Experiments in Kailas Kitchen

Carrot Halwa ~ A popular winter dessert

2009-11-19T10:34:00.000+05:30

My appa is here with us for a short stay, from Gurgaon. Among the list of items to be sent through Appa, I asked Amma to send some carrots too. Yes the red, juicy Delhi carrots. Those variety is hard to get in my place. You guessed it right, I wanted to make carrot halwa. Its long time since I tasted halwa made with the red carrots. I made a batch on the same day Appa arrived.

Appa likes to chop veggies and during his stay, I am relieved of that job. I am not the kind of person who is ready to entrust the veggie chopping to anybody who offers to do the same. But Appa insists on doing it. And needless to say he grated the carrots. Half the job is done. I proceeded with the cooking. I made in two batches on different days. On the first day, I cooked the carrot in MW and rest of the process on stove top. The next day, I made it entirely in the microwave oven. I did not find MW making the job easier. The time taken was almost the same. May be a gain of 10 minutes or so in the MW. But opening the MW door, carefully taking the glass bowl and giving a stir at regular intervals, made me feel stove top is the better method. I shall give how I did bothways.

Ingredients

Grated carrot - 3 cups

Milk - 1 cup

Sugar - 1 cup

Ghee 3 tblspn

Cardamom powder - 1 tspn

Cashew/raisins - 10 each

Method

Grate the carrot using the large eyed grater. This will ensure the carrots don't get cooked mushy. And you will be able to bite into the pieces while you eat. But if you prefer a softer kind of halwa, grate it fine.

Cook grated carrot and milk in pressure cooker for one whistle. Or it can be cooked on stove top, till the carrot is fork tender and the milk is almost dried up. I cooked it in MW for 8 mimutes. In the kadai, heat a tablespoon of ghee and fry the cashews and raisins. Transfer the cooked carrot along with milk to a thick bottomed vessel of kadai. Stir in sugar and continue cooking for low flame. Keep giving a stir now and then. When the milk and sugar is fully absorbed by the carrots, add ghee and powdered cardamom. The mixture should not turn too dry but should be moist. Finally garnish with fried cashews and raisins.

Serve warm, ideally with a scoop of vanilla icecream.

Microwave method

Cook carrot and milk for 8 minutes. Stir in sugar and cook for 20 minutes. Give a stir at 5 minute intervals. Add ghee and cardamom and cook for 6 minutes. Garnish with fried cashews and raisins. I have used carrot, milk and sugar in the ratio 3:1:1. If you want it to be sweeter, you can increase the sugar by 1/4 cup.

Gulab Jamuns ~ For October ICC

2009-11-15T08:11:00.049+05:30

Sweet and juicy gulab jamun is the chosen recipe for October ICC. In this age of instant mix available to make them, Srivalli chose to do it from scratch. So we were required to make the Khova at home. The earlier posting date for ICC was last day of the month. After the over dose of Diwali sweets, I wanted to stay away from sweets for the rest of the month ( i.e only around 10 days). For sweet tooth like us, thats a long period. At first I had thoughts of giving this month's challenge a miss. On the other hand, I wanted to make it too. So I casually mentioned to my husband about the month's challenge and my thoughts of not doing it. He suggested making in small quanity and that was the gentle push needed and I went ahead with the preparation. Infact the day after I made, Srivalli mailed the challengers informing the change in posting date ie its going to be the 15th of every month. So that gave extra two weeks for us. But I had already made.

Out of the three recipe, I decided to follow the Yum Blog recipe. I used half litre of milk to prepare the khova and ended up with 3 tablespoons of it. I adjusted the quantity of ingredients accordingly and got 12 jamuns. Needless to say, we both finished it the same day. I am giving the measurements I used. So those of you, who are craving for jamuns and want to try in a small batch, here is the recipe for you.

You need

Khova - 3 tblspn

Maida - 1 tblspn

A tiny pich of soda

Milk - 1 tblspn (you may require )

Oil - 1 cup to deep fry

For the sugar syrup

Sugar - 3/4 cup

Water - 1/2 cup

Saffron+cardamom syrup - 1 tspn

Rose essence - few drops

Method.

Preparing Khova is easy but time consuming. You have to continue boiling the milk till the solid residue is left behind. If you plan to make khova, make sure you have plenty of time to spare. While making khova for jamuns, stop the cooking when the khova is moist and not too dry.

Mix khova , maida and soda. Don't knead it too much. If the mix is dry, add few drops of milk and bring the dough together. Divide the dough into12 portions and roll them into balls. Don't press hard while rolling. Else the inner portion will not get cooked properly and later doesn't soak in the syrup well.

Heat oil in a kadai. Don't heat it to smoking point. When the oil is moderately hot, carefully drop the balls into the oil and fry the jamuns till golden brown in medium heat.

Meanwhile prepare the syrup by heating sugar and water. The syrup should be slightly sticky to touch. If you have saffron add it along with powdered cardamom and few drops of rose essence. I have the saffron cardamom syrup with me. So I used that. Adding saffron is purely optional.

Drop the fried jamuns in the warm syrup. You can add the drained jamuns directly to the syrup. After one hour, the jamuns must have soaked in the syrup and is ready to serve. You can chill and serve or serve warm with a side of vanilla ice cream.

Manathakkali Vathal

2009-11-13T13:34:00.002+05:30

Manathakkali/Balck Nightshade are tiny berries to the size bigger than mustard seeds. They are green in color and on ripening turns deep purple. Ripe berries always reminds me of my childhood days. Those days, the ripe ones was a favorite among the kids. We were four kids at home, me, my sister and two cousins. It was a joint family. Being kids, we used to eat ourselves, if we get something like a chocolate from school or anything like that. But my sister was different. She had the habit of sharing with each one of us before she ate. Her sharing quality is to the extent that she will count the tiny ripened berries and divide it among four of us. But if it was me or my cousins, we would have easily gulped it down within seconds of picking them. Even today at family get-togethers, my sister's manathakkali sharing is talked about.

The green berries are used to make vathals. This is common in Tamilnadu. In Kerala, I think only the Palakkad Iyers patronize this vathal. This plant comes on its own like the curry leaves tree. That is to say we don't usually sow the seeds. It has been appearing in our backyard at one place or the other as far as my memory takes me back. It grows to a height of 1 metre with many branches. It needs sunlight to grow. Picking these tiny berries is a very tedious task. The berries are then washed and soaked in buttermilk, added with salt and turmeric. The following day, the liquid is squeezed and the berries are dried in the sun. After sun drying, its again soaked in the remaining buttermilk. This is continued till no liquid is left. After that, with a day of sun drying, it will turn dry and crisp. Store it in airtigt bottles and will stay good for nearly a year, if it lasts so. The dried berries will be 1/4 in quantity to the fresh ones used.

The vathals can be used while preparing Vethakuzhambu or its simply fried in ghee/nallennai (gingely oil( and mixed with hot rice and had. You can also add some finely chopped onion / garlci to the oil and saute till brown. Then add the dried berries and fry them. While frying the berries puff well and turn brown in color. some berries pop when fried.

The leaves/ manathakkali keerai is used to cure mouth ulcers. Its found to be effective. Leaves can be cooked as keerai chundal or slightly sauteed and mixed in curd with a dash of salt to make a raita. The slight bitterness will be offset by the addition of curd. Fresh berries can be added in Uppadam. Other than using in uppadam, I have not cooked fresh berries on its own.

Eggless Pineapple Upside Down Cake

2009-11-03T18:02:00.000+05:30

Pineapple upside down cake was on my list for a long time. I have been buying pineapples with the idea of cake in mind. But it eventually ended up in juice or jam. Recently, Sowmya of Creative Sage posted one. That brought the idea to the front again. during the weekend veggie shopping, I got one ripe pineapple. Decided to bake it on Sunday. But we had other plans. I thought this time too I should give the cake a miss. But somehow managed to bake it on Monday evening. I had bookmarked a recipe from JoyofBaking. I made it eggless with the use of flaxseeds powder and with slight changes in the ingredients. I got a moist cake

and was very happy with the result. The cake recipe can be made with variations to make different flavors. It had a perfect texture and not very dense in spite of using some whole wheat flour. It remained moist the next day too and has soaked in the flavors better.

Topping

Butter - 2 tblspn

Powdered Jaggery - 1/2 cup

Fresh pineapple slices - 7 nos

For the cake

All purpose flour - 1 cup

Whole wheat flour (Atta) -1/2 cup

Baking powder - 2 tspn

Salt - 1/4 tspn

Butter - 1/2 cup

Vanilla essence - 1 tspn

Milk - 1/2 cup

Powdered flaxseeds - 2 tspn in 1 cup of water.

Topping

The original recipe asked for brown sugar which I didn't have. I was thinking of caramelizing white sugar instead of brown sugar. Then I remembered Sunita's recent dessert, where in she has used jaggery. I didn’t want jaggery to be overpowering so reduced to 1/2 cup in place of 3/4 cup of brown sugar as said in the recipe. Also used 2 tblspn less butter.

Add the grated jaggery and 2 tblspn of butter in a pan. Soon both will start melting and when it starts bubbling, remove. Transfer the melted jaggery and butter to the greased cake tin. I placed the slice pineapples on the syrup when warm.

Preparing the cake

Sift the dry ingredients together. Beat butter and sugar till light and fluffy. Mix the 2 tablespoons of flaxseeds in a cup of water. Add milk, flaxseed meal mixed with water and vanilla essence to the butter sugar mix. Slowly fold in the dry ingredients and mix it without any lumps, after each addition.

Bake in a preheated oven at 180 C for 50 minutes or till the top starts browning and the cake pulls from the sides. After removing from the oven, cool it for 10 minutes and invert it on a plate. With a scoop of ice-cream, the cake will make an exotic dessert.

Note: In place of fresh pineapple, canned slices can be used too.

The baking bug has caught on my sister too. After the recent Diwali purchase of a MW convection oven, she too is on a baking spree on weekends. I am delighted to see her first cake attempt turning successful, with my instructions over phone, inspite of the recipe on my blog.

My sister's first cake - Eggless Dates Cake

P.S. This is my 200th post. Thanks to all my fellow bloggers and readers for the inspiration and encouragement.

Parikkai (Bittergourd) Pitla

2009-10-25T14:43:00.000+05:30

Past one week, we have had fare amount of sweets and savories in the name of Diwali and proportionately the calories have increased. The routine cooking had taken a backseat in the name of Diwali preparations. Sambhar is one of the staple of palakkad iyers cooking. And slight changes in the spices roasted and vegetables used will result in another dish. One such is Parikkai Pitla. Piltai is not much favored because of the bitter gourd in it, especially kids. I know many homes that make it only for the annual ritual for the departed soul is performed (Shraddam/Devasom). The preparation is almost similar to Sambhar.My MIL adds kabuli chana in place of tuvar dal in the recipe. I have seen when chana is added, kids takes an instant liking to the dish though will not touch the bitter gourd pieces in it. I usually cook with a light green variety of the BG which we get in my place. This is less bitter than the dark green variety. Infact, you can't taste the bitterness in the dish at all. When made as a stir fry with the addition of onions and tomato, you can easily pass it on as any other vegetable with the absence of the distinct bitter taste.

Bitter gourd - 1 medium sized

Tamarind - lemon sized

Kabuli Chana / Tuvar dal - 1/2 cup

Turmeric

Salt

To roast and grind

Urad dal - 1 tspn
Chana dal- 1tspn
Red chilli- 3 nos
Pepper corn - 4 nos
Hing - few shakes

Grated coconut - 1/2 cup

Seasoning

Oil - 1 tblspn

Mustard seeds - 1 tspn

Curry leaves - few

Grated coconut - 1 tblspn

Pressure cook kabuli chana /tuvar dal till it is soft. If using kabuli chana, it has to be soaked for 5 hours. I soak them overnight.

Wash the bitter gourd. Slit it open and discard the seeds. Chop into bite sized pieces. Extract the tamarind juice. Take tamarind extract, salt and turmeric. in a cooking bowl. Add 1/2 cup of water. When the tamarind extract starts to boil, add the chopped bitter gourd pieces. When the vegetable is cooked tender, add the mashed dal/chana. Reserve the cooked dal water.

Roast the spices except coconut in a little oil, till they are light brown. Grind the spices along with grated coconut to a smooth paste. Add water while grinding. Dilute the ground paste with the reserved water and stir into the cooking pot. Adjust the salt and consistency of the gravy by adding water. Bring to a boil and let it simmer for few minutes.

Season with mustard seeds, curry leaves and a tablespoon of coconut. The coconut should be roasted till brown.

When preparing for Shradham, moong dal is used and red chilly is fully replaced with pepper corns.

SnapIt - A plugin product review

2009-10-24T15:12:00.002+05:30

SnapIt is a customized version of the standard print screen function. It’s a small plug in that can be downloaded in less than a minute even on a slow connection. SnapIt makes the screen capture job lot easier and organized too. Once the program is started, a camera icon sits pretty on the status bar. To capture screen shots, you can continue using the print scr key. Once pressed, the mouse pointer changes to a plus sign and you can mark the area on the screen to be copied. Click on the icon to save the marked image to the desired location.

The image capturing be configured to different key options, other than the Prnt Scr key, given by the program. Also the saving can be automated by defining the storage location, image formats (jpeg,png,gif,tiff & bmp) and starting name for the files and if it is to be incremental or random. Once these parameters are set, then capturing screen shots is super easy. All you do is just press the assigned key and go about with your work. The screen shots will be automatically saved in the designated folder. This saves the time of opening software to paste the selected image, save and later crop to get the desired results. This plugin will be particularly useful for those creating tutorials or presentations.

(The above two images are captured with SnapIt)

A fully functional, trial version is available for 14 days. Thanks Katherine Poll for giving me the opportunity.

Vanilla Maida Cake, Ukkarai & Kaja ~ Diwali Sweets

2009-10-20T15:36:00.000+05:30

Vanilla Maida Cake

This is Lalitha Maam's masterpiece recipe. Aunt makes it with different flavors and changes the color accordingly. I have always made with vanilla essence and used green color. This time my husband suggested to change the color. When I checked for yellow color, very little was left. I add a pinch of green to that yellow color and got a greenish yellow color. This is very easy to make provided you get the sugar syrup consistency correct, which is important for all Indian sweets.

Time : 20 minutes
Yields - 50 pieces

Maida/All purpose flour - 2 cups

Sugar - 4 cups

Ghee - 1 1/2 cup

Vanilla essence - 1 tspn

Food color - a pinch

Water - 1 cup

Heat ghee in a kadai. When it is hot, stir in the maida and switch off the stove. The maida gets cooked in the warm ghee. In another kadai, prepare the sugar syrup with 4 cups of sugar and 1 cup of water. When the syrup starts bubbling, add a tablespoon of milk. Let it continue to simmer. The scum will float on top and gently remove with a spoon. The sugar syrup should be of two string consistency, which is very important for this recipe. To check the consistency, wet your fingers and then take a drop of the syrup on your index finger. If stretched between your index and thumb fingers, you should be able to see two threads. If the syrup cooks beyond two thread is al so fine but not less, since much cooking is not done post that stage. Add vanilla essence and food color to the syrup. Stir in the maida+ghee mixture. And cook for two minutes till it comes together as one whole lump. Once maida is added to the syrup, you should act quickly. Once the sugar syrup has reached consistency, swtich off the stove. Mix in the mixture and give vigourus stir so that it blends in. Then heat the stove again.

Grease a plate with sufficient ghee and also a flat based cup (I use dhabhara) to level the mix once it is transferred to the plate. Since the cake has a soft texture, it doesn't set quickly. So you have time to level it perfectly. But you need to transfer the mix to the plate immediately from the kadai else the last portion left in the kadai tend to set faster leaving some granule texture to that part of the cake.

Ukkarai

This is a tradional sweet, made for Diwali in most of the Kerala Iyer homes, though i don't make it for every Diwali. This time around, I wanted to make it for memory sake.

1/2 cup tuvar dal

1/2 C chana dal or use 1 cup of chana dal alone

1 cup jaggery

3 tblspn ghee

Elaichi powder

Roasted cashew - few

Grated coconut - 3 tblspn

Roast both the dals till light brown. Pressure cook till it is soft and not mushy. Drain the excess water. Pulse the cooked dal along with coconut to a smooth paste.

Heat jaggery in 1/4 cup of water. Make syrup till it reaches the soft ball consistency. A drop of the syrup dropped in a tablespoon of water,should be able to roll into a soft ball. Stir in the ground dal + coconut paste. Keep stirring till the jaggery syrup is full absorbed by the dal and it turns dry. Add ghee at intervals. Mix in roasted cashew and cardamom powder. The texture is soft but not sticky.

Kaja ~ Andhra Special

I had the recipe noted in my diary, long back, taken from a Tamil magazine. In the magazine, the recipe was named as Curly Biscuits. The recipe was new to me and seeing the name I thought it as an innovative recipe. I had tried it then. Later, blogging introduced me various regional specialities and I found the sweet is Kaja, a speciality of Andhra. I understand there are varieties of Kaja, marked by regional variations. I found a similar recipe at Srivalli's. Valli has neatly explained with step-by-step pics.

Preparing dough - 15 minutes

Resting time - 1 hour

Making kajas, deep frying, and clicking photos - 1 hour

Ingredients

Maida/All purpose flour - 2 cups

Salt - a pinch

Baking soda - 1 big pinch

Ghee - 2 tspn + 2 tblspn

Rice flour - 3 tblspn

Water - 3/4 cup

Oil to deep fry

Syrup

Sugar -1 cup heaped

Water - 3/4 cup

Mix maida, salt, baking soda and ghee. Add water to make a pliable dough. Leave the dough for an hour. Resting time for the dough is essential to get good results. In a bowl mix together rice flour and ghee.It should be of spreadable consistency.

Pinch of a ping pong sized dough. Roll into a chappathi. Spread the rice flour + ghee paste on it.

Place another chapathi on it. Fold it from one end.

Lightly press the edges so that it sticks and doesn't open up. Cut intp 1 inch long pieces.

Slightly press them down to flatten the pieces.

Deep fry the pieces in moderate heat. Don't heat the oil to smoking point and fry in high flame. The inside layers will not get cooked.

Mean while prepare sugar syrup for one string consistency. Dip the fried kajas in the sugar pieces. Leave it for 2 minutes. Then remove them and spread it on a plate to cool.

Ribbon Pakoda & Mathri ~ Savories for Diwali

2009-10-16T15:01:00.000+05:30

Diwali is one festival when we can have our choice of savories and sweets to be made. Unlike most of the festivals which has a predefined menu like Murukku, Seedai for Krishnajayanthi, Kali for Thiruvathirai, Appam,Pori for Karthigai etc. When it comes to Diwali recipes, DIET comes last for me. The amount of oil, sugar and ghee doesn't affect the choice of sweets or savories. Celebration is the key word and Diwali comes only once in a year. So lets get onto the savories I made for this Diwali. Come what may, Ribbon Pakoda is always there. I made no exception to that rule this year too. There is no fixed recipe for pakoda. I feel each family has a recipe of their own, passed down from generations. Here is mine.

Ingredients

Rice flour - 3 cups

Gram flour/Besan - 1 cup

Butter - 3 tblspn

Salt - 1/2 tspn

Chilli powder - 1 tspn heaped

Hing

Water to make the dough

Oil to deep fry

Method

Measure rice flour and besan in a vessel. Add butter and chilli powder. Mix well so that the flour is well coated with butter. Mix in the salt and hing dissolved in water. Add enough water to make a pliable dough. Heat oil in a kadai. Using the pakoda achu/plate, press it into hot oil. Gently flip with a perforated ladle and remove when it is golden brown. Drain and leave it to come to room temperature. Store in air tight container.

My MIL adds a 1/4 cup of roasted and powder tuvar dal. It sure adds to the flavor. But I was lazy to do that. So I skipped it. Nevertheless, mine turned out to be very crispy and melt-in-the-mouth kind.

Note: If store bought rice flour is used, you can measure rice flour :besan in the ratio 2:1 to get crispier pakodas.

Mathri/Mathi

The other savory is from the Land of Rajasthan - Mathri/Mathi. The is the first time I am trying at home though I have tasted it. On goggling, I went through several recipes and found that more than the measurement of ingredients, it’s the way of making them that is important to get flaky, crisp biscuits. And I followed the instructions at Tongue Ticklers. Harini has given all the little points to be taken care of. Though she has baked it, I deep fried them. My ingredient list slightly varies from hers, but I followed her method to prepare the dough. It came out excellent. Do drop into her space to have a look at the perfectly baked mathris. I am sure going to bake them soon.

Ingredients

Wheat flour/Atta - 2 cups

All purpose flour/Maida - 1 cup

Salt - 1 tspn

Chilli powder -1/2 tspn

Pepper powder - 1/2 tspn

Kasuri methi - 2 tblspn

Ajwain/Omam- 1tspn

Turmeric - a pinch

Hot oil - 3/4 cup

Warm water - 1 cup

Oil to deep fry

Method

Take wheat flour, maida, salt, chilli powder ,pepper powder, ajwain and turmeric in a bowl. Mix the ingredients well. Make a well in the centre. Pour the hot oil. rub the oil into the ingredients using a spatula. The more the oil and less water used in making the dough, gives better biscuits. I felt the amount of oil used was right enough. So used water to prepare the dough. Add kasuri methi to the dough. Don't knead the dough. Just bring together as you do for cookies.

Take marble sized dough and press it down between your palms. Else you can roll it using the rolling pin. I rolled into a big thick chappathi. Cut into small circles with a bottle cap. Make marks on top with a fork or knife so that it doesn't puff up while fried. Deep fry 4 or 5 mathris in a batch till it is golden brown. When cool it is very crisp and flaky. Since I have added chilli and pepper powders, it was spicy too.

My diwali sweets will follow in the next post.

Wishing you all a very happy and safe Diwali/Deepavali.

No bake chocolate pinwheel

2009-10-14T11:06:00.000+05:30

Everyone must be busy planning for the festival weekend. And most of you must have already started with the preparations of sweets and savories. Here is a quick, no cook, recipe to delight your kids. I made this when my niece was here for her summer holidays. As always, I clicked few pictures and forgot about it. When Srivalli announced the Kid's Delight event, I wanted to send this. I got the recipe from a TV show, where in they were showing some quick recipes which can be made by kids themselves.

You need

Marie biscuit - 1 pkt

Cocoa Powder - 2tblspn

Powdered sugar - 5 tblspn

Butter - 2 tblspn

Milk - 4 tblspn

Method

Powder the marie biscuits in the mixer grinder. Seive it to get fine powder. Else it will make rolling the dough difficult. Mix in cocoa powder and 2 tblspn of sugar. Prepare a tight dough using milk.

You can mix some coffe powder in the milk if you love the flavor of coffee in your cookies. Coffee and chocolate complement each other well.

For the filling

Beat butter and sugar until creamy. You can optinaly add some dessicated coconut or coarsely chopped nuts also.

Roll dough into a thick chappathi. Spread the filling evenly. Leave some space at the edges. Then roll from the longer end to form a log shape. Roll it tightly and seal the crack if any, as you roll. Cover the log in a butter paper or aluminium foil and refrigerate for 2 hours. Cut along the width to get beautiful pinwheel cookies.

It will be a great hit among the kid's if it is part of the birthday parties.

Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies

2009-10-10T16:04:00.000+05:30

It’s close to two months since I baked something. Last two months we had lot of festivals. And finally after Navarathri, I wanted to bake something, before the preparations for Diwali begin. There were many bananas to be used up. So baked Dates Banana muffin during the last weekend. I didn’t use any all purpose flour or maida. The reason being it not available in my pantry. So used whole wheat flour/atta and 1/2 cup of arrowroot powder. It came out very well - moist and light. I expected a denser muffin. I think the arrowroot

powder contributed to the texture. This was my first bake where in APF is not used at all. And I was really happy with the result. So I decided to try my luck with whole wheat cookies. On browsing for a suitable recipe, I found one at AllRecipes. I tweaked it to suit my pantry and made it eggless too. Now I have a whole wheat cookie recipe. I think with this as base, you can work on it for different flavor and combinations of nuts etc.

Yields: 20 Nos.
Temp: 190 C
Time - 18 minutes

Ingredients

Butter - 1/2 Cup

White sugar - 1 cup

Vanilla essence - 1 tspn

Flax seeds powder - 2 tspn

Water - 1/4 cup

Whole wheat flour/Atta - 1 1/2 cups

Baking powder - 1/2 tspn

Salt- 1/2 tspn

Chocolate chips - 1/4 cup

Method

Cream butter and sugar until creamy and light. Add vanilla essence and flax seeds powder mixed in water.

Sift together wheat flour, baking powder and salt. Gently combine the dry ingredients into the wet mixture. Mix until it’s just combined. Fold in the chocolate chip cookies. Don't knead. Just gather the dough together. Pinch off a lemon sized dough and shape it. I didn’t shape it much. Just flattened it little with a fork to get a rustic look.

Bake in a preheated oven at 190 c for 18 minutes or till you can find brown specs on top. Leave it on the cookie sheet for 10 minutes. Don't try to remove them immediately. It will be very soft and will harden on cooling. The cookies were crunchy. It is a treat to have with tea or a cup of milk.

I am taking these healthy cookies to the High Tea hosted by Aparna as part of Meeta's Monthly Mingle

Kai Murukku ~Amma's Special

2009-10-09T07:10:00.004+05:30

For so many years, murukku meant only the kaimurukku for me. We called murukku only that. Later on, I realised its a more general way of referring murukku, muthuswarams or thenkuzhal...Okay, you got the drift. When I posted this month's ICC, I had mentioned about kai murukku. While on twitter, Aparna asked me about the recipe for the murukku and I promised her I shall post it soon. These pics have been lying in drafts for more than 4 months. Thanks to Aparna, that it finally came to the light of blogosphere. Before you all jump to the conclusion that I an expert on this, let me confess, I am merely documenting my Amma's recipe. It was she who did this when she was here. To be frank, I haven't made any serious attempts on this regard.

And my Amma is an expert and unfortunately me and my sister doesn't seem to inherit that genes.

Things to keep ready

Fresh rice flour is used for making murukku. I am not sure how best result you might get with store bought flour. Since I have seen only made with fresh flour. As with all Indian avories, this recipe also requires you to soak the raw rice for 1 hour. Drain and shade dry. Then pound in the mixer grinder or near by flour mill. Seive the flour.

Split urad dal is to be roasted on low fire till it is pink. Cool and powder. Sieve to get fine powder. Ura dal flour can be prepared a day ahead or so.

Solid hing gives a better flavor than the powdered ones. If using solid hing,soak it in warm water for half an hour. If hing powder is used, then also dissolve it in the water.

The proportion of rice flour :urad dal powder is 7: 1. Measure using the same cup. Its not necessary that you use the standard measuring cup. Any size cup can be used provided you measure both the ingredients with the same cup. Quantity of the rest of the ingredients are indicative. So adjust according to the size of the measuring cup you use.

Now on to the recipe,

Ingredients

7 cups of fine raw rice flour

1 cup of roastedd and powdered urad dal

Butter - 3 tblspn

Jeera/Cumin -1 tblspn

Hing -

Salt

Water to make the dough

Oil to deep fry

Method

Measure rice flour and urad dal powder into a wide vessel. Add butter, jeera . Dissolve the salt in the hing water. Add the hing,salt water. Mix the ingredients well. Add water to make pliable dough. When making in large quantities, its ideal to prepare the dough in batches.

Spread a cotton cloth. Take a lemon sized dough in your hand and start making murukku. I should have taken a video but I missed. I shall surely do that next time. You can apply some coconut oil on your hands. This will help to make the swirls with out breaking.

Leave it for 15 minutes to dry on the cloth, before you deep fry. Meanwhile heat oil in a kadai. Slowly lift the murukku from the cloth using a flat spatula (Dosa thiruppi) and transfer to a plate. Slowly slide them into oil. When one side is fried, flip with a slotted spoon. When both sides are cooked, it will have a golder color. And also the sizzling of the oil around the murukku ceases.

Drain and when cool, store in airtight containers.

These are crunchy but not the melt in your mouth kind. If you add more butter, it will drink more oil also, thought it might not be very hard.

Golu pics from Mumbai

2009-10-08T17:42:00.000+05:30

Our Aunt, Lalitha at Mumbai, has sent in her golu pics along with snaps of few prasadoms for my blog. She is a great cook herself. She to enjoys cooking variety of recipes. Aunty is involved in a Bhajan group and is the active co-ordinator. If only she had some more time for herself, I am sure she would have started a food blog. She is very much interested in my blog and keeps telling that she will click and send few recipes for mine. Her busy schedule doesn't make it happen. And even Uncle and their son have promised me some recipes for my blog. So enjoy the pictures for now.

Paal Payasam and Vadai for Saraswathy Poojai

2009-10-08T11:15:00.027+05:30

Day ~9 Saraswathy Pooja

We keep the books on 8th day night for pooja. Though pooja for the books are done on 9th day morning. It is customary to make paal payasam and Vadai for nivedhyam. As kids, we used to look forward to this day, since this was the only day, when we are asked not to study. When our books are kept for pooja, we never used to read even newspaper or any thing on that regard.

Paal Payasam

Instead of doing the traditional way of making, I have opted the easier route, which results in equally good payasam. So why slog extra time in the kitchen. Let me tell you, this method works good for small quanitities. Let me give the recipe first

Ingredients

Broken raw matta/brown rice - 1/4 cup

Milk - 1 litre

Sugar -1 1/4 cup (Can reduce to 1 cup if you want don't want it to be too sweet)

Butter - A teaspoon (optional)

Wash the rice and add all the ingredients in a cooker. Make sure the ingredients come only to 1/4 of the cooker capacity. Later, on cooking, the milk will rise and it will start coming out of the steam vent. This is the reason I said the method suits only to small quanitities. I used my 5 litres cooker. Still during the last few minutes, milk came out through the vent on the top. After first whistle, set the flame to the lowest level. Let it cook for 20 minutes. Switch off the gas and leave it for another 30 minutes. Open the cooker to find creamy, pinkish pal payasam. Add a dab of butter if desired. I don't usually add cardamom powder since I like to retain the creamy milk flavor.

Isn't it easy to cook this way? And doesn't it look like the famous Ambalapuzha Palpayasam. As I have mentioned in my earlier post, husband doesn't eat this payasam. So its the only occassion that I make this payasam.

Vadai

I have posted the recipe earlier.

Navarathri Day 7 & 8 - Rice coconut Payasam, Cherupayar Sundal & Moong Dal Payasam and Kabuli Channa Sundal

2009-10-07T18:25:00.000+05:30

Day 7

Rice Coconut Payasam

Ingredients
Rice - 3 tblspn

Coconut - 1/2 portion

Milk - 1 cup

Cardamom powder - 1 tspn

Ghee - 2 tspn

Cashewnuts - 10 nos

Wash and soak rice in enough water for half an hour. Grate the coconut. Grind the soaked rice and grated coconut together into a coarse paste. Take two cups of water in a wide vessel. Mix in the ground coarse paste to the water. Boil over low fire, enabling rice to get cooked well. Keep stirring to avoid lumps. Rice turns lumpy quickly on cooking. When rice is cooked well, add sugar. Stir well. When sugar is fully dissolved, add the milk. Bring to a boil and let it simmer for few minutes. Stir in the cardamom powder and roasted cashewnuts and remove from fire.

I followed the recipe from Meenakshi Ammal's. The recipe said 3/4 cups of rice. I used the said amount and the payasam turn into a pudding consistency. Then I adjusted by adding milk. So in the recipe I gave above, I have reduced the amount of rice.

Cherupayar/Whole moong Sundal - Sweet.

The procedure is same as the vella payar (black eyed beans) sundal. With whole moong, no soaking is required. I just dry roast and pressure cook. It cooks mushy and is perfect for the sundal.

Day 8

Moong Dal Payasam

Moong dal - 3/4 cup

Jaggery - 1 cup

Milk - 2 cups

Roasted cashewnuts - 10 nos

Elaichi powder - 1/2 tspn

Dry roast moong dal over low fire for few minutes. Pressure cook dal and it should be cooked well. Melt jaggery in 1/2 cup of water in a thick bottomed vessel. When the syrup starts bubbling, stir in the cooked and mashed dal. Let it simmer for few minutes so that the dal soaks in the jaggery flavor. Stir in boiled milk and boil for few minutes. Don't let it simmer since it might curdle. Usually, with jaggery, coconut milk is used. Add elaichi powder and garnish with roasted cashewnuts.

Kabuli Channa Sundal

The procedure is same as the kadala sundal given earlier

And with another one post, I will finish the Navarathri series. I wanted to post these as and when it was made. But could not. After Navarathri, the days went in a flash and by the time I finish with these, its time for Diwali treats.

Navarathri Day 5 &6 - Kozhukkattai Payasam, Ammini Kozhukkattai & Poori Payasam, Puli Avil

2009-10-04T14:49:00.001+05:30

Day 5

Kozhukkattai Payasam

I have heard of kozhakkattai payasam but never got an opportunity to taste. My MIL has tasted it a relative's house and she gave me an outline of the recipe. But didnot know the proprtions well. The recent addition to my cook book collection is Meenakshi Ammal's 'Cook & See' Part II which has a lovely collection of traditional sweets and payasams. Since I had decided to make 9 different payasams for Navarathri, I got an opportunity to try it out. I tried with half the quantity mentioned in the book. That was enough to serve 4.

Ingredients

Rice flour - 1 cup

salt - a pinch

Water - 1 cup

Ghee - 1 tspn

Jaggery - 1 cup

Milk - 1 cup

Coconut Milk - 1/2 cup

Cardamom powder -1/2 tspn

Method

Prepare the rice flour in the same way is made for different savouries - Soaking, shade drying and powdering. I get it pound in the flour mill. So that part is easy.

To make Kozhukkattais

Equal quantity of water to the measure flour is used. Here 1 cup of water is heated with a teaspoon of ghee and a pinch of salt in a shallow vessel. When the water starts boiling, slowly stir in the flour without forming lumps. Turn well for 3-5 minutes. When the flour gets cooked well (you will know by the change in colour of the dough), switch of the fire and cover and leave it for 10 minutes. Spread the cooked dough on a plate to cool. Knead well with ghee. Make small balls to the size of small gooseberries.

To preapre the payasam.

Measure the rolled balls/kozhukkattais. Using the same cup/vessel, measure equal quanitities of water. If you measure 2 cups of kozhukkattais, take 2 cups of water. Boil the water in a wide vessel. When the water starts boiling, add few balls, at a time. Once a batch is added, give time for the balls to cook and come up to the surface. I added in 3 batches (around 25 nos in each batch). Once all the balls are added, while boiling, gently turn the balls with a flat spoon. Don't do stir it often since it will break the balls. Also do not add all the balls at once, since the balls will dissolve in the water. If you keep in mind these aspects, you cannot go wrong.

Once the kozhakkattais are well cooked, add the powdered jaggery. When the jaggery melts and blends well, add the milk. Cook for two minutes. Add the coconut milk. Just bring it to a boil. Let it not reach the rolling boil stage since it might curdle. Remove and add the elaichi powder. If desired, roasted cashewnuts can also be added.

To make a vegan version, you can use omit milk and use only coconut milk. I liked it very much. Though reading the recipe may give you the impression of a laborious process, it will not take more than 30 minutes to prepare the payasam. Only the kozhakkattai making part takes time. Rest is very easy.

Ammini Kozhukkattai

Since I pound the flour in large quantity, I decided to make ammini Kozhukkatai for evening prasadom. The kids who comes daily for prasadom loves this and have been asking me when I will be making it for prasadom. The kozhakkattais dough is prepared the same as I mentioned ealier. Since this are savory, my MIL grinds 2 chillies along with a tablespoon of rice flour to a fine paste. This chilly paste is added to the boiling water before the flour is tipped in. This will give a nice flavor and some heat to the kozhukkattais. The kozhakkattais are then steamed for 10 minutes. When cool, it is sauteed in a seasoning of mustard, red chillies and curry leaves.

Day 6 ~ Poori Payasam & Puli Avil

Poori Payasam

Recipe Source : Meenakshi Ammal's Cook & See (II)

Ingredients

Wheat flour - 3/4 cup

Milk - 2 cups

Sugar - 1 1/2 cups

Cardamom powder - 1/2 tspn

Saffron a pinch

Water - 1 1/2 cups

Oil to deep fry.

Method

Knead wheat flour with little water a 2 tspn of ghee. The dough is quite stiff. Roll out into thick pooris. Cut the poories into small diamond shaped peices. Deep fry the pieces till it is crisp and golden brown in color. While frying, something else took my attention away for few seconds, one batch was just brown.

Boil 1 1/2 cups of water in a wide vessel. Whe the water starts boiling, slowly drop the fried pieces and let it cook for 5 minutes. Add the sugar. When the sugar melts, add the milk and bring to a boil. Let it simmer for few minutes. Add saffron and elaichi and remove from fire. I found the payasam to be very watery. So I mixed 2 teaspoons of arrowroot powder in cold milk and stirred into the payasam and cooked till the payasam starts thickening. Also next time I will reduce the sugar to 1 cup since it was too sweet for our palette. My MIL said she has tasted where the pieces are not cut this way. Instead the fried poories are later torn into pieces and added to payasam. I think that might give a better texture to the payasam too. The payasam tasted like the sugar dipped diamond bisuits added to milk.

Puli Avil

I have already blogged about puli avil using lemon juice. Instead of lemon juice for the tangy taste, tamarind extract is used. So the tamarind juice is added soon after the seasoning and its cooked till it thickens. Rest of the procedure is same. Here I have added peanuts too to give a crunch to the avil.

Navarathri Day 3 & 4 - Avil Payasam, Kadalai sundal, Arisi Paruppu Payasam & Kesari

2009-10-01T19:15:00.000+05:30

Day ~ 3

Aval Payasam & Black Channa Sundal

I have posted the recipe for Aval Payasam earlier.

Brown Chickpeas Karuppu Kadalai Sundal

Brown chickpeas - 2 cups
Turmeric a pinch
Salt

To season
Coconut Oil - 1 tblspn
Mustard seeds - 1 tspn
Green chilly - 2 nos
Red chilly - 1 no
Ginger - a small piece
Hing
Curry leaves - few
Gated coconut - 2 tblspn

Wash and soak the channa overnight. Rinse and pressure cook with a pinch of turmeric. These variety of chikcpeas doesn't turn mushy on cooking. Even when cooked soft, it remains firm in shape. Drain the cooked water. Heat a kadai and do the seasoning with mustard seeds, chopped green chillies, ginger , broken red chillies and curry leaves. Add the cooked and drained chana. Mix in salt and let it cook on slow flame for the chana to soak in the flavors. You can add little of the cooked water to retain bit of moisture. Garnish with freshly grated coconut.

Day ~ 4

Arisi, paruppu payasam and Kesari

Arisi, paruppu payasam ( Raw rice, Moongdal Payasam)

Raw rice - 3/4 cup
Moong dal - 1/4 cup
Jaggery -1 cup
Ghee - 2 tblspn
Cashew and raisins - 10 nos each
Cardamom powder - 1/2 tspn

Dry roast rice and ghee separately. Roast rice till the color changes lightly. Dal can be roasted till you can smell the aroma. Leave rice and dal to cool. Wash and pressure cook in 3 cups of water. In a kadai or any thick bottomed vessel, melt the jaggery with 1/4 cup of water. Strain to remove any impurities. Boil the syrup. When the jaggery syrup starts bubbling, stir in the cooked rice and dal combo. Mix well. Continue to cook, till the jaggery flavor is abosrbed by the dal and rice. By then, the mix would have thickened. Remove from fire. Roast cashew and raisins in ghee and garnish the payasam. The paysam will not be very sweet. If you would like it having sweeter, increase the jaggery quantity.

Kesari

You can find the kesari recipe here

Murukku ~ Indian Cooking Challenge # 3

2009-09-30T07:41:00.018+05:30

Srivalli chose murukku for the September Challenge. For me, murukku means the kai murukku, which needs some expertise to make. My amma is an expert on that. More on that murukku in a later post. I must admit, this month's ICC was a breeze for me. It must have been a real challenge, if she had chosen the kai murukku. Though I make muthusaram, the recipe given by Valli was different from what I make. I found this recipe simpler with few ingredients.

Srivalli had given the ratio of Rice to Urad dal as 4:1. Since I had ground more quanity of rice, I measured 2 cups of rice flour and proceeded with the making. Proportinaly I took urad dal flour too. For those of you who are not starting from scratch, this measurement might be useful. Apart from this, I followed her recipe. When ever I make murukku of this kind, I directly press into the oil. This time I wanted to try making the concentric circles kind and tried my hand at that. It was easy, but time consuming. After making around 10 numbers that way, I felt back to my old ways.

2 cups of rice flour - Soaked, shade dried and powdered

1/3 cup f urad dal flour - Roasted and powdered

1 1/2 tblspn of butter

Cumin seeds - 1/2 tspn

Sesame seeds - 1/2 tspn

Hing - a small piece soaked in water

Water to make the dough

Take both rice and urad dal flour in a wide vessel. Add salt, butter, cumin and sesame seeds. Mix well. I used the solid hing. So I soak it in water for half an hour . Add the hing water. Gather everything well to get a crumbly mix. Slowly add water to get a soft dough. If too much water is added, then you will have trouble pressing into oil. The dough will keep breaking while you press.

Heat oil in a kadai and when the oil is hot, press into the oil and cook over medium flame. Gently turn the murkkus with a slotted spoon and cook till it is golden in color. Drain on absorbent paper and when cool, store in airtight container. If you have both the flours ready, then its really easy to make. The only problem with this murukku is that it gets over in the same speed its made.

Navaratri Day 2 ~ Besan Payasam & Kosumalli

2009-09-23T16:25:00.000+05:30

Day 2

Besan Payasam

Besan/gram flour/ kadalamavu is roasted in ghee and cooked in milk and finally sweetend with sugar. Its that simple. It requires very less time to make. A simple, yet exotic dessert is ready in flat 15 minutes. The ingredients are always available in our pantry.

Besan/Bengal Gram flour/Kadalamvu - 2 tblspn

Boiled milk - 1/2 litre

Sugar - 3 tblspn

Ghee - 1 tspn

Heat ghee in a pan and add besan. Roast the flour till nice aroma comes through. Leave it to cool. Add cool milk to the roasted flour and slowly mix to form a paste avoiding lumps. Stir in the paste to the remaining boiled milk. Boil the milk+besan mix and let it simmer for 5 minutes. The milk will start thickening. Stir in sugar. The sugar will melt and dilute the mix. When it boils again, remove from fire. The payasam will have a creamy consistency and will taste like mysurpa. You can adjust the sugar according to your taste. This will taste good when served warm or chill for few hours and serve like pudding.

Optionaly you can add some roasted cashewnuts too for extra richness. This will serve two people sufficiently When you have unexpected guests and don't know what to make for dessert, this will come quite handy. A very forgiving recipe except that you need to take care that besan doesn't turn lumpy when added to milk.

Kosumalli - Kadalapruppu Sundal

Bengal gram - 1 cup

Turmeric - a pinch

Salt to taste

Grated coconut - 2 tblspn

Seasoning

Coconut oil - 2 tblspn

Mustard seeds - 1 tspn

Green chilli - 2 nos

Red chilly - 1 no

Finely chopped ginger - 1/2 tspn

Curry leaves

Pressure cook kadalapruppu with turmeric till it is soft yet firm. Care should be taken while cooking so that it doesn't turn mushy. If it is not cooked well on pressure cooking, you can cook it for some more time on stove top.Then you will know when to stop. Drain the cooked dal and leave it on the colander for few minutes for the water to drain out completely. Also on cooling, it will firm up. So it doesn't turny mushy on the next step of preparation.

Heat oil preferably coconut oil(or vegetable oil ). Add mustard seeds, red chilli-broken into two, chopped green chillies, ginger and curry leaves. Add salt and the cooked and drained dal. Gently mix with a flat spatula, taking care not to make it mushy. Cook on low fire for 5 minutes for the dal to absorb the flavors and salt. Finally add fresh grated coconut and remove from fire.

Navaratri Day 1 ~ Neipayasam & Vella Avil

2009-09-23T11:45:00.000+05:30

I make payasam for nivedhyam, after the pooja in the morning, during Navarathri. Sundals are for evening. So it is two prasadom at home for the nine days. This time I decided to make different payasams on all the nine days. Else it used to be vella payasam ( jaggery and rice payasam) on most of the days.

Day ~1
Neipayasam & Vella Avil

I have already posted the recipe for Neipayasam .

Vella Avil ~ Beaten rice flakes cooked in jaggery syrup

Avil/Beaten rice flakes - 2 cups

Powdered jaggery - 1 1/2 cup

Water -1/2 cup

Ghee - 2 tablespoon

Fresh grated coconut - 3 tblspn

Powdered cardamom/elaichi - 1 tspn

Thick variety of avil is usually used for making.. If you can get the matta/brown avil , all the more better. Wash and soak in enough water for 10 minutes. Drain and squeeze the water out of the avil. Leave it on the colander for 5 minutes.

Melt jaggery in 1/2 cup water. Strain to remove impurities if any. Heat the syrup to one thread conistency. check the consistency by dropping little syrup in a tablespoon of water. You should be able to roll it into a smooth ball. Stir in the soaked avil. Gently mix. Continue cooking till all the moisture dries up. Add ghee, grated coconut and cardamom and mix well. It might look sticky and goeey. When it comes to room temperature, avil will look separate and firm.

Navarathri Golu 2009 Pictures

2009-09-19T12:38:00.006+05:30

Here are few pics of the golu at my home. I keep Golu inside my pooja room. I have make shift golu padis made to suit the room.

Decoration above the golu

Chettiyar with arisi and paruppu (Rice & Dal)

We don't have practise of Varalakshmi nombu. And my MIL wanted to deck up Devi and keep for the Golu. This is our first attempt. In the process, we got the hang of it. So next year may be we can better ourselves. We planned to keep it as part of the Golu. But it did not match the height of the Golu padis. So decided to keep Devi just outside the Pooja room. To match that, moved Chettiyar and his wares to the other end.

Every day morning, I make a payasam to be offered after the pooja and sundals are reserved for the evening bhakshanam. Today is neipayasam.

My sister at Gurgaon has sent her golu pic. This is the first time she has kept Golu.

Pollavadai ~ Navarathri Special

2009-09-18T14:28:00.004+05:30

Tomorrow, Navarathri begins. Its celebration time for the next 10 days. In my home, we follow the tradition of keeping golu. Evenings are busy with everyone visiting Golus in the neighborhood. Ladies visit only once to a house where as the children of the neighborhood are the privileged lot who visits all nine days,to all the houses where Golus are kept . The different kind of prasadoms make their dinner. I too had similar days during my childhood. There are four temples in our neighborhood. Prasadoms are distributed in all those temples after the night Aarti, during navarathri days, irrespective of whether it is a Devi temple or not. The first one to start was at the temple very near my house. After our golu visits, we proceed to temple hopping to collect prasadoms before it gets over. The last day at the temple, will be grand with as many as 8 prasadoms ranging from sundals, sweets like laddoo, mysurpa etc.

I am giving the recipe for Pollavadai, which is a popular Golu bhakshanam. Its similar to Thattai, but smaller in size.

You need
Rice flour - 11/2 cups

Chana dal - 1/4 cup

Tuvar dal - 1/4 cup

Urad dal - 1 tblspn

Red chilly - 3 nos

Hing powder - few shakes

Curry leaves - 2 stalks

Salt to taste

Oil to deep fry

Wash and soak the dals together in enough water for an hour. Drain. Grind to a coarse paste along wit red chilly, hing, curry leaves and salt. Don't add water. Mix in the rice flour to the ground dal mix and prepare the dough, similar to chappati dough. Take gooseberry/marble sized dough and press it down into flat thin discs with your fingers. You can use oiled ziplock covers or banana leaves. Meanwhile heat oil in a kadai. When the oil is smoking hot, slowly drop the flattened discs into the oil. Lightly press it down with the perforated ladle. The puffed discs will come up to the oil. Gently turn them and remove when it is golden brown. Drain on kitchen towels and store in airtight containers. This will stay crisp for a day or two unlike thattais. This is mostly made as an evening tea time snack and not for storing for a long period.

Happy Navarathri to you all. Enjoy the 9 days of festivity.

After my vacation, except for the Onam post, my blog is mainly dormant. Call it blogger's block or sheer laziness on my part, I somehow couldn't bring myself to blog. Finally the arrival of long festive days have brought me here. Hope to continue posting as usual. I had the pleasure of meeting Harini and her son during my vacation. True to her blog avatar, Sunshinemom, she indeed has a radiant personality.

Happy Onam 2009

2009-09-02T14:20:00.006+05:30

Wishing you all a very Happy ONAM 2009.

I am back home after a short vacation. Thanks to my maid who stocked up my fridge with the necessary veggies, I could prepare Onam Sadhya. In the morning, I thought rain will play the spoil sport, but it stopped by 9 A.M so that everyone could make pookalm without fearing of it getting washed away. I managed to make a small one with the flowers from my garden. Since we reached only yesterday late evening, could not buy flowers. And I prefer making pookalam with my garden flowers. Just finished our heavy lunch and I thought I will wish you all and say that I am back. For the time being, its just photos and no recipes.

Image of Bhagavathy drawn using flowers in our nearby temple

Pookalam at my home

Onasadhya - 2009

ഓണാശംസകള്‍

Festive Special ~ Indian Cooking Challenge

2009-08-31T11:27:00.004+05:30

August is the month of festivals with Avani Avittom/Raksha Bandhan, Janmashtami and Vinayaka Chathurthi. Srivalli chose to bring in the celebrations to ICC too. Valli gave different prasadom recipes and we were asked to prepare two out of those which do not belong to the cuisine we usually follow. And Valli was generous enough to consider if we could do only one. Thank you Valli, else I should have missed this month's challenge. Though I wanted to try two, but has could do only one, that too the easiest of all, I didn't have many days left before I left for the vacation. I chose Nugul-untallu (Sesame Laddo0) . Valli says, this is traditionally prepared with the black seeds with the skin on. I had only white sesame with me. I proceeded with that.

Sesame seeds - 1/4 cup
Grated jaggery - 3 tblspn
Ghee - 1 tspn
(Yields - 11 nos)

Dry roast sesame seeds in a tawa and let them cool. Once they are cool, take 3tbsp of grated or powdered jaggery and run in a mixie. When it is ground together, sesame seed tend to release and oil. Adjust the quantity of jaggery such that when you make laddoos, it holds shape. I felt more than 3 tblspn of jaggery will make it more sweet and shadow the taste of sesame. So I added a teaspoon of ghee for binding. It got over with in seconds after I clicked them. You just can't stop with one...

Methi Rava Idly and Sambhar

2009-08-17T17:45:00.004+05:30

Idly for breakfast makes work easier, since the breakfast for the entire family is made in a single batch. That's the only factor which pushes me to make idly for breakfast. Two years back, I first tried making rava idly with the MTR instant pack . Followed the instructions on the pack, rava idly turned out well was given a thumbs up by the family. I noted the ingredients on the packet. After 3 attempts, I got the right texture of the idly by making it from scratch. Since then, this recipe is a savior when in need of a quick fix for breakfast. I usually do the seasonings and roasting part the previous day and refrierate the mix. The next day all I have to do is mix in the wet ingredients and proceed with idly making. It saves lot of time.

Methi Rava Idly
(Yields - 16 nos )

Rava/Sooji - 2 cups
Buttermilk - 1 cup
Water - 1 cup
Salt
Cooking soda- 1/4 tspn
Methi leaves - handful
(Grates carrot or fresh corn etc can also be used)

Seasoning

Ghee/oil - 2 tblspn
Mustard seeds - 1 tspn
Chana dal - 1 tblspn
Cashews - 10 nos
Green chilly - 2 nos, finely chopped
Curry leaves - few

Heat oil/ghee in a kadai. Add the seasoning ingredients. Add the methi leaves. When the leaves wilt, add the rava and roast till you can smell the aroma of roasted rava. Cool and add salt,buttermilk and water. I have used buttermilk since it is always available in my home. Beaten curd can also be used instead. The proportion of rava and liquid is 1:1. Whisk to break the lumps. Keep it aside for 10 minutes. Mix in the cooking soda and mix gently. Scoop into greased idly moulds and steam for 7-10 minutes. Serve hot with chutney or sambhar or molagapodi. Adding methi leaves did not impart any bitter taste to the idlis.

Sambhar

Sambhar in Palakkad Iyer lingo is not the instant, quick fix kind. To qualify for sambhar it must have coconut and fresh roasted and ground spices. Sambhar without coconut is looked down upon and is rarely made too. Things have changed now. People have go used to making with instant sambhar powders sans coconut. And coconut if used, is very moderate quanitity. I rarely make sambhar using the sambhar powder. When ever I make coconut less version (podi potta sambhar) , I prefer fresh powder. And i do have the store bought sambhar powder in stock,ironically never used for sambhar making. the veggies used in sambhar is very versatile. Drumstick/ladies finger/ pumpkin/brinjal/raddish/pearl onion are some of the common veggies used. Each veggie on its own gives a distinct flavor and a combination of veggies also works good. Sambhar is a very forgiving recipe and has scope for many variations. I usually follow the age-old method of eye ball measurement while making sambhar. I believe that gives a distinct taste each time its made. Take the following measurement as a guideline and little more or less will not alter the taste much.

Now coming to the recipe I follow,

Radish/Mullangi - 2 nos,sliced into circles

Tuvar dal - 1/2 cup

Tamarind - lemon sized

Turmeric

salt

Coconut - generous 1/2 cup

To roast and grind

Oil - 1 tblspn

Coriander seeds/Malli - 2 tblspn

Red chilly - 4 nos

Chana dal/Kadala paruppu - 1 tspn

Methi seeds/Venthayam/Uluva - 1/2 tspn

Curry leaves - 5 leaves (optional)

Hing powder - few shakes

Seasoning

Oil - 1 tspn

mustard seeds - 1 tspn

Curry leaves for garnish

Pressure cook tuvar dal till soft and mash able. Soak tamarind in warm water for 5 minutes or so. This will help easier extraction of the juice. Keep the vegetable sliced.

Take the tamarind extract in a vessel and a cup of water, salt and turmeric. When the tamarind water starts boiling, add the veggies. Cook till it is fork tender.

In the meantime, roast the the ingredients to be roasted till the dal turns light brown. Remember to add the methi seeds during the last stages of roasting. When cool grind to a smooth paste along with coconut. Add water as required.

Mash the cooked dal and stir into the cooked veggies. Add the ground paste. Check the salt. Adjust the consistency by adding water. Bring to rolling boil stage. Do the seasoning with mustard seeds and add few curry leaves for garnish.

The plate of idly and sambhar is my contribution to EC's WYF -Breakfast event

Festive Lunch Menu ~ Contd from last post

2009-08-13T10:44:00.009+05:30

This is in continuation of my previous post.
Lunch menu
Morukootan, Kootu curry, Payar thoran, thakkali (Tomato) thayir pachadi, dal (paruppu), ghee and curd

Morukootan

Vellarikkai, cubed - 1 1/2 cups
Grated coconut - 3/4 cup
Green chilli - 2 nos

Buttermilk/beaten curd - 1 cup

Turmeric

Salt

To Roast
Chana dal - 1 tblspn
Red chilli - 2 nos
Methi seeds - 1/4 tspn

Seasoning
Oil - 1 tspn
mustard seeds -1/2 tspn
curry leaves - few
methi seeds - 1/4 tspn
red chilly - 2 broken

Vellarikka is a kind of cucumber which is kept for Vishu kani. Wash and peel the skin of Vellarikkai. dice into 1/2 inch cubes. Cook on stove top or MW with enough water, salt and turmeric added, till fork tender.

Roast chana dal, red chilli and methi seeds in a teaspoon of oil till dal turns brown. Add methi seeds when dal starts browning else it might get burnt. Cool and grind along with grated coconut and green chillies. Add water to get a smooth paste.

Mix the ground paste in buttermilk / beaten yogurt. Stir the mix into the cooked veggies. Adjust the consistency by adding water. Check the salt and bring it a boil. Don't let it to rolling boil. Stop when it is foamy on the top. Season with mustard, red chillies, curry leaves and methi seeds.

Kootu curry

Kootu curry is yam and ash gourd cooked along with chana dal, flavored with ground coconut and spices with a seasoning garnish of roasted coconut and the usual tempering ingredients. This is one of the items served as part of the sadhya/feast.

Ash gourd/elavan chopped into cubes - 1 1/2 Cups

Yam/Chena cubed = 1/2 cup

Chana dal - 1/4 cup

chilli powder - 1/2 tspn

turmeric - a big pinch

salt

To grind

grated coconut - 1/2 cup

cumin/jeera - 1/2 tspn

Seasoning

Oil preferably coconut oil - 1 tblspn

mustard seeds

Urad dal - 1 tspn

Cook the chopped ash gourd, yam and chana dal with turmeric and chilli powder added. I usually pressure cook for 2 whistles. Drain the excess water. If pressure cooked,be gentle when u mix the veggies else it will turn mushy. Add salt and cook for 5 minutes for the veggies to soak in the salt. I don't add salt while pressure cooking since yam might not get cooked properly.

Ground grated coconut and cumin seeds to a coarse paste. Don't add water. If required sprinkle few drops of water. Stir in in the ground paste and check the salt. I always add salt in two stages. Cook for few minutes, till it turns dry. Do the seasoning and fry till coconut is brown. Pour the seasoning over the curry.

Payar thoran (chowpeas stir fry)

Cowpeas - 250 gms

Turmeric - a pinch

Salt

Grated coconut -1 tblspn

Green chilly - 2nos

Seasoning

Oil, Mustard,Red chilly,Urad dal

Wash and trim the edges of the cowpeas. Finely chop them. Add salt and turmeric. Sprinkle some water. Microwave for 7 minutes. Alternatively, you can cook on stove top too.Coarsely grind the coconut and green chilly with out adding water. Stir in the ground coconut and cook for a minute. Season with mustard, urad dal and broken red chilly and mix into the cooked cowpeas.

Thakkali (Tomatoe) Thayir pachadi

Medium sized tomato- 1
curd - 1 cup
salt

To grind

Grated coconut - 2 tblspn
Green chilly - 1 nos
mustard seeds - 1/2 tspn

Seasoning

Oil
mustard seeds
red chilly

Finely chop the tomatoes. Heat a kadai. Do the seasoning, add the chopped tomatoes. Stir fry. Grind the coconut, green chilly and mustard seeds together with little water. Mix in the fried tomatoes and ground paste into the beaten curd. Add salt just before you serve. Else salt will release water and make the pachadi thinner.

I will just outline the order in which the menu is to be served on leaf with the items I made for the day.

1) Little of Payasam/kheer is served on the bottom right.
2) the vetables are served on the upper part of the leaf, starting from the
right.Pachadi, Curry, and thoran (These are the three I have served)
3) Dal along the middle of the leaf to the right of payasam (Tuvar dhal is cooked and mashed with little salt added. )
4) Uppittu/Vadai on the left end of the leaf
5) Rice followed by ghee/clarified butter.
6) Finally morkootan.