Cooking My Passion

Adai - Lentil Pancakes

2006-11-07T07:11:00.000-08:00

When I think of Adai, its nostalgia for me . I think of my mom. She makes the best adai I have ever tasted. I still cant get there yet inspite of following her recipe but it certainly tastes delicious. Here is the recipe of adai- from my mom's kitchen

Ingredients
Channa dal - 3/4 cup
Toor dal - 2/3 cup
Urad dal - 1/4 cup
par boiled rice - 1/2 cup
sona masoori rice - 1/2 cup
green chillies - 2
red chillies - 5
hing - a pinch
shredded coconut - 2 tbsp
onion - 1 finely chopped
curry leaves and cilantro - as desired
salt to taste oil and butter
Method
Soak rice and all the dals separately for 2-3 hours.
Grind the dals, rice,green and red chillies in a blender Add salt,hing, coconut,chopped onions,curry leaves and cilantro. The consistency of the batter should be like that of a dosa.
The batter will look like this

Heat a thick tava. Use a flat ladle and pour a big spoonful of the batterto make a pancake of about 4" diameter atleast 1/2 an inch thick. Make a hole in the center for even cooking

Pour a few drops of oil on the outer edge of the pancake and cook at moderate heat. It takes longer to cook an adai than that of a dosa. Turn on the other side and cook

Serve with butter spread on the adai just before serving.

Methi and Drumstick Kootu

2006-11-05T10:21:00.000-08:00

One among the most simplest, easy to cook dish in the South Indian cuisine is the Kootu. My mom prepares this very often at home as this is my favourite. The best thing about kootu is you can prepare it with any vegetable or even as a mixed vegetable kootu.

Ingredients

1 cup toor dal
frozen drumstick - 5 pieces
methi leaves - 1 cup
1/2 tsp tumeric powder
salt to taste
Grind to a paste
2 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 cup shredded cocunut
5 dry red chillies
Seasoning
1/2 tsp hing
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 tsp split urad dhal
1 tbsp oil
curry leaves and cilantro

Method

Cook the toor dal with turmeric powder, methi leaves and drumstick in a pressure cooker.
Meanwhile grind to a paste shredded cocunut, red chillies , cumin seeds to a fine paste

Add the ground paste to the cooked dhal and methi leaves mixture. Add salt an allow it to cook for 10 minutes

Heat a small pan with oil. Add mustard seeds and once they splutter add the split urad dhal, hing and curry leaves.

Garnish with cilantro just before serving and enjoy it with rice

Normally kootu is prepared using channa dal. Toor dal gives it a nice taste too...

Thai Vegan Fried Rice

2006-11-02T10:54:00.000-08:00

The huge no of food blogs has inspired me to start my own. I have been browsing a number of food blogs and have tried out quite a number of recipes from them. Variety is the spice of life and it feels great to try out recipes from different cuisines. My husband and I love Thai food and I decided to try out the Thai Vegan Fried rice. Here is the recipe

Ingredients
1 cup rice - long grain rice
garlic - 2
ground pepper - 1/2 tsp
Onion - 1 - finely chopped
Green Beans - cut in to one inch pieces - 6 oz
Corn kernels - 4 oz (I didnt use them)
soy sauce - 2 tbsp
thai green curry paste - 2-3 tbsp (recipe below)
oil - 2tbsp
scallions -3, cucumber - 1 and lime - 1 for the Garnish
Method
Cook the rice with 2 cups of water.Heat oil in a wok.
When the oil is hot, add the chopped garlic, onions and ground pepper and saute for 2 mins.
Add the beans and corn and continue to stir-fry for 3 minutes or until they are cooked
Add the cooked rice and stir fry for about 5 mins
Add the soy sauce and green curry paste and stir fry for 3 minutes
Garnish with cut scallions, sliced cucumbers and lime
Serve hot

You can also add other veggies like carrots, broccoli etc..

Recipe for Thai Green Curry paste
Ingredients :
Green Chillies - 10 in no
Onion - 1/2
Garlic - 2
Ginger - 1/2 an inch piece
Lemon grass - 2 stalks
Black pepper - 20
cumin seeds - 1 tbsp
coriander seeds - 1 tbsp
cilantro - 4 tbsp
vinegar - 1 tbsp
salt - 1/2 tsp
Optional - spinach - 3 tbsp, fenugreek leaves - 2 tbsp, mint - 1 tbsp
Method
Heat oil in a pan.
Add the cumin seeds and coriander seeds and fry them for a minute. Take care so that they dont turn brown
Cool and add rest of the ingredients and grind them in a blender
This can be stored in the fridge for a week

Recipe source and inspiration - recipezaar