Brussels Sprouts Indian Curry

This has been a week of discovery. The Indian vegetable scene is so deeply engraved in my DNA that I had no need or desire to open the door to a whole host of alien veggies. Till now that is. I am no longer able to procure fresh Indian vegetables beyond the humble beans, cavorting carrots, little peas, rotund potatoes and their cousins, the tomatoes. After endless weeks of producing magic with the same baseline, I stood in front of the veggies section at the grocery store this weekend. I looked at  row upon row of unknown vegetables for whose names I had to refer to the name tags stuck on the racks. Thats when I made a decision to start trying out the local produce. When in Rome and all blah blah. With panic and a deep sense of adventure I picked out among other things brussels sprouts, asparagus and celery.
The week was innaugurated by the cute looking brussels sprouts. Not knowing what to make with it and how they would cook, I decided to try it in the trademark Indian curry. The result was amazing with my dotzy also loving it!

Here is the recipe
What you need to make Brussels Sprouts Curry (To make for 2)

• Brussels sprouts - 15
• Onion - 1 (medium size)
• Tomato - 1 (small size)
• Kadlebele / Chana dal - 1 tsp
• Uddin bele / Urad dal - 1 tsp
• Turmeric  / Haldi - 1/2 tsp
• Mustard seeds / Sasuve - 1 tsp
• Cumin seeds / Jeerige  / Jeera - 1 tsp
• Fenugreek seeds / Menthya / Methi seeds - 1/2 tsp
• Green Chillies - 3
• Curry leaves - 6 (optional, but tastes great with)
• Coriander leaves - a bunch
• Oil - 1 tbsp
• Salt

Preparation to make  Brussels Sprouts Curry  (Time : 10 min)

• Remove the outer layer of Brussels Sprout and wash thoroughly under running water.
• Cut each sprout in half or quarter depending on the size. 
• Cut onions and tomatoes into small pieces
• Slit green chillies in half
• Chop coriander leaves

Method to make  Brussels Sprouts Curry  (Time : 30 mins)

• Heat the oil in a heavy bottomed pan / kadhai
• Add mustard seeds and allow it to splutter
• Add fenugreek seeds and fry for a couple of seconds
• Add green chillies, curry leaves, channa dal, urad dal, cumin seeds and turmeric and fry for half a minute
• Next comes onion which is fried till transluscent and then tomato is fried till it becomes dry.
• Add in the cut sprouts and cook on medium flame till the sprouts are tender
• Add salt to taste.

My fundas

• It looks like cabbage but tastes a little sour so the onion, tomato combination offsets this. 

Mann mein (Besan) Laddu phoota

Happy New Year 2012!

The first day of the new year is always very ambitious. I like to ensure that I do all the things that I love to do since I have a superstition that what I d

o on the first day of the year is what I will do most for the rest.

(So, as you can guess, I dont clean much.)

I woke up today with a craving for sweet and like a typical housewife in the US I have not much choice but to make what I feel like eating.

Besan Laddu is not something that I would normally pick in a sweet store and thats the reason I decided to make it.

What you need to make Besan Laddu (To make 12)

• Channa dal powder / Besan / Kadle hittu - 3 cups (cup you would serve curry in a thali)
• Fine Semolina / Sooji / Sanna Rave - 1/2 cup
• Ghee - 1 cup
• Milk - 1/2 cup
• Powdered Sugar - 2 cups
• Cardamom/Elaichi/Yellakki - 2 pods, powdered (1/2 tsp)
• Cashews - 1 for each Laddu

Preparation to make Besan Laddu (Time : 2 min)

• Mix the besan and rava together
• Powder sugar and elaichi in a mixie and keep aside

Method to make Besan Laddu (Time : 45 mins)

• Place a heavy bottomed vessel or kadai on a stove on simmer(low heat)
• Heat the ghee in a kadai
• Once ghee is warm, fold in the besan rava mixture
• The besan rava ghee mixture will cook in low heat for around 30-40 mins till raw smell of besan is gone
• Keep the heat low else it may prematurely burn the mixture
• Keep stirring it once in a while so that it gets evenly cooked
• Let the dough cool for 5 mins once cooked
• Grind together the mixture, sugar, milk for a couple of seconds till well mixed
• You could also mix manually with a spatula if you do not want extra mixie cleaning chore
• Let the dough cool
• Grease hand lightly with ghee and form balls from the dough
• Stick a cashew into each laddu and voila besan laddu is ready!

My fundas

• Replace cashews with pistachio or almond pieces
• You could break cashews into small pieces and fold it into the dough. Makes the laddu crunchy.

K square for Ganesha

Ganesha banda

Kayi kadabu thinda

Chikka kereli bidda

Dodda kereli yedda

Ganesha is such a cute God! Nobody thinks twice about teasing Ganesha or about using funny Ganesha similies in daily life. He seems to exude a certain tolerance for mere mortals :). V actually loves to make a small Ganesha vigraha her play mate at times.

I couldnt pass up on an opportunity to appease his biiig tummy with some of my khara kadabu and Kosambri. So here's how I made them

What you need to make Khara Kadabu

• Split Yellow Chickpeas (Channa Dal /Kadlebele) - 2 cups (normal thali type cup)
• Water - 4 cups
• Green Chillies - 6-8 depeding on how spicy you would like it
• Coriander - a handful of leaves
• Ginger - 1 inch piece
• Salt
• Idli stand (or whatever mechanism you steam idlis in)

Preparation to make Khara Kadabu (Time : 4 hrs)

• Soak the Channa Dal in water for 4 hours (ensure water level is atleast an inch above the channa dal level)

Method to make Khara Kadabu (Time : 20 mins)

• Drain the water from the soaked channa dal
• Grind the soaked channa dal, green chillies, coriander, ginger and salt together

Ensure that you do not add any extra water while grinding
Grind slow and repeatedly to get a smoother paste (it does not have to be a fine paste)

• Lightly grease each idli cup in the idli stand with a drop of oil
• Take a small ball of this ground mixture in your palm, make your hand into a fist and press lightly to get a longish, chubby shape
• Place this on the idli stand in one of the cups
• You could even place two of these in one idli cup to save on time
• Repeat the previous three steps till the idli stand is full or your ground mixture is finished
• Place the idli stand in a pressure cooker. Remove the weight from the cooker
• Pressure cook it for 10 minutes. (The time is the same as Idli would take to steam in your cooker)

My fundas

• The actual Ganesha habba kadabu comes with the ground mixture filling inside of a rice flour wrap. I did not make the wrap because the kadabu is what my family loves :)
• Onion is also a good addition to this kind of kadabu. Chop onion into tiny pieces and add it to the ground mixture and continue as above
• Coriander could also be added chopped instead of grinding it.

What you need to make Kosambri

• Moong dal (Hesarbele) - 1 cup
• Water - 2 cups
• Cucumber - 1
• Lemon juice - 2 tsp
• Coconut flakes - 1/2 cup
• Green chillies - 2
• Mustard - 1 tsp
• Oil - 2 tsps
• Salt

Preparation to make Kosambri (Time : 2 hrs)

• Soak the moong dal in water for 2 hours

Method to make Kosambri (Time : 15 mins)

• Drain the water from the soaked moong dal.
• Cut the cucumber lengthwise in the middle and remove the seeds and the rest of the gooey stuff.
• Cut the hard part of the cucumber into very small pieces.
• Mix the cucumber pieces, soaked moong dal, lemon juice, coriander, salt and coconut.
• For seasoning, fry the mustard and green chillies in oil till the mustard splutters out
• Add the seasoning to the Kosambri mixture.

My fundas

• You could replace cucumber with grated carrot and it would give you an entirely new salad