We were busy for last few days, so could not post anything here. One of our readers requested for this recipe.
This is a recipe from my mother’s sister. She was a very good cook. She passed away about 3 decades ago. I had noted down few of her recipes. This is one of them. Everytime I cook these dishes, I remember her.
Capsicum ( phugge mirsangi ) is cooked in a sweet and spicy coconut paste to make kairas . This can be made only with capsicum or a mixture of potatoes and capsicum. Jaggery is an optional ingredient, so I do not include it when I cook this dish. This is my husband’s one of favorite side dishes.
Ingredients: 1 cup potatoes 2 cups capsicum 1 tea spn chana dal 2-3 green chillies 1 tea spn sesame seeds 1 tea spn mustard seeds A pinch asafoetida 1/2 cup fresh/frozen coconut 4-5 curry leaves 1/2 tea spn jaggery(optional) 1/4 tea spn tamarind paste A pinch turmeric (was not there in original recipe) Oil Salt
Method: Heat oil and add mustard seeds. Add curry leaves. Fry capsicum, potatoes, turmeric in the seasoning for few minutes. Add a little water and cook. Heat oil and add chana dal, green chillies, sesame seeds, 1/2 tea spn mustard seeds, asafoetida. Add coconut and fry for a minute. Grind to a paste (do not add too much water). Add this to the capsicum-potato mixture with salt, jaggery, tamarind. Cook till done.
Serves : 2-3 Preparation time : 30mins
I have been baking a breads/pizzas a lot these days. Mainly because I feel they are very easy to make. I usually make pizza base at home, use half immediately and freeze the remaining, which I finish within a week. Making the base does not take long time. Once the base is ready, it is just few minutes work to put together the pizza. Recently, I started grilling the pizza instead of baking it.
I skip the sauces and just add cheese and vegetables on it. This is something I had watched on Food Network . Grilling the base makes it very crispy, the way I like it.
Ingredients: Pizza dough (store bought pizza base can also be used) Cheese – mozerrella or Italian 3 cheese combo (parmesan, asiago, romano) Vegetables Chilli flakes Olive oil Salt
Method: Roll the pizza dough into desired size and thickness. Heat the grill to high temperature. Sprinkle some olive oil. Now keep the rolled pizza base on the grill and reduce the temperature to medium. After few minutes, flip the pizza base. Now spread the cheese on it. Then spread the vegetables, salt, chilli flakes. Cover the grill with a foil (optional, this helps to trap the heat and cheese melts faster). Take off the heat when the base is done. Serve hot.Â
PS: – Keep all the toppings, cheeses ready and near the grill. Once the base is flipped, you need to work very fast to add all the toppings, otherwise the base gets done and the cheese does not get time to melt. – Sauce can be added before the cheese if required – The toppings do not get cooked well by this method, so if you like, stir fry the toppings for few minutes before adding it to pizza – Do not make the base very thick. This method works best for thin crusted pizzas. – Do not cook it on high flame, the base gets eaily burnt. So keep it on medium flame. – It takes few trial and errors to get the base and temperature right.
