Chettinad Vegetable Biryani / Kaikari Biryani

We have no aversion towards pulaos / biryanis but we are not great fans either of this rice genre. It may seem surprising coming from an Indian but it is true that they get made once in a blue moon in my kitchen. And so I was contemplating whether to try this Chettinad Vegetable Biryani or not for this month's Indian Cooking Challenge.

I know that a wonderful dish like this biryani do not deserve such a lousy introduction. :) However I would like to point out that we, out of all the people who prefer to stay away from overtly spicy dishes got sold by this biryani. I had thought of giving this dish a try only because I have been missing the recent ICC challenges and oh boy, I am glad that I did. The husband started reminiscing about the biryani he used to eat in his college canteen and applauded it, while my house filled with an aroma that I usually associate with the Indian restaurants. The spice levels were perfect in this dish, tasted wonderful and we thoroughly enjoyed it.

This biryani comes from the Chettinad cuisine, from the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Another version I saw on Sanjeev Kapoor's cook show also included coconut, fennel seeds and other spices typical to the region but since this recipe comes from a person native to the region, I did not play with the recipe. This is an apt kind of dish to prepare, when you have company. Even this halved recipe yields a substantial amount of biryani to feed at least 6 - 8, given that you have other dishes to feed them.This recipe uses samba rice that is grown in Tamil Nadu region in India. This grain supposedly has a distinct aroma and is shorter in size. Basmati would be a typical substitute if there is no access to the samba variety. I had only brown Basmati at home and so substituted sona masuri instead.  And of course don't get intimidated by the long list of ingredients mentioned below. Many go in tadka and some are added at the final stages.

Ingredients:
1.5 cups Jeera Samba rice
1 tbsp. ghee
2 tbsp. cashews
1 tbsp oil
3 cloves
2 cardamom
1 inch piece of cinnamon
1 star anise
1 bay leaf
2 Maratha moggu
2 green chillies (I used 1 chilli as they were hot.)
2 pieces of stone flower / dagad phool / rathi puvvu (optional)
1/2 cup minced shallots or 1 big onion, finely minced
1 tsp. ginger-garlic paste
A handful of coriander leaves + extra for garnishing
A handful of mint leaves + extra for garnishing
1 tomato
2 cups mixed vegetables (green beans, carrot, potato and green peas)
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp. coriander powder
1 tsp. red chili powder (My chili powder is really hot and so I used 1/2 tsp.)
Salt to taste
2 & 1/4 cups water

Preparation:
* Wash and soak the rice in water for about 30 minutes. Drain and keep it aside.
* Peel and chop shallots / onion. Chop tomatoes. Peel and cube potato and carrot. String and cut the green beans into one inch pieces. Chop green chillies into big pieces.
* Chop finely mint and coriander leaves.

Method:
* Heat ghee in a deep saute pan or directly in a pressure cooker and toast the cashews until golden brown. Remove the toasted cashews with a slotted spoon and keep them aside.
* To the same pan, add oil and heat it. Add cloves, cardamom, cinnamon, star anise, bay leaf, moggu and stone flower. 
* Saute for few seconds and add green chillies and shallots/onion. Fry until the onion turns translucent. 
* Next add ginger-garlic paste and saute until the raw smell leaves. Then add the chopped leaves and saute for about a minute.
* Add vegetables now and fry for about 3 minutes. Next add tomatoes, turmeric powder, chili powder, coriander powder and salt. Continue to cook until the tomatoes turn softer.
* Add about 1/4 cup water to the vegetables and bring the mixture to a boil. 
* Then add the (soaked and drained) rice and water. Stir well and cover with the lid if using pressure cooker and cook for 3 whistles. 
Or if using a saute pan, just cover with a lid and cook on low flame until done. It would take around 15 - 20 minutes to cook this way and don't be tempted to stir and peek often.
(I used a saute pan to fry the vegetables and transferred the whole mixture into a container that could fit in my pressure cooker. I put the container in the pressure cooker without the pressure valve on and steamed the mixture.)
* Once the rice is cooked, garnish with ghee fried cashews and coarsely minced cilantro - mint leaves.
* Serve with onion raita.

Notes:
* Either you can use 1.5 cup (standard American measuring cup size) or about 3 cups (that comes along with the rice cooker) rice.
* The original recipe mentions to use 4 & 1/2 cups water for 3 cups of jeera samba rice. I used sona masuri rice and used about 2 & 1/2 cups of water for 1 & 1/2 cups rice.

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Manapparai Murukku

For this month's Indian Cooking Challenge, we are traveling towards Tamilnadu. To be specific, towards a town called Manapparai in Tiruchi district. The town's name has somewhat become synonymous with their signature snack - The Manapparai Murukku. A man named Mani Iyer who used to run a vegetarian refreshment stall at the railway station had introduced these murukkus to the train passengers during 1920's. His murukku were so famous that passengers were drawn out of their compartments to buy them. Later these were sold in brown paper bags that were easily identified. Nowadays, murukku making has become a cottage industry in that town and they are available everywhere and are even exported to other countries.

Iyer used to mix butter to the rice flour and fry chaklis in coconut oil. The unique feature of these chaklis are that they are fried twice unlike the regular chaklis that are fried only once. I haven't personally seen or tasted these specific murukkus and going by the reference we had, I am sure that Mr.Iyer's recipe is safely locked somewhere in a vault. :))

The recipe we got for trial had a kilogram of rice flour with a dash of urad flour. Any seasoned chakli maker would tell you that the recipe is nothing but a disaster. Going against my instincts, I tried a small portion, following the recipe to the T, hoping to prove myself wrong and the result was hard to bite chaklis. Then I increased the urad dal quantity and got the good variety ones though the chakli dough somewhat is similar to thenkuzhal/thentharlu one. I fried them until they attained a lighter hue though I am not sure whether they should attain a light / dark golden hue.

And coming to the flours. Usually it is a practice to prepare the flours from scratch in India while preparing chaklis. I always use the store bought ones and they work just fine as the freshly prepared flours. Besides they cut down the work.

Ingredients:
2 cups rice flour
1/2 cup urad flour / Black gram flour
1 tbsp butter / hot oil
1 tbsp sesame seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
1/4 tsp carom seeds / ajwain (I didn't add any.)
Salt to taste
Oil to fry (I used canola oil.)

Method:
1. Combine everything in a mixing bowl. Add water gradually and make a firm dough.

2. Meanwhile, heat oil in a wok / wide frying pan. Drop a bit of dough into the hot oil. When it sizzles and comes to surface, then the oil is hot enough for frying. If the dough doesn't rise to surface, heat oil for a couple of minutes more. However there is no need to bring the oil to a smoking point.
3. Fit a single star disc / 5 holed disc to the chakli press, fill the dough into the nozzle and press the dough circle on the back of a ladle. I did it on the backside of a greased, stainless steel plate. Allow the shaped dough circles to rest for about 5 minutes.

4. Drop the dough circles into the hot oil. Fit as many as the frying pan can hold without overcrowding. Fry them in hot oil for about 3 - 4 minutes, flipping in between. (Chaklis are only partially fried at this point.) Remove them with a slotted spoon and drain on absorbent towels to cool them a bit.
5. Now repeat the steps as above and partially fry another batch of chaklis. Remove them as well and drain on plates covered with absorbent towels.

6. Now drop the partially fried first batch of chaklis (from the step 4) into hot oil again and fry until they turn crisp. I kept them light hued but one can fry until they attain a dark golden hue.
7. Now fry the partially fried second batch chaklis from step 5 until they are completely done.
8. Repeat the steps of double frying the chaklis with the remaining dough.
9. Let cool and store them in an airtight container. 

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Sanna ~ Mangalorean Idlis

Blogging comes across as a rewarding experience whenever I get a chance to try out a new recipe - a recipe that turns out great and  satisfies our palates beyond our expectations. A recipe that I have pretty slim chances of trying out personally, if not for blogging. My interest is piqued more when the recipe is an authentic, traditional one and the blogger appears to have a local knowledge about the recipe in a true sense unlike the cookbook authors. That's what happened when this month's Indian Cooking Challenge "Sanna" was announced. We got introduced to a new recipe which I am going to cherish forever.
The recipe came from Shireen's blog Ruchik Randhap , sannas being a speciality from Mangalore / Goan regions. Practically my whole life in India was spent in Karnataka but still I had never heard of "sanna". The reason being the differences between Bangalore and Mangalore / Konkani cuisines are as wide as chalk and cheese. Now I have heard about it, I am  wondering how to pronounce the name. :)

 

Now coming to what sannas are, they can be loosely translated as cousins of fluffy, soft idlis - another speciality of the south Indian region. Rice - urad dal mixture is ground and fermented like idlis albeit the sanna recipe uses yeast / toddy / arrack to ferment. And needs less time to get fermented when compared to idlis, given that it is warm outside or the batter is fermented in a warm place. And one more pronounced difference is that the sannas are steamed in ramekins called gindul and steamed in a special steamer called tondor. In absence of those, one can use any stainless steel / aluminium small cups and a steamer / pressure cooker. Idli stand should work too but I am guessing the shapes of idlis / sanna vary slightly. Preparing sanna is a breeze if you know how to make idlis. Even if you haven't, the detailed pictorial description below should give you a decent idea. It is not really hard as it sounds.

It was mentioned that the batter left overnight to ferment turns sour. Owing to the weather I have in my neighborhood, I can never get the batter ready for breakfast at 6 am in the morning. What I did was soaked the ingredients overnight, ground the batter around 7 am in my wet grinder and had the batter ready by 11 am so that I could have my sannas for lunch. The extras I refrigerated and again steamed them for few minutes next day morning for breakfast. They taste fresh and good as a new batch. Preparing them in advance for next day's breakfast sounds sensible.

Ingredients: (yield a dozen)
3/4 cup parboiled rice (I used idli rice.)
1/4 cup raw rice (I used extra long grain rice.)
2 Tbsp / a fistful skinned black gram (urad dal)
1/2 tsp active dry yeast
1/2 tsp sugar (for yeast solution )
2 - 3 Tbsp tepid water(for yeast solution)
Salt to taste
1 tsp sugar

Note: I have noticed that parboiled rice and idli rice are not one and the same though par boiled rice is called idli rice. Parboiled rice is slender, and beige / creamish colored while the idli rice pictured below is short and white. Correct me if I am wrong and those two rices are the boiled and unboiled versions of the same rice.

I was skeptical initially about the yeast and was worried about the smell it may impart to the dish. However after trying out the recipe which indeed yields true kind of fluffy, light, soft sannas, the light yeast odor was negligible. I was mostly worried about my husband's response as he is a great fan of idlis. To my surprise, he was the one who enjoyed them most saying that they were really good. We had them with chutney and sambhar.

Preparing the batter:
* Soak rices and urad dal separately for a minimum of three hours. 
Throw away the water used to soak and wash them once with fresh batch of water. 

(I soaked the ingredients together overnight. I usually soak all the ingredients together while preparing idli / dosa batters. It doesn't make a difference whether you soak/grind them separately or individually as long as the final battter is ground fine.)

* Grind dal and rice finely, adding water only as much as needed. The batter should be like a thick dosa batter and not runny. You can grind the dal and rices individually but I ground them together. Collect the batter into a container big enough to hold it when it ferments and more than doubles.

* Combine sugar and yeast to a bowl and add tepid water to it.  Allow it to stand for about 10 minutes. By the time, the yeast ferments and the solution turns frothy. Stir once to make sure that the yeast is dissolved.
* Stir and add the yeast mixture to the batter. Then add salt and sugar and mix well.

* Cover the batter and allow it to ferment undisturbed for a couple of hours in a warm place. ( I hardly had around 15 deg C temperature outside when I prepared the batter. I left the batter in my convection oven only leaving the light on. Please note that I did not turn on my oven. It took about 4 hours for the batter to ferment but what I gathered is that it takes only a couple of hours to ferment in warm climates.)
Just notice how the batter more than doubled after fermentation and so remember to use a big container.

Now the important tip. Don't try to stir the batter once it is fermented. If you try to do it, the sannas may turn out flat. This is how the fermented batter looks - light and fluffy.

* Pour enough water into a steamer or pressure cooker. Grease the ramekins  / small cups and spoon the batter, just filling them up to half. (I found just placing the cups on my idli plates easier for steaming.)

* Place them in a steamer and steam them on low for 15 - 20 minutes. Turn off the stove and remove them after about ten minutes.  
* Gently run a sharp spoon around the edges and unmold the sannas.

Shireen mentioned that the sannas are usually a part of festivities and they can be served along with sambhar / chutney just like idlis or with any vegetarian / non vegetarian curries or even with sweetened coconut milk. They can be dunked in evening coffee / tea or left overs can be used as a snack by deep frying them. Or sweeter or savory versions of sanna can be made too.

 

Phew, I didn't foresee this turning out to be such a long post. :)

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