Creamy Tomato Macroni

This is another delectable macaroni dish that I had tried during my early kitchen days and repeated recently. It is really simple to make and better be eaten within a couple of hours otherwise the tomato might react with milk and cream and get curdled.

Serves:  2

Preparation Time: 5 minutes

Cooking Time:  15 minutes

Ingredients:

1.      Macaroni – 2 cups

2.    Tomato – 2

3.    Onion - 1

4.    Cream – ½ cup

5.     Milk – if required

6.    Salt to taste

7.     White pepper crushed – ½ tsp

8.    Butter – 1 tbsp

9.    Oil – 1 tsp

10.   Italian seasoning – 1 tsp (optional)

11.   Cheese grated – as per liking

Method:

Step 1: Slice the onion and tomatoes and sauté them in butter until soft.

Step 2: Cool it to room temperature and grind it into smooth paste.

Step 3: In parallel cook the macaroni with salt, drain the water and toss with a few drops of oil.

Step 4: Now bring the ground paste to boil and add salt, pepper, cream and the Italian seasoning.

Step 5: Add in the cooked macaroni and add some milk just to adjust the consistency.

Step 6: Serve hot garnished with grated cheese if you like.

Milagai Pachchadi

At our home this is one of the regular side dishes that accompany the pongal which is prepared on the day of Pongal festival. We just love it so much for this stimulates our taste buds by rendering a mixture of tastes; sweet, heat, salt and sourness. It is not frequented at home as it is pretty much concentrated and so we indulge as and when prepared. Apart from pongal it goes well with curd rice.

Yields:  1 cup

Preparation Time:  5 minutes

Cooking Time:  15 minutes

Ingredients:

1.      Green chilies – 5-10 (depending on the heat of chilies)

2.    Tamarind extract – ½ cup

3.    Jaggery – half a lemon size

4.    Salt to taste

5.     Gingelly oil – 1 tbsp

6.    Mustard seeds – ½ tsp

7.     Curry leaves – 1 sprig

8.    Asafoetida – 1 pinch

Method:

Step 1: Heat oil in a pan, splutter mustard seeds in it, add curry leaves, asafoetida and green chilies to it. Sauté until green chilies let out a nice aroma and turn whitish.

Step 2: Dissolve jaggery in ½ cup of water, filter and add it to the pan.

Step 3: Add the tamarind extract, salt and boil in simmered heat until becomes thick. Adjust salt, sour and sweet if required at this stage.

Step 4: Serve with steamed rice or curd rice. This can be stored for few days.

Ada Pradhaman

Ada Pradhaman is equivalent to paayasam or kheer in Kerala. Kundan had tasted it from one of his colleagues and was craving to have it again. Unfortunately I couldn't find from my local grocers, the readymade ‘ada’ which is a main ingredient for this dessert. Amma had got it from Pondicherry sometime back and I finally attempted this simple version of ada pradhaman. Traditionally the ada itself is made at home as and when required and prepared with coconut milk which I'll try and share shortly.

Serves:  5

Preparation Time:  15 minutes

Cooking Time:  30 minutes

Ingredients:

1.      Ada – ½ cup

2.    Sugar – 1 cup

3.    Milk – 3 cups

4.    Coconut chopped – 3 tbsp

5.     Cashew nuts – 10

6.    Raisins – a fistful

7.     Cardamom powder – ¼ tsp

8.    Ghee – 2 tbsp

Method:

Step 1: Boil the milk in simmered stove by stirring occasionally until it thickens well.

Step 2: Heat ghee in a tawa and fry ada, cashew nuts, raisins and coconut one by one and keep them aside.

Step 3: Add the fried ada to the boiling milk and cook it until the ada is soft by stirring occasionally.

Step 4: When the ada is cooked well, they float on the surface; check if it is soft till center and then add sugar and cook for another 5 minutes. Turn off heat.

Step 5: Stir in cardamom powder, fried cashew nuts, raisins and serve hot or warm or even chilled.