Tomato Pachadi

This is an easy and simple tomato pachadi to make. Marta of 'An Italian in the US' is hosting an event based on 'Fresh Produce of the Month' . Tomato is the produce of the month. Now let's get to making this pachadi....

Ingredients

2 - Plum & ripe Tomatoes, chopped
2 - Big shallots, diced
1 tsp - Ginger -garlic paste
1/2 cup - Butter milk
1 cup - Thick creamy yogurt
Salt to taste

Seasoning

1/2 tsp - Mustard seeds
1/4 tsp - Cumin seeds
2 sprigs - Curry leaves

Method

1 ) Heat a saucepan with oil, add mustard and let it pop. Then add curry leaves and cumin seeds. Add shallots, stir and fry then add ginger-garlic paste, fry for a minute.

2 ) Add tomatoes stir and fry. Close with a lid and cook on low heat till tomato is well cooked. Add salt to taste. Turn off the stove .

3 ) Meanwhile, mix & blend buttermilk and yogurt well. Add this mixture to the saucepan , stir and mix well.

Serve with rice as a side dish.

Kanji for the Soul

This rice porridge is so nourishing, wholesome, fulfilling and very much a comfort food. Rosematta rice is used to cook this kanji along with green gram dal and chana dal. Ghee and coconut enhances the flavour and make this kanji so very tasty and delicious.

Mallugirl of Malabar spices is hosting a Summer express cooking event. Sending this dish for this event. This kanji is simple to make and can be prepared within 30 minutes.

Ingredients

1/2 cup - Rosematta rice
1/4 cup- green gram dal
1/4 cup - Chana dal
8 cups - Water
2 tbsp - Ghee
1/2 cup - Freshly Grated coconut
Salt to taste

Method

1 ) Add rice, green gram dal and chana dal into a pressure cooker. Add water, close the lid and bring the pressure cooker to a full cooking pressure. After the first whistle, simmer and cook for 20 to 25 minutes. Take off the stove and cool.

2 ) Open the pressure cooker,add salt to taste, ghee and coconut. Stir in well and serve. The rice and dals should be well cooked, almost like it is over cooked.



Serve hot with pappad.

Check out Kanji & Payar recipe from kitchenmishmash

Paal Payasam

Celebrating this onam with some paal payasam.This payasam ( Indian rice pudding ) is prepared with rosematta rice also known as Palakkadan matta rice or Kerala red rice, milk and sugar. Then garnished with cashew and raisins. Garnishing is optional, if you want the payasam to be similar to the famous Ambalappuzha Paal Payasam. Below in picture is the rosematta rice.


Want to make some Paal payasam the easy way ?? Then follow me....
Ingredients

1/3 cup - Rosematta rice, wash well
1.5 cup - sugar
8 cups - Milk ( read note below )
2 - Cardamom ( optional ), crush and powder

Garnishing

Few cashew nuts
Few white dry raisins
Ghee

Method

1 ) In a pressure cooker boil the milk. Then add washed rice, sugar and close the pressure cooker with the lid. Bring to a full cooking pressure. After the first whistle, low the heat to very low simmer and cook for 45 minutes.

2 ) Open the pressure cooker after it has cooled down to see a paal payasam with a beautiful dark pink shade. Check the sweetness and add more sugar if necessary. You can serve the payasam without garnish at this point.

3 ) Proceed to garnish and flavour with cardamom. Add cardamom powder and stir. In a pan heat some ghee and fry the cashew nuts and raisins. Garnish the payasam.


Serve this paal payasam as dessert after the onasadhya.

A dessert entry for the summer express cooking event, hosted by Mallugirl of Malabar Spices.
Also sending in this for Shri Krishna Janmashtami festival food event, that Latha of ' The yum blog ' is organising.

Note : The measuring cup i have used to measure the milk in is with " Anchor Hocking 2-Cup Glass Measuring Cup". Please note this, as i have come to realise that every measuring cup, does not give the same measurement. This can result in the recipe not turning out as expected. So use same measuring cup to measure rice,milk and sugar.

Fish in coconut milk gravy

This is a coconut milk based fish curry with kodampuli and tomato to give it a tangy taste. I have seasoned the curry with sea salt instead of the normal salt and have used cherry tomatoes, which i felt gave a better taste.

Ingredients

1.5 lb - Fish , clean & cut to medium size pieces
1.5 to 2 tsp - Red chili powder
1/2 tsp - Turmeric powder
1 tsp - Coriander powder
1 medium size - tomato Or 5 - cherry tomatoes, chopped
4 - Kodampuli , wash
2 to 3 sprigs - Curry leaves

Coarsely crush

1 inch piece - ginger
2 to 3 - Green chili
3 flakes - Garlic

3 - Shallots

Coconut milk from half of a coconut.

• 1/2 cup - Thick 1st extracted coconut milk


• 1 cup - Second extracted coconut milk

Sea salt to taste and coconut oil

Method

1 ) Dilute red chili, turmeric and coriander powder in little water. In microwave safe bowl, cook kodampuli in 1/2 a cup of water for one minute.

2 ) In a manchatti (earthen pot used to cook fish curry in kerala ) or in a kadai heat coconut oil, add crushed ingredients, curry leaves, stir and fry for a minute. Add tomatoes, stir and fry well.

3 ) Add diluted powders, stir and fry till oil comes out. Add kodampuli with the water and the fish pieces. Add little more water, if necessary for the fish to cook. Add salt to taste.

4 ) When the fish is half cooked, add the second extracted milk. Cover with a lid and cook on low flame till the fish is fully cooked and the gravy has thickened.

5 ) Finally pour in the thick coconut milk, bring to a boil and take off the stove. Garnish with some fresh curry leaves.

Serve hot with rice and pappad.

I am all smiles to receive the "Rocking girl blogger award" from three fellow blogger friends. Richa of As dear as salt, Viji of Malabar Ruchi and by Kribha of En Samayal Pakkam .

Viji also passed on "The Power of Schmooze Award" to me. I feel humbled and thank you ladies for considering me.

It looks like most of the foodie blogger friends i know, already have received these awards. None the less i am sure it will always be a pleasure to be nominated once, twice or thrice again. Right :D ??
As per the tradition of passing on these awards, I would like to pass on Rockin' Girl Blogger Award to:

Seema of Recipe Junction
Sukanya of Hot N'Sweet Bowl
Rahin of Lazzat
Viji of Vcuisine
Bhags of Crazy Curry
Jyothsna of Currybazaar
Hima of SnackORama

The Power of Schmooze Award is for bloggers who “effortlessly weave their way in and out of the blogosphere, leaving friendly trails and smiles, happily making new friends along the way. They don’t limit their visits to only the rich and successful, but spend some time to say hello to new blogs as well. They are the ones who engage others in meaningful conversations, refusing to let it end at a mere hello - all the while fostering a sense of closeness and friendship.”

The Power of Schmooze Award to :

Asha of Aroma
Shn of Mishmash
Sia of Spice Corner
Sig of Live to eat
Sharmi of Neivedyam

Murukku - Chakli

Murukku / Chakli is a savoury snack, popular in southern part of India. With a cup of tea, i munched on some of the murukku that my friend prepared and got the see how this snack is prepared.

Ingredients

2 cups - Rice flour
1 cup - Besan flour / Gram flour
1 tbsp - Ajwain / Carom seeds
1 tbsp - White sesame seeds
1 tsp - Red chili powder
1/4 tsp - Hing powder / Asafoedita
1/4 cup - Melted butter or Margarine
About 2 cups - Lukewarm water
Salt to taste
Oil to fry ( Peanut oil )

Method

1 ) Sieve rice and besan flour together to a mixing bowl. Add ajwain, sesame seeds, red chili, hing, salt and mix together. Pour the melted butter and mix.

2 )Add water little at a time and make a chapati like dough. Dough should not be too stiff nor too loose.

3 ) Shown in picture below, is the murukku presser. Take little of the dough and fill into the murukku mold.

4 ) With the murukku presser, press and shape the murukku to a plate with paper napkin.

5 ) Make a bunch and keep ready to fry in oil.


6 ) Heat oil in a wok or kadai. Carefully slide shaped murukku dough into the hot oil. Fry both sides on a medium high heat, till crisp and golden.

Take off the oil and drain on a paper towel.

Serve as a evening snack with tea or coffee.

Sending this recipe to the event "Fun in the sun" hosted by Anupama of "Food-n-more" and also to the event "WYF- Snacks" hosted by hima of "SnackORama"

Update

You can also make with this proportion, that is 2 cups of rice flour and 1/2 cup Besan. Since besan fries faster than rice flour, with this proportion you will get even cooking.

Pulihora - Tamarind Rice

An Andhra preparation of the tamarind rice, that my friend prepares so well and she has so graciously shown me, step by step how she prepares this rice.

Ingredients

3 cups - Raw rice ( Use : Sona Masuri, Basmati or Long grain rice )

Seasoning

2 tbsp - Mustard seeds

1/4 cup - Urad dal

1/4 cup - Chana dal

1/4 cup - Peanuts

6 to 8 - Whole dried red chili

1 tsp - Turmeric powder

1 big yellow lemon size - Tamarind

1/4 to 1/2 tsp - Hing

2 to 3 sprigs - Curry leaves

1 cup - Oil

Salt to taste

Method

1 ) In the first step, cook the rice and then spread out in a big plate to cool a bit.

2 ) Second step is to Season. Heat oil in a pan and fry the whole red chillies. Take it off the oil and set aside. Then add chana dal, peanuts, urad dal and fry on medium low heat. Then add mustard and after mustard pops, add curry leaves, hing and take off the stove.

3 ) Thirdly, pour the seasoning onto the cooked rice.
Then to make the tamarind paste, extract thick tamarind paste from the tamarind by adding little by little water and squeezing out a thick tamarind juice. Now cook the extracted juice till it thickens to a semi-thick concentrated paste. Add salt to taste when cooking the tamarind juice.

4 ) Add the cooked tamarind paste to the cooked rice. Now mix the rice well with the seasoning and the tamarind paste. Mix thoroughly and then serve.


Variations to this recipe

1. If you like mustard flavor, you can add a little mustard paste to the rice and mix well. Take 1 tsp mustard seeds and make a paste with little water. Crush with a mortar and a pestle.
   
2. Sesame seeds can be dry roasted and powdered. Add the powder to the rice and mix well.

Now if you want to make this rice with ready made Puliogare powder -

1) Follow the first step to cook the rice.

2 ) Then follow the second step to season. At the end of the seasoning, add 3 to 4 tbsp of ready made puliogare powder into the oil, before taking off the stove.

3 ) Pour the seasoning onto the cooked rice and mix thoroughly. If you need more sour and tangy taste, add 2 to 3 tbsp of lemon juice to the rice and mix.

JFI for the month of Sept, is hosted by the lovely sharmi of Neivedyam, who has a array of mouth water recipes to feast on. Rice is the chosen ingredient and i am sending in Pulihora as my entry for this event.