Ruchikacooks's Blog

We have moved to Ruchikacooks.com

ruchikacook — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 16:43:23 +0000

Dear Friends,

Thanks for your support and comments on this blog. I would like to welcome you all to my new website www.ruchikacooks.com. I will be posting about recipes,events and trials in the kitchen in www.ruchikacooks.com from today.

Click here to see what’s new at Ruchikacooks

You can also see the latest posts on Ruchikacooks by checking out the right hand side corner and following the links.

Waiting to see you all there

Thiratupal

ruchikacook — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 12:43:00 +0000

We have moved to www.ruchikacooks.com from December 2009. Check our latest posts and recipes Here and the thiratupal recipe here.

Vadai (Lentil Donuts)

ruchikacook — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 20:21:52 +0000

We have moved to www.ruchikacooks.com. Check our latest posts and recipes Here and the vadai recipe here

Morekali (a savory pudding with buttermilk)

ruchikacook — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 02:10:13 +0000

We have moved to www.ruchikacooks.com. Check our latest posts and recipes Here

I came back from my classes yesterday and I was really hungry as I did not have a proper lunch. I was not in the mood to eat dinner at 6 pm or to munch a heavy snack. Yet I wanted something filling and light. And in times like these, my choice is morekali. More in tamil means buttermilk and kali is a mushy-pudding like dish which can be sweet or savory.

Frankly speaking, morekali is something you can make even if you dont have any ingredients. It can be prepared in 5-7 minutes and the tangy taste of buttermilk with chilies and curry leaves makes it unique . Sometimes I make morekali for a quick breakfast around 10 am or so if I have missed the regular breakfast time and still want to eat something.

For people who are worried about table manners..I am sorry, you are not lucky enough to taste morekali. Because, the best way to enjoy morekali is to spread the steaming kali onto the plate and to scoop it with your fingers and slowly chew it, tasting the spicy oil and feeling the warmth of the morekali. The red chilies would release their juices into the buttermilk-flour mixture giving it a nice color and adding its kick of spice. Its a ooey-gooey dish so dont keep cooking the morekali till its stiff

Ingredients (Fills up one full 200ml cup)

Yogurt- 1/4 cup

Rice flour- 3/4 cup

Water- 1.25 cups

Salt to taste

For tempering:

Finely chopped green chilies- 2

Red chilies-2

Chopped ginger- 1 tsp

Curry leaves a few

Sesame oil- 1 tsp

Mustard seeds- 1/2 tsp

Chana dal- 1 tsp

Asafoetida- 1 pinch

Method:

Whisk yogurt, water, salt and rice flour together.

Heat sesame oil in a non stick kadai and add asafoetida and mustard seeds. When the mustard seeds splutter, add chana dal, curry leaves, red chilies, chopped ginger and green chilies. Quickly saute them for a minute. Now pour the yogurt-riceflour mix into this pan and keep stirring.

Reduce the flame to a low-medium and make sure that the yogurt-flour mixture is not sticking to the sides of the pan. If it sticks, lightly scrap the pan and add it back to the bubbling mixture. Wait till you can see a shiny gloss on top and you cannot smell the raw flour( wait till flour is cooked through). This usually takes about 5 minutes.

Switch off. Spread the morekali on to a plate. Morekali tastes good when its warm so eat it as soon as possible. There is no need for any side dish or pickles. You can get the spice from the oils released by the chilies.

Ennai Kathrikai Curry (Eggplant stuffed with spices)

ruchikacook — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 17:44:03 +0000

We have moved to www.ruchikacooks.com. Check our latest posts and recipes Here

Ennai kathirikai curry/stuffed eggplants is the best combination for Rasam. I still remember that during summer holidays when all the kids gather at one house and tear the place apart ordering moms and aunts to make our favorite recipes, this would top the list.

This recipe calls for slowly stir frying the eggplants. So we have to choose the baby eggplants(small purple ones) as it will cook faster and will absorb the masala. I use the shortcut method sometimes and instead of grinding the spices, use a similar combination- milagai podi, which we usually use for Idlis.

Ingredients (for 10 eggplants)

Purple eggplants – 10

Light olive oil/ sesame oil- 3 tbsp

Mustard seeds- 1/2 tsp

Asafoetida- 1 pinch

Curry leaves- a few

Salt – to taste

To grind:

Chana dal- 3 tbsp

Urad dal- 3 tbsp

Whole dry red chilies- 4

Method:

Wash and remove the green cap of the eggplants. Pat them dry.

Toast the spices to a golden brown color, given under the list to grind. Cool and grind to a fine powder. Add a pinch of salt and keep aside. Instead of grinding this powder, you can also substitute idli milagai podi.

Take an eggplant and slit it but without cutting the eggplant fully. Stuff the spice mixture (about 1/4 tsp) inside the eggplant. Similarly stuff all eggplants with the spice mix.

Heat oil in a non stick pan and add asafoetida and mustard seeds. When they splutter, add curry leaves. Reduce the flame to a low-medium. Arrange all eggplants in a circular pattern inside the pan, closer to the middle of the pan where it is hot(not near the edges). Sprinkle some salt on top of the eggplants.

Wait for about 5 minutes and turn the eggplants slowly to the other side. Let it roast for another 5 minutes.

Now cover the eggplants, while keeping the flame on a low. Let it cook for 7-8 minutes. Remove the lid and turn it on the other side and cover and cook again for another 7-8 minutes. The steam itself is enough to cook the eggplants and that is why we choose the smaller size. If you feel that eggplant is not cooked enough, you can sprinkle some water and cover and cook till its tender.

Serve the eggplants with sambar rice or rasam. This curry can also be used to bind with rice and be eaten as kathirikai rice (eggplant rice).

Some tips:

Make sure that the flame is on a low and the eggplants are cooked enough(skin is soft). Else on a high flame, the skin of the eggplants will be charred and the inside will still be uncooked resulting in an unpleasant taste.

Kitchen Mishaps

ruchikacook — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 17:41:17 +0000

We have moved to www.ruchikacooks.com. Check our latest posts and recipes Here

Sending out trays and trays of aromatic dishes from the kitchen is an art. And to get to that level of confidence and comfortable cooking is a whole big story. And to rectify the mistakes you make in the kitchen and be able to present it as whatever it turned out to be and you can still smile..priceless

I’ve been there in the kitchen couple of times..blinking, confused, wondering what to do and quickly thinking of how to cover up the disasters.

Since I grew up pampered by mom and sis, I never bothered to learn cooking for a long time till I had to leave home to join University. I thought cooking was simple, stir fry, boil or bake. If only I knew how many technics are there in stir frying itself!

The first thing that comes to my mind about mishaps is when I made rava kesari(sheera) for my mom one day for her pooja. I assured her that I’d make it by the time she is home. I was in high school at that time and thought all the sweets were made of sugar syrup. I patiently made a sugar syrup, and poured all the rava into it. Two minutes later, I was not even able to pull out the ladle from the pan as it was stuck to the pan with fevicol strength We had to soak the pan with all the contents in hot water to get rid of the gooey-rava.

There are a couple of other stories like that too, but apart from cooking disasters, for me, the major issue is the instructions given and the language it is given.

My husband speaks a bit of kerela-tamil as he is originally from palagad of kerela and I am from tamilnadu. This incident happened just a week after we moved to the US after our wedding.

We were invited to a get together and like nice daughter in law I made this list of dishes I could prepare to take it along. Hubby glanced at the list and said to me ,” Why dont you make Varatti, that would be nice”.

I was literally shocked and I was speechless. For a minute I didnt know what to do. In tamil, varatti is literally cow-dung used as a bio fuel. Or was he indicating that my cooking was like that?

I immediately demanded an explanation and he was laughing like anything. To him , varatti is chakka varatti a traditional sweet made in kerela, almost like a jam and made out of jack fruit. And he did not know what varatti was in tamil.

Now, if and only if I had packed what I thought it was to serve for dinner, that would have been my ultimate kitchen disaster.

I am sharing this incident for Malar’s Kitchen Mishaps-Share, Laugh and Learn event.

Zucchini Rice

ruchikacook — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 18:20:14 +0000

We have moved to www.ruchikacooks.com. Check our latest posts and recipes Here

Due to the unexpected snow in Houston last week, we collected vegetables and herbs from the garden before the icy showers hit. I had a bunch of coriander,mint and green onions sitting in the refrigerator because of this change in weather. I was thinking of making some podi or thugayal with mint and coriander leaves, but ended up making a rice dish with them, using a lone zucchini. I like using zucchini in pasta dishes or vegetable bakes, but hubby is not too fond of zucchini. When I made this rice though, he was not able to realize that it had zucchini in it. It blended so well with the herbs. I usually make peas rice with herbs but zucchini was a good variation from peas and it tasted like a peas pulao/mint rice.

Ingredients (serves-2)

Basmati Rice- 1 cup
Zucchini – 1
Mint leaves- one bunch
Cilantro leaves- one bunch
Green onions- couple of strands
Lemon Juice- 1 tbsp
Salt to taste
Bay leaf-1
Cardamom- 2 pods
Black Pepper powder-1/2 tsp
White pepper powder 3/4 tsp
Cumin seeds- 1 tsp
Sunflower oil/Butter- 1 tsp
Water- 2 cups

Method:

Wash and soak rice with water for 10 minutes.

Wash and peel the zucchini. Grate it in a cheese grater. Wash and rough chop mint leaves, cilantro and green onions.

Heat oil/butter in a pan and add bay leaf, cardamom and cumin seeds. Drain water from the rice. When cumin seeds splutter, add the drained rice to this and stir fry for 2-3 minutes.

In a rice cooker, add this rice, grated zucchini, mint leaves, cilantro leaves,green onions, salt, pepper powders and 2 cups of water and cook like normal rice. If you are using pressure cooker, wait for 2 whistles. Let it cool and fluff up the rice with a fork. Add lemon juice and mix well.

Serve the zucchini rice with any gravies or with raitha. I served the Zucchini rice with rajma and they complemented each other very well. The zucchini rice is not spicy, but rajma is a rich tomato based gravy made of kidney beans and they match in flavor combinations.

Kadappa (potatoes in a coconut-chili sauce)

ruchikacook — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 20:45:59 +0000

We have moved to www.ruchikacooks.com from December 2009.

Check our latest posts and recipes Here and the kadappa recipe here

Mango Morekuzambu (Mango in Yogurt-Coconut Sauce)

ruchikacook — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 04:29:57 +0000

We have moved to www.ruchikacooks.com. Check our latest posts and recipes Here

During weekdays, half the time, unless there is the urge to cook variety rice(which we make on the weekends),or to try something new, the menu is almost set for lunch. There are quite a lot of varieties to choose to go with rice. Regulars for the show are Sambar, Rasam, Vathakozhambu, or hubbys favorite Milagootal.

Once in a while, when the home made yogurt is not used up and is slightly sour, I make the fastest side dish for rice – a sauce that can be completed in 15 mins flat, Morekozhambu!! In the language Tamil, More- means yogurt and kuzhambu means sauce. In Kerela, this is called as Mango Kootan.

Since hubby is from Palagat(but grew up in Karnataka) and Im from Tamilnadu, I have seen variations in cuisines, even in the simple dishes like morekozhambu. Back in Tamilnadu if I have to make morekozhambu I soak coriander seeds, dal, coconut and other ingredients in water and grind to add to the sauce. But in Palagat way of making morekozhambu it is plain coconut sauce. The taste is different too, considering that is a simple coconut yogurt sauce. Either way, it is finger licking good and the you would want to make more of this morekozhambu

Ingredients (Serves-2)

Ripe Mango- one small fruit

Well whisked yogurt- 2 cups

Water- 1/2 cup

Salt- to taste

Turmeric Powder- 1/2 tsp

To grind:

Coconut- 1/4 cup

Green Chilies- 4

Cumin seeds- 1 tsp

To Temper:

Oil- 1 tsp

Cumin seeds- 1 tsp

Curry leaves- 4

Asafoetida- 1 pinch

Red chili- 1

Method:

Peel the skin of the mango and dice the mango in to 1″ cubes. Boil the mango cubes with water in a pan, adding salt and turmeric powder. Boil for 10 minutes or till mango cubes are tender and can be mashed.

Grind coconut, green chiles and cumin seeds to a fine powder and then add water(about 4 tbsp) and grind it to a fine paste. Add this paste to the bowl of whisked yogurt. Whisk again to avoid lumps.

Pour this yogurt mix into the pot with mango. Simmer for 2-3 minutes only (till you can see slight bubbles). Never boil a sauce with coconut as it will impact the taste and flavor. Switch off.

Heat oil in a separate pan and add asafoedtida. When it sizzles, add cumin seeds, curry leaves and broken red chili. Stir for a minute. Pour this over the morekozhambu. If the sauce is thin and you want to thicken it, you can add a teaspoon of rice flour to the yogurt when mixing yogurt-paste to the mangoes.

Serve the morekozhambu with any stir fried karis, appalams with rice or even with plain dal rice(paruppu sadam). The dal rice with a drop of ghee and morekozhambu is an amazing combination.

Butter Biscuit (Iyengar Bakery Style)

ruchikacook — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 17:47:11 +0000

We have moved to www.ruchikacooks.com from December 2009.

Check our latest posts and recipes Here and the Butter Biscuit Recipe Here .

Mulligatawny Soup

ruchikacook — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 17:09:36 +0000

We have moved to www.ruchikacooks.com. Check our latest posts and recipes Here and the Mulligatawny soup here .

Onion Vathakuzhambu (Onions in Spicy Tamarind Sauce)

ruchikacook — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 20:20:43 +0000

We have moved to www.ruchikacooks.com. Check our latest posts and recipes Here and the Onion VathaKouahambu recipe here

Clear Tomato Soup

ruchikacook — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 04:15:52 +0000

We have moved to www.ruchikacooks.com. Check our latest posts and recipes Here

I like making soups for dinner along with some rotis or simple pasta but I dont get to make it taste like restaurants do. I have tried adding cornflour to sweetcorn soup yet I feel something is missing. I blanch and puree and simmer the tomatoes but its all gooey and thick and not like a simple clear soup, when I look for a consistency of a Rasam. I tried this version of tomato soup from the Cookbook I was reading last month. It turned out to be a soup with overpowering flavors of spices and I couldnt taste the tomato. I usually use lesser amounts of spice while trying out recipes but this one turned out to be really spicy.

The only part I liked about it was using a sieve to extract the contents and it did not require any flour to thicken it. I tried making the soup with different veggies and other combinations and in the end I liked this adapted version of tomato soup and its a keeper.This is how it goes:

Ingredients(Serves 2)

Ripe Tomato- 3 big

Cinnamon sticks- 2

Vegetable Bullion cubes-1 (vegetable stock soup cubes)

Whole black peppercorns- 1/2 tsp

Garlic- 2 cloves

Salt- to taste

White pepper powder- to garnish

Coriander leaves- 2 tbsp

Butter- 1/2 tsp

Water- 4 cups

Method:

Rough chop the tomatoes. In a pan, mix tomatoes, peppercorns,garlic,cinnamon sticks,and salt. Dissolve bullion cubes in approximately 4 cups of water. Add this water to the pan with tomatoes and cover and let it simmer for 20 minutes.

Once the tomatoes are thoroughly cooked and is well mixed with the bullion-cinnamon water, switch off the stove. Mash the tomatoes well with a masher along with the peppers and cinnamon(Do not grind or blend in a blender, just mash with a fork or masher).

After this stage, I just poured the entire contents of the pan into a sieve and let the juices pass through into another pan and discarded the tomato pulp,pepper and cinnamon stick that was collected in the sieve.

Reheat the extracted soup in the pan for 1-2 minutes. Switch off. Garnish with coriander leaves and butter. Taste for salt and pepper and re-season. This tomato soup is filling on its own, but you can also serve it with jeera poppadams or garlic bread.

When I made this soup I thought of a perfect compliment to serve with the soup- Cutlets.And I wish I had one of these cutlets by SunshineMom to go with my soup! A bite of the crunchy cutlet and a ladle of soup…That would be heavenly.

I am sending this soup to Monthly Mingle-Soups hosted this month by TongueTicklers and started by Meetha.

Aviyal (Steamed Vegetables in Coconut-Yogurt Sauce)

ruchikacook — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 01:20:04 +0000

We have moved to www.ruchikacooks.com. Check our latest posts and recipes Here

Aviyal(means steamed) is typical kerela food and one of the simplest of dishes to prepare. Aviyal is healthy in the sense that it does not have any masala or chili powders and there is no frying of any vegetable. Its also very easy to prepare and goes well with plain rice, lemon rice, coconut rice etc., Adai aviyal is a classic combination and so is pongal- aviyal.

Ingredients( Serves-2)

Carrots- 3 each chopped into 2″ sticks

Potato- 2 each chopped into cubes

Drumstick (Murungaikai)- 6 chopped pieces

Colacasia (Sepenkizhangu)- 5-6 cubes

Green Plantain- 1 each

White Pumpkin- couple of cubes

Frozen Suran (Elephant foor Yam)- couple of cubes

Green Peas- just a handful

Yogurt- 1/2 cup

Salt- to taste

To grind:

Coconut- 4 tbsp

Green chilies- 4

Cumin Seeds- 1 tsp

Tempering:

Oil- 1 tsp

Curry leaves- 4

Mustard seeds- 1/2 tsp

Hing- 1 pinch

Method:

Chop veggies in bigger size (at least 1″) . Pressure cook all vegetables together without adding too much water(3 tbsp of water should do). Else, cook all vegetables on a saucepan with less amount of water adding salt while it cooks. Adding too much of water will result in a soggy sauce. Aviyal has to have a thick sauce. You can include any veggie you have in hand but those veggies should be of the kind which can be steamed easily.

Grind coconut, green chilies and cumin seeds into a thick paste.

When the vegetables are tender, add the ground coconut paste, well beaten yogurt and let it simmer for 2-3 minutes.

Switch off. In a separate pan, pour oil and hing and add mustard seeds. When the mustard seeds splutter add curry leaves. Pour this over aviyal and serve hot with rice and appalams.

I think of my nephew A, every time I make Aviyal as at is one of his favorite dishes to eat with rice. For him it is aviyal as the main dish and rice as a side dish. His favorite game is to name each vegetable from his picture book as he eats and recognizes the veggie from aviyal. I think my sis did a good job in binding food with learning in cooking with kids also. Asking them to collect vegetables from the fridge is also a good learning-identifying process.

She also adds some cooked peanuts or chana as a variation along with other veggies and if my nephew A finds one of these he’d be so happy as though he found a treasure and vanish them it in a bite.

I am sending this aviyal as an entry for Lakshmi’s Cooking for kids event running till Dec 15th and started by Sharmi of Neivedyam.

Pav Bhaji

ruchikacook — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 00:53:00 +0000

We have moved to www.ruchikacooks.com. Check our latest posts and recipes Here

Pav Bhaji is one of my favorite Chaat food. There used to be this small chaat shop near Vitan in Mylapore and outside the shop they’d have this huge pot of choley and pav simmering away. The place would be full of students or people going back home from work enjoying a bite of some chaat. Once in a while, the cook would add a dollop of butter in to the huge pan and the sizzling sound of butter melting into the masala has stayed in my memory. Every time when we would go to vitan, I’d make sure to get bhel puri or pav bhaji. When I saw Lakshmi ‘s RCI-Mumbai Event, I decided right away to make pav bhaji. Looking at the list of dishes offered by Lakshmi to cook for the event, I just couldnt wait. Besides it has a lot of vegetables in it so I’d meet the 5 servings of veggies a day mantra easily.

Ingredients (Serves- 2)

Potatoes- 3 each (medium size)

Green Pepper- 1

Red onion- 1 (medium-small)

Tomato Paste- 2 tbsp

Chopped mixed veggies – 1 cup (Carrots, cauliflower, peas, beans)

Pav Bhaji Masala- 2 tsp

Garam Masala Powder- 1 tsp

Ginger Garlic paste- 1 tsp

Cumin seeds- 1 tsp

Salt – to taste

Turmeric powder- 1/2 tsp

Oil- 1 tsp to fry

Butter- 1 tbsp

Lemon slices- 2

Sliced red onions- 4 rings (to garnish)

Chopped Cilantro- 2 tbsp

Water- 3 cups

Method:

Wash and peel the potatoes. Cut them into chunks, boil and keep aside.

Finely chop the onions and green pepper. Finely chop all other veggies.

In a pan, heat oil and add cumin seeds. When they splutter add ginger garlic paste and onions and saute till they turn transparent. Add salt, turmeric powder, chopped green peppers and all other veggies and fry well for another 2-3 minutes. Add garam masala powder,pav bhaji masala powder, tomato paste and mix well.

Add the boiled potatoes and mix again. Add 3 cups of water, stir once to combine and cover and let it simmer for 20- 25 minutes. Check often if any additional water is needed.

Once the veggies are tender, using a potato masher, mash all the veggies in pot. Let it simmer in its own juices for another 5 minutes and switch off. Add lemon juice. Garnish with cilantro. Add a dollop of butter on top.

Serving:

Scoop a ladle full of the bhaji into a bowl. Add a dollop of butter on top, garnish with onion rings and serve with a slice of lemon. Serve with buttered buns. I actually served the bhaji with phulka and it was a good match as well.

This Pav Bhaji goes to Lakshmi Venkatesh’s RCI Mumbai Event, started by of Lakshmi Krishnan