Noodley Pudding (Siwayan/ Semya Custard pudding) for Blog Anniversary

Month of May flew by really, really fast. It was quite a busy month jam packed with a lot of fun and food -- celebrated my birthday, Mother's day, met some blog buddies, took a painting class along with couple of friends, planted a raised bed garden and caught up with family and friends. I wish all months are this way -- even though it went fast, a lot of things have happened and most of the time is accounted for unlike some months were absolutely nothing happens in the whole entire month.

Along with the other happy incidents, my blog completed 9 years and entered into it's 10th year of blogging. I don't think I even knew what I was doing or what I wanted to do with the blog 9 years ago when I started it. This space was my way of documenting my recipes, never thought I would last this long. Being a stay at home mom for the last 3 years, the blog has become my main hobby -- it gives me something else to think about other than the mundane everyday chores.

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Semya Pulao (Vermicelli Pilaf)

BM# 34: Week 4/ Day 3
Theme: Cooking from Sapana's blog
Dish: Semya Pulao (Vermicelli Pilaf)

It has been a busy day and I'm very late for the 3rd day post for BM# 34. I was busy prepping for the Thanksgiving party and also finishing up the necessary shopping. Weather was lousy today, gloomy, cold and rainy -- totally uninspiring and dull.

I was planning to make one of Sapana's Chole recipe. I had already soaked the chickpeas, but by the time we came back from shopping, we were starving and I didn't have time to cook the beans and make the curry. Instead I made this quick to make Seviyan Pulao. 

I make semya pulao often, but the addition of tomato, garlic masala paste is new and added lot of flavor to the pulao. Also using carom seeds in tempering is a different element. It tasted great and we had a filling lunch.

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Vegan Semya Payasam (Kheer) with Almond Milk

VeganMofo Day 25: Belated Dasara Wishes to Everyone. My husband was out of town yesterday, it was just my mom and I at home. Didn't feel like making anything big for the two of us, so I made this quick prasad for Vijayadasami.

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Vermicelli Pilaf (Semya Upma) for National Noodle Month

Did you know that March is National Noodle Month? I wanted to make something on this occasion (??), for the past 31 days and as usual the month flew by right in front of my eyes. Well since there are a few more hours left to complete the month I thought I’ll post this yummy semya upma (aka vermicelli pilaf in a fancy way).

I usually end up making a sticky lumpy mess when I make semya, usually because I second-guess myself when adding the water and end up adding way more than needed. But my mom’s method of boiling vermicelli (just like pasta) in lots of salted water for 2-3 minutes until cooked through has solved my sticky mess problem.

Here’s how I made this dish.
Ingredients:
Semya (Short cut vermicelli) – 2 cups (I used Bambino brand available in Indian groceries)
Onion – 2 medium, finely chopped
Potato – 1 medium, diced
Roasted Peanuts – ¼ cup
Tomato paste – 1tbsp
Tomato – 1 medium, chopped
Kitchen king masala – ½ tsp (or to taste)
Lemon juice – 2tsp

For tempering:
Urad dal – ½tsp
Chana dal – ½tsp
Mustard seeds – ½tsp
Cumin seeds – ½tsp
Dry red chili – 2

Method:

• Boil 4-5 cups of water in a large saucepan, and once water comes to a rolling boil, add 1tsp and the vermicelli. Boil for 2-3 minutes or until cooked through (this should not take very long). Drain the water from the vermicelli and keep aside until ready to use.
• Heat 1tbsp oil in a sauté pan, add tempering ingredients and once the seeds start to splutter, add the onions and sauté until lightly browned around the edges.
• Add potatoes and roasted peanuts; cover and cook until the potatoes are cooked through, about 8-10 minutes.
• Next add the tomatoes and tomato paste, cook until they turn mushy. Season the veggies with salt and kitchen king masala.
• Finally add the cooked semya* with the lemon juice and more salt (if needed), mix everything gently. Cover and cook for 2 minutes, so the flavors get a chance to mingle. Let rest for 5 minutes and garnish with coriander leaves before digging in.

This is a great dish for BLD (Breakfast, Lunch or Dinner). We had ours for dinner with some homemade fruit juice.

* Note: Cooked Vermicelli might turn into a mush if left in the colander/ strainer for too long. Don’t worry, just rinse them under some cold water and squish them around with fingers to separate the noodles.

Curd Vermicelli

This is a very simple dish that is a little different and when you have rice overload then it is a great go-to dish. Vermicelli (I use bambino or MTR brands found in Indian stores) is cooked and the standard tadka used for curd rice is added, how simple can it get.

Ingredients:
Vermicelli – ½ cup
Yogurt – 1cup
Milk – ¼ cup
Zucchini – ¼ cup, grated
Carrot – 1 small, grated
Green chilies – 2, slit
Ginger – 1’ piece
Salt – to taste

For tempering:
Urad dal – 1tsp
Mustard seeds – 1tsp
Cumin seeds – 1tsp
Red chilies – 2
Asafoetida (Hing) – ¼tsp
Curry leaves – 6-8

Method:

• Bring a medium saucepan filled with water to boil. Add 1tsp salt and ½tsp oil and the vermicelli. Boil for 2 minutes, drain into a colander and rinse with cold water. Keep aside.
  
• In a small saucepan, heat 1tsp oil, add the tempering ingredients and once the seeds start spluttering add ginger and green chilies. Sauté for 30 seconds.
  
• Next add the grated veggies and cook until they don’t smell raw anymore.
  
• Add this mixture to vermicelli along with a pinch of turmeric, yogurt, milk and salt. Mix well and serve cold garnished with coriander leaves.

Slow Cooker Sambar

Update: My Computer is fixed.. I've updated the post with the pics.

I wanted to use my slow cooker that’s been collecting dust for quite sometime now. So I decided to make sambar in it and it came out pretty good, can’t complain for the minimum amount of work I had to put in.

Ingredients:
Toor dal – 1 cup
Moong dal – ¼ cup
Onion – 1 large, thinly sliced
Green pepper – 1 small, thinly sliced
Yellow squash – 1 medium, thinly sliced

Tomatoes – 2-3 medium, chopped (I used 1 small tomato chopped and 1/3 cup crushed tomato) Tamarind paste – 3 tbsp

Sambar Powder – 2-3 tbsp, homemade or store-bought (I used Ambika brand that I brought from India)
Red chili powder – 1 tsp
Salt – to taste

Popu Ingredients:
Urad dal – 1 tsp
Mustard seeds – 1 tsp
Cumin seeds – 1tsp
Dry Red chilies – 2
Hing – ¼ tsp

Method:

• I combined dal and veggies along with 5-6 cups water, ½ tsp turmeric, sambar powder, chili powder and salt in the slow cooker. Cooked on Low for about 6 hours (or on High for 4hrs).
• So by the time we came home, dal & veggies were done, then I added tamarind extract and adjusted the seasonings. Cooked for another 30 minutes on High.
• When there was about 10 minutes left for cooking, I made the tadka in 2tbsp oil, added it to slow cooker and let it cook.

Serve with rice, idli, dosa, roti, practically anything can be eaten with sambar. With the leftovers I made Sambar Semya which is nothing but vermicelli mixed with sambar.

Here’s how I made it:
Bring 6cups of water to a rolling boil, add 1tsp salt and 1 cup semya (vermicelli like bambino or MTR brand); cook for 3-4 minutes or until semya is cooked through. Drain the water and set aside to cool. Heat 1tbsp oil in a large sauté pan, add 1tsp each of urad dal, chana dal, mustard seeds & cumin seeds, 2-3 dry red chilies, ¼ cup toasted peanuts. Add 2-3 cups of sambar and bring to a simmer. Stir in cooked semya, mix well; taste and add salt, sambar powder as needed. Simmer for 2 minutes and enjoy hot for a quick BLD (Breakfast, Lunch or Dinner).

Sambar goes to EC @ Simple Indian Food for her WYF-Side Dish event.
Sambar Semya goes to Sahaja @ Spicy Rasam for her Single Serving Recipes event.

Note: My laptop has gone cuckoo and is probably infected by the conflicker virus. So couldn't upload pics, I will update the post once everything is fixed.

JFI-WBB: Green Leafy Vegetables - Methi Upma

Hearty congratulations to Indira on the 1st anniversary of Jihva for Ingredients blog event and making it such a big success. This month's theme is "Going Green with Green Leafy Vegetables" (keeping Earth Day in mind) and Indira & Nandita (@ Saffron trail) have come together to make it JFI & WBB joint event.

To cover all the bases for this event, I incorporated greens for a breakfast recipe and also made it on a weekend. Here's my entry "Methi Semya Upma". This recipe is extremely simple and quick to make.

Ingredients:
Semya (Vermicelli noodles) - 1/2 cup
Methi (fresh or frozen) - 1/2 cup
Onion - 1 large, chopped fine
Green chilies - 4, chopped fine
Lemon juice - 1tbsp
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Chana dal - 1 tsp
Red Chili - 1 (optional)
Curry leaves - 6
Salt - to taste

Method:

• Bring 3 cups of water to boil, add semya and salt. Stir well and cook for 2 minutes. Drain and rinse with cold water. Keep aside.
• Heat 1tsp of oil in a pan, add mustard seeds and chana dal. Saute till the seeds splutter.
  
• Add onions, curry leaves and chilies. Saute till onions turn transparent, but not brown.
• Add the chopped methi leaves (thawed if using frozen) and salt, cover and cook for about 5 minutes.
• Add the cooked semya, stir well and continue cooking for couple more minutes. Remove from heat, add lemon juice, mix well and serve hot.
  

Note: If the vermicelli turns into a blob, just add some cold water to refresh it. Cooking vermicelli separately (my mom's trick) makes the noodles nice and separate and not sticky.