Puffed Rice Upma

This is a tasty breakfast/evening snack recipe for people who are bored with the usual idly/dosa for breakfast. I learnt this puffed rice/bhel/borugulu/murmure upma from my mil. Here goes the recipe!

Preparation time : 15 mins
Cooking time : 15 mins
Quantity : serves 3-4

Ingredients:

Puffed rice - 200gms
Turmeric - 1/2 tbsp
Salt - 1.5 tbsp

For tempering:
cooking oil - 3 tbps
mustard seeds - 1/2 tbsp
jeera/cumin seeds - 1/2 tbsp
urad dal - 1 tbsp
chana dal - 1 tbsp
Curry leaves - 5-6 no.s

Vegetables:
Onion - 1 medium sized chopped
Tomato - 1 medium sized chopped
Green chillies - 4, cut length wise
Capsicum - 1 small, chopped finely (optional)
Carrot - 1 small, chopped finely (optional)
Lime juice - from 2 medium sized lemons

For taste maker:
Roasted bengal gram dal - 4 tbsps
Dry coconut/dry copra/desiccated coconut - 4 tbsps grated
Dry red chillies - 2

Recipe:
1. Take the puffed rice in a bowl, pour water till it is immersed. Now take handful of wet puffed rice, squeeze and discard excess amount of water and keep it aside. Repeat this process for the complete puffed rice. Please do not soak the puffed rice as it will become mushy, it has to be taken out immediately after adding water.
2. Add the oil to a tawa and heat it. Once it is hot enough add the mustard seeds followed by jeera, urad dal, chana dal and roast them for a minute.
3. Now add curry leaves and green chillies, roast it for 2-3 mins.
4. Then add onion and after onions become transperent add the remaining chopped vegetables. Fry this mixture for around 5 mins or till the veggies are cooked.
5. Now add turmeric, salt and mix well.
6. Add the puffed rice at this stage and immediately switch off the flame. Mix the puffed rice with the cooked vegetables properly.
7. Add the ingredients mentioned under taste maker to a mixer and grind it to a fine powder. 
8. Add the taste maker powder to puffed rice upma and mix well. At the end add the lime juice to the upma and mix well.

Delicious puffed rice upma is ready! The serving should be a bit more than the regular rava upma as it's not filling with meager quantity. And the best part is, this can be eaten as it is without any other accompaniment like chutneys! Enjoy!

Andhra instant pickle base

Here I have given the base for most of the instant andhra pickles. More or less only the vegetable used in making pickle varies and the pickle base recipe remains constant. This recipe tastes good for the following veggies:
yellow cucumber (peeled, deseeded)
roasted brinjal
raw mango (skip the tamarind)
coconut
Roasted Mint/pudina
Roasted Palak etc
Yet to try with capsicum and ridge gourd!

Preparation Time - 15 mins
Cooking Time - 5 mins
Quantity - serves 3-4

Ingredients:
Coriander seeds - 2 tbsps
Methi seeds - 1 tbsp
Mustard seeds - 1 tbsp
Dry red chillies - 2
Green chillies - 2
Coriander leaves - 1/4 cup
Turmeric - 1/2 tbsp
Hing - a pinch
Tamarind - 1/2 lemon size, soaked in water for at least 10 mins
Cooking oil - 2 tbsps
Garlic pods - 3-4 no.s
Salt - to taste
vegetable of choice -1 cup chopped

Recipe:
1. Soak tamarind in required amount of water in a bowl and keep aside
2. Heat the oil in a kadai.
3. Once the oil is hot enough, add mustard seeds. when they start spluttering, add coriander seeds, methi seeds and dry red chillies. Roast them for 2 mins on low flame.
4. Now add green chillies and roast for another 2 mins.
5. Now add turmeric and hing and switch of the flame.
6. Let this mixture cool down and then transfer it into a mixer. Grind it coarsely.
7. Now add garlic pods, coriander leaves, soaked tamarind (discard water) and salt to the mixer. Grind all the ingredients into a coarse mixture, sprinkling very little water as required.
8. Your andhra pickle base is ready.
9. To this, add the vegetable and grind to a coarse paste.

Indulge yourself in the spice of the pickle with some rice, ghee and papad! 

Eggless Chocolate Walnut Cake - Gourmet version

This is another version of the chocolate cake which is very rich in flavor, texture, taste and what not? So this is called the gourmet version! But again this is an 'eggless cake - made in cooker' recipe.

Preparation time: 20 mins
Cooking time : 60 mins
Quantity : 8-10 servings

Ingredients:

Walnuts - 1/2 cup chopped
Raisins - 1/2 cup
Unsalted butter - 1 tbsp
Maida - 1 tbsp

Dry Ingredients:
Atta/Whole wheat flour - 2.5 cups
Powdered Sugar - 2.5-3 cups
Baking soda - 2 tbsps
Baking powder - 3/4 tbsp
Unsweetened cocoa powder - 1.5 cups
Salt - 1.5 tbsp

Wet Ingredients:
Dark Chocolate - 85 gms
Ripe banana : 3/4 cup mashed
Beaten curd/yogurt - 1.5 cups
Odourless cooking oil - 1 cup (or) Unsalted butter - 1 cup
Hot brewed coffee (decoction) - 1.5 cups (made from around 5-6 tbsps of filter coffee powder)
Vanilla essence - 1 tbsp

Recipe:
1. Combine all the items under dry ingredients and sieve them together for two times in one large bowl.
2. In a separate bowl, chop the dark chocolate into pieces and add the hot coffee decoction to it. Mix well till it melts and forms a thick mixture.
3. To this, add mashed banana, curd, oil, vanilla essence and mix well.
4. Add this wet mixture to the dry ingredients mix, add chopped walnuts and raisins and mix well. Now the cake mix is ready.
5. Take an aluminium vessel, apply butter inside and powder it with maida.
6. Pour the cake mix into it.
7. Place a tawa on medium flame and place the pressure cooker on top of it. Please make sure the cooker is without water, whistle and washer. Close the lid of the cooker and let it heat for atleast 10 mins.
8. Now place the aluminium vessel with cake mix inside the cooker and close the cooker lid.
9. Let the cake bake for about 45-60 mins on medium flame. But please keep checking once in every 20 mins to see if the cake is done. To check if the cake is baked, place a knife inside the cake and pull it out and it should come out without any moist cake mix on it.

Note:
1. The cooker method I have given is the same one that I followed at home. If you have an alternate or better way of preparing the cake in cooker, please feel free.
2. Let the tawa that is placed under the cooker be an unused/old one as you cannot use it again for making things like dosa, only phulkas can be made on such tawas later on.
3. The substitute for tawa is using sand inside the cooker, but I have not yet used it personally.