Paal Kappa ( Tapioca in coconut milk)

A trending dish which has become popular these days. I have a bunch of freshly harvested tapioca from my farm, and today I thought of making this simple yet very delicious version of Paal Kappa.

We are going to use coconut milk for this recipe.

Ingredients

1 kg Kappa ( tapioca)

Milk from two grated coconut or 2  dabur coconut milk packet

2 tablespoons of Coconut oil

6 green chillies

4 red chillies

A few curry leaves

2 teaspoons of Jeera

Method

Wash and cut, peel the skin of Kappa, cut  into small pieces, remove the thick vein from it as you cut the Kappa. Thoroughly wash two or three times.

In a cooker or a large vessel add Kappa, salt and water to immerse the Kappa. Cook until soft and tender. In cooker keep it for two whistles.

Discard water from the boiled Kappa.

Take a big ladle and smash the tapioca. Remove any hard veins from it. 

In the same cooker or large vessel, remove all water from the base, pour coconut oil, add jeera and chopped green chillies, let it realise it's aroma, now add the red chillies.

Add the smashed tapioca and coconut milk. Gently blend the tapioca to the coconut milk, add some more water if it's very thick and mushy.

Once it starts boiling and thickness you can turn off the stove, garnish with curry leaves and serve hot. 

You can also serve this dish with chutney and other spicy gravies. Tastes good.

Freshly harvested tapioca from the farm.

Note

You can cook the Kappa in the second milk from coconut, but I have cooked it in water and skipped that step.

Molagai Podi

Molagai Podi

Ingredients 

Red chillies -30 out of which 15 spicy, and 15 non spicy (for colour)

1 cup black broken urad dal

1/2 cup chana dal

1/2 cup tuvar dal

1 cup black sesame seeds

1/2 cup pottukadalai

3-4 small pieces of heeng

1 teaspoon salt or as required 

Method

In a thick iron kadai fry red chillies till crispy. Keep aside.

In the same kadai fry chana dal until it releases aroma. Keep aside.

Follow the same procedure for tuvar dal.

Roast sesame seeds in very low flame,wait for the gentle crackling noise it makes, spread on a plate.

Gently heat pottukadalai and keep aside.

In the kadai add pieces of heeng and roast, wait for it to nicely get roasted and crispy.

Cool all the ingredients to room temperature.

In a mixer jar, add red chillies and  grind to a coarse powder. Keep aside.

In the same jar add chana dal, heeng and tuvar dal, powder it using the pulse mode first and in the next modes. Keep aside.

Now add pottukadalai and sesame seeds, powder and keep aside.

You can now add salt, red chillies powder, dal powder,sesame seeds and pottukadalai powder together and run in the mixer for 3 minutes. 

Cool the molagai Podi and store in airtight container for longer shelf life.

Notes

Make small quantity of molagai podi and store.

Dry roast all the ingredients separately. 

Idly sandwich stuffed with burnt baingan ka chutney

There are diffrent ways to make chutney and most of them have coconut as the basic ingredient.

Here I am sharing a recipe which goes well with idly, dosa, rice and roti. 

Ingredients

1 large brinjal/ baingan, burnt in direct fire, peeled and smashed

2 dry red chillies

2 green chillies

A small piece of tamarind

A small piece of ginger

A small piece of fresh turmeric

A bunch of coriander leaves

Two tablespoons of curry leaves

A small piece of heeng cake

Salt as required

2 tablespoons of black broken urad dal

1 tablespoon of chana dal

1 tablespoon of Gingly oil 

1/4 cup grated coconut 

Method 

In direct fire burn the baingan, remove the skin and smash it. Keep aside.

In a heated pan pour gingly oil, add black urad dal, chana dal and roast, heeng, add red chillies and green chillies, saute for a while, add tamarind pieces, cook further.

Now add ginger and turmeric, curry leaves, coriander leaves and mix together. Add grated coconut. Finally add salt and off the stove.

Take the mixer jar, add roasted dals and grind for a few minutes. Once it's bit coarse add the smashed brinjal.

Grind further to a chutney consistency without adding water in pulse mode. Adjust salt and serve with idly, dosa, rice and roti.

Kanji, chammanti

Kanji is made with red rice the recipe is very simple. Take a small cup of red rice, wash it several times. Keep aside for half an hour. 

In a pressure cooker, add rice and about 5 cups of water, 1/4 teaspoon salt and cook for 5 whistles. Check whether the rice is well cooked. 

Serve with the spicy chammanti.

Recipe for the spicy chammanti

5 shallots (small onions)

2 pods of garlic

2 red chillies

2 green chillies

2 non spicy chillies for the colour

A small piece of ginger cut into small pieces

A gooseberry sized tamarind

Salt as required

1 teaspoon coconut oil

Two pieces of salted mango

A pinch of heeng

Method

In a small pan, pour oil add shallots, garlic, green chillies, red chillies and ginger. Cook for a minute. Add tamarind,tear it into small pieces. Add heeng and salt. Cook for another two minutes. Off the stove, cool off the ingredients.

In a mixer jar add two pieces of salted mango, add all the ingredients and without adding water grind to a coarse paste. 

Serve with hot kanji. 

Note : Two tablespoons of coconut ( if you have it, it's optional, I have not added coconut

you can add coconut if you like to the mixer jar while grinding the ingredients. It gives a different flavour and texture to the chammanti.

Coriander and lemon soup

Coriander and lemon soup

Ingredients

A small bunch of coriander leaves, wash, trim, and cut into small pieces.

One green chilli

A quarter teaspoon of grated ginger.

A teaspoon of lemon juice.

Seasalt as required

Two cups of water. 

Quarter teaspoon of crackled peppercorns.

Method

In a pan pour water, add coriander leaves, ginger, chilli, seasalt and bring to boil. Off the stove, add the lemon juice, and crackled peppercorns. Serve hot.

Roasted coconut chamanti

Roasted Coconut chamanti 

1 cup grated coconut

3 to 5 dry red chillies

10 shallots( peel and trim the edges)

1 sprig curry leaves

1 tablespoon coconut oil 

A small gooseberry sized tamarind

Salt as required

Method 

In direct flame roast the dry red chillies, keep aside.

In a heated pan pour coconut oil, add shallots saute for a frw minutes, add grated coconut saute until it's turns brown in colour. 

Add curry leaves, tamarind and salt.

Mix well and turn off the flame. Let it completely cools off.

Add the roasted dry red chillies to the roasted coconut. 

Grind in a mixer jar or in a grinding stone.

Remember not to add water at all while you are grinding the chamanti.

Serve with rice or kanji

Notes

Roasting the dry red chillies gives a smokey flavour to the chamanti.

Make sure the tamarind has no seeds and is very clean, make small pieces of it before adding.

Sambar powder/sambar podi

Sambar is served with idly rosa and rice. we make different types of sambar, with different vegetables combination.

The sambar podi is the main ingredient in the sambar which makes it tasty and brings in the taste of all cooked vegetables.

Sambar powder/sambarpodi

ingredients 

Red dry chillies 8 to 10 (spicy and non spicy)

Whole coriander 1 tablespoon

Jeera 1 teaspoon

Mustard seeds 1/2 teaspoon 

Chana dal 2 tablespoon

Tuvar dal 1 tablespoon

Heeng a small piece (cut into tiny pieces)

Curry leaves a few

Methi seeds 1/4 teaspoon

Method

Dry roast all the ingredients separately. 

Coriander and Jeera can be roasted together in low flame. Make sure it's not turning into dark brown, just light brown and releasing its aroma is enough. Keep aside.

Add red chillies and gently roast them, by tapping now and then to check whether it's crispy. Don't over fry, it may turn into black and you will get a burnt smell, so without changing the colour we have to roast the chillies. Once they are crispy, keep aside.

Chana dal when roasted  realeas a nutty flavour, just a little brownish colour and you can take it from the pan.

Tuvar dal also require very gentle roasting like chana, it's pretty fast roasting dal, so keep the flame low, once done take it out.

Heeng should be pulled and split into small pieces, roast it till crispy.

Methi seeds get roasted quickly so just a few seconds and take out from the pan.

Mustard seeds should be roasted carefully, as they are very fast in roasting in a heated pan, as soon as you hear the crackling immediately remove and keep aside. 

Finally add curry leaves, in no time it will be crispy and you can crush it with hands.

Make sure all the ingredients completely cooled down.

Now you can add all the above roasted ingredients together in a mixer jar and make a fine powder. 

Note

I have not added peppercorns but used dry red chillies instead for that spiciness.