Sunday, September 17, 2006

Methi(Fenugreek leaves)/ Spinach dal.


This is a very tasty dish. You can serve it as a snack or as an accompanyment to a main meal. You can use only methi leaves or only spinach leaves or a combination of both. Even children, who dislike eating greens love it.
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Methi/spinach vatli dal.

Ingredients: chana dal 1 cup, 1 cup methi/spinach leaves chopped, 4 green chillis , 1/2 inch ginger piece, 3 garlic flakes, salt to taste , hing, 1/2 cup fresh grated coconut, 1 tea spoon lime juice .

Method: Soak chana dal for 1 hour. Grind together chana dal , green chilli, ginger, garlic, curry leaves, salt. Mix chopped methi/spinach leaves. In a pan, heat oil, and mustard seed and cumin seed . when they stop spluttering, add asafotida, turmeric powder, curry leaves. Add ground mixture. Mix well. Cover and cook on slow fire for 10 minutes. Add grated coconut, lime juice, chopped coriander leaves. Serve as accompaniment with a meal or as a snack.

Sweet Coconut rice (Narali Bhat)

This is a very easy to prepare sweet rice. If the rice is already cooked, it takes only 10-15 minutes to make this dish. My husband loves it.
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Sweet Coconut rice.

Ingredients : 1 cup rice. 1 cup freshly grated coconut.
1 ½ cup Jaggery or sugar(Jaggery tastes better). ½ teaspoon cardamom powder.
8-10 cashew nuts pieces. Raisins. 2 ½ cup water.
2 tablespoons Ghee (clarified butter).

Preparation method :
· Wash rice and keep aside for ½ hour. Pressure cook with 2 cups of water till just done.
· Boil jaggery and ½ cup water till jaggery melts.
· Heat ghee in a big pan, fry cashew nut pieces. Remove from ghee.
· In the same ghee, add cooked rice, jaggery syrup, freshly grated coconut. Mix well and cook covered on low fire for 10 minutes. When the syrup is absorbed by rice, add fried cashew nuts, raisins, cardamom powder. Add some more ghee if desired. Mix well. Serve.