Beetroot Pachadi

I love beetroot and I can have it raw as salad or as a delicious poriyal. My daughter likes poriyal and the pink poori I make with beet juice. But hubby dear hates beetroot and whenever I prepare a dish with it, he never touches it. Sometimes, I have to make another extra side dish just for him. So when I made this pachadi from nandoo's kitchen, I thought he would not touch it. But to my utter surprise, he liked it very much. I made dal palak  and for the side I made this delicious beetroot pachadi. When mixed with curd it turned to a lovely pink and I just loved it. It was quite spicy with ginger and green chillies and DH has asked me to make it again. So thanks to Lisha for this yum recipe. This for the second day of Blogging Marathon #34, week 4 in which I am preparing from Nandoo's Kitchen. This is also one of Kerala Sadya recipes and I am extremely happy to have tried this. If you are making it hours before serving, then do not add curd to the pachadi. Add it at the time of serving else it will become sour.

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Green Gram/ Paasipayaru Sundal

For the second day of Blogging Marathon #34, it is a simple yet delicious sundal under evening snacks. My mom used to make sundal often for evening snacks. And I used to love this sundal. It is quite easy to make and I don't add onions in sundal. But if you like you can add a finely chopped onion while tempering. The boiling of the gram is the most important point while making this sundal. I usually cook it in a pan so that I will be able to see how much it has cooked. I stay away from pressure cooking as this sundal goes mushy very easily. During my hostel days, they used to give us this sundal on Thursday evening and they would serve some sugar along with it. At first I used to hate this combination but after some days started loving it. And even today when I prepare this sundal, I add generous helping of sugar along with the sundal and PK gives me a weird look. But who cares???

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Puttu Cups

This is one of mom's speciality. Nobody else makes puttu in the form of cups in our home except mom. Usually we steam cook the flour and then add all the other ingredients to get fluffy puttu but this is bit different. Mom adds all the ingredients before steam cooking and shapes cups out of the flour. Then she steam cooks it and we get delicious puttu cups. This is one of my favourite recipes from mom's kitchen. After nearly 3 months of her leaving us, I still feel that she is in Coimbatore and she is just a phone call away. Just remembering her with one of her lovely recipes. This came out beautiful. PK is not a great fan of fluffy puttu but if I make puttu urundai, he just polishes them off the plate. This is some what similar to puttu urundai and so loved it. Sruti has not yet accepted this as a snack and may be some day in the future, she may like it. But as we both liked it I didn't bother much. This is for the Blogging Marathon #34, week 3 and day 3 and I am posting under Evening snacks theme.

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Maa Vatral Kulambu - Announcing March WTML and February Winner

For this month's Walk Through Memory Lane, the host, due to some unexpected reasons couldn't guest host it. So I had to jump in. And so this month, WTML will be hosted here at Gayathri's Cook Spot and I request all my friends and readers to support the event by sending in your entries. If you are a regular reader of my blog then you will be familiar with the event I have been conducting for the past two years. This event is about recreating your childhood favourite recipes. Every month a blogger guest hosts the event at her space which has increased the popularity of this event. I am really thankful to all my friends for making this event a great success. 

Today I will share with you a speciality of mom - Maa Vatral Kulambu as the first entry of the event. Every summer, my mom prepares vatral and vadagam which lasts the whole year. One vatral is the maa vatral made with raw mangoes. The mangoes are sliced and soaked in slaine water. Then they are sun dried. This process is repeated for 3-5 days until a salty crust is formed on the mangoes. Then they are completely dried and stored in airtight jars. The gravy made with this vatral tastes delicious. Even when I am typing this post, I am feeling hungry. Just serve this gravy with rice and papad and it will surely make you crave for more. This when prepared in manchatti ( pan made out of terracotta) tastes fantastic.

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Jigarthanda/ Jil Jil Jigarthanda - Madurai Famous Cool Drink

I am living in Madurai and even after 3 years of blogging, I haven't blogged about the famous Madurai drink Jigarthanda. You can see a Jigarthanda stall at every nook and corner of Madurai. They also sell it in push carts. Though I have been in Madurai for nearly 7 years, I got to taste this drink only few months back. And then whenever I see a jigarthanda stall, I never miss it. As it is available everywhere, I never thought of making this at home. My favourite Jigarthanda is available at Murugan Idli Shop near Meenakshi Amman Temple and opposite Pothy's. When I posted Falooda recipe, one of my friends suggested that I post Jigarthanda also. These two drinks are quite similar but completely different in taste. While falooda has noodles in it, jigarthanda has badam gum/ pisin instead. Both have flavoured milk and served with icecream on top. But jigarthanda is plain without any garnishes. As you all know Madurai is extremely hot and people are always on look out for quenching their thirst and cooling thier body. This drink serves both. Badam pisin and nannari sharbat, both ingredients of jigarthanda, have nice cooling properties. The home made icecream served along with this makes it an exotic drink. 

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Baked Medhu Vada - Guilt Free Version of Medhu Vada and Thayir Vada

I love medhu vadas aka ulundha vadai, but I make it only twice or thrice a year fearing the oil in the vadas. Even hubby dear loves them so much and never forgets to eat one while visiting a tea stall. But even it is so tempting, I stay away from vadas available in hotels as they are so oily. For Pongal I made them at home nearly after a year and after just making limited vadas, I refrigerated the batter. I was longing for thayir vadai but still didn't want to use oil. Yesterday while I was thinking about the dish I need to do for the blog, a thought struck. Why not bake the vadas instead of frying. 

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Celebrating New Year With Nei Puttu

Wish You All A Very Happy and Prosperous New Year

This is the start of the year 2014 and I hope this year brings joy and success to all my readers. Hope you like the new look of my blog. Last month I have been baking like crazy and from this year on I would like to include more of regional recipes along with the bakes. I love baking but I also need to concentrate on guilt free recipes. For this New Year I have so many resolutions and one among them is to eat healthy. Though baking is interesting, it is loaded with sugar and butter which has to be avoided for a healthy living. So along with my posts on calorie loaded cakes and bakes, I will also be featuring recipes using millet. I need to stay healthy and I am planning to reduce the extra weight I added during the holidays. 

Nei Puttu is a delicious rice based dish. To make it extra delicious ghee is added to it while serving it piping hot. My hubby used to buy this puttu during his visits to Dindigul during our early stages of our marriage. The hotel near the bus stand was famous for Nei Puttu and it used to taste absolutely divine. This may seem weird after all those talks about dieting resolution but starting the new year with this regional dish would not do any harm. And also it was in my drafts and it was prepared a long time ago. This is for you to enjoy as a visual treat. Do try it to know how yummy it tastes.

Ingredients:

Puttu Flour-1 cup ( I used white raw rice to make the puttu flour)

Cardamom Powder-1 tsp

Sugar-1/2 cup or to taste

Ghee-2 tbs

Coconut-1/2 cup

Procedure:

1. In a large plate take the flour and sprinkle water.

2. Rub the flour between palms to get a soft and fluffy flour. It should be wet to touch but should not be soggy.

3. Sift it through a sieve.

4. Place it in a white cloth and steam cook for 15 minutes.

5. Transfer it on to a plate and add sugar, cardamom powder, coconut and ghee.

6. Mix well and serve the fluffy puttu immediately.

Capsicum Dhal

As I have said earlier, I like adding capsicum in many recipes. One such recipe is dhal/ paruppu. While sauteing onions I add the capsicum along with it to give dhal the capsicum flavour. It is quite easy to make and I have been keeping from posting this recipe as it is very simple. But it is apt for the theme I have chosen for this Blogging Marathon so decided to post it. Day before yesterday I made this dhal along with varagu rice and an eggplant curry. It was a wonderful combination and we had a hearty lunch. For dinner, I added sambar powder and amchur powder and converted this dhal to sambar and it went well with oats dosa. 

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Capsicum Rava Upma

If you are a capsicum lover cum upma lover like me, then this recipe is just for you. I have already narrated how much hubby dear hated upma but now the scene is changing. He has accepted the fact that his wife loves upma and is trying to enjoy it nowadays. Even Sruti has changed her taste and eats it with out increasing my blood pressure. So for the second day of Blogging Marathon #34, under Cooking With Capsicum, I selected my favourite upma. Usually I add so many vegetables but as this is capsicum special, I didn't want to add other veggies. The flavour of capsicum is prominent and it tasted delicious!!! Sruti had it with sugar and DH had it with coconut chutney. I had it as it is because didn't want to suppress the taste of upma with accompaniments. Do give it a try to know how yummy it is... 

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Rice Sevai Upma

Can you believe that I am cooking with rice sevai for the first time? Rice sevai is readily available in market and all you need to do is boil it, strain it and prepare any dish you want with it. You can make lemon sevai, puli sevai, upma and so on. You can substitute vermicelli with this rice sevai in so many dishes. Today I made a simple breakfast using this rice sevai and believe me it is so easy and was completed within 30 minutes. The only point in making this rice sevai is that you need to boil it perfectly. If you over cook they will turn mushy and I think it will not be that great. It tastes just like idiyappam but it is slightly thicker. I used the MTR brand rice sevai for this upma. I served this upma with Rajasthani Malai Mirch (recipe later) and it was absolutely delicious...

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Navrathri Day 6 - Nilakadalai Paruppu/ Peanuts Sundal

Though it is Navrathri's 8th day, I am posting the 6th day recipes. Morning I made Malai Laddu and Ven pongal and for evening, I made sundal with peanuts. Malai laddu is one of the sweets which gets so much praise in my home. Whoever I have served it with have liked it. My daughter is a great fan of malai laddu. I had lots of paneer at home, and when I was thinking about a sweet to prepare on Navrathri, I remembered this. I have made it with out the food colour so they turned out white in colour. I also shared it with our neighbour. Ven Pongal is also our family favourite. It is quite easy to make and makes a delicious breakfast. Add lots of cashewnuts for a finger licking experience...

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Navrathri Day5 - Beetroot Halwa

The fifth day has arrived and only 4 more days to go. For the fifth day of Navrathri I made beetroot halwa, Lemon rice for morning neivedhyam and White channa sundal with sesame spice paste for the evening. Yesterday as I visited my sister, I came home very tired and couldn't make any sweet for the evening neivedhyam. So made only the sundal. Today fortunately there was no power shut down and I was happy as I could do pooja with the lights on. 

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Navrathri Day 3 - Semiya Payasam

It is the third day of Navrathri festival and Sakti is worshipped on this day. Tomorrow it will be Goddess Lakshmi. For the final day of Sakti worship I made 4 dishes, two in the morning and two in the evening. For the sweet I made Semiya Payasam and for the variety rice I made Carrot Saadam. During evening I made Nei puttu and Paasiparuppu sundal. When I started my blogging I started it with Navrathri racipes. Now when I revisit my posts of the earlier days, I have a feeling that my photos are looking very bad. So when ever I get an opportunity, I need to go back and change the snaps. Today I did it with one post, Paasiparuppu Sundal. Celebrating Navrathri and sharing my dishes with you readers has been an awesome experience so far. Hope I complete this series with out any hurdles.

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Navarathri- Day 2 With Sojjappam

For the second day of Navrathri, I prepared 4 dishes, 2 for the morning neivedhyam and 2 for the evening. For the morning offering, I made coconut rice and Sojjapppam and for the evening I made green gram sundal and Puttu cups. My days are growing hectic with Sruti on holidays and celebrating Navrathri at the same time. As it was Sunday yesterday, my nephews and BIL also visited us. Sruti enjoyed the day by playing with her cousins and she was extremely happy. 

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Puttarisi Puttu Urundai

Puttu urundai made with sivappu puttarisi are very nutritious. I have given the preparation of the flour in my basics blog. If you are keen on preparing this at home, please go through the step wise pictures there. Here is the link for the recipe. I made this yesterday for the day 1 of Navrathri as an offering to Goddess Sakti during evening. This is very easy to make and quite addictive. Here is the Navarathri Day 1 Post.

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Yam Roast

During my school days my mom prepares this a lot and we were all a great fan of this simple side dish. When ever we had a simple lunch, just rasam and poriyal, mom made this to accompany rasam rice and it would be a satisfying meal. The only work in this side dish is to slice yam into tiny cubes. But nowadays with a knife and a board, that also has become very easy. And it has to be served straight from the pan otherwise the cubes will become soft. So usually mom starts cooking this only 15 minutes prior to serving time. You need to use a lot of oil to get a nice crispy roast and sometimes I bake it in oven too for a guilt free version. But this is what mom used to make and I am so happy to recreate it in my kitchen. I served it along with paruppu kootu, rasam and curd. What else do we need??? For the Blogging Marathon A-Z Series, today is the day for alphabet Y and this is what came to my mind for Y paired with regional dishes.

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