This has been in my draft for a long time.. When both my laptops crashed i finally learned the lesson not to treasure my pics in “My Pictures ” but i have to publish them here! LOL! I finally returned to my old desk top but i have lost the mobility! now i have to come to the computer room when im making something new or i’ll have to print out the recipe. Well but im happy that my desktop never lets me down but i did promise myself to publish the recipes as soon as i  cook or bake them!

One of the easiest curry i make when i wake up late or not in the mood for cooking. Thank god my kids love this!

1 Raw banana

1/4 tsp turmeric powder

1/4  fenugreek powder

3/4 – 1 cup grated coconut

1/2 tsp cumin seeds

1 green chilli

3-4 tbsp yoghurt

salt to taste

For Tadka/tempering oil, mustard seeds, red chilli, curry leaves

Remove banana skin and  wash and slice them into thick pieces. Put them in a vessel and add turmeric  and fenugreek powder and salt.  In a medium sized skillet add 2 cups of water and bananas, cover and cook till done.    Meanwhile, grind grated coconut, cumin seeds and  green chillies to a fine paste.  Add this paste to the cooked bananas and mix well.  Beat yoghurt and pour over it.  Keep on stirring the curry and cook on a low flame till it starts to boil.  Turn off the flame.  In a tadka pan, heat oil and add mustard seeds, red chillies and curry leaves.  Turn off the flame immediately and pour it over the curry.  Mix well and serve hot with rice

A lazy lazy day and your groceries are almost empty! So what do you feed your family? Well my first choice will be Salads!!! Mix everything you have a there you go.. a very healthy nourishing salad.  :)

All you have to do is mix lettuce, pumpkin seeds, cherry tomatoes, olives, avocados, zucchini  mushrooms, chickpeas, drizzle olive oil on top and serve!

I dont add salt in any of my salads you may add if you like.

This Salad goes to Light Meal event and Healthy snacking event

My hubby hated any type of okra recipe. Over these years i have been making different types of recipes but never got a green signal from him till now! When he used to call from office to ask whats for dinner? and if i say okra, he’ll say ok.. im coming late!! LOLs!!

Now i got the perfect bhindi recipe for him after almost 7 years!

25o grms okra thinly sliced

1/2 tsp jeera

1 medium sized onions thinly sliced

1 tsp ginger garlic paste

1 large tomato cut into cubes

1 tsp red chilli powder

1 tsp corriander powder

1/4 tsp turmeric powder

salt to taste

extra virgin olive oil

2 tbsp very sour curd/ yogurt/ dahi

curry leaves and corriander leaves to garnish

Heat extra virgin olive oil in a heavy bottom vessel. Add jeera to it. When the jeera splutters add okra to it and keep on stirring in a high heat for 5 mts. Then reduce the speed and add onions to it. Once the onipns are soft add ginger garlic paste and stir for 2 mts. Add tomatoes to it. When the tomatoes are soft add the dry spices, salt and mix well. Close and cook for some time. When the masalas and okra is well mixed turn off the stove and add the yogurt to it.  Serve hot with rotis.

This is one of the easiest soup i make  and loved by my son He says this is pasta soup! LOL!! Beans are very nutritious and is a good source of dietary fibre, protein, Iro

n and rich in folate.

1 medium sized white onion finely chopped

2 garlic cloves crushed

2 celery sticks chopped finely*

1 small zucchini chopped finely*

1 small carrot grated*

1/2 can of Italian  tomatoes (i used Cirio Popla)

1 can of Baked beans (No salt added)

Spice : Oregano, Basil, Marjoram, Crushed red pepper, Black pepper – Use as per your taste

Heat 1 tblsp extra virgin olive oil in a saucepan. Add onions and garlic to it and saute until the onions are soft. Add the vegs to it and saute again for 3-4 mts. Add the tomatoes and Beans to it. Mix well and add 1 cup water.

Bring to a boil and add the spices to it.

* i prefer to chop the veggies finely because my kids wont know i have added them! You can cut them in any size you like.

This Post goes to the Light Food Event

After Ramadan its back to normal life. We all miss the fasting, waking up for sehri, the iftaari… Eid was on Sunday in Singapore ans the next 2 days we had lot of gettogethers and lots of friends visiting us..  So only today everything turned to normal. Another thing is we started with Extra Virgin Olive oil for cooking. Im still looking out for whether its compatible with Indian cooking.. so far no taste difference and i’m loving it!

i wanted to cook something very simple today so this came up in my mind..  a very simple recipe which will go well with roti and rice.

3-4 large potatoes peeled and cut and boiled. But should not be soft and mushy.

1 tsp jeera / cmin seeds

1 medium size onion chopped finely

1/2 tsp ginger garlic paste

1 tsp red chili pwder

1/2 tsp turmeric pwdr

1/2 coriander pwdr

1/2 tsp roasted cumin pwdr

salt to taste

olive oil fr frying

Heat oil in a heavy bottom vessel. Add jeera and onions together. When the onions are brown add the ginger garlic paste. Keep on stirring and add red chilli pwdr and turmeric pwdr and mix well. After this add potatoes, coriander, cumin pwders and salt and mix well.

Close and cook for another few mts.

Ramadan Day 7

The sweet version of french toast is a quick breakfast and the spicy one is a quick snack! My sweet version goes for WYF : Breakfast Event and my spicy version goes for the Ramadan event

Sweet French Toast

5 slices of white bread

2 large eggs

1/4 cup milk

1/4 tsp cardamom powder

2 tbsp sugar (add more or less as per your taste)

a pinch of sugar

oil for shallow frying

-Cut bread into half diagonally.

- Beat eggs, sugar, milk, cardamom powder and salt .

- Dip the bread into the egg mix and shallow fry.

Spicy French Toast

5 slices of white bread

2 large eggs

1 medium sizes onion

2-3 green chillies (Use less or more according to your taste)

salt to taste.

-Cut bread into half diagonally.

- Grind onions and green chillies to a fine paste without adding water

- Beat eggs and add the onion-chilli paste and salt to it and mix well.

- Dip the bread into the egg mix and shallow fry.

Ramadan Day 5

I’m smiling as i type this because i was nicked as ‘Bonda’ during my childhood days! I used to be angry when my cousins call me that but now when i think back i cant help laughing because i really was fat and round! the gol gol type LOL! and i loved potatoes and i still do.

Potato is the Raja (king)of all veggies. I havent come across someone who doesn’t like potatoes. Fry ir or bake it or steam it of add to your stew it tastes so good.

Here is my simple recipe for bonda:

For the potato mixture–

1/2 tsp mustard and cumin seeds

3-4 tbsps of oil

4 large potatoes boiled and mashed

1 tsp ginger garlic paste

3 green chillies finely chopped

salt to taste

a handful of corriander leaves chopped finely.

Heat oil in a kadai and add the mustard and cumin seeds and let it splutter. Add onions and fry till onions are light brown. Add ginger-garlic paste to it and fry for 2-3 mts. Add green chillies and salt and  mix well. Add the mashed potatoes mix well and then chopped corriander leaves at the end and set aside till it cools. Make lemon size balls after cooling.

For the batter–

1 cup plain flour

1 tsp ajwain

salt to taste

water to mix the batter

Mix everything to form a thick batter.

**The batter should not be watery otherwise i wont stick to the bondas. In my picture my batter was a bit of watery so it did not stick to the batter.

*** Variations of the batter

> 1/2 cup plain flour and rice flour (According to me this one is the best)

> 1 cup rice flour

> 1 cup besan flour

Dip the potato balls in the batter and deep fry.

My bondas go for the Ramadan Event hosted by Lubna

This is one of the very very famous dishes in kerala. and one of the most popular break fast item too. im blogging this for Srivalli’s Rice Mela she really gives a reason to cook and blog! You rock girl!!!

Puttu is made of parboiled rice flour. It is first washed and dried and then grinded to make flour. Well actually thats the procedure in kerala.. but since im in Singapore i go for the ready madeputtu flour which is much more easier!! LOL!

Brown channa curry or chicken curry or stews goes well with puttu. today morning i made brown channa curry to go with it.

For the puttu you’ll need

3 cups rice flour
1 cup water
1-2 cups of scraped coconut
salt to taste

Take the flour in a large bowl and add salt to it. Add the water slowly to it to make the puttudough. The puttu dough is very loose and should not be any lumps in it. If u find any lumps break it and keep on mixing it.

• If you are using roasted flour you might need more water. so add water accordingly.

Now boil water in the puttu kutti (puttu maker). u can see that there are 2 parts of the puttukutti. Boil water in the below one.

Mean while in the kutti (the upper part of the puttu maker) Add 1 tbsp of coconut. On top of that add 3 tbsp of flour. Again coconut and flour. repeat this till the kutti is full.

But be sure that the top and bottom of the puttu kutti should be filled with coconut layer. Now fix the kutti on top of the puttu maker. And boil it till the steam comes out from the top.

Puttu can also be eaten with bananas and sugar…

Now here goes the brown channa curry or kadala curry

1 medium sized onion thinly sliced
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
2 cups brown channa
1 tbsp ginger garlic paste
1 medium sized tomato cut into small pieces
1 1/2 tbsp coriander pwdr
1/2 tbsp red chilli pwdr (if u want to make it more spicy u can add more.)
1/4 tbsp haldi pwdr
1 spring curry leaves
salt to taste
oil for sauting
4 cups of water

heat oil in a pressure cooker. Add mustard seeds to it. when they splutter add onions and curry leaves to it. When the onions are brownish add ginger garlic paste to it and saute for another 1 mt. After that add tomatoes to it. When the tomatoes are soft add the masalas to it. Once oilseparates form the mixture add the brown channa and water to it and presurre cook for 20-25mts.

And now its ready to serve with puttu!

This entry also goes to WYF:Breakfast Event

“Soup is a food that is made by combining ingredients such as meat and vegetables in stock or hot/boiling water, until the flavor is extracted, forming a broth”.  source Wikipedia

When im lazy to cook or eat something solid food soups come to the rescue! One of the soups which i make during dinner time is this one.

It is easy to prepare and and very healthy as it as chicken breast, carrots, celery, potatoes, spinach and a lot of spices to spice it up!

So for this soup you will need

200-300 grams of chicken breast

1 medium size potato

1/2 of a spinach bunch

1 small carrot

1 celery stalk

Cut everything in to small pieces and boil together for 2 hours. Blend it with a hand blender into a fine paste or as per you like. Garnish with black pepper, marjoram,basil,oregano,crushed red pepper and salt!

This soup is really filling and you can also change the choice of veggies, u can add corn, green peas, tomatoes, or any other veggie.