Aloo Poha

Ingredients:-

Poha thick(white rice flakes) -2 cup
chopped Onion - 1
green chilly - 3 finely chopped
Ginger - 1 small piece finely chopped
Potato -1 big(cut into small cubes)
Mustard Seeds- 1tsp
Cumin/Jeera- 1 tsp
Urad dal - 1 tsp
Chana Dal - 1 tsp
Turmeric pwdr - 1/2 tsp
Lemon Juice - 2 tbsp
Curry leaves few
Raisins and cashews
Coriander leaves finely chopped to garnish
Oil - 2 tsp
Salt to taste

Preparation Method:-

• Gently wash the Poha in a colander and let it drain out all the water
• Sprinkle salt and 1 tbsp lemon juice on the poha and mix well with a spoon/spatula.
• Heat oil in a Kadai or Pan, crackle the mustard and cumin seeds.
• Add Urad dal, Chana Dal, Cashews, Curry leaves and stir fry for a minute.
• Add raisins and stir fro few secs, add onion, green chilly and ginger. Stir fry for till onion turns translucent.
• Add chopped potatoes, turmeric powder and salt and stir well to mix. Cover it and cook in med heat till potato is cooked to tender(don't overcook the potato. You can microwave the potato and add as well)
• Add the poha and stir fry for 2-3 mins till onion-potato masala and poha is well incorporated.
• Drizzle 1tbsp of lemon juice on top and stir to mix. Garnish with Coriander leaves and serve hot.

Note:-

1) You can make it without potato as well ie just with onion and is called Kandhe poha/Onion Poha.

2) You can add a chopped tomato and opt out potato as well for a tangy poha recipe(and I love tomato/tamatar Poha).

3) While seasoning add little asafoetida for a nice aroma, I didn't add it since I ran out of it.

Parippu Pradaman

Ingredients: -

Moong Dal/Cherupayar Parippu – 2 cups
Jaggery syrup- 2 cup(Boiled with 2tbsp of water and strained of impurities)
Thick coconut milk -1 cup
Thin coconut milk -2 cups
Cardamom pods -3(crush with pestle in a mortar)
Salt – a pinch
Water 4 cups
Ghee - 2tsp
Coconut pieces - 2tsp
Raisins and cashews – a handful
Preparation Method:-

• Wash the moong and drain of the water completely.
• Dry roast the moong till crisp and press cook with enough water for 6-7 whistles(keep the flame to medium after the first whistle)
• One the cooker looses the pressure and becomes cool, open the cookr and stir well to mash the moong.
• Add the jaggery and stir continuosly for 4-5 minutes in medium flame so that moong absorbs sweetness from the jaggery. 
• Add the thin coconut milk and stir continuously for 5-10 mins till it start thickening.
• Add the thick coconut milk and keep stiring for few more minutes.
• Add in cardamom powder, salt and mix well. Remove from the flame
• Heat up a smaal pan, pour ghee into it add raisins, cashews and coconut pieces fry for a minute till everything turns light brown.
• Add this to the pradaman along with the ghee.
• Move to a serving dish. Serve warm.  

Note:- I love it being served after being refrigerated for sometime.

ILA Ada/Ottada

ILA ADA was one of my favorite breakfast item when I was a kid. I'm sure every mallu kid might used to love it or still loves it. It is traditionally made by grinding the soaked par-boiled rice with very less water in a manual stone grinder called 'Ammi Kallu' to a smooth dough, then rolled into roti by pressing with your hands on top of banana leaves with sweet stuffing inside and steaming it. On weekdays my grand-mom used to be busy with daily chores of getting us all ready to school, packing breakfast, lunch etc for us and I remember Ada was made on weekend at our ancestral home as it requires a lot of manual labour.

It is also known as Ottada in the North Kerala-Kannur, and I always wondered why it is known as Ottada since I have never seen it being made in any Ottu Paathram - a bronze metal vessel such as 'Uruli/Ottu Uruli'.   According to my grand-mom - in her early days Ottada/Ada was made in manchatti - a claypot or earthen ware by wrapping the spreaded rice dough in banana leaves and with sweet coconut stuffing. Since the clay pot is made of Odu ie Clay it was called Ottada. I could only imagine it as she tried to make me feel the smell of the Ada being cooked in manchatti, banana leaf ohhh my, gone are those days. As she continued saying our favorite Puttu- a kind of steam cake used to be made in Chiratta ie in coconut shell. Friends that is one of the reason our grandma's food used to be the best as they used to put all the effort by cooking them the authentic way. The Ammi - manual grinding stone, chiratta - coconut shell, Ila - banana leaves, Plavila - Jackfruit leaves, every single thing has its own fresh smell which adds up taste and smell to the dish. I wonder if my kids will ever be able to feel/understand all these, which I have at least seen few, can imagine some and try to implement little bit. 

ILA(banana leaf) Ada as the name says is made in ILA/banana leaf and it has great smell of steamed banana leaf. I found some frozen banana leaves in the Asian stores and tried making Ada with it. But somehow I didn't like the taste of that Ada. My brother-in-law suggested me the idea of making Ada in silver foil and since I didn't get fresh banana leaves in US I thought of trying it out. Even though I didn't get the feel of the fresh banana leaves it came out good with its authentic taste which I always admired. So here we go with the silver foil version of Ada. Enjoy!!!!!

 

Ingredients:-

Rice flour(puttu podi)- 2 cup
Boiled water- 3-1/2 cup(u can add salt to this as well)
Cumin/Jeera-2 tsp
Salt to taste

For filling

grated coconut
Sugar - 1/2 cup
Raisins,cashews handful (optional, i added it)
cardamom pdr- 1/2 tsp(optional)
Mix the grated coconut, sugar,raisins, cashews and cardamom powder with hand and keep aside

Preparation Method:-

In a bowl mix rice flour, Jeera and salt and mix well. Add hot water and stir with a spoon so that rice flour is well mixed. Once it become cool, mix gently with hand and make a smooth dough. Make lemon size balls out of the dough. Take banana leaf/silver foil keep a rice ball on top of it and spread it with hands. Take a scoop of filling and spread on top and fold the banana leaf into half. Steam this in a vessel for about 15 mins. Remove the banana leaves. Serve warm as breakfast or evening snacks. Kids really love it...




Note:- If you get the fresh banana leaves please make it in the banana leaves. That really tastes good.

Dearies, Adding recently taken Ada pictures. This was made in banana leaves since I happened to get some fresh banana leaves.

Unniyappam/Unni Appam (Neyyappam)

Unni Appam is something that my son can never say 'no' to, he sits on Kitchen counter top to see me making them and starts eating from the time its out of the pan. When my Grandma and Aunt used to make it when we were kids I used to gaze at them the same way and I always thought its a tedious job until I started making it by myself. Though I used to cook pretty much before marriage I started making Unni Appam only after marriage especially because I wanted to make them for 'Vishu Kani'. This is yet another recipe from my Grandma which I've been making from couple of years and never went wrong. You can make this as a tea-time snack/ kids snack and for special occasions like Vishu etc

Though I've given the title 'Neyyappam' also, in Kannur(Northern Kerala) 'Neyyappam' is entirely different from 'Unniyappam' that is made of almost same ingredients but little bigger in size and different in shape. I refered them 'Neyyappam' just bcause in many parts of Kerala Unniyappam is also known as Neyyappam as they are made in Neyy -Ghee I guess. So check out for the recipe here, making them at home and Enjoy!!!!!!!

Ingredients:-

1. Rice flour(not the fine/smooth flour, preferably puttu podi) - 2 cups
2. Maida - 1 cup
3. Broken Jaggery pieces ~ 2 cups(Use around 6 to 8 jaggery cubes if you are not having big Jaggery Chunks) 
4. Water ~ ½ Cup
5. Banana - 2(Palayankodan is normally used, I used Yellow Chiquita since I get those here) 
6. Cardamom powder/Elakka Podi- 2tsp
7. Dry Ginger powder/Chukku podi - 2 tsp
8. Sesame seeds - 2 tsp
9. Chopped Coconut Slices ~ 2 tbsp
10. Water as and if needed
11. Oil/Ghee to deep fry

Preparation Method:-

• Melt Jaggery in a pot/pan by adding ½ cup of water. Strain to remove the impurities if any and set aside to let it cool completely.
• Mash or Grind the banana with out adding any water and set aside.
• Roast the sesame seeds and set aside(optional). Ghee roast the coconut pieces and set aside(optional).
• Add Rice flour and Maida into a bowl, pour the melted jaggery to it, stir well with a spoon to mix. 
• Add the ground/mashed banana and stir again. Add the cardamom powder, dry ginger powder, sesame seeds and chopped coconut slices and mix everything very well.
• Here you can decide if you need to add more water. If the batter is very thick add water little by little. The batter should be of almost Idli batter consistency(make sure not to make them runny and thin, its ok if it is a bit thicker but if its too runny appam will not hold up together)
• Set aside the batter for around around 2 hours.
• Heat up the stove with Appam Pan/Vessel, pour ghee/oil just to fill half way of the holes in the pan.
• Pour a spoon full of batter into each holes, let it cook for few minutes till the bottom become light brown color.
• Gently turn each appam  upside down with a spoon or fork(be extra cautious and do it very slow if you are not used to it, wear a hand gloves and keep a safe distance from the pan just to be cautious)

                                            

• Let it cook for few more minutes, check on both sides for the brown color and take them out of the pan with bamboo skewers/puttu stick or with a spoon or a fork.

                                

Tofu Paratha

Recipe for scrambled tofu:-

Firm Tofu Firm- 12 oz(break the tofu with clean hands and crush it)

Onion finely chopped - 1 medium size

Green chilly- 4 chopped

Ginger-1 small piece finely chopped
oil-1 tsp

mustard seeds - 1tsp

coriander leaves- few finely chopped
turmeric - 1/4 tsp
salt to taste

Tofu scramble:-

Heat a frying pan, crackle mustard seeds in oil, add onion, salt, green chilly and ginger.

Saute well till onion is light brown, add turmeric powder, salt and saute. Add the broken tofu, mix well and adjust the salt. Add the chopped coriander leaves, mix well and set aside.

Tofu Scramble

Paratha:- Make the chappathi dough, make few balls out of it. Roll it into smoll roti as if for poori, add a spoon of scrambled tofu filling, close it.

 

Roll into into paratha, the normal way as for normal roti. Just have to be gentle not to break the roti.

Cook it on tawa on medium flame, turn upside down apply a bit ghee on both sides(optional). Serve hot with Yogurt and hot pickle

Note:-I have made it by making tofu filling, some of my friends mix tofu and other ingredients together with the chappathi powder and make a dough which makes the process easy. you can make it that way if u do not have enough time. But the cooked tofu filled Parathas always tastes better.

Tomato Chutney

Ingredients:-

1. Onion roughly chopped -1
2. Tomato roughly chopped  -2
3. Green chilies sliced - 2
4. Ginger roughly chopped – 1 small piece
5. Oil- 2 tsp
6. Coriander leaves few(optional)
7. Curry Leaves 
8. Salt to taste

Seasoning:-

1. Oil - 1tsp
2. Mustard seeds - 1tsp
3. Curry leaves few
4. Dry Red Chilies few

Preparation Method:-

• Pour oil in a pan, add onion and saute till they turn translucent. Add tomatoes, green chilies, ginger, few curry leaves and saute well till tomatoes are soft.
• Add few chopped coriander leaves and saute for another minute and switch off the stove. Let it cool completely.
• Grind the tomato onion mix very well and keep aside. 
• Do the seasoning with the same pan which you sauteed tomato onion mix. ie Pour oil, crackle mustard seeds, add dry red chilies, curry leaves.
• Simmer the heat and pour the ground tomato chutney to the seasoning and let it boil. Switch off the stove and let it cool down.
• Add more curry leaves if desired before serving. Serve with Dosa/Idli/Vada or with any snacks of your choice. Enjoy!!!!

Chocolate Cake

• 2 cups sugar

• 1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour

• 3/4 cup Dark Cocoa powder

• 1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder

• 1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda

• 1 teaspoon salt

• 2 eggs

• 1 cup milk

• 1/2 cup vegetable oil

• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

• 1 cup boiling water

• CHOCOLATE FROSTING (recipe follows)

Directions

1. Heat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour round baking pan

2. Beat the egg yolk and white once at a time till it is fluffy. Add milk, oil, vanilla and beat well.

3. Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Add this dry mixture to the above wet one mixing it thoroughly. Stir in boiling water (batter will be thin). Pour batter into prepared pan.

4. Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans. Cool completely.

5. Run a knife between the cake carefully and cut it into equal half. Spread the chocolate frosting using a spatula, top with remaining cake, frost top and sides well. Refrigerate for half an hour if needed to get the frosting set well.



CHOCOLATE FROSTING

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter

2/3 cup Dark Cocoa powder

3 cups powdered sugar

1/3 cup milk( u can add additional milk as desired)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Melt butter. Stir in cocoa, sugar and mix well. Add milk, beat well. You can add additional milk, if needed. Stir in vanilla. Your chocolate frosting is ready.