Vendaka Thoran / Okra Thoran

From the day I saw Bharathy's okra thoran, I was waiting to try it the next time I buy them. Yest I made it and to my surprise it had a unique taste with the blend of coconut, garlic & spices. I am not familiar with the grinding part, we either fry or make poriyal or use them in pulikulambu. I like okras in any form...and on the other side hubby hates it . I wonder why does most husb's have a aversion to this vegie?! I blindly followed the recipe except that I didnt use coconut oil and few adjustments in quantity.

Ingredients:

Oil- a tbsp

Mustard seeds-1/2 tsp

Urad dal-1/2 tsp

Finely chopped shallots- a tsp

Curry leaves- few

To grind to coarse paste with little water:

Grated coconut – 2 tbsps

Red Chilli - 1

Jeera - ¼ tsp

Shallots- 2

Garlic-a clove

Salt-to taste

NOTE: Add min water while grinding, I added lil more so my okras got mashy.

Method:

1. Chop the okras to about half a cm wide rounds.

2. Heat a tbsp of oil in a kadai.Splutter mustard seeds, brown the urad dal and sauté the shallots until light brown.Add curry leaves.

3. Add the grinded paste and sauté for a few mins till raw smell goes.

4. Now add okras, turn them well so as to avoid sticking to kadai . Sprinkle some water, add salt and keep the kadai closed.

5. Keep in low flame and keep mixing once in every 2mins, Do this until its cooked well.Remove from flame and serve hot with rice.

Wheat/Gothuma Sweet Roti

I tried Nags wheat roti, When I tried for the 1st time it was a lil burnt but no compromise in the taste. But I was not satisfied so made it again in the same week, it came out very well and tasted heavenly though the pic didnt turn out well! :(

Ingredients:
Wheat flour / atta - 3 cups
Jaggery - 1/2 cup powdered (Can be adjusted according to liking )
Grated coconut - 1/2 cup
Powdered cardamom - 1/2 tsp
Salt - one pinch
Ghee - to cook

Method:
1. Add jaggery to a bowl with 2 tbsp water. Let it boil for about 5 mins until the jaggery melts.Strain to remove impurities and set aside to cool.

2. Mix the atta, salt, cardamom and coconut until well combined and mix well.

3. Add the cooled jaggery water to the above mixture and combine well. Add enough water and keep combining until you get a sticky,loose dough.Divide the dough into small balls.

4. Heat a tawa, add few drops of ghee. Flatten the dough with ur fingers on the tawa, If its too sticky add some ghee.

5. Turn and cook the other side until brown. Serve hot!

Pottukadalai poondu podi

This is one of my favourite podis. Podis come handy when I have no mood to cook. I got this recipe from my friend, she used to bring it during college days...Now feeling nostalgic abt those days.

Ingredients
Pottu kadalai - 1 cup
Red Chillies - 3-4 depends on the spicy level
Garlic cloves - 6-8 cloves
1/2 tbsp oil
Salt to taste

The spice level can be totally reduced to make it kid friendly!

Method
1. Add oil to kadai, roast pottukadalai for 3mins, add the above rest and saute till its slighly brown.
2. Remove from flame and allow it to cool.
3. Grind into a slightly coarse powder, Add salt to taste.

This goes well with idlis or rice....Hot idlis + Garlic podi = Bliss!!

Chocolate Pedas

Mahimas choco pedas has been in my to do list for long and I finally made it. I really am looking for some quick recipes/snacks as I find very lil time to spend in the kitchen :) Trust me, these choco pedas tasted so yummy...I wud say its a definite try for all chocolate lovers!

Ingredients:

Coco powder - 1.5 tbsp

Milk Powder - 4 tbsp

Almond powder - 3 tbsp [Just powder the almonds/badams raw]

Marie Biscuits - 3 small powdered

Boiled milk - as needed to make the dough [I used 2 tbsp ]

Method:

1.Mix all the above ingredients together and make a soft dough.

2.Add 2 drops of oil/ghee to ur hands while rolling it into ur desired shapes to avoid stickyness.

This yielded me 5 pedas!

Akkaravadisal for Gokulashtami

Heya I am thoroughly enjoying my break from work with my lil one!! Hope u all had a great Gokulashtami(Krishnar Jayanthi) 2day. When I was glancing the newspaper yest saw the Krishna sweets Akkaravadisal ad and that tempted me. This is the 1st time we are trying this, got the recipe from my aunt, amma made it and my part is only clicking and eating it :)

Ingredients:

• Moong Dhal / Pasi parupu- 1 cup
• Raw rice / Pacharisi - a handful
• Milk - 2 cups
• Water - 1 and 3/4 cups
• Sugar - 1cup
• Ghee - 2 tbsp (To make it low fat we reduced it,otherwise add 1/2 cup)
• Cashew,raisins - few

[Actually the orginal recipe calls for only milk and no water but as its low fat version we subsituted with water]

Method:

1. Roast dhal and rice for 3mins.Add milk, water tothe above and pressure cook them in sim for 8-9 mins till the rice and dhal is mashy.



2. Add sugar and stir it till it dissolves completely. Stir it continuosly till the mixture solidifies.





3. Fry Cashews and raisins in ghee and add to the mixture.



4. Serve hot with melting ghee on top!

Showing Off....& some mobile talks ;)

For the past 8-9months or so, one often asked question from my friends and relatives is : So whats the new mobile model u got? Yes everyone knws abt my mobile mania....But the truth is for athe past months I havent turned my eye towards mobiles or I didnt even think of getting a new one........and slowly now I've started browsing the mobile sites again.....so back to form :)

My first mobile was Nokia 3315 and that was the only model I dont have with me now. I got it exchanged when I got my 6610i and only later I regretted that I shouldnt have given that.....as it wud have filled in my museum now.

Now just a sneak into my mobile showcase: **Beaming with pride **
Yup I m showing off.....whats in it?!

I have already written more abt my Nokia 6610i here


Nokia 7610 : I got this on a tamil new yr day its lil heavy but stylish in look!

Next is my Sony.....I was very stubborn that no other brand is as gud as Nokia till I started using Sony. Its equally gud and this is the one I m currently using.

And my search for Nokia 1600 is here

As of now these are the 4 mobiles I own....Hmm....I wish & hope I'll be back sooner with more numbers in my showcase.......;) (Hope hubby doesnt read this post).

And before I close....Dont forget to take up the survey on the right sidebar!

Kuzhi paniyaram (Sweet & Savoury)

This is from my mothers kitchen, she is an expert in making these paniyarams.
NOTE:
In short u can use idly/dosa batter for karam but the traditional kulipaniyaram method is this:

Ingredients:
Rice (Raw) /Pacharisi - 1 cup
Rice (Boiled)/Pulungalarisi - 1 cup
Fenugreek - 2-3 tsp
Ulunthu - 1/4 cup

For the batter:

Soak the raw rice, boiled rice seperately, fenugreek and ulunthu seperately each for an hr. First grind ulunthu and fenugreek for 15mins then add both the rices with 1/4 cup of water, Grind it such that the batter is very thick(like idly/dosa batter) and not very smooth.Adjust water accordingly.

Seperate the batter into equal halves and add the below ingredients.

For Sweet:
Jaggery water (Add jaggery to 1/4 cup of water and dissolve it)
Cardomom powder - 2 pinches
Coconut - 1/4 cup (optional)

Mix the above ingredients with the batter and mix well.

For Karam:
Onions - 1 finely chopped
Salt- a pinch
Green chillies chopped - 1

Coriander leaves - t tbsp chopped finely
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp

Channa Dal - 2 tsp

Oil - 1 tsp
Heat oil add mustard seeds allow it to crackle then add channa dal allow it slightly brown. Then add onion, green chillies and coriander leaves. Transfer this to the batter and mix well.

Method:
1. Heat kulipaniyaram pan. Pour 2 drops of oil in each hole of the pan.
2. Fill each hole with the batter to 3/4 of the hole and keep closed for 2mins.
3. Flip the other side and allow it to cook for 2 more mins.. Once both the sides turn golden brown, switch off flame.
4. Serve hot with coconut chutney.