Summer goodies #2 - Microwave mango thokku

First off, I've got to tell all the Chennaiwasis that there's this new Italian restaurant you absolutely must try.....Osteria is at the Deccan Plaza in Royapettah High Road. Their food, ambience, service....everything is absolutely great.
The Samosa Factory in Anna Nagar is good too.....it's at the beginning of Shanti Colony....and is so small that you're likely to miss it unless you're looking for it.....but it definitely is something you should try out. They have lovely street style cocktail samosas with a crisp, dark brown outer layer.
I gorged on these during the weekend and also watched the new Indy Jones movie. If you are an Indy fan (like me), you will enjoy the movie. Like all the other movies in the series, this too is an edge-of-the-seat entertainer......definitely not the best Indy movie.....but fun all the same.

Okey....dokey......let's now switch on the microwave and make some thokku.....

What you need:

Large unripe mango - 2
Red chilli powder - 2 heaped tsp (adjust to your taste)
Salt
Oil - 8 tsp
Mustard seeds - 3/4 tsp
Jaggery - a small piece (optional)

Peel mangoes and then cut them into thin, uneven slices.
Pour the oil into a microwave safe bowl, add mustard seeds, cover and microwave for 2 minutes or until the seeds pop.
Add all the other ingredients....mix well and microwave on high power for 8 minutes. Do check on the mangoes halfway through and stir so that it gets cooked evenly. Crush lightly with a ladle. I like mine with a few chunks in it.
This stays good in the refrigerator for upto 10 days.

I'd like to thank:
Happy Cook for giving me the Rocking Girl Blogger Award
Jayasree for passing on the You Make My Day Award.

This is my entry to Srivalli's MEC Bottled.
Check out my Summer goodies #1 - Ela vadam

How do I love thee.....Come let me count the ways

Well, for starters I like you best as you are.......I love to bite into your juicy flesh....skin and all....and keep eating until all that is left is your seed. Then, there's pulisseri, pachadi, koottan - various avatars of yours - all of which Iam equally awed by.
So when Arundati chose you to be the star of blogosphere's breakfast table, all of these dishes ran through my mind.....but there was also this feeling in the back of my mind that I should try something that I've never tried before. Well, the days passed by and I did eat a lot of mangoes, but I never got around to making anything out of it.
Things just seemed to fall into place today though, with DH saying that it's been a while since I baked bread.....and since I happened to have some wonderful smelling ripe banganapallis on hand, I thought, why not go ahead and bake some mango bread. Googling lead me to this recipe which I adapted so that I could make it entirely in the microwave.

To make microwave egg-less mango bread you need:
1 large ripe mango - skinned and cut into large chunks
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup yogurt
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup oil
2 cups flour (I used flour made out of a mix of seven grains - can be substituted with whole grain flour)
1/2 cup milk powder
1/2 cup water

Blend the mango, sugar, yogurt, salt, oil, water and milk powder together in a blender. Transfer it to a large bowl and add in the flour, baking powder and baking soda. Mix everything together well. The dough will be quite thick - infact, for a while there, i thought that I'd gone wrong with the consistency.
Grease a loaf pan with oil/non-stick cooking spray. Pour the batter into the loaf pan and microwave in convection mode at 175 degree centigrade for roughly thirty minutes. Do check every now and then to see if it is done because microwaves do vary in their power output and so the time taken will vary depending on your microwave. Insert a knife into the bread...if it comes out clean, then the bread is done. Let it stand in the microwave until it cools down completely.

Fresh out of the oven....

Slice and Njoy!!!
Thoughts:
A nice, moist bread...you really can't taste the mango in it, though....So next time around I'd probably use mango juice instead of water to get more of the
mango flavour. I also want to try adding a little bit of cinnamon and some walnuts or raisins to the batter.

This is my entry to Weekend Breakfast Blogging hosted by Arundati.

Masala puris

For life to be interesting, you need to move away from the regular path every once in a while.....you have to welcome the unexpected. As Oswald says "A surprise never hurt anybody" (Sheesh....can't believe i am quoting Oswald.....can u tell I watch way too much Pogo these days???)
Well, the same rule applies to food too. Every now and then, you need to experiment, to get out of your comfort zone and just throw things together and cross your fingers and hope that something edible comes out of that strange combo that's in the pan.
Here's one such experiment that I tried....To make masala puris you need:
Wheat flour - 2 cups
Potatoes - 2 or 3 medium sized, boiled, peeled and mashed well
Onion - 1, chopped really fine
Salt
Amchur powder - 1/2 tsp
Garam masala - 3/4 tsp
Oil - 2 tsp

Combine all the ingredients together and knead into a smooth pliable dough adding just as much warm water as needed.
Make small lemon sized balls out of the dough and roll it out into small puris.
Heat some oil(enough to deep fry the puris) in a kadai. Slide one puri at a time gently into the hot oil. Turn over once so both sides are cooked and browned evenly. Remove and drain excess oil using a kitchen/paper towel.
Eat hot off the stove with thick yogurt and a spicy pickle on the side.....and trust me, once you've tried this, you'll never want to go back to plain puris ever again....

Speaking of surprises, there are two blogger buddies who made my day by passing on some lovely awards to me.
Sukanya has given me the yummy blog award.
Thank u dear.....it really does mean a lot to me.
As a receiver of this award, I have to list out four of my favourite desserts. I really don't have much of a sweet tooth, but I'll try to list a few that I do like better than the rest.

• Palada pradhaman
• Rosogollas
• Jilebis
• Kaju Kathli

I'd now like to pass this award on to

• MS
  
• DK
  
• Rachel and
• Happy cook

Sowmya has passed on the Nice Matters Award to me. She says “Nice Matters Award is for those bloggers who are nice people; good blog friends and those who inspire good feelings and inspiration. Also for those who are a positive influence on our blogging world.”
Thank you Sowmya.

The masala puris are off to Srivalli's Roti Mela.

Ranting and cooking

To the nosy old man next door....
Pushing and prodding and hoping that staring at the envelope long enough will miraculously render it transparent just won't work.....If you want to know how much I pay the telephone department every month, all you have to do is ask me.....and I "may" tell you...
And while we are at it, let me also tell you that I know you always watch out of your window to see when I get my mail.....you really don't have to ask me if the courier guy delivered the package which you saw him bring in...
If you saw him walking to my place with a package, if you heard him ring the bell, then simple logic determines that I did get the package.....unless there's a new bermuda triangle between your home and mine.
Alright, with that finally off my chest, let's now get talking about Mathan erissery. Erissery is a very simple, rustic Kerala dish. It can be made using a variety of vegetables. My favourite is pacha mathan erissery (raw pumpkin erissery).

What you need:

Raw pumpkin - 3/4 cup, diced into medium sized pieces after removing the skin
Green chillies - 3
Fresh grated coconut - 1/2 cup
Turmeric powder - 1/3 tsp
Salt - to taste
Coconut oil - 1 tsp
Curry leaves - a few sprigs

Take two and a half cups of water in a pan. Add pumpkin pieces, salt and turmeric powder to it and boil until the pumpkin is cooked. Grind green chillies and coconut to a smooth paste and add this to the cooked pumpkin. If needed, add some more water at this stage. Boil for a few minutes. Switch off the heat and then pour the coconut oil on top. Garnish with fresh curry leaves.
Serve hot with rice.

Refried beans

Colourful, full of flavour and nutritious....that's Mexican food for you... Refried beans almost always make an appearance at the Mexican table, either as an accompaniment to Mexican rice and tortillas, or wrapped into burritos and enchiladas.
The name is a bit of a misnomer because there is no frying involved in making this dish. It is actually quite easy to make and probably one of the simplest recipes to follow.

What you need:
Red kidney beans - 3/4 cup (Soaked in plenty of water overnight)
Garlic - 4 cloves, crushed
Tomato -1, chopped
Salt
Onion - 1, chopped fine

Take all the ingredients in a pressure cooker, add sufficient water and cook until one whistle....reduce the heat to low and cook for 15 - 20 minutes.
By now, the beans should be soft and well cooked. Mash it coarsely with a masher or a heavy ladle. Heat until all the moisture is absorbed.
Serve with tortillas or rotis.
(Traditionally, the ingredients are boiled together on a low flame unti the beans become tender, but I used a pressure cooker to speed up the process)

Iam rushing this off to DK who is hosting A Wordly Epicurean's Delight (A.W.E.D) featuring Mexican food.

Methi theplas for RCI-Rajasthan

Looking around for a Rajasthani dish that I could make using ingredients that i had on hand is what led me to the book "Taste of Rajasthan (Delicious Vegetarian Food from the Land of Rajasthan) by Harveen Choudhary. The fact that I had a bunch of fresh methi just waiting to be used helped decide on the dish that was going to be cooked. I have followed Choudhary's recipe almost to the T except for certain small changes.

What you need:
Fresh methi leaves(chopped) - 1 cup
Wheat flour - 2 cups
Gram flour - 1/2 cup
Salt - to taste
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
Green chillies - 2, ground into a paste
Garam masala - 1 tsp
Sour curd - 3/4 cup
Oil - 3 tsp

Mix the chopped methi leaves and curd in a bowl and set aside for an hour. Add all the other ingredients to this and knead to a smooth pliable dough. If needed, add some warm water while kneading. Cover and keep aside for an hour.
Take a small ball of dough. Dredge it in some wheat flour and roll out into a thick circle. Transfer the thepla to a heated tawa....cook until you see a few brown spots on the bottom. Turn over, drizzle some oil/ghee over it if you'd like to and cook for a minute. Repeat until all the dough is used up.
Serve hot...or cold...it tastes good either way...

What I think of these theplas:
They turned out super soft and delicious...the original recipe called for 1 cup of curd and that's what I used, but the dough turned out to be a little sticky and so I had to add more flour.
I loved the colour that the turmeric and garam masala gave to the theplas. I don't find much difference between these and the methi parathas that I make...except for the fact that I've never soaked the methi leaves in curd before...I suppose that takes away the bitterness. These tasted great on their own....the only thing I'd probably eat with it is mango thokku...but even that is not necessary.

This is my entry to RCI-Rajasthan hosted by Padmaja of Spicy Andhra and to Srivalli's Roti Mela.

Restaurant review - Little Italy Ristorante, Chennai.

Where???
112,Eldorado building, Nungambakkam high Road, Chennai.
Ph :42601234
It is opposite Pizza Corner on Nungambakkam H.R.

What???
Mostly Italian and also some Mexican food....the entire menu is vegetarian. Both the cuisines have been Indianised to suit the local palate but it does taste good. The minestrone soup, which incidentally, is my favourite soup, was a huge disappointment. I was expecting an Olive Garden style soup, but what they served turned out to be greenish and watery. Other than that, the rest of the dishes we ordered turned out to be quite good. The risotto and penne with sun dried tomatoes and sauces were both good, though the quantity is much too less for the price that you pay. The Quesidillas looked like they were made using rotis instead of tortillas....but tasted quite alright.
The service is just about average. The wait staff (at least some of them) seem to have trouble with both English and Tamil. I asked the lady who waited on our table a question about a dish and she just said yes and walked off. I also had to wait an extra 10 minutes to get an plate for my daughter despite the fact that several waiters were walking around setting tables and I was told that I would have to wait for "Just one minute".
That said, the ambience and the food made enough of an impression to make me want to go back.

How much should you expect to pay???
About Rs 600 - 650 for two people.

Do make reservations, especially on weekends, because the place does tend to get quite crowded.

The making of an Onion Kulcha

Flat breads in the form of rotis and parathas make an appearance in my home quite often. However,making naan is something I have shied away from after a disastrous trial a few years back. So whenever the craving for naan or any of its variants hits me, I take the easy way out and either eat out or get take-away...
A few days back, though,I decided to try my hand at making onion kulchas.....the results were encouraging enough to make me want to try out other versions of this very adaptable bread.

What you need:

For the dough:
All purpose flour/maida - 1 cup
Whole wheat flour - 1 cup
Active dry yeast - 1 tsp
Salt - to taste
Warm water - enough to knead the flour into a smooth dough

To make dough:
Soak yeast in 1/4 cup of warm water for 10 minutes or until it is completely dissolved. Mix the flours and salt together. Add the yeast mixture to this and then add warm water a little at a time and knead into a smooth pliable dough. Cover and let it stand for a few hours. The volume of the dough will double in about 4-6 hours. Punch it well and knead again and set aside until you are ready to make kulchas.

For the filling :
Large red onions - 2, chopped very fine
Tomato sauce - 1tsp
Chilli sauce - 1 tsp
Salt - a little
Oil - 3 tsp
Red chilli powder - 1/4 tsp

To make filling:
Heat oil. Add onions and saute until brown. Stir in all the other ingredients...stir well and remove from heat. Set aside.

To make kulchas:
Take a medium sized ball of dough. Using a rolling pin, flatten it into a small circle. Spoon some of the filling into this circle and close it and shape into a ball again with your hands. Roll out into a thick circle. Fold this in half so you get a semi-circle and spread it slightly with the rolling pin. Now fold it into a triangle and spread again with the rolling pin to make a thick kulcha.
Heat a tawa/griddle. Transfer the rolled out kulcha onto that. Cook until you see a few bubbles form on the top of the kulcha. By this time, the bottom should have turned golden brown. Turn over and cook for a minute or two.
Serve hot with any curry of your choice.

Kulcha with baby potatoes - Njoy!!!

This is my entry to Srivalli's Roti Mela.

We met, we talked and....we ate

For months together, mails were exchanged, plans were made,and then, eleven strangers decided to meet under one roof on May 1st, 2008.
What brought them together is nothing other than the passion to write about good food. There were the initial akward silences, but then as time passed, peopled opened up and we found
ourselves discussing stuff other than food. We talked about our babies.....how ridiculous it is that we have to register them in school as soon as we see two pink lines......and lots of other stuff.

A food bloggers' meet is never complete without the presence of food.....and boy, was there food!!!!
Lakshmi graciously opened up her house to us.....and also made yummy delicious tava bread and thayir sadam......thank you, Laks.....
Rachel baked a lovely looking and even lovelier tasting ladenia for us......Kamini's aloo tikkis were lip-smacking good.....Srivalli's Channa pulao and raita were awesome...
Sra's paneer curry and Arundati's Idiyappam and Mango pulissery both were perfectly delicious.
Nirmala's florentines, which to her dismay, were called cookies by everybody, tasted fabulous.....after all, what's in a name, Nimmi???
Kamalika's chakkara pongal and Lavi's Rosogullas were the ultimate sweet treats.....Yours truly took along chakkavaratty payasam, the recipe of which will be posted soon.
Whew!!! There, didn't I tell u there was A LOT of good food.
This meet also made me realise something else.....
I'd forgotten to take my camera along...and so, had to wait until the others had taken several pictures of the food from different angles...
...and that's when I understood what my family truly goes through when I put food on the table and then ask them to stand around and gaze at it until I've taken enough pictures :-))
A lovely potluck, good company and a great time....that's what we had....and I really, really hope we do this again.....

Microwave Aval Kozhakkattai

What you need:

Rice flakes - 1 cup (thick variety - I used matta rice flakes)
Water - 2 cups
Salt
Oil - 1 tsp
Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
Broken urad dal - 1/2 tsp
Channa dal - 1/2 tsp
Red chilli - 2, roughly broken into pieces
Peanuts - a little
Curry leaves - 2 sprigs
Grated fresh coconut - 1/4 cup
Asafoetida - a little

Powder the rice flakes in a blender to a coarse consistency....like that of rava/semolina.
Take the oil, mustard seeds, urad dal, chana dal, chilli, peanuts, curry leaves and asafoetida in a microwave safe bowl. Heat for 2 minutes on maximum power or until the mustard seeds pop.
Add water, powdered rice flakes, salt and grated coconut into the bowl. Stir well so that there are no lumps. Microwave for 8 minutes on high power or until the mixture is well cooked like upma and there is no water left.
Let it cool and then shape into ovals.
Steam for 2 minutes in a microwave idli plate.
Remove and serve hot with coconut chutney.

Am rushing this entry off to Easycrafts who is hosting this month's WBB - Microwave food

Chakka adai

Growing up, the meals we had during summer always revolved around chakka (jackfruit), muringakka (drumstick) and mangoes. If there was muringakka sambar one day, the next day it was muringakka molagoottal, then chakkakkuru (jackfruit seed) thoran, chakka molagushyam, chakka this, muringakka that....so much so that my brother and I used to silently wish that those trees would somehow miraculously stop bearing any more fruit.
It's true that you don't realise the value of something when you have it in abundance. Now whenever I visit my parents I come back laden with the very same things that I once said I couldn't take any more of.......
Chakka adai is something I didn't dislike as a child, but neither was I overly enamoured by it. A recent visit to my parents' made me rediscover this dish and yeah, I did bring back some ripe jackfruit so that I could make this at home.

What you need:
Raw rice - 1 cup
Jackfruit - 6 slices (is that what it is called??? or is it just pieces???)
Salt - a pinch
Jaggery - a small piece (optional)

Wash and soak rice in plenty of water for 2 hours.
Drain and then grind along with all the other ingredients to a smooth batter of pourable consistency.
Heat a dosa pan. Pour a ladle of batter...spread it into a circle....pour a few drops of oil/ghee on it and cook for a minute/until the bottom turns golden brown. Flip over and cook for a minute.

Serve hot.
This dosa does not need any accompaniment...tastes great hot off the stove.

Note:

• The jackfruit should be really, really ripe.
• Increase, decrease or totally do away with the jaggery depending on the sweetness of the jackfruit.

Experience in action

Look at those efficient hands spreading the batter deftly and in perfect circles......the dosas that he made were nothing less than a pure delight to savour.

Crisp and delicious!!!

These pics were taken during my father's Shastiabdapoorthy (60th b'day) a couple of months back. The caterer was really, really good....if any of you are looking for a caterer(Kerala Iyer food), I highly recommend Akshaya Caterers of Palakkad.

This is my final entry to Srivalli's Dosa Mela.

Happy Vishu

Our Vishu Sadya

Here's wishing you all a very happy Vishu....

Verum arisi adai

Minimum preparation and almost no fuss is exactly how I would describe my cooking style. I am not the kind to toil over the stove all day long and endure the "It-tastes-OK" type of comments
with a martyr-like smile.....If I have toiled in the kitchen and put something on the table, then you better be lavish with your words(read you better tell me it is GOOD!!!)
The dosas that Iam going to talk about today are just my kind of dish - need almost no prep....except for the grinding of course.....no fermenting, no soaking and grinding separately....infact, it uses just three ingredients.....yet, the end-product is guaranteed to satisfy.

What you need:

Parboiled rice - 1cup
Fresh grated coconut - 1/2 cup
Salt - to taste

Wash and soak the rice in plenty of water for 4 to 6 hours. Drain and grind to a smooth batter adding as much water as needed. The batter should be runny.....like rava dosa batter.
Mix in the grated coconut and salt.
Heat a dosa pan....pour a ladleful of batter in a circle....even it out with the ladle...pour a few drops of oil over it if you'd like....cook for a few minutes, turn over, cook for a minute....and
serve hot with coconut chutney/tomato chutney/sambar. My personal favourite is mango thokku along with this.
There, does dosa making get any simpler than that???

Notes:

• You can use raw rice instead of parboiled, but the dosas are much softer when u use parboiled rice.
• The coconut can be ground along with the batter but biting into little bits of grated coconut as you eat the dosa is what gives this a unique taste. I have also seen some people sprinkle the grated coconut over the dosa immediately after pouring the batter into the pan.

This dosa too goes to Srivalli's Dosa Mela.
Check out my other entries to the mela - tomato dosa ( no fermenting), vegetable dosa (no fermenting) and masala dosa (scroll halfway down the post to see the recipe)

Summer goodies #1 - Ela vadam

"Unbearably hot" is an understatement when it comes to describing Chennai summers. The bright sun blazing its way through the thick curtains in your bedroom lets you know in no uncertain terms that summer is here to stay whether you like it or not. When your sweat glands produce just about as much sweat as the water you consume plus some more, you know there's no escape. You have to brace yourself for the next few months and make the best of it.
Nature does have its own ways to help you cope...there are all those luscious fruits that line the shelves of your grocer.....the juice stalls that are constanly busy this time of the year....mangoes from different parts of India - some sweet, some with a hint of tanginess....that is the silver lining behind the cloud.
Summer is also the season when most of the seasonal produce is preserved in different forms for use during the rest of the year. Pickles, vathals and vadams are made and stored and enjoyed all round the year.
There's two ways to putting a vadam on your plate.....
1. Go to a store. Find your favourite vadam. Bring it back home. Fry in oil and that's it.
2. Wake up at an ungodly hour.....the said hour for me was 5.45....not so ungodly for many, but hey, I like my beauty sleep. Hurry up and make the vadams before that little girl wakes up and comes in and demands that anything that's not 2 years old should be relegated to the outer bounds of your attention. Make vadam. Dry it in the sun for days until it is ready for use and then fry them in oil.
No prizes for guessing which method Iam going to talk about here.
Yeah, yeah...call me crazy...but there's just something about all that hot sun that made me want to try this out from scratch. This is my first attempt at making vadams. It takes up quite a bit of your time...so make sure you do this when you're sure there aren't going to be any interruptions.
Alright, let's put on our aprons....and start making vadams.

What you need:
Raw rice - 1 cup
Parboiled rice - 1 cup
Salt - to taste
Green chilli - 2 or to taste (remember, we just want a hint of spiciness here...not a super spicy vadam that would require its own side dish)
Black sesame seeds - 1 tsp, soaked in water for ten minutes

You also need an ela vadam stand and vadam plates.

Grind the rice to a smooth paste adding just as little water as needed. Add salt and leave it covered overnight. Next morning, grind the green chillies to a smooth paste. Add a little bit of the rice batter to the chillies while grinding so that it blends in smoothly and then mix it in with the rest of the batter. Drain the sesame seeds of water and add to the batter. Check for salt and add more if needed. The batter should not be very runny. It should be of pourable consistency.Heat some water in an idli cooker. Grease the vadam plates. Pour a small amount of batter on the plate and spread it into a circle. It should not be spread too thick or too thin. If you spread it too thick, the vadam does not turn out well when fried and if it is too thin, you won't be able to take it off the plate without tearing it.Stack the plates on the vadam stand and steam in the idli cooker for 3-4 minutes.When the vadam is cooked, it changes colour and becomes shiny.
Remove the plates from the cooker. Let it cool for a few seconds....and then ease one end of the vadam out with a knife.
Pull out the vadam carefully without tearing it and transfer it to a plastic sheet.
Follow these steps until all the batter is used up. You should have about 35 vadams if you follow this recipe.If you have the luxury of some open space with lots of sunshine, dry the vadams there. If not, don't worry...these vadams dry quite well even under the fan. It should dry completely in one or two days, depending on the intensity of sunlight.
Once dried, fry them in hot oil and serve with rice.

Chickpeas vada

Parippu vada is a popular tea-time snack in Kerala.....and can be found in most small local restaurants in the evening. During my hostel days, I have washed down several of these with cups of severely watered down tea. My recipe for parippu vada can be found here.

What I have here is a variation that I tried....and the results of which we enjoyed.

What you need:

Chickpeas - 1 cup, soaked in water for 6-8 hrs
Onion - 1, finely chopped
Carrot - 1, grated
Garlic - 3 cloves, chopped fine
curry leaves - a few, chopped
Green chilli - 2 or 3, minced
Asafoetida - a little
Salt - to taste
Oil - for deep frying

Grind the chick peas without adding any water to a coarse paste.If there are some whole chickpeas even after grinding, it's perfectly fine.
Add all the other ingredients to this and mix well. Alternately, you can also add the other ingredients into the blender and turn it once so it is well mixed.
Heat oil in a kadai.
Shape the chickpea batter into small balls, flatten them between your palms and drop a few of these gently into the oil.
Fry until the vada turns crisp and golden brown....make sure you turn it over a couple of times so that both the sides get cooked well. Also take care to see that you don't overheat the oil 'coz then the inside doesn't get cooked thoroughly.
Remove....drain excess oil using a paper towel and serve hot with ketchup or mint chutney.

A closer look.......

Check out this and other amazing entries to Waiter There's Something in my Soup at Jeanne's round-up.

Paneer Pulav

Rice is a staple in any South Indian household....and there are several ways in which it is cooked and eaten. Sometimes, however, you just crave for a rice that does not overshadow your other dishes....something that just gently blends in with the rest of the menu, a dish that is fragrant and delicious...but not overpoweringly so....
Here's one such recipe....

What you need:
Basmati rice - 1 cup (Soak in plenty of water for 1 hour and then drain and keep aside)
Paneer pieces - 1/2 cup
Water - 2 1/4 cups
ghee - 2 tsp
Salt
Star anise - 1
Clove - 4
Cinnamon - a small piece
Cardamom - 4 pods
Garlic - 2 pods, peeled and minced
Onion - 1, chopped fine
Green chilli - 1, minced

Powder the spices (anise,clove,cinnamon and cardamom) coarsely and transfer them to a large microwaveable bowl. Add a tsp of ghee to it and heat for 1 minute and 30 seconds on high.
Now add the chopped onion, garlic and green chillies and heat for 2 minutes or until the onion turns a nice brown. Stir in the rice and the remaining ghee. Microwave for 1 minute.
Add water and cook at 850 watts for 8 minutes. Add paneer pieces. Then lower the power to 650 watts and cook for another 3 minutes and 30 seconds.
Let it stand for a few minutes before serving with any raita/curry of your choice.

Paneer pulav served with baby bittergourd fry and cucumber raita.

I discovered baby bittergourds recently on a trip to the vegetable market....and I must say I love them. They are nice to look at, but to me, the best part is that there's no chopping/prepping involved. Just wash them and throw them into a kadai....with some salt, oil and red chilli powder. Stir once in a while until it is crisp and brown. Now, that's easy, isn't it???

This is my entry to Srivalli's MEC-Rice.
The baby bittergourd fry goes to Pooja's Veggie of the Week event.

A balancing act

In primary school, we learn that we need to eat right to become strong and healthy. We are told that the three major components of a balanced meal are carbohydrates, proteins and fat.
Our ancestors were not nutritionists or dietitians....but they seem to have known all this ages ago. Thea first meal that a South Indian child is fed is a mixture of rice(carbs),and tuar dal(protein) mixed with a generous dollop of ghee(fat). Add in some veggies and you have a complete balanced meal. Idli, dosa, pongal, dal-roti....think of most of your everyday meals and you'll realise that you don't have to reach further than your pantry to create a healthy, balanced, wholesome meal for your family.
Here are two such recipes.......

Vegetable dosa

What you need:

Besan - 1 cup
Maida - 1/4 cup
Rice flour - 1/4 cup
Salt
Carrot - 1, grated
Green chilli - 1, minced
Corriander leaves - a handful, chopped
Tomato - 1, chopped fine
Onion - 1, chopped

Mix besan, maida, rice flour and salt with enough water to form a batter of pourable consistency. Add in all the other ingredients.
Heat a dosa pan or griddle. Pour a ladleful of batter on it. Pour it thick like you would for an uttapam. Drizzle some oil over it. When the bottom is golden brown, flip over, and cook on a low flame until done.
This dosa is a complete meal by itself. It does not really require a chutney or any accompaniment. A little bit of yogurt on the side would complement it well.

Now let's move on to another dosa that features on pretty much all South Indian menus.....the mighty masala dosa. To date, I don't think I've met anyone who doesn't like the humble dosa in this avatar. The best masala dosa that I've had is served at Annapoorna in Coimbatore..... there's just something in it that makes you want to go back again and again.
Here's how I make it:

What you need:

For the batter

Par-boiled rice - 3 cups
Urad dal - 1.5 cups
Poha/rice flakes - a handful
Fenugreek seeds - 1 heaped tsp
Salt

Soak rice and fenugreek seeds for 8-10 hours in plenty of water. About ten minutes before grinding add in the poha to this to soak.
Soak urad dal separately for 30 minutes.
Grind urad dal and rice separately and then mix together with enough salt. Leave it to ferment overnight. The next morning, stir the batter well and add some water, if necessary, to get a batter of pourable consistency.

For the masala

Potatoes - 3 medium sized, boiled, peeled and mashed
Onion - 1 large, chopped fine
Curry leaves - 1 sprig, chopped
Ginger - a small pieces, chopped
Green chilli - 1, chopped
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
Salt

Heat a tsp of oil. Add some urad dal and mustard seeds to it. When the seeds pop, add the ginger, chilli, onion and curry leaves. Fry until onions turn pink.
Now add the mashed potatoes, turmeric powder and salt. If necessary add a little bit of water. Stir and cook until the masala thickens. At this point, you can stir in some lemon juice if you'd like to.

To make masala dosas:

Heat a dosa pan. Spread a ladleful of batter on it. Make sure that you spread it thin if you like crisp dosas. Drizzle some oil over it.When the bottom of the dosa turns golden brown, take a few tsps of the masala and spread it over one half of the dosa.Close it with the other half and serve hot off the tawa with chutney and sambar.

Notes:
Do not soak the urad dal for more than 30 minutes. Grind it with cold water or just pop the soaked dal into the fridge and grind it when you are ready to. This gives you creamier urad batter and makes idlis and dosas softer.
You can also add a cup of cooked left-over rice while grinding the batter.

Both dosas go to WBB-Balanced Breakfast Meal which is being hosted by Mansi Desai and to Srivalli's Dosa Mela.

Tomato dosa and manga koottan

To make tomato dosa, you need:

Raw rice - 1 cup
Tuar dal - 1/4 cup
Tomato - 3 large, ripe ones
Tamarind - a gooseberry sized ball
Red chilli - 3
Salt

Soak rice and tuar dal for 2 hours in plenty of water. Add the tamarind and red chilli to this and let it soak for another 10 minutes. Drain the water. Add cut tomatoes, salt and grind everything together to a smooth batter. If necessary, add some more water at this stage to get a batter of pourable consistency.
Now, heat a dosa pan. Spread a ladleful of batter in a circle. Add a little bit of oil over it....and let it cook until the bottom is crisp and brown. Flip over and cook for a few seconds.
Remove and serve hot with any chutney of your choice.
In the pic, I have served it with manga koottan.

To make manga koottan, you need:

Raw mango - a small one, chopped into large pieces.

Drumstick - 1, chopped into finger length pieces

Ash gourd - 1 cup, chopped into medium sized pieces

Fresh grated coconut - 3/4 cup

Green chillies - 2 or 3

Salt

Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp

Grind coconut and green chillies into a smooth paste and keep aside. Cook chopped mango, drumstick and gourd in a pan by adding enough water, salt and turmeric powder. Once the veggies are cooked, add the ground paste to it. Let it boil. Remove from heat. Season a tsp of coconut oil with mustard seeds, urad dal and a few sprigs of curry leaves. Once the mustard seeds pop, pour this over the koottan.

Notes:

• This dosa does not need fermenting. It can be made crisp or soft as you prefer...tastes good either way.
• For the koottan, if the mangoes are not very sour, add in some sour curd....and if the mango is too sour, use only 3/4th of it.
• The recipe is from Mallika Badrinath's book and has been adapted to suit my palate.

Srivalli at Cooking For all Seasons is hosting a dosa mela to celebrate her viewer stats reaching the one lakh mark. This dosa is my entry to her event.

Arusuvai friendship chain

This post has been a work in progress for a very long time. First, the courier guys messed up....for some weird reason they returned the package that Nirmala sent me and told her that I "don't exist".Hello, there people of the wonderful courier world.....I've got news for you, buddies....Do you think this blog just writes itself???
Luckily for me, it turned out that Nirmala and I live not too far from each other...so she had the package hand delivered to me by her brother.....and I cooked something with it almost immediately, but was a little busy travelling...and so didn't get around to posting until now.
Alright, so let's get talking about the secret ingredient that Nirmala sent me. It smelt wonderful....Nirmala's letter said it was her amma's special recipe....I could make out that it had a LOT of dhania in it.....I tasted a little bit of it.....and mailed N a few of my guesses. The second or third one turned out to be right and I knew that what I had was nothing other than rasam podi. So, what did I make with it???
The first thing I did was to make the very obvious.......RASAM, of course. Here's a pic.....no recipe, 'coz Iam sure every South Indian household has it's own way of making rasam.......and mine's no different from the millions of other recipes out there....The rasam tasted wholesome and good....we drank it as a soup and my daughter ate it mixed with rice.
What I did next is spice up some arbi(cheppankizhangu) roast with rasam powder. First, I microwaved the cheppankizhangu until it was cooked through, but not mushy and removed the skin. Then, I heated some oil, threw some mustard seeds and urad dal into it. When the seeds popped, I added the cooked arbi, some salt and the rasam powder....left it at low heat, stirring occasionally, until it turned light brown and crispy.

E for......

Jayasree who writes the lovely blog Experiments in Kailas Kitchen sprung me a surprise this morning by rating my blog Excellent.
Thank you, Jaya....... I did a little dancing-for-joy in my chair...so that should tell you how happy I am.
There are several wonderful blogs out there which deserve this rating, but the one that I would like to pass this on to is Jugalbandi. I absolutely love the amazing photos that Jai & Bee post and Bee's writing style is inimitable.

Chundal

What you need:
Chick peas/Garbanzo beans/Kabuli channa- 1 cup, soaked in plenty of water overnight
Salt
Fresh grated coconut - 1/4 cup
Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
Oil - 1 tsp

Add salt and cook the chick peas in a pressure cooker until three whistles. Drain excess water and set aside.
Heat the oil in a pan. Add mustard seeds to it. When the seeds pop, add in the chick peas....stir for a few minutes. Mix in the grated coconut and switch off the heat.
There....it doesn't get any easier than that, does it???
This is a dish that I make often for my daughter who absolutely loves it. So Iam sending this to Vanamala's Kids Food Festival.

Notes:

• You can grind green chillies along with the coconut and then add it to the channa. I don't do it when I make it exclusively for my daughter 'coz it turns out to be too spicy.
• Fresh curry leaves can be used to garnish the chundal.
  
• You can squeeze in some fresh lemon juice for added taste.
  

This, that and the other

These days my cooking is governed more by what's there in the fridge than by planning and method......A little bit of this, a little bit of that, throw in some of that green leaf that's hidden at the back of the fridge...that's how most of my recipes(if u can call them that) would read these days. And that's pretty much how this dish was born. The soy beans that I tried to sprout and then hurriedly threw into the refrigerator when I had to make a sudden out-of-town-trip would never have seen the light of day if not for this dish.

Here's what I used:

Soy beans - 1/2 cup, soaked in plenty of water overnight
Whole masoor dal - 3/4 cup, soaked for a few hours
Onion - 1 large, chopped
Green chilli - 2 or 3
Tomato - 2, chopped
Garam masala - 3/4 tsp or to taste
Salt
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Jeera - 1/2 tsp

Cook masoor dal and soy beans in a pressure cooker. Make sure you add sufficient water and salt. Once it is cooked through, set it aside without draining off the excess water.
Heat some oil. Add jeera to it and let it roast for a few seconds. Stir in the chopped green chillies, onions and turmeric powder. Saute until onions start turning brown. Add in the tomatoes...cook until mushy. Now add the cooked dal and beans, garam masala and some more salt if you feel it is necessary.
Let it boil for a few minutes. Garnish with fresh chopped corriander leaves.
Serve hot with rotis.

Chenakkari (Elephant yam coated with a spice mix)

Mr. Chena(elephant yam) is a rough 'n tough guy. His hard brown exterior warns you that he will brook no nonsense. The skin that makes you itch is designed to keep you from discovering that he has a heart of goodness. If you persist and make him yield to the charm of your spices you will discover someone that's good enough to eat.....

What you need:
Elephant yam - a small one
Salt
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp

To make the spice mix:
Corriander seeds (dhania) - 2 tsp
Channa dal - 2 tsp
Red chilli - 2 (adjust according to taste)
Heat half a tsp of oil and roast all three ingredients until reddish brown. Let it cool and then powder. This powder keeps well for several days. You can make a large quantity and store it in an air tight container for later use.

To make chenakkari:
Remove the skin from the yam.....chop it into small pieces and wash well in several changes of water.
Add some water and pressure cook along with the salt and turmeric powder until two whistles. The yam should be well cooked but not mushy.
Drain excess water and keep aside.
Heat a tsp of oil in a kadai. Season with mustard seeds, urad dal and channa dal. When the mustard seeds pop, add in the cooked yam and spice mix. Stir well until all the yam pieces are coated with the spice mix.
Serve with rice or roti.

Note:

• The spice mix can be used with other veggies like brinjal and bell pepper.
• Cleaning the yam can make your skin itch. It's nothing to worry about, though......it will subside in a short while.
  

Keera masial

My earliest memories associated with keerai (spinach) has to do with my grandma sprinkling seeds around our coconut trees and then sprinkling water over them thrice a day until we could see tiny leaves emerge from the soil. These soon grew bigger and produced the best tasting keerai I've ever known in my life. Infact, for a long time I believed that red keerai tastes the best...well, actually I still do think so....
The other varieties of keerai simply do not match up to the unique taste of the red keerai which grows rampantly in Kerala households. That said, I must also say that I have never seen as great a variety of keerai as there is in Tamilnadu. Pretty much anything and everything green is a keerai here...A visit to the local market usually finds me coming back home with a keerai that was hitherto unknown to me.
Keera masial is a very easy to make dish that lets you imbibe the goodness of the green without adding any ingredients that overpower the senses.

Here's what you need:

Spinach - any variety, 1 bunch cleaned and chopped fine.
Salt
Urad dal - 1/2 tsp
Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
Red chilli - 1
Oil - 1 tsp

Take the spinach in a microwaveable bowl. Add a little bit of water to it and microwave on high for 5 minutes. Remove and set aside to cool. Once cool, mash it with a wooden mathu(masher) or give it just one turn in a mixie. Be careful not to blend it into a smooth paste, though.
Heat the oil for a minute in a microwave safe container. Add the urad dal, red chilli and mustard seeds to it, cover and heat for another minute or until the seeds pop. If you are not comfortable doing this in the microwave, use a stove instead. Pour this seasoning over the mashed keerai and mix well.

This is my entry to Srivalli's MEC Greens.

The dill saga continues.......

Left with a still large bunch of dill leaves after making a chutney out of it, I decided that the only way to use up a sizeable amount of it is to use it in a biriyani.

Here's the recipe......

Dill leaves - 1 cup, washed and chopped
Onion - 1 large, chopped
Tomato - 2 ripe ones, chopped
Green chilli - 2
Ginger - a small piece, chopped
Garlic - 4 pods, chopped
Cloves - 4
Mixed vegetables - 1 cup (I used potato, beans and carrot)
Soya beans - 1/4 cup, soaked overnight
Cardamom - 4 pods
Star anise - 2
Cinnamon - a small piece
Oil - to shallow fry
Turmeric powder
Salt
Rice - 1 cup

Wash the rice and soak it for 10 - 15 minutes in water. Drain and set aside.
Heat some oil in a kadai. Add the spices to it and fry for a few seconds. Then add in the onion, ginger, garlic, and tomatoes. Once the onions are browned and the tomato turns mushy add the dill leaves and stir for a few minutes until the leaves are semi-cooked. Remove and set aside. Once this cools down, grind it to a fine paste.
Heat a tsp of oil and fry the ground paste in it for a few minutes. Then add the turmeric powder, salt, soya beans and veggies. Stir until the veggies are well coated with the mixture. Add the rice to this and pressure cook until two whistles.
Njoy hot with raita and papad.

Notes:

• I used ponni raw rice in this recipe....and so used 2.5 cups of water for 1 cup of rice. If u use basmati, reduce the water to 1.5 cups.
  

Dill leaves chutney

Dill is a herb that I hadn't even heard of until a few months back. When I started looking for iron rich recipes and food sources, dill topped the list on most of the sites and books that I read.Since then, I've been looking for this herb. Yesterday I found a bunch of fresh dill leaves at the local grocery store. They told me that it is soya keerai or the leaves of the soy plant. Even as they assured me that it was not dill, a picture that I'd seen on google images was on the back of my mind and I decided I'd pick it up anyways.Turns out I was right....

Fresh dill leaves

Now that I had dill on hand, I realised I didn't even know what it tasted like...or what I could cook with it. I chewed on a few leaves thoughtfully, trying to figure out what it tasted like and what I could make with it. It does have a really sharp, tangy taste...for today, I decided to grind it into a chutney.

What you need:

A handful of washed dill leaves
One ripe tomato
Roasted gram dal - 4 tsp
Salt
Coconut - 1/4 cup

Grind all the ingredients together until smooth. Remove into a serving dish. Heat some oil and tamper mustard seeds and urad dal in it. Pour this seasoning over the chutney.


Notes:

• Dill does have a very sharp taste....do not use more than a handful or you'll end up with something that tastes way too strong to be eaten.
• I've thrown in pretty much what I wanted to into the chutney. Feel free to do the same. Experiment with different ingredients. Next time, Iam planning to add in some onions to the mix.....and maybe some jaggery too.
• Haven't used chillies in this 'coz I felt the taste combined with the tanginess of the dill would be just too overpowering.