Sweetened Rice balls….Ariunda

Made Ariundas (Rice balls) today. I was really excited to make it. Since I started blogging recently this was going to be my very first entry into blogger events and of course because ari unda as we call it in kerala always brought back fond fond memories of childhood.

Whenever I visited my maternal home –Karukaputhur (A small village in Kerala) my grandmother would be ready with a jar full of these Ariundas .We were a big band wagon of cousins from different parts of the country, all geared up to make the most of our 2 months of summer holidays, ready to feast on the Ela Adas(a sweet made with  rice powder, jaggery and coconut steamed in plantain leaves) and ariundas my grandmother would diligently make every summer, on our home coming.

I remember my mother and her sisters would sit around talking, simultaneously making ariundas on large scale. Did’nt they have to feed the band wagon a good tea time snack? That too with hot tea made from fresh cow’s milk. When tea was served we wouldn’t waste a minute to pounce on a neatly arranged set of firm, round ariundas happily sitting on the table.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                

Back home in Cochin, my mother would religiously follow my grandmom’s recipe and make me some more ariundas at my fervent request. Even before the rounds were made I would start feeding myself some spoonfuls of the mixture till my mother warned me and send me out of the kitchen. So when Gayatri posted the blogger’s event, I had no second thoughts. Ariunda It had to be. Quoting her-this was about   cooking a dish which  brought memories of childhood that you took for granted when your mom prepared, and the event is called A walk through memory lane.

I asked my mom for her recipe.. and made the ariundas too. The actual recipe included cardamoms in it but my mother dislikes the taste of cardamom in her rice balls. So I made mine without them .Here goes my recipe:-

Ingredients

Rice-4 cups (Matta rice/ Red Kuthari /Par Boiled Rice)

Jaggery-21/2-3 1/2cups depending upon how sweet you want it to be

Grated coconut-21/2 cups

Method

Wash the rice and strain.

In a thick bottomed vessel roast the rice in small portions at a time, in medium flame till the rice pops up and turns white. It should crack easily and be brittle.

When done cool the rice and grind it to a fine powder.

Grind the grated coconut first. Then add jaggery and grind for about 2 minutes.

Add the roasted rice powder in small portions to above mix and grind till all the ingredients are mixed well.

Make into balls and serve.

You may add cardamom to above if you prefer so.



Lakshmi..............

Sending this off to Gayathri's  Walk through memory lane

Carrot Mousse

Balumama(Uncle) and Bindu ammayi(aunt) came home today. So I wanted to make something special for lunch. What should I make for Lunch today? I had recently seen a recipe for Carrot Mousse  and I had been wanting to try it out for some time. The Carrot Mousse in the recipe corner of  the magazine looked  so very enticing…orange creamy Mousse dressed around a juicy rasgulla….I decided I would try it out soon…may  be tomorrow itself or this weekend for sure….But tomorrow became day after tomorrow and  so on…somehow I never got to making it….So when Balumama came I decided to make him some Carrot Mousse for dessert .I was making the Mousse for the first time….so I hesitated …After lot of pondering I decided to go ahead with the recipe.

Made with carrots that give it its wonderful orange colour speckled with the white of rasgullas it edible to eyeballs and hence a good excuse to make children eat some Vitamin C’s and Vitamin A’s without the story telling and coaxing….

I diligently followed the recipe  and as soon as the pudding was done I transferred it to small glass bowls each with a rasgulla inside. I had initially decided to try making the rasgullas too. But I fell short of time and had to rely on a small tin of store brought Haldiram’s  rasgulla’s.

Ingredients

Carrot Puree- 1Cup

Orange Juice-1 cup

Sugar-1 cup

Whipped cream-1 cup

Gelatin powder-20gms

Rose water-1/2 tsp

Rasgullas

Method

Mix gelatin in orange juice and keep aside to bloom.

Whip cream to soft peaks. Add sugar and whip more

In a saucepan add ¼ th of the carrot puree and mix the gelatin to it. Heat it.

Add the remaining carrot puree .Mix and keep aside to cool.

Fold whipped cream into the above batter. Add the rosewater. Mix

Assemble

Put one rasgulla each into every glass bowl. Pour mousse batter over it and place in the freezer for half an hour. Serve upturned on a glass plate.

My uncle as always had a good word for me after tasting my newly made carrot Mousse.  The rasgullas were a bit too big for my glass bowls…but when I ate a spoonful of the Mousse dipped rasgulla , I was happy I decided to make it.

 

Vegetable Kurma

I’m making the post a week late. Like I mentioned in my previous post this recipe was part of our New Year get- together. But last week was hectic…I had lot of small errands to do and that kept me outside the house the whole day. So my post suffered. I would come back home tired only to drop dead on the bed….snore snore.. I was already asleep.

Coming back to my mix vegetable kurma , it came out well .My mom had taken my son Aniket to the park. By the time they came back home the dish was ready. The flavours of cardamom and cinnamon and other ingredients wafted into the air and filled the house. Just then my mom entered the house and she exclaimed….mmmmmmmm nice……Aniket had a small twinkle in his eye. Hey what was his momma cooking?

It made a good combo paired with the ghee rice .We all love it. My mother’s friend even took down the recipe because she had made it in a different way earlier but loved my recipe too. I wanted my vegetable kurma to taste like the one in Vrindavan- an eatery near my house. I had tasted em with some pooris once ….So I browsed and browsed the net for the perfect recipe , combined a few till I thought I would be able to make its poor cousin. But to my surprise it tasted just the same…Vrindavan style……

Vegetable kurma is a lovely side dish- It is a stew which can be made with yogurt cream, nut and seed pastes or coconut milk and  has its roots traced to  Mughalai cuisine…Can be served with chapathis, naan, palappams or even mixed rice. Since it contains a mixture of many vegetables it is healthy too. No wonder it is a quick refuge many housewifes turn to. Why wouldn’t they? Isn’t it healthy, tasty and even easy to make.

Ingredients

Onions-11/2 medium

Green chilli-3-4

Ginger garlic paste- ½ tsp

Mixed vegetables-1-11/2 cup(carrots,beans,cauliflower,potatoes and peas)

Milk-1/4 cup

Yogurt-2 tbsp

Coriander powder-11/2-2 tsp

Cumin seeds-1/2-14 tsp

Fennel-1/4 tsp

Salt to taste

Bay leaf-1

Black stone flower-1

Curry leaves- few

Oil-3 tsp

Ghee-1 tsp

Redchilli powder-1/4 tsp

Turmeric powder-a pinch

To Grind

Cloves – 2 nos

Cinnamon stick – 2 (small)

Cardamom – 1 no

Cashew – 2 nos or more

Poppy seeds – 2tsp

Roasted Channa dhal – 2 tsp

Green chili – 1 no

Coconut – 5 tbsp (grated )

Cumin seeds-a pinch  

Fennel seeds-a pinch

Method

Cook the vegetables.

Grind the ingredients listed under the heading grind.

In a pan, heat the oil and ghee together. When hot, add bay leaf, curry leaves, stone flower, and cumin and fennel seeds.

Add chopped onions and green chilli. Saute till onions become golden brown.

Add ginger garlic paste.Fry till raw smell leaves.

Add coriander powder, red chilli and turmeric powder. Fry.

Add vegetables. Pour water and let it bubble.

Add yogurt, ground paste and salt. Simmer and boil for 3 min.

Add milk and bring to boil. Give a good stir.

Garnish with coriander leaves.

Notes:

You can add ½ tsp cumin and ¼ tsp fennel seeds to the items to be ground instead of frying it and then add it after the vegetables

Instead of cooking the vegetables separately, you can add it with a cup of water directly, simmer and boil it for some time with closed lid and then proceed with the rest of the process.

Usually we donot not add red chilli powder and turmeric to vegetable kurma .You can omit it if you prefer so.

Coconut Pudding

Yesterday my mother’s friend came home…I call her S aunty.it being new year’s eve, she and some  other friends wanted to have a small get together  .We decided we would each get a dish or two and meet up at my mother’s friend ‘s place. Quick Phone calls and the menu was decided. I decided to make Ghee rice, Vegetable Kurma and Coconut Pudding.

It was a hectic day. For starters I realised that my pantry was under stocked. I did not have all the vegetables required to make the kurma and my stock of basmati rice was depleting….So I put Aniket to sleep and hopped over to a nearby supermarket. When I came back home Aniket had got up. He got inquisitive the moment he saw me with all the bags. Did it have any goodies for him or not?Good question.He decided to find out for himself .He pulled out the bags kept on top of the table found a packet of biscuits and asked me to open it for him.

 Finally I started  to cook. First I made the pudding, then the ghee rice and the kurma came last .Of course I took intermittent intervals to stop Aniket from unpacking the bags I got ,pulling this and that and generally messing up my already messed up kitchen. His loves playing around with kitchen vessels and plastic containers .So he just put this fascination to good use, brought down all the vessels pretending to cook with me.

All the dishes came out well….but the pudding took the limelight…I caramelised the nuts but couldn’t find our little kitchen pestle so I had to break it with the back of a spoon…and they didn’t look crumbly like praline.

I got nice juicy coconuts today…I scraped out only the white part without the brown flakes because that makes tastier Coconut pudding. You can see the recipe below-:

Ingredients

Milk-500 ml(boiled)

Coconut-1 grated

Sugar-8-10tbsp or more

Gelatin-30gms

Condensed milk-1 tin

Vanilla essence-1 drop

Method

 Grind the coconut in a blender to strain out thick coconut milk. Keep it aside. Grind it again with little water and strain thin coconut milk. Mix thin coconut milk, 1 tin condensed milk and milk .Heat it. Add required sugar. Then add thick coconut milk. Boil. Add sugar if required again. Add water to gelatin just enough to soak it. Then double boil it or add hot water to it to dilute . Add gelatin to milk mixture. Stir for some time. Add the essence. Give a good stir. Allow to cool. Refrigerate( at least for 5 hours). Serve with praline.

Notes:

Make sure you use only white part of coconut without the brown flakes

Sugar can be increased accordingly.

Verdict: My mom’s friends loved it….Even my mother who dislikes condensed milk lovd it…She asked me to make more…. and  surely I will….

Carrot Halwa

Gajar ka halwa finds its way to every happy occasion in most Indian homes. Be it a festival, a promotion at job, last day of exams or just an ordinary day carrot halwa forms a part of the happiness. Haven’t  even Hindi Cinema and serials flaunted  Gajar ka halwa much to their advantage….a dish that the hero always looked forward to when he came home to meet his mom?..

I remember coming back home from school to find a dubba full of Carrot sweet waiting for me at the table. …I would not stop till the last spoonful went into my stomach .If my mother would put it in the fridge I would tiptoe slowly to the fridge, open it again and again to feed my Halwa hungry tummy.

I would place a bowl of halwa next to me, even late in d night at one or two o clock to accompany me while I read a book .Description about lunch and dinner and what they ate in the Nancy Drew’s and Famous Five’s would tickle my taste buds…most of the dishes were foreign to my traditional palette unheard or not tasted… I would immediately feel like eating something. Only my mother’s Carrot halwa would come to my rescue. One   more spoonful would go into my mouth and I would realise there is no better sweet. 

The day before my exams mother would make it. They were made by my mother at my special request, to help me stay awake as I did last minute studying. My mother’s intelligent inducement to keep me from falling off the chair as I delved through study materials I never read before….

The word Halwa comes from Arabic meaning``sweet’’It was first introduced by sikh traders  in Punjab during the Mughal regime and hence bears a close association to the state of Punjab.It is an inevitable dish for occasions like Diwali,Holi and rakshabhandan.Made with healthy carrots cooked in milk and sugar,they are nutritious but slightly high on sugar. The sugar free version is prepared with more milk added with less of sugar or no sugar at all. Here comes the recipe-:

Ingredients

Delhi carrots/regular carrots-3 Heaped cups grated

Milk-2 3/4 cups-3 cups

Sugar-3/4 cup-1 cup

Ghee-3bsp

Cardamom-2to3 pods or ¼ tsp cardamom powder

Saffron-a few strands

Nuts to garnish

Method

In a thick bottomed or non stick pan add 1 tbsp ghee. Add the grated carrots and sauté for 3-5 minutes or till pale. Add milk and stir. Simmer and let the carrots cook in the milk in low flame for ½ hr-40 minutes , till the milk is fully absorbed. Stir at regular intrevals.Add the sugar. The mixture will liquefy but let it cook for10-12 minutes. Keep stirring. Then add rest of the ghee (2 tbsp) little at a time till. Cook till mixture becomes thick and ghee bubbles and seperates  and the mixture leaves the sides of the pan .Sprinkle cardamom. Fry some nuts in ghee and add along with a few crushed strands of saffron. Can be served hot or cold.  It tastes wonderful with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream.

Notes:

Some recipes use only half the milk of the quantity of carrots. But I like mine cooked with equal quantity of milk.

Cardamon pods can be added along with sugar.

Condensed milk can be added before sugar and quantity of sugar should be reduced accordingly.

You can cube the carrots, grind it in the mixie without water. The mixture should not become a paste. It should only be finely ground.

You can also pressure cook grated carrots is 1-11/2 cup milk (1 whistle) and then continue the process.

I prepared my Gajar halwa with normal carrots but Red Delhi carrots make the best Gajar halwa. The best carrot halwa in India is served in the states of  Rajasthan and Punjab ofcourse. But  it goes without saying that this truly royal dish has spread its taste and fragrance  to every Indian Home….Be it north –south-east- west.

Leppi.....

Cheese Chilli Toast

I had my cheese chilli toast first time in Pune. My cousin Priya chechi (chechi is sister in Malayalam) had taken us out .She knows my fantasy for cheese and suggested we try the cheese chilli toast on the menu. As always she was right. I loved my very first bite of the toast- smothered with cheese, dotted with the spice of green chili and capsicum….Very simple to make but very filling.

We had a great get together that day …..Priya chechi’s  kids Rohit and Ananya were  playing around as we sat around the table ,my mother and her siblings talking about their wonderful childhood back in Kerala in a small village called  Karukaputhur,pulling each other’s leg and indulging in some harmless gossip… … …….By the time we left  all of us were burping ,our bellies full of yummy cheese,chats ,ice creams  and more…….

My mother’s sister-in law-Reshmi Ammayi (ammayi is aunt in malayalam)makes lovely cheese chilli T’s too…..  so we had another round of them again ,this time at my uncle’s place another day the same week…..The more you have the more you want..

I have been wanting to feast on cheese chilli toasts for some days now….so today I decided I’m certainly going to make them….thankfully I had some cheese and  just enough capsicum in my pantry to make them……They are really easy to make…..especially if you want to pack a fast lunch to office or go on a picnic at short notice…they’ll be ready in minutes…..here goes the recipe:-

Ingredients

Bread-2 Slices

Cheese- 4-3tbsp(mozzarella or cheddar)

Green Chilli-2

Green capsicum-2 tbsp cubed

Pepper powder-1/2-1/4 tsp

Salt to taste

Method

Chop the chillies . Cube the capsicum. Grate cheese and mix the chillies and capsicum. Add pepper and salt. Take a bread slice. Spread the cheese mixture on the top. Preheat oven to 180 C for 10 minutes. Bake at the same temperature for 3-5 minutes or till cheese melts. Then turn the switch to grill mode and grill for 3 minutes till cheese starts bubbling and becomes slightly brown.

Serve with tomato sauce.

Notes:

You can add red or yellow  capsicum, tomatoes(deseeded) or onions to above cheese mixture.

You can also toast the bread on the tawa till slightly crisp.Spread cheese and put it on the tawa with cheese side up.Donot flip.Heat till cheese melts.

Garnish with coriander leaves

Little Aniket wanted to try them out with me today…He was chomping away some ghee dosa (Aniket loves dosas especially if its crisp and crunchy  and restaurant style)when his eyes fell on something cooking inside the oven…I tried to divert his attention… he wouldn’t be able to eat the toasts …. With the chilli and peppers they were a bit too spicy, especially for a 2 year old…But he wouldn’t budge until I slowly took them out, meticulously pulled out the chills and fed him some pieces of“unchillied “cheese toast….A glee on his face told me he loved it….He even asked for more….So we both  sat down… I unchillied one more toast and gave it to him. …He nibbled one  small slice…then looked at me and smiled…..My little dosa champ  suddenly turned out to be another cheese lover… 

 Lakshmi....

Vegetable Stew (for Palappam)

Not had palappams for a long  time…..Crispy at the sides  and soft centered….. dipped in creamy, pepper sprinkled Vegetable stew…….a tasty thought….I got up and coaxed my mom and we decided to make palappams for breakfast today…

Aniket my sonny just learned how to walk.He is almost two yrs now. He enjoys his new found  freedom…..he treads the house like a King who walks across his new kingdom. Half of my time goes running behind him all around the house,telling him not to do this-and-not to do that( regardless of the fact he understood or not),listening to his serious babble  or just going mad.I had arranged my  Vegetable stew in a nice little bowl  ready for the clicks for the blog. After I took the snaps I proceeded to the kitchen to finish an urgent chore. While I was busy I could hear Aniket cooing in the background. I walked to where he was standing only to see Aniket standing next to my Vegetable stew ready to dip his hands into its creaminess…I almost dived to where he was standing lest he should send the vessel off balance….I was just in time…to stop his highness from committing the act….and that saved our stomachs too from starving today morning or rather eating palappams alone without the stew….

In kerala this version of stew is made specially with palappams. There is another version  of stew or ``Ishtu” as we call it here served for the sadyas(feast) which is made with just potatoes,ginger,green chilli and onions cooked in coconut milk .But the one I have listed below is usually served with palappams or iddiyappams…

Mom made the palappams and me d stew….and here goes the recipe for the stew….

Ingredients

Carrot-1 cup cubed

Potato-1or 2 cups cubed

Green peas-1/4 cup

Onion-1 thinly sliced

Green Chilly-2/3 sliced or slit

Pepper powder/Whole pepper-1/4 tsp

Cinnamon-1 inch thick

Cardamom-2 or 3

Cloves-2

Ginger-1 inch peice

Thick coconut milk-1/2-3/4 cup

Thin coconut milk-11/2 cup

Curry leaves

Salt

Coconut oil

Method

Boil carrots and potatoes with ginger. Keep aside. Boil water. Put peas in the hot boiling water and boil till it is cooked. Strain and keep aside. Fry cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, and pepper in little coconut oil. Add onions. Sauté till translucent. Add green chilli and curry leaves. Add vegetables. Simmer and boil in thin coconut milk 5-10 minutes. Then add thick coconut milk and boil for2-3 minutes.Add salt.Serve warm with the palappams.

Variations

You can boil the sliced onions,cardamom,cloves,cinnamon,pepper,green chilli along with the vegetables and ginger.

You can sauté ginger garlic paste(1tsp each) with the onions in case you are frying the onions and not boiling it with the veggies.

You can boil the veggies in thin coconut milk instead of water.

Garnish with mustard seeds and curry leaves spluttered in little coconut oil.

Add 2 tsps of maida or cornflour to water and add to above to make it thick.

You can  also add ¼ cup beans to the veggies listed above and boil.