Peanut Ladoo
Peanuts are one of our favorite snacks at home. We eat peanuts in all forms. Spicy peanuts, peanuts in daily cooking or just hand full of roasted peanuts are just few to mention and one of our favorite form is peanut ladoos. Whether its on fasting day or just as an evening snacks, it works great. Its not only delicious but also loaded with proteins and lots of nutrients.
Kids will love to have them in their lunch box as a snack or an after school snack. As its full of proteins, its good for health, for all ages.
Ingredients
- 2 Cups Peanuts
- 1 Cup Grated Jaggery
- 2 Tbsp Ghee
- 1/4th Cup Thick Poha
Method :
- Take peanuts in a thick bottom pan and dry roast on medium flame until they are crunchy.
- Once they are roasted, remove from stove and leave them to cool. After they are cool enough rub them between your palms to peel there skin off.
- Now add the peanuts in a blender and grind it to coarse powder.
- Add grated jaggery to the blender with peanuts and grind it. Don’t grind it too much as it will release oil from peanuts. You can even pulse it 3 or 4 times. Remove peanut jaggery mixture to a bowl.
- Heat a kadai, add ghee. Once its hot enough add poha and fry until they are crunchy. Add them to peanut jaggery mixture.
- Take a small portion of the mixture in your hand and roll it like a ladoo. Keep ladoos in airtight box.
Coconut Chutney
There are many varieties of chutney and most common one among them is coconut chutney. Its more popular as a side dish for idli and dosa in South India. It is also served along with Upma.
Coconut chutney is also made in different variations but today I am showing you the simplest of all. Within 10mins of your time this chutney will be ready to serve with your dosa or idli.
I love the way my mom makes this chutney. Although its very simple to make, I never get the taste like my mom.
For Chutney
- 1 Cup Grated Fresh Coconut
- 3-4 Tbsp Roasted Channa Dal
- 1 Tsp Ginger Paste
- 1 Tsp Lemon Juice
- Handfull of Coriander Leaves
- Salt To Taste
For Tadka
- 1 Tbsp Oil
- 1 Tsp Mustard Seeds
- 1 Tsp Jeera
- 1/2 Tsp Hing
- Few Curry Leaves
Method :
- In a mixer jar add all the ingredients under “For Chutney” along with 1/2 to 3/4th cup of water and grind until smooth or till you get desired consistency. Transfer it to a serving bowl.
- Heat a pan, add oil. When hot enough add mustard seeds, as soon as it starts to crackle add jeera, hing and curry leaves. Switch off the flame and pour it on chutney.
- Goes well with dosas and idlis.
Note :
- Other variations for this chutney
- Few mint leaves can be added while grinding.
- Add one garlic clove while grinding.
- Add less water and make little thick chutney to serve along with dosa and add little more water to serve with idli.
Neer Dosa
Neer dosa is another variety of dosa from Mangalore, Karnataka.’Neer’ means water in kannada and tulu, so as the name suggests the batter of this dosa is near to water like consistency. Unlike other dosa, this dosa does not need any fermentation.
This dosa can be made within 3hrs and with just few ingredients. Soak rice for 2-3hrs, grind it with coconut and start making the dosa, its as simple as it sounds. Serve it hot with coconut chutney or veg saagu.
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 Cups Rice
- 1/2 Cup Grated Coconut
- 1/2 Tsp Hing
- Salt to taste
Preparation :
- Wash and soak rice for atleast 2hrs(you can even soak it overnight).
- Grind it along with grated coconut, hing and salt until smooth. Transfer it to a wide bowl.
- Add some more water to make batter pouring consistency. (as shown in the photo below)
Method :
- Heat a tava.
- Pour a laddle full of batter on the heated tava with a teaspoon of oil on top.
- After 3 to 4mins flip it on other side and cook for 2 more mins.
- Transfer it to a serving plate and serve hot with your favorite chutney on side.
Note :
- Batter should be thin enough to pour or else add more water.
Yellow Cucumber Pickle
Yellow cucumber/ Budamakai/Dosavakaya is a small, round cucumber with crispy tart flavor. Usually used in Andra dishes like dosavakaya pickle, pappu, pachadi. One should develop taste for this vegetable, everyone will not like it at once.
I did not like its taste before(my sister loved it). Whenever mom made, sister used to empty the whole pickle jar all by herself. After coming to US, I have a craze of trying new dishes. One day I got to know from a friend that we get yellow cucumbers in Indian stores. Soon after hearing its name I remembered mom and sister, immediately thought of trying it once. In my next Indian store visit I made sure to buy it. Came home, called mom and asked the recipe and made this pickle. And now even I am in love with its taste.
Hope you all will also like it.
Ingredients
- 1 Yellow Cucumber/Budamakai/Dosakaya
- 2-3 Tbsp Red Chili Powder
- 2 Tbsp Mustard Seeds Powder
- 1/2 Cup Lemon Juice
- 1/2 Tsp Methi Powder
- 1 Tsp Hing
- Salt To Taste
Method :
- Wash, peel and deseed yellow cucumber. Cut it into small cubes and transfer it to a wide bowl.
- Add rest of the ingredients(red chili powder, mustard seeds powder, methi powder, hing, lemon juice). Mix well and do a taste test.
- It can be served immediately but tastes much better if served next day.
- Will be good for up to 15 days if stored in a air tight container and kept in refrigerator.
Batavi Payasa
Batavi payasa is a traditional payasa from North Karnataka. Its made during festivals. “Batavis” are small balls made from rava and wheat flour. These batavis are fried in ghee and then boiled in milk and that results in a yummy desert called batavi payasa.
Learnt to make this from my mother-in-law. Its bit tricky to make batavis at the beginning but once you get hang of it, you will love to make it again and again because of its taste. When I started making it, I never got the required shape and ended up with rava payasa instead of batavi payasa :P. The trick here is to add warm milk to the rava 1st(which I did not do before) and after sprinkling the wheat flour you need to rub it as gentle as you can, then the lovely batavis will be ready. Once you get to make it rest of the procedure is easy.
Will you make an attempt to try it this Diwali? :D….
Ingredients
- 4 Tbsp Course Rava
- 2 Tbsp Wheat Flour
- 2 Tbsp Ghee
- 4 Cups Milk
- 3/4th Cup Sugar
- Few Cashews
- 1/2 Tsp Cardamom Powder
Method :
To Make Batavi :
- Take rava in a plate. Add 2 tbsp of warm milk to it and mix well, keep it aside for a minute.
- Sprinkle wheat flour on the rava and start slowing rubbing it until small balls are formed(as shown in the 2nd photo below). Let it rest for 5min.
- Heat a pan with ghee. Add batavi(rava balls) and fry until slightly golden brown.
- Add chopped cashews to it and fry until golden brown. Once done, remove it from the heat and keep it aside.
To Make Payasa:
- Boil milk on a medium flame in a heavy bottom pan until it reduces to 3/4th of its quantity.
- Add fried batavi to the milk and continue boiling for 10mins.
- Add sugar and continue boiling until you reach your desired consistency.
- Switch off the flame, add cardamom powder and mix well.
Note :
- Be careful while making the batavi. Rub it very gently without putting pressure on it.
- You can add any other dry fruits of your choice too.
- Instead of milk you can also use water. Boil the water and add fried batavi. Continue boiling until it thickens.
- You can add jaggery instead of sugar when using water.
Pancharatna Dal
Pancharatna/Panchmel dal is one of the popular dals from Rajasthan. Its a thick soup full of nutrients. Panch means 5 in hindi, as the name suggests this dal is made of 5 lentils. Its usually served with Dal Bati in Rajasthani cuisine.
This is one of my most favorite dals. Easy to make and tastes just awesome. Garama garam pancharatna dal with some hot rice, ghee and chatpataa pickle is just delicious!. I am feeling like eating it while writing this ;P, so I am going to my kitchen to make it. Do you also want to cook it for your next meal? Here is the recipe for you.
Ingredients
- 1/4th Cup Spilt Pigeon Peas/Toor Dal
- 1/4th Cup Split Red Lentil/Masoor Dal
- 1/4th Cup Split Black Gram/Urad Dal
- 1/4th Cup Split Bengal Gram/Channa Dal
- 1/4th Cup Split Green Gram/Moong Dal
- 1 Onion
- 1 Tomato
- 1 Tbsp Ghee/Oil
- 1 Tsp Mustard Seeds
- 1/2 Tsp Turmeric Powder
- 2 Tsp Ginger Garlic Paste
- 1 Tsp Cumin/Jeera Powder
- 1 Tsp Coriander Powder
- 1 Dry Red Chili
- 1 Tsp Red Chili Powder
- 1/2 Tsp Garam Masala Powder
- 1 Tsp Lemon Juice
- Coriander Leaves for Garnish
- Salt to Taste
Method :
- Mix all the lentils, soak them for at least 3omins.
- Pressure cook the soaked lentils for 3-4 whistle.
- Heat ghee/oil in a kadai, once hot enough add mustard seeds. When it starts crackling add ginger garlic paste, dry red chili and sauté for a minute.
- Now add chopped onions, cook until translucent and then add chopped tomatoes, coriander powder, cumin powder, red chili powder, turmeric powder and garam masala powder and cook for 2mins.
- Then add cooked dal and salt, let it boil for 5-8mins on medium flame. Switch off the flame, add lemon juice and mix well. Transfer it to a serving bowl and garnish with chopped coriander leaves. Serve hot with rice.
Sitaphal Milkshake
Whenever me, mom and my sister went for shopping, we use to make sure to stop by a juice place to have a glass of chilled juice. Our regular juice place was famous for milkshakes, especially sitaphal/custard apple milkshake. A thick milkshake with sweet pulp in between tastes just like heaven.
Whenever I see sitaphal I remember this milkshake. In US we don’t get fresh sitaphal, I miss eating it. One day when I was in Asian market place, I saw frozen sitaphal. Bought it and first thing I did was ate one and rest went into the blender jar to make milkshake.
So here is the my favorite milkshake for you all.
Ingredients
- 3 Sitaphal/Custard Apple
- 3 Cups Milk
- 2-3 Tbsp Sugar
Method :
- Scoop out the pulp in a blender jar, add little milk and pulse it few times(by pulsing, seeds will get separated from pulp).
- With the help of a spoon, separate all the seeds and also take out some pulp in a bowl for later use.
- Add rest of the milk to remaining pulp along with sugar and grind it until smooth.
- Strain the mixture. Transfer it to serving glasses, top it with pulp(which is kept aside) and serve chilled.
Note :
- You can add a a scoop of vanilla ice cream instead of milk.
Avocado Coconut Curry
Me and My husband cook a lot together and also like watching tv, especially food channels. One day when we were thinking of what to cook, I told him about this recipe that I saw in a popular tv show. We tried it that day and have cooked several versions of the same many times. It has now become one of our favorite curries. So here is my version of avocado coconut curry.
It goes well with both chapati and rice.
Ingredients
- 1 Cup Coconut Milk
- 1 Avocado
- 1 Onion
- 2 Tsp Coconut Oil
- 1 Clove Garlic
- 1 Tsp Chopped Ginger
- 1 Green Chili
- 2 Dry Red Chili
- 1 Tsp Mustard Seeds
- 1/2 Tsp Methi Seed
- 1 Tsp Turmeric Powder
- 1 Tbsp Cashews
- 1 Tsp Coriander Powder
- 1 Tsp Tamarind Paste
- Few Curry Leaves
- Coriander Leaves for Garnish
- Salt to Taste
Method :
- Chop onion, garlic, ginger and green chili. Soak cashews in water for 10mins and make a paste.
- Heat a pan, add oil. When its hot enough add mustard seeds and let it crackle.
- Then add methi seeds, green chili, red chilies, garlic and ginger, sauté for a min.
- Now add onions and turmeric powder,sauté until onions turn translucent.
Add coconut milk, coriander powder, red chili powder, curry leaves and soaked cashew paste, let it boil for 5-8mins and then add salt. Boil for 2 more mins and switch off the flame.
- Transfer it to a serving bowl and top it with sliced avocados and chopped coriander leaves.
Avalakki Chivda
Avalakki chivda is an all time snack in most households in Karnataka, especially in North Karnataka. It can be served as a breakfast or as an evening snack along with tea. It has many versions – fried, dry roasted and even the ingredients vary. Dry roasted one is the most common of all and healthy too. It can be served with curd or mixed with onion, tomato and lemon juice or can also be mixed with grated coconut and lemon juice.
Its so convenient to have Avalakki chivda ready in your pantry when guests are visiting, especially the surprise visitors. You can also make this ahead of an event for your guests and store it for upto 15 days.
The other alternative for popular snack is Mandakki Chivda. At our home either of these are always available.
Ingredients
- 200 G Thin Beaten Rice/Paper Avalakki/Poha
- 5 Tbsp Oil
- 1 Tbsp Mustard Seeds
- 6 Tbsp Groundnut
- 5 Tbsp Roasted Chickpeas/Puttani/Hurgadle
- 5 Tbsp Dry Coconut (sliced into thin pieces)
- 1/2 Tsp Asafoetida/Hing
- 1/2 Tsp Turmeric Powder
- 2 Tbsp Red Chili Powder
- 1 Tsp Sugar
- Few Curry Leaves
- Salt to taste
Method :
- Heat a heavy bottom kadai on medium flame, add oil. When its hot enough add mustard seeds.
- When mustard starts crackling, add groundnut and fry them for 2mins.
- Then add dry coconut pieces, turmeric powder, hing, curry leaves and fry for 2 more mins.
- Now add roasted chickpeas, after a minute switch off the flame and add red chili powder, sugar and salt.
- Let the tadka cool down a bit, may be for 2-3mins. Then again switch on the flame on medium heat, add Paper avalakki/poha and mix well until poha is well coated with the tadka.
- Continue cooking until poha become crispy, it may take around 15 to 20mins. Switch off the flame and let it cool down for some time. Its ready to serve.
- The other alternative and quick version of this dish is to microwave it for 2mins, instead of cooking on stove.
Note :
- Red chili powder can be replaced with green chilies.
- Dry coconut is optional.
- It will be good for 15 to 20 days, if stored in an air tight container.
Swaffle
A twist from the regular sabudana kichadi, wada and even from the regular waffle, here is a breakfast recipe to make your mornings more delicious. Sabudana waffle(swaffle) is a crispy and fun to eat dish, even kids will enjoy eating it. It is also good to eat during a fast.
Sabudana waffle can be served with coconut chutney or even with mayonnaise.
Ingredients
- 1 Cup Sabudana
- 1 Potato
- 2 Tbsp Roasted Groundnut powder
- 1 Tsp Roasted Jeera powder
- 1/2 Tsp Sugar
- 1 Tsp Lemon juice/ Amchur powder
- 2-3 Green chilies
- Chopped Coriander
- Salt to taste
Method :
- Soak sabudana for 3 hrs/overnight. (water should be 1/2 inch above sabudana)
- Next morning add grated potato, salt, sugar, roasted groundnut powder, amchur powder/lemon juice, finely chopped green chilies, roasted jeera powder and chopped cilantro to soaked sabudana, make sure there is no water content in sabudana. Mix well.
- Heat a waffle maker, Once its hot enough spray cooking oil on it and fill it up with sabudana mixture. Close the waffle maker lid and let it cook for 6-8mins on high.
- Open the lid and check if its done, if not then cook for 2 more mins.
- Once done transfer it to a serving plate and serve immediately.
