Back with a Bang!..No wait…another recipe.

Oh I know, its been ages since I blogged. It wasn’t ‘coz I wasn’t cooking! Au contraire, I even cooked my first ever Pongal (The Tamil harvest festival) day meal for my in-laws complete with two types of Pongal, gothsu, vada, vazhakkai podimaas, and rasam!Did I just hear a “Hallelujah!”, sistah?

I am back to blogging at the behest of some friends (you know who you are 🙂 )and encouragement (read nagging!) from hubby dear. Life had been hectic last year with some unfortunate things going on for me…so I decided to take a “sabbatical” from my virtual kitchen.  But here I am, back to writing about some of my adventures (and misadventures) in the exotic world of food. What better way to restart this journey than with one of my all-time favorite dishes-appalapoo kootu (mini dried lentil chips deep fried and simmered in lentil sauce). As most of y’all might have guessed (or known) by now, me and the Mister (!) don’t exactly meet eye to eye on lots of dishes (like many other things) and this ranks in the top 10. That’s ‘coz he likes his appalams crispy while I like them in any form!

I make this dish whenever I miss my mom. Whenever I had a rough day at school or wasn’t feeling up to it, it was like she somehow sensed it without me having to tell her. That evening a piping hot appalapoo kootu used to await on the table to lift up my mood! Mothers, I tell ya!! This dish is made using mini appalams and that’s why the name appalapoo (mini appalam).

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you - The most amazing comfort food ever -Appalapoo Kootu

Appalapoo  – 8-10 nos (if using appalam, 3-4 would be sufficient)

saunf (fennel seeds) – 1.5 tsp

onion, small, finely chopped – 1/2 no

garlic, medium – 2 pods (optional)

toor daal-1/2 cup

turmeric-1/4 tsp

salt-as per taste

Water – 1.5 cups

Oil- for frying

For the tadka:

Mustard seeds-1 tbsp

red chillies, dried-2

hing-1/4 tsp

curry leaves-7-8 nos

Oil-2 tsps

Pressure cook the toor dal with garlic and turmeric in 1 cup water. Mash and keep aside. Fry the appalams/appalapoo in oil. In case of appalams, crush them to get bite-size pieces.Crush the fennel seeds using a mortar and pestle to bring out the oils.

Heat oil in a pan, add the mustard seeds, hing, saunf and onions. Add the curry leaves and red cillies as well. Saute till the onions turn translucent. Now add the toor daal along with salt followed by the appalapoo. Add 1/2 cup water and bring to a boil. Serve hot with rice and rasam or some spicy tamarind-based curry. N hear yourself say “Ha..life’s good!”.

On an aside, I baked this cake for some friends and they assumed it was store bought. I hate blowing my own trumpet (yeah right!) but just couldn’t resist it this time!

Our friends couldn't see the back of the cake..now you know why they refused to believe!

It was a chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream frosting based on Ina Garten’s recipe.

Chatti Masiyal/Peerkangai Masiyal(Bottle gourd in tangy sauce)

Peerkangai (bottle gourd) has never been on the top of my favorites list. My mother had to tempt me to eat this rather bland veggie using different dishes or just good combos that go well with this dish(so that she can coax me into eating this masked by the other nicer dishes around). Some of these dishes were kootu, thogayal(with the skin) or an occasional(oh by that I mean, once or twice a year!) deep fry with bengal gram.

Soon after my wedding, one morning my mother-in-law announced that she was making a dish with this vegetable.  I neither wanted to eat this vegetable nor tell her I didn’t like it , for the fear of hurting her feelings. So I decide to gulp it and put on a smiling face – till she served it on my plate. Boy oh boy, was this dish great or WAT! I was so completely in love with peerkangai from then on! But sadly, I forgot to get the recipe or even the name of the dish, during that trip.

Recently, when I started finding good(oh yeah, they are mostly in their stale dried best!) peerkangai in the nearby Indian grocery store, I decide to make this delightful dish. I thought I had to first ask for the name of the dish from my hubby before asking my MIL for the recipe for ‘that dish with peerkangai which was heavenly’! The name was-brace yourselves- ‘Chatti Masiyal'(Paste in a pot!). After a few mins of good laugh, I called my MIL and asked her for the recipe.

Here it goes:

Peerkangai, meduim, diced-2 nos

Bengal gram(kadalai paruppu)-2 tbsps

coriander seeds(dhania)-2 tsps

red chillies-4 nos

tamarind pulp-1/4 cup

turmeric-1 tsp

salt-as per taste

For tempering(thadka):

Oil-1/2 tsp

mustard seeds-1/4 tsp

curry leaves-5-6 nos

Asofoetida-a few dashes

Dry roast the bengal gram, coriander seeds and red chillies. Allow it to cool and grind it to a smooth powder. Pressure cook the peerkangai along with turmeric in some water till tender. Mash the vegetable a little. Add the ground powder along with salt and tamarind pulp and some water to get the consistency of thick sambar or pancake batter. Allow the sauce to simmer on medium heat. Heat oil and splutter the mustard seeds, hing and curry leaves. Add the tadka to the sauce and serve with rice and appalum.

A pukka tamilian meal complete with rice, masiyal, poriyal and appalum

P.S: For all ya sistah out there with an absolute distaste for this veggie, try this dish with the red chillies and tamarind turned up a notch than what’s given in the recipe – oh I can already hear you gushin’ about it!

Kathirikkai gothsu-The soulmate of Venn Pongal

Venn(white) Pongal is one of the most sought after breakfast items in most Tamilian homes. Nothing beats a breakfast of hot delicious venn pongal with hmm..chutney..yeah, alrite, sambar..uhh..okkay, what about gothsu? Oh yeah! Truly, pongal and gothsu is a divine combo. When my now-husband-then-fiance moved to the place I lived in, he had asked for the Pongal-gothsu combo for breakfast! When I served him his favorite breakfast that morning, a silence had descended over the table. There was a tension in the room-me with my fingers crossed about how he liked the food and my roommates standing behind the kitchen wall waiting for the final verdict. And at last, after 5 whole nail biting moments came the “Rombo nalla irukku”(its very good). A Wheh! escaped my mouth while a chorus of girlie giggles and “Ooooohos, Aaahaas”(an exclamation of praise but in this case said just to embarass the two of us!) emanated from behind the kitchen wall.

Anyhow, this winning combo has been served for years at home. It always evokes many fond memories about home and about dear ones. Here goes the recipe for what gives venn pongal its spunk 🙂

Awww...such a heavenly union, don't ya agree?

Brinjal, small, quatered-5-6 nos

Moong dal-1/4 cup

onion, medium, chopped-1/2 no

tomato, medium, chopped-1 no

green chilli, slit-1 no

curry leaves-5-6 nos

tamarind pulp-1/4 cup

sambar powder-1/2 tbsp

tumeric powder-1/4 tsp

mustard seeds-1 tsp

channa dal-1/4 tsp

hing-a pinch

salt-as per taste

oil-1 tsp

cilantro-few sprigs for garnishing

Cook moong dal in 3/4th cup water and a pinch of turmeric. Mash and keep aside.

Heat oil in a pan. Crackle mustard seeds, add the channa dal, hing and green chillies. A minute later, add the onions. Saute them with a pinch of salt till they turn translucent. Now add the tomatoes and chopped brinjals and saute for a couple of minutes. Now add the sambar powder and tamarind pulp. Add water and cover for a few minutes.

Finally add the mashed moong dal. Boil for 2 minutes. Garnish with cilantro and serve hot with pongal.

P.S: Chopping the brinjal just before sauteing is good. Also, keeping the chopped brinjal in bowl of water stops them from darkening.

Paruppu Usilli

I know, I know…google it and you would find thousands of recipes for this dish but this recipe comes as a request from a dear friend. She hails from the Sundara Telungu(in Tamil) desam and had never heard of the dish till I introduced it to her. This dish is special but common, tasty but healthy(S, reassure P that though it is tasty, it is good for you too!), simple but tedious..yes it is out very own Paradoxical paruppu usilli!

To each their own is one saying that is especially applicable to cooking. The same dish can be prepared umpteen number of ways. I believe every individual lends a part of their personality to their cooking and that reflects in their food. Although most people make paruppu usilli the same way, differences do exist, some due to differences in taste palettes and some due to health reasons and time constraints. For example, my ammamma used both toor and channa dal for the usilli while my mom uses only toor daal as she believes channa daal is bad for the stomach and my aunt adds ginger to help in digestion but ‘ups’ chilli level a few notches. My MIL even has a recipe for avasara(quick/instant) paruppu usilli!

I do mine as per my liking, sometimes with channa dal and sometimes without, sometimes a little more hotter than the rest of the times and sometimes the actual way and sometimes the avasara way. The following is the recipe I followed when I served my friend the usilli.

Toor daal-3/4 cup

channa dal-handful

red chillies-3 nos

salt-to taste

vegetables like beans/avarakkai(broad beans)/karamani(long beans), chopped-2 cups

For tempering:

mustard seeds-1 tsp

curry leaves-5-6 nos

hing-a pinch

red chillies-1 no

oil-a few drops

Soak the daals and the red chillies for 2-3 hours in lukewarm water. Grind into a fine paste with little water and salt. Divide the mixture into 5-6 equal parts and steam cook in idli plates. Allow them to cool down. In a mixer, grind the steamed lentil cakes on pulse setting (pulsing it a couple of times will do the trick). This makes the usilli get the perfect texture. This can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 5 days in a air-tight container.

Whenever needed, heat oil in a pan. Add the mustard seeds. Once it splutters, add the hing, curry leaves and red chilles. Add the vegetable of your choice (or should I say what’s available) and salt. Cover and cook. Once the vegetables are done, add the paruppu usilli, stir well and serve with rice.

P.S: For avasara usilli, cook the vegetables and then add 2 heaped tbsps of readymade paruppu podi(daal powder that is used as an accompaniment) and mix well so that the vegetables get coated with the paruppu podi. This turns out great and is done in a jiffy!

Pramaadhamaana Poricha Kootu(amazing vegetable-lentil stew)

Its a marathon of recipes today. I keep drafts on the blog and publish them later. Today I realized there were quite a few recipes in the drafts that I hadn’t published. Hence I am bombarding the blogichen with my recipes!

My MIL is one of the best cooks I have come across. A wonderful lady with whom I had the joy of growing up, once told me what makes food especially tasty is the love that goes into making it. I find that extra ‘special something’ in my MIL’s food. I still remember her making polis for me ‘coz I had mentioned that my ammamma (who had passed away) used to make it just for my sake. Every day I spent at her place after my wedding was a melange of some of the best dishes I have ever tasted. That’s when I knew how my husband got his high standard of food and that I had a loooong way to go to reach those standards!Phew!

This is one of her classic dishes which features regularly on our menu. Since Chennai has scotching summers, we make this dish with vegetables that have high water content during the sweltering months. I use snake gourd, bottle gourd, pumpkin or even chowchow(chayote squash) when I don’t find gourds at the Indian store.

Saadham, kootu, curry-veettu saapadu madhiri varuma!(Nothing like our home cooked food!)

Vegetables(you can use gourds and pumpkin at the same time)-2 cups

Moong dal-a handful

Urad dal-3 tsps

peppercorns-8-10 nos

red chillies-1 no

coconut powder-1/2 cup(If using freshly grated coconut-1/4 cup)

turmeric-1/2 tsp

salt to taste

For the tadka:

Mustard seeds-1 tsp

curry leaves-5-6

hing-a pinch

red chillies-1

oil-1/4 tsp

Cook  the vegetables and moong dal separately with some turmeric. I pressure cook them in two different vessels. Its cooked separately so that the dal can be mashed without mashing the vegetables.

Fry the urad dal, red chilli and peppercorn in a little oil till the urad dal is golden. Once cooled, grind this mixture with coconut and little water into a smooth paste.

Heat oil in a pan. Add mustard seeds and let it crackle. Follow this with hing, curry leaves and red chilli. Now add the  vegetables and mashed moong dal. Bring this to a boil along with the coconut paste. Season with salt and serve hot with rice.

Served with plain rice and kathirikkai masaal(Stuffed eggplant)

Rava Idli-The cheaper cousin of Idli

I read somewhere that because of the rice shortage during world war II, the illustrious Mavalli Tiffin Room started making idlis(steamed rice cake) with rava(semolina) giving birth to the delicious Rava idli(semolina cakes). At home, rava idlis were a rarity as my mom strongly believed semolina was not good for health. The upmas(almost like a very thick and dry porridge) we had were usually rice upmas. But once I started cooking by myself, I realised one of the easiest tiffins(we use it for an evening snack/breakfast/dinner… talk about over using a word!) to make after a long, hard day-especially when you long for pukka south indian saapad, was Rava Idli.

The taste of a soft, delicious, ghee-laden rava idlis I once had at Mavalli Tiffin Room (when I was about 8-well, I tend to hold on to any memories about food longer than other things) still lingers in my memory. I had to make do with the Saravana Bhavan Rava idlis after that as we never went back to the amazing MTR again(although we made a few trips to B’lore a few times after that). For me nothing could beat the taste of MTR’s…its simply superb.

After trying out rava idli based on so many recipes I found online(I didn’t ask my mom as I knew what was going to follow her recipe–ADVISE!!). I finally perfected it recently and it was almost as good as the one at MTR(I know we can get the mix from the store-but with most foods sold past their expiry date at the Indian stores, making it from the scratch makes it nicer, don’t you think?!). At least from my memory thats how it tasted and it is delicious.

Its cheaper in terms of the preparation time-after all time is money, rt?!

To make 12 rava idlis:

rava-1 cup

yogurt+water-2 cups

finely diced/grated carrots-1/2 cup

finely chopped green chillies-1 no

cilantro-5 springs(chop it/just tear it by hand:)..works well for me!)

broken cashews-5-6 nos

salt-3/4 tsps

mustard seeds-1 tsp

hing(asofetida)-a pinch(if you are using the solid one), 1/8 tsp

ghee-1 tbsp

curry leaves-6-7

grated/ powdered coconut-3 tbsps

baking soda-1/4 tsp(optional)

Heat ghee in a pan. Add the mustard seeds and allow it to crakle. Add the hing, green chillies, curry leaves and the cashews. Saute till the cashews turn golden brown. Add the coconut and carrots and let it cook for a little. Now add the rava and saute till a wonderful aroma arises from it(or just as it turns color to a beautiful mild brown). Let the mixture cool down a little and add the yogurt+water along with the cilantro and salt. Let this mixture sit for 30-45 minutes. Dissolve the baking soda in a few drops of water and add it to the rava mixture. Stir well and pour it into idli plates. Steam the idlis(15 mins on stove top and 6 minutes in microwave-in most cases) and serve hot with coriander/cilantro chutney and a generous tablespoon of ghee….Mmmmmm!

And be ready to take a bow ladies ;)!

Happy New Year- Puthandu Nal Vaazhthukkal

You know how some foods evoke fond memories. To me, one such food/ snack is Poli. It was a favorite of all my cousins too. But when everyone else loved the Puran Poli/ Paruppu Poli (Sweet lentil Stuffed roti), I loved the thengai poli(with coconut). Puran Poli was made on Bhogi(The day before the Harvest Festival in TamilNadu). To make me happy, my ammamma (maternal grandmother) made sure she made thengai Poli for me on Tamil New Year. I can still hear her asking my cousins to stay away from the dabba(box) when they tried to sneak some polis out. When I first went back home from the U.S, although ammamma was quite sick, she made sure my mom made thengai polis for me under ammamma’s direct supervision!

So I thought let me make some thengai Polis and bring back some good ol’ memories of ammamma and her wonderfully soft Polis.  I should say I kinda surprised myself with the results. My husband who almost always compliments only on asking actually gave me one voluntarily. Boy oh boy, I couldn’t believe my ears. Such is the power of the mighty thengai Poli!!!

Neivedhyam of Thengai Polis for a joyous Ganesh...can't you see he is dancing with joy!

Here’s the recipe for it:

To make 10 polis

Maida/ all purpose flour – 1.25 cups

Rice flour – a handful

Rava/ semolina – a handful

Oil/ ghee(clarified butter) – 2.5 tbsps

salt – 1 tsp

water – a little more than 1/2 cup of water

Channa dal -1 cup

Jaggery – 1.25 cups

Coconut – 3/4th cup

Cardamom – 5-6 pods

Cook the channa dal with 1.5 cups of water in a pressure cooker on 2 whistles. Once cooked, drain the water and dry it out on a kitchen towel or cloth.

Mix the flours, the semolina and salt with 1 tbsp oil. Add water and make a soft dough. Now add the rest of the oil/ ghee to the dough and knead. Leave it to rest for 30-45 minutes.

Grind the dried dal to a smooth powder in a mixer. To a heated pan, add the ground dal and jaggery (either in powder form or as small pieces) and coconut- Puran. Stir the mixture till it forms no lumps and coagulates into a thick mixture(the consistency should be such that it can form balls). Add the cardamom powder…and let the aroma take over your kitchen. Let the mixture cool down

Divide the dough into 10 equal parts. Form 10 balls of the puran such that the balls are 1.5 times the size of the maida dough ball – roti.

On a plastic sheet, add a few drops of oil and flatten the maida ball using your finger tips or a rolling pin to about 4 inches diameter. Place the puran in the center and pull the ends of the roti so that it covers the puran on all sides. Flatten this stuffed roti(rolling pin is a good option, but trust me there’s magic in your finger tips :)). Transfer the Poli to a heated tava (girddle) and cook till it forms golden spots on its surface. And voila, thengai poli is ready.

Enjoy with a dollop of ghee…Yumm-O (a la Rachel Ray)!

Happy Tamil New Year. Lets forget enemities and lead a peaceful existence in the Virodhi(believe it or not, thats what this year is called in the Tamil Panchangam) Year.