Easy Corn Bread
I remember years ago when we had taken a road trip to Austin, we were tired, hungry and were craving for something warm and hearty. It was dark and colder than the usual and with no many choices on hand we reluctantly stopped at a …
Author: redchillies
Cabbage Coconut Curry/ Cabbage Kootu
I vaguely remember eating this daal curry at a friend’s place years ago. Her mom had made this for lunch, and she had served it very lovingly. This recipe was new to me then and I recall having taken generous serving of this yummy curry. …
Konkani Undi/ Steamed Rice dumpling
Blame it on the winter season, but lately I have been on the lookout for ‘chatpata’ steamed food that can be made ‘zhatpat’. One some really cold days, I don’t care for heavy meals, but feel like nibbling on some warm finger food along with hearty soup. So while on quest for such recipes on the net I landed on Lakshmi Canteen a wonderful blog which is a store house of tradition Konkani recipes.
When I looked at her “Undi recipe, I froze as I had completely forgotten about it. It is a well loved breakfast/snack dish our favorite and one my mom-in-law makes for us often when we are in Bangalore. Traditionally this is made by soaking rice overnight and then grinding it in the morning along with coconut. But I took some shortcuts and made it the quicker way using Idli rava.
Note that the rava that is used here in this dish is rice rava (used for making idlis) and not the sooji rava. Also using chopped coriander leaves in this is traditionally scoffed upon, but I for one cannot do without these leaves and use it in almost anything savory. If you do not like then do skip them.
I have been told that these are called as upma khozukattai in Tamil.
Recipe Adapted from Lakshmi Canteen
Ingredients
- 1 cup idli rava [not sooji rava]
- ½ cup shredded coconut
- 2.5 cups water
- Salt to taste
- 1 Tbsp Oil
- Handful of chopped coriander leaves
Seasoning/Tadka
- 1 tsp mustard seeds
- ¼ tsp methi seeds
- 4- curry leaves (broken)
- 1 tsp ginger (grated) [optional]
- 2-3 Green chillies [chopped finely]
- 1 Tbsp urad daal
Method
- Heat a big pan and add oil. Add mustard seeds and let it splutter then add urad daal and continue to stir until it turns light brown
- Add the methi seeds, curry leaves, green chillies and grated ginger and mix again.
- Now add 2.5 cups of water and let it come to boil.
- Add the idli rava, salt and continue to stir until the water has evaporated. Add the shredded coconut, chopped coriander and stir. Turn off the gas.
- Let this cool (not completely).Rub some oil on the palms and make small balls out of the dough. Using index finger make a hole in the middle.
- Now take these balls and steam it in a pressure cooker like idli for 8-10 minutes. (Without the weight). I used the idli stand greased it and placed 6-8 undis on one plate.
- Serve hot as is or along with coconut oil or podi.
Gongura Pickle / Thokku Red Sorrell Chutney
While in Bangalore, we used to get different type of greens and so I grew up eating a wide variety of them. Bangalore like other cities in India is a heaven when it comes to greens and you can find them at vegetable shop, street …
Kesar Phirni
Hope you are having a great start to the New Year with all resolutions intact. Also hope you had a great weekend. We had a fun and relaxing weekend with a potluck dinner at a friends’ place. With great food, chatter and laughter it was …
2011 the year that was and a look ahead
Time files and how! I cannot believe that December is over and that we are only a day away from opening a new page on the calendar, ushering a new chapter in our lives. Even though it is a brand new day, brand new month and a brand new year I have mixed feelings standing on the threshold; letting go of the old known while inviting a new unknown.
With an awesome road trip and wonderful vacation few days ago it was a glorious end to 2011. Soaking up warm sun, dipping feet in the sparkly green water and relaxing on the white sand beaches, I had time to unwind and ponder over what 2011 had meant for us. There have been some ups and downs, a personal accomplishment, sad – happy phases the usual mix, but overall it has been a fruitful year, with blessings and the one full of gratitude.
In terms of my blogging, it is now four and half years since I started and I have continued my passion and hobby. I now have 400 recipes here on RedChillies in which 75 new recipes were posted in the year 2011. I enjoy cooking, trying out new recipes and I hopefully will continue sharing more with you all.
On a low note, there were two instances this year, where in RedChillies was affected and remained inaccessible for many days. Those were some nerve wracking days with the fear of losing one of my prized possessions. Luckily in both instances and the issue got resolved and the site was restored back to normalcy.
We bought a new Canon Rebel DSLR toward the end of last year and that has given me an opportunity to learn and experiment photography on a whole new level. As I go about understanding it, I realize it is much more complex and I have a long way to go. But one thing is for sure, I love taking pictures be it nature, people, architecture but mainly food. One task we did for this year is we have uploaded most of the pictures on RedChillies on Flickr and this inspires us to take more and showcase them.
One main thing I wanted to do in this post was to share some of my family favorites dishes that we prepared in 2011.
Horse gram raw jackfruit Curry
For the next year, I do not have any special goals in mind for this blog. With home, work, family it becomes a challenge to commit and post on regular basis. But I do hope to continue the way I have done before, working on Revived recipes, presenting more Monthly Featured Recipes and of course, coming up with more new tried and tested recipes.
Before I let you go, I wanted to express my heartfelt feelings dear readers. Thank you for taking time sharing your comments and expressing support. This motivates me to continue and strive to do more.
Wishing you all the very best and hope for a bright, successful 2012!
Strawberry Oat Bars
These bars are delicious, adaptable and very easy to make. You can substitute any preserves of your choice like raspberry, peach etc. I usually have strawberry preserves on hand and so I used it in this recipe. The crust in many ways reminds me of …