Baked Rice

Give me good basmathi, some spices and some vegi. I am sure I can make a rice dish out of it. So when I see ideas from my blogging friends that has rice as the staring ingredient I have tto try those. The rice dish I tried today was an an inspiration from this post. I liked the idea of baking the rice so I tried it with my standard pulav recipe. I cook my pulav on the stove top so I have more control over it. You can surely do it in a cooker.

Ingredients:
- 1 cup basmathi rice - Wash and soak it before you start your prep work
- 2 cups mixed vegetable - (I used beans, carrots, peas and bell peppers, frozen black eye peas.)
- 1 cup small onion pealed.
- 1 big onion cut pealed and cut to round slices
- 3-4 potatoes cooked and cut to round slices
- whole spices (2 anise seed, small piece of Cinnamon stick, 2 black cardamom, 1 tsp fennel seeds, 1 tsp jeera seeds, fewe cloves)
- 2 tsp puluv/biriyani masala
- 2 green chilies slit
- 1 tsp turmeric powder
- 1 tsp chili powder (adjust to taste)
- 2 tbsp oil
- salt to taste.

Method:
1. In a large pan (you need a pan to hold the vegis and rice) add the oil. Once hot add all the whole masala and cook till they turn brown.
2. Now add the small onions and saute till the outer layer changes color. Add rest of the vegetable and toss it around.
3. Mix in your spice powders (turmeric, biriyani masala, chili powder). Add salt to this and let it all cook for a few minutes. Now add the soaked rice to this vegetable. Add 2 cups of water. Bring this to a boil. Once it starts to boil reduce the heat and cover the pan.
4. Cook for 5-7 minutes. The rice should be three fourth's done by now. Turn off the stove.
5. In a separate bowl add the sliced potatoes and onion. Add some salt, little bit of chili powder and 1 tsp of oil. Toss them all around. This adds flavor to these vegetables.
6. In a oven safe dish spray some oil and add the cooked rice. Arrange the slices of potato and onion. Add 1/2 cup of water to this. Now cover this and bake for 15 - 20 minutes.

Now serve it hot with your favorite raita or subji.

Sending it to book marked reciepe hosted by Priya

Carrot Halwa

Happy Vinayaga Shaturti to my lovely readers. Hope you had your share of modak (Kolukatai). In our house we had a potluck dinner. Everyone got a different sweet and I choose to make carrot halwa. I do not make too much sweets but carrot halwa is an exception. With juicy carrots, milk, and ghee how could one possibly go wrong. I absolutely love this dish. This recipe to me is pretty versatile too. You can kind of play around with the measurements and still end up with a lovely sweet. Here is how I did it.

Ingredients:
- 2 cups of shredded carrots
- 1/4 cup sugar (adjust this to the sweetness of your carrots.)
- 11/2 tbsp ghee (reserve 1/4 tsp to fry cashwes)
- pinch of cardamom
- few cashews (or any nut of your choice) for garnish.

Method:
1. In a heavy bottom vessel add ghee and once it melts add your carrots and cook till they become soft.
2. Meanwhile heat your milk. I used a big microwave vessel and heated it for about 15 minutes. Stir this in between so it does not boil over.
3. Once the carrots are soft add the milk and cook it till most of the milk evaporates. Takes about 5- 7 minutes
4. Add the sugar and mix it. The sugar melts and gives the carrots a glistening color. Cook it for another 3-4 minutes. Add cardamom and mix well. Turn off the heat.
5. In a small pan add the reserved 1/4 tsp ghee and fry your cashews till it becomes golden brown.

Garnish your carrot halwa with your cashews. The cool thing about this dish is it tastes pretty good both at room temperature or hot. Enjoy!

Carrot Cake

I always try to incorporate some vegetable in the cakes and the muffins I bake. This way when my toddler has the cake I feel happy that he has had some vegetable. I also look for low fat recipes so that I can also have a piece guilt-free. So when I came across this carrot cake recipe at Pavithra's site "Binge on Veg", I was immediately hooked on to it. I tried the cake and it came out so moist and soft. Give it a try and I am sure you will enjoy it. For original recipe click here.

Ingredients

- 1 cup All Purpose Flour
- 3/4 cup Sugar
- 2 nos Egg
- 1/2 cup Vegetable Oil (I used Mazola oil)
- 1/4 tsp Baking soda
- 3/4 tsp Baking soda
- 1/2 tsp Salt
- 1 cup Grated Carrot

Method

1. Sieve the dry ingredients together in a bowl. I was so lazy I just mixed it with a spatula.
2. Blend the eggs in a bowl. Then add the sugar and oil and blend it until it becomes light yellow color
3. Add the dry ingredients slowly to the wet ingredients and mix it together
4. Add the grated carrot to the batter and mix it toger
5. Meanwhile preheat oven to 360 F. Grease a baking dish.
6. Pour the batter in the baking dish and bake it for 25- 30 min.
7. Check if it has baked by inserting a tooth pick in the cake.
8. Let it cool and slice the cake.

The cake is so delicious and very easy to make.

Carrot Thogayal

Thank you Sailu of sailus kitchen for this dish. I used her recipe but modified it to suit our taste. Here is the original dish.

Ingredients:
2-3 cups grated carrot
3/4 cup chopped cilantro
2 tbsp split broken urad dhal
1 tbsp Channa dhal
1 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1-2 dry red chillies
1-2 green chillies
1 tbsp grated jaggery or brown sugar
1 tsp oil
salt to taste
juice of 1/2 lemon

Method:
1. Fry urad dhal, channa dhal, red chillies, cumin seeds mustard seeds in a tsp of oil. Keep it aside to cool. Then grind the dhal mixture to a smooth powder.
2. In the same pan spray a little bit of oil and fry the carrots with green chillies.
3. Fry the cilantro leaves until the raw smell goes away. Takes a couple of minutes.
4. Add the carrot and cilantro leaves and grind with the dhal mixture.
5. Add lime juice in the end. This gives it a slight tangy taste.

Tastes great with Dosi or idli

Carrot Rice

Ingredients:
- 1 cup cooked basmathi rice
- 3 cups of shredded carrots
- 1 cup shelled edamame (or) green peas
- 1 small onion chopped
- 2-3 green chillies chopped
- 3 cloves
- 1" Cinnamon stick
- 1 tsp coriander seeds
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
- 4-5 peppercorns
- 1/4 teaspoon turmeric
- 1/4 teaspoon hing
- 1 cup roasted peanuts grounded coarsely
- 1 teaspoon chili powder

Method
1. In a heavy pan fry coriander seeds, cumin seeds, peppercorns and cinnamon. Grind them to a fine powder.
2. In another vessel pour oil and put in the cloves. Once it is slightly brown add hing,green chillies and onions. Fry them till the onions become translucent.
3. Add the shredded carrots, ground powder, chili powder, salt, turmeric, edamame and cook till the carrots are tender
4. Now add the cooked basmathi rice and mix well. Finally add the ground peanuts and toss the rice around.

Serve it hot. This rice is very healthy. I also add sprouted green moong dhal in this dish.

Cabbage Koottu (With Moong Dhal)

Ingredients

• 1 small Cabbage cut into small pieces


• 1 tomato


• 3/4 Cup moong dhal


• 2 tbs Cocounut


• 2-4 Red Chillies


• 1 tblspoon Urad dhal


• 1 teaspoon Jeera

For thaduka


• Curry leaves, Mustard seeds, Urad Dhal, 1/4 teaspoon hing, peanuts

Method

1. Preasure cook Moong Dhal and Cabbage seperately for one whistle.


2. Fry red chillies, urad dhal and Jeera in a dry pan.


3. Grid the fried mixture with the coconut to a fine paste


4. Add dhal and the ground mixture to the cabbage.


5. Cut tomatoes and add it. Boil for 2-5 min


6. Heat oil a separate pan, add the mustard seeds and let them splutter. Add the urad dhal,jeera, hing and peanuts. Fry till they turn brown. Lastly add curry leaves and immediately add to the boiling kootu.