Ooththappam

Its a very common South Indian Breakfast/ Dinner item. I have already posted vegetable oothappam here. This one is simple and comfortable food for everyone.
Ingredients
Boiled rice/ Idli rice -2 cups
Poha/Aval/Flattened rice - 2 fist full
Vendayam/ Methi seeds -1/2 teaspoon
Urad dal -1/2 cup
Salt
Method
Wash and soak the rice, vendayam and poha together for 4-5 hours. ( I do soak for 6 hours)
Wash and soak the urad dal  separately for 11/2 hours.
Grind the rice, methi seeds and poha to a thick batter. Batter need not be too smooth or too grainy.
Grind the urad dal also. (add little (cold) water at uniform time interval and grind it to a fluffy batter)
Mix the rice batter, urad dal batter with enough salt. [This step is important, use your hands and mix it for 5 minutes]
Let it ferment over night or 8 hours.
This time may vary according to your place. If its cold weather, you can keep this batter in any one of your (unused) stove burners while you cook on other burners. This will make the batter ferment well. Or you can use conventional oven too.

The method I have given here is my usual idli batter proportion. I always follow this method, once the batter has risen enough, I make idlies one or two times and then use the same batter to make dosai, oothappam, paniyaram etc.

Oothappam
Take the required amount of fermented idli batter, add little water and mix it.
Heat a griddle. Pour a ladle of batter into a griddle, and spread it into a thick pancake.
Sprinkle oil on and around the oothappam, cover the griddle with a lid and cook.
It takes about 30 seconds to cook. Open the lid, check the oothappam, and transfer it to the plate. [Need not flip it, as we close the griddle while cooking.]

Soft and spongy oothappam is ready to serve.

Oothappam with Tomato Kurma

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Bulgur pongal with Tamarind juice / Broken wheat puli pongal

Ingredients
Bulgur/Broken Wheat -3/4cup
Water-1cup
Tamarind juice-1/2cup
Onion-1
Garlic-3cloves
Red chilly -4, Green chilly-1 (adjust to your spice level)
Few curry leaves
Mustard seeds-1/2teaspoon
Urad dal-1teaspoon
Hing/Asafoetida-1/8teaspoon
Sugar-1teaspoon
Salt
Gingelly oil -1tablespoon (or more! :) )

Method
Heat oil in a pressure cooker. Add in the mustard seeds and let them pop-up. Add the urad dal, fry till it becomes golden in color, then add the hing/asafoetida.
Add the chopped onion-garlic-green chilly and broken red chillies.
Fry till the onion becomes transparent.

Add the sugar, salt, water and tamarind juice to the pressure cooker. Let it boil nicely.

Now add the bulgur/broken wheat, mix it well. 

Close the pressure cooker and cook on medium heat for 2 whistles. 

Let the cooker cool down and open it. 

Tasty and tangy puli pongal with bulgur is ready to serve.

Serve it with plain curd or any raitha/chips of your choice.

I had it with tomato raitha. 

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Tomato Raitha

Ingredients

Tomatoes-2

Curd-1/2cup

Chopped ginger-1/2teaspoon

Salt

To temper

Oil

Mustard seeds-1/2teaspoon

Hing/Asafoetida-1/8teaspoon

Chilly powder-1/4teaspoon

Urad dal-1/2teaspoon

Chopped Green chilly-1

Recipe Inspiration : Here

Method

Boil about a cup of water and add the tomatoes. Continue cooking for 4-5 minutes. 

Let it cool, peel the skin of the tomato.

Mash the tomatoes roughly. With that add the yogurt/curd, chopped ginger and salt. 

Heat oil in a tempering pan, and make the tempering, pour it over the raitha. 

Mix it well and serve. 

It goes well with parathas, roti, biriyani and to an interesting dish in the picture below! :) Yup..its broken wheat pongal with tamarind juice(puli pongal), shall post the recipe soon.

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Easy Sundal Kadalai Kuzhambu / Easy Channa Gravy with Tamarind and Veggies

Ingredients

Black Channa/Sundal kadalai/Kondai kadalai-1/4cup

Onion-1

Tomato-1

Tamarind juice-1/4cup

Potato-1

Brinjal-1 (or) 2

Mustard seeds-1/2teaspoon

Sugar-1/2teaspoon

Salt

Oil 

To grind

Pepper corns-7

Red chillies-4

Grated coconut-2tablespoons

Fennel seeds-1teaspoon 

Method

Wash and soak the channa over night or at least 8 hours.

Chop the onions into fine pieces. 

Cut the potato into big chunks. Trim the head of the brinjals, make a "+" cut into them.

Keep the potato chunks and brinjals submerged in water till use.

Grind the items to grind with little water to a fine paste.

Heat oil in a pressure cooker and add in the mustard seeds. Let them pop. 

Now add in the onions and fry till they change in color. 

Add the tomatoes, turmeric powder, cook till the tomato becomes soft.

Add in the veggies along with the soaked channa. 

Fry for 2-3 minutes and add in the tamarind juice and let it boil nicely. 

Now add in the masala paste, enough salt. Adjust the water according to your desired consistency of the kuzhambu.

Add in the sugar, and close the pressure cooker.
Cook for 2-3 whistles in medium heat.
Let the pressure subside by itself, open the cooker, garnish the kuzhambu with cilantro.

Quick and tangy delicious kuzhambu is ready! It goes well with plain rice, idli and dosa. The veggies and channa taste grate as we pressure cook them with the masala.

This kuzhambu can be done in just about 30 minutes! Isn't it simple?! :) 

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Rava Laddu / Sooji ka Laddoo

Ingredients
Rava/Sooji -1 cup
Sugar-11/4cup (adjust to your taste)
Ghee-2tablespoons
Few cashews and raisins
Elaichi-3
Milk-1/4cup + few teaspoons

Method 
Boil the milk and keep it warm.
Powder the sugar and elaichi to a fine powder.

Heat a tablespoon of ghee in a wide pan, roast the cashews and raisins and keep them aside.
Add the rava in the same pan and roast till you get a nice aroma.
Take care of the flame, and do not burn the rava at any time.
Once rava has slightly changed the color and the aroma fills your kitchen, add in the powdered sugar and mix it well.
Finally add in the cashews and raisins, another tablespoon of ghee, give it a good mix.

Now take the pan from the stove and let it cool for a few minutes.
Sprinkle about 1/4 milk and mix it, see whether you can make make laddos out of it. If the mixture is too dry, then add few more teaspoons of warm milk and make the laddoos.

Quick and delicious sweet is ready. You can keep them in room temperature for 2-3 days. If you want a longer shell life, then eliminate milk and add more ghee. They will stay fresh for 10-15 days in airtight box. 

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Broccoli-Carrot Stir Fry / Broccoli-Carrot Poriyal

Ingredients

Broccoli-1cup(washed and chopped)

Carrot-1

Onion-3tablespoons(chopped)

Green chilly-3 (adjust to your taste)

Boiled Toor dhal-3tablespoons

Grated coconut-1tablespoon

Sugar-1/2teaspoon

Mustard seeds-1/2teaspoon

Urad dal-1teaspoon

Hing/Asafoetida-1/8teaspoon

Salt

Oil

Method

Wash the carrot, broccoli and chop them into small pieces. 

Chop the onions and green chilly as well.

Cook the dal, with out mashing it and keep it aside. (You can reserve some dal while making sambar/ plain dal)

Heat oil in a pan, add mustard seeds and let them pop-up. Then add hing followed by urad dal. Let the dal turn golden in color, then add in the onion-green chilly.
Cook till the onions turn shiny, add the veggies, salt and sugar, sprinkle little water and cook for 3 minutes and medium heat.
Open the pan, add the cooked dal and coconut.
Mix everything, reduce the heat and cook for 2 more minutes.
Delicious broccoli-carrot poriyal is ready to serve.

Broccoli should not be cooked for long time, the maximum cooking time is 8 minutes. Since we are chopping broccoli and carrot into small pieces, they get cooked within the mentioned time. This stir fry is packed with nutrients from the veggies and dal. It tastes good with rice as well as roti.

We had it with coconut rice, boiled egg, paruppu cutney/thogayal. 

Recipe Inspiration : Here

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Paneer Paratha / Paratha stuffed with Paneer

Ingredients - for the stuffing

Grated paneer-1cup

Finely chopped onion-1

Red chilli flakes-2teaspoons(adjust to your taste)

Amchur powder/ Dry mango powder-1teaspoon

Cumin seeds-1/2teaspoon

Crushed whole coriander seeds-1teaspoon

Salt

Cilantro

For the paratha

Whole wheat flour/Aata-2cups

Warm water-1cup

Salt-1teaspoon

Sugar-2teaspoons

Oil-1teaspoon

Method

Combine the aata, salt, sugar in a bowl, mix it well. Start adding water little by little, and knead the dough.  Knead it for at least 5-10minutes, you will get a soft dough. Apply oil on all the sides, and cover it with  clear wrap paper, keep it aside for half an hour.

Take the grated paneer, onion, chilly flakes, cumin seeds, amchur powder (can be replaced by some lemon juice), salt and cilantro in a bowl. Mix it well and the stuffing is ready.

Divide the paratha dough into lemon size balls, roll them into small circles. Keep a tablespoon of stuffing in the paratha, pull the edges and cover it nicely. (Refer here for stuffing the paratha)
Do the same for all the parathas.

Heat a griddle on medium heat. Roll the stuffed parathas into flad disks, use dry flour for dusting. Be gentle while rolling otherwise the stuffing might come out.
Put them in the griddle, sprinkle little oil, cook on both sides.

Delicious parathas are ready to serve. We had it with mango pickle and plain yogurt.

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