Mar 26, 2009

Poricha Kootu

Before I begin this post, I would like to thank Jaishree for passing those wonderful awards to me. I am really honoured Jaishree. Thanks so much. Also thanks for all my friends who gave suggestions about the Turnip leaves.

Coming back to business, this recipe is famous in Tanjavur. I don't remember my mom or patti making this dish. But I remember my MIL who makes this very often. I learned this from her. I am not a very big fan of kootu in general, but I like this because of the spiciness from the pepper. Here is the recipe...

Ingredients:-
  1. chow chow- 1 cup (chopped into small cubes)
  2. Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
  3. Salt to taste
  4. toor dhall - little less than 1/2 cup
  5. Moong dhall - 2 or 3 tbsp (just fill the less than1/2 cup toor dhall with moong dhall)
For Grinding:-
  1. Chann dhall - 2 tsp
  2. Urad dhall - 2 tsp
  3. Black pepper - 1/2 tsp(according to taste)
  4. Coconut - 2 tbsp(can also use more)
  5. Cumin - 1/2 tsp
  6. Red chillies - 1 or 2 (acc to taste)
For Seasoning:-
  1. Oil - 2 tsp
  2. Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
  3. urad dhall - 1/2 tsp
  4. Curry leaves - few
  5. Asafoetida powder - a pinch
  6. Red chillies - 1 (optional)
This is based on how I make this poricha kootu. Just pressure cook toor dhall, moong dhall and chow chow adding the turmeric powder, upto one whislte. In the mean, fry the ingredients given for grinding to golden brown. Let it cool and grind it into a fine paste. Pre heat a pan, put the cooked dhall+vegetable mixture, adding required amount of water, grounded coconut paste and salt and let it boil nicely. Add water if necessary to get the required consistency. Turn off the stove when you get the required consistency. Pre heat oil in a small pan, splutter mustard seeds, add urad dhall, curry leaves and red chillies and fry it till it becomes golden brown and pour it on top of poricha kootu. Garnish it with curry leaves. Enjoy this with rice, chapathi.

Mar 22, 2009

Can I use this leaf????



Hi guys, I got this vegetable from my backyard. I am not sure whether I can use this leaf for cooking...Can You please help??????

Mar 19, 2009

Nonbu Adai

Well I started writing this post on saturday and somehow i could not finish it. I actually wanted to write the recipe for nonbu adai last year itself Lol.... But couldn't do it. I donno why. This is one of my favorite evening tiffin. Yep, my patti makes this as evening tiffin very often cos some in our family likes to eat the vella adai and some like to eat the uppu adai. So she makes both as a evening tiffin. I follow my patti's recipe which is the default method everybody here follows to make adai. She usually dry roast rice, then wash it, let it dry and then again dry roast it and then grind it accordingly to make the adai dough. I usually follow that step. But this time, i didn't have time to do all those process cos i woke up late on saturday(!) and my manni told me that we have to tie the nonbu saradu between 12.30 PM and 1.30PM. Well i woke up around 10 AM and was not in a mood to follow that big process. So this time I followed my MIL's recipe. She also use the rice to make this adai. But she told me how to use rice flour to make this adai this time. Here goes the recipe for both sweet and savory nonbu adai.

Vella Adai:-
Ingredients:-
  1. Rice flour - 1 cup
  2. jaggery - 1 cup
  3. Water - 1 1/2 cups + less than 1/4 cup (if necessary)
  4. Coconut - 1/2 cup (i added less than this amount)
  5. Cardamom - a little bit
  6. Black eyed beans - 2 tbsp
  7. Ghee - 1 tsp
Soak the black eyed beans in water over night and cook it when you are ready to start making the adais. Soak the jaggery in 1 1/2 cups of water. In the mean time, dry roast the rice flour till it turns pink in color. Careful while roasting the flour. Do not burn the rice flour. Keep it aside. In the mean time, preheat a pan, add the dissolved jaggery water(by this time jaggery will be dissolved) and let it boil. When it starts boiling, add the coconut, black eyed beans and flour and stir it continuously so that no lumps are formed. Turn off the stove and add the ghee and cardamom and cover the pan with a lid for five minutes. After 5 mts, open the lid and make sure the flour is fully cooked and knead the dough. If you feel, its dry, then sprinkle a little bit of water and knead the dough. Now make small balls out of it and make a small patties out of the balls, put a small hole in the middle and steam cook it until it becomes shiny.


Uppu Adai/Savory Adai:-
Ingredients:-
  1. Rice Flour - 1 cup
  2. Water - 1 1/2 cups
  3. Salt to taste
  4. Oil - 1 tsp
  5. Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
  6. urad dhall - 1/2 tsp
  7. Red chillies - 1
  8. Green chillies - 2 (acc to taste)
  9. Ginger - a small piece
  10. Coconut - 1/2 cup
  11. Black eyed beans - 2 tbsp
  12. Curry leaves - few
  13. asafoetida powder/hing - a pinch
Just warm the rice flour in a hot dry pan. In the same pan, pre heat oil, splutter mustard seeds, add urad dhall and fry it till it becomes golden brown. Now add the red chillies, green chillies and ginger and fry for a minute. Add asafoetida powder and curry leaves. Now add the water, salt and coconut and let the water boil. When it starts boiling, add the cooked black eyed beans, rice flour and stir it continuously so no lumps are formed. turn off the stove and cover it with a lid. After 5 mts, knead the dough. As usual, if its dry sprinkle a little bit of water and knead it. Make small balls and make small patties and steam cook it until it becomes shiny.



Mar 17, 2009

Mango Paruppu

This is a simple recipe with raw mango. My MIL taught me this one and she told me that this recipe is famous is north arcot side. I am basically a mango lover. So I like this recipe and made this last week. Here goes the recipe.

Ingredients:-
  1. Mango - 1 cup (chop it into small cubes)
  2. Toor dhall - 3/4 cup
  3. Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
  4. Green chillies - 2 (acc to taste) (chop it)
  5. Ginger - a small piece (chop it)
  6. Salt to taste
For seasoning:-
  • Oil - 1 tsp
  • Mustard seeds - 1/4 tsp
  • Urad dhall - 1/4 tsp
  • Curry leaves - few
Cook the toor dhall with a pinch of turmeric powder. Also cook the mango till it is 3/4 done. In the mean time, pre heat oil in a pan, splutter mustard seeds, add urad dhall, green chillies and ginger and saute for a minute. Now add the 3/4th cooked mango to it along with 1/4 cup of water. Add the remaining turmeric powder and let it boil for couple of mts. Now add the cooked toor dhall to the above ingredients, add salt and let every thing mix together for another 3 to 5 mts. Adjust the water according to the required consistency. Garnsih it with curry leaves. This can be eaten as side dish for even chapathis, main dish along with rice. My MIL usually ask us to eat this as a side dish for paruppu saadam.

Mar 15, 2009

Palak Pulav

I have subscribed for the tamil magazine Vikatan.com online. Subscription for one year is $13 and its really worth. I've been subscribing for the past 4 years. I got this recipe from one of their magazine Aval Vikatan. In their last issue, they had recipe for 30 different pulav/biryani. I picked this one yesterday because i was not in a mood to make sambar or rasam or whatever. According to the original recipe, they are asking us to use palak for making this rice, but I used frozen chopped spinach instead. Because i usually buy the frozen box spinach and not the fresh ones. The reason being, i am very lazy....It takes time to wash, chop and then cook. But this one is really easy, just thaw it and cook it in the microwave. Thats what I did yesterday. I am not sure whether the variety of spinach in the box was palak or not. I am not good in differentiating the greens/spinach. When my MIL was here two years back, she told me once that it is palak and the other time she told me that it is sirukeerai. I literally couldn't find the difference between the two. Well.. here goes the recipe.

Ingredients:-
  1. Spinach/Palak - 1/2 box frozen spinach***
  2. basmati rice - 1 1/2 cup
  3. Onion - 1 (chop it)
  4. Green chillies - 3 (acc to taste)
  5. Bay leaf - 1(small one or big acc to taste)
  6. Cardamom - 1
  7. Garlic - 2 cloves (chop it)
  8. cloves - 2
  9. Cumin - 1/2 tbsp
  10. Fennel seeds - 1/2 tbsp
  11. Cashews - few for garnishing
  12. Coriander leaves - for garnishing
  13. Olive oil - 2 tbsp
  14. salt to taste
First thaw the spinach(if you are using frozen box), cook it in the microwave for 5 mts. and use the half of the quantity for making this rice. If you are using the fresh palak, then wash it, chop it and cook it for 5 mts. Let it cool. In the mean time, wash the basmati rice and soak it for 10 mts. Drain it after that and keep it aside. Also Grind green chillies, fennel seeds, garlic, cumin seeds, cardamom, bay leaf and cloves into a fine paste. Also add the required amount of spinach to it and grind it nicely. Make sure the spinach is cold before you add it to the mixie. In the mean time, pre heat a pressure pan/cooker with oil, splutter 1/4 tsp of cumin, add cashew and fry it till it becomes golden brown. Now add the Rice to it and saute for a minute. Add the grounded spinach mixture to the ingredients and saute for another 2 mts. Now add required amount of water and salt to it. I added 2 cups of water for 1 1/2 cup of basmati rice. Because, spinach will also release some water. Cover the pressure pan and cook it upto 2 full whistles. Remove it from the stove top. When the pressur is released, garnish it with coriander leaves and serve it hot with onion/cucumber raita. I would like to give 5 stars to this recipe because, my twin girls, who never eat these types of variety rice, ate this rice yesterday, saying "amma this mammam is yummy!"

*** - We can also make this rice with fresh palak. Just cut the palak, cook it for 5 mts and then grind it into a fine paste.

Mar 12, 2009

Dried Cranberries Uthappam

We went to Udupi palace few weeks back. My husband ordered Pineapple Uthappam (which I am gonna write pretty soon) there and it tastes really good to me. I totally forgot about this one and last week my husband asked me to make pineapple uthappam. Luckily, I had the batter for making uthappam. But I ran out of pineapple. My hubby dear is a person who never asks anything like this. I felt very bad and wanted to do something similar to that. Suddenly I saw dried cranberries sitting in my fridge, so thought of trying uthappam with cranberries. I was not sure about the taste when I started making this one. But interesting!!! it was really awesome. Here is the recipe I followed...

Ingredients:-
  1. Dosa Batter - 1 cup (required quantity)
  2. Cranberries - 2 tsp (for one uthappam)
  3. Dosa Milagapodi - 1/2 tsp (acc to taste)
  4. Sesame Oil - 2 tsp (for one uthappam)

Pre heat dosa pan, pour one or one and half laddle batter in the pan, sprinkle dosa milagapodi evenly, arrange the cranberries accordingly, pour the oil on the sides of uthappam. Cover it with a lid for couple of mts. Turn the heat to medium. Flip it over when one side is golden brown. Remove if from the heat, immediately after flipping it over, but make sure it is fully cooked. Since we are covering it with a lid, it must be cooked by then. This way, the texture of cranberries will not change. Final result - he really liked this one too...

Mar 10, 2009

Grilled Sandwich 2

This is in continuation with my previous post about the grilled sandwich with veggies. This is another version of it.. Since my twin, started giving trouble to eat the first one, I tried this one. In the first sandwich, you can literally see the vegetables and you have to chew them which was the problem with my little lazy princess. In this one, we don't have to chew the vegetables. The quantity given below may be enough for one or two sandwiches. Increase the quantity accordingly. Here goes the recipe...

Ingredients:-
  1. Bread slice - 2
  2. Cheese slice (acc to taste) - 2
  3. Potato - 1 (small)
  4. Carrots - 2
  5. Green peas - 1 tbsp
  6. Green bean - 1 tbsp
  7. Salt to taste
  8. Pepper - to taste
  9. Butter - to spread

First cook all the given vegetables in microwave or stove top. Let it cool and grind it into a fine paste. In the mean time, half toast the bread and keep it aside. Spread the butter and now spread the mashed vegetable paste on top of butter. Sprinkle salt and pepper according to your taste. Place the cheese slice on top of it. Again spread butter and vegetable paste on top of the other slice of bread. Place it on top of cheese and toast it on the stove top in a pan till it becomes golden brown. Serve it hot with tomato ketchup. I tried this sandwich with my twin and she really likes this than the first one. I am trying to change the vegetables everyday. I hope this helps me for atleast 10 days :)

Mar 3, 2009

Rava Upma

This may sound easy to many of you.. But for me it was not... When I got married, I had no idea of how to make upma. I remember my mom making upma within 10 to 15 mts and bring it to me. I didn't bother to ask her how to prepare it when I was in college. But after marriage, there is no choice for us. We have to learn everything. This is something I learned from my MIL. I used to make upma before, like measuring rava and water and then adding it to tawa etc etc. It will be a mess as usual and it will come out like a paste :(. My MIL showed me the trick on how to make upma without measuring with cups...

Ingredients:-
  1. Sooji/Rava - 1 cup ***
  2. Water - 2 1/2 cups
  3. Semolina/vermicelli - 3 tbsp
  4. Salt to taste
  5. mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
  6. Urad dhall - 1/2 tsp
  7. Channa dhall - 1/2 tsp
  8. Asafoetida powder - a pinch
  9. Green chillies - 1 or 2 (acc to taste)
  10. Ginger - 1/2 tsp finely chopped (acc to taste)
  11. Onion - 1/2 cup finely chopped
  12. Tomato - 1/2 cup finely chopped
  13. Lemon juice - 1 tsp (acc to taste0
  14. Curry leaves - few
  15. Coriander leaves - 2 tsp (chopped)
  16. Oil - 2 tsp
  17. ghee - 1 tsp (optional)
Take a pan, pre heat oil and ghee, splutter mustard seeds, add urad dhall, channa dhall and asafoetida powder and fry it till golden brown. Add green chillies and ginger and saute' for a minute. Now add the semolina/vermicelli to it and saute for another 2 mts. Add chopped onion and stir it till it becomes transparent. Add chopped tomato to the ingredients and mix it well. When everything is finely cooked, add the water, salt and let it boil for another 4 mts. Now add the rava/sooji to the water and stir it and make sure no lumps are formed in it.. Cover it with a lid till it fully cooked. Reduce the flame. When it is fully cooked, garnish it with fresh curry leaves and coriander leaves. Serve it hot with chutney.

*** - What I usually do is, I first add water in the tawa after seasoning. The quantity will be 1/2 or 3/4 of the tawa(according to the required quantity of upma). When it starts boiling, I will just add rava and the quantity of rava will be 3/4th of the water. So I usually don't measure water and rava. The 1/4th water will help the rava to cook.

Mar 1, 2009

Dhum Aloo

This is another recipe I tried last week after reading the recipe from a tamil magazine. It came out pretty well. Check this out..

Ingredients:-
  1. Potato - 4 (if its big ; 7 to 8 if its small) Chop it into cubes
  2. Tomato - 2
  3. Onion - 1
  4. Red chillies - 4
  5. ginger - Garlic paste - 1 tsp
  6. Cumin - 1 tsp
  7. Cardamom - 1 (powder it finely)
  8. clove - 3 or 4 (acc to taste)
  9. Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
  10. Chillies powder - 1/2 tsp (acc to taste)
  11. Coriander powder - 1/2 tsp
  12. Salt to taste
  13. OIl - 1 tsp
  14. coriander leaves - 2 tsp
First cook the potatoes adding a pinch of turmeric powder and salt. Put holes in the cooked potatoes using fork and keep it aside. In the mean time, grind tomato, onion and red chillies along with salt (required only for this and chilly powder and not for potato) in to a fine paste. Pre heat oil in a pan, splutter cumin, when its done, add ginger garlic paste, powdered cardamom, cloves and stir it for a minute. Now add turmeric powder, chillies powder, coriander powder and saute' for a second. Now add the grounded paste with a little amount of water. Add the potatoes to it. Let it cook for another 3 to 5 mts. Garnish it with coriander leaves. This is a wonderful side dish for chapathi, poori or even for rice...