Idiyappam with coconut milk

It's just 20 mins left for the "Click" event hosted by Bee to be over and I'm beginning this post wondering if I would make it. So what did I chose for the event??? Rice Noodles (or) Idiyappam.

Here , I have made only a basic version of the Idiyappam. With this you can do so many things like lemon Idiyappam, Milagu Idiyappam, Curd Idiyappam or the popular one -paired with milk,cardamom and shredded coconut. It can also be served with mutton Paaya , veg kurma or stew.

My hubby helped me a lot on this.(ok ok...he did it. This is what he wants me to type) .Yesterday we did the same and I took pics. But nothing turned good. Today Mr. Perfect did it and here it is for all of you to see.

So, here is how I made it.

Ingredients:

Rice flour- 1 cup

Hot water- as needed

salt- a pinch

oil- 1 tsp

Procedure:

Heat water in a pan with some oil. Bring it to a rolling boil. Add some salt to the flour and mix well. Now add water little by little and keep kneading it until it forms a soft dough.

Then grease the inside of the Idiyappam maker or aachu with little bit of oil. Shape the dough into a little log and put it inside the aachu and press it. Steam this in idlli pan for 5 to 7 mins.

Serve it with the accompaniant of your choice. I kept mine simple. Just coconut milk, sugar ,shredded coconut cardamom and loads of love. This is the way "B" likes it, so I did it to cool him off.

PHEW!!! I made it atlast. This is my fastest posting so far.

Before I go, I have to do one more thing. Thank you guys for all those who voted for me in the last 'click' event and also to the Judges who chose me. I wanted to mention this long back but didn't do it so long. I was so happy to see that so many of you have encouraged me and helped me gain a place in the top 10. Once again.....a big THANKS!!!

Garden Omelette & Indian Omelette

Here I am as usual posting my entry at the last minute for the Omelette event hosted by Kanchana of "Married to a Desi" , an event originally launched by Nandita of "Saffron Trail". Thanks for hosting Kanchana:-)

My contribution to this event is a Garden Omelette and a simple Indian style Omelette. Unfortunately, I could not take good pictures as both the dishes were done in the last minute. My hubby waiting impatiently for his food and my son pulling my dress to get hold of the camera...Oh, I had a tough time. Anyway, we enjoyed both and here is the recipe for you to try.

Garden Omelette:

Ingredients:

Eggs- 2

milk- 1 tbsp

capsicum- 1/4 (sliced into thin strips)

mushrooms- 4 (sliced)

spinach- 1/4 cup

Kraft three cheese blend- 3 tbsp

salt- as reqd

red chilli flakes-optional

butter- 2 tsp

Procedure:

Heat pan with a tsp of oil and saute capsicum and mushrooms for 2 mins. Then add spinach and saute for a min. Remove this from pan and set aside.Beat eggs with milk. Mix salt and red chilli flakes. Melt some butter on the pan and pour the eggs. When 3/4 th done, add the sauteed veggies and cheese. Carefully close it and cook it on low flame for another 3-4 mins. I served mine with some toasted bread and jelly.

Indian Style Omellete:

Although there are so many nice varieties of omelletes available, this one is so simple and it's made atleast once in our home. It tastes so good with sambar rice or rasam rice. Most of the people must be doing this already. Still, here is mine for you to have a look.

Ingredients:

Eggs- 2

milk- 1 tbsp

onion- 1/4 (finely chopped)

green chillies- 2 (finely chopped)

corriander leaves- 1 tbsp(chopped)

curry leaves- 4 (torn into bits)

turmeric- a little less than 1/4 tsp

salt- as reqd

pepper- as reqd

Procedure:

Beat eggs with milk and turmeric until frothy. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well. Heat oil or butter in a dosa pan and pour the egg mixture on it. Spread the onions evenly on the omelette. Cook until the egg sets. Turn on the other side and cook for another 2 mins on low flame. Serve hot with rice and rasam.

Here is a peek inside...

Pongal

Pongal is a very important festival for the south Indians. You can learn all about pongal here. Actually, I made this in eleventh hour for the RCI event: Festival foods hosted by Viji who is the owner of a great blog Vcuisine.

I have posted 2 types of pongal here. Sakkarai pongal and ven pongal. My sakkarai pongal does not have that deep color as I used the light colored jaggery . Usually, I get the dark brown jaggery but I couldn't find it in the store this time.

Sakkarai Pongal:

Ingredients:
Raw rice- 1/2 cup
split moong dal- 1/4 cup
water- 2 cups
milk- 1/2 cup
jaggery- 3/4th cup elachi- 2 (crushed)
cashews- 4 (broken)
raisins- 7 or 8
coconut scrapings- 1 tbsp
ghee- 1 tbsp

Procedure:

Wash rice and dal together. Add water,milk and pressure cook for 1 whistle. Meanwhile, melt jaggery with little water and allow to cool. When the pressure is off, open cooker and mash the pongal. Add jaggery syrup to pongal according to your taste level. Heat ghee in a pan and fry elachi, cashews, raisins and coconut scrapings. Fry them and add to pongal. Steaming hot sweet pongal is ready.

Ven Pongal:

Ingredients:

Raw rice- 1 cup

split moong dal- 1/2 cup

water- 3 1/2

milk- 1 cup

salt - as reqd

cashews- 5 (broken)

jeera seeds- 1 tsp

peppercorns- 1 tsp

ginger- 2 " (crushed a little)

curry leaves- few

Procedure:
Wash rice and dal together and pressure cook it for 1 whistle with milk, salt and water. When the pressure goes off, mash the pongal. Heat ghee in a pan and fry cashews, jeera-pepper mixture, ginger and curry leaves. Add this to pongal and mix well. Serve it with sambar and coconut chutney.

Here a plate for all of you to enjoy. See you gals. Have a great weekend!!!

Urad dal vadai

Urad dal / Ulundu vadai is a very common breakfast item in South-India. With this basic vada we can make sambar vada or dahi vada. Again, this is my MIL's recipe and she is so good at it. Try it for yourself and you will surely agree with me.

I'm adding this after seeing Asha's comment. I did not know that this is a karnataka dish too and goes by the name ' Uddin Vade'. So, now I'm sending this for RCI:K.

Ingredients:
urad dal- 1/4 kg
ponni raw rice- 1 tsp
onion-2(medium size)
green chillies-2
ginger- 1"
corriander-few
curry leaves-few
salt- as required

Procedure:
Soak urad dal for 5 to 6 hours. Drain and grind it with rice to a smooth paste (like butter). Add finely chopped onions, green chillies, ginger, corriander and curry leaves. Do not add salt while grinding the urad dal. Salt should be added after the batter is ready . If not the batter will give away the water and make it runny.
Oil your palms and shape the batter into vadas. You can use a ziploc cover too instead of your hand. Slide it carefully in the oil and deep fry it. Serve it with coconut chutney.

Quick Muttai Parotta

Muttai means Egg in Tamil. This is a very common dish sold by the road side vendors. I have already blogged about this (veetusamayal.blogspot.com/2007/03/kothu-parotta-pachidi.html) , but this is a short cut way to do it. This recipe does not require chalna and can be done in 15 minutes. Good for a quick snack or dinner. I could not take a good picture as my hubby was already starving.Will update with a nice picture later.

Ingredients:

Frozen Parotta- 2

eggs- 2

onion- 3/4(medium,sliced)

ginger garlic paste- 1/2 tsp

curry leaves- few

turmeric powder- 1/4 tsp

green chillies- 2(chopped)

tomato- 1(medium,chopped)

chicken curry powder- 1 1/2 tsp

chilli powder- 1/4 tsp

pepper- little less than 1/2 tsp

salt

corriander leaves

Procedure:

Heat tawa and cook parotta as per package directions. cool and tear it into small pieces. Heat oil in kadai and fry onions,ginger garlic paste,chillies,turmeric and curry leaves. When the onion turns golden brown, add tomato and all the masala powders. Cook until raw smell goes. Move this to the side of the kadai . Crack and pour eggs in the kadai. When it is 3/4 th done, add parotta and mix well. Add required salt. Using two spatulas mince the parottas and cook till done. Finally add corriander leaves and pepper. Blend well and serve with onion raitha.

Mini Idllis with Sambar

Idllis are my husband's favorite and Dosas are mine. I would eat idlli only when it is steaming hot , just out of the idlli plates. As I have already blogged the recipe for making the batter , I'll go ahead with the making of idllis.
The batter consistency for idllis should not be thin as we do for dosas. It should be a little thick. Grease idlli plates with little oil or pam spray. Pour required batter in the idlli pan. Don't pour too much ,as the idllis will fluff and stick to the plate above it, resulting in ugly looking idllis. Arrange the plates on the rod that comes with the idlli maker. Pour some water in the idlli maker and heat until it starts to boil. Put the idllis plates in and close the idlli maker. Cook for 7 to 10 minutes. Steaming hot idllis are ready. Serve with chutney or sambar of your choice.
To get softer and fluffy idllis, you can add a little extra of urad dal to the usual ratio, prior to soaking. One of my friends has told me not to stir the batter too much after fermentation.
The sambar I have made here is so simple and a little different than traditional sambar. We do not use vegetables or tamarind pulp in this. The sambar gets it's special taste from the freshly made sambar powder. So, let's go to the recipe.

Ingredients:
Toor dal- 1 cup
onion- 1/2 (medium,sliced)
green chillies-2(slit)
hing-1/2 tsp
tomato- 1 1/2 (medium, chopped)
sambar powder- 1 1/2 tbsp
curry leaves-few
corriander leaves-little

sambar powder:
jeera- 2 tsp
methi seeds- 1/4 tsp
corriander seeds- 1 tbsp
red chillies- 4
Dry roast all and make a fine powder.

Procedure:
Heat oil in kadai and pop mustard seeds, methi seeds and little jeera seeds until color changes. Then add onions, green chillies and turmeric powder. When the onion gets golden brown , add tomatoes and cook till soft.Add sambar powder,hing and curry leaves. Then add 2 1/2 cups water or more. Bring to a soft boil. Then add cooked & smashed toor dal and bring to a nice boil. switch off gas. Finally add corriander leaves and 1/4 tsp sambar powder. mix well. Goes really well with dosas and idllis.

Here is a dosa.(My version of hotel style dosa. Hey... I guess it's not too bad for a first timer).Enjoy with sambar!

French Toast

Saturday morning. Here is my hubby in the kitchen again to cook something for me. Bread and eggs are perfect. But to satisfy my sweet tooth I wanted french toast. I really don't know why this dish got this name. If anyone does, please enlighten me.
I had the toast with blueberry fruit preserves. It wasn't very sweet. Just perfect to go with the toast. I've read in some cookbook(don't remember the name) that you can add carmalized bananas top on of the toast, drizzle with some syrup and dust with powdered sugar. But I have not done it in that way, because my husband wouldn't load me up with extra calories. So, here is the recipe.

Ingredients:
Bread slices- 4
eggs- 3
milk- 3 tbsp
sugar as required
cardamom powder- 1/2 tsp
butter- 1 tsp

Procedure:
Beat eggs with milk,sugar and cardamom powder. Heat tawa and season with butter. Dip bread on both sides into the egg mixture and put on tawa. cook on medium flame and turn when it is golden brown. Serve hot.

Onion Uthappam with Chandra chutney

Chandra Chutney...... Wondering what type of name is it? It's nothing but the name of the hotel that serves this chutney. This is very similar to onion chutney with only a small variation. Without giving a long story unlike my previous post , I'm going to the recipe straight away.

Onion Uthappam:

Procedure:

Take a laddle of dosa batter and spread on dosa tawa. Do not make it thin; uthappam has to be small and thick. Spread finely cut onions, corriander leaves and green chillies. Pour some oil on the sides. After sometime turn the dosa and cook until you get a nice golden color.

Chandra Chutney:

Ingredients:

Onion - 1 (big, rough chop)

tomato- 2 (small, rough chop)

jeera seeds- little

red chillies- 5

coconut- 1/2 cup

Procedure:

Heat oil and fry jeera seeds, onion,red chillies and tomato. When tomato turns soft, add coconut and saute for few more minutes. cool and grind to a fine paste with required salt. Fry mustard seeds, urad dal, red chillies and curry leaves. pour over chutney.

Masala Dosai

As the recipe for potato masala has already been blogged, I'm just giving the recipe for dosa. When I started to write the recipe for dosa batter I thought for a minute....Should I have to write how I made my first dosa batter? After that, would people really consider me a cook and come visit my blog? I'm not sure. But whenever my husband remembers that incident , he has a hearty laugh and loves to elaborate on my ignorance.
So, here goes the story. My husband instructed me from office on soaking and grinding dosa batter. I followed his directions exactly. When he came home that night we went shopping , had dinner and went to bed. All of a sudden he remembered about the batter and asked for it. I took him to the kitchen to show what a good job I had done.
But what happened was...He put a hand on his head and said "Enna ma panna?" , which means ' what have you done?'.
Want to know what I did? I ground the rice and dal seperately and never mixed it together. I mixed salt with both , but they were in seperate containers. I kinda had a doubt when I did the grinding," How will I make one dosa with two batters?". But I just trusted my husband's words who thought I would know what to do if he just outlines the procedure. Ha Ha Ha.... Poor Guy. He never knew what he had gotten into.
Finally he mixed both the batters and went to sleep hoping to get some dosas out of the catastrophe I made. And must I add... we ended up in having good dosas from that day onwards. THE END.


Ingredients:
Idlli rice- 4 cups
whole urad dal- 1 cup
methi seeds- 1/2 tsp
salt

Procedure:
Wash rice and urad dal seperately atleast 4 or 5 times.Soak them seperately overnight with adequate water. Add methi seeds to urad dal.
The next day grind urad dal to butter stage adding water little by little. You can tell that the urad dal is done by touching it after dipping your hands in water. The batter should not stick. Remove urad dal batter from the grinder and pour in a vessel. Next grind rice to a little coarse and fine stage. I mean the batter should not be super fine . The little coarseness makes the dosa crispy. Remove rice batter and add to urad dal batter. Mix both with required salt and blend really really well. Allow it to ferment. The batter will rise after fermenting. Add water to make the batter in your desired consistency.
For dosas you need a thinner batter than for idllis. Pour a laddle of batter on the Dosa tawa, spread it and add oil on the sides. After a few minutes turn it on to the other side. When done , Turn again and spread potato masala on one side. Bring the other side of dosa up and close the stuffing. Cook for another minute and serve with chutney.

Poori and potato masala

In India, weekend breafasts would always be something extra special. One of them would be Poori masala. Wow...gone are those days. Just getting up and being served with hot food without even entering the kitchen. I wish I could rewind time.
But now,I still get the taste of the same poori masala except that I have to get up early (which I never like to do) and prepare things ahead of time.

I wish to share my story of how I made my first dough for poori. It was one of the first few days of my marriage when I wanted to impress my husband with my cooking. It was dinner time and I started to prepare the dough not knowing any measurements of flour and water. I kept on alternating flour and water to get the right consistency until I ended up in a quantity to feed a crowd.I kneaded the dough for 45 mins and my hands started to pain. Finally my husband came home to end my misery. We threw off everything and he prepared a new dough and fed me.
Did I mention ...My husband was the one who taught me everything about cooking. He fed me for one full month after our marriage and I faithfully took notes of what he did and here I am now....confidently posting my creations after 6 years of cooking experience.



Potato Masala
Ingredients:
Boiled potatoes- 4(medium size)
onion- 1 (medium,sliced)
tomato-1 (medium,chopped)
ginger- few bits
green chillies- 5(chopped)
turmeric powder- 1/4 tsp
curry leaves
water
salt

Procedure:
Heat oil in kadai and splutter mustard seeds, urad dal and channa dal. Add onions,chillies,ginger,turmeric powder and curry leaves. Then put tomatoes and cook till soft. Now add mashed potatoes ,required salt and water. Bring to a boil. Serve with hot poori.


Poori:
Ingredients:
Atta - 1 cup
salt- as reqired
water
oil- 1tsp

Procedure:
Mix all with required water until you get a nice soft & thick dough. Take out small balls of the dough and spread it using a rolling pin. Puri has to be a little thick than what we do for chappathi. Heat oil in kadai and deep fry pooris.

Note: Now that I know how to make dough , I never measure the amount of water I use. Next time I will measure it and update it in this posting.

Vegetable Semia Upma

Ingredients:
Roasted vermicelli semiya- 1 cup
onion-1/2 (big,finely chopped)
green chillies- as required
chopped vegetables-3/4 cup
tomato-1(small, finely chopped)
fried cashews- few
curry leaves- few
corriander leaves-1/4 cup
water-1 3/4 cup.

Procedure:
Heat oil in kadai and season with mustard seeds, urad dal and channa dal. Then add onions, green chillies and curry leaves. Now add chopped vegetables like carrot,beans and peas.
saute for a few minutes. add tomato and salt. Now add water and cook till vegetables are half done. Then add semia and mix well . cover and cook till done. After some time check if more water is needed to cook semia. When all the water evaporates, remove upma from pan and serve with curd and pickle.