Banana Pepper Fry

Raw banana -2 Nos
Onion - 1
Green chillies – 4 nos
Ginger paste – 1 tspn
Fennel seeds – 1 tspn
Dhanya powder – 2 tspn
Crushed pepper – 2 tspn
Turmeric – a pinch
Tamarind paste – 2 tspn
Salt
Oil
Curry leaves

Remove the skin and cut banana lengthwise of 1 inch long pieces, as we cut for finger chips. (Not very thin)

Take a kadai. Add 2 tbspn oil. Add fennel seeds, curry leaves.
Then add finely chopped onion.

When onion is almost done, add banana pieces, slit green chilly, ginger paste, dhanya powder, turmeric and salt. Mix well. Sprinkle handful of water.

Cover and cook for 10 mts. With stirring once or twice in between
The mixture will turn dry with masala coated all over the pieces.
If you feel the banana pieces are not cooked well, sprinkle water , cover and cook for sometime.

Add crushed pepper and tamarind paste. Mix and cook for 2 minutes.

Remove from heat.

This spicy dish goes well with sambar rice, curd rice and with chappathis too.

Copra kalathupodi

Kalathupodi/parippu podi is a traditional powder mix which is made in all South Indian homes. Podi recipes varies from state to state, what even from family to family. I am sure every family will have their list of podis.This podi I believe is native to Andhra. I learnt this from mother-in-law. This podi is to be eaten with rice, mixed with ghee. Health freaks can substitute gingely oil for ghee. It also tastes good. I am a big fan of any kind of podis. My mom also makes different kinds of podi. Her recipes will follow soon.

When I started to write about podis, this podi came first to my mind, since it was an integral part in my college hostel days. Whenever we were able to smuggle rice out of hostel kitchen, we mix podi and ghee with rice. Our room senior used to make rice balls and pass it to all the room mates (We were 8 of us in a room).
You require
Grated copra - 1 cup
Roasted Chana dal/Pottu kadalai - 1/2 cup
Red chilly - 15 Nos
Hing - 1 tbspn
I use the Hing piece instead of powder. The piece when roasted and powdered retains the aroma much better than the powder version.

To powder
Slightly roast the chana dal. This is just to make it crisp.
Add a teaspoon of oil (I use Gingely oil). Fry the chillies.
Blend the copra in the mixer.
Remove and grind the chana dal. Seive it so that coarse particles can be grinded again.
Finally grind the red chillies. When it is alsmost powdered, add all the ingredients and salt as required.
The powder should not be very fine.

Tomato Chutney

I don't usually follow a fixed recipe for tomato and onion chutneys. It keeps changing with my mood and also the availability of raw materials. It is very rare that I repeat the same recipe. There will be some change in the list of ingredients used. Usually I don't give much thought to this. But once I started blogging, I am taking to my mind what all I use while making chutneys. I shall keep posting the variations as and when I make.
The first version goes here -

Urad dal - 1 tb spn
Red chilly - 4 Nos
Onion - 1
Medium Sized Tomato- 2
Curry leaves - 2 strand
Salt
Oil for frying

Take a pan. Add one tablespoon oil.
Add urad dal and red chilly. Fry till urad dal turns brown.
Remove dal and chilly from the pan.
Add chopped onion. Saute till it turns transparent
Add curry leaves.
Add chopped tomatoes and cook till tomatoes are done.
Grind all the ingredients together with salt to a fine paste.
Add a teaspoon of coconut oil to the chutney.

Wheat Rava Adai

An easy to prepare nutritious adai. (Adai is a form of dosa with little thickness)


You need

Wheat rava - 1 cup
Green chilly - 5 Nos
Small Onion(Sambar onion) - 10 nos
Tamarind paste - 2 tspn
Onion - 1
Coriander leaves
Salt

Preparation

Soak wheat rava for 2 hours. Just add enough water to cover the rava.
Dry grind green chilly,small onion, tamarind paste and salt in a mixer grinder.
Add the soaked rava to the grounded mixture and run the grinder once. This is just to blend all the ingredients.
The mixture should be in a semi solid state. It should not be watery at all
Add chopped onions and coriander leaves.
Mix well.

Heat an iron girdle or a non-stick pan. Grease with oil.
Take a lemon size of the mixture. Place it on the pan.
Flatten it using your fingers to the size of a puri.
Depending on the size of your pan, you can make 2/3 adais at a time.
When it is cooked on one side, flip over and cook the other side also.

You can serve the hot adais with tomato chutney or any pickle of your choice

Microwave Tips

Some tips for microwave oven usage, for our daily chores in the kitchen.
I shall be updating this post as and when I come across new tips.

1)
To bake corn, keep the corn with the skin for 2 minutes (micro power high).
Tilt the corn so that the upper part moves down. Keep for another 2 minutes.
Remove the peel and brush butter and salt

2)
To melt jaggery – Keep the jaggery in a microwave safe glass bowl. Add 2 tablespoon water. Keep for 2 minutes. You can strain the melted jaggery to remove the dirt, which are usually found.

3)
Sometimes we need grated coconut to be fried brown to add in curries or for making chutney powders.
Keep 1 cup grated coconut in the oven for 3 minutes. You can mix once in between. Coconut will be fried.
You may not get the brown color.
For that, take one spoon oil in a pan. Add the oven fried coconut.
Fry for a minute. It will turn brown.
If you have to do the whole process on the stove, you will need lot more oil and time

Wheat Coconut balls

A healthy sweet- Unlike most sweets where maida or besan is used, here it is wheat flour. Also ghee used is very minimal. And sugar quantity is very less. Usually in sweets, the proportion of sugar is twice or equal to the the quantity of flour. So overall, it is a healthy sweet that can be quickly made with the ingredients which are readily available in the kitchen

You require

Wheat flour – 1 ½ cups
Sugar – 1 cup. You can take a heaped cup of sugar, if you will like it sweeter.
Milk – ½ cup
Grated coconut – 2 tbspn
Cardamom – ½ tspn
Ghee – 2 tbspn


Preparation

Take a heavy bottomed pan. Add ghee.

When it melts, add wheat flour.

Fry till it turns light brown . You can smell wheat then.

Add sugar. Mix well so that the flour and sugar gets mixed evenly. Sugar should not melt.Then the mixture will have a liquid consistency.

Add milk. Keep mixing so that no lumps are formed.

Add cardamom powder.

Mix evenly for another 3 minutes.

Transfer the contents to a plate greased with ghee.

Spread it and let it cool.

Make lemon sized balls.
Don’t wait it to really go cold. You should make balls when your hands can withstand the warmth of the mixture.
You should be fast in making balls. If it cools, you will find it difficult to make balls.