Suji Idli

I am back from my 3 day trip to Niagara Falls Canada and Toronto during the long holiday weekend and the trip was really awesome. It was a long drive roughly around 8 hours, but I love travelling so I guess my tiredness was balanced with the excitement that I had to visit the Niagara Falls.

I tried this amazing Suji (Rawa) Idli’s the other day and was a bit concerned initially about how it would turn out because I don’t have the traditional idli steamer with me and I had thought of using the muffin molders and covering it with aluminium foil and then transferring it in the oven (i.e. gas oven) for around 7-8 minutes, but then thought to myself, lets give it a try and to my surprise the idlis were yum and tasty.

I did share the recipe with my close friend via email and with my mother in law via telephone and they tried and tested it as well and were happy to find an easier solution to make quick and easy idli’s in a less than 30 minutes.

Here is the recipe of the Suji Idli’s:

Ingredients:

1 cup suji (rawa)
1 cup yogurt (dahi)
1 tea spoon green chilies (finely chopped) - optional
1 tea spoon jeera
1 tea spoon rai
3-4 kadi patta leaves
2-3 tea spoons chopped coriander
a pinch of hing
3 tea spoons Eno ( fruit salt)
Salt to taste
Water to thin the yogurt
1 tea spoon oil.
Oil for greasing the muffin molds.


Method:

Heat a non stick pan with oil and add hing, rai, jeera, kadi patta to it. Once the rai and jeera start to splutter add the suji and roast it till it turns slightly brown. Take care not to burn the suji and not to over heat it. Transfer to a plate and let it cool for 10 minutes.

In another bowl add the dahi and whisk it well. Add the chopped coriander and chopped green chilies. Add some salt to it as well according to taste and mix it well. Slowly add water to dahi till you get a slightly thinner consistency. Don’t add too much water at once. The consistency should be more like that of a lassi (buttermilk). Then add roasted suji to add and mix well. Grease the muffin molds with oil so that the idli doesn’t stick to the molds. Add eno to the suji and dahi batter and mix well and immediately pour the batter in the greased muffin molds. Cover the mold with the aluminium foil completely so that the mold is air tight from all the sides with the foil. Place the muffin mold in the gas oven and steam the idli for around 6-7 minutes.

The fragrance from the oven will tell you that the Suji idli is ready to be removed. Once you remove the muffin mold let it stand for sometime. This makes it easier to remove the idli from the edges of the molds and it also prevents them from breaking. Remove the idli from the muffin molds and serve with chutney and sambar while it is still hot.

You can also add chopped cabbage to the idli batter as a variation. One more thing that we need to be careful about is that add eno to the amount of idli batter that you would be steaming at one time as it is not advisable to keep the batter with eno already added to it for a long time as it does not bake the idli’s that well.

You can definitely substitute the muffin molds with the idli steamer and steam the suji idlis in the traditional manner over the gas stove as well. Infact these idlis can be steamed in the microwave as well. Just change the muffin mold or the idli steamer with the microwave safe steamer and steam the idlis for around 3-4 minutes.

Suji Dhokla can also be made from the above mentioned recipe. The only thing that differs is adding the batter to the greased plate and putting the plate in the pressure cooker and pressure cooking them without the whistle for around 10 – 15 minutes till the time the dhokla is done. One way to check whether the idli or the dhokla is ready is to insert the knife in the center and if it comes out clean then the idli or dhokla is done if not keep it again for more time till the batter is cooked completely.

Enjoy!!!!!!!!!!!!

Spaghetti and Vegetarian balls in tomato sauce.

I have always heard so much about Spaghetti and meat balls that it brought me to think hey why not have a vegetarian combination of it and it really clicked very well i guess.

The recipe to make spaghetti in tomato sauce and this tastes yum!!!!!!!!!!!!! believe me it does.... its a very simple recipe and the ingredients are

1 can diced tomatoes
4-6 cloves of garlic (minced)
1 small onion chopped
few basil leaves
salt (to taste)
pepper - 1 teaspoon
spaghetti - 2 handfuls
Olive oil - 1 tablespoon

Fill a large pot and bring it to a boil add some salt to it and add the spaghetti to it , stir it well so that the spaghetti does not stick and let it hang in, till it is al dente (bite like). Strain the pasta and transfer it back to the same pot.

In another pan add olive oil and let it warm a bit. Add the chopped garlic and let it fry in the oil, make sure that the garlic does not burn. Then add the chopped onions and keep stirring well. Add some salt at this point as it helps the onion to soften faster.

Drain the tomato can in a mixer and just blend it with some water so that we have a puree. Pour the tomato puree in pan and just let in sit with the other ingredients in the pan for atleast 20 mins. Add salt and pepper to the tomato sauce, remember that we have already added some salt earlier. Finally once the sauce is ready roughly chop some basil leaves and add it to the pan as well.

Ingredients for the Vegetarian Balls:

3 boiled potatoes
1 cup boiled green peas
2-3 cloves of garlic (finely chopped)
2-3 green chillies (finely chopped) Add more green chillies according to taste.
1 tablespoon coriander leaves (finely choppes)
1 tea spoon amchur powder
salt to taste
bread crumbs - 2 tablespoons (binder)
oil for frying

Boil the potatoes and when cooled mash them well so that there are no lumps in it. Boil the green peas and mash them as well and add them to the potatoes. Add all the other ingredients (coriander leaves, green chillies, salt, amchur powder,chopped garlic and bread crumbs). Mix them well and make small round balls out of the mixture and deep fry them in the oil till golden brown and keep aside.

To serve:
Mix the spaghetti with the tomato sauce in the pan and add it to the serving plate with the help of the tongs and then place 2-3 fried vegetarian balls on top of the spaghetti in the tomato sauce, add some more tomato sauce over the veg balls and a few basil leaves over them for garnish.

Voila !!we have our Spaghetti and Vegetarian Balls Italian style.

Sandwich - Mumbai style

I am sure people from Mumbai do miss the roadside sandwich that we get and the sandwich is toasted on the hand toaster over charcoal flames.......... hmm the thought of it makes me go have some sandwich right now. I love the sandwiches that you get near Marine Lines and Kala Ghoda , South Mumbai. And have a glass on ganne ka juice (sugar cane juice)..... what a classic combination.

Anyways... the recipe for a simple sandwich which I make either on the tava or if you have a griller-toaster that would work fine as well.

2 bread slices
1 onion - cut in rings
1 tomato - cut in rings
1 cucumber - cut in rings
1 green capsicum - cut in rings
1 tsp butter - to apply on the bread slice
1 tsp butter - for grilling
1 tsp green chutney
salt- to taste
sandwich masala - to taste
tomato ketchup, butter and green chutney to apply over the toasted sandwich.

Apply butter on one side of the bread slice and apply chutney to the other bread slice. Place onion rings, tomato,cucumber and capsicum on the bread slice with chutney on it.

Sprinkle a little salt and sandwich masala on them and then cover it with the buttered bread slice.

Apply some butter over the sandwich and place it on the green or tava and toast it till you get a golden brown colour on both sides of the sandwich.

Apply some butter , green chutney and tomato sauce over the sandwich. Cut the sandwich into 4 squares and serve hot.

Serve with a hot cup of tea ( make ginger and cardamom tea)!

Enjoy!!!!!!!!!

My First blog

Hi,

I am new to this world of blogging as this is first blog and I am very excited about it. I am a cook and I love to cook different recipes, experiment with food and try new things.

I actualyl landed on this site accidently and thought of giving it a try.

I will definetly try and post recipes, the ones I have been experimenting and the ones that I have tried and tested in the past as well.