Vada (Aama Vadai) and Coconut Rice (Narali Bhat)

Aama Vadai

Ingredients:

1) Chana Dal - 1 cup
2) Toor Dal - 1/2 cup
3) Urad Dal - 1/2 cup
4) Ginger - 1 inch long
5) Green chillies - 5-6 (or more if you like it spicy)
6) Curry leaves - 10
7) Salt
8) Oil to deep fry


Directions:

1) Soak the toor dal and urad dal together and the chana dal separately for a few hours (overnight).
2) Grind the toor dal and urad dal together to a fine paste in the mixer along with the ginger and green chillies. The mixture should be thick with less water. Now grind part of the chana dal with this mixture and mix in the rest of chana dal as it is.
3) Chop the curry leaves finely and mix it in. Add salt to taste.
4) Heat oil and deep fry vada shaped balls of the mixture. (The shape should be flatter than what you see in the pictures, kind of like medu vada)
Enjoy this hot with ketchup or chatni!



Coconut Rice

Ingredients:

1) Basmati Rice - 1 cup
2) Jaggery - 3/4th cup
3) Elaichi pods - 3 or 4
4) Cloves - 3 or 4
5) Peppercorns - 5 or 6
6) Ghee - 1 or 2 spoons
7) Cashews - 10 to 15
8) Raisins - 10 to 15
9) Freshly grated coconut - 1 cup


Directions:

1) Heat the ghee and saute the cashews in it till light brown and keep aside.
2) Start cooking the rice separately until it is almost done but not too well done.
3) In the same ghee saute the elaichi, cloves and peppercorns. When you feel the flavour rising from them add the coconut and jaggery and saute till all the jaggery melts.
4) Add this mixture to the almost done rice, along with cashews and raisins and mix it up well so that the jaggery gels in with all the rice.
5) Steam it for 15 minutes and serve with something spicy to contrast the sweetness.


Note: I have never had the combination of vada and coconut rice together before. This was the first and they make a good combo especially if you don't have a sweet tooth. The sweet coconut rice can also be eaten with a pickle.

Tamil New Year

These are the dishes that I made for the tamill new year

1) Payasam
2) Pongal
3) Mango pachchadi
4) Neem pachchadi

Ram Namavi

What you see above is the stuff that i made for Ram Navami
1) Neer Moar
2) Panagam
3) Sundal

Bruschetta

Ingredients:

1) Fresh Tomatoes (1-2)
2) French bread / Baguette
3) Olive oil
4) Balsamic vinegar
5) Olives
6) Chopped Garlic
7) Parmesan cheese
8) Red chilly flakes
9) Chopped mushrooms
10) Sun dried tomatoes or sundried tomamto paste


Directions:

1) Preheat oven to 300F.
2) Cut the bread into 1/2 inch thick slices.
3) If you have sun dried tomato paste, spread a littls on each slice. Top the slices with the chopped tomatoes, garlic, olives, sun dried tomatoes and mushrooms.
4) Place them in the oven on a cookie sheet and let them bake for 10 minutes.
5) Top the slices with a 1/4 spoon of olive oil each and bake them for 5 more minutes. When the edges start browning, take the slices out of the oven.
6) Before serving, top the slices with a lil balsamic vinegar, parmesan cheese, chilly flakes and if you like the flavour, oregano.

Note: This is an ideal starter to have with red wine and if your main course is pasta. Really easy to make and tastes great. If you do not want the toppings to be hot, bake the slices and then add the toppings.

Gudi Padwa

Here are pics of the stuff that I made for Gudi Padwa. (Chatni with neem flowers, gulab jamun, amti, potato curry, koshimbir of tomato and onion, varan-bhat, mango rice). I am not putting up any recipes here for these, but if interested email me for the recipes.

Puran

I made this yesterday for Holi. Traditionally puran poli is made but I didnt find the time for it. Maybe next time!

Ingredients:

1) 1 cup chana daal
2) 1 1/2 cup water
3) Elaichi powder (2-3 elaichies)
4) 1 cup sugar
5) 1/2 spoon ghee

Directions:

1) Pressure cook chana daal just a little and drain excess water
2) Added sugar to chana daal and cook on low heat till the mixture starts thickening
3) Add elaichi powder and stir it in and cook some more
4) Once in the serving plate, garnish with ghee and serve hot

Credits: Again, mom's recipe and her suggestion to make it for Holi. So thanx to her for that and all the other times she has made puran and puran poli and "kata chi amti" from the excess water that comes out of cooking the chana daal. :)

Karadaiyan Nombu Adai

This is a dish made on the ocassion of "Karadai Nombu" which is an important festival for the tamilians. Its the day a woman prays for the well being and long life of her husband in remembrance of the Satyavan-Savithri katha. Both sweet and salt adai are made on the ocassion and the recipes for these are below.

Sweet Nombu Adai

Ingredients:

1) 1 cup rice flour
2) 1 1/2 cup water
3) Elaichi powder (2-3 elaichis)
4) 1/2 cup finely chopped fresh coconut
5) 1 cup jaggery
6) 2-3 spoons boiled black eyed beans (Also known as chavali, lobiya or karamani)


Directions:

1) Roast rice flour for 5-10 min. Do not let it change color.
2) Bring the water to a boil in a pan and add the jaggery
3) Once the jaggery melts filter the water to remove sediments and place it on heat again.
4) Add elaichi powder and let the liquid come to a boil
5) Add the boiled beans and coconut
6) Turn the heat down and slowly add the roasted rice flour and mix it into the liquid as smoothly as possible without letting it form any lumps and take it off the heat once you have gathered the whole mixture together. The mixture should be of the consistency of chappati dough probably a little harder.
7) Once the dough cools down, make them into the shape of medu vadas. Grease idli plates with ghee or oil and steam for 5-10mins.
8) Serve hot with unsalted butter.



Salty Nombu Adai

Ingredients:

1) 1 cup rice flour
2) 1 1/2 cup water
3) Green chillies finely chopped (1-2)
4) 1/2 cup finely chopped fresh coconut
5) Curry leaves finely chopped (4-5)
6) 2-3 spoons boiled black eyed beans (Also known as chavali, lobiya or karamani)
7) Asafoetida (hing)
8) Salt
9) 1 tbs oil
10) Mustard seeds (1 tsp)


Directions:

1) Roast rice flour for 5-10 min. Do not let it change color.
2) In a pan heat the oil and add mustard seeds. When they have burst open, add chillies and curry leaves and fry them for 1 min. Then add the water and let it boil.
3) Add the hing and salt to the boiling water
4) Add the boiled beans and coconut
6) Turn the heat down and slowly add the roasted rice flour and mix it into the liquid as smoothly as possible without letting it form any lumps and take it off the heat once you have gathered the whole mixture together. The mixture should be of the consistency of chappati dough probably a little harder.
7) Once the dough cools down, make them into the shape of medu vadas. Grease idli plates with ghee or oil and steam for 5-10mins.
8) Serve hot with unsalted butter.


Credits: These recipes are suggested by my sister-in-law Bhargavi and my mother-in-law and their kind guidance encouraged me to try them out yesterday. Turns out that they came out quite well. So a big thank you to both for them for the recipes and for the encouragement.

Pav Bhaji (Serves 5-6)

Ingredients

1) 4 Onions (Medium sized)
2) 5 tomatoes (Medium sized)
3) 1/2 Cauliflower
4) 1/2 Cabbage
5) 15-20 French beans
6) 4-5 Carrots
7) 6 Potatoes (Medium sized)
8) Peas
9) Ginger (1 inch)
10) 4-5 big cloves or 7-8 small ones
11) Salt to taste
12) Chilly powder 1/2 spoon
13) Pav bhaji masala (I use Everest because mom used it, but any one is fine)
14) Oil (4-5 table spoons or less)
15) Cilantro (Corriander leaves)
16) Small slices of Lime
17) Butter (Amul or any)

Note about ingredients: You could skip the fresh ginger and garlic and use a premade ginger garlic paste. I prefer making it fresh because it tastes better.


Directions:

1) Cut and boil the vegetables(Cauliflower, cabbage, carrot, beans). Boil the potatoes and peel them. Mash all the boiled vegetables and the potatoes as well as you can and keep them aside. Do no throw away the water from the vegetables as you can use it later.

2) Chop the onions and tomatoes as finaly as possible. In a pan heat and saute the onions till they are deep goldeb brown.

3) Add ginger garlic paste to the onion and saute for 2-3 mins.

4) Add chopped tomatoes to the pan and saute them till the tomatoes are well done and get maches easily.

5) Now you could either use a pav bhaji masher and make this mixture smoother or you could cool it and run it in the blender to make a smoother paste. I do the latter as then you dont feel the onion when you eat the pav bhaji.

6) If you have used the blender, pour the mixture back onto the pan and now, add red chilly powder and about 3 spoons on pav bhaji masala and stir and saute till you feel the flavour of the masala ebbing out.

7) Now pour in the other mashed vegetables and peas and add salt and stir the whole mixture together.

8) Let it heat for 10-15 mins. Add the vegetable broth if you feel that the consistency is too think.

Garnishing: Your pav bhaji is ready but before you eat it don't forget to garnish it with chopped Cilantro, a slice of lime, maybe chopped onion and most important of all, a dollop of Amul butter!!!! And of course, dont forget the toasted and buttered pav.....enjoy!

Note: You maye change the quantity of the masala if you feel it is a little bland...

Credits: This is my mom's recipe and I learnt it while assisting her whenever she made it. So mamma, thank you:)

Gobi Manchurian (Funchurian)

I renamed this dish "Funchurian" because my hubby and I had a lot of fun making it:). For those struggling to get the right consistency for the batter, here are some tips
1) If you are using corn starch (not corn flour) mix some besan into it and it will get a better consistency.
2) You can add some chilli powder to the batter to make it look closer tot he kind we are used to.
3) Nothing beats corn flour or starch for this dish, but if you don't have either, try mixingup maida and besan for the batter. Let me know if this works ok.


Sweety, this is for you!


Ingredients:

1) Cauliflower
2) Corn Flour (enough to make batter for the cauliflower)
3) Green chillies
4) Ginger (2 inches long)
5) Garlic (6-7 big cloves or 10-12 small ones)
6) Chopped spring onion
7) Soy Sauce
8) Oil to fry
9) 1 cup water for the gravy


Directions:

1) Make a batter with the corn flour and water. Cut the cauliflower into 1-2 inch pices and dip it int he batter and deep fry. Keep the fried cauliflower on a tissue so that it absorbs excess oil.

2) In a pan heat 2 tsps oil and add chopped ginger, garlic and green chillies and saute for a min or two.

3) Add the water to the sauteed mixture and let it come to a boil. Add enough soy sauce so that the mixture is a deep brown. No gently pour in 2-3 spoons of the left over corn flour batter and keep stirring. Once this mixture comes to a boil and the corn flour batter is mixed it, the consistensy will start thickening.

4) Add the fried machurian to the gravy and take it off the heat. Garnish with some chopped spring onion and serve hot with fried rice!


Note: My motivation to learn this dish was to get my mom to try manchurian. She shied away from it because it resembled non-vegeterian dishes and the only way I could convince her to eat it was to make it at home. She loved it and now never hesitates to eat it even when we eat out. :) . Unfortunately this time when I made it, my hubby and I gobled it up before I could take a pic. So maybe next time!

Tips

1) DO NOT substitute corn flour with "atta".....This will just nto work well....A reasonable alternative would be maida or besan in *some* cases but NOT atta....This tip is meant specially for "you-know-who"....:D:D

A note from the author

As most of you know, I live to eat and not vice versa. In order to share my passion with everyone, I have started this blog of my recipes with my friends and family. I assume that whoever uses these will have some basic background in cooking so that I do not have to quantify some of the ingredients like salt/pepper/red chilly powder, etc. I will add tips at the end of recipes if I have any and also add them to a common post titled "Tips". I give all the credit for my cooking skills to my mom who let me venture into the kitchen (to "help" her) when I was a kid and disrupt her organized activities ;) ;) ;). Mom, Dad, Sweety and Rashmi , I thank you for letting me experiment on you. In the more recent times I thank Shiru (my husband) who equals my enthusiasm for food and keeps the desire in me awake to try out new recipes. I would also like to give credit as appropriate whenver possible. So,if I do fail to acknowledge someone, I apologize and request you to bring it to my notice so that I can give them their due credit.

-Dabbu

03/20/06: I have been remiss in not giving due credit to my hubby Sriram for taking all the pictures for the blog. So a big thank you to him for all the help! :)