Friday Food: Semiya/Vermicelli Upma

Its Friday again and a day for me to try something new to resist eating outside. This is mom's favorite and she always made this with wheat vermicelli. On my recent trip to India, I got some vermicelli and was eager to try this out as soon as possible.

Heres a quick recipe before I head out for the day.

Ingredients:

2 Cup Vermicelli
1/4 Cup Beans
1/4 Cup Carrot
Handful of Peas
1/4 Cup Tomato
2 cloves garlic (Chopped finely)
1 tsp Cumin
1/2 tsp Red Chili powder
1/4 tsp turmeric
1 medium Onion
1/2 tsp Ghee
Oil
Salt to taste

Seasoning:

1/2 tsp Musturd seeds
1/2 tsp Urad Dhal
1/2 tsp Channa Dhal
1 Sprig Curry Leaves
3 Green Chili (split lengthwise)

Heat the half tsp ghee and roast vermicelli until it turns light brown. Now add 4 cups of water, 1/4 tsp salt and a little oil and boil. Remove from heat when the vermicelli is 3/4 cooked. Drain the water and keep aside.

Cook the carrot, peas and beans with a little salt and 1 cup water. Remove from heat and drain water when the vegetables are cooked. Alternatively you can microwave the vegetables with salt and water for 4 minutes on high.

Now in a pan, heat oil and add mustard seeds. When the mustard seeds splutters add urad dhal, channa dhal, green chili and curry leaves. Add the finely chopped garlic and the chopped onion and saute until the Onion turns translucent and light brown.

Add the tomatoes, cooked vegetables and saute for a minute. Now add cumin, turmeric and red chilli powder. Add salt to if you need more. Remember that the vegetables and the vermicelli already have salt.

Now add the vermicelli and mix everything up. Saute for a few minutes and remove from heat. Serve hot with a chutney of your choice.

Reducing salt in a dish!!

I was making Methi Biryani today and added way too much salt....and guess who came to my rescue...yep it was the internet again.

Adding whole potatoes into a dish instantly reduces salt in the dish. It worked for me.

Friday Food: Paruppu Adai

We normally go out to get our weekly grocery on Friday evenings. I usually get very tempted to eat out or I snack in various places and will not feel up to dinner when we return home. Hence for the past couple of weeks I cook before we go out for the evening and avoid eating outside.

Since we miss eating out on Fridays, I decided to make something interesting today. Adai is something my mom never made when we were growing up. We always stuck to the usual Idli/Dosa and never attempted Adai. I have eaten this at local food joints and have always wanted to make this at home.

When I finally made it today, it was a super hit. Looks like we'll be making this yummy treat many times in the days to come.

Ingredients:

1/2 medium onion
1/2 cup Idli rice
1/4 cup urad dal
1/4 cup toor dal
1/4 cup channa dal
1/4 cup moog dal
1 inch piece of ginger
2 dry red chillies
1/4tsp hing/Asafoetida
salt to taste
1 sprig curry leaves
a few coriander leaves

Soak all the dhals together for atleast 2 hours. Also soak Rice for atleast 2 hours. Drain the water from the soaked dhal and rice. In a grinder/mixer add the dhal, rice, ginger, chopped onion, red chillies, curry leaves, coriander, salt and hing/asafoetita.

Grind everything together with a little water in the consistency of dosa/idli batter. The adai batter will be coarse than that of dosa batter.

Heat the pan which is used for making dosa. Spread the Adai batter in a outward circular motion just like making a dosa. Add a little oil or ghee sparingly on one side and allow to cook for a minute. Flip over and cook the other side. Remove from heat and serve hot.

We polished off our plates of Adai with Mutton Keema Curry.

Red Leaves Keerai Poriayal

Red Leaves/Amaranth/Thotakura Poriyal


Red Leaves Keerai is something I always get in my local Indian grocery store. Off late I have been making Chapathi more than a couple of times in a week and this makes a great side dish to eat with Chapathi.

Ingredients:

1 Bunch chopped Red Leaves/Thotakura
1 cup black eyed peas(cooked)
1 onion, finely chopped
1 dried red chillie, broken into pieces
½ tsp urad dal
3 garlic cloves, chopped finely
¼ tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp red chilli powder
1/2 tsp cumin powder
Salt to taste
1-2 tbsp olive oilI have added blacked eyed peas in this keerai poriyal. Microwave the black eyed peas for 5-7 mins so that it is 75% cooked.

Heat oil in a pan, add dried red chillies, urad dal, onion and garlic and fry onion turns translucent. Add chopped red leaves and the cooked black eyed peas. Add turmeric, red chilli powder, cumin powder and salt to taste and cook covered until the red leaves are cooked.

Cook uncovered on high heat until all the water evoparates. Remove from heat and serve with hot Chapathi/Roti

Kothavarangai/Cluster Beans Pakoda

Cluster Beans Fritters

My husband travels to his client location once a week and prefers to take his favorite food Tomato Rice for his packed lunch. I had some cluster beans lying in the fridge and was thinking of making the usual cluster beans poriyal, but my taste buds said a big "No" to the poriyal. So I searched around for Cluster beans recipes on the internet and came across some Vada and Bajji varieties with kothavarangai as it is called in Tamil.

I was not very keen on making a vada and came up with this pakoda recipe. This is just a slight variation to the mixed vegetable pakora that I usually prepare.

Ingredients:

1 lb - Cluster Beans
1 Onion (chopped)
3/4 cup Gram flour (besan)
1 tsp fine rava(Sooji)
2-3 Green chillies
1/2 inch Ginger piece(finely smashed)
1/2tsp - Red chilli powder
Salt to taste
Oil to fry

Method :
Wash and steam cook Cluster Beans.Chop green chillies and finely smash ginger with a morter and pestle, alternatively you can grate ginger. Chop the Cluster Beans into small pieces
Add gram flour and mix with Chopped Cluster Beans, Onion, green chillies, ginger and red chilli powder till the batter is of semi-solid consistency. Add salt to taste.Add water if required since the besan can be mixed in the water retained from the steamed beans itself.

Heat the oil in a deep pan.Now take the batter and drop in small portions into the oil. Cook on medium fire till the pakodas are of light brown color.Makes a good evening snack with hot tea or serve as an appetizer for your lunch/dinner.

Whats in Oil

In my cooking experiments in the past couple of years, the one thing that has been on my mind while cooking has been the nutrition and health effects of using Oil.

While discussing with friends and family the most common answer I get is about Olive Oil and the lovely monounsaturated fats it provides to our body. Yes I switched to Olive Oil for my everyday curry and stir fry needs but continued to use Sun Flower oil for all my deep frying.

Today I was reading a article about Olive Oil and how it loses its health benefits at smoking point. I hastily forwarded the article to my family and friends and then sat back to think about it for a second. I made my own little research on the internet and came to the conclusion that Olive Oil when used below its smoking point is definitely beneficial but is not a good candidate for my deep fry, high flame stir fry needs. That led me to write this entry.

Here are the smoking points for some of Oils that I have used:This above information made me do my little research on what is Saturated, Unsaturated Fats:

Saturated Fats:

Saturated fats are mainly animal fats and are solid at room temperature. These fats include butter, cheese, whole milk, ice cream, egg yolks, lard and fatty meats. Some plants fats are also high in saturated fats such as coconut oil and palm oils. Saturated fats raise blood cholesterol more than any other food you eat.

Unsaturated Fats:

These fats can come from both animal and plant products. There are three (3) types:

Monounsaturated Fats - Usually come from seeds or nuts such as avocado, olive, peanut, and canola oils. These fats are liquid at room temperature.

Polyunsaturated Fats - Usually come from vegetables, seeds, or nuts such as corn, safflower, sunflower, soybean, cotton seed, and sesame seeds oils. These fats are liquid at room temperature.

Trans Fatty Acids - Trans fats are produced when liquid oil is made into a solid fat, such as shortening or margarine. This process is called hydrogenation. Trans fats act like saturated fats and can raise your cholesterol level.

Finally to conclude, the reason smoke points are important is because if an oil burns and starts smoking, it forms nitro-compunds that are harmful to health and have been thought to lead to insulin resistance and hence diabetes

Crunchy Fish Appetizer

Ingredients:

1 lb boneless Salmon(I have used boneless salmon. Any Boneless Fish can be used)
2 Medium sized Potato
1 Small Onion(finely chopped)
2 tsp fish masala (store bought)
2 small green chillies(finely chopped)
1 Egg beaten finely
2 tbsp bread crumbs
Oil for frying.


Method:

Cook the fish in a little water and salt(I normally microwave the salmon for 5 mins, also remember that salmon cooks faster). Also boil the potatoes and mash them well.

Heat oil in a pan and add finely chopped onion, green chillies. Add the fish masala, cooked fish and mashed potatoes. Mix well and check salt, add more if needed. Remove from heat.

Make into small balls.

Heat Oil for frying. Now take each ball, dip in egg then dip in bread crumb and fry until golden brown in oil.
Believe me this is one appetizer your guests won't pass up!!