Keera (Cucumber) Halwa

I try to watch some of the cookery shows and this recipe was noted down during one of the telecasts of Mallika Badrinath. I missed the introduction part of the recipe. All I could gather was, this is a Mangalore special sweet and she in fact mentioned the traditional name of it, which sounded like a tongue twister to me. I had written in my book as Kheera sweet. I call it halwa now, because of the texture of the sweet. I am not sure if it has to be this way or not. A sweet is a sweet. I would like to know the real name of it from my readers.

On first bite, my husband said, it reminds him of Thiruvathirai kali. I too felt the same. May be its due to the common rice and jaggery mix. Anyways on to the recipe now.

You need

Medium sized cucumber- 1, peeled and grated

Powdered jaggery - 1 1/2 cup

Rice flour - 1 cup

Grated coconut - 1/2 cup

Ghee - 2 tblspoon

Roasted cashews for garnish

The orginal recipe says use raw rice. It has to be soaked for 2 hrs. I used rice flour instead. Grind the rice flour(or soaked rice), jaggery and coconut to a fine paste. You can sprinkle some waterwhile grinding. Stir in the grated cucumber. The batter consistency should be like that of idli batter. Adjust the consistency by adding water. Not much will be required since it will be taken care of the water in the cucumber.

Heat a kadai with a tablespoon of ghee. Pour the batter. Keep stirring and add ghee at intervals to prevent sticking. This should take around 10 minutes. When it comes together, pour onto a greased plate and press it down evenly. When warm, mark into squares and decorate with roasted cashews.

After tasting the sweet, I felt the batter will make good pancakes/ vella dosai.

This is my contribution to Sia's RCI-Udupi & Mangalore, an event started by Lakshmi

Palakkai Kootu (Tender jack fruit gravy) for RCI:Chettinad

When RCI-Chettinad was announced, I didn't do much googling, since I knew where to head, to get some authentic Chettinad recipes. On googling, I found more of non-veg recipes. At Solai Achi's kitchen there are wonderful choices of vegetarian recipes. I tried Kathirkkai mallipachadi from there. It too, was tasty, but could not take pictures. Its the season of tender jack fruit or idichakkai as it is called, here. Normally it is cooked as stir fry at home and occasional as semi-gravy with black eyed peas called 'puzhukku'. When I saw a sambhar like recipe using jack fruit, I wanted to try it. Though the ingredients look similar to sambhar, the taste is unique, probably because of the jack fruit in it. Above all, this a one dish gravy and can be cooked in less than 20 minutes. The only pull back factor is chopping the tender jackfruit which is quite a messy job. For those of you who have the option of buying chopped, frozen packets, then this gravy can be cooked in a jiffy.

Ingredients
Tender jackfruit chopped into small pieces - 1 cup
tuvar dal 1/2 cup
turmeric a pinch
sambar powder - 2 tspn
Onion - 1
tomato -1
water - 2 cups
slit green chilly -1 nos

Method

Chop onion and tomato into small pieces. Take the tender jackfruit pieces, chopped onion and tomato, green chilly,tuvar dal, turmeric powder and sambhar powder in a vessl. Add water to cover the ingredients. Pressure cook for one whistle and cook for 10 minutes on low flame.

When the pressure is fully released, take out the vessel. Stir well. Add salt. You can add some chilly powder if you want it spicier. I did not add any. Bring to a boil and simmer for few minutes. Season with mustard, cumin seeds, red chilly and urad dal. Garnish with curry leaves and coriander.

Serve with rice. It can make a good side for rotis too.

This is my entry to RCI-Chettinad Vegetarian hosted by Srimathi at Few Minute Wonders.

Gatte Ka Pulao

The cuisine of Rajasthan is primarily vegetarian and offers a fabulous variety of mouthwatering dishes. The spice content is quite high in comparison to other Indian cuisines, but the food is absolutely scrumptious.
The cooking style followed in Rajasthan is based on the natural climatic conditions of this desert land. There is scarcity of water and fresh green veggies in the state of Rajasthan, which has an adverse impact on its cooking. In the desert belts of Rajasthan, it is preferred to use milk, butter milk and butter in larger quantities to minimize the amount of water while cooking food.
Dried lentils and beans obtained from native plants like sangria are used extensively in the preparation of Rajasthani dishes. Gram flour is the major ingredient in the making of a couple of delicacies such as "pakodi" and "gatte ki sabzi". Powdered lentils are liberally used in the preparation of papad. Rajasthanis are quite fond of chutneys, which are prepared using different spices such as coriander, turmeric, garlic and mint.

(Source: http://www.culturalindia.net/indian-food/rajasthani.html)

I was tempted to try many of the Rajasthani recipes, I found googling. I tried Gatte Ka pulao and the famous Rajasthani Daal-Baati. Here is the recipe for the pulao. The gattes can be used to prepare kadhi and other sabzis. Should try other recipes using gattes.

On first reading the recipe (Source: Tarla Dalal), I thought it is not a very easy one, with too many steps involved. Keeping the RCI event in mind, I decided to go ahead. But once I made, I found it very easy. First prepare the gattes, then the masala to be mixed with. Finally set the pulao with the cooked rice, gattes and the masala. Its so simple.

Gatte Ka Pulao

Besan - 1 cup

Chilli powder - 1 tspn

Fennel seeds (Perinjeerakam) - 1tspn

Ajwain(omam) - 1/2 tspn

Curds - 1 tblspn

Oil - 2 tblspn

salt
Oil for deep frying

Combine all ingredients and knead to make a stiff dough. You may require few
drops of water or no water at all.

Divide into 8 equal portions and shape each portion into 4'' long and 5 mm diameter
cylindrical roll.

Boil plenty of water and drop the strands and cook for 12 minutes.

Drain and keep aside.

Cut in small pieces of 1'' length and deep fry them.

Preparing the Pulao

Rice - 1 cup

Onion - 1 (sliced)

Cardamon - 1

Cloves - 2

Cumin -1/2 tspn

Mustard -1/2 tspn

Hing - 1/4 tspn

Chilli powder -1 tspn

Turmeric - 1/2 tspn

Garam masala - 1/2 tspn

Oil -1 tblspn

To make paste

Garlic - 4 cloves

Green chilly - 2

Ginger - 2'' piece

onion - 1 (small)
Make a paste of the above ingredients and keep it aside

Method

Cook rice separately. Spread it on a plate and leave it to cool.

Deep fry the sliced onions.

Heat oil in a pan. Add cardamom,cloves, cumin, mustard and hing.
Add prepared paste and saute for 5 minutes.

Add cooked rice, deep fried onions, gattes, chilli powder, turmeric, garam masala and
salt.
Serve with onion raita or plain yogurt.

I am sending this across to Padmaja of Spicy Andhra, who is the guest host for RCI.