Adai Continued...

Tuesday, Mar 14 was 'Kaaradaiyaar Nonbu', a nonbu is basically a
day/time allotted to observe certain norms and rituals for a specific purpose.
Kaaradiyaar nonbu is celebrated to honour Savithri and her love for her
husband Sathyavan, who she literally rescued from Death's hands, so the
myth goes. Apparently Savithri outwitted the God of Death and rescued
her husband. I wonder if people from other parts of India celebrate this. I
think this is more of a Southern Indian Brahmin Nonbu, could be wrong
though. But personally, this is one of my favorite festivals. I love it
not only because the food prepared for this Nonbu-Adai is so simple and
delicious and healthy (if you over look the butter part !), but also
because the idea of taking time to slow down and thank God for the
wonderful man in your life is so romantic and really sweet.

Now about the most important thing about this Nonbu - the food ! 2 types of
adais (also called Kozhukattais in some families) are made- sweet &
savory. These are made out of Rice flour, Jaggery (a type of unrefined brown
sugar)is used for sweet adais . The special thing about these adais is the
use of Black eyed lentils in both the sweet & savory version.

Uppu adai (Savory adai)

1 cup Rice flour (I use store bought Rice flour, my mom soaks rice in
water briefly, lays it out on a big plate to dry then grinds it and uses it)
1/4 cup cooked black eyed lentils (see note about cooking black eyed
lentils)
2 Tbl spoon grated coconut
3 small Green chillis, slit
1 tspn Mustard seeds
1 tspn Urad seeds
1 Tbl spoon oil
A pinch of Asafoetida (Hing)
10 curry leaves, chopped roughly
2 cups water

Heat a pan and dry roast the rice flour in a pan, for about 5 minutes.
Keep stirring and be careful not to burn it. Transfer to a plate.
Now add oil to the pan. Add mustard seeds, wait till they stop popping.
Add Urad seeds, hing, curry leaves, chillies and coconut.
Add 2 cups water and bring to a boil.
Slowly add the rice flour, while continuing to stir the mixture with
another hand. A good quick hand movement is required here to avoid
lumps.
A good soft dough should be formed, turn off the heat and let it cool.

Meanwhile, prepare the dough for sweet adais.

Sweet adai

1 cup Rice flour
1/2 cup Jaggery
1/2 cup water
2 Tbl spoon grated coconut
1 tspn Cardamom powder
1/4 cup cooked black eyed beans
1 Tbl spoon ghee

Heat a pan and dry roast the rice flour for about 5 minutes. Transfer
to a plate.
To the same pan, add Jaggery and water and stir till the jaggery
dissolves in water.
Add cardamom powder, coconut and black eyed beans.
When the mixture starts boiling, slowly add rice flour and continue to
stir the mixture.
Add the ghee and stir so that ghee gets coated evenly on the dough and
a nice soft pliable dough is formed.
Turn off the heat and let the dough cool for a while.

Apply some oil to the palms, it helps making soft adais that dont stick
to one's hands (and ofcourse moisturizes the hands too!).
Make small round patties, about 2 inches in size.
Now these adais need to be steamed. Most Indian families own a
pressure-cooker and its really easy to steam these like Idlis in a
cooker.
The Idli plates can be used for steaming or any other plate that fits
in the cooker can be used for steaming.
Grease the plate and transfer adais to this plate. Do not over lap,
steam in batches if required. Steam the adais for about 10 minutes.
Serve warm with dollops of butter on them.

Note about Black eyed beans - Dry roast raw beans in a pan on medium
heat for about 5 miutes. Add enough water to cover the beans and cook for
about 15 minutes. The beans should not be over cooked, but just done.

ButterNut Squash

A few weeks ago I was at a party where someone had brought oven-roasted
butternut squash. They were absolutely delish. Except for the Zuchini
or an occasional yellow squash, I usually dont linger around in the squash
aisle, but when I saw a packet of chopped butternut squash at Trader Joe's
yesterday I knew I had to try them.
I tossed the squash in some butter and sprinkled Brown sugar and salt
and stuck it in the oven for about 40 minutes, 350'F. They were gorgeous
and really yummy and so easy to put together !! I read some about butternut squash, they have an abundance of Vitamin A and are an excellent source of Antioxidants. So here is my first entry for ARF-5/Tuesday !



Chopped squash - 1.5 cups (cut into 1 inch cubes)
2 Tbl spoon butter, melted
4 Tbl spoon Brown sugar
Salt & pepper to taste.
Toss chopped squash with butter and sugar. Sprinkle salt & peper, lay them out evenly in a cookie sheet.Cook for 30-45 (depending on how soft you want them) minutes,in a 350'F preheated oven. Serve warm. Great as a side dish or as a snack.

A is for Adai & Aviyal

Inspired by Nupur's A-Z of Marathi food, I'm thinking of doing an A-Z of Tamil food. I love the traditional South Indian foods; some are so elaborate and some so simple, but they're mostly vegetarian and really nutritious and healthy. I try to keep the preparation as authentic and straight-forward as possible. There are so many other wonderful foods in Tamilnadu that go way beyond the typical fare found in restaurant menus. I've tried making many of these, some have come out amazingly well and some not so well..I've failed miserably many times to create the exact flavor of my Grandmother's Vathalkuzhambu but always end up making pretty decent 'pavakai pitlai'.
This is going to be aother humble attempt in trying to cook up Tamil food, everyday food, special occasion food, except this time I'm going to document it and learn from other bloggers as well.
I'm a Tamil Iyer and am most familiar with the foods prepared in a Iyer home. I'd love to learn about the differences between Iyer & Iyengar cooking. I've a soft corner for anything 'Chettinadu'. On my A-Z journey, I'm going to try to include some Chettinadu recipes also.

A is for Adai & Aviyal

Adai is this wonderful dosa like crepe. I'm calling it a crepe, because
its round and cooked like a crepe. Its not thin like a crepe. I hate to
refer it as Lentil pancake, its nothing like a pancake. An adai when served
with avial makes a wholesome, nutrituous meal.Aviyal is a medley of boiled vegetables (think carrots, beans, cauliflower, potatoes, peas, squash etc) simmered in yogurt, coconut gravy. And its so easy to make the batter for adai, no need to toil over
fermenting the batter in the cold winter months.
Heck, even the amount of lentils dont have to be measured correctly, the more the lentils, the merrier the Adai is !!
I do follow my mom's measure though:
2 cups Idli rawa ( Par-boiled rice for those who want to make it the
elaborate way)
3/4 cups Tuvar Daal
1/4 cup Channa Daal
1 teaspoon methi seeds
2 teaspoons Urid Daal
5-6 dried red chillies
10 curry leaves
1 inch of peeled ginger, chopped into small pieces.
Pich of Hing
Salt to taste

Soak the Daals for about 2 hours and Idli rawa for about 1 hour. Blend
everything together. Make sure not to over blend, just give it a good
whirr a couple of times and that's it. The batter should be coarse to touch
and the Daals shouldnt become mushy. That's what makes the adais real
crisp. Once the batter is ready, you can make adais immediately or the next
day. The batter stores very well in the fridge for upto 2 weeks.

Now to make adais for 2 people:
Mix 1 cup batter with 1/4 cup finely chopped onion.
Other optional extras: 1 teaspoon Finely chopped ginger (ginger is supposed to
thwart the gassy effects of Lentils. I've my doubts though !!), 1 green chilli.
And a good heavy iron griddle - this is the most important, in my
opinion.
An iron griddle works better than a non-stick pan. Maintaining the heat
to cook adai evenly is what makes the difference.


Heat the griddle. To test the heat, sprinkle water, it should sizzle.
Take a ladle ful of batter, pour it in the griddle and spread it
evenly. This should not be very thin or very thick. Poke holes with a spoon
throughout the adai. Pour oil around the adai and into the holes. And let it cook
for upto 3-5 minutes. Flip it around and cook evenly on the other side. The
result should be a golden brown adai, crisp on the outside and soft on
the inside. Serve with a pat of butter and Avial on the side. Can also be served
with Sambar & chutney.

Adais can also be made with Fresh methi leaves, coconut, spinach. But
nothing comes close to Adais made with onion.

I made a simple Kootu (vegetables & Moong Daal) to go with adai today.


I'll post the recipe for aviyal later.

Kannaa and colors

She was sitting at the table, looking very busy and important. I was
doing
the dishes.
kannaa...she called out.
I stopped what I was doing and looked at her direction. She was busy
doing something. I carried on.
Kannaa, she said again.
Kannaa come....
I looked up and wondered if she was calling me. But no, she was looking
elsewhere.
Kannaa come...this time it was louder. I walked up to her and asked if
she wanted anything.
She was crying now...Kannaa...Kannaa...
She pointed to the box of crayons lying on the other side of the
table.

She cannot say her 'L''s yet and has problems with her 'R's.
So 'colors' became 'Kannaa'

and Flowers have become something with F & K. I'm ignoring it when she
says flowers and hoping everyone else who hears it does too !

Here is my Kannamma's favorite snack: Sundal



1 Can chick peas (or pinto, Red Kidney Beans or cooked Soy beans, cooked Lima beans)
4 Curry Leaves
Pinch of Hing (Asafoetida)
1/2 Tspn Mustard seeds
1 Dried Red Chilli
1 Tspn Sambar Powder (optional)
2 Tbl spoon onion chopped finely (optional)
1 Tbl spoon oil
Salt to taste (very little salt is required when using canned beans)

Rinse canned beans thoroughly in water and drain.
Heat oil in a pan.
Add mustard seeds. Wait till they stop spluttering. Now add hing and curry leaves.
Add Onion and fry till they turn pink. Add Sambar powder and fry for another minute.
Now add the chickpeas and salt. Coat to mix well. Cover and cook for 5 minutes.
Traditionally this is garnished with grated coconut. We've a cholesterol watch at home, so I skip the coconut.
1 can, serves 3 adults.

This is plain, simple Sundal. Tastes yummy, goes well with afternoon tea. A wonderful snack for my toddler, high in fiber & protein.

My first blog

A few months back, I followed a link to an interesting blog from somewhere and got hooked to the world of blogs, food blogs and more food blogs. A bit late to the blog world, I have been thinking whether I even have the time to sit and blog once every week, once a month atleast, then I convinced myself saying maybe I'll blog everytime the husband cooks up something wonderful, which is really rare !!


Last weekend, a lazy saturday afternoon we were channel-surfing and stopped to watch the Italian cooking show on PBS. My husband got so inspired (happens very rarely) that he printed the recipe from the Internet, went grocery shopping, made a very professional looking Eggplant Parmesan and Shahi Tukde for dessert and they were both wonderfully delicious; and I decided to blog, for the sake of posterity !



Egg Plant Parmesan - America's test kitchen


Shahi Tukde (adapted from Sanjeev Kapoor's desserts book)


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Ingredients:
Dates - 1 cup, chopped finely
White bread - 8, edges trimmed and cut into rounds.
Ghee - for frying
Pistachios & Almonds - 10 each, soaked in hot water for 10 minutes
Green cardamom powder - 1 tspn
Milk - 5 cups
Sugar - 1/2 cup


1. Heat ghee and shallw-fry each slice of bread for about a minute, till brown & crisp. Drain on paper towels.
2. Slice pistachios & almonds. Mix with chopped dates. Divide this into 4 equal portions.
3. Place a portion of date mixture onto a piece of bread, cover with another piece of bread. Press to seal, repeat with remaining bread slices.
4. Simmer milk & sugar and reduce to half.
5, Dip each stuffed bread into the milk for about a minute, remove and keep aside.
6. Reduce the milk further, till it thickens to a custardy consistency.
7. Place soaked bread on a serving platter, pour milk. Garnish with additional chopped pistachios & almonds. Enjoy !


We substituted Apricots for dates and really liked it !