Posts Tagged ‘Air Tight Container’

There are many ways in which you can prepare the smabar powder.

Ingredients

Coriander seeds – 2 1/2 cups
Red Chillies – 4 cups
Thoor Dhal – 1/2 cup
Chenna Dhal – 1/2 cup
Methi Seeds – 1 hand full

Procedure

Fry all the ingredients one by one in a dry kadai till the raw flavour vanishes.
Allow it to cool and make into a smooth powder.
Store it a air tight container so the aroma will be retained.

Omapodi  is another South Indian snacks, prepared using besan and rice flour.  We add omam or Ajvain to it to get a fine flavour.  Omam is very good  for health.  Try to include it in as many preparations as possible.

Ingrediants

Besan – 2 cups

Rice flour – 1 cup

Omam -15 gms (powdered)

Salt – 1  tsp ( to taste)

Asafoetida – 1/2 tsp

Butter or ghee – 1 tbl spoon

Oil – for deep frying

Procedure

-Mix besan , rice flour, omam powder,  asafoetida &  salt with  water and make it into a thick paste like  batter but a soft one.

-Heat the oil in the kadai.Test how hot it is by dropping a pinch of dough into it – if it sinks, the oil hasn’t become hot enough. If the dough springs to the top with bubbles all around it, then the oil is just ready.

-In your muruku press place the oma podi plate and load

the dough and press it directly into the hot oil. Fry it untill it is golden yellow and crispy.

Crispy omapodi  is ready. Allow it to cool and store it in an air tight container.

We can make little variations to make it taste different.

Along with omam powder add 1 tsp of  chilly powder and prepare the batter.

For the omapodi we add for mixture adding omam is optional.  We can add chilly powder alone to do kara omapodi.

Badhusha is a south Indian Sweet made out of all purpose flour(maida) and sugar.  Many feel that it is difficult to make. But it is very easy and infact can be made within 45 minutes.

Ingredients

All purpose flour (Maida) – 2 cups
baking Soda  -1.3 tsp (or 2 pinches)
Ghee – 1/2 cup (Vanaspathi or dalda is optional,  but ghee is prefered and it will stay little long when stored)
Curd – 3/4 cup
Sugar – 3 cups
Water – 1 1/5 cups of water
Cardamom powder – 1/2 tsp
or Rose essence- 5 to 6 drops -for flavur

Procedure


- Mix curd, ghee and a pinch of baking soda and beat it till it froths.
- Sieve maida along with another pinch of baking soda.
-Make dough using curd- ghee mixture, the consistency must be softer  than the chapathi dough.
-Make it into a big chapathi (thickness as that of a chapathi ) , using both the hands make pleats on the rolled dough (just like saree pleats) starting form one end.
-Now you will get a thin strip of folded dough.  Cut this into equal pieces of about 1 1/2 inch and flatten it. We do this to get layers and the badhusha will be crispy. Place this prepared dough in the fridge for about 10 minutes, take it out, leave it covered with a damp muslin cloth for about 10 minutes. Now it is ready for frying.
- In the mean time prepare a 2 string sugar syrup.  For flavor add cardamom or rose essence.
-While the sugar syrup is getting ready preheat the oil. Now fry the pieces of prepared dough till it is golden brown, drain the oil and immediately soak it in the sugar syrup.
-Let it be in the syrup for about 5 minutes. Take it out and place it in a dry plate.  Allow it to cool and store it a dry air tight container.

You can garnish the badhusha with grated & coloured  coconut, or place a roasted pistachio or badam. Roasted cashew doesn’t look that good for garnishing,  because badhusha and cashew colour  are almost the same.


To avoid the crystalisation of sugar syrup while you are frying the badhusah add 2 to 4 drops of lemon juice to the sugar syrup. 


If curd is not available increase baking soda to 1 tsp add to the ghee and make the spongy dough, softer than chapathi dough.

I am sure Krishna Jayanthi special is Cheedai. Let me tell you about the preparation of both vella cheedai and uppu cheedai.

UPPU CHEEDAI

Ingredients

Raw rice – 4 cups
Urud dhal – 1/2 cup (i.e. 8:1 ratio)
Grated coconut – 1 cup
Chenna Dhal – 1/4 cup
pepper – 2tsp (optional)
Jeera – 2 tsp
Asafoetida – 1 tsp
Salt – 2 tsp ( add less or more according to your taste)
Edible oil – for cooking
Butter – 35 gms (appx. 2 tsp)

Procedure

- Fry the raw rice till it turns light red ( ilam sivapu) in color and make it into a little bit coarse powder.

-Again fry urud dhal till it is deep red( nalla sivapu) in color. Allow it to cool and make it into a fine powder.

-Grind pepper and jeera coarsely. If you are not going to add pepper then you can add jeera as whole.

-Soak the Chenna Dhal for 1 hour.

- Now mix the rice flour, urud flour, ground jeera-pepper powder, soaked chenna dhal, 1 cup grated coconut, asafoetida and salt and make it into a thick paste by adding water.

- Make it into round balls of marble size and spread it on a dry cloth.

- Preheat the oil. Just drop 1 ball into the oil. If it raises up then the oil is heated. Drop as much balls as possible allowing sufficient space for the rice balls to cook.

-Fry till golden brown. Drain the oil. Allow it to cool and store it in an air tight container.

VELLA CHEEDAI

Ingredients

Raw rice – 2 cups
urud dhal – 1/4 cup
Jaggery – 2 1/2 cup
Coconut – 1/2 cup ( cut it not small thin pieces ie. pallu pallu -a thiruthanam) )
Sesame (ellu) – 1/4 cup
Cardamom powder (elachi) – 1 tsp
Butter – 35 gms

Procedure

-Fry the raw rice till it turns little deep red in color (i.e you have to fry little more than uppu cheedai ). Make it into little coarse powder.

-Again fry urud dhal till it is deep red( nalla sivapu) in color. Allow it to cool and make it into a fine powder.

-Now take 2 1/4 cup of water in a vessel. Heat it and allow the jaggery to dissolve in it. Decant it into another vessel to remove the mud and other impurities in the jaggery.

-Once the jaggery water starts boiling add the coconut pieces and add the rice flour little by little so that there are no lumps and cool it for 5 minutes.

-Switch off the stove, transfer it into another vessel. Mix with urud flour, sesame seeds, cardamom powder. Make it into a thick paste.

- Make it into small balls of marble size and spread it on a plate. (If you spread it on a dry cloth, then all the moisture will be absorbed and the cheedai will become very hard).

- Preheat the oil. Just drop 1 ball into the oil. If it raises up then the oil is heated. Drop as much balls as possible allowing sufficient space for the rice balls to cook.

-Fry till it is deep brown in color.

Sweet and crispy vella cheedai is ready to be served for the kunju krishans at home.

Mullu thenkuzhal is one of common seer bakshanams of South India. It is displayed in almost all the occasions in seer thattu.

Ingredients

To prepare the flour for thenkuzhal

Raw rice – 3 cups

Moong dhal -1 cup

Chenna Dhal – 1 handful

Mix the above ingredients and make it into a fine powder.

If you are going to mix it as powders then the ratio is

Rice flour – 3 cups

Moongdhal powder – 3/4 cup

besan – 2 tbl spoon

butter – 1 tbl spoon

sesame – 1 tbl spoon ( for contrast colour use black sesame)

Chilly powder – 2 tsp (Optional)

Asafoetida – 1/2 tsp

Salt – 1 tsp

Procedure

-Mix the flour along with chilly powder, sesame, asafoetida, salt and butter with water into a thick paste but a soft one.

-Heat oil in a kadai. Test how hot it is by dropping a pinch of dough into it – if it sinks, the oil hasn’t become hot enough. If the dough springs to the top with bubbles all around it, then the oil is just ready.

-In your murukku press, place the thenkuzhal plate and load the dough and press it directly into the hot oil. Fry it untill it is golden brown and crispy.

Crispy thenkuzhal is ready. Allow it to cool and store it in an air tight container.

One of the most tastiest side-dishes of south India is SAMBAR. Though there are different varieties of SAMBAR I am going to tell you the most simple way of preparing the SAMBAR using sambar powder. This is in fact called bachelor’s sambar

You can either fetch sambar powder from shop or make it at home.

SAMBAR POWDER PREPARATION

Ingredients

Coriander seeds – 2 1/2 cups
Red Chillies – 4 cups
Thoor Dhal – 1/2 cup
Chenna Dhal – 1/2 cup
Methi Seeds – 1 hand full

Fry all the ingredients one by one in a dry kadai till the raw flavour vanishes.
Allow it to cool and make into a smooth powder.
Store it a air tight container so the aroma will be retained.

SAMBAR – PROCEDURE


Ingredients

Tamarind -small ball (lemon size)
Tamarind paste can also be used – 1 tsp
Thoor Dhal – 1 cup
Mustard seeds – 1/2 tsp
Curry leaves – One arch
Chopped Coriander – 2 Table spoon
Green Chillies – 2 Nos
Sambar Powder – 2 tsp
Oil – 1 tsp

- Stain the tamarind by adding 2 cups of water. Add the required salt, turmeric powder and 2 tsp full of sambar powder.

- Season the desired vegetables along withe mustard seeds, 2 split chillies and curry leaves and add it with tamarind water and allow it to boil till the vegetables are well cooked.

- In the mean time pressure cook thoordhal by adding a pinch of turmeric powder

- Add the cooked thoordhal , a pinch of asafoetida (perungayam or hing) and allow it to boil for 3 to 4 minutes

- Off the stove and add the chopped coriander. For extra taste add small bit of jaggery and a small pinch of fried methi powder

Mouth watering sambar is ready.

[Tips : If you want the thoor dhal to get cooked well, soak it for 15 minutes before being pressure cooked.]

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