How to Prepare Tea

Tea or Coffee is the first thing that comes to mind in the morning. A good tea gives a refreshing feel. Sipping a cup of tea is a great way to relax. There are so many ways to prepare tea is sharing my way of preparing tea.   Here goes the Recipe. At our home the day starts with tea and newspaper :). This is again my MIL's recipe. You can adjust any ingredient according to your taste. I make tea masala and store it for 2-3 months. It makes making masala chai everyday easy :). So the ingredients measurement is according to that you can adjust according to your use.

Prep time	Cook time	Serves
2 mins	10 mins	2  persons

Recipe type: Beverages

Cuisine: Indian

Ingredients Milk  -1 cup Water -1/4 cup Tea -2 tsp Sugar – 1 tbsp

Method

Mix Milk and water and bring it to boil .Once it boils simmer the flame and add the tea leaves or tea dust and leave it for 5 minutes. Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes, if desired add more milk and sugar. Switch off the flame and strain the mixture. Hot tea is ready to be served with your favorite snacks. 

 Notes

Increase or decrease the quantity of tea powder depending on the strongness of it.

Vegetable Fish Balls

Fish Balls are commonly smooth in texture with opaque white color that it pops when deep fried. It can contain much extender at times using flour. In this recipe, freshly chopped vegetables are added to give a different texture. There is no exact measurements yet is indicated in this recipe These golden Fish Balls are excellent served with sweet chili sauce as an appetizer or finger food. Hard to stop at just one. This very simple way of preparation allows one to appreciate its mild flavor and texture. It is wonderful mixed with fish and vegetables and made into deep fried patties or balls. Salmon is a more oily fish and it made the mixture a little easier to handle. I opted for vegetables that are more familiar and easily available here like carrots and green onions. All the ingredients worked really well together and I am pleased with the outcome. This dish has become a favorite at our house.

Prep time	Cook time	Serves
30 mins	30 mins	15

Recipe type: Appetizer

Cuisine:  Continental 

Ingredients Fish Fillets  - 2 packets (2 kg) Mashed potatoes -3 no’s Vegetables (Carrot,Beans,Cabbage,Gobi )  -3 cups Minced ginger and garlic -1/2 cup Minced Onions -1/2 kg Ginger powder -2 tsp Cooking soda -3 tsp Maida – 1 cup (for paste) Bread crumbs -1 cup Eastern Fish masala – ¼ cup or more  Red chili powder -2 tbsp. Corn flour  -3/4 cup Coriander leaves –few bunches

Method

1. Place the fish fillet in salted water finely chopped fish fillets. Microwave or boil the fish until cooked, flake the fish to make about some amount which blends well with other vegetables. 

2. Boil or steam the potatoes and mash. Grate the carrots using not so fine mesh. Place the onions, vegetables, ginger and garlic in a food processor. 

3. Transfer to a bowl and add the flaked fish, potatoes, vegetables, bread crumbs, cornstarch and flour. Mix all ingredients. Season with salt, pepper. 

4. Eastern Fish Masala and red chili powder.Shape spoonfuls of fish vegetable mixture into balls. Dust some flour so as not to be sticky. 

5. Drop into hot oil and deep fry until golden brown. Remove and drain on paper towels.

Serving suggestions

Serve with sweet chili sauce or your favorite dippings.

Notes

 For a spicy sauce, add chili.

Dosakaya Pesara pappu (Yellow cucumber in Moong Dal)

In region of Andhra Pradesh, people love to eat moong dal than toordal. . A simple and easy dish to make. It tastes very nice and can consume with rice. My mom used to fry tender green chilies in little oil and season it with salt and other spices... These fried green chilies are our best combo for moongdal. Pappu is very tasty and highly nutritious recipe especially when bored and tired of making regular dal recipes. . It requires very less ingredients and also less time to cook. Really a very simple dish and tummy friendly also. 


September month Shhhh Cooking Secretly Challenge, have discussed an interesting topic which is purely based on Andhra Cuisine.This month I have paired with Priya Mahesh,blogger at at200 deg who gave me two secret ingredients Yellow cucumber and moong dal.

Dosakaya or Yellow Cucumber is a very healthy vegetable we can make different varieties with it like pappu, pulusu, pickle and chutney. It is good for digestion. Yellow Cucumber tastes a bit sour, sometimes they come in bitter taste also.  Do not use the bitter ones, throw them.Lets get onto the recipe,

Prep time	Blending time	Serves
5 mins	20 mins	3 -4  persons

Recipe type: Kulambu varieties

Cuisine: Andhra Cuisine

Ingredients Yellow moong dal – ½  cup Yellow cucumber – 1 big Green chilies – 2 no’s Onions -2 no’s Tomatoes -1 no Red chili powder -1 tsp Turmeric powder – 1 pinch Water -1 ½  cups Seasonings Mustard seeds -1/4 tsp Cumin seeds -1/4 tsp Dry red chillis -2 no’s Hing –pinch Ghee -1 tbsp. Curry leaves –few sprigs

Method

1. Wash moong dal and soak for 5 mins and keep aside. In a heavy bottom pan heat ghee and Dry roast them on low flame till aroma comes out then add water Keep the lid of the pressure cooker and then weight.In mean time peel the skin of yellow cucumber, scrape its skin and cut in the middle and remove the seeds cut into pieces. 

2. Check for the taste, if it is lite bitter then remove seeds and use only the pieces .If it is too bitter then throw it away and take another one.Chop 1 small onion and 5 small green chilies. The most important thing is dal should be in its original texture u should not mash it.This is the perfect cooking of moongdal with veggies. 

3. Heat oil in a other pan add mustard seeds let them popup then add urad dal,crushed garlic, cumin seeds, broken red chilies and then curry leaves and let them fry till light brown color and add this to dosakaya pappu and mix well. Add salt, turmeric powder, red chili powder and mix it well, add chopped coriander leaves and cook for a couple of mins on medium flame.

4. On top of it add fresh curry leaves and coriander leaves.The final consistency of dal should not be too thick or too thin. It should be medium consistency.Now dosakaya pesara pappu is ready, transfer into a serving bowl 

Serving suggestions

Enjoy this mild dal with rotis/rice.

I love to have this dal with rice and fried chilies.

Serve hot with rice, ghee and avakaya...... delicious

Notes

We should not make dal to lose its original texture. . If u over cook dal and veggies then cucumber melts in the dal and even the dal gets mashed up.

If you want to cook this in a pressure cooker fry dal in the ghee and add water and vegetables and salt chili powder, turmeric powder and cook for 2 whistles switch off and let it cool then open the lid.