Navarathri Day 3 & 4 - Avil Payasam, Kadalai sundal, Arisi Paruppu Payasam & Kesari

Day ~ 3

Aval Payasam & Black Channa Sundal

I have posted the recipe for Aval Payasam earlier.

Brown Chickpeas  Karuppu Kadalai Sundal

Brown chickpeas - 2 cups
Turmeric a pinch
Salt

To season
Coconut Oil - 1 tblspn
Mustard seeds - 1 tspn
Green chilly - 2 nos
Red chilly - 1 no
Ginger - a small piece
Hing
Curry leaves - few
Gated coconut - 2 tblspn

Wash and soak the channa overnight. Rinse and pressure cook with a pinch of turmeric. These variety of chikcpeas doesn't turn mushy on cooking. Even when cooked soft, it remains firm in shape.  Drain the cooked water. Heat a kadai and do the seasoning with mustard seeds, chopped green chillies, ginger , broken red chillies and curry leaves. Add the cooked and drained chana. Mix in salt and let it cook on slow flame for the chana to soak in the flavors. You can add little of the cooked water to retain bit of moisture. Garnish with freshly grated coconut.

Day ~ 4

Arisi, paruppu payasam and Kesari


Arisi, paruppu payasam ( Raw rice, Moongdal Payasam)

Raw rice - 3/4 cup
Moong dal - 1/4 cup
Jaggery -1 cup
Ghee - 2 tblspn
Cashew and raisins - 10 nos each
Cardamom powder - 1/2 tspn

Dry roast rice and ghee separately. Roast rice till the color changes lightly. Dal can be roasted till you can smell the aroma. Leave rice and dal to cool. Wash and pressure cook in 3 cups of water. In a kadai or any thick bottomed vessel, melt the jaggery with 1/4 cup of water. Strain to remove any impurities. Boil the syrup. When the jaggery syrup starts bubbling, stir in the cooked rice and dal combo. Mix well. Continue to cook, till the jaggery flavor is abosrbed by the dal and rice. By then, the mix would have thickened. Remove from fire. Roast cashew and raisins in ghee and garnish the payasam. The paysam will not be very sweet. If you would like it having sweeter, increase the jaggery quantity.

Kesari

You can find the kesari recipe here

Snow Skin Mooncake

My first attempt on making mooncake. Everyone recommend to me to start with snow skin as it's quite simple to make. So, just give it a try.

I cooked the lotus paste, it's hard work but at the end it's nice to know that all made by myself although it's not as tasty as the one I bought and the appearance could tell it's definately a homemade one.

I like to play with the mould more than eating the mooncake. It's fun wrapping the lotus paste with the snow skin and stuff it into the mold and pushing it out. Playing the mooncake mold is really FUN! It's a good try. I'll not share the recipe here as I feel that this batch of mooncake still not the good one. I'll try again next year or may be I shall try out the bake version next year :)

Masa Corn Tortillas &Tomatillo Salsa aka Mexican Corn Rotti and Chutney!

MASA CORN TORTILLAS & TOMATILLO SALSA

(Mexican Corn Rotti & Spicy Chutney??)

The native Indians followed a unique method to raise their staple food crops. Corn, Fava Beans and Pumpkin which they referred to as “The Three Sisters” were planted and raised together in the fields. The corn plants provided support to the fava bean plants, while they in turn fixed the nitrogen in the soil. The pumpkin crept beneath these plants and kept away the weeds. This method of agriculture is followed by the farmers even to this day.

My son and daughter-in-law are ardent gardeners and the “Three Sisters” have occupied a prominent place in their home garden. The tender and fresh corn cobs, the fava beans with a green oily glaze and the bright yellow blooms of the pumpkin are a feast to the eyes.

The other day my son plucked the tender fresh corn from the garden and he requested me to prepare corn tortillas for dinner. I implicitly followed his directions and ended up with a delicious and sumptuous meal for dinner.

MASA CORN TORTILLAS
INGREDIENTS:

Instant Corn Masa Flour - 2 cups
Salt – ½ tsp
Warm water – as required.
Fresh corn – ½ cup
Frozen corn – 2 tbsps
Minced green chillies – 1 tbsp
METHOD:
1. Mix the corn masa, minced chillies and salt in a bowl.
2. Add the fresh corn and the frozen corn to the flour.
3. Add warm water little by little and knead the flour into a soft dough.
4. Grease a griddle and heat it.
5. Take a ball of dough and pat it into a thin and even tortilla on the griddle.
6. Wet your fingers now and then and evenly spread the dough into a round shape.
7. Dribble oil around and cover and cook tortilla for a few minutes.
8. Remove lid and flip it to the other side and cook for a few more minutes.. A spicy tomatillo salsa prepared by my son was an ideal combination.

TOMATILLO SALSA
Tomatillos are sour fruits which belong to the tomato family. They are green or purple in colour after removing the dry bracts which enclose them. This can be added to the salads but we liked them in the spicy salsa.
INGREDIENTS:
Tomatillos – 6
Onion – 1
Garlic – 4 cloves
Tomato – 1

Green chillies - 2 (optional)
Jalapeno- 3
Salt – 1 tsp

lime juice - 2 tsp

fresh herbs of your choice - (optional) a few

Olive Oil – 1 tbsp

Black pepper powder - to taste
METHOD:
1. Wash and chop all vegetables into big chunks.
2. Heat a griddle and add the vegetables to the hot griddle and stir well.

3. Lower the flame and cook the vegetables covered, removing the lid to stir now and then.
4. The vegetables will release a pleasant aroma when done.
5. Cool the dry roasted vegetables and blend them coarsely with salt, herbs and lime juice.
6. Add olive oil and blend again.
7. You can garnish the salsa with a pinch of pepper powder for flavour.
Enjoy your Tomatillo salsa with any dish of your choice.