Showing posts with label Chettinad. Show all posts

Friday, September 25, 2020

Kavuni Arisi Payasam | Black Rice Kheer | Sweet Recipe

Kavuni Arisi Payasam, a delicious and vibrant looking kheer prepared from glutinous black rice. In Tamil, Black rice is known as "Kavuni arisi " or "Karuppu arisi". It's used in chettinad cuisine exclusively for making sweet like this pudding that i have shared before. It's one of our family favorites and often make it as a part of our meal platter.

Since we both like the flavor of the black rice so much, the idea of making this kheer/payasam was in my mind for a while and finally made a few weeks ago. The recipe is so simple and straight forward like regular rice kheer, instead of basmati rice, here i have used black rice. The payasam turned out so delicious, flavorful and absolutely gorgeous to look at !!!

Never expect such a hue of purple color in the kheer, it was definitely a treat to our eyes !!! Depending on the rice quality and the amount of milk used in the kheer, the color might vary, still it's scrumptious for sure !!

Kavuni Arisi Payasam | Black Rice Kheer

Preparation Time : 5 mins | Cooking Time : 20 mins | Serves : 2
Recipe Category: Sweet | Recipe Cuisine: Indian

Ingredients

Black Rice / Kavuni Arisi - 2 tbsp

Ghee - 1 tsp

Sugar - 1/4 cup

Milk - 1/2 to 3/4 cup

Cardamom powder - 1/2 tsp

Coconut bits - 1 tsp

Cashew - 1 tsp

Water - 1/2 cup

Procedure

Heat a pan with 1/2 tsp of ghee and add the rice, saute it in the ghee for couple of mins or until it's aromatic.

Transfer into the mixie jar and pulse it for few times or until it's like small grains. Pour the water into the pressure cooker and bring into boil.

Add the black rice, give a quick stir, cover it with lid and cook it for 3 whistle.

Once the pressure released from the pressure cooker automatically, remove the lid. The rice should be well cooked and depends on the quality of the rice, all water would be absorbed or you might see little bit of water on top. Both are fine. Mix it with a ladle well and add the sugar. Let the sugar melts and it becomes little watery again.

Heat the milk separately and add into the rice and let it simmer for few mins. In the mean time, heat a another pan with remaining half tsp of ghee and roast the cashews and coconut bits til they are golden brown.

Finally add the cardamom powder and the roasted cashews and coconuts. Mix it well.

Tasty Kavuni Arisi Payasam/Black Rice Kheer is ready.

Related: How to make Black Rice Pudding

For more sweet recipes, check out my sweets collections

Notes:

Unlike regular rice, the black rice takes long time to cook, so make it as coarse mixture helps to cook them quickly.
As i said in the step by step instructions, depends on the quality of the rice, all water would be absorbed or you might see little bit of water on top after cooked the rice.
For mild sweet, you can reduce a tbsp of sugar.
In addition to the cashews and coconut, you can add dry fruits like raisins also.
Depends on your preferred consistency of payasam, you can add more or less of milk.
This payasam tends to thicken a bit while it cooled down.

Thursday, July 23, 2020

Sweet Kavuni Arisi | Black Rice Pudding

Sweet Kavuni Arisi, a finger licking delicious pudding made from glutinous black rice. In tamil, black rice is known as "Kavuni Arisi" or "karuppu arisi" and it's one of the famous sweets from chettinad cuisine of Tamilnadu. Chettinad Cuisine has many unique recipes and this kavuni arisi is one among them and it's usually served in their marriage feast.

Black rice is popular in east asian countries and you may wonder how come that is entered in tamil kitchen. In the old days, the chettiar community had trading business with many east asian countries and during their travels, they brought this rice to their home and the talented ladies of their home invented this super delicious sweet. The glutinous nature of this rice gives such a gooey & sticky texture and makes it so delicious.

Black rice is also known as forbidden rice in China because in olden days, only the wealthy people could afford to eat it . It's a very hard rice and needs overnight soaking before cooking. Although this rice has a very dark black color(see below pic) , it usually turns into a beautiful dark purple color when cooked. I'm kind of obsessed with this dark purple color, it's so beautiful and vibrant !!

Can I use other varieties of rice for this sweet?
No, black rice is what makes it special.

Can I use other types of sugar like coconut sugar or jaggery?
Yes, definitely you can use it. But in a traditional method, sugar is used so i'm stick to that for the recipe.

Where can I find black rice ?
In Tamilnadu, you can check for "Kavuni arisi" or "Karuppu arisi " or "black rice " in the local grocery shop or you can source it from many online grocery shops. In US/Canada, it's available in most of the grocery stores in the rice section. I got mine from Bulk Barn which is my recent favorite food store to try anything new because where you can scoop the needed quantity instead of buying the whole pack.

Can I store the leftover pudding in the refrigerator?
Yes, you can. Like payasam/sakkarai pongal, you can put the leftover in a box with the lid on. Just before serving, you can microwave it for a few secs to bring back that gooey texture or you can put it in a small bowl and keep immersed in hot water for a while.

Ok, now let's check out on how to make this unique and delicious sweet.

Sweet Kavuni Arisi | Black Rice Pudding

Preparation Time : 8 hrs | Cooking Time : 20 mins | Serves : 2
Recipe Category: Sweet | Recipe Cuisine: Indian

Ingredients
Black rice - 1/4 cup
Water - 3/4 cup
Sugar - 1/4 cup
Grated Coconut - 3 tbsp
Cardamom powder - 1/4 tsp
Ghee - 2 tsp

Procedure

Wash the rice once and soak it in enough water for overnight.

Next morning, discard the soaked water and add the rice into the pressure cooker along with 3/4 cup of water and cook it for 3 whistle.

Once the pressure released from the cooker naturally, open it and give a good mix with a laddle. Again put it on the heat and add the sugar, mix it well.

Once the sugar completely melts, add the cardamon powder and coconut. Mix it well. Finally add the ghee and let it in the flame for 2-3 more mins.

Tasty and flavorful sweet kavuni arisi is ready.

Related : How to make Kavuni arisi payasam/ Black Rice Kheer

For more sweet recipes, check out here

Notes:

Soaking the rice overnight is very important otherwise the rice is really hard to cook.
For mild sweetness, you can use only 3 tbsp of sugar.
Coconut gives great flavor to the sweet.
Kavuni arisi tends to thicken as it cools down.

Wednesday, March 11, 2020

Chettinad Chicken Biryani | Restaurant Chicken Biryani

Chettinad Chicken Biryani, a delicious & spicy chicken biryani with wonderful aroma. Chettinad cuisine is known for its flavor and unique spices in their cooking.

Traditional chettinad recipes are mostly vegetarian and non vegetarian recipes are included in their cuisine very lately in the 18th century only. But now days, through the non veg dishes only, most people knew the chettinad cuisine, mainly because of the influence of chained chettinad restaurant like anjappar and so on.
In our home, we are all fond of mutton biryani mainly because of its flavor and especially to me, Biryani means "Mutton Biryani" only, nothing beats the flavor of mutton biryani. Comes to mutton biryani, mutton gives great flavor to the rice and it doesn't need much flavor from other ingredients to make it so aromatic and delicious.

However, i felt that chicken biryani lacks that flavor until when i had tried this recipe. Seriously, i'm not exaggerating here, truly the flavor is amazing and all my chicken biryani recipe back off with this one :-)

Coming to the recipe, a year back Amma told me about this chettinad chicken biryani recipe that tastes so similar to restaurant(anjappar) biryani which she had heard it from my periamma(her elder sister), seriously i do admire Amma and her sisters eagerness to try new recipes and voluntarily sharing the recipe with anyone if it turned out delicious.

After taking all the key notes from Amma, i tried the recipe in the next few days, it turned out ok and was not quite satisfied with the outcome. The main reason was that i had skipped a few key ingredients from the original recipe, one of them was "Mutton masala powder" from Sakti/aachi brand for the amazing flavor.

Guess what ? Here in Canada, those brands are not available, so asked to take picture of ingredient list from the masala packet and watsapp it to me, Appa did promptly on the next day. After knowing all the ingredients that goes into masala, i was in the process of creating my own recipe to replicate the flavor.

In the first attempt, grounded all those spices and used it in the biryani, the flavor was way more intense than what i had expected, may be because of the freshness of the spices. It was quite over powering for me, so in the next time onwards, i have used them for tempering and it's perfect for my preference. If you have mutton masala powder, use it a couple of tsp and reduce the whole gram masala in the tempering.

Once nailed the flavor of the biryani, the next struggle was how to cook that perfect texture of rice without being mushy or burned at the bottom.For this recipe, the mint and tomato are made into puree for better flavor, since it's puree, the chance of sticking to the bottom and get burnt is high. OMG, the struggle was REAL.

It took me really a long time to figure that out, whatever Amma suggested didn't work for me because of the different stove top here and i wasn't cooking in the direct flame, so i had to figure out myself with trial and error.

And finally after zillionth trial, it worked !!! Check out the notes section for all tips that i have learned in this process of making perfect chettinad biryani in pressure cooker. For the past three or four months, this biryani recipe is on repeat mode in my kitchen, honestly it's not a complaint !!! Do give it a try if you're looking for flavorful restaurant like chicken biryani. Now let's check out the recipe.

Chettinad Chicken Biryani

Preparation Time : 30 mins | Cooking Time : 20 mins | Serves : 2
Recipe Category: Biryani | Recipe Cuisine: Indian

Ingredients
Chicken - 1 lb
Basmati rice - 1 cup
Onion -1
Tomato - 1
Green chili - 1

Mint - 1 small bunch
Coriander leaves - a handful
Bay leaf - 1
Cinnamon - 1/2 inch piece
Cloves - 3
Cardamom - 2
Kalpaasi - a small piece
Star anise - 1/2
Curry leaves - few
Ghee - 1 tbsp
Oil - 1 tbsp
Water - 1 & 1/2 cups(see notes for more clarification)
Salt - to taste
To marinate
Curd - 2 to 3 tbsp
Ginger garlic paste - 1 tbsp
Red chili powder - 3/4 tsp
Turmeric - 1/4 tsp
Lemon juice - 1 tsp
Salt - enough for chicken

Procedure

First wash the chicken with water thrice and add 1/2 tsp of turmeric powder and rub it well and wash once and keep it ready,then add all the ingredients listed under "To marinate" one by one.

Mix it well and cover it with lid and keep aside for minimum 1 hrs.

Soak the basmati rice in water for 30 mins. Cut the onion into thin slices, tomato into small cubes, clean the mint and coriander leaves. Add the tomatoes and mint leaves into mixie jar and grind into smooth puree.

In a pressure cooker, heat the oil, add cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, star anise and kalpaasi and saute it for 30 secs, then add the onions, curry leaves and green chili. Saute til the onions are translucent.

Add the marinated chicken and saute it in the oil for 2 mins, then add the tomato & mint puree into the chicken, give a good mix.

Wash the mixie jar with 1/2 cup of water and add into the chicken and pressure cook for one whistle.

Let the pressure release from the cooker automatically and then open it, measure the cooked water in the pressure and add the more needed water(see notes for water) & salt(we already added salt in the marination, so here add only for rice). Drain the water from the soaked rice.

Let the water comes to boil and then add the soaked rice, give a gentle mix without breaking the rice.

Bring into vigorous boil and cover the pressure cooker with lid and cook it for 1 whistle and keep it in lowest possible heat for 5 mins and switch off the flame. Let the pressure release from the cooker automatically and then open it.

Transfer the biryani into another pot (to avoid further cooking of the rice ), add the finely chopped coriander leaves and ghee. Mix it gently.

Tasty and flavorful chicken biryani is ready. Serve it with raitha and chicken curry. We had it with chicken kulambu, Onion raitha & tandoori chicken.

Notes:

Measure the chicken cooked water and then add the needed water. For ex: if the cooked chicken water is 1 cup, then add only 1/2 cup of extra water for 1 cup of rice. Rice and water ratio is 1:1 &1/2
Chicken leaves water while pressure cooking and also the curd in the marination increase the liquid content. So there may be chance of more than 1/2 cup of liquid in the cooked chicken than the added 1/2 cup of water. So make sure to measure the liquid before adding the water.
Make sure to soak the rice for minimum 30 mins.
Make sure to keep the biryani in the lowest possible heat after one whistle to avoid burning at the bottom.
Still if you're worried about burning at the bottom, place the cooker on the tava instead on stove directly after one whistle.
Once the rice is added into pressure cooker, make sure to bring into vigorous boil and close the lid and put on weight. The first whistle will happen around 3 to 4 mins. Even if not whistle after 5 mins, keep the flame in lowest possible. Further keeping the flame in high leads to burning at the bottom.
After adding the rice, stir the whole mixture till the bottom and make sure that nothing sticks to the bottom.
Kalpasi,ghee & mint tomato paste are the major flavor, so don't skip it or reduce the quantity.
You can make this biryani with seeraga samba rice also.
For even more flavor, you can grind 1/2 of whole garam masala spice with mint and add the remaining in the tempering.
If you have mutton masala powder in hand, use it a couple of tsp and reduce the whole gram masala in the tempering.

Friday, October 26, 2018

Seepu Seedai | Home made Seepu Seedai | Deepavali Snacks

Seepu Seedai/Seepu murukku, a savory delicacy from chettinad region of Tamilnadu. It's a deep fried snack made from the rice & urad dal dough flavored with coconut milk. I never had this snack before until i tried on my own. It was so tasty & crunchy and had a wonderful coconut flavor.

I have been eyeing on this recipe for a while and i really love the way it's been made. Guess this kind of snacks are ideal for making as a team project, friends gather in one place, some one squeeze the dough, few are rolling the seedai and some one frying, that would be more awesome.

Back in India, in my school days, i had noticed relatives gathered in one house for making deepavali sweet & snacks. But now a days, all those things are gone but making these seedai all by myself from the start to end brings back all those memories !!!

Now coming back to the recipe, i really don't know why it's called as "seepu seedai", guess the marks on it looks like the comb(seepu means comb in tamil) mark, hence the name. And also you need the particular disc in murukku press to make this.

But i have seen from fellow bloggers that the new comb can also be used to make the marks on the dough if you haven't had that particular disc in your murukku press that i'm using today. But i guess that would be more tiresome even for a small amount of dough, so if you're a beginner, i would recommend trying these seedai only with seepu seedai murukku press.

As i said earlier, the fun part of making this seedai is shaping them and i really enjoyed shaping them. Also if you're beginners like me in making this seedai, definitely it takes lot of time for shaping them and also need lot of patience to roll them gently without merging the ridges on the seedai.

With all that being said, the end result is really worth for your patience in making them, they are super cute and taste absolutely delicious & crunchy. What else we need, right? Roll your sleeves and make this chettinad delicacy at your home for this deepavali or on any day.

Seepu Seedai | Home made Seepu Seedai | Deepavali Snacks

Preparation Time : 20 mins | Cooking Time : 20 mins | Serves : 4
Recipe Category: Snacks | Recipe Cuisine: Indian

Ingredients
Rice flour - 1 cup
Urad dal flour - 1/4 cup
Fried gram dal flour/Roasted chana dal powder - 2 tbsp
Coconut milk - 1/3 cup
Butter - 2 tsp
Salt - to taste
Water - as needed
Oil - for frying

Procedure

Measure & take the rice flour in a bowl, add the urad dal flour, fried gram dal flour and salt into it, mix it all well together.

Then add the melted butter and mix it well with the flour, then add the coconut milk into flour.

Mix it well and then add enough water to make a soft dough.

Use the seepu seedai disc(refer pic below) in the murukku press. Fill the press with dough and squeeze as straight tape on the working surface.

Cut them into 1 or 1.5 inch stripes with knife and roll them in to cylinder using the finger. Press the ends gently such that it sticks together well.

Do the same for all the dough.

Heat the oil for frying, add the rolled seedai and fry them till the "shh" sounds stops.

Drain from the oil and place it on tissue paper. Once it all cooled, store it in air tight container.

Tasty and crunchy Seepu Seedai is ready to munch.
For more snacks and chaat recipe, check out my collection here

Notes:

If the dough breaks and you can't squeeze straight lines, then add more water into dough and make it as smooth.
Cook them on medium flame for even coloring.
Coconut milk gives great flavor to this seedai.
Since we don't use any other flavoring like cumin or sesame seed, the only flavor comes from the coconut milk, so use freshly squeezed coconut milk for better flavor.

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Friday, September 25, 2020