Avakaai pickle

Cut 10 raw mangoes into small pieces. To this take half quantity of mustard powder, red chilly powder and salt. In a glass /ceramic container spread some pieces and sprinkle the powder mix, again spread a layer of mangoes with powder topping, and complete the process. Now on top add a spoon full of fenugreek and pour a half litre gingelly oil. Close the container airtight. Allow it for 3 days to soak. Later take a dry paddle stick and mix the content once in 2-3 days. After a week the Aavakkai pickle is ready with the traditional aroma that opens our taste buds. Option: If you wish, you may also add a few pods of peeled garlic along with mango. Never put wet hands while making the pickle. No need of keeping the pickle jar under the sun. Always keep the jar tightly closed after use.

Lemon pickle

Take 10 big lemons. Keep ready a jar and spread a handful of table salt in it. Cut a lemon into pieces. Put the pieces into the jar as and when you cut pieces. Keep spreading 2 spoons of salt and again put lemon pieces and again spread salt. This is to avoid the pieces turning bitter. Close the jar and keep it tightly lid. Please use a ceramic jar or Plastic jar. If you use a stainless steel jar, the citric acid and salt together will rust the steel and makes a hole on the surface leading to a leak. After 2 days roll over the jar on its side, shake and keep it. Do it for a week. The salt is absorbed into the pieces. Take a karandi full of salted lemons in a cup that you would need for a week. Take a small kadai and pour 4 spoons of oil, heat it. Now add a pinch of asafoetida powder and a spoon of chilly powder. When it smokes, slightly mix it and now pour it into the salted lemon cup. Mix it well. Lemon pickle is ready. Use only a dry spoon for serving. Tip: Never add oil, salt, chilly all into the cut lemons at one time. This will spoil the product and leads to fungus growth. So, always take out some quantity of salted lemons and add fresh oil/spice every week. It takes hardly 5 minutes to heat on the pan. The shelf life of pickle is more.

Omapodi / Sev

Soak 1 spoon of omam in 1/4 cup water overnight. Filter this and keep aside. Take required quantity of gram flour (kadali maavu) and little rice flour together and add salt, hot oil and the omam water extract and mix well. Then carefully add water to form a sticky dough. Now stuff the dough in a presser (Naazhi-நாழி kuzhal) with bottom plate with small holes for omapodi.Take a kadaai, heat refined oil. Now press the dough in a circular rotation. Fry it for yellow or golden brown. Keep aside, press into pieces and store in a container. This can either be taken alone or can be added to karaboondhi as a mixture. The flavour of ஓமம் (Oregano) is a major player.

Mango Pachchadi

மாங்காய் பச்சடி

Raw mango மாங்காய் -2 ; Mustard கடுகு - 2 spoon; Fenugreek powder வெந்தய பொடி -1 spoon; Chilli powder மிளகாய் பொடி - 2 or 3 spoons; Oil கடலை எண்ணெய் - 4 or 5 spoon; Asafoetida powder பெருங்காயப் பொடி- 1/2 spoon; Sesame powder எள்ளுப் பொடி - 1 spoon; Method:- Peel the raw mango, cut into big pieces. Steam it for 1 whistle in cooker. Either you press with a masher or mash in a mixie, add salt as required. Place a kadaai on the stove, put mustard, fenugreek powder, chilli powder, pour oil, mix it well till mustard cracks. Now pour the mashed mango into it and keep stirring for at least 10 minutes. Now before finishing, add roasted sesame powder, mix it and switch off. Store it in a container. Some people add a piece of jaggery also while mixing it.

Yellow Pumpkin spicy gravy / Kuzhambu

Take ¼ kg yellow pumpkin (parangi), peel the skin. Chop into 1 inch pieces. Take 1 big onion, remove skin and root; chop into long fine pieces. In a kadai, pour a 5ml of coconut/refined oil, drop a spoon of mustard seed; add a spoon powder of fenugreek, pepper, jeeragam and chilly powder. Drop a green chilly that is vertically split with curry leaves. Add salt as required. After sauting, pour chopped onion and fry for 2 minutes, now add chopped pumpkin pieces in to kadai, fry for 5 minutes until cooked. Take gooseberry size of tamarind and soak in 250 ml of water. (You can also use the tamarind paste that is readily available). Pour the filtered tamarind juice in the kadai now, add a pinch of asafoetida. Allow it to boil, now pour a teaspoon of corn flour paste into it for thickening. Now add a pinch of jaggery for taste. After it has thickened, finally add a spoon of roasted sesame powder for aroma and transfer to serving bowl.

Rava Laddu / Suji Sweet balls

Take 400 gms suji (Rava), 50 gms chenna dal (odacha kadalai), dry roast them in kadai. Take 300 gms of sugar. Pour the two ingredients in mixie and grind coarse for few seconds. Pour the mixture in a bowl and let it cool. In the mean time, take 100 gms of vanaspathi or ghee, melt it, fry cashewnuts, resins and pour it into the bowl. Add a spoon of cardamom powder and roasted clove. Now mix the rava/sugar,melted ghee well with fingers and hand press into firm balls. Store in air tight container. Shelf life is more. If the ghee level is not enough, you will not be able to make balls. Even if it is done it loosens and breaks. Some conservative people reduce ghee level and instead sprinkle milk, grated copra and make into balls. Though taste is good, shelf life is less. You have to eat within a day else fungus layer forms.

Kozhukattai and modhakam

கொழுக்கட்டை /மோதகம்

Ingredients: Rice base flour (மேல் மாவு)preparation Raw rice 1 cup. Soak in water for 1 hour. Grind nicely for Dosa batter level. If too thicky then add little water. Add pinch of salt. Take kadai. Add 1/2 to 1 tumbler water, boil. keep low flame. Add 2-3 teaspoon of oil, pour the batter slowly in boiling water and mix well without lump. Now the mix rolls into a ball without sticking to kadai. Wet your hands, knead the flour ball. Keep it aside and cover with a wet cloth. Coconut poornam: தேங்காய் பூரணம் Take 1 cup of grated coconut. jaggery 1/4 cup. Cardamaom pinch. Take kadai. Pour all these and keep stirring on low flame. Once coconut absorbs water from jaggery, it forms well. keep it aside. Sesame poornam: எள்ளு பூர்ணம் Take 1/2 cup cleaned sesame (black/white) and 25 gms jaggery. Put it in mixie and grind into powder. Spicy dhal poornam : பருப்பு பூர்ணம் 1 cup Bengal gram. Soak in water. Add green or red chilly, curry leaf, ginger piece for taste. After 1 hour, grind it well, add salt and pinch of asafoetida. Take kadai, add 1-2 teaspoon of oil, heat it. Add mustard seed to season (thalippu). Keep stirring on low flame, the dhal mix now loosens as 'usili stage' and vecomes non-sticky. Keep it aside. Method: Take a small ball of base flour. Touch finers in oil and flatten it to a diya (agal) cup. Now take any of the above poornam, stuff into the cup and press the edges well. Steam the pieces for 5 minutes, serve after cooling. If the base flour ball is not covered with wet cloth, on steaming, it will crack and poornam spills out. Have different shapes of creativity as semicircle, triangle or coconut shape for the cups to distinguish the variety of poornam in it. Else you will not know what is stuffed inside.

Kanji powder

கஞ்சி மாவு Ingredients: Raagi (கேழ்வரகு)- 1 kg, Millet (கம்பு)- 200 gm, Samba Wheat (சம்பா கோதுமை) - 200 gm, Green gram (பயறு) - 200 gm, Roasted Chenna gram (ஒடச்சகடலை) - 100 gm, Sago (ஜவ்வரிசி) - 50 gm, Barley(பார்லி) - 25 gm, roasted groundnut (வேர்கடலை) - 50 gm, Boiled rice (புழுங்கல் அரிசி) - 100 gm. Method: Raagi will have much of sand. Wash, rinse in water two/three times completely. Spread it on cloth towel to dry. Clean all other items also. Separately dry roast one by one for 2/3 minutes and set aside. Pour the items on a plate to cool. Take it to flour mill and grind as flour. (Some people allow Ragi to sprout overnight and then roast. This method is also okay. See that it is not over roasted). Preparation with Kanji mavu:

Gruel கஞ்சி: (For 1 person) Take 1 table spoon of flour, pour water, mix into paste without lump. Add half tumbler water to it and heat. Within two minutes, the consistency thickens and reaches the kanji stage. Add half tumbler milk, required sugar. (Add crushed cardamon powder for taste, if required). For those in diet, instead of milk & sugar add buttermilk & salt.

Sweet Balls: கேழ்வரகு உருண்டை Take 1 cup of kanji powder, add 1/4 cup sugar, cardamom powder, tablespoon of grated coconut. Mix it and now sprinkle milk to roll it into balls.

Ragi Dosa கேழ்வரகு தோசை : Take 1 cup of kanji powder, add salt, little buttermilk. Make into dosa batter consistency. If it's loose, add 1/2 cup of rice flour. To this add finely chopped green chilly, onion, coriander leaves. Mix well and pour on hot dosa pan. Have chutney, sambar or idly podi for side dish.

Sweet Aval Puttu

Ingredients: Aval (pounded rice) - 1 cup, jaggery - 1/4 cup, cashewnut, elachchi, as required.

Method: Clean the pounded rice, whip in mixer to smaller pieces. Soak this quantity in 1 cup lukewarm water. It absorbs and swells. Dissolve jaggery in water and filter. Now heat the jaggery water in a vessel for thick consistency. (Test the consistency by pouring a drop of it in water. It has to roll and settle at the bottom). In a kadai, pour the soaked Aval, add jaggery syrup and constantly stir it on fire. To this add ghee roasted cashew, raisin and elachchi.

Sesame-Chilly-Dhal Powder for Idly /Dosa

Sesame-Chilly-Dhal powder Ingredients: Red chilly - 250 gm Urad dhal - 200 gm Gram dhal - 2 table spoon Asafoetida - very small piece Sesame - 100 gm Rock salt - 1 table spoon jaggery - small piece (Many people may not add sesame (ellu) to powder. This is also okay.)

Method Separately dry roast sesame. Add little oil, fry asafoetida, red chilly, urad dhal, gram dhal. Keep aside and cool. Add a measure of rock salt, jaggery. Grind the mixture well in to coarse powder. Your Idly /Dosa chilly powder is ready. While taking Dosa/Idly, pour a spoon of oil to required quantity, mix and have. Other utility: This powder can be sprinkled while preparing dry curry like potato, brinjal, plantain, cabbage, and other sabjis.

South Indian Rasam

How to make tasty Rasam ?
Any south Indian meal will not add flavour without Rasam. There are different types of Rasam like tomato, neem flowers, lemon, garlic, etc. For any rasam preparation, you need a basic Rasam powder. Take a cup for measurement.
Ingredients: Dhaniya – 1 cup, Jeerakam – 25 gms, Pepper – 5 gm, Turmeric (long viral manjal) - 3 pieces, Dry red chilly -3 cups, Toor dhal (thuvaram paruppu) – 2 spoons, Mustard – 1 pinch, Fenugreek (vendhayam) – 1 spoon.
Under hot sun, dry the above ingredients on a plate. For urgency, dry roast on kadai. Grind this in flour mill, keep powder in airtight bottle. Basic rasam powder is ready. In hotels, they add lot of sombu but this will spoil the aroma of traditional Rasam.

Preparation : (For 4 people):
Take a small lemon size of tamarind and soak in water, squeeze and make juice. Boil 100 gm of Toor dhal (Thuvaram paruppu). In a vessel, take 2 tomatoes and cut into pieces. Add a bit of solid or powder (asafetida- perungayam). Take 1 tablespoon of Rasam powder and salt according to taste and quantity. Pour tamarind juice into the vessel, boil for 5 minutes. To this add a half cup of boiled toor dhal. Dilute the mix and allow it to boil till rasam rises up and foams. Now add coriander & curry leaves. Finally (thaalippu) sauté mustard seeds with jeerakam in ghee and add to the rasam. Tomato rasam is ready. Options: Instead of Tomato you can use dry neem flowers, fry in ghee and mix in rasam before serving. Instead of tomato or neem, crush 2-3 garlic and put into rasam when it boils. Lemon rasam: In the above steps, don’t add tamarind juice, instead squeeze a big lemon and switch off. If you add juice and boil for a long time, it will turn bitter.

Seedai and Murukku

In the south, the special items for Janmashtami are Seedai, Murukku and Appam. Let me tell you the recipe for Uppu Seedai and Vella Seedai.

How to prepare processed rice flour?
Take a measure of raw rice and soak it in water for 2 hours. Then drain it, spread on a cloth and allow it to dry under mild sun. This dry rice has to be ground to powder and sieved in a jalladai for fine powder. Slightly roast it on kadai and store in a container.


Salt Seedai : To a cup of processed rice flour, add 2 teaspoon of Urad dal flour, a spoon of butter, sesame seeds and salt. Mix with little water and knead. Do not allow it to dry. Take small quantity of this flour and make it into balls. Fry this to golden brown in mild flame.
Note: If flour is not mixed properly and if dry flour lumps are found, then while frying, seedai is likely to explode. Take care to knead well.

Sweet Seedai: 1 cup jaggery equal to same cup of rice flour. Dissolve jaggery in half cup of boiling water and filter the sediment. Now add the liquid to rice flour and two teaspoon of urad dal flour. Don’t add butter. Mix well, knead and make into marbles. Fry it until it turns deep brown to black.

Murukku or Manupoo: Method 1:- 2 cups of Rice flour, ½ cup of fried gram flour (pottukadali mavu), little asafoetida, cumin seeds (jeeragam) and salt as required. You can also add a teaspoon of butter and not more. Knead it well and take a murukku presser and fry it till light golden brown. Method 2:- 300gm rice flour, 100 gm dhal flour of skinned green gram (payaththam paruppu), 50gm Bengal gram flour (kadalai paruppu), 1 tablespoon Seasame (white Ellu). 9 spoons of Vanaspathi to be mixed in the flour. Now knead the mixture and do as above.
Note: For high quantity preparation, do not knead altogether. Take the flour in small portions, knead it and press into murukku. If you mix and knead all quantity, by the time you finish frying, murukku will turn deep red and hard.

Rice Pizza

200 gm – Rice flour
50 gm – Peni Rava
1 cup - Chopped Onion
½ cup – grated Coconut
Finely chopped Coriander leaves
Finely chopped 3 green chilies
Salt, Refined oil

Mix rice flour, peni rava with finely chopped onion, coriander, grated coconut and chillies. Add required salt and water to make into dough consistency. Make small balls and keep it aside. Place wet white cloth on flattening stone, on this hand press the balls into size of a pizza. Transfer this piece on to hot tava by inverting the cloth with flat dough over it. Pour 3-4 spoons of oil on sides to fry. When color turns into deep golden, serve hot with any chutney or sambar. A lovely Indian pizza is ready!

Milk Poli

All are familiar with dhal pooranam (paruppu) poli, coconut poli but not Milk Poli. Take a cup of maidha and a cup of suji, mix well into dough. In a bowl boil a litre of milk with a cup of sugar, a pinch of saffron, cardamon seeds.

Make the dough into small balls, press and flatten like puris and fry in oil. As soon as it turns golden, drain the oil and transfer it to the sweet milk bowl. After soaking for a minute, take it with a wide chattuvam / annavti without damaging. Spread and arrange on a wide tray. Finally, pour the leftover milk on the arranged polis. Do not refrigerate it immediately. Leave it in kitchen temperature and after a day or two, keep it in fridge. The shelf life is for only 2-3 days.

Ingredients
Rava - 1 cup, maidha - 1 cup, oil to fry, sugar -2 cups, Milk - 1litre, saffron and cardamon as required.

Ural Puliyodharai

Take grated coconut (1 cup), dry red chilly (6), mustard (1 teaspoon), tamarind (1 marble size), salt and asofoetida and grind into coarse paste. Fry the paste in kadai with little oil, two chillies, 1 teaspoon uradhal/channa dhal, curryleaf, broken groundnuts, cashew nut till aroma fills you. Take 3-4 cups of cooked rice and mix evenly with this paste in the kadai. Garnish if required. Fried papad or vaththal is ideal side dish. Time taken is 15 minutes.

Since grinding stone was used in the past hence the name ural / rolu. This is Ural Puliyodharai in Tamil and Rolu Pulusu annam in Telugu.

Degree Filter Coffee

You would have tasted various types of coffee as prepared in Thanjavur, Kumbakonam, Kerala, etc. It would be a pleasure to witness our taste buds get tickled at the smell of roasted brew when we pass through a coffee grinding shop.
In Kerala, they pour powder directly in milk and boil. The sediments will settle down and some will float. In other vilages, they pour powder on a cotton cloth and tie up like a bulb and dip in boiling water to extract decoction. This will have a different likeable aroma.

Home preparation
Grind 1/2 kg Plantation-A berry coffee seeds for filter, then add 50gm chicory and you receive powder in packets. Many people pour out all packets in the container and soon the aroma goes missing within a week. Instead pour out the pack only when the container goes empty.

Pour 4-6 tb.spoon heaps of coffee powder in the metal filter, pour 100-150 ml of boiling water and close the lid. Allow the decocotion to collect at the bottom. Now boil fresh milk and allow the milk to rise. Now take the required quantity of decocotion and 2 spoons of sugar in a tumbler and to this add 2-4 karandi of milk. Now mix it well and this is degree coffee. If chicory is not added, decoction will be watery. It is your choice.

If you want you can add boiling water to the filter stuff a second time and extract decoction. The grade of decoction is low and not thick as the first. Don't prepare decoction and refrigerate in advance for a day.

Hotel preparation:
In hotels, they dry roast sugar to brown color and keep it aside. Whenever required hot coffee decoction is poured in dabarah with sugar. To this hot milk is added and mixed well until froth appears on top.

Tips: Don't reheat the preheated milk. For good result, boil fresh milk and use fresh decoction. Prepare coffee at home when all have assembled at the table. Simply heating the milk every time when each member turns up will spoil the coffee taste/aroma and result wil not be as expected.
Filter coffee lovers may not like Instant coffee . It is ideal in emergency.

Stuffed Methi Dosa

All of you know the fundamentals of making a normal Dosa. The usual formula is 3 parts Boiled rice, 1 part Raw rice, 1 part Urad dhal. Take Rice: Urad dhal in the ratio 4:1. Soak this mixture for atleast 3 hours and grind. To this add a spoonful of soaked menthi and grind till the flour gets soft. Add required salt to the flour paste and allow it to ferment overnight.

The demo of Dosa preparation is shown in the video clip. Further to this, you may place the required quantity of masala stuff and roll it over the pan. For crispy outcome, apply oil around the dosa circumference. For health conscious people, please add little oil. You can try adding any available stuff and the steaming soft menthi Dosa is ready.

For dosa or idly, the ratio for rice:urad dhal varies for mixie and wet grinder. The result is best with wet grinder because heat produced during grinding is absorbed by stone and quantity is more whereas the heat produced in mixie jar heats up the dough and may not be soft comparitively. So the texture and softness is best with wet grinder. If quantity is less go for mixie.

Sambar, coconut / coriander chutney, tomato gravy, chilly powder with oil, curd are some recommended side dishes.

Ragi biscuit

Ragi is very rich in protein, carbodhydrate, fibre and all other nutrients found in other grains. It reduces the metabolic activity of converting into energetic calories and the body sustains hunger naturally.

It is common to eat ragi as 'kali' balls /ragi mudha /dosa/ malt. How would it be to take it as crispy bisucits, sugary or salty? Just so simple.

Take 2 cups of ragi flour and mix 1 cup of icing sugar. Add little warm water and required quantity of butter and make the dough. Avoid baking soda because this will bake your stomach too. Add a spoon of powdered cardamon powder for fragrance. If consistency is not arrived, add two spoons of wheat flour and one spoon of maida to the mix. This acts as binding agent.

Now flatten ragi dough with medium thickness. Take a sharp edge cup or any material to cut it into circles or squares. Preheat your oven and bake the biscuits on a plate at 250 degrees. When the product is ready, its healthy aroma will fill your house. Consume these biscuits along with milk or any hot drink for evening tiffin. The taste resembles 'butter biscuits'.

For diabetic people, replace sugar with required quantity of salt and serve with diluted butter milk or kanji.

Onion rice Rolls

If fried rice or pulav or brinji or onion rice is leftover for the day, don't waste it. You can shift it to another mouth watering delicious crispy snack. Wondering how?

To the leftover rice, add coriander, ginger paste, little garam masala and sonf (sombu), reheat and give a face lift. Now knead a dough mix with required maida with one portion of rava and small amount of oil and salt. Then divide into small balls and press it into thin layer so as to get get a crispy touch.

Now on the circular flattened dough, place the rice mixture in the middle, close one side first and roll it firmly. Paste the ends with water and fry it till the colour turns golden brown. This is exactly the way you do samosa or singada. Really it's delicious with tomato chutney. Hmm...!

Please note that the leftover rice for the preparation should not be stale or watery. It has to be upto the healthy consumption standard.

See you again with a new dish. Take care.

Lemon squash

Take 30 ripe lemons and extract juice. Take 500 gm of sugar, mix in 750 ml of water to prepare syrup as you do for Gulab jamoon. Here don't boil the mixture for string consistency, just boil it for syrup. Take 10 gm of ginger and grind it with water in small mixer jar. Allow the ginger juice to settle down and let the harmful calcium residue go to the bottom. Throw away this residue.

Filter the lemon juice to remove pulp and seeds, as the pulp will make the squash turn bitter after some days. Now add lemon juice and ginger juice into sugar syrup, stir it well. Pour the content in a bottle and place in the fridge. Mix 80ml of water to 10 ml of the concentrate and the drink is ready. You have done it.

For those trying to do some innovation, boil few handful of Pudina leaves and take decoction. Add this to the syrup content, for it gives natural green colour and fragrance to the drink. This squash is an ideal substitue for aerated bottled drinks .

The product is free from artificial preservative and food colour.