Media feature and Navratri Sundal recipe.

First up, I would like to share that I was featured in NDTV Hindu where there was an interview of mine regarding blogging and how regional blogs have been gaining momentum. I do not know how to get hold of the video. But it was a different feeling seeing myself on TV.

Secondly I was featured in Indian Express. Please check the link Vegetarian Food options for a change. 

Thirdly my blog was featured in Prismma, an online digital decor magazine.Shalini@Sanctified Spaces.

This festive season has been so kind to me. Thank you to the azure blue! 

The goddess beautifully adorned

I did make Sundal during Navratri. Do check the recipe here.

Ingredients

Sprouted Green Gram-1/4 kg

Grated Coconut-2 or 3 tablespoons

Turmeric a pinch 

Salt to taste

For tempering

Oil-1 tsp

Mustard-1 tsp

Urad Dal-1/2 a tsp

Hing-a pinch

Red Chilly-2 or 3

Curry Leaves-a sprig

Method- Boil green gram with enough water, salt and turmeric. Cook well till done. But this should not turn too mushy. Now temper the ingredients given above and add it to the green gram. Take this mixture off the pot and add grated coconut. The content of folic acid increases when green gram is germinated and this is a good source of protein too. This is nutritious and simple to make. One can incorporate this sundal in their meal everyday. This tastes great too.

 

 

 

 

I simply love this havan spoon. Gorgeous right. Sending this to a bit of India in every home  @The key bunch; Liven things up and Colours Dekor

Wheat Halwa

This is a typical Diwali treat at my place and my mom- in- law's signature dish. Just tried this out today. I like this home made version better than store bought ones. Its incredibly tasty and a melt in your mouth treat. It requires a bit of work but worth the effort. So do check out the recipe.

Ingredients

Samba Wheat grains -1 glass( 250 gms approximately)

Sugar-2 1/4 cup ( u can increase if you want it sweeter)

Cardamom pods -10 which were powdered

Cashews-A handful broken

Ghee-10 tablespoons(150 ml approximately)

Soak wheat grains overnight. I added 3 glasses of water to immerse the wheat grains.

Put the wheat grains in a mixer and grind . To extract the milk grind the wheat with one glass of water and extract the milk. The first extract will be thick, the last extract will be watery. I did this procedure thrice. Discard the glutinous mass of wheat. Use a sieve to filter the milk.

The filtered wheat milk will look like this.  If you keep this aside, the milk will remain at the bottom and the water will remain on top. I did not discard the water because the wheat milk will coagulate fast and might get charred if not careful.

Now prepare the sugar syrup. Take sugar in a pan add 3/4 cup of water to the sugar. Start stirring it. Take a little bit of milk and add it to the sugar syrup to remove the scum. You can see the scum in the picture above.

Stir this mixture till it attains a single string consistency. You can check the consistency with your finger.

 The wheat milk has been added to the sugar syrup. Stir this well till it forms a mass. 

Take a little bit of color and add this to the mixture. After this you will have to add cardamom and cashew nuts. You have to keep stirring the mixture well and cannot leave it unattended. You have to keep adding ghee, as you are stirring in stages as it forms a mass.

You can see the I have added the cardamom powder,cashew nuts and ghee and the mixture is forming into mass. The main difficulty in making this sweet is stirring. I had to stir this for 45 minutes.Its better to stir this on a low flame to prevent it from getting charred. This is important if you want to make pieces.

Please check this consistency,  the whole mixture has formed a ball.

Grease a plate with ghee. Put the whole mixture on to a plate. Let it cool. Cut into desired shapes.

Cut into desired shapes. I cut them up into a diamond shape. This was not cloyingly sweet but just right. If you like it sweeter please add more sugar. I got 40 pieces for one glass of wheat.

Sending this to Diwali Special Sweets & Savories 

&

Global Food Festival by Kalyani

Tiruvadirai kali and kozhambu

Tiruvadirai kali and Kozhambu

Yesterday we celebrated Arudhra Darisanam.This festival essentially celebrates the cosmic dance of Lord Shiva.The microcosm derives all its energy from the macrocosm and the best way to celebrate this reverberation is through food.My mil makes kali and kozhmabu as prasad.We later hog this delightful combo of sweet and karam flavours..Now for the recipe.

Tiruvadirai Kozhambu

This Kozhambu calls for a whole lot of vegetables. Its usually in odd numbers.Even chillies are included in the count as a vegetable.So usually 3,5,7,9 etc are the number of vegetables used.We usually make a huge quantity of this and have it with vendiya dosai the next day.

Ingredients:Vegetables,roots and beans.

1.Potato-400 gms

2.colocasia-400gms.

3.sweet potato-1/2 kilo

4.Raw Plantain-2 big

5.pumpkin-400 gms

6.Ash gourd-300 gms

7.Broad Beans-200 gms

8.Hyacinth Bean or field bean-1/2 kilo

9.brinjal-2

10.Fresh pigeon peas-a handful

11.Green chillies-4(depends on your palate)

To soak

Tamarind-a huge ball the size of a wood apple to coat the vegetables with its tanginess.

To be pressure cooked

1.Toor dal or split pigeon peas-2 glasses

(For half a glass of toor dal put in two glasses of water.Add a pinch of turmeric and cook.)

2.Colocasia to be pressure cooked separately.

For the ground paste

Red chillies-5(depends on ur palate)

coconut-1 small grated

Asafoetida-a marble sized

4-tbsp channa dal(split chick pea)

4-tbsp-coriander

Take a little oil,add the asafoetida ball,chana dal,coriander seeds and red chillies.Fry all these ingredients.Keep aside and cool.After it is cooled add grated coconut and grind this mixture into a paste.

To splutter

mustard-1/2tsp

fenugreek-1/2 a tsp

curry leaves-a few

Oil-For the paste and for spluttering

salt-to taste

jaggery-a small lump

turmeric powder-one tsp

Method:

Dice all the vegetables into bite sized pieces.The skin of the sweet potato and potato can be retained. Take a vessel.Add tamarind water,add vegetables and water till the veggies are immersed in water. Add salt,turmeric powder and a few curry leaves.Add the ground paste.You can also add a few spoons of sambar powder to this mixture.let the this mixture cook.Check to see if vegetables are well done.Add toor dal to this mixture.If the mixture is too watery.Add a little bit of rice flour and water in a small container mix well and add to the mixture for a thick consistency.Once this is done.Splutter the mustard,fenugreek and curry leaves.Add to this melange.You can add a small lump of jaggery for a sweet tangy aromatic sambar.

The aromatic melange of veggies and lentil ready to be consumed

This is the side dish for the kali.Will be making another post for the kali which is a sweet dish shortly.Till then enjoy is magical broth.This tastes gorgeous with rice, idlis and dosas.Sending this over to Paisley Passions

           

My husband's Pori Urundai for karthigai!

Nel Pori,Aval Pori and Fried gram urundai

Since I got my wisdom tooth removed.I wasn't in any position to do anything for the festival.My husband came to the rescue.He made Nel pori, Aval pori and Fried gram urundai all by himself. He did it with a dexterity of a seasoned cook.The urundai's tasted awesome.It was one of the best I have eaten so far.Thank you M2 for making our Karthigai and the weekend so sweet.My husband sure is an instinctive cook.He did everything in a jiffy.He can even make wheat halwa!!.This is going to patty's party.Please check here for detailed ingredients.

Ingredients
Pori-i/4 kg,black jaggery-400gms,finecut coconut pieces-1 cup,dry ginger a pinch, cardamom 6.

Method:

In a separate vessel make syrup out of jaggery +ding water until it just gets immersed. Start heating the syrup.The syrup shud become thick enuf , so that when you add a drop of it in a vessel of water it shud solidify immediately.When syrup reaches this stage remove from fire.Clean puffed flakes and take it in a large bowl.Roast coconut separately without oil and add it to the flakes.Add cardamom powder and dry ginger powder.Add jaggery syrup and mix for about two mins,untill the temp cools down to a state when the hand can withstand heat.Do not cool it too much, then the urundai will not come out properly. Grease hands with rice flour or ghee. Make the mix into medium sized balls using hand.

Easier said than done it is sort of tough for novices. Especially when you have to make the urundai.Thats where the black jaggery plays its part it acts as a good binding agent. Also jaggery is very good for health its called medicinal sugar. Its a good source of iron and minerals.Jaggery also prevents lung lesions very beneficial for people who work in smoky environs.Pls use organic jagerry as white commercially available jaggery is loaded with chemicals.  The method is the same for both the varieties.

Now for the step by step recipe.


1.My only contribution in the recipe.Cutting coconut into bits.

2.Cleaning the Nel pori
                              

                                    
3.Dissolving the paghu vellam in water.Very important to buy paghu vellam

                                  
4.Filter the jaggery for impurities and put the mixture in a thick bottomed kadai.


                                

  

Add coconut pieces

Check for this consistency

Mix aval with jaggery

Make balls out of it

Aval pori with dried ginger and elaichi powder

Add Jaggery

Aval Pori ready for consumption

Karthigai Pori Urudai( aval and Nel Pori)



Aval And nel Pori for Karthigai Deepam.Pls click on link for recipe.



Aadi Velli Kozhukattai

See how I started my Friday today.I simply love kozhukattais.I can gorge on unlimited quantities of these.This was made by my MIL for Aadi Velli.

Sakkarai Pongal

Made this on Sankranti day in honour of Lord Surya bhagawan.

Ingredients:

rice-1 cup

Gram dal1 spoon

Moong dal-1 spoon

Milk-1 cup

jaggery-1 1/2 cups

raisins-2 tablespoons

cashew nuts-15-20

elaichi powder-1/2 tsp

ghee-6-7 tablespoons.

Method: Mix rice,moong dal,gram dal and dry roast lightly.Add 3 cups of water and pressure cook.You can also add unboiled milk instead of 1 glass of water.Melt the jaggery with a little water in a pan.Remove the scum. Add the rice,moong dal and gram dhal to the jaggery.Add milk and stir.Fry the cashews and raisins in ghee and add in the mixture.Add elaichi powder and ghee to the mixture.

This is my entry for FF: Makar Sankranti.