One Day At A Time

Back home in my Mom's kitchen, every Monday was a Sago special.  My favorite breakfast, since I love both sago and potatoes.  In my kitchen, sago delicacies are part of our weekend brunch, some days Sabudana Khichdi and some days Thaalipeeth.  I am sure you all love the popular Sabudana Wada .  Its my fave too, but deep frying doesn't sound healthy, right?  For calorie conscious foodies, these savory pancakes with the goodness of potatoes are perfect.  These taste similar to Sago Wadas, but with a lot less calories.

Cooking your favorite snacks from scratch is time consuming, yet fun. I love to make chaat items at home. Both chutneys are always ready in my freezer. All I have to do is fry some puris and we get to enjoy homemade Shev Puri.

For quite some time, I used to buy Paneer at a local Indian grocery store. But once I tried making Panir at home, I realized that not only it is easy but also half the price of store bought Paneer. So if you are looking for fresh cottage cheese and to save a few bucks, you must give this recipe a try.

Hey everyone! Hope all is well! My Indian grocery haul is incomplete without okra. Our local store has fresh Bhendi most weekends. This week I made Bhendi Masala with Chapati for our weekday lunch. Ingredients: Okra/Lady's Finger/Bhindi - 350 gm Onion - 1 large Tomatoes - 2 medium Ginger - 1/2 inch piece Coriander Seeds/Dhania - 1 1/2 tbsp Fennel Seeds/Saunf - 1 tsp White Sesame Seeds/Til - 1 tsp Cumin Seeds/Jeera - 1/2 tsp Red Chili Powder/Cayenne Pepper - 1/2 tsp Turmeric/Haldi - 1/4 tsp Aamchur or Chat Masala - 1/4 tsp Salt Oil How to cook Indian Bhindi Masala: Wash okra and pat them dry. Let the okra dry for 4 - 5 hours. Cut the head and tail parts of okra. Dice each one into 2 or 3 pieces. Finely chop onions. Grind coriander seeds, fennel seeds and sesame seeds to a fine powder. Puree the tomatoes and ginger. Heat 2 - 3 tbsp oil in a pan and add diced okra. Sauté okra till they turn slightly brown. Save them for later. In the same pan heat 1 tbsp oil. A...

Earlier I had blogged about Idli Fry . Here is another easy and fast snack made from leftover idlis . In Konkani, we call this as Idli Usli . You might know it as Idli Upma . Ingredients: Idli - 10 small Grated Coconut - about 3/4 cup Green Chilies - 6 Curry Leaves/Kadipata - a sprig Mustard Seeds - 1/2 tsp Asafetida/Hing - 1/4 tsp Oil preferably Coconut Oil Salt How to make Idli Upma with leftover Idli: Crumble the idlis with hands to a powder. Add salt keeping in mind that idlis do have little salt. Mix and keep it aside.  Wash green chilies, curry leaves. Pat them dry to avoid oil spluttering. Slit the green chilies lengthwise. Heat 2 - 3 tbsp coconut oil in a pan. Add mustard seeds, green chilies, curry leaves and asafetida. When mustard seeds pop, add crumbled idlis and grated coconut. Sauté at low flame to mix all the ingredients for about 5 minutes. Simple yet tasty Idly Upma is ready. 

HAPPY MAKAR SANKRANTI!  HAPPY PONGAL!  A Sankranti special sweet rice with lentils. Ingredients: Mung Dal/Split Green Gram - 1/2 cup Raw Rice - 1 cup Grated Coconut (fresh or frozen) - about 3/4 cup Jaggery or Brown Sugar - about 1/2 cup Cashews - 10 Green Cardamom/Elaichi - 5 pods Ghee/Clarified Butter Method: 1. Heat about 2 tbsp ghee in a heavy bottom pan.  Add mung dal (or whole mung bean with skin) and roast at low flame.  Saute till mung dal turns aromatic, about 5 minutes.  Save it for later. 2. Heat about 2 tbsp ghee in the same pan and add rice.  (I used Basmati, you can use your favourite variety of rice.)  Saute till rice turns fragrant, about 5 minutes. 3. In the same vessel, to the roasted rice, add roasted mung dal and 4 - 5 cups water.  Cook till both rice and mung dal turn soft.  Add more water if required. 4. When both rice and dal get cooked, add coconut, b...

Ingredients: Grated Boiled Potato - 1 1/2 cups Corn Meal or Semolina or Bread Crumbs - 1/2 cup Grated Coconut - 1/2 cup Cilantro/Coriander Leaves - about 1/2 cup Green Chillies - 2 Turmeric/Haldi - 1/4 tsp Sugar - 1 tsp Salt Oil Method: 1. Finely chop cilantro and green chillies. 2. Mash or grate the (peeled) boiled potatoes.  Add corn meal, salt, turmeric, green chillies (or red chilli powder) and half of the chopped cilantro.  Add corn meal and mix all the ingredients to form a soft dough.  Add more corn meal if required.  Divide the dough into 6 - 8 balls as per desired size.  3. Stuffing: Mix grated coconut, sugar and other half of the chopped cilantro. 4. Flatten one of the dough balls big enough to hold the stuffing.  Add about 1 tsp of the coconut stuffing in the centre and gather the edges to form a round shape. 5. Deep fry this stuffed ball in hot oil and check if it breaks while frying.  If it breaks...