Sweet Tips!

Its Diwali time! I am all excited.......because this time I am all set to make sweets and savouries for the first time. I have requested my Mom to guide me through the procedures. (If I am successful in my attempts I shall upload this blog with some of those pictures) Chitthi has sent some very interesting tips for making sweets from  'Dinamani Kadhir'.
I thought I will share it with everyone.

Wow! The thought of all sweets is mouth watering- the best part of Diwali!
Well, I am not only preparing myself for making some sweets, but also preparing myself for pouncing on them -yes, I am regularly hitting the gym and dieting for the past 2 weeks so that I am ready for that HIGH CALORIE RICH FOOD !!!!

The green gram instant dosa

 Every time someone asks me, "what did you have today for dinner?", I used to answer "Dosa..." or "Idli"! I got fed up with this reply. So I started looking for other interesting options. I googled and found out this "Pesarattu" to be such an alternative.

Also, I guess this is a nice and a simple substitute for all those dosa lovers. The best part is, it is an instant dish unlike dosa, where you wait for the fermentation.

Here is how you make it:

1.Take 3 cups of green gram (Paasi paruppu) and 1 cup of raw rice (Pachai arisi) and soak them separately in water for 1-2 hrs.

2.Take this soaked gram and rice along with 5-7 green chillies, a 2 inch piece ginger, salt and required water and grind it into a fine batter in a mixie.

3. Add cumin seeds/ powder to the batter.

4. Spread it on the tawa like dosa with required oil. The batter spreads out nicely.

Tasty, healthy, crisp pesarattu ready!
Serve with chutney of choice.
Simple, is it not?

Note: 
1. 3:1 is the ratio of gram and rice. Since the batter can't be stored for long, you can make lesser amount as required.  I made it in the night and stored the excess batter till next day in refrigerator. The amount of batter from 3 cups of gram and 1 cup of rice could be enough for some 16-20 pesarattu.

2. My mom's friend said that in the original pesarattu procedure, only pepper corns and salt are added to the batter (and not chilly and ginger). One could try that.

3. I preferred it plain, however, you can have interesting toppings like onions or grated coconut to make it more interesting!

My favourite Rasam!

In the past 10 days, I had been into experimenting several recipes.....Earlier, I had never ever been able to make a palatable rasam! However, now it seems like my culinary skills are improving ! I learnt and tried some 4 different types of rasams (Not to mention, this is also Amma's recipe). They came out fairly well. For a toddler in kitchen, like me, they were really good.

This is the rasam, I liked the most, of all that I tried and tasted!
Here is the recipe:
1) To  4-5 glasses of water, add 4-5 cut tomatoes.

Add 1  table spoon full of Vathakuzhambu powder.

Add salt.

Add 1/2 tspTurmeric powder.

Allow this mix to boil well till the raw smell of tomato, turmeric and vathakuzhambu powder vanishes.

Switch the stove off.

Filter this extract and discard the solid waste.

Set this extract aside.

2) Pressure cook Thuvaram paruppu (thoor dal; without salt). Add the Dal water to the above extract (Try not to add the solid dal, since it will make rasam thick; but you can use the dal for something else in the same day, may be u can make sambhar on the same day or simply eat the dal).

Allow this to boil. As you will boil it will froth. 

Keep removing the froth as it boils (discard the froth).

When you have got the required consistency, switch off the stove.

STEPS 3-6 to be done offline, i.e. after switching off stove

3) Squeeze 1 big lemon to the above extract.

4)Cut 7-8 long slender pieces of ginger and add to the above.

5)Cut 1 green chilly in to small round shaped pieces and add to the above. (cut one more green chilly into round pieces and set aside for the step 7)

6) Add curry leaves and cut coriander leaves to the above.

7)Now take a small kadai, keep it on stove, add 1 tsp of ghee to kadai, and add mustard to it. When the mustard crackles completely, add the green chillies in to the ghee. Now add this seasoning to the rasam above.

Tasty lemon Rasam ready !

I love especially to eat the green chilly in the rasam...they are so yummy !

Important note: DON'T add Hing (Asoefitida) to this rasam, it will not be nice. 

Amma's recipe!

I had always been interested in cooking. But I always liked to cook something special...as in, I like to make chocolates, paal payasam, pavakkai stuffed with paneer.....etc. The traditional sambar- rasam cooking never interested me.But of late, I have been realizing the importance of this traditional cooking!

I learnt from Amma to make Pitla ( I see it as a variant of sambar)! I was surprised that my first experiment was almost perfect. Here is the glimpse of the pitla I made.

Here is the recipe. Try if interested.

A)On a kadai, add a table spoon of oil, add 1 table spoon of kadalai paruppu (Bengal Gram/ Channa dal) and 1/2 table spoon of ulutham paruppu (Black gram, Urad dal)and saute till golden brown. Add a handful of Dania seeds and saute till golden brown. Add 7-8 red chillies (or as required) and saute till the red chillies fry a little. Add 1/2 tsp of pepper corns (Milagu) and add 6-7 tablespoons of grated coconut 
(half of a coconut will make it tastier) and saute till golden brown. Let this mixture cool and grind it to paste along with a very little amount of jaggery (just about half a teaspoon) and set aside.

B)Take tamarind (about lemon sized) and prepare extract in water and set aside.

C)Take a small cup of Thuvaram paruppu (Thoor dal) and pressure cook it in a cooker and set aside.

D)Take a kadai, add a table spoon of oil, add the cut Brinjal (1/2 tp 3/4 Kgs), add 1/4 tsp of turmeric powder, and required amount of salt. and saute for few minutes until the brinjal becomes softer. Add the tamarind extract (from B) and leave it on low flame until the raw smell of the tamarind goes off  (This step took a long time, actually!). Then add the paste (from A) to the above and allow it to boil for few minutes. Then add the Dal (from C) and allow the whole mix to boil for few minutes...Pitla is ready! Switch off the flame.

Add cut corainder leaves (kothamalli thazhai) and curry leaves to the above. Add perungayam (Heeng/ Asoefitida) over the pitla.

E)in a separate smaller kadai, add a teaspoon of ghee for mustard seasoning. Pour this over the pitla such that it touches the Asoefitida (perungayam) sprinkled on the pitla.

Hot, tasty, fragrant Pitla ready! Aaha!