Ompodi/Plain Sev

Ingredients:

Gram flour/Kadalai mavu - 1 cup

Rice flour - 1/2 cup

Butter (at room temperature) - 1 tbspn

Ajwain/Omam - 1/8 cup

Salt - according to taste

Oil - for deep frying

Method:

Dry roast omam, just till warm and powder it in the mixer. Then add 1/4 cup water and grind again. Filter this and keep aside.

Sieve gram flour and rice flour together and add salt, butter and the omam extract and mix well. Then add water as needed (careful, needs very less) and mix well to form a sticky dough.

Press through the ompodi/idiyappam press in heated oil (oil should be heated just right ,i.e; if you add a pinch of dough it should raise up immediately, dont heat till oil fuming)

Form a circle in the oil and make sure you don’t overlap. Turn carefully immediately and cook till the bubbles ceases(takes very less time, less than a minute). Drain in paper towel and repeat the process for rest of the dough. Keep in an air tight container after cooling down.

Recipe Courtesy: Rak's Kitchen

Sending this recipe to "Tried and Tasted - Rak's Kitchen" event hosted by Sowmya of Nivedhanam and Lakshmi of Kitchen Chronicles.

Rasmalai

Ingredients:

Rasgullas (Pls refer to my earlier post) - 1o Nos
Milk - 2 & 1/2 cups and 2 tbspns

Evaporated milk - 1/4 cup

Sugar - 1/4 cup (add more if you want)

Saffron - A pinch

Pistachios - 5-6 nos

Elachi powder - 2 pinches

Ghee - 1 tsp

Method:
Warm 2 tablespoons of milk and crush the saffron to it and keep it soaked till needed (adding too much of saffron will spoil the taste, make sure you add just a few strands).
Take an heavy bottomed/non-stick  vessel, grease the bottom of the pan with few drops of ghee to prevent burning  of milk at the bottom. Boil milk for 20-30 minutes in very low flame. Keep stirring now and then. 

When the volume reduces almost half, add the saffron soaked in the milk, evaporated milk and boil for 2 more minutes. Chop the nuts and fry it in ghee till golden brown and add it to the milk. Then add the sugar and simmer for few minutes. Squeeze the sugar syrup from the rasgullas, take care you don't squeeze the rasgullas hardly(this will make the rasgulla break), just squeeze it gently.  Add it to the milk when it is still hot. Let it get soaked. Cool them completely and refrigerate. Serve cold. 

Recipe Courtesy: Rak's Kitchen

Sending this recipe to Let's Celebrate Indian Sweets hosted by Nupur

Sending this recipe to Shama's Easy to Cook Recipes and Jagruti's Know Your Dairy - Milk Event

Sending this recipe to "Tried and Tasted - Rak's Kitchen" event hosted by Sowmya of Nivedhanam and Lakshmi of Kitchen Chronicles.

Broccoli Kurma

Ingredients:

Broccoli florets* - 1 cup

Onions - 1 medium, chopped

Capsicum - 1 medium, chopped

Carrot - 1, chopped

Potatoes - 2 medium, chopped

Turmeric - 1/4 tsp

Salt - according to taste

Coriander Leaves - 1 tbspn, chopped

Oil - 2 tbspns

To grind to a paste;

Cashews (broken) - 20

Coconut - 3/4 cup

Cloves - 4

Cinnamon - 1 inch stick

Elaichi -1 

Green Chilies - 1 or 2

*You can replace Paneer pieces for Paneer Kurma.

Method:

Heat 1 tbspn oil in a kadai and fry the broccoli for few minutes. Keep aside.

Now heat 1 tbspn of oil in the same kadai and fry the onions till translucent. Add capsicum, potatoes, carrot and fry the veggies for 10 minutes. Grind the above ingredients to a thick paste. Add the paste, turmeric and salt to the veggies and add enough water to get a gravy consistency. Close the lid and let it cook till the veggies are fully cooked and oil starts to float on top (about 30 minutes).

Now add the fried broccoli to this gravy. Garnish with coriander leaves.

Goes well with roti and poori.

Ulundu Vadai/Medhu Vadai

Ingredients:

Urad dal/Ulutham paruppu - 1 cup

Green chilies - 2 Nos.

Ginger - 1 inch piece

Coriander leaves - 2 tbspns, chopped

Curry leaves - a sprig

Asafoetida - a pinch

Salt - according to taste

Water - 1/4 cup(approx) 

Method:

Soak urad dal for atleast 1 hour. Grind urad dal in the grinder or mixi sprinkling water (as little as you can) till fluffy. 

Note:

* Add urad dal little by little(no water),while the grinder is running. 

* Just sprinkle water now and then to avoid jamming of the grinder. 

* Stand near the grinder till you finish grinding and  sprinkle water now and then and wipe the urad dal that sticks to the wall of the grinder container. 

* This whole process takes around 12-15 minutes, you will get a fluffy white batter.

Now chop ginger, green chilies, coriander and curry leaves and add all these to the batter along with salt and asafoetida. (You can also add ginger and green chilies while you are grinding the batter itself, if you hate chunks)

Now mix well, keep aside and heat enough oil in kadai (be generous or else vadas may stick to the bottom and get burnt).

Now wet your right hand well and make a small ball and use your thumb to make hole in the middle and drop it in oil, (just invert the vadas over the oil and slightly shake your fingers). Fry in medium flame, turn the vadas and fry till both the sides turn crisp and golden brown. Serve hot with sambhar/coconut chutney.

Recipe Courtesy: Rak's Kitchen

Moong Dal Payasam/Pasi Paruppu Payasam

Ingredients:

Pasi paruppu/moong dal - 1/2 cup, heaped

Jaggery (powdered) - 1/4 cup (add more if you are a sweet lover)

Milk - 1/2 cup

Water - 3/4 cup, approximately

Ghee - 1 tsp

Elachi - 1, powdered

Cashews - 4-6, broken into pieces

Method:

Fry moong dal with little ghee until you get the roasted fragrance (take care not to brown it too much). Add enough water and milk and pressure cook up to 3 whistles (for more richness cook fully in milk instead of adding water). After done, mix well in a mashing way and add powdered jaggery and elaichi to this. Now boil the payasam in low flame for 2 minutes and add milk/water as per the need to adjust the consistency.

Fry cashews in ghee and add it to the payasam and enjoy hot!

Recipe Courtesy: Rak's Kitchen

Poli (Jaggery Stuffing)

For the stuffing;

Ingredients:

Channa dal - 1/2 cup

Jaggery - 3/4 cup (increase to 1 cup if you are a sweet lover)

Coconut - 1/2 cup

Elachi - 2, powdered

Method:

Pressure cook channa dal to 3 whistle, cool down and grind in blender or mash it with masher just to make it a paste. Keep aside.

Take jaggery in a heavy bottomed vessel. Then pour water just enough to immerse jaggery. Heat it and when jaggery dissolves completely, filter it in a metal strainer to remove impurities if any. Again start heating the jaggery syrup. When it starts boiling, at one stage, the syrup will get frothy. At this stage add the ground dal paste and coconut. Stir continuously without forming any lumps. Add elachi powder and mix thoroughly.

Note: Add very little water to the jaggery. The lesser we add water to jaggery, sooner the stuffing will get ready. Keep stirring well till the mixture starts leaving the sides of the vessel.

For the cover;

Ingredients:

(Makes 5-6 medium poli)

Maida / All purpose flour - 1 cup

Pooranam(Stuffing) - as needed

Oil/Ghee - 4-5 tbspns

Luke warm milk - as needed

Salt - as needed

Turmeric - a pinch

Method:

Mix oil and salt in the flour and mix thoroughly. Add luke warm milk and make into a smooth dough just like our chapati dough and keep covered for 1 hr to 3 hrs.

Make equal sized ball of dough and the stuffing too. Roll the dough ball to a thick circle and place the pooran ball in the middle and cover it as shown in the picture.

Dust with flour and roll carefully till the dough spreads and covers the pooran as a thin layer.

Heat tawa and grease with ghee/oil and cook on both sides till golden brown spots appear on both sides of the poli.

Top with ghee/butter enjoy hot.

Recipe Courtesy: Rak's Kitchen

Almond Cookies

Ingredients:

All purpose flour - 1 cup

Baking powder - 1/2 tsp

Toasted ground almonds - 1 cup

Softened butter - 1/2 cup

Powdered sugar - 3/4 cup

Egg white - 1

Almond extract or vanilla extract - 1 tbspn

Method:

In a bowl take powdered sugar and butter. Whisk the sugar and butter thoroughly till both the ingredients are well combined.

Add the egg white to the mixture. Mix well.

Now add the almond extract or vanilla extract and the ground almonds to the cookie mix.

Lastly add the all purpose flour and baking powder. Combine all the ingredients to form a dough. Wrap the dough in cling film and refrigerate for 10 minutes.

Shape the refrigerated dough into balls and place on a baking tray. Make sure there is an inch or two of gap between each cookie as they will expand on baking.

Bake at 180C or 356F for 15 minutes or till they turn light brown.

Let the cookies cool down completely before you eat.

Recipe Courtesy: Quick Asian Recipes

Pineapple Rasam

Ingredients:

Tuvar Dal - 1/3 cup 

Tamarind - a small marble size, extract about 1 3/4 cup of tamarind juice from the tamarind

Salt - according to taste

Rasam Powder - 1 1/2 to 2 tsp

Turmeric Powder - 1/4 tsp

Pineapple - 1 1/2 cups, crushed with juice 

Ghee - 1 1/2 tsp 

Mustard seeds - 1 tsp

Cumin seeds - 1 tsp

Cilantro Leaves - 1 tbpsn, for garnishing

Method:

Pressure cook the tuvar dal with just enough water to cook (about 1/4 cup water approximately) or alternatively cook the tuvar dal on a stove top until very soft and mushy. Keep aside.

Place the tamarind water in a heavy bottomed pan and add salt, rasam powder, turmeric and let it boil. When it starts to boil, lower heat and add crushed pineapple with juice to this and let it simmer for about 15 to 20 minutes until the tamarind loses its rawness and the pineapple absorbs the spices a little.

Now add the mushed soft lentil to this, add some more water according to your preference and consistency required and simmer for another minute or so.

Heat the ghee in a pan, add mustard seeds and cumin seeds to it. When they start to splutter pour them into the rasam.

Garnish with cilantro and serve hot on top of plain rice or as a soup.

Sending this post to Anu's South Indian Cooking hosted by Sangeetha