Thavala Vadai – A festive special fried food prepared with mixed lentils, rice and with coconut but without any onion or garlic. Honestly, we don’t need any occasion to make this recipe. Crispy on the outside and soft inside, this vadai an anytime perfect recipe. Today I am happy to share my mom’s Thavala vadai recipe. Read further to check the detailed recipe with stepwise pictures. Jump to Recipe
Instant Pot Kalkandu Sadam | Kalkandu Pongal
With Ugadi and Tamil year coming up I wanted to post some simple instant pot sweet recipes that can be offered as neivediyam on these auspicious days. I haven’t posted any instant pot dessert recipe after my Walnut Kheer. So here I am sharing a simple dessert prepared with rice and sugar candy or kalkandu.
Continue reading “Instant Pot Kalkandu Sadam | Kalkandu Pongal” »
Adai Batter Vadai
I always love quick and easy recipes, of course not compromising the taste though. So does everyone right? That’s the big motivation behind the Prep Once and Serve Twice series that I did for IMC. I always think, if a recipe/dish can be used in multiple ways. Again the credit goes to my mom for this kind of thought process. I need to post couple of her trademark recipes. Stay tuned for those but today’s recipe is going to be Prep once Serve Twice concept recipe or two in one recipe. By this time you might have guessed what it is from the recipe name – Adai batter Vadai.
Quinoa – Foxtail Millet Pongal
Millets are small grains, as we say in Tamil it is called Siru Dhaniyangal. Millets are one among the oldest food known to humans and very popular in villages but in recent days because of high nutrition they are gaining popularity. This time when I went to Chennai to my mom’s place I got a chance to visit restaurant called “Pasumai” and its close to Tambaram Sanatorium (Chitlapakkam). Its very small fast food joint but they serve only small grain foods. That aroused my curiosity and also recent posts by Mullai made search these millets in US. (I couldn’t bring them from India) I thought being in BayArea it shouldn’t be difficult and yes I found all the millets here in Bay. I didn’t need to export it from there. For people in Bay Area, you can find all short grains in Madras Groceries in Sunnyvale. Not sure if they take online orders will check and update. In India it shouldn’t be a problem as India is one of the largest producer of these millets.
Today’s theme is One pot meal and I wanted to try pongal with these short grains. So the first millet that I am trying here is FoxTail Millet / Thinai or Tenai in Tamil and Kangni in hindi.
I think I have written enough about quinoa so let me now write about Foxtail Millet. When I was surfing I came across this article from Hindu which talks about foxtail millet and diabetes. According to this article, “foxtail millet releases glucose steadily without affecting the metabolism of the body. The incidence of diabetes is rare among the population which consumes foxtail millet diet.”
| Crop / Nutrient | Protein(g) | Fiber(g) |
Foxtail millet |
12.3 | 8 |
Quinoa |
24 | 12 |
| Source : Wikipedia | ||
For me this venpongal always reminds me the prasadam that we get in Venkateshwara/Perumal temples. IMO the hot pongal served in Dhonnai is the yummiest pongal. Nothing can beat that taste. I have stood in the queue multiple times for getting those prasadam. So what are these Dhonnai?
Dhonnai is an eco-friendly disposable dried leaf bowl which is mostly made up of dried banana leaf and these dried banana leaves are called as Sarugu in Tamil. They are also made of Mandara leaves. (I am still looking out for exact English name for the mandara tree)The prasadam are served in Dhonnai in temples. This time I got these dhonnai in bulk from Thaayar Diary in Ranganathan Street, T.Nagar in the effort of saving some trees and being more eco-friendly.
For this pongal I skipped rice completely and used ½ cup of quinoa and ½ cup of foxtail millet and ½ cup of moong dhal with loads of cumin seeds. So here is the protein loaded diabetic friendly ven pongal served in Dhonnai. Add everything to pressure cooker and pressure cook it with four cups of water. The serving size is 1 cup and it yields close to 3 cups.
Detailed recipe below:
Quinoa - Foxtail Millet Pongal
2015-09-08 19:44:20
Serves 4
A popular South Indian dish with quinoa and foxtail millet replacing rice and making it light and protein filled dish.
Prep Time
10 min
Cook Time
20 min
Ingredients
- Quinoa – ½ cup
- Foxtail Millet – ½ cup
- Moong dhal – ½ cup
- Cumin Seeds – 1 tbsp + 1 tbsp
- Black pepper corns – 2 tsps + 1 tsp
- Salt – 1tsp
- Oil – 1 tsp
- Ginger – 1 inch piece finely chopped
- Water – 4 cups
- Curry leaves – 1 strand
Instructions
- 1)Wash the quinoa, foxtail millet and moong dhal nicely. If you can soak them for 15 minutes that’s great if not that’s fine too. Let it cook for couple more minutes.
- 2) Now in a pressure pan or handi or cookers add these washed grains and dhal. Add 1 tbsp of cumin seeds, 2 tsps of black pepper and salt.
- 3)Add 4 cups of water and mix well.
- 4) Now pressure cook this for up 4 to 5 whistles.
- 5) Let it cool and once the pressure is off mix the pongal well. It should be soft and mushy and sticky.
- 6) In a separate tadka pan heat 1 tsp of oil and once the oil is hot add the remaining cumin seeds and pepper, ginger and curry leaves. As they start to crackle add them to the pongal.
Notes
- 1) If you are not able to get quinoa you can ignore and use 1 cup of foxtail millet itself.
- 2) Or you can also use 1/2 cup of barnyard millet and 1/2 cup of foxtail millet. Mix and match with what you have.
- 3) You can ignore the tadka step and add all the cumin seeds, pepper and ginger in step 2 itself making it oil free. :-)
Vidhya’s Vegetarian Kitchen https://www.vidhyashomecooking.com/
Sending this entry for Valli’s breakfast event.
Sakkarai Pongal – Sweet Pongal
Sweet Pongal or Sakkarai pongal is one of the major recipes prepared on festive days and on pongal sweet pongal is the hero. It is prepared with the new harvested rice and with moong dal along with milk and jaggery.
Pongal is just around the corner… I wish I could be in Periyakulam for pongal celebrations. We usually decorate our backyard and keep the pooja deities there with karumbu and do the pongal poojai there. In the front yard there will be big beautiful kolam with colorful rangolis powders. Three days of festival with Bhogi, Pongal and Kanu. Good old days. :-) Now in US, no holidays and no pongal paanai pongal. Only pressure cooker pongal. This recipe below is not the traditional one, but one of the quickest way of doing yummy sakarai pongal.
Ingredients:
- 1 cup raw rice
- 1/4 cup moong dhal
- 1 cup jaggery
- 3 cups water
- 1 cup boiled milk
- Elaichi 2
- Cloves 2
- Cashews – 10
- Ghee – 2 tbsps
- Grated Coconut – 3 tsbps
Steps:
- Boil 1 cup of water. Once the water is medium hot add the jaggery and let is dissolve in the water completely. We are not making paahu here so turn of the heat as soon as the jaggery dissolves.
- Add the crushed elaichi , clovers and allow the jaggery water to cool down.
- Wash the rice and dhal
- Pressure cook the rice and dhal by adding 2 cups of water, 1 cup of boiled milk and the jaggery water.
- You can let the cooker on till 4-5 whistles as we need the pongal to be soft. (Kulaiva) and turn off.
- Once the pressure is gone and when it is safe to open the cooker take out the rice and dhal mixture and mash well.
- Heat the ghee in a separate kadai and fry cashews and the coconut.
- When they turn golden brown add it to the sweet pongal.
Notes:
Make sure you use boiled milk. If not milk may start flowing out via the pressure valve. Or keep the pan/cooker open till the milk boils up and rests. Then cover the lid and pressure cook.