Kathirikkai Rasavangi

Kaththrikkai Rasavangi

Ingredients

Kaththirikkai  -  500 gms ( for serving 6 )
Puli - size of lemon
Thuvaram Paruppu - 3/4  cup 
Perungayam - small piece.
Dhania, Kadalai Paruppu, Red Chilli (Or Sambar Podi)
Crated Coconut - 1/2  cup
Kadugu, Ulutham paruppu, Kariveppilai - for seasoning
Oil for seasoning.
Jaggery
Salt

Method

• Cut Kaththirikkai in to small pieces. Keep the cut vegetable  in water.
• Add hot water to puli and soak it for 10 to 15 minutes.
• Add little oil to pan. Add perungayam. Remove it once it is fully fried. Now add kadugu, Ulutham paruppu followed by Karuveppilai. Keep it separate for adding it finally for seasoning.
• Roast Dhania, Kadalai Paruppu, Red chilli in the same pan without adding oil  Once smell of Chilly and Dhania is noticiable and color of Kadalai paruppu changes to dark yellow remove the mix from pan and keep it separate. Then add crated coconut to the pan till it changes its white color. Now grind all four  and keep it ready.
• Add little oil and add cut Kathirikkai and if required add water and allow it to cook till it becomes soft.
• Cook Thuvaram Paruppu in cooker. Mash to cooked Paruppu and keep it ready.
• Squeeze the Puli soaked in water and keep the Puli water separately.
• Now add Puli water to Fried Kathirikkai add salt and  allow it to cook for 10 minutes.[In case you are not making the fresh paste, the Sambar podi needs to be added along with roasted perungayam now itself and make sure that it is full mixed] Once the Kaththirikkai is fully cooked, add mashed Paruppu and mix it well. Allow it to cook for few minutes. Now add the paste and mix it well. Allow the mix to cook for 5 minutes. 
• Now add Jaggery at this stage and allow it to mix well. The entire preparation would get slightly thick. The preparation would look brown in color. Now switch off the flame. 
• Finally add sesoning - Kadugu, Ulutham paruppu, Karuveppilai.

Vazakkai Puli Koottu

VAZAKKAI PULI KOOTTU

Ingredients

Vazhakkai  -  2 numbers ( for serving 6 )
Puli - less than size of lemon
Kadalai Paruppu - 1 cup (Or Thuvaram paruppu)
Perungayam - small piece.
Dhania, Kadalai Paruppu, Red Chilli (Or Sambar Podi)
Crated Coconut - 1/2 cup
Kadugu, Ulutham paruppu, Kariveppilai - for seasoning
Oil for seasoning.
Jaggery
Salt

Method

• Peel off the Vazhakkai skin so that the white portion is visible. Now cut it into small pieces and keep it in water, so that it does it looses its color.
• Add hot water to puli and soak it for 10 to 15 minutes.
• Add little oil to pan. Add perungayam. Remove it once it is fully fried. Now add kadugu, Ulutham paruppu followed by Karuveppilai. Keep it separate for adding it finally for seasoning.
• Roast Dhania, Kadalai Paruppu, Red chilli in the same pan without adding oil  Once smell of Chilly and Dhania is noticiable and color of Kadalai paruppu changes to dark yellow remove the mix from pan and keep it separate. Then add crated coconut to the pan till it changes its white color. Now grind all four  and keep it ready.
• Cook Kadalai Paruppu in cooker. You can alternatively use Thuvaram paruppu also. Mash to cooked Paruppu and keep it ready.
• Squeeze the Puli soaked in water and keep the Puli water separately.
• Now drain the water from Vazhakkai. 
• Now add Puli water to Vazhakkai, add salt and  allow it to cook for 10 minutes.[In case you are not making the fresh paste, the Sambar podi needs to be added along with roasted perungayam now itself and make sure that it is full mixed] Once the Vazhakkai is fully cooked, add mashed Paruppu and mix it well. Allow it to cook for few minutes. Now add the paste and mix it well. Allow the mix to cook for 5 minutes. 
• Now add Jaggery at this stage and allow it to mix well. The entire preparation would get thicker. Now switch off the flame. 
• Finally add sesoning - Kadugu, Ulutham paruppu, Karuveppilai.

Avakkai Urugai

Avakai urugai is a delicious pickle which can last for more than an year if prepared carefully. No other pickle can compare with Avakai in taste.

Ingredients:

Mangoes:

The mangoes should be raw, well grown and hardened shell. It should preferably be sour(Pulippu) in taste. The mangoes should be cut to pieces. Usually in Tamil nadu, there are shops where you can chop mangoes into pieces for Avakai Urugai. But in places where you don't have that facility, you can cut the hard shelled mangoes using Hand Saw or Hand saw blades. You have to hold the mangoes carefully while cutting, otherwise it may cause injury. But I found it to be quite convenient as well. The cut mangoes should be dried under sun for 3/4 hours. After that the mangoes should be wiped using a dried cloth. Do not remove the shells from the chopped mango pieces, while doing all this. Keep this wiped, dried mangoes separately.

Salt:

For say 5 cups of cut mangoes 1 cup of salt. The salt should be dry  before it is crushed into powder in mixie and keep it separate.

Fenugreek (Kadugu) seeds :

For 5 cups of cut mangoes, 3/4 cup of fenugreek seeds. The seeds should be dried under sun for 2/3 hours before it is crushed to powder. keep this also aside.

Chilli Powder

For 5 cups of cut mangoes, 1 cup of chilli powder. Either you can buy ready made Chilli powder or roast dried chillies and  crush them in to powder and keep it aside.

Oil:

About 250 to 300 ml of Gingelly oil.

Channa dal(Konda kadalai)

About 50 gms.

Preparation

Salt, Fenugreek seeds and chilli powder can be mixed together and divided the mixed power into 6 parts. If you have ceramic jar, it is ideal. Wash, wipe the jar of any moisture. You can even dry it under the Sun for some time. Now pour one(1/6) part of the salt/chilli/fenugreek mix on the bottom of the jar. Now add one cup of cut mangoes. Now pour (1/6) of salt mixture on top of mangoes. You can add few channa dal. Now pour oil to cover the mix slowly. Now add one cup of cut mangoes. Add salt mixture, followed by oil. Repeat this process until all mangoes and powder and exhausted.

If you have any remaining oil, add in the pickle jar.

The jar should be closed and kept aside for 2 days or so. The pickle should be mixed using a dry long handle wodden or metal ladle. This can be repeated once in 2 days for 3/4 times.

Precaution:

While you are mixing or taking pickle out of the jar, always use dry ladle without any water or moisture. Even if a small quantity of water, it would spoil the pickle..

Koozh Vadam

I tried Koozh Vadam after reading http://bhagavathy.blogspot.in/2009/04/recipe-karuvadam.html blog. It is similar to Rice vadam of Tamil Nadu style, but method of dough preparation is different. The taste is also different, in fact, better than TN style. The beauty of this vadam is even after frying it remains white, unlike TN style vadams which turn yellow. Since the dough is fermented, the vadam tastes and smells great. It is worth the effort....

I hear that this method is practised by people from Palakkad and Tirunelveli.

Ingredients: Rice 1 KG; 7/8 chiilies; Salt 3/4 tea spoons; Lemon - 4/5 nos. Perungayam - 2 small pieces.

Preparation: Wash rice and soak it in water, similar to how you would do for Dosa dough, overnight. In the evening grind it as how you would do for Dosa dough, allow the dough to ferment overnight. Allow Perungayam to soak in water overnight.

Next day morning, grind chillies filter hard stuff. Keep it separate.

Now boil 8 cups of water. When water is near boiling point, pour the fermented dough into it and keep stirring, till the dough is very well cooked and it becomes hard enough. if required add more water and keep stirring. The dough surface will become shiny - indication of well cooked dough. Once it is cooked, switch off flame. Add Perungayam, Chilli paste, and salt. Stir it to mix these well with dough. Allow it to cool for 30 mts. After this add lemon juice and mix it.

Now important step! taste the dough, if any taste is needed, you may add.

Keep a 8X3 plastic sheet ready. You can use the press you desire. Dry the karuvadam for 2 days. At the end of second day remove the vadams from sheet reverse it and allow it to dry on the 3rd day.
If it is not completely dried, allow it to dry for one more day before storing.

Javvarisi karuvadam

Ingredients

• Javvarisi - 1 kg  about 6 Azhakku (cups). Soak Javvarisi the previous night by adding 12 cups of water.
• Green Chillies  - 8
• Common salt 4 table spoons
• Lemon 2 nos
• Perungayam - 2 small pieces - soak in water overnight. 
• Jeeragam, Omam - Can also be added if you like the smell.
• 3X6 plastic sheet or Cloth for drying.

Procedure

• Mash chillies in mixie.
• Add 6 cups of water to soaked Javvarisi and mix it well. Now cook the entire mix until the mix becomes glossy.
• Pour mashed chillies, salt and dissolved Perungayam into the above mix and stir well.
• Keep stirring until Javvarisi is fully cooked and it looks transparent and shiny. Switch off the flame and allow it to cool. The mix should be be such that it is not very thick. If it is too thick, add little hot water and mix.
• Allow the mix to cool for 30 mts.
• Now add Lemon juice after filtering the seeds.
• Mix it well.
• At this stage you can taste the mix. Add salt based on your taste.
• Allow it to cool for one hour or so. 
• Spread a plastic sheet or cloth on the floor where sunlight is present.  Use medium sized spoon so that each vadam is not more than about 1.5 inches in diameter. Each spoon of vadam mix is to be taken and deumped on the sheet slowlywhile the spoon is touching the sheet/cloth. The dump should be round in shape. The dumps have to be kept in a orderly manner with gap between the dumps.
• Allow it to dry for 2 days in sunlight.
• If cloth is used, sprinkle water on the rear side of the cloth and peel off the Vadams one by one. 
• If Plastic sheet is used, the vadams can be removed one by one. ( cloth is better, as some times it becomes difficult to peel off from the sheet; and cleaning the sheet will also take time)
• The vadams have to be dried under sun for two more days until the vadams are fully dried.
• The sun dried vadams have to be kept open under shade for two days before it can be stored.

Rice Karuvadam - Tamil nadu style

Before I go into the recipe, please don't lose your heart if you don't get it successfully in one or two attempts. I have tried quite a few times before I could get consistency. If you are in TN you should complete Karuvadam before April 15 or so. If you are outside India, just make sure that there is sunshine, at the same time, the temperature should not cross 35. If it becomes too hot, the Karuvaram will not dry evenly. This is what I heard from others. I know generally Karuvadam is done in Feb-March itself. Ideally if you have someone to assist esp. while pressing, it would make it easier and faster.

Flour: I bought Rice(ask for Rice for Arisi maavu) from local grocery store. Grind the rice in machine. Alternatively, you can soak the rice in water for an hour and then dry it on cloth then grind it in mixie. Then you have sieve to get nice flour. Keep this ready. I am describing the procedure for 6 Azakku ( will call it as CUP from now on)of Rice flour(About 1 kg)

Other ingredients: Perungayam - 3 small pieces; Green chilli: 10 nos. Lemon: 4 nos; Salt: 3 tablespoon. Javvarisi - about 200 grams.; water 15 cups [Please note quantity of water required may vary from rice to rice. Please be careful while adding water as mentioned later in the procedure.]

Procedure:

• Soak Javvarisi overnight.


• Soak Perungayam also overnight.


• Chop the chillies and grind it in mixie. filter the juice and keep. Repeat the process 3/4 times and throwaway the hard stuff.


• Add 3 table spoons of common salt to this chilli juice and mix it.


• Now grind javvarasi in Mixie.


• Now take 12 cups of water. Heat the remaining 2 cups and keep it separate.


• Now pour mashed Javvarisi into water and mix it well. 
• Now start heating the mix. This needs to be continued until Javvarisi water mix becomes glossy in color and the Javvarisi looks transparent and water is boiling.  This takes above 15 to 20 minutes.
• Now add Chilli extract and soaked perungayam and salt and mix it well.


• Lower the flame.
• Start adding rice flour now in small quantities while stirring the mix continuously.


• You need to keep mixing right through. After you poured all rice flour keep mixing for 10 mts until the rice flour is fully mixed andis not visible in the mix. If the mix is too hard, you can add hot water you kept separately. Don't add more water than what you have kept separately. Remember mixing at this stage will be tough. Now switch off the flame.
• Take it off the stove and allow it to cool for 30 mts. During this period, keep mixing once in a while.


• Now crush lemons and filter the seeds out and add it to the above mix.
• Now comes the important step: Taste the flour for Urappu, uppu and Pulippu. If anything is less, you may add now and mix it well.


• Keep 8 feet X 3 feet plastic sheet ready for drying vadam.


• You also have to keep the Karuvadam press with proper Villai washed and ready.


• Now you are ready to start pressing the flour into vadam.


• I used many presses, the one in brass we bought from Kumbakonam(Meenakshi brand) gave the best results. The key is the Villai should fit properly without any gap in the sides, so that when you press the dough does not escape through the gap.


• Usually if you use the press I used, you should get 4 Vadams for each serve.


• You can use other villais of your liking like Nada or others.


• While refilling, clean the inside and outside surface of the press. Dip your finger in little bit of water and then fill the press with flour. While filling make sure that there are no uncooked rice flour and no air gap.


• Leave it under the sun for entire day. While bringing the sheet back into the house, make sure that you don't disturb the Vadams.


• Put the Vadam sheet under the sun for second day as well. At this stage you can peel off the vadam and invert it so that the other side will get dried during the second day.


• Dry for 3rd day also. By this time, if it is not fully dried, you may have to keep it under sun for one more day. 
• Once Vadam is fully dried, remove it from sun and keep it open in shade for 2 days inside the house.

• After that it can be stored in a plastic cover and stored.

Thakkali Thokku

Now ( Jan 24th 2010) Thakkali is quite cheap (Rs.10/kg) in Madras. So you can buy 2/3 kgs of Thakkali and prepare thokku.

Take 1 KG of Thakkali, wash it. Cut into small pieces. Keep it separate.

Pour about 50 ML of Nalla Ennai(Gingelly oil) in a Thick Aluminium vessel. Keep it on stove. Put 5/10 grams of Perungaayam in the oil and allow it to fry.
Now pour about 10 grams of Kadugu allow it to explode.
Now put the cut Thakkali. Throughly mix it. Now add 2 (of 2.5) tea spoons of
salt and mix it. Allow the Thakkali to cook and let the mixture to solidify(will take about 10 minutes or so.) Once it solidifies, add about 4/5 tea spoons of Chilli powder. Mix it. Add 10 to 20 ml of Nalla ennai and mix it.

The entire preparation takes about 30 mts max. It is easy to make.