Barley and Green Lintel Salad

I am trying out different grains and today its the turn of the barley. umm... know what my earliest memories of barley are associated with? you guessed right, sick days....

Amma would make soup from barley add a bit of sugar and it will be given to us, to keep up the strength, over the few days when no food would taste good. It's been a long time since I had any barley, so this week I wanted to try this super grain used in a salad, which I saw featured in a magazine. I tweaked and adjusted the recipe to suit my pantry.

Ingredients

Pearl Barley -0.5 cup

Green lintels (whole moong dal) - 0.5 cup
Water - 2 cups
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste
Cucumber - 1 no diced
Cherry tomatoes - a handful halved
Green onions - 2 nos chopped

Dressing
Olive oil - 2 tbsp
Lemon juice - 2 tbsp
Honey - 1 tbsp
salt and pepper to taste

Method

1. Pre-soak green lintels(whole moong dal) for 1 hour.
2. Barley and green lintels cook at the same rate. Boil water and add salt to taste. Add barley and lintels and cook at low heat for 15 minutes. Remove from heat and cover for 5 minutes. Drain any remaining water. Let it cool.
3. Add the diced vegetables cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.
4. Prepare the dressing add to the salad and toss just before serving.

Maladu - Dalia laddoos

This is one of the first sweets that come to mind which amma used to make in a jiffy. Appa and I had the sweet tooth in the house and usually it started off with "onnume illai chapadarathukku" (there is nothing to eat)
amma: "murukku, mixture irukke, poyi eduthukko". (there is murukku and mixture, go take it)
me: "sweet onnum illai" (but there are no sweets)
amma: "maladu pannatuma." (shall i make maladu? )
me: ok (very very happy that amma consented to make something sweet)

In the present day my son loves this quickie and it is one of very few sweets he likes. He is more of a savoury person and I make it quite often. In tamil brahmin weddings, maladu is one of the primary sweets given to the invitees as cheeru. It is usually made to order and is big in size(almost the size of an apple) than the ones made at home.

Ingredients

Dhalia(pottu kadalai, porikadalai) - 1 cup
Sugar - 1 cup
Ghee - 3/4 cup
Cardamom powder - 1 tsp

Method

1. Powder the dhalia and sugar together in a mixie to a fine powder. Set aside.
2. Add cardamom powder and mix well.
3. Heat ghee. Add it little by little and roll the mixture into small lemon sized balls. You will need to re heat the ghee often to make the laddoos as warmer the ghee the less it is needed for making laddoos.

Store in an air-tight jar for upto 2 weeks (if it will last that long!). The powdered dhalia- sugar mix can be prepared and stored ahead until needed and will be even quicker to prepare.

Sweet Potato Butternut Squash Stir Fry

Halloween is a good time for harvest vegetables. The local farmers market had luscious looking squashes, corns and a variety of apples. My little one was out picking different apples such as Honey crisp, Spartan, Macintosh while his mom (a.k.a me!!) was picking out the squashes. We love sweet potato and butternut squash, so here is a recipe bringing out the best of both in one dish. 

Ingredients
1 no -- Butternut Squash cut in half and microwaved for 10 minutes, peeled and julienned
1 no -- Sweet Potato peeled and julienned
1 no -- Small Red Onion chopped
1 tsp -- Ginger grated
2 no -- Dry red chilli broken
Asofeteida a pinch
1 tsp -- Sambar powder

For Tempering
2 tbsp -- oil
1 tsp -- Mustard seeds
0.5 tsp -- urad dal

Garnish
5-8 -- Curry leaves shredded

Method

1. In a kadai at medium heat add oil, mustard seeds, dry red chillis and urad dal and let the mustard splutter.
2. Add chopped red onion and saute until translucent.
3. Add julienned sweet potato, saute for a minute. Add salt and turmeric, saute.
4. Cover and let the sweet potato cook until just done.
5. Add julienned squash to cooked sweet potato, saute.
6. Add ginger, curry leaves mix well and then add sambar powder, saute. Mix well and remove from heat.

Serve warm with rice and rotis. The red onions give a beautiful flavour to the dish. I found it difficult to cut and peel the uncooked butternut squash, so I microwaved it for 10 minutes, to soften the skin and partially cook the flesh. It turned out to be a very easy dish to make and had an amazing taste.

Medhu vada - Savoury lintel doughnut

Vegetarianism comes with the need to include proteins in the daily diet as a much needed requirement. Lintels satisfy this need and the variety keeps the taste buds tingling and asking for more. Vada is a recipe that uses white lintels or urad dal and is a deep fried snack that is also a comfort food on cold and clammy days.
Amma used to make vada or vadai as it is called in tamil quite frequently. It is also an important festival food such as Saraswati Pooja, Vishu and the like. Also when we go out of town, the morning breakfasts ordered in the restaurants which were usually idly or dosas were always accompanied by crispy vadas. When I was younger, I used to love the spicy vadai paired up with some refrigerated tomato ketchup!!! Now I make it here whenever the craving strikes and my little one loves its crunchy outer texture and the yummy soft inner part of this vadai.

Ingredients
Urad dal (white lintels) - 1 cup soaked for 2 hours
Green chillies - 2 or 3 as per taste chopped med size
Salt to taste
Hing asofeteida - a big pinch
Baking soda - 1/4 tsp
Curry leaves- 8 to 10 shredded
Peppercorns 10 to 12 leave as whole if feeding little kids else crush with mortar and pestle.
Water 1/4cup
Oil - For deep frying

 Method

1. Grind the urad dal to a med fine paste* with very little water such that it has a dropping consistency.
2. Combine with the rest of the ingredients and set aside.
3. Heat oil in a wok for deep frying.
4. Take some water in a small bowl and set aside. Take a zip lock bag and place in your left hand. Dip your right hand in the bowl of water and take a small amount of the dough and place it on the plastic cover. Make a hole in the center of the dough and flip it onto your right hand and drop the dough into hot oil.
5. Make as many as your wok will hold and fry until golden brown.
6. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain.
7. Serve warm with coconut chutney or with tomato sauce for the little ones.

*Note: If your dough gets a little watery after grinding add some roasted rava or sooji which will absorb the water and make the vada more crunchy. Do not add rice powder to the urad dal dough as it will absorb more oil while deep frying.

Red Coconut Chutney

As the name suggests the chutney is made from red chillies, coconut and tamarind. The flavours are much stronger and are more suited for the adult palatte. The green coconut chutney using green chillies is milder and are liked by kids as it contains yoghurt. As with chutneys the preparation method is the same.

Ingredients
Shredded coconut -- 3 tbsp
Red chillis  -- 2 nos ( more if you like it spicer)
Tamarind -- 0.25 tsp if you are using the concentrate or a small green peas sized if you are using the pods.
Dalia (pottu kadalai) -- 1 tsp
Hing (Asofeteida/Perunkayam) -- a pinch
Salt to taste
Curry leaves -- 5-8 leaves

For Tempering
Cooking Oil -- 1 tsp
Mustard -- 0.5 tsp

The Method

1. Add the first 6 ingredients in a mixer/ food processor along with some water and grind to a smooth paste. Then add the curry leaves and give it a whirl. The fresh curry leaves give the chutney an appetising aroma and beautiful colour.
2. Prepare the tadka and pour over the chutney.

Serve as an accompaniment to idly, vada, bajji, dosa and the like.

Upma Kozhukottai (Broken rice dumplings)

Rice is eaten in different forms in south India. One of the very tasty forms is the Upma Kozhukottai or the broken rice dumplings. Its a flavourful way to snack this rice dish in late afternoons or even as a main in dinner.

Ingredients
Broken Rice - 1 cup
(dry grind rice and seive it so that any rice powder is removed) or use Rice Sooji
Water - 3 cups
Shredded Coconut - 2 tbsp
Hing - 0.25 tsp
Salt to taste

Tempering
2 tsp - Oil
1 tsp - Mustard seeds
2 nos - Red chillis (adjust according to taste)
2tsp - Chana dal
Curry leaves a handful

Method

1. In a kadai add oil, mustard seeds, keeping the heat at medium to low setting.
2. Once it splutters add the chana dal and roast it a little until it turns light brown.
3. Add broken red chillis and curry leaves. Toast for a few seconds.
4. Remove kadai from heat wait a few seconds and add the water. Return to stovetop.
5. Increase heat and bring the water to a rolling boil. Add salt and hing.
6. Once the water boils add the rice sooji and turn the heat to medium. Let the rice sooji cook well (add water if necessary).
7. Once the rice sooji cooks well add the shredded coconut, mix well, cook for a couple of more minutes and turn off heat, set aside to cool.
8. When the upma is cool enough to handle, take a handful and roll it into small balls also called kozhukattai.
9. Place the upma balls or kozhukattai, in a steamer and steam for 5-7 minutes, remove from heat and let it cool.

Serve warm with coconut chutney and sambar.

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.