Mutton koftha (kola urundai)

Kola urundai (Tamil)  can be equated to 'deep fried meat balls'. Mutton kola urundai is more famous in Tamilnadu than the chicken counterpart. Nowadays we are conveniently getting kheema from the shops but some decades ago, they used  to grind the lamb meat at home in ammi (grinding stone). That will yield a very soft kofta with crispy crust. After getting adapted to that taste, mom used to grind the already minced meat in the mixie to get a very spongy kola urundai. We can use the minced meat directly also. But I have explained my mom's method , as my younger brother is eagerly looking for this recipe:)

Ingredients:
Minced lamb meat - 250 gms
(kothu kari / mutton kheema)
ginger - 1 inch
garlic - 4 pods (optional)
onion - 1
turmeric - 1/4 tsp
garam masala powder - 1 tsp (optional)
fennel - 1 tbsp
cinnamon - 1 inch
red chilly powder - 1 tbsp
green chilly - 2
curry leaf - 1 sprig
cilantro - a handful
mint leaf - few

others:

Puffed channa dhal - 1 cup
(pottu kadalai / pori kadalai)
oil - to deep fry

Method:
Place a fresh cloth over colander. Wash the meat and drain water in a colander till there is no water. A fresh cloth over colander can remove all the water without wastage. But some people say they can use the meat directly, which is also correct if you can get clean meat.

Grind the puffed channa dhal to a fine powder, when the mixer is dry.
Grind the minced meat in a mixie along with ginger, garlic, fennel and salt to a very fine stage without any water.
Chop the onion, green chilly, cilantro, mint, curry leaf to a very fine stage.

Mix the ground meat and chopped items with red chilly powder, turmeric powder, garam masal powder. Add the powdered dhal little by little to get a soft dough like consistency.

Take a small lemon size ball and shape neatly. Deep fry in hot oil.
Take out and serve hot.

Serving suggestions:

Serve as snack or side dish with rice.
In my home town, they make 'yelumbu kulambu' (a thin curry with lamb ribs) and  rice along with this kofta during festive days.
Yields 20 kofthas (approximately).

Note:

Some suggest to use the minced meat directly without grinding to a fine stage, that is also correct. But I have given my mom's method here.
We can make chicken koftha also like this.
Vegetarians can use the drumstick (murungakkai) 's inner flesh instead of meat, which will be equally tasty.
Chicken kheema can be used directly without washing and grinding. But lamb meat needs more care.
Fry a ball and check for salt and adjust the taste.

An award:
When I was about to publish this post, I received a beautiful award from Ambreen of 'Simply Sweet 'n' Savory'. Thank you dear. I am honored.

Her post is on Koftay salan and it is much perfectly prepared and cooked in the curry itself. I have never tried like this, as I simply drop the fried meat balls in the gravy. It has come out nicely for her. I thought it would be apt to mention her's here. Hope you all like her method too.

I am sharing this award with all those who visit this post. Enjoy!

Brinjal whole fry

This is a very simple recipe I tried after preparing the stuffed masala egg. I thought of replacing the eggs with eggplant and the result was awesome. We can serve it along with ghee rice, as the masala we get at the end will be very tasty to go with anything. Try this and enjoy.

Stuffed brinjal fry.

Ingredients:

Brinjal (small)- 6
oil - 1/4 cup
(sesame oil or EVOO)
onion - 2
ginger garlic paste - 1 tbsp
salt - little

Stuffing / Filling:

Garam masala - 1 tsp
(I used sakthi biryani masala powder)
chilly powder - 1 tbsp
coriander powder - 3 tsp
salt - to taste
turmeric powder - a pinch
lemon juice - 1 tbsp (optional)

Method:

Slit the brinjal longitudinally without completely splitting.
Mix the filling with a tbsp of water and stuff inside the brinjal.
Keep the remaining masala aside.

Heat oil in a thick bottom wok.
Place the brinjals and let them fry for a minute. Turn and do the same for a minute.
In the mean time, chop the onions into thin long pieces and add to the frying brinjals.
Add ginger garlic paste, little salt and left over masalas to that. Close tightly and cook well in low heat. Stir gently once in a while.

Nearly after 15 minutes, we can see the oil separating from the brinjal masala.
Switch off.

Stuffed brinjal fry is ready.

Serving suggestions:

Serve as side dish with chapthi, roti or any paratha.
Makes a great combo with ghee rice or coconut milk rice.
Also tastes good with curd rice.

Spinach rice (Keerai saatham)

Spinach and Asian food are inseparable. I am sure each Indian lunch box can tell a different recipe for this humble spinach. I mix rice and the spinach to make a kind of 'variety rice'.  I like this recipe very much because of its simplicity and lesser time consumption.  Here goes the recipe.

Keerai saatham served with cauliflower  stir fry.

Ingredients:

Rice - 3/4 cup
Any greens / Spinach - 1 small bunch.
(Any keerai like thandu keerai, mulai keerai, muringa keerai, pasali keerai,ponnan kanni keerai, arakeerai, sirukeerai etc)
Green chilly - 2
onion - 1/2 cup
garlic - 2 cloves
cumin - 1/2 tsp
shredded coconut - 2 tbsp (optional)
mustard - 1/2 tsp
sesame oil - 1 tsp
ghee - 1/2 tsp (optional)
salt - to taste

Rice:

Take the rice lesser than we normally consume, as the spinach makes a good filler in this recipe.
Bring to boil some 3 cups of water. Wash and add the rice to the boiling water. Put a pinch of salt and reduce the flame. Let it cook. After the rice gets cooked, strain and remove the water.
Keep the cooked rice aside. We can cook the rice in pressure cooker or rice cooker also. But I prefer the above method to prepare any 'variety rice', as it will yield very separate grains.

Method:

Carefully clean the greens and put them in a broad vessel. Wash thrice or more times to remove all dirt. Drain water and chop finely.
Heat oil in a wok. Let the mustard crackle. Then add the chopped onion, chilly, garlic and fry till the onion becomes soft.
Then add the finely chopped greens and stir fry. Don't close the vessel. Sprinkle a little water if necessary. After it gets cooked and almost dry (in 5 minutes), Switch off, add the salt, shredded coconut and cumin seeds. Mix this with the cooked rice along with a tsp of ghee.
Mix well and serve.

Serving suggestion:

This can be prepared for lunch box. Don't add coconut during hot weather in packed foods.
Serve with any spicy side dish like brinjal fry or cauliflower fry.
Serves 2.

Peanut chutney

Peanut chutney is a famous chutney among South Indians. Some call it as 'sivappu chatney' or 'kara chutney' that means 'red or hot chutney'. My dad loves this very much and after a long time I made it along with idly. It has to be made with more dry red chillies and tamarind to make it super hot. Here goes the recipe.

Groundnut chutney.

Ingredients:

peanut - 1/2 cup
shredded coconut - 1/2 cup
dry red chillies - 10
tamarind - an amla size
salt - to taste

To temper:

oil - 1 tsp
mustard - 1/2 tsp
urid dhal - 1/2 tsp
curry leaf- 1 sprig

Method:

Dry roast the peanut and let it cool.
(If using roasted peanuts, then skip the above step).
Remove its skin by gently rubbing. Keep aside.
Now add a drop of oil in a wok and roast the dry red chillies till they smell good and turns crispy.
Grind all items given in ingredient list along with the roasted peanut and fried chillies.
Add some water (less than 1 cup) to get a thick and somewhat runny consistency.
Again heat a tsp of oil in a wok and crackle the mustard seeds, immediately add the urad dhal and curry leaves. Fry till the dhal turns red, pour over the prepared chutney.

Verkadalai chutney is ready!

Serving suggestion:

Makes a great combo with idly or dosai.
Serves 4.

Other info:

As some are allergic or hesitant to peanut, don't try this chutney for a get-together.
Some get giddiness , if they take lot of peanut. In that case give them a chunk of jaggery  immediately. May be it is a home remedy for people who can't take much peanut.

Reposts for events

I am re-posting the following fried snacks for Radhika's Deep fried snacks event.

1.Thengai paal murukku.

2.Masaal vadai.


3.Vazhai kaai bajji.

Who won't love a plate of deep fried snacks in this cold weather? Hope she gets a lot of entries. Happy hosting dear!

Thavil vadai

Thavil vadai is an unique kind of vadai in Tamilnadu.  Some people call it as thaval vadai or thavala vadai ,aiming to describe the shape of that vadai (thavil - a musical instrument). This is how we explain in our house, if any one know the proper meaning of the title please let me know:) Moreover this vadai should be made with many lentils and rice, which makes the recipe more interesting.

Recipe source: amma.
Also inspired by :  Subbu's kitchen and Kitchen queen. Thank you friends!

Ingredients:

Channa dhal (Bengal gram)- 1/2 cup
black gram (ulunthu / urid dhal) - 1/2 cup
Red gram / thuvaram paruppu / thoor dhal - 1/4 cup
Rice - 1/4 cup
dry red chillies - 3
ginger - 1 inch
shredded coconut - 2 tbsp
asafoetida / hing - a pinch
salt - to taste
oil - to deep fry

tempering / tadka:

Oil - 1 tsp
Mustard - 1 tsp
Curry leaves- 1 sprig
cilantro - a handful

Method:

wash and clean the dhal and rice, Soak the urad dhal separately and others together for 2 hours or till soft.
Grind the urad dhal to fluffy stage, without  water.If needed add a tbsp of water. Then take  it out. Grind the other dhals and rice without water to a thick and coarse batter along with other ingredients except oil and coconut. Mix with urad dhal batter.
Heat a tsp of oil in a wok and add mustard seeds. As they crackle add the chopped cilantro, curry leaves and pour over the batter. Add the shredded coconut .
Take a lemon size ball of the batter and flatten it slightly. Deep fry it in oil by flipping both sides in medium heat. Don't  fry it in high heat. Give ample time to let it cook completely. As soon as the vadai turns mild red , drain oil and take out.

Thavil vadai is ready!

Serving suggestions:

Serve hot with coconut or cilantro(malli) chutney.

Amla Jamun

Amla - Indian gooseberry - Periya nellikkai (Tamil).
Here is a quick and  healthy dessert  using the Indian gooseberry.  This is my mom's recipe and she used to prepare some jam varieties also using amla. I used frozen amla, which we get in Indian grocery stores. Keep them handy to satisfy that sugar cravings:)

Ingredients:

Amla - 15
crushed jaggery - 1 cup
water - 1cup
honey - few tbsp

Method:

Bring one cup water to boil. Add the amla and cook well.
In the same time bring 1/4 cup water to boil in a separate vessel and dissolve the jaggery. Filter and remove the impurities.
Add the jaggery solution to the cooked amla and start heating till it becomes very thick syrup. Put off fire and let it cool.
Then add a few tbsp of honey and preserve in a clean dry container.
This can be kept for 6 months if refrigerated.

Serving:

Amla jamun makes a healthy dessert.
This sweet tastes great the next day only, as it may take a few hours for the bitterness to change.

Tips:

*There is another variety of gooseberry also, which will be smaller in size and tastes very sour. My mom used to make a jam out of it. For that jam, Mom would add sugar instead of jaggery and that 'nellikkai jam' would taste incredibly great.
*We can totally avoid the jaggery and add honey to the cooked amla to get a healthy amla jamun. But I have not tried it yet.