(Amma Cooks) Vadakari.. And I am back!!!

Well I know that the blog has been silent for quiet sometime or let me be honest and say quite a longtime. This time it was not the writer's block all through the way. It started off with the writer's block but then it extended to laziness and finally settled down on bloggers stats. There were days when there were 40+ comments on a single post and then there were days when there were 0 comments. The latter kept on extending which kinda demotivated me. Then came summer and days moved on like minutes.


It was only a few days back that I opened up my blog. As I read through it, I realized how much I had enjoyed writing, editing and posting up a recipe here. I decided to come back and what better way than my mom's traditional recipe. I clicked this picture way back in 2012 when I was an amateur photographer. Well I am no great now, I am still an amateur photographer but atleast I know something about lighting and natural light now. Back to the point, this is my mom's recipe, cooked by her and eaten by us. Good old days, huh!!!

~*What U Need*~ For the vadas Channa dhal - 1/2 cup Green chilli - 1 Red Chilli - 1 Shallots - 6-7 Hing powder - a pinch Fennel seeds - 1/2 tsp Salt Curry leaves - 2 sprigs Oil - to fry For the Curry: Onions(large) - 2 Tomato(large) - 1 Ginger garlic paste - 1/2 tbsp Coriander leaves - a handful Salt Oil To Temper: Fennel seeds - 1 tsp Cinnamon - 1" pinch Cloves - 2 Cardamom pods - 2 Bayleaf - 1 To grind: Coriander powder - 1 tsp Green chilli - 1 Grated Coconut - 1/4 cup Poppy seeds - 1/2 tbsp How I Made it: Lets prepare the vadas first. Soak the chana dhal overnight. Chop the onions, green chillies and curry leaves finely. In a blender, add the chana dhal, red chilli and fennel seeds. Pulse it 2 - 3 times. You should have some whole chana dhal here and there. Put this mixture in a bowl, add chopped onions, green chillies, curry leaves, hing and salt and mix well. Pinch lemon sized balls. Heat oil and deep fry till evenly brown. Break these into 2 and set aside. Chop the onions. Blend the tomatoes into a smooth paste. Heat oil in a kadai, add the ingredients under to temper. Add the onions and saute till soft. Now add in the ginger garlic paste and fry till the raw smell goes off. Add turmeric powder and fry. Add the blended tomato to the onions and fry till oil separates. Blend all the ingredients under to grind to a smooth paste. Add this paste to the cooked onion-tomato mixture. Fry till oil separates. Add the broken vada pieces, garnish with coriander leaves and serve hot. ** My Notes: ** Add water to bring to the desired consistency. ** When thick this makes a perfect side dish for chapathis or dosas and when thin, would be great with hot rice. However, we always prefer this with dosas.

So thats it Folks...
With Love,
Vimitha

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Brown rice Adai

I am sorry that I have been MIA for some time. It was nothing big this time. Only that I was lazy, so lazy to phrase and publish a post. Well, I don't blame me, the weather is so depressing. Its gloomy all day and the suns sets as early as 4.00 pm and then it is dark. Finally I am out of the slumber and here I am with a heart healthy adai recipe. I have replaced the regular white rice with brown rice making this more healthy when compared to the regular ones.

~*What U Need*~ Brown Rice - 3/4 cup Idli rice - 1/4 cup Thoor Dal - 1/3 cup Channa dhal - 1/4 cup Urad dhal - 2 tbsp Moong dhal - 1/4 cup Dried red chilli - 1 or 2 Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp Fennel seeds - 1/2 tsp Garlic - 1 fat clove Salt - to taste To mix: Onion - 1 medium, finely chopped Cilantro - 1/4 cup, finely chopped Hing - a pinch Oil How I Made it: Wash all the dals and rice well. Soak the dal and rice separately for 3-4 hours. In a blender, grind the rice first for 3-4 mins, then add the rest of the ingredients and blend it to a little coarse batter using enough water. The batter consistency should be thick like idli batter. Transfer the ground batter to the bowl, add the mix-ins. Either use it right away or allow to sit for 1-2 hrs. Heat a tawa, smear it with little oil pour a ladle full of batter. Spread like dosa but thick. Drizzle oil and cook it in medium heat for 2-3 mins. After brown, flip and cook for another 2-3 minutes. Repeat with the remaining batter.

Serve adai with desired chutney or avial.

So thats it Folks...
With Love,

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Ragi Ammini Kozhukattai

At times I become a health freak like roasting cauliflower in the oven for tea time or baking sweet potato fries for that hunger pangs or steaming some dumplings for snack. Ragi is not my favorite cereal but I know that its healthy and I need to include it in my diet atleast once a week. And I do that consciously. Mostly in the form of ragi puttu or ragi malt but at times I like to experiment like adding a cup of ragi flour when making chapathis or adai and sometimes something that is totally different like this. These are healthy, tastes yum and kids will totally love popping 'em into their mouth.

~*What U Need*~ For Dough (makes 20-22 small balls): Sprouted ragi flour - 3/4 cup Water - to knead Salt - to taste Gingely oil - 1 tsp For Tempering: Urad dhal - 1 tbsp Channa dal - 1 tbsp Grated coconut - 2 tbsp Red chilli - 1 Asofoetida - a pinch Mustard seeds - 1 tsp Curry leaves - 1 sprig How I Made it: Take ragi flour in a wide bowl. Boil water, salt and oil in a pan, start with 1/4 cup. Add it to ragi flour and mix with the help of a wooden spoon. Make sure there are no lumps. Close and set aside for 5 mins. Grease your hands with oil and make small balls. Steam cook for 10 mins on medium flame. Remove and set aside. Heat 2 tsp oil in a kadai and temper mustard seeds. Add urad dal, channa dal, broken red chilies and curry leaves. Saute for 2 mins, add grated coconut. Add asofoetida, cooked kozhukattai and salt to taste.

Serve hot.

So thats it Folks...
With Love,

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Chicken Haleem

One thing that the huss enjoys to the core is anything and everything with chicken in it. Well, I am no less. We love our share of chicken anytime.

I was totally new to the word haleem then. While I was born and brought up in the Gulf, I was there only till my IInd standard. So its just a few memories that I carry around like how I always wore sockings when I was little or the little forest that I saw from our back window or the few words of Arabic that I learnt from my Arabic class or how I was the favorite of everyone in our apartment and finally George chetta from next door. Haleem and nombu kanji were often mentioned by appa and amma when we talked about life in Gulf. That was that.

After marriage, the huss used to mention this delicacy whenever the holy month of Eid sets in. And thats when I started browsing about haleem. Appa also explained the process to me on how the chicken is slow cook with wheat, barley and other dhal varieties. The huss was so adamant on getting his hands on haleem that he ordered himself a pack of haleem from Hyderabad which came by courier. He tasted it and he loved it. This was the story two years back. Fast forward now, far away from home country, he didn't have the option to online order and I knew that he was craving for the dish for sometime. Finally I gave in and started browsing for recipes and found a promising one at vahrehvah's site. I adapted the recipe to what I had in hand and it was a total hit. The huss loved it to the core.

~*What U Need*~ To Grind : Wheat rava - 1/2 cup Masoor dal - 1 tbsp Toor dhal - 1 tbsp Barley - 1/4 cup Urad dhal - 1 tbsp Channa dhal - 1 tbsp Peppercorns - 1 tsp Jeera - 1 tsp Cloves - 4 Cinnamon stick - 1 inch Green cardamom - 2 Almonds - 5 Sesame seeds - 1 tsp For porridge: Chicken - 1 lb, with bone Chicken stock - 6 cup Onions - 2, finely sliced Green chillies - 2, finely chopped Mint leaves - 1/2 cup Coriander leaves - 1/2 cup Ginger garlic paste - 1 tbsp Curd - 2 tbsp Ghee - 2 tbsp Oil - 1/4 cup Juice of 1 lemon How I made it: Heat oil in a pan and fry sliced onions till it turns golden brown and crispy. Remove from the heat and split fried onions into two parts. Reserve one half for garnishing. Grind everything under “To Grind” to a coarse powder. Heat the same oil in a pressure cooker. Add ghee to it and once it melts, add ginger-garlic paste. Saute for 2 mins. Add chicken and fry till seared. Add chicken stock and mix well. Add fried onion, curd, green chilies, mint leaves and coriander leaves. Mix everything and cook for a min. Add ground mixture and stir frequently to avoid lumps. Season with salt and pressure cook at high flame for 2 whistles. Switch to low flame and pressure cook it for 40 mins. Once the pressure goes, open the lid and mash everything. Sprinkle lemon juice.

Serve warm!!!

So thats it Folks...
With Love,

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Almond Maa laddoo

I joined few cooking challenges around the web for two main reasons, one was to get to know cuisines and fellow bloggers and second was for time management. I have always been weak on the time management part right from school. I study for tests at the last minute, do record work at the last minute and type status reports at the last minute. That is me and I have never worried about it. But then I started blogging and the last minute didn't seem to work out. And so I joined challenges so that I would learn and be prompt with the posts too.. Well, again I have failed. I have been skipping the HBC for the past two months and as for the secret cooking challenge, here I am with the post when it is near date to reveal this month's secret ingredient. I am really sorry admins, I am gonna try and make it up in the future.

Coming to this months Ssshhh Cooking secretly challenge, I was paired with PJ of Seduce your tastebuds and she gave me almonds and peanuts. I first thought of making halwa but since I was pressed on time, I settled for these easy laddoos. I made this for pappu who never eats nuts just because he needs to work it out with his teeth. I finally had to give in and made these so that he could have his daily nuts intake atleast in the form of a laddoo. He totally loved it and I have already made a second batch.

~*What U Need*~ Almonds - 1/2 cup Roasted channa dhal /pottukadalai - 1/2 cup Ghee - 1/4 cup, melted Sugar - 1/2 cup Cardamom powder - a pinch(optional) How I Made it: In a mixie, powder the almonds, channa dhal and sugar separately. In a mixing bowl, combine everything along with the cardamom powder. Add ghee and mix till it holds shape adding more ghee if needed. Form balls and store in an airtight container.

Serve with love!!!

So thats it Folks...
With Love,

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Vada Curry | The Healthy way

Vada curry is a staple at home on festival days. When crispy dosas with hot sambar has always been my favorite, crispy hot dosas with vada curry has been A's love. Be it Pongal or Diwali or Vishu, we have always started the day with dosas and vada curry. That is how much A loves the combo. Traditionally the vadas are deep fired in oil and then dumped in a rich coconut based gravy. I go that way at times but when calories come into picture I move over to this healthy version.

My mom makes the best authentic vada curry and I still have her hand written notes among my many other cookery treasures. And I still follow her recipe whenever I make this curry be it frying the vadas or steaming the vadas. If you want to go the authentic way then follow the same recipe but instead of steaming, deep fry the vadas in hot oil. I however love this healthy version cos you can indulge in a whole plate with no worries about calories or fat...

~*What U Need*~ For the vada: Chana dhal - 1/2 cup Coriander leaves - a handful Small onions - 7-8 Salt Green chilli - 1 Curry leaves - 1 sprig Cumin seeds - 1 tsp For the curry Onion - 1, large, finely chopped Tomato - 1, medium Ginger garlic paste - 1/2 tbsp Chilli powder - 1/2 tsp Coriander powder - 1 tsp Garam masala - 1/2 tsp Coriander leaves - 2 tbsp Salt, Oil To temper Cinnamon - 1" stick Cloves - 2 Cardamom - 2 To grind to a fine paste: Grated coconut - 1/4 cup Cashew nuts - 4-5 Fennel seeds - 1/4 tsp Water How I made it: Soak the chana dhal for 8 hours, drain the water and take this in a blender. Add the remaining ingredients and grind to a coarse mixture. Form balls out of the mixture and steam in a idli cooker for 10 mins. Remove and set aside to cool. Crumble to coarse pieces. Grind everything under to grind into a fine paste adding enough water. Heat oil in a pan and temper with cinnamon, cloves and crushed cardamom. Add onions and saute till soft and brown. Add ginger garlic paste and saute till the raw smell goes off. Add the tomatoes and fry till mushy. Now add the spice powders and fry well. Add the ground paste and water and bring it to a rolling boil. Add the crumbled vada and mix well. Allow to boil to the right consistency and then add the chopped coriander leaves. Remove from flame.

Serve warm with dosas or idlis.

So thats it Folks...
With Love,

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Poha Chiwda | Aval Chivda | Easy Snack Recipes | Diwali Snacks

Poha Chivda or Poha Chivda is nothing but an Indian version of hot and sweet trial mix. It makes for a perfect tea time snack and the mild spiciness and the just right sweetness makes it a perfect pairing for your coffee or tea. You may share it with your partner over your tea table or if you are like me, put the kid to sleep, pull out your favorite cooking book and snuggle onto your couch with your personal cup of black tea and personal plate of chivda. I however prefer the latter.

I made this sometime back just before Diwali when I had little above half a cup of red poha and out of ideas on what to make with it. A phone call to the mother came to rescue and I got into business once the kid was up and playing on his own (which seldom happens). BTW, he is a BIG-TIME attention seeker and can never be by himself and his mom has to be his playmate 24/7. But that is what makes me happy these days. Watching him play, watching him grow, watching him do anything ~ I just can't get enough of it.

Prep Time: 10 mins; Cooking time: 20 mins; Serves - 2 ~*What U Need*~ Poha/Aval - 3/4 cup Peanuts - 1/4 cup Roasted chana dhal - 1/4 cup Cashews - 1/4 cps Black raisins - 2 tbsp Curry leaves - 1 sprig Red chilli powder - 1/2 tsp Hing - 1/8 tsp Brown sugar - 1/2 tbsp Salt - to tast Oil for deep frying How I Made it: Measure all your ingredients and set aside. Heat oil in a kadai. When it is hot, add the poha and fry it. It should become crisp and will start floating in the oil. Drain and place in a kitchen towel. Similarly fry the peanuts, cashews, raisins, dhal and curry leaves and drain excess oil. Once it is warm to touch, take a large bowl, add all the fried items sprinkle hing, red chilli powder, salt and brown sugar and mix gently till evenly coated. Cool completely and store in an air tight container.

Serve as a tea time snack.

** My Notes:
** The oil should be very hot. When you drop the poha, it should fry and immediately come up.
** I used the red variety poha but you can use whatever you like.

So thats it Folks...
With Love,

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Vegetable Kuruma | Vegetable Korma | Side dish for Dosa/chapathis

I have been getting requests for some easy side dishes for dosas or chapathis. I know that my blog is lacking some basic Indian dishes and I am trying my best to fill them up here. The problem is these dishes have been etched in me that it comes as a flow and to pick up the camera to click step by step pictorials is just not happening. I chop, I fry and then I season, thats it job done. And to break that flow is something that never comes to me.

But I am coming out of my shell, slowly and that is how I clicked this vegetable kuruma. Its simple and tastes great with dosas/chapathis/parottas and is my go-to-dish when I am out of ideas for that night's dinner. I always have dosa batter in my fridge and so this kuruma makes for a simple and lip-smacking dinner. And if you are a bachelor, stack some frozen parottas or chapathis and make this kuruma whenever you need a comforting home-cooked meal, atleast the side-dish part ;)

You could use a mix of veggies like carrots, beans, peas and cauliflower or keep it simple with carrot, beans and potato. But keep in mind that if you are using cauliflower, donot pressure cook it. Add them raw when you are adding the steam-cooked veggies to the masala and boil till tender. That way the cauliflower will not disintegrate.

Serves - 4; Prepping time - 15 mins; Cooking time - 20 mins ~*What U Need*~ To grind: Onion - 1/2, cubed Grated coconut - 1/4 cup Cashews - 4to5 Green chilli - 1 Roasted channa dhal - 2 tsp To pressure cook: Mixed vegetables - 1 1/2 cups, diced For the gravy: Onion - 1/2, finely chopped Tomato - 1, finely chopped Ginger garlic paste - 1 tsp Chilli powder - 1/2 tsp Coriander powder - 1 tsp Garam masala - 1/2 tsp Coriander leaves - 2 tbsp, chopped Bay leaf - 1 Cloves - 2 Cardamom - 2 Cinnamon - 1" Salt, Oil How I Made it: In a kadai, add 1/2 tsp oil, add the cubed onions and fry till pale. Add the coconut and saute for 2 mins. Once cooled, add this to the blender along with the rest of the ingredients to be ground and grind to a smooth paste. Set aside. Meanwhile steam cook the vegetables for 1 whistle or par-boil the vegetables. In a kadai, add 1 tsp oil, add the bay leaf, cinnamon, cloves and cardamom and saute till brown. Add the chopped onions and saute till golden. Next add the ginger garlic paste and fry till the raw smell leaves. Add the chopped tomatoes and when soft, add the spices and saute till oil separates. Next add the par-boiled veggies and mix well. Add the ground masala with some water and allow to boil till you see oil separating. Season with salt. Add the chopped coriander leaves and remove from flame.

Serve with parathas or chapathis!!!

So thats it Folks...
With Love,

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(Amma Cooks) Sweetened Aval Pori Mix | Easy Festival Recipes

With everyone getting geared up to celebrate Vinayagar Chathurthi (people in the other side of the world would have finished your celebrations but here we have just started with it), we (me and amma) thought that we could share some easy neivedhiyam recipes here. The first one was the kondakadalai sundal which is easy to make, diabetic friendly and a must for Vinayagar Chathurthi neivedhiyam. Next is this, a simple mix of aval, pori, vellam and kadalai just like a trial mix. All you need to do is measure, mix and serve. As simple as that. Its diabetic friendly too as you are not using sugar here and makes a simple tea time snack. I love this a lot and amma makes it a point to make this for every festival, not only for vinayagar chathurthi.

~*What U Need*~ Aval/Poha - 1 cup Roasted Channa dhal - 1/4 cup Pori - 1 cup Grated Jaggery - 1/2 cup Cardamom powder - a pinch How I Made it: Mix everything with a spoon. Flavor with cardamom powder.

Serve as neivedhiyam!!!

So thats it Folks...
With Love,

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