Saturday, June 26, 2010

Raspberry season
















Friday, June 25, 2010

Apple vattal kuzhambu - Sun dried apples in tamarind gravy

APPLE VATTAL KUZHAMBU


I was wondering not knowing how to use the sun dried apples which my cousin had brought from Kashmir. My son said that my daughter - in - law used sun dried apples (Apple vattal ) to make a 'trail snack' along with nuts, chocolate chips and other dry fruits. This snack he said restored energy during their trekking expeditions.
As I was just getting ready to mix a trail snack my aunt called up and said that her ' vella pachadi ' and ' vattal kozhumbu' with apple vattals had turned out very good. With a little hesitation I prepared this novel vattal kuzhambu, but my family enjoyed the new dish very much.



INGREDIENTS
Sun dried apples ( cut into small pieces ) - 1 cup
Tamarind - 1 lemon size ball
Jaggery - 1 lemon size piece
Salt - 1 1/2 tsp
Sambar powder ( Unroasted spice mix) - 2 tsp
Rice flour - 2 tsp
Gingelly oil - 1 tbsp
Mustard seeds - 1/4 tsp
Fenugreek seeds - 1/4 tsp
Bengal gram dal - 2 tsp
Asafoetida - 1 pinch
Broken red chillies - 2
Curry leaves - a few



METHOD
1. Soak tamarind in warm water and extract the juice.
2. Heat oil in a pan and add mustard seeds.
3. When the mustard splutters add fenugreek seeds and then the bengal gram dal.
4. When the dal becomes golden in colour add red chillies, curry leaves and the apple pieces.
5. Lower the flame and quickly add asafoetida, sambar powder and rice flour and stir.(Take care not to burn the sambar powder).
6. Add the tamarind extract, salt and jaggery.
7. Boil the vattal kuzhambu until it reaches a sauce like consistancy, stirring now and then.


Enjoy the pleasant flavour of apple in your delicious vattal kuzhambu. It tastes heavenly with hot rice topped with a dollop of ghee. You can also enjoy it with pongal, upma, dosai, adai or chapati.

Thursday, June 24, 2010

VEGETABLE OMELETTE

There are so many varieties of omelettes in every body’s kitchen. This vegetable omelette is a very tasty dish which is a suitable filling for a delicious sandwich. Other than this, this vegetable omelette can be used in gravies and kuzhambu varieties to enhance the flavour as well as taste. For sandwiches, toast the bread slices, spread the butter on them and fill the slices with this vegetarian omelette and a few pieces of cucumber and tomatoes. Even without toasting and the addition of cucumber and tomatoes, this vegetable omelette sandwich tastes divinely!


Ingredients:

Sieved gram flour- 2 cups
Chilli powder- 1/4 sp
Finely chopped spring onion- 1/4 cup
Finely chopped onion- half cup
Finely chopped tomato- half cup
Finely chopped coriander- 2 tbsp
Finely chopped green chillies- 1
Salt to taste

Procedure:

Add the flour in a bowl.
Again add the vegetable mixture with salt.
Mix well with the fingers.
Then add enough water to mix it to a dosai batter consistency.
Heat a tawa and pour 1 tbsp of this batter.
Spread thinly.
Sprinkle a little oil around it.
Butter is a good substitute for the oil.
When one side is cooked to golden brown, flip the other side to cook.

NB:

The fire must be low to cook this to a golden brown colour.