Rajasthani Mirchi Bada

I am happy to participate in the Flavours of Rajasthan Event started by nayna and guest hosted by sonu of palate corner. This is first time i tried and tasted this dish,also im participating for the first tine for such event on this food blogosphere. Little spicy for us but i liked it very much.

Ingredients:

6 Long green chillies
2 Big Potatoes, Boiled
2 tsp Red chilli powder
1 tsp Coriander powder
1 tsp Garam masala powder
1 tsp Chaat masala powder
1 Big Onion, finely chopped
1 cup Gram flour
Salt for taste
Small pinch of baking powder
Oil for frying

Method:

1. Peel, wash, chop and boil the potatoes.
2. Slit the green chillies and remove the seeds, Blanch in hot water.
3. Mash the potatoes and add onion,  masalas, salt and mix well. Keep aside.
4. Make batter with gram flour, baking powder, 1tsp red chilli powder, salt and water. Keep aside for 15 mins.
5. Make potato mixture into 6 equal portions.
6. Stuff little into the chillies and also cover the green chillies with potato mixture.
7. Heat oil in the frying pan to a moderate temperature.
8. Dip stuffed green chillies into the gram flour batter and deep fry until golden brown.
9. You can serve with coriander chutney and tomato sauce.

Thanks :))

Sambhar

Ingredients:

1 Carrot (cut like thin circles)
1 Medium size onion, chopped
Marble sized tamarind
1 serving spoon cooking oil
1 cup of  Toor dhal
2 tsp sambhar powder
1 tsp salt (full headed)
little coriander(washed and chopped)
water
small pinch of Asafoetida powder /Hing

Method:
1. Cook dhal in pressure cooker with nice amount of water.
    Over cook the dhal so that u can mash it with serving spoon.
2. Open the lid mash it, add Hing and keep aside.
3. Soak the tamarind with little water for 1/2 hr
4. Heat large pan (heavy bottomed pan). Pour oil and add vegetables and fry it for 2mins
5. Add sambhar powder and salt. Make a tamarind paste and add.
6. Pour water so that the vegetables will cook for 5-7 mins.
   Don't add more water. Later we have to add dhal water also.
7. Add dhal and allow it to boil for 5 mins or until it cook well.
8. Switch off the gas. Season mustard seeds with little oil and add to sambhar.
9. Garnish with coriander leaves. Serve with hot rice and ghee(optional).

Hints:

1. If you feel the sambhar is  little sour taste you can add little pepper powder.Don't add more so it will give different taste.
2. You can use more vegetables like beans, chow-chow, drumsticks, eggplant, white radish and capsicum etc..
3. You can mix vegetables according to the taste like carrot n beans, chow-chow n carrot, capsicum n carrot n beans according to your taste.... mix n match.
4. While seasoning the mustard seeds you can add 1 dry red chillies also. It will give good aroma.
5. Sambhar should not be more watery or very thick.
6. I won't add turmeric powder in sambhar. Because its already added in sambhar powder.
 if not, then you can add little turmeric powder.


Thanks for reading :)

Mint Chutney

Ingredients:

1 Bunch of Mint

3 tsp of  oil

2 or 3 dry red chillies

1/4 cup of urad dhal

small piece of tamarind

4tsp of desiccated coconut

salt to taste

Method:

1. Heat the frying pan and pour oil. Roast dhal and dry red chillies.

    Fry until golden. Switch off the gas and add desiccated coconut mix well.

2. Take it out and place in dry plate. Drain the oil and take out the dhal.

    so that we can use that oil to fry mint.

3. Wash the mint and squeeze the water. Heat the pan again and fry the mint until it shrinks.

    Switch off the gas and add tamarind to that.

4. Allow it cool down for sometime first grind dhal mixture and then add this mint and salt.

5. Make a coarse paste with little water.

6. Enjoy with Ghee rice, dosa or idli.

Idli

I am so happy to write this because all of my friends like and they will ask for the receipe.

Ingredients:

To make batter:

3 cups Idli Rice

1 cup Urad Dhal

2 tsp(approx.) Salt

Whatever the cup you use the ratio is 3:1

1.   1. Wash the Rice 2 to 3 times and soak it for 3hrs. 1hr is enough for Urad dhal. Soak Rice and dhal separately.

2. First grind the dhal for 20- 25 mins( I used grinder, time differs for mixer/blender).
    You can see a small bubble appears on the batter, it means the dhal grinded into smooth and fine paste.

3. Take it out, and place the rice in the grinder for 20 mins. Before you take it out add salt and run it for 2 mins.

4. Now mix dhal batter and rice well.

5. Store the batter in air tight container and keep it aside in warm place for overnight for fermenting. (there should be some space in the container so that the batter gets fermented and it will rise next day morning)

6. It takes atleast 9-10hrs for fermentation.

7. Idlis/dosa are ready to be cooked when the batter is well fermented

Making batter is little big process after that you can enjoy idli or dosa..within few minutes.

Idli:

 you need idli stand.

1. Open the lid and don’t mix the batter…..nicely take the batter and fill ¾ in each space in idli holder. Usually some people will mix batter with water but i always use the fermented batter to make idlis.

2. Steam cook idlis on medium flame for 10 minutes or until done

3. Use the spoon to check .. take idli holder out and allow it cool down for 5 mins and use spoon to remove the idlis

4.  Serve it with sambhar and chutney

Hint:

you can also try 4 cups rice and 1 cup of urad dhal.
In winter season it takes more time for the fermentation, 
just got this idea from my friend, pre-heat the oven for few mins and switch off the oven and keep the batter inside so it will get fermented very nicely. but make sure that there is more space for fermentation otherwise it will overflow. 

Thanks for reading my receipe.

Good luck.:)

Have a nice day.

Sooji Halwa (kesari)

Thanks to all friends who liked this and few of you were interested in knowing the recipe.

Ingredients:-

1 cup sooji(rava/semolina)
1 cup sugar
3 cups water
pinch of cardamom powder
10/12 cashew
1tsp sultanas (optional)
4/6tsp ghee
3 drops of Food coloring

Method:

1. Heat the frying pan in low flame, add 1tsp ghee and sooji, roast it for few minutes.
2. Boil the water in a separate container simultaneously.
3. Add boiling water, food coloring to the roasted sooji. Mix it well and make sure that no lumps .
4. Once the sooji cooked, add sugar after the sugar dissolve, add cardamom powder and mix it well.
5. In small frying pan, roast cashew and sultanas in ghee and add to the above mix,if required add ghee
5. You can place the halwa in a square pan, allow it to cool down and cut into desired pieces.

Things used:

Indya sooji from indian stores(for good results use the coarse one not the fine sooji)
masterfoods Cardamom powder
Food colouring from safeway/ indian stores
(liquid one is very easy to use)