Weekend special! Vegetable biriyani, Raita, Pickled mango and Strawberry Milkshake

It's weekend and it's time to relish your taste buds with something special. A vegetable biriyani would be a nice idea.The below recipe will serve for 2.

Ingredients for biriyani:

• Basmati rice - 1 cup
• Ghee (butter)
• Assorted Vegetables (chopped)
• Tomatoes
• Potatoes
• Capsicums
• Carrots
• Spring onions
• Green chilies
• Ginger paste
• Coriander powder
• Cumin (jeera) powder
• Turmeric powder
• Chilly powder
• Cloves
• Cinnamon sticks
• Cashews and kismis
• Bread pieces

Preparation of biriyani:

• Soak the basmati rice in water for 10 mins.
• Meanwhile, chop all the assorted vegetables and green chilies.
• Take a pan and keep it in high flame.
• Add ghee (butter) and let it melt thoroughly.
• Drain out all water from the basmati rice and add it to the ghee and saute.
• Once the basmati rice turns golden brown, add the cloves and cinnamon sticks and continue to saute for 2 mins more.
• Keep the rice aside in a bowl.
• Now add ghee again to the pan and let it melt thoroughly.
• Do the basic tadka by adding mustard seeds to the melted ghee.
• Add the chopped green chilies and ginger paste and saute.
• Add all the assorted chopped vegetables and saute for 5 mins.
• Once the color of the vegetables start to change, add coriander powder, cumin powder, turmeric powder and salt.
• Add a pinch of chilly powder. This is optional. Saute for 5 mins and transfer it into a bowl.
• Take a pressure cooker and transfer the basmati rice and sauted vegetables.
• Add exactly 2 cups of water and mix well. Add a teaspoon of salt and mix well. Basmati rice : Water ratio should be 1:2.
• Cook for 3 whistles. 
• Open the pressure cooker after 15-20 mins.
• Take a small pan and keep it in high flame and pour ghee. Let it melt thoroughly.
• Add cashews, kismis and bread pieces and saute till the bread pieces become dark brown.
• Open the pressure cooker and add this mix to the biriyani.
• Add coriander leaves for garnishing.

Waahh... Hot hot biriyani is ready now!

Ingredients for raita:

• Curd/ Yoghurt
• Chopped green chilies
• Chopped tomatoes
• Chopped cucumber
• Chopped onions (optional)
• Salt
• Coriander leaves

Prepation of raita:

• Take a bowl and mix chopped tomatoes, cucmber, onions and green chilies.
• Add curd to it.
• Add salt for taste.
• Add coriander leaves.

Ingredients for pickled mango (mangha uppilittathu):

• Chopped mango
• Chopped green chilies
• Salt

Preparation of pickled mango:

• Mix the chopped mango, green chilies.
• Add salt and keep it for 3 hours.

Ingredients for Strawberry milkshake:

• Fresh strawberries
• Chilled milk
• Sugar

Preparation of Strawberry Milkshake

• Mix the strawberries, chilled milk and  sugar in a mixer grinder.
• Serve it cold :)

That makes a perfect weekend lunch / dinner. Bon Appetit!

Grilled mushroom

This is a perfect snack which takes hardly 10 mins to prepare. Try it out for sure!

Ingredients:

• Mushrooms
• Ghee (butter)
• Chilly powder
• Pepper powder
• Salt
• Grilling rod / frying mesh

Preparation:

• Take a bowl and put all the mushrooms and wash them thoroughly.
• Drain the mushrooms well.
• Add ghee (butter), pepper powder, chilly powder and salt to the mushrooms and mix it well.
• If you are having a grilling rod then insert a few marinated mushrooms and grill it in high flame. Keep rotating the rod so that the mushrooms get smoked thoroughly.
• If you are using a mesh then place the mushrooms and keep the mesh in high flame. Once it gets smoked, flip the mushrooms and smoke again.
• Grilling is required for less than 5 mins.

Perfect grilled mushrooms are ready. Serve hot hot! Having a glass of wine is definitely a great idea here. Or even a cup of hot tea will be heaven to your taste buds!

PS: Please be very careful while playing around with fire!

Using a grill rod:

Using a mesh:

Bhojpuri chokha

I found this intersting dish in a TV show yesterday and tried it out. Trust me, it came out super awesome. This one totally fits into my recipe. Simple, Healthy, Elegant and also super tasty! Let's see how to prepare it.

Ingredients:

• Baingan (eggplant) - 1
• Tomatoes - 3
• Potatoes - 2
• Chopped spring onions
• Chilly powder
• Turmeric powder
• Coriander powder
• Salt
• Edible oil
• Chopped Green chillies - 2
• Coriander leaves
• Chopped onions
• Lemon - 1

Preparation:

• Smoke the baingan directly in flame till it becomes very soft.
• Smoke the tomatoes directly in the flame till the skin gets completely burnt.
• Boil the potatoes and once boiled, make mashed potato out of them.
• Remove the skin of the smoked baingan and cut it very finely to make a puree.
• Also remove the smoked tomato skin and mash them to make tomato puree.
• Take a pan and heat edible oil. Add mustard seeds for tadka.
• Now add the tomato puree and stir it well till it reduces and becomes pretty thick.
• Now add the baingan puree into the pan and stir well.
• Now add the mashed potatoes as well and mix.
• Add the chopped spring onions to the mix.
• Add turmeric powder, chilli powder, coriander powder and salt.
• Stir the whole mixture well and keep it closed in low flame for 5 mins.
• Now add the chopped onions, green chillies and coriander leaves to garnish.
• Squeeze a lemon into the mix.
• Switch off and let the dish remain closed for 10 mins.

The dish can be taken as such in a small bowl. Trust me it tastes so good and also it fills the stomach. You can also taste it along with some soft phulkas. I guess having a sweet lassi now would be a great idea!

Soft and puffy phulkas

I was doing a lot of research and experimentation to get the right phulka and finally I got the magic recipe! I must say that I got it from one of those Youtube videos. Anyways, here is my experience which is worth a try.

Ingredients:

• Wheat flour
• Warm water - 2/3 of a small cup
• Milk - 1/3 of a small cup
• Salt
• Oil - 1 tspn
• Melted Ghee (butter)

Usually we make the chappathi dough using wheat flour and water. Here is what I did for the phulkas.

• Take some warm water and add little milk and 1 tsp oil to it. Use this for making the dough instead of plain water.
• You can add a pinch of salt too. This is optional.
• Kneading the dough untill it becomes super soft is very much important. Otherwise you will not get the best results.
• Keep the dough closed using a lid at least for 15mins before you start rolling the rotis.
• Make a tube form out of the dough. Cut it into small pieces and then start rolling.

• Once the dough is ready, make small balls which are of a lemon's size or slightly bigger but not too big.
• Roll the dough balls to make thin rotis and not thick. Also dust away any additional flour which is sticking to the roti.

• Now heat a tava at high flame.
• Once the tava is heated, you can put the rolled rotis. 
• Once small bubbles start appearing on the rotis, flip them in the tava.

• Once the other side also gets the tiny bubbles, take the rotis from the tava and put it directly on the flame. You can also use a mesh and put it on top it it.
• You can see that the rotis has puffed up. 

• As soon as it puffs up, quickly flip it using a tong and show it in the flame for just a few seconds. Be careful not to burn it into a papad in the flame!

• Transfer the phulka into a plate immediately.
• Pour a tea spn of melted ghee on top of the phulka.

Garam garam phulka is ready to be served with a spicy sabzi!

Sabudana khichdi and coriander chutney

This is one recipe which is totally loved by my family and friends. I kind of became popular for this one. So it has a special place in my heart! All thanks to one of my Marathi friend who introduced me to sabudana khichdi in Seattle. Usually the dish is taken during 'upvas' (fasting) time. But it's completely okay to have it anytime. Definitely I take it as and and when I wish and can't wait for 'upvas' :) Note that this dish is pretty heavy and hence serves very good for breakfast. Those who want to have a light breakfast and heavy dinner and keep it for dinner. In any case, this will make your tummy 'khush' (happy') and pretty full too :)

PS: This recipe could vary a bit from the traditional Maharashtrian sabudana khichdi recipe

Ingredients:

• Sabudana (Tapioca pearls) - 3 cups
• Peanuts - 1 cup
• Potato - 2
• Green chillies
• Edible oil
• Ginger paste 
• Salt 
• Turmeric powder
• Corainder leaves
• Lemon - 1

Sabudana

Preparation:

• Soak sabudana overnight with water sprinkled on it. Do not immerse sabudana completely in water because it will make the sabudana extremely gooey. We just want the sabunda to be soft and supple and hence sprinkling of water is enough. If you want to make the dish for dinner then soak in the same manner in the morning so that it gets at least 7 hrs of time to become soft.

• You can see that the sabudana has almost doubled in size after overnight soaking.

• Now sqeeze a lemon into the sabudana and mix it properly.
• Take the peanuts and grind it to make a fine powder and mix it with the sabudana.

• Keep the above mixture aside for a few minutes. 10mins is sufficient.
• Cut the potatoes into tiny pieces. Cut the green chilles as well. Also take the ginger paste.
• Take a frying pan and do the basic tadka. Make sure that the pan is not too small as you need to do quite some frying here.
• After tadka, add the potato pieces, green chilly cut pieces and the ginger paste and fry them well. 
• Once the potato pieces become soft, add the sabudana mix into the pan and stir the whole mixture very well.

• Add turmeric and salt to this. You can add more oil at this point if you want.

• Stir the whole mixture very well and close it with a lid. Keep it in low flame for 5 mins and then switch off and keep it closed for another 10 mins.

• Do not forget to add some coriander leaves for garnishing.

Coriander chutney:

• Take a bunch of coriander leaves and 2 green chillies and grind them.
• Add salt to it and squeeze a half-lemon into the coriander paste.
• Add little water if required and mix well.
• Add 1 teaspoon oil.

Sabudana khichdi and coriander chutney is ready to eat. Toot pado!

S.H.E - What is it all about?

Hello! I'm Anjana. I am from God's Own Country - Kerala, India; currently settled in the beautiful city, Bangalore. I'm married to Sreenivas. Both of us are software engineers by profession.

I was an average cook before marriage and was not so proud of myself. So, I was having this 3 months long vacation during which I kind of sharpened my cooking skills. Also I decided to do some little experimentation in my kitchen.

I'm not a born cook. I do not have instincts like many others have. My husband is a true foodie who is born with cooking instincts and skills. I take a lot of tips from him while cooking. Some of the recipes in this blog are coming directly from my hubby. 

So what made me write this blog? I was this busy IT professional who has no time to think about food or cooking. I used to bunk my breakfasts, lunch. I used to grab all those ready-to-eat stuffs and slowly I understood that I'm completely destroying myself. 

Then I realized how important it is to eat. Eat something good, healthy. But you also need to please your taste buds. So it ought to be tasty. And lastly, the dish needs to look great, elegant and not mushy, messed up in order to feel like grabbing it. So I started to try simple dishes at home. Slowly I started to enjoy cooking. You not only get good home-made food but it also serves as a stress buster. My cooking skills improved slowly. It's like "I went from zero to my own hero". 

I realized that if the recipe is very complex most of us do not feel like trying it out. We generally feel like trying those time taking recipes only on weekends. That is why my blog is S.H.E - Simple Healthy & Elegant. Simple - suits your busy routine. Healthy - good for your body, Elegant - pleases your eyes and brain. Some of the recipes in this blog are inspired by TV shows, cooking blogs, Youtube videos, my husband's ideas and a few from my mom's kitchen. 

All the recipes are tried at home and pictures taken by me. My recipes are for everyone. You do not need to have cooking skills or instincts. Just have the instinct to eat healthy food. I'm sure all of us have it. I'm a vegetarian and hence the blog has only vegetarian recipes, but you can use some of the recipes and substitute vegetables with meat. Hope you all enjoy this one. 

Bonne cuisine!