.....From My Palate

Karnataka

Paan Rasam- Betel Leaves Soup To Comfort On Frigid Day

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I like the whole scenery when its snowing outside. Everything wrapped up in white color, looks so calm and peaceful. I really enjoy looking at small cotton balls coming down while sitting cozily on a warm spot near a window with my favorite hot drink “ginger tea”. I prefer to use the biggest cup available to enjoy this incredible moment. Sometimes I do miss a little help like calling a name, (I rather request than order) and the thing is in your hand without moving a bit. Well, I don’t mind requesting some crunchy pakodas with my tea, to make the moment indelible while looking outside the serene view of everything turning white. Wow, I don’t want to come out of my dream moment but all of a sudden the pure, white heaven is covered with footprints.

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Yes!, small cute creatures wrapped up in thick jackets, gloves, hat and carrying their own snow sled invading my invisible territory and crushing my beautiful scenery. In a moment the whole place is in a mess but the noises of laughing, talking, chirping, screaming makes the place so lively and playful.
Well, the place was no more serene and calm but the laughter, fun and happiness makes it still worthy to enjoy with my tea. All of the sudden I realized, one of the small cute creature belongs to our home. He is playing with the snow like there’s no tomorrow.

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The recipe I am sharing today is kind of a home remedy to prevent common cold in the season. Served with rice and ghee, rasam is a comfort food in winter. I like the special ingredient “betel leaves” in the recipe. Its good for digestion too. I tweaked here and there, so this might not be the authentic recipe.

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Paan Rasam
Recipe Type: Soup/ Home Remedy
Cuisine: South Indian
Author: Bhawana
Ingredients
  • 2 Betel Leaves, (Paan )
  • 1 Tomato
  • 1/2 cup Tamarind Water, (adjust the quantity of tamarind according to the taste)
  • 1/2 cup Dal Water, (dal cooked and mashed in a thin consistency )
  • 1 tsp. Peppercorns
  • 2-3 cloves of Garlic
  • 1 tsp. Cumin Seeds
  • Bunch of Curry Leaves
  • 1/2 tsp. Mustard Seeds
  • 2 small pinch Asafetida Powder, ( Hing )
  • 1/2 tsp. Desi Ghee ( I prefer more on top too )
  • 2-3 dried Red Chilies
  • 1/2 tsp. Turmeric Powder
  • Salt to taste
  • Shredded coconut or coriander optional for garnishing
Instructions
  1. Grate the tomato and take out the pulp and juice out of it. You can simply grind the tomato too.
  2. Coarsely crush cumin seeds, peppercorn and garlic in mortar and pestle.
  3. Heat ghee in a pan and add some mustard seeds.
  4. When they start popping, add curry leaves and dried red chili.
  5. Now add crushed garlic mixture, tomato pulp, tamarind water and dal water.
  6. Also add turmeric powder and salt. Mix it well and cook on medium flame.
  7. Taste it and add salt or tamarind more as per your taste.
  8. Add 1 and 1/2 cups of water and cook for around 5 minutes.
  9. At the end add hing and finely chopped betel leaves.
  10. Cook 2 more minutes.
  11. Garnish and enjoy!

 

Tadka Rice Noodles with Coconut Gravy

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Who doesn’t like noodles?
Noodles are comforting food that breaks the monotony of everyday food. There are so many varieties and different recipes to make noodles. With lots of vegetables or with meat, and the best part is, you don’t need to spend hours in the kitchen to impress your friends or family. This noodles recipe is little different and full of Indian flavors. Instead of adding vegetable with noodles I served vegetable coconut curry with it. The inspiration of this recipe is Kerala or Tamilnadu’s famous breakfast recipe Idiyappam / Sevai. They serve fresh idiyappam with spicy curry that looks really tempting and different. We mostly eat curry with rice or chapatis, so this recipe gives a interesting twist to the regular food.

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Vegetable Coconut Gravy
Author: Bhawana
Ingredients
  • 2 cups Mixed Vegetables
  • 2 tbsp. Oil
  • 1 Onion, finely chopped
  • 1 tbsp. Ginger-Garlic Paste
  • 1 1/2 tsp. Dhaniya Powder (Coriander Powder)
  • 1 tsp. Cumin Seeds
  • 3/4 tsp. Haldi Powder (Turmeric Powder)
  • 1/2 tsp. Red Chilli Powder
  • 1 tbsp Tomato Paste
  • 1 1/2 cups Vegetable Broth
  • 1 1/2 cups Coconut Milk
  • 1/4 tsp. Black Pepper Powder
  • 2 tbsp fresh lime Juice
  • 2 tbsp chopped fresh Coriander Leaves
  • Salt to taste
Instructions
  1. Heat the oil in a pan and add cumin seeds.
  2. When they start to splutter add ginger-garlic paste and onion.
  3. Cook onion on medium flame until little brown in color.
  4. Add all the dry spices and tomato paste. Mix it well and cook for few minutes.
  5. Add mixed vegetables and cook them on high heat. Add vegetable broth if needed.
  6. Now add coconut milk, salt, and 1/4 tsp. pepper and bring to a boil.
  7. Add vegetable broth, mix it well.
  8. Reduce the heat to medium low and simmer for almost 10 minutes until the vegetables are tender and the gravy is to the consistency of your taste.
  9. Add lemon juice and garnished with chopped coriander leaves.

 

Tadka Rice Noodles
Author: Bhawana
Ingredients
  • 1 packet of Rice noodles
  • 3 tsp Oil
  • 1 tsp Rai (Mustard Seeds)
  • 2 nos dry Red Chillies, break in to half
  • 5-6 Green chillies
  • 8-9 curry leaves
  • 1 tsp. Channa Dal
  • 1 tsp. Urad Dal
  • 1/2 tsp. Turmeric Powder
  • 1/4 cup broken Cashewnut
  • 2 tsp. Lemon Juice
  • Coriander Leaves finely chopped for garnishing
Instructions
  1. Cook noodles according to cooking directions.
  2. Drain and mix some oil in the noodles
  3. Heat oil in a broad pan. Add mustard seeds, urad dal and chaana dal.
  4. When seeds crackles, add dry chillies, green chillies, and curry leaves.
  5. Fry for 30 seconds and add turmeric powder and cashews.
  6. Cook until cashews are light brown in color.
  7. Next add the cooked noodles and salt.
  8. Mix it well and cook for another 2 minutes
  9. Finally, add the chopped coriander leaves and lemon juice.
  10. Serve hot with the curry.

Puran Poli

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Maharashtrian cuisine!! What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you read it? May be, spicy Vada Paav, steaming hot Paav Bhaji, Misal Paav, Ragda Patties or chatpati Bhel Puri. But the real food of this filmy state is much more than these easily available street food. Today we are talking about the most popular Puran Poli. Puran Poli is a sweet, soft and flaky flat bread that melts in the mouth with burst of sweet nutty flavors and makes every occasion sweet and auspicious with its presence.

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Puran Poli
Author: Bhawana
Ingredients
  • For Puran-
  • 1 cup Chana Dal
  • 1 cup Jaggery (Gudh)
  • Pinch of Nutmeg powder
  • 1/4 tsp Cardamom powder
  • Few strands of Saffron
  • 1 cup Water
  • For Dough-
  • 1 cup Whole wheat flour
  • 1 cup All Purpose Flour (Maida)
  • 1 tbsp Oil
  • Salt to taste
  • (I used only whole wheat flour but adding all purpose flour makes it softer and tastier)
Instructions
Puran
  1. Wash and soak chana dal for overnite.
  2. Boil chana dal with one cup of water and saffron for 3-4 whistles.
  3. Drain and coarsely grind it.
  4. Mix chana dal, jaggery, nutmeg and cardamom powder.
  5. Cook the mixture in a nonstick pan until it thickens (spatula can stand upright in the mixture just to check it.)
  6. Keep it aside and make small balls of the mixture.
Puran Poli Dough
  1. Take maida, whole wheat flour, salt and oil. Mix it well.
  2. Add water as needed and knead it in to a soft sticky dough.
  3. Cover and leave it to rest for an hour.
Puran Poli
  1. Make a soft dough with tsp of oil.
  2. Take small ball from dough and roll like a puri.
  3. Stuff puran in to rolled puri and seal the edges nicely.
  4. Roll it evenly like stuffed paratha.
  5. Heat non stick tawa and cook puranpoli from both the sides with little ghee or oil till it gets nice golden color.
  6. Serve hot with a dollop of ghee over it.

Bisi Bela Bhath

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This is my entry to RCI: Karnataka Cuisine hosted by Asha of Foodies Hope. Thank You Asha for hosting this beautiful event…

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Bisi Bela Bhath
Author: Bhawana
Ingredients
  • 1 cup long-grained Rice
  • ¾ cup Toor Daal
  • 2 cups Mixed Vegetables (Carrots, Beans, Potatoes, Peas)
  • 1 cup Tamarind Juice (soak golf ball sized lump of tamarind in 1 cup water for 15 minutes. Squeeze out juice.)
  • 3 tbsp Bisi Bela Bhath Masala
  • 2 Tomatoes, chopped
  • ¼ cup Peanuts, roasted
  • 1/2 cup Coconut, shredded
  • 1 tsp Garlic Paste
  • 1 tsp Ginger Paste
  • 10 Cashew Nuts
  • 3 tbsp Ghee
  • 2 tbsp oil
  • 6 Curry Leaves
  • 1 tsp Mustard Seeds
  • 2 Onions, thin sliced
  • Salt to taste
  • Coriander Leaves to garnish
Instructions
  1. Wash toor dal & rice.
  2. Add mixed vegetables and 2 cups of water to it.
  3. Half cook it in a pressure cooker. Keep aside.
  4. Heat oil in a pan and add the mustard seeds and curry leaves. When they stop spluttering add ginger-garlic & onions and fry till soft.
  5. Add tomatoes, when they turn soft add bisi bela bhath masala. When it start leaving oil at corners add peanuts, coconut & cooked rice-dal and vegetables.
  6. Add the tamarind juice and 1 cup of water to this and bring to a boil.
  7. Add salt to taste and cook till all ingredients are done.
  8. Heat a little ghee and fry cashew nuts until golden brown in color.
  9. Add it to the rice just before ready to serve.
  10. Garnish with coriander leave.
  11. Serve hot with boondi raita.