Keerai Kootu

The best part about Spinach is that it cooks in seconds... and, it tastes great... and, its yummy!

This yummy, healthy dish is a must have every week! My husband loves Spinach and this makes me to try out many Spinach-y dishes. This recipe is specially here for one of my good friends.

Serves: 3 people

Ingredients:

Spinach - 1 bunch
Moong Dhall - 3/4 cup
Dry Red Chillies - 5
Channa Dhall/Kadalai Paruppu - 1/2 tablespoon
Hing/Asafoeitda/perungaayam - a pinch
Sambar Powder - 1 tablespoon
Turmeric Powder - 1/2 teaspoon
Jeera or Mustard - 1 tablespoon
Coconut Oil - 1 tablespoon (optional)
Salt - to taste

Method:

1. Pressure cook the moong dhall to 3-4 whistles.
2. Cut the spinach into small pieces randomly. Wash it well thrice to remove any mud sticking to the leaves.
3. Boil the spinach with a few drops of water with turmeric powder.
4. Once the spinach is boiled, add the cooked moong dhall, sambar powder and salt. Mix well.
5. Let it cook well till the smell of sambar powder is gone.
6. For the tempering, heat oil and add jeera or mustard. Add hing, dry chilli and channa dhall. Finally, add it to the spinach mixture and mix well.
7. Add the coconut oil just before serving for an additional flavor.

Yummy Keerai Kootu is ready to serve!

Tip:

1. Don't add a lot of water when boiling the spinach. The spinach will let out its own water.
2. You can also add grated coconut to the kootu.

Vella Seedai

In continuation to my Uppu Seedai Blog, here's my recipe to Vella Seedai.

Makes: Approx 300 grams of seedai

Ingredients:


Rice Flour - 1 cup
Urad Dhall Flour - 2 tablespoons
Butter - 2 tablespoons
Coconut (grated) - 1 tablespoon
White Sesame Seeds - 1/2 tablespoon
Jaggery - 3/4cup
Cardamom Powder - a pinch
Oil - For frying

Method:

1. In a separate bowl, add jaggery. Pour water that is enough to cover the jaggery. Set it aside for about 20 minutes to let it dissolve. Filter the jaggery water to remove impurities.
2. Meanwhile, sieve the rice flour and urad dhall flour twice individually, to make sure you get rid of small grains that remain in the flour.

3. Dry roast the rice flour and urad dhall flour separately for 3 minutes each.

4. Dry roast the sesame seeds till they turn a little golden brown.
5. Dry roast the coconut so that the moisture gets evaporated.
6. Boil the jaggery water in high flame for around 10 minutes. Heat until there are a lot of bubbles. Turn off the gas and set the jaggery aside to cool.

7. In a bowl, add the flours to sesame seeds, butter,coconut and mix well.

8. Add the jaggery water, little by little and mix the dough well to form a smooth pasty dough.
9. Make balls about 1-1.5 cm in diameter (Bigger than the uppu seedai. You don't want them to be too small or too big.)

10. Heat the oil and deep fry the seedais in medium heat till they turn dark brown. Make sure they turn dark brown evenly.

Yummy sweet,crispy vella seedais are ready to eat!

Tips:

1. Sieve the flours well and make sure you don't have any foreign materials. 
2. Dry roast the coconut.
3. Make sure the balls are not very tightly and evenly rolled. Seedais are not supposed to be evenly shaped. Just roll them for two seconds and leave them aside for about 5 minutes.  This allows the moisture to evaporate and thus the seedais will not burst when immersed in Oil.
4. Even after all this, if you are scared, you can prick each and every seedai with a toothpick and fry it. 

                            Hope you have a safe and enjoyable time making Seedais!

Uppu Seedai

I could not wait to try out the seedais for Gokulashtami. I was intially very scared to make Uppu Seedai and Vella Seedai, but once I made them, I realized it is not very difficult. You just need to be "very extra" careful when making the dough. Fortunately, I didnt have any calamities while preparing the seedais... I mean the bursting, of course. At the end of the day, I was very content that I am capable of making yummy snacks at not much a risk!

Everyone generally gets confused with the proportions, so I kind of did some research online and went with Sharmi's Passion. So for anyone who is scared to try out these seedais but really want to make some, here's the recipe.

Makes: Approx 300 gms of Seedai

Ingredients:

Rice Flour - 1 cup
Urad Dhall Flour - 2 tablespoons
Butter - 2 tablespoons
Coconut (grated) - 1 tablespoon
White Sesame Seeds - 1/2 tablespoon
Salt  - to taste
Oil - For frying
Water - 2-3 tablespoons

Method:

1.Sieve the rice flour and urad dhall flour twice individually, to make sure you get rid of small grains that remain in the flour.

2. Dry roast the rice flour and urad dhall flour separately for 3 minutes each.

3. Dry roast the sesame seeds till they turn a little golden brown.
4. Dry roast the coconut so that the moisture gets evaporated.

5. In a bowl, add the flours to sesame seeds, butter,coconut and salt.

6. Add water in three intervals very carefully and mix the dough well to form a smooth pasty dough.
7. Make small pea-sized balls and let them stay on paper or a piece of cloth for about 5 minutes.

8. Heat the oil and deep fry the seedais in medium heat till they turn golden brown. Make sure they turn golden brown evenly.

Yummy melt-in-the-mouth, crispy seedais are ready to eat!

Tips:

1. Grease your hand with a bit of oil to avoid the dough sticking onto your palms.  

These tips will help you reduce the instance of seedais bursting:

1. Sieve the flours well and make sure you don't have any foreign materials. 
2. Dry roast the coconut.
3. Make sure the balls are not very tightly and evenly rolled. Seedais are not supposed to be evenly shaped. Just roll them for two seconds and leave them aside for about 5 minutes.  This allows the moisture to evaporate and thus the seedais will not burst when immersed in Oil.
4. Even after all this, if you are scared, you can prick each and every seedai with a toothpick and fry it. 

                        Hope you have a safe and enjoyable time making Seedais!

Thattai

Its my first Gokulashtami after my wedding and I wanted it to be great. So, I decided to make quite a lot of snacks that Lord Krishna would very much like. I started with this amazing Thattai recipe that I got from my mom. The thattais came out perfectly and melt in the mouth as well. For all those who are looking for a yummy thattai recipe, read on...

Makes: 20 thattais (varies with the size of each thattai)

Ingredients:

Rice Flour - 1 cup

Urad Dhall Flour - 2 tablespoons

Channa Dhall/Kadalai Paruppu - 2 tablespoon

Butter - 3 tablespoons

Red Chilli Powder - 1 tablespoon

Curry Leaves - 2 or 3

Asafoetida/Hing/Perungaayam - a pinch

White Sesame Seeds - 1/2 teaspoon

Salt - to taste

Oil - for frying

Water - 2-3 tablespoons

Method:

1. Soak the channa dhall for about 30 mins in warm water 

2. Sieve the rice flour and urad dhall flour twice individually, to make sure you get rid of small grains that remain in the flour.

3. Dry roast the rice flour and urad dhall flour separately for 3 minutes each.

4. Dry roast the sesame seeds till they turn a little golden brown.

5. In a bowl, add the flours to sesame seeds, butter, red chilli powder, asafoetida, curry leaves, salt and channa dhall.

6. Add water in three intervals very carefully and mix the dough well to form a smooth pasty dough.

7. Grease a plastic sheet with oil. Make a lemon sized ball out of the dough and flatten it with your fingers to form a circular disc. Prick them with a fork to minimize puffing while frying.

8. Heat the oil and deep fry the thattais in medium heat till they turn golden brown. Make sure they turn golden brown evenly.

Hot, crispy, melt-in-the-mouth Thattais are ready to eat.

Tips:

1. Cut the curry leaves into tiny pieces. If there are larger pieces, they tend to separate from the dough when frying.

2. Sieve the flours well and make sure you don't have any foreign materials. 

3. Grease your hand with a bit of oil to avoid the dough sticking onto your palms.

4. Prick the flattened dough with fork multiple times to avoid puffing up while frying.