Pori / Marmaralu / Puffed Rice Upma - A quick filling snack

Most of the times I'll have pori stocked at home. So when hunting for a quick snack, this recipe comes quite handy.
This may not be a substitute for tiffin, but it sure is a filling snack.



Ingredients:
Pori / Marmaralu (Puffed rice) - 2 cup
Onion - 1
Tomato - 1
Turmeric - a pinch
Red chilli powder
Salt
Tomato Ketchup

To temper :
Mustard
Cumin

Keep a bowl of clean water ready.
In little oil, temper mustard and cumin.
Fry the finely chopped onions till brown
Add chopped tomatoes, close and cook till they are done. Adding 1 sp of tomato ketchup at this stage is optional.
Immerse the pori in the bowl of water, squeeze to dry and add to tava.
Add turmeric, red chilli powder, salt
Simmer, Mix well, Switch off.
Serve it with tomato ketchup, it goes excellent with ketchup.

2 Minute Mor Kuzhambu

Now, I cannot call this a super-duper dish, but I love it for its simplicity (making wise and taste wise) :) I end up doing this when I really need some gravy but cant spend time. All is done in less than 5 minutes and it definitely tastes spicy and good.
You shall refer to the original recipe of Mor Kuzhambu / Coriander Mor Kuzhambu :)



Ingredients:-
Sour Curd - 1 cup
Tamarind - 1/2 sp (If curd is not sour)
Turmeric- A pinch Salt

To Temper:-
Mustard - 1 sp
Red Chilli - 4-5
Cumin - 1 sp
Urad dal - 1/2 sp
Channa dal - 1/2 sp

Beat the curd well (add tamarind pulp if it isn't sour) , a pinch of turmeric and set aside.
In little oil temper the ingredients, add curd and bring it to boil. Will not take more than 2 mins.
Switch off, add salt and give a mix. Serve hot with Rice or even like a raitha with spicy dishes.

Oatmeal-Raisins cookies - Yummy, Simple Low-Calorie snack

This takes less than 10 mins effort to prepare.. You can check out Oatmeal nutrition facts here



Ingredients:
Whole wheat flour - ¼ cup
Oats - ¾ cup
Raisins - ¼ cup
Sugar - ¼ cup
Baking powder - ½ tsp
Vanilla essence (opt) - 1 tsp
Oil - 1 Tbsp
Low fat / Skimmed/ Whole Milk - 2 Tbsp
Butter - 1 Tbsp (Can reduce this and add more milk)

Sieve and Knead all ingredients together.
Divide into balls and flatten them to desired size.
Grease the baking pan with oil/flour.
Bake at 375 F 15 mins or till done.
Allow to stand for 15 mts.

(Above measurement gives about 8-10 cookies of size as shown in the picture.)

Recipe adapted from here, applied few variations.

This entry goes to Maduram's Eggless cooking's Low Fat Eggless Baking Event

Semolina Sweet Balls / Rava Laddoo - Simple and delicious

Yet another simple delicious sweet.



Ingredients:-
Rava - 1 cup
Sugar - 1 1/2 cup
Ghee - 3 Tbsp
Cardamom powder - 1 sp
Cashews - few (Fried in ghee)
Milk - 1 or 2 sp

Dry fry Rava till it turns pink and a nice aroma comes.
Grind to fine powder.
Grind sugar to fine powder (Do not grind rava and sugar together).
Mix finely powdered Rava,Sugar and cardamom powder and ghee fried cashews well.
In a Tava heat ghee, once its well heated, switch off and pour the hot ghee in Rava-Sugar mixture.
Start making laddoos out of it.
You can use little amount of milk in hand while shaping the laddoos to help binding.

Poha Upma

A simple quick and healthy upma.



Ingredients:-
Thick Poha - 2 cups
Water - 2 cups
Tamarind paste - 1 sp
Salt

To Temper:-
Red chilli - 3
Urad dal - 1 sp
Channa dal - 1/2 sp
Mustard - 1 sp
Hing - A Pinch
Turmeric - a pinch


In little oil temper urad dal, channa dal. Once they are slightly brown add mustard, once they splutter, add red chilli, hing and turmeric. Saute for couple of seconds and add water.
Add tamarind paste to the water. Add salt.
Once it comes to a good boil, add the poha (if its not clean, can wash and immediately add).
Cook closed in Low-Simmer mode for 5-7 mins or till done.
Serve with chutney

Kothamalli Mor Kuzhambu / Coriander-Curd Gravy

Here comes the next ..Most simple dish and ready in a jiff, yet a very very comforting dish.
There are two ways of preparing Mor kuzhambu. One, where we boil the whole mixture a bit, the other, where no stove-top operation is required. This recipe belongs to the latter category.



If you are any bit scared of the above image, well, I am posting the normal version too :P




Ingredients:
Thick curd - 1 cup
Chopped Coriander/Cilantro - 1/2 cup
Grated Coconut - 1/4 cup
Green chilli - 2
Salt
To Temper:
Mustard - 1sp
Urad dal - 1 sp
Red Chilli - 1 (Opt)

Grind to paste corriander,cocunut,green chilli with little salt.
Beat the curds, add the ground mixture.
Temper with Mustard, Urad dal and Red chilli.

This entry goes to Cilantro’s Cilantro Jihva Event.

This entry also goes to Sowmya's Cooking-with-greens event

Masala Corn

A quick tasty snack..

Ingredients:
American Sweet Corn Kernels - 1 cup
Red Chilli powder - 1 sp
Salt
Chat Masala (opt)
Butter - 1 sp

Mix butter to the corn. MW the corn adding redchilli powder, chat masala and salt for couple of minutes.

Corn Vada - Sweeter version

Ingredients:
Corn Kernels - 1 cup
Jaggery/Sugar - 1 Tbsp

Grind the corn sugar/jagger adding water as required to make a thick batter.
Make patties and deep fry in hot oil.

Check out Few useful tips for deep-frying

Corn Vada

This is just like corn dosa, but batter must be made thick so as to make vada's

Ingredients:
Corn Kernels - 1 cup
Ginger - 2' piece
Green Chilli - 4
Salt
Onion

Grind the corn with ginger,chilli and salt adding water as required to make a thick batter.
Add finely chopped onions to the batter.
Make patties and deep fry in hot oil.

Check out Few useful tips for Deep-Fryin

Pottukadalai Urundai /Roasted Gramdal Balls

I was rattling around my kitchen not finding any snack item. I quickly remembered this and its ready in a jiff..My mom makes this everytime when she prepares ghee out of butter. So the fresh taste of ghee, makes this awesome. This is ready in less than 10 mins but absolutely no compromise in taste. It tastes superb..



Ingredients:
Pottukadalai / Roasted gram dal - 1 small cup
Sugar - 1 small cup
Ghee - 1 Tbsp
Milk - 1 Tbsp

Grind together Pottukadalai and sugar to fine powder.
(You can leave few coarsely grounded pottukadalai to give a nutty taste,or can add cashews. )
Heat the ghee till its slightly hot and add it to the powder, so that it helps in binding well.
Using your palm and fingers, press slightly, start rolling it to balls.
Press it gently. If you apply pressure at this stage it will fall apart and wont come in shape.
If the ghee is not enough to make the balls, then add milk, very little by little till it can hold to shape.

-- Though bigger urundais looks great, sometimes it chokes u, when u try to gulp them fully, else spills all over when u bite it to pieces.
I prefer making the urundai's little smaller, comfortably enough to get into your mouth. I hate to eat things that doesnt fit my mouth.

Mor Kuzhambu - Curd gravy

Ingredients:
Sour Curd - 1 cup
Tamarind - 1/2 sp (Opt)
Turmeric - a pinch
Salt

To soak and grind:
Tur Dal - 1/2 sp
Gram Dal (Opt)- 1/4 sp
Dhaniya - 1/2 Sp
Cumin - 1/2 sp
Red Chilli - 1
Green Chilli -1
Ginger - 1 small piece
Coconut - 1 sp

Beat curd well. Add salt and pinch of turmeric to it.
Soak for half hour and grind to paste the mentioned ingredients.
Mix the grounded mixture to curd.
Cook just a couple of minutes /till it boils up. Switch off

-- If the curd is not sour, add 1/2 sp of tamarind to it.

Corn Dosa

Ingredients:
Corn Kernels - 1 cup
Ginger - 2' piece
Green Chilli - 4
Salt
Onion

Grind the corn with ginger,chilli and salt adding water as required to make the batter.
Batter should be like dosa batter, flowy.
In hot tava, drizzle oil, pour laddle full of batter and spread it to thin circle.
Top it with finely cut onions.
Boil both sides.

Pulihara - Another Andhra delicacy

Recipe learnt from Husband. An Andhra delicacy :)
Once you have cooked rice ready, this dish could be made in 10 mins flat.



Ingredients :
Rice - 1 cup
Tamarind - 1 big lemon sized

Oil
Mustard - 1 sp
Gram Dal/Channa Dal - 1 heaped sp
Turmeric - 1 heaped sp
Hing - 1 sp,
Red Chilli - 6
Salt
Groundnuts - 1Tbsp
Cashews - 1 Tbsp
Curry Leaves - 1 String

Cook the rice grainy.
Make thick pulp out of tamarind.
In little oil, fry mustard, once it splutters add gram dal,cashews, Groundnuts and fry for a minute or till brown.
Finally add red chillis,turmeric,hing,curry leaves and saute for few seconds
Add tamarind pulp,simmer, once it comes to a boil switch off.
Add this to rice, add salt and pour few spoons of oil and mix thoroughly.
Now enjoy !

--This tastes best when it sets for few hours.
--We love adding lot of turmeric that makes it more yellow, one can reduce the turmeric if its not prefered.