Paruppu Podi (Lentils Powder)

I am looking ahead for a bc week...hope all goes smooth. Have just started baking goodies and serving them for guests. Have also treated few office collegues with my choc cake and pizza....I was so happy to receive their comments :) I was jumping in joy(though not physically;)) when one of my friend said I hate pizzas outside but this home made one is too gud, soft and perfect after tasting my pizza :) So why am I talking abt baking when this post has nothing related to it....here I promise there are more baked goodies coming up few are even low fat versions.

Paruppu podi also called as Lentils powder is very popular in South India. There are so many versions of this podi, have just started to make them at home.All these days was relying on the store bought ones...esp aachi and MTR brand paruppu podis are too gud.

Ingredients:

• Toor dal/thuvaram paruppu - 1 cup
• Red chillies - 2 big ones
• Black Pepper corns - 1 tsp
• Peanuts - 2 tsp [optional]
• Garlic - 6 to 8 flakes
• Salt - as required
• Oil - 1 tsp
• Curry leaves - few

Method:

1. Add oil in a kadai, Roast red chillies and toor dal till toor dal turns light golden brown.


2. Now add pepper corns and peanuts and roast for 2mins.Add curry leaves and roast till it becomes crispy.By this time the dhal would have turned golden brown.


3. At this stage cool down and grind it with salt to a coarse powder, keep aside.


4. Crush the garlic coarsely, add it to the above mixture and grind it again to a powdered texture.


5. Store in an air tight container and use when needed.Mix in rice with ghee / oil and enjoy!!

I have read in a book that adding raw garlic in the final stage gives good flavour of garlic to the podi and enhances the taste too!

Paruppu podi is one of our favourite podi/powder which is eaten as an accompaniment to hot rice or even idlys. I like to have it with hot rice topped with ghee :)

What else do you want on a lazy day....just add this podi and ghee with hot rice and enjoy the taste!!

Baby Corn Manchurian

Thanks for all ur wishes....My lil one did have a nice time and enjoyed the day thoroughlly!! Now recipe time...Baby corn manchurian is almost the same as Gobi Manchurian but have added the recipe with lil adjustments in quantity. And this time I didnt deep fry them, instead toasted them in dosa tawa and there was no much taste difference. I usually use iron kadai/tawa as I feel it gets the veggies nicely fried than the non-stick ones.

Ingredients:

Baby Corn - 5 to 6 cut into 3 pieces or halved

For the batter :

• Cornflour - 4 tbsp
• Maida - 1 tbsp
• Ginger Garlic paste - 2 tsp
• Red chilly powder- 1 tsp
• Salt-to taste
• Oil- to toast
• Orange color - optional

Method:

1. Pressure cook baby corn for 3 whistles with water. It should only be half cooked, Drain water and keep aside.


2. Mix all the above ingredients with little water to form a thick batter.
   Dip the cooked baby corn in the batter and toast it with oil in dosa tawa until crispy/roasted well.

For the manchurian

• Oil - 1 tbsp
• Garlic sliced/paste - 1 tbsp
• Capsicum - 1 medium size cut into ½ inch squares
• Big Onion- 1 finely chopped
• Soya sauce - 2 tsp
• Tomato sauce - 2 tbsp (I usually mix with 2tsp water to form thin watery sauce before adding)
• Red chilly powder - 1tsp
• Salt - to taste
• Spring onions - a handful (Most of the time I run out of stock when I do manchurians so dont search in mine ;))
• Corn Flour - 1.5 tbsp mixed with 3 tbsp water

Method:

1. Heat oil and saute the sliced garlic, onion and capsicum for 3mins. Let the onions and capsicum retain its crispiness and do not let them turn brown.


2. Now add the red chilly powder and salt,mix well. Keep in high flame and add soya sauce and mix continuously for a few seconds.


3. Simmer and add tomato sauce water mixture to this, mix well. Now add the cornflour water mixture and mix well till it gets thick.Add toasted baby corn in it and mix well.


4. Saute for 3-4 minutes to absorb excess water. Baby corn should be well coated with the sauce, then switch off.The baby corn pieces should be a little crispy and not soggy at this stage. Serve hot!

Basic Vanilla Sponge Cake for a celebration!

Hurray! A new cocoon for sharmispassions....Yes from blogspot, sharmispassions has moved to its own domain www.sharmispassions.com...It almost took 2 weeks for me to get convinced to go ahead with this name for .com....becos reading more about SEO (Search Engine Optimisaiton) confused me to opt for a change....I was with around 20 names to shortlist....but then finally I felt this name was my identity in this blog world and wanted it to remain the same :) so went ahead with it! This is the final post with 'blogspot' watermark :)

It was my long time thought to move to my own domain but something or the other took more priorities that stopped me from doing it.But I was particular not to delay further and this should happen in June as its a special month for me....yes my lil one is nearing her 1st bday on June 19th.... its even more special as she was born on my fathers bday....What more blessing can I ask out of life?!

And finally here I am with my dream come true :) Thanks to all my friends and readers for all ur encouragement and support....wishing for the same in future too!! Waiting to hear ur feedback or suggestions. The transition and redirections are not completely over....its in process but that doesnt affect anything on the front end...But do let me know if you have any problems!

Its celebration time with this yummy vanilla sponge cake....this is hubby's favorite. To be true I made this for his bday and it was lying in drafts for a long time....dusted it out for this celebration :) Okay now going on to the recipe:

Ingredients:

• Maida or APF - 200 gms
• Butter - 200 gms (at room temperature)
• Eggs - 2
• Powdered Sugar - 200 gms
• Vanilla extract - 2 tsp
• Salt - one pinch (optional)
• Baking powder - 1 tsp

Method:

1. Sieve maida and baking powder twice and keep aside. This is for evenly mixing of baking powder with the flour.



2. Beat the eggs till soft and fluffy with a blender or mixer. The egg should be almost doubled in size showing the frothy texture on top.I blended using the normal mixer till fluffy.



3. Next, lightly beat butter and sugar together till nicely blended [The butter should be at room temperature before mixing it with sugar] Add the beaten eggs to this.



4. Mix the egg butter sugar mixture well, add vanilla essence and mix well. Now add salt and mix well again.



5. Gently add the flour little by little(may be in 2-3 parts) stirring continuously. Make sure no lumps are formed. I started first with a spatula but ended up with my hands for mixing :)



6. Preheat the oven at 180 deg C for 10 mins. Meanwhile transfer the batter to a greased tray and bake it for 30-35 mins.

Needless to say the aroma and taste. The cake comes out so soft and moist!! This is the only piece of cake I could reserve to click and test for the next day :)

Vegetable Pulao / Pulav

Finally the drizzles are here and I'm loving the climate completely hope this continues for the coming days as well......Had a busy week both at work and home.More busy days ahead, so am trying to keep myself prepared for them.

Coming to todays recipe vegetable pulao : This is a easy and filling one pot meal....It just needs raita to finish off the bowl. Only chopping the veggies is time consuming and even for that my chopper comes to the rescue :) If thats ready this pulao can be done in a jiffy.

Ingredients:

• Basmati Rice-1 cup
• Onion - 1/2 medium chopped lengthwise
• Bay leaf - 1
• Jeera -2 tsp
• Green chilli chopped finely -1
• Ginger garlic paste - 3 tsp
• Vegetables of ur choice - almost 1/2 cup[I used 2 carrots, 4-5 beans and handful of peas]
• Oil-1 tbsp
• Ghee-1 tbsp
• Salt - to taste
• Red chilli powder-1 tsp
• Coriander powder - 1/2 tsp
• Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp [optional - I didnt use it]
• Water - 1.5 cups
• Cashews - 4 to 5 broken [I used it as whole for garnishing]

To be grinded :

• Cloves-2
• Cinnamon-1 inch stick
• Cardamom - 1
• Onion - 1/2 medium sized onion

Method:

1. Rinse rice well twice atleast and soak in water for 30mins. Just sprinkle water in 'to be grinded' list and grind it to a paste, keep aside.


2. In a pressure cooker, Heat a tsp of ghee, fry the cashews and keep aside. Now add 1tbsp of oil and 1/2 tbsp of ghee. Add bayleaf, jeera, gingergarlic paste, onions and green chillies. Fry for 2-3 minutes.Now add the onion spices mixture and fry for few mins.


3. Now add veggies with salt and fry for few minutes.The veggies should be crunchy not soft. Add chilli powder, coriander powder and mix well.


4. Now add the basmati rice and fry for 3 mins. Now add exactly 1.5 cups of water and allow it to boil.


5. Close and pressure cook it for 8-9 mins. Open and garnish with ghee fried cashews. Add remaining 1/2 tbsp of ghee and mix gently.


6. Serve with onion raitha or plain curd.

The aroma of ghee with vegetables in rice with garnished cashews.....hmm yummmmy!! I am not a fan of restaurant pulaos becos most of them have strong flavours of the spices....I like mine to be less flavoured and thats the reason I started trying out pulaos at home :)