Ammini Kozhukattai Recipe - Mini Kozhukattai - Vinayaka Chaturthi or Ganesh Chaturthi Recipe

Ammini (also called Mini or Mani) Kozhukkattai is not something I grew up eating. The sweet vella kozhukattai was often made and a favourite in our house but amma just made plain kozhukkattai with the leftover modak cover dough (without the jaggery filling), which we ate with chutney podi or just as-is.

                               

It's my sis who made this once with the leftover modak covering flour and it was instant love for me. She dismissed it a simple snack that she often makes but it was delicious. I tried it for the first time with the leftover flour after making kozhukattai for Ganesh Chaturthi.

Ammini Kozhukattai Recipe
Makes about 20-25 small balls
Serves 2 as a snack

Ingredients:

For the kozhukattai:
1/2 cup rice flour
~ 3/4 cup water (adjust amount while making)
1/2 tsp salt
For tempering:
2 tsp oil
1/4 tsp mustard seeds
1/4 tsp hing powder / perungaayam
1/2 tsp split urad dal / ulutham paruppu
2 dry red chillies, halved
2-3 tbsp grated coconut
A few curry leaves
A pinch of salt

How to Make Mini Kozhukkattai:

1. Bring 1/2 cup water to boil with the salt also added in. Once it boils, remove from fire and add the 1/2 cup rice flour in, mixing as you do so. Make sure no lumps are formed and mix well until you get a soft dough that's similar in consistency to chapati dough (it won't be stretchy though). Start with 1/2 cup water and keep adding a few drops as you mix until you get the desired consistency. Depending on the type of rice flour and humidity, etc, you will need different amounts of water. Let this mixture cool down a bit until you can handle it. Don't let it cool completely, or else the rice dough will become dry.

2. Make into small marble-sized balls and place in a steamer without overlapping.

3. Steam for about 10 minutes until the kozhukattai is cooked and glossy. Don't overcook, otherwise it becomes rubbery.

4. Heat oil in a pan and add the mustard seeds. When they pop, add the rest of the ingredients under the "for tempering" list and fry for a minute until the hing lets out a nice aroma and the red chillies glisten.

5. Add the steamed kozhukattai in, stir well, and remove from fire.

Serve hot with a cup of tea. Mini Kozhukattai are a nice tea-time snack and a great South Indian Tamil recipe for Vinayaka Chaturthi or Ganesh Chaturthi.

For Mini Kozhukattai recipe in Tamil, Telugu, Hindi, Gujarati, please use the Google Translate drop down in the top right sidebar of this website.

Moong Usal Recipe - How to Make Moong Usal Dry Version

Moong usal is a popular Maharashtrian vegetarian dish. The usal is served along with pav, a similar combination to the even more popular pav bhaji. I am not claiming this recipe is an authentic version since I got it from a food-based book written by a non-Indian. The usual usal recipes I see are all gravy-based and have a lot more ingredients than my simple version but since the first time I made this usal, I have been cooking it this way and serving it with roti, rice, or even on its own. Since I don't like the taste of raw sprouts in salads and such, this is a great alternative, and a method which doesn't compromise the nutrition in moong sprouts.

Typically, usal is made with maki or moth bean sprouts. Using moong sprouts for usal is also not uncommon so I decided to go ahead and do just that. I also learnt from the book that Misal is Usal with has been spiced up a bit more and made into a kind of chaat. I really need to try making some misal at home too, a dish that I have only tried once when I visited TH's aunt in Mumbai many years ago.

Some other recipes you may be interested in:
Soya chunks biryani with sprouts
Pesarattu recipe
Moong dal tadka
Vada pav recipe
How to make pav

Moong Usal Recipe

Adapted from Ginger and Ganesh
Serves 2-4

INGREDIENTS:
2 cups moong bean sprouts
1 cup onions, sliced
1/2 cup of cubed tomato
1" piece of ginger, grated
2-3 flakes of garlic, minced
1 tsp amchoor (dry mango powder) or 1/2 tsp tamarind paste
1-2 green chillies, chopped
A pinch of turmeric powder
1 tsp red chilli powder (adjust to taste)
1 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp Kitchen King Masala (or garam masala / goda masala)
1 tsp grated jaggery or brown sugar
2 tbsp oil
Salt to taste

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Heat oil and add the onions and green chillies. Saute until the onions have turned a light brown.
2. Add the minced ginger and garlic and fry until the raw smell disappears - about a minute.
3. Now add the coriander, chilli powder, turmeric, and salt, and jaggery or sugar. Fry for another minute.
4. Add the sprouted moong dal and chopped tomato along with the amchoor. Add some water and cook on low flame covered for 8-10 mins.
5. When the beans have turned plump and soft, add the garam masala and garnish with chopped coriander.
6. Cook in open pan until the water has more or less evaporated and you have a dry dish. Adjust salt and amchoor as needed.

Step by step pictures to make Usal:

Heat 2 tsp oil in a pan and add the sliced onions and green chillies.

 

 Saute until the onions turn a golden brown.

Now add the ginger and garlic and saute until fragrant (about 1 minute). Make sure the flame is medium-low to prevent burning.

Next, add the chilli powder, coriander, turmeric, amchoor, jaggery or brown sugar, and some salt. 

Mix well and fry for 30 seconds for the spices to get roasted well.

Now add the sprouts and chopped tomatoes. 

Mix well so the masala coats the sprouts well.

Add about 1/2 cup water. 

 Cook covered for 5 minutes or so or until the moong sprouts are cooked soft.

Now add garam masala and chopped coriander leaves. Mix again.

Cook for a bit longer until the excess water, if any, is fully absorbed. Taste test to make sure there's enough salt.

Serve usal hot with steamed rice and some gravy or pav.

Notes:

- You can pressure cook the sprouted beans until soft and then follow the rest of the recipe

- Use some tamarind paste or lemon juice if you don't have amchoor in hand (amchoor is dried mango powder, used to add sourness to dishes)

- Omit red chilli powder if you can't tolerate much heat in dishes

- The tomatoes are optional

Potato and Drumsticks Curry Recipe in Poppy Seeds Gravy

Recipe for a potato drumstick curry that has a thick tomato khus khus (poppy seeds gravy).

Until I was 10, we used to live in a sprawling L-shaped house with a gorgeous garden. My mom has quite a green thumb and whatever shoot or seeds she planted would grow and bloom into beautiful things. We had a drumstick tree in the backyard and during one season, it showed off its splendour by giving us many baskets of long, slender drumsticks. Amma, being the generous soul she is, gave off bags of it to friends, relatives and neighbours until they threw up their arms when the word drumsticks was mentioned! So she sold some. I remember because she bought me a box of foreign chocolates from the only foreign goods store in town at that time.

So yes, my connection with drumsticks goes beyond the simple girl-and-vegetable relationship that I share with most other vegetables.

Fast forward two decades. One day I got this email from my mom-in-law saying she tried a recipe with potatoes and drumsticks and that it came out very nice.

This is her recipe. It's a bit similar to potato saagu that I made ages back and then completely forgot about but somehow, I liked it better than saagu. Too bad I am all out of khus khus / poppy seeds and can't get them in Singapore.

Potato recipes I recommend - Bombay potatoes, Punjabi aloo gobi, dry aloo methi, and this gorgeous dum aloo recipe from my mom-in-law.

Potato and Drumsticks in a Thick Poppy Seeds Gravy

Serves 4

Ingredients:
2 large potatoes, cubed
1 drumstick, cut into 3" long pieces
1 onion, chopped
1 large tomato , chopped
5 tbsp khus khus / poppy seeds (soaked in water for 15 mins)
2-3 green chillies
2-3 flakes of garlic
1 tsp red chilli powder (adjust to taste)
1 tbsp coriander powder
1/2 tsp cumin seeds / jeera
A pinch of turmeric powder
2 tbsp oil
Salt to taste
Coriander leaves for garnishing

Instructions:

1. Grind the soaked khus khus with jeera, coriander, and garlic into a smooth paste. Add water as necessary, the poppy seeds will thicken the mixture.

2. Heat the oil and add mustard seeds (optional). When they pop (if using) add onions and green chillies and fry until lightly browned. Then add the drumsticks and potato cubes. Add in 2 cups water and mix well.

3. When the mixture comes to a boil, add the ground khus khus paste, chilli powder, turmeric, and some salt. Mix well.

4. Throw in the tomatoes and mix.

The mixture should still be a bit watery for the vegetables to full cook. If it's not, add some more water. Cook covered until the potatoes are soft and the drumsticks are cooked through. Adjust salt.

Garnish with coriander leaves and serve hot with steamed rice, roti, nan, or even crusty bread.

Serve potato drumsticks curry with some warm rice or vegetable pulao.

Review: Confections of a Closet Master Baker

I've been on Goodreads for a couple of months now and absolutely enjoy the site. If you love reading, maybe you should check it out too (no, they are not paying me to say this). I am planning to share my reviews of cookbooks and food-related books here as I post them on my Goodreads profile. Here's the first one.

Confections of a Closet Master Baker by Gesine Bullock-Prado
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

If I had waited even 10 minutes after finishing this book, I'd have probably given it a four. That doesn't mean a bad thing necessarily, just that the aftertaste of this book is just so... delicious. I had very low expectations when I started the book, I am yet to read a food-related memoir that I thoroughly enjoyed. I haven't read very many either, to be fair.

Midway through the book, I realised "Sandy" and "my sister who is an actress" that the author references now and then is Sandra Bullock! The author worked in Hollywood for a while and then moved to a small town and set up her own bakery. The promos and intros to the book hype this fact a lot. She gave it all up and moved away. But (thankfully) the book doesn't dwell on this fact too much. Yes, she's very clear she found Hollywood fake, tiresome, and boring but that's not the central theme of the book (again, thankfully).

The bits that stood out for me are the afternoon tea stories the author shared with her Omi (grandmom) and her mom who died of colon cancer. It's touching, it's a German tradition that even as a South Indian, I could fully relate to. Each time she mentions her dead mom and her memories associated with her, my heart went out to her.

Of course, all the butter, sugar, flour, and chocolate in the book appealed to the food-lover part of me. She confirms the fact that having one's own pastry shop is no cake walk, literally. I knew it, but it still helps to hear it again so that I won't feel tempted to leave my job (that I enjoy, btw) and follow that path. Some of the recipes seem delicious and I am reluctant to return the book before I have atleast taken some photocopies of those pages.

A must-read if you even remotely enjoy baking.

Want to buy your own? Here are the links: AMAZON | FLIPKART