Nombu Kanji, a Ramadan special vegetarian dish

Nombu Kanji

Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar. Quaran was revealed in this month. It is a very pious and sacred month for e very muslims across the world. During Ramadan fasting is most important. It is one of the five pillars for them. During this month muslim brothers and sisters do fasting during daytime from dawn to sunset. They don’t even drink water during this fasting period. So after the evening namaz they   will break the fast with a dish called nombu kanji. It is generally served sourthen states of India. It is a filling, light and tasty food to break the fast.

Nombu kanji, the most well known among the Ramadan dishes, is a healthy, sumptuous option to break the fast. It is distributed in all the mosques across Tamil Nadu in the holy month. It is traditionally made with mutton or chicken in a big bowls (handis) and then transferred to small bowls for serving. It is a slow cooked dish with lots of aroma and flavor. I made the vegetarian version of the same. It took less time but the flavors are same. It has good ness of rice, dal and veggies. It can also be eaten during normal days as a breakfast, or baby food or less oil dish.

Rice- 1 cup (raw rice, but I used zeera rice)

Moong dal – ½ cup

Chopped veggies- 1 ½ cup (cabbage, capsicum, green peas, carrot and beans)

Onion – 1 medium sized

Garlic- 6 to 7 cloves

Ginger- 1 inch

Tomato- 1 (medium)

Green chilli- 1

Fennel seeds- 1 tbsp

Garam masala- 1 tbsp

Coconut- ½

Salt to taste

Haldi- 1 tsp

Red chilli- ½  tsp

Oil- 1 ½ tbsp

Mint leaves- 7 to 8

Coriander leaves for garnishing

Wash and clean the rice and soak for 15 mins. Do same with the moong dal.

In the meantime chop the veggies and keep aside.

Clean and chop onion, garlic, ginger and green chili and keep aside. Chop mint leaves and tomatoes and keep aside.

Scarp the coconut and grind it. Add 1 cup of water and strain it. Coconut milk is ready to use.

Heat oil in a pressure cooker and add crushed fennel seeds. Now add chopped onion and sauté them. Then add chopped ginger, garlic and green chili and sauté. Add chopped tomatoes and sauté up to all the masala come together. Now add haldi, red chili, salt and garam masala to it. Sauté uo to masala separated from oil.

Add chopped veggies to the masala and sauté. When water dries up add soaked rice and dal and sauté. Add water up to I inch above the rice dal and veggies and pressure cook it up to 3 whistlea (1 in high and 2 in low).  Allow it to cool down.

Open the cooker and mashed the kanji and add some water (if it  is too dry) and cook again. Now add cococnut milk and mix properly. Don’t cook for more time after adding coconut milk as coconut milk may split. Now taste the kanji and balance the seasoning. 

Serve hot in small bowls and garnish with chopped coriander leaves. Generally it is served with bonda or bhajjis.

Samber Rice from MTR Samber powder

Samber Rice

Samber Rice… The very name suggests that, it serves the purpose of a Complete meal.  It is a dish full of carbohydrate, protein and vitamins of vegetables. Very easy and quick to prepare.  As it is complete meal it is very good for lunch box.  Especially for kid’s lunch box.  Fuzzy eaters will have goodness of dal, energy of rice and strength of veggies.  

Today elder son woke up to get ready for school.  His first question in the morning was what's for lunch mama.  I said Samber Rice.  He smiled at me and said, “wow my favourite”.  Any side dish will be best for it like chips or papad.  And all types of sukhi sabzi will go with this dish.  Here is my version of samber rice. 

Rice - 1 cup

Tuardal -  1/2 cup

Salt to taste

Haldi- 1/2 +1/2 tsp

Red chilli powder -  1/2tsp

MTR Samber powder -  2 tbsp

Zeera -  1tsp

Mustard -  1tsp

Methi seeds -  1tsp

Hing -  1/2tsp

Red Chili -  2

Brinjal - 1

Bhindi -  4 to 5

 Carrot -  1

Radish - 1

Green peas -  3tbsp

Onion - 1 big 

Samber onion -  10

Tomatoes -  2

Curry leaves -  1 string 

Tamarind -  one big marvel size

Wash and clean both rice and dal and soak together for 15 mins. After 15 mins in a pressure cooker add soaked rice and dal, salt, haldi and hing and cook upto 2 whistles (Quick Tip: Add Hing while boiling to allow the whole grain and pulse absorb its aroma) 

Cut all the veggies length wise and put them in water except bhindi.  Slice the big onions and keep aside.  Crush the tomatoes and keep aside (Quick Tip: Instead of cutting tomatoes, try crushing so as to extract better flavour). Clean and peel the small onions and keep aside. 

Heat oil in a pan, add mustard,  zeera and Methi, let them crackle.  Now add red Chili and curry leaves and saute.  Add sliced onions and saute them up to pinkish in colour.  Add all the veggies, salt, haldi and red chilli powder.  Saute upto the veggies are 90% cooked.  Now add the boiled rice and dal and  MTR samber powder.  Cook them properly and let the veggies cook.. Now add tamarind pulp and balance the seasoning. 

Serve hot with a spoon of ghee and with any side dish of your choice.  

kheer

Kheer

Kheer is one of the most favorite food of Lord Sri Jagannath of Puri, Odisha.  It forms part of Chappan Bhog of the Lord. On Snana Purnima (Jyastha Purnima) I made this yummy Kheer as prasad.  I offered to Lord first, then to family.  Family liked it very much. So I felt God is happy too. 

Chaula Kheer or Rice Kheer or Rice Pudding or simply “Kheer” (In Odia language known as Kheeri) is a very commonly prepared sweet dish.  Still many don't know how to get the perfect texture, creaminess and flavor. Though some school of thought may not agree that my preparation is original and authentic recipe, but this recipe replicates the original flavor of the dish to a very large extent. But it is easy to prepare and less time consuming. There is less chance of milk getting burnt in this recipe. Burnt smell of milk always spoils the Kheer.

So here is my recipe of Kheer.

Jeera Rice (or any small grained basmati  Variety)- ¾ cup

Milk- 2 lit

Sugar- 6 to 7 tbsp (as per taste) + 1 tbsp

Elaichi (Cardamom) pods- 2

Nutmeg powder- ½ tsp

Amul Spray Milk Powder – 3 tbsp (Optional)

Ghee- 1 tbsp + ½ tsp

Kaju- 2 tbsp + 10 for garnishing

Kishmish- 2 tbsp

Bay leaves- 1

Salt- ¼ tsp

Rinse and clean the rice properly and soak the rice for half an hour.

In a heavy bottom pan boil milk; add cardamom seeds and skin to it. It should be reduced to 1 ltr and keep aside. When still hot add amul spray. Don’t use any other milk powder

After half an hour in a pressure cook add ghee (1 tbsp) and sugar (1 tbsp). let it caramelize, but carefully, it may burn. Add soaked rice, nutmeg powder and salt. Sauté properly up to water dries from the rice. Now add water up to 1 inch above the rice. (a quick tip: Add the Salt definitely at this stage. It helps the rice to be fluffy and mashed easily and properly). Pressure cook the stuff up to 3 whistles (1 in high, 2 in low). Let it cool down.

After some time mash the rice with the back of a ladle properly. It should be like a coarse paste. Now add half of the reduced milk to it. Mix properly and cook again. When rice  mixture thickens a bit add other half milk. Cook again up to the milk reduces a bit. Add sugar to it and cook up to the sugar dissolves. (a quick tip: Don’t cook more time after adding sugar, it may spilt the milk.).

Heat ghee in a small pan and add kaju and kishmish. Sauté them up to golden brown. Add fried kaju and kishmish to the kheer after switching off the gas. Sometimes sourness of kishmish spilt the milk.

Bring down to room temperature. It taste good in room temperature or cold.

Serve as you feel like.

Rediscover the authentic Taste of Tamil Nadu

Rediscover the authentic Taste of Tamil Nadu@ Le meridien

MTR was relaunching its masala ranges and conducted an event for the same at Hotel Le Royal Méridien. Chef Damu was the guest of the event. It was a honour for me that I was a part of that event. Pioneer of Chettinad cuisine, Chef Damu was the Chief Guest who introduced the masala to us. Miss Rekha Nahar, GM Marketing, also gave us a brief about the MTR group, its working system and how they got the idea of these masalas and also how they got the recipes.

MTR is a friend in every household and needs no introduction. It is a more than 90 years old company which produces breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack and desserts. It brings the authentic taste of India to every household. To retain the authentic flavors of the masalas MTR is using the pounding method instead of grinding. Breaking the whole spices slowly enhances the flavor of the spices. This is the trick of MTR which made the group to serve the authentic taste.

The flag bearer of the chettinad cuisine chef Damodaran K, lovingly known as chef Damu was the chief guest of the event.  He gave a cooking demo of the masalas. It was really a great experience to be a part of his cooking demo. He not only gage the demo of how to use the masalas but also gave few tips how to enhance and retain the flavor of the masalas. Chef while preparing the recipes.

Recipe of the Samber, Veg Chettinad Masala and Parappu  kozhambu prepared by chef

Pix of the dishes

This awesome interactive session with chef Damu was followed by a really relishing lunch. The lunch was prepared using MTR range of masalas. It was not only tasty and lip smacking but also authentic. The menu consisted of rice, puliyogare, veg biryani, rasam, samber, kozhambu, veg chettinad masala and few more.

All dishes were really good. But veg chettinad and veg biryani were the star as per me. The flavors were very so good that one cannot stop eating.

Whole meeting was very interactive, jovial and friendly one. Meeting with Chef , talented bloggers and MTR group people was indeed a great experience.

some pictures clicked by Karthik.. 

Website: http://www.mtrfoods.com

To shop: shop.mtrfoods.com

For recipes: www.discovery.in

Khira Poda Pitha

Khira Poda Pitha 

Raja,  a cultivators festival,  is a festival of food and merry making.  All ladies love this festival and made lots of dishes.  Poda Pitha is one among them.  Khira poda pitha is a version of poda pitha usually made in southern odisha. 

My best friend swarupa (pinky) is from south odisha.  She used to prepare this pitha for festive occasions.  This is my favourite pitha.  She suggested why don't you make this pitha for raja and write in your blog.  I said yes and asked for the recipe.  She obliged me with the recipe.  

This dish and article is dedicated to my best friend swarupa and southern odisha.  Here is the recipe of khira poda pitha. 

Rice- 1cup

Milk- 4cup

Sugar - 1cup

Green cardamom powder -  tsp

Chopped coconut pieces- 2tbsp

Chopped cashew nuts -  2tbsp

Salt -  1/4tsp

Ghee - 11/2tbsp

Scraped coconut - 2tbsp

Wash and soak rice in a bowl for one hour.  

After one hour in a grinder jar add soaked rice and scarped coconut and make a smooth paste. 

In the mean time heat 1/2tbsp of ghee in a frying pan and add chopped coconut and cashew nuts.  Saute up to light brown in colour. 

In a heavy bottom pan add milk and sugar.  Heat the pan and stir upto the sugar dissolves.  Then add cardamom powder, fried chopped coconut and cashew nuts and let it boil.  Then add the rice paste and stir continuously.  Slowly it will be like a thick paste and come together. 

Heat ghee in a pressure cooker and pour all the rice paste in the cooker. Spread it evenly and level the top the pitha. Now remove the whistle and cover the lid.  Let it cook for one hour in a slow flame. 

After one hour one can see the pitha started leaving the sides and turned golden brown from every side.  This means the pitha is done.  Don't worry if the surface of pitha looks moist. 

Leave it to cool down completely.  After that the pitha will come out of the cooker easily.  Don't be impatient and hurry to bring out the pitha from the cooker,  or else you will end up breaking down the pitha. (I am too impatient and I always end breaking the pitha). 

Now serve.  One can pair with dalma this pitha.  But I love this pitha without any thing.  

Budha Chakuli

                                                          Budha Chakuli

Raja festival  is a very famous festival of odisha.  Odia people wait for the whole year for this festival.  Basically it is a festival of cultivators.  This is a festival dedicated to woman and motherhood. That's why girls celebrate this in a more dedicated way.  It is celebrated for 3 days.  In these 3 days ladies normally don't do any work.  Cooking is done day before the raja starts.

But with the change of time these rituals fade away.  But one thing doesn't fade away is the food.  For these days ladies cook so many varieties of dishes like poda pitha,  budha chakuli,  kakara pitha,  dahi bara and the list is never ending.

I don't have girl in my house to celebrate this festival.  But I always wanted to teach my boys about it.  So every year I too make different dishes.  First day of the  raja is called a Pahili Raja.  For Pahili Raja I made budha chakuli.  It is a thick pan cake from urad dal and rice mix batter with jagerry in it.  It is Lord Jagannath's one of the favourite dish.

Here is my recipe of budha chakuli

Urad dal- 1/2cup

Raw rice- 1/2cup

Salt- 1/4tsp

Jaggery- 4 to 5 tbsp ( depends upon ones choice)

Coconut pieces- 4tbsp

Ripe banana- 3

Ginger- 1' inch long

Black pelper- 1 1/2tsp

Saunf- 1tsp

Ghee for frying.

Rinse and clean urad dal properly and soak for 3 to 4 hours.  Do the same with rice.

After 4 hours grind rice and urad dal separately.  Beat the urad dal with hands till fluffy.  Put a drop of the batter in water and whether the batter is floating then it is ready to add rice paste.  Mix rice paste and beat again.

Peel ginger,  crush it and keep aside.  Make black pepper powder and keep aside.  Mash the banana and keep aside   mix everything to the batter except ghee.  Mix  properly and let it rest for 15 mins.

Pre heat a tawa and pour a ladel full of batter on it. Speared but it has to be  thick. Spread ghee on and around the chakuli.  Turn the chakuli when down side is golden brown.  Cook both sides upto golden brown.

Generally It is served without any thing.  But one can pair allo curry or guguni with this.  Serve hot. 

Prawn cutlets..

PRAWN CUTLETS

Prawn whose other name is shrimp is really  a tasty food. It is generally a seafood but fresh water ones are also available . It is very widely available but bit costly too. But the taste is overpowering the cost of the product . I love prawn and so do my family .

I went to fish market to bring prawn for lunch. I got variety of prawns. I purchased big one for gravy . But a small variety dragged my attention . I thought of why not purchase these prawns and make a cutlet out of these.

When I was a kid my mom used to say about a prawn cutlet dish (though she is pure vegetarian), which my granny used to cook for special occasions . I always fascinated by this dish and wanted to cook . When I saw small variety of prawns in the market I couldn't able to control my temptation for the dish .

I made this dish as per my granny's recipe after asking my mom. My granny is no more but she is always in my heart. This particular recipe and dish is dedicated to my sweetest granny. 

Small prawns -500 gms

Onion- 1 medium sized 

Garlic -3 to 4 cloves

Green chilli- 2 ( as per taste )

Salt to taste 

Haldi powder - 1 tsp

Red chilli powder -1/2 tsp

Garam masala - 3/4 tbsp

Poppy Seed - 2 tbsp

Besan- 2 tbsp

Rice flour - 3 to 4 tbsp

Oil for tawa frying 

Chopped coriander - 2 bsp

Peel and devein the prawns. Clean properly in running water and keep aside

 .

Peel and chop garlic and chop green chillies. In a grinder jar add cleaned prawns, garlic and chillies and make a smooth paste. Transfer it  to a mixing bowl .

Chop onion and add to the prawn mixture bowl. Add all the ingredients except oil. Mix properly . Keep aside for 15 minutes.

In the meantime heat oil in a tawa. Bring the rested mixture and apply oil or water on the palm and shape Cutlets. Shallow fry the Cutlets in tawa.

Serve hot with any chutney of your choice and sliced onion .