Milagu Idly

Milagu idly is a slightly different version of Kanchipuram idli. My Mother-in-law used to make this often on sundays. This is usually made in glasses so also called as glass/tumbler idly.

Ingredients

Idly batter - 2 cups

Peppercorns - 2 tsp

Jeera - 2tsp

Curry leaves

Asafetdia - a pinch

Oil - 2 tsp

Procedure

Fry all the peppercorns, jeera, asafetida and curry leaves in oil.

Mix this with idly batter.

Pour the mixed idly batter in greased idly plates or in mini glasses.

Steam it in pressure cooker.

Serve the hot idlis with any chutney or milagai podi.

Ragi Roti

I used to prepare this for breakfast often. Usually I make this with only ragi flour, the usual way, but then tried this version with boiled potatoes recently. I find this easier to make and ofcourse more tastier. My daughter definitely loves this one more!

Ingredients:
Ragi flour - 2 cups
Boiled potato - 1
Chopped onions - 1 cup
Green chilly - 2-3nos as required
Curry leaves
Chopped corrainder leaves - 1/4 cup
Salt as required.

Mash the boiled potatoes nicely. Mix all the ingredients together. Add water and make a smooth dough. Make equal sized balls. Keep a wet clean cloth on a flat surface (I use the backside of a flat plate which makes it easier for me) .Place this ball on it and press it with hand to make round shaped rotis (not very thin or too thick). Remove the roti and place it on hot pan. Add oil and cook it nicely both the sides.
You can serve it with coconut chutney or tomato sauce. It tastes good even without anything (as I did). You can sprinkle some cheese on top to make it appealing for kids :-)

Homemade paneer pizza

My daughter loves pizza and demands it often these days. I'm just not happy to give her the ready ones. So I wanted to try make pizza at home. I took this receipe orginally from Rak's kitchen and made slight modifications to that. My daughter likes paneer and so added paneer as the main topping. It turned out good. Here goes the receipe.
Ingredients:
Pizza sauce:
Tomato pulp or finely chopped tomatoes - 1 cup
cut onions -1/4 cup
garlic cloves -2
corrainder leaves
chilli powder - 1/2 tsp
Salt

Method
Add little onion in the pan and fry garlic for few minutes, add onion let it get cooked till soft.
Add the tomato pulp, chilli powder, salt and let it reduce to half. Switch off the stove.

Add corrainder leaves and once the mixture gets cooled, grind it to a fine paste.

Topping:
Onion 1/2
Tomato 1/2,Chopped, De-seeded.
Capsicum 1/2,chopped
Paneer As needed
Mozzarella cheese - For topping

Pizza base:

All purpose flour - 1& 1/2 cups

Active dry yeast - 3/4 tblsp

Milk -1/4 cup

Water -1/4 cup

Sugar - 1 tsp

Salt - 3/4 tsp

cooking oil -1/8 cup

Method:

Mix active yeast in warm water and leave it for 10 minutes.
In a broad vessel add flour, sugar, salt and oil and mix it well.

Add the milk and yeast mixture in this to make a smooth dough.

Cover this with a damp cloth and leave it in a warm place for an hour or so.

The dough will raise to double its size.

Press the dough and roll it to desired size. You can make two small size pizzas or a medium one.
Now apply the pizza sauce prepared and arrange the toppings.

Cover it with grated cheese as desired.

Preheat the oven for 210 degree celsius and bake it for 10-12 mins (till the cheese turns golden brown) .

Kids Special - Colorful Mini Chapati

I was just thinking of a fun way to have food for kids. But I was only planning for chapati for dinner. Then got an idea and made it colorful and in different shapes too. This is a healthy than the regular chapatis and inviting too. My kid always refuses to take any side-dish and eats the chapati alone. For the colorful chapatis, I didn't have to worry abt making him have side dish as this had all vegetables in itself. After dinner I was proud of giving a nutrious meal. To make it more appealing I made different shapes using cookie cutter and my kid was the first to come to the dining table today.

Ingredients:

Chapati flour - 3 cups (have each 1 cup separately)

Boiled and ground carrot puree - 1 cup
Boiled and ground peas puree - 1 cup
Boiled and ground beetroot puree - 1 cup
Salt
Oil
Water - if needed

Procedure:

1. Take 1 cup of flour and add salt as required and mix well. To this add the carrot puree little by little as needed and knead well to a soft dough. This is for orange chapatis

2. Take 1 cup of flour and add salt as required and mix well. To this add the peas puree little by little as needed and knead well to a soft dough. This is for green (slight) chapatis. For more green options try out spinach/ cilantro/mint leaves.

3. Take 1 cup of flour and add salt as required and mix well. To this add the beetroot puree little by little as needed and knead well to a soft dough. This is for red chapatis

4. Make balls of the dough and roll them as we do for regular chapatis. Then take cookie cutter and cut the rolled dough to make different shaped mini versions of colorful chapatis. You can also use any utensils cap/cups with sharp ends to get the shapes.

5. Heat tawa and place them in a batch. Add oil and flip over as we make regular chapatis.

6. Serve them hot. Healthy Colorful chapatis are ready for kids
 

Schezwan vegetable noodles

I am always a fan of schezwan foods. And when I came across the recipe, I was quite excited to try this. Bcos I never thought we can get the taste of Schezwan Vegetable noodles at home. It turned out fabulous and my hubby's comments were spectacular too. You can try the same ingredients with rice for Schezwan Fried rice too.

Ingredients:

Cooked noodles - 2 cups (cook noodles as per the instructions)
Mix vegetables (carrot, peas, beans, cabbage, peppers) - cut them as long thin slices
Spring onions - 1/2 cup
Salt
Oil - 2 tbsp

Schezwan Sauce
Red chilies - 5 (soak for 2 hrs)
Garlic cloves - 4
Soy sauce - 2 tsp
Vinegar - 1 tsp



Procedure:

1. Wash the cooked noodles and make sure they are separate. mix oil if needed

2. Grind the ingredients under sauce to a paste

3. Heat oil in a pan and add mix veggies and fry them well. Once they r half cooked add the sauce, salt and blackpepper(if needed).

4. Mix well then add the noodles and saute well.

5. Finally add spring onions and leave some for garnishing while serving

6. Enjoy ur schezwan noodles

Kodubale

I remember having this snack in my childhood but I had forgot its name until recently wen I bought this snack from Indian grocery. I wanted to try this at home and found a recipe @ Aayis recipes. The taste was good but not as very good as the store bought one. Also few rings turned dark in the beginning bcos of the heat. So I reduced the heat later and then it came well. I thought adding rava/sooji also makes it turn dark soon. So next time, I'm planning to try it without sooji.

If you have enough time and patience its worth trying this as it took a lot of time for rolling the rings; maybe I was slow...:) . I'm  happy that my kid also helped me in making some rings and he made his own shapes of alphabets.

Ingredients:

1 cups rice flour
1/2 cup maida (all purpose flour)
1/2 cup rava/sooji
1 tea spn moong dal
1 tea spn urad dal
1 tea spn chana dal
3 red chillies
2 tea spns dry coconut (kobbari)
1 tea spn coriander seeds
1 tea spn cumin seeds
Oil
Salt

Procedure:

Dry roast rice flour, maida(all purpose flour), rava/sooji for few minutes and keep it aside.

Heat oil and add moong dal, urad dal, chana dal, red chillies, coriander seeds, cumin seeds, coconut for few minutes. Take care not to burn anything. Grind to a smooth paste using just enough water.

Add the paste to the flour mixture. Add salt, 1 tbsp hot oil and make a dough. Add water if needed

Make small balls of the dough and roll them as thin strings and join them at the ends to make a circle.
Make the rings ready and fry them in oil on medium heat. They get soft if they are not fried well, so make sure to fry them till they are little dark in color.

Store in air tight container.

 

Mini Jangri

Jangri is my favorite sweets back in my childhood. The cripsy outside and juicy inside makes me mouth-watering even now. I found this recipe when I was browsing for some Diwali sweets.

I actually wanted to make the bigger ones but I cudn't get that perfect shape. It started to float on oil before I finished to squeeze them. So I made them as mini ones following Spicy Treats. Believe me the taste was good except for the size. Also they were a little thin I think bcos of the hole size. But it was a great surprise for my family.

Ingredients

Urad dal - 1 cup
Rice flour - 1 tbsp
Orange food color - a generous pinch
salt - a pinch

For sugar syrup
Sugar 1 cup
Water 1 cup
Lemon juice few drops

Proceudre:

Sugar syrup:
1. Add water to a vessel and add sugar to it. Keep stirring till it dissolves and boil for half string consistency. This should take around 8-10 minutes. Once it reaches this consistency add few drops of lemon juice and turn it off.
2. You can add a drop of rose essence or cardamom powder to this syrup for flavor.

Jangri:
1. Soak Urad dal for 4-5 hrs (I soaked overnight) and grind it in mixer to a smooth paste with very little water (make sure not to add too much water as we do for medhu vadas)

2. To this ground paste add a pinch of salt, rice flour and food color and mix well. The batter should be thick and if dropped in water should float. If it gets watery add a little more of rice flour.

3. Take a clean new zip lock bag(use the freezer bags as they r thick) and in the center make a whole using hot nail in such a way the whole get sealed and it will tear while squeezing.

4. Then using spatula keep the urad dal batter to the zip lock and bring all dough together and hold on the top or tie using a rubber band.(like we do for henna cone or pastry bag with icing)

5. Now heat oil in a wide pan on medium low. Squeeze the batter directly in to the hot oil randomly (like we do for murukku) .based on your size of the pan, fry 5-10 mini jangris at a time.

6. Turn them frequently and fry till it turns crisp n well done. Drain it from oil and transfer it to the prepared warm sugar syrup.

7. Repeat the same for all remaining batter. Let the mini jangri rest in the sugar syrup for at least 1 hour for fine taste n texture.


Points to note:

Use little water for grinding urad dal. While grinding, turn off the grinder frequently to avoid the batter becoming hot
If you feel your batter to be little watery then add 2-3 tsp of rice flour mix well n use.
Sugar syrup should be warm not hot syrup.
Oil should not be too hot.It should be medium hot. I turned off the heat while removing a batch of jangri, squeezed the next batch and then turned it on so that the oil was not hot while squeezing the jangris.