S w e e t . K a a r a m . C o f f e e

Chick peas - spread (like Hummus)

2009-01-30T12:13:00.003-06:00

This is like hummus but with different ingredients.

Ingredients
1 cup - Soaked, cooked chickpeas
1 - clove of garlic finely minced and sauted to remove raw flavor
1/4 cup - finely chopped tomato
1/4 cup - finely chopped red onion
2 tbsp - black olives sliced
2 tbps - finely cut green pepper (saute them in few drops of oil)
Few pinches - papprika powder
To Taste - salt
1/2 tsp - Garam Masala powder(optional)
1/4 tsp - Lime juice
1 tsp - grated jest of lime
2 tbsps - fine chopped cilantro

Method
Blend the chickpeas into a fine paste. Add the chopped garlic, tomato, onion, olives, green peppers. Mix them and add salt and jest of lime and mix to incorporate all the ingredients. Add papprika powder and garam masala powder and garnish with cilantro.

This also is great as a spread to use in bread, tortillas, tacos or to use as a dip with chips. Can refrigerate upto 3 days.

To create an easy sandwich, spread a slice with the chickpeas spread, add a layer of lettuce, sliced tomatoes, onions, shredded carrots and a slice of cheese(optional) and you've got a filling breakfast and healthy too!

Avocado Veggi - Bread Spread

2009-01-30T12:03:00.003-06:00

Ingredients
1 - Large Hass Avocado
1 - finely chopped ripe plum tomato
1 - finely chopped small red onion
2 tbsps - finely chopped cilantro
1 /2 or 1 - finely chopped serrano pepper
1/4 cup - boiled peas
2 tbsps - finely chopped ripe mangoes(optional)
to taste - Salt (1/2 tsp approx)
1 tbsp - Lemon juice

Method
Scoop out avocado and mash well. Add all the chopped veggies and add the pepper, cilantro and finally add the boiled peas and mix well. Add the salt and squeeze in the lemon juice. Its done!

It can be refridgerated for upto 2 days. Use as a spread in breads or as a filler in tortillas, tacos.

BREAK the FAST - fast!!

2009-01-30T11:49:00.006-06:00

Am trying to give a list of easy breakfast ideas that can be done in a jiffy for all the on-the-go people.

Breakfast is a real important part of maintaining health. It helps in weight management too! Sure it does keep acidity in check.

So lets's start making easy Brk-fast!!

Bread is the most common breakfast menu next to cereals and oats in recent times. So am starting with some spreads you can use on bread.

Idli & Dosa Batter

2009-01-30T11:32:00.003-06:00

To make Idli batter(maavu)

4 Cups - Par boiled rice/Idli Rice
1 Cup - Whole urad dal
3/4 tsp - Salt

Soak rice & urad dal separately for 6- 8 hours. First grind the urad dal to a very fine paste consistency. It should not be too watery. Set aside in large vessel to be used for blending the batter. Then grind the rice to fine sooji consistency. this also should not be too watery it should be just a dropping batter.

Mix both the batters together with hand. Mix well until both are blended together. Add salt to this and again mix well for around 2 minutes. Set aside in a warm place for 12 hours atleast for the batter to ferment and rise.

Taste and add salt if necessary and prepare idlis.

To make Dosa Batter(Dosai Maavu)

1 1/2 cups - Raw rice
1 1/2 cups - Parboiled rice
1 cup - Urad dal
1 tsp - Fenugreek(methi seeds)
1 tsp - salt

Mix the rice varieties and soak them in a bowl. Soak urad dal & fenugreek seeds in a bowl. Let soak for about 6 hours. Grind ural dal alongwith the soaked fenugreek and then rice to a very fine smooth consistency and a more running batter. Add salt and mix well. Let it set and rise for atleast 8 -10 hours for a crispy blended dosa.

Thiruvadirai - KALI & KARI

2009-01-09T12:07:00.013-06:00

The festival of "Thiruvadirai" more known as "Arudra Dharshanam" is celebrated more in South India. As Lord Shiva is the god without birth, the "Tiruvadira" star of the Markazhi(Tamil month dec 15th to jan 15th)month is taken to be a vratham. It is important as this was the day Lord Shiva is said to have appeared to the saint Pathanjali & Vyaagra paadha.

According to legends once Aadhi sesha desired to see the dance of Lord Shiva and asked Maha Vishnu for a remedy. Lord Vishnu asked him to go to Chidambaram and to tapasya. Similarly the saint Vyaagra paadha also was doing the same to see Lord Shiva.

Pleased with the penance(tapasya) , Lord Shiva is said to have appeared and danced for the devottee.

A sweet dish called KALI and multi vegetable side dish "KARI" or "THALAKAM" are offered and eaten to celebrate this great joy of seeing the dance of the Lord.

KALI

Raw Rice - 1 Cup

Moong Dal - 1/4 Cup

Jaggery - 1 to 1 1/4 cups(depending on the sweetness of the jaggery)

Water - 2 1/2 cups

Cardamom - 2 powdered

Grated Coconut - 1/4 cup

Wash raw rice in hot water for 10 minutes and drain completely. Once all the water is out and the wetness is reduced, take a pan and dry roast the rice until golden brown. Let it cool. Then powder it to the consistency of (white rava/sooji).

Clean jaggery by mixing with a 1/4 cup of water and strain it. This removes all dirt from the jaggery. The total water to be used in the recipe should be inclusive of the water used for straining the jaggery too. In a cooker vessel, add the powdered rice, add the jaggery water and the remaining quantity required for the recipe.

Pressure cook for 3 whistles. let it cool.

Gently dry roast the grated coconut and add it to the cooked rice along with the powdered cardamom. Add 1 tsp of ghee(optional).

KARI (THALAKAM)

There are many recipes for this. The one am giving here is more adaptive to the ones made in Kerala.

Mixed vegetables - Potatoes, Sweet Potatoes, Snow Peas(Closest to Avarakai), Lima Beans, Colocasia, Indian Yam, peas, carrots, squash - around 3 lbs

Salt - to Taste

Turmeric Powder - 1 tsp

Coconut - grated 1 cup

Green chillies(Serrano peppers) - 2-3(adjust according to the required level of hotness required)

Curry leaves - 5-6

Coconut oil - 1-2 Tbsp

Powdered kali powder(the powdered rice used for Kali) - 1 Tbsp

In India usually 7 varieties of root vegetables are used along with 3 varieties of plant grown vegetables to make this Kari.

Cook vegetables with turmeric powder & salt. Once vegetables are over cooked add curry leaves and let boil. Grind coconut & green chillies into a paste and add to the vegetables. Let is foam. Dont let it overboil. Add the powdered kali rice and then coconut oil and close the vessel and let it set. Adding coconut oil in the kari, infuses more flavor into it and it tastes just YUMMY.

Serve warm kali with hot kari(thalakam).

Some cultures also make one more dish called "Pulingari"/"kozhambu". The ingredients are similar mixed vegetables boiled & cooked in tamarind water, grind coconut with red chillies,channa dal, urad dal & little coriander seeds and add to the cooked vegetable mixture. This makes the Pulingari.

Have a nice "Arudhra Darshanam".

Making ghee at home

2009-01-09T11:48:00.006-06:00

Ghee - common term used in India for clarified butter. Ghee is made by boiling butter. It is used in most indian cooking, mainly for sweets and during festivities.

Butter - 4 sticks
Vessel - a heavy bottomed, deep vessel

Put 4 sticks of butter in the vessel and keep on stove with the flame set to low. Use a wooden ladel to keep stirring. Initially the butter will bubble up and slowly once the ghee is getting formed the bubbles will lessen and the liquid will turn golden in color. The smell of ghee eminates and its the right time to switch off the stove & remove. There will be residue of impurities at the bottom, let the ghee cool down to a warm touch and then strain leaving out the residue.

Store in a tight container.

Tip:
By putting a steel spoon/laddle in the vessel, we can prevent the bubbling up of the butter over the vessel.
Add a small piece of jaggery to the ghee so that it stays fresh longer. Otherwise it develops a stale smell (say after 2-3 months).

Why cooking Basics ?

2008-12-31T15:37:00.002-06:00

Sounds strange that someone is writing about the very basics of cooking, amidst the sea of chefs and cooks?

Yeah!! Strange but True. I've been getting queries and questions about such basic stuff on cooking, so I thought might as well make a journal of all basic stuff and give them the link when they ask.

Indian Style - Coffee & Tea

2008-12-31T15:05:00.002-06:00

In India, Filter coffee is the most common style prepared with the coffee extract (commonly termed as decoction) & milk.

Making Filter Coffee
Boil water. Prepare coffee filter by adding 2-3 tbsp of coffee powder into it. Pour boiling water into the top section where you filled coffee powder. Let it filter. The thick decoction collects in the bottom jar of the filter.

Add 1-2 Tbsps of the decoction (as needed for stronger coffee)
1/2 cup hot milk
1-2 tsp sugar (as needed)
Mix well. Serve hot.

Making Tea
Tea is also extracted and mixed with milk as a common method in India. Tea can be as leaves, crushed or dust tea.
If you are using tea leaves use less and while using dust tea use more to prepare the tea extract.

Approximate quantity of tea required to make tea for two.
1 -2 tsp (tea leaves)
2-3 tsp (crushed/granules)
3-4 tsp (dust tea)

Boil little water enough to dissolve the tea powder. Add tea powder while water is boiling. Let it boil for 1-2 minutes. Add milk and let milk to come near boil. Take it of the stove, strain and add sugar as required.

Another way is to boil milk and add the tea powder to it and then strain.

Additions to tea
1. We can add crushed cardamom along with boiling teapowder.
2. Add dried ginger crushed along with boiling teapowder.
3. Add lemon extract to plain tea extract & add sugar.(Best for those who avoid milk)

Cooking Basics - Beginners

2008-12-16T16:30:00.004-06:00

Boiling Milk
Always use a heavy bottomed vessel. Otherwise clean up will be hard work. Fill upto 3/4th of the vessel. Keep flame at low or sim to boil milk on stove top.Stay near the stove to see that milk doesnt not over boil and spill.

To boil milk in microwave
Use microwaveable ceramic or corningware vessels. Same way fill only 3/4th of the vessel. Set High for 4 mins for 34 Oz(1Ltr) and let set for a minute inside the microwave and then remove it.

Making Curd
Boil the milk and let it cool. Do not try to make curd while the milk is hot. Forming curds in USA especially in the colder regions needs 24+ hours. So if you need more of them, prepare ahead.

Option 1
Get some curd from a friend or from store and use the culture to start making curd. Add atleast 2-3 tbsp of curd to the milk (34 oz)
Option 2
Take one lime and squeeze out the juice and add to a 1 cup boiled milk after it becomes warm. This will serve as a starter culture to make good curd. Initially this curd will not taste good, but use it as a starter to make perfect curd. The next cycle will be good.

Curd Making Tip
For colder places add curds to the milk while milk is warm to the touch. For tropical climates add curds after the milk cools down, because the curd will turn sour soon due to the hot temperatures.Allow curd to set for atleast 6-8 hours in tropical temperatures and atleast 12-14 hours in cold temperatures.

Cooking Rice
Long grain rice(Riceland/Blue Ribbon/similar brands of raw rice)
For every cup of rice - add 2 cups of water to pressure cook.

Basmati Rice
For every cup of rice - add 1.5 cups of water to pressure cook so that you get a fluffy non sticky output.

Sona Masoori
For every cup of rice - add 2.5 cups of water to pressure cook.

Important Tips
1. Never add sugar to milk in the stove while boiling. The milk will go bad. Always add sugar to milk after it has been taken off the stove.
2. Never add salt to uncooked rice. The rice will not cook properly.
3. Never add jaggery/brownsugar to uncooked rice. Even if you keep for 10-15 whistles the rice will not cook.
4. While cooking lentils(dals) like channa, black channa, rajma etc. Pressure cook them with a pinch of turmeric but do not add salt.
5. Do not open the pressure cooker while the steam is still brewing in it. Always remove the whistle and then let it cool to open.
6. Turmeric has medicinal properties. Always limit the use of turmeric to a pinch or 1/4 of a tsp. Overuse is not a good thing as it changes the flavor of the recipe.
7. When you are new to cooking, reduce the salt you add, required according to the recipe. Finish the recipe, taste it and then fine tune it.
8. Spice and salt can be added later but it is difficult to reduce salt & spice in a dish with too much of it.
9. Try all new recipes in small quantities and multiply the quantities to make bigger batches if it works out correctly.
10. It is best suggested to keep all the ingredients ready, measured, cut and in order to make cooking easier.

Note: All Oz used in the posts are US fl.oz. 1 Cup = 8 fl.Oz

Sweet Corn Soup

2008-12-16T14:47:00.000-06:00

Ingredients
1 Cup/Can - Fresh corn taken of the cob/Canned sweet corn
1 cup - water
1 tbsp - unsalted butter
1/4 cup - very finely sliced red onions
Few - mint, cilantro & rosemary leaves very finely chopped
1 tbsp - Fresh cream (optional)
Salt to taste
Black pepper, croutons as per taste

Method
Wash and finely grind the corn before you cook it. Take a heavy bottomed vessel and let corn cook with water. Add salt to taste. Let it cook well on medium flame. Saute' onions in a little butter until translucent. Remove from fire when the aroma comes and add it to the cooking mixture. Let the onion cook & blend well into this. Add butter to thicken the soup. Adding butter gives soups a rich creamy texture even if we dont add fresh cream. Finally when the contents start to thicken, remove from stove top. Add fresh cream to it and blend it in.

Pour into soup bowls. Garnish with chopped fresh leaves and croutons.

French Bread - Bite size pizza

2008-12-16T14:09:00.000-06:00

We bought french bread and lo ! I was wondering what to make out of it other than the usual french toast. So came up with a quick idea to use up the bread. Here is the recipe.

Ingredients

1 Loaf - French Bread

Fine sliced to 1 inch pieces
1/2 cup - Green Bell Peppers/Capsicum
1/2 cup - Sweet Red Onions
1/2 cup - Firm ripe tomatoes
1/2 cup - Pineapple slices

1/2 bottle - Tomato - Basil Spagetti sauce (Or the 7 herb variety)
1 tsp - Herb mix (Oregano/Thyme/Rosemary) if you have one or from the spice rack grab these & have them ready.
1 cup - Grated Parmesan/Mozarella cheese

Method
Preheat oven to 225 F.

Cut bread into 1/2 inch slices diagonally to get a sizable portion.(For those who havent experienced french bread - It is a long breadstick kind of firm bread. It dries up very quickly if not used fresh).

Spoon 1-2 tsp of spagetti sauce on each slice and then top with green peppers, onions, tomatoes and pineapples as we top a pizza and sprinkly the herbs if your spagetti sauce is a plain one. Otherwise the sauce will do. There is no need to add herbs.

Sprinkle cheese on top and bake in oven for 10 mins or until the cheese melts. Serve hot as Appetizer or Entree. Goes best with salad and soup.

Alternative toppings
1. Shallow cook peas and corn. Add a little salt and pepper to taste. Use this as exclusive topping or as an addition to the usual veggies.
2. Soak chikpeas, black beans and pressure cook with a pinch of turmeric. Add salt later and boil until salt gets in them. Drain them and use as topping instead of veggies.

Try them and let me know how it was!

Back again!!

2008-12-16T13:21:00.000-06:00

Sounds like absconding!! True..but now am back and writing again. A winter freeze kind of break I should say. Lazy to sit and write. No..am working on something seriously, that I couldnt get back to blogging!!

Meanwhile, lots of recipes have been cooked, tried and invented!! yeah!! In the following posts am adding some of the recent ones I made.

Try em.

Bountiful harvest

2008-10-29T15:36:00.001-05:00

Summer was fun this time. We started a little backyard garden. So like every first time gardeners we were very nervous about the things we need to do, nuturing the plants, the outcome etc.

We planted two tomato plants, one sweet pepper from the nursery at Home depot. Then I planted some mint sticks from the box of mint we bought. It caught on and now I have a big mint plant. Had a few squash seeds thrown in from the one we bought for our use. All that grew into a big creeper.

We made a bed for spinach and my kiddo could get fresh baby spinach. While buying vegetables, I found that one of the colacasia had a sprout. So i planted it and one pearl onion sprout too. Both have yielded a handful. Not bad for a first time effort eh!!

Hubby loves gardening so he used to sincerely water them and we used to weed the area and we felt great seeing and enjoying the harvest.

Here are a few shots from our harvest.

Deepavali Bakshanam

2008-10-28T09:47:00.001-05:00

So, there went the occasion. Was quite busy yesterday couldnt sit down to post these recipes. For this deepavali here is what I made.

Kesar Peda

Ingredients
3 lbs - khoya/mava (unsweetened)
2 cans - condensed milk or 2 cups - sugar
1/4 tsp - cardamom (elaichi) powder
2 tbsp - milk
Few - saffron strands
Yellow food colour - 1 or 2 pinches (Optional)

To garnish
2 to 3 tbsp - slivered pistachios

Method

Heat 2 tbsp of milk and dissolve saffron strands in it. Keep aside. Grate the khoya and add condensed milk to it and cook on low heat. Add the saffron & milk to the mixture along with the food color if you choose to use it and continue to cook until it forms like a dough and leaves the sides of the pan. The dough should be soft to touch & pliable. Allow to cool completely. The dough should not stick to the hands when u try to roll it into a ball. This means the consistency is correct.

Roll into 1 inch ball and press slightly in center to form a small pit. Garnish with slivered pistachios in the center.

Makes: Around 50 pedas
Shelf life: 1 week (2-3 weeks if refridgerated)

To make Khoya/Mava/Khowa
5 Litres - whole fat milk
Boil milk in a heavy bottom vessel and slowly reduce to low heat and allow to boil. Keep stirring every few minutes so that the bottom wont burn. Continue this until the milk becomes like a lump and all moisture is evaporated. Cool the khoya before making anything. Refridgerate or freeze. This would yield somewhere around 2 lbs of khoya.

Ribbon Pakoda/Nada murukku

Ingredients
4 cups - Rice flour
1 cup - Besan flour
1 tbsp - Butter
1 tsp - Asafoteda powder
1 tsp - red chilli powder
Salt to taste
Water to mix
Oil for deep frying

Method
In a heavy bottom kadai heat oil.

Mix rice flour, besan flour, salt, asafoteda powder, red chilli powder and mix well. Then add butter and blend it into the dry mixture. Once the butter is in add water little by little and make the dough. Add enough water to bind the flour.
Use the savory press(usually called Naazhi in India) with the nada plate. Put dough in the savory press and squeeze into the hot oil. Take them out when its golden brown.

Makes: Around 8 qt pan full
Shelf life: 2 weeks

Tip : The dough should be of chappathi flour consitency. If it becomes runny, add more rice flour to correct it.

Fru-Nut Laddoo

2008-10-24T15:57:00.000-05:00

Ingredients
(1 cup - 16 tablespoons - 250 ml)
Finely chopped Dates - 1 cup
Finely chopped dried golden raisins (known as Kismis in India) - ½ cup
Cashews (non roasted, unsalted) - 1 cup
Almond(non roasted, unsalted) - 1 cup
Fried groundnut (skin peeled) -1 cup
Grated coconut-1 cup
Sugar powder(can also use confectioners sugar) – 2 ½ - 3 cups (sugar quantity is variable depending on the granule size of sugar. Bigger granules use 2 1/2 cups ; confectioners sugar use 3 cups)
Ghee -2 cups
Cardamom powder-1 tsp

Process
Heat the kadai and add cashews, almond and fried groundnuts (peanuts). Dry fry these without oil until raw smell disappears. Cool completely. Add all the dry fruits, dates, raisins, grated coconut and powder them. Add powdered sugar/confectioners sugar as the case may be. Add cardamom powder and melted ghee and make lemon size balls.

Will make around 20 1 inch laddoos.
Shelf life - 1 week [if you still have some left for a week!!! ;) ]

இனிய ஆரம்பம்

2008-10-21T15:39:00.000-05:00

Blog ஆரம்பிசாச்சு. அம்மா கை வண்ணத்தில் இருந்து ஒரு இனிப்பு இதோ.
(இந்த தமிழ் ட்ய்பிங் கொஞ்சம் வித்யாசமா தான் இருக்கு :) )
அதனால் இந்த போஸ்ட் ரொம்ப short one. Only Intro no recipe. Recipe follows in the immediate next post !!!

ஒரு வழியா இன்றோ டைப் பண்ணியாச்சு :)