Category Archives: Food

Recipe: Brown Rice Savory Pongal aka Ven Pongal

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IMG_5277Last week, I blogged about the sweet Pongal recipe which I made as a neividhyam or offering to the Lord on the occasion of the festival of Pongal. That evening, I made the salted version for dinner. The method for both is quite similar and you can make both at the same time with little extra effort.

This is often eaten as a breakfast dish, especially in the southern parts of India. This combination of rice and dal will really fill you up and if you, like me, plan on having this for dinner, then go a bit easy as you tend to feel really full sometime after your meal!

Brown Rice Ven Pongal

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Ingredients:

  • 2 cups brown rice (traditionally made with white rice)
  • 1 cup yellow moong dal
  • 2 cups water
  • 2 cups milk
  • 2 tsps cumin seeds
  • 2-3 tbsps ghee
  • 2 tsps whole black pepper
  • 1 tsp pepper powder
  • 1 tsp grated ginger
  • 4-5 leaves of curry leaves
  • A handful of broken cashew nuts
  • Salt to taste

Method:

  • Wash the rice well, drain and keep aside. In a pressure cooker, lightly pan fry the dal till a nice aroma comes.
  • Add the rice, water, milk, salt, peppercorns and cook under pressure for 4-5 whistles.
  • In another pan, heat 1 tbsp ghee and fry the cashewnuts until they brown nicely. Remove and keep aside and in the same pan, fry the cumin seeds, and when it begins to splutter, add the curry leaves, grated ginger and pepper powder and fry for a few seconds. Remove from the flame and keep aside.
  • When the pressure reduces, open the cover of the pressure cooker and check if the rice and dal mixture has become mushy (it should look like a risotto at this point). If no, add more water and/or milk and cook it further till it becomes mushy.
  • Add the remaining ghee here and stir well. When it has achieved the right consistency, add the fried cashewnuts and the seasoning (cumin seeds, ginger, curry leaves and pepper powder) and mix well checking for salt.
  • Serve with sambar or coconut chutney

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Recipe: Brown Rice Sweet Pongal

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Last week was the festival of Pongal, and as is the tradition I made some sweet Pongal in the morning. The only twist to the recipe was that instead of normal white rice, I used the healthier brown rice. It was quite good, though you need to cook it a tad longer than usual.

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Ingredients:

  • 1 cup brown rice
  • 3 tbsps yellow moong dal
  • ½ cup jaggery (increase this measure to ¾ cup if you like it sweeter)
  • 1 cup milk
  • 2 cups water
  • A handful of cashewnuts
  • A handful of raisins
  • 3-4 tbsps Ghee.

Method:

  • Wash the rice, drain and keep aside.
  • In a largish pressure cooker, dry roast the moong dal for a while till it emits a nice aroma. Do not let it burn.
  • Then add the washed rice, 2 cups of water and 1 cup of milk and pressure cook for 4-6 whistles. Let the pressure come down. You can cook it in a large pot also if you do not have a pressure cooker. In that case, keep an eye on it and add water and milk periodically. You need to cook it till the dal and rice break down and cook, becoming mushy.
  • While the pressure is coming down, in a small skillet, put 1 tbsp ghee and fry the cashewnuts and raisins till the cashewnuts brown and the raisins plump up. Remove and keep aside.
  • Put the jaggery in another container and pour a bit of water over it to cover. It will dissolve in a few seconds. You could also do this in a microwave for 1 minute. Then once the jaggery has dissolved, strain it to remove any impurities present and keep aside.
  • Once you can open the lid of the cooker, add the jaggery, cashewnuts and raisins and cook over a medium flame for 5-10 mins.
  • When the mixture becomes thick, it’s time to remove it from the flame and enjoy!

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Recipes: Broccoli in Red Gravy

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Broccoli is not a vegetable that you will see in Indian dishes. The first time I tasted this vegetable was when I moved to Singapore. Though these days, you find it in markets in most Indian metros.

Both my children love broccoli as a vegetable, but unfortunately when my helper cooks using this vegetable, she loves to cook it to death. That totally spoils the vegetable for all of this. So this weekend, when I cooked for us, I decided to make an Indian sabzi which would go well with both rotis and rice.

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Ingredients:
3 heads of broccoli, cut into florets
2 onions, chopped roughly
2 tomatoes, roughly chopped
5-6 garlic cloves,
1 inch piece of ginger
1.5 tsps Cumin seeds
1 tsp fennel seeds
½ tsp carom seeds (can omit if not available)
2 tsps coriander seeds
¼ tsp turmeric seeds
1-2 tsps chilli powder
1 -2 tsps Garam Masala Powder
3 tbsps Oil
Salt to taste

Method:
In a pan, warm 2 tbsps oil and then temper with cumin seeds, carom seeds and fennel seeds.
Next add the garlic and ginger and saute them for a few seconds.
Now add the onions and saute till they turn translucent. At this point add the tomatoes and a pinch of salt to help breakdown the water in the tomato and let it cook well.
Once the tomatoes are well cooked, switch off the gas and blend into a smooth paste.
In another pan, heat 1 tbsp oil and when warm add half tsp of cumin seeds and wait for them to pop. When they pop, add the turmeric powder and stir once.
Next add in the washed broccoli and stir for a couple of seconds. Add some salt and cook on a slightly higher heat than normal so that broccoli cooks, but retains it’s crispness.
When the broccoli is almost fully cooked, add in the blended gravy, chilli powder, garam masala powder and adjust for salt.
Let this come to a rolling boil and finish off this dish with some coriander/cilantro garnish.

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Diwali Recipes: 7 Cup Cake

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This is another traditional tambram recipe and which is one of my go-to recipes when I need to make something quickly. It does take a bit of time to make, but the efforts are super worth it! The ingredients are given as cups which is where the name of the recipe came from, but essentially it’s just a measure. It doesn’t matter how big your cup size is, just use the same amount for all the ingredients and your cake or barfi will come out fab!

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Ingredients:

  • 1 cup chickpea flour or besan
  • 1 cup ghee
  • 1 cup grated coconut (you can fresh or frozen, I’ve used fresh for this recipe)
  • 1 cup Milk
  • 3 cups Sugar

Method:

  • Take a big plate or cake tin and grease it slightly. Or, you could lightly spray it with oil and then put baking paper over to completely cover it, this reduces the amount of ghee used in the recipe slightly.
  • Fry the chickpea flour or besan in a dry pan and do not overfry it. Stop when it starts changing colour. At this point, add the coconut, sugar and milk to the pan and continue stirring.
  • When the sugar starts to dissolve, add the ghee and keep stirring. You will need to keep stirring the pan, so that the mixture does not catch in the bottom.
  • After about 15 minutes (more or less depending on your quantity), the mixture will start leaving the sides of the pan. At this point, take a few drops and put it in your greased plate. If it stays in shape, it is ready, otherwise continue stirring and repeating this step till you get to this point.
  • Switch off the gas and pour it into your prepared greased plate. Using a clean spatula, level the mixture and make it smooth. Let it cool for a while and when still slightly warm, lightly score lines in the mixture with a knife or pizza cutter. You could cut squares or diamonds in any size. Let it cool completely before transferring to an airtight container.

This should be good for a week or so outside and around 2 weeks or so inside the fridge.

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Diwali Recipes: Coconut Barfi

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Another typical recipe, this one also needs a good bit of stirring so a good arms workout with this one!

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Ingredients:

  • 2 cups grated coconut
  • 1.5 cups Sugar
  • ½ tsp Cardamom Powder
  • 1 cup Water

Method:

  • Take a big plate or cake tin and grease it slightly. Or, you could lightly spray it with oil and then put baking paper over to completely cover it, this reduces the amount of ghee used in the recipe slightly.
  • For this recipe, you need only the white part of the grated coconut. If you plan to grate your own, stop at the point when the brown part starts getting grated. Or you could do what I did, which was to buy freshly grated coconut from your local Indian store.
  • In a pan, saute the grated coconut till you get a nice aroma from it. Do not let it brown. Remove it from the pan and add the sugar and water and let it come to a rolling boil. You can also add a couple of teaspoons of milk to the mixture so that any dirt in the sugar comes up and you can remove it. This trick also makes the barfi more white which is aesthetically more pleasing. At this point, reduce the flame and let it boil till it thickens to a single string consistency.
  • This means that when you take a drop of the mixture from the flame and touch it with your thumb and index finger, it will stick to both fingers and form a kind of string.
  • When the sugar mixture reaches this point, add the grated coconut and stir for a couple of minutes. Add the cardamom powder and continue to stir at a low to medium flame. When the coconut completely absorbs the sugar water mixture and starts to leave the sides, it’s time to take it off the flame. You can also test it by putting a couple of drops in the greased tray. If it stays in shape, it’s time to remove it from the flame, otherwise continue stirring and repeating this step till you get to this point.
  • Switch off the gas and pour it into your prepared greased plate. Using a clean spatula, level the mixture and make it smooth. Let it cool for a while and when still slightly warm, lightly score lines in the mixture with a knife or pizza cutter. You could cut squares or diamonds in any size. Let it cool completely before transferring to an airtight container. This should be good for a week or so outside and slightly more inside the fridge.

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