Puliyodarai/Tamarind rice

A south Indian cuisine can’t be without tamarind rice”puliyodari. My daughter’s anytime favourite. She can forgot prayers and even god if the prasadam is puliyodarai and kesari at temple 😂. Here in singapore one can taste this tangy yummy puliyodarai in perumal temple every Saturdays without fail. I guess the fans for puliyodarai is more than perumal in the temple 😂. Basically it is a tempered tamarind rice with some spices and herbs. When I was young we friends used to pick the unripe tamarind directly from tree and eat it with/without salt 😋. Also the fruit tastes heavenly yummy…

Tamarind health benefits:

Aids in digestion. Boosts immune system. Effective against diabetes malaria asthma and assists in wound healing.

Puliyodarai/Tamarind rice

Cuisine: Indian (south Indian/Tamil)

Category: Lunch

Serves:3

Prep time: 30 Min's

Cook time: 20 Min's

Ingredients needed:

1 ½ cup cooked and cooled rice(to separate grains)

4 tbsp tightly packed tamarind soaked in 2 cups of warm water for minimum 30 Min's

1 tsp turmeric powder

2 tbsp/as desired roasted peanuts

1 tsp of jaggery

Salt as needed

Ingredients to temper:

1 tsp mustard seeds

½ tsp methi/fenugreek seeds

½ tsp hing/asafoetida

1 tbsp sesame seeds(can be added to the roast and grind section)

5-6 red chilies(adjust according to your spice level)

1 spring curry leaves

4 tbsp sesame oil

Ingredients to roast and grind to powder: (seasoning)

1 ½ tbsp channadal

2 tsp urad dal

1 tsp fenugreek seeds

1 red chili

1 tbsp coriander seeds

1 tsp jeera/cumin seeds

To make the puliyodarai/tamarind rice:

1.Extract tamarind juice from the soaked tamarind. The juice shouldn’t be thick as we need to cook tamarind for sometime to get rid of the raw flavor.

2.Heat sesame oil in a heavy bottomed wok(as the tamarind might easily get burnt). Temper items given to temper.

3.Once the tempering items are roasted well add tamarind juice, turmeric and salt.

4.Bring it to boil and simmer for 5 Min's or till the oil separates from the gravy.

5.Add the jaggery and  seasoning powder and cook for less than a minute. Switch of flame and add peanuts. 

6.Mix the concoction with the rice and let it rest for sometime before serving.

Notes:

There are lot of variations you can do and neglect few ingredients but mustard hing peanuts chili sesame oil are the key flavors.

You can store the concoction for a week in refrigerator.

Bread kebab

Kebabs come from middle east countries. Initially I didn’t like it as it wasn’t appealing for eyes 😖 but once I gave it a try, then started loving it. I tried something that everyone can easily make at home without running for the ingredients that a original recipe requires. I guess it’s the tandoor version of our south Indian masala vadai 😉.

Health benefits of wholemeal bread:

They contain lot of fiber. Keeps hunger at bay for long hours. Good source of vitamins and minerals.

Bread kebab

Cuisine: Fusion

Category: Starter

Serves: 1

Preparation time: 10 min

Cook time: 5 min

Ingredients:

2 no’s wholemeal bread slices

2 ½ tbsp grated carrot
1 tsp corn flour
½ of a boiled peeled potato 

1 green chili
1 tsp chilli powder

1 tbsp coriander leaves

1 tsp garam masala

½ large onion

½ tsp turmeric powder

1 tsp lemon juice

1 slice cheese

1 tsp oil

Ghee/clarified butter for roasting kebabs

Salt as needed

To make kebabs:

1.Grind the bread in a food processor/mixer to fine crumbs.

2.Heat oil in a pan and fry chopped onions chili carrots.

3.Add lemon juice, coriander leaves,salt, turmeric powder and garam masala. Give it a stir and switch off flame.

4.Now add bread crumbs and toss well to incorporate all the ingredients. (This stage it is bread upma, you can have it as it is 😁)

5.Cut the cheese slice to 4 equal parts and stack them into 2 portions.

6.Cover the cheese with the bread crumbs tightly and completely in desired shapes. Heat a tawa/skillet and spread ghee. 

Roast the kebabs till they turn golden brown outside.

Serve with sauce and salad.

Variation for kids:

1.After step 4 ,add a tbsp of all purpose/chickpea flour to 2 tbsp of water.

2.Instead of cheese slices take shredded cheese cubes/paneer and mix with bread crumbs mixture. Make them in shapes of balls and dip into the all purpose/chickpea flour.

3.Deep fry in oil till golden brown outside.

Serve with ketchup.

Note:

You can add corn capsicum potato and desired vegetables to make kebabs.
For cheese choice cheddar mozzarella are apt but you can mix different varieties. 
Don't make thick and heavy kebabs if grilling. 
You can wrap this inside chapathi/tortilla for lunch box.
If binding kebab is difficult then add another half mashed potato to the mixture and make shapes.

Healthy Ladoo(whole grains and nuts)

Another experiment with healthy snacks includes whole grains and nuts.This simple laddoo tastes delicious.I bought a health mix powder from a store and found it contained most of the ingredients I included to make laddoos. So if you are lazy to make the powder then just grab a packet from grocery stores.

Health mix laddoo benefits:

Gives instant energy. High in fiber and nutrients. 

Healthy Ladoo(whole grains and nuts)

Cuisine: Indian

Category: Snack/Sweet

Yields: 12

Prep time: 30 Mins

Cook time: 3 Minutes

Ingredients to be roasted and powdered:

4 tbsp Raagi

2 tbsp barnyard millet

2 tbsp corn kernels

1 tbsp sago

2 tbsp wheat

2 tbsp barley

1 tbsp fried gram

1 tbsp moong dal/green gram

1 tsp rice

1 tsp urad dal

1 tsp cardamom

Handful of each peanuts cashew nuts almonds (yields approx 4 tbsp)

Or

2 cups ready made health mix powder

½ cup raw sugar powdered/ jaggery or as needed

Ingredients to bind and garnish:

½ cup ghee or as needed to bind flour into laddoo

¼ cup Cashews or as needed

Dark chocolate bar(70%) brought to room temperature and rolled into eyeball-sized balls(optional for health freaks)

To make laddoo:

1. Melt ghee in a pan and add cashews. Roast till brown.Switch off flame.

2.Add sugar/jaggery powder and other powders. Mix well thoroughly.

3.Take a dark chocolate ball and cover with the powder mixture and make laddoos. 

Note :

If the powder is dry to make laddoos then add some ghee.

You can coat the laddoos with coconut and sugar syrup but the shelf life will be less.

The same powder can be used for making porridge or dosas.

Vegan vanilla cupcakes with choclate frosting

We two cousin sis and 3 bro’s always have spent our summer holidays at our grandparents place. When my grandfather returns from work he used to buy lots of snacks and tiny plain cakes with different flavours from this baker called henry and woolsey. They taste awesome, even now when I think of it I can smell the fragrance of the cakes. I don’t know they still run the shop. One more we call as “vaathu cake 😁” duck cake was the one thing we cousins don’t have any difference of opinion 😌. Since  it was in the shape of duck they call it duck cake. The head and body were covered with white sugar syrup, the main cake was something close to a chocolate cake. That was a neighborhood shop where they stopped selling them now 😢. Ok now to our vegan cupcakes… I usually bake cakes with eggs but for the blog’s sanity 😜”greens” I researched this recipe and tried out which came out amazingly delicious.

Vegan vanilla cupcakes with chocolate frosting

Cuisine: Western

Category: Cupcake/Cake/Snack
Yields: 12-14 cakes

Cook time: 15-17 min

Prep time: 30 min

1 cup =Appox 236ml for wet ingredients
1 cup =Appox 225ml for dry ingredients

 Dry ingredients:

1 cup plus 5 tbsp all-purpose flour

2 tbsp cornflour /corn starch

¾ cup sugar (I have used raw sugar) use any granulated sugar

½ tsp baking soda

1tsp plus a pinch of baking powder

Wet ingredients:

½ cup melted butter/oil

1 cup thick yogurt/curd

1 tsp vanilla essence

2 tbsp water (to be added if the batter is thick)

For Chocolate frosting:

8 pieces of semi-sweet baking chocolate bar

1½ tbsp milk

1 tsp butter

To make the cake:

1.Preheat the oven to 180°C/350 F for 10mins.

2. In a bowl whip sugar and yogurt till the sugar dissolves.

3.Add melted butter/oil vanilla essence. (If using oil then add a tsp of butter essence to give the cake a nice flavour or else the cake tastes bland)

4.Sift flours baking powder baking soda twice. Add it to the wet ingredients in the bowl.

5.Fold in the flour gently without heavy whisking. If the curd is too thick and makes the dough tight add 2tbsp of water. Cake mixture is ready.

6.Scoop in the cake batter into cupcake liners to ¾ of its height.(I poured only till half of the height as it was my first trial so the cake was resting inside to peep in 😄)

7.Bake in the oven for 15-17 mins.

8.Once they are baked do a toothpick test(insert a toothpick into the cake and it should come out as clean and oily without any raw batter) and let them rest on a wire tray for at least 10mins.

To make the chocolate frosting:

1.Boil water in a bowl and keep another bowl on top of it with chocolate pieces milk and butter. Let the chocolate and butter melt to a creamy texture, if it is thick add a tsp of milk. 

Spread over resting cakes and decorate.

It was fluffy and moist.

Notes:

Instead of all purpose flour and corn flour you can use 1½ cup cake flour
All ingredients have to be at room temperature .
do not over bake - it dries out the baked goods.
You can add your choice of an essence for a different flavour.

Kancheepuram idli/Kudalai idli/Rice and lentils cake

There are few things that come up to my mind if I think about Kancheepuram. Obviously, silk sarees, temples, periyavaa and the Kanchi idly which is also known as kudalai idli. Which are traditionally cooked in dried leaf cups or fresh banana leaf. They make it in a huge size which takes hours to cook but in homestyle we can do it in less than 15 mins.

Urad dal health benefits:

Protein rich. The Fermented batter has high prebiotics. Good for diabetes humans. 

Kancheepuram idli/Kudalai idli/Rice and lentils cake

Cuisine: Indian/south

Category: Breakfast

Serves: 5

Preparation time: 8hrs

Cook time: 12-15 min

Ingredients for grinding batter: 

(Soak rice and dal in water separately or even together. But if soaked and ground separately the texture comes out better)

1 cup raw rice

1 cup parboiled rice/idly rice

1 cup urad dal(skinned whole)

½ tsp fenugreek seeds (has to be soaked along with urad dal if dal is soaked separately)

Counting how many soaks I used…😕

Ingredients to temper:

1 tbsp cumin/jeera

1 tbsp pepper

½ tbsp dry ginger powder/fresh minced ginger

1 spring curry leaves

2 tbsp ghee

10-12 cashew nuts (come on you can add as much as you like)

To make Kancheepuram idlis:

1. Grind the soaked rice and dal separately or together to a slightly coarse texture. No rules for grinding like idli or dosa batter so just grind to a coarse texture. Urad dal required 1 cup water and rice required 1 ½ -2 cups water to grind. Set aside overnight to ferment. (at least 6hrs)

2. Once the batter is fermented temper items given to temper and add it to the batter. Fold in the batter and don’t whisk vigorously. Steam the batter in desired moulds with ghee/oil greased inside. If moulds are shallow it takes about 12-15 mins to cook and if the moulds are deeper then it might take some extra time. 

You can check if the idlis are done by piercing a toothpick inside. when it comes out sticky and clean idlis are cooked. Serve hot with idly podi/chutney/sambar.

Note:

The idly batter should be slightly thick not runny. If you want extra flavour cut and place banana leaves in the moulds and steam the batter. Instead of adding ghee you can use sesame oil also.

Pudina Paratha

Due to all the negatives of the barotta/paratha has been exaggerated we minimized/stopped eating them outside. Maybe we want to eat healthy parathas so I searched a few recipes thru the Internet and got some ideas. Need to do a few more steps than normal chapati but worth the taste.

Pudina health benefits:

High in antioxidants. Soothes and calms stomach affected by indigestion and gas. Natural breath freshener. 

Pudina paratha/Mint paratha

Cuisine: Indian/North

Category: Breakfast/Dinner

Serves: 3

Preparation time: 30min

Cook time: 3-4min

Ingredients for dough:

3 cups wheat flour(I used ashirwad)

1 cup finely chopped and tightly packed pudina/fresh mint leaves(divided)

Approx 1 ½ cup Water or as required to make soft dough

1 tbsp olive oil/ghee/any desired oil

Salt as needed

Ingredients to dry roast and grind for seasoning:

½ cup pudina leaves

1 tsp jeera/cumin

1 tsp fennel seeds

5-6 methi/fenugreek seeds

1 tsp garam masala

Pinch of salt

To make pudina paratha:

1.In a bowl add wheat flour, salt, oil mix well. Then add water in parts and knead the flour till you attain a soft tight dough consistency. Let it rest for 20-30 Min's.

2. Meanwhile heat a wok and add mint leaves and roast them till they are crispy and set aside.  Its okay if it turns black.Add the other ingredients like jeera fennel fenugreek seeds and roast till nicest aroma.

3. Grind the roasted ingredients to a slightly coarse powder with salt and garam masala. Set aside.

4. Make equal sized balls out of the resting dough(approx 9 balls). Make normal chapati with rolling pin. Now spread some ghee/oil and the ground Masala over the chapati and start to fold the chapati like Saree pleats or a hand fan.

5. Fold the pleated chapati to form a circle. Tuck in the tail part to the center.

6. Again using rolling pin flatten the paratha with slight pressure.

7. Heat a skillet/tawa and place the paratha over it. When the paratha starts puffing apply some ghee/oil and flip it. Press over the chapatti with a spatula to make sure even cooking.

If you want it soft the remove from skillet once you see brown spots each side or else wait till the spots turn to darken. Serve with plain curd/pickle.

 Note:

Chapathi dough should be soft to accomplish that knead the dough for at leat 10mins. You can make the same procedure and do coriander paratha. Just substitute pudina with coriander leaves. The ground masala can be used as a garnish or seasoning for raithas.

Stuffed brinjal Gravy

Some vegetables taste good in all the forms of cooking, one among those are brinjals. My mom used to buy tharamangalam brinjals(in salem) from sellers who come to our streets in bicycles. They taste heaven in currys and as fries. They had a unique flavour. There was only this fat purple striped brinjals in the market here this time so I used them for this gravy but if you can get small sized ones then it would taste more delicious.

Brinjals health benefits:

It improves heart health and reduces blood cholesterol levels.

Stuffed brinjal Gravy

 Cuisine: Indian/South

Category: Side dish/gravy

Serves: 4

Preparation time: 30 min

Cook time: 25 min

Masala to dry roast and grind:

2 tbsp sesame seeds

1 tbsp shredded coconut

2 tbsp roasted peanuts

2 tbsp sambar powder(click for full recipe)

or

1 tbsp chili powder

1 tbsp coriander powder

1 tbsp urad dal

1 tbsp channa dal

1 tsp peppercorns

1 tsp fenugreek seeds

1 tsp jeera cumin seeds

1 tbsp sesame seeds

½ tsp hing/asafetida

1 ½ tbsp grated coconut

To shallow fry and grind:

20 shallots

10 garlic pods

1 tomato

Salt as needed

Other ingredients:

6 no’s tender brinjals(slit like a cross underneth leaving a cm near stem to keep intact, you can remove stem and follow the same on upside)

2 tbsp tightly packed tamarind(soaked in ½ cup warm water for 30mins)

½ cup sesame oil

1 tsp turmeric powder

1 tsp mustard seeds

1 spring curry leaves

Salt as needed

To season:

1 tbsp sesame oil

To make the gravy:

1.Grind together the items given to dry roast and shallow fry, with a little water to a thick coarse paste.

2.Stuff the brinjals with the ground paste. Set aside for 10mins. Save the remaining ground masala for gravy.

3.Heat ¼ cup sesame oil and fry the resting stuffed brinjals till they are cooked soft and golden brown.Set aside.

4.Meanwhile extract tamarind pulp.

3.Heat a heavy bottomed kadai and pour ¼ of remaining sesame oil and add mustard seeds.

Once they splutter add curry leaves.Then in goes tamarind extract with turmeric and salt. Bring it to boil and simmer for 3 mins.

4. Add the remaining ground masala paste and fried brinjal to the simmering tamarind extract.  Add ½ cup water and let  it cook until the oil separates from the gravy. Switch off and season with sesame oil.

Note:

Check if the brinjals have any worms or insects and dispose. For better picture presentation I used stems but you can remove it. Cover kadai with a lid after adding ground paste and brinjal to the gravy since it will splutter once it starts to boil.

Tomato chutney

When I think about tomatoes my memory brings up this festival La Tomatina in Spain. Wow..what a colourful way to celebrate J I'm sure no one regrets being hurt by sweet tomatoes. Would love to be there once…hmm! My family would wolf down countless dosa/idli if it was tomato chutney.

Tomatoes health benefits:

They make your skin and hair look healthy, good for diabetes, improves vision, reduces chronic pain, and assist in losing weight.

Tomato chutney 

Tomato chutney

Cuisine: Indian/South

Category: Side dish

Serves: 3

Preparation time: 20min

Cook time: 10-12min

Ingredients:

2no’s red chili

3-4 garlic pods

1 large onion

2 medium sized tomatoes

2½ tbsp grated coconut(optional)

½ tbsp oil

Salt as needed

To temper:

1 tbsp sesame oil

1 tsp mustard seeds

1 tsp jeera/cumin seeds

1 tsp urad dal

1 tsp channa dal

1 spring curry leaves

To make tomato chutney:

1.Heat oil in a pan and add garlic and red chilies. Saute well till garlic turns slightly brown.

2.Add chopped onions and fry till it changes color(no need to fry till it turns brown).

3.Put in chopped tomatoes and  cook till they are soft and its juice start to thicken.

4.Switch off, sprinkle coconut and toss well.

5.Grind the mixture without water first. Now add a little water and grind to a smooth pourable consistency.

6.Temper when serving. How…? heat sesame oil and add mustard seeds. Once mustard seeds splutter add other ingredients and fry till golden brown.Switch off. Pour over the chutney.

Notes:

Choosing red soft tomatoes to make chutney will give nice red colour and taste.To increase shelf life at least for a day you can avoid coconut and after grinding the chutney again cook it in a wok with a tbsp of oil till the oil separates from the chutney.