Pappu Charu /Spiced stew with lentils

If I had to name one dish that makes its way into every home in the Telangana regions, it has to be this spicy, masalafied, pappu charu. It is the comfort food of the region and is easily loved by anyone and everyone. Not only does this dish taste wonderful but it also smells amazing during the entire process of  its making. Here is what I understood and learned when my mother in law cooked it for us. Hope you all can make it and enjoy it!

Ingredients (approximate measurements):

Oil

1 Onion sliced

Curry leaves - 2 stems

Cilantro - half a bunch

Mint - 1-2 stems

Green chillies chopped - 5

Turmeric

Salt

Red chilli powder

1/2 tsp sugar

4-5 Garlic chopped

3-4 inches of ginger grated

Masala powder (contains Coriander, Elaichi, Cloves, Cinnamon, etc)

1 cup Toor dal boiled

Mustard seeds

Cumin seeds

1 Lemon sized tamarind soaked and strained

4 cups of water

Procedure: 
1. First cook the Toor dal in a pressure cooker and keep it aside.
2. Heat oil in a deep bottom vessel and add cumin seeds, mustard seeds and green chillies. After a few seconds add the onions, mint leaves and some of the curry leaves and cook till the onions have become translucent.
3. Add the ginger and garlic at the same time and stir till the raw smell disappears.

4. Now add the cooked dal into the vessel and mix/roast it in with the onion mixture for 2 minutes. This step will help the dal absorb the taste of what is present in the mixture.
5. After the dal has been roasted, add the tamarind extract and add the water along with it. Also, add salt, sugar, turmeric powder, red chilli powder and the masala powder at this time.

6. Close the lid and let the stew/charu/pulusu boil well.
7. While the stew is boiling add the rest of the curry leaves. This step lets you experience the fresh smell the of curry leaves even better.

8. Once the stew is boiled and reaches the semi-solid consistency, you can add the cilantro for garnishing and eat the prepared stew with warm rice and papad.

Spicy Beerakaya masala kura / Ridge gourd masala curry

I'm not sure what it was but I had made it my goal to turn some of the boring or not so like-able vegetables into something desirable. Maybe it was due to the fact that using the most common vegetables everyday became a little boring after all.  So anyways, here I was staying at my friend Swathi's place in Atlanta and saw her making Beerakaya (Ridge gourd) one night for dinner. My first thought was "yikes"! But then, having tasted her other dishes I was confident she was going to turn this into something yummy so I paid close attention to her cooking and learned the dish. I definitely tweaked it to suit my style and thought I would share my recipe here. 

Ingredients: 

2 Beerakayas peeled and chopped

2 Medium sized onions chopped

1 bunch mint leaves

4 Green chillies chopped

1 tsp cumin seeds

1 tsp turmeric powder

1 tsp masala powder / corriander powder

1 tbsp ginger garlic paste

1 tbsp oil

Salt as needed

Procedure: 

1. Heat oil in a pan and add cumin seeds, green chillies and mint leaves. After 30 seconds, add the chopped onions. 

2. Once the onions are translucent, add turmeric powder and ginger garlic paste.  

3. Soon after step 2, add the beerakaya pieces, add salt and close the pan for a couple of minutes. 

4. The beerarkaya will soften fairly quickly and you may cook it till it softens and till any water produced has evaporated. You may take off the lid once the vegetable has softened/cooked as per your judgement. 

5. Finally add the garam masala powder or any other powders you generally like to use. 

6. The dish is ready to be served, with rice or roti :)

Mango Kulfi

Here is a tasty cold dessert that you can make effortlessly any time of the day or year.

Ingredients :

Evaporated Milk: 12 oz can
Sweetened Condensed Milk: 14 oz can
Mango Pulp: 30 oz can
Heavy whipping cream: 3/4th of a 1 Pint carton

Procedure:

1. All you have to do is mix all the ingredients in one large mixing bowl.
2. Once the ingredients have been mixed well, transfer the liquid into one freezable closed container or Kulfi moulds if you have them.
3. Allow the liquid to freeze for 6-7 hours. The freezing time could differ based on your freezer settings so, you might have to leave it in a little longer.
4. Once it is hard, it is ready to be served as a nice cold dessert!

Suggestions: You could add any nuts of your choice as you are mixing the ingredients. That would add some crunch to the kulfi.

Gobi Paratha / Cauliflower stuffed in tortilla

It's that lucky time for me when my mom is visiting and cooking us our favorite dishes everyday. I had to take advantage of that situation and asked my mom to make us my favorite Gobi parathas. This is more popular in the northern part of India and my South Indian mom was lucky enough to have a Punjabi neighbor whom she learnt it from. Here's how the dish is made and hope you get to make it when you find the time.

Ingredients:

[Makes 10-12 parathas]
Wheat flour: 2 cups
Maida (all purse flour) : 1 cup
Water: enough to make a soft dough

Cauliflower: 1 big one
Green chillies: 7-8
Ginger (crushed): 1.5 tsp
Cumin seeds: 1 tsp
Garam masala powder: 1/2 tsp
Salt: to taste
Cilantro: few stems

2 plastic sheets - you can cut out a ziploc bag into 2 pcs.

Procedure:

1. Mix both the flours into a bowl and add some salt. Slowly add water in order to make a soft dough. The dough should not be runny but soft enough to be easily stretched.
2. Knead the dough for good 10 mins and keep aside after adding little oil to it.

3. Take the cauliflower and shred the flower part of it.
4. Heat 1 tbsp oil in a pan and add cumin seeds, green chillies and ginger in that order. After a few seconds, add the shredded cauliflower and cook it for a few minutes. There is no need to close with a lid.
5. Add salt and garam masala to the mixture and you will see that there is now water coming out of the cauliflower. Cook the mixture until the water has evaporated and turn it off.



6. Let the curry you just made cool down and sprinkle the cilantro. One it has cooled down you can follow the next steps.
7. Take a small ball sized dough on to your palm, flatten it, add some of the curry and close it from all sides. You will now have a ball of dough with curry inside it.

8. Now roll this ball on to a slightly greasy plastic sheet and flatten it like a tortilla/roti.



9. Once you have flattened it to a desirable size, heat it on a pan. Heat both sides of the roti and add some oil around the roti while on the pan.


10. You can now serve it hot once it is toasted on both sides. You can eat it alone or dip it in cool yogurt.

Masala Karam/ Spicy Masala stuffing (powder)

This is a powder I learned from my Mother-in law and loved it instantly. I use it in quite a few of my recipes like: stuffed eggplant, stuffed Ivy gourd (Dondakaya), stuffed Karela (Bitter gourd) or even just to sprinkle it on top of curries like potatoes, okra and others. I find this to be very easy and simple because it doesn't require any form of roasting and you can make it anytime and store it for later use. Also, keep in mind that this powder is meant to be pretty spicy!

Ingredients:

Coriander seeds - 2 cups
Dry coconut powder - 3/4 cup
Garlic cloves - 8
Red chilli powder - 3-4 tsps (based on how spicy your powder is)
Salt - to taste

Procedure:

1. All you have to do is put all the above ingredients in a blender and grind them into a powder. The powder will be somewhat coarse so, don't wait for it to become very fine.
2. No need to roast any of the ingredients :)
3. Just store the powder and you can use it for any of the recipes mentioned above.

Variation: if you are planning to use this powder instantly for one time use, reduce the quantity accordingly and add onions to the mixture before blending it. But in this case, it will be a paste and you should make sure it cooks well along with the vegetables. It's equally delicious and brings great flavor and aroma.

Baby corn Manchurian

Ingredients:

Baby corn: 8 oz can

All purpose flour/Maida : 1.5 cup

Corn flour: 3/4 cup

2 Garlics chopped

Ginger chopped

6 Green Chillies chopped

Salt 1 tsp

Red chilli powder 3/4 tsp

1 Onion chopped

2 tbsps Ketchup

Procedure:

1. Add All purpose flour, corn flour, salt, ginger, garlic, few of the green chillies, and red chilli powder in one bowl. Make semi solid batter by adding water to the mixture.

2. The batter should not be too watery. The consistency should be thick enough to coat the baby corn and stick onto it.

3. Heat 2-3 tbsps oil in a deep vessel on medium hea

t. Wash and dip the baby corn in to the batter and deep fry in the oil.

4. Once you dip a few baby corn in the oil, simultaneously, they have a tendency to stick together. So, make sure to keep them separated while they are frying.

5. Fry them till they turn crispy and brown. Place them on a paper towel when you remove them from the oil.

6. After all the baby corn have been fried, heat 1/2 a tbsp of oil in a pan and add the rest of the green chillies. Also, add the chopped onions and saute them. The onions need not turn brown, just cook them till they turn translucent.

7. When the onions are cooked, add the ketchup along with some red chilli powder if you would like to make it more spicy.

8. Add the fried baby corn into this sauce and toss them till they are evenly covered with the sauce/ketchup.

9. The Baby corn Manchurian is now ready to eat as a starter or a snack.

Note: You may also add; green peppers or spring onions before you add the ketchup in step 7.

Also, the same recipe can be followed by using Cauliflower or Paneer (Cottage cheese) in place of the baby corn.

Dum Aloo / Baby Potatoes in a spicy gravy

My husband and I were grocery shopping one day and came across these really cute looking Baby potatoes in the store. My husband being a fan of potatoes, instantly wanted us to get them and figure out a recipe to make something of them. Of course, when he says "us", he really means I should figure something out and cook them. So, I looked through a lot of recipes and came across something that seemed interesting and closer to our liking. I made it soon as I could and of course my husband loved it and wants "us" to do it

again! Here is the recipe and hope you guys enjoy it as much as we did :)

Ingredients:

Baby potatoes: 15
Onions 2
Tomatoes 2

Green chillies 4

Garam Masala Powder
Oil

Salt

Red chilli powder (based on how spicy you would like it)

Garlic 2-3

Cumin seeds 1 tsp

Procedure:

1. To begin with, slightly boil the potatoes by covering them wi

th water and using either a pressure cooker (no more than 2 whistles) or a microwave. Make sure the potatoes are not fully boiled, as they might break easily in such a case.

2. You can now easily peel off the skin on the potatoes once they have cooled down after boiling.
3. Heal oil in a deep vessel and pour enough amount of oil to be able to deep fry the above potatoes. The potatoes should turn golden brown

as you fry them. Remove the potatoes into a paper towel and keep them aside.

4. Heat some oil in a pan and add sliced onions. Fry them until golden brown and add any masala powder you choose to use for your cooking.

5. Turn off the heat and let the fried onions cool down.
6. As they onions are cooling down, you may add halved tomatoes, peeled garlic and sliced green chillies into a blender. Once the onions are cool enou

gh, add them into the blender along with the others mentioned above. Now blend the mixture into a fine paste, making sure everything has blended well.
7. Heat about 1 tbspoon oil in a pan again and add cumin seeds and the above paste. Do not add any water as yet. Add salt, masala powder and red chilli powder to the paste and stir well. Let the paste cook until the oil separates and it starts to look dry.

8. As the paste is cooking, take a fork and poke the previously fried potatoes on all sides carefully. Making these tiny holes lets the above masala or paste add taste to the potatoes.
9. When the paste looks dry and well cooked, now add some water based on how thick or thin you like your gravy/sauce to be.10. Right away add the potatoes and cover with lid on medium heat and cook fir another 10-15 minutes.
11. Uncover the pan and let any of the remaining water evaporate.
12. Garnish with fresh corriander leaves and eat with rice or roti.