Ari Unda/Rice Ladu

A sweetie evening snack, ari unda which goes well with tea and also can be enjoyed as a chit-chat snack...

Ingredients:

Matta Rice	1 cup
Grated Coconut	1/2 cup
Jaggery(powdered)	1/2 cup
Cardamom(optional)	4 cloves

Preparation:

(1) Wash matta rice in water for multiple times till clear water comes. Drain the water and keep aside. Below picture includes grated coconut and powdered jaggery too.

(2) Heat a pan and add rice to it. Saute till color of rice changes brownish and it starts to breaks(pops up). Saute in low to medium heat to avoid burning. It will take some 15 to 20 minutes. Allow to cool.

(3) Now grind rice and cardamom(i didn't used) in a mixer and make powder. Don't make coarse or very fine powder .

(4) Add powdered jaggery and coconut to the rice powder and grind once again. Grind only for few seconds just to combine them.

(5) Take it in a bowl and make ball shapes using hand. Your ari unda is ready.

Have it with your tea.

Tips:

• Since we are using fresh coconut, it won't last for more than two days unless refrigerated.
• Saute rice till it starts breaking and avoid burning.
• Above quantity yield some 8 to 10 ari unda

Tomato Rasam

Another rasam recipe which i got from my MIL.Try and enjoy this delicious rasam…..

Ingredients:

Tomato	1(big,chopped)
Garlic	5 cloves(crushed)
Chilly Powder	1/4 tspoon
Pepper Powder	1/2 tspoon
Coriander Powder	1/4 tspoon
Turmeric Powder	1/4 tspoon
Asafoetida Powder	1 pinch
Cumin Seed Powder	3/4 tspoon
Coriander Leaves	1 sprig
Tamarind	1 lemon size
Salt	to taste
Oil	1 tspoon

To Temper:

Oil	1 tspoon
Dry red chilly	2
Mustard	1/2 tspoon
Curry leaves	1 sprig

Preparation:

(1) Soak tamarind in hot water and extract the juice. Add 3 cups of water to it. Mix with salt and keep it aside.

(2) Heat oil in a pan. Add crushed garlic to it and saute till the raw smell goes off. To this add chopped tomato and turmeric powder with little salt.

(3) Saute till tomato turns juicy. Now add chilly powder, coriander powder, pepper powder and cumin seed powder to it and stir till the raw smell goes off.

(4) Pour prepared tamarind juice to it and allow to heat. Mean while temper (kaduvarukkal) with the ingredients shown under the table "to temper". Add it to rasam. Also add asafoetida powder and garnish with  coriander leaves(i didn't used due to out of stock). Your rasam is ready. Close the vessel with a lid to retain the flavor.

Have it with rice…

Tips:

• Don't allow rasam to boil.

Home Made Sambar Powder

Home made sambar powder is easy to make even though it takes time. You can store and use it for 6 months and tastes too good than sambar powder from market. In India people used to grind it in mills and i have no choice other than grinding in a mixer. Hope you will like it.

Ingredients:

Dry red chilly	1/2 kg
Coriander seed	1/4 kg
Toor Dal	100 gm
Channa Dal	50 gm
Fenugreek Seed	4 tspn
Cumin Seed	4 tspn
Black Pepper	3 tspn
Curry Leaves	1/2 cup
Oil	3 tspn
Turmeric Powder	2 tspn

Preparation:

(1) Keep the dry ingredients separately in direct sunlight for about 5 hours.
(2) Heat a kadai or pan. Add coriander seeds to it and saute for 5 to 10 minutes in low to medium flame till the color changes brownish. Remove from fire and keep aside.

(3) In the same pan add toor dal, channa dal and saute for some 8 min till the color changes light brown and emanates its flavor. Remove from fire and keep aside.

(4) Again add fenugreek seed and saute it till they turn reddish. Remove from fire and keep aside.

(5) Now add cumin seed, black pepper and curry leaves to the pan. Saute for 3 to 5 mints. Remove from fire and keep aside.

(6) Finally heat oil in the same pan and add dry red chilly. Saute till chilly gets coated with oil that is  for some 2 to 3 minutes (You can saute it in 3 or 4 batches by adding little oil if you are using a small pan). Remove from fire and keep aside.

(6) Now grind everything in a mixer and make a fine powder. Take it in a large bowl and add turmeric powder. Mix well with a spoon(I grinned it once again to ensure even mixing).

Your sambar powder is ready. Spread it in a paper and allow to cool. Store in an airtight container or ziplock.

Tips:

• You can use it for more than 5 months. If so keep in refrigerator to retain its flavor.
• I used half of the above ingredients. Adjust according to your need.
• Channa dal is the source which gives thickness to the sambar.
• While roasting, keep an eye for not burning the ingredients.

Baaji

Well i keep up my promise. Blog is active again after a short break. My vacation was too good and actually i came back some days before. Due to laziness i postponed posting recipes and yeah now Shyama's Tastes is back :)

Today's recipe suits well for chapathi and poori which is baaji. It is some what similar to Subji that i posted already but here with one main ingredient which is potato. The recipe is from my cousin Sreevidhya. Thanks mams and sree:)

Ingredients:

Potato	3(medium)
Green Chilly	5(medium,chopped)
Garlic	2 gloves(crushed)
Turmeric powder	1/2 tspoon
Salt	to taste
Oil	2 tspoon
Dry red chilly	2
Curry leaves	1 sprig
Mustard	1/2 tspoon

Preparation:

(1) Peel the skin of potato. Keep it in pressure cooker with a pinch of salt and water. Cook it for 5 whistles. Once pressure is released chop the potato into small bitable pieces. Keep it aside.

(2) Heat oil in a pan. Add dry red chilly and mustard. Once mustard crackles add curry leaves. To this add chopped potato and mix once.

(3) To this add green chilly and crushed garlic. Stir all together and pour water so that potato pieces should immerse in water. Add pinch of turmeric powder,salt and mix well(Be sure to add little salt because we added salt already).

(4) Let it boil for 10 to 15 minutes in low to medium flame. Stir occasionally and simmer it. Try to mash the potato pieces while stirring so that it will mix well with the water. Your baaji is now ready.

Have it with your Chapathi/Naan/Poori…

Tips:

• You can add more water at the end if you found it as thickened. 

Mutton Masala Dosa

Well, this is my 100 th post :) , feels very happy to post it, that too within a year. Thanks all for your support. 

I got this recipe from a cooking show. The taste was too good. You can try this once in a while when you feel to taste something different with dosa. It needs mutton curry and dosa batter. You have to stuff mutton curry inside the dosa. Hope you will like it.

Cooking time:30 minutes                                     Serves:10 dosa

Ingredients:

Muton(boneless preferred)	1/2 kg( chop into small pieces)
Dosa batter	as needed
Egg	as needed
Ginger	1 inch piece
Garlic	5 cloves
Big onion	1(chopped,medium)
Tomato	1(chopped,medium)
Red chilly powder	1/2 tspoon
Coriander powder	1 tspoon
Turmeric powder	1/2 tspoon
Garam masala	3/4 tspoon
Pepper powder	1/4 tspoon
Green chilly	4(medium,chooped)
Salt	to taste
Oil	1 tbl spoon

Preparation of mutton masala:

(1) Wash and clean the mutton. Boneless pieces are more preferable. Cut into tiny pieces. Mix with salt and turmeric powder. Take it in a pressure cooker and cook for 4 whistles without adding water. Once it is cooked there will be some water oozed out from mutton.. Keep it as it is.

(2) Mean while heat oil in a pan. Add ginger and garlic. Saute well till raw smell goes off. To this add onion pieces. Saute till color changes light brown. After that add green chilly. Saute and add tomato pieces. Saute till it turns juicy.

(3) Now add chilly powder, coriander powder, garam masala, pepper powder and salt. Now masala is ready. To this add cooked mutton along with the water in it. Mix well and make a taste test here. Close with a lid and cook for another 5 minutes in low flame. Your mutton masala is ready.

Click here for the preparation of dosa. Of course you need dosa batter for this recipe :)

Preparation of mutton masala dosa:

(1) In a bowl take 2 tbl spoon of mutton masala. To this add a egg and beat well. Keep this mutton-egg gravy aside.

(2) Heat a tawa and spread spread oil. Now pour dosa batter and spread it. Above that spread mutton-egg gravy as shown in the below picture( If you want more spiciness you can spread some pepper powder above the gravy )

(3) Once it is ready to turn over make 3 folds(to 3 sides) with the dosa as shown in the below picture. After that inverse it. In low flame let that side cook and flavor sets well. Your mutton masala dosa is ready. Repeat the same step for each dosa.

Try this dish and surprise your guests:)

Tips:

• You can also stuff any other mutton gravy. But mutton pieces should be small.

Idi Chammanthi/Dry Chutney Powder

This is one of my favorite side dish. Even though it will take some time to prepare it, the taste will be awesome. I tried the same from stores too, but couldn't get the exact taste. So i starts the preparation by myself. I follow the same recipe which my mom and grandma used to do. Those recipe is here for you all.

Ingredients:

Coconut	4 cup
Curry leaves	2 sprig
Urad dal	3/4 cup
Toor dal	1/4 cup
Garlic	12 cloves
Red chilly powder	3 to 4 tspoon
Coriander powder	2 tspoon
Asafoetida powder	1/2 tspoon
Salt	to taste
Tamarind	1 lemon size

Preparation:

(1) Heat a pan and add coconut. Saute it. When it starts to change color add curry leaves and continue stirring till color of coconut change brownish( Take care not to burn them). Remove the ingredients from the pan. Let it cool.

(2) In the same pan add urad dal, toor dal and garlic. Better to add garlic towards the end. Saute till the color changes golden brown. Now reduce the flame to low and add chilly powder, coriander powder. Saute for some seconds so that the raw smell goes off. Now remove the ingredients from the pan. Let it cool.

(3) In the same pan add tamarind and saute it for some seconds until it get warm (you can do it in microwave oven too). Now switch off the flame. Let it cool.

(4) Now you have to grind all the cooled ingredients separately that is, grind the coconut mixture in a mixer and make a coarse powder. Keep it aside.

(5) Also grind the urad dal mixture in a mixer and make a fine powder. Keep it aside.

(6) Take the stirred tamarind in a mixer. Add salt to it. Grind it and make a fine powder.

(7) Now you have to mix all the ground mixtures. For that take the ground coconut mixture in a bowl. Add urad dal mixture little by little to it and mix well( you can do this in a mixer too, but if at any point you found the proportion of coconut mixture to urad dal mixture is correct, you can use the remaining urad dal mixture separately as dosa/idly podi. If urad dal mixture dominate coconut mixture the taste of chutney powder differs).

(8) Now take this mixed ingredients in a mixer along with ground tamarind powder,asafoetida powder and grind it till smooth( make salt test while grinding).

Your dry chutney powder is now ready. You can store it in an airtight container and keep in room temperature. It ll long last if u keep in refrigerator.

Have it with your rice.dosa/idly…

Tips:

• Don't add oil or water in this recipe.
• You can use fresh coconut/frozen coconut. Some coconut when grinned will be little watery even after stirring. Don't worry, it will dry off when mixed with urad dal ingredients.

Meen Pollichathu/ Fish Fried In Banana Leaf-Kerala Style

Meen pollichathu is a popular kerala dish. I already added this recipe. This is another version which is more easier than the previous one.

Preparation Time: 15 minutes Cooking Time:50 minutes.

Ingredients:

Fish(i used pearl spot, it also works for king fish, pomfret and tilapia)	2
Shallots/Big onion	25/1(skin peeled,chopped)
Tomato	1(chopped)
Curry leaves	2 sprig
Coconut Oil	2 tspoon+2 tbl spoon

To Marinate:

Chilly powder	3 tspoon
Coriander powder	2 tspoon
Turmeric powder	1 tspoon
Ginger-garlic paste	1 tspoon
Garam Masala	1 tspoon
Lemon Juice	1 tspoon
Salt	to taste
Water	To sprinkle

To Wrap:

Banana Leaf or Foil paper

Preparation:

(1) In a bowl add the ingredients shown under "to marinate" heading. Sprinkle water and mix well. Make a thick paste which should be in spreading consistency

(2) Well, before preparing masala you have to wash and clean the fish. Make horizontal slits over the fish. Now paste more than half of the masala over the fish(Keep the rest of masala aside). Mind to paste the masala inside the slits too. Keep it for marination about half an hour.

(3) Mean while heat oil in a pan. Add shallots/onion slices along with little salt. Stir till the color changes brownish. Add tomato slices and saute till it turns juicy(i didn't used tomato due to out of stock). Now add curry leaves. Saute well and add the rest of masala(add little more water to the remaining masala) which we kept aside. Stir well and allow the added water with masala to boil so that the raw smell of masalas goes off and onion will cook well (take care not to burn). Switch off the flame. Keep it aside. Let it cool.

(4) Now heat oil a pan to fry the fish. Add the marinated fish into it. Fry it till half cooked( say 2 minutes on each side. Don't cook completely). Keep it in a tissue paper.

(5) Now take a banana leaf. Spread some onion masala over it and keep the half cooked fish over it. Again spread more masala over the top. Fish will be now covered by the msaala. Now wrap it carefully.

(6) Heat a pan and keep the wrapped fishes over it(i made a knot with an aluminium foil over the wrap). Sprinkle water over it. Close the vessel with a lid. Let it steam cook. Flip the parcel in between by sprinkilng water. Cook for 15 minutes on each sides. Now you will get a nice smell of banana leaf). Switch off the flame when the color of leaf changes brownish. Your Meen pollichathu is now ready.

Enjoy your fish pollichathu with Kappa Puzhungiyathu, Kappa Puzhukku or rice….

Tips:

• Lightly heat the banana leaf over the flame so that it will not tear during wrapping.
• You can also use aluminium foil paper instead of banana leaf.