Ash Gourd Sambar| Thadiyankai Sambar

Ash gourd sambar is easy to make and it tastes good with Rice. In our native we used to call "Ash gourd" as "Thadiyankai" and "pumpkin" as "Poosanikai" Apart from our native, i think no one use that name, only they known by the name as "Vellai poosani". Even  i remember a sweet as "Thadiyankai sweet" available in sweet stalls during my childhood days. Ok. Enough of "Thadiyankai" stories, will see the recipe.

Ash gourd Sambar

Preparation Time : 10 mins | Cooking Time : 25 mins | Serves : 2 
Recipe Category: Sambar | Recipe Cuisine: India
Ash Gourd Sambar,Thandiyankai Sambar, White pumpkin Sambar, Vella poosanikai Sambar,Sambar with coconut Ash gourd sambar is easy to make sambar with coconut masala and it tastes good with Rice.

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

Ingredients

Toor Dal- 1/4 cup

Ash ground -1/2 cup (cut into cubes)

Drumstick - 5 pieces(about 2 inch size)

Pearl onion - 5 nos

Tomato -1

Tamarind - small gooseberry size

Mustard - 1/4 tsp

Split urad dal- 1/4 tsp

Curry leaves - few

Coriander leaves- few

Asafoetida - 1/4 tsp

Salt - to taste(about 1 1/2 tsp)

Red chili powder -1 tsp

Turmeric powder -1/4 tsp

Water - to need.

Oil - 1 tsp

To grind

Grated coconut - 3 tbsp

Peal onion - 5 nos

Garlic pods-4(small)

Cumin seed- 1 tsp

Procedure

Cook dal along with ash gourd and asafoetida for 3 whistles. Then soak tamarind in 1/2 cup of water for 1/2 hr. Cut the drum stick, peel the onions and grind the ingredients list under "To grind".

Now heat the pan, add oil and then mustard and urad dal, once mustard splutters, add the drumstick,onion,tomato and curry leaves. saute it well.Then add the tamarind extract and allow  the veggies to cook.

Once the veggies cooked, added the spices ,turmeic,chill powder.

After that add the required salt,cooked dal and coconut paste and enough water and allow to boil,until the raw smell went off.

Finally garnish with coriander leaves  and switch off.

Tasty Ash gourd sambar is ready. Serve it with any of your favorite veggies.

Notes.

• Ash gourd itself have lot of water , so it requires only less water.so be careful in adding water, otherwise the sambar will be watery.

• If you wish you can add sambar powder and skip the coconut paste.since i added the coconut paste, i didnt add  sambar powder.
  

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Baby corn pulav

This baby corn pulav is easy to make and also very tasty, If you like baby corn,give it a try, definitely you like it.
Ingredients

Basmati Rice -3/4 cup
Baby corn - 8 pieces
Onion - 1(small)
Cardamom - 1
Cloves - 3
Star anise -1
Cinnamon - 1 small piece
Oil - 1/2 tbsp
Ghee - 1 tsp
Chili powder - 1 tsp
Garam masala - 1 tsp
Turmeric powder - pinch
Water- 1 1/2 cup
Lemon - 1/2
Salt - to taste (1 1/4 tsp approx)
Cashew - 6-7 pieces
To grind
Coriander  leaves- 1/4 cup loosely packed
Garlic - 6 pods
Ginger - 1/2 inch piece.

Procedure
Cut the onion into thin slices and baby corn in to 1/2 inch pieces.




Grind all the ingredients under "To  grind" and keep it ready. Soak the basmati 
rice for 10 mins

 

Heat the pressure cooker and add oil & ghee together, once it heats, add the cinnamon,cloves,cardamom, star anise.


Once it splutters add onion and saute it till translucent and then add the grounded masala and saute it


Now add the baby corn, chili,turmeric and garam masala and saute it for 2 mins.





Add the water and bring it to boil and then add  salt and rice.In the mean time, fry the cashew till golden brown and add it in the rice.


Finally add few coriander leaves and squeeze the lemon and close the lid and put on weight.


Cook the rice for 3 whistles. Once the pressure released, open the lid and fluff it with fork.


Now the tasty baby corn pulav is ready . Serve it with any raita of your choice. I served this with simple onion raita.

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Adhirasam | அதிரசம் | Diwali Sweets

Adhirasam, a traditional South Indian sweet made from rice flour and jaggery. It's one of the common sweets prepared during Deepavali/Diwali festival. 

In Childhood days , I was not fond of adhirasam much. At that time I was very fascinated about the milk sweets like pal khova.  But you know , as you age, your taste changes and now adhirasam is my most favorite sweet. When I started to make adhirasam on my own, I truly appreciated its simplicity compared to other sweets which need a ton of ghee. 

To me , my periamma(mom's sister) makes the best adhirasam, so I ask my mom to get a recipe for me. Once I got the recipe and tips, I tried it.To my surprise, I got it right at the first time itself(beginner's luck,it seems :-) ).

If you look at the step by step instructions. it may look like a lengthy process, but it doesn't! I just want to capture minute details, so it may be helpful to those who try it for the first time.

If you're making this for the first time, see the notes section and carefully follow the instructions, you too get it right at the first time itself. Now let's see how to make this delicious Adhirasam ! 

Athirasam

Preparation Time : 12 hrs(resting dough) | Cooking Time : 20 mins | Makes : 15 
Recipe Category: Sweet | Recipe Cuisine: Indian
Adhirasam,Athirasam,kajjaya,ariselu Adhirasam, a traditional South Indian sweet made from rice flour and jaggery. It's one of the common sweets prepared during Deepavali/Diwali festival.

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

Ingredients

Raw Rice - 1 Cup

Jaggery - 3/4 Cup

Cardamom - 4

Black sesame seed - 1 tbsp

Water - 1/4 cup

Oil for frying

Procedure

Wash the rice in water twice and soak it in water for about 2 hrs.

After 2 hrs drain the water and spread the rice on clean kitchen towel and dry it for 1 hr.

When the rice is slightly wet,grind the rice in the mixer into fine powder.If you are doing it in larger batch, you can grind it in flour mill(in tamil  we say "idikurathu"). And sieve the flour to remove large rice granules.

Again grind the leftover rice granules into fine powder and add it along with already sieved rice flour.

Now dry roast the sesame seed  and put it in the flour. Add the water in the sauce pan for making jaggery syrup and bring to boil.

Grate the jaggery and add it in boiling water,let it comes to boil.

Once jaggery melted, remove the strain through strainer and keep it in flame again. Now add the cardamom powder and let it boil still  the jaggery syrup reaches one string consistency (wet your thumb and index finger and take the jaggery syrup between your fingers, it will form string). switch of the flame. In the mean time, mix the flour with sesame seed and keep it ready.

Add this jaggery syrup little by little into flour and mix it with spatula .Be careful here , the syrup is very hot. 

Once mix it with all the syrup, the batter should be thick ( neither too stiff nor too runny). Once it comes to room temperature, cover it with lid and keep aside for overnight.

On next day, heat the oil in fry pan, Now athirasam dough becomes thick and you can make balls from the batter.

Make small ball from mixture and spread it like vada(grease your hand with water) in greased polythene bag/ banana leaf,make hole in the center 

Add one by one and fry until it becomes crispy on outside.Once it became crispy,remove it and put it on tissue paper.

Once it completely cooled ,store it in air tight container and enjoy it .It remains good for even one week at room temperature. Look at those, they are delicious.

Notes:

• The oil should not be over heated on entire process, keep the flame in low to get crispy outside.
• Making hole is the center is purely optional, it will gives crispy outside,we prefer that, so do the same.
• The Jaggery syrup consistency is very important.
• If you add the syrup into flour before it reaches single thread consistency, then the batter wont be thick on next day and also it absorbs more oil.
• If you miss one string consistency, then the dough will be very hard,so keep the flame in low, when the syrup reaches one string consistency.
• You can fry adhirasam immediately when you prepare the dough, but standing time gives soft adhirasam
• You can keep the dough in refrigerator for weeks, whenever needed, fry and have hot & crispy adhirasam.
• The rice flour should be slightly wet when you mix jaggery syrup with it, if you prepared rice flour few hours before, cover it with damn cloth to retain the moisture in the flour.
• Keep the flame in low so that the inside also cooks well, otherwise the outer layer becomes dark very quickly and the inside dough is raw.

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Kara Boondhi

After seeing lot of diwali recipe in blogsphere,i too think of making some diwali recipe.so tried this kara bhoondi for first time.Though the shape of the bhoodhis are not prefect,its very crispy and tasty. 

Ingredients

Besan Flour - 11/2 cup

Chili powder - 2 tsp

Asafoetida - pinch

Salt - to taste

Groundnut - to taste

Water

Oil for frying

Procedure

First mix the besan flour with water to make thick paste.This prevents the lumps(if you add more water at the begin itself will form lumps and also its difficult to break the lumps).

Then mix enough water,chili powder,asafoetida,salt to make thick batter consistency as shown below

Heat oil in the frying pan to make boondhi.Once the oil is ready ,use either the boondhi ladle or the normal ladle with holes which we used for frying.

Keep the ladle above the frying pan and pour the batter on the ladle , so that drops of batter falls on the oil and make boondhi.

Fry the bhoodhis until the "shh" sound  stops or until the boondhi is crispy.Remove it from oil and put it on paper towel.Last fry the groundnut in the oil and add into bhoodhi(you can use cashews also)

Once it cool down,store it in air tight container and  use it. 

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Kara Paniyaram/Savoury Paniyaram

                                               I like the paniyaram very much either it's sweet or savoury.In our home,my mom usually made sweet paniyaram.When i was in chennai,we usually went to ganga sweets at evenings.They serve all kind of chat items.There only i first tasted kara paniyaram along with sambhar and vengaya chutney.I liked it first time itself.Recently i was craving for kara paniyaram,so last week i prepared it long with vengaya chutney

Ingredients

For batter

Idly rice - 1 cup

Raw rice - 1 cup

Urad dal - 1/4 cup

Fenugreek seed - 1 tsp

salt

To Temper

Mustard - 1 tsp

Split urad dal - 1 tsp

Channa dal - 1 tbsp

Onion - 2 nos(finely chopped)

Curry leaves - 2 springs.

Coconut - 2 tbsp(grated)

Coriander leaves - few

Procedure

Soak all the ingredients listed under "For batter" except salt for 2-3 hrs.Grind into smooth batter and mix it with salt .Allow to ferment for overnight.

Heat the oil in the kadai,add the mustard once it pop up,add the remaining ingredients listed under " To temper" one by one .Saute it until the onion become translucent.

Add the tempering into the batter and mix it well.Heat the paniyaram pan and drizzle some oil in every hole of paniyaram pan.

Pour the batter into 3/4 of the every hole of paniyaram pan. Once the edges become brown and leave aside flip it and cook on other side.

Once it cooked on both sides,remove it and serve with any of your fauvorite chutneys/vengaya chutney like me or sambar or both. you can serve this as tea time snack.

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