Samba Rava Pongal

From my sister Karpagam for the "New U - 2013" event.

Ingredients

½ cup Samba Rava
¼ cup Moong dal
½ tsp pepper corns
½ tsp cumin seeds
Cashews
Curry leaves
Finely chopped ginger and Green chilles
1 tsp Ghee
Oil
Salt to taste

Method

Cook Moong Dal in a pressure cooker and keep aside.

Dry roast Samba Rava in a low flame and leave it aside

Add oil in a pan and fry cashews / pepper corns / cumin seeds for
few secs and then add chopped ginger / green chilles and finally
add curry leaves

Once seasoning is done add Samba rava and mix well .Now add 2
cups of water .Add salt and close it with lid for 5 mins and allow
it to cook in low flame .Check whether samba rava is cooked well.
Once it is done add cooked Moong dal and cook for few mins and
finally add ghee to it .

Serve hot with Coconut chutney

Soya cottage cheese delights

Soya cottage cheese delights

This is an entry from Disha Khurana
for the Diwali Bash event. You can find her facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/VelvetyDecadence.
Ingredients
Soya granules – 1 cup (soaked for 3hrs)
Paneer (Cottage cheese) – 150 gms (Grated)
Potato – 1 medium(boiled)
Cheese – 2 cubes (grated)
Ginger-garlic-green chilli paste – 1 tbsp
Salt – to taste
Turmeric powder – 1/2 tsp
Red chilli powder – 1/2 tsp
Garam masala – 1tsp
Amchur – 1 tsp
Lemon juice – 1 lemon
Pav bhaji masala – 2 tsp
Coriander – 2 tbsp (coarsely chopped)
Onion - 2 medium size
Rawa/Suji/Semolina – ¼ cup

For Coating
Yogurt – 3 tbps
Cornflour – 2 tsp
Water – 1-2 tbsp
Salt to taste
Green & mint chutney – 1 tbsp OR
Combination of tomato ketchup, tabasco & schezwan sauce
Bread crumbs (For coating)

Instructions

1. Rougly grind the soaked soya granules but not in a complete paste form
2. In a bowl, mix soya granules, paneer, cheese, potato onion, coriander, ginger-garlic-green chilli paste & combine with a spoon
3. Add all the spices including the lemon juice (You can adjust the quantity of spices as per your taste)
4. Add rawa & combine well; if the texture is yet very wet, add a few more spoons of rawa.
5. Bind the mixture well & make either cutlets or round balls out of it.
6. Now in a separate bowl, whisk curd with cornflour, salt & water. This mixture should not be be very thick or very runny.
7. Add green chutney or combination of sauces to this curd mixture & mix well.
8. Dip the soya balls nicely 1-2 at a time in the curd mixture, coat with bread crumbs & keep aside.
9. You can bake them for 14-15mins till golden brown on 200C in an oven or pan fry in a non-stick pan or deep fry it. (They taste best when deep fried however one can choose healthier options)

Serve hot with green chutney/tartar sauce or any sauce of your choice.

Note – You can also add half cup grated carrots & drain out excess water to add more colour to it.
These can be prepared beforehand too, but add more rawa to the mixture if preparing in advance as with time they tend to become softer.
Also bread coating should preferably be done a few hrs before serving it.

Potato Halwa

From my sister Karpagam.


Ingredients
Potato = 2 big sized
Sugar – ½ cup
Ghee – 4 tsp
Saffron – 1 pinch
Badam essence -5 drops

Method
Pressure cook the potatoes and smash it without lumps

In low flame Boil water and add sugar to it and Watch for one-string consistency.

Now add the smashed potatoes to it and keep stirring continuously so it does not stick to the bottom of the pan.

Add ghee in intervals and keep stirring until the mixture thickens.

Finally add saffron and after cooling add badam essence to it

This will exactly taste like BADAM HALWA

Pumpkin Sweet

From my sister Karpagam.

Ingredients
½ Kg Pumpkin
1 cup sugar
1 pinch sunambu (In Tamil)

Method 
Cut pumpkin into small pieces. Add Pinch of sunambu in little water and apply it on all pumpkin pieces and leave it aside for 5 mins.
Poke the pumpkin using fork and then wash pumpkin pieces thoroughly to remove sunambu.
Heat ½ cup water and add the sugar. Bring to a boil. Add the pumpkin pieces to the boiling sugar syrup. Cook pumpkin in high flame for 15 mins.Allow it to cool and remove pumpkin pieces from the syrup. Add dry fruits and enjoy the tasty Pumpkin sweet.

Pumpkin Sambar

From my sister Karpagam.

Ingredients
1/2 cup toor dal cooked
2 tsp oil
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
Asaofoetida
1 onion
2 tomatoes
1 cup White pumpkin
1 tsp chilli powder
Turmeric powder – little
1 tsp Sambar powder
1 small lemon size tamarind
Salt to taste
Curry and coriander leaves

Method
Pressure cook the toor dal and keep aside.

Heat oil and season with mustard seeds and add asaofoetida, Add Onion and sauté until onion is cooked. Next add tomatoes and pumpkin. Add salt / chilli powder and turmeric powder and fry for few mins then add 1 cup water and bring to a boil. Once pumpkin is cooked add cooked toor dal to it and allow it to boil for few mins .Now add tamarind juice extract and sambar powder and boil for 5 mins and finally add curry leaves and coriander leaves.

Pepper – Garlic Kuzhambu

Ingredients - Kuzhambu
1 tsp oil
10 Garlic flakes
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
½ tsp cumin seeds
Lemon size tamarind (1 cup juice roughly)
Salt to taste
Curry leaves

For Masala Powder
1 tsp pepper corns
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp coriander seeds
1 tsp urad dal
1 tsp Channa dal
3 red chillies

Method

Prepare masala powder for kuzhambu first.
Roast pepper corns, cumin seeds, coriander seeds, red chillies , urad dal , channa dal each one separately in 1 tsp of Oil. Allow it to cool and grind in a blender and leave it aside.

Heat Oil in a pan and season with mustard seeds, cumin seeds, curry leaves .Fry chopped garlic until golden brown.Add the extracted tamarind juice and allow it to boil.Add salt as per taste and tumeric powder.Let it boil for 10 mins and then finally add the masala powder and keep stirring.Turn off the stove when the Kuzhambu is thick.

Aloo Garlic podimas

Ingredients
2 medium size potatoes
2 green chillies - chopped
8 garlic flakes – Chopped
1 onion -Big
Salt
½ tsp Turmeric powder
1 tsp Oil
Curry leaves

Method

Steam potatoes and smash it.

Heat Oil in a pan. Add chopped garlic and fry until golden brown .Add finely chopped chillies and onion and fry till it turns golden brown .Add turmeric powder and salt to it.
Now add the smashed potatoes and fry for few more mins.Garnish with curry leaves.

Tasty Aloo garlic podimas ready to be served with Kuzhambu rice.