Tying Madisaar - Iyer style

I am going to go out of the usual recipe in this posting. I had a tough time finding a good site that detailed instructions regarding tying madisaar (Iyer style). So I thought of adding one post for that in this site


How to tie madisar Iyer style::

1) Grab and make a bundle on one end of the nine yards and keep it near the spinal cord and soothify the sari once around the body. (keep ur legs as aprat as possible in this step to give space for movement)
2) Bring the sari end in front of you, then grab a small portion and tie a knot just right off your navel.
3) Take the rest of the sari and pass it inbetween the legs and insert/tuck little bit at the back
4) And then soothify the sari in left hand direction once and then throw it over the right shoulder for pallu :)
madisar done..!! :D

Kasi Halwa

Simple yet most yummiest halwa made with just white pumpkin, sugar/jaggery and some milk... seasoned  with ghee & kismis 

Ingredient:

White pumpkin 1 (seeds and skin removed)

Milk 1/2 cup

Sugar 3 spoons

butter (melted will also work) as needed

Dried grapes to garnish

Cardamom for flavoring (3)

Prep: 30 mins

Cooking time: 30 mins

Servings: 4

Method:

Grate the pumpkin and keep it aside. In a shallow flat bottomed vessel, add pumpkin to it, and Cook it until the water in the pumpkin is vaporized (this is the longest process, takes about 15-20 mins). Now stir in milk to the pumpkin (not the full 1/2 cup, little by little), to it and cook it until the pumpkin becomes mushy and is well cooked. 

Finally add butter and sugar (as per taste) and stir until the butter is completely melted and sugar is completely dissolved. Keep stirring until a nice aroma rises. (This takes about 5 mins)

Melt one spoon of butter or ghee, and once it is hot add dried grapes and cardamom, add it to halwa. (this is just for tempering or garnishing) 

The amazing kasi halwa is ready for serving (best served when hot)!

Eggless Chocolate cake

A very simple recipe. To one cup of all purpose flour, add 1 cup of sugar,  1ts of baking soda, 1ts of eno/fruit salt, 1/4 cup of powdered chocolate, 1/4 cup of vegetable oil and water. Beat it all together to make a smooth batter and then bake it at 350'F in a pre-heated oven for 40-45 mins. 

Eggplant roll

A simple recipe with eggplant. Make slices of Eggplant and bake/broil it , then make a  black eyed peas paste (with chili and salt to taste), toss some tomatoes, onions and capsicum in oil. Spread the paste on eggplant and add the tossed veggies and fold it. Yummy eggplant roll is ready

Making Ghee

Making ghee from butter is very simple. Take a thick bottomed kadai, and heat & melt butter in medium heat. Add some crystals of rock salt once all the butter is melted and when the butter begins to boil over add few fenugreek seeds to it and remove from heat. Once the ghee is cool, bottle it in a container. Personally I just love the aroma of a freshly made ghee.

Paserattu and Allum chutney

Paserattu:

It is very easy to make paserattu and it makes a very healthy tiffin or breakfast.

Ingredients:

(Sprouted) Green gram/moong dal - 3cups
Green chili - 6-8
Salt to taste

Prep:
Soak green gram/ moong dal overnight or until sprout.

Procedure:

Grind the soaked moong dal along with green chili and salt in to fine batter in a grinder or blender. Add enough water to bring it in to a thick consistency.

Now take one ladle of the batter and spread it on a heated tava/gridle just like dosa/crepe. Make sure to make it not very thin or thick. After a min turn the paserattu over to cook the other side. After 30s remove and serve it with chutney.


Allum Chutney:

Allum chutney is sweet and sour ginger chutney. It goes very well with the moong based paserattu.

Ingredients:
Ginger - 2 inches
Tamarind
Jaggery
Curry leaves - 5-6
Salt to taste

Procedure:


Cut ginger in to small pieces and saute it with 1ts of channa dal, cumin seeds, coriander seeds, a pinch of asafoetida, tamarind in 2ts of heated oil in a pan. Once the raw smell of the tamarind and ginger is gone, remove the pan from heat and let it cool.

Once cold add a little amount of jaggery to the mixture and grind it in to fine paste in a blender. Then boil this paste in a thick bottomed pan. Add salt to taste. Your allum chutney is ready.


Hope u enjoy this recipe!!

Morkootu

 

Morkootu, is my hubby's fav. It is very easy and really tasty.

Ingredients:
Channa Dal - 1 cup
Toor Dal - 1 cup
Rice - a handful
Green Chili - 5-6
Coconut - 1/2 cup
White Pumpkin
Salt to taste
Curd/Buttermilk - 2 cups

Prep Time:
Soak dal and rice for 1-2 hours

Recipe:
Grind soaked dal, rice and green chilies with shredded coconut in to a nice paste in a blender.

Cut pumpkin in to small pieces and then saute it in a kadai until pumpkin is cooked (should be soft and water). Now add the dal paste to the well cooked pumpkin and boil for 5-10 mins. Then add curd to the mixture and keep stirring. (Make sure that the curd does not start thinning/separating). Heat only for about 2-3 mins. Then remove from stove. Add salt to taste.

Temper it with mustard seeds, cumin seeds, red chili (1 or 2) and curry leaves.

Your yummy Morkootu is ready. Morkootu and beans Paruppu usuli form a great combo. Hope u enjoy this recipe.

Adai

Adai with chutney or sambar is one of my favorites. A lesser known cousin of dosa, adai is a very healthy and filling tiffin recipe of South India. 

Ingredients:

Channa Dal - 1/2 cup

Rice - 1/2cup

Toor dal - 1/4 cup

Urad Dal - a handful or less

Green chillies - 3 finely chopped

red chillies - 5

Ginger - 1 inch

Onion - 1/4 finely chopped

Curry leaves

Asafoetida - a pinch

Optional: coconut - 4ts

Salt to taste

Prep:

Soak all the dals and rice overnight (though 4-5 hours should be enough)

Procedure:

Grind the soaked ingredients together in to a coarse batter along with ginger, red chillies and salt. 

Now add onion, curry leaves, green chillis, coconut and asafoetida to the batter.

Now heat a griddle, add 3-4 drops of oil in the griddle. When the griddle is hot, pour a laddle of  the batter and spread it. Make a hole in the middle and pour a drop of oil in the hole (so that the adai comes crispy). Turn the adai after 1minute and wait until both sides are golden brown.

Adai can be had with tomato-onion chutney or jaggery or avial etc.

Rajma

Rajma, is a Punjabi dish.More than famous it is one of their staple diet. It is very healthy food and is eaten with Chappathi/Naan/Roti.

Ingredients:

Rajma - 2cups
Garam Masala - 1ts
Aam Chur - 2ts/as per taste
Green Chillies - 7
Onion - 3/4
Tomatoes - 2 (roma)
Ginger-Garlic Paste - 2-3ts
Turmeric powder - 2ts

Tempering:
Cumin seeds - 1 ts

Salt to taste

Prep:
Soak Rajma overnight in water.

Cooking time 30 mins
Servings - 5

Procedure:
Pressure cook the soaked Rajma until it is well cooked (not smashed). Drain the water (save the water, it can used in the gravy later. Thus the goodness of Rajma is preserved and the water adds taste to the gravy) and keep rajma aside.

Heat oil in  wide bottomed pan and add cumin seeds to it. Let it splutter, then add cut green chillies and onion.    Saute until the onion starts to turn slight pink, then add ginger-garlic paste. And saute until the raw smell of garlic is gone and the onion turns translucent. Then add garam masala and 3ts of pressure cooked rajma. Saute until nice aroma rises, then add cut tomatoes, turmeric powder, 5ts of cooked rajma and saute. Add little bit of water  (use rajma water), so that tomato can cook easily. Once tomato is cooked well, add rest of the Rajma, aam chur, salt and saute for 2mins. (Make sure you don't smash rajma). Add water so that we have nice gravy. Close and cook for 44-5 mins in medium heat. Then switch off. Your yummy rajma is ready to be eaten with chappathi/naan.

Hint: to increase taste you can also add 1/2 ts of panipuri powder along with garam masala. Add enough aam chur so that u get a slight tangy taste.

Tomato - Sago (sabudana) Vadam

Vadams, known as fryums in English, is a very popular side dish in South India. Vadams made of Sabudana are my personal favourites. Here is the recipe of how to make tomato-sabudana vadams

Ingredients:

Sabudana - 1 cup
Tomato - 3
Green Chili - 3

Prep Time:
1 cup of Sabudana needs to be soaked 1 cup of water overnight

Recipe:
Blend tomato and chili together until they are very nicely blended.

Now add half cup of water to a vessel and start boiling it in medium heat. Add the soaked sabudana to the boiling water along with the water in which sabudana was soaked. Keep stirring. The sabudana beads will start to turn translucent, then add the tomato-chili paste. Add salt to taste and let it come to a boil in medium heat, by now the sabudana beads have become completely transparent. Remove from heat and add just a dash of lemon juice for taste.

It is then dried in sun and can be stored for over a year. Tomato-sabudana fryums can used by deep frying them as required!!! 

Beetroot Rasam

When beetroot is pressure cooked most of the goodness in the vegetable is left in the water in which it is cooked. Beetroot rasam is one way of getting the nutrients that would otherwise be wasted.

Ingredients:

Beetroot - 2
Tomatoes - 1 or 2
Ginger - 1/4 inch
Garlic - 1 clove
Red Chili powder -  2ts
Coriander-cumin powder - 2ts
turmeric powder - 1/4ts
Coriander leaves - 1/4cup

Tempering:
Mustard seeds - 1/2ts
Cumin seeds - 1/2ts
curry leaves - 3 or 4

Salt to taste

Prep Time: 5-10 mins
Servings - 4

Recipe:
Pressure cook the beets. Once well cooked, drain the beets and collect the water in a separate cup. (Or) Pressure cook the beets, once the beets are well cooked (very soft to touch), the blend the beets along with the water in which it was cooked. Blend it soft.

Add oil to vessel, add mustard and cumin seeds and wait untill they start to splutter and then add the ginger and garlic cloves along with curry leaves and fry until there is no longer any raw garlic smell. Now add cut tomatoes along with red chili, turmeric, coriander-cumin powder and cook until the tomatoes are well cooked. Now add the beetroot water to the mixture. Keep adding beetroot water until the consistency is very   runny. Add salt to taste and Bring it to boil and remove from stove. Then add some coriander leaves to give it a nice aroma.

Your Beetroot rasam is ready!!

PS: Beets has a slight sweet taste to it, which gives an excellent flavour to rasam, so avoid excess addition of red chili powder, as it will over power beets taste.

Tomato Pasta - Indian Style

A very simple, perfectly tasty and Indianized pasta recipe. I have heard lot of complaints and dislikes for pasta (me & hubby being one of them) and the main reason has been the bland taste which we find not appealing to our taste-buds. So I decided to try making pasta the Indian style with good amount of taste and spice added to it. It is very simple and really yummy..!! Tomato pasta is just one of the simple styles I tried. I hope you enjoy it.

Preparation Time: 5 mins
Cooking time: 15 mins
Servings: 2

Recipe:
Tomatoes: 3 (roma variety)
Green chili - 2
Onion - 1/4
Red chili powder - 1ts (optional, dont add if u want it bland)
cumin seeds, coriander, salt to taste

Boil pasta in hot water until is soft and well cooked. Drain the water and keep it aside. Add a few drops of oil  and mix it so that pasta doesn't stick to each other.

Heat 1ts of oil in deep-bottomed pan. Add cumin seeds to warm oil and let it splutter, then add green chili and onion and saute until onion turns translucent. Now add cut tomatoes, a pinch of turmeric and red chili powder and saute. Wait until the tomatoes are well cooked and the raw chili powder smell is removed. remove from heat.

Now Add pasta to the tomato mixture and add salt and mix well, until the tomato is evenly spread. Cut few leaves of coriander in to small bits and add to the top to add aroma.

Your Indian Style Tomato Pasta is ready..!! :D

PS: If u want u can add few drops of lemon juice, one bay leaf to add taste.

Mint Fried rice

This recipe is actually my husband's. He loves to cook and makes really yummy food. In this recipe we add Mint leaves, coriander leaves, lots of vegetable. This gives it a very nice and spicy taste.

Recipe:
Mint - 1 cup
Coriander - 1 cup
Green chilies - 6-8
Onion - 1/2
Mixed Vegetables - 1cup
Rice - 1cup
Ginger-garlic paste - 1ts
Bay leaf - 1
cumin seeds, butter, oil, Salt to taste

Preparation time: 30 mins
Servings: 4
Course: Main meal

Add 1ts of butter to deep bottomed pan and let it melt. Once the butter is melted and warm enough, add cumin seeds. As the cumin seeds start to splutter, add 3 vertically sliced green chilies, ginger-garlic paste and bay leaf and saute for 1min or until a nice aroma rises, then add onion and saute until the onion turns translucent. Now add rice and vegetables to it and fry for 3 mins. Make sure that rice does not turn brown. Remove the pan from heat and keep it aside.

Now, to a pan, add 1ts of warm oil, add 2 thinly sliced green chilies and cleaned mint and coriander leaves. Saute them for 2 mins or until the water in the leaves starts leaving. Blend it into a smooth paste.

Add the mint-coriander paste to the rice mixture. Cook them in rice cooker until the rice is done. Add salt to taste.

Your Mint fried rice is ready. You can serve it with some thick curd!!

Methi-Coriander Paratha

Methi (Fenugreek) is very rich in B12 and Vit D while, Coriander is rich in iron. Hence any snack made out of Methi and Coriander is very healthy food to have as it adds to daily nutrition supplement. It is very simple to make Methi-Coriander Paratha. They are generally had as lunch along with some sweets or as dinner along with a glass of milk or chaas (buttermilk).

Preparation time:30 mins
Servings: 3

Recipe:
Wheat flour - 2 cups
Fenugreek (Methi) leaves - 1 cup
Coriander leaves - 1 cup
Big Onion - 1/2
Green Chili - 4 (thai)
Ginger-Garlic Paste - 1 teaspoon
Garam Masala - 1/2 teaspoon
Aam chur - 1/2 teaspoon
Some cumin (Jeera) seeds, asafoetida, salt to taste

Take a bundle of fenugreek and coriander, cut out the roots and clean the leaves. Cut the leaves to small pieces.

Now add some oil to a deep bottomed pan. And add some cumin seeds and let it splutter. Add green chili, ginger - garlic paste and garam masala to it and let it cook until a nice aroma rises takes about 10secs). Now add onion to the mixture and saute until the onion turns translucent. Add the cut fenugreek and coriander leaves and saute for 1min.

Take 2 cups of wheat flour and add a pinch of asafoetida, aam chur, one spoon of oil and salt (to taste),Now add the above mixture to wheat flour and mix very well. Just sprinkle water to the flour as and when required and knead the flour until you a nice smooth dough like shown in the picture.

Now make small balls of dough and then flatten them to the size of a pancake (Tip: touch up with little amount of wheat flour to make the flattening easier).

Heat a flat bottomed pancake pan (girdle) and add a drop or two of oil to it and wait until the pan heats up. Now bake the flattened dough, by turning sides every 10 secs until the paratha is cooked.

Your yummy methi-coriander paratha is ready to be served along with some butter and raitha!! :D

Paruppu Vadai

Paruppu Vadai, is the most favourite vada type in India. This is usually made with a combo of pulses like Pigeon peas (toor dal), Black gram (urad dal) and Split chick peas (Channa dal). They are high in protein content and hence are very good snack.


Recipe:
Spilt Chick Peas - 1 cup
Black Gram - 1/2 cup
Pigeon Peas - 1/2 cup
Red Chili -  6
Some Curry leaves, asafoetida, Cumin seeds, Salt


Making requires 15-30 mins
Preparation requires soaking for 60 mins
Servings 4 plates of 3


Soak split chick peas, black gram and pigeon peas for one hour. And then coarsely grind them together in blender or grinder . Tip: Do not add too much water. 


Add a pinch of Asafoetida (hing) to this, along with red chili (made in to pieces), curry leaves and cumin powder. Add salt to taste. Mix it well


Heat oil in deep bottomed pan in stove at medium heat. Add a small bit of the batter to test the heat. If the piece gets fried and turns golden brown then oil is ready. Make small flattened balls and add them to oil and fry them. Tip: Make sure to fry long enough such that the dough in the middle also gets cooked.


Serve them hot with coconut chutney.

Sundal recipe

Sundal is one of the most common and easy to make snack in South India. There is a festival, called Dusshera or Navratri, a ten day festival, during which a variety of sundals are made one of each day.

Sundals, are very tasty snacks, made out of beans, which are rich in protein. The picture shows sundal made out of Chick peas.

Recipe:
Chick Peas - 1 cup
Dried Red Chilies - 4-5
Curry leaves
Coconut - one handful
Asafoetida, Mustard, Cumin seeds, Salt

Making time 10 mins
Preparation requires overnight soaking
Servings:5

The Chickpeas are soaked overnight and then pressure cooked, so that they loose the hardness and cooked properly to eat. Add 2ts of oil to the pan, add mustard, cumin seeds and let them splutter, then add red chili, curry leaves,pinch of asafoetida and chickpeas. Mix it for 2 mins and then add the coconut scrap and mix again. Add salt to taste and remove from heat. Your sundal is ready to serve

Tip: Do not pressure cook for too long. Otherwise the chickpeas will get smashed in to a paste and wont taste good.

Garlic Rasam

Making Rasam without tamarind juice is an art. With only tomato to provide the tangy taste, the rasam takes an entirely different route through the taste buds.

Here is how the recipe goes:
1)Mid-sized tomatoes - 2
2)Red Chili powder - 4 teaspoons  or green chilies - 4 (thai)
3)Coriander Powder - 1 teaspoon
4)Cumin Powder - 1 Teaspoon
5)Ginger - 5 cm long
6)Garlic - 4
7)Cooking Oil - 2 teaspoons
Mustard,cumin seeds, turmeric powder and salt to taste

Add cooking oil to the vessel, add mustard and cumin seeds (jeera) and wait until they start to sputter, add cut tomatoes to this along with green chili/red chili powder, add turmeric powder, cumin powder, coriander powder and mix. Keep mixing until the tomatoes gets cooked. Now add the ginger & 2 garlic cut to pieces and keep mixing until a nice aroma starts to rise. Then, Add water until the consistency is very runny. Smash the 2 garlic cloves with mortar and pestle and add it to the liquid. Add salt to taste. Cover the vessel and let it come to boil and then switch off the stove.

Add curry leaves and coriander leaves to further enhance the aroma and taste.

Idli & dosa - Batter recipe

Being a Tamil girl, making Idli and Dosa are the basic foundation of cooking, as they are the standard and much loved snack of my hometown. As a kid, I have made the idli and dosa from dough a number of times, but have never tried the batter myself. Nor did I bother to find out the recipe for it. So when I finally tried for the first time, I had to call up my mom, bring out cooking books and Google loads of sites, to get the recipe. And with great enthusiasm, I started on the batter making process. soak all the ingredients, wait for 6-7 hours, grind them in blender, and then keep resultant batter near stove overnight for it to ferment.

Well the first attempt ended in disaster. Though the batter looked good when it came out of the blender, it never managed to get fermented. Ask anyone who has had a Idli, they can tell you that idli from a non-fermented batter is the worst thing that can happen to a person. So the attempt1 was chucked out. So was attempt2, attempt3 and attempt 4. Though I tried various combinations like changing the consistency, the ingredient quantity, keeping it inside oven; nothing worked. I got only the standard non-fermented batter. It drove me mad.

Finally, I decided to change somethings. 

One: I decided to use grinder (u know, the big heavy ones) instead of blender. 

Two: I decided to add lot of water when grinding the batter(forget what others say!)

Three: Soak the ingredients overnight

Four: I am not going to keep it in fridge until it gets fermented, let it take however long it wants :P

And viola, I had the most amazing batter ever. So fully fermented that, it had risen up, overflowed and covered up my entire stove. It was messy, but that didn't stop me from being happy, as I had finally gotten the batter right..!!!

Well here is the recipe:

1 cup of Black gram (urad dal, ulutham paruppu)

3 cups of raw rice (I used sona masoori)

Some fenugreek seeds (methi, vendayam)

Salt to taste

Tips:

1) Grind the urad dal first. Add lots of water (For the given quantity I added about 81/2oz of water) And grind it until is smooth. Might take around 30-40 mins.

2) Remove urad dal paste and then add rice and fenugreek and follow the same procedure as urad dal.

3)  Mix it together well. Do the mixing with your hands and do it for approx. 10-15 mins. This is so the batter gets very well aerated, helps in fermentation.

4) Keep it in the warmest spot of your kitchen overnight or longer time (mostly overnight should be enough if it is warm enough)

5) Once the batter has risen/fermented, punch down the batter to remove the air bubbles. Punch down until it comes back to the original quantity. There will still be lot of bubbles visible on the surface. Leave them be!! 

With the perfect batter at hand, I am already to make my Idlis and dosas. Will post the pics of them soon !! :D