Poosanikai Kootu | Yellow Pumpkin Curry

Poosanikai Kootu, a simple curry made with yellow pumpkin and also it is one of the dish that we used to prepare on pongal festival without fail. 

You might have seen using chana dal,moong dal or toor dal for curry, but in our family for this particular curry, we use urad dal especially skinned ones and this curry goes well with any south indian kuzhambu.

Here in the recipe, i have used 2 green chilies, as my pumpkin is not so sweet, but just do the taste test of pumpkin and add less or more of chilies depends on the sweetness of the pumpkin.

One more thing, depends on the firmness of the pumpkin, it may take less or more time to cook.So check it frequently and add water more water than the mentioned amount only if needed, otherwise you end up with pumpkin puree.

Poosanikai Kootu

Preparation Time : 10 mins | Cooking Time : 15 mins | Serves : 2 to 4 
Recipe Category: Curry | Recipe Cuisine: Indian

Ingredients
Yellow Pumpkin(chopped) - 1 1/2 cup
Green chili - 2
Split skinned urad dal - 1 tbsp
Pearl onion - 2
Garlic - 2 pods
Cumin seed - 1/2 tsp
Grated Coconut - 1 1/2 tbsp
Salt - to taste
To Temper
Oil - 1 tsp
Mustard & urad dal - 1/2 tsp
Curry leaves - few

Procedure

First cut the pumpkin into chunks ,peel it and then chop into small pieces.

Heat a kadai with 1/2 cup of water, add the urad dal, let it boil to boil.

Then cover cook the dal till it's half done, in the mean time, grind the chilies into coarse paste.

Once the dal is half cooked, add the chopped pumpkin and the chili paste.

Mix it well and then again cover the kadai with lid and cook till the pumpkin becomes tender.In the mean time, add the pearl onion,garlic and cumin seed( i grind little more for other poriyal too) in the mixie jar and grind into coarse paste.

Once the pumpkin becomes tender, add the onion garlic paste and salt and mix well.Cook till all the moisture evaporates.

Finally add the grated coconut & mix it well and transfer to the bowl.

Then temper the ingredients listed under "To Temper " and add into the pumpkin kootu.

That's it , Tasty Poosanikai Kootu is ready.

Related: How to make Pumpkin Bread

Notes:

• Since pumpkin has mild sweetness, adjust the chilies to balance the taste.
• While cooking pumpkin, if needed add little more water.
• Onion,garlic & cumin paste gives great flavor to the dish, so don't skip it. 

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Rice Flour Idiyappam | Idiyappam with store bought rice flour | String Hoppers

Idiyappam, a rice noodles also known as nool puttu or string hoppers originated from south Indian states of Tamilandu & Kerala. I have already posted the traditional way of making idiyappam recipe. It's a lengthy process, first it requires soaking the rice,  then grinding  the rice as batter & finally sauteing the batter into dough  and also in that method, you can't make it instantly. Although, for me, that's the best taste idiyappam, but sometimes we need an instant and quick to make version, right? That's when this recipe comes handy. With the good quality rice flour, we can almost recreate the traditional idiyappam taste in this recipe. 

So, i'm here sharing the idiyappam recipe with store bought rice flour. It's so quick and easy to make, within 15 mins, you can make the first batch of idiyappam from the start. It's my favorite way of making idiyappam when i'm pressed for time and still wanna eat idiyappam. 

Before moving to the recipe , let's check out on some FAQ! 

Why is my idiyappam dough hard to squeeze? 

Dry dough makes it hard to reason. There are a couple of reason for dry dough

• There is not enough water in the dough.
• Don't let the dough sit for longer time, with time, the dough becomes dry and it's difficult to squeeze

Why does my idiyappam break when squeezed ? 

Soft dough is easy to squeeze without any breakage.  So, use good quality rice flour which is super fine. If the rice flour is super fine, then it's almost cooked when hot water is added into it and makes the dough super soft. 

What do you eat with idiyappam? 

Idiyappam tastes simply awesome with plain sugar and freshly grated coconut. For a vegetarian side dish, i would recommend sothi(a coconut milk veg stew), salna, kurma or even tiffin sambar also tastes good. For non-vegetarian side dish, i like to have with mutton / chicken kulambu.

 

Rice flour idiyappam

Preparation Time : 10 mins | Cooking Time : 15 mins | Serves : 2 
Recipe Category: Breakfast | Recipe Cuisine: Indian
How to make idiyappam,idiyappam from rice flour, rice flour idiyappam,nool puttu,string hoppers,homemade idiyappam,breakfast, idiyappam from store bought rice flour Idiyappam, a rice noodles also known as nool puttu or string hoppers originated from south indian states of Tamilandu & Kerala.

Sandhiya https://www.facebook.com/SandhiyasCookbook https://www.instagram.com/sandhiyascookbook/

Ingredients
Rice Flour - 1 cup
Water - 3/4 cup
Sesame Oil - 1 tsp
Salt - to taste

Procedure

Heat the water in a sauce pan along with salt and oil.

When the water is about to come to boil, switch off the flame and remove from heat. Measure & take the flour in a bowl,add the water little by little into the flour.

Mix it with spatula gently until all comes together. Now take the idiyappam maker, take a log of dough and add into the idiyappam maker.

Grease the idiyappam plate and squeeze the dough into place as concentric circles.

Steam it in the steamer for 6-8 mins.Remove the idiyappam plate from the steam and invert it, the idiyappam will fall off easily. Do the same for the remaining dough.

Tasty & soft idiyappam is ready to serve.We had it with white kurma & cardamom flavored coconut milk

Related: How to make Saravana Bhavan style white kurma 

Related: How to make Coconut Milk from fresh coconut

Notes:

• Depends on the flour quality,you may need more or less water,so always boil extra 1/4 of water.
• Add little by little of water into flour. If you add more water, then the idiyappam will be sticky. 
• Sesame oil gives wonderful aroma and i used the same for greasing the plate too.
• Instead of idiyappam plate, you can steam it in idli plate too.
• Once the idiyappam is cooked,  its color changed from bright white to pale white.
  

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Chili Garlic Sauce | Sweet and Sour Chili Garlic Sauce | Sauces

Chili Garlic sauce, the most versatile sauce that you can use it as dip sauce for your appetizers or you can use it in your pasta or noodles for that extra zing. 

Chili Garlic sauce is the one sauce that i always stock up in my refrigerator. We both have some mild allergy to the vinegar, so i always try my best to avoid vinegar based sauces from the store and make my own.

The original recipe for this chili garlic calls for vinegar, but i have used equal amount of lemon juice and it tastes equally good. 

But you can use any type vinegar in this recipe.Then coming to red chilies, mine was too hot, with just 10 number of it gives super hot sauce. If the chili has mild hotness, you can use up to 15 numbers of chilies.

Check out the video and share your thoughts.

Chili Garlic Sauce

Preparation Time : 5 mins | Cooking Time : 15 mins | Makes : 1 cup 
Recipe Category: Sauces | Recipe Cuisine: Chinese
Chili Garlic Sauce, Sweet and sour chili sauce, Sweet and sour Sauce, Sweet Chili Sauce Chili Garlic sauce, the most versatile sauce that you can use it as dip sauce for your appetizers or you can use it in your pasta or noodles for that extra zing.

Sandhiya https://www.facebook.com/SandhiyasCookbook https://www.instagram.com/sandhiyascookbook/

Ingredients
Red Chili - 10
Garlic - 7 to 8 pods
Sugar - 1/4 cup
Lemon - 1/4 cup
Salt - to taste
Corn flour - 1 tsp

Procedure

Heat 1/2 cup of water in a sauce pan, add the red chili and bring to boil. Let it in the flame for 2 mins.

Switch off the flame and cover the pan with lid and set it aside for 5 more mins. Then add the chilies(if you have any leftover water from the cooked chili, dont throw it,will be using later.) into the mixie/blender jar and then add garlic.

Add lemon juice, sugar and salt one by one and grind into coarse paste.

Pour the chili paste into the sauce pan along with the leftover water from the cooked chili and heat it again.

Once the mixture comes to boil, keep the flame in low and cook it for 2 to 3 mins.
In the meantime, mix the corn flour with a tbsp of water and add it into the chili paste and cook till it becomes glossy. It may  take 3 to 4 mins in low flame.Switch off the flame, let it cool completely and store in air tight container.

That's it,Spicy & tangy chili garlic sauce is ready.

Related:How to make Vegetable Spring Roll

Notes:

• Depends on the liquid in the chili sauce, you may need more or less of corn flour mixture.
• Don't add more corn flour mixture, it may thickens the sauce so much.So start with small amount of corn flour mixture.
• Don't touch the chili paste , it may cause burning sensation in your hands.
• Instead of lemon juice, you can use vinegar.
• It may last atleast one month in refrigerator.
  

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Homemade Chocolate Sauce | Chocolate syrup

Chocolate sauce/Syrup , a creamy chocolate sauce that goes well with ice cream, fruits or with any milkshake/smoothies. I'm 0.0001% of women who doesn't go crazy about chocolate, so you might wonder why the chocolate sauce recipe?Hmm, will tell you the reason.

Whenever i had seen photos of ice creams/smoothies drizzled with chocolate syrup,i was so tempted and wanted to make it that way, so i bought chocolate syrup from the store and i hardly used it twice or thrice before it expired and the whole(almost) bottle ended up in trash.A A few weeks before, when one of our friends visited us, i had thought of serving ice cream with chocolate sauce for desserts, again i didn't want to buy and waste the whole bottle, so tried the chocolate sauce recipe from here and it turned out delicious.

Just like me, those who don't want to buy the whole bottle of chocolate syrup for occasional use or those who prefer homemade recipe than the store bought, this recipe might help. 

Home made Chocolate Sauce/Syrup

Preparation Time : 5 mins | Cooking Time : 10 mins | Serves : 2 to 4  
Recipe Category: Sauce | Recipe Cuisine: Indian
Homemade Chocolate Sauce, Homemade Chocolate Syrup Chocolate sauce/Syrup , a creamy chocolate sauce that goes well with ice cream, fruits or with any milkshake/smoothies.

Sandhiya https://www.facebook.com/SandhiyasCookbook https://www.instagram.com/sandhiyascookbook/

Ingredients
Cocoa powder - 1 tbsp
Butter - 1 tbsp
Sugar - 1/4 cup
Water - 1/4 cup
Salt - a pinch
Vanilla essence - 1/2 tsp (optional)

Procedure

In a sauce pan, add the cocoa powder, sugar & salt.

Then add the butter and water and heat it, let the butter melts and bring the sauce to boil.

Keep the heat in low and cook the sauce for 5 min or until it becomes glossy and coats the pack of the spoon.

Remove from heat and transfer to serving dish. It stays well for upto 2 weeks in refrigerator.

Tasty homemade chocolate sauce/syrup is ready.

Related: How to make Chocolate Bread

Notes:

• This sauce thickens when it's cooled, so switch off the heat when it coats the back of the spoon.
• I didn't add vanilla essence in the sauce as i want chocolate flavor as dominant.
• If the cocoa powder has more lumps,shift it before use.
  

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Tomato Thokku | Thakkali Thokku | Tomato Preserves

Thakkali Thokku, a delicious,spicy and tangy condiment made from the tomatoes. It stays well for days at room temperature or even weeks in the refrigerator. It's one of our family favorites and we love to have it with idly, dosa,chapathi and with curd rice.

Since it stays well at room temperature , i would prefer this to pack this tomato thokku along with chapati/idli on our first day of any trip. The day before the trip itself, I used to prepare this and keep it in the refrigerator, so it comes handy on the early morning trip packing. 
When we were in Hosur, i had prepared this tomato thokku a lot in tomato season. In Hosur farmer's market, when tomatoes were in season, the price would be so cheap,i remember that it was Rs 5 per kg or sometimes 3 kg for 10 Rs. 

At that time, i would make this thokku atleast once in a week and we had it along with all three meals in a day. 
Now,let's see how to make this delicious thokku. For this recipe, i shot a little video for demonstration. Have a look and share your thoughts.

Tomato Thokku | Thakkali Thokku

Preparation Time : 10 mins | Cooking Time : 20 mins | Makes : 1 cup 
Recipe Category: Preserves | Recipe Cuisine: Indian
Thakkali Thokku, Tomato Thokku, Thokku, Thakkali Urugai, Tomato Pickle Thakkali Thokku, a delicious,spicy and tangy condiment made from the tomatoes. It stays well for days at room temperature or even weeks in the refrigerator.

Sandhiya https://www.facebook.com/SandhiyasCookbook https://www.instagram.com/sandhiyascookbook/

Ingredients
Tomato - 4 
Garlic - 6
Oil - 1 tbsp
Mustard - 1/4 tsp
Curry leaves - few
Red chili powder - 1 tsp
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
Salt - to taste
Jaggery - 1 tsp
Fenugreek powder - 1/4 tsp

Procedure

Cut the tomatoes into small pieces and then peel the garlic.

Cut the garlic into small pieces, put the tomatoes into the mixie jar and grind into smooth paste.

Heat a kadai with oil, add the mustard, let it splutter and then add the garlic.

Add few curry leaves and saute it in oil for one min, then add the tomato puree.

Now add the spices(turmeric & chili powder) and salt.

Give a good mix and then let it boil, once it comes to vigorous boil, keep in medium flame and cover the pan with lid and cook till it becomes thick.Stir in between to avoid sticking at the bottom.

Finally add the jaggery and fenugreek powder and cook till the oil oozes out from it. Switch off flame.Let it cool completely and store in air tight container.

Tasty Tomato thokku is ready to serve.

Related: How to make Mango thokku 

Notes:

• If you have small  garlic pods, then no need to cut,use as it is.
• It stays well for 2 weeks at refrigerator.
• Once it comes to boil, cover the pan with lid, it helps to avoid spluttering.
• If you're plan to preserve for more than a month, then use little extra oil.
• Jaggery helps to balance the sourness and spiceness, so don't skip it.
• Fenugreek seed is roasted and powdered in motor & pestle to make fenugreek powder

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