Posts Tagged ‘Methi Seeds’

Each and every time we cannot do arraithuvitta sambar because it carries lots of coconut in it.  In order to get the same flavor try with this podi.

Ingredients

Coriander seeds  – 21/2 cups

Red chillies – 4 cups

Chenna Dahal – 1 cup

Black pepper – 1/4 cup

Methi seeds – 1/2 of black pepper

Procedure

Dry fry all the above ingredients except the chillies, till the aroma comes.

Warm the chillies and make it into a fine powder.  Using this podi gives the taste of arraithuvitta sambar taste.

While preparing this sambar if you prefer you can just season 1 tsp of coconut and add to the tamarind water along with the vegetables.

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.

Here I am giving you another way of doing chole without using tomatoes.

Ingredients

Cooked chole(chick pieces)  – 1 cup

Onion  – 2 nos

Imli – 1 big gooseberry size

Chilli powder 1/2 tsp

Powder 1

1. Clove – 5-6 nos

2. Cinnamon bark – 1 inch piece

3. Badi elachi – 2nos

Warm the above ingredients and powder it

Powder 2

1 coriander seeds – 1tsp

2 cumin seeds – 1/2 tsp

3 pepper -1/4 tsp

Dry roast the above ingredients and make them into a powder

Powder 3

Sonuf – 1 tsp

Methi seeds – 1/2 tsp

Dry roast the above ingredients and make them into a powder

Procedure

- Soak the chick peas overnight or for atleast 6-7 hours and pressure cook by adding salt , tea bag, 2 bay leaves.  If you don’t prefer to use tea bags and bay leaves you can cook the chick peas by adding powdered kalongi.  All this is optional, it is just to give chenna the brown color.

-Mince the onion and soak the imli in a small quantity of water and strain it .

-In a thick bottomed pan add 4 tsp of oil and fry the onion till it is golden brown,  then add powder 1, powder 2,  1/2 tsp chilly powder  and the cooked chick peas and cook for 5 minutes.

-Once again pressure cook this mixture for 5 to 6 whistles in high flames.

-After the cooker gets released  smash the chole little bit , add the tamarind water boil it for 5 minutes.

-Finally add powder 3 and allow it to froth and switch off the stove.  Garnish it with coriander.  Serve it along with raw onion.

This method of doing the chole is the courtesy of my friend Mrs Revathy Vijayaragavan residing at Delhi.  It came out really well.  Try it out and post your comments.

Mysore Rasam

Ingredients

Tamarind – small lemon size
Tomato – 1 big in size
Turmeric powder – 1/4 tsp
Cooked Thoor Dhal – 1 tsp along with water

To fry and grind

Coriander seeds – 2 tsp, Thoordhal – 1 tsp, ChennaDhal – 1 tsp, Red Chilies – 4 (or 6, if u need a spicy rasam)Nos, Black pepper – 1/2 tsp, Methi seeds- 1/4 tsp, Asafoetida -1/4 tsp. Roast the above in a spoon of ghee or oil. Add 1/2 tsp of jeera and Coconut – 1 Tbl spoon, grind it to a smoot powder.

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For Seasoning

Mustard seeds – 1/2 tsp
Ghee – 1 tsp
Fresh Curry leaves – 10-15 nos

Procedure

-Strain the tamarind with 1 1/2 cups of water. Instead of putting the tomato as pieces you grind the tomato and add the puree. This will enhance the color of the rasam.

-Add turmeric powder and salt and allow it to boil for about 5 to seven minutes till the raw smell of tamarind vanishes. Now add the powder you prepared.

-Smash the cooked thoor dhal and add it along with its water & allow the rasam to boil just for a minute.

-Add coriander leaves, saute mustard seeds in ghee along with fresh curry leaves and add it to rasam.

Lime Mysore Rasam

Instead of adding the tamarind in the beginning add the lime juice at last, as you did for the lime rasam.

Brinjal Mysore Rasam

Slit the small brinjals into four without fully cutting them.

Cook the brinjal in tamarind water and repeat the same procedure.

Idli  can be called Tamil Nadu delicacy.  It is easy  to make but a nutritious breakfast.

Idli preparation involves 2 steps  1.  The preparation of batter . 2. Preparation of idli.

INGREDIENTS FOR BATTER PREPARATION

Boiled rice – 3 cups

Urad dhal – 1 cup

Methi seeds – 2 tsp

Salt – 1 1/2 tsp ( to taste )

PROCEDURE

-Soak the rice and urud dhal for at least 4 hours separately. Methi seeds can be soaked with urud dhal.  I use wet grinder to make the batter.  You can use food processor to make the batter.

-Wash the soaked rice thoroughly well and add to the grinder to make it a batter which is not very smooth but little bit coarse- grained.  Set aside the rice batter separately.

- Again wash the urud dhal (whole)  and start grinding it by adding water little by little.  Make it into a smooth and fluffy paste.  Preparation of this batter will take little time.  The more you grind the urud dhal , the more soft idlis are.  When you feel it in hand, the batter must be smooth (feel of a satin).

-Now mix the rice batter along with it , add salt and mix both the batters thoroughly from top to bottom and leave it undisturbed for at  least 8 hours.

PREPARATION IF IDLIS

-Greece the idli mold with edible oil.

-Fill the molds with idli batter.  If you are going to use pressure cooker don’t place weight .

-Set the stove in high untill a heavy steam comes through the nostril of the cooker.

- Once you see the steam coming out,  lower the flame and cook it for about 10 minutes.

-Switch of the stove and give a standing time for about 2 minutes. Open the cooker and remove it from the idli mold. They are done when a spoon or a stick pricked in the middle comes out clean.

Soft and puffy idlis are ready. Serve it hot with chutney and sambar.

Traditional Iyengar’s feast is always accompanied with puliyodarai. It is not only tasty but very easy to prepare once its basic paste pulikaichal is ready in hand. Pulikaichal is a preserve of spicy tamarind paste, which stays for a few months in the fridge. This when mixed with rice is called Puliyodarai or puliyogare.

Let me first tell you the preparation of pulikaichal.

Ingredients

Tamarind – 200 gms (app x size of a mango)
Turmeric powder – 1/2 tps
Salt – 1 1/2 tsp (increase or decrease the quantity according to taste)

For Seasoning

Mustard seeds – 2 tbl spoon
Red Chillies – 25-30 Nos , broken into pieces (If you don’t want the pulikaichal to be very hot while making the chillies into 2 pieces remove the seeds)
Chenna Dhal – 1 Tbl spoon
Urud Dhal – 1 Tbl Spoon
Curry leaves – Fresh and dried (20 to 30 Nos)
Gingly oil (Nallennai-til oil)- 250 ml

If you are going to store for a longer period then it better to add less quantity of dhal at the time of preparation . Fry and add the required quantity of dhal at the time of mixing pliyodarai.

For Powdering

Methi seeds – heap of 1 tsp
Hing ( Asafoetida or perungayam) – 1 small piece or 1/2 tsp

Dry fry the methi seeds till they are deep brown. Add one teaspoon of gingly oil and fry the hing. It is better to use the solid hing for this preparation because this is the main flavouring agent. Allow it to cool and make it into a fine powder.

Note:- Some of them add 1tsp of dhaniya and 1/2 tsp of black pepper along with methi seeds and hing and powder it. These additions are optional.

Procedure

-Strain the tamarind into a thick pulp mix it with turmeric powder and salt and set aside.

- Take a thick bottom pan and add the gingly oil. Keep it on medium flame. Once the oil starts fuming add mustard seeds and allow it to splutter completely. Only when the mustard seeds splutters completely the shelf life of pulikaichal will last long.

- Then add the red chillies and the dhal and fry till the dhal is golden brown. Add the curry leaves and allow them get fried completely i.e, till all the water content in the curry leaf evaporates.

-Pour 1/2 a cup tamarind mix and when it starts to boil add the rest. Add a small piece of jaggery for added taste.

-When the pulp gets thick, oil will come up on the sides & the gravy will get deposited at the bottom. This indicates that pulikaichal is done. Switch off the stove and add the prepared methi-hing powder, mix it well and transfer it to another vessel to avoid further thickening.

Preparation of Puliyodarai

In general raw rice is used for this preparation.

1.Just pressure cook 1 cup of raw rice.

2.Take a vessel. Add 1 Tbl spoon of gingely oil and put the cooked rice over the oil.

3.If you are preparing the puliyodharai on the day when you make pulikaichal no additions are required.

Approximately for 1 cup of rice (i.e,200 gms of rice) we need 3 tbl spoon full of pulikaichal.

4.Mix it with the rice using a flat laddle so that the rice will not get smashed.

If you are going to refrigerate and prepare puliyodharai once in a while then , in just 1 tsp of gingly oil fry, 2 broken green chillies, fresh curry leaves, 1pinch of trumeirc powder and 1/4 hing and add to the rice. Add pulikaichal according to the quantity of rice.

If you like your puliyodharai to be crunchy, you can add fried peanuts and cashew nuts.

Note :- For the puliyodarai to taste good preferably use gingly oil. Usually we fry cashews in ghee. But for this preparation it is better to use gingly oil.

Refrigerate it in an air tight container.

While mixing puliyodharai try to use a flat laddle ( Here I mean Dosa Thudupu) so that the rice will not be smashed.

It is the easiest of all the kuzhambu varieties. There are different varieties of more kuzhambu.

Method I

Ingredients

Thoor dhal or chenna dhal – 1 tsp ( soak it in water for 1/2 an hour)

Jeera – 1 tsp

Dhaniya – 1/2 tsp

Green Chillies – 4 to 5 Nos

Red Chillies – 4 Nos

Methi seeds & split urud dhal -1/4 tsp

Grated coconut – 2 tbl spoon

Fresh butter milk – 2 cups

Mustard seeds – 1/2 tsp

Coconut oil – 1tbl spoon

Asafoetida – 1/ 2 tsp

Turmeric Powder -1/4 tsp

Procedure

-Apply 1/2 spoon of coconut oil fry the methi seeds and urad dhal. Once it is golden brown in colour add the red chillies and fry them . Switch of the stove and add the green chillies and just fry it for 30 seconds so that the raw smell vanishes.

-Allow the ingredients to cool and grind it along with the soaked thoor or chenna dhal, jeera, dhaniya, asafoetida and fresh grated coconut into a smooth paste.

-In case you use the vegetables white pumpkin, ladies finger, potato, carrot, green tomato etc will serve well.

- Precook the vegetables with salt. Allow them to cool and then add to the butter milk. Ladies Finger has to be cooked in tamarind water.

-Season the mustard and fresh curry leaves in 1/2 tbl spoon of coconut oil and add to the butter milk.

-Finally add the paste and turmeric powder simmer it on the low flame and when it starts to froth at the sides turn the stove off.

Method II

Even if the butter milk is little short of quantity we can prepare more kuzhambu using the below mentioned method. This is also called irrupuli kuzhambu.

Ingredients

Chenna Dhal – 1 tsp

Methi Seeds – 1 /2 tsp

Red chillies – 8 to10 nos

Tamarind – size of 1 big goose berry

butter milk – 1 cup

Grated coconut – 2 tbl spoon

Mustard seeds – 1/2 tsp

Coconut oil – 1tbl spoon

Asafoetida – 1/ 2 tsp

Procedure

-Apply1/2 tbl spoon of oil in the pan and fry the chenna dhal, methi seeds and red chillies till they are golden brown. Allow the ingredients to cool and grind it along with fresh grated coconut and asafoetida into a smooth paste.

- Strain the tamarind with 1 and 1/2 cup of water .

- Precook the vegetables with salt and turmeric powder in the tamarind water . Allow them to cool and then add to the butter milk.

-Season the mustard and fresh curry leaves in 1/2 tablespoon of coconut oil and add to the butter milk.

-Finally add the paste to the tamarind- butter milk mixture, simmer it on the low flame and when it starts to froth at the sides turn the stove off.

Method III

This is an readymade mixture of more kuzhambu and it takes few minutes to prepare the kuzhambu once the mix is ready. Shall we name it as bachelor’s more kuzhambu?

Ingredients for preparign the more kuzhambu powder

Thoor Dhal – 1 cup

Chenna Dahl – 1/4 cup

Red Chillies – 1/2 cup

Dhaniya, Mustard, Methiseeds,Raw rice, Poppy seeds (optional), Jeera(raw)each – 1 tbl spoon

Procedure to make the powder

Fry all spices except jeera till thy turn reddish in color.

Allow it to cool. Add jeera and grind into a smooth powder.

Add 3 tsp salt, 2 tsp turmeric powder 2 tsp asafoetida powder and mix well.

Preserve it in an airtight container. It will last for a long time.

Procedure to make kuzhambu

-Add the precooked vegetables , 2 tsp of the above powder, salt to taste to 2 cups of butter milk. Mix it well.

-Season the mustard and fresh curry leaves in 1/2 tablespoon of coconut oil and add to the butter milk.

-Simmer it on the low flame and when it starts to froth at the sides turn the stove off.

Rasam is a famous south Indian soup. It is prepared with tamarind, tomatoes , coriander seeds, pepper etc and it is a good digester. It is simple and very fast made dish and goes well with hot rice and a spoon of ghee. There are umpteen varieties of Rasam. I will start elaborating with rasapodi.

1. Rasam powder without dhal

Ingredients

Coriander seeds (Dhaniya)-2 cups
Red chilies – 3 cups
Black pepper – 3/4 cup
Cumin’s seeds – 1 cup
Methi seeds -1 tsp
Turmeric powder -1 tsp (optional)
( You can add turmeric powder while preparing rasam)

Dry the above ingredients in the sun (or preheat it in oven) and when it is hot grind it into a little bit coarse powder. Store it in an air tight bottle. Since we don’t add dhal to it there will be less sediments while preparing rasam.

2 Rasam powder with dhal

Ingredients

Coriander seeds (Dhaniya)-2 cups
Red chilies – 3 cups
Black pepper – 3/4 cup
Cumin’s seeds – 1 cup
Thoor Dhal – 1 cup
Methi seeds -1 tsp
Turmeric powder -1 tsp (optional)
( You can add turmeric powder while preparing rasam)
You can make this powder in two ways.

I method
Dry the above ingredients in the sun and when it is hot grind it little bit coarse. Store it in an air tight bottle.
II method
Dry fry all the ingredients one by one and then grind the into a coarse powder. If you want you can add asafoetide even while grinding the powder. But it is always better to add it while doing the rasam so that the flavour is not lost.

3 Millagu – Jeera ( Pepper ) rasam powder

This rasam is done without coriander seeds and no asafioetida is required.

Ingredients

Black pepper – 1/2 cup
Jeera – 1/2 cup
Thoor Dhal – 1 cup
Red Chillies – 1/2 cup

Dry the above ingredients in the sun ( or preheat it in oven ) and when it is hot grind it into a little bit coarse powder.

4 Udupi Rasam Powder

I read this preparation form Mangayar malar. It was excellent to taste Udupi rasam. To prepare this powder I bought all the necessary ingredients measured form the shop itself.

Ingredients

Coriander seeds – 110gms
kashmiri chilies – 100 gms
Red Chilies -75gms
(one which is little bit hot)
Black pepper – 50 gms
Methi
n> seeds – 25 gms
Chenna Dhal – 25 gms
Cumin’s seeds (Jeera) – 30 grams
Mustard seeds – 1 tsp
Asafoetida _ 1 small piece.

Procedure

- Dry all the chilies in hot sun or preheat it in oven.
- Same way dry the remaining ingredients separately.
-Dry fry methi seeds and mustard seeds in a pan. Let the mustard seeds pop up.
- Apply 1 tsp oil in the pan and fry the chilies till all them are polished with oil.
- Apply 1/4 oil and fry the coriander seeds till the raw flavour vanishes.
-Again apply 1/4 oil in the pan and fry chenna dhal till it is golden brown and add the jeera to it and fry it for few seconds.
- Now mix all the fried ingredients in the hot kadai in which you fried the dhal .
- Even while it is little bit hot grind it into fine powder. Allow it to cool and store it in an air tight container.

If I try anything else innovative in this variety I will add on to this post.

Tips : What ever be the type of rasam, if you add this magic powder to it before you bring it to boil, then it will become a super – duper rasam and gives out a fine flavour.

Magic powder ingredients

Make this powder in small quantities to retain the fresh flavour

-coriander seeds – 1 TB spoon
- cumin’s seeds-1 TB spoon
- black pepper – 1/2 tsp
Heat them in the sun or oven and grind them into a fine powder.

One of the most common and delicious tiffin of Tamil Nadu is Dosa. It is one of the easiest tiffin preparation even for beginners. You can make variety of dosa by making small changes and adding few things. I have seen many people buying the batter needed to make dosa from shops. Why Don’t you try it at home making the batter. It is both economical and hygienic. Let me start with the preparation of DOSA BATTER or DOSA PASTE

Preparation of Batter

Ingredients

Rice -3 cups
Urud Dhal – 1 cup

-Soak rice and urud dhal separately for 6 hours overnight in water.
-Grind to paste.
-Mix together, add salt with water to make batter. A free flow is the consistency of the batter
- Leave the mixture in room temperature for about 6 hours.
- It can be stored in fridge for 4 to 5 days.

To get added flavour to your dosa you can even add 1 tsp of methi seeds along with urad dhal.

Dosa in general goes well with chutney and sambar or chutney powder ( Milagai podi)
I have already told you about the sambar preparation using Sambar powder. Now let me tell you how to prepare a Sambar which gives you the taste of one which is served in hotels.

Hotel Sambar

Ingredients

Thoor Dhal – 1 cup
big Onion – 2 Nos
Sambar Vegetables – 1 cup
Tomato – 4 Nos Salt – 1tsp
Tamarind – small size lemon
Turmeric powder – 1/2 tsp
Curry leaves – 10 to 15 leaves
finely chopped coriander – 2tsp
Asfoetida (perungayam) – 1/2 tsp

To fry and grind

Red Chillies – 6 nos
Coriander seeds (Dhaniya) -1 1/2 Table spoon
Chenna dhal – 1Table spoon
Methi Seeds – 1/2 tsp
Black pepper – 1/2 tsp
Cumin’s seeds (jeera) – 1tsp
Curry leaves – 1 hand full

For seasoning

mustard seeds – 1/2 tsp
broken urud dhal – 1 tsp
oil – 2 table spoon

Sambar procedure

-Pressure cook thoor dhal with little turmeric powder
- Cut the sambar vegetables in small pieces. Also chop onion and tomato longitudinally .
- Apply some oil in the kadai and fry the things to be grounded. Let it cool and make it into a fine powder.
-Again apply some oil in the kadai season the mustard seeds , broken urud dhal and onion. When the onion gets fried little add the Sambar vegetables. Saute it and then add the chopped tomato and the required amount of salt. Saute for few about 2 to 3 minutes.
- In the mean time stain the tamarind with 1 1/2 cups of water. Add it to the seasoned vegetables
- Allow the mixture to boil till the raw smell vanishes and all the vegetables are well cooked
- Now add the well smashed thoor dhal and the prepared powder to the mixture. Mix it well and allow it to boil for another 5 minutes.
- Add few curry leaves and chopped coriander.

A very tasty hotel sambar is ready to be served with hot hot dosas.
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Now I am going to tell you about the preparation of pure coconut chutney

Coconut chutney -Procedure

Ingredients

To Grind
Pure grated coconut – 1 cup
Fried gram (pottukadalai) – 1 Table spoon
green chillies – 2 Nos ( If you need little bit hot chutney increase the nos of chillies)

For seasoning

mustard seeds – 1/2 tsp
broken urud dhal – 1 tsp
curry leaves – 10 to 15 nos
oil – 1 tsp

Procedure

- Season the mustard seed, urud dhal and the coriander with oil.
- Fry the green chillies
- Now grind the coconut, fried gram and green chillies and make into a paste.
- Add the necessary quantity of water to dilute the paste and the the seasoned things.
- Add a 1 pinch of perungayam and1/2 tsp lemon juice ( some will a small piece of tamarind. But adding lemon juice, we will get a new flavour).
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CHUTNEY POWDER (Milakai Podi)

This is one of the most common side dishes for Dosa and Idli. Even if you are not able to prepare coconut chutney or sambar you can use this powder as the side dish along with sesame oil (Nallaennnai)

Ingredients

Channa Dal – 1 Cup
Urud Dal – 1 Cup
Mustard – half a teaspoon
Sesame(ellu) – 2 teaspoons
Asafoetida (perungayam) – half a teaspoon
Red Chillies – 1 & half cups
A small piece of Jaggery.

Procedure

Dry fry mustard and sesame. Apply some oil and fry the chillies till it is brown.
Fry channa dal and urud dal till they are roasted. Allow it to cool and grind all the friend items with asafoetida, necessary salt and jaggery. Don’t make it into a very fine powder let it be little coarse.

Paper Roast

Why go to hotel for paper roast? Why not try it at home? It is very easy. All you have to do is if you going to take a bowl full of batter then you have to add 2 tsp of corn flour. Dilute it to dosa batter consistency and of course little bit of more oil than ordinary dosa.

Ghee Roast

Prepare the batter the same way for paper roast. After making the dosa transfer to the plate in which you going to serve and then smear the ghee on it. If you apply the ghee when the dosa is still in the tawa, due to extensive heat the ghee will evaporate giving less flavour for Dosa.
Preferably fresh ghee with fine aroma is preferred.

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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