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!

Saag Aloo

As her buddy i'm joyfully celebrating Gayathri's first year blog anniversary by dedicating this post to her. Keep up the good work. You are truly dedicated in what you do.

 Nothing would be more appropriate than a popular Veggie recipe for the celebration.As i'm enjoying the British Summer the organic spinach from my garden calls for this recipe.

Only after checking g3's blog i've realised it's almost 5 years since i started blogging.You are inspiring me to celebrate my 5th year Blog Anniversary in style. Happy Blogging!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Pre-Requisite:
1. Boil three medium sized potatoes , peel the skin and slice them to the sizes you prefer
2. Finely Chop the spinach, onion, garlic and ginger

Ingredients:
Spinach - 1 bunch
Garlic Cloves  - 2
Ginger - 1 inch piece
Chilli powder - 1/2 tsp
Cummin Seeds - 1/2 tsp
Red Onion - 1/2
Potatoes - 3 (medium sized)
turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp(optional)
salt - 1/2 tsp
Olive Oil - 1 tbsp

Cooking Method:

    Heat 1 tbsp of oil in a pan and add the cummin seeds. Once it splutters saute the chopped onion, garlic and ginger. At this point add the spinach and cook for 3 minutes in medium flame without adding water.Spinach can be added without chopping but chopping helps to save cooking time.

Once the spinach is cooked add the rest of the ingredients and cook for a couple of minutes

I know u'll love this with ur thayir saadham..............

Vendakkai Poondu varuval(Okra Garlic Fry)

There are many ways to make vendai varuval and this the simplest and tastiest method . Garlic brings in a distinct flavour while cooking along with okra.

Pre-Requisite:

   Wash the okra and carefully dry it with kitchen tissues to make it less sticky while cooking

Ingredients:
Okra - 150 gms
Garlic cloves - 3
Fennel seeds - 1/4 tsp
Chilli powder - 1/2 tsp
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
Salt - 1/2 tsp
Oil - 1 tbsp

Cooking Method:

   Heat the Oil in a pan and add the fennel seeds anad garlic . fry until garlic turns brown. At this point add the rest of ingredients and close the lid of the pan and steam cook without adding water for 12 mins. Stir every minute to cook evenly.

Potato Masal Kurma

Potato masal kurma is a blend of authentic spices and can be made very quickly without much effort

Ingredients:

Fresh Coconut - 1/2 or Dessicated coconut - 1/2 cup
Dried Red Chillies - 2
Fennel seeds -  1 tsp
Cinnamon stick - 1
Cloves - 3
Garlic chopped - 1 tsp
Chopped red onion - 1/2 cup
Chilli powder - 1 tsp
Dhaniya powder - 2 tsps
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Diced small cubes of potatoes - 1 cup
Oil - 2 tsps
salt - 1 tsp

Pre-requisite:

     Grind the fennel seeds and fresh coconut and make it into a smooth paste.
  

Cooking Method:

     Do the seasoning with cinnamon and cloves in 2 tsps of oil .Saute the chopped onion and garlic until it turns brown . Now add the rest of the ingredients , ground paste and 2 cups of water. Boil for 15 mins in a medium flame.

      

Kathirikai(Aubergine) Podimas

 Aubergine/ Brinjal/Eggplant /Kathirikai however u call it , this vegetable is available all over the world .
One cannot get a bad outcome of any recipe tried with this as the vegetable itself is very tasty.

Ingredients:
 Long Purple Aubergine - 1 (If using a different variety choose as desired)
Garlic chopped - 1 tsp
Chopped Red onion - 1/4 cup
Urad dhal - 1 tsp
Dried Red chillies - 2
Coriander seeds - 2 tsps
oil - 1/2 tbsp
 Asafoetida - 1/4 tsp

Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
salt - 1 tsp

Pre-Requisite:

Dry roast the coriander seeds,urad dhal and red chilles and grind it to a powder

Cooking Method:

           Saute the onions and garlic in oil and fry the aubergine for a couple of mins. Cover with a lid and steam cook with sprinkling a little bit of water for abt 10 mins. Add the dry roasted powder and other ingredients and cook for another couple of mins.

    

Vazhaipoo Murungaikeerai poriyal

Usually i use only vazhaipoo for the poriyal but there was a little murungai keerai from our garden and i thought of adding it to the poriyal to enhance the flavour.

Ingredients:

Vazhaipoo - 1

Murungakeerai - 1/4 a bunch

Red chillies - 2

Mustard seeds - 1 tsp

Urad dhal - 1/2 tsp

Onion(Chopped) - 1/2 cup

curry leaves - 1 strand

water - 1/2 cup

Olive oil - 1 tsp

Salt - 1/2 tsp

Cooking Method:

Do the seasoning with mustard seeds and urad dhal by heating 1 tsp of olive oil in a kadai. Fry the chopped onions until it turns golden brown add red chillies , water,chopped vazhaipoo and murungaikeerai and stir fry. Finally add salt as the vazhaippo cooks faster without salt.

Broccoli Poriyal

Thought of making our traditional poriyal with Broccoli.Came out really well!

Ingredients:
Broccoli - 500 gms
Garlic - 2 cloves
Onion - 1 medium sized
Mustard - 1/2 tsp
Garam masala powder - 1 tsp
Chilli powder - 1 tsp
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
Salt - 1/2 tsp oil- 1 tsp

Method of Cooking:

In a pre-heated pan add 1 tsp of oil and do the
seasoning with mustard.Chop the onion and garlic,
add these in the pan and fry till golden brown.Add
1 cup of water and add all the remaining ingredients
and boil for 10 mins.