Pidi kozhukattai - Best South Indian tiffin ever!

I have a special love for steamed foods, especially the kozhukattai kinds. I was craving to eat some and made this quick pidi kozhukattai as it doesn't require any special ingredients. 

This was our dinner tonight. It took me 20 minutes end-to-end to prepare this. Awesome, isn't it? 

Pidi kozhukattai with Onion thokku and Sambar

Ingredients:

Rice - 1 cup
Coconut - 1/2 cup

Tempering :

Oil - 2 tsp
Mustard -1 tsp
Channa dal - 1 tbsp
Curry leaves - 1 sprig
Green chillies-  3 , finely chopped
Red chilly -1
Asafoetida - 2 dashes
Salt - to taste (~1 tsp)

Method:

Wash and rinse rice as usual. Then take a pan, fry the rice as such (dry).  Stop when it starts becoming slightly reddish. Let cool and grind coarsely to a powder. This is typically called "rice rava".

Take a kadai, heat oil and do the tempering as given above.
Then add water and let boil. Rice rava to water ratio is 1:2.5
Add salt and coconut to the water.
After a minute or two, slowly add the rice rava and keep mixing. Ensure there are no lumps. Keep stirring.  In 2-3 minutes, all the water would have been absorbed. Test if the rice is cooked, if not, do add another 1/4 cup to 1/2 cup water and let it cook well.

Now transfer to a plate and allow it to cool , so you can handle it with your palms to make kozhukattai.

Steam in an idly cooker and switch off flame in 10 minutes exactly. Kozhukkattais are done :-)

Pidi Kozhukattai - South Indian tiffin

Enjoy with Onion Chutney and Sambar :- )

Brinjal Thogayal/Thokku/Chutney (Spiced Eggplant Paste - South-Indian style)

Thogayal is a South-Indian preparation which is pasty in texture and spiced with fresh home-made powders of dry-roasted lentils. It is usually mixed with white rice and enjoyed with another vegetable dish and some crispy papads! :) South-Indians typically eat curd rice with any kind of thogayal.

Eggplant is my hubby's first love (no kidding) and this thogayal is another of his favorites. Since I don't use coconut in this recipe, this can be stored for upto 4 days in the fridge.

Brinjal / Eggplant Thogayal /Spiced Paste

What You Need -

Eggplant / Brinjal - 1 long (400 grams)
Onion - 1 big/medium
Garlic - 5 cloves
Ginger - 2 inch piece
Green chillies - 3 or 4

Tamarind - a small lime sized ball (Or Dry Tam powder - 1 tsp)
Cilantro/ Coriander leaves - a little  (optional)
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Red chilli powder - 3/4 tsp
Salt - to taste
Oil - 2 tsp

For Fresh Spice Powder (Dry-roast and powder together)

Urad dal - 2 tsp
Channa dal - 2 tsp
Asafoetida - 1/4 tsp
Fenugreek (Vendayam) - 1/2 tsp

Freshly roasted and ground spice powder

How To -

• Heat 1 tsp oil in a deep kadai and add finely chopped onion, ginger, garlic and green chillies.

• Chop eggplant/brinjal into cubes and microwave for 8-10 minutes. 
• Add cooked brinjal to kadai once onions get fried well and turn pink.

• Add turmeric, red chilli powder and salt.

• Mix them well for about 7 minutes. At this stage, you can actually eat this as Brinjal Dry Curry :)
• Allow the cooked brinjal to cool for 10 minutes and then blend the whole thing in an electric mixer/blender to a paste. It is here that you add tamarind. I also like to add the stalks of coriander leaves.

• Now, take the same kadai (now empty), heat 1 tsp oil and temper with mustard and urad dal. 

• Add the blended paste and add the freshly roasted spice powder (made from ingredients listed above) to it.

Mix well, check for salt and there you go! Eggplant Thogayal is ready!

Brinjal/ Eggplant Thogayal

It should not be a smooth paste. As you can see, thogayal is supposed to be 80% blended with strands of the vegetables/other ingredients seen so that you can bite into them. Bon Appetit!

 

 This is one of my entries to Priya's "Dip In" event at Now Serving