Appam / Nei appam

Appam is a spherical sweet dish made using rice flour and Jaggery. This sweet takes a most important place in the house of Tamil speaking Brahmins who hails from Kerala.  It is also known as neiyappam as ghee is mixed along with oil to give it a nice flavour (pure ghee will make it hard hence mixing with oil). For marriages in seer this sweet dish also takes an important place.

Many gets confused between an aapam and appam. Aapam is not a sweet and it is shaped like a dosa.  There is also a dish called vellai appam  (white appam) from kerala. Whereas appam / nei appam is a sphere shaped and is a fried sweet dish.

Special mould - a vessel with depressions is used to make the appams. If you don't have it, then prepare the batter to dropping consistency and drop in hot oil in a kadai, and deep fry.

Ingridients :- (to make 15 - 20 appams)

1. Raw Rice - 1 Tea Cup
2. Jaggery   -3/4 tea cup
3. Small Banana - 1 No.
4. Cardamom - 4-5 nos
5. Ghee - 2 tbsp
6. Coconut pieces - 1 tbsp
7. Coconut Oil - 1 Tbsp (frying coconut pieces)
8. Oil for frying

Procedure :-

• Soak Raw Rice for 2 hours & drain. 
• Grate jaggery. 
• In a mixer grinder, grind the soaked rice, jaggery, cardamom and small banana together into a nice paste.  Small elaichi banana softens the Appam and also gives nice flavour.
• Allow it to ferment for minimum 6 hours or leave it overnight.
• Before making Appam fry coconut pieces in coconut oil (you can add even without frying). Frying enhance the flavour and taste.
• In the appam moulds (appa kaaral) pour little ghee and oil into each depression, heat it. 
• Pour a small laddle of batter into it. When it rises, becomes fluffy and you see the ends turn colour into nice golden brown & crispy, with a sharp spoon  or a skewere turn it and let the other raw side cook till it is done.
• yummy appam is ready.

Notes / Tips :-

• Boiled rice can also be used instead of raw rice.
• Banana will help you to get a soft appam & nice flavour. If you don't have small elaichi banana, you can use half robusta banana or the golden kela.
• If you still find your appam hard for any reason, you can add a pinch of baking powder.

Karthigai Deepam

Karthigai Deepam is also a festival of lights like deepavali. It is celebrated as Lord Karthik's Birthday. Lord Karthik also known as Lord Murugan-the youngest Son of God Shiva and Goddess Parvathi born in Karthik Nakshtra (Star) of Karthik month.

Today is the day of celebration in south. Today and tomorrow people light all the lamps in their house (metal as well as earthen) and place it in front of their house, near the windows etc.

It will be a nice sight to see those lamps in the dark night giving warmth to eyes and beautifying the sorroundings. 

The main neivedhya is appam, pori and adai. Appam is a sweet ball shaped one fried in oil. Pori is puffed rice of different varieties mixed with melted jaggery separately and shaped into balls. Adai is a salty dish.

In the Shiva Temple at Thiruvannamalai (in Tamilnadu) this day is celebrated in grand manner. Early morning poojas are conducted and five lamps are lit signifying the five elements viz., air, water, fire, space and earth. In the evening the maha deepam (big lamp) is lit at the top of Thiruvannamalai after the Ardhanareeshwar's appearance. Huge wick made of cotton and so many litres of ghee is used to light it. This lamp stays for two to three days so that people from other parts come, visit the place to have the darshan of the maha deepam.

Uploading pictures of this years as well as earlier years for you.

 

Beetroot Rice

Beetroot is rich in iron and can be taken in various forms. Here I am sharing a Variety Rice using beetroot.

Ingridients :-

1. Beetroot grated - 1 cup
2. cooked Rice - 1cup
3. small Onion - 7 nos.
4. Green chillies - 2 nos
5. Coriander leaves - 1 tbsp
6. Oil - 1 tbsp
7. Mustard - 1/4 tsp
8. salt to taste
9. Turmeric Powder - less than 1/4 tsp

Procedure :

• Wash, clean and grate beetroot.
• Peel and wash small onions. Crush them or grind in a mixer coarsely.
• Finely chop green chillies, coriander leaves
• Heat oil in a wok, add mustard seeds. When they splutter, add crushed small onions, green chillies and saute for 1 minute
• Add grated beetroot, turmeric powder and salt and cook till it is done.
• Remove from flame and add cooked rice and finely chopped coriander leaves, mix well.
• Yummy and colourful healthy beetroot rice is ready

Linking this post to Show me your Hits event hosted by Anusha of Tomato Blues for Sangee @ Spicy Treats

Rasam (using dhal) - a yummy toungue tickler

You can check here to know how to prepare Rasam Powder.

Rasam can be prepared in various methods with varied measure of main ingridients like toor dhal, jeera and pepper. 

If you are using tomato in rasam making, accordingly you can reduce the tamarind use to get the right tangy taste.

To make this yummy toungue tickler, you need

Ingridients :-

1. Tamarind - 1 small lemon size
2. Tomato - 1 medium
3. Rasam Powder - 2 tbsp
4. Toor Dhal - 1/4 tea cup
5. Haldi Powder - less than 1/4 tsp
6. Hing powder - 1/4 tsp
7. Jaggery - 1 small piece (to enhance the taste and flavour)
8. Salt to taste

Tempering :

1. Ghee - 1 tbsp
2. Mustard seeds - 1/4 tsp
3. Jeera (optional) - a pinch

Garnishing :

1. Chopped coriander leaves - 1 tbsp
2. Curry leaves - 1 sprig

 Procedure :

• Pressure cook toor dal till it becomes mushy and keep aside
• Finely chop tomato & coriander leaves
• Boil tamarind and extract tamarind water using 4 and 1/2  tea cups of water (rasam should look watery like a clear soup)
• In a wok, heat ghee, add mustard seeds and cumin (jeera) after they splutter, add the chopped tomatoes & little salt and saute till it becomes mushy
• Add tamarind water, turmeric powder (haldi) and Hing powder, Jaggery, Salt , rasam powder and  bring it to boil
• Reduce the flame and boil it for 3 minutes
• Now Add mashed dal to it and stir well
• When the rasam starts boiling, foam will form on top that is the stage you should remove it from flame (as boiling well after adding dhal will spoil the taste of the yummy rasam)
• Add chopped coriander leaves and whole curry leaves to garnish the rasam
• Your yummy rasam is ready to be relished along with white rice

To steaming white rice, add few drops of ghee, mix and mash the rice with your hand and add generously few laddles of rasam and enjoy your mouth watering delicious rasam rice / Rasam Chaadham.

Points to be noted.

1. Don't boil the rasam well after adding dhal as it will spoil the taste
2. Instead of tamarind you can use kokam too. just drop 3 to 4 pieces of kokam
3. If you don't have rasam powder handy, you can add coriander powder, red chilli powder and little sambar powder too and make another type of yummy rasam (ingridients varied measure and added in varied forms accordingly give you difference in taste)