Homemade Sambar Powder

I usually use store bought Sambar powder and MTR brand happens to be my favorite. But recently I ran out of it and couldn't go to the Indian store to buy more. So that is when I made this homemade sambar powder from Dakshin cookbook by Chandra Padmanabhan.

Freshly made sambar powder is very flavorful and adds a lot of taste to the dish. It can be stored in an airtight container for up to 3 months. Here are some sambar recipes on the blog for some inspiration.

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Ulli Theeyal (Kerala Onion Masala Curry)

BM# 63: Journey through the Cuisines 

Week 4: Kerala Cuisine 

Day 21: U for Ulli Theeyal

We are starting the final week of 'Journey through the Cuisines' mega marathon and I'm visiting beautiful Kerala -- God's own country this week. My plan for the marathon was to pick a state from each corner of the country -- so I started from the west with Bengali cuisine, then moved north to Rajasthan and then east to Gujarat. Finally this week I'm in deep south in Kerala.

Initially I wanted to do Tamil cuisine and even made 2 dishes, but somehow I wasn't happy with my choice of dishes, so I changed it to Kerala at the very last minute.

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Jaipuri Vegetable Pulao

BM# 63: Journey through the Cuisines 

Week 2: Rajasthani Cuisine 

Day 10: J for Jaipuri Pulao
Today I have a easy to make, colorful and delicious rice dish. Being a south Indian, I am attracted to rice dishes like a magnet and so J is for Jaipuri Pulao it is. This is a great dish to make on a busy weeknight or to serve at a fancy party.

Recipe is from this You Tube video by Ruchi Bharani. Cooked basmati is tossed with colorful veggies and a freshly ground spice paste. So once you have the spice paste ready, the recipe comes together in no time.

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Curry flavored Roasted Mixed Nuts

Roasted nuts are my husband's favorite go-to snack. He is the snacker in the house, grabs a handful every time he walks into the kitchen. I don't like snacking, I'm more of a 'eat a full meal and wait for the next meal' kind of a gal. Even when I snack, it has to be in a proper bowl, I don't do handfuls, I only have bowlfuls :-)

Anyway, my husband has been asking me to make roasted nuts for a long time and I finally made him these curry flavored roasted mixed nuts. Recipe courtesy Ellie Kreiger's Food Network show.

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Punjabi Dal Tadka

I made this Punjabi Dal tadka along with this Aloo curry for a mini Punjabi meal. Recipe for the dal is from a Telugu cooking show and I have made it quite a few times already.

Like any dal, this is very easy to make and is very hearty and comforting dish. It is a simple dish but tastes amazing and the lovely thing about this dish is it can whipped up for a simple dal-chawal menu on a weeknight or can be served with naans and jeera rice for a party.

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Mixed Vegetable Curry in Coconut milk gravy

Blogging Marathon# 62: Week 4/ Day 2
Theme: No Tomato Gravies
Dish: Mixed Vegetable Curry in Coconut milk gravy

After yesterday's yogurt based curry, today I have a coconut milk based curry that is creamy and delicious. Coconut milk is a great vegan alternate and is much healthier than using heavy cream.

This recipe is from Mallika Bhadrinath's 100 gravy recipes cookbook. Along with coconut milk, a freshly ground spice paste gives this dish creaminess and a nice spicy kick.

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Pavakkai Pitlai (Bittergourd Coconut Curry)

Blogging Marathon# 61: Week 2/ Day 1

Theme: Meal Ideas

Dish: Bittergourd Pitlai

My theme for this week's Blogging marathon is probably one of my favorite. It is 'Meal Ideas', Valli wants us to showcase a complete meal even if that means sharing just one recipe. Coming up with a plan for a meal is quite an exercise for the brain which is why most of us try to delegate the task to the family by asking, 'what do you want to eat today?' I am one of those people who will ask this question and then reject almost everything that is being requested, only on very rare occasions a suggestion is actually cooked. But I don't fail to ask the question ;-)

Coming from south India, most of our meals revolve around rice, so for the next 3 days, I'm going to share some interesting meal ideas with rice as one of the component.

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Mysore Rasam Powder

Here's the recipe for the Rasam powder I used in this Mysore Rasam. Like I said in that post, I don't usually make spice powders from scratch. I know freshly homemade spice mixes add a lot of flavor to dishes but I get lazy to make them.

But when I saw this Mysore rasam in Dakshin cookbook by Chandra Padmanabhan, I was tempted to make the spice mix. Glad that I made it because this is one of the more flavorful rasam powder (I'm comparing it with the store-bought rasam powders).

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Mysore Rasam

Blogging Marathon #60: Week 3/ Day 3

Theme: Regional Specials

Dish: Mysore Rasam

For the last day of Blogging marathon, I made another comforting dish from Mysore. I actually made this couple of months ago from 'Dakshin' by Chandra Padmanabhan and I fell in love with all the flavors that went into this.

I don't usually make spice powders at home. MTR brand is one of my favorites and I buy their rasam, sambar and garam masalas. But I had to make an exception for this recipe and it definitely made a big difference. Fresh homemade masalas give so much flavor to the dish, I have to make an effort to make more fresh masalas going forward. That masala recipe is coming up very soon.

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Pepper Gojju (Mysore style Masala curry)

Blogging Marathon #60: Week 3/ Day 2

Theme: Regional Specials

Dish: Pepper & Onion Gojju (Mysore style Masala curry)

For the second day of this week's BM, I made a lip smacking Mysore curry with peppers and onions. Highlight and the base of the dish is a delicious coconut gravy. 

This recipe is again from Vani's blog, Mysoorean. I made her Kattina dal and this pepper curry for a simple, comforting and delicious meal.

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Roasted Cauliflower Steaks (with Indian spices)

Blogging Marathon# 58: Week 4/ Day 2
Theme: Bookmarked Dishes 
Dish: Roasted Cauliflower Steaks with Indian Spices 

For the second day of bookmarked recipes, I have a very simple and tasty roasted cauliflower steak recipe. My husband recently had it at a restaurant and he really liked it, so I set about making it at home. I followed this recipe from The Kitchn.

Before I get to the recipe, I have to show you the cauliflower I bought. It was one gigantic sized one, I've never seen this big cauliflower ever in my life. The Indian grocery store had a ton of these humongous ones for just $3.00 each. I immediately picked one up, not really thinking of what to make but this roasted cauliflower steak was the best use for half of it.

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Dry Potato-Cauliflower Curry (Sukhi Aloo-Gobhi Subzi)

Blogging Marathon# 57: Week 4/ Day 2

Theme: Side Dishes for Rice/ Roti

Dish: Dry Aloo-Gobhi Curry

Today's side dish is with a popular combination of Aloo and Gobhi (potato and cauliflower). If you have watched 'Bend it like Beckham' movie you know how important it is to learn to make Aloo-GoBHI in Punjabi families :-)

There are quite a few different ways of making this curry. This particular recipe is from a Telugu cooking show and the chef said this is dhaba style of making this dish. I never ate in a proper dhaba, so I cannot vouch for the authenticity of the curry, but all I can say is it tastes amazing.

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Homemade Pumpkin Pie Spice Mix

It's that time of the year where everything is flavored with pumpkin pie spice -- pumpkin pie latte, pumpkin donuts, pumpkin scones, breads, cakes and on and on and on. But the price of pumpkin pie spice in the grocery store is way too high and since it has limited use in my kitchen, I never bought it.

But couple of days ago as I was planning to make the Pumpkin ice cream, I needed couple of teaspoons of the pumpkin pie spice and I looked online for the recipe. Luckily I had all the ingredients on hand and voila I had my own pumpkin pie spice mix that I can now use in different fall based recipes.

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Kashmiri Mini Thali - Roti, Dum Aloo, Apple Chutney and Saffron Rice

Buffet on Table: Week 2 -- Indian States

Day 8: Kashmir -- Kashmiri Roti with Dum Aloo, Doon Chetin & Kashmiri Yellow Rice

After seeing my marathon buddies make amazing thalis, I made a mini Kashmiri thali for today's mega marathon. Thanks to Valli's and Vaishali's Kashmiri posts for the inspiration. I picked the recipes from their thalis to make mine. Here's what I made:

• Kashmiri Roti (recipe follows)
• Kashmiri Dum Aloo
• Kashmiri Kesari Rice
• Doon Chetin (Apple Chutney)

Kashmiri roti is a very flavorful recipe with spices that are added right into the dough. It is kneaded with milk instead of water to make soft and delicious rotis. Served with Kashmiri Dum Aloo, these rotis tasted simply amazing.

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Indonesian Nasi Goreng for #Food of the World

We are going to Indonesia this month's #food of the world event. I made a very simple Indonesian dish called 'Nasi Goreng'. Nasi Goreng literally means 'fried rice' in Indonesia and it is simple rice dish spiced with kecap manis (sweet soy sauce), shallot, garlic and chili and is accompanied by other ingredients like egg or other protein.

Nasi Goreng is stronger and spicier compared to Chinese fried rice with the addition of kecap manis and other spices. It can be eaten at any time of the day and many Indonesians eat it for breakfast. It is also a popular choice for late night supper served by street vendors.

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Vegetable Dhansak

Blogging Marathon# 52: Week 1/ Day 1

Theme: Parsi Dishes

Dish: Vegetable Dhansak
We are going to our regular 3 day schedule of Blogging Marathon this month and my theme for this week is 'Parsi Dishes'. Parsis, meaning Persians, are the followers of the ancient Persian religion known as Zoroastrianism. They emigrated to India from Persia to avoid religious persecution by the Muslims.
While looking for Parsi dishes, I came across this lovely post by Peri. She is a Parsi blogger and her blog has tons of delicious Parsi (and non-Parsi) recipes. In that explains, she explains the different between Indian and Parsi food and how parsi cuisine is unique. Do check it out more details.
For my first day, I made a very flavorful and spicy Dhansak. It is a hearty dish with lentils, vegetables and choice of meat (which I skipped, of course). It is flavored with aromatic spice blend and is usually served with Parsi brown rice and a kachumber salad (cucumber salad). I didn't make the rice, so served the dhansak with some roti.

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Vegetarian Lebanese Stew with Peas and Rice (Bazelle with Riz) for #Food of the World

For this month's Food of the World event, we are going to Lebanon. While browsing through the internet for vegetarian Lebanese dishes, I landed on this page with a ton of recipes to choose from. I finally narrowed the whole list down to about 10 dishes, but more than half of them were desserts and I had to resist the temptation of making those rich and creamy desserts. I have them bookmarked and will pace them out and try them in the future.

At the end, I made this vegetarian version of Lebanese Stew with Peas. Traditionally this dish is made with beef or lamb mince. I used soy granules/ TVP instead. The highlight of the dish is the Baharat spice blend that is added to the stew. It is a mix of ground spices and it adds a nice warmth and lot of flavor to the dish.

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Massamun Curry Paste Recipe (Vegan)

Massamun is supposed to be the heartiest of all Thai stew-like curries. The curry paste used to make the curry is complex and elaborate, containing more ingredients, especially dry roasted flavors, than any other curry pastes.

Even though it is a long list of ingredients for the curry paste, most of them are readily available in a well stocked kitchen or a grocery store. I've never seen fresh galangal or kaffir lime leaves in any of the stores that I go to, but luckily I found some canned/ jarred ones in Whole Foods that I picked up right away. They keep in the fridge for quite a while and are quite handy in making Thai curry pastes and other dishes.

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Morning Glory Oatmeal

Blogging Marathon# 47: Week 4/ Day 3
Theme: Bookmarked Recipes
Dish: Morning Glory Oatmeal

For the final day of this year's blogging marathon, I have a very healthy & delicious variation to regular oatmeal. I bookmarked the recipe from Joy the Baker's blog and made it almost a year ago in January of this year. Finally these healthy oats are seeing the light of day today :-)

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Sprouts Mixed Vegetable Pulao

Today's recipe is from a Telugu cooking show and I have made it a number of times since I watched the show. It is a healthy and delicious dish with sprouts, mixed vegetables and spicy masala paste. This is a great way to use sprouts and with the addition of mixed vegetables, it is a balanced dish to serve for lunch or dinner. It also reheats really well making it perfect for lunchboxes. 

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