Kerala Special Chakka Ilayappam

Kerala Special Ilayappam

Ilayappam is a traditional South Indian Delicacy.  Its made with rice flour with a sweet filling steamed wrapped in leaves. Mostly Jaggery, coconut, cardamom & Jackfruit  are used to make fillings. And leaves with medicinal vaues are used for wrapping the ilayappam...we use Banana leaves, Jackfruit leaves, Indian Bay leaves (Therali), Poriyani ila (Macaranga peltata), Seelanthi leaf (Pacific rosewood) to make ilayappam. All these leaves have medicinal values & a unique aroma which makes this dish much special.

For my ilayappam I used Walnuttree leaves & turmeric leaves. Turmeric leaves are already used in Asian Cuisine, if cooked they smell just like Turmeric. Walnuts leaves has got a special aroma resembling that of Indian Bay leaves. Its been used for making Tea here. I used them for a couple of times by now...happy that I found them😊

There is one more alternative to the recipe. Instead of using Rice flour you can use whole wheat flour (Gothambu maavu). The appam will be more softer than the normal ones.

Instead of using Jackfruit you can also use small bananas .

So here goes my Recipe

Things needed : (For 15 pieces)

Rice flour - 2 cups   

Jaggery - 1/2 cup + 1/2 cup or as per need  

Grated coconut -  1/2 cup

Jackfruit - 1 cup chopped small

Cardamom powder - 2 tsp

Ghee/Oil 

A pinch of salt 

Preparation Method:

1) Preparing Rice Dough:

Take Rice flour in a deep bowl. Add 1 tsp cardamom, a pinch of salt  and 1/2 cup grated Jaggery to it.

Boil water in a vessel. Mix in this water to the Rice mixture. Pay attension to add enough amount of water (not too much or not too less  :)  ). 

Mix uniformly.  Set aside the prepared dough and keep it covered. 

2) Jaggery filling:

Take a bowl. Combine chopped Jackfruits, 1/2 cup Jaggery, 1/2 cup grated coconut & 1 tsp cardamom powder .

3) Leaves : 

Wash & drain the leaves ..here in my case I used Walnutleaves & Turmeric leaves.

 Dry them with a towel. 

Apply some oil to inner greeny side of the leaves using hand

4) Preparing the Appam: 

Take a leaf. Place 2 spoonful dough on the leave and spread the dough evenly using your finger tips.

Place 2 tbsp filling mixture on the flattened dough and spread like in picture.

Fold the leaf  in the middle. Seal the edge sides by pressing the dough.

Do similarly also with other leaves.

Place the leaves on a Steam cooker and steam it for 20 min. until done.

                                                                                                                                                                

Indian Trip

One of the good things which happened last year was my visit to India.

Mom recieved me.

Like always  she got me a plateful of banana fritters with a warm cup of tea as i reached home.

I love banana fritters made by mom. This type of banana is rare to find at the place where i am settled. So whenever i goes back my home in india i used to have it as my breakfast, after lunch snack, evening snack and dessert after dinner :)

No matter how many cakes you bake and eat

 nothing can beat the taste of sadya served on banana leaf.

 Even if i make it sometimes of my own, i won't get banana leaves like in India. 

we both made steamed Jackfruit ilayappam at home. 

We used this time Banana leaf, Poriyani leaves, Cashew leaves and Bay leaves.

Got some Jasmin and lotus flowers like always 😍

Happy Onam !!!

The most celebrated festival of Malayalees..🌺🌺

This time it was on Weekdays. 

As we didn't had Holidays here waited patiently till weekend for the celebrations. 

Today / Saturday morning entered Kitchen and started cooking the dishes one after the other. 

In the end husband was kind of amazed and started asking when am I going to stop. 

Cooking for sadya is such pleasing experience.

My Sadya included these dishes this time . 

Going to type down the Recipes as soon i get some time.

3 pachadis/Raitas,

Cucumber Raita (salt)

Betroot Raita (sweet)

Bittergourd Raita (bitter)

Cabbage-Carrot  Thoran 

Mango pulisseri 

Aviyal

Pumbkin Erusseri

Koottu curry

Sambar

Rasam

Pappadam

Vermicelli Payasam

Kadala parippu Payasam

Banana

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Coconut mix for all curries:

For almost all of the recipes we will be needing this. Grind around 3 cups of coconut adding 3 tsp Cumin powder,  1 sp chopped garlic  and set aside.

Tempering for all curries :

Pour half cup oil in a frying pan, splutter 3 sp mustard seeds, fry some dry chillies (around 6 ) & curry leaves. 

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3 pachadis/Raitas,

Marinate 2 cup of sliced bitter gourd with 1 tsp salt, 2 tsp chilly, ½ tsp turmeric and set aside for frying.

Peel and cut cucumber in small cubes (around 2 cups). Add 1 tsp salt, half cup water and allow to cook closed.

Peel and cut beetroot and allow to cook closed adding salt, 1tsp chilly powder and some water .

Meanwhile heat oil in a deep frying pan. Fry the bittergourd pieces till they turn light brown. Drain them with a tissue paper when they are done.

Add  around ¾ cup of coconut mix to the cooked cucumber . And cook covered for 5 min . Set aside to cool down.

Grind the cooked beetroot add  around ¾ cup coconut to this. Cook covered for 5 min.

Add around ¾ cup coconut mix to cooked cucumber. Cook covered for 5 min.

Add 1 cup jogurt to each of the raitas . 

Mix well . Add 1 full spoon of tempering to each of the recipes.

The Pachadis are ready .

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Kerala Mixture - Weekend fun

Kerala Mixture

Mixture is spicy crispy tea time snack and 

one of the most sought out snacks in Kerala.

Ingredients are very simple. 

With very less effort you can make it  at home.

Its great to have them with a cup of tea. So here's the Recipe. 

Happy Sunday ;) !!!  

Things needed

Gram flour/Chickpea flour - 3 cup

Chilly powder - 4 tbsp chilly powder

Asafoetida 

Turmeric 

Curry leaves - a bunch

Split Chana dal - 1 cup

Raw peanuts with skin - 2 cup

Garlic - around 6 pods

Oil to fry

Preparation method

1. Fry currey leaves till crispy and set aside

2. Fry Peanuts till light brown and set aside.

3. Fry crushed garlic in oil till golden brown.

4. Fry split Chana dal till light brown and set aside.

5. To make Sev

Take 2 cups of Gram flour

Add 2 tsp salt

2 spoon chilly powder (according to taste)

1 tsp turmeric

Mix to make smooth dough. Set aside.

Heat oil in a deep fry pan.

Fill the dough in an Idiyappam mould. Use the same thin hole disc that you use for Idiyappam.

Press it into the hot oil in a circular motion. Fry till golden brown. Turn it once in between.

Drain it on a kitchen towel and set aside.

When its cooled crush the sev gently with hands. Set aside.

6. To make Boondhi

Mix 1 cup gram flour

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp chilly powder (according to taste)

Mix to make a smooth dosa like batter.

Hold a sieve slotted spatula on top of the hot oil.

Pour the batter over the spatula and let it drop it into the oil.

You can apply even pressure using the back of a spoon to ease the process.

Fry till golden brown.

Drain it on a kitchen towel and set aside.

7. Finally in a deep pan heat 1 tsp oil. Add 2 pinch Asafoetida.

Add 1 tbsp chilly powder. Mix in all ingredients together to make mixture.

All the spices should be evenly distributed.

Rice Dumplings

RICE DUMPLINGS

Rice Dumplings make a healthier Breakfast and mom used to make it often back home.

I have been making it often recently .

  My in laws asked me atleast 5 times why i dont add fenugreek seeds because in their region they used to. 

Sooooo I added this time some fenugreek seeds...
it has a nice aroma n tasting yummy ..

THINGS NEEDED:

Rice flour - 1 1/2 cups

Coconut milk - 1/2 can

Fenugreek seeds

Salt

PREPARATION METHOD:

Dry mix rice flour, 1 tsp salt, 2 tsp fenugreek seeds

Boil around 3 cups of water .  Add around 2 cups to the flour and mix well using a Spatula. 

The flour will get cooked nicely. It should be thick enough to make balls .

In a bottom thick pot, boil water.  Add the rice balls to this.

Mix in coconut milk . 1 tsp salt if needed.

Cook for 20 mins. 

Weekend Cooking - Parippu curry with rice

Rice with Parippu curry, thoran, fish fry, Pickle and pappadam

Its Sunday Morning! 

After sending my son to Church with his father entered the Kitchen.

 We had absolutely no food, refrigenerator was empty as well . 

So I started, washed rice and set it up to cook in a deep pot. Washed roasted dal and add some turmeric and salt set it to cook in a pressure cooker. 

Let the frozen fish sink in warm water ..

Chopped some long beans , onions and fried it .

Ground some coconut with jeera and garlic, took one sportion for thoran 

and another for parippu curry. 

Fried papadam. Marinated the fish with chilly powder salt and some tamarind i took for dal curry. Fried them as well with tonns of curry leaves . 

Drained rice and I am done.

After craving for a long week for some rice and curry , it was rather a treat.

Cooking is fun , so do eating . Guten Apetit ;)