Pazham Nurukku - Banana Caramel

This is a traditional Kerala recipe, made from ethan pazham (ripe banana's of kerala variety). Its easy to make and is a great snack item.

Ingredients
Ethan Pazham -- 3 Nos chopped into bite sized chunks along with the skin
Jaggery/Gud --- 1 cup
Powdered cardamom -- 1 tsp
water -- 2 tbsp
Ghee -- 1 tbsp

Method
1. Steam the chopped ethan pazham pieces so that the banana chunks get partly cooked. The skin will peel off leaving a cooked banana.
2. In a thick bottomed vessel, place the jaggery and add 2 tbsp water. The jaggery will melt, turn down the stove, and add cardomom powder, 1/2 tbsp ghee and the peeled banana pieces.
3. Toss well, so that the banana chunks get a nice coating of the melted jaggery.
4. Add the remaining ghee and let the mixture simmer for a couple of minutes. All the the while make sure that the stove is turned down to minimum and the jaggery mixture does not become stringy.
Remove from stove and let it cool down a little. Serve warm.

Potato Onion Fry

Got up late today and with just 45 min left for my husband to leave for office, I decided to make roti with a side dish.
This is a quickie recipe for those early morning rush hour days and a great comfort food.

 

Ingredients
4 Potatoes med sized cubed
1 Red Onion med sized chopped
1 tbsp -- Ginger grated
Asofeteida a pinch
1 tsp -- Chilly powder
1 tsp -- Sambar Powder
1/4 tsp -- Turmeric powder
Salt to taste

For tempering
Oil - 2 tbsp
Mustard - 1/2 tsp

For Garnish

Curry leaves - 1 sprig or
Coriander leaves-- 1 tbsp finely chopped

The Method

1. Cut the potatoes into medium sized cubes. In a saucepan add water and bring to a boil, add the potatoes and cook until just done. Add salt.
2. Once its 3/4th done add turmeric and mix well. Drain excess water and set aside.
3. In a kadai add the oil and splutter mustard seeds. Add the onions and fry until translucent. Add grated ginger and give a toss.
4. Keeping the heat at medium, add the potatoes and mix well until it is well coated with oil. Keep mixing so that it does not stick to the bottom.
5. Add the chilly powder, asofeteida and sambar powder and mix well again for a couple of minutes until the potatoes just begin to brown.
6. Remove from flame and garnish with curry leaves and chopped coriander leaves. This pairs up well with all rotis.  

Ven Pongal

Ven Pongal is a traditional breakfast or tiffin dish served mainly in Tamil Nadu. It is a delicious mix of Cheru paruppu (split moong dal) and rice. I have tasted many a different variety of Ven Pongal ranging from gooey kind, to the not so watery kind, but the best of which I liked is my mom's style of preparing Ven Pongal which is different from the traditional method. I am posting the same here.

Ingredients
Rice --- 1 cup
Moong Dal split -- 1/4 cup
Ghee -- 1 tbsp
Salt to taste
Black Pepper -- 1 tsp
Jeeragam (Cumin) 1/2 tsp

For Garnish
Ghee -- 1 tsp
Cashew Nuts (split) -- 5-8 pieces
Raisins --5-6

Method

1. In a pressure cooker cook the rice and moong dal separately. For cooking rice add 3.5 cups of water for 1 cup of rice and for cooking moong dal for 1/4 cup add 1 cup of water.
2. While the rice and daal are cooking in a kadai take a tsp of ghee and roast the black pepper and cumin until the cumin turns brown. After it cools, crush it using a pestle.
3. Once the rice and daal is cooked remove from cooker after the steam has gone. Take the cooked rice in a bowl and let it cool for a 10 minutes. While the rice is still warm add the cooked daal, ghee, the crushed mixture and salt and mix well taking care not to break the rice too much.
4. Roast the cashews and raisins in ghee until the cashews turn golden brown. Pour this over the rice mixture and Ven Pongal is ready.

Serve warm with coconut chutney or sambaar.

Green Coconut Chutney

Coconut chutney is a mouth watering accompaniment to many dishes like idlis, dosas, aapams, ven pongal etc. It is an ubiquitous accompaniment for all almost all of south Indian dishes.

Ingredients
Grated coconut (fresh or dried) -- 4 tbsp (fresh coconut gives a better flavour)
Green chilis -- 2 or more as per taste
Asofeteida -- Big pinch
Dahlia (pottu Kadalai) - 1 tsp
Sour curd -- 1 tbsp
Salt to taste

For Tempering
Oil -- 2 tsp
Mustard -- 1/2 tsp
Red Chilli -- 1 no
Curry leaves

Method
Grind the all the above ingredients until a medium smooth paste is made, using little water. Prepare tadka and pour over the chutney.

Sharkarai Pongal

Sharkarai Pongal made in my antique venkala panai.

On festival days or on special occasions such as Devi puja, sharkarai pongal is the sweet dish offered as neivedyam. Sharkarai means jaggery in tamil and malayalam, and when mixed with rice it is called sharkarai pongal.

Ingredients
Rice -- Short grained raw rice 1 cup
Water - 2.5 cups
Jaggery (powdered) - 2 cups
Ghee -- 3 tbsp

For Garnish
Cardomom pods -- 5 pods
Cashewnuts -- 6-7nos broken

Method

1. In a heavy bottomed vessel cook the rice with the water.
2. Once the rice is cooked add the powdered jaggery. Mix well. The jaggery will make the mix watery.
3. Add 2 tbsp if ghee to the rice and let the mixture simmer for a few more minutes. All this while keep the heat at medium and keep mixing the rice so that the bottom does not burn.
4. Powder the cardomom in a mortar and add to the rice. By now you will see a layer of ghee at the top, and the mix will be more solid consistency.
5. In a separate vessel fry the cashews in the remaining ghee and add to the mixture. Mix well. Let it cool a bit. Serve warm.

Note: Add jaggery only after the rice is cooked. Rice will not cook once the jaggery is added and will be hard to bite into.  

Happy Pongal

Wish you all a Happy Pongal and Makara Sankranti.

Pongal is a harvest festival celebrated mainly in Tamilnadu. It is like the thanksgiving festival, thanking the Sun God for a bountiful harvest. The festival is celebrated in 3 days. The first day is called the Bhogi. On this day houses are cleaned and old unwanted items are thrown out. In the evening after dinner, the ladies come out and decorate the front yard  of the houses with Kolams or rangolis.

The next day is called Pongal. On this day the people get up early take a bath. Set up the hearth where the pongal will be made. In an earthen pot rice is cooked and jaggery is added to form sweet rice or sharkarai pongal. The earthen pot is decorated and tied with freshly plucked turmeric plants with roots intact. The sharkarai pongal is then offered to the sun god as neivedyam along with sugarcane.

The third day is called Kanu Pongal. On this day young ladies seek the blessings of elderly ladies with a piece of turmeric root in hand. The turmeric is then touched on the forehead by the elder and the young lady gets blessed for a happy life ahead. After this small rice balls mixed with turmeric, coconut, jaggery (each 7 in number) are placed on the turmeric leaves and offered to the birds with these words "Kakka podi vecchen, Kanu podi vechen, kakkai kootam kalanjalum en kootam kalaiyamal irukkatum" meaning i have kept kakka podi and kanu podi, even if the crow family splits up, let my family never split. It is a prayer for keeping the family united through both good and bad times. This day is also celebrated as Maatu Pongal (Maadu means cow) where cattle are bathed and prayer for their well being is said so that they are healthy for the next planting season.

I have many sweet memories of celebrating Pongal at my parents home. On the day before Pongal my father would buy sugarcane, flowers, turmeric plant and fruits for neivedyam. On the day of Pongal my mother will make sharkarai pongal at the designated time and after puja will offer it as neivedyam. The rest of the day is spent visiting friends and relatives with packets of pongal as gift. I will post the recipe for sharkarai pongal in the next post.

Thayir Sadam (Curd Rice/ Yoghurt Rice)

At my home we all love thayir/curd/yoghurt. Every meal is rounded off only after eating at least a handful of thayir sadam. I prepare curd/yoghurt at home every alternate day. Usually couple of ladles of rice is mixed with thayir and eaten along with the side dishes and pickles.

Every once in a while I prepare thayir sadam in advance by adding a few different ingredients that make it very tasty. This recipe is also good for any leftover plain rice to be used the next day.

Ingredients
Rice - 1 cup
Water - 3 cups
Plain yoghurt - 3/4 cup
Green Chillis - 3 nos finely sliced
Pomegranate seeds - 1/2 cup
Salt to taste

For Tempering
Oil - 1 tbsp any cooking oil
Mustard Seeds - 1 tsp

For Garnish
Curry leaves - 6 leaves (shredded)

Method

1. Wash rice in running water until the water runs clear. Cook the rice in 3 cups of water. Fluff with fork and let it cool to room temperature.
2. Transfer the rice to a bowl. Add yoghurt little by little and mix until it is well blended. Add little water if you feel its too thick.
3. Add salt, green chillis, pomegranate seeds and mix again.
4. Add the tempering and garnish with curry leaves.

Serve with spicy lemon or mango pickle. Pomegranate seeds can be substituted with quartered grapes for this delicious entree.