Okkarai

Okkarai is a famous traditional & one of the mandatory sweet dish is very popular among in Tirunelveli - Shenkottai /Trivandrum Brahmin families. This is so quick to make with minimum ingredients like Chana Dal (Kadilai Paruppu) and Jaggery and does not require much ghee. These sweets dish is my family’s favorite.

Ingredients:

Channa Dal/Kadalai Paruppu-     2 Cup

Grated Jaggery -2 Cup

Cardamom powder-1/4 Tsp

Cashew Nuts-    Few

Ghee     -3 tbsp

Method:

Roast the chana dal well in a dry pan till it turns reddish brown.

Soak it in water for 2 to 3 hours and then Drain the water and grind this into a smooth paste .While grinding just add 1 tbsp water.

Grease a small bowl with ghee and transfer the ground channa dal to this and steam this for 10 mins

After steaming, break it into pieces and once it is cool, and then crumbles it nicely.

In a pan put the jaggery and add water, Let the jaggery melt and comes to 1 string consistency add crumbled dal mixture to this and mix it nicely.

Add a tblsp of ghee to this and mix well, and cook in medium flame till it leaves the sides of the pan and it becomes soft and reaches a puttu consistency.

Then add cardamom powder,and mix well . Garnish it with ghee fried cashews. Now delicious okkarai is ready!

Maida Kozhukattai /Fried Modak

Maida Kozhukattai

On the third day of Navarathri I made fried modak / Maida Kozhukattai for prasadam using all purpose flour (Maida). The method of this kozhukattai  is making a stiff dough filling it with the same coconut jaggary fillings. It taste  divine is not just enough to explain the taste. Fried modaks/ Kozhukattai are easy to make and tasty to relish.

 

Ingredients:

For Outer Covering:

All purpose flour-1 cup

A pinch Salt

Water-as needed

Oil for deep frying

For Filling:

Grated jaggery-1/2 cup

Grated coconut-1cup

Cardamom powder-1/2 tsp

Ghee- 1 tsp

Method:

1.Grate only the soft white portion of the coconut. Put the jaggery in a heavy bottomed vessel and add ½ cup water and keep on low flame.

2.When the jaggery completely melted, strain it and put it in a heavy bottomed vessel and allow to boil .

3.Add coconut gratings and Cook till the mixture just starts leaving the sides of the vessel and become solid.

4.Add cardamom powder and & ghee mix well & remove from the heat.

5.Knead Maida into a soft, stretchy dough with water and oil. (knead it into dough just as you do for making chapathis).

6.Take Maida flour dough and make small balls out of it and Press it in your palm and flatten it.

7. Make small ball out of the puran that we had prepared.Place puran in dough and close it in a pyramid shape.

8.While stuffing the puran, Roll the dough into uniform balls,  seal it completely.

9.Deep fry the modaks balls in oil till they turn brown and serve warm.

Porivilangai Urundai

Porivilangai Urundai

Porivilanga is a famous "pandam" ( Pandam means dish)in  our Tirunelveli dist. porulvilanga urundai is  a traditional recipe and  it is a nutritious pack of, protein rich peanuts, roasted gram, mung dal, dry ginger which aids in digestion. The name of the sweet ball means that the consumer may not know what it consists of. Which translates as, "porul - meaning, vilanga - cannot understand, urundai - balls", which denotes that, one cannot make out the ingredients that has gone into the making of this laddu. But now the word is modified to "Porivilanga" in due course time.  In this sweet Actually we can add more the ingredients as per our taste. ( Wheat, channadal, barley, sago, almond, cashew nut ,etc.), This Laddu Its taste will be yummy but it becomes harder to bite after an hour of preparation. poriviLangai urundai used to be the jawbreaker .Usually it is very hard and needs to be broken using even a hammer sometimes! Good notes about this dish not require any fats in the form of ghee /r butter, nor does it contain refined sugar! I remember those wonderful days when my grand mom used to prepare porulvilangai urundais for all of us.She & my mother used to make large size balls by pressing the mixture in both hands, but what I have done is relativelyasmallersize.

 

 Ingredients:

Green gram/ pasipayiru- 2 cups

Parboiled rice- 1 cup

Roasted gram/pottukadalai- ½ cup

Peanuts-½ cup

(Dried coconut kernels) - 2 tbsp (finely chopped)

Dry ginger (sukku)- 1 tsp          

Cardamom – 1tsp

Jaggery – 2 cup           

 

Method:

1. Roast the grains and dals separately, in a kadai,till good smell comes and raw taste gone or to brown colour.

2. Mix the roasted and cooled grains and dals together along with sukku /drygingerand pound it to a fine powder. . If it is not fine, sieve it into fine powder again and add and cardamom powder.

3. Heat grated jaggery with 2 tbsp of water. |When it melts strain it to remove dirt in it and heat in a thick bottomed pan again. When it starts boiling and gives off nice flavour and starts bubbling, and form the syrup to the uruttara patham (rolling stage ) which means if you test the syrup a little in water it can be rolled. put a drop in a small bowl of water to check if it is ready. If you are able to make a small ball out of the cooled drop, it means the syrup is ready

4. Then add the powders and Pour little by little syrup on a portion of flour. mix well and and lift out in hand and make balls while it is still hot.

 

5. Keep them on a plate to cool and store in airtight jars.

Enjoy this Traditional Nutritious dish!

Raw Banana Kootu/Vazhakkai Puli Kootu

This Vazhakkai Kootu is something different from Vazhakkai curry & Podimas. This tangy type of kootu which is made of lentils, plantain and spices. This Raw Banana kootu boil in lentils, tamarind water with jaggerry , sambar powder, add scraped coconut friend in coconut oil . It gives a great taste. You can serve it with Plain rice or accompanied by Mor Kuzhambu /rasam with papad.

Ingredients:

Green plantains, peeled and chopped-2

Tuvar dal cooked and mashed well-1 cup

Tamarind –small gooseberry size dissolved in water

Chana dal (bengal gram)- 3 tbsp

Turmeric powder-1/2 tsp

Sambhar Powder- 1 tsp

Rice flour- 1 tsp

Salt-as per taste

To temper:

 Mustard seeds – 1/2 tsp

 Urad dal – 1/2 tsp

 Channa dal – 1/2 tsp

Grated Coconut – 1 tbsp

 Hing – 1/4 tsp

Curry leaves – Few

Coconut oil – 1 tsp 

METHOD:

1.Pressure Cook the dhal and keep it aside.

2.Cut the raw banana into small cubes and allow it to cook with tamarind extract and 3 tbsp of channa dal, sambhar powder, turmeric Powder salt & required water.

3.When the mixture starts to boil add the smashed tuvardhal& small amount of jaggery.

4.Mix the rice flour in little water and add to the kootu to make it a thick consistency and let it boil for sometime

 5.In a separate pan add the oil and Temper the mustard seeds, urad & channa dal , hing and grated coconut. 

6.Roast the coconut well and add all the tempered items to the kootu.

 7.Finally add a tsp of coconut oil for additional flavor. Now the delicious puliita kootu is ready to serve.

  8.Mix with plain rice topped with ghee or serve as an accompaniment.

Sweet Rice Puttu & Awards....

Puttu is my all time favorite. My grandma, My mother,& MIL usually prepares it wonderfully delicious puttu as a snack in the evening and usually it is the sweet variety. Puttu is a culinary specialty & this is a common dessert in our village and near by Tirunelveli dist in Tamil Nadu. It is traditional dish used to prepare in functions & festivals for neividyam. This puttu is different from what the Keralites prepares. .. Puttu is a steamed rice cake is supposed to be soft and fluffy. It’s made with rice flour, grated coconut and jaggery. The process is also time consuming but worth every effort. Traditionally it’s prepared by soaking raw rice in water, draining it, spreading it on a cloth and powdering the rice, while the rice is still damp.It is not that difficult to make provided you have loads of time to spare & a lot of patience too... . This dish came to my mind for purva’s Holi festival Event. But work front kept me busy and somehow I could manage it to prepare it on Holi.hope you enjoy it:)

Here's the recipe for it; .

Ingredients:

Rice -3 cup

Turmeric powder -1/4 tsp

Jaggery- 1 cup

Salt - A pinch

Water-¼ cup

Cardamoms-4 to6

Coconut-cut into small piece few

Cashew- 50 gm

Method:

1. Soak raw rice in water, draini it, spreading it on a cloth and powdering the rice, while the rice is still damp. Then make like powder by using Mixer.

2. Dry roast rice flour in a kadai in medium flame till golden coloured. Remove from fire & allow to cool.

3. Heat the water with salt & turmeric till it becomes lukewarm.

4. Sprinkle this little by little, to the roasted flour & mix well till it resembles fine bread crumbs.( The rice flour should be wet enough to hold together when you try making a fist with it and dry enough to break apart at a simple knock with the thumb. It shouldn’t be clumpy or too powdery. Keep breaking it with the hand as you mix. The amount of water varies with the kind of rice flour used. So keep adding in small quantities.)

5. Sieve this using a coarse sieve & wrap the flour in a clean cloth like a bundle. Place the bundle in a vessel; keep the vessel in a pressure cooker & steam cook for 10 minutes. Remove from fire & crumble the flour without any lumps. Again pass this steamed flour through the sieve(Take a pinch of the cooked flour and rub it with your two fingers.If the flour turned like a thread then the cooking is over.It is ready. If you can do that , If notkeep it again in the cooker and cook for some more time.)

6. Mix well with hands without any lumps.Fry cashew nuts in 1 sp ghee and keep aside.

7.Now, in a deep pan pour 50 ml water and put crushed jaggery and when it melts filter it.
Make syrup out of it.

8. The syrup should become thick enough, so that when you add a drop of it in a vessel of water, it should solidify immediately. (When a drop of the jaggery syrup is dropped in cold water, you should be able to form it into a ball. When you reach this consistency switch of the stove and remove the vessel from the stove.)

9. Now add this mixture little by little to the steamed flour and simultaneously mix the flour and jaggery syrup with the other hand using a spatula. Be careful because the syrup will be very hot and it will scald your skin if it drops.

10. The 'puttu' is ready and it must be like 'dry sand' after adding the jaggery. Allow to cool & then serve.

11. Add cardamom powder, grated coconut and fried cashew nuts. Mix well. Actually it is some what difficult ...Experiment in small quantities.

These goes to FestiveFood: Holi Hai event hosted by dear Purva.


Load Of Awards:

Vibaas & Gita has passed me on this very cute award. Thanks a lot for both of you for remembering me!

It is really tough to pick just 8 of my friends for this award, so I am passing on this award to all my blogger friends

Again Vibaas has passed me all this cute awards for me Thanks for sharing it with me dear.I feel honoured dear:)

I would like pass these awards to all my sweet friends Purva, Priti, vidhya, Suma, Hema, Srihari vatsan, Asha, Akal Sappadu, Nithya Praveen, Rajeswari Vijayanand, Rekhas Kitchen, Gita,Vidas, Malar, Viki, Anu,Mahima,srilekha, sia, A&N, Usha, Sripriya, Deesha ,N33ma.
Enjoy !!!