Theratti Paal

Theratti paal is a simple dish, that involves only two ingredients - milk and sugar.
But the taste of it makes me feel like ambrosia.



Ingredients (Serves 3):

Milk - 1.5 litres
Sugar - 1 cup
Ghee - 1 tsp


Method:

1. Take a heavy bottomed clean kadai and pour the milk into it. A non-stick kadai is preferrable.
2. When the milk comes to a boil, simmer the flame and let it be in the same condition for another 30-40 mins. Care should be taken to see that the milk does not stick to the bottom as it thickens.
3. When the consistency of the milk is thick and layers of cream begin to form, add the sugar. Mix it with milk. Let the flame be in the simmered state for another 20-25 mins.
4. Now, the milk and sugar would have blended well to form a semi-solid form that now no liquid would be floating around. Add a tsp of ghee into the mixture and remove it from flame.
   

The subtle taste of this dish itself is heavenly that it is consumed without making any variations of adding any extra ingredients.

If needed, 1/4 tsp of cardamom powder can be added after adding the ghee.

Tomato and Capsicum Curry

I thought I should do some justice to my blog url for naming it Capsicum and Tomatoes.

Well, my stint with cooking a meal (or something like that) began with tomatoes and capsicum !

I fondly recollect those days when we girls rented a house at Velachery, where our cooking saga began with the Tomato and Capsicum Curry..

I love this dish for the ease of preparation, the simple and fulfilling taste it offers with the splash of red and green color - a humble feast in itself :)

Here we go!

Tomato and Capsicum Curry

Ingredients (Serves 2):

Diced Tomatoes - 4
Capsicum (Green bell pepper) diced into medium squares - (remove seeds)
Sambar powder - 2 tsp
Mustard- 1/2 tsp
Urad dal - 1/2 tsp
Refined oil -1 tsp
Salt -As per requirement

Method:

1. Heat oil in kadai. When the oil heats up, add mustard and urad dal
2. When the mustard splutters, add the diced capsicum, stir fry till the capsicum is softened but still a little crisp.
3. Then add diced tomatoes and sambar powder and salt. Cook on a low medium flame for 3-4 mins, until the tomato softens.

Once cooked, remove from flame.

This dish goes well with rice, dosa. Also it tastes best when served with rotis and creamy yoghurt.

Kothumalli (Coriander leaves) Thuvaiyal

Kothumalli is our very own Coriander Leaves. These leaves add distinct flavor to Indian dishes, especially the South Indian delicacy, Rasam , leaving you slurping Rasam on your plates.

Thuvaiyal is a kind of Indian pesto, consisting of edible leaves/vegetable and a mix of sauteed spices best served with rice.

Kothumalli Thuvaiyal

Ingredients (Serves 3):

Coriander - 2 bunches
Pudina (Mint) leaves - Handful
Mustard -1 tsp
Urad dal - 2 tsp
Toor dal - 1 tsp
Dried Red chillies - 1 (seeds removed)
Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp
Tamarind - 1 marble sized ball
Grated coconut - 1/4 cup
Gingelly oil - 2 tbsp
Refined oil - 1 tsp
Water - 1 glass
Salt - As per requirement

Method:

1. Wash the bunch of corainder leaves and chop them into pieces along with the slender stem.
2. Heat the kadai (wok), add refined oil. when the oil heats up, add urad dal, toor dal, cumin seeds and the dried red chilly in that order.
3. Once the dals added begin turn light brown, turn off the gas and allow the spice mix to cool.
4. Then add coriander leaves, mint leaves, coconut, tamarind, spice mix, salt and water in the mixie jar and grind it into a fine paste.
5. Heat the kadai and add gingelly oil. When the oil heats up, add mustard seeds.
6. Once the mustard seeds begin to splutter, transfer the paste from the mixie jar onto the kadai.
7. This should be cooked in the kadai till the oil separates from the paste.
   

Serve kothumalli thuvaiyal with steaming rice.

Note: This dish can also be prepared without coconut. If coconut is not used, the shelf-life of the thuvaiyal is long.

The Ingredients that I Use and Do not Use

Before I jump on into the recipe-ing spree, I would like to put a word on my style/preferences of cooking/eating..

I prefer Indian and Oriental Cuisine, for the simple reason that the aroma of the spices and flavors of these dishes leads me to Nirvana.
But that doesn't mean I would love spicy hot crispy chilly vegetables or it version of the curry.

Now, that brings me to the point where I need to mention the Ingredients I Don't (prefer) Use:

• Onions (qn: how could u ever start the cooking as such without onions? ans: well.. well.. don't worry.. i cook dishes sans onions which tastes much better than those with onions)
• Garlic (now i can hear u screaming SOS )
• Green Chillies
• Asafoetida
• Brinjal

The above mentioned ingredients are basically Negative Pranic. Prana, in short, is Life Energy. For those who practice Yoga, including me, would observe a stark difference on consuming food cooked with any of these negative pranic foods.

For those who are convinced on why we don't use the above mentioned ingredients, please skip the following lecture. :D

For the Others, Good Morning,

--Lecture Starts--

Some may argue that Onions purify blood, Garlic reduces cholesterol etc. Yes. It does. I don't deny that. Peace.

All plants existing on the planet is medicinal and curative in one or more ways. So, can we eat all the plants that our eyes could set and hands could lay upon?

The venom of King Cobra is used in the treatment of Paralysis. But, only 1 in 1000 parts of the venom is taken and used in the medicines.

So, now that i have offered some gyaan (do you sense an aura around me ;) , I just meant to say that ingredient used for food or medicine should be taken in the right proportions and form. Doesn't that make more sense?

--Lecture Ends--

Also, Coffee and Tea are Negative Pranic . Because they are Nervous Stimulants. Beverages like Pepsi, Coke, Fanta and its family of products are also nervous stimulants. Since these aren't ingredients, but consumed as a whole, I did not mention it earlier.

So, if some foods are negative pranic, some should be positive pranic (logically speaking) and some zero pranic.

Tubers like potato,colocasia,etc. and Tomato would come under Zero Pranic.

All other vegetables, fruits and nuts come under Positive Pranic Foods. The vegetable with the highest quotient of Positive Prana is Ash Gourd.

So, it is just a fraction of the Edible Ingredients that comes under Negative Pranic :) The rest could be eaten with delight !

It is good to have an understanding on what goes into our mouth.. Isn't it..?

A sip of Starter for the Beginners Soul

Cooking has always been a joy to me.
What we are, with the respect to the body I mean, is all the from the food we eat .
The thought of food reminds some, of just the mere rituals of breakfast, lunch and dinner that they go through everyday.
For some it is God, for they get to grab a few or more morsels a day with much of difficulty.
For others it is gulping or gobbling a sumptuous meal from time to time. ( i tried to mean a Glutton!)
For some (only some though!) who eat food consciously, it means nourishing themselves in gratefulness to the living beings who have been/are a source of food for them.

whatever be the way one may feel about food, we eat.. EVERYDAY..

As for me I enjoy eating food to my heart's content and more important, Consciously :)

This blog has arisen on my love to share with you my love for cooking, the simple recipes that i relish cooking and anything that could be associated with Food!

Hope was Starter was appetizing.. Time for the Main Course :)