Thenkuzhal recipeRecipe Cuisine: Indian  |  Recipe Category: Snacks

Prep Time: 5 mins    |  Cook time: 25 mins    |  Makes: 20Ingredients

Rice flour/ Idliyappam flour

 2 cups 

Urad dal flour  1/4 cup Butter + Oil  3 tblsp Asafoetida  1/4 tsp Jeera  or sesame seeds  1 & 1/2 tsp Salt and water  As needed Oil  For deep frying 

Method1. I used store bought urad dal flour. So I slightly dry roasted(you can skip this too) in a pan with out changing its colour. Mix flours,butter (melted),oil,asafoetida,jeera,salt well and then add water to make a non sticky dough with no cracks.

2. Heat oil in kadai apparently, enough to deep fry the murukkus.Fill the murukku press with this dough with murukku hole plate. I always grease some laddles and make murukku first in that then drop them in oil. This way we can make decent shapes also our hands wont feel the heat. Deep fry in medium flame.

3. Cook both sides till the ‘Shhh’ sound ceases and murukku turn golden in colour. Drain in paper towel and cool down completely before storing them in airtight containers.

Notes Make sure you keep the dough covered through out to avaoid drying of the dough. Even if you want to make in large numbers, do it in batches. As if you make more dough and keep for while you make murukku, the last batches tend to get fried in deep golden colour,so colour may be different. Make sure the rice flour you use is fine in texture. Other wise the murukku will break. Even if the urad dal powder is less, the murukku will break. For this murukku my mom says its not necessary to fry urad dal / urad dal flour. They just give rice and urad dal to the mill and get it ground and make murukku. So if you get ready-made urad dal flour at stores, you can use it as such too. If you add more urad dal powder, then colour will vary. Also takes long time to cook and crispiness also reduces. But only if you add very much more than the mentioned ratio. Approximation works fine. Butter give whiter colour and crisp texture(mom&MIL says so) Make sure you deep fry in enough oil,otherwise the murukku,if touches the bottom of the pan will lead to un even browning. After few batches, you may want to top up more oil for frying,as it gets absorbed.

Ingredients

Channa dal 1/2 cup

Jaggery 1 cup(reduce if your are not sweet toothed)

Coconut 1/2 cup

Elachi 2,powdered

METHOD 

1.Pressure cook channa dal upto 3 whistle, cool down and grind in blender or mash it with masher just to make it a paste. keep aside.

2.Take jaggery in a heavy bottomed vessel. Then pour water just enough to immerse jaggery.Heat it and whenjaggery dissolves completely,filter it in a metal strainer to remove impurities if any.

4.Then again start heating the jaggery syrup. When it starts boiling, at one stage, the syrup will get frothy.At this stage add the ground dhal paste and coconut. Stir continuously without forming any lumps.Add elachipowder and mix thoroughly.

6.Note that water we are adding should be very less.The lesser we add water to jaggery, sooner the stuffing will get ready.Keep Stirring well till the mixture starts leaving the sides of the vessel.

8.Transfer the content to a dry air tight container. You can Keep this in refrigerator upto 10 -12days.

 

NOTES: If you reduce the channa dal or coconut amount mentioned for any reason,accordingly reduce the jaggery also,otherwise the mixture may turn sticky! 

For outer layer you need 

1.Maida/all purpose flour - 1/2 cup 

2.salt - little 

METHOD: 

1.Mix maida with water and salt to idly/dosa batter consistency. 

2.Make balls of the jaggery stuffing.

3.Dip these balls one by one in the batter and immediately drop in hot oil.

4.Fry for a minute ,remove from oil and drain excess oil in paper towel and enjoy eating! 

This dish is the all time favourite to my husband and my brother,so i dedicate this first posting to them and ofcourse to all who are visiting my blog for the first time! 

 

PASI PARUPPU PAYASAM / MOONG DAL PAYASAMPublished at 6:57 AM   66 comments     7 7          One of the easy and quick to make payasams, next to the Aval/Poha payasam. My mom makes this very often for her friday pooja. This is very flavourful and my favourite too…I made this payasam last week for Aadi perukku. 

       The flavour of the payasam gets enhanced if we roast it slightly and make it,this is the tip I learnt from my mom. I sometimes directly fry the dal in pressure cooker(small)

and make it. This is the fast and easy way too. If we cook in pot,it takes more time.

Pasi paruppu payasam / Moong dal payasam recipe

Prep Time: 10 mins    |  Cook time: 15 mins    |  Serves: 2Ingredients

Pasi paruppu/moong dal

 1/2 cup, heaped 

Jaggery  1/4 cup(adjust as per ur taste) 

Milk  1/2 cup Water  As needed Ghee  1 tsp Elachi  1, powdered Cashews  4-6,broken into pieces 

Method:1. Fry moong dal with little ghee until you get the roasted fragrance, also you should not let it brown too much.

2. Add enough water(3/4 cup,approx) and milk and pressure cook up to 3 whistles.

3. After done, mix well in a mashing way and add powdered jaggery to this.

4. Boil in low flame for 2 minutes and add milk/water as per the need to adjust the

consistency.Notes: You can cook fully in milk,instead water for more rich taste. You can add raisins for enhancing the taste if you like. Don’t over cook and mash the dal and make the payasam like porridge. The texture is very important.

If you are making for any festival, Make few without onion to offer God. Then add onion to remaining batter. 

Medhu vadai (Medu Vada) / Ulundu vadai recipe

Recipe Cuisine: Indian  |  Recipe Category: Snack Prep Time: 2 Hours soak time    |  Cook time: 20 mins    |  Makes: 15 medium sized

vada

IngredientsUrad dal/Ulutham paruppu 3/4 cup

Small onion,shallots(or Big onion – 1)

10 –12 nos.

Green chillies 2 nos.

Ginger 1 inch piece

Coriander leaves 2 tblsp,chopped.

Curry leaves A sprig

Asafetida 3-4 pinches

Salt As needed

Water As needed

How to make medhu vadai / ulundhu vadai videoMethod:

1. Soak urad dal for 2 hour at least. (Use whole urad dal without skin(muzhu ulundu)for better result).

2. Grind urad dal with only little water till fluffy. Please note the following points: a) Add urad dal little by little(no water),while the grinder is running. b)Just sprinkle water now and then to avoid jamming of the grinder. c)Stand near till you finish grinding for sprinkling water now and then and wipe the urad dal that sticks to the wall of the grinder container. d)This whole process takes around 12-15 minutes,you will get a fluffy white batter.

3. Now chop onions,ginger,green chillies,coriander and curry leaves and add all these to the batter along with salt and asafetida.(You can add ginger and green chillies while you are grinding the batter itself,if you don’t want to come in mouth.If you decide so,first add ginger and chilles,then urad dal)4. Now mix well,keep aside and  heat enough oil in kadai (be generous or else vadas may stick to the bottom and get burnt).5. Now wet your right hand well and make a small ball.

6. And use ur thumb to make hole in the middle.

7. and drop it in oil,(just invert the vadais over the oil and slightly shake ur fingers)

8. Fry in medium flame,turn the vadais and fry till both the sides turn crisp and golden brown.

Notes:

If your vadai drinks so much oil,then it means you have added more water,reduce next time. Try adding any one of the following only one tsp to reduce vadai drinking oil-Rice flour or gram flour or Maida/all purpose flour. Dont grind for too long,it will make your batter sticky and you could not shape the vadais.Keep in refrigerator and try after an hour. A good variety/quality of urad dal also matters. If you grind everything correctly,you will get a crispy vadai,no need to add rice flour or anything!!!

Serve hot with sambhar/coconut chutney. 

ADHIRASAM RECIPE - DIWALI RECIPESPublished at 11:18 AM   86 comments     132 132

     Adhirasam is my all time favourite. In my childhood, I used to like adhirasam made with sugar instead of jaggery. My mom never forgot to make a special batch of adhirasam with sugar specially for me . So I always wanted to try out myself and make a step by step post detailed for keeping it as record and for the readers too. To be honest, for past 4 years, for every diwali, I tried, tried and tried, but some how I made some silly mistakes and flopped. But each time I learnt my mistake. As we dont make adhirasam other than for diwali, I had to wait for an year every time.      It is very easy to make for my mom and MIL, so its all about experience. This time, I tried very carefully and followed my moms instructions. And now I can also confidently make adhirsam every year. This post is sure a record for me. If you are also like me who loves adhirsam and want to make at home, I would recommend to buy jaggery (paagu vellam) that is slightly with red shade rather than yellow. Also raw rice (maavu arisi) from the local shops. But any jaggery and raw rice works for this recipe. Just saying if its available in your living area, then you can make best use of it :)

Adhirasam recipeRecipe Cuisine: Indian  |  Recipe Category: Sweets

Prep Time: 2 Hours + doughresting time    |  Cook time: 30 mins    |  Makes: 20Ingredients

Raw rice  1 & 1/2 cups Jaggery  1 cup Sesame seeds  1 tblsp Dry ginger powder  2 pinches Elachi powder  2 pinches   Ghee    1 tblsp Oil as needed for deep frying

 Method

1. Wash and soak rice for 2 hours atleast. Drain, spread in a white cotton cloth for 30 mins. Do not let it fry for long time as it will give rubbery adhirsam. Moisture should be there.

2. Grind it in 2 batches in a mixer to a flour. Not really fine like store bought rice flour.

3. Sieve it (optional,if you know your flour is fine, then no need). My MIL and mom uses rava jalladai for this, so I understand its important for the flour to be slightly on coarse side. While you sieve, keep the flour pressed and covered. That is after you sieve, press it gently so that it locks the moisture and doesn't  get dried.Meanwhile, powder the jaggery and heat it with water just to immerse the jaggery.

4. Once its completely dissolved, filter it to remove impurities. Again start heating the jaggery syrup.

5. Boil in medium flame always and stir occasionally. Keep checking the syrup consistency by pouring in water kept in a small bowl. At beginning stage, the syrup dissolves as you pour in water, then at next stage, it will lay a fine thread in the water, but gets dissolved when you touch. After this, at one stage, the syrup gets thicker and when you pour in water, then it wont get dissolved and you will be able to gather it with your fingers and form a loose ball. This is called soft ball consistency and this is the stage, you have to put off the fire. Immediately pour it to the flour little by little. Add sesame seeds, elachi powder and dry ginger powder to the flour.

6. You may need not all the sugar syrup for sure. So be careful after you add 3/4th of the syrup and keep mixing with a ladle or spatula. The dough will be gooey and on sticky side and it will be very very loose. Don't worry. After some hours, it will get absorbed and get stiff. It is a must for the dough to be gooey and loose as after some time it gets thick.

7. Keep it overnight at room temperature in an airtight container. You can keep it as such for 2-3 days. If more than that, keep refrigerated. But let it be out overnight atleast for a day. At the time of making, divide into equal sized balls, each of small lemon sized. You can use sesame oil when you roll as the dough will be slightly sticky.

8. Heat oil in kadai and once it is hot, reduce the flame to low. In a zip loc, grease it with a drop of ghee and flatten the dough thick. Carefully drop in oil.

9. Once it rises up, immediately flip it and cook. Once it turns golden brown, drain from oil.

10. You must use another laddle and press it to sqeeze out the excess oil as shown, as it may retain some oil in it. Repeat the process for the rest of the dough. Oil should always be in low or medium if needed.

Notes The dough should be very loose when you make adhirsam. If it is stiff, then your adhirsam will become hard and chewy. So you have to add a tblsp of milk and knead the dough well again and try making. This will ensure the adhirsam to be soft. Keep the dough ATLEAST  overnight at room temperature. Do not take our from the fridge and make immediately. Bring to room temperature. The rice while grinding should be moist, retain water(need not drip) also the sieved flour also should not get dry. Otherwise the adhirsam will get crisp and hard.  Even the syrup consistency is very important. If sugar syrup passes the soft ball consistency, it will get hard or get dissolved in oil. Sieving is not necessary, but make sure it is powdered fine. If you flatten so thin, the adhirsam will turn very crisp. So make it thick. Cook in low flame to make sure it gets cooked evenly and also make sure not to over cook. It makes the adhirsam harder. Flip immediately once the it rises up after you add the adhirsam in oil. Use ghee when flattening each adhirsam. It will be sticky. The jaggery syrup will be needed depending upon the quality of rice, some need more, some need less. So for safer side, make more. So the given quantity will be more, so keep that in mind. In case, you adhirsam is chewy or hard, steam it for 3 minutes in idli plate/ steamer. It becomes soft. Just for trouble shooting. Will add more tips as I remember or more from my MIL and mom :)

You can store the dough for months if keep refrigerated and use it whenever needed.

Even fried adhirsams can be in shelf for a week.

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