Panikoorka Karpooravalli Bhajji / Spanish Thyme fritter

Panikoorka in Malayalam, Karpooravalli in Sanskrit has the scientific name : Plectranthus amboinicus.

This leaf is a great medicine for mild cold / cough and fever. It's juice is administered to (even) new born babies when they have phlegm in their system.

I never knew Bhajji could be made with these leaves.
Thanks to my aunt Mrs. Radha Sreeram for telling me that it was / can be done.

I got a potted plant from my uncle, Mr.Ananthakrishnan.

You can find the quantity of ingredients and basic recipe of Bhajji here.
Batter is made with Besan / chickpea flour, rice four, salt, chilli powder, turmeric powder, dosa batter (optional) & asafoetida powder.
Oil for deep frying.

Enjoy as a snack with tea, or with your dal-chawal.

Pictorial:

Mushroom and Spinach Risotto

Risotto....
Rice from Italy....
We love Italian food at home and mushroom is an all time favorite vegetable.
Spinach and mushroom make a perfect combination.
Must I add that it tickles the taste buds and is pleasing to the eye too?
Please do try making plain risotto too.

Ingredients:
Arborio Rice - 250 gms
Spinach - 1 bunch
Dried Mushroom - 50 gms
Vegetable stock - 3 litres
Onion -1 small
Garlic - 4 large cloves
Celery - 2 sticks
Wine - 1 cup (optional)
Salt to taste
Parmesan cheese - nearly 1 cup
Olive oil - 2 tbsp

Soak the mushroom in hot water and chop the onions, garlic, celery and spinach.
Keep the stock to boil, and once it starts boiling, reduce flame and keep warm.

Saute the onion, garlic and celery in olive oil until transparent.

Drain the mushrooms, squeeze the water and add the mushrooms to the onions.
Add the mushroom soaked water to the vegetable stock.

After a minute of frying on medium flame, add the rice and salt. Fry on medium flame for 2 minutes.

Increase flame. Make a well in the centre and add the wine.

Mix well. Once all the wine evaporates, add a ladle of warm stock.

Once this stock gets evaporated, pour in the next ladle. Continue this process till the rice cooks al dente.

Once the rice is cooked to your desired level, turn off flame.
Add the spinach and half of the parmesan cheese to the risotto.

Mix well and keep covered for 2 minutes.
Taste to check salt.

Serve with more cheese on top.
If you have left over Risotto, make arancini.

Grape Juice

My mother used to make this great summer drink often when we lived in Chennai (nee Madras). And many people used to ask her the recipe. It uses just three ingredients.

The colour of my grape juice is not vibrant only because I used white grapes, bought from Pollachi.

Recipe : Mrs. Radha Parameswaran, my mom.

Ingredients:
Grapes - 1.7 Kgs , with stalk
Sugar - 1 cup (more or less according to your family's taste)
Cloves - 4

Method:
Wash the grapes thoroughly.
Remove all the stem and wash again.
Pour just enough water to nearly immerse all the grapes.
Bring to a boil and keep covered for 2 minutes.
Turn off flame after 2 minutes.
Cool.
Use a mixer to pulp.
Sieve this pulp.
Boil sugar with 1 cup water and sieve to remove grime. Cool.
Powder the cloves and mix it with the sugar syrup.
Add the sugar syrup to the sieved grape juice.
Mix well and store in a glass bottle.
You kight have to add some water at the time of serving.

For serving:
Add glass cubes to a glass and add the sweetened grape pulp and adequate water.

Pictorial:

Water just enough to nearly immerse

post boiling / cooking

Making sugar syrup

cooled after cooking / boiling

Turkish Pide

One thing we bought from London was.....a cook book. A Turkish vegetarian cookbook. Makes no sense, but that is what I insisted on buying.

Yes, I am strange.

One recipe that caught my eye was Pide (pronounced pie-day). It is a bread served plain. There is also a stuffed variety available made mostly with meat and cheese. It is shaped like a boat.

This is supposed to be the 'father of pizza'.

It is quite easy to make, not extremely easy.

Ingredients:

For the bread:
All purpose flour - 2 cups
Yeast - 1/2 tbsp
Salt - 1 tsp
Sugar - 1 tbsp
Oil - 2 tbsp

For the filling:
Onion -2 medium
Garlic - 4 cloves
Paneer / cottage cheese - 200 gm
Salt
Chilly powder - 1 tbsp
Coriander powder - 1 tbsp
Cumin powder - 1 tsp
Tomato - 3 medium
Mint leaves - 3 tbsp
Celery - 1 stalk
Oil - 4 tbsp

Topping (optional):
Jalapenos (Bhajia chilli)

To serve: 
Lemon slices

My advice: Make the filling slightly spicier than you would usually, as the bread will balance it.

Method:

Bread:
Mix together the flour, sugar, salt, yeast.
Add enough water to make a smooth dough.
Knead for 5 minutes and then add 1 tbsp oil and knead again for 5 more minutes.
Coat the kneaded dough with 1 tbsp oil and keep covered in a vessel for it to double in size. (90 minutes)

Filling:
Heat oil in a heavy vessel and fry thr onion and garlic till garlic becomes translucent.
Add the paneer and fry till it becomes golden brown.
Add the tomato and all the powders.
Fry till all the water evaporates.
Turn off flame, allow to cool and add the celery and mint leaves.

How to proceed:
Preheat oven to 250 C for 15 minutes.
Knead the dough again and divide into 6 pieces.
Roll out thinly into a long flat strip.
Place this on top of a buttered butter paper.
Place the filling in the middle.
Bring both the sides together and pinch the ends, so that it resembles a boat.
Coat with oil on the exposed sides of the bread. You can put some til seeds if you wish.
Place the Jalapenos over it.
Bake for 10 - 12 minutes till the sides get golden brown.
Cool a bit.
Cut each pide into 3 inch slices and serve.

Pictorial: