INGI KARUVEPILLAI THOGAIYAL

Weekends are getting busier and busier.  Most of the weekends, had relatives and friends visiting home and mostly involved in cooking an elaborate or special meal for them.  However, I could find no time for clicking pictures :(.  

Ten days back, Jr. H turned eight and I cooked an elaborate meal all alone for family and friends.  It was the first time I managed to cook for 25 people.  I would say I managed it to near perfect :-)..

Moving to today's recipe, this is one of the pathiya samaiyal recipe I prepare once in a month.  This recipe has lot of medicinal benefits.  Ingi (ginger) is known for alleviating gastrointestinal problems and helps in loss of appetite and karuvepillai (curry leaves) has a rich source of iron and folic acid and accelerates hair growth.  Addition of sesame seeds add extra medicinal benefits which include but not limited to preventing wrinkles, lowering cholesterol, healthy skin etc.,  This thogaiyal can be mixed with hot rice or can be taken as a side dish for curd rice/tiffin items.

Ingredients:

Curry leaves - 1 cups (tightly packed)

Ginger - 50 g

Coconut - 1/2 cup (small sized)

Tamarind - gooseberry sized (soaked in warm water)

Jaggery - little

Salt - To taste

To roast and grind

Sesame seeds - 2 tsp

Mustard seeds - 1 tsp

Red chillies - 10

Urad dhal - 3 tsp

Asafoetida - small piece

Peppercorns - 10 in number

Preparation:

1. Wash curry leaves in fresh cold water and keep it aside.  Wash and cut the ginger lengthwise as shown in picture. 

 2. Dry roast sesame seeds in a pain until it splutters and keep aside.

3. In the same pan, add little oil, roast the items given in to roast section.  Transfer the contents to a plate.

4.  In the same pan, add the curry leaves and ginger lastly and keep in flame until the curry leaves shrink and the raw smell of the curry leaves disappears.  Add tamarind and shredded coconut finally and keep in flame for half a minute. 

                           

 

5. Grind smoothly the ginger-curry leaves-coconut mixture with salt and red chillies first.  Add little water while grinding if necessary. 

 6.  Add the roasted ingredients to the ground mixture and grind it coarsely.  Finally add little jaggery and run the mixer in whipper mode for 10 sec.

7. Enjoy with plain rice or curd rice.

We enjoyed this thogaiyal along with chow chow carrot kootu and paruppu rasam.

KHARABHAT - RAVA KICHADI WITH A TWIST

I am a great fan of Rava upma ever since my childhood and I am okay to take it even daily.  Recently, we went to Bangalore and had a nice time catching up with an old buddy,  Divi. 

My mind switches to my hostel days immediately where I stayed before my marriage; we stayed together in hostel  in Chennai and shared common interests in many which includes but not limited to food, dressing sense, attitude, behavior, a lot many things to add on to the list...  We go for aerobics in the morning and share the morning filter coffee together in a Balaji Bhavan, Saidapet.  We would be so tempted on seeing the hot steaming ulundu vadais and would share a plate and do some extra aerobics with a guilt feel later.  Ah!! Whenever I think of those days, I get a warmth feel around me.  Those were the days where I had time for myself.  Now my priorities have changed and my world revolves around my people now more than for me but I am fully happy about it.  

After her marriage, Divi moved to Bangalore and during my last Bangalore visit, Divi took me to a restaurant where they served this Kharabhat.  I was so surprised and asked her what it is and she explained it is just the Rava upma with a twist.  I ordered mini tiffin and happened to taste this Kharabhat.  Later, I googled and saw many fellow bloggers have posted this.  Tried this on a weekend and it was very different.  I simply liked the hotness delivered by the dish.  

Ingredients:

Rava - 1 cup

Onion - 2 medium size (chopped finely)

Tomato - 1 medium size

Mixed vegetables -2 cup (Beans, carrot, potato, peas)

Cashew nuts - 10

Ghee - 1-2 tsp

Oil - 1 tsp

Vangibhat powder - 2 tsp

Water - 2.5 cups

To Temper

Mustard seeds - 1 tsp

Bengal gram - 1 tsp

Urad dhal - 1 tsp

Curry leaves - few

Green chillies - 3 (Slit in two)

Ingredients:

1.  In a heavy bottomed pan, roast cashews in a tsp of ghee and keep aside.  Roast rava in the same pan with the remaining ghee until the color changes a bit and nice aroma surrounds.  Transfer to a bowl.  

                      

2. In a heavy bottomed pan, add 2 tsp of oil and throw in the tempering items one by one.

3.  Add the onions and tomatoes one by one. 

 4.  Add the vegetables when the onions and tomatoes have cooked half.  Add salt and cook in medium flame until the vegetables are cooked properly.

5.  Add water and when it starts boiling, add roasted rava and stir evenly.  Make sure no lumps are formed. 

                               

 

6.  At the final stage, after rava has absorbed all the water and cooked, add the vangibhat powder with a tsp of ghee.  Mix well.  

7.  Serve hot with chutney or pickle.  I had with tomato thokku as it is my favorite combo.

Kothamalli Sadham - Coriander Rice

This is a one pot comfort meal which would give you an utter satisfaction to your taste buds.  Some years back, while having food at a restaurant in Chennai, DH ordered mini meals and he asked me to prepare something kind of this at home upon his first bite.  I was so surprised that because he hardly gives his first hand appreciation for any meal especially at hotels.  I tried many times after but never felt a complete satisfaction  about the outcome until I tried from Raks Kitchen, whose recipe I mostly try which has never failed.   She has made this without onion but I added onion which gave a touch of very mild sweetness to the dish.  In addition to that, I added ginger to give a pungent taste as my family likes it.

Ingredients:

Basmatic Rice - 1 cup

Coriander leaves - 1 bunch

Green chilli - 3

Coconut milk - 1.5 cup

Salt - as needed

Ginger - 1 inch piece

Onion - 1

To Temper:

Oil - 1 tsp

Cardamom - 1

Cinnamon - 1 inch piece

Bay leaf - 1

Preparation:

1. Soak basmati rice in warm water for 15 minutes.

2. Wash the coriander leaves in running tap water to remove the dirt, if any.

3. Grind it along with green chillies and ginger.  Make sure not to add much water as water in the coriander leaves would suffice or if needed add little while grinding.

                          

 

4.  Take milk from coconut ( You can use store brought coconut milk too but I always prefer to use homemade stuff).

                         

 

5.  In pressure cooker, add a tsp of oil and throw in tempering items one by one.  

6. Then, add sliced onion and once the onions have turned brown add the ground coriander paste.  Add necessary salt as well.  Let this be in flame for 2 minutes until the raw smell disappears.

                       

 

7.  Now add the coconut milk.  Also add the basmati rice at this stage.  Water should be drained from soaked rice before adding.

                     

 

8. Close the lid and pressure cook for a whistle.  Once pressure releases, mix well and garnish with fried cashew nuts.

I have packed coriander rice, plain raita, masala vadai, curd rice, homemade pickle, fruit mango, potato chips (shop brought), and pomegranate juice for lunch to DH.  Later could see some smile in his face, what else a woman need from her people :-)....

AUTHENTIC IYENGAR MILAGU KUZHAMBU - SPICED BLACK PEPPER IN TAMARIND SAUCE

As I have written earlier, I prepare pathiya samaiyal once in fortnight.  My family is a great fan of black pepper, be it prepared as rasam, kuzhambu or added in gravies, we like it a lot.  Black pepper produces a good aroma and flavor when roasted and ground are at proper stage.   The flavor imparted from freshly ground peppercorn stimulates the salivary glands and increases appetite and aid in food digestion. 

Moving to the recipe quickly, the recipe narrated below is an authentic way of preparing Milagu kuzhambu at Iyengar homes.   This is a no onion and no garlic recipe yet tastes flavorful.  The hotness and flavor produced by roasted peppercorn gives an unique taste to the dish.  Try this at home once and I bet you get addicted to this :-).  The preparation is very simple that it can be made in jiffy in just 10 minutes and it tastes delicious with more settling time.

Ingredient:

Urad dhal - 2 tsp

Tamarind (Soaked in warm water) - gooseberry size/can be replaced with tamarind sauce

Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp

Salt - To taste

To roast and grind:

Black Peppercorn - 5 tsp

Red chillies - 3

Asafoetida - a small piece

Curry leaves - few

Jeera - 1 tsp

To temper:

Gingely oil - 2 tsp

Mustard seeds - 1 tsp

Curry leaves - few

Preparation:

1.  Soak tamarind in hot water and extract the juice from it.

              

 

2.  Roast and grind the ingredients in little oil.

             

 

             

 

3. In a pan, add gingely oil and throw in the tempering agents.  On the mustard seeds splutter, add in curry leaves and pour in the extracted tamarind juice.

4.  Add turmeric powder, salt, and the ground mixture.  .

 5. Let this boil for some 10 to 15 minutes until the gravy has become in thicker consistency.

6.  Mix with rice and you get a wonderful feel upon taking the first bite :-).

7. We had a wonderful combination of meal today, Milagu kuzhambu, poondu rasam, murangai keerai poriyal, chow chow and carrot poriyal, cucumber salad, home made nellikai oorughai, and thalicha moor.

MINI MASALA VADAI (TEA KADAI STYLE) - LENTIL FRITTERS

One specialty about India is we can find lot of roadside tea stalls where they would serve hot tea and some spicy snacks; especially when I have travelled to hill stations like Ooty, Kodaikanal, etc i have felt that roadside shops serves the best tea than several star-rated restaurants.  The aroma produced by masala vadais fills in air and would make your salivary glands work all at a time.  To me, even thinking about that would make me go hungry.

Ingredients:

Channal dhal - 3/4 cup

Toor dhal - 1/4 cup

Urad dhal - 4 tsp

Onion - 2-3

Red chillies - 6

Green chillies - 3

Curry leaves - few

Salt - As needed

Asafoetida powder - a pinch

Oil - As needed

Preparation:

1. Wash and soak all the dhal together for an hour (Toor dhal, Channa dhal and urad dhal).

2. Drain the water separately and take a 2 tsp of soaked dhal in a bowl.

3.  Grind the remaining dhal along with red chillies, salt, and asafoetida powder.  The ground mixture should be on coarse texture.  Add this to the bowl.

                    

 

4.  Add finely chopped onions, green chillies, and curry leaves.  Mix well.

                  

5. Take a lemon-sized batter on the center of your left palm  and press with right palm.  This would flatten the sides of the batter and the center would be little thicker.

                  

6. Heat oil in a heavy bottomed vessel, gently drop it in hot oil and add few more vadais to the hot oil.  The flame should be on the low or low to medium side.

7.  When the color changes and flip and cook on the other side.  

8. Flip on both sides until it turns golden brown and crispy.