Herbs and Flower - Spring Onions : Roundup

Here comes the roundup of the event Herbs and Flowers – Spring Onions. I thank PJ for letting me host this wonderful event and I also thank everyone for participating in this event and making my maiden event a success. I was amazed at the different ways in which the spring onions were put to use. I received a total of 23 entries varying from soups, starters to chutneys. Let’s get to the roundup. The entries are listed in the order in which I received them.

Nayna of Simply Food sends us Chinese Hot and Sour Soup

Priya Mahadevan of Now Serving sends us Spring Onion Subzi

Akeela of Torwviewtornto sends us Eggplant Casserole

Vidhya of Sugar N Spice sends us these yummy Scallion n Garlic Pancakes

Chandrani of Cuisine Delights sends us Soya Manchurian with Spring Onions

and Spring Onion Paratha

Malathi Savitha of My India Recipes sends us Spring Onion Upma

and Tomato Spring Onion Sabzi

Pranthi of Delicious Recipes 4m Pranathi's Kitchen sends us Tofu with Spring Onion Stir Fry

Julie of Erivum Puliyum sends us this yummy Spring Onion Dal

Pradnya of The Pumpkin Farm sends us these yummy Vegetable Hakka Fried Rice

and Malaysian Fried Noodles

Amy of Food Corner sends us three entries. Yummy SriLankan Vegetable Rotis

Creamy Spring Onion Soup

and Sri Lankan Style Spring Onion Fry

Uma of My Kitchen Experiments sends us this wonderful Spring Onion Soup

Swetha of Our Cherished World sends us Spring Onion Tofu Curry

Sangee of Spicy Treats sends us this yummy Spring Onion Carrot Paratha

and an interesting and innovative Spring Onion Chutney

Ganga Sreekanth of My Favorite Foods sends us Chilly Gobi

Anusha of Tomato Blues sends us Spring Onion Dal

Pushpa of Taste as You Cook sends us Spring Onion Fry

Christy Gerald of My Kitchen Flavors - BonAppetit! sends us this simple yet tasty Capsicum Spring Onion Masala

And finally from my kitchen Palakkad Chamayal comes Gobi Manchurian

Hope you enjoyed the roundup! I once again thank all my friends who have made this event a success.

Lemon Rice

Lemon rice, Coconut rice, tomato rice are few of the rice varieties which find their way into my daughter’s lunch box almost on weekly basis. Whenever, I make it for her lunch, I make sure to prepare a little extra so that the others at home can also have a little of it with their lunch, since these items are an eternal favorite in our home.

Even though these recipes are always a hit at home, I never even thought of publishing them in my blog, as I thought these to be too simple. Then one day, a friend of my mine was saying that her lil one does not seem to enjoy plain rice with dal and she wanted to try something different for her. And she casually asked me how to make lemon rice. That’s when I realized that, though this is a simple recipe, it’s not necessary that everybody has to know it. So I decided I should soon post a few of these simple day to day recipes which would also definitely come in handy for bachelors.

So, for this week’s blog hop I was paired with Pinky and my immediate choice was this simple rice. You can find the original recipe here.

Lemon rice is a tangy rice variety that can prepared in a jiffy if you have cooked rice at hand. It’s great for travel. Thinking of lemon rice brings back memories of the train journeys from Jabalpur, the place we lived to Chennai (where my grandparents lived). My mother would definitely pack Lemon rice with some vadams, in one big box (Sambadam) and Curd rice in another one. I and my brother used to have so much fun during that 28 hour journey. Can’t imagine doing the same now, though!

Anyways, here is the recipe:

What you’ll need

1. Raw Rice – 1 cup
2. Lemon – 1
3. Salt to taste

For Tempering

1. Mustard Seeds – 1 tsp
2. Split Urad Dal – 1 tsp
3. Bengal Gram Dal – 1 tsp
4. Groundnuts – a fistful
5. Green Chillies – 1, finely chopped
6. Asafetida – a pinch
7. Turmeric Powder – a pinch
8. Curry Leaves – 2 sprigs
9. Oil – 3- 4 tsp

Method

1. Wash the rice well and drain it. Cook the rice with 2 cups of water. The rice should be well cooked but not mushy. So adjust water accordingly.
2. Once the rice is cooked, transfer it into a big wide plate and fluff up the rice so as to separate the grains. Allow to cool completely.
3. In a small frying pan, heat oil, add the mustard seeds, once they splutter, add the groundnuts next add the Bengal gram dal and urad dal, fry on medium heat till the dals change color, next add in the chopped green chillies.
4. Lower the heat and add the turmeric powder and asafetida. Finally add the torn curry leaves and remove from heat.
5. Pour this over the cooked rice, add salt to taste and mix well with a spatula.
6. Finally add the juice of 1 lemon and mix well.

That’s it yummy lemon rice is ready, serve with some applams or chips.

Linking this to Blog Hop Wednesdays started by Radhika.

Matar Paneer

I and my daughter simply love paneer. This might be the nth time I am saying this, but that is the fact. So any dish where paneer is one of the ingredient gets an immediate nod from my lil one.  Off late, my daughter has started accompanying me to the super market. As soon as we enter the store, she is on her own, with a small basket in her hand. By the time I finish my shopping, she would’ve finished hers too and a couple of sure shot things that would be in her basket are chocolates and paneer! There would be many other things, which of course I have to diplomatically discard. Such is my daughter’s love for Paneer. Let’s get to today’s recipe, an all time classic and a favorite of many: - Matar Paneer.

What you’ll need

1.       Fresh/Frozen Green Peas – 1 Cup

2.       Cottage Cheese/Paneer – 150 gms

3.       Onion – 2 Medium

4.       Tomatoes – 3 Medium

5.       Garlic – 2 to 3 cloves

6.       Ginger – a small piece

7.       Cashew Nuts – 4 or 5

8.       Turmeric Powder – ¼ tsp

9.       Coriander Powder – 1 tsp

10.   Chilli Powder – 1 tsp (Adjust according to taste)

11.   Garam Masala Powder – ½ tsp

12.   Cumin Seeds / Jeera – ½ tsp

13.   Milk – ½ cup

14.   Kasoori Methi – 1 tsp

15.   Fresh Coriander Leaves – for garnishing

16.   Oil – 2 tbsp

Method

1.       Peel and roughly chop onions. Grind onions, ginger, garlic and cashew nuts into a smooth paste.

2.       Also grind the tomatoes into a smooth paste.

3.       Cut the paneer into cubes and soak them in salted lukewarm water until the time of use.

4.       Cook the green peas in water and keep aside.

5.       Heat a Kadai with oil, add cumin seeds.

6.       Once the cumin seeds change color, add the ground paste of onions, ginger, garlic and cashewnuts. Saute for a few minutes or till the raw smell of the onions disappears, say about 6 to 8 minutes on medium heat.

7.       Now add in the spice powders – turmeric powder, coriander powder and chilli powder. Saute for about 2 minutes.

8.       Next add in the tomato paste and fry till all the moisture disappears and the oil starts separating.

9.       Now add in the paneer, green peas about 1 cup of water and salt to taste. Let this simmer for about 5 minutes. Adjust the amount of water depending on the consistency.

10.   Next sprinkle the garam masala, Kasoori Methi and add the milk. Stir well and simmer for another 2 minutes. Garnish with coriander leaves.

Yummy Matar Paneer is ready. Serve hot with rotis or parathas.

Linking this to the Winter Carnival at Tickling Palates, CWS– Green Peas hosted by Priya and Kalyani’s HLI – Green Peas hosted by Veena.

Nei Appam

Hello Friends!

Last year on this day, I sat down and gingerly wrote my first post!  And today after a year I am writing my 120^th post. The journey thus far has been wonderful with lots of new friends, searching for new recipes, experimenting with them, capturing them and so on. I am overwhelmed with the support my readers have extended towards me and my blog. So at this juncture I would like to thank all my readers and fellow bloggers who have visited my space regularly leaving their valuable feedback.

Any milestone achieved calls for a celebration right! So today, I am sharing the recipe of the very famous Neiappams. Neiappams are a part of the Palakkad Iyer Cusine, be it a festival, marriage, or religious function. What the Palakkad Iyer’s call Neiappam is known as Unniappam in Kerala.

 The only difference I know of between Neiappam and Unniappams are that the latter are made by pouring small ladle full of batter into a special pan, called the appa karal whereas the former is made by pouring a ladle of batter directly into oil/ghee. The end result being that Neiappams are slightly bigger and flatter at the underside whereas unniappams are much smaller.

Karthigai is approaching and Neiappams are a part of the offerings made on this day. So celebrate this Karthigai with these yummy appams.

What you’ll need

1.       Raw Rice – 1 cup

2.       Powdered Jaggery – 1 cup

3.       Banana – 1 small. ripe

4.       Coconut – ¼ cup, cut into small pieces (optional)

5.       Green Cardamom/Elaichi – 4 to 5

6.       Oil/ghee for frying

Method

1. Wash and soak the rice in water for 3 to 4 hours. Strain the water completely. Spread the rice on a white cloth and leave it in shade for 10 to 15 minutes.
2. Grind the rice without adding any water into a very fine powder. Now slowly add the powdered jaggery and keep grinding adding very little water. Also add the chopped banana and grind to a smooth paste. Transfer into a bowl.
3. Add the cardamom, and coconut pieces. Mix well. The batter should be of pouring consistency, not too tight or too runny. Add water if necessary.
4. Heat a paniyaaram pan, fill ½ of each groove with a mixture of oil and ghee. Let the oil get heated.
5. Now pour small ladleful of batter into each of the grooves, flip over after a minute. Let this cook on medium heat till a skewer inserted comes out clean.
6. Insert the skewer into each of the appams and transfer them onto a paper towel.

Yummy nei appams are ready.

Note:

1. You can dissolve the jaggery in about 1/4 cup of water and add it to the powdered rice and grind to a very smooth paste.
2. The consistency of the batter is very important to get soft appams. The batter should be of dosai batter consistency. Adjust consistency by adding water. If it is very tight, the appams will be very hard.
3. The quality of rice and jaggery used also play an important role in getting soft appams. Using Maavu arisi is reccomended.

Linking this to Kavi's event Jingle All the Way.

Mixed Vegetable Soup

Soups are something which I have been saying, are not exactly my cup of tea. But now that winter is here, my daughter who is a soup lover is always asking me to prepare a warm bowl of soup for her. So I end up with a bowl for myself too. I have kind of started enjoying it as well. I always prefer to make the soup from scratch rather than using the ready to use powders. The fresh veggies always make a big difference not only from the nutritional point but also taste wise. Soups are a healthy and nutritious way to satiate your hunger pangs. A big bowl of vegetable soup is a fulfilling meal in itself. So here is the recipe for a yummy, warm and comforting bowl of goodness.

What you’ll need

1.       Carrot – 1, finely chopped

2.       Beans – 4 – 5, finely chopped

3.       Fresh or frozen green peas – a handful

4.       Sweet Corn Nibbles – a handful

5.       Capsicum – 1/2, finely chopped

6.       Cornflour – 1 tbsp

7.       Milk – ½ cup

8.       Butter/oil – 1 tsp

9.       Pepper Powder – as required

10.   Salt – to taste

Method

1.       In a vessel add all the chopped veggies except capsicum and cook them in enough water until done.

2.       Dissolve cornflour in ¼ cup of water and keep aside.

3.       Heat a pan with the butter/oil, add the chopped capsicum and sauté for few minutes on medium flame.

4.       Now add in the veggies and the stock, add the seasonings and allow to simmer.

5.       Next add in the cornflour and stir well. Allow to simmer till the soup thicken slightly.

6.       Finally add in the milk, stir well and remove from heat.

Serve it hot.

Linking it to the Winter Carnival hosted by Radhika and CWS - Green Peas hosted by Priya.