Thai Rice

This is a dish that a friend from Dundee made for us at our house. I have no idea whether it is a recipe from Thailand or it is just a name given by her for the dish. Any way we love it and I keep preparing once in a while.

Ingredients:

Rice        - 1 cup

Ghee or oil          - 2 tbsps

Coconut milk      - ¾ cup

Water   - 1 ¼ cup Salt to taste

Red chilli flakes - 2 tsp

Cut coriander leaves       - 1 tbsp

Method:

-          Wash and clean the rice and keep aside

-          Heat the pressure cooker, add the ghee or oil

-          Put in the rice, reduce the flame and stir it for a few seconds

-          Add the salt, coconut milk and water and pressure cook for 5 minutes

-           Let the pressure cooker cool and then open it

-          Transfer it to the serving plate, garnish with the chilli flakes and coriander leaves

Papaya thoran

Ingredients:

Raw papaya     - 2 cups, skinned, cut into small cubes

Water   - ½ cup

Salt to taste

To rough grind :

Coconut scrapings                    - ¾ cup

Turmeric powder                      - 1/3 tsp

Chilli powder                - 1/3 tsp

Jeera                - 1/3 tsp

Garlic flakes                 - 4,5

To season:

Oil                    - 1 tbsp

Mustard seeds              - ½ tsp

Red chilli pieces            - 5,6

Cut onion                     - 1 tbsp

Curry leaves     - a few

Method:

-         Cook the cut papaya pieces with water and salt on medium flame.

-         Add the ground coconut and masalas, cove and keep on low flame for a minute, remove from the  fire.

-         Add the seasoning and mix well. 

Sweet potato, mung dal patties

We enjoyed street foods in Vietnam a lot. This particular one, from the taste, I concluded that it contained sweet potato and mung dal. On coming back I tried this recipe and found that it tasted almost the same. 

Ingredients:

2 tbsps mung dal (skinned, split green gram dal)

1 cup sweet potato, cooked, peeled and mashed

2 ½  tbsps sugar

2tbsps grated coconut

¼  tsp cardamom powder

2tbsps ghee

 Method:

-         Soak the dal for 4 hours, cook with 1 cup water till soft and it is almost dry.

-         Mash the dal with a spoon, keep on low flame, and add the sugar. It becomes watery now. Keep stirring till some of the water evaporates.

-         Add the grated coconut, stir and remove from fire.

-         Mix in the mashed sweet potato and cardamom powder, and make 5 portions.

-         Make the portions in the shape of patties and roast on a pan on both sides, adding the ghee from the sides. 

-  Serve hot with tea or coffee

Vellappam

Ingredients:

Raw rice           - 2 cups (for 6 appams)

Beaten rice (avalakki)   - ¼ cup (You can substitute this with cooked rice)

Yeast   - 1 tsp

Grated coconut -3/4 cup

Baking soda     - a pinch

Sugar   - 2 level tbsps

Salt      - a pinch

Method:

-         Soak the rice and beaten rice for six hours.

-         Grind the soaked rice (with water just in level with the rice), with yeast and coconut into a smooth paste.

-         Keep it for 4 hours to allow it to ferment.

-         Add the sugar, salt and baking soda. Mix well.

-         To make the appams, keep an iron (or non stick) kadai on low flame. On the iron kadai, smear sesame oil well all over the inside surface

-         Remove the kadai from the fire, pour a large ladleful of the batter, rotate the kadai to spread it into a round, keep over the flame.

-         Cover the kadai with a lid and let the appam get cooked.

-         Remove and serve with egg curry, vegetable stew, sweet sauce or black chana curry.

-         Whenever I make appams, I love to have one with an egg in its center. To make this, after you have spread the batter in the kadai, put it over the flame and very gently break an egg and let it slide into the center of the batter. Cover with a lid and let it cook.

6 -2-2022

This time I changed the recipe a little, it gave softer appams. I ground the 2 cups soaked rice and 2 tablespoons of beaten rice along with ¾ cup grated coconut and 1 teaspoon sugar. Warmed 1 tablespoon milk and 1 tablespoon water, added 1 ½ teaspoons of yeast and allowed it to proof. To the ground batter this was added, along with a pinch of salt and mixed well. After fermentation overnight, added a pinch of baking soda and 2 tablspoons of sugar, mixed well and made appams. 

Appam with sweet sauce and black chana curry

Sweet potato buns

Sweet potatoes are a great source of beta-carotene, a powerful antioxidant known to give orange vegetables and fruits their vibrant color, which is converted to vitamin A in the body. Consuming foods rich in beta-carotene may reduce the risk of developing certain types of cancer, offer protection against asthma and heart disease and delay aging and body degeneration.

Increasing consumption of plant foods like sweet potatoes decreases the risk of obesity, diabetes, heart disease and overall mortality while promoting a healthy complexion, increased energy, and overall lower weight.

Ingredients:

Sweet potatoes - 1 cup (cooked, peeled and mashed)

Refined flour     - 3 ½ cups

Warm water     - ½ cup

Dry Yeast         - 1 level tsp

Egg      -1

Ghee    - 3 tbsps

Honey  - 3 tsps

Salt      - 1 tsp

Sesame seeds   - 1 ½ tbsps

Method:

-         Take ½ cup refined flour in a large bowl.

-         Mix the yeast in ½ cup lukewarm water and pour over the refined flour. Gently stir, cover and keep aside for 15 minutes.

-         Add 1 cup of the cooled mashed sweet potato into the yeast mix.

-         Add the egg, ghee, honey, salt and three cups of flour.

-         Knead into soft dough. If it turns out too sticky, add a little more flour and knead, so that the dough pulls away from the sides.

-         Shape into a smooth ball, put it into the bowl and drizzle with oil. Rub the oil nicely all over the surface.

-         Cover the bowl with cling film and keep in a warm area till it doubles( 2 hours)

-         Turn the dough on a flat surface sprinkled with some dry flour, press it down into a square about ¾ inch thick.

-         Cut into 16 equal squares (for small sized buns). Shape each piece into a ball, gently flatten and place them over an oiled aluminum foil. Cover with a wet cloth and let it double in size(45 minutes)

-         Pre-heat the oven to 200 degrees.

-         Whisk one egg and 1 tsp water, brush the balls and put sesame seeds over them (On the buns seen here, I just applied water and stuck sesame seeds.)

-         Bake for about 15 minutes, till they brown.

Vegetable stew

Ingredients:

Potatoes           -  2 cut into small cubes

Green peas       - ½ cup

Carrot  - cut into small cubes    - ½ cup

Cauli flowerettes           - ½ cup

Salt to taste

Coconut oil       -2 tbsps

Mustard seeds  - ½ tsp

Cloves  - 4

Cinnamon stick -1 inch piece

Whole black pepper     - 6

Onion   - 1 large sliced

Ginger, finely chopped    - ½ tbsp

Green chillies          - 3 cut into pieces

Curry leaves     - 1 sprig

Water   - 1 ½  cups

Coconut milk    - 1 ½ cups

Method:

-         In a thick bottomed pan, pour 1 tablespoon of oil, add mustard seeds. When they splutter, add cloves, cinnamon, pepper, and then add and sauté the onion.

-         Add green chillies, cut ginger and curry leaves.

-         Add the vegetables and salt, stir for a few seconds and add water.

-         Cover the vessel and keep it for boiling on a medium flame for about 10 minutes. Check if potatoes are cooked.

-         Take the lid off and continue cooking till there’s very little liquid.

-         Add the coconut milk, stir and cook on low flame for a minute.

-         Add the coconut oil, mix and remove from fire.

-         Serve with vellappams or idiappams. Can go well with chapatis too.

Akki Otti (Cooked rice rotis)

I had this delicious dish for the first time in Coorg at a friend’s house. Immediately I took the recipe from her and now I make it for breakfast once in a while.

Ingredients:

Cooked (left over) rice - 1 ½ cups for 2 ottis

Rice flour          - 1 heaped tbs

Salt to taste

Water as needed

Method

- Mash the rice nicely with the hand or use mixi.

- Add salt and the rice flour and knead into a smooth dough, adding a little water if needed.

- Make into balls, spread out into round. You can use the puri maker to do this. Take a plastic sheet and apply oil. Keep the dough ball on the plastic sheet kept on the puri maker, fold the plastic over and press it down.

- Roast on a heated thava on medium flame. Turn it and roast from the other side. Put over flame and let it puff up.

- Apply ghee and serve with egg curry, vegetable curry or stew.

23 April 2020
Today we had akki otti with Kerala kadala curry, fresh butter and mango pickle,which was a great combination.