Red Chili Tomato Chutney Recipe

Usually idlis are eaten with the green coconut chutney and sambar combination. If you are bored with eating idlis with this same combination you can try this delicious red tomato chutney to go along with it or you can prepare this simple chutney recipe to replace the green chutney and the sambar altogether.

This is very simple to prepare in less amount of time as compared to the green coconut chutney and sambar put together.

Ingredients:

• Tomatoes - 2 large chopped
• Onion - 1/2 medium sized
• Green Chilli - 4 nos
• Red Chilli powder - 1/4 tsp
• Cumin seeds(Jeera) - 1/2 tsp
• Garlic cloves - 3 nos
• Ginger - 1/4 inch piece
• Asafoetida (Hing) - 1 pinch
• Coriander or Cilantro - 1 tbsp finely chopped
• Oil - 1 tbsp
• Mustard - 1/4 tsp
• Dry Red Chilli - 2 nos
• Curry Leaves - 5-6 nos
• Salt to taste

Method:
1. Heat oil in a cooking vessel on medium heat. Add jeera, hing, tomato, onion, green chilli and garlic cloves.
2. Saute for 10-15 minutes.
3. Then allow the mixture to cool down.
4. Add chopped coriander, ginger, chilli powder and salt.
5. Grind all these in a mixer or grinder to a semi-liquid (chutney) consistently. You can add water during this process accordingly to get whatever consistency you desire.
6. For tadka, heat the oil in a pan. Add mustard and when it begins to crackle add red chilli and curry leaves.
7. After a couple of minutes add the tadka to the chutney.

Now the Tomato Chutney is ready to be served with steaming hot idlis.

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Cooking Tips: Too much salt! How to fix salty food

Added too much salt to your dish by adding it twice or being a little too heavy-handed with the salt container resulted in too much salt getting into your recipe...Worry not...Here are some easy ways to salvage the food you just prepared.

Fixing Salty Soup:
A lot of salt in the soup can result in it dominating all the other flavors not to mention the terrible taste of salt itself. To counter balance the taste of salt you can add sugar to the soup. Make sure you add small quantities of sugar to ensure you don't end up sweetening the soup too much. The next tip can also be very effectly applied here.

Fixing Salty Stew or Curry:
A salty curry can spoil the whole lunch or dinner. To fix this quickly peel some potatoes and slice them into rounds or cubes. Add these to the stew or curry to lighten the salt a little. The raw potatoes will absorb the salt as they cook briefly (until they look translucent) and then you can remove them (fish them out with a spoon). The remaining stew should be less salty. Another quick fix is to add finely chooped tomato (may not be suitable to use in all cases) to the stew and cooking for some time.

Fixing Salty Vegetables recipe or Dry Chicken or Other Meat recipe:Again, the same fix mentioned above applies if the veggies or chicken or other meat are in water or broth as for the stew. If they are steamed or stir-fried, you will probably need to start again, although you can try adding a little bit of lemon juice and mixing well. You could also try adding curd if approrpiate to the recipe to reduce the effect of salt.

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Spicy Chicken Dry Recipe

The Spicy Chicken dry recipe is one of the lesser known chicken recipes. I learnt this recipe long time ago on one of the regional cooking shows on TV in India.

Just like the Pepper chicken dry recipe, this recipe is very very delicious and the people who eat it will end up asking for more!

Ingredients for Chicken Dry Recipe:

• Chicken - 1/2 kg or 1.1 lb
• Soya Sauce - 1/2 tsp
• Tomato Ketchup - 1 tsp
• Chilli Powder - 1 tsp
• Tumeric Powder - 1/4 tsp
• Ginger Garlic paste - 1 tsp
• Cinnamon + Cloves (Lavang/Laung) Powder - 1/4 tsp
• Pepper Powder - 1/4 tsp
• Food color - 2 pinch
• Oil - 2 tsp
• Coriander or Cilantro Chopped - 2 tbsp
• Salt to taste

Preparation Time: 5 minutes
Cooking Time: 25 minutes
Serving: 3-4 people

Cooking Method for the Chicken Dry Recipe:

1. Put a non-stick pan or khadhai on medium heat. Add chicken and stir for 2 minutes.
2. Reduce the heat a little and add soya sauce, tomato sauce, chilli powder, turmeric, ginger garlic paste and mix well.
3. After a couple of minutes add salt, cinnamon and cloves powder and food color. Mix well, close the lid and leave it to cook for 15 minutes on low heat.
4. Add coriander leaves and oil. Mix well and wait for 2 minutes.
5. At this stage there will be some liquid from the chicken in the pan. You need to now allow the chicken to cook in its own liquid until all the liquid evaporates.
6. Add pepper powder, mix well. Wait for another minute and the dish is done.

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Crispy Masala Dosa recipe with Potato filling and Chutneys

Crispy Masala Dosa is one of the most popular among the South Indian recipes. It is a typical South Indian dish, eaten mostly for breakfast and is rich in carbohydrates and protein. It is considered as the staple food in the South indian region. In the rest of the country too, Dosas are hugely popular and Udipi restaurants serving them and other South Indian foods can be found in almost every suburb.

In this recipe I will share the secret to making the Dosa crispy just like it is made in restaurants. You will also learn how to make the onion potato filing and red chili chutney which is smeared on the dosa before putting in the potato filling. And finally you will also learn how to make spicy hot green coconut chutney to go with the dosa.

Making the Dosa Batter

Ingredients:

• 2 cups - Idli rice or parboiled rice
• 1/2 cup - Skinless split urad daal (skinless black gram)
• 1/2 teaspoon - Methi seeds (Fenugreek seeds)
• 1/4 cup - Poha (beaten rice)
• 1/4 cup - Cooked rice
• 1/4 teaspoon - Cooking Soda
• 3 to 4 teaspoon - Sugar
• 1 tablespoon - Salt
• 1 handful - Chana dal (Yellow split peas)

Add parboiled rice, methi, poha, cooked rice, yellow spilt peas into one large vessel containing sufficient water for soaking. Then soak urad dal in water in a separate vessel. Soak for 6-7 hours or overnight.
Then grind the contents from both the containers separately to a smooth paste adding water as required. After grinding the urad dal, add it to the main batter container and mix well. Add water as required until you get a pouring consistency.

Now add sugar, salt, cooking soda and mix well. Cover and keep aside in a warm place for at least 7 hours. During this time the batter raises and reaches approximately two and a half times the original volume. So make sure you use a big enough container for the dosa batter.

Red chili chutney

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup - Coconut
• 4 to 5 nos - Red chili
• 1 teaspoon - Roasted split chickpeas
• 4 to 5 - curry leaves
• Tamarind - Size of a small grape if it is raw tamarind or 1 tbsp tamarind extract
• Coriander or cilantro - 1 tablespoon chopped
• Salt to taste

Grind all the above ingredients and make a thick paste as shown in the picture.

Onion Potato Subji or Palya (Dosa Filling)

Ingredients:

• 4 nos - Potato, medium sized
• 1 to 2 - Onion, medium sized long thinly sliced
• 12 nos - Small green chilies, not to be chopped. Just split them at the center
• 1/4 tsp - Turmeric
• Salt to taste
• 1/4 tsp - Mustard
• 1 tsp - Urad dal (black gram)
• 1 1/4 tsp - Chana dal (yellow split peas)
• 10 nos - Curry leaves
• 2 tbsp - Coriander leaves or Cilantro
• 1 tbsp - Ghee
• 2 tbsp - Oil

Cut the potatoes each into 2 pieces with the skin intact and cook them in a cooker until one whistle. Then peel the skin of the potato and smash or squeeze them coarsely by hand and set aside.

Heat oil in a khadhai or a pan amd add mustard. When the mustard starts popping or bursting add urad dal and chana dal. Keep stirring for a minute and then add onion, curry leaves, green chilies and turmeric. Saute for around 10 minutes. Add Salt and 1/2 cup water and stir well. Add the mashed potato, coriander leaves, ghee and mix well. Now take the pan of the heat and the potato subji is done.

Green Coconut Chutney

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup - Coconut grated
• 3 tbsp - Roasted split chickpeas
• 6 nos - Small Green chili
• 2 pieces - Ginger (small)
• 3 tbsp - Coriander or Cilantro chopped
• Tamarind - size of a grape fruit
• 1/4 tsp - sugar
• Salt to taste

Grind all the above ingredients with a little water into a paste. For tadka add 1 tsp oil, little mustard and few curry leaves in a pan on medium heat. When the mustard starts crackling for a minute add the tadka into the chutney paste and you are done.

Making the Dosa

1. Take a dosa tava or a non-stick pan and put it on a medium to high heat.

2. Apply few drops of oil on the pan. Take a piece of cloth and rub it all over the surface of the pan to grease it. Do this step for each dosa.

3. Now sprinkle a little bit of water with your hand. Wait for the water to crackle and evaporate. This ensures that the Dosa will spread evenly and not break because the pan is too hot. Do this step for each dosa.

4. Take 1/4 cup of dosa batter and gently pour this batter onto the center of the pan.

5. Now begin to spread the batter in sweeping circular motions to form a circle. Do not be alarmed if the Dosa develops tiny holes as you spread the batter. This is normal.

6. Apply oil and ghee over the surface of the dosa and also around its edges. If you wan tyou can hold the pan by its handle, lift up and swirl it so as to make the drizzled oil spread all over the Dosa.

7. After a minute or two you will see the the thinner part of the dosa is turing dark brown. This indicates that the dosa is coming out crispy and is almost done.

8. Now smear a little bit of the red masala chutney on the dosa as shown in the picture. the quantity of this chutney depends on how spicy you want the dosa to be.
9. As the last step add the onion potato subji to the center of the dosa and flip the 2 sides of the dosa one over the other such that the subji is covered. The dosa is now ready to be served.

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Cooking Tips: How to easily peel Garlic Cloves

Often for people who are new to cooking peeling garlic becomes a rather difficult and messy task. I had a first hand expereince of that when I started cooking long time ago. The shell of the clove doesn’t come away without a significant amount of scraping, usually with my fingernails and I usually ended up getting chunks stuck in my nails and my fingers used to stink of garlic for a long time.

Not any more!. There are a couple of simple and easy ways to peel garlic cloves. If your recipe requires that the garlic must be chopped or minced or crushed then the easiest way to peel it is to use a chefs knife or a knife that is a little wide on its sides.

First, pick off your cloves from the bulb, and lay the flat side down. Then, take your chef's knife and with one hand holding the knife handle, lay either flat side of the knife on top of the garlic clove. The garlic should be closer to the knife handle than the center of the blade. With your free hand, slap the heel of your hand down and smash (no too hard though) the side of the blade against the garlic clove. And that's it. The outer skin would have magically detached from the clove, and you now have a perfectly peeled clove ready for chopping.

If your recipe requires that the garlic cloves be used has a whole, then just soak the cloves in cold water for 10-20 minutes. The peel slips off easily, leaving the whole clove intact.

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