Barbecued Potatoes

Ingredients:
Large potatoes : 6
Grated cheese : 1/2 cup
onion : 1 large
Carrots : 2
Green peas fresh : 1/4 cup
Chilli powder : 1 tsp
Butter : 1 Tbsp
Tomato sauce : 1 Tbsp
Salt and pepper to taste

Method:
Pressure cook potatoes with jacket till done.
Peel and chop onions and carrots. Cut potatoes lengthwise into half and scoop out the pulp, leaving a thin brim along the skin.To the scooped out pulp add pepper, half of cheese and a little butter and mash well. Fill the potato cases with this filling and sprinkle the remaining cheese on top. Bake in a preheated electric oven for about 10 mins till until crisp.

For garnishing , heat oil in a pan and fry onions till golden. Add carrots and peas and saute. Next add the salt and pepper and sprinkle water and cover to get mixture cooked. Add the tomato sauce and mix gently and remove from fire. Place a spoonful of this on the baked potato and serve hot.This is a great favourite with kids.

Apple Ginger Jam

Ingredients:
Apples : 1 kg
Sugar : 1 kg
Ginger : 50 gms
Limes : 2
Citric acid : 1 tsp
A few drops of color if desired

Method:

Core apples and cut into small cubes, scrape and clean ginger and chop fine.Pressure cook these with a little water for 8 mins. ( You can also cook these in Microwave)
Extract puree by passing through a fine strainer or mesh.You can also use a crusher and then strain to extract the puree.

Add sugar, citric acid and lime juice to the puree in a thick vessel and boil rapidly ,stir with a wooden spoon and remove scum from the top of the mixture. When the setting point is reached remove from fire, add colour and KMS ( optional).Bottle while still hot in a clean dry glass jar. Don't forget to keep the bottle on a wooden surface lest it crack when hot jam is poured.

To test if jam is done, drop a blob of jam in a bowl of cold water and if done it will remain as a shiny blob, if not it will start dissolving.

Pongal /Rice and Dal dish

Ingredients:
Broken rice : 1 cup
Moong Dal : 1 cup
Pepper coarsely crushed : 1 Tbsp
Salt : 2 tsp
Green chillies : 4 chopped fine
Fresh ginger scraped and cut fine : 1 inch
For seasoning:
Jeera (cumin seeds) : 2 Tbsp
Fresh Ghee : 1/2 cup
cashew-nuts : 10 numbers
Curry leaves (Karibeva) : 10 to 15
Method:
Wash and soak rice and dal in a vessel 6 cups of water for 15 minutes. To this add chopped ginger and green chillies. Add half of pepper and 1 tsp of jeera and salt and mix well. Keep the vessel covered in a cooker and cook for three whistles or 10 minutes on sim fire.When done and the cooker is cooled down remove the vessel out and stir the cooked contents. Add hot water if necessary and adjust salt if necessary.The cooked dal and rice should be more on fluid side as it absorbs the water and becomes tough when cool.The spoon should move freely when mixing. Finally season with ghee, jeera,pepper,cashewnuts and karbev leaves and serve hot with tomato chutney or onion chutney.

Instant rasam/saar

Sorry folks, long time since I posted recipes. This is a good "saar" or rasam in these days of high cost of pulses! And good for health too.

Ingredients:
Coriander seeds : 1 Tbsp
Jeera : 1 tsp
Pepper corns : 1 tsp
Chana dal : 1 Tbsp
Red chillies : 2
Grated coconut : 3 Tbsps
Tamarind : lime size soak in water
For Seasoning : Oil 1 Tbsp, mustard 1/2 tsp,curry leaves 5 or 6


Method : Dry fry all the above (except coconut and tamarind)to golden color and grind to a smooth paste in a mixie with tamarind and coconut and 1/2 cup water. Transfer to a vessel and add 2 cups of water and salt as per taste. Bring to boil. Season with mustard and curry leaves.Serve with hot rice.