Sambhar Sadham Recipe

Hai everybody hope you all had a great week-end .We were quite busy with sharu's school assignments but it went on well.I have bought a baking tray and we are planning to bake a cooker cake some time soon.I wanted to by some props for my blog but was not satisfied with ones I saw, so planning to visit shops next weekend.Now coming to todays recipe its a no fuss recipe which does not require any grinding how cool is that.I was quite lazy (as usual) so prepared sambhar rice using sambhar powder available rather than making a fresh one.Its ok it helps when you are rushing and want a quick fix rather than a whole spread but no compromise on health ,all veggies are added.In my rice all the veggies got over cooked,but this is a way to feed kids who hate veggies.Now off to the recipe.

Sambhar Sadham Recipe- Ingredients

Rice - 1 cup
Thoor Dhal - 1/2 cup
Tomato - 1 chopped
Small Onion/Shallots - 10 peeled
Carrot - 1 Peeled & Cubed
Beans - 10 chopped
Brinjal - 2 chopped
Radish - 1 peeled and cubed
Turmeric powder - 1 tsp
Sambhar Powder -1 tbsp (store bought)
Coriander leaves - 1 tsp chopped
Tamarind - lemon sized
Jaggery - 1/2 tsp (optional)
Hing - 1 pinch
Oil - 1tbsp
Salt to taste

To Temper

Ghee - 1 tbsp
Mustard - 1 tsp
Curry Leaves - 1 spring

Method:

1. Pressure the rice and dhal together with 1/2 tsp of turmeric and a pinch of hing in 4 cups of water.Meantime you can chop all the veggies and keep them ready,and soak the tamarind in warm water.
2. Now heat oil in a kadai/pressure pan ,add the peeled onions and saute well followed by tomato,saute for a minute,then add carrots, beans and radish and saute well.
3. Now you can add the chopped brinjal followed by the powders ,add 1/2 cup of water and cook till all the veggies are cooked.Then add the required salt and tamarind juice (about half a cup thick pulp).Let the mix boil till almost all the water has evaporated and raw smell leaves,now add the jaggery.
4. Mash the cooked rice and dhal mix with a ladle, add the rice mix to the kadai or transfer the veggies mix to the cooker whichever is convenient and mix well,add the coriander leaves and check for seasoning.
5. Heat ghee in a small pan add the items under "to temper" list once the mustard starts cracking add this to the Sambhar rice and serve hot with papad.

My Notes:

• As there are veggies added to the rice itself you don't need any side dish as such.
• This rice tastes best when served hot.
• You can also avoid ghee and do the tempering in oil but this compromises on taste so you can reduce the amount of ghee if you wish.
• Choice of veggies is yours you can add drumstick,potato etc.
• You can reduce the amount of water to rice if you do not like your rice mushy.
• Adjust spice level,tamarind according to taste.
• This rice thickens with time so prepare accordingly.

Sakkarai Pongal (in pressure cooker)Recipe

Todays post is sakkarai pongal I know that everybody is familiar with this dish and this being pongal time all would have got enough of it but still I want to have a note of it in my little space.Hope every one would have had a great time with family and friends,especially in Tamil Nadu kids are having a whale of time enjoying their pongal holidays.In our house we have the custom of making sakkarai pongal and vadai on the day of pongal.I usually follow the short cut method of pressure cooking which is easy and time saving.Traditionally this pongal is prepared in a new earthern pot.Usually everyone adds only few spoons of moongdhal to the pongal but we use rice and dhal in the ratio 2:1,Amma does it that way so I follow the same ratio.

Sakkarai pongal is a favorite among kids and it is a whole meal by itself with carbs , protein ,vitamins and minerals. Moong dhal is easy to digest and attributes to the protein component. Jaggery is rich in iron,vitamins and minerals. Jaggery is said to have properties that aid digestion of food.A small piece of jaggery after a heavy meal helps in digestion.A friend of mine suggested that I include recipes that make up a healthy breakfast for kids.This pongal also comes under that category,it is a one pot meal and also loved by children,so mothers need not go around the kid to feed the breakfast.Now to the recipe.

Sakkarai Pongal Recipe- Ingredients

Raw Rice - 1 cup
Moong Dhal - 1/2 cup(yellow,split)
Jaggery- 1 1/2 cup(grated)
Cashew - 10
Raisins - 10
Elaichi - 3 nos
Ghee - 4 tbsp
Salt - a pinch

Method:

1. Wash and pressure cook the rice and dhal together in 3 cups of water with a pinch of salt for three whistles(please adjust according to your cooker).
2. Now in a pan heat jaggery with the crushed elaichis in 3 tbspn of water till the all jaggery melts and you get a thick syrup.Strain this syrup into another bowl.
3. Once the rice ,dhal mixture is ready mash it well and add the jaggery syrup to the cooker ,mix well and cook till the jaggery and rice mix come to a boil add 2 tbsps of ghee and keep stirring else the pongal may get burnt.Heat 2 tbsps ghee in a pan ,fry the cashews and raisins and add it to the pongal.Serve hot.It tastes equally yummy even at room temperature.

My Notes:

• You can increase or reduce the amount of jaggery as per taste.
• The colour of the pongal depends on the jaggery used ,paagu vellam gives good color.
• You can decrease the amount of water if you don't want your pongal to be gooey .
• The use of cashews and raisins is optional and can be omitted if you don't like it.
• A pinch of salt is added to the rice dhal mixture to avoid/reduce spill over,moongdhal has this quality. A tip from a chef was to add a pinch of salt to any sweet dish to enhance the taste.
• You can reduce the amont of ghee but this sure compromises on the taste.

Spicy Chettinadu Style Tomato Rice Recipe

Everybody will be celebrating Pongal today.In Chennai it is holiday season literally.The kids are having a long holiday for nearly 6 days.Having a tough time having the kid at home and keeping her engaged all through the day.Today's recipe is tomato rice,as I told we like to have variety rice often so we try checking for new variety rice recipes.This rice as usual is Amma's recipe.This is a chettinadu style recipe.The original recipe doesn't require any grinding but I puree the tomatoes. The tanginess of the tomato,spiciness of the chilly and flavor of garam masala make this tomato rice very special.

Wishing Everyone a Happy Pongal.

Spicy Tomato Rice Recipe- Ingredients

Tomato - 1 chopped and 3 pureed
Onion - 2 Chopped
Garlic - 10 Sliced fine
Cooked Rice - 1 cup
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Red Chilly Powder -1 tsp
Coriander - 1 tsp
Salt to taste

To Temper

Oil - 3 tbsp
Cinnamon - 1 inch
Cloves - 3
Elaichi - 1
Green chilly -1
Curry Leaves - 1 spring

Method:

1. Heat oil in a kadai add the items to temper followed by chopped onions and garlic saute well and add the chopped tomato and all the masala powder and salt.In meantime puree the other 3 tomatoes and add it to the kadai .Close the lid of the kadai let the mix boil till the oil starts floating.
2. After the tomato mix is ready add the cooled rice and mix well and check for seasoning.Serve hot with onion raita or chips.

My Notes:

• This rice is best suited for lunch box as you can make the tomato mix the previous night and store it in the fridge and mix it with the rice in the morning.
• The tomato mix can be used as tomato thokku as such with dosa or chappathi.
• Once the tomato mix is ready you can add ground coconut paste to it and your tomato kurma is ready.
• This tomato mix is handy so you can make it before hand and store it.
• I chopped only one tomato and pureed the other 3 you can add all chopped tomatoes,this makes the dish much tastier but the kid doesnt like the skin of tomatoes in the dish so I purred them.Actually chooped tomatoes cook faster.
• Adjust the spice level to taste.

Thengai Mangai Sadham Recipe

This thengai mangai sadham is one of amma's speciality which is a favourite among my friends.When I saw mangoes in the market I was reminded of this rice and wanted to try it .We love the sweet and sour taste of this rice.It goes well with any spicy veggie or just chips is fine.This rice tastes best when made with half ripe mangoes.My daughter is in favour of any variety rice instead of the same old sambar and rasam daily.We prefer having variety rice atleast once in a week, mostly Fridays is variety rice day in our house.The addition of raisins and cashews add richness to this but weight watchers can skip cashews.I tried this last week and it came out well,do try this.

Mangoes are rich in vitamin C ,thus help in building better immune system.Raw mango is a good source of pectin which gives a good cure for gastro-intestinal disorders.Raisins contribute to bone health,cure anaemia as they are a rich source of calcium,iron.This rice combines the goodness of both mangoes and raisins.

Thengai Mangai Sadham Recipe- Ingredients

Coconut - 1/2 cup grated
Raw mango - 1 (peeled and grated)
Cooked Rice - 1 cup
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Salt to taste

To Temper

Oil - 2 tsp
Mustard - 1 tsp
Urad dhal - 1 tsp
Red Chilly - 1
Green chilly -1
cashews - 6 nos
Raisins - 10 nos

Method:

1. Dry roast the grated coconut and transfer it to a plate.In the same kadai heat oil and add the items in the "to temper" list .Now add the grated mangoes and saute till it shrinks,you can now add the turmeric powder and salt and saute it.
2. Add the roasted coconut to the kadai and mix well.Now add the cooled rice and mix everythig well.check for seasoning and serve with any curry or with just chips or appalam.

My Notes:

• This rice is best suited for lunch box,especially for kids who love to nuts and raisins .
• You can also add roasted ground nut in place of cahews or both.
• Raisins add a sweet punch to the rice as against the sour taste of the mango.
• Dry roasting of the coconut brings out a good aroma.
• I would suggest you try this dish with half ripe mangoes for a much better taste.
• You can also use cuury leaves for seasoning.

Chicken Biriyani (pressure cooker method)Recipe

Hope everybody had a great weekend.Ours went on well.Saturday was a busy day with the Sharu having an open day at school and we also went on a shopping for buying crockery ,weekly veggies,a visit to the grocer and so on.My daughter prefers to have non-veg on sundays especially chicken .She wanted to have biriyani so we decided on chicken biriyani this sunday.I decided on going ahead with amma recipe.The biriyani came out well and Sharu complimented it by comparing it with amma's biriyani.Now a days amma has started adding kal pasi and marathi moggu in her biriyani this makes the dish very aromatic, so I also added this for the first time and came out well. I always use the pressure cooker for biriyani should try cooking with dum the next time ,will try it and post it soon.

Chicken Biriyani Recipe- Ingredients

Chicken - 1/2 kg
Basmati Rice - 1 cup (I used Daawat brand)
Onion - 1 medium sliced
Tomato - 1 (chopped)
Ginger Garlic Paste - 1 tsp
Turmeric - 1/2 tsp
Chilly Powder - 1tsp
Coriander Powder - 1 tsp
Salt - to taste

To Temper:

Oil - 3 tbspn
Ghee - 3 tbsp
Cinamon - 1 inch
Cloves - 2
Elaichi -1
Star Anise - 1
kal Pasi - a pinch (optional)
Bay Leaf (Birinji elai)-1
Marathi Moggu -1 (optional)

To Grind :

Mint Leaves --1/4 cup(loosely packed)
Coriander leaves - 1/4 cup (loosely packed)
Green chilly - 2
Onion - 1
Tomato -1

To Marinate :

Ginger Garlic paste - 1/2 tsp
Chilly Powder - 1/2 tsp
Coriander Powder - 1/2 tsp

Method:

1. First grind the ingredients in the "to grind" list to a fine paste.Now clean the chicken and marinate it with the ingredients in the "to marinate".
2. Heat oil + ghee in a pressure cooker and add the items in the "to temper" list followed by the chopped onion ,tomato and ginger garlic paste and saute well, now add the ground masala followed by the marinated chicken,salt and the powders.Stir well till all the masala is coated well and till oil oozes.
3. Add a little water if the masala is too dry and pressure cook for 2 whistles or till the chicken is cooked(not mushy) .While the chicken is cooking you can rinse the basmati rice just once and soak it in 1 cup of water for about 15 minutes.
4. After the chicken is cooked check for seasoning .The most important step here is to measure any water that is there in the cooked chicken,if there is water just transfer it to the measuring cup and add extra plain water to it so that it measures to one cup.
5. Now drain the water from the rice (1 cup )and add this water to the cooker,let it boil.Now add the drained rice to the cooker ,check for seasoning close the cooker. cook for 1 whistle on high and cook in sim for 1 more whistle.Switch off the stove and fulf up the rice once the pressure releases.
Now your chicken Biriyani is ready to serve with raita or any gravy of you choice or just plain curd.

My Notes:

• Although kal pasi and marathi moggu are optional they add a great aromea to the biriyani.
• The amount of water need is important , I prefer the rice to water in the ratio 1:2 with this ratio the rice is well cooked soft but not mushy .
• Please adjust the red chilly powder and green chillies as per your spice level.
• You are free to modify the ghee and oil as per your liking but I would recommend you use atleast this amount of ghee for better flavour.