Tag Archives: Tambrahm

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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Diwali Recipes: Diwali Legiyam

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Diwali is the one time, when everybody, irrespective on their take on fitness and healthy eating, throws all of it out of the window and eats like there’s no tomorrow! You start the day early and start stuffing your mouth (and stomach) and stop probably four days later, when either you can’t have another morsel or you’ve run out of goodies to eat!

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The legiyam is traditionally eaten as soon as you take your bath and pray and much before you start stuffing your mouth with all the delicacies. This legiyam is an herbal medicine, made with things found in your pantry to strengthen your digestive system. This medicine also helps the body adjust to the changes in the temperature when autumn moves to winter. This medicine re-ignites the digestive fire, digests toxic build-up in the body and helps us fight the ill-effects of the heavy foods that we may indulge in at this time.

Each family has its own traditional recipe and the recipe below is the one my mom makes. Most people I know do not cook according to a recipe, they just have approximate amounts and then cook as they go along, adjusting the recipe to suit palates. I made the recipe slightly sweeter than what she suggested as I know S & BB can’t take spicy food, so if you can eat the spicy ginger, then go ahead and reduce the amount of jaggery in the recipe.

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Ingredients:

  • 150 gms of ginger, peeled and chopped into smaller pieces
  • 3 tsps of coriander seeds
  • 1.5 tsps of cumin seeds
  • 1.5 tsps of whole black peppers
  • 10 pieces of cardamom, only use the pods, discard the outer covering
  • 10 pieces of cloves
  • 10 pieces of thippili
  • ¾ tsp of cinnamon powder (you can use a 1 inch piece instead)
  • 2 tsps of dry ginger powder (saunth/sukku)
  • 1 cup (less or more) jaggery (according to taste)
  • 3-5 tbsps of ghee (according to taste)

Method:

  • In a largish bowl, put the coriander seeds, cumin seeds, black peppers, cardamom pods, cloves, thippili, cinnamon powder and dry ginger powder and soak them for around 10-15 minutes.
  • While the above are soaking, peel and chop the ginger into smallish pieces (this depends on the size of the mixer you will be using).
  • Grind the ginger and when it becomes a paste, add in the soaked ingredients and continue grinding till it becomes a smooth paste
  • Then in a non-stick pan, add the paste and start boiling it. The paste will be quite watery at first due to the water content, but as you cook it, it will gradually get harder. At this point, add the jaggery and 1-2 tbsps of ghee. You may want to add the jaggery a bit by bit, tasting as you go along so that you add only the right amount and it does not taste too spicy. The ghee will help it cook and when it reaches the consistency where the mixture starts leaving the sides of the bowl, it is ready. Remove from the flame and cook.

Have this first thing in the morning when you are going to indulge in heavy food and this will definitely help your stomach! This keeps for a few weeks in the fridge.

Recipe: Raw Banana Stew aka Vazhakkai Kootu

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This is one of my favourite kootus, the tanginess combined with the slight sweetness that jaggery imparts along with the crispy coconut flavouring is just yum! I love to eat it as it is, no rice or anything else needed to dress it up for me!

It’s quite versatile also, if you make it a bit runny (like a sambar), it can be eaten with rice. Add some papads or chips to go with it and becomes a delicious meal. When made thicker, it becomes the perfect addition to your meal. Eat with with a rasam or a mor kozambu and lick your fingers!

Vazhakkai Kootu

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Ingredients:
3-4 raw bananas (vazhakai)
3-4 tbsp Toor Dal
1 small lime sized tamarind
2-3 tsps Sambar powder
1.5 tsps oil
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp chana dal
1 tsp broken urad dal
2-3 tbsps coconut
3-4 dried red chillies
1 pinch asafoetida
2 tsps jaggery
Salt to taste

Method:

  • Wash the toor dal and soak it in a some hot water for 10-15 mins. After that pressure cook it and keep aside. Once you can open the cooker, mash the dal well so that it is even.
  • Soak the tamarind in hot to warm water for a while (depending on the size, it should take 20-30 mins). Once it’s soft and cool, mash it with your fingers and extract the juice. You can run it through a seive to make sure you don’t have any fruit in the juice extracted. Alternatively, just buy tamarind paste which is easily available in most Indian stores.
  • In a pan, add the oil and once it is hot, add the mustard seeds. When the seeds begin to crackle, add the chana dal and fry till it starts to change colour. Do not let it get black, as it will then become bitter. Then add the dried red chillies and a pinch of asafoetida and lastly the grated coconut. Keep frying the cocounut until it starts to lose moisture and becomes brown. When the coconut is brown and crisp, remove from the flame and keep aside. We will use this in the end.
  • Peel and chop the raw bananas into small pieces. The pieces should be slightly larger than bite-size. Peel and chop one by one as otherwise the bananas will blacken. While peeling, you can keep a container with water next to you and drop the bananas into it while cutting the next one. This slows the blackening process.
  • When you have chopped all the bananas, cook them in a pan with just enough water to cover them. When the bananas are half cooked, add the tamarind juice to the pan along with sambar powder and salt to taste.
  • Let the tamarind water in the pan come to a rolling boil and let it boil for 5-10 minutes untill the banana is fully cooked. Bananas usually cook very fast so make sure you do not over cook them.
  • Once the bananas are cooked, add in the mashed dal and check for salt. If you want, you can also add the jaggery at the point.
  • When the dal has mixed well with the mixture add the coconut, give it a good stir and switch off the flame.
  • Garnish with a bit of coriander leaves and your delicious vazakkai kootu aka raw banana stew is ready!
  • Serve with rice or rotis for a delicious meal…