Appam ~ with coconut Milk

Ingredients
1. Rice – 1 ½ Cup
2. Urad dal – ½ Cup
3. Coconut – ½ Cup chopped
4. Methi /Sugar / cook rice – 1tbsp
5. Salt as required

Procedure
Soak Urad dal and rice for at least 4 hours. Once soaked, remove the water and grind with Coconut pieces, methi and salt.

Leave to ferment for 7 hours or overnight. (I leave it overnight)
When fermented, add enough water to make it a pouring consistency like in dosa batter.

Heat the appam kadai (you get non-stick appam kadai in the market. It is easy to use) and grease with oil. Pour a ladle full of batter into the kadai and swirl it around to make a thin layer.




Cook covered till the edges start lifting and center of the appam is cooked.

You don’t need to grease the kadai every time in a non-stick maker.
Serve it with coconut milk or Vegetable stew or mutton stew

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Coconut Milk Preparation

Make a paste of ½ cup grated coconut and add to 2 cups of warm water. Allow it to stay for few minutes and strain. Add sugar and elachi powder to the coconut milk.

Chicken Vindaloo

As its weekend, I wanted to make something special but again simple. I locked on Chicken Vindaloo. It is a Goan dish mostly made with pork. This is adaptation for chicken eaters.

Ingredients

Chicken – ½ kg
Onion – 1 no. (big size)
Tomatoes – 3 no. ( big size)
Ginger Garlic paste – 2 tbsp
Mustard and Cumin powder – 1 tbsp
Turmeric – 1 tsp
Chilli powder – 3 tbsp
Vinegar – 1tsp
Potatoes – 1 no. cut into four pieces
Oil – 5-6 tbsp
Salt to taste

Procedure:

For gravy: Make paste of all except chicken.

In a thick bottom wok, heat oil and add gravy, chicken and potatoes. Leave it in medium flame till the chicken becomes tender. Serve it hot with white rice.

*Chicken vindaloo and coconut rice are great combination. It goes well with Rasam as well.

Channa Masala

This is a very simple and easy to make recipe. When I know I have to fix a quick breakfast the next morning, this is surely one on my list.

Ingredients

1. Channa (Chick Peas) soaked overnight – 1 cup
2. Onions – 1 cup finely chopped
3. Tomatoes - 2-3 no.
4. Garlic ginger paste – 1 tbsp
5. Garam masala powder*
6. Mustared oil/ refined oil – 4 tbsp
7. Tej patta/ Biryani leaf – 2 small

* If the garam masala powder is not available. Take 3 cardamoms, 1” cinnamon, small and big elachi, 2 cloves, javitri 1 petal and put it in the blender while making ginger garlic paste.

Procedure:

In a cooker, add jeera, tej patta, and whole red chillies to the warm oil. To this, add chopped onions, salt and haldi. Fry till brown. Once fried add chilli powder, jeera powder, dhania powder, ginger garlic paste and tomatoes. Keep stirring few minutes. Add the soaked channa and cook for 5 whistles. Remove it to a bowl, garnish with coriander and add a spoonful of ghee for taste. Tastes good with chapatti or puri.



*My Garam masala powder does not have javitri in it. I powder it separately as I use it very rarely in my cooking.

Dal Mutton

Ingredients

1. Mutton – ½ kg
2. Toor Dal – 200gms (Boil and smash it properly without using blender)
3. Channa dal – hand full (Soaked for atleast 30 minutes) (OPTIONAL)
4. Ginger garlic paste – 2tsps
5. Cloves – 3-4 no.
6. Cinnamon – 1 inch
7. Cardamom –2
8. Bay leaves / Tej patta – 2 small leaf
9. Onion – 1 big one, finely chopped
10. Fresh pudina and coriander leaves - handful
11. Few curry leaves
12. Oil and ghee for frying - 4-5 tbsp
13. Garam masala, coriander powder – 1 tsp each
14. Tamarind paste – 1 tsp

Procedure:
In a cooker, heat oil and ghee. Add curry leaves, cloves, cinnamon, cardamom and bay leaves and fry for 2 minutes. To this add ginger garlic paste and fry till the raw smell goes away. Now add onion and fry till golden brown. Add garam masala, coriander powder and fry for a minute. To this masala, add mutton, (soaked channa dal, if using) and fry for 5 minutes. Add two cups of water and close the cooker. Cook it till the mutton becomes tender.

After the cooker cools down, put it on low flame and add pudina and fresh coriander to the mutton and keep stirring. Add the dal paste to the mutton and stir. Now add tamarind paste* and mix well. Serve it hot with white rice.


*If you want the curry to be thick, add the tamarind paste else dilute the tamarind paste in a cup water to make it like sambar. You can also add big pieces of bottle gaurd to make it tastier. Personally, I like it with vegetables .