PLAIN RICEMODAK

Plain rice modak is made with the rice flour, tempered with mustard seeds and urid dal, few curry leaves, green chilli etc.  It is very easy to make and serve as snacks too.  Since Ganesh festival is only a week away, I thought of sharing this simple recipe.

TOMATO OMLETTE

Tomato omlette is basically made out of gram flour or besan it is known as with onion, tomato, coriander  leaves etc.  It is a very tasty breakfast as it is or you can make it with bread as sandwich.  Since all the ingredients are available at home any time, this can be made so easily.

BILIMBI ACHAR, IRUMBAN PULI PICKLE, TREE SORREL PICKLE

Irumban puli  in English is known as  tree sorrel or cucumber tree.  In India, it is known as bilimbi, irumban puli, chemmeen puli, bimbul, orakkaapuli, bimblin etc.

The tree bears quite a lot of fruits.  It is very sour in taste.  It can be eaten raw with salt and chilli powder.  Since it is very tangy in nature, it is  added to some dishes substituting for tamarind or tomato.   It is used in sambar or fish curry or made into pickles.

Mostly, we used to make pickle out of it.  One of my colleague has got the tree in her building and she shared me with this fresh fruit.  I also made subzi out of this and was quite tasty.  irumban-puli-subzi

AJWAIN PATTA PARATHA

Parathas are altime favourite of our family members.  We love to eat paratha any time with curd and pickle is my choice and with tomato ketchup of our children.

Ajwain patta it is also known as pani koorka elai, kanni koorka, karpooravalli elai has got lot of medicinal value and I have planted the same in the balcony.  Hence, it is always available with me.  Whenever my children gets cough and cold, I make kada or kashayam in which I always used to put this.

Coming back to paratha, I have made several times, bhajia out of the leaves but never tried the paratha. Two days back I was bored of making subzi so thought of making paratha out of it as the Gardener came to trim the plants in the balcony, he had removed the leaves.  I had kept some in fridge which I used to make the paratha and was too good.  we can make puri also out of this dough

POHA COCONUT PAK

Poha coconut pak is a  simple and easy sweet dish for the neivedyam.  This can be prepared so quickly for your unexpected guests too as the ingredients are always available at home.  If you get the  naadan aval " brown colour one which is very tasty and healthy too, tastes heavenly.  You can make Poha  modak also out of this.

POHA MODAK

Ganesh Festival starts this year on 29th August.  I am pretty sure, everyone will be busy breaking their head to make some different kind of modak for welcoming the Lord Ganesha, the remover of all obstacles.  Here I am presenting for you a simple and easy modak recipe made out of poha and coconut which can be used for making poha coconut pak too.

PAPPADA VADA ll PAPAD VADA

Pappada vada is a snack item made in Kerala.  Actually, if you tell the Papad makers, they will make separate papad for this. In case you don't get that, you can use the normal papad for making this snack item. 

 

 In any of the small hotels and thattu kada (street shops), you will get this item to taste.  Papad is dipped in the rice flour batter and fried, it is a simple and easy dish, provided you have papad at home.

RICE BUTTERMILK DRINK (a healthy drink)

Rice butter milk drink is again reminds me of my childhood after posting   kanjivellam soup.  It is a quite healthy drink. My parents and grand parents used to drink this one or two glasses in the morning that is their breakfast.  It is quite healthy and filling too.  (IT IS KNOWN AS KARACHU KUDIKKAL), kARACHU means mashing it up KUDIKKAL means drinking)

This drink is made out of left over rice.  Water is put in the left over rice in the night and the drink is made in the morning.  It has got very cooling effect to the body.  If you make it with red puzhungalarisi (red boiled rice), it is much more tastier.

RICE SOUP (cold soup)

When I say Rice soup or kanji vellam in malayalam, it is known as is an energy drink, home remedy, hair care, plant food and cattle food.  I had a very very long hair.  My mother used to find it difficult to  apply oil and wash it every weekend.  Those days, shampoos are not known to us.  We use the rice soup, seekai podi, hibiscus leaves to make the hair wash in place of shampoo.  The kanji, after preparing the rice, the water is removed from the cooked rice and kept overnight.  Next day morning, the seekai podi, hibiscus leaves crushed on a rough stone to make the "Thali", the sticky liquid form mixed with the kanji is applied on hair to remove the oil.

salt and little ghee is mixed in the  hot kanji and drank as energy drink.  It is quite healthy.  The kanji diluted in water and cotton sarees, mudu etc. are dipped in it and put on the rope to dry and then it is sent for pressing (ironing).  Cow fodder (pinnaku - the remains after extracting the oil from coconut, til etc) are mixed in the kanji and given to the cattles.  The day old kanji is also put for the plants.

The above child hood memories reminded me when I today made rice and extracted the kanji from it.  I thought of making soup out of it.  I also had some vegetable stock after boiling some vegetables and beetroot for making some dish.

LAPSI PIDI KOZHUKKATTAI

Lapsi, the broken wheat rava is good for diabetic people.  we can make kichadi, upma, porridge out of it. Today I thought of trying the pidi kozhukkattai out of this and the result was yummy.  I loved it with kadala curry, moru kootan and sambar.