Cauliflower Egg Fry

Ingredients:

Cauliflower  1 ( cut to small pieces)
Onion 1 big Diced
Green chillies 2
Oil 3 Tbsp
Garlic 4 pods crushed
Mustard seeds 1 tsp
cumin seeds 1 tsp
curry leaves 2 strings
turmeric 1/2 tsp
chilli powder
salt
eggs 2

Preparation:

1. Heat oil in the pan and add crushed garlic pods, mustard, cumin, and curry leaves and fry for 1 min until the mustard seeds splutter.
2. To that add chopped onions and green chillies and fry till the onions turn transparent.
3. Then add chopped cauliflower, turmeric and salt and mix well and close with lid and cook on medium heat for 10 min. stir in between.
4. Then add chilli powder according to spice level mix well and cook for 2 min.
5. Add the eggs to the cooked cauliflower mixture mix well and cook for 2 more minutes.
6. Check the seasonings and serve hot with rice or roti.
7. You can skip on eggs if you don't want to add them.

Ridge gourd peel chutney/ Beerakaya tokku pachadi

Ingredients:

skin of 3 large ridge gourds (about 2 cups)
7-8 green chillis
2 cups chopped tomato pieces
4 garlic pods
1cup chopped coriander
3 inch piece of tamarind2 tsps oil
1/4 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp jeera seeds
salt as per taste

For seasoning/poppu/tadka:
1/2 tsp mustard and jeera seeds each
1-2 dry red chillis
big pinch asafoetida/inguva/hing
few fresh curry leaves
1 tbsp oil

Preparation:

1. Heat 2 tbsp oil in pan add the green chillis and saute for a 1 min. Add the ridge gourd peels (chop them into small pieces) and fry on medium heat for 4-5 mts.
2. Add the tamarind, tomatoes, garlic, jeera, turmeric, salt and fry till the water from tomatoes evaporates.
3. Then add coriander leaves and  fry for 1 min. let it cool and grind it to coarse chutney, adjust the salt and spice.
4.  Heat 1 tbsp of oil in a pan, add mustard, jeera seeds and let them pop, add curry leaves and dry red chillis followed by asafoetida and stir fry for a few seconds.
5.  Mix the seasoning to the ground chutney and serve with hot rice or dosa.

Ridge gourd milk curry/ Beerakaya palu koora

Ingredients:

 Ridge gourd / beerakaya  3 (peel the skin and chop)

Onions 1 chopped

1 tsp each mustard, cumin seeds and urad dal

Curry leaves few

2 green chillies 

4 garlic flakes (mashed)

Milk 3/4 cup

1/4 tea spoon turmeric powder

1 tsp salt (as per taste)

1 tsp chilli powder

2 tbsp oil

                             

Preparation:

1. Heat oil in a pan.  Add mustard, cumin and urad dal.  When mustard starts spluttering and urad dal changes color add onions, green chillies, curry leaves and garlic flakes. 

2.  Fry until the onions become transparent. Add chopped ridge gourd salt and turmeric stir and close with lid and let it cook on medium flame for 8-10 min.

3. Stir the curry in between, once the ridge gourd pieces get transparent and all the water gets evaporated add chilli power and cook it for 2 minutes.

4. Add milk to the curry and cook it till the curry thickens for 2-3 min

5. Serve hot with roti or rice.

                  

Karela Fry (Kakarakaya vepudu)

Ingredients:

Bitter gourd - 6 nos(medium sized)

channa daal - 1 tbsp

Cumin seeds - 1/4 tsp

Mustard seeds - 1/4 tsp

Curry leaves - a few leaves

Dried red chillies - 4 nos 

Turmeric powder - a pinch

Garlic clove - 6

Raw coconut pieces/grated coconut - 1/2 cup
Salt and chilli powder - according to taste
oil - for deep frying


Preparation:

1. Slice the bitter gourd into thin round circles. Add salt and turmeric powder to the bitter gourd and let it sit for 15-30 minutes. Squeeze and remove the juice from the bitter gourd.

2. Heat oil in a pan and add bitter gourd pieces to the pan and deep fry them until they turn little brown.

3.  Grind coconut, garlic cloves and 1 tsp chilli powder to fine powder.

4. Take another pan and add 2 tbsp oil and add channa daal, mustard seeds, cumin seeds, broken dry red chillies, and curry leaves and fry them for a minute.

5. To that add the powder of coconut, garlic and chilli powder and fry for 3-4 minutes on low until the raw smell of the garlic is gone.

6. Finally add the fried bitter gourd pieces and mix well and check the salt and chillie powder according to your taste. Fry for 3-5 minutes and serve hot with rice

Poornam boorelu

Ingredients:

1 cups chana dal
1 cups jaggery
1/4 spoon cardamom powder
1 cup rice
1/2 cup urad dal
Oil for deep fry
Salt

Preparation:

1.  Wash and soak rice and urad dal in water for about 3-4 hrs.

2.  Grind rice and urad dal to smooth paste adding sufficient water. It should be ground to thick dosa batter consistency. Add salt and set aside for 4-5 hours.

3. Soak chana dal for about half an hour. Pressure cook dal in 1 cup of water till 2 whistles.

4. Heat a kadhai, add cooked dal, jaggery, elaichi powder and on medium heat keep stirring till the dal turns thick enough to make a ball. 

5. Allow the paste to cool. Grease your hands with oil or ghee and roll the paste to small lemon size balls.

6. Heat oil in a deep pan. Dip each ball into the batter, so that it evenly gets coated. Drop them gently into oil and fry them till golden brown.

7. Remove from oil, drain on a kitchen paper to remove any excess oil and serve.

Plantain fry/ Aratikaya vepudu

 

Ingredients :

2 plantains (peeled and cut into pieces)
1 onion chopped
4 tbsp oil
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp mustard seeds
2 dry red chillies
1/4 tsp turmeric
1/4 cup coconut pieces/ coconut powder
5 garlic cloves
1 tsp coriander seeds/ coriander powder
1 tsp chilli powder
salt


Preparation :

1. Heat oil in a pan add cumin seeds, mustard seeds, dry red chillies and curry leaves then add onions saute for 2 min
2. Now add plantain piece, turmeric and salt mix well cover and cook on a low flame until plantain pieces become soft. Grind coconut, garlic, coriander and chilli powder to fine powder.
3. Sprinkle masala powder mix well and saute for 2 to 3 min. Finally check for seasoning and serve hot.

Chicken Biryani

Ingredients :

• 3 Tbsp oil
• 2 Tbsp ghee (clarified butter)
• 4 cloves
• 2 (1 inch) Cinnamon
• 2 green Cardamoms
• 3 Bay leaves
• 2 green Chilies (chopped)
• 10-15 Cashews
• 2 Tsp Ginger Garlic paste 
• 1 big Onion sliced
• 1 pound/ 1/2 kg Chicken 
• 1 Tsp red Chili powder (to taste)
• 1/2 Tsp Turmeric powder
•  salt to taste
• 1 Tsp Cumin Coriander powder
• 2 Tsp biryani masala
• 2 cups of fresh mint leaves (chopped)
  
• 2 cups of fresh green Coriander (chopped)
• 1 cup fried onions
• 1/2 cup yogurt
• 2 cups Basmati Rice (washed and soaked in water for at least half an hour)
• 2 Tsp oil
• 1/4 Tsp Caraway seeds (shahi jeera/black cumin seeds)
• 1/4 cup of milk
• a few strands of Saffron (kesar) 

Procedure :

1. Heat oil and ghee in a deep pan, add the bay leaves, cloves, cinnamon and green cardamoms. When they crackle, add the cashews, ginger garlic and chilies. Saute for a minute and add the chopped onion and fry for 2 minutes. Now add the Chicken cook on a medium high heat till all the water dries up. To that add turmeric, salt, chilli powder, cumin coriander powder, biryani masala, 1/3 fried onions, 1 cup mint leaves, and 1 cup coriander leaves. Add 1/2 cup yogurt mix well and adjust the seasoning and switch off the flame.

2. Boil the soaked rice with 1/4 tsp of Shahi jeera (caraway seeds) 2 tbs oil and some salt. The rice should absorb the salt otherwise the biryani will be tasteless. Cook the rice until 3/4 cooked do not over boil the rice. Now strain the rice and spread it out on a flat tray or surface, so that it cools faster. Soak the saffron in 1/4 cup milk.

3.  Use a heavy bottom pan with a lid. First spread some ghee at the bottom of the pan. First layer chicken, second a layer of rice now sprinkle a generous handful of chopped coriander mint and fried onions. Repeat the layers with rice being the top most layer. Sprinkle the leftover onions, mint and coriander leaves.

4. Pour the saffron milk on the top using a spoon, evenly covering the whole area. Once all layers are set cover with lid and place this pan on top of a cast iron tawa (on which chapatis are made) or another heavy bottom pan in order to prevent the bottom layer from getting burnt cook on very low flame for 40 minutes.

5. If you have oven pre heat the oven to 350°F place biryani in the oven for 30 minutes. Cool for 5 minutes and enjoy the biryani.