Naankatai

Men with large aluminium trunks would go house to house selling this lovely aromatic biscuit or cookie. When I was a kid, I would ask my mother to buy this cookie along with another flaky puff called " khaari biscuit". Naankatai as it is called, comes in different varieties and aroma. This simple cardamom flavoured Naankatai is melt in the mouth and takes very few minutes to bake.

Ingredients :

Maida / All purpose flour - 1 cup
Ghee - 1/2 cup
Powdered sugar - 1/2 cup
1 tsp. cardamom powder
1 pinch soda bi carbonate

Method :

1. Mix ghee, cardamom powder, soda and powdered sugar with hand in a one side circular motion till sugar is dispersed in the ghee and it froths to a light colour.

2. Add maida little by little to the ghee and sugar and mix to form a dough.

3. Pre-heat the oven to 360 degrees Farenheit ( 180 degrees Celsius ).

4. Make small balls of the dough and place on a cookie sheet with some gap between the balls and bake for 12 - 15 minutes.

5. As soon as you remove the naankatais from the oven, they will be soft to touch. Once they cool down they will harden. Enjoy these Indian cookies once they are cooled.



This recipe goes to "Baked sweets and Chocolates" hosted by Mythreyee of Paajaka Recipes.


Krishnaarpanam

Vegetable Kurma in Corn Gravy

Burnt Corn or Butta as it is called in Hindi was the favourite during the rainy season and that too eating on the streets from the Butta wala with some salt and lemon was something that we enjoyed during our days. But in US, I could see many varieties of corn and the recipes are endless to say, but still miss the butta from India.
As the corn in US is sweet tasting, and people at home are spicy lovers, I had to think of a recipe which makes this sweet corn spicy. Kids did not like the texture of the whole corn and I had to camouflage it in some form. I thought of grinding the corn and using it in substitute of coconut and yesssss!!! the idea was brilliant enough for anyone to guess it.



Ingredients :

To be ground to paste :

1 cob corn
2 cloves garlic
1 tsp. fennel seeds ( saunf )
2 cardamoms ( elaichi )
2 cloves
3 - 4 green chillies ( increase or decrease according to heat )

Other ingredients :

2 cups Mixed vegetables ( cauliflower, carrot, beans, green peas ) chopped into desired size
1 medium size onion chopped
2 tomatoes chopped
few curry leaves
1/2 tsp. mustard seeds
1/2 tsp. jeera
1/2 tsp. turmeric powder
1 tsp. oil
Salt to taste

Method :

1. Remove the kernels from the corn with hand and grind it with other ingredients given for paste. As the corn has a lot of moisture, no need to add water. Alternatively you can grate the corn using a regular grater and grind it along with the other ingredients.

2. Heat oil in a pan, add the seeds and allow to splutter. Add the onion, curry leaves and tomatoes and turmeric powder and saute well for a few mins. The onion and tomato gets cooked in the juice of the tomato itself.

3. Once the onions turn transluscent, add the ground paste and saute for a while. You can add a tbsp. or water if the mixture sticks to the bottom of the pan. Saute for a minute or two.

4. Add the vegetables, salt and 2 cups of water and mix well. Cover with a lid and cook till the vegetables are cooked and the gravy is thick. Serve hot with rotis, puris or any pulav.

This recipe does not use much of oil and coconut is ommitted unlike in other kurma recipes. Hence a very healthy side dish.


This recipe goes to "Cooking For Kids Event" hosted by Sharmi of "Neivedyam"




Krishnaarpanam

Beetroot Pulav

Beets in any form were not acceptable by me in my childhood days. It was only that after I got married I was introduced to a lot of veggies by my hubby as he is a person who cannot live without vegetables. I gradually started liking many vegetables which were shunned by me as a child and now I too cannot cook everyday without any of the veggies. Luckily my children also like vegetables and beetroot is one of their favourites.
Recently I came upon this pulav in Supriya Raman's Ode2Food blog and gave it a try with some variations here and there and all at home were happy with it.

Ingredients :

1 large beetroot or 2 medium (washed, peeled and cut into cubes of any size )
2 cups Basmati rice ( washed and soaked for 30 minutes )
1 cup chopped onion
2 - 3 cloves garlic
3 - 4 green chillies
1/4 cup chopped mint leaves or coriander leaves
1 tsp. Kitchen king masala
1/2 tsp. pepper powder
1 tsp. jeera
2 normal green cardamom pods / 1 black cardamom
4 cloves
1 small cinnamon
2 bay leaves
1 tbsp. ghee or butter or oil ( I mixed 1/2 ghee and 1/2 oil )
Salt to taste
4 cups water


Method :

1. Heat oil/ghee in a pressure pan, add the bay leaves, cloves, cinnamon, cardamom and jeera. Once they get fried, add the chopped garlic, mint/coriander leaves, onions, green chillies and saute for a few minutes till the onions turn transluscent.

2. Add the chopped betroot and saute for a while till the betroot is half cooked. Add the drained rice, pepper powder, kitchen king masala, salt and mix well.

3. Pour the measured amount of water and give a stir and cook covered without the weight for 10 - 15 minutes on medium low till the water evaporates and the rice is cooked.

4. Serve hot with pappad and raita.

Krishnaarpanam

Lasooni Palak Phulka

Green chapathi as it is lovingly named by my kids, this chapathi is very nutritious also. I added garlic to this recipe, but one can omit and ginger can be used instead of garlic.

Ingredients :

1 cup spinach leaves ( washed )
2 cloves garlic
3 - 4 green chillies
2 cups whole wheat flour
Salt to taste
water to knead and grind

Method :

1. Grind the spinach, garlic, green chillies with little water into a smooth paste.
2. Add this paste to the wheat flour and some salt and knead into a soft chapathi dough. If you find the dough to be watery, then add little more wheat flour and knead / if the dough is very hard, then add some water. Keep in the fridge for 15 minutes or so for the flavours of the spinach and the garlic to blend with the flour.
3. Remove from fridge and make small balls out of the dough and roll out into chapathis.



4. On a medium hot tava, put one rolled out chapathi and cook on one side till half done.




5. Flip over and cook till the other side has brown spots on it.

6. Remove the chapati from the tava and put the undercooked side over direct flame and puff up the phulka. ( In case of coil stove or glass stove top , use a splatter screen to put the phulka over direct flame or heat ) ( See the fig. )




7. Smear with ghee and serve hot with any side dish or with curd and pickle.

Splatter screens can be found in Wal-Mart, Target, K-mart, Bed Bath & Beyond and any store in the US which has household things.




Krishnaarpanam

Appam for Karthigai Deepam

It was the month of Karthigai according to Tamil calendar and the New moon day of this month marks the birthday of Lord Karthikeyan the six heads god. People in Tamil Nadu light lamps in their house and make Pori urundai which is jaggery balls using puffed rice and appam a jaggery sweet. There are many appam recipes using rice / rava / wheat flour / maida. I had made appam using wheat flour and its quick and easy preparation.

Ingredients :

1 cup wheat flour ( any atta flour or whole wheat flour can be used )
1/2 cup rice flour
2 ripe bananas
1/4 cup grated coconut ( optional )
1 tsp. cardamom powder
1 cup jaggery ( powdered )
pinch of salt ( to bring out the sweetness of appam )

Method :

1. Grind coconut, bananas, cardamom and jaggery in a mixie or blender.

2. Add the paste to the flours and a pinch of salt. Add just enough water to make into a batter of bajji or dosa batter consistency. The batter should be pourable, but thick and not watery.

3. Heat oil at medium in a round bottom kadai and when it is quite hot, pour a tablespoon or a small ladle of the batter in the center of the kadai and fry till both the sides puff up and become brown in colour. ( Alternatively it is easy to make in a appam kuzhipaniyaram pan. As I did not have one, I made in a normal kadai ).


Krishnaarpanam

Broccoli Paruppu Usili

After knowing the health benefits of Broccoli which is an unknown veg. in India, I found it very difficult to get it into my daughter's diet. She refused to take it in any form that I tried to make. I came upon this Broccoli Paruppu Usili in Saffron Hut's blog and wanted to give it a try. Paruppu Usili and Moar Kuzhambu are the all time favourites of my family. I was surprised that my daughter liked this paruppu usili and she said " Mummy, if you want me to eat broccoli, then this is the way that you should make it". Anyway, atleast there is some way for me to get this wonderful vegetable into her.

Ingredients :

1 pound broccoli ( 2 medium size florets )
3/4 cup channa dal
1/4 cup moong dal
3 - 4 red chillies
1/4 tsp turmeric
Salt to taste

For seasoning :
1 - 2 tsp. oil
1/2 tsp. mustard seeds
a few curry leaves
1/2 tsp. asafoetida


Method :

1. Soak the channa dal, moong dal and red chillies together in water for nearly 45 mins. to an hour. Drain the water completely and grind the dals and chillies along with turmeric powder and salt to a coarse paste. Steam this paste in a steamer or you can microwave the paste covered in a glass bowl for 3 - 4 minutes. Cool and crumble with your fingertips.
2. Wast the broccoli and chop into medium size florets and microwave along with salt and a handful of water for 3 mins. on high or till the florets are cooked.
3. In a kadai, heat oil, add mustard and when it splutters, add the asafoetida and curry leaves and then the dal paste and saute till all the water from the dal is evaporated.
4. Then add the cooked broccoli without any water and mix well and saute for a few minutes. Serve hot with rice and moar kuzhambu ( buttermilk stew ).



Krishnaarpanam

Butter Murukku

Murukkus / Chaklis are the all time favourites of any Indian and each and every region of India has its own recipe of making it. South Indians have a variety of murukkus and one of them is the "Butter murukku" which is a melt in the mouth after just a few bites.

Ingredients :

1 1/2 cups rice flour
1/4 cup besan ( chickpea flour )
1/4 cup chutney dal / pottu kadalai / Dalia powder ( chutney dal powdered in the mixie )
2 tbsp. butter at room temperature
1/2 tsp. asafoetida
1/2 tsp. jeera / sesame seeds
Salt to taste
water as required
Oil for deep frying
Murukku press


Method :

1. Mix the rice flour, besan and the chutney dal powder and salt.
2. Add the butter and mix with fingertips till the butter is dispersed in the flour evenly.
3. Add asafoetida, jeera / sesame seeds and mix and sprinkling little water at a time mix the flour together to form a soft dough so that the dough can pass through the star hole of murukku press easily.
4. Put some quantity of the dough into the murukku press and squeeze out the dough into the hot oil to make murukkus and deep fry on a medium heat till light pink in colour .

Some Hints :
1. Add just enough water to the dough till all the flour comes together and a dough is formed. The dough should be just right so that it is squeezable in the press, not very hard and not very soft.
2. If you want a perfect chakli shape, then shape the dough on a wax paper or onto a flat ladle and then leave in the oil. If no time, then squeeze directly into the oil and dont bother about the shape. It will still taste good.
3. Remove the murukkus when they are light pink in colour and dont wait till golden brown as it will spoil the taste of it. See that 90 percent of the hissing noise or the bubbles in the oil have stopped.


Krishnaarpanam