Sri Lankan Roasted Curry Powder

Diposting oleh adiba
Jumat, 07 Oktober 2011
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If you have read Ponniyin Selvan by Kalki or Ramayanam, you will be taken a virtual tour to Sri Lanka. I always have a sense of nativity to the country and Tamil people out there.

I love exploring cuisines, my latest attraction is on Sri Lankan Cuisine. So on looking over Sri Lankan Recipes, I realized I should make the Sri Lankan curry powder to get the color and taste of the dish to be perfect.




This Curry Powder demands 13 Spice Ingredients. All to be dry roasted, till the spices are almost browned. Roasting the spices deep brown is important, as the spice powder when ground will have the brown color & nice aroma and when it is added to the curry, it changes the color and flavor of the curry.

Roast each spice separately, in medium flame till they turn brown color. You need to be care full, as it is easy to burn the spices in the process.



Sri Lankan Roasted Curry Powder Recipe

Prep Time: 05 mins 
Cooking Time: 10 mins  
Serves: 2
Recipe Cuisine: Srilankan
Recipe Type: Masala

Ingredients:



Cinnamon Stick – 3’ inch
Cloves – ½ tsp
Curry Leaves – 10
Coriander seeds / Dhaniya – 2 tsp
Fennel / Sombu – 1 tsp
Turmeric Powder – ½ tsp
Cumin – 1 tsp
Raw Rice – 1 tbsp (You can use Basmati Rice)
Fenugreek / Vendhayam – ½ tsp
Cardamom – 2
Pepper – ½ tsp
Dry Red Chilly – 3
Mustard / Kadugu – ½ tsp



Method:

First Roast the Raw Rice in a heated pan for about 3 minutes till it turns golden colour, remove the rice to a plate. Roast other spices one by one. Roast the spices till they turn almost brown. Cool the roasted spices and grind along with roasted rice into a very fine powder.

Store the Curry Powder in a dry air tight jar.

This Curry Powder keeps well for 3 months.

You can use this curry powder in Pumpkin Curry, Eggplant Moju and other Non-Vegetarian Curries.



I will post Eggplant Moju(Pickle) next, which we liked most.

Referred BBC-Food and Rice and Curry.

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Dal Tadka

Diposting oleh adiba
Senin, 26 September 2011
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We at home love Dal very much, and I prepare it for chapathis quite often. Two weeks back I watched this Dal Tadka recipe in a cookery show. I tried and had Dal Tadka with Missi roti, it was such an excellent combination and from then the dal taste is still lingering. You can see the cookery shows in you tube.  i am linking one of her show.


Ingredients:           
                   
Masoor Dal / Split Red Lentil – ½  cup
Moong Dal  - ½ cup
Onion – 1 (finely chopped)
Tomato – 1 (chopped)
Green Chilli – 2 (slitted)
Garlic – 3 cloves (crushed)
Ginger – 1 inch (finely chopped)
Corriander Leaves – 2 tbsp (To garnish)
Turmeric Powder – ¼ tsp
Asafoetida powder – ¼ tsp    
Oil – 2 tsp’s
                                                          
For Tadka:

Ghee / Coconut Oil – 2 tsp
Mustard – ¼ tsp
Cumin / Jeera – ¼ tsp
Nigella Seeds / Kalonji – ¼ tsp
Curry Leaves – 1 sprig
Dry Red Chilli – 2 (broken)


Method:

1.   Wash both the Masoor & moong dals. Pressure cook the dals with ¾ cup water, chopped ginger, crushed garlic, a pinch of turmeric powder, a tsp of oil and a pinch of asafoetida powder. Pressure cook for upto 4 whistles, till the dals are cooked till mashy.

2.    Heat a pan, add a tsp of oil, add chopped onion, slitted green chilli’s and saute till the onions turn light brown.

3.      Now add cooked and mashed dal to the pan and mix well. Then add the chopped tomatoes and give a mix. add salt to taste and little water, so that you get your desired consistency of the dal.

4.       For Tadka, heat a small pan, add ghee or coconut oil, once the oil heats up, add mustard and let it pop, add kalonji, cumin, curry leaves and broken red chilli’s.  Pour the Hot Tadka over the dal. Garnish with chopped corriander leaves.

Serve the Dal with Roti or Chapathi.


Notes:

       1. If you want dal to accompany Rice dish, prepare dal with Toor dal.
       2. Always do the Tadka either with Ghee or Coconut Oil for the strong Flavor.
       3. Nigella seeds is Onion seeds. Its also called as kalonji seeds. This is a must in the dal.



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Pacha Manga Curry

Diposting oleh adiba
Kamis, 15 September 2011
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Drumstick and Mango combination is the best for sambhar. The combination proved again in this coconut based simple curry. This is Muringakka Pacha Manga Curry from God’s own country Kerala. A finger licking curry, with simple recipe is so rare, this curry is one among. you can make this curry in minutes if you have small onions and grated coconut ready in hand.



Ingredients:

Raw Green Mango - 1
Drumstick – 1
Coconut Oil – 2 tsp
Mustard – 1 tsp
Jeera / Cumin – 1 tsp
Curry Leaves – 1 sprig

To Grind:

Small Onions – 8 (peeled)
Grated Coconut – ¼ cup
Dry Red Chilli – 3

Method:

Cut the Drumstick and Mango into pieces. Cook both the vegetables in one cup of water. Or Microwave the vegetables in microwave high for about 10 minutes.

Heat one tp of oil in a pan, add small onions and fry till they are cooked. Add grated coconut and dry red chilli’s and saute it along with onions for a minute in slow flame. After that remove from flame. Let it cool and grind it into fine paste with ¼ cup of water.

In a Pan, mix both the boiled vegetables and the grounded coconut paste and mix. Add salt to taste, a pinch of turmeric powder to the pan and mix. Let the curry boil for about 2 – 3 minutes in medium flame.

In a Small tadka pan, heat a tsp of coconut oil, add mustard, cumin and curry leaves. Once the mustard splutters, remove the pan from flame, add the tadka to the pan in which curry is boiling.

Serve Hot with Rice or Idly.

           Weekend Lunch with Pacha Manga Curry, Vazhakkai Kuzhambu and Rasam with Herbs.

 Notes:

Just before serving , warm a tsp of coconut oil and add it over the curry for a nice aroma.

The taste of this curry is all based on the Raw Mango, so pick the raw mango carefully. 

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Bhindi Fry

Diposting oleh adiba
Senin, 12 September 2011
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Me and my son love Bhindi very much. Usually it used to be Vendakkai poriyal at home. After learning to make bhindi in microwave, I make these Masala stuffed bhindi quite often.  After getting request for Bhindi Fry recipe, I googled and found sanjeev kapoor’s besanwali bhindi fry.  It tasted good as it’s cooked with shallots and besan flour. This Bhindi fry can be had with sambhar rice or Roti.


Microwave oven makes Magic with Bhindi. I microwave chopped Bhindi pieces with a tsp of oil and microwave it on high for 4 minutes. Then i use it for vendakkai sambhar or vendakkai morkuzhambu. It saves time and oil.


Ingredients:

Bhindi / Okra / Vendakkai - 12 (of same size)
Shallots / Small onions – 8 (Peeled and chopped)
Besan flour / Kadala Maavu – 2 tbsp
Oil – 2 tbsp
Mustard – ½ tsp
Curry leaves – 1 sprig

Mix the following powder’s together

Turmeric powder – a pinch
Sambhar Powder or Chilly powder – 1 and half tsp
Dhaniya / Corriander Powder – 1 tsp
Cumin powder – 1 tsp
Dry Mango Powder / Amchur – ½ tsp
Garam masala – ½ tsp
Salt – to taste


Method:

Choose small and tender Bhindi s. It cooks easily and taste’s good too.  Wash the bhindis and wipe them with a clean cloth. Trim the heads of bhindis. Give a slit to all bhindis from top and end it just before its tail.

Mix the powders (turmeric, sambhar, dhaniya, cumin, amchur, garam masala and salt) in a bowl.

Fill the masala powders into the slit of bhindis with a help of a spoon. Half a spoon of masala’s is enough to fill a single bhindi.

Heat Oil in a Pan, add mustard, let it splutter and then add curry leaves along with small onions. Once the small onions are almost cooked, add the besan flour and mix with the onions. Give a minute, till the besan flour gets roasted along with the onions.

Now add the stuffed Bhindis to the pan and give a mix, lower the flame and let the bhindi gets cooked for about 5-7 minutes.  Add little oil, if bhindis start sticking to the pan. Cook till the bhindis shrink and change dark in color.

Or

You can alternatively cook in microwave for easy job. After filling the masala’s into the slit of bhindis, place them in a microwave bowl.  Sprinkle 2 tsp of oil over the bhindis and microwave on high power (900w) for about 4 minutes.  After removing from microwave, Heat Oil in a Pan, add mustard, let it splutter and then add curry leaves along with small onions. Add little salt just enough for small onions. Once the small onions are almost cooked, add the besan flour and mix with the onions. Give a minute, till the besan flour gets roasted along with the onions. Then add microwave cooked bhindis and wrap them up with onions and besan flour.

Garnish with chopped coriander leaves.

Serve with Roti’s or with Rice and Sambhar.

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Ceylon Egg Curry ~ Steamed Egg Cake Curry

Diposting oleh adiba
Sabtu, 10 September 2011
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I like to try Egg curry in different ways. once i watched this ceylon egg curry on a television cookery show and loved the idea of steaming the eggs and using in curry. i have tried it twice and we liked this ceylon egg curry very much. though i did'nt get perfect steamed egg cakes, the taste was no compromise. If i have used some 5 or 6 egg's i could have got perfect egg cakes. since i used 3, it was not enough for the egg cake to raise. On googling i found a similar type of dish called egg dhoka is prepared in Bengal. You can also refer here for a Dry Egg curry from here.


I love Ceylon Egg Parotta, This Ceylon Egg Curry is not as famous as parotta in our Indian restaurant menu cards, but its easy to try at home. What makes this curry unique and special is, the eggs are steamed and cut into sqaures and put in curry. The curry will be spicy as well rich with coconut milk.


Ingredients:

Egg's - 5 ( i used 3, but i recommend using 5 atleast)

Red Onion -1 (finely chopped)
Tomatoes - 2 (finely chopped)
Ginger-Garlic Paste - 1 tbsp
Green chilli - 1 (slitted) 

Oil  -  2  tbsp
Mustard - 1 tsp
Sombu - 1 tsp
Cinnamon stick - 1/2 inch size
Curry Leaves - 1 sprig

Turmeric powder - a pinch
Red Chilly Powder - 2 tsp
Corriander / Dhaniya Powder - 3 tsp

Coconut Milk - 1 cup (150 ml) / coconut milk extracted from half of a coconut.
Corriander leaves - 1 tbsp (to garnish)

Method:



To prepare Egg Cake, use Pressure cooker. First Beat the Egg's with a pinch of salt. Grease a small round bowl and add the beaten eggs into it. Add 1 cup of water to the Pressure cooker and place the egg bowl inside the cooker. make sure to close the bowl. let it be in medium flame for about 3 or 4 whistles. it takes some 10 minutes time. after 4 whistles, switch off the flame and let the cooker rest till the the steam escapes. then open the cooker and take the bowl from it. now cool the egg cake and cut them into squares.

Heat Oil in a Pan or Kadaai. add mustard, sombu and cinnamon, let the mustard splutter and add curry leaves. then add finely chopped onion's and saute it till it turns translucent. then add slitted green chilly and ginger garlic paste and saute along with onions. then add chopped tomatoes and mix well with the onions. 

Add turmeric powder, salt to taste and red chilly powder and corriander powder and mix well with the onions and tomatoes. Once the masala's are nicely mixed up with the onions, the add the steamed egg cake squares. and mix well with masala's.

Add little water and coconut milk in slow flame. Let the curry boil for few minutes. After 4 or 5 minutes in slow flame. remove the curry to a serving dish and garnish with corriander leaves.



Serve with Hot Rice and with some Vegetable or Pappad as side.

Have a Great Weekend!

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Small Onion Chutney ~ Chinna Vengaya Thokku

Diposting oleh adiba
Rabu, 17 Agustus 2011
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This is one of our favourite chutney's. I learned the recipe from aval vikatan. I also clubbed Bharathy's recipe with aval vikatan and got the recipe of this yummy Onion Thokku.


This Recipe Yields about 1 cup.
good enough for 4 adults.

Ingredients:

Small Onion's - 1 cup / 15 nos.
Big Red Onion - 1
Tamarind - 1 small lemon size
Turmeric Powder - a pinch
Chilli Powder - 3 tsp's
Oil - 3 tbsp's

To Dry Roast and Grind:

 Mustard - 1 tsp
 Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp
 Asafoetida - 1/2 tsp
                                            
Method:
1. Dry roast Mustard, cumin and asafoetida and powder it coarsely.
2. Peel the small onions and Big onion.
3. Soak Tamarind in 1/4 cup of warm water for about 10 minutes and squeeze the pulp. discard the pulp and use the thick tamarind juice.
4. Heat 1 tsp of oil in a pan, add small onions and roast them, then add big onions and roast the onions. add salt so that the onions cook fast. once the onions are almost cooked, remove from flame and cool them.
5. Grind the onions with just 1 or 2 tsp's of water into a coarse form.
6. Heat the Remaining oil in a Pan, add coarsely grounded small onion's and saute it in oil. add salt to taste, Chilli Powder and the Grounded powder. Give a mix.
7. Add the Thick Tamarind Juice to the pan and mix well. reduce the flame to medium and keep mixing the chutney for 5 minutes in medium flame, till the chutney gets thicker and leaves oil on its sides.
8. Remove the chutney to a clean sterlised bottle. you can store this upto a week in fridge.
Serve this Onion Thokku with Idli, Dosa's.

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Vegetable Biryani

Diposting oleh adiba
Minggu, 07 Agustus 2011
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Biryani's are for Weekends at our home. I delayed posting biryani recipe, as i wanted to find out fool-proof recipe. After getting live demo from one of our friend Anitha on how to prepare this biryani, i could'nt wait long and tried it instantly. It came out so Perfect! Thanks Anitha!


Biryani is of different types, I largely confuse biryani with Pulao. Later i started to differentiate as, If rice and veggies cooked in thick coconut milk its Pulao. If rice and Veggies cooked by adding Ginger-garlic paste and masala's its Biryani. I sometimes cook biryani in coconut milk, Its one of the perfect tasting biryani.

This Biryani recipe is so simple and easy. Its Cooked in Pressure cooker, thus makes an easy one pot meal.
I have got many failed attempts on preparing biryani.There are two main points to be followed. One, Measure and use rice-water ratio(its always 1 : 1 and 1/2) . Then pressure cook exactly for 12 minutes in medium flame. One more point in making Pressure Cooker Biryani is, always use Aluminium Pressure cooker, this avoids the rice sticking to the bottom and browning.


This Biryani Recipe has Curd, which makes this Tastier. I Personally felt, this Biryani gets little tangy  taste from Curd and Tomatoes and also Lemon. So adding Chilli Powder for Spicyness is must. Altogether This Biryani tastes Spicy and Tangy with loads of Vegetables.

I used India Gate Basmati Rice - Tibar. I have also tried with Lal Quilla upon Rak's Suggestion, which worked out Very Perfect. Thanks Raks!

Recipe for 3 or 4 adults.

Ingredients:

Rice : Water ratio is always 1 : 1 and 1/2

Basmati Rice - 400 gms / 4 cup's
Water - 6 cup's

Vegetables:

Red Big Onion - 3
Ginger-Garlic Paste - 2 tbsp
Greenchilli - 4
Carrot - 2 (peeled)
Potato - 1 (peeled)
Beans - 7
Cauliflower - 5 small florets  (washed in hot water)
Green Peas - 1/4 cup
Tomato - 2

Masala's:

Turmeric powder - 1 tsp
Chilli Powder - 2 tsp
Corriander powder - 2 tsp
Garam masala - 1/2 tsp
Thick Curd - 1/2 cup

For Tempering:

Oil - 4 tbsp
Ghee - 2 tbsp
Cinnamon - 1 inch
Cloves - 4
Bay leaf - 1
Star Anise - 1
Sombu / Saunf - 2 tsp

To add Last:

Mint/Puthina Leaves - 1/4 cup
Corriander Leaves - 1/4 cup
Lemon - 1/2


1. Soak Basmati Rice in water for about 15-20 minutes. after soaking drain the rice and keep aside. Measure 6 cup's of water and set aside.

2. Chop the Onions lengthwise, slit the green chilli's and set aside.

3. Chop Vegetables into big chunks and keep aside. Chop Tomatoes in round shape.

4. Heat Oil in Wide Bottomed Pressure Cooker, add Ghee, add cinnamon, cloves, bayleaf, starnise and saunf and roast them.

5. Add Onions and Green chilli's, fry the onions till it turn light brown, this takes atleast 3-4 minutes. once onion is fried add Ginger garlic paste and mix with the onions.

6. Add the Vegetables carrot, beans, potato, green peas, cauliflower and mix with the onions. add salt to the vegetables so that cooking is easy.

7. Add Turmeric powder, chilli powder, corriander powder and garam masala. mix well with the onions. add Curd and mix well. let the masala's mix with vegetables and the whole mix leaves oil on sides of the pressure cooker. This step takes atleast 3 minutes in medium flame.

8. Add Tomatoes and give a mix. let the cooker be in medium flame and let the tomatoes gets mashy. this takes another 2 minutes.

9. Now add measured 6 cup's of water and 4 cup's of rice, let the whole mix boil. once the water boils, add 1/2 a lemon's juice and give a mix.

10. Add Mint and corriander leaves on top(dont mix).

11. Close the Pressure cooker with its lid. keep in medium flame. dont put weight.

12. Cook exactly for 12 minutes in medium flame and stop the fire. let the biryani rest for 10 minutes. after 10 minutes, open the pressure cooker lid, give a slow mix and transfer to serving bowl.

Serve Biryani Hot with Onion Raita.

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