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.