Potato Peas Paal kootu

This Paal kootu  is a very simple , delicious authentic side  dish .You can make this dish with any vegetables. But My family loves potato and green peas in coconut milk It has mild sweetness. This recipe is my Mothers special I learn it from her. this Paal kootu is my family's favorite dish!

Ingredients:

  Potato - 4 medium.

 Green peas-   ¼ cup

 Coconut - ½ cup

 Green Chili - 2 small

  Rice - 1 tsp soaked

 Coconut Milk/ Milk - 1/4cup

 Coconut Oil - 2 tbsp

 Mustard seeds- ¼ tsp

Urad dal- ¼ tsp

Curry leaves - as per need

Method:

1. Wash the potato well and peel the skin off.

2. Then cut the potatoes into cubes and cook them well. But don’t mash them.

3. Boil the green peas until peas get cooked.

4.Blend the coconut, green chillies and the soaked rice  to a fine paste.

5.Add the ground mixture and salt to the cooked potatoes and peas.

6. Mix them well and Allow to cook up to 5 mins .

7.Heat oil in a pan, add mustard seed, urad dhal,curry leaves &,When they crackle, add to the kootu.

8.Finally add milk /coconut milk and serve with Rice accompanied by sambhar or Rasam.

Nan Khatai (Indian butter biscuits)

Butter biscuits are always in demand in my family, as these are extremely soft very tasty and would easily melted in mouth. Traditionally this is made with clarified butter or “ghee” These are the best Biscuit/ cookies I have ever tried, which is very simple to make and exceedingly good. It is served with a cup of tea or you can munch in between anytime to feel good. However, I baked these biscuit often but never posted in blog. Yesterday I baked this biscuit for me &my neighbor.

 

Ingredients:

Maida/All purpose flour - 2 cups

Powdered sugar - 1 cup

Ghee/Clarified butter - 3/4 cup

Green Cardamom Powdered – 1 tsp

Baking powder- 1/2tsp

Baking soda - 1/4 tsp

 

Method:

1. In a mixing bowl, combine powdered sugar (little at a time) with the softened butter until mixture is light and creamy.

2. In a separate bowl, sift All Purpose Flour with Baking Powder and Baking soda

3. Combine Flour mixture (little at a time) with Butter Mixture to form a soft dough then add cardamom powder and mix well.

4. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and let it rest for 15-20 minutes.

5. Knead dough once again and Make small balls out of the dough, around the size of a small lemon and slightly flatten them between your palms and place them on a greased baking sheet. Maintain some gap between the cookies.

6. Preheat the oven at 180°C. Bake them for about 15 minutes or until u see small cracks on top. Take the tray out of the oven and wait until the cookies cool completely. Store in an air-tight container.

Raw Banana (Vazhakaai) Bajji

Here raining heavily today.and wish to crave some hot crispy and spicy with hot filtercoffee for this rainy evening. There was some raw banana's in the fridge and I decided to make bajji with it. It's a easy snack to make, and right for a rainy day with tea or coffee. Bajji is a simple dish prepared by dipping the sliced vegetable in the batter and deep frying it. For bajji vegetables most commonly such as onion,potato,plantain,eggplant,ridge gourd are cut into thin round discs and are dipped in little spiced chickpea ,rice flour combined batter.Other veggies and greens like cauliflower ,cabbage and spinach are also commonly used.

Ingredients:

Raw Banana-2

Chick pea flour( Besan) –1 ½ cup

Rice flour-1/4 cup

Salt as per taste

Red chilli powder-2tsp

Baking soda –a pinch 
Ghee- 1 tsp

Water  as per needed

Oil for frying

Method

1 ) Make a thick batter by mixing besan, rice flour, chili powder, ghee, salt to taste along with enough water.

2 ) Cut banana into thin slices longitudinally. Discard the skin on both edges of the banana, if you do not prefer the skin.

3 ) Heat oil in a kadai or wok. Dip and coat each banana slice well with the batter and deep fry in medium hot oil till golden brown in color. Drain out of the oil and place in a platter to serve.

Serve hot  with coconut chutney.

Thakkali kai kootu

Tomatillos (Raw) curry - Thakkali kai kootu

Tomatillos (Pachai Thakkali also called green tomatoes) are cheap and available easily in Market. I love this Kootu for its tangy flavor. This kootu can be made quickly with dal and I usually add Dals in part of our daily meal. In that way I keep adding some or the other vegetable to the dals and make them into kootu, or in dry curry. So here is the simple and healthy raw tomato kootu. This kootu can be made quickly and had with Rice or Roti.

Ingredients:

Tomatillos/ Thakkali kai – 4

Moong dhal- 1 cup(cooked)

Grated/shredded coconut -1/2 cup

Turmeric powder- ¼ tsp

Mustard seeds - 1 tsp

Black gram dal – 1tsp

Red chillies - 3 nos.

Curry leaves – few

Salt to taste

Oil  - 1 tsp

 

Method:

1.Wash and cook the dal and keep it aside. Cut tomatillos into small pieces.

2.Preheat pan add chopped raw tomato with water, to cook until done.

3.Blend coconut with Red chilli & grind to a fine paste.

4.Then Add cooked moong dhal &coconut paste in the raw tomato ,mix  & cook well.

5.Temper with mustard seed, urad dhal & curry leaves.

6.Serve with Rice,or Rotis.

Thattai & Mullu Thenkuzhal

Sri Krishna Jayanti marks the celebration of the birth of Bhagavan Sri Krishna. Krishna Jayanthi also called as Krishna Janmashtami/Gokulashtami is celebrated every year during the month of Avani on Krishna Baksha Ashtami. SriKrishna Jayanthi, is celebrated by preparing a lot of sweets & snacks.Houses are decorated with little feet drawn with flour paste symbolizing the entry of the child Krishna into the house. .   On the evening during the sunset, devotees will do pooja for Lord Krishna and offer the Lord with butter,fruits,vella seedai, Cocunut Seedai , Appam, Thattai,Aval and some more delicious foods. Here are few recipes we make for this festival.

A crispy tasty snack that’s a traditional South Indian delicacy. Thattai is a yummy savory delight prepared during many festivals in our village. Thattai is one of the snack I prepared always at home and especially on Gokulashtami Thattai can also be served as a tea time snack.

 

Ingredients:

Rice flour – 2 cup

 Urad dal flour 1to 2 tsp   

Butter /ghee– 1 tablespoon

 Red chilli powder – 1 teaspoon

 Bengal gram (soaked for one hour) – 1 tablespoon

 Asafetida powder –1/4tsp   

 Curry leaves – few torn into pieces

Coconut sliced pieces 2 tspOptional)

 Salt – as per need

  Oil – for frying

Water - as needed

Method:

1.Dry roast rice flour for 2-3mins. Set aside. Then dry roast urad dhal flour for 3mins. Set aside. 

2.Soak channa dal in water till immersing level for 30mins. After that drain water and keep the channa dhal aside.

3.Now in a mixing bowl add rice flour, urad dhal flour, , butter, channa dal, coconut(if you are adding), chilli powder,curry leaves  salt and hing. Mix well until all is combined.

4. Add water little by little to form a soft dough and knead it to a tough dough (but must be soft enough to shape it into lemon size balls).

5.Take a piece of plastic paper, spread oil in the paper, make small ball of the flour, and keep it in paper..

 

 6.Grease the fingers with oil and press the ball to flatten it till its very thin. Prick the thattais with a fork to avoid puffing up 

7. Heat oil, keeping in medium flame and Slowly turn the plastic paper over your palm. The greased plastic will enable flattened thattai to slip on your hands easily

8.Carefully drop the thattais and Turn them to cook evenly and fry until golden brown.

 9. Drop them on a paper towel to drain excess oil

10 Once cooled, store them in an air tight container.

Mullu Thenkuzhal

The recipe is basically quite simple. Some freshly ground rice flour, some moong and chana dal lightly roasted and ground into powder, salt, chilli powder and some hing. Some butter to give it an extra bit of crispness and make a stiff batter is made using water & is pressed out through a thenkuzhal naazhi into hot oil. . They used to be perfectly golden & crisp & really melting in the mouth.In our home and thenkuzhal/ mullu thenkuzhal  is one of the favorite recipe and I make this often for many festivals.

 

Ingredients:

Rice flour - 2 cups

Moong dal - 1 cup

Channa dal - 1 cup

Asafoetida - a pinch

Jeera - a few

Butter - 2 tbsp

Salt - as required
Method:

1.Dry roast the moong dal and channa dal in a kadai. Allow it  to cool. Soak Raw rice in water for an hour.

2.Drain the water & spread it on the towel to make them dry. it should be moisture Grind thi rice in a mixier into a fine Powder & keep it aside.

3.In same mixer, grind the dal in to fine powder and sieve this to a very fine powder
4.Take this very fine powder 1 cup and rice flour 2 cups in a bowl. Now add melted ghee or butter asafoetida, jeera and salt to this flour and mix well without any lumps.

5.Now add water little bit little to make into a dough consistency.
6.Meanwhile, heat oil in a kadai . when the oil is hot enough, put this dough in the "mullu thenkuzhal" mould and press it firmly in a circular motion over the wet cloth.

7.Heat the oil  to medium heat.Gently slide the murukku into the oil and fry on both side till it become light golden brown colour.

8.Drain & cool it before serving.Store it in a air tight container.

Porivilangai Urundai

Porivilangai Urundai

Porivilanga is a famous "pandam" ( Pandam means dish)in  our Tirunelveli dist. porulvilanga urundai is  a traditional recipe and  it is a nutritious pack of, protein rich peanuts, roasted gram, mung dal, dry ginger which aids in digestion. The name of the sweet ball means that the consumer may not know what it consists of. Which translates as, "porul - meaning, vilanga - cannot understand, urundai - balls", which denotes that, one cannot make out the ingredients that has gone into the making of this laddu. But now the word is modified to "Porivilanga" in due course time.  In this sweet Actually we can add more the ingredients as per our taste. ( Wheat, channadal, barley, sago, almond, cashew nut ,etc.), This Laddu Its taste will be yummy but it becomes harder to bite after an hour of preparation. poriviLangai urundai used to be the jawbreaker .Usually it is very hard and needs to be broken using even a hammer sometimes! Good notes about this dish not require any fats in the form of ghee /r butter, nor does it contain refined sugar! I remember those wonderful days when my grand mom used to prepare porulvilangai urundais for all of us.She & my mother used to make large size balls by pressing the mixture in both hands, but what I have done is relativelyasmallersize.

 

 Ingredients:

Green gram/ pasipayiru- 2 cups

Parboiled rice- 1 cup

Roasted gram/pottukadalai- ½ cup

Peanuts-½ cup

(Dried coconut kernels) - 2 tbsp (finely chopped)

Dry ginger (sukku)- 1 tsp          

Cardamom – 1tsp

Jaggery – 2 cup           

 

Method:

1. Roast the grains and dals separately, in a kadai,till good smell comes and raw taste gone or to brown colour.

2. Mix the roasted and cooled grains and dals together along with sukku /drygingerand pound it to a fine powder. . If it is not fine, sieve it into fine powder again and add and cardamom powder.

3. Heat grated jaggery with 2 tbsp of water. |When it melts strain it to remove dirt in it and heat in a thick bottomed pan again. When it starts boiling and gives off nice flavour and starts bubbling, and form the syrup to the uruttara patham (rolling stage ) which means if you test the syrup a little in water it can be rolled. put a drop in a small bowl of water to check if it is ready. If you are able to make a small ball out of the cooled drop, it means the syrup is ready

4. Then add the powders and Pour little by little syrup on a portion of flour. mix well and and lift out in hand and make balls while it is still hot.

 

5. Keep them on a plate to cool and store in airtight jars.

Enjoy this Traditional Nutritious dish!

Fruit Pachadi

In our home for festivals and function we usually make tomato Pachadi and MangoPachadi. Apart from that Fruit Pachadi is a rich traditional dish served at Tamil weddings and big function. For Fruit Pachadi we can use availability of fruits or our favorite fruits. This sweet Pachadi is one of my favorite dish.

Ingredients:

Tomato- 1 cup

Pineapple sliced- 1 cup

Mango  - 1 cup

Banana- 1 cup

Grapes Seedless- 1 cup

Pomegranate- 1 cup

Dates, deseeded -few

Raisins - 1 tbsp

Cashew nuts - 1tbsp

Sugar- 2 cups (If sweet tooth can add more half cup)

Method:

1.Peel and cut the pineapple and mango into small pieces. Chop the grapes into half pieces.

2.Wash and chop the tomato into small pieces. Slice banana and keep aside.

3.To a heavy-bottomed vessel add sugar and water and prepare sugar syrup into one string consistency.

4. Add chopped tomatoes, sliced banana, seedless grapes, mango pieces,pomegranate, and pineapple pieces into sugar syrup and stir well on a low flame.

5.Cook until it begins to leave the sides and reach a pachadi consistency.

6.Add the dates, cashew nuts, raisins separately and Mix well.

Serve warm or chilled.

SevenCup Sweet

Avani Avittam is a most important ritual for Brahmins. It is a ceremony of changing the sacred thread (poonal). It is called Upakarma, and it is the most important 'Karma' (duty) for the one born as a BrahminThe celebration of Avani Avittam is a reminder of the spiritual significance of the sacred thread.Avani Avittam is celebrated with its own set of special food preparations. The important ones being the Neiyyappam the Paruppu Vadai and the Paal Payasam Morning Breakfast served with one sweet. So Today’s special  I made this delicious seven cup sweet.

Seven Cups Cake /Sweet is a delicious sweet that can be made with available ingredients in home. This sweet is called 7 cups because there is a 7 cup measure that is followed to prepare this recipe. All the 7 cups of ingredients are placed in a pan and that’s it, cook them all together to make this delicious treat. Seven cup burfi is a very simple sweet and easy to make in less time and a very good dish for all festivals. ,.It tastes similar to Mysore Pak.

Ingredients:

 Besan Flour-1 Cup

 Ghee-1 Cup

 Sugar-3 Cup ( I used only 2 cups)

 Coconut-1 Cup

 Milk- 1Cup

Cardamom Powder- ½ tsp

Method:

1.Grease a tray with ghee and keep it ready.

2.Take a heavy bottom pan, add sugar & Stir until sugar is dissolved.

3.Grind coconut into smooth paste. Then mix gram flour in milk without any lumps.

4.Then Add this ingredients coconut paste, ghee ,milk& besan into sugar syrup  stir  continuously by keeping the flame low.

5.Slowly the mixture will get solidified and  starts to leave the sides of the pan without sticking, then that is the right stage to remove the  sweet from the flame.

6.Add the cardamom powder & switch off the stove. Then pour the entire mixture over the greasy plate Spread evenly. Allow to cool .Cut in to any desired Shape, Enjoy :).