Pongal Kuzhambu Aka Kootukai Kuzhambu

Ingredients

• Plantain - 1
• Sweet potato - 1
• Broad beans(Avaraikai)- 15
• Cooked Mochai- 2 hand full
• Eggplant - 2
• Pumpkin - 1
• Green jack fruit - 1 cup
• Cooked toor dal - 1 cup
• Onion - 1
• Tomato - 1
• Garlic - 7
• Sambar powder - 3 tspn
• Tamarind - 2 pod

health tip

This recipe has protein and vitamins and minerals.

Kootukai Kuzhambu

method

Kootukai in tamil means mixed vegetable. Any type of vegetable except English vegetables like carrot, cabbage..can be added. This kuzhambu is made only during pongal with the vegetables available during that season. Flavor and taste intensifies a day after this kuzhambu is made. It goes well with rice, dosai and idli.

1. Wash and dice the vegetables.
2. Mix the vegetables, onion, tomato, sambar powder, salt, fennel seeds, cooked dal, garlic, some oil and water together. Cook it covered with a lid till the vegetables get tender.
3. Add the tamarind pulp and some sugar. Let it cook for 5 minutes.

Idli And Dosai Batter

Ingredients

• For Idli and Dosai batter
• Idli rice or parboiled rice - 3 cups
• Raw rice or Long grain rice - 3 cups
• Poha (Aval) - 1/2 cup
• Whole urad dhal - 1 cup

health tip

Idli is a fat free food. It is easy to digest, so it can be given to people of all ages. It has carbohydrate and protein.

Idli And Dosai Batter

method

Idli and dosai is a south Indian delicacy made by fermenting the batter for 10 - 12 hours and then steaming the batter. All the ingredients are very important for making soft idli. Rice has two types of sugar called amylose and amylopectin, which helps the yeast in the air to breed and work on the batter to rise. Yeast in the air is called wild yeast, which is different from bakers yeast. Some people add a teaspoon of fenugreek seeds or a cup of cooked rice while grinding the batter to attract the wild yeast. Yeast needs warm temperature and sugar to thrive on the batter. That is why the batter it fermented at a temperature of 75 - 80 degrees. Enzymes in the yeast and the rice cause large starch molecules to break down into simple sugars. The yeast metabolizes these simple sugars and releases carbon dioxide and ethyl alcohol into the batter. Protein from urad dal helps to hold the air bubbles. As more and more tiny air cells fill with carbon dioxide, the dough rises and we're on the way to make spongy idlis. Adding bakers yeast or baking soda does not do the trick as wild yeast does. I found that adding poha (Aval) to the batter makes softer idlis and utthappam. If you are making the batter solely for crispy dosai you can eliminate poha. I use the same batter for both idli and dosai.

1. Wash the two types of rice and poha together and soak it for four hours.
2. Wash and soak the urad dhal in a separate bowl for four hours.
3. Grind the urad dal into a fine paste using a blender or wet grinder. The urad dhal batter should be ultra fine and have a silky texture. If you scoop it with your hand the batter holds up like whipped cream. It take about 30 - 40 minutes to get to that consistency. Transfer the batter to a container big enough to mix urad dal and rice.
4. Add the rice and poha mixture and grind it till rice is broken down to fine rava. This process also takes another 30 minutes.
5. Transfer the rice batter to the urad dal container and add 6 teaspoons of salt. Mix them both together by hand by beating and swirling till the urad dall is completely blended to rice. This process also helps to attract yeast in air.
   
   Be wary of adding water while grinding. The batter should not be too thick or too thin.
   
6. When both the mixture is blended completely, cover it and let it ferment in a warm place for about 10 - 12 hours.
   During winter, heat the oven at 200 degrees for 5 minutes and turn it off. Let the batter ferment in the oven. If needed, take out the batter from oven and repeat the heating process once or twice.
   

How to make Ghee

Ingredients

• Unsalted butter - 1pound
• Curry leaf - 5
• Dry red chili - 1

How to make Ghee

method

Ghee also known as clarified butter is actually made by removing milk solids and moisture content in the butter. Since the moisture content has been removed, ghee can be stored without refrigeration for longer time. It stays semi solid in room temperature and solidifies in cooler weather.It has higher smoking point than butter.

1. Unwrap the butter sticks and melt it in a heavy bottomed vessel at a low heat. Butter tends to burn at high heat. Heat setting at 3 is ideal for first timers.
2. When the butter gets liquefied, froth appear at the top with boiling sound. Butter at this stage tends to splutter, so it is better to make the ghee in a deep vessel. Do not cover the vessel at anytime while making ghee.
3. In about 5 minutes froth will start to subside. The temperature at this time will be at around 160 to 170 degrees. Add 5-6 curry leaves and a broken red chili to the butter. Curry leaves and red chili give flavor to the ghee.
4. At about 190 degrees or after 5 minutes froth will mostly subside. If you blow the liquid, you might be able to see the bottom of the vessel with some sediments settled down. The boiling sound will fade and you will hear a hissing sound. When the sediment colour turns to golden yellow, turn off the stove and move the vessel away from heat and let it cool.
5. The whole process takes about 25 - 30 minutes. When the ghee is leukwarm, filter it to a glass or metal container. Do not close the lid till the ghee is completely cooled, otherwise moisture gets trapped in the ghee and shortens the shelf life. 1 pound of butter yields 1 1/2 cups of ghee.

Butter cream embroidery on fondant covered cake

I made this cake for a friend of mine. I always get fascinated by butter cream embroidery on cakes. Since this is my first project in butter cream embroidery, I wanted to try it on fondant. Fondant is easily stretchable and can be molded into any form. It gives a smooth and silky appearance. You can find the fondant recipe here. Butter cream embroidery is done by outlining the designs with thin consistency butter cream icing. For further details and tutorials visit wilton's website

 

 

Marshmallow Fondant Recipe

Ingredients

• For smaller batch
• Mini marshmallow - 1 cup
• Crisco vegetable shortening - 1 tbspn
• Powdered sugar - 1 1/2 - 1 3/4 cups
• Water - 1 tbspn
• For bigger batch
• Mini Marshmallow - 16 oz package
• Crisco vegetable shortening - 1/2 cup
• Powdered sugar - 2 pounds
• Water - 2- 5 tbspn

Marshmallow Fondant

Method

Melt marshmallows and water in a microwave or double boiler. To microwave, place the bowl in the microwave for 30 seconds, open microwave and stir, back in microwave for 30 seconds more, open microwave and stir again, and continue doing this until melted.

Place 3/4 of the powdered sugar on the top of the melted marshmallow mix.

Now grease your hands GENEROUSLY (palms, backs, and in between fingers), then heavily grease the counter you will be using and dump the bowl of marshmallow/sugar mixture in the middle.

Start kneading like you would bread dough. You will immediately see why you have greased your hands.Keep kneading, this stuff is sticky at this stage! Add the rest of the powdered sugar and knead some more. Re-grease your hands and counter when the fondant starts sticking.

If the mix is tearing easily, it is too dry, so add water (about 1/2 tablespoon at a time and then knead it in). It usually takes me about 8 minutes to get a firm smooth elastic ball so that it will stretch without tearing when you apply it to the cake.

It is best if you can let it sit, double wrapped, overnight (but you can use it right away if there are no tiny bits of dry powdered sugar). If you do see them, you will need to knead and maybe add a few more drops of water.

Prepare the fondant icing for storing by coating it with a good layer of Crisco shortening, wrap in a plastic-type wrap product and then put it in a re-sealable or Ziploc bag. Squeeze out as much air as possible.

MM Fondant icing will hold very well in the refrigerator for weeks.

How to puree tomatoes

How to puree tomatoes

method

1. Wash the tomatoes thoroughly.
2. Boil some water in a stock pot. In another pot prepare ice cold water and set aside.
3. Cut a shallow X at the bottom of the tomato.
4. When the water starts to boil, turn off the stove. Put the tomatoes into the boiled water and leave it for 30 seconds or till the skin starts to loosen up.
5. When the skin starts to loosen take the tomatoes quickly from hot water and place it in the cold water to stop the cooking process. This method of drenching the veggies in boiling water and cooling in ice cold water is called blanching. Blanching helps to stop the enzymes responsible for ripening the fruits and veggies. By blanching the fruits and vegetables, we are preserving their freshness for longer time.
6. Once the tomatoes are cooled, peel the skin and puree it in a blender.

Tomato puree can be stored in the freezer for longer shelf life. It is hard to scoop out the frozen puree so I usually freeze the puree in ice cube trays & store the frozen cubes in a freezer safe container

Curry Leaf Kuzhambu

Ingredients

• Onion - 2 Medium size
• Garlic - 8 pods
• Tomato - 2
• Fresh Curry leaves - 4 cups
• Almond or cashews - 6
• Coconut - 4 pieces
• Poppy Seeds - 1/2 tspn
• Black Pepper - 1 tspn
• Chilli Powder - 1 tspn
• Cumin Seeds - 1/2 tspn
• Tamarind - 3 pods or 1/2 tspn paste

health tip

Curry leaves improve functioning of the stomach and small intestine and promote their action. They improve the quality of digestive juices secreted during digestion. Certain ayurvedic research says that curry leaves have some role in controlling non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus.

Curry Leaf Kuzhambu

method

1. Chop the onion, tomato and garlic.
2. Grind Curry leaves, Almond or cashews,Coconut, Poppy Seeds, Black Pepper, Chilli Powder, Cumin Seeds and tamarind pods(if using tamarind paste, no need to add it at this stage) into a fine paste.
3. Heat some oil in a pot & season it with mustard & urad dhal. Saute the onion, garlic & tomato till tomato gets mushy.
4. Add the ground paste, half a cup of water & salt to taste.
   Using sesame oil for seasoning gives a nice flavor.
   
5. Cover the pot with lid and let it cook till the oil separates. Stir it from time to time since the gravy settles down and sticks to the pot if unattended.
6. If using tamarind paste, mix in the paste and let it boil for one more minute. Consistency of this kuzhambu is little thinner than chutney.
   This Kuzhambu can be kept in the fridge for 3-4 days. It goes well with rice, Idli & Dosa.