Mushroom - Peas Pulov & Chocolate dipped Mint Leaves

Happy to participate in Dear LG's Greenblogproject.So, I planted Mint and Purslane(Gangapayila Aaku).With my mint leaves i added minty flavour to "Pulov"
and another sweet leaves - waiting for guests to melt in their mouth after having my "Mushroom - Peas Pulov".

Nutritional Facts of Mushroom
Goodsource of essential minerals like Selenium,Potassium,Copper
Richsource of B-complex vitamins
Mushrooms are low in calories.
See this link for "Mushroom Varieties with Pictures"

Ingredients for Mushroom Pulov
Boiled Rice - 2 cups
Button Mushrooms (fresh) - 5 no,washed and wiped with cloth, chopped into thin slices
Onions - 2 medium size ,sliced into lond pieces
Green Chillies - 3 no,juliened
Garlic - 2 pods,crushed
Ginger - ½ " piece,crushed
Green Peas(Fresh or Frozen) - 2 cups
Cinnamon - ½ " piece,
Cardamom - 2no,crushed
Cloves - 2no,crushed
Cumin - 1tspn
Red chilli pwd - 1tspn
Turmeric - ½ tspn
Salt to taste
Oil for cooking

Method

1.Heat Oil in Saucepan,add crushed Garlic,Ginger saute until you get the aroma of Ginger,Garlic.

2.Add Cumin seeds ,juliened Green chillies,Onions and saute until Onions turn golden brown color.

3.Add chopped Mushroom and saute for 4 minutes then Add crushed Cinnamon, Cardamom, Turmeric , frozen Peas and stir well and mix well by sprinkling little water and cover with lid and leave it to cook for 3 minutes on low flame.

4.When Mushrooms,Peas are cooked add boiled Rice and stir.Add Salt and Redchilli pwd if neccessary.

5.Garnsih with "Mint" leaves and serve hot with any vegetable raita.

Chocolate dipped Mint Leaves
Semisweet Chocolate Chips - 1 cup
Mint Leaves - 15
Vegetable Oil - 1tspn

Method

1.Melt Chocolate chips in a double boiler,until almost melted.Stir Chocolate until smooth and add Oil to get glossy look.

2.Dip Mint Leaves in the Chocolate to coat on both sides and Place on a Rolling pin covered with wax paper to give that original leaf shape. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour and best to keep in freezer until you serve(just chewing).

3.Just take out from freezer and eat immediately otherwise Chocolate melts out.

"F" for Fenugreek Poori in Dahi - Chaat

Ingredients for "Fenugreek Poori"
Fresh Fenugreek leaves(Menthi Aaaku/Vendhiya kerrai/Methi) - ½ bunch
Wheat flour - 4 cups(Golden temple brand Godhuma Pindi/Godhumai mavu)
Luke warm milk - ½ cup
Cumin pwd - ½ tspn
Red Chilly Pwd - 2tspn
Sooji(Rava) - 1 tspn
Salt to taste.
Oil for deep frying

Method:

1.Wash Fenugreek Leaves and wipe with a dry cloth and chop into small pieces.

2.Take Wheat flour in a bowl add salt,sooji,red chilli pwd,cumin pwd,chopped menthi leaves and knead well by adding warm milk and sufficent water to make a soft and pilable dough.Cover this with a damp cloth and keep it aside for 30 minutes.

3.Make medium Onion size balls with the dough and flatten it but sprinkling flour ,roll it with a roller pin into a circle /rectangle and cut the dough with the lid of jar(circle shape)into a small size pooris.

4.Heat Oil in a kadai ,until it gets hot enough to deep fry.(You can find by dropping a small piece of puri in hot oil to know whether oil is enough hot to deep fry .Poori piece will come up immediately.So start frying.)

5.Fry all these small poories for bothsides until golden brown and strain on paper towel for excess oil.Store in a airtight container for another 2 months.

Dahi for Chaat
Homemade Yoghurt(Perugu/Thayir/Dahi/Curd) - 4 cups
Sugar - 1tbspn
Black Salt /Kala Namak - 3 tspn
Cumin pwd - 2tspn
Red Chilly pwd - ½ tspn

Method:

1.Beat the curds and add Black Salt,Sugar,Cumin pwd ,Red Chilly pwd and mix well ,Cover and chill in fridge.

For Filling Fenugreek Pooris:
Tamarind chutney (refer Panipoori recipe)
Crushed Cumin powder
Red chilli powder
Boiled and cubed Potatoes - 5 no
Chopped Onions - 2 cups
Chopped Coriander - 1 bunch
Chaat masala - 1tspn

Method:

1.Take the pooris and make a hole with the finger in the middle of the poori and stuff with Potato cubes along with Tamarind chutney ,Green Chutney,chopped Onion pieces and sprinkle Chaat masala.

2.Place all these poories in a serving plate.

3.Take out Chilled Dahi from fridge and pour around each poori upto ½ inch size in length .

4.Drizzle Tamarind chutney on the top of each poori .Garnish with washed fresh Coriander leaves and serve immediately.

Toor Dal Butternut Squash Kheer

Butternut Squash belongs to the Cucurbita moschata species. Beige colored and shaped like a vase. This is watery and tastes like sweet potatoes.

Nutritional Facts
Rich in complex Carbohydrates
Low in saturated Fat and Sodium.
Good source of vitamins A and C
Good source of Beta-Carotene, Magnesium, Manganese, Calcium and Potassium.

Ingredients for Butternut Squash Kheer/Payasam
Butternut Squash - 2 cups ,grated
Sugar - 1 cup
Milk - 2 cups
Toor dal - 2tbspn ,boiled and mashed
Cardamom - 4no
Cashewnuts - 6no
Raisins - 7 no
Ghee - 3tspn

Method

1.Wash,Peel Butternut Squash and remove the seeds and excess fiber and grate into thin long stripes.

2.Heat the saucepan and add 1tspn of ghee and fry the grated squash for 2minutes and add milk; stir for a while and cover with lid and cook over medium heat for about 5 minutes or until squash is tender.

3.Add Sugar and boiled and mashed Toordal paste ,mix evenly ,add Cardamom powder and stir until Sugar melts and cook for another 3 minutes in medium flame .

4.Fry Raisins,Cashewnuts in 2 tspns of Ghee and pour on the kheer and remove from fire.

5.Allow Kheer to cool completely, chill in refrigerator for 1 hr and Serve.Easy to make and rich in taste.


Due to longweekend vacation i made this sweet before but I dont have enough dal powder for the week ahead.
So,first entry became as a second entry for JFI - "Dal of the month - July" event hosted by hostess Sailaja of Sailu's Food.
See Krithika's Butternut Squash Subzi for another tasty variety.
Recipe Source: Own Experiment with food

Annappodi/Spicy Tri Dal Podi

Dals are daily used-in IndianCuisine in different forms in different regions.Especially "Dal" is the easiest preperation in cooking part with the help of pressure cooker and plays a big role in "Vegetarian Main Courses".Lenthils/Dals are rich in Carbohydrates,Calcium, Phosphorous, Iron, and B vitamins and helps in Lower Blood Cholesterol.

"Podi / Powder" plays vital role in everydays South Indian Cuisine.

Here is my mom's "Oil Free Recipe " for JFI - DAL Event.

Ingredients for Annappodi/ Spicy Dal Podi

Toor Dal/Kandi Pappu/Tuvaram paruppu - 1 cup

Urad Dal/Minapappu/Ullundu - 1 cup

Chana Dal(Bengal gram/Senaga Pappu/Kadala Paruppu) - ¾ cup

Red Chillies (Endu Mirapakayalu) - 20 no(thin in size)

Dried Coconut - 5 tbspn

Roasted Jeera - 2 tspn
Tamarind - (small gooseberry size as shown in photo)

Asafoetida(Hing/Inguva/Perumgayam) - 2tspn

Salt to taste

Method

1.Heat kadai and roast the Toordal in medium flame until it changes to light golden brown color and keep it aside.

2.Fry Urad dal for light pink color and Chana dal for light brown color but be careful Chana dal tending to become black fast.

31.Fry Redchillies for light brown color ,keep it aside.

4.Fry dry Coconut scrapes for 2min to change light golden color and add Asafoetida and mix well(By this time kitchen will be filled with aroma) and remove from fire and leave it to completely cool.

5.Fry Tamarind also in the same way.If the ingredients are cooling enough transfers to a blender and grind coarsely in batches.Make sure it should be middle of grain texture and fine powder."Annam" is called "Rice" in "Telugu" and this podi will be mixed with hot rice so it is named as "ANNAPPODI".


This podi mixed with oil is good with Idli,Dosa,Upma.
Recipe Source :Amma

Dal Podi Sushi Roll

1.Mix Annappodi with steamed Rice,Ghee / Vegetable oil and keep it aside.Instead of Nori I tried with Romaine Lettuce leaves.

2.Place Lettuce leaves in tawa by drizzling some oil and cover with a lid for 2 minutes so that leaves will turn to pale color.Remove from fire and place leaves on cutting board ,sprinkle a pinch of pepper,jeera pwd and put the mixed podi rice
on the leaves and place fried onins on the above of the rice and slowly roll it fully upto edjes and keep it for 10 minutes for setting in fridge.

3.Cut into 2" pieces and serve as "DalPodi Sushi Rolls" with Appalam /Vadiyams.




I prepared a sweet for this event in mid June but i like to post "podi" as my first entry to JFI - Dal for July Month by hostess Sailaja of Sailu's Food.

Stuffed Okra/Koorina Bendakaya Koora

Ingredients for Stuffed Okra/Bendakaya/Vendakkai/Bhindi

Bendakaya/Bhindi/Lady's fingers (Tender) - 15 no
Onions - 3 no,finely chopped into small
Red chilli pwd - 2tspn
Mustard Seeds - ½ tspn
Turmeric pwd - a pinch
For stuffing
Roasted Peanuts - 1cup
Roasted Sesame seeds - ½ cup
Roasted Khuskhus/Gasagasalu - ½tspn
Roasted Dhaniya - 1 tspn
Roasted Dry Coconut pwd - 2 tspn
Salt to taste.
Oil - 2tbspn

Method

1.Wash and wipe the okra with a cloth and make a slit from the bottom to up of three sides of each Okra.

2.Grind the roasted Peanuts,Sesame seeds,Dhaniya,Khuskhus,Coconut into a fine powder.

3.Take a bowl and add all the ground spice powder,finely chopped Onions,turmeric pwd,salt,redchilli pwd by mixing all together with a 1tspn of oil.

4. Stuff all slitted Okra with this mix and kept the okras for a 15 - minutes aside.By keeping,it increases the flavour.

5. Heat oil in Kadai, add Mustard seeds,allow it to splutter and then Add stuffed Okra and stir for another 2 minutes.Add Oil and cook for another 3 minutes by covering with lid on medium flame.

6.Add the leftover(Onion ,ground pwd) mix and fry for 2 minutes until onions become translucent.

7.Sprinkle little water and stir and cook till Okra becomes tender and make sure to cook in low flame by covering with lid for another 8 minutes so that the color of okra changes to light dark green but stir in the middle to avoid sticking the masala to the kadai.

8.Serve Stuffed Okra /Koorina Bendakaya Koora with hot Steamed Rice.

Almond - Pistachio Chocolate Sandwich Cookies

Ingredients for Almond - Pistachio Sandwich Cookies
All purpose flour - 2 cups
Butter - 1 cup
Egg - 2 no
Baking Powder - 1tspn
Sugar - 1 cup
Milk - ½ cup
Vanilla Essence - 1 tspn
Salt - tspn
Alomonds - 8 no
Pistachio - 10 no
Dessicated Coconut - 4 tspn
For sandwich filling
Chocolate chips/kisses - 2 cups
Vegeatble oil - 1 tspn

Method

1.Preheat oven to 375 deg.Beat Butter and Sugar together until light and fluffy.Mix Egg yolks,All purpose Flour, Salt and Vanilla essence,coarsely ground Almond Pistachio.

2.Mix well and keep it aside by covering with lid for 15 minutes.

3.Fill cookie press with dough and press cookies onto "ungreased" cookie sheet.

4.Bake cookies for 10 - 12 minutes or until edjes change to light brown color.

5.Remove cookies from sheet to cooling rack (another baking sheet lined with wax paper) with wide-bladed metal spatula.Cool completely.

Ingredients For Sandwiching:

1.Place wax paper on a new baking sheet, lay out all the cookies, upside down.Combine finely chopped chocolate and vegetable oil in a ovenproof bowl.

2.Heat water in a sauce pan.Place this bowl over simmering water on low heat stir until completely chocolate melts and becomes smooth.

3.Take care that water should not come into the glassbowl from the bottom while stirring.Keep it aside if it is very hot and stir for smooth paste.

4.Apply melted chocolate with a "spoon" onto the flat side of the cookie and dip immediately into the dessicated coconut powder.Do again the same way with the bottom of another cookie.

5 .Place the two chocolate-containing cookie's on top of each,flat side in, and press gently together and place on wax paper to cool.

6.The chocolate in the middle will appear to the edges of the cookie sandwich.Do the same way with rest of the all cookies and refrigerate till chocolate is set.

6. Store in airtight container with wax paper between layers.Enjoy the nutty taste with chocolate flavour .

See here for Nabeela's Jam Cookies .