Keerai (Spinach) Vadai

Ingredients:
Spinach - 2 cups (chopped)
Black Gram - 1 cup (dehusked)
Bengal gram - 1 cup
shallots - 1/2 cup (chopped)
Coconut flakes - 1 tbsp.
Coriander leaves - 3 tbsp. (chopped)
Salt
Oil (for deep frying)

To Grind:
Peppercorn - 1tsp
Green chillies - 1
Ginger - 1 inch

Method:
Soak bengal gram and black gram for an hour.
Grind them coarsely by adding little water.
Grind pepper, green chilies & ginger without adding water.
In a mixing bowl, add the batter, green chili paste, shallots, spinach, salt, coriander leaves & coconut flakes and mix well.
In a deep kadai, heat the oil.
Take a ball from the batter, flatten them and make a hole with finger.
Deep fry the vadas till they turn golden color.
Continue with the remaining batter.
Enjoy it with coconut chutney.

Note:
It's good to eat when the vadas are warm.

Sent off to "Healing Foods Event-Spinach" hosted by Divya (started by Siri).

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Coriander powder/Dhaniya Podi

Ingredients:
Coriander seeds - 1/2 cup
Peppercorn - 1 tbsp.
Urad dal - 2 tsp.
Chana dal - 1 tsp.
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp.
Asafoetida- 1 small cube
Salt - as required
Sesame oil (to fry) - 2 tsp.

Method:
Fry all the ingredients one by one in sesame oil till they turn golden color except salt.
Cool them.
Powder them after adding salt.
Store them in an air-tight container.
Enjoy with hot steaming rice mixed with sesame oil.
RB

Sent off to "CWS-Coriander Seeds" hosted by RV (started by Priya).

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Watermelon Payasam/Kheer

Watermelon Payasam/Kheer

Ingredients:

Watermelon flesh - 3 cups (chopped)

Milk - 1 cup

Sweetened condensed milk - 1 cup

Cardamom seeds - from 2 cardamoms

Cashew nuts - 5 (whole)

Saffron strands - a pinch

Ghee - 1 tsp.

Method:

Boil the milk and keep aside.

Grind the watermelon.

Fry the nuts in ghee till golden color.

Crush the cardamom seeds.

Combine all ingredients and payasam/kheer is ready.

Enjoy (you can either eat/drink as it is or chilled).

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Beetroot Choco Muffins & Carrot-Raisin Cake (T&T-The Singing Chef)

From here and there.

Beetroot Choco Muffins

Ingredients:
Flour - 1 ½ cup
Sugar - 1 cup
Beetroot - 1 cup (grated)
Cocoa powder - 1/3 cup
Milk - 1 cup
Oil - ½ cup
Baking powder - 3 tsp.
Salt - a pinch
Eggs - 2
Cinnamon powder - 1 tsp.
Allspice - ½ tsp. (I didn’t add)
Icing sugar (to sprinkle)

Method:
Preheat the oven at 180°C (350°F).
Sift the flour, baking powder and cocoa powder.
In a bowl, add the eggs, sugar, milk & oil and beat well.
Combine with the dry ingredients.
Finally add the grated beets and stir.
Pour in the muffin pan with muffin paper or spray with baking spray.
Bake them for 15-20 minutes
Dust it with icing sugar.



Carrot-Raisin Cake

Ingredients:
Flour - 1 cup
Sugar - ½ cup
Carrot - ½ cup (grated)
Raisins - ¼ (soaked in water)
Salt - a pinch
Orange essence - ½ tsp.
Egg - 1 (beaten)
Oil - ¼ cup
Milk - ½ cup
Baking powder - 1 ½ tsp.
Baking soda - 1 tsp.

Method:
Preheat the oven at 200°C (400°F).
Cover the 8 inch cake pan with parchment paper.
Sift the flour with baking powder, baking soda and salt.
In a mixing bowl add the sugar, egg, orange essence, milk & oil and beat well.
Add the flour and blend well.
Fold in the carrot and raisins.
Pour the batter into the baking pan. Bake for 30 minutes or until the skewer/toothpick comes out clean.

Sent off to "Tried and Tasted-March 2010 edition" (hosted by Divya and started by Zlamushka).

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Palak Paneer (Microwave Version)

Well, took from Chammy.

Ingredients:

Spinach/palak - 1 bunch (medium)
Paneer - 200 gm (cubed)
Green chilies - 3 (chopped)
Ginger - 1 tsp. (grated)
Onion - ½ cup (chopped)
Salt
Oil
Cumin powder - 1 tsp.
Coriander powder - 1 tsp.
Turmeric powder - ¼ tsp.
Garam masala - ½ tsp.
Water - ¼ cup (I didn’t add)
Cream - 2 tbsp.

Method:
In a microwave safe bowl, add the spinach and green chilies. Microwave high for 1 ½ minutes (mine took 4 minutes).
Cool completely and puree them.
Meanwhile in another bowl, add oil, onion and ginger. Toss them so that the oil gets coated well.
Microwave in high mode for 2 minutes. Coarsely grind them.
Now add the ground coarse paste of onions, ginger, green chilies, spinach, cumin powder, cream (I didn’t measure, just poured it). Coriander powder, turmeric powder, garam masala, water (if required), salt in the bowl and mix well.
Microwave for 3 minutes (remove and mix well after 2 minutes).
Add the paneer and microwave for a minute.
Enjoy this yummy & healthy palak paneer with naan or roti.

Sent off to "MEC-Celebrating Bloggers" (hosted by Jayasree & started by Srivalli) & "Healing Foods Event-Spinach" (hosted by Divya and started by Siri).

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Athirasam/Aathirasallu/Arisellu-ICC of the month of February

The ICC challenge of February was Athirasam/Athirasallu. In the first attempt (i.e. the first recipe), it turned out to be like kheer. I called my mom immediately after recovering from shock and surprise. Both my mom and dad gave a HUUUUUUUUUUUUGE lecture on how to make athirasam on the mobile. After that, I tried the recipe with achchu vellam/jaggery. This is what I got. Thanks Mom , Dad:)

Photo taken after 6:00 p.m. with flash

After deep frying, I pressed the athirasams to remove the excess oil and of course that's why they're kinda hollow.

I didn’t buy paku vellam/jaggery because I have to travel the long heck of a distance. So I tried this one with regular vellam/jaggery After I get the paku vellam/jaggery, I’ll mention the ratio.

Tips:
For paku/syrup, it’s better to grate jaggery or powder them without lumps.
Add enough water to the jaggery.
The paku/syrup consistency should be 3 threads or take a drop and put it in water, you should be able to make a soft ball out of it.
Instead of adding cardamom powder separately to the jaggery syrup before adding rice flour, mix all the given powders and seeds in the flour and then add it to the syrup.
You should get a soft dough like that of chapathi.
While deep-frying in oil, if athirasam breaks into tit-bits, it means that you added the flour before the formation of the required consistency.
If athirasam gets hard, it means that the paku consistency got hardened.

Achchu Vellam/Jaggery (not aah choo! or achuchu):

Regular vellam/jaggery:

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