Crispy Bread Cups with vegetable filling

There are enormous ways to serve bread. Here the bread is converted into a crisp snack with little effort. Bread slice is shaped into a cup and baked till crisp and golden. It is filled with cooked vegetables. This make an ideal snack/starter for any party. This is a very versatile recipe. With the bread cups as base, you can try out different filling, both sweet and savory. For making it more healthier, use whole wheat bread. When using whole wheat bread you might need to steam the slice before placing in the muffin. Else it might be difficult to get the shape.

You need

For cups

Bread slices - 8 nos

Butter - 3 teaspoons

For Filling

There is no specific recipe for the filling. I am listing the ingredients with approximation.

Finely chopped vegetables - 2 cups (I used potato,carrot and cabbage)

Onion -1

Crumbled paneer - 2 tblspn

Green chily - 2nos

salt

1 tspn of mixed herbs

tomato sauce - 2

chilli sauce -1 tspn

oil - 1 tblspn

Trim the crust from the bread. Flatten the bread with a rolling pin. This makes it easier to place in the muffin tray. Spread little butter on the slice. Place the bread in the greased cavities of muffin tray with the buttered side up. When you place adjust the slice so as to resemble a cup.
Bake at 180 C for 10 minutes or till the cups are crisp.

Meanwhile, you can prepare the filling. Heat oil in a pan. Saute onions till pink. Add the vegetables and saute till it is half cooked. Add salt, chilly sauce and tomato sauce. Mix well. Continue cooking till veggies are cooked and firm. Finally stir in crumbled paneer.

Spoon the filling into the bread cups. You can top it with grated cheese if you wish. Bake for 5-10 minutes. Serve with ketchup or any dip of your choice. The bread cups and the filling can be prepared before and assembling can be done prior to serve. It tasted good when served warm.

Being a perfect starter for any party, this goes to Rachana's Healthy Bites.

Raagi Biscuits

I made raagi biscuits inspired from Cham and Shilpa's Varada aayi's posts. My recipe is a combination of those two recipes.

Ingredients

Raagi(Finger millet) flour - 1 cup

All purpose flour - 1 cup

Powdered sugar - 1 cup

Butter - 1 cup

Cardamom powder - 1/2 tspn

Baking powder - 1 tspn

Milk - 1 tblspn
Chopped nuts to garnish

Method

Roast raagi flour for about 5 minutes till you can smell the aroma of raosted raagi. Whisk butter and sugar till creamy.Mix roasted raagi,all purpose flour, baking powder and cardamom powder well.Stir in the dry ingredients to the butter-sugar mixture. Mix to make a soft dough. If you find the dough dry, add about a teaspoon of milk. Pinch off a lemon sized dough. Shape into a ball and flatten a bit. garnish with chopped nuts. Press it down using a fork.
Bake in a preheated oven
Temp -180 C

Time - 30 min

Yields - 16 nos

Verdict - crisp,soft, melt in the mouth cookies.

I have made these biscuits more than once.

Nei payasam ~ Kerala Special

Nei means ghee. So nei payasam literally translates as ghee payasam. Don't think I am going to give a recipe of payasam/kheer with ghee as the main ingredient. Indeed , ghee is the star ingredient in the recipe. This is a combination of rice , jaggery and ghee. Sounds simple isn't it. But the rich taste of the payasam is heavenly. Its also known as kadu madhura payasam (very very sweet payasam). Yes, the rice:jaggery is 1:3. Nei payasam is a famous offering in the temples of Kerala. This is also prepared during Bhagavathy Seva, a pooja conducted to please Devi, which is performed in the month of Karkitakam/Aadi (15th July-15th Aug).

As I mentioned, because of the sweetness and richness of ghee, it can be eaten in small portions only. When the payasam is prepared for any ordinary occasion or wants it to be less sweeter, then the rice:jaggery is added in the proportion of 1:2. The ratio seems to vary from home to home. Also select jaggery which is brown which gives a nice deep color to the payasam.

Ingredients
Raw rice - 1/3 cup

Jaggery - 1 cup

Ghee- 1/3 cup or less

Water -1/3 cup to melt jaggery.

Garnish

cashew,raisin - 10 nos each

coconut, cut into small pieces - 1 tblspn

Method:
Wash and pressure cook rice till it is well cooked. Later,on cooking in jaggery, it will turn grainy. Melt jaggery in a pan with 1/3 cup of water. Strain and bring the jaggery syrup to boil. Simmer for 2 or 3 minutes. Stir in the cooked rice, with out forming lumps. If you find it difficult, switch off the stove. Once the rice is well mixed with the syrup, put it on fire again. Add a tablespoon of ghee. Keep stirring and add ghee at intervals to avoid sticking to the bottom of the pan. Reserve a tablespoon of ghee for frying cashews etc.Cook till the mixture starts leaving the sides and gets a saucy consistency. Don't over cook and it will become a hard mass on cooling.

Take a small pan. Add ghee. Add pieces of coconut. Roast till it browns. Remove the coconut and add cashews. When they start browning, throw in the raisins. When the raisins puff up , remove from fire. Garnish with payasam with roasted coconut, cashews and raisins. Enjoy spoon full of payasam. You cannot go beyond 3 spoons at one go. It stays good even 3 days with out refrigeration, when properly made.

With this measurement, it will serve 2.

Microwave Chocolate Pudding

I am not a big fan of puddings. But when I announced the theme for MEC, I was reminded of the pudding recipe in the book that came along with the microwave. So decided to give a try. It was very easy to make and got pretty decent result too. The original recipe has gelatin in it. I replaced it with china grass. You can whip up a pudding with very few ingredients and in less time.

You need

1 cup milk

2 tspn cocoa powder

1 tbspn china grass

1/2 tspn vanilla essence

2 tbspn powdered sugar

1/4 cup water

Garnish

1 tblspn Sweet cream

few glazed cherries

Method

In 1/4 cup of warm water, mix china grass and keep aside to dissolve. In a microwave safe bowl, mix milk,vanilla essence, powdered sugar. Microwave at 100% power for 5 minutes. Make sure your bowl is big enough that milk doesn't overflow on boiling. Now add the dissolved china grass to the bowl. Mix and microwave at 60% power for 3 minutes.

Transfer it to the serving dish. Leave it, till it reaches room temperature. Refrigerate and serve chilled. Garnish with sweet cream and cherries/strawberries.

This is the entry to MEC:Puddings guest hosted right here, an event started by Srivalli.

Carrot Cabbage Soup

There was a time when soup meant only tomato soup for me. Later when I went to college, I got to know about different varieties of soup. And later with the arrival of packaged soups in the market, I got to taste various soups at home. After reading about the ill-effects of MSG, which is added to the soup powders, I stopped buying them. I do see some brands with 'No MSG' labels. If it is home made you know what goes into it and no need to trust the labels.

The purple variety of cabbage is sometimes seen in the local vegetable market near my home. The usual stir fry with this kind doesn't go well with me. I usually use this for making pulav and in soup. It gives a nice flavor to the soup. With pressure cooker, it is very easy. You can cook them on stove top too.

You need
Carrot - 1 medium sized Chopped cabbage - 1 cup
Onion - 1
garlic - 3 pods
crushed pepper -1 tspn
salt

oil- 1 tspn

Method:

Take a pressure cooker. Heat a teaspoon of oil. Saute garlic and onion till they turn pink. Add chopped cabbage, carrot. Saute for two minutes. Add 2 cups of water, salt and peeper. Pressure cook for 2 whistles. When the pressure is fully released, blend to get a fine puree. Adjust the soup consistency by adding water. Simmer till it thickens.

I am sending this to FIC-Orange, hosted by Aparna, an event started by Sunshinemom
and to Neha for her SWC:Soups, which started at CookingStation

Teekhat Meethachi Puri & Panchmel Dal

As mentioned in my earlier post, here is the recipe for Teekhat Meethachi puri. I followed Sanjeev Kapoor's recipe. It tasted good. It makes a makes a good evening snack to go along with tea too. If you want to serve as a snack,you can fry it for a little longer time, so that it will turn crisp. I served it as part of the main course along with panchmel dal.

You need
whole wheat flour - 1 cup

semolina(rava/sooji) - 3 tablespoons

red chilli powder - 1 teaspoon

turmeric powder - 1/2 teaspoon

carom seeds/ajwain/omam - 1 teaspoon

salt to taste

water to knead

Oil - 2 tablespoons + for deep frying

Method
Take a bowl. Mix wheat flour, salt, semolina, red chilli powder, turmeric powder, ajwain and two tablespoons of oil. Mix well.
Add water, little at a time and knead into a medium hard dough as you do for usual puris.
Pinch off lemon sized dough and roll into 3 inch puris or according to the size of your deep frying pan.
Heat oil in a kadai. When hot, deep-fry the puris on both sides till puffed up and light golden brown.
Drain on kitchen paper and serve hot.

I am sending the bowl of dal to Ashwini's Lentil Mela

The poori and dal combo makes it to Rathna's Made for each other.

Cauliflower fried rice

One friday, my husband called from office to say, one of his friend will be coming for dinner that night. Since it was the weekend, i didn't have any veggies stocked in my fridge. All I had was one cauliflower.
Decided to make Teekhat Meethachi Puris and panchmel dal. Having only cauliflower, went ahead to make fried rice using, which I haven't tried before. I usually don't attempt such experiments when guests are coming over. Thought since pooris are there, if it fails, I can adjust. Made dates payasam for the dessert. Shall reserve the recipes of other dishes for later post. First thought making it a one dish meal. Cooking the masala and adding rice to it and pressure cook. But did not feel comfortable cooking cauliflower. So cooked the rice separately and went on to prepare the base masala.

Wash the cauliflower and drop the flower into a pot of hot water added with little salt and turmeric. Cover and let it stand for 10 minutes.This will ensure that the small worms tucked inside the flower come out,if any. Cut the cauliflower into small florets.

Basmati Rice - 1 cup
Cauliflower florets - 1 cup

Onion - 1

Cumin - 1/2 tspn

Fennel seeds - 1/2 tspn

Cloves - 4 nos

Green chilly - 2 nos

Turmeric - a pinch

Chilly powder - 1/2 tspn

Tomato sauce - 2 tblspn

Soya sauce - 1 tspn

Oil - 2 tblspn

Cook rice separately and spread it on a plate to cool.

Heat oil in a kadai. Add cumin seeds, fennel seeds and cloves. When they start browning,add the chopped onions. Saute till the onions turn pink. Add the chopped florets. Add salt, turmeric, chilly powder. Cover and cook till the florets turn tender. Add 2 tablespoon of tomato sauce and a tspn of soya sauce to the cooking mixture. Cook for 2 minutes, till the flavors blend in.

Stir in the cooled rice and serve with yogurt or roasted papad. Left over rice can also be used. Even the masala can be prepared ahead and you freeze it. Defrost and use with cooked rice and pack it for lunch.

I am sending this to

JFI: Cauliflower , hosted by Mythrayee, an event started by Indira of Mahanandi.

Sunita's Think Spice:Think Twice: Mastic Gum or Fennel Seeds , guest hosted by Ivy.

Announcing Microwave Easy Cooking Event

Microwave Easy Cooking (MEC) event stops at Kailas Kitchen for the month of February. Thanks to Srivalli for giving me the opportunity and this is the first event I am hosting. With the MEC event, I have utilized my microwave oven much beyond re-heating and few basic cooking which I used to do. I am sure many of you will agree with this. And here is the theme for the month of February- MEC : Puddings.

(Thanks Srivalli for the logo)

Here are the participation details :

1. Cook kheer/payasam/pudding for the event. The entire cooking has to be done in the microwave. You can use food processor for grinding and the like. But no stove top cooking to be done. Please post only vegetarian recipes for the event.

2. Entries posted from 1 - 28th Feb,2009 is acceptable.

3. Send me your entries to kailaskitchen@gmail.com with the following details

Subject - MEC:Puddings
Name
Blog name
Recipe name
Recipe URL
A photo of the final dish

4. Please use the event logo and its not compulsory. Your entry post should contain the link to the event announcement and Srivalli's MEC Announcement.

5. Multiple entries are welcome. If any of your previous posts qualify for this theme, you can send them too, provided it is re posted with the link to the event announcement.

6. Non-bloggers are invited to participate in the event. You can mail me your recipe and a photograph of the dish to the mail id mentioned above.

Looking forward to delicious entries. I shall post the round up in the first week of March.

Palakkai Kootu (Tender jack fruit gravy) for RCI:Chettinad

When RCI-Chettinad was announced, I didn't do much googling, since I knew where to head, to get some authentic Chettinad recipes. On googling, I found more of non-veg recipes. At Solai Achi's kitchen there are wonderful choices of vegetarian recipes. I tried Kathirkkai mallipachadi from there. It too, was tasty, but could not take pictures. Its the season of tender jack fruit or idichakkai as it is called, here. Normally it is cooked as stir fry at home and occasional as semi-gravy with black eyed peas called 'puzhukku'. When I saw a sambhar like recipe using jack fruit, I wanted to try it. Though the ingredients look similar to sambhar, the taste is unique, probably because of the jack fruit in it. Above all, this a one dish gravy and can be cooked in less than 20 minutes. The only pull back factor is chopping the tender jackfruit which is quite a messy job. For those of you who have the option of buying chopped, frozen packets, then this gravy can be cooked in a jiffy.

Ingredients
Tender jackfruit chopped into small pieces - 1 cup
tuvar dal 1/2 cup
turmeric a pinch
sambar powder - 2 tspn
Onion - 1
tomato -1
water - 2 cups
slit green chilly -1 nos

Method

Chop onion and tomato into small pieces. Take the tender jackfruit pieces, chopped onion and tomato, green chilly,tuvar dal, turmeric powder and sambhar powder in a vessl. Add water to cover the ingredients. Pressure cook for one whistle and cook for 10 minutes on low flame.

When the pressure is fully released, take out the vessel. Stir well. Add salt. You can add some chilly powder if you want it spicier. I did not add any. Bring to a boil and simmer for few minutes. Season with mustard, cumin seeds, red chilly and urad dal. Garnish with curry leaves and coriander.

Serve with rice. It can make a good side for rotis too.

This is my entry to RCI-Chettinad Vegetarian hosted by Srimathi at Few Minute Wonders.

Puttu with kadala curry ~ Kerala Special

Puttu and kadala is an evergreen breakfast combination of Keralites. Steaming puttu and appam served with kadala curry is the popular breakfast particularly in small roadside tea stalls 'Chayakada') of Kerala. In most Kerala homes, when unexpected guests come for breakfast, puttu is the natural choice, since puttu powder will always be in stock and can be made instantly. Then the side dish may vary since black channa needs pre-soaking. Whole moong comes to the rescue. Or some simple sides like banana,sugar,roasted papad (papadam) is enough to relish the hot puttu.

But puttu was not part of the menu in my home,during my chidhood days, may be because it did not feature in the Kerala Iyer menu. We get to taste puttu from our neighbor V aunty. We had developed an instant liking to puttu. Later Amma got a puttu maker and started making it for us. But my parents never had a liking for this. Amma made it for me and my sister.Post marriage, I found my husband's love for puttu and it not making frequent appearance in the
kitchen and the story is not different from mine. My MIL had a puttu maker to be used on the cooker in place of the cooker weight. Since marriage, puttu and kadalai combo makes it to our breakfast table , almost on all Sundays.

Puttu is made is using coarsely grounded rice. Now a days, you get various types of puttu powder based on rice, corn, raagi and wheat. I normally make rice and wheat and raagi and corn make occassional appearance. My mom used to make the puttu powder at home. And there wasn't any other option too. But I never bothered to make it at home and its always store bought for me.

You need

Puttu powder - 2 cups

salt to taste

water - 1/2 cup

grated coconut - 1 cup

Mix salt in 1/2 cup of water. sprinkle handful of water on the rice powder. Mix well so it resembles bread crumbs. Again add water and crumble it well. The powder should be moist enough so that when held in your fist, it should hold the shape and not crumble. Take the puttu maker.Add a tablespoon grated coconut. Fill nearly half of it with the powder. Again add coconut and then fill the rest with rice powder and finish off with little coconut.So the order is coconut-rice powder-coconut till you fill the puttu maker. Full your cooker with 3 cups of water and close the lid. Place the puttu maker on top of the lid in place of weight/whistle. Steam cook for 10-12 minutes. Remove and gently push from the small opening behind using the skewer and log of steaming, delicious puttu comes out.

For kadala curry (Black channa masala)
Black chickpeas/channa/kadala - 2 cups

Coconut - 1/2 cup

Turmeric - a pinch

salt

For roasting
Onion - 1 medium

Coriander seeds - 1 tblspn

Red chillies - 3 nos

Cinnamon - 1 inch piece

Cloves - 4 nos

Oil - 2 tblspn

To Season

Oil

Mustard seeds

Curry leaves to garnish

Wash and soak the channa overnight or for 6 hours. Pressure cook the channa with little turmeric till soft. Roast coriander seeds, red chillies, cinnamon and cloves till you can smell them and the coriander seeds starts browning.Remove the roasted spices and saute sliced onion in the same kadai till light brown. When cool, grind the roasted ingredients, sauteed onion and coconut to a smooth paste. Add necessary water to grind. Boil the pressure cooked channa with salt. Stir in the ground mixture and bring to a boil. Season with mustard seeds and garnish
with curry leaves.
This curry goes well with dosa and appam too apart from puttu. You can add potato/cauliflower too to this curry. If you feel there is too much of coconut, you can reduce it in the curry and grind some cooked channa and add to the gravy to thicken. Alternatively you can use a combination of grated carrots,moong sprouts and little coconut as filler in puttu, in place of using only coconut

I am sending the bowl of kadala curry to JFI :Chickpea hosted by Sometime Foodies

and the seventh helping of My Legume Love Affair hosted by Srivalli, an event started by Susan.

And since I make this specially for my husband, this goes to the Just for You event hosted by Alka of Sindhirasoi

Semiya Idli for MBP

During my growing up years, I never liked idli, which we had nicknamed as 'white tablets'. But after marriage, idly featured in my breakfast twice in a week. Since there is no elaborate preparation provided you have the batter handy and breakfast for the family is ready in one batch. Here is an idli recipe from Chitra amma's kitchen.

Vermicelli – 2 cups
Beaten Curd – 1 cup
Green chillies – 3
Ginger – 1 inch wedge
Mustard seeds – ½ tsp
Oil – 2 tbsps

Heat oil in a pan. Add mustard seeds. When it splutters, add finely chopped ginger,green chillies. Add the vermicelli and roast till it turns golden. Mix the roasted ingredients in beaten curd while warm. Add salt and mix well. Leave it for 10 minutes and spoon them into greased idly moulds. The batter consistency is slightly thick. Steam cook for 10-12 minutes. Serve with any chutney of your choice.

Variations: You can add some grated carrot/capscium/fresh corn too.

We enjoyed these idlis, which was a change from the usual semiya upma. Thanks Chitra amma for this tasty recipe.



This is off to MBP hosted by EC, an event started by Coffee

Kaalan - Kerala Special

Kaalan is another signature dish of Kerala. Kaalan is equally famous like Avial. This is also a must for any Kerala sadhya (feast). Kaalan is semi sold gravy of raw plantain and yam cooked in yogurt-coconut mixture. The preparation of Kaalan will be started the previous day of the feast, since it takes longer time. We say kurukku kaalan. i.e. kaalan has to be cooked to semi solid consistency. Ingredients for kaalan and avial is almost the same but the way of cooking makes it entirely different in taste. The gravy consistency of avial can be thick or thin as is required. But when served for sadhya, it is always thick. Kaalan has a semi solid consistency. Though it is served as side, it goes very well with rice and can be used as main course. Kaalan with a simple vegetable stir fry or fried papad and hot rice is divine. I might be ready to trade anything for that comfort meal.
My grandma makes the best kaalan ever. Though my mom has inherited her culinary skills, still me amd my sister rate my paati's the best. Kaalan should be made in the right way, else it will taste like morkootan/morkuzhambu. Kaalan is distinct from all the curd/yogurt based gravies. For those of you who have not tasted it, do give a try and you will be hooked. This is one dish, where you cannot compromise on the quantity of coconut used.

You will need
Raw banana - 1 Yam(chena/chenai) - 200 gms

Black pepper powder - 1/2 tspn

Turmeric - a pinch

Sour buttermilk - 2 cups

Grated coconut - 1 1/2 cup

Green chilly - 3 nos
Salt

Seasoning

Gingely oil - 1 tblspn

Mustard seeds - 1 tspn

Red chilly - 2 nos

Fenugreek/methi seeds - 1/2 tspnc

Curry leaves - few.

Peel the skin of raw banana and yam. Cut them into 1 inch cubes. Wash and cook with turmeric and black pepper powder in a cup of water. I normally pressure cook them. Make sure it doesn't turn mushy. The pieces should remain firm on cooking. Take a thick bottom vessel or a kadai. Add the buttermilk to it. Bring to a boil and let it simmer till it reduces to 3/4th of the original volume. Since sour buttermilk is used, it doesn't curdle.Thick curd can also be used in place of buttermilk. Beat the curd well. It doesn't require to boil the curd, since it will curdle.

Grind coconut and green chillies to a coarse paste.Use minimum of water while grinding. The taste of pepper must be more prominent than the green chillies in kaalan.

Combine cooked vegetables, simmered buttermilk or beaten curd and ground coconut-chilly paste. Add salt. Cook on low flame till it reaches semisolid consistency.

Heat a tablespoon of gingely oil. Add mustard seeds. When it splutters, add red chillies broken into two, fenugreek/methi seeds and curry leaves. When methi seeds starts browning, pour over the cooked mixture.

Kaalan tastes best the next day and stays fresh for 2 days without refrigeration. No need to heat the kaalan before serving.

This is my entry for FIC-Yellow hosted by Sunshinemom

Aval Payasam

One day while I was discussing with my husband about what payasam to prepare for our friends who were coming for dinner. Most of the times, after this kind of discussion, I end up making semiya payasam, since that is the easiest and there is very less to mess up with. And I can concentrate on the other dishes of the menu. And hubby is all happy for semiya payasam. But I was bored of preparing it. And I decided to go for aval payasam. Its long time since I prepared it. The preparation is almost similar to semiya payasam.

Aval/Beaten rice/rice flakes (thick variety) - 1/2 cup

Water - 1 cup

Milk - 1/2 litre

Sugar - 1/2 cup (Add a heaped cup if you want it very sweet)

cardamom powder- 1/2 tspn

cashew/raisin

ghee - 1 tblspn

Yellow color - a pinch (optional)

Heat ghee in a pan. Roast cashew and raisin. Drain them and keep it aside. In the remaining ghee, roast aval till brown. If you find some bran in the aval, rinse it in water after roasting. Add a cup of boiling water to the roasted aval. When aval is fully cooked, add milk. Bring to a boil and allow it to simmer till milk reduces in volume to 3/4 of the original quantity . Add sugar. Boil till the sugar is fully dissolved and blended well the liquid mixture. Stir in the roasted cashew and raisins and half a teaspoon of cardamom powder.
Remove from fire. Serve hot/cold

Note: To get an even texture of the rice flakes, you can pulse them in the mixer for few seconds after roasting.