2015 Special|Kashi Halwa|Ash Gourd Halwa

    A sweet end to the year 2014 that started with karupatti paniyaram.A sweet start to the year 2015 with this kashi halwa ...I am sure this coming year will bring all the joy and all the goodness you want.I will post recipes with very good pictures,my new year resolution.What is your resolution for the new year?
      Lets get started with Kashi halwa Its a very popular dessert served in udupi-konkani marriages,recently i saw this recipe in samayal samayal when chef venkatesh bhat told he learned the recipe from chettinad palace.

Different names of ash gourd:
      Ash gourd is called by so many different names, for those who browse by the names "vellai poosani" in Tamil,"elavan or kumbalanga in Malayalam" ,"kumbalakkai" in kannada,"boodha gummidikkai" in Telugu.Don't guess this halwa is made only in kashi a city in benaras. kashi phal -in Hindi means ash gourd so this halwa is called kashi halwa.

Medicinal Benefits of ash gourd:
       Kashi phal has got 95 percent water content and high calcium content .Ash gourd is good for weight loss and it helps to maintain blood pressure as well.
What all  you can make with kashi phal:
         You can make arachuvitta sambhar, regular sambhar,moru curry or kootu with kashi phal..apart
from making this wonderful kashi halwa.
How to choose Pumpkin for kashi halwa:
             Ash gourd has to be heavy and also it should not be soft .that means its mature and its good for making halwa.If its soft there is a chance that you get very less ash gourd after filtering the water or it may get mushy while cooking.Texture of the halwa is very important..

Masala Dosa|Dosa Recipe

    Masala Dosa-A very famous dosa among Indians and in places where Indians live.Masala dosa is a south Indian speciality.Its a dosa with crispy outer layer and soft sweet and spicy potato filling inside..It is really easy to make masala dosa at home if you have idly-dosa batter.Dosa batter is readily available at Indian stores .If you can't make it at home, get some before you start making this dosa.Make potato masala, stuff them inside dosa  and enjoy.
    Key thing to note here is masala has to be little sweet compared to poori bhaji,so be careful not to add too much spice.I added carrot and red onion to make it sweet ,if you are short of carrots you can ad fresh or frozen peas to make the masala.Otherwise add some sugar to make the masala sweet .Dosa layer has to be crisp,to do so leave it tava/pan for some more time after the dosa is done.If its too much crisp it will spoil the masala dosa texture.Here is how to make masala dosa ?

Gujarati Kadhi|Side Dish For Roti

       Gujarati kadhi-is a yogurt based sweet and spicy curry with chickpea flour along with spices and tempered with ghee.Its an authentic Gujarati preparation served along with phulkhas,roti,kichdi etc.Even though there are varieties of kadhi's like Punjabi kadhi,rajathani kadhi.This Gujarati kadhi has it unique flavours and taste.If you have some leftover curd or at times when there is no vegetable available this Gujarati kadhi comes to rescue..
     My landlord is Gujarati and she makes many yummy Gujarati dishes, i never tried to make any of them..few days back when i wanted to make something with homemade curd which got little curdled not smooth, i thought about making this kadhi.This recipe is adapted from tarladalal but altered to our taste buds..
    This Gujarati kadhi is the base of any other kadhi recipe like kadhi pakora,kadhi bhindi,methi kadhi etc.This kadhi resembles few of the south Indian dishes like Moru curry a yogurt based curry
 with ground coconut and spices and a andhra yogurt curry menthi majjiga which is a tempered yogurt gravy.I love both these south Indian curries alike when it comes to rice. This Gujarati kadhi we had with methi thepla, its the best combo ever..If you want to have it for rice add more green chilies and avoid adding sugar to it.You should think of adding red chilies too while tempering.
   
Believe me its so tasty and will be ready in just 15-20 minutes.
 

How To Make Chocolate From Scratch|Homemade Milk Chocolate

What type of chocolate is this?  
     In this post I describe how to make milk chocolate using regular butter and cocoa powder.I used milk powder too to make it a milk chocolate. I used brown sugar so the chocolate tasted and looked like caramel. You can use regular sugar instead. Mine set after two days just when I thought I failed in my attempt to prepare chocolate. I made chocolate tofu pie using the chocolate. Reduce the water that goes in here to make it set early.You can also try grinding the dry milk to fine powder and follow this same procedure. I used carnation non-fat dairy milk powder.
 How to be careful, if it fails how to fix?
  Getting the single thread consistency of the sugar syrup is very important. Make sure you grease the plate for molding completely before adding the chocolate mixture. If you get runny chocolate don't panic make it set in refrigerator for few more hours or days.

Other methods of making chocolates :

     Some people use cocoa butter instead of regular butter for preparing chocolate(Cocoa butter is a butter made with cocoa beans). Chocolate can be prepared by grinding the cocoa beans too. But this seems to be bit long and complicated process.You can use cocoa powder only to prepare regular chocolate.You can also use milkmaid but the chocolate won't hold its shape(just roll them and dip in nuts and set in refrigerator).So my preference is this simple milk chocolate recipe.

How to do variation in this milk chocolate recipe?

• Add chopped nuts like cashews, badam/almonds
• Add cardamom powder.
• Add cinnamon powder.
• Add nutmeg powder.

HomeMade Dinner Rolls|Pav Recipe

 Homemade dinner rolls or pavs -is a bread used to make Indian street food vada pav.
         Lately, I am into baking bread ..My long time dream..I failed many attempts of wholewheat bread baking.But succeeded somehow my oven makes me think twice before I start the bread preparation.
     My little one was asking me for burgers, so I am determined to do it. I tried whole wheat burger buns, but not satisfied with the texture of it.This time, I thought I would do half by half ( half whole wheat and half all purpose).
      Pavs turned out to super soft and delicious without eggs and with 50 % goodness of wholewheat..I baked the buns in a circular plate that's why they are circular.If you use rectangle or square plate for baking, pav buns will be rectangle.
     The secret of making the soft and perfect bun is Knead until elastic, make them rest and rise.Bake them until brown ..Inspired from Vegrecipes.

Kara Kulambu|Kathirikai Puli Kulambu

   Kara Kulambu-This is a tamarind based gravy with coconut.Kara kulambu is the best alternate to poondu puli kulambu,Brinjal kulambu,paruppu urundai kulambu for rice.
   Kulambu is basically a south India accompaniment for rice and has so many variations like any other..This kathirikai Kara kulambu /puli kulambu is similar to enna kathirikai kulambu but the brinjalis not stuffed here..
    Even though i had many many post in draft this kulambu we licked latest (its that delicious) its so delicious i couldn't resist myself sharing with you all.
     This recipe is shared by my friends friend native of andhra.So i can say this kara kulambu is smiliar to vangaya pulusu/"vangayam" in telugu means brinjal ."pulusu" means tamarind.So i call it vengaya pulusu with coconut .
    For gravy thickening you can use any one of cashews,poppy seeds,coconut,bengal gram(kadala paruppu),roasted gram(pottu kadalai) .I used coconut ,poppy seeds and badam.Add more brinjals if you are fond of it.This time there is no step by step pics .Will update as soon as i do it next time.

Masala Pav Recipe|Mumbai Street Food

      Even though i did many guest post to my blogger friends ,this is the first time somebody is doing guest post in mykitchenodyssey..Something new and exciting right ?Because mykitchenodyssey is getting recipes other than admin (me priya).
    With the same excitement we can welcome our guest sooriya, who blogs at Delectable flavors. What a coincidence, we both share a common hometown (Karaikudi).Yes she got many chettinad recipes too really many non-veg recipes.. .I love all of them ..So if you are non-veg lover you sure can try some from her site.
    I  asked her for some non-veg recipe but ...She lost the final picture of the one she decided on ,so  no non-veg this time.Its been a long time since we committed to do guest post.so she shared this amazing masala pav instead.Now in her own words.

 Big hi to all the amazing readers of My Kitchen Odyssey!!!

I am Ree/ Sooriya Kasirajh from Delectable Flavours. I was so happy when priya requested me for a guest post, being an amateur blogger, such requests are a big happiness. So, I take the opportunity to thank priya for the guest post!!!

About My Kitchen Odyssey and Priya, its an amazing blog where you can find authentic recipes which are well explained with pictures and easy to follow even for a beginner. Priya is a very friendly person to interact with and I am very happy to have known her. Chit chatting over the past few days, I came to know she is very adjusting and helpful :)

Chocolate Banana Smoothie|Breakfast Smoothie

What is a smoothie?What is a milkshake ?What is the difference between smoothie and a milkshake?

•     Smoothie is a drink made  without ice cream or even without milk.Basically thick kind .
•     Milkshake is a drink made with milk ,ice cream or both.Milkshakes can be thin with or without fruit.

    I really had a hard time planning the title of this post.But finally i decided to go with smoothie.
     This smoothie i did for cooking secretly challenge started by priya suresh sis .This month my pair is sailaja reddy .She gave two wonderful ingredients ,Cocoa and banana..After hearing the ingredients i decided to do this smoothie ..Because drinks are rare happenings in mykitchenodyssey right ?
    I won't click and post smoothies and drinks which my daughter always demands.The ones i posted are strawnerry milkshake when strawberry is in season, lemon sharbath during summers,peach lassi when i buy peach.
   This is a skinny version ,you can very well add full fat milk and a very large banana and add more cocoa powder to make it more sweeter and thick smoothie.I personally don't like much sweet, so used less cocoa powder and no honey.Adding of peanut butter is optional.But it gives a nice touch to the smoothie.
     This is very filling smoothie.If you are in a hurry for a breakfast but forgot or don't have anything to cook .This smoothie is the best option.

Chocolate Pie|Tofu Chocolate Pie

            Chocolate pie -i actually came across this pie when i failed to make homemade chocolates.When i searched for chocolate recipes ,i found this heavenly chocolate pie recipe. This caught my attention ,because its very easy and very appealing. As usual i substituted with ingredients at hand and made a wonderful dessert.

   Pie is a baked Dish made of a pastry dough casing that covers or completely contains a filling of various sweet and savoury ingredients.This pie don't have a pastry, instead uses crackers as the base and indian cheese,chocolate and tofu puree as the filling.

*****This is not vegan or vegeterain pie it has eggs and indian cheese.

     This chocolate pie is mild sweet without any cream topping.When you eat it after a meal ,its just all you want.If you feel its less sweet you can melt some chocolate and top it.I did this later to please my daughter.  

For substitution :

• I used Marie biscuit for base ,you can use graham crackers or orea instead.
• I used yogurt .you can use cream cheese in  the original recipe as well .
• Use silken tofu.I used firm tofu so the pie has little texture problems.                     
  
  
  

       

Almond Cookies|Easy Cookie Recipe

        Almond cookie- Easy cookie recipe which is light sugary ,nutty,cardamom flavoured with no baking powder/ baking soda or no egg.You can pack and gift your friends and loved ones this cookie ,they get surprised if you say them i baked these almond cookies.If you want to bake a cookie from scratch without any ready made ingredients then this cookie is just for you.See the below points for any substitue .

Substitutions/Alterations:

• Can use almond flour instead of whole almonds.
• Can substitute whole wheat flour with all purpose flour.
• Can substitute butter with oil if you want a lesser saturated fat(but don't substitute with coconut oil ,this has larger saturated fats than butter).
• Can replace almond with other nuts like walnuts too.

If you are using a aluminium tray for baking this cookie then sure it will be ready in 10 minutes .If you use a thick pan then it will take 15 minutes for the almond cookies to be ready.

Looking for easy cookies? try

1. Lime cookies.
2. Peanut butter cookies.
3. oats cookies.

actual recipe is from here (altered).                                  

   

Coconut Chutney|Side Dish For Idli Dosa

         I do love fresh coconut in chutney's.Coconut gives a fantastic taste to pulov,Richness to sweets,desserts.Flavor to stir fries.This simple coconut chutney taste great with freshly grated coconut.People who don't have fresh coconut can use frozen coconut kept in refrigerator the day before.
      I usually do tomato chutney,carrot chutney,bell pepper chutney,Mint-coriander chutney for breakfast.When i am bored of these regular chutney's i do this coconut chutney -easy and tasty chutney ever.You can skip red chili to tempering if the chutney is too hot.You can skip garlic too.But it gives a nice aroma and taste to the chutney.
     In hotels of tamilnadu you can taste a sweet version of this chutney.They don't add roasted gram to the chutney.With fresh coconut and with chilies the coconut chutney is just mind blowing.

EggLess Cake|Whole Wheat Cake

     Its Christmas time and everybody is cooking Christmas cake, i cooked this simple Whole wheat cake instead.This is a egg less and less sugar cake.If you are a sugar lover then you can add a glaze of sugar and vanilla over the top to give a perfect sugary look.I referred priyas blog to make this Egg less whole wheat cake.
      I don't do much cakes. If i make one I want to give some healthy twist.So i haven't added any sugar glaze to this whole wheat cake.If you are beginner to baking, then you can refer my post basic for beginners.This post gives a perfect start for anyone new in baking cookies and cakes.
 My cakes will be strange like Cheerios avocado cake.But some times i make it simple like Banana oats muffin,
     If you want a simple Christmas cake without no further preparation then you can see my Christmas cake recipe.If you are a fruit lover then there is a Strawberry cake made using fresh strawberry puree.
  All the cakes i do have less sugar keeping in mind sugar will increase the calories intake and not at all good taken regularly.But once in a while to celebrate a fantastic birthday or to enjoy a party you can always add little more sugar ,glaze or frosting to your cakes
    This cake stay good for 2-3 days if stored properly.

Ragi Idli|Ragi Flour Recipe

There is a lot to talk about this ragi idli.

1. Its very healthy one .I hear you!!! you are saying,"i know ".But its more than what do you think .This ragi idli is made with ragi flour and urad dal ,there is no rice.
2. No need to clean,soak and grind ragi.You can simply use ragi flour.
3. You can grind the urad dal with a Indian mixer.Even blender works.

       You can make 14 ragi idlies with the mentioned quantity.This is not a instant idli ,you have to ferment the batter .If you want a instant one you can follow the same procedure like making  rava idli.Add curd and rava to ragi and make idlies out of it.But what ever method you do.Don't forget to eat them hot.

Kara Pori|Puffed Rice Recipe

Kara Pori 

    A spicy puffed rice recipe made as a evening snack.This puffed rice is favourite for lord muruga ,the star of "karthigai deepam".This festive falls on Tamil month "karthigai" ,the month lord muruga was born. Muruga ,the most beautiful god.In Tamil "murugu" means beautiful. There is a belief that 6 kid's(muruga's) were born(have seen it in a Tamil movie).So 6 is the number favourite to muruga. In Tamilnadu you can see 6 famous muruga shrines 

1. Thiruthani-Muruga married Valli here.
2. Swami malai-Lord muruga teaches meaning of om to lord Shiva
3. Thiruparamkundram-Muruga married deivanai here.
4. Thiruchendur-Muruga fought against soorapadma here.
5. Palani-Muruga stayed here after he fought with his family for a divine fruit.
6. PalamudirCholai-Muruga stays with his two wife's Valli and deivanai  here.

 I know 4 of the temples ,yet to visit 2 more .
    Now to the puffed rice recipe.I usually do Masala peanuts or poha chivda for evening snack if my dearies are hungry.These 2 are easy to make,But Kara Pori is the easiest of all of the snack.My grandma do this kara pori and pori urundai for karthigai deepam.I failed to make pori urundai this time.So at least i do this Kara pori for lord muruga.

    This kara pori is very simple even an amateur cook can do it.I haven't added peanuts(kadalai),Roasted gram(pottukadalai),curry leaves(karuvepilai).If you wish you can very well add before adding the masala.Roast both of them until they change colour.

    Instead of adding chili powder you can add mor milagai .To enjoy crunchy kara pori just roast  puffed rice(pori separate) 2 -3 minutes before adding to the masala.You can add some veggies,onion to make it masala pori too.

Arachuvitta Sambar|Sambar Recipe

    Arachuvitta sambar is a sambar made with freshly ground masala.This makes the sambar more aromatic and very different than regular sambar.This sambar is a boon for those who don't have sambar powder in hand.Restaurants will do this type of sambar to save lentils.This sambar is exactly brahmin style with no onions or garlic and is useful for fasting days.
   In South India people have a daily routine of making sambar. In my family eating sambar daily is a big no no. So i try to do rasam,dal,poondu kulambu,mor kulambu as variation. Sometimes I make variety rice like curd rice,bisibelabath,chickpeas rice to break the monotony. But the want for different tastes will not subside.
   I love iyengar style sambar very much. Its slightly tangy and slightly sweet, but rich and thick with extra dal. You can eat it with rice,idli,dosa or any breakfast item.
     When I saw this recipe in snehas site something clicked and I added some extra dal to my regular arachuvitta sambar and voila the result was super yummy ..
     I haven't added onion or tomato to this sambar feel free to add it .You can use ash gourd or bottle gourd instead of bell pepper.You can use little ghee to make it more rich. I added sambar powder for extra taste .You can omit it and add one more red chili instead.