Pineapple rasam

   With few pineapple slices, left over, I settled at this recipe , found at Chef Damodharan's cookbook.  The recipe was very simple, though I twisted the rasam masala with few curry leaves and green chillies addition.  The result was delicate, sweet and sour peppery rasam.  Kids would love it because of an different, 'sweet' quotient into them.  And, elders would welcome an new change.

So, do try and let us know.  Moving on to the recipe.

Preparation time: 20 minutes

Cooking time : 10 minutes

Serves: 4

Ingredients required

For the rasam masala

• 21/2 tsp whole cumin seeds/ jeera
• 1 tsp whole peppercorn
• 6-8 tiny garlic pods
• 3/4 tsp finely chopped green chillies
• 8-10 whole curry leaves

Others

• 1 tbspn of oil
• 3/4 tsp of mustard seeds
• Pinch of hing/asafoetida
• Pinch of haldi/turmeric powder
• 1/2 cup of finely chopped pineapple 
• 1/4 cup of finley chopped tomatos
•  1/4 cup of tuvar dal
• Salt, to taste

Method

Coarsely grind all, under rasam masala, without adding water, keep aside.  Soak tuvar dal for atleast twenty minutes and pressure cook them for two whistles with half cup of water.  Blend them , and keep aside.   

Heat oil.  Add mustard seeds and wait till they splutter.

Now, add in hing and turmeric.  Finally add corase paste of rasam masala.  Saute them for an minute.  

Add in pineapple and tomato pieces.  Saute for five to ten minutes, till they turn soft.  

Finally add in mashed tuvar dal, and add salt to taste.  

Let the rasam froth towards the edges.  Switch off the flame and serve hot.  

Enjoy with hot rice  :)

Happy cooking :)

Linking this to Srivalli's CCC Challenge

Chow chow and mutton curry

   I had just left the market with an pack of chow chow.  This green vegetable, resembled potato like in texture.  I wanted to try it differently other than usual poriyal or kootu, which is why I called my aunt.  She told me that chow chow, radhish, carrot and potato are few vegetables that can pair excellently with mutton curry.  Even those who don't like veggies and prefer mutton alone, will find this curry delecious since the chow chow absorbs the flavour of mutton and portrays as same.  You can add green chillies to the masala paste instead of chilly powder, but, since we had an toddler, I sticked with latter option.

Yes, and I made the curry along with mutton and its liver.  Mutton liver or thilli is an excellant source of iron, and moreover they dominated the entire flavour and we all nourished the same.  This curry goes great with rice/idly or dosa.  I hope you try the same and let us know.  

Kundapura kozhi chaaru

    This morning, I was going through my recipe diary.  Initially, when I started to cook, I had this habit of writing down all interesting recipes from TV program.  As week-end special, we always have chicken- so when particular page read, ' Kundapur kozhi chaaru' I got very excited!  All ingredients mentioned was handy at home, so tried these for this week's CCC Challenge.

Kundapura kozhi chaaru is an regional speciality from Karnataka, in a place called, 'Kondapur'.  This curry is more like an soup.  Yes, chaaru is an equivalent term for, 'rasam' in tamil.  This soupy broth is best when served with rice.  This recipe also, involves in an special masala, that imparts an fresh taste to this curry.  To, top this coconut oil and curry leaves added an mystique flavour that circulated the entire home.  Do try this and let us know :)

Gongura mamsam

   There always used to be five to six types of spinach around my place, though I always end up buying palak, methi.  I, got intrigued with puntikura, after an taste of gongura chutney at my mother's place.  So, when I asked an fellow lady, who, I chanced upon picking these, she told me that they used to add in gosht prepartions.

So, I happily picked these and left home.  With my 'The Essential Andhra Cookbook' handy, I zeroed over an recipe called Chigoor ka salan.  Though these were made of tamarind leaves, this recipe also suggested any addition of spinach.  So, I nailed it replacing tamarind with gongura.  This curry had an high sour quotient along with balanced spice and salt.   This was completely unique,  and we did enjoy this as an family.   Do try and let us know.  

Gutti Wonkai - Andhra styled Stuffed brinjal in a tangy sauce

     Brinjal is not so pampered member of our kitchen.  They are utmost relished as spicy biriyani rice or as an curry.  They were in need of an desparate lift and this is why I bumped into one of my precious collections, 'The Essential Andhra Cookbook' by Bilkees I. Latif.  This book has various dishes as Hyderabadi and Telangana specialities.

So browsing under the vegetarian section, I got this Gutti Wonkai.  The ingredients were as simple, as to find in any South Indian Kitchen.  With sambhar and rice made, I moved on to make these.  Green chilly and coriander imparted an nice flavour to the brinjals.  And they tasted great with rice, though recipe suggested with roti.  After an good review from my mate, this is going to be an regular menu at our kitchen. Let's move on to the recipe.

Zebra cookies

   I was completely fascinated, when I found these cookies from the book, "100 BEST DELECIOUS CHOCOLATE".  The entire concept was fun, and reminded me of an long gap from my last baked cookie.  These striped cookies were very easy and required an total whisk with each and every ingredient.  You need chocolate buttons though, I did pipe few, a day before and that came in handy with the presentation and saved an lot of time.

I made these with milk chocolate, dark chocolate is also preferable.   This zebra cookies are very kid friendly and can be tagged as an party food too.  Dough can be kneaded in advance, because more the refrigeration, more the flavours enhance within these.  Fresh out of the oven, they had an crisp edges with an chewy middle.  With an ongoing monsoon, these cookies did an good pair with hot tea. Do try and let us know.   

Chocolate banana muffins

   Chocolate is our all-time-favourite  food.  Whether, that's an cake, or candy or ice-cream they are relished with glee.  So, this time when I found some unattended bananas lying on the table, I decided to make chocolate banana muffins.  Though, I am going to add banana, I drizzled them with syrup and chocolate vermicelli for an extra chocolate crunch :)

These muffins were soo delecious and surpassed my expectations.  Chocolate and bananas complemented each other very well.  That said, these muffins are going to be an regular menu at our home.  The muffins were very moist and every bite had its own history of melting moments :)  

They required lesser time to prepare, but I suggest you to use fully ripe bananas in this recipe, otherwise you will not be getting this moist texture.  I took them for my neighbourhood potluck party and everybody enjoyed them.  Especially I got an greater credit from kids :)  

Tawa tossed aubergine with ketjap manis dressing

 This week, for cookbook challenge,  I choosed my dish from this month's Good Food magazine.  Grilled aubergine, tossed with ketjab manis dressing, has an perfect match with dal rice or rice with curry.  The ketjab manis dressing is sweet saucy yet tangy in taste.  The major part is soya sauce with an slight garlic and chilly twist.  

Together with ketjab manis, my pan tossed aubergines went well and that had an blast of flavours with dal rice.  Kindly try this one and let us know.

Verkadalai chutney - Peanut chutney

   Back at Chennai, my mother used to prepare fabulous chutney, depending on the available ingredients.  Everytime, it was different - ranging from onion chutney, mint chutney, peerkankai chutney, dal chutney, verkadalai chutney etc.  Yes, I am still drooling here thinking of her exotic chutneys :D

     For us, it would be always coconut chutney, but for an change, I tried my mother's recipe for verkadalai chutney.  I must say, it resembled an spicy desi version of ' Peanut butter'.  Chutney was soo smooth, soo buttery to have with every bite of dosa.

The next day, I called mom and thanked her for such an unique and tasty chutney.  Bored of regular chutney, please do give them an chance...  :D

Jam thumbprint cookies

    Cookies are quite an demand at home.  Though they serve mainly with evening tea or milk, they are also helpful when it comes to noon-time sweet carvings.  This jam cookies is one such type, be it with milk, or an small serving of dessert, it never fails to make an refreshing impact. This recipe is adapted from book, ' The Big Book of Treats' by Pooja Dhingra.

Tastewise, they were similar to butter cookies.  We feasted on them :)  You can also freeze the dough and make them whenever needed.  

Choco cake bars

    Well, wondering what to do with left-over cake and frosting after an grand baking session?  Well, this might be the answer for all ;)  With an glossy chocolate finish, this choco cake bars, will excite anybody and create an new demand with the left-overs  :)

Yes, after the Rainbow ruffle cake, I had some left-over cake (remember? I had cut the dome part) and the frosting too.  Initially I freezed them both for later use.  Now, when I wanted to make an dessert out of them, all I could think was of some cake pops.

But, with presence of ice-cream sticks all over my place, I could end up with this choco cake bars, ie an cakey version of chocobar.  Initially, cake crumbs were mixed with frosting and shaped over the ice-cream sticks.  This was layered with whipped cream and another layer of hot dark chocolate.  Final touch of rainbow sprinklers were added to glam up.

 Each and every bite was like amazing, the moistened cake with soft cream and cracking chocolate had compensated each other very well.  My man was, like initially startled to find them, when he opened the refrigerator.  Later, I explained him, that it was glamed up cake balls, and he happily reached out to pick one.  :) 

Chunky chocolate cookies

    Chocolate cookies - who doesn't go gaga over them?  We end up buying some brand or the other once in an week, because we all devour them :)  So, such one week, both mother and daughter took up this project and made them with available ingredients.  Though they were mildly sweet, the aroma was excellant and filled up our home.

 Adding brown sugar instead of regular sugar charmed up the flavour and final touch of milk chocolate chunks/ finely chopped milk chocolate ended  up in rich, delecious cookie that became favourite of all :D

Pottukadalai laddu - 5 ingredient fix

  Hi!  Anybody watching, '5 ingredient fix' at Fox traveller?  I, surely do.  It is so amazing how the host prepares a range of dishes with only five ingredients each.  This pottukadalai laddu is dedicated to the same tag :)  Not only this laddu charms us with handy ingredients, but requires very minimal time, making them a stress-free dessert to do.

 This, is my kid's favourite and everytime I make them, she jumps with joy.  Not only this pottukadalai is an good source of energy, but is also advisable remedy for excessive menstrual phase.  This whole batch required only 4 tbsp of ghee/ clarified butter.  So, this can be considered an healthier dessert as well.  

Butter biscuit

      My routine life, with incoming guests had cornered my blogging to an standstill factor.  But, now, am slowly picking up my pace :)   Yes,  so, for an refreshing start, let me introduce you this butter biscuit.  :)  With an incoming monsoon, we all are forced for an lot of  masala chai accompaniments, aren't we?  And this treat, which is also my childhood- driven inspiration, impressed all.

Special mention goes to the nutty texture, yes, I had sprinkled some coarsely chopped nuts along with cardamon powder.  Tricky part lies in baking them, this biscuit barely needed ten minutes and were super-crispy when cooled to room temperature.  

So, guys, do try them and let me know....

Araichu vitta sambhar

Running out of sambhar powder?  Or often wondering the secret-ingredient for restaurant-styled thick sambhar??   Don't worry.... this, araichu vitta sambhar comes to your rescue :D  'Araichu vitta' in tamil means freshly grounded, accordingly this sambhar utlizes an medley of spices from your kitchen, that are freshly dry-roasted and powdered.  This powder, not only comes in handy when your sambhar powder goes out of stock, but also acts as an, 'thickening agent', thus making the latter more fragrant, more tasty and restaurant-styled.

And, one other difference from sambhar is that, in araichu vitta sambhar, tempering is done by the end.  Since, we add no spices other than dry-roasted ones, we may not be sure about the spice- content of sambhar.  Hence, tempering accordingly with number of red chillies might yield you an perfect, balanced output.  This is really, an blessing in disguise, isn't it? 

Tiffin sambhar / Moong dal sambhar

We plan a lot for our life, isn't it?  Physical work-out, an brisk morning walk, gardening, trying out new interiors or exotic classes like Yoga, embriodery... my list goes on :)  But, time constraint hardly cuts down our options to one out of ten.  Though we plan an lot to do, plenty of our time goes into kitchen, thus sparing none.  Yes, this dish is dedicated to such constraints.... an sambhar, which is more delecious (than traditional) and more easy to make within little time is all I can start with... :P

This sambhar, is my hubby's favourite.  Using moong dal (instead of tuvar dal), tunes up the taste and also reduces the time of cooking.  This sambhar does not need pre-soaking of tamarind, since we are using country tomatos to achieve the same.  They can be aptly prepared for breakfast and served piping hot with idly/dosa.  Well, my husband grew an lot fond of it, that he wants them to replace the normal sambhar made for lunch.  Does that doubt? Well, try for yourself and be surprised with an overwhelming response.

Sambhar

    Hi all.... back from my short vacation.  And since my daughter leaves to her summer camp, my routine life is almost back... Filling up my refrigerator with freshly brought veggies and fruits, cleaning up my partially-messed home, ... list goes on.  Going on vacation sounds much easier, but when it comes to post-vacation work, I always save an huge 'sigh' :/   Yesterday, day went quite interesting watching over election results.  Victory was predicted, as usual, but winning by 1:6 ratio (Congress: BJP) was quite an 'whooping result'.  Similarly goes with Tamilnadu where ADMK gained 37 out of 39 available seats.  Fabulous, isn't it?  Let us see if this decision solves our stagnating economy and deals with the price rise as well....

   Yes and coming back to our post, born and brought up at Chennai, I could'nt miss this special SAMBHAR prepared by my mom.  Infact, this is my favourite and same with my husband too.  Sambhar is south-indian dal preparation, mostly tuvar dal (yellow pigeon peas), with sambhar powder (an aromatic powder made out of chana dal, dried red chillies, curry leaves, whole cumin seeds, fenugreek seeds, coriander seeds, asafoetida, few peppercorn etc), tamarind, assorted set of vegetables (like brinjal, drumstick, snakegourd, pumpkin etc), finished with an sweet touch of jaggery.

The trick in preparing an perfect sambhar lies in perfect balance of spice-sour and an sweet taste.  As an first-try, I have messed up by adding more sourness (more amount of imly/tamarind) into my sambhar.  So, I strongly recommend you to add only half of prescribed tamarind during cooking, other half you can wait till you complete the cooking, check the sambhar and add accordingly.  Also, kindly note that this 'sour' factor depends on tomatos you are adding.  Since, I have added hybrid tomatos, I have included tamarind.  In case, I am going with country tomatos ,(which has an higher sour content) I would prefer not to add tamarind as the former itself gives out required 'sour' effect.

Boti kebab

   Boti kebab, traditionally refers to chunks of mutton, marinated overnight with yoghurt and other spices.  This, the next day was grilled to perfection.  The name, boti is from sanskrit language which means, 'small chunks of meat'.  The following recipe is adapted from Morphy richard's recipe guide, where both chicken and mutton were given sited, I proceeded with former one.

One interesting fact with the guide was that they used wine for basting the marinated pieces, in between their grilling period.  I was very curious with this, and yes, used wine (first time in my blog :D ) for the same.  I could foresee an sweet- sour taste from the wine.  Minced onions gave an added sweet touch and with other spices, the dish appeared spicier too.  Finally such an sweet-hot- sour combination brought out an mesmerizing yield and all thanks to my recipe guide.  

Watermelon-look alike cake/ fondant sponge cake

     I love to bake.... baking, not only ends up with an beautiful, gorgeous end-product, but also relaxes my mind and eases the day. (Now, let us forget about the sink getting loaded with lots of dirty vessels.... and the overall messy work, LOL) Though, I would love to bake all the time, my regret is not on the cost I had spent, but on the consumption part.  Since, we are an family of three (I would say, two and an half :D ) I can't proceed to my next bake, untill and unless my previous one got completely out of stock.

So, when my sambhar cake disappeared, I was wondering what to proceed.  So, when I explored my refrigerator, my eyes shined gloriously over the cling wrapped fondant.  Yes, this fondant is very special to me, since I experimented myself, with stocked on condensed milk.  Isn't that exciting?  I, dragged this fondant and along with icing colours played an little to create this magical watermelon look-alike cake.  Basically, there is no watermelon(Beleive me, not even an drop of essence or juice),  but an sponge cake topped with fondant to create an fake look.  Though I am not uploading details of fondant here, I promise to get back soon with an detailed post :)

Tomato chutney - DIP/SPREAD/LICK :)

What can I say about this chutney- with an multi purpose tag?   Isn't it an wonder to have some appetizer common to all three courses :D Yes, an apt start with any breakfast of day (idly/dosa/upma/semiya), to delecious tomato rice (Mix some paste with cooked rice to obtain the same) , also to spread over sandwiches, stuffed parathas, this chutney, is an boon for all.... And, like an cherry on top, this DIP/SPREAD/LICK tagged chutney is storable as well.......

I had this wonderful tomato chutney, sometime back at Chennai.  My aunt served them with gingelly oil drizzled at top.  I, tried to skip them with an delusional diet :D  (LOL, this is what happens, we feast on KFC, but still try to follow diet, at home-made dishes :D)   But, my aunty patiently reminded me that gingelly oil drizzled over top, not only enhances the flavour and taste, but also cools down stomach and makes them free from any gastric problems.  She also reminded me, that due to this reason, girls are forced to take gingelly oil ,on an empty stomach during their puberty.

I, then, convinced took to the chutney and found them delecious as well. Smooth,  buttery, little tanginess compensated with hot spices is what my taste-bud felt.  According to aunt, her basic formula for this tomato chutney, is

Oil + Urad dal + 1/2 parts of Onions + 1 part of tomato + Dried red chillies + 1/4 parts of Coconut

Noting down, above formula, please remember that other than tomato and red chilies (which varies according to quantity of tomato), others are flavour enhancers.  So, roughly you can experiment with any ratios, or according to your stock availability :D  :D  :D

Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 25 minutes
Serves:  Might serve 20, I divided the prepared chutney in two containers and refrigerated them, this went on for two weeks :)

Ingredients required

• 2 tbspn of gingelly oil
• 1 tbspn of whole urad dal
• 1/2 cup of finely chopped onions
• 1/2 kg of tomatos, finely chopped
• 10-12 dried,long red chillies
• 1/4 cup of coconut, finely sliced
• Salt, to taste
• 1/2 cup of gingelly oil (For storing purpose)

Method

Heat gingelly oil in an heavy-bottomed kadaai, add urad dal.  Let them brown over an simmer flame.
Add onions, saute till onions turn pink (Don't brown)

Now, add our tomatos along with whole red chillies.  You can also add half tsp of salt, if you prefer.  Saute tomatos and simmer the flame, let the tomatos get mushy and reduce their quantity. 

When they got almost reduced and tomato residue sticks on to kadaai, add coconut and switch off the gas.  No need to cook coconut, as they will get cooked by the warmth shared by hot tomato residue.  Let this cool thoroughly.  Blend, without adding water, and serve, drizzled with (raw) gingelly oil over top.

Note

If you are planning to make an large batch to store, please know that after blending, these chutney can be divided into four or five small-sized containers.  And before closing the lid of each container, do remember to drizzle 1-2 tbspn of gingelly oil over the top.  This not only enhances the flavour and keeps you fit, but also helps in saving the chutney from any spoilage.  The reason, I asked to store in small containers, is that everytime, before consumption, the chutney, needs to be brought back to room temperature.  This way, if you are storing entire stock in one large container, you need to bring this out an hour earlier everyday, leading to increased chances of spoilage.  So, it is best to store them in four to five small containers.

Linking this to Srivalli's CCC Challenge