Hot Puffed Poori's

One of the all-time satisfying breakfast. Whenever I think of Poori's, I will go and prepare immediately. During my childhood, whenever my mom makes poori's - we used to wait anxiously to eat, especially those hot puffed ones. I still remember, whenever my niece hesitate to eat we used to make Poori's, which she loves and never say "no" to it. To make it more nutritious, we add mashed apples/bananas along with flour for her.

I thought of posting this recipe as some of my friends always asked me the recipe for the puffed ones. There is some tricky part while making them. Here it goes...

All You Need:

Whole wheat flour - 2 cups
Oil - 1 tbsp
Salt, Warm water - As reqd.

Method:

Combine all the above ingredients to make a soft dough.

Tips for Puffed Poori's:

1. To make Poori's from the fresh dough (Dough should not be kept aside for more than 5 minutes).
2. Oil must be hot enough to make Poori's but it should not be smoking hot. Maintain the heat at med-high levels.
3. To check the hotness, drop a pinch of dough into the oil and it must rise to the surface of the oil immediately.
4. Take a small lemon sized dough and knead it with the help of rolling pin by applying even pressure all over the dough which helps to puff evenly.
5. The kneaded dough must be neither too thin nor too thick.
6. Drop the kneaded dough into the hot oil and press it slightly by using skimmer.
7. When it starts to puff, splash some hot oil over the surface of the puffed bread by using skimmer.
8. Turn it upside down to fry on the other side after 40-45 secs.
   
9. Fry the other side for less than a minute and take it out and dry it in a paper towel.
10. Serve hot with Aloo Besan curry / with your favorite side dish.

No more worries for making hot Puffed Poori's.

Vazhaipoo Kootu (step by step pictures)

My mom used to make lot of lip smacking recipes from Vazhaipoo during my childhood. I found this flower after a long time and thought of trying all those recipes and vazhaipoo kootu is one of them.I tried to present the step by step pictures of this recipe for clear understanding.



Banana Flower also known as "Banana Blossom" has lot of medicinal values. It is considered as a blood purifying item and it is effective in curing menstrual disorders. It also increases hemoglobin cell levels in the blood. It is good for lactating mothers too. But at the same time, cooking with banana flower is a tiresome job. One who enjoyed the taste of banana flower will never hesitate to cook again.

Clean the Banana Flower:

Peel the red layers one by one.



Remove all the flowers found in between those layers.



Open the flower and remove the stamen (long stem like structure along with a petal of bud like structure) from it.



These are not considered to be edible.They will neither get cooked nor chewable.



Stamen removed blossoms on right side and whole blossoms on the left.



Take a cup of buttermilk. Cut all the florets into small sizes and soak them immediately into the buttermilk for half an hour (to avoid discoloration).



Now Banana Blossom is ready to cook.

Kootu Recipe:

All you need:

Vazhaipoo(Banana Blossom) - 1
Toor dal - 1 cup
peanuts - 1/4 cup
Tamarind paste - 1 tbsp
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Urad dal - 1 tsp
Hing
Salt

To Roast & Grind:

Urad dal - 2 tbsp
Channa dal - 1 tbsp
Dhania - 1 tbsp
Peppercorns - 1/2 tbsp
Jeera - 1 tbsp
Coconut - 4 tbsp
Red Chillies - 4

Method:
Pressure cook the dal along with peanuts. Roast all the ingredients mentioned above except coconut with a tsp of oil and let them cool.Grind roasted ingredients along with coconut. Heat the pan with a tbsp of oil and add mustard seeds. After they splutter add urad dal and one broken red chilly.Drain the florets from buttermilk and add them to the pan. Add little water, cover and cook it along with salt and turmeric powder for 10 minutes. Now add the grounded masala paste along with tamarind. Let it to boil for 5 to 8 minutes and finally add the cooked peanuts and mashed dal. Cook it for another 5 more minutes and add hing.Serve hot with plain rice.



Note: You can store those banana florets in refrigerator by soaking them in buttermilk and it stays good for 4 to 5 days.

Akki Roti

Akki roti is nothing but roti made up of rice flour. Its a very tasty and great Karnataka dish. I have a strong liking for this dish from my childhood. There is no specific timing for making this dish. I prepare, whenever i want to eat it. I like all rice flour recipes say, Puttu, Kadubu, Akki Vada, Appam, Idiappam, etc. which have an excellent taste when prepared using fresh flour.

You can prepare Masala Akki roti by adding some veggies to it. But, I like the pure white akki roti with finely chopped green chillies and karipatha. It tastes great along with onion/red chutney.

All you need:

Rice flour - 1 cup
Red onion - 1 medium (finely chopped)
Green chillies - 3 (finely chopped)
Curry leaves - 3 (roughly chopped)
Jeera - 1/2 tbsp
Ghee - 1 tbsp
Salt and Oil

Method:

Combine all the above ingredients except oil. Mix the flour thoroughly after adding salt. Now add water little by little and make a soft ball like a chapati dough. You can add a tbsp of oil while preparing the dough. Now, heat the tawa in a medium flame and grease it. Take a portion of dough (which must be bigger than the size of a lemon) and make a ball out of it.

Now, spread the dough directly on the tawa by touching water in your fingers and make sure, it is not too thin. Now add little oil over the edges and slightly increase the heat. Cook for 1 minute and flip it on the other side. It's done when you can see light brown spots on the roti.



If you are not comfortable in spreading the dough directly on the tawa, try spreading it on a grease paper or on a plastic sheet. Grease the sheet and then spread the dough by pressing using fingers touched in oil and then slowly transfer the roti onto the tawa. Be cautious, if tawa is too hot, it will burn the sheet.


For Red Chutney:

All you need:

Red onion - 4 (medium)
Tomato - 2 (medium)
Red Chillies - 4
Tamarind paste - 1/2 tbsp
Mustard seeds - 1/4 tbsp
Urad dal - few
Curry leaves - few
Salt

Method:

Heat 2 tbsp of oil in a pan. Add red chillies and roughly chopped red onions. When they become translucent, add chopped tomatoes and fry till the tomatoes get mashed. Let them cool and grind it along with salt and tamarind. Now heat the tadka and add mustard seeds, urad dal and curry leaves. Transfer them into the red chutney. Serve Red/onion chutney along with hot akki rotis.



Note: Heat one tbsp of ghee and then add it to the flour which gives a nice and fresh aroma over the flour. Adjust the salt and chillies acc. to your taste. Akki roti tastes great when served hot.

Plum Cake

I want to share my most favorite plum cake recipe with you all. I tried this cake for the first time and it came out very well. I hope everyone will enjoy this cake made from scratch.


All you need:

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups of powdered sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 tbsp of butter (At room temp)
1/2 cup of vegetable oil
3/4 cup of chopped plums (Available in stores)
1 tablespoon grated lemon or orange zest
3 eggs
1 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla essence

Method:
Beat the vegetable oil, butter, eggs, sugar and lemon zest in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium speed until creamy. Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, milk,vanilla essence and salt into the mixer and gradually beat at medium speed for 1 minute and at high speed for 2 minutes. Make sure that there is no solid part in it.Finally add the plums into the mixture and gently mix it with a spatula.

Preheat the oven to 325 degree Fahrenheit. Grease the baking pan with vegetable oil / butter. Spoon the batter into the prepared pan and bake it for 40-50 minutes. Keep checking inorder to avoid over baking. Insert a toothpick into its centre and if it comes out clean without sticking, then the cake is done. Cool the cake completely in the pan for another 20 minutes.


Now turn the cake pan upside down on a clean plate.The cake will come out of the pan like this.


Turn it down and remove the upper crust with a sharp knife.


Cut them into desired shapes as you like and store it in an air-tight container in the refrigerator.


You can serve it along with some cream on its top. Enjoy!

Mint Bhath

All the credit for this recipe goes to my sister. She is a psychologist but at the same time great cook too...I learned so many recipes from her. I enjoyed those days when she made "Puttu", especially for me. I really miss her a lot......

I used to make chutney and spice dal powder from mint leaves. But always try to do something different from that. I feel- Now, I have the right recipe in hand to do with mint leaves. This recipe really impressed me. This recipe is very easy to cook, less ingredients and tastes great. Absolutely ,right comfort food for lunchbox and as the picnic recipe. Thanks to my sister.



All you need:
Rice – 1 1/2 cups
Mint leaves – 1 bunch
Red chilli – 2 to 3
Tamarind – lemon size
Mustard Seeds – 1tsp
Hing
Salt, oil

Method:
1. Cook the rice separately.
2. Grind mint leaves, tamarind, red chillies and salt with very little water.
3. Heat 1 tbsp of oil in a pan and put mustard seeds .
4. Now add the grounded masala along with hing powder till the oil separates from it and it forms thick mass (like chutney).
5.Now add rice, mix well and serve.