Sappadu Thayaar!

Bye bye blogger!

2007-08-07T08:32:00.000+01:00

We've moved - I now have a home of my own so my recipes and I are to be found at this address from now on: http://www.desigirl.net.in/food - please bookmark us and visit us here.

Brinjal Overdose!

2007-07-02T09:16:00.000+01:00

Time was, I used to hate this veg with a passion. My dad loved it so it featured with irritating regularity in the house menu. Turns out the pater's body sided with me all those years. One fine day, it decided enough it had silently borne this brinjal overdose long enough but now it was time to put the foot down. So it did with a vengeance the next time he popped a few down the gullet and that was the end of that.

As luck would have it, the lack of the ubiquitous veg invoked a craving in me and I developed a liking for it. Soon enough, I had no less than five entertaining ways of cooking the once damned vegetable. So I decided to make up with this former enemy in the best way possible - by filling a whole blog post about it.

The featured recipe is known as 'ennai kathirikkai' in Tamil and 'guthi vankaya' in Telugu. First is ennai kathirikkai, the way my mum and gran make it.

Ennai Kathirikkai Karamadhu

Brinjals, small - 250 gms

Red chillies - 5
Dhaniya - 1 tbsp
Peppercorns - 1 tbsp
Channal dal - 1 tbsp
Dessicated coconut - 1 tbsp

Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Curry leaves - a few sprigs

Salt - to taste
Oil - 3 tbsp

To make this very simple preparation, first wash the vegetables well in water and dry them free of water. Make + shape slits into them and dunk them into salted water.
Next, roast red chillies, dhaniya, peppercorns and channa dal in half a tablespoon of oil for a few minutes. Add the dessicated coconut last and allow them to cool for a while. After a few minutes grind them coarsely, add salt and stuff them inside the cut brinjals, taking care not to break the vegetables.
In the same kadai, take couple of tablespoons of oil and toss some mustard seeds and curry leaves in. Once the seeds stop spluttering, add the spice-coated brinjals to the kadai and mix well in the oil. Cook in a slow fire, tossing the shiny vegetables every so often till it is well cooked.
Serve hot with rice and onion sambhar.

The next one is how my MIL makes it. It is as different to the previous way of preparing the same veg as the proverbial chalk and cheese.

Guthi Vankaya

Brinjals - 250 gms
Onion - 1, chopped finely
Channa dal - 3 tsp
Urad dal - 1 tbsp
Dhaniya - 1/2 tbsp
Methi seeds, mustard seeds, jeera and mustard seeds - 1 tsp each
Dried red chillies - 6
Dessicated coconut - 1 tbsp
Tamarind - as needed
Oil - 4 tbsp
Salt - to taste
Jaggery - tiny piece

Soak a big lime-sized ball of tamarind in warm water for 15 minutes, till it tenderises completely. Strain and keep aside.
Fry all the masala ingredients (except for onions, brinjal and coconut) in a tablespoon of oil.
Once it is cooled, grind in a dry jar along with the grated coconut. Mix with the tamarind pulp.
Add finely diced onions to this paste and season with salt.
Make + shaped slits into the fleshy part of the brinjal, taking care to retain the green stem and stuff with the paste.
Heat the oil in a kadai and gently drop in the stuff veg one by one. Coat in oil and cook for a few minutes. Pour the rest of the paste over this, dilute with water, cover with a tight lid and cook over a slow fire.
After 15 minutes, add some powdered jaggery and cook some more.
Check seasoning and take off the flames.
Serve with rice.

Vankaya Masala

I learnt of this Hyderabadi way of preparing the same dish from a friend's visiting MIL. This is slightly fiery compared to the former, tamer versions. Avoid if you have asthma or peanut allergy.

Brinjals - 500 gms
Onion - 2, medium
Methi seeds - 1/4 tsp
Jeera - 1/2 tsp
Dhaniya powder - 1 tsp
Sesame powder - 2 tsp
Roast groundnut powder - 1 tbsp
Cloves - 2
Red chillies - 6
Ginger-garlic paste - 1 tsp
Salt - to taste
Turmeric powder - a pinch
Tamarind - a lime-sized ball
Jaggery - a small piece
Oil - 3 tbsp

In a dry jar, powder finely the jeera and methi seeds.
Make the now famous + shape cuts into the brinjals and put them in salted water.
Cut the onions into rough pieces and fry them in oil till they are translucent.
Grind along with jeera-methi powder, dhaniya powder, sesame powder, groundnut powder, red chillies, cloves, ginger-garlic paste, turmeric and salt.
Fry the brinjals in two tablespoons of oil till they are partially cooked. Add the masala paste to the vegetables and mix well. Let it cook for a couple of minutes. Now add the strained tamarind and cover and cook for 15 minutes.
Add some powdered jaggery, check for seasoning and cook for couple of minutes.
Serve hot with rice.

Submitted a day late to JFI: Brinjals, hosted by Sangeeta of Ghar Ka Khana

Torte del Cielo

2007-06-05T21:47:00.000+01:00

Meeta of WFLH recently celebrated her birthday. I came to know of that fact and her decision to throw a Birthday Bash earlier this morning when I was checking out Nandita's blog for any new goodies. At the birthday girl's request to make some party grub for her, I put on my thinking hat and wondered what to make. After scratching my scalp away, the bulb went off in my head - I could make my world-famous (ish!) Mexican almond cake. Called 'Torte del Cielo' or a slice of heaven, this cake is truly scrumpilicious. So, here it is! Oh, happy birthday Meeta!

Things you need to make this are:
Almonds in their skins - 175 gms
Eggs - 3
Plain flour - 9 tbsp
Butter - 225 gms, unsalted
Sugar - 225 gms
Almond essence - 1 tsp
Vanilla essence - 1 tsp
Nutmeg - 1 tsp
Salt - a pinch

For decoration
Toasted almond flakes - 1 tbsp (optional)
Icing sugar

Now, take a cake tin (preferably round), lightly butter it and line it with baking paper. Preheat the overn at Gas Mark 4 (350 deg F).
Grind the almonds to make a rough mixture. Set it aside
In a bowl, beat the butter and sugar together until soft and fluffy. Add lightly beaten eggs, the almond mixture, nutmeg and the two essences and beat well till they are mixed well.
Slowly sift the flour into the bowl, add salt and fold it all together.
Pour the batter into the greased tin; smoothen the top of the cake.
Bake the cake for about 50 minutes; when a pick comes out clean, you'd know the cake's dne.
Remove it from the oven and let it rest on a wire rack.
Decorate with almond flakes. Dust icing sugar all over it and serve.

ps: Sorry about the dodgy pic! Best I could do in a hurry!

A Summery Pancake

2007-05-20T09:52:00.000+01:00

Pancakes are my son's favourite breakfast dish. Though the flavour of the moment is generally labelled as 'favourite' by him, giving him pancakes for breakfast, lunch, tea or dinner is a surefire way to make him clear his plate. So, here's a 'child-friendly dish'.

To make the pancakes, you would need the following items:
Plain flour (maida) - 110 gms (sieved)
Egg - 2
Milk - 200 mls
Butter - a tablespoonful
Salt - a pinch
Sugar - a spoonful
Ghee, for cooking

For the filling, round up the following bits
berries, chopped - 1 cup (go for strawberries, raspberries, blueberries or blackberries - any or all, as you wish!)
banana - 1, chopped
maple syrup - as required
powdered sugar - as required

Now that you have the above mentioned things, you are ready to get started. To make the pancakes, all you'd need is a flat bottomed pan (a tawa) and a spatula.
First, crack the egg and beat it till it is well mixed. Next, comes the tricky bit, you might need to rope in your helper for this. Add the sieved floor to the beated egg slowly, all the while trickling in the milk. Keep the whole process slow and fluid so as to not get lumps in your batter.

Now, add the knob of soft butter, salt and sugar and stir everything in. The consistency of the batter should be that, it must be thick enough to coat the back of a spoon neatly. If it is too runny, add some maida. Too think, trickle in some more milk.
Your batter is now ready.
Heat the tawa, put a spot of ghee in the middle and give it a good shake.
Pour a ladleful of the pancake batter and coat the tawa with it by holding on the handle.
Let it cook a bit.
If you can, shake it loose and toss it. If you are apt to decorate the ceiling with it, coax it out with a wooden spatula and flip it over.
After a few more seconds, transfer the steaming pancake on to the plate.

Now is the most fun bit - your helper would love this. Plonk the fruits onto the middle portion of the pancake - go crazy and add however much you want. Once you are done, roll it up. Drizzle some maple syrup over it and finish by dusting some icing sugar over it.
Ta-da! Your pancake is now ready for your tastebuds.

Chef's tip: This is a good dish to make with your children. They can help beat the egg, trickle in the milk, fill the pancakes etc. As they helped you out so much in the creation of it, they would be more amenable to helping you in demolishing it as well!

Submitted for May's WBB#11 Summer Fruits as well as Trupti's Spring Fling 2007: Family & Friends in the kitchen.

Strawberry Smoothie

2007-05-09T23:08:00.000+01:00

Summer's almost upon us and the fruit & veg shops are full of the most luscious looking berries. Strawberries, raspberries, blueberries and black - the plump, juicy, glistening fruits tempt you with their sweetness. What a better way to indulge in some healthy berries than a berry smoothie, I ask you?!

Get your grubby mitts on the following:
Berries (your fave kind - I've gone with strawberries here) - 1 cup
Vanilla yoghurt - a generous dollop
Banana - 1, medium
Wheatgerm powder - 1 tbsp

All you have to do to enjoy a tall and healthy glass of smoothie is chuck all of the above together and blend. Voila! A filling and fun breakfast is now served. Add a sprig of mint to the glass to make it a bit classy. If you find the above mixture a mite thick, loosen it up a bit by adding some skimmed or soya milk.
And relax!

Vazhaikaai podimas

2007-04-11T23:29:00.000+01:00

This is a typical Tambram recipe - though I am not a massive fan of raw plantain, I can gulp down every single morsel if it is made this way. Using the same method, you can substitute potato for plantain and make yummy urulai podimaas (உருளை பொடிமாஸ்)

First, gather around these important items:

Raw plantain - 2
Toor dal, parboiled - 2 tbsp

Urad dal - 1 tsp
Channa dal - 1 tsp
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Green chillies - 1-2
Ginger - 1 inch piece
Dessicated coconut - 1 tbsp
Curry leaves - a handful
Salt, asafoetida and turmeric - a pinch
Oil - 2 tbsp

To start with, cut a plantain roughly into 3 small chunks and drop it in salted, boiling water. Do not peel the skin now. Once it is cooked, drain the hot water and keep the veg aside.
Cook the toor dal till it is half done.
In a non-stick pan, heat the oil. Drop the channa and ural dals in it and saute till golden. Next, add the slit green chillies and continue sauteing. Add grated ginger, dessicated coconut and torn curry leaves and fry for a minute or two. Finally, add some mustard seeds and allow it to splutter.
Strain the parboiled toor dal so no water remains and mix with the ingredients of the pan and let it all cook together.
Meanwhile, peel the skin off the cooked plantains and mash the chunks roughly, using the back of a fork. Season it with salt.
Add the mashed plantains to the non-stick pan and mix well. Add asafoetida and turmeric, check the salt and mix well.
Serve hot with rice.

Veggie adai

2007-04-07T08:24:00.000+01:00

Adai is a traditional Tamil dinner dish that is quite healthy too. Having a really dodgy digestive system, I was always restricted to just one adai for most of my life, till I hit my 20's. It was never my favourite dish though.

A few years back, the dietician at my brother's gym gave him a new recipe for it that made it positively lip smacking! This is a dieter's delight and as it fills you up, you can just have two of these and die happy.

Things you need are:
1/2 cup channa dal
1/4 cup toor dal
1/4 urad dal
1 cup idli rice
4-5 crushed red chillies
1 cup grated veg - carrots, cabbage
1 tbsp dessicated coconut (optional)
1 red onion, sliced finely
a sprig of curry leaves
a pinch of asafoetida
salt to taste

To start with, soak the rice and dal for about four hours. After that, grind them coarsely, along with the dried red chillies and the dessicated coconut.
Season with salt, asafoetida and torn curry leaves.
Now, your batter is ready.
Take some of it in a clean bowl, sprinkle the onions and the grated veg and mix well. Mixing the veg and onions with the whole of your batter would make the veg go soggy and the batter would not last for long.
Heat a tawa till it is very hot.
Take a ladleful of the doctored batter (!), pour it in the tawa in a circle and spread it thin, just like you would make a dosa.
Flip it over after it has cooked on one side. Cook till well done.

You can eat it with that delectable medley of vegetables, aviyal.

Bread Uppuma

2007-04-03T00:01:00.000+01:00

One of the easiest items to make for brekkie is good ole upma. Whenever my gran asks me what tiffin I want, my ever-ready answer is upma. Rava, aval, samba rava, rice - whatever it is, I love upma in any shape or form. Of all the various forms of the item, bread upma is, in my opinion, is one you can dish up in a real jiffy.

So, what do you need to make this delicacy?

Fairly obviously, bread - 5 -6 slices

Onion - 1, sliced

Tomato - 2, chopped

Peas - 2 tbsp

Potato - 1, diced

Carrots / cauliflower / capsicum - 2 tbsp, diced

Green chillies - 2, deseeded and diced

Oil - 1 tbsp

Mustard seeds - 1 tsp

Channa dal - 1 tsp

Urad dal - 1 tsp

Turmeric - 1 tsp

Curry leaves - handful

Coriander leaves - 2 tbsp chopped finely

Salt - to taste

Now, get ready to start cooking by getting out the ever present kadai. Heat the oil for a minute and add the mustard seeds and let it splutter. Once that is done, add the dals, roast, add curry leaves, then drop in the sliced onions. Once that turns a pink shade, add the green chillies to the pan. Saute for a few minutes.

Add the tomatoes and cook for a while. Add turmeric powder to the cooked tomatoes.

Now, add the chopped veg - you can add as many or as little as you want. If you have stuff like left-over potatoes or cauliflower sabzi in the fridge, chuck that in as well. Mix well, add some salt and let it all cook well.

Meanwhile, toast the bread slices in a toaster, in a browning setting. After that, cut them into cubes.

Now, add the cubed bread to the veg in the kadai, adjust salt and mix well. Garnish with coriander and serve hot with ketchup.

Cauliflower Curry in Tomato Gravy

2007-04-01T18:56:00.000+01:00

This is a favourite of my family's - and mine. My friend Rashmi once made it many moons back and I loved it. And I hate cauliflower! This is the only way I can have that vegetable and I make it at least once a month. This was also the first dish I made at my in-laws place soon after I got married. S's nainamma loved it and had two helpings!

I am also submitting this for this month's Jihva for Tomatoes food event. I did not know there was a word called Jihva till I read about it in Indira's blog. I am really hoping that I could be a part of this month's Jihva and even possibly, 'host' one at a later date.

Enough waffle - now for the recipe:

Gather around these things:

Cauliflower - 1, cut into florets
Tomato - 1, canned or 500 gms, blanched and pureed
Onions - 1, sliced
Green chillies - 3-4, slitted
Green peas - a tablespoonful
Coriander - for garnishing
Oil - 5 tbsp
Cumin seeds, masala ingredients - as per your preference
ginger/garlic paste - 1 tsp
Turmeric - 1 tsp
Dhania powder - 1 tsp
Jeera powder - 1 tsp
Garam masala - 1 tsp
Salt - as per your taste

Firstly, we have to cook the cauliflower. For this, boil a saucepan full of water, add some salt to it and drop in the florets once the water starts bubbling. Let it cook so for about 3-4 mins. Drain the florets in a colander and pat dry so you take all the excess water off. This is important as otherwise, it will start spluttering once you move on to the next step.
Heat oil in a kadai. In small batches, shallow fry / saute the florets till they become lightly crisp. Drain on kitchen towels so it isn't too oily.
Once you are done cooking the cauliflower, reduce the oil so only 2 tbsp or so remains in the kadai. Add cumin seeds, cloves, cinnamon and bay leaves and saute for a minute or so. Now, add the sliced onions and saute till the onions turn pink.
Next, add the ginger-garlic paste and saute for another minute.
Now you are ready to add the tomatoes. I generally prefer them in cans, chopped and swimming in their own juice, as that gives the curry a lovely colour. You can get fresh tomatoes, blanch and puree them as well. Add this to the kadai ingredients. Let it cook well till the fat seperates. Add a pinch of turmeric to the gravy.
Now add the cooked florets to the it along with some peas and let it all simmer for five - ten minutes. Add salt, dhaniya- jeera powder and garam masala and let it steep for a minute.
Take off the flame and garnish with chopped coriander.

Serve hot with chapati or pulao / fried rice.

Happy Ugadi!

2007-03-20T07:23:00.000Z

To all of you celebrating Ugadi today on March 20, 2007, my heartiest wishes. This year, for the very first time, we are celebrating the festival too. S is Telugu and though I try my best to do a fair 50-50 of our customs for P, it is rather difficult to follow S's family customs and traditions when we live miles and miles away from them for me to learn anything. The only Telugu festival I've ever been there for has been Varalakshmi pooja and I don't do that by myself here as it involves a complicated procedure to 'split' the proceedings from the MIL and I don't think I would be able to take a day off from work to do the needful. Plus, doing that all by myself, with no mates around to partake kind of takes the fun off the pooja. So I just say a special 'hello' to umachi that day.

This year though, thanks to folks like Indira of Mahanandi, I am learning more about Andhra culture than I ever learnt from the in-laws. After the initial query of Would you be able to do the neem pachadi and my resultant Eh? Wat? , the MIL sort of washed her hands off me! But thanks to the power of blogosphere and Indira's lovely recipes and explanations, I am going to try and do my bit towards Ugadi this year.

Luckily, I bought couple of raw mangoes the last time I went to East Ham and can do justice to the mango dal and mango rice. The recipes are Indira's so visit her website to pay homage to her. The pictures (when I eventualluy put them up!) are from my baby attempts. I shall post a codicil in the evening if S collapses after eating my attempts!

As I just made a monstrous vessel full of akkara adisal last week for Karadaiyan Nombu, I am going to give the dessert a miss and just go with these two dishes.

First, Indira's recipe for Mango dal, with some tweaking and adjustments from my end.

Stuff you need are as follows:

1 green mango
1 medium sized red onion - sliced into big chunks
1 cup toor dal
4 green chillies, deseeded and sliced
a pinch of turmeric
salt to taste

Tadka
1 tsp oil
1 tsp of each - mustard seeds, cumin, urad dal, chana dal
2 dried red chilli pieces and curry leaves
a pinch of asafoetida

Once you've got these afore-mentioned items, pat yourself on the back and proceed as follows:

1. Wash green mango, dry it and cut into small chunks. Leave the skin on the mango as that generally leaves a punchy taste.
2. Take the toor dal, mango, onion, green chillies and turmeric in a pressure cooker. Add two cups of water and cook till the dal is cooked thoroughly.
3. Open the cooker once you can, add salt and mash the dal completely till it bears no resemblance to its original form.
4. In a mini kadai, heat some oil and add the tadka ingredients and let them splutter. I normally just bung the lot in it and hope for the best. But Indira actually suggested that one drops them in the fat in the order of dried red chilli pieces, chana dal, then urad dal, followed by curry leaves and as a grand finale, the jeera and mustard seeds. Makes sense, I suppose! In addition to her ingredients, I added a pinch of asafoetida.
5. Next step, add the tadka to the mashed gloop, mix well, adjust salt and serve hot with rice and vadaam.

I learnt from my mum that this is made in tambram households as well. She said in our house, green chillies are used instead of chilli powder and I diligently followed suit to excellent results.

Now for the mango flavoured rice she calls Mamadikaya Pulihara. (Jeez! At this rate, I might even pick up a few telugu words and impress the I-Ls!)

Gather around these:

1 cup Ponni raw rice
1 cup grated green mango
3-4 green chillies, deseeded and slit
¼ cup of cashews and peanuts combined (optional - gives a crunch)
1 tablespoon of chana dal
1 teaspoon of each - cumin and mustard seeds
Few curry leaves
2 small pieces of dried red chilli
a pinch of turmeric and of asafoetida
Salt to taste

Now,

Peel the skin and grate the raw mango.
Cook the rice to a udiri consistency, so that it doesn't get too sticky. General rule of thumb for mixed rice dishes is 1:2 cups water plus 1/2 cup kosuru (கொசுறு). Once the rice is cooked, spread it out on a clean thin cotton towel or a big plate so that it becomes a bit more loose and dry.
In a saute pan, heat oil and saute the ingredients one by one till they turn golden. This is to ensure they each get cooked properly. Lastly, mix them up, along with some turmeric and asafoetida.
Now, add the grated mango to the pan. Stir to mix with other toasted contents in the pan. Cook for a few minutes, making sure the pan doesn't get too hot or smokey and take off the heat.
Add the dry rice to the pan and mix all the ingredients well, checking the salt levels.
Serve hot.

Karadaiyan Nombu

2007-03-17T16:14:00.000Z

March 14 2007, was kaaradaiyan nombu for the Nombu celebrating folks of Tamil Nadu. On this day, the women of the house fast till the appointed hour, when they pray to the Goddess Gowri for the good health and long life of their husbands and make yummy adais. After prayers, they tie a golden thread around their necks and sit down to break their fast by eating the salt and sweet adais, topped with a dollop of oothukuli butter. Hmmmm, heaven!

The young girls of the family also do this pooja - tho 'doing the pooja' is a loose term, considering all I did was wait till the whistle is blown and I can stuff my face with the adais. I love this festival as this is the one day when women get to eat before the men! Wahey! The next day at school, boys generally used to have a field day ragging us as us girls would be walking around with a yellow thread around our necks.

Every year on this day, the requisite 'athiri bacha', used to be told by various members of my family. This year, I cannot wait to tell it to my five year old!

Now for the adai recipes.

Salty adai

Things you need:
Rice flour - 2 cups
Water - 2 cups
Cooked black eyed beans - 3 tbsp
Dried red chillies - 2
Coconut, diced - 2 tbsp
Oil - 1 tbsp
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Curry leaves - a handful, chopped
Asafoetida - a pinch
Salt - to taste

How to make them
Roast the rice flour in a kadai so it loses its raw smell but not so it turns colour. Transfer it onto a plate to cool. Now, heat some oil in the kadai, add some mustard seeds, asafoetida, dried red chillies and curry leaves and saute for a minute, till the seeds stop spluttering. Add the water to it next and let it come to a boil. Add coconut pieces, cooked black eyed beans, the roast rice flour and salt to taste and stir well so that lumps don't form.
The resultant dough must be of a dry consistency; the more paste-y they become, the more time it takes to cook. I prefer the taste of the adai when the dough is slightly dry.
Make balls out of it, flatten the balls and cook in an idli steamer for about 10 minutes.

Serve with a generous dollop of butter.

Sweet adai

Things you need:
Rice Flour - 2 cups
Jaggery (powdered) - 1.5 cups
Water - ¾ cup
Black eyed beans - 1/2 cup
Coconut (cut into small cubes) - 2 tbsp
Ghee - 2 tbsp
Elaichi - 2-3

What next?
Soak the beans for around 3 hours, pressure cook and set aside.
Take a kadai, boil water till it begins to bubble and add the jaggery. Boil the mixture till the raw smell of jaggery disappears. Take it off the flame, let it cool a bit, filter the mixture and transfer it back to the kadai.
Add the rice flour, beans and mix the ingredients well.
Seperately, heat ghee in a kadai and fry the coconut pieces well. Add to the mixture, along with some powdered elaichi and mix well.
Allow it to cool.
Once it is cool enough to touch, make balls of the mixture and flatten it to round shapes.
Steam them in an idli cooker for 7 - 10 minutes. Serve with a generous dollop of butter.

Akkara Adisal: The Ambrosia Of The Gods

2007-03-12T11:35:00.000Z

Akkara Adisal is the quintessentially Iyengar dish that has an unsurpassable taste. Be it any festival or a birthday in the family, finishing a sumptuous meal with this for dessert will be the perfect high note. Add a pinch of pachai karpooram to it just before serving and you'd realise that this is the ambrosia of the gods.

Raw rice - 1 cup, washed
Jaggery - 2 cups
Water - 6 cups
Milk - 2 cups
Ghee - 4 tbsp
Cashew - 10, broken into pieces
Raisins - 10
Cardomon - 2-3 pods
*Pachai karpooram - a pinch

Take a cup of rice (I use ponni raw rice), wash it a couple of times and strain the water off it. Heat two tablespoons of ghee in a heavy-bottomed kadai and add the rice to the ghee. Saute it for a few minutes, making sure the rice doesn't burn.

Transfer the rice to a small vessel, add a cup of milk and pressure cook it. I usually wait for two whistles before I switch it off. Meanwhile, take two cups of jaggery, mix three cups of water to it and boil the mixture in the kadai.

After about 5 - 10 minutes, take the mixture off the flame, cool it off a little and strain it. This gets rid of the stones, pieces of sugarcane husk and other assorted impurities that find their way into jaggery. Once done, pour the mixture back in the kadai and boil again, till the mixture thickens a bit. Now add the cooked rice and let it all boil together till the rice gets cooked completely. Add three cups of well boiled milk (sunda kaachina milk) to the mixture and let it all simmer together for a few minutes.

Roast the broken cashew pieces and raisins in the ghee and add those to the payasam along with powdered cardomom and pachai karpooram.

Your akkara adisal is now ready.

Warning: addictive!

*Addition of this to the akkara adisal (or any other payasam) is optional. But this ingredient has a heavenly smell that always reminds me of my gran and her kitchen. Guaranteed to take your dessert up by a few notches and earn the label of 'heavenly'.

+Note: One can make it to be of a slightly thicker consistency - the result would be akin to chakkarai pongal then.

Grub's up!

2007-03-10T15:54:00.000Z

The first time I entered the kitchen was when I was in VII standard (someone call Child Services!), when I used to cook the odd pot of rice when my mum was a bit late in coming home from work. This earned her the name of tyrant and child labourer. Though I made a fuss then, just to keep up appearances, I was slowly getting entranced by the world of cooking. My mum is a fab cook and the 'wah! wah!!'s she earned everytime we gave dinner parties made me want to learn to be an equally good, if not better cook. Thus, I started collecting recipes.

My maternal gran is the de-facto cook in her house and at 70, she still churns out amazing amount of grub for all and sundry. Come festival time and you can see her seated next to this huge kadai, making murukku, seedai and other assorted yummies. My mum being an Iyengar, I soon learnt to cook the iyengar cuisine well and that forms the basis of my cooking, to this day.

When I got married to a Telugu bloke, I decided to widen my repertoire by adding some Andhra recipes to it. Though these are a handful, I still make them now and again just to prove that I can make a mean baghara baingan. Nowadays though, I depend on great blogs like Mahanandi to show me the way.

When my palate widened to accommodate Italian, Mexican, Chinese and Mediterranean cuisines, I decided to learn to collect recipes from all over the world and cook them myself. Being a staunch vegetarian, I figured if I didn't want to ingest any stray animal product and still wanted my fix of fajitas and enchilada, I better learn to make them myself.

There are some fantastic food bloggers out there and I hope, with me foraying into this 'genre', I can now become a member of that sisterhood too! Feel free to contact me with your comments, suggestions and/or corrections.