Carrot Rice

I usually go for this carrot rice whenever i am so lazy to cook but still wants to eat some thing homemade. This is a kind of dish that satisfies your hunger with minimum amount of work.

INGREDIENTS

Basmati Rice 1/2 cup
Grated carrot 1 cup (I usually grind it coarsely)
Small Onion 1 (chopped lengthwise)
Green Chilles 4 (chopped lengthwise)
Cumin seeds 1/2 tbsp
Cinnamon 1/2 inch
Cloves 2
Bay leaves 3
Cashew nuts few
Lime juice 2 tbsp
Oil 1 tbsp
Ghee 1 tbsp
Salt
Turmeric 1/4 tbsp
Cilantro

PROCEDURE

1. Soak rice for 1/2 hr. Then cook it with some salt and ghee (or oil) . This makes the rice not sticky. Keep aside the cooked rice until it is warm.

2. Heat oil in a pan. Add cinnamon, cloves, jeera and cashews. Then add onions, green chillies and turmeric. Once the onions are soft, add grated carrot and salt. Now fry it till the carrot is done. Mix it with the cooked rice along with the lime juice. Adjust salt and garnish with chopped cilantro.

Vegetable Rice

INGREDIENTS

Basmati rice 2 cups
Water 4 cups
Small Onion 1 (Chopped lengthwise)
Green Chillies 5 (Chopped lengthwise)
Ginger Garlic paste 1 tbsp
Carrot 1 (Chopped lengthwise)
Few Corn Kernels
Few Peas
Any vegetable can be added
Ghee 3 tbsp
Few Cashews
Cloves 3
Cinnamon stick 1/2 inch
Cilantro
salt.


PREPARATION

1. Soak basmati rice for atleat half an hour.

2. Take ghee in a pan, add Cinnamon stick, cloves and cashews. Fry for a min, then add green chilli and onions. Suate for few minutes and add the veggie pieces. Close the lid for 2 mins. Then add the soaked rice without water and fry for a minute. Add water, salt and squeeze half a lime. Let it cook till the rice is done. Garnish with cilantro.

Plain Biriyani

Whenever i doesnt feel like cooking but want to eat something tasty, i prepare this simple version of biriyani. Actually my hubby is a great cook. Whatever he cooks turns out delicious. He is the one who taught me this. Alu kurma, egg pulusu, mutton pulusu anything goes with this. As i told you i make this when i dont want to cook anything big. So, my combination for this simple biriyani is raitha...:)

INGREDIENTS

Basmati Rice 2 cups (soak them for 1/2 hr)
Small Onion 1 (chopped lenghwise)
Green Chilli 4 (chopped lenghwise)
Cloves 3
Cinnamon 1 inch stick
Black cardomom
Coconut Powder 2 tbsp
Ginger Garlic paste 1 tbsp
Ghee 3tbsp
Water 4 cups


PREPARATION

1. Switch on your electric rice cooker and put the ghee in the cooker vessel. Add cloves, cinnamon, black cardomom, bay leaves. When they start turning colour add green chilli and onion. Fry for a minute then add ginger garlic paste and coconut powder.

2. Add soaked rice without water. Mix well by adding salt. Then add water, close the lid and let it cook. Serve with any curry or raitha..:)

Ragi Mudda (Ragi Sankati)

This is the most traditional food in rural areas of south India. It is a very healthy food. My Mom used to make ragi(Finger Millet) flour from the scratch. She used to soak ragulu overnight, drain the excess water and wrap them in a cotton cloth for 10 to 12 hrs. By this time you can see sprouts appearing on ragulu. She used to roast them on low flame and make them into fine powder. This flour is used to make different varieties such as ragi mudda, ragi malt, even ragi rotte too.

This is one of my dad's favourite food. He loves to have it with peanut chutney and ghee. Back home in my parents house, we usually have this for breakfast, but here at inlaws they like to have it for lunch in combination with Chama dumpa pulusu or mutton curry. It can be eaten hot with curries or cold with curd. Both of the combinations tastes heavenly. Our lunch for today is ragi mudda with Chema dumpa pulusu.

INGREDIENTS

Rice 3/4 cup
Ragi flour 1 cup
water 5 cups
salt

PREPARATION





1. In a thick bottomed vessel cook rice with water by adding salt. Cook until rice is soft. Add ragi flour and let it be like that for 10 minutes without mixing. By doing this you can avoid having lumps in your mudda. Then stir the whole mixture by using the stick of pappu guthi or any wodden stick until there are no lumps.


2. Take a small portion of the mixture into a plate and make in into a round shape by using your hand. As the mudda will be very hot, it is done by dipping our hand in cold water to resist the heat. Make a small hole in the middle of the mudda to put ghee. Serve with your favourite curry

Lemon Rice / Chitrannam

Lemon Rice is a popular dish in Andhra. It is a must in any festive menus. While vinayaka chavithi festival, lemon rice is given as prasadam at those temporarly build stalls for the lord. My brother and his friends used to organize such a stall in our street.Back then, we kids used to go again and again to have darshan of lord Vinayaka secretly hoping to get the prasadam again. We used to go visiting each and every stall in the nearby places. At the end of the trip we decide which is the best Vinayaka statue and which one is the best prasadam given.Those were the fun days...:)



INGREDIENTS

Rice 2 cups
Small Onion 1( Chopped lengthwise)
Green Chillies 5
Cilantro
Mustard seeds 1/2 tbsp
Cumin seeds 1/2 tbsp
Few Curry leaves
Red Chilli 2
Peanuts 1 tbsp
Cashews 1 tbsp
Chana Dal 1 tbsp
Urad Dal 1 tbsp
Large Lemons 2
Oil 3 tbsp

PREPARATION

1. Cook the Rice. Place it in a wide tray to cool it down.

2. Heat oil, add mustard seeds. When they pops add Cumin seeds, Peanuts, Cashews, Chana dal, Urad dal, Red chilli, Curry leaves. When the nuts are roasted add onions. Cook till the onions are soft.

3. Grind green chillies and cilantro with just some salt. Dont make it a paste. Add this mixture to the cooked onions. Simmer it for 5 mins and switchoff the stove.

4. Meanwhile juice the lemons into a cup. Add some salt to the juice. When the rice cools down add this lemon juice to the rice and mix well. Then add the above mixture of nuts and onion to the rice and mix well with your hand. Add salt and lemon juice as per your taste. Garnish with Cilantro.