A typical South Indian Lunch

This is how a simple south Indian meal looks like..The only thing missing is curd (aka yogurt) - I was in a hurry to take this photo since my husband was waiting to gobble up, so didn't get time to keep that..

Rice is the main staple of South Indians. I need to have rice atleast once every day in one form or the other.

Vathakuzhambu is a gravy made with dried berries/veggies with spices added to them. Ohhh..how much I drool over my mom's vathakuzhambu (aka pulikuzhambu) - I can literally eat them every single day. I always ask my mom to make this regularly - this and her potato curry is really heaven on earth. I wanted to modify it a little bit by adding capsicum with lots of garlic.

My husband has sore throat due to the cold weather outside. So I wanted to do something with ginger and lemon. My DH does not like paruppu rasam (or rasam made with lentils). So I always come up with different rasam recipes. I made this special rasam and it immediately showed effect.

The last is Beans poriyal/curry. Initially when I started cooking, my beans were always overcooked and never looked green. My mom showed her ways of cooking greens - I'm still not an expert like her when it comes to it but I'm getting better everyday :)

I'll post the recipes soon...

Indian style Onion Fritters (Onion Pakoji!)

My Mom makes the best pakodas. Pakodas are deep fried flour and spice coated onions. All south Indians know what a pakoda is! Yesterday, my husband wanted me to do some since it was cold outside. I wanted to try a fusion between a pakoda and bajji (did I mention my mom makes the best pakodas and bajjis and everything..) and thus was born my "onion pakoji"...

My cooking recipes are always by taste. I don't measure much even though I have tortured my mom for exact measurements when I was newly married. Sorry, mom!

I used a medium sized red onion and cut it into thin slices. Take equal measures of rice flour and gram flour (both of them are available in Indian grocery stores)and mix them with the onion slices. Add salt and red chilli powder to this mix. One trick my mom always does to yield crispy pakodas is to put around a tbsp of hot oil into this mix. I did the same as well. Now, if you are making pakodas, you sprinkle water. And if you are doing bajji, you can be more generous with water.

Since mine is a fusion, I used around 1/4 cup water so that I had a good coating over the onions. When the oil gets hot in the pan, try to spread the onion mixture with the hands. Then, once the bubbles slow down in the oil, you can take them out and enjoy!

Chocolates (Molded in different shapes!)

I wanted to upload this simple, quick and elegant chocolate recipe along with my cupcake recipe..Anyhow, I found the time to do that now :)

This is very simple, all you need is just some chocolate pieces - I melted them in the microwave with a teaspoon of vegetable oil to get that glossy look. I used different molds with the "baby shower" as theme since it was for one of my friends who's expecting!

I thought it will look better if displayed on raw cane sugar (and that's edible too!). Using some lollipop sticks in the mold was just the playful side of me...

Vanilla cupcakes dipped in chocolate!

Okay, this is something I wanted to post last week. We went to meet one of my friends whose wife is pregnant. Myself along with my 2 other friends decided to throw her a baby shower. I was going back and forth between baking a cake and cupcake. At last, decided to do a cupcake in a "chic" way. The only problem was I didn't have sufficient time to do a buttercream icing. Voila! my creative side kicked in and here goes the recipe for the vanilla cupcakes dipped in chocolate..It is definitely a winner :)

I took the vanilla recipe from "Joy of Baking" but modified it by adding some healthy ingredients.

Vanilla Cupcake:

1/2 cup (113 grams) unsalted butter
2/3 cup (130 grams) granulated white sugar
2 large eggs (the actual recipe calls for 3)
1/4 cup yogurt (I added this instead of that 1 egg)
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups (195 grams) all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsps baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup (60 ml) milk


The method I used to prepare these cupcakes gives a beautiful dome to them.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F(177 degrees C).I used a regular muffin pan(that holds 12) to bake these and just used some decorative paper cups since it was for the occassion..
Warm the milk with the butter so that the butter melts and set aside to cool down. Whisk the eggs, sugar, yogurt and vanilla in a bowl until thick and creamy (I use an electric mixer). Don't do it for long because you don't want many air bubbles. Now mix in the cooled milk and butter mix.
Then, add the dry ingredients and mix it all just until smooth. I then filled each cup a little above 3/4th full. It took around 20 minutes - I guess the time fluctuates depending on your location and the weather outside. I kept checking it after 16 mins just to make sure that they are perfect!

Makes about 10 cupcakes

Once the cupcakes cools down (which takes about 1 hour), dip them in melted chocolate. I bought a bag of milk chocolates from ACMoore that can be melted in the microwave. I added a little bit of vegetable oil to get that glossy look!

I topped them with sugary pearls (edible, of course!) and red decorating sugar for extra oomphh....

Enjoy....

Venpongal (Indian style Rice porridge)

Ingredients:

Raw rice - 1 cup
Moong dal- 2 tbsp (it is a yellow colored lentil - split green gram)
Water - 3 cups
Ginger - 1 or 2 tsp (depending on your taste)
Black pepper - 1 or 2 tsp (again depending on your taste, use it whole or powdered)
Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
Curry leaves - 5 (available in Indian grocery stores, I chopped them)
Cashewnuts - 7 (chopped into pieces or whole)
Ghee - 2 tbsp (Indian style clarified butter)

Every South Indian household has a pressure cooker. It makes my life a lot easier and is definitely a big time-saver. I mix raw rice and moong dal with water and put it in a vessel inside the pressure cooker (my mom roasts the moong dal but I didn't since I was pressed for time). After switching it off, I let it rest for 10 minutes before opening.
In a separate pan, put ghee and add cashewnuts and roast them. Then add ginger, let it cook for a few mins. Now add black pepper (if you are adding them whole), cumin seeds and curry leaves. If adding powdered black pepper like I did here, then you can add it at last.
Now take the rice mixture out of the cooker and mash it well. Add salt to taste along with the sauteed ingredients. I wanted to make it look pretty - put some ghee in a bowl and fill it with pongal and flip it on to the plate. Voila! It's ready to eat :)
You can serve this with coconut chutney and sambhar. I'll post those recipes sometime soon!

Chakkara pongal (Indian style Sweet Rice porridge)

Ingredients:

Raw Rice - 1 cup
Moong dal- 2 tbsp
Jaggery - 1/2 cup (adjust according to your sweet tooth - available in Indian stores)
Cashewnuts - 4
Golden raisins - 10
Cardamom powder- 1/2 tsp
Nutmeg powder - a pinch
Pachai karporam- a pinch (optional)
Ghee - 3 tbsp

Preparing the rice and dal is similar to my instructions mentioned in the Venpongal recipe. Refer to my Venpongal recipe for details.
In a saute pan, heat the ghee, add cashews and roast them till golden, add the raisins and keep it separate.
In a deep pan, put the jaggery and add some water. Heat it and when it comes to a boil, strain it to remove any dust particles. Reheat the jaggery for 5-7 mins and add the rice mixture and keep boiling till it meshes well together. Now add the roasted cashews and raisins. Sometimes, I add heavy cream or milk. After switching it off, add the cardamom, nutmeg and pachai karporam powders. Ready to serve! This is one of my husband's favorites and it's really hard to take a picture since he gobbles it up so quickly :)

New year resolution!!

One of my new year resolutions this year is to try and post atleast one recipe every week. Baby steps at a time..Lemme see how long I keep that up amidst my busy life :)

Happy New Year 2011 to you all!