Sweet Poli

There is a tradition in our family that we have to make this sweet poli for Bhogi festival.  I made this too and I blindly followed the recipe of Raks.  Visiting Raks Kitchen everyday is kinda ritual for me.

Nel Pori Urundai

Pori Urundai is one of my favorite evening snack.  This is my first attempt in trying this pori urundai.  Last year my MIL was here with us and she made pori urundai for karthigai deepam.  This year I had no other choice other than trying this on my own.

Boondhi Laddoo

Since we don't have any festivals this year, we didn't make any sweets for navarathri. But my kids really love laddoo. Since my MIL is here with us and she make really good laddoos, thought of learning laddoos from her.

Ingredients:-

1. Besan Flour/Kadala maavu - 1 cup
2. Rice flour - 3 tsp
3. Sugar - 1 1/2 cups
4. Cardamom - 1
5. Edible Camphor - a pinch
6. food color - two pinches
7. Oil - to deep fry
8. Cashew & Raisins - to garnish

Mix besan flour and rice flour along with food color and make it like a batter. Consistency should be like dosa batter. Take a heavy bottomed pan, dissolve sugar with just required amount of water and let it boil. Syrup should come like a sticky syrup. If you touch it, your hands should be sticky. When the paagu is ready, heat the oil, pour the batter in a sieve with round holes. Tap it with a small spoon so that small balls fall in the hot oil. When its fully cooked, add it immediately to the sugar syrup. In the mean time, fry cashew & raisins to golden brown and add it in the syrup. When the mix is warm, make small balls and let it cool.  Now Boondhi laddoo is ready.

I am sending this to Pari's 'Only' even, this time 'Only-Festive food Event  hosting by Preethi.

Jhangri - My first attempt

Jhangri is a sweet I can eat all day long. When my MIL was in June, she made Jhangri and showed me how to do it and asked me to try putting with less quantity. I wanted to try it for a long time but because of some personal reasons, didn't get time to try it. But last week I was going through Rak's Jhangiri Recipe and got tempted so much.  Yesterday I made up my mind to try and luckily it came out really good. First three pieces were not so good cos I soaked it in the sugar syrup for a long time. It became soggy. But then I managed to find out the reason and finished the project!

I am sending this Jhangri recipe to I am sending this Poli recipe to Tried & Tasted Event - Raks Kitchen, this time Sowmya of Nivedhanam is hosting, an event by Kitchen Chronicles by Lakshmi Venkatesh.

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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.

Chakka Pradhaman/Jackfruit Payasam/Jackfruit Kheer

Jackfruit is my all time favorite fruit. I can eat a whole bowl of ripe jackfruit at any time:). During the vishu season, in my mom's place, we used to buy two big whole jack fruit for vishu kani and after vishu kani day, my patti used to make chakka varatti(jackfruit Halwa) in a large dabba and store it. I like to eat it as Chakka varatti too. She makes chakka pradhaman with chakka varatti which always be a hit for my Patti. I saw jackfruit last weekend near our Indian grocery store. Immediately I bought it. Took out the seeds from it and used half of the fruit as side dish for curd rice(!) and I wanted to make this chakka pradhaman with the remaining. Main motivation for making this was Jaishree's post. I was so tempted after seeing her payasam. Lol...I saved it for today cos its my husband's birthday. I didn't make chakka varatti first. I just used the jackfruit direcly for making payasam/pradhaman. I got the recipe from my grandma. This is the traditional chakka payasam she makes everytime. Here goes the recipe...

Ingredient:-

1. Jackfruit Pieces - 20
2. Jaggery -according to the available quanity of Jackfruit paste
3. ghee - 2 tbsp
4. Coconut pieces - few
5. Cashew - few
6. Coconut milk/regular full fat milk - 1/4 cup (can also increase the quantity)

Jackfruit Paste:- First pressure cook the jackfruit pieces upto one whislte. Let it cool and grind it into a fine paste. If you are going to make the payasam immediately, then measure how much paste you have and take jaggery according to the ratio of 1:1 (equal amount). I made this paste on tuesday and I refrigerated this paste in an air tight container. I used it today.


When you are ready with the paste, just take equal amount of jaggery and keep it aside. Take a heavy bottomed pan, put the paste first and add 1/4 cup water to it and let it melt first. Once the paste becomes watery, add the jaggery to it and mix it well and let it boil under low flame for another 7 mts. You can see bubbles coming out. Now its time to add coconut milk or regualr milk and mix it with the ingredients and let it boil for another couple of mts. You can smell the jackfruit, jaggery and coconut. Its means payasam is ready. Now take a small pan, pre heat ghee, fry coconut pieces and cashews to golden brown and pour it on top of paysam and mix it well. Don't forget to keep on stirring the payasam otherwise jaggery will stick in to your pan.

I used regular full fat milk instead of coconut milk. Also we can add more ghee in between too. I didn't add that much ghee. I just used 2 tbsp (which is too much for my hubby dear). We can also use a lot of coconut pieces which i reduced because of my husband.

For Chakka Varatti recipe, please visit here...

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...

Happy Pongal

"Happy Pongal to all my friends here"

Pongal used to be my favorite festival and I enjoy preparing pongal in clay pot with lots and lots of fruits and sugar cane especially on both sides of the pot. Even now I can visualise those days when I was in school, my patti make all the arrangements to cook pongal. Me and my cousins stand next to my patti and enjoy those rituals. The main purpose of standing is the sugar cane which we were all crazy about... Since we lived in an Agraharam, very near to temple, Makara Deepam festival is celebrated every year in a very grand manner and it comes during this Pongal days and my uncle is a member in that festival committee, so most of the members will come to our house for lunch and dinner, nearly for a week, till the festival gets over on 16th January every year. Our house will be full of people for more than 10 days. When I called yesterday to greet all my relatives, I talked to more than 10 people over phone. I miss them all so much here. For the past 6 years, I don't do much pooja or something on pongal. I just make chakkara Pongal (sweet pongal) and offer it to god and serve it to my husband and kids. Because 6years back, on the same day, my mom died and after that I stopped doing all these rituals. But this year, my patti(mom's mom) asked me to do pooja and the rituals on Kanu like preparing variety rice etc., so that it might help my girls to learn all those rituals. So this year I made both venpongal and chakkara pongal and did pooja today morning. Felt like recovering from something :).... Alright, coming back to the business, here is the recipe for Chakkara Pongal (sweet Pongal)I made today.

Ingredients:-

1. Raw rice - 3/4 cup
2. Moong dhall - 1/4 cup
3. Turmeric powder - a pinch
4. Jaggery - 1 1/2 cup (or acc to taste)
5. Water - 2 to 3 cups
6. Ghee - 2 to 3 tsp
7. Pacha karpooram (Edible Camphor) - a pinch
8. Cardamom - 1
   
9. Cashews - few
10. Raisins - few.

This is the step I followed to make chakkara pongal. First cook rice and dhall with 3cups of water. Cook it upto 4 or 5 whistles. When the pressure is released, take it out and mash it. In the mean time, take a heavy bottomed pan, dissolve jaggery with a cup or two of water, add pacha karpooram, cardamom and bring it to boil. Now add the mashed rice to jaggery and mix it well. Add water to adjust the consistency. In a small pan, pre heat ghee, fry cashews and raisins to golden brown and pour it on top of chakkara pongal. You can get the recipe for venpongal here.

I am sending this recipe to Priti's Makara Sankranti Festival event.

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.

Badusha - Sweet

This is my favorite sweet. My MIL used to make it very often and she is very good at it. This time, I learned the recipe from her. Even though it was not professional like hers, it came out very well. Here is the recipe.

Ingredients:-

1. Maida flour - 1 1/2 cup
2. Unsalted butter - 3 tbsp
3. Baking soda - pinch
4. Oil to deep fry
5. Sugar - 1 cup (acc to taste)
6. Pachakarpooram - a pinch
7. Coconut-1 tbsp

First add baking soda to the butter and whisk it for few mts. You will see bubbles forming. Now add the flour to it and make it a soft dough adding required amount of water. Keep it aside for few mts. In the mean time, put the sugar in a heavy bottomed skillet, add a cup of water and make it a semi-thick syrup***. Add pacha karpooram to the sugar syrup and mix it well. In the mean time, pre heat oil and make small patties out the dough and deep fry it till it becomes golden brown keeping the heat in medium flame. Put the patties in the sugar syrup and soak it well. Remove it from the syrup and put it in a vessel. Now pour the remaining syrup on top of each badusha and garnish it with coconut.

*** - Keep a cup of water near you. Pour a drop of sugar syrup in it. If it dissolves, then the surup is not ready. If it doesn't dissolve and forms a small soft ball, it means the syrup is ready

Omapodi

This is my all time favorite savory and my mom used to make it very often because, omam is good for digestion. I usually buy this stuff from Indian grocery. This time I wanted to try making this so I asked the recipe from my patti and it came out really well. Here is the recipe.

Ingredients:-

1. Rice flour - 2 cups
2. Besan flour - 1 1/4 cup
3. Omam (Ajwain) - 1 tsp
4. Salt to taste
5. Butter - 2 tbsp
6. Asafoetida powder - a pinch
7. Oil - to fry
   

Mix all the ingredients and knead it into a soft dough adding little by little water. Heat the oil in a heavy bottomed pan. When the oil is ready, make small balls out of the dough and pass it to the oil through Omapodi naazhi. Fry it till golden brown. Remove extra oil in a paper towel and enjoy!! This can be stored in an airtight container for more than 10 days.

Ribbon Pakoda

This is another savory treat I make very often. Even though many of us know the recipe, this is my version.

Ingredients:-

1. Rice Flour - 4 cups
2. Besan Flour - 1 cup
3. Unsalted Butter - 2 tsp
4. Red chillies powder - 1 1/2 tsp (according to taste)
5. Asafoetida powder - a pinch
6. salt to taste
7. Oil - to fry

Heat oil in a heavy bottomed pan. In the mean time, mix all the above said ingredients, sprinkle water accordingly and make a smooth dough. Once the oil is ready to fry, make small balls out of the dough and pass it in the oil through pakoda naazhi. Fry it till becomes golden brown, strain the excess oil in a paper towel, let it cool and store it in a air tight container.

This post goes to Priti's Diwali Celebrations.

Panakam

This is a traditional drink we make as neivedhyam on the last day of Navarathri. here goes the recipe.

Ingredients:-

1. Jaggery - 1 cup
2. Water - 3 cups
3. Chukku (dry ginger) - 1 tsp
4. Cardamom - 1
   
5. Lemon juice - 1 tsp

Mix jaggery in water and keep it aside for 10 to 20 mts and let the jaggery melt. Drain it after its fully mixed and add chukku, cardamom and lemon juice and mix it well. Enjoy

I am sending this entry to FIC - Brown hosted by Sunshinemom. Thanks Shama for letting me know about this event.

Carrot Halwa

This is something I wanted to make after seeing Rashmi's blog. I usually make quick carrot halwa with leftover carrots from carrot rice. This time I used fresh carrots to make this halwa. This is the first time I am trying, so I used only one carrot. Here is the recipe I followed.

Ingredients:-

1. Carrots - 1 or 1 cup shredded
2. Milk - 2 cups
3. Sugar - 1 cup
4. pachakarpooram - a pinch
5. Cashews - for garnishing.
6. Ghee - 2 tsp

First take a pan, put the shredded carrots, add a cup of milk and let the carrots cook in the milk under medium flame. When it is 3/4 cooked, add the remaining milk little by little, add sugar and pachakarpooram and let it cook finely. Now add the ghee on top of it and mix it well. Stir continuously and turn off the stove when everything form like a ball. In the mean time, fry cashews to golden brown and add it to the halwa. Since I added more milk, it taste like a pal therattupal.

Brinjal Thogayal - Sutta kathirikkai thogayal

I have eaten this thogayal in one of our friend's place and I wanted to try this. Here is the recipe I followed to make this.

Ingredients:-

1. Brinjal (eggplant) - 1 (medium sized)
2. Oil -1 tsp
3. Coconut - 2 tbsp
   
4. Mustard seeds - 1 1/2 tsp
5. Urad dhall - 1 tbsp
6. Red chillies - 2 (acc to taste)
7. Tamarind - a tiny piece
8. Salt to taste.

First cook brinjal on stove top or microwave it for 3 to 5 mts. The skin from brinjal will come out automatically. Take out the skin and mash the brinjal. In the mean time, pre heat oil, fry mustard seeds, urad dhall, coconut and red chillies to golden brown adding a pinch of asafoetida powder to it. Let it cool. Grind it adding the mashed brinjal, required amount of salt and tamarind piece, into a fine paste. This can be eaten with white rice. It tastes really good.

Carrot Kosumalli

Kosumalli is a traditional dish of south Indian Iyer family. In my mom's place, they don't make kosumalli, but in my in-laws place, it is necessary to make kosumalli during any occasion. Here is the recipe for kosumalli.

Ingredients:-

1. Shredded Carrots - 1 cup
2. Moong Dhall - 1/4 cup
3. Green chillies - 2
4. Salt to taste
5. Lemon juice - 2 tsp
6. Coriander leaves - 2 tsp
   

For Seasoning:-

1. Oil - 1 tsp
2. Mustard seeds - 1/4 tsp
3. Asafoetida powder - a pinch.

Soak moong dhall for an hour in water. Drain it fully after an hour. Now mix it with the shredded carrots. Add green chillies, salt and lemon juice to it. Mix it well. Pre heat oil, splutter mustard seeds, fry asafoetida powder and pour it on top of carrot mixture. Garnish it with coriander leaves. This is Carrot Kosumalli.