SUN TV & Other Recipe Collections

Hi R:

You have mentioned tamarind in the ingredients but havent instructed as to when to add it ? is it smabar w/o tamarind?

Thanks

Seetha

Hi seetha,

You can add tamarind when the water starts boiling, ok..

Frs,

I read sometime back..in the discussion of sambar..some one stated(nichiro?)the best sambar is coimbatore sambar. As i am from erode which is also kongu nadu(cbe,pollachi,erode,tripur,karur and salem belt -Kongu Nadu),i like to share the secret of the tasty kongu sambar.

After u preparing the sambar,finally u will add hing and switch of the fire. The secret is add spoon of jeera powder and a spoon of corriander powder along with hing. Amazingly u will get very delicious sambar. Try this when u make sambar next time.

Hi R,
Thanx for the Rava seedai..Seems simple enuf..Will try it out sometime soon..Becos of our in-depth discussions i feel pretty confident about it..Thanks for all ur inputs..

GVB

R I made Dal Kabab just now and it has come out really great..It smells really good too!!I also tried that "Dharmapuri keerai vadai" In Chef Damodharan thread posted by Indu and thats worth trying also..

GVB

Thanks for passing on the info., abt keerai vadai.

Abt dal kabab, made two times for my friends & folks. Both of the time, I got lots of compliments from everyone.

One tip when comes to dal vada; if you know it already, pls ignore..

Before grinding dal, take a handful of whole dal separately according to the qty. After grinding, mix the ground paste with the whole dal, make vada; then, you will realize the taste.

Bye.

Hi kavitha Senthil
Can yo u please post some Coimbatore/kongu nadu special veg recipes?Something unique,special in those parts of tamilnadu?

Regards
Sowmya :D

Hi R
Just made that "Kalasamelara Kuzhambu" and as u said it does taste heavenly..Thanx.
i din't know about adding whole dhal to the vada..I wish i had known b4..I'll incorporate that next time.It will be crunchier right if we had channa dhal like that?
I wanted to ask u this..can we make javvarisi payasam in the pressure cooker method?Also have u any idea how much semiya shud we add for semiya payasam?

GVB

Sowmya,
Sure, will post couple of tasty recipes from our area.

Hi gvb,

Abt vada, adding whole dhal to the ground paste will give not only a crispier one, but also yield a tastier vada. If you make it, then will know the difference.

By any chance, if yr vada does not turn out crispier, you can add 1 tbsp of rava too; then, the crispiness will come automatically which tried many times.

Abt payasam, have not tried with sago since in my family no one likes it. Not only that, it has this sticking quality unlike rice and semia. Maybe, cook and keep separately. then, after boiling the milk everything is done, can mix.

Abt semia payasam, the same qty as we are taking for paal payasam.

Thanks for the compliment; For this kuzhambu, the most important veggies which gives an additional taste are sweet potato and pumpkin just like how ash gourd and drumstick gives you an extra flavor in avial.

Bye.

I dont know how many of you knows about Thalagam(thiruvadhirai kuzhambu or kootu) which can be done during thiruvadhirai festival or can be prepared during normal days.

If you prepare this kootu and appalam with rice, that is it. Dont have to prepare anything. It will give extra taste on the next day when you add extra fried onion.

Anyways, here it is-

Thiruvadhirai kuzhambu or kootu:

Mixed vegetable as mentioned for kalasamelara kuzhambu 2 cups
Boiled thoor dal 1 cup
tamarind
tomato otpl. 1 small

Fry and grind in little oil:

channa dal 1 tbsp
dhania 2 tbsp
coconut grated or dessicated 3 tbsp
curry leaves 1 tsp
red chillies 4 to 5
methi seed 1/2 tsp
pepper 1/2 tsp

Seasoning in coconut oil or sesame oil

mustard 1 tsp
hing 1/2 tsp
urad dal 1 tsp

Cook vegetables with water. As I said earlier, either sweet potato or pumpkin is a must for this kootu. cook dal separately.

Fry the above said ingredients and grind nicely. Keep aside.

Do seasoning, add the boiled vegetables with salt, tamarind and haldi. When it starts boiling, add boiled dhal and the ground powder. Let them boil for 5 mts in a medium fire.

Since we put lots of vegetables and dhal, it will take the chilli taste easily. So, you can add extra sambar powder, if you want or while seasoning, add halved chillies.

Can be taken as a sambar or kootu consistency. Either way, the taste will be so so yummy.

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Alteration:

1. With the vegetables, you can add cooked white channa, black channa and peanut quarter cup together with the vegetables.

2. Since this dish will be prepared during festival, you are not supposed to put onion. But, the next day(if any leftover is there),
heat oil, add cut onions and tomato, mix the kootu and boil for some time.

Hi R
I made Javvarasi payasam the other day following Meenakshi ammal’s recipe and it din’t stick at all..The taste was also really good..Iam going to try your pressure cooker method next week..Maybe I’ll try paal payasam first.I made the Kuzhambu using white pumpkin only..Next time will add sweet potatoes also.Thanx for ur suggestions.

GVB

gvb, meant pumpkin(parangikai), not ash gourd(poosani); in fact, poosani is not a must for this gravy or thaalagam.

Abt payasam, yes, of course,you can prepare it; but, if you pressure cook it with milk and keep for 30 mts on the stove, then, am not sure abt the result; this is what I meant.

Hope i am clear.

Oh Okay R..I only had Ash gourd with me at home so thats y I used it..
Next time i will get the vegetables right.. :)

Here is a simple recipe for vegetable bath:

Vegetable bath:

Mixed vegetables 1 cup
Raw rice 1/2 cup
thoor dal and moong dal 1/4 cup each
tamarind, salt
tomato optl.

Dry fry and powder

dhania, channa dal, urad dal 1 tbsp each
red chillies 3

Take any remaining vegetables like carrot, brinjal, snake gourd, beans, pumpkin, onion, ash gourd, frozen corn etc. and cut into medium pieces.

Wash and soak the rice dhal together for 30 mts in water to get a soft texture.

Heat oil, add a tsp of mustard, 1 sprig of curry leaves and add all vegetables, stir for some time. Add water with tamarind, salt and soaked rice and dals, mix well. Pressure cook until it is soft.

You can omit moong dal and use full thoor dal too. For more flavor, can add ghee at the end.

Garnish with coriander leaves.

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Paruppu usili is a very famous dish in TN as far as I know. When you get up fed up with the channa dal usili, try this for a change.

Roasted gram usili:

Any vegetables like carrot, cabbage, beans or assorted of the three 2 cups
Roasted gram 2 handfuls
red chillies 3
jeera 2 tbsp

Seasoning in oil:

mustard 1 tsp
urad dal 2 tsp
curry leaves 1 sprig
hing, haldi
salt.

Do seasoning in oil and add the cooked vegetables with enough salt. Saute in medium flame till it is dry.

Meanwhile, grind gram dal nicely with jeera and chillies with enough salt and haldi. Mix a tsp of water to make it like dry paste(crumbling consistency).

Once done with the vegetables, add this crumbling paste to the vanali and mix well without mashing but, mix well both of them. cook for some time until the raw smell goes off completely.

Garnish with coriander leaves.

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Thoor dal vada:

Thoor dal 1 cup
jeera 1 tsp
red chillies 2 to 3
hing, salt.
onion small 1
beet grated 1 small

Grind dal with chillies and jeera as a coarse paste. Mix the other ingredients with dal paste. Before that, keep a tbsp of whole dal apart and mix it with the paste too.

You can add cut leaves like pudhina or curry or coriander leaves. Mix well and make it a small small vadas.

Though it is just like our regular vada, the beet color will get you a good name from the guests and it is quite attractive too.

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This week's SUN TV collections..

Wheat rava usili:

Wheat rava 2 cups
onion 1 cup
red chillies 3 to 4
coconut grated 1/2 cup
mustard 1 tsp
green peas or any vegetables like beans, carrot 1/2 cup
channa dal 1 cup
hing 1 tsp
curry leaves and salt.

Grind the soaked dal, hing, chillies to coarse paste without adding any water.

Heat oil in a vanali, add the paste stir well till the raw smell goes off.

Heat oil separately, add onion, leaves saute well. Add coconut, peas, salt with 4 cups of water; close the vessel till the water starts boiling. Add rava, cook on low flame stirring in between.

Remove the lid and check whether all the water has evaporated and rava is cooked. Once all done, add the dal mixture, mix well rava and dal mixture. Keep aside.

For kids, make it as an oval shape and serve.

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My variation:

Omit onion, coconut; just dhal alone is enough. Adding vegetables is upto you.

You can try this usili with dal alone which is equally good. Similarly, you can try with ready made sevai & idly pieces.

Instead of direct cooking, you can add enough water and cook in cooker too.

Bread masala:

Onion 1
tomato 2
tomato puree 1/2 cup
toasted bread(cut into pieces) 4
chilli powder 1 tsp
dhania powder 1 tsp
mint leaves 1/2 cup
coriander leaves little
cinnamon little
saunf 1 tsp
cloves 2
ghee 1 tsp
oil and salt.

Make powder with cinnamon, saunf and cloves.

Heat oil, add onion saute well till it is transparent. Add tomato, all powders, mix well. Add the tomato puree with salt and let them boil for some time.

Add ghee, leaves mix well. A couple of minutes before switching off the fire, add bread. Mix well.

'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''' ''''

Paneer birbali:

Paneer 200 g(cut into small pieces)
tomato, onion 1/2 cup each
fresh cream 1/4 cup
brinji leaves 1
cardamom powder 1/4 tsp
chilli powder 1 tsp
cinnamon 1/4 tsp
besan flour 1/4 cup
jeera 1/2 tsp
milk 2 tsp
ginger garlic paste 1 tsp
coriander leaves, salt & oil.

Marinate paneer pieces with half qty of the besan flour, chilli powder, little salt, oil and mix well with hands without mashing paneer and soak for 30 mts.

Heat oil, add cinnamon, brinji and jeera saute well. Add onion, leaves, chilli powder, ginger garlic paste and fry well till all the raw smell disappears completely. Add tomato, cook with salt, remaining besan flour, fresh cream, milk; stir for some time. Add cardamom powder cook for some more time till you get a good flavor.

Arrange the marinated paneer in a wide vessel or on a plate and microwave it for 2 mts to get crispiness; maximum time would be 3 mts. If you keep more than that, then it will be very hard and the entire taste will get spoilt.

Before serving, mix paneer and the gravy. The gravy should be in liquid stage becoz adding paneer will make it semi solid.

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Few points from me:

Though it is a side dish for roti, you cant take or make this as a fullfledged one, since we cant take plain paneer with onion tomato gravy which makes our stomach very heavy.

Also, dont put too much of paneer which does not tastes good.

While making dal or some vegetables, make this paneer dish as an extra dish so that you can also enjoy the taste.

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Hi R,
Great to see so many yummy recipes posted already..am eager to try the thoor dal vada..Made "kerala sambhar" and it came out good althou the smell of coconut oil takes a little getting used to..Thanx.

Is wheat rava Cracked wheat/broken wheat?

GVB

So, dont u use coconut oil for seasoning in mor kuzhambu or avial? I am so surprised becoz I always love the smell of coconut oil seasoning and that is the main reason, have started seasoning even for mor kuzhambu too!!

Yes for Avial i use coconut oil to do the seasoning..But this is the first time i have tried it in sambhar.

Understood..but, you can even use nallennai for seasoning if you dont like the smell of coconut oil. Not only for this, I use to season for mor kuzhambu or avial if I dont have coconut oil in stock..

They both give their own distinct flavor and taste. They are much better than peanut or corn or vegetable oils.

I always use nallenai for Vatha kuzhambu infact..In my opinion it doesn't stand out like coconut oil but I do love its flavor in Avail..It gives a distinctive aroma ..

Wat is wheat rava?Is it broken wheat,cracked wheat?

GVB

Off late, have been using nallennai for all the seasoning like kuzhambu, sambar, curries; since it has been using by our parents, grand parents, there is no confusion like we have with other oils. And, I am really comfortable too!

Wheat rava is our regular godhuma rava, no..I think it is cracked wheat. Are cracked wheat and broken wheat different? But, here the godhuma rava grains are little bigger than what we get in TN. So, I always soak it for few mts and pressure cook.

Broken wheat and cracked wheat are the same..I made a mistake..Thanx for clarifying that..

GVB

Hi R,
Made "paalpayasam" today(ur method) and the taste was fantastic....The best part about it was that it didn't stick at all and that saves a lot "scrubbing" time,not to metion the time we have to stand stirring...This is going to be my standard method from now on..Thanks for a great recipe..

GVB

Glad that you liked it..Thanks, gvb..

Can anyone mail me the recipes of Mrs. Revathy Shanmugam.
Thanx .

arrecipes

My mail id is arrecipes@yahoo.com

Hi R
Made "navadhanya Sundal" Yesterday as Snack..I wasn't expecting it to taste this good but it did..It was really yummy..Thanks for the recipe.

GVB

Hi R,


In the mango burfi recipe,you had asked to use 2 big ripe mango.Can i use 2 cups of mango pulp?.


Regards
sk

Good, gvb..when I made this sundal with white channa alone for navarathiri, my friends were so surprised on the masala taste. It will be much much better when you do with white channa!!

Yes, sk.. have not tried preparing directly from the pulp; but, tried extracting pulp from the mango and also saw that 1 BIG size mango gives 1 cup of pulp.

FYI, if you dont add koa, then, you dont have to add this much of sugar(8 cups) becoz, it will absorb sweet; then, the qty of ghee will also increase like how we do in mango halwa.

Hi R or Anyone tell me the page number to c navadhaniya sundal? i like to try.

R, Tired that recipe? I am very busy with house work this week so couldn't able to send pm or post anything. :(

Kavitha
Its in "Baby food" thread in Page 10.

Thks a lot gvb.

Hi R,

How do u make ghee from butter?.I use unsalted butter but i'm not getting the exact ghee smell.
Regards,
Sk

Hi sk,

Land O lakes is one of the best brand when comes to butter; but, the price is comparatively higher than the other brands available here.

The other butter brands which tried from Indian stores does not have a good smell like you said; have tried some brands like Hotel bar etc. and am not very happy abt it.

Recently, have started buying butter from Costco(kirkland) and it is much better than the above one-price & taste wise.

Procedure is very simple-Heat a vanali or pan, add the sticks and keep in sim (if you keep sim, dont have to stay in a place; every 5 mts, can come and check)until the full sound completely disappears or the bottom color will be white in the beginning, then, change into maroon and finally will be black. That is the time to switch off and immediately transfer the vessel to some warm place; otherwise, with the heat, the butter will go to the next level.

Black color means the beginning stage and if you wait till the end, it will burnt totally.

Also, add a couple of drumstick leaves or curry leaves or 1/2 tsp of buttermilk to get extra flavor after switching off the fire like how our parents do back at home.

Good luck.