Thursday, August 18, 2011

Palak Bajji/Spinach Curry/Palak Gojju: Tangy, Spicy & Garlicy

Want to enjoy a meal during sore throat, cold & cough? Prepare palak bajji & enjoy any boring meal. It has the perfect ingredients to give a high to your taste buds. Great news about this curry is, when refrigerated it stays up to a month.


Ingredients: (For around 2 cups of curry)
Spinach/Palak: 3 big bunches (Around 300 grams)
Garlic: 5 pods
Amtekayi: 3 nos (Since this is not available outside India, substitute with a medium grape sized tamarind).
Green chillies: 6 nos, more or less
Salt: According to taste

For tempering:
Oil: 1 tbsp, preferably coconut oil
Mustard seeds: 1 tsp
Garlic: 4 pods, minced or sliced
Curry leaves: 8-10nos



Method:
  • Wash the spinach leaves along with the stem thoroughly in water. Chop the leaves & the tender stem coarsely. 
  • Add less than 1/2 cup of water to the chopped spinach leaves. To this add garlic, amtekayi or tamarind, green chillies & salt. 
  • Boil on medium-high heat for 10mins or pressure cook for 1 whistle.  Allow them to cool. 
  • Once cooled, puree the mixture. 
  • Heat oil in a pan. When oil is hot, throw in mustard seeds followed by garlic & curry leaves. Saute till the leaves wilt & garlic turns golden brown.
  • Add the spinach puree & adjust the seasoning. Boil on a medium-low heat for 10-15mins until the flavors blend in.
  • Enjoy with ganji/porridge, rice or dosa.

Notes:
  • If amtekayi is used: After boiling the amtekayi, squeeze out the juice & discard the hard portion.
  • Ganji/Kanji/Porridge & this curry is a classic combination. 

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Taiyo Meat Chopper

Are you wondering that how come a vegetarian blog is writing about meat? That is the name of the chopper that I recently invested in chopping vegetables. Sounds contradicting!! I went with the words of my friend here & bought this chopper. I am so far happy with it.

When I wrote about my chopper here, many of my friends asked me to share the information. So, here I am writing about it.

 (Pic Courtesy: http://www.courts.com.sg/Products/CourtsStoreOnlineCatalog/PID-IP010943(Courts).aspx)


Name: Taiyo Meat Chopper
From: Courts Megastore
Price: Usual price S$39.90(I bought for S$29.90, during some sale)
More details:Refer here.

Now coming to my listed pros & cons.

Pros:
  • Slicing + grating of carrots, cucumbers: very good & can be done within seconds.
  • Mincing + shredding + chopping very fine, great.
  • Watery vegetables like tomato & cucumber could also be chopped.
  • Small in size.
  • Cleaning of the jar is very easy.
Cons:
  • Was not able to chop green leafy vegetables.
  • I did not find it useful for making stir-fry/poriyal/palya because it doesn't cut the way we need. 
Note: This is not a paid review. My friends asked for the details of the chopper, so I wrote it for them. 

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Popular Rasam Recipes

My blog is getting a back seat because of other higher priority tasks. I really want to get back to blogging in full swing. Hoping to settle all the other tasks in another couple of weeks.

So, thought of taking a sneak-peak of some of my popular rasam recipes. Do try if you haven't tried them yet!

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Noodles and Vegetables with Honey Ginger Sauce

Am I the only one who crave for noodles when sick with cold and sore throat? I love this noodles with honey-ginger sauce and it is perfe...