Backyard Vegetable Garden

Recently I have been busy with the vegetable garden and not finding time to blog recipes. Since I am doing this first time here in US i am still learning many things and i think i started late in the season. Also some of the indian vegetables which i started indoor from seed did not transplant well and i feel they are growing very slowly. Looks like some plants don't transplant well. I bought tomatoes, peppers, beans, brinjal from the garden center and transplanted. Tomatoes and beans are doing great. I am not really happy about the peppers and Eggplant. They are growing slowly and also peppers have some curl on the leaf which is stopping the growth.

Here are some pictures of the plants as of today. I hope they grow and start furiting before the season ends.
First Tomatoes still not riped
Beans started flowering

Beans Bed growing good

This bed has watermelon, bitter gourd, cucumber and OKRA, growing slowly
Tomatoes growing good, Peppers and Eggplant not growing great
More Tomatoes growing good
Beerakaya, OKRA, Chikkudu, Chilli and Pudina growing slowlyyyy
Bitter Gourd growing okay..

Eggless Pineapple Cake

Ingredients

1-1/4 cup all purpose flour/maida
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp cardamom powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 can (7oz) condense milk (sweetened)
1/2 cup butter (melted)
1 20 oz can crushed pineapple (Drained and save the juice)

Method

1. Preheat the oven at 325 degrees F
2. Grease 9 inches round cake pan
3. Mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda, cardamom powder and salt in a bowl. Add 1/2 cup crushed pineapple, 1/2 cup pineapple juice, condensed milk, butter and gently fold everything together.
4. Pour the mixture in the cake pan and Bake for 30 mins or until the knife inserted comes out clean.
5. Remove the cake from Oven and let it cool for couple of mins. Keep a plate on top of the cake pan and turn the cake to transfer onto the plate. Prick the cake with fork and brush with remaining pineapple juice(while the cake is still hot).

Mushroom-Matar (peas) Curry

Ingredients

2 cups of sliced mushrooms
1 cup green peas
1 cup chopped tomatoes
1 tsp grated ginger
2 Tbsps chopped fenugreek leaves or dry fenugreek leaves
1 tsp red chilli powder
2 tsp coriander powder
1 Tbsp oil
1 tsp cumin seeds
Pinch of turmeric powder
½ tsp lemon juice (optional)
Salt to taste

Method

1) Heat oil in a pan, add cumin seeds. Once they crack add turmeric powder, grated ginger, chopped tomatoes, chilli powder, coriander powder, salt and cook for 4-5 mins or until tomatoes are soft and reduce to half.

2) Add mushrooms and peas and add fenugreek leaves after mushrooms are half cooked and cook until mushrooms are cooked. Turn off the heat.

3) Add lemon juice at the end and serve hot with Steamed rice or Roti

Bobbatlu-Poli

I made bobbtlu for sri ramanavami and brought them to work to create a festive environment here. Everyone liked them very much. It is quite a time consuming process but it is worth the effort. here is the recipe

Ingredients
1 cup Chana dal(bengal gram Dal)
1 cup Jaggery or sugar(adjust to your taste)
1 1/4 cups maida/all purpose flour
1 tbsp clarified butter/ghee
1/2 tsp cardamom powder
3 to 4 Tbsps fresh grated coconut (optional)
salt to taste
Oil
Method
1) Mix the maida/all purpose flour with pinch of salt and enough water to make a very soft and sticky dough. add 1 -2 Tbsps oil and knead the dough well, cover and keep aside.

2) Pressure Cook the chana Dal until soft. Drain water and cool. Grind the Dal with Jaggery or Sugar to a smooth paste. In a heavy bottemed wok, cook this paste at low heat so that the paste becomes hard enough to make into a ball. Remove from heat, mix the cardamom powder, grated coconut, pinch of salt and combine well. Make a small lemon sized balls and keep aside.

3) Take a plastic sheet (I used a ziploc cover) grease it with a little oil and use it to shape the bobbatlu. Grease your fingers with oil and take a small portion of the dough (smaller than a lemon size) and expand it little bit, keep the Chana-Jaggery ball and cover it with the dough and press again to form a circle shape of about 6 inches diameter.

4) Roast both sides in a Tawa/flat Pan until brown spots appear.

Serve warm with Ghee (Clarified Butter). Some people mix this with milk also and eat.

You can store them in air tight container in refrigerator upto 1 week.

Sending this to Mithai Mela Hosted by Srivalli of Cooking 4 all seasons.

Brinjal Podi Curry

Ingredients

10 medium sized brinjals (eggplant) cut into 4 pieces (if you have long brinjals cut them into 1 inch pieces lengthwise)

for powder
4 to 5 red chillies
1 teaspoon coriander seeds
1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
2 Tablespoons sesame seeds
3 Tablespoons chana dal (split bengal gram dal)
1 teaspoon oil
1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds
curry leaves
pinch of asafoetida (optional)
1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder
salt to taste
Method

1) Dry roast all the ingredients for powder and grind them to powder (do not grind too smooth to maintain the texture of the powder)

2) Heat 1 teaspoon oil and splutter mustard seeds, add pinch of asafoetida, curry leaves and turmeric powder and fry for 30 seconds

3) Add brinjals and stir-fry, cover and cook until they are tender.

4) Add the powder and salt, mix well so that the brinjals are completely fried and coated with powder

This goes well with rice or chapathi (Roti)

Potato Pulusu

Ingredients

4 to 5 medium potatoes boiled, peeled and cubed into bite size pieces
1 large onion finely chopped or make a paste
2 tomatoes (finely chopped or make a paste)
1 tsp chilli powder
1 tsp coriander powder
1/2 tsp cumin powder
pinch of turmeric powder
lemon sized tamarind (extract juice) / 1 -2 Tbsp tamarind paste

1 Tbsp oil
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
pinch of asafoetida (optional)
3-4 crushed garlic cloves
3-4 dry red chillies
few curry leaves (optional)

fresh chopped coriander leaves for garnish
Method

1) Heat oil in a pan splutter cumin seeds, add asafoetida, crushed garlic. dry red chillies, curry leaves and fry for few seconds

2) Add finley chopped onions and fry until they turn golden color and then add chilli, coriander, cumin and turmeric powder and mix, add chopped tomatoes or tomato paste and cook until oil seperates from the mixture.

3) Add cubed potatoes, salt, tamarind paste, 1 cup of water. Cover and cook in medium heat for about 10 minutes.

Garnish with coriander leaves and server hot with steamed rice or Roti

Broken Wheat Pongal

Ingredients

1 cup broken wheat (dry roasted)
1/2 cup split yellow moong Dal
2 cups fresh chopped spinach
1 tsp oil/Ghee
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp pepper corns
1 tsp grated ginger
1 to 2 green/dry red chillies (Adjust to your taste)
pinch of asafoetida
1 Tbsp cashew nuts (optional)
few curry leaves (optional)
salt to taste
Method

1) Wash Broken sheat and Moong Dal with water, drain and keep aside.
2) Heat oil in a pan, add cumin seeds and once they crack add pepper corns, cashew nuts and fry for few seconds. if you have roasted caswhews you can add them at the end.

3) Add green chillies, grated ginger, asafoetida, curry leaves and fry for 2 to 3 minutes. Add chopped spinach and fry for another 2 mins.

4) Add the Wheat and Dal Mixture, salt and 4 cups of water and cook until it is completely cooked. You can cook also use the pressure cooker to cook this.

Server Hot with any pickle/Yogurt