Bas saaru, palya (Spicy sweet broth with a stir fry)

Last Sunday's veggie shopping turned out to be a happy coincidence! I was just talking to my friend earlier in the week and whining that we don't get as many greens in Hyderabad as I used to in Banaglore and on Sunday, I find honagonne soppu (Kannada) ! I was super thrilled as this wonderful green leafy weed is delicious and a staple of the famers in Karnataka.

It's called ponnanganni keerai in Tamil, ponnangantikura in Telugu, ponnankannikira in Malayalam, Garundi in Hindi, sesiile joyweed/dwarf copperleaf in English!

What is made from these leaves is basically a broth with lentils and the actually greens and the lentil is stir fried and served with the broth. In Kannada we call the broth "bas saaru" (basiyodu - strain the liquid, saaru - broth) and the stir fry "palya".

Bas saaru Recipe -

4-5 Tbspn - Toor Dal ( Bengal Gram)
150 - 200 gms - Honagonne soppu ( You need to take only the leaves, stalk only if it is tender, else discard)
3 Tspns - Oil
1 No - Onion
3-4 Pods - Garlic
3 Tspn - Sambhar Powder
2 Tspns - Poppy seeds
3 Tbspns - Grated Coconut/Cut into small pieces
8 No - Curry Leaves
A pinch of asfoetida
Jaggery as per your taste
Salt as per your taste

Method -

Soak the toor dal for half an hour. Wash the leaves thouroughly. Now pressure cook the leaves wth the dal and ample amount of water (2-3 cups). Just give two whistles only. Now strain the liquid from the dal and leaves. Keep it in that codition till it completely cools and all the liquid is collected separately.
Grind the onions, garlic, sambhar powder, poppy seeds,

coconut, curry leaves and asfoetida into a fine paste with water.

Now the take a shallow pan with oil in it and add the ground paste and give it a good stir. Then add the broth and once it begins to boil, add salt and jaggery. Taste till you find what seems perfect to your taste buds.

The saaru/broth is ready!

Palya Recipe -

3 Tspns - Oil
1 Tspn - Mustard Seeds
4-5 Nos - Curry Leaves
3 Nos - Green Chillies
Dal + Leaves
Salt as per your taste
A litte bit of jaggery
2 Tspns - Red Chilli Powder (Optional)

Take the leaves and the dal which is now devoid of any liquid. Heat some oil in a kadai, add mustard seeds and wait for it to splutter. Now add a few curry leaves and the slit green chillies. After a minute, add the leaf dal combo and finally salt and a dash of jaggery. If you want it to be a little spicy, you can add some red chilli powder as well.

Serve hot with rice or raagi mudde (raagi balls) and raw onions!

Coffee Cinnamon Cake

I am not a daily caffeine addict but yes I do need my dose every once in a while. I love it in any form, hot filter coffee/mocha/cappuccino or cold iced and flavoured! But most of all I love coffee desserts. Here's one of my recipes that infuses a cake with the aromatic coffee and the sweet cinnamon!

For this you will need -

1 Cup - 225 gms

1/2 Cup - Butter (Unsalted)
3 Cups - Flour
3 Nos - Eggs
3 Tspn - Baking Powder
1 Cup - Powdered Sugar
1/2 Tspn - Salt
1 Tspn - Vanilla Extract
1/2 Tspn - Baking Soda
1 1/2 Cup - Yoghurt
1 Tbspn  - Coffee Powder
1 Tspn - Cinnammon Powder
3 Tbspns  - Coarsely ground mixture of nuts (cashews/almonds/pistachios) and sugar

9 inch round cake tin

Method -

Grease the cake tin with butter and sprinkle flour and keep it ready. Mix the coffee powder, cinnamon powder and the nuts mixture to form a aromatic mix.

Blend 1/2 cup of butter at room temperature with the eggs, one at a time. Do this till you get a yellow ribbony consistency. Then add the cup of sugar and the vanilla extract and blend again.

Mix the flour with the baking powder and salt and sieve thrice. To this add 2 tspns of coffee powder.

Add the baking soda to the yoghurt and keep aside. It'll immediately begin to froth.

Now add the flour and the yoghurt mixture alternately to the egg mixture and fold all the ingredients.

Now pour half the batter into the tin. Then sprinkle the aromatic mix over the batter.

 

 

Pour the remaining batter and bake at 180 deg C for 30 - 35 minutes.

 

 

 



You will get a moist fluffy cake with a crunchy cinnamony coffilicious layer in the middle :)
 

Tomato Salsa

The perfect accomapaniment to the Capsicum-Carom seed rice is this! Fresh, light and crunchy!

For this you will need -

2 Nos - Onions ( fine chopped)
3 Nos - Tomatoes ( fine chopped)
1 No - Green Capsicum (fine chopped)
1 No - Red Capsicum (fine chopped)
2 tbspns - Roasted Peanuts
3 tbspns - Tomato Ketchup
2 tspns - Black Pepper powder
2 tspn - Vegetable Oil
Salt as per your taste

Method -

Heat the oil in a pan and add half of teh chopped onions and tomatoes. Cook till they are soft and mushy. Take it off the heat and allow to cool. Now add the remaining raw onions, tomatoes, capsicums (green and red). Toss them nicely. Add the salt, papper and the ketchup. Give it a good mix. Finally add the roasted peanuts. This gives a super crunch and a great flavour!
 

Capsicum - Carom seeds Rice

I know it's been really long since I updated my blogs. I have been travelling and been really busy with other important stuff, so sincere apologies. Let's not waste any more lines and dive straight into this aromatic and delicious rice recipe.

For this you will need -

250gms  - Basmati Rice
1 tbspn - Oil ( Non odour )
3 Nos - Medium sized Green Capsicum
1 tspn - Carom Seeds (Ajwain/Ohm seeds)
3-4 Nos - Green Chillies
1 cube - Veg Maggie Superseasoning (You will get this in all supermarkets)
100 gms - Fresh Paneer (Cottage Cheese) cubes
2 tspn - Ginger -garlic paste
Salt as per your taste

Method -

Wash and soak the basmati for atleast half an hour. Deseed the capsicums and smear oil on the outside. Now microwave them for 3-4 minutes, till it decolours. Or you could char them on the stove top, for a slightly burnt flavour.

Once cooled, add this, carom seeds, one cube of maggie superseasoning and green chillies to the blender and blend to a smooth paste.

Take a pressure cooker. Heat the oil and once hot, add the ginger - garlic paste, soaked rice, without the water and the ground paste. Fry for a couple of minutes. Then add salt, water equal to the amount of rice taken. That is if you have one cup of rice, add one cup of water. Close the lid and give three whistles. Once the pressure is gone, add the paneer cubes and mix well. Keep the lid closed and serve hot.