Samba Wheat Kuzhiappam

Mostly I make kuzhiappam with the last batch of idly/ dosa batter (what people call adi-maavu) because that is concentrated with rice flour and is perhaps sour which is suitable for this dish. When I prepare so, I add a handful of sooji or rava to get crisp kuzhiappams. That’s when this idea flashed me; why not I try kuzhiappam with samba wheat rava.

Serves: 2

Preparation Time: 5 minutes

Cooking Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:

1.      Fine samba wheat rava – 1 cup

2.    Dosa/ Idly batter – 1 cup

3.    Oil as required

4.    Salt to taste

5.     Mustard seeds – ¼ tsp

6.    Urad dal – 1 tbsp

7.     Bengal gram – 1 tbsp

8.    Asafoetida – 1 pinch

9.    Onion chopped – 1

10.            Capsicum small – 1

11.  Coriander chopped – 2 tbsp

12.Curry leaves – 1 sprig

13.Green chilies – 2 finely chopped

14.Cooking soda – 1 pinch

Method:

Step 1: Dry roast the wheat rava and add it to the batter; add necessary salt and water to get a thick idly consistency batter. Leave aside for 15 minutes.

Step 2: In parallel, heat oil in a pan and splutter mustard seeds in, fry urad dal & Bengal gram in it, sprinkle asafoetida, curry leaves, chopped green chilies and sauté onion and then capsicum in it.

Step 3: Mix the prepared tempering to the batter and add a pinch of cooking soda and chopped coriander leaves.

Step 4: Heat the kuzhiappakal and spoon batter into each shack; drizzle oil and cook in simmer until the flipside is roast and brownish.

Step 5: Now turn all the kuzhiappams to get done on the other side; drizzle more oil if required.

Step 6: Take out and repeat batches for entire batter.

Step 7: Serve hot and crisp with coconut chutney or idly podi.

TIPS:

* Add your choice of vegetables to add more nutrition, color and taste.

Puli Saadam or Tamarind Rice

It was very strange that I tried several new dishes but our favourite puli saadam or tamarind rice never occurred to me all these days. I remember during childhood whenever we traveled long distance or for journey by train or for any local picnics, my mom and maternal grandma used to pack puli sadaam with some thovial . We will all die to have them; somehow our digestive juices would start secreting an hour or two before our usual lunch time if we know puli saadam is for lunch. Gone are the days, but the hunger remains…

Serves: 3

Preparation Time: 5 minutes

Cooking Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:

1.      Tamarind – lemon sized ball

2.    Red chilies – 3

3.    Gingelly oil – 4 tbsp

4.    Turmeric powder – ¼ tsp

5.     Mustard seeds – ½ tsp

6.    Urad dal – 1 tbsp

7.     Bengal gram – 1 tbsp

8.    Groundnuts – 3 tbsp

9.    Curry leaves – 1 sprig

10.            Jaggery – a pinch

11.  Fenugreek powder – ¼ tsp

12.Asafoetida – 2 pinches

13.Salt to taste

14.Steamed rice – 3 cups

Method:

Step 1: Soak tamarind in water preferably luke warm water for 15 minutes and then extract juice from it.

Step 2: Heat oil in a kadai and splutter mustard seeds in it, roast groundnuts Bengal gram & urad dal. When they are brown enough add broken red chilies, curry leaves and sprinkle asafoetida and turmeric powder.

Step 3: Now add the tamarind juice to the kadai and boil until it thickens and forms a sauce like consistency. Add salt, jaggery and the fenugreek powder.

Step 4: Turn off heat.

Step 5: Spread the steamed rice in a wide mixing bowl or plate, pour the puli kachal (the prepared tamarind sauce) and mix well without breaking the rice. Adjust salt and oil as required.

Step 6: Serve or pack with pickles or thovials or fryums or plain curds. It is as such good without any accompaniment.

TIPS:

*The prepared puli kachal (the spiced tamarind sauce) can be stored in air tight container and refrigerated for a week which can be mixed with hot steamed rice as and when required.

*If you like to retain the crunch in the groundnuts add it roasted finally while mixing with rice.

Masala Dosa

I am sure at least every south Indian (Except for people who want to avoid potato) is always an ardent lover of masala dosa. Ironically, though it is simple to make at home, most of us eat it only in restaurants. As we live in a locality that does not give us the luxury of stepping into a decent tiffin centre as when we want, I was elicited to prepare masala dosas for dinner on a week day. They indeed tasted in comparison to the restaurant ones.

Preparation Time: NA

Cooking Time: 30 minutes

Serves: 2

Ingredients:

1.     Dosa batter – 2 cups

2.     Potato – 3

3.     Green peas – ½ cup

4.     Onion - 1

5.     Green chilies – 2

6.     Curry leaves – 1 sprig

7.     Oil – 1 tbsp + as required for greasing

8.     Mustard seeds – ¼ tsp

9.     Cumin seeds – ¼ tsp

10.  Asafoetida – 1 pinch

11.  Urad dal – ½ tbsp.

12.  Gram dal – 1 tbsp

Method:

Step 1: Boil the potatoes, peel and mash them well. Blanch the shelled green peas with a pinch of salt.

Step 2: Heat oil in a kadai, splutter mustard seeds & cumin seeds, roast urad dal & gram dal until brown, sprinkle asafoetida, add chopped green chilies & curry leaves and sauté the chopped onion in it until translucent.

Step 3: Now add the mashed potatoes & blanched peas and sprinkle enough salt. Add enough water and get a juicy & soft consistency. If it is watery, it will soak the dosa and it won’t taste good. Keep masala aside.

Step 4: Heat dosa tava, ladle batter in the center and spread it around the tava till thin. Drizzle oil around and cover with a lid.

Step 5: Open lid when the top the dosa is done (white batter turns off-white), with the help of flat ladle flatten the top surface of dosa and spoon the masala in a vertical line of about 3” width.

Step 6: Check it the dosa has turned brown enough; when done fold both sides towards center like in the image. You can make triangular dosas as well.

Step 7: Serve hot with chutney or sambar or both.

TIPS:

*In my hostel, they smear spicy chutney over the dosa before placing masala into it; however I’m not a big fan of it. This chutney is made by grinding garlic cloves, soaked red chilies and salt together.

Samba Wheat Idli

This was another easy and healthy tiffin recipe. I had some finely broken samba wheat but as we usually prefer upma made from coarser wheat rava I had to try idlies with this one. I prepared it like my grandma used to prepare rava idlies and it was soft and fluffy. However, as a big fan of rava idly Kundan did not score it high; sometimes health comes at the cost of taste you see…

Preparation Time: 30 minutes

Cooking Time: 15 minutes

Serves: 2

Ingredients:

1.     Samba wheat rava (finer one) -  2 cups

2.     Curds – 2 cups

3.     Salt as per taste

4.     Cooking Soda – 1 pinch

5.     Oil or ghee – ½ tbsp

6.     Cumin seeds – ½ tsp

7.     Pepper corns – ¼ tsp

8.     Curry leaves – 1 sprig

Method:

Step 1: Beat the curds into smooth consistency, mix salt and wheat rava to it. Stir well and rest for 30 minutes.

Step 2: Heat oil/ ghee in a tempering ladle, splutter cumin seeds and pepper corns in it. Roast the curry leaves in it until crisp and add this to the batter. (I didn't have curry leaves)

Step 3: Start heating the idli cooker. Grease the idli plates with some oil.

Step 4: Now add cooking soda to the batter and adjust consistency by adding water if required.

Step 5: Ladle batter into the idli plates (Idlies will rise and so make sure you don’t over-fill the batter) and steam them for 7-10 minutes.

Step 6: Serve hot with chutney or sambar or podi.

Mullangi Mor Kuzhambu

I made mullangi mor kuzhambu or radish yoghurt curry or mooli kadi (okay enough of my translations)... I prepared it with a quite elaborate recipe derived from several blogs and from mom’s kitchen. I’ve used radish in this recipe which is also a first time experience but it really was awesome. I know it sounds like self-praising, but if you had tasted the mor kuzhambu that I had attempted twice earlier you’ll completely agree with me (they had turned disasters). Except for tur dal (pigeon peas) I’ve used every possible ingredient that possibly can go into the mor kuzhambu making; however people generally choose only a subset of this in their recipe.

Serves: 2

Preparation Time: 15 minutes

Cooking Time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:

1.      Curd – 2 cups

2.    Turmeric powder – 2 pinches

3.    Asafoetida – 1 pinch

4.    Radish – 1 large

5.     Curry leaves – 1 sprig

6.    Coriander chopped – 2 tbsp

7.     Green chili – 1

8.    Coconut grated – 2 tbsp

9.    Ginger – 1” piece

10.  Fenugreek seeds – ¼ tsp

11.  Coriander seeds – 1 tbsp

12.Cumin seeds – ½ + ¼ tsp

13. Pepper corns – ½ tsp

14. Dry chili – 2

15.   Bengal gram or Tur dal – 2 tbsp

16. Raw rice – 2 tbsp

17.  Salt to taste

18. Oil – ½ tbsp

19. Mustard seeds – ¼ tsp

20.  Mor milagai/ yoghurt chilies – 2

Method:

Step 1: Soak the rice & Bengal gram together for 15 minutes. Dry roast dry chilies, pepper corns, cumin seeds, fenugreek seeds, coriander seeds separately.

Step 2: Grind together into a fine paste: the soaked rice & dal, dry roasted ingredients, coconut, green chili and ginger. Dilute it with a cup of water and keep aside.

Step 3: Beat sour curds with turmeric and asafoetida to a smooth consistency.

Step 4: Peel and cut the radish into thick half circles and sauté them in few drops of oil with some salt until it is done. Keep it aside.

Step 5: Now in a kadai prepare tempering by heating some oil, spluttering mustards seeds & cumin seeds, adding curry leaves & yoghurt chilies and then add the masala mix in simmer while stirring.

Step 6: When it starts to boil pour the beaten curds and add the radish and keep stirring until you see it bubbling. Now add salt, mix and transfer to a different container immediately. Garnish with coriander.

Step 7: Serve with hot steamed rice along with appalams (Kundan & I prefer different types of deep fried vathals to go with this)

TIPS:

*Stopping to stir, high heat, unbeaten curds and salted curds might curdle the curry. It doesn’t happen always but I would be careful.

*You can avoid dry chilies & pepper corns and add more green chilies to give brighter color.

*You can avoid rice and add rice flour to the ground masala mix or even skip it completely; it is for thickening the curry and dal would do that job to some extent.