Chepala Pulusu (Fish Gravy)

Prep and Cooking Time: 25-30mins

Serves: 3-4 persons

Ingredients

Fish Fillets (Tilapia/ Cat Fish/ Mackerel)- 8-10

Onion- 1 cup, finely chopped

Tomatoes- 2 or 3 big, finely chopped

Green Chillies- 3 or 4, slit and cut

Ginger Garlic paste- 1 tsp

Tamarind- 1 big lemon sized tamarind pulp

Red Chilli pwd- 1-2 tsp

Turmeric pwd- ¼ tsp

Coriander pwd (Dhaniya)- 1 tsp

Cumin pwd (Jeera)- 1 tsp

Fenugreek pwd (Methi)- ¼ tsp

Coconut pwd- 1 tbsp

Lemon Juice- 5-6 drops

Coriander Leaves- 2 tbsp, chopped

Curry Leaves- 2 stalks (Optional)

Cooking Oil- 3-4 tbsp

Salt to taste

Method

• Wash the fish properly and clean again with rock salt (optional) and add turmeric pwd to avoid the raw smell of the fish.
  
• Marinade the fish with chilli pwd, turmeric pwd, salt and add 5 drops of lemon
  
• Heat oil in a cooking vessel and fry onions and chillies until they turn transparent, add curry leaves, ginger garlic paste, turmeric and salt and fry for another 3 mins.
  
• Add tomatoes and cook until they are tender and add the tamarind extract and bring it to a boil.
  
• Add chilli pwd, coriander pwd, cumin pwd, methi pwd and coconut pwd and mix well
  
• Now carefully add the fish pieces to the vessel and cook covered for 3mins without mixing.
  
• Turn the fish pieces gently, cover and cook on low heat for 10 mins. Let the sauce thicken and cook until the oil separates as a layer on top of the gravy.
• Garnish with coriander leaves and Serve hot chepala pulusu with rice or roti

Note: Serve it after 15-20 mins, allow the fish pieces to absorb the spicy and tangy flavor of the spices and tamarind. Be extra cautious while stirring the fish pieces while cooking in order to avoid breaking the pieces.

Pulusu Pulihora (Tamarind Rice)

Prep and Cooking Time: 35-40mins
Serves: 4-5 persons

Happy and Prosperous Ugadi to one and all. Thank You for your responses and encouragement. Sorry for the delay in posting this Ugadi Special Recipe. This is a steal from my mother’s recipes, especially the addition of chick peas to the tamarind juice which makes it tastier as the chick peas inherits the tanginess from tamarind and adds that extra taste to the pulihora.

Ingredients

White Rice (Preferably Sona Masoori) - 2 cups
Tamarind - 100gms

Jaggery-1 tsp
Groundnuts - 2tbsp
Chick Peas (Bengal Gram/ Chana) - ½ cup (Optional)
Mustard Seeds (Aavalu) - 1 tsp
Cumin Seeds (Jeera) - 1 tsp
Chana Dal – 1 tsp (Optional)
Split Gram Dal (urad dal / minapappu) – 1tsp
Green Chillies- 4-5 split and cut
Dry Red Chillies- 2
Curry Leaves- 2 stalks
Coriander pwd (Dhaniya pwd) - 1 tsp
Turmeric Pwd - ½ tsp
Cooking Oil - 3 tbsp
Salt to taste


Method

• Soak the tamarind in water for about 15mins and then extract the juice from the pulp.

Tip: Soaking ia not required, if you can Microwave the tamarind immersed in water for about 1 min, this speeds up the extraction of juice from the pulp.

• Take a cooking vessel and add tamarind water, jaggery, add chick peas as well and allow it to boil for nearly 20mins until it forms into a thick consistent paste, keep stirring at regular intervals.
• In the mean while, cook the rice separately make sure the rice doesn’t get sticky and add salt, turmeric and 1tsp oil to it and mix thoroughly. Take care not to mash the rice grains.

(This tamarind mixture (without the chick peas) can be stored in a refrigerator if you keep it in a moist-free and tightly closed container for weeks together and you can use it later for making your very own instant pulihora)

Tempering/ Tadka/ Talimpu:

• Heat the remaining oil in a pan, add mustard seeds, cumin seeds, chana dal, urad dal, groundnuts and red chillies in that order and allow it to splutter.


• Then add green chillies and curry leaves, right before removing it off the flame add coriander pwd and sauté the contents.

Add the Tamarind concentrate to the rice and mix it well, now add the tadka and mix thoroughly.
Serve it with any spicy tangy pickle/pachadi/chutney.

Aloo Paratha

Prep and Cooking Time: 40-45mins

Serves: 3-4 persons

Paratha is a traditional flat bread which originated in India. It is commonly eaten with yoghurt or vegetables.The process of layering the "skins" of dough in paratha can make preparation a difficult process but it is worth all the effort.

Ingredients

Maida (All Purpose Flour)/ Wheat Flour - 300 gms

Onion- 1 medium, finely chopped

Potatoes – 3 big

Capsicum- 2, finely chopped

Green Chillies- 4-5, finely chopped

Carrots- 2 medium sized

Coriander Leaves- fresh and finely chopped

Red Chilli pwd- 2 tsp

Cooking Oil- 2tsp

Ghee/Clarified Butter for greasing the parathas

Amchur pwd (Dry Mango pwd)-1 tsp / Lemon Juice – 1 medium sized

Salt to Taste

Method

Knead semi soft dough with flour, adding sufficient water, oil and salt to taste.

Stuffing:

• Boil the potatoes and carrot, peel the skin off the potato and mash them
• Add onions, capsicum, green chillies, coriander leaves, red chilli pwd, amchur pwd/lemon juice, salt to taste and mix well.

Divide the dough into equal rounds
Roll out the portion of the dough into a small chapathi, make 2 chapathis in this manner for one Paratha

Flour Paste: Mix 2 tsp flour with ¼ th cup water to make a fine paste in order to seal the 2 chapathis to form a paratha

• Now spread approx 2tbsp stuffing on one chapathi and place another chapathi above this and seal them tightly with the flour paste and roll out evenly.
  
• On a hot tava roast both sides of the paratha till it turns into a golden brown shade
  
• Grease with ghee/oil/butter
  
• Serve hot parathas with Masala Raita
  

Masala Raita: Curd, chilli pwd, salt, chat masala.

Veg Pulao

Prep and Cooking Time: 25-30mins

Serves: 3-4 persons

Ingredients

Basmati Rice - 2cups

Onion- 1 medium sized, chopped

Carrot- 2, finely chopped

Beans- 1 cup, cut into small pieces

Green Peas- ½ cup

Capsicum- 1, finely chopped

Green Chillies- 4, slit and chopped into halves

Ginger Garlic paste- ½ tsp

Cilantro/ Coriander leaves- ¼ bunch

Garam Masala pwd – ¾ tsp

Cloves, Cinnamon, Bay Leaves, Elaichi/Cardamom- 2 or 3 of each

Clarified Butter/ Ghee- 3 tsp

Method

• Cook the rice so that each grain is separate.
  
• Heat ghee/oil in a pan, add cloves, cinnamon, bay leaves, cardamom, once it splutters add onions, green chillies, turmeric, Ginger Garlic paste and cook until onions turn transparent
  
• Now add the vegetables and add salt to it, this helps the vegetables retain the green color. A cooking tip : )
  
• Keep covered and cook on a low flame for approximately 15-20 mins, till the vegetables become tender enough. Add garam masala to this.
  
• When vegetables are done, add the vegetables mixture to the cooked rice, mix thoroughly and heat it either in microwave or on low heat.
  
• Garnish with coriander leaves and Serve this hot pulao with Cucumber Raitha.
  

Happy Cooking!!!

Chilli Chicken Curry

This recipe is equally delicious and easy to prepare and it goes well with rice and rotis or can be sandwiched between bread slices too with few onion slices and a dash of lime juice.

Ingredients

Boneless Chicken – ½ kg, cut into 1” pieces

Onion- 1 large, chopped and grinded to a fine paste

Tomatoes- 2 big size, finely chopped

Green Chillies- 5-6, chopped

Ginger Garlic paste- ½ tsp

Red Chilli pwd- 1 tsp

Pepper pwd- 1 tsp

Dhaniya pwd- ½ tsp

Turmeric pwd- ¼ tsp

Tomato Sauce/Ketchup – 2tbsp

Cooking Oil- 2 tbsp

Salt to taste

Method

Marinating:

Mix well Chicken pieces, red chilli pwd, turmeric pwd, salt, ginger garlic paste, onion paste and tomatoes, refrigerate and allow it to marinate for a minimum of 1 hour.

Curry:

• Heat oil in a deep pan, add green chillies, pepper pwd and sauté for 1min.
  
• Now add the marinated chicken pieces to this, and stir the contents. Allow it to cook for 10-15 min until the chicken becomes tender.
  
• Finally add ketchup, dhaniya pwd and sauté.
  
• Sprinkle lime juice and cilantro and serve with hot Pulao or Rotis.
  

Tomato Rasam

Rasam is a South Indian Tomato Soup which relies on tomatoes for its sourness. It is supposed to be served with rice or you can have a steaming mug of Tomato Rasam for a quicker relief when you are downtrodden with a cold.

Prep and Cooking Time: 20-25mins

Serves: 3-4 persons

Ingredients

2-3 large Tomatoes, finely chopped/5-6 tbsp Tomato puree

2 Green Chillies, slit and cut into halves

½ medium onion, finely sliced

3-4 Garlic Cloves, chopped

4-5 Curry Leaves

2 tbsp Tamarind Concentrate

½ tsp Mustard Seeds

½ tsp Cumin Seeds

2 Dry Red Chillies

½ tsp Dhaniya pwd

½ tsp Red Chilli pwd

1 tsp Coconut pwd

1 tbsp Oil

Method

• Cook the chopped tomatoes in a cooking vessel on high flame for about 5mins, once the tomatoes are tender enough smash them.

Note: If tomato puree is used, then cook it for 2mins until the rawness of the tomato puree fades

• Add the tamarind concentrate, check the consistency and add water accordingly and allow it to boil for nearly 5-7mins.
  

For tempering/tadka/talimpu

• Heat oil in a pan, add mustard seeds, cumin seeds, red chillies and after the spluttering subsides add sliced onions, green chillies, chopped garlic cloves, turmeric and finally curry leaves. Saute the contents and leave on medium heat for 3mins. Then add dhaniya pwd sauté for 1-2 mins.
  
• Now add the tadka, coconut pwd, chilli pwd and salt to the tomato and tamarind juice.
  
• Garnish with coriander and serve with steaming hot rice. I also use this Tomato Rasam to make a relishing South Indian Dish called “Rasam Vada” (Vada Immersed in a bowl of Rasam). I will update on this in my future postings.
  

Chilli Dhaniya Egg Stir Fry

This is an "easy to cook" and "tasty to eat" recipe which can be made instantly.The flavours of chilli and dhaniya/cilantro make it a savouring dish.

Prep and Cooking Time: 20 mins

Serves: 3-4 persons

Ingredients

4 Eggs

1 large Onion, finely chopped

2 Green Chillies, finely chopped

¼ tsp Mustard Seeds

¼ tsp Split black gram (urad dal/minapappu)

½ tsp Ginger Garlic paste

2 pinches Turmeric pwd

1 tsp Red Chilli pwd

¾ tsp Dhaniya pwd (Coriander/Cilantro pwd)

2 tbsp Cooking oil

Salt to taste

Method

• Beat the eggs in a bowl and keep it aside
  
• Heat oil in a deep pan, add mustard seeds and split black gram. Once it starts spluttering add onion and green chillies, sauté and cook until onions turn transparent.
  
• Now add turmeric and ginger garlic paste, sauté it and then add the egg mixture to this, do not stir, leave it on medium flame for 1-2 mins
  
• Add chilli pwd, dhaniya and salt and now scramble the eggs and mix well.
  
• Garnish with Coriander leaves and serve with hot rice or roti