Mutton varuval (in pressure cooker)

Here is our family recipe for mutton curry or varuval. It is easier than my version of preparing this curry in a thick wok (kadai).
I call this my family recipe (or Tirunelveli version), as my amma and mother inlaw both do the same way.  My MIL's mutton gravy is one of the best. We will definitely need a pressure cooker to prepare this gravy.
After buying my small pressure cooker, I too started following this method.
Here is a very easy way to make a delicious mutton varuval using pressure cooker.

Try and enjoy this Tirunelveli mutton curry  

Ingredients:
Goat meat (with bone)- 1 lb
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
ginger - 2 inch
garlic - 1 whole
curry masala powder - 2 tsp
red chilly powder - 2 tsp
coriander powder - 6 tsp
tomato -2
brinji leaves -2
Red onion- 2
curry leaves- 1 sprig
cilantro - 1 handful
mint leaves - 1 handful
sesame oil - 2 tbsp
fennel - 1 tsp
salt - to taste

Method:
Rinse the meat and cut it into small pieces.
Pressure cook it with turmeric and handful of water. Cook for 8 whistles in medium heat (after 1 whistle reduce to medium).
Open the pressure cooker after it becomes cool. It should be cooked perfectly by now.
In a kadai , heat 2 tbsp sesame oil. Add 1 tsp fennel seeds and after it turns red add brinji leaves,curry leaves, chopped onion. Let the onion get cooked and becomes mild pink.
Then put cilantro and mint leaves one by one .
Add the ginger garlic paste and saute for a while.
Then add finely chopped tomato and saute till it gets cooked.
Add chilli powder,coriander powder, garam masala powder and saute again.
Add this to the cooked mutton in pressure cooker.
Put enough salt and pressure cook till 1 whistle. Reduce to low heat and cook for 5 minutes.
Open the cooker. If there is some excess water, then cook it without lid in open fire and take out the mutton gravy. It should be a thick curry.
Garnish with chopped cilantro.
Mutton varuval is ready!

Serving suggestion:
Serve as side dish with plain rice , coconut milk rice, ghee rice.
Tastes very good with idli, dosai or parotta.

Mixed vegetable poriyal

A colorful bowl of side dish is always attractive. We can see 'mixed vegetable stir fries' in any cuisine in the world. In USA, any grocery store will have these chopped frozen vegetables that are easy to cook. Those packets makes the cooking very easy. But in India , our mothers had followed a different way to get those colorful vegetables. I follow the olden method and I reserve a small piece of many vegetables I use everyday to make a poriyal or aviyal that weekend. Instead we can make this poriyal with a store-bought pack or fresh too. Anyways try this and enjoy a Tamilnadu poriyal and let me know how you like it !

Ingredients:
Cabbage - 1 cup (shredded)
carrot - 1 (diced)
fresh green peas - 1/2 cup
cooked channa dal - 1/2 cup
green beans -10
shredded coconut - 2 tbsp
green chillies - 2
curry leaf - 1 sprig
onion (chopped) - 2 tbsp (optional)
ginger (finely chopped) - 1 tsp
oil - 1 tsp
salt - to taste
mustard - 1/2 tsp
cumin - 1/4 tsp

Method:
Shred the cabbage into fine pieces. Chop the carrot into small cubes and green beans to small pieces. Peel and wash the green peas (pachai pattani).

Heat oil in a wok. Let the mustard seeds pop. Then slide in the onion, ginger, green chillies, curry leaves and saute for 10 seconds. Don't let it get red.

Then add the finely chopped veggies along with green pea and stir fry for a minute.
Immediately sprinkle a handful of water. Add salt and cook covered till the vegetables are done. Tender crispy cooking making the poriyal more tasty. So don't over cook them. Then add the cooked channa dal.

Now sprinkle the shredded coconut and cumin seeds. Mix well and switch off.

Mixed vegetable poriyal is ready!

Serving suggestions:
Serve as side dish with sambar rice or any rice.
Serves 4.

Happy New year,

Wishing all a
beautiful, Prosperous , peaceful and Blessed
Happy New year,
May God protect us all and
Bless us with a happy life,
Happy New Year
Love,
Viki.

Merry Christmas,

I am wishing all  Blessed Happy Christmas,

Merry Christmas!
Love,
Viki

Masala tea and homemade tea masala powder

Hi Friends ! How are you all ? I am very glad to blog again after a few months.

India is famous for its chaai (tea ) varieties. Indian teas are quite different from any other countries'. It is usually prepared with more milk (see recipe below). We make many teas like mint tea, ginger tea, cardamom tea etc. Most of the teas are made with fresh ingredients by grinding them. But keeping a masala for chaai at hand will make our job easier.  Here is one Tea masala recipe for this cold weather. I make this tea masala powder in small batches and keep them in freezer  to preserve the fresh smell.  I find it as aromatic as any famous store brand. Hope you all love my version and enjoy a cup of tea with me :)

Home made tea masala

Spicy masala tea ! My every morning happiness is putting a flask full of masala tea in his office bag :)

My new collection....cute Indian tea cups. Bought this in a nearby Indian grocer shop for $12. (2013)

Have  a look !

Ingredients:
Cardamom seeds - 1 tbsp
cloves - 1 tbsp
cinnamon -1 full roll
star anise  - 2
ginger powder - 8 tbsp
bay leaf - 2
black pepper - 1 tbsp

Method:
Dry roast all items one by one (except ginger powder) in medium heat without browning.  Let cool and grind to a fine powder in an Indian mixer. Store in airtight container and for more freshness, keep this masala refrigerated.

Indian masala Tea recipe: (2 cups)
Milk (2% or low fat) - 1 cup
water - 1 1/4 cup
sugar - 4 tsp
Indian black tea powder (or leaves) - 2 tsp
tea masala powder - 1 tsp

Method:
Bring water to  a rolling boil. Add tea powder and it will give  a reddish brown decoction immediately.  Then add boiled milk , sugar and tea powder. Bring it to  a boil and switch off. Filter immediately and pour into tea cups.
Serve immediately!
Microwave version : Put everything in the recipe together in a microwave safe bowl and cook for 3 minutes. Filter and serve. (Personally the stove top method is my favorite).

Note:
Some times I use my 'All spice powder', which I use for cake preparation also to make tea. Here is the basic ingredients for that.

All spice powder
Cinnamon - 2 roll
cardamom - 1 tbsp
cloves - 1 tbsp
nutmeg - 1/4
mace - 1
cumin - 1 tbsp
black pepper - 1 tbsp
ginger powder - 1/2 cup

Dry roast (everything except ginger powder) and grind and enjoy another version of masala chaai.  Add some fresh mint leaves while making tea for more flavor.

Nei payasam

 Nei means Ghee, Payasam is a kind of kheer. This is a payasam from Kerala and it is known for its extreme sweet taste and ghee. This is prepared during pooja days as offering.
In my father's house, this payasam is prepared during Navaratri and offer as neivedyam to our family Goddess. We add more bananas and little raw rice in this recipe, while the traditional Kerala Nei payasam will have rice only.  I like the original version also very much. Hubby dear asked me to prepare this payasam as he still remembers that unique payasam from his elder brother's wedding:) So I made this super sweet payasam in the traditional manner. Try this and enjoy !

Ghee rich very sweet thick payasam.

Ingredients:
Raw rice or basmati rice - 1 cup
ghee - 1/2 cup
jaggery - 2 cup
cardamom , dry ginger powders - 1/2 tsp each
sliced coconut - 1/2 cup
cashew , raisin - few.
Banana - 1 (optional)

Method:
Cook the rice in a heavy bottom vessel (stove top) with 2 - 3 cups of water. After water comes to boil, add chopped banana. Wait till the rice gets cooked.  It should not be mushy.
In the meantime dissolve the jaggery in 1 cup water and bring it to a thick stage. Pour the clean jaggery solution (leaving behind the sediments) to cooked rice. Stir till it becomes thick . Fry the coconut pieces, cashew, raisin in ghee. Pour ghee, fried items, powders mentioned and mix well. Stir and cook till the dessert leaves the edges.
Time taken : almost 1 hour.
Nei payasam is ready!

Serving suggestion:
Serve as dessert.

Happy Vijaya Dasami to you all !

Thanks to this free images link !

Pillow soft idli and party menu

Making an idli successfully is every Indian ladies' wish. That too the malligaipoo idli of Tamilnadu needs a perfect recipe, quality ingredients, weather and more importantly a wet grinder.  But most of us who search for a good idli recipe for pillow soft diamond white idli are from abroad or cities. I am using a Preethi mixie for making idli batter (not wet grinder).  Earlier my idlies would come out good on one day and sometimes different. Then recently I got this recipe from my chithi and it works best for me any day. After that it became everybody's favorite party food in my house and my three idli plates were not enough :) Then hubby bought me a another set of  idli plates also:) I am sure you are all gonna love this too ♥

Here are some tips for making mallipoo idly:
*Find a best quality idli rice that works for you. For me it is Laxmi brand always.  I had tried with ponni parboiled rice and it works too, but we believe in idli rice for generations:)
* urid dal should be the white whole urid dal. Fresh split black urid dal is  the one we had used for long time as we get that free from our land. So we are sure of its age :)  But this white is better, as it gives more batter like fresh dal.
*Coarse sea salt or fine sea salt gives more flavor.
* Use any raw rice or raw basmati rice.
*Always rinse the rice 3 to 4 times in tap water or till water runs clear. This ensures pearl white idli.
*Never use baking soda for idli. This plain batter is must for white color idli.
* Always mix the idli batter using hand before fermentation. After the batter gets fermented, we can use spoon to handle it.
* Both grinder and mixie can give the same results. Use Indian mixies or grinders only for making this batter, as blenders may vary in quality.
* I grind the batter to a fine texture for both idly and dosa. But many people make a coarse batter for idly and fine one for dosa, which is also good.
* I recommend preparing idly on the first two days and using the same batter for dosai from then on. The batter stays good inside fridge for a week.
*After grinding the idli batter, mix with hand and divide it into three containers and let it ferment. By this way , we can make soft idli every day.
*In colder regions: prepare the batter and immediately keep inside an oven. If there is pilot flame (conventional gas oven), then the batter will become fluffy and double within 8 hours.
* If there is no pilot flame (electric ignition oven), then heat the oven to 200 deg C for 5 minutes, switch off  and keep the batter. Also in this oven during very cold winters: maintain the temperature by keeping a large pot of hot water inside the oven and change it once in 4 hours ☺☺
* While making sambar for guests or parties, always temper it with ghee only and add some jaggery , fresh cilantro before switching off.

I am sure this will make your guests call you as idly queen :)

Soft idly with murungakkai sambar

Pillow soft idly with malli chutney. Home stye !

My favorite Idli plate (this type won't have holes in each dent and so no need to spread an idli cloth).

Ingredients: (Using mixie / mixer / blender)
Idli rice - 4 cups
raw rice - 3/4 cup
urid dal - 1 cup + 2 tbsp
methi seed (venthayam) - 1 tbsp
fine sea salt - 1 tsp / cup  (here 6 tsp)
we can use coarse sea salt too (but measurement may vary).

Ingredients: (using grinder )
Idli rice - 6 cups
urid dal - 1 cup (if urid dal is of high quality, which yield more fluffy batter. If not so, then use 1 1/4 cup urid dal)
methi seed (venthayam) - 1 tbsp
fine sea salt - 1 tsp / cup  (here 6 tsp)
we can use coarse sea salt too (but measurement may vary).

Method:
Soak idli rice, methi and raw rice together for 4 - 5 hours in normal weather. (over night soaking can be done for subzero winters).
Soak  urid dal for 1 hour (definitely not more than that).
First grind the urid dal using cold water to a fluffy fine texture.
Grind the rice along with salt to a fine texture (or medium coarse texture).
In a large mixing bowl, mix all the batters together. Mix vigorously with hand , so that both mixes very well. Keep on mixing for at least 2 minutes.
Divide it into three portions and store separately. Fill the containers to 1/4 or 1/2 only, as the batter will rise during fermentation.
Keep in a warm place (see tips above) and let it ferment for 8 hours or overnight.
Then take one container and keep all others in fridge.
Before pouring for idli, mix very very gently twice using a mixing spoon. Don't mix too much.
Grease an idli plate, with very little drop of ghee or sesame oil.
Scoop idli batter and fill each dent up to 3/4 full.
Keep the idli stand inside pressure cooker and steam cook for 8-10 minutes without putting weight valve.
Take out and scoop out the steamed idlie, when they are still hot.
Soft idli is ready!

Serving suggestions:
Serve with any chutney or vengaya sambar or idli podi.

How to plan for an easy party with idly batter?
Recently we hosted a party in our house. Here is my menu plan for an easy vegetarian get together or dinner for 10 people. I didn't take any pictures (I should have....) ☺

Prepare 30 - 40 idli, just an hour or two before party. Microwave this and close tightly (steam makes it more soft), before bringing to dinning table. If possible prepare the idli just before serving, as it is  the most authentic version, but I do this to make it easy.
Serve a simple snack or appetizer like onion bajji. We can prepare the bajji batter almost a day ahead and keep in fridge. Don't mix onions ahead. Start frying the favorite bajji just before party starts.
While the guests are enjoying the idli, start making crispy masal dosa with ghee.
Make sambar and potato masala filling one day ahead or in early morning. keep in fridge. We can garnish the sambar later.
But always make the coconut chutney as fresh as possible (within 2-4 hours in cold regions).
Serve the idli in bowls and top it with sambar (North Indian version) or in plate and pour sambar, chutney over it (South Indian version).Keep spoons handy.
For dessert, prepare ahead some ice cream or rava kesari or just a store bought icecream. I served kulfi icecream , which I prepared in excess while making for hubby's office party.
Though this party menu may look elaborate, it is not tiresome, if planned properly.