Tehri

Tehri is the name given for rice preparation with thirteen ingredients. In fact, one can add many varieties of vegetables and dry fruits. The dish can be easily prepared in a crock pot.

Ingredients (Serves 2):

• 1 cup rice
  
• 1 potato
  
• 1 carrot
• 1 tbsp Cprriander seeds
  
• 1/2 cup chopped cabbage
• 1/2 cup peas
• 1/4 cup raisins
• 15 split cashews
• 1/2 inch ginger finely chopped or paste
• 1 tsp Rajah Garam Masala
• 2 tsp subrus
• 1 tsp ghee
• 2 tsp salt

Directions:

1. In a 2 quart pot , add 2 cups of water and 2 tsp of salt.
   
2. Dice all vegetables and then add to pot along with corriander seeds.
   
3. When water starts to boil, add ghee and rice. Mix well, cover, and steam for 5 minutes at medium heat.
4. Add garam masala, subrus, and dry fruits. Mix well, cover, and steam for 10 minutes at medium heat
5. After 10 minutes, check that the tehri is well steamed, then lower the heat.
   
6. Cover and let it simmer for 5 minutes at low heat.

For easy preparation, put all the ingredients into the crock pot in the morning and set it to low heat. By the evening, it will be ready! Simple! You can't beat easy beginner crock pot recipes =)

One can alternatively use 1 cup of water and 1 cup of V8 Vegetable Juice (Low Sodium) to add more flavor. The tehri goes well with yogurt, raita, papad or simple diced tomato and cucumber mix.

Homemade Pizza

Pizza has become our favorite f00d 0n weekends. Also while out of town we typically eat pizza to replace a few meals. Pizza is simple, fresh, and appetizing when done right. Here is a pizza recipe that I have modified to suit our tastes.

Ingredients (Serves 4) : 15" pizza and 8 bread sticks OR two 12" pizza
for pizza dough (modified from booklet accompanying bread maker)

• 1-1/4 cup warm water
• 2 tbsp olive oil in dough + some to brush
• 4-1/4 cup whole wheat flour + dry flour to roll
• 2 cups chopped spinach
• 1 carrot coarsely grated
• 2 tsp salt
• 2 tsp sugar
• 1 packet Fleischmann's RapidRise highly active yeast
  

Pizza sauce:

• 2 ripe tomatoes finely chopped
• 1 cup tomato paste
• 2 tbsp dried oregano
• 2 tbsp fresh basil leaves chopped
• 4 stems of celery chopped
• 2 tsp subrus
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tbsp salt

Pizza toppings:

• 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
• 1 large bell pepper seeded and diced into 1/4" square pieces
• 1 cup olives sliced
• 1 cup pineapple chunks from can or fresh

Directions:

1. In a bowl, put all the dry ingredients for dough and mix well.
2. Add spinach, carrot, and oil and mix well.
3. Add warm water and knead well for about 5 minutes to make a ball.
4. Cover bowl and set aside to rise for about 2 hours.
5. Get sauce and toppings ready meanwhile.
6. For sauce: in a pan, put oil, and add celery, diced tomato. Fry on medium heat till soft.
7. Add tomato paste, subrus, herbs, salt. Stir to mix, cover and cook for 20 minutes on medium heat. Cool it to room temperature.
8. When dough is raised enough, punch it down and take out dough to make eight 1/2" balls.
9. For bread sticks roll, balls into about 5" long strands. Arrange them on baking sheet and brush with oil.
10. Roll remaining dough in to a circle about 15" diameter. Put it on a lightly oiled pizza plate.
11. Keep 4 tbsp sauce aside for bread sticks. Spread the remaining sauce evenly on pizza base.
12. Arrange pizza toppings evenly and cover with cheese.
13. At this point, adjust time by refrigerating pizza and bread sticks. About 25 minutes before serving time, follow the remaining steps.
14. Bake pizza at 425 degrees Celsius on middle rack for 12-15 minutes. Start bread sticks at the same time but remove when they become brown in about 8-10 minutes.
15. Take out of the oven. After 5 minutes cut pizza into 8 slices. Serve hot
    

For making pizza pockets, divide dough in to 8 balls. Roll each ball in to 4-5" diameter circle . Mix sauce, toppings and cheese. Use it as a stuffing. Make 4" x 2" rectangles or half circles like calzones. Bake as in Step 14 above.

You can also prepare the dough using a breadmaker. If interested, check out the following products:

Khichadi

Khichadi described here is a mild but nutritious dish that can be served to person under weather because of upset stomach, fever, headache or kids just starting to eat solid foods.

Ingredients (Serves 2):

• 1 cup rice
• 1 cup mogar (yellow moong daal)
• 1 tsp haldi (turmeric)
• 1/4 tsp hing (asafoetida)
• 2 tsp salt

Directions:

1. In a pot, rinse rice and daal together.
2. Add 4 cups of water and put on medium heat.
3. Add haldi, hing, and salt. When it starts boiling, cover pot partially.
4. Check after 15 minutes. If needed, add water, cover, and reduce heat to low.
5. After 10 minutes, adjust consistency to semi-solid or soup-like by adding water.
6. Let it simmer for anther 10 minutes.
7. For a smooth consistency, mix well with swirling motion.
8. Serve with ghee.

Khichadi can be served with mango pickle, kadhi, papad, yogurt, or on its own. There are also regional variations of khichadi. In Gujrat, khichadi has ginger, raika tadka, and curry leaves. In Maharashtra, "Mugachi Khichdi" has rajah garam masala and is served in place of pulav.

Aloo-Muter-Tamater

This soupy preparation can be made mild, zesty, or rich by varying the spices added. Yogurt or mashed potatoes can be used to thicken the preparation. On special occasions, one may use almond paste, and add cashews or raisins.

Ingredients (Serves 2):

• 2 medium sized potatoes
• 1 cup peas, fresh or frozen
• 1 medium ripe tomato
• 2 tbsp oil (use ghee if adding yogurt)
• 1 tsp jeera (cumin seeds)
• 1/4 tsp hing (asafoetida)
• 3 tsp subrus
• 2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp ginger paste
• Corriander leaves, finely chopped
  
  

Directions:

1. Peel the potato and dice them into about 1/2 inch cubes. If not using immediately, store in cold water. Alternatively, use steam-cooked potato, remove skin, and make 1/2 inch cubes.
2. Dice tomato into 1/2 inch cubes.
3. In a 2 quart pan, start heating oil on medium heat. Add 1-2 seeds of jeera.
4. When a seed of jeera puffs, add remaining jeera, followed by hing and subrus.
5. Add potato and fry so as to cover all pieces with oily mix. If using raw potato, cover and let simmer for 7 minutes.
6. Add 2 cups of water, salt, and peas. Cover and let it simmer for another 7 minutes.
   
7. To thicken the gravy, mash 4 pieces of potato. Add diced tomato, ginger paste. Cover and let it simmer for 7 more minutes.
8. Add corriander just before serving and mix. Serve hot in a bowl.

This dish with rice or bread serves as a simple meal. Many vegetable soups can be made this way. With little modification it can be made in a crockpot. Non-vegetarian friends coming over too? Share these crockpot bbq recipes with them.

Kadhi

Kadhi is a yogurt preparation that goes well with rice and goes well with the heavy greasy food to change the taste. Like Daal Chawal, Kadhi Chawal, Khichadi Kadhi are the combinations used commonly. Generally Kadhi replaces soups, rasam, daal. Moong Chawal and Kadhi or Rajma Chawal Kadhi type of triplets are popular also.

Ingredients (Serves 2):

• Yogurt 1 cup
  
• Besan 1/2 cup
• Kadhipatta ( Curry leaves ) 2 twigs
  
• Ajwine 1/4 tsp
• Methi (Fenugreek) 1/2 tsp
• Jeera (Cumin ) 1/2 tsp
• Rai (Mustard seeds) 1/2 tsp
• Hing (Asafoitida) 1/8 tsp
• Ginger paste 1/2 tsp
• Subrus 2 tsp ( may replace with 1 Jalapino cut in 10 circles added in Tadka)
• Salt 2 tsp
  
• Ghee (seperated butter) 2 tbsp

Directions:

1. In a bowl mix yogurt, besan, subrus, Ajwine, ginger paste, salt to make a uniform mix
2. Add 2 cups of water and mix well this is the kadhi mix
   
3. In a 3 quart pot put ghee at medium heat for making tadka
4. Ghee is hot enough when single mustard seed added makes sound, reduce heat and add all the mustard seeds
5. Add other ingredients in given order, Jeera, Methi, hing, kadhipatta (and Jalapeno)
6. Partially cover the pot and add 1 cup water
7. Add kadhi mix and stir to make a uniform mix. At this stage one can adjust the consistancy by varying the water quantity
8. Let it boil on medium heat

One can add Pakode(fritters) to make Baddon ki kadhi or Childa (spicy pancake) or Gutte
to the boiling kadhi at the end. Kadhi has an appetizing effect.

Kachumera ( Koshimbir )

Any vegetable that can be consumed raw can be used to make this dish "Kachumera". The vegetables used commonly, alone or in combination are carrot, cucumber, cabbage, radish, tomato. Below I will describe the cabbage carrot combination.

Ingredients (Serves 4):

• Cabbage finely chopped 2 cups
• Carrots 2 coarsely shredded
• Olive oil 1 tbsp
• Cumin seeds 1/2 tsp
• crushed pepper 1/2 tsp
• Fresh lemon half or lemon juice 1 tbsp
  
• salt to taste 1tsp
• roasted peanuts powder 2 tbsp (optional, works as a binding agent)

Directions:

1. In a 1 quart pan add olive oil and heat on medium heat till a cumin seed added puffs up immediately.
   
2. Remove pan from the heat and add cumin seeds followed by crushed pepper immediately.
   
3. Add cabbage followed by carrot and cover the pan
4. After 10-15 minutes add salt, lemon juice and if desired peanut powder and mix well

It is ready to serve. One can add chopped cilantro for added flavour. Also lemon can be replaced by orange or grapefruit. If red pepper is too hot for you reduce the amount or replace it by black pepper. It can be used in sandwich also. Other favorite combinations are Cabbage Tomato, Cucumber Tomato, Carrott Cucumber, Spinach Tomato.

Subrus

The name subrus is a part of saying, "haldi-dhania subrus". I use this mix of three spices. Haldi is turmeric, it gives yellow tinge to food but has many good properties of which blood purifier is the one. Now a days there is lots of research going on. Dhania is the powder of coriander seeds it is a diuretic. The third ingredient is red pepper powder, specifically ground cayenne pepper. This mix is the basic mix that is used in everyday cooking of vegetables and curries. By mixing them together one saves time as well as proportion of the three remains consistent. Subrus means all juices!

Ingredients : Buy following ingredients, for sure they are available in Indian Grocery stores.

• ground coriander seeds ( One can buy coriander seeds and grind them fresh).
• ground cayenne pepper ( I get it from Sams Club or Cosco )
• ground Turmeric

Directions:

1. Make sure all ingredients are freshly made and added from largest to smallest proportion.
2. Mix 6 parts ground coriander seeds, 3 parts ground cayenne pepper and 1 part ground Turmeric so that mixture looks uniformly colored. Put it in a air tight jar in a dry cool space easily accessible. Mixture stays fresh for long but prefer to make it for about 15 days. I put it in a jar with a 1/4 tsp spoon. 

The proportion of these ingredients can be changed to make mix hot ,lighter yellow or darker. For mild to medium spicy food current combination works well. For fried vegetables little extra amount works. While using it in stuffed vegetable preparations it can be used as a stuffing directly or with addition of ground coconut or besan. For soups and daal add 1 tea spoon per 1cup of liquid. Visit whfoods.org or spiceskerala.com to know more about these spices