Rice Puttu / All about Rice Pittu

     Puttu is my favorite food, i love puttu!!! I think my greatest culinary achievement (!) is, making my husband like it too :) He's not a big fan of dry food. This steamed rice flour can be flavored in different ways. 
    This post answers all these questions: what is puttu?, how to prepare it?, how to steam it with/ without a puttu steamer? and all the different ways to flavor it (my favorite part). Puttu recipe is in the bottom of this post

Puttu is a popular breakfast in South Indian states like: Tamil Nadu, Kerala and it's popular in Srilanka too. 
What is puttu? Moistened rice flour is steamed in a puttu steamer,  an idly cooker or by keeping the rice flour- filled bowl over boiling water (covered pan). My friend use rice cooker to steam the flour.
Puttu in tamil literature: Puttu has been mentioned in the works of 15th and 16th century tamil literature- wikipedia. Puttu or pittu is a tamil word, meaning: dividing into (small) portion. 
How to make puttu?: Small amount of moistened rice flour and shredded coconut are (usually) filled inside a puttu steamer consecutively and steamed. When cooked, it will look like small round cakes with coconut icing on top. 

Ways to eat puttu: Puttu, by itself is bland, we can make it sweeter or spicier by the things we add to it.  

1. Puttu can be sweetened with sugar and shredded coconut. If it's too dry, add few tsp of warm milk or fresh coconut milk to it. 

                                        or
2. Add puttu with shredded coconut, sugar, banana or ripe mango. 

                                        or
3. Add sugar and  few spoons of warm milk with puttu.
                                or

4. We can make it a Kerala delight, by adding mutta (egg) curry, fish curry, chicken curry or kadala curry Click here for kadala curry recipe. as a side dish. 
                               or
5. We can add sugar and ghee/ clarified butter too.

Puttu !!!

Ingredients:
2 cups        rice flour 
1/2 cup      warm water
1/4 tsp       salt
4   tbs        shredded coconut
We can steam the rice flour in any pan with a tight lid. As i said before my friend use rice cooker to steam the puttu flour. 
Making puttu:
1. Heat water in the bottom portion of the puttu maker.
2. Dissolve salt in 1/2 cup of warm water.
3. Dry roast the rice flour, sprinkle the warm water and mix it with hand. 
To check the right consistency of the flour: take some moist flour and squeeze it slightly in your fist, the flour must hold together without falling apart. 

4. Press the moist flour through a sieve or put it in a blender and pulse it a few times.

Puttu steamed in a puttu steamer:
5. If using the cylindrical puttu maker/kutty/kuzhal, put a handful of shredded coconut inside the cylinder, followed by three handfuls of rice flour.

6.  Continue the process, by consecutively (and loosely) filling the steamer with coconut and flour. Close the lid and place it on the bottom part of the puttu maker. Let the water simmer until, steam comes out from its slotted lid. 
7. Remove the puttu carefully and enjoy it with the side dish of your choice.
Puttu steamed in a covered pan:
1. Heat water in a saucepan (with a lid), place a cookie cooling rack or a trivet inside it.

2. Follow the (above) steps 2-4. Now take a small  metal bowl/pan with lid, fill 1/2 the cup of moist flour, add a handful of shredded coconut over it. Sprinkle another 1/2 cup of rice flour over the coconut... repeat the process with the remaining rice and coconut, cover it with lid or with a kitchen towel. 
3. Place the covered puttu- bowl inside the saucepan (on the cooling rack/ trivet) now cover the saucepan and bring the water to a slow  simmer for 10 - 20 mins. Add more water to the pan as needed.

Steaming puttu in an iddly cooker: 
Prepare the puttu flour following the above steps, heat water in the iddly pan and keep the flour in the iddly mold with handfull of coconut flakes over it. Cover the pan with lid and steam it till you hear the whistle sound.  

Feel free to comment, i love your feedback. Enjoy ur cooking! Have a blessed day :) 

Spicy fried Peanuts / Poritha kara verkadalai

This is a healthy snack, spicy with a hint of garlic. Adding whole red chillies, garlic, lemon and curry leaves (optional) makes this a crunchy, fiesty treat.

 

Ingredients:
2 cups           peanuts
4 cloves        garlic with peel (trim the ends)
4 whole         red chillies
1 tsp              lemon zest What is lemon zest? 
1 tbs              lemon juice 
few                curry leaves/ karuveppilai (optional)
1/8 tsp           salt
1 tbs              veg. oil
Method:
1. Heat oil in a pan (high), add peanuts, garlic, curry leaves and crushed chillies.
2. Stir it continuously till the peanuts becomes dark. Add lemon juice, zest and salt and continue stirring for another minute or so.
3. Transfer it to a serving platter and enjoy.  

Feel free to comment, i love your feedback. Enjoy ur cooking! Have a blessed day :) 
   

          

Spicy pear shortcake pinwheels

"This fragrant fruit dessert, served warm from the oven offers special welcome to family and friends "- The Evening Independent 1973
It's true, we loved this crumbly, pear filled shortcake soaked in spiced brown sugar sauce. My search for a pear recipe, led me to this rich, beautiful dessert.  A rich shortcake dough, rolled around fresh pear filling and basted and baked until golden  in a spicy brown sugar syrup.

Ingredients:
Pear filling
3              fresh pears
1/3 cup    chopped dates
1/4 cup    chopped nuts
1/3 cup    sugar
Short cake dough
2 cups      all purpose flour
2 tbs         sugar
2 tsp         baking powder
1/2 tsp      salt
1/2 cup     butter
1              beaten egg 
1/2 cup     milk
2 tbs         soft butter
Spicy brown sugar sauce
3/4 cup     water
1/2 cup     brown sugar
2 tbs         butter 
2 tsp         lemon juice
1/4 tsp      cinnamon

Pear filling:
1. Core and finely dice pears and combine it with dates, nuts and sugar.

2. Prepare the dough by sifting together flour, salt and baking powder.  Add sugar and cut in 1/2 cup butter until the mixture is crumbly.

3. Combine eggs and milk. Add to dry ingredients, mixing just until blended. Turn the dough on floured board and knead gently until smooth (if the dough is sticky add more flour).
4. Roll the dough into a 12 by 8 inch rectangle and spread with soft butter. Sprinkle pear filling over dough.

5. Roll dough from long edge, jelly roll style. Cut in 11/2" slices and arrange, cut side down, in baking pan.

6. For spicy brown sugar sauce: Combine water, brown sugar, butter and lemon juice. Bring to boil, pour over the pin wheels.

 7. Bake in 425* for 25 - 30 minutes. Serve warm with whipped cream/ sour cream.

Waffle Iron Paniyaram/ Coconut Milk Waffle

      This sweet paniyaram (waffle) is a popular south Indian snack. Usually it's deep fried or cooked in a kuli paniyaram chatti (danish ebelskiver pan/ pancake poppers pan). It's made with all purpose flour (maida), rava/ semolina, egg, coconut milk, cardamoms, sugar, nuts and raisins. Instead of frying, i used the waffle maker and made some delicious indian waffles for breakfast. It tasted good with maple syrup and with the home made ginger syrup (recipe included in this post). 

Indian waffle!

Ingredients:
2 cups        *fresh coconut milk
* Grind 1 cup dry/ frozen or fresh coconut with 2 cups of warm water in a blender, and squeeze out the coconut milk from the pulp through the strainer.
2                cardamoms (powdered)
2 cups        all purpose flour/ maida
1/2 cup       sugar
1/4 cup       rava / sooji/ semolina 
1/2 tsp        baking powder
1/8 tsp        salt
2                eggs 
1/2 cup       melted butter/ clarified butter or oil  
1                banana (mashed)
1/2 cup      raisins (chopped)
1 cup         fried cashews (chopped) to garnish

Coconut milk waffle!!!

Method:
1. Separate the eggs and whip the egg whites till it becomes stiff - (beaten egg whites creates a more fluffy waffle) 
2. Add the egg yolks with the mashed banana, coconut milk and melted butter.
3. Dry roast the semolina till fragrant. Mix together: flour, baking powder, sugar, salt, powdered cardamom, semolina and raisins. 
4. Pre heat the waffle iron, mix the dry ingredients with the egg mixture and fold the egg white into the batter.
5. Pour the batter into the pre- heated waffle maker and bake it in the desired setting.
6. Serve it with your favorite syrup and garnish it with the chopped nuts. 
Tips for taste : 
1. If it's tedious to separate eggs, beat the whole eggs for a minute and blend it with the ingredients in step 2
2. To make waffles ahead: Make the waffles in low setting and remove it before it gets brown, cool it and wrap it in a cling wrap and freeze. Heat it in a toster before serving
Ginger syrup
serving 3-4  
Ingredients:
1 cup            water
2"                 ginger (crushed)
3 tbs             sugar
1                  whole cardamom 
Method:
1. Heat water in a pan and add the whole cardamom, tie the ginger in a piece of cheese cloth, crush it and add it to the water.
2. Add the sugar when the water starts to boil, let it boil for ten minutes. Remove the ginger and the cardamom.
3. Serve it warm with waffles or pancakes.  

Feel free to comment. I love your feedback. Enjoy ur cooking! Have a blessed day :)

Panfried potato and meat cutlet/ croquette/ tikki

                The deep fried potato, and minced meat cutlet is a popular snack throughout the world. There are different variants, in North India it's called tikki, in Korea it's Goroke, kroketten in Germany, croquette in America, almost every cuisine have their own version of it. 
            In this recipe, the cutlet is pan fried and i layered the minced meat and bell pepper with a bread slice and mashed potato. 
            We can recycle stale bread, leftover vegetables or meat into savory cutlets/ croquettes. Use mixed vegetables instead of meat for a fresh vegetarian tikki or make it a kid's menu by, filling the bread with pizza toppings or mac and cheese.

Ground meat sandwich/ croquette

Ingredients:
6- 8 slices           bread
1 cup                  mashed potato
1/2 tsp                butter (optional)
1                        capsicum/ bell pepper (finely chopped)
1 cup                  minced/ ground meat
1 tsp                   garam masala/ curry powder
1                        chopped green chilli (optional)
1 tsp                   chilli powder
1/6 tsp                ground pepper 
1/2 tsp                lemon juice 
salt                     to taste
4 tbs                   oil
Method:

1. Combine the meat, garam masala/ curry powder, salt and chilli powder together. In a separate bowl, mix the mashed potato with ground pepper, salt and butter. 
2. Heat 1/2 tbs of oil in a pan, add the capsicum, salt and green chilli and fry till it becomes soft, remove it from the pan and keep it aside.
3. Heat 1/2 tbs of oil in the same pan and stir fry and brown the meat, reduce the heat and add 2-3 tsp of water to it. Cover the pan and cook, till it's done and the meat mixture becomes dry. 

4. Remove the crusts off the bread and uniformly flatten the bread slices with a rolling pin.. 

5. Place a slice of bread on a cutting board, spread 1/2 tbs of  mashed potato evenly, in the middle of the bread slice. 

6. Put a tsp of meat and another tsp of capsicum mixture over the  potato.

7. Wet the edges of the bread slightly, fold the bread and press it together with the stem of a spoon, press and seal all the three 
sides.

8. For a fancy look, use a fork and press the edges together. 

9. Slightly flatten the top of the bread by pressing it softly with a spoon or fork. 

 

10. Heat oil in a flat pan/ electric skillet and fry the stuffed bread slices. Flip it and cook, till both sides becomes golden brown.
11. Remove from heat and transfer it to a serving plate and serve it  warm, with tomato ketchup.

Feel free to comment. I love your feedback. Enjoy ur cooking! Have a blessed day :)

  

Pomegranate and Cauliflower Salad/ Autumn Salad

Autumn offers many nutritious fruits and vegetables. we can get cauliflower throughout the year, but it's a cool weather crop and at it's best in fall and winter. Pomegranate is an autumn fruit, in the northern hemisphere. This is a fresh autumn salad, with lot of flovor and texture.

Fresh and bursting with flavor and texture!!!

  Cauliflower nutrition facts: A high intake of cauliflower has been associated with reduced risk of aggressive prostate cancer.  Cauliflower is low in fat, low in carbohydrates but high in dietary fiber, folate, water, and vitamin C, possessing a high nutritional density. It contains several phyto chemicals, common in the cabbage family, that may be beneficial to human health. Sulforaphane, a compound released when cauliflower is chopped or chewed, may protect against cancer. Other glucosinolates, carotenoids, indole-3-carbinol, a chemical that enhances DNA repair, and acts as an estrogen antagonist,  slowing the growth of cancer cells. Boiling reduces the levels of these compounds, with losses of 20–30% after five minutes, 40–50% after ten minutes, and 75% after thirty minutes. However, other preparation methods, such as steaming, microwaving, and stir frying, have no significant effect on the compounds - Wikipedia

Pomegranate nutrition facts: Pomegranate juice provides about 16% of an adults daily vitamin C requirement per 100 ml serving, and is a good source of vitamin B₅ (pantothenic acid), potassium and natural phenols, such as ellagitannins and flavonoids. Pomegranates are listed as high-fiber in some charts of nutritional value. That fiber, however, is entirely contained in the edible seeds which also supply unsaturated oils. People who choose to discard the seeds forfeit nutritional benefits conveyed by the seed fiber, oils and micro nutrients- Wikipedia

Adding orange juice and orange zest to this salad, knocks down the raw smell of the cauliflower.
Ingredients:
2 cups     scraped cauliflower
1/2 cup   canned garbanzo beans/ cooked channa
2 cup      pomegranate
15-20     baby spinach leaves
1             orange slices 
Dressing:  
1 tbs       olive oil
2 tbs       orange juice
1 tsp       orange zest
2 tbs       chopped nuts  
 Method:
1. Drain the liquid and wash the garbanzo beans.
2. Mix the shredded cauliflower, pomegranate, garbanzo beans and keep it aside.
3. Combine olive oil, orange juice, nuts and orange zest in a bowl, pour it over the shredded cauliflower mixture and mix it nicely.
4. Arrange the spinach leaves on the bottom of a serving bowl, layer the cauliflower salad over it. 
5. Place the orange slices around the salad, cover and  keep the salad for at least 2 hours before serving.

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Banana and Cranberry Loaf

        The fall season is here and the climate is getting colder, time to cozy up with a cup of hot tea. This flavorful quick bread is a good accompaniment for tea and coffee. This is a slightly modified recipe from the book, cakes and bakes. This book has more than fifty, easy and tasty recipes in it.

Flavorful and moist bread with cardamom tea!!!

 Ingredients:
1 1/4 cup              all purpose flour
1/2 tsp                  baking powder
1 pinch                 salt
1/4 tsp                  baking soda
2                           bananas (mashed)
1/3 cup                 candied orange and citrus peel
2 tbs                     chopped  nuts
1/4 cup                 dried cranberries
6 tbs                     orange juice
2/3 cup                 oil
2                           eggs (slightly beaten)
1 tsp                     butter (for greasing) 
3/4 cup                 powdered sugar
1 tbs                     grated orange rind 
Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 *f. Grease a 9*5inch/ 2 lb loaf pan with the butter and line the base with parchment paper.
2. Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt into a bowl. Stir in the sugar, bananas, chopped candied peel, nuts and cranberries .
3. In a separate bowl, blend together the orange juice, eggs and oil. Combine this with the banana mixture and mix it well. Pour the mixture into the prepared pan and level the surface.
4. Bake it in the preheated oven for 1 hour or until a tooth pick inserted into the centre of the bread comes out clean. Keep the loaf on a wire rack and let it cool
5. Mix the powdered sugar with 1/4 cup of water and drizzle it over the loaf. Sprinkle orange rind over the top. Let the frosting set before serving the loaf in slices.
Tips for taste:
Quick breads tastes better the next day.

combined dry ingredients...

Greased and lined 9x5 inch loaf pan

golden loaf, ready for frosting....

frosting...

frosted bread, sprinkled with grated orange rind. 

slice it...

......and eat.

         
    

How to Separate Eggs / Separate eggs with a plastic bottle

   Separating egg whites for a recipe is fun, as long as we do it without breaking the egg yolks. A small amount of fat from the egg yolk, will ruin some recipes. Eggs separate more easily when cold.

1. Use an egg separator.

2. Separate it with a plastic bottle (easiest and less messy)
3. Separate egg with half shell.

STEP BY STEP METHOD

 Hold the egg firmly, tap the middle part of the egg, on the edge of a bowl or on the kitchen counter.   

Place both the thumbs near the crack and pull the shells apart.

1. Drain the egg through an egg separator. 

OR

2. Separate the eggs with an empty, plastic water bottle.

  This is a fun and easy way to separate eggs. Gently place the mouth of the water bottle on the yolk. 

Squeeze the bottle in the middle and release it slowly....

The egg yolk will get pulled inside the bottle.   

To get the egg yolk, out of the bottle: Tilt the bottle over a plate, and gently press the bottle.... 

 the yolk will pop out. We can separate more than 2 yolks with the same bottle.

                                                                      OR
 3. Separate egg with the shell: Crack an egg and gently pull apart the shell, allowing some of the egg white to fall inside a bowl. 

Keep the yolk in one half of the shell, tilt the shell slightly and pass the yolk, back and forth between the shells without breaking the yolk.

Some of the recipes with egg whites: Berry Compote with Goat Cheese Cream, Pear Souffles, Egg and Cheese Stuffed Bell pepper .