Ingredients:

Slit open the bottom portion of eggplants like "X" until 1/2 inch left near stem. Do not take out the top portion. Stuff the eggplants with the ground paste. Heat oil in a fry pan and shallow fry the eggplants on low flame until done. Cook the eggplants evenly on all sides. Set aside.

Heat oil in a pan, add onions and curry leaves and cook until onion turns light brown. Add ginger garlic paste and saute until raw smell goes. Add tomatoes and cook until it becomes soft. Add tamarind juice, red chilli powder, turmeric powder and salt and bring it to a boil. Add the Stuffed eggplants and any remaining ground paste. Cook until oil separates. Finish off with jaggery (in case, if the dish is too hot). Add chopped cilantro. Serve hot with rotis and rice.

Beet bunch (Beet root with greens) is always a must buy item in my shopping list, whenever I visit the Farm Market. My farm market has them always fresh, that I buy beet root as a bunch and not loose. Apart from making curries and gravies using beet root, I also use the Beet greens in my dishes. I usually add beet greens with spinach in most of my cooking. This time I tried making this curry and believe me it was so good. Especially, adding black pepper to the curry gave a very good taste!

Coming to the recipe,

Ingredients:

Wash and chop beet greens. Chop carrots into small pieces. Heat oil in a pan, add mustard seeds and when it splutters, add urad dal. Add carrots and cook until carrots are half done. Add the chopped beet greens, asafoetida and salt. Cook for 2 mins. Sprinkle some water if required. Add the ground powder and mix well.

I wish all the visitors of Chandrabhaga, A VERY COLORFUL, JOYFUL AND WONDERFUL DIWALI. May the year ahead be as "Sweet" as the Sweets, as "Bright" as the Lights and as "Cheerful" as the Crispy snacks. Have a wonderful celebration!

Coming to the recipes, this year I made Badusha and Boondi laddu for Sweets, and Murukku and Thattai for Snacks.


Badusha

Ingredients:

• All purpose flour - 2 cups
• Butter - 1 stick (8 tbsp), softened
• Baking Soda - A pinch
• Sugar - 1 1/2 cups
• Cardamom - 2 or 3 crushed
• Saffron - A pinch
• Oil- for frying

How to make it:

Sieve the flour. Add the baking soda and mix well. Add the softened butter and knead for about 7-10 minutes, into a firm dough. Keep Covered for about 10 minutes. Mean while, make sugar syrup with little water to one-thread consistency. Add cardamom powder and saffron. Now, make small balls out of the dough. Press slightly to make a round shape. Make a small impression in the center and deep fry few at a time in hot oil on low flame. Cook on both sides evenly until it turns light brown. Drain oil and dip in sugar syrup for about 2-3 minutes. Let it cool on a wax paper.

Boondi Laddu

Ingredients:

• Besan Flour - 1 cup
• Rice Flour - 1 tbsp
• Sugar - 2 cups
• Cloves - about 6, crushed
• Cashews - Few, broken
• Diamond Kalkandu ( white rock sugar)- 2 tbsp
• Pachai karpooram (Raw Camphor) - a pinch
• Oil - for frying
  

How to make it:

Mix besan and rice flour with water and make into a pourable consistency. Heat oil in a pan, hold the ladle with small holes over the oil, pour the batter one ladle at a time. Fry boondi until done and take on to a paper towel and drain excess oil. Make sugar syrup to one-thread consistency. In a pan, fry cashews in little ghee. Pour the sugar syrup over the boondi in a big bowl and mix well. Add the crushed cloves, fried cashews and mix well. When it is slightly warm add the raw camphor and white rock sugar. Mix well. Grease hand with ghee and make balls out of it.


Thattai

Ingredients:

• Rice flour - 2 cups
• Moong dal - 1/4 cup
• Green chillies - 5
• Red chilli powder - 1 tbsp
• Asafoetida - 1/2 tsp
• Salt - as required
• Oil- for frying

How to make it:

Soak moong dal in water for about 15 minutes. Drain. Grind green chillies into a paste. Mix rice flour, moong dal, Green chilli paste, red chilli powder, salt and asafoetida together. Add water little by little and make into a dough. Grease a plastic cover with oil, Take small balls of dough and press to make a round shape. Drop on to hot oil and fry until golden brown. Drain excess oil. Let it cool and store in an air tight container.

Check out my other recipes for thattai here and here


Murukku

Ingredients:

• Rice flour - 1 1/2 cups
• Urad flour - 1 tbsp
• Green chilli paste - 1 tbsp
• Red chilli powder -1 tsp
• Salt - as required
• Asafoetida - 1/4 tsp
• Ajwain seeds - 1 tsp
• Oil - for frying

How to make it:

Mix all the above together with water and make a soft dough. Heat oil in a broad pan, using a murukku press make 4 or 5 murukku at a time over the oil and fry until golden brown on both sides. Drain excess oil and store in an air tight container.

How to make it:
Take a plate or bowl. Spread the tortilla chips. (My chips had a hint of lime. Absolutely... extra tasty!) Heat beans in microwave or stove top. Squeeze the beans on top of the chips. Add cheese salsa and hot sauce (Frank's red hot sauce). Slightly Warm in microwave. Top with shredded lettuce and chopped tomatoes. Serve!
Very easy to make and sure is delectable!

As a part of the Foodbuzz taste maker programme, Foodbuzz and Buitoni sent me a Coupon good for one "Buitoni Frozen Meal for Two". Being a vegetarian I wasn't sure if Buitoni has any vegetarian options. I went to the store and looked in the frozen foods aisle and to my surprise, i found something Vegetarian - "Four Cheese and Spinach Ravioli with Tomato Basil Sauce". As usual, checked for the ingredients and bought home. The next day being Father's day, my son made a cute photo collage for his dad and asked my help to prepare something special to celebrate the day!

Raviolis are the kind that i never make at home, but would love to eat at restaurants! I have tried other Store bought Frozen Raviolis before and none tasted good like the one we get in restaurants!

This Buitoni box had not just the raviolis but also a pouch (yes!, a food-safe plastic pouch) of yummy tomato-basil sauce to go with the raviolis. So, it is zero preparation time and just about 10 minutes of cooking time. I baked some store bought veggie nuggets to go along with this ravioli. And, i was so happy.... i had less time cooking and more time to spend with family and so my Son!
I cooked the raviolis as per the package instructions and tossed them with the sauce. (Next time shopping, i gotta look for this tomato basil sauce from Buitoni if it is available in a jar.... the taste was awesome!)

Next, gotta try Buitoni's Five Cheese Cannelloni with Tomato Basil Sauce!!
These definitely make a quick, easy and tasty meal!

Would be nice if they can introduce more Vegetarian options in Lasagna and other pasta varieties!!

Thank you Foodbuzz and Buitoni for giving me a wonderful opportunity trying this Buitoni product! Love it!

Vathal (Origin: Tamil) means any sort of Sun-dried veggies and Kuzhambhu (Origin: Tamil) means Gravy. Usually, as the name says, Vathal kuzhambhu is made either with sun-dried veggies or with onions. But, here i made it as a combination of Onions and Vathal in a spicy tamarind gravy.

Ingredients:

How to make it:

This is my Husband's recipe and he always says a big story about this snack that he enjoyed during his school days. He also says that the name of this snack is Thattuvada.. Which i never heard of. So i named it Thattai Delight! Do anybody know about this?

How to make it:

Both home-made thattai as well as store bought thattai can be used for making this evening snack. You can find the recipe for thattai here. Arrange thattai in a plate. In a bowl, mix onions, beetroot and carrot. Add salt, chilli powder and amchur powder. Add coconut oil and cilantro and mix well. Make thick mint chutney and keep it ready in a separate bowl. Take a tbsp of veggies and place it over the thattai. Do it for all the thattais. Add a little of mint chutney on top of it and cover it with another thattai. Take a bite and see how the plate goes empty in front of your eyes.... Enjoy!

Ingredients:

How to make it:
Cook spaghetti al dente with little salt. Wash in cold water. Drain the water completely. Set aside.
Cut asparagus into 1 inch pieces. Heat 1 tbsp oil in a pan, add the asparagus and saute on high flame. Add a dash of salt. Cook until it softens. Let it cool. Grind half of the asparagus with spinach and garlic cloves into a paste. Heat oil in a pan, add onions and fry until light brown. Add the ground paste and cook until raw smell goes. Add seasoning, red chilli flakes and the remaining asparagus. Add little salt. Add the cooked spaghetti. Mix well. Add monetary jack cheese and mozzarella cheese and fold it well. Serve hot with Parmesan cheese sprinkled on top.

I made this pulav over the weekend. The ingredients list may be too long with a little more work than making the regular rice varieties, but the pulav came out so spicy and the taste was awesome. This time when i went for grocery shopping, i picked those potatoes, that are little bigger than the baby potatoes. So, after boiling, i cut the potatoes into two and used in the recipe. If you really wanna try something hot and spicy.... Try this pulav!!

Ingredients:

To Grind

Ingredients:

Slightly roast all the above ingredients in a dry pan and grind into a paste.

For Koftas

Ingredients:

How to make it:
Mix all the ingredients together with little water and make a soft dough. Roll small balls out of the dough and deep fry in oil until golden brown.


To make pulav:

Cook rice and let it cool. Boil potatoes until just done. Cube them if not using baby potatoes. Heat oil in a pan, add cumin, fennel and onions and fry until onion turns light brown. Add the ginger garlic paste and fry until raw smell goes. Add the ground paste, red chilli powder, turmeric powder and salt. Add little water if required. Cook on low flame until oil separates. Drop the potatoes and cook for 2 more minutes. Add koftas and switch off the flame. Keep the pan tightly covered with a lid, for about 10-15 minutes. On a very low flame, add rice and mix well. Be careful not to break the koftas. Garnish with Cilantro. Serve hot with Chips and Onion raita!

When i saw these at Malar's place sometime back, I remembered my childhood days when my mom used to make these kind of ladoos. Those were the days..... we used to run if mom gives these kind of stuffs for us to eat, along with a big lecture to make us believe it is healthy (Just like what i'm doing with my kid now!! :D). Now, i would say this is one kind of the yummiest!

Here is the recipe...

Mom's recipe - Mix together Health mix, powdered jaggery, shredded coconut and cardamom powder together. Sprinkle water or milk and make balls out of it.

My version is here--

Ingredients:

How to make it:
Mix all the ingredients together. Sprinkle little water or milk and make equally sized balls out of it.

Sri Rama Navami is a Hindu festival celebrating the Birth of Lord Rama. On this day, Kalyanotsavam is performed at temples and the deities are taken to a procession on streets. At some places it is more elaborate with Bhajans, Kirtans, Puja and Aarthi followed by the distribution of Prasad. On this day, Followers of Lord Rama fast or restrict themselves to a specific diet. The special neivedyam for the day is Panakam and Neermor (Butter milk).
Source: Wiki

This time for Sri Rama Navami, I made some Mango rice along with some Panakam and Neer mor for Neivedyam.

Mango Rice

Ingredients:

• Mango - 1, medium size
• Rice - 1 cup
• Green chillies - 4 or 5
• Curry leaves - few
• Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
• Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
• Urad dal - 1 tsp
• Channa dal - 1 tsp
• Salt - as required
• Oil - 1 tbsp

How to make it:
Cook rice with just enough water. Peel the skin of an unripe mango and shred. Heat oil in a pan, add mustard seeds and when it splutters, add urad dal and channa dal. Add the curry leaves and green chillies. Fry for a while and then add the shredded mango, turmeric powder and salt. Saute for a while and then add the cooked rice. Mix well.

Panakam

Ingredients:

• Water - 2 cups
• Jaggery - 1/2 cup
• Cardamom - 2 crushed

How to make it:
Dissolve Jaggery in little water and dilute as required. Add crushed cardamom and mix well. Let it stand for sometime until the cardamom looses the flavour in water.

Neer mor (Butter milk)

Ingredients:

• Thick home made yogurt - 1 cup
• Ginger - 1 tsp, shredded
• Cilantro - few, chopped
• Hing - a pinch
• Green chillies - 1 or 2, chopped finely (if preferred)
• Salt - as required

How to make it:
Beat the yogurt until there are no lumps. Add enough water to dilute. Add ginger, green chillies, hing, cilantro and little salt. Mix well.

Being a favorite for many (including me), who can say 'NO' to a plate of samosa with some tomato ketchup on the size? Will you??

For the Dough

Ingredients:

How to make it:

Mix all the dry ingredients together in a bowl. Add water and knead into a soft dough, for about 5 minutes. Apply some oil and let it stand covered for sometime.

For the Filling

Ingredients:

How to make it:

Heat oil in a pan, add cumin, onion, green chillies and fry until onion turns light brown. Add the cooked peas and fry for a while. Add red chilli powder, corriander powder and garam masala. Add potatoes and salt. Mash potatoes slightly (not all of them). Add some chopped cilantro. Mix well.

To make samosas

Make evenly sized balls out of the dough. Roll flat into a round shape. Cut into semi-circle with a Knife. Take one semi circle at a time. Apply water along the cut edge and fold into a cone. Hold it between your thumb and index finger just like holding an ice-cream cone. Add the potato filling inside the cone. Fold and seal the ends by applying little water. Deep fry in oil until golden brown. Serve hot with tomato ketchup!

Tip:
For crispier samosas, keep the un-fried, filled samosas in refrigerator for at least an hour or two.

Idiyappam (String hoppers) is one of the easiest dish to make. Nowadays, we get idiyappam flour in most of the stores, that can be used instantly. Even the regular rice flour will do good, if you know the tactics of how to make the dough, without any lumps. It needs an extra effort than the one prepared with idiyappam flour.
To make Idiyappam flour, soak raw rice in water for about 3 hours. Drain the water and dry the rice in a cloth. Grind into a fine powder and sieve. Let it dry in sunlight for a day. Yes! it is a long process... But, if made in large quantities, the flour can be stored for a long time and it comes handy to make idiyappams anytime. Never i tried making the flour though! This was prepared at home, back in India and i always bring some whenever i make a trip to India. To know more about Idiyappams and how to make it, Visit here.

Ingredients:

How to make it:
Dry roast the flour on a medium flame in an un-oiled pan until it is warm. Add little salt. Be careful not to turn it brown. Add Boiling water about 2 cups first (keep stirring continuously), and then the remaining water until it forms a dough. Add a tbsp of oil to get a ball of well cooked unsticky dough. Switch off the flame. When it is still warm, take a ball of the dough in idiyappam maker and press onto a greased idli plate and steam cook for about 7-10 minutes.


Plantain- Tapioca Stew

Ingredients:

How to make it:
Wash tapioca in running hot water to remove the wax coating. Pressure cook potatoes, plantain and tapioca with the skin. Once done, remove the skin and cube them. Heat oil in a pan, add fennel, cumin, bay leaf, cloves and cardamom. When it sizzles, add onions, green chillies, curry leaves and ginger-garlic paste. Fry until the raw smell goes off. Add tomatoes and fry for a while. Add the cubed veggies, salt, turmeric powder and red chilli powder and cook for a minute. Add coconut milk and cook covered until all flavours mix well. Add little water if required. Add cashew paste. (Use rice flour to thicken the gravy if it is watery). Cook until the stew thickens. Add yogurt and mix well. Garnish with cilantro. Serve hot with Idiyappams.

The stew recipe here is my own Idea, so I'm sending this to Srilekha for her Submit your recipes! page.

Gujarati Cuisine is primarily Vegetarian. A typical thali consists of Roti/ poori, Dhal, Kadhi, Shaak (vegetables), Farsan (Appetizers), Mithai (sweets), Home made pickles and Chaas (Butter milk). Most of the preparation consists of a small amount of sugar/ jaggery added as an ingredient, which makes the dish kind of sweet to taste. Though not much elaborate, i made this Gujarati thali last week for an occasion at home. It is always wonderful to learn other cuisines and try different kinds of food. Got these recipe ideas from a Gujarati friend of mine and also from here, modified to my taste!! :) The amount of ingredients given below serves 2-3 people.

Besan Ladoo

Ingredients:

How to make it:

Dry roast besan and rava on low heat for few minutes. Add ghee and mix well until the besan absorbs all ghee, for about 5 minutes. Switch off the flame. Add cardamom powder, cloves and almonds. When the besan is still warm, add the sugar and mix well. Make evenly sized balls. Decorate with roasted cashews. Stiffens as it cools. Makes about 12 balls.

Ingredients:

How to make it:

Heat oil in a pan, add cloves, cardamom, fennel and cumin. When it sizzles, add ginger and onions and fry until onion turns translucent. Add all the powders mentioned in the ingredients, except salt. Fry for a while. Add tomatoes, tindora, hyacinth beans and salt. The water from tomatoes must be sufficient to cook the veggies. Cook covered on low-medium heat until done. Sprinkle 1 tsp of besan and mix well. Garnish with cilantro.

Peas-potato baaji

Ingredients:

How to make it:

Heat oil + ghee in a pan. Add cloves, cardamom, fennel and cinnamon. When it sizzles, add green chillies and onions and fry until onion turns light brown. Add tomatoes and cook until tomatoes become soft. Add red chilli powder, turmeric powder and corriander powder. Add boiled and cubed potatoes, cooked peas and fry for a while. Add 1 1/2 cups water and salt. Cook covered for about 5 minutes. Add besan mixed with little water to thicken the gravy. Cook until thick. Garnish with cilantro.

Dhal

Ingredients:

How to make it:

Pressure cook toor dal with enough water. Mash the dal well. Heat oil + ghee in a pan, add bay leaf, cloves, cumin and cinnamon. When it sizzles add tomatoes and hing. Cook until tomatoes becomes soft. Add ginger-chilli paste and saute for a while. Add Peanuts, cooked toor dal, salt, jaggery and turmeric powder. Cook for 3 to 5 minutes. Garnish with curry leaves and cilantro. Add a squeeze of lemon.

Ingredients:

How to make it:

Beat the yogurt well. Add cucumber, salt and cilantro. Mix well.

Chaas

Ingredients:

How to make it:

Beat the yogurt well. Dilute with 1 to 1 1/2 cups water.Add finely chopped cilantro, green chillies and ginger. Add salt and hing. Mix well. Serve chilled.

Poori

Ingredients:

Knead the dough by adding salt and water. Add 1 tsp of oil while kneading to get a soft dough. Make balls out of the dough. Roll each ball into small round shape and fry in oil until it puffs up and becomes light brown.

Rice

Cook rice with cloves and cardamom for a wonderful aroma....

Fried chillies

Ingredients:

How to make it:

Mix besan, salt and hing. Add wet green chillies and mix well so that the chillies are nicely coated with flour. Deep fry in oil.

These are the dishes made for Ekadasi this time.. Though we don't follow strict fasting, we do fast for the day with very little food. The fasting always ends with ekadasi prasadam (no onion- no garlic dish. Rice, beans, grains and certain spices are not included).
For my other posts related to ekadasi - visit here and here.

Milagu Aval

Ingredients:

How to make it:

Soak poha in water for about 10 minutes. Squeeze the poha to drain out water. Heat ghee in a pan, add mustard seeds and when it splutters, add urad dal and fry until it turns light brown. Add cashews, cumin, pepper powder and curry leaves. Add poha and salt. Mix well.



Rava Kesari

Ingredients:

How to make it:

Heat 2 tbsp ghee in a pan and fry Rava until it looks crisp. Be careful not to turn it brown. Add the water and cook rava. Add sugar and food colour (dissolved in little water, to spread easily). Cook on medium heat, mixing well and adding ghee little by little. Add cardamom powder and cashews and raisins fried in ghee. Add a pinch of camphor. Mix well until done. The amount of sugar mentioned above is optimal. Add 1/4 cup more sugar if required.

Whenever i make ven pongal at home, it is always a must to make some vadas to make it a satisfying meal. Also, it is one of the best and lovely combo, i can say!

Ven pongal

Ingredients:

How to make it:

Dry roast moong dal slightly. Pressure cook together with rice, turmeric powder and enough water. Heat ghee in a deep bottom pan, add the cashews, curry leaves, ginger, pepper and cumin and fry for a while. ( Use whole black pepper and cumin directly or make a coarse powder before adding ). Add the cooked rice dal mixture and salt and mix well on a low flame. Serve hot with a dollop of ghee on top.

Coconut chutney

Ingredients:

How to make it:

Grind coconut, roasted gram, green chillies and tamarind with salt and water into a thick paste. Do the seasoning with the remaining ingredients and pour over the chutney.

Onion vada

I have already posted the recipe for medhu vada here.

Onion vada - To the medhu vada batter, add some finely chopped onions and cilanto leaves and make vadas.
Cabbage vada - To the medhu vada batter, add finely chopped cabbage and make vadas.

I am sending this wonderful combo to "The Combo Event" going on at Foodelicious.
I am also sending my Adai Avial combo for this event.

This is a mild to medium spicy curry and yet very tasty! Good as a side dish for rice and rotis.

Ingredients:

How to make it:

Heat oil in a pan, add mustard seeds and when it splutters, add cumin, fennel seeds, cashews, green chillies, curry leaves, and onions and fry until onion becomes translucent. Add garlic paste, red chilli flakes, turmeric powder, dhania-jeera powder and fry for a while. Add tomatoes and cook until it becomes soft. Add potato, salt and cook until nice golden brown. Add a tsp of corn flour, if you need a crispy finish.

I would always call this a Royal dish.. because of the aromatic flavours of spices blended nicely in a rich and creamy gravy. This goes good with any kind of bread or Rice.

Ingredients:

How to make it:

Heat little butter in a pan, add the cashews, almonds and onions and fry until onion becomes translucent. Let it cool and then grind into a paste. Fry paneer in oil until golden brown. Set aside. Heat oil and butter in a pan, add bay leaf, cardamom, cloves, fennel seeds, cumin seeds, cinnamon and ginger. Add the garam masala and corriander powder and fry for a while. Add the onion paste and fry until oil separates. Add the red chilli powder, turmeric powder, 1/2 cup water and salt. Add the tomato puree and cook until the oil separates and the gravy is thick. Add the fried paneer and cook not more than a minute. Garnish with cilantro. Serve hot with your choice of bread or rice.
I had about half a cup of left over cooked peas that i did not want to waste. So tossed them into the gravy while cooking. Also, see here for how to make paneer at home.