Dried peas curry

We all know legumes and pulses are good for us and I can also tell you they come to my rescue many a time.When I'm out of vegetables or when I want to make a simple snack look no more turn to your healthier friends - pulses.

I make this curry atleast once every week, it definitely goes well with chapathis or rotis, rice, dosas and idiyappam and appam, etc.

 Another good thing about these are that it doesn't need too much soaking time unlike other pulses and also once soaked it cooks faster.

You need
Dried peas soaked for a few hours 1 cup
Oil 2 tablespoons
Mustard seeds 1/2 tsp
Cumin seeds 1 tsp
Garam masala powder 1 tsp
Coriander powder 1 tsp

To make a smooth paste 
Onion 1 large
Tomato 2 medium
Ginger 1 inch piece
Green chilli 1

• Pressure cook the pre-soaked dry peas for 2-3 whistles about 10 minutes on a medium flame with a pinch of salt. 
• Heat a tablespoon of oil in a pan, add the onion,tomato, ginger, green chilli and fry well.
• Once this cools transfer it to a mixer and blend to a smooth paste.
• Heat a little oil, add mustard seeds, curry leaves, cumin seeds, fry well.Next add the ground paste.Add the masala powders - coriander and garam masala.
• Add the cooked peas.
• Now let this boil and check for salt.

Serve hot with rotis and tomato rice.Add chopped onions and a sprinkle of lemon juice for that extra bit!

Dried peas curry

We all know legumes and pulses are good for us and I can also tell you they come to my rescue many a time.When I'm out of vegetables or when I want to make a simple snack look no more turn to your healthier friends - pulses.

Maaladoo/Pottu kadala ladoo/Roasted gram ladoos

Its festival time and holiday time in school so these lil tiny bite sized goodies are really needed to occupy the kids and their mouths!Last week we LM had model exams in school yea for 1st standard kids, and I chose to relax this last weekend because it felt like I went back to school!!

I had tried besan(chick pea flour) ladoos and thought the process especially the roasting the flour bit was too confusing.Well in this ladoo that process can be easily omitted and so i feel its good healthy and yummy :) 

My daughter and everyone loved these and i know these are those go-to sweets in case of emergency.Did i tell you my LM loves ladoos because her fav cartoon guy the great Chotta Bheem loves them!Ahem..while i'm still wondering when Popeye the sailor can eat Spinach why can't our indian Bheem have something healthy.Ladoos are yummy especially these!

Preparation Time: 20 minutes
Makes about 20 ladoos(small size)
Recipe source : Here

You need 

Pottu kadala/roasted gram 1 and 1/2 cups
Ghee half cup(or more) melted
Sugar powdered with 2-3 cardamoms only seeds needed
Broken cashews nuts 3 tablespoons

- Powder the gram in a mixer and sieve for any large bits.
- In same mixer jar powder sugar with the cardamom pods and keep aside.
- In a thick bottom pan, add the ghee, now add the nuts and fry till brown.Drain onto a plate.
- In same ghee in the pan, add the ground gram/kadala powder and toast it until the mixture is a little course.Turn off the heat.
- Add the powdered sugar and fried nuts.
- Allow the mixture to cool a little and clump mix with both hands to form balls.Repeat for all the mixture.

A brief pictorial :

Notes : 

- The amount of ghee may vary depending on quality of dry ingredient.

- My  ladoos had just enough ghee they did hold shape if you want you can add some more ghee to make them into balls.

- Cardamom pods powder better with sugar.You can peel the cardamoms and use the peels in your tea.

Sending this to Foodabulous @ NIvedhanam and Preeti's page SImply Tadka

Maaladoo/Pottu kadala ladoo/Roasted gram ladoos

Its festival time and holiday time in school so these lil tiny bite sized goodies are really needed to occupy the kids and their mouths!Last week we LM had model exams in school yea for 1st standard kids, and I chose to relax this last weekend because it felt like I went back to school!!

Chick peas/kadala curry - South indian style

I love chick peas especially for my chapatis.But some time back my good friend gave me this recipe then I fell in love with it because its a two in one goes well with rice and chapatis or even dosas and the south indian delicacy puttu.

Chick peas are a big favourite in our home and DH used to ask me to make this curry many times but I had that mental block that it wouldn't taste good with rice but i was wrong.But I can tell you that the black chick peas work better in this curry than the white ones.Not to forget that they are healthy and protein packed food.like my LM is studying in school - Pulses are body building foods.

So ever since i made this curry a few months ago, it turns up every week on Tuesdays when we have a complete vegetarian menu.

You need

Chick peas(black tastes better for this curry) 1 cup (soaked over night)
Coconut oil 1 tsp
Mustard seeds 1/2 tsp
Curry leaves 2 sprigs
Tamarind a small goose berry size soaked in a half a cup of hot water
Salt to taste


For the gravy 

Oil 1 tsp
Onion 1 large
Tomato 1 medium
Coconut 2 tablespoon
Ginger 1 tsp
Dhaniya powder 1 tsp
Chilli powder 1/2 tsp

- In a hot pan, add oil and the above ingredients fry well and turn the heat off.Now add the dhaniya powder and chilli powder and let this mixture cool.
- After the mixture cools, add it to a blender and grind first without water and then adding a little water to grind into a smooth paste.
- Pressure cook the soaked chick peas with a little salt and keep aside.
- In a pan, heat coconut oil add the mustard seeds allow to pop and then add curry leaves.
- Add the ground paste and let it come to a boil.Now add the tamarind water and let it boil.
- Add the cooked chick peas and cook until the chick peas absorb the masala well.
- You can add a little water as required to make the curry a little runny.

I serve hot kadala curry with steamed rice, keerai kootu and papads or goes really well with puttu(south indian steamed rice cakes) or dosa and even chapatis.Enjoy a yummy finger licking good lunch :)

Sending this to SIC @ Nivedhanam and Anu's healthy Kitchen, Dish it out - Onions and chillies 

Chick peas/kadala curry - South indian style

I love chick peas especially for my chapatis.But some time back my good friend gave me this recipe then I fell in love with it because its a two in one goes well with rice and chapatis or even dosas and the south indian delicacy puttu.

Paneer Posto - Cottage cheese in Spicy Poppy seed gravy

I love Paneer!Its so rich and healthy for everyone especially kids.This rich gravy with the nuttiness of poppy seeds is really different and goes well with hot chapatis.

 You need 

Large paneer cube / Indian cottage cheese cube 10-12 cubes 
Poppy seeds 1/2 cup (some baby corn and carrots)
Onion 1 small 
Garlic 2-3
Ginger small piece chopped finely
Tomato 1 big
Green chilly 2 small
Red chilly powder 1/2tsp 
Cream cheese 1 tsp 
Garam masala 1 tsp
2 tbsp of Oil
salt to taste

• Take poppy seeds,garlic,ginger,tomato,onion, green chilly, red chilli powder and blend to a smooth paste.
• Heat oil in a pan, add the ground paste and let it boil well.
• Add cheese and paneer to this.Add salt to taste.
• Add garam masala to this and boil until gravy becomes thick.
• Serve hot with rotis or jeera rice.

Yummy paneer posto is ready :)

Sending this to Know your cheese

Paneer Posto - Cottage cheese in Spicy Poppy seed gravy

I love Paneer!Its so rich and healthy for everyone especially kids.This rich gravy with the nuttiness of poppy seeds is really different and goes well with hot chapatis.

Yellow Pumpkin Halwa - Pressure cooker method

Ramadan brings back many many sweet childhood memories to me. Heres wishing all my Muslim friends and their families Eid Mubarak.
Sweet dishes are many in our country and we don't spare even the vegetables we turn them into halwas :) This is one such halwa.

I started buying pumpkins very recently until then I thought they were too large to be stored for long or too sweet ( lame reasons i know) But when I got them I started making sabji and I knew they were really versatile.I added them to my channa/ chick pea gravy and a plain sabji too for rotis.

And then I wanted to try them in baking which is yet to happen but the sweet dish happened which was in line too.I had saved one portion of the pumpkin for long and thank goodness I did see what i got this beautiful halwa!

I have made this in the pressure cooker but you can make it otherwise too.

You need
Pumpkin (yellow) grated 3 cups
Milk 1/2 cup
Sugar 1 cup or less
Milk powder 2 tablespoons
Ghee 2 tablespoons
Cashew nuts, Almonds, Raisins few of each
Orange/yellow food color a pinch
Cardamom powder 1/4 tsp

• Toast the nuts and raisins in a little (2 tsp) ghee and keep aside.
• In a pressure cooker add the grated pumpkin with the milk cover and cook for 3 whistles.
• Once the cooker cools open the cooker and add the remaining ingredients except the nuts and raisins.
• Keep the flame on medium and keep stirring else it may burn.
• Keep cooking this mixture until the excess water all dries up by this time the halwa will start leaving the sides too.
• Add the roasted nuts and give it a stir.Allow to cool.
• Serve yummy creamy halwa cold we enjoyed it that way.

Notes : 

- If you're wondering if that half cup of milk is less don't worry the pumpkin will ooze out loads of water.

- Pumpkin is a sweet vegetable too so check the sugar level the amount i added itself we felt was a little more.

Yellow Pumpkin Halwa - Pressure cooker method

Ramadan brings back many many sweet childhood memories to me. Heres wishing all my Muslim friends and their families Eid Mubarak.
Sweet dishes are many in our country and we don't spare even the vegetables we turn them into halwas :) This is one such halwa.

Black Grapes Jam

I have been excited many a times when it comes to making or trying new recipes but this "jam making" has been exhilarating :) It was on my to-do list for a while and I didn't spend dreaming(yes i dream about food!Do you?) about it for days but it was running at the back of my mind for a while.

I know how many times I've mentioned about my love for bread and so jam or any other spread is equally important to me.But until recently I never thought or wanted to make jam at home :) My DH mentioned that mil used to make tomato jam to accompany appams when he was young, that was when the idea or need to try jams was born.

 Anyway I didn't do pretty much anything is this whole process except look up for the right recipe which was from HERE. Also a very amazing informative blog there where I always get beautiful results(like this one).THe original recipe has a beautifully done pictorial.I didn't have time to take elaborate pictures but I have a collage for you mentioning the steps.

Here's how we make this really beautiful jam.

You need

Black grapes 1 kg ( i used 1kg +100 gms) 

Sugar 2 n half cups

Other things you will need - a colander to strain the pulp, a wooden spoon, a heavy bottom wide mouth vessel,2 sterilized bottles, a small stainless steel plate.

• Wash and dry the grapes with a dry towel.Pick them from the stalks.
• Peel the grapes, if you press the grapes from the other side(not the stalk side) the pulp will slip away from the peel.Do not THROW away the peels we NEED them.
• Place the small plate in the freezer now.
• In the heavy bottom pan, add the pulp and on a low heat cover and gently bring to a boil.Keep stirring and I occasionally mashed the pulp with the back of the spoon.Once all the grapes has broken down now turn off the heat.
• Strain this mixture through a wide holed colander or mesh.Almost all of the pulp will pass through the rest and the seeds you can discard.
• Add the strained mixture back to the deep vessel, add the skin(told you we need it).
• Bring this pulp mash + peels to a boil let it boil for about 2 minutes and now you can see why we added the peels yes to get that gorgeous purple color.
• Add the sugar and stir it in.Keep the flame on medium high and keep stirring.The jam has to reach a thick dropping consistency.If you lift the spoon initially the liquid drips quickly we need to keep stirring until this thickens and a slightly thickish liquid drops.(Don't worry this took about 5-7 minutes thats all)
• The test to know if our jam is ready - take the plate that we kept in the freezer, add a dollop of the jam and keep this back in the refrigerator, after 2 minutes when you tilt the plate you should see a jelly like texture thats not runny at all.Else just draw a line on the dollop of jam and the line should remain without the liquid covering it up again.
• Once we checked the required consistency, i left the jam for about 10 minutes and then poured it into my sterilized containers.I left it open for about half hour then closed it loosely with the bottle cap.Since I know the jam won't last long enough I didn;t do anything to preserve it for a long time.I left the bottles on my kitchen counter until after dinner and at bedtime i refrigerated it where it is still nice and safe.

The step wise pics in that order of preparation : 

Enjoy yummy luscious grapes jam with your bread for breakfast(or anytime) !

Notes :
- I initially thought of discarding the peels and soon after i tasted the jam with the peels i knew what a big blunder if would have done if i threw it.The peels make the jam so tasty with chewy bits while you eat it.
- I sterilized the bottles in the morning and we started making the jam only at tea time.
- Its been a month almost and one bottle is almost gone now.But its tasting good as new.
- We got 2 500gm jars full of jam(upto the brim) 

Black Grapes Jam

I have been excited many a times when it comes to making or trying new recipes but this "jam making" has been exhilarating :) It was on my to-do list for a while and I didn't spend dreaming(yes i dream about food!Do you?) about it for days but it was running at the back of my mind for a while.