Periya Manni's Tiffin sambhar

It has been eight years since Periya Manni passed on. Was remembering her since last morning and telling Vidya Anna how she taught me so much in my Thiruverkadu days - from kolams, to survival cooking, to dressing neatly, coming out of the bedroom only after being presentable, and a zest for life - watching movies, going out for dinners, and loving oneself. The most important, easy and yummy one of her survival cooking has stood me in good stead even today. And has been a maanam saver recently when my naathanaar (Shyam's cousin and her family) came unannounced for Tiffin. I was prepared for lunch but not breakfast. Thank God, Uma Didi blessed me with the maavu for idly and Manni's training with the dhideer sambhar. I share that today:

In a pan, add a little nallaennal, mustard, vendhayam. Add chopped onions and once they become translucent, add brinjal, capsicum or any veggies of your choice. 

Grind 2 small tomatoes (naatu thakkali), one kuzhambu karandi alavu (roughly 3 tablespoons) of diced coconut, 2 tablespoons of pottukadalai, 1tablespoon of tamarind extract (thick) or use tamarind paste (it was her idea to use the paste), salt, turmeric powder , 1 tablespoon sambar powder , a pinch of jeera and one sprig curry leaves. Grind into a thick paste adding very little water.

Add this to the veggies and add just enough water to get kuzhambu consistency.

Let it boil for 5 minutes till the raw taste/ smell of tamarind goes away. Simmer for another few minutes. Garnish with chopped coriander leaves.

This will thicken as it cools.

South to North✈️: Sabudana Javarasi Upma by Cook Prem Param🤩

Sabudana Khichdi Recipe by Prem Param🙏

 Course Breakfast

 Cuisine Indian

 Prep Time 10 minutes

 Cook Time 20 minutes

 Total Time 30 minutes


Ingredients

1 cup Sabudana

1 tbsp Ghee

1 tsp Cumin Seeds

1/2 cup Potato Peeled and cubed

1 tsp Green Chilli Chopped

1/4 cup Peanuts Roasted and crushed in mixie

3 tbsp Coriander Chopped

Salt to taste

2 tbsp Lemon Juice ( if required at the end)

Add 1tsp sugar in between for bonding (tips)

Main Prerequisite Steps:

Wash the sabudana 3-4 times with fingers well well going inside pearls like you wash rice before keeping in cooker ( This will keep it from sticking and the pearls will be separate after cooking )

Soak it in 3/4 cup water for 5-6 hours.

Must look like this...

Preparation Steps:

1. Heat ghee in a pan. Extra tips add cooking coconut oil 1tsp if you have . Take medium sized pan so final dish can be cooked in this itself

2. When the ghee is hot, add cumin seeds.

3.When the seeds starts crackling, add potato and green chillies.

4.Cover and cook on low heat till potatoes are done.

5. Roast the Ground nut to golden brown in another kadai or pan. Tips add Southindian Red Chilli Varamolaga also and some green chillie if you need more spice.

6. Take roasted groundnut mix and grind in mixie. Oly one round. Not fine grind only crushed grind so that it soothes while eating also and mixes well with Sabudana pearls. See the image for better clarity.

7. Now take this peanuts in separate bowl and remove soaked sabudana from water by filtering and out them over these groundnut crushed. Mix well with hand. Hint: when u mix itself sabudana vaagu or patham or nature can be found out as the trick is it should be sticky either in hand or in the bowl. It should mix smooth. This comes post several times doing the dish.

See the pic...

8. Now mix this above mixture to step 4 of fried potatoes...

9. Add salt to required. Add 1 tab sugar(tips) for better bonding. U can add 1 tsp turmeric powder too

10. Mix well one or two times. Keep in low steam. Close lid

11. Add lemon if required at end. The coulour of Sabudana is from groundnut and potatoes as golden brown which gives the final take off of the product.

12. U can serve with Oma podi or Sev..

Final photos...

Cover and cook on low heat till sabudana turns translucent.

Keep mixing in between.

Add lemon juice and mix well.

Garnish with fresh coriander and serve hot.

MuzhuKathrika of Famous ChindaThai 🍆

MuzhuKathrika Kari..😎

Masala than trick..


1. Heat Kadai with yennai
2. Put 8 to 10 molagavathal for karam
3. Add groundnuts and varuthal( u can do this step sepearately also)
5.  Kadalaparupu... handfull of..It should turn golden brown colour
6. Add Kothamali varagu.. hand full off..
7. Add perungayam
8. Prem added extra 2 pachamolaga fresh karuvapila and 1 ginger in above mix and fried well
8. Allow it to cool..
9. In mixie add all above, add salt, pinch of turmeric powder, add slight half spoon smabar podi(prem trick) and if you want for trick you can add one pacha chinna vengayam if available ( prem trick which we usually do for BisiBela Bath mix)
10. then grind well..no water at all
11. Keep aside .. and it should come like upma kozhakatta when you take in hand to pudichudu
12. Wash brinjal and remove kambu .
13 Slit kathrika from top to 3/4th into four cuts like cross  it six cuts like star.. so that u can insert masala from top.. ensure to check well inside.. some puchi will be there.. throw that kathrika immediately out
14 now add masala like I showed in photo
15 keep ready of all
16. Add refined oil in kadai like in small kadai where u can do 3 kathrika at one strech.. add oil like vadam porikra level
17. Keep kathrika into it... One after other.. slightly vathukufy... And close the lid of vanali
18. Appo appo move kathrika aside.. be careful.. sometimes it becomea soft and odanjudum.. so alungama kulungama move pananum.. hardly 3 kathrika for 5 to 8 mins..
Avlo than..
Ready to serve

Mama ! Parupu Notes Eduthuko😆 Apdiye Kaila Snacks Eduthuko 🤓

Parupu notes by Chindamani

Ulthamparupu... Thalichu kotrathu, kootuku arachu vidrathu, Kai like beans carrot avarakai beetroot ku thakikarthy, thogayalku fry pani arachu vidrathu

Moong daal or payathamparupu.. use for kootu by keeping with vegetable in kootu.. can put in beans at top..for moong daal Bombay chutney with well mashed .

Thovaramparupu... For verampu parupu...
Parpu thogayal..for sambar...by keeping in cooker...for rasam..

Kadalparupu.. mulichu mulichu irukum...  use small in kootu vegavekardu.. sambarku varuthu araikanum...thalichu kotradu for vegetable..for upma...

Enga Athai Kai Muruku Doi 🤩

Arisi Mavu Ulunthu Maavu Muruku by Chindamani

1. 5 cup rice to 1 cup Ulunthu (5:1) needs to be nicely arachufied in Maavu mill.. it can be cup or bowl or whatever the same shud be taken for measure

2. Take that flour. Mix with butter
Bit of water to get soaky feel

3. Add jera asfodia(perungayam) salt along with it

4. Then put  in Muruku puzhiyal

5. Fry it in oil.

Venpongal

You need:

3 measures of rice
1 measure moong dal (payathamparuppu)
Seasoning: 

jeera, turmeric, salt, crushed pepper, finely chopped ginger

How to: 

1. Dry roast the dal and rice separately till the point when dal starts giving out its fragrance
2. Mix the dal and rice. This will make it 4 measures (3 rice and 1 dal)

3. Wash the mixture. (Kalanjufy like you do in Gayathri japam 😉) Drain the water. Set aside. 

4. Now take five times the water of the total rice-dal measure and bring it to a boil separately.

5. Add the washed mixture to the boiling water. 

6. Add salt to taste.

7. In a vanali (pan/ kadai) add oil. When it heats, add jeera, pepper powder and chopped ginger.  

8. Add this to the rice-dal-water mixture. Add a pinch of turmeric.

9. Keep this vessel in the cooker (with water at the base)

10. Two to three whistles. Let pressure settle. 

11. Add generous dollop ghee before serving

12. Serve piping hot with sambhar, gothsu or/and chutney.

Chindamani Vetha Kozhambu

Vetha Kozhambu.. By Chindamani



1.Vengayam pundu fry in a small pan with oil

2.then take them and pour them in puli thani(paste water)...

3. Sambar podi little and kaduku n perumgayam, mendayam, molaga vathal can be fried in vanali. Order kaduku perungayam then mendayam..mendayam shud turn to just black from brown. At that time add the vegetable fried. Then put puli thani ( step2)

4. Mix 3 and 4 and boil it until it becomes thick..add salt reqd...

If not..add some arisu maavu to make it thick...

Hint. A pinch of Velam...

Curry Podi

You will need:

Coriander seeds: 100 grams
Kadalai paruppu: 30 grams
Dry red chilli (varamolagai/ molagai vatthal): 15 nos. (normal size)
Asafoetida: A pinch

Fry all the ingredients in a little oil and grind into a coarse powder.

Handy tip:
1. The curry podi is multi-purpose. You can use it to season not just the everyday curries, but also the sundals, pitlai, sambhar and in some kootu varieties as well. Goes very well with potatoes, yam, colocasia, brinjal, ladies' finger, plantain.
2. You can make it and store it in an air-tight dabba for a week

Milagai Podi

This blog has not been updated for a very long time, as you can evidently see. At a personal level, we have all moved quite a deal in the five years since the last update: I got married and got my own kitchen; Chinda Athai became a mother-in-law and got someone to mentor in her kitchen, and a grandmother to a lovely little angel who (we hope!) loves the kitchen as much as her gran... 

To a spicy (re) start to the blog, here is molaga podi recipe for idlys, dosais on the evenings when you want a quick meal:

Molagai Podi

You will need:

Dry red chilli (varamilagai/ milagai vatthal): 200 grams 

Kadalai paruppu: 50 grams

Ulutham paruppu: 50 grams

Parboiled rice: about 25 grams

Ellu (white or black sesame): 20 grams

Pottukadalai:  50 grams

Asafoetida: A pinch

Dry roast everything except the chillies separately in pan (without oil). Now, fry red chilli in little oil. Switch off the burner and then add the required salt, and grind the dry roasted ingredients and the fried red chillies together.

Handy tip:

1. Increase the proportion of red chillies if you want a spicy podi. 
2. Normally, our people won't add parboiled rice. However, Chinda Athai says she uses it. "Avail or avoid. Rice is optional," she says.

Instant Tomato Gothsu

Contributed by Thripurasundari Mahadevan:

"She taught me this last year. This is a quick and easy side for dosais," says Sunchi

Ingredients:
Tomatoes - 2 or 3.
Water
Sambar powder - 1 tsp.
Salt
Pottukadalai powder - 1 tsp.

In a little oil, place a tsp of mustard seeds and let them splutter. Add chopped tomatoes and saute. Add water and bring it to a boil. When the tomatoes cook a little, add sambar powder and salt. (If you use the simple sambar powder detailed below, it will boil and mix in a minute). If too watery, make a paste of pottukadalai powder in water and add to the gotsu. Bring to a boil and serve.

Handy tip:

Simple sambar/curry powder

Channa dal - 1 cup
Coriander seeds - 1.5 cup
Red chillies - 5-7

Dry-roast each of these separately and powder finely. Use this powder to spice up dry curries or instead of your regular sambar powder for a change.

Kozhukkattais

This was for Pillayar Chaturthi last year:

Yummy Kozhukkattais for Vinayakar Chaturthi

Makes 20 – 25 average size kozhukkattais

You will need

For the Filling:

fresh grated coconut: 1 cup

grated jaggery: ¾ cup

cardamom powder: a pinch

For the outer covering:

Rice flour: 1½ cups

Coconut oil or any other cooking oil: 2tsp.

Salt: a pinch

Preparation:

The Filling:

1. Melt the jaggery and strain to remove any impurities. Reheat and make slightly thick syrup. To test, just remove the spoon with a little syrup from the boiling syrup and drop into a cup of cold water. If the syrup forms a smooth ball, soft to touch, it is ready.

2. Add the coconut gratings to the molten jaggery.

3. Keep stirring until all the water is absorbed and the contents leave the side of the pan.

4. Remove from fire and add cardamom powder.

Handy Tip: This stuffing can be prepared in advance and refrigerated up to 1 month. This keeps good in room temperature for up to 1 week.

The rice flour coating:

1. Heat a pan and add 2 tsp of oil.

2. Add 1½ cups of water and pinch of salt and boil. Meanwhile mix the rice flour in 1½cups of water into a smooth batter without lumps.

3. When the water starts boiling add this batter and keep stirring until the rice flour becomes a smooth shiny ball. Remove from fire and cool.

To prepare kozhukkattais:

1. Knead the rice flour dough well.

2. Take a lime sized portion and form into a cup.

3. Put a smaller size ball of the coconut stuffing inside and close from all sides and pinch the ends together.

4. Repeat till all the dough and stuffing is used up.

5. Steam the kozhukkattais in a steamer or idli steamer for 15 minutes.

Handy Tip: Smear little oil on your finger tips to make it easier to handle the dough.