Black Eyed Bean-Capsicum Salad

I am not a big fan of salads but my DH loves salad very much. Our cousin got this salad from his friend’s house few weeks back and we all liked it. Hence prepared this salad last week.

Ingredients
Black Eyed Beans – 1 cup
Bell Peppers – I used Orange and red ( 3 to 4 ) – Long ones.
Onions – 1 big
Lemon -  1
Salt – as per taste
Chilli powder ( Paprika ) – as per taste
Coriander – for garnish
Preparation
Soak the Black eyed beans for 4 to 5 hrs or overnight . Boil the black eyed beans in water with little salt ( do not overcook or keep it in cooker ) and allow it to cool
Chop the onions , bell peppers into small pieces.
Mix the black eyed beans , bell peppers , onions along with salt , chilli powder and lemon juice.
Garnish with Coriander . Serve it immediately or keep it in refrigerator as serve cold.

Sending this Soups and Salads mela by Srivalli

Sweet Potato Bonda

 

It was raining in LA last Friday and I wanted to munch something crispy and hot. As soon I returned from work , I told my mom that we will make bonda and I found that we had only 1 or 2  potatoes. Then I thought why not we use sweet potatoes to make bonda. I remembered that some time back , I read the recipe for bonda which used less oil and it was made using pancake puff pan ( it was in Dhivya’s chef in you recipe collections– I browsed and found it later )

I made potato and sweet potato bonda separately with the below ingredients

Ingredients

1 large Sweet potato  and  2 medium sized potato

Besan flour –1 1/2 cup

Rice flour – 1/2 cup

Red chilli powder  - 2 tbsp.

Asafoetida – a pinch

Salt – based on taste

Preparation

Cut Sweet potatoes and potato , Cook them in water with little salt ( I did not use pressure cooker )

Allow it to cool for sometime and remove the skin. In the meantime , prepare the batter dip with besan flour , rice flour , red chilli powder , Asafoetida , salt and water. Now mash the sweet potatoes and potato in separate bowl. Add salt and make little balls. Dip in to the batter. Heat the kuzhipaniyaram pan , Add oil in all the holes of the pan, drop the balls. once it is cooked, turn it other side and cook it.

Repeat the same procedure for next batch. Serve hot with chutney or sauce ( We enjoyed it with Maggi hot and sweet sauce )

Note : You can add fried onions , green chillies , coriander , ginger paste and mix with sweet potato and potato mixture and then make balls ( I just did not add them and made it plain so that I can give it to my daughter )

Adai

Adai ( Lentil Crepe ) is a South Indian recipe and its one of the favorite  for everyone in my family. My Mom usually make this for evening Tiffin  or for early Dinner. The below recipe is from my mom.

Ingredients

1) Idly rice – 2 cups

2) Toor Dhal – 1 cup

3) Chana dhal - 1/3 cup

4) Red Chillies – 10 to 12 medium ones

5) Asafoetida – pinch

6) Curry leaves – 4 to 5 nicely chopped

7) Onions – 1 medum sized

8) Spring onions – 1/2 cup

9) Salt – as per taste

10) Oil

Preparation

Soak Rice and dhal ( chana dhal and toor ) in water  for 2 hrs. Grind the Red chillies , Rice, dhal to a coarse batter along with asafoetida and salt. Fermentation is not required for this batter. Fry Onions and Spring onions for few mins with liitle oil and add to the batter just before you make start making adai. Add curry leaves.

Heat the griddle and sprinkle oil. Pour the batter and spread it on Tawa. Make a hole in the center of the adai ( for extra crispy adai ). Add little oil on the sides and center. Close the tawa with a lid for sometime ( this is done for proper cooking and my mom usually does it ) . Once cooked , flip it and cook the other side.

This is usually served with vellam ( powdered jaggery ), Avial. Yesterday we add this with white pumpkin more kuzambhu :-)

 

Note : For variation , you can add Carrot , Cabbage – thinly sliced to the batter. Onions / spring onions is purely optional. Since Adai is heavier , Make sure it is well cooked on both sides.

Honey – Wheat Almond Bread

I prepared bread for the second time on Sunday. First time I made using All-purpose flour and this time I used wheat flour.
Not sure where I got the recipe for the bread previously. I used the same bread recipe as base and just played around with the ingredients. Instead of banana, I added honey to increase the sweetness. Here is the recipe below…

Ingredients
Whole Wheat flour – 4 Cups
Baking Powder – 4 tsp
Brown Sugar – 1 cup
Honey – 4 tsp
Orange Juice – 1/3 cup
Milk – 1 cup
Water – 1 cup
Almonds – I used silvered almonds cut into tiny pieces
Vegetable oil – 1/3 cup and little more to grease the loaf pan.
 

Preparation

Preheat the Oven to 350° F. Mix Wheat flour, Baking powder, Brown Sugar in a bowl.
Add Vegetable Oil, Milk, Orange Juice, Honey and water in another bowl and whisk well. Add this to the dry mixture and mix well. Add almonds and mix it once. Grease the loaf pan and pour the mix evenly and bake for 45 mins to 1 hr until the knife inserted comes out clean.
Allow it to cool and serve it


Sending this to Winter Carnival hosted by Radhika of Tickling palates..

Also sending to Padma's event ( Back to basics - Bread event and Bake Fest event happening at Vardhini's kitchen

I sent this recipe to Mid week Fiesta -hosted by Amy from foodssrilanka

Linked this to Breakfast Event # 17 hosted by Krithi