Broccoli and Carrot Mezhukkupuratti

Ingredients:

• Carrot 1 cup
  
• Chilly 4 to 5
  
• Broccoli 2 cup
  
• Pepper pdr 1/2 Tsp
  
• Turmeric pdr 1 Tsp
  
• Mustard seeds
  
• Curry leaves
  
• Garlic 3 to 4
  
• Water
  
• Salt
  
• Oil
  

Clean the vegetables and cut it into medium pieces. Add splitted chilly, garlic, onion, salt, little water and turmeric pdr. Cook it in low heat and keep it aside. Heat oil in a pan and add mustard seeds, curry leaves and onion and saute it well. Add cooked vegetables and pepper pdr. Mix it well and saute it for few mins in medium heat.

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Cherupayar (Moong Dal) Kootu

Ingredients:

• Cherupayar(Moong Dal) 1 cup cooked
• Coconut 1/2 to 3/4 cup
• Sugar 2 to 3 tbs
• Salt as rqd

Soak the moong dal for 1/2 hr. Clean it and cook well. Mix together cooked hot moong dal, coconut, sugar and salt well.

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Puttu

Ingredients:

• Rice flour 2 cup
  
• Coconut 1/2 grated
  
• Water as rqd
  
• Salt as rqd
  

Mix together required amount of water and salt. Sprinkle this salt water slowly over the rice flour and mix well. Continue this process till the flour becomes wet and smooth. Do not use too much water. (The perfect stage to stop the process is to take a handful of wet flour in the hand, just press it and open the fist. If the flour remain as a solid chunk without breaking or splitting apart, you can stop the process.) Add little grated coconut into the prepared flour and mix well. (To make soft puttu, just grind the wet flour in a mixer.)

For preparing puttu, put a layer of grated coconut into the puttu kutti (puttu maker) followed by rice flour and then again a layer of grated coconut. Steam it fo 5 to 8 minutes until the steam passes from the top of the puttu kutti. Serve it hot.

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Cherupayar Payasam - Happy Vishu....!!

Ingredients:

• Cherupayar parippu (Splitted moong dal) 1 cup
  
• Melted Jaggery 1 1/4 to 1 1 /2 cup
  
• Coconut milk thick (Onnam pal) 1/2 cup
  
• Coconut milk semi thick (Randam pal) 1 cup
  
• Coconut milk thin (Moonnam pal)1 1/2 cup
  
• Cardamom pdr 1 to 2 pinch
  
• Cumin pdr roasted 1 to 2 pinch
  
• Chukku podi (dry ginger) 1 pinch
  
• Coconut pieces 1 to 2 tbsp
  
• Cashew nuts few
  
• Raisin few
• Ghee as rqrd
  
• Water as rqrd
  
• Salt a pinch.
  

Roast the splitted moong dal in a kadai without changing its colour. After cooling it well, wash it and pressure cook it. Melt jaggery and filter it. Keep it aside. Grind  coconut and extract the required amount of coconut milk. Roast the cumin seeds and powder it.

Heat ghee in an uruli or any other thick bottomed vessel and add the above cooked dal and stir it well using a big spoon (chattukam). After that pour the melted jaggery into the dal and mix till it combines well. Make it into a thick form (nannayi kurukki pattichedukkuka) without letting it stick to the bottom.

To the dal, add the thin coconut milk (moonam pal) and boil it well (kurukki edukkuka). Then add the semi thick coconut milk (randam pal) and again boil it in low flame. Finally add the thick milk (onnam pal) along with cardamom pdr, roasted cumin pdr and chukku podi. Do not boil after adding the thick milk. Mix it and remove it from the fire. 

Fry the splitted cashews and raisins in 1 tbsp of ghee and pour it into the payasam. Fry the small coconut pieces (thenga kothu) in this same ghee till it turns golden colour and add it to the payasam.

[Recipe Courtesy: My Mom]

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Easter Chicken Roast

Ingredients:

• Chicken 1 (small)
  
• Cinnamon 1 big piece
• Cloves 5
  
• Kashmiri chilly pdr 11/2 Tbsp
  
• Pepper pdr 2 Tsp
  
• Turmeric pdr 1/2 Tsp
• Ginger paste 1 Tsp
  
• Garlic paste 1 Tsp
• Vinegar 2 Tsp
• Hot water 2 cup
  
• Salt
  
• Oil

Clean the chicken and drain the water from it. Grind all the ingredients (chilly pdr to garlic paste) using a little vinegar. Marinate the chicken with this grounded paste and refrigerate it for 3 to 5 hrs. Heat oil in a heavy bottom vessel and add the crushed cinnamon and cloves. Then shallow fry the chicken in low heat, turning it occassionally. Add hot water into the shallow fried chicken and cook till it becomes tender. Then remove the cooked chicken from the gravy and keep it aside. Boil the gravy until it thickens and the oil starts separating. Put the chicken into the gravy and cook it for few more mins.

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Me - Me Tag.....!!

Thanks to Divz who tagged me without whose prompting I would never have ventured on such an adventure as writing about myself…

1. I cherish the company of friends who are casual and downright informal, the types who can barge into my kitchen and have what they want without asking me and who can chat with me for hours….

2. I’m an early bird and I could even go to bed at 7.30 pm. For any event, I have to reach before time and really hate those who come late……

3. I am too lazy for make-ups, but if there’s someone who can help me with it, I am prepared to sit for hours… My latest craze is my lipstick collection….

4. I just need simple things to get emotional……….

5. I like travelling, but I have to reach the destination in less than an hour, else its hell for the rest of the journey…. My dream destination is Australia……

6. Thanks to my hubby, I like posing for photos……..I have recently developed a taste for good photography as well…..

7. I am psychosomatic, but don’t call me a psycho….!!  Mom always used to call me a ‘complaint-box’….  I always wished my hubby was a physiotherapist instead….

8. Many a people have said that I have a lovely smile… I wish that was true…!!

9. I love babies, especially twins…. I was born a twin….

10. Reading – that has never been my hobby, I read no more than magazines and cookbooks. And writing – that has never been my plus point either, that’s why u don’t see any of my stories in my blog……..

11. But talking - I can go on and on for hours without any tiring. I wish I was an RJ, I could have earned something, but instead I get huge phone bills……phew!!!!

12. I like window shopping, especially cutlery and cookware shops…. I can keep looking at them for hours and my dream job would be at one of those mega shops where I can keep staring at them all day….

13. My favourite place to visit near my home is Kottayam town…. We used to make all sorts of excuses to escape to Kottayam town…

14. I loved fighting with my brother, during my childhood days, when I lovingly called him ‘njouninga’ and he in return called me ‘ithilkanni’…… In the end, he used to cry and I was left to face the wrath from my parents….

15. I had never had enough of my family. I wouldn’t mind staying with my parents till I’m gone, of course, along with my hubby.

16. My dream home – a small, well designed home in a calm and serene surrounding, with a Naalukettu….

17. I love keep pet dogs…  I cannot keep cats but love playing with them…

18. I wish I looked like Kajol and I am contended that I am at least better than Oprah….

19. I feel George Clooney to be smart, handsome and manly, jus bcos I do not want to use the more apt word….:-))  I am a huge fan of SRK as well….

20. Cooking is a passion for me. I collect all types of recipes from magazines, cookery shows, cookbooks, recipes on the back of food packs and what not…….Recently I got introduced to the world of baking and caking……..

21. Like cooking, dancing is one of my other areas of interest which I was passionate about from my lower kindergarten days… We had a whole group which used to get on stage till my PG days…. Boy, how I miss those days…!!

22. Computers – I use them only for browsing. I was entered for a couple of computer courses but I happily flunked all of them….

23. I come from a God-fearing family and it pricks my conscience when I think about skipping a fast, so I follow all fast regularly…….

24. I have a very good memory power. I just need to see a person once and can remember his face for the life time….

25. Food – one of my weaknesses is really lovely food… My taste lies on the spicy side and love to have them even if it makes me weep…. Ironically, chocolates are my other favourites but I am not so keen on ice-creams….

I would like to tag Vrinda and Nags.

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Cheera Parippu Thoran (Spinach -Dal)

Ingredients:  

• Spinach 2 bunch
  
• Toor Dal 1 cup
  
• Coconut 1 cup
• Shallots 3 to 4
• Turmeric pdr 
• Curry leaves
• Chilly 5 to 6
  
• Mustard
• Salt
• Oil

Clean the spinach well. Soak dal for few minutes and cook it with water and salt and keep aside. Grind together coconut, shallots, chilly and turmeric pdr. Heat oil in a pan and add mustard, sliced shallots and curry leaves. Put the grounded coconut and salt into it. Saute and add the chopped spinach. Cook well and add the above prepared dal into it and mix well.

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