Saturday 2 April 2016

THENGAI OPPUTTU

This post is about the traditional sweet delicacy of Kongu family , THENGAI OPPUTTU.






Kongu People serve this traditional dessert in each and every special occasions such as marriage feasts, all festivals of Tamil Nadu i.e Pongal, Diwali, Karthigai Deepam, get together of family members. 

Coconut is an inevitable ingredient of every meal of the kongu family. They add the coconut grates in veg. porials, coconut milk in various versions of kuzhambu, gravy and veg curries and nonveg curries. they made thuvaiyal, chutney and  so many sweets using coconut. 

This is one of the sweet versions using coconut. When the coconut combines with jaggery and ghee, it will become rich and heavenly sweet. 

We move to the preparation of the sweet:

Ingredients:

Coconut grates one bowl
Ghee one tablespoon
Jaggery crushed 3/4th of the bowl
All purpose flour or Maida one cup
Food color half pinch
Cardamom crushed three
banana leaf cut

Procedure:

Roast shredded coconut in half spoon of ghee for a minute.
Keep aside to cool.
Blend the coconut grates with jaggery and cardamom seeds into a thick paste.
Make small gooseberry size balls.
Knead a soft nonsticky dough with maida, adding water little by little and one spoon of ghee.
Grease the banana leaf and spread the small portion into a flat surface using the fingers and palm.
Place the coconut ball on the surface of the maida dough.
Cover the ball with maida thin layer by pulling along all sides.
Make round flattened discs.
Heat the griddle and place three discs and sprinkle half spoon of ghee over the discs and allow to cook for a while, in a medium heat.
Flip over the other side of the discs.
Take out of the griddle.

Serve this delicious opputtu. 
This sweet is called as Thengai poli or Thengai opputtu in our region.
Do try..
Easy to prepare.. traditional sweet...quick fix method..highly nutritious..
:)




































Thursday 31 March 2016

PAASIPARUPPU VADAI/MOONGDAL CRISPY DUMPLINGS

Ingredients:

Moong dal 200 gms
Drumstick tender leaves one handful
Bellary onion tiny bits half cup
Cooking oil to deep fry
Coriander leaves chopped half cup
Green chillies chopped two
Curry leaves chopped half cup
Salt to taste

Procedure:

Wash the moong dal and soak for two hours.
Drain the entire water and give the lentils to blend.
Add a handful drumstick leaves with lentils and blend into a batter.
Incorporate all the ingredients i.e the onion bits and curry leaves, green chillies, ginger grates and coriander leaves in the batter.
Heat the cooking oil and make vadais and drop them in the oil in batches.
Allow to deep fry into golden brown dumplings.
Flip other side to get even brown vadais.
Repeat the process until the batter exhausts
Collect them in a serving bowl.

Perfect combination with lunch. 
Do try..




















Wednesday 30 March 2016

VAZHAIKKAI PODIMAS/RAW BANANA STIR FRY

Nutritional contents of raw bananas:

The green banana is the best source of fiber, vitamins and minerals and contains starch content that may help control blood sugar. It manages weight and lowers blood cholesterol levels. 

The resistant starch containing in raw bananas is a kind of starch that cannot be broken by enzymes in our digestive system. So it acts as a dietary fiber. It may reduce the risk of diabetes by aiding in blood sugar control and heart disease by helping in lowering the blood cholesterol levels, according to the article 2010 published in " Pacific Health Dialog."

One cup of raw banana cooked contains 3.6 gm of fiber meeting 14 percent daily value. This fiber content slows digestion helping us feel full longer thereby aiding in weight control. High Potassium in raw banana helps in the control of blood pressure. 

Green bananas are also having vitamin B6 with one cup boiled serving containing 39 % of our daily value. Vitamin B6 is helping for the formation of hemoglobin, the protein that carries oxygen to all over the body. and also aids in the control of blood sugar.

source google- live strong.com

We start to prepare vazhaikkai podimas right now. It is a very easy and fast method of cooking. It is too delicious to eat with any variety rice or green gram gravy with hot steamed rice.

Ingredients:

Raw bananas four
Moong dal one spoon
Mustard seeds one spoon
Cooking oil one tablespoon
Shallots six chopped
Green chillies two
Red chilly powder half spoon
Turmeric powder one spoon
Pepper powder one spoon
Curry leaves half cup
Chopped coriander leaves
Salt to taste

Procedure:

Clean and wash the raw bananas and cut the two ends of the vegetable.

Peel the entire skin and the inner pulp to be grated into small grates.

Heat the cooking oil  in a wok and add  one spoon of mustard seeds.

Add moong dal, shallots, green chillies, curry leaves, turmeric, red chilly powder and saute until the shallots become golden brown. 

Add the banana grates and stir well .

Add required salt and allow to cook without adding water.

Let the flame be lower level and stir fry for three seconds. It will be cooked very fast.












Sprinkle coarse powder of pepper and half pinch of asafoetida.

Garnish with chopped coriander leaves.

Yummy and spicy vazaikkal podimas is ready to have with ay variety rice or with simple rice and green gram gravy with hot steamed rice.

Do try to make this quick- fixed stir fry in a flash of time.




Monday 28 March 2016

SESAME SWEET BALLS/ELLU LADDU

Do you know about Palm jaggery?
Does it find an important place in your regular diet? If then, how do you use it?
Stay with me for a while to know about the nutritional benefits and how to use in sweets!
Palm jaggery adjusts our body health automatically and offers relief from both blistering summers and chilling winters. 

There are amazing properties of palmyra jaggery listed below:

1. Rich iron in palm jaggery increases haemoglobin level and best treatment for anaemia.
2. High antioxidant content helps to protect the body cells from damages caused by free radicals.
3. It is equally rich in calcium, potassium and phosphorus.
4. It activates the digestive enzymes and helps to cleanse the intestinal tracts.
5. It is an energy booster since it has essential minerals so it is called as store-house of many                   vitamins. It helps to wipe  out the toxins from our body leaving you a healthy and fit.
6. Since it contains full of dietary fibers, it treats against constipation and indigestion and stimulates 
    perfect Bowel movement. 
   Palm jaggery is an excellent substitute for white sugar. As compared to white sugar that is devoid      of nutrients, palm jaggery is a natural and nutritious sweetener. It is processed without any  chemicals or artificial ingredients. It is made from palmyra tree and loaded with medicinal    properties.
It heals migraines.
Another startling fact is its higher count of potassium helps in weight loss treatment.
It is used to treat the dry cough and cold. By dissolving the. mucus, it helps to clear the respiratory tract and asthma and diabetes.
So the Kongu people call the palmyra tree as ' karpakatharu'. Almost all the parts of palmyra tree are being helpful and beneficial to the village folks.

Sesame seeds : 

They are not only an excellent source of copper and manganese but also the good source of calcium, magnesium,  iron phosphorus, vitamin B1, zinc, selenium and dietary fibres.
When it is combined with palm jaggery, it will enliven the whole nutritious food.
We are going to learn healthy and delicious sesame balls
made up with Roasted sesame seeds and palm jaggery. This is a traditional sweet from our ancient period.

Ingredients:

Roasted sesame seeds one bowl 200. gms
Palm jaggery 200 gm or one bowl.
Roasted cashew nuts four
Almonds roasted four
Cardamom five or four

Procedure:

Dry roast the sesame seeds, cashews and almonds.
Keep aside to cool.
Break the palm jaggery and powder into a coarse texture.
Give them to blend coarsely.
Make balls mixing with little ghee.

So simple..! So easy to make..! Traditional sweet..!!
within ten minutes..! Acquire its high nutritional values..!!!!

Friday 25 March 2016

SNAKEGOURD RINGS



Make a difference..! 

Ingredients:

Snakegourd one
Raw rice flour half cup
Bengal gram flour one full cup
Red chilly powder half spoon
Kashmir chilly powder one spoon
Asafoetida one pinch
Ajwain seeds one spoon
Cooking Soda half spoon
Salt required
Cooking oil to fry

Procedure:

Slice the snake gourd into rings by removing the centre portion.
You may fry the rounds of snake gourd without removing the centre portion.
Mix the rice flour, Bengal gram flour, red chilly powder, Kashmiri chilly powder, cooking soda, salt, asafoetida, ajwain seeds with water.
Batter should be a thick paste.
Dip the snake gourd slices in the batter and drop one by one carefully into the heated cooking oil in a wok.Allow to fry until the bubbles cease.
Flip other side of the rings and rounds.
Take out and transfer the fritters in a serving bowl.
Fried golden brown rings and rounds are ready to serve as an evening snack.

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