mirchi bajjis

Ingredients and Procedure:

For The Stuffing:

Onions - 1/4 cup chopped fine
Russet potato - 1 cubed and boiled
Paneer - 1/2 cup grated to a fine powder
Ajwain - pinch
Quick Mint Chutney - 1 Tbsp.
Besan/chickpea Flour - As needed
Turmeric - pinch
Oil - As needed
Salt - to taste

- Heat Oil in a pan and saute onions till soft.
- Add ajwain and quick mint chutney to this.
- Add boiled potato cubes and cook for a minute.
- Add grated paneer and 1/4 cup of water and cook till everything is well mixed and comes to a creamy consistency.
- Let this mixture come to room temperature.
- Add besan to this few teaspoons at a time to get it thick enough so you can fill the chillies.

Prepping the Chillies:
Long Chilli Peppers - 9 deseeded
Besan/chickpea flour - 2.5 cups + 1/4 cup
Baking Soda - Pinch
Asafoetida - Pinch
Garlic Powder - 1 tsp.
Salt - To taste
Turmeric - Pinch
Oil - for Deep Frying

- Mix Besan, Baking Soda, Asafoetida, Garlic Powder, Salt, Turmeric.
- Add water little by little to get it into a thick consistency.
- In a wide plate spread the 1/4 cup of besan.
- Stuff the chillies with the potato and panner mixture.
- Coat them with the dry besan.
- Dip them in the batter and deep fry them till golden brown.

Curried Corn stuffed Yellow Chillies

Ingredients:

Yellow chillies - 6 washed, deseeded and split in half
Corn Kernels - 1 to 2 cups
White onion - 1/4 cup diced fine
Curry powder - 1/2 tsp.
Salt and pepper to taste
Oil - as needed
Pam or any oil for spraying the baking sheet

Procedure:

- Preheat oven to 350 degrees
- Boil the corn and just mash them lightly ( don't make it into a mushy paste)
- Heat oil in a skillet. Saute onions till soft and add corn to this.
- Add curry powder and season with slat and pepper to taste.
- Remove the mixture from heat and let it come to room temperature.
- Spray a baking pan with oil and arrange the chillies. Season them salt and pepper and brush them lightly with little bit oil.
- Add the corn and onion mixture to these chillies. It's usually 1 to 2 tablespoons of mixture per chilli.

- Bake them for 10 o 15 minutes.

Mushroom Curry

Ingredients:
1.white or button mushrooms- 1 pound
2.firm tofu (cut in to quarter inch pieces and deep fried)- 1/2 pound
3.frozen green peas- 1/4th cup
4.medium onion- 2
5.green chillie- 1
6.ginger garlic paste- 1/4th tsp
7.cashew (grind to a smooth paste with some water)- 1/4th cup
8.large tomato- 1
9.tomato paste- 2 tsps
10.coriander (dhania) powder- 1/4th tsp
11.garam masala- 1/4 th tsp
12.red chillie powder- 1/2 to 1 tsp
13.green cardamom and cloves (grind it using a mortar)- 2 each
14.cinnamon stick- 1/2 stick
15.cilantro (coriander)
16.lemon juice and salt
Procedure:
•Cut each Mushroomto four pieces and keep it on a side.
•Now in a skillet add four tsps of oil, cinnamon stick, green chillie and onion. Cook until onion becomes soft, then add the ginger garlic paste and the dry spices (marked 10 through 13).
•Cook just for a minute and then add the tomato paste,chopped tomato and half a tsp of salt. Cook for 5 to 7 minutes.
•Add the cashew paste with one cup of water and another half teaspoon of salt. Bring it to a boil.
•Add the Mushroom, green peas and simmer the curry for ten minutes in med-low heat.
•At last taste, re-season it and add the fried tofu with chopped cilantro and some lemon juice.
•Let the curry sit for ten minutes before serving, it helps all the ingredients to blend and come together.
•Serve the mushroom tofu curry with nan or paratha and some onion and lemon on the side.

Vegetable Biriyani

Depending on how mushy your rice becomes use either 6 or 8 cups of water for 4 cups of rice. Since I used sona masori rice instead of basmati, and the brand I used takes lot of water I used 8 cups. However I usually follow 1.5 cups of water per 1 cup of rice.
Rice – 4 cups dry
Water – 6 to 8 cups
Red Onions - Onions – 1.5 cups sliced
Roma Tomatoes – 2 medium chopped fine
Mixed vegetables – 1.5 cups ( mix of carrot, corn, bean, peas)
Ginger Garlic paste – 1 Tbsp.
Mint – few sprigs
Curry Leaves – 6
Green Chillies – 4
Lemon Juice – 4 Tsps.
Garam Masla – 2 Tsp.
Red Chilli Powder 1 tsp.
Salt – To taste
Butter – 2 Tbsp.
Oil – ¼ cup
Dry Masala:
Cloves – 8 (2 per cup of rice)
Cinnamon – 1 inch piece
Cardamom – 4 (1 per cup of rice)
Japatri ( mace) – 2 crushed to pieces
Marathi Mogga ( badi Elaichi) – 2
Cumin Seeds – 1 Tsp.
Dry Bay Leaf - 2

Procedure:
- Wash rice and soak it in water.
- Mince curry leaves, mint and green chillies together.
- Heat butter and oil in a pan. Add all the dry masala. Fry for 30 seconds on medium flame making sure they don’t burn.
- Add curry leaves, mint and chilli mixture to this. Stir and fry for 20 seconds.
- Add onions and ginger garlic paste.
- Season with just enough salt for onions and cook till onions are soft.
- Add mixed vegetables to this. Season with salt. Cover and cook till vegetables are tender.
- Add garam masala, red chilli powder and sauté till the raw smell of hcilli powder is gone.
- Add tomatoes and lemon juice. Cover and cook till tomatoes are soft.
After this you can cook in two different ways
Procedure 1:
- Remove rice from water and add it to the cooked masala mixture. Stir till the rice grains are mixed with masala.
- Add 8 cups of water to this. Season with salt. Water should be a bit salty.
- Cover and turn the heat to high and bring it to a boil.
- Turn the flame to low and cook till rice is done. To check if you stick a spoon it should come out dry.

Procedure 2:
- Add 8 cups of water and rice together to the masala mixture instead of frying the rice first.
- Follow the rest of the steps as above.

Starting at the top from left:
Cumin seeds, bay leaf, garam masala, cardamom pods broken
cloves and cinnamon, japatri ( mace), Red Chili Powder, Marathi Mogga

Fish Fry

Paste ingredients:
1. Chilli powder – 2 tbsp
2. Pepper powder – 1 tsp
3. Turmeric powder – 1 tsp
4. Cumin seeds – 1 tsp
5. Coriander seeds – 1 tsp
6. Onion (small) – 1 (chopped)
7. Garlic flakes – 2
8. Ginger – 1 inch piece
9. Curry leaves – 6
10. Salt – to taste



Preparation:
Clean and wash the fish pieces.
Drain the water completely.
Now make a paste with paste ingredients.
Marinate the fish pieces with the ground paste.
Marinate for 1 or 2 hours.
Keep preferably in the refrigerator.
Take a heavy bottomed pan and heat with 3 tbsp of oil.
Now add the marinated fish pieces and cook on low flame for 8 to 10 mins.
Be careful the fish doesn’t burn.
Flip over the fried fish and cook on low flame for 5 to 7 mins.
Remove the fried pieces from the pan.
Serve hot as a side dish

Tandoori Chicken, Rice-A-Roni, Mini YouChoy

Ingredients:
Chicken breast - 2 lbs (bonesless and skinless cut into thick strips)
Tandoori Masala - 3 Tbsp. (I bought priya brand but you can use any brand you like)
Red food color - 2 drops
Curd/yogurt - 1/2 cup
Lemon Juice - 2 Tbsp.
Salt - to taste
Oil - 2 Tbsp.
Procedure:
- Mix food color, masala , lemon juice and salt to the curd.
- In a ziplock bag, add the chicken and the marinade and mix well till all the chicken pieces are coated.
- Leave the ziplock in the fridge for 2 to 4 hours.
- Now, you can cook this in different ways, you can either bake them or pan fry them or do what I did.
- Pressure cook the chicken for 2 whistles (no need to add any water).
- Heat oil in a saute pan. Add the cooked chicken pieces and pan fry them till they form a thin golden crust on all sides.
- Do it in batches so you don't over crowd the pan.
Rice-A-Roni
Rice-A-Roni is nothing but rice and vermicelli cooked together. Instead of Vermicelli I used angel hair pasta.
Ingredients:
Rice - 2 cups uncooked
Angel hair pasta - 1/4 cup cut into small pieces
Salt - to taste
Water - 5 cups
I have a microwave rice cooker, so I just added all the ingredients and cooked them for 200 minute sin the microwave. However you can use the electric cooker or even do stove-top method too.
Mini YouChoy with garlic and soy sauce
YouChoy I think is also called Chinese broccoli. You can get this in any asian store. I became a fan of it few years ago when my then manager introduced me to this vegetable.
Ingredients:
You Choy - 2 lbs washed and ends trimmed
Garlic - 4 cloves sliced thin
Low-Sodium Soy Sauce - 2 Tbsp.
Salt - to taste
vegetable stock - 1/4 cup
White pepper - to taste
Oil - 2 tbsp.
Procedure:
- Heat oil in a wok.
- Add garlic and stir for 15 seconds making sure it doesn't burn.
- Add youchoy, soy sauce, stock, slat and pepper
- cover and cook till the veggie is cooked through.

Dosakaya curry

Ingredients:
Dosakaya(cucumber): 250gms
Tomotos: 3
onion: 1
chillies: 2
salt: 1 tsp
turmaric powder: 1/4 tsp
red chilli powder: 1 tsp
coriander leaves
for popu:
oil: 2 tsp
mustard seeds: 1/4 tsp
cumin seeds 1/4 tsp
urud dal: 1/2tsp
chann dal: 1/2 tsp
curry leaves for taste: few



Method:

Heat oil in a pan. Add chana dal, urud dal, cumin seeds, mustard seeds. Wait to splutter. Add red chillies and few curry leaves .
Add choped onion, chillies and mix for two minutes.
Add choped cucumber, tomotos. Cook covered and mix occasionally for 10mts.
Add turmaric powder, salt, chillipowder and cook covered with low flame until water dry out.
Add coriander leaves.
may add drumsticks with cucumber.

GONGURA PAPPU

Preparation time: 10 mins
Cooking time: 30 min

Ingredients:
1 Bunch Fresh Gongura Leaves
1 Cup toor dal 1/4 cup chana dal
6 Red Chillies
6 Green Chillies
6 Curry Leaves
1tps mustard seed
1/2 tps cumin seeds
1/2 tps urad dal
Pinch of hing
Pinch of Turmeric
Salt to taste

DIRECTIONS:

1.Clean gongura leaves. Seperate the leaves from the stems. Wash the leaves in water. Drain the water.

2.Take a pan and put 5 teaspoons of oil. When the oil gets warm. Put the Gongura leaves in the oil also add some salt to it. Keep frying it till the leaves get cooked and reduce to a small quantity.

3. Let the leaves cool down. Grind the leaves to a paste.

4. Cook 1 cup toordal and 1/4 cup channa dal and keep it asside.

5. Cut 1/2 Onion, 6 green chilies. In a pan, put5 tsps of oil, put poppu
(Mustard seeds, Jeera, Red chilies, Hing). Let the mustard seeds splutter in oil and then add oions, green chilies and curryleaves. Add some turmeric and salt. and fry it till its cooked and golden brown.
Later, add this to the cooked dal along with the paste of the gongura leaves. Stir the whole mixture. Let dal boil for sometime with all the poppu and gongura leaves paste.

6. It ready to eat. Serve with rice or roti!!!.
It's yummy and mouth watering.

Prawn Pickle

Prawns - 1 ½ Kg (med size)
Chilli powder - 2 ½ Tbsp
Turmeric powder - ¼ Tbsp
Garlic - 25-30 flakes
Green Chillies - 10 Nos
Ginger - 3 (1 inch pieces)
Fenugreek - 1 Tbsp
Mustard seeds - 2 Tbsp
Cumin seed - 1 Tbsp
Curry leaves - 25-30 leaves
Coconut Oil - As required to fry the prawn
Gingelly oil - As required
Vinegar - 40-50 ml
Water - 2 Cup
Salt - As required


Preparation of Prawn pickle:
Remove skull, tail and pelt of prawn and keep body only. Clean sufficient times to ensure the sand/dust is not remained. Heat a vessel and add 2 cups of water, 4-5 Tbsp vinegar, prawns, ½ Tbsp Chilli powder and a bit salt. Cook well up to edible. Put the cooked prawns on a strainer to drip off the water content. Heat a frying Pan and add little coconut oil, add some curry leaves and fry the prawns up to brown and a bit crispy. Let the oil drip off and keep aside.Make paste of Ginger,Garlic and Green chillies. Heat a Pan and fry up the paste using Gingelly oil on low flame up to brown and keep aside.Fry rest of the Chillie Powder and Turmeric Powder using Gingelly oil.Fry the fenugreek, mustard seeds and cumin seeds and slightly crush, but not to powder.Fry the curry leaves with oil to brown and keep aside.Mix all the above with fried prawns and put on heat. Pour the vinegar and add required salt. Gently stir the mix on low flame for 5 minutes to let the gravy thick. Put in to bottles after it turns cold. Heat a bit Gingelly oil and keep to cold. Pour this oil a little in to bottles as a layer on the top to avoid fungal infections. Keep for 2-3 days and can use.

Sakinalu

Ingredients:

•Rice---4 cups
•Ajwain seeds(oma,vaamu)--1/4 cup
•Sesame(nuvvulu)--1/2 cup
•Salt
•oil
Preparation Method

•Soak the rice with enough water for about 3-4 hrs.
•Drain the water using a mesh and leave the rice in the mesh for about 3 hrs so that it gets dried.
•Now grind the rice in a grinder till it becomes fine powder.
•Roast the sesame(nuvvulu) lightly on a low flame.
•Now add the Sesame,Ajwain and salt to the rice flour.Make a dough with the help of water as you do for chapathis.
•Take small quantity of the dough in hand and make circles with thin lines on a cloth as in the below picture.
•Repeat this process to make all the sakinalu.Don't worry this will take some time but on pratice you can do it.
•After they are done allow the sakinalu to dry.
•Now take a hallow pan with oil to fry.
•Take the sakinalu slowly with help of a flat plate and fry them in the oil till light brown colour.
•Finally your sakinalu are ready.
•These snacks can be preserved upto 1 month in a air tight container.

Egg Pulusu

Ingredients:
•Boiled eggs--5
•1 big lemon sized tamarind
•green chillies---3
•red chilli powder--1 tbsp
•2 medium sized onions(finely chopped)
•few curry leaves
•methi seeds(menthulu)--1/2 tbsp
•jeera(jeelakara)--1/2 tbsp
•Mustard seeds--1/2 tbsp
•Ginger garlic paste--1 tbsp
•turmeric --1/2 tbsp
•salt for taste
•oil
Preparation Method:
•Boil the eggs.
•Soak the tamarind in water for about 20 minutes and extract juice from it.
•Roast the methi seeds and the jeera lightly on a low flame and grind them.
•Now take a pan with 3 to 4 tbsp of oil and add the mustard seeds.
•After they splutter add the the green chilllies,curry leaves,ginger garlic paste,turmeric and onions and fry them .
•Then add the tamarind juice and allow it to boil .
•Now add the red chilli powder,the powder(methi seeds+jeera),coriander powder and salt.
•Finally add the boiled eggs and allow the pulusu on a medium flame for about 5 -10 minutes.
•Serve the dish after 30 min so that the eggs get a good taste.This tastes great with rice.

Chamadumpa Vepudu

Ingredients:
•Medium chama dumpalu----6
•green chillies---5
•onions--1
•curry leaves--5 to 6
•coriander powder--1 tbsp
•cumin seeds(jeelakara)--1 tbsp
•mustard seeds(aavalu)--1 tbsp
•ginger garlic paste--1 tbsp
•tumeric powder
•salt
•oil

Preparation Method:

•Firstly boil the Chama dumpalu in cooker with sufficient water for about 10-15 minutes.
•Then peel the skin as we do for potatoes and chop them into small thin pieces so that they get fried well.
•Now take some oil in a pan for seasoning and add mustard seeds.
•Then add the chopped onions,green chillies,ginger garlic paste,turmeric powder and the curry leaves.
•Now add the chama dumpalu and mix well.
•Finally add the red chilli powder,salt,coriander powder.
•Cook on mediun heat untill it gets fried well.
•Your curry is ready now and tastes great with rice.

Pesara-potlakaya punukulu

* Green gram with husk - 1.5 cups
* Rice - 1/4 cup
* Chopped snake gourd - 1.5 cups
* Chopped onion - 1/4 cup
* Ginger root - 1 inch
* Chopped green chilies - 1/2 tbsp
* Cumin seeds - 1tsp (optional)
* Salt - acc to taste
* Oil - for deep frying

1) Soak the green gram dal along with rice in water over night. Grind the green gram, rice, green chilies and ginger root into a smooth paste adding very little water only if needed. Now add salt.

2) Mix the chopped onion and chopped snake gourd into the batter prepared in step 1.

3) Heat oil in a dutch oven/kadai. When the oil is hot enough take bite sized portions of the batter and fry them in oil(if you don't want to touch the batter with your hands, you can use cookie dough scooper).

They tasted really good with home made ginger pickle. Even Krishna loved them, ofcourse he was the reason I prepared these as I can't get him to eat snake gourd otherwise.

Coconut halwa

* Coconut - 1
* White rice - 1 cup(soaked in water overnight)
* Sugar - 1 cup
* Water - 1 cup
* Cardamom - 2 nos
* Ghee - 1/4 cup
* Chopped pistachios - 1/4 cup(optional)
1) Break the coconut into pieces and separate coconut pieces from the shell(this part can be tricky but according to Krishna the coconut shell has a point and if you can find that and start there then the coconut piece will separate from the shell at once . I am undergoing training for that, will let you know guys how it goes).

2) Chop the coconut into small pieces, so that you can grind them easily.

3) Grind the soaked rice into a smooth paste by adding approximately a 1/4 cup of water(this will probably take some time depending on the type of blender you are using).

4) Now grind the coconut into paste by adding a 1/4 cup of water(as sooth as possible). The actual recipe calls for extracting the coconut milk after grinding it into smooth paste but I decided to add the whole coconut paste in rather than just using its milk.

5) In a saucepan boil the sugar and 1/2 cup of water to prepare sugar syrup. Boil the syrup till it reaches a single string consistency. Crush the cardamom pods and add them to the sugar syrup.

6) Add the rice batter and coconut paste into the sugar syrup(actual recipe calls for adding some food color at this stage but I omitted that as well). You need to stir this mixture continuously from now on. While stirring slowly add the ghee in a multi step process. Stir it until the halwa thickens and the ghee starts coming out of it. Remove the saucepan from heat.

7) Spread this halwa on a flat surface and when its cool enough cut into pieces. Decorate it with chopped pistachios if you want.

Kakarakaya vepudu(bitter gourd fry)

*Bitter gourd - 6 nos(medium sized)
*Onion - 1 medium sized
*Cumin seeds - 1/4 tsp
*Mustard seeds - 1/4 tsp
*Curry leaves - a few leaves
*Garlic clove - 1
*Dried red chillies - 4 nos
*Turmeric powder - a pinch
*Oil - 2 tsp
*Jaggery or brown sugar - 1 tsp
*Salt and chilli powder - according to taste

Slice the bitter gourd into very small pieces. Add salt and turmeric powder to the bitter gourd and let it sit for a few minutes. Squeeze them and remove the juice that you obtain by squeezing them. Heat 1 tsp oil in a pan and add bittergourd pieces to the pan along with salt. Fry them until they turn a little brown.Heat 1 tsp oil in a different pan and add cumin, mustard seeds to the pan. When the seeds start sputtering add crushed garlic, whole red chillies, curry leaves. Add onion and fry them til they turn a little brown; now add the fried bitter gourd pieces to this. Let them cook till they are done and add chilli powder, crushed jaggery(you can substitute this with brown sugar if you don't have jaggery on hand). One thing I have learnt from my mom is not to add chilli powder until the fry is completely done otherwise you will be suffocated by the sharp smell produced by the chilli powder which will leave you sneezing in no time.

Vadiyala pulusu

* Onion - 1 large(Chopped into long thin strips)
* Tomato - 1 medium (Chopped into bite sized pieces)
* Tamarind - half a lemon sized ball(soaked in water)
* Jaggery - 1tbsp (optional)
* Salt - acc to your taste
* Turmeric - 1/2 tsp
* Red chili powder - 1 tsp
* Oil - 1 tbsp
* Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
* Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
* Asafoetida - 1 pinch
* Curry leaves - 2 sprigs
* Fried urad dal vadiyams - couple handfuls

Heat oil in the pan, add mustard and cumin seeds when the oil is hot enough. When the seeds start sputtering add asafoetida and curry leaves in.

Add the chopped onion to the pan and fry them till the pieces turn translucent. Now add the chopped tomato pieces in and let them soften a little bit.

Squeeze the soaked tamarind and add the tamarind juice to the onion & tomato mixture. Add the salt, chili powder and turmeric; let the pulusu(soup) cook for 15 to 20 mins on medium high. If you want to add jaggery to the pulusu add it after cooking the pulusu halfway through.

Now add the fried vadiyams into the pulusu and cook for 10 more minutes.

Enjoy it with white rice

Paneer-Methi pulav

Ingredients

* Basmati rice - 2 cups
* Fenugreek leaves - 2 cups
* Green chillies - Optional
* Onion - 1 medium sized
* Paneer cubes - 1/2 cup
* Salt - acc to taste
* Cinnamon - 1/2 stick
* Cloves - a few
* Cardamom - 2
* Bay leaves - few
* Turmeric powder - optional
* Oil - 1/2 tsp

Lightly fry the paneer cubes before hand and keep them aside. Cut the onion lengthwise into small pieces and slit the green chillies lengthwise. Heat oil in a pan. Add cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, bay leaves to the pan. Add onions, green chillies, turmeric powder and fry them a little. Add fenugreek leaves to the pan and let them cook a little bit. Wash the rice and add enough water for the rice to cook(I usually follow 1:3/2 ratio for rice:water), add the above cooked fenugreek leaves mixture and paneer cubes to rice and let it cook thoroughly. End result tasted almost the same as my mother's, mission accomplished :-)).

Tomato and onion yougurt chutney

* Tomatoes - 3 medium sized
* Onion - 1 medium sized
* Plain yogurt - 2 cups
* Turmeric - 1/2 tsp
* Oil - 1 tsp
* Mustard seeds - 1tsp
* Cumin seeds - 1tsp
* Curry leaves - 1 sprig(optional)
* Dried red chili - 1 no(optional)
* Salt - acc to your taste

Chop onion and tomatoes into thin long strips.

Heat oil in a pan. Add the cumin and mustard seeds, when the seeds start sputtering add in the dried red chili and curry leaves.

Add the chopped onion and tomatoes to the pan along with turmeric and salt. Fry them until the water generated is completely evaporated. Let it cool off a bit. Add it to the yogurt.

Serve it with white rice/roti. This can also be used as a dip.

Now coming to the title: Bright red == tomatoes and tears == onion :-)