H- Horsegram Vadai

Wow, 8 days done in this marathon. I'm pretty pleased with myself with my recipes and blogging. I know that you must be hearing a lot about my grandmother and her influence on my cooking. Here is another blast from the past. She never lets any vegetable cooked go waste. It will promptly be convereted into another dish, which you cannot obviously figure out. So i guess it was during one navrathri that she had made kolu sundal. The next day morning, this vadai was made. I liked it very much and did not even think of asking what was it made of.

Later during the day, I came to know that is was made with horsegram. AWWW... was awestruck. Learnt from that lady that you should not waste food and through your knowledge you can create your own recipe. So here goes the best of excess food recipe/ Horsegram Vadai 

Ingredients

Horsegram - 1cup

Onions - 1 nos

Curry leaves - a few

Oil for deep frying

Salt to taste

Method 

Soak the horsegram overnight after washing it for three or four times

Finely chop the onions and green chillies 

In the blender, take the soaked horsegram and pulse it two or three times.

It should be a coarse mixture like what we do for a masala vadai. 

Take this in a bowl.

Add finely chopped onions and chillies.

Adjust salt, mix well.

Make small patties and deep fry them in hot oil

Serve with sauce or coconut chutney

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G - Godhumai Rava Payasam

My first sweet dish of the season. Godumai Rava Payasam And a very Happy Ugadi to all you folks out there. Every dish that I am making for this series has a connection with my family either my mother or my grandmothers or some family tradition that we follow. 

This payasam, was made by my grandmother when I was in college. She made this to pep me up when I was down for some reason. This was made in a jiffy and sure did bring a smile on to my face. These days I realise that my cooking is highly influenced by my grandmother. 

Off to the recipe

Ingredients 

Wheat rava - 1 cup

Jaggery - 1 cup ( broken into small pieces )

Cashew and raisin - 2 tbsp

Ghee - 2 tbsp

Boiled and cooled milk - 1 cup

Method 

In a heavy bottomed vessel, cook the wheat rava in minimal water. 

When the rava is cooked well, add the broken jaggery and keep mixing well

When the jaggery and rava are mixed well

Take it away from the flame and let it cool

In another pan, heat a little ghee and roast the raisins first followed by the cashews.

PS: Always roast them seperately and not together

Add this to the rava jaggery mixture and mix well

When it is completely cooled add the boiled milk and mix well again

Serve chilled

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F - Fenugreek leaves stir fry

Today we are cooking a very healthy stir fry. Fenugreek leaves are very abundant in the season of summer. I love the ones which come in very small bundle. Especially when I am cooking only for myself only. This stir fry is very easy to make and can go with rasam, dal or even curd rice. 

On to the recipe and the things needed to make it

Ingredients

Fenugreek leaves - 2 cups

Small onions - 3 

Red Chilli- 1

Coconut Scrappings - 2 tbsp ( optional )

Salt to taste

Oil and Mustard seeds for tempering

Method

Clean the fenugreek leaves thoroughly three to four times
Its very important to clean it well as there are chances that mud might stay between the leaves
Peel the onions and chop them into fine pieces
Cut the red chilli into two piece and keep them aside
In a frying pan add a little oil
Once the oil is heated add mustard seeds and red chilli
Followed by the chopped small onions
Saute them over small flame and add salt to this.
Add fenugreek leaves and saute further.
Just drizzle water over the leaves and mix well.
Cook over low flame for about ten minutes and your stir fry is done
If you want add coconut scrapping towards the end and mix well

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E - Eral Pepper Fry

I am a vegetarian who often indulges in egg but no meat. That definitely does not stop me from cooking meat, for my loved ones. Oh yes and I do love cooking non vegetarian, Its a emotional satisfaction that you get when the food you cooked tastes good though you cant taste it. Yaay... And what is more when my appa gives me a nod it is equivalent to 100s Michelin stars bestowed upon me. Did I ever tell you, he was the one who honed my cooking skills by being my guinea pig. 

Today's recipe is a very favorite thing for appa and is very simple to make. You just need prawns handy to make this. Baby corn, potatoes, mushrooms, brocolli or cauliflower can be replaced in this dish instead of prawns. 

On to the recipe.

Ingredients

Prawns ( cleaned and de veined ) - 2 cups

Onion - 1 sliced 

Green chilies - 3 ( slit into two )

Pepper - 2 tbsp

Salt to taste

Oil - for stir fry

Method

In a mixer, make a coarse paste of pepper corns and a little onions. 

Take a pan and add little oil

When the oil is hot add the sliced onions followed by green chillies and saute well

Adjust salt and continue to saute

Add the coarse paste of pepper and onions..

Now stir in the prawns and cook on low flame for about ten minutes. 

Spicy yummy and easy prawn fry ready

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C - carrot poriyal

Day 3 and here I am with a healty and simple stir fry. Carrot Poriyal. This dish has the flavor of coconut along with green chillies. The addition of coconut is something that I have seen in my household. This carrot poryal is always made with the addition of moong dal and named as a carrot kosambari. I realised that this dish is quite unique, when this was packed in my lunch box in school or college.

For people who have seen or been through my blog will know what a sucker I am for vegetables. Shopping for clothes and accessories will not excite me as much as I get excited when am in a vegetable market, surrounded by fresh vegetables and herbs. Carrots are always ( Read Capital, Bold and Italic ) on my vegetable shopping list.

Let me jump onto the recipe for this yummilicious carrot poriyal. My personal choice to have this with a bowl of creamy curd rice. or with coconut rice.

Ingredients

Carrots - 1/2 kg

Coconut scrapings - 1/2 cup

Green Chilies or Red Chilies - 3 nos

Oil and mustard seeds - for tempering

Salt - to taste

Method

Cut the carrot into small cubes and put them to boil

After they are done, strain it and keep it aside.

In a frying pan, add a little oil

When the oil is hot add mustard seeds followed by the chilies

Add the coconut scrapings as well and stir it under low flame 

Lower the flame well and the add the steamed carrot cubes. 

Mix well and adjust salt. 

Remove on to a bowl and serve with meals or curd rice

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B-Bajji

This is my post for the second day. My grandmother use to make this whenever I had asked her for something crunchy to eat. Sometimes a whole bowl of creamy curd rice with hot bajjis will be waiting for me when I come home from school. This is also a dish that is made when a groom goes to see a bride, this is served along side Rava Kesari and Filter Coffee. This combination is called bajji soji. Going to the preparation of the same. Simple ingredients off the pantry at your kitchen no fancy stuff as well.

                            

Ingredients

Besan flour aka Kadalai Maavu - 1 cup

Red Chilli powder - 2 tsp

Salt to taste

Raw Banana - cut into slices about 10 or 12

Oil for deep frying

Method 

In a bowl, take the besan flour, red chilli powder and salt.

Add little water and make it into a good smooth paste.

Cut the raw banana into thin slices and set them aside.

Heat oil in a heavy bottomed wok.

When the oil is heated up, get ready to deep fry the raw banana slices

Dip each side of the raw banana, in the besan flour mixture 

Deep fry till the bajji is cooked well

Serve hot with coconut chutney and hot cup of coffee

                           

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A- Arakeerai masiyal

The month of April is always time for marathon of cooking and blogging. This month we have chosen one cuisine to blog about and and at the same time follow a pattern of A-Z. I am super excited because this is the very first time that I was ready with all my dishes before the D-Day.

Throughout this month I will present to you simple day to day dishes, that has been in my household for a long time. All these dishes are very special since I have learnt them from my grandmother and mother. Cooking at my home is dominated by the flavors and aroma from Tirunelveli District. This is a small district towards the south most tip of India. I have my roots from this place, It is a place where my grandparents lived and my parents grew up. 

Today I bring to your plates, a very simple side dish made from the greens available near our homes. It is called Arakeerai Masiyal. Very simple to make and at the same time, loaded with Vitamin A. This can be mixed with rice or eaten along with sambhar rice. This masiyal tastes the best with kara Kulambu. Ooh.. delicious. 

Now on to the recipe, of the very easy Arakeerai Masiyal 

Ingredients 

Arakeerai - 2 cups

Garlic pods - 2

Green Chillies - 2 

For tempering - oil, mustard seeds and red chilies

Salt to taste

Method

Clean the greens and boil them along with garlic pods and green chillies

Let it cool down completely

Take the cooked greens in a blender and add salt to it

Make a smooth paste from the greens 

In a seperate pan, add a little oil and mustard seeds

Add the red chillies and wait till they sputter.

Pour this tempered mixture over the smooth paste of greens 

Serve this with sambhar or eat it as such with rice.

I had it with pepper potato and papad with steamed rice. 

Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM# 63


Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM# 63

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Eggless vanilla cupcakes - a new beginning

Another area where I did not wanna showcase are my cupcakes. Yes I do a lot of cooking, but baking somehow I dont feel that it can be mastered. Yet, this year, have decided to try many experiments in this area and conquer it also. So this is a batch of egg less vanilla cupcakes with a chocolate ganache frosting and silver balls to decorate them. This was for a little party and the kids loved em. So this little space of mine is gonna have a lot of baked goods starting from this year. Keep watching.

Baking cakes for near and dear ones

I started baking cakes for near and dear ones about a year ago, but have never dared to take a picture and showcase it... Seeing creations from various bakers at different forums, I dont even want to put up a picture anywhere. So this year I want to harness my baking skills and make sure that I share the pictures of the bakes that I recently did. After all everybody starts somewhere right. 

First among these, is a cake that I baked for a kuti darling niece of mine. It is an egg less butterscotch flavored cake with vanilla fresh cream frosting. Went ahead an tried to make a very amateur two tier cake. It was decent to look and tasted good. Should really appreciate my friends for having giving me the chance to bake a cake for their kid. She was excited to see the cake and made my day for sure

Second on the list is am egg less pineapple cake, with fresh cream frosting layered between finely chopped pineapple. This was a big cake which weighed about 3 kg. Had to bake two tiers separately and then used generous portions of fresh cream mixed with pineapple as the filling between them.

Last on the list but never the least, an egg less chocolate cake with ganache filling and sprinkles on top. This cake is special in many ways. I baked this for my mother on her birthday, baked it with my niece ( who is barely 4 years old) and sister and the icing was done by her using a spoon. The time I took from baking to cutting of the cake was flat 2 hours 10 minutes. My family relished the cake a lot. It was moist and chocolaty. Had fun making this cake

Chocolate mousse

One of the challenges, I set for myself in 2016, is to be regular on the blog and to try something out new, along with the day to day cooking dishes. I wanted to start of with a simple dish, A Chocolate Mousse. I have been reading a lot of blogs and see a lot of versions of this simple chocolate mousse.. 

Everybody, literally everybody likes chocolate in some or the other form. And when offered no one says no. Who can say no to silken, smooth, chocolate, that slides through you throat and cools your tummy.

This dish is a party pleaser. It can be made ahead of time, Very easy to make and only three ingredients...Fresh cream, Melted chocolate, silver sprinkles.

Ingredients 

Fresh Cream - 1 pack

Melted Chocolates - 1 1/2 cups

Silver Sprinkles for decoration

Method 

Whip fresh cream until it forms stiff peaks 

Store it in the refrigerator until you use it.

Melt chocolate in a microwave or on a double boiler .

Allow the chocolate to cool well, 

Mix it with the fresh cream in batches and chill it.

Pipe them into small cups and top it with a fresh cream blob.

Sprinkle silver balls for a classy finish

Put them back into the fridge and serve after dinner.

Enjoy the praises, as you enjoy a cup of the dessert

Viratha Prasadam

Ok today I have successfully completed one week in the monthly blogging marathon. It feels so good. Really a space that I was not able to give attention to and for which I made a resolution to work on religiously. Am proud of myself. A treat awaits me when I finish the other three weeks as well.

  Any viratham pooja we do at our home. This is the regular offering that is done. Its a platter to God, comprising of paal payasam , some vareity rice and crispy vadai. 

This was a platter i made for last year varalakshmi viratham poojai. Easy to make and put together. Though the recipes are already there on my blog I wish to write them again here. 

 Let me start of with lemon rice

Ingredients

Cooked rice - 1 cup

Juice of one lemon

Turmeric powder - a pinch

Salt to taste

Mustard seeds, Channa dal, Curry Leaves for tempering

Method

In a small bowl, take the juice of a lemon

Add a pinch of turmeric powder and salt to it

Keep aside

Cut green chilies into very small pieces

In a wok, add a little oil and saute some peanuts and cashew nuts.

In the same wok, add a little oil, 

When I mean little, its like one tablespoon, not more than that

When the oil is hot, add mustard seeds, channa dal

Allow the mustard to sputter and channa dal to roast well

Switch of the heat

Add the lemon juice mixture

One should not heat the lime juice, as it will turn the tangy taste into a bad one 

Mix the cooked rice and fluff it a bit. 

Garnish with curry leaves and it is ready to serve

Masala Vadai 

Ingredients 

Channa dal - 1 cup ( soaked for 2 hours in warm water )

Finely chopped onions - 1/2 cup

Finely chopped chilies - 1 tbsp

Finely chopped curry leaves - 1 tbsp

Oil - for deep fry

Salt to taste 

Method 

Blend the soaked channa into a coarse paste

In a bowl mix the paste, onions and greenchillies along with required salt

Make small balls out of the batter and flatten them 

Heat oil in a deep wok, and drop the flat channa patties in the oil and fry them till golden brown

You can eat it as such or with coconut chutney

Pal Payasam

This is the most simple and easy dish that you can do.

There is no actual measurement to be used.

And no matter the measurement, it turns out to be a delicacy

Measurements I used

Cooked rice - 1 cup

Sugar - 2 cups

Milk - 4 cups

Cardamo powder a pinch

Roasted cashew and raisins ( optional )

Method

In a heavy bottomed vessel. mix the cooked rice and sugar

Bring it to a boil until the sugar dissolves

Add milk and let it boil well

Make sure the whole thing is done on low flame

This is to ensure that the condensation of milk happens as the flavor enhances

Dust in some cardamom powder and roasted nuts if you need to.

Else you can have it just like that.

New Year Lunch

New Year Day always calls for celebration at my place. Two reasons, one being my mother's birthday and two it is a time that the whole family comes together and spends the whole day. What is more better than kickoff the new year with your loved ones. Paati always says only if you spend less time in the kitchen can you spend time talking with our family and relatives, hence lunch during such days are always simple and tasty ones. 

This year was no different. We had the whole family gathered for New Year and the lunch was as follows.

Vendakkai Sambhar

Kerala Style Avial

Potato peas curry

Pudhina Thogaiyal

Tomato Rasam

Kerala Adai Payasam 

Appalam

My cooking has a heavy influence from the neighboring state of Kerala. Paati was born and brought up in Nagercoil, which is mini Kerala in TamilNadu. Hence the influence. 

Kerala Adai Payasam is a regular at home , so is the Avial as well. It is not a festival food alone, we make it atleast thrice  a month, when the fridge needs to be cleared of the excess vegetables that I have stocked up. 

Here in this post, we are gonna see two recipes. Vendakai Sambhar and Pudhina Thogaiyal

Vendakai Sambhar ( Lady's Finger dunked in spicy and tangy lentil soup )

Ingredients

Toor Dal - 1 cup
Red Chilli powder - 3 tbsp
Turmeric powder - 1 tsp
Lady s Finger (chopped into 1 inch pieces) - 1 cup
Tamarind Pulp - 1/2 cup
Salt to taste
Curry leaves and Coriander leaves
Onion - 1/2 cut into thin slices
Oil and mustard seeds for tempering
Hing - a pinch

Method

Pressure cook the Toor Dal with Curry leaves, Coriander leaves and a pinch of Turmeric Powder
Slice the Lady s finger into 1 inch pieces and saute it in a little oil separately
Soak tamarind in half cup of water
In a heavy bottomed kadai, take some oil and heat it
When it is hot enough add the mustard seeds followed by curry leaves
After mustard seeds have sputtered add the sliced onions and saute well
Add the tamarind pulp, sauteed Lady's Finger, red chili powder, turmeric powder and salt
Mix well and let this mixture boil well till the raw flavor of red chili powder is gone
After about 15 minutes, add the boiled Toor Dal and adjust salt
At this stage add hing for flavoring. Be careful not to add more
Let the sambhar boil well, you will now be able to get the flavor of sambhar.
Went it is done, garnish with coriander leaves and serve hot with rice.
                  

Pudhina Thogaiyal

Let me throw some light on the difference between thogaiyal and chutney. A little dry consistency of a chutney is thogaiyal. When we make a chutney, you need not worry about the amount of water that goes into it. As chutney is supposed to be in a runny consistency. But thogaiyal is to be a like a paste, It should be wet but not runny.

My mom would instruct me umpteen times, when I make a thogaiyal to make sure that I add very little water while grinding it in the blender.

This pudhina thogaiyal is a good combination to rasam sadham and thayir sadham. 

Ingredients 

Pudhina - 1 cup

Cilantro - 1 cup

Green chillies - 4 to 5 nos

Coconut - 1/2 cup

Salt - as per taste

     For tempering - Mustard seeds, Urad Dal and little oil

Method:
Wash thoroughly Cilantro and pudhina, let the water drip off. In a blender add all the ingredients except the ones for tempering and blend well.

Urundai kolambu

Wishing all my readers a very happy new year.. Its the year 2016 hence have a sweet sixteen year.. Age height weight are all numbers so let us loose all those and have a wonderful year ahead. 

Im blogging nearly after an year I guess. 2015 did have its share of ups and downs. A lot of changes in my life and relationships.. everything aside I look forward to a wonderful year ahead. 

New Year is all about a new outlook a new regime, new goals and a new hope for a better tomorrow. One of my goals for the year was to give more attention to the space that helped me grow in terms of my knowledge of cooking and the network that I got. It has been a great help. Its time I show gratitude to this space which gave me a platform to grow in the field of my dream and passion. 

To kick of the new year, I am penning about a dish that was taught by my grandmother. I always always cherish the time I spent with her. She was my mentor, in more than many ways. A child that enjoys the warmth, affection and care of grandparents are the most lucky ones. I was abundantly blessed in this. I owe all my cooking skills to my grandmothers. 

On to the recipe, this is a traditional parupu urundai kulambu, which my grandmother used to make. Most often when the whole family is bored of sambhar , rasam and poriyal type lunches. 

The taste of deep fried balls of dal and onion dunked in a spicy and tangy sauce, is just too enticing. These days we make the urundai batter in the mixie. My grandmother used to make it using a ammi kal. Which was much more tasty. Though time consuming the taste is definitely worth the effort..

Ingredients

Chana dal ( kadalai parupu ) - 1 cup

Finely chopped onions - 1/2 cup

Green Chilli - 2 nos

Red Chilli powder - 2 tbsp

Coriander Powder - 1 tbsp

Salt - to taste

Oil to deep fry

Tamarind paste - 2tbsp

Mustard seeds and curry leaves for tempering

Method 

Soak the channa dal for about two hours in water.

Wash them well before soaking

After two hours, drain the water and coarsely blend it in a mixie or on an ammi kal.

In a bowl mix together the coarsely blend dal, onions, greenchillies and salt.

Mix well and make small rounds

In the meanwhile, heat a kadai with oil.

Deep fry the urundais in the hot oil and set it aside.

In another deep kadai, heat some oil 

Add mustard seeds and curry leaves for tempering.

When the seeds sputter add the tamarind paste, followed by red chilli and coriander powders

Adjust salt and let this come to a boil

Add the deep fried urundais when the sauce is done.

Serve hot with steamed rice and appalam. It is a perfect rainy day lunch. spicy , crunchy and tangy.