Munaga Kaaya Curry

Ingredients
Cut drumstick pieces - 20
Chopped Onion -1 Cup
Tomatoes - 2
Chillie powder - 1.5 tsp
Salt
Oil - 1 Tbsp
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
Asafoetida - a few pinches
Cashews-few

Method:

Heat oil in a pan. Add mustard seeds, cumin seeds and asafoetida. When mustard seeds start to pop, cumin seeds start turning brown, add onion pieces, stir once. Cover the lid, turn down the heat and cook onions till they turn translucent with in between stirring. Then add tomatoes to the pan and let them cook. Mean while cook drumsticks with water seperately in a pot or in a microwave. The skins of the drumsticks should be intact as said above. Add drumsticks to onion - tomato mixture. Add salt and chillie powder. Saute for a couple of minutes. decorate cashew nuts.Turn off the stove. Serve hot with rice.

Brinjal Onion Masala

Ingredients:

Brinjal(indian) 5nos
Onions 2 big ones
Red dry chillies 4nos
Tamarind
Jeera 1tsp
Oil 4Tbsps
Turmeric 1/2 tsp
Salt to taste

Method:

Cut the brinjal into 4 pieces.

Grind onions, tamarind,red chillies and jeera to a paste

.Heat oil in a pan.

Add the brinjal pieces.Add turmeric and salt.

Add the onoin paste to it.Mix well.

Cover it with a lid with water in it so that it does not get burnt at the bottom.Add more oil if needed.

Once the brinjals are cooked remove it from heat and serve with hot rice.

Beerakaya Ulli Karam

Ingredients:
1 arm sized ridge gourd
1/2 small lime
sized tamarind
1 big onion
5 green chillies
corianader1 tsp
sugar
For seasoning:

• 1 tsp mustard seeds( aavaalu )
• 1 tsp cumin seeds( jeela karra/ jeera )
• 1 tsp Methi seeds( menthulu )--- Required!
• 10 curry leaves
• a dash of hing
• 1 tbsp split chick peas / chana dal
• 2-3 tbsp oil
• a pinch of turmeric

Method :

• Peel the gourd ( save the peels for the chutney ) and chop into 1/2 inch pieces
• Slit green chillies length wise, and onions into 1 inch pieces
• Soak tamarind in warm water for 5 min, remove any seeds in tamarind and keep aside
• In a pressure pan, heat oil and add seasonings and when they start to pop, add curry leaves, onions and chillies
• Fry for 30 sec and add ridge gourd pieces( beerakaya mukkalu) and tomatoes
• Saute for 2 more min and add tamarind pulp and water until the pieces just get immersed in water
• Pressure cook for 5-10 min or if u have indian style presusure cooker with weight, switch off the heat just after one whistle
• Once the weight comes off easily, open and cook under flame until desired thickness.
• You can mash it a little(or more if you want a thick gravy ) with a round bottommed spoon or masher.
• Add sugar at this point( you can either avoid or get overboard with sugar )
• Adjust salt to taste and if you need more spice, you can add red chilli powder.
• Switch off the flame and add cilantro! Voila, the spicy ridge gourd curry is ready!

CHICKEN CURRY

Ingredients :

2 chicken breasts - cut to big chunks (like 3 pieces for 1 breast)
2 potato - cut to 8 pieces
4 shallots - blended
1 garlic - blended
1 large tomato - blended
2 tablespoons curry powder
1/2 tablespoon chillie powder
1/2 cup fresh milk
salt to taste
1 tablespoon margarine/butter
3 tablespoons oil
a bit of cinnamon stick, cloves, cardamon

Method :

1. Heat oil and add margarine/butter. Put in cinnamon stick, cloves and cardamon.
2. Put in the blended shallots and garlic and fry till fragrant.
3. Add in chillie powder, curry powder and blended tomatoes. Add a bit of water if it's too dry.
4. Put in the chicken breasts and tomatoes. Stir well.
5. Add in fresh milk and salt. Let it simmer for a while and off the fire.

Chepala Pulusu

INGREDIENTS:
Fish pieces(cut and cleaned) 4-5
Onion-2 medium sized ( if u want more gravy then u can add 1 more medium sized onion) Coriander seeds 2-3tsp Ginger- 1.5" piece
Garlic- 5-6 pods
Cloves- 2-3
Cardamom-1
Khus khus (gasagasalu) - 1.5 tsp Pepper- 7-8
Dalchini - 1" piece Star anise- 1/2
Tamarind - size of a lemon
Turmeric powder- a pinch
Red chillie powder - as req (depends on the amount of spiceness u want)
Salt - acc. to taste
Oil -4-5tbsp
Jeera - 1/2 tsp
Curry leaves - 1 or 2 springs
Green Chillies - 2-3 slit

METHOD:

-Soak tamarind in water and keep aside
-Make a paste of onion, garlic, ginger, corainder seeds, cloves, cardamom, khus-khus, pepper, dalchini and star anise.
-Heat oil once the oil is hot add jeera and curry leaves and let jeera splatter. now add the paste and fry till the raw smell goes.
-Once the raw smell goes add red chillie powder, haldi powder salt and green chillies and let cok for another 3-4 min.
-Now add the fish pieces and cook for a further 4-5min.add the tamarind juice and let cook till oil floats on top.
-Garnish with coriander leaves and serve with rice.

Ghati Mutton

Ingredients

• 1 kg shoulder mutton (chop into 1 1/2 inch cubes)
• 10 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 inch piece of fresh ginger, grated
• 2 tsps salt
• 1/2 copra/ dried coconut grated fine
• 10 red chillies
• 2 inch pieces of fresh haldi/ turmeric sliced fine
• 1 tbs dhania / coriander powder
• 1 tbs khus / poppy seeds
• 12 cloves
• 1 2" piece cinnamon
• 8 whole peppercorns.
• 1 tbs ghee
• 2 large onions ( chopped fine)
• 2 cups water

Method:

Roast all the masalas on a tava or non stick frying pan till light brown. Do not burn. Grind all the roasted ingredients in a blender along with the ginger, garlic and salt to make a fine paste. Rub the paste on the pieces of mutton and marinate for an hour or more. Heat the ghee In a kadhai and fry the onions slowly till soft and brown. Add the marinated meat along with all the spice paste and brown well. Add 1 cup of water and bring to the boil. Lower heat cover tightly and simmer for 1 1/2 hours till meat is really soft. You can top up the water as required.

I added cubed potatoes in the last twenty minutes of cooking which is an option when you want to make a one dish dinner.

Eaten with chapathies or rice this is one Maharashtrian dish everyone just polishes off

Eggs in tamarind sauce

Ingredients:

Eggs(boiled) 3
Onion 1
Garlic pods 1 (if using Indian garlic, use 2-3)
Tamarind extract(thick) 1/2 tea spn
Sambar powder(recipe given below)
Mustard seeds 1/2 tea spn
Chana dal 1/2 tea spn
Urad dal 1/2 tea spn
Curry leaves 4-5
Coriander leaves 3-4 strands
Salt

Sambar powder

Red chilies 4-5
Coriander seeds 1 tea spn
Urad dal 1 tea spn
Chana dal 1 tea spn
Dry coconut 1 tbl spn
Oil 1 tea spn
Mustard seeds 1/2 tea spn
Fenugreek seeds 1/2 tea spn

Method:
Remove the shell of eggs and put some slits on it.
Heat oil and fry the sambar powder ingredients(except mustard and fenugreek seeds). Dry roast mustard, fenugreek seeds. Powder them coarsely.
Heat oil and add mustard seeds. When they start popping, add urad dal, chana dal and curry leaves. Add chopped garlic, onions and fry till they are translucent. Add tamarind extract, sambar powder and 1 cup water. Add the eggs, salt, chopped coriander and cook till the gravy becomes thick.
Serve with chapathi or rice.