Boorelu

Happy Sankranthi to all!
The Harvest festival Sankranthi is celebrated in most parts of India. The best place I ever celebrated this festival is at my grandparent’s village in West Godavari district. Front yards are decorated with beautiful rangoli and gobbemmalu, haridasu along with his gangireddu (decorated ox) comes to each house. Young girls dance around the gobbemmalu in the evenings. The atmosphere there in January is absolutely beautiful and festive.

It is a celebrated over four days. The first day ‘Bhogi’ is celebrated with a bon fire early in the morning. Second day ‘Sankranti’ is the day we all wear new clothes, pray and distribute sweets and gifts to farm workers and to domestic help. Third day is ‘kanumu’ and the fourth day ‘Mukkanumu’ is celebrated with variety of non vegetarian dishes.

Boorelu take the top spot in the sweets for this festival. They are made in huge quantities and become the main sweets of distribution.

Channa dal and jaggery are cooked together and formed into balls. These balls are dipped in urad rice batter and deep fried into a golden color.

Ingredients:

Stuffing (Poornam):
1 cup channa dal
1 cup grated or crumbeld jaggery
1 tbsp fresh grated coconut
Pinch of cardamom powder

Batter:
1 cup rice
½ cup urad dal
Salt to taste

Oil for deep frying

Procedure:
Soak rice and urad dal for 6 – 8 hours.
Blend them into a smooth paste using little water.
Add salt and set it aside for about 4-6 hours.

Cook channa dal in water until the dal is cooked. Drain excess water.
Mix jaggery and cooked channa dal together.
Cook in a thick bottomed pan to make poornam. Stir continuously so that it is not burnt.
When it comes to the consistency to form a firm ball remove from flame.
Add grated coconut and cardamom powder.
When it is cool enough to touch, shape poornam into small balls (size of table tennis ball).
Make sure the batter is thick enough to coat the balls evenly.
Heat oil in a wide pan.
Dip each poornam ball in the batter and gently leave it in the oil.
Do not crowd them in the pan. Place them few inches away from each other.
Fry on medium heat until they turn into golden brown color.

Serve them warm.

Make a small hole on the boori and pour in ½ tsp melted ghee to elevate the taste up another notch.

BellPepper Tofu

Bell Pepper Tofu is an easy to make tasty recipe from a dear friend. The nutritional goodness from vegetables and protein from Tofu with a side of roti or little brown rice makes this a healthy lite meal. Kasoori methi and coriander powder infuse loads of flavor into otherwise bland tofu.
Sauteed bellpeppers and tofu are simmered in tomatoes, coriander powder and kasoori methi for this scrumptious dish.
Ingredients:
2 bellpeppers cut into long strips
1 large or 2 medium tomatoes chopped fine
12 oz of extra firm tofu cut into long strips
2 tbsp coriander seeds
4 red chilies (adjust to taste)
1 tbsp crushed kasoori methi
2 tsp ginger garlic paste
2 tsp oil
Salt to taste
Turmeric a pinch

Procedure:
Make coriander and red chilies into a fine powder in a coffee grinder
Heat oil in a skillet, sear the tofu pieces. Set them aside.
Add ginger garlic paste to the oil, sauté till the rawness is gone but do not over fry
Add bell peppers and sauté till they are half cooked
Add coriander powder and sauté for a minute
Add tomatoes followed by turmeric and salt and sauté till the tomatoes disintegrate and form into gravy
Add kasoori methi
Cook till the bell pepper is almost cooked, don’t let it get mushy or loose the shape.
Add tofu and ¼ to ½ cup water so that the flavors are well blended. Cook till the water evaporates.

Eat it with rice or roti, or by itself for a carb free meal.

Chekkara Pongali

Happy New Year 2011.
Welcomed the New Year with a traditional south Indian sweet.
Rice and Moong Dal are cooked in jaggery syrup and garnished with raisins, cashews and almonds for this melt in the mouth dessert.

Ingredients:
1 cup rice

¼ cup moong dal

2 cups milk

1 – 1 ½ cup jaggery (adjust to taste)

2 tbsp ghee

Cashews, Almonds and Raisins for garnishing

Pinch of cardamom powder

Procedure:
Pressure cook rice and moong dal in two cups of milk and one cup of water.

Melt jaggery in a cup of water.

Add cooked rice and dal to the jaggery syrup and simmer, add 1 tbsp of ghee.

Shallow fry raisins, almonds and cashews in the remaining ghee and add it to the pongal.

Add cardamom powder.

Remove from flame and serve it warm.

Spinach Pacchadi

Spinach’s goodness does not need any introduction. It is used in number of delicious recipes. Spinach chutney is one where spinach is used in abundance but does not feel like you are eating a whole lot of it. Besides eating it with rice and ghee, it can also be used as spreads on bread and also in wraps.

Spinach, tomatoes, green chilies, garlic along with coriander and cumin are sautéed separately, then blended along with tamarind to form this delicious green chutney.

Ingredients:

6 cups tightly packed chopped spinach
1 medium tomato chopped
4 green chilies chopped (adjust to taste)
2 cloves garlic chopped
Walnut sized ball of tamarind (adjust based on the sourness of tomato)
1 tbsp coriander seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
½ tsp mustard seeds
1 tbsp oil


Heat a tsp of oil in a pan, add green chilies and garlic, when garlic is changing color add mustard, cumin and coriander, roast till coriander changes color and emits a good fragrance.

Set it aside and let it cool.

In another pan heat 1 tsp of oil and sauté spinach till it is well wilted and losses the raw smell. Set it aside to cool.

Heat another tsp of oil and sauté tomato till cooked. Add tamarind half way thru so that it is soft and easy to blend.

Let all the ingredients cool. Blend coriander and green chili mixture first, add spinach and tomato and blend it all to a fine paste.

Enjoy it with hot rice and ghee.

Scrambled Tofu

Tofu is an important source of protein in a vegetarian diet of East Asia. Though I am neither a vegetarian nor a tofu lover, I try to include it in our diet due to its nutritional value. I scrambled and sautéed a firm Cajun flavored tofu along with onions and green chilies. I was prepared to settle for just about an edible dish, but to my surprise it turned out into a scrumptious side dish that we all relished with roti and rice. It has the look and feel of scrambled egg, the taste is different yet equally enjoyable.

Ingredients:

1 12oz Firm Tofu (Cajun flavor) drained and scrambled
2 medium onions chopped fine
2 green chilies slit
1 tbsp oil
¼ tsp turmeric
Salt to taste

Tampering:
½ tsp mustard
½ tsp cumin
½ tsp black gram / urad dal (optional)
1 red chili broken
Spring of curry leaves

Heat oil in a pan.

Add mustard, cumin, urad, red chilies and curry leaves. When urad starts to change color add chopped onions and green chilies.

Sauté till the onions start to turn transparent, add turmeric and salt and sauté for another 2 minutes.

Add scrambled tofu and keep stirring on medium heat for about 10 minutes, making sure not to burn it.

When you notice that the raw smell has transformed into a mouth watering aroma, it is time to remove from heat.

Roasted Catfish

Fish can be roasted in many different ways. Today I chose to keep the ingredients to the minimum and let the taste of the fish take the center stage. Catfish steaks were marinated in ginger garlic paste, red chili powder and lemon juice for two hours. I roasted them in my newly bought cast iron pan. It gave the fish a beautiful golden color and a wonderful roasted flavor.


Ingredients:
6 catfish steaks
2 tsp ginger garlic paste
2 tsp chili powder (adjust to taste)
½ tsp turmeric
1 tbsp lemon juice
Salt to taste

Marinate fish with all the ingredients and leave in the refrigerator for two hours.

Heat pan with 1 – 2 tbsp of oil.

Place fish in the pan and let them roast on medium heat for 5 – 8 minutes.

Gently flip them on to the other side.

Let them cook for another 5 – 8 minutes.

Increase the heat and roast for a minute on each side.

Note: ½ to 1 tsp of garam masala can be added to the marinade to increase the spice level. Coriander powder and cumin powder are other interesting choices.

Beetroot with yogurt

Beetroot, though known for all its health benefits, was not my choice of vegetable. I felt the cutting was tedious and the color gets on to all the utensils. That was until I came across this recipe which made it a highly desirable dish. It is extremely easy to make (with the help of a food processor with shredding disc) and too yummy to eat. Grated beetroot along with ginger is sautéed till done and yogurt is added before serving. Ginger and asafetida in tampering play a major role in this recipe. Do not attempt this recipe if you do not have those two ingredients.

Ingredients:
2 big beetroots
2 inches ginger
4 green chilies slit (adjust to taste)
½ tsp turmeric
Salt to taste
1 tbsp oil
1 tsp ghee or butter
1 ½ cups thick yogurt

Tampering:
½ tsp mustard
½ tsp cumin
½ tsp asafetida or hing
Few curry leaves

Grate beetroot and ginger together.

Heat oil and ghee in a wide pan.

Add mustard, cumin, curry leaves and asafetida followed by green chilies.

Add grated beetroot and ginger.

Sauté till done.

Add salt and turmeric and remove from heat.

When it reaches room temperature add yogurt and mix well.
It has a simple, lite, healthy feel to it. Tastes wonderful with roti or all by itself.