Aratikaya Vepudu (Green Plantain/ Green Banana Fry)

Spring is the best time to get all fresh Green Vegetables … Especially the colors of Vegetables make me so happy and always want to retain their originality while cooking. I use very little spices in most of my Stir Fried recipes. I prefer Green Banana because of its nutritional values. It is a very rich source of Potassium, Magnesium and contains Omega-3. It tastes like Potato so I always cook green plantain for my dad instead of Potato. This is a very simple recipe but tastes so delicious.

Recipe as follows:
Ingredients:
Green Plantains / Bananas : 2 in number
Onion / Shallot – 1 small – Cut into small pieces
Green Chilies – 2 Washed, and cut into very small pieces
Ginger – 1 small piece (peel the skin off, chop into small pieces)
Fresh Coriander/ Cilantro leaves - for garnishing
Jeera & Mustard Seeds – 1 spoon
Red Chilli – 1 small
Senaga pappu / Chana Dal – ½ Spoon
Urad Dal – ½ Spoon
Salt – as per taste
Turmeric – a pinch (Optional)
Oil – 3 spoons
Water to boil
Karivepaku (Curry Leaves) – 5 (Optional)

Boil the water by adding 1 tbsp of salt into it. Cut the banana into half. Place the banana into boiling water and let it boil for 10 mins. Remove the bananas from hot water. Let it get cool or you can run the bananas under cold water to get cool. Remove the Skin and cut into small pieces. Take a pan, add Oil. When Oil get hot, add Mustard seeds, Jeera seeds, Red chilli, Chana Dal, Urad Dal. Let it fry for 2 mins, and then add sliced onions, chopped ginger, chopped green chillies. Saute for 2 mins and add Banana pieces in the oil. Add salt, turmeric and stir. Cook with lid for 5 mins in low medium heat. Remove the lid, and stir on high heat constantly for 2 mins. Add chopped Cilantro. Turn off the heat and take into a separate bowl. Serve it with Hot Rice or Roti. It is a best side dish with Sambar or Dal Rice. Enjoy !!!

Yard Long Green Beans - Potato Stir Fry

It took for a while for me to cook Yard Long beans. Whenever I go to Indian or Chinese stores, I always wonder what kind of vegetable it is. I see many Indians buy this vegetable, but I don’t know what it is and don’t know how to cook. Last week when I was in Indian groceries, someone asked me about this vegetable. Instead of saying I DON’T KNOW, I simply mentioned that it’s a different kind of beans, can be cooked just like beans. Then I thought, I should try the same way. I added Aloo/ Potato in the fry for safer side, just in case if beans don’t come well, I can still eat Aloo... haha.. But it really came out very well… Here is recipe of this simple dish.

Ingredients:
Yard Long Green Beans – 1 bunch (Wash, Cut into small pieces)
Potatoes – 2 small (Peel and chop into small pieces)
Onion – 1 small (Remove the skin, cut into small pieces)
Garlic cloves – 2 (chopped)
Vegetable / Canola Oil – 2 tbl spoon
Mustard Seeds & Jeera/ Cumin Seeds – 1 tea spoon
Red Chillies – 1
Urad Dal – ½ spoon
Bengal Gram / Chana Dal – ½ spoon
Curry leaves – 3
Grated Coconut – 1 spoon (Optional)
Salt – according to taste
Turmeric – a pinch
Red Chilli Powder – 1 spoon or as per the spice level
Boil the water and add cut Yard long beans. Parboil the beans and remove the water. Keep aside. Take a Pan, Add Oil, let the oil get medium hot. Add mustard Seeds, Cumin seeds, Urad Dal, red chilli. Fry till all the ingredients turns lightly brown. Add chopped Garlic, Chopped Potato, Salt, and Turmeric. Fry till 5-10 mins on medium heat or till Potatoes get little soft. Add Onions, Par Boiled Yard long green beans to the potatoes. Stir Fry on High Heat for 3 mins. Add grated coconut and red chilli powder on 2 mins. Serve with Roti or Rice. Enjoy !!!

Watermelon Juice

Watermelon Juice:
For sure now It's summer here  We are in 99-100 from past two days. AC did not work at my home today. What to do? I didn’t realize that AC is not working… I simply thought its because too hot temperatures, it is taking some time to cool. It is so hot, so whats better other than Watermelon. I made simple fresh watermelon juice. I really like the sweetness of watermelon itself so I didn’t add any additional sugar or honey. Here is the simple recipe of the best summer cooler:

Slice Watermelon into small cubes – 2 cups
Mint – Optional
Lemon Juice – Optional

Blend Watermelon with a blender. Add 1 tbl spoon of lemon juice if you want. Serve it chill by keeping in Refrigerator or add icecubes and serve it cool.

Palli Podi (Peanut Powder)

Palli Podi / VeruSenaga Pappula Podi (Peaput Powder):

Palli podi is common dish in our family. We use this powder as an alternative to Chutney. My mom used to make a big jar of powder, and we used to eat in our every day breakfast or with meals. It is best dish can be served with Upma, Roti, Poori, and Pongal etc.,

Ingredients:

Raw peanuts (Preferably with shell) – 2 cups

Dry Red Chilli – 15 in number (I prefer Indian chillis, Spice can be adjusted according to the taste)

Salt – Accoding to taste

Garlic Cloves – 3

Roast the raw peanuts into brown color by using a pan. Cool them and remove the skin. Roast Dry Chillies for 2 mins. Add peanuts, drychillies and salt into mixer/grinder and grind into coarse powder. Add garlic into the mix and grind for 1 min. Remove from Mixer and store in a clean, dry jar. It stays for a month or two. You can also add a table spoon of toasted cumin for taste, but it’s optional.

Raw Mango Rice (Mamidi Kaya Pulihora)

We see Raw mangoes very rarely in our place. This weekend when I went groceries, luckily I found raw mangoes. Mango rice is very simple and delicious dish. Perfect for hot summer days, where I really don’t feel like to spend much time in Kitchen.

Ingredients:

2 cups of cooked rice (Left over rice would be best option for this recipe)

Peeled, grated Raw Mango – 1 cup

Peanuts – 2 spoons

Cashews – 2 spoons

Ginger – a small piece chopped into small pieces

for Tadka, Popu:

Chana dal – ½ spoon

Urad Dal – ½ spoon

Jeera & Mustard seeds – ½ spoon

Methi seeds – ¼ spoon

Dried Red chillies – 3

Green chilles – 3 Slit into two pieces

Oil – 3 spoons

Turmeric – a pinch

Salt – according to taste

curry leaves – 5 or 6

Cilantro or Coriander leaves – for garnishing

Heat oil in pan, and add mustard seeds and jeera seeds. Let it splatter, add Chana dal, urad dal, Methi seeds, red chillies, green chillies, peanuts and cashews. Add salt and turmeric to the oil. Toss them for few seconds. Add curry leaves, grated ginger, stir for 2 seconds. Add grated mango and fry it for 5 mins. Turn off heat and keep it aside. Mix with the left over rice, make sure the grains are separated. Use your hand or wide spoon to make sure the mango mix missed with the rice. Garnish with chopped cilantro. Serve it with Papad or Curd.

Mixed Vegetable Curry

This recipe is a quick and easy whenever I feel like having homemade delicious food but absolutely do not have patience to be in kitchen for more than 5-10 mins. I just use whatever the vegetables available in my fridge/ freezer and masala available in the pantry. To make this quick, all you need to have pressure cooker. You can also prepare in a regular pan, but it takes some time to cook the vegetables. I generally use pressure cooker to make my cooking fast and nutritious. I keep frozen rotis handy, or rice. This goes well with Rice or Roti. Here is the recipe which I made today.

Ingredients:

Potatoes – 2 medium (Wash, Peel and Cut into small cubes)

Any mixed vegetables ( I used Beans , Carrots, Peas)- 2 cups

Onion – 1 medium (peel, chop into small pieces)

Tomato – 1 Medium (Wash, cut into small pieces)

Garam Masala – 1 spoon

Ginger Garlic Paste – 1 Spoon

Coriander Powder – 1 spoon

Chilli Powder – 1 spoon (according to taste)

Turmeric – a pinch

Salt – as per taste

Oil – 2 spoons (I use Canola Oil) Cumin and mustard seeds – 1 spoon for Tadka

Bay Leaf – 1 (Optional)

Coriander leaves / Cilantro – 1 small spoon chopped, for garnishing

Heat the oil in the pressure cooker, add cumin and mustard seeds. Add chopped onions and let it fry till golden brown. Add ginger garlic paste and bay leaf, fry for a min. Add the vegetables, salt, turmeric, coriander powder, chili powder, Garam Masala powder. Stir the vegetables and let it fry in the spices for 2 mins. Add tomatoes, little water (1/4 glass), stir it gently. Close the lid, and cook on High flame for 5-8 mins (Till 2 whistles.). Remove the lid after steam goes off. Sprinkle chopped cilantro, serve it with Chapathi or Rice.

Kitchen Decoration with Lemon & Rosemary

Lemon & Rosemary Decoration:

One of the natural Kitchen's Deodorizer

Dibba Rotti (Pan Cakes with Rice batter)

Ingredients:

Urad Dal – 1 cup

Idli Rava – 3 cups

Jeera – 2 tsp

Salt – for taste

Oil – 2 spoons

Soak the Urad Dal and Idli Rava for 4 hours. Grind Urad dal into a smooth batter. Add little water if required. Now mix the ground urad dhall and soaked rice rava thoroughly in a large bowl. Add salt and jeera and mix well. Take a heavy bottom pan, slightly grease the pan with Oil. Pour two spoons of batter. Close the pan with lid and allow to cook for 5 mins on a medium flame. Remove the lid, flip the pan cake / rotti on the other side and allow it to fry for 3-4 mins. Do not close the lid when you are frying the other side. Remove and serve with Coconut chutney or Idli Powder. This can become an evening snack and also can be made with left over idli batter.