This chiwada is so easy to make and a sure shot success recipe :) Even when I was small i loved this chiwada the most, for it was light and tasty. Now i love it even more for it is so easy to make too :) I am going to be making this regularly :)


Ingredients
100g Sabudana Poha
1 Cup Peanuts
2.5 Spoon Red Chilli Powder
1 Spoon Jeera Powder
1 Spoon Sugar
1 Spoon Salt
Oil

Method

• In a mixie add in red chilli powder, sugar, salt, jeera powder and grind till fine powder. Add this to a big bowl
• Heat oil in a pan and fry the peanuts till light brown. Add them to the spice mixture in bowl and stir
• In the same oil fry sabudana poha, few at a time. After each batch is fried add it immediately to the spice mixture an give it a stir.

Notes
Add in pohe immediately to the spice mixture after you take out of oil, otherwise the spice wont stick to the poha and it wouldn't get the taste.

Now that mom is here, she made this awesome pachadi two days back. I loved it so much that I asked her to show me how to make it the very next day when we were actually going to eat Paani Puri for the dinner :) Nevertheless we had this pachadi after eating paani puri with excuse that something healthy after something chatpata :)


Ingredients
2 Cup Cabbage
1 Cup Carrot
1 Tomato
3/4 Cup Onion
1 Spoon Groundnut Powder
1 Spoon Sugar
1 Green Chilli
Handful of Coriander Leaves
1 Lemon
1/4 Spoon Mustard Seeds
A pinch of Asafoetida
Oil
Salt to taste

Method

• Finely chop cabbage and add it to the bowl
• Add finely chopped tomato
• Add finely chopped onion
• Add in finely chopped coriander leaves and green chilli
• Add in grated carrots
• Add in groundnut powder, sugar and salt to taste
• Squeez lemon juice in it and mix well.
• Heat a spoon of oil in the small pan and add in mustard seeds and Asafoetida and let the mustard splutter.
• Add it to the mixture and mix well.

Notes
If you are going to serve it to guests, you could finely chop all the veggies and then at the last moment just before serving, mix in sugar, salt and add in heated oil-mustard. It would be much more fresh and would taste better than the complete procedure done in advance.

The day I got dabeli masala from India, i had been meaning to try something like this.. I thought it might be nice change to normal aalu paratha or aalu sabji. Finally today when i had no other vegetable at home i decided to try this one.. Came out really well.


Ingredients
10 Spoon Wheat Flour
1 Potato
1/2 Spoon Kachhi Dabeli Masala
1/4 Spoon Red Chilli Powder
1/2 Spoon Tamarind
1 Spoon Peanut Powder
1/2 Spoon Raisins
Handful of Corriander Leaves
Salt to taste
Oil

Method

• Mix in wheat flour, salt and a spoon of oil.
• Mix water and knead dough for paratha. Keep aside
• Pressure cook the potato and let it cool down
• Soak tamarind in 2 spoon of water.
• Grate the potato and mix it with dabeli masala, red chilli powder, peanut powder, tamarind water and salt to taste
• Add in chopped corriander leaves and raisins.
• Make 5 balls out of wheat dough and 5 balls from the potato mixture.
• Make a cup shape from wheat ball and stuff in potato ball. Close the wheat cover completely.
• Roll the parathas and cook on tawa til well done on both sides.

Notes
Make sure to cook potatoes really well so that they are soft and can be mashed to the paste.

A must have dip for Chicken Satay, I had to make this. Especially for Ajoy as he is such a fan of this sauce that he sometimes asks for it in Chinese restaurant too :) forgetting that he is in Chinese restaurant instead of Thai :)


Ingredients
1 Cup Peanuts
2 Spoon Brown Sugar
1/4 Spoon Red Chilli Powder
2 Spoon Soya Sauce
1 Spoon Oil
1 Garlic Clove
2 Spoon Lemon Juice
Salt to taste

Method

• Dry roast the peanuts and let them cool
• Add peanuts, brown sugar, red chilli powder, soya sauce, oil, garlic clove, lemon juice and salt in a mixie and grind to sticky powder
• Add half cup of water and grind again till smooth paste

Notes
I had used double quantity of red chilli powder but it had become little extra hot so I have suggested only 1/4 spoon for red chilli. If you feel it is too mild for you try adding some more chilli while grinding

Chivada (Mixture) in general is weak point for all most everyone i guess :) This one is very common preparation we end up preparing. Even more than one with thin poha (though i like that one too).


Ingredients
2 Cup Thick Poha
2.5 Spoon Red Chilli Powder
1/4 Spoon Sesame Seeds
1/4 Spoon Jeera
1/2 Cup Peanuts
1/4 Cup Pootane Daal(Chanaa Daal)
1.5 Spoon Sugar
7-8 Curry Leaves
4 Spoon Cashews
4 Spoon Raisins
1/4 Spoon Mustard
A pinch of Asafoetida
Salt to taste
Oil

Method

• Roast jeera and sesame seeds over low flame for around 3-4 minutes
• Dry grind jeera, sesame seeds and sugar to form fine powder
• In a big pan, mix the above powder, 2 spoon of red chilli powder, cashews, raisins and salt to taste. Mix well
• In a pan heat oil over medium flame
• Fry pohas in small batches by adding them in another strainer (steel or aluminium one) which is dipped in the hot oil
• Drain them on the kitchen towel and keep adding them to the above masala mixture when 2-3 batches are on towel. Mix well
• When pohas are fried completely, strain out the remaining oil and heat it in a pan (around 2-3 spoon)
• Fry groundnut till they turn reddish in it. Keep them aside.
• In same oil, add mustard and let it splutter.
• Add Asafoetida, curry leaves and futaane daal(chanaa daal) and roast it for around 2 minutes.
• Add in fried groundnuts and remaining 1/2 spoon of red chilli powder and add this mixture to the chivada mixture prepared earlier. Mix well.

Notes
Use litte oil at a time and add some more oil when half way though. The oil turns black after frying poha, so it would help in reducing the remaining quantity that we need to throw away.
Using strainer helps in taking out pohas easily after they are fried.
I drained the fried pohas over kitchen towel so that it can soak out oil, but one must make sure to transfer them to masala mixture when it is warm and before it cools down

Since I was small I use to prepare this and we loved watching saturday and sunday evening movies on DD while munching these.. Back then I wasnt so good at understanding the cooking techniques so many times they would be soft instead of crispy nuts. After a while the failure rates increased and i left the job of preparing these. But last week I just thought of preparing with my newly developed senses of cooking and results turned out really nice. And above all the results are consistent.. I did try them quite a few times after that to verify :)


Ingredients
2 Cup Groundnuts
2 Spoon Salt

Method

• Roast the ground nuts till they are completely done.
• Mix salt with a cup of water
• Put the groundnuts in the sieve and run them through the salted water
• Remove the excess water
• Quickly put the groundnuts back in the hot pan and roast on high flame with constant mixing till they are completely dry

Notes
The process of running the salty water through hot and roasted groundnut should be done quickly so that the nuts dont soak the water.

When I want to cook some thing light for the breakfast yet tasty, this is the item that comes to my mind.


Ingredients
3.5 cup Thin Poha
1 Onion
2 Tomatoes
1 spoon Sugar
1.5 Lemon
1/2 cup Groundnuts
1/4 spoon Mustard
1/4 spoon Jeera
2 Green Chillies
1/4 spoon Turmeric Powder
1 spoon Oil
Salt to taste

Method

• In thin poha, mix the finely chopped tomatoes and onions
• Mix the sugar and salt to this
• Add lemon juice to it and mix well
• Heat the oil and fry the groundnuts till brown and add the groundnuts to the poha
• Add mustard, jeera, pieces of green chillies to remaining oil from the groundnuts and let them splutter. Add turmeric Powder
• Add this oil mixture to the poha and mix well

Notes
There is no need to wash / soak the poha, since they are thin, just lemon juice, and tomato are enough to make them soft.

This time when we went out for vegetable shopping, we got hold of raw jackfruit. So this was the vegetable i tried out.


Ingredients
1 Raw Jack fruit
4 spoon Groundnut powder
1/2 Coconut
2 Green Chillies
1/2 spoon Red chilli powder
1/2 spoon Turmeric powder
1 spoon Jaggery
1 spoon Mustard
Salt to taste
Oil

Method

• Remove the cover of the jack fruit and the innermost portion which is thick and solid.
• Cut remaining portion with seeds into fine pieces
• Heat little oil in a pan and add mustard. Let the seeds sputter
• Add turmeric powder, green chillies and mix well
• Add the finely chopped jack fruit pieces to it and stir well. Cook for around 3-4 minutes
• Add around 2 cups of water and cook with lid till the jackfruit cooks well. If required add more water in between
• Once the vegetable is done, add jaggery, red chilli powder, salt, groundnut powder, grated coconut and mix well

Notes
Apply oil to hands and to knife before cutting jackfruit as it has lot of sticky material.

When I was small mom use to cook this on all fasting days and I use to be waiting for such days as I just loved this amazing taste of rice with groundnut curry. Today when i heard from so many people that its shivraatri i couldn't resist fasting and eating this.

Samak Rice


Ingredients
1 cup Samak (Varyacha tandul)
2 cup Water
1/2 spoon Jeera
2 spoon Ghee
Salt to taste

Method

• Heat ghee in a pan
• Add jeera and let it sputter
• Add samak in it and fry till its pinkish
• Mix water, salt and cook on medium flame

Notes
You can add little ground nut powder as well while frying the rice. That will give nice taste and then no need to prepare groundnut curry. But i like groundnut curry so i didn't add it :)

Groundnut Curry


Ingredients
1 cup Groundnut
3 cup Water
2 spoon Jaggery
3-4 Green Chillies
3-4 Kokam
1/2 spoon Jeera
Salt to taste
1 spoon Ghee

Method

• Roast the groundnuts and remove the cover
• Grind the groundnuts by mixing water
• In a pan heat this grinded mixture
• Add jaggery, crushed green chillies, kokam and salt to it and boil
• In another pan heat the ghee, add jeera to it and let it sputter
• Mix this heated ghee and jeera with the boiling curry

Notes
One must grind the groundnuts to very fine paste otherwise water won't mix well with the curry and curry will have the groudnut paste at bottom and watery curry on top which doesn't taste nice at all

I had never prepared chicken biryani before so when i decided to cook it i did search a lot on internet. Also asked our maid for it so that i get to know how they cook it. And then i came up with this one which is outcome of my research.

Chicken Biryani


Ingredients
1/2 kg chicken
4 cups of rice
1 cup milk
1 cup curd
2 onions
1/2 cup tomato puree
1 tea spoon ginger paste
1/2 tea spoon garlic paste
3 spoon turmeric powder
3 spoon garam masala
3 spoon red chilli powder
2 spoon corriander powder
1 spoon cumin powder
1 spoon green cardamom powder
A pinch of Safron
Salt to taste
Oil
Method

• Heat oil in a pan and add finely chopped onion to it
• Once onion is reddish add tomato puree to it and cook well
• Add garlic paste, ginger paste, 1 spoon garam masala, 1 spoon turmertic powder, 1 spoon red chilli powder, 1 spoon corriander powder and 1/2 spoon cumin powder to it and stir well.
• Add curd and salt to it and cook for a while
• Add chicken pieces to this mixture and cook till gravy dries completely and oil separates out. Keep aside
• Mix 4 cups of rice, milk and safron and cook it
• In a heat little oil/ghee and add green cardamom powder to it
• Add remaining turmeric powder, red chilli powder, garam masala, corriander powder and cumin powder
• Mix cooked rice and salt and stir well
• In a cooker pot add a layer of this above prepared rice then cooked chicken pieaces and then remaining rice
• Let it cook on vapour for a minute or two
• Serve hot with the groundnut gravy and raita

Notes
I had been told to fry uncooked rice on ghee, add other masala items and then cook the rice but I prefered to it otherway that is to add masala after cooking rice as it gives nice aroma and taste to the rice.

Groundnut Gravy


Ingredients
1/2 cup Groundnut powder
2 Tomatoes
1 spoon garam masala
1 spoon turmeric powder
1 spoon red chilli powder
1 spoon corriander powder
1/2 spoon cumin powder
Salt to taste
Oil

Method

• Heat oil in a pan and add finely chopped tomato to it
• After tomatoes are cooked well(it becomes paste), add red chilli powder, corriander powder, cumin powder and garam masala
• Add groundnut powder and salt to it
• The miture will be like a dry chutney ball, let it cook for a while
• Add water to it and boil it to get the thick gravy

Notes
The above gravy is not too hot as I didn't have enough curd for raita, you can make it hot as per your taste

I have very selective liking for laadus.. And this one is one of them :) And when I asked mom for recipe it turned out that this one is simplest to prepare :)


Ingredients
3 cup groundnut
1/2 cup jaggery

Method

• Bake groundnuts in a pan
• Remove groundnut cover
• Grind the groundnuts in mixer
• Mix groundnut powder and finely chopped jaggery
• Grind this mixture once again in the mixer
• Prepare small lemmon sized round balls - laadus out of this mixture

Notes
Somehow removing cover of groundnut does not suite me :) so I used groundnut with cover and still it tasted same :)

Nutty Rice was what I had on one of my bday in Taj, Bangalore. It tasted awesome and both myself and ajoy just loved it. When I was eating it I decided that I am surely going to try and make this. And guess what first attempt itself was upto the taste. Its very easy and tempting recipe one can impress guests with.


Ingredients
2 cups of cooked rice
4 spoon cooked corn
2 spoon groundnuts
2 spoon cashews
4 green chillies
1 spoon raisins
1/2 spoon jeera
2 spoon ghee
Salt to taste

Method

• Heat ghee in a pan
• Add jeera and let it sputter
• Add cashews, groundnuts and raisins
• Once nuts turn light brown add chillies
• Wait for nuts to turn dark brown and then add cooked rice, corn and salt
• Mix it well and cook for 3-5 minutes

Notes
You can use 4-5 curry leaves as well if you like.
Using long grain rice like basamati gives nice aroma to the dish

This is another saabudana item thats favourite among everybody... In fact there are quite a few children who love to fast because they get to eat all such yummy items :) (including me :D)


Ingredients
1 cup saabudana
1/2 cup groundnut powder
3-4 green chillies
1/2 spoon jeera
4 spoon corriander leaves
2 medium sized potatoes
1/2 spoon sugar
Salt to taste
Oil/ghee/butter

Method

• Soak Saabudana in 1/4 cup water for at least 2-3 hours
• Boil potato till its completely cooked and can be mashed
• Add jeera powder, salt, sugar, groundnut powder, finely chopped chillies and corriander leaves to saabudana and mix well
• Add mashed potato to this mixture and form the sticky dough of this mixture
• Take the round ball of this dough and make thalipith out of it.
  (For those who don't know how thalipith is done on - apply little oil, ghee or butter to the tawa and press the ball on the tawa to form the round chapati like item sticking to the tawa - little movable because of oil)
• Cook on low-medium flame with lid on the tawa for one side cooking
• When its brown from the side thats sticking to the tawa flip the thalipith and cook it on the other side without lid
• Cut the thalipith in quarters and serve with curd chutney/curd/butter

Notes
You can use red chilli powder instead of green chillies if you don't have them in stock. It tastes little different and is another variant.
Also as discussed earlier in Sabudana Wada recipe, soaking sabudana in correct amount of water is also important to get soft khichadi
I used half spoon corriander powder this time because i didn't get fresh corriander but offcourse it tastes and looks nicer with corriander leaves

Sabudana Khichadi is something very very tasty and typical maharashtrian dish.. I cook it very often and many times take it even for lunch because I just love it :) So here is how I prepare it.


Ingredients
1 cup sabudana
1 cup groundnut powder
1 tea spoon sugar
3-4 green chillies
3-4 spoons corriander leaves
1 spoon jeera
5 spoons grated coconut (optional)
Salt to taste
ghee

Method

• Soak Sabudana atleast for 3-4 hours with 1/4 cup of water
• Mix soaked sobudana, groundnut powder, sugar, salt, finely chopped green chillies and corriander leaves (finely chopped)
• Heat ghee in a pan
• Add jeera and let it sputter
• Add the sabudana mixed with other ingredients
• Cook by putting a lid on the pan, stirring the khichadi often and on low flame
• After around 5 min of cooking khichadi would be ready
• Garnish it with grated fresh coconut

Notes
Cooking on low flame is must, otherwise khichadi won't be soft.
Use thickes possible pan to prepare khichadi, or you can also try putting pan on tava, Since I have thick kadhai I don't use tava
Also as discussed earlier in Sabudana Wada recipe, soaking sabudana in correct amount of water is also important to get soft khichadi

When I was in bangalore I started my cooking experiments with ready made masalas (not ready to eats :D). Now I have started using my own masalas (to be precised my mom made :D) for almost everything. But there is this one recipe which I still prefer and love with MTR Pulav masala.. It tastes awesome :) Over a period, I have made some changes compared to what the pack mentions it and here it is.


Ingredients
6 Cups of cooked rice
1 finely chopped onion
2 spoons of MTR Pulav Masala
1 spoon garlic-ginger paste
1/4 cup boiled muttor
4-5 spoons ground nuts
4-5 cashews
4 spoons ghee
Salt to taste

Method

• Keep 3 spoons of ghee in a pan for heating
• Add onion and groundnuts
• When groundnuts are half done add in cashews and garlic ginger paste
• When cashews turn brown add in pulav masala and let it cook for 1 min
• Add cooked rice and muttor and mix well
• Put in remaining 1 spoon of ghee on the pulav and place lid on the pan and let it cook on low flame for 2 min.
• Add salt, mix pulav well and again let it cook for 2-3 min

Notes
Add cashews later than groundnuts so that they don't burn as cashews turn brown faster than groundnuts.
Using Basamati rice gives nice aroma and taste to the Pulav

When Seema was visiting us, I decided to cook Sabudana wada as i was sure she would like it.. And She actually loved it and asked for recipe as well :) The sabudana that day was soaked perfectly and hence wadas were kurkura as well :)

Sabudana Wada


Ingredients
1 cup Sabudana
1-2 medium sized potatoes
1 cup Groundnut powder (not too fine)
3-4 finely chopped green chillies
1 spoon jeera
1 tea spoon jeera powder
1 tea spoon coriander powder
1/4 cup corriander leaves finely chopped
Sugar to taste
Salt to taste
Oil/Ghee for frying

Method

• Wash and Soak sabudana for 3-4 hours with 1/4 cup of water.
• Boil or cook potatoes in cooker well enough so that they can be crushed to make a paste
• Mix potato crushed potato, soked sabudana, groundnut powder, finely chopped corriander leaves and green chillies, jeera, jeera and corriander powder, sugar and salt.
• Make small flat round wadas out of this mixture
• Fry them on medium flame. Make sure oil is well heated otherwise wada and oil both spoil.
• Serve hot with curd chutney :)

Notes
I normally soak sabudana overnight rather than just 3-4 hours as I can't get up in the morning at 4 :)
Quantity of water (1 cup sabudana and 1/4 cup water) is very important to get perfectly soaked sabudana. Earlier I didn't know about it and result was always random. Sometimes paste and sometimes too hard.
You can also try crushing green corriander leaves and green chillies in mixer. It gives nice colour to wada. I haven't tried this as yet.

Curd Chutney


Ingredients
1 cup curd
1/4 cup Groundnut powder
2 green chillies / 1 tea spoon red chilli powder
1 tea spoon jeera powder(optional)
1 tea spoon finely chopped corriander leaves (optional)
Sugar to taste
Salt to taste

Method

• Mix sugar and salt in curd and let it dissolve well
• Mix rest of the ingredients to form uniform mixture.

Notes
I don't use optional items as wada already has enough jeera and corriander.
Also I prefer red chilli powder over green chillies in the chutney

This chutney, i have learnt from ma - ajoy's mom. They prepare it quite often and it tastes owesome as a spread on the bread.


Ingredients
3-4 cups of corriander leaves
1 tomato
2 handsfull of fried groundnuts
1 greed chilli
Sugar
Salt

Method

• Add Corriander leaves, tomato, groundnuts, chilli, sugar and salt to taste into the mixer.
• Grind it to fine paste and thats it your chutney is ready

Notes
No need to add water as tomato, sugar and salt give enough of water for the spread