Mirchi Ka Salan

Mirchi Ka Salan

Mirchi ka salan is an exotic side dish to any biryani. Mirchi is green chilli in Hindi and Salan is a Hyderabadi lingo for a creamy sauce or curry. This is one classic Hyderabadi dish with a tangy peanut sauce. Enjoy!!

Ingredients:

Green Chillies - 8
Peanuts - 1/2 cup
Sesame seeds - 2 tbsp
Dry coconut powder - 3 tbsp
Tamarind - 1 tbsp (goose-berry size)
Turmeric powder - 1/8 tsp
Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp
Hing(asafoetida) - a pinch
Curry leaves - few
Onion - 1 small
Ginger garlic paste - 1 tsp
Red Chilli powder - 1 tsp
Coriander powder - 1 tsp
Salt - to taste
Sugar - 1 tsp
Oil - 4 tbs
red food color (optional) - a pinch
Coriander leaves - 2 tbsp

Method:
Dry roast the peanuts till golden brown. Keep it aside to cool. In the same pan, toast the sesame seeds till it has a nice aroma. Let it cool in a plate. Now dry roast the coconut powder. Make sure the flame is very low while toasting the coconut powder. It tends to burn very quickly. Let it cool.

Soak the tamarind in some warm water till its soft and pulpy. Grind it into a smooth paste and keep aside.

Now blend the toasted sesame seeds, the peanuts and the coconut powder to a smooth paste adding water a little at a time.

The green chillies you choose should be a little thick. Give a small slit to the green chillies. Do not cut the stem off. Heat 2 teaspoons of oil in a pan and fry the chillies till the skin has some blisters. This gives some nice smoky flavor to the chillies and also cuts down the heat in them. Keep these fried chillies in a plate.

To the same pan add the remaining oil, add hing, add cumin seeds. Let the cumin seeds crackle. Now add the chopped onion and the curry leaves. Fry till the onion is translucent. Add the ginger garlic paste and fry till the raw flavor is gone. Add the peanut, sesame and coconut mixture to it. Stir well. When you see oil separating from the sides, add the spices, the turmeric powder, red chilli powder, coriander powder, salt, sugar. Mix well. Just when you see oil separating, add the tamarind pulp to it. Mix well. Add water and adjust to your desired consistency.

Dissolve a pinch of red food color in some water and add this to the above mixture. Mix well. Add the fried green chillies. Stir well. When you see oil on top, check the seasonings and add chopped coriander leaves. Turn the flame off.

Serve it as an accompaniment to any biryani or fried rice.

Safety Tip:

Be very careful while frying the green chillies in the oil. The green chillies tend to pop a lot in hot oil. If you don't slit the green chillies they burst in oil, which is very dangerous. So the cut is very important. Use a splutter screen if needed.  

Pav Bhaji

Pav Bhaji

Pav Bhaji is a famous street side food originated in Maharashtra and is popular in most fast food chains all over the world. Nobody can resist the buttered pavs and the spicy mixed vegetable bhaji. Enjoy!!

Ingredients:

For the Bhaaji:
Potatoes - 2
Green peas - 1/2 cup
Carrot - 1
Green bell pepper - 1
Cauliflower - few florets about 1 cup
Onions - 2
Tomatoes - 2
Turmeric - 1/8 tsp
Chilli powder - 2tsp
Cumin seeds - 2 tsp
Pav bhaji masala - 1 1/2 tbsp (I use Everest Pav bhaji masala)
Garlic - 2 cloves
Oil - 1 tbsp
Butter - 2 tbsp
Salt - to taste
Coriander leaves - 3 tbsp

For The Pav:
Pav - 8
Butter- 2 tbsp

For each individual Serving:
Finely chopped onions - 2 tbsp
Lemon wedges - 1
Butter - 2 tsp

For Garnishing:
Chopped coriander - 4 tbsp

Method:
Boil the potatoes, cauliflower, carrots and peas with a little water and salt in a pressure cooker. Cook it for 2 whistles. Keep it aside. In a large pan, add the oil and the butter. Add the cumin seeds, let them crackle. Then add the crushed garlic, fry for 30 seconds. Do not let the garlic burn. Then add the finely chopped onions. Fry till the onions are translucent and you notice oil oozing out. Then add the chopped tomatoes. Fry well till you see oil separating. Then add the chilli powder, turmeric powder and the pav bhaji masala. Fry the spices well. Add salt. Mix well. Now add the finely chopped bell pepper. Fry till the oil separates and the peppers are mushy.
Drain the water from the boiled vegetables. Peel the potatoes. And mash up all the boiled vegetables together. Now add these mashed vegetables to the onion, tomato mixture in the pan. Mix well. Add water if required. The consistency will be on the thicker side at this stage. Add the finely chopped coriander leaves. Turn the flame off. Keep it aside.

For the pav:
Slit 2 pavs vertically and keep aside. Heat a griddle, add 2 tsp of butter. Slit open the pavs and place on it. Cook on a medium flame till they turn light brown and crisp on both the sides. (add more butter if required).

Just before serving, heat up a small pan, add some butter to it. Add some bhaji to the pan that is just enough for one person. Fry well till the butter is separated. Put it in a plate, drizzle some lemon juice. Top it with a small cube of butter. The butter slowly melts into the bhaji. Sprinkle some chopped onions and chopped coriander leaves. Serve hot with the buttered pavs and a lemon wedge.

Pav Bhaji

Tasty tip:
The left over bhaji goes excellent with hot pooris.

Saag Paneer/ Mushroom Pizza

Saag Paneer/ Mushroom Pizza

Pizza is an all time favorite among the kids and the adults. Pizza is one dish where you have a lot of scope for creativity. Make it a family project, the results are even better.
My Indian version was a super hit. You can see in the picture that it is half green and half red. The green part is the Saag paneer and the other half is the Mushroom topping.
Enjoy!! 


Basic Pizza dough:
The recipe for the pizza dough yields 3 medium size pizzas.

Ingredients:
All purpose flour - 5 cups
Warm water - 1 1/2 cups + extra as needed
Active dry yeast - 1 packet (1/4 ounce) (I used Fleishmann's rapid rise highly active yeast)
Sugar - 1/2 teaspoon
Salt - 1 1/2 teaspoons
Olive oil - for drizzling

Method:
Microwave the water till warm. Put the water in a bowl and add the yeast and the sugar to it. Stir it until dissolved.
Take a large bowl and whisk the flour and salt together. Add the yeast and mix until it forms soft dough. If the dough is too dry, add a little water, 1 tablespoon at a time. If the dough is too sticky, add a little flour, 1 tablespoon at a time.
Flour your hands; knead the dough until it becomes smooth and elastic. Knead it for 15 minutes. Drizzle some olive oil and keep kneading. Brush a bowl with some olive oil and transfer the dough into the bowl. Cover it loosely with a damp kitchen towel. Place the bowl in a warm, draft-free area. (I have preheated my oven for a minute, turned it off and placed the bowl in the oven). Let it rest for 2 hours until the dough has risen double its original volume.
After 2 hours, take the dough out. Deflate the dough by punching it. Now divide it into 3 equal pieces.
Form the dough pieces into 3 balls and place each into 3 oiled bowls. Cover each bowl loosely with plastic wrap or a damp kitchen towel and let rest for 1 hour. Remove the dough and wrap in plastic. You can refrigerate the dough for up to 1 day or freeze the dough for a week and use it as and when needed.

Saag paneer pizza sauce:

Ingredients:
Spinach leaves - 100 gms
Green chillies - 2 (or as per your taste)
Garlic - 2 cloves
Lemon juice - 1 teaspoon
Salt - to taste
Grated mozzarella cheese - 1/2 cup
Paneer (cottage cheese) - few pieces cubed
Olive oil - for blending

Method:
Blend together the spinach leaves, garlic and the green chillies. It isn't a fine paste yet. Add in the lemon juice, salt and the cheese. As you blend, add the olive oil. Olive oil should help you blend it into a smooth paste. Do not add any water for blending, add oil instead. Take the mixture into a clean bowl and add the cubed paneer pieces.
For the Mushroom Pizza sauce, I have just cut up some mushrooms and added half a cup basic pizza sauce.
I use Prego pizza sauce.

Pizza

Pizza making:
Adjust the oven rack to the center of the oven. Preheat the oven to 475 degrees F.

Roll the pizza dough into 14-inch diameter circle, about 1/4 to 1/16-inch thick. If you like a thick crust pizza, roll it thick. Dust it with flour while rolling if needed. Take a pizza stone; sprinkle it with some corn meal. If you don’t have corn meal, you can just sprinkle some sooji (rawa). This prevents the pizza from sticking it to the pizza stone. If you do not have a pizza stone, any baking tray would work just as good. If you are using a baking tray, spray it with some cooking oil, before placing the pizza on it. Or you can just use a parchment paper to prevent it from sticking to the baking tray.
With the help of the rolling pin, transfer the dough on to the pizza stone.  Drizzle it with some olive oil, this helps the pizza from drying out.
Now spread the saag paneer sauce leaving a half inch border.  Top it with some tomatoes. On the other half of the pizza, spread the basic pizza sauce, top it with mushrooms. On top of it goes, shredded mozzarella cheese. Add as much or as little cheese as you wish.  Brush the edges of the pizza with some olive oil. Bake until the crust is golden, about 15 to 20 minutes. Remove from the oven, cut into wedges and serve.

You can do both these sauces on the same pizza like I did or you can do it on two separate pizzas.

Tasty tip:
While making the pizza dough, do not heat the water too much, else it kills the yeast. The ideal temperature the water should be is 100 F to 110 F. Make sure all the yeast is properly dissolved in the water before you add it to the flour. 

The important thing to remember here is the amount of salt you add. The cheeses we are adding already have a lot of salt in it. The pizza dough has salt in it too. So adjust the salt accordingly.

With the toppings you can be as creative as possible. You can top the pizza with just about any of your favorite vegetables or meats.

Baingan Bharta

Baingan Bharta

This is a super hit dish amongst the egg plant lovers. Egg plant when baked has a unique smoky flavor. The smoky flavor of the baked egg plant makes your taste buds crave for more. Although the method of this recipe looks tedious, it really is not. The end product is all worth the effort.

Ingredients:

Egg plant - 1
Onion (finely chopped) - 1 large
Tomato (finely chopped) - 2 medium sized
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
Curry leaves - few
Ginger garlic paste - 1 tsp
Turmeric - 1/8 tsp
Red chilli powder - 1 tsp
Coriander powder - 1 tsp
Salt - to taste
Oil - 3 tbsp
Cilantro (finely chopped) - 3 tbsp

Method:

Preheat the oven to 510 F. Make sure its in a bake mode.

Wash and wipe the egg plant dry with a clean kitchen towel.  Brush it with some oil. Make a few cuts on the egg plant with a knife. This is to prevent it from blasting inside the oven and to let it cook well from inside as well.

Now place the egg plant on a baking tray and bake it for 30 min or till the egg plant skin has some blisters. Keep an eye on it. Every oven temperature is different. You might also want to turn the egg plant round every now and then.

Let the egg plant cool a little bit. Now with your hands, peel the skin off. It should come right off. Discard the skin. Put the flesh of the egg plant on a chopping board and give it a rough chop with a knife. Put it aside.


Now put a pan on medium high heat. Add the oil. Add the mustard seeds. Let the mustard seeds crackle. Add in the cumin seeds. Now add the chopped onion. Saute it till the onions are translucent. Then add the curry leaves. Stir them in. Add the ginger garlic paste. Saute it till the raw smell is gone and the oil oozes out. Now add in the chopped tomatoes. Mix well and cover it with a lid till the tomatoes are cooked. This should take around 2-3 minutes. Then add in the turmeric, chilli powder, coriander powder, salt and saute well for a minute or two.

Add in the chopped egg plant. Mix well, turn the heat to medium low and cover it with a lid. Let it simmer for 3 minutes till the oil oozes out. Turn the heat off. Add in the chopped cilantro.

Baingan Bharta

 
Serve hot with chapati. It goes well with hot steaming rice too, but chapati is the best option. Enjoy !!

Tasty tips:

While choosing an egg plant always choose the one that has a nice green stem. The egg plant should have a vibrant purple color with a nice shine. Such an egg plant has less seeds and the flesh inside is whiter, which is more tastier.
Some people grill the whole egg plant on the stove top instead of an oven. But in US especially, the better option besides an oven would be a barbecue grill. 

Sorakaya Senagapappu Koora

Sorakaya Senagapappu Koora

This is one of my favorite childhood dishes that my mom used to make quite often. Adding lentils to any vegetable not only adds extra proteins but also increases the quantity of the curry that you are making. 

Ingredients:

Sorakaya (Bottle gourd) – 1 medium size
Chana dal (Bengal gram/Senagapappu) – ¼ cup
Onion – 1 medium size
Cumin seeds – ½ tsp
Mustard seeds – ½ tsp
Ginger garlic paste – 1 tsp
Curry leaves – few
Coriander leaves- few sprigs
Turmeric – 1/8 tsp
Chilli powder – 1 tsp
Coriander powder – ½ tsp
Dry coconut powder – 1 tsp
Sesame seed powder – ½ tsp
Oil- 3 tbsp
Salt – to taste

Method:
I usually use a pressure cooker, when I use Chana dal in my curries.
First wash the chana dal until the water runs clear. Let the dal soak in a half cup of water. Meanwhile, put a pressure cooker on a medium flame and add the oil. Add the mustard seeds and wait till they crackle. Now add the cumin seeds. Then add the onions and some salt fry them till they are translucent. Add ginger garlic paste and fry for a minute. Then add the turmeric, chilli powder, coriander powder, and some salt and fry for a minute. Make sure the spices don’t burn. Drain the water from the chana dal , do not throw away the water. Then add the bottle gourd and the chana dal to the cooker. Mix well. After a minute, add the water that the dal was soaked in. Mix everything well. Cover with the pressure cooker lid. Let it cook for 2 whistles. The key here is not to let the dal mash up too much. It still has to have a bite to it. After the pressure goes off, open the cooker and check if the curry is watery. It usually is, coz bottle gourd has a lot of water in it. Now turn on the flame and keep the lid open and let the water in the curry evaporate. When you see oil oozing out, add the coconut powder and sesame powder. Mix well.

               

Garnish with coriander leaves and serve hot with steamed rice or chapatti. Enjoy!!

Tasty Tip:
Instead of adding all the salt at once, I usually add little by little as the recipe proceeds. Seasoning every layer of the dish. Always add the salt on the lesser side. The water in the dish evaporates as you proceed. Once the water is evaporated, you will be left with the actual taste of the salt. So if you have added more salt, after the water is gone, it leaves the dish salty. You can always add more salt if it needs but removing extra salt from the dish is definitely not pretty.

Gunta Pongadalu

Gunta Pongadalu is a famous South Indian breakfast/snack dish. The batter is nothing but the regular dosa batter with a few extra ingredients in it. Hope you enjoy it.


Ingredients

Rice - 2 cups
Split Black gram (urad dal) – 1 cup
Bengal gram (chana dal) – ¼ cup
Fenugreek seeds – ¼ teaspoon
Salt – to taste
Oil – 2 teaspoons + for cooking
Cumin Seeds – ¼ teaspoon
Curry leaves – 10 to 12 chopped
Onion – 1 large, finely chopped
Green chillies – 2 to 3

Method Soak the rice, urad dal and chana dal with fenugreek seeds in six cups of water for at least five hours. Drain and grind to a little coarser consistency in a blender, preferably in a wet grinder. Wet grinder helps in a better fermentation. Ensure that the batter is not too smooth.

Add salt, mix well and allow it to ferment overnight. The next day before making the pongadaalu, add mustard seeds, cumin seeds, curry leaves, onion and green chillies to the batter. Mix well.

The pan

Heat the pongadala tawa over medium heat and grease each dent with a little oil. Pour a ladle of batter in each dent, drizzle some oil and cook for four to five minutes till the lower side is done.

Turn them over using a spoon/wooden skewer and drizzle a little more oil and continue to cook for three to four minutes or until both the sides are evenly cooked. Prepare the rest similarly.

Serve hot with peanut chutney.

Why another food blog?

Hello Friends,

This is Supriya Soora.

I had no prior experience in cooking. It all started after I got married 6 years ago and I moved to the US. My cooking experiments turned out pretty good most of the times. My first inspiration in cooking is of course my mom. She is the fabulous cook, which she inherited from her mom, my ammamma. My Ammamma was the ultimate cook. She used to create fabulous dishes even without using any fancy cooking gadgets.

Okay, coming to the blog, the most obvious question is why another food blog? I think every person cooks the same dish differently even with the same recipe. The reasons might be many, like the state of mind while cooking, level of understanding the recipe, accidents etc. etc. So I am here to share the same recipes you have seen in your life but with a twist of my own and with the tips I learned on experience. Being the cook of the house, I also feel an urgent need to break the notions of cooking as a risky sport. Cooking is only as complex as you wish to make it. You can make a simple bowl of package mix soup or a complex chicken biryani. You can whip up a simple tomato rasam in no time or make gaarelu from "scratch". I think, for a cook to make something from scratch is to throw together few basic ingredients to make an edible dish. And when I say basic, I mean basic. For example, you don't need to go through the trouble of making the biryani masala to make the chicken biryani. You can get the biryani masala from your local Indian grocers. Heck, you can just go have a hot plate of biryani at Paradise, Peacock or Bawarchi or wherever. Which brings us down to another question, which is a good one, "If I can get food pre-made in a restaurant, then why bother cooking at all?" Number one reason being the affordability on a daily basis and an even better reason is that no one can make food to your taste as well as you do. When you make your own food, you know how much salt and pepper went into it. You know the ingredients in it. You know how healthy it is.

To me, the best reason to cook is for the sheer joy of it. Cooking to me is like any other experiment I did in my chemistry lab. The end product is actually visible to your eye. And when the result is good, there's the satisfaction derived from a job well done.  My mom says to be able to cook; one needs passion to cook, well I say, one needs self-confidence. I am here to boost your self-confidence in cooking by bringing in simple and easy dishes to your table. Enjoy!!