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Magazine
FLAVOURS
All steamed up
ROHINI RAMAKRISHNAN
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With the festive season coming up, try these healthy steamed goodies.
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Nothing prepared me for the steamed food festival organised by Chennai’s Cholayil Sanjeevanam. So far steamed food meant idly, iddiyappam and puttu. What more can they offer, I thought rather snootily. But
this was one time I was glad to be proved wrong.
The “fragrance” of steaming food was in itself wholesome. The Food and Beverage Manager, Elangovan, who designed the menu, said the focus was on Kozhukattai and Ela Ada, made extra special with palm candy, jaggery, and honey. Mushroom kozhukattai, aval kozhukattai, vegetable kozhukattai spiced up the menu with nendram, raw mango, groundnut and aval ela ada giving that extra dash.
Tasting the goodies aesthetically arranged on banana leaves, I realised “steamed” did not mean “bland.” In fact, steaming retained the colour, flavour and nutrients.
Here are some of the chef’s treasured recipes.
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Stuffed Kozhukattai
Take 500 gm of raw rice flour, add a pinch of salt and a few drops of oil. Add water gradually and knead it well.
Oil mould and press the dough firmly. Fill it with the stuffing and close it in with a thin film of dough. Steam on a banana leaf in a steamer or idli cooker. Best eaten hot with chutney.
For mushroom filling
Chop mushroom and onions extra fine. Saute with green chilli and ginger- garlic puree, till golden.
Piddi kollukattai
Pound 500 gm raw rice into tiny granules. Heat two cups of water and stir in the granules so that the dough is smooth and without lumps. Leave it to cool.
Meanwhile heat a little ghee and temper curry leaves, chopped green chillies, grated coconut and channa dal.
Mix with the dough. Take a lime-sized ball of dough and shape it with your hand. Steam it.
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Ela ada
100 gm Wheat flour
1 tsp Coconut oil
Salt to taste
70 -80 ml Water
Mix flour, oil and salt together. Add water gradually till the mixture is slightly soggy. Let it ferment for about 45 minutes.
Spread mixture evenly on a banana leaf cut into a round. Add prepared stuffing, fold in a semi circle and gently press. Steam for about 15 minutes.
Aval Stuffing
25 gmRed aval
10 gm fried gram coarsely ground
Grated coconut 5 gm
Cardamom powder a pinch. Soak the aval for 10-15 minutes. Drain and mix with the other ingredients. And make the ada as above.
Groundnut stuffing
Chop steamed or roasted peanuts and mix with chopped onions, coconut, curry leaves, salt and pepper. Add a dash of lime juice.
Raw mango stuffing
Chop raw mango and mix with chopped onions and green chillies.
Banana Stuffing
Mash ripe nendrampazham with ghee and powdered palm candy.
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Kambu (millet) Idly:
1 kg of millet
300 gm Black gram dal
Soak the Black gram dal for eight hours and grind it well. Roast millet without oil. Grind coarsely and soak for an hour.
Drain it carefully and mix it with the black gram dal batter. Keep for 45 minutes and make the idlis the usual way. Serve hot with a green chilli coconut chutney.
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