Beetroot Halwa

I am not a great fan of Beetroot, infact my family members, so wanted to give this in a different tasty form to my family members. Takes hardly 15 to 20 minutes to complete.
Ingredients
Beetroot 250gms
Milk -1 cup
Ghee- 1 tbsp
Cashew nuts
Sugar to taste

Preparation
Scrape the Beetroot. Add little water. Cook it in a pressure cooker till one whistle. Once the pressure goes, add the milk ( you can use full cream milk or condensed milk.. if condensed milk is added  then  add sugar cautiously.

Heat Ghee in a Kadai and fry cashews in low flame till light brown, add the Beetroot milk mixture to this and allow the liquid to reduce. . Add sugar .. Beetroot  will have sweetness ,so be cautious in adding sugar or if you use condensed milk. Once it thickens remove from the stove and serve hot or cold 

Mango rice ( mangaa Saatham )

Mango Saathamm. A quick two minute variety rice. In summer with lot of raw mangoes available, it is definitely a not to miss food.

Ingredients
Raw Mango medium sized ( half)- scrapped
Rice - 1 cup
Turmeric powder- one pinch
Seasoning
Mustard seeds- 1/2 tsp
Urad dhal - 1tsp
Gram dhal - 1 tsp
Peanuts-10 to 15
Asafoetida- pinch
Curry leaves
Dry chillies 4 to 5
Cooking oil - 1 tbsp
Preparation
Cook rice in your usual way.. see that the rice does not get overcooked .
Heat a Kadai ..add the oil .. once it becomes hot , add the Mustard seeds and let it splutter, add the uraddhal. . Saute till light brown, then gram dhal, and pea nut.. cook till light brown , add asafoetida.. red chillies and curry leaves and saute them ..Do all this in a low flame .. otherwise all this will get burnt .. then add scrapped raw mango , Turmeric powder and salt .. cook for 3 to 4  minutes and remove from the stove.

Take the cooked rice in a seperate vessel  and add the raw Mango preparation...mix both .. be careful not to break the rice and serve.

Vazhai poo Vadai

This is a delicacy dish served in most Chettinad restaurants
We will use  the banana flower after removing the thick single stem and petal like thing inside the florets. As we keep cleaning further, the florets inside will be small, we can use as such without trying to remove the thick stem and petal inside the floret. The parts in the third picture need to be removed.

Ingredients
Banana florets
Gram dhal- 250 mg
Onion - 4 chopped finely
Curry leaves- finely chopped
Chillies- 5 to 6 finely chopped
Ginger - a small piece finely choppedo
Asafoetida - 3 pinches
Preparation
Gramdhal Base
Soak the gram dhal for one hour in water. Drain the water and grind into a coarse paste . Dont add water while grinding. Then the vadai will absorb too much oil.
Add asafoetida, chopped ginger, curry leaves and chopped onion.
Banana flower
As mentioned in the beginning, clean the florets and finely chop it.
Add the chopped florets to the Gramdhal paste and mix thoroughly.

 Heat the oil in a pan for frying the vadai. Make small balls of the paste tightly and flatten it in the shape of vadai. Carefully drop it in the hot oil and cook it in medium flame. Once lightly brown, carefully turn to the other side without breaking it. Once both the sides are cooked, remove it, keep it on a tissue paper to remove excess oil.

Serve with white chutney

Vazhai poo ( Banana flower) gravy

Most part of the Banana plant are edible.  With Banana flower, a full Tamil Nadu meal can be served.
Cleaning Banana flower is tedious work but we can prepare different dishes with the parts of banana flower. Vazhai poo meen  kulambu ( vegetarian dish) is a delicacy  served in southern part of southe India during weddings.

 My mother is my inspiration for this dish. As a working woman and with four children, she made dishes using Banana flower often. I don't know how she managed in those days.
Ingredients
Banana florets
Onion-2
Tomato-2
Tamarind - gooseberry size
Chillies-2 to 3
Turmeric powder - pinch
Chillie powder -1 tsp
Coriander powder - 3 tsp
Jeera powder - 1 tsp
Fenugreek seeds - 1/2 tsp  for seasoning
Curry leaves
Oil - 2 tbsp
Preparation
Open the banana flower. Remove the dark red petals  ( we won't need this for cooking) Bunch of little florets will be seen. Take each floret, there will be a thick stem inside this among other slender stems.. and a thin petal. . Remove the thick stem and the petal like thing.. we won't these two. Separate the slender stems and keep aside .. this we will use for this gravy .with the other part we can prepare a side dish or Vazhai poo vadai. ( I will share the recipe it seperately )

We are going to use the part which is in the middle picture above. The two parts shown in the third picture should be discarded.

Soak Tamarind in half glass of water and keep seperately. Heat oil in a kadai. Add the Fenugreek seeds..we have to use the onion as a paste.. grind the onion in a mixie and add .. cook nicely .. similarly add tomato puree and cook nicely till the raw smell goes and oil separates. This stage is important. Add the curry leaves and chillies

Then add the parts of the banana florets and saute.. then add the chilli powder, coriander powder,Jeera powder and turmeric powder.. toss slightly and add little water. Squeeze the tamarind soaked in water and make a semi thick Tamarind water.. add the Tamarind water to the gravy and enough water and salt.. cook till the masala smell goes, the gravy thickens and oil separates from the gravy. Sprinkle 1 tbsp  of gingelly oil over the gravy and remove from the stove

This can be served with rice, curd rice, Idli

Mango popsicle

With the arrival of mangoes and the unbearable heat of summer, tried mango popsicle

Ingredients 

Full cream milk - 500ml

Sweetened Condensed milk - 200gms

Ripe mango - 1

Sugar - 2 tbs

Procedure 

Boil the milk and cook in low flame with frequent stirring  until it reduces to half. Add the sugar ( I added because the ripe mango I had was little sour.. you can add more or less according to taste.) and condensed milk and mix thoroughly . Allow it to cool. Make a puree of the mango and add it to the above

Mix it thoroughly and pour it in the popsicle module and freeze for it for 8 hours.

When you take the popsicle from the mould , show the mould in running water , the popsicle will come easily from the mould.

 Enjoy

Vegetarian eggetarian omelette

I tried to give egg  in nice and  different shapes and with vegetables to my family
Ingredients
Eggs-4
Onions-3
Carrot-1
Chillies-3
Capsicum- 2 ( small one)
Pepper and salt to taste
Preparation
Finely chop the onions, Carrot , one capsicum and  chillies. Heat two tsps of oil in a pan, saute  onion and Carrot.  Sprinkle the pepper and salt and mix well till nice and soft. Add the capsicum and toss for 2 minutes. Keep it aside and allow it to cool.

Beat the eggs in a bowl with salt and pepper  till fluffy.  Add the onion vegetable mixture to the eggs and mix thoroughly. I cooked this in different shapes

1. Take a small pan.. I had kept one capsicum for this. I had scooped the contents from inside the capsicum and cut it into rings. Toss the capsicum in the pan with little oil . Then add the egg vegetable mixture slowly inside the ring. We get an omelette in the shape of the ring and turn it and cook the other side. ( thanks to Dr. Annie who is a brilliant and young colleague of mine for the idea)
2. I made  omelette with the egg vegetable mixture

3. Karandi
Heat a paniyaram pan and pour little oil in each hole.. once the oil becomes hot add the egg vegetable mixture.. cook this  in medium flame as this will get burnt quickly. Once the sides gets cooked, turn it slowly with a thin metal stick which we use to turn the paniyaram. Wait till the other side gets cooked. Take it..  plate it... serve it ..and enjoy

Attukkaal kulambu ( paayaa)

My mother is an expert in making this and my brothers, nieces and my husband love this. Hence the recipe for others to enjoy.. simple,  easy to make without much ingredients.
Ingredients
Aatukkaal ( paayaa)
2 onions
2 medium sized tomatoes
2 tsp pepper
2tsp Cumin seeds
Turmeric powder - half tsp
Chilli powder - 1 tsp
Salt to taste
Curry leaves
Procedure
Cook aatukkal  ( lightly roasted,  cleaned and chopped to medium size pieces in the meat shop. Wash nicely before cooking ) onions, Turmeric, pepper and Jeera powder with water in a pressure cooker ( 5 to 7 whistles then 10 minutes in low flame )
Then once the pressure goes check whether the meat has become soft . Otherwise see whether enough water is in the cooker and repeat the cooking in pressure cooker. ( if the meat is not tender , it might take a longer  time . Adding a pinch of cooking soda will help it to cook faster).

Usually I do this on the previous day and keep it in the refrigerator.  Next day, I add tomatoes, chilli powder, salt and cook in pressure cooker ( 3 whistles and 5 minutes in low flame)
Once the pressure is released, keep it in the stove and allow it to boil for 5 minutes. Add curry leaves liberally for excellent aroma.
Serve with Idli, dosa and rotisserie

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Lamb Mossaukka - Indian style

This is a favourite dish of our family , learnt the recipe from my sister .. when she did for the first time in our house,  it was a super  hit.
Ingredients
Minced lamb -300gms
Tomatoes -2
Onion -2
Ginger garlic paste - 2tsp
Green Chillies -2
Chillie powder - 1 tsp
Coriander powder - 2 tsp
Jeera powder - 1 tsp
Turmeric powder - pinch
Salt to taste
Medium sized Brinjal - 2
White sauce
All purpose flour - 2 tsp
Butter - 1 tbsp
Milk - 100 ml
Pinch of pepper and salt to taste

Preparation

Heat the oil in a pan/ cooker .. add Cinnamon,  Cardamom,  Cloves.  Add the onion and cook till golden brown, add the ginger garlic paste and cook till the raw smell goes. Add the tomatoes and cook till soft .. add the Minced meat and saute until no water oozes from the meat. Add the Turmeric, chillie powder, Coriander powder and Jeera  powder. Mix for a minute and add water until the meat is covered . Pressure cook it ( three whistles and five minutes). Once the pressure goes open the lid and cook the meat preparation till it becomes semi dry.

Cut the Brinjal into small round pieces, mix it with salt and pepper powder and grill it in a pan two minutes. Take a microwave bowl , put the cooked meat and arrange the brinjal on top of the meat in layers

Prepare the white sauce by heating butter in a pan and then add the all purpose flour , toss it for few seconds,  pour the milk and mix thoroughly without any lumps. Sprinkle the pepper, salt and mix. 

Now pour this white sauce on top of the brinjal  which is above the meat and cook it in the microwave for 7 to 8 minutes. Take it and serve with Bread or Roti