Vermicelli Pulao

Hi friends, am back from after a long vacation. Hope you all had a great Christmas and New Year!!!! Have been tied up this whole week unpacking. Will catch up with all your updates now :-). Haven't got into the mood of cooking proper course so far. I had this recipe posted for my guest post in Nitu's blog. Thought would just have this one posted here for today and I promise I will be back in a day or two with more dishes. This is the regular Vermicelli upma with a slightly different preparation method. My maternal grandmom told me about this method. It came out really well. My mom and dad had to go out for a function one day. My sister and I stayed at home that day and I made this upma for our dinner. My sisters great contribution (cutting veggies :-) ). Thanks to her...

Ingredients :

Vermicelli - 2 cups

Mixed Veggies - 1 Cup cut lengthwise

Onion - 1 Small cut lengthwise.

Salt - to taste

For seasoning :

Oil - 1tbsps

Mustard Seeds - 1 tsp

Cumin Seeds - 1 tsp

Curry leaves - 8

Preparation :

Cook Vermicelli like how we cook pasta. Boil water in a pan, add salt and a tbsp oil. When it starts to boil, add vermicelli and let it cook till it becomes tender. Drain the water and keep vermicelli aside.

In a pan, heat oil , add mustard seeds. When it splutters, add cumin seeds, curry leaves, green chilli . Add onions and fry till it caramelizes. Now add veggies, salt and cook till veggies become tender. Sprinkle water when necessary.

When veggies get cooked, add vermicelli and mix everything well.

Vermicelli pulao is ready. Its slightly different because of its process. The taste actually varies slightly. If you need, you could add bay leaf when you are seasoning. It add more flavor to the dish.

See you soon with more!!!!

Ragi Dosai / Finger Millet Crepe

Getting health conscience these days. Trying to avoid unnecessary carbs. :-) Ragi is one of my ingredients to reduce on my carbs intake. Ragi is very healthy . There are variety of dishes we could try with it. Dosa is another variety. My mom used to make it back in India but I never tried it. I used to have ragi in the form of porridge. But when I made this today, I really liked it so much. With more addition to the simple millet flour, the taste increases.

Ingredients:

Ragi / Finger Millet flour - 1 cup
Rice flour - 1/2 cup
Salt - to taste
Asafoetida - a pinch
Onion- 1/2 finely chopped
Green Chilli - 1 finely chopped
Cilantro - Handful chopped
Ginger - 1 tbsps chopped

Makes about 8 dosas/ crepe

Preparation

Mix all the above said ingredients with sufficient water. Make it into a smooth batter.

Heat the pan and take one laddle batter and make crepes. Let it cook for about 2 mins and then flip it to other side and let it cook for another 2 mins.

When both sides are cooked, serve it with chutney or sambar. I love it spicy, so I did a saute of green chillies in melted butter/ghee.

Tasted great with ghee and chilli.

Enjoy your day!!!

Sending this to Umm Mymoonah's Anyone can cook

Mixed Veggie Vermicelli

Every time I want to send a post to Presto Pasta, I send it in the last minute. I can blame it on my improper planning but luckily I realise it before I make something for dinner. That way I make it for the event. :-) . But today, I learnt a lesson. I missed the event for last week. So this one will go to her next week's event. Its all in the game.. So lets talk about our recipe for the event. Its gonna be mixed veggie vermicelli. This is a very common Indian dish. They cook it for breakfast or for dinner. Its a healthy dish as we can add all veggies in it and by adding the right spices, it gives a great flavor. This is very similar to noodles, but noodles are long. This one is a broken and thinner version of noodles. I like to make my dinners simple and quick. This gives me time to relax and do lot more things. This is one simple recipe that I love from my childhood.

Ingredients:

Vermicelli  - 2 cups (Broken)
Water - 2 cups
Mixed vegetables - 3/4 cup
Onion - 1/2 finely chopped
Tomato - 1 small - finely chopped
Turmeric - 1 pinch
Salt - to taste
Sambar powder / Curry powder - 1 tbsps


For Seasoning:

Oil - 1 tbsps
Mustard - 1 tsps
Cumin- 1 tsps
Curry Leaves - 7-8

Preparation:

In a pan fry the vermicelli untill it turns golden brown and leave it aside.

In the same pan, heat oil add mustard. When it splutters add cumin, green chilli, ginger and fry for few seconds. Now add onion and fry till it turns transparent.

Now add tomato and fry for another 2 mins . Also add turmeric, sambar powder/ curry powder.

If you do not have curry powder or sambar powder, just skip it and add some cumin powder and corriander powder. Even these are optional. You could just make it without any powder in fact.

Now add vegetables and fry for a min. Add little water to cook the veggies.This will take just 5 mins. Once the veggies are cooked 90%, add 2 cups water and bring it to boil.

When water starts boiling along with veggies, add this vermicelli and mix well. Close the pan with a lid and let it cook under medium low stirring once in a while to avoid burning.

Once the vermicelli is cooked remove from heat and let it set for some time.

Garnish with some cilantro and serve warm with chutney or sambar or even sauce would go great with it.

Sending this to Ruth's Presto Pasta Night hosted by Jenifer for this week.

Quinoa Uppitu / Quinoa Upma

Quinoa originated from the Andean region of South America. It remained their important food for 6000 yrs. It has great nutrional values as its protein content is very high. Unlike wheat and rice, quinoa has balanced set of amino acids makign it a complete protien source compared to other plant foods. It is also rich in dietary fiber, phosphorus and iron. (Source: Wikipedia) This new item in my pantry is now our favorite. It has got such rich nutrional values and it tastes really delicious. I get very excited when i see the sprouts when we cook the quinoa. I learnt about this quinoa when we went to my husband's cousin's house. She had made Quinoa uppitu / Quinoa Upma. It tasted so good and I thought I should share this dish with such nutrional content with all of you.

Serves 2:

Ingredients

Quinoa - 1 cup

Mixed Vegetables - 3/4 cup (Chopped)

Onion - 1 Small finely chopped.

Green Chilli - 3 chopped

Water - 2 cups

Red Chilli Powder - 1 tsps

Turmeric Powder - 1/2 tsps

Salt - to taste

For Seasoning:

Oil - 2 Tbsps

Mustard - 2 tsps

Urad Dhal - 2 tsps

Cumin Seeds - 2 tsps

Curry Leaves - 6 to 8 leaves

Preparation:

Wash quinoa untill water runs clearly. This removes the saponins from quinoa which gives a bitter taste to quinoa. I presonally do not mind the bitter taste. In a vessel, add 2 cups water and quinoa and let it cook in medium heat for about 15 - 20 mins. The cooked quinoa will have tiny white sprouts. Keep it aside.

Now in a pan add oil and when its hot add the seasoning. Fry them untill golden brown and green chilli and then onion. Fry till onion becomes transparent. Add the mixed vegetables, turmeric, chilli powder, salt and let the vegetables cook untill tender. sprinkle water when necessary.

When the vegetables gets cooked, add quinoa and mix everything well. Quinoa Uppitu is ready! Its a simple recipe but tastes very good. You can serve with sambar or coconut chutney.

I like to cook quinoa and vegetables seperately and mix them. Alternatively, you can pressure cook quinoa like rice along with vegetables. In a pan add the seasoning  fry this quinoa and veggie mixture for 5 mins untill everything mixes well. I prefer cooking it in seperate container to be sure that I dont add too much water.

We can also germinate quinoa to add it to salads and other cold food. Soak quinoa for about 2-4 hrs in clean water to make it sprout and add it to your dish.

Sending this to Priya of Mhraorajasthan's CWF - Quinoa event started by Kiran

Modern Podi Idly

Idly is the most famous food in Southern part of India. It is our breakfast dish. But to eat Idly often becomes really boring. My aunt and uncle had come to my place for thanks giving and we were thinking of a breakfast. When i told my aunt i had idly batter, she gave me this easy recipe. We all loved it.. Idly is no more a boring dish. We can have it as a snack too. So lets get started...

Dish for 2

Idly already made - 8

Idly Podi ( Molagai Podi) - 2-3 tbsp ( Depends on spice level)

Onion finely chopped - 1

Salt - To taste - Idly will already have some salt. So make sure you add salt to the correct taste.

For Seasoning:

Oil - 1 tbsp

Mustard - 1 tsp

Urad Dhal - 1 tsp

Corriander leaves - 3-5 leaves

Hing - 2 dashes

Jeera - 1 tsp

Cilantro - for topping

Heat oil in a pan and once it is hot enough, add mustard. When it starts to split, add urad dhal, corriander, hing and jeera. Add cut onions and sautee it till onions turn translucent. Cut each idly in 4 equal parts and add it to the pan.Add salt (if required)and mix everything well. Add molagai podi or the idly podi. Mix everything well again and keep in in medium heat for 2 mins untill everything is mixes well. Top it with finely chopped cilantro. Delicious modern podi idly is ready in no time.

Good luck and meet you soon!!