Nei Appam

Nei appam had always been in my to do list because it is a traditional recipe that is kept for padayal or prasadam during Karthigai deepam. Nei appam and Pori urundai are the specialities of the day. I made the appams for Karthigai deepam last year but the huss grabbed the bowl before it could be photographed and it was gone in a jiffy.

When I was talking to my mom over the phone about how simple but delicious the appams were, she wanted me to make them the next time she came here.
So this time when she was here for Vishu, in-spite of the day not calling for the traditional appams she was so reluctant in making some. She got her appams and I got photos for the post ;)

~*What U Need*~
Raw rice - 1 cup
Jaggery - 3/4 cup
Elachi powder - a generous pinch
Banana - 1
Ghee / Coconut Oil - for deep frying

How I Made it:
Soak rice in water for 2 hours. Drain water and grind rice with little water to a fine paste. Soak jaggery in water, add water so that the jaggery is just immersed. Heat this till the jaggery melts and strain to remove the impurities. Add this to the ground paste and mix well.
Put this mixture in a mixing bowl, add mashed banana, elachi powder and mix well. Be sure that the consistency is similar to that of a dosa batter. Set aside for 2 hours.
Heat paniyaram pan, add little ghee in each hole, pour a spoon full of the batter in each hole. Cook until both sides are golden brown. Add ghee or coconut oil if required.

Serve warm. You will love these appams for the wafting ghee aroma that fills the house when making these delicious beauties.

So thats it Folks...
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Nei Rava Laddoo

By this time I think everyone would have read about my huss's love for ghee and how I am a miser in adding ghee. At times I feel sorry for him, for denying him his desired level of ghee. He has been asking me to make rava laddoos for a long time and he was so specific that he needed ghee to be added as the bonding agent. :(

I have been postponing this for a long time but I felt he deserved a treat as he takes care of most of the household chores these days. So finally made them for Vishu and I knew that he loved it the instant the laddoo hit his mouth by his wide grin.

~*What U Need*~
Rava/Semolina - 1 cup
Sugar - 1/2 cup
Cardamom powder - a pinch
Cashew-nuts & Raisins - few
Ghee

How I Made it:
Heat a skillet, add ghee and toast the cashew-nuts and raisins. In the same pan, add rava and fry it until a nice aroma comes. Remove from pan and allow it to cool. Grind the rava and sugar to a smooth powder using a blender.
In a large bowl , add the ground powder, cashew-nuts-raisins-ghee mixture and cardamom powder. Melt ghee and add little by little checking if you can make balls out of it. When the desired consistency is reached, take a small portion of the mixture and press it between your palms and make laddoos.

Delicious rava laddoos ready... Take a sniff and you will love them.

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Sago/Tapioca Pearls or Javvarisi Payasam for Vishu!!!

Belated Vishu / Tamil New Year Wishes to all my readers
Hope everyone had a blast celebrating the day

I enjoyed the day as all my dearies are near me expecting the arrival of our sweet angel and we celebrated the day with lots of anxiety and loads of happiness. Amma asked me to make nei appam for her as she likes them a lot. So I took up the task of making all the sweets for the day while amma made her traditional sambar aviyal combination.

It was Rava laddoo filled with ghee for the huss, javvarisi payasam for appa and nei appam for amma and a bite from each for me. All the items were favorites of each one of them. The huss loved the rava laddoos as I had added loads of ghee to it (he loves ghee sweets) and kept the entire lot for himself. Appa loved all the sweets as he is a sweet-tooth by nature and amma loved her lil' one bustling around the kitchen. We shared the kitchen and we had a blast cooking.

Today I am sharing the recipe for Javvarisi paayasam and the following days will showcase rava laddoo and nei appam recipes.

~*What U Need*~
Javvarisi / Sago pearls - 1/2 cup
Milk - 1/2 cup
Thick Coconut milk – 1/2 cup
Thin Coconut milk – 1 ½ cups
Water – 1/2 cup
Broken Cashews – few
Raisins – few
Ghee – 3 tbsp
Sugar - 1/2 cup
Cooking camphor - a small pinch
Elaichi powder - a generous pinch

How I Made it:
Add sago to water and heat it till the sago pearls cooks well or till each pearl turns glassy. This will take around 10 – 15 mins. After 5 mins, stir the mixture occasionally as it will tend to stick to the pan. Once sago has cooked, add milk and thin coconut milk and combine well.
When it starts to boil, add sugar and mix well. Check for sweetness and if required add some more sugar. Allow to boil.
Add the thick coconut milk and heat for 2-3 minutes and then switch off the flame. Donot overheat or the mixture will start curdling.
Heat ghee in a kadai. Add the broken cashews and raisins and sauté till golden brown and raisins have puffed up. Add this to the Payasam, add elaichi powder and give a stir.

Serve warm or chilled.

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Chicken Cutlets... it's highly addictive!!!

I love cutlets, the favorite being fish. Amma makes the best fish cutlets and when its tuna season at my place, it is cutlet season in the house. I still remember the days when me and bro used to cycle frantically from school to get our hands on those hot hot cutlets. There had been days when amma makes a big bowl of cutlet dough and store it in the fridge. She then makes 3-4 cutlets for our lunch boxes with a simple pappu saadam and that simple meal was meal from heaven for us... It tasted so good. Till date me and bro are great fans of amma's cutlets.

Being such a die hard fan of cutlet, I was surprised to see that the space has no recipe for even a simple vegetable cutlet when I was going through the recipe index. That was when I made the potato peas cutlet and when I had some leftover chicken pieces, I made these highly addictive chicken cutlets.

~*What U Need*~
Chicken(boneless) - 250g
Onions(medium)(finely chopped) - 1
Ginger garlic paste - 1/2 tbsp
Garam masala - 1/2 tsp
Green chilli(finely chopped) - 2
Potatoes(big, boiled, mashed) - 1
Oil - 1 tbsp
Tomato Ketchup - 1 tbsp
Salt and pepper to taste

Egg(slightly beaten) - 1
Breadcrumbs - for rolling
Oil for deep frying

How I Made it:
Boil the chicken along with some salt. When done, drain water and cut into small pieces.
Heat oil, saute the ginger garlic paste and green chillies. Add in the onions and saute till soft and transparent. Add garam masala and mix well.
Add the chicken and potatoes. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Cook for 3-4 mins. Take it off fire and allow the mixture to cool.
When cooled, mix well with your hands till comes together as a dough breaking down the potatoes as much as you can. Divide them into balls, flatten it in your palms into desired shapes.
Beat eggs in a bowl. Dip the cutlets in beaten egg and roll in the breadcrumbs. Deep fry in hot oil.

Serve hot with some tomato ketchup!!!

So thats it Folks...
With Love,

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Deep fried Baby Corn Kababs & a Special Award

Have you ever come across a recipe and instantly hooked by it? I hear many yeses... I have come across many such recipes and my bookmarked folder is in the verge of bursting and yelling at me!!! I took a pledge long time back that I will stop bookmarking recipes until I try all the previously bookmarked ones. Thanks to my laziness, the pledge was broken the same day.

When Ria posted her empire style chicken kababs, the way she described it coupled with her inviting pics, I wanted to try it instantly. I didn't have chicken at hand but that didn't stop me and I went ahead substituting chicken with baby corns. We had it with vegetable pulao and the combo was spot on. Will try her original recipe soon...

Adapted from Ria's
~*What U Need*~
For batter
APF / Maida - 2 tbsps
Cornflour - 1 tbsp
Red chilli powder - 1/2 tsp
Ginger garlic paste - 1/2 tbsp
Egg - 1
Cumin Powder - 1 tsp
Garam masala - 1 tsp
Coriander powder - 1/2 tsp
Lime juice - 1 tbsp
Green chilli - 1(finely chopped)
Red food color - a pinch
Salt - to taste

Baby Corns - 15
Oil for deep frying

How I Made it:
Slice and cut the baby corn into 1/2 inch pieces. In a mixing bowl, whisk all the ingredients under batter section into a smooth mixture. Add the baby corn pieces and mix to coat well. Marinate it in the fridge for 3-4 hours. Heat oil and when hot enough, drop in the marinated pieces and fry for 3-4 mins turning the pieces occasionally. Drain excess oil on paper towel.

Serve hot with ketchup.

Moving on to the special award, a few days back I got an e-mail from Michael Nelsen, Editor of Be@Home blog, part of Become.com. This is what it read:

Hello,
I just found your blog, My Culinary Trial Room, and you have a really great food site! I like that you showcase so many different dishes. You have great photography and your recipes are easy to follow.
I’m an editor for the Be @ Home blog at Pocket Change, part of Become.com’s blogging network, and thought your site was particularly exceptional. I wanted to give you a button for your site for being an “Editor’s Choice.”
If you’re interested in receiving this e-award, please let me know and I’ll create a custom button for your site and send you over the HTML code.
Thank you for your time and keep up the great work!

I was so excited to read the e-mail and was surprised to know that my blog has been read and recognized by such a reputed network. I am so happy to accept this award. Thanks Michael.

Food Blog Award

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Chocolate icecream milkshake

Ever since I saw the new release of Kwality Walls ice-cream "Roasted Almond Chocolate", I was so deliberate to get my hands on it but the huss was totally against it. But then maternity came up and I got anything that I asked for and this icecream topped my list. He had no other option but to give in. All settled and I got the big tub...

U know how the cravings vary and I only had one scoop out of the tub and then it was pushed to the far end of the freezer. I was totally surprised cos I who am a die hard fan of chocolate was avoiding it. But it has been a long time since I have taken in the fact that pregnancy changes a to z of ur life. And I have happily accepted it. Coming back to the tub that got pushed, it was the huss who was subjected to eat up the whole lot. I made this milkshake and served it chilled when I got an angry stare on serving a scoop of icecream.

~*What U Need*~
Chocolate ice cream - 2 scoops
Milk - 1 cup
Sugar - 1 tbsp
Ice cubes - 2 to 3

For garnishing
Roasted Almonds / Chocolate vermicelli

How I made it:
Blend the icecream, milk, sugar and ice cubes till smooth and frothy.
Serve chill garnished with nuts or chocolate vermicelli.

So thats it Folks...
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Spring Onion in Besan Flour Stir Fry

The only use of spring onions that I know of is garnishing mainly manchurian dishes. I knew that its crunchy, gives a nice aroma and increases the overall flavor of the dish. Whenever I get a bunch of spring onions, I use it minimally and the rest will be left unused finally to meet its end at the dustbin. So I stopped getting spring onions itself. Then I came across this recipe from Jeyashris kitchen and I was instantly hooked to it. So got a bunch of spring onions and tried this. To my dismay the huss had an instant liking to this recipe that whenever we go grocery shopping, he runs to grab a bunch and demands this dish to be made.

~*What U Need*~
Spring Onion - 1 bunch
Besan / Kadalai maavu - 2 tbsp
Red chilli powder - 1/2 tsp
Garam masala - a pinch
Cumin seeds - 1/4 tsp
Mustard seeds - 1/4 tsp
Curry leaves - 1 sprig
Oil - 2 tsp
Salt to taste

How I made it:
Wash and chop the spring onions very finely. In a kadai, heat oil, add the mustard seeds, cumin seeds and curry leaves and allow to splutter. Now add the chopped spring onions and stir well. Add salt and mix well. Allow this to cook till it becomes dry.
Add the besan, red chilli powder and garam masala at this stage and mix well. Saute well till the besan gets cooked and the mixture looks dry and non sticky.

Serve as a side dish for rice. We had this with dhal and it was a nice combination.

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Broken wheat Khichidi with the goodness of Sambar

Broken wheat has always been my easy breezy dinner idea when it comes to lack of time. Its healthy, easy to make and you can incorporate as much veggies as you can. Rather than less time, it is tiredness that is coming over me these days and hence most of the dinners has some form of upma. He was bored, I was bored. So finally overcame my laziness, dragged myself to the kitchen and was standing by the counter, pondering on wat to make for dinner, gradually eying all the ingredients in the pantry, when the Sambar powder jar stood out of the whole lot.

Suddenly I wanted something sambar-y, but definitely not rice. So finally it was broken wheat that came to the rescue again. I made sambar saadam only that the saadam was replaced by broken wheat. The flavor of sambar stood out well and it was a healthy and satisfying dinner.

~*What U Need*~
Broken wheat - 1 cup
Toor dhal - 1/2 cup

Pearl Onions - 7-8
Tomato(small) - 1
Carrot, beans, green peas - 1 cup
Tamarind extract - 3 tbsp
Sambar Powder - 2 1/2 tsp

Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
Urad dhal - 1 tsp
Curry leaves - 1 sprig
Green chilli - 1

Water - as needed (approx 4 cups)
Salt - to taste
Oil - 2 tsp

How I Made it:
Pressure cook the toor dhal with enough water(approx 2 cups) for 3-4 whistles. Heat oil in a non stick pan, add mustard seeds, urad dhal, curry leaves and allow to splutter. Add slit green chilli and fry. Add sliced pearl onions and saute till brown. Once done, add the cubed tomatoes, and fry till done. Now add in the cut veggies and fry for 3 mins.

Add water till the veggies are immersed and cook till half done. Now add the tamarind extract followed by the sambar powder and mix well.

Next goes in the toor dhal. Allow to boil well. Then add the broken wheat and mix well. Adjust water as needed. Close with lid till cooked well giving a stir occasionally. Remove from flame once the wheat has cooked properly adjusting salt to taste.

My Notes:
> Since I had cooked peas, I threw it in at the end, but when using fresh or frozen peas, add it along with other veggies.
> Add water as per required consistency. If you want it to be more runny, then add another cup of water.

Serve hot as such or with some coconut chutney!!!

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Meen Porichathu / King Fish or Vanjaram Fry

This is a very simple fish fry with not many ingredients. Simple mix, marinate and fry. Yummy and crispy fish fry on your plate. This is amma's recipe ad we follow the same for every fish and I would say that this is a no fail recipe. After mixing and coating the fish with the marinade, amma generally refrigerates the fish till use, says that the flavor intensifies when done so. I follow her recipe to the core and hence you can try the same or skip if not needed. In both the cases, marination for 1-2 hrs is an important step.

~*What U Need*~
Vanjaram / King Fish pieces - 6

For the Masala
Red Chilli powder - 3 tsp
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
Coriander powder - 1 tsp
Jeera / Cumin powder - 1/4 tsp
Pepper powder - a big pinch
Ginger-garlic paste - 1/2 tsp
Vinegar - 1 tsp
Salt
Oil to fry

How I Made it:
Clean the fish well. Mix all the ingredients from the masala section. Coat this masala on the fish pieces evenly. Marinate for 1-2 hours.
Deep fry in oil till evenly brown on all sides. Remove excess oil by placing on tissue paper.

Serve hot with white rice / fish biryani.

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Raw banana in Dhal / Vazhakkai Pappu & Kootu

"The cravings of a pregnant lady may drive you crazy at times" quoted by the the huss. Imagine asking for ice cream at 10.00 pm and insisting that it needs to be only Bavarian flavor from Baskin Robbins will drive anyone to their wit's end. No this is not copied from Salaam Namaste, this is what I am experiencing. My cravings are peculiar.

I have never opted for meals when we dine in restaurants. It was usually naan with some side dish and when it comes to Adyar ananda bhavan, it had always been butter naan with PB masala. But all of a sudden, I wanted to have full meals. It came as a surprise to the huss and to be frank even to me. So our stop for the weekend lunch was A2B. I ordered, I ate and I was contented. The raw plantain side dish that was served was so nice that even after a week I was reminded of its taste.

So finally gave in to the lingering craving and tried it at home. It was easy to make and we had it with rasam saadam. A perfect comfort meal.

~*What U Need*~
Raw Banana - 1
Pear Onions - 10
Tomato - 1(medium)
Hing Powder - a pinch
Garlic - 2 pods
Turmeric powder - a pinch
Toor dhal - 1/2 cup
Channa dhal - 1/4 cup
Green chilli - 1
Salt - to taste
Water - as needed

For tempering
Oil - 3 tsp
Urad dhal - 1 tsp
Curry leaves - 1 sprig
Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
Fenugreek seeds - 1/8 tsp
Red chilli - 1

How I Made it:
Wash and soak toor dhal and channa dhal for 1 hour. Chop shallots into two, roughly chop the tomatoes. Chop raw banana into small cubes.
In a pressure cooker, add all the ingredients except those under tempering, enough water and salt and cook for 3 whistles. When done and in required consistency, adjust salt and remove from flame.
Heat oil in a pan, temper with mustard & fenugreek seeds, urad dhal, curry leaves and red chilli. Pour this tadka on the dhal and mix well.

My Notes:
> You can alter the consistency by boiling off the excess water.
> You can use this as the main course or as a side dish.
> I reduced this to minimal water and used this as a side dish for rasam saadam. The combination was awesome.

So thats it Folks...
With Love,

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