Donuts

Dunkin Donuts is one of the famous kiosks in most happening places and the way they display their products in the glass case is appealing. Each donut costs minimum 30rs or  more depending on the toppings. Long back, when my son first tasted it outside a mall, he told to me to make this at home. After a few days, a kiosk opened near my home and I found it easier to get one piece from there rather than make it home. Moreover it is made of maida and i generally don't work and encourage eating  maida. I usually substitute maida with whole wheat flour whenever a recipe requires or use half maida and half wheat flour. This time I indulged since it was my daughter's birthday on 29th sept and I wanted to make something special for the family and did'nt want to risk making it with alternative. I searched online for the recipe and found it was pretty similar to the badusha my mom  makes with a few equivalent ingredients and  it had different toppings. I Added my own variations and twisted the recipe to suit my family requirements

Now over to the recipe:

Ingredients

Maida - 2 cups

dry yeast - 1 tsp

sugar 2 table spoon

butter - 1/4 cup

salt - a pinch

warm milk - 1/2 cup

oil - 1 tsp

madia for rolling and dusting

oil for frying

for the chocolate mixture

icing sugar(or powdered sugar) - 1 tablespoon

cocoa powder  - 1 teaspoon

butter - 1 tablespoon

milk - 2 tsp or enough to adjust the mixture to a syrupy consistency

colored sprinkles to garnish

Method

• mix the dry yeast, sugar and 1½ tbsp of lukewarm water in a small bowl tll the sugar dissolves well. cover and keep aside for half an hour 
• In another bowl, mix the milk and butter keep aside.
• mix maida and salt in another dish.
• Now add the frothy mixture of yeast and sugar to the dry maida and mix well
• Gradually add the milk-butter mixture to the maida mixture and knead to a soft and loose consistency. Add a little milk if the dough is tight.
• Add a teaspoon of oil to make the dough smooth and elastic.
• Take a portion of the dough and roll into a thick roti.
• Then with the help of a donut cutter cut them into circles with a small circle in the middle (see pic) . I dont have a cutter and so used the sharp lid of a small circular metal box  and the lid of a medicine bottle( pudinhara)
• Now lay the cut circles on a greased plate or butter paper and allow them to rest for two hours . Cover them with a lid.
• Affter 2 hours, deep fry the donuts in hot oil .
• Drain them on an absorbent paper.
• While warm, dip the donuts in the chocolate syrup and decorate them with rainbow sprinkles or other toppings of your choice like choco chips or powdered sugar etc.

To make chocolate syrup
Melt the butter lightly, to this add the icing sugar and mix well till they blend, slowly add some cocoa powder and blend again till the lumps dissolve, add little warm milk to help blend into a syrupy consistency if thick. 

When my son ate this, he said the homemade ones tasted better than dunkin donuts:)

pazham pori ( sweet plaintain fritters)

Discovered this Pazham pori during our train journey from Secunderabad to Ernakulam on Sabari express. My daughter who was around 9 then took an instant liking to this and the kerala family which was travelling with us gave me the recipe. It is made with a particular variety of banana called Nenthram pazham which is sweet and has tiny black seeds. It is the same banana in its raw form which is used to make the famous  plaintain chips of coimbatore and kerala. Even the ripened ones are used to make chips. My perimma was an expert in making this.  Steaming this banana is another form of consuming this. This is called pazham puzhunginathu( steamed fruit) and is a dish by itself as it is satiating and filling. There was a time this variety was not available near my home but with the mushrooming of a few kerala stores in the city, it is easily available especially on weekends when it comes from Kerala on Friday. This is my daughter's favorite.

Ingredients for making Pazham pori

Nendrampazham - 2 nos

Cooking oil for frying.

for batter
Maida - 2 tablespoon
Rice flour - 1 table spoon ( or even slightly less)
sugar - 1 teaspoon
salt - a pinch
orange food color( optional)

Method:

Mix all the batter ingredients and make a thick batter.

Chop the banana into two, peel them and slice them horizontally.

Dip them in the batter and fry them in cooking medium till done. drain the excess oil on an kitchen absorbent paper.

 Needs no accompaniment, tastes good by itself.

kadalai mittai ( peanut fudges)

Kadalai mittai or peanut fudges( or can be shaped into balls)  are traditional sweet made with jaggery. Loaded with nutrition they are good snack time bites too energise you. Alhough famous and easily available in supermarkets and small stores, the ones that would come from my perima's place were very tasty and famous. The pettaivaithalai kadalai mittai were shaped into fudges and decorated with colored dessicated coconut strands. Looked very appealing. This is one of my husband's favorite sweet and so almost every alternate week, we make this in my kitchen. A simple recipe

                          

Ingredients:

Peanuts - 1 cup

jaggery - 3/4 cup

a little rice powder( to shape them )

Method: 

Firstly dry roast the peanuts, cool them and crush them coarsely or till they break into two pieces with a rolling pin. Remove the hull from the nuts. 

Make a jaggery syrup in a thick bottomed pan till it melts  and rolls into a ball consistency. To this add the peanuts. When slightly cool ( yet warm). Dust your hands with rice flour, take a blob of the peanutjaggery mixture and shape them into balls. Alternatively, pour the mixture on a greased plate, pat them evenly and shape them into fudges.

Pineapple gojju

Pineapple gojju is one of my favourite udipi dish. This is part of the wedding lunch spread in most south Karnataka weddings and if there is anything I would stretch my hand first s to pick from the lunch spread, it would be this. I love the spicy, tangy, sweet taste of this dish and would like to have a bite of pineapple in each spoon that I have. My mom, my atthai and my sis regularly make this…I too make this whenever I find a sweet pineapple in the market. This is a good side dish with dosa, idli, roti, bread and I can even have it with  plain rice, sambar, rasam and curd rice or I even have just by itself.
Ingredients:

Chopped sweet Pineapple -1 Cup (You can add more also if you like )
Jaggery – golf ball size
Tamarind – one small ping pong ball size
Salt - As per taste
Turmeric / Haldi - 1/4 tsp

For Grinding (Masala)
Grated Coconut - 1 cup
Urad Dal- 2 tsp
Chana Dal - 1 tsp
Red Chillies (preferably byadgi chilli)– 6-8 ( to suit your spice level)
Sesame seeds -11/2tsp ( Black / white )
Cumin seeds / Jeera - 1/2 tsp
Fenugreek Seeds - 1/4 tsp

For seasoning
oil -2-3 tbsp ( Coconut oil preferred )
Mustard - 1 tsp
Hing – 1/4tsp
Curry Leaf a sprig

Method:
Dry roast the ingredients for grinding masala(except coconut)….when cooled , grind the roasted ingredients coarsely and add the grated coconut to the final grind….this mixture if coarse will have great texture and taste to the dish.

In a pan, add a little oil and sauté the pineapple pieces lightly, to this add the tamarind extract, turmeric and jaggery…allow it to  simmer till the raw flavor of tamarind fizzles out.

To this simmering concoction, add the ground masala and let it simmer till the flavours blend for 5 minutes.

Switch off and now season it with mustard, hing and curry leaf.

Tips: adding dry grapes to the dish along with pineapple will enhance the taste too.
Alternatively, pineapple can be substituted with lady's finger( bendekayi gojju) or bitter gourd( hagalkayi gojju) and even shallots or onions( erulli gojju)....this can be mixed with plain rice and a little sesame oil...it tastes heavenly.

Thanjavur iyer Sambar

It never occured to me that i must blog about Sambar, it is a staple in our home and when a friend recently asked me how we make it, i decided to blog about it. There are two types of sambar, the one with podi( sambar powder) and the other where the spice ingredients are ground with coconut. ( araichivitta sambar). which is generally made on ocassions and on leisure days like holidays. That said sambar has variations from region to region and state to state  and what i will be sharing is the typical sambar of the Thanjavur iyer homes.

This is generally an accompaniment for rice, but it goes well with idli, dosa, uttappam, vada and even in my home with idiappam(string hoppers). It is most popular with rice though. This is ideal to be packed in tiffin boxes also, while some take rice and sambar in separate containers. I prefer it in mixed form (like bisibele bath).

When my mom would be  away to relatives wedding or other functions, my dad would pack my tiffin box. He would mash and mix the rice with sambar and ghee and it would smell heavenly. It so happened once, when i was at work , i had to travel to DRDO and was late for lunch. I came and opened my tiffin box to see it empty. My colleague said, since you were late, i thought you would have lunch outside and the aroma from your tiffin box was irresistable and so I ate the ghee laden carrot sambar rice, while i had to eat the two puffs he brought from the nearby bakery. Ofcourse, the secret of a tasty sambar depends on the sambar powder one uses and we make the sambar powder at home. I have already blogged about the sambar powder recipe. Now, the ingredients and method for sambar.

Ingredients:

Toor dal ( boiled and mashed) - 1 cup
tamarind juice extracted from soaking a golf ball size tamarind
sambar powder - 1 1/2 tablespoon
crystal salt - to taste( i use crystal salt, we can substitute it with table salt too)
hing - a small piece or equivalent to 1/2 teaspoon hing powder
haldi - a tea spoon
curry leaf - a sprig
mustard for seasoning
oil for seasoning( i use gingelly oil)
Vegetables  - 1/2 cup of our choice( generally any of these or you can mix them also. pumpkin, raddish, drumstick, onions/shallots, even potatoes,brinjals,capsicum, ladies finger , beans or even tomatoes  can be used). Sometimes, the taste of sambar depends on the veggies added also.

Method:

Boil the veggies along with tamarind water and haldi.
When the rawness of tamarind is not smelt add salt and sambar powder. Let it boil for a few minutes till you smell the aroma of sambar powder. Once the rawness of sambar powder vanishes. Add the boiled dal and simmer it till all the ingredients blend and you smell the aroma of sambar. Switch off and temper.

For tempering: take a tablespoon of til oil, add mustard, when it splutters. Switch off. Now add the hing and curry leaf to the heated oil and pour the tempered oil over the sambar. The sambar will sizzle and absord the tempering.

Serve it with rice or any tiffin of your choice.

                                                     
                                                 Kathrikai Sambar ( Brinjal)

Some tips:
When making sambar with brinjals, onions, ladies finger...it is better to stir fry them in oil before boiling.
Pumpkin, beans, drumstick, raddish can be  par boiled with little water and haldi before adding tamarind juice.
potatoes, carrots can be pressure cooked and added to the tamarind water.

                                           

Beach sundal ( a lentil stirfry sold in beach)

Lentil stirfries are called 'Sundal' in tamil. This  protein packed dish is famously made at home with different lentils on the 9 days of  Navaratri. They are made with moong dal, channa dal, chick peas etc each one on different days of the  9 days  but the most famous sundal outside home is on the Beaches of  Madras. and this is called Maanga Battani Sundal.

Ingredients:

soaked and boiled green peas - 1 cup

finely Chopped mangoes( totapuri) -- 1/4 cup

grated coconut - 1 tablespoon

grated carrot  - 2 table spoons

grated ginger - 1 tea spoon

green chillies finely chopped /ground from 2 nos

( or you can use chilli powder too to suit your taste)

salt to taste

coriander for garnishing

For tempering;

oil  - 1 table spoon

mustard - 1 tea spoon 

a pinch of asafoetida

Method

Heat a pan, add a table spoon of oil.
add mustard and allow it to splutter in the heat. Add, hing, green chillies, ginger  and stir fry.
now add the boiled peas( drain excess water)  and stir fry till the mixture is dry. Add salt to taste and mix well.
( if you are using dry chillli powder...do it now)

Switch off stove and mix in the remaining ingredients like chopped mangoes, grated carrot, and coconut. Garnish it with coriander and some raw ginger,   tastes  best when served in paper cones like in beach:)  I love the tangy taste of mango and the zing of raw ginger with every bite of soft peas.

                               garnished with home grown organic coriander

Hayagriva maddi

This is a traditional sweet from the temple town of Udupi and is served in most functions of the "Madhwa" community in Karnataka. I first tasted this in my cousin's son's first birthday function. She is married to a Madhwa and so this sweet dish was served along with another traditional sweet Chandrahaara. But this sweet has a very lovely story behind why it is served in the traditional Mutt of Sri Krishna temple at Udupi.

According to the legend, nothing grew on the land of a small village called matti some many years ago. The villagers lamented this to the wandering Saint Vadiraja theerhta. He gave them a bundle of seeds to grow and the people in turn showed their gratitude by offering channa daal and Jaggery. These, it is believed were eaten by lord Krishna who took the form of hayagreeva or horse. From then on hayagreeva maddis is the preffered prasadam in the Udupi temple. The seeds that vadiraja theertha gifted is the famous gulla brinjals, a pale green variety unique to this region which is produced even today and is available in other towns and cities of Karnataka in Mangalore stores .

Now after the story, over to the recipe of  Hayagreeva maddi.

Ingredients-

• Channa dal --- 1 cup
•  Jaggery    ----- 3/4 cup ( i used powdered palm jaggery) 
• Dry coconut---- 2 table spoons
•  Roasted poppy seeds ( gasgase) - 1 table spoon
• dash of cardamom powder to flavour
•  Dry grapes and Cashew for garnishing
• Ghee

Method -

Cook the channa dal in  a cooker to 3 whistles or till it boils to a mushy consistency.

On the other side ....make a jaggery syrup  by adding little water to the jaggery. Filter the jaggery mixture to remove impurities.

Now, take the filtered jaggery mixture and heat it in a kadai, to this add the mushy paste of Channa dal and cook till it blends.

Simmer the  stove  for a minute and mix in the , elaichi powder and dry copra and mix well with 3 table spoons of ghee .

Switch off the stove and sprinkle roasted poppy seeds all over. 

Grease a bowl and scoop the maddi to a bowl and  garnish with roasted cashews,  and fried raisins . 

You can add more ghee to make it taste better.