Uppappam for Karthigai

Today the 30th of November, tomorrow and the day after are the karthigai deepam festival days this year. The Barani deepam is lighted today, tomorrow is the sarvaalaya deepam, when in all Hindu temples numerous lamps will be lit and celebrated.

This day usually conjuncts with the full moon in the star of Krithigai and is believed to be the day that Lord Shiva appeared in the form of light which neither Vishnu nor Brahma could find the beginning or the end of.

At many homes lamps are lit and arranged in beautiful patterns, just as how Deepavali is celebrated in most northern states of India.

As per family traditions the neivedhyams made and offered to the Lord. In my parents home it is Adhirasam, pori urundai, godhumai appam sweet and savoury appam- uppappam. I follow this tradition as my mother-in-law does not cook any of these. She lights lamps and offers fruits.

I had a very hectic week, last week as we hosted the weekly Vishnu sahasranamam chanting at home. I took it a bit easy this morning without realising today is the festival. When I opened my mail box there was a mail to share this recipe. I follow S. Meenakshi ammal recipe but my mother makes it differently. So before sharing the recipe I wanted to confirm with her if store bought rice flour will work well and wanted her recipe too. This is what she gave me and I think the result with store bought flour was equally good.

Traditionally, rice is soaked and pound to a flour or ground to a thick batter with the Urad dhal and the appams are fried in oil like the vadas. For those who want to make it without deep frying, you may use the appam pan and make them. Since I wanted to try with one tweak, I did not venture the other. I have made them fried in oil. These appams will sure ooze oil, so make them and share as many, so you may eat less and be free of guilt.

Now the recipe ( Makes 12 appams):

Ingredients:

Rice flour 200 ml

Urad dhal 2 tablespoons

Channa dhal 2 teaspoons

Moong dhal 2 teaspoons

Fresh coconut scrapes 1 table spoon

Green chillies 2 chopped

Ginger 1cm long piece

Slightly sour curd 1/3 volume measure of the rice flour

Curry and coriander leaves few chopped

Salt to taste

Oil for frying ( keep less and fry one at a time)

Wash and soak urad dhal in water. Grind to a smooth paste as for idlis.

Mix the rice flour, salt, urad dhal paste and the curds to a lump-free batter. Add some water to obtain a thick batter.This should be as that of thick idli batter.

Wash and soak the moong and channa dhal in water for a few minutes, drain and add to the above.

Leave this aside for a few hours.

Just before frying add the chopped chillies, curry and coriander leaves and the coconut scrapes.

Mix well adjusting that the batter is of pouring consistency.

Heat oil in a deep pan until it smokes. Reduce heat to medium and pour a ladle full of batter in the hot oil.

The appam will slowly rise to the surface and fry. Using the ladle toss some hot oil on the upper surface as it cooks. Turn once and when the appam is golden on both sides remove with slotted ladle. Drain on absorbent tissue.

This appam can be made using the appam pan. Make the batter as that of idli batter, a tad bit rarer than the above.

If you are not offering as neivedhyam, you may replace the curd and urad dhal by a big ladle full of left over idli batter. This results in very soft appams.

Wish those of you who celebrate, a very happy festival of lights!

Araiththu vitta vengaya sambhar - Tamilian's delight

Of the sambhar varieties I prefer the araiththu vitta sambhar, meaning ground and added type.

The Masala is initially roasted either dry or adding very little oil, ground to a coarse paste and added to the tamarind -dhal mix, that has been cooked along with the vegetables.

The Madras onions (shallots) add somewhat exotic flavour to sambhar and the sweet yet pungent taste of the shallots is by itself delectable. Mostly people cook this sambhar and serve with roasted potato dry curry and hot rice with a small amount of ghee.

When I make this sambhar, I grind along with the usual ingredients, a small piece of ginger and few raw shallots, a tip from a magazine. That enhances the flavours.

Ingredients:

A lemon size ball of tamarind

1/4th of a cup thuvar dhal

1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder

100 grams shallots

Oil to saute the shallots

Salt to taste

For tempering:

2 teaspoons cooking oil

1 teaspoon mustard seeds

1 red chilli

Few fresh curry leaves

Dry roast the following:

1 table spoon coriander seeds

6 pieces medium hot dry red chillis

1 teaspoon channa dhal

3 table spoons coconut scrapped

Roast these until the coconut is golden brown and aromatic and the dhal looks oil coated and shining.

Add few raw shallots and 1/2'' piece of fresh ginger and grind to a paste adding little water.

Method:

Soak tamarind in water for some time and extract the pulp thoroughly.

Pressure cook thuvar dhal with the turmeric powder added to it until soft.

Peel shallots and retain whole. Heat oil in a pan and add the shallots. Saute them until they are brown on all sides, add some water, cover and cook till they are tender.

To this add the salt and tamarind extract and simmer on medium flame until all raw taste of tamarind subsides.

Add the cooked dhal coarsely mashed, allow to blend and add the masala that has been ground.

Bring to a boil. Allow to boil for further two minutes. Remove pan from fire.

Temper with the mustard seeds and fresh curry leaves.

Cook the sambhar a bit ahead of serving, this enhances flavours.

My aunt used to cook her sambhar about an hour before serving, but she will keep the rasam on the coal stove (kumutti aduppu), until the coals might be dying out until about to be served. You may serve lukewarm sambhar with hot rice and re-heat the rasam just before consumption.

Bhel puri

Having been advised, and sometimes disciplined about eating anything selling at street stalls, we were in for our biggest treat while visiting our uncle in Bombay. Most likely, he decided that at 17 and 15 we would be manageable even if we fell ill. He bought us pani puris and bhel puris selling @ Chowpati beach :)

That was the first time I ever tasted something khatta-meeta-thikka all in one dish. But that was only once. Back home we were to forget even looking at street vendors. We were allowed generously, to purchase any item that sold in the college canteen. So we indulged ourselves in the puffs and cream rolls that were prepared at the college's very own bakery under strictly hygiene conditions.

Later with a group of boys and girls who were friends of a nephew, I treated myself to a Kaiyendhi bhavan style bhel puri in the X-cut road - Ghandhipuram market corner while working in Coimbatore. Then it was a Thursday evening treat from my husband to drive to Bur-Dubai from Khor Fakkan before exploring the many shopping options that Dubai has to offer.

The time I purchased a few cookbooks, my sister's neighbour had taught her to make the puris. That is all we needed. Now it is a regular chat affair at home. Two days ago we met with a friend to celebrate her daughter's birthday. It was meant to be a Pani puri and junk food party but the junk part was a whole lot of health ones.

That reminded me of the fact that I have in pictures the Bhel puri I made for my husband's birthday in July, yet in my picassa album. So, I put aside all procrastination this afternoon and am typing.

Bhel puri my style:

For puris: (Source: Mallika Badrinath's 100 snacks special)

3/4th of a cup Fine variety semolina

1/2 cup All purpose flour

2 teaspoons roasted and powdered urad dhal

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 tiny pinches baking powder

Ice cold water or sparkling soda water to knead a stiff dough

Oil for deep frying

Method:

Mix all the dry ingredients, salt and the baking powder well. Using the ice cold water or the soda water, make a stiff dough. Knead repeatedly yet stiff.

Cover with a damp cloth and keep aside for 10 minutes.

Knead again until dough is elastic.

Make small puris and deep fry on low fire as and when you have rolled them. Let them not dry in the air. This may result in the puris not puffing enough.

The puris should be rolled neither too thick nor too thin. The fire also has to be medium to low. The puris have to be fried very crisp.

These can be made ahead and stored upto a fortnight.

Ompodi or sev for the bhel puri:

1 cup Gram flour

1 tablespoon rice flour

Salt to taste

Oil for deep frying

Mix the flours with water and salt to make a smooth dough that can be pressed over hot oil using a very fine perforated fitted plate in a murukku press.

Heat oil and deep fry the pressed sev.

Keep reserve.

Mint Chutney and Sweet chutney:

Grind the following:

A fist full of fresh mint leaves

A tiny bunch of coriander leaves

A marble size ball of tamarind soaked in warm water

1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds

2 teaspoons jaggery powder

Black salt to taste

2 or 3 dry red chillies Adjust as per requirement

Juice of 1 lime

Pass this through a strainer and add another cup of water to this juice.

Soak the following in water for 1/2 an hour and grind to a semi thick paste:

A big lemon size ball of tamarind

3 table spoons powdered jaggery

10 numbers dates seeds removed

2 table spoons raisins

4 red chillis

A little amount of salt.

Other Ingredients for Bhel puri:

2 tablespoons grated carrots

2 tablespoons grated cucumber

1/2 of a raw mango grated

1 big potato boiled and mashed

2 tablespoons green peas cooked till tender

1 red onion sliced very finely

2 teaspoons coriander leaves chopped

1 tomato chopped finely

1 cup puffed rice

Keep all the ingredients ready and before seving, mix them well and serve garnished with additional ompodi and grated vegetables and coriander leaves.

This goes to RCI - Event started by Lakshmi of veggiecuisine, currently held @ Lakshmi's Kitchen Chronicles celebrating RCI- Mumbai.

Indo's Gulab Jamuns for Indian Cooking Challenge

Having tried two of the three chosen recipes for the October edition of Indian Cooking Challenge for deepavali, I was planning to try the third given recipe sometime soon. Least did I expect it would be this soon. Srivalli, obliging to requests from members extended the post date to the 16th of November. That gave me a chance to work on this recipe and post it too.

Indo of Daily musings has given a very beautiful pictorial of her grandma making these jamuns for her. Prepare yourself for a tutorial here. I recommend you read her post, I am not copying it here.

With an overdose of yummy gulabjamuns, I did not want to use the whole recipe given by Indo.

I reduced 1 litre of milk and used one fourth of the rest of the ingredients as well. I had 20 gulab jamuns.

Three recipes, varying in quantity of ingredients, yet all three worked well, though I felt that the maida was a bit more in Indo's recipe. The gulab jamuns swelled in the oil while frying, so they absorbed the syrup well too.

This forced me to look up my mother's note book and I found her's almost similar to Indo's recipe! Later during a telephone conversation she told me that in her recipe the quantity of maida was more and she was advised to reduce it to achieve best results. The Baking soda she had mentioned was way less, may have been the reason to reduce the maida. I presume that might be a point of note.

Ironically all these days I never looked up my S.Meenakshi Ammal book. I fancied checking her recipe too. Alas ! What I found was neatly written in my own hand - an update. I have mentioned how much khova I achieved reducing 2 litres of milk and how much maida I had used, the exact measure of bi-carbonate of soda and more! I have written down how well I had to knead the khova initially, almost as you would knead the flour before adding the maida:(

All this dated way back in 2001! Deepavali -Johor!

Grrrr...gritting! Now I have to try my version soon :)

Banana Orange smoothie

The host of last Saturday's prayer meeting gave us each a coconut, two musumbi oranges and one really large banana. So Sunday morning we had this refreshing mocktail. The fruits were sufficient to fill two large glasses, and having had that sometime mid-morning, we almost gave up lunch :)

You may need:

1 large banana or two medium bananas that might be good for milkshakes

2 oranges, Naval, Valencia or Indian musumbi

3 table spoons honey

1/4 cup light cream

1/4 cup crushed ice

What you have to do:

Blend the fruits in a blender with the honey.When well blended add the ice and run the blender further for 2 minutes. Finally add the cream and whisk until frothy.

Serve right away!

Mooli Parathas

Just like the paneer parathas, the mooli parathas are very delectable. We were at my cousins place one morning for the music lessons. She was making these for her daughter who had been studying late into night and had left instructions not to wake her up until after 9 AM. So my cousin decided to make these parathas that might replace her breakfast and hold until a late lunch. She invited us to have some with some pickle. Both Niki and I loved them.

Few years on we were again invited to my daughter's friend's place in Singapore. Her mother made mooli parathas. She mixed the grated radish to the flour and kneaded witht the flour for the dough unlike making a filling of them. That was good too.

My gardener and house help in Bahrain lived in a farm where they fed goats with carrots and radishes. The boys used to bring me loads of these veggies whenever they could manage. So I made them often. Later they planted radishes in my small garden patch, which grew like wild and I had to distribute to friends. The day my container was being packed the packers pulled out as many as they can to feast on fresh produce :)

Radishes are low in fat and cholestral, high in fibre, riboflavin, vitamins C and B, magnisium, folate etc. They aid weight loss. Eaten raw or cooked in any dish they are beneficial for good health.
Lately, I have started mixing other flours replacing the wheat flour partly. This one here has a mix of bajra flour ( millet flour) with whole wheat flour. The colour may not look great if you add bajra or jowar flour, but the taste is very good.

Ingredients:(8 parathas)

1 &1/4 cup whole wheat flour

3/4 cup bajra flour

3 fresh and tender radishes grated finely

1 teaspoon red chilli powder

Salt to taste, separate for the flour and for the filling

1 teaspoon oil for the radish

1 tablespoon oil for mixing the dough

ghee as required to spread on the parathas

Method:

Grate the radishes. Keep this on a flat plate which rests over another small cup or plate slightly inclined at an angle. In a few minutes the juice of the radish will ooze out and collect on the bottom-side of the tilt. This may be used while kneading the dough.

Heat oil in a kadai, add the salt and redchilli powder to the grated radish. Toss for some time. Remove from fire and keep aside.

Sift both flours together. Add the salt and oil. Mix well and using the radish water and more water, knead to a plaint dough. Rest the dough covered for half an hour.

Divide in 16 portions. Roll out each into a circular disc about 4" diameter. Spoon the filling on the top side of 8 such discs. Spread evenly, leaving out a part of the circumference. Dampen the edges and press the empty rolled discs over the filled ones.Seal well and roll the pin over the prepared chappathis.

Heat the tawa and cook the chappatis until well cooked on both sides. Serve them hot.

Usually, I don't bother making a side dish. My husband makes do with tomato ketchup. But if you desire so, a simple dal-tadka will be an excellent combination.
These parathas make an excellent lunch box/ snack box dish for children.
These parathas are sent to,

Food for seven stages of life - Kids' special co-hosted by Radhika and Sudeshna,

and to

Sharmi's Cooking For Kids event, happening this month @ Lakshmi's Kitchen Chronicles inviting Vegetables and Fruits.

Mysore Bonda

Mysore bonda is famous in the recipe list of the Karnataka special dishes, especially of Mysore. Some call the Goli Baje of Mangalore as Mysore Bonda. But the traditional recipe uses a blend of split black lentils and spices.

You may relate it to the medhu vada of elsewhere in the South but deep fried in the shape of bondas than typical vadas.

The recipe is simple to make and quick too.

Ingredients:( for 12 bondas)

1/4 cup/ 125 ml Urad dhal whole or split

2 teaspoons thuvar dhal

1 teaspoon rice

2 green chillies chopped

1 tablespoon finely sliced coconut pieces

1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds

1/2 teaspoon whole black peppercorns, coarsely pounded

Few fresh curry leaves

1/4 teaspoon asafoetida

Salt to taste

Oil for deep frying

Method:

Wash and soak the dhals and the rice togther for an hour.

Drain and grind, adding very little water to a smooth but thick batter. The batter has to ground fine but water should be used very sparingly.

Add the salt, chopped chillies, coconut pieces,curry leaves, cumin seeds, asafoetida powder and the pepper. Mix well. Mix in a whisking motion to incorporate air in the batter and make it fluffy. This ensures that the bondas are soft on the inside with pores formed therein.

Heat oil in a heavy pan. Moisten your palm and fingers and roll the batter like balls and deep fry in hot oil.

Turn them in the oil a few times to fry evenly.

Remove with a slotted ladle and place on absorbent tissues.

Serve hot with coconut chutney or tomato ketchup.

Urad dhal is rich in protein and fibre, low in fat. These are recommended for diabetics too. Make a good snack for children.

These bondas are off to be featured in Susan, The Well Seasoned Cook's MLLA,

The 17th Helping of MLLA happening @ Sra's When My Soup Came Alive through November,

to EC's WYF Speciality Food Event

and to

Food for seven stages of life - Kids' special (4 years to 14 years of age), co-hosted by Radhika and Sudeshna.