Kanchipuram Idli

I have no idea why it is called by this name, might be popular in kanchipuram? I know  kanchipuram is only famous for temples and silk saree but idli?? I really don't know. The only time I had this idli is at my sisters place and I never ever got a chance to have after that and this idli is totally different from the regular one, first by its shape they use a different mould for that and to my surprise my sister has got that and the second is little spice like pepper and cumin is added to the batter.
One day just a thought of this idli flashed my mind and remembered my sister and immediately I got the recipe from her and here I am posting the recipe of this idli, which I relished. I was told this idli stays good for couple of days and best food during traveling. Coconut chutney is the best combo for this but my boy doesn’t like that so I made tomato chutney and it was really awesome, I will soon post the recipe for tomato chutney. Now here is the recipe for kanchipuram idli…

Ingredients
Raw rice – 1 Cup
Idli Rice – 1 Cup
Urad dhal – 1 cup
Curd /Yogurt – ½ Cup
Black Pepper – 1 tsp
Cumin Seed/Jeera – 1tsp
Ginger – 1”
Curry leaves – 4
Salt to taste

Method
Soak rice and urad dhal separately for 3 hours and grind them separately and note that rice need not be too smooth, little coarse is good for this recipe and add salt and mix them and set to ferment for 8 hrs.
When you are ready to make idli, grind together the pepper, cumin, ginger, curry leaves and add to the idli batter along with the curd and mix well and make like the regular idli and enjoy with the chutney of your choice.

Appam and Mutton Stew

Usually for appam I like chicken curry, this time for a change I made mutton stew and surprisingly this combination was excellent. Mutton is not much liked dish in our family compared to chicken and if I happen to cook mutton some day I end up eating most of the meat pieces, so fearing that I dont cook often. Same way in this dish the gravy got over pretty fast and only the meat pieces were remaining. This recipe is from  my old recipe collection which  I totally forgot that I had one such collection. I tried hard to recollect from whom I got this recipe but in vain my memory is totally lost on that as this is more than 10 yrs old collection and I feel really bad that  I am not able to thank the person who gave me this awesome recipe. Here is the recipe...   

For Appam 
Ingredients
Raw rice and idli rice (par boiled rice) should be of equal ratio. I used raw rice 1and 1/2 cup and idli rice 1 and 1/2 cup 
Urad dhal - 3 tsp
Salt as required
Coconut Milk - 1 cup
Baking Powder - 1tsp

Method  
Soak the rice and urad dhal over night or for 6 hrs and grind to a fine thick batter and add salt and set to ferment  for 8 hrs.
When you are ready to make appam , pour the coconut milk, baking powder and 1/2 tsp of sugar and set for 5 mins and consistency should be little watery than the dosa batter.
Using appam pan , make   appams and serve with anything of your choice or with this mutton stew.

Mutton Stew

Ingredients
Mutton - 1/2 lb
Potatoes - 1 big cubed
Onion - 1 chopped
Green Chilies - 3 slit
Ginger - 1"
Cinnamon - 1", Cloves - 4, Cardamom- 2
Curry Leaves - 6
Coconut Shredded - 1/2 cup - extract the milk
Coconut oil - 1tsp
Salt as required

Method
Pressure-cook the mutton with salt till tender. Reserve the stock.
Heat oil in a pan and add the cinnamon, clove and cardamom and add onion, ginger and chilies and stir and add potatoes and add the mutton stock and cook until the potatoes are half cooked.
Add the cooked mutton and cook for 10 mins in low flame.
Add the coconut milk and bring to boil and remove from stove. Garnish with Cilantro and serve hot with appams.

Idiyappam /Rice Noodles

I love this idiyappam and kurma served at Saravana Bhavan restaurant,the tastes is really wonderful. This is a supposed to be a kerala dish, served usually with kadala curry, and trust me that is one of the best combination. If you live in coimbatore you get this ready made idiyappams  made freshly every day morning and evening so whenever you feel like having you can have it avoiding all the hard part of soaking and grinding and more and  sometimes you can also use the rice flour and reduce the job by skipping the  grinding and mixing part, but the hard  way gives you  really very soft idiyappams compared to using the rice flour, harder way always yields a good result.  My boy loves this dish and I did this after a long time and he almost started dancing after he took a first bite. This really gave me more joy but if I do again I doubt he would like it. This is the base for making the different variety of tasty sevai.

Method
Soak the 2 cups Idli Rice for 6 hours and grind to a thick paste of batter.
In a non-stick kadai add 2 tsp of oil and add the grinded batter and keep stirring until its turns soft dough and when touched the dough shouldn't stick to your hands.
You can also use the rice flour and skip the above step and directly mix with hot water. Take a small dough and put in a idiyappam maker and press in a greased idli plate and stream cook like idli for 5 to 10 mins or until done. 
Serve with kurma or using this you can make lemon sevai, tomato sevai or plain onion sevai.

Stuffed Omelette

A simple healthy omelette stuffed with vegetables. Adding mushroom to this tastes really wonderful and you can even add meat to this and make it more yummy. We first tasted this at Denny's restaurant and then we became a regular eater.
During weekends we prefer eating this for breakfast than other south Indian food. My hubby loves to prepares this omlette and I get a chance to just stay away from kitchen for a while. This is the recipe of what he did.

Ingredients
Egg - 2
Milk - 2 tsp
For Stuffing
Mushroom Chopped - 1/4 cup
Bell Pepper Chopped - 1/4 cup
Onion Chopped - 1/4 cup
Pepper and salt to taste
Any shredded Cheese
Oil - 1 tsp

Method
Heat oil in a skillet and  saute onion for few mins and add mushroom and bell pepper and add some fresh grinded pepper and salt and cook till its done and make it as dry as possible and set aside. Heat a little oil or use a non-stick spray in the egg pan, beat the egg with milk and little pepper and salt, pour the eggs to the centre of the heated pan, tilting the pan so that the eggs spread out evenly on the pan. When its done on one side, carefully flip to the other side and cook. Flip again and place the vegetables to one half side and top it with cheese and fold over with the other side and hold it till the cheese melts. Enjoy!!

Chocolate Milk Tasty Toast

Wheat bread is better and healthier than the white bread as it has more fiber and vitamins and its more nutritious for kids. I made this tasty toast using chocolate milk instead of regular milk to cover up the wheat bread and made little more flavouring by using little vanilla essence as most kids don't like the taste of wheat bread. The best thing about using the chocolate milk is the kids wont know that they are eating the wheat bread. This toast keeps the kids tummy filled till their lunch time. Try this recipe.





Ingedients
Whole wheat bread - 3 slices
Egg - 1
Chocolate milk - 1/2 cup
Vanilla essence - 1/2 tsp
Sugar - 2 tsp


Method
Whisk all the ingredients except the bread in a bowl . Dip the bread in the mixture and allow the bread to soak some liquid well and toast in a hot griddle with little butter on both side until brown. Serve hot.

I am sending this recipe for

Good Morning with Banana Wheat Pancakes

Like my boy most kids love to eat pancakes for breakfast. This is the healthiest pancake recipe that kids and even adults would love to eat.. Making pancake from scratch is not too complicated, for me from the scratch to the plate it just took 10 to 15 mins. Cleaning up the mess after took more time...today I used banana to mix with the batter and I am gonna try with other different fruits too. The pancakes didn't come out perfect round and even more looked like small paratha to me(b'coz I added wheat). Apart from the appearance the pancake was delicious and it was soft and fluffy. Though my sunny loved it he didn't have much time to eat more..late for school. I got to make this on holidays for him. Even though I add sugar my boy liked with the maple syrup.

Ingredients

Wheat flour - 1/2 cup
All purpose flour - 1/2 cup
Ripe banana - 1
Egg - 1
Baking Powder - 1/2 tsp
Sugar - 2tsp
Salt to taste


Method

In a large bowl combine the flours, sugar, salt, baking powder and egg. In a separate bowl mash the banana. Mix the banana with the flour and add some water and make it to nice thick consistency. Heat a lightly oiled griddle and pour a scoop of batter onto the griddle and spread little to make a small round shape. Cook until pancakes are golden brown on both sides, serve hot with syrub and fruits.

Rava Idli and Saagu

This is a karnataka special dish. Rava idli is always served with saagu only in karnataka. This dish is so popular in bangalore. You should get to taste the rava idli at MTR a famous restaurant in bangalore, they are so awesome ans taste so good ,no wonder they are the creator of this famous rava idli.

This Rava idli recipe is pure home made , though many ready mix easily available in the store but nothing like home made one. This is very tasty and goes very well with saagu. If you does not wanat to prepare saagu you can very well have with coconut chutney and it would taste equally good. Here goes the recipe for rava idli and saagu.

Rava Idli:

Ingredients:

Sooji rava - 1 cup

Vermicelli - 1 cup ( you can use 1/2 cup if don't like the vermicelli taste)

Onion chopped - 1 small

Channa daal - 2 tsp

Mustard - 1/2tsp

Cashew broken small pieces - 2 tsp

Cilantro Finely chopped - 1 cup

Salt

Cooking Soda - 1 tsp

Yogurt - 1 cup

oil - 2 tbsp

Procedure:
In a big kadai add oil,when its hot season with mustard and channa daal. Add cashews and fry for a min. Now add onion and keep frying for 5 mins.Reduce the flame to medium and add salt , sooji rava and vermicelli and fry until rava and vermicelli turns light burn.Add the cilantro. Allow the mixture to cool completely. Mix yogurt, water and cooking soda and mix well and set aside for 10 mins. The mixture should not be too thick or too watery. Add water to the mixture accordingly. Grease idli plate with oil and spoon the mixture and steam cook. Serve hot with Saagu or coconut chutney.

Saagu

Ingredients:

Potato cubed - 1 small

Peas ,carrot,any vegetable of your choice - 1 cup

To grind:

Green chilies - 2 slit

Garlic - 3 cloves

Clove - 2

Cinnamon - 1"

Fried Gram - 3 tsp

Coriander powder - 2 tsp

Cilantro - 1 cup

For seasoning:

Mustard

Curry leaves

Oil - 3 tbsp

Salt as required

Procedure:

Boil the vegetables in microwave in high power for 4 mins and set aside. Heat oil in a pan and season it with mustard and curry leaves. Add the grinded paste and mix for couple of mins. Now add the boiled vegetables and salt and mix. Cook covered in low flame until the raw smell is gone. Serve with rava idli.