Food for 7 Stages of Life: Tamilnadu Cuisine

Showing posts with label Tamilnadu Cuisine. Show all posts

Monday, September 21, 2009

Sundal (Tamil Brahmin style)

Posted by RV @ Food for 7 Stages on Monday, September 21, 2009

Navratri is celebrated for 9 days in Autumn and it marks the beginning of long festival season in India. This festival is celebrated across India in umpteen number of ways. The first 3 days of this festival is dedicated to Durga (Goddess of power), the next 3 days for Lakshmi (Goddess of Wealth) and the last 3 days for the Saraswathi (Goddess of Wisdom). In south India, most of the tamil brahmin families exhibit various dolls and figurines in odd (usually 5, 7, 9, or 11) numbered tiers ("padis"). They invite their relatives and friends on this occasion and offer prasadam, goodies, Turmeric and Kumkum. When it comes to prasadam sundals (legumes tempered with coconut) are the most offered dish during this season. A legume is chosen each day to prepare the Sundal.
I feel so excited when I think about this festival so for the second consecutive year, I planned to prepare prashad for all 9 days but even this year I wouldn't be able to implement it. But still I am excited that I will be attending the Durga pooja celebrations in Richmond, Virginia on 26th of September. Thanks to V for performing in the musical concert part of this event. Coming back to my plan, I had been thinking of preparing 9 dish with 9 different legumes. Though I wouldn't be able to post 9 recipes due to my travel plans, I will try to post as many as possible for the rest of the days of Navratri. To start with I decided to prepare Sundal in tamil brahmin style.
Ingredients from my pantry:
(Serves 2)
Soaking
Chana dhal / Kadalai parupu / Dalia - 1/4 cup
Grinding

Coconut / Thengai - 4-5 small pieces or 1 3/4 tbsp grated coconut

Green Chili / Pachai Milagai- 3

Curry leaves / Karuvaipilai - 2

Tempering

Oil / Ennai - 1/2 tbsp

Mustard Seeds / Kadugu - 1/4 tsp

Cumin Seeds / Jeergam - 1/4 tsp

Broken Urad dhal / Ulutam parupu - 1/2 tsp

Asafoetida / Hing (Sprinkle)

Lemon Juice - 2 tsp

Salt to taste

Cooking Instructions:

Wash and Soak chana dhal in water for 4 hrs. It becomes easy to cook when we soak it longer.

In a small sauce pan add some water (the chana dhal should soak) and let it cook for 20 minutes on a low flame. Then run a small test to check if it is cooked properly. Remove one chana and try to mash it. If it easily mashes without applying any pressure then it is the right time to remove it from flame. At this stage 98% of water would have got evaporated. Please check in intervals to ensure that the water doesn't get evaporated completely. T o avoid all these hassles, you can put them in a pressure cooker and cook it up for 1 whistle with little water( just to soak the chana).

Meanwhile, grate the coconut coarsely in a blender for few seconds. Then add green chili and grind it for 5 seconds. At last add curry leaves and run it for 2-3 seconds. You should have a mix of grated coconut and chili.

In a pan, add oil. When it is hot add mustard seeds and let it splutter, then immediately add cumin seeds. Reduce the flame and add urad dhal and curry leaves. Reducing flame prevents the urad dhal from burning out. Fry for couple of seconds when the urad dhal starts changing color add cooked chana dhal and toss for 30-40 seconds. Then add grated coconut -chili mix, salt and toss it well for 1 minute so that the coconut blends nicely with each and every legume in the pan.
Add hing, lemon juice, toss it well and remove from flame immediately.

I offered this as prasadh to god and later served to V. He said he was "speechless" :-)

F.A.Q
  Why did I grind Chili?
  Grinding chili along with coconut gives a glimpse of spice to the Sundal. You can always reduce the amount of chili according to your taste buds.
  Can I use frozen coconut?
  Yes, Please

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Ven Pongal

Posted by RV @ Food for 7 Stages on Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Sourashtrians are famous for their unique language, silk weaving, silver anklets business and their cooking. Though we have inherited the Tamilian style of cooking over centuries, still there are few variations which makes our dish unique. One such dish is Ven Pongal. Recently when I was talking to my hubby's friend I told him that I am a sourashtrian. Immediately he said hey I like the way you guys prepare Ven Pongal. He is not the only person, most of them tell me the same thing about Venpongal. This gave me a thought that I should post this wonderful dish in my blog. So what next, I immediately called my Mom for the recipe. Hope you enjoy it and please do let me know your comments.

Ingredients:
Soak

Rice/Arisi/Thandhu - 1 cup (Sona Masoori or Parboiled rice or Raw rice)

Yellow Moong dhal / pasi paruppu - 1/2 cup

Grind
Onion/Vengayam/Kandho (medium) - 1

Ginger/Enjji/Alloo - 1 inch

Jeera/Cumin Seeds/Jeeragam - 1/4 tsp

Whole Pepper/Milagu/Miri - 10

Seasoning and Preparation

Oil/Ennai/Thel - 4 tbsp

Ghee/Nei/Thup - 4 tbsp

Mustard Seeds/Mogiri - 1/8 tsp

Urad dhal/Udacha ulutham parupu - 1/8 tsp

Whole Pepper - 20-30 (as per your taste)

Curry leaves/Karuvepilai - few

Salt/Uppu to taste

Chopped ginger - 2 tsp (optional)

Cashews/Mundhiri - 10 (optional)

Water - 4 1/2 cup

Method:

Roast moong dhal for couple of minutes. Allow it to cool.
Together wash rice and moong dal until the water runs clear. Washing the rice and dal thoroughly helps to remove the starch content.
Soak rice and moong dhal together for 10-20 minutes.

Grind cumin seeds, pepper, ginger and onion. Add water if necessary. I had to add some water to grind it to a smooth paste.

In a pressure cooker, add oil, when it is hot add mustard seeds and let it splutter. Add urad dhal, curry leaves, pepper and toss. Add the ground paste and saute for couple of minutes until the oil separates or the raw onion smell disappears. Now add water, salt and bring it to boil.
Add rice and mix it well. Pressure cook for 5-6 whistles.

Once the steam is released, open the lid, add ghee and stir it well. You can also roast cashews in ghee and add it at the end.

Serve it hot with Coconut chutney, Sambhar or Tomato chutney. It tastes great with any of these side dish.

I would prefer:

To use ghee instead of oil. This gives a rich taste.
Use Ponni Boiled rice or Raw rice. Amma prefers to use one of them.

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Green Rice with Green Raitha

Posted by RV @ Food for 7 Stages on Wednesday, July 29, 2009

I was telling my Mother in law that I had lots of Pudhina/Mint at home and asked her if she would suggest me some recipes. So today's post is from my in-law's kitchen. She suggested me two recipes Pudhina Rice and Pudhina thogayal. I am posting one of them. I was bored to call it as conventional pudhina rice or sadam. So I am gonna call this dish as Green rice. Don't get misleaded with Green Raitha and I did not use any green leaves, I just used green cucumber which gave raitha a light green texture.

Ingredients

Onion (Medium) - 1

Tomato (small) - 3/4

Green Chili - 4

Cloves - 8

Cinammon - 2

Bay leaves - 2

Cardamon - 1

Cumin Seeds - 1/2 tsp

Oil - 8- 10 tbsp

Salt to taste

Rice (Basmati) - 2 cup

Ginger Garlic paste - 1 tbsp

Pudhina - few

Water

To grind

Pudhina/Mint - 2cup

Coriander leaves - 1 cup

Green Chili - 2 - 4 (according to taste)

Raitha

Yogurt/Curd - 1 cup

Cucumber - 1/2 grated

Salt to taste

Coriander leaves/Cilantro to garnish

Method

Grind pudhina , cilantro/coriander leaves and green chilis to a smooth paste.
In a pressure cooker, add oil, cumin seeds, cloves, cinammon, bay leaves and cardamon.
Then add green chili, onion and saute.
Add tomato, salt and fry it for a while. Now add the ginger garlic paste and fry for couple of minutes. Now add some pudhina/mint leaves.
Then add the paste and fry it for a while. Before adding, measure the ground mix as the water needs to be added accordingly. Say if the paste measures to 1/2 cup, then we should use only 1 3/4 cup of water for boiling rice.
When the oil oozes out, add rice and then water. Check if salt and spice is ok. Close the lid and pressure cook for 3 whistles. Open the lid after the steam is released.
Serve it with raitha.

Raitha

Method:

Add grated cucumber, salt , green chili and yogurt/curd. Mix it well until the lumps disappear. Serve.