Avial

This is a traditional South Indian delicacy, largely influenced by Kerala cuisine, but well entrenched in Tamil Nadu as well - A festive dish Avial is made with slight differences from region to region, but for this blog hop, I got the perfect blog for the dish - Kaveri's Palakkad Chamayal - This is my post for Blog Hop Wednesday, a wonderful event started by Radhika of Tickling Palates

I have my own recipe for this as well, but I wanted to try out her method while incorporating some of my fav ingredients as well- For those who don't know Kaveri (unlikely) she has an amazing collection of authentic Kerala and Palakkad recipes which really appeal to me esp since coconut is a staple and I love using it in my preparations - Here is Kaveri's recipe

I am late posting this, but it is still wednesday :)
Serves - 6-8 people -1or 2 cups each
Ingredients:

Vegetables -  (some of the veggies she used are not available here)
1/2 - 1 cup each of snake gourd, carrots, chow chow (chayote Squash) yellow bottle gourds,
1 quart plain low fat yogurt
1-2 cups of thick buttermilk (depending on how much gravy you'd like - I am not a thick avial person so I use buttermilk to thin it down)
4-5 green chilies
1/2 cup grated coconut
1/4 tsp Turmeric
1 tsp Cumin
1/4 cup crushed cilantro
1tbsp coconut oil

Before adding yogurt

After adding yogurt

Preparation
Steam or pressure cook the veggies with a 1 cup of water and the turmeric
Wet grind the coconut, green chilies,  cumin and cilantro
Pour ground paste into a saucepan and allow it to cook for few minutes - it will thicken
Now add the cooked veggies and the salt and let the mix come to boil
Switch stove off
In a separate bowl, lightly whip the yogurt and the buttermilk and keep
When the veggies in the sauce pan cool down, add the yogurt mix and bring both gravies and yogurt nicely together.
Add 1 tbsp coconut oil at the very end before serving.

Tadka or temper with curry leaves

Serve at room temp with dal rice and ghee with appalam on the side :)
NOTE: Avial almost always tastes even better the next day, so be sure to have some leftovers:)

Almond Oats Ladoos

Yesterday was the Kaaram, Today is the Sweet after all the wonderful comments I received from you - Please round it off with a good cuppa coffee from Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts or better yet, Saravana Bhavan, or Barista :-)
Can there be anything better than incredibly blue skies and a brilliant sun on an extremely cold day (other than blue skies and a brilliant sun on a warm day) ;-) Life is getting back to somewhat normal - I am feeling a lot better and started my day with a kick-ass yoga class. Nothing like a few brisk Surya Namaskars to get the day off to a good start - other than of course, knowing your little one had a relatively restful night and is feeling a lot better today. Wanted to make something guided by gourmet instinct and here's what turned out....Perked up as I am, have decided to send this in for the dessert event at Manjula's kitchen - Nothing ventured, nothing gained, you'll agree :-)- 

The method is very much like Rava ladoos.

In Words

Prep time - 20 minutes 

Ingredients

3/4 cup slivered almonds

1/2 cup of instant oats

1 cup of Turbinado or cane sugar 

1/2 tsp of crushed cardamom

1 tablespoon of cashews

1 tablespoon of sweetened, dried cranberries sliced in half

2/3 stick of butter

Preparation

In a small coffee grinder/magic bullet. powder the almonds, oats and sugar, separately.

Mix them together nicely

Crush cardamom and again mix well

In a small pan, heat butter until it is ghee and add the cranberries and cashews and fry until light golden brown

Strain them and set aside

In the same pan, pour the almond/oat/sugar/cardamom mix and gently fry in medium heat until they sort of appear to come together - this should take no more than 2 - 3 minutes.

Switch off the stove

Add the cranberries and cashews to the ladoo flour and stir in

When it is still moderately hot to the touch, start making the balls (urundais) 

Store in a cool place

Note: If while making the balls, they crumble, chances are you have to heat the flour some more - adding another teaspoon of ghee may also help.

Secret tip: Or perhaps, a not so secret tip, is to put the balls in the fridge for about 30 minutes to allow them to harden a bit. Serve in  your own style. ENJOY

In Pictures

                                          The ingredients measured

powdered

The cranberries and cashews in ghee

now mixed into the powder

my hand trying to make the balls with the hot mix

On the platter :-)

                                                                                          

Last Word: Don't forget to mix in an equal amount of LOVE into the recipe

Reposting for Indus Ladies, Sweets Event

Spinach Saboodhana Kichdi & Announcements

Announcements:
1)I am glad to inform my readers that I am the Chef Of the Week at erecipe.com. It's been fun to upload some of my recipes on their blog :) Here is the link to a video that they requested me to share on my blog - Click here to view Thank you Raquel for offering me this opportunity :)


2)IMPORTANT: MY BLOG GIVEAWAYS ARE STILL GOING ON!!! YES INDEED - So Please click here to get to the announcement page - Please ensure you follow all the rules of entry to be eligible for the prizes. 
Blog anniversary giveaways Sept 24- Oct 31, 2011 - so you are not too late to join :) Many of you have wondered if you have missed the deadline - and the answer is NO - there is still time

I have not cooked much with Saboodhna or tapioca pearls because the few occasions I’ve had it, it has always been really oily, be it as kichdi or vadas. The only right place in my mind for saboodhana is either as a vadam (vadagam) or in payasam! The further disincentive is no one in my family is particularly crazy about it either!

But I saw several saboodhana kichdi posts in the past several weeks and decided I must give this grain another fair chance!

Sadly to the best of my knowledge, tapioca per se has no health benefits – it is starchy and very high in calories, but this has somehow been a staple in Maharastra India as khicdi and vadas– while finding its way to the south in kheers and vadams!

So to add some nutritive value to it, I decided to cook it with spinach and it tasted really good :)

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Here is how I went about it

1cup of white peal Saboodhana (soaked for 4-6 hours)

1-12oz pack of frozen spinach (thawed) or 2 cups of fresh chopped spinach

¼ cup of peanuts (crushed)

2-3 green chilies

¼ cup grated coconut

Mustard, urad dal, asafetida to temper with in 1 tsp of oil

Salt to taste

Preparation

Drain the excess water from the soaked saboodhana

Put it in a pressure cooker and steam without putting the whistle

Wait a couple of minutes after it starts steaming loudly before putting off

This process considerably reduces the amount of oil used – This is one dish that, like eggplant or arbi, can soak up tons of oil

In a pan temper with 1tsp of oil mustards, urad dal and asafetida

Ad the green chilies and the thawed spinach and add into pan and stir fry for a minute or two

Now add the saboodhana and mix in well with the spinach

Add salt and stir in

In another pan, dry roast the grated coconuts and add to the kichdi

Open cook for a minute or two until all ingredients are absorbed into one another.

Garnish with the crushed peanuts and serve hot J

Broccoli–Cilantro Curry Sauce

This simple yet superb curry is something I adapted from my wonderful blogger friend, Aysha of Schmetterlingwords
We had just bought some fresh broccoli when she posted this rather handy recipe – I say adapted because I decided to go cilantro & coriander all the way – And while I did use some masala ingredients like bay leaves, I added coconut and made it more like a kootu style! Can be enjoyed with chappatis or rice sticks, or carb of your choice (:

Ingredients
2 broccoli heads chopped in medium sized florets
1tbsp coriander seeds
1 bunch cilantro
¼ cup grated coconuts
2 Bay leaves
2 green chilies
1 dry red chili
10-cashews
Thadka materials (mustard, urad, cumin, asafetida)

Preparation
Steam the broccoli for 2-3 minutes tops in the MW
In a pan add the coriander seeds, cilantro, coconuts and green chilies and roast for a bit, until the incredible smell of the coriander seeds waft around the kitchen or even up stairs (this is usually when my kids poke their heads out of their rooms sniffing with this perpetual question –whatchya making ma- smells SO good yo if it is my son or ma if it is my daughter!

Add some cold water to this and grind to a fine paste in the blender
In a kadai or large wok, add 1 tsp of oil (olive or sesame) and thadka with mustard seeds, urad and asafetida and red chili)
Toss the steamed broccoli in and stir a few times
Add the curry sauce and let the broccoli simmer in the sauce for until the sauce is bubbling and dwindling.
Remove from stove and transfer into a hot pot
Keep your carb ready and attack with gusto ☺

Raspberry Coulis

This is an easy peasy recipe that can be used over pancakes (Trader Joes Multigrain Pancake mix), as cake fillings, in pies, as ice-cream toppings, on yogurts and parfaits –

I made this with an intention to use in a tart recipe, but the yield with a 12 ounce box was not much we ended up using it over pancakes – trust me when I say it was terrific!

Here is the recipe

12ounce box of fresh raspberries

1/4 cup of sugar

2tbsp honey

1tbsp Lemon juice (not required it you like to err on the side of sweet over tart)

Preparation

Blend the raspberries

In a tsp of water, mix the sugar in a saucepan and heat to liquefy

Add the honey and the raspberry puree

Allow it to bubble before turning off

Add the lemon juice and stir in

Set in refrigerator to cool and thicken

Use as needed

 Sending this off to Smitha's Berry Event

Couscous Idlis for Blog Hop Wenesday

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This Blog Hop Wednesday, a wonderful event started by Radhika of Tickling Palates, is a wonderful way to interact with our fellow bloggers and browse their each others blogs in greater details and in a more systematic way – On one such quest, I had the greatest pleasure to go through Harini’s Blog – Tamalapaku – the name was unique and I googled it to find that it meant betel leaves – something many Indians have after a satisfying meal to help with digestion – and the recipes I saw in her blog always erred on healthy which is what my blog mantra is too and I loved the many uses of grains and lentils. I was not sure which one to go with, but I did settle on something that I’ve been cooking with more recently – couscous – you many recall the couscous salad that I posted not too long ago – so my pantry has a full supply of this – And to make our South India charmer Idlis with it was like the best of both worlds for me –as in cooking with couscous and using it for a traditional recipe.

Many Many thanks to you Harini for introducing me to these idlis, they were soft, spongy and incredibly tasty and will be a staple at our home now.  And this was the most pleasurable time because my newly turned 3yr old helped me with the whole process J

The original recipe is here - I doubled the quantities to serve my family of 5


Here is my version with a few slight changes

Ingredients - 

To make for a family of 4 or 6

1 cup of couscous

1cupof sooji

2 cups of yogurt +2 tbsp of buttermilk

Carrots & cilantro finely chopped/grated 1 cup

Dried Nuts Coarsely Chopped 3 Tbsp (I used peanuts, almonds and cashews)

1 green chili

Baking Soda 1.5 tsp

Salt as per taste

Turmeric 1/4 tsp

Olive Oil 1 tsp

Curry leaves, cumin and mustard seeds, urad dal with a pinch of asafetida for tempering

Preparation

Mix the sooji and the couscous in a wide mouthed dish

Add the baking soda and salt and mix into dry batter

Crush the nuts and add and mix in

Add the grated carrots raw (I did not cook it like the original recipe calls for)

Crush cilantro

Add about 1tsp of salt

Now add the yogurt and mix in well

Temper the mustard seeds, cumin, urad dal, chili and the asafetida and some roughly torn curry leaves

Add this to the batter and mix in well

Spray your idli plates with non-stick olive oil or other and steam idlis for 10-12 minutes – that’s all it took for me

Healthy, hearty and delicious idlis good to go J

For those of you who missed the blog anniversary giveaway post, it's not too late - please click here 

Now Serving Turns One Today with A Giveaway Bonanza

Now Serving exciting times folks (: My blog is one year old fledgling now. I want to humbly thank everyone who has been visiting me without fail and leaving encouraging comments that really make this blog even more worthwhile to write, even if sometimes it seems like a full-time job (: From the bottom of my heart, I say “ thank you and please keep coming back…

I am thrilled to announce some giveaways at my blog what I like to call the October sweepstakes

There are 7 gifts to giveaway

5 for US residents (exclusively)

3 For Canadian Residents (of the 5 above)

2 For all others

I am happy to announce that Pasta Prima has most graciously offered several exciting giveaways to mark this milestone on my blog – The bummer is that this giveaway is only for my US & Canada audiences. This is simply because they are perishable items or too heavy to consider shipping to far away places.

A little about my Giveaway Sponsors

Those who have visited my blog in the past year know that more often than not I am constantly striving to promote healthy eating habits by providing healthier options for otherwise caloric and unhealthy food.  We are all given to breaking this rule and I am no exception J. If you visit their site, you will see that they take pride in making their pastas as natural as possible and in the most energy efficient ways possible by using green energy. They are also tuned into community causes and currently Breast Cancer Awareness, and giving back to the community. So this company in my books, is a winner all the way :) They seemed genuinely sorry that they could not extend their giveaways to countries beyond the US, BUT…

WAIT! I have two incredible books that will be given away to my friends anywhere else in the world besides US or Canada.

Celebrated Chef, Madhur Jaffrey’s Eastern Vegetarian Cooking

And NY Times Best Seller, The Sneaky Chef, by Missy Chase Lapine

Here are the giveaways from Pasta Prima

US residents Exclusive

2 lucky winners win 3 Pasta Prima Ravioli flavors shipped directly to your home (US only, we are perishable!)

US & Canada 

3 lucky winners win a pasta bowl each

**Plus a coupon for free Pasta Prima Ravioli for US Residents only

 You can find Pasta Prima on FB

Pictures of the giveaways below

Here are the rules of the Cookbook Giveaways

Exclusively for friends living OUTSIDE the US or Canada

Please this blog via Google Connect or Networkblogs and let me know through which medium you are following my blog – much appreciated J

Important Note: Be sure to checking your Google connect follow is set to “Public” not private or anonymous!

All participants in this giveaway should “Like” my FB page either by clicking on the box on the right column or by visiting my Facebook page – Much appreciated J

Leave a comment about my blog or the giveaways stating where you are from – this is important – Much appreciated J

You should be contactable – So if you are a non-blogger be sure to drop me a line at priyamahadevan@hotmail.com - Pictures of the giveaways below

For my friends in US & Canada
Join this blog via Google Connect or Networkblogs and let me know in your comment through which medium you are following my blog Much appreciated :)

Important Note: Be sure to checking your Google connect follow is set to “Public” not private or anonymous! “visibly”following through one of these mediums,

All Participants should “Like” my FB page either by clicking on the box on the right column or by visiting this link. Much appreciated J

Like Pasta Prima’s FB page by clicking here

Leave a comment about my blog or the giveaways stating where you are from – this is important

   You should be contactable – So if you are a non-blogger, drop me a line at priyamahadevan@hotmail.com

Look forward to your comments, continued support & participation
LOVE you and please continue coming over -Cannot say it enough! Always a pleasure to have your here :)!