The weekend went by so fast. As they say, when you are having too much fun you don't know the time slip by you. This weekend, we invited our families to celebrate new years. I made ven pongal, gothsu and curd rice. Since it was a celebration, we decided to make a sweet and vadai to go along with the meal. Because we did not have a lot of time before everyone arrived, I was looking for a simple, fast and easy recipe.I was reminded of the conversation I had with my mother-in-law regarding avil vadai and decided to give it a try. It scored big among all kids and adults and I had to go back into the kitchen to make another batch on demand. I am sure you can make variations of this vadai and add all ingredients used in masal vadai and it would taste awesome.I was told that apart from using it as a snack, it can be made as prasadham for Krishna or during navaratri celebrations. 

Gadgets:

Frying Wok

Strainer

Colander

Paper Towel

Bowl

Measuring Cup and Spoon
Parchment Paper

Ingredients:

Makes 16 Vadai's

Oil - 2 cup

Avil/ Poha (Thick variety) - 2 cups

Water -1 cup to soak the Avil

Rice Flour - 3 tbsp

Asafoetida Powder - 1/8th tsp

Green Chillies - 1 thinly sliced ( add more for extra spice)

Curry Leaves - a few chopped

Cilantro - 3 tbsp chopped
Ginger - 2 tsp grated

Salt

Sour Cream - 1/2 cup and 1/4 cup water mixed or Yogurt - 3/4 cup ( personally, I like sour cream )

Preparation:

1. Soak the avil in water for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes heat the oil on medium high.

2. Add the soaked avil into the bowl and using your hands blend and squish the avil to make a wet mix. 

3. Add the salt, rice flour, asafetida, curry leaves, cilantro, green chillies, grated and give it a good mix.

4. Add sour cream/ yogurt and make into a dough, you must be able to make vadai's with it.

5. Roll out the dough into 16 equal balls and place them on the parchment paper. You can also skip this step and start frying.

6. Make vadai's and place them back on the parchment.

7. Fry the vadai until golden brown on both sides.

8.Serve them hot with any chutney of your choice.

Happy New Year !!

Iniya Tamil Puthandu Naal Vaazhthukkal!!!
Happy Vishu!!!

Tamil new year celebrations in India was always fun. The elai sApAddu was worth every effort we put into preparing the meal. Apart from the food the television shows were fun to watch after a heavy meal. Though I am away from India, I always feel nostalgic about the new years day. This year on request, I made kadala paruppu payasam and vadai. Had an awesome time preparing and enjoying it with my family. Here is the kadala paruppu payasam recipe we enjoyed today.

Gadgets:

Pressure Cooker
Spatula
Measuring Cups and Spoons
Stainless Steel Bowl
Heavy Bottom Pans
Filter/Colander

Ingredients:

Channa Dal / Kadala Paruppu - 1/4 cup
Jaggery - 1 Cups
Water - 1/4 cup to melt the jaggery plus 1 cup hot water to soak the channa dal
Milk- 2 cups
Coconut Milk - 1 cup
Coconut Grated- 1 tbsp
Cardamom Pods - 6
Ghee - 2 tsp
Cashew Nuts - 10
Raisins - 1/4 cup
Saffron - a few strands

Preparation:

1. Wash the channa dal in water and soak it in hot water for 20 minutes.

2. Drain and pressure cook the channa dal along with the coconut milk on high to 1 whistle and then low to medium low unto 3 whistles.  (about 15 minutes)Note: By this time the channa dal must be cooked well and become soft. Press a channa dal between your fore finger and thumb. It must  easily disintegrate.

3. Dissolve the jaggery in water and strain it to remove the sediments.

4. Add milk cooked channa dal to the jaggery and cook it for 5 minutes.

5. Heat the seasoning wok with ghee, add cashew nuts, raisins and toast them and add to the payasam. Season with cardamon powder and saffron.

Quinoa is very popular these days. More people are consuming quinoa because its a very healthy seed. Yes, a seed and not a grain. I love quinoa and cook it often. Yesterday at Costco, I saw a book titled Quinoa giving you all sorts of recipes with Quinoa. Inspired by that book I wanted to make an Indian dessert. This morning, I wanted to try making ladoo's with quinoa. Making ladoo is simple if we know how to work with the ingredients. When it comes to quinoa, I was wondering if I need to roast the whole quinoa and then powder or do the opposite. I did both, and found for this recipe it is best to powder the quinoa and then roast it in ghee to get the nutty flavor of quinoa and do away with the bitter after taste. In fact, it was hard to tell that it was a quinoa ladoo. To me it tasted like a cross between rava (cream of wheat) and whole wheat ladoo. Super easy to make and gets done in minutes. 

Note: I recently, found out that ladoo's were considered a cookie. 

Gadgets:

Blender
Heavy Bottom Wok
Wooden Spatula
Plate
Measuring Cups and Spoons

Ingredients:

Makes 5 ladoo
Note: I was notified by my sister and fellow bloggers that quinoa as a seed needs to be soaked in water and then cleaned and dried before making into powder like we do with any other grain. So please do add that step into making of the flour. 

Quinoa Seeds - 1/2 cup
Sugar - 1/2 cup
Cardamom Pods - 3
Ghee - 1/4 cup
Milk / Water - 1 tsp optional
Cashew Nuts - 6
Raisin - 2 tbsp
Saffron ( optional)- a few strings

Preparation:

1. Blend the quinoa to powder ( not too fine).

2. Heat the heavy bottom wok with 2 tbsp. Add cashew nuts and raisins and allow for the nuts to turn golden and raisins to plump up.

3. Add the quinoa powder and start roasting/ toasting it, until all the raw smell leaves the mix.

4. Add sugar and cardamom and mix well. Remove from heat allow to cool so that you can work with it.

5. Add the remaining ghee and water or milk and bring it all together into a ball. Volia the quinoa ladoo/ cookie is ready.

I know you must be thinking why would anyone want to make garbanzo beans when you can buy them at the store. You can grab a can or buy beans and cook them. Well, that is what my husband asked me. I started to give reasons: firstly, maybe you can make chole in a jiffy without having the beans at home. Secondly, it might be economical to make the beans with a cup of besan flour. Thirdly, just for fun to think outside the box and experiment with food. He was not convinced with  my answers. I still decided to make chole and test out the recipe that Vanaja Athai gave me when I last visited India. She learnt that I  blogged and pulled me over to the side and told me in her soft voice that she often makes channa for chole and asked me to try out this recipe. Today, I decided to test it out. The preparation was very simple, straight forward and can get the kids involved in making the channa balls. Now,was it worth  all the effort? The opinions were mixed. My daughter and I thought it was pretty good and it tasted better the next day, but not a perfect substitute. My husband on the other hand said he would rather have the beans in the chole. But either way, I had fun making it and documenting it here. My entry to Vardhini's events: "Healthy Diet - Vegetarian Side Dishes" and Love Lock Series - Legumes Event .

Gadgets:

Bowl
Measuring Cups and Spoons
Saucepan
Knife or dough scraper
Cutting Board
Spatula

Ingredients:

Besan Flour - 1 cup
Water - Enough to make a dough ( not sticky) Plus extra for boiling ( 2 cups)
Oil - 2 Tbsp

Note: I just made the basic recipe, maybe if we add salt and spice to it, it might taste even better.

Preparation:

1. Place a saucepan on heat with 3 cups of water in it and allow for it to come to a rolling boil.


2. In a bowl add besan and water and make a dough.

3. Rub your hands with some oil and roll out the dough into thick ropes.

4. Cut the ropes evenly and make small balls to resemble garbanzo bean.












5. Add the besan balls to the boiling water and boil for a few minutes until the mustard color of the beasan turns to pail yellow. ( About 4-5 Minutes).











6. Drain the water and add the cooked besan balls to the any basic chole sauce. Pressure cook it to 3 whistles on medium heat.

Making mor kozhambu (vegetables in yogurt sauce) is really simple and gets done super fast, but when it comes to making paruppu usili, it is time consuming. The lentils have to be soaked, blended into a course paste, steamed and them cooked with the veggies. I love the crunch and texture that results at the end of this process. Very often we need to plan ahead if paruppu usili has to be made for lunch or dinner. But,when we are rushed for time this recipe comes handy. It is super easy and can be accepted as a close substitute. I made this for lunch and was very thrilled with the outcome that I wanted to blog about it. The recipe yields about  1 1/2 cups of the paruppu mix. 

En

Gadgets:

Heavy Bottom Wok
Saute Pan
Spatula
Measuring Cups and Spoons
Bowl
Whisk

Ingredients:
Serves 4 
Besan/ Chickpea Flour - 1 cup
Sambar Powder - 1 tsp
Salt
Water - 1/2 cup
Oil - 3 tbsp plus 1 tsp
Mustard Seeds - 1 tsp
Udad Dal - 3 tsp
Asafoetida Powder - 1/8 tsp
Curry Leaves - a few
Swiss Chard - 2 bundles
Dry Red Chilies - 1
Note: The swiss chard can be substituted with any vegetable used for paruppu usili.

Preparation:

1. Mix besan, sambar powder, salt in a bowl. Add the water and and mix well. You will get a sticky dough.

2. Heat the wok and add 3 tbsp of oil. Add asafoetida, mustard seeds and udad dal. When the dal turns golden add the besan dough mix.Try to smear the dough thinly and evenly in the wok and mix them until all the wetness goes away and the dough starts to form small round balls. Remove from heat.






3. Heat the sauté pan with 1 tsp of oil. Add dry chilies, swiss chard and salt. Mix well and allow the swiss chard to get cooked. In a few minutes the swiss chard will be cooked. Add the besan mix to the swiss chard and give it a toss. Serve it with mor kozhambu.

Spring time is so beautiful and colorful. Everywhere we go flowers of all shades and colors lifts our spirits and make us smile. The hills and the grass is green where ever your eyes can look. It is the best time to go for nature walks, visit the zoo or gardens and be one with nature. This week we spent a lot of time out doors. Here are some of the things we were able to capture through our camera. The coolest was the 100 year old turtle at the zoo enjoying red jello eggs and getting ready for the egg hunt. Happy Easter!

Here is the ice cream I prepared for dessert for my family. It was quick and easy and was ready by the time we cleared the table. My husband loved it and said that it was worth blogging.

Gadgets:

Bowl

Whisk

Ice Cream Maker

Measuring Cups and Spoons

Ingredients:

Serves 4

Milk ( 2%) - 1 cup

Low Fat Cottage Cheese  or  Fresh Paneer - 1/2 cup 

Condensed Milk - 1/3 cup

Saffron - a tiny pinch

Toasted Sliced Almonds - 1/4 cup

Preparation:

1. Mix the condensed milk, milk and cottage cheese well with a whisk. Add saffron and almonds and give it a mix.

2. Pour this mixture into the ice-cream maker with the attached paddle. In less than 10 minutes your ice cream will be ready. Enjoy!

A perfect compliment to Molagu Kozhambu is paruppu thogayal. Lentils are roasted and ground into thick chutney and it is popularly known as paruppu thogayal. It is usually mixed with rice to include protein into the diet. Sometimes, it is also used as a chutney for dosai. To me it tastes great with curd/yogurt rice. A must have with molagu kozhambu. A few weeks ago I had blogged about Molagu kozhambu and forgot to post the paruppu thogayal. Thanks to Sowmya for reminding me to post the thogayal.

Gadgets:

Heavy bottom Wok
Measuring Cups and Spoons
Blender
Bowl
Spatula

Ingredients:

Thoor dal - 1 1/2 cups
Dry Red Chillies - 3
Salt
Coconut - 3 tbsp
Water - enough to soak the dal in mixer and 1/2 to 1 cup extra.( Depends on the dal quality used)
Oil - 2 tsp
Asafoetida Powder - a few shakes

Preparation:

1. Heat the wok with some oil. Add asafetida and red chillies. Allow it to blend in the oil for a few seconds.

2. Add thoor dal and roast it until it turns golden. Remove from flame cool and transfer this to a blender along with water, salt and coconut. Grind to a thick paste.

3. Serve with molagu kozhambu.

A few weeks ago, I happened to check out a blog that had a very interesting low calorie snack. I thought it was a brilliant idea and decided to try it out with strawberries. For an after school snack I made them for my daughter and it was perfect. It can also be served at the end of the meal as a dessert. The perfect activity to get the kids involved and keep them occupied and excited.It is too simple to make and the recipe can be improvised. A very fun snack for the kids and adults. I enjoyed the photos and the snack that I shared with my daughter. My entry to Kids Delight Under 30 Minutes Events hosted by Rujuta.

 Gadgets:
 Cutting Board
 Knife
 Bowl

 Ingredients: Strawberry - as much as you like
 Chocolate Chips (Semi Sweet, Dark or Milk as per your preference) - as much as you can stuff inside the strawberry
Sea Salt ( optional)

  Preparation: 1. Using a sharp knife scoop out the top of the strawberry. Stuff the opening with chocolate chips and enjoy. Personally, I liked the melted chocolate chips filled strawberry along with some almonds and sea salt.