Wednesday, August 24, 2016

Kosamalli /Kosambri

Kosamalli or Kosambri salad is a food item which never fails to find a place in the wedding feasts. It is usually prepared on the auspicious day of Rama Navami along with panagam and neer moor. I prepared this last week for Rama Navami but didn’t find time to post this till date. With the thought “Better late than never” I am posting the recipe of Kosambri today. Don’t have to wait till next Rama Navami to make this :-P. You can make this salad in no time whenever you feel like having a healthy salad..

Ingredients:
Grated Carrot
¼ cup
Moong Dal/ Paasi paruppu
¼ cup
Grated Coconut
4 tbsp
Salt
To taste
Green chillies
2
Coriander leaves
Few strands
Lemon
1/2
Mustard Seeds
To temper

Method
Soak the moong dal for 30-45 min. Drain the water in a colander and keep it aside.
Add the grated carrot, grated coconut, chopped green chilies, salt needed to this and give a good stir.

Tempering it with mustard seeds, squeezing a dash of lime and a lavish sprinkle of coriander leaves completes this Kosambri /Kosamalli salad.
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Sunday, April 24, 2016

Kosamalli / Kosambri

         Kosamalli or Kosambri salad is a food item which never fails to find a place in the wedding feasts. It is usually prepared on the auspicious day of Rama Navami along with panagam and neer moor. I prepared this last week for Rama Navami but didn’t find time to post this till date. With the thought “Better late than never” I am posting the recipe of Kosambri today. Don’t have to wait till next Rama Navami to make this :-P. You can make this salad in no time whenever you feel like having a healthy salad.



 Ingredients:


Grated Carrot
¼ cup
Moong Dal/ Paasi paruppu
¼ cup
Grated Coconut
4 tbsp
Salt
To taste
Green chillies
2
Coriander leaves
Few strands
Lemon
1/2
Mustard Seeds
To temper

Method:

1) Soak the moong dal for 30-45 min. Drain the water in a colander and keep it aside.
2) Add the grated carrot, grated coconut, chopped green chilies, salt needed to this and give a good stir.
3)Tempering it with mustard seeds, squeezing a dash of lime and a lavish sprinkle of coriander leaves completes this Kosambri/Kosamalli salad.




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Sunday, April 17, 2016

Rasakalan - A yogurt based sauce for rice


           Rasakalan is a popular dish of Kerala especially in Palakkad. I learnt the recipe  recently from my mother-in law.Though this is similar to Mor Kuzhambu, it has slight variation from the former. Rasakalan is slightly thinner in consistency than Mor Kuzhambu and does not include jeera in the ingredient list. I personally started liking rasakalan more than Mor Kuzhambu after I learnt this recipe. I am happy to share yet another specialty dish of Kerala which is not known to many.







Ingredients:         


Raw Banana
1 No
Tamarind Extract
½ lemon size
Tara root/Cheppankizhangu
1 No
Yogurt
1 cup
Turmeric
½ tbsp
Salt
According to taste
Asofoetida/ Hing
A pinch
Jaggery
A small piece

For Tadka:

 

Mustard Seeds
Curry Leaves
Fenugreek seeds
Red Chilli
Urad Dal
Channa Dal

To Grind:


Mendhigam/Fenugreek
2 tbsp
Red chillies
2 No
Channa dal
1 tbsp
Ginger
few julienne
Grated Coconut
½ cup

Method:

 

1) Boil the vegetable of your choice - here I added raw banana and cheppankizangu, to 90 %  in the pressure cooker with adequate number of whistles.
2) Heat the pan with a table spoon of oil. Add the boiled vegetable and stir fry for a min till the raw smell goes away.
3) Add the tamarind extract and bring to boil. Add a pinch of turmeric, a small piece of jaggery and a pinch of hing.
4) In meantime, dry roast the fenugreek, red chilli and Channa dal separately. Grind this to a paste along with the grated coconut, turmeric and hing.
5) Beat the yogurt and add the ground mixture to this.
6) Add this curd-coconut mixture to the boiling tamarind extract and simmer the stove.
7) Once the rasakalan starts to froth, switch of the flame and garnish  it with tadka.

 

 Notes: 


1) The yogurt was not sour enough so I added tamarind extract to compensate for that. You can add more or less or even avoid the tamarind extract according to the sourness of the curd you have.
2) You can use any vegetable of your choice like cheppankizangu, lady’s finger, drumstick, potato, raw banana, raw mango etc.-basically whatever vegetable you add to a moor kuzhambu/mor kootan can be added to rasakalan as well. I would suggest avoiding pumpkin and similar watery vegetables which in turn will make the rasakalan watery.


























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Tuesday, November 17, 2015

Cheppankizangu Puli Curry

Hi all,

After all the Diwali hungama,its time to return to normal routine cooking. I would like to introduce you all to a different tangy curry recipe which I learnt recently from my mother-in law. I am used making cheppankizangu as fry or have used in moor kuzambu or avial. I tasted this for the first time in  my husband's aunt's  house and loved it. I tried it in my house in the following week itself and it  was enjoyed by all at home.Here is the tried and tested/tasted  recipe for cheppankizangu puli curry.




            Cheppankizangu puli curry

Ingredients:


Cheppankizhangu / à®šே à®ª் à®ª à®™் à®•ி à®´ à®™் à®•ு / Taro
¼ kg
Tamarind extract 
1/2 cup (100ml to 150ml)
Turmeric Powder
1 tsp
Asafoetida 
A pinch
Salt
according to your taste preference
Sugar
A pinch
Chilli powder
according to your taste preference


To temper:


Oil
3 tbsp
Mustard  seeds
1 tsp
Urad dal
1 tsp
Channa dal
1 tsp
Red chillies
3 nos

Method:


1.Cook cheppankingu in pressure cooker to 70% where you can just peel the skin.Take care that it doesn't become  mushy as we are going to cook them again in tamarind sauce.
2. Heat oil in a kadai and add the things under " to temper".
3. To this tempering add the tamarind extract, pinch of turmeric,asofoetida and salt.
4. Once the tamarind sauce comes to boil, add a tsp of sugar.*
5. Add the half boiled cheppankizangu to this tamarind juice.
6. Let it cook till all the flavours are absorbed into the cheppankizangu.Stir it periodically so that it doesn't stick to the bottom of the pan.
7. Cook till the tamarind sauce gets thick and homogeneously mixes with the cheppannkizangu and looks like a curry and not gravy.
8. By now even the cheppankizangu should have cooked soft.If not sprinkle some water and close the kadai  with a lid for 3 min.
9. Serve when the curry is cooked well and the mixture is of the right consistency.

Notes:

1. Do not overcook the taro at any point and make it mushy.This will soil the taste of the curry.
2. Take approximately 1/2 the quantity of tamaring that you take for your regular sambhar or rasam.
3. Add sugar to bring together all the flavors-tanginess of the tamarind,salt and spice.






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Thursday, July 23, 2015

Rasmalai

                        Right from my childhood I am very fond of milk and milk sweets. Today I am going to share a recipe of my one such favorite sweet which I never dreamt of making at home. Yes it is rasmalai this time.It is quite time consuming to make this sweet rite from scratch. I am glad that I found this easy recipe to make yummy rasmalai in no time and can’t wait to share the recipe with you.




Ingredients:

Canned rasgullas
Whole fat milk                                                                                   - 1 ltr
Condensed milk                                                                                 - 200 gms
Sugar                                                                                                  -1 cup
Ghee                                                                                                   -1/2 tsp
Finely chopped nuts (slivered badam and pistachios)                       - 1 cup
Saffron /light yellow food color                                                         -few strands /a pinch
Elaichi Powder                                                                                   - a pinch 

Method:

1.       Smear the kadai with ½ tsp of ghee and heat it. This prevents the milk from sticking to the bottom of the pan.
2.       Boil the milk till it is reduced to ½ the quantity. Just boil the milk for a few minutes if using whole fat milk.
3.       Once the milk is reduced and becomes slightly thick, add 200gms of condensed milk and stir it to avoid milk sticking to the bottom of the pan.
4.       Since condensed milk has enough sweetness, adjust the quantity of sugar to suite your taste buds.
5.       At this stage add the yellow food color by mixing it in a tbsp of milk. You can use saffron strands in place of food color.Also add a pinch of elaichi powder for flavor.
6.       In meantime, squeeze the excess sugar syrup from the rasgullas by pressing it lightly and drop it slowly one by one to the boiling milk mixture.
7.       Simmer the milk for 5 minutes after adding the rasgullas.
8.       You will see that the rasgullas have become very soft by now. Switch of the flame and garnish it with chopped nuts.

 Notes:

1.       Do not press the rasgullas too hard for squeezing the excess sugar syrup. This might cause the rasgullas to break.
2.       Instead of condensed milk we can also use sweetened evaporated milk. I haven’t tried it personally though.





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Monday, July 13, 2015

Puttu and Kadalai Curry



It was my long time wish to make puttu and kadala curry at home. We hail from proper Tamil Nadu and so neither my mother nor my MIL was familiar with the authentic puttu –kadala curry recipe.This time during my India trip,the first thing I purchased was the puttu Kuzhai also called as puttu kutti.From then I have been searching for the recipe and finally got to try this one. I was very much satisfied with the result. The puttu was  softer  than expected and the kadala curry was also very tasty. One batch of puttu (one long puttu) is  more than enough for a person and it is quite filling.Puttu –kadala curry is a perfect weekend breakfast and here goes the recipe.First let us learn how to make the kadalai curry.




Ingredients:

Black Channa/Kala channa                           - 1 cup
Coriander Seeds /Dhania                               - 4 Tbsp
Red chilies                                                     - 5 to 6 (add according to the level of spice required)
Onion                                                             ­- 2 small
Medium sized Tomato                                   - 2
Garam masala                                                -2 tbsp
Cumin  powder                                              -2 tbsp
Red Chilli Powder                                         -1 tsp
Coriander Powder                                          -1 tsp
Grated coconut                                              - ¾ cup
Salt                                                                 - to taste
Sugar                                                              - 1 tsp

To temper:

Oil                                    -1 tbsp
Mustard seeds                  -1 Tsp
Curry leaves                     - few strands
Urad dal                            -1 tbsp 


Method:

1) Soak the channa in water overnight.
2)Cook the channa with some salt in pressure cooker for 3 whistles.
3) Dry roast the coriander seeds and red chillies. Once done finally add the grated coconut and fry till the coconut turns light red*.
4) Once this mixture cools, grind this to a smooth paste in a mixer by adding some water.
5) Add oil in a pan and add the items under “To temper”.
6) Once the urad dal turns golden brown add the chopped onions and saute till translucent.
7) Then add the chopped tomato and saute till the raw smell goes.
8) Once this is done, add cumin powder,coriander powder and garam masala and saute until the raw smell of the masala powders leaves the mixture. Add a pinch of sugar as this will bring together all the flavors. Add  little water at this stage if required .
9) Add this to the kala channa and with little more water and required salt,boil the channa in pressure cooker for 1 or 2 more  whistles until the channa is cooked soft *.
10) Once the channa is cooked add the ground paste of coconut to this and stir well. Bring it to a boil and simmer it till you get a  gravy consistency. Kadala Curry is ready to be served with steaming hot Puttu.

Puttu Recipe

Ingredients:

Puttu rice flour                   -1 cup
Grated coconut                   -3 tsp for making 1 puttu
Salt                                     -As needed
Water                                  - As needed.

Method:

1) Add 1 tsp of salt to the rice Puttu flour, sprinkle water and mix the puttu flour to a crumble state. The correct state is if you hold the puttu tightly, you should be able to form a lump in your hand.
2) In the puttu kuzhai, add 1 tbsp of coconut and on the top add 4 to 5 tbsp of puttu powder. Tap it so that the puttu flour sets tight in the puttu kuzhai.
3) Fill the puttu kuzhai with alternate layers of coconut and rice flour and set it to steam on the pressure cooker. Steam it on approx. 5 min on high flame and approx. 3 min on low flame.
4) When the steam comes out of the puttu kuzhai nozzle on the top that is the time to remove from the steam.
5) Just push the puttu from the puttu kuzhai from the hole given in the bottom onto a plate. This can be done with the help of a stick that comes along with the puttu kuzhai.
6) Serve it hot with the kadala curry.

Note:

1) Do not over fry the coconut as the dish will get spoiled if the coconut is burnt.
2) I pressure cooked the channa after adding the masala powders so that the masala flavors blend well with the channa. You can also add the separately boiled channa to the masala mixture and proceed with other steps there on.









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Tuesday, April 14, 2015

Badam Halwa

  Hi all,

 Happy to see you all with yet another delicious sweet recipe,badam halwa.I had a strong opinion that  halwa is one dish which only  experts can make. I thought it is a tedious job and it takes a lot of our effort as it requires continuous stirring.But it is by far the easiest sweet I have ever made.Ever since my husband tasted badam halwa in saravana bhavan,he was asking(?) (eh pestering) me to make it at home.I succeeded in dodging a couple of times(because I was quite egoistic to admit that I am scared of trying as I feared that I might not succeed in the attempt.) but finally I had a to make it one day.And not bad,infact it came pretty good,oh no very good, hmm it was excellent .Lol!.I think the hype is good enough to get you to try my recipe !!








Ingredients :


Badam
1 cup heaped
Sugar
½  cup or ¾ for sweet tooth
Ghee
¼ cup
milk
¼ cup
Elaichi  powder
A pinch
Saffron /kesari colour
A pinch for colour

Method :


1) Soak the Almond in hot water for 1/2 an hour and peel the skin.
2) Grind it to a smooth thick paste by adding milk little by little.
3) Add sugar in a pan and add little water till the sugar is all wet in water.
4) Keep stirring until the sugar dissolves completely and the mixture just starts to boil.
5) Add the badam mixture now and keep stirring continuously.Mix kesari food colour in a tsp of milk and add to the mixture.
6) Keep stirring till you an see the mixture boiling slightly.
7) At this stage start adding ghee little by little say  2 Tbsp at a time  and keep stirring the mixture.
8) You will reach a point where you can see the bottom of the pan while stirring and the mixture is coming together.( If not,add ghee again and keep stirring till you reach this stage)
9) Switch of the flame .Decorate the halwa with saffron strands and serve it warm :).




Notes:


1) Keep stirring the mixture now and then when boiling or else it might stick to the pan.
2) Anytime you feel the consistency is loose you can again transfer  the mixture to the pan, add a tbsp of ghee and stir it till you get the correct consistency.The shortest way for this is to microwave it for 3 to 4 min depending on the settings of  your microwave. If the power settings are high, take out every 2 mins give a stir and then keep it again for a min if necessary.



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