Vazhaippoo vadai (Plaintain flower crispies)

Ingredients

Channa dhal (Kadalai paruppu) -1 cup
Tuar dhal (Thuvaram paruppu) - 2 tablespoons
Dry red chilly - 4/5
Plaintain flower - chopped finely - 3/4 cup
Small onion (Shallots) - chopped finely - 2-3 tablespoon
Curry leaves and asafoetida for seasoning
Salt to taste

Oil for deep frying

Procedure

1.Soak both the dhals(lentils) together for an hour. Soak the chilly along with this. While soaking break this into two and soak. The reason breaking the chilly while frying and soaking gives  a nice colour.My mother used to say "milagaya eppavum killi podanum". Always break the chilly while cooking. I came to know the reason for this blind following recently :-)
2. Wash the dhal. Drain the water completely
3.Now comes the tricky part. All of you know for parruppu vadai the batter should be coarse. Most of the times we make a mistake by over grinding it.So here is the method where you will never go wrong.
4. Divide the dhals in to three equal parts.
5. Grind one part with chilly into a smooth paste.Keep aside
6.Grind the next part very coarsely. Just one or two whip in the blender. Check it and then if it's still not a coarse mixture, give one/two whips. Mix this with the already made smooth paste.
7.Last part just give a whip.It should be half and half.
8.Now mix everything together with required salt.
9. If you want you can even blend the plaintain flower also at the end and mix with the batter. Or you can add directly. I prefer to blend this with curry leaves. It's individual's wish.
10. Add the chopped onions and asafoetida.
11. Heat the oil in a pan for deep frying.
11. Take small lemon size balls of the batter, flatten it on your left palm and drop this on the hot oil.
12. At a time you can cook 2-3 vadas depending on the oil you are using.
13.Make sure vadas have enough space to cook. Don't add too many as it won't cook properly
15.Cook in a medium flame and serve hot with chutney.

Sweet Corn Vegetable Soup

First time when I tried this soup I followed a recipe from a book which asked me to use Aji-no-moto and spring onion. Also the recipe directed me to cook the sweet corn along with milk. But the outcome was a disaster. So I learnt what not to do while making the soup. Also I didn't use vegetable stock. If you have the time to make the vegetable stock or buying it in a super market, use it. Well and good.

The procedure may be a little long but if you plan it's the easiest and tasty soup.I couldn't take snaps of the individual snaps. Will update the recipe next time when I am making the soup.

Ingredients

Sweet corn - 1 cup
Evenly chopped Mixed vegetables like carrot, beans, fresh peas(or frozen peas), cabbage - 1 cup
Evenly chopped onion, capsicum - 1/2 cup
Water - 3/4 cups
Salt and pepper to taste

For the white sauce
Amul butter or any pasteurized butter - 1 tablespoon
Plain flour(maida) - 1 teaspoon
Milk - 1 cup
Cheese cubes - 4/5 (this is optional)

Procedure

1.Pressure cook corn and other mixed vegetables(except onion and capsicum) separately.(2-3 whistles)
2.Take half the corn, make a smooth paste with cold milk. Strain that in a sieve.Keep aside
3.In a pan melt half the butter, fry onion and capsicum.
4.Add the already cooked vegetables and the rest of the corn.
5.Now add the water, corn puree and required salt. Let it boil.
6.In a separate pan, melt the rest of the butter.
7.Add plain flour.Stir well until it's frothy.
8. Simmer and slowly add the milk.
9.Allow it boil stirring continuously.
10.After a few minutes sauce will thicken.
11.Remove the sauce from fire and add this to the boiling soup.
12.Let the soup boil for few minutes.
13.Remove from fire and Serve hot. Season it with pepper powder while serving.
14.Adding cheese will enhance the taste and richness of the soup. As I mentioned earlier it's optional. Add cheese while serving so that the cheese melts slowly.
Serve hot with soup with garlic bread or bread sticks.

Badam Cashew burfi

This is my second trial of this recipe. First attempt was a disaster.  I made a coarse badam powder and didn't stir for a long time. This time tried to do this step by step. Even though it was time consuming, result was perfect. I thin condensed milk enhanced the taste to the next level. If you are making this for the first time try with a small quantity. As I took a big bowl of badam/cashew it took me almost half an hour to get the right consistency.

Ingredients

Badam/Almonds - 1 cup
Cashew - 1 cup
Sugar
Condensed milk
Ghee - 3/4 tablespoons
Saffron
Food colour - yellow
Water - 1/3 of sugar measurement(If the sugar is 3 cups take 1 cup of water)

Procedure

Soak badam and cashew for a minimum of 4/5 hours. Otherwise you can microwave both separately for a minute. Remove the skin of badam. Make a smooth paste of badam and cashew separately adding cold milk.

Now mix both and measure the cashew/badam paste. We have to measure sugar after making the paste. So now take double the amount of sugar and one amount of condensed milk.

Always use either pressure pan or non-stick vessel for making sweets.
Grease a flat bottomed plate with ghee. Keep it ready.
In a pan, add sugar and water. Let the sugar boil. Wait till you get one string consistency.
Add the cashew/badam paste.
Keep stirring in a medium flame.
You have to be patient as it's going to take a little longer than mysore pak or maida barfi.
While stirring add 3/4 tablespoons of ghee in intervals.
Add the a pinch of food colour to a teaspoon of water and add while you are stirring.
Half way through add the condensed milk.
Remove from fire when the mixture starts frothing and doesn't stick to the vessel.
(Refer http://cookalogue.blogspot.in/2011/03/mysore-pak.html#more to get a clear picture of what frothing is.For making any burfi just wait until the mixture froths and doesn't stick to the vessel. That's the stage we have to take that out from the heat.)

Immediately transfer this to the greased plate.

Top this with saffron.Let it cool for sometime. Just touch with your hand and see whether the heat is bearable. If so cut it uniformly using a knife or a pizza cutter.

 Enjoy your diwali with this delicious sweet.

Peanut chutney

Ingredients

Raw Peanuts/Salted peanuts - 2 cups
(If it's raw saute them. If it's already roasted use it directly while grinding)
Cumin seeds - 1 teaspoon
Dry red chilly - 5/6
Salt to taste
Garlic - 10 pods(optional)
Coconut - 2 tablespoon(this is also optional)

For seasoning
Sesame oil - 1 teaspoon
Mustard seeds - 1 teaspoon
Asafoetida - 1/2 teasponn
Curry leaves - chopped finely

Tomato Adai with Peanut chutney

Ingredients

Boiled rice/Idli rice - 2 cups
Dry red chilly - 4/5
Tomatoes - 3/4 depending on the size.(choose ripe ones which gives nice colour too)
Salt to taste
Asafoetida - 1 teaspoon

for seasoning
sesame oil - 1 teaspoon
Mustard - 1 teaspoon
Curry leaves - chopped finely