Kuzhi Paniyaram - Sweet and Spicy

Kuzhi Paniyaram is a delicacy of Southern Tamilnadu. This could be served as a main dish or even for snacks. Traditionally this is made with lots of ghee/oil but thanks to non-stick pans (we need the kuzhi paniyaram pans) we can make this with very less oil.

This recipe has slight variation from my earlier one. I recently came across this recipe being made with a javvarisi/sabudana and the rice was with different proportions too. It was mentioned that it makes soft paniyarams. And it was true that the paniyarams were super soft and spongy. I really liked the texture of it.

Make this ahead for parties and it will be super hit. This time I made both spicy and sweet versions. Here goes the recipe.

Ingredients:

Idli rice - 1 1/2 cup
Raw rice - 1/2 cup
Urad dal - 1/4 cup
Javvarisi/Sabudana  - 1/4 cup
Fenugreek seeds - 1 tsp
Salt

Spicy

Urad dal - 1 tbsp
Chana Dal - 1 tbsp
Choped onions - 1 cup
Green chillies - 2
Pepper - 1 tsp
Chopped coriander leaves - 2 tbsp
Curry leaves - 1 tbsp
coconut powder - 2 tbsp
Oil - 2 tsp

Sweet
Jaggery - 1 cup (adjust according to taste)
Coconut - 1/4 cup


Procedure:

Batter
Soak the rice and dals with fenugreek seeds together 6 hours. Wash and soak the sabudana separately for 6 hours. Grind all of them together to a very nice batter. Add little salt to this and let it ferment (You need not add salt for fermentation during summer. This way batter will stay good for long time).

Separate this batter equally in 2 halves. One half can be used for the spicy paniyarams and other one for sweet paniyarams.

Spicy Paniyarams:
Heat oil in a pan and add urad dal and chana dal. After they turn orange add pepper, g.chillies and onions and saute till they are soft. Now add the curry leaves and coconut powder and mix well. Put these contents with coriander leaves to the batter and add required salt. Mix well and add water if required.

Heat the paniyaram pans with little oil in each hole. Pour this batter and keep covered on medium flame. After one side is cooked flip all the paniyarams to the other side and cook till done.

Serve with Coconut chutney

Sweet Paniyarams:
Put jaggery in hot water(very little) and let it boil to melt it down. Filter this and add this to batter. Add the coconut powder also to this. The batter is ready.

Heat the paniyaram pans with little oil in each hole. Pour this batter and keep covered on medium flame. After one side is cooked flip all the paniyarams to the other side and cook till done.

Delicious paniyarams are ready.

I'm sending this recipe for Anu's South Indian Cooking Event #1

Navaratna Kurma

Kurma is our favorite sidedish for Chapatis. But I always had to add coconut to make kurma and I was searching for alternatives. Then only I came to know that Navaratna kurma is made without coconut. So I tried it out immediately and the result was fabulous. As the word 'Navaratna' says we've to add nine different veggies for this. But I managed with watever was in my refridgerator.

Try it out today and make a delicious dinner. Enjoy!!!

Recipe source : Edible garden

Ingredients:

2 cups of diced, mixed vegetables - I used carrot, beans, peas, corn and potato
A few cubes of paneer
10 cashew nuts soaked in warm water, drained and ground to a paste
1 large onion, finely chopped
1 tomato, quartered and pureed
3 green chillies
1" piece of ginger
4 garlic cloves (or use 1 tsp ginger garlic paste)
1 tsp tomato paste (or use another pureed tomato)
1 cup milk
10 raisins
1 tbsp butter (or ghee)
Salt to taste

Spice Powders:
2 tsp garam masala (or use 1 tsp freshly ground masala like cloves, cardamom, cinnamon)
1/2 tsp red chilli powder
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp coriander powder
1/2 tsp jeera

Procedure:

Heat the butter or ghee in a kadai / pan and add raisins. After they bubble up add the onions until transparent

Grind the green chillies with the ginger and garlic and add to the onions. If using ginger garlic paste, just crush the chillies and add along with it. Fry for 30 seconds.

Add all the spice powders. Fry for a minute. Then add tomato puree and paste and fry till butter leaves out on sides (4-5 mts)

Add milk and about 1/2 cup of water, more or less.

Add the chopped vegetables. Mix well an cook covered for another 5 mins or so, until the vegetables are cooked, yet firm.

Add the cashew nut paste and mix well. Add salt and paneer cubes. Cook open for another 5 minutes until the gravy thickens and comes together

Garnish with fresh coriander leaves and serve hot with chapati, nan, roti, or pulao.

Rice crackers - Chekkalu

It is Krishna Jayanthi and I was searching for some new and easy snacks, I came across this recipe. This is very similar to 'Thattai' / Elladai. But this is made with fully rice flour and no urad flour. This is super simple if you have rice flour ready at home. Just with a few ingredients, we can make this ready in no time. And it tastes fabulous and will just be finished shortly. My husband likes this even with sambhar/ curd rice. Its damn good. The only difficult part, I would say is to flatten the balls. But you can master this after the first 2 rounds.

Enjoy this great, easy snack for any evening.

Ingredients:

Rice flour - 1 cup
Butter - 1 tbsp
Salt -  1 tsp / as required
Chana Dal - 1 tbsp (soaked for an hour. If you haven't soaked put it in boiling water for 10 mts)
Water - few drops
Oil - to deep fry

To grind
Green Chillies - 3
Ginger - 1/2 inch
Curry leaves
Coriander leaves

Procedure:

Take a bowl add rice flour & salt.Mix the dry mixture.

Grind ginger,curry leaves & green chillies to a fine paste .Add this paste to the flour along with chana dal and mix well.

Add butter to the mixture and mix well as it will work as a binding agent.At this point add few drops of water.Knead the dough. Make sure not to add excess water.

Divide the dough in equal parts as desired.Make small balls out of it similar to a dumpling.Take a plastic sheet rest the dumpling on it ,cover it with the other side of the plasticsheet & press it with your palm. 

Repeat the same procedure for all dumplings. You can do this flattening parallel when you are frying.

Heat oil in a deep frying pan.Ensure that oil has reached its correct temperature; then add chekkalu slowly.Allow it to cook on medium flame .

They are ready to be served


Tips:

Be careful when adding water to the dough as excess water may not give crunchy taste
Fry in medium temperature.
The dough kneaded is appropriate only when it forms uneven edges when pressed on the sheet.

I am posting this recipe for Let’s Cook #18 ~ Starters / Appetizers happening at Tickling Palate, Celebrate Month of Shravan at Spicy treats and Anu's South Indian Cooking Event #1

Strawberry Banana Popsicle

I got a new popsicle mould and am on the process of experimentting new varieties. I tried some fruit versions to include healthy bit for these cold treats. I tried a blend of strawberry and banana. Basically you can add any smoothies to this and freeze them to get your favorite popsicles. This give a lovely color and great taste. This is very inviting for kids and you can happy about doing home-made popsicles.

Ingredients:
Strawberry - 10
Banana - 1
Milk - 1 cup
Sugar - 2 tbsp

Procedure:

Blend the strawberries smoothly. To this add half cup of milk and 1 1/2 tbsp of sugar. Strain this after blending well. If needed add more sugar.

Pour this in the popsicle moulds for 1/3rd. Keep this covered in freezer for 1 hr.

In the meantime blend the bananas smoothly with sugar and half cup of milk. Blend this and strain to remove any solid parts/seeds.

After 1 hr the strawberry flavor will be half set but not watery. Now add the banana mix on top for another 1/3 portion. Keep this covered in freezer for another 1/2 hour.

I added more milk in the strawberry blend for the last part. This gave me a pink color. After 1/2 hour fill the moulds with the remaining strawberry blend. Now keep the popsicle sticks and press them slightly hard to push it till the end. Freeze this for 2 more hours.

Yummy strawberry banana popsicles are ready for kids.

Naan with yeast

I have tried Naan all time with baking soda and fruit salt. But this time I tried it with yeast and the results were really good. The same soft and fluffy naan were ready for dinner. I uesd instant yeast and the dough rises in about 1 hr. I read that instant yeast helps to rise the dough fast than normal dry yeast. But many recipes uses the active dry yeast. But if you have to prepare in short time go for instant yeast.

I used the same method of cooking on tawa for this naan as with chappatis. But some recipes recommend using the convection oven. Try out this and enjoy your delicious soft Naans

Ingredients:

Maida/ All purpose flour - 2 cups
Milk - 1/4 cup
Fresh curd - 1/4 cup
Instant Yeast - 1 1/2 tsp
Sugar - 1 tsp
Salt - 1 tsp or as required
Butter - 1 tsp


Procedure:

Mix sugar in warm milk. Milk should be just warm as bearable when you touch with your fingers.
Add yeast to this and leave for 5 mts. After add curd to this and leave it covered for 10 mts. The mix will be frothy and bubbly by this time

Mix salt and butter to the flour in a large mixing bowl. To this add the yeast mixture and knead to a soft dough. Add water if required but be careful not to add too much. Apply oil on your fingers if the dough is sticky. After kneading apply oil on top surface of dough and leave this covered for 1 - 1/2 hrs in a warm place.

The dough will raise after 1 1/2 hours. Gently knead the dough again and make balls slightly bigger than for chappatis.

Dust the rolling surface with flour and roll the balls. It should be slightly thicker and try to elongate on the sides like the traditional naans.

Heat the tawa on medium flame. Apply water on one side of the rolled naan. And put this side on  the hot tawa. This helps it to stick the rolled dough on the tawa. It will start bubbling up slowly.

After you see the bubbles, turn the tawa upside and show it direcly on the flame. This will help in cooking the top part of the naan. After you even spotting on the naan remove from the tawa and apply butter on top.

Alternatively you can take the naan and flip it on a flame directly over a stand which is used for making rotis directly on flame. and flip it on wither sides to get even coloring. Spread butter on top. a

Serve the butter naans hot with your favorite side dish.


Options:

After rolling to the desired size, add thin slices of garlic pieces and roll again slightly. This will give Garlic naans
Similarly you can add sesame/cumin seeds on top and roll once to get Sesame/Cumin Naans