Vegetable Broken Wheat Biriyani

These days I find myself substituting rice with whole wheat, surrendering to the pre occupied notion that wheat is healthier than starchy polished rice! Be them, idlies or upma I find comfortable enough with the variety of easily available broken whole wheat grains in the market.
The vegetable broken wheat biriyani made here is a one pot meal after my hit recipe easy tomato biriyani :)
The recipe and method for this one is entirely different and a bit elaborate but you can always preserve the masala coated veggies which stays well in your chiller even for a week, until you can mix up and heat it with rice of broken wheat to make the meal!
Flavourful and loaded with vegetables, healthy too...

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Easy Cauliflower and Bell Pepper Gravy

If you are in a look out for the recipe of a quick vegetable gravy that would go almost with any main dish, and would serve fine, your unexpected guests or potluck parties, well, here's your choice!..
Yeah!..I am holidaying at my mom's place now and discovered this a dish both my aunt(dad's sis)and mom make quite recently, frequently..or rather invented by them? ;).
To my surprise V and kids loved this gravy and I thought of blogging as a keeper ;).

According to amma and aunt..
we need,

Cauliflower-a small one-divided into small flowerettes
Green Bell Pepper-diced an inch long (no need to make them too thin strips)-a cup
Big Onions-sliced thin and long-2 nos
Fresh/frozen Green peas-1/4 cup
Tomato pulp- a heaped tbsp (may substitute fresh tomatoes as well)
Red chilly powder-a tsp
An inch piece of ginger, 3 cloves of garlic and 3 green chillies- pulsed coarse in a mixie
Soy Sauce- a tbsp
Corn flour-a tbsp, dissolved in 1/4 cup of luke warm water
Cilantro-to garnish
Oil-a tbsp

Heat oil in a large wide non stick kadai. Sauté onions till translucent(take care, not until golden),and next the pulsed ginger-garlic-chilly mix till the raw smell disappears.Now goes in the red chilly powder. Throw in the bell pepper pieces now and sauté lightly.Stir in the soy sauce in high fame and put off after a few seconds.

Cook the flowerettes and peas in a separate vessel in just enough salter water and transfer into the above kadai with the remaining cooked water.Mix well and bring to a boil. Stir in the cornflour-water mix.Simmer till the required consistency is reached(as in the picture).Simmer again for 3-5 minutes as the gravy thickens. Garnish with fresh cilantro and serve hot. Goes best with chappathis, plain rice or fried rice.

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Vegetable Khurma

If someone asks me, “have you ever tried making parathas?”
I wouldn’t say a blunt 'No'!.

Yes, I have, with my sister in law about a decade ago!.

It was our first joint attempt of making the same and came out with at least 3 dozens of real hot parathas after 3 long hours of hard labour(otherwise for the preparation of the dough,which SIL patiently took up)
Once we were through, I should mention, my SIL bluntly remarked.."hmmff I'm never going to attempt this again..
"Yup, bet!.. me too!"!I replied with a sigh!!..
Well, always good at keeping my words ;) I’ve never dared to make ‘em since then.

At least for me, I believe- it’s quite a tiring job!..though my friend Renuka, an expert in preparing parathas, never admits! :).

So, the yummy hot parathas were brought home by my better half and for sure the side-dish here is the fruit of my own effort : )
Again, the recipe of Khurma is my own creation since it’s a mix up of my mom’s and ma in law’s.

Srivalli, this is for your great event of Curry Mela.

Get ready with:

Vegetables- potatoes, carrots, peas, cauliflower- diced, not too small pieces- 2 large cups
Big Onion-medium sized, sliced lenghthwise- 1
Garlic-sliced lengthwise-5-6 cloves
Spices-cloves,cardamom and cinnamon- 2 each
Oil-a tbsp
Thick n creamy coconut milk-1/2 cup
Bay leaves-2-3 nos
Chopped cilantro-to garnish
Salt-to taste

To Grind:
Coconut-1/2 cup
Ginger-an inch piece
Garlic-2 cloves
Green Chillies-3-4 nos
Roasted gram/pottukkadalai-2 tsps
Fennel seeds/saunf-a tsp
Khus khus/poppy seeds-a tsp
Coriander powder-a tsp

Method:

1. Cook vegetables till half done, one by one in just enough salted water according to their respective cooking timings.

2. Grind the listed ingredients to a smooth paste.

3. Heat oil in the utensil intended to make the curry.Throw in the spices. Sauté sliced onions till translucent.Transfer the ground paste along with enough water.Bring to boil and simmer for a few minutes.Transfer the cooked vegetables together to the simmering curry and let it simmer again for a few minutes.Add the bay leaves and salt.

4. Remove from fire when the khurma reaches the semi thick consistency.Blend in coconut milk gently.Garnish with finely chopped cilantro. Serve hot with Parathas.

A few more awards I now need to brag about, though accepted late, are :) :-

Great bear hugs from Divya, Suma and Prajusha.

Prajusha, thankyou again for the Yum Yum award.

Proud to receive the inspirational award from dear Lathamma.

The following rules apply to this award:
1. Only 5 people are allowed to receive this award
2. 4 of them followers of your blog.
3. One has to be new to your blog and live in another part of the world.
4. You must link back to who ever gave you the award.

I'd like to pass on this award to these blogging friends -

Prajusha, Lathamma, Divya, Renuka and Lavanya.



Blogging Friends Forever, Best blog darts thinker and Beautiful site awards are presented by Suma Rajesh.


I’ve been seriously thinking of changing my old fashioned, stale template style here while I was presented this wonderful award from Pallavi and Suma, again.

Brilliant Weblog is a prize given to sites and blogs that are smart and brilliant both in their content and their design. The purpose of the prize is to promote as many blogs as possible in the blogsphere.

Here are the rules to follow:
When you receive the prize you must write a post showing it, together with the name of who has given it to you, and link them back.
Choose a minimum of 7 blogs (or even more) that you find brilliant in their content or design.
Show their names and links and leave them a comment informing they were prized with ‘Brilliant Weblog’.
Show a picture of those who awarded you and those you give the prize (optional).

I would like to pass all my other awards(except BFF which is listed above) to-

Prajusha, Divya, Nags, Srivalli, Lathamma and Lakshmi, Renuka, Suganya, Sra, Aparna, Pallavi, Lavanya and Mitr (except the 'yum yum award' as she is not a food blogger:))

P.S- Ignore the ones you are already awarded.

No words to Thank my lovely pals for fondly remembering me to pass over these wonderful awards to me even when I was away from blogging..

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Vegetable-Rava Khichdi:an anytime,quick balanced meal in a bowl.

As you might have noticed, most of my recipes and cooking methods are a little elaborate.

Thus cooking up a meal in 30 minutes, had been a little challenging for me, with a timer clock, a delightful challenge I ventured for Mallugirl's Summer Express Cooking Event.

Well,..coming to the main ingredients of this recipe, I would suggest you to Grab a pack of pre-roasted Rava/Sooji and another one of Frozen,cut Vegetables of your choice, if you sincerely would try this out.This would of course save you a clean 10-15 minutes and the cooking part will definitely take, not more than 15 minutes!.

Serves-4 portions.Total time needed-30 minutes.

Cutting the veggies-10 minutes

Cooking time-12 minutes

Making the Chutney-8 minutes

Ingredients:

Sooji(Rava) - 2 cups

A cup of diced Vegetables like potatoes, carrots,beans and peas

A tbsp of Oil

½ tsp Mustard seeds and Urad dhal each

2-3 Green chillies slit lenghtwise

A Medium sized Onion sliced lenghthwise

A Medium sized Tomato,sliced to 8 pieces

A tsp of Ginger paste or 1/2 tsp of finely chopped ginger

3 pinches of turmeric powder

Chopped cilantro-to garnish

Method:

1. Roast the rava in 2 tsps of oil in a deep kadai with medium heat till rava turns to very light brown in colour. Remove and keep aside.

2. Heat the remaining oil in the same kadai.Splutter mustards and brown the urad dal.Sauté the sliced onions till translucent. Now add the ginger and saute for a few seconds. Add in, the chopped tomatoes and chillies sauting for a minute in a medium flame.

3. Add the Vegetables and pour in 5 cups of water.Let the vegetables get half cooked by keeping the vessel closed.

4. Open and mix in the fried rava, little by little, stirring with a spatula, continuously.(Addition of rava and stirring are to be done simultaneously.Care should be taken to avoid lumps with the boiling water; reduce the heat to medium).

5. Keep on stirring the rava to get to thicker,cooked and the right consistency.

6. Remove from fire and serve hot with chopped cilantro.

Nutritional facts:

If you are a fast cook you should be through by 20 minutes.As you know, the sooji/rava is the cereal part of the dish which is rich in carbohydrates.Potatoes too contribute the same.The 'Vitamins and Minerals' part is handled by the carrot and the tomato and the vegetable(leguminal) proteins by the peas and beans.

Advantages of the dish:

1. The raw materials needed and to be shopped are minimum.

2. Easy to make.

3. Preliminary planning or preparatories like soaking and grinding are not required.

4. A simple, balanced, healthy and filling meal, suitable for breakfast, brunch or dinner!.

Vegetable Rava Khichdi goes well with coconut chutney.Go for it if you are left with a few more minutes :).. if not; simply enjoy the meal with a tsp of sugar..:)...

Time needed-10 minutes

To Make the Quick Chutney; You need to grind together:

1/2 cup Frozen Grated Coconut

1/2 cup Roasted gram/Pottukkadalai

4 Green chillies

Salt-to taste

Water-3/4 cup or as needed

and temper the ground chuntney with

A tsp of refined oil,1/4 each of mustards and urad dal each,2 pinches of hing powder and a few curry leaves.Do not boil or heat the chutney.Tempering should be done separately and poured over the chutney.

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