Milagu Kuzhambu with Baby Brinjals ~ SpotLightBlog Recipe

Thanks for the support to the SpotLightBlog series. The second recipe from Shoba's virtual kitchen is milagukuzhambu with baby brinjals in it. Unlike in ennai kathrikkai kuzhambu, here the brinjals are not deep fried, they are just cooked in the tangy, spicy gravy.  I too make milagukuzhambu. But Shoba's recipe was different and addition of brinjals interested me. With hot rice and roasted pappad, its pure bliss.

Ingredients

Black Pepper – 1 tspn

Bengal Gram/kadala paruppu – 1 tspn
Red Chilli – 3 nos
Coriander seeds – 3/4 tspn
Grated Coconut – 3 tspn
Hing - few shakes

Tamarind – lemon sized
Brinjals - 5 small ones
Tuermeric - 1/4 tspn
Curry Leaves, Salt.

Method

Roast pepper in a teaspoon of ghee. Remove the roasted pepper and  add a tablespoon of oil. Roast chana dal, coriander seeds, red chilli. When you are about to remove, add the coconut and roast for few seconds. Cool and grind all the roasted ingredients along with pepper to a smooth paste by adding little water.

Soak the tamarind pulp in warm water for 10 minutes.  Wash and wipe the brinjals clean. Slit each brinjal into four keep the stalk intact. Extract the tamarind pulp in a cooking vessel. Stir in ground masala, salt, turmeric, hing and curry leaves and boil the mix. When it starts boiling, add the whole brinjals with the stalk, one by one to the boiling liquid. Continue cooking on low flame and allow the kuzhambu to simmer and let it reduce to one third. The brinjals would have been cooked well and absorbed the flavors.

Q & A On Recessed Lighting in Eichlers

This is a strictly West Coast Q & A.
Eichlers are contemporary California homes built by Joseph Eichler back in the 50's, 60's and 70's.































































I have helped design kitchens and baths in many Eichlers over the years, and there are some unique issues about their construction that present interesting challenges.

1. They are built on slab floors with radiant heat built into the slab in the form of piping which carries hot water from a boiler.

2. The design is open plan, with beams and posts to support the structural load (which is the roof).

3. As Tiana mentions in her question below; the roofs are tongue in groove wood, with no room for insulation. The roof is made waterproof with tar and gravel on top of the T&G planking.

4. The electrical actually runs on top of the roof in conduit. Lighting is mostly ceiling mounted ball glass pendants.

Q.
Dear Peggy,

Just saw your blog while noodling around trying to find recessed lighting using very shallow cans. We have an Eichler home in Lucas Valley (outskirts of San Rafael) and were wondering whether we could possibly put in recessed lighting in conjunction with a new foam roof.

This is usually not an option because the roofs are just tongue and grove ceiling boards over the exposed beams, then tar paper, old tar and gravel roof, then foam. But we have 2 inches of rigid board foam in between the tar paper and the tar and gravel on top.

Soooo, when we pour another 1.5 inches of foam for a new roof, we should have approximately 3 inches to work with being then flush with the surface about to receive the new roof.

Is there any recessed lighting which could be used in such a way? -- and ok to use with a sealed in application like that (conduit wired over the roof and permanently
sealed in?)

I was hoping with all these new low heat LED lights, someone would come up with one-- perhaps one more commonly used in cabinets. LEDs are quite bright so the lights could possibly be smaller than normal and still give plenty of light at counter level.

Any ideas? If you have a solution, there are lots of Eichler owners all over the Bay Area who would love your input!

thanks,

Tiana

A.
You would likely make a good kitchen designer Tiana. Our profession is consumed with getting the most out of every inch we are given. ;-D

Getting back to your question: In fact LED recessed fixtures are just a big as the old incandescent fixtures above the ceiling line.

It's true that the lights themselves are tiny, even when ganged together to form a downlight. But they generate a great deal of heat, in spite of your misconception. So a lot of room is taken up by the attached heat sink.

Thus:



























This is a Cree LR6. 3/4ths of the light is the heat sink. See the little fins on the sides? They help dissipate the heat. This fits inside a typical recessed fixture that takes up even more height. Then there is the wiring on top of that.

The only ways that I can think of that you could mount recessed lights in your Eichler ceilings would be two:

1. Apply sheetrock to the bottom of your ceilings beams. That would provide enough clearance to recess the fixtures.

2. Build insulated boxes, big enough to provide the prescribed air space around the fixtures, on your roof at the point of each fixture.

I'm afraid either solution would compromise your Eichler home to the point of making it not an Eichler any more.

The only other solution I can offer is to refer you to my favorite lighting designer, Randy Whitehead. I assure you, if there is a solution I have not presented that solves your problem, Randy knows it.

Please let us know if Randy has an answer for all those other Eichler owners out there because I'm sure that this post will draw them like flies.

Good luck Tiana,

Peggy

Methi kofta in kadhi & Friday Kolam

Kadi is to North Indians  what morkootan/morkuzhambu is to South Indians. Morkuzhambu has liberal use of coconut in it and the choice of veggies determine the taste. And what I like about Kadi is that its very light, no coconut and can be made in a jiffy, though some kadis take the elaborate route too. Next is green, which I try to make atleast thrice in a week. When ever I buy a bunch of methi, it sure gets its way into various dishes in handfuls. This is a Tarla Dalal's recipe where the koftas are not deep fried but steamed. When I saw the reecipe for Kadi and steamed kofta with one of my favorite green, I could not wait to try it out. Kadi was delicious. The koftas didnot breakup and stayed in shape even when I served for dinner. Koftas were not bitter too.

If you feel its too much of time involved, then you can shape the koftas ready the previous day and refrigerate them. Before preparing the kadi, all you will have to do is to just steam the koftas and kadi making will not take more than 10 minutes including the preparation and cooking time.

For Methi Koftas


Finely chopped methi leaves - 1 cup

Whole wheat flour - 1 tbspn

Rava/Semolina- 1 tbspn

Ginger-green chilli paste- 1/2 tspn

Tamarind juice - 1/2 tspn (or lemon juice)

Sugar - 1/2 tsp

Cooking soda- a pinch

Preparing Kofta

Add salt to methi and leave it aside for 5 minutes. Squeeze the water and plce in a bowl. Add all the ingredients for kofta along with little salt and knead to a soft dough. Add little water if required.

Moisten your hands with water and shape the dough into small koftas. I got 12 out of it. Steam in a steamer of your choice and keep it aside. I microwaved it for 2 minutes.

 

 
For Kadhi

1 cup fresh curds whisked with 1 1/2 cups of water

Besan/Chana dal flour - 2 tblspn
Onion - 1
Turmeric  a pinch
Salt to taste

To Temper

Oil - 1 tblspn

Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
Hing - a pinch
Curry leaves - few


Preparing Kadhi

Combine whipped curd and besan in a bowl. Whisk well and there should not be any lumps.

Heat oil in a pan add cumin. when the seeds crackle, add hing , curry leaves, onion and saute for 5 minutes or so. Add the whisked curd-besan mixture, turmeric powder, salt and bring to a boil over low flame.

Combine Kadhi and Kofta
If you are serving immediately, slowly drop the koftas. Else just before serving, add the koftas to kadhi and bring to a boil to serve hot.

I am sending this to Yasmeen's Bitter Better Health event

Friday Kolam/Thai Velli kolam

Since I was not keeping on good health, I could not do the podi kolam. So only one for this week.