Palakkad Iyer Samayal (ebook available on DC Books)

My first recipe ebook available on DC Books.

It's a three years constant effort to bring out an e-book for my readers.

Each recipe shared is tried and tested at home at my kitchen.

Happy reading!

Mango and jackfruit pachadi

When we have abundance of ripe jackfruit and ripe mangoes. I make pachadi out of it.

Today I had a few very ripe jackfruit pieces, so thought of making the jackfruit pachadi. It so happened today, I also had one raw mango and one small cup of ripe mango. I thought the ripe and raw mangoes in the same dish will balance the sweet,sour taste.

So here is the simplest recipe which you can do with a handfuls of ripe jackfruit, mango and of course a raw mango!

Ingredients

6-10 ripe jackfruit pieces, thinly sliced

A small cup of ripe mango pieces

1 sliced raw mango

1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder

1 tablespoon jaggery

1 teaspoon red chilli powder

2 green chilies slit

A pinch of heeng

Salt as required.

For the tadka

1 teaspoon coconut/gingly oil

1/2 tsp mustard seeds

1/2 tsp urad dal

1 red chilli broken

Few curry leaves

Method

In a stoneware add one cup water, add chopped jackfruit, ripe and raw mango and cook.

Add turmeric powder, salt and slit green chilies. Cook till the jackfruit is tender.

We can add the jaggery, red chilli powder, heeng and cook for a while.Off stove 

In a small pan pour a teaspoon of gingly or coconut oil, heat it, add mustard,urad dal and let it splutter. Add a broken red chilli and some curry leaves. Pour it on top of the prepared pachadi.

The pachadi can be enjoyed with rice, roti and as a side dish. 

Sweet and sour kathrikkai

Sweet and sour brinjal, photo and recipe courtesy from our cousin, Sheila.

I have always admired my mother in law's elder sister and she was one of the most celebrated grandmother in our household.

I have fond memories of Kamalu Patti as we all called her. Some of her recipes are so unique and she used to take lot of efforts to make a simple dish tastes amazing.

Last week her daughter was with us and I was more than happy to learn more dishes from her.

She was gracious enough to share her recipe and I have shared her recipe on my blog, here is the image of sweet and sour brinjal straight from her kitchen

Sweet & sour kathrikkai(brinjal)

1. Grind in mixie some roasted sesame & groundnuts, sambar powder, garam masala powder, garlic pieces, haldi powder, salt. 

2. Now slit brinjal, stuff this powder and cook brinjal in very heavy duty pan with lid after porichukotting/seasoning (tadka) &  adding water. ( Takes only few minutes if pan is heavy & shallow ).

3. Mix jaggery powder in tamarind water & add this sweet & sour sauce to brinjal, bring to boil & switch off.

( Can add pepper powder & red chilli powder from top. Gives nice flavor).

Garnish with coriander.

Sweet , hot & sour brinjal is ready.

Recipe courtesy : Sheila Shekhar

Photo courtesy :  From Sheila's kitchen

Khotte idly (jackfruit leaves basket)

Soft, spongy Idli

Ingredients

Urad dal - 1 cup

Idli rice (Ponni boiled rice/Doppi rice) - 3 cups.

Aval/Avallakki - a handful

Methi - 1 tsp

Salt - 1 1/4 tsp

Method of Preparation

Soak urad dal, rice,methi and aval in separate vessels for about 4 to 5 hours. (I soaked methi and aval with rice)Grind urad dal first for about 35 minutes in wet grinder by adding just enough water. When the batter is ready to be removed off the grinder and look for bubbles in the urad dal paste. If you see big bubbles coming and bursting  that means your urad dal is ready to be removed. The quantity will be 3 times of urad dal you added. Remove from grinder keep aside. Now add idli rice,methi and aval allow it to grind for about 12 minutes, now add prepared urad dal. Allow both the batter to grind together for about 10 minutes, Add salt. Carefully remove the batter in a large vessel. The batter will be double the quantity you grind when fermented. So make sure your vessel is big enough. We are going to allow the batter to ferment overnight for about 8 hours. 

Prepare Khote kadbu by filling idly batter in jackfruit leaves. You can make the small leaf basket if Jack fruits leaves are available.  I bought it from local market. Allow the iddly to cook for about 12 minutes. Poke a fork and check whether idly is cooked. You can serve the dish in the jackfruit basket itself in the serving plate. Serve hot with freshly prepared sambhar or chutney

Banarasi Kaddu Ke Subzi

We as a family are very fond of pumpkin, especially the one you get in winters, the fresh light yellowish greenish pumpkins. I generally buy a whole pumpkin weighing about 2 to 3 kilos.

We make Olan, Sambar,Poduthuval and Roti/Puri subzi.

Today I have tried a unique tangy-sweet Banarasi Kaddu Ke Subzi.

The most important thing about this delicious subzi is, it consists of jaggery, salt, amchoor, red chilli powder, turmeric and a whole lot of spices.

This making it a balanced tasty subzi, with khatta-meeta flavours and you will love the mildly sweet-sour-salty-spicy subzi.

Mouthwatering, isn't it?

Let's see how to make this subzi.

Banarasi Kaddu Ke Subzi

Ingredients

250 grams of green pumpkin

2 green chillies

1/2 inch of ginger

1 tablespoon of fresh coriander leaves chopped

Dry masalas

1/2 teaspoon of turmeric

1/2 teaspoon of red chilli powder

1/4 teaspoon amchoor powder

1 tablespoon of Jaggery powder

Salt as required

For the tadka

1 tablespoon of mustard oil

1/2 teaspoon of saunf (fennel seeds)

1/4 teaspoon of kalonji

1/2 teaspoon of methi seeds

2 dry red chillies

2 bay leaves

Method

Wash, peel and cut the pumpkin into cubes.

Chop ginger and green chillies.

Keep all the ingredients ready in the counter, as we may have to be quick in adding each one of them in hot mustard oil for better flavour enhancement.

In a kadai pour mustard oil, let it heat, add saunf, kalonji, methi seeds and quickly give a toss, once the spices emit aroma, add the broken red chillies. 

Now add ginger and green chillies, cubed pumpkin and mix gently.

Close the lid and cook for 3 minutes. Sprinkle little water, allow to cook further. 

We will add turmeric powder and less salt and mix well. Once the pumpkin is tender, add jaggery, red chilli powder and amchoor powder. Quickly give a toss. Close the lid for the dry masalas to mix in.

Now off the stove and finally add chopped coriander leaves. 

Service the katta meeta kaddu subzi with phulkas aur puris.

Granola

A simple treat for children is making granola using different seeds, cashews,almonds, raisins and few sweetners.

I followed a very simple method to make granola.

The ingredients used  are all easily accessible and available at home.

Ingredients

Step 1

2 cups assorted melon, flax seeds

1 cup rolled oats/ museli

10 broken cashew nuts

20 raisins

1/4 cup white/black sesame seeds

Step 2 

2 tablespoon of sugar

1tablespoon of honey

1 tablespoon of olive oil/coconut oil

5 crushed cardamoms

Method

In a kadai slow roast all ingredients by adding coconut oIl.

Once they release Aroma add sugar, honey and crushed cardamoms. Mix well.

Trasfer in a microwaveable bowl, further cook for 2: minutes. Open the microwave, mix well, cook for 1/2 a minute more. 

Allow it to completely cool and then cut into desired shape. I crumbled it and put it in a clean glass jar.

Tips

I have added very less sugar as we have used raisins and mixed fruit museli.

You can add a few thinly striped dates if you like.

Always keep the flame very low while roasting the delicate seeds. Sesame seeds are added towards the end. As it may pop up when heated.

Neiyappam and Unniyappam

Making delicious Neiyappam is an art, I have learnt to make Neiyappam from Kamalu Patti and her daughter Sheila (our cousin)

The Neiyappam will be soft and spongy inside but crispy outside.  Sheila was kind enough to share her unique recipe with me and here is it for all of us to try.

Neiyappam

1.Soak 1 cup rice for several hours.

2. Grind to a very smooth paste adding very less water. 

3. Next add 2.5 cups jaggery to batter & grind fine. Now batter becomes quite watery.

4. Take a ladle full of this batter in a pan, add little water & cook it on stove top stirring all the time, till it boils and looks like kanji/ koozhu.

5. Switch off and add this koozhu to ground batter & mix well. 

6. Add coconut pieces to batter.

7. Make neyyappams in ghee. 

Note: 

Can add 1 spoon wheat flour to batter to get soft appams.

Recipe courtesy: Sheila Shekhar

The recipe for making unniyappam

Ingredients

1 cup rice powder

1/4 cup soaked aval/poha

1/2 cup jaggery powder/1 cup liquid jaggery

2 tablespoon of jackfruit pooranam/chakka varatiyathu

5-6 green cardamom crushed

2 tablespoon of grated coconut

1/4 tsp of salt

3 ripe banana, I used 1 medium robusta, 2 elakki (you can use rasakadali/ palayamthodan)

Method

Add all ingredients in mixer jar, add 1/2:cup water and grind into a smooth batter. Pour into a bowl.

Keep it for 2 hours. 

Heat oil/ghee, make small unniyappam in the appe pan. 

Notes

Since we are adding banana, the unniyappam will be good for immediate consumption or maximum you can keep it for a day.