Beans Paruppu Usili

I am huge fan of Usili. Even though it is little time consuming and has multiple steps in making them, I love them. I don't make them during the weekdays but definitely during weekends. There are multiple ways to make the Dal Crumble. I have given the different ways to make it in the notes section.

It tastes good with Sambhar, Rasam or Karakuzhambhu.

Ingredients:

• Thuvar Dal or Toor Dal + Channa Dal or Gram Dal    - ½  Cup + ½  Cup (Washed and soaked for at least 30 minutes)
• French beans – 200 Grams (Washed, Fiber removed and finely Chopped)
• Mustard Seeds – ½ teaspoon
• Red Chilles  - 8 (Adjsut to taste)
• Hing or Asafoetida – A generous Pinch
• Oil - 5-6 tablespoon
• Salt – To taste

Method

• Boil little water in a pan and once it starts boiling add the chopped Beans.
  

  

  
  
• Cover and cook till the beans are cooked and tender.
• If there is water left after cooking the Beans drain the water.
• Meanwhile, in a mixer grinder add Red chillies, hing, and the Dal and grind it into a coarse mixture.
• For grinding this coarse mixture do not use water.
• Now, heat some Oil in the Kadai, once the oil is hot add mustard seeds and allow it to splutter.
•        Then add the prepared coarse dal mixture and sauté it.
•  Sauté it till the Dal is cooked, this may take say, like 12-15 minutes.
•  Once it is cooked and gets all dried up add the cooked Beans and cook it.
•  Cook it till the Beans and Dal is combined together.
•  This may take another 10 minutes, to be done
•  Then add Salt to taste and Serve.

Apple Whole Wheat Cake 

I love Apple based Desserts, and I do have couple of them in my blog. When you find time, do try them. I have made it with whole wheat flour, you can substitute it with 1:1 of Maida or APF and Wheat flour or make it 100% Maida or APF.

Ingredients

Apple - 1 (Medium sized, Peeled cored and Chopped)
Baking Powder - 1 Teaspoon
Whole Wheat Flour - 2 Cups
Cinnamon Powder - 1/2 teaspoon
Brown Sugar or Regular Sugar - 3/4 Cup (I added 1 Cup as my Apple was not sweet enough, adjust to your taste)
Refined Oil - 1/4 Cup
Apple Juice - 1 Cup (Can use water , if not available)
Lemon Juice - 1 teaspoon
Vanilla Essence - Few Drops

Method

• Pre heat the oven at 180C and grease the baking tin.
• In a mixing bowl add the Wheat flour, Baking powder, Cinnamon Powder and mix well.
• In another bowl, mix Sugar and Oil and whisk well.
• Now add this to the mixed dry ingredients.
• Then add the Lemon Juice, A pinch of salt, chopped Apples, Vanilla essence and mix well.
• Add water or Apple Juice and mix well, till you get a nice cake batter.
• Pour this into the prepared Baking tin and bake for 45-60 minutes at 180C  
• Cool it completely before slicing it.

Lunch Menu 18: Ennai Kathirikkai Kuzhambu (Stuffed Brinjal Gravy), Beans Paruppu Usli and Rice 

It is been quite long time that I posted a Lunch Menu, This is a simple Lunch Menu.

Click on the links for the recipe:

• Ennai Kathirikkai Kuzhambu (Stuffed Brinjal Gravy)
• Beans Paruppu Usli (Recipe Coming Soon)

Beetroot Cutlet/Beet Tikki 

I have lot of tikki recipes in my blog but officially this is the best Tikki that I have ever tasted. This recipe I got from a local Cookery show that I got to see by chance. Honestly I was very skeptical about making Beet Tikkis and to my surprise it tasted Fabulous.

Click Here to check the other Tikki recipes on my blog.

Ingredients

Beet Root - 300 Grams (I de-skinned, Boiled and Grated it)
Potato - 1 (Large, De-skinned, Boiled and Grated)
Whole Wheat Bread Slices - 2  (Pulse it in the Mixer)
Ginger Garlic Paste - 1/2 Teaspoon
Onion - 1 (Medium, finely Chopped)
Chilly Powder - 1 Tablespoon
Coriander Powder - 1 Teaspoon
Garam Masala - 1/2 Teaspoon
Roasted Peanuts - 4-5 Tablespoon (Add more or less depending on your taste, you can skip it too, these add a nice crunch to the cutlet)
Salt - To Taste
Rawa/Sooji/Bread Crumbs - 4 Tablespoon (To coat the Cutlet)
Maida/Cornflour - 2-3 Tablespoon
Oil - To Tawa Fry the cutlets

Method

• In a kadai,  heat a tablespoon of Oil and add the onions and saute for 2 minutes and add the the following masala on the low flame: Chilly powder, Coriander powder, garam Masala and Ginger Garlic paste and saute for 45 seconds.
• Now place this in a mixing bowl and to this add the grated Beet and Grated Potato and Pulsed Bread Slices and Knead.
• To me the bread slices absorbed all the mositure, however depending on the vegetable and your cooking process you can add some cornflour or Maida to remove the mosituire from thsi mixture.
• Now add salt and knead this mixture.
  
• Add bread slices or Maida or Cornflour or a mixture of all these ingredients till you are able to shape the mixture into tikkis.
• After shaping them into tikkis, coat them with bread crumbs as I did not have it I used Sooji/ Rava for this.
• Arrange the tikki coated with sooji on a plate and cover it with a cling film and leave it in fridge for 1 Hour.
• The cook who demonstrated this in the TV said that it will be more flavoursome this way and I tend to agree.
• Keepingit in fridge also ensured that the Tikki got some Volume and it was easy to handle it.
• After 1 hour, heat few tablespoons of Oil in a tawa and place these Tikkis and allow them to cook, this may take 2-3 minutes.
• Once it is done on one side, flip it to the other side and cook till it is cooked.
• Serve this best Amazing Tikki ever.

 

Apple Pie - With healthy Crust

I am a big fan of apple based baking after my successful attempts at Apple Roulade and Apple Cake. So this time I decided bake the famous Apple Pie. I have already posted the healthy version of crust that can be made here. You can either do the same crust but I made some changes to it and added some Wheat, Oats and APF and made it.

When you eat this you realize why it is called as a classic dish. Serve it with some vanilla Ice Cream and it tastes yum. I had sprinkled some sugar on the top of the Pie that's why you see some brown caramel on top of the pie.

Ingredients

For the Pie Crust:
Wheat  Flour - 1 Cup
Oats Flour - 1/2 Cup (I just used quaker Oats)
APF or Maida - 1/2 Cup
Milk - 1/2 Cup
Salt - a Pinch
Baking powder - 1/2 teaspoon


For the Pie Filling:
Apple - 2 (I used the Red ones, Peeled Cored and Sliced)
Cinnamon Powder - 1/2 teaspoon (I added more than 1/2 teaspoon as in my house they like apple-Cinnamon Combo)
Sugar - 2 - 3 Tablespoon (brown Sugar works best, as I did not have it I have used Regular Sugar)
Butter - 2-3 tablespoon
Wheat Flour - 2 Tablespoon (I used it to absorb moisture as I used Juicy apples, If you use Green apples you can skip this)

Method

Dry roast the Oats for couple of minutes and then grind it into a powder.

To this mix all the ingredients except milk and Oil

To this mixture, add butter and oil and rub it in till it looks like bread crumbs.

To this add milk little by little and knead it into a smooth dough

Cover it with a cling film and rest it in refrigerator for 15 minutes. You can skip this step, if you are pressed for time.

Divide the dough into 2 portions.

Now take a tart tin or Pie dish and slightly grease it with butter or oil

Take one portion of the Roll the prepared dough into big circle and place it on the Tart tin and cut off the extra edges.

Poke the Tart shell using a fork so the base is crispy.

Bake it for 10-15 minutes at 200C or it is golden brown. You can skip this step and Bake it along with the filling and the top sheet.

I do this as I like my Pie to be super crispy.

Meanwhile, take a mixing bowl and place the sliced apples, cinnamon powder, sugar,butter and wheat flour.

Place the prepared apple filling on prepared Pie/tart (Baked or not baled - It does not matter)

Now take the another portion of the prepared dough and using a rolling pin roll it into a circle.

Place this on top of the Pie and cut the extra frills.

Using a sharp knife make a cross of top of the pie.

I brushed some butter on top and I sprinkled some sugar on top of it for the caramely effect. 

You can sprinkle some sugar or not.

Now bake this in a pre -heated Oven at  180c for 50-60 minutes.