Nuts Pulao

Today I am gonna share another easy and healthy lunchbox recipe. This recipe gives hand when I am running out of veggies. Nuts are essential for the growing children and everyone in the family. Taking them regularly will satisfy our daily protein requirement. As it is mild spicy, kids will like it for sure.

Ingredients:

Basmati Rice - 2 cups (soak for 30 mins)
Nuts - 3/4cup - 1 cup(Cashews, Badam, Pista, Dry Grapes)
Saffron strands - 3-4(soak them in a tbsp of warm water)
Onion - 1/2 of a small onion. (sliced lengthwise)
Green Chilies - 2-3
ginger garlic paste - 2 tsp
salt - as per taste
Oil - 2 tsp
Butter - 1/2tbsp
Mint & coriander leaves - a few

Dry garam masala:
cinnamon stick - 1/2 inch
cloves - 2
Elachi -2
Bay leaf - 1
fennel seeds - 1/2 tsp
cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp
Anistar - 1

Preparation:

1. Soak Rice for 30 mins, drain and keep ready.
2. In Rice cooker heat 2 tsps of oil and add the dry garam masala listed above.
3.Add Nuts to it and give a saute. (Just fry them until the cashews turn golden brown)
4. Now add chopped onions, green chilies and saute well.
5. When the onions are translucent add ginger garlic paste and saute well.
6. Once the raw smell of ginger garlic paste leaves, Add chopped mint leaves and give a gentle mix.
7. Add rice, soaked saffron strands(with water) and stir gently without breaking rice grains.
8.Measure the required water to cook the rice.(for the rice variety I cooked, used 1:1 ratio)
9.When the rice cooked 80%, cut and spread the butter pieces on top of it and close the lid.
10. Once the rice cooked let it rest for 10 mins and then mix it with a fork.
11.Spread some chopped coriander leaves and serve with Raitha, and curry of your choice or just with chips.

Note:
1.I cooked using electric rice cooker. If you use pressure cooker, you may bring the water to boil and add the butter cubes before closing the lid. leave it for one whistle.
2. I used the nuts as it is. If you like you can chop them into pieces and add.
3.If you like, instead of soaking, you can just crush the saffron strands and add while sauteing nuts.
4.You can reduce the nut quantity to 1/2 a cup if you feel the quantity I used is too much for you.
5.do not miss / add too much of dry grapes. they give a mild sweet and tangy taste.

Carrot Rice with Tangy Twist

Hello folks,
Its been really a long time since I have write a post. Happy to connect with you again. Today I am gonna share the lunch box recipe which I prepared few days back. On Friday I was not having enough time to prepare the box, as well as dint have any veggies in fridge except few carrots and a piece of mango. So I thought I would make carrot rice and I can manage to send it for lunch along with chips. Unfortunately I woke up a bit late and no time for roasting the ingredients and cooling it off and grinding. So thought of making it in simpler way. So just kept  rice in cooker, by the time it got ready, I have grated carrots and mango ready(and of course the breakfast was getting ready simultaneously). This is the first time I combine carrots and mango together, But the results were  amazing and got positive feedback from my family;)))

Lets see how to prepare a simple carrot rice with tangy twist.:)

Ingredients:

Carrot - 1 cup(grated and tightly packed)
Cooked Rice -3 cups
Mango - 1/4 cup (grated and tightly packed)
Sambar powder - 1tsp
garam masala powder - a pinch
Green chilies - 4-5
Mustard seeds - 1/4 tsp
urad dal - 1/4 tsp
Channa dal - 1 tbsp
cashew/peanuts - 1 tbsp (optional)
Oil- as needed
salt - as per taste
curry leaves- 1 sprig
coriander leaves - a few


Preparation:

1. Cook rice and keep aside.
2. Grate carrots and mango and keep aside.
3. Heat about a tbsp of oil and add Channa dal, mustard seeds, urad dal, Cashew nuts,green chilies and curry leaves one by one.
4.Then add the grated carrot and mango and saute for a while, until the raw smell leaves.
5.Now add salt, sambar powder, garam masala powder, and a little oil and saute until the smell of masala leaves.
6.Now add the cooked rice and mix gently and let it cook for 2 mins.

Now the Rice is ready to be served.

Notes:
1. Increase the mango quantity if you wish.
2. Adding ghee at last will give a nice flavour.
3. Use a heavy bottomed vessel to avoid burning.
4.Make sure the raw smell of veggies as well as masala leaves before you add rice.
5. Can be prepared with Sona masoori, Basmati or Ponni rice.
6. Adjust Green chilies and sambar powder according to your taste.

Chocolate Cake- A guest post from Beulah :)

Hello Friends,

I am so excited to post this chocolate cake guest post from one of my blogger friend Beulah. She shares wonderful recipes at her space FullScoops. I am always inspired by her baking recipes. She used to bake so yummy cakes and decorate it in a way you get tempted for sure. You can find all sorts of recipes from starters to Desserts and juices. 

I am so glad that she agreed to write guest post for me, I know how difficult it is to blog having young children at home... She is super busy with her toddlers and doing amazing job at her blog too. Kudos Beulah and thanks again for writing the post for me :)

I always love chocolate cakes, and these pics are really tempting me... Hope you will also like it.. :) Now Lets check the recipe. 

-Tanya

A big hello to all the readers of Easy and Simple Foods, my name is Beulah Arun and I blog at FullScoops. A short introduction about me, I am dentist by profession but now I am a busy homemaker with two beautiful kids. I started writing my blog for fun and now it's become a part of me and I'm quite passionate about it!

Today I am writing a guest post for one of my blogger friend's Tanya of easy and simple foods. Tanya is one of the sweetest people I have come across in the blogging world and very helpful and sincere. Her blog is filled with some awesome, delicious home cooked food and it's always a pleasure going through her blog. It is really a blog true to it's name, all recipes so easy and simple to cook for our daily life.

She wrote a guest post for me sometime ago, she wrote chocolate chip cookies which are absolutely delicious, it's time for me to write a guest post for her and I have chosen a chocolate cake for her. This is an easy to make delicious chocolate cake recipe, what I love about this recipe is that it makes a small cake and it's just enough for our family!

CHOCOLATE CAKE

Preparation time 10 mins | Baking time 25 mins | Makes one 6"cake

Ingredients

• All purpose flour - 1 cup
• Sugar - 1 cup (powdered)
• Egg - 1
• Cocoa powder - 6 tbsp
• Baking powder - 1 tsp
• Baking soda - 3/4 tsp
• Oil - 4 tbsp
• Milk - 1/2 cup
• Boiling water - 1/2 cup
• Instant coffee - 1/2 tsp
• Salt - 1/2 tsp
• Vanilla extract - 1 tsp

Method

1. Pre heat the oven to 180 degrees C. Grease and line a 6 inch cake pan.

2. Add all the dry ingredients in a bowl and combine together.

3. Add the wet ingredients in another bowl except the hot water and whisk well.

4. Now add the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients gradually and mix well by adding the hot water. 

5. Pour into the prepared pan and bake for 25-30 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.

6. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes and then remove from pan and cool completely.

Frost the cake as you wish. You can use ganache or whipped cream to frost the cake. I used whipped cream.

Notes

1. Make sure you don't over mix while adding the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Add in batches and fold gently.

Thanks for having me over, enjoy the cake!

Potato Rice

Hello Folks, Today I am going to share a Rice variety which is so easy to prepare and would be loved by everyone in the family. It is one of the recipe from my trial and error.  First time I made this with leftover Potato fry. Now a days I boil extra potatoes for making this rice itself. My little one loves it.

I would prefer this for lazy days lunch or lunch box.  Lets see how to make it.

Ingredients:

Boiled potato - 2-3 medium
Cooked Rice - 2 cups
Oil- 2-3 tbsp
Green chilies - 2
mustard seeds - 1/4 tsp
urad dal - 1/4 tsp
fennel seeds - 1/4 tsp
bay leaves - 1
cinnamon stick -1 inch
cloves - 2-3
turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
chilli powder - 1/2 tsp (adjust as per taste)
garam masala - a pinch
curry leaves - a few

Preparation:

1. Keep boiled potatoes smashed with fork ready. leave some chunky pieces also.
2. In a pan heat 1 tbsp of oil and add, mustard seeds, urad dal, fennel seeds, bay leaves, cloves, green chilies and curry leaves one by one.
3. Then add partially smashed potatoes  and saute for a while, and add turmeric powder, garam masala, and saute for a minute or two.
4. Add rice , another tbsp of oil , required salt and saute well until the rice and potato mixes well.

Serve with chips, raitha or a simple veg curry.

Notes:

1. Tastes best with sona masoori, ponni rice, basmathi rice etc.
2.  Can add ghee at last for best aroma.
3. I have not added coriander leaves as i was not having on that day.
4. can add cashews while tempering.

Sending this recipe to Remya's first blog anniversary event

Kadalai mavu Sambar / Besan Sambar

Hello folks,

I am back to blogging after a short break. First I would like to thank my co-bloggers and friends for making my first blog anniversary event a successful one. Hope everyone had a great start of 2015 wish you a perfect and happy year ahead.

Today I am going to share an easy yet perfect combo for idlies and Dosa... If you are in a hurry and no time to cook dal or to grind masala for your tiffin sambar, you can consider this Kadalai mavu sambar. As the name states, we are going to use gram flour as substitute of dal. And the ingredients are little different than usual sambar. Lets see how to prepare this.

Ingredients:

Onion - 1 medium (cut lenghtwise)
Tomato - 2 big (chopped)
Veggies - 2 cups (approx) (Prefer veggies like, eggplant, drumstick,carrot, beans, potato, flat beans, butterbeans, soya beans etc)
Green chilies - 4-5
turmeric - 1/2 tsp
tamarind - a peanut sized (soak in 1/2 cup of warm water)
coriander leaves  a few
Kadalai mavu / Besan flour - 2-3 tbsp
salt- as needed
fennel seeds - 1 tsp
bay leaf - 1
Oil - 2 tsp

to temper:
Oil - 2 tsp
mustard seeds - 1/4 tsp
urad dal - 1 tsp
curry leaves  - a few
red chili - 1 (if the green chilies were not hot enough)

Preparation:

1.In a kadai / pan heat 2 tsp of oil and add fennel seeds, bay leaf , cut onions,green chilies one by one and saute for a while.
2.Then add Veggies and saute for a minute, Then add chopped tomato and saute.
3. Now add turmeric powder and saute until the raw smell leaves.
4. add the tamarind extract water, along with 3-4 cups of water
5.Add salt and cover with lid, and let the veggies cook soft.
6. mix besan flour with required water and keep aside. (should not be too thick)
7. When the veggies are cooked, add the basen mix and stir with ladle simultaneously.
8. Let it boil for few mins, this helps the besan flour to get cooked, and make the sambar to the right consistency. (based on the consistency adjust, by adding little more water or by letting it cook for few more mins)
9.Temper sambar with listed items, and add chopped coriander and serve.

Note;
1. Choose tangy tomatoes for best taste.
2. This tastes best with Idli and Dosai.
3. Doesnt suit for rice, mini idli , pongal or sambar vadai etc.
4. It gets thicken while refrigerating, so while reheating add a little water and heat.
5.adding tamarind is optional. you can add extra tomatoes if needed.

Serve hot with hot idlies or crispy dosa :)

Sending this recipe to Remya's first blog anniversary event

Announcing First Blog anniversary Event Winners!

Thank you friends for making my first event a successful one :) So this is time to announce the Event roundup and winners:) First lets see how did the votings / readers choice went through..

Votings :

1.  Ashiya's kitchen: Shrikhand - 15 votes
2. Jeenas Kitchen Recipes: Bread Pizza - 5 votes
3. Ashiya's kitchen: Capsicum masala - 4 votes
4. Ashiya's kitchen: Dum ka Murgh/ Dum Chicken - 3 votes
5. Remmy's Kitchen: Sambar: Tamilnadu Hotel style- 3 votes
6. Ashiya's kitchen: Lauki ka halwa - 2 votes
7. Jeenas Kitchen Recipes:Eggless Vanilla Sponge Cake -2 votes
8. Delectable Flavours: Chettinad Pepper Chicken Recipe - 2 votes
9. Jeenas Kitchen Recipes: Eggless Choco Almond Pudding - 1 vote
10. Spicy Chicken Shawarma | Haffa's kitchen adventure - 1 vote

The maximum votes we got is 15 for Shirkhand by Ashiya's Kitchen.

We had a lovely collections of recipes and thanks to the folks who shared their wonderful recipes with us. I have sorted it out based on no of recipes.

Round Up:

 Remmy's Kitchen:
1.Bhatura(chole bhature)
2.Sambar: Tamilnadu Hotel style
3. Kerala kadala curry / Black chick
4. Varutharacha meen curry/Fish
5. Oats Dosa
6.Vegetable cutlet
7.Muringayila mutta thoran
8.Netholi peera pattichathu
9.Pachamulaku Thenga chammanthi
10.Muringayila parippu thoran
11.Egg and vegetable curry
12.Chicken fried rice Fast food style
13.Chicken roast

 Home cook food :
1.Pizza Pockets
2.Unfried Ravioli
3.Penne Pasta in Jalapenos Cream
4.Cookies 'n' Cream Frap
5.Mirchi Ka Salan | Spicy Pepper
6.Eggless Kaju Biscuit | Cashew
7.Sai Bhaji | Greens, Vegetables
8.Turnip and Potato Tikkis
9.Gingerbread Candy Trail Mix
10.Eggless Chocolate Chips Cookie
11.Langarwali Aloo Gobhi ki Subji
12.Snickerdoodle Cookies

Pepper, Chilli and Vanilla:
1.Chocolate Cupcakes with whipped cream frosting
2.Kul Kul
3.Date Roll
4.Creme Caramel
5.Crispy Chicken Burger
6.Chicken 65

Jeenas Kitchen Recipes:
1.Kofta Balls
2.Paneer Bhurji
3. Bread Pizza
4.Eggless Vanilla Sponge Cake
5.Eggless Choco Almond Pudding

 Ashiya's kitchen:
1.Shrikhand
2.Capsicum masala
3.Dum ka Murgh/ Dum Chicken
4.Lauki ka halwa

The food factory:
1.Achari chicken
2.Hariyali chicken tikka
3.Shaami kebab
4.Chicken nuggets

Delectable Flavours:
1.Red Snapper Fish Curry Recipe
2.Ragi Semiya - Sweet and Savour
3.Chettinad Pepper Chicken Recipe

Cooking club:
1.PEANUT AND CHERRY SHORT CAKE
2.FALAFEL WRAP(RESTAURANT STYLE)
3.Chocolate Chip Yogurt Dip

Haffa's Kitchen Adventure:
1. Spicy Chicken Shawarma
2. Singaporean Rice/ Casserole
3. baking-without-oven

Recipes Passion:
1.Baked Doughnuts & Munchkins
2.Chewy Choc Coffee Fudge Brownies

Herbs, Spices and Tradition: 
1.KHASTA KACHORI
2.GULAB JAMUN

Full Scoops: 
1.Mushroom Pulao
2.Beet Root Pulao

SARA'S TASTY BUDS:
1.Banana chocolate coffee cake
2.Apple Pistachio Cake with Brown

nandoo's kitchen:
1.semiya kesari
2.Potato roast

 A Kaleidoscopic Dream :
1.How to make batter for idli
2.Homemade Lychee Ice cream

The Smoky Kitchen:
1. Aloo (potato) papad ki sabzi kerala style
2. Kheema ki  Mani or Puri filled with Minced Meat

SIMMY"$ DELI$H DI$H:
Malai Chum-Chum

Now the most exciting part. Yes the winners of the event. I believe the Votings/ readers choice category was little tricky. As this is the first time we do the event and also the votes are quiet new I have decided not to cancel this criteria. So I am announcing the recipe Shrikhand (15 votes) by Ashiya's Kitchen as winner of the Readers Choice. Congrats Ashiya :)

Now the Random number winner. The number is 5. It is Bhatura from Remmy's Kitchen. Congrats Remya :)

Request both the winners to contact me thro email (easyrecipesforbeginners@gmail.com) and let me know your choice of gift cards.
Kindly revert back or acknowledge on or before 1/21/2015 6:00pm EST, Or another winner will be selected.

Again congrats to both the winners and a very big thank you to all the participants. :))) See you all soon with another exciting event soon :)

Thank you for tour support again:)