Suki - Relish The Bite

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.

Sweetened Condensed Milk Toast with Orange zest

March 31, 2015 by Suki 10 Comments

Takes only 5 minutes to prepare – Toasting bread with butter, raining it with milk and some orange zest! Sweet & refreshing! Definitely decadent.

Prepare this when you want to have it right away. I am saying this because the condensed milk would melt on the butter toasted bread delicious! Orange zest is fresh to have as soon as you grate them. I was thinking as I was making it that it would be really sweet but trust me it was perfect!

Everybody loves quick and simple recipes. Kids would love this recipe because of the taste combination and sweetness. You can make this in 5 minutes in the morning or as a snack. Perfect for a breakfast I would say! as I made this twice already.

White bread lightly toasted with just butter is so good on its own but just a drizzle of this sweetened condensed milk is delicious. We do not want to have this on a daily basis; it might be sweet and then would get bored on few days. Indulge once in a while with this sweet toast with refreshing orange zest. I always love sweetened condensed milk. It is so delicious. I can take a spoonful of the sweetened condensed milk from the jar 🙂 Not more than a spoon but for sure. And most times I eat Nutella 😉 from the jar. Many does that 😉 I am sure!!! If you have this stored, there are lots of quick recipes you can do with this. I have already made a coconut ladoo/balls, saffron coconut Fudge/Burfi using sweetened condensed milk. I even made a carrot ladoo using the same.

I used the store bought sweetened condensed milk. But I have made this sweetened condensed milk many times. It will thicken when you keep it in fridge, but it won’t be as thick as store bought but surely it is of same good taste. I had the leftover condensed milk I used for carrot coconut ladoo. I wanted to use for something quick and tasty. Here comes the recipe for it. I also prepared a recipe note for sweetened condensed milk. You can always prepare and use it later.

Sweetened Condensed Milk recipe:

It will make around 1 cup

Ingredients:

Whole milk – 2 cups

Granulated sugar – 3/4 cup

Vanilla extract – ¼ tsp

Method:

Take a heavy bottomed sauce pan, mix together milk and sugar. Warm until steaming. Lower the heat and simmer for 2 – 2 ½ hours or until it thickens slightly.

When reduced to half, stir in the vanilla extract. Switch off and store in an airtight container and cool it. Keep it in fridge for 2 weeks.

Vanilla extract is optional here.

Vegan Note: You can use coconut milk to make the sweetened condensed milk. You can skip the butter and toast it plain 🙂

Sweetened Condensed Milk Toast with Orange zest

Author: Suganya Hariharan

Recipe type: Breakfast

Cook time: 5 mins

Total time: 5 mins

Serves: 2 bread slices

Ingredients

Butter – 1 tbsp
Bread slices – 2
Fruits – few (I used strawberry)
Orange Zest – 2 tsp
Sweetened condensed milk – drizzle as per your taste

Instructions

Take a skillet and heat 1 tbsp of the butter on medium heat until melted.
Place the bread slices into the butter and toast it for a minute until golden brown. Now flip the bread and toast for another minute. Switch off.
Place the toasted bread on serving plates with some fruits. Drizzle condensed milk over the toasted bread (generously). Grate some orange zest on it and serve immediately.

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Ridge gourd chutney/ Peerkangai Thogayal

March 27, 2015 by Suki 4 Comments

One of the easiest spiced healthy dip made with few ingredients 🙂 Absolutely delicious!

It can be kept in fridge and can be used for 2-3 days. You can skip onions if you do not want to add it. My mom makes without onion. But I like it with onion. Thogayal/chutney is a saviour for us on weekdays. I make coconut chutney, mint chutney, carrot chutney, eggplant chutney, tomato chutney, pumpkin chutney, channa dal chutney, coriander chutney and so on. It taste best with plain rice and chips/papad. I always make them on a busy weekday night and next day I will have it with a quick dosa/idli/paniyaram.

On a weekday night it is so hard to cook after the work and that too on a long day, it is even harder. And that time, I used to think any recipes under 20 minutes and not more than that. I will cook them quick and sit in my couch till I sleep watching TV 🙂 I am sure a couch potato on weekday nights. I am sure many are 😉 . Ok enough of my blah..blah..blah! Lets go straight to the recipe today 🙂

5.0 from 1 reviews

Ridge gourd chutney/ Peerkangai Thogayal

Author: Suganya Hariharan

Recipe type: side dish

Cuisine: Indian

Prep time: 5 mins

Cook time: 15 mins

Total time: 20 mins

Serves: 1 cup

Ingredients

Ridge Gourd/ Peerkangai – 1 medium sized(peeled roughly and chopped roughly), gives about 2½ cups
Onion – 1, chopped roughly
Green chillies – 3, chopped roughly
Red chillies -3
Tamarind – small marble size (Soaked in 1 tbsp of water)
Coconut – 2 tbsp
Salt – ½ tbsp
Oil - 1tsp
[To temper]
Oil – 1tsp
Mustard – ¾ tsp
Red chilli -1, broken
Urad dal – 1 tsp
Asafoetida – a pinch
Curry leaves – 1 sprig

Instructions

Peel the skin (it is alright if you cant peel it totally), wash and chop the ridge gourd roughly.
Heat a pan with a tsp of oil and then add the onions and sauté tll transparent along with green chillies and red chillies.
Add the chopped ridge gourd and salt. Cook it covered till the ridge gourd softens and also it will reduce in volume. Switch off.
Cool completely and blend them smoothly with tamarind and coconut.
To temper, add oil in a small pan, add the mustard seeds, when it cracks and now add the urad dal and red chilli till it turns golden brown. Add the red curry leaves and switch it off.
And add the tempered ingredients to the chutney and enjoy with some rice, dosa, idli.

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Taste great with rice and papad, idli, dosa, paniyaram and so on.

Mushroom Tofu Veggie Potstickers with Chili Hoisin Ginger sauce

March 24, 2015 by Suki 7 Comments

Exotic chinese dumplings for appetizer or dinner – pack them with any filling of your choice, pan fry,steam, freeze or eat fresh!

I have never had homemade potstickers before. I have had it once in a restaurant but I always loved to have it. It is just that it is so hard to find a pure vegetarian one at a restaurant here. So, I made these homemade potstickers for me. The best thing about potstickers is that it is so easy to customize the fillings as you fancy. I have heard pork and shrimp dumplings are great to taste. I might make some next week and post recipe for that. But now it is my customized fillings time 🙂 You can add your veggies that is available at your house. These mushrooms gives an earthy flavor. The filling here is an even mixture of mushrooms, tofu, shredded carrots and cabbage.

It is also great to make homemade potstickers, because you can make a huge badge of them and pop them right in the freezer in a zip lock. That way you can indulge these delicious beauties whenever you want! I have made a note how to freeze them for future use. You know it is homemade, fresh and great to prepare them on a weekday when you are tired but still want to eat something delicious with your favorite fillings.

By this method of cooking, I made them with maximum crispy crunchy surface.

How to froze potstickers:

Prepare the potstickers with filling and place them on a baking sheet for 10-15 minutes outside. Now place the baking sheet in freezer for 4-5 hours. Now throw them into a freezer bag. When you are ready to eat, just toss them into an oil greased skillet. It might take little longer to cook than usual (may be 3-4 minutes more) because it’s frozen. Do not try to defrost them and then cook. It is not the best idea. But trust me, the taste is going to be same. You can store them for a month for sure and it is still going to be yum!

How to fill and fold the potstickers:

The filled dumplings should form a slight crescent shape. You can fold in anyways. Do not fret if you don’t get it 🙂 or try two to three times more! 🙂

When you are ready with the filling, you can get ready to assemble the dumplings:

Defrost the wonton/dumpling wrappers overnight in fridge or defrost by keeping them outside for 2-3 hours. I kept them outside for an hour and then just microwaved them for 20 seconds. (Don’t do it more).
Separate them and keep them on a baking sheet or tile.
Wet the edge which will help seal the edges.
Add a tsp of filling.
Fold in half with no air gaps inside.( like half moon)
You can just use them like this or pick some shapes to do like below.
The method below: Start pleating from right to left side of the dumpling and pinch it.
Or pinch the center together. Starting from the center,make 3 pleats to the right side of the dumpling. Repeat with the left side of the dumpling so that all the pleats point together towards the center.

Here comes the recipe 🙂 Now

Mushroom Tofu Veggie Potstickers

Author: Suganya Hariharan

Recipe type: Main

Cuisine: Chinese

Prep time: 30 mins

Cook time: 15 mins

Total time: 45 mins

Serves: 35

Ingredients

For Filling:
Cabbage – 1 cup, shredded
Carrot – 1 cup, grated
Garlic – 3 cloves, finely minced
Shallots – 2 tbsp, finely chopped
Fresh ginger- 2 teaspoons, finely chopped
Green onions – 2 , finely chopped
Coriander leaves – 1 tbsp, finely chopped
Green chillies – 1, finely chopped
Sriracha - 1tsp
Black pepper – 1 tsp
Salt – 2 tsp
Soy sauce – 2 tsp
Wonton wrappers – 30
Cooking oil – 2 tbsp
[br[To blend:
Tofu – 4 ounces, chopped (I used extra firm)
Mushrooms – 2 ounces, stems removed, chopped
Dipping Sauce:
Hoisin – ½ cup
Sriracha – 2 tsp
Ginger – 1 tbsp, freshly grated
Soy sauce – 2 tbsp
Sesame oil – 2 tsp
Red chili peppers – 3 dried,crushed
Garnish
Sesame seeds – ½ tsp
Green onion – 1 tbsp, sliced

Instructions

In a blender, add the ingredients under to blend (mushrooms & tofu). And give a 2 pulses blend so that so are slightly blended but should not have smooth texture.
In a mixing bowl, add all ingredients under “for filling” except oil and wrappers. Mix the blended mushrooms & tofu to it. And keep aside.
To wrap:Defrost the wonton/dumpling wrappers overnight in fridge or defrost by keeping them outside for 2-3 hours. I kept them outside for an hour and then just microwaved them for 20 seconds. (Don’t do it more).Separate them and keep them on a baking sheet or tile.
Wet the edge which will help seal the edges.Add a tsp of filling.
Fold in half with no air gaps inside.( like half moon).You can just use them like this or pick some shapes to do like below. The method below: Start pleating from right to left side of the dumpling and pinch it. (picture above)
When ready to cook, take a non-stick skiller, heat 1 tbsp of oil over medium high heat. When the oil is hot, add the potstickers to the pan in a single layer. Do not crowd the pan by placing 1 potstickers on another. Cook until browned on one side. It will take about 3 minutes.
Now flip and add 2 tbsp of water to the pan. Close the lid. And let them steam for 3-4 minutes and when you are hear sizzling sound or when the water has evaporated. Open the lid and when the other side has turned brown, Just remove the pot stickers and continue with the next batches.
Prepare the dipping sauce by whisking together all the sauce ingredients in a pan and heat them in low –medium heat for 5-6 minutes till they thicken. And garnish them with sesame seeds and sliced green onions.

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You can serve them with just soy or *sriracha sauce if you do not want to prepare the dipping sauce

Note: *Sriracha sauce is an Asian-style hot chili sauce and you can find them in most local grocery store in the Asian section.

Vazhakkai Fry/ Raw Banana Fry

March 21, 2015 by Suki 6 Comments

Perfectly roasted plantain with curry leaves and spices.

I usually prepare the raw banana in two other different styles. One is by chopping them in circles, marinate in the masala and pan roasting them. Other is by grinding few masala with coconut and cooking raw banana with the masalas. And the one I am doing now is a classic recipe at my house 🙂 My mom does this for some rice and rasam. Because this one is crispy, it tastes great with any rice. My dad actually makes this at my place. My mom makes raw banana podimas by boiling it and mixing with few masalas. OMG! I am drooling! Even if I cook the best recipe of mine or have my favorite food in my favorite restaurant, my vote and my option is for my Moms food at any day. I guess it is the same for most of us. 🙂 I was raised having this comfort food and I love them.

I noticed that there are no raw banana recipes in my site. I noted 😉 in my list to add few more.

5.0 from 1 reviews

Vazhakkai Fry/ Raw Banana Fry

Author: Suganya Hariharan

Recipe type: Main

Cuisine: Indian

Prep time: 10 mins

Cook time: 20 mins

Total time: 30 mins

Serves: 2 cups

Ingredients

• Raw banana/ vazhakkai – 2 medium sized( 2 cups), thinly sliced into circles
• Oil - 2 tbsp
• Mustard seeds - ¾ tbsp
• Cumin seeds (Jeera) - 1 tsp
• Urad dal - 2 tsp
• Curry leaves - 5
• Turmeric powder - 2 tsp
• Sambhar powder - 1 tbsp
• Chilli Powder - 1 tbsp
• Sugar - 1 tsp

Instructions

Wash raw banana and peel the outer layer. Chop them finely into small cubes. Soak them in water till you use them.
Heat 1 tbsp of oil in a pan in medium heat, add mustard, after it crackles, add urad dal,curry leaves and jeera.
Bring the heat to low, and add turmeric powder, sambar powder, chilli powder,salt and asafetida Stir well. But make sure not to burn them, so keep it in low heat.
Now add the chopped raw banana and bring the heat to medium. Sprinkle 1 tbsp of water, close the lid and cook for 5-7 minutes.
Add 1 tsp of sugar and keep frying until the raw banana gets roasted here and there in color. Takes around 5-7 minutes again. Switch off the flame.

Notes

Adding sugar makes retain the color and turns it crispy.

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Taste great with rice and sambar or rasam or milagu kuzhambu or vengaya kuzhambu or dal fry. You can have them plain as snacks 🙂

Mushroom Biryani

March 19, 2015 by Suki 7 Comments

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

I have already 5 Biryani recipes 🙂 which means you would have known by now that I love cooking Biryani. Many find it difficult but it is not and it is worth the time it takes. I am not saying this 😉 Just like that! Trust me! I remember when I first tried to cook biryani before 3 years I would always make the rice mushy so I never liked to do Biryani after it. I will motivate again myself to do it and tried. I somehow found the tricks after a first few times 🙂 Now I am sure a pro 😀 proudly would say that! Never failed 🙂 And I still love to get comments even I know that it is good 😀 Like today when I received a comment for my sambar 😉 I went all blushing! 😀 May be I got the comment to see me blush 😉 whatever..:) It is always that comments and love which makes me cook next time!

To be honest, it does take time to cook biryani than many easy 10 minutes food. I even don’t like to post time consuming recipes but it is so tasty that I could not resist myself not posting it. 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 are tasting leftover food! Awesome right?

Biryani is one of the most favorite dishes. My mom has never cooked mushroom when I was a kid, so I used to be hesitant to eat or cook them. Then had it when I went out with friends and I found it tasty and no harm cooking them 🙂 . May be I will cook this for her sometime 🙂 and also I realized that I don’t have a lot of mushroom recipes somehow. I always add them to noodles and pastas but I don’t tend to make them on weekends 🙂 somehow and here is the mushroom Recipes that I have – Mushroom Pepper Mini Quesadilla, Malai Pepper Mushroom with some colourful mushrooms.

I have some good biryani collection recipes. 🙂 If you would like to view it – Restaurant style vegetable Biryani, Paneer Biryani, Hyderabadi Egg Biryani, Restaurant style Lamb Biryani, Prawn Biryani.

To make it vegan, skin the yogurt or replace with vegan yogurt. And also replace ghee with oil.

Mushroom Biryani

Author: Suganya Hariharan

Recipe type: Main

Cuisine: Indian

Prep time: 20 mins

Cook time: 45 mins

Total time: 1 hour 5 mins

Serves: 3 cups

Ingredients

• Oil – 1tbsp
• Bay leaf – ½
• Cinnamon – 1 thin piece
• Cloves – 3
• Cardamom pods -2
• Yogurt – 2 tbsp
• Basmati Rice – 3 cups
• Biryani Masala – 1 tbsp
• Red chilli powder – 1 tsp
• Garlic – 4, chopped
• Green chilli – 2, slit into two

for garnish:
• Saffron – ½ tsp dissolved in ½ cup warm milk
• Ghee – 2 tbsp (or oil)
• Mint – 2 tbsp finely chopped (to garnish)

For fried onions:
• Onions – 2 small onions, ½ cup, sliced thinly
• Oil – to fry (3 - 4 tbsp)

For rice masala:
• Cashew nuts – 6
• Khus khus (white poppy seeds) – ½ tbsp.
• Cumin seeds/ jeera – ½ tbsp
• Fennel seeds – 1 tbsp.
• Garlic – 4 pods
• Ginger – 1 inch
• Green chilli – 6
• Tomato – ½, medium sized, chopped
• Mint – ½ cup, chopped finely
• Coriander leaves – ½ cup, chopped finely.

Instructions

Wash and soak rice for atleast 30 -40 minutes.

For Fried onions:
Heat a pan with oil, add the sliced onions and cook in medium heat till turn golden brown. Stir in the middle so that it does not stick to the bottom. Set aside.

For masala:
Grind the garlic, ginger, mint, coriander, cashews, poppy seeds, fennel seeds, tomatoes, cumin seeds, chillis with two tbsp. of water into a smooth paste.
Now take a big pan, add oil or ghee in medium heat, add the spices (cardamom, bay leaf, cinnamon, cloves), and add garlic and chillies and sauté for a minute. Now add the grinded paste and sauté them till the raw smell leaves and little oil oozes out.
Now add the mushroom, yogurt, chilli powder, biryani powder and mix well. I always move the skillet away from the heat when adding yogurt which prevents it from curdling.
Now after returning the skillet back to the stove, add the rice and salt and water. ( Quantity of water to be added is for one cup of rice , it is 1.5 cups of water). Mix well and close the lid tight and keep it in medium heat for 10 minutes. Now add the marinated fried onions and chopped mint for garnish and keep it in low for 5 minutes.
Drizzle the saffron milk over the rice and Switch off, and keep it closed for another 5 minutes. They will help the rice to get the saffron flavors and vice versa.

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It taste great with a raita (Garlic Raita / Cucumber carrot Raita), or Mirchi ka salan or even plain biryani will taste delicious 🙂

Spicy Garlic Tofu in 10 minutes

March 16, 2015 by Suki 45 Comments

Truly fancy, delicious, restaurant style, vegan dish in 10 minutes. This is a recipe which will come to your rescue when you haven’t planned a meal on a week day.

It is a great vegetarian /vegan dish for any day,especially when it takes only 10 minutes to make. If we are given a choice of preparing a delicious dish in 10 minutes for dinner, we would choose it without thinking. 🙂 Will we not ;)! Or Is it just me 😀

It is a great dish to entertain with. You can either serve it as an appetizer with tooth picks, or serve it as main dish with plain or fried rice. You can press it between two slices of bread for a healthy quick breakfast.

I am usually very content eating humble food on the weekdays. It is more regional food that I grew up or sometimes salads (if I am lazy to stand up in the kitchen or if I am guilty having too much of junk foods 😉 which is most times!). But on the weekends, I tend to make and love to experiment in the kitchen. It is because I have more time on the weekends, and also I wanted to make myself occupied and busy the weekends.I really don’t want to get bored or else my mind would go wander about all thoughts. J And top of all this, I love to eat and I get to that all weekend :)! So, I made this for the weekend when I had some leftover rice from Friday evening and wanted to finish it up on Saturday. I wanted to make something quick to just eat with the rice which is tasty and filling. I did not want to stand in the kitchen for a long time 🙂 I knew I had some plans of going out for dinner. 😀

This was quick, flavorful and I love the addition of garlic with skin! You can serve this with some soy sesame sauce dip. You can even use the same method and do the recipe with paneer or baby corn. You can even fry the tofu and toss in this spice mixture.

4.5 from 10 reviews

Spicy Garlic Soy Tofu in 10 minutes

Author: Suganya hariharan

Recipe type: Main

Prep time: 4 mins

Cook time: 6 mins

Total time: 10 mins

Serves: 2 cups

Ingredients

Tofu – 500 Grams (Extra firm) (Chopped to bite size cube pieces)
Garlic – 7-8 cloves (don’t peel the skin)
Ginger – 2 inch
Dry red chillies – 8-10
White sesame seeds – 1 tbsp
Salt – 1 tsp
Soy sauce – 2 tsp
Sesame oil – 2 tbsp
Black Pepper powder (or crushed pepper) – 1 tsp
Chopped Green onions – to garnish

Instructions

Place the chilis, Ginger, sesame seeds,salt and garlic (with skin) in a blender and pulse it for 3-4 times. It should not be a smooth paste and it should turn into a coarse paste.
Heat oil in pan in medium to low heat, add the spice mix and fry for 30 seconds and add then add the soy sauce, pepper powder and tofu cubes.
Toss well for the spices and soy sauce to coat the tofu well. Fry for 2 minutes or so, till the tofu turns slightly golden and crispy on the outside.
Garnish with chopped green onions or sesame seeds.

Notes

1. You can even fry tofu and add this to the spice mixture if you want it very crispy.
2. You can skip the ginger if you do not like it.
3. You can use paneer, baby corn for the same recipe.
4. If you can’t take this spicy tofu, use 4-5 chillies.

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Kala Jamun/ Fried milk sweet dumplings

March 12, 2015 by Suki 9 Comments

A double fried dark colored jamuns soaked in rose scented sugar syrup. This is a darker version of famous Indian dessert Gulab jamun. Gulab jamuns are fried milk dumplings in rose scented sugar syrup. These are larger in size when compared to the gulab jamuns and also much tastier.

It gets dark color from the sugar added in the dough. I have used color inside the jamun, you can even use nuts inside and make them. It takes more soaking time than normal gulab jamuns. SO do not try to taste them in 30 minutes.I have a normal gulab jamun recipe in my list. No one would say no to that as well. But if you have tasted kala jamuns from India, you would just go yum! They are beautiful sexy dark colored jamuns which is sweeter than normal jamuns.

Tips to make them perfect: (almost similar to gulab jamun tips)

If you get the right consistency in the gulab jamun dough, you will never buy in the stores. I have mentioned some tips and suggestions, which might help.

If you are making this with readymade mix, just mix it with milk till you get the right consistency, (not dry crumble but stickly soft)
For sugar solution, on cooling if the sugar syrup crystallizes, then just add two or three tablespoons of water and warm the syrup again. It will be back to the syrup consistency.
Apply some oil on your palms and make smalls balls from the dough. It may double the size after soaking in water, so be careful to make them small sized.
There should be no cracks on the dough balls. They should be smooth, If there are cracks, then just add some 1 oe 2 tbsp of yogurt/milk and continue making the balls.
Do cover them and keep aside for ten minutes before frying them. it makes a great difference.
Do not make the jamun dough hard, it should be soft or else the syrup will not go inside after soaking.
When you fry them, when the oil becomes medium hot, lower the flam, add a small in the oil, it should slowly rise to the top from bottom. If it rises instantly, then the oil is too hot to fry which is not good. One jamun should get fried for about 6 -8 mins, its that slow for a perfect jamun.
If jamun cracks while frying, then add 1 or 2 tspof flour to the dough and form the balls again.
Don’t crowd the pan when deep frying, it might make the oil totally zero hot.
Fry the jamuns for 5-6 minutes, remove from heat. Drop the jamuns again after 10 minutes, and fry them for 3-4 minutes till they are dark brown colored jamuns.
Use a wooden spatula to rotate the oil after adding the jamuns without touching them, so that they are evenly gold.

I have few other delicious sweet dessert recipes in my website.

5.0 from 1 reviews

Kala Jamun/ Fried milk sweet dumplings

Author: Suganya Hariharan

Recipe type: Dessert

Cuisine: Indian

Prep time: 30 mins

Cook time: 30 mins

Total time: 1 hour

Serves: 20

Ingredients

Khoya (milk solid) – 2 cups, homemade or store bought
Crumbled Paneer – 1 cup, homemade or store bought
All-purpose flour – 5 tbsp
Baking powder – a pinch
(or)
Ready made gulab jamun mix - 3 cups

For Inner jamuns:
Cardamom powder – 1 tsp
Sugar – 2 ½ tbsp.
Color – green/red (optional)
Ghee – 1 tbsp (to knead)
Ghee/oil – for deep frying

For sugar syrup:
Sugar – 5 cups
Water – 2.5 cups
Rose essence – 1 tsp
Saffron – a pinch
Cardamom powder – 1 tsp

Instructions

To prepare the sugar syrup:
Mix water, sugar, cardamom and saffron in a pan, heat it till you get a syrup consistency. There should not be any thread formation, as it might form crystals later. Usually it takes around 8 – 10 mins for that consistency in medium flame.
Add the rose water and keep it aside.

To prepare the jamuns:
In a wide bowl, add the crumbled khoya, all-purpose flour, paneer and baking powder. Mix it gently. Or you can use ready-made gulab jamun mix.
Add little bit of water and make it into a smooth dough and knead the dough well. Use 1 tbsp of ghee and knead.
Take ¼th of the dough, add cardamom powder, sugar, color and mix well.( you can even add chopped nuts to it). Make small balls.
Divide the colored and white dough into equal portions.
Take the white dough spread, spread it and then stuff the coloured dough into it and close. Make a round shape or bullet shape ball. Keep aside and repeat the same process for entire dough.
Once the jamuns are ready, Heat oil. In a low flame, fry the jamuns till they are golden brown for 5-6 minutes.
Remove (with no oil totally) and keep aside for ten minutes.
And fry the jamuns again after ten minutes in low flame for 3- 4minutes; they will get a black color outside. But do not keep in high heat and burn them.
Add these jamuns to hot sugar syrup soak for atleast 3 hours and serve.

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Gujarati Surati Dal / Peanut Tomato Lentil Recipe

March 11, 2015 by Suki 7 Comments

Sweet, sour and crunchy lentil curry with peanuts and tomatoes – simple, flavorful and delicious!

I make dal always at least once in a week. But I really do not take pictures of it as it will be very late for me for have the food. I always feel it is delicious and comfort food. And also healthy 🙂 This dal recipe has sweet and sour taste together and still it is delicious. And that peanut gives the extra crunch to it. Sweet, sour, crunchy -this combo looks crazy but trust me, Its yum!!!

I have other lentil recipes: Garlic dal, Chana dal Paratha,tomato dal rasam and Sambar.

Gujarati Surati Dal / Peanut Tomato Lentil Recipe

Author: Suganya Hariharan

Recipe type: Main

Cuisine: Indian

Prep time: 5 mins

Cook time: 30 mins

Total time: 35 mins

Serves: 3 cups

Ingredients

Pigeon Pea Lentils/ Tuvar Dal – 1 cup
Tomatoes – 2 medium sized, chopped
Onions – 1 medium sized, chopped
Green Chilli – 1, chopped
Ginger – ½ inch, finely chopped
Red chili powder – 1 tsp
Turmeric powder – ¼ tsp
Cumin powder – ½ tsp
Garam Masala – 1 tsp
Jaggery – ½ tbsp
Unroasted raw peanuts – 2 tbsp
Lemon juice – ½ tbsp
Dry Methi leaves – 1 tsp
Salt – 2 tbsp

For Tempering:
Mustard seeds – ½ tsp
Dry Red chillies – 3, broken
Asafoetida – a pinch
Curry leaves – 1 sprig

Instructions

rinse lentils and keep it in pressure cooker with tomatoes, onions, green chilles with 3.5 -4 cups of water for 7-8 whistles in medium heat.
Mash the lentils using a wooden spoon or a masher to a smooth mixture.
Add the peanuts, turmeric powder, red chilli powder, cumin powder, garam masala,ginger and salt to the dal.
Bring the dal to boil in medium-low heat for 5 minutes and add jaggery and methi leaves to it in this step. If you find the consistency to the dal becomes thick, add more water. If you think its too liquidy, boil it for few more minutes.
Its time to temper by heating oil or ghee in a pan, then add the mustard seeds and then when its pops, add the asafetida, curry leaves and red chillies. Fry for a few seconds but don’t burn it.
Pour the tempering on top of dal. and squueze some lemon juice and stir with the seasonings. Garnish with coriander leaves.

Notes

1. If you think its too spicy, you can reduce the green chillies.

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Serve the hot surati dal with parathas,rotis or rice and side dish like potato roast.

Rice Kheer / Milk & Rice Pudding:

March 5, 2015 by Suki 6 Comments

Rich, creamy and delicious kheer infused with cardamom, garnished with almonds & pistachios & the addition of saffron makes it more flavorful.

This rice kheer is a simple Indian dessert made of rice and milk and can be made for any festival or celebration. This is very easy to make and does not need much cooking skills 😉 ! I don’t make them much but when I wanted something sweet, quick and easy to make, I tend to make these. If I wanted to make for any festivals in the mornings before I go to work, I make this rice kheer 🙂 Perfect! Sometimes I even make these with left over rice. But the one I have posted here was made from scratch. You can add any dry fruits of your choice to garnish 🙂

Rice Kheer / Milk & Rice Pudding:

Author: Suganya hariharan

Recipe type: Dessert

Cuisine: Indian

Prep time: 5 mins

Cook time: 30 mins

Total time: 35 mins

Serves: 2

Ingredients

Milk – 5 cups ( I used full fat 3.25% milk)
Rice – 3 tbsp (raw rice or basmati rice)
Ghee – 1 tsp
Sugar – ½ cup
Salt – a pinch

Garnish:
Ghee – 2 tsp
Cashews – 4 (broken)
Almonds – 4 (Blanched and sliced)
Pistachios – 2 ( broken)
Raisins – 4
Saffron – a pinch
Cardamom powder – 1 tsp

Instructions

Method:
Heat a pan and add 1 tsp of ghee and roast the rice in medium flame. Keep it aside.You can break the rice (powder the rice). Optional.
In the same pan, pour milk and bring to boil. When it is boiling, add the rice and cook in slow flame for 20 minutes or pressure cook for a whistle.
When the rice is boiled, now add the sugar, pinch of salt and continue boiling in low flame for another 10 minutes until you a thick consistency.
In a small pan, add the ghee for garnish, when it is hot, add the cashews, pistachios, almonds and when the cashews are golden brown, switch off and add the raisins.
Top the rice kheer with the garnish nuts, saffron and cardamom.
Can be served hot or chill

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Vegetable Bread Toast Sandwich:

March 2, 2015 by Suki Leave a Comment

This is one of my favorite open faced sandwiches. Easy, Quick and tasty one. Takes about 10 minutes to get ready and are super fresh and delicious. Bored with your toast? Spread this delicious homemade vegetables sauce on your bread and enjoy!

I have had this bread toast in India in a bakery called “Iyengar bakery”. If you have tried this in that bakery, you will surely say how tasty it is. I got a lot of request for sandwich recipes. It is just I try lot of sandwiches recipes in the morning but never take pictures as they have become a day to day morning routine. I mainly did this recipe as I wanted to make in pan rather than sandwich makers. You can keep this as open sandwiches or closed sandwiches. I left it as open sandwich to remind me the bakery sandwich. Do not add water to the vegetables and make it mushy, the vegetables should be crunchy in this. I still remember, my dad used to get this sandwich from a bakery when I was doing my third grade in Madurai. My sister was in sixth grade only, but still she used to get me this after school for me with her pocket money 🙂 ! This bread toast is easy to fix up with less effort for kids. I made this on a weekend with some avocado and banana coffee milkshake.

Vegetable Bread Toast Sandwich:

Author: Suganya Hariharan

Recipe type: Breakfast

Cuisine: Indian

Cook time: 10 mins

Total time: 10 mins

Serves: 2

Ingredients

Bread slices – 4
Oil – 1 tsp
Cumin seeds – ¼ tsp
Onion – 1, finely chopped
Green chilli – 1, finely chopped
Tomato – 1, finely chopped
Carrot – 1, finely chopped/ grated
Bell pepper/capsicum – 1 small, finely chopped
Salt – 2 tsp
Red chilli powder – ¼ tsp
Chaat masala – ¼ tsp
Tomato ketchup – ¾ tsp
Butter – to toast bread
Coriander leaves – 2 tsp, finely chopped to garnish
Lemon juice – 1 tsp, to garnish

Instructions

In a pan, add oil and add in the cumin seeds and then add the chopped onions and green chillies. Sauté till the onions are light golden brown.
Add in the carrots, bell pepper, chopped tomatoes,chaat masala, red chilli powder, salt and the tomato ketchup.
Sauté in a low flame for 5 minutes and switch it off.
Place a pan and when the pan is hot, toast the bread with little butter on both sides.
Spread the filling on the top side and garnish with coriander leaves. Squeeze some lemon/lime juice to garnish.

Notes

1. You can leave it as open or closed sandwiches.

2. Do not add water and make the vegetables mushy. The vegetables should be crunchy here,

3. You can add any vegetables of your choice like potatoes, cabbage, peas or beans.

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30 Minute Spicy Brinjal/Eggplant Fry

Carrot Coconut Truffles/ Ladoo recipe

Sweetened Condensed Milk Toast with Orange zest

Ridge gourd chutney/ Peerkangai Thogayal

Mushroom Tofu Veggie Potstickers with Chili Hoisin Ginger sauce

Vazhakkai Fry/ Raw Banana Fry

Mushroom Biryani

Spicy Garlic Tofu in 10 minutes

Kala Jamun/ Fried milk sweet dumplings

Gujarati Surati Dal / Peanut Tomato Lentil Recipe

Rice Kheer / Milk & Rice Pudding:

Vegetable Bread Toast Sandwich:

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