Kozhikatta / Modak / Kozhikattai /kadubu

 This is know by different names in different parts of india , in kerala its known as kozhikatta , in North India this is usually made during the ganesh chaturthi , the filling could be coconut filling / even dal jaggery filling , below i have explained one with coconut filling , similarly you can make with dal filling too , only thing is that the dal need to be cooked with just enough water then mixed to the jaggery/sugar , or else for those who are diabetic make it simple without any jaggery , the non sweet verson could be had even for the breakfast , this is in short another version of ada (ela ada )

Ingredients

• 1 cup plain rice flour(idiappam / pathiri powder)
• 1 cup water
• Pinch of salt
• 1-2 tsp coconut oil / veg oil / ghee 

For making  filling

• 1 cup cup of grated coconut 
• 1/2 to 3/4th cup of melted strained jaggery
• pinch of cardamom powder 

Method:

1. In a skillet / kadai first melt 1 ball jaggery with little water when its 1 thread consistancy stop flame and then strain it (jagery contails lot of impurity so it is advisable to strain it before using )

jaggery -coconut mixture

1. from this take 1/2 - 3/4th cup of jaggery in the skillet ,switch on the flame , add the grated coconut , mix in well till the mixture thicken (if you are a sweet lower may be you can increase the quantity of jaggery ) now add a pinch of cardamom , mix well , then switch off he flame 

dough looks like this

1. In a pan keep 1 1/2 cup of water to boil , add a pinch of salt to it , in a bowl take the rice flour and add ghee / oil ,once the water becomes rolling boil switch off flame , take 1 cup of water from it and slowly pour over the rice flour , leave it to stand for 3-4 minutes , now with a spoon slowly mix , mix as much possible with spoon ,
2.  Let it sit for few minutes until its cool enough to handle with your fingers . It should still be hot  Dont let it get cold.  Grease your hands with oil / Ghee and start kneading the dough. make it like a chapathi dough the one thing that makes this different from the chapathi dough is that it will be non sticky , but chapathi dough will be sticky one 
3.  The dough will be smooth but still slightly sticky one. 
4. take little dough, rotate it into smooth ball , now flatten it with your palms , convert it into a curve bowl shape , place little jaggey mixture in between the dough , now cover the dough around the jaggery mixture , either make it to ball / small potli shape (some how seal the filling )
5. similarly make others 

1. Place water to boil in a steamer , once water boils place the dough balls in the steamer plate and then place it into steamer , close the lid , let it cook for about 10 - 15 minutes , when it gets cooked the raw ness of the flour goes off and the coating gets slightly translucent texture .

this is made with jam filling as my son dosent like jaggery  taste , so i make him with  strawberry jam filling

i make this for my kid in differnt ways , if you not prefer sweet you can just mix little salt with the coconut , and then make filling , in that case add little jeera/ cumin to the dough it taste good , this could be very well cherished with pickle 

refer to strawberry jam recipe if you want to make home made jam 

Kerala Green Peas Masala

This is a simple green peas masala recipe that goes well with puttu / chapathi/ flavoured rice

Ingredients:

• 1 cup drygreen peas- soked in water overnight

• 1 1/2 - 2 tbsps coconut oil 

• 8-10 shallots chopped

• 1 tomato chopped

• 1 tsp ginger paste

• 2 green chillies

• 2 tsps coriander powder

• 1/4 tsp red chilly powder

• 1/4 tsp jeera powder

• 1/4 tsp turmeric powder

• 1/2 tsp garam masala 

• Curry leaves- a sprig 1 tspn mustard 2-3 dry redchilly 

1. In a pressure cooker ,cook the green peas with little water and with the weights over lid  , the cooking time varies depending on the quality of the green peas at times it takes me 6-7 whistles to cook so after 3 whistles its better to check , then only continue further

1. In a kadai/ pan saute the small onion , ginger till raw smell goes , then add the corriander powder , red chilly powder , slitted green chilly , turmeric , and saute well , now add the tomato and saute this too till the tomato gets soft

1. now add the cooked green peas and some salt mix together 

1. when it begin to boil add little garam masala too mix well, in case if you feel that the curry is thick in consistency you may add little hot water 

1. in a small pan heat some coconut oil then splutter some mustard seeds ,add to this dry red chilly and curry leaf pour over the greenpeas 

1. serve with chapathi / rice / puttu

Method :

Note :

You can also convert  this curry to varut aracha form just by adding some dry roasted coconut(Varut aracha green peas curry) too , please follow the below steps inorder to make the curry in varut aracha style

 in this case dry roast the 1 cup grated coconut with the corriander seeds , dry red chilly , turmeric powder , red chilly powder , when this cools down grind it in a blender jar with 3-4 table spoons of water 

add this mixture after you saute the onion and ginger , then add the tomato once the gravy comes to a boil add the cooked green peas add salt and stir well , bring this to boil and switch off the flame , check for the seasoning if you feel that spice level need to be bit more raised , then soak the spice powder in little hot water and then pour over the curry and mix well , finally do the tempering too

Simple Pasta for kids

This is one of those dishes that my son likes to have during breakfast / at time during evening as a snack , this is a very simple easy to cook dish, this recipe is a basic kind of recipe to make pasta , you can do hell lot of variations in this by adding some veggies / corn / chicken pieces , In market you find many different shapes too , i normally use either elbow shaped / twisted  ones

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup Macaroni ("Elbow macaroni" )

• 1/2 - 1 cup milk

• 1 cheese cube

• pinch of salt

• pinch of black pepper

1. Cook the macaroni in water as how you cook rice , add little salt and a tspn of oil , it might take 4-5 minutes max to cook 

1. drain out the excess water 

1. In a pan add milk , add the cheese too , let the cheese melt and form a saucy texture if required add little more milk , now to this add the macaroni , stir well such that the sauce coats well over the macaroni , add a pinch of black pepper switch off the burner

1. serve 

Method:

Vellarikka salad/cucumber yogurt salad /kakadi ka raita

Ingredients :

• 1 salad Cucumber 
• 100 gms Fresh Yogurt
• 1/4 tspn jeera powder(roasted jeera/cumin)
• dhanya patta/malli ela / Cilantro: 2 sprigs
• Salt to taste
• pinch of red chilly powder

Method:

1. In a bowl, put in the yogurt and mix well until smooth. 
2. Add the chopped cucumber, cumin powder, red chilly powder and salt and mix well. 
3. Garnish with cilantro/dhanya patta and serve with rotis / rice.

Easy Egg Biryani

this is a simple egg biryani with no much ingredients , yet it taste good , and required only at max 20-25 minutes

Preparation time : 20-25 minutes
Serves - 2 persons

Ingredients:

• 2 eggs boiled 
• 1 1/2 cup rice preferably basmathi
• 1/4 tspn turmeric powder
• 2 onions chopped
• 1 tomato chopped
• corriander leaf
• spice bag (2 cloves, 3 peppercons, 1 bayleaf , 1 cinnamom stick , 2-1 cardamom green , 1/2 tspn fennel seed ,)
• 1 tspn Goda Masala  / egg masala 
• pinch of sugar
• 1/2 cup milk

Method

1. wash the rice , keep 3 - 4 cups of water to boil , when the water boils place the spice bag(spice bag is nothing but the spices tied up in cotton cloth , make it some thing like kizhi ) add a tspn of cooking oil and salt too 
2. now add the washed rice , let it cook for 10 minutes 
3. mean while sute the chopped onions in a pan , when the onions turn brownish add a pinch of sugar , salt , corriander leaf , tomamto and saute till the tomato get mushy , add turmeric , red chilly powder and pepper powder , and egg masala / goda masala , give it a good stir 
4. by now the rice will be cook , the rice must be cook only to a stage where you can mash rice with your finger but the kernal is still little strong , strain off the excess water and remove the spice bag
5. now mix in the cooked rice with the masala prepared , you may add little cardamom powder (just a pinch ) if you need little more aroma , pour the milk  in a spiral fashion such that milk dosent get concentrated at some areas 
6. close the lid and let the rice cook for 3-4 minutes in the pan such that the spice is absorbed by rice 
7. open the lid after 3-4 minutes make a hole in themiddle of pan such that it forms like a well , now place the boiled egg after removing shell at the centre , cover the egg with little rice , close lid and leave it for  1-2 minutes such that egg gets roasted 
8. garnish with some corriander leaf
9. serve hot with any curry 

carrot idly

For those who don't know how to make plain idly recipe refer to post Idly(i have explained how to make idly )

This is yet another way to make kids have idly as well as carrot

 most kids like to have their platter to be very colorful , either the food been giver in some funky style as form of some characters / make it extremely colorful with veggies  ,

Its the color of the food and the how we present them attracts 90% of kids  , this is one of the tricks that i use to make my kid too have , he is kind of very cooperative in trying what ever i give him

Method is as simple as that , nothing complicated, just grate some carrots , pour the idly batter over the idly mold then put some grated carrot over the batter , keep it to steam

similarly , we can add beans , beetroot etc , only thing carrot and beetroot you may add as it is , but when adding other veggies , just saute it over pan , with little pepper / chilly flakes and salt then add it over the batter , other veggies will not as tasty , so when you saute and add this will enhance the taste

this is not restricted to jus kids all can have it :)

you may also like Carrot chapathi,Uttapam / Indian Pizza(dosa topped with veggies)

sambar

Sambar is a favrite of any southindian , there are again different ways in which sambar is made the below one is my style of cooking sambar , in some parts of kerala sambar roasted coconut too is add, that sambar is called varut aracha sambar , the below one is plain sambar , i will explain later how to make even varut aracha sambar in my coming posts , this sambar is served even for sadya , sambar is yet again an inevitable part of sadya among the 4 liquid curries that typically been served in different rounds (parip , sambar puliserry/ kalan , rasam)

Ingredients

• 7-8 small onion
• 1 cup toor dal
• 1/2 carrot diced
• 2-3 tindora cut into 3 parts
• 8-9 lady's finger cut into 2-21/2 '' size
• 1 potato diced
• 1 medium sized tomato diced
• 1 - 2 small brinjal diced
• 1 tspn chilly powder
• 3/4 tspn corriander powder
• 1/4 tspn turmeric powder
• pinch of fenugreek powder
• tamarind soaked in water (adjust sourness as per your taste)
• curry leaf
• mustard seed
• 1/4 - 1/2 tspn hing/kayam(or rock asefetida)

Method:

1. soak the toor dal for 1-2 hours in water (/ else you can wash and then pressure cook the dal too) cook the dal in a vessel with 3-4 cups of water 
2. clean the small onions , and cut int two , cut the green chilly lengthwise , when the toor dal is half cooked add the onion and green chilly to it , add more water if required soak the tamarind in water , in a glass add turmeric , red chilly , corriander powder , fenugreek powder , 2 table spoons of water mix then pour it to the toor dal thats cooking
3. Add the tindora pieces and the potato pieces along with the toor dal thats half cooked add salt as per your level
4. In a small pan saute the ladys finger slightly with 1 tbspn of oil , this is done so that the lady's finger doesn't get mashed and stays as pieces , saute the drum stick and brinjal too slightly after the ladys finger is done
5. when the potato is half cooked add the drumstick pieces and tomato pieces , let it cook for 3-4 minutes then add the brinjal and lady's finger too , adjust the water if required , as the level of water would decrease as it cooks , so adjust accordingly 
6. squeeze the tamrind soaked in water , and train out the tamrind juice to the sambar 
7. let it boil 
8. taste the sambar and adjust the seasoning to suite your level
9. in a pan heat 1 table spoon of coconut oil , add the mustard seed and then when it splutters add dry red chilly and then add the curry leaf and the rock asefoetida (hing/ kayam)
10. pour the mustard over the hot sambar , give it a stir , enjoy the aroma , in case you dont get good aroma probably the asefoetida would be less , add little more if you have the powder available 
11. serve with dosa/idly/rice

Note :

1. You can also add 1 tspn of dry methi leaves while cooking , this will give more aroma to sambar and even enhance the taste the taste
2. while doing the tempering you can also add some corriander seeds , may be 1 tspn , this will also improve the aroma of sambar
3. to increase the thickness of the sambar you can add little masoor dal along with toor dal , masoor dal cooks fast , and this increases the thickness of sambar , and another benefit of adding masoor dal is that it cause less acidity than toor dal.
4. You may sprinkle some corriander leaves too after cooking