Showing posts with label From the family kitchen. Show all posts
Showing posts with label From the family kitchen. Show all posts

Wednesday, March 21

Neer Kachhayam


Neer kachayam is yet another dish that I learnt from my mother in law which can be snack or tiffin. This in a way resembles the ammini kozhukattai except that the rice flour is different. However, rolling those small marble sized kachayams is the tedious thing to do in this recipe. Like pasta, these kachayams can be seasoned in different flavors as per our taste and creativity; I've shared my mother-in-law's basic version here.


Serves: 2
Preparation Time: 30 minutes
Cooking Time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:

1.       Idly rice – 2 cups
2.       Salt as per taste
3.       Oil – 3 tbsp
4.       Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
5.       Asafoetida – 2 pinches
6.       Urad dal – 1 tbsp
7.       Bengal gram – 1 tbsp
8.       Dry chilies – 3
9.       Curry leaves – 1 sprig
10.   Onion – 1 finely chopped
11.   Garlic cloves peeled – 15

Method:

Step 1: Wash and soak the rice for 2 hours. Grind the rice finely with some water.

Step 2: Heat a heavy bottomed pan, pour the batter, add 1 tbsp of oil, add necessary salt and stir until it becomes thick. Turn off the stove.


Step 3: Take small portions of marble size and roll them smoothly until the entire dough is over. Do it when it is hot, else the dough will become brittle.


Step 4: Steam these small kachayams for 5-10 minutes.


Step 5: In a non-stick pan, heat 2 tbsp of oil, splutter mustard seeds, sprinkle asafoetida, add urad and channa dals, broken chilies, curry leaves and sauté onion and garlic in that until golden brown. Sprinkle a pinch of salt over this.


Step 6: Now add the neer kachayams into this and mix well.


 Step 7: Serve it hot, it does not need any side dish.


TIPS:
* You can season steamed neer kachayams with different dressing of your choice and creativity; I'll share my mom's dressing in another post.
* Even the shaping, you can try shapes like pastas to add more glamour and attract kids.

Monday, March 19

Morkali

One of the big frames of my childhood memories is morkali; those tangy, white, ginger flavored, salty, gooey cubes we love to eat for the early dinners. This is another country dish of tamil nadu. Back then when I was in my native village, dinner is served latest by 7pm before the sun goes to bed. Morkali is quite a filling tiffin and easily digestible. Some people like to have it as soft gooey mass while some have it cut into cubes.

Ingredients:


1.       Idly rice – 2 cups (You can also use rice flour)
2.       Sour butter milk – 1 cups
3.       Salt as per taste
4.       Oil – 3 tbsp
5.       Mustard seeds – 1 tsp
6.       Urad dal – 1 tbsp
7.       Channa dal – 1 tbsp
8.       Curry leaves – 1 sprig
9.       Ginger – 1 tsbp grated
10.     Mormilagai – 5 (if not available use 3 dry chilies)
11.     Asafoetida – 2 pinch

Method:

Step 1: Wash and soak rice for 2-4 hours and grind finely using 2cups water. Alternately you can sieve and mix it in 2 cups of water.
Step 2: Add salt, 1 tbsp oil and butter milk to the rice batter and stir well and leave aside
Step 3: In a tadka pan, heat 1 tbsp of oil, splutter mustard, sprinkle asafoetida, add urad & channa dal, throw in curry leaves, ginger and broken chilies. Turn off when the dals are golden brown.
Step 4: Grease a tray or plate with thick boundary with some oil and keep aside
Step 5: Now boil 1 cup water in a non-stick pan and slowly stir in the batter. Keep stirring continuously to avoid lumps
Step 6: Once it becomes as a single lump, add a few drops of oil and now it would start leaving the sides. Turn off the heat.
Step 7: Spread the gooey mass on the tray and let it cool down.
Step 8: Cut them into squares or diamonds and serve plain or with idly podi.

TIPS:
·         The kali is done if you chew a bit of it and that doesn’t stick to your teeth; you can turn off the stove at this point.
·         Rice requires double the water to cook; measure water accordingly in use from that measure water in every process in between. Excess water would spoil the consistency.
·         Sometimes dry flour requires more water to cook; in such case you can try adding ¼ to ½ portions more than given.

Saturday, March 17

Poopidi

Poopidi – etymology: poo means flower and pidi means fistful in tamil; it is white in colour and is given shape by pressing inside the fist. Sometimes, I use cookie cutter to give it different shapes. This is akkama’s (my paternal grandma’s) delicacy that remind me of her every time I do it; this is one other simple and tasty dish. But there are variants in the same name which I shall share in one of my future posts.



Ingredients:

1.       Broken rice – 1 cup (We call this Upma kappi )
2.       Water -2 cups
3.       Salt as per taste
4.       Cumin seeds – 1 tsp
5.       Pepper – 2 tsp
6.       Coconut chopped finely – 1 tbsp
7.       Oil – 1 tbsp

Method:

Step 1: Heat water with salt in a heavy bottomed pan. When it starts boiling, add the broken rice to it and stir constantly to avoid lumps.
Step 2: Heat oil in a small tadka ladle, crakle cumin seeds, broken pepper in it and keep aside.
Step 3: When the entire water is absorbed, add cumin seeds, pepper and coconut; then mix well and switch off the stove.


Step 4: When it is still hot, make small portions of it into your desired shapes; it can be moulded by pressing inside your fist or by making small balls or by patting them into small patties or moulded in small cups or using cookie cutters shape them.


Step 5: Steam these portions in a steamer and serve hot with chutney or idly podi.

Sunday, March 11

Vella Poori

Vellapooris are deep fried, spicy rice puris savoured in some parts of tamilnadu. These fully puffed puris are thin, crisp and stiff on one side and thick, soft and chewy on the otherside. Usually accompanied by coconut chutney they also go well with tangy rasam.

Ingredients:

1. Idli rice - 2 cup
2. Tur dal - 1/2 cup
3. Dry chilies - 2 or 3
4. Coriander seeds - 1 tbsp
5. Asafoetida - 1/4 tsp
6. Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
7. Garlic - 6 cloves crushed
8. Salt to taste

Method:

Step 1: Wash and soak rice and dal together for 2 hours.
Step 2: Drain the water and grind rice & dal along with coriander seeds and dry chilies with minimum water to get a  thick and coarse dough like mass. 
Step 3: Mix the turmeric powder, asafoetida, salt, crushed garlic and mix well. Cover the dough in a muslin cloth and leave it for 20 minutes. During this time the excess moisture is absorbed both by cloth and the coarsely ground rice.
Step 4: Heat oil in a deep kadai; take a 50gm -60gm portion of the tight dough place in on a piece of muslin cloth and pat into round shape of 2mm -3mm thickness.
Step 5: Place it on your hand with the cloth on the upper side and peel it gently; now slide the vellapoori gently into the hot oil.
Step 6: With slotted spoon (jalli karandi) slightly push the puri into the oil while they keep popping up, this helps to get the puris puff well and full.
Step 7. Flip on other side and get the vellapoori cooked well on lower side and crisp and golden yellow on upper side. 
Step 8: Once the bubbles subside, drain and  place them on kitchen tissue to absorb excess oil. Repeat for the entire dough.
Step 9: Serve hot with coconut chutney.

TIPS:
* The dough consistency is little tricky, here we are making a dough by wet grinding not batter. So far, I never got to make up a watery dough, so I do not have tips in stock. All my mom says is keep in fridge, let the excess moisture get absorbed by rice and use dry wraps of muslin to absorb. More moisture in dough will complicate making shapes and even dropping in oil will be difficult, in addition to drinking a lot of oil (tamil slang for absorbing more oil ;))

Sunday, March 4

Thavaladai


Thavaladai is an olden tamil dish that we relish very fondly. This can be made healthy if the oil is used moderately. This could form a wholesome meal without compromising on taste. Seems like in olden days it used to be prepared in metal pots called ‘thavalai’ on conventional stove that uses fire wood. They are cooked very slowly for a longer time to get a hard crust and soft inside portion which is the acme of this dish.



Preparation Time: 15 minutes

Cooking Time: 30 minutes

Serves: 4

Ingredients:

1.        Idly rice – 2 cups
2.        Tuvar dal – ¾ cup
3.        Bengal gram – 3 +1 tbsp
4.        Dried red chillies – 3
5.        Salt as per taste
6.        Turmeric powder – 1 tsp
7.        Asafoetida – ½ tsp
8.        Oil for tempering and roasting adai
9.        Mustard seeds – 1 tsp
10.   Urad dal -1 tbsp
11.   Curry leaves -1 sprig
12.   Onion – 1 cup finely chopped

Method:

Step 1: Wash and soak together idly rice, tuvar dal and 3 tbsp of bengal gram for 2 hours. Grind them very coarsely into thick batter with red chillies, turmeric, asafoetida and salt and keep aside.
Step 2: Heat oil in a kadai, splutter mustard seeds; add urad dal, bengal  gram, curry leaves , onion and fry till onion turns slightly brown. Add this seasoning to the batter and mix well.
Step 3: Now in the same kadai, drizzle a little oil and spoon a big ladle of batter into it; cover it with a lid and simmer the heat for 3 minutes.
Step 4: Check for golden brown crust and flip the adai, drizzle more oil if necessary and leave it uncovered for 2 minutes.
Step 5: Once done on both sides, serve the Thavaladai piping hot with chutney or grated jaggery.


TIPS:
* The batter can be prepared, refrigerated and tempered before preparing thavaladais to have the tempered dals crisp.
*The excess batter can be stored in fridge for next day’s use. My mom says people ferment it to get sour taste (After all in those days there was no fridge and they liked the way it tasted the next day, may be)
* I use appachatty for thavaladais and my mother-in-law dilutes it a bit and makes it in dosa tava like thick dosa.

Tuesday, February 21

Rice Kitchadi



My mother-in-law seemed to have learnt this dish from someone long long ago. Since then eating rice Kitchadi as Sunday breakfast had been a custom in my in-law's home. I was christened into the family kitchen by learning this everyone’s-favorite dish ;) It was heavy on spice and grease for me but I got used to it and now am also a part of Kitchadi loving family. 


Serves: 2
Preparation Time: 10 minutes
Cooking Time: 20 min

Ingredients:

1. Raw rice – 1 cup
2. Tur dal – 1/3 cup
3. Turmeric powder - 2 pinches
4. Salt as required
5. Oil - 3 spoon
6. Ghee – 1 spoon
7. Fennel seeds – 1 spoon
8. Cinnamon - 1 “
9. Cardamom – 2
10. Cloves – 3
11. Bay leaf – 1
12. Tomato – 3
13. Onion – 3
14. Ginger – 3 “
15. Green chillies – 3
16. Garlic – 1 big pod

Method:

Step 1: Wash and soak rice and dal with slightly more water than required so that it cooks slightly mushy. Add to it salt and turmeric powder.
Step 2: Heat oil in a pan and temper with fennel seeds and other dry spices.















Step 3: Add onions, green chillies, ginger, tomato and sauté for few minutes.


 Step 4: Mix this to the soaked rice & dal with enough water and pressure cook for 3-4 whistles.












Step 5: Peel garlic cloves and roast them till brown in oil & ghee mix. 


Step 6: Stir in this with cooked Kitchadi and serve with plain thick curds.



Friday, February 10

Pumpkin Kozhaviri

If kids do not like any vegetable, probably it is because the parents didn't make them like it. I remember hating pumpkin when I was a kid and someday my grandpa exemplified to me how much on this pumpkin kozhaviri and I suddenly started developing a taste for it. He did not really give any long gyan, after all at the age of 6 such a gyan would have made me to detest the vegetable further; instead he lightly described how beautiful and fresh they are grown in the season and how this particular dish melts in his mouth and not just words but observing him relishing the dish made me give it a try and somehow it started tasting great for me then onward. It sounds crazy, but some frames of childhood are so clear that they stay long lasting; so, it is wiser to make such frames good ones. 

Ingredients:

1. Pumpkin cubed and boiled with salt and turmeric – 2 cups
2. Green chillies – 2 chopped fine
3. Oil
4. Mustard seeds – ¼ spoon
5. Urad dal – 1 spoon
6. Asafoetida – 1 pinch
7. Curry leaves – 1 sprig
8. Tamarind extract – ¼ cup
9. Coriander leaves for garnishing

Method:

Step 1: Temper mustard seeds, urad dal, green chillies, curry leaves and asafoetida in this order in3 spoons of oil.
Step 2: Add boiled pumpkin and pour some water and slightly mash it with ladle
Step 3: Pour tamarind extract to it and let it boil
Step 4: Garnish with coriander leaves finally
Step 5: Serve with hot steamed rice along with ghee