Gooseberry Pickle (Nellikkai oorugai)

Ingredients:

1. Gooseberries  25 numbers.
2. Oil (Any Vegetable oil) 1 table spoon.
3. Salt 1 Table spoon
4. Chili Powder  2 Table spoons
5. Turmeric powder 1 t spoon
6. Mustard seeds 1 t spoon.
7. Asafotida powder little (hing or perungayam)
8. Methi seeds/Vendhayam  1 t spoon.

Wash the berries, and boil them in water in a big vessel till they are cooked.  Add little salt while boiling.
Drain the berries. Keep the  drained water aside.
Take a thick bottomed vessel/kadai/iluppachatti and put the oil in it. Add the mustard seeds.  once it splutters, add the drained berries.  Now add salt, chili powder and turmeric powder.  Pour little water which you have kept aside to this. ( not everything just one or two table spoons).  Keep the kadai covered.  Keep stirring the berries once in a while.
once the raw smell of the chili powder is not there, the pickle is done.  If it becomes very dry add little  drained water.
add asafotida powder ( can be powdered from solid asafotida by frying a piece of that in little oil and then powdering it. or use ready made powder.  the methi seeds are to be fried dry till golden brown and then powdered.)  and methi seeds powder.
Switch off the  stove and store in clean dry jars.
This pickle will not last long as it has been boiled in water.   Store the pickle in Fridge.

Mango Pickle or Mango Thokku

 Ingredients:

1. One Medium Size  Raw Mango (mankkai).
2. Oil 1 Table Spoon.
3. Turmeric Powder 1 t spoon.
4. Chili Powder.  2,to 3 Table spoons.
5. Asafotida  little. (Hing or Perungayam)
6. Salt  1 to 2 Table spoon.
7. One Red Chili
8.  A small bit of Jaggery
9. Mustard seeds 1 t spoon.
10. Methi seeds Vendhiayam  1 t spoon.

Method.

Wash and Wipe the raw  mango with a Clean Towel. Remove the Skin with a Peeler and Grate the Mango in a Carrot Grater.

Take a thick bottomed Vessel ( A kadai or a iluppchatti).  Put the Oil and add the mustard seeds and the Red chili. when mustard seeds splutter , add the grated mango and reduce the flame of the stove to Sim.  (the Pickle needs slow cooking) turn it over with a flat ladle .  Add turmeric powder,Salt,  and Chili powder and the jaggery piece. 

{If the Mango   is very sour more Salt and Chili Powder will be needed.   Add the above quantity of ingredients  and mix well and taste and if the mixture is very sour add more salt and chili powder depending on what is needed.  (The asafotida can be added as powder, or if you have a bar of Asafotida, make it into pieces and  take a small piece and fry it in  very little oil and then powder it )

Fry the Methi seeds without oil  in a kadai till Golden Brown and powder it. }

 Let the Mango cook in the slow fire. Keep turning the mixture on and off .  Once it is done,  the Oil in the pickle will start separating from the sides. Add asafotida powder and fried methi powder and switch off the stove.   Store it in a clean dry jar.

Masal Vada/Paruppu Vadai

Masal Vadai or Paruppu Vadai is a very common dish in South India and prepared  for many festivals.

Ingredients:

1. Channa Dal  1 cup.
2. Green Chillies 1 
3. Red Dried Chillies 2
4. Ginger 1 small bit
5. Curry leaves a few
6. Coriander leaves cut finely a Table spoon
7. Little pudina (mint leaves) finely chopped. ( optional)
8. Asafoetida  'hing' very little.
9. Grated Coconut 1 table spoon (optional)
10. 1 small onion (optional)
11. salt to taste  ( 1 teaspoon.) 

Method.
Soak the Channa Dal in water for an hour. Strain the water and  Grind in a mixer,  Channa Dal, green chillies, red chillies , ginger  to  coarse paste. It is important that the batter is coarse.

do not add water while grinding.
Take out the batter, add coconut, hing , curry leaves, cut coriander cut pudina  , salt and onions (cut into small pieces).  mix thoroughly.  (If done for any festival onion is not added, but to just munch with tea onions give a very nice taste .)

Keep a 'kadai' or a frying pan on the stove add oil.  let the oil get heated.
To test oil just put a little small ball of batter into the oil and if it comes up immediately the oil is just ready to deep fry.
take out a small ball and flatten it in your hands into a round shape and put it carefully in oil.  For one time 6 to 8 vadas can be deep fried together depending on the quantity of oil in the pan.
Turn it and once it is golden brown in color remove and keep it on a kitchen tissue so that extra oil on the masal vadai will be taken away by the tissue.  This is best eaten hot but tastes quite good even afterwards. 

Rava Kesari

This is also called Sojji in Tamil,  Sheera in Marathi  Kesari Bath in Kannada.

This is a sweet which can be made  very fast and in a jiffy.  If you get unexpected guests and has to serve them some sweets (as is (was)  the tradition in India ) this was one sweet made  quickly.

This was also part of  Tamilian culture of making this   'Sojji'    along with a savory called 'Bajji'  when a prospective Groom visited the house of the Bride to   'see'   the Girl which was called as 'ponnu pakkarathu'

Ingredients:

1. Rava or Semolina  1 small cup
2. Sugar 1and 1/2 cups to 2 Cups (same size as you measured the Rava)
3. Ghee 1/4 Cup or little less than that
4. Water 2 cups.
5. Dried grapes (kismis) Cashew nuts   both of these few pieces.
6. Permitted food Colour Orange very little 
7. Few strands of kesar (saffron or Kumkuma poo)
8. Elachi or Cardamom Powder 1 tea spoon.

Method.

Fry the Cashew nuts (light golden brown) and kismis in little ghee and keep aside.

Fry the Rava in a thick bottomed vessel with a Teaspoon of Ghee till light brown. Boil water in a separate stove and add the boiling water to the fried Rava.  Add the water slowly and keep stirring so that there are no lumps of Rava  in the Vessel.  Keep stirring for some time till the Rava is cooked and add the sugar and the  color mixed in a little milk and also the Kesar mixed in little milk.   (Colour need not be added, but  only  Kesar without orange colour  will give a lighter tinge to the Rava Kesari )

Add Ghee bit by bit and keep stirring.   when the whole mixture evenly comes to boil with a good texture without lumps add elachi powder and the fried cashew nuts and kismis.  switch off the stove. and serve the Rava Kesari hot.

Slight Variation:

Instead of Water, Milk can be used   (half milk half water or completely Milk) to make  Rava Kesari.

One Ripe Banana can be mashed and added after the milk is added and Rava cooked. Sugar can be reduced a little.  The Banana, Milk , Kesari is made without adding any colour (not even Kesar) for the 'Satyanaryana Pooja' and it is given as prasad and is white in Colour.

Pinappple pieces  (cut into very  small pieces) can be fried a little  bit in ghee and added after adding the Water/Milk. Then This becomes the Pineapple pudding.  For this Kesar and Colour can be added.

Vadai/Thayir (Dahi) Vadai/Sambhar Vadai/Rasa Vadai

Ulundu Vadai/or Vada.
Ingredients:

1. Urad Dal   1 cup
2. Oil  for deep frying.
3. Rice   1 teaspoon
4. Green chillies 2
5. Ginger  1 small cube
6. Salt to taste
7. Asafotida/Hing Powder little.
8. Curry leaves few and a little coriander leaves finely cut.

 Optional:
A few black pepper can be added  in the batter, and one red dry chili can also be added in the batter.
Method:
Soak the Urad Dal  along with the rice in water for an hour or little less.
Wash the Dal and rice  and drain  in a strainer.
Grind the Dal  and rice in  a Grinder or a Mixer.  Be careful when adding water.  very little water should be added while grinding.  (the well drained urad dal will require roughly 1/4 cup to 1/2 cup  of water added little by little,)  Water should be sprinkled while grinding.  It should become a smooth paste and  when  taken out, one should be able to make the vadai shape out of the batter. ( it will take around 20 minutes to half an hour to grind the Dal )  If a Mixer is used the water used to grind should be ice cold.  Keep the water in the fridge and use it to grind the Dal .
Take out the batter,
Cut the green chillies into very fine pieces (minced), grate the Ginger.
Add the minced chillies, Grated Ginger, Salt, Asafotida powder, finely cut curry leaves and coriander leaves and mix with hand thoroughly.

The secret in getting crisp Vadai  is the mixing of batter by hand thoroughly for five plus minutes till the batter becomes fluffy.  
(The black pepper and red chili should be added now.  pepper can be whole, red chili should be made into pieces)
Heat oil in a Kadai or a Iluppachatti.

just put little batter  into the oil to see if it is heated enough for deep frying.  If the dough comes up, the oil is ready.  Keep in medium flame.
Make the Vadai in the proper shape with hole in the centre on a  thick plastic sheet.  Hand should be dampened with water  for the vadai to come in shape. and remove carefully and very  carefully put it in the oil.   4 or 5 vadais can be put in oil depending on the quantity of oil used in the kadai.
Turn it around . once the vadai is golden brown remove it and it should be served hot with coconut chutney.
Finely cut onions can be added to the batter and lovely vengaya vadai can be made.

Thayir Vadai/Dahi Vada
Take 2 cups of thick Curd(yogurt/Dahi) .  grind 2 table spoons  of fresh coconut with one small green chili and mix it with the Curd.  Add little salt.  one table spoon of milk should be added so that the  yogurt is not very sour.
 
Keep it ready while you deep fry  the vadas.
Keep hot water in a wide mouthed vessel next to the Curd mixture.
Take out the deep fried vadais put it in the hot water.  Keep a separate spoon in the water and immediately transfer the vadais to the Curd mixture.
Once all the 5 or 6 vadais which are deep fried are put in the Curd Mixture, fry the next round of Vadais.  Just when it is turning brown, remove the Thayir vadais/Dahi Vadas into another vessel so that there is enough space for the fresh fried vadas to get soaked in the Curd.
Garnish with Coriander if you like.
For Sambhar vadai keep the hot  sambhar ready and before serving put the  required number of vadais in the sambhar and serve.
Similarly for Rasa vadai also keep the  hot Rasam ready and just put the required number of vadais to be served into the Rasam.

Mysore Bonda.
The batter is same, red chillies and black peppers must. along with that cube shaped coconut pieces very small should be mixed in the batter.  Method is same.
Shape is easy to make,  just make into round balls (Bonda Shape) and deep fry.  and Mysore Bonda is ready.

Vanilla Ice Cream

This is a recipe for home made Ice cream which tastes very good.

Ingredients:

1. Full Cream Milk  1 litre.
2. Sugar   1/2 Cup
3. Cashew nuts  100 gms.
4. Custard Powder  Vanilla flavour 1 to 2  T spoons.
5. Vanilla Essence   few drops.

 Method.

Boil the Milk.    Keep aside little milk to cool  for dissolving the custard powder.  Let the Milk boil for some more time in Sim flame .(less heat.)

Soak the Cashew nuts for one hour and grind it to a smooth   paste with little cold milk. 

When the milk is boiling  add the cashew paste and stir well.  Keep stirring and add the sugar.  Keep stirring.

Add cold milk to the custard powder and make it into a watery paste and add it to the boiling mixture.  Keep stirring.  This is the thickening agent and the whole thing will become little thick. Add the vanilla essence and stir well.  switch off the stove.

 When this mixture cools,  pour it into a flat vessel (preferably an aluminium vessel as it cools faster)  and keep it in the freezer.  (you can  just line the vessel outside  with salt as it will be easier to remove from the freezer).

After 5 to 6 hours take out the vessel.  The mixture inside would be hard.  Take out with a hard sharp  spoon bit by bit and put it in a mixer and beat  it.  It will be tough to do it as it will be very hard and the mixture very cool.  do little by little not damaging your mixer.  (Indian made mixers are sturdy and I have never damaged my mixer while doing this.)

Once the whole thing becomes smooth paste put it back in the vessel and keep it again in the Freezer.

Repeat the process of beating the hard mixture once more after few hours.

After two/three hours in  the , freezer,  Ice cream is ready to serve and this will be a smooth sweet    Ice cream.

You can do different flavours of ice cream like strawberry, using strawberry flavour and little  red edible  colour added to it.  You can make into a two or three fold colour ice cream by pouring one above the other in the last stage .

For Variation, in Mango season,   Mango ice cream can be prepared.  Method is same.  Ripe mangoes can be cut and beaten in mixer to a smooth paste and added when the milk is boiling , after adding the cashews and before adding the sugar.  In this case the quantity of sugar can be reduced little bit as the sweetness of mangoes will be there in the ice cream. Beating from the freezer is same as for the  Vanilla ice cream.

Vegetable Rava Bath.

This is very much like the normal Rava upuma and uppitu but some spices are added to make it a Rava Bath.

1. Rava Semolina 1 cup
2. Oil 1 to 1 1/2 table spoons.
3. Mustard seeds 1 t spoon
4. Broken urad dal 1 t spoons
5. Channa dal 1 t spoon
6. Green chillies 2 or 3
7. Ginger 1 small piece
8. Curry leaves 1 or 2
9. Coriander leaves few (optional)
10. Onion 1 medium size
11. Vegetables few beans, 1/2 carrot, 1 small potato, a small bit egg plant, small bit bell pepper, (simla mirch or kodai milagai), few peas
12. Salt to taste
13. Turmeric powder 1/2 t spoon
14. Ghee 1 to 2 tspoon Optional
15. Water 2 to 2 1/2 cup
16. Channa dal 1 t spoon
17. Coriander seeds 1 t spoon
18. Little bit of cinnamon stick (pattai )
19. Copparai or  copra  or Dried Coconut shavings 1 table spoon
20. Oil little to fry the items from 16 to 19.

Method:
Fry the rava in a dry Kadai or iluppa chatti till light brown. 1 t spoon of ghee can be added while frying for additional taste. keep it aside.
Fry the item number 16 to 19 (channa dal, coriander seeds, cinnamon and dry coconut shavings) in little oil and powder it in a mixer and keep it aside.
Cut the onions, and other vegetables and chillies and ginger into very small bits.
Put the oil in the kadai and add the mustard seeds . Once it splutters add the urad dal and the channa dal when urad dal turns brown add the cut curry leaves and chillies and ginger. Now add the cut onions. fry till light brown and add the other cut vegetables. (all the vegetables need not be used what ever vegetable from the list given is available can be used.) add the salt and the turmeric powder. fry for a little time add the water. Now add the powder which you have ground and mix it thoroughly. Cover it with a lid. Let it boil. Check if the vegetables are cooked. When done, Reduce the flame, and add the rava little by little and keep stirring the mixture with a sturdy spoon. Stir till there is no chunks of rava in between and all the ingredients are mixed evenly. Cover it and keep it for a few minutes. add the coriander leaves and the ghee and switch off the stove.  Rava Bath  is ready.