Kurryamadhu Podi /Poriyal Powder/ Vegetable flavoring / Subzi powder

This powder is very handy. Trust me, it boosts up the taste and kinda of use it for all powder.

Things we need

Channa Dal - 3 tbs
Corriander seeds - 2 tbs
Red Chillies - 8
Asafoetida

Dry roast all these and grind them coarsely.

 To make any curry, heat up a wok/kadai, add oil, mustard seeds, once its sputters, add the veggie (Brinjal, Raw banana (vazaikai), potato, Colocasia (sezpan kizangu), etc. Add salt and turmeric powder to this. Allow the veggie to cook. When its almost cooked, add this powder cover and cook for a couple more minutes.
Its done. Podi thuviya Kurryamadhu .

When we are making Pulippu kootu or even sambar, just mix 2 spoons of this powder to the cooked dal and allow it to boil.  It compliments to the taste.

A must have podi in the kitchen for me

Pori Urundai

Things we need
Puffed rice- 4 cups
Jaggery - 1 cup
Cardamom Powder
Dry ginger powder - a little
Rice flour to make balls

Dissolve the jaggery in 1/2 glass of water and allow it to boil. After 2 mins, when the jaggery is dissolved, drain it into another vessel till the residue is left in the Kadai. wash them off. Most of the jeggery we buy contains some sediments of mud.

Add cardamon powder and dry ginger powder and boil it till we get the right consistency. For that, have a small cup of water beside. Once the jaggery syrup to the water. The jaggery will sink like a stone and not dissolve. And if you are able to make a small ball with it, its done.
Now add the jaggery syrup to the puffed rice, when its warm make small balls out of it with the help of rice flour and little ghee.

Store in an air tight container.

Enjoy!

Manoharam / Sweetish crunchy Jaggery snack

I am blogging after quite a break. Well busy cooking ;-) and lazy to sit and pen down. So no excuses. It was fun cooking. I was revisiting some of  my recipes and relishing them. So I promise there are more interesting and unique recipes to come. I've done them all and clicked away pics and I should post them soon.

This is a sweet dish I did during the Karthigai. Way back in November. It came out very yummy. I ate this recently at grandsweets Chennai. I was always enchanted by this sweet and that pushed me to try this out.
This dish is sweet and crunchy
Here goes the recipe

Things we need

Rice - 5 cups
Urad dal - 1 cup
Salt - very little
Butter - 4 spoons (solid state)
Oil - for deep frying
Jeera - a little

Jaggery
Cardamom
Dry Ginger powder - 1 spoon
Rice flour - 2 spoons

The achu or the Murukku maker.

Wash and drain both of these, strain, drain, and dry them. Have them ground into a powder from the "machine " (as it is called in India)
Else just take rice flour and urad dal flour in the same proportion.
Sieve them well.

Now in a big bowl, take butter, add salt, jeera, whisk them well. Don not add too much salt, remember it is a sweet dish. In one part of the bowl, mix and make dough with water. I am prescribing this method as it would prevent browing of the murukku. If we knead the whole flour into dough, the last murukkus will come out in very dark color.

Now, Press them into the Achu or the murukku maker. Use this mould plate.

Then deep fry them. This is called Thenkozhal. Keep it in a dry container and allow it to cool. Break them into pieces.

Now the manoharam part.
Measure the thenkuzal in cups. For every cup of Thenkuzal take 3/4 th of a cup of Jaggery.

How to make the paagu
Melt the jaggery in a thick bottom vessel. When its dissolved drain the jaggery in another bowl to get rid of the sediments at the bottom. Now allow it to boil and thicken to form the paagu.  To test this. Add a drop of the jaggery in a bowl of water. it should be a thick ball that sinks at the bottom of the vessel and not dissolve. Thats the consisteny we need to attain for Paagu.

Now add the paagu to the broken Thenkozhal.and mix until all of it is covered with the jaggery.When it is okie for you to touch, make it into small balls and store. If not just leave it at just the mix. Its yummy.

Kadalai Urundai/ Mallatai Urundai/ Peanut balls

Things we need
Peanuts - 1/4 kg
Jaggery - 200 gm
Cardamom Powder
Dry ginger powder - a little
Water to make balls

Dry roast the groundnut and remove the skin and slightly crush it so that it will break into two halves. (You can also use readily available roasted peanuts). Allow it to cool down.


Dissolve the jaggery in 1/2 glass of water and allow it to boil. After 2 mins, when the jaggery is dissolved, drain it into another vessel till the residue is left in the Kadai. wash them off.  Most of the jeggery we buy contains some sediments of mud. 

Now boil it till we get the right consistency. For that, have a small cup of water beside. Once the jaggery syrup to the water. The jaggery will sink like a stone and not dissolve. And if you are able to make a small ball with it, its  done.

Add the syrup to the roasted peanuts. Mix well. Have a little water  and beside. Make small balls with it.

That is all. Peanut balls are done.

Katrikai Thugayal/ Eggplant or Brinjal paste

Eggplant is one of my favourite vegetable. Its a good source of potassium and have known to have helped in treating high BP. Its one of the very tasty and simple dishes.

Things we need
Eggplant - Big one
Urad dal - 3 spoons
Red chillies - 4
Tamarind Paste - 1 spoon
Salt
Hing/ Asafoetida

Now the little tricky part in this is the cooking of the Brinjal.
Traditionally, the brinjal has to be brushed with oil and Its actually smoked or burnt on stove top.
I tried out using a traditonal oven as well as a toaster oven. The toaster oven consumes less power and time. say 20 mins. So just brush it with oil and keep it in the oven at 350 degree. The skin would be burnt to almost black. Take it out and allow it cool a bit, then peel out the skin and mash the brinjal a bit with your fingers.
If you've a stove top/gas  burner, brush oil, leave it on the stand and allow it to burn & keep changing sides until the entire brinjal is well burnt & coooked inside

Now with a little oil, roast the urad dal until light brown, red chillies, asafoetida . Then grind the tamarind paste and salt well then add the dal and just grind it coarsly. finally add this to the mashed brinjal and mix well.

That is all. Just mix it with hot rice with little bit of ghee or gingely oil.
It is so yummy.

Mangalooru Bonda

This is a left over..makeover recipe. If you are on diet. do not read further. 
But its okie to indulge a bit on this spicy bonda once in a while.
The main ingredient in this is sour butter milk. Which get accumulated in our houses pretty often. 


Things we need


Thick Sour yogurt - 3/4 cup
Maida / all Purpose flour  - 1 cup
Rice flour - 1/4 cup
Rava (optional) for lil extra crispiness- 2 tbs
Green chillies - 3 chopped  
Cilantro / Coriander leaves - chopped
Baking soda - a small pinch
Salt


(the green chillies and coriander can be ground to a paste and added too)


Mix all the ingredients into a thick paste. The batter should be thick. The more watery it is, the more oil, it would absorb. 


Heat Oil in a kadai or a wok,  when hot, make small lemon sized balls with the batter and fry them until golden brown. Serve hot with coconut chutney or tomato ketchup.


Chopped onions added to the batter will add flavor too.

Murukku/Chakkili

This is a very popular snack of south India. It can be made quite easily.

Things we need


Rice Flour - 1 cup
Urad flour - 1/4 cup ( Roast the urad dal and grind them to a fine powder.)
Unsalted Butter - 2 tbs
Hing - a Pinch
Sesame seeds 1 tbs
Warm Water - 2 cups (to knead the dough)
Salt
Red Chili powder - 2 tbs
Curry leaves
Oil to fry

In a mixing bowl, melt the butter, add salt, hing, sesame seeds, red chili powder and mix well. Then add the the rice flour and the urad dal flour. Add warm water and knead in into a dough like the one prepared for chapatti.In a wok, heat the oil. Take a small amount of the dough into the murukku maker and when the oil is hot you can just make small rounds on the oil carefully. Or you can just do it on the spatula and then add it t the oil. Fry until golden brown. Once all the murukkus are done, fry the curry leaves and add in the box where murukkus are stored. Allow it to cool and store in an air tight container.

Do not close the box immediately after making the murukkus, as they would sweat and not be crispy.