Anitha Jayaraman

When I was small, I used to stay away from Kurma but now I think I am OK. The reason being I do not prefer the masala flavor all times, I know I am a specimen -:)

Anyway I made this as a side dish for the Vegetable Biryani. I used only white peas.

Required Items – 1/2 onion, 1 big tomato, ginger, garlic, green chillies, red chillies(optional), 1 cup grated coconut, seasoning masala items(bay leaf, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves fennel seeds, etc) & some kind of peas(bean) and/or vegetables(cauliflower, potatoes)

• Boil the peas and/or vegetables using a pressure cooker and keep it aside. Add salt while boiling.
• Cut onions, tomatoes, garlic, ginger, green chillies into pieces. Not required to be tiny pieces as we are anyways going to grind them.
• Fry them in oil for sometime until they start shrinking to get rid of their raw taste.
• Cool the mixture and grind them using a mixie. While grinding add grated coconut.
• Grind it to a paste. Not required to be really thick.
• Now add some oil to a pan and fry the seasoning items.
• To this add the paste and stir for sometime. Add water to make it like a concentrated soup.
• Now add the peas and/or vegetables.
• Add required salt and let it cook until the peas gets the flavor.

I am still counting the uppama varieties. I feel its a nice and light breakfast or dinner item. You dont want to eat too spicy early in the morning and you definitely dont want to eat more when you go to sleep.

Required items – Jowarisi(Sabudana) & seasoning items

• For best results, soak the jowarisis hours before. May be soaking at night should help but I did in the morning & it was little chewy.
• In a pan, get the seasoning items fried. Mustard seeds, Urad dhal, Chenna dhal, Peanuts, Curry leaves fried in oil.
• Add a little of turmeric powder. Add the soaked jowarisi to the pan and mix well.
• Add salt accordingly
• You can also add cut onions while frying the seasoned items.
• Garnish with coriander leaves when done.

Mom makes this wonderful combination of food together wiht Pudhina Chutney. I am a strict follower of my mom trying to match food accordingly.

More Kuzhambu

Required Items – 2 cups of curd, salt, 4 green chillies,  1/4 tsp cumin seeds,  1/2 tsp toor dhal,  1/2 tsp chenna dhal, 1/2 tsp rice, 1/4 cup grated coconut, curry leaves and some suitable vegetable.

• Soak all of the dhal & rice for 15mins.
• Grind the soaked items together with green chillies, cumin, coconut and curry leaves using a mixie.
• Dilute the curd and whip it to change to butter milk.
• Mix the buttermilk with the mixture and also salt. Start cooking this on the stove.
• After it boils, season with mustard seeds, red chillies, curry leaves. Add coriander leaves at the end.
• With this you can also add a vegetable. I boiled few potatoes and added to it while cooking. If you prefer to add eggplant(brinjal) or okra(ladies-finger), fry them in oil and then add to boil.

Potato curry

Required Items – potatoes, onions, tomatoes, seasoning items, chillie powder and salt

• Cut onions and tomoatoes to tiny slices
• Season the oil with mustard seeds.
• Add the cut onions and fry them until its light brown.
• Add the cut tomatoes and fry them to a gravy
• Add chillie powder & salt. Fry them without adding water first.
• Now add water little by little and make a gravy mixture.
• Add the boiled cut potatoes to this and mix them thoroughly with the gravy.

Hmm..the festival season is keeping me busy!! Kutty Krishnan loves sweets and savouries. I was also born on the same birth star as Lord Sri Krishna. Anyway this is the first time I decided to make sweets and savouries upfront for Krishna Jayanthi/Gokulashtami. I tried a few varieties with friends and they came out really well for a first timer.

1.Coconut burfi

Required items - Equal cups of Grated coconut, Sugar & Water. Ghee, nuts of your choice. I took 8 cups of grated coconut.

• Melt the sugar to a syrup using equal cups of water. Wait for the consistency until you get strands.
• To this add the grated coconut and keep stirring on low flame
• Wait until the mixture turns out semi solid and ready to freeze from free-flowing.
• Keep a tray ready. Apply ghee on it.
• Drop the mixture on this tray and flaten it to get regular shapes.
• Make squares immediately before it gets hard
• Similarly keep the ghee-fried-nuts ready. Affix them quickly on the squares.

2. Rava laddu

When I think of this, all comes to my mind is my 10th class teacher distributing this sweet on her bday to all the whole class team. I think her’s was more powdered rava, not sure though!

Required items – Equal cups of rava & Sugar – lets say 2 +2. Ghee – 1/2 cup, Cashews, Raisins, Cardamom powder and milk.

• Fry the rava in a spoon of ghee until it turns light golden colour.
• In a large vessel, add this rava, sugar and the cardamom powder. Keep it aside after mixing them thoroughly.
• Break the cashews & fry them along with raisins in the ghee. Add it to the mixture.
• Start molding the laddus into small balls with your hand. While doing it add milk little by little to the mixture to get the required consistency.
• Refrigerate if you plan to eat it later.

3. Thattai

I learnt this from my friend here & I am sure the ingredients vary from the traditional making.

Required items – 5 cups of Rice Flour, 1 cup of Urad Flour, Chillie powder, Salt, 1 stick butter, 1/2 cup Chenna dhal.

• Soak the chenna dhal in water 1-2 hours before.
• Melt the butter to liquid state.
• Mix the rice flour, urad flour, chillie powder, salt, butter, and chennai dhal in a vessel.
• Add appropriate quantity of water so that the mixture is made to a dough.
• The dough should be good enough to make the thin round shapes of thatai.
• Use oil to make shapes on a plastic sheet(use a big ziploc cover).
• You can start frying them in a oil pan.
• Look out for color change and it would rise to the top in oil once its cooked.

4. Seedai

Refer to Asha’s website

We did not really succeed in making this, it started bursting out like anything. We got panic and we dropped the plan making just these.

5. Karasev

Required items -2.5 cups of Besan flour, 1 cup of Rice flour, chillie powder, pepper powder, salt, ghee

• Mix the above adding 3 tbsp of ghee.
• Add water to get the required consistency.
• The consistency should be good enough for it fall from the ladle that has holes in it(Jalli Karandi)
• To make it fall onto the frying oil, you need to rub the dough on the ladle.
• Once it gets fried crispy with a color change, you can drain them from oil.

For the best pictures of the process, follow this link MenuToday

6. Boondi

This is my best try this time. It came out well and realized it 2 days later -:) But the shapes were little irregular.

Required items -2 cups of Besan flour, 1 cup of Sugar, cardamom powder, cashews, raisins, ghee

• Prepare the sugar syrup using water and let it become thick. We will use this for soaking the boondi.
• Mix the flour, water(1 cup) with a pinch of cardamom powder.
• Take care of consistency. It should be watery and fall off the ladle.
• It falls off as you pour the batter through the ladle.
• Let it fry in the oil until it bulges out.
• Drain them and drop them in the sugar syrup.
• By the time you drop the next set of boondi in sugar syrup, move the previous set to a tray.
• Finally add ghee fried cashews and raisins to it.