Chettinad Pakoda Kuzhambu

Hello friends! As you all know, we have monthly event called SNC meaning south vs north challenges. Each month a challenger from each zone challenges other team to try out the region's authentic dish and the brainchild of this event is Divya Pramil from you too can cook. For details click on Divya's site if you want to join.This month challenge is by Priya Suresh from Priya's Versatile recipes and its traditional Chettinad Pakoda Kuzhambu. 

Looking at the recipe my first thought was that it resembles vada curry we made earlier but going through recipe thoroughly I realised its bit different. I and family really enjoyed this dish and though its supposed to be spicy I had to cut down a bit as we do not eat too spicy food.



Ingredients for pakoda:

• 1/2 cup chana dal/Bengal gram dal
• 2-3 dry red chillies
• 1 tsp fennel seeds
• salt to taste
• oil for frying

Method for pakodas:

Soak chana dal for 2-3hours and grind it  to coarse paste with dry red chillies, salt and  fennel seeds. Heat oil and take small paste and deep fry in oil like pakodas. Fry all the pakodas till golden brown. Remove on paper to drain off excess oil.

Ingredients for gravy:

• 2 onions
• 2 tomatoes
• 6-8 garlic pods
• 2-3 green chillies
• 1tsp coriander powder
• 1 tsp red chilli powder
• 1tsp turmeric powder
• salt to taste
• 2tbsp oil
• coriander leaves for garnishing

For seasoning:

• 1inch Cinnamon stick
• 2 Cloves
• 2 Green cardamoms
• 2 Bay leaves
• 1tsp Fennel seeds
• Few curry leaves

To grind:

• 1tsp Poppy seeds
• 4tbsp Grated coconut
• 6 Cashew nuts
• 1tbsp Roasted chana dal

Method:

To make paste, grind the ingredients given in the grind list with required amount of water. Heat oil in pan and fry the ingredients mentioned under seasoning.  Chop onions and tomatoes and add it to the pan. Add garlic and green chillies and saute the vegetables.  Add the paste we made before to this gravy. Mix well and cook for two mins. Add some more water and add salt, turmeric powder and chilli powder. Mix well and reduce the heat. Let the vegetables cook and gravy should remain bit thinner.  Once gravy is cooked add the pakodas and gently mix and switch off the gas.

Pakodas tend to soak the gravy so make sure to put them in the end. I added them just a little before serving. 

Serve hot garnished with coriander leaves. We enjoyed this with chapati though this can be served with rice too.

Thanks priya for the yummy dish and I would love to make this again.

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Vadakari Snc challenge 4

Hello friends! Looking at the logo I am sure most of new comers would wonder what is this south vs north challenge. Well, the mastermind or the boss who started this event is Divya pramil from You too can cook and this event is monthly event where two teams that is South team and North team have to challenge each other with their regional dish. South team makes what North team challenges and vice versa. This month challenge from South team is to make vadakari and its by ramya from lemoncurry and for north team its manjula from desi fiesta as she has challenged south to make rajashthani ghevars. 

Since I am from north team  I have to make the vada kari.

So here I am with the very easy vada kari.

Ingredients for making vadas:

• 200gms  bengal gram/chana dal
• 1tbsp fennel seeds
•  2-3 red chillies
• 2-3 garlic cloves
• salt to taste
• oil as required

For curry:

• 1 onion finely chopped
• 1 tomato finely chopped
• 1/2 tsp red chilli powder
•  2 green chillies
• 1/4 tsp garam masala powder
• 1/4 tsp turmeric powder
• salt to taste
• water as required

For seasonings:

• 3 tbsp oil
• 1tsp mustard seeds
• 1tsp fennel seeds
• 1 cinnamon stick

Method:

Soak bengal gram for 1hour. Coarsely grind with fennel seeds, red chilli, garlic and salt. Heat oil in pan and make vadas of the gram paste. Crumble vadas to use in curry.

In another pan, heat oil for curry, add fennel seed, mustard seeds, cinnamon stick. Saute it nicely then add onions and saute more.After that add tomato and cook it well.

Add all the masalas and salt and little water as required. Let it boil once. Here I would added  crumbled vadas  just a little before serving as hot curry wud make vadas soft and crumble more. I thought my vadas vanished in the gravy. Serve it hot.

This was so easy to make and yet so yummy dish and made a nice change in regular meals in my home. Vadakari we enjoyed with pooris.  I could not get good pics for this but we loved the dish. Also since I did not have fennel seeds at home I used ajwain/carrom seeds instead and also added clove along with cinnamon stick.

Here are the pics though nothing step by step. But checking ramya site would show you step by step details. 

I had some vadas still left so made the gravy again in morning to give to my son for his tiffin.. 

Well Ramya hope  I made it correctly. Over to you all for your lovely comments.

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Medu vada..

Hi friends!  I  won't bore you at the cost of repeating myself about the SNC  challenges each month by Divya Pramil. Click on SNC logo on side bar to know more. However, let me tell you this month challenges are for  North team Medu vada by Sherin from Kuk's Kitchen.

And for South team members is by Yours truly, Me and its Misal pav.  Hmm I am hungry now, so why make everyone wait. Lets begin.

Ingredients:

1 cup urad dal
2 green chillies finely chopped
1 tbsp  curry leaves chopped
1 onion finely chopped (optional)
1 tsp pepper crushed
1tsp cumin seeds
a pinch of hing or asafoetida
1 tbsp chopped ginger
some coriander leaves 
salt to taste
Oil to fry
water as needed


Method:

Soak dal over night or 5-8hrs. Drain water completely and grind in batches. If needed add water 1tbsp at a time. I had soaked overnight so my dal was already very soft, and I did not need extra water. Grind to smooth paste and batter should be very thick. My mixer had a blade which I was not aware of and it did the work and I was smiling and singing oh la la.  Hha hahah. One should enjoy while making food, isn't  it?

Once the batter is ready, add rest of your ingredients minus the oil, which you need for deep fry.
Heat enough oil in kadhai  that vadas can have a nice hot swim in oil. Ok kidding. Just heat enough oil to dunk the vadas.

Now comes tricky part. I wanted to be super fast so  I just made few vadas to take pics and my first lot came out good. Rest followed suit. Since I make dahi vadas often I thought this would be easy but I did face bit of problem. Keep a cup of water handy and wet your fingers.  Take a plastic sheet and dump one ball of batter and make a hole in middle using finger and sing there is a hole in my vada  la  la la. Ain't I funny?  hahaha
I used my hands so I was able to make the vadas in my palm only for the first lot and for second lot I used plastic sheet.
Slowly pick up and slide the vadas in hot oil and fry them till they are golden brown on both sides. Fry in medium heat.

Take them out of kadhai and drain excess oil on tissue paper or kitchen paper.

Serve hot with coconut chutney or sambhar.  I used coconut chutney and would share how I made the chutney in different post later.

Lots of tips on Sherin's post which tell you what you should and should not do. Forgive me I am too lazy to copy the whole thing again. Head over to her place to read her tips. So here my challenge is done. Over to you for lovely feedback.

Ah forgot to mention. Here is step by step pics  of what I did and sorry could not take pics of shaping vada as my both hands were tied up in batter.

  Linking this to Sherin's 
Medu vadas.




My South team friends, do not forget to link your misal pav entries HERE

Special thanks to Divya for successfully conducting the SNC event and thanks to her we all have bonded like best buddies and learnt a lot from each other along with our normal chats.

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Carrot beans poriyal/fry--- a guest post

Hello everyone!Today I introduce to another friend and a blogger Tamilrasi from TamilsKitchen. She shares with us very easy and yummy dish. I am delighted to have her on board and lets hear what she has to say about her recipe and herself.

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Hi to everyone .I am Tamilarasi from TamilsKitchen. Thanks to Meena
for giving me an opportunity for posting my recipe on your wonderful
space. This is a simple poriyal that I prepare frequently. This is a good
side for sambar rice or any mixed rice items. And goes well with rotis
too. Here comes the recipe….

Ingredients

• Carrot- 2 chopped
• Beans – 12 – 15 in nos , chopped
• Onion - 1 small sized ,chopped
• Turmeric powder / Manjal thool - ½ tsp
• Chiil powder / Milagai thool – 1 tsp
• Coconut – 2 tsp grated
• Oil – 1 tsp
• Salt to tatse
• For Tempering
• Mustard seeds / Kadugu – ½ tsp
• Urad dal / Ulunthamparuppu – ½ tsp
• Curry leaves – a spring
• Asafoetida / Hing – a pinch

Method

• Grab your Ingredients.
• Heat oil in a kadai and add the tempering agents and wait for splutter.
• Add in the onion and fry till golden brown.Add the turmeric and chilli
• powder and mix well.
• Throw in the chopped veggies and give it a mix.
• Add ½ cup water and cover with a lid and allow the veggies to get
• cooked(will take 7-8 mins).
• Now add the grated coconut and mix well and switch off the flame.
• Serve with any rice items or roti.

Here is step by step pics.

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What a quick and yummy dish. Thank you Tamil for a wonderful recipe. Over to you, friends for your lovely comments.  Do check Tamil's space for more such yummy dishes.

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Adirasam -SNC Challenge 2

Hello friends! As you all know a  cute and very interesting challenge is hosted by our friend Divya Pramil from You too can cook. Challenge is the teams are divided on India's geographical location and put in North and South zone accordingly. One member of North team challenges the South team to try out the dish and same South team challenges North team. Its a monthly event and last month October challenge for North team was to make Mysore pak and for South team to make bhelpoori. Needless to say it was fun and enjoyable learning experience.

This month challenge from South is from Yashodha and its  Adirasam. Its a traditional South Indian sweet comprising of  Rice flour, jaggery and water and deep fried.  Since I am from North team I have to prepare Adirasam and when I saw the recipe at yashoda's place  I was foxed. I am bit confused when it comes to making any sweet which requires sugar or jaggery consistency and my first impression told me its hard dish to make. Not the one to give up I bugged every member of South team and they were so sweet in explaining me how to do it that I started getting clear picture in my head.

I did not even spare my maid who is a Tamilian and who had amusing expression on her face when I showed her what I want to make. She also told me what I should do and well here it is. It may not be perfect but I did make it and sorry for mistakes. Looks like I made a lengthy convo here. Ha ha

Ingredients :

500gms rice
250 gms jaggery
4 tbsp  water.
a pinch of cardamom powder
 Milk and ghee optional
 oil to deep fry.

Method:

Since I have never tasted adirasam I decided to go with lesser quantity than what yashodha in her recipe wrote but I think measurements may vary for rice and jaggery.

Soak rice for 1 or 2 hours and then drain completely. Here I spread the rice on newspaper to just dry a bit more but it should remain slightly moist. Grind the rice into a powder which is slightly more than rawa consistency. Thats how I understood it to be though I did goof up a bit there. It should not be very fine nor very coarse. Make sure rice particles are not there. Keep it aside.

Add jaggery and  water in a heavy bottom vessel and let it boil till all jaggery melts. Add cardamom powder here or grind whole cardamom along with rice.  Jaggery syrup should be thicker of one string consistency. How to check the consistency,please refer to yashodha's post on same.

Remove syrup from gas and after few minutes using wooden spatula slowly add rice flour and mix continously. Mix till you get smooth dough. You may not need all the flour but keep extra just in case.  Again consistency should be of chapati dough.

Keep the dough covered for a day and next day on a plastic sheet rub slight ghee and put lemon sized ball of the dough. With fingers slightly press and form a thick circle. Don't make it too thin and then fry cute little adirasams in oil. Fry on low to medium heat till both sides are done and remove on kitchen paper to drain out excess oil.

So there I am done with it and by the way adirasams are very tasty and the look on my maid's face was worth watching as she was amused by my attempts to make this delightful dish. She was my tester for this as I have never tasted so did not know how it would be.

Hope I did as per my South team members expectations and over to you for lovely comments.

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Rava idli-- a guest post

Hello everyone! Today I welcome my fourth guest on this space. Her name is Sherin, who is a doctor by profession. She has a nice blog at Kuk's Kitchen. Do visit her space to see more of her yummy recipes. Today she is sharing rava idli which is my personal favourite too. Read on in her own words about her and the dish.

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I'm Sherin, aka kukku. A doctor by profession. I came in to cooking because of the people
around me, be it the women in family who are amazing cooks or the men who luv to eat. My
husband is my pillar of support and my son ( 3 1/2 yr old) is my best critic. :) Started cooking while I was at school, my first attempt being a sweetie, no surprise there for people who know me. I started cooking more after marriage, as most girls do. My experiments with food blossomed after coming to the UK, where the grocery stores opened up a variety of foodie opportunities for my hungry tum.

As the great Adelle Davis once said:”Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner
like a pauper.”

In our household weekends are times to experiment in the kitchen-lab . I frequently try new
recipes, most of them quick and easy to make. I like recipes were a staple dish is given a
twist, like rava idli or Steamed semolina cake. A recipe posted by my dear facebook friend
Priya on her page inspires it.

Ingredients:
1 – Rava / semolina -1 cup
2 - Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
Urad dal / uzhunnu -1 tsp
3 - Dried red chillies - 2
Curry leaves-1 sprig
Turmeric powder-1/4 tsp
4 – Salt to taste
Baking soda-1/2 tsp
5 - Yogurt-1 1/3 cup
Water – 1 /4 cup
6 - Oil-1 tbs

Method:

- Grease the idli pans and keep aside.
- Heat oil in a pan and splutter mustard seeds and urad dal.
- When the seeds begin to pop add broken red chillies, curry leaves and turmeric powder and
saute for half a minute.
- Add rava, mix well and saute for 2 mins on medium high heat till rava turns golden brown in
colour.
- Remove from heat, add the salt and baking soda and mix well. Set aside to cool.
- 5 minutes before making the idlis, mix in the yogurt. Set aside for 5 minutes. If the batter is
too thick add water. The batter should be resemble idli batter.
- Steam for 10-12 minutes till done.

Tips

- Use slightly sour natural yogurt for a better taste.
- If using roasted rava, skip sautéing rava in pan.
- For a white idli, omit turmeric powder.
- Best served hot with a hot cup of tea and tomato-coconut chutney

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Thank you Sherin for yummy rava idli. I am going to make these for sure. What about you friends? Don't you like this yummy dish.

Those who would like to be part of this event, kindly click on the Join my event link at left side bar. Hope to hear from everyone.

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Nei Urundai / Ghee Moong Dal Balls...Guest post

Hello everyone!Today I am pleased to welcome a dear friend and fellow blogger Divya Pramil. She has wonderful blog with both veg and non veg dishes at http://youtoocancookindianfood.blogspot.in/. And she is sharing one interesting South Indian sweet dish with us here. Read on in her own words...


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I am a home maker and married for a year and half to my love. I love cooking and started to love it right from my childhood days. My hubby loves all my recipes; I try my best to satisfy his taste buds by cooking varieties and traditional food too.  Here in my blog I try to update only the best recipes that my hubby considers fit for sharing. I have keen interest on art work especially aari work and painting. And I love watching Disney cartoons and Movies especially Cinderella. Blogging has helped me go further into the world of cooking, find new friends and well wishers like Meenu (Meena ji). Thanks Meenu for giving me this nice opportunity.  I think that was too much about me so let’s move on to the recipe.

Nei Urundai is a very traditional recipe from Tamil Nadu. It is so aromatic, delicious and perfectly suits any celebrations. I love it and do make it quite often when I feel like having a rich sweet recipe that can be made in just minutes. It is so simple to make, does not need too much of effort and can be made in a jiffy. You can make this sweet recipe using moong dal or urad dal or with chana dal also. But my favorite is the moong dal version. The ghee’ aroma and moong dal’s flavor blends very well and you will realize it in every bite, it will just melt in your mouth.  Just try it and you will fall in love with it.  Now let’s see what is needed and how to prepare it. 

INGREDIENTS

1.       Moong dal / Green gram dal / Paasi paruppu – ½ cup
2.      Sugar – ½ cup or lesser
3.      Ghee – 5 spoons
4.      Cashews – 5 (Optional) 

 

PREPARATION METHOD

Heat a pan/wok and dry roast moong dal until it turns slightly reddish/brown. Do not burn it. It must have a pleasant aroma. 

Remove from flame and in the same pan dry roast cashews until it turns slightly brown. 

Remove from flame and set them aside until they reach room temperature. 

In a blender add the roasted cashews, moong dal and sugar and make a fine powder out of it.

Heat a tadka pan or pan/wok and add ghee to it and let it melt. Add this to the powdered mixture and mix well.

Make small balls or any desired shapes out of it and serve. 

TIP 1: Make it a very fine powder to get the best consistency. My hubby loves it crunchy so I make it a little coarse. It will taste good too.

TIP 2: I have added cashews which will enhance the flavor and aroma. You can omit them, they are optional. Even without cashews the recipe will taste super delicious.

TIP 3: Roast the moong dal evenly and well by stirring frequently, so that all the grains are cooked evenly. Never burn them; it will spoil the taste of the balls. 

TIP 4: You can use the chana dal (kadalai paruppu) and urad dal (Ulutham paruppu) for making these balls. 

Tip 5: You can make powder using these dals and store it for future use. So you can make these balls quickly on any occasion. See that there is no water in the blender or the containers in which you store them. Use dry and clean airtight containers.

Yummy and aromatic Nei urundai is now ready!! Serve it as a snack!!

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Thank you Divya for a yummy dish. Hope you all like it and over to you all for feed back.

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