Coconut Chutney

This is a very famous south Indian side dish that can be used with many breakfast types.

Very easy and simple to make..also called as Thaengai Chutney / White Chutney

Ingredients:

1.       Coconut: 1 cup (Grated)

2.       Salt

3.       Pottu Kadalai / Odacha Kadalai: Handful.

4.       Asafoedita: a pinch

5.       Green Chilly: 2 (Medium sized)

6.       Tamarind: size of a gems chocolate.

7.       Water

8.       Mustard: 1/ tsp

9.       Oil: 1/ tsp

Preparation Procedure:

1.       In a mixer jar, add ingredients 1 to 6 and without adding water, initially, make it as a coarse powder.

2.       Now add water little by little and make it in the form of a coarse paste.

3.       You can choose to have it as Getti Chutney (Solidal) or watery by adding water accordingly.

4.       Now, in a serving vessel transfer the contents, temper with mustard and serve.

PS: In the absence of pottu kadalai, you can use roasted toor dal – handful.

Carrot Halwa (For Beginners)

Ingredients:

1.       Carrots: 6 (Big Size)

2.       Sugar: 1.5 cups (about 450 gms)

3.       Ghee: 1 big ladle

4.       Boiled Milk: 1.5 cups

5.       Sliced Almonds / Cashew nuts: 5

6.       Dry Grapes: 5

7.       Elaichi powder: A pinch

8.       Pachai Karpooram (Optional) : Very small pinch

Preparation Procedure:

1.       Peel the carrots and grate them.

2.       In a kadai add the boiled milk and add the grated carrots. Allow the carrots to be cooked by the steaming method by covering the kadai with a lid.

3.       Once the carrots are cooked (the smell of the raw carrots are no more there), add sugar and stir the ingredients of the kadai until the sugar is well dissolved.

4.       Add the ghee to the kadai equally from all sides and keep stirring well. (Using ghee is optional, without ghee, the halwa may be harder)

5.       Switch off the stove when the halwa is semi solid and paste like, the halwa starts oozing out the excess ghee.

6.       In a small kadai, add a tsp of ghee and roast the cashew/almond and dry grapes, sauté them and add this to the carrot halwa.

7.       Add the elaichi powder and pachai karpooram (optional)

Delicious Carrot Halwa is all ready J

Tips:

i.                     The Halwa tastes very good if it is served immediately after cooking.

ii.                   Heat the halwa in the microwave for 2 minutes before serving it