Mathan thoran, Seemachakka(Bread fruit) thoran and Seemachakka(Bread fruit) sambhar

Hello,

I know I am not regular now a days. Busy with holidays, kids. Yet thought a few dishes that I made will be new to my readers. 

By the way I am extremely thankful to all the wonderful people who visit by blog on a regular basis. A whooping 1 lakh view for "Google plus" thats awesome folks. Kindly leave a comment which will help me to communicate with my readers.

Will soon post Diwali sweets and savoury, 

Cheers for the weekend. 

Today I am sharing two dry thoran and one sambhar with mathan and Seemachakka / bread fruit.

Mathan thoran ( yellow pumpkin dry curry)

Ingredients

Mathan(Yellow pumpkin) - 250 grms

coconut - 1 tbsp

red chilli - 2

green chilli - 1

mustard - 1/2 tsp

urad dal - 1/2 tsp

oil - 1 tbsp

salt to taste

Method of Preparation

Wash peel and chop mathan into small piece. In a heated kadai pour oil add mustard, urad dal and red chilli, Once mustard splutter add mathan and mix well. Add salt and cook till soft. Grate coconut and slit green chilli. Add to mathan curry and serve hot.

Seemachakka thoran (bread fruit dry curry)

Bread fruit/seemachakka  - 250 grms

coconut - 1 tbsp

red chilli - 2

green chilli - 1

mustard - 1/2 tsp

urad dal - 1/2 tsp

oil - 1 tbsp

salt to taste

Water - 1/2 cup

Wash peel and chop seemachakka into small piece. In a heated kadai pour oil add mustard, urad dal and red chilli, Once mustard splutter add seemachakka and mix well. Add salt and half cup of watecook till soft. Grate coconut and slit green chilli. Add to seemachakka curry and serve hot.

Seemachakka sambhar (bread fruit sambhar)

Seemachakka  sambar

Ingredients

seemachakka - one cup cut into cubes
turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
salt as required

For the masala

Tuvar dal - 2 tbsp
channa dal - 1 tbsp
coriander seeds - 1 tsp
red chilly - 3
badigye chilly - 3 
curry leaves - a few
hing - a small piece
coconut - 1/4 cup
Tamarind pulp - 2 tbsp(cook and extract pulp)

Tuvar dal - 1/4 cup (wash, soak and cook in pressure cooker till soft) (optional)
ghee - 1 tsp
mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
fenugreek seed - 1/2 tsp
curry leaves a few

Method of Preparation

Dry roast the masala add coconut and roast till golden brown. Grind to a coarse paste by adding little water. 

Wash and soak tuvar dal in water. Pressure cook for two whistles. 

Wash peel and cut seemachakka into small cubes.Add little hot water in kalchatti and cook the seemachakka till soft, add turmeric,  salt. Add tamarind pulp. Add coconut paste and cooked tuvar dal, add one or two glasses of water allow the sambar to boil. In a small pan pour oil add mustard, fenugreek seed, allow mustard to splutter, add one red chilly hing and curry leaves. Pour it in the prepared sambar. 

Sweet kozhakattai/Urad kozhakattai

Hello,

Last week we have celebrated vinayaka chathurthi. Let me share with you two different varities of kozhakattai/modak. One sweet another salty. You can make this as an evening snack for children and yes your family will love it too. The simple dish takes lot of preparation. You can prepare the pooranam previous day but make sure you roll it into small ladoos and keep it. As once the poornam sets its difficult to roll!! But during festivl days we make it fresh as the kozhakattai is offered as a naivedyam/offering  to God Vinayakar/Ganesha . Making the kazhakattai need little expertise. 

Sweet Kozhakattai/Modak

Ingredients

For Tengai pooranam

Grated coconut - 1 cup
Jaggery - 3/4 cup
cardamom - 2 nos.

Method of Preparation

Heat a pan and add one table spoon of water and add grated jaggery. Allow the jaggery to dissolve, strain using a steel strainer to remove dust particles/stones form jaggery. Pour the melted jaggery back to the pan allow it to boil, Now add grated coconut and cardamom. Mix well make a soft pooranam. You will notice the pooranam is no more sticking to the pan and forms into a ball leaving the edges, and releasing oil from the freshly grated coconut. Off the stove. Bring the pooranam to room temperature. Using your hands make small balls of pooranam. Keep aside.

For outer cover

Rice - 1 cup

Method of Prparation

Soak rice for about 3 to 4 hours. Grind to a fine paste adding enough water.In a heated kadai pour two tbsp sunflower oil/coconut oil pour the rice batter and stir till its turns into a soft dough. Cool it down to room temperature. Use your hands and knead it into a very soft dough without lumps.

Now finally to make sweet kozhakattai. Keep sunflower oil in a small bowl and grease your palm with oil and make a lemon sized kozhakattai ball and press it in the moddle to make it like a small disk.. Try to make it thin and in the middle place one thengai pooranam ball. Close the kozhakattai gently by pressing the mavu around pooranam. Make sure the poornam is completely covered. Now shape it like modak. If you wish you can use the modak shaper available in the market.It gives a beautiful shape to your modak.

Use iddly vessal, arrange modak in it. Stem the modak in iddly vessal for about 10  minutes.  Open the modak and place in on a clean banana leaf. You can offer it as a naivedyam for lord Ganesha and serve hot or cold.

For urad kozhakattai (salty)

Ingredients
Rice - 1 cup
Whole urad dal - 1/2 cup
salt as required
grated coconut - 2 tbsp
green chilly - 2
ginger - a samll piece
curry leaves - a few

for tadka

mustard - 1/2 tsp
urad dal - 1/2 tsp
red chilly - 1 broken

Method of Preparation

Soak rice for about 3 to 4 hours. Grind to a fine paste adding enough water and salt.In a heated kadai pour two tbsp sunflower oil/coconut oil pour the rice batter and stir till its turns into a soft dough. cool it down to room temperature. Use your hands and knead it to a very soft dough without lumps. 

Soak urad dal for about 45 minutes, drain excess water and grind to a coarse paste by adding green chilly, ginger and curry leaves. Keep kadai and heat it. Pour oil and add mustrad seeds, allow it to crackle, now add urad dal and broken red chilly. Gently fry urad dal till it turns into golden brown add coarsely grinded urad dal paste, coconut and salt. Mix it and cook in low fire for about 3 to 4 minutes. Off the stove, cool the urad pooranam. Make small balls out of it. 

Take a big lemon sized rice mavu flatten it in your hand. Fill the urad pooranam,close it completely.  Make it into small purse shape. Stick the edges steam it same like sweet kozhakattai. Offer to God Ganesha and serve as Prasadam. 

Moong dal cake

Hello,

Let us celebrate friendship day with a healthy,tasty and nutritious sweet made with moong dal. 

Happy Friendship Day to all my readers.

Moong dal cake

Ingredients

Moongdal - 1 1/2 cup

Ghee - 3 tbsp

Sugar - 1/2 cup

cardamom pod - a few

Method of Preparation

In a heated pan add moong dal, a teaspoonful ghee and dry roast till golden brown. allow the dal to reach room temperature. In a mixer add moong dal and sugar make a fine powder out of it. add a few cardamom pods to it. Powder further till you get absolutely fine powder. Put the powder into the pan and keep very low flame. Mix it gently by adding ghee. Now transfer into greased plate  Flatten it with a laddle. Cut into desired shape garnish with broken cashew nuts. If you add less ghee you can roll into soft melt in your mouth maladdu! 

Aloo fry

Hello,

Yet another kids favorite. Aloo fries with indian flavour! My kids are very fond of it. These potatoes are much heavier and longer than the ordinary pototes that we use. 

Ingredients

Potato - 3 long and large

crushed pepper/kashmiri red chilly powder - 1 tsp

salt as required

Oil required for shallow fry

Method of Preparation

Wash peel and cut pototo into long thin stripes. wash and cook in water for about 3 to 4 minutes. Drain the water. In a flat frying pan pour sunflower oil and shallow fry potato by arranging them well so that each piece gets cooked and roast in medium flame. Remove from the frying pan and place it on a kitchen absorbant towel allow the excess oil to drain from the fried aloo. Arrange in the serving plate gently sprinkle crushed pepper/red chilly powder and salt. Mix gently and serve with sauce. 

Bisi bisi vegetable Upma

Hello,

Let me share with you the worlds best breakfast. 

You thouhgt its very easy to make Upma wait, till I explain to you the process!! Its need lot of effort and technique to make tasty yummy upma.  Over the years I have mastered the art of making tasty Upma.

Ingredients

Semolina/sooji rawa -  1 1/2 cup

Vegetables 

Onion - 1

carrot - 1

beans - a few

ginger - a big piece

green chilly - 2

curry leaves - a few

sunflower oil - 1 tbsp

ghee - 2tbsp

coconut oil - 1 tsp

mustard seed - 1 tsp

broken urad dal - 1/2 tsp

channa dal - 1 tsp

hing powder - 1/2 tsp

salt - as required

Method of Preparation

*In a heated pan roast semolin/sooji rawa by adding a spoonful of oil till golden yellow. You will get the roasted aroma when its ready. Make sure you keep the flame low so that it will not burn the rawa. Remove it on a plate.

Wait till I explain to you the level of difficulty.

* cut all the vegetables into small pieces. Cut a few curry leaves. 

* Boil 3 to 4 cups of water in a vessel.

Pour oil in the same pan in which you fried the rawa. When hot add mustard, urad dal and channa dal. When mustard spluter add chopped vegetables fry till they are just cooked, add fried rawa, salt and hing powder and saute more. Once well mixed start adding boiled water 2 cups at first, reduce the flame allow the rawa to cook. After sometime add one more cup of boiled water, reduce the flame. Let the rawa cook till soft and tender like soft flowerets. Add curry leaves. If necessary add more water and cook further. But make sure you add just a little water at a time. Once done pour coconut oil on top and serve hot with pickle and curd/sambhar. 

Read how Upma won the best breakfast award!!

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/nri/us-canada-news/Up-Up-Upma-Indian-chef-wins-100000-prize-in-New-York/articleshow/8881462.cms

Ven Pongal with Gojju

 #breakfast

#dailymeal

From my food blog

Ven pongal with gojju, fruits

Recipe link

https://jayanthisindianrecipes.blogspot.com/2014/07/ven-pongal-with-gojju.html?m=0

I have recorded jamming that was happening in kitchen with my puppy calling me to play, the sizzling  of tadka and gojju boiling. The kitchen orchestra!

A delicious and simple breakfast on a Saturday morning. Pongal is a delicious dish prepared in many Tamil Brahmin homes as a breakfast dish. Its a whole dish with lentil and rice and freshly ground spices. 



Ven Pongal

Ven Pongal

Ingredients

Rice - 1/2 cup
moong dal - 1/4 cup
ginger Julian - 1/2 tsp
pepper corns - 1 tsp
jeera - 2 tsp
hing - 1/2 tsp
broken cashew nuts - 2 tsp
curry leaves - a few
ghee - 2 tbsp

Method of Preparation

*In a bowl add raw rice and lentil together wash and pressure cook by adding salt and ginger. Now add 4 cups of water.

* In a small pan fry pepper, jeera  till the aroma releases and ground to a coarse powder.  

* In the same pan pour ghee and fry cashew nuts and curry leaves till golden brown.

Open the pressure cooker add ground spices and hing powder, mi well now add golden brown cashew nuts and curry leaves. Serve hot with Gojju.

Tomato onion gojju

Ingredients

Tomato - 2
onion - 1
green chilly - 2
ginger - a large piece

For frying
oil - 2 tsp
mustard seed - 1 tsp
urad dal - 1 tsp
channa dal - 1 tsp

Method of Preparation

Wash and chop onion and tomato, green chilly and ginger into fine pieces. In a heated kadai pour oil add mustard seed, urad dal, and channa dal. Let mustard crackle. Now add all chopped vegetables and mi well, Allow the onion and tomato cook well. Now add two cups of water and boil till the gojju thickens. Serve as a side dish for Ven pongal.

Variation : You can add brinjal to this dish but make sure the brinjal is cooked well.   

Rajma chawal

Hello,

On our trip to Jammu Kashmir two years back we had the best Rajma chawal at Khajuria dhaba, Peerah.  The most delicious Rajma cooked fresh and served with plain rice, onion, chilly and junglee anar chutney.  I made Rajma for kids. They enjoy the soft tasty Rajma on a rainy day afternoon. 

Rajma

Ingredients

250 grams Chithrawali Rajma/small red rajma (organic) - 

2 onions

2 red ripe tomatoes

3 green chilies

A small piece of ginger

2 cloves of garlic 

Dry masalas

1/;4 tsp turmeric powder 

1 teaspoon kashmiri lal mirch

1teaspoon coriander powder

1teaspoon jeera powder

1/2 tablespoon amchoor powder

1/2 tablespoon garam masala

1/2 tablespoon kasuri methi

salt to taste

Butter/ghee - 2 tbsp

1'tablespoon chopped coriander leaves for garnishing 

Method of Preparation

* Soak chithrawali Rajma overnight. Pressure cook add enough water by adding turmeric and salt cook for 3: to 4 whistles. 

*Open lid, use a mathu to gently mash. We want the rajma to be bit broken.

* Wash, peel, chop ginger, green chilies and garlic.

*Chop onions and tomatoes into very tiny pieces.

*In a thick bottom kadai or pressure pan pour ghee and add onion, garlic and green chilies and cook until it's well cooked.

*Add chopped tomatoes, cook in high flame for 4 minutes, 

*Add all dry masalas, mix well. 

*Keep  cooking it till the ghee separate. 

* Add cooked Rajma, mix well, we will cook for about 15 to 20 minutes. So that rajma is well blend with the masalas.

Add salt,( if needed, remember we have added salt while pressure cooking the rajma) and adjust taste. 

*Mix well add chopped coriander leaves. 

Serve hot with freshly cooked Basmati rice and vegetable salad. I am sure you will enjoy hot rajma on a rainy afternoon. My kids enjoy it with a bowl of yummy curd. 

Notes

*Cooked rajma should be slitely mashed for it to blend well with the masalas.

*Amchoor powder gives the tanginess wecare looking for in rajma, so don't forget to add it.

*Soaking rajma is very important, so that you save cooking time and rajma gets cooked in pressure cooker.

*Select good quality fresh rajma for best results.