Rose Milk

I have very fond memories of this rose milk beverage. Whenever I visited my Granny's place for summer vacation I used to have this drink in juice shop and also few times during my trip to Tamil nadu.

Its been since many years I had this drink and I had almost forgot this.

Few weeks back when I was travelling along with my husband we stopped for lunch at a hotel, when we were busy eating lunch, my eyes Suddenly noticed a poster written "Rose milk available here" the moment I saw it all my rose milk memories got refreshed and I knew I have to have it. But to my utter disappointment there was no stock that day.

After few days I saw rose milk essence(it gives pink colour+rose flavour)in a nearby supermarket, I brought it immediately and tried this rose milk. All you need is rose essence, sugar, milk and ice cubes.

Rose milk essence

Ingredients

Milk 1 cup
Sugar as required
Rose essence 4-6 drops
Ice cubes as required

Method
Blend everything in a blender for 30-40 seconds and serve chilled.

Jeera Rice

I am not a big fan of Jeera rice because I think its too bland for my taste buds.
But last weekend when I was out of veggies I decided to quickly make this.
Its a very simple and one pot meal.I used basmathi rice but you can either use 
sona masoori rice or jeeraga samba rice. We had it along with coriander chutney and masala peanuts.

Here is the recipe


Ingredients

Basmathi

Jeera/Cumin 2 Tbsp

Bay leaf/Brinji
ellai 2
Water 3 Cup
Ghee 3-4 Tbsp
Salt as required
Onion 1 medium sized(optional)
Green chillies 5-6(optional)

Preparation
Wash and soak Basmathi rice for 30-45 min
Slit green chillies in to half and finely chop onion

Method
1.Heat Ghee in a pressure cooker and add bay leaf, jeera and green chili, 
   saute till green chillies shrink
2.Now add onions and fry for 4-5 minutes over medium flame.
3.Pour 3 cup of water and once it starts to boil add salt and close.
4.Leave for 1 whistle in medium flame and open once the pressure releases on its own.
5.Transfer the rice to another container and serve hot.

Yam Fry

Love making this Yam  fry again and again, as its easy and with very less oil
Here is the procedure

Ingredients
Yam as needed
Salt as required
Oil 2-3 Tbsp
Red chili powder 1/2 Tsp

Method
Clean and peel the yam, wash it thoroughly Roughly chop the yam in to small cubes and Wash the yam 2-3 times in clean water to remove the starch. Heat Oil to smoking point and add the yam.When the Yam pieces shrunk a little as shown in the below picture add salt.

Keep on frying in a medium flame until Yam is cooked (it takes around 10-15 min) or until the yam pieces no longer sticks to the pan. Turn the flame in to maximum level and fry for 2-3 minutes to get a slight brown and crispy yam pieces. Turn off the flame and sprinkle chili powder

Remove and serve hot with rice or as it is

Note
These yam fry does not require much salt add very little at the beginning if you find it less you can always add at the end

Don't use very fresh Yam for these fries, because it causes a itching throat if you are using fresh yam.

Sweet Somas

Sweet Somas also known as Karjikaayi in Kannada and Gujjiya in Hindi. Somas is a mildly sweet deep fried delicacy. 

This sweet dish is mainly made during Ganesha Chathurthi you can often see garlands made with Karjikaayi and offered to lord Ganesha as neivedhyam. Sweet somas is also kept in "thattu varisai" (Row of plates containing fruits, sweets etc kept during functions in Tamil nadu) during seemandham(Baby shower) and child's ear piercing ceremony along with all other sweet and savoury delicacies like murukku and ladoos.

Nowadays you can find these sweet somas in shops but in my opinion its not that good when compared to home made. I know its a long and difficult procedure but once you start doing it you will enjoy doing the same. My suggestion is please try not to do it on a festival day as its a time consuming process you can always prepare it one or two day before and store it in a air tight container.

The stuffing I have used is dry coconut+sugar+fried gram but there are n number of choices for stuffing. 
Some of the other stuffing ideas I have come across are Khoya/dry fruits/fresh coconut/sesame seeds/jaggery.

The outer covering(outer pastry) is generally made with maida but one can use wheat flour also to make it a little healthy.

Ingredients

For Outer Covering

Maida/All purpose flour 1Cup

Rava/Semolina 1Tbsp

Hot oil 1Tbsp

Water 1/4 Cup

For Stuffing

Sugar 1/4 Cup

Fried Gram 1/4 Cup

Dry coconut (grated) 1/4 Cup

Method

Combine flour, oil and semolina in a wide bowl, Add 1/4 cup of water and make it in to a tight dough. Keep aside for 2-3 hours close it with a damp cloth to retain the moisture.

  

Grind Sugar and Fried gram separately in to a fine powder and keep aside, combine both with the grated coconut your stuffing is ready.                                                                            

Take little dough and flatten it like chapati and cut using a small bowl which is having sharp edge.

If you are making a very big chapati you will get around 3 rounds as shown here. 

Put 1 Tbsp of mixture on each of the circle as shown below. Gather the stuffing neatly so that it wont break the   outer cover while folding. 

Apply little water on the opposite side of the somas stuffing as marked, fold to form a semicircle as shown Press and seal nicely and cut the edges using a pizzacutter or zig zag spoon cutter or   just seal it with a fork(Like how do for ravioli)

Keep all the somas ready for frying. Heat oil in a medium flame and once oil gets heated gently drop these somas.Fry until a light   golden brown. Remove from oil, once it gets cooled store it in a air tightcontainer.

Notes

l Salt may be added for outer covering dough but it makes the outer covering a bit on the darker side when deep frying.

l Very little water is required to make the outer covering(1/4 cup of water for 1 cup maida)

l Hot oil used while preparing outer cover gives crispy somas please don't omit that.

l Keep the dough, stuffed somas(before frying) always covered to retain moisture or else you will end up a very dry somas.

l Since we are using very less water to knead the dough its a bit difficult to make chapatis out of it.

Mysore Rasam

I have tasted this rasam many times in marriages and other functions in Bangalore and its quiet different from the regular rasam what we prepare at home... recently we had ordered food in large quantity from anjappar for our house warming ceremony and I found lot of green chillies and coconut in it(which we never use it while making rasam).

On browsing i found out that it is called "Mysore rasam" and everything is made fresh from the scratch.I dint browse much for the recipe as I found it here very easily and also it was recently posted in that blog. First time I made it it was more on the spicier side so I have modified a little bit to get the tanginess of the rasam. 
So here is the recipe with a very little modification.




















Ingredients
Toor dal 4 tbsp
Tamarind 1 big lemon sized
Tomato 2 medium sized
Sambar powder 1 tsp
Green chillies 1 slit in to half
Grated jaggery 1 tsp(I dint add)
Salt as required 
turmeric powder 1/2 Tsp

Oil 1Tsp


Roast
Urad dal 1/2 tsp
Chana dal 1/2 tsp
Dhania/Coriander seeds 1Tsp
Red chili 1
Pepper corns 1/2 tsp
Cumin seeds/Jeeragam 1/2 tsp
Dry Grated coconut/Copra 1tbsp

To temper
Oil 1 tsp
Mustard seeds 1/2 tsp
Jeera
Hing 1/2 Tsp

Coriander leaves to garnish

Preparation

In a bowl soak tamarind for few minutes and extract 1-2 cups of water and keep aside. Puree Tomato and keep aside.Cook and mash the toor dhall well and keep aside Roast all the ingredients given under roast in 1Tsp oil(in the order mentioned), once it gets cool grind it along with 3-4 Tsp of water in to a smooth paste and keep aside.

METHOD
1.In a vessel add toor dhall, tamarind extract, green chillies, sambar powder, 
salt and turmeric powder and let it boil for 3-5 minutes.
2.Add the ground paste to the rasam and let it boil for few more minutes(5-10 minutes)
3.Add coriander and turn off the flame and transfer to a serving dish.
4.Heat oil and temper with mustard, jeera and hing and pour over the rasam.

5.Serve with Hot rice.

Note
*Ghee is used for tempering in the original recipe but I used oil.
*You can increase and decrease the quantity of ingredients as per your taste and requirement.

Idli Milagai Podi

I am always lazy to prepare this chutney powder because of standing in front of stove and keep on stirring the black gram and Bengal gram to golden colour.So whenever my mom visits me I just tell her to do this she happily obliges and does all the roasting work i just grrr(Grind in mixer) and store it but it lasts only for a week or maximum for 10 days.Again I am all lazy to do and my husband keeps asking where is the chutney powder why cant you make it????? 
So this time I decided "I WILL PREPARE CHUTNEY POWDER" regularly and make sure I never run out of it.

This chutney powder is also known as gun powder in Andhra Pradesh.Each one have a different set of ingredients or method to prepare this versatile chutney powder.I follow the recipe given by Pankaj bhadouria (Master chef India 1st series winner)long back in a cookery show.You can make this powder and stock it, while using you just have to take the required quantity and add sesame oil or ghee and make a paste of it, I some times use refined oil also (oil in which some item has already been deep fried)and mix it nicely. Apart from having it traditionally with idly/dosa you can also make podi idly, podi dosa, Podi saadham or add it to any dry subzis ... I am sure if there is chutney powder at home
you always gobble extra idlis and extra dosas. so here is the recipe

Ingredients
Black Gram/Urad dhal 1cup
Bengal Gram/channa dhal 1cup
Red chillies (Byadagi) 10(for colour)
Salem red chillies 8-10
Sesame seeds 2-3 Tbsp
Salt as required
Oil 1-2 Tbsp

Method
1.Dry roast sesame seeds and keep aside
2.Heat 2 Tbsp oil and roast the red chillies in a low flame drain the oil and keep aside
3.In the same oil add black gram/urad dhal and roast it till it becomes golden brown
(if you have one urad dhall it should be crunchy not chewable) and keep aside.
follow the same for bengal gram and channa dhall
4.let all the ingredients cool completely.
5.Grind red chillies, salt and sesame seeds first and then add dhals and grind in to a coarse powder.
6.Transfer the contents to an air tight box and serve whenever required by mixing it with oil/ghee.

Sweet corn idly

Wanted to try something thing other than the normal idly...so tried this after watching a cookery show (Long back)I dint note down the exact measurement but remembered the ingredients.....first time it was a big flop since i added little leftover idly batter and dint add cooking soda.But when i made it for second time it came out just perrrfect.So everyone out there who is bored of eating regular idly try this very simple, easy and instant idly recipe and the icing on the cake is no grinding or no fermenting.

Ingredients
Sweetcorn(corn on the cob) 1+1/2
Semolina/Bombay rawa 1 Cup
Curd 1cup
Cooking soda 1Tsp
grated carrot 3-5 Tbsp(Optional)

To temper
Oil 2 Tbsp
Mustard 1Tsp
Cumin seeds 1Tsp
Black gram 2Tsp
Curry leaves few

Preparation
*Remove the corn kernels from cob and grind  it coarsely in a mixer...
you should get approximately 1 cup of coarsely ground sweet corn pulp.

Method
1.In a large mixing bowl add rawa, coarsely ground sweet corn and curd.
2.Mix everything nicely(don't add any water curd and moisture in sweet corn pulp is enough) 
to form a batter.
3.Prepare tempering with all the ingredients given in "to temper" and pour it over the prepared batter.
4.Add salt, grated carrot, cooking soda and keep it aside for 10-15 minutes so that semolina soaks in
curd and rise in its quantity.
5.Put this in a greased idly plate and keep it in idly steamer pot and steam for 10-15 minutes.
6.Transfer and serve with sambar/chutney.

Note
*If you use standard measuring cup of 240ml to measure sweetcorn pulp, rawa and curd you Will get approximately 10-12 medium sized idly.
*You can add 1Tbsp of extra water to dilute the cooking soda not more than that.
*Carrot/green peas/spring onions are the extra optional ingredients you can add but not more than 3-5 tbsp.