21 April 2014

First Anniversary - A BIG THANK YOU !!!!

Dear Viewer,

It excites me to realize that Preethi's Vegetable Plate has completed it's First Anniversary.

365 days back, a simple thought of sharing my recipes in a format that can be of benefit to everyone, transformed into this blog, which with all your continuous support and encouragement, has grown slowly and steadily with viewers accessing it across the length and breadth of the globe.

I am always thankful to each and everyone, who have bothered to take time to visit my blog. I hope somewhere my recipes have been of use to you.

I expect and wish for your continuous patronage, I welcome any suggestions and feedback to make this space more useful for you. I look forward to add more recipe categories and varieties in the coming days. So, stay tuned for more.

Enjoy your stay while you are here and do try out the recipes and have a healthy and hearty meal !!!!

A Big Thanks to you.


Eat Healthy, Live Healthy !!!!

17 April 2014

Venpongal

Venpongal is a very common and popular dish served in most of the South Indian restaurant, especially in Tamil Nadu. It is a rice dish, hence very filling to your stomach. In tamil nadu hotels, venpongal with chutney and sambar is irresistable. Also venpongal is a common offering in many temple's in and around tamil nadu. In south tamil nadu, a sambar like side-dish called "gotsu" will be the side-dish for pongal.

Venpongal is rice & dhal cooked and pepped up with some spice powders. The major ingredient to this rice dish, is ghee, which makes it a very rich and tasty dish.

Ingredients:

1. Moong dhal - 1/4 Cup
2. Raw Rice - 1 Cup
3. Water - 4 Cups
4. Pepper seeds - 1 tsp
5. Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
6. Chopped ginger pieces - 1 tsp
7. Cashews - 10 (broken)
8. Hing - 1 tsp
9. Curry leaves - 6
10. To grind : Pepper seeds - 1/2 tsp , Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp
11. Ghee - 4 to 5 tsp
12. Salt - 1 to 2 tsp
13. Turmeric powder - a pinch



Pre-requisite:

1. Dry roast the moong dhal until it becomes slightly brown & cool.
2. Dry roast the raw rice until it becomes stiff & cool.
3. Grind to a powder and keep ready - Pepper seeds - 1/2 tsp + Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp.
4. In a teaspoon of ghee, fry the cashews to slight brown and keep ready.

Method:

1. Add into pressure cooker, the fried moong dhal, fried rice, water, pepper seeds, cumin seeds, ginger pieces, hing, curry leaves , tumeric powder & required salt. Keep the cooker open and wait till the water becomes hot and starts to nicely boil, at this juncture, nice aroma of hing and ginger can be felt. At this stage, close the pressure cooker and immediately add weight and keep on medium flame and cook till 4 to 5 whistles and then switch off and remove.



2. Wait for the pressure to completely drop and then open the cooker and mash the pongal mixture very nicely using a ladle (karandi in tamil).



3. Add lavishly ghee (about 3 to 4 tsp) & pepper-cumin powder and mix well. Check for salt and adjust now.


4. When pongal is thoroughly mashed and mixed well, towards the end, add the fried cashew and mix well.



5. Pongal is ready to serve with the ideal combination of coconut chutney or brinjal gotsu.



Tips:

1. To get a very tasty pongal (as we get in hotel), it is important that we should be little lavish with ghee, as it gives the pongal its taste and flavour. So adding extra few spoons at the time of serving makes it even more good.

2. The proportion of dhal:rice:water should roughly be 1/4:1:4 1/2 (2 1/4 cups for rice + 1 3/4 cups for dha, so totally 4 1/2 cups of water). If you're doubtful about water proportion for pongal, it's ok to add little extra water as the pongal should be mashed well. If the water quantity is not enough, the rice will not be cooked well and even with lots of effort to mash, it will not mash well.

3. In case the water quantity is less, which you realise after opening the cooker, then immediately heat up 2 cups of water and add the boiled water little by little and mash the pongal to get the desired consistency.

Chickpeas Masala Vadai

Vadai's are generally a deep fried crispy pattise , that goes well with South Indian rice items or just served as snacks. In Tamil nadu, during festival season it is very common to find this vadai being prepared in many houses and also it is a part of offering to god, at times. Children sure will love the vadai as they are very crispy and tasty.  If eaten hot, these vadai's need no side dish, any kind of chutney's like coconut chutney, mint chutney or tomato chutney or even sambar can make a good combination for the vadai. There are vareity of vadai's one can make, the most easy and common one's are medu vadai (made with urud dhal) and parpu vadai (made with channa dhal). The Chickpeas (white channa) masala vadai is a variation from the usual vadai's.

The masala flavour in this vadai comes from the masala ingredients like ginger, garlic, cloves, fennel seeds etc. Fennel seeds are must in this ingredient to get a strong masala flavour while eating. So go ahead, prepare and enjoy making the yummy channa masala vadai !!

However this vadai is not instant, as it requires some minimum soaking time. So plan one day ahead and keep the ingredients ready to relish this vadai the next day. In fact during rainy season, it's common to  crave for this kind of hot vadai to be served along with tea/coffee. With the combination of a cool weather and a hot tasty snack, you just can't stop eating !!! So go ahead, make this tasty channa masala vadai and relish heartily !!

Ingredients:

1. White Channa (Kabuli Channa) - 2 Cups
2. Fennel Seeds - 1 tsp
3. Ginger piece - 1 inch
4. Garlic pods - 2 big or 3 small (with skin)
5. Red Chillies - 4 or 5
6. Cloves - 2 or 3
7. Chopped onion (small) - 1
8. Curry leaves - 6
9. Salt - 1 to 1.5 tsp

Pre-requisite:

1. Soak Channa in plenty of water the previous night and keep aside for 8 to 12 hours, next day drain all the channa water and keep the puffed channa ready.

To Grind together & prepare masala dough for fry:

Grind together WITHOUT ADDING WATER in the following order:

1. Red Chillies to coarse pieces.
2. Then add the channa and grind slightly coarse.
3. Just before removing, add the fennel seeds, ginger pieces, garlic pods, cloves and give one or two quick grind to mix them with channa.
4. The grounded channa should look coarse and portion of channa can be visible even after the grind. This is the right consistency. Then, transfer to a broad bowl.


Once the above is ready, add the chopped onions and curry leaves and required amount of salt to the grounded dough, and beat/mix the masala dough well by hand and keep ready.


Method:

1. In a kadai or non-stick pan, add enough oil to deep fry the vadai and allow it to heat.


2. Meanwhile make even balls from the masala dough and pat it with hand and slightly flatten it and drop each vadai into the hot oil and fry both the sides until they are slight brown and remove. Transfer the vadai on tissue paper, so any excess oil gets absorbed.



3. Hot and tasty channa masala vadai is ready.



Tips:

1. Since the masala dough is grounded without adding water, if there are large quantities of the dough, divide them into equal portions and grind them batch by batch, to avoid the mixer getting struck while grinding. If required, sprinkle very few drops of water while grinding and not more.
2. Optionally chopped coriander seeds can also be mixed with this channa dough while mixing for added flavour.
3. Don't fry till the vadai looks dark brown in oil, because once the vadai is removed from oil, it further gets little dark in colour.