Tangy tomato soup :)

Past few days i had a craving to have soups and whats interesting is i wanted to do it by myself instead of having it outside ;) Whenever we talk of soups, tomato soup comes on top of the list.
So over the weekend i tried my hands on tomato soup which is of course very simple, delicious and quick to make.

Kids basically love tomato soup alot and in my house my nephews relish this alot and for the people who are on diet can also add this healthy soup into their menu list :) I still remember how my friends and myself used to have tomato soup for 5 Rupees during winters for the cold in my 12th grade in the great hot spot cool joint near jayanagar(Bangalore) :)

Ingredients :


2 Tomatoes : Cut into big cubes
1 Onion : Chopped into big cubes
1 small Carrot : Cut into cubes
Ginger and garlic : About 1/2 of ginger and 6 to 7 garlic pods
Water
Black pepper powder
Salt






Method :

1) Take the above ingredients(tomato,onion,carrot,ginger&garlic) into a bowl, add some water and pressure cook it up to 3 whistles.

2) Add the boiled vegetables into mixer grinder make it a fine paste.
3) Now filter the above paste into a bowl so that we get a puree.
4) On a low flame, add some water to boil the soup for the consistency
5) Add pepper powder and salt and garnish with coriander.

Tangy tomato soup is ready. You can relish this during this monsoon time :)


Note:
1)I have not added bread chunks,cream milk to it coz since this is on diet menu i have added oats into it.
2)People who wish to add bread chunks heat oil in a pan and fry bread cubes until golden brown, drain it and add the bread cubes after soup is ready.Do not add it while cooking coz this will make soup thick.

Yummy mutton chopsuey :)

Last week we had a feast in my aunts house as she had called my family for lunch to her house and we relished having different kinds of non vegetarian food and among all dishes i really loved one dish which was really yummy made out of red meat(mutton) and she said she named this dish as mutton chopsuey :)


Yes i know the above pic looks appealing and mouth watering and yes it tastes also yummy :) I asked my aunt how she prepared it and i tried my hands on this last Sunday, it was Delicious couldn't wait to show you guys :) Why i loved this dish was coz this is not made out of coconut as i always or almost seen people using coconut as one of the main ingredient to prepare non veg. My mom uses coconut and so since i learnt from her even i know dishes made out of it.
My aunt she told me each and every ingredient she used and yes she said that we need to be care full enough while buying red meat as they might mix unwanted meat in it. She said the actual taste comes from the meat so while buying mutton we need to ask the butcher for chopsuey. So its basically ribs of the mutton which they cut and give. Less of flesh and more of bones. Majority of the non veggie lovers like to eat bones than flesh. Sorry for going to deep into explaining meat,flesh an all but this is one of the main ingredient for this particular dish and yes next comes the below ingredients.

Ingredients :

1Kg Mutton chopsuey cleaned.

Onions - 2 medium sized, sliced.
Tomatoes - 2 medium sized, chopped
coriander leaves - 1/4th cup, chopped
Pudina leaves - 1/4th cup, chopped
Methi leaves - 1/4th cup, chopped
Turmeric powder - 1 teaspoon
Daniya powder - 3 tablespoon
Green chillies - 3 to 4 whole
Cashwenuts - 5 to 6
Cinnamon sticks - 3inches
Cardamom - 2 to 3
Cloves - 3
Fennel seeds - 2 teaspoons
Cumin seeds - 1 teaspoon
Garlic pods - 3 to 4nos.
Freshly grinded pepper powder - 3 tablespoons
Ginger garlic paste - 2 tablespoons
Oil - 4 to 5 tablespoons
Curry leaves
Water
Salt to taste

Method :

1)First we need to make a paste of few ingredients as this is the masala for the dish so we need to take green chillies, cashewnuts, garlic pods, cinnamon sticks, cardamom, cloves , fennel seeds and a make a fine paste.
2) Now in a pressure cooker take the mutton pieces, add 1 tablespoon of oil, add the grinded paste, gingergarlic paste, daniya powder, turmeric, salt and add 1 1/2 cup of water and pressure cook it for 4 to 5 whistles as mutton takes time to cook.
3)Now take a pan add oil and let it heat, add cumin seeds,onions and curry leaves and cook it till it turns brown.
4)Add chopped tomatoes and saute it.
5)Now add methi leaves and saute it nicely for 5 to 7mins.
6)Now add chopped coriander and pudina leaves together and fry it.
7)Once done add the cooked mutton from the pressure cooker and allow it to boil for 5mins so that everything gets mixed and then add freshly grinded pepper powder to it.
8)Mix it well and close the lid and allow it to boil for another 15mins.
9) Mutton chopsuey is ready to serve.

You can relish the dish with roti's/hot puri's and of course hot rice.

DO try it and let me know how it was :)


Njoy your treat.
 
Note:

> We need to add little bit of water while pressure cooking red meat as meat oozes out some water while cooking.
> We add methi leaves first and saute it coz it has bit of bitterness in it so we need to allow it to fry first so that the bitterness doesn't spread to coriander and pudina leaves.
> After pressure cooking if you still feel mutton as to be cooked more you can  add some more water and allow it to boil for some more time.
> Salt was already added while we pressure cook meat if u feel its not sufficient you can add it later.
> Hope you liked it do share your comments :) Njoy

richies rich biryani :)

Biryani being one of the most relished food for all non vegetarians and Yes I'm here to tell for all  the non vegetarian lovers that there is a restaurant in b'lore which is famous for yummy biryani :)
Rahamans family restaurant which is commonly know RICHES hotel :) This restaurant has many branches but i have visited the one in Frazer town and R T Nagar, Bangalore.

Biryani perfectly cooked with incredible spices and it is not made of the famous basmati rice but it is made out of jeera rice and when we taste it we can feel that its 3/4th boiled but really each and everyone will enjoy biryani in this restaurant :)

As we enter the hotel right outside there will be people taking parcel and over there we can see that lot varieties of kebab's and yummy tandoori are available :)

As my whole family visited this hotel last week so i tried and captured few pics to show you guys so that there will be some mouth watering happening for you guys as well ;) we entered this hotel we ordered for fish fry, sholey kebab,roti and hyderbadi chiken curry and the biryani :)

Lastly they serve us the yummy rice kheer :)

Hoping all bangaloreans will visit this restaurants and then you will only keep visiting it ;) and all outsiders to surely have a taste before leaving bangalore:)

Enjoy :)

Chepala Pulusu(Fish Curry) - Andhra Style

In telugu Chepa means fish, pulusu means curry so in this post i will be showing one of the traditional fish curry. Why i say traditional is this curry or recipe is straight from my village/native and my grandmother sisters used to prepare such simply curries and serve us when we used to visit there houses :) As i dont like cooking much i used never concentrate on how they prepare such yummy dish. I'm always the first to njoy food cooked by someone else... ;) but now since i'm married and my hubby being a non vegetarian lover i wanted to learn this simply authentic dish but this time i never learnt it from my grandmother but i learnt it from my cousin :) Yes i'm in my cousin's place right now for a week and she prepared chepala pulusu for me :)
So i didnt wanted to miss showing you guys this simplest curry so i troubled her while cooking by taking snaps ;)

My cousin took me to Asian market in texas. In this market my cousin told that they catch live fish and give us as it would be fresh coz rest would have usually been frozen and i was intertested in watching how they catch the live fish :) We went there at 1 in the afternoon(though it was already lunch time and we were yet to buy fish) and my cousin asked for live Cat fish.The shop person took us to the aquarium and we had to select the fish, later we told him to cut it into small pieces so we bought the 2.2 pounds cat fish and head to home to start preparing.


So here i am showing how to prepare fish curry :)

Ingredients :


Fish : 1 Kg
Tamarind Juice : 1 Cup
Onions : 2 Chopped
Coriander : Chopped
Ginger Garlic paste : 1tbs
Red chilli powder : 2 tbs
Dhaniya Powder : 1 tbs
Pepper Corns : 2 tsp
Cumin seeds : 2 tsp
Garam Masala powder : 2tsp
Oil : 5tbs
Salt to taste

Method: 

* Soak the Tamarind in water and get the pulp out of it.
* Grind the pepper corns and cumin seeds and make it a fine powder.
* Heat Oil in a pan, add the curry leaves,add the grinded pepper corns and cumin seeds powder.
* Add onions and a pinch of salt by this way water in salt comes out and allows it to cook nicley and saute it nicely till onions turn brown and then add gingergarlic paste and saute for 2mins.
*Add the chopped coriander saute for another 2mins and then add redchilli powder and dhaniya powder and saute it.
*Now add the tamarind pulp to it and allow it to boil and also add salt according to the taste. Take care not to have all the water evaporated.If the water is less then add a little bit more water and wait for the gravy to come together.
*Taste the gravy and if it is cooked about 90% add the fish to it and close the lid and let it boil for 15mins.
* Once its done in the end add the garam masala to the gravy and stir it.


Chepala pulusu is ready to serve. Serve with steamed rice and relish it :)

Note:
~ By adding the pepper corn and cumin seeds powder in oil it brings out the aroma of the spices.
~ You can add any fish of your taste to the dish.

Do let me know how it was.
Njoy

Sorkai/Lauki - Indian Curry

Sorkai(in Telugu/Kannada), Lauki/Ghiya(in Hindi),Bottle gourd(in English) is one of my favorite vegetable.In indian cooking its used for making curries,gravies,chutneys and even desserts.

Lauki/Sorkai belongs to Squash family and its called Bottle gourd. It is bottle shaped veggie.Its not as hard as bottle but soft and lite as a dish!!!

"Bottle Gourd is very beneficial for health, especially for heart, and you can have a glass full of its juice if you are on a weight loss program too ;)This fresh vegetable has a light green smooth skin with white flesh inside.Bottle gourd is rich in dietry fiber with very low content of fat and cholesterol.Approximately 96% of bottle gourd is water and therefore a great thirst quencher.Apart from the iron content it is also rich in vitamin B and vitamin C "

So let me show you guys how to make this simple dish. Trust me guys it is very tasty and you would njoy it.


Ingredients:


Sorkai/Lauki - 500gms
Onion chopped - 1 small
Tomato chopped - 1 small
Garlic pods - 4 to 5
Toor dal - 2 to 3 spoons
Dhaniya powder - 2 tbs
Groundnut powder - 4 tbs
Redchilli powder - 2tbs
Oil - 1tbs
Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
Curry leaves
Salt to taste

Method :

1) Take a vessel and add Sorkai/Lauki, onion, tomato, garlic pods, toor dal and dhaniya powder.

2) Add some water and salt and allow it to boil.

3) keep stirring in between and check whether its boiled.Usually it would take 20mins to cook.

4)Once its bolied,in the end add the ground nut powder and red chilli powder and allow it to boil for another 10mins.

5)For granishing heat some oil in a small pan add mustard seeds and allow it to splatter and then add curry leaves. Add it to the curry and mix it well.

Hot Sorkai/lauki curry in ready to serve :) You can have it with either chapathi/roti or njoy with rice/chawal.

Njoy your meal :)