Thengai Paal Vadai

 

As my late paternal grandma called it, thengai paal vadai or sweet bonda in coconut milk is a recepi I learnt from her. Yes,  my passion for cooking started from a budding age. I used to spent my school holiday at my late paternal grandparents house and tea time snack is a must in their household. Now I know why I love to serve tea time treat for Dandelions. It's something inherited from your family 😊. I still remember how grandma will start her preparation for her thengai paal vadai as early as 7am. The soaking part only needed 4 hours but,  she'll make a huge batch to distribute to neighbors as well. Those are days of exchanging food with your neighborhood.

She'll start to grind using her old mortal with a little help from me (I'm 9-10 years old that time)  and could hardly lift the mortal. I'll be eagerly waiting to taste the soft, fluffy, coconut milk oozing vadai. The batter  whipping process after adding the baking soda is important to yield a fluffy vadai and it helps to absorb the coconut milk well.  Unlike other Indian sweets, thengai paal vadai are mildly sweet and the aroma of cardamom powder are irresistible with the creamy and rich coconut milk. Food does bring back memories. People might leave but,  their memory and love stays forever 😍

Ingredients 

1/2 cup ulunthu/urad dhal

1/8 cup raw rice

1/2 tsp salt

1 tbsp sugar

1/4 tsp baking soda

2 cups freshly squeezed coconut milk

1/4 cup sugar/vellam

1/2 tsp cardamom powder 

1 tbsp chopped pistachio 

Oil for deep frying 

Methods 

Wash and soak rice and urad shall for 4 hours. 

Add urad shall, raw rice and salt into a grinder or food processor. Grind into a smooth paste without adding water. If needed just add 2 tsp water. 

Transfer the batter into a bowl and add baking soda. Whip the batter well to add air which will result in fluffy soft vadai.

Heat oil in a medium flame and using your hand,  gently drop the batter into oil. Fry in batches till golden.

Remove from pan and transfer to a plate lined with clean kitchen towel to drain excess oil.

In a saucepan over a low heat,  warm the coconut milk. Do not boil the milk just warn it for 1-2 minutes. 

Remove from heat and add sugar and cardamom powder. 

Stir till sugar completely dissolved.

In a large bowl add the fried vadai and pour in the warm coconut milk. Stir gently and let it soak for 15 minutes. 

Serve  with sprinkling of crushed pistachio.

Apple Nachos

 

Due to the pandemic, Dandelions schools are closed for months and started with virtual online classes. By end of the classes both the girls will be worn out and looking for snacks. As a mother, I don't want them do munch on junk foods which is not to be found in my household instead, I prepared a simple and refreshing munchies. Apple nachos as it's sounds has the elements of nachos with the crispiness of the apples, drizzling of sweet caramel sauce and sprinkling of nuts and chocolate chips. Assorted flavors on each bite and amazing texture of crunch and velvety sauce. 

Choosing a crisp apples for nachos are very important for the texture.  I prefer Granny Smith and Fuji red apples. You may use store bought caramel sauce or in my case,  I used my homemade caramel. Choose your favorite nuts or assorted nuts to build the flavor. The girls polished off the whole plate and I'm a satisfied mom 😁.

Ingredients 

2 Granny Smith apples

2 Fuji red apples

1/4 cup caramel sauce

1 tsp salt

Handful roasted and chopped walnuts/almonds/hazelnuts

Handful semi sweet chocolate chips

Methods

Filled water in a large bowl and stir in the salt. Keep aside.

Washed, cored,sliced the apples and add into the prepared salt water. 

Arrange the apple slices on a large plate. Drizzle with caramel sauce and sprinkle with chopped nuts and chocolate chips.

Serve immediately.

Vanilla Chocolate Loaf

We are experiencing monsoon season here, the usual climate as any other year end. Baking bread on cold weather is quite challenging in the term of activating the yeast. To yield a soft and spongy bread, yeast need to be activated to perfection and it's warm place for the process. One of simple trick I learnt overtime on baking on cold climate is,  by placing the covered dough in a warm oven. When I say warm,  it shall be warm to body temperature level not hot. Too hot or too cold environment will easy kill the yeast resulting, in a dense and hard loaves. 

For a change, I made two basic flavored bread. Vanilla for my elder Dandelion who are not into chocolate and the dark beauty is my youngest favorite flavor in the whole world. You got to satisfy two different audience here with one single loaf 😂. As for the bread,  it's soft, spongy and and goes very well with a generous slab of butter or marmalade. 

Ingredients

4 cups bread flour
2 tbsp active dry yeast
1/4 cup lukewarm water

1 cup lukewarm milk
1/3 cup + 1 tsp granulated white sugar
1/3 cup butter,melted

1/4 cup butter,softened

1 egg,slightly beaten

4 tbsp cocoa powder 

1/2 tsp salt

1 tbsp vanilla extract 

3 tbsp chocolate chip

1 egg, beaten for egg wash

Methods 

Using a stand mixer, fitted with dough hook add lukewarm water,yeast and 1 tsp sugar to the bowl. Stir and let the yeast to bloom for 5-10 mins.

In another mixing bowl, mix in melted butter,egg,vanilla extract and milk. Add the mixture to the yeast. Add flour,salt and remaining 1/3 cup of sugar. Turn on the machine and beat for 15 minutes. 

Divide the dough into two and add the cocoa powder to one portion of the dough. Knead till the cocoa powder thoroughly mix with the dough. You will end up with one plain and another chocolate dough. 

Place the both dough separately in large greased bowls and cover with clean kitchen towels. Let the doughs to rest in a warm place for 90 mins.

Punch down the vanilla dough and lightly dust a clean working surface with flour. Place the dough on working surface and divide them equally into 6 equal sized balls.

Repeat the same with chocolate dough. Using a rolling pin, roll the ball into a oval. Brush the surface with butter and make few slits leaving the edges intact. Using your hand gently, roll the dough into cylinder. 

Place it on a 9"inch round cake tin lined with parchment paper. Take a ball of chocolate dough, roll into oval,brush with butter, make few slits leaving the edges intact and using your hand gently, roll into cylinders. Place the chocolate dough next to the vanilla dough. Repeat the process with the remaining vanilla and chocolate dough. 

Cover the dough with  it clean kitchen towel and let it rest for another 30 mins in a warm place. 

Brush the vanilla dough with egg wash. Sprinkle the chocolate dough with chocolate chips. 

Preheat oven at 350'F or 180'C and bake in the middle tray of the oven for 30-35 mins till golden. Remove from oven and cool on cooling pan for 15 minutes. Remove from the pan and cool completely on the rack. 

Tapioca Masala Dosa

I have shared masala thosai or dosa recepi in my blog few times with different stuffing or masala. This time too,  I'm sharing a unique stuffing unlike our regular potato stuffed masala dosa. The secret lies in the very special powder which is known as super food. As we all are aware pomegranate is one of the best fruit nature has gifted us. For centuries this jewel fruit has been used for health and beauty. Known as a fruit ideal for women, this ruby red gem like fruit packed with essential nutrients and antioxidants. It helps to keep the uterus in pink of health and a favorite fruit for skincare products. It give a natural glow to the skin, reduce cancer risk and etc.

I regularly include pomegranate in our diet in the form of fresh fruit, juice or even in cooking as masala. I powdered the dried seeds and add them to my stir fry recipe or curries as an health booster. In this masala dosa recipient,  I added them into the making of the masala and topped with a generous sprinkle of fresh pomegranate and chopped chillies for extra kick.  Lightly pungent,sharp in flavour and crunchy in texture goes really well with the fermented soft and spongy dosa.

Ingredient

1 cup par boiled rice
1/4 cup urad dhal
1 tsp fenugreek seeds
Salt taste

For The Masala

1 cup boiled tapioca, lightly mashed
1 sprig coriander leaves,chopped
1 tbsp ginger garlic paste
2 onions,chopped
1 green chilly,chopped
1 tsp mustard seeds
2 sprig curry leaves

3/4 tsp pomegranate powder 
1 tomato,chopped
1/3 tsp turmeric powder
Salt to taste
Oil

For The Toppings

3 tbsp fresh pomegranate seeds

1 green chilly,chopped

Methods

For The Dosa Batter

Soak all the ingredients except salt for atleast 4 hours or overnight.

Grind the soaked ingredients with little water. The batter should not be too thin or too thick.

Pour he batter into a large pot or vessel and add salt. Mix well. Let  the batter ferment for 7-8 hours

For The Masala

Heat oil in a pan and add mustard seeds. Once the mustard seeds splutters Add chopped onions and curry leaves. Saute till thee onions turns translucent

Add the ginger garlic paste and saute for 30 seconds. Add the chopped tomato and saute till soft.

Add the mashed tapioca,pomegranate powder and turmeric powder. Mix well.

Add coriander leaves and season with salt. Stir to combine.

Transfer to a bowl.

Prepare Dosa

Heat dosa tawa and drizzle with little oil. Take a ladleful of dosa batter and spread into a circle.

Sprinkle little oil along the edges of the dosa.

Smear the tapioca masala and cook til the dosa turns golden and crispy.

In a bowl, combine pomegranate seeds and chopped chilly. Keep aside 

Fold and top with prepared pomegranate seeds. 

 Serve hot with chutney

Stir Fry Lala With Tabasco sauce

This is a fiery and hot lala or stir fry clams recipient. The recepi is from my younger sister who love spicy food and it's not a surprise when she cooked this mouth watering clams for our family get-together. Yes..yes,  we sisters (4 of us) all love cooking. Something we inherited from our lovely mom. The lip smacking stir fry lala in hot sauce was a hit among us when she dished it up and we quickly jotted down the recepi from her. If you are not someone who can tolerate heat, please adjust the amount of tabasco and black pepper powder but do not skip both ingredients as,  it gives the deep flavor to the dish. Somehow, I found by adding brown sugar it balances the heat and lend a taste of caramelization. I could just eat it alone with hot steamed white rice or munch it as it's own. 

Ingredients 

300g lala/clams, cleaned

1 tsp turmeric powder

1 tbsp minced garlic

1/2 inch ginger, julienned 

1 tbsp dried shrimp

2 tbsp oyster sauce

1 tbsp light soy sauce

2 tbsp dark say sauce

1 tbsp Tabasco sauce 

1/2 tsp black pepper powder 

2 sprigs curry leaves 

1/3 cup water

1/2 tsp brown sugar

1 tbsp chopped scallions 

Salt to season

2 tbsp peanut oil

Methods

Wash and marinate the clams with turmeric powder. Rest for 15 minutes and wash to remove odour.

Soak dried shrimp in hot water for 10 minutes. Drain and chop into tiny pieces. Keep aside.

In a bowl combine tabasco sauce, oyster sauce,dark and light source sauce, brown sugar and brown sugar. Mix well and keep aside. 

In a work heat peanut oil and fry the chopped dried shrimps till fragrant. Add the  ginger and garlic and saute for 10-15 seconds.

Add clams and stir for few seconds. 

Pour in the sauce mixture and cook for 1 minute.

Add the black pepper powder and chopped scallions. Stir well. 

Once all the clams open up which will take approximately 5-8 minutes, off the heat and transfer to a serving plate and sprinkle with chopped scallions.

Serve hot with white rice.

Lychee Mint Chilly Cooler

There will be a time when we enjoy some drink to go with our meals. Most of the time it happens to be during our weekend lunch. Even though, it's not always but,  most of the time some kind of cooler will find its way to our weekend lunch table. My most trustable person to make them are, my youngest Dandelion. She love to help me in the as much as her elder sister. Cooking has always be fun by having my Dandelions around with their chatty talking and the extra hands counted. Having found few cans of lychee in the pantry, little Dandelion decides to mix up a special drink inspired by what we had during our vacation in Vagamon, Kerala. A combination of mildly sweet and a hint of spiciness.

We discard the sugar syrup which is used to soak the lychess and instead opted to make our own with vellam aka cane sugar. Do not worried about having a fiery drink as the heat release from the chilly are very mild. It's something new to try to our ordinary drink. One of the best refreshment from the crushed mint leaves and the citrus taste of lime juice are extraordinary especially when it goes a long way from the slight heat of the chilly.  Best to serve chilled on a sunny day. 

Ingredients 

1 can lychee in sugar syrup

5 limes,juiced

2 red chillies,slitted

1/3 cup vellam/cane sugar

1/2 cup water 

Handful of mint leaves,crushed

5 cups water

Ice cubes as needed

Methods

In a saucepan add Bellamy and 1/2 cup of water. Stir till Bellamy completely dissolved. Keep aside to cool. Strain the jaggery to remove impurities.

Drain the sugar syrup from the lychee can. 

Add the lychee and 5 cups water into a large cocktail bowl or a jug.

Add the vellam syrup, lime juice and crushed mint leaves.

Add the slitted chillies and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Add ice cubes and serve immediately.

Multigrain Sweet Adai With Banana And Dates

 

As a mother all we wanted is to provide the best and healthy food for our kids and family but,  as we all know it's an impossible task especially when feeding kids with multigrains. They simply don't like the taste as they find it boring. Truth is, mothers can turn the boring into something interesting with little creativity. That's how I make sure my Dandelions have the wholesale goodness of millets and grains as their food style. One of those are this simple and easy to prepare sweet version of multigrain adai with banana and dates. 

With natural sweetening agent of banana and dates the adai are full of flavor. I added jaggery syrup to enhance the taste and Dandelions love the tiny bits of minced dates on every bite. Packed with essential nutrients and minerals, this adai is very filling and perfect as breakfast or as a tea time snack. 

Ingredients 

1/2 cup multigrain flour/saatu maavu 

1 riped banana, mashed 

5-7 dates, pitted & minced

1/4 cup jaggery 

Salt to taste

1/2 tsp cardamom powder 

Ghee as needed

Methods

Heat a pan with 2-3 tbsp water and melt the Jagger.  Strain to discard impurities. Keep aside.

In a bowl,  combine multigrain flour,salt,mashed banana and minced dates. 

Add the jaggery water and mix well.

Divide the dough into equal sized balls. 

Grease a banana leaf of a flat surface plate with ghee and using your hand,  flatten the dough into disc. 

Heat a non stick tawa or pan over medium heat. 

Place the adai on the team and drizzle with ghee. 

Cook on both sides the colur change from light to dark brown or till done. 

Repeat the process with remaining dough.

Enjoy hot or warm.

Peanut Butter Mantis Shrimp

To make it a story, one fine Saturday morning we drove to Kuala Selangor to get our fresh seafood. Kuala Selangor is one of the small coastal area in the district of Selangor, Malaysia which is known for their jetty, fishing nets and fresh produce. We drove quite early to grab the freshest and true enough upon reaching their fish market everything just came down from jetty. Some fishes are still breathing or happily swimming in their tubs. That's how fresh they are and I'm spoilt with choices with variant of seafood fiesta right in front of my eyes. From shellfish to fishes, crabs and many other seafoods that I couldn't even pronounce their name was put up for sale.  The excitement filled me like a little girl in a candy shop 😆.

The excitement doubled up when I saw plates of Mantis shrimps and quickly grabbed them at my best. The same mantis shrimps went into my peanut butter shrimp. Instead of ordinary butter prawn I added creamy peanut butter to give it a twist. I shall give a tap on my shoulder for give it a try with peanut butter. Dandelions love the creaminess of the dish and the well coated combination of butter and peanut butter. They suck the juice out of the prawn till the last bit and u know it's really good. Personally, I love the fragrant of the dish and it goes really well by it's own or serve hot with white rice.

Ingredients 

300g mantis shrimp,cleaned

1/3 cup all-purpose flour 

1/4 cup rice flour 

1/2 tsp black pepper powder 

2 tbsp unsalted butter 

2 tbsp creamy peanut butter

2 sprig curry leaves 

2 bird eye chillies,chopped

2 cloves garlic,minced

6 tbsp evaporated milk

Salt to season

Methods

In a bowl, add mantis shrimp,rice flour,all purpose flour and black pepper powder. Mix well to combine.

Heat oil in a pan for deep frying. Deep fry the shrimps in batches till golden for 2-3 minutes.  Keep aside.

Melt unsalted butter in the work and fry the curry leaves till fragrant.

Add minced garlic and chopped chillies. Saute for 10 seconds.

Add the peanut butter and stir.  Add evaporated milk and season with salt. Stir and bring to a light boil. 

Add the fried mantis shrimp and toss till the shrimps are well coated with the sauce. 

Turn off heat and transfer to a serving plate. 

Serve hot with white rice.

Peanut Butter Apple Caramel Loaf

My fruits basket overwhelmed with fruits all because of my greediness and of course there is no meals without fruits in our household. Despite having fruits for all our three meals and snacking in between I still have few more apples to go.  There's where my elder Dandelion suggested to bake with them. Walla! I love the idea and here you go my caramel peanut butter apple loaf. We made a fresh batch of caramel sauce to drizzle over the loaf but this time opted for Himalayan pink salt instead of sea salt. It's a rice, dark sauce with a mild saltiness which,  goes well perfectly for drizzling on any desserts.

I used Royal Gala apple for the recipient,  you may use any sweet apple of your choice. If you prefer a bit of tanginess even Granny Smith is a good choice for the loaf.  It's a dense cake due to the delicious peanut butter in the recepi. The chunky peanut butter adds texture to the loaf and the crispiness of the baked apples enhance the flavor. The dark and gooey caramel sauce drizzled over the baked apple is simply irresistible.We enjoyed it with a cup of black tea as our tea time treat. 

Ingredients 

1 1/4 cups all purpose flour 

1/2 cup unsalted butter,softened

2/3 cup chunky peanut butter

2 large eggs, room temperature 

1 red apple,sliced 

3/4 cup light brown sugar

1 tsp baking powder 

1/4 cup buttermilk 

1 tsp vanilla extract 

For The Caramel Sauce 

1/2 cup granulated white sugar 

1/4 cup whipping cream 

3 tbsp unsalted butter 

Generous pinch of Himalayan pink salt 

Methods

For The Loaf

Preheat oven at 175'c or 350'F. Line a 9"inch loaf tin with parchment paper. Keep aside. 

Wash, cored and slice the apples. Soak the sliced apples into a bowl of salt water to prevent from browning.

In a large bowl,  combine flour, baking powder and salt. Keep aside. 

Using a stand or hand mixer, cream the peanut butter,butter and brown sugar for 3 minutes till fluffy. 

Beat in eggs one at a time. Add vanilla extract and beat for few seconds. Scrap the sides of the bowl. 

Using a spatula add the flour mixture into the butter mixture and gently fold in to combine.

Add butter milk and fold in till all the ingredients well cooperated.

Pour the mixture into the prepared loaf tin and smooth the surface with the spatula.

Arrange with the apple slices and bake for 55-60 minutes or till a skewer inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.

For The Caramel Sauce

In a heavy bottomed sauce pan, heat sugar on medium-low heat. Do not stir. After few minutes the sugar will completely dissolved and turns to light amber color. Add butter and using a wooden spoon stir the mixture. Be cautious as the moment butter added,  the mixture will splatter.

Stir till the butter completely melted. Carefully add the whipping cream taking note splattering will happen during the process. Stir and boil for approximately 1 minute. Remove from heat and add the Himalayan pink salt. Stir and let it cool completely.

Remove the cake from oven and cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool for an hour. 

Drizzle with the caramel sauce, slice and enjoy.

Caramel Aval Payasam

 

This is my second day Navarathiri prasadham for the Goddess of our household. Caramel aval payasam as the name suggests made with caramel and beaten rice flakes or poha. I made pink palada payasam long ago which is similar to making caramel payasam thus, I decided to make the same with aval. It's not too sweet on the palate and yields a gorgeous rich caramel color. The trickiest part is to make sure the milk doesn't curdle. It can be done by turning off the heat while adding the milk to the caramel. Easy step but yet, tricky. I find it it's much safe to add milk to the caramel than carrying a hot pan of boiling sugar to the milk pot. Mishandling of caramel when it comes in contact will lead to third degree burn thus,please be extra careful. 

The payasam turns out really well and everyone enjoyed the delicious payasam. Loaded with ghee roasted cashews that enhance the taste of the sinful payasam and the aval gives the wonderful texture. Serve hot or warm and enjoy the rich flavor of caramel.

Ingredients 

1/2 cup aval/beaten rice flakes

1 1/2 cups whole milk

1/3 cup water 

1/4 tsp cardamom powder 

2 tbsp ghee

5 tbsp granulated white sugar

10-12 cashews nuts,broken

Pinch of salt

Methods

In a pan, melt ghee over a medium flame and fry the cashews till golden. Keep aside.

In the same pan with remaining ghee,  roast the aval over medium-low heat for 2-3 minutes. Careful not to burn. Keep aside. 

In a pan,  boil milk and keep aside. 

In a heavy bottomed pan over a low heat,  add sugar and simmer till the sugar completely dissolved and the colour change to dark golden resemble the colour of jaggery.

Immediately, off the heat and pour the boiled milk into the caramel.  Be careful as there will be some splattering will happen during the process.

On back the heat to medium and add the roasted aval. Stir and season with salt. 

Simmer the mixture for 7-9 minutes till the avalanche softened and the mixture slightly thickened. 

Off the heat and add the fried cashews.  

Serve hot or warm. 

Notes

• Do not stir the sugar while making caramel to avoid crystallization. 
• Be extra cautious in making caramel by, not to come in contact with the hot sugar as it will cause severe burn
• Always use wooden spoon while dealing with caramel as,  steel spoons will transform the heat. 

Mango Kesari

It's first day of Navarathiri marking the ten days of celebration and performing special pooja for the divine Mother. Special Pooh's comes with special neiveidhyam or offerings as well.  I wanted to make kesari, an easy sweet dish made of semolina loaded with ghee and cashews. Out of sudden, my eyes caught beautifully riped mangoes in my fruit baskets and the idea of adding the mango to my kesari striked. The combination sounds delicious and without wasting my time I found myself grinding the mango pulp and roasting the rava. 

No kesari colur needed as the beautiful yellow colur derived from the mango puree. The sweetness was perfect for my tastebud. The mixture gets thickened eventually while cooling and the generous amount of ghee,  yields a satin smooth and melt in mouth kesari.

Ingredients 

For Mango Puree

3/4 cup chopped mango pulp

1/3 cup granulated white sugar 

2 pods cardamom

For The Kesari 

1/2 cup rava/semolina

2 cups water

4 tbsp ghee

2 tbsp cashew nuts, roughly chopped 

Methods

In a blender, add mango pulp,cardamom pods and sugar. Grind to a smooth puree. Keep aside

Heat a non stick pan over a medium flame. Melt 2 tbsp of ghee and fry the cashew nuts till golden. Keep aside.

In the same pan, add rava and fry on medium-low flame till fragrant for 2-3 minutes and slightly change colour. Keep aside. 

In the same pan, add the water and bring to a rolling boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and gently sprinkle the roasted rava and stir continuously to avoid any lumps.  

Add the mango puree and stir well. Add the remaining 2 tablespoon of ghee and stir. 

Add the fried cashews, stir and simmer the mixture for 2-3 minutes and off the heat. 

Transfer to a serving bowl and serve warm or cold.