Simple Spinach Dip

 For the Avant Garde Cookies this time, my hush-hush ingredient was spinach given to me by my partner Jayanthy. I had some fresh baby spinach handy which i used to put this dip together...

Ingredients

• 2cups of baby spinach leaves
• 2 red chilies
• 1.5 cups of thick yogurt (greek would work)
• 1tbsp of spices 
• 1tsp olive oil

Method

1. Sautee the spinach with 1 tsp of olive oil and the chilies. 
2. Add salt. cook and remove from heat
3. If the yogurt has some whey, use this to grind the spinach not too smooth
4. Add the yogurt to the blended spinach
5. Top this with 1 tbsp of spices of your choice - Tzatsiki, or your home blend of thyme, garlic, parsely, oregano etc
6. Whip it in until blended well
7. Refrigerate until ready to use.

We enjoyed ours with steamed sweet potatoes!

Goes to Avant Garde Cookies -Check out the other AGC thoughout this week 

Anusha, Jayanthi, Kavitha, Radhika, Veena, Priya S, Roshni

Cilantro Pilaf (HarDaniya Pulao/Kothamali Pulao)

Happy Happy NAVARATHRI to all my friends and followers. Wish you much prosperity in health, happiness and of course wealth. So Golu is up and the first of the Sundals I made was a green split moong dal (pacha paasiparuppu sundal) and it was a happy success with all. I will blog this soon. But today I present to you my cilantro pulao which I made several weeks ago and has been languishing in my notes waiting for its turn to be blogged. I had to make some Kothamali chutney the wet thick kind and steamed some veggies and sauteed them like a curry. I added paneer to make it more "fancy" then made some steaming hot basmati rice and mixed in the chutney and the veggies and sauteed once more with onions and cashews. This is a one-pot meal and is a perfect Sunday brunch idea. You can avoid the onions and still have it taste amazing during this festival time.

Ingredients

• 2 cups of basmati rice (rice cooker cooked)
• your choice of veggies
• 1 cup of cubed paneer
• 3tbsp cilantro chutney

Method

1. Add chutney to rice and mix in well with a fork
2. Cook the veggies with desired spice and salt in a separate wok
3. Add to the rice and chutney mix
4. Garnish with cashews or more fresh cilantro

Cilantro Chutney recipe
Ingredients

• 2-3 lbs of cilantro fresh washed thoroughly, ends of stalks trimmed
• 5-8 red chilies (depending on how spicy your red chilies are)
• Urad Dal 1/4 cup
• 1tsp asafetida
• 1tsp soft tamarind paste
• 2 tbsp sesame oil
• Salt

Method 

1. Heat oil add the urad dal, chilies, asafetida and tamarind paste
2. Then add the cilantro and stir until cilantro softens and the urad is roasted brown.
3. Cool and grind coarse in a food processor

Mix the rice with the chutney

The veggies with paneer

In a bowl

In a cool copper pot

on your plate

Nutella Cookies

My first post for Avant Garde Cookies this month was a challenge - to make a dish with 5 ingredients or less - now as an Indian, you will know we use a lot of ingredients to make our food and I was turning a few recipes in my mind, including the raita I posted last ... But as luck would have it, my yoga teacher posted this cookie recipe with 4 ingredients and I was jumping with joy - Yes!!!!!! There is my post for the event :) A recipe from My Tasty Kitchen

Simple and delicious Nutella Cookies -Makes about 22- 8 minutes to prepare and 8 minutes to bake and voila!

Ingredients

• 1 cup nutella
• 1cup all purpose flour
• 1/2cup of sugar
• 1egg

Method

1. Heat oven to 350 F
2. blend all 4 ingredients together 
3. Make 1 inch balls 
4. Flatten with the base of a cup
5. Bake for 8 minutes

Goes to Avant Garde Cookies -Check out the other AGC thoughout this week 
Anusha, Jayanthi, Kavitha, Radhika, Veena, Priya S, Roshni

Cucumber Raita

This is not a dish to be taken lightly, simple though it may seem to make. You need the perfect texture of yogurt, and sweet, tender and non-bitter cucumbers to make the right kind of raita. You need that 1 perfect chili that will spice it up just so and you need that perfect dash of salt that makes you want to crave this popular side dish. Raita is a dish that is served on the side with spicy pulaos or biryanis to cool your system even as you spice it up. South India has an equivalent for this called thayir pachadi.

Things that can go wrong and prevent you for making that perfect raita
you can make it
too watery (juice from the cuke)
too thick
use a yogurt that is gooey
make it too sour
over salt
make it too spicy - defeating the purpose of it
cucumbers can be too seedy so much so you miss the raita for the seeds!
and so on...you can tell I've seen them all which has really put me off raita quite a bit, unless I make it myself (sorry to sound vain, but it is the truth)

Ingredients

• 2cups of Danon plain yogurt (do not use the whey)
• 3-4 small sweet seedless cucumbers
• 1 pinch of salt
• 1 green chili cut big 
• mint/ curry leaf/sprig to garnish

Method

1. Add a pinch of salt and whip the yogurt into a smooth consistency
2. Grate your cucmber
3. Squeeze all the excess juice out of it (you can drink it or use as an eye pack)
4. Add to the yogurt and mix in well
5. Add chopped chili and stir in
6. Place the mint on the raita for garnish and chill until ready to serve. (I used tender curry leaves from my plant for this - it smelt so delicious)

NOTE: I have also used some Patatas Bravas and a Tzatziki spice mixes from Oil & Vinegar for decoration on top - they also lend beautiful flavors to the raita

Milaga Bhajjis - Green Chili Fritters

It is the weekend and we are all getting ready to party... or perhaps have a wonderfully quiet and peaceful time with family -either way, Milaga bhajjis is a good way to celebrate on the weekend. These again are made from the homegrown chilies, which are not so spicy and lend themselves marvelously to this dish. For those who wanted to know the other recipe I had made with these green chilies, here you go.

For the batter

• 1 cup of gram flour/kadalamavu/ besan
• ½ cup rice flour
• (I recently found out that 1:1 of besan and rice flour) also works like a charm
• 2 tbsp curry powder
• 1 tsp sambar powder
• 1 pinch of Asafetida
• Salt to taste
• Curry leaves chopped
• Oil to fry
• Water enough to make the batter breamy smooth (about 1 cup usually)

Method:

1. Wash and dry your chilies thoroughly.
2. Keep the stem if tender, else chop off
3. Keeping the stem makes for less splattering of seeds bursting in the oil
4. Coat the chili with batter fully
5. Heat oil
6. Drop gently in hot oil
7. Do not overcrowd.
8. Remove and place on kitchen paper towels to drain off any excess oil
9. Enjoy as is or with dip of your choice - ketchup is a good place to start or how about the chili thokku I posted earlier ;P

Cheers and wish you a fabulous weekend. Plenty of exciting fall preparations on their way - stay tuned.

Green Chili Thokku (Preserve)

My garden was bursting with green chilies and we kept collecting in the hope that we would get some spicy ones - Alas to our disappointment, although they were extremely aromatic and flavorful and raised our expectations no end about its spiciness. Ironically, they lacked the sting which is a quality all of us proper South Indians look for in our green chilies.  We have learnt now that we have to plant the different varieties of chilies at least a 10 feet away from each other because what can happen if you plant spicy ones and sweeter peppers side by side, one takes over the flavor of the other, in our case the sweet dominated the spicy :(  So a lesson learnt for next year. Joke is I had to use store-bought green chilies and a few red chilies to spice up my chili chutney (lol)  But it smells phenomenally good and and tastes incredible, esp with thachu mammu or yogurt rice; a fab spread on sandwiches and with chappatis and cheese...

Presenting to you my Green Chili Thokku/Preserve - also sharing a couple of fun art I made with them.

Ingredients

• 3lbs of Fresh green chilies 
• 4 thai green chilies (not required if you have spicy chilies already)
• 1/2 cup of urad dal
• 1tsp of tamarind paste
• 1/4 tsp of asafetida
• 1tsp turmeric
• 5tbsp Gingely/sesame oil
• salt
• Tempering with mustard seeds

Method

1. de stem the chilies and keep ready
2. In 2 tbsp of oil roast the urad dal until golden brown
3. In a wide pan add 2 tbsp of oil and add the green chilies and allow them to cook until lightly browned
4. Add the salt, tamarind and asafetida to this and stir for a little longer
5. Cool and grind 
6. Add a tbsp of raw sesame oil to the top to keep it preserved. Enjoy in any which way you want to :)

Chili Thokku

Events Galore ...

I am the happy host of two wonderful events conceived of by my blogging buddies, Julie of Eruvum Puliyum and Vardhini or Cook's Joy the two events are EP Series Cooking with Coriander or Sesame and Dish it Out with - Veggie recipes only for both events please :) TYVM

EP SERIES - HERBS & SPICES - ROSEMARY and/or SESAME
1.The event runs for the period of 1st - 31st (specify month) 2012.
2.The theme for this month is "your herb n spice".You can use one ingredient in a dish or use both but that ingredient should be one of the main ingredients.It can vary from starter,main dish ,dessert or any other recipes,sweet or savory anything.(No recipes which don't follow this rule will not qualify for the event)
3.Bloggers and Non bloggers can participate.Bloggers can link their recipes using the linky tool below.
4.Recipe must be linked to this event announcement page and to Julie's page.
5.Please Veg recipes only

6.Send in any number of entries.You can link in your old entries too but specific to the herb & spice,just add the link & logo,no reposting required.
7.Usage of logo is appreciated for all entries.
8.There are 5 awards for the BEST INNOVATIVE RECIPE AWARD, TOP CONTRIBUTOR AWARD,BEST HEALTHY DISH AWARD , PARTICIPATION AWARD & BEST PRESENTATION AWARD.So,Folks put on your innovative caps and think tight,do right and link in your recipes at the earliest before 31st (month specify),2012.

Best Wishes to All.

LINKY FOR EP EVENT HERE

DISH IT OUT - With GREEN CHILIES

1. Make a dish using "Thyme & Green Chilies". We should be able to taste the ingredients in the final dish.

2. Only vegetarian entries. Eggs are allowed in baking.

3. Use of logo is appreciated as it helps spread the word.

4. Link to my Dish it Out announcement and yours is mandatory.

5. Archived entries are accepted as long as they are linked with both announcements

LINKY FOR DIO EVENT HERE