Coriander Rice

Any greens are good for health. When it comes to coriander I get delighted cos of its exotic fragrance. Whether its chutney, rasam, dosa or the rice, coriander leaves makes it extra special. It really makes this rice an awesome dish. The addition of chana dal and urad dal for this rice gives a nice flavor for it. You can  try this wenever you have it a little extra coriander on your refridgerator.

 

Ingredients:

Basmati rice - 2 cups
Green peas - 1/4 cup
Salt - to taste
Oil - 2 tsp
Chana dal / kadala paruppu - 1 tsp
Urad dal / uzhunnu parippu - 1/2 tsp
Hing / Asafoetida - a generouns pinch
Curry leaves - a few
Roasted cashewnuts - a handful
Chopped coriander leaves - 1/4 cup

To grind
Fresh coriander leaves - 1 cup
Chopped onions - 1, medium
Green chillies - 2 adjust to spice level

Procedure

1. Soak the basmati rice in some water for 20 mins and cook in sufficient water until the rice is cooked well, yet firm. I usually use Rice :water ratio as 1:1 1/2

2. Grind the ingredients for the coriander paste with little water.

3. Heat oil for tempering and roast the chana dal and urad dal until golden brown. Add the curry leaves and hing and mix well.

4. Now add the ground coriander paste and blend well adding enough salt. Throw in the green peas and let it simmer for 2-3 mins.

5. Switch off fire and mix in the rice while the paste is still hot.

6. Garnish with roasted cashewnuts and chopped coriander leaves.

7. Serve hot with your favorite sidedish/raita.
 

 

Puran Poli

I am always a fan of stuffed parathas. And I do have a sweet tooth too. So how about a sweet stuffed paratha. And thats nothing else then Poli also popularly known as Puran poli. This is a mouthwatering desert and its quite easy to prepare too. I got this recipe from Vahrehvah and its quite simple. All you have make sure is having a soft dough and the result comes amazing. Enjoy your next festival/occasion with this delicious polis.

Ingredients

Stuffing
Chanadal cooked - 1 cup
Jaggery - 1 cup
Cardamom powder - 1 tsp

Outer layer

Maida - 1 1/2 cups
Sooji - 1 tsp
Rice flour - 1 tsp
salt - pinch
oil/melted butter - 1 tbsp


Procedure:

Pressure cook/boil the chana dal. Drain all the water and let it get dry. After some time grind it to a powder consistency.

Heat the powdered chana dal and add jaggery to it. The jaggery will melt and get mixed well with the dal. Cook till it thickens to make balls out of it. Add cardamom powder and mix well. Make small balls of it and keep it aside.

Now mix all of the ingredients mentioned for outer layer and mix well. Add some water and knead to a very soft dough  (It should be really soft)

Make balls of the dough and the size should little than the stuffing balls.

Take a plastic sheet and grease with oil. Slightly press the dough and keep the stuffing inside. cover it with the dough by pulling along the corners. Gently press it with your hand evenly around and flatten it as you can.

Heat a tawa and cook these polis with little ghee until u see brown spots on both sides.

Enjoy the delicious polis with your family.

Am linking this post to Taste of Tropics - Authentic Indian Platter happening at EzCookbook.

Home-made Vatrals/ Vathals (fryums)

Vatahals/Vatrals come as instant saviors when we are running a little low on side dish for rice. They make the meal tasty and satisfying too. Whenever we talk of vathals I remember those days (usually sundays) when we go along with my mom and grandma to the open terrace above our house and make them early morning before the sun starts to show his strong rays. Actually sun light is the most important thing needed for drying this and as it is available sufficient back home in Chennai, making this had never been a question there. Thats is the reason why its usually  made during the months of march - april, when the sun is bright and less wind. And its usually made in huge batches which will be stocked for the entire year.

When I thought of doing this in my place where we don't have a place like open terrace, I decided to keep it near my living room window where I will get some sunlight during the day time (I made it well ahead in summer, but sorry for posting it in fall). I was lucky for the first day, but the second  day didn't had much sunlight to dry up the other side. So I heated my convection oven on "warm setting" to dry it out completely. It took 3 days for my vathals to get dried completely. Thankfully it came out well and my family loves this so much. And I got the satisfaction of making some home-made vathals.

I tried both rice and javvarisi vathals. Here goes the recipe


Javvarasi/ Sabudana vathal

Ingredients:

Javvarisi/sabudana- 1 cup (soak overnight)
Green chilli - 2
Asafoetida/Hing - 1/4 tsp
Water - 1 cup
Salt

Procedure:

Grind the soaked javvarisi with green chillies and hing for 2 secs.

Heat water in a pan and add the ground paste to this. Mix salt.

Boil it till it gets cooked and the water is well absorbed to a semi solid state. Let it cool for half an hour.

Take a clean plastic sheet. Use a spoon to take 1 tsp of the spread it on the sheet. Try to make it flat and thin circles.

Let this dry under sun the whole day. After the top part is dry turn the vathals to dry the other side of the vathal.

Make sure you dry it well, absolutely dry without any moisture, so it will have long shelf life and it will be frying well too.

 

 

 

Rice/arisi vathal

Ingredients:

Cooked rice - 1 cup
Green chilli - 2
Asafoetida/Hing - 1/4 tsp
chopped Onion - 1
Salt

Procedure:

Grind the cooked rice with green chillies and hing slightly. Or else you can even mash the rice if its well cooked.

To this mix salt and finely chopped onions. This will be very sticky.

Take a clean plastic sheet. Apply little oil on your hands. Take small balls of the rice mix and keep it on the plastic sheet. The balls need not have to be perfect shape.

Let this dry under sun the whole day. After the top part is dry turn the vathals to dry the other side of the vathal. As the sun was not very hot the day I made it, I had to heat the oven in "warm setting" for an hour and dried it there.

Make sure you dry it well, absolutely dry without any moisture, so it will have long shelf life and it will be frying well too.

Store them in airtight containers. Fry in hot oil and serve. It goes very well with sambar and curd rice.


Store them in airtight containers. Fry in hot oil and serve. It goes very well with sambar and kara kuzhambu.