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.

Kashmiri Dum Aloo for Indian Cooking Challenge

The Indian Cooking Challenge set for us this month by Srivalli is Dum Aloo. I have tried several versions of this dish before, but haven't ever cooked it using the dum method of cooking which involves sealing the cooking pot tightly with flour paste and letting the curry cook in its own steam. The recipe sounded easy enough and I had all the ingredients on hand. I completed this challenge within days of Valli posting it.

What I think of the dish:
The dish looked fantastic. As far as the taste goes, while it was not bad, it doesn't have me singing praises of it either. I felt that the taste of fennel in it was overpowering despite using less than the amount suggested. In fact, I had to scrub my kadai several times to get rid of the smell. There was a bitterness in the dish that lingered in the mouth even after I finished eating.
A change that I made from the original recipe is removing the skin of the potatoes. Somehow, I just didn't find it appealing to leave the skin on.
Overall, I prefer the other versions of this dish that I've tried before and will stick to those from now on. I do like the idea of dum cooking, though, and might do that more often.

Tomato kurma

In my journey from culinary zero to culinary something, it is Mallika Badrinath's books that have helped me along. It is her simple and do-able recipes that helped me learn the A-B-Cs of cooking. One of the first books of hers that I got is 100 Vegetarian Gravies. A look at this post of mine will tell you how much I've used this book. Today, I tried out the tomato kurma recipe in this book. I am amazed by the simplicity of the recipe and by how good it tastes.
To make tomato kurma, you need:
Onion - 2, medium sized, chopped fine
Tomato - 3 large, chopped fine
Salt - to taste
Sugar - a little
Oil - 1 tbsp
Grind to a smooth paste:
Coconut - 1/4 cup
Cashewnut - 7 or 8
Dhania - 2 tsp
Green chilli - 2 (adjust to taste)
Red chilli -2 (adjust to taste)
Garam masala - 1/2 tsp

Heat oil in a kadai. Add the onions and fry until they start turning pink. Add chopped tomatoes and let it cook on a low flame till mushy and soft. Add salt and sugar. Stir in the ground masala. Add water if needed. Let it boil until the raw smell goes and the gravy thickens.

Serve hot with idli/dosa. I paired this with idiyappam.

Lentil soup

I can count on my fingers the number of times I have made soup since I started living in Chennai. The last three days have been unusually cool(for Chennai that is), windy and rainy.....and I felt that a bowl of soup would be the perfect thing to warm us up.
This is a very simple, yet creamy and hearty soup. There are no measurements because I just threw in a little bit of this and a little bit of that to come up with this.

What you need:
Moong dal(green gram dal)
Tomato
Garlic
Salt
Pepper
Turmeric powder
Corriander - to garnish

Take the moong dal, tomato and garlic in a pressure cooker. Add a little bit of turmeric powder, salt and plenty of water and cook till one whistle. Reduce the heat and cook for another 5-10 minutes. Once the steam escapes, allow it to cool down a bit, and then blend until smooth and creamy. Add some more water if needed. Pour it back into the pressure cooker and let it boil. Add crushed black pepper. Garnish with corriander. Serve hot.

Muringa ila vada (Drumstick leaves vada)

I live in a city where, during summer you can hear people(me included) groaning about the sweat and the heat, and when it rains, people start talking about how difficult the commute is and how horribly waterlogged the roads are.
I love the rains. I don't mind wading through muddy puddles or getting a little wet. As long as there are no old-I-will-give-you-free-advice types around, I let my daughter play about in puddles and walk in the rain without an umbrella. Mother nature never did me any harm when I was growing up and I am sure she will be just as benevolent with this generation.
Now, the rain sometimes makes me act uncharacteristically. While I love snacking, I very rarely bother to make snacks. However, the rain today had me craving for some hot, sweet, cardamom laden tea and a crisp snack. I soaked some dal to make parippu vada and then thought of adding drumstick leaves to it and turning it into muringa ila(drumstick leaf) vada. I am sure Google will tell me that someone else has had this wonderful brainwave before me, so I am not going to Google to find out if muringa ila has ever been added to vada before. Until I get a comment that tells me otherwise and breaks my bubble, I am going to be happy with "my" snack.

Here's what you need:
Tuar dal - 1 cup (washed and soaked in water for 30 minutes)
Red chillies - according to taste
Garlic - 7-8 cloves
Onion - 1 large, chopped finely
Drumstick leaves - a handful
Oil - for deep frying

Drain water from the dal. Add red chillies and garlic to it and grind coarsely without adding any water. Add the chopped onions, drumstick leaves and salt. Mix well. Take small amounts of the batter....shape it into a ball and flatten between your palms. Deep fry in hot oil until well browned on both sides.
Enjoy with a cup of tea.

Nellikka chammanthi (Gooseberry chutney)

Nellikka(also known as amla or gooseberry) is a powerhouse of nutrients. Eating raw gooseberries every morning is said to improve digestion, lend a healthy glow to the skin and keep hair black and glossy.
Nellikka is available in plenty in my part of the world during this time of year, and I try to incorporate it in our diet a few times a week.
Here is a chutney that I made using nellikka.

What you need:
Large nellikka (gooseberry) - 4 large, deseeded and roughly chopped
Red chilli - 3
Salt - to taste
Onion - 1 large, peeled and chopped into large pieces
Curry leaves - a few

Heat a tsp of oil. Add the red chilli, curry leaves and onion. Fry until the raw smell of the onions goes away. Lower the heat, add nellikka to the kadai and fry for a few minutes. Let it cool. Add salt and grind to a coarse paste.

This goes really well with idli/dosa.

Pazham moru koottan

NOTE: This post is several months old....It has been languishing in my drafts for quite a while now.
A few years back, if someone had told me that I'd make plans to meet up with several random people known to me only through the internet, I would have said it is downright crazy. But that is just what I did yesterday. And the funny thing is, it is not even the first time I am doing it. I've met fellow food bloggers twice and mommy bloggers once.
So this time round, as a seasoned "blogger meet"-er, I walked in without even noting down the phone numbers of the people I was meeting. And then, as I got closer to the venue, I thought....how am I supposed to recognize them? There's only one person here that I've met and one whose face I am familiar with through her FB profile. I am the kind of person who can't remember faces that I've seen in real life...so how am I going to remember an FB profile face? If worst came to worst, I could always identify all-female groups and walk up to them as say, Are you food bloggers?
Luckily, I didn't have to resort to that as my face-recognizing skills seem to have become better.....as soon as I walked in, I saw Lata waiting in the lobby. Identifying the rest of the group wasn't too difficult, mostly because Lata knew them or because they were familiar with her FB profile photo. Conversation and food, both were in plenty and thoroughly enjoyed.
The day after the meet found me wanting to make something simple, yet flavourful....and I resorted to an old favourite - moru koottan, which loosely translates to buttermilk side dish.
Moru koottan is a tangy, spicy dish that is made with curd, coconut and green chillies. Usually, ash gourd, colocascia, yam and fried okra are the veggies added to it. In my family, we make a version that uses ripe nenthra pazham - a variety of plantains that Kerala is famous for. This koottan is a lovely blend of three different tastes - tanginess from the sour curd, sweetness from the plantains, and spiciness from the chillies.
Mixed with rice and served with a side of spicy roasted potatoes and papadums, this is foodie heaven.

What you need:
Nenthrapazham (Kerala plantain) - 1, diced
Coconut - 1/2 cup, grated
Green chilli - 3
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Sour curd - 1.5 cups (beaten till smooth)

Add some water to the diced plantains. Add salt and turmeric powder. Boil on low heat for a few minutes until the plantains become soft, but not mushy.
Grind the coconut and green chillies to a smooth paste,using some of the sour curd for grinding.
Add this to the simmering mixture and let it boil for a few minutes until the raw smell is gone.
Now add the remaining curd and stir well. When it starts frothing, switch off the heat.
Heat some (coconut) oil. Add mustard seeds, a broken red chilli, some curry leaves and a few methi seeds to it. When the mustard seeds pop, pour this over the koottan.

Notes:
1)The plantains used should be just ripe....not overripe...the skin should be yellow, with no signs of blackening.
2)The curd should be sour. I usually leave mine on the kitchen counter overnight to make it sour.
3)Use your discretion to decide how much curd is needed. Start with a cup and then, based on whether you want a more watery gravy or not, alter the quantity.
4)After adding curd to the koottan, you should not let it boil. As soon as it starts frothing, you should switch off the stove.

Samba rava cutlet

A snack, google search tells me, is a small portion of food, as opposed to a traditional meal. To me, snacks are a meal. I prefer munching on snacks to proper sit down meals. Here is an easy-to-make snack which uses ingredients that are mostly available in an Indian kitchen. The recipe is from a cookery show on Vijay TV.
What you need:
Samba rava(wheat rava) - 1 cup
Potato - 3, medium sized, boiled, peeled and mashed
Carrot - 1, grated
Salt
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Garam masala - 1 tsp
Red chilli powder 1/2 tsp
Green chilli - chopped
Ginger- a small piece, chopped fine
Garlic - a few cloves, minced
Corriander leaves - a few, chopped fine
Onion - 1, chopped fine
Oil - for deep frying

Soak samba rava in water for an hour. Drain. Squeeze out all the water and transfer to a large bowl. Mix all the other ingredients and knead well. Pinch out small balls of the dough, flatten between your palms and deep fry in hot oil until well browned on both sides.

This can be eaten as it is with some ketchup.
I sandwiched it,along with some raw onion, tomato, cheese and ketchup, between two slices of bread.

This goes to Priya's Bookmarked recipes-every Tuesday event.

Diwali sweet from Assam

Over the last few days, most TV channels have been featuring recipes for Diwali. One such recipe that caught my attention is this sweet from Assam. I am not sure what it is called.....the lady said something that sounded like Bihu Mitha. If any of you are familiar with this dish and know its name, please do let me know.

To make it, you need:
Maida/all purpose flour - 1 cup
Rice flour - 1 cup
Sugar - 1/2 cup
Jaggery - 1/2 cup
Ghee - 2 tbsp
Curd - 2 tbsp
Oil - for deep frying

Knead all these ingredients together to a smooth pliable dough. It should be similar to chapati dough. If you follow these measurements, you need not add any water while kneading. However, if you feel the dough is too hard, add a little bit of water and knead.
Heat oil in a heavy bottomed kadai. Pinch small balls of the dough. Pat it into a thick circle using your palms. Make a small depression in the middle and deep fry in hot oil, turning over once or twice until both sides are brown in colour.
Drain excess oil.

What I think of the dish:
This is definitely an easy-to-make sweet. It tastes really good - almost like adhirasam. The outer part turns nice and crisp with a bite to it on cooling and the inner part remains soft, giving it a wonderful texture.

A sweet punch indeed - molten lava cake

Even though I mailed the Sweet Punch team a few months back, this is the first challenge that I am participating in. Despite my microwave user manual telling me that it is safe to use metal in the convection mode, I was wary, mainly because a service technician who tried talking me into buying extended warranty for the machine told me that I should never use metal, no matter what the mode. Then, a few weeks back, on my FB page, I asked if we could use metal in the convection mode, and lots of people replied saying that they've been doing it for a long time. Off I went to the store and got myself a few small ramekins for this month's Sweet Punch. I was so terrified that there was going to be a mini explosion once I put the metal into the microwave, that I asked hubby to watch over the cake as it was getting done, while I stood nearby with fingers over my ears. A few minutes passed and nothing happened. A few more...and the whole house smelled wonderfully chocolate-y. I am definitely going back to the store to get myself some more metal bake ware in different shapes and sizes.
The recipe for this month's Sweet Punch was chosen by Divya.
Recipe source : showmethecurry.com
To make molten lava cakes, you need:
Semi-Sweet Baking Chocolate – 4 oz (113g)
Butter – 4 oz (113g)
Eggs – 2
Sugar – 1/3 cup (75 g)
All-purpose Flour – 1/4 cup (40g)
Butter/oil – for greasing ramekins

1. In a double boiler, melt chocolate.
2. In a medium mixing bowl, beat Eggs and Sugar until light and fluffy.
3. Once chocolate is melted, remove pan from heat and add in butter. Mix until the butter melts fully.
4. Add chocolate/butter mixture into the eggs, add all-purpose flour and mix until well incorporated.
5. Butter bottom and sides of ramekins (small glass/porcelain bowls) and pour in mixture about 3/4 way full.
6. Place ramekins on a baking tray and bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit (180 C) for 10 – 15 minutes. Shorter for gooey (molten) inside, longer for stiff inside.
The idea of a gooey center did not appeal to me...so I baked mine for 17 minutes and the result was a soft center.

Another look....

Chilli Rellenos (Stuffed chillies - Mexican style)

I enjoy Mexican cuisine. Sadly, the restaurant scene in Chennai doesn’t offer much choice as far as this cuisine goes. The two restaurants that offer Mexican fare fail to satisfy. The one time I visited Don Pepe, I was served substandard food that came covered in cold and chewy cheese which provided my gums with a lot of unneeded and strenuous exercise.
If you have never tasted Mexican food before, then the relatively new player on the block, Texas Fiesta, might prove to be satisfactory….but to me, it was far from good. The nachos were not crisp, they served rajma and called it black beans.
So, the only option I am left with is to make Mexican food at home. I recently picked up Nita Mehta’s Mexican Cuisine at the library and tried out this starter from her book.

To make chilli rellenos, you need:
Chillies – 6 (use the variety that is used to make bajji)
Vinegar –1/4 cup
Salt –1/2 tsp

For the filling:
Potato – 2 small , peeled, diced fine
Carrot – 1, grated
Rice – 1/2 cup
Salt
Vinegar – 3/4 tsp
Cheese spread – 3 tsp
Oregano – 1/2 tsp (I used Pizza Hut’s Italian seasoning)
Cumin powder – 1/2 tsp

For the batter:
Cornflour – 1/2 cup
Salt – to taste
Water – 1/4 cup

Remove the stem of the chillies and slit them halfway through. Remove the seeds. Pour the vinegar over the chillies and rub well with salt. Keep this aside for 30 minutes.
To make the filling:
Heat 2 tsp of oil in a pan. Add the diced potatoes and cook on a low flame until well browned. Switch off heat. Mix in all the other ingredients listed under filling.
Stuff this filling gently into the slit chillies.

Mix cornflour, salt and water to make a batter.
Dip the stuffed chillies in the batter and deep fry in hot oil until golden brown and crisp.

Off this goes to Anita's Mad Tea Party.

The Queen

Her mother in law(MIL) was coming over for lunch tomorrow. She stood in the kitchen, looking around, trying to see what faults her MIL would be able to find. Everything was dusted, clean and organized.....but that wasn't going to stop the old lady from saying something caustic. She would have to try the food route. Maybe the way to her mother in law's heart was through her stomach. What should she make??? She thought of all the sadyas that she had enjoyed and smiling, moved to pick up a little plastic packet that she'd bought on her last shopping trip. The smile became wider as she added milk and sugar to it and put it into the pressure cooker. By the time she was done with the rest of her cooking, the whole house was filled with a heady, sweet aroma. The MIL walked in, sniffing appreciatively....but trying hard not to show that she was impressed. She looked around and raised her eyebrow at the cushion that was out of place in the living room. The DIL quickly ran in to the kitchen and came back with a warm bowl of the palada pradhaman that she had made. A spoonful of that and the MIL had to really struggle to hide her delight....a few more spoonfuls and she gave up trying to pretend that she didn't like it. With a half smile in her daughter-in-law's direction, she threw the spoon aside and slurped noisily from the bowl.

What you need:
Double Horse Rice ada - a large handful
Milk - 1 litre
Sugar - 1 cup, heaped
Saffron - a few strands (optional)

Wash ada in plenty of water. Soak it for 20 minutes in hot water. Drain the water and transfer the ada to a pressure cooker. Add milk, sugar, and a cup of water. Stir well. Cook until one whistle. Reduce the heat and cook for another 10 minutes. Once the pressure has been released, continue to let the mixture simmer on low heat, stirring occasionally, until it is reduced to half. This will take a little over an hour. At this stage, the payasam will acquire a slightly pinkish colour. Switch off the heat and serve hot, warm or cold.

Notes:
Any brand of store bought rice ada can be used for this payasam. However, after trying out several brands, I have found that Double Horse ada is closest in taste to home made ada.
If you don't have the patience to stand and stir the payasam for an hour, reduce the amount of sugar used, add half a tin of condensed milk and then you'll find that the payasam thickens sooner.
For an excellent post on how ada can be made from scratch, please check out this post at Kailas Kitchen.
This goes to Desi Soccer Mom who is hosting the 4th edition of Chalks & Chopsticks, a monthly event started by Aqua.

From Her Diverse Kitchen to mine

Aparna's Diverse Kitchen is a blog that needs no introduction. It is a ready reckoner for those looking for traditional Palakkad Iyer fare or for cakes and other bakes. When Valli announced that her blog is being featured in this month's Tried & Tasted, an event started by Zlamushka and now taken over by Lakshmi, I went through her recipe index to see what I could make. There were quite a few dishes that looked and sounded wonderful, but the name Mujadara appealed to me the most. I love saying it....mujadara....doesn't that sound exotic? The fact that there were only three major ingredients was a further plus. For the recipe, please go to this post of Aparna's.

What I think of the dish:
This is a hearty, filling dish with a delicious creaminess from the masoor dal and a slight sweetness from the caramelised onions. Even though the ingredient list and the procedure look simple, do this when you have lots of time on hand, as caramelising the onions takes quite a bit of time. All said and done, the effort you put in is definitely worth it. This is one recipe that I am sure to make again.

Janmashtami bakshanam

Tomorrow is Janmashtami. Here are some recipes that are traditionally made on this day.Please click on the name of the dish to go to my earlier post which has the recipes.
Uppu cheedai
Vella cheedai
Neyyappam

Kaalan

Change is a good thing, but some changes make me sad. When I was a child, Onam was a festival that brought a lot of joy.....we used to pluck flowers from our garden....it didn't matter which flowers we used....all that mattered is that we got up early, plucked flowers, washed the front yard and decorated it with flowers. Even when we had pookkalam competitions in school, most of us used flowers that grew in our homes. The sadya was cooked at home and enjoyed by the entire family.
These days, not many children are aware of flowers like mukkutti poo and thumba poo. With more and more people living in flats, these flowers have all but disappeared. Onam has become just another reason for stores to offer discounts and grocers to rack up their prices. The commercialization of a festival that is celebrated by all religions and castes saddens me.
To help myself feel better, my pookalam on all 10 days was made of flowers and leaves from the neighbourhood. My ona sadya consisted of some basic dishes that make this season a special one.
Kaalan is one of the dishes that I made. You don't have to wait for Onam to make kaalan. Any time you have a lot of curd left over, you can turn it into this delicious dish.

What you need:
Thick,sour Curd - 3 cups
Turmeric powder – 1/2tsp
Black pepper powder – to taste
Salt
Yam –1/3 cup, peeled, cut into pieces, cooked and drained of water
Coconut – 1/2 cup, grated
Green chilli – 1 or 2

For Seasoning:
Coconut oil
Mustard
Methi
Curry leaves
Red chilli

Beat curd well without lumps. Add turmeric pwd,salt and pepper to it and let it boil on low flame until all the moisture evaporates and it is reduced to an almost solid consistency.
This can be stored in the refrigerator for upto a month.
On the day you want to make kaalan, take the required amount of the stored mixture. Add cooked yam to it. Grind coconut and green chillies to make a smooth paste. Mix it in. Boil for a few minutes.
Heat a tsp of coconut oil. Add broken red chilli, mustard seeds and curry leaves. When the seeds pop, add methi seeds and remove from heat. Pour this over kaalan.
This can be eaten mixed with rice, or as a side dish.

Notes:
The quantities given are approximate, as I did not measure the ingredients. Please use your judgement.
The more sour the curd, the better the kaalan will taste.
Plantain can be used instead of or along with yam in this recipe.

Restaurant review - Mahamudra

What?
A new restaurant from Isha life that offers food that is healthy and nutritious. Most of the food is made from ingredients that have been traditionally used in Indian households for ages. There are some that are extremely familiar, and some that are new because the ingredients used are different.
Where?
Old No. 50, New No. 117, Luz Church Road, Nageswara Rao Park, Mylapore, Chennai - 600 004, Tamil Nadu, India.
For those who are familiar with the Mylapore area, this is close to Rangachari.
Will I go there again?
The restaurant definitely does have its plus-es and minus-es.
For one, the ambiance is fantastic. The whole place is done up extremely well....it is hard to believe that such a place exists on a busy street in Mylapore. They also have a spa, a fitness center and a boutique that offers some interesting, albeit overpriced stuff.
The food is basic...they say that it is made using the best of oils and the freshest of ingredients. The usual dosas and idlis are present, with variants using ragi flour and kambu flour.
We started off with a lentil soup which, according to the menu, was to be served with ragi thattu vadai. I was looking forward to tasting the vadai when the waiter brought us three bowls of soup and a plate of bread. When I asked for the vadai, the waiter said they were serving bread instead. No complaints about the bread....it tasted fresh and good, but I was disappointed that there was no vadai.
The soup was good, but then, you can't expect mashed, watered down and salted dal to taste bad, right?
The husband had a dosa (can't remember what it was called, but it had fenugreek in it). It was light, and crisp with absolutely no trace of oil in it.
I had a thali which had akki roti, parippu vadai, 2 salads, ragi koozhu(porridge),wild rice payasam,keerai poriyal, broken wheat bisibela, and broken wheat curd.
When I saw the menu and saw that the thali had all this, I wasn't sure if I'd be able to eat it all, but I wanted to taste everything that was on it. When the thali arrived at the table, I knew that I could eat all of it and still eat something else. The portions were small....there were 2-3 tsps of all the dishes. The akki roti and the vada were of the same size and both would easily fit into your palm comfortably with space to spare. Everything tasted good, but I definitely wouldn't recommend going here if you are ravenously hungry. I really like their idea of making a bisibela and curd-rice equivalent with broken wheat. That is something I am definitely going to try out at home.
All said and done, I don't think I would want to spend 250 Rs on a thali that has stuff that I could easily make at home for a fraction of the cost.

Rules and methi kofta

Rules, especially in this part of the world that I live in, are meant to be broken. If there is a No-parking board on the road, chances are you will find that it is surrounded by parked vehicles. If there is a No-entry sign, you will find vehicles making a detour through that road.
Now, one of the first things we learn while beginning to drive is that, if you want to turn right, you switch on the right indicator....or in the absence of it, stick your arm out and point to the right....or do the same thing with your left arm/left indicator if you want to turn left. Apparently, MTC bus drivers either were not told of this rule, or they are a confused lot who can't distinguish between left and right. It is always better to give MTC buses a wide berth.....you never know in which direction they might move. The bus in front of you might be at the right most corner of the road, with the right indicator flashing, and then, before you know it, the driver might make a W...I...D....E turn to the left. On Indian roads, might is right....and there's nothing mightier than a bus that is overcrowded with five times the number of people it is built to accommodate.
Which rules, when broken, make your blood boil?
Now, on to a recipe, where the only rules is Dig in with gusto!!!
Methi koftas
(Recipe source : Mallika Badrinath's 100 Delicious Vegetarian Curries)
What you need:

For the koftas:
Fresh methi leaves - 2 small bunches(roughly half a cup)
Sour curd - 1 cup
Gram flour/besan - 1 cup
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
Garam masala - 1/2 tsp
Cumin seeds - 1/4 tsp
Salt

Mix gram flour, turmeric powder and salt with curd to make a thick paste. Heat a tsp of oil. Add cumin seeds and methi leaves. Fry for a minute or two till the leaves start to soften. Reduce the flame and add the flour paste. Keep stirring until it forms a thick mass. Once cool, mix in the garam masala and shape into balls.
After shaping into koftas, I used a paniyaram pan to fry these. You can deep fry in hot oil if that is what you choose to do, but believe me, there is no difference in the taste and this way, you use very little oil.
Add a little oil to each of the depressions in the pan and fry the koftas for a few minutes until the bottom starts to turn brown.

Turn over and fry until the other side turns crisp and brown.

Arrange the koftas in a serving dish and set aside.

For the gravy:
Grind together 1 onion, 2 tomatoes, a small piece of ginger, a green chilli, 1/2 tsp of dhania, 1/4 tsp of turmeric powder, a little sugar, salt, and red chilli powder.
Heat 2 tsp of oil in a kadai. Add the ground paste to it and fry on low flame until the raw smell is gone. Add a little water if you feel that it has become too thick.
Just before serving, pour this gravy on top of the koftas and garnish with corriander leaves.

Serve with parathas or rotis.

This goes to Divya's Show me your curry event.

Sindhi curry

What is it that makes people spit out of their vehicle windows, while waiting for the traffic light to turn green? Is there some kind of saliva reflex that kicks in as soon as they see a red light? People traveling by bus are the worst....they have no concern for the poor bike rider who may be waiting at an unlucky spot just outside their window. Trains are no better...if you happen to sit near an open window, and the breeze is blowing in your direction, there's no telling what you might be coated with by the time you get off the train. Today, I saw a person spit out paan no less than three times while waiting at a signal. If that statement made you go Ewwwww....I don't blame you. Why is it that our people who can't stop exclaiming how clean Singapore is, seem to develop 'dog-sees-tree-and-lifts-its leg' instincts as soon as they see a bare wall? Will things ever change?
I have a little notebook at home where I jot down recipes from TV shows, library books and any other thing that catches my fancy. This curry is from that little notebook and there's a little note on it to tell me that it is from a TV show. It is called Sindhi curry....though I have no idea if it is of Sindhi origin. It is probably like "Indian" curry powder that is sold abroad. However, it is extremely simple to make and tastes quite good. It is quite healthy too, considering that only a tsp of oil is used, and lots of veggies go into it.

What you need:
Ladies finger - 6-8, chopped into longish pieces
Carrot - 2, diced
Potato - 1, peeled and diced
Tamarind - a lemon sized amount soaked in warm water
Oil - 1 tsp
Cumin seeds/jeera - 1/2 tsp
Asafoetida/hing - 1/4 tsp
Besan/gram flour - 4 heaped tsp
Water - 3-4 cups
Salt
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Green chilli - 1
Ginger - a fairly large piece, peeled and cut fine
Curry leaves - a few
Red chilli powder - as required

Cook carrot and potatoes and keep aside. Cook ladies finger in thick tamarind extract until soft.
Heat a tsp of oil. Add cumin seeds and asafoetida. When the seeds sputter, add the besan, reduce the heat and stir fry until it starts turning brown and gives out a good smell. Slowly add water, stirring all the while so that no lumps are formed. If you do see lumps, break them by pressing against the side of the pan using your ladle. Add the green chilli, ginger, curry leaves, turmeric powder and salt and let this boil for 3-4 minutes. If needed, add some red chilli powder. Add the cooked vegetables and let it boil until the curry thickens.
I had this for lunch with rotis and then again for dinner, with wheat rava idli.