Pudina Rice

Pudina rice takes little time to prepare and is easy to prepare as well. Well, it also tastes good. So nothing wrong in trying it.:):) Jokes apart, this is very easy to prepare when you are in hurry or when you are packing food when you are going out.

Ingredients:

Basmati Rice - 1 1/2 cup

Pudina leaves - 1 bunch (finely chopped)

Coriander leaves - 1 bunch (finely chopped)

Green chillies - 5-6

curry leaves

Potato - 1

Green peas - 1 cup

Carrot - 1 (optional)

oil

Chana dal, Urad dal, Musturd seeds, Cumin seeds, red chillies for thadka.
ginger garlic paste if you eat

Procedure:

Rinse the basmati rice and fry them in Ghee for 2-3 mins and soak them in water.

Heat oil or Ghee in pan,  add the Chana dal, Urad dal, Musturd seeds, cumin seeds and red chillies. if you eat ginger and garlic 1 teaspoon of ginger garlic paste can be added. 

Add curry leaves, green chillies, peas. Leave for couple of mins and add potato and carrot.

Add little salt and close it with lid. Keep for 5 mins and then take out the lid, mix it and see if the potato has become little soft. if not keep it for 2-3 mins more and add Salt as required.
Meanwhile grind pudina leaves and coriander leaves into a coarse mixture.
Once potato and carrot becomes soft, add pudina mix to it and cook it for couple of mins.

Now add this mixture and rice in the rice cooker and cook it. 

Once you take it off from cooker, then mix it properly and serve hot.

Paneer Paranta

Paranta is one of my favourite lunch/dinner, as I need not prepare any side dish, I can have them with some pickle or peri-peri sauce. So when I feel lazy and is bored of eating same food, i prepare them. This weekend prepared Paneer Paranta. Though this is not the first time, I loved whole experience again. This time, I prepared for my friends, and they loved them. My husband always loves my Parantas, if not anything else :). Lets see how I prepared them.


Ingredients:
Paneer (grated)
Green chillies -5 -6 (finely chopped)
Finely chopped medium size onion
Coriander - 1 bunch (finely chopped)
Cumin seeds- 1/2 tea spoon
Dhaniya powder - 1 tea spoon
Red Chilli powder - 1-2 pinches (as per taste)
Cumin powder - 1/2 tea spoon
Salt - as per taste
Wheat flour - 3 cups


Procedure:

• Mix the wheat flour with little raw milk and water. Mix it till it becomes a soft dough and add 2 spoons of oil, mix it well. Keep it a side for half an hour to one hour.
• Grate the Paneer with small hole grater. Take about 125 gm of Paneer for 8 Parantas.
• Mix the grated Paneer with the finely chopped Onion, Coriander and green chillies.
• Add the cumin seeds, cumin powder, Dhaniya powder, red chilli powder and salt
• Mix all these properly and keep the mixture a side.
• Now, take the dough and prepare the medium sized roti, keep the 3-4 spoons of the Paneer mixture on the roti, close the ends of the roti to make it a ball. Now roll this slowly to make the paranta. 
• Heat the tawa, keep 1/2 spoon oil on tawa and Cook the Paranta. Keep it a half min and turn the Paranta, add 1 spoon of oil on the other side.Cook it on medium flame till the Paranta becomes golden brown. 

Hot Parantas are ready. Eat with any pickle, or curd.

Until next recipe...

Rama Poduri

Gutti Vankaya Kura

This is one of the most delicious Andhra dish loved by many people. I, along with a friend of mine, Bhanu, tried this dish at home for the first time. We completely loved the output.

The dish takes about an hour. The preparation time involved is more than the actual cooking time. So be prepared for the preparation time... :)
Here we go.
Ingredients: 
Brinjal - If they are small in size, take about 10-12 in number, if they are long, then take about 5-6 in number
Chana dal - 3 tb sp
Urad dal - 3 tb sp
Mustard seeds - 1 tb sp
Cumin - 1 tb sp
Red chillies 5-6 
Methi - 1/4 tb sp
Dhaniya - 1 tb sp
Pepper seeds - 1/4th tb sp (optional)
turmeric powder
curry leaves
Tamarind - about 75 gms
bunch of coriander
green chliies 3-4 (depends on how hot you eat)
Ginger - small piece
oil (a lot of oil is required, so try forget the diet that you follow regularly for today)
Preparation of stuffing mixture

• Take a pan, heat oil (4-5 table spoons). Add chana dal, once they are 50% fried (or once they start changing the color), add urad dal, leave for a min, then add mustard seeds, Dhaniya, Methi, red chillies,jeera, pepper seeds. Fry them until they become brown. 
• Add curry leaves and tamarind. Leave for couple of mins and switch off the flame. 
• Now drain the excess oil and keep the mixture to cool.
• Make the above mixture to a coarse powder, add salt required.

Preparation of coriander paste
Take a big bunch of coriander leaves, Green chllies, a small piece of ginger (If you eat garlic, you can add ginger garlic paste). Make it paste and keep it a side. This can be used as gravy. Again, this is optional.
Procedure

• Cut the Brinjal by two side ways, till the edge keeping the base intact. 
• Now, we can fry these brinjals in hot oil for 30 secs and take out. The outside texture becomes soft with this. You can skip this and keep them in microwave for 2-3 mins after stuffing.
• Now take each brinjal, open from cut end and neatly stuff the powder that we prepared above.
• Keep these in a bowl and cook them in microwave for about 3 mins. This is to reduce the cooking time and deep fry of brinjals.
• Now heat the oil in wide open pan and add the coriander paste and the 3-4 table spoons of stuffing powder, leave it for 4-5 mins on medium flame. add salt if required.
• Then spread the stuffed brinjal pieces one by one in the pan, and close it with lid. 
• Cook them for about 20-25 mins. For every 5 mins, turn the pieces and close the pan with lid, so that each side of the brinjal is cooked properly. Keep adding oil if you see that the oil gets absorbed completely. 
• Once they become soft then switch off flame and add the coriander leaves on the top. 

The delicious curry is ready to eat. 


Four of us completed about 20 pieces of Brinjal, probably because we prepared ourselves or probably it was indeed good...Thank you Bhanu...Lets try another next week...


Happy experimenting...try and let me know if this comes out well...


Until next recipe...

Rama Poduri