Munthiri Kothu - Traditional South Indian sweet

Munthiri kothu is a unique South Indian traditional dish. I just came to know about this dish only last year, when my mom was telling what my grandma used to do for Diwali. It is almost similar to seeyam / susiyam, only stuffing varies. Roasted green gram dal powder are mixed in jaggery to make balls. Group of these balls (2-3) are dipped in rice flour. Since 2-3 balls are joined, it is called so. It can be stored for 7-10 days. It's really healthy and yummy too.

Preparation time: 15 mins
Cooking time: 15 mins
Serves: 3-4 nos

Ingredients for stuffing:

Green gram dal - 1/2 cup
Jaggery - 1/2 cup
Water - 1/4 cup
Coconut - 2 tablespoon
Sesame seeds - 1 tablespoon (white / black)
Elachi powder - 1 teaspoon

Ingredients for outer layer:

Rice flour - 1/2 cup
Maida flour - 2 tablespoon
Salt - 1 pinch

Preparation Method:

For stuffing:

1. Dry roast green gram dal. Allow it to cool and blend it to fine coarse powder and set it aside in mixing bowl.
2. Dry roast sesame seeds.
3. Dry roast grated coconut well, until moisture evaporates.
4. Mix dry coconut, sesame seeds, green gram dal powder and elachi powder well.



5. In a pan, add jaggery and water and cook well, until jaggery dissolves. Switch off the flame and filter it. Add the jaggery syrup little by little to mixing bowl and mix well using small spoon.
6. Ensure jaggery syrup is added until we are able to make balls. Do not add more syrup.
7. Make small balls out of it and keep it aside.

For Munthiri Kothu:

1. Mix rice flour, maida, salt together and make flow consistency battery similar to bajji batter.



2. Heat oil in a separate pan. When it's hot, dip three balls together in batter and add it to oil. Deep fry well as golden color is observed in outer layer.



3. Repeat the above process until all balls are done.



Tips:

1. Ensure coconut is fried well, otherwise it will rot the dish within a day.
2. If more sweet is required for stuffing, increase jaggery quantity according to your taste but do not change water level for making syrup.
3. Sesame seeds need to be roasted well, this adds additional flavor to this dish for every bite.
4. Maida is just added as a binding agent, do not add more than 2 tablespoon.
5. If needed broken and fried cashewnuts can be added to stuffing.

Beetroot Burfi

Beetroot burf is simple yet it is classic dessert prepared in less time. Almost it varies little from coconut burfi. We can do this at home with simple ingredients available at home. As beetroot has its own color and sweetish flavor it adds an additional richness to this recipe. I love to eat the burfi hot, as I do not have patience to wait until it cools off :).

Preparation time: 15 mins
Cooking time: 20 mins

Ingredients:

Beetroot- 2 cup (grated)
Coconut - 1 1/4 cup (grated)
Sugar - 2 1/2 cup
Ghee - 5 tablespoon
Cardamom powder - 1 teaspoon

Preparation Method:

1. Grease tray with butter or ghee and keep it aside.
2. Wash, peel the skin and grate beetroot. Grate using small hole in grater.
3. Grate fresh coconut and keep it aside.
4. Heat 3 tablespoon of ghee in a thick bottom pan / kadai and add grated beetroot and saute well in medium flame until beetroot turns little soft.



5. Add grated coconut and mix well until raw smell of beetroot and coconut vanish off.

 

6. Now add sugar, cardamom powder and mix well until beetroot mixture foaming up.



7. Add remaining 2 tablespoon of ghee and stir-as-wet evaporates and thick consistency is formed. Make sure when you take small portions of mixture outside, you can make balls out of it. It is the right consistency and indication to switch off the flame.



8. Pour the consistency to greased tray and press the mixture with spatula tightly. Allow it to cool for 10 minutes. With the greased knife cut into square shaped burfi.



9. Once it is cooled off completed, you can cut into pieces and serve by adding badam/ cashew over it.

Aval payasam

The most tasty and simple payasam. For Janmastami / Krishnar Jayanthi, I used to make this easy payasam. Aval payasam is an important dish used while making pooja for lord Krishnar. For every Tamil new year, my mom used to make this payasam. Both me and my sister loves it. It is very healthy too.

Preparation time: 5 mins
Cooking time: 10 mins
Serves: 2 nos

Ingredients:

Aval / Poha - 1/4 cup
Water - to soak poha (approximately 1/4 - 1/2 cup)
Sugar - 1/2 cup
Milk - 1 1/2 cup
Ghee - 1 teaspoon
Cashewnut - 5 to 6 nos
Raisin - 4 to 5 nos
Cardamom / Elachi powder - 1 teaspoon

Preparation method:

1. Wash poha around 2-3 times and soak it in water for 20 mins.
2. When poha absorbs all water, just smash using small laddle. Do not smash to pasty consistency.
3. In a thick bottom pan, boil milk and add poha. In medium to low flame, cook well until milk reduces to 3 / 4th of its original volume.



4. Simultaneously heat ghee in a small pan, fry cashewnut and raisin.
5. When consistency of payasam turns thick, add sugar and cardamom powder.
6. Allow payasam to cook well until sugar disolves in low flame. Finally add peace cashewnut, raisin along with ghee.



7. Serve it hot.

Tips:

1. Thick flattened poha should be used for making this payasam.
2. Both Red and white flattened rice flakes can be used for making payasam.
3.Water should be a little above poha when soaked. 

Gobi Mutter Paratha

Gobi Mutter paratha is one of my favorite paratha. I was planning to do this for a long time, and it came out well. It can be used as a lunch box for kids. 

Variety of stuffing can be made to fill paratha. But all the time favorites are Aloo paratha, Gobi mutter paratha, Onion paratha.

As stuffed paratha contains all masala, no sidedish is required. Best combo for Gobi Mutter Paratha to server are plain yogurt and mixed vegetable pickle. This paratha is quite easy to make when dough and stuffing are kept ready. Most of the North Indians / punjabi's order this paratha in hotels. It is so yummy when it is served hot.

Preparation time: 30 mins
Cooking time: 20 mins
Serves: 3 nos

Ingredients to prepare stuffing:

Gobi / Cauliflower florets - 4 nos (large)
Frozen peas / tinned peas - 1/2 cup
Cumin seeds / Jeera - 1 teaspoon
Onion - 1 no (finely chopped, optional)
Green chilli - 2 no (finely chopped)
Kashmiri red chilli powder - 1/2 teaspoon
Cumin powder - 1 teaspoon
Chat masala - 1/2 teaspoon (optional)
Garam masala - 1/2 teaspoon
Salt - to taste
Oil / Butter - 3 teaspoon

Ingredients to prepare dough:

Wheat flour - 2 cups
Salt - 1/2 teaspoon
Oil - 4 teaspoon
Warmwater - to make dough (merely 50% measure of wheat flour)
Wheat flour - for dusting

Preparation Method:

To prepare Dough:

1. In a wide bowl, add wheat flour, salt and oil / ghee and mix well.
2. Add luke warmwater little by little to the dough mixture so that dough gets evenly mixed. Prepare soft, smooth and pliable dough. Once the dough is ready, grease the hands with a teaspoon of oil and knead the dough. Cover and keep it aside for 20 mins minimum.

To prepare stuffing:

1. Wash and soak cauliflower florets in normal water by adding teaspoon salt and turmeric powder for 10 mins.

2. Rinse well and wipe in kitchen towel. 

3. Grate the cauliflower florets using cheese grater / small hole grater.

4. Smash frozen / tinned peas using masher and mix well with grated cauliflower.

5. Heat butter in a pan, add cumin seeds and saute well. Once cumin seed turns brown, add finely chopped green chilli and saute well.

6. Add grated cauliflower and peas mixture to the pan and cook well, until moisture evaporates.

7. Add salt, garam masala, cumin powder, chilli powder and mix well until its raw smell goes off.

8. Allow the mixture to cool and make small lemon balls out of it.

To prepare paratha:

1. Knead the dough again and equally divide the dough into 8 -9 large portions and make balls out of it.

2. Press and fluffy single ball dough and dust wheat flour on both the side and roll out the dough to make small circle. Make sure, middle portion of the chapathi is thick and thin at corner.

3. Keep your stuffing ball in the center, gather all the corners and seal the dough with stuffing inside. Press it down gently to flatten it.

4. Dust little flour on the sides and flutter it using hand. Gently roll out the flattened dough to 6-7 "circle.

5. Heat tawa with a teaspoon of butter and place the rolled out paratha on it.

6. When one side of paratha is done, flip it over other side and cook it well, until both sides turns golden brown.

7. Remove it from tawa and serve it with plain yogurt and mixed vegetable pickle.

Tips:

1. Soaking cauliflower in turmeric and salt, remove if any insects in cauliflower.

2. Ensure cauliflower is grated and then cooked well until it raw smell evaporate . It takes around 10 - 15 mins. 
3. Ensure if we use frozen / tinned peas, use  kitchen towel to absorb excess water. If tinned peas are used, wash it 2-3 times in water and then allow it to dry before being mixed.

Potukadalai urundai/ Maa ladoo - Easy Deepavali recipe

Potukadalai urundai is the 1st sweet we (me, my sister, my mom) make in our house every year for deepavali festival. Deepavali, as we know its festival of lights celebrated with more sweets and fun. There will be lot of sweets prepared by my mom every year. My sister too make lot of sweets for her son frequently. I do make few among those, but I never start deepavali sweets without this potukadalai urundai. It is a very simple recipe and smells great. It melts in mouth and tempt to eat more.

Preparation time: 30 mins
Count: 30-40 nos

Ingredients:

Roasted gram dal /Fried gram dal/ Potukadalai - 1/2 kilo
Sugar - 1/2 kg
Cardamom/ Elachi - 2 teaspoon
Cashew-nut - 20-25 nos
Ghee - 1/2 to 3/4 cup (as needed)

Preparation method:

1. Grind/ blend roasted gram dal in mixie and make into fine powder. Transfer it into a wide large bowl.
2. In the same jar, add 1/2 kg sugar and grind it to fine powder. Transfer sugar powder into the same bowl.



3. In small mixer jar, add 2 tablespoon cardamom and 2 tablespoon of sugar and blend well to make fine powder. Use only 2 teaspoon of it and store the rest elachi powder for making other sweets.
4. Heat ghee/ vanaspathi in a thick bottom kadai.
5. Simultaneously heat a tablespoon of ghee in a small kadai and fry broken cashewnut until it turns golden brown colour and then add it to bowl along with ghee. Mix well using spoon. Add elachi powder and mix well.



6. When ghee turns hot, keep it in low flame and we are not going to switch it off, until we make all ladoos.
7. Add little by little ghee to the bowl, mix using spoon and start making balls out of it.
8. Step 7 is repeated throughout until all balls are made. Don't pour entire ghee at a stretch, need to add little by little to a small portion, mix well and make balls.

Store the ladoo in airtight container.

Tips:

1. Fried gram powder and sugar powder should be of equal ratio 1:1
2. Ghee is used as a binding agent. Don't add more ghee so that balls will not be soggy in texture.
3. Use only hot ghee/ vanaspathi. 

Rajma masala/ Red kidney bean masala

Most popular north-Indian dish made in punjabi houses are "Rajma masala". Boiled red kidney beans simmered in onion tomato gravy is famous punjabi dish. In my office, I used to eat Rajma chawal (Rajma masala with steamed rice). It is very simple to make and healthy too. Beans contains large amount of protein and being vegetarian its a great substitute for intake of protein.

Rajma masala can be served with jeera rice, plain steamed rice, roti, pulka, chapathi. There are 2 types of kidney beans available in the market one is light red and other is little darker. Only cooking time varies for both.

Preparation time: 15 mins

Cooking time: 25 mins

Serves: 2-4 nos

Ingredients:

For cook:

Rajma - 3/4 cup

Water - 1 1/2 cup water

For Rajma recipe:

Oil - 1 tablespoon

Butter - 2 tablespoon

Bay leaf - 1 or 2 nos

Onion - 1 (finely chopped)

Tomato - 1 cup puree

Ginger garlic paste - 1 teaspoon

Turmeric powder - 1/2 teaspoon

Chilli powder - 1 1/2 teaspoon

Coriander powder - 1 teaspoon

Cumin powder - 1 teaspoon

Garam masala - 1/2 teaspoon

Kasturi methi - 1/2 teaspoon (optional)

Salt - to taste

Preparation:

1. Wash and soak red kidney bean for 8-10 hours. 

2. Pressure cook soaked rajma in fresh water for 3-4 whistle. This cooking time may vary according to the variety and quality of bean chosen.

3. After pressure cooking the rajma, keep that cooked water aside, rajma should be soft and easy to smash with hand easily.

4. If using canned bean, then no need to cook, just rinse in water about 2 to 3 times and 1st 3 steps can be skipped.

5. Heat oil and a teaspoon of butter in a pan, add bayleaf. Saute it around 30 seconds and add finely chopped onions. 

6. Sprinkle little salt and cook well, until onion turns translucent color.

7. Add ginger garlic paste and saute well until its raw smell vanish off, add tomato puree and allow it to boil, until water evaporates and oil gets separated.

8. Add all spice powder one by one and mix well.

9. Finally add cooked rajma along with its water, mix well and allow it to simmer in low flame around 5-6 mins.

10. Add crushed kasturi methi and lavish cube of butter while serving.

Rajma masala is ready to be served. Serve with Jeera Rice or Roti.

Tips:

1. Par boil tomatoes in water to remove outer skin and then blend it in mixer.