Vegetable Kara paniyaram

Paniyaram is a snack that looks like American cake-pops. They are made in special pans called 'kuzhipaniyara kal' . Those pans are the very same as puff pancake pans here.
Mostly the paniyaram batter is made with rice and dal.  We can make many varieties too. Check out my Kaara paniyaram, keerai paniyaram, carrot kuli paniyaram, sweet paniyaram, wheat paniyaram,  ragi paniyaram, unniappam, deep fried banana paniyaram . In this I have added many vegetables and it makes it more scrumptious.

Vegetable kaara paniyaram with tomato chutney

Ingredients:

dosa batter - 1 1/2 cup
ravai (sooji / semolina) - 2 tbsp
besan flour - 2 tbsp
baking soda - 1/2 tsp
oil - as per need
carrot, beans, capsicum, cabbage or any combo of vegetables - finely minced together 3/4 cup

To temper:

mustard seed - 1/2 tsp
urad dhal - 1 tsp
sesame oil - 1 tsp
onion - 1/4 (small)
green chilly - 2
cilantro, curry leaf - few leaves.
asafoetida (hing) - a pinch

Method:

Take the dosa batter in a mixing bowl, and add sooji to it.

It is not traditional to add besan flour, but I add it to get golden red paniyaram.

10 minutes before starting to prepare the paniyaram, add the baking soda and mix well. 

In the mean time prepare the tempering.
Heat 1 tbsp oil in a small wok and add mustard seeds. Once they start splutter, add the urad dhal, hing and finely chopped onion, cilantro, curry leaf, chopped chilly and let it get slightly tender. Then goes the chopped vegetables. Cook the vegetables crispy tender. Sprinkle some salt. Add it to the batter and mix well.
Now heat a paniyaram pan and brush some oil in all the holes. Then add 1/2 tsp sesame oil / butter in each hole. Reduce the flame to minimum and pour the batter to halfway in each hole. Click to see the picture. Let it get cooked. Cook covered or in open. (I prefer putting a lid to ensure uniform cooking). We can see the paniyaram getting cooked, by the golden color appearing in the edges. Flip using a skewer or fork (I use a spoon and fork). Cook for a minute.  Take out and serve immediately.

Serving suggestion:
Makes a breakfast or snack with tea or dinner or appetizer.
Makes almost 21 paniyaram .
Serve with coconut chutney, Tomato chutney

Note:

Click to read my kaara paniyaram recipe from scratch.
I used left over dosa batter (5 days old) in this recipe (old dosa batter contains lesser urid dal and that's the best for paniyaram).
Do everything in low heat. It may take a little while but that is the only way to get whole fluffy paniyaram (in a traditional pan).
Non stick pans work the best. But I have used a pan similar to traditional thick paniyaram pan.
For the first round it may require more oil to fry, but it will take very lesser in the next batches.
Tastes the best when it is very hot.

Sometimes we soak some kara paniyaram in sambar and serve like sambar vadai.

Time taken: around 30 minutes

Orange cinnamon rolls

Cinnamon bun is an easy to make recipe.  We can see this dessert in many restaurants here. Also ready-made and ready to bake versions can be bought from grocery stores. Usually this bun should be glazed with white powdered sugar.  But I wanted to try something different and I tried 'Orange cinnamon rolls' from the book 'Trisha's Table' , which I got from library.  The citrus flavor in this recipe makes the usual rolls more scrumptious. Try this and enjoy !

Orange cinnamon rolls

Steps:

This is the first recipe I tried as soon as I got a kitchenaid mixer from Santa during Christmas ☺

cinnamon sugar over the dough

before rising. In this stage, we can wrap and keep it refrigerated overnight to bake freshly the next morning.

After baking

Orange cinnamon rolls

For Dough:
Active dry yeast - 1 pack (2 1/4 tsp)
sugar - 1/4 cup + 1 tsp
lukewarm water - 1/4 cup
olive oil - 1/4 cup
orange zest - 1 tbsp
orange juice - 1/4 cup
whole milk - 1/2 cup
All purpose flour - 3 1/2 cups
salt - 1 tsp
For filling:
salted butter (softened) - 3 tbsp
light brown sugar - 1 cup
cinnamon powder - 1 1/2 tbsp
Orange glaze:
confectioner's sugar - 2 cup
orange juice - 3 tbsp

Method:
Combine yeast, 1 tsp sugar, lukewarm water together in a small bowl. Let it activate for 10 minutes. It will bubble and double in volume.
In another bowl, mix together sugar, oil, orange zest, orange juice and milk.
In an electric mixer bowl, add four and salt. Add yeast solution, orange juice mix. Fix the dough hook and set it to speed 2 and 3 and beat till it becomes a dough. It may take 5 minutes.
Or we can make this dough manually too.
Now cover that mixer bowl with an air tight plastic wrap. Let it remain in room temperature for 1 hour and see that it gets double in size.

Preheat the oven to 350 deg F. Coat a baking tray with cooking oil and keep aside.

Clean the kitchen counter and flour the surface. Roll the dough to a rectangle of 1/4 inch thickness. Coat the dough with butter leaving 1/4 inch border. Sprinkle brown sugar and then cinnamon powder over it.
Roll the dough to a cylindrical shape and pinch the ends together and seal completely.
Cut it into 12 equal size rolls. Place them in the baking tray. Cover it with plastic wrap again and let it rise for 30 more minutes. Now it would double in volume.
Now remove the wrap and bake for 25 to 30 minutes. It will turn mild brown and that means it is done.

In a small bowl, mix together confectioner's sugar, orange juice. Drizzle this over the cinnamon rolls , while they are still warm.
Orange cinnamon rolls is ready !

Serving suggestion:

Serve as dessert or breakfast.

Makes 12 rolls.

Happy Ramadan !

Happy Ramadan !

Happy Independence day !

Happy Independence day dear America !

American Flag model in Roadside America, PA.

Snow peas poriyal

Snow-peas can be compared with Indian broad beans /avarakkai (Tamil) / chikkudukaya (Telugu) / sem (Hindi) / avara (Malayalam).

Snow peas come in peak season during summer here. Mostly it is steam cooked with little salt and consumed as a snack or appetizer. But most of the Indian women I know would prefer making a spicy stir-fry like mine :) Have a look at my spicy avarakkai fry too.
Our fist place in US was Missouri. We were in a cozy little town called Ofallon. That place really looked like a hallmark greetings or Thomas kinkade painting for me. That beautiful little town we lived had only one Indian grocery store (named Suvidha). At that time, they would bring fresh vegetables and groceries on only one evening in a week and that would get sold in minutes. Also the prices would look huge for anyone who had just relocated to USA from India. We were also one among those who would do multiplication  on looking at the dollars. Students and newbies think like that and I am sure there is nothing wrong in thinking of saving.  So we would go to the local American grocery stores like Schnucks or Shop and save or mostly Aldi to buy vegetables. In the beginning , we all wouldn't fuss much to get typical Indian vegetables like brinjal, gourds etc and rejoiced on seeing beans and carrots there :) (In our native we always wanted vegetables from cooler zones).
After few months, everyone would start looking for more nostalgic tastes. At that time we found this vegetable. It was like a sweet medley of avarakka and crispy cucumber. I started cooking this after that day and we like this poriyal very much. Enjoy !

Fresh snow peas 

snow peas poriyal

Ingredients:
snow peas - 1/2 lb
shredded coconut - 1/2 cup
cumin - 1 tsp
salt - to taste.
To Temper:
onion - 1/2 cup (chopped)
green chili - 2
mustard - 1/2 tsp
urid dal - 1/2 tsp
coconut oil / olive oil - 2 tsp

Method:
Chop the snow peas into small pieces.
Slit the green chilli into two (or) chop finely.
Heat oil in a wok. Add mustard, urid dal and let the mustard crack.
Then add the chopped onion and saute till it gets tender.
Then add the chopped chillies, snow peas and Saute well.
Sprinkle a handful of water and cook covered for 5 minutes in medium heat.
Then add required salt. Open and let it get dry
It will get cooked in almost 10 minutes in medium heat.
Then add the shredded coconut, cumin and stir well for a  minute.
Switch off.
Snow peas poriyal is ready!

Serving suggestion:
Serve as side dish with rice and any curry like sambar, puli kuzhambu.
Try this with my favorite sweet mango sambar and enjoy !

Tamilnadu's village style mixture

Mixture / namkeen  / மிக்ஸர் is a popular spicy snack of India. Just as the name says, the snack mixture is a mix of various snacks like omapodi, kaara boonthi, nuts, spices etc.
The North Indian namkeen mixtures are made with thin sev and we can see this trend in Chennai mixture too. Most of those namkeens contain a hint of sweetness.  But there is one more mixture variety from my native place, which may not be much popular, but I like it very much. I have seen this kind of mixture in Kerala too. This mixture should be made with thick sev and the spice level should be high. We call it as 'Thisayanvilai mixture'. One of our good relatives, AnnaPazham paatti used to buy this for us. This mixture would be packed in palm leaf containers (olai petti) and that adds more glamour to it.
I tried to create it at home and it turned out to be a great success. Should I say hubby dear and me enjoyed this mixture throughout that weekend with tea!

Tamilnadu's village style mixture

Omapodi and kaara poonthi 

plantain chips

soaked channa dal

frying the channa dal

fried peanut, curry leaf, channa dal

Every goodness in one bowl together, the MIXTURE

After mixing the snacks together...

Fruit of my work ♥ Mixture stored in airtight container.....for snack time !

Ingredients:
Omapodi (thick sev) - 1/4 kg  (or) crushed - 2 cups
kara boondi - 1/4 kg (or) 2 cups
banana chips - from one plantain  (or) 100 gms
peanut  (ver kadalai)- 1 cup (or) fried masala peanut - 1 cup
channa dal (kadalai paruppu) - 1/2 cup
murukku -  1 or 2 (optional)
curry leaf - few
garlic - 4 cloves
red chili powder -  1 tbsp
hing - 1/2 tsp
salt - to taste
oil - for deep frying

Method:
1.Prepare the omapodi, boondi, chips ahead. I suggest making them a day ahead. Buying them from store is also a good option. Gently crush the omapodi into medium size pieces.
Put them all together in a wide mixing bowl.
2.Soak the channa dal for 4 to 5 hours. Drain water. Pat dry in a fresh kitchen towel. Let it dry in room temperature for 30 minutes. Heat oil to deep fry in a wok. Deep fry the channa dal.
Add this to the bowl.
3. Fry the masala peanuts. My recipe would be for baking, but use the same ingredients and deep fry them for mixture. Put this with other items in the bowl. We can simply fry the peanuts too (like me).  If we add masala peanuts, then it gets the touch of kovilpatti mixture.
4. In the same hot wok, fry a handful of curry leaves to crispy. Put that to the mixing bowl.
5. Peel and crush coarsely few cloves of garlic. Fry till crispy. Add to the bowl.
6. Now add some crushed murukku to the bowl.
7. Then add chili powder, hing , salt to all those items in the mixing bowl. Mix well using a spatula or hands. Check and add salt little by little as many already contain salt.
8.Let cool and store in air tight containers.
Village style mixture is ready !

Serving suggestion:
Serve as snack with coffee or tea.
In my house, we enjoy this with sambar rice too.

Note:
*The difficult to make ingredients like sev (omapodi), kara poonthi, chips, fried peanut can be bought as readymade from any Indian grocery store and this snack can be made in a jiffy.

Sapota ice cream

Chickoo fruit / sappotte / sapota / sappotta
The Indian sapota (Manilkara zapota) tree is a beautiful short tree. I would say Indian sapotta is more sweeter but smaller than many varieties.  My relationship with this tree started during my childhood. My grandma (dad's mom's sister) had two big shady sapotta trees in her front yard and her house used to be one of my favorite places because of her and these fruits :) So whenever I see sapotta fruits, the only thing I remember is her pretty smiling face !
Click to see my sapote mikshake too.

Coming to ice cream, the secret behind a creamy rich ice cream is butter and eggs with heavy cream milk. With the invention of ice cream churners, low calorie versions starts showing up, and that makes ice cream good for most people.  Making ice cream using pudding or custard (custard has egg while pudding won't) is one of the traditional methods. But this ice cream recipe is my very own version. I learned the basic ice cream from the kitchenaid ice cream maker manual and developed a lower calorie version (still soft and tastes like rich ice cream).
Sapote is a common fruit in India, whereas it costs around $4.99 / lb in USA. But Indian grocery stores here sell frozen sapote for around $2 per pack (340 gm). Also that frozen sapote is extremely sweeter and lovable than fresh ones (fresh ones never ripe in my house....I don't know much about other's experiences. May be I am not picking up the right ones). So I always go for this frozen one.
Here goes the recipe for sapote ice cream.

Chikoo ice cream in Kitchenaid Ice cream maker ♥ 

Frozen fruit pack from Indian grocery store

                           

                   

Grind the fruit to a fine paste.

Homemade custard (simple version).

Attach the ice cream maker to stand mixer and start at speed 1.

Pour the mixture and keep churning at speed 1 for 10 to 15 minutes

keep churning till the ice cream starts thicken.

Immediately take it out 

Keep in a serving bowl and enjoy immediately or keep it frozen till we need.

A big bowl of sapota ice cream :)

Ingredients:
half and half milk (or) whole milk - 1 1/2 cup
egg - 1
butter - 1 tbsp
sugar - 1/ 2 cup
chicku fruit (sappotta) - 4 ( puree 1 3/4 cup)
(or) a 340 gm pack from frozen aisle.
cardamom powder - 1/4 tsp

Preparation:
Keep the kitchenaid mixer's ice cream attachment in freezer overnight (more than 12 hours). I would suggest keeping it in freezer always, as we can make an ice cream or sorbet, whenever we wish.
Keep the fruit in water for few minutes to defrost.

Method:
Whisk egg thoroughly. Add to milk , butter and start heating  slowly. Cook in very little heat , till it reaches little thick stage (coats the back of spoon). Let cool. (This is not traditional custard, but a quick version to make my recipe easier).
Peel the sappota fruit, remove seeds. In a blender, grind together the fruit and sugar to a fine paste.
Add everything to the ice cream maker along with pinch of salt and cardamom powder.
Keep the setting to speed 1. Churn for nearly 10 - 15 minutes . Slow churning is the best. By this time, it will get thicker ice cream consistency. In kitchenaid mixer it takes 15 minutes.
Take it out and serve immediately as soft ice cream.
Or keep in freezer for 2-4 hours for a more firm ice cream.
Keep the left over in freezer.

Note: (Ice cream using mixie and freezer).
*This ice cream can be made without ice cream maker too. For that we have to do these steps:
1. In the above method, do everything till I mentioned 'add to ice cream maker'....then skip that step.
Put the prepared ice cream mix in a tight container. Keep frozen for 2 hours. Take out, beat / run in a blender ( or Indian mixie) for 1 minute. Then transfer this to the same box and keep frozen for 2 more hours. Again , take it out and beat in a blender. Keep frozen. repeat another time and keep frozen for 1 hour before serving.
* In this recipe, we can replace whole milk with fat free milk and it would taste closer.
*while using an ice cream maker, I start the process just before serving, as soft ice creams taste incredible and won't need much fat.

Serving suggestions:
Serve as dessert.
Makes 4  1/2 cup ice cream.
I think this would be enough to make 9 medium size servings.