Blueberry Muffins

Ingredients

All purpose flour- 2 1/2 cups

sugar- 1 or 1 1/4 cup

baking powder- 1 1/2 tsp
baking soda- 1 tsp
salt- 1/8 tsp

blueberries(fresh or frozen)- 1 1/2 cups

butter- 1/4 cup

eggs- 2

oil- 1/4 cup

milk- 3/4 cup

yogurt- 1/4 cup

vanilla essence- 1 - 2 tsp

Method

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and grease the muffin tray.

Powder the sugar and sift it along with flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.

Bring the butter to room temperature and whisk it well . Add eggs to it and whisk again. Add oil, milk , yogurt, and vanilla essence to it and whisk everything well. You can use the hand mixer at low level too.

Toss the blueberries with a tbsp of flour ( so that the bluberries do not sink at the bottom of the muffins) and set aside.

Mix the flour mixture to the wet mixture with a rubber spatula. Do not whisk or beat the mixture at this stage as the muffins would turn out harder. Just mix them gently and fold in the blueberries. Be careful not to squish them.

Fill in the batter to the greased muffin pan until 3/4 th .

Bake for 15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the muffin comes out clean.

Cool them in wire racks.

note

I used 1 cup of sugar ,but felt the sweet content was less and so next time i would surely go for 1 1/4 cups.

Ven Pongal

Ingredients

Rice- 1 cup

split/yellow moong dal- 1/2 cup

cashews-a few broken into small pieces or halved

cumin-seeds- 1tsp

pepper- 1 tsp

green chillies- 1slited

ginger - a small piece chopped finely

asafoetida- a couple of pinches

curry leaves- a few

salt to taste

oil-1tbsp

ghee- 1 tbsp

Method

Dry roast the dal lightly for a couple of minutes till a nice aroma comes and set aside. Be careful not to turn it brown.

Heat oil and ghee in a pressure cooker and when hot add the cashews,pepper, cumin, ginger,green chilli ,curry leaves and asafoetida. Keep in a low flame and make sure nothing gets burnt.

Add the dal and the washed rice to it and then add 4 cups of water . Check salt and pressure cook it. ( As we add more water for this , most of the time the water overflows . To avoid this I follow this method: partly cover with a lid, turn on high flame and let it boil. After some time when the rice , dal and water are in even consistency ,close with a lid. When steam comes add weight and simmer for 15 minutes.)

When the steam subsides completely,open the cooker and mix it well so that it gets mashed lightly.

Serve hot with sambar or coconut chutney.

Note

You can pressure cook the dal and rice and then do the seasonings finally too.

Vegetable Upma

Ingredients

rava- 2 cups

onion- 1 chopped finely

tomato- 1 chopped finely

green chillies-2 slitted

ginger- 1 small piece chopped finely

carrot-1 chopped finely

beans- 6-8 chopped finely

peas- 1/2 cup

capsicum-1/4 chopped finely

potato-1 chopped finely

cooked channa- 1/4 cup

turmeric powder- 1/4 tsp or less

chilli powder- 1/4 tsp or acc to taste

garam masala powder- 1/4 tsp

coriander leaves- a few chopped finely

salt to taste

Seasonings

oil- 2 to 3 tbsp

mustard seeds- 1/4 tsp

split urad dal- 1/4 tsp

channa dal- 1/2 tsp

cashews halved- 5

asafoetida- little

curry leaves- a few

Method

Dry roast the rava in a heavy bottomed pan for a couple of minutes till the raw smell disappears.

Transfer the rava in a different plate and keep aside.

Heat oil in the same pan and add mustard seeds, cashews, channa dal, urad dal, curry leaves and asafoetida one by one.

When the cashews turn golden brown , add the chopped onions, green chillies and ginger. Then add the chopped tomatoes, fry for some time and then add all the chopped veggies .

Saute for sometime and add salt, turmeric, chilli , garam masala powders and 1/2 cup of water to it.

Simmer the flame and close the pan with a lid .When all the veggies are cooked, add 2 cups of water and the roasted rava (1:1 ratio). Mix well and close with the lid for a minute. Upma is ready now... serve hot with chutney or pickle.

Bombay Sweet Toast

Sorry for not posting for a long time... Will try to post atleast a few recipes in a month.

This is a very simple , yet tasty recipe...loved to share with you all.

Ingredients

Round Rusks- 10

milk- 2 cup

sugar-3 tbsp or to taste

ghee- 1/4 cup or to taste

Method

Boil the milk in a wide vessel. Add sugar to it and mix well.

Dip the rusks one by one for a couple of seconds and keep seperately in a plate.

Heat the tava and arrange 3 to 4 rusks in it. Melt ghee and add it liberally to the sides and the centre. Flip it over add little ghee and cook till golden brown on both sides.

Serve hot for an evening snack. Kids will love it!!!

Bell pepper (capsicum) Rice

Ingredients

Basmathi/Raw rice- 2 cups

1/2 of each green, yellow , red and orange bellpeppers

or

green bellpepper-2 small ,cut into thin slices

onion-1 cut into thin strips

ginger-a small piece chopped finely

Turmeric powder- 1 0r 2 pinch

salt to taste

coriander leaves- a few chopped finely

To Grind

copra (dry coconut)-2 tsp

red chilli- 1

coriander seeds- 1 tsp

channa dal-1 tsp

urad dal- 1tsp

cinnamon- a small piece

cloves-2

saunf- 1/4 tsp

slightly dry roast the dals alone and grind all this into a coarse powder.

To Season

oil- 2tbsp

mustard seeds- 1/4 tsp

chana dal- 1/4 tsp

peanuts- a few

cashews - a few

curry leaves- a few

Method

Cook rice and set aside to cool down.

Heat oil in a pan and add all the items for seasoning. when the cashews and peanuts turn golden brown add chopped onions and ginger . Fry for sometime and when the onions become transparent add the sliced bellpeppers.

Fry for a couple of minutes in high heat and add the ground masala , salt and turmeric powder.

Fry till the oil comes out on top and then add the cooked Rice.

Mix well and garnish with chopped coriander leaves.

Serve hot with chips and raita.

note

Sometimes instead of dry roasting the dals , I add a tsp of idli podi and it sure enhances the taste.

Adai Dosa

It's been a long time since my last post... I went to India for a few weeks , had been busy with other things for the past three months, and now Iam ready to start posting . Adai dosai is a popular tiffin in Tamilnadu and I hope You all like this simple yet tasty recipe.

Ingredients

Raw rice-1/2 cup

Boiled rice or Idly rice- 1/2 cup

channa dal - 1/2 cup

toor dal- 1/4 cup

urad dal- 1/4 cup

red chillies- 4 to 5 or acc to taste

onion-1 chopped finely ( u can use sambar onions too)

curry leaves- a few chopped finely

coconut- 2 tsps grated(optional)

asafoetida- a pinch

salt - to taste

garlic-1 small clove (optional)

Method

Wash and soak the rice and dals for 2 to 3 hours.

Grind it along with salt, asafoetida, coconut ,red chillies and salt into a coarse paste by adding little water.The batter should not be thin and should be thicker than the dosa batter.Add the onions and curry leaves to the batter and mix it well.

Heat the tava, pour a ladleful of the batter and spread it thick.Drizzle some oil on the sides and flip over when it is golden brown.

Serve hot with coconut chutney or avial.

Note:

If you want the adai to be more crispy add 3/4-1 cupof channa dal and 1-2 tbsp each of toor and urad dal.

If you want the adai to be more healthy , you can add more dals like masore and moong dals too.

You can cut the coconut into teeth like pieces and add to the batter along with onions(instead of grinding).

Mysurpa & Ribbon Pakoda - Happy Diwali

WISH YOU ALL A VERY HAPPY DIWALI !!!!

Sree Krishna Mysurpa is very famous in Tamilnadu. Unlike the traditional mysurepauk which is porous and a bit hard, this one is soft and melts in ur mouth. I searched for the recipe of mysurpa in the net and Jayashree Govindarajan's recipe attracted me. It was really surprising that this recipe turned out great and melted in my mouth almost like SKS mysurpa. I completely followed her recipe. She had written in tamil and so Iam giving her recipe in English. Thanks Jayashree for the wonderful recipe. I hope you guys would love to try it out sometime.

Ingredients

Gramflour- 1 cup

sugar- 2 1/2 cups

ghee- 2 1/2 cups

Method

Sift the gram flour in a fine seive and dry roast in a pan for 2-3 minutes.

Melt the ghee and keep it ready.

Heat the sugar and water(just add enough water to cover the sugar) in a thick bottomed kadai or a non stick pan for a couple of minutes, until the sugar dissolves completely.

Now add the gram flour slowly in small amounts stirring continuosly so that no lumps are formed. (use a wire whisk if lumps are formed)

When the gram flour starts to boil start adding the ghee little by little.(u can add all the ghee in 4-5 batches). Make sure the flame is simmered and it is important to stir continuously.

After you finish adding all the ghee, continue stirring for some time until the mixture thickens and forms one huge lump without sticking to the sides of the pan. The mixture at this stage will start to become slightly porous and will be in light golden colour.

Its the right time and so remove from fire and quickly pour it on a greased plate. press with a flat bottomed bowl or a spatula evenly. Cut into rectangles or any desired stage when hot.

note

Try making this with pure ghee. If u feel 2 1/2 cups is too much of ghee, you can reduce to 2 cups.

Ribbon Pakoda

Ingredients

Rice flour -4 cups
chutney dal(roasted chana dal/daliya)- 1 cup
Asafoetida- 1/4 tsp
salt to taste
butter- 4 to 5 tsp
chillie powder-2 tsp or acc to taste
oil for deep frying

Method

Grind the chutneydal in the mixie and sieve it. Mix riceflour,dal powder, butter, chilli powder, salt, asafoetida and add enough water to make it into a soft dough. Heat oil in a pan and squeeze the dough from the murukku press(place the mould/plate used for ribbon pakoda) into big circles. Deep fry the pakodas , drain it in paper towel and store in airtight containers when cooled.

Happy to send these recipes to

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