Tomato Pickle

    Have enough tomato left and I wanted to use it to the core...I did tomato dosa and chutney the other day...The next recipe that caught ma mind was tomato pickle...Anything based with tomato is ma favourite and when you get tomato for cheap rates all I do is stock it and utilize it to the maximum...And people who love tangy cum caustic recipes would love this pickle a lot.Below is the recipe part.

Ingredients:

Tomato-10 in number(big size)
Mustard seeds-1 tablespoon
Fenugreek powder-1 tablespoon
Red chilli powder-as desired by you
turmeric powder-1 tablespoon
Asafetida- a pinch
Jaggery-a small piece
salt-as required

Method:

1.Chop tomato into very small pieces.
2.In a wok/kadai add oil(generous amount) and wait till it gets heated.
3.Add mustard seeds and wait till it splutters.
4.Now add tumeric and redchilli powder and give it a quick stir.
5.Add the finely chopped tomato followed by salt and wait till tomato cooks well and becomes mushy.Also at a stage oil will start leaving out from the mixture.At this stage add fenugreek powder ,jaggery and asafetida and give it a nice stir for 2 minutes.
6.Switch the stove off and cool it.

You shall store it in an air tight container and serve it as a side dish or enjoy the taste with curd rice :)

Tomato Soup

I always love soup...Tomato and sweet corn soup always tops ma list :)Have tried tomato soup many a times but I felt that something went wrong and was not upto the mark...Yesterday I was surfing the net and Vah chef's tomato recipe caught ma eyes...Had enough tomato at home and wanted to give it a try...I have modified the original recipe because I ran out of some ingredients but the result was a yummy soup this time...If you are a person of ma type who loves tangy tomato soup then definitely this recipe will be your cuppa tea...

Ingredients:

Butter-2 tablespoon(I didnot have butter so substituted with oil).
Tomato-2(a bit big tomato)
Onion-1(small size)
cerely/carrot/any veggies of your choice(I didnot add any vegetable).
pepper powder-1/2 tablespoon
salt- as required
corn starch-1/2 tablespoon.
basil leaves-a few

Method:

1.Add butter(in my case it was oil) in a wok and wait till it gets heated.
2.Add onion,tomato and other veggies and give it a stir and allow it to cook...you can add little water at this stage and allow the veggies to cook.

3.Add salt and pepper powder.
4.When the veggies are cooked add basil leaves and give it a quick stir and switch off the stove.Cool the mixture and blend it well and filter the puree.
5.Take an another wok again and add this puree and simmer it for 5 minutes.
6.Form a paste of corn starch with water and add it to the tomato soup.Corn starch is used as a thickening agent here.Once you feel that the soup has attained the required consistency switch off the stove and serve it hot with deep fried bread piece as a topping.Basil leaves gives a nice aroma to the soup...

Notes:

1.I used oil instead of butter but I am very sure that taste would be yummicious when used butter.
2.I didnot add any veggies.The original recipe had garlic,celery,capsicum.You can use carrot as well.
3.To thicken the soup the original recipe was prepared by adding all purpose four to the butter in a separate wok  and filtered puree was poured slowly (to avoid lumps)once the all purpose flour and butter becomes little brown in color and finally simmered the soup  for 5 minutes to complete the recipe.Corn starch was not used as a thickening agent in the original recipe but I used corn starch.
4.You can add fresh cream/sour cream as a topping to the soup before serving.I did not add cream to ma soup.

Crispy rice flour balls...

 Mom makes dishes mostly with rice flour...I have become addicted to dishes made of rice flour...From kozhakattai to rice flour balls to name a few...The usage of rice flour is minimal to nil in my MIL's home...Whenever I come to my mom's place I ask her to make all the lovely rice flour dishes and enjoy it a lot...One such recipe I enjoy the  most is rice flour balls...To prepare this you need the below ingredients...

Ingredients:

Rice flour-1 cup
Red chilli powder-1 tablespoon
salt-as required
sour curd-as per the requirement to knead
tomato-2
oil-as  required for frying
asafetida-a pinch

Preparation:

1.Puree the tomato.
2.Take a wide vessel...Add rice flour,salt,red chilli powder,asafetida,tomato puree and curd.
3.Make sure that the dough is not watery or too solid...It should be semi solid and you should be able to take the dough in ur hand without spilling...A little beyond chapathi dough consistency...See the below picture for reference.

4.Add oil in a wok and wait till it gets heated.
5.Take the dough in the form of a small ball and drop it in the oil carefully...I am very sure that you will not  get the dough in the shape of a ball...but the shape would be little close to a ball.

6.Wait till it turns golden brown on both sides.Drain excess oil and serve it hot.

Notes:
1.you can also add oinions to the dough.

About Me

I thought the “About me”  page of my blog looks so bland and I was meaning to update it for long but the laziness in me, never allowed to do it… Time and again I sat and pushed myself hard and Voila the result is this page J

Till my college I never gave so much of importance to my food…The regular preferred lunch box menu of mine would be curd rice and pickle…and yay I always preferred varieties in pickle so my mom always was into the laborious process of preparing at least 4 varieties on a regular basis…Many people scared me saying curd rice alone will never take me anywhere but least did I bother…

Then came an important phase in my life…Work J Like many I moved to a different city to earn my bread and butter…New city, away from home made me to long for my mom’s food…That period was an eye opener for me…Only then I started to realize how divine my mom food is! I had no option but to eat out and that it did give a toll on  my health…I searched for all the possible options and finally scored it out to self cooking J Hold on, not much of cooking but cooking that can satisfy my hunger pangs…Mom prepared ready mixes and I got an electric cooker…From there started my cooking journey…Initially I managed to cook rice and satisfied my hunger pangs with curd and pickle but gradually moved to a next level…I started to make pongal,vegetable pulao and variety rice all by using my electric cooker J

Days moved and I did not put any efforts to learn cooking…The Dday arrived and I got married…Now that I have to cook for my new family, I had no clue but to try learning the recipes as much I could…Thanks to the scientific inventions ,I survive with my mobile…Every time I start a  recipe, I call my mom and ask her for portions…Ask her for 100 times, she still explains me so that I manage to master the recipe so well, even any would master it…Being a vegetarian that I am (sans egg) my initial days of learning were totally devoted to sambhar, rasam and kari(vegetables)…Then it was a gradual transition…Whenever we had get together at home,I started to indulge myself and try my hands on Puloa and other rice varieties…The transition continues and I now started to try my hands on desserts which is my mom’s forte…

When you have bro and hubby who are very much like you and love to eat good food,I have no option but to try every possible ways to make my food taste yummy J My mother-in-law is also very much studious in trying recipes so I do get a good company and ideas from her…

Birth of my blog:

                After marriage my love towards food became four much J And when I was in my maternity leave ,I thought to document all the recipes from my mom so that it will be an easy reference for me and from there started the journey.

Recipes of my blog:

I have not tried many cuisines, so my blog would predominately be devoted to vegetarian traditional food for now but I wish I try out different things and will post soon it J

Just a cookery blog?

I don’t just want to post the recipes and stop there but I wish to do “restaurant reviews”, ”product reviews” and share information related to food. Also I would like to make it mélange and lively JWish I put on my thinking cap J

Food Photography:

During initial days of blogging, I never cared about the photos sometimes I did not even post a snap of the recipe but these days I started to be conscious when it comes to food photography…I am very much a learner and my knowledge into photography is zero but still I love to master someday…I was using my mobile camera to take snaps but now I own a digi cam…I mostly use the point and shoot method to click the snaps…Would love to learn and master it someday J

I guess I spoke three much.I welcome you all to my space. Please drop your valuable comments and that would help me to improvise.

Regards,

Annapoorani Sivaramakrishnan

Email: moicuisinecorner@gmail.com

Twitter: @moicuisine

Tomato dosa

For the past few days my hunger pangs want something yummy,delicious and tangy...Suddenly I started craving for dosa...My hubby can eat dosa for all 7 days in a week and for the whole year...I was not very much of dosa kind but suddently became a dosa maniac...Eating dosa twice  a day in a week has become a routine so I wanted to try varieties...Masal dosa suddently caught my attention...But I have kept it on queue...I saw fresh tomato on my veggie bag and so wanted to prepare tomato dosa...It is the first time I tried it and I became addicted to the tangy dosa flavour.It is an excellent variety and here is the recipe part.

Ingredients:

Dosa batter
Tomato-4
chilli powder-1/2 table spoon
asafetida-a pinch
salt-as required
oil- 1 table spoon

Preparation:

1.In a wok add oil and wait till it gets heated.
2.Add tomato,chilli powder,salt and asafetida and fry the tomato well in the oil.

3.Wait till raw smell of the tomato goes off and the mixture becomes solid.Switch off the stove and cool the mixture.
4.Grind the mixture to a fine paste and add it to the dosa batter

.
5.Heat tawa and powder a laddle of tomato dosa batter and spread it to a round shape.Drizzle oil around the dosa.
6.Wait till both of the sides of the dosa is cooked well and serve with chutney of your choice.

Note:
1.I had yogurt as my side dish and it tasted too good.
2.You can add garlic,coconut and onion while you fry tomato and grind it to fone paste.I do not want to add garlic,onion  and coconut and so skipped it.

Plantain partial fry(Vazhaikai aravanakkal)

 When mom does not prepare either kari(poriyal) or Kootu she makes this vazhaikai aravanakal and I love this yummicious dish a lot.It is also one easy recipe and she prepares this one when we all sit in dinning  table because this recipe will be more yummicious when served hot also the crispiness adds an extra flavour when served hot.

Ingredients:

1.Plantain-2
2.Salt
3.Red chilli powder
4.Oil for frying

Preparation:

1.Wash the plantains,remove the skin and cut it into small pieces.
2.Add oil in a wok and wait till it gets heated.
3.Add the cut plantain pieces and fry it in oil till it changes to golden yellow color.You don't have to fry for long and the color change happens in a minute.
4.Drain the oil and take the partially fried pieces.Add chilli powder and salt to this mixture and have it as a side dish with rice of your choice.

Note:

You can skip adding chilli powder and salt if you wish because the fried pieces itself wil have an excellent taste.

Stuffed Bun

I was introduced to this stuffed bun recipe by my sister's SIL.She is from hyderabad and came here for vacation.She prepared this stuffed bun within a jiffy and that was the first time I tasted and loved it too .It is a simple recipe which does not take too much of time and I made this one today and so the recipe is here :)

Ingredients:

Bun
onion-2
tomato-4
Red chilli powder-1/2 table spoon
garam masala-1/2 table spoon
salt -as required
oil

Preparation:

1.Slit the bun making sure that the two halves of the bun are still in contact and keep it aside.I did ot make a perfect cut and so blame me for the below image.

2.In a wok add oil and wait till it gets heated.
3.Add onions and wait till it turns to golden color.
4.Add tomato followed by chilli powder,garam masala powder and salt and stir it well.
5.Wait till tomato cooks well and raw masala smell goes off.You don't have to add water because we are gonna stuff it inside the bun.Switch the stove at this stage.
6.Stuff the tomato onion contents into the slit bun.
7.Toast the bun in a tawa by adding ghee and make sure that the bun is crispy on both the sides.Remove the bun from the tawa and serve it with sauce.

Note:
You can add boiled potato and peas to the onion-tomato mixture and make the stuffing still more rich.