Kozhakattai

Come Vinayaka Chaturthi, we all look forward to eat this delicious dish.

Ingredients:
Raw rice 400 grams
For Filling:
Sesame seeds and Jaggery
or Coconut scrap and jaggery
or Channa Dal(Kadala Parupu) and jaggery

Procedure:
Soak the raw rice in water for 2.5 hours. Grind it with one cup of water.
Then take a kadai and add 2 cups of water, add required salt and a tablepoon of sesame oil. When water boils, add the ground mixture and keep stirring. This is the hard part, you have to keep the heat in medium low and keep stirring till proper consistency is achieved. This may take half an hour and your arms have to be strong. Make ure you keep stirring or else the batter may get cooked. We dont want to cook it now, we are just making a dough to make the kozhkattais.
Now we have to make the filling.

Sesame seeds filling:
Take 100 grams sesame seeds and fry it in a kadai in medium heat till the seeds pop and nice smell fills the place. Then grind jaggery into fine powder. The amount of jaggery depends on how sweet you would like the dish to be. Now grind the sesame seeds for few seconds. It shouldn't turn into fine powder; just broken into smaller bits. Mix jaggery and ground sesame seeds. Add 1 Elachi/Elakai/Cardamom crushed or powder.

Coconut scrap filling:
Scrap half a coconut into fine shreds. Add required amount of jaggery powder. Add 1 Elachi/Elakai/Cardamom crushed or powder.


Channa Dal/ Kadala Parupu filling:
Boil 200 grams Kadala parupu or keep in pressure cooker for 2 whistles.
Mixie the boiled kadala parupu and fried coconut(1/4 coconut). Dont make it too powdery. Take 200 grams of jaggery and add it to boiling water. To this "Vella paagu" ; jaggery boiled in water, add the mixture of coconut and parupu. Add 1 Elachi/Elakai/Cardamom crushed or powder. Keep stirring till it becomes solid. This will used as filllng.

How to make:
With the raw rice mixture make balls. With the help of little oil, make it into "kinnams" small bowls and add a spoon or 2 of filling. Seal the edges. Different shapes can be made "Modagams", "Kozhakattais" "moonr elai".

In Idly cooker, let water boil. Fill in the idly plates with kozhkattais and close the cooker for 15 to 20 minutes.



Kozhkattais are ready.



This is my mom's recipe and I made these for the first time. It did come out delicious. Though Pillayar Chathurthi is over, you can make these and enjoy!

Chicken/Cauliflower Manchurian

This recipe was give to me by my friend Mahboob.

Part One

Ingredients:

½ kg boneless chicken or boiled cauliflower.
Marinade:- ginger garlic paste, lal mirchi pwdr(red chilly powder), dhaniya pwdr(corriander powder), haldi(turmeric powder), salt , 1 egg(optional if veggie)
Coating:- maida : corn flour :: 2 : 1 and some salt.

Method :

Marinate chicken/cauliflower in the marinade for an hour
Roll it in the coating
Deep fry

Part Two

Ingredients:

White portion of spring onions – chopped – 3 handfuls
Green portion of spring onions – chopped
Ginger- chopped – ¼ cup
Garlic- chopped – ¼ cup
Capsicum- cut in rings – 2 no.s
Salt – to taste
Sugar – 3 tsp
Ajinomoto - ½ tsp
Soy sauce – 2 tbsp
Tomato sauce - 2 - tbsp
Green chilli sauce -1- tbsp
Vinegar – few drops
Oil – 2 tbsp
Corn flour – 2 tbsp – dissolved in ½ litre water
Red chillies- 10 no.s – boil in water – cool – add oil – blend in a mixie to form a paste


Method :

Heat oil in a kadai
Fry the white portion of the spring onions till golden
Add 1 tsp sugar to caramelize
Add the ginger and garlic - fry
Add the chilli paste - fry
Add the soy, tomato and green chilli sauces
Add the vinegar
Add salt
Add capsicum and wait till the raw smell goes
Add the corn flour mixture while stirring continuously
Add the rest of the sugar and ajinomoto
Add the chicken/cauliflower and simmer for 10 mins
Add the green portion of the spring onions.

Semiya Kesari

Everyone likes this sweet for an evening snack or as a dessert.

Ingredients
Semiya/Vermicelli 1 tumbler 200 grams
Ghee/ clarified butter
Cardamom - 1 or 2
Water : 3 tumblers
Sugar - 100 grams
Cashews
Kesari/saffron powder

Procedure:
If what you have isn't fried vermicilli, you have to fry it in ghee. Keep a kadai, add 3 teaspoons of ghee and fry the vermicilli until they are light brown. Remove and keep aside. In the same kadai, add a teaspoon of ghee and fry the cashews. Keep aside. In the kadai, pour 3 tumblers of water and bring it to a boil. Then add the fired vermicilli. Let it cook for about 10 min. It should become soft. Otherwise cook until they become soft. If there is not much water for it to cook, add more water. Add the sugar now. Also add the kesari powder. Mix well. Check for sweetness. If you want it to be more sweet add more sugar with a little water. Let all the water get evaporated. Now add the cashews and serve hot.

Egg Salad Sandwich

This is a delicious easy to make snack.

Ingredients:

Boiled Egg - 2. (Take a vessel and add water and let it come to a boil. Then add the eggs and let them remain in the stove for 15 min with the medium heat on. After that switch off the stove. After about 10 min, peel the eggs. The eggs shouldnt be over cooked to an extent that blue lines/grey colouring happens to the yolk. All nutrients are lost that way. By trial and error, you will learn the perfect timing for boiling your eggs.)

Bread slices
Pepper powder
Salt
Chilly Powder
Onions chopped

Procedure:
In a bowl, add the 2 boiled eggs. Add salt to taste. Add a teaspoon of chilly powder. Add some pepper powder. With fork, mix these. Keep on mixing well so that the yolk breaks and the whites stay in bigger pieces. Add some mayonnaise or butter which will help in forming a paste. The whites shouldnt be broken into too small pieces as they only give texture to the dish. Add the onions. Mix well again. You can add more ingredients like chat masala , lemon juice or whatever flavours you like.

Now heat the tawa, add little butter and toast the bread slices. Then scoop up the mixture and spread on a slice. Top it up with another bread. Now your egg salad sandwich is ready. This will serve two people.

Vidya's Chapathi roll

This is an easy to make snack or dinner.

Ingredients:
Vegetables like carrot, beans, tomatoes, onions finely chopped and boiled slightly in microwave or sauted in kadai with little water so that they are soft.
Chapathis
Butter
Salt
Pepper powder
Chilly powder
Chat masala

Procedure:
Drain all water from the vegetable mixture. Add little salt and a teaspoon of pepper powder, half teaspoon of chilly powder and half teaspoon chat masala. You can add any other flavouring as per your taste. Mix well.
Spread butter onto a hot chapathi and spread this mixture. Roll it and its ready to eat.

Appa Chutney

This is named so coz it is my dad's favourite chutney.

Ingredients:
Coconut - 1/4 th of a medium size half a coconut (1/8 th of a full coconut)
Red long chillies : 4
Marble sized Tamarind
Salt to taste
Onion 1 chopped
Tomato 1 chopped

To Season:
Mustard
Ulutham parupu/Urad dal
Curry Leaves
Oil

Fry the chillies until they are dark in colour. Grind the coconut along with the chillies, tamarind and salt.
Add some oil and once heated, add the mustard seeds and ulutham parupu. Add the curry leaves too. Then add onions and saute them for a while. Then add the tomatoes too. After the tomatoes are soft, add the ground paste. Add water as much as you want the consistency to be. Check the salt and adjust. Let it come to a boil. Then switch off the stove.

Semiya Payasam

Ingredients :
Semiya/ Vermicilli : 200 grams
Ghee 1 tablespoon
Sugar 100 grams
Milk 2 - 4cups
Cashews 10 nos
Cardamom - 1 or 2


Procedure:
Fry the semiya in ghee until they are slightly brown and keep aside.
Fry cashews and cardamom in ghee and keep aside.
In a vessel, boil the water(2 times the amount of semiya about 4 cups) and add semiya. Keep stirring.
After the semiya is soft, add the sugar. Keep strirring so that the semiya doesnt stick to the bottom of the vessel.
Add the boiled milk.
Add the cashews and cardamom.

If you like javarisi /sago, soak them for 20 minutes and add them while you are cooking the semiya.

You can add more milk depending on what consistency you want.

Potato Fry

This is how my mother makes it.

Ingredients:
2 big potatoes
MTR Sambar powder or any sambar powder - 2 tsp
Salt
Turmeric powder
One big onion cut into small pieces

To season:
Mustard seeds
Curry leaves
Oil

Procedure:
Boil potatoes and peel off the skin. Cut them into smaller pieces. Add 1/2tsp turmeric powder, 2 tsp sambar powder and salt to taste in a bowl and mix them well. Then add the cut potatoes and mix well. Let it sit for five or ten minutes.

In a kadai, add a tablespoon of oil and let it heat; then add the mustard seeds and let them splutter. After that add the curry leaves. Now add onions and fry them until golden brown. Then add the potatoes and fry well.

Bhuvana's Vegetable Rice

Ingredients:

Ginger Garlic Paste - 1 table spoon
Pudina /Mint leaves - 1 bunch - ground into a paste
Coconut milk from half coconut
Whole Garam Masala (Cinnamon stick, Cardamom, Cloves, Bay leaf)
Green Peas - 1 cup
Carrot - 1 cut into small pieces or grated
Green long Beans - 1 cup cut into small pieces
Soya meal maker - 15 to 20
Cut potatoes - 1 cup
Ghee - 100 ml for 4 cups rice
Basmati Rice - 4 cups
Green chillies - 3
Onion Big - 1
Tomato Big - 1
Coriander Leaves - few
Bread - 3 slices cut into small squares

Procedure:

1. Soak rice for 10 min
2. Soak soya meal maker for 10 min, squeeze it and keep aside
3. a)Keep the cooker on heat and add some ghee, fry the soya meal maker until golden brown and keep aside.
b) Add some more ghee, add the bread and fry until golden brown and keep aside.
4. Add some more ghee, add the whole spices when ghee is hot.
5. Add the onions and green chillies.
6. After onions are golden brown ,add ginger garlic paste and fry
7. Add pudina paste
8. Add the other vegetables and keep sauteing for five minutes and then add the fried soya meal maker.
9. Add the soaked rice and mix very well so that all of the gravy mixes well along with the rice.
10. For one cup of rice ad 1.5 cups of liquid (coconut milk or water). Sometimes we will not have enough coconut milk, then you can add plain water.
11. Mix well. Add salt to taste. Add one teaspoon chilly powder and mix well again.
12. Close the cooker, put on the weight and let it cook until 2 whistles and switch off the gas stove.
13. After the cooker cools down, add the fried bread pieces just before serving.

Amma's Sambar

Ingredients:
1 big onion chopped
1 big tomato chopped
Any vegetables cut:eg. carrot (1) , raddish (1), beans(10 no.s)
Tamarind (one amla/nellika size)
Thoovaram parupu/Thoor Dal - one handful
Sambar powder : 2 tsp

For tempering:
Mustard seeds : 1/2 tsp
Curry leaves : little
Red chilly : 1
Coriander leaves/Cilantro : little

Procedure:

Making in a normal flame stove:

Boil the dal in cooker.
Put the tamarind in warm water for ten minutes and take the juice out.
In a vessel, add 3 cups of water; use the dal water if you have. Bring it to a boil.
Add the onions,tomatoes and cut vegetables.
After 10 minutes of boiling in medium flame, add half of the dal , tamarind juice and salt to taste.
Add the sambar powder.
Let it cook for another 10 minutes and switch off the stove. Add the rest of the dal and mix well.

In a kadai, add a tsp of oil and let the oil heat. Add curry leaves, mustard, 1 red chilly and temper the sambar. Add corriander leaves if you like.

Making sambar with electric stove:

I am never able to boil veetables from scratch in electric stove. They never seem to soften. So I add all the vegetables, onions, tomatoes in a bowl and a half a cup of water and microwave it for 10 minutes.

After this process, the rest of the procedure is the same as above.

Keeping rice and dal in the cooker

Pressure cooking:
Fill the cooker with about an inch of water. Take another vessel and fill it with rice. Add water.

Raw rice: rice:water = 1:2
Boiled rice:rice:water = 1:(2.5)

Close the lid of the cooker and put the whistle.
After 3 whistles; about 20 min, switch of the stove and let the cooker cool down.

You can also directly cook rice in the cooker instead of a vessel.
Using vessels; the 3 tier ones, helps you to multi task. You can cook dal/parupu in one and some vegetables in another simultaneously with rice as follows.

After keeping rice and water in the first vessel, take one cup of dal in the second vessel and nicely soak it by pouring water. Add 1/4tsp asafoetida and 1/4 turmeric powder and mix well.

In the 3rd vessel, add potatoes or any vegetable and fill it with water.

Stack the 3 vessels on top of one another and keep it inside the cooker. (Remember to fill an inch of water in the cooker before placing this stack).

Put the cooker on stove, close the lid and place the whistle and let it cook until 3 whistles ; about 20 min.

Wash the gasket and let it hang in a cool place. Once a month or so, you can keep the gasket in the freezer for a few hours. This helps to keep the gasket firm.

Welcome

Hi there,

I didn't want to start a cooking blog as there are loads of them on the net and some are very detailed with videos and descriptive. But a friend of mine is getting married and was telling me about how she is learning to cook. So I thought I can start writing down or atleast referring to good recipes that I have found.

So you can find here the recipes taught by my mother as well as links to other good sites and recipes.

Hope this help you in cooking tastier!