Ada Pradhamam - 200th Post

I am so so  excited about today’s post!! Can you believe its my  200^th post,  how time flew by and soon my blog will turn a year too.   Thank you all for your kind support and encouragement  you have given me all this while and I hope I will continue to get more J  

Wanted to post something sweet for the special occasion, so here I go with a very  yummy Ada pradhaman made out of  Ada, I have used a store bought Ada. However back in home the ada  is made at home and it tastes really so yummy way better than the store bought ada.

Time Taken  for this recipe : 1 hour                                      Serves : 4

Ingredients

Ada – store bought – 100 gms                                                         Jagerry -   200 gms  *                                                               Coconut milk – 2^nd  extract  1 ½ cup                                            Coconut milk -1^st  extract – ½  cup                                                        Coconut – 2 nos                                                                               Cashew nut -  8 nos.                                                                         Raisins  - 10 nos                                                                               Jeera fried and powdered – ¼ tsp                                             Cardamom – 3 nos crushed                                                          Dried ginger – ¼ tsp                                                                       Ghee  - 2 tbsp

*increase or decrease the sweetness depending on your taste.

Drumstick Sambar

I know each one of you are going to laugh your lungs out reading this post.  The first disastrous dish I prepared for my FIL & hubby.  When I read the event hosted by Rafeeda  I though it was the perfect time for me to post this. Thank you Rafeeda.

Sambar is one of the very  most important and simple curry which is prepared in any South Indian house. Goes very well with rice, idli, dosa, vada the list is never ending.

I was out from college and the next day I picked up a job, so helping mom with household work was my job, never ventured into the kitchen for cooking as mom never wanted us to do it. 

I was 23 when I got married,  after few days my FIL  said  why don’t you make sambar for lunch.  First  entry to the kitchen as so many days my FIL cooked for us as I was not lucky enough to see my MIL as she was not alive.  My FIL at his 70’s was  pretty good in cooking.  I could not say NO to him and  I thought it was a very simple task to make the sambar,  with little bit of doubts  I wanted to call and ask mom  but no  phone and no mobile, no internet also those days.  All I remembered was seeing the plate in which  mom gave the masala to grind at home, so I remembered all  the ingredients although not perfectly the right proportions.  

I planned to make sambar with drumstick and ladies finger. I fried all the masala and kept aside to let it cool so that I could grind to a fine paste.

On the other side I  cut the drumstick and started to boil, put the fried ladies finger and  cooked with salt.  Then added the masala at this time I realized the sambar is still watery.  Then I realized that I had forgotten to put  the tur dal, just took a bit of the daal, washed it well and put it into the sambar. Now the sambar is boiling on and on, wondering why the daal is not getting cooked and instead the sambar was becoming thick, so all I did as to  add water and again boil, you know what had happened the drumsticks and ladies finger  got over cooked and mashed and invisible of the vegetables except the thread like sticks of the drumstick, in between the daal uncooked worrying me.  Finally it was time for lunch  now no more time to cook. So I just put the tadka and set it on the table for lunch.

My FIL comes to the table and starts his lunch at that time he just put the sambar on rice all he saw was sticks and mashed ladies finger and sambar so gooey and finally the great daal uncooked. All he said was to me you don’t know cooking right. That’s all, poor thing ate a bit of  rice with great difficulty. 

Nenthrpazam Pradhaman

Happy Vishu and Tamil New Year Greeting to you all!! 

A very rich treat to the tongue, the flavor of banana and coconut goes hand in hand. Many of them like to have this pradhaman chilled.  True me too love this chilled.

I personally don’t  like to add cardamom and coconut pieces. I love to add fried jeera which is powdered and added to this recipe as this goes very well with banana and that the flavor of the banana can be felt every mouth as you sip. I you want cardamom and fried coconut pieces do so but avoid the jeera then.

It takes a long process as we need to stand and keep stirring it through out otherwise so its better to do this at ease. Today it just slipped and see my cashews got a bit burnt L

Idiyan chakka or Raw Jackfruit Podi Thooval

Raw jackfruit or Idiyan chakka is so yummy when used in  sambar, thoran or puzuku. Today I have made this simple thoran which is very commonly cooked in most of the homes.

Jackfruit tree is one common tree which you can find in most of the backyards of any house in Kerala. It’s a very tedious  and messy job in cleaning the raw jackfruit or the riped ones.

Whilst cleaning  rub some oil in the knife and your hands so that the glue from the raw jackfruit does not stick to your hands and its easy to clean too.  

My mom makes this too good and this is how she makes it. 

Raw Papaya Thoran

Ingredients:

Raw papaya  – 1 very medium size chopped in cubes                                                                                    Fresh grated coconut – about 4 tbsp                                                                                                        Green chillies – 4 or 5 depending on your spice level                                                                                     Cumin – a pinch                                                                                                                                          Garlic – 2 pcs.                                                                                                                                            Turmeric – ¼  tsp                                                                                                                                     Curry leaves – 2 sprigs                                                                                                                             Urud dal – 1 tsp                                                                                                                                       Mustard – ½  tsp                                                                                                                                        Salt to taste                                                                                                                                       Coconut/cooking oil – 2 tbsp

Beetroot Thoran or Poriyal

I am back after a good weekend and for some still enjoying. Well today I have a very simple and  easy  side dish to go with rice and rotis.

Ingredients:

Beetroot – 2 medium chopped in small cubes                                                                                        Fresh grated  coconut – about 2 tbsp                                                                                                        Red chillies  cut into pieces (dry) – 6 depending on your spice level                                                                Channa Dal – ¼ cup                                                                                                                                 Curry leaves – 2 sprigs                                                                                                                              Urud dal – 1 sp                                                                                                                                        Mustard – ½  tsp                                                                                                                                        Salt to taste                                                                                                                                       Coconut/cooking oil – 2 tbsp

Pachadi with Aamla or Nellikkai or Indian Gooseberry

The taste of Indian gooseberry is sour, bitter and  quite fibrous. One cannot eat many Aamla’s at a time but this way in this pachadi you can ensure  the intake of some, you wont even know that its Aamla in this dish. The ginger  and asafotida with methi enhances the flavour of this dish. Very simple  and very healthy and perfect to go with a bowl of steemed rice.

The Aamla fruit contains more than 80% of water. It also has protein, carbohydrate, fibre, minerals and vitamins and rich source of Vitamin C.  Studies says 100 Gms of Aamla contains - 700 mg Vitamin C. They say if Aamla is dried in the shade then much of the vitamin C is retained. To get the maximum out of Aamla it should be taken raw with very little salt.  

Even today I love to have this with salt and chillie powder mix, however they say you are not supposed to drink water after eating Aamla. But I love to have a sip of water because   a kind of nice sweetness  you get. Also we used to break the seed and find another tiny seed in the inner layer of the seed  – it was real fun to munch that. Aamla, mangoes, Guava, tamirind ……oooof takes me to my childhood days and stories associated with these are too many and are never ending. Love my childhood days.  

I always like to make this a bit spicy and goes very well with steamed rice, papad fried in oil or even the one roasted on fire  is a must and some nice side dish like potato fry or nice mizhukuparati. Infact I served this for lunch with rice, papad and beeetroot kutu.

Less spoken about this wonder fruit on the health benefits as its endless.  Let me move on...

Bitter Gourd or Pavaka Fry

Bitter gourd is one vegetable that  I never like to eat this in any form as I hate its  bitterness. Taking me back to my younger days when my mom used to make it often at home for meal. I would literarlly cry  as I don’t want to eat it and hated it so much.

Now keeping in mind the health benefits,  I make it a point to make it once a month at home, some times it could be a fry like this or a theeyal.

This fry I tell is not bitter at all and goes well with some nice tangy curry like moru kutan.

Nutritional Benefits of the Bitter Guard

Bitter gourds are very low in calories but dense with precious nutrients.  It is an excellent source of vitamins B1, B2, and B3, C, magnesium, folic acid, zinc, phosphorus, manganese, and has high dietary fiber.  It is rich in iron, contains twice the beta-carotene of broccoli, twice the calcium of spinach, and twice the potassium of a banana.

Lets move on the recipe:

Ingredients:

Bitter guard      : 2 medium (remove the seeds and slice them thin)

Onion – 2 medium sliced

Green Chillied – 5- 6 sllit

Oil – 2 to 4 tbsp

Sale to taste

Turmeric powder – ¼ tsp

Sugar – ½ tsp *

Chilli Powder – ½ tsp or upto your level of spice

Lemon  juice – 1 tsp *

* optional

Carrot and green peas mezhukkupuratti

 Ingredients:- 

Carrot – 2 cups                                                                                                                                    Grean peas – ½ cup                                                                                                                             Turmeric – a pinch                                                                                                                                   Onion big – 1 no
Red whole chillie – 4 – 5nos                                                                                                                                                       Coconut oil
Salt to taste

Masala

Onion – 1 no &  Red chillie – 4 – 5nos.

·        Dunk the above 2 into a mixer and just use the pulser and crush them

Erissery

You can find this dish in the Kerala sadhya, you can make this with pumpkin along, or elephant yam with pumkin. The original way to make erissery for sadhya is with raw banana and elephant yam which I have here.

When you make this dish to one level till you add the tempering the masala is nice yellow, the moment we add the tempering the entire curry changes its colour. The flavor of the fried coconut in coconut oil enhances the dish so much and it tastes good.

Try this recipe you all will love it.

Olan

Olan is a typical Kerala dish served in any Kerala sadhya. This is a less spicy dish so everyone including children can enjoy it. The main ingredients are black-eyed bean, Pumpkin or ash gourd and coconut Milk. This is served with rice.

Ingredients

Black eyed beans - 1/4 cup

Pumpkin  - 1 cup

Green chillies - 4 nos.

Coconut milk (thick) - 1/2 cup

Curry leaves - 2 sprigs

Coconut oil - 1 tsp

Salt to taste

Kerala Banana Chips

Kerala banana chips is one of the crisp items served  in any Kerala Sadhya. Without this a traditional sadhya remains incomplete. Not much of a hardship to get this yummy chips made at home.

Ingredients :

Raw Banana nenthran kaya : 2 nos
Turmeric powder : ¼
Salt water : ½  tsp in ¼  cup water (saline water)
Coconut oil for frying

 

Ginger in curd OR Inji Thayir

The three main ingredients in this recipe 'Inji,' the good old, ginger and 'thayir,' which is nothing but curd & ofcourse the spice from green chillie or bird eye chilli.  One of the dish  to be served  in any Kerala traditional sadhya. This is served on the left, lower tip of the plantain leaf.

No cooking and very simple and real tongue tickler J

Kootu Curry

This is one of the best classic Kerala dish to serve in for Sadhya. Kootu means  a combination of vegetable and lentil mixed and prepared, you can make this with  brown channa dal or chick peas and combination of vegetables like ash gourd, raw plantain, elephant yam.  Fresh ground coconut and spices make this dish yummy. As usual  its prepared in many varieties as you go to different parts of Kerala. I feel for sadhya I like to prepare this dish with brown channa dal and with elephant yam and that too I make it as  a dry preparation and we all at home love this way.

Ingredients :

Elephant Yam -  1 ½ cup cubed *
Black Chickpeas /Kadala : ¼  cup
Turmeric powder :  a pinch
Red chilly powder : ¼ or ½   tsp (keep your spice level)
Jaggery : 1 tbsp
Salt to taste

Beetroot Pachadi

Ingredients

Beetroot -  1 no medium size, peeled and grated

Dry red chilli -  3 no

Turmeric powder – ¼  tsp

Grated coconut – ¼  cup

Ginger 1 a very small piece

Green chillies - 4 nos

Mustard seeds  - ¼ tsp for grinding and  ½ tsp for seasoning

Salt to taste 

Curry leaves few sprigs

Thick curd – ¾  cup  (you can use this as per your sour requirement)

Oil  - 1 tbsp

Pineapple Pachadi

A sweet and sour dish with mild flavour of the chillie and mustard is absolutely divine. This is one the the dish served in most of the Kerala sadhya, loved by all as the flavour of the pineapple is so good in this recipe.

Ingredients

Pineapple – one small pineapple
Grated coconut – 4 tbsp
Cumin seeds – ¼ tsp
Chilly powder – ½  tsp
Turmeric powder - ½ tsp
Salt -  to taste
Mustard seeds - ½ tsp
Dry red chillies- 3 nos
Cooking/Coconut oil - 2 tbsp
Curry leaves – 2 sprigs                                                                                                                      Fenugreek – ¼ tsp                                                                                                                                  Sugar – about 2 tbsp – if you feel the pineapple is sour then you may need to add sugar
Thick curd (not sour) - 1 glass

Cabbage Thoran

Ingredients:

Cabbage – 1 very medium size or 500gms chopped fine                                                                               Fresh grates coconut – about 4 tbsp                                                                                                          Green chillies – 4 or 5 depending on your spice level                                                                                     Cumin – a pinch                                                                                                                                  Turmeric – ¼  tsp                                                                                                                                      Curry leaves – 2 sprigs                                                                                                                                                       Urud dal – 1 tsp                                                                                                                                        Mustard – ½  tsp                                                                                                                                       Salt to taste                                                                                                                                       Coconut/cooking oil – 2 tbsp