Mothagam | Vinayaka Chathurthi Recipe

Happy Vinayaka Chathurthi

Ganesha Chaturthi is the Hindu festival celebrated in honour of the god Ganesha,the god of beginnings and wisdom.The festival, also known as Vinayaka Chaturthi. The festival lasts for 10 days, ending on Ananta Chaturdashi.

The main sweet dish during the festival is the modak, a dumpling made from rice flour with a stuffing of fresh grated coconut, jaggery, dry fruits and some other condiments. It is either steam-cooked or fried.I am making this for the first as for Ganesh chathurthi...Here goes the recipe.

Ingredients

1. Rice flour (Ready made idiyappam flour/ pathiri podi )-1 Cup [I used double horse brand]
2. Sesame oil / Ellannai  - 2 Tsp
3. Boiling Water   -  As needed
4. Salt   -  As needed

For Coconut Pooranam

1. Coconut  -  2 Cups
2. Jaggery   -  1 cup 
3. Elachi/Cardamom - 4

 

 

Preparation

• For the dough, add sesame oil to the dough. Add salt to boiling water and mix well using a wooden spatula. Make a smooth and soft dough. Keep covered.

• You can make equal sized balls and keep covered. 
• For the thenga pooranam, place grated coconut jaggery and elachi powder in a pan, with little of water. Cook on medium flame until, it starts leaving the sides of pan, switch off the flame. Keep it to cool and make poornam balls.

• Meanwhile, boil water in a steamer.
• Make small cups out of the dough,  place the poornam inside the dough and shape it as shown in the figure.

• Repeat and finish the kozhukattais and keep covered until steaming.  
• Arrange the mothagams on the steaming plate and cook for 20 - 25 minutes. Or until they are cooked. When cooked you will see that the mothagams are a little shiny on the outside.

 

 

Njandu Thenga Aracha Curry

Ingredients

1. Njandu / Crab  - 1 Kg
2. Tomato  - 1
3. Onion sliced - 1
4. Green chilly - 4 to 5 nos.
5. Turmeric powder - 1/2 Tsp
6. Red chilly powder - 4 Tbsp (adjust accordingly as spiciness of chilly powder differs)
7. Grated coconut -3/4 cup
8. Tamarind - size of a small lime (soak in 3/4 cup water)
9. Curry Leaves - 2 -3 Sprigs
10. Coconut Oil/Oil - 1 Tsp

For tempering

1. Coconut Oil/Oil - 1 Tbsp
2. Mustard seeds - 1 Tsp
3. Shallots  - 5
4. Dry red chilly - 2
5. Curry Leaves - 1 Sprig

Preparation

• Grind the grated coconut into fine smooth  paste by adding little water. Keep aside.
• Wash and clean njandu/crab and make into pieces(separate legs from body).
• Heat an earthen pot/saucepan with oil, saute onion, tomato, green chilly till soft (5 to 10 minutes).
• Add cleaned and washed crab, turmeric , red chilly powder and salt. Close with lid and cook.
• It may take just 5 to 8 minutes. Now when you open the lid you will see water has come out from the cooked crab.
• Now add the coconut paste and tamarind water. Adjust salt and add curry leaves. Let it boil and cook for 10 minutes.  Add curry leaves.
• Heat oil in a pan, splutter mustard seeds, add finely chopped shallots, when light brown add dry red chilly and curry leaves. Pour this to the sizzling curry.
• Serve hot with rice.

Check out the recipe for Njandu (Crab) Thenga Varutharacha Curry

Sweet Banana Rotti ~ Pazham Gothamba Rotti

Oh i am back from Kerala , after a small vacation... The weather there was so so lovely and moody... The rain was so beautiful ( I miss rains after being relocated to Bangalore)...I had a few posts in my drafts ... so let me start with those....
Usually when you hear the name 'ROTTI', the picture that will come to your mind is the 'ROTI'S'  we make. All of us make different kind of rotti's and innovate our own recipes. We usually make savory rottis, adding chopped onions, green chillies and curry leaves. Today i am sharing , a sweet version of the whole wheat rotti's using Kerala plantains . This was something i made , when my kids were small and they used to love this . I serve it with ghee and sugar for tea,  when they are back from school. So recently when here was ripe plantain's i made it again for tea and they were like, mummy we still remember the taste and smell of this rotti. So i thought , why don't i share it with my bloggers.. so here goes  the recipe.

Ingredients

1. Wheat Flour - 2 cups
2. Kerala plantain / Kerala banana - 4 nos (was about 1/4 Kg)
3. Grated coconut - 1/2 cup
4. Cardamom powder - 1/4 Tsp
5. Salt - a pinch
6. Sugar - optional (I did not use)
7. Water - as needed
8. Ghee - as needed

Preparation

• Peel and mash the bananas using a blender or a wooden spoon.
• In a bowl mix all the ingredients except ghee, using water into a thick batter. Check the taste of the batter, if sweetness is less, you can add sugar.

• Heat a pan/tawa on a medium flame, drizzle little ghee, now pour a ladle of batter and spread it using your hand (if not just spread using the bottom of the spoon). Cover with a lid. Let it cook for 3 minutes.
• Open the lid and drizzle oil on the sides and flip to cook the other. When you see light brown spots on top, stop cooking and transfer it to a serving plate, drizzle some generous amount of ghee...and Serve hot. (Tastes best) .

Notes

• The batter shouldn't be too thick nor too loose, should be spreadable.
• Add sugar only if the banana is less sweet.
• Should be eaten when it is warm.
• While serving you can drizzle ghee and sprinkle little sugar.

Linking this to Dish it out event hosted by Hasna of Kachuss Delights ; originally hosted by Vardhini of Cooks Joy"

Thakkali Rasam ~ Tomato Rasam~South Indian Tangy Tomatao Soup

Tomato or Thakkali Rasam is one of the soothing and comforting dish that anybody can have during this rainy and chilling weather with some hot rice. This is one of the simple rasam recipe that one can make.There are different varieties of rasam, like pepper rasam, parippu rasam, puli rasam , etc. It is usually made with tomato and tamarind. The sour and a bit spicy taste of spices should be prominent in this dish.I don't like making rasam with instant rasam powder, though it taste's good, but not as we prepare with crushing and tempering.. It has a very unique tastes of its own.

This time tomatoes came to my house in different shapes and sizes, all we looking so cute, so i thought of clicking a photo of those cute little ones...

I love having tomato rasam with hot rice and daal curry with pappad. In this recipe i don't even mash the potatoes, as they well cooked and while adding the spices, i simply crush them with my mortar...Oh.. i cant explain the aroma that comes, when i crush them... the smell of the coriander seeds...wow!!!  

Serves (4-5)
Ingredients

1. Tomato   - 3 Large
2. Shallots big  - 5
3. Cumin Seeds      - 1/4 Tsp
4. Coriander seeds - 1/4 Tsp
5. Garlic      - 5 
6. Peppercorns  - 1/2 Tsp
7. Turmeric powder  - 1/4 Tsp
8. Tamarind / tamarind paste - 1 1/4 Tsp
9. Water - 2 1/2 cups (appx.)
10. Salt - as per taste
11. Coriander Leaves  - 1 Tbsp

Tempering :

1. Coconut Oil/ Ghee - 1 Tbsp
2. Shallots/ onion - 1/2 Tsp
3. Mustard Seeds - 1/2 Tsp
4. Dry Red Chilly  - 2
5. Curry Leaves - 2 twigs
6. Asafoetida (Kaayam)- 2-3 pinches 

Preparation

• Coarsely grind/ or just one twist in a mixer shallots, cumin seeds, coriander seeds, garlic and peppercorns.
• In a bowl add the cut tomatoes, water and tamarind paste. Bring it to a nice boil(tomatoes should be a bit mushy).
• Once it starts boiling,add the coarsely ground ingredients and powders and salt.
• When it boils stir well for 2 minutes till the taste of all ingredients fuse together completely. Off the flame and add coriander leaves.
• In a separate small pan, heat oil. When the oil is hot enough, crackle mustard seeds, red chilly ,curry leaves and onion/shallots. Sauté for few seconds till it leaves the aroma. Off the flame and add asafoetida. Pour it to the prepared rasam. Serve hot.
• Enjoy hot Rasam with rice...