HLOCs in Peril

There was a large portion of Andrew S. Ross' "The Bottom Line" column, Wells Fargo cutting customers' lines of credit, in the San Francisco Chronicle today devoted to banks yanking Homeowner Lines of Credit from Bay Area customers with good credit.

Ross' article is required reading for any homeowner who plans to finance a remodel with an unused HLOC. Even with a stellar credit rating, you may find the HLOC is bye-bye.

Peggy

Tomato-Garlic Rasam

I live in UAE, many of you know how is summer here. There is a change in the season now. Its getting better. As the season changes, comes the Seasonal Flu. My Son is due for his Flu shot next week.
At home i have started with what we call the Paati Vaithiyam (Grandma's Medicine).

This Tomato-Garlic Rasam is excellent to have when u have those cold symptoms. It brings great relief.
I dont say it substitutes your regular medicines, but definitely brings a great relief in those cranky/nagging/achy whatever!!!! time.

Works well with the kids tooo. Kids now-a-days are genereally picky eaters, and with those cold symptoms , no need to say at all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is how i make it. I m sending this to Srivalli's Kids Delight

Ingredients
Tomatoes - 4 medium sized
Garlic - 4-5 cloves
Ginger - 2 tsp
Green Chillie - 1no
Curry leaves - 2 sprigs
coriander - 2 sprigs

Rasam Powder Ingredients
Pepper - 2 tsp
cumin - 21/2 tsp
dhaniya/coriander - 11/2 tsp
toor dal - 1 tsp
chana dal and moong dal - 1/2 tsp each

Seasoning
Ghee - 2 tsp (If you are calorie conscious you can use sunflower oil too)
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
hing - a pinch

Grind them all together to a fine powder. No need to dry roast them.

Method.

Cube the tomatoes and Grind it to a fine paste withe other given ingredients. no need to add water while grinding. the tomatoes will take care of it.

Transfer the contents to another vessel and wash the mixie jar with a cup of water and take that too.

In a kadai, heat oil/ghee, splutter mustard seeds, add hing and add the tomato -garlic paste. Add rasam powder and salt.

Let it boil, Keep the flame low, If the rasam is very thick add another 1/2 cup of water.Let it boil for 10 minutes in low flame. Take it off the flame. Garnish with a dash of pepper powder and serve.

You can have it with Rice or just a soup.

Navarathri Day 5 &6 - Kozhukkattai Payasam, Ammini Kozhukkattai & Poori Payasam, Puli Avil

Day 5

Kozhukkattai Payasam

I have heard of kozhakkattai payasam but never got an opportunity to taste. My MIL has tasted it a relative's house and she gave me an outline of the recipe. But didnot know the proprtions well. The recent addition to my cook book collection is Meenakshi Ammal's 'Cook & See' Part II which has a lovely collection of traditional sweets and payasams. Since I had decided to make 9 different payasams for Navarathri, I got an opportunity to try it out.  I tried with half the quantity mentioned in the book. That was  enough to serve 4.


Ingredients



Rice flour - 1 cup

salt - a pinch

Water - 1 cup

Ghee - 1 tspn

Jaggery - 1 cup

Milk - 1 cup

Coconut Milk - 1/2 cup

Cardamom powder -1/2 tspn



Method


Prepare the rice flour in the same way is made for different savouries - Soaking, shade drying and powdering. I get it pound in the flour mill. So that part is easy.


To make Kozhukkattais

Equal quantity of water to the measure flour is used. Here 1 cup of water is heated with a  teaspoon of ghee and a pinch of salt in a shallow vessel. When the water starts boiling, slowly stir in the flour without forming lumps. Turn well for 3-5 minutes. When the flour gets  cooked well (you will know by the change in colour of the dough), switch of the fire and cover  and leave it for 10 minutes. Spread the cooked dough on a plate to cool. Knead well with ghee. Make small balls to the  size of small gooseberries.



To preapre the payasam.

Measure the rolled balls/kozhukkattais. Using the same cup/vessel, measure equal quanitities of water. If you measure 2 cups of kozhukkattais, take 2 cups of water. Boil the water in a wide vessel. When the water starts boiling, add few balls, at a time. Once a batch is added, give time for the balls to cook and come up to the surface. I added in 3 batches (around 25 nos in each batch). Once all the balls are added, while boiling, gently turn the balls with a flat spoon. Don't do stir it often since it will break the balls. Also do not add all the balls at once, since the balls will dissolve in the water. If you keep in mind these aspects, you cannot go wrong. 

Once the kozhakkattais are well cooked, add the powdered jaggery. When the jaggery melts and blends well, add the milk. Cook for two minutes. Add the coconut milk. Just bring it to a boil. Let it not reach the rolling boil stage since it might curdle. Remove and add the elaichi powder. If desired, roasted cashewnuts can also be added.

To make a vegan version, you can use omit milk and use only coconut milk. I liked it very much. Though reading the recipe may give you the impression of a laborious process, it will not take more than 30 minutes to prepare the payasam. Only the kozhakkattai making part takes time. Rest is very easy.

Ammini Kozhukkattai

Since I pound the flour in large quantity, I decided to make ammini Kozhukkatai for evening prasadom. The kids who comes daily for prasadom loves this and have been asking me when I will be making it for prasadom. The kozhakkattais dough is prepared the same as I mentioned ealier. Since this are savory, my MIL grinds 2 chillies along with a tablespoon of rice flour to a fine paste. This chilly paste is added to the boiling water before the flour is tipped in. This will give a nice flavor and some heat to the kozhukkattais. The kozhakkattais are then steamed for 10 minutes. When cool, it is sauteed in a seasoning of mustard, red chillies and curry leaves.

Day 6 ~ Poori Payasam & Puli Avil



Poori Payasam

Recipe Source : Meenakshi Ammal's Cook & See (II)


Ingredients

Wheat flour - 3/4 cup

Milk - 2 cups

Sugar - 1 1/2 cups

Cardamom powder - 1/2 tspn

Saffron a pinch

Water - 1 1/2 cups

Oil to deep fry.


Method

Knead wheat flour with little water a 2 tspn of ghee. The dough is quite stiff. Roll out into thick pooris. Cut the poories into small diamond shaped peices. Deep fry the pieces till it is crisp and golden brown in color. While frying, something else took my attention away for few seconds, one batch was just brown.

Boil 1 1/2 cups of water in a wide vessel. Whe the water starts boiling, slowly drop the fried  pieces and let it cook for 5 minutes. Add the sugar. When the sugar melts, add the milk and bring to a boil. Let it simmer for few minutes. Add saffron and elaichi and remove from fire. I found the payasam to be very watery. So I mixed 2 teaspoons of arrowroot powder in cold milk and stirred into the payasam  and cooked till the payasam starts thickening. Also next time I will reduce the sugar to 1 cup since it was too sweet for our palette.  My MIL said she has tasted where the pieces are not cut this way. Instead the fried poories are later torn into pieces and added to payasam. I think that might give a better texture to the payasam too. The payasam tasted like the sugar dipped diamond bisuits added to milk.

Puli Avil

I have already blogged about puli avil using lemon juice. Instead of lemon juice for the tangy taste, tamarind extract is used. So the tamarind juice is added soon after the seasoning and its cooked till it thickens. Rest of the procedure is same. Here I have added peanuts too to give a crunch to the avil.