From your blog to my kitchen - Strawberry sorbet

For the last 31 days, me and my fellow marathoners have posted one recipe a day. There were a few days in between that I missed, but on the whole it has been a good experience. The recipe that marks the end of this marathon is fittingly, a light, refreshing and beautifully colored sorbet. The recipe is from Rachel's blog. The only change I made is omitting the black pepper. The rest of it is the same.

What you need:
1 box of strawberries - about 15 in number
Sugar - 1/2 cup
Water - 1/2 cup
Lemon juice - 3 tsp

Combine sugar and water. Boil until the sugar dissolves completely. Let it cool.
Puree the strawberries and lemon juice in a blender, adding the sugar syrup in batches.
Freeze until firm.
Scoop out and enjoy!!!
Check out what my fellow marathoners Srivalli, Priya Suresh, Priya Vasu,Gayatri,Monika, PJ, Azeema,Usha, Ayeesha,Veena, Soumya and Reva are cooking.

Molaga podi (Chutney powder)

Molaga podi or milagai podi is something that I make very often. I always have it handy and most mornings, it is the only accompaniment that is had with breakfast. Every home has its own version of this powder. Here is how I make mine.

What you need:
Urad dal - 1 cup
Chana dal - 1 cup
Asafoetida - a few small pieces
Sesame seeds - 2 tsp
Garlic - 8 cloves
Curry leaves - a few
Red chillies - 20

Heat a tsp of oil in a kadai. Roast urad dal and chana dal separately in it until reddish brown. Remove and spread on a large plate to cool.
In the same pan, add the asafoetida, curry leaves and garlic. Fry till leaves become crisp and the garlic is well roasted. Transfer this to the plate to cool.
Now roast the red chillies on low heat until their colour darkens. Transfer this also to the plate.
Finally, add the sesame seeds and roast till the seeds start to pop.
Once all the ingredients cool down, add salt and powder in a blender.
Store in an airtight container.
This goes well with idli and dosa.
Check out what my fellow marathoners Srivalli, Priya Suresh, Priya Vasu,Gayatri,Monika, PJ, Azeema,Usha, Ayeesha,Veena, Soumya and Reva are cooking.

More plants from the back yard

My father is an avid gardener. There are several kinds of plants and trees that grow in the back yard of my parents' home. Here are some pics that I took during a recent visit.

This is the picture of a banana flower where the fruit is about to come out. In fact, the first fruits came out the day after I clicked this photo. This particular variety of banana goes by the name of robusta in Kerala and Morris in Tamilnadu.


These little red chillies are not very spicy and my mother uses these liberally in her cooking.
Isn't it wonderful to be able to walk to your back yard and pick out fresh vegetables and fruits for everyday use?
Check out what my fellow marathoners Srivalli, Priya Suresh, Priya Vasu,Gayatri,Monika, PJ, Azeema,Usha, Ayeesha,Veena, Soumya and Reva are cooking.

Peas Rice - a quick one pot meal

The shops and market near the place I live in have a plentiful supply of fresh green peas during this time of the year. Once you shell the peas, having them handy in the fridge is a real blessing when you are trying to make something quickly.

What you need:
Rice - 1 cup
Green peas - 1 cup
Onion - 1, chopped fine
Cloves - 6
Cardamom - 5
Star anise - 3
Cinnamon - a small piece
Peppercorn - 8
Ghee - 3 tsp
Water - 3 cups
Salt

Powder the cardamom, clove, cinnamon, pepper and star anise in a blender. Heat ghee in a pressure cooker. Add the powdered spices and fry for a minute. Stir in the chopped onion and fry till brown. Add the green peas, rice and salt. Mix well and heat for a minute or two. Add water and cook till two whistles.

Serve hot with raita and chips/papad.
Check out what my fellow marathoners Srivalli, Priya Suresh, Priya Vasu,Gayatri,Monika, PJ, Azeema,Usha, Ayeesha,Veena, Soumya and Reva are cooking.

Stuffed Idli

This is a variation of the humble idli which I tried recently and liked. The stuffing can be made using any ingredients that you like. Here is how I made mine.

What you need:
White chick peas - soaked in water overnight, cooked and drained - 1 cup
Onion - 1, chopped fine
Green chilli - 2 or 3
Red chilli powder - to taste
Salt
Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
Oil - 1 tsp
Idli batter - as required

To make the stuffing:
Heat oil in a pan. Add mustard seeds. When the seeds pop, add green chillies and onion. Fry until onions start to turn pink. Add the chick peas, salt, and red chilli powder. Stir well and heat till there is no moisture.

To make idlis:
Grease the idli plates. Pour a little batter, add a heaped teaspoonful of stuffing, and cover with more batter. Steam for 10-12 minutes until done.

Milagu rasam

Up until a few days back, I had absolutely no intention of blogging about something as mundane as rasam. A question from my brother as to what went into the making of milagu rasam is what made me think that there are people out there who could use this recipe. Milagu rasam is usually made when someone at home suffers from cold or cough.....the pepper and cumin in it have curative properties and soothe the throat.

What you need:
Tamarind - a lemon sized amount, soaked in hot water and squeezed to extract pulp
Peppercorns - 3/4 tsp
Cumin seeds - 3/4 tsp
Ghee - 2 tsp
Curry leaves - a few
Salt
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp

Heat a spoonful of ghee in a pan. Coarsely crush the cumin a pepper together using a pestle and mortar or in the blender. Fry this, along with the curry leaves,in ghee until aromatic and dark brown in colour.

Add tamarind extract to this. Add turmeric powder and salt. Let it boil until it is reduced to about 3/4th of the original quantity.

Add a cup of water and heat until it just starts to boil. Switch off heat. Heat a tsp of ghee in a small pan. Add some mustard seeds, broken red chillies and cumin seeds to it. When the seeds start to pop, pour it over the rasam.

Drink this hot or mix with hot rice.
Check out what my fellow marathoners Srivalli, Priya Suresh, Priya Vasu,Gayatri,Monika, PJ, Azeema,Usha, Ayeesha,Veena, Soumya and Reva are cooking.

Revealed....

The first pic is that of a cardamom plant......


....and the second one is sandalwood.
Check out what my fellow marathoners Srivalli, Priya Suresh, Priya Vasu,Gayatri,Monika, PJ, Azeema,Veena,Usha, Ayeesha,Veena, Soumya and Reva are cooking.

One more guess.....

Take a look at this plant and tell me what it is....

Guess

Can you guess what the plant in the foreground is???
Here is a closer look....

Semiya Puliyodharai

Sometimes, when I am in no mood to make anything elaborate or to eat out, this tiffin comes to the rescue. The ingredients are almost always available in any South Indian home and the time taken to make this is minimal.

What you need:
Vermicelli/semiya - 1 cup
Tamarind - a lemon sized ball, soaked in hot water for 15-20 minutes
Red chillies - 2 or 3
Urad dal - 1 tsp
Chana dal - 1 tsp
Mustard seeds - 3/4 tsp
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Curry leaves - a few
Salt
Peanuts - a few
Gingely oil - 5 tsp

Heat oil in a pan. Add the broken red chillies, urad dal, chana dal, curry leaves and peanuts. When the dals turns red, add the mustard seeds. Extract thick juice from the tamarind. Add enough water to this extract to make 3 cups of thin tamarind juice. Add this to the pan once the mustard seeds pop. Once it starts boiling, add salt and the vermicelli. Stir well and let it boil until the vermicelli is cooked and all the moisture evaporates.

Vendakka poduthuval

This is another easy stir fry which is a favourite at home.

What you need:
Ladies finger/okra - washed well, dried and cut into thin rounds
Salt
Oil
Sambar powder/red chilli powder
Rice flour - 1 tsp
Mustard seeds
Urad dal

Heat some oil in a pan. Add mustard seeds and urad dal. When the seeds pop, add the chopped ladies finger, salt and sambar powder. Stir well, lower heat and cook until it turns soft and is no longer slimy. Sprinkle the rice flour over it. Stir well. Heat for another minute or two.
This goes well with rice or rotis.
I have not mentioned the quantity of ingredients used because it will vary depending on how many people you are making this for. The sambar powder and salt are to be added according to your taste.
Check out what my fellow marathoners Srivalli, Priya Suresh, Priya Vasu,Monika, PJ, Azeema,Ayeesha,Veena, Soumya and Reva are cooking.
Am sending this to PJ who is hosting Complete My Thali,an event started by Jagruti, and themed on subji this month.

Pindi thoran

Vazhathandu or unni pindi (banana stem) is known for its health benefits. Rich in fibre, it is said to have stomach cleansing properties. I usually use it to make either pachadi or thoran. Thoran is nothing but a stir fry which is topped off with grated coconut.

What you need:
Banana stem - 1 medium sized
Red cow peas - 1/4 cup soaked in water overnight (optional)
Coconut - 1/4 cup, grated
Green chillies - 2 or 3
Salt
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
For seasoning:
Oil - 1 tsp
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Urad dal - 1 tsp

Remove the outer pith from the banana stem. Cut it into thin circles and then into small pieces. Remove any fibre that you can see.
Cook it along with the cow peas in a pressure cooker until one whistle. Drain excess water and keep aside.
Heat the ingredients for the seasoning. When the mustard seeds pop, add the cooked vegetable. Add turmeric powder and salt. Heat thoroughly so that there is no trace of water. Grind the coconut and green chillies together without adding any water. Mix this into the thoran and stir well.
Check out what my fellow marathoners Srivalli, Priya Suresh, Priya Vasu,Monika, PJ, Azeema,Ayeesha,Veena, Soumya and Reva are cooking.
Am sending this to PJ who is hosting Complete My Thali,an event started by Jagruti, and themed on subji this month.

Maanga inji (Mango ginger) pickle

I recently attended my school reunion. It has been 15 years since I passed out of school and though I am in touch with most of my friends through email,phone or facebook, I have not seen some of them for this entire period of 15 years. It was a lot of fun to see how much people have changed. One thing I noticed is that most of the girls seem to be pretty much the same except for weight gain, but the guys have changed in ways that have made them unrecognizable. Guys who once had a full crop of thick, black hair have now become almost completely bald......super thin guys now have paunches and no necks. Despite the physical changes, I noticed that our basic traits haven't changed much. If anything, people only seem to have become nicer. All in all, it was a fun meet.
I was in my hometown only for two days to attend this meet, but when I came back, my parents made sure I carried back some stuff that my father has been growing in the back yard. Kavathu is one of the vegetables I brought back.(Try as I might, I am not able to find out what it is called in English. If anyone knows, please do leave a comment) and I used it to make poduthuval(in this post) and thalagam (which is going to be my next post).
One of the other things I brought back with me is manga inji (mango ginger). Despite the name, this rhizome is related neither to ginger nor to mango. It belongs to the same family as turmeric. It looks like ginger but when cut, it smells like a raw mango. In a previous post, I have made a pickle using mango ginger, green peppercorns and lemon.
This time round, I wanted to try out a different pickle and this is what I did.

What you need:
Mango ginger - 1 cup, peeled and cut into small pieces
Red chilli powder - 2-3 tsp or to taste
Salt
Asafoetida - 1/2 tsp
Gingely oil - 1/4 cup
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp

Add the red chilli powder, salt and asafoetida to the cut mango ginger. Mix well. Heat oil. Add mustard seeds to it. When the seeds pop, pour this over the mango ginger. Mix well. Store in a clean, dry, airtight container.
This pickle can be used immediately and goes well with rice.
Check out what my fellow marathoners Srivalli, Priya Suresh, Priya Vasu,Monika, PJ, Azeema,Ayeesha,Soumya and Reva are cooking.

Now that you have told me

what it is that you dislike most about the cooking process, it is time for us to discuss what we really like about cooking. Why, in spite of not liking to chop, clean or garnish, do we still end up cooking?
For me, it is the satisfaction of getting food cooked just the way I like it and the sheer pleasure of inhaling the aroma of food being cooked.
Check out what my fellow marathoners Srivalli, Priya Suresh, Priya Vasu,Monika, PJ, Azeema and Reva are cooking.

Kavathu avarakka poduthuval

On a recent visit to my parents' I came back with a whole lot of kavathu which my father had grown in the back yard. Not many people outside Kerala are familiar with this root vegetable.

It looks like a cross between yam and taro, doesn't it? It tastes quite different from those, though.
Kavathu is often paired with avarakkai to make a curry during the thiruvathira festival. Here, I have made a stir fry using it.

What you need:
Kavathu
Avarakkai (broad beans)
Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
Urad dal - 3/4 tsp
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Grated coconut - a little
Green chillies - a few
Salt

Wash kavathu in plenty of running water to remove all traces of soil. Scrape off the skin. Chop it into medium sized pieces. Cut broad beans into long pieces.
Heat some oil in a pan. Add urad dal and mustard seeds. When the seeds pop, lower the heat and add the kavathu, avarakkai, turmeric powder and salt. Add a little water and cover and cook until both the veggies are cooked well. You will need to stir in between to make sure the veggies don't burn and you may also have to add more water from time to time to ensure that it is well cooked.
Grind the coconut and green chillies without adding any water. Add this to the cooked vegetables. Stir well and serve with rice.
Check out what my fellow marathoners Srivalli, Priya Suresh, Priya Vasu,Monika, PJ, Azeema and Reva are cooking.

What is it....

that you dislike most about cooking??? I am not talking about the after-cooking clean up which a lot of people seem to dislike, but the cooking process itself. For me, it is the garnish. I am absolutely willing to try out the most complicated recipe, but am often too lazy to chop up corrainder/curry leaves to dress it up or to do a tadka.
So, what is it that you wish to skip every time you cook?
Check out what my fellow marathoners Srivalli, Priya Suresh, Priya Vasu,Monika, PJ, Azeema and Reva are cooking.

Puliyodharai - tamarind rice

I have always loved the puliyodharai that is handed out as prasadam in the temples of Tamilnadu. In fact, when we moved to Chennai, one of the things I really looked forward to is good puliyodharai. Unfortunately, most of the restaurants in Chennai don't serve this rice. They have it in their lunch menu, but if you ask for it, you'll find a sheepishly grinning waiter informing you that they only have sambar rice or some other variety rice. MTR ready mix puliyodharai powder does satisfy the craving every once in a while, but I find that I have to add more tamarind and more salt to the mix to suit our palate. This recipe is a simple one that I have come up with and fall back on whenever I need to make something in a hurry and don't want to spend a lot of time chopping vegetables.

What you need:
Rice - 1 cup
Tamarind - a lemon sized ball soaked in hot water
Red chillies - 3 or 4, broken into pieces
Urad dal - 3/4 tsp
Chana dal - 3/4 tsp
Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
Turmeric powder - a pinch
Methi seeds - 1/4 tsp
Asafoetida - a small piece
Curry leaves - a few sprigs
Groundnuts
Gingely oil - 3-4 tsps
Salt - to taste

Cook rice. Spread it on a plate and keep it aside to cool.
Heat oil in a pan. Add red chillies,urad dal, chana dal, methi seeds, asafoetida, curry leaves and mustard seeds. When the seeds pop, add the ground nuts and fry well. Extract thick juice from the soaked tamarind and pour this into the pan. Add turmeric powder, salt and stir well. Lower the heat and let it cook until most of the moisture has evaporated. Switch off the heat. Add the cooked rice and stir gently making sure that the tamarind paste coats all the rice.
Enjoy with fried appalam or vadam.
Check out what my fellow marathoners Srivalli, Priya Suresh, Monika, PJ, Azeema and Reva are cooking.

Vazhathandu(Banana stem) pachadi

A lot of people shy away from cooking vazhathandu at home simply because the prep work is time consuming. Well, chopping this vegetable up finely is definitely hard work, but given the fact that it has several health benefits, it is totally worth it.
To cut the thandu, slice it into thin circles. Then stack a few circles one on top of the other and cut them into thin vertical strips. Cut these again horizontally to get small pieces.
I usually cut it the previous night and refrigerate it. When refrigerating, you should cover the veggie with water and add a bit of tamarind or buttermilk to it to prevent discoloration. I also make sure that I refrigerate it in a microwave safe box so that the next morning, I only have to drain off excess water and pop it into the microwave. While it is getting cooked, I grind the ingredients for the pachadi and then, bringing it all together only takes a few minutes.

What you need :
Vazhathandu (banana stem) - 1 cup, chopped fine and cooked
Green chillies - 2 or 3
Coconut - 1/4 cup, grated
Salt
Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
Sour curd - 1 cup (Alternatively, you can use a gooseberry sized amount of tamarind)

Grind to a smooth paste green chillies, coconut, mustard and tamarind(if using).
Take the cooked vazhathandu in a pan. Add the ground paste and salt to it. Let it boil until the raw smell goes away and most of the moisture has evaporated. Switch off heat . Stir in the curd just before serving.

Note: If you are using tamarind, add fresh curd just before serving. If you add sour curd, the pachadi will be too sour.
Check out what my fellow marathoners Srivalli, Priya Suresh, Monika, PJ, Azeema and Reva are cooking.

Restaurant style Kadai Vegetables

A very happy 2011 to all of you, my dear readers. I am going to start this year off by running a blogging marathon along with Valli.
Let's kick start the marathon with Kadai Vegetable, a popular restaurant dish. This recipe,from a professional chef, was featured on a TV show.

What you need:
Carrot - 2, chopped
Potato - 1, large, peeled and diced
Beans - a few, chopped
Capsicum - 1, chopped fine
Onion - 1, chopped fine & 2 cut into large chunks
Tomato - 3, diced
Cardamom - a few pods
Cinnamon - a small piece
Salt
For masala powder:
Jeera/cumin seeds - 1 tsp
Saunf - 1 tsp
Dhania/corriander seeds - 1 tsp
Red chilli - 3 or to taste
Fenugreek - 1/4 tsp

Dry fry all the ingredients for the masala powder in a kadai. Let it cool and then powder. Keep aside.
Heat a little oil in a pan. Fry the finely chopped onions till pink. Add diced capsicum and fry on low heat till soft. Keep this aside.
In the same pan, add some more oil. Add cardamom, cinnamon. Add onions and fry till pink. Add a teaspoon of ginger-garlic paste. Add diced tomatoes and fry for a few minutes. Let it cool and then grind to a smooth paste.
Cook the diced vegetables with salt. Add the ground paste to the vegetables and boil well. Add the masala powder and boil for two minutes. Mix in the fried onions and capsicum. Stir well. Serve hot.
This goes to PJ who is hosting Complete My Thali, an event started by Jagruti and themed this month on sabji.