Sambar Sadam

I am posting a quick and easy way to make sambar sadam.Rice and sambar are prepared seperately and mixed together in this recipe. 

Ingredients:

Raw rice	½ cup
Toor dhal	½ cup
Tamarind	Small lime sized
Vegetables chopped into big cubes	1 ½  cups
Tomato	1
Small onion	10-15
Sambar powder	2 tsp
Salt	as needed
Mustard seeds	1 tsp
Red chilli	1
Methi seeds	½ tsp
Asafoetida	¼ tsp
Curry leaves	as needed
Oil	1 tblsp

Method:

• Pressure cook rice and toor dhal seperately and keep aside.
• Extract 2 cups of tamarind juice .
• Chop the vegetables into big cubes. I have used white pumpkin,carrot,capsicum and drumstick.If using drumstick,cut them into small sticks and cook them with water in a pan seperately and keep ready.
• Heat a pan,add oil followed by mustard seeds,red chilli,methi seeds,asafoetida and curry leaves. Add the small onions and cook till they turn light brown.
• Now add the tomato and other vegetables and saute till they shrink in volume.
• Add the tamarind juice,sambar powder and salt and boil till the raw smell of tamarind and sambar powder goes off.
• Mash the cooked toor dhal nicely with a ladle and add to the sambar.You can adjust the consistency by adding little water.
• Boil for few minutes till the dhal blends nicely with the sambar.Garnish with chopped coriander leaves.sambar is ready.
• To make sambar rice,mix the cooked rice little by little to the prepared sambar.Add rice till you get perfect consistency.Drizzle little ghee on top and serve with Chips or papad.

Vegetable Noodles

Vegetable noodles is a quick and easy dish in which plain noodles is cooked first and then tossed with stir fried vegetables and spices.

Ingredients:

Noodles	1 packet
Vegetables(carrot,cabbage and capsicum) thinly sliced	2 cups
Onion	1
Garlic	2 cloves
Soya sauce	1 tsp
Pepper powder	1/2 tsp
Salt	as needed
Olive oil	1 tblsp
Oil	2 tsp

Method:

• Chop the onion and garlic finely.
• Cook the noodles according to the instruction given in the pack and rinse them in cold water.Coat them nicely with olive oil,cover and keep aside.
• Heat a pan,add oil followed by garlic and onion and fry till onion turns translucent.
• Now add the sliced carrot,pinch of sugar and fry in high flame for 2 mins.Add cabage and fry for a minute. Finally add the capsicum and cook till the vegetables are fried but still crunchy.
• Add the soya sauce,pepper powder and salt and mix well.
• Add the cooked noodles and fry till the vegetables and sauce blend well with the noodles.

Note:

• If you want more spicy,add finely chopped green chilli while adding garlic or add some Green chilli sauce while adding soya sauce.
• You can make it with sphagetti too instead of noodles.
• I have used Ching's Hakka noodles(Plain) in this recipe.

Kambu Adai

A nutritious protein packed adai which is made using kambu(Bajra) and a mixture of dhals along with little raw rice.It tastes great with jaggery /Avial or any chutney.

Ingredients:

Kambu(Bajra)	¾ cup
Toor dhal	½ cup
Channa dhal	½ cup
Raw rice	¼ cup
Green chilli	1
Red chilli	3
Asafoetida	A small piece
Onion	1
Curry leaves and coriander leaves	As needed

Method:

• Soak kambu overnight with enough water.
• Soak Toor dhal,channa dhal together with asafoetida and red chilli.(For 2 hours)
• Soak rice seperately.(For 2 hours)
• Grind the kambu first seperately to a fine paste,now add the raw rice and grind them together and transfer to a bowl.
• Grind the dhals along with the chillies to a coarse paste and add to the kambu mixture.
• Add the required salt and mix well with your hands.
• Allow it to ferment for atleast 8 hrs.
• Before making the adai,add finely chopped onion,curry leaves and coriander leaves and mix well.
• Heat a tawa, pour some batter and spread it on the tawa.It should be thick than the regular dosa.
• Drizzle little oil and cook till both the sides are golden in colour.
• Serve hot with little butter and I served with jaggery.

Note:

• I was not sure of the soaking time for Kambu and hence soaked it overnight.If you know that it needs less soaking time you can soak it while soaking the dhal and rice.
• You can grind the batter in the morning and prepare the adai for dinner.

Eggless Vanilla Cake with Caramel Buttercream

I am happy to share my 100th post.This is a basic Eggless Vanilla cake covered with Caramel Buttercream and I made this specially for my Dad who is celebrating his Birthday today.Lets see the recipe.
   

Ingredients:

For the Eggless vanilla cake
All purpose flour	1 ½ cups
Corn flour	2 tblsp
Baking powder	2 tsp
Baking soda	1 tsp
Sweetened condensed milk	1 tin
Powdered sugar	2-3 tblsp
Butter	100 Gms
Vanilla essence	2 tsp
Yogurt	2 tblsp
Milk	½ -3/4 cup
For the caramel buttercream
Butter	1/2 cup
Icing sugar	2 cups
Vanilla essence	1 tsp
Whipping cream(see note below)	2 tblsp
Salted caramel sauce	1-2  tblsp

Method:

Cake preparation:

• Preheat oven to 180 ºC.
• sift the flour,baking powder and baking soda.
• Take the condensed milk and butter and beat well using an electric beater or a hand whisk.
• Add the yogurt and beat well followed by milk and vanilla essence.
• Now add the sifted flour and mix with a whisk till there are no lumps and the mixture is smooth. Add little more milk if the batter is very thick.
• Pour it in a greased and floured cake pan and bake at 180 º C for about 35-40 mins till a tooth pick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.( I have baked in two seperate pans.you can also bake in a single large pan and slice the cake horizontally into two and proceed)
• Cool the cake completely.

Salted caramel sauce:

Granulated sugar	½ cup
Butter	3 tblsp
Whipping cream	¼ cup
Salt	½ tsp

• Take a sauce pan and add the sugar.The sugar will slowly dissolve.It will turn grainy at first,stir it with a whisk till all the sugar is dissolved.
• Once the sugar is completely dissolved and the liquid starts to turn to light golden colour,once it turns golden immediately add the butter and whisk well.
• Remove the pan from the fire and add the cream and whisk well.Be careful while adding butter and cream as it might splash.
• Whisk well till the cream is well combined.Finally add 1/2 tsp salt and mix well.Salted caramel sauce is ready.

Butter cream preparation:

• Take the butter in a bowl and beat well with a electric beater.Now add the vanilla essence and icing sugar and beat well. Slowly add the whipping cream and beat till the mixture is fluffy.Now add the salted caramel sauce and mix well.

Praline preparation:

• Take 3 tablespoon granulated sugar in a wide pan and let the sugar melt and once it turns to light golden colour liquid, add around 12 cashews and 1/2 tsp butter.Cook carefully till the cashews turn light golden and immediately transfer this mixture to a parchment paper.After 10 mins,it will harden.Crush them roughly and praline is ready to use.You can also use almonds instead of cashew.

Assembling the cake:

• Line a plate with parchment paper.Place one cake and apply a thin layer of buttercream,top it with some praline and caramel sauce.
• Now place the other cake on top of it and apply buttercream on the top and sides of the cake.
• Gently press the praline over the sides and top of the cake.Remove the parchment paper after applying the buttercream.Drizzle with caramel sauce and serve.

Note:

• The buttercream quantity given here is approximate only.Increase the quantity if you want a thick layer of cream.I have applied only a thin layer in this recipe.
• I also added less icing sugar/butter and more cream than mentioned in the buttercream recipe here,so the buttercream was not stiff enough for piping.But the above measurements will give buttercream with perfect consistency.
• If you don't want to use whipping cream in the buttercream recipe,add very little milk according to the consistency needed and proceed.

Sweet Boondi

I Prepared Sweet Boondi for Diwali and am quite happy to try this sweet.Once you get the right consistency of the batter,the process of making boondi is quite easy.The prepared boondis are put in a sugar syrup and seasoned with cashews,raisins and spices. 

                  Wishing you all a Very Happy and Prosperous Diwali

Ingredients:

For the Boondi
Bengal gram flour/Besan(Kadalai maavu)	1 cup
Rice flour	1 tsp
Baking soda	a tiny pinch
Turmeric powder	a generous pinch
Oil	For deep frying
Cashews,raisins	2 tblsp each
Cloves	4-5
Cardamom powder	½ tsp
Saffron strands	3-4
For the Sugar syrup
Sugar	1 cup
Water	1/4 -1/2 cup

Method:

• Take the Bengal gram flour,rice flour in a bowl.Add the baking soda and turmeric powder and mix well. 
• Add water little by little to get a thick consistency batter which is slightly thicker than bajji batter.
• Prepare sugar syrup by taking sugar and water needed to immerse the sugar in a pan.Stir till the sugar dissolves completely.Once it reaches one string consistency,switch off the flame.
• Take two ladles,one for making boondi and other for draining the boondis from oil.
• Heat Oil in a kadai,now dip the back of a spoon in the batter and drop in the oil.If it forms round boondis then the consistency is correct.
• keep the boondi ladle few inches above the oil,take a small ladle of batter and pour it on the boondi ladle and start rubbing in circular motion.Boondis will drip over the oil.
• Cook till the "shh" sound ceases.Don't cook till it becomes too crisp.Drain the boondis and transfer to the prepared sugar syrup.
• Wash the ladle used for making boondi after each batch and wipe with a clean cloth and proceed making the next batch.
• Finish the same process till all the batter is used up.
• After some time the syrup will be completely absorbed by the boondis.
• Heat little ghee in a pan, fry broken cashews and raisins.
• Powder the cloves coarsely and fry them in ghee.
• Add the nuts, cloves,cardamom powder,crushed saffron.You can also add a very tiny pinch of Edible camphor(Pachai karpooram).Mix well.Sweet Boondi is ready to serve.

Note:

• Batter consistency is important in boondi preparation.I used little turmeric powder to get a little colour instead of yellow food colour.
• If the batter is very thick,you get tail shaped boondis.so add little water and proceed.
• If the batter is thin,you get flat shaped boondis and add little gram flour to get the right consistency.
• You can slightly heat the sugar syrup for few minutes if it gets hardened in the process.But don't over heat it.

Dosa Milagai Podi

Dosa Milagai podi is a dry powder of dhals and red chilli and serves as a side dish for Idli/Dosa.It is mixed with gingelly oil and served.

Ingredients:

channa dhal(Kadala Paruppu)	½ cup
Urad dhal whole(Ulutham Paruppu)	½ cup
Red chilli(see note below)	1 cup
White sesame seeds	1 tblsp
Asafoetida	1 tsp
Jaggery	1 small piece
Salt	1 tsp

Method:

• Heat a Kadai and fry both the dhals,sesame seeds till golden in colour.Transfer to a plate to cool.
• Fry the asafoetida powder slightly in the same kadai and add to the dhal.
• Now add 1 tsp oil,add red chilli and fry them.Allow to cool. 
• First grind the red chilli in a mixie to a fine powder.Now add the fried dhal,jaggery and grind till you get a slightly coarse powder. 
• Finally add salt and pulse for a minute.Store in an airtight container.

Note:

• I usually measure red chilli(comes to around 20 chillies approximately),take around 8 chillies and replace them with kashmiri chilli to get a nice colour.
• Adding little jaggery won't give any sweet taste to the powder,skip if you don't prefer.
• I have given the approximate quantity of salt,increase/decrease a little depending on the hotness of the chilli used.

Kalkandu Pongal

I wanted to try this Kalkandu Pongal and made it on a Navaratri day for Neivedhyam.It tastes different from the sakkarai pongal using jaggery.Lets see the recipe.

Ingredients:

Raw rice	1 cup
Yellow moong dal(Pasiparuupu)	1 tblsp
Kalkandu + sugar(see note below)	1 ½ cups
Milk	2 cups
Water	2 cups
Ghee	6 tblsp
Evaporated milk (see note below)	¼ cup
Cashew nut and raisins	as needed
Saffron	a pinch
Nutmeg powder(optional)	a pinch
Cardamom powder	a pinch

Method:

• Fry raw rice and moong dal in a pan till it turns light brown. 
• Take the rice in a tall vessel,add 2 cups of water and 2 cups of milk and pressure cook for 4-5 whistles.Mash them with a ladle and keep aside.
• Heat a pan,add little ghee and roast cashews and raisins and keep aside.
• In the same pan add the kalkandu,sugar and little water and stir so that the kalkandu melts.Boil till it becomes sticky.Now add the cooked rice and mix well.
• The mixture will become watery,add the evaporated milk and mix well.Add ghee little by little and stir till the pongal thickens and is non sticky.Add the saffron,nutmeg and cardamom powders and mix well.Finally add the roasted cashews and raisins and drizzle 1 tblsp ghee on top.

Note:

• I have used 3/4 cup of kalkandu and 3/4 cup of granulated white sugar and you can make it with kalkandu alone too.
• If you don't want to use evaporated milk,use regular full fat milk instead.