Beetroot Leaves Kootu

Beetroot Leaves - I tasted them at my friend's place for the first time. Reluctant first, Hesitant next I tasted it after my friend's loving reassurance "You will not die. Taste it".  (yeah, she is such a lovely friend). I did not die and better yet, I liked the taste of them leaves. :D

Then Tamil bought the beets with leaves. With minor variations to her version that suited our pantry, mood, memory (as much as we can recall her recipe) and taste buds.. the new dish made it's way here. The crunch of the leaves in every bite with the sweet and spice of the beets sets it apart. Karthik's verdict: Super-a irukku. It did taste very good.

Buy the Beetroot bunch with the leaves and wash the leaves well

Finely chop beets including the leaves 

Heat 3 tsp of oil in a pan

Season the oil with 1 tsp of mustard seeds and let the seeds crackle

Add a spring of curry leaves

Add 1 large red onion finely chopped

Saute the onions well until translucent

Toss the beets and leaves

Stir occasionally and saute until beets is half done

Add 1 tsp of red chilly powder, 1/2 tsp of Turmeric powder and salt per taste

Continue to saute until beets is well done or al-dente

Sprinkle water time to time to aid with the cooking

While it is cooking, fine ground 3 green chillies, 1 tsp of Cumin seeds with 2 tbsp of Coconut powder

Just when the beets is about to be done, add the coconut powder 

Give it a stir, cover the pan and simmer the stove for about 5 to 7 mins

Delicious Beets is ready to be served 

Soft Oats Idli

2 Cups of Rolled Whole Oats
2 Cups of Idli Rice
1.25 Cups of Whole Urad dhal
1 tsp of Methi seeds

Soak Oats & Rice separately
Soak Urad and Methi separately.

Grind the urad mix for 45 mins.
Add the Oats mix and grind for another 30 mins.

Ferment batter overnight.
Make idli the usual way.

Optional: Add Hemp / Flax seeds while making idlis.

Brown Rice Porridge (Kanji)

Makes 1 Serving.

1/2 cup Brown Rice
3 cups Water
2 Garlic Pods with Peel
6 Whole Pepper (Milagu)
1/8th tsp Cumin Seeds (Seeragam)
1/8th tsp Methi Seeds (Vendhayam)
3 small Green Chillies
3 Curry Leaves
1/2 tsp Salt (per taste)

Pressure cook all of the above for a good 3 whistles. (about 20 mins) and then simmer the flame to lowest possible and leave for another 10 minutes. Then turn off the stove.

After the pressure releases, slightly mash the contents with the back of a ladle (Typo correction courtesy: Thx to whomsoever it may concern :-) )
Serve hot with any chutney. Coconut chutney goes well with this. Puthina chutney, Coriander chutney anything would pair well with this comfort food. I survived on this when work was crazy busy.
Just toss all of them in the cooker and forget till it is done. No grinding, no chopping, no frying, no stiring, heck you need not even peel the garlic. :D Just the lethargy to cook drove me into this concoction that I named Brown Rice Kanji. This tastes very closer to my favorite Kanji served during my hostel days. I tried so much to get the recipe from the hostel caterers but could not. I am so glad I could come up with this one which is a close cousin of that.

I tried to add Quinoa to the mix but that was a failure... so I spare you all from that experiment. It tasted awful... like a glue with wooden sticks.. Why am I saying this? Welll think of that taste and compare it to this one, you will like this kanji even better by comparison. LOL Kidding. This tastes better even otherwise.

It gives me ideas to try Ven Pongal with the same recipe. Ok Ok I get it Brown Pongal. Will post a recipe when I experiment that.

Rice Quinoa

Just a medley of grains. Looking for ways to include the protein packed Quinoa into everyday diet? Try this. Mix Quinoa and Rice in 1:2 ratio. The Rice to Water ratio be 1:2 and Quinoa to Water ratio be 1:1. Mix the Rice, Quinoa and Water, then pressure cook the medley of grains for a nice 1 or 2 whistles (just like you do the Rice).
This is an easy sneaky way to get those taste buds get accustomed to the new taste of Quinoa. Rice tastes better for us this way. Especially for kids, this is very filling and not too much of a jump from one taste to another in the pretext of healthy eating.

1 Measure White Rice
1 Measure Quinoa
3 Measures Water

1 to 2 Whistles in Pressure Cooker

The cooked rice has nice crisp bites of Quinoa to it, enhancing the taste. It is very nutritious too, now you can have white rice with less guilt. Slowly you can increase the quinoa ratio once you get used to the taste. Let us crawl before we run, shall we? ;-)
Treat this as any white rice and serve with curries. You may even make pulavs, flavored rice etc using the same rice Quinoa base. Now that's an idea to self...Will do some in near future. :-)

Food Processor - Black& Decker - 8 cup

I am very pleased with this Black beauty.
The 8-cup Black & Decker Food Processor
So far I have sliced Okra (Vendakkai), Karela (Pagarkai), Valaikai, Chou-Chou and Beans. They all came out perfectly sliced. I grated Carrots, it was slightly harder for the machine but it did the job though. I am not planning to overload this one with carrots anymore though.. It does the job for the rest and I do not want to test it's patience. LOL

I bought it for just $25. The price is great. The parts are not that sturdy but then you get what you pay for, so no complaints there.
The best part is that it is easy to clean. The common complaint I hear from people is that what time you gain using food processors is spent on cleaning the number of hard to clean parts of it. But this one is a charmer. There aren't too many parts, just the bare essentials. And they are easy to clean too. No nooks and crooks with hard to reach areas, just a quick rinse the bowl and parts are cleaned. The machine comes in handy I say, go for it.
If I were to look for any negatives, I think the chopper blade may not be that functional... not sure.. yet to test it. I just flipped some vegetables in there and used teh chopper blade but it didn't sound right, so I flipped back to slicing and grating. Overall I am very satisfied with this product. It does not occupy much space on the counter and what space it occupies, it compensates it with it's sheen beauty. So a Win-Win.

Ennai Kathirikai Kara Kulambu - 3

Oil+brinjal -> saute
Oil+mustard seeds+urad dhal+cumin+methi seeds+curry leaves+hing+10 garlic+10 pearl onions+grated ginger+3 green chillies+2 red chillies+salt+turmeric pdr+3tomatoes+1tsp red chilly pdr+3 tsp coriander pdr-> saute until oil separates
+tamarind pulp+2 cups water+brinjal+medium flame for 10 mins.

Mushroom Pulao in 30 minutes

• Wash and Soak 2 cups of Basmati rice in 4  cus of water for a minimum of 1 hr (I soaked it for 2 hrs)
• In a hard bottom deep vessel (like a pressure pan), add a small cube of salted butter(you may use ghee too)
• Add a liberal amount of oil to coat the base of the vessel well enough
• When the oil is hot enough add 2 bay leaves, 3 cloves, 1/2 inch cinnamon stick, 2 green cardamoms, 1/4 tsp of fennel seeds and gently stir for a few seconds
• Add 1 large onion (half of  which is finely chopped and other half into thin long slices) and saute well
• Simmer the flame and add  2 tsp of ginger-garlic paste, saute well
• Add about 12 button mushrooms cut in quarters
• Add 3 green chillies slit lengthwise
• Saute until the mushroom is half done and any water present is evaporated
• Add 2 tsp of salt, a pinch of turmeric, 1/2 tsp of red chilly powder and stir well
• Add 1 large ripe tomato finely chopped and saute until well done
• Add 1/4 tsp of Garam Masala, 1/4 tsp of  any  (or Aachi) Briyani powder and stir well
• Drain and Add the water from the soaking rice (closer to 4 cups of water )  and bring it to a boil
• Taste test for spices and salt at this stage
• Add the soaked Basmati rice 
• Add a handful of cilantro leaves
• Give it a stir and keep the flame in high
• Cover the vessel with a tight lid (a glass id with a small vent is preferred)
• Let it cook for about 10 minutes. You should see craters forming on the surface indicating  that almost all water is gone (A glass lid will let you sneak a peak without having to open the lid and letting the steam out)
• Simmer  in lowest flame for another 7 minutes
• By now the nutty aroma of mushroom should have filled your kitchen :-)
• Turn off the flame and leave the vessel on the stove undisturbed for as long as you wish
• Serve hot with raita or any spice curry as side
• The whole process from chopping to serving takes just about 30 minutes