thoTakura Pulusu/Soup with Amaranthus Leaves

Actually we call them pulusukura, it is made with tamarind pulp i.e. pulusu and leafy vegetable i.e. kura. So the name came. It is in semi liquid consistency as it has dal also.  It tastes well with hot rice.  It does not have any specific taste of its own but tastes good only when the leaves are very tender and small in size.

Ingredients:

thoTakura/Amaranthus - 2 small bunches or 2 cups
Chopped Onion - 1
Chopped Tomato - 1
Garlic - 7 to 9 cloves
Tamarind Juice - 1 cup
Salt - to taste
Red Chilli Powder - 1 tbsp
Turmeric Powder - 1 tsp
Asafoetida - 1 tsp
Curry Leaves - 5 to 7
Toor Dal/Yellow Pigeon Peas - 1 cup

For Tempering:

Oil - 1 tbsp
Mustard Seeds - 1 tbsp
Cumin Seeds - 1 tbsp
Red Chillies - 2 

Procedure:

Pressure cook toor dal/yellow pigeon peas for three whistles. Mash it well once it gets cool. 
In a small pressure cooker heat oil. Add all ingredients of tempering. 
When they start crackling add onions and garlic. Fry them till the onions become translucent. Add tomatoes and thoTakura to it. 
Fry them for a while. Add asafoetida, turmeric powder and salt. Cover it and pressure cook for three whistles. 
Once it cool open the lid and pour tamarind juice and allow it to boil for 5 minutes. Add toor dal and again let it boil for 5 more minutes and add red chilli powder again boil it for 5 more minutes. Transfer this to a serving boil and serve it with rice.

Palakura Pappu/Dal Palak

It is a very simple recipe. This will there in my house at least one's in a week or at least one's in a fortnight. Very easy and simple and of course very healthy dal. This can be consumed with either roti or rice.

Ingredients:

Toor Dal/Yellow Pigeon Peas/Red Gram/Kandi Pappu - 1 cup
Palak/Spinach - 2 bunches or 200 Grms
Onion - 1
Green Chillies -2
Salt - to taste
Turmeric Powder - 1 tsp
Asafoetida - a pinch
For Tempering:
Oil -1 tbsp
Mustard Seeds - 1tsp
Cumin Seeds - 1 tsp
Red Chillies - 2 
Curry Leaves - 5 to 7

Procedure:

Pressure cook toor dal/yellow pigeon peas for three whistles. Mash it with a laddle.
Chop palak/spinach and onions. Wash palak/spinach thoroughly.
Split green chillies.
Heat oil in a thick bottomed pan.
Add all the ingredients under 'For Tempering' heading.
Once they start spluttering add onions and green chillies. 
Fry them till the onions turn translucent. Add spinach/palak to it.
Fry this also for a while. Add salt and turmeric powder. Add asafoetida and little water. Allow this to boil till the spinach cooks.
Add boiled toor dal/yellow pigeon peas. Allow this to boil for 2 minutes.
Serve it with roti or rice along with raw onions.

Menthi Kutu Recipe -- How to make Menthi Kutu Recipe

MenthiKutu Powder/MenthiKutu Podi

One more oldest recipe from my maternal family. This was done my grand mother and my aunty learned it from her. This can be consumed with hot piping rice and also it goes well with roti also. We make this powder and keep it for further use also.

Ingredients:

Lentils/Toor Dal - 1 Cup
Black Gram/ Urad Dal - 1 Cup
Bengal Gram/Chana Dal - 1 Cup
Green Gram/Moon Dal - 1 Cup
Whole Wheat/Ghehu - 1/2 Cup
Fenugreek Seeds/Methi Seeds - 1 tbsp

Procedure:

Dry roast all of them separately. 
Grind them to a fine powder.
Keep it in an air tight jar. 

Nuvvula Laddu/Nuvvulunda/Til Laddu/Sesame Seeds Laddu

It is the best and healthy sweet. Til or Sesame seeds are rich in folic acids.They are also good source of iron, zinc,vitamin B1 and dietary fibres. Til combine with gud or jaggery is more nutritious sweet. Making it is not that easy as other sweets. We need to have some experience. I was a little bit scary about making this. It is made during the sankranti season. It generates heat in the body to keep the body warm during the chill weather. 

Ingredients:

Til/White Sesame Seeds - 1 Cup

Gud/Jaggery - 1 Cup 

Procedure:

Heat pan and roast white sesame seeds/til. Roast them till the aroma comes out and the til started crackling.

Roast it in the low flame. 

Keep it aside to cool down.

Heat thick bottomed vessel add jaggery. Sprinkle a little bit of water to cover jaggery. Stir it well so the jaggery melts. Allow this to boil. Boil it in the low to medium flame. Cook till it attains soft-ball consistency.

Once the jaggery reaches soft-ball consistency add roasted sesame seeds and mix well and remove it from the heat. 

Allow it to cool and it should be warm enough to handle to make laddus. Make laddos. 

Muri Mixture/Murmura Chivda

Yeah, it is really a good tea time snack. I like this kind of small eats very much. Making this is very easy. For that matter making any recipe is easy, if we put our concentration and complete interest in it. Now let us start making this. 

Ingredients:

Muri/Kurmura/Murmura - 250 grms
Groundnuts/Pea Nuts - 100 grms
Roasted Bengal Gram/ Daria Dal - 100 grms
Dry Coconut - 50 grms
Green Chillies - 5 to 8
Curry Leaves - Fistful
Oil - 3 tbsp
Salt - to taste
Turmeric Powder - 1 tsp

Procedure:

Heat 1tbsp of oil in a pan. Add turmeric powder. Add muri/kurmura/murmura to it. Mix well. Fry them for two to three minutes in a low to medium flame. Keep it aside. 
Again heat the pan and add groundnuts and fry them till they turn into light brown shade.
Add them to the above muri/kurmura/murmura.
Again heat the same pan and add roasted bengal gram and fry them also for two minutes. Add them to the above muri. 
Fry dry coconut pieces also. Add them also to the above muri.
Heat 1 tbsp of oil in the same pan and add green chillies and curry leaves. Fry them till they turn into crisp.
Add them also to the above mixture. Add salt to it and mix well. Keep it in an air tight container. Good tea time snack is ready to serve.

Pesara Pappu Pachchadi/Chutney with Green Gram

This chutney is very tasty. Any one wants spicy chutney, this is the best option. This chutney goes very well with hot piping rice. Making it is very easy and whenever I feel lazy to cook I prefer to make this chutney. 

Ingredients:

Pesara Pappu/Green Gram - 1 cup
Red Chillies - 3 to 5
Asafoetida - 1 tsp
Salt -to taste
Lime Juice - 2 tbsp 

Procedure:

Soak pesara pappu/green gram for 2 to 3 hours.
Grind green gram with red chillies, asafoetida and salt to a fine paste. 
Add lime juice to it. Mix it well.
That's it, very simple pesara pappu chutney ready. Serve it with hot piping rice.

Sweet Potato in Jaggery Soup/Chilagada Dumpa in Bellam Pakam

I really don't know how to use sweet potato. We use it only in tiyya pulusu(sweet soup) and we make this recipe. We need very less ingredients and it also takes very less time in making this. I found it the best way to use sweet potato.  Sweet potatoes are rich in Carbohydrates, dietary fiber and beta-carotene.

Ingredients:

Sweet Potatoes - 200 grms
Jaggery - 200 grms

Procedure:

Cut sweet potatoes into pieces. Cut them into round shape and huge pieces only. It cooks very fast. 
Scrape or mash jaggery and add it to the sweet potato pieces. Add a little water. 
Put this in a thick bottomed vessel. I cooked it in a wok. 

Allow this to boil. Boil till the jaggery melts and the syrup reaches one string consistency. Jaggery syrup should be thin consistency only. 
That's all sweet potato in jaggery soup is ready to serve. 
Serve it with the jaggery syrup. 

Minapasunni/Sunnundalu/Laddu with Blackgram

Minapasunni or sunnudalu is a very healthy sweet. One small size ball every morning will give a great relief to the lower back pain problem. Minappu or black gram has lot of iron in it adding jaggery which is also has lot of iron content in it. This will help in increasing hemoglobin levels in the blood and also helps in making bones strong. This is normally given to the just delivered ladies.

My most favourite and easiest sweet also. There are different ways to make it. We can use black gram with skin or without skin and also we can make them with sugar or with jaggery. Laddu made with jaggery are more healthier than made with sugar. Lot of ghee also adds taste to it.

Ingredients:

Black Gram Dal - 1 cup (with skin)
Jaggery - 1 cup
Ghee/Clarified Butter - 1/2 cup

Procedure:

Roast black gram dal. Roast it in the low flame, till gets the aroma of it.
Grate or cut the jaggery.
When cooled grind the black gram into powder.Make the powder neither too fine nor too coarse. It should be in between them. 
Mix jaggery with it and again grind it to mix well.
Melt the ghee and add it to the above. Make laddus of desired size. For each laddu wet the hand with ghee and make them, so that making laddus will be easy. 
Serve them morning and evening. Keep them in an air tight container for 15 to 20 days. 

• I used to black gram dal with skin, it gives a dark colour to laddus, but they are really healthy. 

• We can make these laddus with plain black gram dal and sugar as we did it now. 
• We can make the sugar and black gram dal mix without adding ghee and keep it for further use also.
• Whenever plan to make laddus just add melted ghee and make them.
• Those do not like the dark colour can use plain black gram and sugar, they are no less healthy.

Vankaya Pulusu Pachadi Recipe -- How to make Vankaya Pulla Bajji --

Hi, Good Morning. Thank you, friends and viewers. Today I will post how to make vankaya pulusu pachadi recipe.

This is the season for huge eggplants. We can make chutney, bajji or bathem, bartha etc. with them. I already gave some recipes with it. This is one more variety with it. This dish is a little bit sweet in taste. Serve it with rice or roti. Nice accompaniment to plain dal.

Tomato Curry

This is a very simple curry. It goes very well with roti. 

Ingredients:

Tomato - 8 Large
Onion - 4 Large
Oil - 1 tbsp
Mustard Seeds - 1/2 tbsp
Cumin Seeds - 1/2 tbsp
Black Gram - 1/4 tbsp
Bengal Gram - 1/4 tbsp
Red Chilli - 2
Salt - to taste
Red Chilli Powder - 1 tbsp
Turmeric Powder - 1 tsp
Sugar - a pinch

Procedure:

Chop tomatoes, onions. 
Heat oil in a pan. 
Add mustard seeds, cumin seeds, black gram, bengal gram and red chillies. Once they start spluttering add onions, fry them till they become translucent. 
Add tomatoes. Fry them also till they become soft. 
Add salt, turmeric powder. When the tomatoes and onions cooked add red chilli powder and sugar. Once the excess water dries remove the curry from the heat. That's all the curry is ready to serve. 

Narinjakaya Pachchadi/Orange Chutney

This is again that same orange with which I made thampeta. As the details about the fruit are given in thampeta, so I am not giving any details. This chutney tastes like lemon pickle. Making this is really very easy.

Ingredients:

Narinjakaya - 2
Oil - 4 tbsp
Mustard Seeds - 1 tbsp
Black Gram - 1 tbsp
Red Chilli Powder - 1 tbsp
Salt - to taste
Fenugreek Powder - 1/2 tsp
Asafoetida - 1 tsp

Procedure:

Peel the skin of narinjakaya. Open the rind or segments to make two parts of them and remove the seeds.

Heat oil in a kadai, add mustard seeds, black gram, asafoetida, fenugreek powder, red chilli powder, narinjakaya/orange segments.

Allow it to cook till it gets thicken. Really very tasty narinjakaya chutney ready. Serve it with hot rice. 

Bagara Tomato

Normally we use tomatoes as one of the ingredients in other recipes, but for this curry tomato is the main ingredient. This curry is a good accompaniment for Jeera Rice. Making this is very easy. The quantities mentioned here are for six people.

Ingredients:

Tomatoes - 12
Onion -2 Large
salt - to taste
Tamarind Juice - 1 tbsp
Turmeric Powder - 1 tsp

For Masala:

Oil - 1 tbsp
Coriander Seeds - 1 tbsp
Ground Nuts - 1 tbsp
Til - 1 tbsp
Khuskhus - 1 tbsp
Garlic - 10 to 12
Red Chillies - 3 to 5
Cinnamon Sticks - 2"
Cloves - 3 to 5
Fresh Coconut - 1 tbsp (grated)
Ginger - 1 "
Onion - 1

Procedure:

Heat oil in a kadai and fry all the ingredients under 'For Masala', except ginger and onion. 
Add ginger and onion to it. Grind it to a fine and smooth paste. Add little water to make a fine paste.
Slit tomatoes as we do in Muvvankaya Pulusu. 
Chop onions. 
Heat oil in a pan add kadai. Add onions fry them till they turn into translucent. Add the above grounded paste and fry it. 
Add tomatoes and fry for two minutes. Add tamarind juice, salt and turmeric powder. Add half cup of water and cover it. 
As tomatoes cooks very fast and they have the tendency to split very fast, do not mix it repeatedly. Cover it and cook till the tomatoes cooks. Serve it with jeera rice.