Kadalaekai Parishe (Groundnut Festival) Event Round Up

KADALAEKAI PARISHE @ Chitra Amma's Kitchen

EVENT ROUND UP

Here is the roundup of the Kadalaekai Parishe Blog Event. We received few entries via blogs as well as Facebook! A big big thanks to all our participants! Check them out below, but only after listening to this song, which can be described as ‘a vintage namma Bengaluru’ song by S. Janaki! It is from a 1970 Rajkumar and Kalpana starrer – Karulina Kare!

Now for the entries....
We had very varied entries and some novel ideas as well! Check out the array below! Yummy!
Kadalekai Parishe Entries!

A spicy Peanut Chat by Chitra, from the Chitranna Blog.

A heart warming Shenga Holige by Lakshmi, from Taste of Mysore.

A very exotic set of Peanut Butter Marble Cookies by Sayantani, from A Homemakers Dairy.

A yummy vazhaikakai kadalaiikai kootu by Vidya, from The Black Ladle.

An easy Peanut Chutney by Sunitha, from Sunitha's Kitchen.

A crunchy plate of Groundnut Pakodas by Ramya, from ramyaskitchen.

A delicious and sinful looking batch of Peanut Butter Chocolate Fudge by Priya, from Priya's Easy n Tasy Recipes.

An interesting Avalakki Bisibele Bath by Veena, from her blog Delishun.

Tara sent two entries. Here is her healthy Peanutbutter Noodle Salad and a yummy bowl of Kung Pao Tofu with Peanuts, from her blog Finishing with Cilantro.

We received the following 3 recipes on our Facebook Page.

Vidya has sent us her chutney recipe.
Simple Peanut Chutney (Dip).
Ingredients: Peanuts(1cup), 1 big onion chopped, 4 large Dry Red Chillis, 1 Tbs. Tamarind Paste. Salt.
Method: Dry roast peanuts till the skin pops and the nuts are slightly coloured. Set aside to cool. Heat 2 spoons oil in wok, add chopped onions and chillis with a very small pinch of sugar and fry till reddish. Put in blender along with peanuts , tamarind and salt .Grind into thick, pasty chutney. ( with a dash of water if needed) . Sprinkle a garnish of splutted mustard seeds and karipatta ( bayleaves)

A very delicious and classic sambhar recipe from Krithika Ram.

Brinjal and Peanut Samhar

Ingredients: 1 cup tur dhal, 1/4 cup peanuts, tender brinjals 4 slit into 4, tamarind extract-1/4 cup, dry red chillies-4 nos, green chilly-2, coconut grated-1/4 cup, corriander seeds-1tbsp
fenugreek seeds-1/4 tsp, channa dhal-1/tbsp, sambar powder-1/2 tbsp, jaggery-1tsp, oil-1tbsp
mustard-1/2tsp, asafoetida-1/4tsp, turmeric powder-1/2tsp, salt to taste, curry leaves to garnish.
Method: Pressure cook the peanuts and toor dhal till done. Dry roast the corriander, fenugreek,channa dhal,red and green chilly,and finally the coconut. Grind to a fine paste and keep aside. Heat the oil in a deep pan, and add 1/2tsp mustard seeds and the asafoetida.
Add the slit brinjals and saute for a few mins till tender. Now pour the tamarind extract and allow to boil. Add the cooked dhal and peanuts, sambar powder,ground paste and 1/2 cup water, allow to simmer and then add salt to taste and some jaggery. Garnish with fresh curry leaves and serve hot with rice and pappadoms.


Here is Krithika Ram’s second recipe! A delicious podi like this in your kitchen, is so so handy, not only as an accompaniment for various tiffins, but you can just have with rice and ghee when you don’t feel like cooking!
Peanut Chutney Powder
Ingredients: peanuts-1 cup, channna dhal-1/2 cup, urad dhal-1/2 cup, dessicated coconut-1/4 cup, sesame seeds-1tbsp, dry red chilly-15 nos, small piece of tamarind, curry leaves-1 tbsp, asafoetida-1/2 tsp, salt to taste, jaggery-1tsp, garlic-3 flakes.

Method: Dry roast all ingredients, except the salt and jaggery. Allow to cool, and then grind to a coarse consistency. Finally add the salt to taste, jaggery and further grind the contents, not making it too fine in texture. Store in an airtight container. This can be used as an accompaniment to idli/dosas/as a topping on podi dosas with sesame oil. Make sure you only make a small batch, to retain its freshness, or the fat in the nuts can go rancid.

Here is our own entry for the event - Occhi Kadalaikai!

Few of our older posts on peanuts are Raja’s Special and Kharada Kadalaekai.

Happy munching!

Orange Chocolate Cupcake ~ Eggless,Butterless & Healthy

I have a special liking towards the citrus flavor. With gorgeous oranges in season, I was looking for an orange cupcake recipe and I stumbled upon the chocolate orange cake at Baking Bites and an orange muffins at Verstaile Kitchen. Both the recipes were eggless and  I needn't have to make it eggless to suit my taste.  I have adapted the baking bites' recipe  taking few hints from Versatile Kitchen. Orange and chocolate complement each other so well and you will experience the combo flavor with the first bite.



You need

•  Wheat flour - 1 1/2 cup
• Coco powder - 1/2 cup
• Sugar - 3/4 cup
• Baking powder - 1 tspn
• Cooking soda -1/2 tspn
• Salt - 1/4 tspn
• Fresh Orange juice - 3/4 cup
• Vegetable oil - 1/3 cup
• Vanilla essence - 1 tspn
• Orange zest - 1 tblspn (I used candied orange peel)

Method

Sieve dry ingredients - wheat flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, cooking soda and salt. I always measure the dry ingredients to a plastic container which has a tight lid. I shake the container vigorously with the lid on and proceed. A bit lazy to take out the sieve and the cleaning that comes after.

Mix orange juice, sugar, oil and vanilla essence. Fold the dry ingredients into the wet mix and finally stir in the orange zest.

Grease the muffin mould and fill to 2/3 in each hole.  Bake in a preheated oven at 170 C for 25 minutes.

This will yield 12 medium sized muffins. My muffin tray can hold only 9 and I baked the remaining batter in microwave.

For the frosting

• Butter - 2 tblspn
• Powdered sugar - 1 1/2 cups
• Orange Juice - 1 tblspn

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy and add the orange juice. Adjust the juice quantity to suit the consistency required. Pipe it on the cooled muffins and enjoy the orange flavored chocolate delight. I know my frosting has not come out well. The cupcake on its own is not very sweet. Hence the frosting did enhance the taste. I have baked it twice and both times, the cakes have vanished pretty fast.

To bake in the microwave

Scoop a heaped tablespoon of the batter into greased MW cups and bake for a minute. Leave it for 3 minutes and enjoy your cake.

If your baking a single cake, do add a teaspoon of milk  or orange juice to thin the batter. This will ensure a

moist cake. I tried baking in individual cups and haven't baked a single cake.

While the cup cakes were getting baked in the OTG, I could enjoy a quick treat with the MW cake.

Update: I am sending the healthy cake to Priya's Fast  Food Not Fat Food event

Chocolate Chip Cookies

My Son loves chocolates a lot and me too :-). I was thinking about making these chocolate chip cookies from a long time, but didn’t get a chance. I remember making it once when I first came to the US and when Anush was not born, I don’t remember what exactly I did but, it didn’t turn out well, cos all the chocolate chips melted and I didn’t give much space b/w the cookies so it was a mess. This time it came out very good and perfect. I was so happy and my son also liked them a lot.

I now people don’t let their ids to eat chocolate, but I sometimes encourage him to eat ‘Dark Chocolate’ and too lie them a lot more than the ordinary chocolates. As I don’t prefer eating too sweet sweets or chocolates, I started eating these dark chocolates.

While we are speaking about dark chocolates, I would like to share some good aspects of eating dark chocolate.....

Chocolate is a range of products derived from cocoa, mixed with fat (i.e. cocoa butter and/or plant oils) and finely powdered sugar to produce a solid confection. There are several types of chocolate according to the proportion of cocoa used in a particular formulation.

Swiss Dark Chocolate

"Dark chocolate", also called "plain chocolate" or "black chocolate", is produced by adding fat and sugar to cocoa. It is chocolate with zero or much less milk than milk chocolate. The U.S. has no official definition for dark chocolate, only "sweet chocolate", which requires a mere 15% concentration of chocolate liquor. European rules specify a minimum of 35% cocoa solids. Dark chocolate can be eaten as is, or used in cooking, for which thicker, more expensive baking bars with higher cocoa percentages of up to 85%, or sometimes 99%, are sold. Dark is synonymous with semisweet, and extra dark with bittersweet, although the ratio of cocoa butter to solids may vary.
Now the recipe for my chocolate chip cookies....

Ingredients:

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• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

• 1/2 cup granulated sugar

• 1 cup packed light-brown sugar

• 1 teaspoon salt

• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

• 2 large eggs

• 2 cups (about 12 ounces) semisweet and/or milk chocolate chips

Method:

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1.       Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a small bowl, whisk together the flour and baking soda; set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the butter with both sugars; beat on medium speed until light and fluffy. Reduce speed to low; add the salt, vanilla, and eggs. Beat until well mixed, about 1 minute. Add flour mixture; mix until just combined. Stir in the chocolate chips.

2. Drop heaping tablespoon-size balls of dough about 2 inches apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper.

3. 

 Bake until cookies are golden around the edges, but still soft in the center, 8 to 10 minutes. Remove from oven, and let cool on baking sheet 1 to 2 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack, and let cool completely. Store cookies in an airtight container at room temperature up to 1 week.