Corn and Peanut Vadai

Hope this would be an interesting and simple recipe for you to try. Generally for vadai, we require a long time for marination and grinding. Now lets try a simple vada which requires no marination.

Ingredients:

Boiled Rice - 1 cup

Roasted Peanuts - 1 cup

Sweet Corn - 2 cups

Chopped Onion - 1 cup

Chopped Green chilli - 1 tsp

Chopped Ginger - 1/2 tsp

Chopped Curry leaf - 2 tsp

Fennel Seed (Sonf) - 1/2 tsp

Clove - 3 nos

Cinnamon - 1 inch stick

Salt as required

Method:

1 - Crush the peanuts roughly.

2 - Grind corn, boiled rice, clove, cinnamon, fennel seed to a smooth paste. Do not add water.

3 - To the ground paste, add crushed peanuts, chopped onion, curry leaf, ginger, chilli and salt.

4 - Heat oil for frying.

5 - Now shape the mixture to make vada.

6 - You can also fry it like pakodas.

Sukku Kaapi / Sukku Paal

This is a special recipe of my grandmother. She used to drink this everyday since her childhood. She believes that this is the secret for her good health. 

Ingredients:

For Decotion:
Black pepper - 5
Cumin seed - 1/4 tsp
Cardamom - 1
Coriander powder - 1/4 tsp
Grated Ginger/ dry ginger powder - 1/4 tsp
Karuppatti (Palm jaggery) - 1.5 tbsp
Naatu sarkarai (Brown sugar) - 1 tsp
Water - 1/2 cup

For Finishing:
Warm milk / water - 3/4 cup

Method:

1 - Crush black pepper, cardamom and cumin seed.

2 - Grate the palm jaggery.

Karupatti or panavellam

3 - In a sauce pan warm water, add crushed pepper, cumin seed, cardamom, coriander powder, grated ginger, palm sugar and brown sugar

4 - Bring it to boil.

5 -Strain the boiled decotion.

Sukku Kaapi without Milk

6 - To the extracted decotion, you can either add warm water or thick and warm milk.

7 - It is very important that we should never add palm sugar to hot milk. Adding it to hot milk will make the milk curdle.

Sukku Kaapi with milk

Note:

While adding ginger, make sure you remove the skin completely. The white layer under the skin might cause indigestion.
You can also add powdered dry ginger instead of fresh ginger.
In Siddha, it is advised that we should have fresh ginger forenoon and dry ginger post that.

If you are adding milk, then reduce the milk to half and add it to the decotion.

Health Note:

During pregnancy, elders traditionally give this everyday to ease up the pregnancy difficulties, widely practised in Tamilnadu.
Post delivery, it is given to remove impurities from the uterus. 
Jaggery is used since ancient times to treat problems such as dry cough, common cold, anemia and asthma.It is beneficial in treating conditions like indigestion and constipation.
Jaggery helps in promoting relaxation of muscles, nerves and blood vessels, thus enhancing their functions.

Migraines, the most painful and uncomfortable type of headaches can be relieved to a large extent by jaggery.This can be made a healthy substitute to coffee.
This also helps to boost immunity.

Kashayam for cold, cough and throat infection

Ingredients:

Betel leaf - 1

Karpooravalli leaf (Indian oregano) - 1

Thulsi (holy basil) - 1

Black pepper - 8 corns

Cumin seed (jeera) - 1/4 tsp

Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp

Water - 150 ml

Palm sugar (panam karkandu) - 1 tsp (optional)

Method:

1, Wash all the herbs and tear it into multiple pieces.

2, Crush pepper corns.

3, In a pan, add water.

4, Once it gets warm, add betel leaf, karpooravalli leaf, thulsi, crushed pepper, cumin and turmeric powder.

5, Let it boil.

6, It has to get reduced to 100 ml.

7, Strain this mixture.

8, For kids, we can add powdered palm sugar.

Drink it warm.

Drink it 2 to 3 times a day to relieve from cold, cough and throat infection.

Treatment for cold

Remedy 1

Mix 1 tbsp of coconut oil and 1 pinch of edible camphor (pachai karpooram / Borneal Flakes)

Warm this mixture and apply it on chest and forehead.

For kids :
Apply very little on the chest.
During cold weather, apply few drops on the feet and wear socks. This will prevent kids from getting cold.

Remedy 2

Heat 2 tbsp of coconut oil, add 10 cloves of crushed garlic and 5 crushed small onion (shallots).
Once it reaches fuming point, switch off and strain the oil.
Apply it on chest and forehead.

This can also be applied for kids. However make sure that it doesn't get into their eyes.

Curry Chilli Powder - Method 2

Ingredients:

Dry Coriander Seed - 1 kg
Red Chilli (short variety) - 350 gms
Mustard - 30 gms
Urad Dal - 30 gms
Channa Dal - 30 gms
Thoor Dal - 30 gms
Pre Boiled Rice - 30 gms
Black Pepper - 50 gms
Cinnamon - 10 gms
Cumin Seed (Jeera) - 50 gms
Clove - 10 gms
Dried Curry leaf - 1 handfull

Method:

Dry roast all the above ingredients separately.
Dry grind everything.

Tips for storing:

> Before storing it, make sure it is not warm.
> Choose the bottle and wipe it dry. In a dry kadai, add mustard. It should get hot and fume should start to come. Show the inner side of the bottle to that fume. Make sure that fume reached every corner of the bottle. Once the bottle cools down, use it for storing.

Tips for cooking:
This powder well suits chicken gravy.

Knowledge Courtesy: Navamani Karunakaran
   

Curry Chilli Powder - Authentic Kandhi Aaya Recipe

Ingredients:

Dry Coriander Seed - 2 kg
Red Chilli (short variety) - 1/2 kg
Black Pepper - 100 gms
Turmeric Powder - 100 gms
Cinnamon - 50 gms
Fennel Seed (Sombu) - 50 gms
Cumin Seed (Jeera) - 50 gms
Clove - 20 gms
Poppy Seed (Khas Khas) - 20 gms
Dried Curry leaf - as required (Optional)

Method:

Dry roast all the above ingredients separately except turmeric powder.
Dry grind everything.

Tips for storing:

> Before storing it, make sure it is not warm.
> Choose the bottle and wipe it dry. In a dry kadai, add mustard. It should get hot and fume should start to come. Show the inner side of the bottle to that fume. Make sure that fume reached every corner of the bottle. Once the bottle cools down, use it for storing.

Tips for cooking:

This powder well suits mutton gravy.

Knowledge Courtesy: Aruna Anni
   

Magic Omelet

This is an egg omelet recipe that I recently experimented in my kitchen .
I wanted to make 4 omelet while I had only 2 eggs at home. Let me share it with you all.

Ingredients:

Egg - 2 nos
Bread - 2 slice
Milk - 2 tbsp
Onion - 1 cup (Finely chopped)
Tomato - 2 tbsp (Finely chopped)
Coriander - 1 tbsp (Finely chopped)
Green Chilli - 3 nos (Finely chopped)
Cumin powder - 1 tsp
Salt as required
Oil as required

Method:

1 - Cut bread slice and grind it dry in a mixer. It should not become very thin like bread crumbs. It has to be very coarse.

2 - Now mix Egg, Onion, tomato, coriander, green chilli, cumin powder and milk.

3 - Finally add the bread powder.

4 - Allow it to rest for 5 minutes so that the egg absorbs the moisture.

5 - After 5 mins, heat a pan. pour and spread this mixture to make omelet.

6 - Close with a lid and cook.

7 - Once done serve hot.

Note:

Adding milk will make the omelet fluffy.
Adding milk and bread will make it get burnt soon. So take care while the omelet is on stove.
For kids. you can top it with some grated cheese and add more bread so that it can be made a wholesome evening snack to fight small hunger.

Mission Kandhi Aaya

 Hi all,

This is my first step taken to preserve my grandmother's recipes and tips.
I want our next generation to learn from her. This step will also help us to know more about her. I believe that her knowledge is abundant that it will help generations.

In this mission, I would also like to add my own recipes and recipes of my family members - Sathya akka, Aruna Anni, Ramya akka, Deepa akka, Gayathiri and of course recipes of our mothers - Sabitha Devi, Rajam and Navamani

Lemon Rice

Lemon rice might seem like a simple recipe but it makes a huge difference when an expert makes it. I would like to share this recipe with you all.

Ingredients:

Lemon juice extract from 2 lemons
Rice cooked with 1.5 glass rice
Small onion - 1 cup (sliced)
Garlic - 7 cloves
Green chilli - 3 cut into quarters
Channa Dal (Kadalai paruppu) - 1 tsp
Urad dal - 1/2 tsp
Mustard - 1/2 tsp
Curry leaf - 10 leaf (approx)
Turmeric - 1/3 tsp
Salt as required
Oil as required

Method:

In a pan, heat oil.
Once oil gets hot, add mustard, urad dal, Channa dal, curry leaf.

Once the mustard splutter, add garlic, green chilli and onion

Immediately add turmeric, salt and lemon.

Now onion will change its color to pink, now add rice.

Switch off stove and mix.

Now tasty lemon rice is ready.

Note: 

Do not keep the stove on after the onion turns pink. Cooking lemon for a longer time will bring bitter taste.
Make sure the rice is warm before adding.
Before serving, let it rest for a while so that the rice absorb all the flavors.
Lemon that I have mention is of Indian lemon size (All NRI, note this point) ;-)

Tips:
Adding peanut during thalippu will add more taste to it.