Onam and an Exciting Start to a Long Weekend

You must be wondering why an Onam post is appearing three days after Onam. Well, Onam was a simple affair this time…we had postponed the festivities for the weekend. A few friends had come for lunch and we had a wonderful time: a traditional Kerala sadhya shared with good friends and a refreshingly good Hindi movie to complete a lovely afternoon.

The excitement continues, as we move onto the second day of the three day weekend…we have more visitors coming over tomorrow…any guesses? It is a much awaited reunion....still no idea? Gomathi and her family are visiting us and we are super excited.  

Coming back to the recipes, I tried two new ones this time around, unni appam (a sweet made with a rice-jaggery-banana batter) and puli inji (thick tamarind sauce flavored with ginger and chilies).

Unni appam

Ingredients

Rice flour – 2 cups

Melted jaggery (honey like consistency) – 1 cup

Mashed bananas – 4 tbsps

Cardamom powder – 1 tsp

Grated/Chopped coconut – 2 tbsps

Ginger powder (optional for extra flavor) – 1 tsp

Ghee

Water – as required to loosen the batter and melt the jaggery

Method

In a bowl, mix flour, cardamom powder, coconut, ginger powder (if using) and bananas. Melt the jaggery, with  water, to honey-like consistency and pour into the flour mixture. Mix well and add water to make a batter that resembles idly batter.

Heat the appam/Æbleskiver pan, pour oil to fill ¼ of each cavity. When hot, pour about a tablespoon of batter into each cavity and let it cook well (about 2 minutes or until it turn brown). Turn it over and let the other side cook too. The varied coloring seen in the photographs is because of my experiments with different heat levels.

Remove onto a paper towel and let the oil drain. Once it cools down, refrigerate in an air-tight container. 

Note: 

1. The brownness of the appam will vary depending on the color of the jaggery.
2. Warm the appams before serving.

Puli Inji

Ingredients

Tamarind water – 1 ¼ cups

Finely chopped ginger – 4 tbsps

Finely chopped green chilies – 2-3 tbsps

Turmeric powder – ¼ tsp

Chilli powder – ½ tsp (or to taste)

Asafoetida powder – ¼ tsp

Fenugreek seeds – ¼ tsp

Curry leaves

Coconut oil – 1 ½ tbsps

Dried red chillies – 2-3

Mustard seeds – 1 tsp

Salt to taste

Jaggery – 2 tsps (optional)

 Method

Soak tamarind in hot water for 15-20 minutes and extract the pulp.

Heat the oil in a thick bottomed vessel. Add the chopped ginger and green chillies and sauté for 2-3 minutes. Keep aside. Into the same oil, add the mustard seeds. As they splutter, add the curry leaves and red chillies and sauté for a couple of minutes. Add the tamarind water and the remaining ingredients, stir and reduce the heat. Allow the mixture to simmer and reduce until thick. Remove from the heat and refrigerate in an air-tight container.

For more traditional recipes, visit Onam Special. There is no rule that these recipes should be made only for Onam, so please try these out and let us know how you like them :-). Bon Appétit. 

Recipes linked to