Butter Sevai

A twist to the usual rice sevai, with melting butter as flavouring.. Yummy sevai in 10 minutes flat.. Yeah!



Ingredients :

1 packet dried rice noodles – (Concorde brand sevai)

For seasoning :

2 tbsp coconut oil
1 tbsp mustard
1 tbsp split white urad dal
1 tbsp channa dal (kadalai paruppu)
Broken cashew nuts, (if your prefer)
1/2 tsp asafoetida
4-5 finely chopped green chillies
a sprig of curry leaves
Coriander leaves for garnishing
Salt to taste
1/2 cup grated coconut
2 tbsps of unsalted butter (yes, generous portions..)


Cooking tips:

Boil the dried sevai in boiling water with a pinch of salt. The instant sevai cooks very quickly, so you have to take off the flame at the right time.

When the water is boiling, add the sevai and leave it for 2 minutes on high. No need to cover the vessel.

Immediately drain the water and keep the sevai vessel closed with a plate. Leave for 5 minutes. With this heat itself it will continue to cook and after 5 minutes it would be cooked just right.

Method :

Heat oil in a saucepan, add the mustard seeds, urad dal, chana dal, cashew nuts, cut chillies, asafoetida and curry leaves.

Add the shredded coconut, fry for a few seconds and simmer the gas.

Now add the cooked rice sevai, salt, mix well and at last add the butter. Garnish with coriander leaves and serve it with coconut chutney, tomato chutney or with Mor Kozhambu.

Variations :

Lemon Sevai : All ingredients except butter, but add little turmeric while seasoning and lemon juice ( 2 tsp) after switching off the flame.

Mango Sevai : Add shredded mango along with coconut. No need for butter / lemon juice.

Hakka Noodles

All time favourite.. Hakka noodles tossed with vegetables of your choice!

Ingredients:

1 packet of Ching's Hakka Veg Noodles - Boiled



Vegetables ( to be sliced finely, cabbage and carrots to be shredded finely)
Onion - 2
Spring Onions - 1 small cup
Cabbage - 1 cup
Carrots - 1 cup
1 capsicum
2 tsp oil
salt- a pinch
Ajinomoto - a pinch
Chinese red chilli fresh -2 finely cut
Garlic - 3 pods, finely chopped

1. Heat oil, fry garlic and fresh red chillis.
2. Add Onion, carrot, capsicum and cabbage and stir fry over high flame for about 2 minutes. Add a pinch of ajinomoto and salt.
3. Now toss in the boiled noodles, stir fry for a minute.
4. Add the chopped spring onions and serve the noodles hot with Chinese gravy and sauce.


(These pics were shot in my mobile since my digicam conked out.. Not bad photos...Yeah)

Appam

Whip up Soft and spongy appams in just an hour! No need to grind rice..
Yes, we take the easy way out!

Ingredients:

Pal Appam Flour (Brand - Double Horse) - Available at Super Markets (I picked this up in Purchase Point @ Mahalingapuram) - 1 pkt

Warm milk - 1 tumbler

Warm water - 1 tumbler

Sugar - 1 tsp

Salt to taste.

Method :

1. Measure the amount of appam powder - (I used 2 tumblers)

2. Add the warm milk and water, add sugar and salt and in turn around this mixture just for 1/2 a minute in mixie.

3. Cover and keep it for a hour.

4. You can see the froth and air in this appam maavu.

5. In a appa kadai, brush little oil, add 1 "karandi" maavu, swirl it and over a low flame, cover and cook.

6. Make sure to retain the softness (i.e, it should be still white in color after cooking)

7. Serve it with Coconut Kurma/ sweetened coconut milk / chutney

Godhumai Dosai

The unbeatable dosa in yet another form - The thumb rule is to have the correction proportion of Godumai maavu (wheat flour) and arisi maavu (rice flour) so that we have these golden crispies !

Ingredients :

(wheat flour : rice flour = 1 : 1.25)

Wheat flour - 1 cup
Rice flour - 1.25 cups
Onions (finely chopped) - 1
Jeera - 1 tsp
Green Chillies - 3 and small piece of ginger , both finely chopped
Sour buttermilk / water - 2 cups
Asafoetida - a pinch
Curry leaves - a few springs
Salt to taste


Method :

1. Mix all the above mentioned ingredients. Add water & butter milk to the flour. The batter should be thinner than the usual dosa maavu.

2. Heat the tawa or the dosai kal and pour the batter from outside to inside. Do not spread it like the usual dosa. Because of thin consistency, the batter would flow and spread while tilting the kal or swirling the pan.

3. Mastering the trick is to have the batter of the right consistency and heating the tawa at the right temperature. You would see tiny holes in the batter. (For first timers, non-stick pan would indeed be a blessing. But the dosa done on the kall is ultimate..)

4. Add oil on the edge of the dosa batter. Cook this on medium heat, once the dosa becomes golden and cripsy, flip it over to the other side.

5. Godumai Maavu dosai goes will with sambar, idli molagai podi or thakkali thokku.

Neer Kozhukattai

Easy and tasty Kozhukattai..




Ingredients :

Puzhungal Arisi (par boiled rice) - 2 cups
Toor dal - 2 tablespoon
Grated coconut - 1/2
Red Chillies (long) - 6
Salt, asafoetida

For the seasoning : Coconut oil -3 tsp, Mustard seeds, urad dal and curry leaves.

Method :

1. Soak rice and dal for 2 hours. Strain the water, add red chillies, salt and grated coconut and grind it thickly.

2. From the ground rice/dal mixture, take a big lemon sized ball. Take 2 cups of water, dilute this mixture and keep it aside.

3. Make small Kozhukattai balls (10-15) in the remaining mixture. In a microwave bowl, put all these Kozhukattai balls, cover and steam for 2 minutes. (This is just to partially cook to retain the shape before it is put to boil. A small tip, do not make the balls too hard, otherwise you'll end up with hard rocks!).





4. Heat the kadai, add coconut oil and do the tempering with mustard seeds, urad dal, asafoetida and curry leaves. Now add the diluted (water-mavu) mixture and bring it to boil.

5. Add the partially cooked Kozhukattai balls to this mixture, reduce the flame. After 7-8 minutes when the kozhukattais are cooked, they will start floating.

6. Serve this hot and enjoy the Neer Kozhukattai

Masala Idly Fry

Tasty snack that can be made in a jiffy with left over idlis..
Hope you like it..

Ingredients :

Idly – Refrigerated if possible, cut in to pieces (long strips like french fries), deep fried – 7 /8 Idlis
Onion – 2
Tomato – 1
Spring onions
Capsicum –1
Red chilli powder – 1 tsp
Ginger / Garlic paste –1 tsp
Ketchup – 1 tsp

Method :

1. Heat Oil.

2. Add Onion, tomato, ginger garlic paste, red chilli powder, turmeric powder, salt and a little tomato ketchup.

3. Lastly add capsicum and Spring onions, toss and add fried idlis.

Curd Idlis

A quick snack which the kids and adults will love.. This can be prepared and refrigerated earlier too..

For the Idlis :

Mini Idlis – 20 nos. ( Or chop up the left over regular idlis!)
Kara Boondi – 2 tbslp for garnishing
Coriander leaves -finely chopped

For the curd mixture :

Curd – 5 cups (can be a little sour)
Salt – As reqd
Sugar – 1-2 tsp
Fresh coconut (grated) – 1 cup
Red Chillies - 3

Seasoning for the curd :
Oil - 1 tbsp
Mustard seeds
Red chilly - 1
Curry leaves

Method :

Whisk the curd with sugar and salt.

In a food processor, add grated coconut, red chillies and few curry leaves. Grind it coarsely.

Add this to the curd and add the mustard seasoning also. (For the seasoning, (Heat oil, add the seasoning)

Finally add the mini idlis in to the curd mixture.

In a serving bowl, transfer this mixture and add chopped coriander leaves.

Refrigerate. Add the kara boondi just before serving.