Cream of Mushroom Soup

Ingredients 

3 tbs unsalted butter
2 tbs olive oil
3/4 cups finely chopped shallots
2 tbs chopped garlic
2 pounds white or any mushrooms -- thinly sliced
1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves(optional)
salt and freshly ground black pepper per taste
3 tbs all-purpose flour
3 1/2 cups veg broth -- reserving 1/2 cup or 1 bullion
1/2 cup milk or few tbs of cream
ground nutmeg to taste -- about 1/4 teaspoon

In a large saucepan melt butter with the olive oil over moderate heat. Add the
shallots and garlic cook until tender, about 2 to 3 minutes. Add the sliced mushrooms,thyme leaves, salt and pepper, cooking until all of the liquid rendered from the mushrooms evaporates. Stir in the flour and cook for 2 to 3 minutes.

Add veg broth or bullion water, bring to a simmer and cook for 15 minutes.Now you can add the milk or cream, bring to boil for another few minutes.

Serve warm soup with bread slices.
In a blender puree the soup until smooth.

Adai

Ingredients:
1 cup - Rice
1 cup - mixed dals -Chana dal, toor dal, green moong and urad dal
3 nos - dried Red chillies or to taste
1 tbs fenugreek seeds
A pinch of hing/asafoetida
A sprig of curry leaves
Salt to taste
Oil for cooking the dosa - approx 2 Tbsp

Optional: 1" inch - ginger piece, Chopped onion, Cilantro

Method:
Soak the rice, dals and red chillies in water for about 3 - 4 hrs even over a night .
Grind the soaking ingredients with the curry leaves to a coarse paste. The coarseness is what gives the adai the crisp texture.
Add salt to taste and the asafoetida and mix well. Heat a shallow, wide pan for making the dosas and spread a little oil on the pan and get started with the adais.
The adai should be a little thicker than the normal dosa. 

You can sprinkle those optional items on top of the adai.
Serve hot with Avial, sambar even Chutney also.
For an extra touch, my mom would also add a small dollop of home made butter or ghee.

Andhra-style Brinjal Chutney / Vankaya Pachadi

Ingredients:
Brinjal – 1 no (Big size) / (small-5)
Green chilly – 4 –5 nos
Garlic 3-5 pods
Urad dal 1 tbsp
Coriander seeds 1 tbsp
Jeera 2 tsp
Tamarind – Small berry size
Salt – as needed
Oil – 2 tsp
Turmeric powder – A pinch

Tempering:
Oil for fry
Mustard seeds - ½ tsp
Split moong dal - 1 tsp
Curry leaves few
Red chilli - 1

Method
Heat the pan pour some oil add urad dal, coriander seeds and jeera. After it is fried add garlic and chillis. After a minute add cut brinjals fry it till tender with a tsp of turmeric powder and salt.
Let it cool,grind it with tamarind pulp to the coarse paste.
Prepare tempering and ¼ cup raw onions pour it over the chutney.
Mix well, it is spicy and goes well with rice or even with tiffins.

Sweet Corn Soup

Ingredients
2 tbsp butter
½ cups chopped onion
1 cup corn
½ cup carrot & cabbage finally chopped
Garlic 2 nos
Salt & pepper per taste
½ cup Milk (optional)
1 tbsp corn flour
Veg stock (optional)

Preparation
In pan boil the corn until tender,cool slightly.Then make a coarse paste. Melt butter in a pan over medium-low heat. Add onion and garlic to pan fry it for a minute ,then add carrot and cabbage fry it until tender, stirring occasionally. Now sprinkle the flour and mix well. Immediately add water or milk for make light sauce. Now add the corn Paste then pour some more water, put salt and pepper per your taste .Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer 10 minutes. Cool slightly.

Simple Dosa and Idli

We usually use idli rice for dosa batter, but you can also use parboiled rice.

Ingredients
4 cups rice
1 cup urad dal
1 tbs fenugreek seeds
Salt to taste
Oil for fry
¼ cup Poha(optional)Soak few minuets before grind

Procedure
Soak rice, urad dal and funugreek seeds at least 6 hour or overnight in water.

  

Grind to paste along with poha.(Use wet grinder not in mixie for good result)(For idli batter you have to grind little coarse,dosa is a smooth)
Mix together, add salt with water to make batter.
Leave in room temperature overnight.

For Idli
Take the idli holder spray oil or butter and fill each of them with 3/4th full of batter.

Steam cook idlis on medium flame for about 10 minutes or until done.
Use a butter knife to remove the idlis.

  


  


For Dosa 

For crispy dosa the batter must be thin.
Heat pan or griddle with little ghee or oil.
Spread the mix on pan in circular motion to make thin Dosa.
Cook on both the sides, if desired.

Thenga chutney

Ingredients (chutney):

Coconut-1/2 cup
Channa dhal fried/ Porikadalai-3 to 4spoon
Greenor red chillies-3
Salt to taste
Curry leaves (optional)
Coriander leaves (optional)

Tempering
Oil
Mustard seeds-1/2 tsp
split urad dal-1 tsp
Curry leaves few
Chilli -1

Procedure
Just add everything in to the mixie that i mentioned above.
Then add water little bit and grind well.
Then pour the paste in to the bowl.
Now heat the oil do tempering pour it over the chutney.
Note: You can add Ginger also along with grinding mixture.

Rava Dosa

Ingredients:

1 cup rava
1/2 cup Rice flour
1/4 cup Maida
1 cup slightly diluted curd
2 medium onions finely chopped (optional)
1" ginger,grated or finely chopped
3 tbsp coriander finely chopped
1 tbsp finely chopped curry leaves (optional)
1 tsp finely chopped green chillies
2-3 tbsp grated fresh coconut
1 tbsp cumin seeds
1 tsp slightly crushed pepper corns
salt to taste
1 1/2 to 2 cups water approximately

Mix rava, rice flour and maida with curd and add enough water to it and mix until no lumps are formed
The batter should be thin enough to pour over the pan, but not so thin that it disperses
Keep this aside for 10-15 minutes
Add finely chopped onion, ginger chopped, coconut, salt, green chilli paste, coriander, chopped curry leaves, jeera and slightly crushed pepper corns to it and mix well.
Now check the consistency of the batter as rava absorbs water, add enough water to get it back to pouring consistency

Heat tawa till just smoking hot
Pour a ladle full of dosa batter from the outer edge of the tawa in a circular motion to the centre, fill all major gaps. But do not try to fill the small gaps, those gaps help in making the dosa crispier.This is a very important step in making rava dosa.The crispiness depends on the way you pour the batter on the tava and also on managing the flame (heat of the tawa) while cooking the dosa.



Pour oil over the dosa and cover with a lid. Let it cook initially on medium flame for 1-2 minutes, then remove the lid and increase the flame, and cook for another 2 minutes until you see brown/red patches. (No need to turn the dosa).
Remove it from the pan and serve immediately
Reduce the flame for one minute and start to prepare the next dosa. Do not pour the batter on high flame. Always stir the batter before preparing the next dosa.
Serve it hot right from the pan and on to the plate with chutney or sambar.

Mushroom Pulao

Ingredients:
2 cups - Basmati rice
3 cup - Any mushrooms (cut into medium sized pieces)
3 tbsp - ground ginger garlic paste
1 - big onion (sliced thin)
3 - green chillies
1 - tomato (chopped)
1 - star anise
1 - clove
1 - cardamom
2 - bay leafs
1″ - piece of cinnammon
1 - tbsp chilli powder
1/2 - tbsp coriander powder
Few - chopped mint leaves
Few - chopped coriander leaves
Few - green onions
3 cups - water
Salt to taste
3 tbsp - butter
1 tbsp - oil

Method:

• Wash and soak the rice in water before you start. 
• Wash and cut the mushroom into medium sized pieces.

• Heat the butter and oil in a saucepan. Add the star anise, cloves, cardamom, cinnamon and bay leaves and saute for a minute 
• Add sliced onions and green chillies and fry till they start to brown 
• Add the ginger garlic paste and saute for about a minute 
• Now add mushroom pieces along with the chopped tomatoes and saute till the juice dries up 
• Add chilli powder, coriander powder, chopped mint leaves, coriander leaves and mix well 
• Now add ghee and soaked rice, salt to taste, and add water mix it very gently.

• Cover and cook for 10 minutes on medium heat 
• Finally, after all water evaporates, simmer for 2 minutes 
• Switch off stove, decorate with green onions 
• Serve hot pulao with raita.