Friday 28 September 2012

Bread Fritters / Bread Pakoda

Hello friends,
Bread is one of the common item in breakfast. It is also used in some desserts like Dabal ka Meetha (a hyderabadi dessert). Bread can also be used as a snack item. This bread fritters that I am making today is one of the easiest snack that can be made anytime in a jiffy. It can come to your rescue when you have to prepare something urgently for guests. This snack recipe has very little hot as the sweetness of bread would subside the hotness and hence kids may love it too.


Ingredients

Bread slices – 2
Besan(Gram flour) – 1cup
Red chilly powder – 1/2 tspn
Pinch of cooking soda
Salt to taste
Oil for deep frying
Water

Procedure
  1. Cut bread diagonally into 2 pieces.
  2. Add water to the besan and make a batter of thick consistency.
  3. Add chilly powder, salt and baking soda to the batter.
  4. Heat the oil in a pan.
  5. Dip each piece of bread into the batter and fry one by one till they turn golden brown.
Serve hot with tomato ketchup.

Please write in a comment if you like this recipe

Thursday 27 September 2012

Pepper-Potato Macaroni Pasta

Hello friends,
Italian recipes are considered as one of the healthiest recipes and when the word Italian recipe is used, what one would quickly get in their mind is Pasta. There are many varieties of Pasta available, for example, Penne, Sphagetti, Macaroni, Vermicelli, Lasagne, Farfalle, etc.

I am going to make Macaroni pasta today. I have used Macaroni elbows which are commonly available in local super markets. Many varieties of elbow macaronis can be made. I am making elbow macaroni pasta with pepper and potatoes.

Ingredients:
Macaroni – 1 Cup
Potato (diced) – 1
Onion (sliced) –1
Freshly ground pepper (or ready-made pepper powder) – 1 tspn
Green Chillies (sliced) – 2
Cabbage (shredded) – ½ cup
Soy Sauce – ½ tspn
Vinegar – ½ tspn
Water – 4 cups
Red Chilli powder – ½ tspn
Edible Olive Oil (use any Edible Vegetable Oil if Olive Oil is not available) – 2 ½ tblspn
Salt as per taste

Procedure
  1. Add macaroni, ½ tspn salt to boiling water and cook for 7-10 minutes till macaroni becomes soft (ensure that they are not overcooked, else they would get sticky)
  2. Add ½ tblspn of oil before taking the macaroni off from the heat. Drain excess water and keep aside
  3. Take 2 tblspn of oil in a pan and add sliced green chillies, onion and toss for ½ min
  4. Add potatoes and keep tossing until the potatoes obtain a light golden brown colour (they get semi-crispy)
  5. Add cabbage, red chilli powder and toss for 30 seconds.
  6. Add soy sauce and vinegar and toss again.
  7. Finally, add macaroni, pepper and salt into the pan and mix well
    Garnish with shredded cabbage and serve hot..!!
The recipe tastes best with tomato ketchup

Please do write in a comment if you like this recipe.
 



Simplified Veg Biryani

Hello Friends,
Making biryani is a tedious task. But if you are interested in Veg Biryani, then I have this simplified version of the original Veg Biryani which is relatively easy to make. So, here it is:


Ingredients:
Basmati Rice (uncooked) – 1 Cup
Chopped Carrots, Capsicum, and French Beans – 1 Cup
Medium size Potato (cut into Cubes) – 1
Medium size Onion (Sliced) – 1
Green Chilli (sliced) – 1
Cloves – 3
Cardamom (crushed) – 1
Cinnamon stick – 1
Dried Bay leaf (Bagara leaf) – 1
Oil – 2 tblspn
Ghee – 1 tblspn
Garam Masala (powdered) – ¼ tspn
Tomato (chopped) – 1
Red Chilli Powder – ½ tspn
Water – 1 ½ Cup
Ginger-Garlic paste – ½ tspn
Salt as per taste
Fresh Mint leaves – Handful
Fresh Coriander – For Garnishing

Procedure:
  1. Heat oil and ghee in a vessel or pressure cooker
  2. Add cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, bay leaf and toss for few seconds
  3. Add onion and mint leaves. Toss for a minute and add ginger-garlic paste. Cook for 30 seconds
  4. Add all the vegetables and green chilli and cook for 2 minutes
  5. Add red chilli powder, salt and garam masala.
  6. Add rice and water and let it cook as you cook ordinary rice. Ensure that the rice grains do not break or get overcooked.
  7. If cooked in pressure cooker, then cook until 2 whistles and wait for 10 minutes before opening the cooker lid.
  8. Garnish with finely chopped coriander
Serve hot for best taste….!!

Please comment on the recipe if you like it.

Tuesday 25 September 2012

Easy Egg Fried Rice

Hello Friends,
I am sorry, for I could not write for 3 days.
After this very very short hiatus, I am back with a recipe which is very simple and easy to make, even by the bachelors. Egg fried rice is easy and quick to make and yummy to eat.




Ingredients:
Cooked Rice -- 1 cup
Eggs -- 2
Finely chopped Cabbage, Carrots and Beans. Capsicum (optional). All together -- ½ cup.
Finely chopped Spring Onion -- ¼ cup
Chopped Green Chilli -- 1
Dark Soy Sauce -- ½ tspn
Chilly Sauce -- ½ tspn
Freshly ground Pepper -- ½ tspn (Ready-made Pepper powder would also do)
Oil -- 3 tblspn
Salt as per taste

Procedure:
  1. Add ¼ tspn pepper, ¼ tspn salt and eggs and whisk everything together.
  2. Heat 1 tblspn of oil in a pan and add the beaten eggs to it. Toss for a minute and keep aside.
  3. Take another pan. Heat 2 tblspn of oil and add the chopped vegetables, chopped spring onion and chopped chillies. Toss for 2-3 minutes. See that vegetables are not overcooked (they should be semi-cooked)
  4. Add soy sauce, chilli sauce, pepper and salt.
  5. Toss for few seconds.
  6. Finally, add rice and fried eggs to the above vegetables and mix everything together well.
Serve hot…..!!

Please comment on the recipe if you like it.

Saturday 22 September 2012

Veg Manchurian Wet

Hello Friends,
Chinese cuisine, especially noodles, fried rice and manchurian have a very good place in the Indian food scene. Not only India is flourished with Chinese restaurants, but is also packed with many road-side 'chinees' stalls. 
I am turning to Chinese cuisine today and making wet veg manchurian at home. Manchurian can be a starter course or can be had in combination with fried rice.
Wet Veg Manchurian

Ingredients:
Chopped Carrots, Cabbage and Capsicum: All together in 1 cup
Ginger-Garlic paste -- ½ tspn
Green Chillies -- 1
Green Chillies paste -- 1 tspn
Finley chopped Garlic -- 2
Pepper powder -- 1tspn
Oil for deep frying
Salt as per taste
Sugar -- ½ tspn
Soy Sauce -- ½ tspn
Vinegar -- ½ tspn
Red Chilli powder -- ½ tspn
Corn Flour -- 2 ½ tblspn
Maida Flour -- 1 tblspn
Water -- 2 cups

Procedure :
  1. Add 2 tblspn corn flour, maida, ginger-garlic paste, green chillies paste, salt, ½ tspn pepper powder to chopped vegetables.
    Add some water and mix them well and make small balls out of it.
  2. Heat oil in a pan and add these Manchurian balls. Cook on medium flame until they become golden brown.
  3. Take another pan and heat 1 tblspn of oil.
  4. Add chopped chillies, chopped garlic to oil and cook for few seconds.
  5. Add vinegar, soy sauce, salt and sugar.
  6. Mix ½ tblspn of corn flour in ½ cup of water and add to the above mixture. Immediately add another 1 ½ cups of water and cook for 3 to 5 minutes while stirring continuously.
  7. Add Manchurian balls to the above gravy and Switch off the stove.
  8. Garnish with finely chopped coriander or spring onion or both.
Serve hot……!!!

Please comment on the recipe if you like it.

Friday 21 September 2012

Thummi Kura Chutney

Hello All,
The festive season is still on and I am going to show you one more special dish made only on Vinayaka Chaturthi and not eaten on any other time during the entire year, as far as I know, unless medicinally prescribed. It is Thummi kura or Thummi leaves chutney. Thummi is a telugu word and it is known as Leucas aspera in scientific terms. 

Thummi stem
Thummi leaves
                 
It is a commonly grown weed in India and has medicinal value. It is said to have anti-fungal and anti-microbial properties. For more information on this weed, you can visit Wikipedia.


Thummi Chutney

Thummi Chutney


Ingredients:
Thummi leaves -- 3 cups*
Green Chillies -- 10 (Make a paste)
Raw Tamarind Paste -- ¾ cup
Onion/Shallot -- 1 (finely chopped)
Cooking oil -- 2 tblspn
Turmeric powder -- ½ tblspn
Salt as per taste

Procedure:
  1. Pour oil into pan and add finely chopped Onions/Shallots to it. Fry them till they attain golden brown colour.
  2. Add Thummi leaves and close the lid of the pan.
  3. Cook on medium flame for 5 to 7 minutes (till the leaves become very soft). Stir occasionally.
  4. Add Turmeric powder, Green Chillies paste, Raw Tamarind paste and Salt and toss well.
  5. Keep cooking until the above mixture takes the form of a chutney. It should take about 3 minutes to get into the shape of this chutney.
That’s it….!! Tangy Thummi chutney is ready to be served.

Note: Eat with white/plain rice for best taste.

* You can buy 5 bunches of Thummi stems in the market. Pluck all the leaves from each stem and see if it gets you 3 cups of leaves. I suggest you to buy in extra bunches to cover up any deficit.

Please leave a comment if you like the recipe.

Thursday 20 September 2012

Undrala Payasam

Hello All,
It's Vinayaka Chaturthi today, and the festival continues for 11 days. Lord Ganesha is the God of wisdom according to the Hindu mythology. That's all.........I don't want to say more about how to make Ganesha puja and all as there might be expert blogs on this. 
Lord Ganesha at my home
I am just going to tell you how to make an Vinayaka Chaturthi's special dish that is especially made in Andhra Pradesh. It is a sweet dish and is diversified depending upon the geographical locations. Within Andhra Pradesh, it is prepared in several ways. What I have made here is one of the common versions of it, which I learnt from my mom.
Ingredients:

Wheat flour 1 cup
Jaggery (brown sugar) ¾ cup
Water 5 cups
dry fruits mix ¼ cup
Ghee 2 tblsp
Cardamom (elaichi) 3
Undrala Payasam

Procedure:

Take ¾ cup of flour and mix it into dough as we do it for chapattis/rotis
You can make all tiny shapes that you like. Here I made tiny balls and tapered threads as they are easy to be made.
Put the shapes in the remaining ¼ cup of flour (dry flour). It is done so that the shapes do not stick to each other.
Boil 5 cups of water in a vessel.
Add the dough shapes to the boiling water. Let it cook for 10 minutes
Crush the block of jaggery into small pieces and add it to the above mixture.
Let it cook for another 2 minutes, while you keep stirring it occasionally.
Make a paste of the dry flour (which was left over after the shapes were added to water), and add it to the mixture. This will enable the mixture to thicken slightly and would avoid lump formations.
Cook for another 2 minutes.
Add crushed cardamoms to the mixture and switch off the stove.
Add dry fruits mix (which was toasted in Ghee) to the mixture and also the remaining ghee.
Yummy payasam is ready. Serve hot for best taste J

Cautions:
Make sure that the recipe is little soupy and not overcooked as it thickens automatically upon cooling.

Wednesday 19 September 2012

Welcome

Hi and welcome to Appy's kitchen.
This is the place where you find all the recipes of a varitey of dishes that I tried out at home and resulted in a delicious appetite.
See 'About me' for more details on this.