Our blog's first anniversary and Seven cups

Dear fellow bloggers. Today is our blog's first anniversary. It has been a exciting journey into the blogging world so far and we thank all our fellow bloggers and well wishers who have supported us throughout and made blogging a happy experience. Hope we get more and more support from all of you in future as well. Happy blogging!!!

We are celebrating this happy occasion by preparing Seven cups. The name seven cup has been coined because it has 7 cups of ingredients.My mom makes wonderful sweets especially her seven cups always turn out perfect. She is here now, she made this delicious treat. Here is the recipe for you all to try and enjoy!

Ingredients:
Besan (gram flour) - 1 cup
Refined Oil / Ghee - 1 cup
Freshly scraped or dessicated coconut - 1 cup
Milk - 1 cup
Sugar - 3 cups

Method:
Grease a plate/pan(or a deep dish) with ghee and keep aside.
Fry besan in abt 1 tbsp of ghee till you get a nice aroma.
Combine the rest of the ingredients and place on a medium-low heat constantly stirring.
Cook until the mixture thickens and leaves the sides of the pan. This might take about 15-20 min.
Immediately transfer the contents to the greased plate/pan.
Once the gram flour is aromatic, tip the contents of the bowl into a wok. Keeping the flame low at all times, constantly keep stirring the contents till reduced to nearly half. For the quantities specified, this takes 15-17 minutes.
At the end of 15 minutes, immediately transfer the contents of the wok onto the greased baking sheet.
Press evenly and cut into desired shape.

Preparation Time: 30 mins

Pudina / Mint Rice

I had a bunch of mint leaves lying in my fridge for a long time. To finish the whole bunch at a shot, came up with this simple yet tasty pudina rice. Here is the recipe.

Ingredients:
Vegetables like Potato, beans, peas, carrot etc cut into lengthwise (1 inch pieces)- 1 cup
Onion chopped - 1 big
Rice - 1.5 cups
Cinnamon - 1 small piece
Cardamom - 1
Cloves - 2
Mustard - 2 tsp
Cumin seeds - 2 tsp
Fennel seeds - 2 tsp
Oil/butter
Salt

To Grind:
Pudina/ mint - 1 big bunch
Tomato -1
Garlic - 1 pod (big)
Ginger - 1 inch piece
Cinnamon - 1 small
Green chilli - 2 (can add more based on the hotness)

Grind the above ingredients to a fine paste without adding water and keep aside.

Method:
Roast cinnamon, cardamom and clove till you get a aroma. Add this to the rice and cook the rice with enough water and keep aside.
Heat oil/butter in a pan. Add mustard. When it splutters add cumin and fennel seeds. Then add the onion and fry for few minutes. Then add the vegetables and fry till they are cooked a little. At this stage add some salt and fry for some more time. Then add the ground pudina mixture and fry till the oil separates. Add 1/2 cup water (little less is also fine based on the quantity of vegetables) and cook the vegetables. When the vegetables are cooked add the cooked rice and mix well. Adjust salt. Serve hot with chutney or raitha.

Preparation Time: 30 mins
Serves: 4 people

Godhumai/ Broken wheat Pradhaman

Main ingredient for any pradhaman is coconut milk. Kerala,being the land of coconuts, has variety of pradhamans. I have blogged about Pazha Pradhaman earlier. Here is the recipe for another popular pradhaman with broken wheat.


Ingredients:
Broken wheat - 3/4 cup
Jaggery - 1 cup
Coconut milk - 1 cup
Cardamom powder - 1 tsp
Water

Method:
Pressure cook the broken wheat using 3/4 cup water.
Melt the jaggery with a little water and strain to remove any impurities.
Boil the jaggery syrup and add the cooked broken wheat. Boil until the mixture is thick.
In a separate vessel mix 1/2 cup coconut milk with little less than 1/2 cup of water.
Add this to the boiling mixture. Let it simmer for 5 minutes.
Add the rest of the coconut milk and remove immediately from heat.
Stir in cardamom powder.

Note: If the pradhaman thickens too much, a little milk can be added. Adjust sweet accordingly.

Preparation Time: About 25 mins
Serves: 5-6 people

Manga Kootan/Mango Curry

'Manga Kootan' is an important dish on a Vishu day. It can be prepared either with raw mango or with the ripe ones. When using ripe ones you can omit jaggery. The vellarikai from Vishukani can also go into this wonderful dish. But here since the vellarikai is not available, I have used only raw mango.


Ingredients:
Raw mango cut into big chunks - 2 medium sized

Curds - 1 cup
Jaggery - as per taste (Consider the tanginess of the raw mango!)
Mustard - 1 tsp
Fenugreek seeds - 1/2 tsp
Red chilli - 2
Oil
Curry leaves - 7-8
Salt


To Grind:
Coconut - 1/2
Red chilli - 4-5
Green chilli - 3-4
Fenugreek seeds - 1 tsp

Method:
Fry the red chilli and fenugreek seeds in a little oil till the fenugreek seeds turn red. Cool and grind with coconut and green chillies. Curds can be used to grind. Keep this aside.

Cook the mangoes in enough water with turmeric powder and salt. When the vegetables are cooked add a small piece of jaggery to balance the tanginess of the mangoes. Add a few curry leaves. Mix the ground paste in the remaining curds and add to the cooked mangoes and boil. Remove from heat.

Now for seasoning, heat oil in a pan. Add the mustard seeds, methi seeds and red chilli cut into small bits. When the mustard crackles, add the curry leaves and pour the tempering into the manga koottan.

Enjoy with hot rice!

Preparation Time: 25 mins
Serves: 8 people

Vishu

After a long break its good to be back again. What better time to start than Vishu! Wishing all our readers and fellow bloggers a happy vishu/puthandu vazhtukal.

Vishu is the Malayalam New Year day, marking the start of the harvest season. There are a lot of customs associated with Vishu. More information about Vishu can be found here.


Vishu falls during the summer vacation in India and its so much fun with all the kids around. It has always been one of my favorite festival as we cousins used to gather at our grandparents place to celebrate it. In the pooja room a elaborate Vishu Kani would be set with all the vegetables and fruits of the season and the beautiful 'kanikonna'. Early morning patiyamma (grandmother) would wake us and closing our eyes would lead us to see the kani. And of course we would get a lot of 'kaineetam' from our uncles and aunts ;).

Then the best part would be the sadhya which is a elaborate vegetarian meal served on plantain leaf. Dishes are usually prepared from jackfruits, mangoes, pumpkins, and gourds besides other vegetables and fruits, which are in plenty at that time of the season. Here are some of the items that are traditionally served.

Manga Kootan/ Mango Curry
Inji Puli (Recipe coming soon)
Olan
Aviyal
Erissery
Thoran
Koottu
Sambar
Pachchadi
Rasam
Prathaman
Nendran Chips/ Banana Chips
Sharkara varatti/ Sharkara upperi
Pickle
Pappadam