Badam Katli

Badam katli

Ingredients:
Almond- 1 cup
milk- 1/4 cup
cardamom powder - 1/4 tsp
sugar- 1 cup
ghee- 1 tsp

Method:
Soak the almonds for 4-6 hours OR overnight.
Peel off the skin of almond.
Grind it with milk to a fine paste.
Grease a thick bottom skillet with the ghee.
Pour the almond paste, cardamom powder and sugar.
Stir continuously till they form a lump and starts to leave the sides of the skillet.
Then take off heat.
Grease a working surface with ghee.
Using a greased rolling pin (chapathi kattai) , flatten it into a 1/8 inch thick one.
Then with a sharp knife , cut it into diamond shaped burfis.
Let it cool for some time.
Almond katli is ready to serve as dessert.

Besan flour ladoo.

It is the easiest of all sweets. Care should be taken to fry the besan flour with more ghee, otherwise the ladoo will have a mild bitter taste.But it will turn completely sweet the next day (24 hrs).
I took only 45 minutes for the entire preparation.
I tweaked the original recipe by roasting the bessan flour with 2 tbsp ghee and 3 tbsp corn oil. (afraid of ghee ..ha ha). Moreover while making the ladoo balls I used 1/4 cup of milk to get a good shape and to avoid more ghee.
But i am giving below the original recipe.

Ingredients:
Besan flour - 2 cups
powdered sugar- 2 1/2 cup
ghee -3/4 cup
cardamom powder - 1/4 tsp
cashews- 15
raisin- 15

Method:
Heat a pan with ghee and roast the flour without lumps, till the raw smell vanishes.
Take off heat and add sugar, fried cashews, rasins and cardamom .
Mix well and make lemon size balls out of it.
Now the besan flour ladoo is ready to serve.
It can be stored in air tight containers for a week.
If you add milk , then you should start preserving them inside fridge after 2 days.

vellai poosanikkai thalar kootu

White pumpkin or Ash gourd or winter melon is the English translation for Thadiyangai or vellai poosanikkai or kalyana poosanikkai.
Thadiyangai is otherwise called thirushti poosanikai in Tamil.
Indians break this vegetable in streets to drive away evil eyes.But we can make wonderful thalar kootu out of it.Thalar koottu means a side dish in liquid state .
The credit goes to a restaurant called 'Mint leaf' in Jalan Tun Sambanthan , KL central, Malaysia.They serve this piping hot koottu with sambar rice.
When we were in Malaysia , We often visited this restaurant because of its traditonal Indian cooking , cleanliness and also because of this koottu.

kalyana pooshanikkai paruppu koottu.

Ingredients:
White pumpkin/ thadiyangai- 1 slice(1 lb)
channa dhal(kadalai paruppu)- 1/4 cup
Toor dhal - 1/4 cup
Red onion- 1/2
Ripe vine tomato -1
Shredded coconut- 1 tbsp
green chillies- 4
cumin seeds-1/4 tsp
Red chilly powder -1/2 tsp
coriander powder-1/2 tsp
turmeric powder-1/4 tsp
salt - as required.
mustard seeds-1/2 tsp
curry leaves- 1 brig
oil-1 tsp

Method:
Soak channa dhal and toor dhal with 2 cup water,asafoetida and turmeric powder for 15 minutes and pressure cook them in slow fire for 10 minutes after whistle.
Remove seeds and skin of white pumpkin.Chop it into small pieces.
Cook it with onion,tomato,chilli powder, salt in a closed vessel.
Now see the cooked dhal.You can find the toor dhal gets cooked fully but the channa dhal is half done.This is the right cosistency.
Drain and save the dhal water to make rasam.
Mash the dhal mildly without breaking channa dhal and add it to the cooked white pumpkin.
Grind the coconut, cumin seeds and green chillies.Add this mixture to the boiling curry.
In a separate pan, heat oil, crackle the mustard , add the curry leaves, urad dhal and garnish the curry/thadiyangai koottu.

Serving suggestions:
Can be served with chapathi,naan, rasam-rice etc.
Makes nearly 500 ml of thadiyangai thalar kootu.

Velankanni Fish fry

Velankanni is a pilgrimage place in TamilNadu.There is a famous Church for Mother Mary.Velankanni is situated along the sea shore and during the night time we can see a lot of stalls selling freshly caught fish fry .
Here is the recipe for that velankanni fish fry.

Ingredients:
Butter fish (unsliced)- 2 lb
lemon - 1
salt - 2 tsp
Red chilli powder - 3 tbsp
tumeric powder- 1/2 tsp
Red food color - 1/4 tsp (optional)


Method:
Choose small or medium size butter fish . If you cannot get fresh fish , then buy a frozen one.If you use a frozen fish, donot defreeze it in microwave oven.Otherwise fish will lose its flavor.Just take the fish from freezer and put it in luke warm water for 4 hours.Change the water frequently.
Then with a sharp knife cut the mouth portion and slit along the side for 2 inches. Carefully remove the parts inside and discard.
Remove the gills,scales,fins and tail.
It is always desirable to Use a separate cutting board for Non veg dishes.
Then wash the fish thoroughly with water.Then rub some turmeric powder all over the fish and wash it again.
Just make some small slits all over the flesh to facilitate frying.
Take a broad basin like vessel.Mix salt, lemon juice,chilli powder, red color , turmeric powder and mix well.
Apply this mixture all over the fish and dab some masala inside the fish too.Lemon makes the fish stiff , removes bad odor and discourages breaking of fish while frying.
Marinate it for 1 hour .
Heat oil in a pan , put the pieces one or two at a time and fry both sides crispy.

Tips:
You can marinate the fish and keep it in the cooler side of fridge(not freezer) and use it next day.Make some more masala if it is not sufficient.If lemon is not available then substitute it with tamarind extract or vinegar.

Serving suggestions:
Serve hot with rice and fish Kulambu.
Also goes fine with rasam saadham(saadham means rice), paruppu kulambu ,more kulambu and sambar .
suitable for parties.

Sura Puttu (Scrambled shark fry)

Sura means Shark fish in English. Puttu is equivalent to the word "scramble".So Sura Puttu can be translated as Scrambled shark fry.Right?
But by whatever name we call it,Sura puttu has a wonderful mouthwatering smell and a native taste.Whenever i see shark fish in any Asian food Market (not in sea or movie), i will get a great enthu.My mom cooks it with an authentic flavor and serve it as a side dish for Vaazhai meen kulambu and rice.vaazhai meen has a lot of thorny bones and only fish eating experts can eat it.Otherwise you may neeed some help to get rid of those tiny bones. But it gives a wonderful aroma to the meen kulambu.The preparation is slightly different from Madras sura puttu.You can try with salmon fish too.
All you need is just 20 minutes to make this wonderful sura puttu.

Ingredients:
Shark fish - 2 pieces (1/2 lb)
shredded coconut - 1 tbsp
water - 1 cup
salt- 1 tsp
turmeric powder - 1tsp
green chillies- 3
Red onion- 1
garlic- 3 pieces
oil- 1 tbsp
cumin seeds- 1/2 tsp
mustard seeds- 1/2 tsp

Directions:
First wash the sura meen pieces under running water thoroughly.
Discard the head portion.
Bring to boil 1 cup of water.
Add salt , turmeric powder, garlic and the fish.
Close it with a lid and cook it for 5 minutes.
Then let it cool and remove the skin.Drain and store water.
Just separate the bone and keep aside.
You can use the bone and remaining fish water in making fish kulambu.
With your hands mash the fish and garlic.
In a pan add 1 tbsp of oil and let the mustard crackle.
Then add the chopped onion, green chillies, curry leaves and saute until the until the onion turns golden color.
Add the mashed shark pieces and scramble it to fine pieces.
Add enough salt.
After the fry becomes almost dry add cumin seeds and shredded coconut.

Serving suggestions:
Serve hot with piping hot rice and Fish curry.Also yummy with sambar or rasam rice.

Udipi sambar Powder

This is the sambar powder used to prepare the famous Udipi Hotel Sambar.The name originated from the Sambar served in the samabanthi Bojanam in the SriKrishna Temple of Udipi.

Ingredients:
Coriander seeds - 100 gms
Kashmiri red chillies- 100 gms
kuntoor short red chillies-75 gms
asafoetida - 1 small cube(1/2 tsp)
cumin- 1 tsp
Methi seeds(fenugreek)-1 tbsp
rice - 1 tsp
urid dhal-25 gms

Method:
Sun dry the red chillies.
Dry roast the coriander seeds , till it smells nice and turns crispy. Take it out and let cool.
Heat 1/2 tsp oil in a pan and just mix the chillies to get a roasted flavor.Keep aside.
Heat 1/4 tsp oil and fry the methi seeds to red color.Keep aside.
Then in another tsp of oil roast the urid dhal and rice.
After every thing gets cooled, grind them to a fine udipi sambar powder.

Directions:
To get the original Udipi sambar, add a tsp of crushed jaggery to the sambar at the final stage.
Adding ground coconut to the sambar makes it feel heavenly.

Spicy Sambar Powder.

Sambar Powder if prepared in home will do wonders . This home made sambar powder will definitely enhance the flavor of sambar.This sambar powder can successfully be used in making vatha kulambu also.I grind this sambar powder once in a month.This sambar podi is also called Karnataka sambar powder , as it contains cinnamon. You can leave cinnamon , if you hate the smell. But i add a little bit only and i love that karnataka sambar powder very much.

Ingredients:
coriander seeds - 1/2 cup
Long red chilies - 1/2 cup
Bengal gram-1/4 cup
Urid dhal- 1 tbsp
cumin seeds- 1 Tbsp.
pepper corn- 1 Tbsp.
mustard seeds-1/2 tsp
fenugreek seeds- 1/2 tsp
cinnamon- 1 /2 inch
clove- 1
Turmeric powder-1/2 tsp
Asafoetida-1/4 tsp
curry leaves- 2 brig

Directions:
These ingredients should be roasted without oil separately .
It can be ground to a fine powder in the small jar of Indian mixie and stored in an air tight container.Makes 1/4 kg sambar powder.