Eggplants

My Father and son standing in between the eggplants cultivation.

Dont include too many eggplants in your diet if you are interested in weight gain.

Eggplant is:

• Low in saturated fat, sodium and cholesterol
• Hign in dietary fiber, folate,potassium, mangagese, vitamin C, Vitamin K, Thiamin,Niacin,Vitamin B6, Pantothenic Acid,Magnesium, Phosphorus and copper

The nutritional value and health benefits of eggplant makes it ideal for:

• Maintaining optimum health
• Weight loss

Beans Carrot poriyal (Side dish)

Ingredients:

Beans 15 (Long)

Carrot 2 to 3

Freshly grated Coconut 1tbsp

Half tsp red chiilli powder

One tsp coriander powder

Turmeric powder

Garlic 2 to 3 flakes

Salt

For Seasoning:

Mustard seeds half tsp

Broken urdal dal one tsp

Curry leaves 5

Green chillies 2 to 3

Directions:

Take a thick pan, add 3 tbsp of oil. Then season the things given in the seasoning column. Add crushed garshed to that. Now add beans carrot fry until the raw smell goes off. ( If u like to Cook the beans and carrot in a separate vessel adding a glass water to that, boil it and keep it ready for tampering.)

Add turmeric and salt to the vegetable after seasoning, stir for a while. Add chilli powder and coriander powder stir well. Once you have done , switch off the stove. Now add freshly grated coconut and stir gently. You can have this for curd rice and anyother rice varities and roti. Enjoy the dish.

Idli

INGREDIENTS

2 cups Rice

1 cup Urad Daal (white)

1 1/2 tblsp Salt

A pinch of Baking Soda

Oil for greasing

DIRECTIONS

wash and soak the Urad daal overnight or for 8 hours.

wash and drain the rice.

Grind it coarsely in a blender or Grinder.

Grind the daal into a smooth and forthy paste.

Now mix the grinded rice and daal together into a batter.

Mix salt and set aside in a warm place for 8-9 hours or overnight for fermenting.

Idlis are ready to be cooked when the batter is well fermented.

Grease the idli pan well and fill each of thm with 3/4th full of batter.

Steam cook idlis on medium flame for about 10 minutes or until done.

Now remove the idlis from the pan by applying water on the spoon.

Serve the idlis with sambar or chutney.

Chapathi or Roti

INGREDIENTS:

Two and half cup chapathi or roti flour
one cup of luke warm water
Salt one tsp
some roti flour for dusting the dough while rolling it out
Ghee or oil or butter (your wish)

DIRECTIONS :

Prepare dough by mixing together ½ cup of water with 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp ghee and just enough wheat flour.
Knead well.
Divide the dough in to small size balls.
Using a rolling-pin, roll out the dough into a thin,round patty, about 5 inches in diameter
Roll from the center, turning patty several times to prevent sticking. Try to make the edges slightly thinner than the center.
Heat a tawa over medium heat.
Place the rolled dough on the palm of one hand and flip it over on to the tawa. When the color changes on the top and bubbles appear, turn it over. When both sides are done, use kitchen tongs to remove the chapati from the tawa.

Directions to do chapathi on the gas stove:

If you have a gas stove, hold the cooked chapati over a medium flame and it will puff up immediately. Turn quickly to flame-bake the other side. Do this several times, taking care that the edges are well cooked.
Serve hot by applying ghee or butter.

karamani sundal(cow gram)

Ingredients:

Karamani (cow gram) one cup

One onion (optional)

5-10 curry leaves

Mustard seeds 3/4th tsp

Urad dal broken one tsp

Red chillies 3 to 4

green chilles 1 to 2

Freshly grated coconut 2 tbsp

(Hing) Asafetida a pinch

Directions:

Soak the kidney beans (karamani or Cow gram) for 4 to 5 hrs or soak over night.

Wash the beans in water and drain the water. Pressure cook the beans and just keep for three whistles. Drain away the water by using strainer.

Add oil in a pan, add mustard seeds, urad dal, slit green chillis, broken red chillies,curry leaves, Hing, add onions and stir for few seconds.

Now add cooked beans and stir for few seconds.

Add salt to taste.

Finally add grated coconut and stir for a while, and now the beans is ready to eat.

Pav Bhaji

INGREDIENTS

1 piece butter
2 number carrots
5 piece cauliflowers
1/2 cup peas
1 number eggplant small
3 potato medium size
any other vegetables 1/2 cup
2 onions
3 tomatos
chopped coriander 1 bunch
3 number green chilli
capsicum medium size
jeera
ginger garlic paste
food color
coriander powder 1tbsp
1/2 spoon chillipowder
1 pinch turmeric
hing optional
pav
lemon
salt
pav bhaji masala powder

DIRECTIONS

Wash potatoes,carrots, capsicum,cauliflower, peas, eggplant, green chilli and any other vegetables of our choice and cut them into medium size pieces.Boil the above vegetables in pressue cooker for 4 whistles till it get smashed consistency and keep it aside. Cut the onions and tomatoes and one green chilli into small pieces. Now heat butter in a pan and fry jeera once it got spluttered add onions,turmeric and hing(optional) and fry them till golden brown add tomatoes,greenchilli, ginger garlic paste and cook them till tomato looses its raw smell. Now add chilli powder,coriander powder and pavbhaji masala powder and salt then mix it well. Add some water to avoid sticking to the pan. Close the pan and cook it for 5 mins. Now add the mashed vegetables which we cooked in pressure cooker to this mixture and mix it well. Add food color (optional). Stir well till the vegetables mix well with the masala mixture. Take the pav and slice them. Put butter on a pan and fry it till the pav gets cooked. Serve hot and garnish the bhaji with coriander and chopped onions. Put some lemon juice over the bhaji.

Masaal Vadai

INGREDIENTS

Bengal gram dal one and half cup
Onion 2 number
Green chilli 3 to 4 number
Ginger garlic paste 1tbsp
Curry leaves small bunch
Coriander leaves small bunch
salt
sanuf 1 teaspoon

DIRECTIONS

Wash and soak bengal gram dal for 2 to 3 hrs. Chop onion,green chilli,curry leaves,coriander leaves.Grind bengal gram along with sanuf coarsely(It should not be smooth like dosa mix). Now mix chopped onions, ginger garlic paste, coriander leaves, curry leaves and green chillies along with this batter and add salt to it. Make the above dough like small biscuits by applying water on your hand and deep fry them till golden brown aswell it cooks inside.