Thiruvadhirai Kali and kootu

This will serve 2 people.

Ingredients for Kali:
1 cup raw rice
3 table spoons of moong dal
1 cup of powdered jaggery
cashews
ground elakkai
ghee
cocount flakes
1 table spoon cocunt milk (optional)
3 cups water

1. Roast moongdal with little ghee, until you get to feel the flavour of moong dal (not necessary it should become red)
2. Rinse raw rice in water, drain them, and dry them on a clean towel.
3. Once the rice is dried completely, dry roast them until the become red in colour. They should not be burnt, but it should be nice red in colour.
4. Dry grind the roasted rice to a fine powder.
5. Melt the jaggery with little water, and filter them. (No paagu padam is required. Once jaggery is completely melted, filter them immediately).

Now, in a non stick kadai or a deep dish, add 1 cup of water, and cook the roasted moong dal. Once moong dal is cooked almost 3/4th, add the filtered jaggery water, and let this boil for sometime, on a medium flame.

Then add the remaining 2 cups of water, powdered rice flour and mix them well so that there are no lumps. Add cocount flakes and coconut milk (This is optional). Keep it on a medium to low flame and let it cook covered. Keep checking once in a while to see if it needs water… if required sprinkle some hot water and mix well.

Add ghee when this mixture is 3/4 cooked and cook covered until the kali comes out clean off the pan. Add more ghee, cashews fried in ghee, and sprinkle some elakkai podi.

Your yummy kali is ready.

Kootu

This is called ezhu (7) curry kootu. But modified to suite my personal taste bud.
1. Any seasonal vegetables (carrot, string beans, peas, potato, cauliflower, poosanikkai, parangikkai, vaazhakkai, over night soaked (pachai verkadalai, kaaramani), etc….) Cut them all into medium size evenly
2. Tamarind paste (Store brought paste – 1 tablespoon, else 1/4 cup squeezed fresh)
3. Toor dal – 2 tablespoon
4. Salt to taste
5. Turmeric powder – 1/2 teaspoon
6. Sambar powder – 1 tsp

For paste
1. 2 teaspoon kadalai paruppu
2. 2 teaspoon dhania
3. just a little bit of hing
4. 4-5 dried red chilli
5. 1 tablespoon of cocount flakes or fresh grated coconut
6. Little water

Heat 2 tsp of oil in a small kadai or pan. First add kadala paruppu, once this is 1/2 fried, add ulutham paruppu, ten milagai, dhania, hing. Let them fry for a min (ensure they r not burnt). Let them cool. Then coarse grind this mixture. Then add cocount flakes, and water and grind them to a paste.

Seasoning
1. 1 tsp mustard seeds
2. 1 tsp of split urad dal
3. Handful of fresh curry leaves
4. Oil

Preparation
1. In a deep dish or kadai, add vegetables, tamarind paste, water, salt, sambar powder and let the vegetables cook in this.
2. Boil toor dal with little turmeric powder in a cooker.
3. Once the vegetables are cooked 3/4th add the toor dal and boil for a 2 minutes on a low to medium flame.
4. Then add the spice paste, add some more water for consistency, check for salt, and let this cook on a low to medium flame until you can see the yellow bubbles forming.
5. Fry the seasonings in oil and add to the kootu as garnish finally.

Serve kali and kootu together.

Orange sponge cake

Orange sponge cake

Ingredients:
3/4 cup of all purpose flour (maida)
2 eggs
1/2 cup white fine granulated sugar
1 tablespoon orange zest (Its about zest from one full orange. Peel only the orange colored part and not white. That will bring out a bitter taste)
1 teaspoon baking powder
Orange juice from a well ripe Orange (this could be 5 tablespoons. If you find the batter does not fold in a riobbon consistency you could add a little more and beat)

Pre-heat oven to 325F
1. Separate egg from yolk, and let it stay to come to room temperature.
2. Beat egg yolk, sugar and orange zest until fluffy. This is the most important part, as this will ensure your cake turns out soft,moist and spongy. If you have a electric mixer let it beat for about 2 mins.
3. Mix flour and baking powder in a bowl.
4. To the egg yolk mixture, start adding flour and orange juice alternately in 3 parts. This is to make sure, your batter is well beaten, and less effort for your hands as well.
5. In a separate bowl, start whisking the egg whites to a fully white froth. If using a electric mixer, beat until you get white, nice and creamy consistency.
6. Now, fold this egg whites to the rest of batter slowly and just give a quick whisk. You dont have to beat the batter for long.
7. Pour the batter into a clean, greased pan (grease with oil and sprinkle some flour). Always ensure the pan is wide enough so that your cake cooks evenly. And the depth of the pan should be enough to hold the cake when it rises while baking.
8. Bake for 35-40 mins, until your skewer comes out clean. A tip: Bake it 5mins less than mentioned and let it stand inside the oven for another 5mins, before you take it out and cool.