Thattai

Thattai is an all time favorite snack in Tamil Brahmin households. It is usually made in large quantities and kept ready for evening tea or when guests arrive.

My mom shared a very easy recipe for making this tasty crispy snack.
Usually rice is soaked, dried, powdered, dry fried and sieved before making this. Here we take an easy route - we grind soaked rice!

Recipe Courtesy - Radha Parameswaran ( my mother)

Ingredients:
Rice (Idly ponni / ponni puzhukkal) - 1 cup
Urad dal - 1 tsp
Pottu kadala / roasted gram dal - 1 tsp
salt
Asafoetida - 1 tsp
Butter - 1 tbsp
Chilli powder - 1 tsp
Soaked channa dal - 1 tbsp
Oil for deep frying
Til seeds - 1 tbsp

Method:
Wash and soak the rice in water for 3 hours.
Dry fry the pottu kadala and urad dal and grind into a fine powder.
Grind the rice flour into a thick smooth paste with very less water.
Transfer into a bowl and add the rest of the ingredients - salt, asafoetida, chilly powder, butter, til seeds and soaked channa dal. If you feel that the dough is watery, add some store bought rice flour.
Mix well.
Heat oil in a kadai.
Take a small ball of dough and flatten it by pressing in between 2 plastic sheets.
Deep fry until golden brown.
Cool and store  in air tight container.

Kadhi Pakoda

A thick Curd gravy with crispy onion fritters.

Basically Bhajia in kadhi.

The recipe of the Kadhi has been shared before on this site. I will share my version of the onion pakode here. At home we prefer to not boil the pakode in the gravy as it becomes soggy. We just add it to the gravy at serving time, one pakode at a time as kids and hubby like it crisp. So that part of boiling the pakode or not is completely your prerogative.

Ingredients:
Onion - 2 large , chopped into thin long slices
Besan / chickpea flour - 2 tbsp (+ some more, if necessary)
Salt
Chilly - 1
Coriander leaf - 1 tbsp
Turmeric powder - 1 tsp
Kadhi ingredients

Method:
Mix the onion, chilly, coriander leaf well with the salt, turmeric powder and besan.
Keep aside for 10 minutes.

After 10 minutes, add a little more besan if you feel it has become very watery and is not coating the onion enough.
Deep fry in small batches as lumps till golden brown.

Make the kadhi and keep aside.
Either boil the pakode in the gravy for 1 minute just before serving, or serve both separate.
Serve with jeera pulav or plain white rice or Khichdi.

Shakshuka - eggs poached over a rich tomato gravy

Easy one-pot heavy breakfast.

This recipe is from the middle east - Israel or Morocco being the place of origin. Eggs are cooked over a rich tomato gravy and served with bread either toasted or otherwise.

Vessel : Heavy bottomed flat pan with sides and lid

Ingredients:
Egg - 3
Tomato - 2 large, chopped
Onion - 1 medium, chopped
Garlic - 1 large clove, grated
Capsicum - 1/2 medium, chopped
Salt
Pepper - 1 tsp (or more)
Chilly powder - 1 tsp (or more)
Cumin / jeera powder - 1/2 tsp
Olive oil - 4 tbsp
Tomato sauce - 1 tbsp
Sugar - 1 pinch
Coriander leaf to garnish

Method:

Heat the olive oil and saute the garlic and onion on low flame till translucent.
Add the capsicum and cook for 2 minutes.
Add the tomato, salt, pepper, chilly powder and cumin powder.
Continue cooking on low flame till mushy.
Now add the tomato sauce and sugar.
Cook for 1 minute. There should be a thick gravy in the pan.
Taste and add more seasoning to suit your family's taste.

Ten minutes before serving, break the eggs over the tomato sauce and cook covered on low flame for 5-6 minutes.
Serve hot with toasted bread and garnished with coriander leaf.

Pictorial:

Pav Bhaji

Pav Bread 

An amalgamation of seasonal vegetables in a buttery onion - tomato masala gravy served with toasted butter dripping bread!

The BEST butter-dripping, cholestrol-mongering Pav Bhaji is served at Sardar Pav bhaji, Tardeo, Mumbai.

(pic courtesy : google images, Sardar pav bhaji, Tardeo)

(pic courtesy : google images, Sardar pav bhaji, Tardeo)

When I make pav bhaji at home, obviously the amount of butter is far lesser and I have used ordinary bread loaf instead of the traditional pav, which is like bun.

Ingredients:
Potato - 4 medium
Carrot - 1 medium
Cauliflower - 3 large flowerets
Beans - 5
Green peas - 1/2 cup
Capsicum - 1/2
Onion - 2 medium
Tomato - 2 medium
Ginger - 1 inch
Garlic - 2 cloves
Green chilly - 4
Salt
Turmeric powder - 1 tsp
Garam masala - 1 tbsp + Chaat masala - 1 tsp (or) Pav bhaji masala - 1 1/2 tbsp
Chilly powder - 1 tbsp
Sugar - 1 tsp
Butter - 3 tbsp (or) Ghee - 1 tbsp  + Vegetable oil - 2 tbsp
Jeera - 1 tsp
Tomato ketchup - 1 tbsp

Other ingredients for serving:
Pav bread to serve
Butter - 1 tbsp for each slice to toast
Onion - 1 large, chopped fine
Lemon slices
Coriander leaf

Prep:
Grind together the ginger, garlic and green chilly.
Pressure cook the carrot and potato. Peel and break up.
Boil the peas, beans and cauliflower until well cooked.
Chop the onion finely.
Grind the tomato and keep aside.
Chop the capsicum finely.

Method:
Heat the butter in a heavy bottomed vessel and splutter the jeera in it.
Add the chopped onion and fry on a low flame till it gets golden.
Add the ginger-garlic-green chilly paste and fry till raw smell goes.
Now add the salt, turmeric powder, chilly powder, sugar and masala powders.
After 1 minute of frying add the ground tomato.
When the tomato gets cooked, add the mashed vegetables and capsicum.

Now mash well using a potato masher.

Add some water to make a thick gravy. Boil for 10 minutes covered.
Add tomato ketchup and mix well. Cook for a further 5 minutes.
Serve hot with more butter on top!

If you have left over Bhaji, try making Tawa Biriyani.

Brinjal curry for Tapioca

Each district in Kerala has a different recipe for the accompaniment made for the classic side dish of

Tapioca. 

This is the Kottayam district style and it uses malabar tamarind / kodumpuli instead of tamarind.

And it is different from my earlier version as there is no coriander powder used. Also all the fresh spices are chopped and not ground.

Make both on different occasions and choose what your family likes best.

To know how to prepare tapioca -keral style with lots of fresh coconut , click here.

Ingredients:

Brinjal - 3, cut into halves or quartered

Small onion - 11 to 12

Ginger - 1 inch

Garlic - 3 cloves

Green chilly - 3

Curry leaf - 2 sprigs

Kodampuli - 4, soaked in 1/2 cup water for 10 minutes

Red chilly powder - 3 tbsp

Salt

Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp

Pepper - 1 tsp

Uluva / methi / fenugreek seed - 1 tsp

Coconut oil - 2 tbsp + 1 tbsp

Mustard seeds - 1 tsp

Method:

Cut the onion, garlic and ginger into small pieces. Sit the green chilly.

Dry fry the uluva and peppercorns. Cool and powder.

Heat 2 tbsp coconut oil and splutter the mustard seeds and then add the broken red chilly.

Into this add the chopped spices and curry leaf.

Fry on a medium flame till onion becomes transparent.

Reduce flame to the lowest and add the red chilly powder.

Fry for 2 minutes till the raw smell goes.

Now add the soaked kodampuli with the water.

Add the salt and turmeric powder and bring to a boil.

Now add the brinjal pieces and cook covered on a low-medium flame for 5 minutes.

Turn off flame and add the powdered spices and 1 tbsp coconut oil.

Keep covered for a further 10 minutes and serve with tapioca.

Aubergine Roll

We had this amazing starter at Mocking Bird Cafe, Mumbai and my younger one who hates anything with Brinjal / aubergine wanted more!

Very easy to make and very tasty. If you have the red pasta sauce at hand, this recipe gets ready in a jiffy!

Ingredients:
Aubergine / Bharta Baingan
Olive oil - as required
Italian Tomato Pasta Sauce
Cheese spread - 1 tsp per aubergine slice*
(* if you are using plain, try adding some flavoring like pepper or rosemary)

Method:
Slice the aubergine into thin long slices.
Grill on each side using ample olive oil, until brown spots appear. Cool to room temperatre (or the cheese will melt).
Roll each grilled slice with cheese spread.
On the serving platter, dot with tomato sauce and place a roll on top.
Serve.