Thamarai vidhai thengai paal payasam – Makhani coconut milk kheer

Lets welcome 2010 with a sweet note! May this year bring more happiness and peace to all of us! Wishing you all a lovely prosperous New Year!

I had half a bag of these wonderful puffed makhanis left after making this. The kheer commonly made with these cutie puffs did not impress me much due to thick milk to be added. Hence wanted to make a jaggery version of the same.

This turned to be a lovely payasam with a chewy mouthful makhanis soaked in th creamy sweet coconut milk. Yes they were real treats on this New Year special lunch.

Thamarai vidhai coconut milk payasam

Ingredient:

Thamarai vidhai / Makhani – 2 Cups

Ghee – 2-3 T spoon

Coconut milk – 1.5 cups

Jaggery grated – 1 cup (adjust to suite your sweet tooth)

cardamom seeds crushed – from 3-4 pods

Salt – 1 pinch

How to make it?

In a thick bottomed vessel add 2 cups of water and the grated jaggery. Let it gt hot. Stir well until jaggery is melted well. Now take the vessel off the stove and filter it in a fine mesh to remove the impurities. Take the filtered liquid back to the same vessel (wash the vessel before taking the jaggery liquid else the impurities settled in the bottom would still be there) and on the stove. Let it simmer. In another thick bottomed vessel melt the ghee. Shallow fry the makhana for 5- 10 minutes. Do it in handful of batches to when frying. When done, if you crush the seed with your fingers it should crackle like wafer. Crush all the seeds slightly with your hands. By this time the jaggery liquid would start simmering. Add the salt and cardamom and crushed makhanas. Increase the temperature and let it cook for 1 or two minutes. Switch off the stove and now add the coconut milk and mix well. Cover and let it sit for few minutes. Serve hot. If planning to serve cold please heat it for a while as the ghee added to fry the makahans seems to separate and float on the surface which is not a pleasing look. Enjoy!

Agathi keerai thanni chaaru

Appa fasts on Ekadasi and hence we used to make special food on the next day i.e., on Dhuvadasi. Agathi Keerai – Sesbania grandiflora and Goose berries are a must in Dhuvadasi day food as the ulcers that would have developed on the fasting day would b healed well by these kind of food.

Amma makes a simple stir fry with this keerai but this time made a thanni chaaru. “Thanni chaaru” is a thin lentil soup made with greens. The addition of coconut milk gives a great flavour. You can have them as it is or mixed with rice. This tastes bland but good for people healing from stomach ulcers and recovering from fever.

Unfortunately Amma do not know the recipe and hence I searched the blogs and find the recipe here. Thanks Rajeswari for recording such rare recipes!
I made some tweakings as myself and Amma remembered Toor dal in it. Hence recipe adapted from here
.

Agathi keerai thanni chaaru
Ingredients:

Agathi keerai leaves tightly packed – 2 cups
Toor dal – 1/4 cup
Shallots – 10-12
Jeera/Cumin seeds 1/2 tblsp
Salt As needed
Coconut milk – 3/4 cup

How to make it?
Cook Toor dal as per instructions here. In a thick bottomed vessel take 3 cups of water, add the onions slighty crushed, cumin powder and let it boil. Now add the agathi keerai leaves along with mashed toor dal. Let it cook uncovered for 5 minutes or until the leaves get cooked. Add the coconut milk and stir well and switch off the stove. Serve warm as a soup or over rice.

Butter cookies and a Happy New Year !

On a final lap for the holiday season this simple butter cookies comes on your way! They were so simple to make and very forgiving too. Appa presented me a bunch of cookie cutters and I put them into good use when making them. I used the Bakingbites recipe for these lovely cookies. They were simple and delicious. Used some melon seeds and sprinklers to decorate them. They were good on their own too!

Wishing all my readers a Happy and Prosperous New Year! May this new year fill your lives with love and peace! May all your dreams come true!

Meet you all again in the New Year 2010 !

Till then have a wonderful time!

Walnut Caramel and a Merry Christmas!

I am back from a six day pilgrimage cum vacation in the most divine place on the earth today morning. Will reserve a separate post for it later next week. But its time for the festival mood and I wish my readers a merry merry Christmas with these Walnut Caramels.

The recipe is from Joyofbaking but I toasted 1/2 cup of broken walnuts and added in the end.

Slice them or make them into balls and wrap them in parchment paper. Keep refrigerated for about 2 weeks.

When your Macs become lame…

Make meringue cookies. Its mere peer pressure. What can I do when this, this, this and this and so many other lovely ladies show off their macaroons. I had made a trial earlier but miserably failed. The macaroons seems to be definitely haunting me. I am sure the too-sweet cuties will not suit my taste bud but showing off is definitely a nagging thing in the corner of my mind. Sigh…its becoming addictive.

In my recent blog hopping I jumped into this lovely blog and what could say that Thip had described a new way to macaroons. I by-hearted the recipe and got into action. The idea of italian meringue really got me hooked and my fear for folding the dry ingredients seems to be removed in this recipe. There is a whole new way of mixing.

It all went well…er…not really. When I ground my almonds thy became lumpy and I need mix well to removed the lumps. But the sugar syrup is a problem. As I do not have a candy thermometer I got into visual testing for the right consistency. I thought thats the right time to take the syrup off the stove but looks like a bit late. My meringue never reached the soft peak stage. I beat until my hand-held blender became tired (read I) but looks like it would never and there is something WRONG.

Somehow got courage and piped the macaroons. I right away know that it’s rather runny and did not stand the mound at all. But pushed them in the oven to find some lame pitiable thin “cookies” which I need to scrap from the lining paper.

I had a idea and grabbed a 3/4 cup of AP flour (actually I eyeballed it but it should he this amount) and quickly folded in to the mix. Took the batter into a plastic bag and piped uniform mounds. They flattened slowly but I baked them in 150 degree centigrade for 10-15 minutes. I checked for slightly browning of the edges. When touched the cookies should be almost hard (it will harden at it cools).

They really made a wonderful and crispy melt in your mouth biscuits! We all loved them and my guilty feeling of wasting the ingredients too vanished

French meringue biscuits
Adapted from here

Ingredients:
yield 1 sheet pan

for the mass
- 100 g almond flour
- 100 g powdered sugar
- 40-45 g egg whites, aged
- 3 drops food coloring (optional)
- 5 g pineapple extract (optional)

for Italian meringue
- 160 g sugar
- 75 g water
- 57 g egg whites, aged

Preparations:

1. Preheat the oven to 10 degrees centigrade.
2. Create “Mass” by folding all ingredients (use 40 g. of egg whites, add more later if the finish batter is too stiff) together with a spatula or big spoon. If using coloring or/and extract, add them into this step.
3. To make Italian meringue: Cook sugar and water to 230 degrees F. Remove from the heat, let the bubbles settle. In the meantime, whip egg whites in a mixer on high speed to soft peaks. Pour cooked sugar slowly into the egg whites while continuing to whip the whites. Continue whipping the mixture until you get a white shiny paste but that would drip into ribbons.
4. Fold in 25% of meringue into “Mass” to lighten the mixture.
5. Fold in the rest of meringue.

6. Sift 3/4 cup of AP flour, 2 T at a time and gently fold in.
6. Place into a pastry bag with plain tip# 4, using 3-6-9 piping technique, pipe 1″ in diameter circles on a silpat or parchment paper.
7. Bake on two aluminum sheet pan for 10-15 minutes, rotating half way through.

Even though this came out of accident they were delightfully crispy and melt in your mouth! I am sending this to Eat Christmas Cookies Season 3 organized by Foodblogga. Here is the round-up link if you like to have a look at all the cookies

Murungaikai rasam – Drumstick soup

Recently we were clearing up a cupboard which we had left untouched for months after the shift to this house. And voila I found some treasures. The “Samaithu Paar” book (I hardly have 2-3 cookbooks at home) was the treasure I thought I missed in the shift.

To be honest Meenakshi ammals recipes are the best I like in South Indian Brahmin cuisine. I like her way of explaining recipes and tips to correct errors. I would imagine what this thin fragile lady would have cooked for years for family and relatives in the olden age kitchen! Hats off to her.
When browsing through the index I hit upon a rasam which uses drumstick. I have never heard about this combo and reading the recipe I wanted to give a try. But I felt the ingredients used might make a somewhat blander version. At home Rasam means hot, spicy and very refreshing. So I got the idea and adapted to my own taste.

Murungaikai Rasam
Adapted from Samaithu Paar of Meenakshi Ammal
Serves 2 as a soup and for 4 when mixed with rice

Ingredients:

Drumstick – 2 (2 – 2.5 feet long, the plump variety as you would need just the flesh) or 1 cup of drumstick flesh
Toor dal – 1/3 cup
Turmeric – 1/4 teaspoon
Garlic – 3 pods
Curry leaves – 1 sprig
Coriander chopped – 2 T spoon
Tamarind – 1 lime sized ball
Peanut oil – 1 T spoon
Asafoetida – 1/4 teaspoon
Mustard seeds – 1/2 tea spoon
Tomato chopped – 1/4 cup

To be ground to a powder :
Black pepper corns – 1/2 teaspoon
Cumin seeds – 1 teaspoon
Dry red chillies – 4

How to make it ?
Cut the drumstick into 3 inch pieces. In a thick bottomed vessel add the cut drumstick and add just enough water till the vegetables are submerged. Add a pinch of turmeric and cover and boil for 5-7 mins. The drumstick should b fork tender. Switch off and let it cook. Remove each piece one at a time and place it in a plate. Opening th drumstick piece with a spoon and holding one end firmly on the plate with the spoon, using another spoon remove the flesh. Take the seeds too. This is the time consuming part of the recipe but you will be done in less than 10 mins. Collect all the flesh and keep aside.
Cook Toor dal as here. Soak the tamarind in 2 cups of water for 15 minutes. Squeeze the pulp hard to extract maximum from the pulp. Filter in a colander and keep aside. Mash the cooked toor dal and mix with the tamarind water.

Grind the black peppercorns, dry red chillies and cumin seeds in a mixie or mortar to a coarse powder.

In a thick bottomed vessel heat the oil. When hot and smoking add the mustard seeds and asafoetida. When the mustard splutter add the tamarind and toor dal mix. Add the chopped tomatoes. Smash the garlic pods and add. Let this get hot until frothy. Add the ground pepper cumin powder to this and the drumstick flesh and let te mix come to a rolling boil. Immediately switch off the stove and add the coriander leaves and curry leaves and cover. Let this sit for half an hour for the flavors to mingle.

This makes for a flavorful soup for this cold weather with the wonderful aroma from drumstick and the pepper and cumin. Have this as a warming soup or mix it with piping hot steamed rice with some papads on the side. Makes a hearty meal.

This goes to Monthly Mingle – Soups hosted by Harini.This is the brain child of Lovely Meeta
Hope Harini would accept this late entry!

Nandu varuval – Spicy Crab fry

It was warm night and a week before Diwali. I had my own list of items to be made for Diwali. One among them is wheat halwa. Godhumai/Wheat halwa is an all time favorite for both me and my son. I planned very well and soaked 1/2 kg of whole wheat the night before and in the morning I ground it to a paste and extracted the milk and kept in fridge.

So after completing the daily cores at home and putting the kids to sleep myself and my sister ventured to the kitchen to invade ou favorite halwa. Things progressed very well and we both were damn tired when the halwa finally reached the desired consistency. Golden orange, fluffy and melting ghee the fragrance and looks made us feel very proud. Very proud indeed that we switched off th stove and went to the drawing room to have a relaxed chat. We both very much likely not to get such times  due to our work and kids and hence had a hearty chat. After 45 mins around we got reminded of the halwa by the time which it should have cooled down. We went inside the kitchen with drooling mouths but only to find a rock hard mass in the vessel. Oh my we both were stunned and rushed to my sleeping Amma and shook her from sleep. Its around 11.45 PM She woke up and patiently heard our story. Finally said “U should have changed the vessel once the halwa is done. Otherwise this would only happen”. I literally wanted to bite her in anger as why shouldn’t she tell this in th beginning. She said ” I thought u people know “. That is the story of our wheat halwa

Coming to today’s recipe its my favorite way to eat crab. Anyway I have never eaten crab in any other form and hence I shall say this is the one and only crab recipe in amma’s repository!

Crab fry

Ingredients:

Crab with shells cleaned – 1/2 KG

Chopped onion – 3/4 cup

Chopped tomato – 3/4 cup

Coriander and Mint – 3-4 sprigs each

Ginger – 1 inch piece

Garlic – 5 pods

Grated fresh coconut – 1/2 cup

Sambar powder – 2 teaspoon

Salt to taste

Turmeric powder – 1/4 tea soon

Peanut oil – 3 T

How to make it?

Clean and wash the crabs. Detach the legs and cut the middle part into two (depending on the size of the crab you can break into manageable size). Take all the ingredients from onion to turmeric and grind to it a paste without adding water. Check for salt and adjust now. Add the peanut oil and mix well. In a thick bottomed vessel take the ground mixture and heat it. The mix will start boiling. Stir often and let the raw smell vanish. Add the cleaned crabs and 1/2 cup of water and mix well. Stir to combine well and let it cook covered for 5-10 minutes. Check often and stir. you will the a wonderful aroma filling the kitchen and the oil getting separated from the gravy. Switch off the stove.

Serve hot with piping hot rice. The gravy mixed with rice tastes divine. Perfect for this cold weather.

The Lord of the rings – Chegodi for ICC November 09

This month’s ICC initially did not interest me much because of the recipe, how easy the recipe sounded and I classified the recipe to be yet another murukku variety. I proved to be wrong!

I even called up Valli and asked why should you choose these kind of recipes for a challenge! She convinced me to go forward and when I made it there were lots of challenges!

The mistake I made was to use rice flour which we made in a big batch for Diwali. It was too dry for me to make chegodis and I could not make the rings. The outcome you can see in the end of the post. I called up Valli again and she rightly pointed me to use home made fresh rice flour. This time it was way too easy to make those rings and did they taste good ? They were delightfully crispy and te sesame seeds and moong dal add a nice crunch! I loved them as they were so easy to make (excluding the rice flour making tim to the below measures it took less than an hour) but the speed at which they disappeared is far more encouraging.

Yes we finished the whole batch in less than 20 mins With a nice masala chai they were perfect for these cold days! Thanks Valli for yet another challenge

I followed recipe 1.

Chegodilu / Chekodilu – Recipe 1

Ingredients Needed:

Rice Flour – 1 cup
Water – 1 cup
Split Yellow Moong dal / Pesara pappu / Mung Dal / Pasiparuppu – 1 1/2 – 2 tblsp
Cumin Seeds – 1 tsp
Sesame Seeds – 1 tsp
Chili powder – 1 tsp
Ghee or oil – 1 tblsp
Salt to taste
Oil for deep frying

Method to prepare:

Making the dough:

Soak moong dal in water for half hour to 1 hour.

In a deep bottom pan, boil water then add salt, ghee and moong dal. Bring it to boil, simmer and slowly add the rice flour. Using a rolling pin or the ladle, mix the flour with water by stirring it well. When the flour is mixed and done, turn off the heat immediately. Cover with lid and keep aside for 10 to 15 mins.

Once the dough is cool, add chilli powder, sesame seeds, cumin seeds and mix well. Knead till you get a smooth dough. Adjust the salt and spice depending on your preference.

Frying the Chegodi:

Heat a pan with oil, enough to fry 3 -4 at time, if you conscious of not using too much oil. Simmer once it gets hot. The temperature should not be smoking hot.

Grease your fingers with oil and pinch out a small lemon size ball and roll between your palms to form a thick rope. Bring the two ends to together and press to form a rope. Ensure the ends are firmed pressed as not to give out during frying.

Continue with the rest of the dough until you are done with the entire batch. You can either cover it with a plate or a cloth to prevent the dough from getting dried.

Check if the oil is in the correct temperature, by dropping a tiny bit into the oil. Then gently slide the rings or the chakodis in batches of 4 -5. The flame has to be on high until the chakodis come up to the surface, then lower the flame to medium and cook till you get a golden colour on the chakodis.

When the chakodis are golden all over, using a slotted ladle, remove to a kitchen towel and cool. Store in an air tight container for longer shelf life.

Notes: Remember to turn the heat to medium to high and high to medium for getting the chakodis to golden colour and also to be cooked evenly. Only this way you get crispy chakodis. These should not be cooked on low flame as they will absorb more oil and can turn soggy also at times.

Variation: Instead of Cumin and Sesame seeds, 1 tsp of Ajwain or Omam can be used along with chili powder.

This how I used up the dough (just rolled them in ropes of 5-6 inch long and cut them into 2 inch long pieces and fried them. As I could not join the ends of the rope to make as rings as the dryness in the not-fresh rice flour had made it to break. But the taste is never less

Caramelized fig cake

A birthday gift to a food blogger nowadays seems to be the same all over the world. The first thing that comes in the list is some utensils for cooking. Nothing else seems to be more exciting that these! The same happened to me and when Appa asked me what would I want I said a tart pan. I have few small tarelette pans but not a big one. But Appa surprised me with some cookie cutters too along with the tart pan.

The day I got it I was jumping with joy as its a non stick one and of the perfect size I wanted. I had a bag full of fresh figs and this is the first time I was eating figs. I liked its mildly sweet and mellow flavor and the crunchy seeds are the best. We made glassful of milk shakes and relished fw fruits. I searched for some cake recipes but the one I tried first time with fresh figs were not to our likes. The fruits became soggy and in the cake they did not taste that good.

So I made a basic sponge and caramelized some figs to flavour them. Yeah it turned to be really tasty and everybody enjoyed their slice.

I baked this cake in my tart pan (it came out ver well but). When it came to caramelizing the figs as thy were tender little cuties the soft slices very quickly turned to a jam like consistency. But yet they were perfectly tasting

To the recipe….

Caramelized fig cake

Ingredients :

For the caramelized figs:

Skinned and Sliced figs – 4 cups

Butter – 2 teaspoon

Sugar – 3/4 cup

For the sponge :

Powdered Sugar – 3/4 Cup (Reduced it as caramelized figs have additional sugar)

Vanilla extract – 1 teaspoon

Baking powder – 1/4 teaspoon

Eggs 3

All purpose flour – 1/2 cup

Melted butter – 3 T spoon

How to make it?

Caramelized figs:

In a thick bottomed vessel heat the butter and when melted add the sugar. Stir constantly and when th sugar is almost melted add the sliced figs. Keep stirring on low flame until the mass starts leaving the sides. Take off the stove and let it cool.

Sponge Cake:

Pre heat the over to 170 degree centigrade. Sift the baking powder and flour and keep it aside. In a clean dry bowl beat the sugar and eggs until pale (3-4 minutes). Add the vanilla extract and beat until blended. Sift the flour on the egg mixture and fold gentle so that the air beaten into the eggs are not getting deflated much. Once you don’t see any streaks of flour stop mixing. Add the melted and cooled butter and blend quickly with soft strokes of a spoon. Butter a 9 inch cake pan and pour half of the batter in to it. Spoon the half of the caramelized figs in blobs over the batter and pour the rest of the batter on it. spoon the rest of the fig mix on the batter and bake in the pre heated oven until done.

Enjoy your slice with a cup of espresso! It tastes best the next day but this measure yields 7-8 slices and for our family its done in 2 days

Ulundu vadai – Urad dal fritters

Showing off is part of every child and looks like is part of every adult too! And we just wait for opportunities. Last Sunday we had a guest of a 60 year old man along with his 28 year old son. There were my Father’s friend’s relative. As soon as they entered in and after comfortably seated my father introduced all of us to him one by one. As soon as my younger daughter is introduced se asked back their names politely and did a big namaskaram too by which they were way too impressed. They didn’t expect this from a 3.5 year old little girl. But they didn’t know whats the objective of this phew!

She had just joined a classical music class and would have hardly attend a couple of sessions. She had byhearted the first couple of swarams in the sarali varisai and she suddenly said to the guest that she knows singing and would like to sing for them. They were very pleased and said yes. She started her “Sa Re ga ma…” and the old man was taken aback. Might be he was expecting a “Bah Bah black sheep” or a “Twinkle twinkle…” but not this for sure.

After this then came the elder one to demonstrate his keyboard playing skills (mind you, he too has attended just a couple of sessions). By this time they were exhausted I suppose. And the final one came from my Appa. He went in and took 2 slices of the caramelized fig cake (recipe soon) and started showing off my baking skills. I couldn’t hide my laughter and went inside the kitchen to make some tea for them.

Later as they left myself and my sis could not stop laughing for a long time on this “Family Showing Off” session ! Looked like the old man enjoyed everything. Thanks he didn’t feel offended. So now coming to the recipe of the day….

One more vadai recipe but this time its not made in the same week as the previous one. I actually made it for Meeta’s Monthly mingle high tea but missed posting it.

Every South Indian household will know this recipe and everybody has their own ways. But basic ingredients never vary. Any feast made in the poorest family to the richest will include these vadai along with a payasam. That actually rounds up any big feast.

Ingredients : (makes 20 small vadai)

Husked whole urad dal – 1 cup

Onion chopped – 1/2 cup

Green chilled chopped – 1 T spoon

Salt to taste

How to make it ?

Soak the urad dal for half an hour. Grind it in a stone grinder by sprinkling very little water until you get a fluffy batter. Try to sure as much less water as possible. If grinding in a mixie make sure you leave the mixie to cools down whenever you observe the jar is hot. Add the salt in the last few laps of grinding. The right consistency is if you drop a spoon full of batter in a bowl of water the batter should float.

Take the batter in a bowl and mix in the chopped onions and green chillies. Heat the peanut oil in a thick bottomed kadai until smoking hot. Drop spoon full of the batter and deep fry till golden. Don’t leave it for long else the outer layer will get burnt. Removed the ones with a slotted spoon and drain on a paper towel. Serve hot with a cuppa!