Kulae Puttu, Steamed Cakes With Jackfruit And Rice Rava ( Idli Rava )

          Kulae Puttu, this is another Coorg recipe that I had tried out, after my trip to Coorg. The dish is made with jackfruit pulp and rice rava/ rice semolina, of course I made it a couple of months back, when jackfruit was still in season, somehow didn't get to post it till now. This is a healthy dessert, mildly sweet from the natural sweetness from the jackfruit and the jaggery added, but do try it, only if you like jackfruit. Since jackfruit is not in season now, you can try this with bananas too, serve it with a little ghee on top, very flavorful and delicious..

Payatham Paruppu Sundal, Moong Dal ( Green Gram ) Sundal

          Another Sundal for Navratri, Payatham Paruppu/Paasi Paruppu/Moong Dal/Husked Split Green Gram Sundal. This is very easy to make and tastes very good with the grated coconut added to it. Cooking the moong dal perfectly without making it mushy is the tricky part, other than that, it is so simple to make, very healthy and delicious snack..

Navratri Dishes

          Happy Navratri ! this festival goes on for nine nights and ten days, 'Nav' meaning nine and ' ratri ' meaning night, nine forms of Devi/Shakti are worshipped and the tenth day is celebrated as Vijayadashami  or Dusshara. Though we don't celebrate Navaratri or keep Golu ( toy exhibit ) at my place, I had always enjoyed going to Golu and of course eating the different types of sundals and other foods that are made on those days. Here are some sundals, payasams and pongals that we can make on those days, the dishes are onion and garlic free..

Rava Kesari, Sooji ( Semolina ) Kesari

          Rava Kesari is one of the few Indian sweets that my daughter likes, especially the one that my mother makes, in fact we all like it at home. We love it, when it's still warm ( chuda, chuda, before it thickens and solidifies ). It's a simple dessert, the only step where we have to be careful is when adding the roasted sooji/semolina/rava to the boiling water, have to keep stirring simultaneously, to get a smooth mixture without any lumps. The right amount of sweetness, generous amount of ghee and cardamom, gives a wonderful flavor to this dish. This post has been lying in draft for a long time, what better time to post than now, just before Navratri..

Radish Greens Curry, Mullangi Keerai Poriyal, Mooli Leaves Curry

          Though I buy radish/mullangi/mooli very often, and sometimes the greens also comes along with it, this is the first time I have cooked with them. Most of the times, the leaves that come with the radish are dry and not fresh, but this time, I got them very fresh, so decided to make a poriyal with it. Usually we add grated fresh coconut to the poriyal, this time I also added some roasted and coarsely pounded peanuts too. This gave a nice crunchy taste to the dish, can serve this curry with rice and sambar or with rotis and some dal, it goes very well with both..

Poha And Honey Dhoklas, Rice Flakes ( Aval ) Steamed Cakes

          This month, for the 'Shhhh Cooking Secretly' event, Lakshmi Vimala had given me poha/rice flakes and honey as the secret ingredients. There are a few dishes that we can do with these ingredients, but I wanted to do something wherein, I can conceal them as well, that's part of the fun in this event, looking at the pictures, one should not be able to tell the ingredients. I had something else in my mind, but this clicked out in the last moment. I just went ahead, with no idea how this would come out, whether the poha mixture will hold together after steaming and so on. The dish turned out really good, I have used red rice flakes and only honey along with a little dry fruits and coconut, an easy and healthy snack or breakfast dish..

Bharwan Bhindi, Stuffed Okra/Lady's Finger

          Okra, as I have said so many times, my family loves this vegetable, so I buy it very often. Apart from making the regular curry and sambar, I also like to try out new dishes with it. I have tasted Bharwan Bhindi, a couple of times in restaurants and this is the first time I have tried it at home, This is a simple and elegant dish, the okra/bhindi/lady's finger is stuffed with a mixture of spice powders and sauteed till crispy and golden brown. Serve it with rotis or rice along with a dal/lentils for a complete meal..

Vegetable Fried Rice

          Whenever we ordered Chinese Food, it's either some noodles or this Vegetable Fried Rice, being vegetarians, we didn't have many choices. It's been a very long time, that I made it at home, mostly because there'll be some ingredient missing or didn't want to eat Chinese. This time, I had everything in hand and was also at the same time in a mood to eat Chinese too. Chopping the vegetables into small pieces is the only major work here, otherwise it's a very simple dish and the other good thing being, we can make this from leftover rice too. Adding some tofu to the fried rice makes it a complete meal, we can have it as such, along with some chilly sauce on the side or make it even more interesting by serving it with some Cauliflower/Gobi Manchurian..

Naranga Curry, Kadarangai Oorugai, Wild Lemon Pickle

          Last weekend was Onam, though I couldn't prepare Onam Sadya, I wanted to make, at least a couple of dishes that are traditionally made on that day, next time I have promised myself that I'll make the complete meal with the 25 dishes. This year, I just made Parippu Pradhaman and then this Naranga Curry. Actually, while buying vegetables, my friend and I found this Kadarangai/Wild Lemon and we both sere getting it, when, another person in the shop mentioned to us that this curry is made as one of the Sadya dishes. So then, after coming home and going through a couple of recipes, I made it, Naranga Curry is nothing but an instant pickle made with wild lemon. It hardly takes 30 minutes to make, it has a nice sour and sweet taste and as all pickles goes very well thayir saadam/ curd rice, do try this if you can find this wild lemon..

Thakkali Kurma, Tomato Kurma

          Today's dish is going to be a simple and delicious Tomato Kurma, this comes in handy when you are running out of time or on those days you don't feel like chopping vegetables. The gravy is rich, flavorful and delicious from the coconut and cashew paste and goes well with rotis, idlis, dosas, as a side dish for pilafs and briyanis or even mixed with some plain white rice..

Cherupayar Parippu Pradhaman/ Kerala Style Moong Dal Payasam ( Kheer )

          Happy Onam ! This festival is celebrated in the state of Kerala in India, celebrating the homecoming of King Mahabali. It's celebrated for 4 days with many cultural events and of course the special Onam Sadya. This special meal includes a variety of dishes, different curries, payasams, pickles and the list goes on. Today's dish, Cherupayar Parippu Pradhaman, this a Kerala style payasam/kheer made with moong dal/ husked green gram. I got this recipe from a Malyalam Cookery show, it's a very easy dish and it tasted very delcious..

Karpuravalli/Doddapatre/Ajwain Leaves Thogayal ( Chutney )

          Ever since I made Tambli/ Raitha with Ajwain Leaves/Karpuravalli/Doddapatre, I wanted to try out something else with it, I made the Moru/Buttermilk with it, which was extremely refreshing and then I made this Thogayal/Chutney. I just added a few other ingredients that we usually add for making a chutney to the ajwain leaves, the thogayal turned out to be really good. The thogayal is not only very tasty but very healthy also ( I am not going to repeat the medicinal values of this herb, the web has more than enough information ). We had it, mixed with some white rice along with a teaspoon of sesame oil or ghee and it was very delicious..

Eggless Danish Pastry Envelopes, Blueberry Jam Envelopes

          After coming back to India from the US, one other thing that I missed is the Puff Pastry that we get back there. Till date, I am not able to get readymade puff pastry here, so I was thinking of doing it from scratch, but then, kept putting it off, thinking that it was a hard and tedious job. But I was proved wrong, thanks to Gayathri and the Eggless Baking Challenges that we take up every month. Yeah, for this month we had to try our hands at making Danish Pastry, which involves ' Laminating the Dough ' and the repeated rolling and folding process. The step by step pictures might make it look like a very lengthy procedure, but it's actually not that very hard, this is the first time that I made this and I am very satisfied with the end result, the Danish Pastries tasted absolutely delicious..