Vazhakai Podi

This amazingly easy south indian curry is a tasty dish which goes well with rice. Just steam the vazhakai (green raw plantain) and grate it, add the curry powder.. and you have a nice dish ready in a moment!

Ingredients

Vazhakai – 2
Coconut oil – 2 tsp
Curry leaves
Asafoetida
Curry Powder – 2 -3 tablespoons
Turmeric powder
Red chillies - 2
Salt
Mustard and split urad dal for tadka

Cut the Vazhakai (with the skin on) in to half and microwave these pieces wrapped in a wet cloth. Microwave in high for 3 minutes and let it cool. If you overcook these, then it would become Vazhai Halwa.. so be careful!

After it’s completely cooled, grate this and keep aside. To this grated mixture, add ½ tsp of coconut oil, asafetida, turmeric powder, curry powder, and salt and gently sift through using your hands. (so that the mixture is not sticky forming lumps).

In a Kadai, heat coconut oil and do the tadka with red chillies, mustard seeds, split urad dal, curry leaves, asafetida. Toss in the grated Vazhakai mixture on a low flame. Leave it on for just 2-3 minutes till everything is mixed well. You can add in a little more curry powder if you like it a little spicer. Enjoy!

For the Curry Powder - This can be made in advance and stored for 2-3 weeks. This curry powder or podi can also be used for Ennai Kathirikai and all other Podi Curries. Dry roast all the below mentioned ingredients and make a semi-ground podi in the mixi.

Corainder seeds – 4 tsp
Long, dried red chillies – 10-15
Asafoetida – ½ tsp
Channa dal or Kadalai Parruppu – 2 tsp
Broken white urad dal – 2 tsp
Rice – 1 tsp

Chilli Parotta

A quick, easy and finger-licking snack.. Chilli Parotta is a famous menu item at the hotels (esp. Saravana Bhavan) and Kaiyendi bhavans and my friends vouch for the yummy chilli parottas at Madurai and Thirunelveli.

This version is a popular version served at hotels and street food joints, and of course it is Chinese - Indian Fusion.. This tried and tested receipe is a favourite and has rave reviews from my son and his friends!


Ingredients:

Sumeru Flaky Frozen Parottas - 2 nos
Veggies :
Onions - 2, Spring Onions - 1/2 cup, capsicum - 1 (Cut the onions and capsicum length-wise)
Chillies, slit lengthwise and deseeded (or else, you'll have a red-hot dynamite in your plate)
Ginger-Garlic paste - 1 tsp
Ajinomoto - a pinch
Soya Sauce, Tomato-Chilli Sauce and if your need a sweet tinge, add the sweet chilli sauce too.


1. Thaw the Parottas in a Microwave for a minute. Chop the Parotta pieces, stir fry in hot oil. Keep the crisp pieces aside.

2. In a Kadai, add oil, saute the onions, ginger garlic paste, capsicum pieces with a pinch of ajinomoto. Add the de-seeded chillies according to your levels - hot, hotter, hottest!

3. Stir fry it quickly, add the sauces and toss in the fried parottas. Finally add the spring onions..

And you have a fab menu quickly in place.. Enjoy!
Variation : You can also add the Bajji chillis or molagai during the season

For some hot trivia on chillies,

The Hottest Chilli in the World- Bhut Jolokia

The Bhut Jolokia (also known as Naga Jolokia, Ghost Chili, Ghost Pepper, Naga Morich) is a chilli pepper originating in Assam, India, that has earned Guiness World Records' recognition as the World's Hottest Chilli Pepper!

Weighing in at 1,001,304 Scoville Heat Units(SHUs), the Bhut Jolokia chilli from India blasted the previous champion Red Savina which was at 577,000 SHUs) by almost double.

This landrace chile originates from the northeast of India, particularly Assam, Nagaland and Manipur. It belongs to the Capsicum Chinense family and is known by many names in the different Indian provinces. The most common names include Bhut Jolokia, Bih jolokia, Nagahari, Raja Mircha, Raja chilli or Borbih Jolokia. For example Bih jolokia translates to 'poison chilli' in Assamese. Bhut Jolokia translates to 'Ghost chilli' probably due to its ghostly bite. Raja Mircha means 'King of Chillies'.

Kovakkai Fry

Any vegetable, when stir fried or deep fried, tastes awesome! (Forget about nutrition and calories, please!)

You can make the dull and boring Kovaikkai yummy when fried, and make it even more Tastier by adding the right curry powder masala.. The end product is crispy and tastes superb with Rasam Sadam.. (what else, huh?)

Ingredients :

Kovaikkai ( Ivy gourd) – slit, lengthwise.

Wash and cut Kovakkai, Smear little salt on it and keep it a colander which would drain off the excess water.

For the Curry Powder : This can be made in advance and stored for 2-3 weeks. This curry powder or podi can also be used for Ennai Kathirikai and all other Podi Curries. Dry roast all the below mentioned ingredients and make a semi-ground podi in the mixi.

Corainder seeds – 4 tsp
Long, dried red chillies – 10-15
Asafoetida – ½ tsp
Channa dal or Kadalai Parruppu – 2 tsp
Broken white urad dal – 2 tsp
Rice – 1 tsp


1. Fry the Kovakkai in hot oil in small quantities, finish the entire batch.
2. In a non-stick tava, add ½ tsp of oil to season mustard, urad dal, curry leaves, turmeric powder.
3. Toss in the fried vegetable, add required salt. If required, you can add a tweeny bit of sugar also.
4. The last part is to flavour the vegetable with our ground curry powder masala (2 -3 tsp)



The heavenly aroma of coriander seeds can turn any dish delectable! And now, enjoy the Kovakkai Fry!

Rava Banana Cake

Quick & easy Rava (semolina) banana cake in Microwave!
Ingredients

1-2 tbsp Ghee / Unsalted butter
1 1/4 cup rava (bombay rava, which we use for making upma)
3/4 cup jaggery
3 bananas – ripe / medium sized
1 pack thick coconut milk – (Dabur’s coconut milk 200 ml pack)
1/2 cup water
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder

Method

1.Grease a microwave safe flat bowl with some ghee on your fingertips. Keep aside.
2.In a mixie, place the 3 peeled bananas with the jaggery / brown sugar, make a smooth paste and keep aside.
3.Heat the ghee in a heavy bottomed kadai, add the rava. On very low flame, constantly stir it around until it turns lightly golden. This part requires your full attention for 5-7 minutes and the slightest burnt rava will spoil the taste of the cake.
4.Once the rava turns in to light golden brown, turn flame to lowest possible, pour in the banana-jaggery paste, stir till it is nearly absorbed by the rava.
5. Meanwhile in a separate bowl, whisk the coconut milk, water, salt, baking powder, cardamom powder well and pour it into the rava mix in the wok. Stir well till ingredients are blended through.
6.Pour this mix into the greased microwave safe dish. Garnish with any nuts /dried fruits or candied fruit.
7.Microwave at 100% for 6 minutes. Check the degree to which the cake is cooked and then depending on that microwave at 80% for 2 minutes or so. Remove, cool and cut into squares /diamonds.
8. Serve warm.

Chocolate Brownies

It is very hard to resist yummy dark, fudgy chocolate brownies, whether it is served with a cup of hot coffee or with scoops of vanilla ice-cream. My son and my dear friend J will vouch for this along with me.

I used to drool for the choco brownies sold at Auroville and Fab India and my passion for the perfect eggless brownies has been finally perfected over time. This churns out the same every time and you can make this in a jiffy.

The preparation time is about 10 minutes and the cooking time is even more less – for microwave it is 7 minutes and in the oven it takes 15 minutes.

The use of demerara – the brown cane sugar imparts a natural flavour to this recipe. Demerara sugar is a type of unrefined sugar with a large grain and gives a crunchy and chewy texture to the brownies. It is much better than using powdered sugar.. (saves time too..). The cold milk is actually a substitute for eggs.

Enjoy the sizzling sinful brownies and forget about diets and calories.. Sometimes it makes sense to live to eat, rather than eat to live!

Ingredients

Maida – 1 cup
Demerara Sugar – 1 cup
Baking powder – ½ tsp
Unsalted butter – 3/4 cup
3 tsp of unsweetened cocoa powder
Vanilla Essence – 1 small tsp
Walnuts / cashewnuts – handful
Cold Milk – 1.5 cups
Hershey’s Choco syrup

1. Heat butter in a microwave bowl for 1.5 minutes. Take the melted butter and whisk in 3 tsp of cocoa powder, Keep it aside.

2. Mix all the dry ingredients together - Maida, Sugar and baking powder. Add Vanilla essence, cold milk little by little and gently mix in the melted butter-cocoa mixture along with walnuts or cashew nuts.

3. Grease a baking pan and fold in this batter.

4. If you are using a microwave, use a microwave safe dish and bake it in high for the first five minutes and low for the rest 2 minutes. The brownie should be little moist while done in a microwave, and will still continue to cook in the standing time. Allow to cool.

5. If you are using a conventional oven, bake it for 15 minutes at 150 deg C.

6. Allow to cool before you invert in to a plate. Generously add Hershey’s choco syrup as a topping sauce so that it retains the chewy moisture and you can later cut in to squares.