Pongal wishes,

Happy Pongal to all my readers, friends and family ,





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*** world4art.com - Orkut Pongal scraps, graphic and comments ! ***

May this Pongal festival brings peace, good health, cheer, prosperity and every thing we wish for.
Happy Pongal!

Love,
Viki

Pongal Puli curry

Pongal - Indian Thanks giving festival or Farmer's festival ;  Puli - Tamarind;
curry - a side dish.

Recipe source:  My mom used to do this every year during pongal. I got this yummy recipe from my Jeyasri chithi.  Jeyashri chithi prepares lot of dishes along with curry like a sambar with mixed veggies too. I love her recipes very much and practice them for my special days. 

Pongal is celebrated for 3 to 5 days in the middle of January by all people with agriculture background in India. Rice and banana are the major crops in my home town. So pongal is a big festival there. It is a season of happiness for the farmers as well as for every one who loves festivals like me:) The main celebrations include cleaning the house and farm material (Pogi day), offering thanks to Sun and God (Pongal day), celebrating the holiness of cow (mattu Pongal day). The night before Pongal day, the ladies paint big size rangoli kolam in front of the house and tie turmeric plants and sugarcanes in the doorway to welcome the prosperity. On pongal day, just like barbeque party, it is common to prepare the sweet rice Pongal in the front yard in a traditional way. The feast may include a plain rice, sweet rice pongal, avial, puli curry, dhal. It is a tradition to include at least a small piece of every vegetable in that day.
On the third day those who have cows would prepare another batch of sweet rice for the cows and themselves and pamper the cows as always. While in India, I used to befriend a beautiful cow and pamper her everyday.....happy memories :)
The next day is called kanum pongal or tour day.
So the whole January spins around pongal festival in my home town and its a colorful season there:)

Here is the recipe for the pongal puli curry.

(I used yam, potato and arbi only. But given the link to the images of various tubers in my ingredient list for reference. Thanks for the bloggers who have published these images).

Root vegetables:

Yam / elephant foot yam / senai kilangu / suran - 200 gm
potato / urulai kilangu / aloo - 1
siru kilangu / chiru kizhangu - 5
sembu / taro root/ colocasia / arbi - 5
pidi karunai kilangu / yam - 1 (small)

other ingredients:

Tamarind - 1 small lime size
Red chilli powder - 1.5 tbsp
coriander powder - 3 tbsp
turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
water - 2 cups
salt - 2 tsp (to taste)

To grind:

shredded coconut - 1/2 cup
shallot onion - 10
cumin seeds - 1 tsp

To temper:

mustard - 1 tsp
fenugreek seeds- 1 tsp
curry leaves - 1 sprig
oil - 2 tbsp
asafoetida - 1 pinch


Method:
Wash and peel the root vegetables. Cut them into 2 inch size cubes.
(Take care while handling the yams).
Cook them together till soft (10 minutes). Discard the water and keep aside.

Soak the tamarind in hot water and extract the juice thrice with 2 cups of water.
Add the chilly powder, coriander powder, turmeric powder, salt to the tamarind extract and start boiling with the cooked roots.

Grind coconut, onion and cumin seeds with little water and add it to the boiling curry. let it get thick.

Heat oil in a pan. Crackle mustard seeds , add fenugreek seeds , curry leaves and asafoetida. Pour over the boiling thick curry. Switch off.

Pongal puli kulambu is ready!

Serving suggestions:
Serve as side dish with sweet pongal.
Can be used as kulambu / curry over plain rice or with chapati.

Healthy Idly podi

An alternative to the regular idly podi / chutney podi.

Idly - Indian breakfast made of rice. Idly podi - a powdery side dish for idly and dosai.

Ingredients:

Bengal gram - 1/2 cup
(channa dal / kadalai paruppu)
Horse gram (kollu) - 1/4 cup
flax seed - 2 tbsp
Dry red chilly - approximately 15 numbers
(Reduce chillies if you need a lesser spicy version)
Curry leaf - 2 sprig
Tamarind - 2 inch (optional)
salt - to taste (untreated sea salt is best here)
Asafoetida (hing / Perunkaayam) - 1/4 tsp

Method:

Heat a wok and dry roast the curry leaves till they turn crispy. Keep aside.

Again heat the wok. Dry roast the channa dhal till it turns mild red. Take it out immediately.
Roast the horsegram till it smells nice. Keep aside.
Roast the flax seeds for few seconds and wait till it pops. Take it out.

Now put the salt, red chillies. Dry roast till the chillies loose all the moisture and becomes crispy. Add the hing and switch off immediately.
(Adding the salt with red chillies reduces the hot flavors. Otherwise we may start sneezing:) So roast the chillies at the end along with salt).

Put the roasted chillies along with the others above and let them cool completely.

After they get cooled, grind them to a medium fine powder using a coffee grinder / mixer. Store in air tight container (even at room temperature). Holds good for more than a month or two.

Idly podi is ready!

Serving suggestions / tips:

Take a tbsp of podi, mix well with enough sesame oil / ghee and serve as side dish with Idly or dosai.
The fresh podi tastes more always. So prepare them in small batches according to need.
Idly coated with this 'podi-ennai' (podi+oil) tastes great and makes a good packed lunch. It won't get spoiled for a day.
The podi can also be mixed with cooked rice and a drop of ghee as main course meal.
We can use this podi in making side dishes like poriyal also.

Vegetable salad

This is a very simple salad I prepare. I like to prepare my own vinaigrette / dressing as it is more convincing for me to avoid wastage. I  got the vinaigrette idea from a cook book 'Good food Gourmet', which I got from the local library. Here is a colorful vegetable salad with low calorie dressing from my kitchen to the bloggers:)

Vegetables:

Lettuce - 3 leaves
purple / red cabbage - 3 leaves
carrot - 1
plum tomato -6
olives - 6
red onion - 1/2 small

Vinaigrette:

white vinegar - 2 tbsp
Extra virgin olive oil - 3 tbsp
salt - little
sugar - 1/2 tsp
cilantro (or any herb) - 2 tbsp (chopped)

Method:

Mix the items given under vinaigrette and let it stand for an hour or more.
30 minutes before serving start preparing the salad to ensure the crispiness.
Wash the plum tomatoes and olives.
Slice the cabbage, lettuce, carrot, onion into small long pieces.
Add the vinaigrette and toss gently.
Cover tightly and keep refrigerated.

Vegetable salad is ready!

Tips:

This salad can be used as stuffing in sandwiches too.
It can be topped with bread croutons and cheese.

Stays fresh  for lunch box or for a delicious snack.
The vinaigrette can be prepared in a bulk and kept refrigerated for a month.
Preparing the salad from fresh vegetables makes it more delicious , nutritious and economical than buying a salad bag.

Yard-long beans stir fry (Karamani poriyal)

An Indian stir fry with 'yard-long beans'

Other names for Yard-long beans : Karamani - Tamil, Chori - Hindi, Chinese long beans, asparagus beans.

Though not a difficult recipe, I like this vegetable because of the delicious seeds inside. Many years ago some vegetables like karamani, kovakkai(Ivy gourd) were not popular in my native place, (as they used to sell only the locally grown fresh veggies because of transportation costs) but available in big cities like Chennai. At that time whenever I visit my aunt Anandhi chithi (my dad's younger brother's house in the city), she would fondly prepare me these vegetable curries, which I like a lot. I admire the way she receives every guest with immense pleasure and remembers their favorites. Also she would pack a bunch of these fresh vegetables for my mom . No wonder she is a favorite aunt for all in our family.....much to learn from her:)

Ingredients:
Karamani - 1 bunch
onion - 1
curry leaf - 1 sprig
dry red chilly - 4
cumin - 1 tsp
mustard - 1 tsp
urad dhal - 1 tsp
coconut oil - 1 tbsp
shredded coconut - 1/4 cup
salt - as per need

Method:

Select the tender long beans and if possible get the bunch with some tender seeds.
Cut the yard-long beans (Karamani) into halves, so that they fit in a big bowl. Wash thrice in cold water or till it runs clear.
Nip the ends and discard. Chop finely.
Heat oil in a wok and add mustard seeds, urad dhal. After the mustard splutters, add the chopped onion, curry leaf, red chilly and fry till onion wilts.
Slide in the chopped beans and fry for a minute. Then pour 1/2 cup water and cook covered in low heat. After 10 minutes remove the lid, add required salt and stir till it gets loose.
Before switching off add the shredded coconut, cumin , mix well.

Karamani poriyal is ready!

Serving suggestion:

Serve as side dish with sambar rice or roti.

Orange butter cookies

I prepared these orange cookies for Christmas. I had some remainder raisin soaked orange juice while preparing the fruit cake and also some orange peels. I thought of bringing out a new kind of Christmasy cookie with my Shrewsbury butter biscuit recipe. I prepared it in round shape for Christmas. Then on Christmas morning I found this beautiful 101 cookie cutter set under our Christmas tree, which I was admiring for a long time. I am so surprised and happy to see hubby dear presenting me this, which I wished secretly. I couldn't control my eager to try new cookies and gladly prepared another batch for hubby and his friend.

Orange butter cookies for Christmas.

Xav presented me this beautiful wilton 101 cookie cutter set for Christmas.

Flower cookies.

Star cookies.

Star cookies for New year.

My version of Orange Shrewsbury biscuit / cookie:
This is an eggless cookie.

Ingredients:

Butter - 1 stick (8 tbsp)
Icing sugar - 1/2 cup
baking powder - 1/4 tsp
Ap flour - 1 1/4 cup
salt - a pinch
orange juice - 2 tbsp
(Orange juice concentrate can also be used)
orange peel powder - 1 tsp
orange food color - 2 pinch
candied orange peel - 3 tbsp
dry ginger powder - 1 tsp

Method:

Preheat the oven to 350 degree C.
Mix butter and sugar in mixing bowl to get a creamy texture.
Sift together salt,baking powder, orange peel, ginger powder and flour.
Add everything together, knead and make a dough like chapathi dough.
Make a soft dough.The dough should be slightly sticky on your finger.
(adjust flour and sugar to get the dough consistency). Add few tsp powdered sugar if needed.
Keep in refrigerator for 15 minutes to make it easy to roll.
Place between wax paper and roll into 1/2 inch thick sheet and cut into desired shape.
Place an aluminium foil / parchment paper on a cookie tray. Arrange them on the baking tray and bake for just 6 to 8 minutes in 350 deg C.
Remove the biscuit once it starts leaving the tray. It will be soft while hot, then gets the correct rigidity after cooling.
Let it cool completely and store in air tight container.
Orange Butter biscuit is ready!

Note:

Makes 20 round or 35 (2 inch) small star cookies approximately.

Semiya Kesari

Kesari - an Indian fudge. Semiya / vermicelli - a kind of noodles / pasta.

Kesari is a dessert prepared along with breakfast during Indian festivals. The most common kesari is sooji or rava kesari, while there are some variations too.

Some years ago,  while buying a vermicelli pack I got a complimentary booklet with numerous recipes using semiya. Though it is a very small pamphlet to promote their product, all their recipes were accurate and it inspired me to collect cookbooks from that day. Here is one dish from my knowledge bank:)

Ingredients:

Semiya - 1 cup
(I used 200 gm MTR vermicelli)
sugar - 1.5 cup
water - 2.5 cup
ghee - 3 tbsp
cashew - 10
raisin - 10
cardamom - 4
orange(Kesari) food color - a small pinch

Method:

Gently crush the semiya into small bits.

Heat 1 tbsp ghee and fry the cashews till it gets golden color. Keep aside.
Then put the raisin and wait till it puffs up. Take out.

Add 2 tbsp ghee and roast the semiya till it turns golden.
Take the semiya and keep aside.

In the same pan bring the water to boil and add orange food color powder.
Add the vermicelli and reduce flame. Cook covered till it is completely done.
Add the sugar and wait till the water evaporates.
Now put the fried nuts, raisin, powdered cardamom and stir gently without mashing.
Switch off once it starts leaving the pan.

Semiya kesari is ready!

Serving suggestion:

Serve warm as dessert.
It can be served along with a scoop of vanilla ice cream too

Tips:

Substitute for orange food color - juice of carrot.