Pudhina Thuvaiyal

Easy to make and super tasty.

Last night, I decided to whip up a very simple dinner for the husband and me - Matta rice kanji(rice soup). We'd picked up some broken matta rice from the Indian store and all these awesome memories came flooding back.

Making the kanji itself is really simple. Wash the rice 4 or 5 times to remove the muddy residue and then let it cook in a covered pan with a lot of water. Once it reaches your preferred consistency and is well cooked, turn off the gas, scoop into a bowl, add a bit of ghee and a pinch of salt and your kanji is ready. A simple kanji tastes awesome when accompanied with any one or all of the below:
1. A freshly ground spicy chutney
2. Inji pulli (a tangy pickle/chutney made with ginger, tamarind and green chillies)
3. Papadum
4. Any tangy/spicy pickle

I decided to make a mint thuvaiyal yesterday to go with the kanji. Here's my modified version of the recipe from Meenakshi Ammal's book

You will need:
A handful of fresh mint leaves
3 tsps of urud dal
5 dried red chillies
1 spoon of tamarind paste
1 tsp of mustard seeds
4 tsps of dessicated coconut
1 pinch of sugar
2 pinches of salt

Heat gingelly oil in a kadai. Add the red chillies, the fresh mint leaves, the urud dal, the mustard seeds and the coconut. When it turn reddish, remove from heat, and grind along with the tamarind, sugar, salt and some water.

Enjoy this with dosas, rasam rice, or like I did, with your kanji.

Vathal Kuzhambu - Modified version

It's been ages since I posted anything. Since I moved to Melbourne, I've been extensively learning how to make quick sambhar and rasam and baking a lot of cakes. Will start putting up more and more recipes soon.

Last night, I pulled open my copy of Meenakshi Ammal Samayal after ages and tried the Vathal Kuzhambu recipe using the ingredients I had at hand. It always surprises me how much I miss my mom when I cook a traditional south Indian meal. Just the initial thaalipu brings back memories of lazy Sunday afternoons waiting for amma's samayal.

Vathal Kuzhambu

You will need:
Sambhar Onions - I used the frozen kind - about 8
Red Chillies - 4
Kadugu (Mustard Seeds) - 1 tsp
Vendhayam (Fenugreek seeds) - 1 tsp
Peringayam (Asafoetida) - 1 pinch
Thuvaram paruppu (Toor Dal) - 1 tsp

Paavakai (Bitter gourd) - I used the frozen kind - 5 pieces
Tamarind - I used Priya's tamarind paste - 4-5 tbsps mixed with 3 coffee mugs of water.
Sambhar powder - 3 tbsp
Salt - To taste
Gingelly Oil - 2 karandis or 1 cup 

1. Heat 3 spoons of oil in a kadai. Add the sambhar onions and scald till slightly dark brown or until the smell of raw onions turns faint. Remove and keep away for later.
2. Heat the remaining oil in the same kadai. Add the mustard seeds, the vendhayam, the peringayam, the dal and the red chillies till the mustard seeds splutter in fury.
3. Reduce the flame and add the sambhar powder. Stir till the rawness of the masala fades a bit or till the masala turns a beautiful brownish red.
4. Add the pulli thani (tamarind water)
5. Add the previously fried sambhar onions and the bitter gourd pieces and let this broth simmer for 20 mins on a low-medium flame until the water reduces to half. You should also notice the oil on the surface and a thickness to the broth.
6. Check the flavor and consistency and either add more sambhar powder/salt/tamarind water to suit your taste.
7. Throw in a few appalams into the microwave for a minute. Crush and add to the final broth. 

Best served with hot rice and either appalams/potato chips.

Tastes best the next day. :) Can even be used as a replacement for pickles with curd rice.

Going back.

Yes. Tambrahm's ARE famous for making awesome filter kaapi. And until 2 weeks back, I couldn't be called a real iyer ponnu since I couldn't make a decent cup of coffee. But, that's all in the past now.

All it takes to become a qualified pattar is 3 cups of fresh ground coffee powder (without chicory), boiling water, a filter, some milk and some sugar.

At home the trusted blend is a 50:50 Peaberry mix without chicory. Take 3 (or 4, depending on the strength of the coffee powder. You'll know after a couple of trials) spoons of coffee powder in the upper container of the filter (the one with the holes). Cover with the weird looking strainer thing and place on top of the cup (the one without the holes). The tail part of the weird thing goes up. Add 4 ladles of piping hot water to this and cover with the lid. Boil/heat milk. Add 2 spoons of sugar to a coffee cup, add some of the freshly brewed coffee, add milk, stir and enjoy!
                                                        Image of the filter. 

A little tip

This one too, isn't from Meenakshi Ammal's book. Neither is it from me. This, I figured out a couple of years back. And, I've found it effective every single time.

If you have to heat some dish, any dish, use a fresh tadka to enhance the flavor of the dish. For example, if you're heating the previous night's dal or sambhar, you could heat the dish and then add a simple tadka with ghee/oil and mustard seeds (a slight sprinkle of hing will make things better)
If you're heating rotis, you could add some fresh warm ghee to the roti to remove the greasiness from the previous night's ghee/butter.

While adding the new tadka/ghee, make sure you don't add the same quantity as you would for the original tadka. Half a tsp would be more than sufficient.

A little bit of Mom

My mom was a genius when it came to bringing the most random ingredients together to create sinfully tasty dishes.

This one's from her recipe book. I have to thank her for this recipe. Not Meenakshi Ammal

Maambazha Pulliseri

You will need:
2 ripe or slightly over-ripe mangoes
Jeera - 2 tsps
Red Chillies - 4 (broken)
Vendhayam - 1 tsp
Urud Dal - 1 tsp
A handful of freshly grated coconut
Asafoetida -  a pinch of it
Curry Leaves

For the tadka:
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Red chillies - 2
Curry Leaves

Boil some water. When the water gets really really hot, turn off the heat and soak the two mangoes in it. Flip over after a few minutes.
Dry roast the jeera. the vendhayam, the urud dal, the curry leaves( 1 or 2 leaves) and the red chillies. Add the grated coconut and grind it some more. Leave it aside.
Roll the mangoes on the kitchen counter till you can feel all the pulp loosen up inside. Peel the mangoes (with your hand) and squeeze out all the pulp from the skin and the seed into a blender. If needed, you can wet the seed a bit and squeeze some more.
Blend the mango pulp so you get a nice even pulp without the lumps.
Add some of the juice into the coconut paste, along with a spoonful of curd and make it a nice smooth paste (not dry).

Heat 2 or 3 tbsps of oil in the heavy bottom vessel. Add some curry leaves (2 or 3 leaves). Add the coconut paste. Rinse out the mixer and add the water to the hot vessel. Bring it to boil on a simmering flame. Add the mango pulp, some salt and bring it to a slow boil, while stirring constantly.

Heat oil in the tadka laddle, add 2 or 3 broken red chillies, 4-5 curry leaves and some mustard seeds and add to the cooking broth.

Remove from flame and serve over hot white rice.

Thanks amma :)

Coconut Rice

I'm not really a big fan of coconut rice. I find it a tad too dry and chewy. I love coconut, just don't like it roasted and mixed with rice.

Nevertheless, I followed Meenakshi Ammal's recipe book and the coconut rice actually turned out pretty decent. Yaay

You will need:
Half a coconut - Grated
Mustard Seeds
Oil - about 6 tbsps
Red Chillies - 4 (broken)
Green Chillies - 3 (Slit)
I avoided the Urud Dal and the ghee
Cashew-nuts (I replaced it with peanuts) 
Curry Leaves

Heat the oil. Throw in the mustard seeds and the red chillies and the peanuts and saute for a bit. Add the curry leaves. Saute some more. Add the grated coconut and some salt and the green chillies and saute till the coconut turns red-brown. Mix with freshly cooked rice and serve hot with pappadams. It takes all of ten minutes to prepare.

Enjoy.

Mor Kozhambu

Uhm, Not like I'm here to clean cobwebs or anything but I finally cooked something after months of eating food served to me.

There was some curds leftover from a week back when mom was here and I couldn't get myself to flush it down, so I decided to look up how to make Mor Kozhambu, the Meenkashi Ammal way.

You will need:

2 1/2 cups of sour curd (If it isn't sour enough, leave it for a week and come back for it :D )
One handful of grated coconut
4 to 5 green chillies (I didn't have any, so I switched it with some dried red chillies)
1 spoon cumin seeds
1 spoon of Kadalai Paruppu
1/2 spoon Thoor Dal
1/2 spoon raw rice
(Soak the dal and rice in water for 5 minutes)
10 - 12 curry leaves
Mustard for garnishing

Whip the curd with some water for a few minutes (to make it a smooth liquidy buttermilk). Keep it aside.
Make a fine paste of the coconut, chillies, cumin seeds, some of the curry leaves and the soaked rice/dal. Add the paste to the butter milk and a pinch of salt and heat it on medium flame. Sitr continuously so the curd doesn't curdle. Bring it to boil. Add the rest of the curry leaves.
Take off flame. Heat some gingelly oil, add some mustard seeds and some broken red chillies and add the tadka to the Mor Kozhambu.

Serve with hot rice and enjoy.