South Indian Recipes

Hai,
you might all have prepared and tasted teh wonderful appam recipe of Chitvish. I am giving you a different version of the appam which we prepare at our home.
Wheat (whole) - 1 cup
raw rice - one handful
jaggery - 3/4 cup
cardamom powder - 1 tsp
oil for frying
ghee an sugar for garnishing

Soak the rice for 2 hours. Wash and grind the wheat along with the rice with as little water as possible. When they are gound fine, add the powdered jaggery and grind well. This will make the dough a little watery, so grind the wheat and rice with as little water as possible. Mix cardamom powder. Now heat oil in a appakarai. Add a dash of ghee. Make small appams in the mould in medium heat. Remove, strain on a kitchen tissue. When all the dough is used up, take the appams in a large vessel. Add 2 tsp of ghee and 3 tsp of sugar. Toss well so that the sugar gets coated on the appams.
This will keep for 2 days and will be very soft. Using the whole wheat makes it more healthy, the husk is also eaten. And the white sugar sprinkled on the dark appam looks very tempting, children would love it.
With warm wishes,
varloo

Dear Varloo,

I am aan appam fanatic as is everyone in my family. So, I will try all appam recipes. But can I use lapsi instead of whole wheat? I cannot get whole wheat here.

You seem to have many good recipes. Please share with us even if they are repeats. Pls do post more in the chaat thread also. I made pani puri by your method. It came out all puffed and nice. I am sorry that I forgot to send FB. I am in la-la land nowadays.

warm regards
Vidya

Please refer to the second recipe given in
Old is gold.
I always make with lapsi, because the grinding is easy.
Love & regards,
Chithra.

dear Chithra,
I must confess that I have not completely gone thro your recipes, you have given such a vast collection. Thanks for the info. I shall look up. And now Vidya's doubt is cleared.

With warm wishes,
varloo

Dear Vidya,
Chithra has cleared your doubt, you can make with lapsi and the grinding well be easier. The taste is so nice, soft and spongy. The sweet will be a little less and so you can eat lots. You can even make dosais with this batter, with ghee. But appam tastes better.
And I have a few more chat recipes which I shall post in a day or two. I wish to post so many things, but due to time constraint it is getting delayed.
With warm wishes,
varloo

Dear Varloo,

Thanks for clarification. Also saw Mrs Chithra's recipe. Will make this and post a FB.

BTW, in TVM Vazhuthycaud Ganapathy temple (near Women's college), there is a special offering-Appam moodal. The Ganesha idol is fully covered with appams. It is done as last poojai at night, as a mark of gratitude, overwhelming the Ganesha with appams. In the dim oil lamps, it is a beautiful sight to see Him fully covered by appams.

regards
Vidya

Dear Vidya,
Appam is associated with Ganapathy in our Naadu. The Ganapthy at the Abhedanda Ashram entrance is offered appa maalai, the Kottarakkara Ganapathi likes his appams fresh only - the rice is pounded only after a devotee requests for offering (one has to wait to offer and take the prasadam there-no fast food for Him), the Ganapathy at the Edappalli Palace is also fond of kootappams, and our own Mangala Vinayakar also loves appams. Whenever I go home, I make it a habit to offer the same. This time when we went to the Varakkumnathan Temple, we got huge appam (the size of a large lemon) as prasadam (it was the first day of Chingam) so delicious. May be that is why we are also crazy about appam.
I am planning to try Chithra's wheat-maida appam today.
With warm wishes,
varloo

Dear Chithra,
I went thro the recipe for appam. You have said to soak the lapsi also , will it not become stringy? The wheat become like thread when we soak and grind for halwa. I know that you try out and then only post the recipe. Please clarify this silly doubt. I should be able to give reason when I give this recipe to somebody. I am planning to make the wheat -maida appam today.
Thank you,
With warm wishes,
varloo

Measure minimum water to be used for grinding - it comes out very well. I do that way regularly & there are no strings attached - ha ha ha !
Love & regards,
Chithra.

Hai,
I am giving below some tomato recipes which I have tried many times and found delicious. Hope you all enjoy these.

1.TOMATO PUREE
Ripe and red tomatoes- 2 kgs. You can make with as much as you want.
Boil water and add tomatoes. Blanch them. Now peel and cut them into half. Remove the seeds and the stem. Turn the halved tomato and press gently to remove excess juice. Do not disgard this water, it can be used. When all the tomatoes are done, blend them well. It should be in a pouring consistency. Pour in a sauce pan and allow to simmer till the puree is thick and no liquid separates from it. Store in a sterile container and store in fridge.


Some recipes using this puree
We can use this for many recipes. Some are given below.
Paneer makhanwala - Heat 30 gms of butter in a pan and add whole garam masala and let it crackle. Add 1 tbsp of ginger garlic paste and cook for a few minutes. Now add 200 ml of the puree, red chilli pd, garam masala pd, salt and a cup of water. Bring to a boil, reduce the flame and simmer. Add tandoori chicken, fried paneer pieces or cooked mixed veg.. Add kasoori methi and fresh cream and grated unsweetened khoa.
Sweet and sour sauce - Stir together 200 ml of puree, 50 ml of vinegar, 20 ml of soya sauce, a dessert spoon of sugar, salt to taste and 3 tsp of diluted corn flour and cook till slightly thick. Pour te sauce over cooked vegs, floured and fried prawns or fried chicken and simmer. Serve hot.