THANK YOU !!

Happy Thanks giving day everybody. Thank you my friends for all your support and encouragement. Lets spread the smile and happiness through our blogs.
Have a great weekend!

Poori festival

I am sure all of you guys know how to make poori. But I am posting it to show some of the side dishes. May be a feast to our eyes too:)
Last weekend we had a small get-together in our house and I made poori with channa and Hotel style 'Poori kilangu'. Poori-kilangu is a famous dish in South India. Almost every restaurant will gladly present this kilangu with poori. Poori-kilanu is a non spicy potato masala curry made without much masala powders .This is the masala they keep inside paper-roast dosa to make masal dosa.

Poori:

Ingredients:
Wheat flour / Al purpose flour - 2 cups
salt - 1/2 tsp
baking soda - 1/2 tsp
water - enough to knead
oil - 300 ml (1 1/2 cup)

Method:
Mix flour, salt and baking soda in a wide vessel. Add water little by little to make a chapathi / bread dough. coat with oil and keep aside.
Do not make the dough a long time before making poori, otherwise they will absorb a lot of oil.
Divide the dough into small lemon size balls.
Then using a rolling pin , flatten each and every ball in to thin discs of diameter of your palm . keep them on plastic sheets.
Immediately heat oil and fry the flattened pooris one by one both sides.
Keep the fried pooris on paper towels to extract the left over oil.
Then serve hot with channa or potato masala.
Makes 25 number of palm size pooris.

Poori-kilangu:

This is the yummiest potato masala served with poori in South India.
Ingredients:
Potato - 4 (300 gms)
onion - 1
green chilli - 4
ginger- 2 tsp (chopped)
curry leaves - a brig
mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
channa dhal (Bengal gram) - 2 tbsp
turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
oil- 2 tsp
Besan flour - 2tsp
salt - to taste

Method:
Wash and Pressure cook the potatoes . Peel the skin and cut in to big chunks.
Mash the potato as fine as possible. (some people keep it as small cubes).
Chop the onion, green chillies , curry leaves and ginger.
Heat oil in a vessel. Add channa dal and then mustard seeds.
After the mustard seeds splutter add the chopped onion, green chilli curry leaves and ginger. Saute them a while till onion gets cooked add turmeric, salt, mashed potatoes.
Check for salt. Let it get thicken.
Mix 2 tsp besan flour with 1/4 cup water and add that to the boiling potatoes.
After a minute put off stove.
Poori-kilangu masala is ready. This is the basic version prepared in Madras hotels. Some people prefer adding tomato, green peas also.
Makes 2 cups of thick gravy like potato masala.

Channa masala:


Ingredients:
Chick peas / whole channa dal - 1 cup
tomato - 1
Red onion - 2 (medium size)
green chillies - 4
coriander leaves - a handful.
mint leaves - few
curry leaves - few
curd - 1/2 cup
cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp
red chilli powder - 1 tbsp
turmeric powder - a pich
MTR channa masala powder - 1 tsp (optional)
salt - to taste
olive oil - 1 tbsp
cardamom - 2
cloves - 2
Fennel seeds - 1/2 tsp
bay leaf - 1
Method:
Soak channa dal overnight and cook it to tender in a pressure cooker for 5 whistles.
After getting the first whistle ,I reduce the flame to the minimum and heat the cooker for another 10 minutes to cook this dal. You can follow this idea if you want to reduce the noise pollution:)
Grind ginger and garlic together.
Grind curd ,cardamom, cloves, cumin seeds and 1 onion together. keep aside.
Heat oil in a pan. fry some fennel seeds and bay leaf.
Add the chopped onion, green chillies ,curry leaves, cilantro and mint leaves. After the onion turns golden brown , add ginger garlic paste and saute well.
Now add cooked channa dhal with the remaining water.
Add chilli powder, turmeric powder , channa masal powder and stir well.
close the lid and cook for 5 minutes.
Add the ground curd masala and let it boil till the raw smell vanishes.
Now add salt , curd and mix well.
Using a laddle mash a few channa dhals to get a thick gravy.
Boil it for one minute and Switch off immediately .

Serving suggestions:
Goes well with parathas ,poori , roti and naan .
Makes 2 cups of channa masala.

Thukkada

I am sure this is the simplest of all the snacks ,no need to to spend a lot of time or looking for rare ingredients. Still the flavor and crispy Thukkada will attract every one in the house.
It just took 20 minutes to make the entire dish .

Ingredients:
All purpose flour - 1 cup
rice flour - 1 tbsp
baking soda - 1/4 tsp
garam masala - 1 tsp
curry leaves - 1 brig (torn into pieces)
salt - 3/4 tsp (check)
chilli powder - 1 tsp
water - a little
corn oil - to deep fry (250 ml )

Method:
Mix all the above except oil and water.
Then add water little by little to make a firm chapathi dough.
Divide the dough into equal lemon size balls.
Make thin chapathis one by one and cut diamond shapes out of them.
Heat oil in a pan .
Immediately deep fry them in oil to golden color and strain them out.
Then roll out another chapathi, cut diamonds and repeat the process .
Let them cool and store in air tight box for longevity.
Serve as snacks with tea in the evenings.

Showers of awards !!

More and more awards !!!
I think this is awards mela here in our 'blog kingdom' and Some of my friends have passed me a few more awards. I am so happy and excited about these new awards.

Gita and Yasmeen have passed me the Great Buddy Award and kreative blogger award .
Thank you soo much friends, I am so honored :)
Malar Gandhi and Purva have passed me the Hard working blogger award and Kreative blogger award.
I am so happy to receive these award. Thank you friends :)

I gladly pass those awards to the following friends.
Usha from http://veginspirations.blogspot.com/
Deesha from http://vegetableplatter.blogspot.com/
Vij from http://spicesnaroma.blogspot.com/
Anu from http://mixtomatch.blogspot.com/

Jayashree has passed me the Kreative Blogger Award. Thanks a lot dear :)
I am glad to pass this award to
Vibaas from http://vibaas-world.blogspot.com/
Shama from http://easy2cookrecipes.blogspot.com/
Mahimaa from http://spicesetc.blogspot.com/
Sujatha from http://spicykhazana.blogspot.com/

Ramya and Purva have honoured me with a 360 Deg. foodie award. Thanks a lot friends:)

I am passing this award to
Malar Gandhi from http://www.kitchentantra.com/
Gita from http://gitaskitchen.blogspot.com/
Yasmeen from http://yasmeen-healthnut.blogspot.com/ yasmeen
Shama from http://easy2cookrecipes.blogspot.com/
Mahimaa from http://spicesetc.blogspot.com/
Sujatha from http://spicykhazana.blogspot.com/

Congrats friends!
I owe you all big time. All of you deserve these awards even some of you may already have received these awards. I am displaying the Great Buddy Award , 360 deg blogger award , Hard working blogger award and Kreative Blogger Award in the left side column .
Enjoy!

Venthaya kulambu (Methi spicy gravy)

Fenugreek (Methi) seeds and leaves helps in reducing the fatty tissue in our body.
Help in digestion by improving the liver function and to increase blood formation.
It has also shown results in controlling diabetes mellitus.
Soak one teaspoonful of fenugreek seeds in water overnight and this water should be consumed in empty stomach in the morning for controlling Blood Sugar.
So it is good to add it in our daily cooking in some form.
From the link :
Medicinal value of fenugreek

I love this venthaya kulambu for its lovely flavor and simplicity. Many families will have their own recipe for this venthaya kulambu and I am sure every one's version will be yummier than the other.
And here is the Tirunelveli (my native place) version.

Ingredients:
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Tamarind - 1/4 lemon size
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tspn
small white or green Brinjal- 3 nos
cury leaves - 1 brig
onion - 1 small
Tomato - 1 small
Hing - a pinch (optional)
Salt - to taste
Oil - 1 tbsp

venthaya kulambu masala:
Fenugreek seeds- 1tbsp
cumin - 1/4 tsp
Thoor dal (Red gram) - 2 tbsp
Dry chilli - 4
shredded Coconut - 1 tbsp

Method:
Heat oil in a pan.
Add Fenugreek seeds, Thoor dal, cumin,Dry chillies and fry till it turns golden brown. Then add shredded coconut.
Fry to get golden color.Cool the mixture and grind this to a powder.
Soak Tamarind in hot water and extract juice. Keep aside.
Heat oil in a pan.
Splutter the Mustard seeds and add chopped onion and fry till it becomes brown.
Then add curry leaves and chopped tomato.
Fry the tomato till it becomes tender.
Then goes the tamarind extract ,turmeric powder, Salt and brinjal.
Cook every thing till the brinjal gets cooked.
Then add the ground venthaya kulambu masala and let it boil for 3 minutes.
Venthaya kulambu is ready.

Serving suggestions:
Goes fine with rice and chapathi.
If served with rice , paruppu usili can be a good combo.

Milk Porridge / Paal Kanchi.

Porridge is otherwise called poor man's food. But there are a few exceptional porridges too. One of a such kind is the Milk porridge.
I find it easy to cook and digest whenever we have a great snack in the evening.
This is a one pot meal (Needs just only one pot for the entire cooking). In this time I should admit a fact that most of the traditional recipes in India or any country were cooked by using only one pot. The history of one pot cooking is a very interesting one.Nowadays , thanks to the line / batch manufacturing techniques, we get a wide range of vessels.

Let us relish the Medicinal value and goodness of this porridge.
*It is easy to digest and helps to get a 'good night' sleep.
*People recovering from fever and strong medications can have this porridge.
*People with dietary concern can replace rice with cracked wheat.
*Good diuretic, as cumin seeds helps this.
*Dietitians recommend this porridge without sugar for people with heart diseases ,as garlic has such a healing power.

Ingredients:
Rice - 3/4 cup (150 gms)
cumin seeds - 1 tsp
Fenugreek seeds(Methi) - 1/2 tsp
Garlic - 10 pods
water - 1 cup
Milk - 2 cups
sugar - 1/3 cup (optional)
salt - 1/4 tsp

Method:
Choose any rice like Basmathi / sona masoori/ Jeeraga samba.
In a dry mixie jar, coarsely grind rice with methi seeds.
Transfer the powdered rice to a vessel with lid.
Add salt and Cook them with water and milk .
Care should be taken while cooking , as rice may tend to form bubbles and spill.
After the rice gets cooked add cumin seeds, chopped garlic and sugar.
Then cook it in low heat for 5 minutes and turn off heat.
The consistency should be like a soup.
Milk porridge is ready.

Serving suggestions:
This can be Served as a mild & non stuffy dinner during festival times.
Serve hot in soup bowls with sesame / mint chutney.
One spoon of porridge and then goes a pinch of chutney..This is how I like it.
The quantity given above will be enough to serve 2 adults.

Milk porridge goes to Rice Mela.

Its Award time !!!

I think it is award time here and awards are flowing.
I am so glad when Sreesha of Mom's recipes has selected me to pass the following awards . Thank you dear for choosing me.

1. Friendship award.
2. Butterfly award.
3. Chocoholic award.
4. Good Job award.
5. Inspiration award.

Thank You Sreesha for your encouragement.