkai) for additional flavor.

Do share with us how you liked this dish.  Eggplant (brinjal) pulav is another favorite made similarly.

Maida cake

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Ingredients

Maida one cup, ghee (melted butter) - half cup, sugar - between 2 to 2.5 cups, milk powder - half cup

 

Step 1

Keep kadai on the gas and heat it, put the ghee and melt it - keep the gas burner on low until the ghee melts.  Slowly add the maida while stirring and roast it to a typical dosa batter ( the mixture should look like the viscocity of normal dosa batter).  Keep heating slowly till it reaches this state.  Now switch off  the stove and add the milk powder, slowly stirring while adding the milk power.  Then add vanilla essence.  Place this down from the stove and keep it aside.

 

Step 2

Now in a separate kadai take half cup of water add the sugar heat the mixture till it becomes a syrup that is well mixed.  Watch the syrup carefully until one drop of sugar syrup dropped in water goes down like a small ball - this is the right consistency of the syrup to indicate that the sugar syrup is now ready to mix with the maida paste already kept aside. Now switch off the stove; then mix the paste with syrup well; stir slowly until everything is completely mixed and integerated.

 

Step 3

Take a plate, apply a thin layer of ghee on the plate and spread the sugar mixed paste uniformly to appear as a smooth plane.  You can now slice this into pieces suitable to your taste.  

Enjoy your maida cake

How to Prepare Milagu Kuzhambu

Ingredients

milagu one teaspoon, kadali paruppu (channa dal) one teaspoon, uluttam paruppu (urad dal) - one teaspoon, jeeragam (cumin seeds) - half teaspoon, milagai veththal (dried chilli)  six numbers, dhania (cilantro seeds) - two teaspoons, karuveppilai (curry leaves to taste)

tamarind - one big lemon size

Step 1

Grind all ingredients to a nice  paste in mixer and add water as required.

Step 2

Take a kadai  - pour gingely oil or sesame oil (Idhayam nallennai) 4 tablespoons ;  heat and add kadugu (mustard seeds) one teaspoon and toor dal (thuvara paruppu) one teaspoon. After the mustard seeds pop, add the above paste kept ready in a vessel, add one and half teaspoons salt, add half teaspoon of turmeric powder (manja podi)

Step 3

Heat slowly (keep the gas burner in low).  The paste will slowly integrate and you will notice a layer of oil forming at the top.

 

Now your milagu kuzhambu is ready.  You can mix with rice and enjoy.

Puffed Rice Salad

Thursday, October 22, 2009

This is a fusion dish that literally takes 15 minutes to make.

Puffed rice is called "pori" in Tamil and also "muri" or "moodi" in some parts of North India.  The most popular dish made with puffed rice as a primary ingredient is the bhel puri.  It is a popular Indian snack or "chaat" available in Indian restaurants.  The typical bhel puri is extremely spicy and cannot be substituted for a meal.  It is an appetizer.  I have concoted a recipe that borrows its roots from bhel puri but deviates significantly to provide a healthier alternative that can easily be incorporated for a quick lunch or dinner.

Puffed rice is made by heating rice kernels under high pressure.  It is essentially to rice what popcorn is to corn.

Ingredients
4 cups of puffed rice
1 cup of diced tomato
1/3 cup of diced onions
1 cup of chick peas (either from a can or already cooked)
1/3 cup of boiled peas
2 cups of diced boiled potatoes
1 cup chopped romaine lettuce
1/3 cup of chopped cilantro leaves (coriander leaves)
1 Tbl spoon seasame oil or mustard oil
1/2 spoon of turmeric powder
2 Tbl spoons of tamarind paste
1/3 spoon of paprika or red chilli powder (less or more as desired by your taste)
a tinge of salt (to taste)
a tinge of black pepper (to taste)
1 spoon of lime juice (or squeeze one fresh lime)
1 Tbl spoon peanuts
1/2 cup of sev or madras mixture (spicy)

Add all the ingredients into a large salad mixing bowl.  Mix it really well with a ladle.  Serves 2 people.

Curry garnish

Monday, September 21, 2009

Ingredients
1 teaspoon mustard seeds, 1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds,
1 teaspoon urad dal, 1 teaspoon chana dal
1 tablespoon sesame oil

Preparation
Heat the sesame oil in a special ladle (copper bottom) or in a saucepan.  Add the mustard seeds, cumin seeds, urad dal and chane dal to it. Just shake / stir the contents around in the ladle.  The mustard seeds begin to pop within a couple of minutes.  The garnish is now ready to be added to any stir-fried or steamed vegetable(s).  Add salt to taste.

Typically for making various vegetable curries, I would also recommend adding a couple of pinches of turmeric powder and coriander powder or coriander seeds that have been crushed.

Top 7 ways to eat a tomato

Friday, September 11, 2009

7. Eat a salad with diced tomatoes thrown in
6. Topping on a pizza
5. Have a veggie wrap / sandwich with tomatoes, cucumber, lettuce, olives, cheese and chick peas
4. Pasta with diced tomatoes thrown in
3. Tomato Sambhar
2. Tomato Rasam

and the best way to eat a tomato .....

1. Slice a raw tomato, sprinkle some black pepper and enjoy!

Pampleade = Pamplemousse + Lemonade

Saturday, September 5, 2009

La Croix water comes in various flavors like orange, lemon, berry and pamplemousse.  Pamplemousse is the french word for grapefruit.  My almost three year old daughter gets a real kick out of saying the word.

I decided to concoct a drink for her.  It was easy enough to mix equal parts of LaCroix pamplemousse and Simply Limeade. We call it pampleade.  Since then we have experimented LaCroix berry and LaCroix orange with equal parts of Simply Limeade, Simply Lemonade and Simply Lemonade with Rasberry.

They all get a thumbs up from my daughter.  The fizz and the lime / lemon flavor are hard to beat.

Tell us what you think if you give this a try.

Quinoa Indian Fusion

Thursday, September 3, 2009

Quinoa Indian Fusion

Ingredients
1 cup qunioa
1 Tablespoon sesame oil
1/2 Teaspoon turmeric powder
1 Tablespoon mustard seeds
1 Tablespoon urad dal
1 Tablespoon chana dal
chopped cilantro
diced onions
one potatio
peas
cut carrots
broccoli
1 1/2 - 1 3/4 cups of water
season black pepper to taste
add salt to taste

Instructions
If your quinoa does not come pre-rinsed, please rinse the quinoa to get rid of saponin which might impart a slightly bitter taste.

Boil the potatoes and cut to small cubes

Saute onions first in part of the sesame oil.

Separately heat the remaining sesame oil with mustard seeds, urad dal, and chana dal.  Once the mustard seeds start popping, this is done.

To the onions, add the seasoning from the previous step and also add peas, carrots, pea pods and broccoli.  Add turmeric, salt,  and stir fry for 5 minutes.

Finally, add the potatoes and mix it in for a minute

Separately, boil water in a covered pan and add quinoa to the boiling water.  Reduce the heat and let the quinoa simmer in the covered pan.  Check occasionally to ensure that all the water has not evaporated.  Depending on the heat, and gas versus electric, in about 10 minutes or so, the quinoa should be cooked.  It shoudl appear fluffy and all water should have evaporated.

Now drain any extra water (if it is still there and the quinoa is already cooked).

Add the quinoa to the sauteed vegetables, add black pepper as necessary and mix it in for a couple of minutes.

Put the chopped cilantro on the top and serve.

Turmeric - spice or medicine?

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Turmeric is extenisvely used in cooking various dishes in South Asia.  It is a key ingredient in curry powder. Turmeric is dried and ground into a powder and used in combination with many other spices such as black pepper to flavor dishes. In the western world, turmeric has been used as a food coloring or additive.

Turmeric has a lot of medicinal properties.  Ayurvedic medicine utilizes turmeric for the treatment of ailments such as digestive problems, inflammation, and also as an anti-bacterial agent for treatment of cuts and bruises. Modern research has now corroborated certain facts about turmeric's medicinal properties.  Turmeric contains curcumin which has been identified as a key active substance in turmeric.

I personally use turmeric and black pepper for the treatment of common cold and cough and it works very well. Add 1/2 a spoon of turmeric powder and a 1/4 spoon of black pepper powder to 4 ounces of warm milk.  Stir well and drink to get immediate relief from cough.  It is not easy to drink this concoction but if you do manage to drink this, it will soothe your cough and speed your recovery.

Is Quinoa a grain or not?

Friday, August 28, 2009

Quinoa is actually not a grain although it is consumed much as one would consume grains like rice, wheat, or couscous.  It is a grain liek crop that originated in South America several thousand years ago.  Quinoa has a high protein content and is an excellent choice for vegetarians, especially to try something new.

Quinoa cooks much faster than rice. Stir fry some vegetables and season with mustard seeds, turmeric powder, urad dal, and chana dal.  Add salt and cayenne pepper to taste.

Welcome to booaah!

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

If you are already here reading this blog, I am sure you must be wondering about the name "booaah".  The word was coined by my daughter when she was 1.5 years old to denote something to drink.  The word stuck and we use that word in my family even today to denote a drink.  The word is pronounced boo'aah.

I wanted to share with everyone my experiences of being a life-long vegetarian, cuisines, exotic places, diets, cooking tips, health tips, recipes, and anything else that would make us all healthy, wealthy and wise.  After all, Health is Wealth.  I will poll the audiences from time to time on various topics.  I am also open to suggestions on what the audience would like me to cover in a particular post.

In addition to being a life-long vegetarian, I have traveled extensively all over the United States as well as Europe and India.  I have managed to stay vegetarian through all my travels and living in different countries.  I have also managed to devise interesting recipes with a fusion of multi-ethnic cuisines.  I wanted to share the information I possess through this blog.

Here's to Your Health!

Cheers,
- Venkat