VEGETABLE UTTAPAM & WINNER'S GIVEAWAY FROM CUISINE DELIGHTS

'Uttapam' is a great snack or breakfast recipe from South India, very delicious, tasty and very easy to make. Uttapam is a variety of dosa, slightly thicker dosa, easilly called it 'No-Cheese Indian Pizza', my favourite South Indian dish. I don't need any sambar with it, it goes very well with any chutney. So here is the recipe of yummy flavourful uttapam with loads of veggies....

INGREDIENTS:

FOR MAKING BATTER:

2&1/4 Cups Parboiled (ukra) Rice
1 Cup Skinless Black Gram (urad dal)
1/4 Cup Short-grained Raw Rice
1 tsp Fenugreek Seeds

FOR TOPPING:

3/4 Cup Shredded Carrot
1/2 Cup Finely Chopped Coriander Leaves / Cilantro
1 Green Bell Pepper (finely chopped)
1 Large Onion (finely chopped)
1 tbsp Finely Chopped Green Chilies
1 tsp Sambar Powder
Salt to taste
Oil for Frying

METHOD:

Soak parboiled rice, black gram, raw rice and fenugreek seeds in water seperately for 6 hours.
Combine parboiled rice, black gram, raw rice and fenugreek rice in a grinder jar.
Grind well into a smooth and thick batter using water as required, little by little.
Transfer batter into a bowl and set it aside for 8-10 hours, a well fermented batter gives very nice, soft and tasty dosa, idli or uttapam.
Add salt mix well. Add water as required. Dosa batter will be thinner and for uttapam, batter would be little thicker.
Heat a non-stick pan or tawa or griddle on medium heat and drizzle few drops of oil.
Pour 1&1/2 ladle full of the batter in the hot greased pan.
Sprinkle generously the chopped onion, shredded carrot, chopped green bell pepper, little green chilies, few chopped coriander leaves, a pinch of sambar powder fully covering the top and also add few drops of oil on it.
Cover the lid and cook on medium heat for 2 minutes. Open the lid and flip the uttapam and cook on low heat for another 2 minutes or till onion turns golden and crisp.

Serve hot uttapam with podi or chutney, its always yummilicious and filling!

Hi Friends, now it is award time!!!

I was choosen winner in the event "Holiday Recipes" conducted by my dear co-blogger friend Chandrani Banerjee of Cuisine Delights. It was really a very successful event. When Chandrani announced its round up, I surprised to see myself as a winner of that event. I am really very glad and feeling too much happiness.

My heartfelt thanks to you Chandrani Banerjee and loved your giveaway very much. Yes, it is "Party Cooking" by Sanjeev Kapoor, a wonderful book indeed. A special thanks to all of my co-blogger friends, readers and visitor for inspiring and motivating me to explore new recipes in my kitchen....Thanks each and everyone for supporting me......

EGGFREE CHOCOLATE BROWNIE

Sharing an easy, simple, irrisistible, tasty, rich and fudgy gloriously gooey chocolate brownies, which will definitely satisfy chocolate craving. Tryout, its amazing!

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 Cup Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
1/2 Cup Self Raising Flour
1/4 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 Cup Unsalted Butter
A Pinch of Salt
400 gm / 1 tin Sweetened Condensed Milk
2 tbsp Thick Yogurt
3-4 tbsp Sugar (as per taste)
1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract
1 tbsp Instant Coffee (I used Nescafe)
1/3 Cup Hot Water

METHOD:

Sift all dry ingredients in a bowl, i.e. flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Mix nicely.
In a large bowl, combine butter, condensed milk, sugar, vanilla extract and blend well. Add yogurt, blend again. Now add dry ingredients little by little and blend nicely, so that everything incorporated very well.
Preheat oven to 180 C / 350 F. Mix coffee in hot water. Stir well. Add this coffee mix with brownie mixture. Blend again for few more seconds.
Grease a square pan with little butter and pour brownie mixture in it. Place it on central rack of the oven and bake for 30-35 minutes (time varies oven to oven).
Cool it on cooling rack, cut in 16 equal small squares. 

Serve with a scoop of ice cream, or sprinkle little icing sugar on the top and serve.

GREEN MOONG DAL DOSA

This highly nutritious dosa is a very popular breakfast recipe of Andhra Pradesh, also known as 'Pesarattu Dosa'. This dosa can be made with whole green gram or split green gram lentils. This dosa can be served with coconut chutney, onion chutney, tomato chutney or any other chutney. A very crisp and really thin dosa has an unique taste and flavor, which is filling, protein pack and has a soothing texture. Serve warn with any spicy chutney and enjoy it in your breakfast or dinner table.

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 Cup Green Moong Dal
2 tbsp Rice Flour (instead of that may use gram flour)
2 Green Chilies (finely chopped)
1 Small Onion (finely chopped)
2 tbsp Finely Chopped Coriander Leaves / Cilantro
1 tsp + Oil for Roasting
Salt to taste

METHOD:

Soak the moong dal for 6 hrs, after that drain water and wash it very nicely, so that you can easily remove the maximum green peels at the time of washing dal.

For preparing dosa batter, grind moong dal, green chilies, onions, coriander leaves together. Add little bit water and make a coarse paste.

In a large bowl, combine moong dal paste, rice flour, salt and 1 tsp oil. Mix the batter. Add 1/2 cup water and stir well to get the right spreading consistancy of the dosa batter.

Heat a non-stick pan or tawa or griddle. Now going to get it off the flame. Pour some batter with a spoon and spread it round with the back of the spoon (in a circular motion).

Let it cook on medium heat. First dried out a bit, brush with little oil. After 2 minutes, flip on the other side and cook for another 2 minutes. Remove dosa from the griddle. Set it aside.

After every dosa that you made, just remove the excess batter from the pan. To sprinkle little bit water to bring down the temperature of the griddle. After the water dries out, spread the other dosa.

Serve moong dal dosa warm with any chutney. Anyone will surely enjoy this delicious, filling and protein pack breakfast; a great way to start the day.

BASIC ONION CHUTNEY

I am here with an easy and quick post of onion chutney, which is a great accompaniment to idli, dosa, upma, uttapam and even appams. onion chutney is a simple, sounds spicy and real toothsome dish. It doesn't contain coconut, so whenever we travel long distance, can pack this chutney with idlis.

INGREDIENTS:

1 Cup Roughly Chopped Onion
1 Medium Tomato (chopped)
4-5 Curry Leaves
4 Dried Whole Red Chilies
1 tbsp Tamarind Pulp
2 tbsp Roasted Bengal Gram (chana dal)
1 tbsp Jaggery
2 tbsp Oil
Salt to taste

FOR TEMPERING:

1/2 tsp Mustard Seeds
1 Dried Red Chili
1 tsp Urad Dal
A Pinch of Asafoetida
7-8 Curry Leaves
2 tsp Oil

METHOD:

In a pan or kadai, add oil. When it heated, add dried red chilies. Saute for a minute.
Add Onion, fry till onion turns into golden. Sprinkle salt and add tomato and curry leaves in it.
Fry till tomato turns soft, add chana dal, tamarind pulp in it. Fry for another 2 minutes.
Finally add jaggery, mix well. Turn off heat now. Let it cool. Grind it to make a coarse paste. (If required, add little water in it). Set it aside.

For tempering, heat 2 tsp oil in a tadka pan. Add dried red chili, urad dal, asafoetida and mustard seeds. Saute till urad dal changes its colour a little. Add curry leaves, mix and pour it on chutney mixture. 

Fold nicely by using a spoon and serve with idli, dosa, uttapam or upma.....enjoy this flavourful chutney.

OATS MOONG TIKKI

Once when I surfed net, these beautiful healthy tikkis attracted my attention at tarladalal.com. I got impressed and jotted down the recipe, little changes I made, but these flavoursome diabetic friendly tikkis are really awesome! These days, I am always fond of healthy food with very less oil and I prefer to use olive oil in my daily cooking. So, here is the fiber rich, protein pack toothsome tikkis, hope you will like it.

INGREDIENTS (FOR MAKING 12 TIKKIS):

1/2 Cup Quaker Rolled Oats
1/2 Cup Split Yellow Gram (yellow moong dal)
1/4 Cup Finely Chopped Onions
2 tbsp Plain Yogurt (fresh curd)
1 tsp Finely Chopped Green Chilies
1/2 tsp Ginger Paste
1/2 tsp Garlic Paste
1 tsp Red Chili Powder
1 tsp Chaat Masala
1&1/2 tsp Dried Mango Powder (amchur)
1/4 tsp Garam Masala Powder
2 tbsp Finely Chopped Cilantro / Coriander Leaves
2 tsp Olive Oil (for greasing tawa and brushing tikkis)
Salt to taste

METHOD:

Wash moong dal nicely. Boil it in a sauce pan with 1 Cup of water, till dal is soft, tendered and all the water has evaporated.
Let it cool, drain and blend the dal in a mixer to make a coarse paste.

Transfer the paste to a bowl, add all the remaining ingredients (except oil) and mix everything very well.
Divide the mixture into 12 equal portions and shape each portion into 2&1/2" round flat tikki.
Lightly grease a non-stick tawa and brush it with 1/2 tsp oil.
Place 2-3 tikkis on a tawa at a time. Cook each tikki on medium flame using 1/8 tsp of olive oil, till it is evenly cooked and got golden from both sides.

Serve hot with any sauce or chutney, it is filling, fiber rich, protein pack yet delicious.

METE PEYAJKOLI (STIR-FRIED MUTTON LIVER WITH ONION GREENS)

Few weeks before, I seen this recipe in a Bengali Magazine, but made few changes according to my tastebuds. Trust me, it is very delicious with hot phulkas or steamed rice. Just tryout, it will be one of your favourite items.

INGREDIENTS:

250 gm Mutton Liver (goat liver)
500 gm Onion Greens
1 Medium Onion (finely chopped)
1 tsp Ginger Paste
2 tsp Garlic Paste
1 tsp Green Chili paste
1/2 tsp Kashmiri Chili Powder
1/2 tsp Turmeric Powder
1 Cup Chopped Tomatoes
1/2 tsp Black Pepper Powder
1/2 tbsp Lemon Juice
1/2 tsp Butter
3 tbsp Mustard Oil
Salt to taste.

METHOD:

Wash mutton liver, cut into 1/2" pieces. Make those pat dry and set aside.
Wash onion greens nicely and chop into 1" pieces. Keep aside.
Heat oil in a pan or wok. Add chopped onion in it. Fry till onion gets translucent.
Add mutton liver and fry it alongwith onions for 3 minutes. Now add ginger paste, garlic paste, turmeric powder, green chili paste, red chili powder, tomato and salt in it. Fold nicely till tomatoes get mushy and leave oil from the side of the pan.
At this time, add green onions and mix well. Lower the heat now, cover and cook for 5 minutes. Open the lid now, add sugar and sprinkle little water on it. Fold well and cook covered for another 10 minutes or till mutton livers are tender. Switch off the heat and sprinkle black pepper powder, butter and lemon juice on the top. 

Serve with roti, paratha or steamed rice, it's yummilicious!

LEMON FLAVOURED BROCCOLI RICE

This is a quick and healthy rice dish, very well goes for lunch box too. Some days, I really don't have any mood to cook anything elaborately, just have this healthy rice simply with curd. It contains lots of calcium.Trust me, it is very delicious!

INGREDIENTS:

¾ Cup Basmati Rice

2 Cups Medium Sized Broccoli Florets

½ Cup Fresh Green Peas

2 tbsp Grated Coconut

2 tsp Grated Ginger

1 tsp Finely Chopped Green Chili

Few Curry Leaves (optional)

2 tsp Bengal Gram (chana dal)

2 tsp Urad Dal

½ tsp Mustard Seeds

2 tbsp Chopped Coriander Leaves

2 tbsp Olive Oil

1 tbsp Fresh Lemon Juice

Salt to taste

METHOD:

Wash rice nicely. Soak the rice in water for 30 minutes. Drain water completely and set it aside.

Heat a tbsp of olive oil in a pan or wok. Add ginger, green chili and few curry leaves in it. Sauté for 30 seconds. Then add broccoli florets, green peas and salt in it. Fold well. Cover and cook for 2 minutes on medium flame.

Mix grated coconut with it. Saute for 2- minutes, till coconut turns into slightly golden brown, but the vibrant colour of broccoli should not leave. Remove the broccoli coconut mixture from the heat now and set aside.

Heat another tbsp of olive oil in the same pan and splutter the mustard seeds. Add chana dal, urad dal in it. Saute till dal turns into golden. Add rice and little salt in it. Fry for 3 minutes.

Add 1&1/2 cup warm water in it. Mix nicely. When it starts to boil add broccoli-peas mixture and sugar in it. Give a nice stir. Cover, lower the heat and cook for 15 minutes exactly. Turn off the heat now. Open the lid and add coriander leaves and lemon juice. Shake well.

Delicious and healthy broccoli rice is ready to serve. I loved to have it with simple yogurt, you may serve it with any curry too.