Cold chocolate coffee

Diposting oleh adiba
Rabu, 02 Mei 2012
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I am not a coffee person till last year. I started taking coffee while i prepare filter coffee for my domestic helper. who can resist filter coffee? I  do not know to prepare coffee during my hostel days. my friends help me out with decoction and mixing. 



I remember once i had to tell on how to make filter coffee in my class 11 for english viva. when i told, "mix coffee powder with hot milk", everyone in the class started to laugh. When my English teacher started to yell at me, i was just blinking, as i thought that i told the right one. but when the other girl started to tell, i realized, oh there are so many steps in it. which i finished in just one step. sorry to bore you with my memories. 



So with this hot climate, i wanted to have cold coffee. i looked many sites, finally this chocolate coffee attracted me. chocolate y coffee is what i arrived at. 


To prepare chocolate sauce:


Ingredients:


  • Dark chocolate - 25 gms / 1/4 cup
  • Butter - 1/2 tbsp
  • Sugar / brown sugar - 3 tsp
  • Salt - a small pinch
  • Honey / Corn syrup - 1 tsp
  • Milk - 3 tbsp

Method:

  1. To prepare chocolate syrup, it should be cooked using double boiling technique. so never cook chocolate in direct heat as it may burn the chocolate. 

  2. For double boiling, take a wide vessel filled half with water. boil the water. take another medium sized bowl that could sit inside the wide vessel. 

  3. Put the dark chocolate, sugar and milk to the medium sized bowl sitting over the boiling water on a wide vessel. reduce the flame to low and start stirring with a wooden spoon till the chocolate melts and blends well with milk.

  4. Once the chocolate had melted, add honey and butter. keep stirring and in less than 2 minutes the chocolate sauce get thicker. on cooling it may get still thicker, so take it off, while the sauce starts thickening.

  5. The chocolate sauce will be looking shiny and you can feel it getting thickening. remove it at that point.

I prepared the chocolate syrup a while back and totally forgot.  here is when i prepared last.

To prepare cold chocolate coffee

Ingredients:
  • Chilled milk - 1 tall glass (boiled and chilled)
  • Instant coffee powder - 2 tsp  (or)
  • Filter Coffee decoction - 2 tbsp
  • Cocoa powder - 1/2 tsp
  • Sugar - 2 or 3 tsp
  • Chocolate syrup - 1 tsp

Method:

  1. Take a serving glass and drizzle the chocolate syrup into it to create patterns. tilt the glass so that syrup flows and the patterns get set.

  2. In your mixie jar, add milk, sugar, coffee powder or decoction, cocoa powder and blend well.

  3. Now pour the cold coffee into the chocolate syrup drizzled glass and serve chilled.




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Gongura pappu ~ pulicha keerai

Diposting oleh adiba
Selasa, 24 April 2012
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I know morning walk gives lot of energy, but i am so so lazy to wake up early. i sometimes drop my son at school and walk back home. on the way, i will be tempted to buy fresh greens and vegetables from the roadside vegetable sellers. one day these sorrel leaves/pulicha keerai/gongura/amarnath leaves caught my eye. so with gongura pappu in mind bought a bunch and came back home.


I was very clear to refer Mahanandi for recipe. I love her way of telling the recipe, it will be a detailed recipe told in way, just as our mom or grand mom tell's us. I adapted the recipe little bit and my dal turned out perfect.


minced garlic, green chillies, shallots, toor dal and gongura ready  to get started.



meal with gongura pappu, vendakkai poriyal and curd



                                                 Gongura pappu / Pulicha keerai masiyal




serves - 2
prep and cooking time - less than 30 mins
recipe adapted from The Mahanandi

Ingredients:

  • Gongura leaves - 1 bunch
  • Toor dal - 1/2 cup
  • Shallots / small onions - 15
  • Green chilli - 4
  • Garlic - 4
  • Turmeric powder - a pinch
  • Oil - 1 tsp
  • Asafoetida / perungayam / hing - 1/4 tsp
  • Water - 1 cup
  • Salt to taste
for tempering
  • Ghee - 1 tsp
  • Mustard - 1 tsp
  • Split urad dal - 1 tsp
  • Dry red chilli - 2


Method:

  1. Remove the gongura leaves from the stem and wash the gongura leaves twice or thrice thoroughly. chop or tear the leaves into three pieces. 

  2. Wash the toor dal in a bowl to be kept in pressure cooker and strain away the water. add the chopped gongura leaves to toor dal. then add minced garlic, slitted green chilli, 1 tsp oil and small onions. add water, turmeric powder and hing. mix well. Pressure cook for upto 5 whistles. 

  3. Cool down the pressure cooked dal with gongura for at least 10 minutes. then transfer the pressure cooked contents to the mixie jar and use your pulse button to give one or two pulse shot. add salt to taste and give another mix. once the dal mixes well with gongura, onions and other ingredients, remove the gongura pappu to a serving bowl.

  4. In a small tempering pan, add 1 tsp of ghee and add mustard, split urad dal and dry red chilli. add the tempering to the dal / gongura pappu.

  5. Serve along hot rice along with appalam.

Note:

I added just 2 green chillies and found sourness dominated, so add more chillies 4 or 5 depending on your spice need.



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Coconut milk biryani

Diposting oleh adiba
Minggu, 22 April 2012
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For the past few months, i have been making biryani regularly during weekend's. its easy to prepare biryani rather than making a meal with sambhar, curry and a poriyal. other than that cleaning becomes easy with this one pot meal. i just clean up, watching the time when the biryani cooks up in the cooker.



This is simple biryani recipe than the previous biryani i posted. i hate sour taste in biryani. sourness is because of tomatoes and curd added to it. i have not used tomatoes and curd in this recipe. this is one of our favorite biryani. adding coconut milk to biryani makes it more rich and tasty.



Summer is at its peak here. drinking tender coconut becomes a daily routine. Hubby Dear just bought tender coconut and was making me drink, while i was clicking the pictures. i even used the coconut for clicking :) that is the bad habit of being food blogger.





                                                               Vegetable Biryani with Coconut Milk
     


serves - 3
preparation time - 20 minutes
cooking time - 25 minutes              


Ingredients:
  • Basmati rice - 300 gms
  • Chilli powder - 1 tsp
  • Garam masala - 1/2 tsp
  • Ginger garlic paste - 2 tbsp
  • Corrainder leaves - 1/2 cup
  • Pudhina / mint leaves - 1/2 cup
  • Coconut milk - 2 cups / 200 ml. (coconut milk extracted from 1/2 coconut)
  • Water - 2 and half cup
  • Oil - 2tbsp
  • Ghee - 2 tbsp
  • lemon juice - 1 tsp
Vegetables
  • Big onions - 3
  • Potato - 1
  • Carrot - 2
  • Green peas - 1/4 cup
  • Beans - 8
  • Cauliflower florets - 5
  • Green chilli - 3
Spices 
  • Bay leaf - 1
  • Saunf / sombu  - 1 tsp
  • Cinnamon - 1' inch
  • Cloves - 3
  • Maratto mokku - 1
  • Star Anise - 1

Method:

  1. Soak Basmati rice in water for about 15-20 minutes. then drain the water and set aside the basmati rice. Peel the skin of carrot, potato and chop them in cube shapes. chop beans and have it separately. wash the cauliflower well, put them in hot water , drain it and set aside. Chop the onions into thin slices and slit the green chilli and have it aside.

  2. Heat a wide bottomed pressure cooker, add oil and ghee. then add the spices one by one. once the spices are roasted, add onions and green chilli. saute the onions in medium flame for about 3-4 minutes till it turns pink and translucent. then add the corriander leaves and mint leaves and mix well. add the ginger garlic paste to the cooker and mix well, till the raw smell leaves off.

  3. Now add the vegetables, carrot,beans,potato and green peas. reserve the cauliflower to add at last so that it do not overcook and turn mushy. now add the chilli powder and garam masala, salt to taste and mix well.

  4. Then add 2 cup's of coconut milk and 2 and half cup's of water and mix well with the vegetables. then add basmati rice and give a good mix. finally add lemon juice and cauliflower and mix well.

  5. Pressure cook the biryani in medium flame for about 2 whistles or without the cooker weight exactly for 12 minutes in medium flame. 

Serve the biryani hot with onion or cucumber raita.


Note:

Coconut milk can be added more. remember to measure the coconut milk. for 1 cup of basmati rice, coconut milk should be 1 and half cup.



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Vada curry

Diposting oleh adiba
Sabtu, 21 April 2012
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I took a long break here. We were very much prepared for the water scarcity problem when we moved from bangalore to chennai. luckily we did not face water crisis all these 5 years. but 20 days back, our apartment faced it, may be to give me a chance to face water scarcity. now the problem got solved. Thank God! now i know the value of each drop of water. i just owed, i would never waste water.


Chennai is becoming so hot. i  hate standing in the kitchen sweating. i decided to prepare vada curry, so that i could stock it up in fridge for 2 days, so that it could make a good side dish for dosa. i never thought of idli's, last 20 days because of water problem, fearing about washing those idli plates.


 My friend Anu gave her recipe thru phone and i went ahead and prepared. it took time to prepare, but at the end of it i got good vada curry, just as i have tasted in one of the restaurant in cuddalore.


                                                              Vada Curry

serves - 3
cooking time - 45 mins
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Ingredients for vadai:

  • Chana dal - 1/3 cup (soaked for 1 hour)
  • Sombu / saunf - 1 tsp
  • Dry red chilli - 2
  • Curry leaves - 4
  • Salt  - 1/4 tsp
  • Water - 1 tbsp
  • Oil - 1/2 cup  [to deep fry vadai]
Ingredients for curry:
  • Oil - 2 tbsp
  • Saunf / sombu - 1/4 tsp
  • Cinnamon stick - 1' inch 
  • Cloves - 2
  • Bay leaf - 1
  • Garlic - 4
  • Green chilli - 2
  • Curry leaves - 1 sprig
  • Big onion - 1 
  • Tomatoes - 2
  • Corriander leaves - 2 tbsp chopped
  • Ginger-Garlic paste - 1 tbsp
  • Chilli powder - 2 tsp
  • Corriander powder - 1 tsp
  • Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
To grind:
  • Grated coconut - 1/3 cup
  • Cumin / Jeeragam - 1 tsp
  • Water - 1/4 cup
Method:
  1. Soak the chana dal in water for about 1 hour and drain them. grind the chana dal along with sombu, dry red chilli, curry leaves and little water so that it gets coarsely grinded. remember not to grind watery.

  2. Finely chop the onions, tomatoes, garlic and green chilli's and set aside.

  3. Heat 1/2 cup of oil in a pan. take a lemon sized grounded chana dal and flatten them on your left hand palm with your right hand fingers. then drop them carefully to the hot oil. like wise make 4 vadai's per batch. fry the vadai in medium flame till it turns light golden in colour, it takes atleast 3-4 minutes. remove the vadai from flame and let them cool. once cooled, tear them into small pieces.

  4. To make curry, heat a separate pan, add 2 tbsp oil, add saunf, cinnamon, cloves, bay leaf and saute them. next add finely chopped or minced garlic, green chilli's and curry leaves.

  5. Now add finely chopped onion and saute them till it turns translucent. then add ginger garlic paste and saute till the raw smell of it goes off. then add tomatoes and mix. let the tomatoes get mixed well with the onions, it takes a minute. then add salt to taste, turmeric powder, chilli powder and dhaniya powder. Now mix all together and let the flame be in medium flame and let it rest for 2-3 minutes till the oil seperates. 

  6. Once oil seperates from the sides of the pan, add the vadai pieces to the pan and give a mix. then add grounded coconut-cumin mix to the vadai curry and give a good mix. 

  7. Add water and salt as per required consistency and taste. finally add chopped corriander leaves as garnish and let the vadai curry sit in slow flame for about 4 minutes with the pan closed. then remove from fire and and serve with dosai.

  8. Vadai curry goes well with set dosa, idli , dosai and even with chapathi's.

Notes:
  1.  Those who dont like saunf / sombu taste, you can substitute with cumin.

  2.  As the vadai have dry red chilli and in curry we add green chilli and chilli powder, adjust the chillies accordingly.

  3.  Always taste the curry and add salt, as the vadai has its salt.

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Kootanchoru rice

Diposting oleh adiba
Selasa, 27 Maret 2012
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Mughalai's introduced us biryani, have you ever wondered, what would our ancestors made for one pot meal before biryani. my grand mom's never prepared biryani. but they prepare delicious kadamba sambhar sadam.  it is not at all our tradition to have biryani. slowly now biryani is ruling all over here in tamil nadu. now a days its very difficult to spot kootanchoru or sambhar sadam in hotel menu(all the bhavan's have. i agree. but others?)



 Kootanchoru or Kadamba sambhar sadam is cooking rice,dal, vegetables and greens together in one pot. what a healthy one pot meal that could be.  Have you ever cooked in your childhood with your friends? or have you had your dinner with your family down the moon on a full moon day?


During my childhood, we four friends bring small amount of rice, vegetables, dal from our home's and cook in a small stove made by us with just three stones and some sticks. cooking together and eating together was so much fun then.



Kootanchoru / Kadam Sambhar Sadam

serves : 2
cooking time:20 minutes
preparation time: 15 minutes
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Ingredients:
  • Rice - 200gms
  • Tuvar dal - 50 gms
  • Carrot - 1
  • Beans - 6
  • Radish - 1
  • Raw Banana - 1
  • Brinjal - 2
  • Arai keerai - 2 cup
  • Murungai keerai - 1 cup
  • Tamarind - a lemon sized
  • Turmeric powder - a pinch
  • Sambhar powder - 1/2 tsp
  • Grated coconut - 2 tbsp
To grind:
  • Coconut grated - 1/4 cup
  • Cumin - 1/2 tsp
  • Garlic - 2
  • Shallots / Small onions - 6
  • Dry Red chilli - 3
  • Water - little to help grinding smoothly
For tempering:
  • Sesame oil - 2 tbsp
  • Mustard - 1/2 tsp
  • Split urad dal - 1/2 tsp
  • Thalippu vadagam - 1 tsp

Method:
  1. Traditionally its all cooked together in a big pot. but now pressure cooker can be used to make the cooking express fast.

  2. Wash and soak the rice and dal together for 30 minutes.

  3. Chop the vegetables into small pieces. Boil the tamarind with 1/4 of water and wait till it cools and get the tamarind extract ready.

  4. Clean and was the Greens and chop them.

  5. In a wide bottomed pressure cooker, add rice, dal, vegetables, greens, tamarind extract, turmeric powder, sambhar powder, little salt and 5 cup's of water. pressure cook upto 5 whistles. let the steam escape and  place the pressure cooker again on medium flame.

  6. Now add the grounded coconut mix to the pressure cooker and mix well. let the flame be low and cook for 5 minutes till the raw smell of the grounded mix goes off.  Add 2 tbsp grated coconut to rice and mix well.

  7. Finally in a small tempering pan, add 2 tbsp oil, mustard, urad dal and let the mustrad splutter, switch off the flame and add the thalippu vadagam.

  8. Now add the Tempering to the rice in pressure cooker and mix well. switch off the flame and serve hot.
Notes:
  • Coconut add up the taste, so do not skip it.
  • You can add drumstick, but when i added, it got mashed while pressure cooking. so if you want to add, add cooked drumstick in the later stage while adding grated coconut.
  • While serving for kids, serve with a dollop of ghee.
  • Use your choice of greens, from spinach, little methi leaves, mulai keerai, etc.


Kootanchoru / kadamba sambar sadam is ready, serve with appalam and some potato roast or vazhakkai(raw banana) roast.

Recipe for Vazhakkai roast:


Peel the skin and chop the raw banana(1) into small pieces. Add  2 tbsp oil in a heated pan. add mustrad, curry leaves, sambhar powder(1 tsp), dhaniya powder(1 tsp), salt to taste, asafoetida a pinch, all in the temepering stage and roast the powders. then add the chopped raw banana and mix well with the masala. let the flame be low, add another tbsp of oil, if it sticks to the pan. cook for 10 - 15 minutes in the closed pan.



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Sodhi Kulambu ~ tirunelveli special

Diposting oleh adiba
Selasa, 20 Maret 2012
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Sodhi, also known as mapillai sodhi, a speciality kulambu/gravy made in tirunelveli, kanyakumari districts. This sodhi is prepared for the newly married groom by his mother in law, when the groom first visits bride’s home. Lovely occasion isn’t it? Traditionally this sodhi kulambu is served with inji thuvayal/ginger chutney. When I prepared and ate, I felt spicy potato poriyal or roast will go really well with this sodhi.




 I prepared this sodhi, just for its fancy name and to find out, is the fancy name worth for it. Well it’s certainly a rich dish with lots of coconut milk and lots of vegetables that makes perfect to serve for son-in-law to impress him.

                   
Vegetables cooked in coconut milk makes this kulambu very delicious. what makes this different is, using green chilly and using moong dal/roasted gram for thickening  this kulambu.

       

Mapillai Sodhi Kulambu

Serves 3
Recipe source: AVM mangayar choice book


     Ingredients:

·         Carrot – 1
·         Potato – 1
·         Beans – 10
·         Green peas – ¼ cup
·         Brinjal – 2
·         Drumstick – 1
·         Onion – 2
·         Ginger – 2 inch size
·         Garlic – 5
·         Green chilli – 5
·         Coconut – ½ grated / thick coconut milk – 1 and 1/2 cup
[mudhal thengaai paal / first pressed – 1 cup and second pressed / irandavathu paal – 1 cup]
·         Roasted gram / pottukadalai – 1 tbsp
·         Turmeric powder – a pinch
·         Curry leaves – 1 sprig
·         Sesame oil /coconut oil – 2 tsp + ½ tsp
·         Mustard – 1/2 tsp
·         Fenugreek – ¼ tsp
·         Lemon juice – 2tsp

  
      Method:

1.     First, chop the vegetables, brinjal, drumstick, carrot, potato and beans into big chunks. Chop the onion, ginger and garlic finely. Extract coconut milk. Make sure you have first pressed coconut milk about 1 cup separate from the second pressed coconut milk 1 cup. if you are using store bought coconut milk, use 1 cup as it is and dilute 1/4 cup of coconut milk with 1/2 cup of water.

2.       Heat a pan, add 2 tsp oil, add green chilli and sauté it for at least 1 minute till it turns soft.

3.    Remove the green chillies and add finely chopped ginger, garlic, fenugreek seeds and sauté them well. Next add finely chopped onions and sauté till it turns translucent. Now add the chopped vegetables, green peas and sauté along with the onions for at least 3-4 minutes. Add turmeric powder, salt for the vegetables and mix it. Add 1 cup of water and second pressed coconut milk to the vegetables and let the vegetables boil for 10 minutes in medium flame. to cook drumstick it takes 10 minutes, if you are not using drumstick, then let the vegetables cook for just 6 minutes.

4.     Now grind the sautéed green chillies along with roasted gram dal/pottukadalai with little water into a fine paste.

5.   Check whether vegetables are cooked or not, if cooked add the grinded roasted gram/ pottukadalai paste and give a mix.  Turn the flame low. Now add first pressed coconut milk and let the sodhi boil in low flame. It takes 1 or 2 minutes. Once it boils, remove the sodhi from flame. Add lemon juice and give a stir.

6.   Heat a small tempering pan, add ½ tsp oil, add mustard and let it splutter, and then add curry leaves. Transfer the tempering to the sodhi.

7.   Serve with hot steamed rice, potato roast and with some ginger chutney.


Notes:
You can choose any vegetable, or this sodhi can be prepared as a plain one without any vegetable.

Many people add cooked moong dal (1/4 cup) to this sodhi. you can try that and avoid using roasted gram.



So what did your mom cooked first for you husband?  Friends, Love to hear from you.


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Mushroom Biryani

Diposting oleh adiba
Rabu, 29 Februari 2012
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Mushroom, this is one veggie(?) which cooks so fast and yet you can make super yummy dishes with it. My cook makes this mushroom biryani. mostly on weekends, i ask her to make this mushroom biryani, which she makes super fast and perfect!


Mushrooms should be cooked the day you buy. fresh mushrooms are good to cook. cleaning mushroom is very important. i normally wash each and every mushroom by scratching the dirt. then i wipe the mushrooms with a clean cloth before chopping it.


If you are seeing the basmati rice grains distinct and apart, the credit goes to Rak's kitchen. she was so kind to help me with suggesting good basmati rice and the water level for it. Thanks Raks!



                                                            Mushroom Biryani
serves - 3
preparation time: 20 minutes
cooking time: 20 minutes

 Ingredients:


  • Basmati Rice - 300gms / 3 cup's
  • Water - 4 and half cups
  • Mushrooms - 200 grams
  • Green peas - 1/4 cup
  • Big Onion - 3
  • Tomato - 1 big in size
  • Green chilli - 3
  • Ginger-Garlic paste - 2 tbsp
  • Mint leaves - 1/2 cup
  • Coriander leaves - 1/4 cup
  • Lemon juice - 1 tsp
  • Chilli powder - 1 tsp
  • Garam masala - 1/2 tsp
  • Oil - 2 tbsp
  • Ghee - 1 tbsp
  • Cinnamon - 1' inch
  • Cloves - 3
  • Sombu / fennel seeds - 1/2 tsp
  • Star anise - 1/2
  • Marati mokku - 1 small
  • Bay leaf - 1

Method:

Measure Basmati rice. Rinse the rice and soak in water for about 20 minutes. use the same measuring cup to measure water. the ratio for rice and water is 1 : 1 & 1/2. so measure 4 and half cups of water and keep aside.

Wash the Mushrooms thoroughly and wipe them with a clean cloth. chop the mushroom into thin strips and set aside.

Chop the onions into thin slices. slit the green chillies. chop the tomatoes into 4 parts and grind into a smooth tomato puree.

Wash the mint and coriander leaves thoroughly and keep aside.

Heat a wide bottomed pressure cooker. add oil and ghee to it. add fennel, cinnamon, cloves, bay leaf, star anise and maratti mokku.

Add finely sliced onions and saute it well for at least 2 minutes in medium flame. then add sliced green chillies and the mint and corriander leaves.

Add ginger garlic paste and saute till the raw smell leaves. now add the Mushrooms and saute till they shrink and leave little bit of water. mushroom takes 2-3 minutes to cook.

Then add Tomato puree and green peas and give a good mix. let the mix stand in medium flame for about 2 minutes. Now add chilli powder, garam masala, salt to taste and mix well.

Add measured 4 and half cup's of water, let it boil and then add the soaked and drained basmati rice. add lemon juice and mix.

Close the pressure cooker with its lid and do not put weight on it. let the steam escape. let the flame be in medium for exactly 12 minutes. after 12 minutes switch off the flame and let the cooker rest for 5 minutes before opening it.

Serve the biryani with onion or cucumber raita.



My hubby liked the biryani most, its not easy to impress or get a word from him, but when he told its nice, i have to believe, because i tasted it too:)

* if you are a food blogger, put the hot biryani on a fancy bowl, click pictures of the hot biryani on different angles with different props till you are satisfied and by the time you click, family leaves you and finishes off the hot biryani! finally you got to eat the cooled biryani with a high level of satisfaction indeed!!



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