Picture rice

If you are wondering what the title is, well, it is the direct translation of chitranna. Basically lemon/mango rice. One of the easiest things to make when you are short of veggies and time. And it is filling and wholesome. If you are the rice eating types, then this is surely something that you would know how to dish up. Nevertheless, since we prepared it, we are posting it. :P
Raw materials-
Finely chopped onion - 1
Grated raw mango - 1/2
Peanuts - a handful
Green chillies - 2, slit into halves
Curry leaves
turmeric powder
Mustard seeds -one tsp
grated coconut and coriander for garnishing
Salt, cooked rice.

Method:
Heat 2 tsps of oil in a kadai. Add to it mustard seeds. When they splutter, add the chillies, curry leaves and fry for a minute. Add the peanuts and fry until they turn slightly brownish. Now add the onion and a pinch of turmeric and wait until it becomes golden brown. Add the grated mango to the kadai and cook for two minutes. Adjust the salt. Mix in the cooked rice to it and add more salt if necessary. Top it with grated coconut and coriander.Takes about ten minutes if you have cooked rice ready. The chitranna is ready to be eaten.

Dinner: Paneer paratha

For the past two days, the milk is for some reason getting curdled at home. Whether it is the problem with the refrigeration at the store or what i don't know. Normally we would have thrown the milk away. But Jyo suggested that rather than crying over the spilled milk, we can make paneer with it;). And we strained the milk for a long time and then froze it. So today, it was time for paneer dish. I remembered the yummy parathas from Mast Kalandar and we decided to give it a try.
It was not just paneer that went into it, we added a good deal of carrot and corn too. In a tablespoon of oil, fry one grated carrot and add to it half a tea spoon of ginger-garlic paste. Once the raw smell of the paste disappears, add to it the corn. We chopped the corn finely given that it was going into the filling. To this, add half a spoon of cumin and coriander powder and fry well. Add the crumbled paneer in the end. Add salt and chilli powder to taste. Top it off with some garam masala and kasuri methi. The end product should resemble paneer bhurji.

The biggest challenge when making paratha is to roll them out and making sure the filling spreads evenly. And it worked for us only when the amount of filling is less. So today, for a change, we rolled two really thin chapathis, spread the filling on one of them and closed it with another chapathi. Sealed the edges with some water and rolled it again to spread the filling uniformly. Had to struggle with the first one, but from then on, it turned out to be easy.
Once done, roast it on a tava, just as a normal chapathi and make sure it is nicely baked on both sides. Apply a generous amount of ghee on either side (It tastes so good that for a day, you can forget about your diet). Serve it hot with some curd and mango pickle. We made a curry out of the remaining corn and carrot and had that also on the side! And trust me, Mast Kalandar is good, but the satisfaction of making one's own paratha and eating it too, is great!

Lassi time!

There is a jaatre that happens in Puttur every year. It goes on for ten days in the month of April. You should visit the place to savor a slice of culture, heritage and religion. The added attraction this year was the 70 ft tall Brahma-ratha that was presented to the temple by the very famous Muthappa Rai.
And as it is in all fairs, this one too is a place from where you can get back stuff for your home, especially the kitchen. Jyothi got back a chapathi rolling pin and plate from the fair. But my favorite is the manual blender that she bought during her visit. Perfect for the summer, now lassi is just a few turns of the blender away!
Price: Rs 80. Easy to use, easy to clean :).

P.S. Did you know that in Punjab, Lassi is made in washing machines?!

Palak dosa

We decided to make dosa out of Palak, when we saw a bunch of Palak leaves and dosa batter in the fridge.
Ingredients:
->Bunch of Palak
->Dosa batter (Rinse 1/2 cup urad and 1 cup rice in water for about 3 hours, and grind them and leave it overnight)
->Finely chopped onion(1)
->Carrot grated(1)
->Green chillies
->Little oil/Ghee
->Salt!

Preparation:
Cook the Palak leaves and green chillies with very less water and let it cool. After it cools down grind it. Take a spoon of oil/ghee in a pan and fry the onions and carrot.
Add the Palak paste, onions and carrot to the dosa batter and mix well. Add salt to taste

Heat tava, put little ghee so that dosa comes out easily. Spread out a big ladle of batter in an ciruclar manner. You can put little more ghee on dosa if you are not conscious of the calories it adds! Remove it from the tava and serve it hot.
We had the dosa with chutney powder which my mom prepared and it was very nice combination :-)

Monsoon chat

It was raining when we were returning from work today. The slight drizzle, the cool breeze and an upbeat mood- all the makings for a perfect evening were there. Only one thing was missing. Piping hot samosas and jalebis!
If you're thinking that we prepared them to make our evening perfect, well, you're wrong. One, its too much oil. And two, we don't know how to make them :) The presence of the chatwala outside the house, who we consciously avoid, was not helping the situation much. So we decided to take the matter into our hands and make some chat ourselves. Pretty simple and tastes great.
What you need:
A packet of bingo mad angles ( or any such flat chips)
And no. The recipe doesn't end here. ;)
1 Onion finely chopped
1 carrot grated
1 tomato finely chopped
1 potato- salted and mashed
A cup of curd
Tamarind chutney

And how is it made? Gets made in a jiffy if you have the stuff ready.
Mix all the chopped veggies. Add salt and chilli powder to them. Then some chat masala to taste.
Now take each chip and place a bit of the potato mixture. Then a spoonful of the vegetable mix. Top it with some curd and tamarind chutney. Add a dash of chat masala. It is ready to be popped into your mouth! Yum!
We did not have mint at home today. Some mint would have added to the taste for sure! And we haven't called the recipe anything yet.

Pepper mill

Latest acquisition for the kitchen: A pepper mill. Have always wanted one ever since i watched Sanjeev Kapoor on Khana Khazana use it. This was easily some 7-8 years back. Never found one in Mysore. After moving here, i did spot one in UB City at Good Earth. But it seemed too expensive to fit into the kitchen :)
We finally saw one at Lifestyle in Mantri Mall. It seemed like a steal compared to Good Earth. We now use only freshly ground pepper for all our dishes- right out of the pepper mill.


Cost of the pepper mill: Rs.145
The joy of finding something that one's looked for so long: Priceless!

Baingan ka bharta

Ever since we had baingan ka bharta at Queen's on Church Street, we have wanted to try the recipe out. Did not do it all these days since we could not find the right baingan for it. At our last visit to the More megastore in Mahadevpura, we found the brinjal that we were looking for. Nice and big, it was perfect for bharta. Bought one, to experiment and see how it turns out.
I have never been much of a fan of brinjal, particularly because of the seeds. Luckily, the brinjal i got was nice and pulpy without too many seeds. The recipe needs you to apply oil all over the vegetable and then put it on the flame directly.
Requires a lot of patience since the flame needs to be low so as to not burn the brinjal. And also that it should be well cooked till the center. One way to ensure this is to make slits all over the surface and then roast it. Once done, you can see the peel coming off. Cool it and then remove the peel and mash it.


In a skillet, heat some ghee. Add cumin seeds, ginger-garlic paste and onions. Fry until golden brown. Add to this some turmeric, dhania and chilli powder. Now add one chopped tomato and cook until it is done. Now add the mashed brinjal to it and some water if the consistency needs to be adjusted. Add salt to taste. Top it off with some garam masala, a dash of lime juice and chopped coriander leaves.


Our dinner for today:
Chapathis with Baingan Bharta and Methi dal