Diwali Recipe-- Rava Laddoo!

Hi All,

Now we are going to see some easy make sweet recipes for this Diwali. Of Course it is late.  But I have some other work also. So bear with me.  Now we will prepare Rava laddu for this Diwali in two easy ways.

For 20 laddus (lemon size) We require

Rava   one cup

Sugar one cup

grated coconut one cup

Cashewnuts 15 to 20 numbers

Raisins or Kishmish 15 to 20 numbers

Ghee  2 tablespoons

Cardamom powder one full teaspoon

Milk minimum 1/2 cup

Now pour one tablespoon ghee in a heated kadai and fry the rava till it changes colour and you will get a delicious smell also.  Keep it aside.

Grind the sugar in a mixie jar and keep it aside.

Now heat the remained ghee and roast the cashewnuts and raisins till the raisins puff up. Mix them with the rava.  Now fry the grated coconut in the same kadai for two minutes.  Add the fried rava and mix them well.  Slowly add the sugar also and fry for some more minutes.  Add the cardamom powder and switch off the fire and slowly add the milk little by little simultaneously mixing the ingredients well. If you are able to make laddoes then stop the milk. Let it cool for a minute.  After the heat becomes bearable make laddoes out of it.  Store them in a airtight container but you cannot keep it for a week or so because we add milk, so it can be stored for only 3 days and keep it in the refrigerator.

Another method:

Rava one cup (peni rava is suitable one)

Sugar one cup

cardamom powder one full teaspoon

cashewnuts and raisins 20 numbers each

Ghee one full cup.

Fry the rava in a kadai and grind it in a mixie jar to a coarse powder.  Grind the sugar in to a nice powder.  Mix the grinded rava and the sugar powder and add cardamom powder and mix well  with your hands.  Pour one tablespoon ghee in a kadai and roast the cashewnuts and raisins till the raisins puff up.  Now heat the remaining ghee well till the smoke comes from the ghee.  Switch off the fire and pour the hot ghee in the mixture and stir well with a long spatula.  Mix it well for two minutes.  Let it cool for another 5 minutes and make balls out of it. Your rava laddo is ready to it and you can keep it atleast for 15 to 20 days.

All of you Happy Diwali.

Totally different one!

We can see a different type of kuzambu now.  For this preparation the following ingredients are needed.  For four people

Ingredients:

Tamrind  lemon size (extract juice from the tamarind)

Salt to taste

Turmeric powder

Kuambu podi or Sambar powder 4 teaspoons

Onion small 50 grams (if it is small onion well and good. if the small is not available cut one big onion into pieces)

Eggplant  2

Murungai kai  one or two

Tomato  mediyum size 2  cut them into pieces


For tempering:

Mustard seeds,

Thur dhal,

Bengal gram

Urad dhal

Methi seeds

each 1/2 teaspoon

Green chillies 4  cut them into halves

curry leaves

Red chilly  one or two  cut in to halves

Hing or Asafoetida (optional)

Oil for tempering one small cup (gingely oil is good; if not available any cooking oil)

Heat the pan and add oil.  Now add mustrad seeds, the three dhals and methi seeds.  Add green chillies and red chillies, add curry leaves and hing.  Now first add the small onion or the already cut big onion and fry for some time.  Then add the murungkai kai, after frying for a minute add the eggplant. Fry for one or two minutes and now add the tomatoes.  While frying add the kuzambu podi/sambar powder. Fry for a minute and add turmeric powder and tamarind juice.  Now add the required salt.  Let it cook for some time.  When the kuzambu becomes thick add a small piece of jaggery, if necessary. It is optional. Remove it from fire and eat it with Ven pongal, Hot Rice, Arisi Uppuma and Rava Uppuma. It will so delicious.

Fenugreeks/methi kuzambu

Ingredients:

Tamarind  lemon size

salt to taste

Haldi powder 1/4 tea spoon

Tempering:

Eggplant or Murungkai kai

Curry leaves,

Mustard seeds,

urad dhal 1/2teaspoon

Bengal gram 1/2 teaspoon,

Arhar dhal  1/2 teaspoon

Red chillies 2 numbers for tempering,

Hing or Asafoetida

Oil for tempering one small cup

For frying and grinding:

6 Red chillies

one table spoon Thur dhal

one tea spoon Methi seeds

Fry the Thur dhal, methi seeds and red chillies in the kadai. Grind it  coarsely in the mix jar.  Mix the Haldi powder and grind it for a second.  Put it aside.

Heat the kadai or a non stick tawa.  Pour the oil.  Add Mustard seeds, all the three dhals one by one and add hing and curry leaves.  Add red chillies and the vegetables.  Fry for 2 minutes.  Extract juice from tamarind. It should be 4 cups.  Add the tamarind juice  and add salt.  Let it cook for some time or till it become thick.  When the oil begins to come out add the grinded powder according to your taste. Let it boil for a minute and remove from the fire. It will be very tasty with hot rice, and Curd bath.

You can add grated coconut also in the kuzambu while eating. Or add a small quantity of jaggery while boiling. 

cabbage koottu

Now we are going to see some koottu. Koottu in tamil and may be gravy in english. Raswali sabji in Hindi. For four persons you will need

Ingredients:

Chopped cabbage   4 cups

Moong dhal            two table spoons

coconut shredded   two table spoons

Red chillies             2 Nos.

Rice flour or Pottukadalai/fried chana  2 tea spoons

salt to taste

jeera                     one tea spoon

Turmeric Powder     1/4 tea spoon

For tempering

Oil two teaspoons

mustard seeds,,  one teaspoon

splitted urad dhal  one teaspoon

Red chilly  one number

Curry leaaves, coriander leaves


Grind the coconut with red chillies, rice flour and jeera into a fine paste. Keep it aside.  Now wash the moong dhal and cook it  adding water in a pressure cooker or in a non stick kadai till it becomes soft.  Add the cabbage and add turmeric powder. After the cabbage is half boiled add salt.  When the cabbage is cooked add the grinded paste and let it boil for two minutes.  Remove from the fire and temper with mustard seeds, urad dhal splitted, One Red chilly and Curry leaves.  Garnish with coriander leaves.  You can eat this kootu with rice, vathal kuzambu rice and sambar rice.  There are one or two more types in preparing this koottu.  You can prepare koottu in this method with the following vegetables.

White gourd(pooshani kay white)

Chow chow

beans

carrot

brinjal

Pumpkin

You can also prepare this koottu by using a pressure cooker.  Put all the ingredients, that is, moong dhal, cabbage, turmeric powder in a cooker pan and add water. Pressure cook it for 3 whistles. Open the cooker after the pressure subsides. Put it in fire and add salt and let it boil for 2 minutes.  Now add the grinded paste and boil for another 3 or 4 minutes.  If it is very thick add some water.  And temper it and garnish it as told previously.

Badam and Cashew Nut Kheer!

Kheer from Badam and Cashew.  It is very simple. This is for 4 to 6 people.

Take one small cup badam

cashewnuts 10 to 15 numbers

Raw rice two table spoons

carrot one small size grated

coconut shredded two table spoons

cardamom powder 1/4 teaspoon

Kishmish /Raisins one table spoon

ghee two table spoon

sugar two cups

milk 250 grammes

Soak the rice separately. Wash soak the badam, cashewnuts separately for minimum 3 hours. After 3 hours remove the skin from the badam.  Put the badam, cashewnuts, grated coconut, grated carrot and soaked rice.  Grind it coarsely. The grinded paste will just look like the Chirotti Rava.  Mix one or two cup water. Boil the milk till it will come to 100 millilitres.

Now put a non stic pan in a stove and pour one tablespoon ghee. After the ghee melted pour the batter and stir well   with a ladle/spatula. You can stir the batter for 15 minutes.  Add more water if required. When the batter starts to thicken, add sugar. Stir for some more minutes.  Let it boil for another 20 minutes. When it thickens, add the already boiled milk. The consistency should be thick. Remove from fire and add cardamom powder.  Heat the remaining ghee in a pan, and add the raisins/kishmish. Add them in the kheer. Serve hot or cool.  It will be very tasty.

Come and eat adai! :))))

 Now we are going to learn how to prepare adai.  It is a spicy dosai in a way. But very delicious. There are two or more types in making adai. Will tell you one by one.

First we will prepare with boiled rice. Here the ingredients are given for four persons.

Ingredients:

Boiled Rice 1 1/2 cup

Raw Rice  1 1/2 cup

Thur Dhal  One cup

Bengal gram 1/2 cup

Urad dhal    1/2 cup

Red chillies 6 to 10 numbers according to your taste.  You can increase or decrease the numbers.

Green chillies 2 or 3

Asafoetida (a must)

Salt to taste

curry leaves and coriander leaves for garnishing.

Oil for roasting

Wash and clean the rice and mix the two rices and soak it in water. Wash the dhals also.  Mix them all and soak them in water.  Thur dhal will give you colour and crispness for adai.  So increase the quantity or decrease according to your taste. After four hours it will be ready to grind.  Put red chillies, green chillies, salt and asafoetida powder and grind them first. You can grind it in a mixie or grinder.  It is your choice. After the chillies powdered add the rice first. Grind it coarsely. Now add the  soaked dhals.  It is convenient to grind in a grinder.  If the grinder is not available then grind it in a bigger mixie jar. After adding the soaked dhals grind it. It should not be a fine paste. It should be grinded coarsely.  Then remove and transfer the batter in to a bowl and add, curry leaves and coriander leaves.  Then you can prepare adai by spreading the batter in a tawa.

Heat the tawa and grease the tawa or non stick tawa. Then pour a ladle full of batter and spread the batter by swirling the tawa.  The consistency should be pouring and thick. After one side is cooked you need to cook the other side also. It can be suitable with Aviyal, Mor kuzambu, Vathal kuzambu and sambar. We will the preaprations of the above in another post.


Next Ekadasi adai:

This is especially for Ekadasi vratam.  Some people won't take boiled rice on ekadasi vratham. So this is for them, and we will also try it for a change.

Ingredients:

Raw Rice 2 cups

Thur dhal one cup

Red chillies, 6 Nos.

green chillies 2 Nos

Salt to taste

Asafoetida

Cooking oil

If you do not take red chillies or green chillies on ekadasi day then

Black Pepper one teaspoon

Jeera or cumin seeds one teaspoon

Ginger one inch

If you are preparing with black pepper and jeera then asafoetida is not necessary.

curry leaves and coriander leaves finely chopped

Wash and clean the rice and dhal and mix them together and soak it in water.  Let it be soaked for 2 or 3 hours. Then grind it coarsely adding Red chillies, green chillies, salt and asafoetida or black pepper, cumin seeds, salt and ginger. The consistency should be thick.  Add curry leaves and coriander leaves.

Heat the tawa and grease it with some oil.  Then dilute the batter by adding some water.  Pour the batter by swirling the tawa. Add the cooking oil. After one side cooked let the other side also cooked. Serve hot with jaggery powder, butter. Because people who is fasting on ekadasi would not take aviyal, vathal kuzambu and sambar.


Next also Raw rice adai.

 But you can add all dhals including moong dhal.

Raw rice 2 cups

Thur dhal 1/2 cup

chana dhal 1/2 cup

urad dhal    1/4 cup

Moong dhal  1/4 cup

Mix the rice and dhal together.  Wash, clean and soak them in water for atleast 4 hours.

Red chillies 6 to 8 according to your taste

Green chillies 2

salt to taste

Asafoetida

Curry leaves and coriander leaves for garnishing

Shredded coconut powder 1/2 cup

Grind them in a mixie jar or in a grinder.  Add the coconut while grinding.  If you want the coconut powder to be seen in the adai then add the coconut powder after grinding.  Add curry leaves and coriander leaves. You can make adai by adding plantain flower, cabbage, murungkai keerai and all the other leaf vegetables and onion.

Have a nice time with adai.  See you.

Vazhaippoo (Plantain Flower) Paruppu Usili

Now we will see the paruppu usili side dish.  This can be prepared from plantain flower(vaazhaipoo), beans, cluster beans(koththavarai), ridge gourd(pudalai)  cabbage, drumstick leaves and from fenugreek leaves(venthaya keerai).

Now here we are going to see the preparation from plantain flower.  Take a small flower.  Remove the flaps of the flower and take the florets only. Remove the stamen and cut them into smalll pieces and put them in diluted buttermilk. It will be in the buttermilk till you cook, so that the colour of the vegetable should not change to dark.  Or you can cook it by adding 1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder and the required salt.

Cooked vazhaipoo


For Paruppu Usili

Thur dhal/Arhar  one Cup

Chana dhal?bengal gram 1/2 Cup

Red Chillies 10 Nos.

Salt to taste and Asafoetida

For frying 

Any cooking oil one small cup or 100 grams.

For Tempering 

Mustard seeds, Urad dhal and Curry leaves

Wash the dhals and soak them for 2 hours.  Grind it along with red chillies, salt and hing. Add water if necessary.  Keep it aside.

golden broun coloured paruppu usili


Now heat the oil in a frying pan or thick bottomed Kadai. Add mustard seeds, and Urad dhal.  Add curry leaves. Add the grinded dhal paste and fry for a few minutes.  When it comes to golden brown colour  add the already cooked plantain flower and fry for another 2 minutes. Remove it from the fire and serve hot with rice paired with any kuzambu varieties.  It will be a wonderful side dish.

mixed with vazhaipoo


You can prepare all the paruppu usili in this same method.  For murungai keerai and venthaya keerai paruppu usili, you have to mix the chopped keerai in to the grinded dhal paste and steam it in idli cooker. After steaming only you can fry them in oil. We will see it in the next post.