Tomato Pappu

My real comforting food, just with hot steaming rice topped with ghee and served along with papads this tomato dal tastes fabulous..Its really very easy to prepare and  one of my initial cooking experience was this tomato pappu, i started this tomato pappu when i was doing my school days...Easy pappu tastes absolutely delicious with any side dish eventhough my preference goes to papads..This pappu goes awesome with rice or any other breakfast dishes like idli, dosa or pongal, i learned this pappu from my mom and one of her signature dish, she used to prepare this sort of dal dishes with loads of variations..

1/2cup Toor dal
2nos Tomatoes (juicy & ripen)
1no Onion(chopped)
2nos Green chillies (slit opened)
1/2tsp Mustard seeds, urad dal
1/4tsp Cumin seeds
Curry leaves
2nos Dry red chillies
1tsp Lemon juice
Salt
Oil

Take the washed toor dal, chopped tomatoes and slit opened green chillies in a pressure cooked and cook upto 3hisses, keep aside and let them cool...Meanwhile heat enough oil, fry the mustard seeds, urad dal, cumin seeds and curry leaves..add the chopped onions and saute until the onions turns transculent..Add the cooked dal  with enough salt to the onions and bring them to boil..finally add the lemon juice and put off the stove..

Serve hot!!

Tandoori Bread Masala

If you are having some stale bread slices or a bag of leftover breads,give them a second life...You should definitely give a try to this tandoori bread masala, an easy evening snacks or a simple morning breakfast served with ketchup or simply with sugar..This tandoori bread masala will get ready and definitely vanish within few minutes,u just need to grill the bread pieces for 15minutes until they turns crispy and brown, then the cooking process will take just few minutes and the complete dish is ready within less than 20minutes..Served along with ketchup, its definitely a kids friendly dish, also a party menu dish..Do try friends, everyone at home will definitely love this delicious dish..

10nos Bread slices (cubed)

1no Onion (chopped)

1no Tomato (chopped)

1no Green chilly (slit opened)

1tsp Ginger garlic paste

1/2tsp Cumin seed powder

1/4tsp Garam masala powder

1tsp Tandoori masala powder

2nos Bay leaves, cloves and cardamoms

1tbsp Mint leaves (chopped)

Salt

Oil

Preheat the oven to 425F..Arrange the cubed bread slices over a baking sheet and bake for 10minutes until they turn crispy and golden brown..meanwhile heat enough oil, fry the bay leaves, cloves and cardamoms..add the chopped onions, chopped tomatoes, slit opened green chilly,ginger garlic paste and saute until the onions turns transculent,put the flame in simmer immediately and add the cumin seed powder, garam masala powder and tandoori masala powder to the cooking veggies and saute for few minutes..

Add the crispy cubed bread pieces to the veggies and cook until the bread slices get well mixed..finally add the chopped mint leaves and serve immediately..

Strawberry & Quinoa Granola Shake

A prefect shake for a lazy morning breakfast or a delicious refreshing drink while its hot..I had prepared this shake with strawberry chunks with some left over Quinoa Granola for our saturday breakfast..We enjoyed each and every sip of this beautiful and healthy shake..Simple, refreshing, delicious, thick and filling shake suits prefect for everyone, since i prepared this shake without sugar and the sweetness for the quinoa granola was quite enough for the sweetness of this shake, if its not enough just add few tsp of honey or agave syrup and just enjoy this fabulous shake...

2cups Strawberry chunks
1/4cup Quinoa granola
2cups Yogurt
1/2cup Milk
Honey as per need
Ice cubes

Blend together the strawberry chunks, quinoa granola, milk,yogurt and honey..Serve immediately with ice cubes or chilled..

Madras Mutton Briyani

Our almost sunday special's goes to Biriyani, today i prepared this madras aka chennai style mutton briyani after a long..Biriyani are always been a festive dish especially on sundays...This madras mutton briyani goes for usual way of making of briyani, but this dish goes for a spicy paste prepared with green chillies, ginger garlic paste, poppy seeds, coriander leaves and onions..This spicy paste is very important for making this Madras style mutton briyani..The ingredients list for making out this briyani goes for a long list eventhough this dish is quite similar and easy as like our usual briyanis..For vegetarian version of this briyani, u can go for mixed veggies or for soya chunks both together works out wonder too.

1kg Mutton pieces
1/2tsp Turmeric powder
4cups Basmati rice
3nos Onions(chopped lengthwise)
3nos Tomatoes (chopped finely)
2nos Green chillies (slit opened)
1tsp Red chilly powder
1tsp Coriander powder
2cups Curd
4cups Water
1cup Mint leaves (chopped)
4tbsp Ghee
Salt
Oil
2nos Bay leaves
5nos Cloves
2no Cinnamon stick
3nos Cardamom

Spice paste:
3nos Green chillies
2tbsp Ginger garlic paste
1tsp Poppy seeds (soaked in warm water)
1/4cup Coriander leaves (chopped)
1no Onion (chopped)

Masala Powder:
1no Star anise
1inch Cinnamon stick
5nos Cloves
4nos Cardamoms

Wash the mutton and pressure cook for 3whistles with turmeric powder, salt and 2cups of water...Once the pressure released, drain the water from the mutton and keep aside..meanwhile soak the rice for 15 minutes,drain the water..fry the rice with 2tbsp of ghee in a kadai..Grind the ingredients given in the list for masala powder as fine powder and grind the ingredients given for spice paste as thick paste and keep aside..

Heat enough oil in a heavy bottom vessel, fry the bay leaves, cloves, cinnamon stick and cardamom seeds, add in the onions and fry till they turns transculent, add the grounded spice paste and fry till the oil separates..now add the chopped tomatoes and slit opened green chillies..saute until the tomatoes turn mushy..Now add the cooked mutton,masala powder, chilly powder, coriander powder and salt..fry everything well until the oil get separates.

Add the curd,2cups of water and the leftover 2cups of cooked mutton water to the vessel..close the lid, bring it to boil on high flame..once the water startes boiling reduce the flame to low and put in the rice and chopped mint leaves, close the lid and let the rice cook..

Open the lid after 5minutes and drizzle the remaining the ghee over the top and close again the lid..Once the rice get cooked put off the stove..

Serve this delicious Madras mutton briyani with onion raita...