Avocado with Indian seasoning

Avocado's also known as butter pear, alligator pear and sometimes as butter fruit. Avocados are most widely used in Mexican cuisine's and Guacamole is one of the famous dip/dish made with this fruit.

We are very fond of spicy Mexican dips, I regularly make authentic Mexican Guacamole to go with some corn chips. Sometimes I do the Indian version of Guacamole in place of chutneys by doing the tempering with mustard seeds, hing and urad dal . Just adding the seasoning/tempering to the avocados, gives a very different taste to it. This will be good as side-dish with Indian kind rotis.

So here is how I make it.

Ingredients :

• Avocado(s) - 1 or 2
• Lime/lemons - about half (this helps to prevent oxidation or changing into brown color)
• Red onions/ Shallot - 2 tbsp finely chopped
• Green chillies - 1or 2 finely chopped (depending on level of spiciness)

For Tempering:

• Oil - 2tsp
• Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
• Urad dal - 1/2 tsp
• Hing - one pinch

1. Cut avocados in half, remove the pit/seed and skin. Mash them coarsely.
2. Squeeze fresh lime/lemon to the avocados.
3. Add finely chopped onion and chili,add salt to taste. Mix well to combine.
4. Lastly do the tempering with oil, when oil is hot add mustard seeds and urad dal.
5. When dal changes color and mustard seeds start to pop add hing and add this seasoning to the Avocado mixture, mix well.

Quick and healthy side dish/dip/chutney is ready to be served. We usually eat this with Chapatis. Enjoy !

I am sending this to Siri's new event Healing Foods - Avocado.

Yam (Genasu) Chutney

Yams(Genasu in Kannada) are also known as Sweet potatoes. Sometimes they are bright orange color, which are very sweet to taste. I like to use the creamy white variety, since they are mildly sweet.

Whenever I get them from store, I usually make chutney with it. I hardly get any coconuts in my local store here. So yams are a very good alternative and tastes as good as regular coconut chutneys. Along with yams I have added walnuts, to give chutney a good texture and some nutrition. I have also made this chutney using pistachio, cashews and peanuts(groundnuts), any kind of nuts combines very well with yams.

So here a very simple, quick, tasty and healthy chutney.

Ingredients

• Yams/Sweet potatoes (Genasu) - 1 big/ about 2 cups after grating.
• Chilies (Red dried ) - 3-4
• Tamarind extract (tamarind paste) - about 2 tbsp
• Walnuts - 1/4 cup lightly toasted ( groundnuts, pistachio, cashews, Dalia Dal, coconuts can be used instead)
• Salt to taste.

1. Wash, peel the skin and grate yams.
2. Lightly toast the nuts.
3. Extract juice from tamarind.
4. Once the nuts are cool enough, take chilies, grated yams, tamarind water, toasted nuts in a blender.
5. Blend them using little water at a time, untill it comes to a course paste.Taste and adjust salt.
6. Lastly, do the seasoning with oil, mustard seeds and little hing. Mix well and serve.

Tastes good with rice, dose, idly, chapathis or just as a spread on bread toast. Enjoy !

Chutney Chawal / Rice with chutney.

Chutney Anna (chutney with cooked rice) as we call it. This is one of our favorite meals to eat. Since Chutneys are very staple at our home we enjoy them with idlies, dosas, rottis and rice. Whenever we have some left over chutney, I make some warm Rice, we just mix them with chutney and little ghee(tuppa) on top.

Today being bored to make sambar or any sides for our lunch, I made chutney with cilantro leaves(kothambari soppu)and with some nuts to go along with rice. Simple and satisfying lunch.


Ingredients for chutney :

Cilantro leaves - 1 bunch or 2 big handful (cleaned and washed)
Dalia Dal/ hurigadale - 2 tbsp (peanut/groundnuts can be used)
Cashew nuts- 1/2 cup(any nuts can be used)
Onion- 1 small
Ginger - 1 piece (about 1")
Coconut - 1 tbsp
Tamarind extract - 2 tsp (or tamarind paste)
Salt - to taste

For garnish : 2tbsp of roasted cashews.

• Take all the ingredients mentioned above in a blender/mixer, and grind them to smooth paste using little water. Adjust salt to taste. Keep aside.
• Take one cup of cooked rice ( I use basmati rice), add 2 tsp or more of chutney and mix well to combine. Add salt if required. Garnish with few nuts .

*After mixing the rice with chuntey, one can also do the seasoning with oil, mustard seeds and channadal. This meal can be made with in 10 Min's of time, I like to do this for quick lunches or when just cooking for myself.

Enjoy !

I am sending this recipe to JFI-Cilantro hosted by Cilantro. Originally started by Indira of Mahanandi.





and to 15 minutes cooking to Mahimaa's Kitchen.

Tomatilla Salsa

Tomatilla pronounced as Tom-ma-tia, belongs to berry family. They look similar to tomatoes but green in color and much more tangy/sour in taste.

I found some fresh tomatillas in store last week so brought home a few. Best way to enjoy them is by roasting in oven or stove top. I used it to make a simple Salsa (Mexican version of chutney/dip) and enjoyed with some corn chips.

Ingredients I used

• Tomatillas - 5
• Yellow onion -1 medium size
• Red Tomato - 1 small (I used it to give nice color and taste, this is completely optional)
• Serrano pepper- 1 (Jalapeño, Thai or Indian chilies can be used)
• Olive oil - 1tsp
• Salt, Sugar for taste.
• Few cilantro/coriander leaves for garnish.

1. Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit(if using stove, heat a thick bottomed pan).
2. Remove husk (thin layering on tomatillas), wash and chop them to big pieces. Chop onion, tomato and peppers/chili as well.
3. Arrange them on a foil in single layer, add little oil and salt mix them( if doing on stove top add little oil to pan and then add chopped veggies and roast them until brown) roast them about 15 - 20 mins until veggies are light brown in color. Refer pic below.
4. Let it cool a bit. Add little salt, sugar ( to balance the tangyness), chopped cilantro leaves.
5. Grind them in a mixer, adjust salt and sugar. Garnish with few more cilantro leaves.

We had it with corn chips. Can also add with beans and rice or goes as a delicious side with any other Mexican dishes. Enjoy !

click on the picture for bigger image

I am sending this to Vaishali of Holy Cow! for this months Its A Vegan World - Mexican.

Chutney with Eggplant/Brinjal

We love eggplants at our house. I make curries like gojju and ennekayi, a typical south Indian dish's to make with eggplant. Most of the times I make quick stir-fry or north Indian style Baingan Bartha with eggplants, which tastes wonderful with chapathis.
For the first time today I tried making chutney with eggplant. It tasted creamy with eggplant, nice spice with chilis and sweet taste from shallots,very delicious and it is simple and easy recipe to make.


Ingredients I used.

• Eggplant/brinjal/badanekayi - 1 big or 3-4 small
• Shallot or red onion - small one
• Green chili's - 1or 2 according to desired spice level.

For Tempering/seasoning

• Oil - 1 tbsp for cooking eggplant + 1 tsp for seasoning
• Mustard seeds - 1tsp
• Hing/asafeotida - one pinch

Method :

1. Wash and chop eggplants to bit size pieces. Cut shallots/onions as well.
2. Heat a tablespoon of oil in a pan, when hot add chopped eggplant and onion and fry till little soft and not mushy. Takes about 10 - 12 mins. Keep stirring in between to make sure the veggies doesn't stick to the pan. Once done keep aside and let it cool.
3. Once cool enough, take them all in a blender/mixie, add salt and cut chilis and grind it to a course paste.I have not used any water while grinding. Moisture from eggplant is enough to grind them and gives excellent texture to chutney.
4. Now take this mixture in a bowl and season with hot oil, mustard seeds and hing. Pour the seasoning over chutney and mix well(add little red chili powder while seasoning, to make the chutney more spicier).

We enjoyed with chapathis. Eggplant Chutney will tastes great with hot rice or as a creamy spread on hot toast.
* Instead of roasting the eggplant in a pan, roasting can done in oven and make sure not to make it too mushy . Using shallots instead of onions to gives chutneys more flavor.
I'll be sending this to Chutney/Dip Mania hosted by Ramya of MANE ADIGE.

Here are some other chutney recipes previously posted on my blog.

Classic Coconut Chutney

Sweet Potato Chutney

Zucchini Chutney

Channadal/Kadalebele Chutney

Sweet Potato-Tomato Chutney

Before seeing this recipe of Suma I had no idea one can make chutneys with sweet potatoes,I have made this chutney several times now.
But the recipe I am posting today is bit different, I have changed it a little bit to make it more tangy to go with Idlies.



Sweet potato - 1 medium size (skin peeled and grated, about 1 cup)

Tempering : Oil- 1tsp, Cumin seeds, mustard seeds,channadal - 1tsp each, asafeotida/hing - 1 pinch.
Onion and tomato medium size each- chopped, red chilies - 2 to 3, tamarind soaked in water.

1. Grate sweet potatoes and keep aside.
2. Heat oil in a pan, when hot add mustard seeds, cumin seeds and channdal once dal starts to change colour add onion and tomatoes. Cook for few minutes untill tomatoes are soft. Let it cool.
3. Once the mixture is cooled, add them along with grated Sweet potatoes, add tamarind water or use tamarind paste, add salt to taste. Blend/grind together to smooth paste with water, to desired consistency.

Enjoy with rice, dosas or idlies.

We had Chutney with idlies, our weekend Brunch.

Hummus with Pimmentos

Pimentos are also called cherry peppers which are small, round in shape, like red bell peppers(roasted) they also can be found in canned jars. Read more about pimentos here.

I was thinking of making something quick and light for our evening snack, so I used a can of chickpeas and small jar of pimentos to make hummus. I can say this recipe is a 5 minute wonder !




Ingredients

• Chickpeas - 1 cup (I used store brought, so rinse with water and drain well)
• Pimentos - about 2 tbsp (I used store brought, Roasted red bellpeppers be used instead)
• Roasted sesame seeds - 1tbsp ( use tahini paste instead)
• Green chilli's- 1 for spiciness
• Cilantro leaves- 1 hand full
• Olive oil - 1tsp
• Salt to taste.

In a blender, put all the above ingredients and grind together to smooth paste. If required add more Olive oil or water, while grinding. Thats it, enjoy with chips or crackers.

* Leftovers can be used as a base for making noodles or spread on pizza.

Zucchini Chutney

Zucchini is a very new vegetable to me, started using this vegetable very recently. I don't know very many dishes to cook with it, I always make sambar or curry with it. But today I tried making chutney with it, same way we make Ridge gourd (heerekaayi as we call in Kannada) chutney. It turned out to be a very creamy,spicy and tasty chutney. We had this with Ragi Rotti. This was our Saturday Brunch.

• Zucchini -1 medium (cut into big chunks)
• Onion - 1 very small chopped
• Channadal - 1tbsp (peanuts or sesame seeds can also be used)
• Coconut grated - 1tbsp (optional)
• Cilantro leaves- few springs
• Red chillies - 3or4 ( Green chillies can also be used)
• Tamarind(dried one soaked in water)- about 1tsp (use tamarind paste)
• Oil - 1tsp

1. Heat oil, when hot add Channadal and fry for few minutes until its golden. Remove from heat and keep aside.
2. Chop zucchini and onions and fry them in little oil for 5-7 minutes, until just tender.
3. Once its cool enough, in a blender first grind Channadal and then add veggies, tamarind water, coconut , chillies and salt.
4. Grind them to smooth paste. I skipped the tempering part, since I had sautéed them in oil previously.

Tastes good with doses, idlies, rottis or use this as a dip with some chips. Enjoy !

Avocado-Coriander Chutney

Avocado chutney/dip is a small twist on classic Indian cilantro-chili chutney. This is a very simple, quick and tasty chutney.



Ingredients:

• Avocado - 1 ripe
• Cilantro/coriander leaves - 1 bunch
• Green Chillies- 2-3
• Lime or lemon juice - 1tsp
• Salt to taste

1. Cut and mash avocados, squeeze lime juice all over it and mix well
2. In a blender/ mixer grind cilantro, chillies along with little salt and water to smooth paste.
3. Mix that with mashed avocados. Thin little bit using water to use as a dipping sauce.

I use this as a spread on cutlets, burger patties, sandwiches. Will be nice as a side dish for parathas too.
Enjoy !

Coconut-Coriander Chutney

Today being sunday I made Idlies, and to go with it coocnut-coriander chutney. Here is my recipe for simple and classic chutney that goes good with almost any dish.

• Coconut - 2 tbsp grated
• Coriander/cliantro leaves - one handful chopped
• Green chillies - 1-2
• Red onion and garlic - few peices
• Roasted gram dal (hurigadale)- 2 tbsp
• Tamarind water/paste- 1tsp
• Salt to taste.

1. Wash and clean cilantro leaves, chop onion, chillies.
2. In blender/mixie grind all the ingredints adding little water to make to smooth paste.
3. One done , transfer to a bowl and temper with oil, mustard seeds and urad dal.

Enjoy !

Rave Idly-Kadalebele Chutney

For RCI-Karnataka hosted by Asha of Foodie's hope, I'll be making some of my favorite breakfast or as we call it morning tiffin. So this week its all tiffin items.


Rave(soji,semolina) idly or mosaru(curd,yogurt) idly its called, is one of my favorite rava dishes. To this day at my mother's house its rava item on Monday mornings, its either upiitu (upma) 80% of the time or rave-mosaru idly. During school day every Monday morning I was hoping it would be rave idly instead of upiitu.

So here is the recipe for very simple and satisfying Rave or mosaru idly.

• Curds - 2 cups (I make at home, with low fat milk)
• Rava(Upma rava) - 2 cups
• Oil- 1tbsp, channa dal-1tsp, curry leaves, cumin-mustard-1tsp, Carrot- 1/2cup Grated. Can also add corriander leaves and green chillies.

* This measurement make about 16 idlies.

Method :

1. Heat oil in a vessel, when hot add mustard, cumin and channadal and curry leaves, then add rava and fry till light brown or untill raw smell of rave is gone(Can make this part night before and in morning just add curds and make idlies).
2. When the rave mixture is cool enough add 1 cup of curd and mix and keep aside for 10 mins or so. Rave will absorb all the moisture from rave and becomes like a thick dough
3. When ready to make idlies add the remaining curds and make like thick batter and pour over greased idly moulds.(If its too thick add little water or more curds)
4. Steam them for about 20 mins.
5. Let it cool for a while before taking from the Idly moulds (allowing it to cool makes eldy come off easily without sticking to the moulds).
6. We had it with kadalebele(channa dal) chutney.

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Kadalebele chutney.



Channadal 3/4 th cup, red onion- 1 small, garlic-1pod, tamrind water/paste- 2tbsp, red chillies -2 and salt.

1. Fry all the above ingredints one by one with little oil and when cool grind it using tamarind water or plain water.
2. Do the tempering with oil, mustard seeds.

Enjoy with idlies.

Channa dal-Coconut chutney

In this post I would like to write a little about the place we live. We live in a small town called Barrow in Alaska, which is north of Arctic circle. This is the northmost town in America. The town is very small with population of about 5-6 thousand people. During summer there will be 24hrs sunlight for about 4 months. Summer is almost over here and we already had a few snow showers. During winter there will be complete darkness(no sunrise) for about 2 months, which is the hardest time for me.

We are the only Indian family here (myself, my husband and our 17 months daughter). We have just one general grocery store. Being vegetarians, we mostly depend on fresh produce. The availability and selection of fresh produce is very limited. Most of our Indian grocery we order through Internet and shipping costs are usually more than the grocery itself. We stock up about 6 months supply. Shall write more about the place later in some post......

So few days back when I saw fresh coconut at the store, I couldn't wait to get home and make coconut chutney. So I made Idly and coconut chutney over the weekend. It felt like some celebration using fresh coconut after so long.

I am very excited to post this recipe of channa dal and coconut chutney. Yesterday I made Red rice flour rotti to go with channa dal and coconut chutney.

So here is the recipe



Channa dal - 4 tsp

Coconut fresh - 1/2 cup

Cilantro - few strands

Fresh Ginger - About 1 inch

Green chillies - 2

Tamarind paste - 1/4 tsp

Salt as per taste.

Dry roast channa dal until it turns golden brown. When its cooled add all the above ingredints along with channa dal add enough water to make smooth paste. Now its ready to be served.



We had it with Red rice flour rotti. For rice flour rotti click here.

Olive chutney

I brought a can of olives and sun-dried tomatoes long ago to use them as a topping, that is when I make pizza at home. But that day never came, so I wanted to try something new using olives. The first thing came to my mind was 'how about chutney? ' so I decided to give it a try. I used Olives, sun-dried tomato and chili(can't make any chutney without chili). Never tasted this combination before so I was curious as well as anxious to know how it will turn out. To my surprise it was a fabulous combination of little sweet,tangy and spicy.

It goes well as a spread on toast or can use as a base for sanwich with little cheese on top or can also use this as a spread on pizza dough(which i'll be trying very soon).

So here is how I made it.

Ingredients (recipe similar to Tapanade)

Olives I used one hand full (Pitted olives)
Sun-dried Tomatoes 3 (which was in oilve oil)
Green Chilli 1 small
Salt According to taste.

Method.

Put everthing in a blender and grind into course paste.

Moisture from canned olives and sun-dried tomatoes in oilve oil, helps to grind into paste. Adjust salt according to taste.


I used this chutney as a spread on a bread toast. It tasted very well. Enjoy!