Yum! Yum! Yum!

 As I am recollecting my salad and sandwich days, today my mouth watered for some yummy sandwiches.  Usually on weekends when I make VJ stuff up with heavy lunch, he craves for some light dinners in the evening. My homemade patties will be handy in those days. As I have settled down little bit here in BLR, i wanted to make a set of homemade patties, for future quick light dinner fixes.  In the past I have made some patties with healthy ingredients like Black Bean Brown Rice Patties, Veggie Patties etc... But today I gave them a protein twist by making them with Soya Nuggets (meal makers) which are available very easily and in all stores here in India.

Soya Crumbs and White Rice Patties

Ingredients:
Soya Nuggets ( meal makers) - 1/2 cup
White Rice ( Cooked) - 1/4 cup
Potato (boiled) - 1 cup
Carrot (small pieces) - 1/2 cup
Peas - 1/4 cup
Corn - 1/4 cup
cabbage (shredded) - 1/2 cup
cashew nuts - 5 to 6
salt - 1 tsp
black pepper - 1/2 tsp
crushed red pepper - 1tsp
coriander powder - 1 tsp
lime juice - 1 tbsp
oil - 2 tbsp



How to Make it:

1. First soak the Soya nuggets in the water for 1/2 hour.
2. Boil 1 cup of water and add the soaked soya nuggets to the boiling water and boil it for 10 min. Take them out form the heat and let them cool.
3. Take 1 tbsp oil in the pan and add the cabbage, carrot  and saute them. 
4. Add Peas and corn and let them cook on low heat for 2 min
5. once the vegetables are cooked add the mashed boiled potato
6. add salt, black pepper, crushed red pepper, coriander powder and mix it well. take the mixture from the heat and let it cool.
7. Fry the cashew nuts and crumble them into small pieces and add it to the potato mixture.
8. Chop the (boiled and cooled) soya nuggets into small pieces and add it to potato mixture.
9. Add cooked white rice and lime juice. Mix the mixture very well (mixing by hand gives good results).
10. Heat the 1 tbsp oil in the deep wide pan. Divide the mixture make into patties on your palm.Fry them on both sides in the pan and let them cool for a while.

That is it!!!!! Serve over Brown or whole wheat bread with onion, tomato cucumber rings with side of some chips. Your Fast Food but not Fat  Food is ready.

Lock the remaining patties (once they are cool) in the ziplock covers and refrigerate them for your future quick dinner fixtures.
Look how beautiful it looks when I served the patties on the brown bread ( Swiss musselli recipe) with some veggies on top and chips on the side for some crunch. 

If you please excuse me for a min, I have to grab a bite of that.... ;-)


Note: This bread is not home made (one day I will make it at home :-)). Thanks to 'Daily Bread' for their vast spread of bread varieties.

This entry is going to 'Fast Food but Not Fat Food ' event Hosted by Archana and originated by Priya.



Happy  'sandwiching' until we meet here...
-Mythreyi

'Necessity is the Mother of Invention' that is exactly what happened today in my kitchen. If i havn't told you yet which is my favorotie veggie of all, no doubt that is the King of all vegetables 'Egg Plant' ( Brinjal / Vnakaya). I like this vegetable in any form, stir fry, curry, stew, chutney, vangi bath, cooked with curd ( perugu vankaya) or cooked with milk etc etc there is no stop for the number of varieties that you can make with this vegetable.  Of all 'Gutti Vankaya' (Stuffed Baby Egg Plant) is my favorite and also this variety has been refereed as the symbol for romance( or romantic dinner ) in our state's local Sahityam (Literature).  There are so many recipes and forms (based on the regions) that you can make for this 'Gutti Vankaya' variety. Okay now my mouth waters... and I will stop here bragging about this vegetable.

Okay, now let me come to the real story of this recipe. As we have recently moved to BLR, I am with no kitchen gadgets yet and missing the basic Grinder in the my Kitchen 'The Mixie'. It is the Indian version of Blender and yet powerful with so many other tools and jars to make to smooth pastes, fine powders, batter etc. So basically 'The Mixie' is a combination of Blender, Food Processor and Grinder. Not sure if i am not finding time to buy a new one or confused with the so many options and brands here, but i surely miss it whenever I want to make any masala curry or chutney.  So one day at the grocery store the round, small , tender and cute baby egg plants caught my eye and without remembering that not having mixie in my kitchen I have bought these. Only on the day when I want to make a curry with this romantic vegetable to make one Friday evening special to my better half then only i realized the fact that my kitchen is missing this basic gadget. As the tender baby egg plants are tempering me to make this curry anyway, and I can not back off my plans, and that's how this recipe got invented in my kitchen. I should say this is a combination of the my mom's signature recipe and Hyderabadi's famous recipe, so it got to taste good. Enjoy!

Ingredients:
Baby Egg Plants - 6
Onion - 1 small
Green Chili - 3
Tamarind Paste - 1 Tbsp
Milk - 1/4 cup
salt - 2 tsp
Red Chili Powder - 1 tsp
Coriander Powder - 1 tsp
Cinnamon - 1 sick
Cloves - 3
Cardamom - 1
Cumin Seeds - 1 tsp
Bay Leave - 1
Oil - 2 Tbsp
Cilantro - 1/3 cup

Stuffing:

Onion - 1 small
Green Chili - 2
Ginger - 1 inch
Garlic - 4 cloves
Garam Masala Powder - 1 tsp
salt - 1 tsp
Tamarind Paste - 1 tsp
Oil - 1 Tbsp




How to make it:
Stuffing:
1. Heat the Oil in the Non Stick Pan and Onions ( very thinly diced onions) and Green Chili
2. Grate the Ginger and Garlic and add to the Pan after 5 min
3. Once the onions are getting cooked and becoming like paste, add tamarind paste
4.  Mix it well and add salt and Garam Masala, let it cook on slow for 5 more minutes
5. Taste and Adjust the seasonings and turn off the heat and let it cool

Gravy:
1. Heat the 1 tbsp of oil in the deep non stick dish
2. Wash and pat dry the Baby egg plants and make  four slits and add to the pan
3. Fry the Egg Plants until the skin becomes tender or wilted ( or turned into dark purple color) approx 5 min
4.Take out the Egg Plants into a plate and let them cool
5. To the same pan, add remaining 1 tbsp oil and Bay leave, Cinnamon Stick, Cloves and Cardamom, Cumin seeds and fry them for 2 min (you will get nice aroma of these spices)
6.  Add the Onions ( thinly diced onions) and Green Chili, saute them for 5 min
7. Add salt, red chili powder and coriander powder and close the lid and let it simmer for 5 min
8. Add Tamarind paste and add 1/3 cup of water and keep it in low and simmer
9. Mean while stuff the stuffing into baby egg plants evenly and add the stuffed egg plants to the gravy.
10. Add milk and cilantro to the gravy, close the lid  and cook on low for 15 to 20 minutes.



Turn off the heat and taste and adjust seasoning accordingly, transfer into serving bowl and garnish with some more cilantro. Serve this Yummy Stuffed Baby Egg Plants (Gutti Vankaya) with gravy over  hot white rice and wander in heaven for a while.


Note:
 If you have mixie or grinder handy for the stuffing, you can fry the onions and grind them along with spices.


I am sending this to Torview's Food Pallette Series Rainbow Event.







Take Care until we meet here again
-Mythreyi

After all the Sravana Masam and Vinayaka Chaviti fun is over I was with a mindset to set the table with this simple and healthy vegetable Indian Broad Beans ( Chikkudu Kaya) stir fry yet elegant and paints your plate green with full of nutrients. Enjoy!

Indian Broad Beans Stir Fry

Ingredients:
Broad Beans - 1 lb
White Onion - 1 medium
Green Chilies - 2 or 3
Garlic - 3 or 4 cloves
Cilantro - 1/4 cup
salt - 2 tsp

Talimpu (Tempering):
Red Chilies - 2
Urad Dal - 1 tbsp
Chana Dal - 1 Tbsp
Cumin Seeds - 1 tsp
Mustard Seeds - 1 tsp
Curry Leaves  - 10


Method:

1. Take out the side veins for all the beans, and cut them into half or 1/3 bite size.
2. Boil the water and add 1 tsp salt to it. Add the beans to boiling salt water carefully and cook for 15 min.
3. Now drain the beans and set them side allowing them cool.
4. Take a non-stick pan and make the Indian Tempering.
5. Add Green Chili and Garlic to the pan. Once the garlic roasts add the thinly sliced white onions.
6. Add 1 tsp salt to Onions and Let the onion cook for 5 min (until they become translucent)
7. Add the beans to the pan and mix them with onions and spices. 
8. Let it cook by stir frying ( as the beans are boiled), they get cooked in less time. 
9. Once the bean becomes soft, add Cilantro and simmer for 5 min.
10. Switch off the Curry and Take the Curry into Serving Bowl and garnish with some more cilantro.

Serve over Hot White Rice and Enjoy all the flavors in this healthy vegetable stir fry.


Take Care until we meet here again
-Mythreyi