Rumali Roti

Serves 13-15 rotis

Ingredients:

Whole wheat flour – 1 ½ cup

All Purpose flour (Maida) – 1 ½ cup

Baking soda (Cooking soda) – ½ tbsp

Salt – to taste

Water – For kneading

Refined Oil – For kneading & cooking roti

Wheat flour – 3-4 tbsp for making roti

Preparation of dough:

1. Take a large bowl, add both flour, salt, baking soda and mix well.
2. Add little water & oil and start kneading the flour mixture.
3. Add water & oil little by little and knead till all mix together and become soft dough.
4. Cover the dough with a thin cotton or muslin cloth and keep it aside for 30-45 mins.

Preparation of Rumali Roti:

1. Make medium size balls out of dough. Take a ball, dip it in wheat flour and roll it over a clean surface to make a circle. Roll the dough to make a very thin big circle. Make it as thin as possible.
2. Follow the same procedure for all dough balls.
3. Heat a flat tava in high flame. Once it is heated, lower the flame to medium and put the roti in tava. Add little oil around the roti and cook for 1 min.
4. Now turn the roti to the other side and cook for 1 min. Keep it in flame for some more time if it is not cooked well.
5. Take out the roti and fold it like a kerchief.  Do the same procedure for all.

Tasty rumali roti is ready. Have with paneer dishes or any gravies.

Additional Info:

Rumal means Kerchief in Hindi. This roti is called so becoz, we make this roti very thin like kerchief.

If you do not have a thin cloth to cover the dough, close the bowl with a lid for 1 hour.

Simple Veg Dhal

Serves 2

Ingredients:

Moong dhal – 1 cup

Peas – ¼ cup

Capsicum – 1 (cut into pieces)

Tomato – 1 (cut into pieces)

Potato – 1 (cut into pieces)

Carrot, Beans (optional) – (cut into pieces) ¼ cup

Corn (optional) – 2-3 tbsp

Jeera (cumin seeds) – 1 tbsp

Fennel (sombu) – ½ tbsp

Cloves – 2

Green or red chillies – 6-8 (chopped)

Turmeric powder – 1 tbsp

Ghee – 3 tbsp

Salt – to taste

Water – to cook vegetables

Cashews – 3-4 (optional)

Curd – 2 tbsp

Milk cream – 1 tbsp

Coriander – For garnishing

Preparation of Dhal:

1. Cook the moong dhal in a pressure cooker (take out in 3 whistles) or in a cooking vessel for 10-15 mins till the dhal gets cooked well.
2. Heat ghee in a pan, add jeera, fennel, cloves, cashews, chillies, tomato and fry lightly.
3. Now add capsicum, peas, potato, (carrot, beans, corn – optional) and pour some water to cook the vegetables. Cook it well for 5-10 mins.
4. Now add the cooked moong dhal, salt, turmeric powder, curd and mix well. Add little water if it gets too thick. Cook it for 2-3 mins till all gets mixed up.
5. Remove from flame once it becomes as thick as gravy and add milk cream.

Serve with chapathi or parathas…..

Additional Info:

The water in the vegetables and in moong dhal is enough. Add little water if necessary otherwise it will become very loose. If so happens add corn flour paste to it.

You can add any vegetables. It’s easy and healthy.

Cabbage Curry

Serves 2

Ingredients:

Cabbage – 250 gms (cut into very small pieces or chop)

Peas – ½ cup

Moong dhal – 5 tbsp

Grated coconut – ¼ cup

Green or red chillies – 4-5 (cut into pieces)

Oil – 2 tbsp

Mustard seeds – 1 tbsp

Urid dhal – ½ tbsp

Jeera (cumin seeds) – 1 tbsp

Asafoetida – pinch

Salt – to taste

Curry leaves – 4-5

Water – to cook

Ghee – ½ tbsp

Coriander – for garnishing

Preparation of Cabbage Curry:

1. Heat oil in a pan and add mustard seeds.
2. After it crackles, lower the flame and add urid dhal, jeera, curry leaves, asafoetida, chillies. Fry lightly.
3. Add the cut or chopped cabbage, peas, moong dhal and add water just enough for cooking the cabbage. Add salt and increase flame to medium. Cook for 10 – 15 mins.
4. When the water is fully gone and the vegetable is cooked, take out from flame and add grated coconut. Mix well and garnish it with coriander.
5. Add ghee now and mix. It will smell great….

Additional Info:

You can do this curry without peas and moong dhal, if you are adding coconut. But if you want to avoid coconut, you can add moong dhal or peas or both. But all the three combined together tastes really yummy…….

Do not add more water to cook the cabbage. The fresh colour might change. So add water, till where you can’t see water above the vegetables.

Paruppu Payasam (Dhal Kheer)

This payasam is a very common famous in India (south side).  This is the first sweet dish served in most of the festivals.

I love this……. My husband’s favourite dish………Try it and taste it……

Serves 4 persons

Ingredients:

Channa dhal (kadalai paruppu) – ¼ cup

Moong dhal (paitham paruppu) – ¼ cup

Jaggery – 1 cup

Ghee – 2 tbsp

Sugar – 2 tbsp

Milk – ½ cup

Water – ¼ cup

Cashews & Raisins – for taste & garnishing

Preparation of Payasam:

1. Soak channa dhal and moong dhal in hot water for ½ hour. Cook them well in a vessel for 15 mins or in a pressure cooker (take out in 4 whistles) and keep it aside. Both case, you must able to mash the dhals well.
2. Heat a pan with ghee, add cashews, raisins and fry lightly.
3. Now add jaggery with little water and heat till it dissolves completely.
4. Add the cooked dhals to it and mix well. Heat till it starts to become slightly thick. Then remove from flame and cool it.
5. After it is cooled well add milk and serve.

Additional Info:

Do not add milk to the dhal mixture when it is hot. Cool the mixture well and add milk.

It is best to serve cold. It’ll taste yummy.

Paneer Babycorn Masala

Serves 2

Ingredients:

Paneer (home-made or readymade) – 10-12 cubes

Baby corn – 5 or 6 (cut into pieces)

Tomato – 2 (cut into small pieces or grinded)

Tomato Puree (optional) – 4- 5 tbsp or as per requirement

Cashews – 4-5 (grinded or shredded)

Oil or Ghee – 2 tbsp

Fennel (sombu) – ½ tbsp

Jeera (cumin seeds) – 1 tbsp

Cardamom – 1 or powder – ½ tbsp.

Bay leaves – 1

Mint leaves – 4-5

Chilli powder – 1 tbsp

Dhania powder – 1 tbsp

Amchur powder – 1 tbsp

Garam masala powder – 1 tbsp

Turmeric powder – ½ tbsp

Milk – ¼ cup

Curd – 1tbsp

Milk cream (optional) – ½ tbsp

Asafoetida – 1 pinch

Salt – to taste

Coriander – for garnishing

Preparation of Paneer babycorn masala:

1. Heat 1 tbsp of ghee in a pan, add the paneer cubes and fry till it turns to very light brown colour. Remove from the pan and keep it aside.
2. Heat in medium flame 1 tbsp of oil or ghee in the same pan, add fennel, jeera (cumin seeds), bay leaves, mint leaves, cardamom and fry lightly.
3. Now add the tomato with some water and cook for 2 mins. Add the baby corn, chilli powder, dhania, amchur, garam masala powder, turmeric, asafoetida and salt. Cook for 5-10 mins. Add some more water if needed.
4. Now add the milk, curd, milk cream, cashews (grinded or shredded), tomato puree and cook for 3-5 mins till it becomes like gravy.
5. Now add the paneer, cook for a min and remove from flame. Garnish with coriander.

Serve with Naan or kulcha……

Additional Info:

You can avoid cashews if you want. It is just for a rich flavour.

You can also add peas to this.

Moong Dal Halwa

I love Halwa(s)…. I came to know this halwa through ICC (Indian Cooking Challenge). This is the dish selected for December Challenge. I tried it and came out really well. Thanks to Srivalli. Here’s the Recipe.

Moong Dal Halwa

Ingredients:

Moong Dal – 1 cup (soak in water overnight)

Sugar – 1 cup

Milk – ½ cup

Ghee – ½ cup

Cashews and raisins – for taste.

Preparation of Halwa:

1. Grind the soaked moong dal into a fine paste and keep it aside.
2. Heat ¼ cup ghee in a pan in medium flame, add cashews and raisins and fry lightly.
3. Add the moong dhal paste and mix well so that there will be no lumps.
4. Lower the flame, add another ¼ cup of ghee and mix well. Mix it till the dhal gets cooked and the ghee oozes out.
5. Add the sugar and milk and mix well till it become thick. Then pour it in a plate and allow it to cool.
6. After few mins you can cut it into pieces.

Additional Info:

Do not cook the dal in high flame. Dal will cook soon.

I thought of adding some colour like kesari colour, lemon yellow. But naturally it has a beautiful yellow colour.

Adai

Serves 10-15

Ingredients:

Raw rice – 1 cup

Toor dhal – ½ cup

Channa dhal – 2 tbsp

Urid dhal – 3 tbsp

Moong dhal – 2 tbsp

Red dry chillies – 15-20

Asafoetida – 1 pinch

Salt – to taste

Oil – for making adai

Preparation of Batter:

1. Soak raw rice in a bowl with hot water after rinsing for 1 hour.
2. Soak toor dhal, channa dhal, urid dhal, moong dhal, red chillies in a bowl with hot water for 1 hour.
3. After an hour, grind the raw rice first well and then add all the dhals (Items in 2^nd step).Add some water.
4. Grind them well like dosai batter. Then add salt and keep it aside.

Preparation of Adai:

1. Heat a tava in a medium flame. Once it is heated, pour batter with a cup shaped spatula and spread it to form a round shape.
2. Pour little oil around that and cook for 2 mins. Then turn to the other side and cook for another 2 mins.  Cook well till it turns to light brown colour. Follow the same procedure for the rest.

Have it with Jaggery, milagai podi or butter. But Avial is the famous combination of all.

Additional Info:

Some grind the dhals lightly and add it with the rice batter. But for kids and old people, it is difficult to digest. If you grind well, then it is suitable for all ages.

You can also add green chillies to the batter.

Eggless Fruit Cake

I was thinking what to do for my Husband’s B’day. We are strict vegetarians. I wanted to try a cake. So I tried this and it came out really well. My husband loved it. There is no oven with me, so I tried it in the pressure cooker. It was perfect. My husband enjoyed his b’day with this homemade tasty cake. This is my first attempt. Now I’m planning to try all kinds of cakes. Chocolate, vanilla etc……. Look out for my posts.

Try it and enjoy!!!!!!!!!

Ingredients:

All purpose flour (maida) – 1 cup

Powdered sugar – ½ cup

Butter – ¼ cup

Baking soda – 1 tbsp

Dates – 5 – 10 pieces (cut into small pieces)

Mixed Tutty fruity – ½ cup

Milk – ½ cup

Salt – 1 pinch

For Greasing:

Butter – 1 tbsp

Maida flour – 1 tbsp

Preparation of Mixture:

1. Sieve maida, salt, baking soda and then keep it aside.
2. Take a bowl, add powdered sugar and butter and beat well for 5 mins with a blender or with a spatula by hand for 7-10 mins.
3. After it is mixed well, add the sieved flour mixture and mix it to form dough.
4. Once it is mixed, add milk little by little to the mixture and mix it till it becomes like a thick paste. Beat the mixture well for 2 mins.
5. Now add the dates pieces and tutty fruity to it and beat for another 2 mins.

Preparation of cake in pressure cooker:

1. Take aluminum or a stainless steel vessel. Grease it with butter and just spread the flour over it.
2. Now pour water in a pressure cooker and heat it in high flame for 2 mins.
3. Pour the mixture in to the greased vessel. Do not place the greased vessel directly into the cooker. Take a small bowl with little water in it and place it in the cooker. Now keep the greased vessel above the small bowl and close the pressure cooker without the whistle. Do not close the greased vessel.
4. Now reduce the flame to low and leave it to cook for 35 – 40 mins.
5. After 40 mins remove from flame and allow it to cool for few mins, then just invert the vessel so that the cake come out in a proper shape. Decorate it as you wish.

Additional Info:

After 30 mins open the pressure cooker lid and check whether the cake is cooked. You can do that by inserting a thin stick to it. When you take out, there shouldn’t be any sticky paste.

Make sure it is not overcooked. 35 mins is perfect. If you feel it needs some more time keep it for 40  mins.

If you have a hot plate, after you heat the cooker in full flame reduce the flame to 4 or 3 and leave the cake to cook for 30 – 35 mins.

Tomato Thokku

Serves 2

Ingredients:

Tomatoes (thakaali) – 5 (grinded or finely chopped)

Chilli powder or Sambhar powder – 1 ½ tbsp

Mustard seeds – 1 tbsp

Urid dhal – 1 tbsp

Jeera (cumin seeds) – 1 tbsp

Turmeric powder – 1 tbsp

Asafoetida – pinch

Curry leaves (optional) – 5 – 6

Oil – 2 tbsp

Salt – to taste

Coriander – for garnishing

Preparation of Thokku:

1. Heat oil in a pan and add mustard seeds.
2. After it crackles, add urid dhal, jeera, curry leaves, asafoetida and fry lightly.
3. Now add the chopped or grinded tomatoes with some little water to cook.
4. Add chilli or sambhar powder, turmeric powder and salt. Mix well.
5. Cook it for 10 – 15 mins in a medium flame.
6. When it starts to thickens, lower the flame. Stir it occasionally and cook till it becomes a thick paste. Remove from flame and garnish with coriander.

Additional Info:

You can add some tomato puree (3-4 tbsp) just for some added taste.

You can have this with Dosai, Idly, adai. You can even mix this with plain rice and enjoy the tomato rice.

Pudhina Paratha

Serves 2

Ingredients:

Wheat Flour – 2 cups

Maida (all purpose flour) – 1 cup

Pudhina(Mint leaves) – 1 ½ cup (finely chopped)

Jeera (cumin seeds) – 3 tbsp (optional)

Baking soda – 1 pinch

Water – To knead

Salt – to taste

Oil or Ghee – for cooking parathas

Preparation of Pudhina Paratha:

1. Heat 2 tbsp ghee in a small pan, add jeera (optional), chopped pudhina, fry for a min and keep it aside.
2. Take a big bowl or basin, add wheat flour, maida, fried pudhina, baking soda, salt and mix well.
3. Add water and oil little by little and knead the flour by hand till it becomes soft dough. Close the bowl or basin and leave it for 15 – 20 mins.
4. After that, make medium size balls. Take a ball, dip it in wheat flour on both sides and roll it over a clean surface to make a 2 inch circle.
5. Now roll the circle from one end to join the other end so that it will be like a pipe. Now place one end of the pipe shaped dough in the surface and hold it tightly by one hand.  By the other hand, hold the 2^nd end and roll it tightly in clock wise along the side of the first end. It’s like making swirls. Now it will be round again. Repeat this process twice. This will help in getting layered paratha.
6. Now finally, roll it to make a 4 – 5 inch circle. Do the same for all dough balls.
7. Heat tava well in medium flame, put a paratha and add 1 tbsp oil or ghee on sides and cook for a min. Turn it on other side and cook for a min. Take out when both sides are cooked well and repeat the same for all.

Serve hot………………

Additional Info:

You can avoid the 5^th step, if you are not particular about layered paratha.

You can also add chopped coriander with mint leaves, just to add flavor.