Thiruvadarai and Kali

Thiruvadarai is a nakshatra and is special for certain reasons. Mr. Shiva, the God, is rumored to have performed a Thandavam on this day and prayers are offered to propitiate him. Ardra, Thiruvadarai mean the same. 

The day is special for women. (I wonder which festival in India isn't?)

Single women looking to get 'eligible' husbands ('boys' in Indian lingo) fast on this day and pray fervently to hook a man sooner. Women who are married cannot pray for another husband so, instead, they pray that their husband keeps on living and leads a healthy and wealthy life. (This smacks of selfishness 'coz end of the day we women do all this for ourselves.)    

So, as a dutiful, bountiful wife, I prepared myself mentally to pray for my DH. He blissfully slept on while I prepared the Kali and the Thalagam. 

 

 

Urad dal poori with Dal

Was browsing once through the omnipresent Facebook when I landed on Manjula ji's recipe website. I read about a very interesting recipe: Urad Dal Poori. I tried my hand at it today. 

The original recipe is here.

Here are some pictures of what I tried. 

Ingredients:

2 cups urad dal 
1.5 cups whole wheat flour (roti atta)
1.5 tablespoon fennel seed powder (Saunf)
1.5 tablespoon coriander powder (dhania)
1/4 teaspoon asafetida (hing)
1/2 teaspoon dry ginger powder (sonth)
2-3 red whole chilis (adjust to taste)
1/2 teaspoon salt (as per taste)
2-3 tablespoon oil

Oil to fry

I made tomato chutney to go with it but then decided to have it with dal. Here is how it looked. The pooris came out well and coupled with the dal, they tasted very nice. :) :) Thank you Manjula ji.

Adai-Aviyal

I felt like having Aviyal today. I immediately decided to try my hand at making it. The DH had been asking for Adai. So, adai-aviyal was buzzing in my head even as I battled IF and COUNTIF functions at work. 

Finally, when the evening dawned, I got into the rickety ole' bus and trudged towards Bessie, aka, home. I mentally ticked off the veggies I could use in my aviyal. Out came the phone and I quickly checked out the recipe. 

I almost always visit Padhu's kitchen for any recipe as I swear  by her methods. Here is a link.  

I found that making aviyal was not actually very difficult and I decided to make the deadly combination of Adai-Aviyal for dinner. I thought it was pretty brave of me to attempt something like this for dinner when my energy levels are at their lowest. So, here are a few pictures of my attempt at making adai-aviyal. 

Aviyal with Coconut and Curry leaves seasoning

First, I soaked the ingredients for making the adai. I added: 

• Black Urad 
• Rajma
• Red rice
• Chana dal 

To be able to make a nice batter, I soaked the ingredients in boiling water for 30 minutes. While I prepared the aviyal, I let the adai ingredients soak. Then I made the batter. I kept it a bit coarse. Added a bit of dried red chillies. 

Here is how it looked: 

Here is how the adai turned out: 

Aloo Capsicum with yellow mustard

Today, my cook and I did some experiment with the humble aloo. The result was lip smacking (as aloo dishes are). 

Here is the recipe for my aloo capsicum with yellow mustard. 

Cut the aloo and capsicum lengthwise. We made a paste of these: yellow mustard (2 tea spoons), 1 green chilly, ginger, garlic pods into a semi dry paste. Heated oil in a kadai and fried the paste well till it left the corners and a nice smell started emanating. Poured little water and allowed the mixture to cook well. Then we added the cut vegetables to the mixture. Covered and cooked till the water dried up slightly. Added little more oil and stirred nicely, the resultant picture is what you see. 

DH and I polished off every last morsel. I think it will go well with plain hot rice and some mustard oil. Happy eating!         

Maladoo: A Diwali Release

I have always craved to make sweets (that people can eat and love). I have tried my hand at many such items such as Badusha, 7-cup sweet, even Mysore Pak! Some attempts were successful, others went down the drain. 

I am alright when it comes to daily cooking, but for festive occasions such as Diwali, my keenness to experiment goes up! This Diwali also I wanted to do something different. 

So, I tried my hand at the 7-cup sweet again but it didn't get the right consistency, so I donated it to the drain. Sigh! 

Then I remembered that I had planned to try out Maladoo. 

Off I went to Nilgiris to buy the ingredients.

You need: 

1. Ghee (I used 100 ml)
2. Fried whole gram  (I used 1/2 kg)
3. Cashews, raisins, almonds, cardamom (4-5)
4. Sugar (200g)

Cooking time: 15 minutes

How to make: 

I dry roasted the gram lightly then powdered it finely. I kept it aside to cool. 
Then, I powdered the sugar, almonds, and cardamom to a fine powder. Ensure there are no lumps. Keep this aside. 

Heat the ghee in a kadai. Ensure you keep the flame at low. Fry the cashews and raisins and pour the mixture into the gram flour that you kept aside. 

With a ladle, mix the cashews, raisins, and gram flour with the hot ghee evenly. Let the heat settle and start mixing the flour with your hands. Ensure it is not very hot. Check if you are able to make a round shape by taking a bit of the mixture and rolling it in one palm and giving it a round shape with the other. This is a bit tricky. You have to remember to add some ghee if the flour doesn't stick easily. I got some oblong ones also! ;)   

Make round balls and keep them aside to cool. After they cool, they will become harder. Enjoy!

Khichudi Bhaat

This is a simple dish I learned from my mother-in-law. She grew up in Kharagpur, West Bengal and has an avid interest in cooking, especially Bengali cuisine. Thsi is a variant, using Nutrela chunks.

You will need:

Rice: 1 cup
Moong/Tuvar/Chana dal: 1/2 cup
Ghee: 2 tsps
Haldi: 1/2 tsp
Red chillies: 3-4
Jeera: 1/6th
Ginger: little bit, diced
Salt: to taste
Nutrela chunks: 10-15 pieces
Bay leaves: 1-2

Method

Soak the rice and dal together in a vessel and put in the pressure cooker. Add the nutrela chunks to the vessel. Pressure cook for 7-8 minutes or 5-6 whistles. The rice should be slightly more than cooked.
Grind the jeera, red chillies, and ginger in the mixie and keep separately. Now, place a kadai on the stove, add 2-3 tsps of oil. Add the ground masala once the oil is hot. Saute the masala a bit and then, add the cooked rice-dal mixture. Mix it well for a few seconds. Now, add water to make the mixture of pourable consistency.

Now, add haldi and salt. You can add ghee at this point or later. Keep stirring the mixture well till the rice and dal become indistinguishable. Ensure the masala gets mixed properly. Remove the vessel from the stove and serve hot. You can have it with curd or fryums.
 

Recipe in Bengali:

Bruschetta

Name: Bruschetta pronounced as broo-skut-haa
Making time: 5-6 minutes
Serves: 2

I made this delicious looking meal last night. Actually, I found out a while ago, it was called Bruschetta. Before that, I called it simply, salad. Yeah, naive.

I saw the last French bread pack in the supermarket and flew to grab it. I wondered later what to do with it. Well, I did not have olive oil or mayonnaise. So, I made do with good ole butter. I used it sparingly though.

First, I put a lil bit of butter on the pan and roasted the bread slices well, on both sides. Then I chopped the tomatoes, raw, big, and red ones, coarsely. I added some oregano on top for that tangy flavour. Bingo, dinner was ready.

Easy to make and real quick. Man, it tastes awesome too. :)