Sweet beginnings - Ada Pradhaman

அனைவருக்கும் என் மனம்கனிந்த தமிழ்ப்புத்தாண்டு நல்வாழ்த்துக்கள்.

നവ വര്ഷ ആശംസഗള്

Hearty Tamil New Year and Vishu wishes to all of you


Tamil and Malayalam New Year was celebrated over the weekend. Most people mistake me for being from Palakkad (a city bordering Kerala and Tamil Nadu) - let me clear that misconception right away. I was born in Chennai, but grew up in Trivandrum, so in that sense I'm what people would call - a 'pseudo-mallu'. My love for all things Mallu and Kerala include but are not limited to - the land, the people, the language, the music, movies and the aviyal :P

On Saturday, a few of the Malayalee students at Tech got together for a Vishu celebration - with an elaborate sadhya (special meal) and an adipoli movie. Here's what was on the menu - parippu, sambhar, aviyal, erisheri, pulisheri, kootukari, kichadi, 2 types of thoran, 4 types of payasams (paal payasam, parippu payasam, semiya payasam and ada pradhaman), complete with boiled rosematta rice (kuthari), pappadam, upperi and pazham! You can imagine what a heavy meal it must've been. The only thing missing was the banana leaf!

I generally do not cook much of the typical mallu fare at home, with the exception of aviyal (I could just eat bowls of aviyal by itself for all meals of the day all week....u get the point!!). So for a potluck, the safe bet would have to be a payasam - yet I wanted to try something different. Hence the highhhhh calorie ada pradhaman (you can make exceptions on festive occassions)

Here's how I prepared the exotic, yet simple Ada Pradhaman (to serve 20 ppl)

1. Make a trip to the nearest mallu grocery - India Bazaar some 14 miles away to get ada (not all indian groceries carry the ready to cook ada), 750 gm of jaggery and a couple of cans of coconut milk - thick milk and light.
2. Get ready other ingredients - broken cashews (20 pcs), small bite size chunks of coconut, ghee, powdered cardamom, 2 tsp of rice flour.
3. Cook the ada in a pot of boiling water for about 20 minutes. Be sure to stir, so that the ada do not stick to each other. The ada is nothing but dried thick rice sheets cut into small squares. There are recipes online explaining the process of making ada from scratch, but if available, the ready to cook ones make life much easier.
4. Once cooked, drain the ada and run under cold water, to prevent sticking together.
5. In a separate saucepan, melt the jaggery under low heat by adding a tablespoon of water. Once melted, take care to leave the heavy residue from the jaggery behind or strain it before adding it to a heavy bottom pan with the cooked ada. Stir till well combined.
6. Now add ½tsp of cardamom powder to the mixture, followed by a can of thick coconut milk.
7. Add rice flour to the can of light coconut milk till well combined. This is the thickening agent for the pradhaman. Add this mixture 5 minutes after adding the thick coconut milk.
8. Now garnish with cashews and small coconut chunks fried in ghee. Be liberal with the ghee ;o) and add it to the payasam after using it to fry.
9. The payasam should be a semi-liquid consistency and ready to be devoured! *slurp

Oh yes... when the ada is cooking, make a quick call to amma to double confirm the recipe and get some lifesaver tips - like adding the rice flour to the coconut milk and adding coconut chunks! The payasam was pretty good and I was left with just a cupful for the blog photos. Every single dish that afternoon was perfect - maybe I should've taken some pictures. Oh well....there's always Onam!

Stir-fried Bok Choy with Cashews

There's a reason I've not been posting much over the past few months - I've hardly been cooking. K's not in town, and I don't really enjoy cooking for one! I've been surviving on quick sandwiches, veggie burgers and even cereal quite a few evenings :P
K on the other hand has been cooking a lot where he is, and even claims he's become the stir-fry expert - thanks to some good training from his new friend Hon.

Here's one stir-fry trick we've learnt from Hon - to add the flavoring sauces when the oil is hot before adding the veggies - your dish gets as close to the chinese takeouts as possible without the gazillion calories* (Read this CNN article if you haven't seen it already!)

Here's an easy recipe I created for a perfect one person meal. This is my entry for 'Jihva for Ingredients'' - JFI-WBB: Greens hosted by Indira of Mahanandi.

STIR FRIED BOK CHOY WITH CASHEWS

Ingredients:

Bok Choy - 3-4 stems
Button Mushroom - 2 sliced
Onion - ¼ sliced
Garlic - 2 pods chopped
Cashews - 10 pieces
Soya sauce - 1-2 tsp
Oyster flavored sauce*/hoisin sauce - 1 tsp
Red Chili paste/ Sambal Bajak
Sugar - ½ tsp
Sesame oil 1½ tsp
Sesame seeds for garnishing
Corn starch - ½-¾ tsp

*Made from oyster mushrooms

Method:
1) Seperate the leaflets of the Bok Choy and wash thoroughly.
2) Add sesame oil to a hot wok and once it starts smoking, add the garlic and the onions
3) Now add the soya sauce, oyster flavored sauce and the chili paste.
Add sugar to this and let it caramelize the onions
4) Add the bok choy and sliced mushrooms and stir-fry to coat and cook down
5) Now add the cashews and sprinkle ¼ of water mixed with corn starch to get the glazed consistency.
6) Garnish with sesame seeds and enjoy with steamed white rice!






















Bok choy stir-fry served with white rice

Spring's here - so am I

After what seems like an eternally long winter, finally its spring time. After almost 2 months of hibernation, I'm back! Thanks to all of you who've continued to visit the site and give me your feeback and support.

* I LOVE SPRING*

To some of my friends who ask me - what seasons do you have in Singapore - I often reply we have two seasons - HOT and humid and very hot and very humid! Naturally the change of seasons is something that I find very festive. Like most people, spring's got to be my most favorite of the seasons. I'm facinated by the way everything and everyone comes alive during spring. The chirping of the birds, the droplets of dew floating on the fresh green leaves early in the morning, the cool spring breeze, the longer daytime...I could go on! In short, I'm just visibly happier in Spring What do you like most about spring? - I'd love to hear from you guys.


Atlanta's at its prettiest in Spring followed closely by Fall. A few photographs of the Gatech campus in early spring. Enjoy~