Churuttappam

Churuttappam, Kuzhalappam or rice flour cannoli happened to be a common item in Christian households  when I was a kid. My mami living in Kottayam used to make it and I was just crazy for this mildly flavored savory item. Later it was available in bakeries and during many visits to Kerala we used to buy.

Yesterday I thought of trying to prepare it at home. Checked for the recipe on the net and I chose one from them. It turned out to be a success and my husband has approved the taste.

Ingredients:

1 ½ cups rice flour (for 40 pieces)

1 ¼ cups water

½ cup Grated coconut

7 shallots

5 flakes of garlic

½ tsp cumin

½ tbsp. of black sesame

Salt to taste
Oil for deep frying

Instruction:

-       -   Grind the coconut, shallots, garlic and cumin to a fine paste with very little water. I use my grinding stone instead of blender to get a real fine paste.

-          - Take a thick bottomed kadai and roast the rice flour on low fire for about 4 minutes. Meanwhile keep the water with the salt to boil.

-          - Add the ground paste and sesame seeds to the rice flour, mix well, keeping the flame low, for two minutes.

-          - By this time the water must have come to boil, add it to the rice flour slowly and keep mixing with a ladle. Switch off the flame.

-          -  Wait till the flour cools down a bit, knead it into a smooth dough and cover it with a cling film or wet cloth. Keep aside for twenty minutes.

-         -  Knead the dough and divide it into 40 small portions. Take each portion, roll it into a ball with pressure between the palms. Flatten it into round on a puri press, wrap it around your left index finger. Let the edges overlap and press them together to join.

-          - Heat oil in a karahi and reduce the flame to medium. Slide the pieces into the hot oil, deep fry till light brown and drain.

Ragi porridge - Kurakkan Kenda (Sri Lanka’s finger millet porridge)

Finger millet porridge is another breakfast item we tried in Sri Lanka and I immediately fell in love with. So, I had to make it at home and today I prepared and my husband loved it. Got guidance for recipe from the net, which I modified for my convenience.

Finger Millet is a rich source of Calcium, Iron, Protein, Fiber and other minerals and is a gluten-free food. The cereal has low fat content and contains mainly unsaturated fat. It is easy to digest and does not contain gluten; people who are sensitive to gluten can easily consume Finger Millet

Ingredients:

-          1 tbsp ragi flour

-          1 cup boiling water

-          ¾ cup milk

-          1 ½ tbsp. grated coconut

-          1 tbsp grated jiggery

-          ½ tsp cardamom powder

Instructions:

-          Dry roast the ragi flour in a thick bottomed vessel. Keep stirring to avoid it sticking to the bottom and getting burned.

-          When the color slightly changes and nice aroma comes, add boiling water slowly, stirring it to avoid lumps.

-          Let it cook and become a little thick, now add the jaggery and mix well.

-          Slowly add the milk and then the grated coconut.

-          Add cardamom powder, stir well and remove from fire.

-          Serve hot. 

21 August 2018

   Today when I prepared ragi porridge, added some chia seeds while roasting the ragi flour. It just took the porridge to another dimension in taste!

Cucumber Raita

This is a very soothing dish which always accompanies a fried item like puris and it is very easy to prepare.

Ingredients:

- 1 medium sized Cucumber

- 3 cups yoghurt

- Salt to taste

- 1/3 tsp black salt

- ½ tsp red chilli powder

- ½ tsp roasted cumin powder

- 1/3 tsp black pepper powder

Instruction

- Wash and grate the cucumber, squeeze out excess water.

- Beat the yoghurt, add salt , black salt and pepper powder and mix in the grated cucumber.

- Add the red chilli powder and roasted cumin powder. You can add these in a design, refrigerate and take out at the time of serving.

- You can make raita with other ingredients like beet root too.

Kiribath (Sri Lankan milk rice)

The first breakfast we had in Sri Lanka was Kiribath. It had the divine fragrance that only coconut milk can impart and tasted awesome. I wanted to prepare it at home, but the cooking process was long. I love cooking, but find ways to do it fast and easy. Today morning the idea clicked and I made it. Here it is for you to try and sample this great dish. It can be served with red chilli sambal or any gravy you like.

You need to use sticky rice. In Sri Lanka they have special rice for making kiribath. I thought the Indrayani rice that is available in Belgaum should be alright, and I was right!

We had for today’s lunch kiribath with bread fruit thoran, red chilli sambal and boondi raita.

Ingredients:

- 1 cup Indrayani rice, soak for ten minutes

- 1 ½ cups water

- 1 ½ cups coconut milk

- Salt to taste

Instructions:

- Pressure cook the soaked rice with water and salt for 2 minutes.

- Allow the pressure cooker to cool. Open it, add the coconut milk and pressure cook for three minutes.

- Cool and open the pressure cooker, take out the rice, put it in a try and pat down.

- When it is slightly cold, cut into pieces and serve.

Sri Lankan rotti

As we were passing through the villages in Sri Lanka, it was time for breakfast and we stopped at a shack on the way. He told he could serve us rottis, tender jackfruit sabzi and red chill chutney. As we settled down, he started making rottis and we got them right from the thava. My husband got totally hooked on and today I made them for him. In Sri Lanka, they use refined flour (maida) for rottis, but I am not a great fan of maida, so I used wheat flour.

Rotti is similar to oratti that we make in Kerala, with slight modification.

1.       For oratti, we use grated coconut about 1/4 the quantity of flour, but for rotti, it is half the quantity of flour.

2.       Rotti has almost double the thickness of oratti, so it has to be cooked for longer time on low fire, which means.,

3.       A thick thava needs to be used for making rotti.

Thava used to make oratti

Thick thava to make rotti

Ingredients:

 100 gm wheat flour for one rotti

 ½ cup grated coconut

 Salt to taste
1 teaspoon oil

Instruction:

-          Mix the coconut gratings well with the wheat flour combined with salt. Add water slowly and knead into soft dough.

-         Heat the thava, when it is hot, lower the flame.

-          Apply oil on the thava.

-          Press the dough between palms moistened with water into a thick round and place on the thava.

-          Turn it over when one side is cooked and let the other side also cooked. 
       Serve hot with red chilli chutney.

Red chilli sambal (Sri Lankan chilli chutney)

Sri Lankan food experience is something out of this world! Such a variety of food items that every day was a treat. Their favorite breakfast item is Kiribath (milk rice) which is served with red chilli sambal. And it was kiri bath and chilli sambal that our wonderful host served us on our first day in Sri Lanka. The red chilli chutney can be a side dish for many of our Indian dishes. Today we had it with semiya (vermicelli) upma.

Ingredients:

- 15 red chillies

- 1 tbsp of cut onion

- Sea salt to taste
- Juice of half a lemon (optional)

Instruction:

-          - Remove the stalk of the red chillies, cut into two or three pieces and lightly roast them. Soak in water for about 15 minutes.

-          - Grind the soaked, drained chili pieces. I used my grinding stone, but can be done in the blender too.

 - - The taste of course will be superior when grinding stone is used. It should be ground slightly rough, you should see some of the seeds intact.

-     - Add salt and cut onion and grind again. Serve with steamed rice or chapatis. Can be bottled and refrigerated for further use.

Chakka varatti (Jackfruit jam)

I have very fond memories associated with this preparation. My mother used to prepare it lovingly, pack it in bottle and give to me. While I was staying in hostel in Lucknow during my post graduation, our choices for breakfast were toasted bread slices with  jam or aloo parathas. I used to take aloo paratha, apply jackfruit jam, roll it up and enjoy it.

We got this big ripe jackfruit last week. Spent two hours cutting, cleaning and taking out the bulbs. Some I kept to have as it is, and decided to make chakka varatti with the remaining.

Ingredients:

1700 gms of jackfruit bulbs deseeded and ground into paste

600 gms jiggery ( roughly 1/3 quantity of jackfruit)

1 cup water

¾ cup ghee

½ tsp cardamom powder

Instruction:

• Add the water to the jaggery in a thick bottomed vessel and keep on fire. When the jaggery dissolves completely, sieve it to remove any impurities
• Add jackfruit paste to the liquid jaggery and keep on medium flame. 

• Keep it covered, stir in between, taking care that it doesn’t splatter onto you.
• When it becomes quite thick and the jackfruit is cooked, keep adding tablespoonfuls of ghee intermittently.
•  As it starts separating from the sides of the vessel, add cardamom powder, mix well and remove from fire.
• Cool and store in bottle. Can be used as a spread for bread slice, eaten with parathas  and also to make payasam.

Foxtail millet idli

Foxtail millet (Kannada: Navane, Hindi: Kangni) is healthy and nutritious. It is one of the oldest cultivated foods. Foxtail millets are widely cultivated in china, India and Africa. Western world and developed nations are slowly accepting it as food for humans as a nutritious substitute for healthier diets.

It is good to control diabetics (controls Blood Sugar Level), keeps the digestive tract clean, and reduces heart attack. It is high in anti-oxidants ad helps in weight loss.

Ingredients

2 cups  gms foxtail millet (2 small plastic glasses)

¾  cup  dosa rice

2 tbsp beaten rice

¾  cup udad dal

1½ tsp fenugreek seeds

Water as required

Salt to taste

Instruction

• ·         Soak the foxtail millet, dosa rice and beaten rice together overnight.
• ·         Soak the udad dal and fenugreek seeds togetherovernight.
• ·         Grind the millet rice mix, pour into a vessel.
• ·         Grind the udad dal and pour into the same vessel, mix together and leave overnight for fermentation.
• ·         In the morning, add salt and make idlis. Serve with sambar and chutney.

Rusk

My husband loves to have rusk with his morning tea sometimes. I wanted to bake rusk at home and did it. It had eggs as ingredient and he complained of slight smell of egg. I tried a second time without egg, but it also didn’t come up to his expectations. This was my third attempt and he was totally satisfied with the outcome.

Ingredients

2 cups refined flour (maida)

1 tsp baking powder

¾ tsp baking soda

½ cup ghee

½ cup powdered sugar

1 cup condensed milk

1 cup milk

Instruction

·         Sieve the maida, baking powder and baking soda twice and keep aside.

·         Melt the ghee, add the powdered sugar and beat well.

·         Pour in the condensed milk and beat it again.

·         Add 1 tbsp of maida and mix well. Add a little of milk and beat again. Keep repeating this till all ingredients are mixed in.

·         Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.

·         Take a rectangular baking box, grease and sprinkle dry maida in it. Pour the batter into it and bake for 25 minutes.

·         Reduce the temperature to 160 degrees and bake for another 20 minutes. Insert a tooth pick into the center and the cake is done if it comes out clean. Otherwise bake for another 5 to 10 minutes.

·          Take it out and allow it to cool. Make slices and put inside the oven and bake at 180 degrees for 20 minutes (no preheating now).

Kadhi with ajwain leaves pakode

Ajwain leaf  is a tender, fleshy leaf with an oregano or thyme like flavor and aroma. It has many medicinal properties and is used extensively in cooking throughout India.

Ajwain leaves are used for treating colds, coughs, and fevers in infants and small children. They improve digestion and stimulate appetite in children. They also provide relief from stomach problems like flatulence and other abdominal discomforts.

Ingredients

For the pakode (dumplings)

½ cup cleaned and cut ajwain leaves

¾ cup gram flour (besan)

Salt to taste

1/3 tsp turmeric powder

1/3 tsp red chilli powder

A pinch of asafoetida

A pinch of baking soda

Water

Oil for frying

For kadhi

1 cup sour yoghurt

2 tbsp besan

Salt

1/3 tsp turmeric powder

Salt to taste

2 cups water

To season

1 tbsp oil

½ tsp cumin seeds (jeera)

½ tsp fenugreek ( methi seeds)

1/3 tsp red chilli powder

Instructions

·         Beat the yoghurt and add slowly mix in the besan without forming lumps. Add all the other ingredients. Put it on fire, when ot comes to boil, reduce the flame to minimum. Let it simmer and let the besan be cooked.

·         Mix all the ingredients for the pakode. Heat the oil in a kadai and fry the pakode and drain them.

·         Put all the pakode into the kadhi, let it simmer for 5 minutes and remove from fire.

·         Season and pour it over the kadhi before serving.

oBasale kadhi : Click her for recipe

Wheat flour halwa-1 ( Atta halwa)

I wanted to make an offering for my havan today with atta halwa. Finished preparing it in 20 minutes and then I did havan.  It tasted heavenly, as it always happens when something is taken as a Prasad.

Ingredients

1/3 cup ghee

1 cup wheat flour

1 cup sugar

2 cups water

½ tsp cardamom powder

1 tbsp raisins

5 almonds slivered to decorate

Instruction

• ·         Heat ghee in a kadai or pan, add the wheat flour and keep stirring it continuously on low fire till the flour turns brown and it starts separating from the sides of the pan.
• ·         Add the sugar and mix well.

• ·         Slowly add the water, stirring well to prevent any lump formation.
• ·         Add raisins and cardamom powder.
• ·         Keep stirring it and remove from fire when it reaches halwa consistency.

• ·         Decorate with almond slivers while serving. 

Dal Makhani

Ingredients

½ cup udad dal with skin (Black gram)

2 tbsps chana dal

2 tbsps rajma
1 piece of cinnamon
3 cardamoms

¼ cup milk cream (malai)

1 tbsp ghee

5 flakes of garlic sliced

¼ tsp red chilli powder

½ tsp garam masala powder

1/ tbsp butter

Salt to taste

Instruction

• ·         Soak the dals and rajma overnight.  Pressure cook it with 2 ½ cups water, salt, cinnamon and cardamom  for 18 minutes. Let it cool and then open.
• ·         Keep the pressure cooker on low fire, add the milk cream, red chilli powder and garam masala powder.
• ·         Heat ghee in a pan, add the sliced garlic and let it brown. Add this to the dal and remove from fire. Put the butter on top before serving.
• ·         This can be served with parathas or jeera rice.

Dry coconut (copra), peanut chutney

Ingredients

2 cups grated dry coconut

¼ cup roasted peanuts

6 flakes of peeled garlic

½ tsp red chilli powder

Salt to taste

Instruction

•      Grind the roasted peanuts.
•      Add all other ingredients and grind
•       Store in an air tight bottle. It will stay for about three weeks.

•   It is a great accompaniment for rice and curds.

Carrots, green peas sabzi

Chefs and health experts often say you should eat "seasonally," or include foods in your diet that are grown at the same time of the year you eat them. This supports your body’s natural nutritional needs. Fruits and vegetables that are stored for long periods of time due to transportation or to be used at a later date have a reduction in phyto-nutrient content. Carrots and green peas are available during winter and they make a delicious sabzi, which is easy to prepare.

Ingredients:

3 carrots, peeled and cut into small pieces

1 cup shelled peas

1 large tomato grated

1 tbsp oil

½ tsp jeera (cumin seeds)

½ tsp turmeric powder

⅓ tsp red chili powder

1½ tsp coriander powder

½ tsp garam masala powder

Salt to taste

½ cup water

1 tbsp cut coriander leaves OR ½ tsp kasuri methi (dried fenugreek leaves)

Instruction:

• ·         Heat oil in a pan, add cumin seeds. When they splutter, add the grated tomato. Stir and cook it for a while.
• ·         Add the shelled peas, keep the flame high and stir for half a minute.
• ·         Add the carrot pieces and stir for another half minute.
• ·         Add the salt, water, cover and cook for 10 minutes on low flame. Open and check in between, add some water if needed.
• ·         Now add all masala powders and kasuri methi (if you are adding cut coriander leaves, do it after removing from the fire). Mix well for a few seconds and remove from fire.
• ·         This can be served along with steamed rice or chapatis.

Capsicum potato sabzi

Here is a simple, easy to make sabzi that tastes good with rice or chapatti. Capsicum, or bell peppers are colourful and attractive vegetables that are enjoyed all over the world in a variety of cuisines. They are loaded with nutrients like vitamins A, C and K, carotenoids and dietary fiber which makes them immensely beneficial for the overall good health.

Bell peppers help in clearing out the congested mucus membranes in the nose and lungs and eliminate toxins through sweating. It has anti-inflammatory, analgesic properties and may also provide relief in pain related to arthritis. It also provides relief from fibromyalgia, skin aging and psoriasis.

Ingredients:

4 Capsicums

1 Large potato

1 Tomato

1 Onion

1 tbsp Oil

½ tsp mustard seeds

1/3 tsp turmeric powder

¼ tsp red chilli powder

1 tsp coriander powder

½ tsp garam masala powder

Salt to taste

½ cup water

Method:

  

-       -  Deseed capsicums and cut into squares. Peel and cube the potato and onion. Cut the tomato into 8 pieces.

-     -   Heat oil in a pan, add mustard seeds. When they splutter, add the cut onion, sauté on low fire.

-       - When the onion turns translucent, add the tomato pieces and sauté for some time.

-       - Add the capsicum and potato pieces, increase the flame, stir well for some time, add salt and water and cover the pan. Reduce the flame and let it cook for about 8 minutes, till the potato is done.

-     -  Now add all the masala powders, mix well and remove from the fire.