Mango Thokku

This is one of my favorite dishes. It's essentially a side dish for curd rice but I love to just mix this with rice and eat just like any thogayal :). It's very simple and easy to make yet tastes very delicious. Growing up I used to make excuses and eat small portions of other courses so that I can eat more thokku ;). After seeing the indian store filled with mangoes I was so excited that I decided to get a mango and try this out :). It really did come out very well and here's the recipe

Ingredients:

1. 1 medium sized green mango
2. 2 tsp fenugreek powder
3. 1 tsp of mustard
4. 2-3 tsp red chilli powder
5. 2 tsp salt (use more depending on the sourness of the mango)
6. a pinch of asafoetida
7. 2-3 tbsp oil
8. a pinch of turmeric powder

Directions:

1. First peel the skin off the mango and grate it.
2. Now in a pan, add oil and mustard and start heating, once the mustards start cracking add asafoetida and the fenugreek powder
3. Now add the grated mango and continue to cook on very low heat. Keep stirring every now and then and add extra oil if you notice the mangoes are dry and stick to the bottom of the vessel.
4. Once the mangoes are starting to cook add the chilli powder, turmeric powder and salt. Stir well to mix the stuff and continue cooking on low heat.
5. When you notice the oil spreading out of the mango the thokku is ready.

Note:

1. You should never add water to cook the thokku. The mango as such has enough moisture/juice that'll aid the cooking process.

Rava Kesari

First of all,
Iniya puthandu nal vazhthukkal.

Yesterday happened to be tamil new year's day and I had to make some sweet to usher in the new year. Since my hubby wasn't around and I couldn't get off from work early I decided to just make rava kesari. It only took me 5-10 mins to make it and being a sweet tooth myself, I thouroughly enjoyed eating it :). Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:

1/2 cup rava (get coarse sooji from Indian store)
1.25 cups water
3/4 cup sugar
2-3 tbsp ghee
12 - cashews
2-3 cardamom or 1tsp cardamom powder

pinch of food/cake color powder (red) (optional)

Directions:

1. In a pan, add a tsp of ghee and roast the sooji and keep it aside
2. First add water to the pan and allow it to boil, once the water starts boiling add the sooji with constant stirring so as to avoid any lumps.
3. keep stirring once the sooji is almost cooked, add the sugar and stir nicely. When the sugar melts powder the cardamom and add it to this mixture. Also add the food color and stir.
4. Add 2 tbsps of ghee to the sooji mixture and stir nicely. At this point the mixture should be in the correct consistency and could be switched off else allow it to cook for some more time.
5. Roast the cashews in the remaining ghee separately and add it to the kesari and mix them nicely.

Note:

1. Some people like to add milk to this kesari, I personally don't like it as adding milk offsets the sweetness.
2. If you love pacha karpooram, that could be added along with caradamom powder but I personally refuse to eat any sweet that contains pacha karpooram and I always steer away from it.