Vegetable Stew(Kerala Style)

      Though the traditional kerala style vegetable stew is made with coconut milk, stew can also be made using whole milk with no compromise in taste.To me stew has to look white , that's how i've been taught from my keralite friend.

Ingredients:
Diced carrots - 1 cup
Chopped Sugarsnap peas - 1 cup
Sliced potatoes - 1 cup
Ginger grated - 2 tsps
Chopped garlic - 2 tsps
Chopped Red onions - 1 cup
Curry leaves chopped - a few
Chopped coriander - a few
Cinnamon - 1 inch stick
Bay leaf - 1 (optional)
Cloves -2
Whole milk - 2 pints
Oil - 2 tsps
Salt - 1 tsp

Cooking Method:

Bring the wholemilk to a boil in a saucepan for 5 minutes in medium heat. In a wide bottomed pan heat 2 tsps of oil and add the bay leaves,cloves and cinnamon . Wait until the aroma starts coming . At this point add garlic and saute for a couple of minutes followed by onions for 3 minutes. Add the boiled milk and rest of the ingredients except coriander and keep stirring occasionally  until all the vegetables are cooked.Garnish it with coriander and serve.

 

I've added homegrown sugarsnap peas.Podless fresh/frozen peas can also be added. If you are not worried about the amount of calories involved, add cocnut milk instead of whole milk.Tastes best with kerala appam. Can also be served with idli/dosa/bread/chappathi/Naan

Paruppu Usli with French Beans

           We adore French beans as a family ! Yes, all of us love it and there's no limit to the number of recipes i tried with this beautiful vegetable. Ever since summer started i've been waiting for the flowers to turn into lovely beans so that i can make paruppu usli. Tender beans are the best for this recipe and nothing can beat the taste and tenderness of these home-grown beans.

I learnt this recipe from my family friend akka in Bangalore. Akka is an Iyengar and i can't ask any better person to learn this recipe. She is such a great cook. I still wonder how she makes a beautiful balance between her personal and professional life with all that cooking and working skills. Thank you very much akka for sharing this recipe!

I made it for the Aadi 18 festival and it was sitting in the draft long enough to be published..........

Ingredients:
French Beans  finely chopped - 2 cups
Gingelly oil - 1 tbsp
Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
Chopped Onions - 1 cup
Toor dhal - 1 cup
Dried red chillies - 1 or 2
Dried curry leaves - few leaves (Fresh Leaves adds better flavour)
Asafoetida - 1/2 tsp
Salt - 1/2 tsp

 Pre-Requisites:
Soak the urad dhal along with red chilli in  2 cups of water and drain it after an hour. Grind it fine with asafoetida and  quarter of tspsalt without adding water .

 Cooking Method:
       Success of this recipe involves 2 key stages. Stage 1 is to steam cook the ground paste. I use the idli cooker to steam cook alternatively a steamer can be used. Steam cook the ground mix just like idlis until the dhal is cooked. Cool down and crumble it with fingers.

 Stage 2  is to make the normal beans poriyal . Heat the tawa add 1 tbsp of gingelly oil , do the seasoning with mustard seeds. Saute the chopped onion with 1/2 a tsp of salt  and add curry leaf.I add salt stagewise for a better taste.  Finely chopped french beans should be added at this point. Stir well ,close the lid of the tawa and cook the beans by closing the lid. I know is should've done justice to this by clicking a better picture  but i was in such a hurry on a festival day making multiple dishes.

Introduce the dhal crumble to the cooked beans mix it evenly and cook for a minute to make the usli ready. With the soaking, grinding, steaming and cooking this is defintely a time-consuming recipe but it's worth all the effort as the taste is heavenly!

Berry Medley with Gooseberries,Raspberries and Strawberries

             With the last pick of gooseberries and strawberries from my garden and the first pick of fresh raspberries , it's a perfect opportunity for me to make this berry medley packed with antioxidants.

Ingredients:
Strawberries - a few
Gooseberries - 4 or 5
Raspberries - 10
Sugar - 1/4 cup
water - 1 cup

Preparation method:

        Wash ,hull the berries, add sugar and blend everything by adding a cup of water. I have added gooseberries as they were super sweet. Don't add gooseberries if they are sour.

Veggie Singapore Rice noodles

               My mum makes a lot of  sweet and savoury dishes using rice noodles. Not until i moved to the UK, i realised Singapore rice noodles is such a popular dish. Preparing this dish is an easy way to make my family eat plenty of organic vegetables from our garden and reaching our 5-a-day target.

Ingredients:
Sliced Carrots -1 cup
Sliced Runner Beans - 1 cup
Broad Beans - 1 cup
Spinach - 1 cup
Cabbage - 1 cup
Sliced onion - 1 cup
Corainder - Few leaves
Garlic - 4 cloves (peeled and chopped)
Oil - 3tsps
Salt- 1 tsp
Rice noodles - 500 gms
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp(optional)
Maggi hot and sweet tomato chilli sauce - 2 tsps

  

 Pre-Requisites :
    Boil 2 pints of water in a  saucepan for 5 minutes. Immerse the rice noodles, close with a lid and wait for 5 minutes.Drain the excess water and allow it to cool.

Cooking Method:

             Heat  3 tsps of oil is a wide-bottomed pan and saute the garlic and onion until it becomes translucent. Pop in the sliced vegetables to the pan, add 1/2 cup of water and boil until the vegetables are cooked. Add the remaining ingredients except coriander and stir well. Garnish with coriander and serve hot!

Kumro Phool Bhaja / Pumpkin Flower Fritters(Bengali Style)

                 Plenty of pumkin flowers are blooming at the moment in my backyard. There are two types of flowers in pumpkin male and the female flowers. The female flowers blooms with a tiny little  baby pumpkin at the base.If pollinated these turn into the big pumpkins we eat while male flowers just has the stalk.The flowering starts off with plenty of male flowers .Once it falls off from the stalk, we used to add it to our home compost but now these organic goodies goes into our tums with this Bengali recipe.The transition of plant to the plate is adorable.

Pre-Requisites:

    Gently wash the pumpkin flowers .Remove the calyx and the stalk by retaining just the petals.

  
Ingredients:
Crushed garlic  1 tsp
Gram Flour - 1 cup
Chilli powder - 1 tsp
Sunflower Oil - 1/2 cup
Pumkin Flowers - a dozen
Salt - 1/4 tsp

Cooking Method:

            Except the flower mix all the ingredients with the help of a spatula by adding required amount of water to bring it to a batter like consistency. Make sure there the batter is lump free and smooth.Heat 1/2 cup oil in a flat wide-bottomed non-stick pan .Dip the pumpkin flower in the batter by holding at the bottom and cook it in the oil for 3 minutes. Turn it over and cook for another couple of minutes.Make sure the flowers doesn't touch each other for better results.

 Serve it as a starter or a tea-time snack along with dips of your choice. We enjoyed this flowery one of 5-A-Day with yougurt and mint dip!

If you are a gardener , next time you know what to do with those pumkin flowers,don't you?

Aadi 18 festival ! - 5-A-day in just one meal

Aadi 18 marks the start of monsoon in southern part of India  and is mainly celebrated on the river banks. On this day farmers pay tributes to life sustaining properties of water. Special prayers are conducted to Goddess Parvathi/Amman on this day in temples to get blessings from her for uninterrupted supply of water throughout the year for farming. Whether you do farming or not it's followed as a tradition for generations in families to visit nearyby river to pay tributes and needless to say good food guaranteed!

What food you make depends on the family tradition. Some families make 3 or 4 varities of rice with some crips and some make a complete south indian meal with vadai and payasam for the celebration.I moved to the UK right after getting married and learnt from my mum how to celebrate this festival. According to her Pear is an important fruit for this festival(Don't ask me why? I don't have an answer), Rice mixed with jaggery and  threads dipped in turmeric is a must.I follow these instructions from my mum and celebrate the festival accordingly.Flowers are an integral part of our festivals. Luckily our scented jasmines are in season at the moment in my garden. I chose to make a south indian meal platter with Sambar, Rice,Cabbage poriyal, Beans paruppu usli, Masal Vadai(Channa dhal Fritters) and Payasam(pudding). Will share some of these recipes soon.

 Let us pray to  our mother nature to provide good supply of water this year for all us. My wishes for all those who celebrate Aadi 18!

'5-A-Day Fundas'

   

To motivate myself to blog about my 5-A-Day intakes for a healthy lifestyle!

What is 5-A-Day?

5-A-Day is all about consuming 5 portions of fruit or veg a day.  We might  ask why just 5 ? 5 is the recommended  number but you can eat as much as you want. They have arrived at this number so that atleast we get different types of vitamins for our everyday nutritional needs. Here in the UK most of the fruits and vegetables sold in the shops contains information about how much is 1 portion in the packaging. Fresh , frozen ,tinned all counts. Even juice is counted as long as it contains more fruit content.Potato is an exception as it is considered for the carbohydrate intake. Consuming 5-A-Day helps  to stay fit and healthy in the long run.