Rava Upma/ Rava Uppit ( Maharashtrian Style )

Rava Upma

Upma/Uppit is a popular breakfast across India. Today, I am blogging what I call the Maharashtrian style upma/uppit.  You can also check my other post on Andhra style upma.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cup rava/suji/semolina
• 1 big onion finely chopped
• 1 tea spoon finely chopped ginger
• 3 slit green chillies
• 6-8 curry leaves
• 1/2 tea spoon mustard
• 1/2 tea spoon cumin seeds
• 1/2 tea spoon urad dal
• 1/2 tea spoon hing
• salt to taste
• 1 1/2 tea spoon sugar
• 2 table spoon oil
• 2 table spoon fresh grated coconut
• 1 table spoon finely chopped coriander leaves
• 3 cups water

Method:

Heat a kadai and dry roast rava for five to eight minutes stirring continuously, till a nice aroma comes out. Don't let the rava turn brown. Remove from heat and keep aside.

Now, heat oil in a kadai, add mustard seeds when they splutter, add cumin seeds, urad dal, ginger, curry leaves, green chillies and hing. Fry for a minute and add chopped onion, fry till its turns transparent.

Add 3 cups water, salt and sugar.

Once the water starts boiling, add the roasted rava/semolina slowly little by little, stirring constantly to prevent lumps from forming.

Cover and cook till the upma becomes thick. Then add grated coconut and coriander leaves. Mix well.

Now cover and let it heat through for a minute or two. Turn off the heat.

Serve hot garnished with fresh grated coconut and coriander leaves.

Rava Upma - Andhra Style

Rava Upma - Andhra Style

Upma is originally from South India and is a popular breakfast across India.

There are many ways of preparing upma. Today, I am blogging what I call the Andhra style upma recipe. I have noticed a lot of difference in the upma that is made in Maharashtra and Andhra. In Maharashtrian upma, we add sugar and the upma is a bit thick. But in Andhra most of the times, I have had upma in restaurant's which was quite different in taste, texture, and a bit liquidy. It was also served with a special chutney that adds to the taste of this upma and is called tomato pachadi which I just loved. So at Home, I make two types of upma one is the Maharashtrian style upma ...and the other one is the Andhra style upma...which I am blogging today. You can also check my other post on Upma - Maharashtrian Style.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup rava/suji/semolina
• 1/2 onion finely chopped
• 1/2 tea spoon finely chopped ginger
• 2 finely chopped green chillies
• 5-6 curry leaves
• 1/2 tea spoon mustard
• 1/2 tea spoon jeera
• 1 tea spoon peanuts
• 2 tea spoon cashew nuts
• 1/2 tea spoon chana dal
• 1/2 tea spoon hing
• salt to taste
• 2 table spoon oil
• 2 table spoon fresh grated coconut
• 1 table spoon finely chopped coriander leaves
• 5 cups water
• 1-2 tea spoon ghee

Method:

Heat a kadai and dry roast rava for five to eight minutes stirring continuously, till a nice aroma comes out. Don't let the rava turn brown. Remove from heat and keep aside.

Now, heat oil in a kadai, add mustard seeds when they splutter, add cumin seeds, peanuts, cashew nuts, chana dal, ginger, curry leaves, green chillies and hing. Fry for a minute.

Add chopped onion, fry till its turns transparent.

Now, add 5 cups water and salt. Once the water starts boiling, add grated coconut and coriander leaves. Mix well.

Add the roasted rava/semolina slowly little by little, stirring constantly to prevent lumps from forming.

Cover and cook till the rava absorbs the water and becomes slightly thick, thick dosa batter consistency (as shown in the picture below). Add ghee and mix. Please note that the upma gets thick once it becomes cold. So, it is better to have when it is really hot.

Now turn off the heat. Your upma is now ready to be served.

 

Serve hot with Tomato pachadi.

Mooli Paratha/Radish Paratha

Mooli Paratha/Radish Paratha

 Mooli Paratha, is popular in most regions of Northern India and the Punjab.


Ingredients:

For Stuffing:

• 2 medium radish/mooli along with its leaves
• 1/2 table spoon red chilly powder
• 1/2 tea spoon cumin powder
• 1/2 tea spoon coriander powder
• 2 finely chopped green chillies
• salt to taste

For Dough:

• 3 cups whole wheat flour
• 2 table spoon ghee
• salt to taste
• oil for frying

Method:

For Stuffing:

Grate mooli/radish and finely chop its leaves. Apply salt and mix all of it together. Keep aside for 15 minutes. Radish will leave some juice. Squeeze out the extra juice from the mooli mixture. Do not throw the juice, reserve it. It can be later used for making the dough.

Now mix in green chillies, cumin powder, coriander powder, red chilly powder and salt if required.

For Dough:

Sieve atta and rub in two table spoon of ghee. Add in the reserved juice, salt and knead into a stiff dough. Add water if necessary.

For paratha:

Take a palm full of dough to form a small ball, dust the board with some wheat flour and roll the dough with a rolling pin gently to form a small chapati. Place the mooli filling in the centre of the dough.

Now close the dough from all the sides to form a small modak (Dumpling). As shown in the picture below. If there is some extra dough on top remove it and seal it properly.

Now, turn the ball upside down, dust the board with wheat flour and flatten the stuffed dough using a rolling pin, gently flatten it to form a thick round circle. Do not make the parathas very thin. Be careful not to be too hard or the filling may come out.

Heat a tawa/griddle and fry the paratha with oil or ghee from both the sides on a medium flame. When both the sides turn golden brown your paratha is ready to be served.

Serve hot with dahi, raita, pickle, butter or sauce.

Sabudana Thalipeeth

Sabudana Thalipeeth



Sabudana Thalipeeth (Sago pancakes) is a popular and traditional Maharashtrian dish. It is made of sago/sabudana and prepared mainly during fasting.

These crispy thalipeeth simply melts in mouth and are very filling. It can be made for breakfast or a meal.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup sabudana
• 2 boiled, peeled and mashed potatoes
• 4-5 green chillies coarsely ground
• 3 table spoon roasted peanut powder
• 2-3 tea spoon sugar
• salt to taste
• 2 table spoon coriander leaves,finely chopped
• oil for frying

Method:

Wash the sabudana and soak in water overnight (or) for about 4-5 hours. Make sure you add enough water to cover the sabudana. The water should be just half inch above sabudana.

Mix together sabudana, mashed potato, green chilly paste, salt, sugar, roasted peanut powder and coriander leaves. Mix properly.
 

Spread 1 table spoon of oil on a tava/ kadai, (If you are using non-stick tava, no need of greasing it, you can add oil later). Take a hand full ball of dough and pat it on the tava. Using your palm and fingers flatten the dough into a round even disk of 1/2 inch thickness. Make 5 small holes to thalipeeth so that it can cook evenly.You can apply some oil on your palm and fingers to make the patting easier.

Now cover and cook on a medium flame till it gets brown and crispy. No need of flipping it over as we cover, it gets cooked by itself.

Thalipeeth is now ready. Serve it hot with thick curd.



Grilled Corn Sandwich

Grilled Corn Sandwich

Grilled Corn Sandwich is a healthy and delicious recipe filled with creamy sweet corn. You can have it as snack or meal itself.

Ingredients:

• 10 slices sandwich bread
• 1 cup boiled corn kernels
• 1 finely chopped onion
• 1 finely chopped capsicum
• 1 tea spoon oregano
• 1 tea spoon chilli flakes or chilli powder
• salt as required
• grated cheese or cheese slices
• butter as required
• salt to taste

Method:

Heat some butter in a pan. Add onion and saute it for a minute. Then add capsicum, saute it for another minute. We don't have to cook the vegetables, the crunchiness of the vegetables should be intact. Now add boiled corn, chilli flakes, oregano, little chilly powder and salt. Mix well and turn off the heat.

Take two slices of bread and apply butter to both the slices, on one slice add grated cheese or cheese slice, then take some corn mixture and spread evenly on the cheese.

Now cover it with other slice of bread and grill. I have grilled it in an electric sandwich griller. If you don't have a griller you can make it on a tava. Serve it with tomato ketchup.

Your yummy grilled corn sandwich is now ready.



Corn Cream

Corn Cream

This is a very easy and different starter made with sweet corn cream style. It should be prepared earlier and deep fried when needed.

Ingredients:

• 1 tin sweet corn cream style
• salt to taste
• 1/4 tea spoon aji-no-moto (optional)
• 6 table spoon corn flour
• 1/2 tea spoon pepper powder
• 1/2 tea spoon garlic paste
• 1/2 tea spoon ginger paste
• 1/2 tea spoon green chilli paste
• 1 tin water
• oil for frying

Method:

Put all the above ingredients in grinder. Add one tin water and grind it into a smooth paste.

Put this mixture in a pan and heat.

Mix it and keep stirring till it becomes very thick. Remove in a tray and cool.

Keep in the fridge to set for about 2 hours. Cut into small pieces. As shown in the picture below.

Roll each piece in corn flour and deep fry.

Serve hot with tomato ketchup and green chutney.

Neer Phanasa chi kaapa/Fried Bread Fruit

Neer Phanasa chi kaapa/Fried Bread Fruit

Neer phanas/Bread Fruit

Bread fruit or neer phanas is a wonderful fruit which is mainly found in the konkan region. Not many people are aware of this fruit. There are many dishes you can make with neer phanas for example kaapa, or bhaji (stir fry Vegetable) etc. Today lets see how to make kaapa.

Ingredients:

• 1 neer phanas/bread fruit
• 2-3 tea spoons red chilly powder
• 1/2 tea spoon haldi/turmeric powder
• 1/2 tea spoon hing/asafoetida
• salt to taste
• 1/2 cup rice flour
• oil for frying

Method:

Apply oil to your knife and palms, remove the skin of the bread fruit(neer phanas). Then cut it into four pieces length wise. As shown in the picture below.

Remove the centre core of all the pieces.

Now chop each piece in desired size and soak in water.

Remove the water and rub salt to the pieces, keep aside for 5 minutes as the pieces will absorb some salt. Because we have applied salt, little water comes out, remove all the water and apply red chilly powder, haldi, hing and salt if required.

Heat 2 to 3 table spoon oil in a pan and roll the pieces of bread fruit(neer phanas) in rice flour one by one till they are nicely coated and shallow fry.

Cover and cook in low flame till they turn golden. Now turn them over and fry from the other side.

Your yummy neer phanas kaapa are now ready.

Enjoy them as a side dish with rice and dal or as a snack.

Palak Puri / Spinach Puri

Palak Puri / Spinach Puri



Palak Puri is referred as deep fried indian bread prepared using spinach/palak. People usually consider puri to be unhealthy as it is deep fried and contains lots of fat but palak puri is an healthier version of puri.

Though it contains fat, but because of palak it is healthier. Palak has a high nutritional value and is extremely rich in antioxidants. It is a rich source of vitamins, iron, calcium etc.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups wheat flour
• 1 bunch of palak
• 3 tea spoon rice flour
• 1 tea spoon besan
• 1 tea spoon cumin seeds/jeera
• 3-4 green chillies
• 1-2 tea spoon sugar
• salt to taste
• oil for deep frying

Method:

Wash and chop palak. Grind palak, green chillies, cumin seeds, sugar and salt together in a blender and turn it into a fine paste.

Take all the flours together in a large plate and add palak paste and one tea spoon oil, mix all of it together to make a soft dough, add water only if needed.

Divide the dough into lemon sized balls and roll each of them by dusting some flour or with oil into small puris with a rolling pin.

Heat oil in a kadai. To check if the oil is hot enough, drop a piece of the dough to the oil and if it goes to the base and rises immediately on the surface of the oil and starts browning, then the oil is of the right temperature to fry the puris.

Fry all the puris one by one from both the sides until they turn slightly brown in colour.

Serve hot with chutney or aloo subji

Bottle Gourd/Doodhi/Lauki/Sorakaya Paratha

Bottle Gourd/Doodhi/Lauki/Sorakaya Paratha





Lauki, dudhi or bottle gourd contains lot of water, so it is light on the stomach and good for digestion. It is ideal for those who are watching their weight.

Bottle gourd is not only rich in essential minerals, iron, protein etc; it is also rich in fibre. Fibre helps in preventing constipation and other digestive disorders.

Many of us may not want to try bottle gourd but because it has lot of health benefits it is always good to include it in our diet. So for those who still don't want to eat bottle gourd, paratha is a nice option.


Ingredients:

• 2 cups peeled and grated bottle gourd
• 2 cups wheat flour
• 2 tea spoon rice flour
• 1 tea spoon besan
• salt to taste
• 1-2 tea spoon red chilli powder
• 2 tea spoon garam masala powder
• 1-2 tea spoon ginger garlic paste
• oil for frying
• 3 table spoon finely chopped coriander leaves

Method:

Take all the flours together in a large plate, add grated bottle gourd along with its water, salt, red chilly powder, garam masala powder, ginger garlic paste and two tea spoon oil. Mix all of it together to make a soft dough, the grated bottle gourd contains lot of water so there is no need of adding water to the dough. If the dough becomes sticky you can add some more wheat flour.

Now make equal sized balls out of it and dust the surface to roll out the balls into round shaped chapatis.

Heat a tawa and put the rolled out parathas on it and cook by sprinkling oil until both sides are golden brown.

Serve hot with curd,butter,pickle or sauce.