Channa Sundal | Vinayagar Chathurthi, Navaratri Sundal Recipes

Vinayagar Chathurthi is tomorrow.....we usually make sweet modakam(pooranam kozhukattai), savoury kozhukattai, channa sundal and ellu urundai now. The internet at home has gone down for the past 2 days and am feeling sick, just came to a near by browsing center to post this :) Hopefully my net should be back atleast for the next post....keeping fingers crossed.

Channa Sundal Recipe

Ingredients:

• Channa - 1 cup
• Coconut - 2 tbsp
• Salt - to taste

To temper :

• Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
• Urad dhal - 1/4 tsp
• Hing(Perungayam) - a generous pinch
• Red Chillies - 2
• Curry leaves - few

Method:

1. Soak channa overnight atleast for 8 hours. Pressure cook until soft and set aside.
2. Heat oil in a pan, add mustard seeds and urad dhal, allow it to crackle. Then add red chillies,hing,salt and curry leaves, saute for 2mins.
3. Then add the cooked channa and mix well with the tempered items. Add coconut , give it a quick stir and switch off.

My Notes :

• You can even boil the channa instead of pressure cooking, but I prefer the pressure cooking way.
• While pressure cooking channa adding salt takes time to cook so I always add it while tempering.
• You can use the same method for cooking green gram,mocha kottai or even channa dhal which makes a variety for navatri sundal recipes.

When I saw these thonais(the cup holding the sundal) at Nilgiris the first thing that striked me was to make channa sundal and click with it. Sometimes yes the props hold more attention than the main dish to me :) I am sure most food bloggers will agree with me.

Ulundhu Kozhukattai / Uppu Kozhukattai | Vinayagar Chathurthi Recipes

Its Vinayagar charthurthi special for a week so the diet series will resume after this festive special :) I am excited about the long weekend coming up have so much plans right from cooking, relaxing, spending time with family and shopping so am very much looking forward for it. You can check the modak(pooranam kozhukattai) sweet version kozhukattai here (have updated with stepwise) which I posted last year so I'm posting savoury kozhukattaiai this year.

Ulunthu Kozhukattai Recipe - Inner Ulunthu Stuffing Ingredients :

• Urad dal(ulutham paruppu) - 1/2 cup
• Green chillies - 2
• Coconut - 2 tbsp
• Salt - to taste

To temper :

• Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
• Hing (Perungayam ) - a pinch
• Curry leaves - few
• Turmeric powder - a pinch

Method:

Soak urad dhal for an hour. Drain water and grind it with green chillies very coarsely. Just run the mixer once or twice to make it coarse. Do not make it pastey. Set aside.

Now heat oil, add mustard seeds let it crackle then add curry leaves,turmeric powder and hing. Next add the coarsely grinded urad dhal green chilli mixture and saute until it becomes dry and raw smell completely leaves, it may take 7-10mins. Add required salt. Then add coconut mix well and switch off. Now your inner stuffing is ready.

Ulunthu Kozhukattai Recipe - Outer Dough Ingredients :

• Rice flour / Idiyappam flour - 3/4 cup
• Salt - 1/2 tsp
• Water - as required to form a dough

Method for the outer covering:

You can check how to make rice flour at home here

First sieve the rice flour 2-3 times, keep aside. Boil water, Take rice flour in a wide bowl.

Add the boiling water little by little and mix it with the help of a wooden laddle. Mix it till it gathers to a smooth dough. Allow it to cool for 2-3 mins then knead once with your hands to make a smooth dough but it will be slightly sticky.Keep aside.

To make ulunthu kozhukattai :

Grease ur hands with oil make small lemon sized balls then flatten it slightly thin (or make it as cup) then add a tsp of ulunthu stuffing / filling and seal it as shown below.Repeat this until the entire dough finishes. This is the easiest method I am following till date :)

Press the ends and seal it completely and make the design by pressing ur thumbs. You can also make designs with fork or use readymade shapes.

Steam the kozhukattais for about 10-12mins or until the outer cover turns shiny which shows thew kozhukattais are ready.

The stuffing can be anything sweet too like coconut channa dhal stuffing or sesame jaggery, it tastes good too.

My notes:

• There are few other ways to make savoury kozhukattai too even without filling. Just make the kozhukattai balls, steam it then temper it with the above said items which is called ammini kozhukattai.
• Be very careful to run the mixie just once or twise else the urad dhal will get pastey.
• You can either use homemade rice flour or riceflour that we get ub shops, the fine variety thay call it as idiyappam flour.

The stuffing is simple and flavourful that it can get over in a jiffy by itself :) I always make the stuffing ready after that making kozhukattai outer dough is just a breeze.Savoury modaks are ready to be served. Tastes best when served hot or warm. We make both sweet and savoury kozhukattai and I luv both :)

Baked Bread Rolls - Healthy teatime snack | Healthy Diet Plan #4

Hope you are enjoying this series as much as I do, please be a part of the voting poll on the sidebar. Its a short break now...No no! I am not taking a break, only this series is taking a short break, will resume this series by next weekend with the remaining teatime drink and a dinner idea. It is sure better than the deep fry way so when I saw it in Tarladalal site I instantly want to try it and just luved it.

Baked Bread Rolls Recipe

Recipe Source : Tarladalal



Ingredients:

• Wheat Bread - 5 slices
• Ghee / Oil - 2 tsp

For the stuffing:

• Onion - 1 finely chopped
• Potato - 1 medium sized
• Carrot - 1
• Peas - a handful
• Turmeric powder - a pinch
• Fennel(Sombu) powder - a pinch (optional)
• Ginger garlic paste - 1 tsp
• Red chilli powder - 1/2 tsp
• Garam masala powder - 1/4 tsp
• Coriander leaves - 1 tbsp chopped finely
• Oil - 1 tsp
• Salt - as required

Method :

For the stuffing :

1. Cube the veggies and pressure cook them with water and turmeric powder until soft. Keep aside. Mash the potatoes well and combine it with other veggies.
2. Heat oil in a pan, add sombu powder, ginger garlic paste, saute for 2mins. Then add chopped onions saute until slightly browned. Then add the veggies, chilli powder and garam masala powder, required salt and give a stir.Sprinkle little water just for the masalas to combine well with the veggies.
3. Cook covered for 5mins, giving it a stir inbetween.Switch off and garnish with coriander leaves.Now the stuffing is ready.

For the bread rolls:

First cut the sides of the bread for the 5 slices. Then roll slightly using a chapathi roller, cover it with a wet muslin cloth and keep aside for 5-10mins.Then add the stuffing inbetween, add water at the edges and seal it.

Seal it completely on all sides.As I used wheat bread it was a bit difficult to roll it as it was very small too. Try to use sandwich sized breads so that rolling is easier, mine was normal bread.





Apply ghee evenly on all sides. Meanwhile preheat oven at 200 deg C for 10mins and bake it at 200 deg C for 15-20mins or till the rolls turn golden brown. Check inbetween and turn over if required. Serve it with tomato ketchup the best combination.

My Notes:

• The timing differs from oven to oven so check exactly after 15mins then proceed with remaining 5mins.
• If you feel uneven cooking, you can turn over in between like what I did.
• If you want you can add more ghee or butter as per liking.
• The stuffing can be of your choice, you can use mushroom, paneer, corn etc

Fruits Custard (Fruit Salad with Custard) - Healthy Dessert | Healthy Diet Plan #3

Fruits Custard or fruits salad with custard is a very delicious dessert with the creamy texture of the custard and crunch of the fruits in between. This is very easy to make even at the last minute when guests arrive so here is my healthy dessert idea.

Fruits Custard / Fruit Salad with Custard Recipe



Ingredients:

• Milk - 1.5 cups
• Fruits - 3/4 cup
• Custard Powder(Vanilla flavoured) - 1 tbsp
• Sugar - 3 tsp

For fruits I used a mix of apple,banana,watermelon,orange and pomegranate

Method:

1. Chop the fruits into cubes and keep it ready. Boil the milk , keep aside to let it cool.
2. In a small bowl take 1/2 cup of milk, add custard powder mix it well without any lumps. Keep aside.
3. Heat the remaining milk, give it a boil then add the custard milk mixture, sugar and mix well. The mixture will start thickening so be very careful and keep stirring till a creamy consistency is formed. The custard will get thickened on refrigerating also so the consistency should be a bit runny.
4. Switch off, cool down the custard for 5mins and then add the fruits and mix well. Your fruits custard is ready. Chill it for few mins then serve it.

My Notes:

• If your custard becomes thick, add little more milk.
• You can skip sugar and have it with the natural sweetness of the fruits.
• As I made this some 3months back I didnt get mangoes. Mangoes will sure give a nice flavour to the custard.
• Use fresh cut fruits and serve it fresh.

Pumpkin Sambar and Cabbage Poriyal - Easy Lunch Menu | Healthy Diet Plan #2

This is one of the easiest and comforting meal I could think of on a lazy noon. My hubby loves cabbage so its a total yes yes when it comes to cabbage. So this is lunch menu for a hearty, comforting and healthy lunch. So whats next?! its going to be dessert time - fruits salad with custard, stay tuned :)

Pumpkin Sambar Recipe

Ingredients:

• Toor dhal - 1 cup
• A small lemon sized tamarind ball - 1
• Shallots(Chinna vengayam) - 3 to 4
• Tomato - 1 large
• Turmeric powder - a generous pinch
• Sambar powder - 1 tbsp
• Vegetable of your choice - I used pumkpin (4-5 cubes)
• Coriander leaves - 1 tbsp chopped
• Salt - to taste

To temper :

• Oil - 1 tbsp
• Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
• Urad dhal - 1/2 tsp
• Fenugreek seeds - 1/2 tsp
• Curry leaves - few
• Hing - a generous pinch

Method:

1. Soak tamarind in 1 cup water for 15mins, squeeze the thick pulp out and keep aside.
2. Pressure cook toor dhal with 1.5 cups of water until mushy.Smash it well once and keep aside.
3. In a pan, add oil temper mustard seeds, urad dhal once they crackle add fenugreek seeds, curry leaves and hing. Now add onion and tomato saute until raw smell of tomato leaves. Now add the veggie(pumpkin) saute it slightly.
4. Now add the smashed dhal, add turmeric powder, sambar powder, required salt and mix well. Allow it to boil for 5mins then add tamarind pulp mix well.
5. Allow this to boil for 10mins until the sambar starts thickening. Switch off and garnish with coriander leaves.

Cabbage Poriyal Recipe:

Ingredients:

• Cabbage - 1/2 from a medium sized cabbage (chopped finely)
• Onion - 1/2 chopped finely
• Grated coconut - 1 tbsp
• Salt – to taste

To temper :

• Oil - 1 tsp
• Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
• Jeera - 1/4 tsp (optional)
• Urad dhal - 1/2 tsp
• Green chillies - 1 slitted
• Curry leaves - few

Method:

1. Heat a pan with oil, add mustard seeds, urad dhal, jeera allow it to crackle. Now add green chillies and curry leaves, saute for a minute.Add onions saute for 3mins.
2. Then add grated cabbage, saute for 2mins. Sprinkle little water (do not add more water as cabbage will let our water by itself) and cook keeping lid closed until cabbage gets cooked and becomes soft.Add required salt.
3. After few mins say 5-7mins the water would have evaporated completely and the cabbage would have turned soft and dry.
4. Add coconut give a quick stir and switch off.

This was my lunch menu a few weeks back. Rice , pumpkin sambar, cabbage poriyal and mango patchadi

My Notes:

• For cabbage poriyal, you can also add a tbsp of cooked moong dhal.
• I sometimes add channa dhal for tempering too.
• You can use any veggie for ur choice and proceed with the above recipe for sambar. Saute and cook the veggie accordingly.
• Drizzle ghee while mixing sambar with rice and enjoy a heartful meal.

Homemade Museli / Granola - A Healthy Breakfast | Healthy Diet Plan #1

Though there are a mix and match of healthy recipes in this space I wanted to go for a week healthy...... So whats up for the coming days - For a week, I will be posting healthy diet recipes which will comprise of a breakfast, lunch, dessert, teatime drink, a snack and ending up with a dinner idea so its going to be 6 recipes for this series . How does that sound?!

So am starting off with my favourite breakfast - homemade museli / granola. You can check out my granola bars here.These days its become very common even in india in most of homes to start off the day with healthy cereals / museli and we are no exception to it.

Homemade Museli / Granola Recipe



Ingredients:

• Oats - 1 cup
• Corn flakes - 1/2 cup
• Badams - 3 tbsp (sliced thin)
• Walnuts chopped - 3 tbsp
• Dates - 3 tbsp (finely chopped)
• Other dryfruits - 2 tbsp
• Honey - 1/4 cup
• Butter - 1 tbsp (optional)
• Salt - 1/4 tsp

Method:

1. Chop all the nuts and dry fruits roughy, keep aside.
2. In a sauce pan, dry roast oats, cornflakes, walnuts, almonds , dry fruits and nuts till golden brown or till a nice aroma comes. Keep aside.
3. Now in the same pan, add butter let it melt then add honey and salt. Allow it boil till bubbles are seen it may take 4-5mins. Now add the toasted oats, cornflakes nuts mixture. Mix well.
4. Allow the honey butter mixture to coat the toasted oats, cornflakes nuts mixture. It may take 2-3 mins. Switch off and allow it to cool for few mins.
5. Bake the mixture at 200 deg C for 5 mins to make it more crispy. Cool down and store it in an airtight container. Serve it with chilled milk.

You can also see my other healthy breakfast ideas :

• Instant Oats Dosa
• Oats Idli
• Oats Appam
• Pesarattu Dosa
• Wheat Dosai
• Eggless French Toast (Sweet & Savoury)

My Notes :

• The baking at the last step is purely optional but I do this for extra crispness and this will also make the museli stay crisp for longer - Tip from Prathiba
• Store it in an airtight container for the crispness to stay longer.
• Museli is totally flexible, you can just have the cup measurement in mind and add in any nuts and dry fruits of your choice.
• Add milk preferably cold but if you like it hot, then go ahead.

Homemade butter and Aval Urundai | Gokulashtami / Krishna Jayanthi Recipes

Last week during a chat session, my cousin sis gave me the idea of posting homemade butter and aval urundai for gokulashtami. Though I had planned for a stepwise homemade butter post, it didnt strike me for the occassion so a big thanks to her for motivating me for this post. Butter and aval are lord krishnas favourite so here I am with this post. Hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed making, clicking and writing this post :)

Tanjore painting done by amma

Homemade Butter Recipe :

Ingredients :

• Curd and Milk Malai (Paal , Thayir Aadai) collected - 2 cups
• Water - 1 cup

NOTE : You can use malai from both curd and milk

Method:

While boiling milk a thick layer of malai forms so collect them (you can collect curd malai too)store it a container. Collect it daily for about 15 days or till your container is full and refrigerate it. But take only the thick malai formed on top.

NOTE: The collected malai/cream can be used for your gravies. I have been using this cream for all my gravies, sure better than the store bought ones. As its salty use it only for savoury dishes which calls for cream.

When your container is full or when you are prepared to make the butter, transfer the collected malai in a wide bottomed container and add water to it.

Beat it well in circular motion with a mathu till frothy.You can use mixie and use the whip option too but we prefer mathu as it avoids the work of cleaning the messy buttery mixie after the process :) The first stage is when the froth forms a top layer . Continue beating it for 10mins.

The second stage is when the froth slightly starts collecting in one area. You can see it in the below pictures - It may take around 10-15 minutes. Once the froth completely turns to a collective buttery mass stop beating. The buttermilk reserved at the bottom can be served with salt and hing, tastes best!

Collect the butter and wash it 2 times in water until water is clear. Allow the butter to float in water for 5mins. Your homemade butter is ready for use :) Collect it in a clean container and refrigerate it.

After started taking butter at home, have been using homemade butter for all my cooking and baking. So its homemade ghee for my little as she does not like butter :)

Aval Urundai Recipe :

Ingredients:

• Aval / Poha - 1 cup
• Powdered Jaggery - 1/4 cup
• Elachi powdered - 1/2 tsp
• Coconut grated - 3 tbsp
• Ghee - 1 tsp
• Cashews - 1 tsp broken

Method:

1. Heat ghee in a pan, add the cashews till golden brown. Set aside. Now add the coconut and roast it for 2mins without letting the color change.
2. Soak the aval in water for 3-5 minutes. Drain water and squeeze the aval to drain the extra water
3. Mix jaggery, roasted coconut, ghee fried cashews, elachi powder and mix well.
4. Make lemon sized balls, your yummy aval urundai is ready to be served.

My Notes:

• The butter keeps well for about a month or even more when refrigerated. Use a clean spoon everytime
• You can dry roast aval for few minutes, powder it and then proceed with the steps above

Can you see my kutty krishnar walking towards his favourites aval and butter in the above pic? :) Blogging has made krishnar come into our homes well in advance :)

Uppu Seedai | Gokulashtami Recipes

When I first told the idea of making seedai to amma, with a eyebrow raised she warned me not to as she had heard so many bursting disaster stories. But seeing my excitement gone down in seconds, she gave her binding book(old recipes in papers binded together to form a recipe book) and asked me to try it from there as it was well explained with tips too.After putting mittu to sleep, I read it atleast thrice and had the feeling of reading for exams yes I almost memorised the recipe and the tips :) The next day morning I made the rice and urad dhal flours ready as I wanted to make it from the scratch.

I reserved the bursting part he he I mean making seedai and the clicking part to the weekend. I put some 4 balls and went out of the kitchen for few seconds, peeped out to see whether any disaster happened. My seedais popped out beautifully with the golden color, no splits no bursts - I felt like shouting Yayy!! my first seedai attempt is a success....:) The small pebbly balls is no more a terrorist bomber to me ;)

Again a new risky recipe learnt just for blogs sake and to share it with you all and am sure this is going to be my keeper. I have given few tips in my notes section to avoid bursting, hope this helps!

Uppu Seedai Recipe :

Ingredients (For making from the scratch):

• Raw Rice -1.5 cups
• Urad dhal - 2 tbsp
• Coconut grated - 2 tbsp
• Butter - 4 tbsp
• Sesame seeds - 1 tbsp
• Salt - as required

Ingredients (For making with readymade flours):

• Rice flour(fine variety) - 1 cup
• Urad dhal flour - 2 tbsp
• Coconut grated - 1 tbsp
• Butter - 3 tbsp
• Sesame seeds - 1/2 tbsp
• Salt - as required

NOTE : If you are using the second set of ingredients(readymade ones) then dry roast both the flours (it is a must), sieve it well and follow from the step3 titled as 'method for making seedai'.

Step 1:

Method for Making rice flour :

First rinse the raw rice twice, drain water completely. Then spread the raw rice in a soft towel and allow it to dry completely for an hr.Then heat a tawa and dry roast the dried raw rice - this is to ensure that the moisture is completely gone. (You can skip this step, grind the raw rice after drying and then dry roast the rice flour)

Grind it to a fine powder and sieve it well. Add the remaining coarse powder to grind in next batch and grind it again and then sieve it. The powder should be very very fine.

Step 2:

Method for making urad dhal flour:

Heat a pan, dry roast urad dhal in a pan until only slightly golden browned and nice aroma comes. Grind it to a fine powder and sieve it once.

Method for making seedai:

Step 3:

Mix both the rice and urad dhal flour and sieve it once more to ensure they are very fine, now ur flour for making seedai is ready. Dry roast the coconut just for few seconds to remove the moisture and also sesame seeds till slightly browned(optional). Then add it with the flours, butter, sesame seeds and required salt mix it well once.

Step 4:

Add water little by little to form soft dough. Then roll small balls a round bigger than peas and arrange it in a clean cloth. Dont roll them tightly just pinch , roll them once and put it on the dry cloth. Let it sit for 1/2 an hour for the moisture to leave. Prick a single hole in each ball (optional but I did it randomly but didnt have the patience to prick for all the balls :)) with a toothpick or pin. Heat oil and add the balls in batches.





Step 5:

Keep the flame in medium and fry till golden brown and drain it in a kitchen towel or tissue paper. Dont be tempted to take it in slight ivory color then the inside would not have been cooked - my first batch was like that so I made sure to fry the rest till golden brown and they were crispy and perfect.

Allow it to cool and store it in an airtight container.

My Notes:

• Make sure both the flours are sieved well before use.
• Roll the balls very smooth but gently not tight so that no splits are shown outside.
• Do not attempt to make bigger balls, for proper cooking inside make small balls a slightly bigger than peas.

Reasons for seedai bursting and tips to avoid them:

• The moisture or air trapped inside the balls will make the seedai burst so pricking with holes with a needle and resting it in a dry cloth for 30mins were the tips given by my friends brahmin neighbour. And as its the first time I patiently pricked holes for most of the balls :)

• If the rice and urad dhal flour are not grinded and sieved well they will end up having small grains inbetween which will cause the seedai to burst. So make sure both the flours are sieved well and are very fine.

• Do not roll the balls tight, do them as smooth and gentle as possible. If you roll it tight then air bubbles might get trapped inside making them burst. Also dont expect to get perfect rounds just pinch roll and allow it to rest.

As this is the first time I am making seedai, I wanted to make it from the scratch and it was worth the effort made. I made the flours 4 days before making seedai so the flours can be made in advance too. Though my favorite is vella(jaggery) seedai, amma warned me to make uppu seedai first then proceed with vella seedai so sure to make it next time and post it here sure :)