Tomato pappu charu

Does this ring a bell? it should...to most of hyderabadis. As a kid, we must've eaten this pappu chaaru like almost everyday. If you are out of India/home and craving for it, here's the mom recipe for you...

Tomatoes - 4, chopped into big pieces
Toor dal - 1/2 cup
Green chilli - 4
turmeric - 1/8 tbsp
red chilli powder - 1/2 tbsp
tamarind paste - 1 tbsp

For seasoning:
oil - for seasoning
cumin,mustard seeds - 1/4 tbsp
2 red chillies
2 garlic pods crushed
1/4 bunch coriander
2-3 curry leaves


Method:
In a pressure cooker, add dal, tomatoes, turmeric, green chillies, chilli powder and 2 cups of water and pressure cook for 4 visils or till the dal is soft
Mash the dal, add tamarind paste, salt and 1 cup of water and bring it boil. When the mixture is boiling, add chopped coriander leaves and boil for 2 more min.
For seasoning, in a pan add oil and when it is hot, add red chillies, garlic pods, cumin seeds, mustard seeds and curry leaves and fry till curry leaves turn crispy
Add this mixture to the dal. Pappu charu is ready to eat. Goes well with white rice!

sprouts curry

Ingredients:

1 cup pesalu/mung-bean/green gram sprouts

1 medium size tomato, chopped finely

1 small onion, chopped finely

10 drumstick pieces

Garlic pods - 2

Garam masala - 1/4 spoon

A pinch of Turmeric

Salt to taste

1 tbsp red chilli powder

Method:

Boil sprouts in pressure cooker with 4 whistles Or until tender. Keep it aside.

Boil drumstick pieces and keep them ready

Take a pan and add oil. Keep heat on low mode. Once oil is hot add coarse garlic paste to it. Now add chopped onion and saute for a minute.

Add chopped tomatoes and saute for 2 mins.

Add turmeric, red chili powder, and garam masala. Mix all of them well and stir for 2 mins.

Mix boiled sprouts with water. Stir and mix well.

Finally add salt.

Now cover with lid and cook for 5 to 6 mins on low heat. 
Garnish with Coriander

This goes well with Roti

Boiled Egg Curry

Eggs - 4, boil and take the shells off
2 big onions , chopped finely
1 tbsp tamarind paste
1/4 bunch coriander leaves
4-5 curry leaves
4-5  green chillies, slit length wise
 salt to taste
Red chilli powder - 2 spoons
coriander powder - 1/2 spoon
cumin powder - 1/4 spoon

Method:
1. In a pan, add 1 spoon of oil and fry the boiled eggs till they turn light brown and keep aside
2. in another pan, add oil and when it is medium hot, add curry leaves, green chillies, onions and pinch of turmeric and salt and fry for 5min
3. Add coriander and cumin powder and fry for another minute
4. Once onion pieces are soft, add tamarind paste and mix well and cook for 2 min. Now add eggs and let it simmer for 5min. Garnish with coriander leaves.

This curry is very tasty and goes well with hot white rice!

Mullangi (white radish) Sambhar

Ingredients:

1 cup tur dal(split red gram,kandi pappu)-washed and boiled till soft or pressure cooked
1 chopped big tomato
1 big  white radish, chopped into circles and boiled till soft
5-6 baby onions (peeled)

3-4 slit green chillis
2 tsp sambhar pwd(MTR is a good brand)
2 tbsp tamarind paste (or big lemon sized tamarind pulp soaked in warm water to remove the extract)
1 tbsp salt

1/4 bunch Coriander

Seasoning:

2-3 Red chillies

1/4 tbsp mustard seeds, cumin seeds

10 fenugreek seeds

3-4 Garlic pods

Curry Leaves

Method:

Heat 1 tbsp oil in a deep vessel. Add mustard seeds, fenugreek seeds, cumin seeds, curry leaves, dry red chilli and Garlic pods and fry till fenugreek seeds turn brown.

Add all the veggies including white radish pieces along with slit green chillies and fry for 2min

Now add Turmeric powder, Sambhar powder and salk and mix well.

Add the pressure-cooked tur dal along with 2 cups of water and cook for 4 more minutes.

Once the mixture begins to boil, add tamarind pulp, add two crushed garlic pods and ¼ bunch of coriander leaves and let it boil till the rawness of tamarind disappears. Now the hot piping and very tasty sambhar is ready to be served.. you can have it with Rice, idli or Dosa. 

Dry Fish Curry

Dry fish pieces - 5, soak them in water for 10min
2 big onions , chopped finely
1 big tomato, chopped finely
1/4 bunch coriander leaves
4-5 curry leaves
4-5  green chillies, slit length wise
salt to taste
1 sp ginger garlic paste
Red chilli powder - 2 spoons

Method:
1. In a pan, add 1 spoon of oil and fry the soaked dry fish pieces till they turn light brown and keep aside
2. in another pan, add oil and when it is medium hot, add curry leaves, green chillies, onions and pinch of turmeric and salt and fry for 5min
3. Add ginger garlic paste and fry for one more min
4. Add tomato pieces and mix well and cook till the tomatoes are soft and now add fish pieces and cook for 5min. Garnish with coriander leaves.

This curry is very tasty and goes well with white rice!

Mushroom pepper stir fry

This recipe is pretty simple and tastes great! when you are tired of making mushroom masala curry, you can try this recipe out. This works both as snack and a fry curry.

Brown Mushrooms - 1 pound, cut into slices
Red chilli powder - 1/2 spoon
Black pepper - 1/2 spoon, grind coarsely
Cumin seeds - 1/s spoon, grind coarsely
salt to taste

1. In a pan pour oil and once its medium hot, add mushroom pieces, salt and fry till the mushroom pieces are cooked. it hardly takes 8-10min. Mushrooms give out water, so fry well that the water is dried out
2. Add red chilli powder, crushed black pepper and cumin and fry for a minute.Very tasty mushroom stir-fry is ready.

We tried with rice and it was super tasty!