Thengai Sadam || Coconut Rice || தேங்காய் சாதம்

What else can you do with rice that is simple and quick besides fried rice.  Today I made Thengai Sadam, ie loosely translated Coconut Rice @ தேங்காய் சாதம்.

This is one of the many rice varieties that you can prepare.  It is simple and quick.  The sweetness from the freshly grated coconut, the crunchiness that you get from the cashew nuts and channa dhal (split bengal gram) and the little heat of the green chillies is awesome.  I pair the rice with some homemade beetroot chips and onion raita.  Honestly it is good as it is, no side dish is required.

Tips

Try using freshly grated coconut to get the best of this dish.

I also used coconut oil for tempering though you may use any vegetable oil if you wish.  

I used left over parboiled rice.  You can also use long grain rice.  Be sure to cool down and loosen the grains so that it does not clump together.  

Dont skip the ginger as they give a nice aroma.  Try those young ginger.  

Thengai Sadam||Coconut Rice ||தேங்காய் சாதம்.

Servings : 2 -3 persons

Ingredients

1 cup of freshly grated coconut

1.5 bowl of  cooked rice

3/4tsp of mustard seeeds

2 tsp of channa dhal (split bengal gram)

1 tsp of urad dhall

1 sprig of curry leaves

2 green chilly - adjust to your heat requirement

10-12 cashew nuts - halved - adjust to your requirement

1 tsp of sliced ginger

3 tbs of coconut oil

Method

 

1.  Heat a wok or pan and coconut oil on a medium fire.

2.  Once the coconut oil and add mustard seeds,channa dhal and urad dhall.  

3.  Mix for a few minutes. Add in curry leaves, ginger, cashew and chilly.

4.  Keep stirring for about 3-4 mins ensuring not to burnt the any.

5.  Add in fresh coconut, mix well and stir every now.  Dont let the coconut turn colour or burnt.

6.  Add in the rice, mix well and salt to taste.

7.  Coconut rice is ready to be served with raita or chips.  Serve warm.

Thengai Sadam with onion raita

Birthday Mania...Carrot Rice, Oreos No Bake Cheese Cake & Snowy Cheese Cake

After a gap of 2 months for summer holidays, we are continuing the tradition of celebrating birthdays again.  This time I decided to bake too for the celebration.  

I thought for a change have a cheezy month - Oreos No Bake Cheese Cake, Snowy Cheese Cake and Strawberry Cheese Cake.  Yes it is cheese mania month...The first 2 cake turn out very well but was not so successful of strawberry cheese cake.  Need to CSI further where I went wrong..

I also made Carrot Rice for my part of the pot luck.  My sister and her husband made this carrot rice when we visited them during our holidays.  It has this nice orangy yellowish colour to it - no additional colours required.  Sort of ghee rice.

Thank you Gowri and Guna for sharing the recipe

Carrot Rice
Courtesy of Gowri & Guna

Ingredients
4 cups of basmathi rice ( or any long grain rice) - washed and soaked for 10 mins, the drain
6 cups of water (inclusive of the carrot juice)
2 cups of grated carrot - squeezed the juice but don't discard
1 big onion - sliced
2tbs of ginger garlic paste
1 bay leaves
2  cinnamon stick - break into 2 or 3
2-3 cloves
2-3 star anise
2 green chillies - slit lengthwise
2 tbs heap of ghee (you can use oil or even butter)
salt to taste

How to prepare
1.  Wash and soak rice for about 10 mins, then drain
2.  Grate carrot, squeeze out the juice.  Keep the juice
3.  Heat ghee and when hot, sauté bay leaves, cinnamon stick, cloves, start anise till aromatic.
4.  Next add in onions and sauté till soft and pink. Add in the chillies too and sauté for a few more minutes.
5.  Put in the grated carrot and salt and sauté for 2-3 minutes.
6.  Add in the rice, stir well and fry for another 2 -3 minutes.
7.  Pour in the water and the juice of the carrot. stir well, and bring water/rice to slow boil
8.  As soon the water/rice starts to boil, cover the pot and cook on medium flame till all water has been absorbed.  Turn off the heat and let the rice sit for 5minutes.
9.  Use a fork to get fluffy rice and it is ready to serve.

Note
Basmati rice is a type of aromatic rice that originates from India, has an elongated grain and a unique flavor. It cooks in less time and with less effort than long grain white rice, and you won’t need a rice cooker to get it right. The finished product looks slightly different than long grain rice, but it is unlikely your guests will know the difference until they taste the flavor -- which is sure to delight their senses.

Read more: http://www.ehow.com/how_2159533_cook-basmati-rice.html#ixzz2hyzMSGsR

Basic rule of cooking basmathi is 1cup of rice to 1½cups of water.

Hope you enjoy just like we did...

Divali Day and the Food

Happy (belated) Divali to all my Hindu readers...

The celebration started with the day before, preparing the next days menu...Chicken Dalca, Mutton Perathal, Chicken Masala and Jeera Rice.  Eve of Divali lighted up tea candle lights instead the usual earthen lamp and oil. Needed the use up the tea candle lights (trying to figure up why I got them in the first place...)

The only food that I managed to take pictures was of Idli...Family photographer on school trip...The recipe for Idli is the same as Thosei...It is steamed  with a special mould and steamer, normally for a 15 mins depending on the size of your mould.  Remove the idli from the mould with a spoon and serve.

Dalca is combination of meat and lentils with some vegetables and curry powder with sambar powder.  Tradionally it is cooked with mutton, I changed it to chicken as my hubby and kids are less fond of mutton.   I added drumstick, the fruity part of Muringa Tree and eggplants

Chicken Dalca

What you need..

2 cups of toor dhal
2 tbs of ginger garlic paste
1 1/2 tsp of tumeric powder
2 eggplant - quarter
2 long drumstick - cut into bite size.
1 big tomato - quartered
1 bowl of chicken pieces - preferable the one with bones.
1 big onion - sliced finely
2 sprig of curry leaves
1 green chilly-slit lengthwise
2 tbs of chicken masala powder
1 tbs of sambar powder
*2 cardamon
*1 tsp cumin
*1 tsp fennel
*1 cinnamon
*3-4 cloves
*3-4 aniseed
*1 bay leave
chopped coriander and or mint

p/s : you can add potatoes, carrots, long beans if you wish.

How to do...

• Wash and pressure cooker the dhall with ginger garlic paste and tumeric powder and tomato.
• When the dhall is cooked add in green chilly,eggplants, chicken meat and drumstick and any other vegetables that you like.
• Once the vegetables are cooked, add curry powder and sambar powder and salt to taste
• In different wok/pan, heat oil and saute all marked * till aromatic, add in onions and curry leaves, bay leaves.  Fry till the onions are soft.
• Pour into the dhall, stir well  and let it boil for a few more minutes.  Remove from fire and add coarsely chopped  mint/coriander.
• Serve with rice, thosei, idli or chapatis/puris.

Sri Lankan Porridge

I fell in love with this dish the first time I tried them and all thanks to my colleague at school, Mrs Fathima.   She shared this lovely dish for our morning break...

Now this is the interesting part of working in a multi cultural environment - you get to try many different dishes.  It has whole wheat, rice and everyday indian spices.  On the way back from school, I got to grocery and looked for hareesh - its Qatari for whole wheat...gosh this is the first time I am venturing into this wheat...

Did I try the recipe immediately, nope I did not get to try them immediately - it was a few days later that I actually made them.  Lets look at the ingredients and get fancy.

Ingredients

I cup of whole wheat
1/2 cup of basmati rice
1tsp garlic ginger paste
1 tomato - diced
2 chicken cube
1/2 a chicken - chopped small (I used chicken thighs)
2 carrots - diced
spring onions - chopped
1 tsp fenugreek
1 sprig of curry leaves
1 cup coconut milk/milk
salt to taste

* dry roast the following spices and grind to powder - dry chilly, cardamon, cinnamon, cumin, pepper corn.

Wash and soak overnight whole wheat.  Next boil with rice, remove froth, till soft, add the rest except the grinded powder.  cook till all well mushy and soft and thick...add salt and dry roast spices and milk, cook till well.

Hainanese Chicken Rice

Chicken Rice an all time favourite of Malaysians.  This is a recipe shared by my online friend, a fellow Malaysian residing in US.  I have used her recipe many times and it never fails me.

Lets look at the recipe.
Source : Wan Noor Baya Wan Chik – ResipiNet



For the rice


3 cups long grain rice
2 tablespoons chicken fat, with skin (I know..but it makes the rice taste really good)
2 tablespoons water
2-3 cm ginger, grated
3-4 garlic cloves, grated
1-2 teaspoon salt (to taste)
3 1/2 cups chicken stock, according to rice package instructions (or more, reserved from chicken that you will boil)
2 screwpine leaves (optional..it will make the rice more fragrant)


Hainanese chicken


1 whole chicken
water, enough for boiling chicken
1 piece thumb sized ginger, smashed
4-5 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed slightly
1 teaspoon salt


Chilli garlic sauce for dipping


10 fresh red chilies
2 cm piece ginger
4 garlic cloves
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon lime juice
2 tablespoons chicken stock (from the boiled chicken. This stock is essential for the chilli sauce)


Ginger sauce for dipping


75 g ginger
6 garlic cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon lime juice
2 tablespoons chicken stock (again stock from the boiled chicken)


Sauce for chicken


1 tablespoon garlic oil (you can shallow fry the garlic in oil and reserved the oil)
1 teaspoon sesame oil
5 tablespoons light soya sauce
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar (to taste)
3 tablespoons chicken broth (from boiled chicken)


Garnishing


fresh coriander leaves
sliced spring onions
sliced cucumbers


How to cook.

First of all wash the rice then place it on to a tea towel or colander to dry.

Then, prepare the chicken. Bring enough water to boil in a large pot. Once boil, add in the salt, ginger, garlic and chicken.

Lower the heat and cook chicken for about 20 - 25 minutes, uncovered. It is very important to boil the chicken very slowly over low flame. Turn off flame and cover the pot.

Allow the chicken to steep inside for another 20-25 minutes. Remove chicken and immerse it into a basin of cold water for 5-6 minutes.

Take chicken out and drain in a colander to drip dry before cutting it into serving pieces

While the chicken is drip drying, prepare the rice. Heat up wok and add in the chicken fat and water.

Bring to a low simmering boil until oil is released from the fat. Add in the ginger and garlic and fry well (without burning the garlic) Remove and discard the chicken fat and skin.

Add in the rice that has been dried and salt and stir fry briskly about 1 - 2 minutes. Transfer rice into an electric rice cooker or pot.

Add in the chicken broth from the boiled chicken together with the screw pine leaves if using. If cooking in a pot, cook over low flame stirring occasionally so as not to let the bottom of the rice burn. Boil until rice is cook.


While the rice is cooking, you can prepare the chili garlic sauce. Just add all ingredients into a blender or food processor, and give it a good whizz, until ingredients are well blended.

Adjust the seasoning with more salt or sugar to taste. The chili garlic sauce can be kept in the refrigerator for about 2-3 days only.

To prepare the ginger sauce is the same give the ingredients a good whiz in the blender. What gives the extra oomph for the sauces is the stock from the chicken broth -- so, do not omit this ingredient.


Lastly combine all the ingredients for the chicken sauce and pour it all over the cut up chicken. You can add more soya sauce and chicken broth to the chicken if you prefer. Just adjust the taste of the sauce with soya sauce and chicken broth.

If you do not have garlic oil, you can fry a few cloves of garlic in oil for few minutes then take out oil and garlic pour it into a jar, and let the garlic steep inside the oil.


Finally, garnish the chicken with the coriander leaves, spring onions and cucumbers.


Enjoy meal with the rice and dipping sauces!

Takkali Sadam @ Tomato Rice

Takkali Sadam (Tomato Rice)
source : my mum

Takkali Sadam - Takkali being tomato and Sadam is rice in Tamil.  When my mum mention that she prepared this rice, I was interested to find out more. 

You see this is not the typical tomato rice which has tomato puree/paste, evaporated milk, cinnamon etc. It is simple and quite a dish by itself.  You can have it with any type of raita.  I had mine with Chicken Yogurt Masala.  Lets look on how to prepare Takkali Sadam.

What You Need
2 cups of basmathi (or any long grain rice)
3 cups of water
2-3 tomatoes - cut small (I used cherry tomatoes)
15 shallots - sliced
2 cloves of garlic
1 inch of garlic
1 green chilly

How to Prepare:

1. Wash and soak rice for 20mins.
2. In a wok, heat oil.  Saute onions, garlic, garlic and ginger till the onions are soft.
3. Add in tomatoes and saute further till the tomatoes are soft.
4. Remove from heat, cool and blend into a paste. 
5. In a rice cooker, add in the rice, mix the tomato mixture and salt, mix well. Cook

Note : the amount of water depends on the rice used.

Amma's Briani Rice

I have not been updating for sometime although did try out a few dishes. Now that we are settled again in Doha, so it is time to update my blog again. Just before leaving Malaysia had a feast of food at my mum's. She made her special Briyani Rice and Chicken Varuval ie Dry Masala Chicken. I add on with 2 new dishes tried out from a recipe book which my hubby got it for me after our wedding.... I have tried a few of them which I will share later on. Now let us feast on the recipes....

Amma’s Briyani Rice

8 cups of basmathi rice or long grain rice
1 cup of evaporated milk
6 cups of water
A handful of cashew nuts – halved
A handful of raisins
A handful of rock sugar
Salt to season
2 large onions – chopped finely
2 tbs of ghee
2 cinnamons
2 star aniseeds
2 cardamoms
2 bay leafs

Method
1. Wash rice and soak for at least 1 hour. Drain dry.
2. Heat ghee in a wok. Once melted, sauté cinnamon, star aniseeds, cardamoms and bay leafs for a few minutes.
3. Next sauté onions till translucent and soft.
4. Fry cashew nuts about 1-2minutes, add raisins, stir fry for a more seconds, add rice and mix well.
5. In a rice cooker, boil both evaporated milk and water together with rock sugar and salt. Once boiling, add rice mixture into the water and cook till is done.
6. You may garnish with mint leaves and chopped coriander leaves.

note : water ratio should be based on the type of rice used. adjust accordingly.