Wheat upma with tomato curry and cabbage thoran / vrat recipe / ekadesi recipe

Tomorrow is Guruvayur Ekadasi. During Ekadesi, mainly fruits and milk are only consumed.
But wheat based-no onion-no garlic diet is also accepted. So instead of making chappaty, you can always cook broken wheat and make a tomato based curry. I also serve cabbage thoran with this. This saves time, tastes good and is very healthy.

The following recipe is what serves me and my family. As I am the only person sitting vrat, I also cook 1 big cup of white rice for my husband and 2 kids.

For 1 person:
Broken wheat - 1 small cup
Water - 3 cups
Oil (preferably coconut) - 1 tbsp
Mustard - 1 tsp
Red chilli - 2, broken
Coconut - 1/2 cup
Salt
Curry leaf - 6 leaves

Method:
Splutter the mustard and fry the red chilli and curry leaves in the coconut oil.
Add the water and when it starts boiling add the salt, wheat and coconut.
Stir well.
Cook covered on a low flame till all the water gets absorbed.
Stir after turning off flame at least 2 times in 5 minutes.

Tomato curry for 4:
Tomato - 8 medium , each diced into 8
oil - 1 tbsp
Mustard - 1tsp
Red chilli - 1 , broken
Green chilli -1 , slit
Curry leaf - 1 sprig
Salt
Turmeric powder - 1 tsp
Pepper - 1 tsp
Sambar powder - 1 tsp or Chilli powder - 1 tsp
(opt) Coriander leaf - 1tbsp

Method:
Heat oil. Splutter mustard. Fry the red chilli. Add the curry leaf and green chilli.
Tip in all the tomato and reduce flame.
Now add all the powders.
Mix well and cook covered for 10 minutes.
Once the tomato starts getting soft, add 1 cup water and boil.
Garnish with coriander leaf.

Cabbage thoran for 4:
Cabbage chopped / grated - 2 cups
Oil - 1 tbsp
Mustard - 1 tsp
Urad dal - 1 tsp
(opt) Curry leaf - 5 leaves, torn
Salt
Turmeric powder - 1/2tsp
Coconut - 1/2 cup
Green chilli - 1

Method:
Grind together the coconut and green chilli without water and keep aside.
Heat oil and splutter the mustard.
Fry the dal until it turns red and add the curry leaf, if using.
Add the cabbage, salt and turmeric powder.
Mix well, reduce flame and cook covered for 5 minutes. No need to add any water.
Open vessel and turn the cabbage again. cook till all water gets evaporated.
Add the ground coconut and mix well with the cabbage.
Turn off flame and keep covered for a further 5 minutes.

Uppittu / Sweet chappathy / Kadalaparippu Boli

Diwali is here and what a great time to make sweets. How about a sweet paratha? This traditional recipe was given to me by my aunt Mrs. Swarnam Ramaswamy. "Uppittu" and 'boli are almost the same but the former is much easier to make than 'boli'. (At least for me as I do not like to roll dough using a rolling pin as it's hard for me to get a round shape!)

Recipe for making 10 uppittu.

Ingredients:
Kadala parippu / Channa dal- 1/2 cup
Jaggery - 1 1/2 cup
Coconut - 1/2 cup
Cardamom / elaichi - 2 pods
Maida - 1 cup
Til oil / nallenai - 3 to 4 tbsp
Ghee - 1/2 cup
salt - 1 pinch
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp

Banana leaf / butter paper - small square - 1

Method:
Soak the dal in water for 10 minutes and pressure cook with 1 cup water until very soft (2 whistles + low flame 1 whistle).

Knead the maida, salt and turmeric powder with a little water into a slightly loose dough (dough which can be spread with a roller; like a chappathy dough).

Now add the til oil 1 spoon at a time and continue kneading. You might have to use more or less 3 tbsp of til oil. The oil should start seeping out of the dough. (Meaning: The dough cannot hold more oil and acts like a non-stick!) Make a ball and keep covered.

Heat the jaggery with 1 cup of water in a heavy bottomed vessel. Once it melts, sieve to remove all impurities.
Clean vessel and start reheating jaggery liquid in the same vessel.

Grind the coconut and cardamom together without any water.
Add this to the jaggery.

Remove all the excess water from the dal and grind / mash into a fine paste.
Add this also to the jaggery.

Continue cooking till the whole mixture forms a ball. Now add 1 tbsp of ghee and mix well. Turn off flame. Do not change the vessel.

Take the banana leaf and heat it over an open flame till it changes colour (about 2 secs at a particular spot). Color turns into dark green.

If banana leaf is not available use a butter paper or the underside of a flat steel plate.
Grease the banana leaf / butter paper / steel plate with 1 tsp ghee.
Now take a small ball of the dough and equal size ball of the jaggery mixture.

Use your finger tips to stretch the maida dough and place the jaggery mixture in the middle.

Cover this with the dough and make a ball.

Use your greased hand to spread ball and make a thin patty.

Heat a girdle and spread some ghee on it.
Invert the leaf with the patty over the girdle and slowly remove the leaf.

Flip after 20 seconds.

Reduce the flame. Cook till golden spots appear.
Cook both sides well.

Repeat the process with rest of the dough/ jaggery mixture.

Sweet corn paneer curry

My aunt is the one person who we nieces wish to emulate. Her housekeeping skills, her cooking are both unbeatable. This curry is her recipe.
FYI - I wanted more curry and was short of sweet corn. That is why I added the paneer into the curry. The curry tastes amazing with just the sweet corn.

Sweet corn - 1 cup
(opt) Paneer - 10 or 12 cubes
Onion -2 medium, chopped fine
Tomato - 3 medium , pureed
Green chilli - 2, chopped fine
Garlic - 3 pods, chopped fine
Curry leaf - 5
salt
Chilli powder - 1 tsp
Turmeric powder - 1 tsp
Coriander leaf - 1 tbsp
(opt) Cornflour - 1 tsp
Jeera - 1 tsp
Mustard - 1 tsp
Oil - 2 tbsp

I used frozen corn and paneer, which I first defrosted (by putting in water for half hour).

Heat oil and splutter the jeera and mustard.
Add the onion, garlic and green chilli and saute on a low flame till translucent.
Add the tomato puree, salt, turmeric powder and chilli powder.
Boil and simmer for 5 minutes on a low flame, mixing often.
Now add the sweet corn , paneer and cook covered for a further 5 minutes.
If you are serving curry immediately, then mix the cornflour in 1/2 cup water and add to the curry and boil for 2 minutes.
Otherwise do this just before serving.
The curry tastes good without the cornflour too.
Serve hot garnished with coriander leaf.

Thayir Vada / South Indian Curd vada

The South Indian version of curd vada or Thayir vada is very different from the Dahi bhalla served in North India.
Here a curry made with coconut and curd is used to immerse the vada which are shaped like dough nuts.
These vadas are more heavy than the north Indian version.
The North Indian version first immerses the balls of vada in hot water and then transfers it to the curd. Sweet chutney and spicy coriander-mint chutney is used as topping.

Ingredients:
Uzhundu Vada - 12
Coconut - 1 cup
Curd - 1 cup
Salt
Green Chilli - 3
Ginger - 1 inch
Oil - 1 tbsp
Mustard - 1 tsp

Garnish:
Carrot  grated
Sev / boondhi
Coriander leaf
Curry leaf
Thick curd - 1/2 cup , broken and made a bit loose

Note: Always use a flat plate to store your immersed vada till serving time, as they loose shape easily.

Method:
Grind the salt, green chilies and ginger into a fine paste with the coconut and mix with the curd and add 1 cup of water.
Heat 1 tbsp oil and splutter the mustard in it.
Now add the spiced curd to this and once it starts bubbling, turn off flame.
Taste. It must be a bit spicy and salty. This is our buttermilk.

If your vadas are cold, spread on flat plate and pour the hot butter milk on top.
Otherwise cool the butter milk and add the freshly fried vadas to the spiced butter milk.
Store in fridge in the flat plate without the vadas overlapping each other till serving time.
Keep covered (aluminium foil) to prevent drying.
After about 1 hour turn over the vadas, so that the butter milk soaked inside can permeate down.

Just before serving, remove the vada from the plate into induvidual serving bowls. It would have absorbed all the butter milk. So serve with more curd and other garnishes on top.

modakam or sweet kozhakkatai

Lord Ganesha's favorite is Modakam otherwise called Kozhakattai. This is a steamed rice wonton with a sweet coconut filling!

Ingredients:

Rice / pachari - 1 cup

Coconut oil - 1 tbsp

Salt - 1 pinch

Coconut - 1 1/2 cup

Jaggery (broken ) - 1 cup

Cardamom (powdered) - 1 tsp

Method:

Soak the rice in water for minimum 1 hour (or overnight for pooja) and grind into a smooth batter. 

Mix in the salt and coconut oil. The batter must be very runny. So add more water if necessary.

Pour this liquid into a thick bottomed vessel and start heating.

Keep stirring until the rice forms a thick ball and the whole mass sticks to the spatula. 

Transfer to a oiled plate and keep aside to cool.

Clean the same vessel and add the jaggery with 1 cup water.

Boil and dissolve the jaggery. Strain the syrup.

Put the syrup for boiling with the coconut and cardamom powder.

Once all the water gets evaporated, turn off flame and do not change this vessel. Let it cook further in the latent heat.

Wet your palms and take a small ball of the cooked rice batter.

Spread thinly on the hand.

Make a small ball of the coconut and place inside the thin rice round.

Bring the sides together and form a ball. Make a small triangle on top.

Continue to do this till either the rice mixture or coconut mixture gets over.

Now steam covered for 10 minutes. 

Cool and serve.

P.S- An old wives tale - If you are expecting and you make this modakam ; depending on whether the rice part or the sweet part getting over, the gender of the baby was predicted! 

If the coconut mixture is left and the rice part gets over, you will get a girl and if the rice mixture is left and sweet coconut mix gets over, you will get a boy. 

Uzhundu Vada

I used to be so afraid to make this oh-so-easy snack. My fear was will I be able to make the shape. They are handmade and not cut and shaped. Practise makes perfect. I have uploaded a video of how I made the 'hole' in the vada. Please do check it out.

Urad Dal / Uzhundu / Black gram dal  - 2 cups, washed and soaked for 1 hour
Green chilli - 2
Salt
Ginger - 2" thick slice
Curry leaf - 10
(opt) Peppercorn - 1 tsp
Oil for deep frying

Pound the green chilli, salt, ginger , peppercorns and curry leaf together and keep aside.
Grind the dal into a thick batter with very less water.
Now mix the pounded ingredients with the dal and mix well.

Keep the oil for frying in a deep vessel.
Wet your hands and take a small ball of the batter and spread on to the palm of the other hand.
Make a doughnut shape and put straight into the hot oil.

Fry on medium flame until golden brown on both sides.

Serve with sambar and/or coconut chutney.

Video link : http://youtu.be/vHzcto9C2cE

Choux Pastry

The Daring bakers had "Filled Pate A Choux Swans" as their challenge during the month of August 2012. So I had to make it. Boy, was I worried if the house will smell of egg. But it did not stink a bit!
And this pastry is so versatile that it can be used to make profiteroles, eclairs , the Andriano Zumbo "Croquembouche" which every Masterchef contestant seems to dread and even deep fried to make Churros.
You will find umpteen recipes of Choux Pastry on the web, but this is my recipe when I made a batch for a charity bake sale at my children's school.
Goes to show that YOU can do it too. It is NOT HARD! What an easy dessert when guests suddenly come.

Butter - 1/2 cup
Water - 1 cup
Salt - 1/4 tsp
Maida / Refined flour - 1 cup
Egg - 4 + 1 for brushing on top
Almond slivers - optional - 4 tbsp

Add the butter , salt and water into vessel and heat until the butter melts.
Remove vessel from heat.
Now add the flour at one go and mix well so that it forms a ball.
Keep aside for a little while to cool as when you add the eggs, they do not get cooked.
Add eggs one at a time and beat till batter becomes glossy and smooth, but thick.
Now transfer into a piping bag and pipe into shapes onto a greased baking sheet.
If you have no piping bag, do not fret. Just dollop spoonfulls on to the baking sheet.

I made little doughnuts shapes once and the next time I shaped them into long thick sticks for eclairs.
Glaze the top with a beaten egg and decorate with almond slivers.

Bake in a preheated oven at 190C for 20 minutes and if not yet golden brown, another 10 minutes. Keep a close eye.

Just before serving, slice open using a serrated knife and fill with whipped cream and top with chocolate sauce. I once tried Vanilla ice-cream instead of the whipped cream. Heaven!

Baingan Bhartha

A tasty Brinjal /Aubergine curry from Punjab.

At the market place, I met a Punjabi woman, who turned out to be a very friendly person and someone who loves to cook. Baingan Bhartha is a staple in Punjab and I got of this 'authentic' recipe from her. It tasted amazing, but given the amount of oil / ghee used, the number of times I will make it is a big question mark!

This pictures were taken when I made it the second time and you will notice that I have reduced the amount of fat I have used. My health freak husband would not have it otherwise!
The first time I made it, oil was oozing from the curry.

Recipe Courtesy: Mrs.Rani Sethi.

Bhartha Baingan /Aubergine / Large brinjal / eggplant- 1 kg
Green peas - 1 cup
Onion - 4 large, chopped fine
Tomato - 8 large, chopped fine
Salt
Chilli powder - 1 1/2 tbsp
Refined oil - 5 tbsp
Ghee / Clarified butter- 5 tbsp heaped
Jeera - 1 tsp
Ginger - 1 tbsp, minced
Garlic - 1 tsp, chopped fine
Green chilli - 1 tbsp
Turmeric powder - 1 tsp

Using tongs, hold the brinjal over a direct flame and char the skin. When all the sides turn black, immerse into cold water. Peel the skin and keep aside. You can either chop the brinjal or use it as a whole in the recipe. I prefer to chop it, as it reduces the cooking time.

Use a heavy bottomed vessel for making this curry.

Heat the oil and the ghee together.
Add the jeera and when it pops add the onion, ginger , garlic and green chillies.

Saute on a low flame for 6-7 minutes until onions soften and raw smell goes.
Now add the salt, turmeric and chilli powder.

Increase flame and fry for a minute till raw smell goes.
Now add the tomatoes and saute for a minute.

Reduce flame and continue cooking till it becomes mushy.
Add the green peas and stir well.

Now add the peeled aubergine as a whole / chopped and cook covered on a very low flame and it becomes mashable.

Open vessel and stir occasionally so that the gravy does not stick to the vessel.
Once cooked, mash the whole curry using a spatula / potato masher.
Just before serving, add a spoon more of ghee, if you want.

The photographs I have put here was when I halved the recipe and made it at home last time. My Aubergine / Baingan was small, around 1/2 a kilo.
My ingredients looked like this: