Water melon rind gojju

My little one loves watermelon and every week I buy a huge one, so that it lasts for a week. This time the one I bought had a thick rind, So decided to make some use of it. I know they normally use in sambar but I had never tasted it, so wasn't sure of the taste. I used few pieces in sambar and couldn't tell the difference between lauki and the rind. So I used the rest to make gravy with coconut or Gojju as we call in kannada.

What we need:

2 cups cubed Water melon rind
1 large onion
1/2 cup coconut
1 tablespoon ginger-garlic paste
2 cloves
1/2 inch cinnamon
Few strands of cilantro leaves
1 teaspoon coriander powder
2 teaspoon red chilly powder
2 tablespoon tomato puree
1/2 teaspoon mustard
1 table spoon oil

How it's made:
Peel the green portion out of the rind, cut the white portion into small cubes. Grind onions, coconut, cilantro leaves, clove n cinnamon into a fine paste. Heat oil in a pan, add mustard seeds, when it splutters, add the ground masala, ginger garlic paste, tomato puree and cook for a while. Add chilly and coriander powder, salt and the cubed water melon rind and cook till done.
The fastest  way to cook this is in pressure cooker, put every thing together and cook for one whistle.
Serve with roti or white rice. It tasted like bottle gourd/ lauki to me, I am surely going to try more recipes with this now.

Andhra Chicken Fry

We had been to an Indian restaurant 2 years ago with my inlaws and had ordered this andra chicken fry as a starter. We really liked the flavors and the spiciness of it and wanted to try. Was wondering what spices to use, I thought of asking my brother inlaw who is a great lover  of chicken and from andra. He gave me this recipe and wow it really turned out to be spicy and delicious, much better than the one we tried out in the restaurant.  

What You need :

1 lb Chicken with bones - cut into bite size pieces.
1 large onion finely chopped
1 tablespoon Ginger garlic paste
Dry Masala : 3 Cloves , 1/2 inch cinnamon sticks,  2 teaspoon black pepper, 1-2 dry chillies, turmeric powder and  1/4 cup dry coconut.

Grind to coarse powder.

1 big Tomato boiled, peeled and Pureed.

How it's made:

Heat oil in a pan and add the onions. Fry till onions turn golden brown in color. Add chicken, fry for a few minutes and add salt to taste. Close the lid and cook til the chicken is almost done. Open the lid and let the water evaporate. Add ginger-garlic paste, cook for a while and than add tomato puree and fry for some more time. Now add the dry masala and fry for 4-5 minutes till you get a nice aroma.

serve as starter or as a side dish. 

Note: use the red chilly depending on your taste and the heat of the chilly, My BIL suggested I use 10-12 chilly, I used just 2 red chilly and it was still hot.

I sometimes use crushed canned tomatoes instead of tomato puree.

Healthy carr-lett juice

The heat and humidity is just soaring and its been really hard on my health. To top that haven't been getting enough sleep. However, I need to keep myself up and have enough strength to run behind my little one. I have been gulping down juice every few hours on weekend. Wanted to try something new and healthy. I had this iceberg lettuce in the fridge which needed to be used, I am not the one who likes salad, so I used it along with some carrots and made this nutritious refreshing juice.

How I Made :

Took Half iceberg lettuce and 1 big carrot along with some water and blended it. Strained it and added some honey and a pinch of salt, added some ice cubes and enjoyed the drink. May be next time I will add some mint to make it more refreshing. By the way iceberg lettuce is known to have mild opiate like effect which aids sleep, which I was in badly need of.

What happened to the strained pulp, it went into my dal.

Nutty Croissants

What do you do when you have to visit a friend and have no energy to make something  to take and don't think you could stop by a store to pick up something. You come up with a quick and easy recipe, sometimes necessity forces you to make something new that you have never tried before. That's exactly what happened to me last week, I was wondering what I would do, I found a package of croissant in my refrigerator which was meant to be for my breakfast and my neurons were immediately spiking with an idea, so here is what I did. 

What you need :
1 pack-croissant dough
2 table spoon butter
 for filling:
1 tablespoon bread crumbs
4 walnuts
5 cashew nuts
4 almonds
20 raisins
dash of cinnamon powder
1 tablespoon sugar

How its made:
Make a course powder of all the filling ingredients, add 1 table spoon of melted butter, mix well and set it aside. Open up the croissant pack, take each individual triangle spread the filling and roll the croissant. Do this with the rest, normally these packs make 8 croissants. Set in a tray, brush melted butter on top sprinkle some crystal sugar and place a silvered almond and bake in a preheated oven at 375 F for 11-13 minutes or as per the package instructions.

Serve warm or cool it. If you have to serve later just warm it up lightly in microwave. There you go, a nutty delight to enjoy in few minutes. Its slightly crispy on the outside, soft and than hits the nutty flavors and sweetness......

Stuffed Brinjal

Brinjals or eggplant are not something that I really like, but once in a while I do cook brinjals, that too if I am able to get some fresh ones in Indian store. This recipe of stuffed brinjal is from my mom and I just love this combination of peanuts and onions in the masala with the tanginess of tamarind. I guess she learned this recipe from her friends from Dharwad. Normally they don't make this variety of stuffed brinjal in the Mysore region.
Anyway, wherever its origin is, it is a nice combo to have with akki (rice) roti or jowar roti.

What you need:
4 small sized brinjals/ eggplant
1/4 cup peanuts
1 teaspoon sesame seeds
1/4 cup grated coconut
1/2 cup finely chopped red onions
1 teaspoon red chilly powder
1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder
2 teaspoon tamarind paste
2 tablespoon copped cilantro leaves
salt to taste
1/4 cup oil

How its made :
Dry roast the peanuts and sesame seeds seperately and grind it into course powder. To this powder add chilly powder, turmeric powder, salt, onions, cilantro and finally the tamarind paste, mix well and set aside.
Wash the brinjals, pat it dry, cut of the stem part and make a  slit in the form of plus such that the brinjals are divided into four parts but still held at the bottom. Fill the stuffing in between the slits and set aside. Heat oil in a pan,add the stuffed brinjals and the remaining stuffing masala and let it cook in the oil. Keep flipping the brinjals often or else it will burn on one side. If required drizzle some oil over it while cooking, this will help the masala inside the brinjal cook well. When almost done sprinkle some water, close the lid and lower the heat. The brinjals will get cooked in the steam generated.  Serve hot with rice/ jowar roti. or as a side dish with rice and dal.

Some people grind the masala into a fine paste for stuffing. For a less oil version you can start off with 1 tablespoon of oil, add brinjals and later add water and steam it. I personally like with more oil. The peanut masala tends to get crispier with frying in oil and goes well with the mushy brinjals.

Wawa Melon aka Water Melon Granita

Let's kick start the summer with some refreshing water melon granita. Remember your childhood days licking ice ka gola, this is just a similar version of it.  I am sure kids would love it and the elders too. Its so refreshing and easy to make, All you do is blend, freeze, rake and eat .......it's fun and you need few basic ingredients.

Wondering about the new name for a common water melon, well that's my little one's version and I got used to calling it by that name now. Water in her baby language is 'wawa'.

This is my entry to serve it- chilled, hosted by Oh Taste n See.

What you Need:
3 cups seedless watermelon cubes
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 tablespoon sugar ( add according to the sweetness of the water melon)

How its Made:
Blend all the ingredients in a blender. Pour into a shallow freezer safe bowl and freeze for about 30 minutes, uncovered. Using a fork rake the crystals that are formed and refreeze for another 30 minutes. Rake the crystals again and freeze overnight or for 3- 4 hours. I left it in the freezer overnight and next day just used a fork to mix it and got beautiful crystals. For serving, use pre-chilled glasses, layer water melon balls and top it with watermelon granita, or just go the natural way use watermelon rind as bowls. The darker the color of the watermelon the prettier your granita would look. The water melon I used was pale red which makes the crystals look whiter, but it was very sweet.

Happy Father's Day

A father is always making his baby into a little woman. And when she is a woman he turns her back again. ~Enid Bagnold

Happy father's day to all dad's.