THENGAI THUVAYAL | COCONUT THOGAYAL

Though my mom makes Thengai thuvayal often, I developed a special affinity to this thuvayal only during my stay in college hostel . It is an unwritten rule that whenever someone returns from home after a vacation have to bring some home made goodies.One of my friend Valli used to bring lots of sweets and savouries along with Idli and Thengai thuvayal for the dinner.

After finishing the idlis we will still have left over thuvayal.When there is scarcity of good home made food, who wants to trash this thuvayal. We used to eat it as such when one good soul came up with the idea of dipping the murukku and papad in thuvayal.Sounds crazy? But believe me it was delicious.The crunchiness of the papad combined with the hot, sour and subtly sweetened thengai thuvayal was surely a bliss.

Once I was talking to my mom about this thuvayal and she told that it is nothing but the regular thengai thuvayal.Since I could relate this food only to my college memories, I named the recipe as 'Senbagavalli Thuvayal' when I noted the recipe in my notebook back in 2001!

Ingredients

Grated/Finely chopped coconut	1/2cup
Urad dhaal	2 tablespoon
Channa dal	1 tsp
Salt	1/2 tsp
Red chilli	1 or 2
Tamarind	small gooseberry size
Asafoetida	a pinch
Oil	1 tsp
Curry leaves	a sprig (Optional)

Procedure:

1. Heat 1 tsp of oil in a pan and first fry the red chillies until it puffs up a bit.
2. Then add channa dal and urad dhal and fry until golden brown
3. Next add the tamarind and asafoetida and fry for few seconds
4. Switch off the flame and slightly fry the coconut in the same heat
5. Allow it to cool and blend everything together with little water (Approx 1/4 cup)

Sending this to Walkthrough Memory Lane

    

Pori Upma

I learnt this recipe from one of friend Nandhini during my college days.She is from Srilanka and used to visit our place during semester holidays and she used to cook a lot of specialty dishes from Srilanka.This upma is one among them.As soon as we both reach our home on friday night, she used to make this in a jiffy.I have not made these myself so far.Nearly after a decade I suddenly remembered this upma.The way she prepared this was still fresh in my memory and I immediately prepared this for evening snack!

Ingredients

Pori	3 cups
Onion chopped	1 small sized
Tomato	1 medium sized
Green chillies	2
Turmeric powder	a pinch
Chilli powder	1/4 tsp(optional)
Coriander powder	1/4 tsp(optional)
Oil	2 tsp
Mustard seeds	1/2 tsp
Urad dhal	1/2 tsp
Curry leaves	a sprig
Salt	to taste
Lemon juice	1/2 tsp
Chopped Coriander leaves	2 tablespoons

Procedure:
Step1:
Heat oil in a kadai and add mustard seeds. Once it starts spluttering add urad dhal and curry leaves.

Step2:
Add the onions and green chillies and fry until translucent


Step3:
Add the chopped tomatoes and cook well. Add turmeric powder, chilli powder and coriander powder and let it cook

Step4:
Wash the puffed rice under running water. Do not soak. Otherwise it will become soggy.Squeeze the excess water and add it to the cooked onions and tomatoes.


Step5:
Mix well and allow to cook not more than 2 minutes

Step6:
Switch off the flame and add lemon juice and garnish with chopped coriander leaves

Microwave Corn Flour halwa

I bookmarked this recipe from Raks Kitchen long back.This is a very easy sweet to prepare in Microwave and delicious as well.Also it consumes very less amount of ghee compared to stove top version.

Ingredients

Corn Flour	1/2 cup
Sugar	1.5 cups
Water	2 cups
Ghee	3 tsp
Cardamom	2 or 3 pods
Food color	a pinch
Broken Cashew	1 tablespoon

Procedure:
Step1:
Mix corn flour, sugar,food color and water together without lumps.

Step2:
Microwave on high for 6 minutes with the bowl open
Stir it once in between

Step3:
Take the bowl out and mix well and microwave in high for another 6 minutes
Stir the mixture for every 2 minutes.
The final mixture should be glossy and look like a jelly

Step4:
Fry the cashews in ghee and add it to the mixture


Step5:
Pour this in a greased plate and allow it to cool

Step6:
After 30 minutes cut it into desired shapes


Notes:

1. Every microwave is different.Mine took around 8 minutes in step 3.The consistency that we need to look for is, the mixture should turn very shiny and glossy and also resembles jelly
2. Do not reduce the amount of sugar.You may not get the same texture
3. I used a 7"X7" baking pan to pour the halwa
4. Do not refrigerate this halwa.It stays good for 3 days (may be even more. I have not tried)

Click here for stove top version of corn flour halwa

Sending this to CWS: Cooking with corn

and Anjali's Cakes cookies and Desserts.

Green gram dhal adai/Pesarattu

Ingredients:

Whole moong dhal/Green gram dhal	1 cup
Raw rice	1/8 cup
Ginger chopped	2 tsp
Green chillies	2 or 3
Salt	3/4 tsp
Curry leaves	a sprig
Asafoetida	a pinch
Onions chopped	1 small sized
Oil	2 tablespoons

Procedure:
Step1:
Wash and soak the green gram dhal and rice together for atleast 2 hrs. I usually soak it overnight

Step2:
Grind both together with little water. Add ginger, salt,asafeotida and green chillies while grinding.
Grind to a smooth batter. The batter should be of uthappam consistency. Somewhere in between the consistency of idli batter and dosa batter.Add curry leaves to the batter and mix well

Step3:
Heat the tawa (When water is sprinkled on the tawa it should sizzle) and add 1 tablespoon of chopped onions.
Alternatively, the onions can be separately fried and then added to the batter
Now pour the batter similar to dosa. Add some oil

Step4:
Once cooked, flip the dosa and cook to golden brown on both the sides.


Notes:
Adding onions is completely optional
Sprouted moong dhal can also be used which is much more healthier
2 tablespoons of grated coconut can also be added while grinding the batter


Suggested Accompaniments

Coconut Chutney

Microwave Rava Kesari

Ingredients:

Course Rava(Sooji)	1/2 cup
Sugar	3/4 cup
Ghee	2 tablespoon
Cashews	7 or 8
Cardomom powder	a pinch
Kesar color Hot Water	a pinch 1.5 cups

Step1:
Add 2 tsp of ghee in a microwave safe bowl and mix the rava well

Step2:
Microwave this is for 2 minutes. Check and stir for every 30 seconds. Do not allow the rava  to get burnt


Step3:
Add 1.5 cups pf hot water to the roasted rava and mix well. Add the kesar color as well

Step4:
Now close this bowl with the lid (Do not close too tight) and microwave on high for 5 minutes


Step5:
Take it out and add sugar and cardomom powder and mix without lumps.Microwave this is open bowl for 4 minutes

Step6:
Now add the remaining ghee and microwave in high for 1 minutes

Step7:
Allow a couple of minutes standing time and pour into greased plate


Step8
Allow it to cool for 10 minutes and cut into desired shapes and garnish with cashews fried in ghee.


Notes:

• If you like more sweet add 1 cup of sugar
• This can be either had warm as such or cut into pieces.Generally I would cut into pieces when serving this sweet cold.
• Add only hot water to the rava. You can microwave water for 1 minute in high and then add it
• There are chances that lumps might form while adding sugar. Mix it thoroughly at this stage

Bombay Chutney

My mom used to make this often as a side dish for Idli and dosa when I was a kid. It comes handy when we do not have time to make sambar for breakfast. I would love to have this with Idli and Kothamalli thokku or red chilly chutney

Ingredients
Besan flour: 1/4 cup
Water: 1.5 cups
Onion chopped: 1 medium sized
Green chillies: 2 or 3
Ginger chopped: 2 tsp
Cumin Seeds (Jeera): 1 tsp
Curry leaves: a sprig
Turmeric powder: 1/4 tsp
Coriander leaves chopped: 1 tablespoon
Oil: 2 tsp


Procedure:

Step1:

Heat 2 tsp of oil in a kadai and add cumin seeds and curry leaves. Once it starts spluttering add chopped onions,green chillies and ginger and saute until translucent.Add turmeric powder as well

Step2:

Meanwhile mix besan with 1.5 cup of water and whisk without lumps

Step3:

Once the onion is cooked, add the besan and salt and bring it to a boil.Simmer and let it cook for 5 minutes.

Step4:

The mixture will start thickening. Add more water if required.Switch off the stove once the mixture comes to a boil

Step5:

Garnish with chopped coriander leaves

Beans Poriyal

Ingredients:

Beans chopped	3 cups
Grated coconut	1/2 cup
Red chilli	2 or 3
Asafoetida	a pinch
Salt	1 tsp
Oil	2 tsp
Mustard seeds	1/2 tsp
Urad dhal	1/2 tsp
Curry leaves	a sprig

Procedure
Step 1:
Finely chop the beans

Step 2:
Take 2 tsp oil in a pan and heat it. Add mustard seeds, urad dhall, red chilli and curry leaves

Step 3:
Once the mustard starts spluttering, add the chopped beans and cook the pan covered for 5 minutes and low flame

Step 4:
Stir it once and cook for 5 -10 more minutes. Check if there is enough water

Step 5:
Add salt and hing at this stage and cook for 2 minutes


Step 6:
Add the grated coconut and fry the whole mixture for 2 more minutes

Onion Tomato Chutney

Level: Easy
Preparation Time: 15 min
Cooking Time: 10 min
Serves: 4

Ingredients

Onion (chopped)	1 medium
Tomato (chopped)	2 medium
Red Chilli	3
Coriander leaves(chopped)	2 tablespoons
Ginger (minced)	2 tsp
Salt	1 tsp
Oil	2 tsp

For tempering:

Oil	1 tsp
Asafoetida	a pinch
Curry leaves	a sprig
Mustard seeds	1/2 tsp
Urad dhal	1/2 tsp

Procedure:
Step1:
Chop the onions and tomatoes


Step 2:
Add 2 teaspoon of oil in a pan and fry the onions & ginger. Once they turn brown add tomatoes, coriander leaves and cook for 10 min. Add 1/2 cup of water.

Step3:
Once the tomatoes are cooked and salt and transfer to another container and let it cool

Step 4:
Blend the mixture together


Step5:
Heat 1 teaspoon oil in a pan and add mustard seeds, urad dhal, 1 chilli , curry leaves and pinch of hing and add it to the chutney