Bhakshanam

I was thinking which could be my first recipe to blog. Me being from karnataka and married to a keralite , I was looking for a recipe that is common in both of these places. Found one!!. People from Kannur,North kerala, call it as ari pathiri, is mostly a common dinner or heavy evening snack especially among muslims.  On the other hand, in karnataka, it is known as home made heavy breakfast.  Even the curries goes along with this also differs according to the places.  In Bangalore, akki rotti is eaten with curry made from aloo or saagu(Vegetables).  Back in Kerala, pathiri is savored with spicy traditional chicken curry. Ari pathiri one of my favorite and my mother is ‘mother’ of this recipe. However, it is slightly procedurous preparation but good for taste buds of all ages.

Grab some:

• Rice powder          2 cups

• Cumin seeds         1/2 tbsp

• water                    3 and 1/2 cups

• salt to taste

And follow here:

For various good reasons, use an aluminum vessel.  Add up water and salt. Bring it to boil on medium heat.  Mix rice powder and jeera. When heated up water starts to form water bubbles, just then slowly pour rice powder mix into boiling water and start mixing the contents swiftly with a wooden spoon, so that it does not form lumps with in the dough.  Keep mixing till the the consistency is as equal to chapathi dough.  If the dough looks liquefied or pasty, add up little rice powder to tighten it. Cover up with a tight lid and allow it cook for two minutes. Turn off the heat and keep it covered for five more   minutes.

The tedious or rather an effortful process follows.  Now that the dough is cooked, wet the hands with cold water so as to divide dough into two parts. This has to be done when dough is still warm (I mean ‘hot’, I cannot say it loud ). One of the two parts has to be tempered by rolling on a slab with wet hands a few number of times, so that it softens without having any lumps.  Kneading does not work here as the dough will be hot or warm.

Divide the dough again into three parts.  Knead each part with wet hands couple of times more to make small dumplings, before rolling out with rolling pin on flat surface.  While rolling on slab, Pat the dumplings, with flour generously.

Dusting is required, when you turn sides while rolling.  Roll it out to required density.  Edges of rottis should not break while rolling.  You can quick fix it by joining together, just dust it with some powder and roll over it.

Fry on the hot pan on the both sides, until golden.  Use of oil while frying is optional.  Frying takes couple of minutes  depending on the density of the rolled rottis. Thicker the density, longer is the frying time.

I would like to have these rottis with chicken curry.

Note: Rice powder I used is Nirapara Pathiri podi, which is made in Kerala.  This can be made at home also.

Additions: Half a cup ground coconut and a piece of onion along with Jeera and Rice powder for the dough.

Welcome All!!

Winter flower in Doha, Qatar

This is my first post.  I am so excited atlast i could post few things after nagging on with blog themes for more than a month.  I never thought i could settle on something.  Anyways, its not bad isn’t it? for somebody who is new to the blogging world. As an acknowledgement, i would like to thank all the food bloggers and especially, Indira from Mahanandi, for inspiring and introducing me to this whole new world.

Fine, so here i am to share my everyday dinners, lunch and breakfasts with fella bloggers, friends and family.  I am not a great cook as such,.. learnt cooking once i got married. Those times, say, a very crucial happy time, when i was a real pathetic cook, trying hard for a ‘decent cook’ certificate , but… assuming to be a ‘great cook’, i even wanted to compete in a cooking event.  Can anybody believe?  I mean you guys out there does not know the complete history.  One example was i learnt making simple Tea from, ofcourse, “who else it could be!!?”

Then came those days, when i started running pole to pole, looking for cook books and trying out new recipes,  trying to impress, ofcourse “who else it could be?”.  Then came the days of routine and experimenting.  Routine cooking has never been interesting, till i thought of blogging,on the other hand experimenting was disastrous.

But, my ”who else it could be?” was my support through out, being a taste master for my cookbooks, flexible and adjustable for routine cooking and guinea pig for my experiments.

This post is dedicated for him!!