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.

Carrot Chutney

Tried this carrot chutney from here with little modifications, 
it came out very well thank you so much for a wonder full recipe.

























Ingredients

Carrot 2 medium sized(Grated)
Small onion/Shallots 8-10
Tamarind 1 small gooseberry sized
Garlic cloves 5-6
Red chili 3-4(I used byadagi)
Salt as required
Oil 1Tbsp

To temper
Oil 2Tsp
Mustard 1Tsp
Black gram/Urad dhall 1 Tsp
Jeera 1Tsp

Method
1.Heat 1Tsp oil and add onion, garlic, tamarind and red chili.Saute until onion becomes transparent
2.Add the carrot and required salt. Saute until the raw smell of carrot goes off
3.Transfer it to a mixer jar and grind it to a smooth paste by adding required water.
4.Temper with all the ingredients given in "to temper"
5.Transfer it a serving bowl and have with idli/dosa.

Dill Pulao

Dill leaves also known as sabbsige soppu in Kannada and sadha koppi in Tamil. It has a thin needle like leaves and has a very nice aroma. I prepare akki rotti, pulao and rave rotti with these leaves but very rarely. My husband does not like this pulao and tells that "Pill saapudra maadri irukku" (I feel I am eating grass), but me and my DD enjoy this pulao. This recipe is more on a milder side no garam masala or tomatoes the aroma of dill leaves has to be prominent in this, however you can make it as per  your taste buds.

Ingredients
Rice 1 cup
Dill leaves A bunch
Flat beans/Hyacinth beans/Mochakottai(fresh one soaked and de-skinned) 1/3 cup
Green chillies 2-4 numbers
Salt as required
Bay leaves 2 no
Onion 2 cut in to thin stripes
Oil+Ghee 2-3 Tbsp

Method
1.Wash the rice 2-3 times and remove the starch and then Soak it for 10 to 15 min
2.Heat Oil+Ghee in a cooker and add bay leaves, green chili and Onion.
3.Once the onion turn pink add the beans and dill leaves, saute for 5 min
4.Pour 2 cups of water and required salt wait for it to boil
5.Once it boils add the rice and close the cooker lid.
6.Pressure cook for 2 whistles in medium flame and turn off.
7. Once the pressure releases open the lid and immediately transfer to serving dish.
Serve with Raitha or chutney.


Note:
*Instead of beans you can add green peas/sweet corn/potato
*Adding more spices reduces the flavour of dill leaves.

Potato Masal

Long back when my cousins used to tell Poori kizhangu I used to think poori accompanied with some exotic side dish or poori made with some kizhangu. Later I came to know poori kizhangu is nothing but Poori+Potato masala. Here in Bangalore whenever you order Poori they give saagu as side dish and not the potato masala, my mom used to order poori and she would ask the server please give potato masala instead of saagu(side dish served with poori in bangalore).
After my marriage my husband along with his family used to pronounce it as "masal" instead of "masala" even that was very surprising to me as the time passed even I started to pronounce it as "Uralai kizhangu masal"

Its a very easy recipe to make and whenever you have unexpected guests you can make it in a jiffy.
I know this is not a unique recipe and I bet almost all of Tamilnadu is aware of this, but still posting this. 2 Big potatoes and 3-5 Tbsp of Besan/Kalla maavu will be sufficient to make potato masal 
for 10-15 chapathi.

Potato Masal

Here is the recipe

Ingredients
Potatoes 2 Big boiled and mashed
Onion 2 medium sized cut in to thin stripes
Carrot 1 medium sized cut in to thin stripes(Optional)
Green Chilli 3-4 Cut length wise
Coriander few
Curry leaves few
Chickpea flour/besan/kalla maavu 3-5 Tbsp
Turmeric Powder
Salt as Required

To Temper
Oil
Mustard seeds 1Tsp
Black gram 1Tbsp
Bengal gram 1Tbsp




Method
1.Heat Oil in a Kadai, add mustard seeds and let it splutter.
2.Now add black gram,bengal gram and saute till gets golden brown in colour.
3.Add Curry leaves, green chilli, Onion, and carrot, saute for 3-4 min 
  mean while make a thin liquid by mixing Chick pea flour, turmeric powder and water
4.Once the onion turns pink in colour pour the chick pea flour and water mixture by 
continious stirring(To avoid lumps)
5.Once small bubbles appear on the edge of the kadai add the mashed potatoes and salt.
6.Mix everything nicely and boil for 2-3 min.
7.Add freshly chopped coriander leaves and turn off the flame.
8.Transfer it to a bowl and serve hot with chapathi/Poori.

Note
*To get evenly mashed potato grate the potatoes.

Spring onion Cutlet

                                                                                                                                     


Ingredients

Spring onion finely chopped 2 Cup
Yellow capsicum finely chopped 1 cup
Red capsicum finely chopped 1 cup
Green chili finely chopped 1Tsp
Dry roasted and powdered black gram(urad Dall) 3-5 Tbsp
All purpose flour 2-4 Tbsp
Salt as required
Red chili powder 1 Tsp
Garam Masala powder 1 Tsp
Oil for deep frying

Method
1. Add all the ingredients except oil in a large bowl.

2. Mix thoroughly so that all the ingredients are absorb salt and all the spices.
3. Take small portions and design as per your wish.
4. Heat oil in medium flame and Deep fry the cutlet till golden brown.
5. Transfer to a serving plate.

The Above photo shows coarsely ground black gram for your reference

Note.
*The cutlet can be even shallow fried
*Recipe does not require much salt so be cautious while adding salt
*Don't add any water, the moisture from the spring onion is more than enough to shape cutlet
*Few spring onions may come out during frying(to avoid that you can coat in water and maida mixture)

Hot Chocolate

I have had chocolate milkshake many times but never had "hot chocolate". Once I saw hot chocolate recipe in a food show and wanted to give it a try but compromised myself thinking it would just taste like any other chocolate drink...but I was wrong, recently I tried the recipe from their website here it tasted yummmm (I have kept the ingredients and the method same but quantity i have altered). You will get 1 cup of hot chocolate milk.



















Ingredients

Milk 1 cup
cocoa powder 1-2 Tbsp
Sugar 1Tbsp
Grated Dark Chocolate 1-2 Tbsp
Water 1 Tbsp

Method
1. Boil the milk and keep aside.
2. In a pan add water, sugar, Cocoa powder, grated chocolate let it boil and stir.
3. Once the chocolate and sugar is completely dissolved add the milk and stir once.
4. Remove from the flame and transfer it to a mug or cup serve hot.

Note
*Sugar quantity can be adjusted as per the bitterness of chocolate and cocoa powder or as per your taste.
*If the cocoa powder is not very fine you might find some floating particles on the hot chocolate nothing to worry just strain and have it.

Sweet lime with Mint juice

I always used to bring sweet limes and make plain juice and have it.
This juice I prepared recently after seeing a cookery show in food food but modified a little. It tastes yummy.
here it goes

Ingredients
Juice of 2 medium sized sweet lime
3 Tbsp sugar/Honey
1 Tsp black salt
fresh mint leaves few
Water 1 cup

Method
Blend all the ingredients in a blender
serve chilled

Note
You can replace sweet lime juice with orange juice
You can even strain the juice before serving

Chilli Flakes

How to do chillie flakes @ Home?

1.Take the Required quantity of red chillies in a mixie jar

2.Whip for 30 to 40 seconds, Home made Red chillie flakes is ready, use it on pizza topping, parathas etc

Fried Gram Chutney Powder

This chutney powder is one of the versatile powder one can prepare and store it at home. If you are in hurry this chutney powder comes to your rescue. You Just have to mix this with water and serve with idli/dosa/chapathi/upma.

Ingredients
Grind in to a coarse powder
Fried Gram 1 Cup
Dry coconut/Copra(grated or finely choped) 1/2 cup
Tamarind 1 small marble sized
Garlic clove 4-6 no
Salt as Required
Red chillies 10-15

To Temper
Oil 1 Tbsp
Mustard 1 Tsp
Black gram 2 Tsp
Jeera 1 Tsp
Curry Leaves few

Method
1.Grind all the ingredients in to grind in a mixie and Transfer it to a serving bowl
2.Heat oil add mustard, black gram once it becomes golden brown turn off the flame.
3.Add jeera and curry leaves, pour the oil mixture over the powder and mix nicely.
4.Transfer it to a air tight container and store it in fridge.
5.Whenever chutney is needed take required quantity of powder and Mix with water to a chutney
and serve.

Note
*This has a shelf life of 10-15 days.

Ragi Dosa

Ragi is also commonly known as finger millet has a very high nutritional value, its called "kezhvaragu" in Tamil. My mom used to prepare Ragi mudde and rotti, i remember during my initial days of marriage I tried to make ragi dosa and it was a utter flop then I never dared to try again. Until recently I found the proper recipe in a cook book. I followed the exact measurements and procedure and hurray I ended making thin, crispy and excellent dosa (and not to forget healthy too). I did this 2-3 times and not even once there was leftover  batter isn't it great. Here is the recipe


Ingredients
Ragi flour 2cup
Urad dhall/Black gram 1/2 cup(soaked for 1 hour)
Salt as required
cooking soda 1Tsp
Oil 2 Tsp for each dosa

Method
1.Grind soaked urad dhall in to a fine paste using mixer or grinder and keep aside.
2.Mix Ragi flour, water and salt to a dosa batter consistency(make sure there are no lumps).
3.Now add the black gram batter and mix nicely(use hand or whisk)
4.Pour water if necessary and adjust the consistency.
5.Add cooking soda and mix nicely
6.Heat a tava(I used Iron skillet) and pour dosa in a ladle as you do for regular dosa and spread
as thinly as possible.Put oil, flip and cook then on both sides.
7.Serve hot with coriander or tomato chutney.

Notes
*Add water little by little you might make the batter very runny and watery.
*Instead of oil you can use ghee or butter also.

Sending this to "come-join-us-for-breakfast"

Venn Pongal

Pongal is one of the dish which i don't make frequently at home nor eat it outside, but recently I had Pongal @A2B(Adayar Ananda Bhavan) and the Pongal was so yummmmmy......But I am not sure whether I will order it again or not since it had Lott's of fat (not sure it was ghee or vanaspathi). So I tried to make same kind of pongal at home and the best part is my DD also enjoyed having it.

It tastes best only when it is piping hot once it gets cold it wont taste that good. Cooking pongal to perfection is an art itself you add less water and you will get a pongal like pulao pour more water and you will get a pongal like porridge. 
But its not a complicated dish if you follow the quantity of water and rice+lentil ratio and also its not a great food for lunch box.

Ingredients

Rice 1 cup(Soak for 20-30 min)
Yellow Moong Dhall 1/4 cup
Water 4-5 CUP
Ginger Chopped/Grated/paste 1 Tbsp
Oil 1Tsp
Salt as Required

To temper
Ghee/Clarified Butter 3-5 Tbsp
Pepper 10-15 no
Cashews Few
Asafoetida 2tsp
Curry leaves few
Jeera 1Tbsp

Method
1.Dry Roast yellow moong dhall until a nice aroma fills your kitchen.
2.Now In a Pressure cooker add rice, lentil, water, salt, ginger and 1 Tsp of oil.
3.Let the rice mixture boil until you can see white froth.
4.Now put the lid and pressure cook in medium flame for 3-4 whistle, turn off the flame 
and let the pressure releases completely.
5.Meanwhile Take a small kadai, add Ghee and once it gets heated add peppercorns, cashew(wait
for cashews to get golden brown)
6.Turn off the flame and add curry leaves, Asafoetida and jeera.
7.Pour this tempering over pongal and mix nicely.
8.Transfer it to a serving bowl or directly to your plate. Have it with ho sambar/chutney or just as is it.


Notes
*You can use broken rice(noi) instead of whole rice.
*Roast the lentil on a low flame or else you will end up in a brown or black lentils within 
few seconds of roasting.
*if you don't have much time you can do it at one go.Just Temper, add water, salt, rice dhall and cook, 
but colour will slightly vary and also you will get soft cashews instead of crunchy ones(any ways It will taste great)
*Hot pongal with dollops of ghee and sambar is such a filling dish sometimes it will make you sleepy 
in that case a strong hot tea or coffee is a great solution.
Or if you don't have anything to do just dose off

See you in my next post

Sending this to "come-join-us-for-breakfast"