Saapadu Thayaar!

For a quick and tasty breakfast, you can do no wrong with this choice!

Ingredients

Bread slices, 2-4

Egg, beaten, 1

Milk, 5 tbsp

Butter, as required

Salt, to taste

Sugar, 1 tsp

Preparation

Beat the egg well, adding milk and salt. Add the sugar if you prefer.

Dip in the egg mixture

Cut the corners of the bread slices, cut into smaller pieces and dip nicely in the egg mixture.

Toasting in butter

Heat butter in a thick-bottomed pan and drop the eggy slices on to it. Cook well on both sides.

Your French toast is ready!

Take it off the griddle and serve hot.

A classic Tambram item, this is a top favourite of mine.

Vathal Kuzhambu

Ingredients

Tamarind, a lemon-sized ball

Dried vathal, 1-2 tbsp

Sesame oil, 2 tbsp

Mustard seeds, fenugreek seeds, chana dal, urad dal, 1 tsp each

Asafoetida, a pinch

Turmeric powder, a pinch

Dried red chillies, 2-3

Sambhar powder, 2 tbsp

Salt, to taste

Soak the tamarind in hot water for 15 minutes to soften it. Keep aside.

To start, heat the oil in a thick-bottomed kadai. Once it is hot, toss in the chana dal and urad dal. Saute them for a couple of minutes. Next, add the dried red chillies and the mustard and fenugreek seeds. After the mustard finishes popping, add asafoetida and the dried vathal of your choice and fry them nicely. Next, add the sambhar powder and enough salt and fry well till it takes on a dark note.

Now, mash the tamarind in the water it was soaking, strain the liquid and add the water carefully to the kadai. Add some more water to the tamarind pulp and repeat process once more. Mix well. Add salt and turmeric powder and let it boil well for 20 minutes or so.

Vathal Kuzhambu on the boil

Once the mixture is thick and the oil starts floating over the top, the vathal kuzhambu is ready. Take it off the flame and serve hot with rice and any ’soft’ vegetable dish, like cabbage, okra etc. The kuzhambu’s taste deepens as it steeps - taste it the next day for a mind-blowing flavour.

Serves 4

Kalakhand

Am back after a year long break. Apologies re the shoddy blogging!! Have tons of recipes so sit back and enjoy!

To kick-start, here’s a quick-n-easy sweet you can whip up in a jiff.

Things you need:

Ricotta cheese, 500 g

Condensed milk, 1 tin

Butter, 25 gm

Lemon juice, 1 tablespoon

Elaichi 2 pods, powdered

Heat the butter in a thick-bottomed pan, over a medium flame till it melts evenly. Now, add the cheese and keep stirring it till it becomes a smooth paste. Keep stirring whilst adding a tin of condensed milk until everything’s well mixed. After five minutes of this, add the lemon juice slowly without letting up stirring.

The mixture will curdle and slowly become thicker. As you continue to stir, you’ll notice it coming off the edges of the pan. The sweet is ready when it easily rolls into a ball as you stir.

Add powdered elaichi to it, mix well and transfer to a well greased plate.

Spread the mixture evenly, cut into squares / diamond shapes and allow it to cool. Transfer to an air-tight container.

Makes about 30 pieces.

[Yes it is that easy! And it is thanks to Cee Kay and Dottie that this recipe came into being.]

You know those days when you have a yen for something crunchy, spicy and with a zing to chase the blues away? The days when the rain keeps lashing against the windows, making you long for something hot, hot, hot? Well, a kunukku is made for such days. Marry the simple kunukku with some scrummy tomato ketchup and it will be a match made it heaven.

For those of you wondering what the hell a ‘kunukku’ is, (oh ye of sheltered upbringing), it is a fry-up you make with lightly fermented lentils and rice batter. It is made from the same batter as adai and is twice as scrumptious.

To make it, all you need are:
Par-boiled rice, 1 cup
Mixed lentils (urad, toor, channa, split moong) 1 cup
Dried red chilles, 6
Asafoetida, a pinch
Salt, to taste
Curry leaves, a sprig

Oil, for frying

Tomato ketchup, to serve

Soak the rice and dals for about 3 hours. Grind them coarsely in a mixer together.
Towards the end, when there is just a spoonful of batter left, chuck some dried red chillies in and give it a good whirl.
Add the salt, curry leaves and asafoetida and mix everything together.
That’s it - your batter is ready.
Heat oil in a kadai.
Slowly drop in spoonfuls of the batter in hot oil and fry till golden.
Drain on kitchen paper and serve hot with ketchup.
Close your eyes and enjoy!

P has been eating my head to bake him a cake for quite a while and so, I searched the ‘Net for a simple, no-fuss one. And I found one that uses no butter or oil! Wa-hey! It is called Aunt Martha’s Sponge cake and I got the recipe from Cooks.com. It was rather easy to make and uses just about five ingredients. The result was a real yummilicious cake. P was absolutely delighted with it!

If you want to try this at home, you’d need the following ingredients:
3 eggs
1 cup sugar
4 tbsp. warm water
1 cup flour
1 level teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
(yes you read it right, no fat!)

Lightly grease a baking dish. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees celcius, Gas mark 6.

Take the eggs and beat for a minute at low speed. Add a cup of sugar and beat for five more minutes until the mixture becomes thick and takes on a lemon colour.

Next add four tablespoons warm water to the bowl and mix for a minute. Sift together plain flour (maida) and baking powder and fold. Make sure you don’t get overzealous and mix it too much - then you’d end up with a rock-like cake!

Lastly, add the vanilla essence, give it a stir and transfer to a shallow baking dish. Bake at gas mark 6 for five minutes and then at gas mark 5 for 15-20 minutes.

Cool and serve.

P decided to decorate it with ready-made icing and some hundreds & thousands. Sugar overload!