Inji Curry/ Inji Puli

The first thing that comes to my mind when I think about Onam is Onasadya (the feast). If someone would make me sadya everyday, I would be glad to eat it on a daily basis. I love everything about the sadya, especially the Payasam round (dessert round). Another one of my sadya favorites is Inji Puli or Inji Curry. This is one of the sadya specialties that I never thought I would be able to make at home. For some reason, it always sounded complicated to me. Then I happened to see Sunitha's recipe for Inji Puli at Collaborative Curry and decided to try it out. It came out excellent. I have made very slight changes in the measurements according to my taste.

Ginger	- 1 1/2 cup (thinly chopped)
Coconut Oil	- 4 to 5 tbsp
Green Chilly	- 9 (thinly chopped)
Red Chilly Powder	- 1 1/2 tsp
Fenugreek Powder	- 1/4 + 1/8 tsp
Turmeric Powder	- 1/4 + 1/8 tsp
Asafoetida	- 1/4 + 1/8 tsp
Tamarind Paste	- 2 tbsp (used ready made pulp/concentrate)
Brown Sugar	- 4 1/2  tbsp
Curry Leaves	- 1 twig
Salt	- 1 tsp
Water	- 1 cup + 1 1/2 tbsp

1. Heat oil in a Pan and fry the chopped green chilly and ginger until slightly brown.
2. When slightly brown, take the ginger and green chilly out of the oil and let the oil drain.

3. Mix the Chilly Powder, turmeric powder, fenugreek powder and asafoetida with 1 1/2 tbsp of water.
4. In the left over oil (from frying ginger) in the pan, add the powder mix and curry leaves and keep stirring for 2 to 3 minutes in medium flame.
5. Add the tamarind paste also to the oil and mix well. You could also use normal tamarind. If using this adjust water accordingly.
6. Smash the fried Ginger-Chilly mix using a mortar and pestle a little.
7. Add this fried Ginger-Chilly mix to the pan and combine well.
8. Add the brown sugar, salt and water and let it cook and reduce to a thick consistency.

This could also be used as a pickle with Biryani or with a normal lunch. It will stay good for a couple of weeks even when not refrigerated.Thanks to Sunitha for the recipe!

Pepper Rasam

Rasam is a comfort food for my family and I would say for any malayalee. It is also served as part of the Kerala Sadya. Another good thing about this dish is that it is good for digestion and may be one of the reasons that it is served as one of the last courses of the traditional sadya. It is considered as a soup as well.

When I started cooking I used to use the rasam powder that you get ready made and it never yielded good results; may be I was not making it right. Now this one here is a simple and quick recipe with no ready make rasam mixes.

Oil                           - 2 tbsp
Mustard                   - 1/4 tsp
Pepper                     - 1 tsp
Ginger Garlic Paste   - 1 1/2 tbsp
Green Chilly              - 1
Cumin powder          - 3/4 tsp
Tamarind                 - small lemon size ball
Water                      - 5 1/2 cups
Curry Leaves            - 1 twig

1. Heat oil in a vessel and splutter the mustard and curry leaves.
2. Add split green chilly, ginger garlic paste and saute until the raw smell is gone.
3. Add Pepper powder and cumin powder and saute for a minute.
4. Extract tamarind juice in a cup of water and add it to the vessel.
5. Add the remaining water and let it boil.

Your rasam is ready. You could drink it as a soup or have it with plain rice.

Paal Payasam

This is an all time favourite of my lil one. He sometimes ask me whether I will make some surprise for him when gets back from school. And then he asks would that be "White Payasam". That is the surprise he likes & wants me to make :-) So white payasam is something I make often at home. So when I decided to start blogging again (atleat try starting again), I thought I would start with a dessert.

You will need the below ingredients to make Paal Payasam:

Broken Rice        - 1/2 cup
Milk                    - 4 cup
Condensed Milk  - 200gm (around 1/2 a tin)
Sugar                  - 1/4 cup
Ghee                   - 1 tbsp
Cashew Nuts      - a handful
Raisins                - a handful

1. Pressure cook rice with 2 cup milk, Sugar and wait for one whistle. You could cook rice without the cooker as well.
2. Add the rest of the milk and Condensed milk and keep stiring. Bring it to a boil and turn off the stove.
3. In another pan, heat ghee and fry raisins and cashews in it.
4. Garnish the payasam with this fried nuts and raisins.

And here is the end result:

If the payasam becomes too thick once it cools, add little more milk. It could be eaten cold or hot. I like it cold and my opinion is it taste better that way.
I hope I could post more of my experiments here and that I do not get into a hibernation mode again.