Pittu - Neivedhyam for Navrathri Vellikizhamai

Navrathri, the festival of nine nights (and days) started this Tuesday and I have arranged a 'Kolu' and my regular menu related to the festival is being cooked and enjoyed. Traditions differ from place to place. Though the arrangement of the dolls, inviting people and few of the offerings remain common, some people make few extra special dishes on particular days and celebrate the festival.
Today's recipe is a common tamilian dish cooked on no particular occasion. However, I was aware the people who arrange the 'kolu' in Madras specially prepare this on the Friday during the navrathi. It was not a practice in my parents' town nor in other parts of Tamil Nadu.

I am fond of dishes that are prepared using jaggery to sweeten the dish and i usually opt for payasam and kheer with jaggery. thus I wanted to make this dish for navrathri. I have two books from renowned authors detailing this recipe. However, the process seemed a bit intimidating. Then it struck me that my mother's sister used to make pittu for Shivrathri . It is believed that lord Shiva enlisted His services in construction of a dam across the Vaigai river when it was mandatory that one member from each family offer their services. There was an old widow who was a devotee and had none to enlist. The Lord offered to do her the favour and in return wanted pittu.


My aunt will always work difficult recipes around and use her tricks and shortcuts to make them as tasting good while easy on the labour. With an authenic source right at home, all I needed was to make a call and take notes as she dictated.
I am glad to have tried it today and happier sharing one success recipe. This is possibly one of the few times that I cooked a dish and am writing the post almost immediately. The flavour of roasted flour and the flavouring cardamom is lingering in my fingers as I type this.


Ingredients:
200 ml raw rice
200 ml powdered jaggery
50 ml shredded fresh coconut
30 ml thuvar dhal
2 tablespoons ghee
15 pieces cashew nuts
1/4 teaspoon cardamom powder

Method:
Wash the rice clean and soak in water for about two hours.
Drain the water and spread the rice on a clean sheet of cloth for a few minutes.
Powder the rice and sieve to a fine powder.
Soon after the entire rice has been made flour and whilst still moist, take the powder in a heavy bottom pan and roast until you are able to drop the roasted powder in a neat line.
Since you are roasting moist flour, you will find lumps forming as the flour cooks.
Allow the flour to cool and sift again. Transfer the lumps back to the jar of the grinder and powder again.
Add this to the already roasted lot and put the pan back on heat. Now roast the entire flour untli golden red.
This powder can be made ahead and stored to be used when required.
If you measure this powder again it will be somewhere equal in volume of the rice that you started initially. When soaked, drained and powdered the quantity will almost double in volume and when you roast it will reduce back to a lesser quantity.
When this powder has cooled to room temperature spread it on a flat dish.
Heat some water in which salt has been dissolved. Sprinkle the lukewarm water gradually to the flour and mix just as stiff that the flour holds in a lump inside your fist, but crumbles when loosened.
Tie this flour in a loose bundle in a cloth. Place the cloth inside a container and cover with a lid.
Place this utensil inside the pressure cooker and cook until three whistles, or for 8minutes on a uniform hiss of the cooker after the first whistle.
By the end of this process the flour mix would be quite soft but will hold the crumbling texture.
Pressure cook the dhal until soft and breaks when pinched between the fingers but holds shape. 
Meanwhile heat 1/2 a tablespoon ghee and fry the cashews and the coconut.
Dissolve the jaggery in some water and strain the impurities. Boil the solution down to a hard ball syrup. that is when you take a small portion og the syrup and drop in a small bowl with water, the syrup cools immediately and you can roll it in a hard ball that drops with a clang when dropped back into the water.
Spread the cooked rice flour on the flat plate. Add to it the dhal, coconut and the cashew nuts.Add the cardamom powder.
Add the syrup mixing it to incorporate. The mix will blend well and form a soft textured yet crumbling mix.The texture will be between soft and just about dry.
Add the ghee and mix well.

Enjoy this mildly sweetened pittu as it is.
Priya Vasu is hosting an event to mark this wonderful festival and is inviting us to share our Navrathri dishes. There is a giveaway also in her blog which is just a click away from here.

Chutney filled mini loaves

For few years now, bloggers around the world observe World Bread Day and bake bread and enjoy them. I have been a part of a group  'Chef at large' on facebook and have been enjoying the discussion about food that takes place in that group. Few days ago, Aparna suggested that we shall bake for the World Bread Day this year and share our pictures and recipes for the event. An amazind array of breads were baked and showcased through the week. I  too joined them in baking bread for the event.
I tried three breads in all with notes that I had copied off the back of a pack of bread flour that I had used many years ago. The basic recipe was the same but I tried my variations with some filling inside. First I baked the Butter top loaf following the recipe in the notes. That turned out very good, which gave me the confidence to alter the recipe to reduce the butter and add some spiced and sweet fillings.
The recipe I am sharing today has been adapted from the pack BLUEKEY Quick Bread. I have a mini loaf tin which I purchased just to bake mini bread and the following recipe will make 13 such loaves, a baker's dozen. I reduced the measurements and baked one lot of four and a small braided bread.

The Chutney I have used is a variant of the Koththumalli thokku, I had posted earlier. This is just sautéed and grinded thogaiyal. The post cooking with oil has not been carried out.

Ingredients :
For the bread:
500 grams all purpose flour
3/4  tablespoon active dry yeast
300 grams water (1 and 1/2 cup in a 200ml measure)
Salt 1 teaspoon
Sugar 60 grams ( I have used 2 teaspoons sugar for the yeast and cut this sugar out as my bread has a savoury filling)
Butter 50 grams

For the filling:
1 cup fresh coriander leaves chopped
2 table spoons split urad dhal
1 table spoon channa dhal
4 dry red chillis
A small marble size ball of tamarind
Salt as required
2 teaspoons oil

Method:
For the filling:
Heat the oil in a pan and add the red chillis. When they turn bright and shining, add the channa dhal and the tamarind,  and two minutes later the urad dhal. Toss them in the pan for a few minutes and finally add the salt.
Remove from the stove top and add chopped coriander leaves. Give a brisk stir of the contents and allow it to come to room temperature.
Grind to a smooth paste.

For the bread:
Warm 100 ml of the water just until lukewarm. Add sugar to the yeast and pour this water. Sprinkle some flour and cover to allow the yeast to proof.
Stir the salt in the flour and whisk the flour and aerate it.
Keep the butter at room temperature and soft.
Once the yeast has become frothy, add it to the flour and the rest of the water also to the flour. Mix in a loose dough and turn it on to the working surface. Grease the fingers and palms with the butter and knead the dough well.
Continue to incorporate the butter in the dough all the while kneading it to a soft and elastic dough. This exercise may take about 15 minutes. The dough is fully kneaded when it can be stretched to form a thin transparent film.

Place the dough in a glass bowl and cover with a cling wrap or damp cloth.
Allow it to double in volume.
Deflate the dough by gently kneading again. Divide the dough in small portions. (I divided in six) Roll in a rectangle and generously spread the prepared thogaiyal on the surface.
Roll the dough in a cylindrical roll with the chutney well covered inside.
Place the rolled dough in one of the prepared loaf pans.
Repeat the spreading, filling and rolling process with the rest of the dough.
Sprinkle some sesame seeds on the top if desired.
Once all the dough has been rolled and in place, cover  with a damp cloth and allow it to rise again and fill the pans.
Switch the oven to 200 degrees Centigrade and pre heat.
When the oven is ready bake the bread initially for 15 minutes. Take out and brush some sugar, milk and butter mix to glaze if desired and bake again for another 7 to 10 minutes at 190 degrees centigrade.
Turn on to wire racks and allow to cool.
Since mine were very small in size, the baking time was considerably low.
If you plan to bale in one big loaf, increase the baking time to 25-35 minutes.

This bread goes well to be consumed as breakfast or can be had with a bowl on hot soup on a rainy day.
Prepare the bread tins while the

Pachcha Sambhar - Right out of my mail box to table

Can you comprehend that this post  has been possible because of a discussion thread on facebook?
I opened my facebook to see Aparna 's status message about the 150th edition of the Saveur magazine. That triggered a very long discussion on Sambhar the staple in many South Indian homes.
This thread had so much input from many of us and some interesting insight into how our mothers and grandmothers had used their own techniques and fine tunings to sambhar. We even discussed how it is pronounced and much more. In all that was a very interesting discussion to follow even if you were not a participant.
In the course of the thread food writer and cookbook author Ammini Ramachandran suggested this sambhar she had shared in her book.
I do not have a copy of her book Grains, Greens and Grated Coconuts. So I simply requested her to share her recipe which she was kind enough to oblige.
I have copied her message and shared here verbatim. Now read on in Ammini's words the recipe.


"Hi Lata,

Here is the recipe for pacha sambar.It is a light version, does not taste exactly like sambar. Look forward to your verdict after you try it.

Thanks,
Ammini

Pacha Sambar: Sambar with Fresh Green Spices

Sambar is a staple curry of South India. It is always served with rice and often served for breakfast. Pacha (“green” in Malayalam) sambar is a version prepared only with fresh spices. In this curry, not only must the vegetables be fresh, most of the spices are also green (not dried). For tartness, many curries rely on tamarind; here, it comes from lemon juice.

Ingredients:
1 cup tuvar dal
1 medium russet potato or 3 taro, peeled and cubed
2 medium tomatoes cubed
Salt to taste
½ teaspoon turmeric powder
¾ cup finely chopped cilantro leaves
¼ cup finely chopped fresh fenugreek leaves (preferred, if available)
or ½ teaspoon ground fenugreek
6 fresh green chilies (serrano or Thai), thinly sliced (less for a milder taste)
4 tablespoons lemon juice

For seasoning and garnish:
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
1 dried red cayenne, serrano, or Thai chili, halved
¼ teaspoon asafetida powder
20 to 25 fresh curry leaves

Wash and clean the tuvar dal in several changes of water, until the water runs clear. If you are using oily tuvar dal, the oil must be washed off before starting to cook.
Place the tuvar dal in a saucepan with two and a half cups of water and a half-teaspoon of turmeric powder. Bring it to a boil over medium heat, then turn down the heat, and cook for twenty-five to thirty minutes. (As an alternative, you may use a pressure cooker to cook the dal, following the manufacturer’s directions. It will take about six to eight minutes to cook in a pressure cooker.)

As the dal cooks, it should be fairly thick but still liquid; stir in another half-cup of water if it is too thick. Mash the cooked tuvar dal thoroughly with a spoon, and set it aside.
Combine the potato (or taro), tomatoes, salt, turmeric, and two cups of water in a saucepan over medium heat, and bring it to a boil. Stir in the cilantro, fenugreek, and green chilies. Reduce the heat, and cook until the potatoes are fork tender. Stir in the cooked tuvar dal, and simmer for four to five minutes. Stir in the lemon juice. Remove it from the heat, and set it aside.
Heat two tablespoons of oil in a small skillet, and add the mustard seeds. When the mustard seeds start sputtering, add the halved red chili, asafetida, and curry leaves. Remove it from the stove, and pour the seasoning over the cooked curry. Cover and set aside for ten minutes, to allow the flavors to blend. Serve hot with rice."

I had all the ingredients on hand only had to substitute the chillis with the locally available ones.
I am thankful to Ammini for sharing a wonderful dish recipe and for all of friends on facebook who made this possible to learn a new dish.

Vearkadalai - the indulgent peanuts

For the past few days now in order too follow the world Twenty20 matches live, I have scheduled  some of my easy errands around the telecast time. That makes me think up some light snacks for the evening because if the match is played the full scheduled time then I can offer those to my husband with tea and still get back to watching.


I had bought some freshly harvested groundnuts in the vegetable shop. They were selling them whole and shelled. I purchased the shelled ones that looked very good. I love them roasted while my husband would opt for the boiled and salted ones. Of course there is yet another option of making sundal with them which I am making for navrathri this time.

My easiest option to roast them is to place them spread on a microwave safe flat dish and microwave for just about three minutes or slightly longer, depending on the quantity. Cool and remove the peel.
But this post is not just that! It is the conventional way of roasting them in hot sand and sprinkling salted water as you work them.
My home town and the villages nearby depend on the well irrigation for agriculture and hence such crops are grown through the year. Millet, tapioca, groundnuts and onions grow abundantly. My father's clients always brought us bags full of fresh from the soil ground nuts and we boiled them with the shell and then extract the peas inside. That was a fun task as the tender shells would have absorbed the salted water and the water would sprout as you break them.
Often we were given the task of separating the peas from the shell for storing or sun drying them. These will be used as and when needed.
There were strict instructions not to buy anything sold on streets with few or rare exceptions. I remember having enjoyed the kuchchi ice, the modern days popsicle which was top of the list of non-consumables. But the roasted vearkadalai was allowed, for the push cart man never added more than about 30 peanuts in his paper cone and offered for just 10 paise. Such small quantity will not harm your health, would it?
More than the kadalai, I was fascinated with the whole set up of the cart and the man's roasting operation which he would perform with the precision of  a seasoned juggler.

The wooden platform of the four wheel push - cart was his ground. A thick sack will cover the wood, also protecting it from fire mishaps. There will be a wicker basket holding the raw ground nuts, a tin container to store the roasted ones and a row of neatly rolled cones stacked up. also there used to be a wide mouth (Horlicks) bottle that contained salted and boiled water. His equipment were a portable gas stove, a cast iron wok, a slotted ladle of the same iron and a small measuring cup, was it only 50 ml in size, I wonder. To protect the fire, the burner was covered by the iron stove that was usually used at homes with the fire wood. The wok will sit rested on the frame and the sand inside will be kept roasting hot with the temperature adjusted accordingly. As he walks the street he will be roasting the nuts. How he would push the cart, turn the sand over and sprinkle the salt on the nuts all in some uniform and precise action was a wonder to watch. To announce the arrival on the street he would tap his ladle loudly on the rim of the wok and all the children will run out at the invitation. We hardly bought, but still would run to watch. Likewise, I can recall the soan papdi man who would make his turn slightly after dark with a big Petromax lamp and his glass jar. Those were fancies for a child's mind.
Now having narrated this, the recipe I am sharing only calls for to be worthy of sharing the experience. Yes, I sand roasted my peanuts and savoured the crunch and salted goodness. The other day I had boiled them too and there is not much of a recipe to follow, I wanted to share nonetheless.

The very popular My Legume Love Affair, the brainchild of The Well Seasoned Cook is running the Edition 51 at Desi Soccer Mom's Space and since she would accept entries until the 5th of October, I would join the event with my all time favourite snack.

Ingredients: For the roasted version
2 cups shelled peanuts
2 tablespoons salt dissolved in water and boiled, then cooled

Equipment:
A heavy cast iron or aluminium pan / kadai/ wok.
A big slotted ladle
Sand to fill half the volume of the pan.

Method:
In India most of us who do not have ovens to bake use sand for baking. Sand is used for other purposes like to spread on the floor while performing some rituals where fire is lit and kept burning through the ritual.So it is more likely there is a small bag of sand stored somewhere.
I had scooped a bagful from the Aswan bed for setting up the 'PARK' for the navrathri. I have been packing the same through all the moves and it came handy now.
Place the sand in the pan and set the pan on the stove. Allow the sand to warm up moderately.
Drop two or three fists full of the fresh groundnuts in the hot sand. Turn it around repeatedly. At intervals, sprinkle the salted water and keep turning.
The groundnuts will roast and the immediate skin will crack. Check if they have been roasted by rubbing one nut between the index finger and thumb. The skin will just come off the nut and the inside will have a slight tinge of brown.
Scoop the nuts with the sand and sieve the sand back into the pan.
Transfer the roasted nuts to a dish and dust them using a cloth.
Repeat the process with the rest of the ground nuts.
If you need to reassure, you may use a finer sieve and sift the roasted nuts to remove any trace of sand.

For the boiled version:
Pressure cook 1 cup of fresh, shelled ground nuts with some water and salt until they are soft. Drain the water and consume.

I am sure most of you would enjoy the simple snack whether boiled or roasted.

Quinoa moar kanji

I usually pack the breakfast for my husband as he leaves early to work and he would send the driver to collect his lunch later. Few days that he would need the car at his disposal he would suggest that I pack his lunch too however light that may be, sometimes an extra helping of what was packed for breakfast goes into the box. Many of our dishes are quite filling and thus an extra quantity will suffice for the lunch too.
On such days I cook for myself some millet kanji and a bowl of vegetable or some salad. Recently having tried quinoa and liking it very much, my salads have become a complete meal with it. Yesterday there was an emergency at work and he had a call at 5 in the morning. I had just enough rawa dosai batter to make him two dosais before he left to inspect the accident in the port. I had to think of an option for my breakfast and was wondering if I might use the millet flour. Then I checked the pantry to find powdered quinoa and that I wanted to try.

For the Janmashtami having made the staple aval neivedhyam with the aval laddoo, I had made quinoa and badam payasam. I decided to try a salted version for the breakfast and made the kanji with buttermilk and quinoa. For extra flavour I used the fresh green chillis and aome caraway seeds. Tempering with mustard seeds and curry leaves made it perfect. I patted myself on the back and reserved some of the kanji for my husband to taste. He liked it too, but would have wanted less of the caraway flavour.
Kanji is a semi solid soup like dish which can be had either sweetened or with salt. It is almost the equivalent of porridge. Many grains can be used to make this. Most of the households make this as breakfast substitutes or when a heavy meal is not an option.


Ingredients:
2 tablespoons powdered quinoa
1/2 cup butter milk (beaten yoghurt)
2 fresh green chillis chopped
1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds
1/4 teaspoon caraway seeds
1/4 teaspoon ghee
1 sprig of curry leaves
Salt to taste

Method:
I used pre-washed quinoa. Hence I run it a few minutes in the small jar of my mixer and powdered it to a fine consistency.
To 2 tablespoons of thick yoghurt add 1/2 cup of water and whisk to a butter milk consistency.
Add water to the powdered quinoa and salt and mix to a lump free batter.
Heat the ghee in a pan; to this add the mustard and caraway seeds. When the mustard crackles, add the chillis and the curry leaves. Sauté for a few seconds and then add the quinoa batter to it.
Cook the quinoa on a low flame stirring constantly until it thickens. Add sufficient water to cook the quinoa.
Finally add the buttermilk and stir very well. Allow to thicken to desired consistency.
Remove from the heat. And transfer to serving bowls.

I drink it up in a tumbler, but also like to sip with a spoon and enjoy it.

Now you may wonder what is with the photographs that there is a full white theme. I am sending this post to New photography and styling challenge -All White Theme happening in  Junglefrog Cooking.


Both of us at home love quinoa in our dishes and I try to add it in many recipes. I am sure I will bring many more recipes with the grain.

Adding life to your food photos - an exercise in food photography

Many times when I take pictures of the food, I am almost alone at home and never have a chance to request someone to be my 'live prop' for the picture. I have seen that many bloggers take some beautiful pictures holding the bowl or a slice of cake and so on. I had seen on Flickr someone share a photo of a cake they baked for the child's 2 nd birthday with two of the tot's fingers on the cake indicating her age. Similarly I loved the picture in Soma's guest post in Namitha's page. I wished that I cooked something that delicious and took a picture as good too.
I have, however tried my stunts with adding life, as Aparna suggests this month for the exercise many times before too. I made the sugar syrup and wanted to show the consistency by pulling a small portion of it between my fingers, filling up the golgappe and some more. However, I was shooting mostly on automatic settings then. Now that I am slightly more confident to venture further and shoot manual, I find it hard to hold the camera with one hand and use the other as a prop. Trying to have the camera set on a tripod or a base does not seem to help when you are alone. I just do not seem to fix exactly how near or further I need to move to be in good focus.Thanks to the vary angle monitor and a fixed focal length lens, I tried some pictures for this exercise. Even then not to my satisfaction.
My husband suggested making golgappe when I was reading out the ingredients off a Haldirams packet of aloo bujiya to try making it at home. Thus I had a nice photo situation for the exercise. The seasonal rains and the permanent cloud cover plays spoil sport, yet I hoped that we will have enough natural light to take pictures when my husband is home after office.
I had the puris and the sev and the required accompaniments made and ready and even before he would want to try, I had him do the filling and shoot the pictures, much testing a hungry man's patience. Nonetheless, I have photos to share here.

 Lens Nikkor 35mm f/.8 @ 1/13 seconds,  f/3.5,  ISO 400

 Lens 35mmf/1.8  @ 1/15 seconds, f/3.5, ISO 400

The aloo bujiya recipe will have to wait for another post, but you may find the golgappe here.




The other picture I would like to share is that of the ellu poornam filled kozhukkattai which I made for the Ganesh Chathurthi and did so with the camera supported on a few books on the work table. I used the close focusing prime lens so that I can stand close and check my picture settings on the monitor.

 In clockwise rotation the pictures in the collage below have been taken with these settings

 1/25 seconds  f/2.5  ISO 250                                                      
 1/15 seconds  f/3.2  ISO 250
 1/8   seconds  f/3.2  ISO 250

                                                                                                                  

You may notice that while the powdered filling has a good focus on the hand holding the spoon too, the other picture with the outer dough cups the focus has shifted to the cups and the hand is off focus.

And this last one is that of the syrup consistency taken with automatic settings.

 

I find adding a human touch interesting if done using that well as I mentioned in the beginning. Those two pictures specially had me very inspiring as were the oft viewed picture in Tongue Ticklers, those of Harini's Avarakkai poduthuval and Carrots, leek and zucchini soup.
I am hoping to reach there sometime with perseverance. But for now, I shall be happy if you found mine good enough to have posted for the exercise.

Koththumalli Thokku

Some herbs I might always want to keep stock are ginger, mint and coriander leaves. There are months through which coriander becomes rare to find in the market and I miss them then. I had a lush growth of mints in my back yard in Bur Said and noticed that my Egyptian neighbours will dry them and store the dried mints to use in many dishes. I have also done so and now I have a small quantity of dry mint in my pantry through the year. It keeps well like the fenugreek leaves and comes handy when you want to use them in tea or marinades. But I am not in luck with coriander leaves that way. however, whenever, they are in season I make sambharapuli, the dry chutney or the thokku and store for a good few months.
The years I lived in Egypt, many Indian groceries were hard to find, that I used to carry bulk quantities from home. Whoever visited would bring groceries for us. My sister brought with regular supplies a few Grand Snacks thokkus and podis also to use when we were out of home for a period. Reading the ingredients labelled therein we attempted to recreate them at home and with much success. I have tried, the karuveppilai thokku, thakkali thokku and the koththumalli thokku and stored them well also for a few months.
Coriander has many nutritional benefits, rich in antioxidants and  is good in cholesterol control. It is a store house of potassium,calcium, iron and more. They are rich in vitamin A, B and K also. They possess anti arthritic and anti rheumatic properties.

Now I find ample supply of fresh coriander leaves and purchase them so much that I have an excess supply of these than I will use in my day to day cooking. I made this thokku and have stored it. It stores well for upto three months. I store this in the fridge as I cook with lesser oil than usual. If a good volume of oil is added to the cooking, this stores well off the fridge also.

Ingredients:
2 cups fresh coriander leaves
3 tablespoons/ 30 grams tamarind
15 - 20 dry red chillis (depending on the heat they impart and required)
salt to taste
1/3 cup gingelly oil
1 1/2 teaspoon roasted and powdered mustard seeds
1 1/2 teaspoon roasted and powdered fenugreek seeds
1/2 teaspoon asafoetida
1 teaspoon mustard seeds



Method:
Wash the coriander leaves clean. Remove the leaves from stems. It will be better to use the tender of the stems that will enhance the flavour.
Spread the cleaned leaves on a cloth and allow to dry in the air for a few hours.
Tear the tamarind in small pieces and break the dry chillis in small pieces.
Place a fairly heavy bottom pan on the stove and on medium heat dry roast the fenugreek seeds until they turn a tinge of reddish brown. Cool and powder them.
Similarly dry roast the mustard seeds and powder them.
Then dry roast the salt and keep aside.
In the same pan, heat one tablespoon oil and roast the chillis well. Likewise, roast the tamarind pieces.
Allow all of these to cool and blend them along with the coriander leaves to a paste adding as less water as possible.
Remove the paste from the blender and with little water clean the adhering paste also.
In the same pan, heat the rest of the oil. Add the mustard seeds and allow them to crackle. Add the asafoetida and the paste. Cook this on a very low flame for a while. The oil will mix well in the paste initially and cook until the oil separates.

At this point, the thokku will leave the walls of the pan with ease and come off in a mass.
Switch off the stove and allow the thokku to cool.
Store in clean jar and use as required.
I mix this with rice and make coriander rice or mix it in shavige to make koththumalli sevai like the thengai sevai or the elumichcham pazham sevai.
This thokku also makes a good side for arisi upma or aval upma.

Siri is hosting the Haalo's Weekend Herb Blogging event Week 352 this week. This thokku is off to this event.