Atukulu Upma ~ Savoury Rice Flakes

Its been a long time again.... I posting on my blog, my laptop has given up on me :( and was left with no choice than to depend on my friend's laptop for surfing and stuff . So I was not able to blog anything so far. One more thing I wanted to share is I am going to India for a vacation in March. Pretty much excited about the whole trip, I am going to my Desh (country) after a span of 3.3yrs and my feet are really not on ground right now. My laptop is here and wanted to blog few of my favorite recipes before I become busy with my trip preps, shopping, packing..

Aloo Poha is one of my favorite breakfast/snack and is a very easy to make recipe. I can have this anytime in substitution for my lunch or dinner, it makes me so full, obviously because its made of rice. I think this is great breakfast for bachelors who have limited resources and minimum experience in cooking. During my hostel days we had this on the menu daily and honestly, I got bored eating that daily there :) but again its my favo.... Am I contradicting? do you think so? But anyways here is my mother's recipe which she learned from one of her Maharashtrian friend.

Source: My Mother

Cuisine: Indian~Maharashtrian

Prep time: 10 mins

Cooking time: 15 mins

Serves: 4 people

Ingredients:
2.5 C thick Poha/flattened rice flakes
(from Indian groceries)

1 medium red onion, thinly sliced
1 large potato, thinly diced or boiled ones
3-4 green chillies, cut into small pieces
Handful of frozen green peas (optional)
Handful of peanuts
small bunch of cilantro, chopped finely
4-5 curry leaves
Juice of 1 small lemon/lime
grated coconut of garnishing (optional)
pinch of haldi/turmeric powder
1t jeera/cumin
1t mustard seeds
1t urad dal/black gram
1t chana dal/bengal gram
2T cooking oil
salt as per taste

Method:

1. Wash the rice flakes/atukulu thoroughly only once in cold water, drain immediately to avoid sogginess and keep aside for few mins. You will notice that the flakes becomes plumpy as they absorb any excess water. Chop onions, green chillies, potato.
2. Heat oil in a wide pan and add the mustard, let it splutter for a min and then add urad dal/black gram and cumin/jeera, chana dal/bengal gram and curry leaves. Let it fry for a min and add the raw peanuts. Fry till it they are brown in color.
3. Meanwhile mix some salt in the soaked poha and mix well with your hands. Dont use spoon/spatula it may break the flakes.
   
4. Add onions, diced potato, green peas and green chillies to the pan . Let it cook for few mins or till the potatoes are done if you are taking the fresh one instead of boiled one. Add turmeric and mix well and then add the salted poha to it.
   
5. Mix well and let it sit on the flame for 3 more mins. Add the lime/lemon juice and chopped cilantro and mix well so that the juice is evenly distributed.
   
6. Before serving garnish with freshly grated coconut.

Thanks to Asha for reminding about two events related to potato going on in food blogosphere. I am sending this entry to Sia host of Ode to Potato and to Dhivya host of The Potato Fe(a)st.

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Padma

6:10 AM

soft, fluffy and juicy Buttermilk Blueberry Muffins

Cup cakes or muffins or whatever you call, they are one of my favorite snacks when I have baking sessions. There is still so much of learning process going on with my baking and using oven. I tried different muffin-recipes but always ended up with very dry and hard ones. Finally I got hold of a very good one which leaves the muffins moist from inside and fluffy and soft all over even after 2-3 days kept at room temperature stored in not so air-tight container. The search for a perfect blueberry muffin recipe is over, for me ;) after I tried and tested this recipe from Recipezaar.com.

Lets straight aways go the the recipe without wasting much time and ofcourse, I know you gals have to do bloghopping too! So keeping this short amd simple.

slice me up!

Source: Recipezaar.com
Cuisine: International ~American
Prep time: 20 mins
Cooking time: 30-35 mins
Serves: 8-10 people
Ingredients:
1C fresh blueberries or frozen (unthawed)
2C all-purpose flour(unbleached), plus
1T all-purpose flour(unbl)
2/3 C granulated sugar
2t baking powder
1/4t baking soda
1/2t ground cinnamon
1/4t salt
1 large egg (or 1/4 C orange juice)
1 1/4C buttermilk
1t vanilla extract
3T unsalted butter, melted and cooled
for Crumble topping(optional):
1/4C all-purpose flour (unbl)
1/2t ground cinnamon
1/4C firmly packed light brown sugar
2T unsalted butter, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
Method:

1. To make the bluberry muffins: preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. generously butter or grease the muffins cups/tins.
2.If using fresh blueberries, rinse and thoroughly dry the berries. In a small bowl, toss the fresh or forzen berries with the 1t flour.
3. In a large bowl, sift together 2C flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon. Add sugar and salt, stir well so that all the ingredients mix well.
4. In a medium bowl, whisk together the egg and 1C of buttermilk until combines, whisk in the vanilla and melted butter.
5. Pour the buttermilk mixture into the well, begin stirring the liquids, gradually drawing the dry ingredients into the well until they are blended well. If the mixture is to thick add theadditional 1/4C of the buttermilk and gently mix.
6. Add the blueberries and fold in just to distribute evenly taking care not to overmix.
7. Evenly divide the batter among the prepared muffin cups
8. To make the crumble topping (optional): In a small bowl, combine the flour, cinnamon and brownsugar. Add the butter pieces and cut into the sugar mixture with a pastry blender until the topping looks like crumbled
9. Evenly divide the crumble topping among the muffins, sprinkling it on top.
10. Bake the muffins for 30 to 35 mins, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin come out clear. Cool in the pan on a wire rack for 10 mins, then carefully turn out onto the rack.
11. Serve warm, or cool completely. Store in an airtight containers at room temperature for up to 2-3 days.

Variations: You can choose to add your favorite berries, cherries or any dry fruits according to your taste.

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Padma

5:04 PM

testing

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Padma

2:00 PM