Geetha

Yes Sobarosa, you right on about the fish variety, even I like the kerala preparation passed on to me by an aunt of mine who stayed in Kochi for a few years.. surely kerala fish preparation is by far the best I've tasted. Let me give you in on this that they use ginger in sauteing before they add anything else that creates a unique flavour and oh they use coconuts a unique taste to their dishes other than fish curry .. They are willing to teach as they take pride intheir traditions and love and cherish both food and customs alike mostly because women folk are prime importance.. there isa matriarchy in traditions that helps them preserve their traditional cooking to original pristine qualite of their own. So even if you can spend a week with them in their house hold you'll come back with a wealth of knowledge and understanding of their traditions. Hope you enjoy banana leaf feasts and its unique taastes There is something about kerala's food and people linked to their food I've only known few keralites they are special people with their respect for their food traditions hope you'll reap the benefits too with them in their homes even if it is for a short stay with them ;)

I harried one nice bangladeshi store person jus some hours ago for the elusive chana masala.. he said there is no such masala availabe or at least in Shan range of spice mixtures. He's promised me to ask National. I've got to go to patelbros for this now hmm.. could'nt some nice person here instead give me ingredients to ponder about.. keep me thinking on it.. chole or chana masala is my long lost fvourite on of the few things I still recapture in my mind not remembering who made it the best. Some one did it to me and this assault to my senses has lasted this long so there is something special about the chole masala and also there is truth to the ad about the chole masala that there is somthing secretive shall I say proprietery about it that no one wants to speak of it to this south indian.. hmmm so why not should I try to ask of it why I've not yet found out about after having lived 12 years in North

I apparently found out there exists two varieties of chana dal or may be more.. I wonder why here is a link to the two types but no pictures, but I know now what they mean.. because in the south of india they use the first one the brown one.. it has a brown skin and the dried and split up version of the brown is also called chana dal.. coming from a poor know how of dal I am not very well informed er rather counfounded by dals from early age.. Okay the linklink

Great now at last one more chance to improve this recipe of mine.. Does any one know what to add to prepare the exquisite taste of chana or rather kabuli chana the one that goes with baturae, okay not that one either the one that is ever tasing goodness of home mmmm can't get one or more ingredients right in it. I remember the advertsment for the chana masala for MDH or some thing else where the new bride goes about cooking with earphones humming along while preparing to taste for her mil with out fuss, and turns out to her mil's liking. I'm sure there is more to it than dhania pwd and chilli powd, surely pomegranate seeds ground for the grainy texture... Sure I would be glad to add my own secret ingredients :))further here but the probelem is no exact knowledge .. does some one here know how to make the propriety chana . Please let me know Geetha

I love okra if I may add in to the heated discussion.. I love to make it using almost no ingredients except regular stuff that goes into the Indian VEgetable cooking procedure, with sauteing oil, onions, green chillies, seasoning with salt and turmeric, and adding to them the thinly sliced okra, I stir fry on low heat for a long time, that is the key to ridding it of slime and the pods too seem challenged and almost defeated. The time from the green color or browning green and caramelizing takes 25 to 30 min. I love the fact that the resulting mix turns out a tid sweet and sour, and I add chillies so it is a bit spiced to my taste too.. In all I can't get over it there is no such thing as too much for this dish, I have it with yogurt rice, or flat bread (chapatis). I guess if there was a way of removing moisture from the vegetable before cooking it the slime would not result, is there a way of removing moisture known today.. I ca't seem to remember .. I think I am stuck on to this favourite since a very early age of 4 years till today, I remember my grand mother making it for me and grandpa, specially... It was at the time of when my sister was born and maybe I felt left out .. So I still remember it today and yes love this veggy to o much.

No never I won't try it out.. its too gross to me.. I hope not to offend others it is just out of my respect zone for some reason from a looooong time I don't know ..why I sound like a vegT speaking of those nonVT dishes to others.. I've been told the yolk tastes sweet still I'm not over my reservation to it...

There is so much to do hmm. Just like what you want to know so that I may give a bit more details, as I can't think of anything . Hope it helps

Sunny side up.. eggs gooey never understood how to eat it up ever

Aha my main point too before I draw back, can you use the muffin pan for baking the steamed idlies. I'd like to try it out myself make it like it sounds from others description on crispy outsides with our trace of oil. Seems challenging. Aha;) Geetha

firstly no one here has seemed to mention the unusual rava idli, you might want to try it as a diversion from the classical idli, rava is the ingredient mixed in proportion to the other idli maavu(batter ingredients) like urad dal of ourse and rice. Anybody got the list of the nutrient make up of urad dal used worth checking out. I did look at the packing of urad dal flour to find its make up and found out it has 9 gm proteins for 19 - 20 gm of carbohydrates. I would like to add that since idlies are considered poors man food in south india or rather every day food now it is for energy, and it is a well balance of all nutrients if you will for a poor mans income. At that same time delicious because it does justice to cause of light food. I was thinking on these terms and the mention of how devi serves up crisped out side idlies seems fantastic to me.. I have not tried out making idlies at home, so my point of view is only of providing benefit of doubt, to the cause of easier methods, and I have complete respect for the other methods of grinding etc, it serves to taste good. But when you're time is of immense value and you want to enjoy good food tell me of a short cut you wouldlove to try out.. hmm I use a short cut for prep of dosas now some might raise your hands to say now now this and idli thread.. the anmswers to that lies of course that I know the idli batter rested for few more hours in summer and a whole day more in winters is the key to difference in the batters for idli (former) and dosas(latter the rested one). Well now comes the short cut part, the fact you needn't grind it to perfection serves me good. Also you needn't waste time to soak the grains and cereals.. for 24 hrs before grinding them. Okay the key is to get Urad dal or papd flour from the indian stores, and rice flour from any stores even in local grocer. Another is to keep proportion of the urad dal and rice in same ie of 1:1. If you use the grinding method it cause effective aeration(urad dal on grind becomes fluffy and remains so longs after it too at least for a day or too so you make good fluffy idlies out of the resultingbatter) which means you need use a lot lesser than the dry-pre ground flour if used.. One main draw back is to accound for the cost ratio. If you're a regular south indian food fan ofcourse you'd buy urad dal in bulk as well as the right rice in bulk. Where as buying the temporary amounts of urad dal off the stores or buying the ground flour is same cost really. Also it is automatic. This is not ready made mix ofcourse. But cuts your prep time to half. I hope I covered the main points of this topic as in 1. Right raw materials 2. Right ratio according to the raw material Thank you for your interest in south indian food. I've grown a lot of appreciation myself over the years as have many of my folks abroad Love Geetha edited: out of finicky consciousness for correctness

only one, though most useful one so far, for a startingcooking stuff on microwave cooking of indian dishes.. by Ms. Malliga Badrinath. made only one dish mooru Kolumbu (buttermilk curry). Geetha

Thanks all for your contribution I know I nagged you for help for this, then again thanks all of you here.. I made them a week ago but they are tasting good still and the helps helped me more than I thought really I used all the above ingredients in the recipe and the methoods were really good Now I think I have my own tips to add to when I prepare a recipe to tell others.. thanks again Geetha

Looks like mine too, sometimes they are hard to break open and you may need a hard thing like a hammer to break them and then crush them, but the hardness is not a measure of quality may be it will last longer that way more than a year too, but that doesn't mean you'll not make use of it till then ;) Yours look very fresh and well made, congrats, good luck cookingwith them I'm sure you'll like the end result they give and also try out for chicken curry etc challenge your self to use em more..

You are right Carrot Top, in saying ghee is another form of clarified butter where the latter is formed by not allowing browning. I really wonder about the health benefits are as I've described because mine is not a direct use experience as I've used mostly the vegetable oils available here. But I'm open to more knowledge and research behind the claims of these above facts. Ghee may be good for health but have been ignored because of the preponderance of other existing facts and not knowing how it works out for a person's well being indeed I'd love to look into the truth by experimentation by using it myself at home and see how it turns out. Of course we can really have another separate topic on ghee and clarified butter to further confirm our facts from other members here.. Love Geetha

Sorry didn't see your post until now, I'll be glad to give detail of the process I use to make ghee at home. Sure ghee isn't available to us in supermarkets even at home in India we make ghee at home from accumulated cream from milk.. I make ghee here at home but heating butter you have the convenience to use the smallest amount for one preparation for that evening only or use the ghee prepared for a longer time with out having to keep up in fridge. Process or method is to heat over a medium flame until the buttermelts completely and the puddle of melt starts to foam, for upto 2 min turn to low flame or medium if you're next to it to watch over, when a small portion of the foam after it bubbles up and settles down begins to break up and clear to give youa view of the back suface of ghee beneath it it is time to put of the flame and see the brown tinge and great smell appear. 1. melt 2. foam 3. Bubbles (ie little bigger than foam) 4. clearing of surface of foam 5. browning on low or off flame you may add a small bit of bay leaf dried to the preparation along side butter too. Yes you did point out rightly ghee would be more expensive but worth its money fo it converts to health benefit. You could add half ghee and half of vegetable oil to make the dishes, but ultimate health benefit accrues with use of pure ghee, I agree it wouldn't be cost effective if you'd use only the butter from supemarket. But if we had a supply of fresh cream as an out come of heating milk up and store it over days then you'd accumulate the cream to later turn it to ghee. But all that is time consuming and messy my mother does it superbly well. Not yet learnt to mess with milk not me! Hope this answers some queries you posed here thank you for asking as I thought it was warranted when you speak of something as I did. Hope you'll try it out once and let us know of the results it would be fun and happy to know.

You know if you're are for quality you'd want to have vadagams on hand and add it to what ever comes to youre mind. I guess it enhances a lot of other dishes too, and I've not yet made em all. All the best in you're finding I'm sure most south indian store stock it up, especially if you are near a temple and the nearby shop is south indian then it is sure to be there, I got mine from near the temple in queens.

Sure, its used for most south dishes or rather tamilnad dishes - I think.. List : Sambar, dal, puli kolumbu/vathal kolumbu. Even chicken curry you get the ideal.. Well I think since puli kolumbu is my favourite I'd like to use it in so I ll just put the recipe of puli kolumbu. As I know it : 1 onion 1-2 tomotoes(depends on your preference od the source of sourness) 1 half lime size tamarind ( the tamarind jiuce is okay if you like the sweetness to it) 11/2 to 2 tbsp of sambar powder 1 tsp red chillie powder 1 cup coconut milk or 1/2 dessicated or fresh cup (this is an optional ingredient for me in US since coconut is a rarely found ingredient I use dessicated coconut for fancy only not much for taste as there is not much it can offer to taste here unlik the fresh taste of fresh ground coconut thats all .. you may choose any vegetable of your choice (only one though) I'll quickly give the prep here : Add onions to oil, just as they are getting to become shiny and all nice add the tomatoes no worry for cooking to a certain level. Then the tomatoes, nad vegetable, stirred for a short time add the desired amount of cooking water to it boil just for 5-10 min, add to the water the spices sambar powder and chilli powder, boil a little time like 2 mins then add the tamarind juice of the type you desire, boil 2-4 min in average heat, add the coconut milk just 2 min before you're finishing it off. Now comes the point or the main part the vadagams, take desired amount out of the ball you have and then break it to pieces like churan or powder and then prepare hot oil in another pan after it is heated add this to it, now how long is a good and vital quality question to be answered .. if you keep on low flame the heated oil and let the flavours develop until the mix you added to it is browned no darkedned there is no fear to it as the more darkened it is the more flavour to it but shouln't ne burnt which my connotation isto charring there is a fine line only as long as there is more and more flavour developing don't remove it from the low flame and let it .. just hover over it ensuring the flame doesn't over heat the oil after 2-3 min of sirring it is ready to be poured to the already prepared pului kolumbu. There is also a simple recipe though and it uses just 2 main ingredients. It is called Kalusu koorai. (Telegu) 1 onion 1 vegetable like lauki I use the coyote the spanish small green one there is one illustration one of the eG members I think it is SethG who uses it to illustrate a caricature in his avatar photograph, it looks like the size of a small papaya green one 2 tbsp or more of sambar powder 2-4 cups of water 1/2 cup chana dal Very simple p[rep but very tasty mmm and the vadagam is essential last step to it. Here goes: Shallow fry in oil the onion, let it reach the translucent stage, add the vegetable chopped to it, add the dal and sambar powder and then water all together at same time, close with a suitable cover let it come to boil and then lower flame let simmer for ages and reach a good syrupy consistence for the gravy and the vegetable is cooked to a nice bite juicy bite, it takes 15 to 20 min to boil and simmer to the state described so this a slow cooking type leave it to do other work in your kitchen keeping in mind to add water when it desires more Then after cooking is over add the tadka using the vadagams. It is more like a clear texture with lot of flavour to it is not the thick curry but a simple and clear one you get the idea. Hope you will make and find out you liking to it too Geetha

Monica thalippu in tamil translates to tadka in hindi. So talippu vadagam is indeed the vadagam used to talippu or tadka .. You might be wondering what other vadagams are there I'll give you a list they are all my favourites and are the best part of the meal to me.. 1. Rice vadagams (fry em to get rice crispies like the corn puffs) 2. Vathal Vadagams ( chilli vadagams make then by sundrying the soaked milagai in curds for a week ) mmmm... 3. Sundavathal Vadagam (made from a bitter tasting neem fruit type fruit in buttermilk or curd and sundrying them - Sundakka is the name of this veggy or fruit as you make discover it to be ) Okay there may be others that I miss but you can go to a store and look for vadagams and their different names attached to them and query me for it if you want love to give answers if at all possible to them Geetha

I've mentioned it in one of the posts in a hurry though thinking other might just figure out what I spoke of when I said vadagam. I have lots of those sent from mil I've been happy to use it and about the contents I know there are lots of onions and mustartd and deep fried chana dal karri patta(curryleaves), all sundried .. Idon't know the sequence but can guess that they are definitely sundried aftr or before they are deep fried or roasted.. or they are just sundried and after sufficient time while they still all retain some of the moisture that they had been given by nature to them they are made into a ball of the size of the inner palm.. they are used year round until they last and to start of the next glorious summers.. Love this it helps me to makethe tadka and helps to give of the typical smell to the curry like puli kolumbu or the vath kolumbu.. it is the best seasoning need no morre thatn that to give the authentic taste to it .

Almonds monica are of creamy taste when fresh, I've noted it down for future use. I used to wonder why do people mix milk with almonds and I make badam kheer also with it.. So when I found yester!!day that they are of a creamy taste like milk with out the milk's smell to them I was overjoyed with my discovery.. did you also think of almonds yesterday.. hmm great minds of our world work together isn't it :)

I guess you know when to use which type onion yourself based on shelf life sweetness, or availability. But I've been using the yellow one that is cheaply and abundantly available in most of the stores. You could use red ones too for this if you want to butthe white ones will suffice for this purpose. Also I think you asked the garnish if you wand the effect that \you describe of sweetness in the end result in your dish you could use the browned darkened as the starter ir like a tadka add it before the rice to the dish, that will result inthe sweetness you describe and also you may have colort intact of those onions. But hey may be crispy or thin only if shallow fried them enough to let out all the moisture in onions out of them you. You asked about ghee or oil the question which I've asked my self repeatedle over time the answer to it is ofcourse based on ayurveda description of ghee(pure) as the best cooking medium for health no difficulty of colestrol from it at all don'tuse dalda or its equivalent. I've wondered why is it no one knows our own tradition of its use. May be we have not given importance our own best techniques. And oh yes mozzarella cheese was imported from India by Greeks and then it spread from there to other parts of the world, found out about it doing research on Pizza and its origins.. Cheers!!

Definitely you'll be knowing it but still I'm adding that before starting or at the end you may make this by adding thin long sliced pieces of onions to the hot oil or ghee turn to low heat after they brown or become translucent then continue to saute them until they are dark brown.. are they sweet I've never noticed them that way may be there is some things to be added to it before sauteing of the onions to them. Hope this help out, may be other pro's would level up to your expectations of perfect onions for this type use or preperation. Happy hours of enjoying of your hard work to you Geetha

I've already started to make em on my own so please do not comment on my skills of it yet.. let yuou know when it is cooled over and may be nice too for the taster I might push in bits of the drama of rasmalai making online, if I do make it again and thanksto all of you for contributing to my heqavently success as it may be.. tomorrow Great Geetha

If anybody doesn't reply to me I'm going to make a cheesecake out of the rasmalai raw materials. My curds are drying still but I didn't know for how long am I to dry it still I am experimenting with the available state of things here at home.. Okay some please sendin a PM to me about how long it takes to dry up to right consistency for rasagolla aka rasmalai pleasse Geetha

Indeed you have given me more to think and all your answers to other posts keep me on cue. Thanks for the true honor of being responeded you by you. I do think you've effectively kept it alive after all it is not by chance that it all came to be neither is pizza one of them chance happenstances of today.. I remember hearing on tv about how motzarella cheese was first applied to the pizza.. around the time of the 1889 and also surprised by the fact that it was around the time of venus transit, may be it is all a designed thing by a highly conscious God who has given us such a gift of love htat brings all together in love for it today. Love Thanks for giving me the perfect answer to my above questions With Regards Geetha