Happy Ganesh Chathurthi !!!

This blog post is quite a special one cos it holds my celebration recipes of Ganesh Chathurthi...Ganesha has always been my favorite for sweet unknown reasons :) Thou my before-marriage times of Ganesh Chathurthi with my family at home sweet home are always a memorable ocassion...I've never been able to celebrate this occasion all by myself since I got married n settled in US...So this is officially ;) my first Ganesh Chathurthi in US...Hope I did my best n gave full justice to my love towards lord Ganesha..

The day started with me rising up early...whoo, wasnt tat really special...n tat too the reason being ..TO COOK :D The dishes I had planned to prepare for the pooja were Kolukattai (both sweet n spicy)...sundal and also sweet pori...Since itz my first try making kolukattai, I had no idea how long it was going to take me to prepare 'em...To get all the boost i needed, wat else did I need than a small talk to my mom in india :) yeah, gave her a call, confirmed the recipes once again n then "shoot-it" :)

The dishes turned out much much better than I expected...So with full guarantee here comes the recipes for 'em...

SPICY KOLUKATTAI:

Ingredients:

• Idli rice - 2 cups
• oil - 1 tbsp
• Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
• Channa Dhal - 1 tsp
• Urad Dhal - 1 tsp
• Onion - 1/2 of medium
• Curry leaves - as req
• Green chillies or dry red chillies - 2 or 3

Preparation:

Soak Idli rice in water overnight. Grind it adding very less water.

In a wide kadai(pan), add oil + mustard seeds + curry leaves + green or red chillies + onion + channa dhal + urad dhal + salt and saute till the onion becomes translucent. Then add the ground idli rice batter to this and keep stirring it well till it becomes like a ball. It should round up to an almost ball consistency(similar to the chapathi dough consistency). Then switch off the flame.

When it slightly hot, make round balls out of the dough and press it with ur fingers to make it into kolukattai shape or you can also make it to any shape of ur choice.

Spicy Kolukkatis are ready !!!

I have already blogged my sundal recipe... and for Sweet Kolukattai recipe, check here .

So tatz it...Happy Vinayaka Chathurthi to all !!!

Sweet kolukattai

Ingredients:

• Channa Dhal - cooked for 3 whistles - 1/2 cup
• Grated coconut - dry roasted - 1/4 cup
• Well mashed jaggery - 1/2 cup
• cardamom pdr - 1 tsp
• Rice flour - 1.5 cups approximately

Preparation: 

Grind the cooked channa dhal in mixie without adding any water. In a pan, add the well mashed jaggery + very lil water and allow it to boil. When the jaggery starts to boil (make sure there is no lumps in the jaggery) + add ground cooked channa dhal and roasted grated coconut(we roast it to remove the water from the coconut). Also add some cardamom pdr. Stir it till it becomes thick and loses all the water in it.

This is called the pooranam which is going to be used as a stuffing inside our sweet kolukattai. Next, coming to the kolukattai preparation....Boil some water(about 2 cups) in a wide pan. To this add rice flour slowly, stirring will you add it. At a certain point, you will notice that the rice flour starts to get thick. This is where you stop adding rice flour. Add some oil (1 tbsp) to this now and keep stirring this mixture for another couple of minutes. Stir it until it becomes like a thick dough and you should be able to make round balls out of it.

Take a plastic sheet and spray some oil on it. Then make round balls from the dough and spread them as a circle on the plastic sheet. Fill it with already prepared "pooranam" and fold it to a semi circle in the form of a kolukattai.

Yummy, all time fav, sweet kolukattai are ready !!!

Kung Pao Chicken

Ingredients:

• Chicken breast - cut into small pieces (make sure that there is no bone in the chicken pieces)
• cornstarch - 1 tbsp
• sesame oil - 1 tbsp
• peanuts - 1/4 cup
• green onions - as req
• garlic - 4 pods
• ginger - 1 inch
• red pepper flakes - 2 tsp (change it as per ur spice level)
• vinegar - 2 tbsp
• soysauce - 2 tbsp
• sugar - 2 tsp
• salt - a pinch

Preparation:

Combine Chicken and cornstarch. Make sure the cornstarch gets well coated on the chicken pieces. Heat sesame oil in a deep non-stick pan to medium heat. Add chicken and stir fry for 10 minutes on low medium flame. Make sure the chicken is well cooked, that is, the inside of the chicken should no longer be pink. Once well cooked, remove it and set aside.

In the same pan, peanuts. Once it is well roasted, add green onions + finely chopped garlic pods + finely chopped ginger + red pepper flakes and stir fry for a minute. Combine vinegar and soysauce with lil sugar and salt in a separate bowl. Taste it to make sure that it suits ur tastebuds. Add this sauce to the pan and also it to cook for a minute. Then add the already cooked chicken to the pan and toss it well to coat it with the sauce. Cook for another couple of minutes.

Sending this to Viki's event "Side dish for Chapathi"...

Marinated Mutton Curry

Ingredients:

• Mutton - 10 pieces
• Turmeric pdr - 1/4 tsp
• Red Chilli pdr - 1 tsp
• Mutton masala curry - 1 tsp
• salt - as req
• garam masala - 1/2 tsp
• yogurt - 1 tbsp
• egg - well beaten - 1
• ginger garlic paste - 1 tsp
• coriander leaves for garnish
• curry leaves - as req
• onion - 1 small
• tomato - 1 medium

Preparation:

Marinate mutton in turmeric pdr + red chilli pdr + any mutton masala curry pdr + salt + garam masala + yogurt + well beaten egg + ginger garlic paste. Allow this to marinate to atleast half an hour.

Heat oil in a pan. In heated oil, add whole garam masala + curry leaves + onion. Saute onion till it turns golden brown. Then add tomatoes to this and saute till itz completely mushy. Finally add the marinated mutton. Adjust the salt and add very lil water if necessary. Close the pan and allow it to cook in low medium flame really well. Cook till the oil separates. Make sure that you saute in between at 5 minutes break so that it does not burn. After the meat gets cooked, switch off the flame. Garnish with coriander leaves.

Sending this to Viki's event "Side dish for Chapathi"...

Adai

Preparation:

Tur Dhal (1/2 cup) + Idli rice ( 1 cup) + Channa Dhal (1/4 cup) + Green gram dhal (1/2 handful) + Pacharisi (raw rice - 1/4 cup) --> Soak all this in water overnight.

Then grind it with cumin seeds (2 tsp) + dry red chillies (2 or change as req).

Temper some onion + tomato + ulutham parupu (black gram dhal) in oil. Add this to the ground batter. Mix salt and water as req to the batter. Make sure it is not too thin consistency. Pour it like a dosa in the griddle. Enjoy ur adai when it is hot. Any chutney would be a lovely combination to this...feeling lazy to prepare a chutney...No worries..cos itz gr8 without a side dish too...