Creamy Quinoa Kheer

Hello everyone,

Quinoa payasam or kheer is the delicious and simple dessert made with milk and quinoa. 

I eat quinoa almost everyday for rasam rice and curd rice. Also, I use it in burrito as substitute to rice. It was my son's star birthday and I wanted to make some payasam/kheer to offer god. Why not prepare quinoa payasam rather than regular vermisili or rice payasam. Yes, I decided to make it and it was delicious.

We can pressure cook the quinoa in milk to speed up the process but I slow cooked on stove top to get creamy consistency. 

Serving size - 3-4  

Ingredients:

Quinoa - 1/2 cup

Whole Milk - 3.5 Cups

Jaggery - 3/4 to 1 cup

Cardamom powder - 1/4 tsp

Ghee - 2 tbsp

Cashews - 10

Raisins - 10

Pre-preparation:

1. Wash quinoa with water, drain and keep it aside to dry.

2. Grate or powder the jaggery.

3. In a small pan, melt ghee. Add cashews, raisins and fry till cashew turns golden brown. 

Method:

1. In a heavy bottomed vessel, melt ghee and roast the quinoa for few seconds. 

2. Add 3.5 cups of milk and boil the milk on a medium heat until the quinoa is cooked. It takes about 10 mins. 

3. Lower the heat further and keep stirring the milk. When you see the creamy layer, stir and mix it. 

4. Stir until the quinoa and milk reduces to half the quantity. This process takes around 30 mins. 

5. Add powdered jaggery, cardamom powder. Mix well and switch off the stove. 

5. Finally garnish with roasted cashews and raisins. Quinoa payasam is ready to serve. 

Note:

1. Do not burn the quinoa while roasting.

2. Put a ladle in the vessel so that milk do not overflow. 

3. Make sure to add jaggery at the end to void curdling. 

Lauki Dal

Hello everyone,

Lauki dal is an Indian lentil curry which is made using bottle gourd and mix of dals. Adding bottle gourd to the dal makes the curry more nutritious and healthy. This is easy to make and it goes well with rice or rotis. 

The usual Lauki dal is prepared only with Chana dal. But, this recipe is prepared with toor dal, Chana dal and moong dal with equal quantities. 

I had tasted this when I was working in Chennai. I used to stay in company's guest house where the cook is a North Indian. He makes this dish with Chana dal. For some reason we never used to buy bottle gourd in India. After coming to US, I started making South Indian style kootu with this. I bought instant pot recently and its pretty easy to make this dal in it. 

The recipe below has both pressure cooker and IP method of preparation. 

Serving size: 4-5 people

Ingredients:

Lauki/Sorakkai/bottle gourd - 2 cups

Toor dal - 1/4 cup

Channa dal - 1/4 cup

Moong dal - 1/4 cup

Onion - 1 

Ginger garlic paste - 1 tsp

Ghee or oil - 1 tbsp

Cumin seeds - 1 tsp

Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp

Chili powder - 1 tsp

Cumin powder - 1 tsp

Coriander powder - 1 tsp

Kasoori methi - 1 tsp

Water - 2 - 2 1/4 cup

Salt as per taste

Cilantro -  few finely chopped 

Preparation:

1. Peel the skin of the bottle gourd and chop into small cubes by removing seeds. 

2. Take all the three dals in a bowl and soak in water for half an hour.

3.Finely chop onions, crush the ginger garlic and keep it ready.

Method:

Pressure Cooker:

1. Heat the pressure cooker, melt ghee and add cumin seeds. Once the cumin seeds splutters, add onion, ginger garlic paste. Sauté until it turns golden brown and the raw smell goes. 

2. Add turmeric powder, chili powder, cumin powder, coriander powder and sauté for a minute.

3. Now add chopped bottle gourd and sauté for another minute. 

 4. Add soaked dals, water, kasoori methi and required salt. Pressure cook for 2-3 whistles. 

5. Once the pressure cooking is done, stir well and garnish with cilantro. 

Instant Pot:

1. Set the IP in Sauté mode for 8mins. When it is hot, add ghee and cumin seeds. Once the cumin seeds splutters, add onion, ginger garlic paste. Sauté until it turns golden brown and the raw smell goes. 

2. Add turmeric powder, chili powder, cumin powder, coriander powder and sauté for a minute.

3. Now add chopped bottle gourd and sauté for another minute.  

4. Add soaked dals, water, kasoori methi and required salt. 

5. Close the lid and make sure the vent in sealing position. Set to pressure cook mode for 8 mins at high pressure. 

6.. Once the pressure cooking is done, leave it for 10-15 mins and allow the pressure to release by itself.

7. Open the lid, give it a good stir and garnish with cilantro. 

Serve hot with steamed rice or Jeera rice or rotis. 

Notes:

1. You can add one slit green chili if you like it more spicy. 

Masal Puri - Coimbatore Style

 

Hello everyone,

Masala puri is a popular street food in India. The taste and way of making masala puri differs from place to place. I am from Coimbatore, I have tasted masala puri in quiet a lot of places(Coimbatore ,Bangalore, Hyd, Chennai, Jaipur, Goa and even US) but for me nothing tasted better than Coimbatore version of it especially Sasi kadai in S.B Colony.

Two of my close relatives used to live in S.B Colony so whenever we go there we stop by ARC Sasi Pani Puri( Sasi Kadai) to have masala puri and bhel puri. They serve amazing chaats. I missed this after moving to Bangalore. I missed it so much that I learned to make this dish 8 yrs ago from a blog. I have been making the same way. It tastes great, I would to share the receipe with you and hope you like it as well. 

Usually masala puri is made by breaking the puris and pour the masala on top of it. In Coimbatore, they place the puri on the plate by making small hole and add masala on it. The recipe to make for 3-4 servings. 

Ingredients:

Puri - 20-25

Onion - 1 finely chopped

Tomato - 1 big finely chopped

Cilantro - 1/2 cup finely chopped

Grated carrot - 3/4 cup

Sev - 1 cup

Chaat masala - 2 tbsp

For Masala Gravy

Dried Green Peas - 1 cup

Onion - 1 Cup chopped

Ginger - 1/2 inch

Garlic - 2 pods small

Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp

Chili powder - 1/2 tsp

Garam masala - 1 tsp

Coriander powder - 1 tsp

Green chili - 1or 2 (according to spice level)

Cilantro - 1/4 cup

Salt as required

Method:

1. Soak peas overnight or for nearly 8 hrs and pressure cook them for 4 whistles by adding water and some salt. Keep it aside.

2. Grind all the ingredients under 'For Masala Gravy' section with half a cup of boiled peas to a fine paste. Reserve rest of the boiled peas.

3. In a heavy bottomed vessel, add grinded paste and bring it to boil. Cook until the raw smell goes. Add little water to maintain the consistency. The gravy shouldn't be too thick. Masala is ready.

4. Now place 5-6 puris on a plate and make a hole on top of the puris. 

5. Add 1 tsp of reserved peas into each puris and pour the masala paste on top of the puris. Finally garnish with  chopped onion, tomatoes, carrot, cilantro and sev. Sprinkle some chaat masala on top of it. 

Enjoy Coimbatore's masala puri.

Butter Muruku

Hello everyone,

Butter Murukku is called as Benne muruku(Kanada) or Vennai muruku(Tamil). This crispy muruku is made with rice flour, gram flour and of course butter :). It is usually made during the festivals like diwali and janmashtami. 

I tried to make butter muruku soon after we shifted to US. To my surprise it turned out very crispy and tasty. My husband wanted me to make again to share with his office friends. Since then I follow the same recipe to make it.  

Ingredients:

Rice flour - 3 cups

Besan/Gram flour - 1/2 cup

Roasted gram flour - 1 tbsp

Cumin seeds - 1 tsp

Hing  - 1/4 tsp

Salt as needed

Butter(room temperature) - 2 tbsp

Water as needed

Oil for frying

Method:

1. To make roasted gram flour Take 2-3 tbsp roasted gram in a mixie and grind it to fine powder. Roasted gram flour is ready. 

2. In a mixing bowl, take all rice flour, gram flour, roasted gram flour, cumin seeds, hing, butter and salt. Butter should evenly mix with the flour.

3. Add water little by little and knead the flour to a smooth and tight dough. 

4. Use the star shaped plate to make butter muruku. Grease the muruku maker with oil. 

5. Fill it with prepared dough and tighten the lid.

5. Heat oil on a medium flame to maximum temperature. Squeeze it directly in the hot oil. Flip the muruku to cook on both the sides. Cook until golden brown and drain it in tissue paper. 

6. Allow it to cool down and store it in an air tight container. 

Notes:

1. Do not squeeze more and over mess. Muruku will not be cooked properly. 

2. Make sure the dough is not too soft otherwise muruku will absorb more oil.