Cranberry Rice

Ingredients

• Cranberries - 1/2 cups
• Green chillies - 2
• Mustard & Cumin - 1/4 tspn each
• Asafoteida - 1/4 tspn
• Rice - 1 cup
• Salt - 3/4 tspn or to taste

health tip

Cranberries are rich in Vitamin C. Studies show that Cranberries lowers LDL (Bad cholesterol) & increases HDL (good cholesterol) & also helps prevent urinary tract infection.

Cranberry Rice

method

I have re-posted this recipe for the "Think Beyond the Usual - Fruits" event.

1. Dry roast the mustard & cumin seeds & grind them to powder.
2. Grind the cranberries & green chillies into a fine paste.
3. Heat some oil in a pan & season it with curry leaves & asafoetida. Add the ground cranberry chilli paste & saute it along with some turmeric powder(turmeric powder is optional).
4. Cook the rice separately. It should not stick to each other.
   

   Using basmati rice enhances the flavor of this dish.

   
   
5. When the oil separates from cranberry mix add salt, mustard & cumin seed powder.
6. Mix the rice with the paste & garnish it with coriander leaves or green onions.
   

   You may also freeze the cranberries to get their benefits all year around.

   
   

Mexican soup

Ingredients

• Sweet potato - 2 medium
• Medium onion - 1
• Garlic - 2 pods
• Cooked black beans - 1 cup
• Corn niblets - 1 cup
• Medium salsa - 1 cup
• Tomato sauce - 1/2 cup
• Veggie or chicken broth - 3 cups(optional)
• Cumin powder - 1/2 tspn
• Olive oil - 2 tspns
• Coriander leaves & sour cream for serving

health tip

Sweet potato is an excellent source of Vitamin A & C. It is a rich antioxidant food as well. Black beans are rich in protein & is a good source of Iron. Tomato sauce & salsa are good source of Vitamin C.

Mexican Soup

method

I had sweet potato laying around in my kitchen for few days. I was not interested in baking it like I do all the time. So I was not sure what to do with it. Luckily woman's day magazine came to the rescue with a Mexican soup recipe that made use of sweet potato. It did not take a lot of time to make the soup since I had all the required ingredients in the freezer. I am a big fan of Mexican soup especially "Qudoba's" tortilla soup. This soup is different from the one served in Qudoba but it did have the Mexican flavor because of the added salsa & black beans. It was kind of heavy & did not need any thickener as required with other soups.

1. Wash, peel & dice the sweet potato into 1/2 inch cubes. Dice the onion & garlic.
2. Heat the oil(Olive oil is preferable but any oil of your choice is fine). Saute the onion & garlic. When they turn soft, add the sweet potatoes, cumin powder & broth (or water). Simmer till the sweet potatoes become tender.
3. Blend it with a immersion blender. If using a regular blender let it cool & then blend it into fine paste.
4. Transfer the mixture back into the pot & add tomato sauce, salsa, black beans, corn niblets & salt. Let it simmer for 10 minutes. Serve it with chopped coriander leaves, tortilla chips & sour cream. This recipe yields 4-5 bowls.
   

Kale Poriyal

Ingredients

• Kale - 1 bunch
• Onion - 1
• Moong dhal - 1/2 cup
• Mustard, Urad dal & 2 red chillies for seasoning

health tip

Kale is rich in fiber and is a good source of Vitamins like K, A, & C & minerals like folate & iron. Kale is also rich in flavonoid called kaempferol which helps to protect against ovarian cancer.

Kale Poriyal

method

Kale is a leafy green vegetable that belongs to the Brassica family which also includes vegetables like cabbage, collards and Brussels sprouts. I have tried Kale before but it has always been on and off. However, after getting to know its health benefits, I have become a convert & decided to add Kale regularly in our diet. This recipe even after multiple tries still tops the chart in our home.

1. Cut the vein in the middle. Chop it finely & wash it.
2. Chop the onion. Wash & soak the moong dal for 5 minutes but not more than that.
3. Heat some oil in a pressure pan & season it with mustard seeds, urad dal & broken red chilli. Saute the onion. When onion turns soft add the chopped kale & moong dal & saute it for two more minutes.
4. Add 1/4 cup of water & let it cook for 1 whistle. Add salt after the pressure goes off. Salt should not be added to greens while they are cooking. I am not sure about the reason (probably it might alter the taste I guess) but is always better to add salt at the end after the greens are cooked. Serve it with rice or have it as a salad.
   

   Toor dal can also be added instead of moong dal. Cook the toor dal & kale separately. Toor dal doesn't have to be over cooked like for sambar. Add the dal after the kale is cooked.

   
   

Chicken 65

Ingredients

• Chicken - 1 pound or 1/2 kg
• Yogurt - 2 tbspn
• Soy Sauce - 1/2 tbspn
• Corn flour - 2 tbspn
• All purpose flour - 1 tbspn
• Ginger garlic paste - 1/2 tspn
• Red chilli powder - 1 1/2 tspn
• Garam masal - 1/4 t.spn(optional)
• Lemon juice - 1 tspn
• Salt - 1/2 tspn
• Oil for frying

health tip

Chicken is a white meat low in fat & is a good source of protein.

Chicken 65

method

Chicken 65! How did they name it? Some say 65 ingredients were added to make this dish in the past, others say, it was the 65th item on the menu card of a hotel where they served it. There are lot of stories going around regarding the name for this dish. Anyways, Chicken 65 is such a tasty and popular dish back home in India and has a fiery red color to it. Ajinomoto(MSG) & red food color added to the recipe enhances the taste and color of this dish. My recipe above is devoid of the above two ingredients to be completely home style yet yummy.

1. Wash & cut the chicken into 1 inch pieces. Mix all the other ingredients together in a bowl except oil & marinade the chicken for minimum 3 hours in the refrigerator.
2. Take it out after 3 hours & deep fry the pieces. It does stick to the frying pan because of the lemon juice but lemon juice enhances the taste. If you do not want it to stick, you may eliminate the lemon juice while marinading but instead sprinkle it while serving the dish.
3. That is it. Enjoy the dish as an appetizer or as a side.

Marinating the chicken overnight in the refrigerator will help permeate the flavr into the chicken nicely.

Mixed Vegetable Kootu

Ingredients

• Carrot - 1
• Eggplant - 1
• Cabbage -1 leaf
• Potato - 1
• Beans - 3nos
• Peas - 1/2 cup
• Moong dal - 2 tbspn
• Green chilli - 1
• Medium onion - 1
• Kootu Podi - 1 tspn
• Coconut - 2 tspn (optional)

health tip

Veggies are rich in Vitamins, Minerals & fiber. Dal (pulses) is rich in protein.

Mixed Vegetable Kootu

method

Kootu Podi goes very well with this mixed vegetable kootu. I added moong dal for this kottu recipe since channa dal was already added to the podi. I did not want to try red gram dal since it is normally added to all sambar recipes. We usually make sambar when making kootu. However, you may use any kind of dal you want with this recipe. This kootu is both delicious & nutritious. Any vegetable of your choice can be added as well to this recipe.

1. Wash, Peel & dice the veggies & onion.
2. Wash the moong dal & add the diced veggies & onion along with kootu podi. Add 1/2 cup of water & pressure cook the veggies for 2 whistles or till the dal is completely cooked.
3. When the pressure goes off, add ground coconut (optional) & salt to taste. Season it with cumin seeds, curry leaves, slit green chilli & urad dal in some oil or ghee.
4. This recipe serves two people.

Pizza - Indian Style

Ingredients

• For Pizza and Toppings
• Tava Naan - 3
• Mozzarella cheese - 1/2 cup
• Roasted eggplant - 1
• Soy chunks - 4-5 nos
• Other toppings of your choice (onions, olives, pineapple, green peppers...)
• For Pizza Sauce
• Tomato sauce - 5 tspn or pureed tomato - 2
• Chopped tomato - 1
• Finely chopped capsicum - 1/4 nos
• minced garlic - 3
• Olive oil - 3 tspn
• Sombu (fennel) powder, Chilli powder - 1/4 tspn each
• Chopped coriander leaves - 2 tspn
• Basil - 1/4 tspn
• Salt to taste

health tip

Pizza provides nutrients depending on the toppings you add. Diet conscious people may want to reduce the cheese added to the pizza. It is always better to get skim milk cheese which is not only low in fat but is also a good source of calcium like other cheese varieties. Home made Pizza sauce provided with this recipe is also rich in Vitamin C.

Pizza - Indian Style

method

This pizza recipe is in response to the global kadai event "Indian flavor pizza" hosted by homecook recipes which was originally started by Cilantro.

1. To make the pizza sauce, heat some olive oil in a pan & saute the minced garlic & chopped green pepper.
2. Add the tomato sauce(blanch 2 tomatoes & peel the skin, dice it & puree it) & chopped tomatoes & other seasonings. Let the sauce condense.
3. To make veggie meatballs, boil the soy chunks till tender. Drain the hot water, add cold water & squeeze out the excess water. Repeat the process 3 more times by adding cold water & squeezing the extra. Now, after the water is squeezed out, cut the soy chunks into pieces & saute it in a pan by adding some pizza sauce. This helps to infuse the flavor & taste from the sauce to the chunks.
4. Spread the sauce on the naan. Add the desired toppings on top of it & spread the cheese over it.
5. Pre heat the oven to 350 degrees & bake the pizza for 7-8 minutes or till the cheese melts.

Make the naan thicker if you desire a pizza with a thick crust.

Tava Naan

Ingredients

• All-purpose flour - 3 cups
• Active Dry Yeast - 1 tspn
• Milk - 3/4 cup
• Warm water - 1/2 cup
• Yogurt - 2 tbspn
• Sugar - 1 tspn
• Salt - 3/4 tspn
• Oil - 1 tspn

Tava Naan

method

This was my third attempt at making Naan. Very first time, alarm went off because of the excessive heat(500 degrees) from my oven & I had to curtail my Naan making process midway. Then, I tried it on a tava, Naan came out perfect but did not taste good because of the excess baking soda & baking powder added to the recipe. Finally, I gave it a shot by using yeast & made the naan again on a tava & it came out just perfect. So, without further ado, I am presenting you my recipe from my third attempt here. Just so you know, my inspiration for this recipe is from chef Sanjay from VahreVah.com.

1. Dissolve the yeast & sugar in 1/2 cup warm water. Leave it covered for 10 minutes or until frothy.
2. Mix in other ingredients & make a dough. Knead the dough for 10 minutes to make the gluten form. Gluten is a protein which holds the air released by yeast while the yeast is working on the sugar in the dough. The dough may be little sticky, but that is ok. Cover the bowl & leave it in a warm place for about 3-4 hours or until the dough doubles.
3. Punch the dough with your knuckle to its original size. Punching the dough helps to distribute the air bubbles all through the dough. Knead the dough for 3 minutes & let it rest for 10 more minutes. Resting helps to relax the dough & will make it easier to handle. Otherwise, the dough will not hold the shape, it springs back to a ball.
4. Make the dough into equal sized balls (bigger than chapati dough). If the dough sticks, dip your finger into the dry flour to make the balls & roll it into a circle or tear drop shape. You can even pat the dough by your hand & flip them around using both hands. The weight of the dough will help stretch the dough.
5. Heat an Iron pan or a heavy bottomed pan (for even heat distribution) with lid on for five minutes or till it smokes a bit.
6. Sprinkle a teaspoon of water over the stretched naan (no need to drench the whole area of the naan) & put the sprinkled side of the naan to the heated tava so that the naan sticks to the tava at the sprinkled areas. Cover it with a lid. When the top side starts to bubble up, flip it & cover it with a lid. Cook the naan covered till both the sides form black spots.
7. Spread it with butter or ghee & serve it hot. This recipe makes 8-9 naans.

Make the dough in a glass or plastic bowl. Metal containers conduct heat resulting in uneven rising of the dough.