Kadapa / Mildly spiced dal and potato curry for dosa and idly

Since we all know Kattappa now (thanks to Bahubali movie!) how about we try a curry called Kadapa.
It is a great curry to enjoy with Dosa. I did not enjoy it much with Idly, but it is supposed to be the perfect combination.
This recipe is from Kumbakonam, the central heartland of Tamil Nadu.
It is very easy to make and is a great way to start your day. And I love the yellow color of this dish.

Note: The dish is very mild and non-spicy. Feel free to increase the number of green chilly in the recipe to suit your family's taste.

Ingredients:
Tur dal / Moong Dal - 1/2 cup
Potato - 2 medium
Onion - 1/2 medium
Green Chilly - 1 (or more), chopped fine
Oil - 2 tbsp
Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
Red Chilly - 1, broken
Curry leaf - 1 sprig
Salt
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Lemon juice - 2 tbsp (approximately)
Coriander leaf to garnish

To be ground into a fine paste:
Coconut - 5 tbsp
Khus Khus / poppy seeds - 1 tsp
Ginger - 1 inch
Garlic - 2 cloves
Fennel seeds / Perum jeerakam - 1/2 tsp

Method:
Pressure cook the dal and potato separately.
Mash the dal well and mash some of the potato and leave some as big pieces.
Heat the oil in a kadai.
Splutter the mustard seeds and red chilly.
Add the chopped onion, green chilly and curry leaf.
When the onion gets transparent, add in 1 cup water with salt and turmeric powder.
When the water boils, add the mashed dal and potato.
After boiling for 1 minute, reduce flame and add the ground paste.
Mix well and continue cooking on low flame for 5 more minutes.
Turn off heat, taste and add the lemon juice.
Garnish with Coriander leaf and serve hot with dosa / idly.

Tozzetti - Italian Biscuits

While watching TLC channel, a very pretty lady of Italian origin was doing a show and she was dunking some cookies into her Cappuccino. She said that Biscotti was not the only Italian biscuit. She talked about Tozzetti and when ahead making it. It had only 1 tablespoon of butter, but 2 egg yolks and 3 whole eggs. Oh, my! Too eggy.

Recipe search on Internet and Epicurious had a great recipe with 2 whole eggs. 

I have followed the recipe almost completely, but
1. I was too lazy to blanch the almonds. So I used unpeeled almonds.(:P)
2. Also the original recipe said 1-3/4 cup flour. But I had to add 1/3 cup more.

My husband, who travels often to Italy said the biscotti tasted 'like in Italian cafes'.

What I really liked about the recipe is you don't have to make individual balls. Just shape the dough into a log, bake and then cut into shape. Easy!

Ingredients:

Baking powder - 1 tbsp

Maida / All purpose Flour - 1 3/4 cup + extra for dusting 

Salt - 1/4 tsp

Butter - 1/4 cup

Sugar (powdered) - 3/4 cup

Egg - 2

Almonds - 1 cup

Method:

Preheat oven to 160 C for 10 minutes.

Sieve the flour, baking powder and salt together. Keep aside.

Mix the sugar and butter together and beat well till it becomes creamy.

Add eggs one at a time and beat well.

Into this butter-sugar mixture, add the sieved flour and bring it together.

Add more flour if necessary to make a stiff dough. (I added 1/3 cup more.)

Transfer to a floured surface and add the almonds. Mix well.

Make logs of 2 inch thickness and 1 inch radius. ( I made 4.)

Lay on silicon mat or baking sheet.

Bake for 25 - 30 minutes till golden.
Transfer to cutting board and slice the logs (while warm) using serrated knife in a slight slant into 1/2 inch cookies.

Arrange on cut cookies on a tray and bake again for 10 minutes.

Then flip over all the cookies and bake for 5 minutes.

Cool and transfer to air tight container.

Cauliflower-Ladies finger curry

Odd is it not.
Cauliflower and Ladies-finger? Gobi aur Bhindi?
Aloo Gobi, Gobi Mutter are all classics, but this is my Mother-in-law's creation. So it is a classic in it's own right!
When my father-in-law used to work (48 years in a firm, longest serving employee), he used to come home for lunch. But on certain days (audit, Head office inspection etc) he used to take packed lunch along.
And one day my mother-in-law, Mrs. Rajam Ganapathy was caught off-guard. He needed packed lunch but she had only a small piece of cauliflower, 5 ladies-finger and 1/2 a capsicum. So she let her imagination fly and made some curry! The curry tasted awesome. That same day we went to the market and bought 2 large cauliflowers, 4 capsicums and 1 kilo ladies finger to re-make the curry for family lunch!
That is the story behind the simple, amazing curry!

Ingredients:
Cauliflower / Gobi - 1 kilo
Ladies finger / Bhindi - 250 gms
Capsicum / Bell pepper / Shimla mirch - 1 large
Onion - 2 medium
Tomato - 2 medium
Green chilly - 2, slit
Salt to taste
Turmeric powder - 1 tsp
Chilly Powder - 1 tbsp (or more)
Vegetable oil - 4 tbsp
Jeera / Cumin seed -1/2 tsp
Oil - 3 tbsp

Method:
Clean and wash the cauliflower. Break into small flowerlets.
Cut the ladies finger into 1 inch pieces.
Cut the capsicum into 1 inch squares.
Cut the onion and tomato into large squares.
Heat oil in a thick bottomed vessel and splutter the jeera.
Add the green chillies and onions. Reduce flame and fry till transparent.
Now add the tomatoes and fry till the skin starts to peel off.
Then add in the ladies finger. Cook covered on low flame for 5 minutes.
Open and add in the cauliflower and capsicum. Increase flame and fry for a minute.
Add the salt, turmeric powder and chilly powder.
Mix well and cook covered till cauliflower softens.
Keep aside until serving time.
Just before serving, heat again and try to 'roast' / brown the cauliflower a bit on high flame.
Serve with chappathy.

Padavalangai / Snake-gourd Thogayal

Image source : Google images

In Kerala and Tamil nadu we try to make a dry spicy preparation as a 'side' to facilitate the enhancement of taste buds of spicy food lovers.
In the traditional joint family, the number of house members were large and cooking to satisfy everyone's taste-buds would have been a humongous task.

The old people at home would want less spice while some others would love spicy food.

The most ingenious solution, make a bland curry and compensate the spice content with this 'thogayal'.

I had written the recipe of  'Ridge gourd / peechinka thogayal' sometime ago. This thogayal is almost the same. Just replace the ridge gourd / peechinka with the young seeds of the snake gourd / padavalum.
No wasteage!

Ingredients:

Snake gourd seeds - 3 tbsp

Red chilly - 4 or more depending on your spice level

Urad dal / uzhundu - 1 tbsp

Tamarind - 1 cm radius

Jaggery - 1 tsp

Salt to taste

Asafoetida powder - 1 tsp heaped

Coconut - 3 tbsp

Oil - 1 tbsp

Method:

Dry fry the red chilly and urad dal seperately till they become light brown. Keep aside.

Heat the oil and add the snake-gourd seeds. Fry on low-medium flame till all the water evaporates. Remove from oil using a slotted spoon and keep aside.

In the left over add the coconut and fry till golden brown.

Cool all the ingredients to room temperature.

In a dry mixer, first grind the coconut, urad dal, red chilles with the salt, asafoetida, jaggery and  tamarind without any water.

Then add the fried seeds and grind into a smooth paste.

If you add water,  the shelf life reduces dramatically. Otherwise this thogayal stays well in room temperature for 2 days without going bad.

Enjoy with rice and/or dosa.

Chundal / Chick peas with spiced coconut

Chickpeas or any pulse are a great source of protein. We try to incorporate either the white chick peas (channa) or Black chick peas (kadala) or green gram dal or any other pulse like channa dal, green peas in our diet once a week.
During Navrathri or the 9 holy nights, chundal is served in almost all Tamil Brahmin households in the evening.
The recipe is easy and versatile. You can replace chickpeas used in this recipe with any other pulse. If you use sprouted pulses, your intake of protein increases exponentially.
Chundal can be had as an accompaniment for rice or as an healthy evening snack with your evening tea / coffee.

Ingredients:
Chickpeas / vella kadala / channa - 1 cup, soaked in water for minimum 4 hours
Grated coconut - 3/4 cup
Red chilli - 2 + 1 tsp
Jeera / cumin seeds- 1 tsp
Asafoetida powder - 1 tsp(optional)
Oil - 1 tbsp
Mustard seeds / kadugu - 1 tsp
Urad dal / uzhundu parippu - 1 tsp
Curry leaf - 2 sprigs
Salt to taste
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp

Method:
Soak the channa / dry pulse for 6 hours or preferably overnight.
Boil / pressure cook the soaked channa with some salt and turmeric powder until it softens. Do not throw away the water used to cook it.
Pulses like Green gram ( Channa dal / green gram dal), must not be pressure cooked, as they loose shape.
Grind the coconut with the 2 red chillies, jeera and peppercorns without any water.
Heat a heavy bottomed vessel or kadai with a tight lid.
Pour in the oil and splutter the mustard. Then add the urad dal and broken red chilly.
Reduce flame and tip in the ground coconut masala with the curry leaves and asafoetida powder (if using).
Saute for 30 seconds and add in the boiled channa with all the water.
Mix well and taste for salt. Add more if necessary.
Cook covered on a low flame for 15 minutes.
Then open lid and increase flame. Let all the water evaporate. Stir often to prevent burning.
Once chundal dries, transfer vessel.
Serve at room temperature.

Optional: add some lemon juice for extra taste.

Green gram Chundal

Kadala parippu / Channa dal Chundal

Other Recipes:
Channa for puri / Batoora
Black channa / Kadala kerala style

Black Forest cake

If you can make a cake in 4 minutes and then add some extra ingredients to take it to another level, why not?

Ingredients:
Basic Chocolate cake - 2
Whipping cream - 1 cup
Powdered sugar - 1 tbsp
Vanilla essence - 1 tsp
Water - 1 1/4 cup
Sugar - 4 tbsp
Cherry / Raspberry / Strawberry Jam (not pineapple) - 2 tbsp
Chocolate bar shaved *- 1 1/2 cups
Cherry / Strawberry - 1/4 cup chopped and some left whole

Preparation:
1. Beat the chilled whipping cream with the powdered sugar and essence until it can hold soft peaks. Do NOT overbeat or it will curdle.
Make a cone (use your milk cover) and fill some cream in it.
Refridgerate both the cone and whipped cream until use.
2. Boil the water with the sugar until sugar dissolves. Then add in the jam and Mix till the jam mixes well. Boil for a further minute.This is your syrup. Cool and refridgerate.
3. * Freeze the chocolate bar and use a peeler or chips-maker to make shavings of it. Place in freezer until use.
4. Make sure the cakes are at room temperature before you begin.

Assembling:
Take both the cakes and soak it with the jam syrup. The cakes must be soaked in syrup.
Now spread 2 tbsp of cream on top of 1 cake.
Add some chopped fruits on top of the cream.
Place the other cake on top of the cream.
Spread the rest of the cream all over the cake.
Cover with the chocolate shavings and pipe some cream. Place some fruit on top.
Chill before serving.

Pictorial:

Ghatte ki subji / Marwari chickpea dumplings in curd gravy

Rajasthan is the desert area of India. The people there rely a lot on dry goods like powders and seeds. Fresh vegetables are not available, but curd and other milk products are, so the curries have a very different flavor.

I was allowed into the kitchen of my Rajasthani neighbor when she made their speciality - ghatte ki subzi.
It reminded me a lot of Italian Gnocchi, where boiled potato is poached in water and then used in various dishes.

The taste is really acquired. It will be a long time before I retry this dish at home.
The following photos were all taken in my neighbor - Mrs.Monica's house and she is a VERY fast cook. So excuse the photographs!

Ingredients:
Chick pea flour / besan - 1 cup
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp + 1/2 tsp
Salt
Chilly Powder - 1/2 tsp + 1/2 tsp
Coriander powder - 1 tsp + 1 tsp
Oil - 2 tbsp
Ghee - 2 tbsp
Jeera - 1/2 tsp
Curd - 1 cup
Wheat flour - 1 tbsp
Dry mango powder / aamchoor powder - 1 tsp*
*Used only if curd is not sour

Method:
Keep 1 glass of water for boiling.
Mix together the besan, 1/2 tsp turmeric powder, 1/2 tsp chilly powder, 1/2 tsp coriander powder, salt.
Add in 2 tbsp oil and mix it in well.

Add luke-warm water and make a stiff dough.

The kneading  is a tough process and this stiff dough when I kneaded the first time, looked like this!

Ghatte when I kneaded.;)

Divide the dough into small balls and roll into thin cylinders.

Add this to boiling water and cook covered on low flame for 10 minutes.

Once it cooks and expands, transfer to a plate and dice into small pieces.

Do not throw away the water you used for cooking.
In the same kadai, heat the ghee and splutter the jeera.
Add the cut ghatte, and fry for 1 minute.

Add the rest of the salt, turmeric powder, coriander powder and chilly powder.

Taste your curd and if it is not sour, add in the aamchoor powder too.
Mix well and add the curd.

Mix the wheat flour with leftover water inside the curd vessel and stir to remove all lumps.

Add this to the gravy and cook till ghee floats on top.

Serve hot with chappathy / rice.

Kozhikode Vegetable Biriyani

There are umpteen number of ways to make Biriyani.
My first recipe was a vegetable biriyani high in mint and coriander leaf. Will I make it again? No.
Then I got hold of a chicken biriyani recipe from my friend and made it into a vegetarian one. Thus I made Kutchi Biriyani. Taste was ok.
I once saw the Pav Bhaji wallah make Biriyani using his bhaji and rice.Thus without really making Pav Bhaji at home, I made Tawa Biriyani. Taste and smell was great. But it did not tick all the boxes of Biriyani, which I had in my mind.
My last experiment was Good Food Magazine's -Baluchi Biriyani. I will swear by it. We love it at home. This was THE first Biriyani I dared to serve to guests!!

Then the other day my friend Simmy Basant and I made a trip to some temples and like typical housewives do, we swapped some recipes. She told me about her 'super-hit' prawn biriyani and I made it around a month ago on Bakrid using the same recipe, but swapped the prawns for vegetables.
Since then I have made it thrice. 3 times in 45 days. That is something.

I named this Biriyani - Kozhikode Biriyani as my friend is from Kozhikode / Calicut, the biriyani capital of Kerala and she herself got it from her sister who is settled there.

Ingredients for 3 people:

Rice - 1 1/2 cup, washed and soaked in water for half hour
Spices - 4 cloves, 6 peppercorns, 1 mace, 1 bayleaf , 1/2 tsp jeera, 2 cardamom, 2 inches cinnamon stick
Salt
Turmeric powder - 1 tsp
Coriander powder - 1 tbsp
Garam masala powder - 1/2 tsp
Green chilly - 4 or more, slit
Ginger - 4 inches
Garlic - 5 to 6 cloves
Onion - 1 large or 2 medium
Small onion / madras onion / shallots - 6
Khus Khus / poppy seeds - 1 tsp
Perum jeerakam / sweet cumin / saunf - 1 tbsp
Tomato - 2 , chopped fine
Thick curd / yoghurt - 1 cup
Mint leaves - 3 tbsp
Coriander leaf - 3 tbsp
Vegetables - potato, carrot, beans and cauliflower
Oil - 3 tbsp
Ghee / clarified butter - 5 tbsp

Garnish:
Saffron strands - a pinch, mixed in 2 tsp warm milk
Mint leaves
Coriander leaf
Fried onions (made from 1 large onion)
Garam masala - 1 tsp
Milk / curd - 2 tbsp
Fried cashewnuts
Fried raisins

Note: There is no red chilly powder used in this recipe. Only Green chilly. If you feel you need some more spice, add red chilly powder with your green chillies. I have started doing so as the green chilly available now a days is very mild.

Method:

Preparing rice:
Heat 2 tbsp ghee in a thick bottomed vessel with a tight lid.
Keep 3 cups of water for boiling in another vessel.
Splutter the jeera and then add in the rest of the spices. Fry till nice smell comes (30 sec).
Add the drained rice and some salt.
Fry for 2-3 minutes till the rice dries out.
Now add the boiling water and cook covered on a low flame for 10 minutes.
After 10 minutes, turn off flame and do not open lid for another 20 minutes.

Preparing vegetables
Cut the potatoes and carrots into big chunks, cauliflower into big flowerets and beans into 2 inch lenghts.
Boil the carrot and potato in ample water with a little salt till almost done.
Remove from the water and keep aside.
Into the same water add the cauliflower and when it gets half done add in the beans.
Once it gets nearly done, add in the boiled carrot and potatoes.
Turn off flame and keep aside until required.
You may have around 1/4 cup to 1/2 cup of water after boiling the vegetables. Do not throw away any of this.

Preparing masala:
First, grind the onion and shallots into a smooth paste. Keep aside.

Then grind the ginger, garlic, khus khus and perum jeerakam into a smooth paste with a little water.

Heat the rest of the ghee and oil together in a kadai or thick bottomed vessel.
Fry the onion paste on a low flame till it starts to turn golden.
Add in the ginger - garlic - poppy seed paste.
Fry on low flame for 1 minute and then add in the green chilly.

Follow this with the salt, turmeric powder, garam masala and coriander powder.

Fry for 1 minute on low flame, stirring constantly and then add in the chopped tomato.

Fry covered, till the tomato softens and skin peels off.
Add in the boiled vegetables with the water and cook till all the water evaporates.

Add the curd, mint leaf and coriander leaf. Mix well and turn off flame.

Assembling Biriyani:
Take a serving dish with a lid tight, which can be heated and heat it for 1 minute.
Spread some butter or ghee at the bottom.
Pour the vegetable gravy and then put the rice on top and press it down evenly.

Mix the milk / curd with the saffron. Pour this over the top of the rice by the spoon.
Now garnish with the rest of the things.

Place a lid on top and seal.

Before serving, place this prepared covered pot over a very low flame and cook for 15 minutes.
Open the lid at the table for extra drama.

Serve with raitha, pappad and pickle.