Appam(Tanjore Style)

Appam this word makes me drool..............we people are very new to the concept of making these Appam verities at home. Most of the time, had from frozen section or from the friends place. For the first time, I felt like trying these goodies at home, So I have adopted this wonderful yet simple recipe from Santhi Krishnakumar's Cook Book, It turned out perfect......................................

Ingredients:

Rice Flour-1/2cup, Wheat Flor-1/2cup, Jaggery-3/4cup(grated), Elachi-3no.(crushed), Fresh Coconut-2tsp(shredded), Oil for deep frying.

Method:

Mix all the above ingredients well. Add water and make the batter, this batter should have the consistency that of dosa batter. In a pan heat oil for deep frying, once the oil is hot enough, pour a table spoon of batter in the oil, wait till the upper side gets fluffy, then turn to the other side and fry till they are medium brown in color.

My Observations:

The oil should not be too hot.

Remove the Appams from heat once they get brown color because the jaggery gives them burnt taste.

Fry few Appams at a time for the best results.

Munnakaya Vepudu/ Drumstick Stirfry

This is one of my childhood favorites...........................

Ingredients:

3no.Drumsticks(cut into 3'' pieces)
1Onion(sliced)

Masala Powder:

3tsp.Peanuts
3/4tsp.Redchilli Powder
3-4pods Garlic
1/4tsp.jeera
salt to taste

Dry roast the peanut, husk them out, then all the ingredients under masala power and grind them to coarse powder and keep it aside.

For Seasoning:

2tsp.Oil
1tsp.Urad dal
1/4tsp.Mustard Seeds
1/4tsp.Jeera
Turmeric a pinch
2 springs curry leaves

Method:

Boil the drumstick pieces with little salt and 1/2 cup of water, once they are well cooked drain the water if any. In a pan heat oil, once it hot enough add urad dal, mustard and jeera, once they start to crack, then add curry leaves and onions. Fry the onions until they are translucent, then add boiled drumstick pieces, turmeric and fry for 3min., on medium flame. Then add the ground masala powder and remove from the flame. It can be served as a side for Rice.

Nuvvula Annam/Ellu Sadam/Til Rice

The light and nutty flavour makes this rice so special....................................


Ingredients:
Rice-2cups
Sesame seeds/nuvvulu-4tbsp.
Red chillies-5no.
Asafoetida-pinch
BengalGram-1tbsp.
Sesame Oil/Nuvvula nune-5tsp.
Salt to Taste

Method:
Cook rice and keep it aside. Heat the pan and dry roast the sesame seeds til they get nutty flavour(appx.3-4min. on medium flame)or til they get light brown color, do not over fry the seeds and keep them aside.
In the same pan add 1tsp. of oil and fry red chillies, bengalgram, asafoetida, allow them to cool, add them and salt to the roasted til seeds and powder them. Add the powder, 2tsp.sesame oil to the cooked rice and mix well and serve it.

Saggubiyyam Payasam(Saboodaana Kheer)

This is most simple, yet tasty and healthy payasam. It's even taken as a remedy for reducing body heat. It's preparation is quite simple, but when I was a novice, It was hard for me to boil these tapioca pearls, so I found a solution to my prob.,from then on making this dish became sooooooooo easy to me, the tip is...nothing but soaking saboodaana over night with little water.................as you soak for saboodaana kichidi.

Ingredients:

Saggubiyyam/saboodana-1/2cup(soak it with little water overnight), Milk-3cups, Sugar-3/4cup, Elachi-3no., ghee-3tsp., cashews-10no.

Method:

Boil milk with 1/2 glass of water, once it gets to rolling boiling, add the pearls to milk and boil it on high flame for 6min.(it takes little time to cook the pearls as they are soaked before), then add elachi powder, sugar and roasted cashews and remove from the flame and serve it warm.