Litchi Payesh/Payasam/Kheer

Ingredients:
Full cream milk - 1 Litre
Litchis - 20 to 22
Sugar - 4 to 5 tbsp. (or as per taste)
Cardamom/elaichi powder - 1/2 tsp.

For sugar syrup:
Sugar - 2 tbsp.
Water - 1 cup

To garnish:
Chopped pistachios or any nuts

Method:
Heat the milk in a heavy-bottomed pan and reduce the amount to half (stir continuously so as to avoid burning).
When reduced to half, add sugar (to taste) and cardamom powder and stir.
Remove from heat and cool.
Meanwhile peel the litchis and remove the seeds.
Heat 1 cup of water and add 2 tbsp. of sugar. Stir to dissolve the sugar. Bring it to a boil.
Boil for 5 to 6 minutes. Now add the litchis and cook for 4 minutes on low flame.
Remove from heat. Drain out the litchis from the sugar syrup and drop them in the milk.
Mix. Keep in fridge and serve chilled. Before serving, garnish with nuts and serve.
R.C.

Note:
If the layer cream on the top of the milk appears, remove them while cooling.
Sent off to "Flavours of Bengal" hosted by Priya and started by Nayna.

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Sun-Dried Tomatoes & Mint Pesto Pasta

Ingredients:
For pesto:
Sun-dried tomatoes (in oil) - 8 pieces
Mint leaves - 2 cups
Walnut - 1/3 cup (or pine nuts)
Garlic - 10 small pods
Parmesan cheese - 2 tbsp.
Red chilli flakes - 2 tsp.
EVOO - 1/4 cup
Apple cider - 1.5 tbsp.
Salt (to taste)

Penne pasta - 2.25 cups
Cottage cheese - 1 cup (cubed)
Capsisum - 1/2 (diced)
Olive oil - 2 tsp.

Method:
Roast the walnuts lightly and keep aside.
Chop the sun-dried tomatoes.
Add all ingredients in a blender except oil. At regular intervals, add oil. Blend it into a thick paste.
Cook the pasta as per given instructions in the packet.
Heat the oil and saute the capsicum for 2 minutes.
Switch off the heat. Add the cooked pasta and pesto and mix well.
Finally toss in the cottage cheese.
Enjoy!

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Spiced Buttermilk

The Blogger system gave me nightmares in the last few days. They took the site down for maintenance, but did not return the system up.I couldn't log into my Blogger account for a few days. When it got restored, I've lost a few of my contents which made me upset. I just hope that such problems wouldn't occur in the future. Now onto the post about "buttermilk".

In old times, in a large earthen pot, yogurt was churned with a woodern churner. Yogurt is diluted to some degree using water. During churning, the butter will get deposited on to the wooden churner. The butter (fat) is removed and collected on another container. The remaining liquid portion of yogurt will become buttermilk (although the name is quite contradictory to this process).

The butter milk is turned into a fresh drink by adding fresh green peppers, ginger, curry leaves, coriander leaves, etc. and consumed in large amounts especially summers. Usually travellers and guests are served this drink during festivals (like panguni uththiram). Along the side of roads that lead to the temple, there will be tents (mor pandhals) with huge containers having buttermilk. Adding some spices and herbs give it an extra kick to its taste, according to some households.

Sometimes, I remove the butter with the help of a hand mixer and consume it. In NCR, packets like Amul Chach (छाछ meaning buttermilk in Hindi) and Amul Masti Spiced Buttermilk are available in grocery stores. Although I prefer home-made versions.

In this drink, I added minced mint, roasted and powdered cumin, chaat masala, black salt, salt, grated ginger and Kashmiri red chilli powder.

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Whole Black Gram Spinach Fritters

Ingredients:
Whole black gram (with skin) - 1.5 cups
Onion - 1 (chopped)
Ginger - 3/4 inch (chopped)
Green chillies - 2 (long)
Spinach - few (chopped)
Coriander leaves - few (chopped)
Pepper (crushed after measurement) - 1/4 to 1/2 tsp. (optional)
Salt (to taste)
Oil (to deep fry)

Method:
Wash and soak black grams for 6-8 hours or overnight.
Discard the water. Grind them into a smooth paste.
While grinding, add a little water (used wet grinder).
Grind the ginger and green chillies into a paste (without adding water).
Mix all ingredients to the batter except oil. Heat the oil in a deep and wide kadai.
Moisten both palms. Take a lime-sized ball from the batter.
Flatten them into patties and make a hole in the centre.
Gently and carefully slide the vadai into the oil.
Continue the process making a batch of 8-9.
Fry till they are golden brown.
Remove and place on an absorbent paper.
Enjoy with coconut chutney.

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Semiya Payasam

Happy Mother's Day!!!

Ingredients:
Semiya - 1/2 cup
Milk - 1 cup (boiled)
Sugar - 1/2 to 3/4 cup (or as per taste)
Ghee - 3/4 tsp.
Cardamom powder - 1/4 tsp.
Cashew nut - 8
Raisins (golden) - 10
Pistachios - few

Method:
Melt 1/4 tsp. of ghee and fry the semiya till golden color.
Pour 1.5 to 1.75 cups of hot water. Cook the semiya till they turn soft.
Meanwhile roast the cashews and raisins till they turn golden in colour in the remaining ghee. Keep aside.
Add sugar and let it dissolve in the semiya.
Pour milk and stir. Cook for 2-4 minutes.
Sprinkle cardamom powder, cashews, raisins and pistachios.
Serve hot or cold.
Enjoy.

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Sambar Podi/Powder

I moved to my own domain name "www.nandinisfood.com". Now Let's continue to sambar powder.

It is natural to have unique preferences when it comes to taste. Similarly, the liking of sambar varies among individuals. The key item in sambar is the sambar powder. The sambar powder has to be customized for grinding. Some like it fiery hot, some like it mild. With a spice grinder/coffee grinder, we can manage for one day or even up to one week's usage. For larger quantities, chillies, coriander seeds and other ingredients (in large amounts) are dried under the sun directly until the chillies become crisp. Then they're collected in bags or in stainless steel vessels and  taken to the rice mills which have a separate machine for grinding these ingredients. After the powder is ready, they're taken back home and are spread on a big sheet of paper or on a large plate to cool as it's hot. It's stored in air-tight containers afterwards and are used for several months.

In this fast-paced world today, you can see various sambar powder brands readily trying to push one another to attract customers in the shelves of departmental stores in the masala section.

For people who live in apartments (and especially in the time of winter), you can saute the ingredients in the humble kadai and powder them.

Ingredients:
Dry whole red chillies - 100 g
Coriander seeds - 175 g
Tur/arhar dal - 20 g
Chana dal/Bengal gram - 20 g
Peppercorns - 10 g
Cumin seeds - 10 g
Fenugreek seeds - 2 big pinches
Turmeric pieces- 3 pieces/5 g
Asafoetida powder - 1/2 tsp. (heaped)

Method:
Dry roast chillies, coriander seeds, arhar dal, chana dal, peppercorns, cumins seeds and fenugreek seeds each separately till a nice aroma arises.
Cool.
Powder them along with crushed turmeric, asafoetida in small batches (My jar became very hot and I ran it after regular intervals).
Cool the powder and store in an air-tight container. Use them in sambar as required.

Note:
Expect to sneeze and cough a lot during the grinding process.

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