Friday, February 27, 2015

Brown rice paruppu saatham

Dal rice or thuvaram paruppu saatham made with brown rice . Cooking with white rice and red rice of Kerala is always easy for me. Then I tried to make something delicious with brown rice and I am successful many times. Try my Brown rice spinach pongal, Green gram kichdi, and adai to fall in love with brown rice.
While growing up, mom used to make dal separately and mix it with rice and ghee and we would call it as paruppu saatham. But afterwards I learnt from my friend Malar , that  there exists one more version called arisi paruppu saatham, in which rice and dal gets cooked together. This is a one pot meal from Coimbatore. The authentic thuvaram paruppu saatham should be made with white rice and not mushy like mine. I got this recipe from my neighborhood friends and I have tweaked that recipe to fit into our diet days. A few scoops of this rice will be very much satisfying.

Our menu of the day : Brown rice paruppu saatham,baked potato chips and  horse gram chutney.
 
It may look a little watery now, but the brown rice will absorb the water.


Bring everything together to rolling boil in pressure cooker and add salt. Then cook with weight valve on.

Add tomato, chilly and saute till tomato gets mushy.

Saute onion and garlic till they get soft.

Bring rice and dal to a boil.

I used shallots and cherry tomatoes, as I bought them on a sale , but regular ones are just fine.


Ingredients: (serves 4)
To pressure cook:
brown rice - 1 1/2 cup
thoor dal - 3/4 cup
turmeric - 1/4 tsp
hing - tiny piece (1/8 tsp powdered)
salt - to taste
sambar powder - 1 tbsp

To temper:
coconut oil / ghee - 1 tbsp
mustard - 1 tsp
cumin - 1 tsp
curry leaves - few
onion (shallot or red onion) - 1 cup (chopped)
tomato - 3 (I used 20 cherry tomatoes)
green chilly - 3
garlic - 1 (whole)


To garnish:
cilantro (chopped) - few
ghee - 1 tsp

Method:
Wash the brown rice and dal. Soak together for 30 minutes. They totally measure 2 1/4 cups.

Add double the quantity of water + 2 cups. (this ratio is lesser for white rice).  Add 6 1/2 cups water.
Add water to pressure cooker along with rice, dal , sambar powder and start heating. Put turmeric, hing.
In a separate wok, heat oil or ghee. (we can do the entire process in cooker also).
Add mustard , cumin and let it splutter. Then add curry leaves, chopped onion and fry till it gets soft. Then add chopped garlic and saute for 1 minute. Add chopped tomato, green chilly and cook till tomato gets soft.
Pour this to the boiling items in pressure cooker. Add some salt ( 2 tsp) and check if it seems good.
Put the lid , weight valve and cook for 3 whistles. Then reduce heat to minimum and continue cooking for 5 minutes. Switch off.
Open after pressure is relieved, add cilantro and ghee.
Serve hot.

Serving suggestion:
Serve as main course meal with fried appalam, potato chips.
On that day , I prepared horse-gram chutney and baked potato chips as sides. I will post my very own baked potato chips recipe soon.


Wednesday, February 11, 2015

Chocolate dipped strawberry (microwave method)

I guess chocolate dipped strawberry has become the official dessert of Valentine's day :) There are a lot of ads in TV and newspapers globally to promote rose and strawberries and I am sure it is worth the penny to celebrate this beautiful day which is common to all.
There are many traditional (aka lengthy) processes for preparing chocolate dipping. So buying a pack of chocolate berries is the easiest choice. Then I came to know of this microwave chocolate melting method through food network and it works like a charm. I am sure this easy dessert will make your valentine happy :)



white and brown choco chips with strawberry.

Chocolate starting to melt.

molten chocolate.

Before keeping in fridge
My friends Suchi and Paaru are decorating the strawberries for our little party.

Our lunch get together.  Bisibelebath, enchilada, pizza, chocolate strawberry .

Have a close look.

Ingredients:
Strawberry - 15
Any variety chocolate - 1 cup (chopped or chips or morsels)
(I have used semi sweet brown chocolates and white chocolates)

Method:
Choose small size strawberries with heart shape. They should be well ripe and firm.
If washing the strawberry, then do it previous night and let it dry completely.
Wipe off the water completely before dipping in chocolate, because chocolate will not stick with the fruit, if there is moisture. (This is very very important).

Take the white chocolate and regular chocolate in different microwavable bowls.
One by one keep the bowls in microwave and do as below.
Start reheating for 30 seconds at first. Then take out, check if they starts melting.
Though they may seem like not melting, but they will do after few seconds in outside.
Then again reheat (express cook) for 20 seconds .
Now the chocolates would have started melting visibly now.
Using a fork, try to mash the chocolates.
Then again reheat for 10 seconds and repeat by 10 seconds one or two times.
Chocolates may tend to char, due to overheating. So carefully check every 10 seconds.
I got my semi sweet chocolate done after 1 minute 20 seconds and white chocolate took nearly 1 minute 30 seconds.
In a clean plate, spread a wax paper.
Now hold the calyx (leaves) of strawberry gently and roll over the chocolate, so that it is half dipped.
Place the strawberries on plate and keep refrigerated for 30 minutes.
Take out and decorate with white chocolate or any other icings using a fork or icing cones. Keep in fridge and they hold good in room temperature for up to 3 hours.
Chocolate strawberry is ready!

Serving suggestion:
Have these cuties at any time of day, as snack, dessert or gift them to your loving ones:)

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