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Karivepaku Chicken(Curryleaf chicken)

This recipe is from my MIL and one of our family’s favorite chicken recipe.
I like the way it looks and the color – much different from most of the chicken recipes which are brownish red in color.
It has that authentic flavor and color. Tastes great with rice or roti.
The ingredients list might look pretty long, but if you have all the ingredients ready, the process is pretty simple. 

Karivepaku Chicken

Ingredients:

Chicken	1.5 lbs
Onions(medium-sized)	1
Curry Leaves	25-30
Oil	2 tbsp
Ginger	2-3 inches piece
Garlic	6 pods
Cumin seeds/Jheera	1 tbsp
Coriander seeds/ Dhaniya	1 tbsp
Cloves/Laong	4
Green Chillies	4
Cinnamon	1/2 inch piece
Turmeric powder	1/2 tsp
Dry grated coconut	1 tbsp
Black Pepper corns	1 tbsp
Salt	as required
Cilantro(finely chopped)	2 tsp
Lemon juice	1 tbsp

Procedure: 

Finely chop the onions. 

Chop the ginger in to small pieces. 

Wash the chicken thoroughly with water and keep it aside to drain the water. 

In a pan, dry roast ginger, garlic, cumin seeds, coriander seeds, cloves and cinnamon. Let them cool. In the same pan dry roast the curry leaves until they turn little dry and become dark in color. Now add dry coconut and fry for few seconds and let them cool. 

In a blender make a paste of all the roasted ingredients, pepper and green chillies. You can use a spice grinder to grind all the dry stuff and then add it to the ginger and garlic and blend in a blender. 

Now add oil to the pan and fry th onions with lil salt until they turn golden brown. 

Now add the chicken and cook until it is half done. 

Add the prepared masala to the chicken, adjust the salt and mix until all the chicken is coated with the spices mix. 

Cover the pan with a lid and let the chicken cook well with the spices. 

When the chicken is well-cooked, turnoff the stove and add lemon juice. Garnish with finely chopped cilantro.

Suggestions: Vegetarians can substitute chciken with tofu or paneer.

Carrot Rasam/Carrot Soup

I am always looking for ways to add more veggies to my recipes.

This carrot rasam is a a delicious recipe and a secret way to add carrots to kids diet.

Carrots are cooked with lentils, puree’d and spiced up with pepper and green chillies.

Carrot Rasam

Ingredients:

Tomatoes(medium – sized)	1
Carrots(diced)	2
Garlic	1 pod
Ginger	small piece
Toor dal/split pigeon peas	1/2 cup
Green Chillies	2
Ground Black Pepper	1 tsp
Salt	as required
Cilantro(finely chopped)	2 tsp
Lemon juice	1 tbsp

Seasoning:

Oil/Ghee	2 tsp
Urad dal	1/2 tsp
Mustard seeds	1/2 tsp
Cumin seeds	1/2 tsp
Red Chillies(broken)	1
Curry leaves	5
Turmeric powder	1/4 tsp
Asoefetida	a pinch

Procedure:

Pressure cook toor dal with carrots, tomato and salt.

Puree the cooked dal, tamato and carrots in a blender.

Add the puree to a sauce pan and add water and dilute it to required consistency and bring to a boil.

Add green chillies, crushed garlic and ginger and let the rasam boil for 10-15 minutes on a low falme.

Heat oil/ghee in a small seasoning pan and add all the seasoning ingredients in the order mentioned.

When the seeds start spluttering, add the seasoning to the rasam/soup in the sauce pan.

Now addlemon juice,  black pepper and garnish with cilantro.

Suggestion: You can add fresh carrots cut in to very small pieces or thin strips to the cooked rasam.

Serve with hot steamed rice or just have like a soup.

Carrot Soup

Home made salsa

We got take out from Chillies for yday’s dinner. For appetizer we got some chips and salsa. The quantity of salsa was too less for the huge bag of chips. And ofcourse, we loved the salsa so much that, we ate salsa with chips and not chips with salsa
Within few minutes we completed the salsa and the huge bag of chips was just lying on the dining table.

Seeing those chips I thought why not make some salsa at home and finish those chips. Looked for some salsa recipes online and most of them required grilling the tomatoes and peppers and puree’ing them.
I did not have so much time and decided to try something simple. Instead of grilling I just cooked the tomatoes and peppers in pan and puree’d them. Added some diced green peppers at the end to make the salsa crunchy.

Well….my version of the salsa did not match the chillies salsa, but it was not bad either.

Salsa

Ingredients:

Tomatoes(medium – sized)	3
Bell pepper(diced)	1/4 cup
Black Beans	3 tbsp
Green Chillies	2
Corn	2 tbsp
Salt	as required
Black pepper	1/2 tsp
Cilantro(finely chopped)	2 tsp
Lemon juice	1 tbsp
Olive oil	2 tsp

Procedure:

Add olive oil to a pan and when the oil is heated, add the finely chopped tomatoes and green chillies. Cover the pan with a lid and cook them until they turn soft. Add 1-2 tbsp water if requited.

The tomatoes turned soft enough that I did not have to puree them. But if they do not turn soft and puree then in a blender.

Now add the lemon juice, pepper and salt.

Mix the corn, black beans and the raw diced bell pepper. Garnish with cilantro. Refrigerate for 30 mins before serving.

Rava idli

I am not a big fan of idli. But this version of idli, I like because it is loaded with veggies and the best thing is it is instant. No soaking, grinding, fermenting.

Rava Idli

Ingredients:

Roasted upma rava	1 cup
Carrots(finely diced)	1/2 cup
Beans(finely diced)	1/2 cup
Green Chillies(finely chopped(	2
Yogurt	1/2 cup
Salt	as required
Cilantro(finely chopped)	2 tsp
Baking soda	2 pinches

Seasoning:

Oil/Ghee	2 tsp
Cashews	6
Mustard seeds	1/2 tsp
Cumin seeds	1/2 tsp
Curry leaves	5

Procedure:

I used roasted upma rava. If using regular sooji, just roast the rava in a pan for few seconds without oil.

Add the chopped carrots,beans and green chillies to the roasted upma rava. Mix with yogurt. Add salt.

Make in to a thick paste. Add water if required. The batter should be thicker than regular idli batter. Now let it soak for 10-15 minutes.

Now, if the batter is too hard, add more water.

For tempering, add oil the pan, add the seasoning ingredients in order and when the seeds start spluttering, add it to the rava-yogurt mix.

Add the chopped cilantro leaves.

With a spoon add the batter to the idli plates and steam cook them in am idli cooker for 10-12 minutes and the idlis are done.

Serve with coconut chutney or sweet allam pachadi.

Vegetable Fried Rice

This is indian chinese style vegetable fried rice. One of my favorites and an instant food if you have left over rice.    

Could there be a better way to use the left over rice than loading up with tons of fresh vegetables and make it complete sumptuous nutritional meal?  I had some left over rice from the previous day and made this yummy colorful fried rice. I added more vegetables to make it more nutritious.      

I generally cut carrots and beans into small pieces and keep them in my freezer. That makes it even more easy to cook this rice. All you have to do is heat the oil in a pan, toss in the veggies, add rice and spice it up with the sauces. As simple as that. It looks so colorful that its is appealing even for kids.      

Vegetable Fried Rice

Ingredients:

Cooked rice	1 cup
Carrots(finely diced)	1/2 cup
Cabbage(finely chopped)	1/2 cup
Beans(finely diced)	1/2 cup
Green onions/spring onions (very finely chopped)	2 tbsp
Bell Pepper/ Capsicum (finely diced)	1/4 cup
Salt	as required
Oil	2 tsp
Soy sauce	2 tsp
Chilli sauce	1 tsp
Pepper powder	1 tsp

Procedure:
Add oil to the pan.
Add the diced carrots, beans, cabbage and capsicum and stir fry them on high flame.
The vegetables should not be over cooked. When the vegetables are crispy and half-cooked add the rice and mix well.
Add soy sauce, hot sauce. Add pepper and adjust the salt.
Sprinkle the green onions on top and serve.      

Suggestions:      

I use the sriracha chilli sauce. But any kind of chilli sauce can be used.
You can even add scrambled egg to the rice.
1/2 tsp lemon juice can be added to the rice.      

It’s always better to use previous day’s rice. But if you do not have any left over rice, you can chill the fresh cooked rice in the refrigerator for 30 minutes before you prepare the fried rice. If the rice is hot, it becomes mushy when you mix with vegetables.      

I used the Julienne style peeler to cut the carrot into long strips, but I generally dice them into small pieces.

Chinese Fried Rice With Vegetables

Besan dosa

Besan Dosa

 

Ingredients:

Besan(Chickpea flour)	1/2 cup
Rice flour	1 cup
Green Chilli paste	1 tsp
Ajwain seeds	1 tsp
Curry leaves	5
Water	3.5- 4  cups
Salt	as required
Oil	2 tbsp

Procedure: 

Mix the rice flour and besan in the water and add all the remaining ingredients and mix well. 

Set it aside for 10 – 15 minutes. 

Heat the dosa tava/pan on high flame and when the pan is heated enough pour the dosa batter with ladle on the pan. 

Now reduce the heat and pour oil with a spoon around the dosa and let it cook. 

Turn the dosa to the other side and cook for few more seconds. 

repeat the process with the remaining batter. Serve with coconut chutney. 

Tip: Make sure the dosa pan is on high flame when pouring the batter and then reduce it to medium while the dosa is cooking.