Coconut Chutney

Coconut chutney is the basic and easy chutney that is made in every south Indian homes for breakfast or Tiffin. It goes well with idly, dosa , kozakattai, uppuma, pongal , kichidi etc. My mom makes it without the garlic. But try it with a 1 clove of garlic the chutney really tastes good. Until I grew up I used tell my mom make the coconut chutney like the ones severed at hotels/restaurants. But found out that just 1 clove of garlic makes such a huge difference.


Ingredients:
3/4 cup of fresh coconut, grated ( shredded copra will also do)
4 small green chilies, chopped
1 teaspoon ginger, grated
2-3 tablespoon roasted split gram (dalia dal), optional
salt to taste
small piece of tamarind
1 clove of garlic(optional)

For the tempering:
1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds
1 red chili, broken into pieces
3/4 teaspoon of urad dal
hing a pinch
2 to 3 curry leaves
1 teaspoon oil

Method:

Grind the coconut, green chilies, ginger, roasted split gram , garlic , tamarind and salt in a blender with a little water and grind to make a fine paste. Prepare the tempering by heating the oil and adding the mustard seeds, urad daal, red chili and curry leaves and stirring till the mustard seeds crackle. Pour this tempering over the chutney and mix well and enjoy.

Dal Tadka

There are many varieties of dal that you can make.  With or without tomatoes, with different vegetables , with different dals or combination of dals etc.. Dal tadka is simple and basic dal which can be had with rice or roti.  And can be served as soup for dieters :-).  Yeah read somewhere that singer Adnaan Sami's dinner was a bowl of dal when he was trying to reduce his weight.

Ingredients:
Moong Dal / Toor dal - 1 cup (I prefer toor dal)
tomatoes - 3 chopped
Onions - 1 chopped
Turmeric - a pinch
Green chillies - 2 or 3
Garlic - 2/3 pods chopped
Ginger - a small piece chopped
Coriander chopped
Salt - to taste
Lemon juice - (according to the taste)
Water 2 glasses
Garam Masala 1/4 tsp
dhaniya powder 1/4 tsp
chilli powder 1/4 tsp
Jeera seeds (Cumin seeds) - 1/2 tsp
Sounf seeds - 1/2 tsp
Ghee - 2 tsps
oil  - 1 tsps

Method:
Pressure cook  dal with water and turmeric until 3 whistles.  If you don' t have a pressure cooker then just  take a microwavewable dish and cook dal with water for 25 mins.  Now take pan and add oil.  Add cumin seeds, sounf and add the Ginger and Garlic and fry.  Then add onion until it becomes translucent and then add tomatoes and green chillies.   Add the Garam Masala ,salt  and dhaniya powder cook for a minute.  Add diced tomatoes and let them cook until the oil seperates.  Now addd the cooked dal and let it simmer for 5 more minutes on slow heat.   Take a small fry pan add 2 tablespoons of ghee and add some red chilli powder and fry for a minute and  pour this on top of the dal .  Garnish with chopped coriander and enjoy.

Onion Chutney/Vengayai Thogaiyal

This is one of my husbands favorite chutney. Actually he is not a pickle/chutney person. But this and coconut chutney is exception for him.

Ingredients:

Onions - 3 big thinly chopped
2 tsp - Urad daal
2 tsp - channa daal
red chili - 3 nos
salt to taste
methi seeds -few
tamarind paste 1/4 tsp
oil for frying the above ingredients

Method:

First heat pan with little oil and fry the daals, red chili and methi seeds. Then remove them from oil and then start frying the onions until transparent. Once the onions cools, grind the onions along with the daals , methi seeds, red-chili, tamarind paste and salt. This chutney should not be waters like coconut chutney , it should be stiff. This goes well with chapattis and rice. Enjoy.

Malai Kofta

Ingredients:

This is my second time making malai kofta at home.  I have invited few friends over dinner for the christmas eve.   So tried making malai kofta.

For the Kofta:
5- potatoes
2 cups of crumbled paneer
1/4 cup cashewnuts - for stuffing inside the kofta 
1/4 cup raisins - for stuffing inside the kofta
1 tsp - chilli powder
1/4 tsp sugar
1 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp cumin powder
1/2 tsp cardammom powder
Salt To Taste
3 tbsp cooking oil/ghee(clarified butter)
Oil for frying the koftas

For the gravy:

onions -2 medium chopped
garlic - 3pods chopped
small piece of inch ginger - chopped
tomatoes - 3 large chopped
red-chilli powder - 1 tsp
cinnamon - 1 small stick
cardomon- 3 small pods
cloves - 2/3
bay leaf - 1
jeera and sounf - 1/2 tsp
1/2 tsp dhania(corainder) powder
1 tsp powdered poppy seeds
1/2 tsp sugar
2 tbsp cashewnuts

Method :

Boil the potatoes till tender and peel mash it.  Mix salt and little chilli-powder and keep it aside.  Mix paneer, masala ingredients along with cashews and raisins for the fillings.  Now take small amount of the potato dough make small circular discs and place a little prepared mixture in the center of each round.  Seal the edges and shape into stuffed rounds.  Heat oil and deep fry each kofta till golden brown. Drain and keep aside.

Now heat little oil and fry the raw masla along with cashewnuts, ginger, garlic, onions and tomatoes and blend together into a paste.  Now heat oil and fry the gravy till the oil separates and add malai , masala powders and sugar.  Let the gravy simmer and  thicken.   Mix in some water if necessary. Now add koftas and remove from the heat after a minute or two.
Note: The koftas should be added just before serving else they might turn soggy.

Palak Roti

Ingredients:

3 cups of wheat flour
salt to taste
1-green chilli
palak - 1 cup (I used frozed spinach)
garlic - 2 pods
ginger - small piece
jeera - 1/2 tsp
turmeric powder - little for color
water to knead.

First microware spinach at high for 2-3 minutes and grind cooked spinach, garlic, salt , ginger  and jeers with little water.  Then add the mixture to the dry flour and knead into a soft dough by adding water slowly if needed.  Let the dough rest for 30 minutes and take a pich of dough and roll into small cirlcles evenly.  Heat tawa and place the roti on the tava when its cooked on one side flip it.  And when you see small bubles directly throw it on the flame and let it cook.  Apply ghee if needed and roll them with paper towels.  Spinach roties are ready.  This can served with any vegetable dish or served with just plain raita and pickle.  Enjoy.

Tindora masala (Dry curry)

First time I tasted tindora was at Chennai. At my house we never cook tindora. Tindora is rich in carotene and is good for sugar patients.

Ingredients :

Kovakkai / Tindora - 3 cups (cut lengthwise or in circles )
Onions- 1 large chopped finely
Tomato - 1 large
Ginger - small piece (chopped finely)
Garlic cloves - 2 (chopped finely)
Coriander powder- 1 tsp
Chili powder – 1/2-1 tsp or acc to taste
Turmeric powder- ¼ tsp
Salt to taste
Oil- 4 to 5 tsp
For seasoning
Mustard seeds- ¼ tsp
Jeera- ¼ tsp
Curry leaves - few
sounf

Wash and cut tindora either lengthwise or in circles. Heat oil in a pan and add mustards and then jeera , saouf and curry leaves. Then to it add onions, ginger and garlic fry it until its cooked. Then add tomatoes and fry it until its cooked. Then add tindora and all the masala items along with salt and add little water and close it with a lid. Once the tindora is cooked remove the lid and let it fry for few minutes depending upon the quantity and the pan you are using it to fry. This sabji goes well with rice and rotti.

Karthigai pori (puffed rice) urrundai

The karithigai pori can be made with either aval pori or nel pori. When we buy pori for karthigai it comes with lot of husk. And during karthigai month preparation starts early. We kids around the house help mom to clean up the pori.

Ingredients:

Pori - 5 cups
jaggrey - 1 cupdried
ginger(chukku) - a piece
coconut pieces - few.
water

Prepare the syrup by boiling 1/2 cup of water with jaggrey. The syrup should be thick. To check the consistency pour few drops of syrup and try to make a small ball out of it. If it’s still soft then you need to boil further until the ball formed makes a thud sound when you throw it on the kitchen counter. Once the syrup is ready quickly add the pori, dried ginger and coconut pieces. At this point you have to be quick mix all the ingredients and make small balls. Pori urundai is ready.