Summer have started here and we started sweating a lot, even here in Bangalore. This time it has been predicted that summer will be too hot, like never before. In Tamilnadu, people will start consuming all coolest food items. At some places, few NGOs or group of people will organize "Thanner Panthal"(refreshment stalls) where in they have water filled mud pots, kept on wet sand. This is the most healthy way to get a chill water, which we don't get by cooling in a fridge. This water will be so tasty, quenching the thirst very well. Some places they serve seasoned buttermilk, koozhu also. This is mainly to quench the thirst of passersby in the hot summer.  

Raagi can be consumed in many ways like adai, dosa, puttu, and koozhu. This will suit both kids and elders and specifically for diabetics. Lets see how to prepare fermented Raagi Koozhu. 

Ingredients:

Raagi Flour - 2 cup

Curd - 1 cup

Cooked rice - 1 cup

Method:

Prepare a batter out of raagi flour by adding water. The consistency can be similar to the dosa batter. Let it ferment for at least 8-12 hrs. The more it ferments more the taste will be. 

Take a heavy bottomed vessel and add 8 cups of water and boil it. when it starts boiling, add the fermented batter slowly, by stirring continuously. It should not form any humps. 

Keep it in a lower flame and stir often till the raagi gets cooked well. Add the cooked rice to it and mix well. 

After it is cooled down, add the curd/buttermilk and salt to it. Its up to you to decide on how much curd should be added, according to your taste. 

Serve it with side dishes like Pearl onions, Curd Chilly(Mor Milagai), Pavakkai Vathal, Salted Mango, any veg or non veg side dish. Out of these pearl onion is the best. Because Raagi will tend to increase the internal body temperature, so pearl onion will give you the reverse effect by cooling down. So whenever you prepare any dish(spicy) out of raagi, see to that you add more of pearl onions. 

I am republishing it for Festive Food: Summer Treat event conducted by Priti

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It’s my long time goal, that I should prepare a good kesari. Finally I mastered in that after several trials. Whenever i say i am going to prepare kesari, my husband used to tell me "You prepare rava upma instead, as it will be far better when compared to your kesari". Scared of his comments I will stop trying out. But yesterday, I was so determined to prepare the kesari and get any sort of comments from him. When you have tensions on how it would turn out, the recipe will be spoiled. This time I didn’t take any tension and I did it my own way. Hurray I did it and my husband enjoyed it a lot. More than him my kid loved it so much. That’s what i needed.

Ingredients: 

Rava\Sooji - 1 cup

Sugar - 2 1/2 cups

Water - 4 cups

Cardamom powder - 1 pinch

Saffron color powder - For coloring

Ghee - 4 tbsp

Cashew - 10

Dry Grapes - 10

Hell a lot of patience and love 

Method:

In a hard bottomed kadai, add 1 tbsp of ghee and roast the cashew and dry grapes. Keep it aside in a plate.

In the same kadai, add the sooji and roast till it the aroma of roasted sooji fills the room. Keep it aside.

Add the water and saffron color powder to the empty kadai and let it boil. Once it starts boiling, add the roasted sooji slowly, so that it doesn’t form any humps.

Close it with a lid and cook it for 10 mins in a low flame. Once the rawa is cooked well, add the sugar and stir well.

Add some ghee to it and make sure it is not stuck to the bottom or side of the kadai.

Keep on stirring it in a low flame, it should look like some halwa not sticking to the kadai. That’s how the ghee will be taken in by the sooji. Later the same ghee will be oozed out. That point you can stop. 

Add the roasted dry fruits to it and mix well. I started it about 7 pm and I stopped it only by 9pm. Have patience and get the tasty kesari. Enjoyyyyy.

I am sending this to FIC – Orange hosted by Aparna, originated by Harini. Hope they accept mine. 

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This is one of the best combo which suits well for chappathi/Rotis. Very Healthy too. I dont know but am not preparing it so often. May be its not flashing into my mind when i think of a meal. 

Ingredients:

Channa (Sprouts) - 1 cup

Potato - 2 (Boiled)

Chilly Powder - 1 tbsp

Coriander Powder - 1 1/2 tbsp

Cumin Powder - 1 tsp

Saunf Powder - 1 tsp

Garam Masala Powder - 1 tsp

Salt as required

To Grind:

Pearl Onion - 10

Garlic Pods - 10 

Tomato - 1

Ginger - 1 inch piece

Method:

Bake the potatoes and channa together in a pressure cooker with required amount of water and salt. 

Peel off the potato skin and crush it into small pieces. 

In a kadai, add 1 tsp of oil and add ground paste and saute well till the raw smell goes off. 

Add all the powders mentioned and salt. Saute well for a while and then add the channa with water and potato. 

Close it with a lid and cook for 15 mins by sauting in between. Serve hot with roti or chappathi. 

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• Enjoy your food•
Eat a variety of different foods•
Eat the right amount to be a healthy weight•
Eat plenty of foods rich in starch and fibre•
Eat plenty of fruit and vegetables•
Don’t eat too many foods that contain a lot of fat•
Don’t have sugary foods and drinks too often•
If you drink alcohol, drink sensibly.

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This one is my kid's alltime favourite and on seeing an event hosted for kids love i thought of sharing it. Obviously this is transferred through ages . My granny's mother is a great cook it seems. I have never seen her in my life. Still my mother in law used to recall her cooking skills, whenever she do this. A small story and am praying GOD that my dear hubby shouldn't read it. I am married to my uncle's son. So all the relatives are common for us. My hubby was born on an Ashtami (Lord krishna's birth was also during an ashtami) with the naval chord around his neck (similar to krishna). My maternal grandma was so scared that, this birth may lead to any disaster in my family, especially to my MIL's brother or her family. This is believed as Krishna's birth killed kamasan, his uncle. So when my MIL got discharged from hospital and reached home, this great granny took the aarti for the kid(My husband). Soon after that she was paralysed and within a week she passed away. I dint have belief on all these, it may be coincidental. But I and the whole family used to tease my husband with this story and he will get damn angry for this. So that's the story of my great granny and my MIL will always point out this story along with her cooking skills. 

Ok lets soon jump into the recipe part. 

Ingredients:

Sirukeerai

Green chillies - 2(as my kid is having it)

Toor Dhal - 1/2 cup cooked. 

Pearl Onions - 10

Tomato - 1

Method:

In a kadai, add 1 tsp of oil and add the onions, tomato and chilly and saute well. 

Add 1/2 cup of water and add the keerai. Close it with a lid and cook for 5 mins. 

Add the cooked dhal and grind it with a mansatty or mixer to a coarse paste. 

As i am giving it to my kid, i usually grind it smooth in the mixer. So that he can eat it well. 

I can really say this is my kids favourite for his lunch. I feel good nutrients along with proteins is sent to my kid through this recipe. So I often prepare it at least for him. 

This keerai kadaiyal enters the Cooking for Kids with Love a sweet event hosted by Jigyasa and Pratibha. I know its a late entrant. I am hoping for the best. 

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The season here is too worse and we have been constantly travelling every weekend for some or the other reasons. And this has fetched my kid with a severe cold. I took him to hospital and he was given with so many medicines, which I found very difficult to feed him every 6 hours. The antibiotics which are usually priscribed will reduce the appetite and also for some kids they may lead to constipation. Agian we have to help the kids to get rid of constipation. Really pathetic. On seeing all these my mom suggested to try some home medicine which will cure the cold and also helps in digestion. It also clears the congestion in the chest.

Being a working woman, am scared of testing anything with the kid as I will not be able to avail leaves to take care. But as my mom insisted for the welfare of kid, I couldnt deny and went ahead with it. I was astonished by the end results. He got cured the very next day and started having his food properly, coughs reduced....dont think am exaggerating, it really worked out well. I just thought of sharing the same with the blogosphere. 

Ingredients:

Leaves of Anisochilus Carnosus(Karpooravalli in Tamil)- 3

Tulsi Leaves - few

Pepper Corns - 3

Cumin Seeds - 1 tsp

Omam - 1 tsp

Method:

Crush both the leaves. Put in to a kettle having half cup of water. Put all the other ingredients and boil well. The water should reduce to 2 tbsp consistency. 

Filter it and pour into a medicine feeder and give it to the kid. 

Get back to me to share how it worked for you.

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This will be very spicy and people wont like a burning tongue, dont continue reading. Yeah it will be a very good combination for hot idlies and dosas. I like this very much, so prepare it in the weekend and store it for the week. The taste will last till the entire week.

Ingredients:

Garlic Pods - 20

Red Chillies - 40

Tomato -1

Salt - as per your taste

Method:

Grind together all the above ingredients to a smooth paste by adding water.

You can either have it raw by adding gingelly oil and serve it with Idly or dosa. The picture is the raw one.

Otherwise if you want to store, jus heat some 3 tbsp of gingelly oil in a kadai and add this paste to it. Saute well till the raw smell goes off and the oil seperates. Store it in a container for a week. Whenever you want to serve, heat it in microwave and serve. Thats it.

Once you taste it, you will like it for sure. If you have a hand grinder at home, the taste will be marvellous. But before you start grinding, apply some gingelly oil or castor oil on your hands and then grind. Otherwise your hands will be burning for the whole day. I believe noone using a hand grinder will be referring blogs ;)

I am sending this orange coloured chutney to FIC-Orange hosted by Aparna, originated by Sunshinemom

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Yesterday I prepared Raagi Adai after a longtime. It was my grandpa's all time favourite. He was no more now, but still I have never seen such a self disciplined person like him in this world. Even at the age of 88, he will take his breakfast only after finishing his bath and prayers. Everyday early in the morning he go for walking, whatever may be the season. And he will have his own milestones to be reached during walking and maintains his punctuality in that. Also while walking he will be humming his favourite Devaram poetry (this is a tamil litreture sung in the praise of lord shiva). He was working as HOD Tamil in the Delhi university. As a diabetic patient, whenever he consult a doctor and finds his sugar level gone up, he will take the immediate steps and bring down to normal within a week. Even doctors have admired this. He will a perfect balanced diet that suits his health. He lived as a legend, leaving us with his fondful memories. 

When I thought of the event Just For You, the next moment I decided that I should dedicate my grandpa with his favourite recipe. Here it is..

Ingredients:

Ragi Flour - 1 cup

Onion - 1/2 cup minced (Preferrably pearl onions)

Green Chillies - 4

Red Chilies - 2

Curry leaves and Coriander Leaves - 2 tbsp minced nicely. 

Salt to Taste

Method:

In the hot kadai, add 1 tsp of oil and seasoning items like mustard seeds, urad dhal and aesfoetida. 

Once the mustard splutters, add the rest of the ingredients and saute well. 

Add this to the ragi flour and mix well. Now add salt and water and mix well. The dough should be like vada dough.

Take a plastic sheet and brush some oil over it. Take a medium sized ball of the dough and spread it with hands in that plastic sheet, to a dosa shape. 

Take it out and put it a hot tawa. Turn it to both the sides and cook well by adding little oil. You must have patience till it gets cooked. If its half cooked, you are sure to get stomach pain. So be little careful and cook it well.  

This can be served as a dinner or as a evening snack. This is very good for growing children and diabetic patients too. 

This Ragi Adai is sent to Just For You event started by Alka. 

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A very simple yet tasty recipe originated from the land of chettinad. 

Ingredients:

Leftover Idly Batter

Onion - 2

Green Chillies - 4

Red Chillies - 4

Ginger - 1/2" piece

Aesfoetida - 1 pinch

Curry Leaves 

Coriander Leaves

Mustard Seeds - 1tsp

Urad Dhal - 1tsp

Bengal Gram Dhal - 1tsp

Method:

Heat oil in the kadai and add the seasoning items. Once the mustard seeds splutter, add the rest of the ingredients and saute well. Add this to the idly batter and mix well. 

In the paniyaram pan, brush some oil, and add a scoop of this seasoned batter. Once it is fried one side, turn it to the other side, add some oil and make them crispier on both the sides. 

Serve hot with coconut chutney or tomato chutney. 

These paniyaram goes to RCI:Chettinadu Vegetarain Cuisine hosted by Srimathi

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This is one more easy side dish, which goes well all types of sambar. This one is my hubby's favourite and hence it will do it with utmost care. 

Ingredients:

Colocacia - 300 gms

Chilly Powder - 1 tsp

Salt - As per taste

Corn Flour - 1 tbsp

Method:

Cook the colocacia in water in a kadai. some people will cook it in a pressure cooker. But if we do that way, the veg will become mashed and it cannot be fried. So boil it in either microwave or in a kadai. 

Once it is cooked well and firm, cool it and pee off the skin. Cut it according to your desired shape. 

Marinate it with the rest of the ingredients without adding water, for half an hour. In a kadai, season the curry with 1 tbsp of oil and mustard seeds. Add this marinated colocacia and fry it well. 

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