Tomato (thakaali Chutney)

This is the recipe of Aachi, the nanny, who take care of us when we were children. She died when I was in 12th std and I learnt this from my mom. A hot favourite of my family members and friends, I thought this will be a good recipe to share and this goes very well with idli or dosa.
Ingredients ( for 2 persons)
Onions - 3
Tomatoes-2
Red chillies -5
Garlic - 3 to 4 Cloves
Tamarid- a very small ball, less than the size of small gooseberry
Urad dhal- 1 tsp
Channa dhal ( kadalai paruppu)-1 tsp
Asafoetida powder- two three pinches
Mustard- 1/2 tsp
Gingelly oil- 1 tab spoon
Salt to taste
Procedure
Pour oil in a Kadai.  Once the oil becomes hot, add Mustard, Urad dhal and channa dhal one by one. Saute till it becomes light brown. See that the dhals are not over cooked. Add the asafoetida powder, garlic and the red chillies .Add the chopped onion. Cook till it becomes golden  brown .Add the tomatoes. Cook till it becomes soft and soggy .  Cooking the onion and tomatoes nicely is the secret of this  recipe.

 Add the tamarind in between and cook for one or two minutes. You may innovate by adding curry leaves or if you want to increase the quantity then you can add few coconut pieces. Add salt to taste

Remove from the stove. Grind it in the mixie after it cools down. Serve with idli or dosa. Don't forget to add few drops of Gingelly oil over the chutney when you serve to enjoy the ultimate taste.

Rava Kesari

I prefer to make it using less ghee, sugar and colour
Ingredients
Sooji or Rava- 1 cup
Sugar - 1/2 cup ( you may add more or less depending on your taste preference)
Ghee- 2 to 3 tbs
Cashew -10
Pachai  karpooram( Cooking one)- pinch
Food colour - few pinches
Elaichi /Cardamom- 3 pods
Preparation
Heat one tbs Ghee and roast the cashews in low flame till  it becomes light brown. Then roast the Rava till it starts to change colour.  You have to do this in low flame with continous stirring.

Boil 2 cups of water with food colour and crushed Elaichi, patchai Karpooram. ( this is the one used for cooking and avaliable in Grocery stores. If you don't like this smell then use Vanilla essence.  Once the water starts boiling add the rava/ sooji  taking care that no lumps are formed. Cook in low flame with continous stirring. As it thickens add sugar and stir continously. Add another tbs of Ghee and stir it seperates nicely from the Kadai.  The total cooking time will be only 10 to 15 minutes and it can be easily tried by beginners.

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

Sweet mango patchadi

With lovely raw mangoes available during this summer,  I could not resist this preparation.. I never knew this dish before marriage and learnt the basics from my mother in law and then made my own version.
Ingredients
2 medium size mangoes - 500gms
Jaggery - 250gms
Dry ginger powder - 1 tsp
Red chillies - 6 to 7
Chilli powder - 1 tsp
Pinch of turmeric
Salt to taste
Seasoning
Oil - 2 tab spoon
Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
Pinch of asafoetida
Curry leaves
Preparation
Cut the mangoes with the skin into medium
Size pieces. Add the chilli powder, turmeric  and salt and cook it the preassure cooker ( five whistles should be fine).

In the mean while, add a glass of water to the jaggery .. add the dry ginger (sukku)cook it till the Jaggery melts.  Strain this using a strainer and Keep it aside

Add this to the cooked mango pulp with constant stirring at medium flame.  Simultaneously heat oil in a Kadai,  add Mustard, asafoetida, red chillies and curry leaves , saute them , add to the mango jaggery mixture..

Keep stirring in low flame till the consistency becomes thick.

Can be served as a dessert, or can be served with curd rice or chapatti 

Puthina (mint chutney)

The basics of this recipe, I heard from one of my friends as her moms recipe. I made a minor twist to the recipe and here it is ..
Ingredients
2 handful of  mixture of mint ( in Greater proportion compared to others), coriander and curry leaves
One onion
One medium sized tomato
4 to 5 pods of ginger
3 to 4 small thin slices of ginger
5  red chillies
Small piece of tamarindays
3 to 4 thin strips of coconut
1/2 tsp  mustard
1 tsp urad dhal
1 tsp gram dhal
Pinch of asafoetida
1 tab spoon of oil

Preparation
Heat oil in a kadai. Put mustard and let it splutter. Add urad dhal, let it become light brown, add gram dhal and let it become light brown, then add asafoetida, garlic, ginger slices and red chillies.

Saute them nicely ..then add the onion.. cook till golden brown and then add the tomatoes.. cook till nice and soft.. cooking the onions and tomatoes nicely is important for the good taste.Then add the green leaves and coconut ( can be avoided if you are not for it). Saute for 2 to 3 minutes.. take it from the stove and allow it to cool..

Grind it into a hoarse paste.

Good combination with Briyani. Goes well with idli, dosa too 

Quick mango pickle

As this is a summer season, with plenty of mangoes available..it's time to make mango pickle and enjoy..
Mangoes - 2 medium size raw mangoes
Fenugreek seeds - 1/2 tea spoon
Chilli powder- 3 to 4 teaspoons
Gingelly oil - 100ml
Salt to taste
Pinch of Asafoetida

Preparation
Wash the mangoes and wipe them dry. Chop them into small pieces..

put the salt in mango pieces and toss frequently.  Keep it overnight. We can see water which has oozed from the mango salt mixture. We can sundry this for few days so that this water gets evaporated. In this case the pickle will last for a long time. Otherwise, proceed  to complete the pickle.

Heat the oil.. put the fenuGreek seeds , add aasafoetida.. then mango, add  the chilli powder, salt and cook it gor 7 to 10 minutes with  frequent tossing.

Cool the pickle and store it in refrigerator and use.. If you plan to finish it in one or two days, it can be kept outside. If you want instant pickle, you can skip the procedure of  keeping the mango with salt over night.

Puli milagai

This is an item which will be served in most of the southern Tamil Nadu wedding meals. Simple, easy to make, goes well with curd rice

Ingredients
Small onion ( sambar Vengayam ) - 1/4 kilo
Tamarind - size of lemon
Green chillies - 15  chillies ( more if you want it spicier )
Handful of curry leaves
2 to 3 table spoon of gingelly oil
Pinch of asafoetida
Mustard seeds and urad dhal  for seasoning - 1 teaspoon
Salt to taste

Procedure
Peel the small onions , rinse them and keep aside. Heat the oil in a Kadai ,  put the Mustard and urad dhal in oil and once it splutters , add asafoetida and then the curry leaves.. Add the onion and the chillies and saute till the onion is golden brown and becomes soft

In the meanwhile soak the Tamarind in 2 glasses of water and pour the thick Tamarind water to the onion.

 You can add a pinch of turmeric , salt to taste and let it reduce till oil separates from the mixture.  This can be stored in fridge and can be used for 2 weeks 

Tomato jam

This is my favourite during childhood. Coming from a small town, buying Jam was unheard in my family in those days and my mother used to prepare especially when we travel and later my mother used to send it to our hostels when we were in college.  Thanks to my brother who told this recipe, I  tried with a happy ending

Ingredients

Tomato -  1 kg
Sugar - 3/4 kg ( may increase , decrease according to your taste
Cardamom- 7 to 8 pods
Ghee - 3 to 4 tab. Spoon

Preparation
 Boil tomatoes in water for 10 minutes and let it stand for 5 more minutes. Drain the water and allow it cool

Peel the skin of the tomatoes and make a puree of it in a mixie along with cardamom

Heat Ghee in a  thick bottomed pan and add the puree and sugar and let it reduce with frequent stirring.

Keep on stirring..till Ghee separates from thepuree.

Cool it , store it and enjoy..