New Arrival !:-)

Dear All,

We are blessed with a baby boy (on April 13th, a day before Vishu, which was on 15th this year). We named him Devang.



This is the mini-sadya prepared by Amma for his naming ceremony. Of course, we had Pal Payasam and Neyyappam/ Unni Appam also, but I missed clicking pictures of the dishes.

Wishing everyone a wonderful year ahead...

This blog will have to wait for some more months for posts:-)

Also, I have realized that pictures from my blog are being used in other websites. This may not be something new to all bloggers out there, but I never thought it would happen to me, my pictures being of poor quality!

Check this out: http://kshore.com/recipe/?rid=48

The picture is taken from my post:

http://ammascooking.blogspot.com/2008/10/diwali-celebrations-and-events.html

I hope to get back to all this and take care to edit my photos and add a watermark/ copyright info etc.

Take care all!

Diwali Wishes

Hope everyone had a safe and Happy Diwali!

Happy Ganesh Chathurthi

Spinach/ Palak Rice

I am unable to resist another entry to Monthly Mingle #33 - Ravishing Rice Recipes event at Edible Garden. We love Palak/ Spinach at home, and it features at least twice a week on the menu. In case I am too lazy to make Palak Paratha or Aloo Palak or Dal Palak or plain Palak subji, I make Palak Rice. The main advantage is I need not make any side dish separately to go with this; curd or papad or pickle or coconut chutney will go really well with it. What's more, if you have leftover rice, this is more easy to prepare.


To make the Palak Rice seen in the picture, you will need:

Rice - cooked - 2 cups 

Spinach/ Palak - chopped -4 cups

Onion - chopped - 1

Ginger - peeled and pounded - 1 tsp

Garlic - peeled and pounded - 1 tsp

Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp

Red Chilly powder - 1 tsp

Coriander seeds powder - 1 tsp

Cumin seeds powder - 1 tsp

Garam Masala - 1/4 tsp

Pepper - 1/4 tsp

Water - 1/2 cup (only if required)

Oil - 1 tbsp

Salt - to taste

Method:

• Keep cooked rice ready
  
• Heat oil in a pan and add the chopped onions, ginger and garlic
  
• Once the onions are cooked and light brown, add all powders except garam masala and pepper and stir well
  
• Add the chopped palak and mix well and leave to cook covered and on low flame for 3-5 minutes
  
• Palak will have given out water and at this stage, add the cooked rice, garam masala and pepper and mix well
  
• Keep on flame for another 3 minutes and turn off heat
  

Note: If you wish to add water to make the rice softer like I do, add water while adding the rice, and wait for the water to dry

Serve as is or with any of the options mentioned above

This is my second entry to Monthly Mingle #33 - Ravishing Rice Recipes event. Monthly Mingle is an event started by Meeta

Vegetable Pulao/ Vegetable Rice

I am addicted to rice. More of a bane than boon, this addiction has led to very difficult situations, especially because I cannot sleep at night unless I have had at least a little bit of rice. There have been instances when I woke up at midnight (or even at 1 pm!) and cooked rice and ate with pickle or curd. I do not think this has anything to do with being a South Indian (a Mallu), because my parents have always had chapathis for dinner. However, Amma always ensured that there was rice for me at night since I insisted on eating rice even if I had 1 or 2 chapathis.

Of course, this addiction has also led to serious weight issues as well, especially after motherhood when I totally gave up any form of exercise, and all that carbohydrate got converted to fat! All diets go for a toss when I give into the tempation for rice after 1-2 days. 

Anyway, though my staple diet is rice, I have not posted many rice based dishes on my blog yet! The only two I could find are Ajwain Rice and Curd Rice. I realized this after Nags announced that she is hosting Monthly Mingle #33 - Ravishing Rice Recipes at Edible Garden. Monthly Mingle is an event started by Meeta.

I wanted to post something simple, but I decided to overcome my laziness and dedicate a post to Amma's version of Vegetable Pulao/ Vegetable Rice. I give it the alternate name of Vegetable Rice because I am not very sure if this fits into the definition of a Pilaf or Pulao. Whatever the name, I love this dish because of the vegetables and the preparation.

To make the Vegetable Rice in the picture, you will need:

Basmati Rice - 4 cups (serves 6)

Water - 6 cups (or per instructions for the Basmati Rice)

Tomatoes - finely chopped - 4-5

Onions - chopped lengthwise - 2 large

Ginger Garlic Green chilly paste - 3-4 tbsp (about 2 green chillies only)

Spring Onions 

(You can use any vegetable you prefer. We added spring onions because it happened to be in the fridge and did not add potatoes because we ran out of potatoes)

Peas - 1 cup

Carrot - chopped - 2 

Beans - chopped - about 200 gm

Cauliflower florets - 2 cups 

Coriander leaves - chopped

Bread - small pieces - 2 cups

Cloves - 5-6

Whole pepper corns - 6-8

Cinnamon - small broken sticks - 2-3

Cardamom - 3-4 pods

Cashew and Raisins - as desired

Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp

Coriander powder - 1 tsp

Cumin seeds powder - 1 tsp

Red chilly powder- 2 tsp

Garam Masala powder - 1 tsp

Salt - 1/2 tsp for rice, to taste for the vegetables

Ghee or butter - 2 tbsp for rice, 1 tsp each for onions, dry fruits, and bread

Vegetable oil - 2 tbsp

Method:

• Heat 2 tbsp of ghee in a large pan, add the whole pepper, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves and after roasting a little, add the washed basmati rice and roast for a few minutes stirring slowly, and remove to another bowl
  
• In the electric rice cooker, bring 6 cups of water to boil and add the rice with 1/2 tsp of salt and leave to cook

• Heat another tsp of ghee in the pan and add one chopped onion to this and roast well until dark brown and keep aside
  
• Similarly, roast the bread and cashews and raisins separately in a tsp of ghee and keep aside
  

• Heat 2 tsp of vegetable oil and saute the srping onions separately and keep aside
  
• Heat 2 tbsp of vegetable oil in a pan and saute the remaining chopped onion along with ginger garlic paste
  
• Add tomatoes and once the tomatoes are done, add all the vegetables - carrot, peas, beans, cauliflower - along with turmeric, coriander, cumin seeds powder,  garam masala, and salt to taste, cook covered on low flame
  

Do not add water unless absolutely necessary (tomato and vegetables give out water which is sufficient)

• Once the vegetables are cooked, add the spring onions and mix well 
  

• In the rice cooker, start layering the rice and vegetables and cashews, raisins, bread, onions as you would in a biriyani
  

First, add one glass of water, then rice, then vegetables, then bread, then cashew and raisins, then onions, and repeat layers until all are added and leave in 'keep warm' mode so that all the flavours are absorbed by the rice

• Garnish with the onions, cashews, raisins, bread and chopped coriander leaves
  

Serve with raita of choice

We had ours with mint chutney and cucumber raita.

This is my entry to Monthly Mingle #33 - Ravishing Rice Recipes

Mung Bean Sprouts and Potato Masala

The other day, I was busy clearing up stuff in the kitchen and dicovered a whole jar (about 500 gms) of mung beans. I was not sure how long the beans had been lying there, waiting to be used, but I knew I had to finish them before buying fresh stock. I just washed the whole quantity and decided to sprout half, while the remaining half was used in preparing the cherupayar curry. It was served with puttu for breakfast, and with chapathi(R and A)/ wheat bread (me) for dinner.

However, I still had the sprouts to finish and was thinking of making a simple salad, when I remembered a masala subji Amma used to make with mung bean sprouts.


This used to be one of my favorites with chapathi/ bread. The recipe is very simple too.



To make the Mung Bean Sprouts and Potato Masala seen in the picture, you will need:

Mung bean sprouts - 2 cups
Potatoes - 2 large - peeled and cubed
Tomatoes - 3 large - finely chopped
Onion - 2 medium sized - finely chopped
Green chilly - 1 sliced
Ginger - peeled and pounded - 1 tbsp
Garlic - peeled and pounded - 2-3 cloves

Water- 1/2 cup

Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
Red chilly powder - 1/2 tsp
Coriander seeds powder - 1 tsp
Jeera powder - 1/2 tsp
Garam Masala powder - 1/4 tsp

Coriander leaves - chopped - to garnish

Oil - 2 tsp
Salt - to taste



Method:

• Heat oil in a pan, and add onions, ginger, garlic, green chilly and stir well
• After the onions are done, add the tomatoes and cook covered on low flame for 3-5 minutes
• Throw in all the powders except garam masala, add the potatoes and sprouts along with half a cup of water, mix well
• Cook covered on low flame until the potatoes are done, add the garam masala, mix well, and cook uncovered until the subji is dry
• Garnish with coriander leaves

Serve with chapathi/ bread

Though I did not use the whole quantity of sprouts for the dish, I was happy I did not have to make a salad with all of it! Maybe what remains will end up being used in a salad.

Chakka/ Jackfruit Thoran

I have always refrained from making jackfruit-based dishes due to the fear of getting my hands (knife, cutting board, etc. also) sticky with the white gum. Jackfruit too has played an important role in making my childhood memories special, second only to the king of fruits in India, mango. I remember grandmother choosing the ripe/unripe jackfruit that needed to plucked from the tree depending on whether it was going to eaten or cooked, ensuring everything it touched was covered in coconut oil first and then cleaning it thoroughly, peeling and removing the flesh and seeds separately. The smell of a ripe jackfruit and biting into the soft, sweet yellow fruit itself was refreshing during the summer!

Amma makes so many mouth-watering jackfruit delicacies like chakka chips, chakka thoran, chakka sambar, chakka payasam, chakka varatti (jackfruit jam), chakkakuru-muringa curry (jackfruit seeds-drumstick curry), etc. during the season when jackfruits are available in plenty.

After the Vishu feast (I did prepare a feast, but had no time to take pics of the Sadya on the plantain leaf:-(), I had the jackfruit from the Vishu Kani waiting to be cooked, and I chose to make the thoran. Of course, I was scared I would make a mess of it, especially cutting and cleaning. With lots of oil applied on the knife, cutting board, my hands and plates, I set about the task of peeling and chopping the unripe inside of the fruit into big chunks. After following Amma's recipe, the result was the thoran in the picture below (unfortunately, I did not even plate them and take some good pics:-(), and R and I loved eating it by itself, and also with rice for lunch and with phulkas for dinner! A called it 'chakka noodles' and had it with her 'mammam' and yellow sambar.



To make the Chakka/ Jackfruit Thoran, you will need:

Jackfruit - unripe medium sized fruit/ 1/2 kg of the peeled fruit
Onions - 2 - finely chopped
Ginger - peeled and pounded - 2 tsp
Garlic - peeled and pounded 4-5 cloves
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Red chilly powder - 1/2 tsp
Grated coconut - 1/2 cup
Chana dal - 2 tsp
Urad dal - 2 tsp
Mustard seeds - 1/4 tsp
Red chillies - 3-4
Curry leaves - 2 strands
Asafeotida/ Hing - 1/4 tsp
Oil - 2 tbsp
Salt - to taste



Method:

• Apply lots of oil the knife, cutting board, hands and plates, and peel the jackfruit
• Chop the inside fruit into chunky cubes (seeds and flesh and all) and wash in lukewarm salt water
• Boil the pieces in enough water with salt and turmeric powder until cooked
• Pound the pieces. I transfered the boiled pieces back on the cutting board and used my rolling pin to kind of mash them
• Heat oil in a large pan and add the chana dal, urad dal, red chillies and roast, add the mustard seeds and curry leaves and asafeotida
• Add onions, ginger, garlic and stir fry for a few minutes
• Mix the jackfruit into this with salt, red chilly powder and grated coconut
• Keep stirring and mixing well on low flame until all the ingredients are blended well and a lovely smell wafts into the air from the dish

Serve with rice/ chapathi (or eat it as it is!)


Dear Priti of Indian Khana is hosting Festive Food: Summer Treat event and I am sending the Jackfruit Thoran as my entry.

Yellow 'Sambar'

As soon as I noticed that FIC at Sunshinemom's Tongueticklers is going yellow this month as a tribute to the Spring season, I knew what I would post: my daughter's most favourite curry after the quintessential South Indian Sambar, which she calls Yellow 'Sambar.' The main reason that she loves this curry is because it has her most loved vegetable in it, okra/ lady finger/ bhindi/ vendaykka.

While everyone in my family knows this curry by the name 'Moru Curry,' and we do have different versions of this curry with different vegetables, I have also started calling this curry Yellow Sambar now. At home, me and my brothers always loved to have this curry with rice/ dosa/ puttu, and still do! Since my mother is with us for a few days, A was lucky to have this curry made by Amma, her Ammamma.



What always amazes me is the fact that this curry acquires its yellow colour only because of the little bit of turmeric/ haldi/ manjal powder that is added to it. Devoid of it, I would not have been posting this now!

(I had some raw manjal and dried turmeric sticks, and wanted to take a picture of them for this post!)

To make the Yellow 'Sambar'/ Vendaykka Moru Curry seen in the pictures, you will need:

Vendaykka - cut into cubes - 1 cup
Tomatoes - chopped - 2
Onions - chopped - 1
Coconut - grated - 1/2 cup
Ginger - peeled and pounded - 1 tbsp
Green chilly - 1 or 2 - sliced
Buttermilk - 2 cups
Water - 1/2 cup
Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
Curry leaves - 1 strand
Oil - 2 tsp
Salt - to taste


Method:

• In a heavy bottomed pan, boil the chopped onions, tomatoes, okra, green chillies along with salt and half the turmeric powder in half cup of water, and leave to cook covered
  
• Grind grated coconut, cumin seeds, ginger and remaining turmeric to a smooth paste and mix well with buttermilk (you can just run them together in a large jar on the mixer)
  
• When the vegetables are cooked (ensure that the okra pieces are not over-cooked and don't worry about them getting stikcy/slimy, they don't!), add the buttermilk with the coconut paste, stir slowly over low flame
• Just when the curry begins to bubble, take it off the heat and stir a little more (if the heat is more, the curry might curdle)
• Heat oil in a tadka pan, splutter mustard seeds along with curry leaves and season the curry

Serve with hot rice/ dosa/ puttu


The Vendaykka Moru Curry/ Yellow Sambar goes to FIC - Yellow at Sunshinemom's Tongueticklers

White Chickpeas Curry

White chickpeas are a favorite at home, much more than the desi black chana. I have previously posted Masala Chana and Kootu Curry, both with black chickpeas. White Chickpeas Curry, as seen in the picture, is prepared very often to go with chapatis at dinner or with dosa/ puris in the morning.

To prepare, you will need:

White chickpeas - 2 cups
Tomatoes - chopped - 3-4 large
Onions - chopped - 2 medium sized
Ginger - chopped and pounded - 2 tbsp
Garlic - chopped and pounded - 2-3 cloves
Note: you may use about 3-4 tsps of ginger garlic paste, if not using fresh ginger and garlic
Curd - 1/2 cup fresh (not very sour)
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Red chilly powder - 2 tsp (add more if you prefer hot)
Roasted Jeera/ Cumin seeds powder - 1 tbsp
Roasted Coriander seeds powder - 2 tbsp
Garam Masala - 1/2 tsp
Coriander leaves - chopped, for garnishing
Oil - 2 tsp
Salt - to taste

Method:

• Soak the chickpeas overnight/ 5-6 hrs and cook in pressure cooker for two whistles
• Heat oil in a pan, add the chopped onions, ginger, garlic and stir well
• Add the chopped tomatoes once the onions are done, and cook covered for 2-3 minutes
• Mix the turmeric, red chilly, jeera, coriander powders along with a little salt and leave covered on low flame for 5 minutes until tomatoes are cooked
• Add the chickpeas and stir well adjusting the consistency with little amount of boiled water
• Mix the curd and garam masala with salt to taste and cook on low flame for 3-5 minutes
• Garnish with chopped coriander leaves

Serve with hot phulkas/ chapathis/puris/ dosa

Everytime I wanted to participate in the very popular event for the love of legumes, I ended up missing them. This time, I decided to post as soon as I noticed that the Seventh Helping of My Legume Love Affair is being hosted by Srivalli at Cooking 4 all Seasons.

This event is the brain child of The Well-Seasoned Cook Susan, and you can view the host line-up here. This curry is my entry to the My Legume Love Affair, Seventh Helping event.

Update: Thanks to Madhuram of Eggless Cooking, I am sending this curry to the JFI Chickpeas event hosted at Sometime Foodie this month.


JFI is a monthly online food event focusing on natural and Indian ingredients started by Indira of Mahanandi.

Diwali Celebrations and Events

Wishing everyone a very Happy Diwali (belated). Though I am away from home this Diwali, I am lucky to be with my parents and my brother and family, that too in a country that celebrates Deepavali and has a national holiday for the same:-)

This Diwali season has been very eventful for me. Apart from being able to spend 3 full weeks away from home but still feeling at home with parents and family, I got to meet my classmate and friend from school after 12 years, with her family! Also, I was extremely pleased to meet Priti and Nags. On the flip side, this is my first Diwali without R to celebrate together, he is away for work.

Apart from traditional simple diyas, we also got some brightly painted Diyas from the Little India market.

The previous eve, we applied henna on our hands with the Mehndi cone we had bought. The picture below shows the Mehndi butterfly tattoo on my daughter's hand. I made a similar tatto for my niece who is a year older than my daughter.

And an impromptu design with a diya on her palm.

The children also enjoyed lighting sparklers, without which Diwali celebrations would have been dull.

Of course, no festival celebration is complete without a Pooja and offering to the Gods and Goddesses. We made Murukku and Unni Appam for the festival, which are usually made during Vishu. Below, I share the recipes for the two snacks.

Murukku - A Savoury Snack

To make the Murukku seen in the picture, you will need:

Rice flour - 3 cups
Urad Dal flour - 1/2 cup
Cumin Seeds - 1 tsp
Sesame seeds - 1 tsp
Asafeotida/ Hing - 1/2 tsp
Ghee/Butter - 1/4 cup
Salt - to taste
Oil - for deep frying (we used Canola oil)


Method:

• In a mixing bowl, knead all ingredients into a thick dough adding only enough water
• With a murukku press or mould, start pressing out the dough into circular forms of medium size on to cut papers or a plate
• Slide them into the oil for deep frying and fry until both sides turn light golden brown

Note: Murukku can be stored in air-tight containers. Children love to this, but if you prefer a spicier hot version, just add red chilly powder while kneading the dough.


Serve with tea/ coffee

Unni Appam - A Sweet Snack

Traditionally, this snack is deep fried in ghee, and is also known as Neyyappam. However, we did not use ghee or butter while preparing it.



To make the unni appams seen in the picture, you will need:

Rice - 2 cups
Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
Black Sesame seeds - 2 tsp
Cardamom powder - 2 tsp
Jaggery - 1 cup
Coconut - chopped into small pieces - 1/2 cup
Oil - for deep frying (we used Canola oil)

Method:

• Soak the rice for 2-3 hours, drain and grind it to a thick batter
• Melt and strain the jaggery, and mix it along with cumin seeds, sesame seeds and chopped coconut pieces in the rice batter
• Ensure that the batter consistency is not too thick, and it can be poured into the appam griddle
• Heat oil in the appam griddle, and start pouring the batter into it using a ladle
• Usually, the appams turn automatically within the mould after one side is done. If this does not happen, just turn the sides after one side is done, and take the appams out after both sides turn dark brown
• Dry them on kitchen napkins

Note: You can also add mashed bananas to the batter and make Banana Appams.

Serve with tea/ coffee

Now, to the events.

After Rakhi, Krishna and Ganesh Chaturthi, Onam and Navaratri celebrations, Priti of Indian Khana is hosting Festive Food event again with Diwali Celebrations. This entire post and the two recipes go to this amazing event.

The Unni Appams, a sweet snack, goes to

Vaishali's Sweet Vegan, as it has "no butter, milk, cream, ghee or other dairy products, no eggs, and no honey" .

Another great event this month is Easy Craft's WYF: Party Food.


I am sending both the snacks, as a party calls for savoury and sweet dishes, and the murukku and unni appam are ideal for family get-togethers, children's parties, freinds' parties, etc.


Finally, these two different-shades-of-brown goodies go to a lovely colourful event hosted by Sunshinemom at Tongue Ticklers, Food In Colours; the FIC-Brown event for October.


PS: I am not able to visit all your blogs as I am on a kind-of-vacation-like mode, which means though I could blog this post, the next post will most likely be after a week or two when I return home and settle down. I promise to catch up on all your posts and the comments in the previous posts

Cucumber Coriander Soup

Coriander is a herb that my mother always stocks in her refrigerator, and uses quite a lot in her dishes including sambar, rasam, chutneys, snacks like pakoras, sandwiches, parathas, drinks like spiced buttermilk, etc. While garnishing soups, she generally limits the use of this herb to a lesser quantity, and I preferred it that way too.

However, this weekend, I wanted to finish two things that had been lying inside the fridge for about a week - 2 cucumbers, and a large bowl of washed and dried coriander leaves. I thought of a simple salad, but no, my little one would not eat it, and raw at that. So I decided to make a soup out of the cucumber. While thinking of boil ing it and using vegetable stock, my eyes fell on a bowl of freshly set curd, and I decided to use buttermilk in the soup.

To make the Cucumber Coriander Soup seen in the picture, you will need:

Cucumber - 2 medium sized
Coriander - a large bowl - chopped
Curd - Fresh and not sour - 2 cups
Green chilly - 1
Water - 1 cup
Turmeric - a pinch (optional)
Jeera/ Cumin Seeds powder - 1/2 tsp
Pepper - to taste
Salt - to taste

Method:

• Peel the cucumbers, peel them (if too many seeds, de-seed), grate them into a bowl like you would grate carrots, and boil with a cup of water until well cooked and semi-dry
• In a mixer add 1/2 a cup of water to the 2 cups of fresh curd, blend well for 5 minutes and keep aside until cream settles on top
• Remove the cream from the buttermilk, and add salt, green chilly, turmeric, jeera powders and chopped coriander leaves and blend well
• Add this to the boiled grated cucumber, and keep on low flame for 3-5 minutes stirring continuously, adding enough water only to adjust consistency if required

Note: If you do not add turmeric, the soup will not have the light yellow colour, and will be more natural with the green coriander and white cucumber buttermilk combo with just a tinge of brown jeera. Also, I did not remove the cream, which is why my soup is slightly thicker and creamier (you can see on the sides and glistening on top in the picture)

Serve with crushed pepper in soup bowls

'Herb Mania' is an event started by Dee of Ammalu's kitchen, and is being hosted this month by Siri at Siri's Corner.




The Cucumber Coriander Soup is my entry to the Herb Mania: Coriander/ Cilantro event.

Navarathri Festive Food

I did not want to miss the Navaratri Festive Food Event, but deliberately delayed this post until I could make the wheat laddoo at Uma's Essence of Andhra and rava laddoos by Sireesha of Mom's Recipes. And surprise! I ended up making a laddoo with Rava, Wheat, and Rice Flour together on Vijayadashami. I wish to call them Thri-Laddoo (you can pronounce it 3-laddoo in English :D). I also did not use sugar, and substituted it with jaggery.

To make the Thri-Laddoo, you will need:

Rava/ Sooji/ Semolina - 2 cups
Wheat flour - 1 cup
Rice flour - 1 cup (I used Puttu Podi)Coconut - grated - 1.5 cups
Milk - 1/2 cup - boiled and cooled (or according to consistency for laddoo)

Jaggery - grated - 1 cup (I grated a big block of jaggery to get 1 cup)
Cashew - 1/2 cup
Raisins - 1/2 cup
Cardamom powder - 4-5 pods
Ghee - 5-6 tbsp (a little too generous use, being a festival food)

Method:

• Take a non-stick pan, heat a tbsp of ghee, add the cashews, roast them, add raisins, roast until raisins swell up and turn golden brown, and remove into a small measuring bowl
• Heat a tbsp of ghee again, add the rava and roast until light brown and crisp, and remove into a mixing bowl
• In the same pan, add another tbsp of ghee, add the wheat flour and roast until light brown taking care not to burn, and remove into the same mixing bowl as the rava
• Again, heat another tbsp of ghee, add rice flour and roast until light brown and remove into the mixing bowl
• Heat a tbsp of ghee again, add the grated coconut and roast until golden brown and remove to a measuring bowl
• In the mixing bowl add the jaggery while the roasted rava, wheat, and rice flours are still warm and mix well. Leave this mixture to cool down
• Add roasted coconut, raisins, cashews, and cardamom powder to the cool mixture and mix well. The jaggery would have melted a little leaving the mixture with a binding texture
• Add milk at this stage and ensure that the consistency is just enough to form round laddoos with your hand
• Start rolling the laddoos with your palm and leave on slightly warm pan

Offer as Prasad in Pooja, and later serve with your festive meal:-)

Another shot:

Palak Puri

Puris are usually made at my house only for festive occasions, or when my daughter has not had anything of wheat and I start feeling guilty. A loves puris, and apart from wheat bread or wheat dosa, she hardly eats anything made containing wheat, like chapathis/ rotis. She also likes Aloo Parathas, but again (more guitly), those are rare too in my house!

I had bought fresh palak (spinach) and did not want to make the palak paratha or dal palak curry, so decided to try a new combination. The palak puris turned out to be really tasty, and I also made Lauki-Moong Dal (Bottle Gourd in split-dehusked-green gram bean) curry.

To make the puris, you will need:

Wheat flour - 2-3 cups
Spinach/ Palak - 2 cups - chopped
Green chilly - 1
Cumin seeds/ Jeera powder - 1 tsp
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp (optional)
Salt - to taste
Water - for mixing dough
Oil - 2 tsp and for deep frying

Method:

• Heat 2 tsp oil in a pan, add turmeric, jeera powder to roast, add palak and green chilly, cook covered for 3-5 minutes, and cook uncovered after adding salt until dry and cooked
• After the palak cools down, grind into smooth paste
• Take wheat flour in a mixing bowl, add the palak paste, and start kneading after greasing your plams with a little oil or ghee/ butter until the dough is well done and keep aside for 15-20 minutes
• Heat in a heavy bottomed pan/ kadai
• Start rolling out small balls of the dough into thin circular puris

• Add one into the oil and keep adjusting the flame in order that the puris don' get burnt
• After one side puffs up, turn it over with the ladle and ensure that the other side is also well done
• Drain the extra oil, and start with the next puri
  

Moong Dal with Bottlegourd Curry

Things you need:

Bottlegourd - cut into cubes - 1 cup
Moong Dal - 2 cups
Green chilly - 1 - sliced
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Jeera/ Cumin seeds powder - 1 tsp
Red chilly powder - 1/2 tsp
Coriander powder - 1/2 tsp
Methi/ Fenugreek seeds powder - 1/2 tsp
Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
Curry leaves - 1 strand
Oil - 2 tsp
Salt - to taste

Method:

• Pressure cook moong dal with bottlegourd and green chilly in about 1.5 cups of water for 3-4 whistles
• Mash the dal well after it cools down, without breaking the cooked bottlegourd pieces
• In a tadka pan, heat oil, splutter mustard seeds, add curry leaves, and while the pan is still hot, add the powders and mix well
• Add this to the moong dal wih salt and mix well, add water to adjust consistency and bring to boil

Serve with puris (I made normal puris also, just in case A refused to eat the unfamiliar green coloured one).

This post is my entry to the Festive Food Event: Navaratri hosted by LG of Taste of Mysore