Whole Wheat Halwa/Godumai Halwa

Whole Wheat Halwa/Godumai Halwa

Ingredients

1.Whole Wheat Flour - 1 cup














2. Sugar - 2 cups(measured in the same cup used for measuring whole wheat flour)



























3. Cardamom powder - 1/2 tea spoon
4. Cashew nuts - Around 10 to 15 - broken into small pieces
5. Red/Orange Food Colour/Kesari powder - a pinch

6. Ghee/Clarified butter - As required ( approx. around 1/2 cup)
7. Water - About 2 cups

Procedure:

1. Add the wheat flour in a bowl.

2. Add a little water to the wheat flour and mix it till there are no lumps. Add enough water later till it reaches a liquid pourable consistency and keep it aside. Keep this as a thin liquid rather than a thick liquid. If the mixture is thick, Halwa would thicken soon, but wheat would not have got cooked well and would taste raw.

3. In a metal plate, grease some ghee/clarified butter and keep it aside

4. In a thick bottomed skillet/wok, add 1 spoon of ghee and heat it. When the Ghee melts and is hot, add the broken cashew nuts and fry till they are golden brown.

5. Take the fried cashew nuts in a plate and keep them aside.














6. In the same skillet, pour the wheat mixture and constantly keep stirring it.

7. As you continuously keep stirring, this liquid mixture would gradually start thickening. At this stage, add a pinch of food colour and keep stirring constantly. Add a little Ghee to it at regular intervals.

8. After about 10 minutes, add the sugar, mix well. At this stage, the mixture again becomes a little liquid as the sugar melts. Do not stop stirring else the mixture will start forming lumps but the wheat would not have got cooked and would taste raw at the end.

9. Add Cardamom powder and mix well.

10.After continuous stirring, the Ghee would start oozing out and wheat would start separating from the pan.

11. Add Cashew nuts and mix well. When the halwa does not stick to the pan and leaves the edges of the skillet, transfer it to the plate greased with Ghee.

12. Allow this to cool at least for 15-20 minutes.
13. Tasty Halwa is ready to serve. Enjoy!

 

Ellu Milagai Podi/Idli Podi/Sesame Seeds Chilli Idli Dosa powder

Ellu Milagai Podi/Idli Podi/Sesame Seeds Chilli Idli Dosa powder

Ellu milagai podi is a south-indian based spicy dry powder which serves as an excellent accompaniment with Steamed idlis, Dosas, Uthappam, Upma etc.,


Ingredients

1. Channa DhaléKadalai paruppu - 1/2 cup
2. Urad DhaléUlutham parupu - 1 cup
3. Dry Red Chillies - About 1 cup or approximately 30

4. Asafoetida/Hing/Perungayam - 1/2 tea spoon
5. Sesame seeds/Ellu - 1/2 cup

6. Salt - 3/4 tea spoon

Procedure:
1. Turn on the stove and heat a wide frying pan in medium heat.

2. When the pan is hot, add channa dhal to it and dry roast until the raw smell goes off and it starts turning light brown.
3. At this stage, add urad dhal and roast till they turn slight brown.
4. Turn the heat to medium to low heat and add the dry red chillies, asafoetida and roast for a few minutes.

Keep stirring and roasting well so that the dhal does not get burnt. If the heat is high, then red chillies would get burnt.
5. Transfer this roasted mixture to a bowl.
6. In the same pan, fry the sesame seeds till they start spluttering.
7. Transfer this to a separate bowl.

8. In a mixer-grinder bowl, add the roasted dhal-chillies mixture  and add salt and dry grind to a coarse powder.
9. Once they are ground, add the sesame seeds and grind them together into a coarse powder. You can also grind into fine powder if you wish.

10. Transfer to an air-tight container. Yummy idli powder is ready. This powder will last for about 2-3 months without getting spoilt.
11. Use 2-3 spoons of this powder and mix with edible oil and serve along with  Idlis or Dosas or Uthampam or Kichidi or Upma.

 

Simple Kadai Paneer

Simple Kadai Paneer

Kadai paneer is a north-indian dish which is used as an accompaniment with Rotis or chapathis or fried rice or Naan. It is a tomato-puree based semi-solid gravy with chunks of paneer and capsicum cooked with it. Tastes best when served hot!

Ingredients
1. Paneer/Indian Cottage Cheese - 200 grams

2. Capsicum/Bell Peppers - About 2 big bell peppers ( you can choose mix of green, yellow/red bell peppers)
3.Red Big Onion - 1
4. Green chillies - about 2 if they are long else 4-5 small chillies
5. Ginger piece - about an inch (peeled)
6. Ripe Tomatoes - About 3 to 31/2 tomatoes

7. Jeera/Cumin seeds - 1 Tea spoon
8. Butter - about 2-3 tea spoons
9. Oil - 2 table spoons
10. Cilantro leaves - About 1/2 a cup of chopped cilantro leaves
11. Water - As required
12. Salt- As required (approx. 1 1/2 tea spoons)
13. Chilli powder - 1/2 tea spoon
14. Coriander powder - 1 tea spoon
15. Cumin powder - 1/4 tea spoon

Procedure:

1. Cut the vegetables and paneer into cubes separately and keep aside.

2. Take the tomato pieces, ginger and green chillies ( also a handful of cilantro leaves - optional) in a blender , add about 1/2 cup of water and make into a fine paste and keep aside

3. Heat a wide pan and add 2 spoons of butter to it.

4. When the butter is hot, add jeera/cumin seeds to it and allow to splutter.
5. Add the paneer and fry it till it becomes lightly golden brown. Keep them aside on a paper towel on a plate.

6. To the same pan, add bell peppers and fry them till they are soft and cooked.Keep them on the paper towel along with the fried paneer cubes.


7. Now add the oil to the pan and fry the onion pieces till they are golden brown.

8. Once they reach golden brown colour, add the ground tomato puree and allow it to cook well.

9. When the mixture comes to a boil, add 1/2 tea spoon of chilli powder, 1 tea spoon of coriander powder and 1/4 tea spoon of cumin powder, salt and mix well. Keep the pan closed with a lid and stir occasionally till all the raw smell goes away and the mixture gets cooked well. This will take about 5-7 minutes.

10. At this point , add the remaining cilantro and butter and add the paneer, capsicum/bell pepper pieces to this mixture and stir gently till the mixture coats the paneer and capsicum pieces well.
11. Cook for 2-3 minutes with closed lid and stir again and turn off the stove.



Simple and Yummy Kadai paneer is ready to be served with hot Chapathis/Rotis/Naan/Rice.
Enjoy this recipe!

Vatha kuzhambu Recipe

Vatha kuzhambu Recipe

1. Tamarind – either lemon size black/brown tamarind or 1 spoon of tamarind concentrate/paste
2. Water – 3 cups
3. Tuvar/Toor Dhal(Split yellow lentils) – 1.5 tea spoons
4. Chana Dhal – 1 spoon
5. Fenugreek seeds /Methi – ½ tea spoon
6. Curry leaves – 1 strand(About 10-12 leaves)
7. Chilli powder – 1 tea spoon
8. Turmeric powder – ½ tea spoon
9. Finely chopped Red onions – ½ Big onion
10. Salt – as required (I use about ¾ tea spoon)
11. Cooking oil – 1 ½ spoon
12. Asafoetida – a pinch
13. Mustard seeds – ½ tea spoon
14. Sambar powder - ½ tea spoon
15. Rice powder (optional)

Steps for Preparation :

1. Soak the tamarind in water for about ½ hour and extract the pulp and add about 3 cups of water to it (Else add 3 cups of water to the tamarind concentrate/paste)
2. Add the turmeric powder, Chilli powder and salt to this mixture.
3. In a wok/Frying pan/Kadai, add about 1 ½ spoon of cooking oil.
4. Put in the Methi seeds and allow them to turn golden brown and till a nice aroma comes.
5. Add the Asafoetida and the Mustard seeds, allow them to splutter.
6. Add the Toor dhal and chana dhal and fry them till the raw smell goes away. (If you want a dark vatha kuzhambu, then add sambar powder at this stage, else add it at step 9)
7. Add the chopped onions and fry them till they turn golden brown/translucent….
8. At this stage, add the Curry leaves. This would give a nice aroma.
9. Add rice powder mixed a about 2 spoons of water ,if you want the mixture to be thick, else you can skip if you prefer the liquid to be of thin consistency
10. Now pour the tamarind water mixture in here and allow it to boil well till it becomes about 1/3rd of the original volume.
11. Add ½ tea spoon of Jaggery or sugar at this stage and close the lid for a while if you prefer a little sweet version of the vatha kuzhambu …Yummmyyy…… !
Tangy Vatha kuzhambu is ready to be taken with Hot rice !

Potato podimas

Potato/Urulai Kizhangu podimas/poriyal

This is a spicy potato dry dish famous in South India. This can be taken along with Rice or chapathi.

Ingredients

1.Potatoes -3-4 Big 

2.Green chillies - 4-5 slit length-wise

3. Dry Red chillies - 2 broken

4. Mustard - 1/2 tea spoon

5. Cooking Oil - 3 tea spoons

6. Channa dhal/yellow split lentils - 1/2 tea spoon

7. Urad dhal/Split black gram deskinned - 1/2 tea spoon

8. Curry leaves - around 10-12
9. Salt - To taste
10. Water - as required
11. Turmeric powder - 1/4 tea spoon
12. Red chilli powder - 3/4 tea spoon
13. Onion - If big, 1/2  onion or if pearl onions/shallots - 10 -finely chopped

Procedure

1. Wash the potatoes thoroughly and cut each of them into 4 quarters and boil them in a pan containing water along with 1 tea spoon of Salt.Keep the pan closed with a lid so that they get cooked well
2. Once they are cooked, remove them from water and allow them to cool in a separate plate.
3. Peel the skin from the potatoes and mash them into small pieces (Do not mash them into a fine paste. Just mash them enough to break the boiled potatoes into small pieces)
4. Add 3/4 tea spoon of salt, turmeric powder and red chilli powder to the potatoes and mix thoroughly till the pieces are fully covered with the powders.
5.Now take a frying pan and heat it. Add 3 tea spoons of cooking oil.
6. When the oil is hot, add the Channa dhal and Urad dhal and saute them till they turn golden color.
7. Add mustard , curry leaves and allow them to splutter
8. Add Red chillies , green chillies and onion and saute them well
9. Add the potato mix to the pan and mix well. Saute for a while till all the ingredients and mixed well. Cover the pan with a lid in a low flame for 5-10 minutes. Give it a gentle stir intermittently.
10. After 10 mins of cooking, the potatoes will start getting slightly roasted. Stir the mix and remove from the heat.

11. Serve this host and spicy potato podimas with Rice or Chapathi.

(A milder version of this podimas/poriyal for kids can be prepared by not adding the red chilli powder to this recipe)

Coconut Rice

Coconut Rice

Ingredients

Long grained Rice(Basmati preferable) - 1 cup

Water - 2 cups

Cooking Oil - 3 tea spoons

Grated Coconut - 1/2 cup ( or dessicated coconut/dry coconut powder)

Mustard seeds - 1 tea spoon

Channa dhaal/Split yellow lentils - 1 tea spoon

Urad dhaal/Black gram deskinned (whole or split)- 1 tea spoon

Onion - 1/2 cup diced into fine pieces

Green chillies - 5 - slit into halves/length-wise

Red Chillies(Optional) - 2 - cut into small pieces

Curry leaves - As required
Salt - To taste

Procedure

1. Cook the Basmati Rice with 2 cups of water.Add 1 spoon of Oil while cooking so that the rice grains don't stick after cooking

2. Spread the cooked rice on a plate to cool down

3. Heat a wide frying Pan/wok and add 2 spoons of Cooking oil.

4.When the Oil is hot, add the channa dhaal and Urad Dhaal to it.When the Channa dhaal turns golden brown and the raw smell goes off, add the mustard seeds and curry leaves to the oil and let them splutter.

5.Add the broken red Chillies and split Green chillies(length-wise) to the Oil and sauté them

6.Add the Onion and saute well.

7.When the onion turns golden brown add coconut and sauté well till the coconut turns to a light brown color.

8.Now lower the stove flame or put the stove in low heat mode

9.Start adding the Rice and also add salt as per tast and keep mixing the rice with the previously cooked mixture gently till it is evenly spread across the rice.Cover the mixed rice with a lid and cook in low flame for 5 minutes.

Serve it a plate with some pickles /Papad/Fryums.

 A yummy,great tasting dish is ready ! Enjoy !