Moong Dal Curry (मूग डाळीची आमटी)

Ingredients:
1/2 cup Moong dal, boiled
4-5 Garlic cloves
1 medium sized tomato, wedged
2-3 green chilies
coriander leaves for garnish
salt as per taste
1 tsp of jaggery or as per taste

For Seasoning:
1/2 tsp Cumin seeds or Jeera
1 tsp Ghee or oil
a pinch of Asafoetida or hing
1/2 tsp of turmeric

Servings:
3 people

Boil moong dal in a pressure cooker, adding sufficient water. Keep it aside for cooling. In a kadhai, add ghee or oil. Season with jeera, asafoetida. Add chopped garlic cloves, turmeric and stir for a minute. Next add tomato wedges and let it cook for 5 minutes.  Now add the cooked moong dal. Season with salt and jaggery. Let is simmer for 5-10 minutes. Garnish with coriander leaves and lemon juice.

Black Grapes Juice (काळ्या द्राक्षांचा रस)

Ingredients:
1 cup black grapes, thoroughly washed
4-5 ice cubes
a pinch of Salt (Optional)
Sugar as per taste (Optional)

Blend together black grapes along with ice cubes. Add sugar and/or salt as per taste. 

Rava Dosa (रवा डोसा)

The leftover buttermilk from the churned butter is slightly bitter to taste compared to fresh buttermilk. I use it in recipes instead of drinking it. Here is one such recipe that uses leftover buttermilk. You can also use fresh buttermilk for the recipe.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups of Buttermilk
1 1/2 cup of Semolina or Rava
1/2 cup of rice flour
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 medium tomato, finely chopped
2 tbsp coriander leaves, finely chopped
2 green chillies, finely chopped
salt to taste

Servings:
5-6 medium dosas

Add semolina to the buttermilk and mix well. Depending on how thick the batter is, add little water to make it of dosa batter consistency. Cover it and leave aside for 2-3 hours to ferment.

Add rice flour to the batter and mix well. Next add chopped onion, tomato, coriander leaves, chillies, salt. Adjust with water to have a dosa batter consistency.

Heat a non-stick pan. Pour a ladle of batter onto the pan. Spread it uniformly to make a medium thick dosa. Cover it with lid. Keep the gas stove on simmer. After about 3-4 minutes, flip the dosa and let it cook for 2-3 minutes.

Serve with coconut chutney or any other chutney/sauce of your choice. My daughter loves it with a dollop of cheese spread.

Mixed Vegetable Gravy (भाज्यांचा रस्सा)

My daughter wanted to have potato gravy. I didnt have cauliflower, peas etc that are needed for potato gravy of her choice. I modified it a bit to make mixed vegetable gravy. You can add any vegetables of your choice. This gravy is made without using onion or garlic.

Ingredients:
4 medium sized potatoes, chunk sized pieces
1 large carrot, bite sized pieces
2 medium tomatoes, bite sized pieces
3 small eggplants, bite sized pieces
2 capsicum, bite sized pieces
1 tbsp tamarind juice
salt as per taste
jaggery as per taste
1 1/2 tbsp groundnut powder
finely chopped coriander leaves for garnish
2 tsp garam masala
1 tsp red chilli powder

For Seasoning:
2 tsp oil
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
a pinch of asafoetida
8-10 curry leaves
4-5 fenugreek seeds
1/2 tsp turmeric powder

In a large kadhai, heat oil for seasoning. Add mustard, fenugreek seeds. Once the mustard seeds start to pop, add asafoetida, curry leaves and turmeric powder. Next add tomatoe pieces and stir well. Cover with lid and let it steam for a minute. Once the tomatoes have turned soft, add the remaining vegetables and stir well. Cover with lid and let it simmer for 5 minutes. Now add garam masala and chilli powder and tamarind juice. Add about a cup of water and let the vegetables cook well. Cover with lid and let it simmer for 5-7 minutes. Add salt and jaggery and stir well. Once all the vegetables are cooked, after about 5-7 minutes, add groundnut powder for a thicker consistency. Simmer for 2-3 minutes. Garnish with chopped coriander leaves.

Note: You can add green chillies instead of red chilli powder. You can use coriander and cummin seeds powder instead of garam masala.

Coconut Chutney (नारळाची चटणी)

Coconut chutney can be made in a variety of ways. This chutney uses daria dal (split gram dal) or daale in marathi.


Ingredients:
1/2 cup freshly grated coconut
1 tbsp roasted daria dal (daaLe)
2 green chillies
1 1/2 cup coriander leaves
2-3 garlic cloves
1 tsp of tamarind pulp or lemon juice
salt as per taste
sugar as per taste

Combine all ingredients and grind them in a mixer. This chutney goes well with idli, dhirde, ghavan or any other flat bread. 

Potato and eggplant slices (बटाटा आणि वांग्याचे काप)

This recipe is our sunday special lazy recipe. Slices, along with rice, dal and/or solkadi makes for a quick lunch. Whenever I crave for oily snacks, I make these slices. I prefer shallow fry snacks than deep fried ones.

Ingredients:
2 potatoes
3 small eggplants
2 tbsp semolina
3/4 cup jowar flour or rice flour
2 tsp chili powder
oil for shallow frying
salt as per taste

Servings:
3 people

Wash and dry potato and eggplants. Make round and thin slices of potato and eggplant. Sprinkle 1/4 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp chilli powder on these slices. Mix well and leave them for 10-15 minutes to marinate. After marination, it will release water, drain it. Now in a plate, add together semolina, jowar or rice flour, remaining chili powder and salt. Mix it well. 

Heat pan on gas stove. Dip each slice into the dry mixture, coating both sides well. Make a batch of slices and dry roast them on the pan. Coat the pan well with oil to cook the slices well. Cover the pan with a lid for 1-2 minutes. Then turn the slices over to cook the other side well. Coat them with little bit of oil. Sprinkle very little water and cover with lid. Slices will get cooked in 2 minutes. Keep the gas stove on simmer to avoid burning the slices. The slices should be cooked well and soft. Do not overcook them as they will turn hard.

Carrot Salad (गाजराची कोशिंबीर)

Ingredients:
2 carrots, grated
finely chopped coriander leaves
freshly grated coconut

1 tsp lemon juice
salt as per taste
sugar as per taste

For Seasoning:
1/2 tsp of oil
1/2 tsp mustard
a pinch of asafoetida
1/4 tsp turmeric
7-8 curry leaves
1-2 medium green chillies, finely chopped

Servings:
3 people

In a bowl, mix together grated carrot, coriander leaves, coconut, salt, sugar, lemon juice. Toss lightly. In a small kadhai, add oil. Add mustard seeds to the kadhai. Once mustard seeds start to pop, add asafoetida, curry leaves. Next add chopped chillies, turmeric powder. Stir well and turn the heat off. Add this mixture to the bowl and mix well.

Spring Onion Bhaji (कांदा पातीची भाजी)

Ingredients:
Spring Onion/Kanda paat 1 bunch - chopped
 1 tsp garam masala
1/2 tsp chilli powder
salt as per taste
jaggery as per taste
Freshly grated coconut for garnish

For Seasoning:
1 tsp oil
1/2 tsp mustard
a pinch of asafoetida
1/4 tsp of turmeric powder

Servings:
3 people

Wash and cut spring onion. In a kadhai, heat oil and add mustard to it. Once the mustard seeds start to pop, add asafoetida. Now add chopped spring onion and turmeric. Stir well and cover with lid. Let it simmer for 2 minutes. The spring onion will get cooked. Next add garam masala, chilli powder and salt and jaggery. Stir well and simmer until the jaggery is dissolved and masala, chilli powder are mixed well in the vegetable. Garnish with freshly grated coconut.

Optionally, you can add about 1 tbsp of gram flour or besan once the vegetable is cooked and mix well. Simmer for 2 minutes. Garnish with coconut before serving.