Entries for the Theme of the Week -Dried beans :)

Firt entry fot this week is from Trupti . She has sent me her delicious way of making Toor Dhokli. Such a neat idea. Just look at the pic above and you will rush for the recipe search here.
Here is her way to make this etirely new and healthy dish. In Trupti's own words...

Tuver-Dhokli:
1.5 cup Dried Tuver beans - soaked overnight, then cooked in the pressure cooker till soft (make sure to add some salt to it)
For the Dhokli:
1 cup wheat flour, 2 tbsp besan flour, turmeric, chili powder, Salt, a little bit of oil to bind, warm water.
3-4 cloves of Garlic- chopped, lemon juice, turmeric, chili powder and sugar to taste, jeera seeds and oil for the tempering.
Method:Make a stiff dough by adding all the ingredients to the flour. Make sure it isn't too soft. Set aside.After the tuver beans have been cooked thoroughly, heat some oil in a pan and add jeera seeds and the garlic. Add the cooked tuver to it along with the water that it was cooked in. Add some more water according to the kind of gravy you want, this shouldn't be too thick to begin with. Bring to a boil.Roll out the dough into a big circle and cut out small diamonds or squares. Drop these dhoklis one by one in the pan with the beans. Make sure to keep stirring to avoid the dhoklis from sticking to one another. Add the seasonings, taking care not to add too much salt. Cook until the dhoklis are soft...but not too soft. Serve hot with rice and yogurt or on its own. This is a delicious way to include some protein and fiber to your diet. Enjoy.


Thank you Trupti for your nice and totally new recipe:) I love it.
Trupti is also going to start "Little chefs in the Kitchen" theme, stay tuned to her blog for more details.:)

Another one is from Suma of Veggie Platter. She is sharing here her way of prepating Pinto bean Masala. Indeed a nice way to preapre it and good idea too ! Thanks Suma for your timely efforts and participating :) .




Asha is here with her Two delicious entries.
First is Spicy Chana and the other one is Sixteen bean Masala .

I am honoured to get two woderful entries with beans from you Asha :)

Maheshwari of Beyond the Usual is sharing here her way of preapring Black-chana theeyal. Now we have 2 nice recipes with Black chick peas to enjoy with :) .

A very warm welcome to this Blog Maheshwari, and Thank you vey much for participating here . :)

Some Updates I have ,as some of buddies have sent their entries just now, and here they are :)

Pavani Of Cook'e hideout is sharing with us a healthy and quick dish -Soybeans Salad. Nice entry with beans Pavani. Seems like all our blog buddies have now many option to grow healthy with :D. Thanks you Pavani for your efforts to make it and paticipating here with :)

Another One is from Mysoorean Vani, who is sharing here a Konkani curry - Thinglaware (pronounced as 'thing-La-wah-ray') . Chech out her way of preparing this here . u Vani for sharing this with us. :)

One more nice entry we have is from Manjula Of Dalitoy, she has preapred Moroccan Lentil Soup ,to enjoy the beans with :) Nice entry with beans Manjula, thanks for sharing this with all of us , and a very warm welcome to this event :)

Finally we have soups, salads, main courses, and some snacks too , to enjoy beans with . Have fu nand grow healthy :)

Updated on 22nd Jan .

Our beloved Supriya has sent em her delicious entry with sprouted Moong Dal curry.
Just have loot at her curry and you would wish to have it now :D.
Thank you Supriya for sharing this with all of us and participating here with . :)

My henna designing -part 3 and Photography :D

I have been not blogging this week , and know what? I have gathered so many things to share with all of you about this week only:) . Oh God, when this girl is going to stop ? If you are thinking so , then the answer is -Never . I really can't be quiet :)) .
Since I know that many of my blog buddies love henna designing , here is some treat for their eyes and for all of you tooo....

Just made this designs 3 days ago, grabed sister's hand and started designing. have fun with these. :D.
You know something ? When you love to do something you will get time for that ! doent matter how busy you are are what else is goin on in the life around :) . So never say that you don't have time for soing something. Just the fact is you haven't yet put that 'something' in your priority of using your time. :) . No no , I am not that much wise to learn this wisdom , My Mom told me everytime I used to say I dont have time for this and that. :P .


And here is the final result of my hard working :D.

Can't get the answer- what is most beautiful , my designing or sister's hand? if you get the answer to share it with me :) . I remember something like- Beauty lies in the eyes of beholder :) .

Remember,In Meme of 3 things I wrote photography as one of the things I love to do. May be I am very immature photographer yet :)), but I love to do that. "Practice makes a man perfect". (another slogan from Mom, oh so many wise things I learnt from her, and still learning :) ) , so I keep on practicing with that :P .

2 days ago I saw this , and immediately grabed my cam to capture this.

There were 2 rockets in the sky actually. And the view of sky is so clear that I just fell in love with this scene. Then at the middle the white fuel sign of the one rocket disappeared, I don't know why, it was still fying....just see the pic below to believe that.

And finally there was sign of only one in the sky .

I believe those who loves Photography would like it :)

Entries for MBP.

Here are my entries for Coffee's MBP event. For which she choose theme of this month as "Around the World"

Corn fritters :

I adopt this recipe from Asha . Just substituted flour with corn flour, and chilli flackes in place of fresh red chilli:). Here is original recipe of Asha for corn fritters. :) Thank you Asha for this nice recipe :)

Another entry for Rooma is Vegetable Fajitas. and thanks for that goes to Priya.
I come to know about this colorful dish from Priya of sugar&spices. Just made it the original way . check out her original way of making it here. :)

Have fun rounding up Coffee! :)

Call to help for a noble cause and Vegetable of the Next Week .

When I joined my first job, I took an apartment on rent and was sharing it with another Colleague of mine, who finally turn into a good friend of mine. There was a huge temple next to our apartment, sharing a common wall with apartment. Since it was a famous Hanuman Temple there it always was more or less crowded ,and as it happens in India also there were some beggars around there. In the evening everyday they distribute food to hungry and needy people around . I knew this matter as my colleague- Anita told me this once.

Normally I got back to home around 7 p.m.. One day when I got back to home earlier than my normal schedule,I came to see the line of people there waiting for food to be served. Just watching them made me feel uneasiness. There were poor, thin and all aged people around there, waiting with hunger in their eyes. I saw this and couldn't eat my meal properly that day. What made me feel more uncomfortable is half of them were children, some were of 2-3 years age , didn't have even enough cloths to cover their bodies and protect themselves , some were little older than them. Some innocent faces ,starving to live on this earth. They might not be even aware of any other fact of life other than starving or serviving. I was lot disturbed, and thought what I could do for them .

Since serving anything directly to them was not possible, I inquired to Trust of people there in the temple, there was some fund we can donate them , which was being used for welfare of those poor people. Along with that myself and Anita, started distributing some biscuits and other readymade foods to children around there to just make them happy and see a smile on their faces. Sometimes I just bought some balloons and gave them to play with. The happiness in their eyes were worth catching in a picture. Unfortunately I didn't Had camera that time with me.

I continued doing so until I was there almost for a year or so. After that I got another job in another city, left that job. With new responsibility in new job and all other things to cop up with , I almost forgot the those incidents and got busy with my life, just as all of us are right now, some where with some responsibilities to perform, some duties to look after and everything else.

It is not always possible for us to go to such people and offer them some help, also it is hard to define some time priority for them to do any noble work. But it is for sure that if we feel like doing anything for such people we can do so. God never gives a Dream without giving the strength of fulfilling it. VKN of MYDhaba, has started the mission to do something to feed 1000 hungry children everyday named "Feed A Hungry Child". For which He planned to publish a book with some traditional recipes . He invited all of us to contribute for the book named "You can Cook ". I know all of you there are good with cooking , what we have to do is just to make some good traditional recipes and contribute to him for this noble cause. Just recall what our Mom/Grandma used to cook and make some of it and contribute them . I have never found a way easier than this to participate in any noble cause. What you have to do is just send as many recipes as you can . Target for that is 365 recipes, what he get up to date is around 100 , I request you to support for a noble cause and contribute as many recipes as you can . Provided they should be some traditional recipes, . Be there as a part of noble cause and somewhere in this world will be happy someday by your contribution. The final date to contribute is 31st Jan 2007. I hope it will be helpful to people, who are not yet aware of this Feed A hungry Child Campaign , to contribute something there.

Now something about an ongoing event here:) , after thinking a lot and changing my mind from one option to another one for choosing the Vegetable of the Next week, I am finally choosing Dried beans as Vegetable of the Next week. Since there is not one choice with it , I think all of us have many options to cook with different beans and participate here with . Showing you the pic here to remind you of many of forgotten dried beans... :)) . As there are more than one choice we have to cook with this week, we rather can call it Theme of the Week .
You can cook anything with these beans since there is a wide range and different dishes available with either soaked or sprouted beans,I think all of you would like this, and it would not be a problem for any of us residing in any part of the world, to get the beans, right?
I am going to change some plan of posting here, so for this week I will be posting all different dishes from myside on friday and also will do round up for all your entries on the same day.
Put your thinking cap on and email me your recipes at blogpooja@gmail.com .


P.S.- With all your best wishes and concerns I am here fresh and fine to be with you all .Since you all suggest me so , I have altered some plans of posting here, just to get some more time to spend with myself :), but some day I will again be back with daily postings here. :D . Thank you all for your concerns. Have a good day!

Salsa Verde with Mexican cutlets

Sharing here with You a Mexican dish - Mexican cutlets with Salsa Verde .




Ingredients :

For the cutlets
2 cup boiled and mashed potatoes
1 tsp corn flour
½ tsp pepper powder for the potatoes
1 cup kidney beans ,soaked, boiled and mashed.
¼ tsp pepper powder for the kidney beans
Chili sauce
Oil for frying
Few spring onion leaves, chopped, to garnish

For the Salsa Verde
2 medium sized green tomatoes(or tomatillos)
2 jalapeños,
2 tsp chopped coriander leaves/cilantro leaves,
1 small capsicum
1 tsp lime juice,
Pinch of vinegar,
1 tsp sugar(optional),
Salt to taste.

Recipe:

For the Salsa Verde:
Cut tomatillos/ tomatoes in to half and bake it for 5-7 mins until its skin gets lightly blacken.
Blend all the ingredients together in a mixer.
Then put on the stove to warm. Stir often till the mixture turns thick like a sauce. Remove from the stove and cool to room temperature.


For the Cutlets:

Mix together mashed potatoes, corn flour, salt and pepper. Divide into 10 equal portions.Using hands flatten each portion into 2 inch diameter circles . (Like thick puris.).
Mix together the mashed kidney beans, salt, pepper and chili sauce .Divide into 5 equal portions. Flatten them into 1 ¾ inch diameter circles.
Sandwich a kidney bean puri between 2 potato puries. Seal the edges and shallow fry in oil. Make the other cutlets the similar way.
Arrange all the cutlets in a plate sprinkle chopped spring onion and apply Salsa Verde. Serve when cutlets are hot.



(One variation to this is to sprinkle cheese over cutlets and before serving cover the cutlets with a lid and warm them for 10 minutes till he cheese melts. )
Little down with my cold , I could not get the time to post one dish with tomato yesterday . I think I need little break now ,otherwise next time I will be surfing your blogs from Hospital:)) . Well, tomorrow I will post vegetable for the next week and I might change some planning to post here , like from daily to alternate day or something else. Gotta do so many things here at the same time, Since I love to be with you all around here, I don't plan to skip this event yet. So stay tuned to this blog and Have a Happy Weekend, Happy Sankranti and Happy Pongal to all of you there ! :) .

Enteries For Vegetable of the Week- Tomato !

on the last day with tomato also I am not alone to publish my post here, we have two more buddies with us to share their recipes with tomato :) .
First is from Sandeepa from Bong Mom's cook book. She is sharing here here recipe of making Tomato Khajur canberry Chutney. this is a bengalu kind of chutney she made up with a twist of adding cnaberry to it. Really a tasty entry with tomatoes. Thank you Sandeepa for sharing this with us. :)

Second is Lakshmik from veggie cuisine, sharing here er own recipe of making baby Potato-cherry tomato with green peas gravy. Lovely picture of recipe and indeed a nice way of making this dish .Thanks Lakshmik for your timely preparation and efforts to publish this.

Tomato Paratha

Nice recipe of tomato Paratha - a healthy brunch dish to share here with you all today.




Ingredients:

3-4 big ripe tomatoes,
green chillies 3 crushed,
1/4 tsp methi(fenugreek) seeds powder ,
1/4 tsp mustard seeds powder ,
1 tsp red chilli powder,
sugar powdered ( optional),
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
salt to taste
Oil for frying.

Method :

Take a tawa add 1 tbls of oil , Add to it the cut tomatoes with turmeric and salt cook in a med.flame until it is well cooked . Add to it the crushed green chillie and red chillie powder and the methi-mustard powder with a pinch of sugar. Cook for couple of minutes more until the gravy becomes a thick jam consistency & the water is absorbed. Cool completely. Take the tomato paste in a bowl add to it 3/4 cup wheat flour and 1tbls of maida mix well without adding water. Only add water if required into a thick dough. Add salt if required.roll out as even size parathas. Heat tawa and cook it on both the sides until crisp just as shown in the process of Paratha. Serve hot with any raita.

I served it along with a quick side dish made up of carrot and green chillie.

Mughlai Dal

Hope you all had a nice weekend there, I had too :) .
I am back here with one more recipe to share with you all. its really going nice here with tomato , even in the second week of this tangy vegetable. Hope you are not getting bored of the same veggie :D .
Mughali Dal! the name itself makes me feel like princess, specially when someone else prepare this for me and serve it to me :)) . Well, this time I made it on my own, and here is the way to make it.


Ingredients:
1/2 cup Kidney beans
1/2 cup Urad dal(Black gram)
1/2 cup Chana dal (Split bengal gram)
3 tomatoes, cut in to medion sized cubes,
1 onion , chopped finely
3-4 garlic cloves, cut width wise,
1 tsp Cumin seeds,
½ tsp mustard seeds,
1-2 green chilli, chopped finely,
½ tsp turmeric powder,
1 1/2tsp red chilli powder,
1 ½ tsp cumin-coriander powder
A pinch of asafetida,
Salt to taste,
1 tsp oil,
Coriander leaves to garnish.


Method:

Soak kidney beans, urad dal and chana dal in warm water for 4-5 hours.
Pressure cook them until they are soft and mushy , using hand blender smash it and keep aside.
Chop onion and green chilli finely, cut tomato into medium sized cubes and keep it aside. In a Kadhai heat 1 tsp oil and add Mustard seeds ,when they start spluttering , add cumin seeds and asafetida to it. Next add garlic,green chilli and onion, cook until onion turns brown and then add tomatoes to it.

Cook for a while and add smashed dal mixture to it. Add little water if dal is too thick . Let it cook until it comes to boil . Then add turmeric powder, red chilli powder and cumin-coriander powder to it.(Intially when you cook this dal, you will find it liitle different in color , and I have seen people mixing in some edible color to it ,just to improve its color, here I have avoided using green chillies and used more red chilli powder to maintain taste and color both, also cumin-coriander powder will do good with that.) Mix well , add salt and turn off the heat when dal is mixed well with all other ingredients. garnish with coriander leaves and Serve hot with rice.


A bit different from regular dal /sambhar and also rich with nutrition values.
As the Name suggests it is called mughlai, and ofter served with a tsp full of butter on top of it. I just avoided it, if you are a butter lover, just try it theat way !
I sevred it along with Steamed pulao .
I learnt it from Mom. Here is my Mom's quick and nice recipe for Steamed Pulao.

Ingredients :
2 cup Basmati (long grained) rice,
1 tsp butter/Ghee,
1 tsp Cumin seeds,
3-4 cloves,(laving)
1/2 cup chopped carrot,
1/2 cup green peas,
salt to taste.

Method:
In a vessel or Pan heat the ghee, add cumin seeds and cloves to it , whe nthey start spluttering add finely washed rice to it, and water double then the quantity of rice. when rice is half cooked, add little more water , salt, green peas a nd chopped carrot to it. let is cook the usual way until rice is cooked and all water is evaporated.
serve this hot with anything you like . I had this with Mughlai Dal :)
Try it sometime and you will fall in love with these both nutritious dishes, specially when accompanied by each other. :D

Sixth Day Enteries for Tomato !

I thought that I am gonna be alone to post here Tomato recipes this week, as all of you might have already sent something you wished to send. But to my pleasant surprise I am not alone to post here today. Rinku, Sangeeta and Pavani are here to share something nice with all of us.
Also all the entries of today are very creative, and worth praising . I Just loved them all.
Thank you Ladies for sharing your great cooking recipes with us.
Rinku has made Tomato Kadhi.
Sangeeta is sharing with us Kidney beans in tomato gravy.
And something toatally new is from Pavani , that is Green tomato Pachadi.

Thank you Rinku, Sangeeta and Pavani for your mouth watering enteries, and specially to be with me in the scond week of Tomato as Vegetable of the Week . :) .

Green Tomato with Kidney Beans Curry

I already bought Green unripe tomatoes for thid week's event, and was thinking how to make them . Has got one maharastian style curry to make with from my neighbour friend, but as per what she described it consumes much oil. My mind is not so wise to consider that much oil to consume, so finally thought to make it some way such that it will be healthy and nutritiuos too . And when it come to nutritions, my mind reminds me of beans always. And this way I come up with this dish .

Ingredients:
5- 6 Unripe green tomatoes , cut into cubes,
1 cup kidney beans , soaked over night,
Few peanuts roasted ,
1/4 cup coriander leaves,
1 tsp lemon juice,
1 tsp red chili powder,
1/4 tsp turmeric powder,
1/2 tsp mustard seeds,
1/2 tsp cumin seeds,
a pinch of asafoetida,
salt to taste.
1/2 tsp oil .

Method:
Soak Kidney beans over night and pressure cook it , until they are soft .
Select firm unripe tomatoes , cut them into medium sized cubes and bring it boil seperately until they are tender.
Now mix coriander leaves , roasted peanuts and lemon juice together and blend them , make a smooth paste of it. while Kidney beans turn little cool ,mash them or crush them using hand blender, take care to do not crush it to smooth paste .
In a pan heat oil, add mustard seeds when they start spluttering , add cumin seeds and a pinch of asafoetida. Add the crushed kidney beans to it , and let it cook until all extra water from it evaporates. add the smooth paste of coriander leaves and roasted peanuts to it. Mix well and finally add red chilli powder, turmeric powder , salt , garam masala and cooked tomatoes.
cook it for a minute and turn off the heat.

Serve hot with Roti.

As I have still so many recipes remaining to present here with tomatoes, I am keeping Tomato continue as Vegetable of The next Week too. Just a little variation is that I will be posting it late by 1 day in the next week as I am going out of Pune and not going to keep Laptop with me(asking why ? - give me a break, man! :)) ) , I will be back on tuesday :) .Till then stock our pantry with tomatoes and keep on watching the show :D . Yet much more intresting dishes to come. :) Have a happy weekend and healthy meals. !