Rice Idiyaapam / Arisi Sevai / Rice String hoppers

Whenever i think of rice sevai, i become so nostalgic of my childhood days when my mom used to make this. It's a 'not so often' dish at my home due to the difficulty in squeezing and so it's always a longing for this special one. Another loving memory on this dish, is the aroma of rice flour getting steamed spreading all over the house!!!! My mom makes coconut chutney as an accompaniment for this, while i always prefer sugar :)

I couldn't enjoy the happiness of making and having this after marriage as my dear hubby is not a great lover of steamed foods starting from Idly to any sundal varieties, and so the tradition started to get into my kids as well.....!!!!

So i thought of exposing these kind of 'our' food to my kids and started making some spicy accompaniment for them so that my hubby can also have it...(he needs some kurma or chutney very very hot for these  kind of steamed dishes)

This time i made idiyappam with Thakali kurma and the combination was really heavenly and went on well with my hubby and kids. (In fact my daughter has started asking me to make white noodles more often nowadays :))

Another reason for me liking this dish is that it can be had during sick times as well. So there is a healthy alternative for idly for people who fall sick...!!

Ingredients:

Rice flour - 3 cups

Salt - as required

Water - Not so hot, but more warmer inorder to make the dough

Oil - very little

Method:

1. Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl. Boil water and when its starts to leave out small bubbles on the side, remove water from stove and carefully make a soft dough of rice flour. Use spatula at the earlier stages and finally use hand to finish the dough making. At the end add little bit of oil if required.

2. Grease the idly plates with little oil and keep them ready.

3. Squeeze the dough into sevai maker and start making shapes with the dough on the idly plates. You can either squeeze into the idly pit alone to make it look like idlies or sqeeze them all over the plate like rings. It's up to you...!!!

4. Steam the idly pot for 3 to 4 mins. After 4 mins, reduce the flame and make sure the idiyappam is cooked. Switch off the flame and transfer it to the serving plate.

Enjoying steaming hot idiyappam with Tomato Kurma !!!

If  you like this post, do leave a comment....:)

Manathakkali paruppu masiyal / 'Solanum nigrum' in dhal gravy

We have a small garden in our balcony. One day we were surprised to see the manathakkali plant coming on its own. We just left it as it is to become little bigger and then we use it to prepare this masiyal. I love this kind of preparation of green-leaves and will never miss preparing this. I heard my mom saying, this heals the ulcer.

Items required:

Manathakali leaves - 1 bunch. Clean it nicely and cut into thin pieces
Tomato - 1, cut into small pieces
Moong Dhal / Paasi Paruppu - 4 tablespoon
green chilly  - 2 nos, slit into 2 halves.
Mustard seeds, Jeera - 1 teaspoon
Hing / perungayam - a pinch
Salt
Oil for seasoning

Method:

Put the cut manathakkali leaves, moong dhal, tomato pieces, chilly in a pressure cooker and add required amount of water. Close the lid and pressure cook it for 6 whistles.

Once the steam is completely gone, open the lid and make sure no excess water is present. (you would be wondering about the toor dhal in the picture. Thats the remaining of the dhal i cooked for paruppu rasam, which i added to it too)

Heat oil in a kadai and add red chilly and mustard seeds to it. Once they start to split, add a pinch of hing and Jeera to it. Add the cooked manathakkali-dhal mix to the kadai. Add required amount of salt and turmeric powder to it.

Let all of these cook for few mins till the water is absorbed and the required consistency is reached. Switch off the flame and transfer it to a container.

This goes very well with hot rice with a spoon of ghee and papadams :) Try it and provide your valuable comments.