Cilantro Rice/Coriander Rice/Kothamalli Sadam

 Cilantro Rice/Coriander Rice/Kothamalli Sadam

Ingredients

1. Coriander leaves/Cilantro/Kothamalli - 2 cups

2. Green chillies - 4

3. Red Onion - 1/4 of a big onion or shallots - 5 , 1/4 piece of red onion chooped into fine pieces

4. Garlic pod - 1

5. Cloves - 1

6. Cinnamon - 1 small piece

7. Mustard - 1/4 tea spoon

8. Cooking oil - 2 spoons

9. Tamarind piece - 1 small piece(about 1/2 inch)

10. Butter - 1/2 spoon (optional)

11. Rice - 1 cup ( Basmati rice preferable. Par-boiled or any other flavour that you prefer can be used as well)

12. Water for cooking rice -  1.5 cups if basmati rice or  2 cups if other varieties of rice.

13. Salt - 1 tea spoon for cilantro mixture , 1/2 tea spoon for cooking rice
14. Dry Red chillies - 3

Cooking Rice

1. Wash the rice well and soak it for 10 minutes.

2. After this, cook the rice well with required amount of water (1.5 cups of water if basmati rice or 2 cups for other varieties of rice) and 1/2 tea spoon of salt and 1 tea spoon of oil.

3. Adding oil will ensure that the rice strands do not stick to each other.

4. In cooking in pressure cooker, just allow 2 whistles and turn off stove. Allow pressure to automatically reduce. Once the rice is cooked well, then spread the rice on a plate gently and allow the rice to cool down.

Procedure

1. Wash the cilantro/coriander leaves/kothamalli thoroughly.

2. Grind the cilantro, green chillies, 1/4 of red onion red or shallots, garlic and tamarind piece together, in a mixer grinder along with water.

3. When the mixture is of thick consistency remove it and keep aside.

4. In a wide wok, heat 2 tea spoons of cooking oil and add cinnamon and clove and mustard seeds and allow them to splutter.Add the dry red chillies as well. Add onion and sauté till they turn golden brown.

5. Once the mustard splutter, add the ground cilantro mixture to it , add 1 flat tea spoon of salt and fry the mixture till it cooks well and the raw smell goes off. One of the indications that it has got cooked well is that the mixture would turn colour to dark green.

6. At this stage, add half spoon of butter. This gives a nice flavour. This is an optional ingredient. Adding this would reduce the chilli's pungent or hot effect.

7. Now keep adding the rice slowly and mix the cilantro mixture with the rice gently without breaking the rice strands. Continue this till all the rice gets mixed well with the cilantro mixture.

8. Taste the rice if salt is  in it and sprinkle salt if required.

9. Simmer the stove (reduce the flame) and keep the wok closed with a lid for around 3-4 minutes and turn off the stove.

Yummy cilantro/coriander rice/kothamalli sadam is ready. Serve hot with potato fry / fryums/ papadam/pickles. Happy cooking and Happy eating !



Thattai muruku

Thattai Murukku

Rice flour - 2 cups
Split Black gram (skin removed) /Urud Dhal/Vellai udaitha ulutham paruppu - 1/4 cup
Red chilli powder - 1/2 tea spoon
Asafoetida  - 1/4 tea spoon
Salt - 1 1/4 tea spoon
Unsalted cooking butter - 2 tea spoons
White sesame seeds - 3 tea spoons
Split bengal gram - 3 tea spoons
Curry leaves - 10 (Optional)
Cooking Oil - As required
Water - As required

Procedure:
1. In a wok, dry roast the split black gram till it turns slight golden brown.
2. In a mixer-grinder, powder the roasted gram well.
3. Soak the split bengal gram in water for about 15 minutes and remove it from water after that and keep aside.
4. In a wide vessel, mix the rice flour, powdered gram flour, Red Chilli powder, Asafoetida, Salt, butter, sesame seeds, soaked bengal gram etc.Cut the curry leaves into small pieces and add to the mix(Optional).
5. Add water in small amounts to this mix and knead this well into a soft dough.
6. Split the dough into equal sized pieces and flatten each piece into a thin round spread.
7. For flattening, follow this procedure - In a flat plate/plastic sheet, apply a thin layer of oil , place a piece of dough and flatten it using hand. While removing it, remove along the edges else the dough might stick to the plate.
8. While flattening all the dough pieces, heat oil for frying in a wok.
9. Fry the flattened thattai murukku , 2 at a time, in the hot oil till they turn golden brown.

Crispy Thattai murukku is ready. This can be served as tea time snack.

Mysore rasam

Mysore rasam/ South Indian spicy rasam

Ingredients:

For dry roasting:

Split Bengal gram/kadalai paruppu - 2 tea spoons
Yellow split lentils/Red gram/thuvaram paruppu - 2 tea spoons
Whole black pepper/kuru milagu - 1 tea spoon
Cumin seeds/jeera - 1 tea spoon
Dry red chillies -2
Broken Dry coriander seeds - 2 tea spoons

For preparing rasam mix:

Ripe Tomato -1
Yellow split lentils/Red gram/thuvaram paruppu - 1/4 tea cup
Water -3 tea cups
Salt -2 tea spoons
Red chilli powder - 1/2 tea spoon
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tea spoon
Tamarind extract juice -1/4 tea cup or mix 1/2 tea spoon of tamarind concentrate paste in 1/4 tea cup
Coriander powder - 1 tea spoon 
Asafoetida - 2 pinches/ 1/8 tea spoon
Curry leaves - 4-5
Mustard - 1/2 tea spoon
Red chillies - 2 dry


Preparation procedure:


1. In a pressure cooker , cook 1/4 tea cup of yellow lentils with 1 cup of water. Allow enough whistles, say 5, till the lentils get cooked well.
Once the pressure is released, mix the lentils with a ladle till they are completely mashed.
2. Take 1 1/2 cup of water in a vessel and smash the ripe tomato in the water. Squeeze out the tomato pulp thoroughly and remove the tomato skin from the water.
3. Mix the turmeric powder, red chilli powder, tamarind juice extract, coriander powder, salt ,asafoetida etc to this tomato extract and keep the vessel aside
4. Heat a tea spoon of cooking oil in a wok, When the oil is hot, add
add all the ingredients for dry roasting and roast them till a nice aroma comes, till the grams turn light brown.
5. In a mixer-grinder, powder the roasted ingrediants coarsely and keep this aside.
6. In a wok, add 1 tea spoon cooking oil. When the oil is hot, add the mustard , add the dry red chillies, curry leaves and let the mustard seeds splutter.
7. Now add the tomato,  tamarind extract mix from step 3 and pour it carefully into the wok and heat it till the mix starts boiling.
8. When the mix starts to boil, add the powdered ingredients and let it boil well.
9. Now add the boiled lentils from step 1 to this mix and let this boil.
10. As the mix starts boiling , turn off the stove. Add coriander leaves to this and close this rasam with a lid.

Gamama Mysore rasam is ready. Serve with hot rice.