South Indian Vegetarian Party

Recently we hosted a party for our neighbor aunty, who has become a new grandma. That's the baby's first party to go and that made it more memorable for us. So here is the menu I prepared for the new mom and grandparents and family.

South Indian dinner party 

Poori is getting ready !

My party menu !

Here is the menu :
Cucumber salad
Ulunthu vadai with fresh coconut chutney
Idli  with sweet mango sambar
Poori with potato masala
Kulfi ice cream

Hope you all love this party menu as much as we all do !

Corn and Bean salad

Even though we all strive to cook elaborate snacks on weekends, secretely we all would long to have something quick to fix. All the home cooks have some magic recipe in their sleeve to make their family happy on a weekend, without standing in the kitchen for long time. May it be a store bought chips packet or homemade murukku, but the smile we see in our love's face is important :) Right !
 In my house sundal (Indian lentil salad) is one snack that saves me a lot of time.  Corn and bean salad is another easy to do recipe.  Click to see my 'colorful corn and bean salad'. Mostly I buy frozen corn in a bag. But if you are willing, you can prepare it from fresh corn too. Tea time snacks in my house is mostly easy to fix types.  When it comes to lentils, I always buy dried beans. Dried beans are inexpensive and belongs to 'good eats'. Canned beans comes handy, when we need to soak them.  I cook black bean ahead , portion them and freeze it in small containers. So here is my hubby's favorite 5 minute sundal / salad.

Corn and bean salad

Ingredients:
Sweet corn - 1 cup
black bean - 1/2 cup
Parmesan cheese - 2 tbsp (optional)
salt , pepper - to taste
lemon - few drops

Method:
Boil the corn and remove the kernels from cob using a knife. (or) Just buy a bag of frozen corn and keep it handy.
Take a cup of frozen corn and rinse in water. Put it in a microwavable cup. Microwave it for 2 minutes . I don't cover it while microwaving.
Mix it with cooked hot black bean. Add salt, pepper, cheese , lemon juice and mix well.
Corn bean salad  is ready!

Serving suggestion:
Serve as snack or side dish with baked chicken and vegetables.

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 !