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Tuesday 14 April 2015

Vishu Sadya - Dishes served and their recipes

Vishu is here and has come really fast!!! 

                                                                   Pic courtesy: commons.wikimedia.org
In my childhood I used to wait  for Vishu to come fast for one sole reason - Vishu Kaineetam!! in those days, vishu kaineetam used to be given by ammavan, ammayi, valyachan  and my father. First I used to get vishu kaineetam from my father, then  ammavan, ammayi, valiyachan, ammumma also...

After getting the kaineetam, me and my brother used to count it …beautiful memories indeed...
At that time everyone used to give only Rs. 5 notes or Rs. 10 note…now it is changed as Rs. 500/1000!


Dishes prepared for Vishu Sadya:

Given below are the major dishes served for Vishu Sadya. While preparing Vishu Sadya, we donot usually add onions/shallots and garlic into any of the dishes.

My mother never tastes the food for Sadya before serving esp. on auspicious occasions like Vishu because the food  is served to God first...

I am giving the names of the dishes below and also the link to the respective recipe in my blog. Hope this turns out to be very useful. 

Main course:

1) Rice (preferably Kerala rice, if not, normal white rice)

2) Sambar - Click Here

3) Pulisshery -  Click Here

4) Moru or Butter milk

Side Dishes:

5) Avial -  Click Here

6) Erissery -  Click Here

7) Thoran - Click Here

8) Olan - Click Here

9) Istu -  Click Here

10) Kootu Curry - Click Here

11) Pachadi -  Click Here

12) Kichadi -  Click Here

Pickles:

13) Inji Curry (also called Puli Inji) - Click Here

14) Manga curry (Mango Pickle) -  Click Here

Payasams:

15) One Jagree Payasam/Pradhaman- 


          and
16) One Milk payasam 


Others:

17) Pappadam

18) Banana Chips

19) Sharkara Varatti

20) Banana


#vishusadya, #keralarecipes, #sadya, #bananaleaf, #plantainleaf

Monday 13 April 2015

Gothambu (Wheat) Payasam - Cooked Broken wheat prepared in coconut milk and jaggery

Who doesnot like Payasam and that too Gothambu (wheat) payasam?? Its one of the favourites of Malayalees...

When I was small, my father used to make this payasam and it used to taste better than what my mother makes :) I used to be a mere spectator to the proceedings though my brother used to help by parents in the process. My role was limited to tasting and drinking it :)
Now, I obviously cannot afford to play only that role esp. since there are 2 stomachs waiting to be fed with what I make :) 
So with Vishu approaching, my hubby suggested that we make gothambu payasam. So I decided that I will make Gothambu payasam this time. 

This time, it was my father-in-law who helped and guided me to make this payasam. He is also very good at cooking payasams esp. Gothambu Payasam, parippu payasam etc. My hubby also pitched-in after returning from office and we accomplished the feat!!

Gothambu or Wheat Payasam is another favorite dessert in Kerala served after a sumptuous lunch during festivals such as Vishu and Onam. 
Its also one of the highly traditional desserts of Kerala cuisine similar to Palada Payasam, Parippu payasam, Ada Pradhaman, Kootu payasam etc. and is made with broken wheat shown in pic below.




Broken wheat



Ingredients for Gothambu Payasam:

Broken wheat - 1 glass (around 150 gms)
Jaggery (Gud in Hindi / Sharakara in malayalam 
/ Vellam in Tamil) – ½ kg – chopped / grated / sliced
Small Banana (preferably Kadhali pazham or Njaalipoovan)
Ghee - 3 table spoons
Coconuts – 3 full, grated
Cardamom – 2-3 nos.

For seasoning:

Coconut slices – 25 to 30 nos.
Cashew nuts- 20 nos
Raisins- 10 nos.


Process:

First of all, take a cooker, put the broken wheat into it and wash it thoroughly. 
Then add 4 glasses of water into the washed broken wheat and cook for 3-4 whistles in high flame and 2 in low flame. The wheat needs to be cooked well.

If it doesnot get cooked we as shown in the pic, cook it again. This is because once you put anything uncooked into jagree, it will not get cooked after that. It will remain as it is.

Remove the skin of the cardamom and crush the seeds well. Add a pinch of sugar while preparing a powder of cardamom seeds. This makes it easy. Keep the cardamom seeds powder aside.

Extraction of coconut milk:

Step 1 - Take the grated coconut and grind it in the mixie. DONOT MIX WATER. Take the ground coconut and squeeze it with your hands to extract the milk out of it. This is called the 1st coconut milk. You will get approx. 300 ml of this.  Keep it aside.

Step 2 - Once the first milk is extracted, add around 100 ml of water into the ground coconut and grind it again in the mixie. Now take the ground coconut and squeeze it with your hands again to extract milk. This is the 2nd milk and this will be dilute compared to the 1st milk. 

The 2nd milk would be approx. 500 ml. Keep aside

Step 3 - Once the second milk is extracted, add around 200ml of water into the ground coconut and grind it thoroughly in the mixie. Now take the ground coconut and squeeze it with your hands again to extract milk. This is the 3rd milk and this will be dilute compared to the 2nd  milk. 

The 3rd milk would be approx. 1 litre. Keep aside

Preparation of Payasam:

Take a reasonably big pan (around 3-4 litres capacity) or Uruli.  Put the chopped/grated Jaggery into it and allow it to melt. Add 50 ml of water if required. 

Now, cook the Jaggery  until it turns slightly thick and turns dark brownish. While cooking, keep stirring it in such a way that it doesnot stick to the bottom of the pan so as to avoid it getting burnt. Cook in low flame.  

In order to identify whether the Jaggery is cooked, check if it flows like honey. The moment it start flowing like honey, it has got cooked.

Next add the 3rd coconut milk into the cooked Jaggery and mix well. Bring to a boil and add the cooked broken wheat and the sliced bananas. Cook about for 15 minutes in low flame stirring continuously until the mix turns thick. Check if the banana slices have got cooked. 


Once the banana slices are cooked and the whole mixture turns thick, add the 2nd milk into it and stir continuously. This needs to be done till the mix boils and gains consistency. Always cook in low flame.

Now, switch off the flame and add the 1st coconut milk. Add the cardamom powder.
Stir continuously so that a layer does not get formed on top. 

Fried coconut slices, cashews
and raisins
Seasoning:

Take a small frying pan and pour 2 teaspoons of ghee into it. 
Add coconut slices and fry until it turns golden brown. 
Next add the cashew nuts and sauté till the cashew nuts also turns brownish. 
Next add the raisins and sauté till they enlarge and become like grapes.

Add these into the Gothambu Payasam. 


Gothambu or wheat payasam is ready… We get around 2 litres of payasam.

Sunday 12 April 2015

Inji Curry / Puli Inji / Inji Puli (Ginger finely chopped and fried prepared in Tamarind pulp and Jaggery gravy)

The feast specialist - Inji Curry or Puli Inji.

Today I am posting one of the most important dishes for any festival or feast in Kerala - Inji curry, also called Puli inji, Inji puli etc. 

This is a very tasty dish which contains 3 of the 6 tastes that we eat - spicy (ginger), sweet (jaggery) and Sour (tamarind). This helps in easy digestion and absorption of the quantity of food that we eat during festivals, feasts etc. 



Wanted to post this before the upcoming Vishu festival so that all my friends who dont know to prepare this extremely tasty dish (or pickle??) can take a look and try it out.
I used to see my mother prepare this on the previous day of Vishu or Onam.  

I tried this out and it came out well, I hope so... :)

Ingredients for Inji Curry / Puli Inji:

Ginger – 100 gms
Coconut oil – 2-3 tablespoons
Green chillies – 4-5 nos.
Jaggery – 5-6 tablespoons 
Tamarind – one lemon size

Mustard seeds - 1 teaspoon
Curry leaves - 6-8 nos
Red chillies - 3 nos
Salt – around 1 tablespoon


Process for Inji Curry / Puli Inji

Soak tamarind in a warm water and keep it aside. Soaking in warm water makes it easy to completely extract the pulp in a lesser time. 

Peal the ginger, wash and chop it into fine pieces. Chop the green chillies also keep both aside. 
Jaggery sliced

Take a frying pan and pour 2-3 tablespoons of oil (coconut oil is prefered).  Heat the oil and put the mustards into it and let it splutter. 


Once the mustard completely splutters, break the red chillies into 2 and add them. Then add the curry leaves.

Next add the finely chopped ginger and green chillies into the pan. Pl. see the first pic in the steps given beside. 

Continue to saute till it completely gets fried and becomes brown. The indication that its ready is that it gives a dry leaves sound when you stir it in the pan. Pic no. 2 given aside.

Once this stage reached pour the tamarind pulp and add salt to taste (around 1 tablespoon will suffice). 

Allow it to boil for few minutes. After that add the jaggery powder and let it boil until oil separates.

Inji curry is ready… Store in a glass bottle. This will stay good even if it is not kept in the refrigerator.


















#ginger, #gingerrecipes, #puliinji, #injipuli, #injicurry, #tamarind,  #keralarecipes, #indianrecipes, #vegetarian