Coconut paayaasam

Today’s Navarathri recipe is my grandmother’s recipe for coconut paayaasam, as remembered and replicated by my mother. Many people generally use dairy milk for the ‘paal paayasam’ but my grandmother preferred using coconut milk for sago pudding and now, that’s the way it is made in our family.

Paayaasam

Time taken: 15 mins

Serves 2

Ingredients:

Pearl sago/ Savvarasi – ¼ cup
Cardamom – 2, crushed
Chickpea – 1 tbsp, fried and split
Cashewnuts – 2 or 3, chopped
Coconut milk – ½ cup
Sugar – 1 tbsp or adjust per taste
Raisins – 1 tbsp
Kesari powder – pinch

Method:

Heat 1 cup of water in a pan, adding 2 crushed cardamoms, for about 5 mins.
Add the pearl sago and let the boiling continue for a couple of minutes.
When the sago is half-cooked, add the split, fried chickpea and cashewnuts and continue cooking for another couple of minutes.
Once the sago is well cooked and the mixture thickens, add the coconut milk and the kesari powder.
In a few minutes, add the sugar and mix well and let the ‘paayaasam’ simmer for another couple of minutes.
Add the raisins just before removing the pan from the stove.
Stir and serve either hot or chilled.

Recipe source: Raji Thillainathan.

Nethali Theeyal

This dish is considered a highly nutritious dish and is particularly made for those recovering from a serious illness or childbirth and who need to eat a diet with more calcium content.

This is my grandmother’s recipe as remembered by my mother. Sorry that I do not have an accompanying photo for it as my parents have been vegetarians for nearly 15 years now.

Nethali Theeyal

Time taken: 15 mins

Serves 4

Ingredients:

Nethali/ Anchovies – 1 cup
Tamarind extract – 1 ½ cup
Onion – ½
Green chillies – 2
Crushed chillies – 1 tbsp
Salt, to taste
Oil

Method:

Clean the nethali.
Place all the ingredients except oil – the cleaned nethali, chopped onion and chillies, tamarind extract, crushed chillies and salt to taste – in a pan.
Cook on low heat, for around 15 mins, till the gravy thickens.
Drizzle some oil on the edges of the curry before removing the pan from stove.

Recipe source: Raji Thillainathan.

Egg cutlets

Today’s theme has been egg focused. The third recipe for today is my grandmother’s recipe for egg cutlets, as remembered by my mother.

Egg cutlet

Time taken: 15 – 20 mins

Serves 4

Ingredients:

Egg – 1 + egg white, for dipping the cutlet
Potato – 1
Onion – ¼, chopped
Green chilli – 1, chopped
Pepper – 1 tsp
Salt – ¼ tsp
Fennel powder – ½ tsp
Bread crumbs, for rolling the cutlets
Oil, for deep frying

Method:

Boil the egg and potato for about 10 minutes.
Mash the boiled potato in a bowl and keep aside.
Finely chop the boiled egg and add to the mashed potato.
Add the finely chopped onion, green chilli to the bowl and add the pepper, salt, fennel seasoning to the cutlet mix.
Mix well and divide the mixture into four balls.
Whisk lightly the white of an egg in a small bowl.
Dip each of the cutlet balls in the egg white and roll them in bread-crumbs. Keep aside.
Heat the oil for deep frying the cutlets. Drop the cutlets into the frying pan and fry them, turning them around so that they are browned on all sides.
Remove the cutlets from the frying pan and place them on grease absorbing paper before you serve them with a chilli or tomato sauce.

Recipe source: Raji Thillainathan.

Omelette and Omelette Curry

This omelette and omelette curry are recipes of my grandmother’s, as remembered by my mother.

(a) Omelette

Time taken: 6 – 7 mins

Serves 2

Ingredients:

Eggs – 2
Onion – ¼
Green chilli – 1
Salt and pepper, to taste
Sesame oil (gingelly oil) – 1 tbsp

Method:

Finely chop the onion and chillies.
Whisk the two eggs. Add the salt and pepper and the chopped onion and chillies and whisk them together.
Heat 1 tbsp of sesame oil in a pan on low heat. Pour the egg mix in the pan and fry for about 2-3 minutes. Flip to the other side and cook for another 2 -3 minutes so that both sides are well-cooked and browned.
Remove from heat and serve as is or use in omelette curry.

(b) Omelette curry

Time taken: 20 mins

Serves 2

Ingredients:

Omelette
Fenugreek seeds – 1 tsp
Onion – ½ , chopped
Curry leaves – 1 sprig
Tamarind extract – ¼ cup
Coconut milk – ½ cup
Curry powder – 2 tsp
Sesame oil – 1 tbsp

Method:

Cut the omelette into pieces and keep aside.
Heat a tbsp oil in a pan and sauté the fenugreek seeds, chopped onion and curry leaves.
Add the tamarind juice and cook for a few mins.
Then add the coconut milk and curry powder and salt, to taste.
Cook for about 6- 7 minutes till the curry comes together and gravy thickens and then add the omelette pieces. Cook for a minute or two before removing from heat.
Serve with rice or pittu.

Recipe source: Raji Thillainathan.

Thosai with Sambhar

Today’s recipe is a meal that my mother often makes at home for dinner – Thosai with sambhar and sambal. This is a meal that can also be eaten at breakfast or lunch.

(a) Thosai

Cooking time: 30 mins + soaking and fermenting time: 12 hours

Makes 20

Ingredients:

Raw rice – 1 cup
Ulunthu/ urad dal – 1 cup
Fenugreek – ¼ tsp
Curry leaves – 1 sprig
Onion – small piece, chopped
Cumin – 1 tsp
Pepper – 1 tsp
Turmeric – ½ tsp

Method:

Soak the rice, dal and fenugreek for 6 hours.
Drain the soaked mixture and wash it lightly.
Put the mix in the blender together with the curry leaves, chopped onion and cumin, pepper and turmeric. Blend until the thosai batter has a consistency similar to that of pancake batter consistency.
Transfer the batter to a bowl. Cover and let it ferment for another 6 hours.
Add salt and mix before heating up the thosai pan or flat pan.
Pour a large spoonful of batter and spread it out. Flip to the other side after a minute or two so that both sides are cooked well and have brownish tinges.
Serve the thosai hot with sambhar and dried red chilli sambal.

(b) Sambhar

Cooking time: 30 mins

Serves 5 or 6

Ingredients:

Mysore dal – ½ cup
Brinjal – ½ cup, chopped
Beans – ½ cup, chopped
Carrot – ½ cup, chopped
Potato – 1 medium-sized, chopped
Pumpkin – ½ cup, chopped
Murungai Kai – ½ cup, chopped (optional)
Onion – ½, chopped
Curry leaves – 1 sprig
Tamarind extract – ¼ cup
Crushed chillies – 1 tsp
Cumin powder – 1 tsp
Coriander powder – 1 tsp
Pepper – ½ tsp
Garlic cloves – 2 or 3, crushed
Turmeric powder – ½ tsp
Coconut milk – ¼ cup
Salt, to taste

Method:

Cook the vegetables, in a pan with 3 cups of water, for about 15 – 20 minutes on medium heat.
Reduce heat and if water had dried up, add another ½ cup water. Add the tamarind juice, mix well and cook for another 5 minutes.
Add the crushed chillies, cumin, coriander and pepper powder, crushed garlic and turmeric powder to the pan. Mix well and cook for a few more minutes.
Towards the end, add ¼ cup coconut milk. Cook for a few minutes before removing from heat.
Serve sambhar with thosai or idli.

Recipe source: Raji Thillainathan.

Murungai Ilai Kanji

Update (04/07/4014): I wanted to also share a kanji (soup/porridge) recipe that is popular in Jaffna at the Soups with SS event hosted by Sonal and Shruti.

This morning, I will share my mother’s recipe for murungai ilai kanji. My mother makes different types of kanji occasionally for breakfast but I like this one the best.

Murungai Ilai Kanji

Time taken: 20 mins

Serves 1 or 2

Ingredients:

Red raw rice – 3 tbsp
Murungai ilai/ Moringa leaves – 3 tbsp, chopped or ground
Carrot – ¼, chopped
Onion –1 tsp, chopped
Bean – 1, chopped
Pepper – ¼ tsp
Salt, to taste
Lime juice, to taste

Method:

Cook the rice in a pan with 1 cup of water for about 5 mins.
Add all the chopped vegetables and cook for another 10 – 15 mins.
Add the salt and pepper, to taste. Mix and cook for a couple of minutes before removing from the heat.
Squeeze some lime juice before serving hot.

Recipe source: Raji Thillainathan.

Palakottai curry

This is one of the ways my mother cooks jackfruit seeds.

It is difficult to cut up fresh, ripe jackfruit. When you keep it for 2 to 3 days, it becomes easier to chop and peel the outer layers and remove the fruit. As you pull out each of the sweet and ripe yellow fruit, cut a slit and remove the seed inside and collect in a separate bowl.

Palakkottai curry

Time taken: 20 – 30 mins

Serves 3

Ingredients:

Palakkotai (Jackfruit seeds) – 1 cup
Coconut milk – 2 ½ cups (thin consistency)
Onion – ½ chopped
Curry leaves
Curry powder – 1 tsp
Salt, to taste

Method:

Wash and clean the jackfruit seeds.
Put the cleaned jackfruit seeds in a pan and add 2 ½ cups of thin coconut milk. Also add the chopped onion, curry leaves and the curry powder and salt.
Cook for about 20 minutes until the curry thickens and the seeds are cooked and soft enough.
Serve with rice or pittu.

Recipe source: Raji Thillainathan.

Pittu with Katharikkai

Today, I felt like sharing another of my family’s comfort food. During the weeks that my mouth was wired shut after my road traffic accident nearly a decade ago, the food that I felt like eating the most was pittu and katharikkai vathakkal. It was then that I found out that everyone in my family seemed to like it very much as well.

As pittu is made as either kulal pittu or regular pittu and my mother generally makes the katharikkai (brinjal) as a curry or vathakkal (stir-fry) to go with the pittu, I decided to share the recipes for all of them.

(a) Kulal pittu (pittu steamed in bamboo)

Time taken: 25 mins

Serves 3

Kulal Pittu

Ingredients

Roasted rice flour – 1 cup
Steamed wheat flour – ¼ cup
Salt – ½ tsp
Scraped coconut – ¼ cup
Hot water, as required

Method:

Mix the roasted rice flour and the steamed wheat flour. Add some salt.
Pour the hot water (boiled and slightly cooled) slowly into the flour mixture and stir by hand till you have coarse, little balls.
Divide into three sections of flour mixture.Divide the freshly scraped coconut into four parts.
Take the bamboo steamer and layer the bottom with one part of the freshly scraped coconut. Then, take one of the divided sections of flour mixture and fill in the bamboo steamer. Layer again, with the second part of scraped coconut. Repeat for remaining two sections of flour mixture until the bamboo steamer is filled but not overflowing. Top with the final part of the scraped coconut.
Steam for 10 to 15 minutes.
Serve the kulal pittu with katharikkai kulambu.

(b) Katharikkai Curry/ Brinjal curry

Time taken: 30 mins

Serves 4 to 5

Katharikkai curry

Ingredients

Brinjal – 2 cups (1 or 1 ½ inch thin slices)
Onion – ½, chopped
Fenugreek seeds – 2 tsp
Curry leaves – 1 sprig
Tamarind extract – ½ cup
Coconut milk or non-fat milk (for non-vegans) – 1 cup
Curry powder – 1 ½ tsp
Sugar – 1 tsp
Salt, to taste
Low fat oil (sunflower or canola) – 2 tsp + for deep frying

Method:

Cut the brinjals into 1 or 1 ½ inch thin slices till you have about 2 cups.
Deep fry the brinjal slices they brown and keep aside.
Heat 2 tsp oil in a pan and sauté the onion and curry leaves with the fenugreek seeds for a couple of minutes.
Add the brinjal slices to the pan. Mix and fry for a few more minutes.
Add the ½ cup of tamarind extract and simmer for a few minutes before adding the coconut milk or non-fat milk and the curry powder and salt, to taste.
Let the curry simmer for 10 minutes.
Finally, add the sugar, mix and quickly remove from heat. For curries that use tamarind, it is good to add some sugar at the end, just before removing from the stove, as it enhances the flavours.
Serve with pittu or rice.

(c) Pittu with Katharikkai Vathakkal

Ingredients:

Time taken : 35 – 40 mins

Serves 3 to 4

Pittu with Katharikkai Vathakkal

Ingredients:

For pittu, ingredients are the same as for kulal pittu – see (a) above
Brinjals – 2
Onion – ½
Chilli – 1
Curry leaves – 1 sprig
Curry powder – 1 tsp
Salt, to taste
Sesame oil – 2 tbsp

Method:

For the regular pittu, follow steps 1 and 2 as for the kulal pittu. Then, mix in the freshly scraped coconut into the bowl of tiny flour balls. Steam the pittu mix in a normal steamer for about 10 – 15 minutes.
Wash and clean the brinjals. Cut the brinjals lengthwise and then finely chop them into small pieces. Sprinkle some salt over the chopped pieces. Mix and keep aside.
Finely chop up the onion and chilli.
Heat 2 tbsp oil in a pan. Add the chopped brinjal pieces to the pan and fry them for 5 mins.
Add the chopped onions and continue frying for another 5 mins. If needed, add a little more oil.
At the end, add the curry powder, mix and fry for a couple of minutes before removing from heat.
Serve the pittu with the katharikkai vathakkal.

Recipe source: Raji Thillainathan.

Murungai ilai varai

The second recipe I would like to share today is my mother’s murungai ilai recipe. Rich in iron and calcium, murungai (moringa oleifera) is very much part of Jaffna cuisine.

Murungai ilai Varai/stir fry

Time taken: 25 – 30 mins

Serves 2 – 3 persons

Ingredients:

Murungai ilai/ Moringa leaves – 1 ½ cups
Fennel seeds –1 tsp
Green chillies – 2, chopped
Onion – ½, chopped
Curry leaves – 1 sprig
Coconut scraped – 1 tbsp
Curry powder – 1 tsp or pepper – ½ tsp
Salt, to taste
Sesame oil, as required

Method:

Wash and clean the bunch of murungai ilai. Extract the leaves from the stalk.
Drain off the water and chop the leaves finely. Sprinkle with salt and keep aside.
Heat 1 tbsp of sesame oil in a pan. Saute the chopped onion, green chillies and curry leaves with fennel seeds.
Add the salted leaves to the pan. Increase the heat and stir fry for about 10 mins.
Now, add the freshly scraped coconut and curry powder or pepper and mix well.
Continue to stir fry for another 5 mins before emoving from heat.
Serve hot with rice.

Recipe source: Raji Thillainathan.

Three fish recipes

Today, I will share three fish preparations of my grandmother, as remembered by my mother and occasionally prepared at home during my childhood days.

(a) Fish curry

Cooking time: 25 mins

Serves 5

Ingredients:

Fish (any type) – 5 pieces
Onion – ½, chopped
Fenugreek seeds – 1 tsp
Curry leaves – 1 sprig
Tamarind juice – ½ cup
Coconut milk – 1 cup (thin consistency) + ½ cup (thick consistency)
Special curry powder for fish – 1 tbsp + 1 tsp (optional)
Oil, as required

Method:

Heat oil in a pan and fry the chopped onion and curry leaves with fenugreek seeds for 2 minutes.
Add the fish pieces. Mix well and fry for a few minutes.
Reduce the heat to low and add ½ cup of tamarind extract and then the 1 cup of thin coconut milk.
Let the curry simmer for about 15 minutes.
Add the ½ cup of thick coconut milk and if you like, another tsp of the curry powder. Let the curry cook for another 5 mins until the gravy thickens.
Serve with rice.

(b) Fried fish/ Meen Poriyal or Varuval

Cooking time: 30 mins

Serves 4

Ingredients:

Seer fish/ Arakkula or Malabar Trevally/Paarai meen or Emperor fish/ Vilai meen – 4 pieces
Onion – 2, chopped
Crushed red chillies – 2 tsp
Cumin powder – ½ tsp
Coriander powder – ½ tsp
Curry leaves – 1 sprig
Chilli powder – ½ tsp
Salt, to taste
Oil, for deep-frying

Method:

Clean the fish pieces. Marinate with salt and chilli powder.
Deep fry the marinated pieces and keep aside.
Heat a little oil in a pan and fry the onions and curry leaves. Add the crushed chilli, cumin and coriander powders.
Add the fried fish and mix. Cook for about 10 mins or nicely combined.
Serve with rice.

(c) Scrambled fish or Sura varai

Time taken: 25 mins

Serves 4

Ingredients:

Fish, usually shark/ sura – 1 cup (250g), cleaned and chopped pieces
Onion – 1, chopped
Green chilli – 1, chopped
Dried red chillies – 2, chopped
Curry leaves – 1 sprig
Fennel seeds – 1 tsp
Mustard seeds – ½ tsp
Freshly scraped coconut – 2 tbsp
Pepper or Curry powder – 1 tbsp
Turmeric powder – ½ tsp
Pepper powder – 1 tsp
Salt, to taste
Sesame oil, as required

Method:

Boil the fish pieces. Once cooked, cool and then crumble the pieces in a bowl. Add some salt, pepper and turmeric powder and keep aside.
Heat 2tbsp of sesame oil in a pan and sauté the chopped onion, green and red chillies and curry leaves with the fennel and mustard seeds.
Add the crumbled and spiced fish to the pan and mix well. If needed, add a little more oil.
Finally, add the freshly scraped coconut. Combine well and cook for a few minutes before removing from heat.
Serve with rice.

Recipe source: Raji Thillainathan.