After a much needed break at The Tiffin Times, we are getting back into the swing of things this year with a ‘Back to Basics’ series of recipes.
Why ‘Back to Basics’ you ask? Well for a host of reasons; we are living in an over-processed, over-produced and under-valued world and for the sake of our health and environmental sustainability we, at The Tiffin Times, want to start at the heart of the home – the kitchen.
To kick start the series of healthy, simple and nutritious recipes we’ll start with a simple keerai masiyal (a mixed keerai masiyal).
Now we’ve got a pretty decent sized backyard garden which yields different varieties of vegetables and leafy greens including several that are essential to an Indian kitchen. For this recipe we have used the below listed ‘in season’ leafy greens, but you can substitute any leafy green varieties for this recipe:
-
beetroot leaves
-
radish leaves
-
ponnanganni keerai
-
paruppu keerai
-
arai keerai
-
spring onion
Beetroot leaves & Araikeerai
Paruppu keerai & Spring Onion
Radish leaves & PonnanganNi keerai
Ingredients:
1 medium onion
2 garlic cloves
Keerai leaves of the above mentioned varieties – about 500gm total
Mung dhal 2 tblspn
Salt to taste
To temper:
- 2 tblspn vegetable oil
- ½ tsp mustard seeds
- ½ tsp urad dhal
- 2 dried red chillies
Method:
1. Boil the mung dhal in about 1/2 cup water.
2. Add the keerai, onion, garlic and allow to cook until the garlic is soft.
3. Once done, mash the cooked keerai well with the back of a spoon and add salt to taste.
4. Now temper the dish by heating the vegetable oil in a separate pan, then add the mustard seed, urad dhal and red chillies. Once the seeds start to splutter – add the whole tempering ingredients to the cooked keerai.
5. Stir well and take off the heat.
Serve with freshly cook rice.
சத்தான பலக்கீரை மசியல்
நாம் உண்ணும் கீரை வகைகள் எண்ணிலடங்காதவை. ஒவ்வொரு கீரையிலும் பல மருத்துவ குணங்கள் உண்டு. பொதுவாக எல்லா கீரை வகைகளிலும் இரும்புச்சத்து நிறைந்து காணப்படுகிறது. அதனால்தான் தினம் ஒரு கீரை சாப்பிடுங்கள் என்று மருத்துவர் நமக்கு பரிந்துரைக்கிரார்.
இன்று நாம் அந்த மருத்துவரின் பரிந்துரைக்கு ஏற்ப பல கீரைகளை ஒன்று சேர்த்து சமைத்து உண்டு அதன் பயனைப் பெறலாம்.
முளைக்கீரை, பொன்னாங்கண்ணி, அரைக்கீரை, பருப்புக்கீரை, மணத்தக்காளிகீரை, வெங்காயக்கீரை (தழை), முருங்கைக் கீரை, பசலைக்கீரை, அகத்திக்கீரை, அரைக்கீரை, முடக்கத்தான்கீரை, சிறுகீரை என்று எத்தனையோ கீரவகைகளைச் சொல்லிக்கொண்டே போகலாம். எனினும் இங்கே நாம் பொன்னாங்கண்ணி, அரைக்கீரை, பருப்புக்கீரை, வெங்காயக்கீரை (தழை), முள்ளங்கிக்கீரை ஆகிய ஐந்து வகை கீரைகளை ஒன்றுசேர்த்து சமைப்போம்.
மேற்சொன்ன ஐந்து வகைக்கீரைகளிலும் ஒரு கைப்பிடி அளவு எடுத்து அவைகளை சுத்தம் செய்து நறுக்கி வைத்துக்கொள்ளவும்.
ஐந்து அல்லது ஆறு சிறிய வெங்காயம், இரண்டு பூண்டுப்பல் இவைகளையும் நறுக்கி அந்த கீரையில் சேர்த்துக்கொள்ளவும்.
இரண்டு டேபிள்ஸ்பூன் பாசிப்பருப்பை வேகவைத்து அந்தப் பருப்பில் கீரை வெங்காயம், பூண்டு எல்லாவற்றையும் கலந்து வேகவிட்டு கடையவேண்டும். பிறகு ஒரு தனிப்பாத்திரத்தில் ஒரு டீஸ்பூன் எண்ணெய் விட்டு கடுகு, உளுத்தம்பருப்பு ஒரு வரமிளகாய் கிள்ளிப்போட்டு தாளித்து கீரையைக் கொட்டி தேவையான அளவு உப்பு போட்டு இறக்கி வைக்கவும். தேவைப்பட்டால் சிறிதளவு நெய்யும் சேர்த்துக்கொண்டு சாதத்தில் கீரையைப் போட்டு பிசைந்து சாப்பிடலாம்.
தொட்டுக்கொள்ள அருமையான துவரம்பருப்பு துவையல் அல்லது அப்பளமும் சேர்த்து சாப்பிட்டுப் பாருங்கள். அதன் ருசியே தனிதான். மிகவும் சத்தான ருசியான உணவு. சிக்கனமான உணவும் கூட.
- Enjoy.
To follow up on the post on Elladai, today we have prepared Ketti Urundai balls as yet another Deepavali treat!. There are a number of variations on this type of sweet but we treat ourselves with this particular recipe year after year.
Before we move on, a warning must be issued! These ketti urundai may look soft and sweet but should only be eaten by those who have strong teeth! People have been known to use hammer to dig into these (the jaggery makes these quite hard)!
Enjoy!
The months towards the end of year are always busy in Indian households. There are numerous festivals and celebrations to be held – and so there are always different sweet and savoury dishes to be prepared. Today we’ve taken an interlude from the preparations for the festivities to bring you a recipe for Vazhakka (plantain – green banana) chips. It is quite easy to make and is a common accompaniment to most South Indian meals.
Plantains (Musa) are a member of the banana family, but unlike the common/dessert banana, the unripe fruit that is produced is cooked prior to consuming. Fried, steamed, boiled, grilled or baked – there are numerous dishes to be made using plantains. Tamil Nadu variations tend towards the varuval, poriyal, podimas, kootu, morukuzhambu varieties. Today we’ve settled on what I would call the ‘ultimate’ South Indian comfort food – some rasam, hot white rice and of course, Vazhakka chips.
Enjoy!
Growing up, we’ve always had coconut in our diet in some form or other. As a result, my sister and I have always had a love-hate relationship with anything coconutty. It’s one of those things that bound to happen if you were fed appam with sweet coconut milk every alternate week. Whilst the coconut chutneys are fine, coconut milk and cream was something different altogether.
I’m digressing though, the recipe below is not appam but for coconut milk rice; a recipe which kindly was passed to me by Sasi Aunty whose daughters state that this is one of her best dishes. You cannot get a better review than that!
Coconut milk rice is mildly flavoured, slightly nutty and aromatic and it marries well with both vegetable and meat dishes. You could omit the onions altogether if you wanted the coconut milk to be the star of the dish. Without further ado, here is the coconut milk rice recipe (thanks to Sasi Aunty) 
.
Enjoy!
Image Credits: Jo Hodson
Image credits: seelensachen.at
I came across these fantastic poster advertisements for The Times of India best Idli, Vadai and Kaapi contest in Chennai that was run quite some time ago on the Creative Roots blog. What a great concept!
Advertising Agency: JWT, Bangalore, India
Creative Directors: Senthil Kumar, Rathish P Subramaniam
Art Director: Rathish P Subramaniam
Copywriter: Arjun Nalapat
Illustrator: Rishidev
Published: April 2011
Of course, this begs the question how do you like your idli, vadai & kaapi?
Me? Well-drenched in sambhar…
…masala over methu….
…and Kumbakkonam degree filter please.
Handmade candies are a great idea for party favours particularly during the holiday season. This year, we’ve been trying toffee and caramel recipes at home with varying levels of success. The first batch of caramel smelt, looked and tasted great but a few hours in the fridge and the whole batch turned into granulated sugar. The second (and third and fourth) batch turned out to be a great success. We used the recipe listed on Inspired Taste but had to improvise as we don't have a candy thermometer – there was a lot of careful watching, waiting and wrapping.
So head on over to Inspired Taste for their recipe or scroll down for our no candy thermometer version. We’ve also included a link here from the Exploratorium with visuals on the different stages in candy making.
Salted Caramels
Makes 50 pieces
(recipe adapted from inspiredtaste.net)
Ingredients:
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup corn syrup (or glucose syrup)
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
3 tbsp water
1 tsp sea salt flakes
canola oil spray (for the baking tray & wax paper)
a small bowl with 1/2 cup cold water
Methods:
Line a 10-inch baking tray with the lightly oiled wax paper and set aside.
In a small bowl combine the butter and heavy cream and heat for 1 minute in the microwave.
In a deep saucepan add the water, sugar and corn syrup and bring to a gentle boil. Make sure that sugar crystals do not stick to the sides of the pan (this will cause crystallisation later on). Brush the sides of the pan with water if any sugar crystal get stuck to it.
The next step takes a few minutes and you should not move away from the stove. Have your small bowl with cold water ready to go. The bubbling sugar syrup will take a while to slowly turn amber but can become burnt within seconds if you’re not careful. Watch for it turn a caramel colour and take it off the heat (the syrup at this stage is stringy).
Add the melted butter and heavy cream in two batches and stir to incorporate it into the syrup. Be careful as the mixture will bubble like crazy and will burn.
This is where you will the bowl with cold water. As your caramel mixture bubbles away you want to test it at intervals for a firm ball consistency (drop a small amount of syrup in the cold water, allow it to cool slightly and gather into a ball – it should hold its shape but still be malleable).
Pour the caramel into the greased pan and allow to cool for 45min-1hr. Scatter the sea salt over the cooled caramel. Slice into 1 inch x 1/2 inch rectangles and wrap in baking paper.
Store refrigerated and pack into party bags for favours.
Enjoy!
We've been harbouring a visitor of sorts at The Tiffin Times the last couple of weeks! Well, make that two visitors… 
This little baby flew the coop this morning. 
Visitors like these are always welcome!
Yes, we are a tad late with this post but I couldn't let another Deepavali pass without sharing our family recipe for Athirasam! 
This is one traditional sweet dish that needs to be prepared well in advance and requires proficiency and plenty of patience. The proficiency will come with repeated attempts! The athirasam may not be the prettiest looking sweet but it sure tastes divine!
There may be only 3 main ingredients but getting the consistent right can be difficult. Many a time, we have had difficulties partly because of the types of jaggery that is available in the Asian supermarkets in Melbourne – sourcing a brand that is just right can prove to be a difficult task particularly around festival time. Jaggery that is made from sugar cane and is slightly reddish in hue is the best to use – any other type will yield an athirasam that is prone to crumbling.
Enjoy!
Wishing you & your family a Happy Deepavali! Hope it was filled with fun, laughter and lots of fireworks!
With Deepavali just a few sleeps away, there is no end to the sweet making in our household. Actually it’s both sweets and savouries such as samosa, elladai, athirasam, geti urundai that are rolled out every year and if I’m completely honest, I don't usually do much in the way of making the sweets & savouries myself. But this year, after seeing quite a few fellow food bloggers putting out great posts, I thought it was about time I rolled up my sleeves and got cooking (with a lot of help from my grandmother of course)!
The first recipe is for Elladai or thattai murukku (fried rice crackers) which is traditionally made during festivals and quite popular in Southern India. The recipe below does make 60 elladai's but go ahead and adjust the measurements according to your requirments.
Enjoy!
