Drumstick Thokku

Day before my maid had got some drumsticks from her backyard. I kind of felt nostalgic. Kundan hates drumstick; we at home love drumstick and I'm missing it so much now, especially murungaikai sambar. It seems one of our ancestors used to say that the taste of drumstick is in its skin and the taste of brinjal is in its 'kaambu' (The green part that clutches the vegetable); of course not literally, it means we ought to consume those usually ignored parts of vegetables as well. Being from a village, I like to chew the drumstick skin like we eat sugarcane;I know it is boorish for people who want to seem sophisticated. But I would suggest, don't abandon the vegetable itself for its tough skin; drumsticks are real tasty and very healthy too. My amma makes thokku out of drumsticks and they are so so yummy and versatile; you can have it with steamed rice, curd rice, idly, dosa, parathas or any dish that goes well with spicy accompaniment. 

Ingredients:

1. Drumstick - 5
2. Gingelly oil - 5 tbsp
3. Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
4. Asafoetida - 1 pinch
5. Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
6. Chili powder - 1 tbsp
7. Salt - 1/2 tbsp
8. Tamarind pulp - 1 tbsp (You can also soak tamarind, extract pulp and use; this would be dilute and you would require to add 4-5 tbsp)
9. Jaggery - 1 tsp

 Method:

1. After trimming the edges, chop the drumsticks to 3" long pieces and blanch them for 3 whistles or until soft.Let it cool.
2. Now split each piece by light press, ideally it has three faces and so you'll see three strips with flesh when you split a piece. Scoop the pulp cleanly with a spoon. 
3. Now in a pan, heat gingelly oil, splutter mustard seeds, sprinkle asafoetida and add drumstick pulp. 
4. Add turmeric, salt, red chili powder and keep stiring for 3 minutes. Now stir in tamarind pulp, jaggery and mix. Check and adjust spices.
5. Simmer and occasionally stir until all moisture is evaporated. Turn off stove, let it cool completely and then store in airtight containers.

Note: Though it seems like pickle, it would contain residual moisture as it is blanched; so if you want to use for more than 3-4 days, refrigerate it in airtight containers. Try using them within 15-20 days; unlike pickles thokkus lose flavour and taste on ageing.

Ragada Patties

Today I tried Ragda Patties which is one of the Mumbai chaat delights. I took just an hour to cook these from scratch. Believe me it is so easy, yummy and more importantly healthy snack and sometimes you can even replace this for dinner.

There are four components of this chaat that have to be prepared separately and  you can dress them up in a minute later on. Some ready ingredients are used to platter it.

Ingredients:

For Patties:

1. Potatoes - 2 big

2. Chilly powder - 1 tsp

3. Mint Leaves - 10

4. Salt - 3/4 tsp

5. Corn flour -1 tbsp

6. Oil - 4 tbsp

For Ragda:

7. Yellow peas - 1 cup soaked and  blanched

8. Cumin Seeds - 1/4 tsp

9. Turmeric - 1 pinch

10. Chilly powder - 1 tsp

11. Garam masala  - 1 tsp

12. Corriander leaves - 2 tbsp finely chopped

13. Onion - 3 tbsp finely chopped

For green chutney:

14. Corriander - 1 fistful 

15. Mint - 1 fistful 

16.Green Chilly - 2

17. Salt -1 tsp

For brown chutney:

18. Tamarind - gooseberry size (or 2 tbsp of tamarind pulp)

19. Jaggery - 1 tbsp grated

20. Salt - 1 pinch

For plating:

21. Onion - 4 tbsp finely chopped

22. Corriander - 2 tbsp finely chopped

23. Mixture - 4 tbsp (You ca use fine sev as well)

24. Chat masala -1 tbsp

Method:

Step 1: Wash, blanch and peel potatoes; mash them, add salt, chilli powder, mint and mix well. Now roll them into lemon sized balls

Step 2: In a pan add 3 tbsp of oil and shallow fry the flattened potato balls by flipping on both sides. Keep these aside

Step 3: Now for ragda in the same pan that you fried patties, roast cumin seeds, fry onion, add blanched peas and 2 cups of water

Step 4: When it comes to a boil, add salt, turmeric powder, chilli powder, garam masala and cover with lid for 5 min

 Step 5: Now open the lid sprinkle corriander and ragda is ready for serving. Keep it simmer until serving to keep it hot and adjust water for consistency

Step 6: For green chutney, add all given ingredients in a mixer and it is ready for serving

Step 7: Soak and extract tamarind pulp (if you've pulp directly use it), dissolve jaggery to it and boil it for 2 min with a pinch of salt. Let it cool and brown chutney is ready as well

Step 8: Now is the most exiting part and that is plating it. Take a couple of ragdas in a serving plate and pour some ragda over it. Dress with a tbsp of chopped onion, drop both the chutneys across the dressing, shower some crispy mixture over that and then finally baptize it with chat masala and chopped corriander

There you have piping hot and yummy chaat @home with no worries about hygiene.

 

 

Kozhukattai/Modak

Today is the first Vinayagachathurthi that we got to celebrate in the new home. Though we don't have a strict tradition brought down by either families we just thought of making it in a free-style way. I just tried few Kozhukattais,Sundal and made a simple pooja to call it a day.

However, preparing KK (Kozhukattai's) was a very new experience for me filled with venturous feeling, excitement, nervousness a bit (you would know why when you do it alone the first time), lot tired due to fasting, angry on myself because i took a overload and very amusing to play with those small shapes like we used to feel messing with those clumps of clay when young.

I tried some 4 types of KK. Pidi KK being the easiest and personally i felt the tastiest as well and seems like lord Ganesh too is reportedly fond of this ;)

Recipe for Pidi Kozhukattai:

Ingredients:

Rice flour - 1 cup

Jaggery - 1 cup (depending on your taste and the sweetness of jaggery can add more or less)

Water - 2 cups

Coconut - 1 tbsp finely chopped

White sesame seeds - 1 tsp dry roasted

Cardamom powder - 1 pinch

Salt - half a pinch (Optional)

Ghee - 2 tbsp

Method:

Step1: Mix jaggery in the 2 cups of water and bring it to heat until jagerry disolves completely. Filter to get rid of debris any and then bring to boil again with salt if you are adding and 1 tbsp of ghee

Step 2: Add the rice flour slowly to boiling jaggery water and stir rapidly to avoid lumps. 

Step3: Add other ingredients and stir until it rolls up in a roti dough consistency

Step 4: Let it cool a bit and then roll them into desired shapes. However, Pidi KK as its name suggests is typically made by pressing inside a palm in oblong shape with finger impressions.

Step 5: Steam these KKs for 5-10 min and relish them.

Other than this pidi KK, KKs I know are prepared in three phases: the outer cover, puran or the stuffing and the art of stuffing & shaping to steam them finally. For each of these three phases, there are varieties of methods and styles that people follow and I have shared those that I followed.

Recipe for Kozhukattai Outer Cover:

Ingredients:

1. Raw rice - 2 cups

2. Oil - 4 tbsp

3. Salt - 1tsp

4. Water - 5 cups

Method:

Step 1: Wash and Soak the rice, say for some 3 hours

Step 2: Drain the water thoroughly; measure 5 cups water in a jug and use only that from now on for the recipe

Step 3: In a mixer grind the rice to very smooth paste using some of the water from jug and make it to pour-able consistency

Step 4: Bring the remaining water in the jug to boil with salt and a couple of spoons of oil in it

Step 5: In the boiling water add the batter and stir continuously to avoid lumps.

Step 6: Add rest of the oil and stir till dough like consistency is obtained. This dough can be used to make covers for the puran KKs.

Step 7: Now roll small balls of these by greasing your palms with oil and place it in between plastic sheets and roll with rolling pin or press with a plate on it to get round thin sheets.

Step 8: Place the puran portion (couple of recipes discussed below) in middle of this sheet and mould into desired shapes. Garlic pod shape, spherical shape, D- shape and oblong shapes are very commonly adapted shapes for KK. You get molds of different shapes called 'Choppu' in the market, though hand moulding is an interesting art people prefer.

I had prepared one sweet puran with coconut and one savory puran with urad dal which I've discussed here.

Recipe for Coconut Puran:

Ingredients:

1. Coconut - 1 cup grated

2. Jaggery - 1 cup grated

3. Cardamom Powder -1tsp

4. Rice flour - 1-2 tbsp (If required)

5. Ghee - 1 tbsp

Method:

Step 1: Grate the jaggery and heat it in a pan with few drops of water until it completely dissolves and comes to boil

Step 2: Stir in the grated coconut and cardamom powder

Step 3: See if it thicken doesn't seem to thicken in next 5 minutes, sprinkle some rice flour over it and stir until it becomes a loose solid.

Step 4: Turn off the gas and let it cool a bit

Step 5: When it is warm, grease your palms and roll small portion of it into gooseberry sized puran balls.

Step 6: I made tower shaped KKs with cocconut puran

I tried the savoury type KK with Urad dal; this is not very spicy, but is salty and flavorsome. They are good to munch in between your very sweet versions of KKs with some balancing act of healthy steamed dal as well. It can be relished as a snack off the festival as well.

Recipe for Urad dal puran:

Ingredients:

Urad dal - 1/2 cup

Green chillies - 2

Salt - 1 tsp

Oil - 1 tbsp

Mustard seeds - 1/4 tsp

Asafoetida - 1 pinch

Curry leaves - 1 sprig

Mint leaves - To garnish

Method:

Step 1: Wash and soak urad dal for 1 hour

Step 2: Drain the water completely and pulse in a mixer jar along with chopped chilies and salt until you get a course and moist powder.

Step 3: Roll them into balls and steam them for 5-10 minutes

Step 4: Once cooled, crush the balls to get a course powder (Like that of paneer bhurji or idli upma)

Step 5: Heat oil in a pan, splutter mustard seeds, sprinkle asafoetida, throw in curry leaves and finally add urad bhurji and toss a bit. 

Step 6: Turn off the stove; when it is a little warm, roll into small puran balls (in case it is dry it could crumble and not form balls; it is still ok to use the mix for puran as they still taste the same)

Step 7: I made spherical savory KK's this time.

And this one is an interesting version of KK called mani KK/ pearl KK/ ammini KK and so on. This is prepared by rolling the white dough into tiny balls, steaming them and then tossing them with the crushed savory puran; you can add a pinch of pepper powder to enhance the spice level. Again, these tiny balls can be spiced in varities of ways like we season pasta.