Twilight hours Part - I

The dawn and dusk are the two most beautiful hours that god has gifted us with every day. The sky changes its look & shade every minute. I always enjoyed an evening drive or sitting in the terrace & watching sky throwing hues of colours while the sun rise or set.

The trees or buildings get into a shadow painting with a orange or light pink background which keeps changing.

Yesterday evening it was cloudy. The monsoon clouds have started passing by our land. Yesterday I happened to see a landing plane with the rain clouds background and it captured my heart so had it stored in my mobile to share with you.

Here are those clicks.

 

A melodious song scored by mastero ilayaraja from a tamil picture 'Nizhalgal' (shadows) of '80s runs in my mind.  Here sharing the link to that song.

If you can understand tamizh it will add more life into the song while you hear.  If you don't still you will be able to enjoy it as music is an universal language. Listen to the back ground music, the chirpings of the birds, the pictresque evening sky, etc...

.........continued ... :-) please click the links given below to read them

Twilight Hours Part - II

Twilight Hours Part-III 

Vellai Appam without coconut and yeast

Many of the southindian breakfast menu is made using rice in different forms as carbohydrate is very necessary to start the day energetically.

Vellai Appam, is a spongy soft breakfast dish from the God's own country - Kerala. The sides are thin and the centre will be thick and spongy in texture as well as in feel. The recipe I share here is got from my friend which is prepared without coconut or yeast. Mostly coconut is ground along with the soaked rice to which the water from coconut is added. This kind of appam tastes different & good in its own way.

If you don't have coconut or feeling lethargic yet want to enjoy the appam, here is the simple preparation. Few tips are also added then and there to guide you to make a flawless spongy appams :-

There is a special  wok in which it is prepared. The wok is made of iron and comes with a lid. If you don't have the wok AKA 'appa chatti' don't worry, you can still make it using a non-stick tava or pan.

Ingridients : (serves 3)

1. Raw rice - 1 cup
2. Boiled rice - 1 cup
3. Urad white - 1 tbsp
4. Fenugreek - 1/2 tsp
5. Salt to taste
6. sugar - 1 tsp

You may also need a wok (or a non-stick pan), a clean thick kitchen towel to handle the wok, a spatula with sharp thin end to take the appam out of the wok.

Procedure :-

• Soak  the ingridients from 1 to 4 together for 4 hours. 

•  Adding water, grind it to a smooth paste of dosa batter consistency.

• Mix in the required salt

•  Let it ferment for 6 to 8 hours (if your geographical location slows down the fermentation process, then add a tbsp of fermented dosa batter if you have in stock. if not, then don't worry add in a tsp of baking powder before you make appams but let the batter stand for 8 hrs) 

• Grease the wok, heat it, pour in 1 1/2 laddle of batter, using the kitchen towel lift the wok and rotate it clockwise & anti clockwise so that the batter spreads all over and gives a thin end & a thick centre. 

• Cover it with a lid and let it cook for a minute or two. Check it by lifting the lid. The centre of the appam will be thick and spongy. When the centre portion is cooked, remove it with a spatula. 

• Hot vellai appam (white appam) is ready. Vegetable stew, kadala curry, Green Peas curry are good accompaniments for this dish.

Vegetable Stew | Ishtoo | Ishtu

An aromatic coconut milk based dish which goes well with white rice and vellai appam. It is a dish from the God's own country hence cooked using coconut oil. The vegetables that make the dish colourful are Potato, Carrot, French Beans, Green pea (optional). Let us get into the cooking of this wonderful dish which makes you go gastronomic spreading the flavour in the air.

Ingridients : (serves 3)

1. Onion - 1 No. (big)
2. Potato - 3 Nos. (Medium)
3. Carrots - 1 No. (medium) 
4. French Beans - 6 to 8 Nos
5. Coconut milk - 1 Cup (1/2  cup thick and 1/2 cup thin coconut milk) -  (if you use coconut milk powder, then add 3 to 4 tbsp powder)
6. Salt to taste
7. Ginger - 1 " 
8. Green Chillies - 3 nos (or as you prefer)
9. Coconut oil - 3 tbsp
10. curry leaves 
11. Water - 3 cups

Procedure :-


Link to the video recipe is here :- In this recipe, I pressure cooked Beans and carrot separately to retain their colour. You can either do that way or add it along with potatoes directly into the wok.

• Dice the onions, carrot, potato, french beans. Finely chop ginger and slit the green chillies (if you love spicy dish, then finely chop them)

• Heat oil in a wok, add Onions and fry well till they become translucent.  Then add finely chopped ginger and green chillies and curry leaves. saute for 30 seconds.

• Add chopped vegetables, salt and water (3 cups).

• mix well, keep it covered and cook till the vegetables become tender. mash few pieces of potatoes to give little thickness to the gravy.

• Add coconut milk, mix well and do not boil for long. Just stir in for a minute, remove from flame.

• If you are using coconut milkpowder then to the powder add warm water, mix well till it becomes creamy, then add it to the vegetable stew, mix well, bring to boil and switch off gas immediately.

• Aromatic, delicious, colourful vegetable stew (Ishtoo | Ishtu) is ready to accompany white rice or Vellai appams and Nool Puttus (Idiyappams).

Beetroot Soup

Beetroot, the root vegetable is dark purple in colour. The leaf with stem as well as the root are fit to eat. Can be eaten raw, parboiled or cooked. Goes in salads, sandwich, Soup, Juice, Cutlet / Tikki, Dry side dish, Gravy (sambar), Variety Rice.

Beetroot is rich in anti-oxidants, Iron, Sodium, Potassium, Vitamin B, Calcium etc. Very good to improve anaemic conditions. Helps reduce high BP when consumed with less salt. The iron content in beetroot will not create constipation.

Beetroot takes more time to digest compared to normal vegetable so those who have poor digestion, don't take it at night times. You can drink a soup, juice made of beetroot to get its health benefits. 

To suit children and old people, I advise, after cleaning and peeling, pressure cook the whole beetroot till 4 to 5 whistles. Then grate or chop and use. This way it will be easy for them to digest.

How to Select :- Should be blemish free, smooth skin, good shape. The tip of the beetroot (when the stem is cut) will show you how much fresh the beetroot is.

How to store : If you buy it as a whole plant, then cut leaving a stem of 5" above the root and store for 4 to 5 days in refrigerator or at room temperature. With leaves, if you wrap in a cloth cover can be stored fresh for two days in the refrigerator.

Now let us get on making the wonderful health soup

Ingridients :- (serves 2)

1. Beetroot - 1 big
2. Shallots - 5 nos (small onions/baby onions) - optional
3. Salt to taste
4. Water - 2 and half cups

Procedure :

• Wash the beetroot and peel the skin.

• Dice it into cubes, pour two & half cups of water, boil it. [Pressure cook it (whole beetroot - don't cut) till 4 to 5 whistles if preparing for young children and old people. ]

• Allow it to cool. in the mean time, clean the shallot (small onion) chop.

• In a small pan, add few drops of oil (only few drops - just enough to lightly grease the onions) and fry till they become transparent. [I use coconut oil as we prefer that flavour]

• Now take out the beetroot cubes (preserve the water), in a blender or mixer grind the fried onions and boiled beetroot cubes together to a smooth paste.

• Transfer the ground contents to a vessel. Add the preserved water (in which beetroot is boiled) and salt to taste. 

• If you want to dilute it further, you can adjust the consistency by adding more water little by little.

• Bring to boil, remove from fire.

• Healthy, Yummy beetroot soup is ready.

Note :

Adding onion will give a nice flavour to the soup. If you don't like onions avoid it and go ahead & enjoy your soup. Small onions have medicinal values hence I prefer to use small onion in the recipe.