Bagara Baingan / Gutti Vankaya - 3

Bagara Baingan:

 Baby Eggplant / Brinjal / Vankaya (వంకాయ) cooked with Onion, Tomato in mild Peanut sauce with other spices.

Bagara Baingan is very famous Hyderabadi vegetarian entry. We can make this curry mild/ medium hot / or even spicy. We can replace egg-plant with Long Green Mirchi to make Mirchi Ka Salan or Whole Tomato (with little variation) to make Tomato salan or even with Bell Pepper or capsicum to make Capsicum masala. And any of the above recipes goes extremely well with Pulav / Biryani or even with Regular White Rice.

Ingredients:

Baby Egg Plant (Pink) – 10

Peanuts – ½ sup

Sesame seeds – 1 tsp

Onion – 1 (Thinly Sliced)

Tomato – 1 (Thinly sliced)

Green chilli – 4 (Slit Vertically)

Ginger – Garlic paste – 1 tsp

Turmeric – ½ tsp

Red Chilli Powder – ½ tsp

Tamarind Juice – 1 cup (Diluted)

Or

Tamarind Paste – 2 tbsp

Oil – 4 tbsp

Cumin seeds / Black Cumin – ½ tsp

Procedure:

Dry Roast peanuts and set aside and let them come to room temperature.

Dry Roast Sesame seeds (optional)

Wash and wipe Egg-plant and make a ‘+’ shape slit and set aside.

Take a Heavy Bottomed deep cooking vessel, add 3 tbsp of oil when it is hot enough add brinjals and fry for 2 or 3 min and put lid if required and let them cook till half done. Take out egg plant in to a separate plate and set side.

In the same vessel, add 1 more tbsp of oil if required, add cumin seeds and let them splutter and add green chilli and onion and sprinkle little salt and cook for 3 min on medium heat, then add Ginger garlic paste and cook till raw smell goes off.

In the mean time, Add Peanuts and Sesame seeds to the blender add required amount of water and make into a fine paste (thick paste or thin liquid kind of paste)

Now add Tomato and cook till they are soft.

Now add Peanut paste, Turmeric and combine well and cook for 2 min and then add tamarind juice along with 2 cups of water and bring it to a boil.

Now add Egg-plant, adjust salt and cover it up with lid and cook on medium flame for approximately 20 min.

Check the spice level and Add Red Chilli Powder if you want and let it cook for another 5 min with out the lid. Check the Gravy Consistency. If you want you can add water or you can cook for another 5 min if it is too watery.

Finish it off with chopped coriander and cover it with lid and switch off the stove.

Serve Hot with Pulav / Biryani / White Rice.

Mirapakaya Bajji

Mirapakaya/ Mirchi / Chilli / Green Pepper Bajji

Mirapakaya Bajji (aka Chilli bajji or Mirchi bajji) my all time favorite evening snack. Long Green Peppers stuffed with masla/Powder, dipped in the batter and deep fried.

In my home town, usually we get these long green chillis only in some seasons. So my mom makes these bajjis quite often in the season. But we can go get them in chat shops almost through out the year. But here, We can get any kind of fruit/vegetable all through the year….so I make them when ever we feels like eating them and especially when it is raining outside. When we were in New Jersey, we used to eat them out side in an Andhra restaurant “Abhiruchi”. They serve them really good and tasty in Andhra style. In Oak tree Road also we can get them but they make these bajjis with Banana peppers and the stuffing with aloo. But in Andhra we make these bajji with Long Green chillis and the stuffing with Tamarind and other spices. Enjoy rainy days with Mirchi bajji….

Ingredients:

Long Green Chilli – 10

For stuffing:

Ajwain / vaamu – 1 tbsp

Tamarind Paste – 1 tsp or Tamarind – small ball

Cumin seeds – ¼ tsp

Salt – 1 Big Pinch

For Batter:

Besan / Gram Flour – 1 cup

Salt – to taste

Cooking Soda – ½ tsp

Ajwain / Vaamu – ¼ tsp

Oil – to deep fry

Procedure:

Wash and wipe green chilli and let them dry completely.

Take ajwain, cumin seeds, and tamarind in an electric blender or hand grinder and make into coarse powder or paste. And add little salt and mix it well.

Take a utility knife and make lengthwise slit and remove excess seeds (removing seeds is completely optional).

Now stuff the ajwain-tamarind mix to the Green chillis and set side.

Heat Oil in a kadai.

Sieve the flour in a bowl, add salt, baking soda, ajwain (optional) and mix well, and add sufficient amount of water and make into a thick paste.

Now dip the stuffed green chilli in the batter and put it in the hot oil carefully.

Let it fry for 2 or 3 min on one side and then take a spoon or fork and try to turn it carefully. If you are not able to turn it, you can use your ladle or spoon and just press the bajji with very little force.

Fry till they turn golden brown.

Serving Tips:                      

Sprinkle Little Chat masala and Serve them Hot with Onions.

Another serving method is, again make a length wise slit and set side.

Chop Onion and coriander leaves finely, and mix with lemon juice and chat masala and stuff this onion mixture.

http://vantillu.wordpress.com/

In some restaurants they cut this bajji into small pieces and again they will fry them in hot oil for few min and serve. This is called Cut Mirchi.    

                                                             http://hydfood.blogspot.com/       

100th Post - Basic Tampering

100^th Post and Some Cooking Basics:

I am so happy to post, my 100^th post and at the same time I feel very sorry because I took almost 1 year to complete Century.

I am planning to write Indian Cooking basics and cooking terminology translations for long time and I am starting it today with Basic South Indian Popu/ Tampering/ Tadaka/ Seasoning or what ever you call. For Many of South Indian dishes we need to make tadaka either at the beginning of the preparation or at the end. And for some dishes tadaka gives a nice aroma and it enhances the taste also.

First of all let’s see Tadaka Ingredients:

Though we have lot of tadaka Ingredients listed above, we have to use different combinations of tadaka ingredients for each dish.

For example:

Tadaka for Tamarind Rasam:

For this dish we use Mustard seeds, Cumin seeds, Red chilli Whole, Curry leaves, Turmeric and last but not least Asafetida. And asafetida is the leading or important ingredient which gives you unique aroma. We do this tampering at the end.

For Sambar and Pappu pulusu we do add Urad split, and Crushed Garlic (optional) also along with the above ingredients, and for sambar we do seasoning at the beginning and for Pappu Pulusu we do it at the end.

Tadaka for Dals:

For Dhals, we use Urad split, Mustard seeds, Red Chilli whole, Curry Leaves, Turmeric, Asafetida and Crushed Garlic (optional).

  

Sri Rama Navami Special

శ్రీ రామ నవమి శుభాకాంక్షలు

On Chaitra Sukla Navami (the ninth day of the bright half of Chaitra) 'Sree Ramanavami' is celebrated. Sree Rama was born on this day and years later on the same day Rama married Sita.  'Sree Sitarama Kalyana Mahotsavam' (wedding) will be performed in all Sita Rama Temples all over South India. 

The important celebrations on this day take place at Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh, Bhadrachalam in Andhra Pradesh and Rameswaram in Tamilnadu.

In the Historic temple of Rama and Sita in Bhadrachalam, Khammam District, Andhra Pradesh 'Kalyana Mahotsavam' (wedding) is performed with great tradition and Bhakti every year. On behalf of Andhra Pradesh Government, Chief Minister with his wife visits the Kalyana Mahotsavam and offers Pattu Clothes and Pearls as Talambralu (auspicious) to the God and Goddess. These celebrations from Bhadrachalam will be telecasted live in Doordarshan and All India Radio.

For Sree Ramanavami we offer Panakam (also known as Ramarasam), a popular festival drink and Vadapappu (soaked Moongdal), to Lord Rama, and after Kalyana Mahotsavam prasadam will be distributed.

And today in family we offer Tamarind Rice and Rice Kheer along with Panakam and Vadapappu to Lord Rama.

Tamarind Rice – A very auspicious yellow colored rice dish made of Rice, and seasoned with tamarind and other spices.

Rice Kheer (Paramannam) – A very common auspicious sweet dish made of Rice, Milk and Jaggery.
Rishi Vasistha Performed “Puthra Kamesti” yagnam and given this Paramannam to King Dasaratha as the Prasadam. As a result of this Yagnam and Prasadam King Dasaratha and Kousalya had a baby boy on the ninth day (Navami) of Chaithra Masa,at noon and named him Rama.

Panakam:

Ingredients:

Water – 4 cups

Grated Jaggery – 3 tbsp

Crushed Pepper / Black Pepper Powder - 1 tsp

Cardamom Powder – 1 pinch

Procedure:

Mix thee jaggery with water and let it dissolve completely, and filter it and set aside.

Now add Crushed pepper, Cardamom powder and mix well and Offer to God.

Vada Pappu:

Ingredients:

Split Moong Dal – 2 tbsp

Water – 1/4^th cup

Procedure:

Wash and soak 2tbsp of Moong Dal in 1/4^th cup of water for 30 Min and strain the water and offer to God.

Back to Blogging With Veg. Upma

We are just back Home from a Business trip of 3 weeks….and For the past 5 weeks I am not cooking properly….as I was sick for few weeks and after that because of trip…..Last Saturday we are back home…and again I reopened my Kitchen…..and I started with simple and quick Basic sooji Upma… We had this upma for dinner…so I have added some mixed veggies to make it a full meal…..

Ingredients:

Sooji / Semolina – 1 cup

Water – 3 cups

Oil – 1 tbsp

Ghee – ½ tsp

Potato – 1 small

Carrot – 1 medium

Beans – 4

Peas – hand full

Tomato – 1 small

Onion – 1 small

Green chilli – 5

Ginger – 1 inch piece

Pea nuts – 1 tbsp

Cashew nuts – 1 tsp

Chana dal – 1 tbsp

Urad split – 1 tbsp

Mustard seeds – 1 tsp

Curry leaves – 1 spring

Red chilli whole – 2

Turmeric - Pinch

Salt – to taste

Procedure:

Take a sauce pan and add water and put it on medium flame.

Take a kadai/ or cooking vessel, add oil, when it is hot enough, add peanuts and red chilli and sauté for 30 sec on medium heat.

Now add Chana dal, and sauté for 30 sec then add urad split and cashew nuts and sauté for another 30 sec. and then add mustard seeds and let them crackle.

Now add carrots, potato, beans, and peas and cook till they become soft.

Now add curry leaves, ginger and green chilli and sauté for 30 sec., and then add onion, salt, turmeric and mix well.

Now add Tomato and cook till they are done.

Now add Sooji and roast it nicely for 45 sec. By this time…..water will reach almost boiling point.

Now add water, adjust salt and mix well. (At this stage you have to be very careful and quick)

Add ghee, close with lid and switch off the stove after 3 or 4 min. and don’t open the lid at least for 2 min.

Serve Hot with choice of your chutney/pickle and a dash of lime juice. 

Note:

You can replace Sooji with Cracked Wheat or Semya.....

For Cracked Wheat Upma
 Ravva:Water - 1:1.5

For Sooji
Sooji:Water - 1:3

For Semya Upma
Semay:water - 1:1

HAPPY UGADI

వికృతి నామ సంవత్సర శుభాకాంక్షలు 

photo by Sailaja

Happy Holi

HAPPY HOLI 2010

to all my readers/visitors