Black Pepper Rice (Milagu Sadham)

If you have lived in Chennai any amount of time and if you'd had the good fortune of living near Adayar (now they are everywhere) you just may have heard of and actually visited The Grand Sweets and Snacks. It is the go to place for wedding bhakshanams (mithai and savories). Or if you just wanted a wonderful afternoon snack. Everyday, TGS&S had a routine to serve a different kind of snack each day of the week and I want to say that it was on Saturday that they made Pepper rice which they served in a stitched leaf bowl or Dhonai as we call it. (Pls correct me if I got the day wrong). But this was the ultimate treat. The fragrant rice that oozed with unbelievably aromatic ghee, fresh curry leaves and cashews - just the right amount of spice and salt and the rice cooked soft to a mush - It always transported me to heaven. I have recreated this beauty in my kitchen so many times and yet I am shocked that I have not blogged it yet!. Just like I realize i have not blogged regular items like rasam and sambar - which is pretty pitiful -- like living in Agra and not visiting the Taj!
But never too late I say!
The easiest yet most satisfying mixed rice for a rice lover. I have replaced the ghee or at least part of it with sesame oil - just as tasty. Such a wonderful dish to take for a potluck, for a Sunday brunch or just about anytime the craving hits you, like it does me. EASIEST RECIPE

Ingredients

• 1 cup of basmati or other rice cooked with 2-1/2 -3 cups of water
• 2-3 tablespoons of fresh black pepper - ground fine
• 1 tbsp salt also ground with the pepper
• 1: 2 tablespoons ratio of ghee to sesame oil +1tbsp of butter
• Cashew, curry leaves
• pinch of asafetida

Method

1. Cook rice really soft to mush
2. Pepper and and salt ground fine
3. Get a wide bowl
4. hear ghee (butter ) once the water is gone it is clarified into ghee. Add the asafetida to this as you heat - Add the sesame oil to this and keep
5. Add 1/3 of the rice and 1 tbsp of the pepper mix topped with 1 tbsp of ghee oil mix 
6. With a fork mix the pepper into the rice
7. Once all the rice and the pepper are mixed, with a potato masher, mush the rice so it will absorb the pepper nicely
8. Heat the butter add the cashews and the curry leaves and roast until cashews are golden.
9. Pour over rice and mix in and let it rest for a few minutes.
10. Serve HOT

No Sides Required but you are free to have chips or appalam with it

Shredded Mango Pickle and Peanut Rice ( Manga thokku/verkadalai sadham)

Blogging Marathon Day 2

Talk about runaway hits … this was surely one of those unexpected winners with my children and hubby dearest, .I had bought the raw mangoes at the Indian grocery store with the intent to make the thokku (or shredded mango pickle) It was the weekend and I had been planning Grnad Sweets Pulidharai mix with rice.

But the thokku made in pure sesame oil brought my kids literally (no exaggeration) scurrying to the kitchen with excited enquiries as to what I was making…

And the truth is guys, the pickle does not need to reek of oil for it to taste good – I used minimal oil and it turned out just fine



At the very outset let me say, if I’ve not said it several times already on my blog that I do not use store bought chili powder – just thinking about the redness of it has my stomach burning. All of us in our home react badly to that stuff so for the past several, I want to say at least 10 years, I have NEVER bought that powder to cook anything.

Instead I make my own powders/podis – including for this pickle

Ingredients

2 Mangoes Shredded

15- 25 red dry cayenne peppers (roasted lightly in 1 tsp of sesame oil and ground)

1 tsp Asafoetia

1 tsp of turmeric powder

3 tsp of dark brown sugar (or jaggery)

4 tbsp sesame oil

1 tsp of mustard seeds

3-5 tsp of salt (depends on how sour your mango is)

Preparation of Pickle

First heat 2 tbsp of oil and add the turmeric powder and pop the mustard seeds and add the asafetida

Next, add the shredded mangoes and turn it in the oil

Keeping the flame in high, continue turning the mango for a minute or two

At this time add the salt and the sugar

Then reduce the flame and allow the mango to cook

You will see the natural waters of the mango bubbling and slowly evaporating

As the mango cooks the oil that is already in it will surge and the mango shreds will soften and start clumping together

This is a good thing J

The other thing you’ll notice is the redness of the ground chilies will also get more prominent.

Taste the pickle to see if the mango is cooked – Switch off stove

Then add the remaining 2 raw tbsp of sesame oil and mix it in.

Allow pickle to cool before refrigerating

For the rice

Make 1 cup of basmati rice in a cooker. Take a handful of roasted peanuts and crush them into a fine powder in a coffee grinder.

Layer the rice and the thokku and the powdered peanuts and mix in with a fork making sure all the rice has been mixed in with the pickle.

Serve Hot or warm with pappad/appalam or chips and raita.

The shredded Mango

The chillies fried before grinding

Added to the Mango

Notice change in texture and color - starting to look more like pickle!

The rice

And voila :)

Bhagi Pavani Champa, Padma, Sowmya, Gayathri, Harini, Minu, Meena, Priya Suresh, Rujuta, Saraswati, Santosh, Savitha, PJ, Shobana, Smitha, Priya Vasu, Usha, Veena, Jayashree M, and Srivalli, who has started this wonderfully challenging event :)

Priya Mahadevan,

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