Dry Fruits Appam/ Dry Fruits Kuzhi Appam/ Dry Fruits Kuzhi Paniyaram

This is my 50^th post and hence I want to commemorate the occasion with a sweet recipe. Since Karthigai Deepam is nearing, I got the opportunity to combine both, presenting you with a sweet that is prepared for the festival. For Karthigai Deepam festival, we usually prepare Karthigai Appam, Karthigai Pori and vada to offer Lord Muruga. In down south areas especially in Tirunelveli, Tuticorin, etc, they prepare varieties of Kolukattais also for Neivedyam.

Today, I tried  Appam with Dry Fruits for a change and it came out really well. It doesn’t need elaborate preparation like soaking and it is healthy too for kids since we add all nuts and dried fruits.

Here is the recipe for Dry Fruits Appam!

Ingredients:

• Wheat flour – ½ cup
• Rice flour – ½ cup
• Jaggery – ½ cup
• Coconut (grated) – 3 tbsp
• Cardamom powder – 1 tbsp
• Ghee for frying
• Cashew, Almond (badam), Pista, Dates (ground paste) – ½ cup
• Milk – ¼ cup

 Method:

1. Grind cashew, badam , pista and dates  to a fine paste adding milk now and then and transfer it to a mixing bowl.
2. Melt jaggery in ½ cup water, strain the impurities and keep it aside.
3. Add wheat flour, rice flour, coconut and cardamom powder to the ground paste and mix everything well by adding jaggery syrup. Bring the batter to idli batter consistency.
4. Heat a non-stick paniyarakkal and pour a tsp of ghee in each hole.
5. Take a ladleful of batter and pour into each hole.
6. Cook in simmer until the appam gets cooked on both sides by flipping it on to the other side too.

Your  soft, healthy appams are ready for Pooja to offer “Lord Muruga” as Neivedyam!

Note:

• You can replace rice flour with maida also.
• If you don’t prefer adding ghee, you can go for any cooking oil but the real taste of dry fruits can be enjoyed only when it is combined with ghee.
• You can reduce the jaggery amount if you feel so since we are adding dates also.

Tags: Karthigai Deepam Recipe, Karthigai Appam recipe, Dry Fruits Kuzhi Paniyaram, Traditional recipe for Karthigai, Karthigai sweet recipe, Thiru Karthigai Deepam recipes

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Mutton Biryani / Goat Biryani (Seeraga Chamba Mutton Biryani)

Mutton Biryani/ Goat Biryani is the one which will tempt every non-vegetarian biryani lovers. I guess there will barely be anyone who will say “No” to this yummy biryani. Whenever I prepare a dish with goat meat/mutton, I take extra care because my son will eat mutton dishes only when it is extraordinarily delicious. He doesn’t like goat meat as much as chicken. I prepare chicken biryani quite often  because it is my son’s fav and I have already posted the recipe for Chicken Biryani.

Today, I made mutton  biryani with “Seeraga Chamba/Jeera Samba” rice instead of Basmati rice and it came out really delicious. This rice has its own flavor and it really adds its taste to the biryani.  In the Southern part of Tamilnadu, everyone uses this seeraga  chamba rice for making biryani. Even in  restaurants, they use only this rice for biryani. The very famous Dindigul Biryani recipe calls for this  seeraga samba rice. In Chennai, most of the restaurants use basmati rice except some like  “Dindigul Thalappakatti”.

The recipe for making Mutton Biryani in pressure cooker is very simple and easy to make. Today I think I can share the recipe for Mutton Biryani using pressure cooker.

Ingredients:

• Seeraga samba rice – 3 cups
• Mutton/ Goat meat (boneless) – ½  Kg
• Onion (Big) – 4 Nos (chopped lengthwise)
• Tomato – 4 Nos.(Medium)(chopped)
• Green chilli – 3 Nos.
• Fresh Curd – 2  tbs
• Ginger, garlic, fennel & kuskus  paste – 2 tbs
• Chilli powder – 2 tbs
• Biryani powder – 1 tbsp
• Turmeric powder -1 tsp
• Coriander leaves (finely chopped) – ¼ cup
• Mint leaves (finely chopped) – ½ cup
• Salt to taste

To grind:

• Ginger – 3” piece
• Garlic   - 15 pods
• Fennel – 1tbsp
• Kuskus  - 1 tsp

To roast & grind:

• Cinnamon – 1” piece
• Clove- 2 Nos.
• Cardamom – 2 Nos.
• Annasi poo – 1 No.

For seasoning:

• Bay leaf – 1 No.
• Cinnamon – 1 inch piece
• Kal paasi – 2 Nos
• Cloves – 2 Nos
• Cardamom  - 2 Nos.
• Fennel seeds – 1 tbsp
• Oil -4 tbs
• Ghee – 1 tsp (optional)

Method:

1. Clean mutton well in running water , cut it to required size and keep it ready.
2. Dry roast the items given under “Roast & Grind” till you get nice aroma and grind it to a fine powder. Keep it aside.
3. Take a pressure cooker, pour the oil and wait till the oil gets heated. Add the items given under “seasoning” one by one and wait until all these splutter to get the aroma from the seasoning.
4. Add onion and Green chilli (just break into 2 or 3) and sauté well until the onion becomes translucent. Then add the ground paste mentioned above under “To grind” and sauté till the raw smell of the masala goes off.
5. Add finely chopped tomato and add some salt so that the tomato will get cooked easily and sauté till the tomato gets mashed well.
6. Then add all the masala powders and sauté till the oil oozes  out from the masala. Next, add curd and sauté well until the mixture gets glossy appearance.
7. Then  add cleaned mutton , sauté well,  add half portion of coriander  & mint leaves.
8. Add required salt  and  3 cups of water, close the lid and wait for  4  whistles and 5 minutes in simmer.
9. In the mean time, wash the seeraga samba rice and leave it as such after draining the water. It is sufficient if we do this part before 10 minutes of making biryani.
10. Now open the pressure cooker, drain the mutton pieces and measure the gravy, add water so that the gravy+water =6 cups for 3 cups of rice and keep it aside.
11. In a separate pressure pan, add ghee/oil, sauté rice along with the balance coriander, mint leaves and the cooked mutton. Add ground masala powder prepared with items given under “Roast & Grind” in step(2) and mix everything well and cook  for 3 to 5 minutes.
12. Then add gravy+water (6 cups) and  needed salt. You can check for spice also at this stage and you can add if needed. Stir well and close the lid. Wait for 1 whistle, then simmer the flame for 3 minutes. Open the cooker after releasing the pressure slowly. Then follow the same procedure as we have done for Mushroom Biryani recipe.

Your delicious, hot, spicy  Mutton Biryani is ready to serve! I have served the mutton biryani with onion raita and my favourite  ElumbuSambar!!

Note:

• Usually I prefer adding  small mutton pieces as shown in the pic. If you like you can make it bigger.
• Cooking time for mutton varies and you should decide the whistles allowed while cooking mutton.
• You can prepare this biryani with basmati rice also.

Tags: Mutton biryani recipe, Dindigul Biriyani recipe, how to make mutton biriyani at home, Mutton biryani with seeraga samba rice, mutton biryani with jeera samba, jeera samba mutton biryani recipe, seeraga chamba rice mutton biriyani, jeera chamba mutton biryani, boneless mutton biryani with seeraga samba rice, goat meat biryani, goat biryani with basmati rice, mutton biryani with raita and elumbu sambar, hotel style mutton biriyani recipe, pressure cooker mutton biryani recipe

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Adai Dosa/ Paruppu Adai (Lentil Dosa)

Paruppu Adai or Adai Dosa is a mixture of dhals and rice and when combined with other ingredients, makes a perfect breakfast/dinner recipe. The recipe is versatile enough that we can add our own dhal and rice measurements. Whatever may be the proportions, we can eat these adais. To get a crispy and spicy adai, we need to follow some specific proportions.

I wont forget this adai in my life, because during my hostel days (working women), I used to long(?!) for this adai during  weekends. I think it was the only dish I ate during those days at the hostel. I don’t mean that  the master’s preparation was perfect & delicious, no…. he would make it like a pizza base with so many black spots but even then,  I could manage to eat! In my opinion, adai can be eaten in any form even if it is not perfectly made.

Traditionally, adai is made with thick base and with lots of oil. The method I follow will give you a thin and crispy adai with just 2 to 3 drops of oil. So I can say, it is a low calorie version of Adai and diabetic friendly too.

Ingredients:

• Raw rice – 1 cup
• Urad dhal – 2 tbsp
• Toor dahl – ½ cup
• Channa dhal  (kadalai paruppu)– ½ cup
• Red chillies – 10 Nos.
• Fennel seeds – 1 tbsp
• Onion (finely chopped) – ½ cup
• Asafoetida – 1 tsp
• Turmeric powder – ½ tsp
• Curry leaves ( finely chopped) – 3 to 4 tbsp
• Salt to taste
• Oil to cook

Method:

1. Wash and soak rice with urad dhal in water for about 1 hour. Also do the same for toor and channa dhal.
2. Grind soaked rice and urad along with red chillies and fennel seeds to the stage before they become fine granules. Transfer this to a container.
3. Grind the soaked dhals coarsely and take this mixture in the same container.
4. Add all the above ingredients except oil and mix it well to a thick idli batter consistency.
5. Heat a tawa. Pour a ladle full of batter and spread it circularly like a thin dosa.
6. Drizzle few drops of oil and close with the lid and cook in simmer.
7. After 2 to 3 minutes, open the lid and flip the adai to the other side and cook in simmer without lid for about 2 minutes.

The crispy, spicy, hot adai is ready to be served. Usually, Avial is a very famous side dish served along with Adai.  But in my opinion,  it does not even require an accompaniment and can be taken as such or with little jaggery.

Tags: Adai dosai recipe, Lentils dosa, crispy adai recipe, how to prepare crispy Adai with less oil, Mixed Lentil  Adai recipe, Crispy Adai Dosa recipe, How to prepare crispy Adais?, Low calorie Adai, Diabetic friendly Adai Dosa, Rice and lentil dosa, Rice and lentil Adai, Paruppu adai dosai recipe, Paruppu adai

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Cauliflower Rice/ Cauliflower Sadam

Cauliflower rice/ Cauliflower sadam  is very simple to make and best suited for our lunch boxes. Cauliflower season has started now and our refrigerators will  definitely have a place for it. Nowadays, cauliflowers are available in big sizes. In that case, we have to think about two different menus with the same vegetable. If I happen to buy such a big cauliflower, I usually make some side dish or curry with a portion of cauliflower and most often, the rest will go for making Cauliflower rice. This rice can be made with leftover rice also. If you are left with a bowl of cooked rice and want to make it interesting, you can go for this rice recipe.

Now we will move on to cauliflower rice recipe.

Ingredients:

• Cooked rice -1 ½ cup
• Cauliflower florets – 1cup
• Onion (finely chopped) – 1 No. (Medium)
• Garlic (crushed) – 2 pods (optional)
• Tomato (finely chopped) – 2 Nos
• Red chilli powder – 2tsp
• Turmeric powder – ½ tsp
• Garam masala powder – ½ tsp
• Cilantro/ coriander leaves (finely chopped) – 2 tbsp
• Salt to taste

For seasoning:

• Oil – 2 tbsp
• Fennel seeds – 1 tsp

Method:

1. As usual, clean the cauliflower and cut it into small florets. Soak these florets in hot water with salt and turmeric for about 5 minutes.
2. Take out the florets and wash in regular water and allow the water from the florets to drain completely.
3. Cook the rice as we do for making variety rice and allow it to cool.
4. In a non-stick pan, pour oil and temper with the ingredients given under ‘For seasoning’.
5. Add finely chopped onion and garlic and sauté till the onion becomes translucent.
6. Add finely chopped tomatoes and sauté till tomatoes get mashed well.
7. Add the masala powders and cook till the oil leaves out from the masala.
8. Now, add cauliflower and mix everything well and sauté for 2 minutes. Then sprinkle a handful of water over cauliflower and cook it covered for 5 minutes. Open the lid now & then, and stir so that the masala doesn’t get burnt at the bottom.
9. Finally add coriander leaves and give a stir.
10. After the cauliflower becomes soft and  gets mixed with the masala,  add the cooked rice and gently mix the cauliflower masala. Keep it covered with a lid for a minute.

Your Cauliflower Rice is ready to serve with any raita, tomato sauce or potato chips! As I said earlier, this is an ideal dish for your children’s lunch box.

Note:

• I have prepared this rice with regular Ponni rice, you can  use Basmati rice or even leftover rice!
• You need to cook the cauliflower according to your taste, ie. Either crunchy or soft, cook it accordingly in step (8). My personal opinion is crunchy cauliflower will taste better than the soft one.

Tags: Cauliflower rice recipe, cauliflower sadam recipe, rice using cauliflower masala, variety rice using cauliflower, lunch box recipe with cauliflower, cauliflower masala sadam, left over rice recipe with cauliflower, cauliflower masala with rice, mixed rice using cauliflower, cauliflower masala and left over rice.

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Happy Diwali

Happy Diwali to one & all!

Please check my posts under "Diwali Recipes"

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