Methi Chicken for T&T

From the begining of this month I have been trying to make this dish specially for this months T&T which featured one of my favourite blogger.Although I have tried many recipes from Sailu's Kitchen never blogged about it.This time I took the time to click a few pictures of this delicious  Methi chicken curry.
I had a packet of frozen methi and wanted to use it. Unfortunatly this one had frozen pureed methi cubes. Anyways I went ahead and used it and hence the colour was totally different from hers. Nevertheless the curry was very delicious and well appreciated.
Next time I will definitly try this out with fresh methi leaves.

T &T is a monthly event created by Zlamushka to appreciate fellow bloggers.This months it is hosted by Lakshmi of Kitchen Chronicles

Red Bell Pepper Chutney with Peanuts and Idli's with Black Urad dhal

Well, Spring has officially started this month over here. Along with blooming flowers it has brought pollen allergies and some typical spring viruses causing the seasonal flu. My home has been hit with them all one after another and we all are recovering in a slow pace. While there is regular cooking and experimenting with food done in my kitchen as always, there's not much time to relax and take a few pictures to blog about it.
Today I realised that its been almost two weeks since I made a post and decided to get to it. So here's the most famous breakfast of all time - 'Idli' with a twist to give an extra dose of fibre and a fiery red chutney to go with it.
Couple of weeks back when I was cleaning my kitchen shelves, I saw a packet of long forgotten black urad dhal. I remember buying them during my first visit to the Indian stores over here. Since I could not find any white urad dhal there, I grabbed a packet of these in a desperate mode to make Idli's that weekend. But later that week I somehow got the Urad dhal from an other store and these black ones were moved back to the far corner of the shelf. This time when I found them, I decided to try Idli's with it. Unlike the regular ones, this has to be soaked for a longer time, atleast over night to get a smooth consistency of the batter.
There is not much difference in taste and obviously it becomes more healthy and rich in fiber.

For the Idli's:
Ingredients:
4 cups of Boiled rice/Idli rice
1 cup Whole black urad dha;
1 tsp fenugreek seeds
salt as required


Method:
Soak rice and whole Bback urad dhal along with fenugreek seeds , seperatly over night.
Grind the urad dhal first to smooth consistency, and then grind the rice in three batches.
Mix them well in a vessel, along with required salt and allow it to ferment for 8 - 10 hrs.
It took 16 hrs for me, here, to get the batter right.
Pour the batter to the Idli trya and steam in the pressure cooker (without weight) for 10 mins in medium heat.

Red Bell Pepper Chutney


Ingredients:
 1 Red Bell Pepper
2 tblsp split urad dhal
3 red chillies
1 inch piece of tamarind
handful of roasted peanuts


Method:
Dry roast the urad dhal and red chillies.
Add a tsp of oil to the pan and stir fry the chopped bell pepers for about 4 mins.
Add all ingredients to the mixer and grind till smooth.


Seasoning:
Add a tsp of mustard ,1 tsp of urad dhal and curry leaves to a tsp of hot oil and pour it over the Chutney. Serve with Idli/Dosai.

The chutney is not as fiery as it looks but it sure tasted heavenly. Adjust the amount of redchillies as per the variety and taste.

Javvarisi Murruku / Sago Murruku for Indian Cooking Challenge

Making this murruku  for this months ICC was a new experience for me in two aspects, one was the javvarisi part and the other was besan part. Never tried a murruku with kadalai maavu in it. I had a packet of Javaraisi with me, which I got from India, but it has been a year now,but 
I tried with that and as suspected it didnt soak well , even after 5 hours.  I was very scared to use that one in the murruku, after reading srivalli's fire crackers experience. I have already done that once with 'seedai' experiment and didnt want to undergo that again. So I gave it a pulse in the mixer and made the dough out of it.


The murruku turned out very well. When I made the first batch, I was almost 4 feet away from the oil pot hoping some rockets might come out of it. You see it was such a bad experience with seedai the first time. As the first batch went well, I happily made the rest within an hour.
I liked the taste of the murruku, quite different from what I regularly make.

Ingredients:
Rice Flour 2 cups

Besan flour 1/2 cup
Fried gram flour - 1/2 cup
Sago - 1/2 cup
Buttermilk 1 cup
chilli powder 1/2 tsp

Method:
Soak the Sago in 1 cup Buttermilk for 5-6 hrs,minimum 2 hrs. Add some more water after 2 hrs if all buttermilk is absorbed by the Sago. If its still not soaked well after 5 hrs give it a pulse in mixer.That what I did.
Powder the Dalia/Pottukadalai  in the mixer and sieve it well.
Mix all the dry flours , salt and chilli powder.Stir well to combine.
Now add the soaked Javvarrisi/sago and mix well. Add water little by little if required and knead to form a chappati dough consistency.
Heat up oil in a deep pot and press the dough directly into the hot oil using the murruku press. Reduce the heat to medium and take out once it turns golden brown.

Hope you all enjoyed making this months challenge as well as reading about it in other blogs.

Vellai Paniyaram and Cabbage paratha - Some left over delicacies

Left Over Delicacy 1 -  Velai/white Paniyaram
I had some left over batter from the Vellai Appam that I made last week.  The next day I made some paniyarams out of it.It turned out very delicious, and my little one liked them more than the Appams. Next time I will make the batter specially to make these Paniyarams.

Ingredients:

Left over Appam Batter
Some chopped onions.
Mustard , urad dhal, channa dhal , curry leaves for seasoning

Method:
Take a  tblsp of oil in a pan.Add all the seasoning ingredients.Wait till the mustard splutturs and the dhal turns golden brown, add the chopped onions and fry till translucent.
Mix this with the batter and mix well.

Heat a Paniyaram kadai to a medium heat. Drop 1/2 tsp of oil in each mould and add a tblsp of batter in each of them.Close it with a lid and cook for few  minutes.

turn them over and cook for another couple of minutes.

These can be relished as it is or with any spicy chutney.

Cabbage Paratha:
Left over delicacy - 2

I have already mentioned the size of the cabbage that we get here. Its too much I say. Whenever I buy one , I try to use them up in various ways. On one such occasions I made a big batch of cabbage poriyal. I didnt realise the quantity until I shredded and  I didnt feel like placing them again in the refrigerator. So decided to go ahead and make porial of it.  Initial plan was to use the left over porial to make Oothapams for dinner. But at the last minute changed my plan and decided to add them to the chapati dough and try some cabbage paratha's.  These last minute plans always works well for me. It turned out really good. Hence I got another filling recipe and also found a great way to use up the really big cabbage.

Here is the recipe for Cabbage poriyal.

Method:
Add the left over poriayal and required salt (very little) to the wheat flour and mix well with your fingers to form crumb like texture.Then add water little by little to form a stiff dough.Roll out into discs and cook on a hot tawa with some oil. Flip the sides and cook till brown spots appear on both the sides

Sending these to the 'COL -Left Over Delicacies' event  at 'Spicy Lounge'

Velaiappam with Whole Moong dhal/ Pachai Payir Curry

Did I ever mention about the sundays over here? Sundays are the do-nothing day, except eat and sleep. I mean literally.. As none of the shops are open on sunday, or for that matter not after 6.00pm on weeknights, we are pretty  much done with our shopping and running around doing all the required errands by saturday evening. It seriousl requires a lot of planning.During our initial days here I used to compare all our activities with the US lifestyle, where we mostly end up doing last minute sunday evening shopping, and was not happy about the situation here. But after a few weeks of planning and setting up a routine, I started enjoying the life here and actually realised how spoiled we were in US.
Nowadays we never miss the car and enjoy walking few blocks to the store, or happily take the help of the public transport. The Public Transport system over here is amazing (trains, metros, Buses) and they are well connected.
So sundays are just to relax, get yourself ready for the week ahead or take some leisurely walks (if the weather permits) in a nearby trail.

Past sunday I made this Appam bookmarked from Aparna of  'The Diverse Kitchen' . I love all her Palakhad recipes as well as the Baking ones. What made me bookmark this one was that  the recipe used yeast for fermenting.This process was totally new to me, as I am used to Appams with the rice flour - uraddhal combo, which undergoes normal overnight fermentation.
I was very curious about the result and I was not disappointed, as the name indicates it sure was bright white in colour.

I served the Appams with the whle moong dhal , which was also inspired by her post here, but the way I made was very different as I was too lazy to make the spice mixture and I just had coconut milk and not the fresh ones.
But I will definitly make her version with the puttu some other day.

So here goes the recipe for the Velai Appam
Ingredients
1 cup raw rice
1 tsp dry yeast
2 tsp sugar
one handful of cooked rice
2 tblsp of coconut milk (optional)

Method:
Soak the Raw rice for atleast 6 hours.
Mix in the yeast along with the sugar in 1/2 cup of warm water.Keep aside for 10 mins.
Grind the rice along with yeast for some time.Then add the cooked rice and grind till its smooth.
Place the mixture in a large bowl and allow it to ferment overnight.

In the morning, mix the coconut milk ( I used store bought) to the batter and mix well.
Heat up a Pan or Appa kadai and pour a laddle full of batter in the center and twist the pan so the batter spreads evenly on all sides.
Sprinkle a tsp of oil over the edges and cover with a lid. Remove after 2 mins.(do not turn over)

For the Pachai Payir/Whole moong dhal curry.

Ingredients:

1 cup Whole Moong dhal .
1 onion finely choped
1 small  Tomato finely chopped
1 tsp chopped garlic
1 tsp chopped ginger
1 tsp red chilli powder
2 tsp coriander powder
1/2 tsp turmeric
1 inch cinnamon piece
2 cloves

1 cup coconut milk.(store bought)

Method:
Pressure cook the moong dhal upto three whistles.
Take 2 tsp of oil in a pot, add cinnamon and cloves to it.
When the cloves pop, add the onions, garlic and ginger.Saute well.
NOw add the chopped tomatoes and saute till mushy.
To this add all the dry powders, salt and saute till the oil leaves the sides.
Now add the cooked beans along with the liquid and let it boil for 10 mins.
Finally add the cocnut milk and switch off the stove just when it starts to boil again.
Garnish with Curry leaves.

Iam sending this Appam combo to  the following events.
This months Jhiva - Breakfast , an event started by Indira hosted this month at   VeggiePlatter,
Priya's Pancake party and also to
My Legume love affair started by Susan of the Well seasonedCook , hosted this month at Mirch Masala