Pottukkadalai Sadham

Pottukadalai  is mainly used for chutneys in South India. I don't know the exact Hindhi/English name for this..It might be called as bhuna chana dal/ Daliya /Roasted channa dhal. Hence I am attaching the photo!

Friends from other regions of India, Please let me know what is the name you guys call this :) 


Ingredients
Cooked Rice - 2 cups
Pottu kadalai - 1/4cup
Onion-1
Red chilly -1
Green chilly -2
Few curry leaves
Mustard seeds -1/2teaspoon
Channa dhal - 1teaspoon
Urad dhal - 1 teaspoon
Salt
Oil

Method

Slice the onions, green chillies and break the red chilly.
Make a coarse powder of pottukadalai.
Heat oil in a kadai, add the mustard seeds, allow them to pop.
Now add in the channa & urad dhals and fry till they turn golden in colour.
Now add in the curry leaves, red chilly, onion and green chilly with enough salt.
Sauté till the onions become transparent, then add the pottu kadalai powder. Give it a quick mix and add the rice.
Reduce the heat to low and cook for a few minutes, till everything get mixed up nicely.

Quick and tasty lunch box item is ready..Tastes great with any side dish of vegetables or chips.

Sending this recipe to Bachelor's Feast event happening at Jaleelaa akkaa's Samaiyal attakaasam

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Methi Dhal

Ingredients
Methi leaves - 1 cup (wash and separate the leaves alone)
Moong dhal -1/4cup
Onion(small) - 1
Red chilly - 3 (adjust to your taste)
Mustard seeds -1/2teaspoon
Cumin seeds  -1/2teaspoon
Turmeric powder -1/8teaspoon
Salt
Oil

Method
Pressure cook the dhal with enough water.
Chop the onion and methi leaves into fine pieces.
Heat oil in a pan, add the mustard seeds and cumin seeds and let them splutter.
Then add the broken red chillies along with chopped onion, Sauté till the onion becomes transparent.
Now add the methi leaves along with turmeric powder, and 1/4cup of water.
Cook  for 3 minutes, then add the dhal.
Adjust the consistency of the dhal with more or less water.
Let the dhal boil for a few minutes and put off the stove.
Healthy and delicious methi dhal is ready to serve.

Serve hot with white rice, a dollop of ghee and papad!  Enjoy the protein packed wholesome meal! 

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Appam (with Yeast)

Ingredients
(store bought)Rice flour - 2 cups
Sooji/ Rava/Semolina -1tablespoon
Rapid rise yeast - 1teaspoon
Sugar -2 tablespoons
Salt -1/2teaspoon
Water -2to3 cups

Method
Boil 1/2 cup of water, and add rava to it. Mix it well till it reaches a thick consistency. Remove it from the stove and let it cool completely.
Combine the cooked rava with rice flour-salt-sugar-yeast. Add 2 to 21/2 cups of water, mix it without lumps.
Keep the batter undisturbed  for 4-6 hours or over night.
Take the required amount of batter, add little water ( if required) and make the appams.
Soft and spongy aappam is ready to serve.

 Enjoy with your choice of Kurma / coconut chutney/ coconut milk.

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Butter Murukku

Ingredients

Boiled Rice / Idli Rice - 2 cups (~500grams)

Red chillies - 8

Pottu kadalai (Dhaliya) - 3/4cup

Butter (@ room temperature) - 4 tablespoons

Omam (Ajwain seeds) -1/2 teaspoon 

Salt 

Oil - to deep fry

Method

Wash and soak the rice for 2-3 hours. 

Grind the rice along with red chillies to a fine paste. (Add little water while grinding)

Powder the pottu kadalai in a mixer. 

Crush the ajwain seeds coarsely.

Combine the rice batter, pottu kadalai powder, salt & butter.

Mix and knead everything to form a non-sticky dough. Keep this dough well covered till you are done making murukku.

Grease the murukku press with oil, Here I have used a plate with 3 holes (3 கண் தட்டு), but you can use the shape of your choice. The advantage of using this plate is you can finish off the dough very fast and murukku will also be yummy! :)

Fill the press with prepared murukku dough and press it into circles on a greased butter paper/ plastic paper/clean cotton cloth.

Meanwhile, heat the oil on medium heat. (Don't adjust  the flame every now and then, keep it in a constant level otherwise murukku will drink lot of oil and won't get cooked nicely)

Carefully drop the murukku in the oil, cook till the oil stops the sizzling sound. Flip the murukku once in between.

Take them out from the oil and drain the excess oil on a paper towel.

Crisp and delicious murukku is ready to munch. Can be stored in an airtight box for a week or 10 days.

Enjoy!

Note

You can avoid red chillies (or) adjust the number of chillies according to your taste.

Instead of pressing the murukku on the plastic sheet, you can press them on the back of an ever-silver ladle and drop them in the oil.

You can use the store bought rice flour as well, but certainly there will be a difference in taste. :)

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Diwali Wishes!

Mahi's Kitchen Wishes Everyone A Very Happy Diwali!

 

Our Diwali with Butter Murukku & Sweets from India..

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Capsicum Paruppu Usili

Ingredients
Capsicum -1 (Its a big sized one, I got approximately 11/2 cups of chopped capsicum pieces)
Channa dhal -1/4cup
Red chilly-6  (adjust to your taste)
Hing - 1/8 teaspoon
Turmeric powder -1/8 teaspoon
Mustard seeds -1 teaspoon
Urad dhal -11/2 teaspoons
Few curry leaves
Salt
Oil

Method

Wash and soak the dhal for an hour along with dried red chillies.
Drain the water and grind the dhal,red chillies along with enough salt and a generous pinch of hing to a coarse paste.

Heat oil in a non-stick kadai, make the tempering with mustard seeds,urad dhal and curry leaves. Then add the chopped veggie with little salt, and cook for a couple of minutes.

Now take the capsicum from the kadai, keep it aside and add little more oil. Add the ground dhal paste and fry it on low heat till it gets cooked.(Sprinkle little oil once in a while and keep stirring..it won't take more than 5-6 minutes, non-stick kadai makes the job easy! :) )

Finally add the capsicum, mix everything well, cook for 2-3 minutes and put off the flame.

Note
You can use thoor dal / split moong dal instead of channa dhal, or you can combine the dhals as well.
Take care and don't overcook the capsicum.
Instead of frying the raw dhal paste in oil, you can steam/microwave the same and use it for a more healthier option. Personally We prefer the usili in this way! ;)

I have noted down this recipe long back from a blog, unfortunately don't remember the site and could not link back to the original recipe.

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Onion Chutney

Ingredients
Onion -1
Red Chilli Powder -11/2 teaspoon (adjust to your taste)
Hing Powder- 2 pinches
Small piece of  tamarind
Salt
Oil
For tempering
Oil
Mustard seeds-1/2teaspoon
Urad dhal-1teaspoon
Few curry leaves

Method
Chop the onion into big chunks.
Heat Oil in a pan and add the onion and tamarind. Sauté the onions till it becomes transparent.
Finally add the chilli powder, hing powder and put off the stove. (Take care, the chilli powder has to be cooked only by the heat in the pan, you should not burn it.)

Let it cool, add salt and grind it to a fine paste. (No need to add water, add very little water if required.)

 

Heat oil in a pan and make the tempering with mustard seeds, urad dhal and few curry leaves.

Spicy chutney is ready to serve. Enjoy it with idli/dosa/roti.

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Kanchepuram Idli

 

Ingredients - For the batter
Raw rice - 1 cup
Boiled rice -1 cup
Whole urad dal - 6 tablespoons [little less than 1/2cup]
Curd - 1 tablespoon
Salt

Ingredients - For tempering
Gingelly  Oil - 2 teaspoons
Ghee- 2 teaspoons
Ginger -2" piece
Broken cashew - few
Pepper corns - 10 to15
Cumin Seed - 11/2teaspoons
Channa dhal  - 2 teaspoons
Urad  dhal - 2 teaspoons
Mustard seed-1teaspoon

Method
Wash and soak the rices together for 6 hours.
Wash and soak the urad dal for 11/2hours separately.
Grind the rice with little water to a coarse paste.
Grind the dal with little water to a fine paste.
Mix the rice batter , urad dal batter with a tablespoon of curd and enough salt. Let it ferment for 8 to 10 hours.

Crush the pepper corns and cumin seeds separately.
Heat ghee in a small pan and roast the cashews.
Heat the gingelly oil, and add the mustard seeds, once they crackle, add in the dhals and chopped ginger, fry them till they turn golden colour.
Add all these ingredients to the fermented batter and mix it well.

Heat enough water in the steamer. Grease small ever-silver cups / tumblers and pour the idli batter (3/4th of the cup).

Steam the idlies for 20 minutes. ( Steaming take more time because we use cups to make the idlies)

Take the cups out of the steamer and let it cool..

..and take idlies from the cup. Spongy and spicy Kanchepuram idlies are ready to serve.

Instead of steaming them in individual cups, you can steam it in a big ever-silver plate as we do for Dhokla. Adjust the steaming time according to the size of the plate and amount of the batter you are using.

I used a small plate and it took 20-25 minutes to cook. After the plate has cooled down, run a sharp knife around the edge of the plate, revert it onto another plate, slice it and serve.

  

We had these yummy kanchepuram idlies with  coconut chutney.

  

I have used my spice box (anjarai petti) cups to make these cute idlies, you can use any other small cups you have. Instead of having the regular idlies, these different shaped idlies are interesting to make and eat! :)

  

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Mushroom Matar

Mushroom Matar with pav bhaji masala & half n half..weird?? Nope...its yummy-o-yummy!  

Ingredients

Button mushroom-6

Frozen peas -1/2cup

Half n half milk-3 tablespoons

Onion-1

Green chilly-1

Tomatoes-2

Pav bhaji massla-2 teaspoons

Turmeric powder-1/8teaspoon

Fennel seeds-1/2 teaspoon

Salt

Oil

Method

Clean and cut the mushrooms.

Chop the onion,green chilly and tomato.

Heat oil,add the fennel seeds. Let them splutter, add the onion-g.chilly and fry for a few minues.(till the onions are transparent)

Now add the tomatoes and cook till they are soft n mushy.

Add the pav bhaji masala,turmeric powder,salt with 1/2 cup of water. Let it boil nicely.

Add the mushrooms and cook for a few minutes.

Add the frozen peas and continue cooking for 5-6 minutes.

Reduce the flame to low, add the half n half milk, stir it gently. Put off the flame couple of minutes later,garnish with cilantro.

Serve with roti/paratha/rice or any kind of Pulao. 

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Phirni /Chawal ki kheer/Rice kheer

Glad to see you all after a break..let me start the blogging with a sweet dish! :) 

Ingredients
Raw rice /Basmati Rice - 1 fist full
Milk -2 cups
Water -1/2cup
Sugar -1/2cup [adjust to your taste]
Cardamom - 2
Ghee -1teaspoon

Method
Wash the rice, and fry it with a teaspoon of ghee.
Once the rice has slightly puffed up, add 1/2 water + 1/2cup milk.
Reduce the flame to medium low after the milk started boiling.
Stir it occasionally and keep adding milk, 1/4cup at a time, till the rice gets cooked.

The quantity of milk may vary according to the quality of your rice. I added almost a cup, in 4 equal intervals.
Mash the rice with the back of ladle and then add the sugar. Let it melt.

Add the final addition of milk, reduce the heat and cook for a few minutes. Crush the cardamom, add it to the kheer and put off the flame.

Note: The kheer becomes thick once cooled, so you can reserve some milk and add it while serving. Can add the dry fruits and nuts as well.

Recipe Courtesy : Here

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Linking this post to "Serve It - Boiled" event happening at Krithi's kitchen. & Denny's kitchen.

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Rosemilk Agar-Agar / China Grass Dessert with rose flavour

Ingredients
Agar-agar /China grass - 20 strands (~ 20grams)
Sugar-1/4cup
Coconut Milk -1 cup [I used 3 tablespoons coconut cream powder in a cup of Luke warm water]
Rose essence -few drops
Red Food colour- few drops (optional)
Ice cube trays (optional)
Water -1cup

Method
Cut the agar-agar strands into small pieces and soak it in a cup of water for 2-3 hours or overnight.

Take the soaked agar-agar in a sauce pan and heat it till the agar-agar dissolves..

Add the coconut milk and sugar after the china grass has dissolved completely, Remove from the heat, add 2-3 drops of red colour and rose essence.

Mix it thoroughly, filter it once and fill in the ice-cube trays. Let it cool for 5-10 minutes and then keep them in the fridge.

After 2-3 hours, loosen them with a knife and take out from the ice-trays.

Simple and healthy pudding with a pleasant colour and flavour is ready!

Note: The pudding made with normal milk will be little delegate, if you compare them with the one's made with coconut milk. Also, if you use fresh coconut milk, the colour of the pudding may vary. :)

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Dear friends, I am going on a vacation. See you all in a while!

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Set Dosa/ Sponge Dosa / Kal Dosa

This dosa is served as a set of 2 and thus got the name. :)

Ingredients
Raw rice - 1 cup
Boiled rice -1 cup
Whole urad dal - 6 tablespoons [little less than 1/2cup]
Curd - 1 tablespoon
Salt

Method
Wash and soak the rices together for 6 hours.
Wash and soak the urad dal for 11/2hours separately.
Grind the rice with little water to a coarse paste.
Grind the dal with little water to a fine paste.
Mix the rice batter , urad dal batter with a tablespoon of curd and enough salt. Let it ferment for 8 to 10 hours.
Take the required amount of batter, add very little water to make it into pouring consistency.
Heat a griddle on medium heat, pour a big ladle of batter, make thick dosa. Sprinkle oil and cover it with a lid.
Take it out once dosa is cooked. Spongy and soft dosa is ready to serve..enjoy it with your choice of sambar / chutney / podi.

I always make Idli batter with the ratio 4:1(boiled rice : whole urad dal) with a teaspoon of methi seeds and a few castor seeds. It will be good enough for idli as well as dosa. This time I wanted to try "Kanchepuram Idli". Googled here and there and prepared the batter. ;)

I was running out of time for doing the rest of the process for kanchepuram idli in a morning rush, and ended up in this recipe. Glad that I did! :) Dosa's were perfect with sambar & podi! :)

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Almond & Chocolate chip Biscotti

Biscotti is an Italian cookie, which is nothing but twice baked biscuit. Here I have prepared the biscotti's with almonds and semi-sweet chocolate chips...a perfect snack with a cup of coffee are tea.

Ingredients
All Purpose Flour/Maida -11/2cup
Sugar-3/4 cup
Baking powder - 3/4teaspoon
Egg -1
Butter -1/4cup + tablespoon
Vanilla extract - 1teaspoon
Roasted almonds -1/2cup
Semi sweet Chocolate chips -1/4cup
Milk -1 to 2 tablespoons

Method
Sieve the flour and baking powder a couple of times.
Separate the egg yolk and reserve it. Coarsely chop the almonds and keep it aside.
Preheat the oven to 350F.
Cream butter+sugar + egg white with Vanilla essence.
Add in the flour and mix it gently.
Now add the chopped almonds and mix it thoroughly.
Add in the chocolate chips and a tablespoon of milk, combine everything to form a lumpy mass.

Transfer it to a lightly floured surface, divide it into 2 equal parts.
Make them into 2 logs as shown in the picture.
Brush the logs with the reserved egg yolk and bake it for 30 minutes.
Take it out and let the logs cool for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, reduce the oven temperature to 300F.
Cut the logs diagonally into long stripes and arrange them on the baking sheet.

Bake them for 20 minutes, flipping the biscotti's after 10 minutes.
Delicious almond and chocolate chip biscotti is ready. Store them in airtight containers and enjoy with your coffee/tea/milk.


Note
To roast the almonds, preheat the oven to 300F, spread the raw almonds on a baking tray, bake them for 10-12 minutes. You can roast cashews and peanuts also in the same manner.

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