Idli vada pongal - South Indian breakfast 4

Today I made a special Breakfast menu. Aj was sick for past 2 days. So I wanted to make idli the best breakfast for him and a mild side dish for him which should always be the one he eats, so I chose Gothsu/ Gotsu. But to make the weekend special with the breakfast menu (Ok, I admit its planned for this post too), I made Pongal for Vj and I know the gothsu I am making will go well with pongal too. I soaked just 1/2 a cup of urad dal on wake up and ground in mixie itself to make this menu special and a made a getti chutney to go well with all these items. Tadaaaa… Breakfast menu ready! Ok I know I am writing the whole process here itself, but that’s how this is planned. I made everything in moderate purposely for not over eating. So you can plan the same way.
This combo is very tempting by the name itself. Even the north Indians will be knowing this combo – Idli vada pongal – but with sambar and chutney. I made it as Gothsu, that’s it. I know there are lots of versions in making gothsu, some with dal, some without, some with spice powder, some without. Mine is a simple one, without spice powder.
You can call it brunch or heavy breakfast what ever you like to name it. Here is how I prepared this menu in detail.

Idli Vada pongal breakfast

Recipe Cuisine: Indian   |  Recipe Category: Breakfast
Prep Time: 12 hrs     |  Cook time: 45 mins    |  Serves: 4

1. Prepare idli batter the before day itself, by soaking for it by the before day afternoon, grind it by evening, ferment it overnight. Grate coconut also and freeze it to make it easy the next day morning. As I use my ultra grind for grating coconut, I did it after I finished grinding for idli.
2. Next day morning, on wake up, soak for vada. Just 1/2 cup.
3. First cook rice, dal for pongal as in the recipe and dal separately for gothsu. I have a big cooker with two separate containers, 1 big, 1 small.  So I kept for pongal in the big and dal in the small one. Small container down, big one up. Pressure cook for 4 whistles in medium flame after the first whistle.
4. Meanwhile, chopping works – brinjal, potato, carrot, tomato for gothsu, onion for gothsu and vada (I used shallots for both which gives maximum flavor) other ingredients like chilli for gothsu, vada and chutney, curry leaves, coriander leaves, also keep them ready. Keep coconut for thawing if frozen or grate it freshly.
5. By the time you finish chopping works, cooker work will be done. Grind chutney. You can grind for vada in mixie itself and keep in fridge until you make vada lastly.
6. First season for pongal, prepare pongal and keep it ready in a hot pack. Next for chutney, prepare it and keep it ready.
7. Next for gothsu, let it be simmered for cooking mean while which you can heat oil in another stove for vada and steam idlies in another stove (if you have 3 burners as I have) If you have 2 burner, then first finish gothsu and then steam idli in one stove, side by side oil for vada in another.
8. Take out the vada batter, mix ingredients and make vada – only one for each.

That’s it, your breakfast is ready. With Idli, Vada, Pongal, Gotsu, chutney and the podi.



Check out the recipes here:

1. Idli recipe
2. Vada recipe
3. Pongal recipe
4. Gothsu (recipe coming up) – Check this brinjal gothsu or Tiffin sambar instead.
5. Chutney recipe
6. Idli podi recipe 

Have a great weekend!

JEERA PULAO WITH CASHEW NUTS | JEERA RICE WITH CASHEWS

    
I already have posted a simple ‘jeera rice’ recipe. But I wanted to post jeera pulao as well. Its simple just like our other pulaos, temper with whole spices and saute onion, ginger garlic + extra is jeera. We have to make sure we use ‘Shahi Jeera’ for this for best results. Our regular jeera may over power with its flavor, so only Shahi jeera. When I was planning my lunch menu, I wanted a best main dish for dal makhani. Yeah, weirdly I decided my side dish but wanted to get a perfect main dish to go well with it. Then asked my friends Sangeeta, she suggested this jeera cashew pulao. So I tried and posted it as lunch menu. Here is the easy to prepare yet rich Jeera cashew pulao recipe. The name itself is very fascinating rite?

Jeera Cashew pulao/ rice recipe

Recipe Cuisine: Indian  |  Recipe Category: Lunch
Prep Time: 35 mins    |  Cook time: 25 mins    |  Serves: 2

Ingredients

Rice	1 cup
Onion	1
Ginger garlic paste	1 tsp
Salt	As needed
Ghee	1 tblsp
Cahewnuts	12

To temper

Oil	2 tsp
Cinnamon	1
Cardamom	1
Cloves	1
Shah jeera	1 & 1/2 tsp

Method

1. Soak basmati rice for atleast 30 mins. Heat a small pressure cooker with oil, temper with the items given under ‘to temper’ in order. After adding jeera, do not let it burn.

2. Add thinly sliced onion, fry till transparent, add ginger garlic paste. Fry till raw smell goes away. Add drained soaked rice. Mix well.

3. Add 1 & 1/2 cup water (I add 1 & 1/4 cups of water only) and salt. Mix well and bring to boil. Keep in lowest flame possible and close the lid with pressure valve. Cook for 14  mins or for 2 whistles in medium flame.

4. Once done, fry cashews in ghee until golden and mix with the rice. Be careful to not to break/ smash the rice. Be gentle.

Notes

• Soaking the rice for long time ensures using less water while cooking, yet give soft rice grains.
• Adjust the water quantity according to the quality of your rice, the pressure cooker you use and the flame you keep for cooking.
• You can make it plain without cashew nuts too.

Serve with any rich gravy as side dish. I made paneer butter masala for this.

Technorati Tags: jeera cashew pulao recipe,jeera pulao recipe,easy pulao recipe,dal makhani main dish

KANCHIPURAM IDLI RECIPE | KANCHIPURAM IDLI

My mom makes ordinary idli but seasoning it with pepper, jeera or sometimes mustard, urad dal channa dal curry leaves and asafoetida in ghee and add it to the usual  idli dosa batter, make idlies for my brother. I never tasted it or may be I didn’t like it. But had no idea about the Kanchipuram idli, but have heard about it as prasadam in few temples and have seen in few blogs too. I had a recipe in my hand written note book. But to be frank, it was a terrible recipe – it was made so artificially with curd, cooking soda and all. When I searched for recipe, I found one in Hindu news paper. Actually not one, many recipes from where ever it is famous. But I took the recipe for my convenience. It turned out good. Many of you would have noticed these idlies as sneak preview to this post when I updated the pictures in my Idli podi post and shared in the Facebook page. So here is the Kanchipuram idli recipe. Also check out the Idli podi post updated with new pictures!

Kanchipuram idli recipe

Recipe Cuisine: Indian  |  Recipe Category: Breakfast
Prep Time: 15 hrs    |  Cook time: 25 mins    |  Makes: 20

Ingredients

Raw rice (sona masoori)	1 cup
Idli rice	1 cup
Urad dal (White, whole)	3/4 cup
Fenugreek seeds / methi seeds/ vendhayam	1 tsp
Salt	As needed

To temper

Ghee	2 tblsp
Black pepper, whole or crushed coarsely	1 tblsp
Jeera	1 tblsp
Cashew nuts (Optional)	Few
Curry leaves	1 sprig
Asafoetida	2 pinches
Dry ginger powder (Sukku)	2 pinches

 

Method

1. Soak urad dal & methi seeds, rice as we soak for the regular idli. You can soak together and grind too, I have tried both ways, but I prefer soaking separately and grinding separately as I do for the regular idli. This way it comes out really good with full flavour. If you are comfortable soaking together and grinding, then you can do so, but the texture comes a bit denser than grinding separately. Either way, grind it coarsely. 
2. Mix and keep in a large vessel overnight for fermentation. 
3. Before making, spoon the batter using ladle and mix required salt and the items given under ‘To temper’ table as needed and mix gently. Do not over mix. Boil water in idli pot and I used my cooker inner vessel, lined with a aluminium foil at the bottom. You can use banana leaf if you have too. This makes easy for taking out the idli after steaming. You should grease the vessel as well. Pour batter to it, say 1 & 1/2 inches height. 
4. Steam for 15 – 20 mins until the tooth pick (or a knife) inserted comes out clean. Let it be for a minute aside and invert in a clean platform. You can run a knife through the sides to make it easy for the idli to come out when you invert. 
5. You can cut into triangles like pizza wedges or like me – I used a big coffee filter’s bottom. You can use a steel tumbler too, to cut out. But you should be ready to eat the left outs from the cuttings .

Notes

• Do not avoid methi seeds, otherwise the flavor will be different with more urad dal flavor’s dominating.
  
• You can pour the batter in greased tumblers or bowls or steam as usual in idli plates as well.
  
• Make sure you grind coarsely like rava/ semolina/ sooji, otherwise texture wont be the same.
• Keep the container with batter for steaming only after the water boils in the idli pot. This ensures soft texture of the idlies. 
• Also keep less water only as required, otherwise there are chances for water overflowing inside the vessel. Even too less water may end up in burnt bottom. So better keep an eye. If needed in between add some water.

Enjoy hot with chutney or sambar or Idli podi as I did. Its quite filling, one can eat only 2 or 3.
 

Technorati Tags: kanchipuram idli recipe,kanchipuram idli,south indian

Lunch menu 32 - Mor kuzhambu with vadai, vendakkai curry

It looks as if within a glimpse, one week is gone and its time to post my next lunch menu too :) I did not plan anything to be honest and I decided to make my work simple yet something special for the weekend. So chose it to be mor kuzhambu with vadai and ladies finger curry. Mor kuzhambu is very easy to make, only work is ladies finger curry and the vada. That too, we are gonna make only as bondas, so no need to worry about the shapes ;) Here is the simple lunch menu for this weekend.

South Indian lunch- mor kuzhambu with vadai, ladies finger curry

Recipe Cuisine: Indian   |  Recipe Category: Lunch
Prep Time: 3 Hrs soaking time     |  Cook time: 45 mins     |  Serves: 3

1. Soak for vada 3 hours ahead grinding it. You can grind and keep it first in fridge when you enter kitchen for making lunch.
2. Pressure cook rice. As it is getting cooked, clean cut ladies finger and keep frying it with oil side by side,meanwhile which you can chop onion and tomatoes for curry, grate coconut. 
3. Gather all other ingredients for grinding for mor kuzhambu and other ingredients. Beat curd (let curd be sour or else vada will make it bland) and grind for mor kuzhambu and mix with the curd and keep aside.
4. Now when the ladies finger is ready, temper for mor kuzhambu and transfer to the serving bowl. Prepare ladies finger curry.
5. Lastly fry vada and side by side prepare mor kuzhambu and dunk the vadas in the kuzhambu.
6. I recommend to take out and keep the vadas in another vessel after 30 mins or after it gets soaked well. This way it will be easy to serve and avoid kuzhambu getting too thick. 

An hearty menu with rice, mor kuzhambu with vadai and ladies finger curry for the whole family!



Check out the recipes

1. Ladies finger curry recipe
2. Mor kuzhambu recipe
3. Vadai recipe / mysore bonda recipe

Other vegetables which can be added in mor kuzhambu are cooked ash gourd, ladies finger, brinjal, chow chow, arbi/ seppenkizhangu, or may be paruppu urundai too etc.

Other side dishes apt for mor kuzhambu are - Paruppu usili, potato curry.
Have a great weekend! :)

MINI SAMOSA RECIPE (TRIANGLE SAMOSA) / SAMSA RECIPE - WITH VIDEO

         
I had long time wish to try this mini samosa (or samsa as we call it). I have seen here in Fairprice, frozen mini samosas. Its tiny and looks very pretty too. Aj also loves it as he had tried it as starters in parties. I have tried making it sometime back, but could not get it look good, so left it for a while. Now again recently Aj wanted me to try at home and I promised him I will make it on a weekend. I tried last Sunday and it came out good. So I thought of sharing it here. It’s very easy, tasty, crispy and perfect for get together and parties as starter.

I made this with the spring roll pastry sheets. Its different from puff pastry sheets, so don’t confuse with it. This is very thin sheets, specially meant for making spring rolls and samosas. I came to know it is now a days available in Chennai in Nuts N Spices as a pack of 20 sheets (Info Courtesy : Aparna Rajeskumar). So you can check in the frozen section. Also if any of you know if its available anywhere in your part of area, please help others by leaving comment in the comments section about where you have got it or seen it.

Mini triangle samosa recipe

Recipe Cuisine: Indian  |  Recipe Category: Breakfast
Prep Time: 45 mins    |  Cook time: 15 mins    |  Makes: 30

Ingredients

Potato, Large	2
Onion	1
Sambar powder/ red chilli powder	1 tsp
Garam masala powder	1/4 tsp
Fennel seeds powder	1/4 tsp
Turmeric powder	1/8 tsp
Amchur powder / Chaat masala (Optional)	1/4 tsp
Salt	As needed
Oil	2 tsp
Jeera/ cumin seeds	1 tsp
Coriander leaves, chopped	2 tblsp
Spring roll pastry sheets (Large size)	8
Maida	2 tblsp

Method

1. Keep pastry sheet at room temperature 30 mins prior preparing the samosa. Boil and peel potatoes. Heat kadai with oil and temper with jeera.
2. Add finely chopped onion, followed by the cooked,mashed potatoes. Add the all the masala powders in the ingredients, with salt and sprinkle a tblsp of water.
3. Mix well and fry for 2 minutes in medium flame, lastly add coriander leaves, mix well.
4. Transfer to the serving bowl. Mix Maida with water to make it a paste. Keep all the ingredients ready.
5. By now the sheets would have been ready for preparing. Peel off one by one carefully. Keep covered with clean wet kitchen cloth to keep it damp and avoid drying as instructed in the pack.
6. Cut each sheet to 4 equal sized strips as shown in the picture. Spoon a tsp of the prepared potato masala in each strip, over the top.Fold as shown in the picture into triangle samosas. Refer video to learn in detail how to fold it. Towards the end spread little maida paste and end sticking the samosa.
7. Keep the prepared samosas covered as well, preferable with wet kitchen cloth for this too.
   If you do not have spring roll pastry sheets, you can do the same with maida. Make a stiff sough with 1 cup maida, a tblps of oil, salt and water. Keep aside for an hour, knead and make equal sized balls. Roll as thin as possible and cut into square. Use oil half way while rolling in one side to make rolling easy without getting shrunken.
8. Do not make this long (large) as if you fold lot, it wont get cooked inside and will become chewy. Follow the same procedure as above and fold to triangles. But make the strips shorter.
9. Once everything is folded, heat oil and deep fry both sides in medium flame.
10. Once golden in colour, drain in paper towels. You can see both the pastry sheet samosas and the maida dough samosas.

Notes

• It may seem tedious, but its not, easier than making spring rolls.
• If you do not have fennel powder, instead of tempering with jeera, temper with fennel. Or just skip it and add more garam masala powder.
• Maida paste should be smooth and should be able to keep the samosas sealed. If its too thick then the sticking part will not look smooth, if its too water, it wont stick.
• This post mainly to show how to use pastry sheets for making samosas, so I have not concentrated over making it from scratch with maida dough. The spring roll pastry sheets gives the maximum, crispiest samosa.
• You can use any filling of your choice. Like you can make stuffing only with sliced onions.
• You can make the samosas an freeze it before frying. If you have to make tomorrow, make it today and freeze it. Keep out 30 mins before deep frying and fry as mentioned to save time.

Here's the Video

Serve hot with coffee/ tea and sweet tomato chilli sauce as side dish. Delicious!

Technorati Tags: samosa recipe,mini samosa recipe,mini samosa with spring roll pastry sheets,how to fold samosa,triangle samosa,how to make triangle samosa,snacks,indian samosa recipe,samsa recipe

Kulcha recipe | Plain kulcha recipe

       
I eat garlic naan usually when I order north Indian flat breads at restaurants. Kulcha is Vj’s favorite. When we go to Kailash parbhat, Vj orders this every time. I always stick to my favorite chaats there and have any left over that Aj orders. When I was thinking of posting some North Indian lunch menu last week, I thought of making dal makhani but was not sure of what to make for bread. I thought for a change, instead of roti or naan, I will try this kulcha. Its not complicated as you think. Its very easy. And we are gonna make only one or two for a person, so no worries. I made only 4 and I think its perfect for lunch time along with other dishes. I referred a stuffed kulcha recipe from Khanakazhana, but adapted to make it as plain/ butter kulchas. Make it plain or with sesame seeds sprinkled, brush it with butter to make it more tastier.

Kulcha recipe

Recipe Cuisine: Indian  |  Recipe Category: Lunch/ Dinner
Prep Time: 1 hr    |  Cook time: 15 mins    |  Makes: 4

Ingredients

Maida/ all purpose flour/ plain flour - 1 cup

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Milk - 1/2 cup (plus as needed)

---

Curd - 1 tblsp

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Baking powder - 1/2 tsp

---

Cooking soda - 1/4 tsp

---

Sugar - 1 tsp

---

Salt - 1/2 tsp (or as needed)

---

Black sesame (optional) - As needed

---

Coriander leaves - As needed

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Oil - As needed

---

Butter - As needed

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Method

1. Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda and sieve it to make sure even mixing. In a mixing bowl, place the flour and make a dent in the middle. Add sugar, salt, curd and milk.

2. Gather to make a dough and knead for a minute. Rest aside covered properly for an hour. Again knead well to make the dough smooth.
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3. Divide into 4 equal balls. Roll with generous dusting over a counter top. When its half rolled, add few drops of oil and spread it. Again roll to a thin kulcha. Adding oil at the bottom makes it easy to spread without shrinking.

4. Do not worry about the shape. Take the rolled kulcha in ur hand and sprinkle some sesame seeds and chopped coriander leaves.

5. Again keep the kulcha and roll gently over to make sure the sesame and coriander sticks to it well.

6. Heat a tawa and now spread little water on the top of rolled kulcha. Take the kulcha carefully and put it over the hot tawa in such a way that the water brushed side is down. Cook covered in medium flame.  (water should be applied over the plain side of the kulcha and the water applied side should be put to the tawa first. The sesame side should be on top)

7. Once you see bubbles on the top, you either flip it in the tawa itself and cook or put it over direct flame with sesame seeds side down. Wait till brown spot appears and brush it with butter.

Notes

• Adding oil while rolling ensure easy rolling without shrinking. I found it while I was rolling and found it helpful.
  
• You can use white sesame too.
  
• Roll it thin otherwise, it will be looking like naan.
  
• To avoid watery bottom, always keep kulcha in a bamboo basket or over a clean kitchen cloth or wire rack.

Serve with any rich side dish like paneer based gravies or others like dal makhani as I did.

Technorati Tags: kulcha recipe,how to make kulcha,plain kulcha recipe,butter kulcha recipe,home,north Indian,indian flat bread recipes,easy

Lunch menu 31 - Kulcha, Jeera cashew pulao, Dal makhani, Aloo methi

When ever we go to any North Indian restaurant, Vj orders for butter kulcha always. I always wondered what is the difference between naan and kulcha. I find kulcha on thinner side that’s the only difference I could see visually. Taste wise also I know its but different but I could not figure it out what is the difference. But once when I was discussing about this with Jeyashri, she found out from net that the difference is that naan is prepared with yeast and kulcha without yeast. I was thinking, I was making naan without yeast all these days and unknowingly I was making kulcha! But I do keep the dough for longer time. So I wanted to try and see proper kulcha. I referred Sanjeev kapoor’s and found its very similar to the naan without yeast recipe I have in my archives. But less curd, less cooking soda and baking soda. Still, came out good. So this week its plain kulcha, jeera cashewnut pulao, aloo methi, dal makhani, papad, pickle and curd.

Lunch menu 31 (North Indian Lunch recipes)

Recipe Cuisine:Indian   |  Recipe Category: Lunch
Prep Time: 12 Hrs soaking time    |  Cook time: 1 Hr 30 mins     |  Serves: 3

1. Soak black urad dal and rajma for dal makhani the before night. Soak rice for atleast 30 mins before preparing jeera pulao.
2. Cook the dal when you are ready to prepare lunch after your breakfast work. If using big pressure cooker with separate containers, you can cook dal in one container and aloo for aloo methi in another container.
3. Mean while, cut onion for pulao, dal makhani and aloo methi. Chop tomatoes and keep all other ingredients like ginger, garlic, coriander leaves, green chilli ready. Keep the masala powders and masalas also ready.
4. I used methi leaves that I already cleaned and frozen. So there was no need for me to spend time for that. You too can do this before hand to make it simple.
5. First prepare jeera pulao in a small pressure cooker and let it cook in a stove.
6. Next prepare for dal makhani and transfer it to the cooked dal and simmer it in another stove.
7. Lastly prepare aloo methi.
8. When you are ready to serve, prepare kulcha and keep it in a bamboo basket.
9. Keep the other things for lunch, like pickle, papad and salad. Serve lunch!

Lunch with Kulcha, jeera cashew pulao, dal makhani, aloo methi, papad, pickle, curd is ready!



Check out the recipes below.

1. Plain kulcha recipe ( Check out naan without yeast recipe)
2. Jeera cashew pulao recipe (check out jeera rice recipe)
3. Aloo methi recipe
4. Dal makhani recipe

Check out the other Indian bread recipes here.
You can also make any other gravy side dish recipes.
And browse other sabzi recipes.

Technorati Tags: north indian lunch recipes,Indian lunch recipes,dal makhani recipe,kulcha recipe,aloo methi recipe,jeera pulao