Badam Halwa

hmmm... slurp! I just can't take my eyes off the picture and the flavor still lingers in my taste buds. Badam Halwa is a rich and delicious dessert with the base as pureed almonds combined with the sweetness of sugar, goodness of ghee and the delicate flavour of saffron. I would say saffron is a must-add ingredient as it brings out an all-new taste for the sweet and both of them are made for each other. My memories of badam halwa go a long way back and this is one regular sweet which is favourite to everyone at home. The recipe is quite simple and you can never go wrong. It is not as tricky as a mysorepak and you can have it in any consistency - hard or soft and name it conveniently as burfi or halwa. Easy, quick, universally acclaimed and at the end of the day, you can convince people that you are a great chef. What more do u need?

Ingredients:

Almonds (soaked over night & peeled) 1 cup
Sugar 1 to 1 1/2 cups (Adjust to suit your taste)
Ghee - 1/4 cup(You may add more if you want it richer)
Milk - 1 cup
Yellow color - a pinch(optional)
Saffron to decorate

Method:

1. Grind the almonds with milk into a smooth paste. Mix the yellow color.
2. Cook the paste with the remaining milk in a tawa and add the sugar.
3. Keep stirring until the sugar blends and add the ghee little by little.
4. When the paste becomes thick and leaves the side of the vessel without sticking to the bottom, halwa is ready.
5. Decorate with saffron

Tip: Soak the almonds in hot water to easily remove the skin. You can even microwave quickly for the same effect.



Sending this to Mithai Mela event hosted by Srivalli.

Bindi fry

Vendaikka(Bindi or okra) is one of my favourite vegetables. I always love it and it is one vegetable which I readily ate even while I used to be a fussy eater. Well, even after evolving from a fussy eater to a complete foodie, I haven't lost my charm for it. A simple vendaikka curry is sure to impress me anytime and I would say that comes as a saviour when you are short of ideas or time. On a sunny afternoon, I had ample time for ideas to emerge and hence decided to make something different from the normal south Indian preparation. So I gave it a thought, ended up making it in north Indian style and hence named it Bindi fry.(Title justified)
I was not sure how the famous bindi masala is done. I didn't even bother to google for it. I just added ingredients that struck my mind, to make it north Indian-ish and it served the purpose well.

Ingredients:
Vendaikka - 500 g
Chopped or pureed tomatoes - 1
Amchur powder -2 tsp
Besan - 3 tsp
Turmeric powder - 2 tsp
Chilli powder - 2 tsp
Dhaniya powder - 2 tsp
Jeera - 3 tsp
Oil - 1 tablespoon
salt to taste

Method:
1. Chop the veg into slightly big pieces.
2. Heat the oil, season with jeera and add the veg.
3. When the veg gets cooked, add the dry powders. Fry till crispy and add the chopped tomatoes. Cook till the tomatoes become soft and blends with the rest. Serve with rice or roti.

Variation: Chop an onion and fry till golden brown before adding the veg.

Sending this to WYF - side dish event hosted by EC.

Keerai (greens) molagootal

This is a traditional Palakkad iyer dish which is quite famous at my home. One irony about the dish is, though it is called molagootal, we don't add any molagu(pepper corns)to it. I see lot of people mentioning about pepper in their molagootal recipes. But the authentic recipe doesn't have any pepper and this is highly nutritious, non-spicy food, good for everyone.Molagootal is made using ara keerai and since I get only spinach here, I made use of it. Other famous molagootals are cabbage,mixed veg(raw banana,carrot,yam,potato,chow-chow), just chayote squash(chow-chow), yellow pumpkin and you can always be creative and come up with your own combination. I'm tired today to post anything eloborate and so limiting myself to a simple recipe. This can be made in a jiffy specially with the kind of spinach you get here. It's so clean and fresh unlike Chennai where we got to spend a lot of time in cleaning up greens. But of kors, you don't get so many Indian varieties here. That's a trade-off and I am actually quite happy that I get a lot of Indian veggies here. I never expected so much.Spinach is a great source of iron,vitamin A,B and C and this is one great way to consume it without losing the nutrition. This has spinach,dal and coconut making it tasty,healthy and nutritious. Now let us get cooking.

Ingredients:

Spinach - 2 cups finely chopped

Thoor dhall - half a cup cooked

coconut - 1 to 2 table spoons

Red chillies- 2 medium

jeera - 2tsp

urad dhall - 2 tsp

Mustard - 2 tsp

coconut oil - 2 tsp

Asafoetida - a pinch

Method:

1. Cook the spinach and mix the cooked dhall.

2. Grind coconut,chillies and jeera into a paste and add to spinach.

3. Boil till frothy and season with urad dhall, mustard, asafoetida in coconut oil base.

Use the same method to make any molagootal substituting spinach with a diff veggie.

Goes well with vetha kozhambu or rasam rice. Also, plain rice and pickle makes a good combo to spice up this non-spicy dish.

Monthly Mingle - Kid's Lunch Round up

Read the MM round up here.
This is the first ever event I participated since I joined the blogosphere. So something special to me and it is thrilling to read the round up featuring my recipes. Here is an extract from the post.






Then we have Sree Vidya bringing in multiple choice for us to choose and each of them sound more interesting than the other. Am sure it would not be chore getting the kids eat these delicious Gobi Manchurian or the fancy Kathi roll.Her Macaroni hot pot is something to get done in jiffy not to mention the Paneer bhurji that can save your day anytime.



But lets start it all with her Nutty n Creamy Veg Soup, it sure to make anybody crave for more. She adds in nuts along with veggies, which makes it a ideal wholesome food for kids! Even if you can't pack it regularly, am sure you will find a way to send this along if your kid gets to fancy this!


Or this yummy Coconut Milk Pulav, which am sure any kid will fancy. So that's a great idea to share with other mommies right. This pulao is mild and is quite easy to get the kids take this!

Read the rest here and it's a great pleasure to go through other entries. Thanks for your nice words Srivalli and it is very encouraging.You are putting in a lot of effort to host such wonderful events and it is simply amazing!

Mushroom Pulav

I never had a liking for mushrooms during my childhood days. Infact I thought its something non vegetarian and detested it. (No offence meant. Just that I am a pure veggie) Once i had a small bit of mushroom from a soup and thought it's not that bad afterall. But later on I came to know that its so healthy and decided to include it in my diet now and then. It's only after having mushroom pulav at saravana bhavan, that I started developing a taste for it. I got completely hooked on mushrooms and specially relish the mushroom pulav at Saravana Bhavan. slurp! So yummy it is! I always wanted to reproduce it in my kitchen and failed in my attempts. However, I wouldn't call it a miserable failure as I still managed to cook it drool-worthy, in my own ways. So far I haven't managed to make any big disasters. Touch wood! This time, I wanted to exactly re-create my fav food and guess what? it's all success! I gave a lot of thought to it and first tried to list down the ingredients. I didn't miss even the presence of few mint leaves and set out to cook my 'all time fav' mushroom pulav. Do you wonder how many dishes will I add to my 'all time fav' list? I already said I am a foodie. (check out my blog's tag line. Well, u can call it an ad-break) This time around, my efforts are fruitful and I present to you 'Mushroom pulav'. However, I reduced the amount of ghee. The hotel people drown the rice in ghee which doesnt sound nice to me. So, how much ghee to add, I leave it to your discretion .

Ingredients:

Mushrooms - 1 cup
Basmathi rice - 2 cups
Ghee - 1 tablespoon
Mint leaves - 10
Cashews - 10
Cloves - 2
Jeera - 3 tsp
Slit green chillies
salt to taste
Chopped coriander - to garnish

Method:

1. Soak the rice for 10 min and cook with 1.5 times water.
2. Cook the mushrooms with a little water separately till done.(There shud be no moisture)
3. Heat 3 tsp ghee, add the cashews and fry.
4. Season with Jeera, cloves, add chillies and mushroom(no raw mushroom). Add mint leaves, salt and fry till the mushrooms are crisp.
5. Cool the rice a bit and mix it with the mushroom mixture. The grains should be separate. Strictly no sticking together.
6. Reheat the pulav after mixing and add the chopped coriander. Add a dollop of ghee and mix well. You can add more ghee if you are not calorie conscious or if you are making it to attract kids.
7. Serve hot with onion raitha

Onion Raitha: Mix finely chopped onions, curd and black salt. Black salt does the trick.




Tips:

1. I think the thing that made the difference is adding cooked mushrooms. Before, I used to add raw mushrooms after seasoning ingredients and I think the water that mushrooms oozes out spoiled the taste a bit. So this time I cooked the mushrooms beforehand and just fried quickly in ghee with the seasoning. Thumbs-up!
2. I feel the mint leaves make the best combination with this pulav and will not suit any other pulav.(like peas) However it's my personal choice.
3. I didn't add garam masala to my recipe. I liked it without the spices and may be you can add a tsp of garam masala.

Disclaimer : Don't hold me responsible if you can find any difference after tasting the same at the hotel. I afterall made it by just relying on my taste buds!

Sending this to CFK- Rice event hosted by Trupti originating from Sharmi's website.

http://recipecenterforall.blogspot.com/2009/04/announcing-cooking-for-kids-rice-event.html

Bird's Nest - A Spring Treat

I wanted to send an entry to the click event at jugalbandi. I was thinking about various options till I chanced upon this recipe by Mrs. Chellam in a tamil magazine. I followed the recipe exactly and it came out pretty well, aptly bringing out the spring theme. I have given the same recipe below.

Ingredients:

Potatoes - 1 kg
Onion - 1 finely chopped
Ginger a small piece finely chopped
Green chilles - 2 finely chopped
Dhaniya powder -2tsp
Salt to taste
chilli powder - 2 tsp
coriander finely chopped half bunch
amchur powder - 1 tsp(optional)
oil to fry
cumin - 1 tsp

For Binding:
maida half a cup
water - 1 cup
Make into a batter

For coating:
Fried semia - 1oog

For stuffing:
boiled Green peas

Method:
1.Boil and mash the potatoes. Mix the dry powders and chopped coriander.
2.Heat oil, season with jeera, fry onion,ginger and green chillies. Mix the potato mixture. Cook and make into small balls.
3. Stuff the peas inside the balls and make into patties.
4. Dip in the maida batter, roll over semia and deep fry.
5. Garnish and serve.
http://jugalbandi.info/2009/03/click-april-2009-springautumn/

Pumpkin Cilantro Chutney

I am a big fan of chutney (Thogayal) varieties and would love to have it alongside dosa varieties or paired up with hot rice with a papad to go with. My mother used to make a variety of thogayal like brinjal, coriander, coconut etc. - almost with anything that she could lay her hands on. One such item is this pumpkin chutney. She makes use of the softer inner portion of yellow pumpkin which we tend to throw away normally. You can also add more of the hard veg part, if you have a very little softer portion and more people waiting for the dish! I always love the aroma and taste of fresh cilantro and thought why not add it in my recipe. I try and include cilantro as much as possible in my everyday diet because it is rich in vitamin A and vitamin C. One good thing is I get a lot of fresh cilantro in US whereas in Chennai it is really tough to catch them fresh during summer. Try out this nutritious chutney.

Ingredients:
Pumpkin chopped(soft inner portion without seeds) - 1 cup
Fresh cilantro - half a bunch
Urad dhall - 1 tablespoon
Dry chillies - 3
Asafoetida - 1 pinch
Tamarind - a small piece
salt to taste

Method:
1. Add a tsp of oil and fry urad dhall,dry chillies till the dhall turns brown.
2. Add tamarind, asafoetida and chopped yellow pumpkin. Cook till done.
3. Allow the ingredients to cool and grind with fresh cilantro. Of kors, remember to add salt.


I served this with onion Adai and it was super-de-duper. I also mixed the leftover chutney with hot rice for lunch and it tasted wonderful.


Sending this recipe to two events.
1. 15 minute cooking hosted by Mahimaa
2. JFI-cilantro @ cilantro-cilantro.blogspot.com

Cilantro.: Announcing JFI-Jhiva for Cilantro