Avial/Mixed vegetables in coconut gravy

Avial, as we all know is a Kerala speciality dish which we Tamilians also make at home. I got this recipe from my sister. She got it from our aunty who is a great cook. I got these delicious kachaudi-dal and Tomato thokku recipes too from her. I am not sure how authentic this recipe is, but it tasted mouth watering delicous. My sister specifically mentioned that adding curd/yogurt to the avial gives it an unique taste. Since I have stopped using dairy prodcuts in cooking, I did not add it. Looks like, tamarind extract would be a good substitute. I did not add both, still it tasted good. I will try adding tamarind extract the next time.

Ingredients for avial to serve 5 adults
Mixed vegetables: 5 cups(white pumpkin is a must, other than that I added carrot, beans, chayote/chow chow and mochai kottai(don't know its English name). Potato, yellow pumpkin, cluster beans(kothavarangai in tamil), sword beans(avarekkai in tamil) etc are few more vegetables that can be added)I think beetroot and mushy vegetables like okra/ladies finger are not preferred)
Coconut Oil: 2 tsp
Grated coconut: 1/2 cup
Tamarind extract: around 1/4 cup(extract from a tsp of tamarind, I haven't tried this yet)
Dried red chilly: 2 to 3 long
Jeera/Cumin seeds: 1 1/2 tsp
Turmeric Powder: 1/4 tsp
Curry leaves: 10 to 15 leaves
Salt to taste

For seasoning
Coconut oil: 1 tsp
Mustard seeds: 1/2 tsp
Curry leaves: 5 to 10 leaves

Procedure
1. Clean the vegetables and cut them into 1 to 1 1/2 inch long wedges.
2. Add coconut oil, turmeric powder and curry leaves to the vegatables and mix well.
3. Pressure cook the vegetables(without adding water to the vegetables). Allow just 1 whistle and switch off the stove. Otherwise cook like how we do for idli without putting the "weight". Basically the vegetables should be overcooked.
4. Gring coconut, red chily and jeera in a mixer to a smooth paste(add water if needed)
5. Transfer the vegetables in a pan/kadai and place in the stove on medium heat. If adding tamarind extract, add it now and allow it to cook for around 5 to 10 minutes till the raw smell of tamarind goes away.
6. Add the coconut paste and salt to the vegetables and mix well. Let it cook for 5 to 10 minutes.
7. Remove from heat.
8. For the seasoning, in a small pan add 1 tspof coconut oil. Add mustard when the oil is hot.When the mustard splutters, add the curry leaves. Add this to the avial and mix.
9. Serve with hot rice and papad.

Dairy free Sakkarai/Sweet Pongal

      

Sakkarai or sweet pongal is my all time favourite sweet dish. I have always believed that the milk and loads of ghee that goes into the pongal makes it such a divine dish, until I made a dairy free version of it for Pongal/Sankranthi festival. It was tastier and healthier than the ghee loaded version. I have been using a traditional pongal recipe from my grandmother which I made vegan. I was not sure about substituting ghee. (I used to add almost 1/4 cup of ghee for pongal.) Checked out Vaishali's blog and was suprised to see that she overall used just a tsp of oil, that too to fry the dry fruits. I used a tsp of vanaspati for the same.

Talking about Pongal festival, it is basically a harvest festival when we(especially the farmers) thank the sun god for giving a good harvest and to give many more prosperous years. It is a grand affair in villages. For city dwellers, it is basically making pongal and vada, buying sugar cane and turmeric and doing some puja at home.
The pongal recipe here does not use pressure cooker to cook the rice. Instead, rice and moong dal are cooked in a vessel(directly kept under the stove) by adding water and milk. Once it is cooked thoroughly, jaggery is added. Finally it is garnished with cashew and raisins and flavoured with cardomom powder.
Here is the recipe..

Ingredients for pongal to serve 8 adults for dessert
Raw rice: 1 cup(not basmati or atleast I have not tried with Basmati)
Yellow moong dal: 1/4 cup
Water: 2 cups or more
Almond milk: 2 cups(I used homemade, recipe below)
Jaggery: 2 1/2 cups
Vanaspathi/Vegetable Oil: 1 tsp(I used sunflower brand vanaspathi)
Cashew and raisins: 1 or 2 tsps of each
Cardomom powder: 1/ tsp

Procedure
1. Dry roast moong dal for 1 or 2 minutes and keep aside.
2. Wash rice and drain water(it is OK if some water remains)
3. Add rice and dal in a thick bottomed vessel(it is preferred to use thick bottomed narrow mouthed vessel. I used "vengala paanai", which translates to bronze pot)
4. Add 2 cups of water to the rice and keep the vessel in the stove and set the flame to medium.
5. While rice is getting cooked, stir occasionally so that it does not get stuck at the bottom.
6. Once the water is evaporated and the rice comes to semi solid consistency, add 2 cups of almond milk and allow to boil. 
7. Check if rice is cooked after around 15 to 20 minutes. If it is still not cooked and water content is less, add some more water, not more than 1/4 cup at a time.
8. Once rice is completely cooked(it would take around 30 minutes), add jaggery and stir well. 
9. When jaggery is melted, it again comes to a watery consistency.
10. Set the flame to low and allow it to boil for sometime.
11. After around 5 to 10 minutes, pongal would come to a semi solid consistency.
12. Put off the stove at this point.
13. For garnishing, heat vanaspati/oil in a pan. Add raisins. Once it becomes fluffy, add it to pongal. In the remaining vanaspati, add cashew. Once it turns golden brown, transfer it and the left over vanaspati to pongal.
14. Add cardomom powder to pongal and mix well.
15. Serve it warm.

Note
Jaggery should be added only after the rice is cooked completely. When a small quantity of rice is put in a bowl and pressed with the fingers, it should get mashed easily.
When the rice is completely cooked, it should be of semi solid consistency and not watery. Adding jaggery would make the rice a bit watery again. So before adding the jaggery if the rice is watery, heating for more time might not bring it to the right consistency. So, care should be taken not to add excess water when the rice is getting cooked. 

Recipe for almond milk
I first made almond milk at home for this Bread pudding recipe.
1. Soak half cup of almonds in 2 cups of water and keep in the fridge overnight.
2. The next day grind the almond in a mixer by adding 1/2 cup water(which was used for soaking) until it is smooth.
3. Add the rest of the water and grind just for few seconds.
4. Strain the blended almond and almond milk is ready.
For pongal, I soaked almonds for just 3 hours. I also did not strain the blended milk.

Do have a look at Vaishali's blog for pressure cooker version of dairy free pongal which is much easier to make than this tradional method.

Dahi(yogurt/curd) Vada-A South Indian Snack

I got the recipe for dahi vada from my dear cousin who stays in Mumbai. She gave the procedure for setting the vada in the dahi assuming that I know how to make the vadas..We prepare the vadas for almost all of the south indian festivals and functions that we celebrate. Usually my MIL does the soaking and grinding and I fry the vadas..So going with the tradition, this time around too my MIL prepared the batter and I did the frying and setting the vadas in Dahi..I have heard that the softer the vadas, the more it "drinks" oil. We got to know from various sources how to make soft vadas that drinks less oil. The secret is to refrigerate the batter for 2 hours before making the vadas..It really works..Going to the recipe..

Ingredients

Urad Dal(full, deskinned): 2 cups
Green Chily: 2 + 1
Curry Leaves: around 10 leaves + 5 leaves
Ginger: 1/2 inch + 1/2 inch(deskinned)
Refined Oil for deep frying the vada
Yogurt/Curd: 4 cups
Chilly powder: 2 pinch
Chaat powder for sprinkling over the dahi vada(optional)
Boondhi for garnish(optional)
Finely chopped coriander leaves for garnish
Salt to taste

Procedure to make the vada batter to get around 15 medium sized vadas

1. Soak the urad dal atleast for 1/2 an hour.
2. After 1/2 an hour clean the dal with water(procedure is same as cleaning rice)
3. Drain excess water.
4. Keep 2 tbsp of soaked urad dal aside.
5. Grind the rest of the urad dal in a grinder without adding water.
6. When the dal is ground to around 50 %, add salt, around 10 curry leaves, 2 green chillys, 1/2 inch ginger and keep grinding.
7. After sometime when the batter becomes very thick, sprinkle very little water and keep grinding. Follow this every now and then until you get a smooth batter. The whole process took around 40 minutes in my grinder.
8. Take out the batter from the grinder, add the 2 tbsp of urad dal.
9. Chop the rest of the green chilly, curry leaves and ginger into very small pieces and add to the batter and mix well.
10. Refrigerate the batter for around 2 hours.

Procedure to make the vada

1. Add the required amount of oil for deep frying, in a kadai/pan and keep in medium flame.
2. Take out the batter from the fridge.
3. Take a small plastic cover(I used cleaned nandini milk cover), sprinkle some water over it and wipe it off. This is done to prevent the batter from sticking to the cover.
4. Take a medium sized ball of batter, put it on the cover with some force so that the batter flattens when falling on the plastic cover. If it does not flatten, press it with the fingers. Make a hole at the centre with the index finger.
5. Take the flattened batter carefully.(Keep the cover in a tilted position, take out the batter with the thumb from the side, tilt the cover more, simulataneously taking out the batter from the side until the whole of the batter is in the palm. The bottom side of the batter in the plastic cover would now be the top side in your palm.)
6. Another easy method is to take the batter in hand, flatten with the thumb, make a hole in the centre and put in the oil.
7. Once the oil is hot, add the flattened batter in the oil.(I added 4 at a time. It mainly depends upon the size of the kadai.)
8. Half way through, flip the vada so that it gets fried evenly on both the sides. Frying vadas in high flame might not cook the inside of the vadas properly. When the vadas turn golden brown in color and when the oil bubbles almost dies out, it is ready to be removed from the oil.
9. Take out from the oil(if needed remove excess oil) and put in the prepared dahi.(procedure below). Do the same for the rest of the batter.

Procedure to make the dahi

1. When the oil is heating, blend curd without adding water. (We do this using "matthu", a wooden stick with a round spiked bottom)
2. Pour the blended curd in a wide mouthed bowl.
3. Add chilly powder and salt and mix well.

Procedure to set the vada in dahi

1. As and when the vadas are fried, put them in the prepared dahi.
2. Once all the vadas are put, refrigerate the dahi vada.

Procedure to serve the dahi vada

1. Just before serving, take out the dahi vada from the fridge.
2. Place 2 to 3 vadas in individual small bowls. Add 2 tbsp of thick curd, sprinkle chat masala powder and salt, add the boondhi and finally garnish with coriander.
3. Serve immediately.

Note: Chopped onion can be added to the batter to get softer vadas. A little (1 or 2 tbsp) rice flour can be added to the batter to get crispier vadas. I guess, if grinder is not there, batter can be prepared using mixer, but the vadas might not be that soft.

This is my entry to EC's WYF-Fried Snacks event. Raks had posted the recipe for vada few days back with very good photos including step by step procedure.

Sambar-Tamil Nadu style

I feel like chronicling anything that my mother prepares. It has a unique taste and aroma that is unparralleled. (I guess, everybody feels the same about their mother's cooking)

Today, I am going to post two of the very basic lunch items of any South Indian(especially tamil nadu) home, namely sambar and rasam. When I make these items, I forget the proportions sometimes. So I am documenting the recipe here so that I can turn back to it anytime I want.

This sambar is to be eaten with rice. My mother also makes a different variety of sambar(exactly like the hotel sambar) to be eaten with idli/dosa/pongal. I will post the recipe for this sambar, next time she makes it.

Generally we put atleast one vegetable in sambar. There are different versions of sambar, where a lot many vegetables are used instead of just one or instead of sambar powder, a paste made of coconut, red chilly and gram dal is used. The recipe I am posting here is a very basic version.

Ingredients that serves 4 adults

Tamarind: lemon size ball(around 10 gms)
Tuvar Dal: 150 gms
Sambar powder: 1 1/2 tsp(I use MTR sambar powder)
Vegetable: I used white pumpkin this time. Other vegetables that can be used are ladies finger, brinjal, carrot, raddish, yellow pumpkin and the list goes on.(See Note below)
Salt: to taste

Seasoning

Vegetable Oil or Ginelly oil: 1 tsp
Mustard seeds: 1/2 tsp
Fenugreek seeds: 10 seeds
Curry leaves: 10 leaves
Tomato: 1 medium size
Green chily: 1 long

Procedure

1. Put tamarind in a bowl and add hot water to it till the tamarind immerses.Allow it to soak in water for sometime.(till you start preparing the sambar)
2. In the meantime, pressure cook dal by adding around 400 litres of water. (Allow 2 whistles)
3. When the dal is cooked, extract juice from tamarind(150 to 200 gms) and keep aside.
4. In a pan/kadai, add oil. When it is hot, add mustard seeds. Once it splutters, add fenugreek seeds, tomato, green chily and curry leaves.
5. Saute for a minute and pour tamarind juice.
6. Add sambar powder and salt. Stir so that everthing is mixed together. Allow it to boil. Once it is boiled, simmer and keep in the stove for 10 minutes.
7. Add the cooked dal and stir. If the sambar is very thick, some water can be added. Heat in high flame for 2 minutes and put off the stove.

Delicious sambar is ready.

Note: I added pumkin along with the dal for cooking. But vegetables that gets mushy when pressure cooked can be directly put along with the seasoning ingredients and sauted. They will get cooked in tamarind water.

Rasam recipe would follow soon.

Brinjal Rice/Vangi bhath

This is one of my mother's authentic recipes for variety rice, liked by everybody who tastes it.

I would definitely not classify this recipe as a very healthy one as she uses a lot of oil. When I protest against her for using so much of oil, she reverts back saying "If you don't eat such stuff at this age, when will you?". I know its not a very good argument, but I generally give up as I too want to savour her delicious food. Once she goes back to her native, she will also follow a strict diet plan as both my parents have high BP and she is diabetic too..I too go back to my usual sambar, rasam, vegetable curry routine devoid of coconut or ghee with just 1/2 tsp of oil going into the items in the name of seasoning. Food can't become healthier than this...

So, I have decided to relish whatever she makes for these 2 months that she is going to be here in Bangalore..

Here is the recipe for brinjal rice loved by everybody at home..

Ingredients that serves 4

Brinjal: 8 pieces cut into small cubes
Gingely oil: 6 tbsp
Turmeric: a pinch

For grinding

grated Coconut: 4 tbsp
Sunflower oil: 1 tbsp
Bengal gram/channa dal: 2 tbsp
Urad dal split: 1 tbsp
Tuvar Dal: 1 tbsp
Red chily: 5 long pieces or according to your spice tolerance level.
Tamarind: small lemon size ball(around 10 gms)
Asofoetida: a pinch

Procedure

1. Add sunflower oil in a sauce pan. Once it is hot add all the grinding ingredients except for tamarind and fry until the dal becomes light brown in color. Allow it cool(10 minutes)
2. Grind the above roasted ingredients, tamarind and salt in a mixer until the chillies are ground well.(Add water if needed and the final mixture should be coarse)
3. Add gingelly oil in a pan. Add bengal gram and stir.Once the gram turns slightly brown add the cut brinjal and turmeric and stir once.
4. Keep in medium flame, close the pan with a lid. Stir occasionally so that the brinjal does not get burnt.It might take around 15to 20 minutes for the brinjal to cook completely. You can test by putting one piece of brinjal in a plate and pressing it with your finger. If it easily crushes, its cooked.
5. Add ground powder to the vegatable and mix well. Stir for 5 to 10 minutes and then remove from heat.
6. Mix this well with cooked rice. If the salt is less, add some more at this stage. 7. If its very spicy, add some ghee and mix well.

Spicy and tasty brinjal rice is ready.

It can be served with tomato raita. (cut tomato into small pieces and add some yogurt and salt to it.Season it with mustard and a red chilli)

This is my entry to Colors of Taste - Powders: Flavored Rice by Smitha of Kadumanga

Microwave fried appalam kozhambu

Appalam kozhambu along with so many other recipes is my mom’s speciality. Everybody in our family loves it so much.The main attraction of the recipe is the deep fried appalams that is put in the kozhambu when it is boiling.The texture and taste of those appalams soaked in kozhambu is absolutely wonderful.

Today when my mother said she is going to make appalam kozhambu, I thought why not fry the appalam in microwave instead of oil…(everybody is becoming health conscious these days and I don’t want to be left out..) I know this would work because off late, I had been frying appalams in microwave to be eaten with rasam rice..The idea of frying appalams in microwave was passed on to me by mother who inturn got the idea from her uncle.The uncle even went to the extent of persuading my mom to buy a microwave oven because we can fry appalams using it.. But, my mother laughed the idea away… So, going to the recipe, here is the list of ingredients and the procedure to make this delicious kozhambu.

Ingredients that serves 4 adults


Appalam/papad: 5 of medium size.(This is not the lijjat pappad.This is the urad dal appalam that we get in south India.The brand I use is ambika.I have not tried this recipe with lijjat pappad.)
Tamarind: small lemon size ball
Refined oil: 3 tbsp
Sambar powder(I use MTR): 2 tsps full
Salt to taste
Jaggery(gud): ½ tsp

For sesoning


Mustard: ¼ tsp
Bengal gram/channa dal: 1 tsp
red chillies : 4
a pinch of asofoetida
A pinch of turmeric
curry leaves

Procedure


1. Fry the appalams in the microwave just for 1 minute. As many appalams as the tray holds can be kept in the oven at a time.
2. Take the juice of tamrind.
3. Heat oil in a kadai/pan and add mustard.
4. Then it splutters add the other seasoning ingredients one by one.
5. Then add tamarind juice, sambar powder and salt.
6. When it starts boiling, break each appalam into one or 2 pieces and put in the kozhambu.
7. Simmer and let it boil for 15 minutes.
8. Finally add the jaggery and put of the stove.

Delicious kozhambu can be eaten with rice and a sabji.