Super Fast curry recipe ~ Boondi Kura

Boondi Curry! Am I sounding weird? no in fact I am not!!! you read it right I am talking about Boondi Kura/Curry. I was lucky enough to taste this wonderful recipe at my cousin sister's place in Vizag. The curry was moist and tasting so delicious. I never in my dreams would have imagine that we can make curry out of Boondi.

Boondi or Boondhi is a Indian Snack. There are two varieties sweet and salted variant called Khara. To prepare boondi, Gram flour batter is made into small balls using a ladle with holes. These balls are then deep fried in vegetable oil.To make boondi Laddu (indian sweet)fried boondi is then dipped in sugar syrup. Plain boondi is eaten along with payasam in South India or is used to prepare Laddu. In preparing Khara boondi, the batter is mixed with spices and salt before frying. Khara boondi is eaten as such or is added to Indian-mixture. Info source: Boondi

I simply loved the idea of making curry out of Boondi apart from our regular stuff. What an innovative idea, thanks to my Akka!

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Source: My Cousin
Cuisine: South Indian, Andhra Cuisine
Prep time: 3 mins
Cooking time: 15 mins
Serves: 4
Ingredients:
2 cups Boondi-plain/masala (store bought or home-made)
1 tomato, chopped finely
1 onion, chopped
2-3 green chillies, finely chopped
½ tsp ginger paste (if using plain boondi)
½ tsp garlic paste (if using plain boondi)
½ tsp turmeric powder/haldi/pasupu
1 tsp red chilli powder/mirchi powder/karam podi
1 cup milk
½ cup water
salt as per taste
for tempering/tadka/poppu:
1 tbps cooking oil
1 tsp cumin/jeera/jeelakara
4-5 fresh curry leaves/kadipata/karvepaku
pinch of asafeotida/hing/inguva

Method:

• Heat oil in a kadai/medium pan. Add cumin and sauté for a minute.
  
• Add onions, tomato and green chillies and sauté for a min, add ginger paste, garlic paste, turmeric, red chilli powder and salt. Stir so that all ingredients are mixed well together.
  
• Add water, cover and let it cook for 5-9 minutes.Once all the water is evaporated, check if onions and tomatoes are cooked.
• Add boondi and milk, mix well., cover and let it cook for 2-3 mins approx.
• Serve with hot steamed rice and rasam or dal.
  

Egg Muffins with Feta, Basil and Green onions

Egg Muffins with Feta, Basil and green onions

Egg Muffins, or more simpler called as mini egg cakes are great for breakfast and brunch. JB always loves this and insists on egg muffins over plain omelette for our Sunday breakfast. He is more happy if I don't use oil in it, innocently satisfied that it is fat free (from oil at least!)

I was hooked ever since I saw them at Kalyn's Kitchen. Man she has some of the awesome varieties in her blog with great choice of veggies that can go in. I suggest you do take some time and check in those muffins. I wanted to blog this post much before, it was sitting in my drafts for more than four months now. The ingredients used in this are simple and easy to find like basil, green onions, your choice of cheese and milk. You can play with the ingredients by adding mushrooms, carrots, broccoli, red peppers, asparagus, cooked meat like turkey, chicken etc.

Source: adapted from Kalyn's Kitchen
Cuisine: American, International
Prep time: 5 mins
Bake time: 20 mins
Makes: 2 people
Ingredients:
4 eggs
2 T whole milk
1/3 C feta cheese (goat cheese),crumbled
2 T fresh basil, chopped
1 bunch green onions, chopped
1/2 t garam masala powder or any spice mix of your choice
1/2 t cayenne pepper/chilli powder
freshly grounded black pepper
salt to taste
oil to spray the muffin tray
Method:

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees F/185 degrees C and oil spray the muffin tray.
  
• Crack the eggs in a bowl, beat it so that the yolks are mixed well with the egg whites.
• Add milk, garam masala, freshly ground black pepper, cayenne pepper and salt and stir well.
• Add the green onions, basil and feta cheese. Mix well and pour in the muffin tray, I filled it half only but you can go ahead and fill fully. So that muffins will be fluffy and bigger in size. Mine was dwarfish :(
  
• Bake for 25-30 minutes until slightly browned and cooked.
• Makes 8-9 small muffins. Serve hot with your favorite bread or simply eat with tomato ketchup.
  

The feta cheese flavor burst like butter in your mouth. For healthy option try with egg beaters or only egg whites. These freeze well, so you can freeze it for later use, if you have excess. Store it in ziploc bag and for best results, thaw it in refrigerator before microwaving it. Wrap in a paper towel while reheating it in microwave as sometimes they release liquid. For more tips visit Kalyn's Kitchen.

More Egg recipes from my blog:
Stuffed Egg bread potlis
Brunch-O-melette

Alasandalu kura ~ Black-eyed peas curry

Alasandalu kura ~ Black-eyed peas curry

Alasandalu ~ Black-eyed peas or cow peas in English, also known as Bobbarlu in Telugu, Karamani in Tamil, Lobia in Hindi, Chavli in Marathi and Alasande in Kannada. Cow peas are a good source of Calcium, Folate and Vitamin A apart from protein and fiber, hence it is very useful to kids and, pregnant women also.


Preparation, uses, and tips: Before cooking dried peas, soak them for four hours, then pressure cook for ten minutes, or simmer on the stove for one hour or till tender. 1 cup dried black-eyed peas yields approximately 2 1/2 cups of cooked peas. Cooked black-eyed peas can be puréed into a delicious spread for sandwiches or crackers. There are varieties of dishes in India, made by using black-eyed peas as main ingredient. One such simple recipe is the curry which goes well with any bread, rice and nans, phulkas, rotis/indian flat bread. For more on the nutritional value of black-eyed peas click here

Alasandalu Kura

Source: Myself
Cuisine: South Indian, Andhra
Prep time: 7 mins
Cooking time: 20 mins
Soaking time: 4 hrs or overnight
Makes: 4-5 people
Ingredients:
1 C alasandalu/black-eyed peas,raw
2 C water for boiling the peas
1 medium onion white or red, finely chopped
1 large tomato, finely chopped
2 green chillies, halve them n chop finely
3-4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 T tamarind pulp/chintapandu pulupu
6-7 curry leaves
1 T fresh cilantro, chopped
1 T cayenne pepper, chilli powder (adjust accordingly)
a pinch of turmeric powder
1 t each of cumin/jeera and mustard/rai seeds
1T any cooking oil
salt as per taste
1/2 C water

Method:

• Soak alasandalu/black-eyed peas overnight or minimum for four hours. Wash them thoroughly and pressure cook them with two cups of water and a pinch of salt. Drain and keep aside.
• In a large pot or kadai, heat oil and add the seasoning: cumin and mustard seeds. Let it fry for a min and then add curry leaves and chopped garlic. Fry till the aroma of garlic fills the room.
• Add onions and salt to sweat them. Fry till the onions are translucent or turn pink for about 3 mins then add chopped tomatoes, green chillies and let them cook for 6-7 mins or till the tomatoes turn mushy mushy and starts to leave the oil. Lastly add the cooked black eyes peas/ alasandalu and stir well till as the ingredients are mixed well.
  
• Add turmeric and chilli powder and tamarind pulp/chintapandu pulupu to it. Check for salt, add half cup water and let it simmer on low flame till all flavors blend well.
  
• Garnish with cilantro and serve with rice or rotis/indian flat bread or any bread. We had ours with Jonna rotti~ Bhakri

I am sending this to Cooking 4 all seasons for Curry Mela hosted by Srivalli. Hope this qualifies!

Other peas/beans curries from my kitchen:

Chole
Avarekaalu Usli

Aloo Poha ~ Atukulu Upma

Atukulu Upma ~ Savoury Rice Flakes

Its been a long time again.... I posting on my blog, my laptop has given up on me :( and was left with no choice than to depend on my friend's laptop for surfing and stuff . So I was not able to blog anything so far. One more thing I wanted to share is I am going to India for a vacation in March. Pretty much excited about the whole trip, I am going to my Desh (country) after a span of 3.3yrs and my feet are really not on ground right now. My laptop is here and wanted to blog few of my favorite recipes before I become busy with my trip preps, shopping, packing..

Aloo Poha is one of my favorite breakfast/snack and is a very easy to make recipe. I can have this anytime in substitution for my lunch or dinner, it makes me so full, obviously because its made of rice. I think this is great breakfast for bachelors who have limited resources and minimum experience in cooking. During my hostel days we had this on the menu daily and honestly, I got bored eating that daily there :) but again its my favo.... Am I contradicting? do you think so? But anyways here is my mother's recipe which she learned from one of her Maharashtrian friend.

Source: My Mother

Cuisine: Indian~Maharashtrian

Prep time: 10 mins

Cooking time: 15 mins

Serves: 4 people

Ingredients:
2.5 C thick Poha/flattened rice flakes
(from Indian groceries)

1 medium red onion, thinly sliced
1 large potato, thinly diced or boiled ones
3-4 green chillies, cut into small pieces
Handful of frozen green peas (optional)
Handful of peanuts
small bunch of cilantro, chopped finely
4-5 curry leaves
Juice of 1 small lemon/lime
grated coconut of garnishing (optional)
pinch of haldi/turmeric powder
1t jeera/cumin
1t mustard seeds
1t urad dal/black gram
1t chana dal/bengal gram
2T cooking oil
salt as per taste

Method:

1. Wash the rice flakes/atukulu thoroughly only once in cold water, drain immediately to avoid sogginess and keep aside for few mins. You will notice that the flakes becomes plumpy as they absorb any excess water. Chop onions, green chillies, potato.
2. Heat oil in a wide pan and add the mustard, let it splutter for a min and then add urad dal/black gram and cumin/jeera, chana dal/bengal gram and curry leaves. Let it fry for a min and add the raw peanuts. Fry till it they are brown in color.
3. Meanwhile mix some salt in the soaked poha and mix well with your hands. Dont use spoon/spatula it may break the flakes.
   
4. Add onions, diced potato, green peas and green chillies to the pan . Let it cook for few mins or till the potatoes are done if you are taking the fresh one instead of boiled one. Add turmeric and mix well and then add the salted poha to it.
   
5. Mix well and let it sit on the flame for 3 more mins. Add the lime/lemon juice and chopped cilantro and mix well so that the juice is evenly distributed.
   
6. Before serving garnish with freshly grated coconut.

Thanks to Asha for reminding about two events related to potato going on in food blogosphere. I am sending this entry to Sia host of Ode to Potato and to Dhivya host of The Potato Fe(a)st.