orema

Barley water is a very healthy drink and it a best summer cooler too. Click here to read more health benefits of barley. Few days back when Varsha was complaining of bad stomach ache due to heat i bought her tender coconut and suddenly remembered of Barley water which my mom used to give me when i was pregnant and it is best summer cooler too.Those time i have the blood pressure at a little higher level and my mom used to give barley water every day morning 1 cup at frequent intervals. It will be little horrible for me to drink the plain barley water and later she used to add Sweet lime juice but without sugar or some times less sugar. After delivery, i totally forgot about this and suddenly remebered few days back. I made this the along with fresh orange juice and added few Dried winter melonwhile cooking the barley instead of sugar. You can replace with sugar too but add little less sugar as we normally add for other juices.

Try out this easy and very healthy Orange barley juice and stay hydrated this summer and be away from the aerated drinks available in the market. 

INGREDIENTS:

METHOD:

• Wash the barley and cook in a wide saucepan with 5-6 cups of water till the barley becomes soft and cooked nicely.

• If adding dried winter melon add it while cooking the barley. this took 10 to 12 minutes.

• allow this to cool, discard the winter melon sticks and the barley. Take out the water and add the freshly made orange juice to this.
• Mix well and refrigerate this for an hour and enjoy it cool. You can add orange segments to the juice while serving.

NOTE:

1. You can replace Orange with lemon, water melon , cantaloupe and strawberry too.
2. You can add butter milk  to this and salt to this to have an savoury version of barley water

RASAM WITHOUT TAMARIND

  Kalyana rasam i recently learnt this from a friend of mine, and i was quite impressed by the taste and asked her for the recipe of this kalyana rasam. She gave me the recipe and when i asked her how you name this rasam, she told they call it as Iyengar rasam . When i was thinking how to name this rasam, Raks  suggested me name it as Iyengar Kalyana Rasam.  This rasam doesn’t include tamarind and Sambar Powder and Rasam Powder too. Now i am making this kalyana rasam almost twice in a week.

INGREDIENTS [SERVES 4-5]

TO ROAST AND GRIND:

METHOD:

• Grind the tomatoes into a puree and reserve 1/4 portion of the tomatoes before grinding.
• Chop the 1/4 th tomatoes finely and keep them aside.

• Roast the ingredients under the “TO ROAST AND GRIND” table with 1/4 tsp of ghee.
• Add cumin in the last and switch off the flame.
• Allow it to cool and grind it into a fine paste by adding little water.

• Add this paste to the tomato puree and transfer everything to the vessel in which you are going to make rasam. Add turmeric powder, asafoetida and salt to this.
• Allow this to boil in a low flame for 8-10 minutes.
• Meanwhile cook the toordal and add 1 to 1 and 1/2 cups of water to the dal and add this to the boiling tomato mixture.
• When it comes to a froth switch off the flame and garnish with curry leaves and coriander leaves.

• When it is hot add the reserved ,chopped tomatoes to this and temper with  mustard seeds.
• the tomatoes will get cooked in the hot rasam and will give a very good aromatic flavor.

Note:

1. You can add 1 tblsp of coconut while grinding .
2. While roasting the masala add the cumin seed in the last else it will give a bitter taste.    

Paneer do pyaza  is a restaurant style paneer recipe and the recipe calls for more onions and less tomatoes unlike the usual tomato based paneer recipes. When i recently visited a restaurant here i saw the name Paneer do pyaza in the menu card, though i didn’t try on that day but noted down the name and searched in net, and finally landed in Vah chef’s video which was truly awesome and tempted me to try out this one soon. I tried this twice but couldn’t get the clicks better as i expected. But still i don’t want postpone as i want to finish off posts which are lying on my drafts first and wanted to move on. So let me share the recipe of how to make Paneer do pyaza which i learnt from Vah chef's video.

INGREDIENTS:

METHOD:

• Chop 4 onions  finely and add oil in a pan.
• Add cumin seeds and add the finely chopped onions.
• slit the green chilli and add it to the onions.
• Add salt and turmeric powder.
• Saute till the onions become translucent.

• Add the coriander powder, red chilli powder, garam masala and cumin powder.
• Saute till the raw smell of the powder goes off.
• Add little water(1/2 cup approx.) and cook for few minutes.

• grind the tomatoes and capsicum into a fine paste and add it to the onion masala.

• Let it cook for some time , now add the 1 onion which we have (see the ingredient list), chop it into cubes and add it to the masala.

• add little water and add the paneer cubes.
• If you want you can shallow fry the paneer cubes too.

• Add crushed kasoori methi leaves.

• Add 1/4 cup of water and adjust the consistency.
• Dry roast the cashew nuts for few minutes and coarsely powder them using a mortar and pestle.
• Add it to the gravy and switch off the flame.

• Delicious paneer gravy is ready.
• Serve with Rotis or jeera rice.

Note:

• The color of the gravy depends upon the color of capsicum you use.
• Paneer cubes can be deep fried or shallow fried and added.
• I added as it is and it tasted yum too.
• you can add ginger garlic paste too, after adding onions in the beginning.

Ice lemon tea is a refreshing summer cooler and i have started having this ice lemon tea after lunch almost everyday.since i am taking on everyday basis, i never add too much sugar to this but if you are serving for guests you can add as per your taste. I tried this ice lemon tea with normal tea powder which i use for making everyday tea.

INGREDIENTS:

METHOD:

• In a saucepan bring the water to boil and add the tea powder ( i used the “TATA” BRAND) . Let it boil for a minute and switch off the flame.

• If using tea bags, when the water comes to a rolling boil switch off the flame and put the tea bags inside it.
• If adding ginger, using a mortar and pestle mash it slightly and add to the water.
• cover the lid of the saucepan and keep it aside for 20 minutes.
• Strain the tea and add 1-2 cups of water to the strained tea as it may be strong.
• Add lemon juice to this and add sugar.

• Serve immediately by adding ice cubes to this.

Notes:

1. You can add mint leaves to the tea when the water is boiling.
2. Mint will give a nice flavour and will be refreshing too.
3. Do not add too much tea powder as it will give bitter taste.

Vendakkai puli pachadi recipe,i am trying out for the first time. When a reader asked for this recipe, i didn’t have much idea about how to make vendakkai puli pachadi. Though i have tasted in a friend’s place very long back, i couldn’t recollect the recipe. But thank god finally when i was casually talking to a friend about this recipe she gave me the idea and finally made it. This goes well with Arisi upma, Pidi Kozhukattai and you can have this with rice too.

INGREDIENTS: [ serves 2-3]

METHOD:

• Wash and pat dry the ladies finger. Cut them into small roundels.
• In a pan add oil and temper with mustard seeds, toor dal , green chilli(cut into pieces),red chilli and methi seeds.

• When the dal turns brown, add the cut ladies fingers. Saute in a low flame for few minutes by adding salt to this.
• Saute this for a while but let it not change its color.

• Add the tamarind extract and add turmeric powder.
• Allow this to boil in a medium flame for 7-10 minutes in a medium low flame.
• Add in the jaggery and let this boil for few minutes.

• mix the rice flour with 2-3 tblsp of water without any lumps and add it to the pachadi.
• Stir it nicely and keep the flame low.
• the pachadi will get a thick consistency after adding rice flour.

• Switch off the flame and serve it with arisi upma or upma kozhukattai.

Note:

1. I used the tamarind paste. You can soak a small gooseberry sized tamarind in hot water and extract juice with 1 cup of water.
2. Do not change the color of okra while cooking.