Thideer Puli Rasam

Ingredients:

Tamarind - 1/2 lemon size or 1/4 tsp of paste
Onion - 1 tsp - chopped
curry leaves - few
Green chilli - 1 - cut them into pieces
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
Hing - A pinch
Salt - 1/4 tsp
Mustard seeds - 1/4 tsp
Oil - 2 tsp

Method:

1. Soak tamarind in 1/2 cup of water and extract the juice, filter it and keep aside.
2. Heat oil in a pan, splutter mustard seeds, add onion, curry leaves and fry until golden brown in onion.
3. Add tamarind juice, turmeric powder, hing and salt.
4. Let it boil for 10 mins. Do not let it too thick as you prepare for puliogare. It should be thin.

Notes and Secrets:

-> It will be very sour, so add very little to rice and have. But it'll taste good.
-> If you are planning to take this out, say lunch, add a tsp of oil more. So that rice wont become dry. (see pic)
-> It will stay for 2 - 3 days. Pappad, vadam, chips suits this dish.

Fish fry - 2

Ingredients:

Fish(any kind) - 1 lb or 1/2 kg
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
Chilli powder - 1/2 tsp or as per need
Tomato - 1 (let it be juicy)
Salt - 1/4 tsp or as per need
Oil - 1/4 cup

Method:

1. Clean fish, add turmeric powder, chilli powder and salt. Squeeze the tomato using hands, so that only juice comes out and not the flesh and skin. No matter if seeds are there.
2. Mix well using hand and let it for 30 min - 1 hour.
3. Heat oil in a kadai/dosai pan, add fish (2 or one at a time)
4. Let it cook well. Turn it, so that the other side also cook well.
5. Cook until you see brown color. (see picture)

Notes and Secrets:

-> Add salt and chilli powder little more(very little), so that after frying also everything remains perfect. Do not add more at the beginning, fry a fish, taste it, if needed add more salt and chilli powder. Stick to the recipe to get the perfect taste.
-> If you feel its bitter add a little salt and chilli powder.

Fish Kozhambu/Curry

Ingredients:

Fish(any kind) - 1 lb or 1/2 kg
Tamarind - A lemon size
Onion - 1 - chopped
Tomato - 1 chopped
Grated coconut paste - 3 tsp
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
Chilli powder - 1/2 tsp
salt - 1/2 tsp
Fenugreek seeds - few, say, less than 1/4 tsp
Curry leaves - few
Oil - 5 tsp(2 tsp more if you prefer)

Method:

1. Clean fish, drain water completely and keep it aside.
2. Soak tamarind in a cup of water and extract juice, filter and keep it aside.
3. Heat oil in a pan, splutter fenugreek seeds, add onion and curry leaves.
4. Fry until golden brown in onion, then add chopped tomato and fry until oil gets separated.
5. Add turmeric powder, chilli powder and salt and stir once.
6. Add tamarind juice now and coconut paste and add 1/2 cup of water.
7. Let it boil for 5 mins, then add fish one by one and close the lid. Let it boil for 5 mins. (Note: Do not add fish at the beginning, it gets cooked faster and will break or melt if boiled more.)
8. Check for salt and now its ready.

Notes and Secrets:

-> Fish curry is healthier than fish fry. But taste wise the reverse.
-> People have dry skin can have more fish, be careful that eat the fish that have less or no mercury content. Mercury do some hormone changes in our body.
-> Don't serve it hot, leave it for 4 hours. So that fish gets soaked well with all ingredients in curry and taste ....taste....Yummy! Yummy!
-> Do not add much coconut to fish curry, because actual taste may get varied.
-> Neimeen(Gheefish), is the best for kuzhambu/curry. If you use this fish, reduce the amount of oil as the fish lets out oil while cooking.

Vaazhaika ( Plantain ) - Peas Masala Fry

Ingredients:

Vaazhaika(plantain) - 1 - cut into square pieces
Green Peas - A hand full(boiled or fresh)
Big Onion - 1/2 - chopped
Tomatao - 1/2 chopped
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
Chilli powder - 1/4 powder
Graam masala - less than 1/4 tsp
Curry masala powder - 1/4 tsp(optional)
Salt - 1/2 tsp or as per need






For Grinding:

Grated coconut - 3 tsp
Ginger - 2 inch
Garlic - 4 nos
Fennel seeds - 1/4 tsp.

For Frying & Seasoning:

Oil - 4 tsp
cloves & cinnamon - 1 nos(each)
Curry leaves - few
Coriander leaves - few

Method:

1. Boil the plantain adding turmeric powder, 1/4 tsp or less salt and 1/4 cup of water. Do not add more water.
2. Half cook them, say in high flame exactly 4 mins, medium flame 6 mins. Then if there is excess water drain them.
3. Heat oil in a pan and fry the boiled plantain. Since it is half cooked it wont break when you fry. (see pic below)
4. Keep the fried plantain aside and in the remaining oil in the pan, add cloves and cinnamon sticks.
5. Add onion and fry till golden brown, then add tomato, chilli powder, garam masala, curry masala powder, and remaining salt and fry till oil gets separated.
6. Add ground coconut paste and then add curry leaves and coriander leaves.
7. Now and then add green peas. If the peas are already boiled let it for 3 mins, else wait until the peas get cooked. You will get semi gravy form or in other words, fry this mixture till oil gets separated.
8. Now add fried plantain to the semi gravy and mix until everything gets mixed well.


Fried Plantain:





















Notes and Secrets:

You can prepare this specially for any feast or on any festival day. We half cook and fry the plantain to retain the square shape, else it will be smashed. For tamarind rice other than potato fry, this also suits yummy.

Rasam

Ingredients:

Tamarind - A lemon size
Tomato - 2(medium size)
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
Hing - A pinch
Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp
Black pepper - 1/2 tsp
Garlic - 4 nos(peal off the skin)
Mustard seeds - 1/4 tsp
Red chilli - 2 nos
Oil - 1 tsp
Salt - 1/2 tsp or as per need
Curry leaves - few
Coriander leaves - few

Method:

1. Soak the tamarind in water for 20 mins and extract the juice adding 2 cups of water.
2. Now smash the tomato and mix with the tamarind juice.
3. Grind cumin seeds, pepper and garlic together and add to the mixture.
4. Add curry leaves and coriander leaves.
5. Heat oil in a pan, splutter mustard seeds, and add red chillies.
6. Now add the tamarind juice mixture and add turmeric, hing and salt and stir once.
7. Heat until it start to boil, turn off immediately, if not taste will differ.

Note:

Best for digestion, and has high medicinal value. If you have cold add pepper more to this rasam and have. Pepper clears the throat and helps to recover soon from cold. If you have fever, we like to have something in bitter taste. This is easy to digest and you can have at that time.

Coriander leaf chutney

Ingredients:

Coriander leaves - 1 bunch
Garlic - 2 nos
Green chilli - 3 nos - can also use red chilli
Coconut - 2 tsp
Tamarind paste - 1/4 tsp or 1/2lemon size
Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
Urad dal - 1/4 tsp
Hing - A pinch
Oil - 1 tsp
Salt - 1/4 tsp or as per need.
Curry leaves - few






Method:

1. Heat 1 tsp oil in a pan, fry coriander leaves and keep it aside.
2. In the same pan, add coconut, garlic and green chilli and fry until you get the nice aroma of coconut oil.
3. Let every thing cool for some time and grind everything together finely with tamarind and salt.
4. Heat 1 tsp oil in a pan, splutter mustard seeds, add urad dal, hing and curry leaves.
5. Add this to the ground paste and mix well. Add more salt if needed.

Note:

Same way you can also prepare mint chutney, curryleaf chutney, toor dal chutney, mint-coriander leaf chutney.

Wheat Puttu

Ingredients:

Wheat flour - 1 cup
Grated coconut - 4 tsp
Cinnamon - 2 or A pinch of cinnamon powder
Salt - 1/2 tsp.
Sugar - 4 tsp
water - 1/4 cup
Ghee - 1 tsp

Method:

1. Roast the wheat flour in a pan for 5 mins and let it cool.
2. Mix salt with the wheat flour. Sprinkle water on the flour little by little and wet the flour. Consistency we can say like, the flour should be wet, but when you try to make as ball, it should break and should not stick with each other like dough. You can see the picture below.
3. If you have the puttukuzhai(puttu making vessel), add 1 tsp of coconut first, then 3 tsp of the prepared mix, then coconut again and then prepared mix again, until it fills. (OR)

If you don't have that puttukuzhai, you can make using idly vessel. Spread a white cotton cloth in the idly plate and spread the prepared mix. In the middle keep the coconut and cover it with the cotton cloth, just bring the 4 corners to the middle(see pic below). If you do not cover, because of the steam, it will stick to each other and will be like cooked dough.
4. Steam it for 10 mins.
5. Change it to a vessel, add ghee, sugar and cinnamon and mix well. Nice aroma will tempt you to eat hot.

Before baking, puttu flour should be like this:


Spread like this in a idly plate:











Cover it and its ready to bake:



Note:

Those who are in diet can have this wheatputtu, but reduce the amount of coconut and sugar. Avoid ghee. You can also mix pappad and banana with this. Same way you can also prepare ragi and rice puttu. I'll post them soon.