Deepavali Goodies....

HAPPY DEEPAVALI TO ALL MY FRIENDS HERE...

Diwali is one of our favorite festival we celebrate everyyear. I bet you guys must have celebrated it in a grand manner this year too. WE went to a potluck party this year and had fun there. I was planning to make lots of goodies this year, but ended up making only two because of some unavoidable reasons and the news from India that my patti (who is my first inspiration in cooking)is sick and she is in the hospital. I just made Atta laddoo and omapodi this year for diwali. Thanks to Rashmi who shared this recipe with me. Here is the recipe for Atta laddoo. This recipe is similar to rava laddoo we make. Instead of rava, I used wheat flour.

Ingredients:

1. Atta/wheat flour - 1 1/2 cups
   
2. Sugar - 2 cups
   
3. Ghee - 1/4 cup (I used little less than that)
   
4. Warm Milk - if necessary (to make balls)
   
5. Cashew & Raisins - a tbsp each

Take a thick bottomed pan, pre heat couple of teaspoons of ghee and fry the cashew and raisins to golden brown and keep it aside. In the same pan, fry the atta till a nice aroma comes from it. Keep the stove in a low flame while frying atta. In the mean time, also melt the ghee in a separate pan and keep it aside. When the atta is done frying, transfer it to another vessel, add the fried nuts and raisins and pour the warm melted ghee slowly and make small balls. If you feel the mixture is too dry, then warm 1/4 cup of milk and keep it aside. Sprinkle little by little and then start making laddoos.

I followed my patti's recipe for making oma podi too..

Ingredients:-

1. Omam/ajwain - 1 tsp
   
2. Rice flour - 2 cup
   
3. Besan flour - 1 cup ( Most people use this more than rice flour)
   
4. Salt to taste
   
5. Unsalted butter - 2 tsp
   
6. Hing/asafoetida -a pinch
   
7. Oil-to deep fry.
   

Soak omam previous night in water. When you are ready to make this, filter omam and just take the water(my MIL used to grind this and then filter the omam, but patti just use the water). I personally felt my MIl's method is better than this one. Add all the dry ingredients, add butter and start kneading the dough adding omam water. Add water if necessary. Pre heat oil in a pan, Take required amount of dough and put it in the Omapodi press and press it in the hot oil(careful while doing this). Fry it till it becomes golden brown...

Saraswathi Pooja Celebrations & goodies

Saraswathi Pooja is my most favorite celebration when I was a girl. Cos thats when we don't have to do any homework nor do we study on that day(lol). Since its the last day of navrathri, in my mom's place, we make lots of goodies on that day. This year, I wanted to do the same way so that my girls could also learn our tradition and culture. This year I made aama vadai, pal payasam, kondakadala(black channa dhall) sundal and the regular south Indian traditional samayal. It was really fun that day and we successfully enrolled our girls for swimming lessons. Since I have posted recipe for pal payasam already, I am just posting recipes for aama vadai and kondakadalai sundal here along with few more pictures of that day...



Kondakadalai sundal:-
Ingredients:-

1. Kondakadalai/Black Channa dhall - 1 cup
2. coconut - 1 tsp
3. salt to taste
4. oil - 1/2 tsp
5. mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
6. urad dhall - 1/2 tsp
7. red chillies - 1
8. curry leaves- few
9. asafoetida powder - a pinch

Soak black channa dhall over night. Pressure cook it when you are ready to make sundal. Drain it fully when the pressure is released. Take a pan, pre heat oil, splutter mustard seeds, fry urad dhall and red chillies to golden brown. Now add the cooked sundal to it. Add salt and mix it well. Turn off the stove. Now sprinkle the coconut and asafoetida powder and mix it well. Garnish it with curry leaves.
Well I guess I need to post the recipe for aama in my next post cos my girls want me to read a book now.

Vinayaka Chathurthi celebrations...

First of all "Happy Vinayaka chathurthi" to all my friends here. Well this year its special for me because I got some help from my twins in making Kozhakattais. They tried making those cups. Even though it didn't work out well for them, I am happy they took part in this process of making Neivedhyam and helped me arranging pooja items. This year I made Vella kozhakattai and two kinds of Uppu kozhakattai and ammani kozhakattai. In my mom's place we make uppu kozhakattai using only Urad dhall. But in my in-laws place, we make uppu kozhakattai with all the three lentils i.e., urad dhall, channa dhall and toor dhall. I wanted to make both of them and I did it. Since I have already posted the recipe for vella kozhakattai and uppu kozhakattai, I am just posting the recipe for only Ulundhu kozhakattai which we make in our mom's place, here along with my pooja pictures.


Here goes the recipe.

Ingredients:-

1. Urad dhall - 1 cup
2. Green Chillies - 3 (acc to taste)
3. Oil - 1 tsp
4. Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
5. Urad dhall - 1/2 tsp
6. Red chillies - 1
7. Curry leaves - few
8. Asafoetida powder - a pinch
9. Salt to taste

For Dough:-

1. Rice - 1 cup
2. Sesame Oil - 1 tsp
3. Salt to taste
   

Most of us use rice flour for making the dough. But the traditional way of making this dough is to use rice. Soak rice for an hour. Grind it into a fine paste and add water to bring it to watery consistency (like dosa batter). Add salt and sesame oil. Take a pan, pour this batter and stir it continuously to make sure no lumps are formed. When the water is fully absorbed, it will come like a shiny ball. Turn off the stove, take it out of the heat and cover it with a lid. This is the flour coating we use for making kozhakattai cups.

Soak urad dhall for two to three hours along with green chillies to it. Then grind it after two hours, coarsely and steam cook it adding salt to it. When its cooked, scramble it and keep it aside. Now take a small pan, pre heat oil, splutter mustard seeds, fry urad dhall, red chillies, asafoetida powder and curry leaves to golden brown and add the scrambled urad dhall to it. Stir it for couple of minutes. Sprinkle water, if it is too dry. Turn off the stove and make it small balls when it is warm. Now when you are ready to make kozhakattai, make small cups out of the dough, fill it with urad dhall balls and cover it according to the required shape. Stem cook it for 15 to 28 mts or till its fully cooked.

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.

Kanu with Variety Rice

Kanu is Maatu Pongal - We keep kanu pidi (basically offerings to our ancestors) early morning and offer it to crow... I hate this custom personally. Because now a days we can see so many orphanages and so many kids roaming in the streets without food and shelter... Before my marriage, when I asked my patti "why don't you give this left over to the boy sleeping in the street platform?" She said "summa irudi periyavaa enna sollaralo adha kekardhuthan azhagu". They are ready to waste a bowl full of rice rather to give it to a small boy.. Thats why I hate this kanu pidi concept and most of the time never participate in this custom. Since I used to give lots of trouble like this(not believing in old tradition), my parents and patti were really scared when they started talking about my marriage... I am not sure whether I will get along with my inlaw and co-sisters in this concept and many other concepts(which I hate) when we go back to India??? Lets coming back to recipes, I made tamarind rice, coconut rice and avial on 15th Jan. I wanted to make curd rice also, but didn't get time to finish my work before 12 so just left it...
Check out the recipe for tamarind rice here, Coconut Rice and Avial here...

Thiruvadhirai Kali & kozhambu.

Thiruvadhirai Kali is my all time favorite dish. I can eat this every day. When I was 3 months pregnant, 4 years back, I had a temptation (what we call "masakkai") all of a sudden to eat this kali and at that time, I didn't know the recipe. It was like 2PM here in USA and I called my patti to get the recipe, it was 2.30 AM (early morning) in India, and they were all really shocked to get a call from me at that time and I didn't bothered all about those, just got the recipe and made it immediately and ate couple of teaspoons and finally vommitted everything(!). But I was happy that I could eat that kali. After that, I like to make this very often and eat it. Here is the recipe I usually follow to make this Kali..

Ingredients:-

1. Raw rice - 1 cup
2. Moong dhall - 2 tbsp
3. Jaggery - 1 cup
4. Water - 1 1/2 to 2 cups (depending upon the rice, adjust water)
   
5. Cardamom - 1 or 2
   
6. Pacha karpooram - a pinch
7. Ghee - 2 tsp
8. Coconut - 1 tsp
   
9. Cashew - few
10. Raisins- few

There are two ways of treating rice while making this kali. My patti usually wash the rice first, let it dry and roast it till it becomes golden brown, cool it and grind it into a fine rava consistency. My MIL does it other way round, she first roast the rice, then wash it after it is cool, then grind it into a rava consistency. Either way you can follow, both ways you get good kali. You do the same thing with moong dhall. Roast it till golden brown, let it cool, wash it and let it dry and then grind it or other way round, wash it, let it dry, roast it and then grind it into rava consistency.

Now dissolve jaggery with 1 1/2 to 2 cups of water, (depending upon the rice) add cardamom, coconut, pacha karpooram and a teaspoon of ghee. Bring it to boil, now add the grounded rice and dhall mixture to it. Mix it well and transfer it to another vessel and pressure cook it upto 2 whistles. When the pressure is released, take it out mix it well. Roast cashews and raisins in remaining ghee, to golden brown, pour it on top of kali. Serve it with kozhambu.

Here is the recipe for Kozhambu which MIL used to make. This is Thanjavur style of making kozhambu. Its basically called as "Ezhukari kozhambu" cos we use seven vegetables to make this. The recipe goes like this..

Ingredients:-

1. Vaazhakkai (Green Plantain) - 1/2
2. Pumpkin - Less than 1/4
3. Egg plant - 4
4. Potato - 2
5. Peas - 1/4 cup
6. Sweet Potato - 1/2
7. Chow Chow - 1/2
8. Toor dhall - 1/4 cup
9. Channa dhall - 3 tbsp
10. Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
11. Sambar powder - 1 tsp
12. Salt to taste
13. Tamarind Juice - 1/4 cup (thick juice)
    

To Grind:-

1. Coriander seeds - 1 tbsp
2. Channa dhall - 1/2 tsp
3. Fenugreek seeds - 1/4 tsp
4. Almonds - 4
   
5. Red chillies - 3 (acc to taste)
6. Asafoetida powder - a pinch

To Season:-

1. Oil - 2 tsp
2. Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
3. Curry leaves - few
4. Coriander leaves - few

First cook the toor dhall and channa dhall with a pinch of turmeric powder and keep it aside. In the mean time, cut the vegetables in the same size, also fry the ingredients given for grinding, to golden brown and let it cool, grind it into a fine paste. Keep it aside. Take a wide pan, put the vegetables, add the tamarind juice, turmeric powder, sambar powder, salt and required amount of water(if necessary) and let all the vegetables cook. When the vegetables become tender, add the grounded paste and let it cook for another 5 mts. Then add the cooked dhall to it, add water to adjust the consistency and let it cook for another 5 to 7 mts till everything mixes together. The final consistency, should not be watery like sambar or thick like kootu. It should be in between these two. When it is done, turn off the stove, take a small pan, pre heat oil, splutter mustards seeds, fry curry leaves to golden brown and pour it on top of kozhambu. Also add coriander leaves. Serve it hot. The advantage of this kozhambu is we add lots of veggies in it. We can keep it kozhambu for 3 days maximum and while reheating, all the spices mixes together and it tastes really heavenly.

More Kozhambu 2

This is another way of making more kozhambu, the same procedure with some modifications. Here is the recipe.

Ingredients:-

1. Okra - 1 cup
2. turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
3. Salt to taste
4. Thick Buttermilk - 2 1/2 cup
5. Coconut - 3 tbsp
   

For Soaking:-

1. Coriander seeds - 2 tsp
2. Channa dhall - 1 tsp
3. Green chillies - 2(acc to taste)
   
4. cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp

for Seasoning:-

1. oil - 1 tsp
2. Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
3. Fenugreek seeds - 1/4 tsp
4. Asafoetida powder - a pinch
5. curry leaves - few

First soak the all the above given ingredients for soaking, to one hour. After an hour, add coconut to the ingredients and grind it into a fine paste. Keep it aside. Take a pan, put the chopped okra to it, add required amount of water, turmeric powder, salt and let it cook. When the vegetable becomes tender, add the coconut paste and add a little amount of water and let it cook nicely. when both mixed nicely, turn off the stove. Remove the pan from the stove top, add the thick buttermilk to it. Mix it well. This is more kozhambu.

Now take a small pan, pre heat oil, add mustard seeds when it splutters, add fenugreek seeds, asafoetida powder and curry leaves and let it fry till golden brown. Pour it on top of more kozhambu. This can be a wonderful side dish for paruppu usli rice, variety rice and also with white rice.

Mango kozhambu

"Manga kootan" - this is how we call it in my mom's place. This is more like more kozhambu. This is how I do mango kootan. The main ingredients are as follow..

Ingredients:-

1. Raw mango - 1/2 (chop it into cubes)
   
2. Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
3. Salt to taste
4. Fenugreek seeds - 1 tsp
5. Red chillies - 3 or 4
6. Coconut - 2 tbsp
7. Curd(or thick butter milk) - 1 cup

For seasoning:-

1. oil - 1 1/2 tsp
2. mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
3. curry leaves - 5-6 nos
4. red chillies - 1
5. asafoetida powder - a pinch

Take a small pan, pre heat 1/2 tsp oil and fry fenugreek seeds and red chillies, to golden brown. Turn off the stove and add coconut to it and stir it. Let it cool and grind it in to a fine paste.

Take a wide pan, put the mango pieces in it with a cup of water and add turmeric powder and salt to it and let it cook for 7 mts. The mango should be tender. Now add the coconut paste to it and let it boil for another 5 mts. When everything is mixed, turn off the stove and add the curd(or butter milk) to it and stir it thoroughly so that the mango mix with the curd thoroughly.

Take a small pan, pre heat the remaining oil, add mustard seeds, when it splutters add red chillies, asafoetida powder and curry leaves to it and pour it on top of the mango sambar. We can use this sambar with rice. This is a good side dish for chapathis(i like to eat it with chapathi). Try this and lemme know your comments