Jackfruit Seeds Masala

My mom used to make it back in India and we loved this dish. I have actually been eating jack fruits here but haven't really tried to make this dish at home with the seeds. I bought jack fruit from a local store in San Diego and I collected the seeds from the fruit. This time I wanted to make this dish with the seeds. I asked my mom for the recipe and I made this dish. It turned out very good. My husband also liked it. It is a mix of spicy and tangy taste. So you can never dislike this dish. I just have very few seeds. I had bought already cut jack fruit and so I had about 15 seeds only. So i managed to make this dish with these seeds. They were also really small seeds. So we were actually fighting for the dish. Had I known that this would happen I would have bought more . It happens you see :-) Next time I am going to buy more of it so that I can collect more seeds and make sufficient quantity so that we don't fight  ;-)

These seeds are good source of protien which I just read here

Ingredients:

Jack fruit Seeds - 15 (I had only 15 :-( )

Shallot - 1 cut lengthwise

Tomato sauce - 2 - tbsp

Salt to taste

Red chilli powder - 1tsp

Turmeric - a pinch

Oil - 1 tbsp

Preparation:

Cook the jack fruit seeds separately. I cooked it along with rice in pressure cooker for 3 whistles and it was perfectly cooked. Remove the skin from the seeds and cut it lengthwise into half or 4 pieces depending on the size. 

Heat oil in a pan. Add onions. Saute till it caramelizes. Then add turmeric, red chilli powder and the seeds. Saute it till the spices blend well with the seeds. Add salt and mix well. 

Fry for about 3-4 mins and add tomato sauce and mix well for another 2 mins. 

When the seeds are well mixed with the spices and sauce, remove and serve with rice or roti. 

Sending this to Shoba's Cook it Healthy - Proteinicious and to Taste of Pearl City's Anyone Can Cook Series - 24

Take care and catch you soon. 

Coconut Rice

Hi Friends! Its been a while since I posted something. I hope you are all doing good. I am becoming lazy these days and that's the only reason I can think of  for not taking care of my blog. My laziness has affected my cooking too. I haven't been making anything great at home these days but for regular sambar and some curry. Today, when I took pictures of this coconut rice, I realized that I am so lazy and I better do something about it. My sweet husband's line " Take it easy today. Make something simple", made me take advantage and not really make interesting dishes. My poor husband has been so patient and quite. But I better wake up and do something before his sweet lines changes ..... :-) I have seen this coconut rice in many blogs and have commented saying it reminded me of my school days when my mom used to pack this for lunch. I was not a great fan of it those days but after coming to US, I started to appreciate my mom's efforts to cook three meals everyday if not 4 which includes a great evening snack. 

Ingredients:

Grated Coconut - 3/4 cup

Rice - 1 cup

Oil - 1 tbsp

Mustard - 1 tsp

Urad Dhal - 1 tsp

Channa Dhal - 1 tsp

Curry Leaves- 6-8

Green Chilli - 3 chopped

Asafoetida - a pinch

Salt - to taste

Preparation:

Cook rice separately and let it cool. 

In a pan, heat oil and when hot, add mustard seeds. When it splutters, add urad and channa dhal. When it turns golden, add asafoetida, curry leaves, green chilli and fry for a min. 

Add grated coconut and fry for about 2 mins until coconut separates and turns slightly golden. Do not over fry it as it. You can add salt to this mixture. Turn off heat when you feel the color slightly changes.

Mix the coconut mixture with rice. Serve with any vegetable dish or just chips. I served with sauteed cauliflower. 


You can also fry cashews in a tbsp of ghee and add it to the rice. It adds taste and richness to the dish. I was in a hurry and I really couldn't add it. 

See you soon!!!

Iyengar Bakery Khara Biscuits/ Savory Shortbread Cookie

This month we are supposed to amke this khara Biscuit for our ICC. As soon as I received this recipe, I was so excited. I love spicy cookie and I haven't tasted this ever. Also the pics looked so tempting and so delicious. Immediately I tried this cookie and it tasted very good. We loved it. Let me get into the ingredients and the preparation without wasting time. 

Ingredients:

All Purpose Flour - 2 cups

Butter 1/3 Cup softened

Sugar - 4 Tsp

Salt- 1 tsp

Green chilli - 3 chopped

Cilantro - 3 tbsp chopped

Yogurt - 3 tbsp

Preparation:

Pre heat oven to 350 degree Fahrenheit. In a cookie sheet spread aluminium foil and grease it with oil.

Mix flour and salt and set aside. Now beat butter and sugar until creamy and then add 2 tbsp yogurt and continue to beat. 

Add the flour mix and bend it to a crumbly dough. Add cilantro and chilli and mix well. Add 1 tbsp of yogurt if you feel the dough is too thick. I added and worked it with my hands. 

Roll the dough into 1/4" thickness and cut into cookie shapes. 

Place them in a cookie sheet and bake it for 20 - 25 mins. Mine took close to 25 mins. Rotate the cookies halfway. When you see them light brown, take it out, let it cool and enjoy. 

It tasted great even warm. 

Rajma Chawal

This is another dish that I learnt from my mom. Its really simple dish to make. My mom made this dish often if she dint feel like cooking anything elaborate. But to us it would be a great dish. Even now, she asks me to make this often as it does't take much time yet a very healthy dish. Its filling also. The first time my mom made this dish, we were all so excited. I am from South India and we are used to the southern Indian style food. These dishes used to be a treat for us when mom made it. We enjoyed our meal that day and it became our favorite dish. It was my mom's favorite too ( less work  you see ;-) ) 

Ingredients:

Red Kidney beans - 1 cup soaked overnight

Onion - 1 finely chopped

Tomato - 2 pureed

Ginger garlic paste - 3/4 tbsp

Oil - 2 tbsp

Cilantro - to garnish

Salt - to taste

Rajma Masala - 1 tbsp ( I dint have it so I used little bit of garam masala, channa masala)

Procedure:

Cook the kidney beans and set aside. 

In a pan heat oil and cumin seeds. When it starts to splutter add ginger garlic paste and fry for a min. 

Then add onion and fry till it becomes translucent. Add tomato puree, masala powder salt and let it cook in medium heat untill the tomato puree cooks well. 

Add water to get to desired consistency. When the raw smell fades, add cooked kidney beans and let it cook for another ten min so that they get soaked well in the gravy. 

Garnish with cilantro and serve hot with Jeera rice, Basmati Rice or just plain white rice. 

Veggie Paratha

Hi Friends! Its been a while since I wrote something here. Once you are out of touch, its really hard to get back to our regular routine. I would say I was also lazy to get back to my blog after a break. Anyways, getting back to work - veggie paratha! Last night I was wondering what to make for dinner, as usual. I had paneer at home. My husband is not a great fan of paneer but I like it. So i usually add it in disguised forms. Dual benefit right! ;-) Its been a while since I made parathas. So immediately thought of making parathas with some veggies in it. Its simple. You can mix any vegetable according to your requirement. I am sure many of us would have already tried it, but thought will post my version of it ;-) 

Ingredients:

For filling:

Carrot - 2 Grated

Radish - 4 ( Small red radish) grated

Onion - 1 medium chopped fine

Paneer - 3/4 cup grated

Garam Masala - 1 tsp

Salt - to taste

Oil - 1 tbsp

For Chapathi/roti :

Wheat flour - 2 cups

Salt - to taste 

Warm water - to knead the dough

Oil - 1 tbsp

Procedure:

First, knead the flour with salt oil and water into a soft dough and keep aside. Let it rest untill we make the filling. 

In a pan heat oil and add ginger and garlic. Fry till smell fades and then add onion. Fry till translucent. 

Add grated veggies and let it cook in medium heat for about 5 min untill it becomes tender. Do not add water as they will cook in the water that radish leaves. Add salt and garam masala

Add paneer and let it mix well with the veggies. When the filling is cooked keep aside. 

Now divide the dough into 9 parts . Also divide the filling into 9 parts. I could make 9 parathas out of 2 cups of flour. 

Now take one portion of the dough and make it into a poori with 2 inches diameter. Keep the filling inside and fold it. Leave it in a plate for about 5 mins till you are done with other dough. 

Now when you are done filling, take one at a time and roll it gently to make chapathis. 

Heat a flat pan and place chapathis on it. cook it on one side untill you see small bubbles popping up. Now toss it to the other side and let it cook. Repeat the process untill the chapathi is cooked evenly on both sides. You may also add little oil or ghee to make it softer. 

Serve it with pickle or yogurt. Delicious parathas are ready in minutes.