Karuvepilai podi

Curry leaves powder (or) Karuvepillai podi
Curry leaves play an important role in seasoning or tempering in most of the south Indian home. Throughout my early years, right till I left for college, we had 2 curry leaf trees in our garden. Most of the times, while in the middle of cooking, mom will call and make me run to the garden and get the leaves. The oil will be already heating in the vessel. I had to run fast, get few leaves, wash them and then hand over to mom. The tree was a country variety. The aroma of leaves will linger in the home for a long time. I don’t find such varieties outside Tamilnadu. Every week she made sure for us to eat the curry leaves thuvaiyal. Neighbors, relatives, and milkman were lucky. They would freely go to the garden and take the leaves as much as they like. Chutneys, Sambhars, Rasam, Kootu, Poriyals, and non-veg dishes etc…, always got the extra distinctive flavor. அது எல்லாம் ஒரு காலம். ஹும்ம்!!!!!!!! Now I don’t have a garden , so our shopping list never ends without curry leaves.
The medicinal values are…..There is some interruption.

H: Usha, what r u writing?
U: I am writing about curry leaves.
H: But, usually you don’t write blah, blah. Just the ingredients and the method. I thought u r writing an article for some newspaper.
U: Why should I write an article?
H: Don’t forget to write about the curry leaf plant, you grew in pots. hahahaha..
U: Why r u laughing?
H: Nothing.
U: Tell me!
H: The plants in the pots had the same height for 2 years.
U: U know the reason why…….it didn’t grow well. Okay I thought of writing medicinal values but now I am not interested.
H: Why?
U: I know only few uses like hair growth, diabetic friendly, etc…

Here are the ingredients:
Curry leaves -2 cups
Bengal gram (or)
Channa dal – ¼ cup
Urad dal – ¼ cup
Whole red chili – 5
Peppercorn – ¼ teaspoon (optional)
Tamarind – 1 spoon
Asafoetida – 2 pinches
Oil – 2 teaspoon
Salt as required

Method:
Wash the curry leaves and pat dry.
Fry the curry leaves in kadai without oil, till leaves become crisp.
Fry the Bengal dal, urad dal in oil until golden color separately.
Fry the whole red chili and tamarind.
Cool.
Grind all the fried ingredients ,peppercorn (optional)and mix salt and asafoetida.
It goes well with idlis, dosai and rice.

This goes to the event 'Kitchen Masterpiece'.

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Chocolate Custard

My daughter loves any chocolate food. So I was contemplating a dessert for her. I wanted the recipe to be simple and quick with chocolate as the main ingredient. And then I came across this recipe from a site. I tried the recipe with no twists. The dessert turned out really good. She was so happy and enjoyed it. So guys, I hope you will also love this when you try this recipe!


Ingredients:
Milk - ¼ cup
Bitter-sweet chocolate (chopped or grated) - 3 ounces/85grams
Egg yolk - 1
Softened butter - 2 tablespoons
Heavy cream - ½ cup
Cinnamon Powder - a pinch
Salt - a pinch
Sugar - 3 tablespoons


Preparation:

In a small sauce pan, pour milk in a sauce pan and steam it in medium flame by stirring continuously.
Remove the pan from the heat.
Add 2 table spoons of sugar and dissolve it.
Then include the egg yolk and whisk.
In a bowl, use the strainer to filter the mixture.
Again pour this mixture into another saucepan and keep it in low flame.
Begin the stirring process till it thickens.
Remove from heat, immediately add the chopped chocolate.
Whisk till smooth.
Then include softened butter with a pinch of salt and mix well.
Pour this custard into flat cups and let them cool in the refrigerator for about 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a bowl add heavy cream, the remaining 1 tablespoon of sugar, a pinch of cinnamon powder and beat till mixture softens.
Dollop the cream over chocolate and garnish it with shredded chocolate.
Serve it cold.

Tip: You can make the custard a previous night, refrigerate and make the cream on next day.

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Vegetable cutlet

Ingredients:

Green beans - 10 (chopped)

Potatoes - 3 (medium - boiled)

Beets - 1 (medium - cut into small cubes)

Carrot - 2 (medium - cut into small cubes)

Onion - 1/2 finely chopped)

Red chili powder - 1 teaspoon

Garam Masala - 1/2 teaspoon

Cumin powder - 1/4 teaspoon

Maida - 3 tablespoons

Bread crumbs - 1 cup

Salt as required

Oil

Chopped Coriander leaves - 2 teaspoon.

Method:

Step A:

Drop the cubed and chopped vegetables into a steamer let it get steamed for 10 minutes.

Let the vegetables cool.

Mash the boiled potatoes in a bowl.

Heat ½ teaspoon of oil in a kadai.

Add chopped onions and sauté it for 2 minutes.

Include red chili powder, garam masala, cumin powder, and salt and continue the sautéing for a minute. Allow this to cool.

Pat dry the steamed vegetables in a paper towel.

Mix the steamed vegetables, mashed potatoes, chopped coriander leaves and the onion mixture.

Step B:

Use another smaller bowl to make maida batter for dipping the cutlets. The maida batter should be thin.

Step C:

Cutlets may be deep fried or pan fried. Heat the pan/oil. While it is getting heated up, shape the cutlets

Make a key lime sized ball from the vegetables mix.

Mould into desired cutlet shape.

Dip the cutlet into maida batter, then roll the cutlet over bread crumbs.

After the cutlet is covered with bread crumbs, fry. ( I used deep fry method. Oil should be hot, otherwise the cutlet will break into pieces)

Remove from pan when the cutlet turned golden brown.

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Vazhakkai Podimas

வாழைக் காய் பொடிமாஸ்

Ingredients:
Green Plantain - 3 (medium sized) (முற்றலானது)
Green chillies - 4 (small-slit)
Ginger - 1/4 inch (grated)
Turmeric powder - 3 pinches
Channa dal - 1/4 teaspoon
Urad dal - 1/4 teaspoon
Cumin seeds- 1/4 teaspoon
Mustard seeds - 1/4 teaspoon
Grated coconut - 1 teaspoon
Salt as required
Oil
Curry leaves - 4
Asafoetida powder- 2 pinches

Method:
- Cut each plantain into 2 halves.
- Boil them in pressure cooker till the cooker gives one whistle.
- Let it sit for 5 minutes.
- Peel off the skin from plantain.
- Grate the inner white part of plantain.
- Heat the oil in a kadai and add the channa dal and urad dal.
- When the dals are fried (color changes into gold) include cumin seeds, asafoetida powder and mustard seeds.
- When mustard seeds crackle, add green chillies and ginger.
- Saute for 30 seconds.
- Then add the grated plantain and mix.
- After that, add turmeric powder, salt, curry leaves, grated coconut and stir for a minute.

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Strawberry Lemonade

Strawberry lemonade

Ingredients:
Fresh ripe strawberries - 20 pieces
Lemon juice - squeezed from one lemon
Water - 1 1/2 cup
Sugar - 3 tablespoon or according to your taste

Method:
Add ripe strawberries, lemon juice , sugar and 1/2 cup water in a blender and blend well.
Add remaining 1 cup of water and again blend well.
Voilà. Drop few ice cubes and serve.

Note: Add water according to the sourness of lemon juice.

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Strawberry salad

Since Valentine's Day is coming up, we're preparing for it with a strawberry mania. The strawberry salad you see below took a while for designing but thankfully, my daughter helped me design this.

Ingredients for Salad:

Fresh strawberries sliced - 1/2 cup

Fresh baby spinach - 1 cup (chopped)

Almonds - 2 tablespoon (sliced)

Cider vinegar - 1/2 tablespoon

Honey - 1/2 tablespoon

Sugar - 1/2 teaspoon

Salad preparation Method:

In a salad bowl, combine the spinach, strawberries and almonds.

Combine vinegar, honey and sugar in a jar with a tight lid.

Shake well.

Sprinkle over salad and toss.

Recipe source : internet

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