Korada- A side dish for paniyaram or dosa

Hi friends,

Everyone might have got bored with chutney and sambar as side dishes for dosa,idli or paniyaram. Here is one side dish which goes best with paniyaram or uppappam(as we call it) which is very quick to be made.

Ingredients needed:

1 bunch coriander leaves
1 bunch pudina leaves
8 to 9 curry leaves 
3 Green chillies
A small ball of tamarind cherry size
Asafoetida-1 spoon
Salt


Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a pan.  Fry the green chillies well and switch off the flame.With this heat, add coriander leaves, mint leaves,curry leaves,asafetida , tamarind and salt and fry for some time. Once it cools down, grind it to a chutney like consistency.
Now season the dish in oil with mustard and urad dal. 

Korada is ready to be served.

Manathakkali vathakozhambu/Gravy with "Black NIghtshade"

Vathakozhambu is an authentic dish of Tamilnadu, which when had with rice, is the most delicious dish.This can be made with various kinds of 'vathals' (fryums).Vegetables may also be substituted in this process.

Here is one of the types of vathakozhambu.This is using a berry like fruit called 'manathakkali' in Tamil.After a little googling, I found that it is called Black Nightshade in English.It has a lot of health benefits.Below are the pictures of manathakkali , the first one being the fresh fruits from the plant,green ones are unripe and black-ish ones are ripe.The second pic is a completely dried version of the same.We are gonna use the dried version in our recipe today.

Heat oil(2 or 3 tbspns) in a kadai and add mustard seeds.Once they splutter, add a pinch of hing or asafoetida,1 tspn cumin seeds,1 tspn chana dal,little bit of fenugreek seeds ,one red chilly and curry leaves and fry for a while.Once the ingredients start giving the aroma, add quarter cup of dried manathakkali to this and fry well till the color changes.Now add tamarind extract (2 cups) and add a pinch of turmeric powder,2 and a half tspns sambar powder and salt(as needed).Allow the mixture to boil well. Check for consistency.If it is too watery, add 1 tspn of rice flour or wheat flour to allow it to thicken.

Yummy and healthy manathakkali vathakozhambu is ready to be served with plain rice or even curd rice.

Keerai masiyal/mashed greens

Keerai masiyal/spinach is a rich source of iron.It is good to add spinach in our diet at least 3 times a week.

Here is one of the ways of preparing this healthy dish.


Wash a bunch of spinach leaves and finely chop them.
Add very little water to it (as spinach itself leaves out water while being cooked).
Cook this in a pressure cooker for less than 10 mins without placing the whistle.
Meanwhile cook half a cup of moong dal with a pinch of turmeric  powder till it is soft and mushy.
Mix both dal and spinach and mash them well.
Heat oil in a kadai.Add mustard seeds, 2 or 3 red chillies, a pinch of hing or asafoetida.
Switch off the flame and add this to the prepared spinach.Add salt and the dish is recipe.


Remember that spinach has inbuilt salt, so add little at a time.
The better the greens are mashed the tastier the dish.

Serve this as a side dish with vathakozhambu or you may even mix it with rice.

Guacomole-A vegetarian starter from the Mexican kitchen

Until a few months back, I was not aware of this wonderful dish of Mexican cuisine.I was fortunate enough to be introduced to this dish by some of my American friends in one of the restaurants here.I would like to give you all, too, this wonderful taste of the dish called Guacomole(pronounced as Guacomolee).It is abundant in folic acid and a lot of proteins.

Ingredients:

Avocado-1
Onion-1/4
Tomato-1/4
Garlic-1 or 2 flakes(optional)
Jalapeno-1(or more if you want it more spicy)
Salt

Remove the skin and the seed of the avocado and transfer the contents to a bowl.Add the finely chopped onion,garlic flakes and jalapeno to it and mash the contents to a paste or dip like consistency(like a thick chutney).Add salt and mix well.Add the chopped tomatoes as a topping.The dish is ready to be served.

Use it as a dip with tortilla chips or potato chips.

Vegetable Upma

Vegetable Upma is the simplest breakfast recipe I have ever heard of.There are many people who I know have an aversion to it. But believe me, if you make it with the right consistency and taste, there is no other healthier breakfast dish which you would love, than this.

Ingredients:

1 cup Rava/sooji
Onion-1
Tomato-1
Potato-1
Carrot-1
Green chillies-4
Chana dal-1 tspn
Coriander leaves-For garnishing
Curry leaves
Oil-2 tspns
Mustard
Water
Salt

Procedure:

Cut all the vegetables finely.
Dry roast rava in a kadai for about 4 minutes on medium flame. It should not get burnt. You may take a pinch of rava and check if its hot.That is the time to switch off the flame.
Transfer this roasted rava onto a plate.
Heat oil in the kadai. Add mustard to it.Once it splutters, add chana dal, green chillies(finely chopped) and curry leaves and fry a little.Add onion and fry till its transparent.Now add tomato, potato and carrot and fry for 2 minutes.Now add water.(For 1 cup of rava, add 2 cups of water).Add salt.
Once it starts boiling, turn the flame to low and slowly add the roasted rava/sooji to this water, continuously stirring it.
Keep stirring for a minute or so till the water is absorbed and the upma becomes a single layer without sticking to the sides of the pan.

Now switch off the flame and garnish with coriander leaves. Serve hot and healthy upma with any chutney or sambar.I bet you, it even tastes good with sugar.

Mullu thenkuzhal/Mullu murukku

Sweets go hand in hand with kaaram....As the famous cliche goes,"Sweet, Kaaram and coffee"

Recipe for mullu thenkuzhal is as follows.

Ingredients:

Rice flour- 1 
Moong dal- 1/4 cup
Chana dal- 3 tspns
Ghee-1 tspn
Salt
Asafoetida-2 tspns
Water-
Oil


Dry fry moong dal and chana dal together in a kadai till the aroma spreads out.
Once it cools down, grind them into a fine powder.Mix this powder with rice flour,asafoetida, ghee,salt and water and knead it into a soft dough.

Heat oil in a kadai for frying. Grease the murukku achu with oil and put one small lump of the batter in it.Check if the oil is hot by placing a small piece of dough in it.If it rises up immediately to the top, it is ready to be fried in.

Squeeze the achu over the oil swirling it into circles to get the desired shape of the murukku.

Once the murukku tuens golden brown, you can remove it from the kadai.

Note:The achu generally comes with different plates at the bottom.These can be used for different types of murukku.

7 cups sweet recipe

Diwali is over and the hangover, too...Time to upload the recipes of the sweets and snacks I made this year for the festival of lights.

The recipe below is for a simple sweet, called 7 cups.


Ingredients:

Besan/gramflour/kadala maavu- 1 cup
Milk- 1 cup
Ghee- 1 cup
Grated coconut- 1 cup
Sugar- 3 cups
Almonds,cashewnuts-optional

Take a wide-bottomed vessel. Add all the above ingredients and mix well.Switch on the stove on medium flame and allow it to cook stirring often so that the ingredients do not get burnt.

Once it becomes a little thick, keep the flame on low and keep stirring till the ghee starts oozing out.
Transfer the cooked mixture onto a greased plate and mark using your knife as if you are cutting into pieces.You may now place the almonds and cashewnuts in this mixture as per your wish.

Once it gets cooled,you will be able to remove the sweet pieces.

Karuveppilai podi/Curry leaves powder

Do you have the habit of separating out curry leaves from your plate when any dish is served?Here is one way of consuming curry leaves.Curry leaves have a lot of medicinal benefits.So it is good to have it in some way possible rather than just throw away the cooked whole leaves.Right?Also, do not throw away the dried curry leaves which have become black in color.

Ingredients:

Curry leaves-1 big bunch(maybe 2 cups)
Urad dal-1/2 cup
Chana dal-1/4 cup
Red chillies-4 or 5( as per you need)
Hing-1/4 tspn
Salt

Dry curry leaves completely so that no moisture is present.Fry the curry leaves in a pan for a sometime.This helps remove all the moisture.Once dried, keep it aside in a plate.
Fry urad dal, chana dal, red chillies and hing till the nice aroma comes out.
Allow all the above to cool and then grind them all together into a fine powder adding salt into it.

Serve this powder with plain rice and oil/ghee.