Thursday, December 10, 2015

Potato, Onion and tomato dry curry (Vengayam, thakkali and urullai masal)

Potato, Onion and tomato dry curry (Vengayam, thakkali and urullai masal) - Preparation time 15 mins
I thought of making potato curry slightly different from my usual potato curry. This tasted different and with sour, spicy taste. Potato curry went well with sambhar rice. I tried in small quantity.

Ingredients:-
Potato - 1 (big size) pressure cooked and peeled of the skin
Tomato - 1 (medium size) chop to small pieces
Onion - 1 (chopped to thin slice)
Sambhar powder - 3/4 tsp
Turmeric - 1/4 tsp
Sesame oil - 1 tbsp
Salt - to taste
Mustard - 1 tsp
Urad dhal - 1 tsp
Fresh coriander - 2 tbsp

Preparation method:-
Heat the oil in a kadai. Add mustard seed to splutter, urad dhal to become golden brown.
Add the onion and fry till it get cooked and add chopped tomato. Fry for few minutes till both onion and tomato become soft and oil starts leaving. Add sambhar powder, turmeric powder
along with salt. Cook till raw smell goes off.
Now add the cooked potato cubes, coriander leaves to the fried items.
Turn the potato cubes well for 5 to 10 mins in low flame, so that all the fried ingredients gets coated well. 

Wednesday, December 9, 2015

Chili Baji (Milagai baji)

Chili Baji (Milagai baji) - Preparation time 10 mins
Hotttt baji which mom used to make when we get the large size of chili (usually we used to say as baji milagai). Light green and will be in big size. Mom used to make some processing to bring down the hotness of the chili. Goes well with coconut chutney as usual.

Ingredients:-
Baji milagai - 4
Tamarind - gooseberry size
Water - 2 cups
Bengal gram flour - 1 cup
Rice flour - 1/4 cup
Salt - to taste
Asafoetida - a pinch
Red chili powder - 1 tsp
Oil - to deep fry

Preparation method:-
Slit the chili from top bottom so we can remove the seeds from the chili. Be careful don't make the chili to half just slight on the side alone.
In a vessel add the water and boil along with the tamarind or tamarind juice. When the water boils add a;; the slit chili's and boil fr fe seconds.
Switch of the stove, cover the vessel with a lid. Leave this for few mins. This is the process to bring down the hot nature of the baji milagai.
Remove the chili and keep in a plate.
Take a bowl, add bengal gram flour, rice flour, chili powder, asafoetida and mix well. Add required amount of water to make thick paste so that it will get coated over the chili.
Heat oil in kadai for deep frying. Usually i will make each chili into two piece (top portion and bottom portion) to avoid keeping large amount of oil for deep frying.
Fry one chili at a time. Dip chili in the baji paste and coat evenly as a thick layer. Now slowly drop the dipped chili into the oil. 
In medium flame fry for few mins so the outer layer and the flour which will be inside the chili (which goes through the slit portion of the chili) are cooked properly.
Colour of the baji will become slightly brownish yellow and crisp.
Serve hot to your friends and family.