Sago Vadam (Javarisi Vadam)

Texas gets very hot during summer and the heat reminds me of the days when my mom used to make vadam. Me and my sister used sit upstairs and chase the crows from eating the vadam. Once its a little dry we will be eating the vadam as it is. This year my in-laws are here and my MIL was tempted to try out vadams. She started with the easy one Javarisi (Sago in English) vadam. It was a very easy recipe.

Ingredients
- 1/2 cup Javarisi/sabudana
- 2 Green chili
- 1 tbsp Lemon juice
- 1/4 tsp Asafoetida powder
- Salt – as per taste

Method

1.Soak javarisi overnight in 2 cups of water. In a pan boil two cups of water and add javarisi and boil it in low flame. Grind the green chili,asafoetida, salt.
2. Add it to the boiling javarisi. Cook till the javarisi turns transparent or glassy.
3. The mixture will be semi-liquid. Once it cools down it will become a little thick
4. Take a tablespoon of the mixture and put it in a plastic sheet or ziploc
5. Keep it in direct sunlight for two days. After the first day turn the side and let it dry.
6.Once its dry you will be able to remove it easily from the sheet
7. Now the vadams are ready to be deep-fried.
8. Deep fry in oil and enjoy it as a snack.

Sending this one to CWS-Sago Seeds hosted by Kitchen Samraj originally started by Priya.

Gazpacho

 

This months AWED is featuring Spain. I personally love this event. It gives us bloggers an opportunity to try something that is different and not in our comfort zone. When Spain was announced I decided on Gazpacho which is a cold tomato soup. It originates from Andalucía in southern Spain. There are so many different recipe for Gazpacho and I kind of mixed a bunch to make my own. I was not too particular on using vinegar so I substituted that with lemon juice and I did not add garlic (if adding use around 3 cloves). The soup was fabulous and a perfect dish on a hot day.

Ingredients:
- 1 cucumber, seeded, but not peeled
- 1 green and 1 red bell peppers, cored and seeded
- 4 tomatoes
- 1 red onion
- 3 tomatoes to make a juice or you can buy store bought juice.
- juice from 1 lemon (adjust to taste)
- 2 tbsp good olive oil
- salt to taste
- 1 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
- 1/4 cup cilantro
- avocado for garnish (optional)

Method:
1. Chop cucumber, bell pepper, onion and tomatoes. Add them to the food processor separately and pulse them. Make sure you don't over process them.
2. In a blender add the tomatoes, salt and black pepper. Grind them well to make your tomato juice.
3. Now mix the vegetables and the tomato juice. Add lemon juice, salt and pepper to suit your taste. Add the chopped cilantro and chill this for at least an hour. The more you chill this the better it tastes.
4. Serve this chilled with avocado and more cilantro as your garnish.

Perfect for a hot day.

Submitting this to AWED - Spain announced by DK

Sprouts puluv

After checking out chef in you site I was also inspired to sprout some beans. I tried mung and moth beans. So now I add it in my toddler's rice when I boil other vegetables. Then when I checked out the recipe for moth sprouts rice recipe in chef in you, I wanted to try it out. I made some changes and tried it out for this weekend. To go with it I made kofta curry. We enjoyed a healthy and tasty meal. Check out the original recipe here.

Ingredients

-2 cloves garlic
-4 green chillie
-1 small piece ginger
-6-7 mini sweet bell pepper
-1 cup sprouts (I used a combination of moth and mung sprouts)
-3-4 cloves
-2-3 bay leaves
-1 small stick cinnamon
-5-6 pepper
-1 tsp panch poran
-1.5 cup rice
-2.5 cup water
-3 tbsp oil
-3 spring onions
-1.5 tsp kitchen king masala
-Salt to taste

Method

1.Soak rice in water for 1/2 hour.
2.Add oil to a hot frying pan. Once the oil is hot add panch poran,clove,bay leaves, cinnamon,pepper.
3.Once the panch poran splutters add garlic,ginger and green chillie. Fry it for 1-2 min.
3.Add spring onions and fry for few min. Then add the bell pepper and the sprouts. Fry this for 3-4 min.
4.Drain the water from the rice and add it to the pan. Add 2.5 cups water. Adjust water according to your rice. Add salt and garam masala and mix it well.
5.Close the pan and keep the stove in medium heat.
6.Check after 15 min to see if the rice has cooked. You can add water if the rice is not cooked yet.
7.Garnish with coriander

Serve it with raita or any spicy side dish.

This dish is going to the wonderful event My Legume Love Affair hosted by Siri and started by Susan
I am also sending this to Priya's Easy N Tasty - Let's sprout event.
Also sending this to one of my favorite event Tried and Tested hosted by Priya and started by Delights of Cooking

Slow Cooker Chole

Do you own a slow cooker/croak pot? If you live in US you need to buy one of these. They are so convenient and you can cook delicious dishes. I make most of my dhals, kootu using the slow cooker. The other day I made chole and I thought I will blog about it. I started the whole process at around 2.00 in the afternoon and we had awesome chole for dinner at around 7.00 that night. It is just the method that I am giving here. Customize the recipe to your taste.

Ingredients
- 2 cups of dry channa/ Garbanzo beans/ chick peas
- 1 onion chopped
- 3 tomatoes chopped
- 1 tbsp chole masala
- 1 tbsp garam masala
- 2 green chili
- 1 inch ginger
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1 tsp oil
- 1/4 tsp turmeric
- salt to taste

Method:
1. Add the chick peas in the slow cooker and add water so the beans are all immersed. So it would be roughly 4 cups of water. Add salt. Set the slow cooker at high.
2. Cook for at least 3 hours. The chick peas should be soft by now.
3. Meanwhile in a separate pan add oil and cumin seeds. Once they splutter add the chopped onion and cook it turns slightly brown. Now add the tomatoes and cook till it becomes slightly mushy.
4. Add the chole masala, garam masala, turmeric and salt. Cook for 2-3 minutes. Let it cool.
5. Now grind this with some of the cooked chick peas. Add this mixture to the slow cooker and let it cook for another 30-45 min. Make sure that there is enough water in the slow cooker.
6. After about 45 minutes reduce it to a low setting and let it cook slowly until you are ready to serve dinner.

You now have a hot and delicious chole. You can do this for all kinds of legumes. The only thing is to adjust your timing. Server this easy chole with roti or rice

This easy chole is going to the wonderful event My Legume Love Affair hosted by Siri and started by Susan

Microwave Kara Kulumbu

The Microwave event hosted by Srivalli of Cooking4AllSeasons inpsired me to try my Microwave for different dishes other then just heating up leftovers. The one thing I typically do is cook my rice in the microwave oven. It cooks in 30 minutes. I like this method to make rice as it is fool proof and I really need not do much. This time around I decided to try out a kulumbu recipe. The inspiration came from Malika Badrinath book. There are a few steps involved but it comes together easily.
Ingredients A:
- 1 small onion chopped
- 2 small brinjal chopped
- 2 tomatoes chopped
- 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
- salt to taste.
Method:
1. Add the above ingredients in a microwave safe bowl. Microwave them at high for 6-7 minutes. Remove it every two minutes and mix them well. If you feel it does not have enough water then keep it aside.
Ingredients B:
- 1 tomatoes chopped
- 1 tbsp sambar powder
- 2 cups tamrind water
- salt to taste
Method:
1. Grid the tomatoes, sambar powder. Mix them well with tamarind water and salt. Now boil this at medium microwave setting for at least 8 minutes. Remove it and mix it every two minutes.
2. Now add the cooked vegetables to this and cook it at medium heat for 6 minutes. Remove and mix every minute.

Seasoning:
- 1 tsp mustard seeds
- 1 tsp methi seeds
- sprig of curry leaves
- 2 tsp oil
Method:
1. In another microwave safe bowl add the oil and add the seasoning ingredients and cook for 2 minutes. You will hear the mustard start to pop. Remove and add it to the kulumbu.

This was a few steps but then it all happened in the microwave and so I did not attend to it constantly which was a nice relif. This kulumbu tastes great with rice.

Sending this to 365 days of microwave cooking hosted by Srivali of Cooking4AllSeasons and also to MEC-Favorite hosted by Seduce your taste buds and started by Cooking4AllSeasons.

Healthy Fruit and Vegetable Salad

I am trying to eat more salads these days. I add both vegetables and fruits in the salad to make it healthy and filling. There is no one way to make this salad. You can be creative and add any vegetable or fruit to this combination

Ingredients

-1 cup chopped Lettuce
-1/2 chopped apple
-1/4 cup chopped mango
-3-4 chopped Mini Bell Pepper
-2 chopped carrot
-Salt to taste
-Pepper to taste
-Lemon juice to taste

Method

Toss all the ingredients in a salad bowl. Add salt, pepper and lemon juice. Toss the salad well. The salad tastes beter if you let it rest for 1/2 hour - 1 hour before eating.

Enjoy a healthy and tasty salad.

Gheeya Kofta

This is another kofta I tried using my pancake puff pan. I am absolutely loving this pan which lets me enjoy koftas with almost no oil.

Ingredients for kofta's:
- 1 gheeya shredded (Mine was pretty big)
- 2 bread (A day or two old bread is perfect)
- 1 tbsp chili powder
- 1 tsp roasted jeera powder
- 1 tsp cumin powder
- 1 chili chopped finely
- 1/3 cup coriander leaves chopped
- 2-3 tbsp besan (use as needed)
- salt to taste

Method to make kofta's:
1. Gheeya tends to realease a lot of liquid. You want to salt it and squeeze as much liquid as possible. Keep the water from the gheeya aside.
2. Tear the bread to small pieces and add all the other ingredients and mix them well. You should be able to make small balls with the mixture. As you are not deep frying these it can be slightly wet. If it is hard to make the balls then add more besan or another slice of bread.
3. Spray your Pancake Puff Aebleskiver Pan with some oil and drop these balls. Set the heat below medium and let it cook. It takes some time but you want the insides to be cooked well so be patient. Keep rolling them in the pan to cook them evenly. Spray oil as needed. Once cooked remove and let them cool.

Ingredients for the subji:
- 1 onion chopped
- 2 tomatoes chopped
- 1 tsp turmeric powder
- 2 tbsp garam masala powder
- 1 tsp roasted jeera and coriander powder
- 1 tsp chili powder (adjust to taste)
- salt to taste
- sugar to taste
- 1 tbsp oil
- 1 tsp jeera

Method to make the subji:
1. In a pan add the oil and jeera. Once it splutters add the onion and fry till it turns slightly brown. Now add the tomatoes and cook until it becomes mushy. Add all the masala and chili powder. Also add the water you had kept from the gheya.
2. Let it all cool. Now grind it in a food processor to a coarse paste. Pour it again in the pan and add salt and sugar according to your taste. Cook in a low flame for atleast 10 - 15 minutes. This gives the spices to blend well with the tomatoes.

Putting it together:
About 10- 15 minutes before serving heat your subji. Remove from the heat and drop in the kofta. Garnish it with coriander leaves and they taste really good with roti or biriyani.

Enjoy this healthy version of gheeya kofta.