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.

                                           

Hithak bele avare saaru

Often when you walk on Bangalore during winter months especially december and January, you will find the skins  of hyacinth beans( lablab/val bean) on the middle of the road. The squeezed out skins when stepped on by people will add taste to the dish cooked at home is the general belief. This was a childhood chore for many of us when our neighbours and my mom would buy them in bulk. We all kids would sit around the mound and shell the beans playfully. The beans would be used to make tasty dishes like avarekalu akki roti( rice roti), avarekalu uppittu( upma), it would also be sun-dried and mixed with salt and chilli powder to make hurgalu , a tea time snack(roasted sprouts) but most of them would be used to make hithak bele saaru( hithak in kannada is squeeze). The shelled beans would be soaked in water overnight. The next morning, the bean would be de-skinned by pressing between your thumb and fore finger.

                                                  the de-skinned bean and its skin

                                                     

 This is quite a time-consuming work but the de-skinned beans when cooked with spices would be buttery soft and would slip through leaving a yummy taste and will make the work worth while. We kids would rush to throw the bean skins on the road, ideally i think this is good food for cows but the belief originated from yore could be that it adds taste to the dish. I have no authentic information on this but i like the tales and memories attached with this hyacinth bean. It is ages since i ate this lovely bean since it is not  easily available in Hyderabad markets. This time since, my parents were coming here, they got me a kilo of shelled beans. Half of it were soaked in water overnight and it's skin was squeezed  out next morning to make the tasty Hithak bele saaru...here goes the recipe

Ingredients:

De-skinned avarekalu ---- 2 cup
tamarind paste from a golf ball sized tamarind
Tuvar dal - 50 gms
Jaggery ----------1 tablespoon
salt to taste
haldi - a pinch
You can even add potatoes/beans or brinjals to this  dish but that is a choice

For grinding masala
Chillies - 6 nos
coriander seeds - 1 tablespoon
channa dal - 1/2 table spoon

Dry roast the above and grind them( i used sambar powder instead)   with the below ingredients

grated coconut - 2 table spoon
garlic ----- 1 clove
A small onion - 1

For garnish
 a teaspoon of oil
hing - a pinch
curry leaf a sprig.

Method:

Boil tuvar dal and de-skinned beans and keep aside.
In a dish, heat tamarind paste , jaggery and haldi, add 100 ml of water and allow it to boil till the raw smell of tamarind disappears.Now add the ground masala and allow it to boil for 5 minutes and then simmer.
When it simmers, add the cooked dal and beans and bring it to final boil
Garnish with mustard, hing and curry leaves.

Serve this with hot rice or ragi mudde( ragi balls which is a staple of Karnataka)

Seppankizhangu roast curry (taro root curry)

Seppankizhangu roast curry ( taro root or Arbi).I like the way my mil roasts it with less oil in an iron kadai.

Ingredients:

seppankizhangu - 1/2 kilo
haldi ---------------1tsp
chilli powder ------- 1.5 tsp( add 2 if you want it spicier)
salt        ---------- 1 tsp
hing powder ---- 1/2 tsp
curd or tamarind juice  - 1 table spoon
( to remove the itchy property of the roots)

besan or rice powder( optional) - 1 tablespoon.
Oil for frying - 1 table spoon.

Method:

Parboil seppankizhangu  in cooker to two whistles ( don't boil till it turns mushy). Remove their jackets and slice them to roundels with the help of a oil smeared knife, else the goeey sap will stick to your hands

Then in a bowl, add haldi, chilli powder, salt and curd and marinate them for a while.( min 15 mts to 20)

Heat a kadai( i use iron kadai for roast since a  seasoned iron kadai is more like a non stick). Add 1 table spoon of oil. When it heats up, add hing powder and immediately follow it up with marinated arbi roundels.

Cook on slow heat till it gets roasted and does not stick to the kadai. To make it crispier you can sprinkle rice powder or even besan before the final toss.

Vazhaipoo poriccha kootu (banana heart stew)

This is a thick gravy cooked with dal(lentils), spices and banana flower/heart.

Ingredients:

• 1 whole big banana flower, de-pistilled and chopped. Soak the chopped flowers in a bowl of water to which a ladle of buttermilk is added, else it gets oxidised.
• moong dal --- ½ cup
• 1 tea spoon of rice flour to thicken the gravy.

Ingredients to grind

• Urad dal --- 2 table spoon
• Dry red chilli --- 5 no’s
• Cumin seeds ---- 1 tea spoon
• Grated coconut ---- ½ cup
• Black pepper corns – 1 spoon( if you desire it spicier)

For seasoning:
Mustard – 1 tea spoon
Urad dal – 1 teaspoon
1 sprig of curry leaf.

Method for chopping the flower:

Remove the flowers from the base of the purple bracts. hold them with one hand and press the tip of the petals with another hand. The tips open up showing the thick filament with thick head. Remove the filament from the flower. Chop them on the chopping board into small sizes and put them in a bowl of water to which butter milk is added.

                             


After washing them well, boil them with salt and turmeric. Keep this aside. To this add the boiled moong dal.

For the masala:

• Roast urad dal, red chilli cumin seeds and pepper corn in a teaspoon of oil. When cool grind them with coconut and add this to the cooked flowers and boil them.
• While the gravy has boiled well, add a spoonful of rice flour mixture to thicken the gravy.Allow it to boil for some more time.

For Garnishing:
In a small wok, add a teaspoon of oil and splutter mustard, urad dal and curry leaf.
Add this garnishing to the kootu(stew).

Vazhaipoo vadai (banana blossom fritters )

Vazhai poo vadai is fried Lentil fritters made with Banana blossoms or banana hearts. Vazhaipoo is a common vegetable in the kitchens of most traditional tamil homes. It grew in the backyard of our patti's home and is easily available in traditional markets and  selected supermarkets. Conical and purple in color, the petals mature into plaintain fruits. The  purple bracts cover the petals. It has astringency property which is one of the 6 tastes(Aru suvai in tamil) required for wellness of our health. Chopping the petals is an art. The petals in bunch has to be removed from the bract, the pistil removed and then chopped. The hands that trim has to be smeared with oil to avoid the sap sticking to your fingers. It should then be soaked in water to which a ladle ful of buttermilk is added. Worth the effort, cause it has amazing health benefits. 

Ingredients:
Channa dal – 1 cup

Dry Red chillies – 2 or 3no.

Asafetida powder – ¼ teaspoon

Green chilli  - 1/2

Banana flowers chopped – 1 cup

Curry leaf – 1 sprig chopped

Salt to taste

Cooking oil of your choice for frying. 

Method:

Soak the channa dal for less than an hour.  Drain the water. Keep  aside a small soaked spoon of  channa dal.

Grind coarsely the remaining channa dal with dry red chilli, green chilli and curry leaf without adding water.

Transfer the thick ground mixture to a  shallow bowl.

Mix the asafoetida powder, curry leaf, banana flower and salt in the mixture.

Take a golf ball sized blob and pat them into  small roundels.

Meanwhile heat a kadai and add the cooking oil. When it starts smoking, add the patted roundels.

Fry them till done on both sides.

It tastes good without any accompaniment. But still if you think, you require accompaniment, it tastes good only with ground coconut chutney. Avoid  sauce to retain the nativity of the dish. 

                                  The ground channa mixture to which vazhaipoo is added

                                                                      Patted and fried in oil

                                      The roasted and fried flowers are dark brown in color , the green color is curryleaf

Pidi karanai masiyal

Pidi karanai is a traditional tuber available only in few places. It belongs to the yam family, just the size of your fists(pidi in tamil) and hence called pidi karanai. It gives a itchy feeling in your throat when not cooked properly, hence very important to remove the itchy property by adding tamarind juice or lemon juice.

Ingredients:

Pidikaranai - 10 nos
tamarind pulp - 3 tablespoon
Green chilli - 3 no's chopped
ginger -------- 1" chopped
salt to taste
mustard and urad dal for seasoning.
coconut gratings for garnishing

Method:

Boil and peel the pidi karanais. mash them when cool and keep aside.

In a kadai, add little oil and allow mustard and urad dal to splutter
follow it with sauteing green chilli and ginger.

Now add the tamarind pulp and little water to the kadai and let it simmer till it looses its raw smell.
To this mixture, add the mashed pidi karanai and simmer on for a few seconds till all the ingredients blend together.

Garnish with curryleaf/coriander and grated coconut. Serve with rice as an accompaniment or for chappati. I love having this by itself.

variation: can be alternatively cooked with lemon juice instead of tamarind extract.

vepampoo rasam

Vepampoo rasam(Neem flowers rasam) is a simple rasam made with the flowers of neem. This can also be classified as medicinal food as vepampoo has medicinal properties.

Ingredients:
tamarind - marble sized
jaggery - marble size
turmeric - 1/2 teaspoon
asafoetida - a small pinch
salt to taste
a sprig of curry leaf

To season:
ghee --- 1 table spoon
dried vepampoo -- 1 table spoon
dry red chillies -- 2 no's
jeera --- 1/2 teasspoon

Method:

Boil tamarind, jaggery, turmeric, asafoetida in 2 cups of water.
when boiled the tamarind becomes tender simmer it on stove.

In another kadai, heat ghee and roast the vepampoo. remove the vepampoo and keep aside. In the same kadai with the remaining ghee roast jeera,dry red chillies and curry leaf.

Add the roasted jeera, dry red chillies and curry leaf to the simmering tamarind mixture. switch off the stove and add the roasted vepampoo to the rasam in the end and close with a lid. The vepampoo will infuse its flavour and goodness into the rasam.

Vepampoo rice
Alternatively the roasted vepampoo can also be mixed with plain rice and ghee.This is called vepampoo saadam( neem flower rice). Even today my family elders make this a practice of eating this rice once in a week. It de-worms and flushes out the toxins.

Angaya podi

This is one of the ancient tamil recipe. This has all herbal ingredients and is classified under 'pathiya samaiyal'(diet food).This is best eaten with hot rice and ghee to the accompaniment of pacchidi(raitha) or appalam (papad)

Ingredients:
Dhaniya ----1/2 cup
Jeera--- 3 teaspoon
Pepper --- 2 teaspoon
Dry neem flowers--- ¼ cup
Dry ginger – 1 piece(I inch)
Sun dried Sundakkai – 30 numbers
Asafoetida ---- small piece ( the size of sundakkai)
Curryleaf ----- ½ cup
Salt to taste
Dry red chilli ---4 number


Method:
Dry roast neem flowers, sundakkai and curry leaf separately.
Dry roast salt,asafoetida and all other ingredients one by one.
When cool grind them all together.

‘Angaya podi’ is recommended during post natal period to new mom’s as diet food. This helps in reducing the fat piled during the postnatal period.It also helps in knocking off dirt (kasadu in tamil) from the stomach and refreshes your body.

(will upload photo shortly)

parangikai pal kootu

This is a sweet gravy made with pumpkin and milk. Best accompaniment for spicy sambar rice/vathal kuzhambu. I simply love this traditional dish. Recently when, I made this my fussy children loved it too. This was taught to me by my paternal grandfather Mahadeva Iyer who was an engineer and a sought after traction battery expert during his times,Cooking was a hobby for him.

Ingredients:
tender sweet pumpkin ----- 2 cups(cut into small pieces)
milk of coconut ----1/2cup
jaggery ---------- 1 table spoon or equivalent
green chilli/red chilli ------2 nos
Mustard ---------- 1 teaspoon
oil for seasoning
boiled and cooled milk --- 1/2 cup
rice flour ----- 1 teaspoon ( optional) to thicken the gravy
salt to taste

Method:
Boil the sweet pumpkin till tender with little water.
add the coconut milk and jaggery till it blends well.
In a wok, season with mustard and green chilli/redchilli
add it to the gravy and season with salt
When the gravy is warm, add chilled milk to the gravy.
after the above procedure, if the gravy is dilute. make a paste of rice flour and two tablespoons of warm milk add the mixture to the gravy and heat a while till the
gravy thickens.




(below pic after addition of cold milk)


Alternate method:
1) you can make the gravy with coconut gratings and green chilli and add it instead of redchili and coconut milk.
2)vegetables like snake gourd can be used
3) jaggery can be susbstituted with equal measure of sugar.

Kuzhambu vadam

Summer times are very hot and ideal for making vadams. These vadams are sun-dried crisps which can be stored in air tight containers. When stored in ideal conditions it has shelf life of more than a year.

Kuzhambu vadams/ ulundu vadams are add-ons used for kootu and kuzhambu when you are short of vegetables . They are to be fried in oil and added in the end to the dish.




Ingredients:

Soaked urad dal : 1 cup
Salt to taste
Dry red chilli ---- 6 nos
A pinch of asafoetida.

Method:

Grind all the ingredients into a fine mixture.

Moisten a clean broad plastic sheet . Take a small blob of the above mixture and lay it on the plastic sheet at frequent intervals.

Allow it to dry in sunlight for 2-3 days. When completely dried store them in airtight containers.

Avial

A medley of vegetables cooked in coconut milk. A traditional tamil dish.





Ingredients:

vegetables cut into 1" pieces lengthwise ---- 2 cups (vegetables like carrot, french beans, cluster beans,drumstick, green peas,potato, capsicum, ash gourd, pumpkin, raw banana)

Gratings of 1/2 coconut
green chillies--- 4 nos( if you want it spicier add 2 more)
jeera ---------- 2 teaspoon
curd --------- 1/2 cup( for sour taste)
edible coconut oil -- 1 table spoon(for garnishing)
salt to taste

Method:
Grind coconut gratings, jeera and green chillies in a mixer.
In a dish boil vegetables with salt.
When the vegetables are boiled, add the ground coconut mixture into the dish.
Switch off the stove when the vegetables and coconut mixture have blended.
When cool, mix in the curd into the vegetables.
Finally garnish with coconut oil.

P.S: Never reheat avial, since it has curd.Garnish it with plain coconut oil.
Vegetables like raddish,lady's finger and brinjal are not used for avial.

Milagu kuzhambu

This is a spicy and tangy sauce made with pepper and tamarind. This is a comfort food during winters and rainy season and kindles our taste buds post-fever.

Black peppers remove the toxins from our body and is called 'Visha kolli' in tamil meaning killer of toxins.

Ingredients:

Pepper--- 2 Table spoon

Dry red chilli --- 4 nos

Coriander seeds--- 1 tablespoon

Toor dal---- 1 spoon Optional ( this is added to thicken the kuzhambu)

Curry leaf --- 5-6 sprig

Tamarind juice extracted from 2 lemon sized balls

Mustard --- 1 tea spoon

Asafoetida -- ¼ teaspoon or its equivalent piece

Turmeric – a pinch

Gingelly oil --- 1 table spoon

( a piece of ginger and a tea spoon of cumin can be added if you desire. This is generally not added in milagu kuzhambu)

Method:

Roast toor dal, coriander seeds, dry red chilli, curry leaf and pepper in 2 tea spoons of gingelly oil and grind them. Add the ground paste to the tamarind pulp and mix in a pinch of turmeric and asafoetida. Dilute the mixture with a cup of water.

In a wok( preferably iron wok), splutter mustard seeds in 1 table spoon of gingelly oil. After it splutters, add the above tamarind and ground pepper mixture and bring it to a boil . (milagu kuzhambu in kal chatti)

Has a shelf life of two days outside refridgerator.

Mix it with hot rice and ghee/gingelly oil.

Akkara vadisal

Sugar sweetened milk rice usually done on ocassions.

Ingredients:
rice ----1 cup
milk ----2 cups
water--- 1 1/2 cups
sugar ----- 2 cups
saffron strings soaked in a tablespoon of milk or saffron color (optional)--- a pinch
cardomam powder ----- a pinch
cashew nuts and raisins ---- 2-3 spoons
Ghee for roasting nuts and raisins.

Method:

Add a table spoon of ghee and roast the raw rice lightly.

Pressure cook the rice in 2cups of milk and 1 1/2 cups of water till soft.

After it is cooked well, mash the rice and make it more pulpy with a cup of milk.

In another vessel, make a sugar syrup with 2cups of sugar and a little water, once the sugar dissolves in the water add this syrup to the mashed rice and mix well with saffron strings and cardomam .

Garnish with raisins and cashews roasted in ghee

Narthelai podi (vepilai katti)

This is a traditional accompaniment known to natives of Thanjavur. Usually accomapanies Curd rice but now I spice up my oats porridge with this aromatic powder. Narthelai in tamil means leaves of citron.

Ingredients:
Narthelai( tender leaves of citron) ---- 1 handful
red chilli ---- 1no. ( just one will do for one handful)
Ajwain seeds ----- 1/4 tsp
salt to taste.

Method:

Pound all the ingredients together in a small pestle or grind it coarsely in a mixer.



This coarse powder is not made in my kitchen but it definitely adorns my kitchen shelf. This is made at Lalgudi ( My MIL"s maternal home) from freshly plucked tender leaves of narthangai (citron) tree grown in the backyard. The lemony aroma of this powder makes you feel fresh at once. I wonder if this is the reason lemon oil is used for medicinal therapy.

Murunga keerai poriccha kootu

This is a thick gravy cooked with dal(lentils) and murunga keerai( drum stick leaves).

Murunga keerai ---- 2 bundles/ 4 cups of de stemmed leaves.
moong dal --- ½ cup
1 tea spoon of rice flour to thicken the gravy.

Ingredients to grind

Urad dal --- 2 table spoon
Dry red chilli --- 5 no’s
Cumin seeds ---- 1 tea spoon
Grated coconut ---- ½ cup
Black pepper corns – 1 spoon( if you desire it spicier)

For seasoning:
Mustard – 1 tea spoon
Urad dal – 1 teaspoon
1 sprig of curry leaf.


Method:

First destem the murungai leaves( drumstick). This can be easily done if the bundles are tied overnight in a wet cloth. In the morning the leaves are loosened from the main stem. Very importantly clean them well and remove the little twigs that may be present else this may get caught in the throat.

After washing them well, boil them with salt and turmeric. Keep this aside. To this add the boiled moong dal.

Roast urad dal, red chilli cumin seeds and pepper corn in a teaspoon of oil. When cool grind them with coconut and add this to the cooked keerai and boil them.
While the gravy has boiled well, add a spoonful of rice flour mixture to thicken the gravy.Allow it to boil for some more time.

In a small wok, add a teaspoon of oil and splutter mustard, urad dal and curry leaf.
Add this garnishing to the kootu.


We can substitute murunga keerai with vegetables like chow-chow,snake gourd, cucumber, cabbage, cluster beans,garden beans,pumpkin, ridge gourd or any greens( keerai) like ponnanganni keerai etc.,

Thattai

Thattai are flat, disc shaped savoury. These are also called nippat.







Ingredients:

Processed rice flour ---- 1 cup( see below how to make processed rice flour)
Roasted urad dal flour--- 1 spoon
Jeera ----- 2-3 teaspoon
Butter ---- 50 gms
soaked channa dal----- 1 spoon
white til(sesame seeds)--- 1 spoon (optional)
crushed roasted peanuts(optional) - 1tablespoon
Salt and asafoetida to taste

(if you want it spicier you can add 1 tea spoon of chilli powder/black pepper powder)

Method:

Mix all the above ingredients with butter and enough water to make a tight dough.
Take a big marble sized dough and pat them into circles (dia of 2inch).
Transfer them on to a paper/white cloth to absorb excess moisture.

Fry the circular patterns and flip them both sides in cooking medium. Remove from the oil when the hissing sound drowns. When cool, store them in air tight containers.


Processed rice flour:
This is the base flour for making traditional tamil savories like thattai, kai suttu murukku, cheedai and a sweet called adhirasam.
Raw rice is washed well and the excess water is drained through a colander. After a resting time of 30 minutes, the wet rice is spread on a clean cloth like dhoti and dried under shade. After an hour when the rice is still wet, It is ground finely in a mixer. This wet rice flour is then roasted lightly on an wok. It can be stored in air tight containers when dry and can be used as and when required.
hattai

Uppu Cheedai

Uppu Cheedai is a marble sized fried savoury especially made on Krishna Jayanthi. Vella cheedai is the sweeter version made with jaggery.

Ingredients:
Processed rice flour ----1/2kg( see below how to make processed rice flour)
Roasted urad dal flour--- 1 ladle
Gratings of coconut ---- 1 ladle (optional)
Soaked channa dal ---- 1 table spoon
Jeera ----- 2-3 teaspoon
Butter ---- lemon size(50 gms)
Salt and asafoetida to taste

Mix all the above ingredients with butter and sprinking of water to make a scrambled dough. Make small marble sized balls of even size and fry them in cooking medium.

Note: If the dough is watery , the cheedais are likely to burst while frying, also while making the balls ensure all are of the same size.

Processed rice flour:
This is the base flour for making traditional tamil savories like thattai, kai suttu murukku, cheedai and a sweet called adhirasam.
Raw rice is washed well and the excess water is drained through a colander. After a resting time of 30 minutes, the wet rice is spread on a clean cloth like dhoti and dried under shade. After an hour when the rice is still wet, It is ground finely in a mixer. This wet rice flour is then roasted lightly on an wok. It can be stored in air tight containers when dry and can be used as and when required.

Vatthal kuzhambu

Vathal kuzhambu is a spicy and tangy thick sauce which tastes good when mixed with plain rice. Vathals are sun dried vegetables usually made with sundakkai, manathakkali, brinjal, lady’s finger, cluster beans etc. Generally vathal kuzhambu tastes better when done in kal chatti(stone vessel)




(Vatthal kuzhambu in kal chatti along with fried sundakkai)

Tamarind pulp extracted from 1 golf ball sized tamarind.
Sambar powder ---------- 2 table spoon
Salt to taste
Marble sized Jaggery (optional)
Mustard ----- 1 tea spoon
Fenugreek seeds --- 1 teaspoon
Curry leaf --- 1 sprig
A piece of asafetida/powder
Vathal of sundakkai/manathakkali
Gingelly oil--- 2 table spoons



First fry the vathals in a Kadai and remove them from the oil. Keep the fried vathals aside.

In the same oil splutter mustard seeds, then add fenugreek seeds and curry leaves.
To this add sambar powder, immediately pour the tamarind juice and allow it to boil.Season it with salt.

The consistency of the dish should not be too watery/ thick. If it is thick add water and boil. If it is thin, then thicken it with 1 spoon of rice flour paste.

We can substitute vathals with chopped onions or fresh vegetables like drumstick,pumpkin,brinjal.

Urulai roast (my appa's recipe)

Urulaikizhangu is potato in tamil.


Urulaikizhangu roast in an Iron wok

Ingredients:

Potatoes ------1/2 Kg
Curd ----1/4cup
Chilli powder ---2 tea spoon/according to your taste
Turmeric powder ------ 1/2 tea spoon
Salt ---- to taste
Powdered asafoetida----- a pinch
Sugar ----- 1 teaspoon
Cooking medium --- 2 table spoon

Method:

First boil the potatoes,chop them and keep aside.

Mix chilli powder,turmeric,asafoetida,salt and sugar in curd and blend them well.

Marinate the chopped potatoes in the blended mix for ½ hour.

Heat the wok with two table spoon of cooking medium.

Drop the marinated potatoes in the heated wok and fry them till it turns brown.

Tastes good when done in an Iron wok.

Variation: Instead of dicing the potatoes, you can try it with mashed potatoes. This is a recipe customized by my dad who loves cooking. My son has voted this as the ‘ World’s best potato curry’ and he says it tastes good only when his thatha (grand pa) makes this.