GUTTI VANKAYA KURA| ANDHRA STYLE STUFFED BRINJAL RECIPE

Gutti vangaya kura is basically a dish from Andhra. I happened to taste this in a friend's place few months back. Hooked by the taste of this andhra style stuffed brinjals recipes, noted down the recipe from her. Last week while going to drop the kids to class, saw this cute brinjals | eggplants in the Indian store located there. They were so fresh too. Picked a pack of this keeping in mind to make the Gutti vangaya kura a popular andhra dish, made during weddings too. Everyone has their own touch of making this dish but i adopted this from my friend's recipe, from whom i learnt andhra style pulihora.

KHATTA DHOKLA RECIPE | MILLET DHOKLA RECIPE

Khatta Dhokla is a healthy gujarati snack made with rice and urad dal. I wanted to try this for a long time . Since i have tried idli withVaragu , i thought let me replace in this dhokla recipe too. Varagu arisi is  also called as Kodra in Hindi and Harka in kannada and Koovaragu in malayalam. The dhoklas turned out very soft and spongy. I just tried this recipe in small portion and also  i have mentioned in the ingredients list too. Try out this Millet Khatta dhokla and enjoy your evening snacks.

BHINDI FRY RECIPE | VENDAKKAI VARUVAL | LADIES FINGER FRY

Bhindi fry | Vendakkai varuval is a crispy recipe which can be had with rice and also as a tea time snack. We always make Vendakkai curry | Poriyal but i wanted to make varuval | fry for a long time. Yesterday when i saw fresh ladies finger in the nearby Indian shop , i bought  the and made vendakkai varuval with a portion of the vendakkai i bought. The ladies finger fry turned out so crispy and kids took with rice and dal for lunch box.

SWEET AND SOUR TOFU WITH VEGETABLES | TOFU STIR FRY

Tofu i rarely use in cooking, and even if i use i add it instead of paneer in gravies. Though i know it is a very good source of protein, i somehow didn't like to attempt it in any other form. When i gave the Singapore recipes for Aval Kitchen in Sept 2014, this sweet and sour tofu was one among them. I know few recipes with tofu which they deep fry too. When i tried this sweet and sour tofu, i liked it very much. I like the addition of pineapple in this. So i wanted to share the recipe too here. This can be had as an evening snack or can be served with vegetable fried rice. This dish is a mix of sweet and sourness and not being a lover of local Singapore veg food, personally i liked this very much. Will post the gravy recipe also soon.

MILLET COOKIES RECIPES | EGGLESS THINAI COOKIES

During my trip to India in December, i got millet flour packets from a near by store located nearby my in laws place. I was totally clueless what i am going to do with those flour packets and kept it in the freezer. Today when i was planning to make a Millet post, though i have many other recipe ideas using millets, baking with millet flour keep on lingering into my mind. So for the first time baked a cookies without following any recipe just put the ingredients according to my own imagination . It turned out truly perfect. I used Organic Naatu sakkarai in this recipe, but you can replace with jaggery or palm sugar too. Check out my other millet recipes.

SUMANGALI PRARTHANAI PROCEDURES | FOOD AND PROCEDURES

  Sumangali prarthanai | Mangili Pondugal is always performed in all Brahmin family. I wanted to write a detailed post on this for a long time but this time i happened to click few pictures as we did sumangali prarthanai in my in laws place. Though it was bit tough for me run around with camera, my husband took the entire responsibility to click the pictures . My mother in law too was very cooperative and explained me all the procedures in every step which was easy for us to take the pictures. But still i won't say the pictures are very explanatory. But for us to host the function and take the pictures is a bit tough task. But  i  make it sure that i will explain about this pooja, so that it will be useful for the next generation to follow. More than that it will be useful for me when i do it during my kids wedding .
  The tradition behind performing the pooja is to seek the blessings from the ladies who passed away in the family as sumangalis. The procedure may slightly vary from each family but 90 % it is the same. We , my in laws side hail from North Arcot District of Tamilnadu, follow this method and in my mom's house, they hail from Tanjore District, it was almost the same but slight variance will be there.
  Let me explain about this according to my knowledge. If anything i missed out or any doubts please feel free to leave your comments. This is an elaborate post.

RASA VADAI | RASAM VADAI RECIPE

Rasa vadai | rasam vadai, is a popular south indian tiffin| snack. I hvae tasted this first in Sangeetha restaurant in Chennai. Me and suresh used to visit on most of the friday evenings, while coming back from work. My sister only insisted me try the rasa vadai there. After that, i never had a chance to taste the vadai. But my sister is an expert in making this and for a long time she was telling me to post the recipe of rasa vadai. It is nothing but soaking the vadai in rasam but the recipe of rasam makes this dish so yum. Scroll down to the notes section to read out the tips. Enjoy your weekend with this vadai.

  I don't know whether i have justified her recipe but according to me it tasted awesome. Check out my Sambar vadai recipe and thayir vadai recipe.

MOMOS RECIPE | VEG MOMOS RECIPE

Veg momos is in my to do list for a long time. Also i tried this a couple of times but the clicks and the decent shapes were not satisfactory and so didn't blog the momos . I have a reader request also for this momos from few people and so without much a long wait i thought i will post the recipe of how to make momo. It is a steamed savory dumpling, a popular one in Tibetian cusine. In many parts of Delhi, hot momos are sold in streets during winter.  Coming to shaping of momos, it is more like our kozhukatai, but pleating will be done which comes by practise and also patience is required. So momos are not the one made in a jiffy but it takes time to shape them. But it is worth putting the effort. I made the stuffing very simple like how we make for spring rolls . 

METHI MUTHIA RECIPE| MILLET METHI MUTHIA |MILLET RECIPES

Muthia is a healthy gujarati snack, generally made with palak, methi, cabbage or lauki too. A diabetic friendly recipe and also no compromise in taste too. Generally to make this we use besan | kadalaimaavu and wheat flour. I used jowar flour and bajra flour to make this methi muthias. It turned so well and you can also replace the flours too if you want. Even you can use any millet flours to make this muthia. A very healthy and yummy snack which can be made easily. Try out this traditional gujarathi Methi muthia recipe.

HOW TO FREEZE GREEN PEAS | INDIAN KITCHEN BASICS

Wheni started this Indian Kitchen basics series, this post for how to freeze peas was in my list. I was waiting for the green peas season. Though i got lot of them during my vacation in India, i couldn't click as it was very busy. Last week, during my trip to little India market here, i got the fresh green peas and made this post. Though we get frozen peas in many cities , still when we make it at home we feel so happy and good. This frozen peas at home can be stored in the freezer for 6 to 8 months. We can just straight away use this frozen peas from the freezer . No need to pressure cook the peas.You can use this peas for pulaos, curry and gravy too.