Chili-Garlic Mushroom Fried Rice

Ingredients:

Cooked Basmati rice                2 cups

Sliced Mushrooms                    1 cup

Onion, sliced                            1 large

Green chilies                            2 to 3

Garlic crushed                          6-8 cloves

Red chilies                               5 -6

Dark soy sauce                        1 Tbsp

Hot & sweet chili sauce      2 Tbsp

Vinegar or Lemon juice              1 Tbsp

Salt                                         to taste

Oil                                           2 Tbsp

Chopped Spring Onion              3 Tbsp

Preperation:

·         Wash the rice and cook it. Keep it aside for 15 min.

·         Make a paste of the red chili, vinegar using the blender.

·         Heat the pan with the oil, add the chopped green chili, fry well.

·         Add the chopped onion fry until it become light brown, add chopped garlic and fry for few seconds.

·         Add the chili paste, soy and chili sauces and fry for 30 seconds and add the mushroom sices and cook on medium heat in its own water for 3 to 4 min.

·         Add the cooked rice and mix well and fry for about 5 minutes  or until done.

·         Adjust the salt, garnish with chopped Spring onion (which I forgot to add in my recipe) and seve hot with raitha or as it is.

Tomato Rice

Ingredients:

Tomatoes - 4 medium

Basmati Rice - 1 Cup

Onion – 1 large

Green Chiliies – 3 to 4

Ginger& Garlic Paste – 1Tbsp

Salt - To Taste

Cumin seeds – 1Tsp

Fennel seeds – 1 tsp

Cloves- 2

Cardamom – 2

Bay leaves - 1

Chilli Powder- 1 tsp

Coriander Powder - 2 tsp

Jeera Powder - 1 tsp

Tumeric Powder - 1/2 tsp

Oil - 3 tbsp

Mint leaves – ½ cup

Fresh Coriander leaves- For Garnishing 

Preparation: 
Wash and soak the rice and keep it aside for about 30 minutes.Cut the tomatoes into small cubes, onions into thin slices and chillies lengthwise.
Heat the Oil in the Pan & add bay leaf, cloves, cardamom, cumin and Fennel seeds and fry till the aroma comes out.
When it starts spluttering add green chillies & Onions , fry till onions turn translucent.
Add ginger-garlic paste, mint leaves and fry till the raw flavor of ginger is gone. Add mint leaves ,tomatoes , salt,tumeric & keep stirring.
When Everything is mixed together add all the dry
masala powders and cook on a medium heat till the tomatoes are mushy.Keep stirring frequently.
When the tomatoes are cooked add the soaked Rice and fry for a minute. Add about 1 ½ cups of water to the rice and stir well. Adjust salt if needed. Once it starts to boil, lower the heat and cook the rice closed till done.
Garnish with Fresh Coriander leaves & serve hot with raitha.

Garlic Fried Rice

Ingredients:
Green Chillies : 4 slit lengthwise
Garlic : 10 pods crushed roughly

Curry leaves : 2 springs

Cumin seeds : 1 tsp
Rice : 1 cup
Ground pepper powder : ¼ tsp Salt : as per your taste

Ghee : 1 tbsp

Oil : 1 tbsp
Method: Cook rice and separate the grains and keep aside.
Heat one tablespoon of oil & ghee in a skillet and add the cumin seeds, green chillies, crushed garlic and curry leaves one by one and fry till garlic turns golden brown.
Now add the cooked rice, salt and pepper to taste, mix it well, fry for about 2 to 3 min. and turn off the heat. Serve hot as it is or with any gravy of your choice.

Mamidikaya (Raw Mango) Pulihora

Rice mixed with grated raw mango is a festive recipe that is specially prepared on “Ugadi” , when the raw mangoes are abundant. It is important that the mangoes are sour for this recipe. The more sour the Mango, the better is the pulihora.

Ingredients:

Rice – 2 cups

Peeled & grated raw mango – 1 ½ cup (depends on the sourness of mangoes)

Green chillies – 4 to 5

Coriander leaves – ½ cup

Red chillies – 4 to 5

Urid dal – 1 tbsp

Chana dal - tbsp

Ground nuts – 2 tbsp

Cumin seeds – ½ tbsp

Mustard seeds – ¼ tbsp

Cashew nuts – 2 tbsp

Turmeric powder – ¼ tbsp

Hing - a pinch

Salt to taste

Oil – 3 tbsp

Curry leaves – 2 springs

Preparation:

Wash and cook rice with enough water and cool it to room temperature. Add 1 tbsp of oil while cooking the rice so that the rice grains separate from one another.

Grind green chillies and coriander leaves coarsely and keep aside.

Heat oil in a pan and add the following ingredients one by one in a row and fry till golden brown.

• chana  dal
• urid dal
• groundnuts
• mustard seeds
• cumin seeds
• cashew nuts
• red chillies
• curry leaves
• ground chilli and coriander leaves
• turmeric powder
• grated mango
• and hing

After adding the grated mango add salt , fry for about 2 min till the raw flavour of mango goes.

Now turn off the heat and bring the mixture to the cooked rice and mix both evenly. Adjust salt per taste.

Coconut Rice

Be it with freshly grated coconut or with coconut milk or with both, there are different ways to prepare coconut rice. It is also one of the authentic Indian recipes, prepared on the occasions of pooja, festivals, etc.  Here is the recipe of coconut rice made with grated coconut.

Ingredients:

Rice – 2 cups

Freshly grated coconut – 1 ½ cup

Green chillies – 4

Red chillies – 3       

Oil – 3 tbsp

Mustard seeds – ¼ tsp

Cumin seeds – ½ tsp

Urid dal – 1 tbsp

Chana dal – ½ tbsp

Cashew nuts – 2 tbsp

Ground nuts 2 –tbsp

Hing/ Asafoetida – 1pinch

Salt to taste

Curry leaves – 2 strands

Juice of half lemon

Preparation:

• Wash the rice cook it with enough salt and a tbsp of oil and keep it aside.
• Heat the remaining 2 tbsp of oil in a wide pan and add mustard and cumin seeds.
• Once the mustard seeds start to splutter, add the urid dal, chana dal, groundnuts and cashew nuts. Once they turn brown, add the green chillies, red chillies, curry leaves and hing and fry for about a min.
• Add the grated coconut and fry for a min or two, till the raw smell of coconut leaves.
• Add the cooked rice and mix well and let it fry for about 2 min.
• Now take the coconut rice off the stove, add the lemon juice and mix well.
• Serve hot as it is or with any gravy of your choice.

Hyderabadi Dum Biryani

Yesterday, our friend, Ajay was here and he prepared Dum Biryani in hyderabadi style with my assistance and it tasted Delicious. Atlast I got to learn one of the very tastiest dishes. There are several methods of preparing a biryani and hyderabadi biryani is the most renowned and delicious one. Even though, Its preparation is a long, time consuming one, it is worth the taste. Hyderabadi Biryani is a popular non-vegetarian variety of Biryani. It is a traditional celebration meal made using mutton or chicken and rice. The raw meat is marinated in curd, Indian herbs, spices and cooked only by the dum, or the baking process, which is done with rice. This is a challenging process as it requires meticulously measured time and heat to avoid overcooking or undercooking the meat.  Thanks to Ajay for making a wonderful dish and teaching me too.

Ingredients:

Basmati rice - 3 ½  cups

Chicken – 1 Kg

Yoghurt – 1 cup

Shan Biryani Masala – 1 ½ Tsp

Dhania powder – 1 Tsp

Garam Masala – 1 tea spoon

Chilli powder – 1 tsp

Onions – 3 large

Green chillies – 6 to 7

Ginger garlic paste – 1 Tsp

Whole cloves - 6

Cinnamon – 2 inch stick

Black cardamom – 2

Green cardamom – 5 to 6

Star Anise - 2

Bay leaves - 4

Pepper corns - 10

Ghee – 2 Tsp

Oil – 1 cup (for deep frying the onions)

Oil – 2 tsp

Salt to taste 

Preparation: 

• First keep ½ cup of raw rice aside and then wash and soak the remaining rice for half an hour.
• Cut the onions into slices and deep fry them in oil until golden brown and keep aside.
• Cut the chicken pieces into desired size and marinade it adding yoghurt, chilli powder, biryani masala, dhania powder, garam masala, ¼ of the fried onions, salt, 3 each of cloves and green cardamom, pepper corns, mix well and keep aside for about half an hour.
• Now take a sauce pan and heat the ghee and add the remaining whole garam masala (cloves, cinnamon, star anise, cardamom, pepper corns), bay leaves and sauté for 30 secs and add about 2 litres of water and enough salt to this pan and bring it to boil.
• Once the water starts boiling, add the soaked rice and let it cook till the rice is half done. Meanwhile, in another big vessel, heat about 3 tsp of oil and add the chicken and half of the remaining fried onions and green chillis and let it cook till chicken is half done.
• Now add the ½ cup of raw rice on the chicken. Do not mix from this point. Now drain the rice from the water and layer it on the chicken. (do not drain the water completely as we need a little water for the rice to be cooked on dum).
• Now close the pan with an aluminium foil and place the lid. Take care that no leaks are there. It is advisable to put some weight on the lid so that the steam will not escape from the vessel. We have kept another vessel filled with water on the lid as a weight. Now let this steam on a low heat for about half an hour. To avoid burning of the chicken at the bottom of the vessel, we placed a tawa on the stove and then placed the biryani vessel on it, instead of heating it directly. This really worked.
• Once we take the biryani off the stove,  mix the chicken and rice well and garnish with fried onions and boiled egg and serve hot with raitha. Ajay suggested that it would be great to have it with Mirchi ka Salan.

Zucchini Rice

I got introduced to this vegetable about 4 years back, when I visited one of my Brasilien friend, Suzanne. She sauted zucchini and served it as a sidedish for Risotto. At that time, I didn't like its mild taste. Then After few months, I was just buying some vegetables at an Iranian shop and saw the zucchini and bought it but I didn't know what to prepare from them. When I first ate it, I felt it tasted similar to Okra. So, I fried it  and then went on to make this recipe. It tastes really good in this way and from then on, this became a very common dish in my home.

Ingredients for 2 servings:

Basmati Rice -1 cup
Grated Zucchini- 2 cups
Green chillies - 4 to 5 slit lengthwise
Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
Oil or ghee - 1 tsp
Water - 2 cups
Salt to taste

Preparation:

wash and soak the rice for 15 min. Heat the oil in a wide skillet and add the cumin seeds, green chillies and fry for  a min and then add the grated zucchini and fry for about 5 min. till the water in the zucchini evaporates. Now add this mixture to the rice and salt to taste, stir and cook the rice till its done. Serve hot with any gravy or raitha. It tastes good as it is too.

Ragi Sangati (or) Ragi Mudda

This was our lunch today. Ragi Sangati with spinat dal. I am very happy to start my blog with one of my favourite recipes. Ragi Sangati is a staple food in most rural Andhra and karnataka household. Its very tasty and healthy. Whenever I think of Ragi Sangati or the plain sangati (made with plain rice), I remember my childhood days, when my grandmothers used to prepare for the workers who work in our farms. We used to live in a joint family in a farm house in our fields and they used to cook sangati in large quantities for all the workers and also our family. From then on, I started eating this mouthwatering-delicacy with my father and still I love it and even now, my mother prepares ragi sangati for me and my father whenever I go to India. It tastes very delicious with both Non-Veg and Veg dishes.
Ragi is the least fat containing grain. Ragi is rich in protien, calcium, iron and is also gluten free.It is also a rich source of Methionine and is a recommended diet for diabetic people. Ragi Dosa, Ragi Malt, Ragi pudding and many more varieties can be made from Ragi flour.

Ingredients needed for 2 servings:

Ragi flour - 1 cup

Rice - 1 cup

Salt to taste

Water – 5 cups

Preparation:

Clean and soak rice for 15 - 20 mins. Boil 4 and a half cups of water in a saucepan and add the drained rice and salt. Cover and cook the rice until the grains are soft. In order to avoid the formation of lumps in the flour , I mixed it with half cup of water to make it a smooth paste and when the rice is cooked and soft, just add this paste into the pot. Cover the pan and let it cook on sim heat for few mins. Remove the cover and using a wooden spatula or a pappu guthi stir the mixture thoroughly until it is evenly mixed and cook on a low flame for 10 more mins.

Now , to make the sangati muddas, take a portion of the cooked mixture in a vessel which is wet with water and rotate with the hand to make a ball.Serve hot with any gravy. It tastes good with dals, Non-veg currys. I personally like it to have it with spicy fish curry and chicken curry and gongura dal. Today I prepared Spinat dal along with the sangati. I mixed the left over ragi mudda with buttermilk and had it as a soothing dinner. Trust me….it tastes great with buttermilk too….