Traditional Cooking ! Pepper Rasam

Hi Friends, Now we are going to see the recipe of the pepper rasam. It is very easy to prepare. You can enjoy the taste of the hot pepper rasam in this cold weather.

The ingredients for 4 people
Tamarind lemon size. soaked in water and squeez the juice of it. Nearly 2 glass

salt as required, turmeric powder 1/4 teaspoon,
Hing powder 1/2 teaspoon, tomato medium size one finely chopped.

Pepper seeds 2 teaspoons and Cumin Seeds 2 teaspoons. grind it in a mixie jar and put it aside.

For tempering: Ghee 2 teaspoons, Mustard seeds, Curry leaves and one red chillie.

Some people are adding garlic to this rasam. But we are going to prepare it without garlic only.

Normally I used to make rasam in Tin vessel only. But some are not accustomed to it. Take a vessel/heavy bottom and pour the tamarind juice, add salt as required, turmeric powder and hing powder. Let it boil till the raw taste of tamarind goes away. Add the finely chopped tomatoes also. Boil it till the tomatoes become soften. Add the required water to the rasam. Heat a pan and add the 2 teaspoon ghee. After the ghee boiled add mustard seeds, hing powder if required, curry leaves and red chillie. Now add the powdered pepper and cumin  masala to the boiling rasam in the stove and pour the tempering items into the rasam. Switch off the stove and serve the rasam piping hot. Will add photos afterwards.

Hi Friends, After a looooooooong time! :)

Hi All,

Due to my illhealth cannot continue writing this blog posts. My laziness also a prime cause for this. Now I am going to give you a very simple recipe. A simple breakfast for you. Simple and easy making. Bread Uppuma.

Many of us used to eat bread toast, bread sandwich and many other recipes by using bread. Here is one such recipe. Bread Uppuma. For this you have to toast the bread slices first.  Toasting prevents the chunk of bread from turning into mushy. And for this you have to choose brown bread also even though we can prepare it from white bread or from pav bread.

For four persons you can need the followiing ingredients.

Bread slices  6 to 8 (brown bread is preferred)

onion big finely chopped
2 tomatoes finely chopped
salt as needed

For tempering
green chillies 2 to 4 according to your taste
cashewnuts  10 to 12 numbers or peanuts one table spoon according to your taste
cooking oil 2 tablespoons
Mustard seeds, urad dhal, chana dhal, Hing powder, curry leaves, ginger grated or finely chopped
Turmeric powder 1/2 teaspoon
chilli powder 1/2 teaspoon or according to your taste
sugar one teaspoon
water one cup
coriander leaves finely chopped

Toast the bread in a toaster and cut them into small pieces. I took 4 slices only.

bread pieces waiting for the kadai

Onion, green chillies, ginger, curry leaves and tomato. I took only one tomato.

Here I put the ingredients for tempering in the kadai. Mustard seeds, urad dhal, chana dhal, peanuts, curry leaves

onion and sugar added. Saute them till the onion turned golden brown and added tomatoes also. After adding tomatoes I have added turmeric powder, chillie powder and hing powder. Saute them till the tomotoes turn soft.  Let the raw smell of the chillie powder goes off and add the one cup water now. Let it boil for 2 minutes. Add salt as required.

cook the mixture till it becomes thick.

Now add the bread crumbs and finely chopped coriander leaves. Mix it well with the mixture.

The bread crumbs should not be broken. Now your bread uppuma is ready to eat. Add one lemon juice if needed and serve hot. 

How to make sambar with sambar powder

Hi All! welcome! Now we are going to see the sambar preparation with sambar powder. No. No. No powder prepared in large scale. Just for one or two days. Instant powder. This is only traditional method. In olden days there was no flour mill. So people used to make all powders by hand grinding only. Now-a-days the hand grinding machines are out of date.

    

This is for dry grinding in those days.


 

This two are used for wet and dry grindings.




This first one used to grind soaked grains.  The second one used to clean and powder the grains. Now a days we are using mixie and its jars only. So we are going to prepare sambar powder in a mixie jar.

Ingredients for preparing sambar powder. For 4 persons



Fried the ingredients

2 or 3 Red chillies,
Dhania 2 tables spoons
chana dhal 2 teaspoons
Methi fenugreek seeds half teaspoon
Hing one small piece or you can use Hing powder directly.
Cooking oil for frying the ingredients.



powdered ingredients

First put the asafoetida and remove it. Place it aside. Then put red chillies and roast it. Do not burn it. It will spoil the taste of sambar. Then add dhania and fry till it comes golden brown,Then add chana dhal, and methi seeds. Turn off the stove and let the ingredients to cool. After 10 minutes make it a nice powder. Keep it aside.



Tamarind soaked in water. I took a lemon size tamarind. Drum stick for sambar

Now for sambar:  Tamarind Juice  not much thick or strong. 2 cups



This is the correct consistency of the tamarind juice extracted.

vegetables for sambar. You can put drumstick, egg plant, pearl onion, radish, white gourd, yellow gourd,  etc. Some may put cauliflower and potato also. It is upto your taste. Here I took drumstick which was available with me.

Any vegetable of your choice for sambar, mixed also will go.

salt to taste, turmeric powder one teaspoon. You can add it  while boiling Arhar dhal.



cooked arhar dhal

Arhar dhal cooked softly one cup. you can add turmeric powder and hing while cooking arhar dhal.


Arhar dhal or Thur dhal for sambar one cup I took

For tempering cooking oil,
Mustard seeds, fenugreek seeds, one red chilly, one green chilly, curry leaves, finely chopped coriander leaves.




frying the vegetable. you can fry pearl onion also.



vegetable cooking in the stove


Now take a kadai or heavy bottom pan. Add one teaspoon oil and fry the drum stick. Then add some water and let it cook for 5 minutes. After that add the tamarind juice, reuired salt and boil till the smell of tamarind gone. Now add the already cooked dhal with the sambar powder prepared. Boil it for another 5 minures. Watch the consistency. It should not very thin or very thick.  Now put another kaday in the stove and add cooking oil. Add mustard seeds, and fenugreek seeds, Let it crack and add red chilly and green chilly simultaneously and add curry leaves. Pour them in the sambar and garnish with coriander leaves.

sambar boiling                                                        boiled and completely cooked and tempered sambar





Now your sambar is ready to eat with hot rice or idli or dosa or adai! Enjoy!

Hi All!

Hi All,

Be ready for new posts. I am going to give you all about traditional cooking. Will come and meet you all very soon. 

Thavalai Vadai

Hi All,How are you? Today we are going to cook a traditional item. It is famous in southern parts of Tamilnadu especially in Madurai and Thirunelveli. In olden days, say some 40,50 years ago, the newly weded couple were welcomed with this Thavalai vadai and wheat Halva, prepared by the MIL of the bridegroom. It was a tradition to welcome the bridegroom with thavalai vadai! My mother often cooked this item for evening tiffin, especially on Sundays. The thavalai vadai, vellai appam and kara vadai are Madurai's famous snack items. Now we are going to see how to prepare Thavalai vadai!

Ingredients: with this you can cook for 4 to 6 people.

Parboiled rice  One Cup
Raw rice           One cup
Thur Dhal       1/2 cup
Bengal gram   1/2 cup
Urad dhal        1/4 cup
Red chillies     3,4 numbers according to your taste
green chillies for grinding 2 and one green chilly to be cut into small pieces. Remove the seeds from the chillies.
ginger one inch piece cut into small pieces
Asafoetida  powder one full teaspoon or a piece of solid soaked in water
Salt to your taste
coconut pieces chopped finely into small pieces two table spoons
Cooking Oil for frying
Mung dhal 1/4 cup clean it and soak it before grinding started

Tempering
Coconut oil 2 teaspoons
Mustard seeds,
Splitted urad dhal each one teaspoon
Curry leaves
Coriander leaves chopped finely



Clean and soak the rice separately. Clean the dhals and soak them also separately. Soak urad dhal separately. Soak them for 3, 4 hours. If you want it in evening then soak them 9.00AM in the morning and grind them at 2-00 PM. So you can make Thavalai vadai about 3-00PM or 3-30 PM.

After soaking for 3 or 4 hours filter the extra water from the rice. Put Red chillies+green chillies+salt +asafoetida in a mixie jar. Grind them into pieces. After that add the rice and grind it coursely. Now add the dhals after removing excess water. Grind it till the dhals are coarsely grinded. Remove the batter and change to a bowl and keep it aside. The batter should not be so thick or so thin. Now remove the excess water from the soaked urad dhal and grind it in the same jar. Grind the dhal till the bubbles come out. Then remove the batter from the mixie jar and add the batter to the already grinded rice+dhal batter.



Now heat a kadai in a stove and pour 2 teaspoons of coconut oil. Add mustard seeds, urad dhal, finely chopped green chilly and ginger and curry leaves. Remove them from the heat and pour into the batter. Now add the already soaked Mung dhal after removing the water. Before adding it drain it for 5 minutes. Add finely chopped coriander leaves.  Mix them all very well with a spatula. Keep it for 5 to 10 minutes. The batter should be in dropping consistency.



Now heat a kadai and pour the required amount of cooking oil to deep fry the thavalai vadai! When the oil started to hot bring down the flame in to medium heat and drop the thavalai vadai batter with the help of a scoop spoon.   Any medium sized spoon will be helpful. Deep fry it till it is golden brown. Enjoy your thavalai vadai with coconut chutney.

Mango Rice!

Hi all!  This is mango season and I come up with a recipe from raw mango! This is very simple. You can prepare this like lemon rice also. But in this recipe I am going to give you some new taste. Now prepare the ingredients for the Mango rice. This is for 4 people.

One Raw mango Peel the skin and grate the mango using a box grater. Keep it aside.





   

For grinding

2 or 3 green chillies ( you can add or reduce according to your taste.)

Ginger one inch piece

grated coconut two table spoons

Jeeragam /cumin seeds one teaspoon



For tempering

Gingley oil (it is good to use gingley oil for this. If not available use any edible oil)

Mustard seeds one teaspoon

Urad dhal one teaspoon

chana dhal one teaspoon

Peanuts  one tablespoon full

hing (use elaborately if powder) if it is hard then take a pepper size

Turmeric powder

Red chilly 2 nos.

Kadi paththa (curry leaves)

cooked rice 2 cups



 Now grind the green chillies, ginger, cumin seeds with the grated coconut. Keep it aside.



Heat a kadai and pour the oil. When the oil begins to become hot add mustard seeds, and urad dhal, chana dhal one by one. Let them get brown. Add the peanuts also. Make sure the heat is in medium. Roast the peanuts till they become light brown. Add red chillies and curry leaves. Now add the grinde paste and stir well.  While stirring add turmeric powder and hing powder. If the hing is solid add it in the beginning before adding mustard seeds. Now gently stir the paste for 30 seconds. Now add the grated mango and salt. Fry it for atleast two minutes till the oil comes out. The mango will be well cooked and tender.


Just keep some quantity of mango paste aside.

Now remove the kadai from the stove and add the cooked rice and stir gently.  Mix it till  rice get yellow in colour. Put it in the stove and cook for another one minute. Turn off the stove.



I prepared Kadi (without cooking) for the side dish of this mango rice. To prepare Kadi instantly you can fry 2 red chillie, hing one small piece, thur dhal one teaspoon, chana dhal one teaspoon, dhania seeds 2 teaspoons, curry leaves, coconut grated two teaspoons.

Fry all the ingredients in  cooking oil . Let it cool. In the meantime take one cup of curd and gently churn it and make sure there is no lumps. Add turmeric powder and salt. Now grind the fried ingredients into a smooth paste and mix well with the curd already prepared. Temper with mustard   methi and curry leaves. Do not heat it in the stove. You can take it as it is. This will match with any thuvaiyal rice, lemon rice, podi rice also.  In tamil we used to call this as "pachchai morkuzampu" that means without heating the gravy. If you do not have coconut then you can prepare it without coconut also. Just fry the chillies and dhals with hing and curry leaves and grind it to a smooth paste and mix well with the curd. After tempering it is ready to eat.

Keerai Vadai! (spinach or greens)

Hi all,

We will make keerai vadai now. Vadai is a famous snack in Southern parts of India and people or making vadai with the mixed dhals or in Uradh dhal only. Now we are going to learn how to prepare keerai vadai with urad dhal.Mostly Keerai vadais are tea time snacks.  Usually we use arai keerai or siru keerai for making keerai vadai! But now people are living all over the world and they won't get arai keerai or siru keerai! You can easily get spinach or other green which is called as amaranth. (Green and red leaves are seen)



amaranth: Photo Courtesy: Google



arai keerai Photo Courtesy: Google



siru keerai Photo Courtesy: Google

Now the ingredients for keerai vadai approximately for four persons

One full Cup Urad dhal

one teaspoon Thur dhal, one teaspoon Bengal gram.

Split Urad dhal one table spoon

cooking oil for deep frying

Clean and wash the dhals in a bowl and soak them for atleast 2 hours. Some are using whole white urad dhal. Some are using split urad dhal. But we are going to use both of them. Just wait and see.

For grinding

2 green chillies and 2 red chillies according to your taste

salt as required, hing (optional) You can use hing powder also.

While the dhals are soaking you can clean and cut the greens.  Keep it aside. Wash and soak the split urad dhal before grinding the soaked dhal.

Now draing the soaking water and add the dhal in the mixie jar along with chilles and salt. Add a pinch of hing. Grind it to a smooth paste. Normally you cannot add water while grinding. If necessary add one or two teaspoons.  The texture should be thick. Now add the split urad dhal and grind it coarsely. Or you can put the dhal directly to the grinde texture and mix them well. This is the main secret of crispy and crunchy vadas.  Some people like to add the green chillies along with the chopped keerai. But it may be very hot to young children who wants to take one or two vadai! So it is better to grind the chillies with the dhal itself.

Now add the keerai and mix well. If you like onion cut one onion into small pieces and add them also. Normally while adding keerai we used to avoid adding coriander leaves or curry leaves. But it is optional.




Heat the oil in a kadai till it is hot. Now shape the vadais with your hands by dipping them in water. You can shape it in your palm or in a plastic sheet or in a plantain leaf which one is easy for you. Take a gooseberry size of batter and flatten it as a thin round.  Put a hole in the centre. Gently remove the vada and add it to the heating oil. Put the vada one by one by the same method.




Let the vada cook till it become really golden brown in colour. The vadai should be crispy. It will take some time to cook. So patiently wait for them to cook at least 5 to 6 minutes for one batch. When the vada is really golden in colour remove it from the stove and put it in a bowl. Serve hot with coconut chutney, Pudhina chutney and Masala Tea.