Karamani Kaara Kozhambu (Chettinad style)

This is Mrs. Mano's recipe. I tried it today and came out pretty good. We had it with rice and papad.

Ingredients:
Karamani(black eye peas) - 3/4 cup
Tamarind - small lime sized
Oil - 3 tsp
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Curry leaves - a few sprigs
Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
Fenugreek seeds - 1 tsp
Garlic flakes - 4
Small onions - 6
Tomatoes - 3/4 cup
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Chilli powder - according to your taste
salt
coriander powder - 2 tsp
Coconut - 1/2 cup

Method:
Soak Karamani for 4 hours and pressure cook it till soft.
Extract juice from tamarind.
Heat oil in a pan. Add mustards seeds, cumin, fenugreek seeds and garlic flakes.
Add onions and fry well. Add tomatoes and cook till it gets mashed.
Pour the tamarind extract, add turmeric powder, chilli powder and coriander powder. Let the kuzhambu simmer for 15 minutes.
Grind coconut to a fine paste with water and add this to the kuzhambu. Add cooked karamani. Let it simmer for some more minutes.

Menthiya Dosai

Menthiya Dosai / Methi seeds dosa



There are umpteen varieties of dosas. Add or remove an ingredient, you get a new type of dosa. Always wondered, how new variants are created. Its true, necessity is the mother of invention. May be in the past, when urad dal was scarce or was not affordable to common man, this dosa must have got birth out of a creative mind. This is a quickie but not the instant kind. The dosa takes only raw rice and methi seeds as ingredient. So you can prepare the batter in a mixer too. That is you can do with out a wet grinder.


Ingredients


Raw rice - 2 cups

Boiled rice - 2 tblspoon ( Optional -this gives softness to the dosa)

Methi seeds - 2 tspn


Wash and soak all the ingredients together for 4 hours. Grind to a fine batter. Ferment it overnight.

Take a laddle full and spread to make dosa. This will not be paper thin.

Cook both sides.



I love menthiya dosa with ulli-mulaku chutney. That combo is just out of the world. This time I served with coconut chutney.

For Coconut Chutney
grated coconut - 1/2 cup
pottukadalai/chutney dal - 2 tblspn
green chilly - 3 nos (adjust to your taste)
salt

Grind all the ingredients together adding little water. Adjust the consistency by adding water after grinding. Season with mustard, hing and curry leaves.

Carrot-almond Payasam

This rich, smooth and nutty payasam is sure to satisfy your taste buds. This is my own recipe.
Measurements are eyeballed and approximate.

Ingredients:
Carrots - about 4-5
Nuts - almonds(about 15), cashew(about 15), pista(optional)
Dates(optional) - 5-6
Elaichi - 1/2 tsp
Saffron - 1/4 tsp
Condensed milk - 1/2 tin(depends on how sweet you want the kheer to be)
Evaporated milk(optional) - 1/2 tin
Regular 2% milk - 4 glasses

Method:
Pressure cook carrots.
Soak almonds and cashews in hot water. When cool, remove the skin of almonds.
Grind carrots, cashews, almonds, pista, dates, saffron with very little milk(2 tablespoons) to a smooth paste.
Boil milk and set aside.
Add the ground paste to milk.
Add condensed milk and evaporated milk.
Add elaichi.
Have it hot or chilled.