Festive cooking

Sheer Khurma/ Sheer Khorma:

September 1, 2017

Sheer Khurma is also known as Sheer Khorma. The term represents Milk with dry dates. It is Vermicelli kheer with lots and lots of dry fruits and dry dates. It is a traditional sweet dish, which is served during Eid Ul Fitr.

I wanted to try this recipe from so long. I took my house-help’s help to gather how it is made and she described to me how her mom used to make this on festival days. She guided me on how to chop all these dry fruits as well.

sheer ori

Ingredients:

Milk – 1.5 litres.

Ghee – 2 to 3 tbl spoon (to fry all the dry fruits)

Sugar – to taste (used almost ½ cup)

Dry dates – ¼ cup (sliced length wise)

Almond – ¼ cup (slivered)

Cashew – 2 table spoon (bits)

Pista – ¼ cup (chopped)

Raisins – 2 table spoons

Chironji – 2 table spoons

Vermicelli – ¼ cup

Saffron – 8 to 10 strands

Cardamom – ½ tea spoon.

Method:

-Take ghee in a thick bottomed kadai and roast vermicelli, remove and keep aside.

– Fry all the dry fruits one by one.

– Soak saffron in 2 table spoons of hot milk and keep aside.

– Take roasted vermicelli and dry fruits together in this same kadai and pour milk and boil.

– Cook this until you see a creamy texture and vermicelli is perfectly done.

– It takes anywhere between fifteen to twenty minutes.

– Now add in sugar and check for the sweetness and adjust the quantity and boil.

– Lastly add soaked saffron and cardamom powder.

– You can serve this as a hot dessert or chilled.

Menthe Kodilu/ Methi Sambar:

August 25, 2017

This is one of our traditional recipes and if you like a little sweetish tangy taste, this is the perfect combo for kotte kadubu / idly or semige.

We don’t use onion or garlic on any auspicious day and this side dish is usually prepared on such days and we relish this as a side dish with kotte kadubu/ Moode.

Here menthe is fenugreek and kodilu stands for sambar in our language. This is a very simple coconut based little sweetish gravy and needs very less ingredient and tastes good.

pic main

Ingredient:

Fresh grated coconut – 1 big bowl.

Dried red chillies – 3 to 4

Methi / fenugreek seeds – ½ tsp

Turmeric – ½ tsp

Coconut oil – 1tsp

Tamarind – ½ tsp

Jaggery – 2 tbl spoon

Salt

Seasoning:

Coconut oil – 1 tsp

Mustard – 1 tsp

Curry leaves – 1 springs

Red chilli – 1

Method:

– Take 1 spoon of coconut oil in a small kadai, heat.

– When it is hot, drop methi and fry for a while.

– When it is light brown, add red chillies and fry until it swells.

– Add coconut gratings, turmeric and fry for 2 to 3 minutes.

collage 1

– Cool this mixture and grind this into smooth paste by adding sufficient water, salt, jaggery and tamarind.

– Now take that same kadai, in which we have fried chillies and coconut. Pour ground batter, adjust the consistency by adding water.

–Boil this for a while and check for a salt and jaggery. If needed adjust that as well.

–Do seasoning by heating oil, mustard, red chilli and curry leaves and pour this over boiled kodilu.

Moode/ Kotte kadubu:

August 25, 2017

Moode or kotte kadubu is a local delicacy of Coastal Karnataka. We especially prepare this on the eve of any festivities. Now a day It is an integral part of any weddings in our region.

Moode or kotte is leaf cup which we prepare either by using jack leaves, Kedige flower leaves (Kewda, Fragrant Screw Pine, Umbrella tree, Screw pine) or Plantain leaf. It is based on availability and accessibility to leaf.

It is basically normal idly batter which is poured in these cups, which is made by any one of these leaves and steam cooked in a water bath and served with chutney or any sambar.

I usually prepare this by bringing these leaf cups, from One of the many Mangalore stores, spread across Bangalore, during festival season. Sometimes I do prepare by lining a stainless-steel cup with small pieces of plantain leaves. This also works just fine like any other leaf cup.

Ingredients:

Idly Batter – Fermented

Tall steel glasses

Plantain leaves – as needed

Method:

– Hold plantain leaves on gas flame and wilt a little. It will help while folding or rolling the leaves.

–If you don’t wilt it, it will tear very easily.

–Take one wet cloth and wipe plantain leaves (you should move your hand from centre rib to edge as ridges moves in the leaves) and clean the leaves.

– Remove extra thick centre ribs (fibre) by holding your left palm to support over the leaf and pull the fibre by right hand.

-Cut this into small rectangle pieces.

– It is now ready to roll and place inside the steel glass.

–Keep idly steamer ready, when water starts boiling, pour the batter to the moulds.

–In these cups, usually 2 to 2 ½ serving spoons of batter will hold.

– If batter is more, cooking time should increase according to that.

–Keep it in a steamer, cook in a high fire for 10 minutes and when you feel the steam is uniformly distributed inside the steamer, reduce the flame and cook for 40 to 50 minutes in a very low flame.

–After it is done, switch off the gas, don’t open the lid and keep it for some more time.

–When you want to serve this, open the lid, remove the glass mould and pull the banana leaves out and serve with pouring little ghee and any side dish of your choice.

–Usually on festival days, we make coconut based sambar or chutney and totally avoid garlic and onion on any auspicious day.

–Our traditional side dish is called menthe kodilu and we relish these kadubu’s with menthe kodilu or sweetened cardamom flavoured coconut milk(kayi halu) and coconut chutney .

Panchakajjaya /Naivedym which offered to lord Ganapathi:

August 24, 2017

Panchakajjaya is integral part of Ganesh Chaturthi Naivedyam. Pancha means Five. As the name suggests it is made up of five ingredients. Chana dal, sugar, coconut, Ghee, black sesame seed. cashew nuts are optional. This powdery Prasadam is a treat which we look forward to every year on this auspicious day.

Ingredients:

Chana dal / Bengal gram dal – 1 cup

Grated fresh coconut – 1cup

Sugar – 1cup

Black sesame seed – 2 tbl sp

Cashew bits – ½ cup

Cardamom powder – ½ tsp

Ghee – ½ tsp

Method:

– Dry roast Chana dal until it is light golden and fragrant. Cool and make powder by using small mixer jar. Sieve and collect fine powder. Do this in small batches, little by little.

collage 1

– Powder sugar.

– Dry roast sesame seed and cool.

– Dry roast coconut gratings until light golden. Cool this.

– Fry cashew bits in ghee and keep aside.

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– Now take one bowl, mix everything together, and sprinkle cardamom powder. Offer to God.

Idly/Idli Batter:

August 24, 2017

Idli is very basic, staple breakfast of south India. It is very healthy steam cooked rice and lentil cake which is very nutritious too. Each place has their own rice and lentil ratio or proportion and grinding technique also changes from region to region. In Mangalore, we soak rice and dal separately and grind very fine paste of urad dal and either we mix rice rawa or we are grinding the rice, we keep it a little coarse, hence this batter will be a little coarse. After fermenting the batter, the next day we proceed to make idlies by using either idly stand or idly cups. In our region, idly cups are regular and very common in every house hold and we use special type of idly steamer and invariably we use this for so many kinds of steam cooking.

Ingredients for idli batter:

Idly rice or Idly rawa – 2 cups

Urad/Black gram dal – 1 cup

Poha – 1 fist full

salt

Method:

-Wash and soak rice in one vessel. If you are using idli rawa, you can wash idly rawa and put very little water and keep aside.

-Wash Urad dal and poha in another vessel and soak for 3 to 4 hours.

-At first, drain excess water from urad dal and put this into wet grinder.

-Grind this into smooth paste by adding water in-between while grinding.

-When urad dal batter becomes fine and smooth, its consistency becomes almost double and colour of the batter looks milky white.

– When you think urad dal batter is ready, add soaked rice or rice rawa by draining its soaked water.

-You can use this water while grinding or adjusting the consistency of the batter or to wash wet grinder at first to remove the dough that is stuck on the stone.

-Grind this into small rawa consistency by adding salt and remove this ready batter into big vessel. If you are using rice rawa ,allow batter to mix for couple of minutes and then remove.

-I usually grind urad dal first, then mix in drained rice so that batter mixes uniformly and becomes light and airy.

– Batter consistency should be a little thick and when u hold and drop the batter it should not drop very easily and it should stick to the spoon.

-Close the lid and keep this batter for 8 to 10 hours or more (according to outside weather where you live) for fermentation.

-Next day morning fill idly steamer or pressure cooker with sufficient water, place the porous plate at the centre of the vessel and keep this on the fire.

-Mix fermented batter vigorously, if needed add water and adjust the consistency keep it ready.

-Rinse the idly moulds in fresh water once, it will act as a non-sticky layer between idly and mould.

-When water starts boiling, pour one spoon of batter into respective moulds and steam cook.

-If you are using cups, cook this in a steamer for 15 to 20 minutes. Cups holds more batter than idly stand.

-If you are using idly stand, 7 to 8 minutes of steam cooking is sufficient.

-When it is done, switch off the gas, open the lid and remove moulds outside.

-Once it is cool, remove idly and serve with chutney or sambar or with your choice of side dish.

NOTE:

-Use wet grinder to get awesome soft idlies.

– Use soaked and drained water from the dal or rice while grinding. It will enhance the taste.

-Always mix and pour the batter to the moulds, only after water starts boiling.

Beaten rice/Poha laddu:

August 12, 2017

Wish you all my lovely readers a very happy Krishna janmashtami. As beaten rice is one of the favourite things of lord Krishna. Beaten rice is also known as poha in Hindi and Avalakki in Kannada.

This ladoo is one of my twin daughter’s favourite things in this whole wide world. I learnt this addictive crunchy ladoo recipe from my sister’s Mother-In-Law. Now let’s get started with the recipe.

Ingredients:

Whole wheat flour-1 cup

Chickpea flour/Besan -1 cup

Thick beaten rice – 2 cups (thicker variety, which is used for deep frying in savoury making)

Sugar- 2 ½ cup

Clarified butter (ghee) – ½ to ¾ cup (as required)

Dry fruits – 1 cup (We like chopped almond and cashew)

Cardamom powder – 1tsp

Method:

1. Dry roast wheat flour and chickpea flour separately in a thick bottomed vessel and keep small flame in a gas stove, so that flour will not get burnt and fry uniformly.

2. Fry dry fruits with little ghee and keep aside.

3. Deep fry beaten rice and put it in a tissue.

4. Take all these things (roasted flour, dry fruits, fried beaten rice, and cardamom powder) in a large bowl, to this add powdered sugar and mix everything nicely.

5. To the above mixture add melted little hot clarified butter or ghee and mix it with clean hand.

6. Once you can make ladoo stop adding clarified butter and continue making ladoo.

7. After it cools down, store this in a clean, dry airtight container and enjoy whenever you feel like.

Bendekayi/Okra Palya:

August 3, 2017

Bendekai/lady’s finger/okra/bhindi- so many names for this simple, high fibre, low calorie vegetable. Some people just avoid this slimy vegetable without knowing how to cook. It is just simple, if you know the right technique.

We normally don’t use any onion, garlic or tomato in festive cooking. In Mangalore, we prefer this simple coconut based side dishes for any weddings or festivities.

Here we use tamarind base to cook Bendekai to remove its slime. To avoid sliminess , you should remember 2 to 3 things. First thing, drops the veggie, only after tamarind water starts boiling. secondly, don’t over mix the veggie, while cooking. Thirdly, don’t cover the lid, while cooking lady’s finger. These are all the tricks I learnt from my elder’s while learning cooking from over the years.

You can use any varieties of lady’s finger for this recipe. Here I have used local variety from Mangalore which I have grown and harvested from my terrace garden. It is Red Okra and after cooking, it becomes like any other okra.

Ingredients:

Ladies’ finger – ½ kg

Tamarind – 1 tsp

Salt

Jaggery

Red chilli powder – ½ tsp

To grind:

Fresh Coconut – 1 small cup

Red chillies – 2 to 3

Mustard – ½ tsp

Hing – very little

Seasoning:

Coconut oil – 1 tbl sp

Mustard – 1tsp

Urad dal – 1 tsp

Red chilli – 1

Curry leaves – 1 string

Method:

-Wash and cut the bhindi into half inch pieces.

-soak tamarind in one cup of water.

-Roast red chillies and hing in a drop of coconut oil.

-Dry grind coconut, roasted red chillies, hing, mustard and keep it aside.

– Take one tawa, do the seasoning by putting oil, mustard seeds, urad dal, red chilli.

-When mustard starts spluttering, add curry leaves and pour tamarind water (squeeze soaked tamarind in water and use)

-Add required amount of salt, jaggery and red chilli powder.

-When it starts boiling, add chopped Bendekai and cook this in a low flame.

-when water drains or Bendekai cooks, add ground coconut mixture and mix thoroughly and keep this in a simmer for couple of minutes.

-serve this as a side dish with hot rice or Chapati.

Patholi / Sweet rice dumpling, steamed in turmeric leaves:

July 27, 2017

Patholi is an offering which we make on the day of “Nagara Panchami”, or the snake festival in our house hold. Monsoon is the season in which we get lot of greens in abundance. Maybe that is the reason this dish is made in turmeric leaves.

Patholi is coconut and jaggery filled steamed kadubu or steamed rice cake, usually folded and steam cooked in turmeric leaves. Turmeric leaf gives beautiful aroma and good taste and this pleasantly aromatic dish is favoured by everyone in our family.

pic main 2

Ingredients:

Dosa rice /white rice – 2 cups

Grated coconut – 1 ½ cup

Grated Jaggery – ½ cup (to taste).

Ghee/ Clarified butter – 4 tsp.

Salt to taste

Turmeric leaves – 8 to 10

Method:

– Wash rice and soak it for 2 to 3 hours.

– Wash turmeric leaves and keep it aside.

collage 1

– Grind this soaked rice in to smooth paste by adding ½ cup of coconut, water and salt and little jaggery.

– Now keep thick bottomed kadai, pour this ground batter and add some water to make thin consistency. Now add 2 tsp of ghee and start heating this mixture by continuous stirring. When it becomes little thick and forms a mass, switch off the gas and keep it aside to cool to handle it further.

patholi 1

– In the meantime, make sweet coconut-jaggery mixture. In thick bottomed vessel add jaggery and ½ cup of water and heat. If you find some impurities in jaggery syrup, sieve this liquid and heat further and add fresh grated coconut and cook until it is sticky and forms mass. Add remaining ghee to this and mix. Now stuffing is ready.

– Method to make Patholi:

– Take little water in a bowl to dip your hand in between, while applying rice batter over turmeric leaf.

– Now take lemon sized rice batter ball, apply as thin as possible by using your hand by dipping your hand in bowl of water in between.

collage 2

– After applying ,spread coconut –jaggery mixture to half of every leaf in which batter is spread (please refer pictures)

– Now fold this in to half and keep this in a idly steamer and cook for 20 to 30 minutes or until done.

patholi 3

– Serve with ghee.

Kashmiri Pulav:

July 21, 2017

The Kashmiri Pulav what we see in restaurants have so many fresh fruits and dry fruits and are sweetish in taste as well. But in 2011, when we went to Kashmir, the care taker of our boat house made this wonderful Pulav which he served with tadka dal. That Pulav neither had fresh fruits nor so many dry fruits and it was not that sweet. It had raw yellow fresh dates, coconut chunks, cashew and raisins. My family liked this very much and wanted to note down the recipe to try it out. When I asked for the same.

Our care taker Mahdha kaka was very happy to share his recipe and I want to dedicate this blogpost of mine to this humble man.

here we go for detailed account –

Ingredients:

Basmati rice – 3 cups

Ghee – 150 Gms

Onion – 2 (sliced)

Ginger garlic paste – 1 tbl sp

Shahi jeera- 1 tsp

Bay leaf – 1

Salt

Saffron – 7 -8 strings

Hot milk – ¼ cup

Yellow dates, Raisins, cashew and dry coconut bits – as you wish.

Method:

– At first wash rice, soak for 10 min and drain the water and keep aside.

– Soak saffron in hot milk and keep aside. Slice dates, coconut etc.

– Now take one thick bottomed pan, put little ghee, fry cashew, raisin, coconut slices and dates one by one and keep aside.

– Now fry half of the onion in to dark brown and keep aside.

– Pour remaining ghee, put Shahi jeera, bay leaf then remaining sliced onion and fry for a while.

– When it becomes brown add ginger garlic paste and fry until raw smell vanishes.

– Add drained rice, fry for a while.

– Now add 6 cups of water, salt and cook this rice by closing the lid and keeping it in a simmer.

– When rice is almost done, add soaked saffron with milk, fried onion, dates, raisins and cashew.

– Mix everything and keep it in a fire for little more time until all the water evaporates or until rice is done.

– Enjoy this Kashmiri Pulav with Tadka dal.

Badam Halwa / Almond Halwa :

July 5, 2017

Badam halwa, the name itself brings back so many fond memories of my two kiddos’ as well as of my late father in law. My memories go back to my delivery time. When my father in law heard about my twin daughter’s arrival, he celebrated his joy by preparing and distributing this sweet to our near and dear ones. While growing up, even my kids used to enjoy this sweet and used to refer to this as “Yellow sweet”. After so many years last weekend I prepared this to celebrate my hubby’s birthday and enjoyed every bit of the preparation by cherishing all these fond memories.

I Normally follow this age-old method-

Ingredients:

Almonds – 500 grams

Sugar – 750 grams

Milk – ½ to ¾ litre

Ghee – 1 to 1 ½ cup

Saffron – 1 tsp

Cardamom powder – ½ teaspoon

Method:

– Soak almond overnight.

– The next morning, peel the skin. Usually three fourth of the content will shed their skin, if you mash those swelled almonds inside the water, by using your palm.

– After removing the outer skin, put these in a mixer grinder jar, make paste by adding sufficient milk.