Jantikalu for ICC

This month's recipe for the Indian Cooking Challenge announced by Srivalli and tried by all the members was the jantikalu or murukku famous South Indian savouries. With the festival season upon us, all of us geared ourselves to try it out. Though I do this regularly to indulge my family, replicating the given recipe was fun.

Now, for the recipe given by Srivalli :

Ingredients Needed:

Raw Rice - 4cups

Urad Dal - 1 cup

Water - app 1/2 cup or more

For Seasoning:

Cumin seeds - 1 tsp

Sesame seeds- 1 tsp

Asafoetida/ Hing - 1/2 tsp

Salt to taste

Butter - 75 gms

Method to prepare:

Wash and drain the rice. Dry the rice spread on a cloth in shade for 1/2 hr.
Dry roast the urad dhal to light brown. Allow it to cool.

If you are using more quantity, you can get it ground in rice mill, else use your mixie to grind both rice and urad dhal.

First grind rice into a fine flour, sieve, repeat until a very fine flour is achieved.
Spread the flour on sheets of paper until required.
Ideally the murukkus taste good if done with this moist flour immediately or it should have dried thoroughly in hot sun and stored.
Similarly grind the roasted urad dal to fine powder.

In a wide vessel, take both the flours along with salt. Mix well.

Add cumin, sesame seeds to the flour, mix well.

Whether you use asafetida powder or the solid variety, mix it in water, make sure it is dissolved before adding to the flour. If its not dissolved properly, when deep frying the muruku, there are chances for the asafoetida to burst due to presence of solid particles.

Mix the asafoetida to the flour and finally add the butter.Rub the butter in gently and mix the flours to blend well.
Gather everything well and you will get more of a crumbling mixture.
Now gradually add water and knead a dough which is little more softer than the puri dough.

Heat a kadai with oil enough to deep fry.

Once the oil is hot enough, simmer to low flame.

Take the Muruku achchu, wash and wipe it clean. Then divide the dough into equal balls. Fill the muruku maker with the dough. You can either press it directly over the flame or press over a paper and gently slide it down the hot oil. But since the quantity mentioned here is less, you can press it directly over the kadai.

Cook over medium flame, using a slotted spoon, turn it over to other side to ensure both sides turn golden colour.

Remove to a kitchen paper and store it in a air tight container.

The recipe given by Srivalli is similar to what many of my cookbooks have given. But I usually use 1 cup of urad dhal to 5 cups of raw rice as given by my aunt. Also we are an indulgent family that we use more butter to get melt-in-the-mouth murukkus. But too much butter will make the murukku oily and also may not hold shape rendering them to break. So butter should be optimum, neither too less or too much.

Since we are only two in the family, I have tried the recipe with quarter of the above quantity.

My cup is 240ml standard cup, which while measured heaped weighed 250grams of raw rice. I used split urad dhal levelled in 1/4 cup measure and butter 2 tablespoons. With this I achieved 420 grams of murukkus.

Hope you will all enjoy making these murukkus for the upcoming festive season.

Navrathri neivedhyam – neiyappam

Have a glimpse of golu at my house this year! We managed to move into the present house by the middle of last week. We did most of the soft moving ourselves. Between my husband, his driver and myself, we moved clothes, electronics, books, our CDs, cassettes and kitchenware in the boot of the car making as many trips required.

We arranged most stuff in place, leaving those that would go on my show case, buffet and China cabinet and my books. These were to be attended to when the company -hired movers would bring the furniture in. We had also brought the cardboard cartons that house my Golu dolls and decorations. Having done all this, we had the house partially functional before the furniture was moved in.
That evening after a thorough sweeping and mopping we set the golu up.
One of the many thrills of blogging is that I was introduced to an Indian lady living here through my blogger friend Shobha of Anubhavati. Once while chatting with her on gtalk, she mentioned about her friend M who lives here.

The next day she mailed M, gave her my telephone number and to me hers. We got in touch and decided to meet over this festive season.
Having set the golu I called M over to visit my golu, warning her that the house might still be a mess with a carton or two unopened lying at most inconvenient places. She seemed not to mind at all. Very well, I can say this because she even brought another friend along. They both came with their children who I simply loved from the minute they got off their car. That day, I spent few happy hours talking to the ladies on random topics. So much for blogging! A BIG THANK YOU Shobha.
On the day that conjuncts with the Moolam Star (Usually will be the 7th day of Navrathri, sometimes the 6th) the Saraswathy aavahanam is done in some homes. Most people arrange this on the Maha navami day though. I do the aavahanam on the Moolam day. That day I offer appam as one extra neivedhyam as will be pittu on the Friday during Navrathri. These are not standard practices. I’ve picked them up because an aunt would do or some elderly neighbour suggested that. Having followed one year I make it my practice. The idol of Goddess Sarawathy is placed over a stack of books that will also be worshipped on the day of the pooja. Usually they may comprise of our school books, the books that are used in our day to day lives and such.

The Goddess of Knowledge is worshipped among knowledge rendering books.

This is a picture of the Saraswathy pooja done on the Maha Navami day.

This recipe of neiyappam is a combination of two recipes handed down to me. I first learnt it from my neighbour living a floor above mine in Manama in 1992. Later, I improved on it when my cousin made it for the pooja we had at my Chennai home. It worked well for me. You get soft appams with right amount of sweet taste to them.

Ingredients:
1 cup (heaped) raw rice
1 cup (level) powdered jaggery
¼ teaspoon powdered cardamom
1 tablespoon dessicated coconut
Ghee/ oil for cooking
Method:
Wash rice well until water drains clear.
Soak in some water for an hour.
Add 2 table spoons of warm water to the jaggery. Dissolve and strain the scum out. Keep reserve.
Drain the soaked rice and grind to a stiff paste initially adding small quantities of water. Once the rice is fine add the jaggery dissolved water and grind further to a smooth batter. Take care not to make it very thin. The batter should be like that of dosa batter.
Remove from the jar of the blender. Wash the jar with some water and recover the adhering paste. Retain this water.
Take a small portion of the batter, add to the recovered water that you washed the jar with. Mix well. Take this in a pan and keep on low fire. Stir continuously. This will thicken while cooking. Stop cooking while the consistency reaches that of infant feed (koozh).
Mix this cooked semi solid batter to the ground batter. Adding cardamom and coconut, mix them well. Leave aside for two hours.
Place your appa karal (appam mould) on the stove. When the pan is warm add some ghee in each of the indentions. Allow the ghee to reach smoking point. Add the batter to fill the indentions, just below level. Cook until done. Check if it is cooked well by inserting a tooth-pick and drawing it out. If it comes out clean the appams are done. I close the pan with a lid. But I’ve seen people don’t find it necessary.
These appams will be soft and porous.
Enjoy!!
I shall post randomly other recipes that featured during Navrathri. Meanwhile, Happy Dussehra for today.

Colourful Mini Idlis

For sometime before active blogging, I was following few other peoples' lovely blogs which actually inspired me to have a space to share recipes I try in my kitchen. Madhuram is one of those many who were my inspirations. I am still not confident with my baking prowess but I try her other recipes whenever they are made differently from what I usually do. Her colourful cocktail idlis where such a hit with me that I try them with whatever chutney I have or whichever varietion I can think of.

Please visit Madhuram's very own space for her recipe of cocktail idlis.

I made them with tomato chutney, pudina chutney and coconut chutney.

Also that I made them in mini moulds to have bite size idlis.

What you require:

3 X12 mini idli moulds

30 tablespoons idli batter

4 table spoons each of the above mentioned chutneys

What you should do:

Grease the idli moulds and keep ready.

Divide the batter into three parts. Mix with each part, one chutney of choice. The batter will itself be very colourful now.

Pour them into prepared moulds and steam in a steamer for 8-10 minutes.

Remove and serve the mini idlis colourful and decorated.

Madhuram suggests that the chutneys shall be a bit more spiced as they would tone down when mixed with idli batter. But I made them with normal spice as it would delight the kids too.

I've used carrot strips, tomato strips, cut carrots, bits of idlis and tomatoes as well as Milagai podi for the garnish.

These are off to Poornima's Tasty Treats who is hosting Tried and Tasted- Madhuram's eggless cooking. The event to honour fellow bloggers initiated by Zlamushka of Zlamushka's spicy kitchen

to Kids' Delight the event to celebrate blog anniversary of Spice your life by Srivalli

and the garnish is my entry to Garnish the dish event collectively held by the Innovative in-laws

Pavithra of Dishes from my kitchen and Nithya of 4th sense samayal

Choco-dates

We lived in a gated-guarded compound in Bahrain. Since the property belonged to someone from the royal family and The King's secretary resided in the compound we had police security by night. Two policemen took turns to guard at night. One of them was a retired Air force officer of the Pakistan Air Force.

While I distributed Navrathri prasadams to our gardeners and maintenance personnel they used to share it with these officers too. On one such occasion, he had the sarkarai pongal and wanted me to write down the recipe for his wife. I gave him that and made some pongal to send to his family. He was so touched by this simple geature and befriended us so much that to my husband he was 'hamara dosth policeman' and to me Bhai saheb. I was bhabijaan and Niki was Bitiya to their family. On the eve of eid his wife sent me seviyan and when once Niki was home on holiday, they sent a 2 litre icecream box full of Kashmiri pulav.

It is time around eid this year and we just made a call to wish him. I decided to dedicate this post to this man and his family. This is an iftar dish so is an ideal time to post it too.

I made the chocolate fudge and rolled it over dates. These taste excellent but heavy in calories. typically a minute on lips and forever on hips delicacies :(

Ingredients:

Evaporated milk 200ml

Sugar 220 grams

Cocoa powder 2 tablespoons

Butter 12o grams

Dates whole 20 numbers seeds removed.

Mix all ingredients except the dates in a heavy bottomed pan. Place on medium fire and constantly stir until the mixture thickens and leaves sides of pan.

Switch off when the mixture can be rolled in a ball. Allow to cool until. Since you have added enough butter, it will not be necessary to grease your palms.

Take a small ball of the mixture and roll it over one date, completely covering it.

Repeat with the rest of the mixture. Place the rolled dates separated in a flat dish.

These chocolate delicasies are off to

CFK - chocolate hosted by Hema of Salt to taste an event started by Sharmi of Neivedhyam
and to

Kids Delight happening @ Srivalli's Spice your life to mark the anniversary of the blog.

Navrathri musings

Come festival season and a wave of nostalgia sets in. Pondering, I decide we look forward to Navrathri or Deepavali to come by for the joys they bring along. There are many festivals celebrated in our Hindu religion. But there is no comparison to the mood that these two festivals bring with them.
We, my parents, my sisters and I lived with our paternal grandparents. The house was very large that this one room was dedicated to the golu we set up every year. The only other time this room became functional was when a new arrival was expected. This room was constructed with two doors, one leading to an attached bath and another opened to the dining room. Thus it was convenient for delivery and convalescence.
The room was on other days housing two big wooden cupboards filled with dolls and figurines of various sizes and shapes, all neatly wrapped in folds of newspaper. The ready- to- fix golu stand was housed in the backyard covered ‘kottagai’ ( the barn would be very aptly English). Thestand comprised of 9 steps that were broad and sturdy wooden planks and eight thinner reapers fitted appropriately with screws and bolts to hold them in place.
Around navrathri the household will be buzzing with activity and being school holidays we will all be included in those. To set up this stand, we await Periasamy. Periasamy makes one of his twice annual visits on the Mahalaya amavasya day to set up our golu. His other visit will be on the Boghi pandigai when he will do the ‘Kaappu Kattu’. Periasamy was employed by my grandpa in his youth. He was the cowherd, kept our dogs and used to ride the bullock cart taking my aunts and older cousins to school.

Later on, thaththa recommended for him and got him placement as peon in a government school. Then he moved to the Velagoundapatty village, where he worked. But without fail he will mark his attendance on these two occasions.
This was followed until few years ago, even after we sold the house and appa bought this new house. For the past three or four years we have not had Periasamy visiting us. Neither has anyone informed us that he is ill or no more. My parents have tried to enquire but with not much success. I conclude the latter as he would have been very old.
Coming to the golu, Periasamy would, with the aid of any servant around, bring down the stand, clean them and set the ‘padis’. Then he will neatly unwrap the dolls while we will watch mesmerized in spite of the fact those were the same that were exhibited repeatedly for many years in the past too. Patti and amma will bring out moth-ball scented white sheets to cover the padis. Once the sheets were spread to hospital precission, under patti’s scrutiny, Periasamy will singly set the golu up. Finally we will be allotted a tiny patch of the room to do a park as it will be called but actually had enough stuff to duplicate a town. Sand and clay and paper-cut figures and our toys will all be displayed there. Few years we have even grown some greens to make the hillocks look real.
Once our golu has been set, we were to go around inviting people to view our celebrations. A horse drawn cart will be hired and since it is a small town, the cart-man knows most of the homes we should be taken to. Decked in the best of pattu paavadais we go around with one tiny kunguma chimizh and a large bag to collect stuff. Today I feel so embarrassed that we would pipe up to sing at the least invitation from the lady of the house. We were strictly instructed that the collection was not to be opened until we got back home. And then the elders will decide as to what we can be allowed to eat and what is not. Our mother and aunts will repay the invitations that came in by paying their visits on another day.
By God didn’t we have fun? Today the trend has changed. Only thing is that the spirit of the season still is alive in out Indian hearts. Sitting alone in Ghana today I miss India. The navrathris Niki and I celebrated in Chennai were every ounce enjoyable as my childhood ones. We had as much fun in Malaysia with our very own gang, for lack of better expression, to describe the fun and friendship we share, we safely call ourselves a gang!
I am looking forward to Navrathri this year too. But I know it will be a subdued affair with us moving house right at this time around and trying to live in two homes at one time. However, I wish all of you have a great navrathri.
This post is just to wish all of you a very joyous festival. I have posted few pictures of my past golu set up in Malaysia and Bahrain. God willing, this year I will have some pictures to show off too.
With the impending move, my posts and comments on other blogs may suffer. I’m not sure of the duration the internet provider will take to install the facility in the new house. So if I were not looking your spaces up, please bear with me. Should be able to catch up soon.
I also take this oppurtunity to wish Eid Mubarak to our Islamic friends too.

Meanwhile Ammu of Nature kitchen, Kitchen Queen of Khatta Meetha Theeka and Chaitra of Aathidhyam have honoured me with a few awards. Thank you ladies. I appreciate your kindness.I shall include them in a future post. Thank you one and all.

Aezhu Kari Kootu

The 7 kari kootu is usually made on the Thiruvaadhirai festival to consume with the Thiruvaadhiraikkali, a sweet dish made with roasted and powdered rice cooked with jaggery.

Ideally the kootu will have those vegetables grown during an Indian winter, as the festival is celebrated in the Tamil calendar month of Margazhi (period mid December to mid January).

As the name suggests it shall be made with 7 different vegetables. But we usually end up adding more vegetables than the suggestion. The kootu tastes best with creeper grown veggies like ash gourd, pumpkin, broad beans, snake gourd and most importantly lima beans is added. Other than these you may add sweet potatoes, potatoes, yam, chayotes etc.

Certain vegetables like ridge gourd, bottle gourd and drumsticks are not allowed on festival cooking ( I'm not aware why, though). On other occasions you may add these to the kootu.

It is a very vegan dish which goes well with hot steamed rice. Being a kootu freak, I consume bowls of this just like that. I refrain having anything else when I cook this.

The recipe I share below serves 4 full servings.

Ingredients:

2 cups vegetables, suitably cut or diced in big chunks.( use any of the above mentioned.You may add or reject according to your taste)

1/2 cup thuvar dhal

A big lemon size ball of tamarind

1 teaspoon turmeric powder

Salt to taste

To be roasted in 3 teaspoons oil and ground to a coarse paste:

12 -15 long variety dry red chillis

3 tablespoons coriander seeds

1 1/2 tablespoons channa dhal

1/4 cup fresh dessicated coconut

For tempering:

6 teaspoons cooking oil

2 teaspoons mustard seeds

2 teaspoons fenugreek seeds

2 dry red chillis

2 green chillis slit lengthwise

1 teaspoon asafoetida powder

Few fresh curry leaves.

Method:

Wash and suitably string/ peel and cut vegetables into big pieces. Cook tubers separately and the vegetables separately. If you are using fresh Lima beans or green peas, you may cook them with other vegetables. If using dry beans, soak them ahead suitable for use.

Soak tamarind in water for about half an hour and extract pulp until thoroughly drained of pulp.

Pressure cook thuvar dhal very soft adding the tuemeric powder. Keep aside.

Roast the ingredients for grinding, cool and grind to a coarse paste adding water.

Take a heavy pan. Place it on high heat. Heat the oil for tempering and add the mustard seeds. When they crackle add the rest of the tempering. Toss until the green chillis turn slightly white.

Add the tamarind extract and salt. Bring to a boil.

Add the cooked vegetables and simmer for 12 - 15 minutes until the raw flavour of tamarind subsides.

Add the pressure cooked dhal and a few minutes later the ground paste.

Allow to boil and continue to boil for only three further minutes.

Switch off the heat. Give one thorough mix and serve hot.

At the final point adding a teaspoon of coconut oil will make it very delectable. I make this often whenever I have random mix of vegetables.

This vegan dish is off to It's a vegan world - Indian hosted this month by Erbe in cucina an event started by Vaishali of Holy Cow! Vegan recipes.

Gujarathi Milagai Podi

Like I told earlier, my pantry stocks all kinds of podis. For idlis alone I have three or more milagaipodis, like the ellumilagai podi, chutney podi and the gujarathi milagai podi which I'm sharing today.

This is a recipe again adapted from S.Meenakshi Ammal book. I don't know why she calls it Gujarathi milagai podi though. I asked my Gujarathi friend if they make anything like that but was replied in the negative. For want of a better name, I will use what the original recipe calls it.

Call it anything, the flavoursome podi is sure to tickle your palates.

Ingredients:

( The picture below shows double the volume of ingredients listed below)

Preparation time: 20 minutes for roasting and 5 minutes for powdering.
Yield : 200 gram of podi

Dry red chillis 3/4th of standard cup (180 ml)

Sesame seeds 3 tablespoons

Urad dhal 3 tablespoons

Thuvar dhal 3 tablespoons

Channa dhal 3 tablespoons

Moong dhal 1 1/2 tablespoons

Salt 2 1/2 tablespoons (Sea salt. If using table salt adjust according to taste)

Asafoetida powder 1 teaspoon

Roast sesame seeds until they pop; salt until dry, asafoetida until it emits a nice aroma.Keep aside.

Roast the red chillis on a low heat. They should be brittle but shall not char. While roasting chillis be prepared for a heavy bout of sneezing though! Keep aside.

In the same pan first roast the channadhal for some minutes before adding thuvar dhal. Roast further and add the urad dhal and finally the moong dhal. This way all the dhals roast evenly and golden without getting charred.

Cool all the roasted ingredients.

In the jar of the mixie first powder the chillis, salt and asafoetida initially until they are a coarse powder. Add the roasted dhals and powder to a fine powder as possible.

Transfer to clean airtight bottles and store in a dry place. As these are all roasted without adding oil the shelf life is long. Over the days the colour may fade a bit but it will taste every bit flavoursome as the first day.

This podi makes your fluffy idlis more indulgent :-)

I would love to send this to,

Lakshmi Venkatesh's Think spice - red chillis this month an event initiated by Sunita of

Sunita's World.

and to

MLLA 15th helping hosted @ Sia's Monsoonspice this September while Susan

The Wellseasoned cook initiated this event.