Spice Brinjal Gravy

Ingredients

small brinjal 12
mustard oil 1/2 cup
cloves 4
bay leaves 2
asifotide pinch
jeera [cumin seed] 1tsp
fenugreek seed 1tsp[powder]
mustard powder 11/2 tsp
sounf powder 1tsp
dhania powder[coriander seeds powder] 1tsp
chillipowder 2tsp
termeric powder 1tsp
dry mongo powder 2tsp
salt as per

Directions

1] wash and cut brinjal from center into 4,[whole
2]mix all the above ingredians and mix well and stuff in to the brinjals and keep aside
3]fry oil add bay leaves,cloves,asifotide and add brinjals and fry on low flame till oil floates up.serve hot with rice.

Cauliflower and Potato Curry

Ingredients

cauliflower,1
potatoes 2
onions sliced 2
tsp whole cumin 1tsp
tsp coriander powder 1 tsp
dried red chilies 4
tbsp garlic-ginger paste 2tsp
tsp chili powder 1/2 tsp
salt to taste
tsp turmeric 1tsp
fresh green chilies 2
chopped coriander
oil 1/4 cup
water1 cup

Directions

1]Heat the oil in a large pan. Add the cumin, dried red chilies, stirring to mix.
2]Add the onions and stir occasionally, until golden brown.
3]Add the garlic-ginger paste, chili powder, salt, turmeric and finely chopped green chilies (optional). Stir-fry for 2 minutes.
4]Add the chopped potatoes and cut small florets cauliflower to the mixture, stirring to coat the vegetables in the spice mixture.
5]Reduce the heat, add water. Cover the pan and let simmer for 10-15 minutes.
and serve

Mixed Vegetable Curry

Ingredients

Potato - 1[cut]
Yellow Capsicum - 1 (cut to thin slices lengthwise)
Red Capsicum - 1 (cut to thin slices lengthwise)
Carrot - 1 (cut into cubes)
Green peas - 1 cup (boiled)
Cherry tomatoes - 7 (cut into two halves)
Onions - 4 medium size (sliced lengthwise)
Cloves - 5
Elaichi - 1 (cardamom pod)
Cinnamon stick - 1 inch
Ginger - 2 inch
Garlic pods - 2
Bay leaves - 3
Coriander powder - 1/2 tsp
Cumin powder - 1/2 tsp
Chilly powder - 1 tsp
Garam masala - 1 tsp
Butter/Heavy Cream - 1 tbsp
Water - 1 cup
Salt to taste
Oil - 2 tsps
Coriander leaves - 1 sprig (finely chopped for garnish)

Directions

1. Pressure cook vegetables in 2 cups of water till 3 whistles
.2. Heat 1 tsp of oil in a kadhai/sauce pan, add half the onions and fry till soft and light brown in color. Remove from flame, allow to cool and grind to smooth paste along with cloves, cinnamon, cardamom, ginger and garlic. Set aside.
3. Heat rest of the oil in a kadhai, add bay leaves, fry for a minute.
4. Add remaining onions and fry till soft and golden brown.

5. Add ground onion paste, chilly powder, coriander powder, cumin powder, salt to taste and fry for 2-3 mts on medium flame.
6. Add boiled vegetables, green peas, cherry tomatoes and mix well.
7. Add water and bring it to boil, reduce the flame and allow to cook till the gravy is thick.
8. Once the gravy is thick add garam masala, butter/cream and mix well.
9. garnish with coriander leaves and serve hot

Mushroom Curry

Ingredients:

1. white or button mushrooms- 1 pound
2. firm tofu (cut in to quarter inch pieces and deep fried)- 1/2 pound
3. frozen green peas- 1/4th cup
4. medium onion- 2
5. green chillie- 1
6. ginger garlic paste- 1/4th tsp
7. cashew (grind to a smooth paste with some water)- 1/4th cup
8. large tomato- 1
9. tomato paste- 2 tsps
10. coriander (dhania) powder- 1/4th tsp
11. garam masala- 1/4 th tsp
12. red chillie powder- 1/2 to 1 tsp
13. green cardamom and cloves (grind it using a mortar)- 2 each
14. cinnamon stick- 1/2 stick
15. cilantro (coriander)
16. lemon juice and salt

Procedure:

• Cut each Mushroomto four pieces and keep it on a side.
• Now in a skillet add four tsps of oil, cinnamon stick, green chillie and onion. Cook until onion becomes soft, then add the ginger garlic paste and the dry spices (marked 10 through 13).
• Cook just for a minute and then add the tomato paste,chopped tomato and half a tsp of salt. Cook for 5 to 7 minutes.
• Add the cashew paste with one cup of water and another half teaspoon of salt. Bring it to a boil.
• Add the Mushroom, green peas and simmer the curry for ten minutes in med-low heat.
• At last taste, re-season it and add the fried tofu with chopped cilantro and some lemon juice.
• Let the curry sit for ten minutes before serving, it helps all the ingredients to blend and come together.
• Serve the mushroom tofu curry with nan or paratha and some onion and lemon on the side.

Dosakaya curry

Ingredients:
Dosakaya(cucumber): 250gms
Tomotos: 3
onion: 1
chillies: 2
salt: 1 tsp

turmaric powder: 1/4 tsp
red chilli powder: 1 tsp
coriander leaves
for popu:
oil: 2 tsp
mustard seeds: 1/4 tsp
cumin seeds 1/4 tsp
urud dal: 1/2tsp
chann dal: 1/2 tsp
curry leaves for taste: few

Method:

Heat oil in a pan. Add chana dal, urud dal, cumin seeds, mustard seeds. Wait to splutter. Add red chillies and few curry leaves .

Add choped onion, chillies and mix for two minutes.
Add choped cucumber, tomotos. Cook covered and mix occasionally for 10mts.

Add turmaric powder, salt, chillipowder and cook covered with low flame until water dry out.
Add coriander leaves.
may add drumsticks with cucumber.

Curried Corn stuffed Yellow Chillies

I found these chillies in my super market the other day and decided to try them. They are super spicy with the seeds inside but once you deseed and take the veins out, they are very good for stuffing. I was debating between a cream cheese filling and others. Decided to go with corn. I used Mccormick's curry powder. As far as I know, none of the Indian curry powders taste that way. use very little of the curry powder as it tends to overwhelm the dish.

Ingredients:

Yellow chillies - 6 washed, deseeded and split in half
Corn Kernels - 1 to 2 cups
White onion - 1/4 cup diced fine
Curry powder - 1/2 tsp.
Salt and pepper to taste
Oil - as needed
Pam or any oil for spraying the baking sheet

Procedure:

- Preheat oven to 350 degrees
- Boil the corn and just mash them lightly ( don't make it into a mushy paste)
- Heat oil in a skillet. Saute onions till soft and add corn to this.
- Add curry powder and season with slat and pepper to taste.
- Remove the mixture from heat and let it come to room temperature.
- Spray a baking pan with oil and arrange the chillies. Season them salt and pepper and brush them lightly with little bit oil.
- Add the corn and onion mixture to these chillies. It's usually 1 to 2 tablespoons of mixture per chilli.

- Bake them for 10 o 15 minutes.

mirchi bajjis

Ingredients and Procedure:

For The Stuffing:

Onions - 1/4 cup chopped fine
Russet potato - 1 cubed and boiled
Paneer - 1/2 cup grated to a fine powder
Ajwain - pinch
Quick Mint Chutney - 1 Tbsp.
Besan/chickpea Flour - As needed
Turmeric - pinch
Oil - As needed
Salt - to taste

- Heat Oil in a pan and saute onions till soft.
- Add ajwain and quick mint chutney to this.
- Add boiled potato cubes and cook for a minute.
- Add grated paneer and 1/4 cup of water and cook till everything is well mixed and comes to a creamy consistency.
- Let this mixture come to room temperature.
- Add besan to this few teaspoons at a time to get it thick enough so you can fill the chillies.

Prepping the Chillies:
Long Chilli Peppers - 9 deseeded
Besan/chickpea flour - 2.5 cups + 1/4 cup
Baking Soda - Pinch
Asafoetida - Pinch
Garlic Powder - 1 tsp.
Salt - To taste
Turmeric - Pinch
Oil - for Deep Frying

- Mix Besan, Baking Soda, Asafoetida, Garlic Powder, Salt, Turmeric.
- Add water little by little to get it into a thick consistency.
- In a wide plate spread the 1/4 cup of besan.
- Stuff the chillies with the potato and panner mixture.
- Coat them with the dry besan.
- Dip them in the batter and deep fry them till golden brown.

This is what the final outcome looks like. pardon the pictures. I got my new camera and I am still playing with the settings :).

Steamy Luscious Meal

I decided to cook a nice meal for the family yesterday (not that I don't everyday). I made Lentil Soup, Salad from Luscious Food and Noodles from Steamy Kitchen. Since our family consists of vegetarians, seafood dis-likers and Shrimp lovers, I made the dishes vegetarian and had sauted spicy shrimp on the side so the rest of us shrimp loving folks could eat it.


Recipe For the Salad

Recipe For noodles.

Rigatoni with shallots, tomatoes and red bell pepper

I wanted to make a simple pasta dish and decided to whip this up with fresh tomatoes. I am not a big fan of the canned tomatoes or the too much red sauce on my pasta. And no I don't use fresh Parsley ever. It gives a weird flavor and I do not like it. Sue me now ;).

Ingredients:
Rigatoni - 1/2lb
Roma Tomatoes - 3 chopped
Garlic - 3 cloves minced
Shallots - 1 minced
Red Bell Pepper - 1 finely diced
Milk - 1/4 cup
Fresh Parmesan Cheese - 1/4 cup.
Salt and Fresh pepper - to taste
Olive oil - 2 Tbsp.
Butter - 1 tsp.
Dried Parsley - 1/4 tsp.

Procedure:
- Cook the pasta according to package directions with enough salt..
- In a medium pan, heat oil and butter.
- Add shallots and garlic and cook for few seconds making sure garlic is not burning.
- Add the red bell pepper. Season with salt and pepper.
- Once pepper starts to get soft, add tomatoes, cover and cook for 2 minutes till tomatoes start to wilt.
- Add cooked pasta to this and mix.
- Add milk and stir for 30 seconds. Check for seasonings.
- Take the pan off the stove, mix cheese and parsley and serve hot.

Green Bean and Potato Salad

I have started to go to farmer's market regularly and am finding myself with some good stuff. The bean and potatoes used in this recipe are from the market.

Ingredients:

Green Beans - 1/2 lb, cleaned ends trimmed and cut into 1 to 2 inch pieces
Potatoes - 3 medium, peeled and cubed

For dressing:
Olive oil - 1/4 cup
Lemon Juice - 1/8 cup
Ground Mustard - 2 Tbsp.
Slat and fresh pepper to taste

Procedure:
- Bring 1 quart of water to boil. Salt the water.
- Add green beans and cook for 2 to 3 minutes till the beans are cooked just enough.
- Remove from water and pat try on kitchen towels.
- Add potatoes to the hot water and cook them . DO not over cook so potatoes get all mushy.
- Mix all the ingredients for dressing and whisk them or just run it through a food processor. Adjust seasoning.
- Mix beans and potatoes in a salad bowl and add the dressing.

Goruchikkudukaya Koora (Cluster Beans Curry)

Before I start the recipe, just wanted to let you guys know that I added links to Rayalaseema and Kadapa on to the left side. Because I will keep using them a lot in my write-ups and I don't wnat you to go, "What the heck is Kadapa?" :).

Today I made this curry for lunch. Goruchikkudu is also called as mattikkayalu in Rayalaseema region. I found out that they call it cluster beans in English after I came to this country. In Hindi, It's Guvar. I used to buy them fresh but lately I realized, the frozen variety are much better and they are already pre-cut for you.

So here is a recipe that one of my neighborhood aunty use dto make in Kadapa. She used to add dried coconut powder but I did not as mom's on a diet.

Ingredients:
Cluster Beans - 1 Lb
Red Onion - 1 cup finely diced
Green Chillies - 6 (increase or decrease this per your spice level)
Garlic - 3 cloves crushed
Curry Leaves - 8
Putnala Pappu (Dhalia) - 2 Tbsp.
Senagapappu (Chana Dal) - 2 Tbsp.
Cumin Seeds - 1 tsp.
Mustard Seeds - 1Tsp.
Turmeric - Pinch
Oil - as needed
Salt - Per taste



Procedure:
- Roast Senagapappu and putnala pappu.
- Grind it with green chillies and half the curry leaves.
- Heat oil in a pan. Add mustard, cumin seeds,curry leaves and garlic.
- Saute for 30 seconds and add onions.
- Season with salt and turmeric and saute till onions are soft.
- Add the beans and half cup of water.
- Cover and cook on medium to low heat till the beans are fully cooked.
- Add the ground putnalapappu powder to this and mix well.
- Saute till all the water is evaporated and beans are well mixed with the masala.

Remove from heat and serve with hot rice and some sambar or pappu.

Mushroom Curry

Ingredients:

• Mushrooms - 250 gms
• Onions - 3 nos.
• Green chillies - 3 nos.
• Red chilli powder - 1 tsp
• Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
• Salt to taste
• Oil for frying
• Fresh corriander leaves for garnishing

Ingredients for Masala paste:

• Cumin - 1 tsp
• Poppy seeds - 1 tsp
• Corriander seeds - 1 tsp
• Whole cloves - 5
• Cardamom pod - 1
• Ginger - small piece or 1 tsp paste
• Garlic - 2 cloves or 1 tsp

Preparation:

• Wash and cut mushrooms into small pieces or keep them whole if button mushrooms.
• Chop onions and green chillies into small pieces.
• Now in a pan add 3 spoons oil and preheat it.
• Add onions and chillies to the oil and fry till they get golden brown.
• Now add mushrooms, red chilli powder, turmeric powder and salt to taste and fry them for about 5 minutes.
• Add 1/4 cup of water to it and on medium heat let it cook for another 2 minutes.
• Grind the masalas mentioned above into fine paste and add it the curry and let it cook for another 5 minutes.
• Once oil starts oozing out, stop the stove.
• Add fresh chopped corriander leaves for garnishing and serve it hot.

For more Rice Recipes please visit us at: http://www.GumaGumalu.com

Dondakaya Chutney

Ingredients:

• Indian ivy gaurd (Tindora or Dondakaya) - 250 gms
• Green chillies - 5
• Dried red chillies - 2
• Garlic - 1 or 2 cloves
• Black gram - 2 tsp
• Cumin - 2 tsp
• Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
• Tamarind paste - 1 tsp
• Curry leaves few
• Salt to taste
• Oil for frying and seasoning
  

Preparation:

• Chop tindora into small fine pieces and make few slits on green chillies and keep them aside.
• In a pan add 1 spoon oil and fry the green chillies and keep them aside.
• Then fry the fine chopped tindora also on a medium heat till they turn golden and allow them to cool down.
• Now in a mixer jar add this fried tindora, green chillies, tamarind, 1 tsp cumin, garlic and salt and grind them to make a coarse paste.
• Take this chutney in a bowl and keep it aside.
• For seasoning, take 2 spoons oil and preheat it and keep the stove on medium heat.
• Add mustard seeds, 1 tsp cumin and black gram and toss them till they pop up.
• Now add dried red chillies and curry leaves and fry them till the seasoning starts smelling good, this will take few seconds only.
• Add the above to the chutney and serve with rice and ghee.

Tip : Little ripe tindora tastes amazing for this chutney as it gets tangy as it ripens. Remember if it is too ripe then the chutney will taste sweet which is not desirable.

For more Rice Recipes please visit us at: http://www.GumaGumalu.com

Vankaya Dumpala Pulusu (Brinjal and sweet potatoes tangy medley)

Ingredients :

• Brinjal (Aubergine or eggplants) - 250 gms
• Sweet potato - 250 gms
• Onion - 1
• Green chillies - 2
• Tamarind paste - 1 spoon
• Fenugreek seeds - 1 tsp
• Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
• Red chilli powder - 1 tsp
• Water - 1 cup
• Oil for frying
• Salt to taste
• Fresh corriander leaves for garnishing

Preparation:

• Chop onions and chillies into small pieces and keep them ready.
• Cut brinjal and sweet potatoes into bigger pieces as shown in the picture above.
• Now in a pan add 3 spoons of oil and preheat it.
• Add fenugreek seeds to the oil and fry it for few seconds, when it starts smelling good and turns golden add chopped onions and chillies and fry them well till they turn golden.
• Add vegetables (brinjal and sweet potato pieces) now to the above and fry them for about 8 minutes.
• Now add turmeric powder, red chilli powder, salt to taste and mix them well.
• Add pulusu to the above. Pulusu or tamarind purie is made by soaking tamarind in water.
• Let it cook in medium heat for about 10 minutes and stop the stove.
• Garnish it with fresh green corriander leaves and serve it hot with hot steamed rice.

Tip: Fenugreek seeds are very important for this recipe as it adds a flavour and aroma to the curry. Add pulusu only when the vegetables are cooked well in the oil.

For more Rice Recipes please visit us at: http://www.GumaGumalu.com

Tomato Chutney

Ingredients:

• Tomatoes - 500 gms
• Green chillies - 8
• Sesame seeds - 2 tbsp
• Garlic - 1 or 2 cloves
• Cumin - 1 tsp
• Tamarind paste - 1 tsp
• Salt to taste
• Oil for frying and seasoning

Seasoning :

• Dried red chillies - 2
• Black gram - 2 tsp
• Cumin - 1 tsp
• Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
• Curry leaves few
• Fenugreek seeds - 1/4 tsp
• Oil for frying - 1 tbsp

Preparation:

• Cut tomatoes into two halves and make few slits on green chillies and keep them aside.
• In a pan add 1 spoon oil and fry the green chillies and keep them aside.
• Then fry the tomatoes also on a medium heat till they turn soft as shown above and allow them to cool down.
• In another pan dry fry the sesame seeds till they pop up which will take about one minute.
• Now in a mixer jar add these fried tomatoes, green chillies, sesame seeds, tamarind, 1 tsp cumin, garlic and salt and grind them to make a coarse paste.
• Tomato chutney is ready to be served with hot steamed rice or ulli dosas (Onion dosa).
• Season it if you like. For seasoning, take 2 spoons oil and preheat it and keep the stove on medium heat.
• Add mustard seeds, 1 tsp cumin and black gram and toss them till they pop up.
• Now add dried red chillies and curry leaves and fry them till the seasoning starts smelling good, this will take few seconds only.
• Add the above to the chutney and serve.

Tip : Raw tomatoes tastes amazing for this chutney. Pan fried sesame seeds are optional to this chutney. These are added to give a smoky flavour to the chutney.

For more Rice Recipes please visit us at: http://www.GumaGumalu.com

Aratikaya Vepudu (Raw Banana/Plantain Fry)

Ingredients:

• Raw banana (plantain) - 1
• Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
• Red chilli powder - 1/2 tsp
• Salt to taste
• Water for boiling
• Dried red chillies - 3
• Curry leaves - few
• Split black gram - 2 tsps
• Cumin - 1 tsp
• Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
• Tamarind paste - 1/2 tsp
• Oil for frying

Preparation:

• Cut raw banana into 4 pieces and boil in water for about 15 minutes.
• Once boiled peel the skin and grate it as shown above. Optionally after boiling banana can be thoroughly mashed to prepare this dish.
• Apply half teaspoon of tamarind paste thoroughly.
• Now in a pan take 3 spoons oil and preheat it.
• Add seasonings and wait for them to pop up. It will take only few seconds. Once these starts smelling good add turmeric powder.
• Immedietely add the grated banana to it and mix it well.
• Now add salt and red chilli powder as per taste and mix it well.
• Switch off the stove and serve it hot with sambar or any dal dish which is great combo for this.

Now for the tip:
Do not throw away the skin of the raw banana after boiling. This can be used to make chutney.. the recipe for this coming soon on the blog...till then happy cooking!!


For more Rice Recipes please visit us at: http://www.GumaGumalu.com

Majjiga Charu

Ingredients :

• Stirred yoghurt (Majjiga) - 1 bowl
• Dried red chillies - 4 nos.
• Bengal gram (Chana dal) - 1 spoon
• Black gram (Urid dal) - 1 spoon
• Fenugreek seeds (Menthi seeds) - 1 tsp
• Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
• Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
• Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
• Ginger - finely chopped as shown below.
• Curry leaves - few
• Onion - 1 small
• Green chillies - 4 nos.
• Oil - 1 spoon
• Corriander leaves for garnishing.

Preparation:

• Heat some oil in a pan and add chana dal, urid dal, menthi seeds, cumin, mustard seeds, red chillies and fry them for few seconds till they start smelling good.
• Now add curry leaves, finely chopped ginger and green chillies to the pan and fry them for few more seconds.
• Add a pinch of turmeric powder and salt to taste and pour this in the stirred yoghurt as shown in the picture.
• Now add finely chopped onion and corriander leaves to the yoghurt. Majjiga charu is ready.

Tip:

Majjiga charu tastes good if the yoghurt is a bit sour. Majjiga charu is a good combination with gutthi vankai curry or any brinjal curry, aloo kurma etc.

For more Rice Recipes please visit us at: http://www.GumaGumalu.com

Tomato and onion yougurt chutney

Now-a-days I feel like time is flying by real fast. Especially with all the activities that I have now like blog hopping(yep this takes up major part of my day apart from work) and all the new blog friends, I don't experience a dull moment anymore.

I know what you guys must be thinking after reading the name of the post and no I didn't lose it yet.. may be some day but not today. I am bored with the regular naming convention so I decided to go with different theme for my posts.

Now lets get back to cooking, shall we? My mother makes yogurt chutnies with almost all the vegetables, I must say I have always loved them even though some of them showed up at the table quite often. Today's post is about one of those yogurt chutney's which is very easy to prepare(only 15 minutes, can you believe that?) and tastes great.






Here is what you need:

* Tomatoes - 3 medium sized
* Onion - 1 medium sized
* Plain yogurt - 2 cups
* Turmeric - 1/2 tsp
* Oil - 1 tsp
* Mustard seeds - 1tsp
* Cumin seeds - 1tsp
* Curry leaves - 1 sprig(optional)
* Dried red chili - 1 no(optional)
* Salt - acc to your taste

Chop onion and tomatoes into thin long strips.

Heat oil in a pan. Add the cumin and mustard seeds, when the seeds start sputtering add in the dried red chili and curry leaves.

Add the chopped onion and tomatoes to the pan along with turmeric and salt. Fry them until the water generated is completely evaporated. Let it cool off a bit. Add it to the yogurt.

Serve it with white rice/roti. This can also be used as a dip.

Now coming to the title: Bright red == tomatoes and tears == onion :-)

For more Rice Recipes please visit us at: http://www.GumaGumalu.com

Vadiyala pulusu(Soup with wadi/vadam)

This post is just going to be about food, comfort food that I miss the most. I strongly feel that dishes like this are fast disappearing with the number of food options that are available now. My great grand parents and my grand parents were strict vegetarians even the eggs are forbidden from entering in the home and this recipe was passed on from my great grandma to my grandma. I strongly believe recipes like these were born out of creativity when someone ran out of vegetables but was expected to present something right away. All the ingredients are versatile and depending on availability some of them can be eliminated too.




Vadiyala pulusu

Here is what you need:

* Onion - 1 large(Chopped into long thin strips)
* Tomato - 1 medium (Chopped into bite sized pieces)
* Tamarind - half a lemon sized ball(soaked in water)
* Jaggery - 1tbsp (optional)
* Salt - acc to your taste
* Turmeric - 1/2 tsp
* Red chili powder - 1 tsp
* Oil - 1 tbsp
* Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
* Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
* Asafoetida - 1 pinch
* Curry leaves - 2 sprigs
* Fried urad dal vadiyams - couple handfuls

Heat oil in the pan, add mustard and cumin seeds when the oil is hot enough. When the seeds start sputtering add asafoetida and curry leaves in.

Add the chopped onion to the pan and fry them till the pieces turn translucent. Now add the chopped tomato pieces in and let them soften a little bit.

Squeeze the soaked tamarind and add the tamarind juice to the onion & tomato mixture. Add the salt, chili powder and turmeric; let the pulusu(soup) cook for 15 to 20 mins on medium high. If you want to add jaggery to the pulusu add it after cooking the pulusu halfway through.

Now add the fried vadiyams into the pulusu and cook for 10 more minutes.

Enjoy it with white rice

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Guttivankaya koora

I was not planning on preparing a meal today as I was thinking about going for a swim. I tried to weigh both of them and ended up not going for a swim. I made gutti vankaya koora with my own twist, pachi pulusu and dondakaya vepudu.

Guttivankaya koora recipe:
*Short small brinjals(purple) - 12 nos
*Onion - 1 med
*Black gram - 3 tsps
*Bengal gram - 1 and half tsps
*Red chillies - 6nos
*Cumin seeds - 1/2tsp
*Coriander seeds - 1tsp
*Oil - 2tsp
*Salt
Fry the black gram, bengal gram, red chillies. cumin and coriander seeds together; let them cool off a little bit. Grind all of these together into fine powder. Cut onion into small pieces. Slit the brinjals in two planes perpendicular to each other leaving the stem intact and in such a way that the brinjal's shape is retained. Soak these brinjals in salt water. Heat a tsp of oil in a pan. Add cumin, mustard seeds to the pan. When the seeds start sputtering add onions and fry them until they are light brown. Stuff the brinjals with the powder prepared earlier. Add these brinjals to the pan. Add salt according to your taste and let them cook. This is my mom's usual preparation. I wanted to cook it in a different way today so I tried this. When the brinjals are almost cooked add a 1/4 cup of cream and a 1/2tsp of garam masala and let it cook for another 5 mins.

Dondakaya vepudu recipe(tindora fry)

*Dondakayalu(tindora) - 1 lb
*Tomato - 1/2(cut into small pieces, remove the pulp)
*Cumin seeds - 1tsp
*Mustard seeds - 1tsp
*Oil - 2tsp
*Red chillies - 2nos
*Chilli powder
*Salt
Cut the tindora length wise into small pieces(I can tell from experiecnce that this a very tedious process but trust me its worth it). Heat oil in the pan add the cumin and mustard seeds and when the seeds start sputtering add the red chillies. When the chillies are fried a little bit add the tindora and fry them. Add salt and fry the tindora pieces a little more, when they are almost cooked add the tomato pieces and mix them together. Add chilli powder and let them cook for another 5mins.

Pachi pulusu recipe:
*Onion - 1 med
*Green chillies - 5 nos
*Tamarind - small lime sized ball
*Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
*Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
*Jaggery - 2 tsp
*Oil - 1 tsp
*Salt
Cut onion and green chillies into small pieces; mix these together and squeeze them. Soak tamarind in half cup of water; squeeze the tamarind juice. Mix the tamarind juice with onions and green chillies. Add crushed jaggery to the pulusu(tamarind juice). Heat oil in a pan, add mustard an cumin seeds when the seeds start sputtering add these to the pulusu and add in salt according to your taste. My mom told me that this dish was prepared by people when they were travelling in olden days. In those times when they had to travel long distances(there were no mechanical travel means) it would take days together to reach thier destination. They used to prepare meals when ever they stopped on the way. Since there is not much cooking involved in this dish, clearly this would be the best choice.
She also told me that they used to carry green chilli chutney(pachi mirapakaya pachadi) which they can add to any roasted vegetable and can make a pachadi(chutney) out of that roasted veggie. Now that's cool idea; what a time saving tip!

For more Rice Recipes please visit us at: http://www.GumaGumalu.com