Orange-Lemon Scented Cookies

February 12, 2012 — Chelvi S

 

Ingredients

  • 6 tablespoons butter
  • 1 teaspoon finely shredded orange peel
  • ½ teaspoon finely shredded lemon peel
  • ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
  • ¼ teaspoon orange extract (optional)
  • 2 tablespoons powdered sugar
  • ½ cup all purpose flour
  • Powdered sugar

 

Method

  • Add butter and sugar to a bowl and beat with an electric mixer until light and fluffy
  • Beat in vanilla extract, and orange extract
  • Beat in flour, and corn starch
  • Mix in orange and lemon peel.
  • Shape dough into a about 6 – 8 inch log and wrap in a plastic wrap and chill for about 20 minutes to ½ hour
  • Preheat oven to 375F
  • Cut log into about ¼ inch thick slices
  • Place them in an un-greased cookie sheet and bake for about 10 minutes or edges are lightly browned
  • Cool on wire rack for about 15 minutes
  • Add powdered sugar to a plastic bag and add the warm cookies and shake gently to cover them with sugar
  • Cool completely on wire rack
  • Yields: about 15 cookies
Posted in Cookies & Bars, Snacks, Sweets. Tags: , , , , , , . Leave a Comment »

Quinoa with Crunchy Sprouted Beans

February 3, 2012 — Chelvi S

Bean sprouts has a crunchy and nutty flavor.  They are rich in vitamins, minerals, amino acids, protein and phytochemicals.  Usually I add these sprouts in salads which give a nice crunchy taste.  But due to the recent outbreaks of salmonella, or Escherichia coli I started cooking them in high heat so it will at least kill the bacteria to some extent.

Ingredients

  • ¾ cup Quinoa
  • 1 ¼ cups water
  • About 2 teaspoons canola oil
  • ½ lb mixed vegetables (such as bell pepper, mushroom, squash etc)
  • About ½ inch piece of ginger
  • 1 small red onion

  • 1 cup mixed bean sprout
  • Few cashew nuts (optional)
  • ½ teaspoon chili paste
  • 1 teaspoon crushed pepper
  • Salt to taste

Method:

  • Roast quinoa on low flame for a couple of minutes or until fragrant (make sure not to burn it or turn brown)
  • Add water and salt and bring to a rolling boil.  (When adding water to the roasted quinoa, it might splatter since the pan is quite hot).
  • Reduce flame and cook until all the water is absorbed. When quinoa is cooked you will see a tiny tail coming out of the grain.  (See my image for recipe quinoa with vegetables).  Let cool
  • Chop ginger into very small pieces (you can also grind and crush them)
  • Chop bell pepper, squash, and mushrooms into thick sliced.
  • Add oil to a skillet and add ginger and fry for about a minute.
  • Add red onion and sauté until lightly transparent.
  • Now add the rest of the vegetables and sprouted beans and stir fry on medium to high flame for about 5 minutes
  • Reduce flame and add chili paste, crushed pepper and mix well and cook for another minute
  • Transfer cooked quinoa to the skillet and mix well.
  • Season with salt.
  • Roast cashew nuts and sprinkle on the top and mix into the quinoa.
  • Serves about 2

Note: you can use any vegetables you want for this dish.  For example snow peas or sugar snap peas can be another option (I did not have those).  If you are non vegetarian, you may want to try a bit of fried shrimp on the top.

Posted in Grains, Lunch, Main Courses, Main Dishes, Uncategorized. Tags: , , , , . Leave a Comment »

Avocado Sweet/Dessert

January 22, 2012 — Chelvi S

Avocados are not that common in Sri Lanka.  I came to know about this fruit only when I was a teenager.  Also this fruit is called “Butter Fruit” in Sri Lanka.  My uncle had a huge tree in house and when he gave us some of these fruits, we didn’t even know what to do with them.  So he said just add some sugar and eat as a dessert.  My mother added some milk and sugar.  When we ate this sweet for the first time, we all immediately liked it.  But some people add condensed milk to add extra sweetness and richness.  I feel like it becomes too sweet and the smell of condensed milk overrides the pleasant smell of Avocados.  So here is that very simple recipe:

Ingredients

  • 2 ripe avocados
  • About 4 – 5 teaspoons generous castor sugar
  • ¼ cup cold whole milk
  • Cashew nuts lightly toasted and broken into small pieces

Method

  • Cut avocados and scoop out the flesh
  • Mash it with a fork until it is almost like a paste (you can leave a  bit small pieces)
  • Add sugar and milk and beat/mix thoroughly.
  • Chill for about an hour or two
  • Equally divide the dessert into 4 bowls
  • Sprinkle with toasted cashew nuts
  • Serve cold.

Note: Try serving it with a scoop of ice-cream or just sprinkle a bit of chocolate syrup over the avocados.

Posted in Quick Dishes, Sweets. 1 Comment »

Zucchini and Mushroom in Coconut Milk

January 10, 2012 — Chelvi S

 

Ingredients:

  • 1 medium zucchini
  • 6 oz sliced white mushroom
  • ½ cup red onion sliced
  • 1 green chili slit lengthwise
  • 2 teaspoons canola oil
  • 1 teaspoon coriander seeds
  • ½ teaspoon cumin seeds
  • ½  teaspoon red chili powder
  • ¼ cup coconut milk

Method:

  • Slit zucchini lengthwise and cut diagonally into thin slices and set aside
  • Dry roast coriander and cumin seeds lightly and let cool.  Once cool grind to a fine powder
  • Add oil to a covered saucepan and sauté onion lightly golden
  • Add green chili and sauté for one more minute
  • Add ground coriander-cumin and chili powder to the saucepan and mix well.  Make sure the flame is set to very low.  Otherwise it will start smoking
  • Add zucchini, mushroom, and coconut milk and cook on medium flame for about 6-7 minutes.
  • If the curry starts drying out, sprinkle a little water – about 1 – 2 tablespoons.
  • Serve warm with rice or Rotis

Yields: 2-3 servings as a side dish.

Posted in Curries, Dry Curries (Fry), Side Dishes, Side Dishes. Leave a Comment »

Vegetable Rotis

January 3, 2012 — Chelvi S

 

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup shredded leeks + carrots
  • ½ cup chopped red onion
  • 1 green chili
  • 2 teaspoons canola oil
  • Salt to taste
  • 2 cups whole wheat flour
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • Water to mix dough

Method:

  • Shred carrots and chop leeks into fine pieces
  • Chop green chilies into small pieces (rounds)

  • Add oil to a skillet and when hot add chopped onion and sauté until transparent.
  • Add carrot, leek, and green chili and sauté on low flame until cooked
  • Season with salt and let cool
  • to make the dough, mix flour salt and oil and add the cooked vegetables
  • add enough water to make the dough
  • transfer dough to a bowl and cover with a plastic wrap and leave in a warm place for about ½ hour.
  • To make the roti, divide dough into 10 portions.
  • Take a portion and place on a board and sprinkle a little flour and roll out with a rolling pin into thin rotis

  • Cook rotis on a skillet on both sides until done.
  • Serve warm with chickpea curry or any other curry

Variation:  You can add other vegetables like cauliflower, green beans etc.  But make sure you cut them into very fine pieces.

Posted in Break-fast, Dinner, Roti & Chappatis, Sri Lankan Tamil Cuisine. Tags: , , . Leave a Comment »

Spicy Beet/Beetroot Curry

November 13, 2011 — Chelvi S

In Sri Lanka Beets are commonly called as Beetroot.  Fresh beets have an earthy flavor like no other vegetable.  They are very easy to cook and have a very distinct sweet taste.  Beets can be used in salads, as a side dish and boiled/steamed.  My mother used to make this spicy beet curry, and beet varai.  I used to run away whenever she cooked beet curry.  But I always loved the beet varai.  So last week when I bought a bunch of fresh beets, I thought of making this dish again.  It came out quite good but still I am not a fan of beet curry.  I added coconut milk which gives a distinct flavor to this dish – in combination of the earthy beet flavor.  If you are health conscious you can replace coconut milk with normal 2% milk or soy milk.  But I think you will be missing that distinct flavor.

Ingredients:

  • 1 medium beets/ ½ lb beets
  • ½ cup sliced onion
  • 1 tablespoon canola oil
  • 2 green chilies split lengthwise
  • ¾ cup water
  • 2 – 3 teaspoons chili powder (Sri Lankan Version)
  • 2 tablespoon thick coconut milk
  • Few curry leaves
  • Salt to taste

Method:

  • Peel and wash the beets
  • Cut them into thin cubes and set aside
  • Add oil to a covered saucepan and when hot add onion and sauté for about lightly golden
  • Add green chilies and sauté for another minutes in low flame
  • Now add beets and mix well and sauté in medium flame for about 5 minutes stirring often
  • Add water, chili powder, salt, coconut milk and bring to boil
  • Lower heat to medium and cover and cook for about 7- 8 minutes or the gravy becomes quite thick.
  • Add curry leaves and cook for another minutes.  At this point the curry should be thick and very little gravy.
  • Serve warm with rice
  • Serves about 3 as a side dish.


Posted in Curries, Dry Curries (Fry), Lunch, Side Dishes, Sri Lankan Tamil Cuisine. Leave a Comment »

Kesari with Almond Meal

October 24, 2011 — Chelvi S

I was thinking about making some sweet which should be quite healthy but at the same time quite easy to make.  So came up with this idea.  I used ground almond which gives this sweet dish a crunchy taste.  Also I have added less sugar and ghee compared to the normal kesari and other Indian Sweets.

 

Ingredients:

  • ½ cup semolina (Rava)
  • ½ cup ground almond (almond meal)
  • ½ cup sugar
  • 6 ½  teaspoons ghee
  • 1 ½ cups boiling water
  • Yellow food coloring 1 – 2 drops
  • About 12-14 cashew nuts broken into pieces
  • 2 tablespoons raisins
  • Cardamom powder

Method:

  • Add ½ teaspoon ghee to a skillet and fry cashew nuts and raisins until cashew nuts are golden and raisins are puffed.  Set aside.
  • Add semolina and almond meal to a deep saucepan and add about 3 teaspoons ghee and roast on medium flame for about 5 minutes
  • Add sugar, fried raisins, cashew nuts to the saucepan and mix well
  • Add hot water slowly to the saucepan while stirring continuously.  At this point add food coloring
  • Cook on medium-low flame stirring continuously
  • Once the mixture start thickening, add cardamom powder and the rest of the ghee and cook until all the water is absorbed and the kesari starts leaving the pan at the edges
  • Serve warm.
  • Yields: 4 – 6 servings
Posted in Sri Lankan Tamil Cuisine, Sweets. Leave a Comment »

Sesame Rice (Ellu Satham)

October 18, 2011 — Chelvi S

I had some left over rice and was wondering what to do.  I wanted to do some thing quick and simple.  Making fried rice or vegetable biryani will take a lot of time.  So I settled with the sesame rice which is easy and quick to make.  I mixed white and black sesame seed for this recipe.  Black sesame seed has high nutritional value since it has the skin.  Also black sesame seed has a much stronger taste and flavor.  But you can completely replace the black sesame seed with white one.

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup cooked basmati rice
  • 2 tablespoons black sesame seeds
  • 1 tablespoon white sesame seed
  • 1 teaspoon shredded unsweetened coconut (optional)
  • 3 dried red chilies
  • 1 teaspoon sesame seed oil
  • 1/8 teaspoon mustard seed
  • 1 teaspoon urad dhal
  • ½ teaspoon cumin seed
  • 1 strand curry leaves

Method:

  • Dry roast sesame seeds until they start splattering
  • Dry roast one red chili and coconut until coconut is quite dry (lightly golden).  If not using coconut, just dry roast chili for a few seconds (make sure it does not get burned and start smoking)
  • Add sesame seed oil to a saucepan and add mustard seed
  • When they start splattering, add urad dhal and fry for about 25-30 seconds in low flame
  • Now add cumin seed, curry leaves and the rest of the dried red chilies (bread the red chilies into 3-4 small pieces) and sauté for about 30 seconds
  • Add rice, ground sesame seed mixture and salt to the saucepan and cook on low flame for about a minute.  Sprinkle just a little bit water and cover the saucepan.  This is to keep the rice moist and soft
  • Serve warm with appalam or moar milagai (curd chili)
Posted in Main Courses, Quick Dishes, Rice & Pulav dishes, Sri Lankan Tamil Cuisine. 2 Comments »

Potato Stuffed Roti (Kilangu Roti)

October 3, 2011 — Chelvi S

 

Ingredients

For Roti:

  • ½ teaspoon dry yeast
  • ¾ cup warm water
  • 2 cups all purpose flour
  • Pinch of salt

For Stuffing:

  • ½ lb potatoes
  • 1 tablespoon canola oil
  • 1/8 teaspoon mustard seed
  • ½ cup chopped onion
  • 2 green chilies chopped
  • ¼ cup green peas (thawed if frozen)
  • ¼ teaspoon chili powder
  • ¼ teaspoon cumin seeds
  • Strand of curry leaves
  • Salt to taste

Make the dough:

  • Add yeast to a bowl and dissolve in warm water
  • Let stand for a few minutes
  • Mix flour and salt and add to the yeast mixture
  • Stir with wooden spoon until smooth (you may have to use hand since it might be too sticky and tight to stir with a spoon)
  • Turn dough onto a floured surface and knead for about 3 minutes
  • Shape the dough into a ball and add to the bowl and cover with a plastic wrap
  • Leave in a warm place for about 15 minutes
  • Uncover and knead again for about 5 minutes.
  • Divide the dough into 4 portions and shape them into balls

  • Lightly coat the balls with cooking spray and cover with a plastic wrap and leave in a warm place for 30 minutes

Make the stuffing

  • Boil potatoes with skin until ¾ done
  • Drain and let cool.  Peel the skin off and chop them roughly into small pieces
  • Heat a skillet with oil and add mustard seeds.
  • When the mustard seeds start splattering, add onion and sauté until lightly golden
  • Add green chili, cumin seeds and green peas and sauté for another 2 minutes.
  • Add potatoes, chili powder, salt, and curry leaves and cook on low flame until potatoes are done and soft.  If needed sprinkle with water about 1 tablespoon at a time

Make the Roti:

  • Working with one dough (ball) at a time, carefully flatten the dough on a board (I added a plastic wrap sheet to the board to prevent sticking.  Plastic wrap sheet works better than a floured board, also add a little bit of oil to hands)

  • Add a spoonful of the curry mix in the middle of the flattened dough.

  • Bring the edges together and seal it.  Now slowly flatten again and make sure the curry does not come out
  • Spray a little oil to a skillet.  When the skillet becomes hot, add the rotis and cook on both sides until done
  • Serve warm.  Makes 4 rotis.
Posted in Break-fast, Main Courses, Sri Lankan Tamil Cuisine. 1 Comment »

Spicy Cauliflower & Potato Dry Curry

August 14, 2011 — Chelvi S

 

Ingredients:

  • ½ lb cauliflower florets
  • ½ lb potatoes
  • 1 ½ teaspoons coriander seeds
  • 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
  • 2 – 2 ½  teaspoon chili powder
  • ¼ teaspoon turmeric powder
  • 2 tablespoon milk/coconut milk
  • 2 – 3  teaspoons canola oil
  • 2 green chilies slit length wise
  • 1 – 2 teaspoon rice flour
  • Salt to taste

Method:

  • Dry roast coriander and cumin seeds and let cool
  • Par boil potatoes
  • Grind them together into a powder (No need to be a fine powder, it can be coarse)
  • Add ground cumin-coriander powder, chili powder, and turmeric powder to milk/coconut milk and mix well without any lumps to make a thick mixture and set aside.
  • Once the potatoes are cooled, peel and cut them into about ½ inch cubes
  • Add oil to a saucepan and when hot add slit green chilies and fry for about 30 seconds in very low flame (be careful not to burn which can emit strong spicy smell)
  • Add cauliflower florets to the saucepan and fry for about 5 minutes
  • Now add the spicy milk/coconut milk mixture to the cauliflower and then add the potatoes, salt and mix them well
  • Fry them on low flame for another 5 minutes.  If it gets too dry and start to burn, sprinkle little water at time.
  • ** Sprinkle rice flour over the potato-cauliflower and mix very well making sure not to mash the potatoes
  • Fry on low flame until done.
  • Serves about 4 as a side dish

**Note: The reason to add rice flour is to make the cauliflower and potatoes become a bit crispy.

Posted in Curries, Dry Curries (Fry), Side Dishes, Sri Lankan Tamil Cuisine. 1 Comment »
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