Padhuskitchen

Wednesday, September 19, 2018

Padhuskitchen on Youtube

First of all, I would like to thank you all wholeheartedly for all the love, support and encouragement, you have given me so far, without which Padhuskitchen would not have reached this height.

Many of you have been asking me to upload videos for a very long time, but I was unable to do so. Some of you even suggested and sent me links on how to take videos using smart phone. Thank you for all that. I had a mental block all these days that I cannot do all these alone. But now I have come out of my comfort zone.

I am so excited to announce that I will be sharing cooking and few gardening videos on my YouTube channel. I have started this festival season with my favourite "sweet kolukattai recipe" video.

This is a one women show where I cook, film and edit. It is lot of work. There may be flaws in my filming or editing as I am in the learning process, but I will try to give my best. I will be sharing videos every week. I am not going to stick to any particular video format though initially I will be shooting overhead videos .

I have shared 4 cooking videos as of now. You can watch those videos by clicking the link below.

Sweet Kozhukattai

Tomato Poha

Onion Kuzhambu

Tomato thokku with garlic

I would like you all to support and encourage me by subscribing to Padhuskitchen YouTube channel, so that I can carry this forward. I am sure you will not regret as I will try to give my best.

Link to Padhuskitchen Youtube Channel

Thank you wholeheartedly for your support. You support means a lot to me.

Tomato Poha-Thakkali Aval Recipe-Easy Breakfast-Dinner Recipe

Tomato poha is made with flattened rice, tomatoes and spices. This can be had for breakfast, dinner or even as an evening snack with tea. This dish does not need much ingredients and can be made in just 15-20 minutes. Today let us see how to make this quick and easy tomato poha following our easy recipe with step wise pictures and video.

Tomato Poha-Thakkali Aval

Prep Time : 10 mins

Cook Time : 15 mins
Serves: 2
Recipe Category: Quick Breakfast-Aval-Poha
Recipe Cuisine: Indian
Author:Padhu Sankar

Ingredients needed

Flattened rice/Poha/aval - 1 cup
   Onion - 2 medium size or 1 big
   Green Chilli - 1 finely chopped
   Ginger-garlic paste - 1/2 tsp
   Tomato - 3 big ripe ones
   Salt to taste

Spice Powder

   Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
   Chilli powder - 1/2 tsp
   Coriander powder - 1 tsp

For the Seasoning

   Oil - 2 tbsp
   Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
   Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
   Hing -a generous pinch
   Red chilli - 2
   Curry leaves - a sprig

For Garnishing

   Coriander leaves

Preparations

Chop onion, tomatoes and green chillies and keep it ready.

There are two varieties of poha/aval. One is the thick variety and another is the thin variety. You can use any poha for this recipe. I have used thick red poha for this recipe. It is made from red rice.

For thin poha - Wash and rinse poha 3 times and then drain it in a colander. No need to soak.

For thick poha - Wash and rinse poha 2 times and then soak it for 2 minutes. Then drain the water in a colander. After few minutes, fluff it with a fork and keep it ready.

Method

Heat oil in a pan, add mustard seeds, cumin seeds, hing and red chillies.

When mustard and cumin seeds sizzles, add chopped onions, green chilli and curry leaves.

Saute until onions turn transparent. Add ginger-garlic paste and saute for a few more minutes.

Add chopped tomatoes, turmeric powder, chilli powder, coriander powder and salt needed.

Cook until tomatoes become mushy and the rawness of the tomato goes.

Now add the drained poha and mix well. Check for salt. Add if needed.

Garnish with coriander leaves and enjoy hot tomato poha for breakfast or dinner or as a snack.

If you are a poha/aval lover, find more Easy Poha Recipes.

I am so happy to share with you that now Padhuskitchen has a Youtube channel. I will be sharing videos every week. I would love, if you could subscribe to the channel so that I would be able to take this forward. Link below

Padhuskitchen Youtube Channel

If you found this post useful, I would really love it, if you pin it or share it with your Facebook fans or Twitter followers or Google+ circles or Instagram today. All it takes is a simple click on the “pin it” “like,” “share,” “tweet,” or Google+ buttons below the post. Thank you!

Tomato Thokku with Garlic-Easy Thakkali Thokku Recipe

Tomato thokku is a versatile dish which goes well with idli, dosa, chapati, paratha, curd rice, upma and many more dishes. Mixed with hot steamed rice, topped with a tsp of sesame seed oil, it tastes awesome. It can be used as a spread for bread toast and sandwiches. You can take this even during travel as it does not get spoiled for 2 days at room temperature. It comes handy when you don't find time to cook or not in a mood to cook. I have already shared tomato thokku without garlic, using blanching method. In this we grind the tomatoes raw. Today we will learn how to make tomato thokku with garlic following this easy method with step wise pictures and video.

Tomato Thokku with Garlic

Prep Time : 10 mins

Cook Time : 45 mins
Yields: 11/2 cup
Recipe Category: Pickle-Side Dish
Recipe Cuisine: Indian
Author:Padhu Sankar

Ingredients needed

Ingredients needed

   Tomato - 1 kg ripe ones
   Garlic - 7-8 cloves
   Tamarind - small gooseberry sized ball
   Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
   Chilli powder - 1 1/2 tbsp
   Salt - 1 tbsp or as needed
   Roasted fenugreek powder - 1/2 tsp

For the seasoning

   Oil - 1/3 + 1 tbsp cup
   Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
   Hing/asafoetida - 1 tsp

Preparations

Soak tamarind in 2-3 tbsp of hot water. Extract thick juice and discard the pulp.

Roast fenugreek seeds on medium heat until you get a nice aroma. Leave it to cool, then powder it. (Usually I roast and powder 1/4 cup fenugreek seeds and store it. I use it when making pickles or thokku.)

Remove the skin of garlic, crush it and keep it aside.

Buy ripe tomatoes for making thokku. You can use a mix of Bangalore and country tomatoes (nattu thakkali). Wash tomatoes well and wipe it dry.

Cut the tomatoes roughly and blend it to a smooth puree.

Method

Heat oil in a pan (use gingelly oil/nallennai/ sesame seed oil), add mustard seeds and hing.

When mustard seeds splutters, add crushed garlic.

Saute for a few seconds, lower the heat and add the tomato puree.

thakkali thokku recipe-thakkali poondu thokku

Add turmeric powder, salt and chilli powder. Mix well and cook for 5 minutes.

Add tamarind water and mix well.

Cook covered on medium heat and saute at regular intervals. (Be cautious as when it boils, it splutters a lot and might scald your hands. So reduce the heat to low before opening the lid to stir).

Cook on medium heat until all the water evaporates and oil separates.

Add roasted fenugreek powder and mix well. Turn off the heat.

Shelf life and Storage

Once it cools completely, store it in a glass bottle in the refrigerator.

It keeps well for 20 days, if kept in the refrigerator. Take needed quantity in a small cup everyday rather than taking the whole bottle outside. Use dry spoon. If you follow all these tips, it will stay good for 20 days.

Also do subscribe to Padhuskitchen Youtube channel for videos of Padhuskitchen recipes. Thank you! Thank you.

Vegetable Sagu-Mixed Veg Saagu Recipe

Vegetable saagu is a very simple Karnataka style dish prepared with mixed vegetables. It goes well with set dosa, poori, chapati, neer dosa and rava idli. Today we will learn how to make vegetable saagu following this easy recipe with step wise pictures.

Mixed Vegetable Saagu

Prep Time : 15 mins

Cook Time : 10 mins
Serves: 4
Recipe Category: Side Dish
Recipe Cuisine: Karnataka
Author:Padhu Sankar

Ingredients needed

   Carrot - 2
   Potato - 1 medium size
   Peas - 1/3 cup
   Beans - 6-7
   Cauliflower florets - 6
   Salt needed
   Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp

For Grinding

   Coconut - 3 tbsp
   Fried Gram/pottukadalai - 1 tbsp
   Coriander leaves - fistful
   Onion -1 medium size
   Ginger - 1/2 inch piece
   Garlic - 3
   Green chilli - 2
   Cloves - 2
   Cinnamon - 1 inch piece
   Whole black peppercorns - 1/4 tsp

For the Seasoning

   Oil -1 tbsp
   Bay leaf - 1
   Curry leaves - a sprig

Preparations

Wash and clean all the vegetables. Peel the skin of carrots and potatoes and chop it into medium sized pieces.

Cut cauliflower into bites sized florets. String and cut the beans.

Grind all the ingredients given under "For grinding" (raw), to a fine paste. Keep it aside.

Pressure cook the vegetables with turmeric powder, salt and little water for just 1 whistle.

Method

We need masala paste and cooked vegetables. If that is kept ready, making vegetable sagu is just a breeze.

Heat oil in a pan, add bay leaf and curry leaves.

Add the masala paste and saute on low heat for 5-6 minutes or until it leaves oil.

Add the cooked vegetables and 1/2 cup of water.

Simmer for 5-6 minutes. You can adjust the consistency according to your liking by adding more or less water. Check for salt.

Delicious Karnataka style vegetable sagu is ready. Enjoy it with poori, set dosa, neer dosa, rava idli or chapati.

Pudina Podi-Mint Podi Recipe-How to make Pudina Powder

Mint Podi/Pudina podi is a very flavorful podi which goes well with rice and idli, dosa. This podi when mixed with piping hot rice and ghee tastes awesome. I used homegrown mint to make this podi, so it is all the more aromatic. Today we will learn how to make pudina/mint podi following this easy recipe with step wise pictures.

Pudina Podi-Mint Podi

Prep Time : 15 mins

Cook Time : 15 mins
Yields: 1 cup podi
Recipe Category: Mint-Podi Varieties
Recipe Cuisine: South Indian
Author:Padhu Sankar

Ingredients needed

   Fresh Mint leaves - 2 bunches (medium size bunch)
   Oil - 1 tsp
   Urad dal - 3 tbsp
   Bengal gram dal/channa dal - 1/4 cup
   Red Chillies - 4 or as needed
   Hing - a generous pinch
   Tamarind - a small bit (optional)
   Whole black pepper - 1/2 tsp
   Cumin Seeds - 1 tsp
   Salt to taste

Preparations

Wash the mint leaves well, drain the water completely and pat it with a towel. Spread it on a cloth and leave it to dry in the shade. There should be no moisture in the leaves. It should be completely dry. I got 1 1/4 cup of dry mint leaves. You can plant the thick stem and get fresh mint at home whenever you need. Learn how to grow mint at home easily.

Preparations

Heat oil and fry urad dal, channa dal (kadalai paruppu), red chillies, hing and tamarind (if using).

Once dal changes golden brown, remove from heat and transfer to a plate.

In the same pan, dry roast cumin seeds and peppercorns until you get the aroma of cumin seeds.

Dry roast mint leaves on low heat, when you crush the leaves, it should break. That is the right stage.

Dry grind the lentils/dal + red chilles, cumin seeds + peppercorns with salt to a coarse powder.

Then add the mint leaves to the coarsely ground powder and grind it again. The powder should be slightly coarse and not fine.

Flavorful Mint/pudhina podi is ready.

Enjoy eating it with hot rice and ghee or with idli and dosa.

Check out more Podi recipes. They come handy when you do not find time to cook.

Podi Recipes

If you found this post useful, I would really love it, if you pin it or share it with your Facebook fans or Twitter followers or Google+ circles or Instagram today. All it takes is a simple click on the “pin it” “like,” “share,” “tweet,” or Google+ buttons below the post. I would love to hear from you, please feel free to share your feedback with photos to padhusblog@gmail.com or in Padhuskitchen facebook page. Thank you!

Set Dosa Recipe-Karnataka Style Set Dosa

Set Dosa is a very popular breakfast of Karnataka. It is called set dosa as it is served in a set of 3, usually with coconut chutney and vegetable sagu. These dosas are small in size, thick, soft and spongy. Today let us learn how to make Karnataka style Set dosa following this easy recipe with step wise pictures.

Set Dosa

Prep Time : 30 mins (excluding soaking time)

Cook Time : 2-3 mins per dosa
Serves: 4-5
Recipe Category: Breakfast-Dosa
Recipe Cuisine: South Indian
Author:Padhu Sankar

Ingredients needed

   Idli Rice/Idli Pulungal arisi - 2 cups
   Urad dal (whole without skin)/ulundu - 1/2 cup
   Fenugreek seeds/vendhayam - 1 tsp
   Beaten rice/poha/aval -1 cup
   Salt - as needed

   Oil for making dosas

Preparations

Wash and soak urad dal and fenugreek seeds for 5-6 hours.

Wash and soak rice for 5-6 hours. Soak poha separately for 30 minutes before grinding.

After 5 hours -

Grind rice and poha together to a smooth paste adding little water from time to time.

Grind urad dal along with fenugreek seeds to a fluffy batter. If grinding in mixie, use ice water for grinding urad dal and use the whipper button in the end for few minutes to get fluffy batter.

Now mix the rice + poha batter and the urad dal + fenugreek batter together. The consistency of the batter should neither be thick nor thin. Add salt (I added 2 1/4 tsp sea salt) and mix well. (Tips - when a ladle of batter is lifted and poured back into the container, it should flow in ribbons, that is called ribbon consistency batter. The batter should be of that consistency),

Leave it to ferment overnight or for 6-7 hours. Fermentation time differs according to the weather conditions.

I kept it overnight and my batter has fermented well as you can see in the picture.

Method

Mix the batter well. Take a ladle of batter and spread it to a medium sized circle. This dosa will be a little thick but soft and spongy like uthappam. (if the batter is too thick, add a little water and mix it well before making dosas)

Drizzle a tsp of oil around the dosa. Cover it with a lid.

Once you find the corners lifting up, flip the dosa to the other side and cook for few minutes.

Remove from the tawa and enjoy super soft and delicious set dosa with any chutney or sambar or vada curry or vegetable sagu. Repeat the same for the rest of the batter. (In Tamil Nadu hotels, set dosa is usually served with vada curry).

Note - You can grind rice and poha for some time and then add the urad dal + fenugreek seeds and grind everything together, if you are using wet grinder.

If you are a dosa lover like my, check my list of Dosa Varieties.

Lemon Mint Cooler Recipe

Lemon Mint Cooler is a very refreshing drink, perfect for summer. It is a blend of fresh mint leaves, lemon juice, chilled water and sweetener. I have abundant mint and lemons in my kitchen garden, so I prepare this cooler with fresh lemons and mint. In addition to being an amazing thirst quencher, it is very healthy. It is very easy to make and super delicious. Today let us learn how to make Lemon Mint cooler following this easy recipe.

Lemon Mint Cooler

Prep Time : 10 mins

Serves: 2
Recipe Category: Beverage-Summer Drink
Recipe Cuisine: Indian
Author:Padhu Sankar

Ingredients needed

   Fresh mint/pudina - fistful
   Lemon - 2 juicy ones
   Sugar or any sweetener - as needed
   Salt - a pinch
   Water - 2 1/4 cup

For Garnishing

   Fresh Mint Leaves - 3
   Ice cubes - 3-4

Method

Squeeze juice from two lemons.

Grind mint leaves, jaggery (I used powdered jaggery in place of sugar) finely using the lemon juice.

Add a pinch of salt, chilled water and mix well. (I added little less water as once you add ice cubes, it gets more diluted). You can adjust the amount of water according to your taste.

Top it with 3-4 ice cubes and garnish with fresh mint leaves. Enjoy!

Note - If you use fresh homegrown mint as I have done, it is simply amazing. Learn how to grow mint at home.

Mint Rasam-Pudina Rasam Recipe

Rasam is very common in all South Indian homes. We make different types of rasam and this mint (pudina in Tamil) rasam is one of them. It is very flavorful and easy to make. This rasam does not need rasam powder. It is the mint, peppercorns and cumin seeds which gives flavor to the rasam. I used homegrown mint leaves to make this rasam and my whole house smelled like spa. Today we will learn how to make flavorful mint/pudina rasam/charu using our easy recipe with step wise pictures.

Mint Rasam-Beans stir fry and sprouts salad

Mint Rasam-Pudina Rasam

Prep Time : 10 mins

Cook Time : 10 mins
Serves: 2-3
Recipe Category: Rasam-Side Dish
Recipe Cuisine: South Indian
Author:Padhu Sankar

Ingredients needed

   Tomatoes - 2 ripe ones
   Fresh mint leaves - fistful
   Tamarind - small bit or 1/2 tsp paste
   Ghee/oil - 1 tsp
   Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
   Whole black pepper corns - 1 tsp
   Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
   Salt to taste
   Curry leaves - a sprig

For the Seasoning

   Ghee - 1 tsp
   Mustards seeds - 1/2tsp
   Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp
   Red Chilli - 1

For Garnishing

   Coriander leaves

Preparations

Dry grind or powder whole black peppercorns and cumin seeds slightly coarse. Keep it aside.

Grind fresh mint, tomato (1 tomato and another 1/2 of a tomato, the other half, we will chop and add it to the rasam) and tamarind to a fine paste.

Heat a tsp of ghee or oil and saute the paste until the rawness of the paste goes.

Method

In a vessel, add a cup of water, turmeric powder, 1/2 of a tomato (chopped), pepper-cumin powder, salt, curry leaves and the sauteed mint + tamarind + tomato paste.
(If you are using a kadai or any pan, you do not have to saute the mint + tomato paste separately and add. You can saute it directly in the pan/kadai you are making rasam, then add water, turmeric powder, chopped tomato, pepper-cumin powder, salt etc).