Cauliflower / Gobi Paratha

Ingredients :
wheat flour/ Atta - 3 cups 
Cauliflower - 1 Small
Turmeric Powder - 1/2 tsp
Big onion - 1
Green chilies - 3 nos
Ginger - !/2 inch piece
Garam masala powder - 1/2 tsp
Coriander Leaves - !/2 Cup
Red chili powder - 1 tsp
Water - As needed
salt - to taste
ghee or oil - as required

Method:

Clean and wash  the cauliflower in  water with some turmeric Powder and salt .Boil  water and add the washed cauliflower to it. Close and boil for some time. When cooked drain the water by transferring to a strainer.

Chop Cauliflower, green chillies, Onion, coriander leaves and ginger into small pieces . You can either chop with knife or use a chopper or grate the cauliflower. In a bowl add wheat flour ,salt and Chopped ingredients and mix well. Now add enough water and 1 tbsp of oil and knead well to make soft dough . Divide the dough into equal balls .

Roll the ball into medium size. If  it  sticks  to  the rolling surface, sprinkle atta in both side of the paratha and roll. Heat a tawa on medium high heat. Place the paratha. Flip  and cook both sides till golden brown spots arrives. Then spread one tsp of oil / ghee on the paratha .Again flip the paratha and lightly press the puffed areas with a spatula. When both sides are well cooked. Remove from the pan. Make the rest of the paratha in the same manner. 

Tasty gobi paratha is ready to serve ......Serve with curd or pickle .

Recipe Courtesy:NithaMathish

Vellayappam with coconut water (Version - 2)

Ingredients:

Raw rice- 2 Glass

Cooked boiled Rice-1/2 glass

coconut water - 1 glass

Sugar- 3 tsp

Coconut grated-1 glass
Gingelly oil - for greasing the pan
Salt- to taste

Method:

Every time you break coconut, Collect coconut water in a bottle and refrigerate. On the day of grinding the batter add sugar to the coconut water and keep the bottle outside in the morning itself to ferment. Clean and Soak raw rice for 4-5 hrs in water and strain. In a mixer, grind all ingredients except sugar and oil, until the batter is smooth.

Keep the batter overnight or around 8 hrs. (Remember to keep the batter in a large enough container to rise). while making appams if the batter is thick add coconut milk or water.Stir well from the bottom of the container. Keep appam chatti on the gas. You can use either nonstick pans or iron pans. I always prefer iron pans as the texture of the appams comes excellent in iron pans. Grease the appam chatti with gingelly oil. Pour one ladle of batter .Swirl the appam chatti anti clock wise by holding the ears of the appam chatti. Cover it with the lid. Keep the flame in medium and once cook open the lid and remove appam from chatti....Do not flip the appam over- it requires cooking only on one side.The sides should be crisped a bit and golden and the centre should be a little ‘puffed’ up.

 Enjoy Yeast free appam with Egg Roast .....:) 

Recipe courtesy: Mrs. Seena Manohar

Maida Appam

Ingredients:

Maida (all purpose flour ) - 1 cup

Mashed Banana - 1 (optional)

Jaggery (vellam/Sharkara ) - 1 cup

Water - 1/2 cup

Cardamon powder - 1 tsp

Chopped coconut - 1/4 cup

Baking soda - 1/4 tsp

Refined/ coconut oil - 1 1/2 cups

Method: 

Steam maida in a cooker for two whistles. Keep it for cooling.This process helps to remove the starch from the maida.

Add coconut bits , Baking Powder and cardamon powder to the maida and mix well. Use a small ladle.

Heat a pan, place jaggery in half a cup of water and bring it to a boil, cook until jaggery dissolves completely. when it boils, remove from flame and strain to remove all the impurities. Allow them to cool.Always make sure the jaggery water is cool while adding the flour.To the maida,add this melted Jaggery and mix well. Consistency of batter should not be too thick or too thin. If it's watery appam will absorb more Oil and if very thick it wont get cooked properly. So adjust accordingly. If its too watery add more maida. Let it sit for an hour.

Heat oil in a frying pan, pour a ladle of batter and flip and fry over medium flame until appam gets golden brown on both sides. Continue the same with rest of the batter. Drain the excess oil and serve hot.

Maida Appam ready...:) We can add little rice flour to the batter to get crispy appams.

 Recipe Courtesy: Mallika Vasu (Mother In Law)

Ulli vada / Onion vada

Ingredients:
Onions - 2 medium
Green chillies -1
Curry leaves -  few
Besan/ Chick pea flour / Kadalamavu - 3/4 cup
Rice flour - 2 tbs
Red chilly powder - 1 tsp
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
Asafoetida - 1/4 tsp
Salt- to taste
Water - as required

Method:

Slice onions vertically. Finely chop green chillies, and ginger. Add them to sliced onions. Add 1/2 teaspoon of salt and squeeze between fingers to make the onions soft . Adding of salt brings out the moisture from onions. 

Add Besan , rice flour, red chilli powder, Salt, Asafoetida, turmeric powder,  and curry leaves to the onion and mix well . Knead it nicely by only using moisture from onions. We should not add any water. The moisture content in onions is enough to get a thicker dough.

Heat oil in a pan. Test, if its hot by adding a pinch of dough. If it sizzles up immediately, then the oil is hot. Take small amounts of dough and drop it gently in the oil. 

Keep the flame in medium . Flip and fry the vadas evenly in all sides. Remove the fried ulli vadas from oil and place it in a plate having paper towel to drain the excess oil

Yummy, spicy and crispy Ulli Vada (Onion Vada) is ready to Serve with Hot Tea / Coffee. 

Recipe courtesy: K V Sadhanandhan (Sadhumamen)

Narthangai Pickle

Ingredients:
Narthangai / Citron - 5 nos., small orange sized
Crystal Salt / Sea Salt - 1/4 cup, heaped
Dry red chillies - 13-15 nos.
Turmeric Powder- 
Fenugreek seeds - 1/2 teaspoon
Asafoetida - 1/8 teaspoon
Gingelly Oil - 100ml
Mustard seeds - 1 tablespoon

Method:

 Wash and wipe the narthangai.

Make sure there is no water content in the skin. Cut into wedges. While cutting, remove the seeds completely. Keep the Narthangai in a Broad plate and cut it so that the juice while cutting will stay in the plate. Remove the seeds.Choose a glass bottle which has a tight lid to it. Generally ceramic or Porcelain bowl is preferred. Squeeze half narthangai juice to the bottle. Layer narthangai wedges and sea / rock / crystal salt to the bowl.  Shake the bottle nicely.

Cover and set aside undisturbed for 3-4 days. Each day toss the bottle well two times with proper intervals. This allows the salt to mix well with the narthangai. After 3-4 days, narthangai wedges become soft and you can see the juice coming out from the narthangai. If it's not soft even on 4th day, you can again keep it for a day.

Remove narthangai from the bottle to a bowl. Heat oil in a pan. When it is hot, add mustard seeds. Let it splutter.At the end, add asafoetida Powder.Turn the flame off and allow it to cool to room temperature. Once cooled, pour this oil to the narthangai. Mix well.

Dry roast fenugreek seeds and dry red chillies.Make sure not to burn the fenugreek.Allow it to cool to room temperature.Once cooled,make a powder of it .Add turmeric powder to the mixer and add the ground ingredients  to the narthangai.

 After preparing the pickle, gradually the juice oozes out from the narthangai. This is normal and as day pass by the pickle turns soft and tasty. Adjust the salt, spice and oil quantity as per your preference. The measurement given here is the standard one.
 Pickle is ready. Store it in a sterilized bottle.

Recipe courtesy: Uma's Kitchen Experiments.

Boli, Puran Poli, Obatu, Bobatlu/ Holige

Ingredients:
Bengal Gram( Channa dal, Kadalaparuppu) - 2 cups
Jaggery - 2 cups
Maida (All Purpose Flour) - 1 1/2 cups
Rice Flour - 1 tsp(Optional)
Suji Rava - 1 tsp(Optional)
Cardamon Powder - 1/4 tsp
Turmeric Powder- 1/4 tsp
Water - as needed to make the dough
Salt - a pinch

Butter/ Ghee/ Oil - 1/4 cup

Method:

Pressure cook channa dal. Cook till it is well cooked and drain all water when hot ,and let it dry on paper towel if needed. Powder it in mixer and add jaggery to channa dal Powder and cook till thick .

OR

If the water is all dried up after pressure cooking the dal. Add powdered Jaggery to dal and cook till all water is dried up. Add cardamon Powder to it and mix well.

After the dal mixture is cool enough to handle, start making the balls. Keeping this in fridge helps in making the dal balls easier.

Make dough with maida, turmeric powder, suji ,salt and rice flour together .Add enough water and make it into a very soft dough.Also add oil to make a soft dough.Make balls and keep aside.

The dal mixture balls should be bigger than the dough only then the final boli will taste good.Take a dough ball and spread out into a small circle with hand. Keep the sweet dal ball in center of the rolled out dough. Bring all the sides of the dough to the center to cover the filling completely.Seal it nicely and press it again to form a circle.

Place it in on a  greased plastic sheet. Press with your fingers till expands to the desired circumference.Cook the boli on  both sides on a hot griddle using some butter/ghee/oil. Remove when brown spots appear on both sides.

Enjoy boli/Puran Poli, Obatu, Bobatlu while playing Tamilnadu's Pallamkuzhi.....:)

Recipe Courtesy: Varevah

Pepper chicken

Ingredients:

Chicken - 1 kilogram

Pepper powder -  1 1⁄2 tsp

Turmeric powder - 1⁄2 tsp

Lemon juice -1 1⁄2 tbsp

Onions - 4

Ginger, Garlic, Green chilli (crushed) - 3 tbsp

Whole black pepper - 3 tbsp

Garam masala -  2 tsp

Salt - to taste

Curry leaves - few

Coriander Leaves - 2 tbsp

oil - 3 tbsp

Method:

Marinate the cleaned chicken pieces with salt, pepper powder, turmeric powder and lemon juice. Keep it aside for 30 minutes.

Saute pepper in 1 tbsp of oil. when cool crush in a mixer. keep it aside.

In a kadai, heat the oil. when hot enough, add the sliced onions and curry leaves and saute well. Adding salt, helps the onion to get cooked fast.When the onions are soft add turmeric powder. Add crushed ginger, garlic and green chillies and Saute well till the aromatics release their flavor.

 Add marinated chicken pieces and stir around till the chicken pieces are well coated with the masalas. Don't add water.Cover and cook for 20 minutes.

Now open the lid and cook until the water evaporates. Add garam masala, curry leaves, coriander leaves and crushed black pepper. Saute well and when dry remove from fire.

Best served with rice :)

Recipe Courtesy: Nirmala Jayakrishnan(Nirmalamayi)

Elachi / cardamon powder

Cardamon is a common ingredient in Indian cooking. Ground cardamom is very fine, almost like a powder.To make cardamom powder:

Ingredients:

Cardamon - 1 cup
Sugar - 1/2 cup

Method:
Grind cardamon pods and sugar in a mixer. Store in an airtight container and use.

Ground cardamom tends to lose its flavour and aroma soon as it loses its volatile oils. Hence, prepare in small quantities and store in an airtight jar in a cool, dry place.