Channa Kabab

An easy restaurant recipe which can be prepared at home

Ingredients:
Channa dhal 100gm, cumin seeds, black pepper, cinnamon, cloves (lavangam), garlic cloves – 2, half inch ginger, one large size onion, bread slices – 3, few drops of lemon juice, salt and oil

Method:
> Soak channa dhal in water for more than 8 hours
> Drain the water and add cumin seeds, black pepper, cinnamon, lavangam, garlic cloves, ginger and chopped onion.
> Steam this in a pressure cooker until the dhal is very soft
> Cool it and blend it with salt (care should be taken in adding water while blending, do not add too much water)
> Remove the edges of the bread slices and add it to the blended mixture
> Mix it with few drops of lemon juice
> Make kababs and shallow fry in a tawa
> Serve it with ketchup

Kabab ready :)

Paal Kozhukattai

Only for those who have patience ;)

Yesterday was Ram Navami, so I prepared Paal Kozhukattai. It appears to be a simple recipe but it consumed lot of time to prepare.

Ingredients:
Raw rice, salt, milk – 500mg, milk powder (optional), sugar, cardamom powder, coconut milk

Method:
> Soak raw rice in water for about 2 hours.
> Drain the water and spread the rice in a clean towel and dry it under the fan.
> When it is little moist blend it in a blender
> Sieve the flour and boil the flour in an idly cooker (spread the flour on a clean cloth and place it in idly tray and boil it as you boil idly)
> Dry the boiled flour under the fan, sieve the flour and keep it aside.
> Boil water and add salt to it when it is very hot.
> Now add this hot water gradually to the flour and mix it with a spoon and make it a soft dough
> Cool the dough and roll it into thin, small, cylindrical kozhukattai
> Place the kozhukattai in a clean cloth and boil them in an idly cooker as you boil idly.
> Boil milk, add diluted milk powder in 1tbsp of milk
> Add kozhukattai and boil for some more time
> To this add sugar, cardamom powder and half a glass of thick coconut milk

Paal kozhukattai ready :)

Mango Ice Cream

Ingredients:
Large size ripe mango – 1, Milk 500 ml, condensed milk or milk powder, sugar, cardamom powder (optional)

Method:
> Boil the milk in slow flame till it becomes 3/4th of its original amount.
> Wash the mango and blend its pulp with one glass of this boiling milk
> To the boiling milk add condensed milk or milk powder and boil for few more minutes
> Add sugar and boil for few seconds until the sugar dissolves
> Switch off the stove and add the blended mixture when the milk is hot
> To this add half a pinch of cardamom powder (optional)
> Cool it and pour it in ice cream cups (preferable glass cups) and cover it with silver foil paper.
> Seal its mouth with rubber band and freeze it for more than 6 hours.
Note: Dissolve the milk powder in milk before adding it to the boiling milk

Rich and tasty mango ice cream ready :)

Bread Bonda

According to me any dish prepared with bread will taste awesome. This is an easy and quick recipe.

Ingredients:
Bread – 5 or 6 slices (large size), sooji, salt, chopped onions, chopped green chili/chili paste, chopped ginger/ginger paste, chopped curry leaves

Method:
> Remove the edges of bread slices and blend it.
> To this add 4 tsp sooji, chopped onions, chopped ginger, chopped green chili, chopped curry leaves and salt.
> Sprinkle very little water and make it a soft dough
> Roll it into balls and deep fry in oil
> Remove when golden brown and serve it with ketchup.

Bonda ready :)

Coffee Shake

An interesting and easy recipe for coffee lovers.

Ingredients:
Instant coffee powder, milk, ice cubes, vanilla ice cream, sugar, chocolate

Method:
> Pour 1tbsp hot milk in instant coffee powder
> To this add ice cubes (5), 1 scoop of vanilla ice cream, 2 or 3 tsp sugar and blend it in a juice blender
> Pour it in a milk shake glass and top it with vanilla ice cream and grated chocolates or coffee powder

Shake ready :)

Urad Dhal Vadai

It was karthigai, so I thought of making Urad dhal vadai (an easy recipe). Again this is a common South Indian recipe which is prepared for almost all festivals.

Ingredients:
Urad dhal – 1 cup, ginger half inch (optional), green chili – 2, salt, onion, curry leaves, rice powder or cornflour, soda-bicarbonate

Method:
> Soak urad dhal in water for about 1 hour
> In a grinder, grind ginger and green chili for few seconds
> To this add the urad dhal after draining the water
> Add salt while grinding (do not add too much water while grinding, add 4 or 5 tsp if required)
> To the grinded flour add chopped onions, chopped curry leaves, 3tsp rice powder or 2 tsp cornflour and diluted soda bicarbonate in few drops of water.
> Mix well and deep fry in oil till golden brown.

Vadai ready :)

You can soak the vadai in sambar or curd and have sambar vadai or curd vadai

Ven Pongal

Another from my dad’s favorite list. As for me I like the thirumala thirupathi’s ven pongal.

Ven pongal is a common south Indian recipe used for breakfast in south Indian homes.

Ingredients:
Rice – 1 cup, moong dhal – 1 cup, Ghee, water – 6 cups, salt, cahshew nuts, black peppercorns – 2tsp, finely chopped ginger/ginger paste 1tsp, cumin seeds -1tsp and curry leaves

Method:
>> Wash rice and moong dhal, drain the water and keep it aside
>> In a pan (nonstick pan) add 4tsp ghee and fry the rice and moong dhal for 2 to 3 min
>> To this add salt and water and let it cook
>> In another pan fry cashew nuts in ghee. Remove the cashew nuts and keep aside.
>> In the same pan fry pepper corns, ginger paste, cumin seeds and curry leaves.
>> Add these and the fried cashews to the cooked rice and dhal and mix well. Serve with coconut chutney/sambar/sugar.
Pongal ready :)

Note: Use ghee generously to prepare pongal ;)

Carrot Halwa

This is my first blog so I’m starting with a sweet.

One fine evening my father bought some fresh carrots from the market, I was wondering what to cook with that, then I thought of making my father’s favorite recipe “Carrot Halwa”.

It ‘s a simple recipe, easy to cook and delicious.

Ingredients:
Butter/ghee – 1/4kg carrot – 500mg milk - condensed milk (optional) – milk powder (optional) - sugar – cardamom powder – almonds & cashew nuts

Method :
>> Wash the carrots, peel the skin and grate it finely.
>> In a pan (nonstick pan) add 4 tsp of ghee or butter
>> To this add the finely grated carrot and roast it for 2 to 3 minutes
>> To this add milk and let the carrot cook
>> When the carrots are cooked you may add condensed milk or diluted milk powder (this is optional)
>> Now add 3 tbsp (=9tsp) of sugar to this.
>> Cook for long time till the halwa separates from the nonstick pan (till the ghee oozes)
>> In another pan fry almonds and cashew nuts in ghee.
>> Add cardamom powder and the fried nuts to the halwa.
Halwa ready :)