Black bean and Lentil soup - Canned Soup made flavorful - Easy, Semi-homemade

  Black bean and Lentil soup - Canned Soup made flavorful - Easy, Semi-homemade I wanted to make something easy and quick, but didn't want to have the unflavorful canned soup. I had a can of black beans and couple of cans of the Progresso lentil soup. All I did was add some frsh ingredients and mix it with the black beans and the lentil soup. It came very good and yummy. Simmering it made it taste like home made soup!!! It was crunchy with...

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Madras Curry powder

Madras Curry powder This curry powder is a little different from our regular curry powder or garam masala powder but just as useful. It can be used to flavor our regular saute dishes to anything else. It can be made in matter or minutes and can be stored. I came in touch with this powder when I lived in a small island country called Trinidad in the West Indies. This was very long back, like about 20 years ago, when my father worked in that country...

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Cabbage Kofta curry / Fried Cabbage balls in tomato yogurt gravy

Cabbage Kofta curry / Fried Cabbage balls in tomato yogurt gravy My Mom and Dad are here on a visit and will be staying here with me for a while. So while my mom is around, I get to eat her cooking and dishes from my childhood. So right now I will do the eating, tasting, clicking and posting what she she cooks!!! :) I cook only sometimes when she is here, like the variety stuff. My Mom makes different kinds of koftas with different veggies. Many...

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Peas Pulao / Peas Fried Rice

Peas Pulao / Peas Fried Rice I am again confused as to what to call it?...pulao or fried rice?...I usually call it pulao when I cook all the ingredients together and fried rice, when I add curry like ingredients to the cooked rice. The recipe can be made both ways, but this time I made it the second way just because I feel the peas get cooked to a very soft texture or become mushy when cooked when the rice. I always have a bag of frozen peas in...

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Vadalu / Gaarelu / Vada / Fried Lentil Dumplings

Vadalu / Gaarelu / Vada / Fried Lentil Dumplings Vadalu or gaarelu ia always a specialty item. Its made mostly on festival days, weddings or any other functions or celebrations. At home, we sometimes make them as breakfast, pot lucks or any celebrations. Everyone at home eat them with out fussing too, which is good for me. These vadas are made with urad daal. You can use the white whole ones or the halves. I make them plain for the kids or with...

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Ravva Idli / Steamed Tempered semolina cakes

Ravva Idli / Steamed Tempered semolina cakes Who doesn't like a lavish breafast with idlis (steamed rice cakes), vadas (fried lentil dumplings)? But who has the time to make it?... Its very rare that I also find enough time to make such items for breakfast. It usually doesn't end up as breakfast but as brunch in most cases. Because by the time I make saambar and chutney as sides, it would be almost lunch time :). I make idlis very regularly at...

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Kesari Baath / Sweet Saffron rice

Kesari Baath / Sweet Saffron rice Kesari baath is the other offering we made on Shri Rama Navami. This sweet is little different from our regular Naivedyam. It is called Kesari baath. I know some people even call Ravva kesari with the same name, but this sweet is made of rice and not ravva. It is made in almost the same way with a few minor changes because its rice which has to be cooked before 90% stage before adding to the sugar syrup. And cloves,...

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Happy Shri Rama Navami with Paanakam

Happy Shri Rama Navami to one and all. Happy goodies eating. I like spring time. It not only bring around new flowers and new colors, but also festivals one by one. In India, celebrating festivals was lot of fun. Decorating the house with muggu, flowers, mango leaves....here we don't get to do all that but atleast we get to make a few eatables we used to make back home. Shri Rama Navami is celebrated with making paanakam offering to the God. Paanakam...

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Tamata Pappu / Tamatar ki daal / Tangy Tempered Lentils with Tomato

  Tamata Pappu / Tamatar ki daal / Tangy Tempered Lentils with Tomato Tomato pappu, another all time favorite. I simply love the way my Mom makes it. Its tangy, it spicy, it just on a whole new level. Mine doesn't come out like that, never. But it does taste good too. I think thats because I don't make it that tangy and spicy, because of the kids!!! But anyways its one of our favorite, me and my siblings. We can have it any time and with...

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Potato fry / Aloogadda koora

Potato fry / Aloogadda koora Who doesn't like potato fry?...I am sure everyone does. Its probably another comfort food and another curry no one ever makes a fuss about! With all the rain we are having, eating hot rice with potato fry and tomato pappu (tomato daal) is probably one of my favorites!!! If there is potato fry available, then I cannot miss eating rice. I use any kind of potato I get. It comes out perfect with any potato. I just cut...

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Kichadi - Simple dish with Rice and lentils

Kichadi - Simple dish with Rice and lentils Yet another simple dish using the rice cooker. Dishes where we have to use the rice cooker are wonderful aren't they?, makes having a rice cooker useful and not wasted. Many people make kichadi in many different ways. Many people even add veggies to it, but I don't. I like it simple just with daal and rice ....and a few ingredients. Having only few ingredients makes this very flavorful, simple and easy...

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Healthy Sunday morning breakfast - Savory French Toast

Healthy Sunday morning breakfast - Savory French Toast No one in our house is a morning sweet person. So making the regular french toast, the sweet version is out of option. But make a spicy breakfast or savory with some salt, I wouldn't have any complaints. So from time to time I make this dish adapted from my Mom. Its the savory version of the french toast. It has onions, green chillies and some cilantro or coriander leaves. I think it would...

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Keema curry (with a few veggies)

  Keema curry (with a few veggies) Maybe Keema is one of the types of meats I like more than other types. And from all the of keema we get I like mutton keema, but settle for the lamb keema (which is equally tasty) which is readily available here. In the small city I live in, its a little difficult to find fresh goat keema, so lamb keema is a good sustitute and it cooks faster too, unlike the goat keema. I make a few different currys out keema,...

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Hyderabadi Chicken Biryani

Hyderabadi Chicken Biryani This recipe has been sitting my drafts for a long time. I have been waiting to post it, but I didn't find time to do it. And by the way I was only a helper for this dish. It was made by my husband. 'Maybe thats why", he would say, that I didn't post it!! Anyways now I am going to post it. He, 'we' followed Sanjay Thumma from Vahrehvah.com 's recipe. We made a few changes to it like, one or two ingredients we didn't have...

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