Spaghetti Venkatano

This is roughly how I make pasta most of the time. Being a vegan, I can't use cheese and I am not a big fan of olive oil. However I like the variety of colours and flavours vegetables can offer. So here I go..

Ingredients

Spaghetti - 15-20 long sticks

Oil - 1 tablespoon

A variety of vegetables - 1 cup

(in the above pictured one I used chopped capsicum, zucchini, beans, corn, carrots, broccoli)

Cumin powder - 1/2 teaspoon
Chilli powder - 1/2 teaspoon

Turmeric powder - 1 pinch

Oregano - 1 teaspoon

Chopped tomatoes / tomato sauce - half cup

Salt - to taste

Procedure

1. Boil water in a wide bottomed pan, add pasta and half teaspoon salt and cook till it is al dente.
(It will be a sin if I don't use that jargon in a pasta recipe :-) Basically it means the pasta is cooked but still firm with a small raw core)

2. On another pan, add oil and heat it.

3. Fry the veggies with the seasonings in the oil.

4. Retain some water from the pasta and drain the rest.

5. Add a little water to the vegetables and cook covered for 2 minutes.

6. Add the tomatoes / tomato sauce and simmer for sometime

7. Serve the sauce over the spaghetti and serve.

Mexican / Spanish Rice

Made Spanish / Mexican Rice. It more or less resembles our tomato rice, except for the following differences.

1. The rice needs to be roasted in oil till it becomes golden brown.
2. Olive oil is recommended and garlic needs to be added. I did not have them but used  Italian dressing while cooking rice which contains olive oil and garlic.
3. In tomato rice, we use fresh chopped tomatoes, but Mexican rice, uses tomato sauce. 
4. In tomato rice the cooked rice will be mixed with the tomato preparation, but in this all the ingredients are steamed with roasted rice. 

It tastes different and yummy.
 

My version of Parangikkai (puLi) pachchadi with Butter Squash - பரங்கிக்காய் பச்சடி

This is a version out of constraints rather than creativity. I have substituted grated coconut and grinding of spices into a paste. How? As described below :-)

Ingredients

Oil - 1 tablespoon

Butter squash - 1 cup chopped into 1cm cubes

Chopped / diced vegetables - 1 cup
Mustard seeds - 1 teaspoon

Ulundu seeds - 1/2 teaspoon

Fenugreek / Mentiyam seeds - 1/2 teaspoon
Sesame / Black Yellu - 1/2 teaspoon

Turmeric powder - 1 pinch

Green chillies - 2 long nicely chopped
Tamarind soaked in water - half cup

Potatoes - very finely chopped or finely mashed into paste - 1/4 cup

Salt - to taste

Procedure.

(Since this is not a standard recipe, I will write how I made it, rather than how to make it)

I coated the pan with a thin layer of oil and then roasted mustard, fenugreek seeds, sesame and ulundu seeds in a medium low heat. Then added the finely chopped green chillies and roasted them together. I moved it to a piece of sheet.

Normally, the spices and coconut would be ground to a fine paste, since I did not have the provision of grinding and neither had any coconut in stock, I took this approach:
Folded the sheet of plastic with the spices in it and hammered it. As for the gravy, I microwaved and mashed a very small quantity of potatoes. (Too much potatoes can give a starchy taste, so just right enough to give a gravy consistency)

Back to the pan. Heated a spoon of oil, sautéed the squash pieces with turmeric and salt till they are half cooked. Added a half a cup of water and cooked it covered for 3 minutes.

Added the mashed potatoes, tamarind water and powdered spices and boiled them under medium heat.

The aroma of roasted mustards and fenugreek was too tempting . :-)

(I had used only one chilli and when tasted found the sweetness of butter squash unbearable and had to neutralise it with half a spoon of chilli powder and hence the pachchadi lost it's yellow colour :-( )


That's all folks!

Oats Kichchadi

Ingredients

Oil - 1 tablespoon

Plain oats - 1 cup

Chopped / diced vegetables - 1 cup

(you can try as many as you like, typically it can include, diced tomatoes, beans, broccoli, carrots, peas, corns, capsicum, onions... )

Mustard seeds - 1 teaspoon

Black Lentil (Ulundu seeds) 1/2 teaspoon

Cumin (Jeera) seeds 1/2 teaspoon (optional)

Turmeric powder 1 pinch

Green chillies / red chillies (green is preferable)

Ginger - finely chopped.

Salt - to taste

Corriander / Cilantro leaves

Procedure.

It is fairly similar to uppma kichchadi.

Heat oil, fry mustard, ulundu / black lentils, cumin seeds (jeera), onions, chillies, and ginger. Once sputtering slows down, add the vegetables and roast them with turmeric and salt under a low flame.

Add 2 cups of water (water quantity such that it will either be absorbed or evaporated without a trace). You cannot force it to evaporate by extended heat because oats will become soggy if you do so.

Bring to boil and cook the vegetables say for about 2-3 minutes. Low the flame and add the oats and turn off heat.

Oats should cook on the heat of the water and the vegetables else it will become soggy.

Garnish with coriander leaves.

That's all folks!

Vegan Patties

I usually stock all the ingredients needed for a veggie sandwich and it is an usual breakfast menu when I am in North America. But a good burger eluded me since I did not know how to make a veggie patty.

I recollected the ingredients of an instant patty mix, I used a year and half back and tried to recollect it.

The result is what you see in the picture. Luckily, the result came out very well.

Ingredients
(makes 4 patties)

Potatoes (finely minced / grated) - 1
Broccoli - (finely minced) - 4-5 florets
Carrot - (grated) - 1
Green peas - 1/4 cup

Chilli powder - 1 teaspoon
Rice flour - 1/2 cup
Maida / wheat flour - 1/2 cup

Salt - 1/2 teaspoon
Margarine / butter / oil for roasting.

Procedure

Heat a tablespoon margarine / butter / oil in a wide skillet. Fry the green peas for a minute, add the vegetables and roast them on a heat for 2 minutes. Sprinkle a little water and keep the skillet covered till the vegetables become tender.

Transfer the above mix to a mixing bowl, add the flour, salt and chilli powder. Add little water and make into a thick dough.

Make 4 equally sized balls and pat into about 4-5 cm diameter and 1/2 cm thick patties.

Roast them over oil / margarine on a medium flame. Turn over both sides till you get a dark brown crust.

Assemble it in a burger and relish. :-)