Mr. Parveez has always been a big fan of the south Indian Food varieties, mainly the vegetarian food. One of the rice dishes, were Vangibhaath. Its basically eggplant cooked with spices and a few other ingredients and mixed with rice and served with peanut chutney on the side.
He had been making this dish since he started cooking in USA and back home, this dish was one of the few dishes that his elder sister would make at home. Soon after we got married, on one of his “Special Breakfast weekend”, he made Vangibhaath. Now, I am not a huge fan of eggplant, but I decided not to tell that to Mr. Parveez since the dish was made with so much love. I tried and I was more than happy to not bring up my dislike for eggplants.
This dish is amazing. The eggplants are completely cooked and merge really well with the spices of the dish. The cashews and chana daal ad a lot of crunch to the dish and lastly the flavor of tamarind is so well blended with the dish that all you would ever taste is a delicious rice dish made with little effort and a lot of love.
South Indian food has so many varieties with their chutneys. Coconut chutney, Peanut chutney, Roasted chana chutney, not forgetting the common chutneys with North India like the coriander chutney, green chili chutney and Mint chutney.
Coconut Chutney tastes awesome with Rice idlis and Sambhar. The spice of the sambhar is mellowed down by the coconut chutney and brings out wonderful flavors.
Chutney made with peanuts.
Rava Idlis is one of my favorite breakfast. You’d be amazed to know but I had never tried Rava Idlis until I got married. And, once I did, Rava Idlis found themselves a new fan. Once married, after coming to USA, Rice Idlis were one of the first demonstration of cooking skills presented by Mr. Parveez and not just were the idlis soft and fluffy, the sambhar was finger licking delicious with the perfect peanut chutney.
For years, weekends used to start with a special breakfast cooked by Mr. Parveez, which reduced to few special occasions a year, thanks to children and busy lifestyle that comes along with the joy of parenthood. Now, I can make 4 different varieties of sambhar, but my first sambhar recipe was from Mr. Parveez.
So, getting back to the Rava idlis. For the first few years, I only enjoyed them in India during my visits, since idli making was my “man’s job” and my man didn’t make rava idlis. Finally, the craving was hard to wait for my trip to India and I managed my own recipe for Rava idlis. This recipe is another version of Rava Idlis where I added a little sambhar masala to enhance the taste. I believe this to be one of my best experiments. Please do try. This is a perfect dish if you are going low on carbs or calories, great for diet. Its clean and healthy as well.
My kids, like all other kids completely dislike spinach. Any form of spinach curry or spinach daal made with different recipes would not make them happy. I am sure a lot of people share this story. My kids liked chhole/ chickpeas and that’s when I tried to come up with a recipe that has spinach, and does not give you that strong spinach taste.
This recipe is healthy, super delicious and is a wholesome nutrition. Its even good if you are on a diet.
Indians and their love for lentils and beans is known worldwide. Most homes in India cook some kind of lentil or beans everyday. The dishes in North India and South India, basically my in laws and my mom’s family cook are very similar, except for the modes of cooking.
Being from Rajasthan, we cook more of mung, chana, chanwle, chhole where as, my in laws cooked more of whole mung, toovar and horse gram. Now don’t get me wrong, its not that my mother in law never cooked yellow mung, but it wasn’t cooked like Toovar, which is cooked in 4 different varieties in the house. Where as, my mom only used Toovar daal for khichdi or for making sambhar. All great beans and lentils and so many varieties and I consider myself really fortunate that I have the honor to learn all these great dishes. Its not just a delight to cook them all and enjoy a huge variety, but its a great pleasure to be able to share them all with the world.
Getting back to Chanwle or Black eyed beans. This dish is my own creation and I have a beautiful story attached to it. Mr. Parveez had not tried Chanwle, except at restaurants. So, once we happened to be eating some north Indian thaali and chanwle made their way to one of the foods served. They were cooked lightly in mild spice and had an amazing taste. I, then mentioned to my better half that I have grown eating these beans and since he likes I would love to cook them at home. My next trip to the grocery store had chanwle in the list. I knew I had to soak and boil them, and I thought I would ask my mom for the recipe, not realizing that the time I started cooking dinner in USA, my mom was sleeping in India. The soaked and boiled chanwle looked at me with high hopes of being cooked for dinner and that’s when I made up my own recipe, which was loved by my husband and kids.
I will share my mom’s recipe too on this site. Meanwhile, this recipe is simple, amazing and super delicious and healthy.
The value of eating vegetables is something most of us realize after getting older, specially after having kids. This is the time you understand why your mom took all those strict routes of making you eat Bhindi, turai and patta gobhi. In my case, I always threw a fit when my mom made cabbage or patta gobhi but, since I wasn’t a big fan of Okra/ lady finger/Bhindi either, I had to pick my battle and would normally give in with cabbage.
It was my teen age when I actually started enjoying cabbage and I remember that my mom started adding grated carrot and peas to the cabbage which changed the taste from the tradtional cabbage curry and added a lot more flavor to the dish.
This cabbage curry is my mom’s recipe. There is no onion or garlic added to it. My boys love it and its one of the few ways to serve the greens in a delicious way.
Bisibelebath is a traditional south Indian breakfast. Growing up in Northern India, I realize that I never knew this dish existed. To me Masala Dosa, Rava Dosa, Idli and Sambhar were South Indian food and my knowledge never went beyond that. After I got married, I discovered the food heaven that South India offered. I was not just amazed but, also surprised that the food had the never ending variety.
Bisibelebath is one of Mr. Parveez’s favorite dishes. I would always see him order and relish the dish at our favorite restaurant in Bengaluru. Unfortunately, we do not find the dish as commonly in restaurants in United States, and some restaurants that do serve, do not make it correctly. Therefore, I started cooking my own. The best compliment is when I don’t see Mr. Parveez enjoying the restaurant cooked Bisibelebath as much as he enjoys mine…LOLzzz. As much as he hates it when I tell him that [you know wives have the “wife sense”..LOLzzz] .
Mr. Parveez believes that no matter what I make at home, when he eats the same dish outside, he expects me to completely ignore the fact that its something I can cook and stay away from asking any questions related to the dish. So, now all I do is take a bite and be thankful, that I can make better.
This dish is basically Rice and Toovar daal cooked together and then mixed with boiled veggies and the Bissibhelebhaath powder, along with a little jaggery and Tamarind. Fimally tempered with South Indian tempering of cumin seeds, Mustard seeds, asafoetida, curry leaves and a few cashews. Serve hot/ warm with something crunchy.
We love Biryani. Till date, I have cooked over 45 varieties of Biryani, with different flavors and different styles of cooking. Its amazing how beautifully the flavors blend in together and give out fabulous taste.
Biryani was introduced by Mughals in India. But with time, the addition of spices, chilies, local produce were added to enhance and make numerous varieties of Biryanis. And, I believe that with time, the vegetarians in India adapted the dish and decided to make the vegetarian option. Nevertheless, meat/ chicken/ vegetables, Biryani is always delicious.
Usually, Biryanis always goes hand in hand with chicken/ meat and is a non vegetarians delight. But, little do we realize that vegetarian Biryani would be equally delicious. While making vegetable Biryani, its always advised to use a variety of vegetables, of your choice. The good thing is that veggies are incorporated so easily that even with people who dislike them, enjoy it in this form.
I belong to the desert region of India. The land of forts and palaces, “Rajasthan”. When you think of Rajasthani or Marwari cuisine, ghee, daal baati, churmas and ker saangri are one of the first dishes that come to your mind. Very few people realize that marwari cuisine has loads of non vegetarian dishes as well, which are equally [a little more for me] delicious.
The land of Marwar brings me the memories of Khada masala Gosht, Pathreeli Raan, Laal Maas, Murgh ke Sholay, Rajasthani Malai Biryani and of course the Tangdi Kebab. Rajasthan is the land of Rajput community and most of the non Vegetarian dishes are a gift from them. Even till this date, a lot of Royal families are very fond of good food and you will see the Kings and Queens cooking for leisure.
These Kebabs make a great appetizer and have impressed my guests most of the times and have always been complimented on the great dish. These Tangdi kebabs are spicy, crunchy and flavorful and taste very different from the regular tangdi kebabs. Its a must try for every Kebab lover.
