Badam Paal / Almond's Milk - Vegan's Choice

Badam Milk:

Badam Palu. Badam Pal. Almond Milk. Raw Almond Milk - Warm Almond Milk. Bedtime Almond Milk.

Its time to post some milk alernate(cow's milk)recipes for my Vegan buddies. Inspired by bunch of Vegan-Vegetarian friends, I started appreciating greens and vegetables lately, but havent switched from my carnivore diet plan, yet...still going on:) Anyhow...coming upon to the recipe, its rich in protein, tryptopan present in them...helps to fall asleep and stay asleep(most important for insomia), and it turned out nearly silk and smooth(nearly, okay). However it is bit labour intensive, but worth it.:)

Ingredients:

Almonds 1 cup
Milk 1 cup
Sugar to taste
Saffron few strands
Piyal Seeds 4-7

Method:

Soak almonds in warm water, peel the skin off. Wet-grind them with milk or water, Run throw the strainer. Slightly warm the almond milk, add the other ingredients.

Serve warm as a bed time drink.

Cabbage Usili - Treating Vegetables Special:)

Muttai Koss Paruppu Usili:

Muttacose Paruppu Usili. Koss Usili.

Did I tell you this? When I tried (yeah, didn't succeed)to practice vegetarianism for the past few months...I happend to discover my own culinary skills. Before that, I never paid attention to the vegetables...used to stock them up as a routine stuff, and stir-fry in a very basic way. Now, started appreciating all the goodness they possess. Treating them special, fashioning the old recipes. Good, it worked...like it a lot.

Ingredients:

Cabbage - layered and chopped
Mustard seeds 1/2 spoon
Cumin seeds 1/2 spoon
Chana dal 1/2 spoon
Urad dal 1/2 spoon
Curry leaves few
Green chilies 3 finely chopped
Dry red chilies 6
Thuvar dal 1 cup(soaked in water for 20 minutes)
Ginger-garlic paste 1 spoon
Fennel seeds 3 spoons
Salt(to grind with dal)
Salt for beans
Turmeric 1 pinch
Curry leaves few(to grind)
Oil 2 table spoons.

Method:

Dry grind fennel seeds, salt, dry chilies and curry leaves. Set them aside.

Wet grind thuvar dal bit coarsely and set aside.

Heat oil, in a wide pan. Add mustard, cumin, curry leaves, chana and urad dal. Let them pop and splutter well.

Add green chilies and cabbage. Fry well. Add salt and 1 pinch of turmeric powder. Sprinkle little water over this. Cover and cook.

When it is 3/4th cooked add the wet ground paste and cook without lid. Let the dal paste get well coated with the vegetable. Toss to all the sides..until dal gets fried and cooked.

Run few spoons of oil now, if needed. The dal should not be wet or undercooked anymore. It should be sort of crispy and fragrant now.

Serve this hot as a side dish to rice or chappathi/roti.

Spinach Masala Rice - Complete Planned Meal

Palak Masale Bhath:

Pasalai Keerai + Podi Saadham.

Ingredients:

To Be Toasted Each Separately And Powdered Togather:

Coriander seeds 2 spoons
Chana dal 2 spoons
Urad dal 2 spoons
Dry red chilies 6
Fenugreek seeds 1-2 spoons
Whole black pepper 1 spoon
Cinnamon 2 sticks
Cloves 3
Cumin seeds 1 spoon
Dry coconut grated 1/4 cup
Black Sesame seeds 2 spoons
Asafoetida.

For Rice:

Long Grained Rice/Basmathi 1 cup
Ghee few spoons
Salt

For Pan-Frying:

Spinach leaves 2 bowl full
Salt
Ghee few spoons.

For Sesonning:

Ghee few spoons
Mustard 1/2 spoon
Chana + Urid dal 2 spoons
Cumin 1/2 spoon
Asafoetida 1/2 spoon
Curry leaves few
Dry redchilies 3.


Method:

In a pressure cooker, cook rice along with salt and few spoons of ghee. When it is done...spread the rice in a wide tray. Fluff the rice with fork. Allow this to cool down to room temperature.

In a wide, heavy bottomed skillet, heat oil. Stir-in the greens...add salt + turmeric. Fry them till they are tender.

Now add powderd spices too. Let them get fried well. When the raw smell of the spices is gone and oil shows up on sides, remove from heat.

Now mix this spicy spinach with rice. Let the rice get well coated with oil and spices.

In a separate pan, heat ghee. Add sesonning ingredeients one by one. Wait till they pop and splutter.Now run this sesonning over the rice. Mix them once again thoroughly.

Serve warm as a main dish for lunch/dinner. Enjoy!

Mushroom Pepper Masala

Kalaan Milagu Varuval:

Mushroom Masala. Mushrooms Thokku. Mushrooms & Onions Stir-fry. Fried Mushroom Masala. Hot and Spicy Mushroom Masal. Pepper Mushrooms, Peppery-Mushrooms.

Sometimes, I really go off the key - what to rant about! And its so boring to praise myself in each and every post. Come on, its bit awkward to claim my own creation as the best and great...it should actually come from the person who enjoyed it, right. So, this dish is highly appreciated by Someone (to whom, I painstakingly create every meal). Yeah, yeah its worthy...I get the appreciation, whenever Someone goes for second helpings.:)

Ingredients:

Button Mushrooms 1 cup, thinly sliced
Green chili 1 sliced
Onions 2 large, thinly sliced
Garlic 2 - minced
Ginger 1" grated
Tomato 1 small chopped
Curry leave few
Salt
Turemric 1/4 spoon
Chili powder 1/4 spoon
Pepper powder - freshly ground 2-4 spoons
Garam masala powder 1/4 spoon
Corinader seeds - 1/2 spoon - toasted & powdered
Cumin seeds - 1/2 spoon - toasted & powdered
Sesame oil few spoons.

Method:

Heat oil in a heavy bottomed skillet. Add curry leaves, chilies, ginger, garlic and onions. Stir-fry over high. Add tomatoes, and all the above mentioned powdered spices.

Further add the mushrooms and cook over medium heat. Maybe cover it with a lid.

When it is almost done, remove the lid and cook over high heat, stir-fry for couple of minutes or until oil shows up on the sides.

Serve to go with your rotis or enjoy with steamed rice.

Ande Do Pyaaz

Ande Do Piyaaz:

Onion-Eggs. Muttai Vengaya Thokku. Guddilu-Ulli Kura. Mutta-Ulli Kari.

Sometime quick fix recipes like this, lights up the dinner menu. Nothing fancy...just threw-in few basic spices and centered it with eggs.

Ingredients:

Eggs 2-4
Onions - more sliced
Green chilies few sliced
Coriander seeds toasted 1/2 spoon - powdered
Cumin seeds toasted 1/2 spoon - powdered
Cilantro leaves few
Garam masala - 1 pinch
Oil
Coriander seeds + Cumin seeds for tempering.

Method:

Boil the eggs and slit them at 3-6 points, set aside.

In a wide wok, heat oil and add the tempering spices, followed by chilies, onions and salt. Fry over high heat for a while and add eggs. Stir-fry for couple of more minutes and remove from heat.

Perfect with plain steamed rice or serve as an accompaniment to your main meal.

Layered Vada Korma - Kovai Special

Stuffed Vada Curry:(Coimbatore Special)

Layered Vadai Kuzhambu. Stuffed Vada Kurma.

Ingredients:

For Vadai:

Thoor dal 1/2 cup
Chana dal 1/2 cup
Salt
Fennel seeds 1 spoon
Ginger 1"
Garlic 1 clove
Dry red chilies 5
No Oil - I steamed them, if you prefer frying...I have no objection:)

For Stuffing:

Finely chopped onions
Cilantro leaves chopped
Grated fresh coconut

For Curry:

Cloves 3
Cinnamon 1 stick
Bay leaves 2
Onion 2 grated
Tomatoes 3 crushed
Ginger=garlic paste 1/2 spoon
Salt
Turmeric powder 1/2 spoon
Chili powder 1 spoon
Coconut paste 1/2 cup
Cilantro leaves to garnish
Oil few spoons.

Method:

Wet-grind vada ingredients altogether and prepare vadas, stuff them with the ingredients mentioned above. Steam cook for roughly 10-15 minutes or deep fry them, set aside.

In a wide wok, heat oil. Throw in the spices followed by onion, ginger and garlic paste...fry real good till the raw odour leaves the pan.

Add salt, turmeric, chili powder and tomatoes. Cover and cook for few minutes...until the gravy thinckens. Add stuffed vadas and cook briefly. Garnish with cilantro leaves and remvoe from heat.

Serve to go with your rotis or rice.

Jangiri - Reflecting Family Legacy

Jaangiri:

Jangri. Jahangiri (as Mughal King Jahangir introduced this sweet). South Indian Jilebi, South India Jilebi. Jahangiri.

I have been wanting to make this sweet' for a very long time. Hmmmm, it was bit tricky to make that perfect swirl. As a teenager, my very first attempt to make jangiri at home was a complete disaster. The resulted dish, made my Mom's job easier (Yeah, I gave up experimenting sweets altogether after that). Anyhow, after several years, I gathered up some kind of guts to try this again. Guess, I did fairly decent. Though, I couldn't perfect it, but its kind of okay with taste and I am glad that I tried.:)

Ingredients:

Urad Dal 1 cup
Red food color 1 pinch
Oil for shallow frying
Sugar Syrup 1 bowl full
Ziplock bag 1 / Cones / Wash bottle with nozzle- to fill the batter.

Method:

Soak urad dal for couple of hours and wet-griend the same to smooth batter.

Add food color and fill the batter in a cone/ketchup bottle.

Now heat up the oil. Make two small circular rings, followed by number of swirls above that. As shown in the picture. Thats it, you got it. Fry these till crisp. Repeat the same for the remaining batter.

Immerse them in strong sugar syrup for couple of minutes and remove immediately.

Chill and serve as a dessert.

Grilled Salmon - Just Two Minutes

Grilled Fish:
I roamed a lot during my stay at Cincinnati (couple of weeks ago), ate at every possible nook and corner (restaurants ofcourse) of the city, to my heart content...but believe me, nothing matched this simple home-made dinner! Well, after that hectic travel, mental pressure, cramps, work load (if that counts) and what not...I was in need of an emergency dinner. My soul was begging for some home made food. So, soon after the arrival, I fixed my quintessential (basic) Tamarind rasam and Grilled fish in no time! Aaaha, there is nothing possibly exists in this world to match one's own simple family dinner. I loved it:) Restaurant food sucks, atleast for that moment, hehe:):)

Ingredients:

Salmon fillets 2
Red chili 1 crushed
Grated onion 1 small bulb
Ginger 1" grated
Garlic 1 clove minced
Tomato 1 small crushed
Salt
Turmeric 1 pinch
Chili powder 1/2 spoon
Lemon juice few spoons
Yogurts 2 teaspoons
Olive oil/sesame oil few spoons.

Method:

You know!

Mix everything together and mariante fish for few minutes. Grill the same, until it is done.

Yeah, there you go...easy right.

Kadappa/ Urulaikizhangu Kurma Kuzhambu - A Lost Family Recipe

Korma + Dhall = Kadappa:(Tamil Nadu Style)

Moong Dal Korma. Mung Dal Kurma. Kadappa Chutney Kadapa/Cadappa Kuruma Kuzhambu. Kadappa Kuzhambu. Kadappa Curry. Tanjore Kadappa. Mayavaram Kadappa.

Dedicating this recipe to my Late. AuntieThis is one of the long lost recipe in my family. My Dad used to rave about his childhood food 'Urulai Kizhangu Kuruma Kuzhambu' which was prepared by his late.Sister. Dad said, unlike regular korma...his Sister made a different one, which had an unique taste, distinct aroma and nothing matched her preparations. I asked everyone in the family, whoever had the privilege of meeting, interacting and knowing her better. But none were familiar with her culinary styles. All they said is, she is an amazing person and a gifted cook in the family.

All these years, I kept trying the same old potato korma, in different methods to get an approval from my Dad, but in vain! When I randomly googled for something, I bumped into this site, saying the exact term 'Urulai Kizhangu Kuruma Kuzhumbu' in native tongue. I was so excited...this is like million dollar thing to me and am proud to discover the family recipe.:) I immediately tried it right away and perfected it before my Dad's arrival. So finally, prepared this authentic dish to my Dad and won his big bear hug:)

Short Cut Method:
Ingredients:

Potatoes 2-4 - boiled, peeled, sliced
Green chili 3 slitted
Onion 1 small - grated
Ginger-garlic paste 1/2 spoon
Cooked Moong dal 2-3 cups
Grated coconut 1/2 shell - paste
Bay leaves 2 crumbled
Cardamom 3 crushed
Cloves, cinnamon few
Fennel seeds 1/2 spoon
Oil few spoons.

Method:

In a wide wok, heat oil. Throw in all the spices, followed by chilies, grated onion and ginger-garlic paste. Fry real good, maybe until its raw odour is gone.

Now stir-in pototoes plus mung dhall. Cover and cook for a while. Add enough salt and coconut paste. Cook without lid of few minutes...maybe till oil shows up on the top.

Remove from heat and serve as an accompaniment for idlies, dosas etc.

My Signature Method:

I used ghee for tempering the spices. I cooked the potatoes in the gravy directly, like our dhum aloo.:)

Shahi Moti Biriyani / Pilaf of Pearls - Awadh Special

Pearl Biriyani:(Chicken Kofta Biriyani)

Kofta Biriyani. Awadh Pearl Biriyani. Shahi Biriyani Badshahi. Shahi Kebab Biriyani.

Needless to say that Mughalai Cuisine revolutionsed Indian cooking culture and eating habits. This speciality 'Moti Biriyani' is a little remembrance from the past...During Mughal rule, royal cooks kept experimenting a lot in the kitchen, many native recipes were improved to meet the standards of royal diners. Usually enriched with heavy cream, dry fruits, nuts and ghee. Sometimes foodie kings imposed orders to make their every day meal extraordianry, quite memorable. So when Awadh ruler expected special pamper...cooks came up with this idea.

Wajid Ali Shah was fifth King of Oudh (from 13 Februry 1847 to 7 February 1856)encouraged his creative cooks. One of the lovely attempt is this 'Shahi Moti Biryani', the preparation of edible pearls. They created these pearls by first beating some exact quantities of gold and silver foils with egg yolks. Which created small silver and gold colored pearls, that was later stuffed into the cavity of a chicken. This chicken was either cooked directly (grilled or immersed into the pilaf). When the chicken was done, it was cut open and the edible shiny gold and silver beads came out of the chicken, just like luminescent pearls. These little pearls were added to the biryani or pilav just before it was served.

Although the original 18th century recipe is long lost...now it is suitably adapted over the years in many different forms, commoners adopted kofta biryani and vegetarians carefully replaced meat with kabuli chana. I have been wanting to make this since very long, here is my version...hope you all will like this humble Moti Biriyani from my kitchen.:)

Ingredients:

For Kofta:

Chicken breast 1-2 (boneless, skinless & cubed)
Green chili 3
Ginger 1" grated
Garlic 2 cloves minced
Onion chopped
Cilantro chopped
Salt
Egg whites
All purpose flour
Oil for frying.

For Biriyani:

Cloves 3
Cinnamon 2
Cardamon pods 3
Bay leaves 2
Maratti mokku 2
Star anise 1
Short grained rice 2 cups(seeraga samba)
Green chilies 6 slitted
Onion 1 made into puree
Tomato 1 small
Garlic 6 cloves made into paste
Ginger 2" size peeled and made into paste
Mint leaves 1 fistfull
Coriander leaves alone few
Lemon juice from 1 fruit
Curd 1 cup
Salt
Chili powder
Ghee 1/4 cup.

Method:

For Kofta:

Cook chicken breast till tender and shred them. Retain the broth.

Now combine all the ingredients(except oil) with shredded meat.

Mix them well. Divide them into equal parts and shape them into desired way.

Heat oil in a pan, shallow fry them till golden brown. Set aside.

For Biriyani:

In a crock pot, heat ghee. Add cloves, cinnamon, crushed cardamon pods, maratti mokku, bay leaves, star anise and green chilies. Fry them till chilies crack and try to turn opaque.

Now add onion puree to this and fry them really well, until its pungent smell is gone. Then add tomatoes, mint and coriander leaves. Fry them till the leaves wilt.

Add salt and chili powders. Followed by fried koftas. Add rice and saved chicken broth to this. Cover and cook till tender and nice.

Feast like a King:)