Capsicum Rice

Capsicum, also known as red pepper or chili pepper, is an herb. It is used for various problems with digestion including stomach upset , gassy,  stomach pain, diarrhea, and cramps. It is also used for conditions of the heart and blood vessels including poor circulation, excessive blood clotting, high cholesterol, and preventing heart disease. 
Capsicum peppers are rich sources of antioxidants and vitamin C. Red peppers have twice the vitamin C content of green peppers. It has much of varieties as we can see from their colors and sizes.
Including much of peppers in your diet while pregnant or breast feeding is not likely good. 
Here is a tasty capsicum rice, an easy 30 minutes recipe, good for lunch packs. It adds a good filling dish in a party too.

Ingredients: serves 3

Capsicum - 3 nos, chopped lengthwise (You can always mix with red bell peppers.)
Ginger - Finely chopped 3 tsp
Green chillies - 8 nos(upto taste) chopped finely
Rice - 2 cups
Milk - 2 cups
Water - 2 cups
Oil -  1 tbsp
Cumin seeds - 4 tsp
Whole garam Masala - each 2 nos. (cardamom, cloves, bay leaves, cinnamon sticks )
Cashew nuts - few (Optional)
Salt - to taste

Preparation:

• Heat a heavy bottom cooking vessel. Add 3 tsp of oil and put whole garam masala items in it. Add 2 tsp of cumin seeds.
• Add washed rice and mix well. Stir fry rice for 2 minutes.

• Add 2 cups of milk and 2 cups of water to rice. Slowly stir out the sticky rice. Keep the rice exactly on medium heat. Close it using a lid with an outlet whole for steam. Wait exactly for 15 minutes and remove the vessel from stove. 

• During that 15 minutes, in a wide pan, heat 3 tsp of oil and sputter 2 tsp of cumin seeds. Toss capsicum and saute. Remember to put the stove on medium heat, since we are using less oil and capsicum got to cook while sauteing. 

• Once the capsicums are halfway cooked, add ginger and green chillies. Sprinkle salt to speed up the process. Add cashew nuts.

• When the rice is ready, wait for a minute or two to open the lid and add the hot rice into the capsicum pan and mix them well, gently.

• Garnish with coriander. Optional

• Serve hot with curd or chenna curry.

Egg Rice

A kind of egg fried rice, but I prefer to use steamed rice. A good and filling tummy in the afternoon lunch menu. This recipe is from my mother. She makes it really well, which my friends love to eat every time during my school and college days. Now I'm so happy that my kids and hubby love to eat them and get delighted to know that they are going to have egg rice as their lunch.. Simple and easy for lunch pack. A good party platter too.

Ingredients:

Steamed rice - 3 cups
Egg - 3-4 nos.
Onion - 1/2 cup,  Finely chopped
Curry leaves - 1 stem
Gree chillies - 4 nos. (Up to your taste)
Ginger - 3 tsp, Finely chopped
Oil - 4 tsp
Cinnamon sticks - few
Cloves - 3 nos
Fennel seeds - 1 tsp
Bay leaves - 1 big (Optional)
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Urad dhal - 1 tsp
Cumin seeds - 2 tsp
Cilantro - garnishing
Salt -2 tsp( to taste)

Procedure:

• Cool down the steamed rice in a wide mixing pan.

 

• In a saute pan, heat oil, add garam masala (cinnamon, clove, bay leaf, fennel seed) stuffs. Also sputter mustard seeds, urad dhal and cumin seeds.

• Add onion, ginger, green chillies, curry leaves. Saute well.
• Crack eggs and add them in the saute pan. Add some salt.

• Stir egg continuously till it becomes scrambled.
• Add saute to the rice and softly mix them both.
• Garish with cilantro(coriander) leaves.

• Egg rice is ready. A perfect match is with fried potatoes and yogurt (thayir pachadi)

Sambar Saatham / Bisibela Baath

One of the simplest and quickest recipes for lunch menu is Sambar Rice. Which is a perfect diet meal all in one. It has rice rich in carbohydrate, toor dal not only rich in protein but also contains 23 essential amino acids.. along with the good number of vegetables in it adds nutritional value to it.. It can be served with boondhi raitha too, which completes the meal with a milk product. It is generally served with appalam(paappad) and pickle.

Ingredients:

Rice - 1 cup

Toor dal - 1 cup (little less than a cup)

Vegetables - almost all sambar vegetables can be added. Here I used a capsicum, a piece of raddish, a piece of cauliflower floret, 2 egg plants, 2 potatoes, some peas

Tomato - 1 medium size

Onion - 1 no

Curry leaves - 1 stem

Mustard Seeds - 1 tsp

Hinge - 1/2 tsp

Dry Red Chillies - 2 nos

Oil - 2 tsp

Tamarind- 1 lemon size (Soak and extract the juice)

Ginger / Garlic - a bit/ 1 pod (Optional)

Ghee- 1 tsp (Optional)

Cashewnut - few (Optional)

Salt -to taste

To Grind :

Corriander Seeds - 1 tbsp

Chenna dal - 1 tbsp

Urad dal - 1/2 tbsp

Dry Red Chillies - 4 nos. or up to your taste.

Coconut - a normal size sliced or 1/2 cup shredded.

Cumin Seeds -1/4 tbsp 

Cloves -  4 nos

Cinnamon Stick -2 nos

Fennel Seeds - 1 tsp

Cardomom - 2 nos(Optional)

Procedure:

• Soak Toor dal first before we start anything on stove.
• In a Cooker or a Vessel we use to cook the rice, Sputter some mustard seeds in oil, add curry leaves, hinge and red chillies.

• Then add Chopped Onion, If in case you would like to add ginger and garlic, add them now.
• While the onion is being saute, Cut potato and add them in. Follow the next hardest veggie like carrot, beans,  egg plant, cauliflower, capsicum and green peas... Let it be in for 2 minutes.

• Mean while dry roast the ingredients above said to grind items along with the coconut. Grind them coarsely.

• I roasted the coconut separately, coz I used the frozen kind. While grinding the masala, grind them with the coconut too..

• Add soaked and washed toor dhal, and rice to the vegetables.
• Add the ground masala into it.

• Add required water as usual you keep to cook rice. I used 1:3 for rice and water. Here I used 6 cups of water since I added 1 cup of rice and 1 cup of toor dal. Include measuring tamarind juice too.
• Add sliced tomatoes and tamarind extract.

• Add Ghee and Cashew, if you would like to taste special.

• Pressure cook and mix well and serve hot with your favorite sides like boondhi raitha, pickle, pappadam...

Puthina Satham / Mint Rice

A good form of variety rice, quick and easy to make. Mint is a good healing herb. Aside from all the other health benefits of mint, it also can help in your efforts to lose weight in a healthy way! Mint is a stimulant, it stimulates the digestive enzymes that absorb nutrients from food and consume fat and turn it into usable energy. Therefore, by adding mint to your diet, you are increasing the amount of fat that is being consumed and put to use, rather than being stored and contributing to your weight gain! Also check for growing mint at home 

Ingredients:

Mint leaves - 2 bunch
Rice- 1 1/2 cup
Oil - 5 tsp
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Channa dhal - 1 tsp
Cardamom - 2 nos (Crushed)
Cinnamon sticks - 2 nos
Fennel seeds - 1 tsp
Anise - 2 nos (Optional)
Bay leaves - 3 nos (Optional)
Onion - 1 medium size (Finely chopped lengthwise)
Green chillies - 6-7 nos (Upto your taste, chopped finely)
Curry leaves - 1 stem
Salt - 2- 3 tsp (to taste)
Cashew nuts - few (Optional)

Procedure:

• Steam cook rice. I prefer using steamed rice. Spread it in a wide bowl and let it cools down.

• Clean mint leaves. Heat pan and sputter whole garam masala items (cinnamon sticks, cloves, cardamom, bay leaf, star anise, fennel seeds), mustard seeds and channa dhal.

• Saute Onion, green chillies, curry leaves.
• Just mince mint leaves and add it into the saute pan.

• Stir, so that water content from the mint leaves goes off. Add salt to taste. Add Cashew nuts and cook for a minute and that's it. 

• Remove it from stove and mix mint masala into the rice. Mix softly such that steamed rice should not break or smash..

• Flavored tasty rice is ready.