Gutthi Vankaya (Eggplant) curry

This is one of my favorite recipes and recipe which made me popular among my friends :) The way i prepare it is different from how others does, but believe me this takes very less time, is much more simple to make and tastes simply heavenly.

Ingredients:
Eggplant - 6-8, medium size
1/2 onion, cut length wise
curry leaves - 4


Masala Ingredients:
peanuts - 2 tbsp
ginger/garlic paste - 1/2 tbsp
1 small onion, cut into large pieces
tamarind paste - 1 tbsp
red chilli powder - 1 tbsp
turmeric - 1/4 tbsp
salt - as per taste
coriander leaves - 1/4 bunch
coriander seeds - 1/2 tbsp
 seasame seeds - 1 tbsp

Preparation:
1. Take some water in a dish and add some salt
2. Slit eggplant length-wise and put them into salt water
3. Grind all the above masala ingredients adding enough water into a fine paste
 4. Fill the eggplants with masala and micro-wave for 12min or till they turn soft
5. In a deep pan, add oil and onion pieces and curry leaves and fry for 2min
6. Add the remaining masala and fry it till oil separates.
7. Add cooked eggplant to the pan and stir slowly so that the eggplant pieces doesn't break
8. Fry for 10 more min on medium heat and switch off the stove
9. Garnish with coriander leaves.

Goes well with Roti, white rice, biryani rice and chicken biryani :)

Suji Halwa

Ingredients:

Suji - 1 cup
sugar - 1 cup
cashews - 1 tbsp
raisins - 1 tbsp
Ghee - 3 spoons
water - 2 cups
Milk - 1/2 cup
Cardamom - 3, crushed into powder

Preparation:
1. In a pan, add 1 spoon of ghee and when it is hot, fry raisins and cashews till light brown, drain them into a cup
2. Add half spoon of ghee to the pan and add suji and fry it till it turns light brown
3. In another deep pan, add water and milk and bring it to boil
4. Once the water starts boiling, add cardamom powder, sugar and let it boil for 2min
5. Add Suji to the boiling mixture while stirring continuously
6. Cover the pan and cook it for 2 min on low fire
7. Put the remaining ghee on top of Halwa.
8. Garnish with raisins and cashews

Eggs Masala

Ingredients:
4 eggs, boiled and shelled
Pappula podi - 1 tbsp
Ghee - 1 tbsp

Preparation:
1. In a pan, add ghee and once its hot, add boiled eggs and fry till all slides are golden brown
2. Add pappula podi to eggs and switch off the fire

This simple yet very tasty dish tastes very good with hot white rice

Dondakaaya (Tindora) Fry

Ingredients:
Tindora - 1 pound, chop them length wise
salt to taste
Red chilli powder - 1 tbsp
Curry leaves - 5
Pappula podi - 1 tbsp
Turmeric - 1/4 tbsp

Preparation:
1. In a pan, add oil and when it is medium hot, add tindora pieces, turmeric salt and stir well. Keep fire low and fry slowly. This is the key for this curry to taste good.
2. Once  the pieces turn dark brown, add red chilli powder and pappula podi and stir well
3. switch off the fire immediately. Let it simmer for 2min before you serve!

Chettinad Chicken Soup

This soup is so delicious and is a must-have if you are suffering from severe cold and throat infection. It soothes you immediately!

Ingredients:

Chicken with bones - 1pound
Chicken stock powder - 1 cube/2 tbsp
Coriander leaves - 1/2 cup
Cumin seeds - 1 tbsp
Garlic pods - 5
Lime juice - 2 tbsp
onion - 1 finely chopped
raw rice - 1 tbsp
Red chilli - 3
salt to taste
tomato - 1 finely chopped
whole black pepper - 1 tbsp
water - 4 cups

Preparation:

1.Clean the chicken first and cut in to small pieces (Bone pieces will be good for soup)

2. Cut onion and and tomato in to small pieces

3. Dry heat the raw rice, pepper, cumin seeds and red chilli in Pan and grind everything coarsely in a mixer and add garlic pods finally and grind only once. Do not grind garlic pods in to paste.

4. Heat the pan and add chicken, onion, tomato, chicken stock powder, salt and 4 glass of water an bring in to boil.

5. Once the chicken gets cooked add the mixture in to the soup and do not cook afterwards. switch off the stove

 6. Add coriander leaves and lime juice and serve.

I promise that you will not give up this soup if you have it once!

Dry Fish Eggplant Curry

Dry fish pieces - 5, soak them in water for 10min
2 big onions , chopped finely
1 big eggplant, cut into medium size pieces
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

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, eggplant pieces 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 fish pieces and cook for 5min. Garnish with coriander leaves.

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

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!

Gongura(sorrel) Shrimp curry

Ingredients:
1 lb uncooked shrimp, washed
1 big onion, finely chopped
4,5 green chillies slit length wise
2 cups of sorrel leaves
2 spoons ginger garlic paste
1 spoon Garam masala powder
3 tbsp red chilli powder
salt as per taste
2 pinches turmeric
4 curry leaves
1/4 bunch coriander, finely chopped

Method:
In a pan, add washed sorrel leaves and green chillies and cook till the leaves are soft. Mash them to a fine paste and keep aside
In another pan, add oil and when it is hot, add curry leaves, coriander leaves, onion pieces and fry till onion is golden brown
Now add turmeric, salt and Ginger garlic paste and fry for 2 more min
Now add shrimp pieces, chilli powder and garam masala powder and cook well till oil separates on the sides of the pan
Add sorrel leaves paste to the curry and mix well and cook for 5 more min.

This curry tastes very good if eaten immediately or eaten next day. Goes well with white rice.

Dosa Side Dish:Tomato pacchadi

Ingredients:
4 Ripe tomatoes, cut into large pieces
15 Green chillies
1 garlic pod
salt as per taste
1 tbsp tamarind pulp
1/2 bunch coriander leaves
1 tbsp onion pieces for garnishing
1/4 tbsp cumin seeds

Method:
In a pan add oil and when it is hot, add green chillies and fry them till they start spluttering
Now add tomatoes, coriander leaves and fry till the tomatoes are soft.
Let it cool
In a mixie jar, add garlic pod, cumin seeds and salt and grind coarsely.
To this add tamarind paste,cooked green chillies, coriander and tomatoes and grind coarsely

Garnish the chutney with onion pieces. This chutney goes very well with Dosas.

Beans Bengal Gram Fry

Ingredients:
French beans - 1 lb, finely chopped
Bengal Gram - 1/2 cup, boiled till soft
1 small onion finely chopped
3-4 curry leaves
2 tbsps dry coconut powder
4 green chillies slit length-wise
1 Red chilli, cut into small pieces
1/4 spoon mustard seeds
salt as per taste

Method:
Boil french beans till soft, drain and keep aside
In a pan, add oil and when hot, add mustard seeds, red chilli pieces, curry leaves, onion pieces, salt and turmeric and stir well and let it fry for 2 minutes
Now add beans and bengal gram and stir well and fry for 10 minutes
Add cocunut flakes/powder and stir well and cook for 2 more minutes.

This curry goes well with Roti!

Barley Dosa

There's a funny story behind this recipe. Some friends were coming home and I wanted to make dosa for them. I totally forgot to soak the ingredients. When I remembered, it was too late in the night. I didn't want to disturb everyone by switching on the lights, so I went into the kitchen in the darkness, soaked rice and dal and went back to sleep. But only in the morning did i realize that what I thought as rice is Barley instead. I Just wanted to experiment how it goes by still going ahead with Barley instead of rice and Dosas came out really very crispy and super tasty..Here's the recipe for you...


Ingredients:

2 cupts of Barley washed and soaked overnight)
1 cup urad dal (washed and soaked overnight)
1/4 tsp. soda bicarbonate
Salt to taste

Method of preparation:

Having soaked both barley and dal separately, wash well with plenty of water.
Grind dal to a very fine paste
Grind Barley to a smooth paste
Mix both barley and dal together after grinding.
Add soda bi-carb and salt and beat well.
Add a little water if necessary.
The batter should be fairly thick.
Cover and keep aside for 7-8 hours, undisturbed. (preferably in a warm place)
Heat the iron griddle or non-stick tawa well.
Pour a spoonful of batter in the center, spread with the back of the spoon to a thin round.
Pour a tsp. of ghee or oil over it.
Remove with spatula when crisp.

Eggplant Capsicum Curry

Ingredients:
1 large capsicum, cut into large pieces
3 Eggplant, cut into medium pieces
1 small onion, cut into small pieces
salt to taste
1/2 tbsp red chilli powder
pinch of turmeric
3,4 curry leaves
2 spoons coriander leaves, finely chopped

Masala powder:
1 tbsp Dalia (putnaala pappu)
1 red chilli
1 garlic pod
2 pinches of salt
1 curryleaf

Grind all the above coarsely in a coffee grinder

Method:
In a pan, heat oil to medium hot and add curry leaves, onions, tumeric and fry for a minute
Now add, eggplant pieces, capsicum pieces, salt and fry till the eggplant pieces become soft
Add chillipowder and mix well and let it fry for 2 more min. Before you turn off the stove, add masala powder, chopped coriander and let it stand for 1 minute and turn off the heat.

This curry is quick to make and goes very well with Rotis and Rice!

Bell Pepper/Capsicum masala curry

Ingredients:
3 large capsicum, cut into large pieces
1 small onion, cut into small pieces
salt to taste
1/2 tbsp red chilli powder
pinch of turmeric
3,4 curry leaves
2 spoons coriander leaves, finely chopped

Masala powder:
1 tbsp Dalia (putnaala pappu)
1 red chilli
1 garlic pod
2 pinches of salt
1 curryleaf

Grind all the above coarsely in a coffee grinder

Method:
In a pan, heat oil to medium hot and add curry leaves, onions, tumeric and fry for a minute
Now add capsicum pieces, salt and fry till the capsicum pieces become soft
Add chillipowder and mix well and let it fry for 2 more min. Before you turn off the stove, add masala powder, chopped coriander and let it stand for 1 minute and turn off the heat.

This curry is quick to make and goes very well with Rotis and Rice!

Egg White onion stalks curry

Eggs - 5, take out the egg white into a bowl and discard yolk
onion Stalks - 5-6, finely chopped
milk - 2 tbsp
1 small onion finely chopped
3-4 green chillies, slit length-wise
1 tbsp chilli powder
1 pinch of turmeric
Salt as per taste
Curry leaves 3-4

Method:
In a pan, add oil and once it is medium hot, add chopped onions, curry leaves, onion stalk and fry for 2min. Add turmeric and salt and fry till onions are golden brown.
Add red chilli powder and fry for 2 more min and add egg whites to the mixture and let it stand for 1 minutes before stirring. Now add two table spoons of milk and fry on medium heat until oil starts showing on the sides.

This curry goes well with Rotis

Beerakaaya curry

Ashgourd - 2, cut into small pieces
1 small onion, cut nto small pieces
3-4 curry leaves
1/4 coriander leaves, finely chopped
salt as per taste
2 pinches turmeric
1 tbsp red chilli powder

Method:
Pour oil in a pan and when it is medium hot, add curry leaves, onions, 2 pinches of turmeric and salt and fry for 2min
Now add Ash gourd pieces and chilli powder and stir well. Ashgourd gives out water. Cook this curry till the water evaporates. It takes approximately 8-10 minutes.
Garnish the curry with coriander leaves and it is ready to eat. Goes well with Rice and Roti and very easy to make!