DEVAKOTTAI SAMAYAL ARAI

The weather is getting better and who will say NO to a refreshing chilled payasam... Let's get started.. Ingredients (Serves 5) Milk - 2 1/2 cups Water - 1/2 cup Saffron - few strands (optional) Cardamom powder - 1/2 tsp Raw rice - 1 tsp Almonds - 10 nos Light brown sugar - 1/4 cup Ghee / clarified butter - 1 tbsp Nuts and raisins of your choice to garnish.  Soak the almonds, rice and the saffron strands in 1/2 cup of hot water for about 10 to 15 minutes. Remove the skin from the almonds. Using a blender, grind the soaked almonds, saffron strands and the rice into a fine paste by adding 2 tbsp of the water that we used for soaking. Then add the remaining water into the blender, mix well and keep aside.  In a saucepan, heat the milk. Once bubbles start forming around the edges of the pan, pour the almond and rice mixture. From now on, you have to stir continuously to avoid burning at the bottom of the pan.  The mixture will start thickening. Now turn the heat to low and ad...

I am posting another recipe to make Ribbon Pakoda. Here, I am using more of chickpea flour than rice flour. If you want to try my other recipe, click this link . My family and friends liked this very much.  Ingredients :  Chickpea flour / Besan - 2 cups Rice flour - 1 cup Unsalted butter - 1 tbsp, softened Salt - 1/2 tsp per cup of flour Chilli powder - 3 tsp Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp Asafoetida - 1 tsp Water - 1 cup + 3 tbsp Optional - soak 1 tbsp of sesame seeds and 3 medium sized garlic pods in hot water for 30 minutes and grind it with a little water. Then extract the juice out of it and use it while making the dough.  Mix all the dry ingredients together and then incorporate the butter well with the flour mixture. Now add the water little by little and make a soft and sticky dough.  Now fill the Ribbon pakoda press with the dough. Heat a wide mouthed pan / wok and press it into the medium hot oil and fry until the sound subsides. Enjoy this yummy crunchy ribbon ...

In this day and age, everyone is looking for protein rich food and less carbs. I am presenting a quick and easy recipe of protein rich pan-seared shrimp. Webmd states that 100 grams of cooked shrimp contains 24 grams of protein. Click on the link to learn more nutrition facts about shrimps. You will need the following ingredients (this is one serving) Shrimp - 9 , shelled, deveined Red chilli powder - 3/4 tsp Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp Salt - 1/2 tsp or as per your taste Lemon - 1 small Garlic - 1 pod, crushed Cooking oil - 1 tsp Fennel seeds - few Rice flour - 1 tsp In a bowl, add the cleaned shrimp, then add the salt, turmeric, chilli powder and marinate in the refrigerator for 1 hour. I am not using the lemon juice for marination. Usually, if it is a non-acidic marinade, you can marinate from 15-20 minutes to 1 hour. But with acidic marinades like lemon juice or vinegar, you can marinate no longer than 30 minutes. Acidic marinades can start to cook the shrimp, leading to tough and mu...

  After a long time I am back with a bang with yet another chicken delicacy.  Ginger Chicken Dry recipe  ( makes 1 Serving / Cooking time 20 minutes) Chicken 100 gms/ 1/4 lb Fresh Ginger root - 1 inch piece peeled and grated  Onion - 1/2 cup chopped Green peppers - 1 tbsp finely chopped Curry leaves - a few leaves, torn Coriander powder - 1 tbsp Chilli powder - 1/2 tbsp Turmeric powder- 1/2 tsp Biryani masala powder - 1 tsp (check my recipe here ) Salt to taste Plain Yogurt - 2 tbsp Cooking oil - 2 tbsp ( I use canola oil) Wash the chicken pieces and marinate with the yogurt, salt and turmeric powder. Leave it aside until you chop the onions and grate the ginger.  Heat a skillet and pour 2 tbsp of cooking oil. Add the curry leaves, chopped onion and sauté in medium flame. Now add the chicken and the ginger together. Sauté in medium fine until the chicken turns white.  Now add the coriander powder, chilli powder and the biryani masala powder, mix well and co...

Bonjour mes amis, I am going to share a healthier version of vada curry. I have only steamed the vada , instead of deep frying in oil, like in the original recipe. There is a special ingredient , which is 'tender banana blossoms'. Please make sure you don't use the first few layers of the blossom. They will be thick and won't taste good.  For the curry: Onion - 1 large, finely chopped Garlic - 5 cloves, chopped Tomato - 1 medium, chopped Tamarind - 1 gooseberry size, soaked and pulp extracted Turmeric powder -1/4 tsp Coriander powder - 3 tbsp Chilli powder - 1/2 tbsp (or according to your spice tolerance level) Asafoetida(hing) - 1/4 tsp Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp Salt as per taste Curry leaves - a few Coriander leaves - few  For the dumplings: Banana blossom - tender pieces from the inner layers; deveined and chopped roughly Channa Dal - 2 tbsp Toor Dal - 4 tbsp Fennel seeds - 1/4 tsp Cumin seeds - 1/4 tsp Dry red chillies - 2  Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp Asafoetida powder ...

Hello readers Today I am here with yet another delicacy from my kitchen. I was bored to have the same old raw banana fry / vazhakkai chips / vaazhakkai varuval. So I tried this dish and here I am sharing the recipe with you all.  Recipe card   Raw Banana - 2 nos. Garlic - a few pods Asafoetida / hing / Perungayam - 1/8 tsp Chilli powder - 2 tsp Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp Tamarind paste - 2 tsp Salt - as per taste Cooking oil 1 tsp + 2 tbsp For the dry masala powder Coriander seeds - 1 tbsp  Fennel seeds - 1/2 tsp Peppercorns - 1/2 tsp Dry coconut / Kopparai / fried grated coconut - 1 tbsp Dry fry all the above ingredients and grind to a coarse powder.  In a pot, heat 2 cups of water. Once it starts to boil, add the chilli powder, turmeric powder, salt, tamarind paste, hing and 1 tsp oil and let it boil for a minute.  Now cut the raw banana into 1/2 inch thick long slices like in the picture below.  Now, add these slices into the boiling mixture and cook for ...

Greetings dear readers! Now that the summer is approaching, I thought of sharing a refreshing summer drink recipe that you can make at home. I have used 'Belveder' raspberry syrup for this recipe. It is easily available in-store and online. You can use any raspberry syrup available in the market.  Let's gather all the ingredients...  Raspberry syrup - 4 tbsp Water - 6 cups Juice of 1 lemon  Honey - 1 tbsp (diluted with 2 tbsp of warm water) Fresh mint leaves- few Lemon rinds  Ice cubes  In a pitcher, add the syrup, water, lemon juice and diluted honey and stir well. Now tear the mint leaves and add to the syrup. Finally add the lemon rinds.  Refrigerate for 2 hours and refreshing summer drink is ready! Serve with ice cubes and enjoy 🍷 🍷

I personally like eating Thai food and also I love the plating in the restaurants. They use half of a pineapple and fill the fried rice in it. But I have presented in a bowl 😊. I made this dish because of my sudden craving for it.  This dish can prepared within an hour, start to finish.  The measurements I have given serves 2 people. Basmati rice - 3/4th cup, washed and soaked for 10 minutes Shrimp - 10 (I have used frozen Argentinian wild shrimp) (Wash and marinate the shrimp with 1 tsp of red chilli powder, 1/4 turmeric powder , salt - to taste) Onion - 1 small chopped Spring Onion - few chopped Pineapple - 2 slices (cored and cut into pieces) Eggs - 2 (scrambled with a pinch of salt and pepper powder) Green bell pepper and  carrot - a 2 tbsp each (chopped) Ginger and Garlic - 1 tbsp each (finely chopped) Black Pepper powder- 2 tbsp Tomato sauce and Chilli sauce - 1 tsp each ( I dont like to add soya sauce because of its high sodium content. But if you want, you can us...

Dear all,  I am happy to share this recipe with you all. It is one of my son's favorite sweet dish. It takes about an hour to prepare this dish. You can make about 20 pieces with the measurements given below. Condensed milk - 1 can (350 ml) Milk powder  - 1.5 cups Powdered Sugar - 1/2 cup Ghee (clarified butter) - 1/2 cup few strands of saffron soaked in a tbsp of warm milk Pistachios - a few slices (to garnish) [Cashew Powder - 1/4 cup + Powdered sugar - 1/4 cup] keep aside First, sift the milk powder, so you don't have any lumps. In a bowl, add the sifted milk powder, condensed milk and sugar and mix well without any lumps. Heat a pan, pour the mixture and keep mixing continuously. The sugar will start to melt. Keep stirring continuosly, otherwise the mixture will stick to the bottom of the pan and burn.  Keep adding the ghee little by little while cooking. After about 40 - 45 minutes, the mixture will start to rotate with the spatula.  Transfer it to a grease...