Aasaiku Arisi Upma

My husband is a great fan of thengai thogayal  and arise upma combination. Hence I was pondering the internet for a nice recipe and came across the below one. The upma was so tasty and yummy that I became an instant fan :-)

Serves 2

Ingredients:

Dry grind to a coarse mixture:

Raw Rice - 3/4 cup

Thur Dal - 2 tbsp

Red Chillies - 2

Jeera- 1/2 tsp

Seasoning:

Mustard Seeds - 1 tsp

Jeera- 1/2 tsp

Urud Dal - 1 tsp

Channa Dal - 1/2 tsp

Curry leaves - a few

Hing - 1/4 tsp

Whole Pepper - 1/4 tsp

Ginger - 1/4 tsp grated

Other Ingredients:

Coconut Oil - 2 tbsp

Cooking oil - 2 tbsp

Salt

Water - 21/4 cups

Method:

Heat both coconut and cooking oil. 

Season with ingredients mentioned above.

When mustard seeds crackle and dals turn golden brown, add water and bring it to a boil.

Add roughly ground rice and dal mixture and salt.

Simmer and close the lid and cook till rice is done (12-15 minutes).

Serve with chutney or sambar. 

Notes:

Do not grind the rice too much. Grind it just enough to break into small pieces.

When Upma is warm, you may shape it into oval balls and serve as kozhakattai.

Enjoy the Arisi upma to your heart's content. We had it with vendekaai morkozhambu and thengaai thogayal. Loved it!!!

Easy Diwali Sweet and Snack

Happy Diwali to all. As I was wondering few days back what sweet to do on Diwali day, my mom told me that she made Coconut Burfi last week and the recipe seemed simple. Usually my mom is the one who does all the sweets and so I have zero clue on how to do it. But strangely I tried it out and it came extremely well. Here goes the recipe.

Ingredients -
1. Shredded coconut - 1 cup
2. Sugar - 1 and 1/2 cups
3. Water - 3/4 cup
4. Cardamom powder - 1 tsp

Method -
1. In a non-stick saucepan add the sugar and water and let it boil for 15 min. Keep the flame in medium.
2. Then add the shredded coconut, cardamom powder and start stirring. It took me half hour to get the right consistency in medium flame.
3. After that grease a plate with little ghee and transfer this into the plate. Allow it to cool down.
4. Make cubes and enjoy :-))

Now that our mouth is filled with sweet it is customary in Tamil tradition to make some snack/savory for Diwali and my favorite is Mullu Thenkozhal.

Ingredients -
1. Rice flour - 2 cups
2. Urad dhaal - 3 tbsp
3. Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
4. Butter - 1/4 cup
5. Hing - for flavor
6. Salt - to taste
7. Oil - for frying

Tools required -
1. Thenkozhal press

Method -
1. Dry roast the Urad dhaal in a sauté pan and grind it into a fine powder.
2. Mix the rice flour, Urad dhaal powder, hing, salt, cumin seeds and butter.
3. Add water to the mixture and make it into a nice dough.
4. Check if the oil is ready for frying. You can take a little dough and put in the oil. The oil is ready if the dough raises immediately.
5. Put a handful of dough in the thenkuzhal press and press it into the oil.
6. Fry for few min until it reached a golden brown color and then strain it.

Hope you have a nice and enjoyable Diwali :-))

Saturday Night Special Dinner - Not so difficult to do!!!

It has been quite sometime since I tried a special recipe.So here I go. Tonight special is yummy veggie fried rice/pulao (name doesn't matter)!!! I enjoyed it soo much that I wanted to share it.

1. Soak 1 and 1/2 cups basmathi rice for 10 minutes. Strain it. Add 2 and 3/4 cups water and cook in microwave for 17 minutes. Take it out, allow to cool.

2. Cut beans, carrots, red pepper, green pepper into small pieces or as per convenience. Mix peas and corn pellets along with the other veggies. Add water, little bit salt, garam masala powder and microwave for 12 minutes. Strain it.

3. Cut onions into small pieces. Add oil in a cooking vessel, add Jeera (cumin seeds) for tadka. Add the onions and fry them.

4. Add garam masala, salt and turmeric powder. Add the boiled vegetables and mix well. Allow it to cook for five minutes for the flavor to set into the veggies.

5. To the above, add the cooked rice, mix well and allow it to cook for five more minutes. Add chopped coriander leaves finally and mix well.

Dinner is now ready to be served :-)) Make onion raita to go with it. Just had both and we loved it.

Manakkum Morkuzhambu

Being married into an Iyengar family it is inevitable that I come across the Morkuzhambu parupusili combo. I was never a gr8 fan of Morkuzhambu :-) but the more I had it and the more I seemed to love it. After I started cooking, I thought let me try and do the Morkuzhambu and see how it comes. I made it first for our wedding anniversary last year and it came out quite well. Next thought was why not try parupusili as well and viola I was able to do both with gr8 taste!! There are different variations and ways in which you could do Morkuzhambu but the one I have mastered for now is as below -

Ingredients -
1. Thick Curd/Yogurt - 1 cup
2. Water - 1 and 1/2 cups (For those who like it watery feel free to add more water)
3. LadiesFinger/ Okra - 10 pieces (Other veggies like pumpkin, chow chow, Eggplant/Kathrikaai can also be used for thaan)
4. Curry Leaves
5. Mustard Seeds
6. Oil - 1 tbsp
7. Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp 
8. Mustard Seeds - 1/4 tsp
8. Salt to taste

To Grind - Soak in very little water for 5 to 10 min
1. Thoor Dhal - 2 tsp (thuvaram paruppu)
2. Chana Dhal - 2 tsp (kadalai paruppu)
3. Coriander Seeds - 2 tsp (dhania/kothamalli varai)
4. Cumin Seeds - 1 tsp
5. Red Chili - 3
6. Green chili - 1
7. Little bit of ginger for taste and digestion

Method -
1. Add water to the curd and make it into Mor which is the base for our kuzhambu, based on the consistency you want to have. Add the turmeric powder to the Mor
2. Fry the Okra until they shrink and become dark drown in color.
3. Grind the soaked thoor dhal, chana dhal, coriander seeds, cumin seeds, red, chili, green chili and ginger into a fine paste.
4. In a small saucepan add a little oil, mustard seeds and curry leaves. Once the mustard seeds start popping, add the Mor, fried Okra, salt and the paste and Mix well.
5. Take it off from the stove once it starts to boil. Delicious Mor Kuzhambu is now ready to be served.

Now coming to the Beans Parupusli which goes very well with the Vendekaai Morkuzhambu :-)

Ingredients -
1. Chopped Beans - 2 cups (Other veggies like green pepper/capsicum, vaazhaipu, kothavaranga can also be used)
2. Oil - 1 tbsp
3. Mustard Seeds - 1/4 tsp
4. Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
5. Salt to taste

To Grind -
1. Thoor Dhal - 3/4 cup (Soak in luke warm water for an hour)
2. Red Chili - 8

Method -
1. Boil the beans in water containing salt and turmeric powder in stove or microwave.
2. Grind the Thoor dhal and Red chili with salt.
3. Place the ground paste in idli plates and steam it in cooker for 20 minutes.
4. Wait for the steamed dhal to cool down them crumple it into as many small pieces as possible.
5. In a sautepan/kadai heat the oil and add the mustard seeds. Once the mustard seeds start to pop, add the crumpled dhal and beans and fry for 5 minutes.
6. Hot parupusili is now ready to be served.

Mor kuzhambu and parupusili combination is one of those superb delights for the tongue and pretty good from the health part as well as u don't use tamarind as the base. So Relish and Enjoy!!!