Quick Starters at home - Stuffed Potatoes

Here's a quick recipe to try out at home... very easy and simple to try out in your microwave. Who does not love potatoes.. and stuffed with spices and cheese.. :-) well, you get my point.. right..??!!


Masala Stuffed Potatoes
Take 2 large size potatoes. Pierce them all over with a fork and then wrap them up in kitchen paper towels. Place them in the microwave. Set it on High and heat it for 9 minutes.
The potatoes should be soft to hold and press when they are done. Remove them out of the microwave and let them cool.
Cut them into halves and scoop out the centers.
Put all the scooped out centers into a separate bowl, add a small slab of butter and heat this for 30 seconds on high.
As the butter melts, whip this mashed potatoes mixture thoroughly while adding salt, red chilly powder (lal mirch), asafoetida (hing).
Take finely chopped capsicum, onion and corn kernels and heat them for 2 minutes in a separate bowl in the microwave with a little bit of olive oil thrown in.
Add the heated corn, onion and capsicum to the mashed potatoes mix now.
Take this mixture and put it back into the scooped out potato shells. Make strips out of cheese singlets (slices) and drape them on top of the stuffed potato shells.
Rub some salt, black pepper mixture, a dab of oil on the skins of potatoes to help reduce the wrinkling effect on skins (if you do not like them that way).
Put the filled up potato shells back in the microwave and heat it on High for 2 minutes or till cheese melts.

Take them out and they are ready to be gobbled up.. enjoy..

Recipe for Avial

Continuing our journey on food, let me start off with one of my favorites. Avial - a wholesome healthy dish made of various veggies and unique to Kerala and Tamil Nadu cuisines. It can be had with hot rice or with Adai (a type of dosa made with mixed daals). This is a very simple to make dish with low level of complexities.

Ingredients

1 potato, 2 carrots, 100 gms each of runner beans, broad beans, colacasia or yam, raw banana, 1/4 kg of white pumpkin, 1 drumstick, 3-4 green chillies, 1/2 shell grated coconut, coconut oil, curry leaves, 1/2 cup of thick curd

Steps

1. Chop all the veggies (potatoes, carrots, beans, colacasia, banana, pumpkin) into small cube shapes (not too small nor too big and lumpy). Cut the drumstick in the usual manner i.e. lengthwise.

2. Add all the veggies+drumstick along with salt into a pressure cook and boil them. Take it off after one whistle and let it cool.

3. Once it can be removed, transfer the entire mixture into a vessel, add a bit of water and start heating them on a simmering flame.

4. Take 1/2 shell grated coconut along with finely chopped 3-4 green chillies and put them in a mixie to grind them together. Just add sufficient water to build a thick paste which will form the base for your Avial. The paste should be thick and not runny.

5. Once the paste is done, transfer it to the vessel where the pressure cooked veggies are boiling already. Let the mixture cook till the veggies are all soft to eat. Switch off the flame and let it stand.

6. Take 1/2 cup of thick curd and add it to the vessel containing the veggies mixture. Mix it properly.

7. Take a couple of teaspoons of coconut oil and curry leaves and fry them together to prepare the tadka.

8. Finally add the tadka to the mixture in the vessel and let it stand. Your Avial is ready to be eaten now.

As in with most dishes, consistency is the key and taste is of utmost importance. The picture below would give an idea of how the finished product should look like. Go ahead, enjoy the dish which has always thrilled me since when I was a child. And do let me know if it worked as well for you as it has done so far for me...