Archives for April 2015

Strawberry Lassi

April 27, 2015 by Suki Leave a Comment

It only takes 4 ingredients to make this delicious and refreshing drink. A healthy alternative to a strawberry milkshake!

Lassi is a sweet, yogurt based Indian drink that is easy to make and is outright delicious. With weather warming up , here is one of my absolute favourite summer drink with a twist. I am sure it is a healthier substitute to strawberry milkshake.Sweetness of strawberry and coolness of yogurt makes this dish heavenly. Simple blend of few ingredients and you are done with the dessert for the day.Mangi Lassi is a refreshing, cold beverage originating from India.And i made a twist to that an made this. Actually Lassi is a yogurt-based drink blended with a bit of sugar and ice, which is great to have in summers. I would say a lassi is more of a healthier, lighter version of a milkshake.

I dipped my strawberries in honey and decorated in the glass so it was more tastier!

Strawberry Lassi

Author: Suganya

Recipe type: Dessert

Cuisine: Indian

Prep time: 5 mins

Cook time: 10 mins

Total time: 15 mins

Serves: 8 cups

Ingredients

• Freshly Chopped strawberry pieces – 2 cups
• Yogurt – 1 ½ cups
• Sour cream – 3 tbsp (optional if the yogurt is not sour)
• Cream – 1 tbsp
• Cardamom powder – ½ tsp
• Sugar – 5 tbsp or honey.
• Few mint leaves – for garnish

Instructions

chop the strawberriues end.
In a blender or mixer, puree the strawberries with sugar or honey, IF you are using the pulp, skip this step.
Now blend the chilled yogurt, cream, sour cream, the cardamom powder,strawberries. blend for some seconds till everything is mixed well and the yogurt is smooth and creamy.
Pour lassi in glasses and serve garnished with mint leaves or strwaberries,

Notes

1. If you want a slightly thin consistency, then add some milk to the lassi while blending. or you can even use ice cubes while blending.
2. Instead of sugar, you can use jaggery or honey.

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Carrot Ginger Raita

April 23, 2015 by Suki 6 Comments

This is a unique combo and that Sauteed ginger in yogurt gives great flavor. It has cooling and soothing taste and it is perfect side dish for any biryani recipes like vegetable biryani or lamb biryani. And the ginger us perfect for health.There are countless varieties of raita – Onion raita,cucumber raita,tomato raita, carrot raita, fried onion raita, mint raita, spinach raita and pomegranate raita and so on. Raitas are always a good way to include yogurt in your everyday meal. I like to even have plain yogurt but for many i understand it is really hard. So this is the best way. I know many might think the ginger flavor is overpowering but it is not and lends a fresh aroma to the raita. I always make raita, chill and serve.

I have never tried this combo of carrot and ginger. But when i tried this, i was in pure love.

Other raita recipes if you would like to have a look 🙂 – Garlic raita or cucumber carrot raita.

Vegan Note: You can use soy yogurt instead.

Carrot Ginger Raita

Author: Suganya Hariharan

Recipe type: Main

Cuisine: Indian

Prep time: 5 mins

Cook time: 5 mins

Total time: 10 mins

Serves: 1.5 cups

Ingredients

Oil – 2 tsp
Carrot – 1 cup, grated finely
Ground cumin – ½ tsp
Salt – 1 tsp
Ginger - 2 inch, minced finely
Red chilli flakes – ¼ tsp, garnish
Fresh cilantro – 1 tbsp, finely Chopped
Yogurt - 1.5 cups

Instructions

Take a small pan; add the oil and ginger and roast till golden.
, In the same pan, add the grated carrot and minced garlic and salt and sauté well. And keep aside.
Combine the yogurt with the sauted carrot ginger and cumin powder. Mix well.
Garnish with red chilli flakes and coriander leaves.

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Raitas are best to have plain or with pulao,veg biryani or shrimp biryani or with parotta or paratha.

Biryani Collection

April 20, 2015 by Suki 15 Comments

Biryani is one of the most popular dishes in India. Biryani is one of the foods for sure that gives that comfort feeling. It is surely a festive dish and this is perfect to cook when you have guests over or make it for dinner parties. There are varieties of biryani are prepared like Hyderabadi biryani, Mughal biryani, chettinadu biryani, Kashmiri biryani. It is a perfect Sunday lunch idea. There will be no one saying No to biryanis, let it be vegetable biryani, chicken biryani, shrimp biryani, palak biryani ,chickpea briyani, potato biryani,paneer biryani, duma loo biryani, cashew biryani,lamb biryani, egg biryani, mushroom biryani and so on!

I have already 6 Biryani recipes , you would have known by now that I love cooking Biryani. The best thing about biryani is that it tastes great even the next day and the day after. It will save you from cooking for next three days and it will never be like you taste leftover food! Awesome right? Biryani has become one of my all time Sunday recipes.

Biryani is not strenuous at all to prepare like many believe. It’s just little time consuming and it need that little extra special care when we do it. Try to use all the ingredients listed, each ingredient has a special role in the biryani and compliments one with another.

1. Mushroom Biryani

A plate full of hot, fragrant rice and mushroom cooked with crispy onions and spiced yoghurt sauce.

1. Restaurant style vegetable biryani

This delicious layered biryani is fragrant, flavorful, and filling. Carrot, beans, peas and potatoes cooked in gravy of spicy yogurt and served with basmati rice topped with cashews and fried onions.

1. Paneer Biryani

This is a treat for the vegetarians. Aromatic and flavorful one pot meal!

1. Egg Biryani

Got some rice and eggs? Turn them into famous scrumptious one pot meal – Egg Biryani.

1. Restaurant style Lamb Biryani

Rich and delicious biryani made with lamb. You are going to love this rice flavorful rice. This is an exotic Indian lamb biryani in a restaurant style.

Shrimp Biryani

Shrimp biryani is extraordinary for seafood lovers and biryani lovers. Shrimp in biryani induce nice flavors to rice.

7. Ambur Mutton Biryani

If you haven’t tasted this Biryani, what are you waiting for? Do give it a try, you are going to love this rich flavorful rice.
Aromatic, fragrant and tasty !

8. Chicken Biryani restaurant Style:

Rich and flavourful biryani made with Chicken!! Recipe is here.

9. Cauliflower Biryani/ Gobi Biryani

Famous Indian One pot meal cooked with spices coated cauliflower. Rich and flavorful 🙂 It is surely a festive dish and this is perfect to cook when you have guests over or make it for dinner parties. Recipe is here.

10. Chicken Biryani Homestyle

Spices massaged to the Chicken, marinated overnight, layered with rice, fried onions and cooked slowly to perfection for the chicken juices to go in the rice! Recipe is here.

11. Hyderabadi Lamb Biryani

A classic Indian dish prepared using spiced Marinated lamb, layered by basmati rice, fried onions, mint & cilantro leaves. Recipe is here.

Best sides for Biryani:

Tomato Garlic Raita

2. Carrot Ginger Raita

3. Cucumber Carrot Raita

4. Mirch ka salan

5. Shimla Mirch ka salan

6. Gobi/Cauliflower fry

7 .Chicken 65

8. Mutton Sukka

9. Coconut Butter Chicken Roast

10. Spicy Chicken Roast:

Spicy Baked Cauliflower Bites

April 16, 2015 by Suki 2 Comments

Baked, Crispy, spicy and super easy to make!

I made this as a side dish for spinach curry ( keerai moolagootal in tamil). It was yummy. I always like to have something crispy when I make spinach. So I thought of making Cauliflower gobi 65. But did not want to fry for two reasons that I wanted to have healthy food and second is I did not have oil at home. I was so lazy to buy them so stayed home and made these cauliflower bites. It was just so crispy and perfect that I was wondering why I did not make these for so long.

It is a perfect snack and perfect side dish for rice and curry!

You can replace this cauliflower with any vegetable for this paste. Try aloo( potato), broccoli, mushroom, babycorn. Everything will be extraordinary. Even simple onion would be great when marinated in this paste and fried.

It is kid friendly as its not spicy. You can spice up the recipe more/less by adding/reducing chilli powder.

If you are looking for other cauliflower/gobi recipes: aloo gobi( potato peas masala), cauliflower mint fry and roasted chickpeas cauliflower taco.

Spicy Baked Cauliflower Bites

Author: Suganya Hariharan

Recipe type: Appetizer

Prep time: 15 mins

Cook time: 35 mins

Total time: 50 mins

Serves: 50 mins

Ingredients

• Cauliflower - 1 medium
• Black pepper powder – 1 tsp
• Fennel powder – ½ tsp
• Red chilli powder – 2 tsp
• Oilve oil – 3 tbsp
• Salt – as needed
• Garnish- curry leaves/ onion/ lemon/ green chilli[tp grind]
Garlic - 5 pods
Corainder seeds - 1 tsp
ginger - 1 inch, chopped

Instructions

Wash and separate the cauliflower florets from cauliflower. Cut them bite size pieces. You don’t want it to be big chunks, as it’s hard to boil as we are just baking and not boiling. blanch the cauliflower for 5 minutes in hot water.
Crush the garlic,garlic and coriander seeds.
[ img src="https://www.relishthebite.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Roasted_Cauliflower-2.jpg"]
Take a broad vessel; add the cauliflower, crushed paste,chilli powder, pepper powder, fennel powder, salt and little oil. Mix them well. Set aside for 10 minutes.Coriander powder also.
bake in the oven for 35-40 minutes for 180 degree Celsius and spray the rest of the oil. Bake the cauliflower batch by batch.
You can bake them till they look crispy outside. you can rotate the sheet once every 15 minutes.
Finally garnish with lemon, onion slice, curry leaves and serve.

Notes

1. You can increase/ decrease spice powder according to your spice level.
2. If you want it crispier, add some rice flour.

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Perfect snack or side dish for rasam or dal and rice.

Roasted Bell Pepper Gravy / Shimla Mirch ka salan:

April 11, 2015 by Suki 4 Comments

Bell Peppers in spicy peanut sesame gravy.

Salan means gravy here and shimla mirch is bell pepper/capsicum. It taste great with simple jeera rice, peas pulao or even plain rice. It is perfect with Indian breads like roti,chana dal paratha, parotta and so on. I made this with parotta and it was scrumptious. Usually salan is something that goes well with biryani. I usually make the mirchi ka salan for biryani but this time I wanted to try something else and did this. I adapted the idea from Vahchef and then made my twist and turns. You can replace the bell pepper with any vegetable you fancy. This goes great with Biryani recipes. Its light spiced, creamy and tangy! I used different coloured ones to make it more attractive 🙂 You can use the same color. Looks Colorful 😀 right?!

Vegan Note: replace yogurt with coconut milk! 🙂

Roasted Bell Pepper Gravy / Shimla Mirch ka salan:

Author: Suganya Hariharan

Recipe type: Main

Cuisine: Indian

Prep time: 5 mins

Cook time: 40 mins

Total time: 45 mins

Serves: 45 mins

Ingredients

• To roast & grind:
• Peanuts –2 tbsp
• Sesame seeds – 1 tbsp
• Coconut – 1 tbsp

For gravy:
• Oil – 1 tbsp
• Red chillies – 2 broken roughly
• Cumin seeds – 1 tsp
• Mustard seeds – 1 tsp
• Fenugreek – 1 tsp
• Curry leaves – 6-8 leaves
• Hing - a pinch
• Onions – 1 large, sliced, 1 cup
• Salt – as needed
• Turmeric – 1 tsp
• Ginger garlic paste – ½ tbsp
• Red chilli powder – 1 tsp
• Coriander powder – 1 tbsp
• Cumin powder – 1 tsp
• Mint – 1 tbsp, chopped finely
• Coriander – 1 tbsp, chopped finely
• Yogurt – ½ cup beaten
• Bell pepper – 3 medium,Diced ( I used different coloured ones)

Instructions

Heat a tbsp of oil in a pan, when the Bell pepper/ Capsicum are dry, then add them to oil and fry till they look little lighter shade in low to medium flame.
Dry roasts the peanuts in a medium flame. When the peanuts are roasted, add the sesame seeds. When the sesame seeds are golden brown, Add coconut. Keep an eye on this. It gets brunt easily. Add this mixture to the blender and blend it with some water to a fine paste.
, Now add the oil in the pan and when the oil is hot, add the whole red chillies, and then add mustard seeds. And when the mustard seeds crackle, add fenugreek seeds and cumin seeds.
Now add the curry leaves, onions, hing and little salt. Cook the onions till they are golden brown, Add turmeric and ginger garlic paste and cook to remove the raw smell.
Add the blended mixture, cumin powder, red chilli powder and coriander powder to the mixture. Fry for two minute and add some water to it. Cook for fifteen minutes. Stir in between till the oil oozes out nicely. Add the chopped mint and coriander leaves. Boil for two minutes.
add the beaten yogurt and simmer for another ten minutes. When it oozes out oil again add the roasted capsicum and jaggery to the gravy and let it cook for 5 mins so that the juices of the gravy het absorbed by the chilies.

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Vegan Note: replace yogurt with coconut milk! 🙂

Taste great with Vegetable Biryani or Shrimp Biryani, peas pulao, parotta, chana dal paratha or simple jeera rice.

30 Minute Spicy Brinjal/Eggplant Fry

April 5, 2015 by Suki 4 Comments

Extremely easy vegan eggplant recipe!

It is perfect for rice or roti. I love this recipe because you don’t have to chop anything much other than eggplant. And it is very quick to make this. I made this on a weekend where I wanted to make something quick. Usually on weekends I would have all patience to cook big lunch, but that weekend I wanted to make something quick and tasty for my spinach dal. I tried this and it turned out so roasted and beautiful. Anybody would love to make quick lunch or dinner, if they are given an option. So, these days I am trying to make a lot of quick recipes. This recipe is good only for the smell tender eggplants. You can surely use the big eggplant, but I am not sure how it will turn out. This recipe taste good for the small eggplants because of the cutting style and the roasting style.

Brinjal is one of the low calorie vegtable when it comes with antioxidants, magnesium but it takes a lot of oil. So add as much of oil you want and do not add more, so make it with the same amount of oil and roast it. I never used to eat the brinjal when I was a kid, now I just love them. I have few more eggplant recipes if you would like to have a look – Masala Stuffed Baby Eggplants/Ennai Kathirikkai,Roasted eggplant mozzarella pasta and Honey garlic EGgplant.

This roast is perfect for rice and tomato rasam/Buttermilk rasam/dal/sambar !

30 Minute Spicy Brinjal/Eggplant Fry

Author: Suganya Hariharan

Recipe type: Main

Cuisine: Indian

Cook time: 25 mins

Total time: 25 mins

Serves: 10 small

Ingredients

• Small Eggplant/ Kathirikkai – 12
• Mustard seeds – ¼ tsp
• Urad dal /black gram – 2 tsp
• Curry leaves – 1 sprig
• Turmeric powder – ½ tsp
• Salt – 1 tbsp
• Oil – 2 tbsp
•

[To grind:]
• Red chilly – 3
• Cumin seeds – 1 tsp
• Garlic – 4
• Fennel seeds – 2 tsp
• Chilli powder – 2 tsp
• Sambar powder – 1 tsp

Instructions

Blend the ingredients under “to grind” smoothly.
Remove the ends of the eggplant and cut into half lengthwise. Put a slit in the middle of the eggplant and soak them in water till you cook. Slitting helps in masalas to get in.
Heat a wide pan with oil and add mustard seeds. When it crackle, add the urad dal and when it gets lightly golden brown, add the curry leaves.
Now add the eggplants to it. Add the ground paste,turmeric powder,salt and add 2 tbsp of water. Mix it well and cover it for 7-8 minutes.
After 7-8 minutes, open the pan, the water would have evaporated and now turn the brinjal the other side and cook it uncovered in medium heat till both sides get evenly roasted.
Switch it off and serve with some hot rice and dal.

Notes

1. Use a wide pan as it helps to turn the eggplants.
2. Reduce the amount of spicyness if you want by avoiding the chilli/sambar powder.

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Taste great with rice and tomato rasam/Buttermilk rasam/dal/sambar !

Carrot Coconut Truffles/ Ladoo recipe

April 2, 2015 by Suki 18 Comments

Easter weekend special!!!

These gorgeous ladoos can be made in 30 minutes! Perfect thing ever for an After Dinner Bite-Sized sweet!

If you have some guest or family coming over or a get together or for any pot luck, this is the best recipe to make. You can never go wrong with this recipe. I prepared this and even brought it to work and my colleagues loved it. I got all great reviews :D! These scrumptious coconut fudges needs only few ingredients and takes only 30 minutes. A perfect dish to make at the last minute and also everyone will love it. Or if you’re planning for a big heavy dinner, this is perfect to make as it just melts in your mouth. I just developed this recipe from my coconut ladoo recipe. But I was very sure that it is going to taste great. I know anything with coconut and condensed milk taste great. It is a great way to feed the kids with veggies. It looks gorgeous! Right? 🙂

Before few months, I had that craving for something sweet after dinner. So I would say this is the most perfect thing ever for an After Dinner Bite-Sized Something Sweet! If it is something big, wouldn’t resist myself for eating :)You can change the nuts you want to add or even make this with no nuts. These are so easy to prepare that even little kids can prepare them. It is just perfect for any occasion. Even carrot hatred people would love this 🙂 It is that good! I am saying this because one of my colleague is not fond of carrots and she said she still loves it 😀 😀 😀 Happy me!

You can prepare the way you prepare carrot Gajar halwa and just add coconut to it and make ladoos. You can use the leftovers of gajar halwa and prepare this. 😉 I am sure there wont be any leftovers of gajar halwa. Gajar halwa is a famous Indian dessert made with carrot, milk, ghee and nuts.I have some recipes made with condensed milk and you should check it. They are all quick recipes – Sweetened condensed milk toast with orange zest, coconut fudge, and coconut ladoo.

I have a lot of vegan friends, so making a note of how to make sweetened condensed milk using coconut milk. You can buy the coconut milk in the milk section as a carton and use it:

Vegan sweetened condensed milk:

In a heavy-bottomed small pot, whisk together the1 can of coconut milk and 2 tbsp of brown sugar. Bring this to a boil over medium heat for about 20 minutes until mixture had reduced by half. Cook it uncovered. Stir in. Stir in ½ tsp of vanilla and salt. Keep stirring for every 5 minutes.

5.0 from 1 reviews

Carrot Coconut Truffles/ Ladoo recipe

Author: Suganya Hariharan

Recipe type: Dessert

Cuisine: Indian

Prep time: 5 mins

Cook time: 20 mins

Total time: 25 mins

Serves: 12 ladoos

Ingredients

• Carrots – 4 medium, about 1.5 cups when grated.
• Cardamom powder – 1 ½ tsp (optional)
• Unsalted butter/ ghee – 1 tbsp ( use oil if vegan)
• Sweetened condensed milk – 1 cup
• Almonds – 7, sliced
• Rose water – 1 tsp (optional)
• 1 cup of desiccated coconut – 1 cup (keep ¼ of coconut aside for rolling)

Instructions

Wash, peel and grate carrots.
In a wide pan, melt 1 tbsp of butter/ghee/oil and toast the almonds till it turns golden. Drain and keep it aside.
To the same pan, add grated carrots and sauté on medium heat for 5 minutes until carrots are little soft and it will ooze out some water and get dried.
At that stage, add the dessicated coconut. Toast for a minute.
To the same pan, pour the sweetened condensed milk and rose water to it. Mix well and cook on low flame.
Cook it until the mixture gets thick and starts to roll like a ball. It will take around 5-8 mins.
Add the roasted almonds, cool the mixture but not make it really cold. Cool it little so that you can handle by hand.
Just apply ghee/oil in your hand, make round balls by taking that mixture in your hand.
Roll these balls in the ½ cup of desiccated coconut. And serve.
You can store them in airtight container upto four days. I refrigerate them as it is coconut based dish.

Notes

1. If you have doubt to when you can switch off the heat, it is when the spatula will refuse to get stir anymore and mixture will almost stick to your spatula.
2. You can also use fresh coconut but you can’t store it for long time. So i prefer to use desiccated coconut. And also you have to cook the fresh coconut for a longer time since fresh coconut can be moister.

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** Ghee – Indian clarified butter

** Cardamom – Indian spice. You can get this in any Indian store as a powder or as whole.

Strawberry Lassi

Carrot Ginger Raita

Biryani Collection

Spicy Baked Cauliflower Bites

Roasted Bell Pepper Gravy / Shimla Mirch ka salan:

30 Minute Spicy Brinjal/Eggplant Fry

Carrot Coconut Truffles/ Ladoo recipe

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