Pal Kozhukattai (Dumplings in Coconut milk)

Happy Ganesh Chathurthi!

I'm back from a extra-long summer break.. Hope everyone had a wonderful summer! I was at India for the majority of this summer and time just flew away. I know I missed a lot of yummy recipes from my blogging world here, but actually I've also been checking some blogs now and then and have bookmarked some interesting recipes too. Though it feels good to blog after a long time, I have to say that my brain is completely blank now. In fact, a few minutes back, I felt like I have plenty to ramble, but as I sat down to write this post I feel as if there is nothing to write. I can't seem to form rational sentences, and have seem to lost touch in my usual scrawling. Hope to get back to my regular blogging mind set soon.

Well, Today is Ganesh Chathurthi and I cooked a traditional lunch special after a long time - ofcourse with our Ganesh Chathurthi special Kozhukattai too. I always relate our traditional Kozhukattai (Modak) to the Japanese dumplings called Mochi. Somehow, the basic concept seems to be the same, although the ingredients are slightly different. Actually, there are quite a bit of our traditional dishes that I can relate to the dishes across the border, but this one I feel is closely tied to the Japanese dumplings. The sweet filling, rice flour base, steamin process etc. sound so similar to each other. Ofcourse, me and my family enjoy the Indian Kozhukattai more, as we all grew up enjoying that version.

Though I had prepared the regular steamed Kozhukattai for puja and lunch, interestingly during lunch time, my daughter asked me why this time I did not make the Pal Kozhukattai which she enjoys more! It didn't strike me until then, that I missed making her favorite. But as I had some left over rice flour, I decided to prepare this sweet just for her in the evening. Glad I was in a cooking mood yesterday!

Ingredients:

Fresh Shredded coconut - 2 cups

Regular milk - 1/2 cup

Rice Flour - 1.5 cups

Cardamom powder (or crushed cardamom) - 1.5 tsp

Sugar - 1.5 cups (or as required)

Raisins - a few for garnishing

Procedure:

1. Add 2 cups water and 1.5 cups of shredded coconut in a blender. Strain the milk using a strainer and then squeeze out the milk from the coconut remains. This will be a thicker version of coconut milk. Set aside.

2. Repeat this process with the squeezed coconut and the remaining 0.5 cup of shredded coconut and strain the milk one more time. This will be the lighter version (diluted) of coconut milk. Set this aside too.

3. Take the rice flour in a large pan. Add salt and mix well with the rice flour.

4. Boil 4 cups water in a pan and pour this in the rice flour slowly. Mix the flour rapidly with the back side of a wooden ladle and keep mixing until it becomes a thick dough (like chapathi dough). Pour only the required amount of water so the dough is in the right consistency.

5. In a thick bottomed pan, pour the lighter version of coconut milk, add sugar, cardamom powder and the regular milk and mix well. Bring it to boil, then simmer the heat and let it boil continuously.

6. Make small balls with the prepared dough and drop them in the boiling coconut milk. Once the balls are cooked, they come up to the surface of the milk (float).

7. Once all the balls are cooked well, add the thicker version of coconut milk, mix well and remove from heat immediately. Garnish with raisins.

You can enjoy this either warm or cold.

Omlettes in a spicy gravy!

Its February already! Before I realized, January is gone. And February usually goes by fast too, since its a shorter month. Overall, it feels like winter is going super fast this year! By march, the hope for Spring starts, and its manageable even if its cold now and then. I can't wait for Spring already. I haven't been in an elaborative cooking mood lately. One reason, I've been busy finishing up my school assignments for the term and I just had the time to manage with simple dinners for a couple of weeks. Another reason, with the depressed spirits of winter, I'm less energized when I get home with no mood to prepare an elaborative dinner. I actually made this dish a while back, I took the picture and had even started writing a post on it, and then I had almost forgotten this recipe in the last few weeks.

I like eggs and they have a respectable place in my cooking :) They are universal and can be part of any menu -- from breakfast to dinner or desserts. Obviously there are numerous egg recipes in Indian cooking too, and I personally enjoy preparing egg dishes at home the Indian way. It's a time-saver whenever I run out of veggies in my fridge. With just a few regular ingredients, I can quickly put together a simple and glorious dish which can be enjoyed with any main dish like rice, rotis, idlis,dosas etc. Here's one recipe that I've grown up with. Omlettes infused with a spicy coconut gravy. Mom use to make this quite often and I still love it to this day. Though she makes quite a few egg curries, this one tops the list. I don't know where she got this recipe from, but this dish has been always there ever since I was a kid.

The fun part is making the mini omlettes. I can enjoy them just like that :) I make a few omlettes separately for my daughter without the chillies and she enjoys them too.

Ingredients:

For Omlettes:

• Eggs: 4
• Onion - 1 medium (finely chopped)
• G.chillies - 3 small (finely chopped)
• Corriander leaves - 2 tbsp (finely chopped)

For Gravy:

• Onion - 1 medium
• Garlic - 4 cloves (medium sized)
• Tomato - 1 medium
• Kulambu powder - 1.5 tbsp (you can substitute with 1 tsp chilli powder and 3 tsps of corriander powder)
• Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
• Fennel seeds - 2 tsp
• Shredded Coconut (fresh/frozen) - 1/2 cup
• Cashews - 1 tbsp
• Poppy seeds (kasakasa) - 1 tsp
• Tamarind juice - 1 cup (or Tamarind paste - 1 tbsp)
• Curry leaves and Corriander leaves - as required.

Procedure:

• Soak the cashews and poppy seeds in water for 5 mins.
• Beat the eggs in a bowl with a pinch of salt until the eggs lose shape and the salt is well mixed.
• Heat 2 tsps of oil in a pan, add the finely chopped onions, green chillies, corriander leaves and salt, fry until the onions turn transparent.
• Add this mixture to the beaten eggs. Now make mini omlettes from this egg mixture. I use my paniyaram pan which has cup shaped dents, so I can make mini omlette balls. If you don't have this pan, you can make mini flat omlettes in a regular pan.
• Cook the omlettes by turning over both sides until they are well cooked. Set them aside.
• Make a smooth paste of the following - Coconut, 1 tsp fennel seeds, soaked cashews and poppy seeds, 1 clove garlic. Set aside.
• Heat oil in a pan, season with mustard seeds , 1 tsp of fennel seeds. When they splutter, add the chopped onion, chopped garlic and curry leaves. Fry for 2-3 mins.
• Add chopped tomatoes, kulambu powder and salt, and saute until tomatoes lose shape.
• Add 3 cups of water and pressure cook the mixture for about 1 whistle. You can also cover and cook in the pan itself for about 12-15 mins until the raw spice smell goes away.
• Now add the coconut paste and tamarind juice. Let it boil for 5 mins.
• Finally add the omlettes and boil in low heat for 5 more mins.
• Garnish with corriander leaves.
• Let it rest for atleast 30 mins before serving.

Enjoy with steaming white rice!