HOME MADE TOMATO PURÉE

Needless to say that Tomato Purée is the most wanted item in the kitchen as it rules many of the cuisines world wide.

Let us learn, how to make it.The recipe is pretty easy and quick.

The following measurement makes around 250 ml of Purée

Ingredients :

1. Red Tomatoes - 4 (cut into halves)

STEPS:

• Boil the Tomatoes in the pressure cooker.Not more than 2 whistles.Do not add water to Tomatoes while boiling in the Pressure cooker
• After,they are boiled and cooled down, peel the skin and smash in the blender.
• Now strain this purée with the help of a strainer as shown in the photo to separate the unwanted seeds from the purée.
• Purée is ready to use.

TIPS:

• Tomatoes can also be boiled without Pressure Cooker.Do not cut the Tomatoes but slightly cut the outer skin(It helps peeling the skin after boiling) and keep in a container.Add water accordingly and keep for boiling on the stove.They should be boiled in 15-20 minutes.

QUICK CHUTNEY FOR IDLI / DOSA / VADA / PAKODA

Yes!!!!! It just takes not more than five minutes to prepare.And believe me, taste is just heavenly.
 Let us see how to prepare this.

The following measurement makes around 4 bowls(Standard Size) of chutney and depending upon the consistency.

Ingredients :

1. Grated Dry Coconut - 1 Cup (Now a days, it is easily available in the market)
2. Green chillies - 2, chopped (No need to be chopped finely)
3. Garlic Cloves - 2 to 3
4. Gingler - 1/2 inch ,chopped
5. Salt to taste
6. Sugar - 1 Tea Spoon (Optional)
7. Buttermilk - 2 Cups
8. Oil - 1 Table spoon
9. For Tadka - Cumin Seeds and Mustard seeds (1/2 Tea Spoon each),Udad Daal or Split Black Gram(1 Tea spoon), Asafoetida and Turmeric powder (1/4 Tea Speen each), 2 Dried red chillies.

 STEPS :

• Except buttermilk and Oil, Transfer all the ingredients to grinder and grind well and transfer this dry chutney to a bowl.
• To this add the butter milk.Depending upon the consistency of chuteny you prefer, you can adjust the quantity of buttermilk.Mix it well.At this point, chuteny is ready but without Tadka
• In a pan, heat the oil.First add Mustard and Cumin seeds.After they start to splutter,add Udad daal and let fry on low heat.Flame should be low to just medium, because we do not want Udad daal to over burn.The Cruchy daal adds very nice aroma to this chutney
• Put down the flame and Hing or Asafoetida,Turmeric and Dry chillies immediately and stir with spoon.Using this technique will save Hing,Turmeric and Chillies from over burning.
• Pour this Tadka on the Chutney and mix well.
• Chutney is ready to serve with Idli,Dosa,Vada etc.The tangy taste of curd is what makes this chutney so special

TIPS :

• You can serve withou tadka too.But, Tadka adds nice flavor :)
• If butter milk is not ready, just do this : After you take out chutney from the grinder, add yogurt or curd,some water and blend it and add it to the chutney
• If you are curd lover,you can just blend the curd without water and add to this Chutney

HOW TO ROAST PEANUTS IN THE MICROWAVE/MICROWAVE ROASTED PEANUTS

Peanuts are used almost over India.But in Maharashtra specially, the roasted peanut powder is a must ingredient in daily meals.This is used in most of preparations of 'Bhaaji'.'Sabudana Khichadi' cannot be thought without roasted peanut powder.Other than this. it is used for preparations of 'Chutneys', 'Raita' etc.

All in all, It has to be always readily available at home.But roasting the peanuts has never been an easy task.I have seen my mother used to roast them in the pan which was to be kept on flames.Or there used to be commercial oven shops called 'Bhatti' from where one could buy them.But,store bought roasted peanuts contained 'sand grains' as the pan that was used to roast was kept on the hot sand and sand was obviously mixed.So,cleaning the peanuts was really difficult and time consuming.

May be the life style has changed but not the taste buds.With the tight schedule, it is really difficult to give time for such things.Thankfully, we have Microwave ovens now and this has made our life pretty easier.It takes just 3 minutes to roast certain amount of peanuts that too wihtout changing taste and texture.

Let us see, how it can be done.

Ingredients :

Peanuts - 1 Cup

Steps :

• Take a Microwave safe Plate (Of around 10 inch Diameter).
• Spread the peanuts on the plate as shown in the photo.
• Keep the center part empty.Because,peanuts kept in the center get totally burnt.They just turn black.
• Now, keep the plate inside the microwave and heat for 2 minutes and 30 seconds(Do this by pressing the '30 seconds' buttons 5 times which is there for just heating').
• This much of heat is enough to roast them.
• Take out and let it cool down.They become crunchy after cooling down.

TIPS:

• Now the peanuts are ready to be powdered
• If you want, you can take out the skin as it becomes easy after roasting.
• Depending upon your Microwave wattage, timing may slightly vary.

Turicha Dali chi Ussal/तुरिच्या डळिचि उसळ

Turichi daal(Marathi Name) means 'Pigeon Pea Split' or popularly known as 'Dal or Daal'.
I have been eating this ussal since my childhood.I used to be more than happy whenever my mom prepared this.
The secret I would like to share,I will write in TIPS section.Now let us learn to make this easy,tasty and simple ussal.

The following measurement serves around 3-4 people.

Ingredients:

1. Tur Daal or Split Daal - 1 Cup
2. 1 Onion - chopped
3. Garlic- 1 Table Spoon,chopped
4. Kanda Lasun Masala - 1 Table spoon (Substitute is red chilly powder)
5. Coriander leaves - for garnishing
6. For Tadka - Mustard Seeds and Cumin seeds(1 Tea spoon each)  and Hing and Turmeric Powder (1/4th Tea Spoon each)
7. Salt to taste
8. Oil for Tadka - you can adjust the quantity as per your wish

Steps :

1. First we will see, how the daal should be cooked.In a container, add around 4 cups of water with daal and let it boil medium heat.Keep checking the consitency of daal.We want daal such that,it should be cooked but should not turn to be a paste.You can imagine the consistency of daal in the second photo.In that you can see,each grain is cooked and daal does not look mashed.Please note, it is very important to have a good consistency.
2. Drain out remaining water.
3. In a pan, heat the oil.Add Mustard and Cumin seeds,Hing,Turmeric.
4. To this add chopped onions and garlic.
5. When Onions and garlic are cooked, add Kanda Lasun Masala and Salt and stir for 2 minutes so that masal is fried well.
6. At last, add the daal,mix it well.Keep stirring for 2-3 minutes.Let remaining water evaporate. This ussal is supposed to be dry.
7. Garnish with Coriander leaves.
8. Your Ussal is ready to serve along with Roti,Chapti,Rice etc.

TIPS:

• As I have already mentioned,please take care that dal is not ever cooked.
• Do not add masala at the beginning as it may burn and add bad essence.
• Add water if needed while cooking the daal.
• You can adjust the taste of spice as per your wish.
• As I said,here comes the secret....Add some oil (that you use in your kitchen for cooking) to ussal in your plate and then eat with jowar roti and Raw onion.And believe me, it is just heavenly and you will not ask anything after you eat this.I personally do not like hot jowar rotis.I like which is cold and I deliberately keep it for 5 to 6 hours and then eat.Many people like Jowar roti this way.The above combination tastes even better when eaten with this cold roti.