Monday, April 28, 2008
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Recipe 2: Tomato Thokku
Ingredients:
6 Medium ripe tomatoes
Green chili -1
Chilli Powder – 2 tsp
Turmeric Powder – ½ tsp
Fenugreek Powder – ½ tsp
Asafoetida – ¼ tsp
Tamarind – Size of a lime
Gingelli Oil ¼ cups
Method:
Peel and cut tomatoes into small pieces. Heat oil in a heavy bottomed kadai. Add mustard seeds, long chilli (cut into pieces) turmeric powder, fenugreek powder and asafetida. After the seeds splutter, add the cut tomatoes and salt. After 3 mins add the tamarind water.Add chilli powder. Mix all the ingredients and cover with a lid. Reduce the heat and allow the mixture to cook for atleast 30 minutes turning every 5 mins. Delicious thokku is ready. Adjust chilli powder and salt according to taste.
6 Medium ripe tomatoes
Green chili -1
Chilli Powder – 2 tsp
Turmeric Powder – ½ tsp
Fenugreek Powder – ½ tsp
Asafoetida – ¼ tsp
Tamarind – Size of a lime
Gingelli Oil ¼ cups
Method:
Peel and cut tomatoes into small pieces. Heat oil in a heavy bottomed kadai. Add mustard seeds, long chilli (cut into pieces) turmeric powder, fenugreek powder and asafetida. After the seeds splutter, add the cut tomatoes and salt. After 3 mins add the tamarind water.Add chilli powder. Mix all the ingredients and cover with a lid. Reduce the heat and allow the mixture to cook for atleast 30 minutes turning every 5 mins. Delicious thokku is ready. Adjust chilli powder and salt according to taste.
Recipe 1: Parupusuli
Ingredients:
Red gram dhal(1/2 cup)
Bengal gram dhal (equal quantities of the dhals)
4 long red chillies
Asafoetida- a pinch
Green beans or Banana flower
Oil- 3 tsp
Mustard seeds- 1 tsp
Curry leaves
Salt to taste
Method:
Wash and soak the dhal for atleast 3 hours. Grind the dhals and chillies into a firm paste adding little water. Steam the dhal in the cooker and allow it to cool. Crumble the steamed dhal.
Cut the beans into small pieces. Heat oil in a kadai. Add mustard seeds, curry leaves and asafoetida. After the mustard seeds splutters add the cut beans and add salt to taste. Cover with a lid. After the beans in done, add the crumbled dhal paste and reduce the heat to medium (so that parupusulli dosen’t stick to the kadai). Adjust salt if needed and cook for 10 mins. Delicious parupusulli is ready.
Serve with Rice. Best combination for parupusulli is Moar Kuzhambu and rice.
If banana flower is used, take care to remove the thin stem in each flower and cut into small pieces. Put the cut banana flower into water(add a drop of curd) to prevent it from turning black and cook the vegetable after draining like beans.
Red gram dhal(1/2 cup)
Bengal gram dhal (equal quantities of the dhals)
4 long red chillies
Asafoetida- a pinch
Green beans or Banana flower
Oil- 3 tsp
Mustard seeds- 1 tsp
Curry leaves
Salt to taste
Method:
Wash and soak the dhal for atleast 3 hours. Grind the dhals and chillies into a firm paste adding little water. Steam the dhal in the cooker and allow it to cool. Crumble the steamed dhal.
Cut the beans into small pieces. Heat oil in a kadai. Add mustard seeds, curry leaves and asafoetida. After the mustard seeds splutters add the cut beans and add salt to taste. Cover with a lid. After the beans in done, add the crumbled dhal paste and reduce the heat to medium (so that parupusulli dosen’t stick to the kadai). Adjust salt if needed and cook for 10 mins. Delicious parupusulli is ready.
Serve with Rice. Best combination for parupusulli is Moar Kuzhambu and rice.
If banana flower is used, take care to remove the thin stem in each flower and cut into small pieces. Put the cut banana flower into water(add a drop of curd) to prevent it from turning black and cook the vegetable after draining like beans.
Welcome to my kitchen!
Jacques: All the world's a stage,And all the men and women merely players;They have their exits and their entrances,And one man in his time plays many parts…..
This is an extract from a famous passage written by Shakespeare….which when I think of is so true. My name is Aarthi and I live in Santa Clara, California with my husband.
I decided to write this blog as I wanted to share with all the rich culture of South India…the place where I come. I grew up in Chennai (used to be Madras….nalla madras!!!).I come from a big family. Growing up was fun and no pain…..great family, rich culture, wonderful grandparents and best of all…..awesome food.
I love cooking and I guess I got the gene from my grandmother….Jayalakshmi. Jayam as she was called by loved ones was a lovely lady. She got married to my grandfather at the age of 12 (her childhood stories need a separate blog). She was a good student and a self thought singer. She could not pursue her school as she was married at an early age. She has 5 children (my mother, aunt and 3 uncles). My grandmother had this passion for cooking….she would make thick filter coffee (so much better than starbucks coffee)
at 3 am….so that the big family could drink coffee at 6 am. She would sit on a stool and make delicious dosas with molagapodi in the evenings(I think atleast 50 dosas) so patiently….as we kids (me, my sister and cousins) would grab hungrily after playing. I remember her favorite snack was Medhu Vadai …..She loved any food that was deep fried and loved sweets. She was diabetic and would still give way to her cravings. She loved Onions….and my grandfather would’t let us cook onions everyday as we come from an orthodox Brahmin family from south India where cooking onions and garlic is unorthodox. We make pearl onion sambhar and Potato curry the day before Diwali every year for some special reason and my grandmother would be so happy.
Jayam was fat and cute….she was typical tamil Brahmin woman and always wore a nine yard saree. She was so beautiful and gentle and I have never seen her raise her voice. She would blindly do what was told and never went out of the house. She would cook what my grandfather bought and all that we kids loved. Sunday’s were special…..like kalyana sapadu. My tongue still remembers taste of Pal Payasam, vadai, thayir pachadi, sambar, rasam, vendaikkai curry, parupusulli, moar kuzhambu and the list continues….Her pickles were a hit. The practice of making pickles at home still continues in our family. Mavadu, avakkai, mahali, moar mulagai, narthangai, tomato thokku…..yummy yummy!!! The house would smell divine. The appalam and vadam time….my favorite time of the year, usually during annual holidays….summer time. We would scare away the crows with stick in the roof where the vadams were laid to dry in the sun. We had to take turns to guard the vadams….and they still would be gone (in our stomach….ha ha). I love mango’s and there was 3 mango tree….malgova mampazham. We kids would play climbing the trees. We are 9 cousins from my mothers side and I love them all dearly. I am sure this blog would bring back the happy growing memories for all in my family.
This blog is a tribute to my grandparents who I am sure would have been so happy to read if they were alive....
Hope the recipes published in this blog would be tried by one and all and would revive the rich culture of south India....
Enjoy...happy cooking!!!
This is an extract from a famous passage written by Shakespeare….which when I think of is so true. My name is Aarthi and I live in Santa Clara, California with my husband.
I decided to write this blog as I wanted to share with all the rich culture of South India…the place where I come. I grew up in Chennai (used to be Madras….nalla madras!!!).I come from a big family. Growing up was fun and no pain…..great family, rich culture, wonderful grandparents and best of all…..awesome food.
I love cooking and I guess I got the gene from my grandmother….Jayalakshmi. Jayam as she was called by loved ones was a lovely lady. She got married to my grandfather at the age of 12 (her childhood stories need a separate blog). She was a good student and a self thought singer. She could not pursue her school as she was married at an early age. She has 5 children (my mother, aunt and 3 uncles). My grandmother had this passion for cooking….she would make thick filter coffee (so much better than starbucks coffee)
at 3 am….so that the big family could drink coffee at 6 am. She would sit on a stool and make delicious dosas with molagapodi in the evenings(I think atleast 50 dosas) so patiently….as we kids (me, my sister and cousins) would grab hungrily after playing. I remember her favorite snack was Medhu Vadai …..She loved any food that was deep fried and loved sweets. She was diabetic and would still give way to her cravings. She loved Onions….and my grandfather would’t let us cook onions everyday as we come from an orthodox Brahmin family from south India where cooking onions and garlic is unorthodox. We make pearl onion sambhar and Potato curry the day before Diwali every year for some special reason and my grandmother would be so happy.
Jayam was fat and cute….she was typical tamil Brahmin woman and always wore a nine yard saree. She was so beautiful and gentle and I have never seen her raise her voice. She would blindly do what was told and never went out of the house. She would cook what my grandfather bought and all that we kids loved. Sunday’s were special…..like kalyana sapadu. My tongue still remembers taste of Pal Payasam, vadai, thayir pachadi, sambar, rasam, vendaikkai curry, parupusulli, moar kuzhambu and the list continues….Her pickles were a hit. The practice of making pickles at home still continues in our family. Mavadu, avakkai, mahali, moar mulagai, narthangai, tomato thokku…..yummy yummy!!! The house would smell divine. The appalam and vadam time….my favorite time of the year, usually during annual holidays….summer time. We would scare away the crows with stick in the roof where the vadams were laid to dry in the sun. We had to take turns to guard the vadams….and they still would be gone (in our stomach….ha ha). I love mango’s and there was 3 mango tree….malgova mampazham. We kids would play climbing the trees. We are 9 cousins from my mothers side and I love them all dearly. I am sure this blog would bring back the happy growing memories for all in my family.
This blog is a tribute to my grandparents who I am sure would have been so happy to read if they were alive....
Hope the recipes published in this blog would be tried by one and all and would revive the rich culture of south India....
Enjoy...happy cooking!!!
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