Thalaasaney / Beans stir fried

This is my favourite dish.....Mithil my friend in Bangalore makes sure she makes this every time we are with them. I made it here and sent her the foto to get her opinion and she mailed back saying it looked good & advicsed me to fry the Garlic a bit longer to get more brown. This dish is very easy to make .Whole crushed Garlic is used here and only when you taste the stir fried slow cooked garlic you realise how tasty garlic can be!

Ingredients:
500 gms. of fresh & tender beans
1 to 2 tab.sp. coconut oil
1 tsp. of Turmeric
8 to 10 fresh garlic crushed (dont remove the skin)
1 or two dry red chillies
Few curry leaves
Salt to taste


Method:
Heat the oil and fry the Garlic,red chillies & the curry leaves until the Garlic turnes golden brown.

Now add the beans cut into 1 inch length

Add the turmeric powder and salt.

Mix well and adding a few tab.sp. of water stir fry this on high flame for 5 minutes and then simmer on a low flame for another 5 minutes with the lid of the pan on.

Done!


Tips: 
You need to use coconut oil to get the great flavor. I have also used Groundnut oil / Archideolie to prepare this vegetable.
All you need here is hot white rice to go with it!
At the Hague Market you can buy fresh / tender /new Garlic and they are rose in color.

Thyme & Cucumber Salad in Yogurt Sauce

I love yogurt and I have tried almost every variety of them available at the super market.The yoghurt that reminds me of the home-made yogurt is the Turkish yogurt or even the Greek one.Have to mention these yogurts have high fat contents(10%) while the local ones have very low contents.So not always I would go for these yogurts with high fat contents. But to make this Salad I use one of them.

Its a great yogurt salad which goes well with vegetarian and non vegetarian dishes.



Ingredients:
200 ml of yogurt(Greek or Turkish)
1 large clove of garlic finely ground to a paste with 1/2 tea sp. of salt
1/4 a tab. sp.of fresh Thyme leaves.
2 cucumbers

Method:
Remove skin of the cucumbers grate and press out all the juice.

Add the garlic paste to the yogurt and give it a good stir.

Add now the fresh Thyme leaves slightly crushed to the yogurt .

Serve as a Salad with fried fish / meat or french fries.



Enjoy!

Broccoli Soup

This is a recipe I tried out after we returned from Ireland.
A country I have fallen in love with! It reminded me of my childhood days visiting Interier(country side) of North Malabar with green grass paddy fields and narrow lanes& roads & fences made out of wood and stone even though Ireland had multiple colors of green grass fields...
On our tour we had this soup in one of the restaurants and immediately after returning I made this for my husband who fully agreed it tasted better than the one we had ..:-)
It was one of the best soup I had ever tasted.I love broccoli , want you to try this easy & simple way of making it.

This is specially for Nandu my niece in Bangalore.She had tried this soup when she had visited us & wanted me to put in on my blog.

So Nandu and all of you try it!
Ingredients:

two heads of broccoli
200 ml of cream
3 vegetable soup cubes ( groente bullion)
3 cloves of garlic
600 ml water
Few twiggs of fresh thyme

Method:
Boil 10 to 15 minutes the broccoli & the soup cubes in 600 ml of water.

Then, using a blender puree the same to a fine texture.

Add now the cream , freshly pressed /ground garlic and the Thyme twigs and give it a good stir......

Soup is ready to be served.

I love this served for lunch with toasted brown bread ....Try it out!.

Tips:
I have used the long life cream called '' houdbare slagroom '
Thyme leaves are freely available at the super markts, u can dry the left over leaves for later use.
Get one plant from the garden center, U can keep them in yourindoor or outdoor as its a winter hard plant.
If you need more salt add an extra soup cube.You can even use Chicken soup cubes instead of the vegetable ones.
If its too thick add some water to dilute. However Broccoli soup should be
thick and not watery!

Utappam

This is yet another type of a Dosa.
The base of the Utappam is nothing but the usual dosa batter, but then when we add chopped vegetables or onins & make a thicker version of a dosa we call it Uttappam.
The Uttappam batter should be well fermented and more sour than the usual dosa batter. I usually make Uttappam with the leftover dosa batter.

These are the ingredients for the Dosa batter:
2 cup raw Rice
1 cup Urid dal

1 tab.sp. of beaten rice / poha (soaked along with rice & Urid)
1 tsp. Methi seeds
Salt

Method:

Soak the above ingredients for 4 to 6 hours.Grind to a smooth paste adding little water while grinding.

Add the salt and let it rest to ferment .This will take a few hours or even
over night.

Once it has fermented well keep the batter in the fridge for few hours.Add the fillings* mix well and make thick Dosas.

Sprinkle afew drops of oil on top.
Serve with Coconut chutney / Tomato ketchup or Sambaar.

Filling for the dosa / uttappam

3 Tomatos
2 onion
2 to 4 green chillies
10 to 12 curry leaves
1 tsp.grated ginger
Handful of coriyander leaves
Salt
Few pinches hing/Asefetida
Oil for frying

Method:

Chop finely all the above ingredients and add the hing/ asefetida, ginger, salt and mix well.

Pour onto a hot dosa frying pan and make thick Uttappams.Add a few drops of
oil on top.

Uttappam is ready when the bottom is light brown and the top is off white in color.
Serve hot with coconut , tomato chutney.

Tips:

I usually keep the fermented Dosa batter in the fridge for a few hours before Imix the fillings.
I have noticed when I did this the Uttappams made had small circular depressions & I have often heard people say thats how uttappam should be....
So try this out....

Next week will be about Onion & Cabbage Baje / Pakora,  So keep an eye on my blog!:)