Goat leg soup (clear)

Aattukkaal (goat leg) soup can be made in many styles. People make it with tomato or ginger or with lot of spices.
Here I am presenting my mom's clear soup version which will not have much spices , so it can be safely fed for kids also. It is very good for people recovering from cold and tiring journey. It is believed to reduce body aches.



Ingredients:
Goat leg - 2
Black pepper - 1 tbsp
cumin seed - 1 tsp
Bay leaf - 3
Shallot onion - 10
garlic - 1 (whole)
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp + 1 tbsp
salt - to taste

Directions:
First slightly blacken the skin in legs in flame to burn all the left over hair.
Break it in to two pieces to reduce the length.
Then rub and wash it thoroughly by applying turmeric powder.

Place the legs in a pressure cooker vessel along with water (6 cups) to immerse the legs.

Add the bay leaf, turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp, sliced shallot and garlic .

Pressure cook it to get one whistle.
Then reduce the flame and cook in low heat for 25 minutes.
Switch off flame and wait to release the pressure.

Then take out the vessel.

Add salt to taste.

Mix well . Pour the required amount of soup and pieces in serving bowl.( It is a good idea to serve the clear soup alone and to save the pieces to make paaya - a watery curry.)

Add crushed pepper and cumin over the soup.
Serve hot as a clear soup before meals.

Milk peda (Microwave method)

While scrolling for some easy sweet, I got the idea from Ramya Vijayakumar of Passion for cooking.
Please click to see her cute Doodh peda and the original recipe.
Thanks Ramya. I have seen my mother struggling for hours to get this sweet from scratch. But your method is so handy and I made the entire batch without much effort.

I am noting down the recipe for my use.

Ingredients:
Milk Powder – 2 cup
(I used 3 cups of fat free milk powder)
Sweetened Condensed Milk – 1 can (14 oz)
Butter – 1/2 cup (8 tbsp)
Saffron – few strands
Water – 2 tsp
Almonds - 5

Method:
Melt the butter.
Mix the butter, condensed milk , milk powder thoroughly and microwave them for 2 - 3 minutes. Stir twice in between.
Dissolve the saffron in warm water and mix with the dough.Again microwave it for 2 more minutes. (Instead of saffron we can add different food colors also, by dividing the dough).
Let them cool. Now they will come to chapati dough consistency.
Make small balls and get the desired shape.
decorate with slivered almonds and silver varakh.

Milk peda is ready!

Note:
Makes 30 pieces (approximately).

Thanks:
Another important thing is , thanks to the efforts of all the bloggers and friends , the controversial blog that displayed my posts along with some of my friends' without our permission, is now shut down.
This could not have happened without all your efforts. I owe a million thanks to each and every one who are with us during this time.

An Update:

I prepared some milk pedas for hubby's office picnic / pot luck (Aug 6 2010). Here are some snaps to enjoy.
I pasted the ingredient list along with the box for reference..  Hubby was so happy to carry these cuties to share with his friends:)

Apple Rasam

I crafted this delicious rasam while searching a way to utilize some sour apple.



Ingredients:
Small apple - 2 (sour)
garlic - 4 pearls
whole black pepper - 1 tbsp
cumin seed - 1 tsp
Turmeric powder - a pinch
ghee / oil - 2 tsp
Mustard seed - 1/4 tsp
Red chilly - 2
curry leaf - 1 sprig
cilantro - a handful
Lemon - 1/2 (extract juice)
salt - to taste

Method:
Chop one apple after coring.
Grind the pepper, cumin and garlic along with one apple.

Heat oil / ghee in a wok.
Let the mustard crackle. Then add a pinch of hing along with red chillies , curry leaf and cilantro.

Core and peel the other apple. Chop it into very small pieces. Put it along with the seasoning and stir well.

Next add the ground mixture , turmeric and saute well till the raw smell vanishes.

Pour 2 cups of water and let it come to a boil.

Put off fire.
Add lime juice and salt to taste.

Apple rasam is ready!

Serving suggestions:
Serve over hot rice along with appalam and dhal as a simple lunch or dinner.

Tandoori chicken

Tandoori chicken is a dish prepared in a specially designed clay oven called Tandoori oven. It can be done in a grill also.Because of its mild spice content and smoky flavor , it is loved by people all over the world.

Wikipedia tells us about the history of tandoori chicken.
Interested can click here to read the story behind tandoori chicken.

Here I am describing the procedure to make the Tandoori chicken in our household oven.

Method:

Chicken - 2 lb

Select a chicken of medium size, with tender meat. Cut it into 4 pieces. This is called butterfly cut / quarters. Wash it by applying turmeric powder.
Make uniform slits all over the chicken pieces and keep aside.

We need to marinate it twice to get a juicy Tandoori chicken.

First marination:
salt - 1 tbsp
Red chilly powder - 2 tsp.
Lime juice / vinegar - 3 tbsp

Mix everything above and apply this on the chicken and marinate for one hour.




Second marination:


Ingredients:
Thick curd - 1/2 cup
Ginger garlic paste (ginger - 2 inch + garlic - 6 cloves )
salt - to taste
Pepper powder - 1 tsp
Coriander powder - 2 tsp
Garam masala powder - 1 tsp
(Instead we can grind 3 cloves, 2 inch cinnamon, 2 cardamom, 1/2 tsp cumin , 1/2 tsp fennel)
Lime juice / vinegar - 1 tsp
Cumin powder - 1/2 tsp
Red food color - 4 drops
cooking oil - 3 tbsp

Mix all the items above in a broad vessel.
Keep the chicken marinated for 4 hours in room temperature or a whole night in refrigerator.

Tandoori chicken:




Preheat the oven to 400 deg F.
Place the well marinated chicken on the grill and place a tray to collect the residue at the bottom.
We can place it directly on a baking tray lined with Aluminum foil too.

Cook for 30 minutes. Flip the chicken and bake again for 10 minutes.

Now change the mode to broil and roast the chicken both sides till we get the lovely color. (Say 6 minutes each side).

Tandoori chicken is ready.

Serving suggestions:
Drizzle chaat masala and serve hot with lemon wedges, onion.
Serve as a starter or side dish.

Paal Kolukkattai

One more dessert from the traditional Tamil cuisine. This could have been originated even before the semiya (Vermicelli) and javvarisi (Sago) made their way to down south.

Paal kollukkattai payasam / paal kozhukkattai.



Ingredients:
Rice flour - 3/4 cup
milk - 3 cups
condensed milk - 2 tbsp (optional)
sugar - 5 tsp / cup of milk
water - 2 1/4 cups.
salt - a pinch
cardamom - 2
cashew, almond (slivered) - a handful
ghee - 1 tsp

Method:
Bring 1/4 cup water to boil along with a pinch of salt.
Add this to the rice flour slowly till it reaches chapati dough consistency.

Divide the dough into two equal portions.
Make small balls of 1/2 inch diameter from one half of dough and elongated spheres of 1 inch length (Hemispherical cylinder) from another half.
Lets call them 'kolukkattai'.

Bring 2 cups of water to boil and add handful of the kolukkattai to it.
Add them in smaller batches with some interval, otherwise all will get dissolved.
Wait till all the dumplings get cooked and water gets reduced to the minimum.

Add the milk, condensed milk, sugar, cardamom and mix well.
Boil once and put off fire.
Fry the nuts in ghee and pour over the payasam.

Paal kolukkattai payasam is ready.

Serving suggestions:
serve hot as dessert.

Side dish for chapthi - Round up !

I am very glad to release the roundup for my Second event 'Side dish for chapathi'.
Because of all your participation and encouragement this has become a great success.
Total entries are 384.
(Vegetarian entries = 332 and Non vegetarian entries = 52)
The round up has been released in 6 parts, out of which, one episode is purely dedicated to non-vegetarian items for your convenience.

Click to see the round up!

Non-veg Round up:

1. Side dish for chapathi roundup.(Non vegetarian)

Vegetarian Sides for chapathi:

1. Side dish for Chapathi roundup - Part 1
2. Side dish for Chapathi roundup - Part 2
3. Side dish for Chapathi roundup - Part 3
4. Side dish for Chapathi roundup - Part 4
5. Side dish for Chapathi roundup - Part 5


My sincere thanks to all those who sent their kitchen treasures to the event. Also I thank those visitors who make the event more enjoyable by their sweet comments.

I have tried my best to check and publish all the entries. But my apologies if something got missed. Do drop a comment and I will do the needful.
(event mail id: vikiskitchen@gmail.com)

I am dedicating this event to all the foodies out there.

Here comes the round up with all those adorable pictures and recipes.
Enjoy the round up and Happy cooking !

Cabbage poriyal

Cabbage fry or Poriyal is a very common side dish served along with rice in the Indian household. Here is the Tamil nadu version of it.

 Memories (updated 2017) : In my amma's  house, amma lived like a point of contact for the whole family. She has organized many many marriages and happy events in our family. Our uncles and aunts and relatives from Uvari and other places would always ask amma for some guidance in some point of time in their social events. So she used to get busy with them all and I too love sticking with her as a little star  😍😍😍 . So whenever there was a household festival or marriage or family get-together party,  amma would phone Sulochana achi and would ask her for suggestions (especially the catering and what to wear stuff 😀 ) . Achi is my mom's grandma's side relative and her house is near appa's house in Tirunelveli and both achi's husband (thatha) and my appa worked together : )   So they were much closer always.  Achi would suggest and accompany amma to all shoppings like RMKV dress store and on interviewing the caterers 😀 ....I too go along with them if there is no school for me....OMG ! I love those days very much !!!  Girls day out !!!! Nowadays I am seeing people including chicken and mutton in wedding feats, but  at that time, it was not common to prepare non veg during social events in our community. So it would be a full spread of vegetable platter or some vegetable briyani cauliflower fry etc.,
If it's a small  party , amma would prepare the foods at home (with some household helper)....I have overheard achi telling amma to include a cabbage poriyal always. The reason she would give is, this is one vegetable, that won't shrink after cooking (unlike most native Indian veggies) , also this is easy to cook and it it is economical too.  I love the way achi prepares the menu. She is a an organized person and she is very stylish till now, I guess that may be because of her Malaysian background or her inner light that shines out cheerfully. Unlike most of the women of that era she was independent, she could travel alone, would help anyone at anytime, dresses pretty, exercises and kept herself trim, merges with all people, loved by everyone who knows her and brightens up any family events with her charismatic personality. My mom used to tell me to have an example in life for everything such as handwriting, cooking , dress sense like that....and she always wanted me to learn from Sulochana achi for that charisma .....and I am still trying, trying and trying 😬😬😬.   🌷🌷🌷🌷
So this cabbage poriyal recipe belongs to Sulochana achi and hope you all love it  !
Dedicating this recipe to all those charismatic women and men out there !

Kose poriyal / Cabbage fry / Muttai kose koottu:



Ingredients:
Cabbage - 200 gms.
Onion - 1/2 cup (chopped)
Ginger - 1 tbsp (finely chopped)
green chilli - 2 (slit)
curry leaf - 1 sprig
Shredded coconut - 2 tbsp
Oil - 2 tsp
mustard seed - 1/2 tsp
cumin seed - 1/4 tsp
Channa dhal (Bengal gram) - 3 tbsp
Salt - to taste

Method:
Soak the channa dhal for 1 hour.
In the mean time, finely chop the cabbage and keep aside.
Heat oil in a wok.
Add mustard seeds and let them pop.
Immediately add chopped onion, curry leaf, green chilly , ginger and stir well til the onion gets semi cooked.
Now add the chopped cabbage along with the soaked channa dhal.
Add 1/2 cup water and cook it tightly covered till the channa dhal gets soft.
Add salt to taste.
Then add the cumin and shredded coconut and stir to loose all the moisture.
Take off heat.

Cabbage fry is ready!

Serving suggestions:
The above said quantity can be served for 4 people.
Serve as side dish with sambar rice, rasam or any spicy puli kulambu.