Ingredients:

How to make it:

Soak rice for about 1 1/2 hours with enough water. Drain the water. Grind rice, brown sugar, banana, coconut and cardamom powder with very little water in a blender until smooth. It should be in the consistency of thick dosa batter. Heat kuzhi-appam pan on medium heat. Pour a teaspoon of ghee and pour the batter until full. Cook for 2 minutes. Turn to the other side carefully, add more ghee if required and cook until done.

Whenever i make sabji for rotis, i always end up with atleast a cup of left over sabji and i always find ways to use it in my next meal.
This time, i had a cup of channa masala sitting in my fridge which later turned into this delicious bread channa.
Click here for Channa masala recipe.

Ingredients:

How to make it:

Toast bread as you regularly do. If using a griddle, Spread little butter on the griddle, place bread slices and toast on both sides until brown. If using a toaster, Keep slices of bread and toast for 2-3 minutes. Spread some butter on the toasted bread. Take a slice of the bread and spread some tomato sauce. Place some channa masala, onions, tomatoes and corriander leaves. Place a slice of bread over that ( just like a sandwich). Cut across. Serve with your favourite chutney or sauce. Here it is! A simple tasty treat!

Ingredients:

How to make it:

Take pulp out of tamarind. Add sambar powder, chilli powder and asafoetida powder to the pulp. Heat oil in a pan, add mustard seeds and when it splutters, add the urad dhal, cummin seeds and fenugreek seeds. Add the onions and garlic and cook until light brown. Add the tomatoes and cook until tomatoes become soft. Add the prepared pulp, salt and sugar and bring it to a boil. Keep in a low flame and let it boil until it becomes thick and oil separates. Add the curry leaves and fried onion vadagams (sun-dried onion mix with spices). Serve hot with rice, idli or dosa.

Pressure cook Taro root. Once done, Put it in cold water for about 15 minutes. Peel off the skin and cut into pieces. Take the pieces in a bowl (with a lid), add corn flour, rice flour, chilli powder, asafoetida powder, turmeric powder and salt. Close it with the lid and shake it lightly until it gets evenly coated. Heat oil in a pan, add the mustard seeds and when it splutters, add the urad dhal and curry leaves. Add the taro root and cook on low flame. After every five minutes turn it to the other side so that it gets cooked evenly. Add a teaspoon of oil every time your turn it to the other side (if desired). Cook until done.

I'm sending this recipe to FIC: YELLOW hosted by Sunshinemom.



Sudeshna and Sriharivatsan passed me this Lemonade Award... Feeling so Cool and Refreshed! Thank you so much...

I would like to pass it to Srikar's kitchen, Mrs.Kannan and Shama Nagarajan

How to make it:

Peel the skin of the potato and slice it. In a bowl, add the corn flour, rice flour, chilli powder, asafoetida powder and salt. Add water and make into a paste. Heat oil in a pan. Dip the slices in the prepared paste and drop in the oil one by one. Fry on both sides until done. Take onto a paper towel to drain excess oil. Serve hot. Makes a nice evening snack!

I'm sending this to Srilekha's EFM-Savouries.

I'm sending my Bengali Royal Rice, Chilli-Tangerine Rice and Zucchini Rice recipes for "Harvest- The festival of rice" event.

Paal Poli

These are small fried pooris soaked in flavoured milk. One of my favourite too... My mom used to make this paal poli for festivals and i really love eating them 3 or 4 at a time.

Ingredients:

How to make it:

Add salt to the flour. Knead the flour with enough water to make a soft dough. Brush some oil on top and let it stand for 15 minutes. Make sugar syrup by adding 2 cups water with sugar and boiling it for 10 minutes. Add a little of cardamom powder to the sugar syrup. Make balls out of the dough and roll it into a round shape (like a poori). Drop in the oil and fry on both the sides. Take out and dip into the sugar syrup. Let it soak in the sugar syrup until you drop the next one. Fold into two and take onto a wide bowl. Repeat this for remaining pooris. Boil milk in a pan, add almonds, pistachios, cardamom powder and saffron. Pour this hot milk over the pooris. Let it soak for about 30 minutes. Serve hot or cold.

Medhu vada

Ingredients:

Soak urad dhal with enough water for about 2 to 3 hours. Grind urad dhal, green chillies and ginger together with salt. While grinding, be careful not to add too much water. Just sprinkle little water if necessary while grinding. Grind nicely until the batter is soft and thick. Take it onto a bowl. Add the curry leaves and black pepper. Heat oil in a pan. Take little amount of the batter onto a plastic sheet. With your hands wet, make a round shape and a hole at the center. Turn the sheet upside down onto your palm. Take out the batter carefully and drop into the oil. Fry until golden brown.

Tip: Add finely chopped onions or cabbage to the batter for extra flavour.

I wish all my dear Friends, Relatives and Visitors of Chandrabhaga, a Very Happy Pongal !
Lets pray god for a good Harvest and sufficient supply this year and let the demand for Rice and Grains disappear.

Here is my Sakkarai Pongal recipe.

Have a wonderful celebration!

Thiruvathirai is a festival in Tamil culture. Its falls in the Tamil month of Margazhi and it is the birthday of Lord Shiva. This festival is known more by the name Arudhra Darisanam than Thiruvathirai. It is the day when Lord Shiva performed the Thandava. On this day those women who follow this tradition observe partial fast. Kali and ezhukari kuzhambhu is the dish made at every home.

Herez the recipe for Kali.

Ingredients:

• Rice - 3/4 cup
• Moong dhal - 1/4 cup
• Channa dhal - 1/4 cup
• Jaggery (brown sugar) - 1 cup
• Coconut - 1/2 cup shredded
• Cardamom powder - 1 tsp
• Ghee - 2 tbsp
• Cashews - few

How to make it:

Dry roast rice, moong dhal and channa dhal. Once cooled, grind into a coarse powder (it should be like sooji). Take 1 cup of the ground powder. In a pan, add 1 cup jaggery with 2 1/2 cups water and bring it to a boil, add coconut, cardamom powder and 1 tbsp of ghee. Add the ground rice-dhal powder and keep on stirring until all the water is absorbed and it is well cooked. Garnish with cashews fried in ghee.

Yesterday was Vaikunta Ekadasi. I have already posted about Vaikunta Ekadasi Last year. Click here if you want to know more about Vaikunta Ekadasi and the neivedyam i made last year. Usually for Ekadasi we do abishekam for lord Krishna at home. Here are some photos of my Lord Krishna.

Above: Photo taken during abishekam.

This big Krishna is now 11 years old and the baby krishna is now 2 years old. The stone near Krishna is a part of govardan hill. (Bought from Govardan hill when i went for a tour to Mathura and Brindhavan).

I made some thirattu paal for neivedyam yesterday. This is an easy to make milk sweet.

• Milk - 3 cups
• Sugar - 1/2 cup
• Cardamom powder - 1/2 tsp
• Ghee - 1/2 tsp
• Almonds - few chopped for finishing
  

How to make it:

Heat milk in a heavy bottom pan and bring it to a boil. Keep it on a low flame until thick malai forms. Stir continuously until it thickens. Add the sugar and cardamom powder and keep on stirring until it comes together. Now add the ghee, and this helps to take that out easily without sticking to the pan. Take it into a bowl or when it is cooled little bit, make some balls out of it and decorate with nuts. Enjoy!

Hi everybody!
Hope you all had a wonderful start of the New Year!
I'm back to blogging after the holidays.
This is the menu i made for the new year.

Herez the Menu Card

Soan Papdi, Chips and pickle are store bought.

Semia Payasam:

Ingredients:

How to make it:

Heat ghee in a small pan, add the cashews and fry until golden brown. Switch off the flame and add the raisins to it. Take out and keep it aside. In the remaining ghee add the vermicelli and fry until it becomes light brown. Take 4 cups milk in a pan and bring it to a boil. Add the fried vermicelli, sugar, cardamom powder and cook for about 10 minutes until the vermicelli is done. Add the pachai karpooram, fried cashews and raisins. Garnish with a pinch of saffron.

Vegetable stew

Ingredients:

How to make it:

Shred coconut, grind with little water. Squeeze out the thick milk and keep aside. Grind again by adding more water. Take the second coconut milk and keep it separately. Heat oil and ghee in a pan, Add the mustard seeds and when it splutters add the green chillies. Add the onions and fry until light brown. Add the vegetables and fry for sometime. Add the tomatoes, light coconut milk and salt and cook covered until the vegetables are done. Mix the rice flour with the thick coconut milk, add it to the vegetables and cook until it thickens. Add the cashews and garnish with curry leaves.


Mysore milagu rasam

Ingredients:

How to make it:

Heat oil in a pan, add the red chillies, Pepper, Jeera, Urad dhal, channa dhal and curry leaves. Fry for a while until light brown. Once cooled, add coconut and grind into a paste. Add tomato with tamarind pulp, add more water, turmeric powder, Asafoetida powder, salt and sugar and let it boil until tomatoes are cooked. Now add the ground paste and let it boil for 5 more minutes. With a whisk, mash the cooked dhal and add it to the rasam. Garnish with corriander leaves.