An Indian veg recipe blog
Coconut chutney is one of the common accompaniments of South Indian breakfast. It goes well with dosa, idly, uthappam, upma, pongal, vada, poha and many other main dishes. White coconut chutney is the basic kind of chutney, but there are variations of it with red…
Cabbage thoran is one of the popular side dishes in onam and Vishu sadhya. A sadhya is never complete without a cabbage thoran. Sometimes, mixed veg thoran with cabbage, carrot and beansa are also served in Sadhyas. But the all-time favorite thoran of Malayali is …
I grew up in Kochi snacking potato bajjis and Kashmiri chilly bajjis that we get from bakeries here. These used to be occasional evening snacks with tea and everybody loved it. When we moved to Chennai, in the institute canteen I saw two new varieties of bajjis: raw banana bajji and bread bajji. The first time I tasted bread bajji, I liked it so much that I went to the kitchen counter and watched master making bajjis. As soon as he gets the order, he takes bread pieces from the packet, place it on a hot tawa and toast lightly, then halve it, dip in the batter and fry it and serve it in a plate with tomato sauce and mint chutney.
In Chennai, packeted bajji-bonda mix is available in supermarkets, so I buy them and used to prepare bajjis. This is one of my family’s favourite evening and late night snack. Back in Kochi, the readymade bajji-bonda mix are never seen in stores. So, I tried making the mix with besan and spice powders. The simple combination of chickpea flour and basic spice powders tastes perfect and I continue to make it whenever I have a packet of bread in my kitchen.
Step by step instructions of making bread bajji with images:
Heat a pan, place bread slices on it and toast them lightly.
Cut each slice into two triangles and keep aside.
Add all the dry ingredients in a bowl and mix well using a spoon or hand whisk.
Add required amount of water to the mix and prepare batter.
Heat oil in a deep pan
Dip each piece of bread in the batter and fry in hot oil till golden brown keeping the flame low.
Flip each slice fry the other side too.
Drain the bajjis and serve hot with tomato sauce.
My twin kids love potatoes!!! Earlier I used to make French fries for them, but I was not happy about consuming deep fried snacks all the time. So my daughter started trying different potato recipes. This recipe of roasted potatoes with crispy outside and creamy…
Though I have attended baking classes, never had time to try out what I learned there. I started baking cakes almost daily during lock down. Initially I used to find recipes from food blogs and follow them exactly. Almost all the cakes made with maida…
In Kerala most of the joyous occasions, be it birthday, festival, passing exams, marriages, all of them are celebrated with a serving of the traditional dessert payasam. I have a long list of payasam varities which are made in Kerala households.
Broken wheat payasam is my family’s favorite. Whenever I prepare this dessert, the cooker gets emptied very fast. So, I always prepare it double batch so that everyone can have to their heart’s content. The combination of broken wheat, jaggery and coconut milk with a topping of cardamom powder, ghee fried nuts and raisins gives it the unique taste.
In Kerala, I have seen this payasam been served only in marriages as an additional one, along with cheruparippu payasam and palada. Broken wheat comes in different varieties, coarse, fine and superfine, the type of broken wheat I have used here is the coarse or large grain sized one.
Step by step instructions with images
Wash the measured broken wheat thoroughly and soak for 20 minutes.
Crush jaggery
Prepare jaggery syrup by adding crushed jaggery and half a cup of water into a heavy bottomed pan and let it boil and simmer for a while so that the jaggery dissolves completely.
Strain the syrup as usually jaggery contains some impurities.
Extract thick milk from grated coconut first grinding it in a mixie with a cup of water and then thin coconut milk with another 2 cups of water.
In a pressure cooker add water and soaked broken wheat and cook on high flame for 3 whistles.
Once the pressure releases, fluff up the cooked broken wheat using the back of the handle of long steel spoon.
Pour ghee into the cooker and stir occasionally making sure that the contents at the bottom does not get burned. Continue stirring for 5 minutes.
Now add the jaggery syrup and repeat stirring for another 5 minutes.
Next add thin coconut milk and allow to boil two minutes.
Next add thick coconut milk and as boiling starts switch off the flame.
Sprinkle the cardamom powder on the top and stir lightly.
In a pan, heat 1 tablespoon of ghee and fry cashews till slight brown and raisins till it puffs up.
Garnish the hot payasam with fried cashes and raisins.
Almonds Apricots Badam Cashewnuts Chestnuts Chia-seeds Dates Dried-grapes Fig Flax-seeds Groundnuts Hazelnuts Khishmis Macadamia-nuts Peanuts Pecans Pinenuts Pistachios Prunes Pumpkin-seeds Sesame Sunflower-seeds Raisins Walnuts
Amaranth leaves Bok-choy Cabbage Celery Coriander-leaves Curry-leaves Dill-leaves Fenugreek-leaves Iceberg-lettuce Kale Leek Lettuce Mint-leaves Moringa-leaves Mustard-leaves Red-spinach Spinach Spring-onion
Ash-gourd Asparagus
Beetroot Bell-pepper Bitter-gourd Brinjal Broad-beans Broccoli Brussel-sprouts
Cabbage Capsicum Carrot Cauliflower Cluster-beans Cucumber
Eggplant
French-beans
Green-peas
Ivy-gourd
Ladys-finger
Okra
Peas Pumpkin
Radish Red-cabbage Ridge-gourd
Snake-gourd Squash String-beans
Tomato Turnip
Zucchini
Here is a list of fruits in alphabetical order…… Apple Apricot Avocado Banana Blackberry Blueberry Cantaloupe Cherry Cranberry Custardapple Dates Dragonfruit Durian Eggfruit Elderberry Fig Gooseberry Grapefruit Grapes Guava Jackfruit Kiwi Lemon Lychee Mango Mangosteen Mulberry Muskmelon Orange Papaya Passionfruit Pear Peach Pineapple Plum Pomegranate…