Kondai Kadalai sundal and about Soul Food Show

This sundal recipe is often made at my home; be it during festivals or just on an ordinary day. I've grown with this recipe and never got bored.

I would say this is perfect evening snack for kids as it is rich in protein and of course easy to prepare. I make this for my son atleast once during a week though he munches very little of the sundal. I prefer black channa for the sundal recipe to white channa or kabuli channa as I feel it tastes quite bland.

My Friend Viji at Virundhu Unna Vanga is hosting an event named Soul Food Show at her space to celebrate her first blog anniversary. She is so sweet and so are her recipes. I had a chat with her only for few minutes but I feel as if I knew her since my childhood. I request fellow bloggers to contribute as much as possible to make her event a huge success and she has announced fabulous gifts too.

Here goes the recipe.

Ingredients:

Karuppu Kondaikkadalai / Black Channa/ Chickpeas 1/2 cup
Dried Red Chillies 1-2
Curry Leaves  few
Grated Cocont 1-2 tsp
Salt

Preparation:

Soak Kondaikkadalai in water overnight.


Method:

Pressure cook Kondaikkadalai for 2-3 whistles.

Heat Oil in a Pan. When hot, add mustard seeds. When they start popping up, add curry leaves and chillies.

When they start sizzling, add cooked Kondaikkadalai. Sprinkle salt and stir well. Fry till the tempering gets mixed well with Kondaikkadalai.

Now add grated coconut. Fry for few more seconds and till done. 

Serves: 1
Serve as an evening snack or an offering to God.

Linking this recipe to Soul Food Show at Virundhu Unna Vanga and Walk through memory lane happening at My Home Mantra initially started at Gayathri's Cook spot and Healthy Me & Healthy Us event at Mharo Rajasthan Recipes..

Ivy Gourd Fry II

I've heard people hating Ivy Gourd next to Bitter Gourd. Surprisingly my 3 ½ old son likes it. So Ivy remains staple in our weekly grocery list though he eats only 1-2 table spoon full of Ivy Gourd Fry. But I was really bored with the regular stir fry. I remember watching a TV cook show of Ivy Gourd Bajji. 

When I searched for the bajji recipe, I came across this wonderful recipe in this blog. Thanks Solai (hope that is your name) for this recipe. It is just a regular stir fry with few special ingredients. This has become a regular recipe here every week and I didn't make my own simple Ivy Gourd recipe since many months. 

After making it several times, I remembered my relative making Bitter Gourd with this preparation. Somehow, I have totally forgotten that. Thanks to the blogger friends and the blogging world without which we tend to forget our own recipes as we are much influenced by western food.

Ingredients:

Ivy Gourd ¼ kg

Sambar Powder 1 tbsp levelled

Chilli Powder ½ tsp

Besan / Chick pea flour/ Kadalai Maavu 2 ½ tsp

Salt to taste

Water 1 ½ cups

For tempering:

Mustard seeds ½ tsp

Urad Dhal  ¼ tsp

Curry Leaves few

Asafoetida a pinch

Pearl Onions few

Turmeric Powder ⅛ tsp

Preparation:

Cut Ivy Gourd length wise into four equal pieces. Combine the chopped Ivy Gourd, Sambar Powder and salt in a bowl and set it aside for ten minutes. Chop pearl onions.

Method:

In a Pan, heat Oil. Add Mustard seeds. When they start popping up, add Urad dhal, curry leaves, Asafoetida, Turmeric Powder and lastly add Pearl Onions. Fry till the onions become transclucent.

Now add the Ivy Gourd (already mixed with Sambar Powder and salt). Fry for few minutes and then add water. 

Cook till there is very little water left. Mean while, combine chilly powder, chickpea flour and a pinch of salt. Sprinkle this mixture over the Ivy gourd. Cook for few more minutes until the Ivy Gourd is well coated with chickpea flour mixture.

Serves: 2

Serve with sambar or curd rice.

Notes: Increase chilly powder and Sambar Powder according to your taste. This recipe is less hot as it is made for my toddler son.

Linking this recipe to Soul Food show event happening at Virundhu Unna Vanga.

Khandvi for SNC Challenge

Khandvi is a famous gujarati snack. Though the name seems to be quite familiar (may be because of the blogging world) to me, I've never tasted this. 

I've never visited North India. Hyderabad is the northern most city I've visited till now. Thanks for creating this challenge, Divya. I am able to try different recipes from other parts of our own India where I've never visited and heard very less about their recipes. For those who are new, south and north challenge happens every month. Someone from North team would come up with the northern recipe and challenge the south team. The same way, someone from south team would challenge the northern team with southern recipe. For more info, click here.

When Hetal has posted this recipe for SNC-April here, I thought it is a simple recipe with handy ingredients and the twist of the recipe is just with the rolls. I was right; but making rolls is not that easy. One has to be faster at the same time, be patient and attentive. 

I've tried this recipe three times and only during the fourth time, my rolls were quite perfect. The first time when I made it, it burnt slightly as I was not much attentive. I thought there is enough water and would not burn. But I was wrong. The second time when I tried, I couldn't roll better as I took the batter from heat quite earlier. The third time when I tried, I could roll as I removed from heat at the right time, but didn't spread the batter better so it got cut while rolling.

If not for this SNC challenge, I would have never made this. Thanks Hetal for this recipe.

                                                                                                                          

Ingredients:

Besan/Chick pea flour 1 cup
Sour curd 1/2 cup

Water 1 ½ cups

Sugar 1 tsp

Turmeric Powder ¼ tsp

Salt to taste

For tempering:

Mustard seeds 1 tsp
Sesame seeds 1 tsp
Coriander leaves few
Asafoetida few
Curry leaves
Grated coconut 2 tbsp
Oil

Preparation:  

Keep yoghurt at room temperature overnight (without refrigerating) to make it sour.

Preparation:

In a mixer, combine the flour, water, sugar, salt, turmeric powder and sour curd. Blend till it forms a smooth and runny batter. Make sure there is no lumps.

In a heavy bottomed pan, pour the batter and heat it on a low to medium flame. Never go unattended or increase the flame. The batter would settle down in the edges of the pan, try to remove that and bring it to the center and continue stirring. You may find lumps while stirring. It is absolutely normal and they get easily absorbed in few minutes.

When it reaches the consistency of a paste, take a small batter with a spoon and place it on a greased back side of a thali or stainless steel plate.  If it can be rolled after it cools a bit, then it is the right consistency. Otherwise, increase the flame and continue stirring till the right consistency is reached.

Once reached, remove the entire batter and pour it over the greased plate(s). It would not pour so easily as the batter is very thick. Let it fall down on the plate. With a kitchen knife, spread and level them to make it thinner. Make sure the batter doesn't get cut while leveling. One has to be very fast in pouring and then leveling otherwise, the batter gets cooled and leveling becomes impossible.


Also, keep the greased plates ready. Cut them into vertical strips and roll once it is cooled. Arrange them in a serving plate and pour the tempering over them.

When the right consistency is reached, one can also use a spoon to spread in batches (in small quantities, one by one). But I found  it difficult as I was not very fast and the batter gets cooled very soon. Try to switch off the fan too.

This is not easy at the same time not something impossible. If we remain patient and attentive, the rolls come out super easy and like magic. If you are a part of south team and working on khandvi, my advice to read all the posts of those already done so that you can find out what went wrong and get some more tips. That is what I did; so thanks for all those who posted earlier. I am quite happy that it turned out good but I wanted it to be much more thinner. I think with much more practice, I would be able to make much more thinner rolls.

Linking this recipe to SNC of this month.

 

Thengai paal sadam / Rice cooked in coconut milk

Thengai paal sadam (Thengai paal - Coconut Milk; sadam - Rice ) is my most favorite recipe that is often made in my family and also in my extended family and is a must served recipe for guests. This looks simple but flavorful and goes with both vegetarian and non vegetarian curries; that is its specialty.

This is very easy to prepare once extracting of coconut milk is done. I made this recipe once with the store bought coconut milk. But I find it not much tasty as made with home made coconut milk. Also this tastes much better when prepared in Jeeraga samba rice to basmati or raw rice.

My Mom usually prepares this along with a rich and thick tomato gravy with all the vegetables added and without adding coconut. But since I am preparing this just for two of us, I made egg fry instead of gravy as an accompaniment to this rice. Also, coconut oil is traditionally added for recipes like this. But I prefer normal cooking oil as the coconut milk itself brings so much flavor and taste to the recipe. 

This recipe is always made when we all gather together in our aachi's (grand ma) place and they make it in electric rice cooker so that it stays warm for a longer time.  There is no one in our family who hates this rice. On the contrary (but as usual), my hus hates this to the core. So I make this very rare here.

 

Ingredients:

Jeerga samba rice 1.5 cups
Coconut 1/2
Onion (small) 1
Garlic 6-7
Green chillies 3
Fennel seeds few
Cloves few
Bay leaves few
Cinnamon few strips
Coconut Oil / Oil

Preparation:

Extract coconut milk of 2 ¾ cups from half coconut. Cut onions lengthwise. Slit chillies.

Method:

In a pan, heat oil, add fennel seeds, cloves, bay leaves cinnamon, garlic, chillies and onion. Fry till the garlic softens and onions become translucent.

Now add the rice. Fry for a while and then add coconut milk. Now add salt and give it a stir. Allow boiling on a high flame. 

When the water level decreases the rice level (you can see small holes), simmer the flame (the lowest), close the lid and cook for 5 more minutes. Now open the lid. Use a fork to see whether rice is done. If not, cook for some more time.   

If cooking with a pressure cooker, allow one whistle.

Serves: 2
Serve with vegetable curry and raita. I served with raita and egg fry.  

Notes: Add little more spices and cashew nuts to this rice so that it becomes much more tasty and flavorful. 

Linking this recipe to Soul Food Show at Virundhu unna vanga and Walk through Memory lane event started by Gayathri's cook spot and hosted by My Home Mantra this month.
                                                       

How to prepare basic Indian Tea?

You may think when everyone is posting Masala tea recipe, why has she come up with a basic tea recipe? To be very frank, I do not know how to prepare good tea till few months back. Whatever proportions I follow, I end up with many imperfections..!!! I make it watery or milky or thick. I cannot blame myself too because I am from a family who buy tea powders very rare or only for the tea-loving guests. I have had chukku coffee, chukku malli coffee, filter coffee, capuccinno and what not!! We buy coffee powder from the shops that grinds coffee powder and rarely buy instant coffee powder.

I had tea only when it was served in my office. Also, when I become too tired or lazy, I simply like to drink coffee from the machine in the office. So tea was of very less importance in life. On the contrast (but as usual), my Hus is a tea lover. He likes to taste and try different varieties of tea available in the world. Here in Jeddah, we get tea bags and powders from every brand available from all over the world. I had to invest much time in finding a way to make better (at least) tea as he has the habit of drinking tea 2-3 times a day.

I searched on internet but nothing gave me a perfect tea recipe that my Hus is looking for though I got to learn different tea recipes and few ideas. At last, after many trial and errors, this recipe is successful and now it has become a regular drink here.

Ingredients:

Tea powder 2.5 tsp (levelled)

Sugar 1 1/4 tsp for a cup

Water 1 whole cup

Fresh Milk 1 whole cup

Cardamom pods 3-4

Preparation:

Slit Cardamom pods.

Method:

In a Pan, heat water and cardamom pods together. When it starts boiling well,  add the tea powder.

When it starts boiling well and lets out nice aroma, (this would take much less time than boiling water), add the milk. (If you need light tea, stop boiling within very few seconds. If you want it strong, boil it for few more minutes and can add up to 3 tsp of tea powder.)

Boil milk as usual. 

Strain. Add sugar and then serve with biscuits of your choice. 

This would serve two with 3/4 cups of tea. The cardamom pods lets out great aroma and gives nice flavor to the tea. I feel a little more sugar (than needed for a coffee )adds much more taste to the tea.

Ragi Dosa

Its been a long since I made recipes with Ragi. My naughty boy makes already tired me to much more tired. I was just preparing only regular recipes and didn't spend time on energy foods. Now that I am okay in health and started preparing healthy recipes. I started with quite easy and readily available Ragi flour. I feel the  easiest way to include Ragi in our diet is with Ragi Dosa. It is simple to prepare and need not compensate on tastiness.  

Ingredients:

Dosa batter
Ragi flour
Salt and water

Method:

Add Ragi flour to Dosa batter. Add little water and salt. Mix well so that no lumps is formed.

Prepare Dosa as we prepare regualar dosa. Serve with Coconut Chutney.

Notes: I used one ladle full of Ragi flour for 4-5 ladle full of Dosa Batter. This information may help beginners. But it purely depends upon your taste buds.

Linking this recipe to Hearty and Healthy event of My culinary Trial Room