I like vegetable clear soup and recently cooked this for my 8 month old. She loved it too - so guess I will make this more often from now on.

Method
1. Heat 1 tsp ghee and 1 tsp butter in a pan. Add 1 finely chopped small onion and saute till pink.
2. Add 2-3 cloves of garlic finely chopped and saute. Add 3-4 tsp each of carrot finely chopped, beans finely chopped, cabbage finely chopped, sweet corn chopped into smaller pieces and saute the vegetables for 2-3 mins.
3. Add 3 cups of water to the pan and let the vegetables cook.
4. When the veggies are almost cooked, add 3 tsp of cornflour mixed in water (such that there are no lumps) and add it to the pan.
5.Mix the corn flour with 5 tsp's of water without any lumps and add it to the pan.
Adjust the salt according to taste and let the soup cook for more 4-5 mins,

6. Add  pepper powder according to taste and garnish with spring onion greens and serve.

For my baby, I took out some soup before adding the pepper and spring onions - she just loved the taste.

I am not a big fan of potatoes in my gravy and sabzis but this one dish is an exception.



Method
1. Boil 2-3 big potatoes. Peel them and chop them into cubes and keep aside.
2. Finely chop 1 onion. 
3. Finely grate 1 cup coconut. Dry roast the coconut till it turns reddish and leaves a nice aroma.
4. Grind coconut with 1 tsp coriander seeds, 5-6 red chillies and 1 marble sized ball of tamarind to a smooth paste.
5. Heat 1 tsp of coconut oil in a pan. Fry the onions till they are pink. Add the potatoes and the masala and salt and let it cook. Add a little bit water and cook till the masala is cooked. You can adjust the water depending on the consistency you want.

This is an amazing side dish with rice, goes well with chappatis and also rice rotis.

This is one traditional Andhra recipe that I really like and look forward to this dish  in our office canteen. I love the tanginess of this dish and the crisp onions taste good too. It goes well with rice and can be just had like a drink along with food.I searched the recipe today and decided to make it - the best part is that its so easy to make and takes hardly some 15 mins and doesn't need any heating.

Method

1. Take a small vessel. Add 1 tsp oil and roast 2 dry red chillies. Grind them to a fine paste with some water.

2. Soak 1 lemon sized ball of tamarind in 3 cups of water (I used slightly warm water).  Extract the juice of the tamarind and discard the pulp. 

3. Finely chop 1/2 a onion, 2 green chillies. Add this to the tamarind pulp with water, and add salt according to taste.

4. Heat 1 tsp oil in a small pan. When oil is hot,  add 1 tsp mustard seeds. After they splutter, add 1 tsp cumin seeds and 1 sprig of curry leaves. Pour this seasoning over the tamarind mixture. Add a pinch of sugar/jaggery to balance the tanginess.

Serve cold.

I had tasted this dish at hubby's friend Lt. Col Kartik's place. His wife Chabi is an awesome cook and I was totally bowled over by this dish. The best part is that it is a complete dish and you don't need to cook anything else. Also looks extremely presentable with a lot of accompaniments. 

I felt like cooking Khow Suey today and searched online for recipes. Surprisingly I found only Indian recipe blogs :) Now  I really wonder whether this is authentic Burmese - need to do some research later. 

The recipes I found contained garam masala, dhaniya etc so I think it must be the Indianised version of the Burmese recipe (if that exists that is). Here  is how I cooked the dish



Method

1. Take 1/2 cup oil in a pan and deep fry 1 onion cut into longish slices,  till caramalised. In the same pan deep fry thin slices of 3-4 pods of garlic. Drain and keep aside for garnish
2. Add 250 gms of boneless chicken slices marinated in salt  and Saute for 10 mins or till 80% done. Drain and keep aside. 

3. Now in the same pan, add 1 finely chopped onion and saute. Add 1 tsp finely chopped ginger, 2 red chillies finely chopped and 1 tsp finely chopped garlic and saute till onions are brown. Add 1/2 tsp of turmeric, 1 tsp each of red chilli powder, and 2 tsp of coriander powder (alternately you can add Curry masala powder if you have that at home). Add salt and cook for another 5 mins. 


4. Add the chicken and cook. Now add some water  so that the chicken is covered, 2 tsp lemon juice and cook till the chicken is almost cooked.

5. Parallely, keep 1 pack of egg noodles (I used Ching's egg noodles) for cooking according to instructions on the pack. Time it such that it is just cooked before you are ready to serve the dish. You should ideally strain the noodles from hot water and drain it under cold water to stop the cooking process. I added some salt and oil to the noodles while cooking.
6.  Add 200 ml of coconut milk to the chicken. I also added some Maggi chicken cubes mixed in water for additional taste.
7. You can add some basil leaves and lime leaves if you have them readily available. Let the whole dish come to a good boil and the khow suey is ready to be served.
5. Meanwhile chop some coriander leaves and some spring onions for garnishing.


Serve the chicken gravy on the noodles and top it with the caramalised onions, garlic, spring onions, sliced boiled egg and coriander leaves. Try this dish - I am sure you wont be disappointed.

Last Sunday, we had one of the best parties of our lives at a friend's farmhouse in Hyderabad. It was a pot luck barbeque party and I carried among other dishes, some prawns. Deepali, my friend who is my culinary guru, asked me to try marinating the prawns in Chinese sauces and this turned out pretty good and different from the Indian bbqs. 



Method
1. Devein and deshell 1 kg prawns. Leave the tail on.
2. For marinade, add 2-3 tsp soya sauce, 2 tsp chilli sauce, salt, pepper, red chilli flakes, 1 tsp honey and 3 tsp olive oil in a glass bowl. You can change the proportions according to your taste.
3. Toss the prawns in the marinade such that all the prawns are covered and refrigerate for 24 hours.
4. Arrange the prawns on a wet wooden skewer. 

5. Grill in barbeque - keep basting with the leftover marinade and oil while grilling. 

You can also try adding some sesame seeds (Till) to the marinade. I will try it next time. The prawns can also be barbequed at home on a pan - it wont taste smoky but then this will be a good second option.

I like the sweet and sour dishes in Chinese cuisine. I think its the yin and yang concept that manifests itself in the recipes.  

Method

1. Marinate about 250 gms of deshelled and deviened prawns (I left the tail on) for about an hour with 2 tsp soya sauce, 2 tsp red chilli sauce, 1 tsp vinegar a little bit of honey and salt to taste.

2. Cut 1 onion into lengthwise thin strips. Julienne  about 1/2 cup of carrot  and 1/2 cup of capsicum. Finely chop about 1 tsp of garlic and 1 tsp of ginger. In Chinese cooking most of the ingredients are cut in the same shape. You can also cut all the vegetables into cubes instead of julienne. Cubes takes slightly longer to cook.

3. Take 2 tbsp  of oil in a pan. Add 2 tsp of cornstarch to the prawns. When the oil is hot, saute the prawns till they are pink and start to curl. Dont overcook the prawns as then they become harder.Remove from pan and set aside

4. In same pan, add 1 tsp oil and saute the carrots for 2 mins till slightly soft. Remove from pan and set aside

5. In same pan, add 1 tsp oil and saute the onions. When the onions are pink, add the ginger and garlic and saute briefly on medium flame. Add capsicum and carrot and saute till the vegetables look cooked. 

6. Mix 2 tsp soya sauce, 2 tsp vinegar, 2 tsp red chilli sauce, 1 tsp sugar, 1 tsp corn starch and add this to the pan and bring to boil. The mixture will thicken and coat the prawns and the vegetables beautifully.

Serve with rice /noodles. 

As I was writing this post, I wondered whether what I bought today was shrimps or a prawns? Googled and found this post. The differences are so subtle that  I would rather enjoy my food - anyways whats in a name....

This is a very simple dish of one of my favorite vegetables - I believe one can hardly go wrong with bhindi.

Method

1. Wash, pat dry  and cut 1/2 kg of  Bhindi (OKRA) into 2 pieces lengthwise after cutting off the edges.

2. Take oil in a pan. When hot, Add 1 tsp cumin seeds and  a pinch of asafoetida (hing)and  2 -3 crushed garlic pods .

3. Add  bhindi  when the cumin seeds crackle and stir for 5 mins or till the  bhindi  looks slightly cooked.

3. Now add 1 tsp coriander powder, 1 tsp red chilli powder, pinch of turmeric powder, 1 tsp amchoor powder and saute till the  bhindi  is coated well with the masalas.

4. Add salt and 1-2 tsp besan powder and saute till the bhindi is well cooked.

Serve hot with chapatis.