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Brown Rice Bisi Bele Bath

Madhuram — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 18:29:41 +0000

Last week I tried Pongal with brown rice and it came out very well, which made me think why not bisi bele bath with brown rice? Earlier I was very hesitant about using brown rice, wondering if we would like the taste or not. To my surprise both of us like it very much. I think this is one of the few things we both agree upon! Brown rice when cooked has a rubbery (is it even a word?) texture. Or simply it is not as soft as its white counterpart. You feel very full after eating a cup of rice, as against wanting more after eating white rice. I made zucchini raitha to go with the bisi bele bath. That’s easy to prepare too. You can find other facts about brown rice here.

Bisi Bele Bath

Ingredients for the Masala Powder

Channa Daal 1 tablespoon

Urad Daal 1/2 tablespoon

Coriander seeds (dhaniya) 1 tablespoon

Fenugreek seeds 1/2 teaspoon

Black Peppercorn 1/2 teaspoon

Cloves 2 to 3

Cinnamon stick 1 inch piece

Red Chillies as required (I used 2 small)

Grated coconut 1 tablespoon

Ghee/sesame oil 1 teaspoon

Ingredients for the Rice

Brown Rice 3/4 cup

Toor Daal 1/2 cup

Turmeric powder 1/4 teaspoon

Vegetables
(I used carrots, beans, potatoes and green peas, 1 cup each) 3 to 4 cups

Onion, sliced 1 medium (or pearl onions preferably)

Tamarind paste 1 tablespoon

Mustard seeds 1 teaspoon

Hing a pinch

Salt as required

Sesamme oil 1/2 tablespoon

Ghee 1/2 to 1 tablespoon (optional)

Procedure

1 Wash the brown rice and toor daal and soak it together (also add turmeric powder) in warm water for at least 30 minutes (the longer the better). Soaking the brown rice in warm water activates more enzymes, which makes it possible to obtain a more complete amino acid profile. For 1 cup of rice and daal use 2 and 1/2 cups of water, so I used 3 and 1/4 cups of water. I did the soaking straightaway in a pressure cooker. After soaking, leave it for 5 whistles and transfer the cooker from the stove if cooking on an electric range, because the heat from the coil will continue the cooking process and you will end up scraping burnt rice from the bottom of the pressure cooker.

2 Meanwhile prepare the masala powder, while the rice is cooking. In a small frying pan add ghee, once it heats, fry (until golden brown) one by one the ingredients mentioned in the list. Once it cools, powder it in a blender/spice grinder.

3 In a medium size pan add the 1/2 tablespoon of oil, once it heats add the mustard seeds, curry leaves (if using) and hing. Then fry the sliced onions. Add a pinch of salt, so that the onion cooks faster. Then add the vegetables and required amount of salt and let it cook for 5 minutes. Once it is half cooked add the tamarind paste and 1 and 1/2 cups of water and close the pan with the lid. Let it cook until the raw smell of tamarind leaves. Then add the masala powder and let it simmer for another 2 minutes.

Alternatively you can do the entire step in a pressure cooker easily. That’s how I do it. I have a small pressure cooker. So as usual I do the tempering, fry the onions. Then I simply add the vegetables, salt, tamarind and water and close the cooker’s lid and leave it for only 1 whistle. If you are using an electric range be sure to transfer the cooker from the stove after turning off the stove, because the heat from the coil continues the cooking process and you would end up having mushy vegetables. After opening the lid, add the masala powder and let it simmer for 2 minutes.

4 Then add the cooked rice and daal mixture to the vegetables gravy and mix it well. If you like you can add the 1/2 tablespoon of ghee or sesame oil now. If the rice looks a bit watery, don’t worry, it will thicken up. You can keep it on low heat for sometime and it will thicken up. On the other hand if it’s very thick add some warm water to loosen it. It’s very forgiving, so don’t worry.

Zucchini Thayir Pachadi

Ingredients

Zucchini, small, grated with skin 1

Salt 1 teaspoon

Yogurt 1 to 2 cups

Canola oil 1 teaspoon

Mustard seeds 1/2 teaspoon

Green chillies, sliced into half as required (I used 1)

Hing a pinch

Procedure

1 Wash the zucchini and grate it with the skin and place it in a bowl. Add the required amount of salt.

2 In a small frying pan heat the oil, add the mustard seeds. Once it splutters add the sliced green chillies, hing and fry it.

3 Add this to the zucchini and mix it well.

4 Mix the yogurt to the zucchini when ready to serve.

My Notes 1 If you don’t have the time to prepare the bisi bele bath masala powder you can buy it. I’ve tried MTR brand and it’s good too.

2 You could also buy the frozen Avial vegetables available in Indian grocery stores and save time chopping vegetables.

3 I have pressure cookers in all size so I used one for cooking the vegetables and one for cooking rice/daal. You can also cook both in any vessel on stove top, but as far as I’ve read brown rice takes more time to cook like that.

4 We don’t eat spicy food, so I used only 2 red chillies for the masala powder. The heat was very mild. If you prefer it more spicy use about 4-5 chillies.

Curried Pasta and Vegetables – A Vegan Pasta Dish

Madhuram — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 11:55:40 +0000

Recently I have been seeing a lot of Indian/Indianized recipes in the Western cookbooks. The Curried Pasta and Vegetables is one such recipe from the book “1001 Low-Fat Vegetarian Recipes”. As the name suggests the book has 1001 low-fat vegetarian recipes; from appetizers to desserts the recipes are classified under 17 categories. I think I have to keep renewing this book in the library at least for 2-3 months.

Coming to this recipe, I adapted it from one of the recipes in the book. This is also a vegan pasta dish, without any cheese. Since the pasta gets it’s flavor from the curry sauce, the taste gets even better the next day. So you can prepare this on Sunday evening and have it for Monday’s dinner. The curry sauce can also be prepared ahead and it’s also versatile. Just throw in the vegetables you have at hand, the curry sauce and the pasta, you have a wholesome and nutritious meal ready in no time.

Ingredients

Vegetables of your choice – 2 cups (I used a combination of broccoli, cauliflower and carrots readily available in the frozen food section, 16oz pack)

Dry Pasta of your choice – 1 cup (I used Whole Wheat Penne)

Cilantro, chopped – 1/4 cup

Salt and pepper, to taste

Curry Sauce – Recipe follows

For the Curry Sauce

Olive Oil – 1 teaspoon

Onion, finely chopped – 1/4 cup

Garlic, minced – 4 cloves

All purpose flour – 2 tablespoons

Curry Powder – 2 teaspoons

Cayenne Pepper/Chilli Powder – 1/4 teaspoon

Vegetable Broth – 2 cups

Cornstarch – 1 tablespoon

Dry white wine or Water – 1/4 cup (I used water)

Salt and pepper, to taste.

Step-by-Step Procedure For Curry Sauce

1. Add 2 teaspoons olive oil to a medium saucepan; saute onion and garlic for 2 to 3 minutes.

2. Stir in flour, curry powder and chilli powder. Cook 1 minute, stirring.

3. Add broth and heat to boiling.

4. In a small vessel combine the cornstarch and water, until the cornstarch dissolves without forming any lumps. Add this mixture to the boiling broth and bring it to a boil, stirring, until thickened, about 1 minute. (Actually it took more than a minute for the mixture to thicken.)

5. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Assembling the Pasta

1. Steam the vegetables for 8-10 minutes if using frozen vegetables. If using fresh ones 6-8 minutes should be fine. Sprinkle some salt and toss the vegetables once, while steaming.

2. Cook pasta as per the instructions in the package. Drain it, reserving around 1/4 to 1/2 of the pasta cooked water.

3. Combine together the steamed veggies, pasta and the curry sauce. Check for seasoning and sprinkle cilantro.

This is my entry for the following events
1. Suganya’s Vegan Ventures
2. Mansi’s Vegetarian Thanksgiving

Hominy Grits Instant Idli

Madhuram — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 10:51:38 +0000

Inspired by Priya’s Rava Idli and Cham’s Cracked Wheat Idli, I came up with this idea of using grits to make instant idlis. Yet another time grits has proved to be versatile. The idlis came out very well and especially it tasted so good with sambar for side dish.

IngredientsFor the batter:

Grits – 1 and 1/2 cups

Yogurt – 1 and 1/2 cups

Baking soda – 1/2 teaspoon

Carrots, grated – 2 medium size

Frozen peas – handful

Ginger, grated – 1 teaspoon

salt – as per taste

For tempering:

Oil – 1 tablespoon

Urad Daal – 1 teaspoon

Channa Daal – 1 teaspoon

Cashews, broken into small pieces – 10

Black pepper powder – 1/2 teaspoon

Hing – a pinch

Yield: 16 Idlis

Procedure1. Dry grind the grits in a blender to the consistency of regular rava/sooji.

2. Combine together all the ingredients listed for the batter. Add water if necessary to get the consistency of idli batter.

3. Heat oil in a frying pan and add the items to be tempered one by one and pour this in the batter and mix it well.

4. Grease the idli moulds (on both sides) using a non stick oil spray and fill with batter. I also grease the back because the batter from the lower plate does not stick to the top plate and you will be able to get full idlis.

5. Steam the idlis for 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

My NotesI prepared the idlis 1 hour after preparing the batter. But I guess that it’s not necessary, because rava idlis can be prepared as soon as the batter is ready.

Instant Cracked Wheat Idli – Your Recipe Rocks!

Madhuram — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 15:36:15 +0000

Last week I tried Cham’s Wheat Idlis and it came out very well. Thank you very much for such an easy and healthy recipe Cham. Your recipe rocks! Needless to say this is going to be a regular in our house hereafter.

My Notes1. I did not get the fine wheat rava, so powdered cracked wheat and made the idlis.
2. I added chopped carrots, handful of frozen green peas and grated ginger (just like Rava Idlis) to the batter to make it more healthy.
3. I also prepared the batter 2 hours before making the idlis. This step was not required in the original recipe, but anyhow I did it and the idlis were very soft and held its shape perfectly.

White Bean Soup

Madhuram — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 10:37:13 +0000

For the past couple of days I’ve been busy preparing for my mother’s arrival here on Wednesday. It’s so exciting! This is her first time to US, so a lot of planning going on. Even though she has visited us when we were residing in Canada back in 2005, she is tensed now (me too!). Actually I’m not worried about her traveling alone, it’s that the past one year has not been good for her. So praying that nothing should get messed up.

As the day is nearing, I’m feeling so restless and don’t feel like blogging or cooking anything. But this afternoon I saw that Hetal of Isha’s Kitchen has passed me the Inspiration Award and it really inspired me to try a new recipe. Thank you very much Hetal.

Finally I made this soup from the Vegetarian Book, my husband got for me from Barnes and Nobles. It’s the bargain priced book. For $10 it’s a steal I would say, with so many wonderful pictures and amazing recipes. I think this one is a very popular book among food bloggers. I see a lot of recipes around from this book.

I made a couple of changes to the recipe like using canned beans instead of dry beans, crushed tomatoes instead of fresh ones and vegetable stock instead of water. Let’s get into the White Bean Soup recipe.

Ingredients:
Canned Cannellini Beans, Drained & Rinsed - 3 cups
Bay leaf – 1
Olive oil – 5 tablespoons
Onion, medium, finely chopped – 1
Carrot, finely chopped – 1
Celery rib, finely chopped – 1
Tomatoes, medium, peeled and finely chopped – 3. Alternatively you can use ½ cup of crushed tomatoes.
Garlic, finely chopped - 2 cloves
Fresh thyme leaves – 1 teaspoon or Dried thyme – ½ teaspoon
Vegetable stock/water – 3 to 4 cups
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Procedure:
1. Heat the oil in a saucepan. Add bay leaf, onion and cook.

2. Add the carrot and celery and cook until they are soft.

3. Add crused tomatoes, garlic, and thyme to the sauce pan. Cook it for another 5 minutes.

4. Meanwhile puree 1 cup of the beans either in a food processor or a blender adding little water.

5. Now add this puree, remaining 2 cups of beans and the vegetable stock to the sauce pan.

6. Simmer for another 10 minutes.

7. That’s it. Serve with your favorite bread.

I’m sending this to Sangeeth’s Eat Healthy – Protein Rich Event.

My Notes:
1. Dried beans was used in the original recipe. In that case take 1.5 cups of dried cannellini or other white beans. Clean the beans, rinse thoroughly in cold water and soak it in a large bowl overnight. Check here for detailed instructions on How to cook dried beans?

Instant Rava Idli – Your Recipe Rocks

Madhuram — Sun, 18 May 2008 12:32:56 +0000

Last Tuesday I prepared Priya’s Rava (semolina) Idly for dinner. It’s so much easier than the traditional idli recipe which requires soaking of idli rice and urad daal, grinding them and then fermenting the batter. No doubt that the traditional idlies are soft and tasty, but rava idly is a quick fix breakfast/dinner. Even though I was born and raised in southern India, I have not tasted these earlier. We all loved the taste. It’s definitely going to be a regular in our house. Thanks for the recipe Priya. Your recipe rocks.

My Notes:
For the side dish I prepared coconut chutney. Always in my chutney I also add half a carrot, grated and lot of coriander (cilantro) reducing the quantity of coconut. As I have mentioned earlier in my Beet Greens Daal recipe, carrot is a very good substitute for coconut. Instead of grinding grated coconut, cumin, chillies for the masala for any kootu (daal) recipe, you can simply replace it with carrots.