Appalam Kuzhambu - Papad Curry

Appalam kuzhambu is a simple recipe prepared with appalam/papad in tamarind gravy. It is very easy and quick to prepare. We can prepare this kuzhambu when we do not have vegetables at home. The process is almost same as we prepare VathaKuzhambu.

Ingredients

Tamarind - small gooseberry size, soaked and extracted
Sambar powder - 1 tbsp
Ulundhu Appalam - 2 or 3
Jaggery - 1 tsp
Salt, hing, turmeric powder as per taste

For Seasoning

Gingelly oil - 2 tsp
Mustard seeds, fenugreek seeds, channa dal, curry leaves and red chilli - as per preference

Method

Heat oil in pan, add mustard seeds and when the mustard seeds starts to splutter, add channa dal, fenugreek seeds, curry leaves, broken red chilli and fry till dal turns golden brown color. To this add broken ulundhu appalam and fry for a minute.

Then add the tamarind extract, sambar powder, hing and salt and allow the mixture to boil till the raw smell of sambar powder goes off completely.  Add jaggery and mix well.

If the kuzhambu is very dilute in consistency, we can mix 1 teaspoon of rice flour with water and add this to the kuzhambu to make it thicker. Appala kuzhambu is ready, enjoy with hot steaming rice and potato poriyal. 

Note - You can also use the readymade vathakuzhambu powder instead of sambar powder.
Also, you can use either fried papads or the unfried ones. If using unfried ones, you have to add them while doing the seasoning and saute for couple of minutes. If using fried papads, just add them while adding the jaggery.

Chocolate Barfi - Khoya/Mawa Barfi - Chocolate Milk Fudge

Barfi's can be prepared in many ways like caramelizing whole milk from scratch, simmering it slowly over stove top for hours or by using condensed milk or by using khoya/mawa which is readily available in the shops. The first method is highly time consuming. So, I have used the khoya method here. You can also make khoya at home using milk powder. By using homemade khoya, you can save lots of time in making this Barfi. Here is the recipe for home made khoya and the Chocolate barfi as well...

Home made Khoya

Milk powder - 1 cup
Ghee/clarified butter - 1/2 tbsp
Milk - 1/4 cup

Preparation method

1. Take milk powder in a bowl. Heat the milk and ghee in a small pan. Heat the mixture just till it comes to a boil.
2. Add this hot milk-ghee mixture to milk powder. And mix it with a spoon. It will look like crumbled khoya. If it looks still dry you can add more milk, add very less at a time.
3. You can shape it however you like while it is warm. As it cools it will hold that shape and it will harden. After that you can grate or crumble it and use in many Indian Sweets

Ingredients

Khoya/Mawa - 250 gms
Sugar - 100 gms
Ghee - 2 or 3 tbsp
Cocoa powder - 2 tsp
Cardamom powder - 1/4 tsp
Chopped cashews/almonds - 2 tbsp or 1/4 cup (optional)
Sliced pistachios - 1 tbsp, for garnish (optional)

Method for preparing chocolate barfi

Add ghee to a heavy bottomed pan or kadai, add khoya and roast on a slow heat till it gets medium brown. ( it will take around 10 minutes )

Meanwhile in another pan make sugar syrup by adding sugar and very less water, just to wet the sugar. Bring it to a boil and simmer for 5 minutes. The idea is to just dissolve the sugar. No string consistency is required. Remember, if you boil the sugar syrup too much the barfi will become chewy or very hard. Sugar syrup consistency is the key thing here.

Add sugar syrup to the roasted khoya and keep stirring, add cardamom powder, cocoa powder and chopped cashews/almonds.

Mix everything for 4-5 minutes on a medium flame. Transfer a mixture into a greased tray, garnish with sliced pistachios and level it out with spoon.  Let it cool completely and cut them into desire shape.

Paneer Butter Masala - Restaurant Style Paneer Butter Masala

Paneer butter masala is the most popular side dish when compared to the other paneer curries. Its a rich Punjabi dish made with paneer (Indian Cottage Cheese). The near perfect combination of spiciness and creaminess of its gravy makes it simply irresistible and versatile to be served with any Indian bread or with pulav or any biriyanis. Tomato puree is the key in this recipe. To get the right color choose red ripe tomatoes and good red chilli powder. Now to the delicious recipe.

 

Ingredients 
Onion -2
Tomatoes - 4 or tomato puree - 1 cup
Ginger garlic paste - 2 tsp
Paneer - 200 grams, cubed
Cashews - 10 nos
Kasuri Methi -1 tsp (dry fenugreek leaves)
Salt as required

Spice Powder
Garam masala powder - 1 tsp
Coriander powder - 2 tsp
Chilli Powder - 3/4 tsp
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp

For the seasoning
Butter- 2 tbsp + Oil-1 tbsp
Cinnamon -1 inch piece
Cloves- 2
Cardamom -1
 
For Garnishing
Fresh cream - 2 or 3 tbsp
Finely chopped coriander leaves


Method


First, you need to make 3 pastes out of these ingredients. And then its just as easy as that to prepare the gravy. 


Onion Paste -Remove the skin, chop the onion into 4 pieces and boil them in water for 10 minutes. Drain the water completely and grind it to a paste.

Tomato puree - Blanch tomatoes- (ie) put the tomatoes in boiling water and close it. After 10 minutes, drain the water, remove the skin and puree the tomatoes.

Cashew nut paste- Soak 10 cashew nuts in hot water for 15 minutes and grind it to a paste.

Heat 2 tbsp butter +1 tbsp oil, add cinnamon, cardamom and cloves, when it splutters, add onion paste and saute till it becomes golden brown, then add ginger garlic paste and saute for some more time.

Then add tomato puree and all the spice powder mentioned under spice powder. Cook until the raw smell of the tomato goes and it starts leaving oil. Do not add any water now, else the raw smell will not go off completely

 

Then add cashew nut paste and saute nicely for a few minutes till the raw smell goes.

Add the paneer cubes to the cooked tomato paste. Add 1/2 cup of water, needed salt, kasuri methi and coriander leaves. Simmer and cook for a few minutes.

Garnish with fresh cream and serve with pulao or roti or chapati.