Garlic Rasam - This traditional appetizer cum rice accompaniment is a panacea for many an ill, be it a nagging cold or a bout of fever.
Ingredients:
- 10 garlic cloves
- ½ cup tuvar dal cooked
- 1 tsp jeera
- 1 tsp pepper
- 1 tsp tuvar dal
- 1 tsp coriander seeds
- 1 tsp mustard seeds
- Lime-sized ball tamarind
- 2 tomatoes
- 3 tsp ghee
- Curry leaves
- Coriander leaves
Roast tuvar dal, jeera, red chillies, pepper and coriander seeds. Grind well. Roast the garlic cloves and add them to the ground paste and grind again. Extract tamarind juice. Boil tamarind water with tomatoes and salt. Add a few cloves of peeled garlic to the mix. Once it boils well, add the cooked tuvar dal and the ground paste. Add water to the desired consistency and boil well. Season with mustard seeds in ghee. Garnish with curry leaves and coriander leaves.
2)Avial
This is a wholesome concoction of fresh vegetables put together in thick gravy. Goes well with rice and accompanied by rasam or sambhar.
Ingredients:
- 3 cups chopped carrots, beans, brinjals, white pumpkin, potatoes
- 1 cup grated coconut
- 8 green chillies
- 2 red chillies
- 1 tsp jeera
- ½ cup curd
- few curry leaves
- 1 tsp coconut oil
Cook all the vegetables evenly in little water with turmeric and salt added to it. Grind coconut, jeera, red chillies and green chillies to a fine paste in yoghurt. Add to the cooked vegetables and let it blend. Season with curry leaves and coconut oil.
3)Stuffed Brinjal
A dry vegetable accompaniment to a meal
Ingredients:
- 10 -12 brinjals (small)
- 1 ½ tsp urad dal
- 1 ½ tsp channa dal
- 10 red chillies
- oil and salt
Fry the dals and red chillies in a tsp of oil. Grind to a thick paste and add salt. Slit the brinjals so that they are not completely cut but part of the way to allow the ground masala to be filled in. Heat oil in a pan and add the stuffed brinjals. Let it roast on a slow flame with the lid to keep in the heat.
4)Vathal Kuzhambu
A spicy gravy made with either fresh vegetables or dried vathal
Ingredients:
- 1 cup vegetables or vathal ( dried vegetables )
- 2 tsp coriander seeds
- 2 tsp methi seeds
- 2 tsp channa dal
- 2 tsp mustard seeds
- 2- 4 red chillies
- small piece asafoetida
- lime sized tamarind ball
Fry asafetida, coriander seeds, red chillies, channa dal and methi seeds in a tsp of oil. Grind to a paste. Cook vegetables in salt water and keep aside. In a hard-bottomed pan, saute mustard in a tsp of oil. Add onions and let them turn a golden brown. Add thick tamarind extract and cooked vegetables or vathal. Let the mixture boil well and simmer. Add the ground paste and let it boil for a few minutes. If the Vathal Kuzhambu consistency is too thin, a spoon of rice flour added with a little water should thicken it up. Garnish with curry leaves.
5)Kaikari Perattal
Ingredients:
- Carrots 2
- Potatoes 2
- Tomato 1
- Onion 1
- Peas ½ cup
- Coconut ½ cup, grated
- Garlic 2 pods
- Poppy seeds ½ tsp
- Fennel seeds 1 tsp
- Red chilies 5
- Turmeric powder ½ tsp
- Roasted gram 1 tbsp
- Red chili powder ½ tsp
- Curry leaves
- Salt to taste
- Oil for frying
Grind fennel seeds, poppy seeds, fried gram, red chilies and coconut into a fine paste. Scrape off the skin from the potatoes and carrots. Chop potatoes, carrots, tomatoes and onion into medium size pieces. Boil carrots and potatoes separately. Heat oil in a pan and add curry leaves, onion, tomatoes, peas and the boiled potatoes and carrots. Add turmeric powder, red chili powder and salt. Add the ground paste. Cook until the gravy thickens. Serve hot with rice.
6)Kongunad Sandhavai
Ingredients:
- Parboiled rice 2 cups
- Freshly grated coconut ½ or 1 cup
- Salt ½ tsp
- Cardamom 5 pods
Wash and soak rice for three to four hours. Grate coconut, make sure not to grate near the shell, use the white portion alone. Grind coconut and cardamom to a fine paste and add it to the rice and grandly until a smooth paste. The consistency of the batter should be thicker than idli batter. Make idli from this batter. Use a sandhavai nazhi or idiyappam press to make rice noodles or sandhavai.
7)Tomato Kurma
Ingredients:
- Ripe tomatoes finely chopped
- Onion finely chopped
- Curry leaves
- Turmeric powder ¼ tsp
- Oil 1 tbsp
- Salt
For Wet masala
Ingredients:
- Ginger 1 inch
- Garlic 3 cloves
- Poppy seeds/khuskhus 1 tsp
- Roasted channa dal 1 tbsp
- Coconut 1 tbsp
- Clove 1
- Fennel seeds ½ tsp
- Cinnamon 1 small piece
- Green chilies 2
Grind together all the ingredients for wet masala into fine paste along with salt. In a sauce pan heat oil and add onions and curry leaves in it, sauté onions till transparent. Add tomatoes and salt, cook until tomatoes are done. Add turmeric powder, ground masala, and some more salt. Add water and cover the pan, cook for about 20 minutes on low flame. Garnish with coriander leaves.
8)Curd Vadai
Ingredients:
- 200 g urad dal
- 1 cup grated coconut
- 6 green chillies
- 6 - 7 whole peppers
- 1 tsp asafetida powder
- 3 cups curds
Soak the urad dal for about 1½ hour. Grind to a thick paste. Add salt, chopped green chilies, grated coconut and asafetida. Shape into round pieces of batter on a plantain leaf or plastic sheet. Drop each vada into boiling oil and fry till golden brown. Whisk the curd and add salt, coriander leaves and spiced boondi. Soak for a minute in water and add to the curd mixture.
9)Vermicelli Payasam
Ingredients:
- ½ cup vermicelli
- 1 litre milk
- 3 tbsp ghee
- 6-8 cashews
- ½ cup sugar
Fry the vermicelli in ghee and keep aside. Heat milk in a vessel and bring to a boil. Keep simmering and add the vermicelli. Keep stirring and continue simmering the milk till its volume is considerably reduced. Add sugar and allow it to blend well. Fry raisins and cashews and add it to the payasam. Flavor it with cardamom powder.
10) Rava Kesari
Ingredients:
- 1 cup rava
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 ½ cups water
- 5 tbsp ghee
- 10 raisins
- 5 -6 cashews
- ¼ tsp cardamom powder
- 1 tsp saffron soaked in 1 tbsp warm milk
Take a heavy bottomed pan and heat the ghee. Boil the water in a separate pan. Add sugar to it and bring to a boil. Roast rava in it on a slow flame till it exudes a subtle aroma. Add the boiling water to the rava stirring continuously to avoid lumps. Ensure that the rava is well cooked and the sweetness is right. Fry cashews and raisins in a little ghee and add to the rava kesari. Add the cardamom powder and saffron for flavoring.
11)Badam Cake
Ingredients:
- 1 cup badam (almonds)
- 2 cups sugar
- ½ cup ghee
- 1 tbsp milk
- 1 tsp saffron
Soak the almonds in hot water and grind to a coarse paste after peeling them. Use milk to grind the almonds. Dissolve saffron in a tsp of milk. Take a thick bottomed pan and mix the almond paste, sugar and a tsp of ghee. Cook on a slow flame and keep adding the ghee as you stir the mix. Add the dissolved saffron as flavoring. When the mix reaches the desired consistency, take it off the flame and pour on a greased plate. Cut into squares after it is cool.
12)Chakkara Pongal
Ingredients:
- 1 cup rice
- ¼ cup moong dal
- ½ cup jaggery
- 2 cups milk
- ½ cup ghee
- 3 cloves
- 2 cardamoms
- 1 tsp nutmeg powder
- ¼ cup cashews
- ¼ cup raisins
- edible camphor
Roast moong dal for a few minutes. Cook rice and moong dal along with water and milk till soft. Melt jaggery in a pan with little water. Strain to remove any impurities. Mix the jaggery with the cooked rice and moong dal mix in a pan and blend it together over a slow flame. Add most of the ghee and stir. In another pan, take a little ghee and fry cashews, raisins and cloves. Add them to the mixture. Pound nutmeg, cardamoms and edible camphor and garnish the chakkara pongal. Serve hot.
13)Carrot Halwa
Ingredients:
- 5 - 6 carrots grated
- 1 cup milk
- 1 cup sugar
- 3 tbsp ghee
- 6-7 cashews
- 6-7 raisins
Pressure cook the grated carrots with milk till soft and cooked. Take a thick bottomed pan and heat sugar and ghee. Add the cooked carrot mix. Keep stirring on a slow flame. As the milk condenses, the carrot halwa will get a thicker consistency. Fry cashews and raisins in a tsp of ghee and pour on the thickened halwa.
