Greengram Spicy Paniyaram

Ingrediens:

Greengram - 3/4 cup
Sour Idli/Dosa batter - 1 cup
Finely chopped onion - as needed
Finely chopped greenchili - 1 teaspoon
Coconut small pieces - as needed
Ginger - a smalll cube
Mustard seeds, urad dal, curry leaves, asafoetida - for seasoning
Oil, salt - as needed

Procedure:

• Soak the greengram for almost 2 hours.
• Add salt and ginger to the greengram and grind to a thick batter.
• Add the idli batter, salt to this greengram batter and blend well.
• Season mustard seeds, urad dal, curry leaves and asafoetida.
• Add greenchili and onion and saute well.
• Add the seasoned items and coonut pieces to the bater and blend well.
• Make paniyaram using the paniyaram pan.

Note:

• If the idli batter is not sour enough, add sour buttermilk.
• If you need it very spicy, add greenchili while grinding.

Learnt from:

While making Pesarette, tried to make this dish.

Oil Brinjal Masala

Ingredients:

Brinjal - 8
Onion - 1
Tomato - 1
Garlic - 4 cloves
Scraped coconut - 4 teaspoon
Roasted skin-removed groundnut - 1/3 cup
Sesame / Ellu (white / black) - 3 teaspoon
Corriander seeds - 4 teaspoon
Red chili powder - 3 teaspoon
Turmeric powder - 1 teaspoon
Watery tamarind pulp - 1/4 cup
Oil - 1/3 cup
Salt - as needed

Procedure:

• Remove the stems of the brinjal and make slits lengthwise. (If the brinjals are bigger, cut them into medium size pieces.)
• Roast sesame / ellu  and coriander seeds separately without oil.
• Add groundnut, coconut and grind well.
• Add sauted onion and tomato, little water to this and grind to a paste.

• Add oil to a frying pan and place the brinjals.
• When the brinjal changes colour, add chopped garlic, ground pste, turmeric powder, salt and ad little water.

• Let the masala boil till the raw smell goes off.

• See to it that brinjals are not cooked too soft.
• When the masala thickens, switch off the stove.

Note:

• If you prefer a gravy, switch off the stove when the masala retains some water.
• When we prepare for our family, quantity of oil can be reduced.
• It is a perfect side-dish for biriyani, ghee rice and chappathi.

Learnt from: Mrs. Nalini Sadanand, my friend

Tomato Rasam

Ingredients:

Tomato - 2
Garlic - 3 cloves
Turmeric powder - 1/2 teaspoon
Watery tamarind pulp - 1/2 cup
Corriander, curry leaves - as needed
Salt - as needed
Cooked toor dal - 2 teaspoon

For dry grinding:

Pepper - 1 teaspoom
Cumin - 1/2 teaspoon
Corriander seeds - 1 tablespoon
Fenugreek - 1/4 teaspoon
Red chili - 2

For seasoning:

Oil
Mustard seeds
Urad dal
Cumin - 1/4 teaspoon
Fenugreek - 1/4 teaspoon
Red chili - 1
Asafoetida - 2 pinch

Procedure:

• Place the tomatoes in hot water for 10 minutes.
• Place the pan on the stove roast pepper, cumin, corriander seeds, red chili, fenugreek without adding oil.
• Dry grind these items in the mixer.
• Add tomato, cloves and just grind for a few seconds.
• Place this in a vessel; add tamarind pulp, salt, turmeric powder, cooked toor dal and curry leaves.
• Add oil to the pan and season mustard seeds, urad dal, cumin, fenugreek, asafoetida and red chili.
• Add the ground tomato mix to the pan and allow to boil.

• When it gets foamy add chopped corriander leaves, and shift to a vessel.
• It should not be allowed to boil too much; when it gets foamy switch off the stove.

Note:

• You can add 2 more tomaotes, totally avoiding tamarind.

Learnt from: Tips from here and there

Spicy Wheat Rotti

Ingredients:

Wheat flour - 1 cup
Finely chopped small onion - 1/2 cup
Finely chopped green chili - 1 teaspoon
Red chili powder - 1 teaspoon
Corriander powder - 1 teaspoon
Finely chopped corriander leaves - as needed
Finely chopped curry leaves - as needed
Omam - 1/2 teaspoon
Oil, salt - as needed

Omam: English name: Bishop seeds / carom seeds / thymol seeds  Hindi name: Ajwain

Procedure:

• Take wheat flour in a broad vessel;  add salt and water and blend well.
• Add onion, greenchili, omam, redchili powder, corriander powder, corriander leaves and curry leaves; blend well and set aside for 10 minutes.
• See to it that the blend is norml in texture, neither too watery nor too tight.

• Make small balls as per your need.
• Smear oil around the balls.
• Place each ball inside a plastic cover and gently press to make rotti.

• Place dosa pan / chappathi pan on the stove and make the rottis.
• Apply oil and turn to both sides till it gets golden brown.

Note:

• More spices can be added pertaining to your taste to make the rotti spicy.
• To make it crispier, add little rava / sooji to the flour mix.
• We are supposed to use plaintain leaf for making rotti, however when it is not available, plastic cover helps.

Learnt from: Kitchen tips from a tamil magazine Snehidhi + my own ideas

Pepper Brinjal Chops

Ingredients:

Brinjal - medium size - 6
Small onion - 8
Garlic - 4 cloves
Scraped coconut -4 tablespoon
Pepper - 1 tablespoon
Corriander seeds - 2 tablespoon
Cumin - 1/2 tablespoon

Sauf / sombu - 1/2 tablespoon

Red chili - 2

Turmeric powder - 1 teaspoon
Oil - 5 tablespoon

Salt - as needed

Procedure:

•  Dry grind pepper, cumin, sauf, red chili, corriander seeds to a coarse powder.

• Add onions and scraped coconut,little water and grind to a paste.

•  Cut each brinjal lengthwise to 6 pieces.
• Place a pan on the stove and add oil; when it gets heated up, add brinjal and chopped garlic.

• After it starts changing colour, add the paste, turmeric powder, curry leaves, salt and add a cup of water and stir.

• Don't cover the pan.
• Stir now and then.
• Take care while the gravy thickens.
• Take care that brinjals are not too softly cooked.

• When the moisture goes off completey and roasted well switch off the stove.

 Learnt from: Mrs. Padma, my mother

Paruppu Urundai kuzhambu + Pakkoda

Ingredients:

(For 2 persons)

For making balls:

Toor dal - 3/4 cup
Big onion 1 / small onion - 8
Ginger - a small piece
Garlic - 3 cloves
Green chili - 3
Red chili - 2
Garam masala powder - 1 teaspoon
Coconut scraped - 4 tablespoons
Chopped corriander leaves - as needed
Salt - as needed

For making gravy paste

Sombu / sauf - 1/2 tablespoon
Coconut scraped - 1/2 cup

For gravy - items to be sauted and mixed

Tomoto (big) - 1
Onion big - 1 / small onion - 8
Garlic - 3 cloves
Tamarind pulp - 1/4 cup
Red chili powder - 2 teaspoon
Corriander powder - 4 teaspoon
Turmeric powder - 1 teaspoon
Salt - as needed

For seasoning

Cinnamon - 3 pieces
Cloves - 2
Sauf - 1/2 tablespoon
Mustard seeds, urad dal - as needed
Curry leaves, corriander leaves - as needed
Oil - as needed
Procedure:

Making Dal Mix for the balls

• Soak the toor dal for almost 3 hours.
• Finely chop an onion, green chillies and 3 garlic cloves.
• Add oil to the frying pan and saute chopped onion, green chili and garlic cloves and fry till it gets golden brown.
• Drain water from dal, and add garam masala powder, chopped ginger, 4 tablespoons of scraped coconut, red chili, salt and grind to a paste.
• Add the sauted items, chopped corriander leaves to the dal mix.
• Make small tight balls to the size of a small laddu.

How to make the gravy

• Add oil to the pan and saute mustard seeds, urad dal, cinnamon, cloves, sauf, curry leaves.
• Add long sliced onion, 3 garlic  cloves and tomato and saute well.
• Add tamarind pulp, turmeric powder, red chili powder, corriander powder and water and allow to boil well.
• When the raw smell goes off, add coconut sauf paste and boil the mixture well.
• When it gets foamy, as seen in the picture, simmer the flame and add the balls one by one and cover the pan with lid.

• After sometime, turn the balls very carefully.
• It will take almost 10 minutes for the balls to get fully cooked. 

• Add oil to the pan and when it gets heated, take small pieces of the remaining mix and deep fry to get pakkoda.

Note:

• Instead of 3/4 cup of toor dal, half the measure of toor dal and half the measure of channa dal / kadalai paruppu can be taken. 
• If the balls are made tightly and turned properly, there is no chance that they will break; however, if you are afraid they will break, you can cook the balls in idli vessel steam and then add to the gravy.

Learnt from: Mrs. Padma, my mother

Horsegram Porridge / Kollukanji

Ingredients:

(to make 2 cups of porridge)

Horsegram / Kollu -3 tablespoon
Moong dal  - 1 tablespoon
Garlic - 3 cloves
Scraped coconut - 1 tablespoon
Salt - as needed

Procedure:

Horsegram

Horsegram + Moongdal (roasted)

• Roast horsegram and moong dal separately and grind to a coarse powder.

• Shift this powder to a pressure cooker, add 3 cups of water, crushed garlic, salt and pressure cook for 10 minutes.
• When the porridge is ready, add scraped coconut.

Note:

• To make it tastier, add finely chopped small onions and green chilies.
• Horsegram and moong dal can be ground in the ratio 3:1 in larger quantity and the powder can be stored for future use.

Collected tips from here and there and tried in my own style