Pad Thai

Ingredients:

Bok choy - 2 heads, chopped
Bean sprouts – 1 cup,trimmed
Garlic – 1 tsp, chopped
Rice Sticks – 5 oz
Sesame oil - 2 -3 Tbsp
Shallots - 3 Tbsp, chopped
Spring Onions - 1/4 cup, chopped
Soy sauce - 2 tsp
Tofu (soft/ firm / extra firm) – ½ cup, 1/2” cubes

Pad Thai sauce:

Brown sugar- 1 tbsp
Red Chili powder – 1 tsp
Sriracha sauce - 1 tsp
Tamarind juice – 1 ¼ tsp, concentrated
Vinegar - 1/4 tsp
Salt – a pinch

For garnish:

Peanuts – * 2-3 Tbsp, crushed dry-roasted
Lime wedges – 2
Cilantro *




I have submitted this picture to click event by Jugalbandi.

Directions:

Sauce:

Heat oil in a medium skillet in medium heat; add garlic and all other sauce ingredients one by one. Add some water and bring it to boil. Try the taste and add the ingredients as per your need. Let it boil for 4-5 minutes.

Pad Thai:

Soak the Rice sticks in warm water until soften but don’t let it soak until it becomes soft enough to eat. (Then it will be mushy when you cook). Drain and rinse with cold water and keep aside.

In a large nonstick skillet, heat 1 tablespoon of oil over medium heat. Add the Bok Choy and stir well for 1-2 minutes or until Bok Choy is cooked. Add the soft tofu and stir constantly for a minute so it looks like scrambled eggs (if it is firm /extra firm tofu pan fry and add it at the end, also you can add fried shrimp if you like).

Heat the remaining oil in a pan over medium heat. Add garlic and shallots, sauté until shallots become translucent. Add the Rice sticks and cook until it becomes soft, if it sticks in the pan add a tsp of oil and cook. Stir swiftly and continuously.

Add the tofu mixture and sauce. Check for taste, add the green onions,soy sauce and bean sprouts toss well until it becomes wilt .Remove from the heat and garnish with crushed peanuts, lime and cilantro.

Mango and Peas Rice

Ingredients

Rice - 3 cups, cooked
Green mango - 1/2 cup, shredded
Oil- 1 tbsp
Mustard seeds - 1/8 tsp
Cumin Seeds - 1/4 tsp
Green chili - 2 , chopped
Garlic cloves- 2 , chopped
Green peas - 1/4 cup, cooked
Curry leaves - 4
Salt *
Mint for garnish (optional)

Directions

Heat the oil in medium pan. Add mustard seeds and cumin seeds, after it starts to splutter add the garlic and green chilies. Sauté until the garlic turns golden brown. Add the shredded green mango, salt and green peas, stir well for 3 to 4 minutes in medium heat. Once the mango is cooked or soft enough, add the rice and stir well to mix. Optionally garnish with mint and serve.

Tip : For it to be more tangy you may add more mango.

Ragi fritters ( Finger millet fritters)

Finger millet (Eleusine coracana) is originally native to the Ethiopian Highlands and was introduced into India approximately 4000 years ago. It is very adaptable to higher elevations and is grown in the Himalaya up to 2,300 meters in elevation. Finger millet is especially valuable as it contains the amino acid methionine, which is lacking in the diets of hundreds of millions of the poor who live on starchy staples such as cassava, plantain, polished rice, or maize meal. Click here to know more about Finger millet.

Ingredients:

Finger millet or Ragi flour - 3/4 cup
Onion - 3 cups , sliced
Dry red chili - * 2 chopped
Cilantro - 3 Tbsp , chopped
Curry leaves - 2 Tbsp , chopped
Ginger -1/4 tsp minced/paste
Butter - 1 tbsp
Oil for deep fry
Salt *

Directions:

In a big bowl add Onion, Red chili, Cilantro, Curry leaves, Butter - mix them well and then add the Finger Millet / Ragi flour and mix well. In a medium pan heat the oil for deep fry. Divide the mixture into two parts and add salt to one part. This will avoid the Onion shedding more water; which would make the mixture watery. If the flour is too dry you may add 1 or 2 tbsp of water to make the flour just enough to hold the mixture together. Fry the first batch little by little then add salt to the second batch and follow the same for send batch. Garnish with Cilantro and serve with Tomato or your desired hot sauce.

Tip: For those who don't like too much Onion, use less Onion and more flour. Also that allows you to have it for a couple of days.

I'm so delighted for this award and thanks (Sowmya, Shubha, Preethi) a lot for your appreciation, that's what keeps us going.

I would like to pass this lovely award to Ramya , Renuka , Jyoti , Rush , Bergamot , Aruna , Veena , Rekhas kitchen , Priti , Sowmya .

Spaghetti with Peppers

There are many different theories on where and when spaghetti was invented. Popular history says that it was invented in China, and that Marco Polo brought the knowledge of this food to Venice. The spaghetti, Polo encountered (and presumably tasted) in the far east was made from either rice flour or hard wheat flour (long noodles made from both grains exist in eastern cookery). It is generally accepted that the variety of durum wheat known in Sicily during the Middle Ages was, like lemons and oranges, introduced by the Arabs. And that brings us to the pivotal part of the story.

Early in 1154, shortly before the death of Sicily's monarch, King Roger II, and about a century before the birth of Marco Polo, a court chronicler and geographer named Abu Abdullah Mohammed al Edrisi (or Idrisi) completed a detailed geographical survey of Sicily. The content of the resulting opus, known to us as The Book of Roger, encompassed not only Sicily but other regions as well. A casual observation in the Book of Roger mentions that in the Sicilian town of Trabia the inhabitants made a form of pasta from hard wheat, and that this product, shaped into long strands, was manufactured in large quantity for export to other regions. click here to know more about spaghetti.

Ingredients:

Spaghetti - 8 ounces, cooked in salt water and drained
Garlic - 2 tbsp minced
Olive or vegetable oil - 2 tbsp
Green pepper - 1/2 medium, thin strips
Yellow pepper - 1/2 medium, thin strips
Red pepper - 1/2 medium, thin strips
Spinach - 1 cup
Black pepper * - 1/4 tsp
Parsley - 1/2 Tbsp chopped
Salt *

Directions:

In a large skillet, heat oil over medium heat. Add garlic, cook and stir for 30 seconds. Add green, yellow, red peppers, black pepper and pinch of salt. Cook by stirring frequently until the vegetables are tender. Add pasta and parsley stir gently to combine all the ingredients. If you need more black pepper add it and toss well and cook for a minute in a low heat.

Sending this to Presto Pasta Nights,this week hosted by Daphne.

Chayote (chow chow)Fry

The chayote (Sechium edule), also known as Sayote, Tayota, Choko, Chocho, chow-chow, Christophene, Mirliton and vegetable pear is an edible plant that belongs to the gourd family Cucurbitaceae along with melons, cucumbers and squash. It's also an excellent source of Dietary Fiber, Vitamin C, Vitamin K, Folate, Zinc, Copper and Manganese. Costa Rica is a major exporter of Chayotes worldwide. Click here to know more about chayote squash.

Ingredients :

Chayote squash – 1 medium, 1" cubes
Oil – 1 Tbsp
Onion – 1 cup, chopped
Salt *
Mustard seeds – 1/8 tsp

For paste :

Make a Coarse paste
Curry leaves – 3 strings
Coconut scraped fresh/frozen/dried – 4 tbsp
Green Chili – 2 *

Directions:

Pressure cook the Chayote for 1 whistle. Heat the oil in a pan and add mustard seeds, let it splutter then add onions and salt. Sauté the onions until they become translucent. Then add the paste and sauté until you feel the aroma of coconut and curry leaves paste. Add the pressure cooked Chayote and pan fry until it become tender.

I would like to add a special thanks to Padma and Shubha for passing the "I love your blog" award.