duck tour; brick work (cont.); leo

I hope everyone had a great Labor Day! We enjoyed the long weekend with friends and Project Rowhouse took a break.

Have you guys heard of the Duck Tours? It's your typical city tour - cheesy tour guide, families, amphibious vehicle, superfluous photography, wait... what's that you say? Amphibious vehicle? That's right people. The 'bus' turns into a boat and rolls right into the harbor. We took the tour last weekend and I'd recommend it. We learned some interesting things about the city and you can get some great views of our 'hood from the harbor. I must warn you - just after they force you to pose for a picture in front of the bus'boat, they hand out kazoo'ish duck quackers to each passenger. Everyone uses them, often. Loudly. You'll do it too.

This is the end of our street from the water;


and some construction going on nearby (as seen in the previous post).


As far as the house goes - we feel good about the pace right now and have been surprisingly productive during the work week. We've moved onto the next step in the brick exposing process and I love it. Muriatic Acid:

The box is so dramatic. Lots of things are poison.

This stuff is pretty amazing for giving the brick a finishing 'scrub'. It is acid and safety precautions must be taken. Wear the proper gear, have ventilation, keep baking soda around for neutralization (for spillage and overspray), etc. I'm going to give credit to Baltimore Rowhouse (a fellow renovation blog) for describing the muriatic acid process in detail. More info here. Check out the results:

We love the way it's looking. Even though the process is taking a while, each step is quite rewarding.

Any thoughts on that wood board going up the wall? There is quite a bit of damage behind it. There will also be a column nearby where the contractor will be removing the wall. Our thoughts are that we will finish them both in similar style.

Closeup - so fresh and so clean:


We also have a new addition to the home. Meet Leonardo D'Shrimpleton, aka Leo:


Part miniature dachsund, part miniature poodle; his eyes are bright blue and he's relatively tiny... sort of an impulse, but we really like him!

Corn meal methi Adai

Corn meal is one of the recent additions to my pantry. I am trying dishes with corn rava by replacing rice/wheat. I have tried kichadi and kozhukkatai with this. Both turned out well. And this is another such recipe which is inspired by the wheat rava adai. Needless to say, this also, is a winner.

Corn meal(rava texture) - 2 cups
Pearl onion(Sambhar vengayam) - 10 nos
Green chilly - 3 nos
Small wedge of ginger
Salt

Onion -1
Chopped methi leaves - 1 cup

Soak the corn meal, with just enough water to cover it, for an hour. Grind the pearl onions, green chilly,ginger and salt together. Add the soaked corn meal and buzz till everything blends well.
Add the chopped onion and methi leaves to the batter.

Take a laddle full of the batter. Lightly spread it in the form a circle. The batter is in semi sold state and corn being gluten free, it doesn't spread like our usual dosa/adai batter. Still it is spreadable. Drizzle oil on all sides. When one side is cooked , flip over to cook the other side. Its crisp on the outside and soft as you bite into it. Also it tastes good when cold too. Methi give a nice flavor to the adai. You can serve with pickle or any gravy.

I liked it with grated jaggery. Jaggery compliments well, the slight bitterness of methi.

Next time, I shall try adding dal to it , as in normal adai.

This is my entry to the current edition of WBB-Grain-In_My-Breakfast, hosted by Aparna, an event started by Nanditha.

Also this is making to the Herb Mania-Fenugreek at RedChillies.

And to JFI-Whole grains, guest hosted by Suganya of Tasty Palettes.

Tidippu Kozukattai and Ulutham Kozukattai for Lord Ganesha

Kozukattai – Rice Flour Dumpling

Today is Ganesh Chaturthi. Lord Ganesha is the remover of obstacles and the Lord of New Beginnings! Wish you all a very happy and successful year ahead with Lord Ganesha’s blessings!

Lord Ganesha is said to love sweet kozukattai or modak, which is a steamed dumpling made of a thin rice flour shell, filled with a delicious mixture of coconut and jaggery. Somasi is a similar sweet, which is however, deep fried rather than steamed. The outer covering is made of maida (white flour) and rava (semolina). The mixture inside is made of cobri (dried cocunut) and sugar.

Ulutham Kozukattai is a salty steamed dumpling, that is also usually prepared during festivals and is offered to the deity worshipped. Like the sweet version, this also has an outer shell prepared with rice flour and a stuffing prepared with lentil. As Ulutham Kozukattais are very nutritious, my mother used to prepare them as an evening tiffin. She even enriched the nutritional value, by adding some minced vegetables. We would pop them into our mouths as we went up and down and finished them off, even before they were served at the table. A spicy gojju or a chutney will make a delicious combination with Ulutham Kozukzttai. Given below are recipes for the sweet as well as salty Kozukattais.

Ingredients for Kozukattai
Rice flour - 1 cup
Salt – 1 pinch
Gingili (Sesame) oil – 2 tbsps
Water – 2 cups
Method for preparing the Kozukattai
1. Boil water with salt and oil in a thick bottomed pan.
2. When the water is boiling add the rice flour gently stirring continuously to avoid lumping.
3. When the flour is cooked and becomes a mass, turn off the heat and cover it with a lid leaving it for 5 minutes to cook in its own steam.
4. Knead the cooked flour into a soft dough adding a little oil if necessary.
5. Take a small portion of the dough and roll it into a lemon sized ball.
6. Dip your fingers in oil and then make a depression in the middle of the ball with your thumb.
7. With both thumbs in the depression, press the edges extending them with the other fingers to make a cup like shape as uniform, and thin as possible.

8. Place a spoonful of the filling into the cup and fold the cup in half so that the edges are sealed.

9. Press he sealed edges making sure that no stuffing comes out, and you have plump semi -circular shaped dumplings.

Alternately, you can gather the edges to the top and squeeze them together with your finger tips, to resemble the shape of a top or garlic pod!
Note: If you make both sweet and salty types for the same meal, then I would recommend different shapes (semi circular for the ulutham kozukattai, and top-shaped for the jaggery-coconut kozukattai) for easy identification! 10. Shape all the kozukkatais in the same manner.
11. Steam the whole batch in a pressure cooker without weight for 15 minutes.

Tidippu Kozukattai Stuffing - Sweet Jaggery & Coconut filling
Ingredients

Freshly grated coconut - 1 cup
jaggery - 3/4 cup
cardamom powder - 1/4 tsp (Optional)
Method
1. Mix coconut gratings and jaggery and cook in a heavy bottomed pan, over a low fire, stirring occasionally.
2. When the mixture is ready, it will leave the sides of the pan.
3. Switch off the flame, and add cardamom powder if desired.

Ulutham Kozukattai Stuffing - Vegetable and Black Gram Lentil Stuffing Ingredients:
Urad Dal (Black gram dal) – ½ cup
Red chillies – 3
Asafoetida- 1 pinch
Finely Chopped vegetables - 1/4 tea cup (beans, carrots, potato, capsicum, peas etc)
Chopped fresh coriander – little
Salt – ½ tsp
Oil – 2 tsps
Mustard seeds
Method
1. Soak dal and red chillies for half an hour.
2. Grind the soaked dal and red chillies coarsely with salt and asafoetida
3. Steam the ground dal for 15 minutes, and set aside.
4. Heat oil in a pan and add mustard seeds.
5. When it splutters add finely chopped vegetables and a pinch of salt and sauté.
6. Next add the steamed dal and crumble and mix with the vegetable and seasoning.
7. Add corriander leaves.
8. Stuffing for Ulutham Kozukattai is ready.

Ulutham Kozukattai can be enjoyed with any chutney or gojju.