Vegetable stew

Any party that goes on at my home(back in India) was incomplete without "vegetable stew". This was one of the "should be dishes" in the parties, which my granma used to host. I still remember how she would make all her recipes with so much attention to the detail of the ingredients that go into it. And every time she made it it would have the exactly same "yummy" flavor. I would be satisfied if i become half as good a cook as my granma :) .So today i will be sharing the vegetable stew recipe.

Ingredients:

1.)Potato - 3 large(cut into 1 inch cubes)

2.)cauliflower - 6 florets

3.)carrot and peas - 1/2 cup

4.)cloves - 2

5.)cardamon - 3

6.)cinnamon - 1/2 inch

7.)onion - 1 small (chopped length wise)

8.)ginger garlic paste - 1tsp

9.)coconut powder - 1 cup

10.)tomato - 2(chopped)

11.)coriander leaves - 1/2 cup(finely chopped)

12.)turmeric - 1/2 tsp

13.)green chillies - 4 (vertically slit)

14.)curd/yogurt - 1/2 cup

15.)salt - taste

16.)oil - 1tbsp

Procedure:

Take oil in a pan. When it is hot add cloves,cardamon and cinnamon. When they start giving an aroma add onions and green chillies and sauteed till golden brown. Into it add turmeric powder and ginger garlic paste and saute till the raw flavor goes.Then add tomatoes and saute till they are cooked. Next add vegetables and fry for 5 mins. Next add water and close the lid and let the vegetables cook. When the vegetables are 50 % done , add salt and coconut powder and mix well. Again close the lid and let it cook till the vegetables are done. Once the vegetables are cooked add yogurt and mix well. Let it simmer for 5 mins and finally garnish with coriander and serve. This goes extremely well with vegetable biryani, roti or plain rice.

Kheera/Cucumber sambar

Sambar is one of 'THE' most important dish on south India. Me being from Hyderabad, i do not remember one day at home , that there was no sambar. Today i will be sharing Cucumber sambar recipe.It can be done in two ways. Procedure 1 is an easy and quick recipe, and procedure 2 is a more authentic one. Procedure 2 takes more time to prepare that procedure 1. But in the end, both the tastes are quite comparable.


Ingredients:
1.)Toor dal - 1 cup
2.)dried red chillies - 3
3.)cucumber - 1(skin peeled and chopped into large pieces)
4.)onion - 1 small(cut length wise)
5.)tomato - 2
6.)mustard seeds - 1 tsp
7.)cumin seeds - 1tsp
8.)ginger garlic paste - 1tsp
9.)sambar powder - 1 tsp
10.)astefodia - pinch
11.)turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
12.)oil - 1tsp
13.)coriander leaves - 1/4 cup
14.)curry leaves - 5
15.)salt

Procedure1:
Follow the same procedure as mango dal, instead of mango, add tomato and cucumber and saute.Follow the other steps exactly similar(please omit adding the sugar part, if following the mango dal recipe).

Procedure2:
Wash toor dal well and let it pressure cook with 2 cups of water and turmeric powder for 3-4 whistles. Once the dal is cooked mash the dal into a paste. Take oil in a pan, add a little mustard seeds,dried red chillies and cumin seeds. When it starts spluttering add onion and saute till it gets transparent. Then add ginger garlic paste and saute till raw flavor is gone.Now add salt and tomatoes and fry for 2 mins. Then add the cucumber pieces and mix well and cook with the lid closed till the cucumber pieces are cooked well. Once the cucumber is cooked well add to this mixture the already cooked and mashed dal. Mix well and add water till it gets thin(not very thick not very thin). At this point add sambar powder and mix well. Add salt according to taste and let it boil for 15 to 20 mins. Boil till the raw flavor of dal is gone and all the flavours blend well and turn off the stove.Take oil in a pan, add a little mustard seeds,cumin seeds,curry leaves and dried red chillies, once they start spluttering and this to the sambar and garnish with coriander leaves.
Sambar goes well with rice.

Note:
Add water to toor dal in 1:2 proportion(for 1 cup toor dal, add 2 cups water).

Egg burji

Egg burji is one of my all time favorite recipes which is very simple to make and yet is substantial food to have at any time.


Ingredients:
1.)Egg - 3
2.)Green chillies - 2 (finely chopped)
3.)mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
4.)Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp
5.)onion -1 small(finely chopped)
6.)turmeric - 1/4tsp(or less)
7.)ginger garlic paste - 1/2 tsp
8.)salt - to taste
9.)oil - 1tsp
10.)chili powder -1/4 tsp (optional)

Procedure:
Beat the eggs well in a bowl. Take oil in a pan, when it is hot add mustard seeds, cumin seeds. When they start spluttering add onions, green chillies and fry till onion gets translucent. next add turmeric and ginger garlic paste and fry till onions get brown. Now add the salt and stir well. next add the eggs and mix well and let it rest for 2 mins. Stir occasionally till the eggs get cooked(Stir to make sure the eggs do not get burnt or stick to the pan). One the eggs are cooked depending on the taste add chili powder if needed and stir well. Cook for a couple of more minutes and Egg burji is ready to be served. This goes well with roti, bread or eat it juz like that..it tastes simply superb!!!

Baingan Bartha

Brinjal/Eggplant is one of the rich vegetables that can be prepared in so many ways with such different flavors. One can cook this veggie daily and yet give a totally new dimension to it in its taste. The recipe that i will be sharing is one of my husband's favorite recipes.


Ingredients:
1.)Brinjal/Eggplant - 1 large
2.)onion - 1 medium(finely chopped)
3.) tomatoes - 4(coarsely chopped)
4.)garlic - 2 tsps finely chopped
5.)green chillies - 3 finely chopped
6.)pepper powder - 1 tsp
7.)salt - to taste
8.)oil - 1tbsp
9.)coriander leaves - to garnish

Procedure:
Rub oil thoroughly on the brinjal and place it in the oven for 20 to 30 min at 550 degrees Fahrenheit. Keep checking on the brinjal now and then, and keep turning it to ensure that it is cooked well on all sides. When the brinjal is cooked its skin gets wrinkled. (This is the test to check if the brinjal is cooked. If the brinjal is cooked right the skin of the brinjal peels off with ease. And also the colour and texture of the cooked brinjal is quite different from a raw one. Cooked brinjal meat has a browner tinge to it and is a lot more softer than a raw one.). Once the brinjal is cooked remove from the oven and let it cool down. Then peel the skin and coarsely chop the brinjal.
Brinjal can also be cooked on stove top. For that apply oil to the brinjal and put on a pan.Cover the pan with a lid and let the brinjal cook. Keep turning occasionally(to make sure brinjal is not burnt.).When the brinjal is cooked the skin colr changes and skin is wrinkled. A cooked brinjals's skin peels off with ease.

In the mean while take oil in a pan. When it is hot add onions,garlic and green chillies. Saute till onions get golden brown. Now add the tomatoes and cook. Add salt and pepper powder, mix well and cook till the tomatoes are cooked. At this point add the cooked brinjal and mix well. Let it cook for some more time till all the flavors are thoroughly mixed. Garnish with coriander leaves and remove from the stove. Baigan bartha is ready to be served. This goes well with roti's or rice.

Creating new ODBC connection on 64-bit Vista/ODBC driver for 64-bit Vista

If u are trying to make a odbc connection to say MS Access or Excel, so that it can be used by a programming language (like java), on a 64-bit OS. Then the things u need to do are:
1.)Go to Control Panel
2.)Go to Administrative Tools
3.)Right click on Data Sources and go to its properties
4.)In properties change the following and click 'OK'
Target field to:
%SystemRoot%\SysWOW64\odbcad32.exe
From:
%SystemRoot%\System32\odbcad32.exe
Start In to:
%SystemRoot%\SysWOW64
From:
%SystemRoot%\System32
5.)Having done the above go to Data Sources and in that go to System DSN.
6.)In System DSN click on Add and select the driver u want and click 'Finish'.
eg. Driver *.mdb(for Access 2003), *.accdb(for Access 2007), *.xls(for Excel) and so on.

7.)Having done this Select the file u want by going to 'Select' and choosing the file u want to use

in ur program and give the Data Source Name(DSN) the same as name the name of ur

file.This will do the job.

Note: The DSN need not be the same as the name of the file. But what ever u give the DSN ,makes ure u use that in ur program to get Connection.

Roti

Roti is generally served with a side dish, which is generally a curry or raitha.


Ingredients:
1.)Wheat flour - 2 cups
2.)water - 1 cup
3.)salt - pinch
4.) oil - 1/2 tbsp

Procedure:
Take wheat flour and salt and mix well. Now add water little by little and knead to a soft dough.(amount of water that goes to the dough depends on the wheat flour, so always little by little).The dough should be soft, with a little sticky consistency. Now oil ur hands and try to knead the dough. Add a little oil to the dough and knead well. If the dough is too sticky, add a little flour. The dough should be in a consistency , where u can roll out the dough with the rolling pin. Not divide the dough into 6 balls and roll each of then into 6 inch diameter circle.Fry the rolled out dough with little oil or ghee.
Roti is ready to be served. This goes well with any curry

Tips

1.)Is the dish gets too spicy because of addition of chili powder, spiciness of the dish can be reduced to a considerable extent by adding coriander powder to it.

2.)If the dish is too salty, add coconut powder or coconut milk to reduce the salty flavor. Sometimes adding something sour like lime juice, tamarind juice and tomatoes helps too.