Morkuzhambu / Morkootaan

Morkootan / morkozhambu is a southindian curry (sounds like khadi) which goes well with plain cooked rice as a main dish and as a tastiest side dish for Dosai / Dosa (indian pancake), rotis etc

Those days there were no refrigerator hence the balance buttermilk of every day is collected in a kachchatti (vessel made out of stone) which gave way to invent this dish. Nothing is wasted!

I normally make curd specially for this and leave it for some extra hours so that it attain the right amount of sour taste.

The dish will be little sour. If you don't like sour taste you can even use fresh buttermilk.

Vegetables that can go into making this dish :-

Elephant yam, Cucumber, Ashgourd,Raw banana, yam (colaccia)

Ingredients :-

1. Sour curd - 1 cup (churn & keep ready)
2. Cucumber - 1 cup (diced) [Madrasi kakdi]
3. Grated coconut - 1 cup
4. Green chillies - 2 nos
5. Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
6. Fenugreek seeds - 2 tsp (dry roasted)
7. Water - 2 cups
8. Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
9. Salt to taste
10. Rice - 2 tsp (soak for 30 minutes) or use rice flour (optional)

For tempering :-

1. Oil - 2 tbsp
2. Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
3. Curry Leaves - 1 sprig
4. Red chilli - 1 No. 

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Notes :-

• If the buttermilk is very sour then it will not precipitate when boiled.
• To prevent such reaction, it is advisable to use some rice flour or add soaked rice to the masala for grinding and cook the dish in slow flame after adding buttermilk.

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Procedure :-

• Churn the buttermilk
• Dry roast the Fenugreek seeds / methi seeds 
• Put the diced vegetable into a vessel, add tumeric powder, salt and boil till the vegetable is tender & crisp. 
• Grind grated coconut, green chillies, cumin seeds and roasted fenugreek seeds to a nice paste adding little water
• Add the ground masala to the cooked vegetable and bring it to boil.
• Now lower the flame and add the buttermilk, mixing slowly
• Let it be on slow fire till foam forms on top (mix at regular intervals)
• Remove from fire
• Heat little oil for tempering, add mustard seeds when they start to splutter, add red chilli, curry leaves and add this to the curry.
• Toungue tickling aromatic Morkootan / Morkozhambu is ready!

Side dish suggestion :- This traditional dish goes well with another dry dish called "mezhukupiratti". I will make a post on this tomorrow. papad is also makes another good combo.

Gavar ki sabzi - Kothavarangai / cluster beans

Cluster Beans / Gavar / Guar / Kothavarangai :-

 

Cluster beans has calcium, phosphorous and little iron. 

How to buy :- Beans should be tender and look fresh. Avoid over ripen (very pale in colour) as it becomes chewy.  Avoid buying stained ones or beans with black spots as it means the beans are old. 

How to clean :- Some people feel cleaning is laborious but it is not so if you use a knife and chopping board. Wash it thoroughly, put inside a colander to drain. arrange few beans at a time (say 6 nos) with same sides together and chop off using a knife. Do the same with the other end too. Now the beans are ready to use.

This beans in Indian cuisine is used alone or along with potato and is prepared in different ways. It is also processed, dried and stored to use as a fried accompaniment (vaththal) along with curd rice.

The method i shared here is Maharashtrian preparation which goes well as a dry side dish with rotis, rice. It can also be directly mixed with plain white rice to make a variety rice for lunch box.

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Ingredients :-

1. Cluster Beans - 1 cup
2. Onion - 1 (medium)
3. Tomato - 1 (Medium)
4. Grated coconut - 3 tbsp
5. Roasted & powdered groundnut - 2 tbsp
6. Turmeric Powder - 1/4 tsp
7. Red chilli powder - 1/4 tsp (or as per your prefernce)
8. Coriander Powder - 1tbsp
9. Ghoda masala - 1tsp (maharashtrian garam masala or normal garam masala or you can do without this too)
10. Asafoetida powder - 1 pinch
11. Curry leaves - 1 sprig (finely chopped)
12. Oil for tempering - 2 tbsp
13. Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
14. Salt to taste 
15. Jaggery - 1tsp (optonal)

 

Procedure :

• Wash the cluster beans, drain & remove the ends as mentioned above. Chop in to 3 or 4 pieces
• Finely chop onion and tomatoes
• Finely chop the curry leaves
• Heat oil, add little mustard seeds. After they splutter add, asafoetida powder & chopped curry leaves
• Add the finely chopped onions and fry till they turn translucent.
• Now add the chopped tomatoes and cook till they turn mushy.
• Add Red chilli powder, turmeric powder, coriander powder, peanut powder and ghoda masala mix well.
• add required water, jaggery (optional) cover and cook until done. Keep mixing in between.
• Or you can pressure cook till two whistles, let the pressure come down. Then open the lid, switch on the flame.
• In the last stage, add grated coconut, mix well and cook for 5 minutes stirring in between.
• Delicious Gavar ki sabzi is ready!

Design-15

 

Design-15

Nonbu adais - sweet as well as salt

This is a special adai prepared for Kaaradayaan nonbu. Everytime i miss to take snap shots hence this year, I decided I will keep my camera ready (battery charged) so that I can share the recipe with you. By god's grace this year pooja too went on well and the Offerings (neivedhyam) - adais came out very well.

Lets get on to common preparative procedure for both the dishes.

First seek the blessings of Lord Ganesha and then Nala raja that all the preparations go smooth. Then start the work....

1. For both sweet & salt adais, the preparation of rice flour & cowpeas are same. You can either purchase processed rice flour / idiyappam or appam podi (available in kerala stores) or follow the below method.
2. Soak the cowpeas / chawli / kaaraamani for 4 hours and pressure cook
3. Soak raw rice for 30 minutes
4. Drain the water
5. Spread the rice on a clean cloth & let it air dry
6. Powder it in a mill or using a mixer grinder, finely
7. Sieve and measure & keep ready in separate bowls
8. Heat a kadai / wok, dry roast this flour till nice aroma comes
9. Spread a paper, transfer the roasted flour to it and allow to cool

Let us start with sweet thing first :D

SWEET ADAI :-


Ingredients :

1. Processed rice flour - 1 cup (I used Melam idiyappam / appam podi which is too good for this purpose)
2. Water - 1.5 cups
3. Powdered Jaggery - 1 cup
4. Boiled cowpeas (kaaramani / chawli) - 1 tbsp
5. Coconut - grated - 3 tbsp (normally small shredded pieces of coconut is used in the recipe. But grated coconut has its own advantage as the fresh milky taste blends well and it is easy to chew for the children & aged people)
6. Cardamom powder - 1/4 tsp (optional)
7. Ghee - 2 tsp (optional)

sweet adai

Procedure :

• Prepare the flour as mentioned above. If you are buying ready made flour, then just follow the process given for roasting the flour
• Heat 1.5 cups of water in a vessel
• In another vessel boil some more water (to use if needed)
• When the water in the vessel starts boiling, add the powdered jaggery.
• 
  
• Boil by keep stirring till the jaggery dissolves completely
• Remove from flame, using a fine strainer, strain for impurities
• Transfer the filtered jaggery water to a wok, add the boiled cowpeas, grated coconut and bring to boil (You can add the cardamom powder at this stage)
• Now while keep stirring add the rice flour little by little to the boiling jaggery water
• the mixture will thicken now. If you feel you can add some more water (say a tbsp or two) now (which you have boiled separately)
• Allow this mix to cool down a bit. (Add ghee now & mix well)
• In a bowl mix some ghee or (gingely oil) and some water to use as a greasing agent to prevent the dough sticking to your hands
• Divide the dough into small balls of equal portion (dip your hand inthe oil+water mixture to grease the fingers?)
• now gently knead each portion, shape into ball, flatten them into discs, make a hole in the centre.
• Same way prepare all the portions and in a steamer, steam it for 10 minutes
• Delicious, Soft & Sweet adai is ready!

SALT ADAI 

Ingredients :

1. Processed rice flour - 1 cup (I used Melam idiyappam / appam podi which is too good for this purpose)
2. Water - 1.5 cups
3. Salt to taste
4. Boiled cowpeas (kaaramani / chawli) - 1 tbsp
5. Coconut - grated - 3 tbsp (normally small shredded pieces of coconut is used in the recipe. But grated coconut has its own advantage as the fresh milky taste blends well and it is easy to chew for the children & aged people)  

Ingredients For tempering :-

1. Sesame oil - 2 tbsp
2. Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
3. deskinned Black gram / white urad - 1 tsp
4. Curry leaves - 1 sprig (finely chopped)
5. Asafoetida powder - 1 big pinch
6. Green Chillies - 2 nos (finely chopped)

salt adai

Procedure :

• Heat oil in a wok.
• Add mustard seeds. When it start spluttering, add whole urad / black gram, asafoetida powder
• When dal turns golden borwn add chopped curry leaves, green chillies and fry for few seconds
• Now add 1.5 cups of water, boiled cowpeas and grated coconut, bring to boil
• Now add 1 cup roasted flour and mix well. If you feel you require some more water then add it little by little checking the consistency.
• Switch off the flame.
• Allow it to cool
• Shape them the same way as described for the sweet adai

Note :-

1. If the flour is fine, adequate water is used, the adais will remain soft even after several hours of preparation.
2. Knead each portion of dought lightly will remove the lumps & give smooth texture to the adais.
3. If you use grated coconut, it has two advantages. the freshly grated coconut will be juicy hence it blends well with the flour & gives added tastes and it makes the adai easily chewable for children and Old people

Serving suggestion :- Butter makes an excellent accompaniment for the dish

Karadayan Nonbu / Savitri Vradh

Today is the day of Karadayan Nonbu. Just finished the pooja and had the prasad.

Brought some prasad for you too :-)

 

Nonbu adai - sweet as well as salt

Nonbu Adai (sweet as well as salt) recipe here :- http://my-hobby-lounge.blogspot.in/2013/03/nonbu-adais-sweet-as-well-as-salt.html

Do you face "Unable to view my blog" problem?

Hi   

Atlast I am back to my favourite world.  

I was unable to view my blog for the last two weeks.



After several tries, i could make two posts but I was not able to see what I have posted.

I also could not view or comment on other blogs in blogger.

I contacted my blogpals who was so kind and checked opening my blog page and reverted back. Thank you buddies.


Though others were able to see my blog, i could not.

These few days made me restless.

I checked my antivirus package, spoke to the service provider but they said no issue with them.

I contacted google but yet to receive a response on my query.

Finally I decided to speak to my net service provider. They after few attempts finally located the problem.

"Server settings".

Yes the culprit is the server setting. I still don't have any clue on how it got changed because I am the sole user and I don't venture into those things.

Anyway, pals, if you face similar issue contact your internet service provider and tell them to check your server settings (DNS etc) because that is the culprit first comes in list if you are unable to view your own blog from your PC.

Also don't forget to check your antivirus status frequently because sometimes it gets turned off for some reason.

Hope it will be of use to someone in future.


Great relief. Now i can view mine as well as yours!

A small celebration with you all. 

courtesy : google search

Happy Blogging

Marriage? - a quick guide to both Bride and Groom

• Respect and Love should go together and be reciprocated.

• Fighting is quite common in marriage. These fights only make the life more interesting because reunion after a petty fight brings you together more. Don’t lose that opportunity by giving importance to your ego. Only your life partner gives you companionship and not egos.

• In any arguments never use harsh words. Avoid an argument. Keep your cool and take the situation through the right way. If any hard words exchanged, forget them because words told when one is anger is coming out of madness and lose their meaning later.

• Avoid any personal talks or talks related to any family members or relatives while having food. Enjoy your food.

• Respect each other’s in-laws. Never complain about your in-laws to your parents as they are your family members and talking ill about a family member to a friend or outsider is like letting out family matters in public (unless you are in a very bad situation and needs to vent out by confiding on someone).

• Never make funny jokes about your spouse in front of others unless they are good enough to take it casually as a joke. This action will not get you ‘comedy king / queen’ crown.

• If one is not feeling well mentally or physically, understand and lend your support.

• This relationship is just not physical. Hence give importance to the person and their feelings.

• Never hesitate to say to each other irrespective of how old you are. Love will prevail till you reach the destination of this journey.

• Small exchange of gifts may boost the spirit. Gift not means expensive. Even a small bar of cholocate hidden here and there will surprise your spouse and convey your unspoken love

• The more years you pass by the more strong your bond will become.Actual life starts only late because it takes years to get that bond hence breaking of pre-matured relationship should be avoided wherever possible.

• Try to make this journey a peaceful and memorable one for each other and pass this to your future generations by putting only flower petals on the path for each other. Join hands and start your life.

Happy Married Life

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PS : I just tried to give some basic things before starting a new life and not covered entire aspect. Hope it will be of use to you.

You are welcome to share more inputs along with your feedback :-)

Thanks for stopping by

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Other related posts :-

1. Quick guide to Parents-in-law  
2. Quick guide to Groom  
3. Quick guide to Bride  

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Marriage? a quick guide to the Bride

To the Bride

• Like any other woman in the world you will also be entering your new life with lot of dreams. Dreaming is not bad but at the same time realize that there is a practical life and learn to adjust yourself fit into your new life.

• God has made woman a multitasker, a human being who can show unconditional love with lots of emotions. Use them wisely. Because these qualities are gift which makes her mould & fit into any environment which is also known as ‘adjustment’.

• Possessiveness comes with every newly wed woman as she consider her husband the more closest person because of intimacy in the relationship. But never let that take over you otherwise only fights will result.

• Understand that your husband is also a son to this parents, a brother to his siblings hence help him play his role properly and equally.

• If you are living as a nuclear family and your in-laws come to stay with you as a newly wed you may feel your are not getting much privacy but the distance that is created that time only increase the bond between you. They will stay for sometime and leave. After that you will realise how closer it brings you & your hubby together.

• Never complain on financial matters as no man will like it to hear from his wife especially those related to his parents. You are new in the environment. Till you know your new family completely, you cannot complain. Also remember he shares an equal responsibility with his parents like how he does for you. As far as he is supporting you unconditionally & comfortably and not deprive you of anything you should never bother yourself with such matters.

• Unless there is a terrible need for you to disclose things to your parents, never tell them anything as most of the fights are petty and you may bring a bad impression about your family members in their mind. Your parents will never like to see you suffer and this will only make them feel hurt and become more defensive towards you. Thus they may even go against your husband thus ruin your life though they actually don’t mean that.

• Learn to ignore petty things done or spoken by your husband or your in-laws. If you take everything to your heart, it will only hurt you and ruin your health and life and not the people responsible for that. Stay unaffected. This will come only by practice. Not an easy task but you will master it soon.

• Start assisting your MIL in her kitchen work instead of taking over it. Every woman feels very possessive about her kitchen too. So when you tell her to take rest, it is a difficult task for any MIL as she as a woman has kept herself busy all through her life in that place. To sit idle after a busy life is very very difficult. So let her be active.

• You may be knowing lot of things, but in some matters you ask her advise which will only make her happy.

• Compliment your MIL. Find out her interest and gift her small things accordingly. If she is a hobby enthusiast, get her some hobby materials of her interest. Encourage her. This will bring you both close with a lovely bond.

• Compliment your spouse wherever required. This is very much required in life. Like how you expect to be noticed and complimented the same will also boost the spirits of your spouse.

• Last but not the least, when your husband comes back from office, be ready to receive him with a smile and fresh face. Dress up nicely. Do give some attention to yourself amidst your chores. How you carry your person also matters both inwards and outwards. If he don’t smile back or don’t notice your smile, don’t get dejected. He might have faced a tough day at office. So be an understanding spouse and cheer him up.

• Any issues creep up, keep your cool, think and act diplomatically.

Understand your responsibility and be a wise woman.

Wish you a very happy life

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Related posts :-

Quick guide to Parents-in-law  
Quick guide to Groom 
Quick guide to Bride and Groom

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