Kitchen and Home Making

I always like to have my cup of Chai / Tea (a hot beverage) piping hot. I use to start my day daily with a cup of hot tea, which makes me brisk and bright. Masala Chai is a blend of aromatic spices with our normal tea. Masala Chai gives a warmth feeling, when we have it during rainy days or at winter time. Combination of spices and the amount of spices added in preparing masala chai powder depends upon individual taste. People who love the flavor of ginger in tea can add more ginger while preparing masala powder and who love cardamom flavor can add more number of cardamoms. So, everything is at their own discretion. When you have cold and congestion in nose, Masala Chai really gives a good relief and soothing feel.

Garam Masala, a flavorful masala powder, a blend of most of our Indian spices, used in lot of variety rices, biriyani’s, and gravies. So, we can say it is a must to have ingredient in our Indian kitchen. If you start google for this recipe, you will have a lot and lot of recipes, and Here, I have shared my version of preparing Garam Masala, which I believe it, as a strong, flavorful one. Whenever I prepare this garam masala at home, its nice aroma, fill my home, a whole and whole day. The secret ingredient of most of all my recipes is this “Homemade Garam Masala”.  

Ginger Garlic Paste recipe doesn’t require much introduction since everyone knows that it is very simple to do.It is purely and purely for beginners who has just now stepped into kitchen for cooking.  But, it is an essential ingredient in every home and most of our Indian dishes has Ginger Garlic Paste in it. Ginger Garlic Paste is cheaper in stores too. But, what made me to prepare Ginger Garlic Paste at home is, Preservatives and Adulteration, which is in most of the items we buy today from stores, which is unhealthy too. When I started to prepare Ginger Garlic Paste at home, I found the fresh flavor in it, which we cannot see in store bought bottles. Ginger and Garlic aids in digestion when we add in our food.

Idly or Idli and Dosa’s are the most common breakfast / dinner items for people in South India. Dosas will however turn good, in most of the times we prepare it. But, preparing soft Idly, is a little tricky job, where the secret lies behind the batter we prepare for it. Most of us know how to prepare idly batter and soft idlis. But, few may not know how to prepare the idli batter. And few, know how to make idli batter but it will not yield soft idly’s. For the beginners and for who think why the batter is not yielding soft idli, the post comes here.

Sometimes, simple and less amount of ingredients, with less work, makes magic tastewise and even we too stick to its taste and use frequently and repeatedly ( Hope everyone agrees with me).  Such one recipe is Idly Milagai Podi. “Idly Podi” or “Dosa / Dosai Podi” or “Ennai Podi” or “Idly Milagai Podi”, called out with varied names and with varied recipes, from home to home, state to state, is a spicy dry powder, made with a main combination of Black Gram and Dry Red Chilly,  which is mixed with sesame oil, and used as a side dish (sometimes Ennai Podi becomes main dish for me and my son, we both love that much, mmmm….mouthwatering for me now itself!) , for Idli’s and Dosa’s (Hhhmmmm….. whooo…. completed the very long sentence anyhow!(LOL!) ).

Homemade sambar powder always have a nice aroma and fresh flavor infused in it, when compared to store bought ones. I never use store bought sambhar powder for preparing sambar in my home, since am not compromised with the taste. I always and always love homemade ones. The ingredients included in sambar powder may vary from home to home and everyone of them has  different taste. My mom use to make sambar powder in her own way and we all love the Sambhar made out of it. Am also following the same recipe of my mom and always prepare in large quantity and store it in air tight containers. This sambhar powder, if prepared and stored as mentioned here, shelf life will be about 6 months with its fresh aroma.

Kuzhambu Podi is a ready mix powder use to prepare all types of kulambu varieties / South Indian gravies and we can prepare even North Indian gravies too with this powder since it has all basic ingredients like coriander, red chilly, urad dhal, and fenugreek.  Kulambu podi is prepared in different methods but we (sourashtra people) use to prepare this in such a way to suit our taste and needs. We use to  prepare it in large quantity and store for more than 6 months or a year. It stays good for a long time since we fry all the ingredients and dry it in sunshade well, which increases the life shelf of the powder. The aroma of the powder stays good when it is stored in an air tight container.

Puliyodharai, alias Ambat Bhath , how we call it in my mother tongue, is my favorite rice . My SH, though, he likes it, he takes only a lil amount, since the recipe has more salt in it. My son is similar to me and he is an ardent fan of “Imali Bhuva”, how he call it. Preparing the tamarind paste (pulikaychal) for this recipe is little tricky and somewhat a time consuming process for me. I learnt the recipe from my mom and the measurement she uses for it will be exact and turns out too good in taste. Though I haven’t reached her height, am trying to do it.

 Since am a sourashtrian from south of Tamilnadu, our recipes and cooking methods will be little different from other people of South Tamilnadu.  Such one recipe is "Rasam Powder". We use to make rasam with this powder only.Though making of this powder needs little experience and patience, it is easy to prepare. Once you stuck up with the taste of the rasam made with this powder, you never mind the time taking process behind it. An one day tiresome job, will help you to prepare tasty  rasam daily for years. Let me come to the recipe straight, without building my story. Rasam Powder Ingredients: Black Peppercorns - 2 cups ( I used my measuring cup) Dry Red                 - 250 gms Cumin Seeds         - 25  gms Asafoetida            - 50 gms Method:      ...