RICE KHEER

Though there are so many varieties of paal payasams, this one is very special and tasty because the rice is fried in ghee first and then pressure-cooked in milk here. This makes this kheer the most delicious dessert in your kitchen!!

Ingredients:

Raw rice- 1 cup
Ghee- half cup
Thick milk- 2 liters
Broken Cashew nuts- 2 tbsp
Raisins- 3 tbsp
Saffron- ¼ sp
Cardamom powder-1/4 sp
Sugar- 3 cups

Procedure:

Heat a pan and pour the ghee.
On slow fire, first fry the cashew nuts and raisins and take them away.
Add the rice and fry them to golden brown.
Heat a pressure cooker and pour the milk.
Add the fried rice with the ghee, saffron, and cardamom powder.
Mix well. Close with the lid and pressure cook the milk with the rice to one whistle on medium fire.
Then reduce the heat to very low and cook for further 25 minutes.
Open the pressure cooker, add the sugar and further cook for some minutes until you get a slight thickened consistency.

KEERAI KOOTTU

This is a very simple recipe but the taste is delicious!

Ingredients:

Thuar dal- ¾ cup
Split Green chillies-4
Finely chopped onion-1
Finely crushed tomato-2 cups
Small garlic flakes-10
Finely chopped coriander leaves- half cup
Finely chopped keerai-3 cups
Turmeric powder- half sp
Salt to taste
Oil-4 tbsp
Cumin seeds- half sp
Asafotida –half sp

Procedure:

Pressure cook the dal.
Heat a pan and pour the oil.
Add the cumin seeds and when they splutter add the onion and fry them to golden brown.
Add the tomatoes with the green chillies, asafotida, turmeric powder and the garlic flakes and fry them until the tomatoes are mashed well and the oil floats on the surface.
Add the dal and when it starts to boil add the keerai with enough salt.
Boil for some minutes until the keerai is cooked without changing its green colour.
Pour a spoon of ghee and serve.

Note:

Either palak keerai or mulaikkeerai will give great taste to this dish.

Muringai Poo Kootu (Drumstick blossom and chana dal in coconut paste)

Some of the widely used flowers in daily cooking are vazhai poo (banana), vepam poo (neem) ,muringai poo (drumstick) and the like. I have cooked only with vazhai poo,  all these years. I have heard of vepam poo pachadi and rasam but never got access to vepam poo. Muringa poo is another one which I wanted to try. I hav a drumstick tree in my backyard. And no one will ever try to pick those flowers willingly since they will have to forego the drumsticks instead. Ever since I saw the post at Nirmala's, I wanted to give it a try. Few days back, when my maid was trying to pick the drumsticks on a top branch, the branch broke since drumstick tree is very fragile. And it had so much of flowers. Infact my maid felt bad about it. But the sight of my maid  with the bunch of flowers, brought a huge smile on my face. Without a delibrate attempt, i have got some flowers . I prepared kootu with the flowers the next day. Thanks Nirmala for inspiring me to try it.

 

You need

Muringai poo - 2 cups ( Use more if u can get)

Chana dal - 4 tblspn

Grated coconut - 1/4 cup

Red chilly - 1 nos

Cumin seeds - 1/2 tspn

Salt

Turmeric

Seasoning

Oil, mustard seeds, urad dal and red chilly, broken into two.

 

Method

 

Cook chana dal in pressure cooker till soft but firm. Wash the flowers and cook in 1/2 cup of water with salt and turmeric. When the flowers wither, add the cooked chana dal and let it simmer for few minutes.

Grind the grated coconut, red chilly and cumin to a smooth paste. Add little water while grinding. Add the ground paste to the cooking mix and bring to a boil.

Heat a seasoning ladle with a teaspoon of oil and season with mustard, urad dal and red chillies. Add it to the kootu. Serve with hot rice and sambhar.