Saturday, February 28, 2009

Potato curry (Urulai kizhangu poriyal)

Potato curry (Urulai kizhangu poriyal) - preparation time 15 mins

Ingredients:-
Boiled potato - 4 (pressure cook the potato, peel off the skin and chop to big cubes)
Small onion - 10 (chopped to thin strips)
Chili powder - 1 tsp
Urad dal - 1 tbsp
mustard seed - 1/4 tsp
Sesame oil - 2 or 3 tbsp
Salt - to taste
Garlic pods - 3 (mash the garlic with skins)
Coriander leaves - finely chopped 1 tbspn
Curry leave 1 string - finely chopped
(optional) Peas - 10 or 15 gms


Preparation method:-
In a pan add oil, mustard, urad dal and fry till the dal is golden brown add garlic and fry little.
Add the chopped onion, peas, curry leaves, salt and fry till the onion is cooked.
Add the chili powder, potato pieces and coriander leaves to fried items.
Take this curry with rice or chapathi.

Split Rice upma (Aarisi ravai upma)

Rice rava upma - preparation time 30 mins
This is a traditional recipe. Some times mom will cook this only with mustard, oil, salt, arsi rava & onion it will also be very tasty. Usually to make bit healthy we can add peas,groundnut,corn or baby corn, capsicum. Try it out. It will be healthy and filling tiffin.

Ingredients:-
Rice rava - 1 cup (this rava should little big than normal sooji rava)

Water - 3 cup
Carrot - 1 (chopped to small cube)
Small Onion - 10 (chopped to small strings)
Peas - 25 gms (optional)
Boiled corn - 10 gms (optional)
Red/Green chili - 2 finely chopped
Curry leaves - 2 strings (finely chopped)
Sesame oil - 5 to 6 tbsp
Ginger - finely chopped 1 or ½ tbsp
Asafoetida - ½ tbsp
Mustard seed - ¼ tsp
Urad dhal - 1 tbsp
Salt - to taste
Grated coconut - 3 tbsp (optional)




Preparation method:-
In a pan add oil, mustard, urad dhal and fry till mustard splutters and dhal turns golden brown.
Add asafetoida, curry leaves, chili, ginger, onion, carrot, peas, salt and fry till the color changes slightly
Boil water in another vessel and add to vegetable.
When vegetables are half cooked add the rice rava and stir till half the water is absorbed. Close the pan and cook in low flame.
Add boiled corn & grated coconut to the upma and stir well
When all the water is absorbed the upma will be cooked (If you feel it has to be cooked little more add little boiled water and cook for some more time).


Serve hot rice upma with coconut chutney or pulikachal or pickle.

Wheat rava Upma

Wheat rava upma preparation time 25 to 30 mins

Ingredients:-
Wheat rava - 1 cup
Water - 2 ½ cup
Carrot - 1 (chopped to small cube)
Small Onion - 10 (chopped to small strings)
Peas - 25 gms
Red/Green chili - 2 finely chopped
Curry leaves - 2 strings (finely chopped)
Sesame oil - 5 to 6 tbsp
Ginger - finely chopped 1 or ½ tbsp
Mustard seed - ¼ tsp
Urad dhal - 1 tbsp
Salt - to taste
Grated coconut - 3 tbsp



Preparation method:-
In a pan add oil, mustard, urad dhal and fry till mustard splutters and dhal turns golden brown.
Add curry leaves, chili, ginger, onion, carrot, peas, salt and fry till the color changes slightly.
Boil water in another vessel and add to vegetable.
When vegetables are half cooked add the wheat rava and stir till half the water is absorbed.

Close the pan and cook in low flame.
When all the water is absorbed the upma will be cooked (If you feel it has to be cooked little
more add little boiled water and cook for some more time).
Serve hot wheat upma with coconut chutney or pickle. This is good for diabetic patience but don't add carrot when you are cooking for them.



Note : 2 varieties of wheat rava is available in the market. one will be big size like half split wheat another will be very small. Use the small wheat rava to make this upma.

Semiya Upma (Vermicelli upma)

Vermicelli upma (Semiya upma)- preparation time 25 to 30 mins
This recipe is easy to make. Even if we don't have vegetable just an onion and spices to garnishing is enough. It will be light and tasty tiffin.

Ingredients:-
Semiya - 1 cup
Water - 2 ¼ cup
Carrot - 1 (chopped to small cube)
Small onion - 10 (chopped finely)
Beans - 8 (chopped to small cube)
Red/Green chili - 2 finely chopped
Curry leaves - 2 strings (finely chopped)
Gingelly oil - 5 to 6 tbsp
Ginger - finely chopped ½ tbsp
Mustard seed - ¼ tsp
Urad dhal - 1 tbsp
Salt - to taste

Preparation method:-
Roast the Semiya till light or golden brown (don’t make it to dark brown) and keep aside.
In a pan add oil, mustard, urad dhal and fry till mustard splutters and dhal turns brown. Add curry leaves, chili, ginger, onion, carrot, beans, salt and fry till the color changes slightly.
Boil water in another vessel and add to vegetable.


When vegetables are half cooked add the roasted Semiya and stir till half the water is absorbed. Close the pan and cook in low flame.
When all the water is absorbed the Semiya will be cooked. If you feel it has to be cooked little more add little boiled water and cook for some more time.

When I tried 1:2 proportion of Semiya : Water came out well.

Add finely chopped coriander leaves to upma and serve hot semiya upma with coconut chutney.

Avial (Mixed vegetable gravy)

Avial (Mixed vegetable gravy) - preparation time 15 to 20 mins
I love this dish. We used to mix this with white rice and take. Good partner for adai (famous adai aviyal).  Goes well with rasam also.

We don't know how to make kids eat vegetable because they sometimes might be choosy on vegetable they eat. You can make them eat avial. As we are adding variety of vegetable it is packed with different nutrients. Vegetables nutrient value will vary according to the color of the vegetable. Here we are adding green, orange, white, cream colour vegetable. Minimum 3 vegetable is enough but you can add according to your wish.

We are adding curd, coconut oil so this will add health value to the gravy.

Ingredients:-
Chopped vegetables - 2 cup (carrot, beans, chowchow, plantain, drumstick, cauliflower, cabbage,potato)
Small onions - 10 to 15
Green chili - 3
Grated coconut - 50 gms
Roasted channa spilt (Pottukadalai) - 1 tsp
Kasakasa - ½ tsp
Salt - to taste
Curd - 3 tbsp
Coconut oil - 2 tsp


Preparation method:-
Boil the vegetables along with small onion, required amount of water and salt. If the vegetable have to be pressured cook keep required water and only for 1 to 2 whistle.

Grind coconut, chili, kasakasa and roasted channa coarsely.
When the boiled vegetables are warm, Add the grind paste, curd, coconut oil (make sure the vegetable is not too hot when you mix the curd).
If you want you can garnish with spluttered mustard seed and curry leaves.
This can be mixed and taken with plain rice or rasam rice or Adai.