Parupppu urundai kuruma kulambu

Paruppu / dal - lentil ; urundai - ball; kuruma / kulambu - gravy.

If you are looking for a special kulambu in Tamilnadu meals next to sambar, then this is it. Balls of dal simmered and cooked in flavorful kuruma kulambu is one of my favorites. Paruppu urundai kulambu with tamarind base like puLi kuzhambu is my family special. But this paruppu urundai kuruma kulambu is one popular recipe that comes in mind for many. I make it along with ghee rice or pulav on special occasions. I make these balls in many ways. Steaming or deep frying and adding the urundai to kulambu is my mom's method. For this kuruma, I cook the urundai directly in kulambu  and I am describing my method here. Try this and enjoy!

Also click to see my Paruppu urundai puli kulambu, with tamarind masala and vadai more kulambu / paruppu urundai more kulambu with curd / buttermilk.
 

Paruppu urundai before cooking.

Bring the kuruma kulambu to rolling boil before adding the dal balls.

Paruppu urundai added to the kuruma curry.

Paruppu urundai got cooked in kuruma.

Paruppu urundai kulambu.

For urundai / ball: 
Ingredients:
Channa dhal/ Bengal gram lentil (kadalai paruppu)- 1 1/4cup
salt - 1 tsp
green chilies - 2 (finely chopped)
fresh ginger(finely chopped) - 1 inch
onion (finely chopped) - 1/2 cup
curry leaves- 1 sprig
coriander leaves (chopped)- 2 tbsp
cinnamon - 1 inch
fennel seeds (peruncheeragam/ sombu)- 1/2 tbsp
dry red chillies - 2
oil - 1 tbsp
Preparation:
Soak both the dhal for 1 hour in water.
Grind the dhal to a medium-coarse mixture with red chillies, salt, cinnamon, fennel seeds and almost no water.
Saute the chopped onions,green chillies, chopped ginger,chopped cilantro, and curry leaves in oil.  Mix with the dal mixture .
Divide into equal portions (12) and make small balls of lime size. Keep aside.

Kuruma:
Ingredients:
Red onion - 2 (medium size)
tomato - 2
green chillies - 4
coriander leaves - a handful.
mint leaves - few
curry leaves - few
coconut milk - 1/2 cup
shredded coconut - 2 tbsp
cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp
red chilli powder - 1 tsp
turmeric powder - a pinch
curry masala powder - 1 tsp
salt - to taste
ghee / oil - 2 tbsp
cardamom - 2
cloves - 2
Fennel seeds - 1/2 tsp
bay leaf - 1
ginger garlic paste - 1 tbsp
Method:
Grind ginger and garlic together.
Grind shredded coconut ,cardamom, cloves, cumin seeds, green chillies and 1 onion together. keep aside.
Heat ghee in a pan. Add fennel seeds and bay leaf.
Add the finely chopped onion and wait till it turns golden brown. Then add curry leaves, cilantro and mint leaves. The put the ginger garlic paste and saute well.
Add the finely chopped tomato and wait till it cooks well.
Add 2 cups of water, chilli powder,salt, turmeric powder , curry masala powder and stir well.
Add the coconut masala and let it boil it gives a nice flavor.
Close the lid and cook till raw smell goes.
Now add coconut milk mix well.  Any leftover water  we got while preparing paruppu urundai can be added in this stage. Bring it to rolling boil.
Then add the lentil balls (paruppu urundai) and cook in high flame for a minute. Reduce flame and cook covered. Stir after 5 minutes and check if the urundai is cooked. Switch off. Paruppu urundai kulambu is ready!  

Serving suggestions:
serve hot with any rice, parathas or roti or naan .

Easy chocolate cake

Chocolate cake is one of my favorites. Whenever I crave for that, I would buy a ready-made cake mix pack or hubby may buy me a piece of this moist delicious chocolate cake from our nearby bakery. Also, Whenever I have to make a cake he will suddenly say that he WANTS a carrot cake, so I will be making carrot cakes often. On the other day I wanted to make some chocolate cake from scratch to share with our friends. I got the basic idea for my chocolate cake from this recipe. Thanks to the author I could figure out 'how to make a chocolate cake from scratch / without cake mix?' On that day I had Nestle drinking chocolate sachets only, but the recipe says to add cocoa powder. So I used what I had and the finish was excellent.

Very moist delicious chocolate cake

I love the way the cake came out spongy.

Plain vanilla cakes are Xav's favorite and I  made that too.

slight soaking made the chocolate cake incredibly moist and delicious.

Ingredients:
All purpose flour - 1 3/4 cup
sugar - 2 cup
baking cocoa powder - 3/4 cup
baking soda - 1 1/2 tsp
baking powder - 1 1/2 tsp
salt - 1 tsp
egg - 2
milk - 1 cup
vegetable oil - 1/2 cup
vanilla extract - 2 tsp
boiling water - 1 cup

(I substituted baking cocoa with 2 sachet Nestle drinking chocolate powder + 1/4 cup chocolate chips + 2 tsp bru instant coffee powder. It tasted absolutely delicious)

Method:
Preheat oven to 350 deg F.
Grease and flour 2 pans of 9 inch size.
Sift flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, salt, (drinking cocoa, bru if any) together. Sift twice to get a fluffy porous cake. Put it in a big mixing bowl.

In a blender or mixie beat the milk, egg, sugar, vanilla, vegetable oil, (chocolate chips if any)  for a minute. Add it to the dry ingredients in the big mixing bowl.  Mix well.
Bring 1 cup water to boil. Pour in to the mixing bowl. Mix well.
Pour in to baking pans and bake for 40 - 45 mins. My cake came out by 42 minutes.
Let cool completely before slicing.
Chocolate cake is ready!


Note:
This recipe will make 2 cakes of 9x9 inch squares or two 9 inch round cakes or one 9 x13 cake.
Before baking, we may notice the cake batter to be very thin and runny. But the cake will come out perfect. Believe me:)

Serving suggestions:
I didn't do icing for this cake. (But any chocolate based icing will be perfect).
Instead I did the soaking. I pierced the top of cake. Then I made a simple sugar syrup with 1/2 cup brown sugar + 1/2 cup water and coated the top of the cake with this syrup. This plain cake tasted amazingly moist and delicious. That is the secret behind most of the moist cakes:)
Some people cover the top with chocolate syrup and it will be more delicious too.
Some pieces can be saved in freezer and used to make trifle.

Carrot cake (Veg)

Happy New year !
Let's start the New year with a sweet recipe, a carrot cake. 

Egg-less carrot cake.

Ingredients:
Carrot - 1 (small)
Apple (small) - 1/2 fruit
All purpose flour - 2/3 cup
plain yogurt - 1/2 cup
vinegar / lime juice - 1 tsp
sugar - 2/3 cup
oil / butter - 1/3 cup + 1 tsp for greasing the pan
shredded coconut (dry) - 2 tsp
vanilla extract - 1/2 tsp
orange peel - 1 tsp
cinnamon powder - 1/4 tsp
baking soda - 2/3 tsp
baking powder - 2/3 tsp
salt - pinch
walnut - 2 tbsp (chopped)
raisin - 15

Method:

Shred the carrot. Core, peel and shred the apple.
Preheat oven to 350 deg (175 deg C) for at least 30 minutes before we start baking.
Grease and flour the cake tin. Keep aside.
Beat the yogurt, vinegar / lime juice using a fork till smooth. Then add vanilla essence, sugar, oil and beat till its smooth.
Sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt TWICE. Sifting makes the baked products perfect.
Put it in a mixing bowl and add the liquids from mixer.
Mix well.
Add the shredded carrot, coconut, orange peel, cinnamon, coarsely chopped walnut and mix slightly.
Now the batter is ready!
Pour into the prepared baking pan and bake for 40 - 50 minutes.
Eggless carrot cake is ready!

Note:
Apple makes the cake more moist.
Coconut gives the perfect flavor for this cake.
Makes a 6 inch round cake or 12 cup cakes.
Plain yogurt can be substituted by a mix of 1/4 cup milk + 1 tbsp lime juice / vinegar.
After baking the cake, pierce the top with skewer multiple times and soak it with few tsp of sugar syrup, to get a more delicious cake.
For cream cheese frosting and butter cream icing recipes, please click here.

Happy New year,

Let's welcome the New year with joy,
with lots of prayers and well wishes,
May every day be filled
with happiness and peace,
May every face on earth live happily forever,
with all our needs satisfied,
May every life lives peacefully
with all our dreams come true,
May every child gets love and care,along
with all the toys they want:)
May God shower His abundant love on all of us,






Wishing all a
beautiful, Prosperous and Blessed
Happy New Year and Happy blogging!
Love,
Viki.

Mandarin orange Marmalade

Winter is the best season to buy oranges as they grow abundantly here. Recently hubby bought me a crate of Mandarin oranges, as I love them very much. On seeing that I wanted to make some marmalade, as I admire Ina's and Alton Brown's orange marmalade in food TV network shows. My version is a combination of both recipes and learned a few tips through internet. I totally enjoyed the whole process, as the orange smell filled the whole house and gives us a cheerful feeling. I did a small batch only, as I am yet to learn canning process. I used pectin to bring the runny jam to a spreading consistency. The result is very good and we got a big batch of homemade mandarin marmalade. Hubby dear loves this marmalade very much along with bread for breakfast. Nowadays he wants me to make all kinds of jams at home:) Try this and enjoy the sweet orange marmalade.

Mandarin orange marmalade in glass bottles I saved. Happy New year!

Bright and cheerful oranges.

Cooking the orange the previous night is essential.

I used peels from some mandarins only, as I wanted to make a sweeter jam.

Pectin gives a good texture for all preserves. Nowadays I am making homemade pectin too.

Ingredients:
Mandarin oranges - 14
sugar - 4 cup
lemon - 1
water - 2 cup

Method:
Wash the oranges and lemon , wipe clean. Air dry them. Take half the number of mandarins, quarter and slice them very thinly.
Discard any seeds.
Peel the other half of mandarins, discard the peels (I keep the peels for making orange peel powder).
Remove the skin, pith, seeds and take out the juicy orange alone.
In a thick bottom vessel add the chopped mandarin, mandarin flesh,  2 cups water and cook the oranges till the peel turns tender.  Add sugar and bring to a boil.
Switch off and leave them to soak overnight.
The next day start heating the jam and cook till it gets almost thick (spreadable consistency). It will take nearly 1 hour.
If you are going for a long term preserve, then follow the instructions of a canning expert, as I made a 'refrigerator type jam' only.
If the consistency is still runny, add 1/2 a sachet of pectin (1 jar pack) and heat till it is more thick.
Let cool and store in well cleaned glass bottles.
Mandarin orange marmalade is ready!

Tips:

This marmalade made of mandarin orange is sweeter than the British marmalade.
Serve with bread toast or chapati.
We can use the peels of entire batch, but my version is more sweeter.
Homemade marmalade or preserve are  healthy, delicious ,economical and gives the cook a kind of satisfaction:)
Orange Marmalade is good for health when consumed with breakfast.

Ginger bread cookies

Baking the 'Ginger bread cookies' during Christmas time is a traditional baking activity in US. I was looking for a spicy ginger bread man cookies and got this in food network website. Thanks to the author, I made spicy delicious cookies for this Christmas and we enjoyed it very much. I have added some black pepper powder also, as per my knowledge and it turned out very good. We got 10 big size ginger bread people, 25 small gingerbread couples and a house. Approximately it can yield 45 small gingerbread people. Here is my video on this recipe. If you like the video, kindly subscribe and encourage me. Thank you !

2 D Gingerbread house cookie along with sugar cookies I made for Christmas.

Ingredients and directions:
Butter - 1 1/2 stick
Dark brown sugar - 1 cup
sugar - 2/3 cup
orange zest - from 1 fruit
Bring butter to room temperature by keeping it out of fridge for 6 hours. Mix the above well. Keep aside.

Egg - 2
molasses - 1/2 cup
lemon - 1/2 fruit
Beat the eggs and mix with molasses, lemon juice. Add this to the above liquid and keep aside.

Spices:
Dry ginger powder - 1 tbsp
black pepper powder - 1 tsp
nutmeg - 1/20 of a nut (powdered)
All spice powder - 1/2 tsp
cinnamon powder - 1 1/2 tsp
cloves - 5 (powdered)
Powder the spices together and keep in freezer till we need. (I use immediately).

Dry ingredients:
All purpose flour - 4 cup
baking powder - 1 1/2 tsp
baking soda - 1/2 tsp
salt - 1 tsp
Sift together AP flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder twice.

Add the gingerbread cookie spice powder and  dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix well. I mix with hands just like chapati dough. Cover with a cling wrap and keep refrigerated (for 2 hours or up to 1 week, as per need). Refrigerating the cookie dough makes it hard enough to roll and cut shapes.

Preheat the oven to 350 deg F. Dust a rolling board with AP flour and start rolling the cookies up to 1/4 to 1/2 inch thickness. Bake for 8 - 10 minutes, take out carefully using a spatula and let cool on cooling wires. Store in air tight containers.

Gingerbread cookies is ready!

Serving suggestions:
Makes an yummy snack along with coffee / tea.

Athirasam

I made this adhirasam (Indian donuts) for this year Christmas. After posting a version of adirasam using store bought rice flour I wanted to make this traditional adirasam and it came out successfully. Adhirasam is an Indian dessert or snack. It is a very common snack prepared in villages of Tamilnadu. Preparing perfect athirasam depends on the expertise on making the perfect jaggery solution (vella pagu). I have measured everything in gms, using my kitchen scale. As getting a 1/2 kg jaggery pack is easier,I add sugar and make up the other ingredients based on that (otherwise rice and jaggery should be of equal weight). I used the Adora basmati rice we get here. I got my adhirasam batter a little runny, so I added maida (AP flour) till it became little thick. If we are using Indian raw rice (pacharisi) , then there won't be any need to add maida flour. Here is my recipe for the 'Tamilnadu sweet adhirasam'.
Recipe source: I have seen my mom making this along with a maid during festivals.  Now I did this with my Mother-in law's tips on making the perfect adhirasam batter. Adding maida is her tips and it works out perfectly for me. 

Awaiting Baby Jesus....Athirasam for Holy Family.

Athirasam batter.

Ingredients:
Raw rice - 600 gm
jaggery - 500 gm
water - 3/4 cup
white sugar - 3 tbsp
dry ginger powder - 1 tbsp
sesame seeds - 2 tbsp
cardamom powder - 1 tsp
poppy seed (kasakasa) - 1 tbsp
All purpose flour - (if needed)
oil to deep fry
ghee - few tsp

Method:
Rinse the rice. Soak the rice in water for 1 hour.   Drain water completely and spread it on a clean dry paper towel or cloth.  Let it dry for 2 hours. Powder the rice in mixie (little by little) to a very fine stage. Sieve if needed.

In the meantime prepare the jaggery solution. Crush the jaggery into small pieces. Put sugar and jaggery in a vessel, add 3/4 cup water and heat till the jaggery dissolves. Continue heating till we see bubbles and one string consistency. (the jaggery solution when poured from the spatula should fall like a single line at the end.).  Check: Take water in a small cup and pour this jaggery now, it should fall as a drop, but will dissolve soon. we will not be able to roll it into a ball. This is the stage for making soft athirasam. Immediately switch off.

Don't go for uruttu patham (update 2014): if it became soft ball or uruttu patham, then add 1/4 cup water and heat and bring back. {Soft ball consistency. (Soft ball consistency - uruttu patham : If we drop 1/2 a tsp of jaggery solution in cold water, it should not dissolve. We should be able to roll that into a soft ball). (or do this step using a candy thermometer - candy stage temp).}

To the powdered rice, add cardamom powder, sesame, kasakasa, dry ginger powder, jaggery solution. Add the jaggery solution little by little , leaving behind the sediments. Mix well. Add the entire solution if possible (the adirasam should be as sweet as possible) and the batter should be like chapati dough but more sticky, little runny and soft to touch.

Add 3 tbsp milk to this and knead again. This gives soft athirasam. (updated 2014)

 If the dough is more runny like idly batter, add maida flour and give it more thickness. (It is a good idea to prepare a cup of extra rice flour separately to mix with the runny batter). For test run, fry one adirasam immediately and check if tastes / looks good.

Then cover the batter with a cling wrap or clean cloth and let it soak for 3 days. On the third day heat oil in a broad frying pan. Wait till it gets really hot. Reduce to medium flame. Take a plastic sheet, apply some ghee in our hands and on the sheet. Take a small lime size adhirasam batter , flatten it smoothly. Make a small hole in center (for South Tamilnadu adirasam) or just without hole (for Madras Athirasam). Deep fry in low to medium heat. Flip and fry the other side too. Fry the adirasam in small batches and give more time to cook in low heat.

Take out using two spatulas, one to hold the adirasam and another to press and drain oil. Keep in paper towels, let cool and store in airtight containers. It gets softer and tastes good after a few hours.

Adirasam is ready!

Serving suggestions:
Serve as snack with tea / coffee and murukku.
Makes a traditional Indian dessert.