Ragi Kozhukattai/Steamed Fingermillet Dumplings

Heya am back from my inlaws place just today morning.....Cudnt say how much I missed home n this blogging world. So the first thing I did when I entered was to check my mails and dashboard :) Have loads of work before I join back work on Monday...Its a kind of mixed feelings I wud say. I really am wondering how quick this 5 months flew away.....I should definitely say this blogging has been a part of my daily routine and all ur encouragements has made me find the cook in me and learn so much about food photography. But I had loads of fun, spent quality time with mittu ,that I am really feeling it hard to leave her and go back to work now, Wish I get used to the routine sooner.

This is one from my drafts....I tried Ragi kozhukattai from Madhuram's blog. It turned out to be a very simple and healthy evening snack, Do try this out! The addition of mung daal gave a nice twist to this kozhukattai.

Ingredients:

Finger Millet Flour (Ragi flour) – 1 cup

Mung Daal – a handful

Grated coconut – 1/4 cup

Powdered Jaggery – 3/4 cup

Cardamom powder – 1 tsp

Method:

1.Dry roast mung daal for 3 mins and pressure cook for 3 whistles witha cup of water. Drain ater and keep seperately,the daal shoudnt be mashy.

2.Dry roast ragi for 2mins and keep aside. Add 1/2 cup water to jaggery, heat it till the jaggery dissolves and filter the impurities.

3.Now combine roasted ragi flour,mung daal,coconut, jaggery water, cardamom powder and knead it to a dough, sprinkle water if needed.

4.Roll them into balls/cylinders and press it with ur palm. Steam in idli plates for 10-13mins and Serve hot!

I received the kreative award from Renu , Thanks a lot Renu!

And I am sending my Ragi Kozhukatati to JFI- Ragi

Peanut Ladoos & a short break!

How many of you like peanuts? Count me in first, but I dont prefer roasted instead like the boiled ones. I have seen these ladoos in many blogs n finally here I am with it. As its diwali time thought of posting a quick and easy ladoo....!

Now coming to the break : I m leaving to my inlaws place this weekend and will be on a break from blogging for 15 days.......Dont knw how I m going to manage as these days I m kind of addicted to my blog.....Meanwhile dont forget me and I am assuming that u will keep visiting my space even in my absence :) Once I return....have to join back work so am sure its gona be pretty hectic. Ok now to the recipe :

Ingredients:

Raw Peanuts - 1 cup

Jaggery - 1/2 cup

Method:

1. Dry roast peanuts in a tawa until they turn light brown. There will be nice aroma and the skin will start splitting up thats the stage you should remove from flame.

2. Remove the skin. Blend the peanuts for few seconds to form a coarse powder then add jaggery and grind it again for 5seconds till both peanuts and jaggery are well blended.

3. Set it in a plate and make small sized balls. You need no ghee for it as the oil the peanut leaves is just enough to roll them into balls.

4. Store it in a air tight container.

Happy and Safe Diwali wishes to all my fellow blogger friends! Seeya sometime sooner..!!

Kadai Bhindi Masala

I tried Kadai Bhindi from RaksKitchen with some minor modifications to suit my taste. By the time I post this recipe I've made it 2-3 times, this one is from my drafts :) Trust me, the procedure looks like a lengthy process but its quite simple and easy once u try it out!

Ingredients:

• Bhindi/Ladies finger - 12
• Onion - 1 medium sized,finely chopped
• Tomato puree - from 1 tomato
• Tomato - 1 big sized, finely chopped
• Capsicum - 1 big sized,cubed
• Ginger garlic paste - 2 tsp
• Turmeric - 2 pinches
• Dhaniya powder - 2 tsp
• Red chilli powder - 1 tsp ( according to taste)
• Green chilies - 1 finely chopped
• Cashewnut- 5 ground to fine paste with little water
• Salt as needed

To Temper:

• Jeera - 2 tsp
• Oil - 1 tsp

Method:

1.Cut bhindis into medium size pieces as in the pic. Saute them well in oil till the stickiness goes off and is slightly soft. [I didnt deep fry them, you can do that if you wish]

2.Temper jeera in a wide pan with oil. Immediately add the onions and fry till its transparent. Add ginger garlic paste and fry till raw smell goes.

3.Add the tomatoes and tomato puree,with little salt and mix well till it becomes soft and mushy.Fry till the raw smell completely leaves. Now add turmeric, red chili, coriander powders and mix well.

5.After the masalas are well blended with tomatoes add cashew nut paste and fry for a min till oil separates.Add the capsicum and fry in medium flame for a minute.

6. Now add the sauted bhindis, Adjust spice levels and salt at this stage. Sprinkle water for bhindis to get cooked well. Keep covered for 2mins and switch off! Serve hot with rotis/pulao!

My Notes : Adjust water according to the consistency of the gravy you need

Masala Paal / Masala Milk

I have had this masala paal/milk in many hotels and the one served in Vasantha bhavan is my fav! Hubby likes it so wanted to give a try at home and shud I mention abt the taste?!, simple n flavourful!

Before I go to the recipe want to thank Ambika for passing me this award :

Ingredients:

Milk - 1.5 cups

Sugar - as per taste

Turmeric powder - a pinch

Cloves -2

Cinnamon - 1/2 inch stick

Cardamom - powdered from 2

Almonds - powdered not too fine

Saffron - 2 to 3 strands

Method:

1.Bring milk to boil, add turmeric powder, cinnamon and cloves. Stir and leave it for 2mins till the aroma of spices are well mixed with the mik.

2.Filter the milk and add powdered almonds, cardamom and saffron strands.Serve hot!

Corn in Onion Sauce

Either its sweet corn or normal corn, amma likes it soo much and that was the main reason for me to try Nags recipe soo soon. Another reason being coincidentally 2 corn cobs were lying on the table that caught my sight soon after reading her recipe.

It was 4PM and here goes the conversation between amma & me:

Amma - [Just got up from a small nap] You said u'l make something with corn and give me, you even showed me the pic yest?!

Me - Yes ofcourse!

Amma - So when are u planning to make it?

Me - Its already done!

Amma - What?! So why didnt you give me, I m waiting for it....

Me - Wait ma, I am waiting for the sun to shine bright meanwhile am arranging things for clicking the pics. I've to do it before mittu wakes up no?

Amma - Hayoo u'l do all gymnastics, jump here and there to click the pics and that will take another 30mins or even more...?

Me - Dont worry I'l finish it up fast for ur sake.

Amma - Hmm lets see.....

At 4:45PM : Me - Here you have the corn onion sauce , handing over the plate to her.

Amma - Worth the wait......supera iruku but the quantity is very less.

Me - **Beaming with pride and smile** Next time I'll make in a large quantity ok?

Amma - Okay :)

I've impressed amma with many dishes but am very happy to have cooked her most fav corn today & having got her appreciation for it!!

I have tried so many times to blur the background using the camera itself but it was not upto the mark, so end up in blurring using photoshop. Finally 2day the blur came out so well(hope so....) guess now I learnt the technique of blurring using camera itself though not intentional ;)

Now coming to the recipe:

Ingredients:

Corn cobs - 1

Onion - 1 medium sized

Ginger garlic paste - 2 tsp

Curry leaves - 3 to 4

Jaggery Syrup - 2 tsp or as per taste[Dissolve jaggery in water to form a thick syrup]

Turmeric powder - a pinch

Chilli powder - 2 tsp

Jeera - 1/2 tsp

Yogurt/Curd - 3 tbsp

Oil - 3tsp

Salt to taste

Method:

1.Boil the corn for 5 vessles in cooker - I did this as I didnt want to deep fry them. I usually feel very guilty to pour more oil for frying.......exception for vadais and few other items :)

2.Slice the corn into 1 inch pieces. I used normal corn, not sweet corn so it was a very tough time to cut them so I cut only 1 slice for pic sake others I shaved them into pieces like below:

3. Grind onions to a fine paste. Now add ginger garlic paste, turmeric, chilli powder, jeera, curry leaves and jaggery syrup to the onion paste. Mix well and keep aside.

4.Saute the corn in 1.5 tsp oil for 5mins and keep aside.

5.Now add the remaining oil and fry onion paste mixture till oil seperates, it may take some 10 mins.

6.Lower heat and add curd/yogurt. Simmer only for 2-3 mins to avoid curd from curdling. Add salt and remove from fire.

The hot and sweet juicy corns were soo tasty and different! Even we had it as such :)

I usually click so many pics when I make a dish but end up picking up only 1 or 2 to post it here. But this time I liked many of my clicks than usual but restricted myself & posted only 4 of them .... So that means I've finally started liking my clicks! :)

And I'm linking this to :

Kaima Idli - Saravana Bhavan special!

I havent even heard about this kaima idli till I saw it in Lavis blog. So wanted to give a try, I followed the recipe with no major change, hmm I just omitted deep frying.

Ingredients:

Left Over Idli's: 3

Onion - 1

Tomato - 1/2

Garlic - 3 pods

Green Chilies - 1

Green Capsicum - 1/2

Curry Leaves - 5 to 6

CorrianderLeaves - 2tsp

[Dont search in mine, my stock got over so didnt use it ;)]

Oil - 2 tbsp

Chilly Powder - 1/2 tsp [Adjust according to your spice level]

Salt to taste

Lemon juice - 1 tbsp

Finely chop onion, tomato, garlic, capsicum, greenchillies and coriander leaves.

Method:

1.Cut the idli's into small cubes and saute them in oil till it becomes light brown and keep it aside. You can also deep fry the idlies which is what the orginal recipe says.

2.Drizzle oil in a pan, add mustard and allow it to splutter. Add onions,then garlic, curry leaves and saute well.

3.Add tomatoes and saute it well, so that its mashy with onions, add salt, turmeric powder and mix well.Now add capsicum, saute them well and add chilli powder. Keep stirring continuosly till its combined well.

4.Add the idlies, mix well till it combines well with all masalas.Garnish with corriander leaves, sprinkle lemon juice over the kaima idli's.

5.Serve these spicy kaima idlis with onion patchadi.

I did reserve only 3 idlis this time and the kaima idlis finished off in no time!

Valakkai Podimas

Vazhakai can be made in several ways....this podimas/puttu is a simple yet flavourful sidedish! I like this more than the usual fry. Dont mind on the spelling mistake in the pic, so lazy to work around again ;)

Ingredients:

Raw Banana -1

Onion - 1

Grated coconut - 3tbsp

Mustard seeds - 1tsp

Urad dal - 1tsp

Green chilli -1

Oil - 2tsp

Garlic cloves- 2

Turmeric powder - a pinch

Salt to taste

Method:

1. Boil the banana for 2 vessels, spread it out and keep aside

2. Drizzle oil, add mustard seends allow it to tamper. Add urad dal, green chili,garlic then onions, saute well , sprinkle turmeric powder.

3. Add coconut and saute till it turns light brown.

4. Now add the shredded vazhakai and saute well. Add salt to taste.