Puliyotharai

                    Who dont like puliyotharai. Especially the one which is distribute in temple. Puliyotharai and curd rice is perfect combination.It is also prepared as take away lunch when we go for travel.I remember in my childhood,while traveling mom's use to prepare idli and spicy tomato chutney or we can call it as tomato thokku for breakfast. For afternoon lunch ,they make puliyotharai and curd rice.Why it is best combination is, after having puliyotharai we used to feel thirsty a lot.So curd rice will compensate the thirsty. Though i dont make this puliyotharai often, once in a month i will make it for my husband,who love it. We use to have it with rice vadagam.

Ingredients :

Tamarind - medium lemon size
Rice - 1 cup
Gingerlly oil - 4 tbsp
Venthayam (methi seed) - 1 tbsp
Peanut -  10 no
Mustard seed - 1 tbsp
Broken urad dhal - 1 tsp
Turmeric powder- 1 1/2 tsp
Curry leaves - 3 stem
Small onion - 10 no
Red chilli - 4 no
Hing - a pinch
Jaggery - 2 tbsp

Recipe :

* Soak tamarind in 1 1/2 cup water and drain the water alone.
* Fry venthayam without oil and grind it into fine powder.
* Fry peanut and remove the skin and break it into half.
* Chop onion lengthwise.
* In a cooker,add rice and enough water,1 tsp oil and little salt.Cook such a way that the rice will be little hard and non sticky.Once cooked,transfer it to a plate to cool.
 In a pan,add gingerly oil followed by mustard and broken urad dhal. Once mustard splatter,add hing,onion,red chilli and curry leaves.Once onion is cooked,add turmeric powder and salt.Now pour the tamarind water ,little jaggery , powdered venthayam and close the pan.Keep it in medium flame.Once the oil oozes out and tamarind get thick,add half roasted peanut.Now add the rice slowly and stir it.Once the rice is coated with tamarind mix,switch off the stove and garnish with peanut.

Note :

* This puliyotharai will be tangy,sweet and slightly bitter.
* Venthayam give the bitter taste and jaggery give the sweet taste.
* As like puli kulambu,the main taste in this dish is amount of oil we use.
* Peanut give a crunchy taste to the dish.
* Adjust jaggery and venthayam powder according to the need.Add little initially and add later when needed.

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Kara kolukattai

This is my brother's favorite dish.My amma used to make this often .This will be default dish when my brother visit hometown. We make this dish during vinayagar chadurthi festival . We make sweet kolukattai and spicy kolukattai , but without adding onion .

Ingredients :

Raw rice - 1 cup
Idli rice - 1/2 cup
Onion - 1 big
Green chilli - 4 no
Curry leaves - 4 stem
Coriander leaves - 3 stem
Channa dhal - 2 tbsp
Mustard - 1 tbsp
salt - as per taste

Recipe:

*Grind both rice together with enough salt.The consistency should be slightly thick but not like idli batter and not watery.
*Chop onion and green chilli into pieces.
*Chop coriander and curry leaves.

In thick heavy bottom pan or non stick pan,add oil.When it is slightly hot,add mustard. Once mustard started to splatter, add channa dhal and curry leaves. Fry for awhile. Channa dhal should become crunchy. Now add onion and coriander leaves. Fry till onion get cooked. Now pour the rice batter slowly. Keep the stove flame medium while pouring. Using a spatulla,slowly stir it ,till it become hard and starts to cook.The batter will stick to the bottom of the pan,no problem.slowly stir it for 3 to 4 min. It is not necessary that it should be cooked fully ,as we are going to steam it. Once cooked,switch off the flame and transfer to a bowl.Take small portion of the dough and make it into cylindrical shape and place it into a plate.Once all are done.Take a idli pan or idli cooker and place slowly the kollukattai in idli thattu . Once placed ,close the idli pan lid and stem for 10 minutes. After 10 mintes, take a skewer or any sharp object and poke kollukattai. when removing the skewer from kollukattai,it should come out easily without any batter attached to skewer. Now Kollukattai is ready.

Note :
 *This dish go well with coconut chutney and raw onion chutney.
*This dish need patience because we need to stir it without taking hand,else lumps will be formed .
* When you feel difficulty to make shapes,wipe your hand with water and make shapes.

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Pesarattu

One of my Andra friend shared this recipe to me long time back.I hesitate to try because i thought it wont taste good,i am wrong when i taste it first time. I bored of having same plain dosa,masala dosa and onion dosa,so i tried this recipe.First time ,dosa consistency is not correct,so it came out as uthappam.After trying four or five times,i caught the right consistency for a crispy dosa. This dosa taste little blind,but having it with some spicy red chutney make this dosa more yummier. This time i tried this dosa with peanut chutney.It is good too.

Ingrediants:

Green gram dhal - 1 cup
Idli rice - one fist
Green chilli - 6 no
Jeera - 1 1/2 tbsp
Ginger - 1 inch
Onion - 1 big
Coriander leaves- 3 stem

Recipe:
* Soak dhal and rice together for 4 hours.
* chop green chilli  and ginger into small small pieces.
* Chop onion into very small pieces.
* Chop coriander leaves.

After soaking for 4 hour,grind green gram dhal,green chilli,jeera,ginger and enough salt.Add less water.Grind it in cocnsistency of dosa batter but it should be little thick coarse paste.Heat dosa tava,pour the batter in center and spread it in circle towards out. Sprinkle onion , corainder leaves and finally chopped green chilli(optional if you are serving for kids).Sprinkle some oil on top and close it with a lid.Let it get cooked for 2 min and remove the lid.Cook the dosa for some more minute till the dosa is crispier.Once done,fold it and transfer to a plate.Serve with hot red chutney or ginger chutney.

Notes :
     This dosa will be heavy if we have more than two dosa. We can prepare this dosa with little variation like sprinkling idli podi on top and even apply spicy chutney as a layer and serve.Generally in andra they serve this with upma stuffing(Like masala in masala dosa).

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Poricha kulambu

    Those who feel bored of having sambar daily,can try this recipe. Weekly once i make sambar. My  son got bored of it,so i prepare one week sambar,one week bisibela bath,one dhal rice and one week poricha kulambu. This kulambu will be little spicy and tasty. 

Ingredients  :

Tur dal -1/2 cup
Turmeric powder - a pinch
Carrot - 1
Beans - 2
Drumstick - 5 piece

Fry and grind :Urad dal - 2 tsp
Black pepper - 1 tsp
jeera - 1 tsp
Red chilli - 4
Grated coconut - 1/4 cup

For the seasoning:
Small onion - 3 no
Oil - 2 tsp
Mustard - 1 tsp
Hing - a pinch
Curry leaves - 2  stem

Recipe:

* Chop vegetables into big pieces.
* Chop small onion into small pieces.
* Cook thur dhal in cooker with enough water and turmeric powder.Leave it for 3 whistle. Open the cooker lid ,mash it well and add vegetable pieces . Close the lid and cook for one more whistle.
* Fry the ingredients which is given under "Fry and grind " in less oil and make it into a paste.
              Take a kadai,add oil followed by mustard seed,hing and curry leaves. Once mustard splatters,add small onion.Fry for a minute ,add cooked dhal with vegetables and grounded paste. Cook for 5 to 7 minutes,till the raw smell of grounded paste vanishes.Garnish with coriander leaves and serve with rice or roti.


Note :

*  Add very less water while cooking dhal. The consistency of this kulambu should be thick.
*  Vegetables can also be cooked separately.

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Carrot halwa

     There are different types of halwa in india , like wheat halwa,pushinikai halwa, beetroot halwa,thirunalveli halwa..... I have tasted only the above. Once my neighbour  gave me a sweet which is called carrot halwa. It was yummy but since i don't like ghee,i couldn't enjoy the sweet. So i thought i should prepare this when i have time. When i was searching the fridge,i saw 2 big bag full of carrots which are due to date. So i thought this is the time , I should try carrot halwa without ghee. But in this recipe i gave recipe for carrot halwa with ghee.


Ingredients :

Carrots - 4 cup
Milk - 2 cup
Sugar - 1 cup
Cardamom powder - 1 tsp
Almond ,pista and cherry - Few ( can also add cashew and raisin )
Ghee - 3 tbsp

Recipe :

*  Shred carrot using thin holes in shredder.
*  Chop almond and pista
*  Warm milk in microwave for 2 minutes.

              Take a think bottom pan and add ghee. Fry the almond and pista in the ghee and remove it alone and place it in a plate. In the same pan,add carrot and Stir . Close the pan for few minutes till the carrots are tender,soft and raw smell of carrots goes. Now add the milk and stir for sometime. Cook till the milk get mixed with carrot and absorbed fully by carrots. Now add sugar ( add according to the sweetness of carrot) and stir it . Stir till we get halwa consistency and it is not stick to the pan. We can 1 tsp of ghee now to get that non sticky halwa. Add chopped almond,pista and cherries and mix well. Sweet ,yummy carrot halwa ready.

Note:

* Some will use red carrot for making this halwa.we can use that too.
* Add sugar according to the sweetness of the carrot.
* Whenever we halwa, we should use thick bottom pan. Else halwa easily stick to the bottom.
* This halwa wont be like other halwa which has paste like consistency. This halwa will be little coarse texture.

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Rasamalai

 I tasted rasamalai only few years back.I love rasagulla till i tasted rasamalai. Though i am calorie conscious,i used to have rasamalai once in awhile. I have tasted it in shop,but didnt tried it in home because of its lengthy process. Its is worth it to take time and prepare it when you taste it finally.

Ingredients:

Milk - 8 cup
Lemon - 1
Sugar - 2 1/2 cup
Cardamom powder - 1/2 tsp
saffron - a pinch
pista,almond - few
Muslin cloth - 1

Recipe:

* Chop almond and pista.
* In hand grinder,grind saffron and sugar.In 2 tbsp warm milk,add the grinded saffron.so that it get diluted easily.

1.Take two thick heavy bottom pan and pour milk in equal proportion.Stir both simultaneously .
2. First pan is for the liquid in the rasamalai and second pan for malai.
3. Stir the first pan milk till it reduce to half its volume.Once it is reduced,add 1 cup sugar and 1/2 tsp cardamom powder.Stir well and transfer to a bowl.
4. Squeeze lemon in second pan,the milk slowly curdles.When milk curdles fully and float on top,transfer it to a muslin cloth. The malai should be less moisture.Kneed the malai into fine paste,if it difficult to get paste consistency, sprinkle some maida and kneed it.Once it is fine paste, make into small small balls and flatten it.
5.In cooker add 2 1/2 cup water( enough water to submerge malai) ,sugar and cardamom powder.Boil it ,till it is thicken up. Now slowly drop malai into sugar syrup.Close the cooker lid and wait till 1 whistle. After 1 whislte,switch off the stove and wait for five minutes.
6.Remove the malai and squeeze excess water and add to thick liquid which is prepared already.
Garnish with pista and almond pieces.Store in refrigerator for atleast 2 hour.Rasamalai taste yummy when it is chill.

Notes:

* It look tedious preocess,but if we try once.we like to make it often,like me.
* Stir the milk often,else milk will get burnt and smell reflects in rasamalai.

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Sutta kathirikai pachadi ( Smoked baingan raita)

I loveeeee kathirikai.I love to have it as poriyal,chutney,fry or any form. I love to try any new dish which relates to kathirikai. When I was searching for new recipes online,I came across this recipe which is appetizing. I tried it and had it with chappathi. It is yummy and diffrent than normal raita. We can say it as combination of chutney and curd.

Ingredients :

Big kathirikai(baingan or egg plant) - 2
Curd - 1 cup
Onion - 1 big( preferbly white onion)
Green chilli - 3
Coriander leaves - 3 stem
Curry leaves- 3 stem
Mustard seed - 1/2 tbsp
Broken urad dhal- 1 tsp
Red chilli- 2
Asafoetida - a pinch
Turmeric powder- 1/4 tsp

Recipe:

* Coat kathirikai with little oil all over. Pierce the kathirikai in bamboo skewer or sharp object which wont melt in fire and place it directly on stove flame. Turn the skewer often ,so that kathirikai get roasted in all sides. Once the kathirikai is roasted well,drop it in water. So that it is easy to peel the skin. Smash it well.
* Chop onion and green chilli into very fine pieces.
* Beat the curd and keep it ready.
* Chop coriander and curry leaves.

Take a bowl,add smashed kathirikai,chopped green chilli,onion and coriander leaves.Mix well. Now add the curd and salt,Mix it well. Take a kadai,add oil and add mustard,broken urad dhal,hing ,red chilli,turmeric powder and curry leaves. Once mustard splatter and urad dhal become crunchy,add this tampering to the curd mix. Mix well. Raita is ready.

Note:

* Those who have electric stove,can bake kathirikai in oven.
* Those who don't like raw smell of kathirikai,can cook it while tampering and add to curd mixer.

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Vegetable salna

    After coming to US,we miss many thing. One among it ,is roadside parotta and yummy salna. Being a vegetarian, i dnt prefer to make non veg salna to my husband( as i am lazy to prepare a separate gravy for me. So i was searching for vegetarian version of salna. I got this recipe from online and i can say ,so far i have made it more than 30 times. It taste yummy and satisfies both vegetarian and non vegetarian people. The gravy will taste like non veg salna but prepared with vegetables.

Ingredients :

To grind :
Onion - 2 no
Tomato - 1 medium
Garlic -  3
Ginger - 1 1/2 inch
Coriander seed -  4  tbsp
Jeera - 1 tsp
Black pepper - 1 tsp
Sombu - 1/2 tsp
Red chilli - 4
Pottukadalai - 1 tsp
Pattai - small piece
Cloves - 3
Cardamom - 1 or cardamom powder - 1/2 tsp

Other:
Carrot - 1
Beans - 5
Cauliflower - small bunch
Potato - half
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp


Tampering :
Mustard - 1 tsp
Broken urad dhal - 1/2 tsp
Curry leaves - 2 stem
Red chilli - 2
Hing - a pinch.

Recipe:

 *Grind everything which is given under  "To grind " section with enough water. The consistency should be like a coarse paste.
*Chop all vegetables into big pieces.
                      Take a small cooker,pour the grinded mixture ,vegetables,turmeric powder and salt.Cook for 2 whistle.In a small kadai,add oil,mustard seed,broken urad dhal,curry leaves,red chilli and hing.Mix this tampering to salna and stir it. Close the lid for sometime so that the aroma of hing mix well with salna.

Note :

 * Serve this salna for chappathi and parotta.
 * I just love to make parotta into small small pieces and spread it in a plate.Pour the salna on top ,mix well and have it .Yummy .
* This salna taste yummier when the masala of salna soaked in vegetables.So this salna taste even better when had next day.We used to make kothu parotta with this salna first day and next day have it like the one which i said above.

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Masala egg noodles

After coming to US,i tried many type of noodles. Though each has its own flavour,i love maggie.My all time favorite. My husband by mistake bought maggie atta noodles while grocery shopping . My assumption so far is ,atta noodles wont taste good,but this spicy masala wheat noodles is tastier than normal maggie noodles.


Ingredients :

Maggie atta noodles - 1 big
Onion - 1 big
Green chilli - 2 no
Green peas - 1/4 cup
Egg - 2
Coriander leaves - 1/4 cup
Salt - as per taste

Recipe:

* Chop onion and green chilli lengthwise.
* Take water in a pan and add salt ,little oil.Boil it.Once it comes to boiling point,add dry noodles.Cook till it is little hard but cooked. Don't overcook . After strain the water from noodles,spread the noodles in a plate and keep aside for 20 minutes.

In a kadai,add enough oil,mustard seed.Once splatter,add green chilli. Fry till green chilli skin slightly change color. Now add onion. Fry till it soft and crunchy.Now add masala powder in the packet and fry . Break two eggs and add directly to it. Stir till egg is cooked and coated with masala,if needed can add a pinch of turmeric powder to it.Add cooked green peas and little salt now.Fry for sometime and add cooked noodles.Slowly without breaking the noodles,stir it.Finally garnish with coriander leaves(optional).

Notes:

* Cooking noodles separately will remove the wax in the noodles.
*Spreading the noodles in a plates,makes the noodles to be separate and not stick to one another.
*Masala packet in maggie already contain small pieces of vegetables,so adding green peas is optional.

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Simple podi idli

 When i am bored of having idli and chutney,idli and sambar , i will make podi idli and have it. Since it is spicy, i like that taste.It is very simple and easy to make.

Ingredients :

Mini idli - 10 no
Gingerly oil - 3 tbsp
Idli podi - 4 tbsp
Curry leaves - 2 stem
Salt - as per taste

Recipe:

* Prepare mini idli and allow to cool.

In a kadai,add gingerlly oil.Fry curry leaves and switch off the stove.Now add the idli podi,a pinch of salt and stir well. Now add the steamed mini idli and stir well.Mix till the idli podi mix well with idli.Thats it. simple . Have it when it is hot.

Note:

* If idli podi  don't have hing in it,then add when frying curry leaves.
* This dish should be tasted when it is hot

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Venthaya kulambu(Methi seed gravy)

My mom used to ask me to take venthayam often as it keeps our body cool.One of my friend used to add meethi seed as thalippu for every kulambu.Since my son dont like the taste of bitterness in venthayam,i wont prefer to add it.I like to take it indirectly.so i prepared this kulambu and it came out well and taste yummy .

Ingrediants:

Grinding:
Venthayam - 1 tbsp
Coriander seed - 2 tbsp
channa dhal - 1 tbsp
Red chilli - 6 (my chilli's are not spicy)
Coconut - 2 Tbsp

Kulambu:
Small onion - 6 or 8 shallots
Curry leaves-3 stem
Tamarind - small lemon size or 2 tbsp from tamarind concentrate
Hing - a pinch
Water - 2 cup
Jaggery - small piece
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Mustard seed - 2 tsp
Broken urad dhal - 1 tsp
Oil - 3 to 4 tbsp (i used olive oil,but gingerly oil is apt one for this)

Recipe:

* Soak tamarind in 1 cup water or dissolve tamarind concentrate in 1 cup water
* Fry the ingrediants which are in grinding part in very less oil and grind it without adding water.It should be in thin powder consistency.
* Chop small onion lengthy wise.
* Chop curry leaves into small piece

Take a non stick or thick kadai,add oil followed by mustard seed,broken urad dhal,curry leaves and hing.Fry it for awhile.Now add small onions.Fry till onion are soft.Add tamarind water and 1 cup water.when kulambu starts to boil,add the grinded powder,turmeric powder and salt.To get slightly sweet taste,add jaggery.Close the lid and cook till oil oozes out.Stir it often,so that kulambu dnt get burnt underneath.One oil oozes out,switch off the stove and transfer to a bowl.You can serve this with hot hot rice .Best side dish for this is vadagam.

Notes:

* While frying the venthayam ,dnt burnt it .Burnt venthayam will give more bitter taste.
* Adding jaggery will give sweet taste to kulambu aand also those to dont like bittertaste will also like this kulambu.
* Many used to say,too much oil in this.But when u mix this kulambu with hot rice ,the oil and kulambu will give a yummy taste.Main taste is in the oil.once in awhile we can use 2 tbsp more oil.

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Maravalli kizhangu poriyal(Tapioca curry)

In my childhood,i used to go to my periamma house in kerala for school leave.she use to make many yummy kerala speciality foods like avial,pineapple pachadi,appam..... one of my favourite dish is kanji with kappa(maravalli kizhangu) poriyal.It taste yummy.After my marriage,i came to know my husband like it a lot.After coming to US,intially we missed it because we dont know where it is available,later we came to know it is available in American supermarkets.My husband is more happier than me.so monthly once i used to prepare this dish.


Ingrediants:

Tapioca(maravalli kilangu) - 1 big
Onion-  2 no
Red chilli-5
channa dhal-2 tbsp
Mustard seed-1 tbsp
Broken urad dhal-1/2 tbsp
Hing-a pinch
Curry leaves-4 stem
coriander leaves-3 stem
Turmeric powder-1 tsp
Salt- as per taste
coconut-2 tbsp

Recipe:

* Chop Tapioca into half
* In pressure cooker pour enough water(Tapioca should submerge) ,place Tapioca inside and add turmeric powder and half amount of salt in it.
* Pressure cook for 3 to 4 whistle.Drain the water immediately and transfer Tapioca to another bowl.Else the longer the Tapioca in water,it makes it to become more soft and mussy.
* Peal the skin of Tapioca using knife and chop it into small small pieces.
* chop onion into small piece(not very small)

In kadai,add enough oil and add mustard ,broken urad dhal.When it splatters,add channa dhal ,curry leaves and red chilli.Fry till channa dhal is crispy.Now add hing.The aroma of hing will fill the kitchen.Now add onion.Fry till it is crunchy.(Crunchy onion and crispy channa dhal makes this dish more tastier).Add enough salt(remind,half amount salt is added while cooking Tapioca remaining salt can be added now).Add the boiled chopped Tapioca and give a stir.Once the onion mixer mixed with Tapioca add coconut (optional) and coriander leaves.Yummy tasty maravalli kizhangu poriyal ready.


Notes:
*You can serve this poriyal either with kanji or even for variety rice.
* when you are cooking kizhangu,it should not be cooked more.when it is cooked more than 5 whistle.The kizhangu will become soft and mixed with water leaving stem alone.
* Those who don't like chana dhal,can avoid it. But having maravalli kizhangu with crunchy onion and crispy channa dhal give a maja taste.
*The kizhangu should not be watery when adding to onion mixer because it make the dish to become mussy and look like potato masala which we prepare for puri.so when kizhangu is boiled,transfer it in another bowl and rest  it for atleast half an hour,so that it will be become dry.

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