Chakka/Jackfruit Molagushyam and announcing the winner of the giveaway

My neighbor aunty gives me a share of jack fruit every time she cuts one at her home. They have a tree in their backyard. The thought of fresh, sweet jack fruit itself is very salviating, but it is also accompanied by the tiresome process of  separating the arils. But Aunty usually gives me the seeded arils and that leaves me with ready-to-use fruit bulbs. Most of the times, it will be just ripe and firm. Apart from making chakka curry, mostly I end up making this simple molagushyam. Though this doesn't take any ingredients other than salt, chilli powder and ground pepper to spice it up and light garnish of coconut oil and curry leaves, it tastes awesome. This can be prepared in 10 minutes.

 

 

 

You need

 

• Ripe jackfruit arils chopped into bite size - 2 cups
• Red chilli powder - 1/4 tspn
• Ground pepper - 1/4 tspn
• Salt to taste
• Coconut oil - 1 tspn
• Curry leaves - few sprigs

Method

 

Take the chopped jackfruit pieces in a cooking bowl. Add the chilli powder, pepper powder and salt. Add a cup of water to it.  Cook on medium heat till the color of the JF changes to a darker shade of  yellow. Add more water as it cooks. The consistency is saucy. It thickens on cooling. So adjust accordingly. Serve as side dish for rice. It tastes good as a side for puri too. The sweetness of the fruit is balanced by the mild heat from chilli and pepper.

 

 

 

 

 

Now to the winner of the giveaway.  And the random number generated is
 

 
Vaishali is the lucky winner of $50 worth gift certificate sponsored by CSN stores. Vaishali, I have sent you a mail. And to the rest who took time to leave a comment there, sorry and better luck next time.
 
P.S: Thanks to all who appreciated the new look of my blog. The part of the appreciation should go to my dear friend Shoba, who was intrumental in getting this new look. She suggested the color theme and even picked the pictures for the header. She patiently gave feed back in the process of  updation and when she finally said its looking great and I know she means it.

Kara Sev for Indian Cooking Challenge

Srivalli challenged us this month to prepare kara sev, as part of the monthly Indian Cooking Challenge event. I missed the previous three challenges in a row. So this time, I prepared as soon as it was announced instead of  usual practise of making it nearing the post date. Kara sev was in my to-do list for a long time. I very much wanted to try it making with the ladle. I understand that there is a special ladle for that. I tried making with the perforated ladle. The holes are big enough in that. I found it very hard to press down the dough. It was falling perfect, about one inch in length. But it was time consuming. I guess it requires lot of practise. So eventually I went back to the murukku press and it was easy to press.

You need

 

• Gram Flour (Besan)- 2 1/2 cups
• Rice flour - 1 cup
• Chilli powder - 1/2 tsp
• Black pepper coarsely powdered - 1 tsp
• Ghee - 2 1/2 tsp
• Cooking soda  - a pinch
• Salt to taste.
• Oil to deep fry.

 

 

 

Method:

 

1.Mix gram flour and rice flour well. Make a well in the centre.

 

2.Add chilli powder,pepper powder, salt,ghee and cooking soda.

 

3.Mix thoroughly with hands so that the flour mix resembles bread crumbs.  Divide the dough into 4 portions.

 

4.Take one portion of this mixture, sprinkle water, knead like Puri dough.

 

5.Heat oil in a kadai, Press dough using the sev maker. Drain when the sizzling sound round the sev subsides.

 

6. When it is cool, break them into one inch long strings and store in airtight container.

 

 

Peanut Podi & Pics of painting on pot by my niece

I love podis a lot. Growing up, podi meant kalathupodi, since it was the only one made at home. Later, staying in  a hostel for my graduation,  in Andhra Pradesh, I was introduced to variety of  podis by my roommates. Every year, Varalakshmi pooja was observed in our hostel. The pooja was set in our dining hall. So the food was served on the corridor outside and we were expected to eat on the verandha of the ground floor. Food was never allowed to be taken to the room unless someone falls sick and that too with the permission slip along with it. During this pooja, we somehow manage to take dinner to our room and enjoy eating with our room mates. In  our hostel, we were 8 in each room and seniors & juniors are mixed up. During those dinner sessions, one of us will mix rice with podi and ghee in a plate. It will be made into balls and passed to the rest of the roommates. I can go on and on about my hostel life. I surely miss those hostel days. 

Now coming to the recipe, I have written down this recipe from a Tamil Magazine.  Its very easy tasty and features in my kitchen very often.

Ingredients

• Roasted groundnut - 2 cups
• Chutney dal/Porikadala/Pottukadalai - 1 cup
• White sesame seeds - 1/2 cup
• Hing - a small piece
• Khus Khus/Poppy seeds - 1 tblspn
• Red chilli - 8-10 nos (Adjust according to your taste)
• Salt
• Oil  - a teaspoon

 

 

Method

 

1.  Dry roast sesame seeds and khus khus separately till they crackle.
2. Heat a teaspoon of oil. Drop the hing piece. Remove it when it is roasted.
3. Roast chilly in in the same oil.
4. Powder the ingredients when its cool. Mix with hot rice and a dollop of ghee. I usually eat with sesame oil (Nallenai)

Here is the picture of a pot painted by my 16 year old neice, Soumya. She has not taken any formal training on this. I had posted some bookmarks done by her. She was overwhelmed reading the comments received for that. During my last trip there, I clicked few pictures of her paintings.

Eggless Apple Upside Down Cake with whole wheat flour

After my attempt at an upside down cake with pineapple, I wanted to try with apples. This time I didnot use any all purpose flour and did with whole wheat flour and arrow root flour. I usually stock arrow root flour or koova podi in Malayalam during the season(Nov-December), it is available in the market. I use it in baking and whereever corn flour is used in regular cooking. In case u don't have this flour, use corn flour or maida in place of that.

For the cake

 

• Wheat flour/Atta- 1 cup
• Arrow root/Corn flour - 1/2 cup
• Baking powder - 2 tspn
• Salt - 1/4 tspn

• All spice powder- 1/2 tspn (Mix of cinnamon,nutmeg and cloves)
• Vanilla essence - 1 tspn

•  Butter - 1/2 cup
• Sugar- 1/2 cup
• Milk - 1/2 cup
• Flaxseed meal - 1 tblspn mixed in 1 cup of water

  For topping

 

• Butter - 2 tblspn
• Brown Sugar - 1/2 cup
• All spice powder - 1/4 tspn
• One applie sliced

Melt sugar and butter in microwave for a minute. Stir in the spice powder.

 Method

Seive together the dry ingredients - Wheat flour,arrow root flour, baking powder and salt. I always measure the dry ingredients to an airtight container and shake it well for few times so that the ingredients gets mixed up well.

 

Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy.

 

 

Add milk and flaxseed meal mixed with water to the sugar butter mix. Fold in the dry ingredients to the wet mix. Finally mix in the spice powder and vanilla essence.

 

 

Grease the cake tin with butter or oil and lightly dust with flour. Pour the melted sugar+butter mix. Arrange the sliced appales overlapping each slice. Pour the cake batter on top of the arranged apple slices.

 

Bake in a preheated oven at 180 C for 55 minutes. Cool the cake and invert it carefully. The cake was slightly denser yet soft.

 P.S. Have you left your comment here to stand a chance to win $50 gift certificate? You have time till 15th July,2010.

 

 

Another CSN promoted giveaway for readers

Its time for another giveaway at Kailas Kitchen. Thanks to the promo team at CSN lighting for giving me the opportunity. CSN stores has more than 200 online stores, each catering to sepcific requirements.

Last time,readers had a limited choice in term of gift selection. Now, the winner is free to choose a gift from any of the CSN online store. Yes, you need not limit to one gift alone. You can purchase more than one to tally $50 gift certificate you are going to win.

You will be like a kid in the candy store not knowing what to choose, while you browse the online stores. Just to give you an idea, here are some of the items you can purchase.

           

        Green Empire Shade with Jacquard and Beads                 Angled Glass Shade in Blue

           

           Coffee Grinder                                    12 Piece Cookware Set

                                                           

8 Piece Towel Set

                    

                                     

                                            Wallet in Red

                              

All you have to do to win the gift certificate is to leave a comment below.  Please make sure your email will be available to me from your comment. The free gift will shipped to US/Canada only. For readers outside US/Canada,  if you can give an address in the shipping country, its fine. You have time till 15th July to leave your comment to stand a chance to win the $50 gift certificate.

Maanga Vattakuzhambu ~ Sun dried mangoes in tamarind gravy AND a prelude to a giveaway

Remember I had hosted a promotional giveaway sometime back and Shoba of Anubhavati won the waffle maker. Its time for another giveaway. This time its going to different. Watch this space for the details which will be posted soon.


Now on to the recipe. Apart from pickling  raw  mangoes, I preserve them in the form of vathals/sun dried mangoes. Fresh mangoes which are sour and raw is chopped into pieces and marinated in salt and kept for a day. During the course, water will be released from the salt and mango juice. Next day, the mango pieces are squeezed and dried in the sun. The dried mangoes are put back in the squeezed salt water and this is repeated, till no water is left in the jar. A day more of drying in the sun leaves you with salted and dried mangoes. Store them in air tight container. It stays good for a year. This mango vattal is made into a vathakuzhambu.  In this kuzhambu, red chilly is used mnimally and heat is from peppercorns.

You need

Dried Mango pieces - 1/2 cup heaped

Tamarind - goose berry size

Turmeric - a pinch

Salt

To roast

Red chilly - 1 nos

Peppercons - 1/2 tspn

Urad dal- 2 tspn

Cumin seeds - 1/2 tspn

Curry leaves - few

Ghee/Oil - 2 tspn to roast

For Seasoning

Oil - 1 tspn

Mustard seeds - 1 tspn

Methi seeds -a pinch

Hing powder - few shakes

                 

Method

Soak the dried mango pieces in a cup of warm water for 20 minutes to soften. You can also microwave the mango along with water for a minute.  Extract tamarind juice. Roast the ingredients in ghee/oil till dal turns brown. Add the cumin seeds towards the end since it gets roasted faster.

Grind the soaked mango pieces along with the roasted ingredients to a smooth paste. You can use the soaked water to grind. Stir in the ground mixture to the tamarind extract. Add salt, tumeric powder and bring to a boil. Let it simmer for a while till the gravy thickens. Season with mustard, hing and methi seeds.

                           

Note:

Adjust the tamarind according to the sourness of the dried mangoes. Since the mangoes have salt in it, add salt keeping that in mind.

 

Chakka/Jackfruit Adai

The monsoon has arrived in my part of the world. The late arrival meant few more days availability of mango and jackfruit in the market. In case of jackfruit, once the fruit is cut open, the segments has to be used up in a day or two, in case of refrigeration. I usually buy a small piece from the market. Husband is not very fond of eating jackfruit. I like to eat but there is a limit to which how much I can finish. With the left over fruit segments, I make filling for elai adai, chakkavaratty, chakka pradhaman (Just realised I haven't posted this yet). After a round of all these, I was reminded of the chakka adai. Soaked boiled rice is ground with jackfruit pieces and jaggery. I like the adais not very sweet. The adai with slight sweetness from jaggery and flavor of jackfruit makes a filling  evening tiffin. Those who prefer some sweetness during breakfast can make it in the morning. Adai ,hot from the pan, with a blob of butter- you cannot stop with one.

The quantity of ingredients can be taken as a pointer and not necessary to be exact. Adjust the jackfruit and jaggery to suit your palate

 

Ingredients


Boiled rice/Idly rice - 1 1/2 cups

Raw rice - 1/2 cup

Ripe jackfruit bulbs - 10 nos

Grated jaggery - 1/2 cup

Salt - a pinch

Oil to prepare the adai

Method

Wash and soak the rice for 5 hours. You can soak both the variety of rice together. Grind rice coarsely. Add chopped jackfruit, jaggery and salt. Grind all the ingredients together. Don't make it too smooth. It will affect the texture of the adai. Let the batter be slightly grainy.

Heat a tava. Smear with little oil. When it is hot, pour a ladle of the batter and spread it like dosa. Don't make it very thin. You can use oil or ghee to make these dosas. Using ghee surely enhances the taste. When one side is cooked, flip and cook till it is golden brown. Enjoy hot with some home made butter.

Bourbon Biscuits

After the chocolate cake, the next chocolate bake for my nephew and niece (S & S) was bourbon biscuits. I had bookmarked Nina's recipe as soon as it was posted. As with many other bookmarked recipes, it remained in the to-be-tried list. So when S & S was here, I thought this is the best time to give that a try. And it will surely be a hit with the kids. My niece was truly thrilled to see the look-alike of bourbon biscuits. He was falling short of words to express his feelings. For the first batch, I cut the dough into rectangles and sandwiched two bsicuits with chocolate cream. The second batch I cut with cookie cutter. In the hurry to make, I forgot to prick some holes and sprinkle sugar on top to resemble the store bought ones. For the second batch, I remembered coat with sugar. The glee on their eyes with the first bite said it all.

 

 

You need

All purpose flour - 1 cup

Sugar - 1/2 cup

Butter - 1/4 cup

Baking soda -1/4 tspn

Honey - 1 tspn

Baking powder -1 tspn

Cocoa powder - 3 tblspn

Vanilla essence - 2 tspn

Cold milk - 4 tblspn

Method

Cream butter and suga until light and fluffy. Add essence, honey and baking soda. Seive together flour, cocoa and baking powder. Fold in the dry ingredients into butter vream mix. Bring together the dough. Roll into a rectangle on a lightly floured surface. Cut into bars of sixe 3 " x 1/2 ".

Bake in a preheated oven at 180 C for 15 minutes. Though the cookies are brown in color, you can make out from the color change from a dark to pale brown on cooking. The timings may change depending on the thickness of the cookies. Cool the cookies before filling with the chocolate cream.

For the filling

Butter -1/4 cup

Icing sugar -1/3 cup

Cocoa powder - 1 tspn

Vanila essence - few drops.



Beat all the ingredients together till its creamy.  Sandwich two biscuits with the cream and press lightly. It sets very fast.
 
 
 

 
 
Have a look at the bookmarks made by my neice, S , for me.
 
 

 
 
 
 

My experience of the TV shoot for a cookery show

Sometime in February, my cousin Rajesh called to ask if I would be ready to shoot for cookery show. At first I couldn't believe what he asked me and thought that he is just trying to pull my leg. But when later he told me the details, I understood he wasn't joking. The reference had come through Soori Etta (elder brother in Malayalam) , who is very well known to Rajesh. He has already done a shoot for the channel. The channel people were to come again for another shoot and they had asked Soori Etta if he can arrange for a shoot of Brahmin special cuisine. And when consulted with Rajesh, he had me in his mind and agreed then and there. Rajesh told me, the channel will intimate at least a week before the shoot. I didn't give much thought to it thinking there is no guarantee that they will come and since it is not a direct call from channel, I wasn't sure if it will happen. And told myself that in case it happens, I will have time to think of the dish and other things.

Cut to 28th May, 9:00 PM. Rajesh called me to ask I will be ready for the shoot the next day. The shoot will be in my home town, which is an hour travel from my home and should be there by 10:00 A.M. The call came when it was least expected and I had to tell him what I will prepare. The first thing that came to my mind was Uppittu and he, after consulting with his friend and confirmed it.

No instructions or guidelines whatsoever. I was left to decide on my own. I wasn't very sure if the crew will wait for the whole cooking process. Since I didn't have any of their contact numbers, I decided to go by my instinct. I prepared the dough and the filling and made 4 Uppitu before hand. Reached my home town by 9:30 loaded with all the ingredients, bowls etc.



Soori etta came home to check if everything was ready. He suggested that this one dish alone may not take more than 15 minutes of telecast time, so I can prepare one more dish. The time was already 11:30 a.m. The shoot was expected to begin by 1:00 PM. After some discussion, decided on Pulingari, which was special to Puthucode village. The next hour went in getting things and doing the necessary cooking for that.

The shoot was organised in our ancestral house. I was very happy that the shoot was held there where I have lived my childhood. We had a joint family system and the house was full of people and activity. And now, my father’s youngest brother stays there. I am happy that at least the house is retained as such. The channel people came at 2:00 p.m. They just let me go ahead. No instructions from their side. The anchor, Vijay, who is to engage me with his questions, during my cooking, asked some basic questions about the recipe. Both the dishes were completely new to him. The first few minutes, I was very conscious. But later on, when I started to explain the recipe, I forgot all about the shoot and was so engrossed in cooking and the conversation with the anchor. Anchor, Vijay was very spontaneous and lively. During the course of the shoot, he asked me about my blog.

He was very much surprised to know food blogs are very active. All in the entire shoot took 2 hours. The experience was new and I very much enjoyed. I expected to be more nervous. But I could pull it off much better than I expected. And once it is telecasted, it’s for the viewers to decide how well I have done it. It will take more than a month to telecast. I have never imagined myself on a cookery show. All thanks to Soori Etta and my cousin who were instrumental in getting the opportunity for me. The shoot was for the cookery show titled, ‘Swad’, a weekly show in Jai Hind channel (Malayalam) on Sunday 12:00 PM.

Puthucode Pulingari - A variation from the normal pulingari

Puthucode in the title is the name of a village in the district of Palakkad. The village is famous for its Anapoorneswari temple and the Navarathri celebrations. During Navarathri, feast/sadhya is there in the temple. The menu is fixed - Pulingari, Olan and Chadachadayam payasam. The pulingari served is different from the normal recipe and hence it is associated with the name of the village. To know more about this village, read Ammupatti's Thoughts.  During my childhood days, our family made it to atleast one day during the nine day celebrations. As kids, our main attraction was the sadya and the chance to taste the lip smacking pulingari. On one of our visits, we got the souvenir published as part of the festival and the recipe for the famous pulingari was given. From then on, amma made it at home too. It was reseved for special occassions. Not that its difficult to make, but to keep the novelty, its not made often as Sambhar is prepared. In olden days, the vegetable pieces added to the pulingari will be very big. Ash gourd, pumpkin and yam are the veggies added. It is told that after peeling the skin, the whole vegetable is dropped on the ground to break into pieces. The pieces, as is broken, is added to the gravy. During the time when I went, the pieces were not that big, but bigger than what we add in our homes. Just to get that feel, my amma also used to add big pieces. There is no dhanya added here and green chilli is used which is not common in pulingari. Usually pulingari will not have dal added to it. The recipe is simple and easy to make, but the taste is something different from the usual sambhar.

You need

Ash gourd/elavan/kumbalanga - 1/2 kg

Pumpkin/Mathan - 1/2 kg

Yam/chenai - 250 gms

Turmeric - 1/4 tspn

Chilli powder -1/2tspn


Salt to taste

Tamarind - lemon sized

Cooked tuvar dal - 1 cup



To roast

Raw rice -2 tblspn

Methi seed - 1 tspn


Roast raw rice and methi seeds separately till light brown. Powder them separately.

To grind

Grated coconut - 1/2 cup heaped

Green chilli - 2 nos


Seasoning

Oil - 1 tspn

Mustard - 1 tspn

Red chilli - 2 nos
Curry leaves

Method

Wash and peel the vegetables. Chop them into 2 inch cubes. Add two cups of water to the cubed veggies and cook. Add turmeric and red chilli powder and half the amount of salt. The salt is added only for the veggies. The remaining salt will be added to the end. Yam takes more time to cook. You can either cook yam alone in a pressure cooker to speed up the cooking.

When the vegetables are half cooked, extract the tamarind juice and add to it. When the veggies are cooked soft in the tamarind gravy, add cooked tuvar dal and roasted and powdered rice powder.

 Grind the coconut and green chilly to a fine paste by adding enough water. Adjust the amount of chillies according to your spice tolerance.

When the gravy starts boiling, add the ground coconut paste and adjust the thickness of the gravy by adding water. The dal, coconut paste and rice powder will thicken the gravy. Add salt and let it simmer for few minutes.

Remove from fire and do the seasoning with mustard seeds and red chillies. Finally add the powdered methi powder and garnish with curry leaves. The methi powder added at the end gives a nice aroma to the dish.

Enjoy with hot rice with a vegetable side dish and papad.

Eggless Chocolate Yogurt Cake

Last week of March, I had my neice and nephew here for a week's vacation. My 10 year old nephew had his list of things he wanted me to make during their stay. He is a great fan of Naan and Paneer Butter Masala that he can have it for all 3 meals and not get bored by it. Without him telling, I knew that top the list. As with all kids, he too is a chocoholic. I was thinking of  using the zebra cake recipe and make a chocolate cake. I was surprised when he asked me if I could bake using the recipe given on the Cadbury's cocoa tin. Though I have seen it, I have not bothered to try it. I told him I haven't tried it so I can't guarantee the result. He was confident of my baking skills and told I can't go wrong. Hearing his innocent reply, I could not say no and all credit goes to him that I baked my best chocolate cake so far. The recipe was eggless so I needn't make any changes. Few measurements were given in grams which I converted to cups with help of online converter.  The measurements may not be exact and that didnot affect the cake at all. Mava was also in the ingredient list and I didnot add it. May be the addition of mava would have resulted in a rich cake.

You need

Curd - 1 cup

Rawa/semolina- 1/4 cup (50 gm)

Cooking soda- 1/2 tspn

Butter - 1/2 cup (100 gm)

Powdered sugar - 1 2/3 cup (200 gm)

Mava - 50 gm (I didnot use it)

Maida - 1 2/3 cup (200 gm)

Baking powder - 1 teaspoon

Cocoa powder - 3 tablespoon

Milk - 1 cup


Method

Mix 1 cup curd with rawa and cooking soda. Keep aside for 10 minutes. Beat butter amd powdered sugar. Add soaked curd-rava mixture. Mix well. In a bowl, sift maida, baking powder and cocoa powder until well combined. Add the flour mix to wet mixture. Add 1 cup of milk. Mix gently. Take care not to overmix.

Pour the prepared batter into a greased and dusted tim. Bake at 180 C for 55 minutes or until a skewer inserted comes out clean.


Fudge Icing

Butter - 1/2 cup
Icing sugar - 1 cup
Cocoa powder - 3 tblspn
Milk - few drops

Mix all the ingredients till light and fluffy. Add few drops of milk to get a spreadable consistency. Spread it on the cake.

My niece wanted to add her bit to the cake. So sprinkled some powdered sugar on top of the icing and aranged some tutty fruity.

Back after the break with Chakka Curry - Jackfruit and brown chana cooked in coconut gravy

Finally back after a long break, which was not meant to be this long. A sudden trip to be with my parents and sister's family. I had planned to blog from there. But I couldnot withstand the heat of  North India, though I am used to mercury hitting 40 C in the South. For most of the days I stayed there, I wasn't keeping well . So I was in mood to sit and write for blog. On top of it I had some pending projects to be completed too. In short, I could not do any thing I planned. Except for two days of  outing, I stayed indoors. Our return trip had to be made via Bangalore for want of tickets. That meant few days of staying with my MIL, BIL and family. My nephew and niece had extracted a promise from me that I stay with them during their vacation. And they are happy that I kept my promise.

And after three weeks,we were back home. It feels good to be back home and  to the routine after a break. There are so many pics in my drafts folder to be posted.  Somehome, I was not able to get into the mood to blog after the break. I have been trying to make a post for the past one week with out much success. Hope after this initial reluctance, I will be able to post regularly.

Here is a recipe with the seasonal fruit - Jackfruit. I didnot get to eat much of jackfruit since I was away for almost a month.

You need


Semi ripe jackfruit bulbs- 20 nos

Brown chana - handful
Turmeric  - a pinch

salt to taste

chilli powder - a pinch

To roast and grind

Urad dal - 2 tspn

Red chilli - 2 nos

Cumin/jeera - 1/2 tspn

Grated coconut - 1/2 cup


Seasoning

Coconut oil - 1 tblspn

Mustard seeds - 1 tspn

Red chilly- 2nos, broken into two

Grated coconut - 1 tblspn


Method


Wash and soak channa for 6 hours or overnight. Pressure cook till it is soft. You can use cow peas also in place of chana. Remove the seeds from the jackfruit bulb and chop into bite sized peices. The fruit should not be ripe and should be firm. At this semi ripe stage, the taste  will be a mix of sour and sweet. This is ideal to make chakka curry.

Cook the chopped fruit with half cup of water. Add turmeric and salt and a pinch of red chilli powder. When its almost cooked, add the cooked chana and let it cook together for 5 minutes.

Roast the urad dal and red chilli in a teaspoon of oil till dal turn light brown. Grind the roasted ingredients along with coconut and cumin to a smooth paste. Add water just enough to grind.
Add the ground coconut paste to the cooked mix and adjust the consistency by adding water if requied. The curry is semisolid. It gets thicker on cooling.  Do the seasoning along with grated coconut and fry till it turns light brown. Garnish with curry leaves. My measurement of coconut is less compared to what my Amma cooks.  If you wish, you can increase the amount of coconut in grinding and garnishing.

Announcing the winner of the giveaway & Red Velvet Cupcake ~ an e-treat for all participants -

After running a promotional giveaway for 10 days and now its time to announce the lucky winner. Thank you readers for your wishes and comments on that post. And Lady Luck has cast her smile on

Shoba of Anubhavati, Tastes from my kitchen. I am sure the gift will delight your daughter who loves waffles. Please mail me your address to claim your gift. Thank you CSN team at counter stools for the opportunity.

For all those who participated., here is a virtual treat for you. Hope you enjoy it. The recipe I follow is from Vcuisine(private blog). I have tried it twice following the recipe to T but have skipped the frosting both the times. This time I have made some changes like substituting part All purpose flour with multi grain, butter with oil etc. Beets puree is used as the coloring agent.

Ingredients

All purpose flour - 1 cup
Multigrain flour - 1/2 cup
Cocoa powder  - 1 1/2 tblspn
Baking powder - 1 tspn
Vanilla essence - 1 tspn
Salt - 1/4 tspn

Sugar -1 cup
Oil - 1/3 cup

Buttermilk - 1 cup
Beetroot puree - 1 cup (I used only 1/2 cup)

Cooking soda - 1/2 tspn

Lime juice - 1/2 tspn

Method

Steam cook beets and grate it finely. Sift flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt. Mix oil and sugar and whisk till sugar is fully dissolved. Mix grated beet and buttermilk in a separate bowl. Add flour mix and buttermilk alternatively to the oil-sugar combo. Finally add vanilla essence, cooking soda and lime juice. Mix well.

Grease muffin pan and fill 2/3 full. Bake in a preheated oven at 180 C for 35 minutes.

Frosting
Maida - 2 tblspn
Sugar - 4 tblspn
Butter - 1 tblspn
Milk - 20ml
Vanilla essence - 2 drops

Mix flour in milk without forming lumps and cook till they form a pouring consistency. Cream sugar, butter and vanilla till fluffy. Add the cooked maida mix to the cream and frost the cake. The maida mix turned very thick for me and added few drops of milk to it. But the end mixture turned to be slightly runny and when I piped the frosting it started spreading. It didnot affect the taste though.

SpotLight Blog #My Experiments With Food ~ Recipe - Aval Kozhukkattai

The calendar is showing a new month and its time for a new blog to be on the spotlight. And this month, the limelight blog is Jayashree's 'My Experiments with Food'. The similarity doesn't end with our names and blog names, our traditional cuisine is same too (Palakkad Iyer cuisine).  I found many interesting, delicious recipes yet not very complicated in her blog.

The first recipe I tried for this series was Aval Kozhukkattai - Steamed balls from beaten rice. It made a quick and filling meal. The preparation is similar to upma kozhukkattai. When I first saw the recipe, my thoughts were how different is it going to be from aval upma/puli aval. The ingredients were almost the same except that tamarind or an equivalent is not used here. I am glad I tried it since it was so different from upma and had a unique taste. It was worth trying.

You need

Coarsely powdered aval/beaten rice - 1 cup
Water - 2 cups
Grated coconut - 2 tblspn
Salt to taste

Seasoning

Oil - 2 tspn
mustard seeds - 1 tspn
Chana dal, urad dal, peanuts - 1 tspn each
Green chilly - 1 no
Curry leaves - few sprigs

Method

I used the rose matta aval which is very tasty and has a thick texture. To get one cup of coarsely powedered aval, take 2 cups of aval. Make sure you don't grind it fine else the kozhukkattais will not have the right texture.

Take a kadai. Heat oil and add the seasoning ingredients. Add water and salt. When water starts boiling, add the powdered aval. Mix well. Cook on low heat till the water is fully absorbed and resembles upma. Add grated coconut and mix well.

Spread the cooked mix on a plate to cool. Spape the dough into balls and steam cook for 5 minutes. Jayashree has  done this in microwave and I chose to do it on stove top.

The kozhukkattais tasted good on its own. You can serve it with any chutney as dip or sprinkle some chutney powder on it and serve. I got 11 nos of the size shown in the picture.