Andhra Style Mint Rice/Pudhina Annam

I will always look for simple rice dishes to prepare whenever i feel bored to cook especially for our lunch on week days. And i have bookmarked some easy dishes to dish out quickly on those days. One among my bookmarked recipe is this Pudhina rice from Hari Chandana's Blend with Spices. Am an ardent fan of Andhra style dishes especially for their pickles. Whenever i cross a different and easy breezy dishes from this cuisine, i dont forget to bookmark them. I crossed this dish in Instagram when Hari chandana posted her video recipe. And the simplicity of this dish caught immediately my attention. Obviously i bookmarked it for later. I prepared this dish few days back for our Sunday meal along with a curry leaves spiced powder rice dish. Served along with some spicy chicken thighs, everyone at home enjoyed thoroughly this flavoursome rich rice dish without any fuss.

Janthikalu/Murukkulu/Chakli

Janthikalu/Murukkulu is nothing but crispy spirals which are quite known in South India. This snack food is well known for their crispiness as well as for their different varieties. Though Janthikalu/Murukkulu/ Murukku or Chakli,these crispy fried beauties have their own place for Festivals of lights aka Diwali, janthikalu can be prepared for an evening snacks, if you are lover of deep fried crispies. This festival is around the corner and Indians all around the world make some delicious sweets and savouries to share with friends and relatives especially on this day. Janthikalu is Andhra style murukku which calls for rice flour, gram flour, ajwain seeds, sesame seeds, ghee and obviously chilly powder. Yes the speciality of Andhra savouries is the addition of chilly powder as they love spiciness in their foods.

Pesarapappu Bobbatlu/Sweet Moongdal Poli

Pesarapappu means Yellow moong dal in Telugu, and my today's post is this delicious moongdal sweet polis, you may wonder why am talking about this ultimate sweet. Let me tell you, i will be posting three different festival recipes during this week of blogging marathon as i picked Festival Recipes as theme. For the first day of this week's blogging marathon, am posting this Pesarapappu bobbatlu as this sweet flatbreds have their own place in Sankranti or in Ugadi feast. Usually the classic traditional festival sweet Bobbatlu aka obbattu, holige, paruppu poli is prepared with channa dal-jaggery stuffing, but this yellow moongdal flatbread is prepared completely with sugar and cooked yellow moongdal. Obviously its quite a different poli/flatbread to give a try if you want something new to dish out for your pooja.

Bellam Paramannam/Annam Payasam/Andhra Style Jaggery Rice Pudding

Bellam Paramannam is a sweet rice pudding prepared basically with rice and it is served as a prasadam/offering to God in most of the homes in Andhra. This pudding is especially prepared on most of the special occasions and festivals like Sankranti. Usually prepared with rice and milk, this pudding can be sweetened either with sugar or jaggery which is later garnished with fried raisins or cashews. Paramannam can be served hot or cold as a dessert. This dish is also called or known as Annam payasam, Paramannam, Bellam Pongali however this pudding is definitely a royal treat to whoever love Indian style puddings.

Nuvvula Appalu/Deep Fried Wheatflour Patties

You might have noticed that am posting about Sankranti special dishes and my today's post goes to an incredible deep fried wheat flour patties. This dish is definitely a new dish for me until i was searching for something different for Sankranti. Actually i was looking for a new sankranti special dish and i landed to Hari Chandana's space. These incredible patties are dangerously addictive and almost like our Adhirasam, this appalu will definitely tickle your tastebuds. Very simple to prepare this appalu dough, you wont forget to give a try to this dish often.

Bandaru Laddu/Thokkudu Laddoo

Laddoo/Laddu, this popular Indian sweets are our family favourite, yes i never forget to prepare them every year especially for Diwali festival. Laddoos, this sweet balls are usually prepared with fried boondis, sugar syrup with dry fruits. But my today's post is a very popular Andhra sweets aka Bandaru Laddoo. This laddoos was originated in 'Machilipatnam' in Andhra Pradesh which is also known as 'Bandar'. Not to forget that this laddoo is also prepared during auspicious days like Sankranti, Deepavali etc. Though this laddoo calls for besan flour aka gram flour, this laddoo's preparation sounds very much different from the usual laddoos.

Goru Meetilu/Goru Mittai - Andhra'sTraditional Sweet

Wishing you all a happy and prosperous Diwali, the popular festival of lights. Am sure all will be busy in dishing out sweets and savouries to share with all your loved ones. Even am busy in preparing as well. Who will say no if you get a chance to try your hands with a Traditional sweet from Andhra,and not to forget Andhra cuisine is one of the richest cuisine of India where still so many traditional dishes have their important place. Am sharing an interesting sweet from this region of India which is delicious, dangerously addictive and very easy to make with simple ingredients. Actually i crossed this sweet two days back in one of my fellow blogger Padma's space and immediately this sweet dish tempted me to give a try. Since i was searching for a different sweets for my diwali sweets i couldnt resist to make this Goru Meetilu aka Goru Mitai. Padma says that this sweet gets its name from the way its is shaped. Yes Goru means Nail in Telugu, since this sweet is shaped completely with thumb finger, this sweet is named as though.

Mamidi Allam Niluva Pachadi/Mango Ginger Chutney - An Indian Condiment

Last but not least, my today's post goes to an Indian condiment, Indian cuisine is incomplete without condiments. Each region of India have their own condiments and many condiments have their important place in daily menu. I cant imagine having my South Indian breakfast with chutneys,thogayals or else simply with spice powders. As am running mega marathon for a month with different themes for each week, am posting today a fingerlicking chutney aka pachadi from Andhra cuisine. Mango ginger chutney/Mamidi Allam Niluva Pachadi is nothing but a spicy, easy and definitely a flavorful condiment prepared simply with mango ginger, tamarind, chilly powder and jaggery.

Actually during my trip in India, i couldnt resist myself to buy some fresh mango ginger to make this alluring chutney and made this lipsmacking pachadi for my lunch. I enjoyed thoroughly this chutney with curd rice, both makes a prefect pair and you wont stop yourself having this delicious pachadi. I grabbed this recipe from Prathibha's space and followed the recipe completely without making any changes seriously loved it to the core.

Usirikaya Perugu Pachadi/Gooseberry Yogurt Chutney - Andhra Special

Perugu Pachadi is a yogurt based dip that includes vegetables such as tomato, cucumbers, squash, mango, bitter gourd etc, the vegetables used in this pachadi or chutney can be either raw or cooked.

This variety of yogurt based chutney is quite popular in coastal Andhra Pradesh. In Northern India, this dish is called as raita or dahi chutney. Andhra people makes varieties of pachadi with dals and vegetables, their meal is not complete without pachadis and each pachadi have their important place in a meal. From toor dal to bittergourd, variety of pachadis do exists to serve along with spicy hot Andhra style pickles.

My today's recipe goes for Usirikaya perugu pachadi which is prepared simply with gooseberries aka Amlas. Usirikaya means gooseberries/Amlas/Nellikaai and perugu means yogurt. This pachadi makes an excellent side dish to serve along with dosas,idlies and rotis.I just dished out this healthy and super delicious pachadi after following my aunt's instruction who lived in Hyderabad during my stay in India,trust me this fingerlicking pachadi is one of the best and interesting dish to sneak this healthy gooseberries.

Ava Pettina Aratikaaya Kura/Mustard Flavoured Raw Banana

Andhra style side dishes are my favourite, whenever i feel like having something spicy and different from my usual Tamilian side dishes,i will immediately take a look at my cook book collections. I cherish two cookbooks i won through this wonderful virtual world, one among those books is Cooking at home with Pedatha.This book is definitely a treasure if you are searching for authentic Andhra style dishes. While going through this book i got hooked immediately to this mustard flavoured raw banana curry. This curry is definitely an easy breezy dish, goes awesome as side dish with any sort of rice dishes especially with curd or rasam rice.

Vankaya Kura/Masala Gutti Vankaya Koora/Andhra style Stuffed Brinjals

Vankaya means brinjals in Telugu, brinjals are prepared in different way either as gravies or as curries. Personally i love Andhra style stuffed brinjals, when i picked some small green brinjals in Indian grocery few days back, i want to make some Andhra style stuffed brinjals. Back home, i googled for no onion no garlic vanakaya koora aka stuffed brinjal curry, i got hooked to Divya's Masala Gutti vankaya kura as this recipe goes for simple ingredients and they are prepared without both onion and garlic. Actually i never know that vankaya kura or koora can be prepared without onion and garlic, immediately i prepared this nutty masala vankaya koora. This side dish suits awesome as side dish with rice and rotis, however i love this Vankaya kura with rasam rice.

Tamatar Ka Salan - Andhra Special

April is here, and this month is going to be hectic for many of us coz of kid's exams else coz of their vacation. For me its going to be hectic coz of a month of long month marathon. Monthly we do three days of blogging marathon but April is everyday posting and for this month's theme, we chosed to cook from many Indian states. Being a South Indian, i always love to cook North Indian foods very much, seriously this month's blogging marathon pulled myself and my co marathoners to explore not only different Indian regional cuisines but their cultures and the way they cook their foods.Today, am taking you all to one of the famous South Indian flavourful Andhra Cuisine.

Andhra Pradesh is a state situated along the south-eastern coast of India. The charm of the Andhra Pradesh cuisine is the delightful blend of original Andhra, delicious Southern and brilliant Hyderabadi style of cooking. While the original Andhra food is hot and fiery in nature, Hyderabadi food brings the Mughal influence into the Andhra cuisine.The cuisine of Andhra Pradesh is a foodie’s delight. The food of every Indian state has a certain kind of uniqueness to it and the same holds true for the cuisine of this state too.

Abundant use of spices and exotic seasonings mark the cooking style of Andhra Pradesh. This cuisine sees a healthy mix of vegetarian and non-vegetarian items. A large chunk of the population is vegetarian and has devised brilliant vegetarian recipes. The people along the coastal areas have developed amazing seafood recipes. As Andhra Pradesh was under the rule of Mughal Emperors the cuisine of the land has been heavily influenced by the Mughals and this influence is reflected in the world-famous Hyderabadi cuisine.For the first day of this long marathon with Indian states as theme, i cooked this delightful Tamatar Ka salan from Hyderabadi Cuisine.

Gavvalu - Sweet Shells

Today am starting my second week of blogging marathon with an interesting theme, yes from today onwards i'll be posting Regional foods as theme during this whole week. For the first day of this week's theme,i chosed to cook from Andhra Pradesh.Andhra dishes are quite famous among South Indians, their spicy dishes and variety pickles cant beat anything. Obviously Andhra foods have their own characters and they varies depending upon their districts. No need to speak about the famous Hyderabadi cuisine which falls under Andhra cuisine, this famous flavourful cuisine doesnt need any special introduction for South Indians.

For today's alphabet 'G', i chosed gavvalu, a typical sweets made in Andhra Pradesh with a dough prepared with flour,andwater. The prepared dough is shaped later into small balls which are flattened and rolled to take the shape of shells with a special gadget called gavvala peeta or gavvalu chakka. This sweet is often made during festivals and they can be made both as sweets and savoury version. Somehow i prefer the sweet version than the hot one. My aunt who lives in Hyderabad send me this gadget through my mom and i really want to give a try to this sweet shells since a long. Finally i got a chance to make some gavvalu with that gadget. If you dont have this gadget, dont worry you can make them with forks.

Meethay Ghoday - A Hyderabadi Special

If you get a chance to make a super old authentic aka traditional sweet from Hyderabadi cuisine, am sure you wont ever miss that opportunity to make them at home.When Srivalli announced this month's Indian Cooking Challenge, immediately i checked the link suggested by Mireille, i was shocked to see that this month's challenge was this Meethay Godhay from Zaiqa, a traditional sweet from Hyderbadi cuisine. When i checked through google to know more about this sweet,only Mona shares this sweet and its quite unique. Eventhough this sweets sounds unique, the method of making this sweet is super easy.

This sweet goes for a simple dough which is rolled as a thin disc, then cut it as squares and make those squares as flower shaped pieces. Once done with the dough,let them dry for more than 6 hours or overnite. Once they gets well dried, those flower shaped doughs are deep fried. Finally cook those deep fried flowers in milk and sugar, later they are served at room temperature. Trust me, if you make this sweet, am sure you wont stop yourself with one serving. Thanks Srivalli and Mireille for suggesting this incredible sweet and Mona for sharing this traditional sweet she learned from her Mil..

Andhra Raw Mango Pickle

Every summer, we wont keep ourselves away from making pickles, most mango pickles. Summer is the season where we will get abundantly variety of mangoes and every year we wont forget making mango pickles. Andhra style pickles always have their important place, these pickles are well known for their varieties of pickles with mango, sorrel leaves,tomatoes and chillies. I always want to learn Andhra style sorrel leaves pickle but somehow its kinda hard task for us to get super fresh sorrel leaves here.

But am somehow happy to get super fresh raw mangoes now in Indian grocery and this time i picked some raw mangoes just to make some Andhra style pickle and tried this tongue tickling raw mango pickle. I tried Prathy's Mukkala pachadi/Raw Mango Pickle , since this pickle goes for instant version i prepared them few weeks back at home. They turned out extremely delicious,hot and spicy. An incredible pickle to enjoy thoroughly with curd rice, and we finished very quickly. Am gonna make again this pickle next week as i picked again some super fresh raw mangoes from Indian stores yesterday. This is my second post for this week's blogging marathon with seasonal as theme..Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM#27.

3nos Raw mangoes
1/4cup Red chilly powder
1/4cup Mustard seeds
1/4cupSalt
1/2tsp Methi seeds
1/3cup Sesame oil

Wash thoroughly and wipe the mangoes with a dry cloth, cut it as small pieces with the skin.

Spread them on a dry cloth to dry them for an hour.

Dry roast the methi seeds,mustard seeds for few minutes, let them cool completely and grind them as powder.

Heat the sesame oil until it gets warm,cool the oil completely.

In a large bowl, take the red chilly powder,mustard-methi seed powder,salt and mix them well.

Now add the mango pieces to the spice powder, mix well until all the pieces gets well coated with the spices.

Take the spice coated mango pieces in a clean air tightened bottle, add the cooled sesame oil to the mango pieces,mix well.

Cover it with the lid and keep aside for an hour.

Enjoy this mango pickle from the second day, this pickle stay for a month.

Use clean spoon for serving,handle this pickle carefully.

Rendez Vous With A Foodie - Sireesha of Siris Food

Every 7th and 20th of the month i'll be introducing newly budding kids of this virtual blogworld.Previously two foodie bloggers have shown us two beautiful bakes and for today's guest post, am introducing one of the bubbly,very lively and sweet blogger, she is none other than Sireesha of Siris Food. If god comes in front of me and ask me 'tell me watever you want', i'll definitely ask good health for my family and will definitely ask for a whole year meet with all my fellow bloggers all around the world.Eventhough this huge virtual world is quite dangerous, i always amazed to see foodie bloggers i crossed during this  4 years of blogging are quite honest,caring and friendly till now.

Actually i met Sireesha during my last trip to London, she was one of the buddies i met in Food bloggers buzz held during the last week of the February. The instant we saw, we felt so close and started chitchatting immediately.Trust me, Siri looks like a schooling gal and you know wat she is working and blogging alternatively. Am amazed to see the way she manage both her pesronal life and blogger life. She was an another wonderful,caring,very bubbly,lively,honest,down to earth sister of mine, yep i can proudly say this bloggy world gave me a decent number of lovable sisters, each and everyone is special for me, they are very caring,honest,down to earth persons. Am thanking God everyday for giving me a chance to meet them all through this virtual world.

Lets meet my guest Sireesha of Siris Food...

Frankly, If there is any blogger that I would want to meet desperately she was none other than Priya Akka..I had spent hours and hours in the lazy afternoons browsing through her immense list of recipes. A kind of emotional feeling developed in me thinking how a lady with three grown up kids can do all this. Am not telling that blogging is one rocket science and difficult to achieve but for a lady with huge responsibilities it’s definitely a difficult job I believe.

 There are few persons from whom you get your daily dose of inspiration even though if they are not with you. One such kind of blogging inspiration in disguise is Priya Akka for me..I am a great fan of her writing style for not she uses a great vocabulary. But the way she starts up her posts is very pleasing and crisp. You can see a young lady in all her posts. It was proved 100% true when I met this super enthusiastic and energetic young girl..(Yes she is!!)..Such a humble and easy to go person.

 Never in my dreams I thought of meeting her in person but..Bloggers Buzz had given me that great opportunity to meet my biggest blogging inspiration –Priya Akka..I often get mesmerized to see the frequency at which she posts in her blog. Amazing is not a sufficient word to describe I would say..  She is my Baking Guru I would say. There are so many days where I used to go mad reading all her baking recipes thinking when I would bake one..Priya Akka..You are simply superb!!And appearing on your space is like an honour to me...Thanks a lot for being my inspiration and thanks again for giving me this good opportunity.

Tell us about your blog and you?

Am Sireesha Puppala a South Indian girl form Andhra Pradesh.. fondly called as Siri by my pals..I am full time software professional in London and happily living with my husband and dearest brother. I always want to be simple, enthusiastic, and upbeat. Give less preference to materialist things and enjoy each and every second of my life..SIRISFOOD.COM is my first baby I should say. It is a collection of good to eat simple recipes explained with neat step by step pictures. Rest you can find out from my blog.

Before and after blogging, tell us wat blogging changed your life?

Blogging has brought in more determination in me..The zeal to post more recipes and the dedication to present good photographs has made me a decent individual. But sometimes I will be very in- disciplinary spending more than required amount of time..

When and wat motivated you to blog about food?
I was jobless for few months when I moved to London. Was keep on browsing for recipes to please my husband..and thought to start my own blog to spend some quality time.

There are tons of blogs/pages on food these days,wat according to you is the speciality of your blog and the food that you cook?

If I want to find out any recipe I will refer 2-3 websites and choose the best among them..like good explanation,appealing pictures etc.So according to me, I find my blog helpful with neat step by step pictures so that readers can check how their dish looks like while cooking. Frankly,I cook food for my family and present them to my readers. But I need to improve my writing skills to make it even interesting. My motto is to make the reader to try my dish..

When its comes to cooking, who is your inspiration?

If I leave blogging world, there is no one..

Every newbie blogger faces tons of challenges when it comes to blogging,tell me about one of the challenges you face and how did you overcome it?? please specify with facts and details.

Frankly, the biggest challenge is to come out of the thought of copying recipes from others. In the initial days of my blogging (for two posts which I have deleted after started enjoying the real joy of blogging). I cooked few dishes but copied the recipe as it is from the original author. I agree making bread toast is almost similar with everyone but write the recipe in your own words..

What is your best recipe and your favourite recipes you have blogged till now?

Each and every recipe is special for me and a great chance to improve further. Few of my heart throbs are Green Peas Kachori,Kolhapuri Chicken,Valentine Vanilla Cookies,Tandoori Baby Potato and Andhra Chepala Pulusu.

 Few tips about food photography?

Am learning it..and few of my learning’s are
Visualise how your picture want to look like rather than randomly clicking
Make natural back grounds like fresh veggies, spices and use less props
Present in eye catchy tableware(doesn’t need to be expensive and gaudy)
Check yourself whether the picture is appealing for you or not.

What is your budget for the props, do you have any or else manage with household stuffs?

Recently I have seen a change in my shopping experience. I directly go to the home section rather than stopping at clothing. I will not spend more than 3£ per item. Most of my props are less than a pound (£) which I will pick up at charity shops or local markets.

How do you plan your blogposts? Do you post rarely,regularly or once a week?

It depends on my workload at office. But I plan to post at least once a week.

Do you have any other passions apart from food blogging?

I am also passionate about blogging on general topics those touch my heart, singing, reading books and recently photography. I have a photo blog Siris Clicks wherein I record all my learning. Am also a forum moderator at famous Indian women website indusladies.com for Fashion and Jewellery section but I had to move out of that role very recently due to heavy workload at my work place and home. Wish to re-join the team soon. You can find my blogs at Indus Ladies.


Being a native of Andhra Pradesh(located in South India),I couldn’t resist myself in presenting some simple and core Telugu dishes. Hope you will enjoy this simple meal as much as we did..This simple Andhra meal consists of one  pachadi made wih fresh roasted vegetbles,a simple and comforting rasam and one mouth-watering side dish..So you ready to dig in???Common with me..to enjoy this special Andhra meal..

Bendakaya Pesara Chaaru-A simple rasam made with lady’s finger and cooked moon dal water.The speciality in this rasam is we are not using any tamarind and also one other interesting thing is we are going to use the water that is left after over while cooking the dal. The left over water when tempered and boiled gives excellent taste. Try it out and you will agree with me..

No..This is not Lady’s finger Sambar..:)

Bendakaya -Lady's Finger

Pesara-Moongdal

Chaaru - Rasam

Ingredients:

Okra or Lady’s Finger – 5(cut into 1 inch pieces)

Moon Dal /Pesara Pappu – 5 tbsp

Green Chilly slit – 4

Tomato chopped – 1

Curry Leaves – 1 spring

Crushed garlic – 3 pods

Mustard – ½ tbsp.

Split Bengal Gram – ½ tbsp

Cumin seeds – ½ tbsp.

Dried Red Chillies -2

Coriander Leaves- 1 spring

Coarsely grounded pepper and coriander seeds – 1 ½ tbsp.

Salt to tastes

Oil/ghee – 2 tbsp

Method:

Pressure cook the moong dal with 5 cups of water (yes you read it right) until three whistles come. Allow it to cool down or until the pressure goes off. Then you will get the  water that is infused with nice aroma of moon dal.We are going to use this water for making rasam.

You can discard the dal if there is anything settled down at the bottom. Please use the water only to get that taste.

 Heat oil or ghee in a heavy bottomed vessel. Crackle mustard, cumin and Bengal gram and curry leaves. Add slit green chillies and garlic pods and dried red chillies.

 Fry for 30 secs and then add in the okra. Sauté for 10 min until they turn little tender yet firm. They should be crunchy enough. 

Then add in the chopped tomatoes and cook for another 5 min.Pour in the moong dal cooked water and mix enough salt. 

Boil on medium flame for 15 min.Add in the coarsely grounded pepper and coriander seeds and then boil again for 10 min or until nice froth forms on the top. Garnish with fresh coriander.

When the rasam is a bit cooled squeeze in half a lemon to get the tanginess to the chaaru aka rasam..

Simple comforting healthy Bendakaya Pesara Chaaru is ready now!!

Now let us taste a typical Andhra Sorakaya Tomato Pachadi aka Bottlegourd Tomato Chutney.Telugu people will not complete their meal without a freshly prepared chutney..Also these chutneys are very healthy way of consuming fresh vegetables with less oil.

Chutney with bottle gourd and tomato..I have already discussed the health benefits of consuming bottle gourd in my posts..I reiterate now. It is a very healthy water vegetable!

Sorakaya-Bottlegourd

Tomato - Tomato

Pachadi - Chutney

Ingredients:

Bottle Gourd – ½

Tomato – 1 big

Tamarind – ½ lemon size

Cumin seeds – 1 tbsp

Coriander leaves – 2 springs

Green chillies – 3

Oil – 2tbsp

Garlic pods – 3

Salt 

For tempering:

Oil – 1 tbsp

Mustard-1/2 tbsp

Garlic pods crushed – 2

Curry Leaves – 1 spring

Dried red chilli -1

Hinge – ½ tbsp

Peel the bottle gourd and grate it finely. You could also cut it into small pieces.

Heat oil in a kadai and add tamarind and green chillies. Sauté them for a min and add the bottle gourd. Fry it until the raw smell goes off. Add a pinch a salt and turmeric and add tomatoes.

Cook until the tomatoes and bottle gourd leave their raw smell. Allow it to cool down. Take it into a blender and add in cumin seeds, salt and coriander leaves. 

Grind it to coarse chutney. It is very important not to make the chutney into a fine paste.It is should be very corase.Also you should not add any water else the taste will go off. If required add very few drops of water.

Heat another tbsp of oil and crackle cumin, mustard and Bengal gram. Add in curry leaves and garlic pods, fry for a min and sprinkle hinge which will give a nice aroma to the chutney. 

Pour this hot tempering over the chutney and serve it with hot white rice and a dollop of ghee.

Tasty Sorakaya Tomato Pachadi is now ready!!

So there should be some tempting side dish to accompany with this chutney and rasam..Isn’t it??Andhra homes are very famous for their spicy cuisine. I am going to introduce one spicy and rich side dish called Dondakaya Ullikaram aka Spicy whole Ivy Gourd with stuffed onion masala..It is a perfect side dish with rasam and rice..Are you ready??

Dondakaya - Tindora/Whole Ivy Gourd

Ullikaram - Onion masala

Ingredients:

Tindoora – ½ kg

Onion big -2

Dried red chillies – 10

Coriander chopped – 3 tbsp

Green chillies slit -3

Garlic chopped – 5 pods

Curry Leaves – 2 springs

Mustard and Bengal gram – 1 tbsp

Oil – 5 tbsp

Salt to taste

Water and turmeric for boiling ivy gourd

Wash the vegetables thoroughly and dry them with a paper towel. Make a fine slit in the tindoora by making sure not to cut them into half.

The slit should go till the ¾ length of the vegetable and then stop. Boil water in a vessel and add salt, turmeric.

Add in the tindoora and cook them till they turn little tender and make sure not to over boil else they will break into pieces. Keep them aside.

Chop onion into small pieces. Combine coriander leaves and dried red chillies.

Grind into fine paste by adding little water. Heat 2 tbsp oil in a pan and cook the paste till the raw smell goes off. 

No need to any water as the onion paste will release some water. Keep it aside and we are going to stuff into Ivy gourd.

Carefully stuff thepaste into each ivy gourd without breaking them.

Heat oil in a wide non-stick kadai and crackle mustard,Bengal gram and curry leaves.Add in the garlic pieces and fry for few seconds and carefully drop in the ivy gourds.

Cook them covered on a low flame for 20 min by turning them in between.

The onion paste will get roasted nicely so as the tindoora.

Andhra famous Dondakaya Ullikaram is now ready !!

Thanks a ton Priya akka for making my presence possible in your lovely space!!

Stay tuned for the next guest post on 20th April friends..

Andhra Coconut Chutney/Kobbarikaya Pachchadi

Am running my third week of blogging marathon from today onwards, and the theme of this week is Chose an ingredient and cook from different cookbooks. If you are living in abroad especially in European coutries,you dont have that much chance to get Indian cookbooks from our nearby libraries, the only way to get your cookbooks is either you have to order them through online or else ask your family from India to send them. But fortunately i have never bought my Indian cookbooks till now this way, in my previous post i have told that i have won a bunch of cookbooks through many food events in this blogsphere.Am quite happy with this decent number of cookbooks and i really want to cook from them, thats the reason i chosed this theme.

This theme was quite tough and really challenging, thank god my cookbooks rescued me and i chosed 'coconut' as the main ingredient and cooked from three different cookbooks. For the first day i chosed a basic Andhra style coconut chutney aka kobbarikaya pachchadi from Cooking at Home with Pedatha. I prepared this brown chutney last week and this pachchadi will definitely tickle your tastebuds.Seriously i loved learning this chutney through this cookbook which is quite new for me.With a mild tanginess and spiciness, this chutney is a prefect pair for hot steaming idlies as well as for rice porridge. We just loved it..Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM#26.

1cup Grated fresh coconut
1+1/2tbsp Thick tamarind pulp
Oil
Salt
1tsp Jaggery

1st tempering:
1tbsp Urad dal
1tsp Mustard seeds
1/4tsp Fenugreek seeds
8nos Dry red chillies
2nos Green chillies
Few curry leaves
2tbsp Coriander leaves
1tsp Asafoetida powder

2nd tempering:
1/2tsp Urad dal
1/4tsp Mustard seeds
1/4tsp Asafoetida powder

In a pan, heat enough oil and fry the urad dal from the 1st tempering until they turns golden, add the mustard seeds and fenugreek seed.

Add the dry red chillies and fry until they turns brown, now add in the remaining ingredients and put of the stove.

Grind this tempered spices with coconut,tamarind pulp,jaggery,salt into coarse paste, dont add water while grinding.

Heat the remaining oil, add all the spices from the 2nd tempering and fry until they turns brown, add this tempered spices immediately to the pachachadi.

Serve with any kind of dishes. 

Channa & Quinoa Pesarattu

Mostly i love instant versions of dosas or idlies,but sometimes i dont bother to soak lentils and dals to make non fermented dosas or idlis with them. My family love whole moongdal pesarattu, few days back i combined whole green grams,quinoa and white chickpeas together to make this nutritious and healthy pesarattu. Actually pesarattus is a famous Andhra savoury crepes prepared usually with yellow moongdal or whole moongdal with rice and few spices, these crepes are usually served with ginger chutney stuffed with upma.

My version of pesarattu here goes for white chickpeas,quinoa and rice along with whole green grams, this combination works out wonder and tastes absolutely incredible when served simply with spicy coconut chutney.If you want to give a twist to your usual pesarattus give a try to this version.Sending this pesarattus to my own event CWS-Chickpeas guest hosted by Kavi of Foodmania.

1cup Green gram/Whole Moongdal
1/2cup White chickpeas/Channa
1/2cup Quinoa
1/4cup Rice
2nos Green chillies
1no Dry red chilly
1tbsp Ginger (grated)
Salt
Oil

Soak the greengrams and chickpeas overnite together.

Next day soak the quinoa and rice together in a bowl for three hours.

Take the soaked greengrams,chickpeas,quinoa,rice in a blender with green chillies,dry red chilly,grated ginger and grind as fine paste with salt and water.

Keep for an hour in room temperature.

Now heat a non stick tawa, grease it and pour a ladle of this batter, spread it as medium sized thin circle, drizzle enough oil and cook for few minutes.

Flip the other side and cook until the dosa turns crispy and brown.

Serve with spicy chutneys.

You can sprinkle some chopped onions over the pesarattu, but its completely optional.

For making an Andhra style pesarattu, serve this nutritious pesarattu with upma and ginger chutney.

Guntur Kodi Kura/Guntur Chicken Curry

Its been more than a month i posted a non vegetarian dish, here is one of our recent family favourite. I fond always for super spicy dishes from Andhra, its quite like a dream for me to make some Andhra style hot spicy and yummy non vegetarian curries from a long. But i wasnt sure about the tastebuds of my family members, somehow i wanted to make some super flavourful chicken curry since a long.I took a note of this chicken curry in a paper before few months ago, while watching a TV cookery show and completely forgotten about it.I got them when i was cleaning my pantry few days back and i started craving for some hot chicken curry.

Prepared this super hot chicken curry for our sunday lunch and served simply with a ghee rice. I was bit nervous while serving and i was waiting to know the verdict from them. They simply loved it and we just add a super filling lunch,eventhough my favourite was hot piping rasam rice with this chicken curry.Dunno whether its an authentic Guntur chicken curry but seriously you guys should give a try.Sending to Divya's The Master Chef Contest.

1/2kg Chicken (cut as medium size)
3nos Green chillies (slit opened)
6nos Garlic (chopped)
2nos Onions (chopped)
1tsp Ginger garlic paste
Few curry leaves
1tbsp Red chilly powder
1/2tsp Fennel seeds
Salt
Oil
Few coriander leaves (chopped)

To grind:
1tbsp Poppyseeds
2tbsp Coriander seeds
1no Cinnamon stick
3nos Cloves
1no Cardamom seed
3tbsp Grated coconut

Dry roast all the ingredients given under the list ' to grind' and grind everything as fine paste and keep aside.

Meanwhile cook the chicken pieces with enough salt,chilly powder, chopped garlic,slit opened green chillies in simmer in a pan,until the water from the chicken gets evaporates and keep aside.

Heat enough oil, add the curry leaves,fennel seeds and fry for few seconds, add the chopped onions,ginger garlic paste and saute until the onions turns transculent.

Now add the grounded paste,springle some water and cook for few seconds, add the already cooked chicken pieces to the cooking masala.

Cook everything in medium high flame until the chicken pieces gets well coated with the masala and finally add the coriander leaves and put off the stove.

Serve with rice.

You can also turn them as gravy just by adding some water while cooking, i wanted them as bit dry curry thats why i didnt add much water.

Madatha Kaja

Kaja is sweet made from refined maida flour, sugar,ghee and baking soda . It is made and eaten all throughout India though it is known by different names. Kaja of Kakinada, a coastal town of Andhra Pradesh, is very famous and well known for its delicious texture and tremendous taste.The specialty of Kaja is that it is dry and smooth from the outside and full of sugar syrup, and spices on the inside and is very juicy. It melts as soon as we puts it in our mouth.Usually and traditionally these incredible sweet is prepared by  using a rice flour-ghee paste by stacking chappathis rolled with the dough and cut as small pieces, but i went for easy preparation, i rolled a large chappathi and rolled them with riceflour-ghee paste just to make small kajas, thats why mine looks as mini kajas and we could stop munching them.

2cups Maida
2tbsp Ghee
1/4tsp Baking soda
3cups Sugar
Water
Oil for deepfrying
2tbsp Rice flour
2tsp Melted ghee
Few silvered almonds
Cardamom powder

Take the maida,ghee,baking soda in a bowl, slowly add water and knead as a soft dough,keep aside for 10minutes closed with a damp cloth..meanwhile make the sugar syrup by taking sugar and enough water in a large vessel, bring to boil and stir until the sugar syrup turns as one string consistency..Make a paste with rice flour and ghee,keep aside..

Now roll the dough as a like a single large thin chappathi..spread the riceflour paste generously over the rolled chappathi and roll them..cut and remove the edges..cut the roll as small 1 inch pieces..finish the dough the same way until they get finished..

Heat oil for deepfrying, drop gently the pieces and fry until they turn golden brown, drop immediately to the sugar syrup,wait for few minutes and remove the fried kajas from the syrup, springle some cardamom powder over the fried kajas and drop again in sugar syrup for the second time,leave them again for few minutes..Remove them from sugar syrup and arrange in a wax paper until they get cool completely..

Serve with silvered almonds..