I was so exited to see Ghandi's Image on google home page today...

Banana Chutney

I was reading on some blog that if you give any vegetable to a andhra woman, she will make a chutney out of it. Well i guess that is pretty much true. I remember my mom making chutneys of so many vegetables like bottle gourd, okra, ridge gourd etc. The list is end less. So i kind of miss those chutneys very much as i do not prepare them so often, blame it on my busy lifestyle(Euphemism for my laziness) or my husband's instructions that i should not be spending too much time in the kitchen. Can you believe it!! My husband doesn't want me to cook anything :-( . Well but still i keep trying to impress him(irritate him) by trying various kinds of stuff and hoping that some day he would think that the time i spend in my kitchen is time well spent.
Well coming back to the point of making chutneys, i wanted to try out making this banana chutney the other day. I had my sister in law visiting us who is also a big fan of chutneys(I guess all Andhra people are!!). So i made this Banana chutney and we had it with rice. Here is how i made it.

2 Bananas
pinch of Tamarind Soaked in water
2 Garlic cloves
4 Green Chillies
Salt to taste.
Curds/Yogurt

Boil the Bananas for 20 mins until they become soft. Fry the chillis in oil and grind all the above ingredients into a smooth paste.

For tempering take some oil in a pan. Add some cumin seeds, mustard seeds, urad daal seeds, some dry chillis, one garlic clove and some curry leaves. Once they start crackling add them to the ground paste. This chutney would stay good for three to four days in a fridge. Add some ghee to hot steaming rice and eat it with this yummy banana chutney.

Baked Fish.

My daughter just loves fish. Till now fish has been the only thing that she eat without any fussing. So I thought I would make it a habit to cook fish on Sundays. This Sunday we had the time change thing happening and I forgot about it entirely. By the time I reached my farmer's market there was nothing open. So I had to do all my shopping at the near by Safeway and by the time I came home it was almost 2. So I hardly had any time to cook. But my daughter already got the hint that I was going to make fish and started asking for it. I didn't want to disappoint her so I tried my version of baked fish which literally did not take any time except the time for baking and didn't need too much preparation. It tasted very good just like the fish fry that my mom makes back home. This is how I made it.

Fish pieces
Ginger Garlic Paste
Salt
Chilli powder
Oil
Masala Powder

Mix all the above ingredients and let them marinade for a few minutes. Take a tray and place the fish pieces on it. Pre heat the oven to 400 F. Bake the fish for about 25 to 30 mins. I used Talapia fillets for frying. But i guess any kind of fish can be used in its place.

Mint Lassi

Lassi is one thing everyone in my family loves any time of the year. It is even more tasty on sunny days but are good in the winters too. Yesterday was one of those sunny days i was longing for. As i reached home i felt the weather was too hot and i just enjoyed the sun in my patio. My husband took my daughter to the near by pond and i got some time for myself and thought of making Lassi. During one of my blog trots i came across Mint Lassi. I don't remember the exact post but i just remembered that it had mint in Lassi. So i made my version of Mint Lassi. Recipe is below.



1 Glass Curds(I used home made Curds)
2 Glasses Water.
Few Mint Leaves
A pinch of Ginger
1 Chili
Salt to Taste
Half a Lemon

Mash the ginger, mint leaves and chili in a mortar. In a blender add the curds water and the mashed ginger, mint and chili. Add salt and lemon and blend it in the blender. Filter the liquid and your tasty mint lassi is ready.

Kakarakaya Koora

Yesterday was one of those days were I was just bored of eating the daily food. I wanted something different from the normal. I had a few cut Karela lying in my refrigerator. So couldn't stop the temptation to make the Karela curry. There are quite a few ways of making this curry but i wanted to make it the simplest way. Here is how i made it.

Karela cut into cubes.
1 Onion
Ginger Garlic Paste
Tamarind Juice
Salt
Chilli powder

Heat oil in a pan and add some urad daal, mustard leaves and jeera leaves and add the onion pieces to it. Add ginger garlic paste to it. Once the onions are done add the cut kakarakaya pieces. Add some salt and let it cook for arround 10 mins. Add the tamarind juice and cook for another 20 mins. Add some chilli power before you switch off the stove. Delicious kakarakaya koora is ready. Eat with hot rice.

Bagara Baingan

Of late I have been trying to make it a habit to go to the Sunday Farmer's Market at my place. I get fresh vegetables and my daughter enjoys the outing. Yesterday during my visit to the farmers market, I found this great sale of egg plants. I got 5 big, very fresh egg plants for just a dollar. I grabbed them without any second thoughts. But the unfortunate thing is that my husband just loathes Egg plant and if I will have to cook it I would be the only one eating it(My daughter also doesn't seem to like it. But I hope she will like it as she grows up.). Luckily for me some my of husband's colleagues were supposed to come for dinner and I thought I would make this Bagara Baingan curry with the Egg Plants that I got at the Farmer's Market. I quickly goggled and found a few recipes and here's my version.




Ingrediants:
Egg Plants(8 small ones)
I used two of the large ones. I cut them into four large chunks and put three small splits into each of the four chunks.
Ground nuts hand full
Til Seeds(Nuvvulu) - 4 spoons
Jeera Seeds
Ginger
Garlic
Onions
Salt
Chilli Powder
Jeera Seeds
Seesame Seeds
Urad Daal


Roast the grounds nuts, Nuvvulu and the Jeera seeds and keep them aside. Cut the onions and then roast them with the ginger garlic paste. Grind the onions and the roasted ground nuts, nuvvulu and the jeera seeds.

Heat oil in a pan and add jeera seeds, seesame seeds and urad daal and then add the above mixture to it. Let it cook for 5 mins and now add the egg plants chunks that you have cut. Add salt and chilli powder as per your taste. Cook it for about 15 to 20 mins. You tastey bagara baingan is ready. This is best eaten with bagara rice which is kind of a Biryani cooked in the telangana region of Andhra Pradesh. But tastes good with plain rice as well as Roti.

Tomato Carrot Rasam

I am sure most of you would have tasted tomato rasam. But did you try Carrot rasam? My daughter is a big fan of carrots and would eat them in any form. So i thought i would try adding some carrot to the rasam that i was planning on making for the day. But while i was cutting the tomatoes she eat up half of them and i was left with few tomato slices and a bunch of carrots. So i thought why not try them together. I pressure cooked carrot and tomatos and pureed them and made rasam out of it. One of my friend stopped by that evening and she was having a very bad cold. So i offered the rasam to her like a soup and she loved it and made my day..
So here goes the recipe.

Tomato -1
Carrots -3
Pepper
Tamarind
Salt
Ginger
Rasam Powder
Curry Leaves
Urad Daal
Jeera
sesame seeds
Crooiander Leaves.

Pressure Cook the Carrots and Tomato and puree them in a blender with the tamarind. Cut Ginger into small pieces. Heat oil/butter in a bowl. Add the curry leaves, urad daal, jeera and the sesame seeds. To this add the pureed liquid. Add salt and rasam powder. Let it cook till the liquid boils.