Sakkarai Pongal recipe - Happy Pongal!

Happy Pongal everyone.  Here's one of my favorite recipes. It is easy too. I always used to wonder why my sweet pongal

1. Did not have the semi solid like consistency that it is supposed to have
2. Did not have the dark color 

I found the answers to both these questions

1. Need to add enough milk/water when boiling the rice and dal mixture
2. Need to use the darker jaggery

I got the answer to 1 from here.

Ingredients :

1. 1 cup rice
2. 1/2 cup yellow moong dal
3. 2.5 cups of milk
4. 2.5 cups of water + 1 cup to mix the jaggery
5. 1/4 cup ghee
6. A pinch of salt
7. 3/4 to 1 cup jaggery
8. A handful of cashews
9. A handful of raisins
10. 1 tsp cardamom powder

How I made it :

1. In a pan, heat a tsp of ghee and roast the dal till fragrant.
2. Soak dal along with washed rice for about 30 minutes.
3. Pressure cook the dal+rice mix with 2.5 cups each of milk and water with a pinch of salt for 15 minutes on low flame.
4. Grate or break jaggery into small pieces. The smaller the pieces, the sooner it will take you to get a golden syrup saving energy. 
5. Add 1 cup of water to jaggery and boil till all the jaggery has melted. 
6. Pass this through a strainer and keep aside.
7. When the pressure from the cooker has lifted, add the jaggery syrup and mash the rice and dal mixture. 
8. In a pan, heat the ghee, add the cashews and raisins and fry till cashews are light golden brown. Mix in the rice, dal and jaggery mix. 
9. Sprinkle with cardamom powder and serve.

I like this cold but it does taste good warm too. Add a little milk when heating up as it has a tendency to lump up absorbing all the liquid.

As it is the festival today, I also made the khara version from Nag's blog and served it with my mom-in-law's sambar.

0

Strawberry ShortCake recipe (Eggless)

I absolutely love short cake and I was dying to make this after eating the famous biscuits and gravy in the US. The biscuits reminded me so much of the short cake that I made them as soon as I got a weekend free after getting home.

Here's a pic of the short cake that I made last year.  Do try this one and I'm sure you wont stop making this. I owe this one to one of my mom's close friends who taught me how to make this one along with nan khattai. She is an amazing cook like my mom but does a lot more baking that my mom does now.

I got the recipe from here as I did not remember what I had learnt.

Ingredients (serves 4):
For biscuits :

1. 1 cup maida
2. 1/2 tbsp baking powder
3. 1/4 tsp salt
4. 1.5 tbsp sugar
5. 1/2 stick/60g butter chilled
6. 1/3 cup of milk or fresh cream

For filling :

1. Whipped cream  - instructions below
2. Homemade Strawberry preserve - as per liking

How I made it :

1. In a food processor, mix in the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar.
2. Add the butter cut into small cubes with the processor on.
3. Wait till the flour mixture resembles coarse bread crumbs
4. Add milk little by little till the dough almost completely comes together
5. Take it out of the processor and knead on a lightly floured surface till the dough is smooth and less sticky.
6. Preheat oven to 200 degree C.
7. Roll out the dough into a 1 inch thick rectangle.
8. Cut out circles or into sqaures, place on baking tray, brush with a little milk, sprinkle a little sugar and bake for 15 minutes.
9. Serve with whipped cream and fresh strawberries. I served it with my homemade strawberry preserve

Whipped Cream :

Ingredients :

1. 200g fresh cream

2. 3 tbsp sugar

How I made it :

1. On a ice bath, place a glass bowl. 
2. Pour in the fresh cream into the bowl and beat on low speed.
3. It takes about 8 minutes to get whipped cream with soft peaks. Add the sugar once you feel that the cream has begun to thicken.

2

Eggless Moist Chocolate Cupcakes

I've been itching to bake since I've been back from my US trip as I did not get to do much there with the absence of an oven. Last week I made strawberry shortcakes which were absolutely yum and this week since I am going to meet my Guddu darling, I made eggless chocolate cupcakes. I hope he likes them. I adapted the recipe from here.

Ingredients (For 6 cupcakes):

1. 1/4 cup maida
2. 1/4 cup wheat flour
3. 1/4 cup ragi - I used sprouted ragi flour from Manna
4. 1/2 cup brown sugar or 1/3 cup white sugar
5. 1 tsp vanilla powder
6. 2.5 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder - I use the one from cadbury. The weikfield cocoa powder does not satisfy the chocolate urges that I get.
7. 1/4 tsp salt
8. 1/2 tsp baking powder
9. 1/2 cup water
10. 4 tbsp neutral oil
11. 1/4 tsp instant coffee powder
12. 1 tsp vinegar

How I made them :

I made them in 2 batches as I have only one 6 cupcake tray.

1. Sift the maida, ragi, whole wheat flour, vanilla, baking powder, cocoa powder.
2. Add the salt and brown sugar. Keep aside.
3. In another bowl mix in the water, oil, coffee powder and vinegar.
4. Heat the oven to 180 degree C.
5. Prepare your cup cake moulds and place liners if required. I have a non-stick tray and hence don't always need the liners.
6. Mix the dry with wet ingredients as your oven is almost heated up. Don't fold or mix too much. Just enough to have a well mixed dough.
7. Pour spoonfuls into the moulds until 2/3rd full.
8. Bake for 17 minutes in middle tray. If you do not have a rack try placing the cup cake tray over any other inverted cake moulds/cooker vessel that you may have.

Cool on a wire rack and serve.

Tips :

1. Use only cadbury cocoa. If not, you will get the same taste that you get when you eat the Chocolate cakes at cafe coffee day which I don't like.
2. Mix the wet and dry ingredients just as the oven is almost at 180 degree C as the trick is to get the mixture into the oven as soon as possible. The baking powder starts to work as soon as it meets the wet ingredients. The longer you take to put it into the oven, the lower the cake will rise.

1

Bombay Toast

It's a sunday and I consider bread and egg the ideal sunday start. So this sunday I decided to make bombay toast. I made them with olive oil, which is neutral and does not affect the flavor of the dish. I used to think that extra virgin olive oil should not be heated up but after watching Aditya Bal do it on "Olive it up", I decided that I too could do that once in a while.

Ingredients (For 5 slices of bombay toast) :

1. 3 eggs
2. 5 slices of bread - I used Nilgiris multigrain bread, taking advantage of having a Niligiris 1905 store near my place
3. 1/4 cup milk
4. 1 tbsp sugar
5. 1 tsp vanilla extract
6. a pinch of salt
7. Olive oil/Butter - 2 tbsp

How I made it :

1. Beat the eggs, milk, sugar, vanilla extract and salt together.
2. Heat a tawa.
3. Add some olive oil to the hot tawa.
4. Dip a slice of bread in the egg mix ensuring that it absorbs quite a bit of it and place this on the tawa.
5. Let it cook for a minute on each side on low flame. 
6. Repeat with other slices of bread.
7. I served mine with my homemade strawberry preserve. 

0

Spicy Mushroom and Egg curry

Well, I wanted to eat something really spicy when I got home after work. I remembered Namratha's spicy egg curry which I've made quite a few times before but I also had a pack of mushrooms which I had to finish so I combined the two together and the result was quite good.

Here's a pic of what went into my dabba so sorry for a not-so-good picture.

Ingredients (serves 2 as a side dish to chapatis):

1. 2 hard boiled eggs
2. 200g mushrooms cleaned and quartered
3. 1 large onion finely sliced or chopped - I sliced them finely with my new Pure Komachi series knife
4. 1 large country tomato
5. 1 tsp garam masala powder
6. 1/2 tsp red chilli powder
7. 1/2 tsp coriander/dhania powder
8. Salt to taste
9. 1/2 tsp mustard seeds
10. water - 1 teacup
11. 1 tbsp oil
12. Chopped coriander for garnish

How I made it :

1. In a pan, heat the oil.
2. Add the mustard seeds. Cover and let the spluttering stop.
3. Now add the onions and fry till the turn pink.
4. Once onions are pink, add the mushrooms and cook them as per your liking. I wait till all the water that they leave our evaporates.
5. Now, add the tomatoes, red chilli powder, coriander powder, salt and let the fat separate.
6. Add about 1 teacup of water and let it come to a boil.
7. Drop in halved boiled eggs and the garam masala powder.
8. Cover and let it simmer for about 8 minutes.
9. Garnish with chopped coriander and serve with rotis/chapatis.

0

Eggless Ragi Pancakes

What better way to get back to blogging than with a healthy recipe? Here's what I made for breakfast after being inspired by Appu's ragi pancakes. She made them in a jiffy when I decided to drop in for a cuppa chai :)

Ingredients : (makes 3 pancakes)

1. 1/3 cup ragi flour
2. 1/2 tsp baking powder
3. 1 tbsp sugar
4. A pinch of salt
5. 2 tsp olive oil or any neutral oil
6. A little less than 1/2 cup of milk
7. A few dried pumpkin seeds - I usually pop them in the microwave for 2 minutes and once cooled, store in an airtight container. These add some texture to the pancakes - tip borrowed from Appu
8. 2 tbsp butter/oil

How I made it :

1. Mix all the ingredients from 1 through 7 to form a smooth batter
2. Heat up a tawa or griddle.
3. Lightly greast hot tawa with butter/oil
4. Pour a ladleful of batter.
5. Cover for 45 seconds
6. When you lift the lid and see nice holes, flip and cook for another 45 seconds to 1 minute.

I served it with my homemade strawberry preserve. It was my first attempt and I did not add enough sugar so it was a bit tart.

0

Veg Manchurian and Manchurian Sauce

The day has started off well with a perfect Sindhi breakfast and a perfect Chinese combo for lunch. We had vegetable fried rice with vegetable manchurian plus mushroom manchurian in sauce. You can find the recipe for the fried rice here.

We had eaten Chinese food the previous week at Shitake at Park Square Mall and were bitterly disappointed. Today, it feels like we ate "Chinese" food.

Ingredients :

1. Mixed vegetables like finely chopped carrots and french beans 
2. 1 cup maida
3. 2 tbsp cornflour
4. Salt to taste
5. 1 tsp red chilli powder
6. 1 tbsp ginger garlic paste
7. 1 tsp black pepper powder
8. Water - enough to make a thick dosa batter
9. Oil for deep frying

How I made it :

1. Mix together all ingredients from 1 to 7. 
2. Add water little by little till it resembles a thick pakoda batter.
3. Heat oil and fry tiny balls of this mixture. 
4. Serve hot. 

I had made the sauce below for the mushroom manchurian, which was reused for this.

Manchurian Sauce :

Ingredients :

1. 1 tsp cornflour mixed in 1/2 cup cold water - do not use hot water
2. 1 tbsp ginger garlic paste
3. 1 tbsp oil
4. 5 spring onions - chopped, green and white separately
5. 2 finely chopped green chillies
6. 2 tbsp soya sauce
7. 1/4 cup Maggi Oriental Sauce - (optional)
8. 1/4 cup tomato ketchup - use 1/2 cup if not using the oriental sauce
9. 1/2 tsp black pepper powder

How I made it :

1. Heat oil in a pan. 
2. Fry the ginger garlic paste.
3. Add the white parts of the spring onion and fry for 3 minutes on low heat
4. Add the green chillies and black pepper
5. After a minute, add the soya sauce taking care to not let it burn. 
6. Add both the oriental as well as tomato ketchup.
7. Once it starts bubbling, put in the water containing dissolved cornflour. 
8. Once the sauce starts to thicken, turn off heat

Here is a picture of the mushroom manchurian in the sauce.

0

Sindhi Breakfast - Koki - my favorite

Koki is a kind of mixed paratha. Onions, green chillies, chopped coriander, red chilli powder and salt are a must add to the flour while making the dough. Optionally, jeera/cumin or saunf could be added.

I love koki and think that it is a quickie breakfast. Kokis go well with tea, unsalted butter and sugar, pickle, curd and papad. My mom and aunt's kokis are famous amongst my friends and they, mostly men, have taken to cooking kokis when away from home. There must be something about them right?

Ingredients (makes 2 kokis):

1. 1 cup whole wheat flour
2. 1 medium sized onion chopped finely
3. 3 tablespoons oil + extra for cooking
4. 1/2 teaspoon red chilli powder
5. 1 finely sliced green chilly
6. finely chopped coriander
7. salt to taste
8. Water - enough to make the dough. I used the whey which is left after making homemade panneer this time

How I made it :

1.   In a wide bowl, mix in all ingredients from 1 to 7. 
2. Slowly add water to make a dough. 
3. Roll out into 1/2 cm thick parathas. 
4. Use a knife to draw a criss cross on one side - this helps it cook more evenly and also makes it look more interesting.
5. On a hot tawa/flat pan, on high heat, place the paratha with the criss cross side on top.
6. After 30 seconds, pour some oil on top and flip it. Reduce heat to low.
7. Cook for about 2 minutes and flip it again making the heat high. Add more oil as desired. 
8. When dark brown spots appear, it is done. Serve hot or cold. These stay for about 24 hours in an airtight container and are perfect for travelling. Have it with a hot cup of chai.

1

Panneer Stuffed Snake Gourd recipe

Well, I did not want to make the same usual stuff with the snake gourd that I'd got at hand and so decided to try and stuff it. I do remember seeing related recipes a very long time back but when I did google for "stuffed snake gourd" I was shocked to see that most of them were stuffed with meat or aloo. I decided to do it with panneer as I had in mind while returning from work.

I acted smart and made panneer burji. I made that in excess so that I could stuff the snake gourd with the same. It was scrumptuous.

Ingredients :

1. Medium snake gourd - peeled and deseeded
2. Enough panneer burji to stuff in
3. Salt to rub onto the snake gourd
4. 2 tbsp oil

How I made it :

1. Rub salt onto the snake gourd and cook on high in microwave for 5 minutes or until 3/4th cooked.
2. Fill it with panner burji
3. Heat oil in a wide pan.
4. Shallow fry the stuffed snake gourd pieces

Serve hot with rotis. Best had hot. As it cools, you may not like the taste of the oil - remember that shallow frying causes food to actually absorb/retain more oil.

3

Glazed Tofu with Stir fried BokChoy and Veggies

I had bought BokChoy recently and I had also picked up Tofu. Google showed me this very interesting recipe which I just had to try. I also added some more veggies to the stir fry and here's what it looked it.

0

Thengai Poli/Ubittu

Whilst in Chennai, our company used to sponsor snacks, which used to be my dinner, for those staying back beyond 7pm at work. This was a real motivation for many to stay back until 7pm. One of my favorites was poli. Warm and sweet, these melt in the mouth stuffed rotis were never something that I stayed away from. I saw this recipe on Nag's blog and it reminded me of poli. I had some coconut on hand and so decided to make the poli with the coconut stuffing rather than the dal. This would also make Pras very happy as he is a keralite who loves his coconuts (wicked smile ;))

When I gave Pras the first one, he went "It tastes just like it does in the store brought ones." Well, what more would I want to hear :)

Ingredients (makes 5 polis): 

1. 1 cup of maida - you could use whole wheat if you like
2. 1/2 cup jaggery
3. 1/2 cup coconut grated
4. 2 pods of green cardomom crushed
5. Salt a pinch
6. 1 tbsp oil
7. 2 tbsp ghee
8. Water - 1/4 cup + enough to make a smooth dough

How I made it :

1. Add the pinch of salt to the flour and make a smooth dough. Ply the dough for about 2 minutes before letting it rest for about 1 hour.
2. In the meantime, use as little water as possible to melt the jaggery in. This can be done on the stove top with regular mixing. Cutting the jaggery into smaller pieces help this get done sooner. 
3. Sieve this melted jaggery syrup to remove any impurities.
4. Add the coconut to this and cook on the stove until the mixture becomes sticky and almost dry.
5. To this add the crushed cardamom powder.
6. Now rub some oil onto a plastic sheet. 
7. Take a ball of dough and flatten it out in your palm, making a well in the center.
8. Fill this with the coconut jaggery mixture. Try to put as much as possible. Don't be scared of it coming out as this will be a sticky mixture and wont ooze out or cause too much trouble when rolling out. 
9. Pull the ends of the dough so as to enclose the coconut jaggery mixture and roll this into a thin stuffed roti. You could alternately make it like making stuffed aloo paratha.
10. Cook on a hot tava until both sides brown. Apply ghee generously and take off the heat.

0

Nilam Special Uzhunnu Vada

Well, we all know how Sandy and Nilam struck at about the same time, except at different places. So it was one of those rainy holidays on which I had to sit at home. Pras was working and so we had no plans of going out. I woke up and soaked urad dal for making my favorite vada. It is the perfect accompaniment to tea on a cold rainy day or may be any day :)

Ingredients (For 10 vadas) :

1. 1 cup skinless white urad dal soaked in water for about 4 hours
2. 1 medium sized onion chopped
3. 2 green chillies finely chopped
4. chopped coriander leaves
5. 1 tsp whole pepper corns
6. Salt to taste
7. Oil for frying

Equipment needed: 

A grinder/food processor

How I made it :

1. Grind the soaked urad dal with as little water as possible to make a thick smooth paste.
2. To this ground batter add the chopped onions, coriander, green chillies, pepper corns and salt.
3. Heat up some oil in a deep pan/wok/kadai.
4. This step is all about frying but if you want to get the right shape of a vada, read on. Keep a bowl of water on the side. Dip the fingers of your right hand in the water. With the excess water wet the palm of your left hand. Now, using your right hand scoop out a sapota sized ball of batter. Flatten it out on your left palm. Now, dip your right index finger into the water and make a hole in the center of the flattened batter.Drop this into the hot oil. Fry until golden brown on both sides, about 3 minutes a side. 
5. Serve hot with a steaming cup of chai and coconut chutney

Tips :

1. Use as little water when grinding. The more water you use, grinding may be easy but getting the right shape and texture for frying will be tough.
2. If you have added a lot of water, you could add some rice flour to thicken the batter.
3. You could add pieces of coconut to the batter.
4. To test the oil, put in a small drop of the batter. If it rises immediately, the oil is hot. You don't want smoking hot oil either
5. Serve with sambar for breakfast

0