Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a very happy New Year.
I am going on a vacation to India and therefore would be away from the blog world for a few weeks.
See you next year. :)

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Carrot - Evaporated Milk Payasam

Replace the milk with evaporated milk in this recipe for a more creamier, richer dessert.


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Pomegranate - Cucumber Raita

Here is a simple and refreshing raita prepared using juicy pearls of pomegranate and crunchy cucumbers.

Preparation:

This cool, yogurt dish is quite simple to prepare and takes only a couple of minutes if you have the ingredients ready.

Take a cup of thick yogurt and beat it with a spoon for a few seconds to get uniform consistency. Add a handful of pomegranate seeds, a handful of cucumber cubes (peeled and finely chopped cubes), a Tbsp of finely chopped cilantro and salt as needed.

Heat a tsp of oil and add 1/2 tsp of mustard seeds and a pinch of hing to it. When mustard seeds start to pop, remove and add it to the yogurt mixture. Stir well.

Either it can be served with rotis / pooris or can be eaten as a snack.

This raita tastes good when served cold and so, I refrigerate it for at least a couple of hours before serving. If you are left with any raita after serving, refrigerate it. It can be refrigerated maximum for a day since the yogurt goes sour.

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A Dessert, A Spread And A Side Dish

I have not been blogging lately and so, here are three entries in a single post to cover those events that I wanted to participate.

Dates and Almond Payasam

The wonderful combination of delectable dates and nutritious almonds yields this scrumptious payasam. I tweaked my mom's original recipe to come up with this rich and delicious dessert which can be prepared in around ten minutes.

Ingredients:
Pitted dates / Dry dates - 1/4 cup
Almonds - 1/4 cup
Dry coconut grated - 1/4 cup
Candy sugar / Kalakanda/ Kallusakkare- 1 Tbsp
Sugar - 1/4 cup
Milk (already boiled and cooled) - 1/2 cup

Preparation: It is really a simple preparation. Finely grind dates, almonds, coconut and candy sugar using water (or milk). Put it on the stove and let it reach the boiling stage. When it is boiling, add milk and sugar. Let it simmer till the sugar melts and turn off the stove.
This payasam can be served warm or cold.
This goes to AFAM - Dates hosted by Chandrika of AkshayaPatra.

Peanut Butter


If some one would have asked about PB&J back in India, I probably would have thought, they are talking about some new kind of pajamas. Even if they elaborated, I would have been wondering what peanut butter and jelly are. How would I have known our good, old ground nuts are peanuts in USA and they made butter out of it? I also admit unabashedly that in my sheer ignorance, I would have put jelly under the category of gels. Back in India, I strongly believed that bread is for people who got sick and Kissan brand fruit jam is a great dessert on it's own.
When I first came to know about PB&J sandwiches, I bought a bottle of peanut butter for my son. As soon as he tasted it, his expression changed and he told me not to buy it again. It happened six years ago and to this day, his love towards PB remains the same. Ditto with my daughter. I resigned thinking that like their mom, they would like to eat peanut brittles and spicy peanuts instead of peanut butter.
Recently, when my daughter started taking sandwiches to school, I knew I had to some how incorporate protein in to it and PB seemed to be one of the solutions. I therefore experimented with peanut butter and tried to infuse familiar flavors to get their approval. The experiment is a success, I proudly admit.
The recipe is quite simple. For a regular version, take a cup of peanuts and dry roast them as you do for peanut chutney. Let them cool and remove the skins. Add peanuts and about a Tbsp of oil to a food processor and grind it into a smooth paste. If you want it to be chunkier, set aside 1/4 cup of peanuts at the beginning and add after the rest is ground smooth. Process for a few seconds. If you like, You can also add a little bit of sugar or salt to the peanuts while grinding. Store it in air tight container in the refrigerator.
For my version, I added half a cup of jaggery and one tsp of cardamom powder as well to the peanuts and oil. For people who have tasted peanut and jaggery brittles, I don't have to elaborate about it's taste.
Making nut butters is easy, quick and fun. For vegans who don't prefer to consume butter, nut butters are a great alternative. Some of the other nuts that could be used to make butters are almonds, cashews, pecans, walnuts, hazel nuts. Also we can go ahead and experiment according to our taste preferences. To have new flavors, play along with the ingredients you have. Add cinnamon to have cinnamon butter, cayenne/ ginger to have a spicy one and so on.
One of the reasons to try this butter was also 'Vegan Ventures' hosted by Suganya of tasty Palettes and hence it goes to that event.

Cabbage Saagu
Saagu, a vegetable preparation from Karnataka is usually served with pooris and also with set dose and rava idlis at restaurants. The common practice is to cook a variety of vegetables and then flavoring with the prepared masala. One of my SILs showed me that there are some vegetables which can be used alone to prepare this saagu. Cabbage is one of them. I love preparing this as I can skip onions and don't miss them. Some times I add tomatoes and green peas as today. There are occasions when I go with cabbage alone and the saagu still tastes fabulous. For the event, I tried the microwave version today and the recipe is below.

Ingredients:
Cabbage, finely chopped - 4 cups
One big tomato, chopped
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Salt
For grinding:
Dalia / Pappulu - 1/4 cup
Fresh, grated coconut - 1/4 cup
Coriander seeds - 2 tsp
Poppy seeds - 1 tsp
Cinnamon - 2 small pieces
Mogga / Moggu - 2
Green chillies - 4 /5
For tadka:
Two tsp of oil
One tsp mustard seeds
Few curry leaves


Microwave method:
To a microwave safe bowl, add chopped cabbage, tomato, turmeric powder with about 1.5 cups of water and cook on high in the microwave till it is done. Cooking times vary depending upon the microwave used.
Grind all the ingredients mentioned above (in the grinding list) to a smooth paste with a little water. Add this paste and enough salt to the cooked veggies in the bowl and again put back it again in the microwave and cook for about five minutes.
Heat oil in a small pan on the stove top and add mustard seeds and curry leaves. When mustard seeds start to pop, turn off the stove and add this to the cooked veggies and stir well.
(I usually don't do the tadka in the MW, even though it can be done in it).

Stove top method:
I usually use a cooker to prepare this. Heat oil in a cooker and add mustard seeds and curry leaves. When mustard seeds start to splutter add cabbage, tomato, turmeric and enough water to cook the vegetables. Don't add water more than needed. Close the cooker lid and cook it till two to three whistles. When the valve pressure is gone, remove the lid.
Grind all the ingredients mentioned above (in the grinding list) to a smooth paste with a little water. Add this paste and enough salt to the cooked veggies and let it simmer for about five minutes. Turn off the stove.
Serve this with rotis or pooris.
This goes to MEC- Side Dish hosted by Srivalli of 'Cooking 4 all seasons'.

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Sunnundalu - The Two Versions and Poha Pongal

For the past one month, I was going through a 'No interest in blogging' phase. And also my busy life kept me away from blogging and blog hopping. I would like to thank all of you who kept visiting my blog. Hopefully, I would be blogging again as usual and visiting my blogger friends.

To me personally, the word 'sunnundalu' has the strong power to invoke memories, the pleasant memories of my grand mother. Sunnundalu are dear to me because they always remind me of maternal grand mother and her wonderful cooking. Also, they are the only sweets with a healthy tag attached to them, at our house. My mom never made them at home and we always got our supply of minapa sunni from our grand mother. Even at an old age, she painstakingly used to grind the uraddal in an old fashioned stone grinder and pack bottles of it to send them along with her children and grand children who visited her. The only thing her daughters had to do was adding jaggery and ghee to the ground uraddal whenever they felt like eating sunnundalu. She passed away a decade ago and the last bottle of minapa sunni she sent to my mom is still with her. My mom is holding on to it as a form of connection with her mother.


Sunnundalu belong exclusively to Andhra, I think. They are a power house of protein since the main ingredient used is uraddal - the black gram of India. This nutritious ball of uraddal flour coupled with jaggery and ghee, is a delightful dessert to kids and adults alike.
I am posting two versions of sunnundalu here. The first one is my grand mother's ofcourse. She used to use the uraddal with the husk.

Version 1 :
Ingredients to make around two dozens of small laddos:
Uraddal with husk - 1 cup
Jaggery powdered - 1/2 cup (or more if you prefer)
Melted ghee - 5 Tbsp

Method: Fry the husked uraddal on low-medium flame till it turns golden brown. Let it cool. Powder the urad dal into a coarse powder. It should resemble very fine sand. You can store it in a bottle and use it later too. This coarsely ground urad dal remains fresh for atleast a year (or more). Traditionally, urad dal is powdered using a stone grinder. I used my coffee grinder to achieve the required consistency.
Combine the powdered jaggery to it and mix it thoroughly. Add ghee little by little till the mixture comes together and you are able to form the balls out of it. Add more ghee if required. Take small portion at a time and make a round ball out of it using your hand. Repeat the same with the remaining mixture.

Version 2 :
Ingredients:
Whole uraddal - 1&1/2 cups
Powdered sugar - 1/2 cup (or more if you prefer)
Melted Ghee - 5 Tbsp


Fry the uraddal on low-medium flame till it turns golden brown. Let it cool. Powder the urad dal into a fine, coarse powder. Combine the powdered sugar to it and mix it thoroughly. Add ghee little by little till the mixture comes together and you are able to form the balls out of it. Add more ghee if required. Take small portion at a time and make a round ball out of it using your hand.

This goes to 'Favorite dessert / sweet' event hosted by Hima of 'Snackorama'.

POHA PONGAL
My observation and experience has led me to believe that poha can be a good substitute for rice in most of the rice based, Indian dishes. Poha bisibele bhath, poha payasam, mosaravalakki (yogurt poha) are some of the examples where rice is replaced by poha with out altering the taste or texture of the dish. I was wondering lately whether replacing rice with poha works in pongal and I did experiment to find out. As usual, here too poha mingled humbly with nutritious moongdal, the fragrant, savory ginger and the spicy pepper for an aromatic, mouthwatering poha pongal.

Ingredients:
Poha - 1 cup
Moong dal - 1/2 cup
Ginger (grated /finely chopped) - 1 tbsp
Ghee - 4 tsp
Pepper corns - 1/2 tsp
Pepper powder - 1/2 tsp
Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
Few curry leaves (optional)
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
Salt

Fry the moongdal on medium flame till it turns slightly red. Cook it along with the water and turmeric powder in a pressure cooker till you hear two whistles. Alternatively you can cook the moongdal in a pot adding sufficient water. Keep the dal stirring in between to avoid the moong sticking to the pot at the bottom and getting burnt.

Mean while, wash the poha twice with the water and drain all the water. Cover with poha with a lid and keep aside.

Do the tadka. Heat ghee in a small pan. Add ginger, cumin seeds, pepper corns, pepper powder, curry leaves in that order. When ginger pieces turn brown, turn off the stove.

Add this tadka mixture, poha and enough salt to the cooked moongdal and stir properly with a ladle. Again turn on the stove and let this mixture / pongal simmer on low flame for about 10 minutes so that it can absorb the flavors of the spices added and poha is cooked. Stir once again and turn off the stove.

Serve hot pongal with ginger gojju or chutney. Though it is optional, Pongal is usually served with a generous serving of ghee to make it more delicious.

This goes to 'Think Spice - Ginger', hosted by Sunita of 'Sunita's world'.

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Tomato Aavakaya

Here is a recipe for avakaya lovers. When first I heard about this from Deepthi (who had earlier shared the recipe of Sivangi pulusu here), I thought I have found a new, neat way of using tomatoes. Though it goes along the lines of mango and dosa (cucumber) avakayas, this pickle is quite different. The pickle is fried slightly, needs to be refrigerated and lasts for a couple of weeks.
This pickle can be dubbed as the regular avakaya with a tangy label. Though, due to frying part and infusion of the flavors, tomatoes here don't over power the sense of taste.

Ingredients:
Tomatoes, chopped into tiny bits - 1 cup heaped (I used three plum tomatoes)
Chili powder - 4 tsp
Salt - 2 tsp
Mustard seeds powder - 1 tsp (or less / more as needed)
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Methi (fenugreek) powder - 1/4 tsp
A little asafoetida
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Oil - 2 or 3 Tbsp

Preparation:
Wash the tomatoes with water and wipe them dry with no trace of moisture. Then chop them into tiny bits.
Heat the oil in a saute or small sauce pan. Add mustard seeds to the hot oil. When they start to pop, add asafoetida and saute for a few seconds. Then add the tomato pieces and saute for five minutes on low to medium flame.
Then add turmeric, mustard and methi powders to the tomato and fry for about 30 seconds and turn off the stove.
Transfer the mixture to a ceramic or glass bowl and add salt and chili powder to it. Stir well with a dry spoon. When the mixture cools, cover it with a lid and let it sit for atleast 10 hours for the flavors to blend.
Refrigerate it.

Other Tomato Pickles:
Tomato Ooragaya
Tomato Pachchadi

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Peach - Saffron Shrikhand

The lovely peaches always remind me the luscious mangoes I ate, back home. I feel their flavors are kind of similar. From a long time, I therefore have been toying around the idea of a peach shrikhand along the lines of amrakhand. The Fruit of a month - Peach and Think spice - Saffron events were the perfect occasions for me to create this shrikhand version.
Shrikhand, the delightful Indian dessert is prepared using strained yogurt and sugar with the addition of saffron and cardamom flavorings. While it is eaten as a dessert in Maharashtra, shrikhand is served as a side dish to pooris in Gujarathi Cuisine.


This shrikhand was so yummy and tempting that we could not wait till it chilled.
Ingredients for about a cup of shrikhand:
Yogurt - 3 cups (yogurt prepared from whole milk is preferred)
Sugar - 1/4 cup (or more depending upon the sweetness preferred)
Peach slices (bigger ones) - 4 to 5
Saffron - Two pinches
Cardamom powder - 1/2 tsp
Chopped almonds and pistachios - 1 Tbsp
Warm milk - 1 Tbsp

Preparation:
Spoon the yogurt into a muslin cloth/ thin cotton cloth and tie into a knot. Put a cutting board / flat plate in the sink. Place the cloth with the yogurt on it. Place another flat item like a cutting board over it. Then place a heavy object (I usually place a big bowl with water) over the top cutting board. Let it remain for a couple of hours. By the time, the water / whey from the yogurt would have drained and you would be left with a thick block of yogurt (about a cup). (If you don't want to drain the whey down the sink, you can collect it by placing a bowl underneath the cutting board).

Thick, water / whey drained yogurt in the cotton cloth

• Soak a pinch of saffron in the warm milk.
• Powder the sugar. I have found powdering the sugar makes it more convenient while mixing it with yogurt. You can use it with out powdering as well.
• Puree the peach slices in a blender. I have used peach slices from the can. If using fresh fruit, peel and use it accordingly.
• Combine thick yogurt, peach puree, sugar, cardamom powder, milk with the saffron and stir / whisk well. Use a blender if needed. (I added all the items together since powdered sugar was used. If not using powdered sugar, first combine the yogurt and sugar and thoroughly stir till all the sugar is dissolved. Then add the remaining ingredients).
• Cover and chill shrikhand until it is ready to serve.
• Warm the other pinch of saffron in MW for 30 seconds and crush it with your fingers.
• Sprinkle the crushed saffron and nuts before serving.

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Aval (Poha) Payasam & Thenkuzal

My husband's family celebrates Sri Krishnastami with great devotion and fervor. They fast the whole day and perform the pooja in the evening. Various savory and sweet dishes are prepared for the occasion. Some of the commonly prepared dishes in the evening are various kinds of chaklis, paalakayalu and poha dishes.

The usually preferred and prepared chakli happens to be thenkuzal or thentharlu, one of our family favorites. Though aval or poha payasam is not prepared at our home, I thought it would be a perfect dish on this asthami. I got to try them both for the first time and they turned out fabulous.
Aval Payasam and Thenkuzal are my contributions for Sri Krishnastami - RCI - Tamil Festival Foods, hosted by dear Viji of Vcuisine.

Aval Payasam:
Payasam lovers would just fall in love (as we did) with this simple yet scrumptious dessert. I have used evaporated milk to make the kheer extra creamier and thicker. It is optional though.


Ingredients:
Poha - 1/2 cup
Milk - 1 cup (Whole milk is preferred)
Evaporated milk - 12 oz / 1.5 cups (or substitutewith whole milk)
Sugar - 1/2 cup
Cardamom powder - 1/2 tsp
Cashews and raisins - 1 Tbsp
Ghee - 2 Tbsp

Preparation:
Fry the poha in one Tbsp ghee till it turns golden brown. Add the milk to poha and cook it till it is done. (If the mixture has become solid before getting cooked, add sufficient evaporated milk). Then add sugar, cardamom powder and the evaporated milk (if not added already) and cook till the sugar melts. Then simmer it on low flame for about 10 - 15 minutes and turn off the stove.
Heat the other tbsp of ghee in a small pan. Add cashews and raisins to it. Fry till the cashews turn golden brown and the raisins turn plump. Add this to the above cooked poha. Stir well.


Note: The above measurements would yield a payasam with a thicker consistency, which I personally prefer. 1/2 to 1 cup of extra milk may be added, if more liquid is preferred and the sugar level may need to be adjusted as well.
Thenkuzal / Thentarlu

This heavenly tasting, crunchy, munchy snack is called thentarlu in our family. It is paler in color compared to murukku, simple to prepare and is perfect for every occasion. My mom or MIL would have gone with a freshly milled batch of flour. I have used the store bought rice flour and urad flour and thenkuzal were great.


Ingredients:
Rice flour - 2 cups
Urad flour - 1/2 cup
Melted butter - 1 Tbsp
Cumin seeds - 2 tsp
Sesame seeds - 2 tsp
Salt - 1 tsp
A pinch of asafoetida
Water - 1 & 1/4 cups (I needed this much. This may vary)
Oil to fry
A deep frying pan & a Chakli press
Making Thenkuzal:
Mix well all the ingredients (except water & oil) in a mixing bowl. Then gradually add water to the bowl and make a dough, almost like rice flour rotti dough. It should not be watery or very hard, should be somewhere in between.
Heat oil in a small wok / deep frying pan. When the oil is hot enough to fry, turn down the heat to medium flame. To know whether the oil is hot enough do this little test. Put a pinch of the dough in the hot oil. If it sizzles and come to the surface of the oil immediately, then it is ready. If the pinch of the dough stays at the bottom, then the oil is not hot enough.
Usually the chakli press is sold along with several plates which are interchangeable. For Thenkuzal, use the thenkuzal plate, the one which has bigger perforations than a sev one or simply, the one with plain holes. After fixing the plate, take a small portion of the dough and fill it into the chakli press and in a circular motion, press out the dough into the oil. The coils of dough would form a concentric circle. This dough is easy to work with and you can make two to three separate circles at a time or a single one.
Fry till they turn attain a slight golden tinge. You don't have to fry them till they turn golden brown as murukku. Remove them with a slotted spoon and drain them on paper towel covered plates.
Repeat the same process with the remaining dough and fry them in batches. Frying thenkuzal takes very less time, if you do it on a medium flame.



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Munchable Moong Dal

Here is a simple, protein rich snack great for munching.

Usually I buy fried dals when ever I go shopping for Indian groceries since my kids' seem to love them. This time, I tried frying moong dal (in oil) at home for the first time. I had heard my MIL 's recipe from my husband and so followed those instructions. It is quite a simple preparation.

I also tossed a batch of dal coated with oil in the MW to see how they turn out. I was a little skeptical about frying moong dal in the MW because I was expecting the dal to get burnt. I did it anyway and to my surprise, the experiment was a success.

Both the versions tasted identical. The MW method takes a bit longer compared to the oil fry method and (very slightly), the dal may not be uniform in color.

Oil fry method:

Ingredients:

Moong dal - 1 Cup

Baking soda - 1 tsp

Oil to fry - 1 to 1.5 cups

Salt

Method:

Wash the moong dal in water once or twice and throw away the water used.

Soak them in enough water in a bowl with baking soda over night and then drain all the water. Spread the moong dal on a cotton cloth for about 10 - 1 5 minutes or pat them dry with a towel. (No need to completely dry them. I did this to avoid spluttering.)

Heat oil in a deep frying pan or a small wok. When it reaches smoking point, turn down the stove to medium heat setting. Fry moong dal in batches till they turn slightly golden brown or a shade lighter. It would take a couple of minutes. Frying the dal longer makes it harder to chew.Remove them with a slotted spoon and put them on a plate lined with paper towels so that extra oil is absorbed. Change the paper towels for each batch to make the dal less oily. Each batch would take around five minutes to turn golden brown.

Sprinkle them with enough salt and mix well. To make it hot, chili powder can be added. Cool the mixture and store it in a air tight container.

Using Microwave:

Wash, soak and dry the moong dal as mentioned above.

I used 1/2 tsp of oil for 1/4 cup of moong dal. Mix oil and moong dal well so that the dal is uniformly coated with the oil. Place oiled moong dal in a single layer on a flat microwaveable plate. Microwave till the dal turns slightly golden brown. Keep stirring the dal frequently for uniform frying. (It took 12 - 14 minutes in my microwave). Timings vary depending upon the microwave used and keeping an eye on the dal is important to avoid it from getting burnt.

Remove the dal and spread on paper towels to absorb the oil. Then sprinkle some salt and mix well. Cool the mixture and store it in an air tight container.

This goes to 'cooking 4 all seasons' Srivalli's MEC- Snack event.

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Genasugadda Pachchadi / Sweet Potato Chutney

When ever I hear about 'Cooking with pedatta' book on other blogs, it always reminds me, my own paternal aunt. The only paternal aunt I had, whom we fondly called atthaiyya. Whenever we had annual family gatherings at my father's place, she was the one whom we kids would cling to. Besides her other amazing skills in various fields which I slowly learnt through my 'grown up' eyes, we were basically drawn towards her for her story telling abilities. She was a master in that. She never was in need of a story book to amuse us. She would then and there create a story based on listeners' demand. Yes, listener demand :) . We kids would ask her to tell a story about 'something' and she would then and there spun an amazing story which sustained our attention through out.
Kids' dinner and story time were meant to be together for us. We kids would be sitting on the cots spread in the court yard on moon lit nights and she would bring the food in a plate. After deciding what story we are going to listen to, she would start the story and at the same time each kid would go on eating 'muddas' (Small portion of food made into a ball) from her hand. By the time the story finished, every kid would have eaten enough pachchadi annam (rice and pickle), Koora annam (rice and vegetable) pappu annam (rice and dal) and perugu annam (rice and yogurt). Now when I think of those precious moments, I yearn for more.
This recipe is a little tribute to my aunt, who lost her battle to cancer a couple of years ago. Her name was Annapoorna and she was literally one, when it came to culinary skills. This chutney was her creation at one of the family gatherings. She prepared this chutney and asked us to guess what it was. Till then, no one in the family had ever heard of sweet potato chutney. The best answer everyone could come up with was coconut chutney. That's how this chutney tastes. Subtly sweet and spicy at the same time. It can be prepared in a jiffy as the recipe demands no roasting / frying of the vegetable.


Ingredients:
One cup peeled, grated sweet potato
One Tbsp Uraddal
One tsp mustard seeds

1/4 tsp fenugreek seeds

Little asafoetida

6 Dry red chillies

2 Tsp oil

3/4 tsp salt

Preparation:

Heat oil in a small pan and add mustard seeds and uraddal. When uraddal starts to turn red, add fenugreek seeds, red chillies, asafoetida. When urad and fenugreek seeds have turned red, turn off the stove. Let it cool.

Grind this mixure with grated sweet potato and salt coarsely using a little water if required.

It stays fresh for a couple of days, refrigerated.

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