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Curry Recipe Contest Winner of the Month Cleo Capili

If you have not read about the curry recipe contest first read this post:
Mother’s Day Special ‘Curry Recipe’ Contest - Ends Mother’s Day 2009

Every month one delicious curry recipe will be selected as the winner of the month. The best of the best will be crowned as the final winner of Curry Recipe Contest 2008-09.
Cleo Capili is the winner of this month. I love the way she talks about the innovative way she has used the curry powder.
I would like you to read the unedited version of Cleo Capili’s Curry Recipe adventure.
…………….
Cleo says:
At last one of my masterpieces after a few disastrous attempts hahaha. You know, I’m not really a good cook but I love tasting different kinds of food and trying out stuff. The other day I tried the vegetables with coconut milk but it was terrible so I had to find other means to cook it again hahaha. So I did not bother to send the pictures of that anymore.
Anyway, this is what I’ve prepared using the Curry Powder. Boy! it is spicy and tasty. I didn’t even have to add salt. My husband and I loved it and never thought my youngest would like the taste since it’s a new flavor for us. Though my son didn’t even want to taste it LOL.
Ingredients:
1/2 Kilo of prawns
3 tbsp of vegetable oil
2 tbsp of red onions
3 cloves of garlic
3 tbsp of button mushroom
2 tbsp of Curry Powder
1/2 tsp of saute’ mix
1/2 cup of water
1. Saute’ onions then garlic and mushroom
2. Add big prawns, when it turns red, add the smaller ones
3. Season with the 2 tbsp of Curry Powder until you smell the strong flavor
4. Add 1/2 cup of water
5. Add 1/2 tsp of saute’ mix
6. Serve steaming hot!! :)
1. This is the finished product. My husband was not able to take pictures of me while cooking it. I look so terrible lol. :) It really looks delicious. :)
2. Another take of my special “Shrimp Curry Ala Cleo!”
That’s my 3 year old daughter’s fingers. hahaha She wanted to taste it as soon as I finished cooking it.
There is KC with the Shrimp Curry. :)
And KC said it was really good. :)
The only drawback I realized is that, I should have added more water and the curry powder coz we enjoyed sipping the flavor from the prawn shells and there’s no sauce left in the end for the rice. hahaha. :)
…….
Congratulations Cleo!!!!!! You are the winner of Curry Recipe Contest June 2008.

Vegetable Upma Part II: How to Cook This Balanced Diet?

Vegetable Upma is a nutritious meal that is easy to cook, healthy to eat and delicious to taste.

Watch this video and learn to make vegetable upma.

Vegetable Upma


Vegetable Upma Part I: Ingredients

Indian Food- Vegetable Upma - Ingredients in This Balanced Diet

Main Ingredients:

Semolina, Vegetables (beans, carrot, tomatoes, potato, peas), cooking oil, clarified butter (optional)

Garnishing Ingredients (optional):

Coconut, Curry leaves, Coriander leaves, red chillies, green chillies, mustard sees, two dals (white lentil and chickpea)

Listen to the Tamil words for these ingredients :)

I think you should read Tamil stories and ebooks while relishing this vegetable upma.

Most Searched Recipes - Master Cleanse Recipe to Simple Syrup Recipe

I was checking on what are the most searched recipes on Google and found the following:

Most Popular Recipes

1. master cleanse recipe
2. ratatouille recipe
3. lemonade diet recipe
4. mojito recipe
5. zucchini bread recipe
6. eggplant parmesan recipe
7. dog food recipe
8. chicken salad recipe
9. meatloaf recipe
10. simple syrup recipe

I would like to share these recipes with you and more importantly I want you to share with me these recipes.

Please visit the sites from where these recipes are clipped. I personally checked them out. They are great sites.

Dosa Batter to Dosa In Under Two Minutes

Dosa Instant gives you the details of making dosa in the usual way. You can read about it in this post:

Dosa Recipe Without Instant Ready Mix

If you do not want to spend hours in shopping for the ingredients, soaking, grinding and fermenting…

If you do not want to wait for hours before getting the first delicious dosa piece in your mouth…

You can try instant ready to mix dosa batter powder.

Your dosa will be ready in under two minutes and it will taste as delicious as dosa made through the long process.

To make the dosa batter all you need to do is to add water. Everything else is added in the mixture. No need to shop for anything. No need to soak and grind. No need to wait till the fermenting process is over.

Check out our idli mix and curry powder too. All instant and all delicious time savers.

Watch a video here to see how to make this dosa batter and dosa in under two minutes:

Dosa Batter to Dosa In Under Two Minutes

icon for podpress  Dosa Batter to Dosa in Under Two Minutes [1:42m]: Download (56)

Indian Food Industry in UK Showing Signs of Decline

 The Times of India says:

“LONDON: The one billion pound Indian food industry in UK is showing signs of decline as most young ethnic Asians are not interested in working in kitchens and new immigration rules make hiring chefs from the Indian sub-continent difficult.

There is not a single British town or village which does not have an Indian restaurant, but staff shortage has led to several of them closing down”.

According to the news Children of first generation restaurant owners prefer to take up professions other than those of their parents.  And they don’t want to work in the kitchens.

I can understand that because I hardly spend time in cooking. Just today I had a conversation with another lady who is not been able to pursue a desired course because most of her time is spent in cooking and cleaning.

Not only in developed countries, but even in India where most people love home cooked meal, it is becoming more and more difficult to find time for cooking. At the same time we have to have healthy food rather than go for junk foods.

This has started a trend of instant ready to make items that save time, help you churn out dishes in minutes and are filled with healthy nutrients. In such food items you have to carefully note their shelf life and what type of preservatives are used.

Instant Dosa Mix that is used to make dosa batter in minutes has no artificial preservatives. Whatever is added to the mix is rich nutritious ingredients that help you keep fit. You can preserve the powder for months.

Aloo Bonda

aloobonda.JPG

Aloo Bonda

Potato is called Aloo in Hindi.

Ingredients to make Aloo Bonda

Potato curry - 1 cup

Chickpea flour - 2cups

Water - 1/2 cup

Cooking oil - 1/2 ltr (for frying the aloo bonda

curry powder - 1/2 tsp

lemon juice - 1 tsp

Salt to taste

Make potato curry as explained in the previous post:

Potato Curry and Masala Dosa

- Roll potato curry in small balls (a small lemon size)

- Take the chickpea flour in a bowl, add curry powder and salt

(curry powder is free with instant dosa mix)

Alternatively you can add garam masala or chillie powder.

- Add water little by little and mix the chickpea into a smooth paste.

- Add a pinch of cooking soda (optional)

- Add the lemon juice and mix well (optional)

- Warm the cooking oil over medium heat in a deep frying pan.

- Take a potato ball, dip it in chickpea paste and roll it so as to cover it completely with chickpea paste.

- Gently drop the potato balls, dipped in chickpea paste, one by one, into the warm oil.

- Deep fry the potato balls in warm oil. At a time you can fry five or six balls together.

aloobonda1.JPG

- Roll the balls in oil so that all sides are evenly friend.

- When well fried the bondas will turn golden brown.

You can eat the aloo bondas with tomato sauce or mustard paste.

You can also eat the bondas with coconut chutney (free with instant dosa mix)

Potato Curry, Aloo Bonda and Masala Dosa

Potato Curry, Aloo Bonda and Masala Dosa

Potato curry is used for aloo bonda as well as making masala dosa.

1. How to make potato curry

Ingredients Per serving

Main Ingredient

Potatoes - 2 big ones or 3 small

Grated coconut (optional) 2 tsp

Curry Powder - 1 tsp

Cooking oil - 1 tbs

“Tadka” - Special Garnishing

(It is possible to do the garnishing only with mustard seeds. All the other ingredients add flavour and nutrition but it is possible to do without them.)

Mustard - 1/2 tsp

cumin seeds - 1/4 tsp

chickpea dal - 1/2 tsp

White lentil dal - 1/2 tsp

red chilly - 1

Green chilly - 1

Curry leaves - 3

Coriander leaves - 1/2 tsp

Asafoetida - one pinch

There are two ways of making potato curry.

1. You can peel and cut the potatoes in thin slices and make the curry.

2. You can cook the whole potatoes in pressure cooker or micro oven and then make the curry.

1. Potatoes chopped

- Take a deep frying pan, place it on the stove over medium heat.

- Add a tbs of cooking oil.

- When the oil is warm add the mustard seeds.

- When the mustard seeds start popping, add the chick pea and white lentil dal as well as the red and green chillies.

- Add the curry leaves and coriander leaves.

- Add the chopped potatoes and mix well.

- Keep stirring the potato and cook it over medium heat.

(Alternatively you can do part of this process in the micro oven. After the mustard seeds pop up, you add the chopped potatoes, mix well and then keep it in micro oven for 10 minutes.)

- Add a tsp of curry powder. (you get this curry powder free with instant dosa mix)

You can also add garam masala powder if you do not have the curry powder.

- Add salt to taste.

- Add grated coconut (optional)

- Cook until the potato is soft and well cooked. You can stick a fork into it and check if it has turned soft. The fork will pass through easily when potato is well cooked.

Transfer the potato curry to a serving bowl. Decorate with coriander leaves and curry leaves.

2. Potatoes cooked whole

Cook the potatoes whole along with the skin in a pressure cooker or micro oven.

If you are cooking it in a pressure cooker you may need to wait for three or four whistles.

If you are cooking in micro oven you need to keep it at high for 10 minutes.

Peel the skin of the potatoes. If you are peeling the potato when the potatoes are hot, you may need to use cold water to cool the potatoes.

- Take a deep frying pan, place it on the stove over medium heat.

- Add a tbs of cooking oil.

- When the oil is warm add the mustard seeds.

- When the mustard seeds start popping, add the chick pea and white lentil dal as well as the red and green chillies.

- Add the curry leaves and coriander leaves.

- Add the chopped potatoes and mix well.

- Add a tsp of curry powder and salt to taste.

You can add more or less curry powder depending on how spicy you want the potato curry to be.

Cook for a minute, constantly stirring till the curry powder and the potato get mixed well.

Transfer to a serving bowl and decorate with coriander and curry leaves.

……………………………………….

Aloo Bonda

Potato is called Aloo in Hindi.

Ingredients to make Aloo Bonda

Potato curry - 1 cup

Chickpea flour - 2cups

Water - 1/2 cup

Cooking oil - 1/2 ltr (for frying the aloo bonda

curry powder - 1/2 tsp

lemon juice - 1 tsp

Salt to taste

- Roll potato curry in small balls (a small lemon size)

- Take the chickpea flour in a bowl, add curry powder and salt

(curry powder is free with instant dosa mix)

Alternatively you can add garam masala or chillie powder.

- Add water little by little and mix the chickpea into a smooth paste.

- Add a pinch of cooking soda (optional)

- Add the lemon juice and mix well (optional)

- Warm the cooking oil over medium heat in a deep frying pan.

- Take a potato ball, dip it in chickpea paste and roll it so as to cover it completely with chickpea paste.

- Gently drop the potato balls, dipped in chickpea paste, one by one, into the warm oil.

- Deep fry the potato balls in warm oil. At a time you can fry five or six balls together.

- Roll the balls in oil so that all sides are evenly friend.

- When well fried the bondas will turn golden brown.

You can eat the aloo bondas with tomato sauce or mustard paste.

You can also eat the bondas with coconut chutney (free with instant dosa mix)

……………………………………………..

Masala Dosa

Ingredients

Instant Dosa Mix 1 cup

Water 2 cups

Potato curry - 2 tbs

Cooking oil - 2 tsp

Take the dosa mix in a small bowl, add water little by little.

Mix well to get dosa batter without knots.

The batter should be thin enough to easily spread.

Place a flat pan over medium heat.

Smear the pan with a little oil. (You can roll a tissue paper into a tiny ball, dip it in oil and smear the pan)

Take a ladle full of dosa batter and spread it in a circular shape on the flat pan.

Add a tsp of cooking oil around the corners of the dosa.

Cook for a minute.

Take a spatula, pass it around the corner of the dosa.

Slightly lift a corner and check if it has turned golden brown.

Spread potato curry on one half of the dosa.

Fold the other half to cover the potato curry.

Flip the dosa.

Add a tsp of oil and cook for a minute.

Now masala dosa is ready to eat.

You can eat it with chutney, dal or any other side dish such as Tomato sauce or mustard paste.

Instant Dosa Recipes

There are a number of types of Instant Dosa Mix and you can cook a variety of healthy Instant Dosa Recipes.

For example, here are a few of the Instant Dosa Powders:

1. Plain Dosa Mix

2. Masala Dosa - Plain Dosa Mix can be used for this too

3. Adai Dosa - Lentil Dosa

4. Wheat Dosa

5. Rava Dosa

If you take any one of these a variety of Instant Dosa Recipes can be prepared.

Let us take Adai Mix. This mix has rice and all the pulses in different proportions to make a nice blend and help us prepare delicious “adai”.

Take one cup of Adai Mix and add two cups of water - your batter is ready. Everything else including salt and spices are added to the mix.

Now using this Instant Adai Dosa Mix you can prepare…

1. Plain Adai

Just take a ladle full of adai batter, make a circular shape on a flat pan, cook over medium heat, add two tea spoons of cooking oil, flip and cook for haf a minute - and you are done!

2. Onion Adai

Take a ladle full of adai batter, make a circular shape on a flat pan, cook over medium heat, add two tea spoons of cooking oil, sprinkle finely chopped onion on the adai, flip and cook for a minute - and you are done! The onion will get roasted and the adai will get cooked - and the smell will make you hungry :)

3. Carrot Adai

Make adai in the same way as before. This time sprinkle grated carrot before flipping the dosa. This is a healthy nutritious food and good for children and old people too.

4. Cheese Adai

Grate cheese over the adai cooking over medium heat. Fold the dosa before flipping.

5. Green Adai

Take green vegetables such as peas, spinach, curry leaves, coriander, etc. Add them to the adai mix along with the water. Mix well, take a ladle full and make adai as before.

6. Mixed Vegetable Adai

You can add finely chopped pieces of your favorite vegetables to the adai mix along with water and make the adai.

Alternatively you can cook these vegetables with the curry powder and then prepare a sandwich by keeping it between two adais.

Using your imagination and creativity you can churn out a variety of dishes using the plain dosa mix or the adai mix. By adding vegetables we improve the nutritious value of the dish and it becomes a complete meal.

The curry powder adds an exotic taste to the vegetables. The chutney powder is a very tasty side dish that goes with the dosa perfectly.

Try out these instant dosa recipes and send me your questions, clarifications or feedback.

And don’t forget we have a variety of instant mixes for Indian Recipes.

Healthy Food Recipe - Balancing Elements in Indian Recipes

Indian food menus are becoming more popular the world over. Indian recipes are known for the healthy ingredients the use of which are based on ancient texts and this knowledge is passed on from one generation to another. What is more important is that these recipes are now being improvised to suit modern needs.

In most Indian food menus, the food item has a pair of ingredients - one working to compensate the side effects of the other.

For example, dosa is an Indian recipe that is a complete nutritious meal in itself. One dosa can provide your body with most of the required vitamins and nutrients. Hence if you are on a weight loss diet, you will be able to have a filling, complete, nutritious meal once and will not feed the urge to eat anything between meals.

The idea is to get your stomach and tongue feel the satisfaction of a delicious and filling meal that it does not crave for anything in between meals.

Ingredients Complimentary and Counter Active

In Indian dosa we use lentils called “urad dal”. This white lentil is rich in protein and is good for health. White Dal is good for improving hemoglobin count. In India herbal doctors prescribe one dosa per day for people suffering from anemia.

So urad dal has all the good qualities that we need. But nothing is perfect in this world. Good healthy ingredients do have a part that is not good for us. So does urad dal. Eating a lot of urad dal can produce ’stomach gas’. So to deactivate this component of urad dal, Indians use asafoetida called ‘Hing’. By using a pinch of ‘hing’ in the dosa batter the bad effect of urad dal is removed and we can benefit from the nutritious quality of urad dal.

Another ingredient added to dal to overcome its side effect is cooking soda. Cooking soda again is good for digestion and prevents ’stomach gas’. A third ingredient used in dosa batter is cumin seeds.

What we are doing here is to benefit from a nutritious meal and have a three pronged attack over its side effects. The three ingredients, asafoetida, cooking soda and cumin seeds, which are used for overcoming the side effects of dosa, have healthy nutrients in themselves. So we have removed the bad effects and added more nutritional value to the meal.

This is just one example of the many, many ways Indian food lovers have perfected the art of eating healthy nutritious meal. This knowledge is passed on from one generation to the next.

Modern Indians do not want to spend a lot of time in the kitchen. Necessity is the mother of invention. Instant food items that retain the healthy, nutritious quality based on the ancient wisdom of Indians are coming into the food market.

These healthy recipes have such ingredients that work against the bad effects of each other as well as compliment the nutritional values of one another.

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