Ulunthu Kali - Urad dal Halwa

Ulunthu Kali yes this is the recipe for ICC for this month. This is a very traditional recipe from Chettinad region. Ulunthu means Urad dal , Kali means any cereals cooked in water like a thick poridge. This kali is made specially when the girls attain puberty, grand mothers make this to feed the girls for 15 days to give good health and strength to bones. Ulundu is rich in calcium, protein and jaggery is rich iron and gingely oil gives good strength to spinal cord.
                Few days back when I was talking to Valli about ICC recipes. She told me about this but she did not get the proper recipe and she told me that she likes it very much and wanted to share with all of us in ICC. That time I did not say any thing to Valli but I remember my friend Vijayalakshmi(Vijji) she is from Karaikudi. She gave me one recipe and she told me gingely oil is must in this recipe. When I tried with gingely oil I did not like the flavor but that is the original way to make this sweet and it's good for health too. Then again i spoke to valli and she told me, When she tasted this, it taste like Halwa with lot's of ghee in it. Then I spoke to my Aunt and she gave the second recipe and she told me ading sesame oil is a traditional way of making this recipe. But you can change this traditional recipe to halwa by using ghee in the place of sesame oil. In the origenal recipe they use palm sugar to give a sweet taste. This also can change with normal jaggery or sugar. You can add grated coconut and fried cashewnuts to make this dish more delicious. Thanks to Valli for chosing this healthy and delicious recipe for ICC. Because I don't know about this wonderfull recipe before that, thank you somuch valli.
And my special thanks to my friend Vijji and Priya Aunty.
Raw rice  -- 1/2 cup wash and dry in the sade rice should be totally dry
Urad dhal  --- 1/2 cup dry roast lightly how we do for murukus
Grated jaggery  --- 2 cups
Water  -- 2 cups
Gingeli oil  --- 2 tab sp
Ghee  ---- 2 tab sp
Mix rice and dhal make powder in the mill
Take jaggery and water in a pan heat  till the jaggery dissolve compleetly.
Strain the jaggery add gingely oil again keep it on the heat  and bring to a full boil.
Pour the flour in the center of the jaggery water like a heap, reduce the heat completely, insert a laddle in to the pan  close with alid and cook for 7 to 10 minutes.
switch off the heat and mix quickly with out forming lumps.
Let it cool for few seconds add ghee mix well and make small balls.
This is the traditional way of making this Ulunthu Kali

Ulundu --- 1 cup

Raw rice --- 1/2 cup
Gingley oil -- 25 ml( or ghee 25 ml.)
Jaggery --- 1 cup
Cardamom --- 3 powderd
Grated fresh coconut --- 1/4 cup optional
Cashew nuts ---- 10 fried in the ghee optional
Water --- 3 cups

Dry roast rice and dal lightly and grind in to a thin rava consistency ( like puttu powder consistency) and set a side.

Take jaggery sprinkle little water and dissolve remove from heat strain and set aside.

Now heat 3 cups water in a heavy bottom pan bring to full boil add dal and rice powder add half oil mix well and cook till it become thick paste like halwa

Now  add carbamom powder mix well and remove fom heat and add remaining oil, grated coconut if using mix well garnish with fried cashew nuts and serve.

You can use palm sugar or normal sugar also but that change the taste.

Gongura Sorakaya Plusukura (sorrel leaves and bottle gourd curry)

Now here is my last recipe for this week BM which is under the theme of cooking with greens . And mu last recipe is a gravy. Generally in Andhra Pradesh we make dal with greens like Palak dal, Amaranth leaves dal and Gongura leaves dal. Also gravies like totakura pulusu or mixed greens pulusu or Akukura vepudu (greens stir fry). Almost 3 days in a week we make some dish with green leafy vegetables. This recipe sorakaya- gongura pulusu kura is an old recipe ,but I can not say it is a traditional recipe.

The combination of this both vegetables goes very well together. When you get bored with normal dal or stir fries this will be a good choice. Instead of gongura you can use palak or amaranth leaves with a few tomatoes but this combination do not give the taste like gongura . But when you are making with gongura no need of adding tomato, because sourness of gogngura leaves is more then enough to make this curry delicious. This curry is a good combination with rice and goes well with roties too. So lets check the recipe.

INGREDIENTS:--

Gongura leaves ---- 2 cups

Sorakaya ---- ½ inch cubes 1 and half cup

Onoin --- 1 big finely chopped

Green chillies --- 3 cut in to 2 pieces

Oil ---- 1 tab sp

Mustard seeds --- ½ tea sp

Chana dal --- 1 tea sp

Dry red chillies --- 3 broken

Cumin seeds --- ½ tea sp

Curry leaves --- 10

Garlic cloves --- 4 crushed

Red chilli powder --- 1 tea sp

Turmeric powder --- ¼ tea sp

Salt ----- 1 tea sp or accor ding to your taste

METHOD:---

1. In a thick bottom pan take gongura leaves ¼ of chopped onion, ½ tea sp red chilli powder, turmeric powder, ½ tea sp salt, green chilli pieces and cook till gongura leaves become soft and  mashy.


2. Mash cooked gongura leaves with a potato masher or dal masher (papugutti) or you can grind this in a blender in to a smooth paste and set a side.
3. 
   
   
4. Hear oil in an other pan add mustard seeds let them popup then add chana dal, dry red chillies, cumin seeds, crushed garlic, curry leaves fry for a while.

Now add chopped onion and fry till onion turns soft then add bottle gourd pices, remaining salt, red chilli powder, mix well cover and cook in a very low heat till the bottle gourd pieces become soft.

Now add gongura paste to bottle gourd pieces mix well and cook for 5 more minutes.

This curry should looks like this not too watery .

Serve hot with rice or roti.

This is my  third recipe with the theme of Cooking with greens for blogging marathon 19 th edition at Vallis spice your life lets check blogging marathon page

Parsley And Onion Paratha

As I mention in my last post I have to post a Indian bread recipe with greens because i have chosen the theme cooking with greens. I have easily choose my first recipe rice with greens and for the second recipe Indian bread with greens. What to do because I have already posted Palak paratha. methi paratha, and some other parathas with greens. Last Sunday when I went for my weekly vegetable shopping. I saw some fresh parsley I picked a bundle to make pesto.
                                     When I am cutting parsley to make pesto hummm wow that flavor wonderful. Suddenly I got this idea of making paratha with chopped parsley. But first I thought of making Akki roti  with Parsley but some how I changed that to wheat flour paratha for  today. These parsley Parathas are so flavor full and little spicy with finely chopped green chillies. If you don't like them spicy the just remove chillies from the list. If like you can add chopped garlic but I think garlic flavor will dominate the parsley flavor. Adding other ingredients like green chillies  and onion is your choice but parsley is the main ingredient in this recipe. So let's check the recipe.
INGREDIENTS:--
Parsley --- 1/2 cup finely choped
Onion -- 1 small finely choped
Green chillies ---  2 finely choped
Wheat flour  ---- 1 and half cup
Salt   ------  1/2 tea sp
Oil for frying parathas.

METHOD:---
1. Take all above ingredients in to mixing bowl exept oil.
2. Add 1 cup water and knead a stiff dough. Make sure this bough should be little stiff then normal paratha dough, because when you knead the dough with choped onion and parsley ooze their juices so that after 5 minutes this dough become soft.
So take care when you add water, add little by little and knead a stiff dough and set a side for 5 minutes.
3. Make six portions out of this dough and shape them in to round balls.
4. Dust this wheat dough balls with little dry wheat flour and press them in to circles
5. Heat a tawa apply little oil place the parsley paratha on the tawa fry both sides,sprinkle a tea spoon of oil both sides and fry till golden.
Remove the parsley and onion Paratha from tawa and serve hot with any curry, curd and pickle.
I served them with ridge gourd curry.
This is my  second recipe with the theme of Cooking with greens for blogging marathon 19 th edition at Vallis spice your life lets check blogging marathon page

Spinach And Soyachunks Pulao

Spinach and Soya chunks pulao This is my first recipe for this weeks BM under the theme of Cooking with greens. In this theme i have to post one rice recipe, one gravy and one Indian bread recipe so in this list first I am going to post a recipe rice with greens.
                                                    I like this combination spinach and soyachunks with tomato and gramasala flavor. Generaly people don't like to mix tomato with spinach, I don't have any problem with this combination. If you don't want to mix these two vegetables then you can use lemon juice in the place of tomato. But you have to add lemon juice in the end that means just before you are going to switch off the heat. Other then spinach you can use Gongura(sorrel leaves), Totakura (amaranth leaves),chukkakura. So lets check the recipe..
INGREDIENTS:---
Palakura (Palak, Spinach)---  2 cups finely choped
Tomato  ---   2 finely choped
Onion   --- 1 medium choped
Green chillies  ----   3 cut in to small pieces or according to your taste
Soya chunks  --- 10
Ginger garlic paste  --- 1 tea sp
Red chilli powder   --- 1/2 tea sp
Oil   ---- 1 tab sp
Cloves   --- 4
Cinamon --- 1 inch piece broken in to small pieces
Cumin seeds  -- 1/2 tea sp
Turmeric powder  --- 1/4 tea sp
Salt   ----   1/2 tea sp
Rice   --- 1 cup
METHOD:---
1. Wash and add 2 cups of water to rice and cook till done. Spread the cooked rice in plate to cool.
2. Boil 2 cups water in a pan add a pinch of salt and soya chunks to the boiing water and cook for 10 minutes.
3. After 10 minutes take out the soya chunks from boiling water in to a kitchen strainer and strain all the water and let them cool so that you can hold and sqeeze the extra water. sqeeze the extra water from soya chunks and set a side.
4. Now heat oil in a pan add cloves, cinamon, cumin seeds let them popup then add chopped onion and green chilli pieces.
5. Fry onion and green chili pieces till soft then add ginger garlic paste, red chilli powder, turmeric powder, chopped tomato give a good stir.
6. Add soya chunks to this onion and tomato mixture mix well then add chopped spinach mix well to combine every thing sprinkle 1 tab sp water cover and cook in a low heat, stir in between.
This will take 5 to 7 minutes by the time all the water should be evaporated and curry should become like a thick paste.
7. Now add salt and mix well and switch off the heat.
8. Add rice to this spinach and soya chunks curry and mix well to  combine every thing.
Serve this spinach and soyachunks pulao with curd and salad.
This is my first recipe with the theme of Cooking with greens for blogging marathon 19 th edition at Vallis spice your life lets check blogging marathon page

Instent pala kova -- Doodh Peda - Milk Fudge

Two days back when I was talking to my sister That time she is making Pala kova for a party. She told me that she can make them in 5 to 7 minutes in a microwave. I thought she was talking about the original recipe how we make pala kova by boiling the milk for long time. Normally I make pala kova(peda) by evaporating the milk in a low heat for long time.  And I know that some recipes what we cook for long time on a stove top. They will take very short time in microwave. But some reasons I don't like to use microwave oven in my cooking. It is good but some how I don't like microwave cooking, That is my opinion.
                                                       Any way coming to the recipe, This is very easy to make. I use the recipe what my sister has given to me. But I cooked it on stove top, That take few more minutes extra time. If you have condensed milk and milk powder in hand we can make delicious Pala kova (Doodh Peda) in just 10 minutes. Only time taking job in this recipe is chopping the nuts. No need of adding sugar in this because we are using condensed milk which is sweetened. If you want your peda more sweet then you can add how much sugar you want that is your choice. I used cardamom to give flavor to this you can add any other flavoring agents like saffron. I made this pedas for Rakhi  they are really just melting in mouth. A big Thanks to my sister. Thank you Radha for this delicious recipe, we really enjoyed them. I am again going to make them for friendship day.. Ok let's check the recipe.........

INGREDIENTS:--

Condensed milk   --- 1 tin that is 400gms
Milk powder  ---- 1 and half cup
Butter   -----   100 gms
Cardamom powder  --- 1 te asp
Nuts  --- 1 tab sp choped you can use any nuts like almonds, pistachios or cashewnuts or you can top with a half cherry too.
Lets check how to make this:----
1. Melt butter in a heavy bottom pan.
2. Add condensed milk and milk powder to the melted butter, cook in a low heat, stir continuously.
3. With in 7 minutes it starts become like a thick paste keep on string add cardamom powder mix well.
4. After 3 minutes you can see the milk powder and condensed milk mixture will become like a soft ball.
5. Now switch off the heat, add chopped nut if you are using mix well.
6. Let it cool till you can handle  to make small balls out of this peda mixture.
7. Now grease your fingers with little ghee and make small balls out of the peda mixture.
You can give them a shape in chocolate making try or with a cookie cutter and decorate them with any nuts of your choice.
Giving a shape and using nut s in this is totally your choice and your creativity.
Preparing and cooking time is 20 minutes and this mesurment will yield 24 pieces.

Dondakaya Masala Annam - Ivy Gourd Masala Rice

 Dondakaya is my favorite vegetable . But most of the people say that from this vegetable you don't get any health benefits. My MIL used to says that okra is good for your brain but nothing is there in dondakaya. I am totally confused with this, but My mother use this vegetable alot in her cooking. I checked nutrition values in this vegetable and I find very interesting things about this wonderful vegetable. This is rich in beta-carotene and it's juice controls blood sugar specially when you make juice with  it's leaves, that is very good for your skin. In ayurveda this juice is used in many medicines to treat fever, Asthma, Bronchitis. We cannot drink all these juices but we can use this vegetable in our cooking as much as possible right?.
                                                       Coming to the recipe, I thought i have enough ivy gourd in the fridge to make a curry for both of us. When i check only 10 to 12 gourds are there  and i don't have any other vegetable in the fridge. That time i don't have enough time to make any other dish. Then i decided to make tendli bhaath but wanted to make it with a little different flavor so i gave the flavor of sesame seeds to this rice. So let's check the recipe.....
INGREDIENTS:---
Rice ---- 1 cups
Ivy gourd (dondakayalu)  ---- 10 no.
Onion -- 1 medium
Green chillies  --- 3
Oil  ----  1 tab sp
Mustard seeds  --- 1/4 tea sp
Chana dal  ---- 1 tea sp
Urad dal --- 1 tea sp
Cumin seeds  --- 1/2 tea sp
Curry leaves --- 10 leaves
Salt  ---- 1 tea sp
Turmeric powder  -- 1/4 tea sp
FOR MASALA:--
Dry red chillies --- 10(you can reduce this amount according to your taste)
Dry coconut  --- 2 tab sp grated
Sesame seeds --- 1/2 tab sp
METHOD:---
1. Wash and add 2 cups of water to rice and cook till done spread in a plate to cool. This will take 20 minutes.
2. In the mean while dry roast dry red chillis and sesame seeds and grind with grated dry coconut in to a coarse powder and set a side, This will take 7 minutes.
3. Cut onion in to small pieces, cut green chillies in to small pieces, cut ivy gourd in to 1/2 inch pieces.
4. Heat oil in a pan add mustard seeds let them popup then add channa dal, urad dal, cumin seeds, curry leaves and fry for a while.
5. Add onion and green chilli pieces and fry for 2 minutes then add ivy gourd pieces, sprinkle a pinch of salt, 1/4 tea sp turmeric powder give a good stir cover and cook in a low heat for 10 minutes, stir in between.
6. After 10 minutes remove the lid add cooked rice, remaining salt, ground masala, mix well to combine every thing and switch off the heat, cover and let it sit for 5 minutes then serve.
Serve this rice with curd and cucumber and onion slices. Boild egg is a best combination with this rice.
This is my second recipe with the theme of 30 minutes meal for blogging marathon 19 th edition at Vallis spice your life lets check blogging marathon page
And this goes to Valli's 30 minute meal mela at cooking4allseasons

Ragi Dosa

I have chosen 30 Minute meal as my first week theme for Blogging Marathon 19th edition. 30 minute meal is a theme in which we have to make a full meal with in 30 minutes. There are many recipes that we can cook in 30 minutes. If we have all ingredients in hand, cooking a dish with in 30 minutes is not a difficult job. But that depends on the recipe if the recipe calls for soaking or pre heating only that recipe takes extra time. This cooking time depends on the quantity too. If you have an idea what to cook for your meal then 30 minutes is more then enough to make a dish. All most every vegetable takes 15 to 20 minutes time to cook, rest of the time you can use for chopping and grinding the masalas. This is my experience and my view, what about you?.
                                             Last week i am really busy with varalakshmi puja and some personal work so that i did not grind any idli or dosa batter. Every day I thought of soaking rice and dal for idli, dosa batter, by the end of the day will be tired and leave that idea for that day. I made instant break fast recipes like this ragi dosa for this whole week. These instant dosa recipes are very help full when we are busy. It takes just 5 minutes to make the batter and with in 10 minutes you can serve delicious and healthy dosa with chutney. No need of soaking, grinding just mix all ingredients and your batter is ready to make dosas. For this dosas i made an instant chutney which is my favorite. My Grand mother (nanamma, fathers mother) used to make this instant chutney when she is with lack of time. Hope you all enjoy these two easy to make recipes, here they are....
INGREDIENTS:----    
Ragi flour ---  1 cup
Rice flour --- 3/4 cup
Wheat flour --- 1/4 cup
Onion --- 1 big finely choped
Green chillies  --- 3 finely choped
Curry leaves  --- 12 leaves finely choped
Cumin seeds  --- 1 tea sp
Salt ---  1/2 tea sp or according to your taste
Sour curd(yogurt) --- 2 tab sp
Water  --- 1 cup
Oil  ---  1/4 cup for frying dosas
Let's check how to make Ragi dosa:---
1. Take wheat flour, rice flour, ragi flour, sour curd,choped green chillis, choped onion, choped curry leaves, cumin seeds, salt  and add 1 cup water and mix well to make a batter. If you feel the batter is thick you can add more water to make the batter in to a perfect consistence.
2. This batter should be like pan cake batter(dosa batter). You can use any finely choped leaf vegetables like spinach, cabbage or grated carrot to this batter.
3. Check the seasoning(salt) and adjust.
4. Heat a dosa pan spray little oil and wipe with a kitchen towel.

5. Now pour a laddle full rage flour batter on the hot dosa pan and spread in to a circle.
6. Sprinkle 1 tea sp oil on the edges cook for few minutes and flip the dosa other side and cook for few more minutes.
Remove the ragi dosa from the pan and serve with coconut chutney  or any other chutney you like.

FOR CHUTNEY:---
Any pickle -- 1 tab sp (can use mango pickle (avakaya , magaya) but I used red chilli pickle(pandumirapakaya pachadi) gongura pickle don't taste good for this chutney).
Curd (yogurt) ---- 3 tab sp
Onion --- 1 medium finely choped
Oil --- 1 tea sp
Mustard seeds --- 1/4 tea sp
Cumin seeds -- 1/4 tea sp
Urad dal --- 1/2 tea sp
Curry leaves -- 7 leaves
1. Take pickle, yogurt, chopped onion in a bowl mix well.
2. Heat oil in a small pan add mustard seeds, urad dal, cuminseeds, curry leaves let them fry for a while and add to pickle mixture, mix well.
Serve with idli, dosa and pongali.
This is my first recipe with the theme of 30 minutes meal for blogging marathon 19 th edition at Vallis spice your life lets check blogging marathon page
And this goes to Valli's 30 minute meal mela at cooking4allseasons