RAVA / SOOJI UPMA (SOUTH INDIAN STYLE)

I am sure that, every one of you are expert in making upma…. But I wish to introduce this new recipe for those who are not an expert and also for those who wants to experiment a new style of upma preparation…. This upma is really very tasty and very easy to prepare too.  In this recipe we are not going to fry the rava first… I am sure that you will love the taste and method of preparation, as all of us are very busy and may not have much time to spend in kitchen…. In this recipe, I wish to prepare a Kerala style upma, by adding coconut…. You can even do without adding coconut, if you don’t like the taste of coconut….

We can start preparation…. Why should we waste our time by telling big stories J

 

 Ingredients:

Sooji / Rava / semolina ---------------------------------- 1 Cup

Big Onion or Small onion ------------------------------ ¼ to ½ cup (finely chopped)

Carrot ------------------------------------------------------- 1 small (finely chopped or grated)

Coconut --------------------------------------------------- ½ cup (grated)

Green chilli ----------------------------------------------- 1- 3 (finely chopped, as per spice required)

Ginger ----------------------------------------------------- 1 teaspoon (finely chopped)

Curry leaves ---------------------------------------------- 1 spring

Mustard ---------------------------------------------------- 1 teaspoon

Oil / Ghee -------------------------------------------------- 1 to 2 tablespoon

Urad dal /uzhunnu parippu ---------------------------- 1 teaspoon

Water ------------------------------------------------------- 1 ½ to 2 cups

Salt ----------------------------------------------------------- to taste

 

Preparation:

1.     Boil water in a pan and keep it aside

2.     Heat the pan and add oil or ghee, and add mustard seeds and allow it to splutter

3.     Add urad dal and stir till it become golden colour

4.     Add curry leaves, chopped onion, chopped ginger, chopped green chilli and a little salt and stir till the onion become soft

5.     Add chopped or grated carrots and stir well for 2 to 3 minutes

6.     Add rava or sooji and stir well till fry the rava for 4 to 5 minutes

7.     Add grated coconut and stir well for 1- 2 minutes

8.     Then add the boiled water little by little and stir the sooji to mix well and adjust the salt accordingly

9.     Close the lid of the pan and allow it to cook well for 5 – 7 minutes in low flame (stir occasionally)

10.     Kerala style rava upma is ready to serve

 

Notes:

Ø Adding carrot and grated coconut is optional.  But the taste will be very yummy, if you add these two items

Ø This preparation will be helpful those mothers’ whose children are not interested in eating vegitables

 

You can enjoy this upma with channa or kadala curry, even with banana…

Share your comments, suggestions, and criticisms before you go to the next page…. Your words are my inspiration…. J

 

ONION AND TOMATO RAITA / SALAD

As onion, tomato and curd is readily available ingredients in our kitchen, the raita or salad prepared using these ingredients will not be a hassle… So, as the ingredients mentioned, this is very simple to prepare and use… Even with rice or biriyani or chappathi, we can serve this raita or salad as a side dish…. Easy to prepare and healthy is the tags, which we can add to this recipe…. J
Ingredients:
1.     Big onion -------------------------- 1 medium sized
2.     Tomato ---------------------------- 1 small or medium sized
3.     Green chilli (optional) --------- 1 or 2 (as per spiciness required, if any)
4.     Curd --------------------------------- ½ to 1 cup
5.     Salt ---------------------------------- to taste
Preparation:
1.     Cut the big onion into small square shaped pieces (or chop finely)
2.     Cut the tomatoes into small square shaped pieces (or finely chop)
3.     Cut the green chilli into small pieces
4.     Mix all these three ingredients finely (if you do mix it with hand will be perfect)
5.     Add a little salt and mix it again and keep it aside for 5 – 10 minutes
6.     Add curd into the mix and mix well, adjust the salt accordingly
7.     Onion and tomato raita or salad is ready to serve
8.     If you wish to add coriander leaves, you can
Enjoy this raita with chappati, biriyani, or rice …J Share your valuable comments, suggestions and criticisms, before you go to another pages…. Your words are my inspiration….

MUTTON BIRIYANI (TAMIL NADU STYLE)

I love to prepare biriyani and pulao at home, because these items are very easy to prepare, if we know the sequence and recipe well… The main attraction to prepare biriyani and pulao is that everyone at home love to eat and the less number of side dishes requirement J As a Kerala person, we need more side dishes with rice… J Once we get the trick to prepare biriyani and pulo, we will prepare it at least once in a week, as I am doing nowJ… Here, I am introducing a Tamil Nadu style mutton biriyani for all of you, especially for Kerala people …. J If you prepare this biriyani for the first time, you may feel like lots of steps in preparation, but I am very sure that once you finish its preparation and taste it for yourself you will definitely enjoy eating a very mouth-watering and yummy biriyani …. J
Okay, then let’s start our preparation?
Ingredients:
1.     Basmati rice ----------------------------- 2 cups
2.     Mutton ----------------------------------- ½ kg
3.     Big onion -------------------------------- 2 medium sized
4.     Mint leaves ---------------------------- 2 cups (leaves take out from stem)
5.     Tomato --------------------------------- 1 big sized (finely chopped)
6.     Ginger ----------------------------------- 2 teaspoon (crushed)
7.     Garlic ------------------------------------ 5 -6 (crushed)
8.     Green chilli ----------------------------- 2 -3 numbers
9.     Curry leaves ---------------------------- 1 spring
10.     Turmeric powder --------------------- 1 teaspoon
11.     Kashmiri chilli powder -------------- 1 ½ teaspoon
12.     Black pepper powder ---------------- ½ - 1 teaspoon
13.     Curd --------------------------------------- ½ cup
14.     Salt ----------------------------------------- to taste
15.     Water ------------------------------------- 3 ½ cups
16.     Cardamom ------------------------------ 6 numbers
17.     Cinnamon ------------------------------ 2 sticks (medium)
18.     Clove ------------------------------------ 6 numbers
19.     Star anise ------------------------------- 1 number
20.     Oil ----------------------------------------1 – 1 ½ tablespoon
21.     Ghee ------------------------------------1- 1 ½ tablespoon
Preparation:
Ø Wash and soak biriyani rice for 5- 10 minutes and drain the water and keep it aside
Ø Wash and keep the mutton pieces aside
Ø In a pressure cooker, take mutton pieces, ½ teaspoon turmeric powder, 1 teaspoon Kashmiri chilli powder, 1 spring curry leaves, 1 teaspoon crushed ginger, ½ of the crushed garlic, ¼ cup curd, and a little salt, and mix well and keep it aside for 5 – 10 minutes to marinate the mutton
Ø Add ¼ cup water into the mix of marinated mutton and close the lid of the cooker and pressure cook for 1 whistle in high flame and 3-4 whistles in low flame and switch off the furnace and keep it aside
Ø If you are using the same pressure cooker for preparing the biriyani, take the content of cooked mutton after 5- 10 minutes and keep it aside and wash the cooker and take the same for preparation or take another pressure cooker for making biriyani (depends on your availability)
Ø Make a smooth paste of mint leaves (puthina leaves), 3 cardamom, 3 cloves, 1 stick cinnamon, ½ of star anise, 1 teaspoon ginger (other half remaining after add into the mutton pieces), ½ of crushed garlic, 1 green chilli etc and keep it aside
Ø Now  we are going to prepare the biriyani, so heat the pressure cooker, add oil and ghee and once it become hot put ½ of all the spices from 16 to 19 ( ie., 3 cardamom, 1 stick cinnamon, 3 cloves, ½ of star anise) and stir well and when the smell of the spices start come add chopped onions and  one or two green chilli and stir well
Ø When the chopped onion become soft, mash the same well with the spoon (wooden spoon), which one is used to stir
Ø Add chopped tomato and stir well and allow to cook and mash the tomato too
Ø Add the paste which we prepared and kept already, and put a little salt to it and stir well till it become brown in colour and oil separates
Ø Add the cooked mutton with water (if any) into the mixture and mix well ( if the mutton is not cooked well, close the lid of the pressure cooker and allow it to cook for 2 more whistles in medium flame), otherwise or after 2 whistles open the cooker and add basmati rice, ½ teaspoon turmeric powder, ½ teaspoon Kashmiri chilli powder, black pepper powder, ¼ cup curd and mix well for 3-5 minutes
Ø Add the remaining water into the mixture and mix well and allow the water to boil and adjust the salt according to taste
Ø Close the lid of the pressure cooker and allow it to for 1 whistle in high flame and 2 whistles in low flame and switch off the furnace and open the lid of the pressure cooker after 10-15 minutes
Ø Now, Tamil Nadu style mutton biriyani is ready to serve
Notes:
·         I used oil and ghee mixture for the preparation of biriyani, but you can either use oil alone or ghee alone for this purpose, as per your requirement
·        I used sunflower oil and ghee (taste will be better if we use sunflower oil other than coconut oil). Suggestion is for Kerala viewers J
·        Don’t use more water for preparation, use water correctly as per the quantity of rice used (normal requirement of water is double the quantity of rice, but here I used lesser than the same, because we are using water at the time of cooking mutton and curd is also using)
·        You can use small to medium sized mutton pieces, that will be better in this recipe than the larger pieces
·        You can add more green chilli or chilli powder if you need spicier biriyani. In this quantity of chilli itself, its normal spicy.
·        The cooking time or whistle may vary according to the rice and mutton variety, which you are using. I explained the standard time requirement
You can serve this biriyani, with onion raita, tomato and oinion raita etc..
I need your valuable feedback.  Your words are my inspiration…. So please leave your comments, suggestions, and criticisms, before you go into the next page J