Vegetable Sambar (Pappu Charu)

Shoj and myself love vegetables and anything which involves vegetables. I always make this sambar or pappu charu (called in Telugu), but today it turned out so good that I thought of sharing it to you guys through my blog. 

This is another way to make kids eat vegetables.

This wonderful aromatic sambar can be served with steamed rice and papad.

Ingredients:

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3/4 cup Toor Dal washed

3 medium sized Carrots peeled and cubed to 1 inch thick pieces

1/4 lb fresh Green Beans de-stemmed and cut into 1 inch long pieces

1 big Chayote (chow-chow or seema/bengaluru vankaya) peeled and cubed

1 small Potato peeled and cubed

2 medium size Tomatoes cubed

2 medium size yellow Onions cubed

1 sprig Curry leaves

4 dry Red Chili's

Salt to taste

1 tsp Turmeric powder

2 tbsp Sambar powder

2 tsp Tamarind paste

2 pods of garlic

Oil for seasoning

1 tsp Mustard seeds

1/4 tsp Cumin seeds

1/2 tsp Fenugreek seeds

1/2 tsp Asafoetida

1/4 cup Cilantro chopped

Method:

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1. In a pressure cooker add the toor dal and enough water so that the dal is completely soaked in water and all vegetables excpet onions and tomatoes and pressure cook on medium high heat for two whistles and off the flame and let it come to room temperature before opening the cooker.

2. In a heavy bottom pan add oil and when it's hot add mustard seeds and when they start to sputter add curry leaves, asafoetida, cumin seeds and fenugreek seeds.

3. Now add the garlic and onions and saute them until onions turn transparent.

4. Now reduce the flame to low add turmeric powder, tomatoes and sambar powder and saute it until the tomatoes become tender and the raw smell of the sambar powder is gone.

5. Add enough water to the seasoning and bring it to boil.

6. Now open the cooker, add enough salt, tamarind juice and the seasoned water and bring it to 1 or 2 boil and garnish with cilantro leaves. 

7. Serve this Sambar with steamed rice and papad.


(Note: you can add your choice of vegetables there is no rule in adding vegetables. some suggestions are Okra, Eggplant (these should be sauted and cooked in the seasoning and not to be precooked as they tend to get mushy or overcooked in pressure cooker), raw banana etc., can be added to sambar).

Chutney Dal/Roasted Gram Spiced Rice - Day 5 Blogging Marathon

Wishing all you Lovely Ladies, a Very Happy Women's Day. Roasted Gram/Chutney Dal Rice, it just came as i was cooking. I kept adding ingredients that came on to my mind, the result was a Tasty, Spicy Mixed Rice. Served this to my hubby for Dinner, he was super satisfied to have a bowl of this after a Tiring Day.


Ingredients

1 Cup Rice, Cooked ( i have used Basmati Rice)
2 tbsp Roasted Gram/Chutney Dal
1 tbsp Peanuts, Skinned
4-5 nos Red Chillies
2 cloves of Garlic, thinly sliced
2 tbsp Dessicated Coconut
4-5 Curry leaves
1 tsp Oil
Salt to taste


Seasoning
1 tsp Oil
1/2 tsp Mustard Seeds
hing a pinch
4-5 Curry leaves 
2 tbsp Chopped Almonds

Method

Heat a tsp of oil in a Pan, add Roasted Gram and Red Chillies. Warm it up a little. Add Peanuts and Garlic and Keep Roasting. Once the Peanuts change color a bit, add Dessicated Coconut and Curry leaves. Roast it  for few more seconds. Put off the flame. Let it cool. Grind this to a fine powder.

Heat oil in the same pan, Splutter mustard seeds, add hing and curry leaves.
Add Almonds and fry them. Once the almonds are roasted, add Rice and Sauté for a minute, add the Grounded Dal Powder, Salt and Mix well with Rice. If the Rice Mix is Dry, add some more Oil/Ghee. Serve with Chips. Makes a Good Lunch Box Recipe. The Dal Mix can be Powdered prior and stored  in an Air-tight container.


Sending this to MLLA-33 happening @ Ammalu's Kitchen, Event started by Susan.


Check out the bloggers doing the Blogging Marathon, along with me.. 

Group 1 
30 Minutes Meals: Gayathri Anand 
Baked Goods: Monika 
For On Going Events: Gayathri Kumar, Usha
Kids Friendly: PJ, Savitha, Smitha, Veena Aravind  Srivalli
Rice Varieties: Champa, Divya, Padma


Group 2 
30 Minutes Meals:Priya Mahadavan, Pavani, 
Seven Days of Salad: lla, Divya Vikram, 
For Ongoing 7 Events: Priya Suresh, Suma Gandlur, Harini,   
Kids Friendly: Vatsala, Jay, Kamalika 
Seven Days of Rice: Veena Krishnakumar, Padma Rekha and myself

Egg Masala

I was thinking that we didn't eat egg for a long time, hmm.. why not try something new and simple and with lot of spice powders. OK lets get started with boiled eggs :-))

This is a wonderful spicy and simple recipe to serve it as a side dish for any Indian meal like sambar, or any mixed rice recipes like lemon rice, tomato rice or tamarind rice or just eat with anything you like.

Nutrition facts of Egg:

Egg yolks and whole eggs store a lot of protein and choline. For this reason, the USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) categorizes eggs as Meats within the Food Guide Pyramid.

Popular choices for egg consumption are chicken, duck, roe, and caviar. The egg most often humanly consumed by far is the produce of the chicken.

Eggs add protein to a person's diet, as well as various other nutrients.

Chicken eggs are the most commonly eaten eggs. They supply all essential amino acids for humans, and provide several vitamins and minerals, including vitamin A, riboflavin (vitamin B₂), folic acid (vitamin B₉), vitamin B₆, vitamin B₁₂, choline, iron, calcium, phosphorus andpotassium. They are also a single-food source of protein.

All of the egg's vitamin A, D, and E are in the egg yolk. The egg is one of the few foods that naturally contain vitamin D. A large egg yolk contains approximately 60 Calories (250 kilojoules); the egg white contains about 15 Calories (60 kilojoules). A large yolk contains more than two-thirds of the recommended daily intake of 300 mg of cholesterol (although one study indicates that the human body may not absorb much cholesterol from eggs). The yolk makes up about 33% of the liquid weight of the egg. It contains all of the fat, slightly less than half of the protein, and most of the other nutrients. It also contains all of the choline, and one yolk contains approximately half of the recommended daily intake. Choline is an important nutrient for development of the brain, and is said to be important for pregnant and nursing women to ensure healthy fetal brain development.

The diet of the laying hens can greatly affect the nutritional quality of the eggs. For instance, chicken eggs that are especially high in omega 3 fatty acids are produced by feeding laying hens a diet containing polyunsaturated fats and kelp meal. Pastured raised free-range henswhich forage largely for their own food also tend to produce eggs with higher nutritional quality in having less cholesterol and fats while being several times higher in vitamins and omega 3 fatty acids than standard factory eggs ^[24] Focusing on the protein and crude fat content, a 2010 USDA study determined that there were no significant differences of these two macronutrients in consumer chicken eggs.
Cooked eggs are easier to digest, as well as having a lower risk of salmonellosis.

Ingredients:

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4 boiled Eggs (boil egg for about 15-20 mins with salted water to avoid breaking of eggs)

1/2 Red Onion chopped

1/2 tsp Ginger paste

1/4 tsp Asafoetida

Salt to taste

1/2 tsp Black Pepper powder

1 tbsp Cumin Powder

1/2 tsp Turmeric powder

1 1/2 tbsp Coriander powder

1 tsp Chili powder

1 tsp Cumin seeds
1/4 tsp Garam Masala powder

1/2 tsp Fennel seeds

2 tsp Oil

Cilantro to garnish

Method:

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1. Peel the boiled eggs and cut into half lengthwise.

2. In a pan add oil, when it's hot add asafoetida, cumin seeds and fennel seeds.

3. Now add the onions and turmeric powder and saute it until the onions turn transparent.

4. Now the simmer the flame to low (to avoid the masala to burn) and add all the spices and saute it until the raw smell of the masala is gone for about 5 mins.

5. Now add the eggs and carefully mix so that the egg yolks should not fall apart.

6. Off the flame and garnish with cilantro leaves after transferring it to a serving bowl.


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