Instant Sambar

This is one kind of quick sambar and you don't need to add any kind of cooked daal to this.

INGREDIENTS:

Tomato - 2
Onion -1
Green Chilli-1
Cinnamon - small piece
Cloves - 1 or 2
Fennel seeds(Sombhu)- 1 teaspoon
Sambar powder - 1 teaspoon
Pottu kadalai(Roasted bengal gram / Bhuna Chana) - 2 tablespoon(powder it and add water and make like a paste)
Corriander leaves - As required
Turmeric powder - 1/2 teaspoon

METHOD:

Add 2 tablespoon oil in tawa, then add Cinnamon,cloves and fennel seeds and allow them to splutter. Then add onion, green chilli, tomato and cook for few minutes. Then add salt ,sambar powder and turmeric powder. Add one cup of water and allow it boil .Let the tomatoes and onion cooked well. After 5  minutes, add the pottu kadalai  paste and allow it boil for 3 more minutes. Then add corriander leaves and some asafoetida powder. Instant sambar is ready !.. It goes well with dosa, idly.

NOTE:

If you cant get pottu kadalai, you can replace it with 2 tablespoon of besan(Kadalai Maavu) flour. 

Masala Nuts

It is always good to have some thing little spicy and crunchy for our evening tea !. Here is the recipe of making masala nuts which is a healthy protein rich evening snack. Instead of deep fry, we can use microwave oven for roasting.

INGREDIENTS:

Pea nuts - 100 gms
Cashews(Broken) - 100 gms
Besan (Kadalai Maavu) - 100 gms
Baking soda- 1 pinch
Ghee-  2 table spoon
Chilli powder, salt - As required.



METHOD :

 In a big microwaveable plate, spread the cashews and peanut  and sprinkle some water over it. Then add besan, baking soda , chilli powder,salt and ghee and mix well with that. Then keep in microwave in high for 3 minutes and take out. Allow it to cool down. Tasty, crunchy masala nuts is ready !

Asoka Halwa

Asoka halwa is a very famous sweet in Thanjavur and quite popular one. Here is the simple recipe of making Asoka halwa.

        

INGREDIENTS:

Wheat Flour - 1/4 cup
Moong Daal(Paasi Paruppu) - 1/4 cup
Ghee  - 1/2 cup
Sugar - 1/2 cup

Saffron Strands- few 
Cashews,cardamom powder  - As required

METHOD:

    Dry roast moong daal in a tawa for few minutes until u see slight colour change  and a nice aroma . Dont fry  for two long,  as the moong daal may get burnt . Then pressure cook it nicely,  so that it becomes like a paste. You can use a ladle to mash the dal well without any lumps.

     In a tawa, add half of the ghee mentioned in the ingredients section and add wheat flour to that and roast the wheat flour well, till it turns to golden colour. Again, make sure that you dont burn the flour. Also, add the cooked moong daal , saffron strands to it and mix well and allow them to cook well. Keep stirring continuously without leaving for 5 minutes, and when u see the mixture doesnt stick to the sides of the tawa then it is fully cooked. Add  sugar , cardamom powder and mix well. Now, add the remaining ghee, roasted cashews ( roast cashew in little ghee separately) and mix well and turn off the stove. Asoka halwa is ready. 

Bisi Bela Bath

Bisi Bela Bath is always one of my favorite recipe .  It is a healthy dish wherein you get carbohydrate from rice, protein from daal and vitamins and minerals from vegetables. All from a single dish !

INGREDIENTS:

                      Rice - 1 Cup
                      Toor Daal - 1/2 Cup (Soak Toor daal for 10-15 minutes)
                      Water - 61/2 Cup
                      Tamarind - Lemon Size
                      Turmeric - 1/2 tea spoon
                      Ghee - 3 Table spoon
                      Small Onions - 5
                       Carrot ,Beans, Green Peas - 1 cup
                       Mustard,curry leaves, Oil- As required for seasoning

FOR GRINDING:

                       Coconut - As required
                      (You can also use coconut powder . 1 or 2 tablespoon should be sufficient.)
                       Coriander seeds -  1 table spoon                  
                       Pepper               - 1/2 teaspoon                  
                       Cinnamon         -  As required
                       Chana Daal (Kadalai paruppu) -   1 table spoon
                       Dry red chilli -4
                       Star Anise - 1

METHOD:

  1. In little oil, fry the items mentioned in the "For Grinding" section and make it into a fine masala powder.

 2.In a pressure cooker, Add  toor daal, water, turmeric powder and some ghee. Allow it to boil. Then add rice, all the vegetables (except onion), Tamarind water , Masala powder, salt and cover the lid of pressure cooker. Keep in High and count 5 whistles and then switch off .

            
 3.For seasoning, Add oil,  mustard , curry leaves and onion and fry it and add to the bisi bela bath. You can also add some ghee in the end for a nice aroma and flavor.

         

Coconut Burfi Tip

If you are making coconut burfi, add equal proportions of sugar and coconut. Also, you should squeeze the grated coconut and take the milk out of it and then you need to roast the grated coconut. This would make the coconut to get roasted quickly. Also would speed up the process of making burfi.

Murukku Tips

If you are making murukku, after u get the murukku flour  from the machine, allow the flour to get cooled for a day or two and then make murukku. If you make murukku immediately, then it will turn out very dark in colour.

For the Thenkuzhal murukku to be white and crunchy, when you roast urad dal dont do it in a high flame. Do it in a medium flame and make sure the urad dal doesnt get roasted too much and burnt out. To check it consistency, Just taste that urad dall. If you feel the crunchiness sound  then you have to turn off the flame . The ratio of rice and urad dal for the Thenkuzhal murukku should be like 4 cups of Rice and 1 cup of Urad dal.

Dry fruit and nut Rava Dosai

INGREDIENTS:

Finely chopped cashews,almonds and Dry Grapes.

Rava/Sooji - 1 cup

Rice Flour - 3 cups

Maida/All purpose flour - 1/4 cup

Salt

Crushed Pepper and Jeera - As required

Curry Leaves  - As required


METHOD:

        In a bowl add Rava, Rice Flour and Maida. Add required salt and add water until it is immersed and allow it to soak for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, mix them well without any lumps. Soaking for 10 minutes would prevent lump formation. Then add pepper , jeera and curry leaves, The batter should not be thick . It should be watery.

      Then heat the Tawa. Sprinkle the nuts and fruit mixture on the Tawa. Then pour the batter starting from outside to inside.

 You can use ghee or oil over the dosa and allow it cook for few minutes. Then turn it over the other side and let it cook for few more minutes. Dry fruit and nut rava dosa is ready. If you dont want fruits and nuts , then you can replace it with onions. This dosa goes well with tomato and coconut chutneys.

Rava Ladoo Tip

   When ever you are making rava or payatha maavu urundai ,  make sure to add more sugar  than the flour. For example, if you are using 1 cup of rava/payatha maavu, you need to add 11/4 cup of sugar. It would help the rava urundai to stay round without breaking. Also, when you add ghee/vanaspathi to make rava/payatha maavu urundai, the ghee should be very hot , so that it would melt the sugar and prevent the balls from breaking .

Sakkarai/Jaggery Paagu Tip

 If you are making Sakkarai paagu (Sugar syrup) or jaggery syrup for any sweets say baadusha ,gulab jamun, ladoo, adhirasam etc, first boil the water well and then add sugar or jaggery. So that, the sugar would get dissolved completely and paagu will come out good. Also in the end, add 1 table spoon of ghee  to the "paagu"  and turn off the flame.It will help to maintain the sakkarai paagu's consistency.

Storing Cardamom

 Whenever sweets are made, we always add cardamom for flavor . So it will be useful  if we make the cardamom powder and store it .

 How to make cardamom powder:  add 5 gms of cardamom seeds with the skin in a tawa and dry roast it for 2 minutes . After it cools down, add 2 table spoon sugar and grind it . This will stay without spoiling for 6 months atleast and can be used in any type of sweets.