Arachuvitta kathirikai kuzhambu

“Arachuvita Kuzhambu”, this phrase always kindles my taste buds. Even though amma makes the most aromatic Sambar podi which enhances each dish she makes with it these fresh ground pastes are podis are always a treat.
Chef Dhamaodaran is one of a person whom I adore so much. This man never looked or cooked like all professional people around here but I am sure his dishes were simply divine. The way he works with the ingredients, handles the vessels will resemble a skilled mother handling a mischeivios child at home. It will look like as if he had tamed every single thing in the kitchen and they’ll listen to him so obediently. Unfortuantely all these days I have never tried any of recipes.

Few weeks ago he has written in a weekly tamil magazin Kunkumam about a “Arachuvitta sundaikai kuzambu”. He has said that he tasted it in a small hotel in a remote village in the south Tamilnadu and got the recipe from the old lady who was the cook there. I tried it the next day and it was so lip smacklingly delicious and I was waiting to make a Kathirikai (Brinjal) kuzhambu with the same procedure. And this is the recipe!

From a remote corner of a small village let the humble old lady’s divine recipe reach the whole world!

Ingredients:
Tamarind – 1 small lemon sized (soaked in 5 cups of water with 1 tea spoon of salt)
Brinjals – 1 cups cubed to 1 inch size
Tomato – 1/2 cup chopped
Small onions – peeled 200 gms
Garlic – 10 cloves
Gingelly oil – 1/4 ltr (don’t oanic. Its worth the amount)

To be ground to a fine powder:
1 handful Coriander seeds
1 handful Toor dal
6 dry red chillies
1 teaspoon black pepper

a pinch of asfoeitda

1 teaspoon Fenugreek
1 teaspoon cumin seeds

Roast all the above ingredients in 1 T gingelly oil and grind it to a fine powder.

How to make it?
Squeeze the tamarind in the soaked water well and drain it in a colander. Preserve the liquid.

Take a wide skillet and add the remaining oil. Let it heat up and add the onions. Saute till they turn pink and now add the tomatoes. Let it cook till it turns mushy. Now add the cubed brinjals and saute till their skins wilt. Now add the spice powder, the tamarind liquid and check for salt and add if required. Let the whole mix boil until oil separates from the kuzhambu.

The fragrance would fill your kitchen and ofcourse your soul too. Serve it with piping hot rice with a drizzle of ginglely oil with papad. You must be walking on the clouds now

Chocolate sponge cake with Dulce de leche – For CLICK Flour

And I am posting this photo of the Dulce de leche layered Chocolate sponge cake for the CLICK event hosted by the rocking couple Jai and Bee!

I took this photo with my humble Sony DSC P10 and added a border using GIMP.

Have drooled enough in my ealier post on the cake and the excellent layering of Dulce de leche.. So no more writing about that

Spongy idlies with spicy kurma

Idlies are total comfort food for me. I can eat it any time in a day for breakfast, lunch or dinner. It is such a versatile dish and can be paired with a bunch of side dishes. South Indians relish this with so many vareities of chutneys, sambar vareities, kurma, podi and what not? I even have it with rasam or pickle. Since its steam cooked it suits all ages and stomachs.

 

Its served in big bunglows and small huts as the ingredients are simple and affordable. By pairing appropriate side dishes it can suit any type of occassion. Oh! Enough of praisisng. That much I adore it I should say. Here is the recipe for the spongy idlies we make at home. Today we had it with a spicy vegetable kurma.

 

Idly:

Ingredients:

Par boiled rice – 4 cups

Urad dal – 1 cup

Fenugreek seeds – 1 T spoon

Salt – as required

How to make it?

Soak the rice and urad dal separately. Add the fenugreek seeds to the urad dal while soaking. Let it soak atleast for 2-3 hours. Grind the udal dal first adding little by little water until fluffy. A stone grinder is the best to grind idli batter.  The batter should be in the consistency of soft butter.

Then grind the rice with little water. The batter should be just coarse enough. Add water whenever the grinder stuggles to grind. That will be an indicator. Always add 2-3 T spoon of water at a time. Mix both the urad dal and rice batter.  Usually we used to take the two batters in two big bowls and pour one into another for about 8-9 times to get the perfect blend.  During the last 3 rounds add required salt and mix well. Let this mix stand for fermentation in a warm dry place for 8 hours. When you see bubbles on the surface and raisen top you can know that the batter is ready for use. Use idli moulds to make idlai. You can as well use greased plates, small cups. Steam cook the batter for 8-10 minutes. You can test the doneness by dipping your hands in cold water and touching the surface of the idly. Nothing should stick to your hand. Let the mould cool for 1 minute. Then dipping a shallow spoon in cold water take the idlies from the bowl. Serve piping hot with any suitable side dish. I served them with spicy vegetable kurma.

Ingredients for Kurma:

Mixed veggies like carrot, potato, beet root, frehs green peas – 2 cups

Sambar podi – 1.5 T spoon

Salt as required

Turmeric powder – a pinch

Cloves – 3 (heads removed)

Cinnamon – 1/2 inch crushed

Green chilly – sliced vertically 1

Ginger garlic paste – 1 tea spoon

Onion chopped – 1/2 cup

Tomato chopped – 1/4 cup

Grind to a fine paste:

1 cup grated coconut

1 teaspoon Somb

Peanut oil – 2 T spoon

How to make it?

Heat oil in a wide skillet and once it is hot add the cloves and cinnamon. When a nice aroma of the frying spices comes add the ginger garlic paste. Once they turn to golden color add the onions and saute till they turn pink. Then add the tomatoes and cook till they turn mushy.  Add the sambar podi adn turmeric powder. Now add the veggies and saute for a minute. Add 4-5 cups of water and add 1 tea spoon of salt. Mix well and check the taste and add if you require more. Let the whole mix come to a boil and leave it covered till the veggies are cooked. You can check the beet root if its cooked till fork tender. Now add the ground coconut paste and mix well. Count 20 and switch off the stove. If you have fresh coriander in hand chop a handful and add to it and cover the vessel with a lid. Serve atleast after 10 – 15 minutes.

Thanks Srivalli to remind me about the kurma recipe. I forgot it

 This goes for Suganya’s Weekend Breakfast blogging of Healthy Eats!

Chocolate sponge with Dulce de leche layer cake

When I first read about this here I was too fascinated to try something with it. But the time it takes was the worrying thing and I was simply postponing to get a can of condensed milk. Yesterday I finally made a cake with this. What to say? Its all worth the effort and it tasted super delicious. I could lick the whole can but was waiting to try many more dishes

I boiled the can of condensed milk (do not open the can) in a large bowl with full water (make sure to drop the can only after the water starts boling). Boil for atleast 1 hour. All through the time the can should be immersed in water. Otherwise the can will explode. So please keep checking the water level often.

 For the Chocolate Sponge :

Eggs – 3

All purpose flour – 1/2 cup

Sugar – 1/2 cup

Cocoa powder – 1/4 cup

I made the basic chocolate sponge. Beat the eggs till stiff peaks form. Add the sugar and fold gently. Swift the flour, cocoa powder.

Fold the flour mix in 1/3rds at a time and using a flat spoon making swirls like ‘8′ figure while folding. I divided the batter into small cup cake cups and baked them for 12 minutes.

Once the cake is cool I cut each one into 4 thin layers. Applied a teaspoon of Dulce de leche on each layer.

And this is my wonderful cutie layered cake ready for galloping!

Lemon Toffee for JFI Lime/Lemon

Lime and Lemon are mostly used as pickle at home. When Coffee of “The Spice Cafe” announced that this month’s ingredient for JFI event is Lime/Lemon I was really confused what to make. I cannot think beyond a lemon rice or a lemon rasam which is so common. Again I cannot imagine a bread flavored with lime.

As Indian vareities are very sour I always make it disproportionate in any dish I make out of it. Either it will be too sour or totally miss the lemon scent;( I had never got that exact taste. But again I have tasted great lemon rice from my friend’s home. Her aunt used to make excellent ones during our school days. She will bring it in a larger than usual tiffin box on those days. I needed no side dishes for it and would gallop half of it even though we need to share it in a group of 10

Coming to the recipe I decided for this event is a “Lemon Toffee”. During childhood days the tiny “elumichangai mittai” used to be my favorite which we can get handfuls for 10 paise. Thats a great as well inexpensive treat for us. I found the recipe in one of my favorite blogs “a cat in the kitchen”. This is the recipe link. This is not just that favorite mittai as this contained cream which gave a creamier taste. But its good.

I shall give the reicpe for easy reference here:
Lemon Toffee
(makes about 70 toffees)

300 ml double/whipping cream
200 ml golden syrup
300 ml caster sugar
2 tbsp butter
juice and zest from 1 lemon

about 70 small toffee paper forms

Put the toffee forms on a tray.
Mix all the ingredients in a saucepan. Stir occasionally and boil without lid for 15-60 minutes, until the toffee batter is 122-125 ° C. If you don’t have a thermometer you can do a ball test: at that temperature a drop of the batter should solidify in water and be possible to be rolled into a little ball.

Pour the toffee carefully into each paper form. Repeat with all toffee batter. Store the toffee in a tin with greaseproof paper between each layer.

Since I used Indian lemon I added 1 Tablespoon of lemon juice. I skipped the zest part. Also I made the corn syrup with 1 cup sugar and 1 cup water boiled to one string consistency. I was also afraid that adding such a sour juice might break the fresh cream I added. But to my surprise it did not. Added a pinch of yellow food color to get that lemon effect. It was a melt in a mouth kind and totally wonderful. Amma said it could have been more tastier if I would have added another 1/2 T of lemon juice. Should try that next time.

Since the weather is very hot here the ball I made out of the candy mix started flattening by the time I made my camera ready. But whats there in it ? I scratched the plate and ate all the three balls.

The rest were for my family Thanks Coffee for the wonderful chance you gave me to try this recipe. Its definitely  a keeper.

AriNellikai oorukai – (Amla pickle)

This winter season ends with lots of goose berries. My favorite is these tiny goodies that we call “ari nellikaai”. They have a soft flesh and the seeds inside too were really soft. The skin is very tender that if you sprinkle some salt and cover it for a hour it will become tender and delicious.

 

(Photo courtesy flickr) 

Amma made this quick pickle which was a delight to have with curd and rice. At home not everybody is a pickle lover but myself and amma have a special taste for them. This quick fix pickle also goes well with idlis.

Ingredients:

Ari nellikaai – 1 cup

Sambar powder – 1.5 tea spoon

Salt – 1/2 teaspoon

Mustard powder – 1/2 teaspoon

Venthayam powder – 1/2 teaspoon

Gingelly oil – 2 T spoon

 

How to make it ?

In a thick bottomed vessel heat the oil and add the washed and pat dried nellikaai. Saute till they turn tender. Add all the spices and saute till it reaches a golden color as shown in the picture. Serve with curd rice.

Era kuzhambu with karamani

Appa got a bunch of different vareities of lentils during his monthly grocery purchase. One among them is these black eyed beans as we call them Karamani. Its a lovely lentil and goes well with any tamarind based kuzhambu.

This sunday we got some fresh prawns and amma made a delicious biriyani and for dinner she made this wonderful kuzhambu and served them with hot idlis.

Prawns are my all time favorite and I can eat it in any form. Even though the most adorable is the prawn fry amma makes this kuzhambu is made often too. Drumsticks are also added to this kuzhambu if available.

They were so delicious and complemented the gloomy weather here. Prawns when added to kuzhambu renders a wonderful flavour and along with these karamani it turned to be totally nutritious. This is yet another Cuddalore style kuzhambu.

Ingredients:
Pearl onions – 12-15 peeled
Tamato chopped – 1/2 cup
Garlic – 7-8 pods
Tamarind – 1 lime sized ball soaked with the required salt in 5 glasses of water
Prawns cleaned and washed – 1 cup
Sambar powder – 1 T spoon
Turmeric powder – 1/4 teaspoon
Brown cow peas (soaked over night and pressure cooked for 2 whistles) – 1 cup
Peanut oil – 3 T spoon
Freshly chopped coriander leaves a handfull

How to make it?
Squeeze the tamarind well and filter it with a colander. Heat peanut oil in a chatti or a thick bottomed skillet. Once it is hot add the pearl onions and saute till they turn pink. Now add the garlic pods and saute till they turn golden brown. Now add the tomatoes and cook till they turn mushy. Add the prawns and saute till they turn opaque. Now add the sambar pwoder, turmeric powder and the tamarind water. Now check for salt and add if required more. Let the whole thing boil. When the raw smell of sambaor powder disappear, add the cooked cow peas and simmer for 10 more minutes. By this time the oil will be seen separated on the top. If not wait till it reaches that stage. Add the coriander leaves, switch off the stove and keep it covered till you serve.

Serve with piping hot rice and some papad.

Arusuvai Friedship Chain – Oven Baked Potato fingers with Amchur powder

Atlast the most awaited Arusuvai Friendship chain parcel arrived last week.

Soon after me coming back from my native place I decided to try it out. Before that I confirmed that ingredient that been shipped to me by lovely Kamini is the “Amchur powder” (I used amma’s toungues to find it out).

The amchur powder is a new ingredient for my kitchen as I have never used it before. Somehow thought a lot and finally decided to try this. I was planning to try roasting veggies in my OTG and this is a chance

 

Ingredients:

1 Medium sized potato peeled and cut into fingers

a pinch or more salt (as per taste)

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1/4 teaspoon achur powder

1 teaspoon kasuri methi

1 teaspoon peanut oil

How to make it ?

Take all the ingredients in a bowl except the oil and toss till the spices coat the potato wedges evenly. Then add the oil and toss some more times. Spread the potato fingers in a greased baking tray and bake it in the oven (I used the “Bake” mode in my OTG) for 10 minutes. Take the tray out and toss the slices again. Use a spatula to turn them over if it gets sticked to the tray. Now push the tray again in the oven and broil it for 5 more minutes. Take them out and serve them warm with a cup of tea.

Yesterday suddenly the weather went gloomy and this dish was a nice compliment for that. Now I pass on my arusuvai friendship secret ingredient to Jayshree of luvgoodfood. Hello Jayshree! Have fun! Expecting your post very eagerly. And Thanks a bunch to Latha of theyumblog for starting this wonderful event and dear Sri of cooking4allseasons.blogspot.com for coordinating this event wonderfully.

I also send this to the Potato Feast conducted by Dhivya of CulinaryBazaar.

Vela Keerai Kuzhambu

During our recent visit to our native place amma got a whole lot of greens which were not at all seen in Chennai. One among them is this vela keerai. Will write about the botanical specification later. I could not take the picture as they went into the kuzhambu soon after we reached home.

To drive away the travel sickness Amma made this delicious kuzhambu and served with hot rice and Thengai thuvayal. We all became recharged again My wonderful Amma!

Ingredients:

Vela keerai – leaves alone loosely packed ¼ cup (whole leaves)

8-10 shallots

Small tomato chopped – 1

Small lemon sized tamarind ball soaked in 5 Cups of water and 1 teaspoon of salt

Sambar podi – 1 Tablespoon

Gingely oil – 3 Table spoons

For thaalipu :

1 Table spoon Vadagam>

How to make it ?

Squeeze the tamarind soaked in water after 10 minutes and strain the liquid and save it. (Amma used to add the required salt in this water while soaking the tamarind itself.) Take a wide skillet and heat the gingelly oil. Just before it start smokes add the vadagam. When they gets fried add the shallots and sauté till they become tender. Add the tomatoes and the keerai and sauté till the leaves wilt. Now add the tamarind liquid along with the samabar podi and mix well. Let it boil till you see the oil floating on the top.

Take it off the stove and serve with hot rice and thengai thuvayal. Its simply divine ! The keerai has a bitter taste but if you use it without cutting into pieces they taste divine in this kuzhambu.

Amma’s carrot juice

Amma’s version of carrot juice is another way she found out to make us eat more carrots. When she makes fresh salad or poriyal out of carrot I will simply refuse to eat saying “I am feeling like a rabbit to much on carrots”.

When I was carrying my second child everyday she used to make a vegetable soup or a juice and somehow this particular version of carrot juice became my favorite throughout my pregnancy time. And even now it’s a family favorite. First time in after coming to Chennai I saw some reddish orange variety of carrots which were juicier and sweeter than the orange ones. Appa got ½ a Kg but again a trip to our native place was planned immediately after. These carrots were lying in the fridge for more than 2 days. But the day we came back I made this juice and emptied the whole lot. They were delicious and soothing after the travel sickness.

Ingredients:

For 1 cup of juice:

1 cup of chopped carrots

1 cardomom pod

2 Tablespoon of grated coconut

1 cup of water or tender coconut water

Sugar – as per taste

 

How to make it ?

Take all the ingredients in a mixie and grind them to smooth. Strain and you will get a cup full of this orange colored cooler. The subtle taste of cardamom takes away the raw smell of carrots and the grated coconut adds a creamy taste to the juice.