Kandhi Pachadi or Toor dal Pachadi

Toor dal is a very good source and protien and a mandatory part of
vegetarian Andhra meal. We make plain papu or tomato dal or spinach dal
or kandi podi or sorakai papu. This is Andhra popular item.



Ingredients:
Toor dal or Kandi papu 1 cup
Dry red chillies 7
Cumin seeds 1 teaspoon
Oil 2 teaspoon
Tamarind 2 inch sized
or
Tamarind paste 2 teaspoon
Garlic optional 4 to 5 cloves
Asafoetida or hing or inguva 2 pinches
Salt as needed

Preparation:
1. Heat a kadia or non stick pan and add oil fry toor dal until it is nearly bright red and nice flavour come out .Off the stove. Set this aside.
2.In the same pan add red chillies,hing and jeera/cumin and fry.
3.In a mixie or blender grind the toor dal,red chillies ,hing,jeera,salt and tamarind by adding little water. Blend till it becomes a coarse paste.
4.Serve with ghee and hot rice. Some people eat kanchi pachidi rice with green chilli and onion.
If you like you can garnish it with tadka of mustard seeds and curry leaves.

Kids Tomato Uttapam

Ingredients:

Urad dal 1 cup

Rice 3 cups

Methi seeds 1/2 teaspoon

Toor dal 1/4 teaspoon

Tomato 2

Fresh Coriander leaves

Salt as needed

Preparation:

1.Soak Urad dal, rice, menthi seeds and toor dal in water for about 6 hours. Add salt and grind it into very smooth paste. Ferment the batter in warm place for about 8 to 10 hours. This batter is used for making dosas and uttapam. (Some people use poha 1 cup,Urad dal 1 cup and Rice 1 cup uttapam but most of them use the dosa batter as it is easy to make both) In uttapam we generally use green chillies and ginger also. But I made for my kid who is toddler so I did not use them.

2. Cut tomato and coriander leaves into small pieces or put them a chopper or food proceesor and cut then into 1 cm piece use chop or pulse mode. Keep the tomato pieces aside.

3. Heat a your non-stick pan or tawa after it is heated turn it into medium low flame. Use a round serving spoon to spread the batter thick into 3 inch rounds on the top of batter spread the vegetables.

4. Spread the oil on the sides of uttapam . You can make 4 small or kid uttapams on a tawa. Gently press the vegetables on the uttapam with spatula and when it is light brown remove the lid and turn the Uttapam on the other side a spatula.

5. When it is cooked on both sides flip it iver to the first side and after a half minute serve with peanut chutney or cocunut chutney or tomato cutney, podi or sambar.

Cut Mango Pickle

Ingredients:

Raw Green Mango 1 medium sized

Garlic cloves 3

Mustard powder 1½ tablespoon
Menthi powder 1½ tablespoon

Red Chili Powder 3 teaspoons or 1 tablespoon
Mustard Seeds ½  teaspoon
Turmeric Powder ¼   teaspoon

Hing  ¼  teaspoon

Red chillies 2 broken

Oil  3 tablespoons

Salt as needed

If mango is not sour add lemon juice or citric acid.

Preparation:

1. Remove the peel of mango and cut the mango into small pieces. Put them in bowl.

2. Add salt, tumeric powder, mustard powder and red chili powder to the bowl of mango pieces and mix well.

3. In a pan heat oil after it is heated add mustard seeds, garlic, red chiillies and hing and allow them to mustard seeds to splutter. Switch off the stove.

4. Add the tadka to the cut mangoes and mix well. Add lemon juice or citric acid if mango is not sour. 

Gobi 65

Ingredients:
Cauliflower 1 Medium size
Corn flour 1/2 cup
Rice flour 2 teaspoons
GingerGarlic Paste 3 teaspoons
Chilly powder 1 teaspoon
Turmeric powder 1/4 teaspoon
Yogurt or curd for mixing
Salt as needed
Orage food color 2 pinches (Optional)
Oil for fry


Preparation:
1.Cut the cauliflower into even sized florets.
2.Add salt and water and boil for 10 minutes in microwave or on stove boil
water with salt till water starts to bubble switch off the stove and soak the cauliflower florets for 5 minutes or The cauliflower should not become soft. It should be liked half boiled .



3. Add corn flour,rice flour,ginger garlic paste ,turmeric powder and chilly powder to cauliflower and mix with curd . Add very little water if required .
.
4.Keep it aside for 5 minutes.
5.Now in a non stick pan or tawa heat oil and after oil is heated gently drop each cauliflower flourets one after one on a low flame till they are cooked. With a spatula gently turn them on all sides.


6. Decorate with Coriander and serve hot with mint chutney or ketchup.

Pongal or South Indian Kichadi

I love to make this. This is wonderful combination for a weekend brench. It is very simple and if you invite some one for dinner or lunch. Vada is easy to make and idly is yummy and two minute job if you have batter ready. Pongal is every ones favorite and awesome dish for breakfast ,lunch or dinner.

Ingredients:

Rice 2 cups

Moong dal 1 cup

Tumeric powder 1/4 teaspoon

Ginger 1 inch piece

Curry leaves 10 or 1 bunch

Black peppercorns 1/2 teaspoon

Jeera 1/2 teaspoon

Hing 1 pinch

Cashews or peanuts 1 teaspoon

Oil or ghee 1/4 cup

(The more ghee you add the more tasty it is )

Preparation:

1. Wash rice and moong dal. Add and saltturmeric powder and and add three times water .(Here we have 2 cups of rice and 1 cup of dal so add 9 cups of water. This make the pongal soft)

2. Cook the dal and rice in cooker. Transfer the cooked pongal to a big bowl. Add turmeric powder and half cup water and make it more soft and mix well.

3. Cut ginger into very small pieces. (This is optional ) .Heat a pan and turn it medium flame, add ghee or oil add cashews , jeera /cumin , black pepper corns, curry leaves,hing and ginger. When the cashew turns color switch of the stove.

4. Now mix the above tadka or popu with rice and mix well.  Pongal is very tasty when it is hot.

Rice Idly or Idli

Ingredients:

Urad dal or Menapa pappu 1 cup

Rice or Long grain rice or Ponni rice 3 cups

(In US you get 25 lb of Long grain rice for about 10 dollars in Costco ,Sams )

Menthi seeds 1/2 teaspoon

Toor dal 1/2 teaspoon

Salt as needed

Preparation:

Idly are prepared in Idly skill set. The idly pan has four half circle holes.

1. Soak urad dal,long grain rice ,urad dal and menthi seeds for about 4 hours.

2. Grind the urad dal ,long grain rice and methi seeds into a very smooth and fine paste.

3. Keep aside the batter in a warm place for overnight or about 7 to 8 hours. in a warm place like conventional oven or microwave The batter usually doubles in quantity.  Take the idly making plates and grease them with oil or ghee. Fill the plates to three fourth with idly batter.

5. Place the idly stand in a cooker or idly cooker and cook them for about 10 to 15 minutes.

6. Take out the idly's along the edges using a spoon.

Serve idly's coconut chutney ,peanut chutney and sambhar.

Set Dosa

This is Karnataka state special. Three dosas very soft are served with Vegetable kurma or cocunut chutney or peanut chutney. When ever we go to Banglore this is our favorite food to order.

Ingredients:
Rice 2 cups
or
Rice flour 2 cups
Poha or Atukulu 1 cup
Curd or Yogurt 1 cup
Salt to taste
Oil to make the dosa

Preparation:
1. Soak the rice for about 6 hours or Grind the rice flour softly into a thick paste by adding some water.
2. In a bowl add curd or yogurt,water and poha. Grind the the soaked rice or rice flour,poha and yogurt into a soft thick batter. Add salt.
3. Keep in a warm place and let is ferment for overnight or about 8 hours.
4. Heat a chapathi or non stick dosa pan and just add two drops of
oil and with a big round shaped spoon spread the batter in 5 inch
round shape. Now put half teaspoon of oil along the circumfernce of the dosa.
5. Heat on low medium flame and flip over to other side after one side is cooked.
6. Make another dosa with 4 and half inches. Set dosa is usually served as three dosas in a set. Make another dosa like about 4 inches.
7. Serve it hot with vegetable kurma or peanut chutney or cocunut chutney.