Vazhaipoo (Banana flower/ Banana Blossom) poricha kootu / gravy

Ingredients:

Banana Flower/Banana Blossom/ Vazhaipoo                             1 whole
Mung dhal/ Payathamparuppu                                                  1/2 cup
Ground nuts                                                                           A handful
Turmeric powder                                                                    1/4 tsp
Dessicated coconut powder/ Coconut Grating                            1 tsp/ 1 tbsp
Jeeragam/Jeera                                                                       1/2 tsp
Red chillies                                                                           1 no
Salt                                                                                      As needed


To temper:

Oil                                                                                       1 tsp
Mustard seeds                                                                       1/2 tsp
Curry leaves/ Karuveppilai                                                     1 sprig


Method:

To clean and cut the banana flower/banana blossom, if you have not done that before, please watch this video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXHXwSLFnzE

Please use sesame oil instead of mustard oil on hands and do not peel the plastic petal... just the center stem for this recipe. Rest everything is the same. For a clearer understanding of what I say, please refer to the pictures below.


Banana blossom/ Banana Flower/ Vazhaipoo petals peeled

Remove the center stem only from each of the florets  ( These are the removed center stems)

Cleaned Florets

 Cut the florets as tiny as possible

Process of making poricha kootu:

1,) Clean and cut banana flower/ banana blossom/vazhaipoo

2.) Pressure cook ground nuts with water.

3.)  To 1/2 cup of mung dhal/payathamparuppu, add 1/4 tsp of turmeric powder and enough water to immerse it and pressure cook it

4.) Add  water to the cut banana flower/banana blossom/Vazhaipoo in a saucepan, just enough to immerse it and boil well until its soft.
5.) Add the pressure cooked mung dhal/payathamparuppu to the cooked vazhaipoo and mix it well and add enough water to make it as a gravy and let it boil for 5 minutes in medium heat. Stir occasionally at this point to prevent it from burning.
6.) Add salt as needed and some more water if the gravy has thickened a lot and let it boil for 2- 3 mins.

7.) Grind dessicated coconut powder/coconut gratings and jeeragam/jeera and Red chilli together to a powder or a paste in case of gratings. I have used dessicated coconut powder in this recipe. So it will be a powder. Add water to make it a paste.

8.) Add  this paste to the kootu/gravy and mix well and bring the heat to low. If the gravy is too thick, add very little water to make the consistency right and mix well.
9.) Let the mixture come to a boil in low heat, switch of the stove,  remove from heat and serve.

It goes very well with hot rice, as a side dish to rice with vethakozhambu and pachai milagai ennai kozhambhu.

Oats halwa!

This post is a long time coming! I tried this tasty halwa a year back and wanted to post it for the past month , but forgot totally about it!

Ingredients:

White Oats - 1 cup

Sugar - 3/4th of a cup

Elaichi powder- 1/2 tsp

Cashews - 10 whole ones

Food color - as  you wish

Milk - 2 1/2 cups

Water - 100 ml

Ghee (Clarified butter) -  200gms

Procedure:

1.) Take a tsp of ghee in a medium heated stir fry pan.

2.)  Add oats to it and roast it till the raw smell of oats dies away.

3.)  Cool it and grind to a nice powder

4.) Add milk to a pan and bring to a boil, add this powder and stir well for a minute, until it becomes a thick paste.

5.)  Add sugar to the stir fry pan and add water just to immerse it and make a sugar syrup with oily consistency. This takes approximately about 2-3 minutes after the syrup starts to boil in medium heat.

6.) Add the oats milk paste and keep mixing. Add ghee in parts in equal inervals until it becomes an halwa.

7.) Add your choice of food colour, elaichi powder and cashews roasted in ghee as garnish and serve.

This is a very nutritious halwa, rich in fibre and protein!

Sarvam 'kollu'(horse-gram) mayam!

I think this post would define what this blog is all about! Its just not about recipes, but about everything that is concerned with food.

This post is the one which I wrote for sending it to a popular tamil magazine, but didn't for no-reason at all! I think it is destined to have its place here, after all!

Here goes the translation of my article. But I have baptised this post with the same name I had given to the article 2.5 years ago....

"Horse-gram?, to cook?" "Is it not the one that is fed for horses?" These are the common questions that arise from people when they read the topic!

My mom used to make awesome 'kollu rasam' from where my inspiration for 'kollu' started. Kollu or horse-gram, as it is called in English, is a lentil which has near-magical properties.

"What makes horse-gram so special? It is after all a lentil!"

Before giving the answer straight-away, I have to explain certain things here. The food we consume gets digested to release energy for our bodily day-today activities. The unspent energy and the fat we consume gets stored as fat or lipid molecules in the tissues of our body. These 'fatty' tissues are called as adipose tissues. It doesn't stop there! The excess fat starts to clog the arteries and veins that supply and take away blood to/from the heart, starts forming inner and outer lining of all the internal organs thus hampering their functions, in serious cases causing organ failures! The fat molecules are very difficult to disintegrate. Thats why too much fat consumption is an absolute no-no! Overweight or obese individuals are required to work their socks out to reduce their plump, because of the above mentioned reason. When doing work-outs, the lipids stored in the tissues start to disintegrate/break-down for the release of energy for physical activity, thus reducing the weight.

Okay, let me answer the question now!

Yes, horse-gram is a lentil. The thing that sets horse-gram apart from the others is, its thick jacket, which it wears proudly, boasting off its uniqueness. The jacket is so thick that it does not get cooked unless it is soaked for atleast 8-10 hrs, or through the night. When it is consumed, the thick jacket is the toughest to break-down. It just fights back as a brave warrior would, bringing down the fat molecules, stored in the adipose tissues along with it!

"Am I hearing it correctly? Will mere consumption of horse gram reduce weight then?"

Er.... Well! Yes.. but gradually, over a period of time. It acts as a catalyst in the weight loss, when combined with physical exercise. It not only aids in reducing weight, it breaks down the villainous lipids in the body.

The other thing about horse-gram is, it is highly rich in protein and iron. The high protein content, makes it very nutritious to eat for people who maintain normal weight too.

"Oh!.... then I have to make a sacrifice and tie my wagging tongue for sometime to do this!"

Nah!.... I bet you will experience no or little or enhanced difference in taste. Your tongue can wag even stronger!

So having given a green signal to horse-gram, let us ignite the fuel of our creativity here and list out the various recipes that can be made using horse-gram. The below mentioned ideas are just starters! Other recipes are always welcome!

1.) When making 'milagai podi ' (some call it gun powder!!! :)) Dunno for what reasons though!),for dosas and idlis, replace the full measure of chana dal or kadalai paruppu with half the measure of chana dhal (kadalai paruppu) and half the measure of kollu.

2.) When making the batter for adai, add a handful of soaked kollu (8-10 hrs soaking mandatory) with other lentils and grind. Adai will have a better and improved flavour, crispiness and taste! What more do you want?

3.) Instead of adding thoor dhal /thuvaram paruppu for rasam, soaked kollu can be used to make it an awesome 'kollu rasam'.

4.) Do you have a habit of eating sprouts for breakfast in the morning? Add a handful of soaked horse gram to it!

5.) Dhal fry and yummy! Made for each other! Add a handful of soaked horse-gram to the mixture of dhals and then cook it in the same way! People will ask for your new recipe of dhal fry!

6.) When making paruppu podi too, a proportion of kollu can be added to it!

In the above mentioned ideas, wherever I have said 'soaked' it means soaked for 8-10 hours!

I think this article will be an inspiration for us to cook much healthily and lead a better life!

Happy cooking!