How to prepare tasty and delicious onion vathal kuzhambu

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Mutton Kola Urundai, a chettinadu style kofta recipe

Ingredients needed for Mutton Kola Urundai / Koftas1 cup minced mutton
2 Green chillies
3 Red chillies
1 tbsp Roasted grams / Pottukadalai
4 Cashew nuts
1 tsp Sauf / Fennel seed
2 tbsps freshly rated coconut
5-6 small onions
6 garlic flakes
1 tsp chopped ginger
1 big black Cardamom
2-3 Cloves
1” piece Cinnamon
handful of curry leaves
1 Egg


How to prepare Mutton Kola Urundai / Koftas Tamil Nadu style Heat one tablespoon oil in a fry pan, add the cinnamon, clove, cardamom and the red chillies.
Then, add  curry leaves, saunf, ginger, onion, green chilies and garlic one after the other and saute well.
As the vegetables starts getting golden, add the roasted grams / pottukadalai, cashew nuts and grated coconut. Stir well and fry till the coconut turns golden.
Grind all the fried ingredients together to a smooth paste and keep aside. Sprinkle a little water if needed.
MIx the beaten egg to the masala paste as well as the minced meat. Mix well. Shape into round balls and deep fry in hot oil. Drain and remove from fire.
Serve with Tomato Sauce / Ketchup.

Points to NoteUsually the minced meat is added raw in the recipe. If you have doubts about the cooking of the meat , you can saute the meat first and then add to the masala paste.
You can also precook the meat separately but the taste will be different as you might have to leave out the extra juices.  
While you fry the Kola balls see that the oil is not smoking. If the oil is too hot, the balls will brown quickly on the outside but will remain uncooked in the centre. The kola balls should be fried in medium fire or better still simmer every now and then if you feel the oil is getting too hot.

Tasty and Delicious Bengali Road side snack Jhaal Moodi

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Grated Paneer Sandwich

Ingredients needed for Paneer Sandwich
1 Bread loaf about 400 grams
1/2 cup grated Paneer (Cottage Cheese)
1 Tomato, chopped fine
1 Onion, chopped
2 Green chillies, minced
1/4 tsp Red chilli powder
Salt to taste
Butter as needed / to your taste

How to make Paneer Sandwich :
Chop onions, chillies and tomatoes.
Mix the grated paneer with chopped vegetables, salt, red chilli powder and keep aside.
Take two bread slices and butter them, put some paneer mixture on one slice and cover it with other bread slice.
Put this in sandwich toaster until the bread turns crispy and brown.
Serve with ketchup.

How to prepare soft and fluffy Appams, Kerala style?

Ingredients needed for preparing Appams Kerala style 
4 cups Raw rice
1 cup  rice cooked
2 cups freshly grated Coconut
1/2 cup Coconut water
1/2 tsp Dry yeast
Warm Milk – ½ cup
3 tbsps Sugar
Salt to taste

How to prepare Appams, Kerala style? 
Clean and soak the rice for 4-5 hrs.
Grind  raw rice, cooked rice, coconut water and grated coconut together in a mixer / grinder to a smooth batter of dosa consistency.
In the mean time mix the yeast, 2 tbsp sugar in the warm milk and keep aside after 15 mins. The yeast will rise.
Mix the yeast mixture to the batterleave it to rise.
Before making appams, add salt to taste and sugar if needed. Stir well.
Heat a non-stick appachatti. Brush a little oil with a cloth.
Pour one big spoon of the batter into the appa chatti, rotate the pan gently holding it with both hands. Then close with lid.
When you see the steam coming out on the sides of the pan,, open the lid and remove appam.
Follow the same procedure till you finish the batter.
Serve hot.

Points to Note
You can serve appams with chicken stew / curry, vegetable / potato stew, or any other spicy curry you fancy.

Tasty and easy to prepare snack Egg Frankies, kerala style recipe

Ingredients needed for tasty Egg Frankies
2 tsps of oil
1 cup onions chopped
1 cup chopped capsicum
1 cup chopped carrot
1/2 cup chopped coriander leaves
Salt to taste
1 tsp pepper powder
3 tsps chat masala
3 eggs
2 cups atta / whole wheat powder

How to prepare tasty Egg Frankies?
Add just enough water and salt to taste to the Whole wheat powder / atta . Mix well to prepare a soft pliable dough. keep aside for 15 to 20 minutes.
Divide and shape the dough in to small balls. Roll them into chappathies.
Meanwhile, heat oil in a pan. Saute onions, chopped vegetables and mix well.
When half done add salt to taste, pepper powder and chat masala. Mix well and keep aside.
Beat the 3 eggs nicely with 2 small pinches of salt.  Keep aside.
Heat the Tava, put in one of the rolled chappathies. Cook it for half a minute on one side and flip it to cook the other side.
Then spread the beaten egg thickly on to one side of the cooked chappathy and turn it over to cook it well.
Again flip it over so that the side with egg comes on top.
Spread the prepared filling and roll it  to prepare your tasty and yummy as well as easy to prepare Egg Frankie.
Try this out , it is really a tasty and delicious evening teatime snack as well as a filling one.

About the aromatic spice / herb Asafoetida

Asafoetida  also spelt as Asafetida  is the dried latex which gets exuded from the tap root of several species of Ferula, a perennial herb  which grows to a height of about  1 to 1.5 meters.  Asafoetida is a herb native to India and has a smooth flavour when added to a dish.
Asafoetida is known to help in digestion as a digestive aid. It is used in the preparations as a condiment in curries and dals as well as pickles. Eventhough Asafoetida has a very strong odour, the aroma after it gets cooked becomes more milder  and pleasant particularly when it is sauteed  in ghee or oil. It goes very well with sauteed onions and garlic when added to Dals / lentils .
 Asafoetida used to be sold only in blocks or pieces as a gum in the olden days and nowadays we find it as a fine powder, which comes in airtight containers. Asafoetida has been used as a tenderizer  and a preservative for meat in the olden days.

Health benefits of Asafoetida 
Asafoetida is known to help in digestion .
Asafoetida reduces flatulence  as it reduces the growth of bacteria in the stomach and abdomen.
Asafoetida  is being used as an anti viral drug against Flu.
 In Ayurveda medicine, Asafoetida is considered  to be one of the best spices which can be used as a remedy for balancing the vata dosha.

If you want to know more about the spice Asafoetida please do visit www.peppertrail.com