Kalchina vankayalu/Roasted brinjals

Kalchina vankayalu or roasted brinjals is a Telangana recipe, popular in other parts of AP too. For brinjal lovers like us, it is just a bonanza. Whenever Amma made them, there used to be a war at home and the winner, of course got one brinjal or sometimes just 3/4ths a brinjal more than the runner up.

Ingredients:

Fresh long brinjals (Podugu/kalyani vankaylu/Baingan)
Refined cooking oil 1 cup
Mustard seeds (Aavalu/Rai) ½ tsp
Black gram (uddipappu/Uraddal) 2 tsp
Red chillies 2-4
A Handful of curry leaves
Pinch of asafoetida (Inguva/Hing)
Red chilli powder to taste
Salt to taste


Method:

Note: We haven’t mentioned the preparation time, servings as that depends on the number of brinjals. And the quantity of brinjals depends on how many of them you would love having.

We need to prepare 3 things for this recipe: the tempering, spice and of course the roasted brinjals.

For the tempering, heat the whole oil in a deep-bottom pan, add mustard seeds and as they pop, add the red chillies, black gram, curry leaves and a pinch of asafoetida. Pour the whole oil into a serving bowl.

For the spice, mix dry red chilli powder and salt together to taste.

For this recipe, we can and should use only the long finger like brinjals. The round ones, small or large won’t fit in anyway.

Wash, dry and apply oil to the long brinjals and roast/fry directly on heat/flame like the big brinjals are roasted for baingan bhartha. Keep turning the brinjals to ensure they are roasted completely. Continue the process for as many brinjals as required. (If using a microwave oven/grill, place 4-5 brinjals at equal distance and roast for the same time as the big brinjals are roasted for the baingan bhartha i.e. around 10 mins).

Set the brinjals aside to cool. Peel the outer skin (it withers off easily, coz it is roasted). Ensure the brinjals are not spoilt - run the thumb through the brinjal and look inside each one. Cut the green stem on top.

Serve the roasted brinjals, tempering oil, salt and red chilli powder mixture and hot and cooked plain white rice together. Kalchina vankayalu are rice supplements only.

Mash each brinjal onto the rice, sprinkle the salt and red chilli powder mix, pour the seasoning and a tsp of oil and mix the rice. Check and adjust the spiciness.

Enjoy hot kalchina vankayalu or roasted brinjals and rice. For true purple brinjal lovers, this is a delight that will leave them dreaming about when they are going to have it next. ( Amma, we are waiting for ours!)

The Terrific Third Year!!!

Om Ganeshaya Namaha

Om Annapoorna devi Namaha

May the food relishing God Ganesha and the Goddess of food Annapoorna bless the world with prosperity aplenty.

Three years of cooking, clicking and posting. We learnt, experimented, tasted and enjoyed every bit of it. From traditional use of spices to healthy methods of cooking, this year has been a true learning experience.

Hoping to reach more than 700 followers soon, we continue to have more than 50 visits per day. The blog now has an ad too.

We specially thank Manoj Kasyap, Pavan, Usha and Mr. Shastry for being our backbone and foundation.

We thank Sathyavathi garu, Vasantha aunty, Datthatreya and Kamal Kiran for their special contribution and constant support to the blog. We also thank Kashyap for all his technical advice. We look to learn a lot more from them and keep publishing their recipes.

We also thank Cervello for the food recipe SMS services they provide.

We thank the team at Namasthe Telangana for all the publicity and support.

A special thank you to Shilpa Jeedigunta, Arpit Shekhar, Pingali Tanuja and Akhila Shankarbandi for their regular feedback.

We would forever thank you for the never-ending encouragement and critical feedback that helps us to think better, cook better and write better. We shall together celebrate “food” and shall feed our art, your heart and energize every thought with sumptuous delicacies.

Looking forward to a glowing year 4....

Cheers

Neeharika Kasyap
Pratyoosha Sastry Gurazada

Paala Kova/Doodh Peda

Its festival time and a very happy Sankranthi to all our blog readers. Of course, here is our sweet of the season: Paala kova /doodh peda or Milk cakes. An Andhra sweet, a popular during Sankranthi.

Ingredients:

Fresh milk (paalu) 3 liters
Sugar 1 cup (100 gms)

Method:

Boil the milk until it is around half its quantity.

Add the sugar.

Keep stirring until the milk thickens into a paste. During this process, you can see ghee oozing out at the corners of the cooking pot/vessel, this is due to excess boiling.

Leave to cool for around 15 mins.

Take small lumps and pat into small cakes/pedas.

Paalakova is done. The process is indeed simple, but needs a tad bit of experience to ensure the milk is not burnt and is actually boiling. The first time may not be the best one, do not lose hope. Keep trying and the best will soon come out.

Enjoy a sweet paalakova/doodh peda or milk burfi and a sweeter Sankranthi. Happy Sankranthi once again.

Gavvalu

Its Bhogi and that time of the year when we remove all the old thoughts from our minds and start life afresh with Sankranthi. While this is the spirit of the bhogi bonfires, the celebration itself makes it an equally colorful festival. Most of us living outside India will not have the facility to light up the bonfire but let us follow the spirit and celebrate life afresh.

Gavvalu, meaning shells when translated into English is the name of this Andhra sweet, one that every Andhrite will remember to have munched off without even realizing its over.

Ingredients:

All purpose flour (maida) 2 cups
Jaggery 1 cup
Refined cooking oil 1 cup

Method:

Mix the all-purpose flour into dough of a chapatti dough consistency.

There is a kitchen equipment called as ‘gavvalu maker’. Add the dough into the gavvalu maker and it will roll out the gavvalu or the dough in the shape of shells. Alternatively, press the dough along the thumb and remove the thumb carefully. This needs experience coupled with expertise. A simple way is to take small balls of the dough and shape them into hemi spheres pressing the thumb finger into the dough like a bowl or a crater. They obviously will not seem like shells, but of course, the spirit and taste are the same.

Deep fry the gavvalu in pre-heated oil until brown, remove and set aside to drain out excess oil.

Add 1 cup water to 1 cup jaggery (implying the jaggery and water are in the ratio of 1:1), simmer and keep stirring to make a syrup or paakam as it is called in Telugu. The syrup should be of string consistency (i.e when you press a drop of the syrup in between the thumb and pointed finger, it should make a string).

Add the fried gavvalu to the jaggery syrup ensuring they get coated with the syrup and remove.

Crispy and sweet gavvalu are ready. Get set for the pre-dawn bonfires, dancing and munching crispy gavvalu. A very happy bhogi to all our blog readers.

Aapam and Stew

Namo Narayana

We wish all our blog readers and fellow bloggers a very happy new year 2012. We are also excited to be writing our 200th post as the first post this New Year. This time, we decided to travel down south to God’s own country: Kerala and bring their most celebrated combo recipe: Aapam and stew.

Aapam

Ingredients:

Raw rice 2 cups
Cooked rice 1 tbsp
Grated fresh coconut 1 tbsp
Yeast ½tsp
Refined cooking oil/coconut oil
Pinch of Sugar
Salt to taste

Method:

Wash and soak the raw rice for 2 hours.

Drain all the water from the rice through a sieve to ensure the rice is completely dry. Dry the rice for around an hour.

Soak yeast in a quarter cup of water for around 10 mins.

Powder the rice finely. Add grated fresh coconut, cooked rice to this rice powder and grind to a thick and fine paste (without adding any water).

Add the soaked yeast slowly to the rice paste, mixing the rice paste simultaneously. Add a pinch each of sugar and salt. Mix thoroughly and set to ferment for around 6-7 hours.

In a pan/kadai (bandli/mookudu) heat a tsp of the coconut oil, pour the fermented batter and spread evenly, so that the aapam gets the shape of the pan/kadai. Leave to bake and remove. Continue the process to make more aapams.

Hot Aapams are ready, now for the stew.

Vegetable Stew
Ingredients:

Carrot 2
Potato (Aloo) 2
Green peas (Batani) 1 cup
Onion (ullipaya) 1
Green chillies 2
Ginger paste 1 tsp
Peppercorns 1 tsp
Cardamoms (elaichi) 2
Cinnamon (Dal chini) 1
Cloves (laung) 2
Curry leaves 4-5
Coconut oil 1 tbsp
Coconut milk (kobbari paalu)extracted

Method:

Grind the grated coconut to a fine paste and squeeze to extract coconut milk. The first extraction should be the thick and the next one should be thin. Alternatively, coconut milk is available in the stores and is also usable. (The coconut leftover can be used for the aapam or for coconut chutney).

Peel and dice the carrots, potatoes and finely chop the onion.

Heat coconut oil in a pan/kadai (bandli/mookudu). Add cinnamon, cloves, cardamoms, green chillies, ginger paste and chopped onions. Sauté until the onions are transparent.

Add the cubed veggies. Add the thin coconut milk extracted/coconut milk. Bring to a boil and then reduce the heat and cook until the veggies are cooked and soft. This should take around 8-10 mins.

If using the readily available coconut milk, then cook for another 5-10 mins until the stew thickens and remove from heat.

If using the extracted coconut milk, then add the thick extract and stir, cook for 2 mins and remove from heat.

Creamy and yummy, vegetable stew is ready to supplement the aapams. Garnish with fresh and chopped coriander (optional).

Enjoy the hot aapams and vegetable stew for a perfect Sunday breakfast, this weekend-A must after a hectic 1st week of the New Year. Have a great week and Year. You Sure will forget the dosai for a few weekends to come.

Thank you all for regularly visiting our blog and we promise and hope to bring many more healthy and tasty recipes.