Bread Upma

I used the frozen left over bread to make bread upma. As I usually buy brown breads, the derived bread upma is healthy too. Some people make chunks of bread to make upma, I had pulsed them in mixer jar to get soft bread crumbs before using them in the recipe. It is good for a fast breakfast. Honestly, I am not a big fan this though Kundan likes it.

Serves: 2

Preparation Time: 5 minutes

Cooking Time: 5 minutes

Ingredients:

1.     Bread crumbs – 2 cups

2.     Onion – 1

3.     Green chilies – 2

4.     Green peas – ¼ cup

5.     Oil – ½ tbsp

6.     Cumin seeds – ¼ tsp

7.     Urad dal – ½ tbsp

8.     Bengal gram – ½ tbsp

9.     Asafoetida – 1 pinch

10. Coriander chopped – 2 tbsp (optional)

Method:

Step 1: Heat oil in a pan, splutter cumin seeds, sprinkle asafoetida, fry urad dal & Bengal gram and add chopped coriander and green chilies to it.

Step 2: Sauté chopped onion in it until translucent and add green peas to it and cook further.

Step 3: Season with necessary salt and add bread crumbs to it; mix thoroughly and turn off heat after a couple of minutes.

Step 4: Serve hot for breakfast. It actually is good without any accompaniment however ketchup can be served if required.

Yoghurt Chilies

Sharing of one’s own farm produce with the co-villagers is a wondrous culture that still is customary somewhere in our villages. My amma had got some green chilies from village that was grown by a farmer who takes care of our farm as well.  I had them in excess and they started ripening; therefore I made yoghurt chilies with those chilies though they were not the right chilies for the purpose. Generally yoghurt chilies or mor milagai is prepared from short and hot chilies.

Serves: NA

Preparation Time:3-5 days

Cooking Time: Nil

Ingredients:

1.     Green chilies – 250 gm

2.     Sour curd – 2 cups

3.     Salt – 2 tbsp

4.     Fenugreek – 1 tbsp

Method:

Step 1: Soak the fenugreek for 2 hours or even overnight and grind it into a smooth paste.

Step 2: Mix the fenugreek paste and salt to the beaten curds and stir well. Dilute with water if necessary.

Step 3: Wash and pat dry the green chilies.

Step 4: With help of a tooth pick or fork pierce at the centre of each chili; I have pierced with knife as the chilies I used were longer.

Step 5: Soak them all in the prepared curd and rest it overnight.

Step 6: In the morning squeeze the curds and spread the chilies in a large surface and sun dry them by tossing in between. Preserve that curd in refrigerator.

Step 7: In the evening, take out the curd and soak the partially dried chilies in it and rest it in normal temperature overnight.

Step 8: Repeat step 6 & step 7 until the curd exhausts. After that keep sun drying the chilies until they are completely off moisture.

Step 9: Store in airtight container.

Step 10: Deep fry in oil before serving. It goes well with curd rice and is used to season mor kuzhambu.

Potato Corn Soup

Ever since I fell in love with the Potato Leek soup that I had in a restaurant sometime back, I wanted to try out potato soup at home. After reading a lot of recipes I created my own version for Potato soup; it definitely tasted way different from the restaurant style one but it was good enough.

Serves: 2

Preparation Time: 5 minutes

Cooking Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:

1.     Fresh corn – 1

2.     Potatoes – 3

3.     Onion – 1

4.     Garlic – 1 cloves

5.     Butter – 2 tbsp

6.     Milk – 1 cup

7.     Fresh cream – 2 tbsp (optional)

8.     Salt to taste

9.     White pepper crushed – 1 tsp

Method:

Step 1: Boil the potatoes, peel and chop them into small dices.

Step 2: Shave the corn kernels form the stalk, peel garlic and chop onion.

Step 3: Melt butter in a pan and sauté garlic, onion, corn and potato cubes in it.

Step 4: Add a cup of milk and cook on simmered stove until corn kernels are soft.

Step 5: Cool it, strain the milk and grind the vegetables into smooth paste such that bits of corns remain.

Step 6: In the same milk mix the paste and bring to boil, adjust consistency with water and season with salt and pepper.

Step 7: Serve hot or warm garnished with fresh cream along with garlic breads.