Spicy Green pepper / chilly stir fry....yet not spicy enough!!

My green pepper plants have given me lots of peppers this year. I am exactly not sure what kind of peppers or chillies they...They look like serrano pepper but aren't spicy as serranos!!

Anyways...I love to cook with non-spicy chillies. The best substitute is bell pepper which somewhat has the same flavor, but not so similar.
I love the smell and spiciness when cooked only with....to eat with hot rice...its super yummy!

Made it with the few chillies which I have in my fridge (I have a few more, for next time)...I didn't know how spicy they would be so only used half....they weren't spicy at all....and so loved it!

Its a simple stir fry...always choose chillies which are not very spicy, you wouldn't want to fly thru the roof!!!!!!!

And if you are like me....like chilli stir fry, go ahead and try it...its fun!!
I didn't de-seed the chillie, but if you wish, you can go straight ahead!

Ingredients:

about 10 non- spicy green pepper / chillies, chopped
half an onion, chopped

1 tbsp oil
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 tsp jeera, cumin seeds
1/4 tsp turmeric
Coriander leaves, chopped for garnish
salt to taste


Method:

In a Kadai or a pan, heat oil. Temper the mustard seeds and cumin seeds till they splutter. Add the chopped onion and saute till translucent. Add the chopped green chilies / pepper. Add the salt and turmeric and saute till cooked, not mushy tho!!

Serve with hot steaming rice....Enjoy!!!

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Apple Waldorf Salad

It not always that we are able to create a recipe....its sometimes so much easier to just follow a recipe. I do that a lot too....but I end up tweaking it here and there just to suit my taste...don't we all...but that I recommend it, cos if we don't like the taste then how can we eat it!!:))

Its once very long ago that I tasted this and loved it a lot!!
Since apples are in season, thought of making this for the old times sake....I researched a lot on the recipe and found that its actually made of mayonnaise, sugar et all.....
Since mayo has eggs in it, I wanted to substitute it with something else, something which is creamy..

BTW I love creamy salads, be it pasta salads or fruit...love dressings....ranch, blue cheese, italian...bring it on! :))

So in my research came across that it can also be made with yogurt...so happy that I hit the jackpot....I made it today.....I am going to again make it for my kid's upcoming big party, so this was a test trial.
Recipe is from Martha Stewart.....Can she go wrong??..lol no..so I chose her recipe...
(I am not reposting her recipe!)

Only tweaks I made were....I like it little sweet...so added a 1 tsp of sugar. If you like it even more sweet, add more....and I added a few dried cranberries, even raisins can be used!
Lemon juice helps the apples not change their color and the apples I chose are Granny Smitha...for the tartness and crisp nature and a small Mac....But you can use any and only one kind if you prefer!
Refrigerating it for a while before serving helps the juices to come out and make it more tasty...
In the recipe it says you can refrigerate up to overnite!

Sending this to Pari's 'Only Event' hosted by Pratibha of  'THE CHEF and HER KITCHEN' for this month

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My day of Baking!!

This is not really going be a recipe post!!
All I did today was go the easy way...Used some bookmarked recipes which came from my friend and for easyness sake, used store bought cake mix. And more over the icing was home made...not by me but another good friend of mine offered to do it!! Thank you!
All I did was mix colors into it and frost the cake.

I got this pretty cool mould couple of weeks back. It was a cup cakes car mould, which I thought would be cool for my younger son's third birthday which is tomorrow!
So pretty much used the store bought cake mix, baked in the mould and used my friend's icing for my son's birthday cake...which by the way he will be cutting in his play school tomorrow!

Another good friend baked a beautiful 'Banana bread' it was sooo yummy, moist too...so immediately emailed her for the recipe, which she immediately emailed me back, thanx a lot to her!!
I baked that too today....followed the exact same recipe, no changes....it did come out beautiful!!
Recipe Source!

Thank GOD for good friends right :))...Thank you all...Love you guys!!!

So here are the celebrity pics!!

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Rooh-Afza Falooda, A dessert made with rose syrup and icecream!

I don't know how many people are familiar with "FALOODA".
Its more like a ice cream shake with sevai, vermicelli. It comes in many different flavors from plain vanilla to fancy like the rose syrup one.
In India, I have seen it being served in tall glasses with a straw and spoon. Its yummy since it has various textures added to it like the semiya and tiny seeds called "tukmaria seeds", which from my research found out that they are nothing but basil seeds.
They are also called as "sabza seeds".
These seeds when soaked get a fine soft fuzzy layer, when bit into have a small crunch to it!
The rose syrup I am using is "RoohAfza". It is usually found at the Indian and Pak grocers. It comes in a bottle, nice, perfumy and thick.
One of the simplest dessert to put together, got this recipe from a friend long ago, and from then on I am hooked on to it. I try to make it whenever possible, that is when I have rose syrup at home!
Cooking sevai on stove top takes about 10 minutes, but when I used the MICROWAVE, it took me like 5 minutes. Whats more easy that that!!!!
It took about 3 minutes for the sevai to cook in the microwave. Makes one serving!

Ingredients:

2 scoops of Vanilla icecream (you can use, but I think natural Vanilla is that best for this, since it can take add on of flavors)
1 tbsp of cooked sevai, semiya, vermicelli
1 tsp of RoohAfza or rose syrup
a pinch of tukmaria seeds, basil seeds or Sabza ginjalu

Method:

Heat about 1/2 cup water in the microwave.
Soak the semiya in it for a minute.

Reheat the water with semiya for 3 minutes or until cooked. I kept an eye on it till it was done!

Drain it and strain it under cold running water. Keep aside.

Soak the Sabza seeds in water for 5 minutes. You can see that they will start to form the outer fuzzy layer immediately.

Combine the sevai, ice cream and the seeds for a falooda ice cream shake or have it like I do.

I like to mix mine together myself. So I layer them up and serve....Enjoy!!!

I am sending this to my event here @ my blog, MEC-FESTIVE DISHES started by Srivalli of Cooking 4 all seasons.
The festive season has started, so send in your yummy, microwaved dishes to the event. Looking forward to seeing all your yummy recipes!

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Cucumber Raita / Cucumber in yogurt

Raitas are the best accompaniment to any dish, especially to biryanis, fried rice or pulavs. There are so many types of raitas made from so many dish ingredients. Its basically what you like and what tastes good put together in yogurt to form raita.
Since its made in yogurt, it good for your health too.
Here is present to you cucumber raita. I have previously posted onion raita. Its almost the same, just made with cucumber.
There are different ways you can make this....you can cut cucumber into small pieces or even shred or grate it! I have chosen to chop it into small pieces, I like it the chunky way. If you like tomato in your raita, go ahead and add it. I didnot add it in this recipe.
I like it simple, spicy and thick, not too runny!
I like to eat raita even with chapathi, roti or any type of parathas too. You can also add some grated carrot to it for color.

Ingredients:

1 cup of thick yogurt
1 big cucumber or 2 small ones, chopped or grated
1 small onion or 1/2 of big onion (red onion preferably), chopped
2 green chillies, chopped
1 tbsp of chopped coriander leaves
salt to taste
few drops of lemon juice

Method:

Mix all ingredients together with yogurt. If you like it little runny, add some water to it.
Add some lemon juice, so that it little bit soury! :)
Serve with
Mutton 'Dum' Biryani
Hyderbadi Chicken Biryani
Vegetable pulao
Peas fried rice
Peas pulao

Methi Besan paratha
Stuffed spring onion and besan paratha
Aloo paratha
Methi paratha
Gobi paratha

Enjoy!!!

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My First Event Anouncement - "MEC - Festive Dishes"

Its that time of the year again!! Beautiful weather (here in New England, its fall time, beautiful colors), lovely breeze, days getting shorter, nights getting longer reminding us that winter is around the corner. Its time of festivities too. Starting from August, all thru January, there are numerous festivals celebrated in India and around the world. Starting with Vara Lakshmi Pooja, Ramadan, EID and Vinayaka Chathurthi, carrying on with NavRatri, Dasera, Diwali, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Hannukah, Christmas, New Year's and ending with Sankranthi in January.

Did I miss any in between, please remind me!!! I get too carried away!!

In India, its the time to celebrate with neighbors hopping in, relatives stopping by, people coming and going, with Dandiya ras going on around the street corners and Crackers exploding high in the sky as well as the ground, WATCH OUT!

Here in US, house being decorated with colors of the fall and harvest season, pumpkins and mums, looking forward to lights being put up for Diwali, Christmas and New Year!

With this I bring you to my first event anouncement, Microwave Easy Cooking - FESTIVE DISHES, THANKS to Srivalli from Cooking 4 all Seasons for asking me if I could do this. I was more than elated in the beginning, but later the nervousness dawned on me!!
Can I succeed?? Well we shall see in the end!!!

I am sure with so many festivities going on, you all have cooked day in and day out and also worked hard on your recipes. So here is a chance for you guys to showcase them!

Since I am including all the festivals during this time, I will be accepting both VEG and NON-VEG recipes.
ALL DISHES must be churned out from your MICROWAVE AND MICROWAVE ONLY! NO STOVETOP AT ALL FOR THE WHOLE RECIPE. Tho you can use blenders, mixies, food processors, BUT NO STOVETOP!

So bring on all the DISHES, be it Snacks, Tiffins, Sweets or Savories, high calories or low, katta or Namkeens made in your Microwave and lets have fun celebrating this festive season.
It will be a chance for rest of us to get to know new dishes, so BAKE it, STEAM it, COOK it, make it easy in a Microwave and live "HAPPILY EVER AFTER" :))

Rules are as follows:

1. VEG and NON-VEG DISHES accepted

2. All cooking must be done in the MICROWAVE only, that is final product must come out of the Microwave. Blenders, mixies, grinders, food processors allowed! Imagine you are left alone on an island with only a MICROWAVE and the ingredients!

3.MULTIPLE entries are allowed.

4.Entries from archives allowed, as long as its reposted with LOGO and LINK.

5.LINK back to this announcement and Srivalli's MEC announcement page in your post.

6.Use of LOGO is mandatory, fun way to spread the word around!

7.Sure you can send in posts you sent to other events!.. No probs at all!

8.NON-BLOGGERs - Welcome and please do send in your entries...good way to showcase them and be PROUD of them!!!

9.DEADLINE is on the 31st of OCTOBER...I will surely accept entries sent on the last minute of that day too!! ;))

10.After POSTING, EMAIL me the following details @ smitha.joga@gmail.com with MEC-FESTIVE DISHES as the subject....(psst: I do read all other mails too...so please feel free to drop in any questions or comments)

Your Name:
Your Blog's name
Your Dish:
Your Dish's URL on your blog:
VEG or NON-VEG:
Your Dish's celebrity Picture:

11.CLICK on the FOLLOW button (top right hand corner) to keep track of the event!!(REFRESH ur page and you just might see it!!)

Send me comment on Facebook or on my blog if you can, otherwise too I will send an acknowledgement of your dish being recieved. Let me know if I didn't reply back or post it on the Blog page!
I will be posting the links and celebrity pics as I get them on a different page on my BLOG and an round up at the start of the November.

So join in and let all celebrate the Festivities together with MEC-FESTIVE DISHES!!

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Mutton / Lamb 'Dum' Biryani

REQUEST:

For all those new comers, friends and readers of my blog...I have been having some trouble with the Followers and Follow button (TOP RIGHT HAND CORNER). If you can see it please click on it and become a follower. I would really appreciate it!!! And subscribe to the RSS feed with the button on the top and please do leave a comment...I really love and enjoy reading comments, its very encouraging to me!!....THANX a lot!!!!




It's all about "DUM" in our house. All other biryani have become just a plain biryani. Only DUM biryani keep their status!! We have been making vegetable dum to chicken dum to shrimp dum and now Lamb dum.
Since we don't get much of mutton / goat meat, we do, but who is going to make time to go over all the way to where they sell it...easier is finding lamb, which we get good quality in our regular grocery store. So made this with Lamb instead of mutton, but it would be the same procedure if done with mutton too.
DUM biryani they say is the food of the Nawabs. All the delicious biryanis where dished out for the kings and their people of the court! Served along side with Mirchi ka Salan was a delicious combo for sure!.
Dum Biryani or Kachi biryani is started off by using raw meat, thats why "kachi" is cooked along with rice and spices in a big handi covered with dough to keep in the heat and vapor to cook the meat and the rice. This is also a type of Hyderabadi Biryani.
The ingredients are actually quiet simple, only preparation takes some time. Adding few cashew nuts, raisins or even dried pomegranate seeds will add a beautiful touch to it!
Takes about an hour from start to finish. Adjust spice accordingly.
Use a good pot with a tight lid.

Ingredients:

2 pounds lamb, chopped into 1 in pieces, Leave the bones as big if you like them
3 cup basmati rice

For lamb marinade:

1 cup yogurt
2 tbsp ginger garlic paste
1 tsp cumin powder
1 tsp coriander powder
1-2 tsp chilli powder
1 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp garam masala powder
2-3 tbsp lemon juice
salt to taste
1 tbsp oil

For the rice:

6-7 cloves
2 big pieces of cinamon sticks
5-6 cardamom pods, elaichi
2 anise stars
4-5 black pepper corns
1 tsp javtri or mace
2 black cardamom pods
4-5 bay leaves

For initiation of the biryani:

2-3 tbsp oil
3 cloves
1 in piece of cinamon stick
3 cardamom pods
2 bay leaves
1 anise star
2 bay leaves
5-6 green chillies

Chopped coriander leaves - 1/2 cup
chopped mint leaves - 1/2 cup

Garnish:

Fried onions
Chopped coriander leaves
Roasted cashew nuts, raisins, roasted pomegranate seeds

few strands of Saffron soaked in about 1/4 cup milk, you can substitute it with yellow food color.


Method:

Prepare the marinade for the lamb, taste for salt, cos you wont be able to taste it later! Add the lamb and let it marinate for atleast 1/2 hour.
Put the rice to soak.

Wash rice and let it soak for atleast 1/2 hour.

Chop your onions and fry them for fried onions. Roast your nuts too in the meanwhile.

Put all the ingredients for the rice into the water along with salt and let it come to a rolling boil.
Add the rice to the water and let it come to a boil to getting the rice gets 80% cooked.

Just before the rice comes to a boil, heat the pan you are going to cook the biryani in.

Heat oil and add the dry whole masala and when they roast, add the lamb. Cook lamb for couple of min.

By now the rice should have come to the 80% cooked stage, drain all the water and add the rice on top of the lamb. Add the fried onions, chopped coriander leaves and mint leaves. Even add the saffron in milk or yellow food color on the top.

Cover tight with the lid. Use kitchen towel to trap the vapor if needed.

Let cook on high to mid-high heat for about 10 min. Next drop down the heat to medium heat for about 20 mins. By now the rice should be cooked. Drop down the Heat to low for another 20 min.

Always remove into a big large bowl to mix. Add the garnish.

Serve Hot with raita or mirchi ka salan like I did!
Enjoy!!!

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