Puttu with homemade puttu podi and kadala curry

Puttu and kadala curry is a typical Kerala breakfast. The beauty of it is it has carbs, proteins, minerals and other nutrients and is tasty too. Keralites  can’t avoid this sumptuous breakfast hence we make it once in a while. 

Before, I used to buy the flour for making puttu but recently started making the flour at home. So in this blog post I will include the recipe to make the puttu flour, recipe to make puttu and the recipe to make kadala curry. Kadala curry recipe is of my mother-in-law

Ingredients for homemade puttu podi

Red rice ( I use a variety called jolaga)- 1 cup ( you could use any other variety brown or red raw rice too)

White rice – 1 cup (I use sona masuri)

Basically the rice should be raw rice and not boiled rice  ( I am not talking about cooked rice here : )

Method

• Wash, clean and soak both the rice together for about 4-5 hours.
• Drain the water and spread the rice in a clean cotton cloth, so that it becomes fairly dry but still retains little moisture. That’s for about an hour.
• Now take the rice and grind in the mixer, remove the jar from the mixer and shake it often so that all the rice is ground (I do it, hence).
• Rice will not be finely powdered, but that’s ok, ignore.
• Repeat this process with the remaining rice.
• Now keep a huge skillet or a kadai or a wok on the stove and put this rice flour into it. Take a huge turner (the biggest you have) and tart stirring the flour. If you see lumps forming try breaking it as soon as possible. Else it gets hardens, but worry not it can be broken while making puttu too.
• Now while you keep stirring it, you will see the moisture starting to vaporise and a nice aroma of roasted rice flour starts to come. Keep doing this for a minimum of 15 – 20 mins. Remove the wok from the stove and empty the flour to another big plate to let it cool.
• Now this flour stays good outside the refrigerator for weeks. But make sure the moisture is completely gone.
• So here your rice flour is ready

Puttu recipe

Rice flour – 2 cups (for the about homemade puttu podi recipe you will get two cups of roasted rice flour)

Water – About 1.5 cups

Salt – 1 tsp

Method

Now take a huge bowl and put the flour into it, mix well with the salt. Add water to it.

Mix the flour and water with your fingers just until the flour is damp.

Test: when you gather the flour it should form a ball in your fist and when you break it should fall back as powder ( I am trying my best to explain this  J )

We have a different appliance to make puttu, lower portion i filled with water and in the top portion we fill this damp rice flour layered with grated coconut.

Pic courtesy :http://www.hotdishes.net/Indian_kitchen_Appliances/Stainless_Steel_Products/Puttu_Maker/Puttu_Maker_*Puttu_Kudam~/

• Fill water half way in the bottom portion( the vessel shaped )and place it on the stove.
• Take the upper portion or the cylindrical portion it will have a small circular plate with lots of holes as the base, sprinkle some grated coconut, add a portion of rice (approximately that much you can hold in your palm) then layer with coconut and repeat until the cylinder is full. Top and bottom layer with grated coconut (preferably).
• By then the steam would start coming from the vessel in the stove, place the cylinder on the mouth of the steamer. Let it cook for about 10 minutes. Remove from stove, wait for about 5 minutes before you push the puttu from the cylinder. Use a ladle to push out the puttu ( recipe might sound funny, trust me its fun ;) )

So puttu is done.

Ingredients for kadala curry

Brown chana/brown gram  - 1 cup

Onion – 1 medium

Ginger – one inch

Green chillies – 1- 2

Coconut – ½ cup grated

Turmeric powder – ½ tsp

Chilli powder – ½ tsp

Coriander power – 2 tsp

Pepper power – ½ tsp

Garam masla – ½ tsp

salt

For the seasoning

Coconut oil  - 1 tbsp

Mustard- 1 tp

Dried red chillies – 2-3

Curry leaves –

Cried coconut pieces

Method

• Soak the chana/ gram overnight.
• Make a paste of coconut and keep aside.
• Wash the chana well and cook in the pressure cooker along with onion and ginger.  After the first whistle keep it in sim for about 20 minutes to let it cook well.
• Once the chana is cooked add all the spices and salt and coconut paste and let it boil.
• Remove the curry from the stove.
• Season it by keeping a small kadai on the stove, add oil and then add the mustard to splutter, add the curry leaves, red chillies and coconut and pour it over the curry  also  sprinkle some garam masala on top.

Thus you platter is ready J

 Serve it hot. 

You could also serve with green gram curry, banana, sugar and pappadam.

thanks 

Chaithanya

Raagi ilayada recipe (ilayada using finger millet )

Raagi Ilayada recipe

Whenever I get banana leaves I made ilayada, as my son loves eating it. Ila means leaf and ada means a flattened rice dumpling( tried my best in explaining). It’s usually made using fine rice flour but today gave it a twist by adding raagi flour (finger millet flour). My daughter loves raagi in any forms and since its healthy and rich in nutrients I thought of giving it a go. Hence the experiment and product was yummy and as soon as I finished making the adas it just got vanished.

Alright,  so when it comes to the recipe

Ingredients for the outer covering

Fine roasted rice flour – 1 cup

Fine roasted raagi flour- 1 cup

Hot water – 2 cups

Salt – 1.5 tsp

Oil – 2 tspn

Method

Mix all the ingredients with a fork and cover it and let it to come to room temperature so that you can knead well. Once a little warm knead well until soft dough is formed.

For the filling

Grated coconut – 2 cups

Jaggery syrup – ½ cup

Cardamom powder – a pinch

Method

In a thick bottom kadai or wok add the ingredients for the filling and stir well until it reduces to a thick consistency. You don’t have to stir for too long either.

Assembling 

Once the rice- raagi dough and filing is ready you could proceed with making adas.

Take a small square portion from the plantain /banana leaf and take a small portion ( size of a big lemon) of the dough and flatten it to a circle on the leaf by wetting your fingers in between, once well spread put the filling in the centre and cover the leaf midway. Slightly press on the sides so that the semicircle is sealed well.

Repeat the process with the rest of the dough.

Keep the steamer on the stove and steam these adas for about 15 mins. If you steam for longer time, the adas dries out and breaks. Hence just keep a check of time.

That’s it; serve it hot or room temperature.

No words to describe the aroma of the ada as it gets steamed in banana leaves and the sweet filling adds to it grace.

You could use turmeric leaves for the same.

Thanks

Chaithanya

Rice (unpolished) dumplings in coconut milk

Just while I started typing this recipe and wrote 'rice dumplings' my dear husband barged in and said these are kozhakattas :) Yes that's how it is called back in Kerala which is soaked in thengapal( coconut milk) and sugar while eating. Not sure why this is a breakfast item ..for me this is more like a dessert or sweet. and we totally relish eating this !

Anyway coming to the recipe I used unpolished rice flour for this recipe and mind you its not ragi, though my ragi loving darling daughter thought its ragi( finger millet ) and I had to correct her :)

Ingredients 

Rice flour - 2 cups

Hot water - as required

Salt - 1.5 tspns ( or as per taste)

Oil - one tspn

Cardamom powder - a pinch (optional)

For the coconut milk

One med sized coconut 

warm water

Method

Dry roast well the rice flour in a huge thick bottom vessel/ kadai.
Remove from heat and place the flour in a huge flat bowl.
Add the dalt and oil to the flour.
Slowly add the hot water stirring the flour with a fork slowly. Keep pouring until the dough is soft.
The flour keeps absorbing water so dont worry if you find the dough a little sticky in the begining. Once the dough is cool enough to handle work on it , knead it thoroughly to make  soft dough.
Make small balls from this dough and steam the dumpings for about 20 - 25 mins or until cooked.

For making coconut milk, scrape /grate the coconut and grind it  with warm water in the mixer and strain. Repeat it until all the milk is removed from the coconut.

So while serving place the dumplings in a bowl, pour the coconut milk, add sugar and cardomom powder and enjoy it warm :)

Cook and enjoy!
Thanks!

Jowar idiyappam/ sorgum flour stringhoppers

What you see in the picture is idiyappam or string hopper, its usually made with fine rice flour but I have tried  with ragi flour ( finger millet flour) before, the recipe you will find in my previous posts. This time I tried with jowar flour  and I was surprised with the result, Hey it came out good and infact my family dint realise it was jowar, and as it is jowar  has a very subtle taste. I combined the idiyappam with quail eggs curry.

Ingredients
Jowar flour - 1 cup ( dry roasted)
Rice flour  - 1 1/2 cup ( dry roasted)
Oil - 1 tspn
Salt - as required
Hot water - 2 - 2 1/2 cups

Method :
Dry roast the flours separately and put it in a wide bowl and add in the salt and oil and mix well. Pour in the hot water and mix the flour till you get  a dough consistency. I used the hand held dough blades for this since it will be easy to handle hot water and mix it simultaneously to form the dough. Once your dough is ready keep the steamer on the stove with required amount of water. Use the chakli maker with the string hopper nozzle and pipe the noddles , you can also sprinkle some grated coconut over the noodles and steam for about 10 - 15 mins.

Serve hot with a spicy curry of your choice or even stew.
Enjoy!!!

Sannas

I have had sannas from Mangalore during my studies and used to love it and recently had it from a mangalorean restaurant in Bangalore. The taste of sannas made me nostalgic and was searching for its recipe. I found lots of recipes and tried a couple of it. Finally I settled with the taste and recipe of sannas which is the following recipe. And the irony is that the batter which is used for appam can be used for vattayppam and as well for sannas. Basically the ingredients are the same and I use small katoris to make sannas. And also used unpolished rice to make it more healthier. So without beating around the bush, let me straight away get onto the recipe

Ingredients

Idly rice - 1 cup
Unpolished rice - 1 cup
Paper aval ( beaten rice) -1 cup ( soaked for sometime or microwaved for 1-2 mins)
Grated coconut - 1 cup
Sugar - 1/4 cup ( optional)
Yeast - 1/2 tspn

Note : If you don't want to use yeast at all please use half cup of sugar, else you can eliminate sugar, either of it is necessary and if u add sugar additionally also its fine, it will just enhance the taste and gives a mild sweetness.

Method:
Wash and soak the rice for few hours.
Grind the soaked rice, aval, grated coconut and sugar to a very fine paste.
Mix yeast in few tbspns of water . Add the yeast mixture to the batter and mix well.
Let the batter ferment for few hours. Add salt and mix well and keep for some 10-15 mins before pouring the mixture into molds.
Steam it for 12-15 mins and remove from molds.
Serve hot with you choice of curry.
Enjoy!! :)

Raagi idiyappam/Finger millet idiyappam

Most of the south indians makes this dish called as idiyappam or nool puttu or stringhopper. This is generally made of fine roasted rice flour, but this time I tried with raagi flour only to make it more nutritious and assure you that it was tasty too.. I made coconut milk sweetened with jaggery and flavoured with cardamom powder to go along with it but would honestly suggest you to make some spicy veg or non veg side dishes to go with it, may be something like a veg stew or any masala curry.

Following is the recipe for the same

Ingredients

Fine rice flour- 1 cup ( roasted)

Raagi flour - 1 1/2  cup ( roasted)

Hot water - as required

Method

Put the rice flour and raagi flour in a big bowl or big flat plate adding salt and two teaspoons of oil. Pour around two cups of hot water, mix it with a spoon, fork or a whisk. Let it rest for a while and then knead it softly adding more water ( now the water can be warm) until you get a soft not so watery dough. Use the idiyappam presser and press the dough through the nozzle to a greased plate. Repeat the same for the rest of the dough and then steam for about 8-10 minutes.

Serve it hot with your favourite side dish!!

Jowar idlis

You would have realised by now that I try making dosas, idlis, cookies and cakes with anything edible :) . So this is another attempt making idlis with another millet called jowar. I know jowar roti been made by Marathi neighbour which requires a lot of skill and experience. And we south indian can eat anything if it is in the form of idlis and dosas specially when it comes to kids. Hence this experiment and needless to say my family dint realise much about my experiment :) Served with curry leaves chutney !

Ingredients

Urad dal : 1 cup

Idli rava- 1 cup

Jowar flour- 2 cups

Soak urad dal for around 5 hours and grind it well till soft and fluffy. Add in the idli rava and jowar flour and mix well with required amount of water to an idli batter consistency. Let it ferment overnight and then steam as usual idlis. Serve hot with sambhar or any chutney of your choice. Done! :)

Vegetable momos with chilli garlic chutney

Have made this before and I have a pic and recipe in my page , but this time I made it a lot more simpler, tastier and quicker. Though it doesn't have the perfect shape of the momos I promise it tastes good. Anyway let me get into the recipe and you all make it to believe it is simple, quick and tasty!

Ingredients 

For the momo wrap

Whole wheat flour - 1 1/2 cups

Cooking oil - 2 tspns

Salt - a pinch

For the filling

Carrots - 1/2 cup ( finely chopped)

Broccoli - 1/2 cup ( finely chopped)

Shallots - 4-5 no.s ( finely chopped)

Green chillies - 1-2 ( finely chopped)

Garlic and ginger  - 2 tspns (finely chopped)

Soya sauce - 1 1/2 tbspns

Tobasco sauce - 1/2 tbspn

salt

For the chutney

Garlic - 5 cloves

Dry red chillies - 2 

Tomato sauce - 2 tbspn

Rice vinegar - 2 tbspn

Salt and water - as required

Method

Knead the flour and oil with salt and water to a smooth dough and keep aside

Mix all the ingredients for the filling and check the taste and keep aside./ Instead of chopping the vegetables separately you can throw in a food processor and chop it at one stretch the way I did :)

Blend all the ingredients for the chutney and check taste and keep aside.

Make 5 balls from dough. Take the rolling pin and roll out one ball not too thin and not too thick but ofcourse thinner than you roll out for chapathi and and cut into four pieces. Keep the filling in each triangle, fold and seal its sides carefully. Make sure the filling stays in.

Mean while keep the steamer on the stove with the required amount of  water for boiling. Place the sealed momos over the steamer and steam cook for around 10-12 minutes or until it is cooked.

Remove and serve hot with the chilli garlic chutney. Repeat the same for other dough balls.

Make sure you enjoy it hot!! 

Note : There are no limitations for the fillings for momos, you can make you choice of veg and no-veg fillings.

Usually it is made with white flour or maida, but whole wheat flour tasted equally good and is healthy too.

Even in the chutney make sure you get a balance of sweet and sour taste and you are privileged to alter the quantity of its ingredients according to your taste.

Baked potato wedges

It was irresistible!!! and isn't it the same with all the potato lovers when it comes to potato wedges. I am generally not a big fan of potatoes but I love it in this form and chips and also know this is not something to be proud off too!. Being a weekend I thought of trying this, so that the whole family will enjoy it and as expected everyone loved it .
 

I generally remove the skin of the potatoes for my vegs, knowing that the dispute of eating with and without skin and the nutrition part never ends. For this recipe I did use the skin but I dumped the potatoes in salt water for few hours just to remove the impurities and also scrubbed the skin properly. And now it is time to get on to the recipe

Ingredients

Potatoes - 4-5 medium sized ones

Olive oil - 2 tbspn

Chilli flakes - 1 tbspn

Garlic crushed - few no.s ( as per your liking)

Pepper powder - half tspn - one tspn

Corn flour- 2 tspn

salt - as required

Method

As explained above clean the potatoes thoroughly and cut into quarters and keep aside.

Keep the water for boiling in the steamer and place the potatoes on the top rack and steam cook for around 10-15 minutes or until the potatoes becomes softly cooked and not over cooked.

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius

Now throw in all the potatoes to the greased baking tray and add the other ingredients to it. Mix well, make sure that the pieces doesn't crumble.

Arrange the potatoes neatly in the tray and pace in the oven. Bake for around 10 - 15 minutes and then I toasted for another 5-7 minutes so that top and bottom gets a nice crunchy crust.

Remove the tray from oven, remove the wedges to a serving plate and start gobbling it hot!

Tips
You can substitute olive oil with garlic oil 

You can add/remove the seasoning as per you choice. You can add oregano, paprika, or any other seasoning of you choice
I might grate some cheese into it next time :)