Foodie Workz

Idlis and dosas are always very common in South Indian households. These are such a relish which can be enjoyed any time of the day. I am in the habit of making this batter almost every fortnight as it comes in handy to fix a meal or to serve the famished kids after a long day at the school. This time I stuck to the traditional idli/dosa batter with idli rice and urad dal. Having done that, I wanted to make some dosas with masala but did not want to prepare that in the usual style. My kids love having cheese inside their dosas...give an option, they will choose the cheese dosa over the regular plain dosa or masala dosa. So, I came upon this idea of trying dosas in Quesadilla style using some veggies. I deliberated over mixed veggies or spinach and finally settled to making some veggie Quesadilla style dosas. However, since I did not have the mexican seasonings, I just went ahead and used our regular seasoning and garam masala. I could have just used some cumin and chilli powd...

While the word Upma usually refers to Rawa/Sooji Upma, we have other many varieties using  ingredients like the Semiya, Sago and Poha.  Yet another variety of Upma is the Arisi Upma or Rice Upma which is a very traditional preparation in the Tamil Brahmin households.  It is done by processing the rice and the toor dal to a coarse rawa like consistency.  Usually the rice is powdered and stored for quick use and the toor dal is ground just before making the upma.  These days it is being substitued with the store bought cream of rice (raw) which is readily available.  Growing up, I was really fond of this Upma and could never say enough to it.  It tastes so good with some sambar:-) Anyway, in continuation of my Quinoa experiments and also after the conversation I had with my friend, I realised that Quinoa is a perfect ingredient for this dish....thanks to her, I now have this wonderful recipe which I will never hesitate to do whenever I want a quick fix...

I consider my blog to not only be a place to share my recipes with others but also to narrate my experiences.  Sometimes these experiences cannot be so good.  As far as baking is concerned, I like to try out simple cakes, quick breads and muffins.  Most of the time my attempts have been a success.  I like the idea of incorporating different kinds of vegetables as well in these recipes... even though typically bananas and apples are a favorite.  I bought these sweet potatoes(probably the second time in my life) with the intention of trying out some desserts.  The idea of using it in a muffin hit me I and looked for some recipes on the net.  I came upon this recipe here which called for 2 eggs for 2 cups of flour.  But I decided to substitute these eggs with banana and oil. As I started, there were a few hiccups - I was short of some potatoes and brown sugar.  Hence, I had to come up with alternatives....and ended up using the ingredients ...

This morning as I was chatting with my friend, she mentioned about a Chinese type salad with spinach, iceberg lettuce and cucumbers, with some toasted sesame and peanuts...the dressing base being sesame oil, soy sauce and chili sauce. However, I am not a big fan of Chinese flavors and so are the rest in my family. Also, I could not imagine myself and my family tasting the sesame oil in a salad. Since salad was already in my lunch menu(because a full bunch of romaine lettuce was waiting to be used), I thought I could try this but do my own version of the dressing for the above mentioned reasons...... 1/2 cucumber 1 cup cabbage cut into thin long 1 inch strips 1 small carrot 1 table spoon each of red and yellow capsicum a handful of spinach leaves 4 leaves of romaine lettuce handful of roasted peanuts 1 tbsp of sesame seeds roasted Dressing 1 tbsp olive oil salt to taste sugar half the amount of salt ground pepper to taste 2 pinches of ginger powder or use a small piece of ginger gr...

 Whenever the asparagus are aplenty in the market, I end up making them almost once a week.  I usually cook them in South Indian style with a simple mustard tadka(seasoning) and chilli powder.  Sometimes,  I do in the same manner in combination with potatoes and carrots. Today, I wanted to get the North Indian flavor for which potatoes, an all time favorite, work as a good companion ingredient.  This makes it interesting for both the adults and the kids.   This turned out to be really good and we had this subzi and a simple moong dal with rotis last night for dinner.   1 bunch  asparagus 15 oz potatoes peeled and chopped 1 onion 1 plus 1/2 big tomatoes 3-4 garlic cloves sliced into thin rounds 1 green chilli slit 1/4 tsp turmeric powder 1/4 tsp chilli powder 1/4 tsp paprika powder 1/2 tsp garam masala salt to taste 1 tsp cumin seeds Wash the asparagus, trim the hard end and chop up the rest into half inch long pieces. Heat up a ...

I usually keep some sunflower seeds in my pantry as it is a very nutritious addition to a salad. I am making salad all the time as that is what my husband takes as his lunch. So just to have some variety I try not to add the same nut every day. One day, I came upon this idea of using these seeds to make a podi out of it that can be mixed with the rice on the same lines as Sesame podi. Sesame podi being a traditional item in the south, I immediately referred my "Cook and See" book and came across a recipe for Sesame podi and a recipe for Sesame rice. The only difference being that the latter uses little urad dal along with sesame, red chillies and hing. And for the rice, you continue further by adding the seasonings along with the prepared powder to toss in the rice. Since I have always liked the flavor of urad dal, I decided to make the powder as it is done for the Sesame rice. My experiment was a big hit and my Father in law enjoyed it very much:) Here I am shari...

3-4 cups of cubed pumpkin 1/4 to 1/3 cup of toor dal 1/4 cup of fresh field beans(mochai) salt to taste pinch of turmeric pinch of hing Paste: 4 tea spoons coconut 1 red chilli 1/4 tsp cumin seeds Seasoning: Mustard, Urad dal, curry leaves Cook the pumpkin with salt and turmeric adding little water until it is translucent.  Cook the toor dal  and mochai in the pressure cooker in separate containers.   Add little salt and water to the mochai. Grind the paste ingredients adding little water to a coarse consistency.  I do not use too much coconut in my cooking even though traditionally it calls for.  Of course, needless to say more coconut makes the dish even more tasty.  So please feel free to add more coconut. Add the paste.... bring it to a boil, add the cooked dal and let it come to a boil again.   If you find the consistency to be thin, you can add half a spoon of rice flour and bring it to a boil to thicken.  Take a spoon of o...

1/4 cup Broken Barley 1 small carrot 11/2 cup milk(I used fat free) 3 table spoons sugar 3 cashews extra milk to cook barley and carrots few strands of saffron 1/8 tea spoon of crushed cardamom few cashew nuts and raisins for garnish The first step is to process the barley to a coarse rawa consistency. Please refer to my Instant Barley and Rawa Idli recipe . Next, the barley and the carrots have to be cooked. Take water and milk together equal to a cup in a vessel and add the barley rawa. You can use full measure of milk if you want. Chop the carrots into slices and take them in a vessel with milk just enough to cover them. Add the 3 cashews. Cook both of them together for about 10 minutes on low heat after a whistle or upto 2 to 3 whistles. In the meanwhile, boil the milk thoroughly in the microwave. Once the pressure is released, take the carrots with the milk and grind into a smooth paste. You can add more milk if you want while grinding. Bring it to the stove top and cook ...

5 big red radishes 1/2 cup barley flour 1 cup wheat flour 3/4 tsp 1/2 tsp red chilli powder 1/4 tsp turmeric powder 1 tsp coriander powder 1 tsp ajwain seeds 1-2 tbsp oil Oil for dredging Cut the red radish into quarters. I decided to use up some leftover barley flour from making the barley kheer. Throw in all the ingredients into the food processor and turn it on. Do not add any water. Soon it will all come together and begin to form a ball. Take it out and start kneading with your hands. I started off with the above quantity of flour but ended up using about another 1/2 cup flour. I also used some coriander stems while processing the flour. I try not to throw them away after trimming the leaves and use it in chutneys and rasams. Those of you who like it to be spicy can increase the quantity of the chilli powder and correspondingly the salt. Heat up a tawa and first cook one side and turn over.. Then smear oil and cook both sides till brown dots appear. We had these rotis with...

I was sitting down and wondering what to come up with for dinner when my younger one suggested I make some potatoes with green leaves. I usually make aloo palak or aloo methi which my daughters love. Today, I did not have both of them......so, I decided to use the turnip leaves ( I am probably doing this turnip potato combo the second time). I always have these frozen greens like collard, mustard and turnip in my freezer all the time. These come in handy when you decide to make a simple dal and want to include some vegetables. You just throw in a few handfuls of these greens into the dal and you have a very simple and nutritious side dish. My daughters enjoyed their meal with some phulkas and a cup of yogurt. 2 big potatoes (about 1/2 a kg) cut into big cubes 1 cup chopped frozen turnip greens thawed 1/2 cup chopped onion 1 full teaspoon of chopped garlic 2 teaspoons of chopped ginger 1 green chilli chopped finely salt to taste 1 tbsp oil 1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds 1/4 teaspoon turme...

1 cup plus little more of boiled channa(garbanzo beans) 1 cup cooked rajma(kidney beans) 1 cup cooked black eyed beans(lobiya) 1/2 cup green beans chopped into 1" long pieces 1/4 cup of thinly sliced onions 1 inch long Dressing 3 table spoon olive oil 2 tea spoon sesame seeds few sprigs of coriander leaves small piece of ginger 2 small cloves of garlic a small piece of green chilli salt to taste 1 table spoon lime or lemon juice Cook the beans covered in the microwave with little bit salt and sugar until it is soft. Combine all the salad ingredients in a bowl. Grind the dressing ingredients to a smooth paste. Add it to the salad and toss them thoroughly. You can make this even more colourful by adding yellow and orange peppers, some tomatoes and corn. I am sending this salad entry to Manjula's Kitchen contest.

1 cup pecans                                                        1/2 cup oats 3/4 cup sugar few cardamom pods a spoon of ghee 1/4 cup milk Process the pecans making sure that it does not get lumpy. Roast the oats in a spoon of ghee until it turns golden brown in color. Powder this with the sugar and cardamom. In the meanwhile, begin to toast the processed pecans on the stove top. Slowly you will begin to see that the nuts are letting out oil and kind of coming together. Roast this until you get the smell of the pecans making sure it does not get burnt. Transfer this and the oats mixture to a bowl. Have a quarter cup of milk heated up and ready. It is not required to boil the milk. Use the needed amo...

In this health conscious world,every body is trying to incorporate all the good grains into their diet instead of the traditional Rice.  One such grain(or a seed I must say) that has caught every one's attention is QUINOA ( pronounced as kee-n-wah).  This is not new to many of the innovative cooks out there in the blogging as well as the non blogging world.  In fact, I have heard of some friends who eat this like the regular  rice. I have tried Quinoa Upma and Pulao and Puliyogare was my recent attempt.  There are quite a few recipes out there using Quinoa in  idlis, dosas and adais - the typical breakfast dishes of South India.  I too was keen on attempting to do this.  But I was a little skeptical given the fact that my husband does not relish  Quinoa as much as I do.  And getting the kids to eat is going to be out of question. As I was pondering, I decided to include  Quinoa into a variety of Dosa called Venthaya(methi seed)...

1/2 cup Barley 2 table spoon moong dal 1 cup chopped mixed vegetables - carrots, potato, beans and peas(cut the potato bigger, slice the carrots into1/4 inch thickness and chop the beans 1 cm long) 1/4 of an onion chopped 1 tsp jeera 1 green chilli chopped or slit ginger small piece chopped 1/8th tsp ground pepper salt to taste 1 tbsp oil or ghee turmeric small pinch water Soak the barley for 3 hours.  Take a pan with oil.  Season jeera, ginger, green chilli and add the onion to saute for a couple of minutes.  Add the pepper powder, stir and add the vegetables.  Toss them for a few  minutes and add the turmeric and salt.  Transfer this to the barley and dal mixture.  Keep water in the ratio of 1:4 and cook in the pressure cooker for ten minutes.  When you remove it will be slightly watery, but as it cools down it will thicken.  I am sending this to  Wholesome Wholegrain Cooking - Barley for Breakfast event.

1 cup Basmati rice 1 big bunch of methi leaves 1/2 of a medium to big size onion 1 tomato medium size 3/4 cup frozen peas 3 garlic cloves small piece of ginger 1 green chilli 1/4 tsp turmeric powder 1/2 tsp sambar or rasam powder Whole garam masala - 2 cloves, 1 cardamom, 1 inch piece of cinnamon and 1 bay leaf 1-2 tbsp oil Water 21/2 cups Soak the basmati rice for about 15 minutes. Wash and drain. Wash the methi leaves and chop it roughly. Chop the onions into fine pieces. Grate the green chillies, ginger and garlic. Take oil in a pan. Season cumin seeds and all the whole masala. Add the onions, green chilli, ginger and garlic. Saute it for about 2-3 minutes. Add the rice and stir it until the moisture is gone. Add the frozen peas and the methi leaves and keep stirring continuously on medium high for few more minutes. Add water, sambar/rasam powder,salt, turmeric powder and let it come to a boil. Add the tomatoes to the cooking rice. Cover and let it simmer...

Medium size Cauliflower 1 cup Rice Seasoning - Mustard(3/4 tsp), Urad Dal(1tsp) and few curry leaves Salt to taste Oil 2 tbsp Spice Powder Coriander seeds 3 tsp Chana dal 2 tsp Red chillies long variety 2 nos Fresh or Dry grated coconut 3 tsp(optional) To prepare the spice powder roast the ingredients in the order given in half a teaspoon of oil. Remove off the stove once the coconut changes color. Let it cool and grind it into a coarse powder. I never bother to use coconut as this rice still tastes good carrying the flavor of the roasted seeds and dals. Cook the rice separately making sure that it does not turn mushy. Let it cool. There are three ways to get the cauliflower ready. You can chop them into very tiny pieces or cut into big chunks to process it in a food processor or you can grate it on the big hole of the grater. The last one is of course the most easiest and less time consuming. I had to use the third method today as I was running out of time. Ho...

1/2 cup of Quinoa cooked and cooled 4 teaspoon of tamarind pulp big handful of roasted peanuts 2 red chillies long variety 1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds 1 teaspoon chana dal few curry leaves 1/2 tsp turmeric powder salt to taste jaggery dime sized ball 1/2 teaspoon methi seeds 2 pinches of hing Spice Powder 2 teaspoons dhaniya 2 teaspoons chana dal 1 to 2 red chilli Dry roast the methi seeds till it splutters and changes color. Roast the hing as well. Grind this into a fine powder and keep. Roast the spice powder ingredients in little bit of oil one at a time. Grind this also into a fine powder. Take water in the ratio of 1:2 and cook the quinoa directly on the stove top and let it come to a boil. Transfer this to the pressure cooker and cook as long as you would cook rice. Take a pan with a tablespoon of oil, splutter mustard and add the chana dal. Once it begins to change color add the roasted peanuts, red chillies broken into pieces, curry leaves and finally...

one measure of rawa / sooji two to three measure of water depending on the variety one measure of sugar one third measure of ghee(I used about 1/4 th measure) two measures of strawberry chopped into fine pieces roasted cashew nuts for decoration cardamom powder Roast the rawa with few spoons of ghee until a nice aroma comes. Boil the water in the microwave and slowly add this to the rawa stirring it. Cook the rawa until all the water is absorbed. In the meanwhile, cook the strawberries with very little water in the microwave. Add this to the rawa , the sugar and the ghee and cook until the sugar is melted and begins to form a soft dough like consistency. Sprinkle some cardamom powder and the roasted cashew nuts. I am sending this recipe to Nivedita's Celebrate Sweets - Warm Desserts guest hosted by Priya Mitharwal . I looked into my pantry to only find Fada (fine) which I had bought it last week instead of the regular rawa . Hence, I decided to use this to make the above ke...

1/2 cup moong dal 1/2 tsp sambar powder 1/4 cup onion or few sprigs of spring onion chopped 1 big tomato salt to taste tamarind to taste Water 2 cups Seasoning : pinch of methi seeds, mustard, red chilli(1), green chilli(1), few curry leaves and pinch of hing Season all the ingredients with a tsp of oil. Quickly saute the spring onion and add the chopped tomatoes. Saute this for about 1-2 minutes. Add this and the water to the washed dal. Put half the amount of salt that is going to be used into the dal and half of the tamarind and pressure cook upto 3 to 4 whistles. Once the pressure goes down, remove from the cooker, check for salt and tamarind and bring the sambar to a boil. Let it boil on low medium heat for 5 minutes. Garnish with coriander leaves. PS: The same can be done using winter melon (vellai poosanikkai) cut into big cubes. The vegetable disintegrates with the sambar. This way there is no problem in getting the kids to eat and vegetables are consumed without their ...

1 cup brown rice flour 1/3 cup barley flour 2/3 cup cream of rice 1/2 cup urad dal Soak the urad dal for about 4-5 hours. Soak all the flour and the cream of rice together in 3 cups of water. The paste should be thick in consistency. Grind the urad dal to a smooth frothy paste. Mix this paste with the flour mixture and add more water if needed to bring to the consistency of idli batter. Add salt and let it ferment overnight. It is then ready to be made into idlis.

Quick Oats - 1/4 cup(ground to a coarse consistency) Rice Flour and Fine Sooji combined - 1/4 cup Baking Powder - 1/2 tsp Baking Soda - 1/4 tsp Salt - little less than 1/2 tsp Finely chopped onion - 1/3 cup Green chillies - 1 to 2 finely chopped Ginger - finely chopped small piece Coriander leaves chopped - 1 tbsp Mix all the dry ingredients thoroughly. Add the onions, green chillies, ginger and coriander leaves. Give a good stir. Add about 1/3 cup of water and mix it well. Leave this mixture aside for 30 mts. Have the kuzhi paniyaram pan ready with about a tsp of oil in each hole. Drop a spoonful batter into each hole after the oil is heated up. Once it is cooked on one side, turn them over and add more oil if needed. They can be served with coconut or green chutney.

One measure of Oats Flour One measure of Almond powder Sugar according to taste Cardamom Powder Roasted cashews and raisins for garnish Cook the oats and almond flour together in the cooker with water and milk combined in the ratio desired. The total liquid to powder ratio can be 3:1. Once cooked and while it is still hot, remove any lumps if any. Bring it the stove top and add the required amount of sugar and let it come to a boil at medium heat remembering to stir the mixture. Add some well boiled milk or evaporated milk and let it again come to a boil. Turn off the stove and add cardamom and the roasted cashew and raisins for garnish.

Broken brown rice 1 1/4 cup Broken tuar dal about a handful Flax seed powder 5 tsp Salt to taste Mustard 1 tsp Urad dal 2 tsp Small piece of red chilli Green chilli 2 nos Ginger 1 inch piece grated Curry leaves few hing a pinch Coconut grated(optional) Oil 2-3 tbsp Water 21/2 cups Take oil in a kadai. Once it is hot enough add all the seasoning ingredients starting with mustard. As soon as you add the hing, add water and salt and let it come to just close to boiling. Reduce the flame and slowly add the broken rice and tuar dal stirring at the same time to make sure there are no lumps. Increase the heat and keep cooking until it comes together to a ball like consistency. Let this cool a bit. Once cooled, shape these into oval balls and place them on greased idli plates. Steam for 15 mts. Serve with any kind of chutney, sambar or kothsu. Broken brown rice is not readily available in stores. It has to be prepared at home. Wash the rice and let it drain thoroughly. Sp...

1/4 cup grated coconut 1 tbsp flax powder 1tbsp sesame seeds 2 tbsp roasted chana dal(pottukadalai) 1 tsp coriander seeds red chillies according to taste small piece of tamarind salt to taste Roast the flax powder till you get the smell of it. Roast the sesame seeds, coriander seeds and red chillies separately. Grind all of this with the rest of the ingredients adding some water. Splutter some mustard seeds in about 1/2 tsp of oil and pour it onto the chutney. Serve this with idlis or dosas.

10 gms milled flax seed 40 gms white sesame seeds 2 redchillies Seasoning: Mustard, Urad dal, red chillies, green chillies, coconut, curry leaves, hing and salt . Roast the flax seeds till you get a nice aroma. Roast the sesame seeds till they all splutter and change into a nice brown colour. Roast the broken red chillies separately. Grind these into a fine powder and keep aside. Cook a cup of sona masoori rice with little less water than usual so that the rice does not get mushy. Let it cool. Prepare the seasoning. Take about 2 tbsp of oil and roast the ingredients in the order given. Roast until the coconut slightly changes color. Keep a small amount of rice aside and then combine the powder and the seasonings with the rest of the rice along with the required amount of salt. Add some more oil or ghee and check for salt. If needed, add the rest of the cooked rice as well. Since I am a health conscious person, I try to keep the oil and coconut to minimal quantit...

Parboiled rice ¾ cup Raw rice ¼ cup Barley ½ cup Cracked wheat fine ¼ cup Toor dal ½ cup Chana dal ½ cup Urad dal ¼ cup Moong dal ¼ cup Frozen turnip greens Thanks to the internet, I learned that Barley can be substituted while making idlis, dosas and adais. However, here is my version of Barley adai. Soak all the rice and the dals together and the barley and cracked wheat separately for about 3 hrs. Grind the dal and the rice first adding redchillies and curry leaves. After it becomes a bit coarse, add in the barley and continue to grind for five more minutes. Add the cracked wheat in the end and let it go for a couple of minutes. Add salt to the batter. The batter is ready to make crispy adais. Just before making the adai, add some thawed turnip greens to the batter. Any kind of greens can be added to the batter along with grated vegetables of your choice like onions, cabbage, cauliflower or brocolli. Since this was my first attempt at using barley and also because of...

1 cup fine semolina roasted 1 cup barley rawa ½ cup finely chopped onion 2 cups buttermilk ½ tsp baking soda 1 and ½ tsp salt 1 tsp mustard seeds 1 tsp urad dal 1 tsp chana dal 2 tbsp cashew nuts Curry leaves Coriander leaves How to make the barley rawa Process the barley to the consistency of cracked wheat. This cannot be done in one stretch but intermittently. Pulse it a few times and use the fine sieve to remove the fine powder and the coarse sieve to get the coarse barley. Take the leftover barley and follow the same procedure until you get one cup of barley rawa. While doing this, I ended up with only about ¾ cup(I had only a small amount of barley in my pantry). Roast this barley and let it soak in same amount of water. Combine rawa, salt and soda thoroughly in a bowl and have it ready. In the meanwhile, prepare the seasoning. Roast the mustard, chana dal, urad dal, cashews , chillies and curry leaves. Add the onions and conti...

One measure Oats Flour One measure Milk One measure Almond meal or powder One measure ghee Two measure Sugar I used a standard 1/2 cup measure for the above recipe. For the one measure of Almond powder, I used half almonds and half finely shredded coconut. Combine all the ingredients in a pan and make sure there are no lumps in the mixture. Start cooking at medium high heat. Keep stirring the mixture to ensure that it does not get burnt at the bottom. The mixture is ready once it all comes together leaving the sides of the pan. Have a greased plate ready to pour the mixture. For the quantity I tried it took about 12-15 mts. Once it is ready, quickly transfer the dough to the greased plate. Let it cool slightly before you cut into desired shape. This was sent to "CWF-Oats" event hosted by Priya of easyntastyrecipes@blogspot.com