Thai Red Curry

I think it is fun to try different cuisines. Of the many options I have a soft corner for Thai food. I think it resembles our food a lot.. with coconut milk, ginger, lime, red chilies. So last week I tried making red curry but made it from scratch. I did not want to use the store bought paste as it has a lot of garlic in it. I am not a big fan of garlic so I completely skipped it ... One of the reason it is fun to make stuff from scratch. The recipe is simple once you collect your ingredients.

Ingredients for the Curry:
- 2 cups of mixed vegetables cut to bit size pieces - (carrots, bell peppers, snow peas, long beans, baby corn, bamboo shoots)
- 1 can coconut milk
- 1 small red onion
- 1 pack firm tofu cut in cubes
- 2 tbsp oil
- salt to taste
- thai basil (optional - I just used a few leaves of regular basil leaves)

Ingredients for the Red Curry paste:
Grind these to make a smooth paste
- 5-8 Dried Red chilies (Soak in hot water for atleast an hour)
- 1 tbsp Galangal
- 1 stalk lemon grass
- 5 -10 shallots or 1 medium red onions
- 2 tbsp coriander seeds
- 1/2 bunch cilantro
- salt to taste

Method:
1. In a pan pour the oil and add the ground paste. Now fry till it the oil separates. Now add the onions and saute till it becoemes tender
2. Add the vegetables and give it a quick toss. Mix in the tofu cubes.
3. Pour the coconut milk in it. Mix it all well. Add salt and if it is too thick add 1/2 cup water.
4. Boil for about 15 minutes in a medium flame. Garnish with basil leaves if any.

Serve it hot with jasmine rice.

Chocolate Cake

I know it is almost 20 days into 2011 but I had made this chocolate cake for a small get together in my home. I got the original idea from 4th sense cooking and it was huge success. It was the "Perfect" chocolate cake. It was moist inside and it tasted like a small bite of heaven in my mouth. I did not make a single change to the recipe so see no point reposting it. I decorated the top with white chocolate chip and we loved the contrast. Make this and I am sure you will enjoy it.


Sending this to Bookmarked Recipe's hosted by Priya.

Kuli Paniyaram (Leftover idli batter magic)

 



What do you do with your leftover idli batter. Make idli's and change them to idli upma or make "karacha ma dosai" - old idli batter mixed with atta. One other fun option is making this kuli paniyaram. The idli batter is not the exact recipe as the traditional chettinad style paniyaram but it definitely does the job for me. Add some vegi's to it and you have the perfect snack for your kids.. There is no exact measurement. Add them to suit your taste..

Ingredients:
- idli batter
- carrots shreded
- onion finely chopped
- cilatro some
- chilies
- salt

1. Mix all the ingredients together. If your batter is too thick add some water to it.
2. In you apam pan spray some oil in the holes. Add a spoonful of the batter in each of these holes.
3. Cook them till it is golden brown. Turn it around and cook the other side.

Serve it hot with chutney of your taste. mmm...Good

Soy Nuggets Subji

I did not make any big resolutions this new year but for some reason my second post for the year is super healthy too. After tofu it is soy nuggets this time. To tell the truth I hate soy nuggets. To me they are mushy and tasteless. To top it, I can never figure out how to use it in my day to day cooking. But every time I go to the Indian store I religiously buy them. It sits in my pantry for a few months and then one day (this typically happens when I am very tiered) I soak them in boiling water. It then sits around until my daughter comes back from school. She takes one look at that and promptly says "Amma I don't think I am hungry today". To pacify her I abandon the idea of making soy nuggets and make whatever she wants for dinner. This time when I got it I figured I better read a little bit more about it and really make an attempt in making it taste better. I cam across a curry in Sindi Rasoi and I think my love/hate relationship with soy nuggets has finally come to an end. I tried this with some variation and hurray, finally a delecious dish did emerge from these soy nuggets. So any one out there who has been struggling like me try this recipe out...

Ingredients:
- 1/2 packet soy nuggets (I used Nutrela)
- 1 big onion chopped
- 3 tomatoes chopped
- 2-3 green chilies
- 1 tsp garam masala powder
- 1 tsp corriander powder
- 1 tsp turmeric powder
- red chili powder to taste (I added it to give a little bit more flavor to the nuggets)
- 1/2 beetroot pealed and chopped (This is optional. It gives a nice color)

Seasoning:
- 1 tsp oil
- 1 tsp jeera
- 1 tsp fennel seeds

Method:
1. Soak the soy nuggets in hot water for 30 minutes.
2. In a pressure cooker add oil and the seasoning. Once it turns color add your chilies and onion. Fry till it is golden brown. Add tomatoes and cook till it mushes up.
3. Now add turmeric powder, chili powder and corriander powder and give it a good mix. Add salt. Adjust to your taste but remember that your nuggets do not have any salt.
4. Now squeeze your nuggets and add them to this mixture. Add water till the nuggets are immersed in water. Cook this for at least FIVE whistles. I think this is very important for the nuggets to turn soft.
5. Once cooked remove the lid and add the garam masala powder and stir well. Let it boil for a few more minutes.

Garnish and serve it hot with roti or rice.

Tofu & vegei Green puluv

Tofu - You either love it or hate it but it is good for you. So I am trying to incorprate it in my day to day cooking. I got some of the Extra Firm tofu and I wanted to do something different. I came across this recipe in Honey What's Cooking and I absolutely fell in love with it. With some modifications to suit our taste here is how I did it.
Ingredients:
- 1 pacakage Tofu (see notes)
- 2 cups of mixed vegetable (I used mostly green vegetables like capsicum, peas, beans etc)
- 1 onion chopped finely
- 1 tsp roasted coriander powder (Grind this fresh for the best flavor)
- 1 cup basmathi rice (Wash this and keep it aside for at least 10 min)
- salt to taste

Grind to make a paste
- 1 bunch corriander
- 1 bunch mint leaves(optional but it tastes better with it)
- 2-3 green chilies (adjust to taste)
- small piece of ginger

Seasoning:
- whole garammasala (I used few cloves, 1 cinnamon stick, 1 anise seed)
- 1 tsp Jeera
- 1 tsp fennel seeds
- oil as needed

Method:
1. In a pan pour oil and add the chopped tofu. Cook until it becomes golden brown on both sides. Take some for garnish and mash the rest to tiny bits using the back of your spoon. Remove from the heat and toss it with a little bit of the ground chutney, salt and coriander powder.
2. Add more oil to the pan and all the ingredients for seasoning. Once the jeera starts to splutter a bit drop in your onion. Fry till golden brown. Toss in the rest of the vegi and toss it around.
3. Add the soaked rice and mix it well. Mix in the remaining ground mixture and add two cups of water,salt and coriander powder. Bring this to a boil.
4. Now reduce the heat to a medium, cover and cook for 20 minutes. While cooking if you feel it is too dry then add another 1/4 th cup of water.
5. Once the rice is tender remove from the heat and fluff it with a fork. Garnish with the cubed tofu that you had set aside. Serve it hot with cold raita.

Note: Tofu - I have used both extra firm and medium firm tofu. With extra firm you can garnish in the end with big pieces like I have shown in the picture. With medium tofu it becomes more like egg fired rice as they are easy to scramble

Sending this to Bookmarked Recipe's hosted by Priya.