OraLukallu Chitranna - Spicy Red Chili Rice

Wish you all a Happy Navarathri / Dasara!

We arrange dolls for Navarathri every year and every year we try to make it a little different from the previous years. Check out some more pics of this year’s Gombe here.

I’ve been so so buys these days, with the Navarathri arrangements, guests at every hour of the day, office, functions, we visiting friends/families and also cooking some snacks for Bombe-Bagina - some snack to be given to guests who come home to see the doll arrangements. But then being too pressed for time, I’m not being able to click pics of all of them, write and post.... So they’ll all come some time later, when I’m relatively free.

For now, here is a traditional rice item, mostly made for festive meals, called OraLukallu Chitranna. OraLukallu, in Kannada, means the traditional grinding stone they used to be preset in every kitchen before we had these mixers, grinders and food processors. We can still find them in some houses.

The spices for this chitranna will be ground fresh in the OraLukallu and thus the name. However, now we make it using our dear mixie, in a jiffy! It is quick, spicy, yummy and makes a perfect rice for your festive meal.

Here’s the recipe....

OraLukallu Chitranna

Preparation time : 5 min, excluding time to prepare rice
Cooking time : 10 min
Serves : 4

Ingredients:
Cooked rice - 4 cups, sona masuri variety
Grated coconut - ½ cup
Dry red chilies - 5-6, as per taste; Use Byadagi variety for a nice color
Asafetida / hing - a generous pinch
Mustard seeds - ½ tsp
Tamarind - a small marble sized ball
Salt - 1 tsp or as per taste

For tempering:
Cooking oil - 1-2 Tbsp
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Bengal gram dal - 2 tsp
Urad dal - 2 tsp
Peanuts - 2 Tbsp
Curry leaves - 1 Tbsp
Turmeric - a pinch
Salt - ½ tsp or as per taste

Method:

• Spread the cooked rice in a wide bowl and add a teaspoon of oil so that the grains do not stick
• Keep aside for 5 minutes to cool
• Grind the red chilies, asafetida, coconut, tamarind, salt, ½ tsp of mustard seeds in a mixie to form a coarse mixture. Do not add any water
• In a skillet heat oil, add mustard seeds and allow to splutter
• Add groundnut seeds and fry for a few seconds
• Add Bengal gram dal and urad dal and fry till golden
• Add curry leaves and turmeric and fry for a minute or two till all the ingredients are crisp
• Add the ground mixture and mix thoroughly, with the heat on
• Once the mixture is well sautéed, turn off the heat; don’t make the mixture too crumbly
• Add this to the spread rice and mix thoroughly
• Serve warm or pack it off for lunch box!

Notes:

• Make rice with a bit lesser water, so that the grains are separate and not sticky

100 Diwali Sweet Recipes-Free E-Book from Indusladies

Saw this at Gayathri's Cook Spot and thought of sending one of my recipes too...

I am sending the most popular sweet post in my blog : Badam Puri

So here is the Announcement From Indusladies, copied and pasted :):

For the upcoming Diwali on October 26th, 2011, Indusladies is compiling an E-Book called “100 Yummy Diwali SweetRecipes”. We are collecting sweet/dessert recipes from various bloggers to be featured in this E-Book.

This E-book will be made available as a free download to our community's 1.3 Lakh+ members. In addition, we will also be making this E-Book available to our 9000+ Facebook fans and Twitter followers. It's LOTS and LOTS of exposure to those food blogs entering the E-Book!! We believe this would be a nice way to get the word out about a wonderful blog to the entire membership of IndusLadies!!

Those bloggers interested in submitting a recipe for this E-Book...all you need to do is as follows:
1. Send a link from your blog for a sweet /dessert recipe. It should also include the picture of the sweet/dessert. Your recipe, food picture, recipe URL as well as the entire blog URL will get featured in the E-Book.
2. In return, we need you to do two things:
- Now make a blog post in your blog announcing the E-Book compilation by IndusLadies and the recipe you are sending for this E-Book. That way inviting your co-bloggers interested to send in their contribution by Oct 10th,2011.

Any blogger interested can send their entry to partners@indusladies.com by October 8th.

Chili Babycorn Capsicum

I hate deep fried starters especially when entertaining large crowds. That’ll make me confine to the kitchen when the guests arrive, and by the time I come out and manage to sit with them, I’ll be like a burnt veggie myself, after batches and batches of deep frying!!

This one is a no-fry quick fix starter, that fits well when cooking for large groups as well. Keep all the veggies ready and it can be made in a jiffy. The spices and other ingredients can be varied as per your tastes.

Chili Babycorn Capsicum

Preparation time : 10 min
Cooking time : 20 min
Serves : 4-5

Ingredients:

Baby corn - ~15
Capsicum - 1, slit into 1” thin strips
Onion - 3 medium sized
Cooking oil - 2 Tbsp
Garlic - 4-5 cloves
Green chilies - 2-3, chopped fine or slit
Red chili powder - ½ -3/4 tsp
Ajinomoto - 1 pinch, optional
Salt - ½ tsp, vary acc to taste
Vinegar - 1 tsp
Soya sauce - 1 tsp
Tomato ketchup - 2 Tbsp
Pepper powder - 1 tsp, optional (adjust as per your taste)

Method:
• Chop onions into quarters and capsicum into bite sized chunks
• Slit the baby corn and chop into bite size pieces
• Meanwhile in a wide pan, heat 1 Tbsp oil and add chopped onion, garlic and green chilies
• When done, add capsicum and sauté for a few seconds - don’t over cook the capsicum, retain the crunchiness
• Transfer to a bowl and keep aside
• In the same pan, heat remaining oil and fry the baby corn
• Cook covered on low flame till tender
• Mix in the reserved onion and capsicum
• Add salt, sauces, vinegar, ajinomoto if using and stir thoroughly
• Adjust salt and pepper as per taste and optionally garnish with some chopped scallions and serve hot
• Goes well with flavored rice as an accompaniment, or as a starter as is

Notes:
• Make sure this is not made much ahead, as the veggies tend to become over tender if kept for long. Tastes the best when served immediately
• The quantity of sauces used can be varied as per your taste - no hard and fast rule on the exact measures