Raagi Muddae/Kali/Dumpling

Prep

Ragi Muddae/Kali/Dumpling

Ingredients:

• 1 cup ragi flour
• 1 tsp oil (olive, canola or can be ghee)
• pinch of salt to taste
• 2 cups water

Method:

Starting to cook

Boil 1 cup of water in a small thick bottom sauce pan. Add salt and oil and sprinkle in a tsp of ragi flour. Mix and bring everything to a boil and lower the heat to medium. Meanwhile mix the dry ragi flour in one cup of cool water and whisk into a homogeneous batter. Slowly pour this ragi batter into the boiling water, stirring simultaneously with a spatula (preferably wooden). Lower the heat further down. Continue to cook and stir for 6 to 8 minutes.The liquidy batter should gradually become thicker and become a soft dough. Remove the spatula, cover and  turn off the heat. Let it sit for a couple minutes before dividing into smaller
tennis ball sized dough or muddae/kali.

Almost cooked

Cooking Tips:

To divide and sub dive the hot ragi dough into balls, place some cooked ragi dough in a plate, dip your hands in cool water and shape the dough into balls for serving.

Serving tips:

Always serve ragi muddae/kali hot with a little dollop of ghee. It is usually served with hot sambar/huli or gojju.

Fresh Coconut for Cooking



Coconut

Fresh Coconut for Cooking

Ingredient:

• 1 whole coconut

Method:

Remove any excess fibers on the coconut. Rinse under running water. Crack the shell by hitting the coconut in the middle. Use a hammer to firmly tap around (equator) the coconut forcefully or using full force beat the coconut on a stone or concrete surface to crack the shell. Try and reserve any coconut water in a cup before continuing to break open the coconut to reveal the white core. The core should be firm without being moldy or foul smelling.

Then the core can be grated with different kinds of coconut graters and freezed in plastic bags for future use in dishes.

If you do not have a grater follow steps below.

1. Break and shell the coconut further with a hammer and remove the white coconut core with a butter knife.
2. Peel the dark stiff skin with a grater or a sharp knife.
3. Slice the peeled coconut into 1/4" thin slices and freeze in plastic bags for future use in dishes.
4. Or using a food processor, chop the slices into small gratings and store in freezer in plastic bags for future use in dishes.

Step 1



Step 3



Step 2

Buying Tips:

The coconut should not have any visible cracks or leaks, or be soft at the eyes spot. When tapped with a coin the sound should not be dull.

Using Tips:

Coconut gratings can be used in many dish especially in Curry's (palya/karmind), saaru/rasam etc. It is blended to be used in payasa, huli/koimbu, kootu etc.

Whipping Cream

Whipping Cream

Ingredients:

• 1 cup heavy whipping cream (makes 2 cups of whipped cream)
• 2 tbs powdered sugar
• 1/4 tsp essence/flavoring of your choice (optional)

Method:

Homemade whipped cream can be made in less than 15 minutes. Utensils and the beaters for making the whipping cream should be chilled in a freezer for at least 15 minutes prior to using them to make whipped cream. The whipping cream should also be stored in the coldest part of the refrigerator.

Remove the mixing bowl and beaters from the freezer after sufficiently chilled. Be sure to use a bowl big enough to hold the cream once it is whipped. Cream will double in volume. It is also best to use a bowl that is narrow with deep sides.

Add 1 cup of heavy cream in the chilled mixing bowl and beat with a hand mixer/stand mixer for 20 to 30 seconds on low until bubbles begin to form.

Increase mixer speed to medium and beat until the cream begins to thicken and the beaters show a slight trail in the cream.

Increase mixer speed to high and beat until the cream begins to thicken and puff up. Slowly add the powdered sugar and any desired flavoring, off to the side of the bowl and continue beating.

Continue to beat the cream until it forms a soft peak. For a soft peak, beat until a soft curved peak forms when pulling the beaters straight up out of the mixture. At this point the whipped cream is still soft enough to fold into fruits and other ingredients in desserts easily. For a spreadable whipped cream or stiffer peaks, beat for another 20 to 30 seconds.

Cooking Tips:

DO NOT over whip the cream. If the cream is over whipped it will start to separate and curdle.

Serving Tips:

Top ice creams, pies and fold into desired desserts like kulfi.

Mosaru Pachadi/Thair Pachadi/Raitha

Mosaru Pachadi/Thair Pachadi/Raitha
Ingredients:

Pachadi

• 1/2 cup of peeled, seeded and diced cucumber(or grated)
• 1/4 cup of chopped cilantro
• 1 small green diced chili
• 1 cup of yogurt
• 1/2 tsp of salt

Garnishing ingredients:

• 1 tsp of mustard seeds
• 2 tbs of corn oil
• 1/8 tsp of turmeric(optional)
• pinch of hingh(optional)

Method:
In a small bowl mix cucumber, yogurt, cilantro, chillis and salt.

Garnishing:
Heat oil in a small pan or a spatula and splatter the mustard seeds. Add hingh and turmeric. Pour the contents into the yogurt mixture. Mix well.
Cooking tips:
You can make pachadi with other vegetables like tomatoes, carrots, onions or cooked vegetables like  potatoes, squashes, spinach etc.
Serving:
Serve with rice, rotis, or just as a side dish too.

Rice Plain

Rice

Cooked ric in a rice cooker

Ingredients:

• 1 cup Basumati Rice
• 3 cups water

or

• 1 cup Ponni Raw rice/Sona Masoori rice
• 3 cups water

or

• 1 cup any extra long grain rice
• 2 cups of water

Method:
Cook rice with water in a rice cooker or a pressure cooker.
Alternatively, boil water in a thick vessel. Add the rice and continue to cook for 1o minutes at medium heat. Lower the heat to low, cover and cook further for another ten minutes. Turn off the heat as the rice should be all cooked at this point.

Clarified Butter/Ghee/Tuppa/Naiee



Melting butter

Clarified Butter/Ghee/Tuppa/Naiee

Ingredients:

• 2 bars of unsalted butter ( 1/2 lb)

Method:

In a dish, heat butter on medium heat for 10 to 15 minutes till all the bubbly/splattering sounds are diminished. At this point the melted butter should be clear, with a nice aroma, boiling sedately. The bottom of the dish could be blackened a little with a brownish crust. Decant the clear liquid into a glass dish or any other dish or jar and save.


Clarified butter

Cooking tips:

Under heating will leave the watery/cream contents in and the ghee will spoil quickly. Over heating will burn the ghee and make it smell awful. Caution, some of the butter have too much water/cream content in them which will make it splatter and spill over. Always make ghee on medium to low heat.

Serving tips:

Serve on a tsp on hot rice, rasam, sambar rice,............use on a number of endless dishes. Used widely in desserts

Paneer

Paneer
Ingredients:

• 1/2 gallon of whole milk
• 1/4 pint of half and half (optional)
• 3 tbs of vinegar mixed in 3 tbs of warm water

Method: Heat the milk and the half and half on medium heat till it is ready to boil over. Add the vinegar mixture and stir. When the milk curdles, the crumbled paneer and the yellow water separates, turn off the heat. Let mixture cool down for a few minutes. Strain this mixture through a muslin/or cotton cloth. Gently rinse the curdled crumbled paneer with cold water. Wring out as moisture as possible. Pack and shape the crumbled paneer into a square block and store in the refrigerator for several hours under heavy weight.
Tips: For making koftas, the crumbled paneer can be used as is. To make paneer cubes, the crumble paneer needs to be packed and shaped and stored in the refrigerator for several hours under heavy weights, before it can be cut into cubes.

Set Yogurt/Mosaru/Tair

Set Yogurt

Set

Ready

Ingredients:

• 3 cups milk (your choice of any 0 %, 1 %, 2% or whole milk)
• 1 tbs of any store bought yogurt with live cultures as starter
• 2 or 3 tbs of warm water

Method: Heat milk in a pot either in microwave or stove top, till it is ready to boil over or starts to form a skin at the top. Set aside and let cool till it is lukewarm. Mix 1 tbs of the store bought yogurt in a cup with little warm water and add this to the lukewarm milk. Cover and store in a warm place. Yogurt should set within 4 to 6 hours. Store in refrigerator after it is set and use as needed.
Tips: In winter the milk should be a little hotter than lukewarm and in summer it should be lukewarm to set well. Also, in winter, wrap the pot with a thick towel to help keep the pot warm for setting the yogurt. Once the homemade yogurt is set, use 1 or 2 tbs of this as the starter to make more future batches of yogurt.

Banana Rasayana

Rasayana

Banana Rasayana
Ingredients:

• 2 ripe bananas sliced
• 1" cube of jaggery(broken into small pieces) or 2tbs of brown sugar
• 1/8 cup of freshly grated coconut ( or frozen or desiccated coconut)
• pinch of ground cardamon(optional)
• tiny weeny bit of natural camphor(pacchae karpoora) optional
• 2 strands of saffron(kesari) optional
• 1 tbs of honey (optional)

Method: Place the sliced bananas in a small bowl. Add rest of the ingredients. Mix gently just before serving.
Cooking tips: Can add other fruits like sliced grapes, pears, apples etc. For a variation add roasted nuts (almonds, pista, cashews) and raisins.
Serving Tips: On Holidays and Festival days, this would be the first dish to be served. You can always serve it as a dessert.