Kothumaimavu paniyaram (Wheat flour sweet)

Wheat flour sweet (Kothumaimavu paniyaram) - Preparation time 20 mins
Wish you all an excellent, joyful, happy and prosperous new year :-).
This will be little health snack when compared to maida paniyaram because we are going to use wheat flour and jaggery (rich in iron) to make this sweet. Surely it will be an yummy, tasty and excellent snack for you and your lovely family. Let the new year be sweet and tasty as this paniyaram. Can be made in few minutes with the ingredients in our home.

Ingredients:- Wheat flour - 1 cup
Grated coconut - 3 tbsp
Powdered cardamon - 1/2 tbsp
Powdered jaggery - 1/2 or 3/4 cup (take same cup you measured for maida)
Water - as required
Cashew - 6 to 10 (broken to small pieces)
Rice flour - 1 tbsp
Oil - to deep fry


Preparation method:-
In a vessel add sugar with few water. Boil and remove the dirt in jaggery using a filter. Make the jaggery syrup sticky.
To the wheat flour add the jaggery syrup little along with grated coconut,rice flour, cardamon powder, broken cashew pieces. Mix well so that no lumps exist.
Add the jaggery syrup till the mixture is of thick paste. If taken in laddle it should be in pouring consistency ( take care that in should not be so liquid because the shape on paniyaram wont be good).
In tawa heat oil in very low flame (lowest flame in your stove).
When oil is hot pour one small laddle of the flour mixture. It will rise to the surface of the oil. Keep turning the paniyaram so that it will be cooked evenly. The colour changes slightly and bubbles will come down.
Take out from oil and transfer to tissue paper to take out the excess oil from the sweet.
You and your family might like this sweet.  

Mangai kootu (Mango gravy)

Mango gravy or Mangai kootu - Preparation time 15 mins
All the flavour and taste of mango will be present in this kootu because we are not adding any masala or tamarind so it will be full of natural taste. We used to call kootu varieties as poricha kuzhambu.

Health tips: Mango is rich in dietary fibre, vitamin C, good antiaxidant, etc. You can use the ottu mangai or even sour mango if you like.

Ingredients:-
Mango - 1 (cut to small cubes 2 inch).
Turmeric - ¼ tsp
Sambar powder - 1 tsp
Salt - to taste
Water - 1 or 1 ½ cup water
Mustard seed - ¼ tsp
Cumin seed- 1 tsp
Urad dhal - 1 tsp
(or) Thalikkum vadagam - 1
Toor dhal (Thuvaram paruppu) - one cup (pressure cooked).
Sesame oil - 1 tsp
Curry leaves - 6 (finely chopped)

Preparation method:-
Boil water with turmeric, salt & sambar powder. When water starts boiling add mango and boil till it cooks.
Now mash the cooked toor dhal and add. Let this boil.
In a tawa add mustard seed (till splutters), urad dhal (turns to golden brown), cumin seed (jeera will splutter) or if you have thalikkum vadagam (which is made of jeera, urad dhal, onion, mustard, etc) it can be used.
Add this and curry leaves to boiling kootu and serve with hot with rice.

Vazhaipoo poriyal(paruppu usili) Plantain flower dry curry

Vazhaipoo poriyal or Vazhaipoo paruppu usili (Plantain flower and channa dhal dry curry) - Preparation time 30 mins
All usili are my favourite dish and this one is first among the usili. Mom used to make this with one full plantain flower. This goes well with more kuzhambhu, rasam and even alone sometimes. She will make it bit spicy to remove the slight bitterness. Anything cooked by mom is delicious for us! am i right? She is a wonderful person taking care of us in each and every step we go forward from the day we come to the world.
First will explain how to peel and use vazhai poo? you can also refer vazhaipoo vadai
Spread a waste sheet to keep the place clean while peeling the plantain flower.
While doing this process put sesame oil (nalla ennai) fully on your palm to avoid the stickyness. The watery substance in vazhaipoo might stain your clothes so take care
Hope you all saw the big red vazhai poo (plantain flower) from which we used to get cute little bananas or big plantain.
In each plantain flower when you remove the red covering carefully you will see tiny fingers. Which is full of nutrition. We can use this for our cooking.
In each fingerlets of vazhai poo their will be white string with a pod (round shape or head of the string) in top. You have to strictly remove it before chopping to pieces. It wont be able to digest and will also be hard to chop. Might create digestion problem.
After removing this string in each and every plantain flower fingers. You can chop and keep in a vessel with little water and curd else it will become brown in color.
　
Ingredients:-

Fingers of plantain flower - chopped to small pieces. Should/Must remove the small white string with a head in each and every fingers of plantain flower. Use only the plantain flower fingers to cook. We wont use the red color covering over the fingers
Channa dhal - 1/4 cup (soaked for 2 hrs)
Ginger - 1 inch piece
Red chili powder - 1/2 to 1 tsp
Sambhar powder - 1/2 tsp
Salt - to taste
Turmeric - 1/4 tsp
Water - To boil the chopped plantain flower
Mustard - 1/4 tsp
Asafoetida - 1 pinch
Sesame oil - 1 tbsp
Urad dhal - 1 tsp
Curry leaves - 6 (finely chopped)
Preparation method:-
Soak the channa dhal for 2 hrs. Drain the water completely and transfer to mixer. Crush the ginger and add to dhal. Grind to coarse paste.
In a vessel add required amount(so that no need to drain excess water and lose nutritional value) water.
Boil the water with salt,sambhar powder and turmeric. Add chopped plantain flower and cook till it is soft.

Heat a heavy bottomed tawa. Add oil, mustard to splutter, urad dhal to golden brown, curry leaves and a pinch of asafoetida and sortae.
To the above pan add the grind channa dhal and fry till the dhal becomes separate and raw smell goes of. If you want you can add another 1/2 tbsp of oil.

In goes red chili powder (adjust according to your spice level) and cooked plantain flower.

Fry till the usili is slightly dry.

I love to eat this alone. But goes well with more kuzhambhu and rasam rice.