Jamun Burfi

This recipe is my mother's. 'Jamun' burfi gets its name from the ready made Gulab Jamun mix powder, which is being used along with other ingredients to make this awesome sweet dish. Just when, I've been having a bunch people hopping into our home to keep our spirits high, this winter, I asked Amma, what sweet may be prepared. Thats when she sprung up with recipe which calls for jamun mix...I had half a packet left in the fridge, which I had left untouched for few days now. Thought that this was the best way to surprise everybody instead of the same good old jamun!

Ingredients:
Instant Jamun Mix- 1 cup (I'm using MTR)
Milk- 1 cup
Ghee- 1 cup
Sugar- 2 cups
Cashew nuts and Almonds- Few
Cardamom powder- A pinch

Method:

In a heavy bottomed vessel, add half the quantity of ghee, milk, sugar and the jamun mix. Mix all the ingredients well so that there are no lumps at all. Now, on medium heat, bring this mixture to a boil and continue stirring it till it attains a thick consistency. The color of the mixture will turn roasted brown. Add the remaining half of the Ghee and mix well. Add thin slices of cashew nuts and almonds to it. Add the cardamom powder too. The mixture will leave the sides of the vessel. Transfer it onto a greased plate. You may run the knife on it when it has cooled for about 10 minutes. Absolutely delicious burfi is ready to be served!

Preparation Time: 45 Minutes
Quantity yield: 15

Sabsige Soppu (Dill leaves) Chutney

This one comes from my MIL's kitchen. Its another, one of those typical South Canara dishes. I love it for another fact that Dill leaves help relieve my kiddo's occasional Colic pain. It helps pass the accumulated gas in his tiny tummy which is the actual cause for Colic. It soothes his delicate stomach walls and helps increase his digestive power too. Its an easy to do dish and good to taste!

Ingredients:

Grated Coconut- 2 tbsp
Sabsige soppu- Few leaves (only)
Tamarind- 1 inch peice
Hing/Asafoetida- A pinch
Dry roasted Channa dal/Chickpeas lentil- 1 tsp
Red Chilly-1
Salt to taste
Oil- 1 tsp
Urad dal- 1 tsp
Mustard seeds- 1/2 Tsp
Curry leaves- Few

Method:

Grind Coconut, Dill leaves, Tamarind, Hing, Dal and Red chilly to a fine paste. Add salt to taste. In a pan, heat the oil. Add Urad dal and Mustard seeds. When the mustard seeds splutter, add the Curry leaves. Season the Chutney with this tempering. Enjoy with Rice, Idly or Dosa!

Preparation Time: 15 Minutes
Serves: 2 people

Kai Murukku

Kai murukku evokes memories of wedding. This is one of the important 'Cheeru Bakshanam' (Snacks given to the grooms side during wedding). This is a hand made snack and hence require a lot of patience. Amma prepares one of the best murukku. I admire the way she makes them so evenly. I have tried them and somehow never mastered this art ...

Here is her recipe.

Ingredients:
Rice - 6 cups
Urad dal (fried and powdered) - 1/4 cup
Cumin seeds (crushed a little) - 3-4 tsp
Butter - 3 tbsp
salt
Oil - for deep frying

Method:
Soak rice for 10 mins. Then drain water thoroughly by keeping it in a colander for 10 mins. Then powder it in a mixer-grinder till it becomes a fine powder. Sieve this further. Sieving is really important to get a fine texture and also to remove any impurities.
Mix the rice flour, urad dal powder, salt, cumin seeds and butter. Add enough water to make a soft batter.


Take a small lemon size dough and use your index and thumb fingers and sprial in circular motion either on news paper or paper towel.


Heat oil in a frying pan.
When it is very hot, carefully slide the murukku and fry on both the sides till they are golden brown.
Drain and remove to a tissue lined container.
Enjoy the fruit of your hard work :)

Preparation time: 40 min
Yield: 30

Paruppu Urundai Kuzhambu

This is an interesting curry made in most of the tamil Iyers and Iyengars. 'Paruppu Urundai' is nothing but koftas made with toor dal. These koftas are used as a substitute for vegetables. This is a wholesome and healthy curry.

Here is the recipe.

Ingredients for Paruppu Urundai:
Toor Dal - 3/4 cup
Red Chilli - 2
Salt
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Chopped Onion (optional) - 1/4 cup
Grated coconut (optional) - 1/4 cup
Chopped green chillies - 2
Rice flour - 1 tsp
Asafoetida - 1/2 tsp

Method for Paruppu Urundai:
Clean and soak the dal for 2 hours.
Drain and grind the dal along with red chilli, salt and asafoetida into a coarse firm paste.
Heat a little oil in a pan and allow mustard to splutter. Add green chilli and onions and fry till the onion turns golden brown.
Add the ground dal paste. Stir till it changes color.
It might stick to the pan, but still keep stirring till the raw smell of dal goes.
When done, remove from fire and add grated coconut and rice flour. Mix well and prepare small balls.


Ingredients for Kuzhambu:
Tamarind - 1 small lemon sized
Red chilli - 1
Toor dal - 1 tsp
Channa dal - 1 tsp
Fenugreek seeds - 1/2 tsp
Mustard - 1 tsp
Asafoetida - 1/2 tsp
Curry leaves - 4-5 strands
Sambar powder - 2 tbsp
Gingely oil - 2-3 tbsp

Method for Kuzhambu:
Heat oil in a pan, season with mustard, asafoetida and curry leaves. Add red chilli, fenugreek seeds and the dals. Add sambar powder and fry for 5 sec. Immediately add tamarind extract and salt. Allow to boil for 15-20 min. Then slowly drop 2 balls at a time into the boiling gravy. When the balls are cooked, they will float to the top. Boil together for few more min.

Preparation time: 45-50 mins
Serves: 4 people

Roasted Brinjal Mosaru Bajji

This recipe has been passed on to me by my sister...who has learnt it from her MIL. It is indeed one of the tastiest 'avtar' of Brinjal! It doesnt require any cooking, except for roasting the Brinjal. Traditionally, this was done in the 'Chulha' where, they would just leave the Brinjals on the red hot coal. They would have, for example, cooked rice and put the fire off. Yet the heat present in the Chulha is sufficient enough to roast Brinjal! Well, in our gadget-savvy kitchen..we have the oven! We have to basically bake it for about an hour at 180 deg centigrade. Of course, in case you have a gas stove, you could just expose the Brinjal to the open flame and it would just take few minutes.

Ingredients:
Big Purple Brinjal- 1
Yogurt/curd- 1 1/2 cup
Salt to taste
Green chillies- 2 chopped
Coriander leaves- Few
Oil- 2 tsp
Urad dal- 1 tsp
Mustard seeds- 1/2tsp
Red Chilly- 1 (Broken into pieces)
Curry leaves- few

Method:
Apply oil around the Brinjal and place in a tray covered with Aluminum foil. Pre-heat the oven to 180 deg C. Once, the desired temperature is attained, place the tray inside the oven and leave it for about an hour.


After an hour, take the tray out and let the Brinjal cool for few minutes. You can easily peel off the skin and keep the pulp aside. To this add Yogurt, Salt, Green chillies and mix well. In a pan, heat oil. Add Urad dal, Mustard seeds and Red Chilly pieces. Once the mustard starts to splutter, add the Curry leaves and pour this seasoning to the Brinjal-Yogurt mixture. Mix well and garnish with Coriander leaves. Enjoy with Rice!

Preparation Time: 1h:15Minutes
Serves: 2 people

Lemon Rasam

One of the much sought after Rasam in our home is Lemon Rasam. This rasam may be relished with hot Rice and roasted papad or each sip may be enjoyed like a soup! With winter very much in, this rasam is always relished with a bright smile to lighten up the dark days!

Ingredients:

Cooked Toor dal- 2 cups

Chopped Green chillies- 2

Chopped Ginger- 1 inch peice

Curry leaves - Few

Coriander leaves- Few sprigs

Turmeric powder- A pinch

Salt to taste

Ghee- 2 tsp

Urad dal- 1 tsp

Mustard seeds- 1/2 tsp

Red chilly- 1 (Broken into pieces)

Jeera/Cumin seeds- 1/2 tsp

Hing/Asafoetida- A pinch

Lemon- 1

Method:

Take the cooked dal in a vessel and add Green chillies, Ginger, Curry leaves, Coriander leaves, Turmeric powder and salt. Mix well and bring it to a nice boil. In a small pan, heat ghee. Add Urad dal, Mustard seeds, Red chilly pieces and Jeera. Once the mustard has stopped spluttering, add Hing and pour this tempering to the Rasam. Finally, Before, serving, squeeze a lemon and enjoy!

Note- You may crush some garlic and add to the tempering. Thats a differet experience altogether!

Preparation Time: 30 Minutes

Serves: 4 people

Avarekaalu Akki Rotti

Its Avarekaalu season here in India and its wonderful to be here during this time :). I can try many of my favorite dishes with this tasty beans. Avarekaalu or Hyacinth beans is a favorite of any kannadiga. During the season, you can see in every house people buy these in loads and they all sit together to remove the beans from their pods ... A variety of dishes are prepared using these beans like sambar, usli, uppittu (upma), nippattu (snack), rotti...the list goes on.

Akki Rotti is perhaps a unique dish of Karnataka. Though it might sound similar to Thali peet of Maharashtra, this dish is prepared only with rice flour as a main ingredient. This is one of my favorite breakfast items. Generally it is prepared with only using onions and other spices but during Avarekaalu season you cant miss using them.

Here is the recipe.

Ingredients:
Rice flour - 3 cups
Chopped onions - 1 cup
Freshly grated coconut - 1 cup
Avarekaalu (cooked) - 1 cup
Chopped coriander leaves - 5-6 tbsp
Chopped green chillies - 2
Minced ginger - 3 tsp
Cumin seeds - 3 tsp
Salt


Method:
Mix all the above ingredients in a bowl and then add water slowly to make a thick dough as in the picture.
Since the rice flour does not have the elastic nature of wheat flour, it cannot be rolled out. Instead you have to use your bare hands to flatten them either directly into a pan, or use a moist cloth or plantain leaf. Here I am using plantain leaf.
Apply oil over the plantain leaf and your hands as well. Take a handful (large lemon sized) of dough and flatten it using hands over the leaf.


Heat a tava. Transfer the flatten rotti onto the tava and after 2-3 sec remove the leaf. Pour a tsp of oil and let it cook for 1-2 minutes and then turn the other side and pour a tsp oil and cook for another 1-2 minutes.
Serve hot with chutney or brinjal ennegai (Recipe coming soon ...).

Preparation time: About 4-5 minutes for each rotti.
Serves: 5 people

Uppu puli dose

This is a variety of dosa prepared in South Canara district of Karnataka. It has an assortment of spices which is ground with Coconut and added to the Rice batter. This imparts all the flavors and the aroma to the dosa. The speciality of this dosa is that we do not use Urad dal. Instead, a tablespoon or two of coconut gives the softness to the dosa.

Ingredients to grind for the Dosa batter of 3 cups of ONLY Rice:


Grated Coconut- 2 tbsp
Coriander seeds- 1 1/2 tbsp
Jeera/Cumin seeds- 2 tsp
Red chillies- 4-5 [If they are not of the hot variety, you may add more chillies which gives dosa the unique color; unfortunately, the chillies, I'm using are real hot...hence, added only few :( ]
Tamarind pulp- Extracted from a Lemon sized ball of Tamaind
Jaggery- 1 tbsp (Optional)

Method:
Grind the above mentioned ingredients to a fine paste and add it to the Dosa batter which has only Rice. Keep for fermentation for about 6-8 hours. Check for salt and pour a ladle full of batter on the hot tava. Cove and cook the dosa on one side. You may relish this with a dollop of butter or jaggery!

Preparation Time: 5 Minutes for the dosa
Serves: 4 people.

Green fritters

I have been thinking of posting this since a very long time. I love experimenting in the kitchen and this is one of the results of my experiments :). I have made a few changes (or added my own ingredients) to the usual bajji recipe and this is a hit with my family.

Here is the recipe.

Ingredients:
Thinly sliced onion - 1 big
Besan - 6 tbsp
Corn flour - 5 tbsp
Rice flour - 2 tbsp
Salt
Asafoetida (Hing) - 1/2 tsp
Oil - For deep frying

To grind:
Curry leaves - 5-6
Coriander leaves - A small bunch
Green chilli - 1
Tamarind - a small piece
Ginger - a small piece
Cumin seeds - 2 tsp


Method:
Grind the masala ingredients adding very little water to a fine paste.
Take the rest of the ingredients in a bowl and mix the ground paste and make a thick batter (bajji consistency) adding little water.
Heat oil in a frying pan.
Dip the thinly sliced onions in the batter so that it is thinly coated in batter, and put it in the hot oil. Fry till golden brown.
Serve hot with sauce or chutney.

Preparation Time: 25 mins
Serves: 2 people