Features: Magazine | Literary Review | Life | Metro Plus | Open Page | Education Plus | Book Review | Business | SciTech | Entertainment | Young World | Property Plus | Quest | Folio |

A special dish for a special occasion

Expecting friends for lunch? You can floor them with this combination of biriyani, pachadi, takali titippu and yennai katrika

PHOTOS: T. SINGARAVELOU

SUBTLE FLAVOURS Yennai katrika,

Planning and preparing are essential for any celebration or get together. When you have friends or relatives coming over for a special occasion, then you can't get away with making simple fare. A biriyani is a must.

Try this easy-to-make biriyani; it is light and tasty. The subtle flavours of cardamom, cinnamon, clove and coriander are heavenly. This dish is made in many Pondicherry homes for Christmas, Ramzan and New Year.

takali titippu

It has a strong Mughal influence. It is served with vengaya pachadi (onion raitha), takali titippu and yennai katrika.

Pondicherry Mutton Biriyani

Serves 6 to 8

Preparation time - 1 hour

Ingredients

Mutton - 2 kg cut into big pieces
Basmati rice (old harvest) - 1kg
Onions - half kg cut fine
Green chillies - 10 slit
Yoghurt - 1kg
Ginger-garlic paste - 5 tbsp
Sunflower oil - 250 ml*
Cardamom - 4
Cloves - 4
Cinnamon - a big piece
Bay leaf - 1 whole
Coriander leaves - 1 big cup
Mint leaves - quarter cup
Tomatoes - 2 big cut into two
Chilli powder - 1 tsp
Salt
Water - 2 litres

* You can use ghee instead of oil but it makes the dish heavy.

Mutton biriyani

Method: In a pressure cooker heat oil, add cardamom, cloves, cinnamon and bay leaf. Let the spices splutter, add onions and fry till golden. Add ginger-garlic paste, fry till golden, add tomatoes and cook till tomatoes are soft. Add chilli powder and salt. Pressure cook (two whistles). Before you make the biriyani, wash and soak the Basmati rice in water for half-an-hour.

Transfer the meat into a big pan, add yoghurt, bring to a boil, add coriander and mint leaves. Strain water from rice. Add rice and cook on a high flame. Do not cover the pan. Do not stir. The rice has to remain on top of the meat. Let the liquid get absorbed. When there is very little left, reduce the flame and cover the pan and cook for 10 minutes. (Place on top of the covered pan another pan containing piping hot water for the "dhum") The biriyani is ready. Serve hot with vengaya pachadi, takali titippu and yennai katrika.

Vengaya pachadi

Serves 6 to 8

Ingredients

Onions - 300 gm cut fine
Green chillies - 2 cut fine
Thick yoghurt - 400 ml
Juice of one lime
Sugar - 1 tsp
Coriander leaves - 2 tsp cut fine
Salt

Method: In a big bowl mix all the ingredients, refrigerate and serve with the mutton biriyani.

Takali titippu

Serves 6 to 8

Preparation time - 1 hour

Ingredients
Tomatoes - half kg
Sugar - 400 gm
Cashew nuts - 50 gm
Raisins - 50 gm
Ghee - 2 tbsp
Cardamoms - 3 powdered.
Water - 2 tbsp

Method: Fry raisins and cashew nuts in ghee. Keep aside.

In a big vessel cook tomatoes in water for 10 minutes. Cool, peel and remove seeds. Cook the tomato puree with sugar. Once the mixture is thick, add fried cashew nuts and raisins and cardamom powder. This dish can be made the previous day.

Yennai katrika

Serves 6 to 8

Preparation time - 1 hour

Ingredients

Brinjals, small variety - 1 kg, remove the stem and slit into two

Green chillies - 3 slit
Curry leaves - a few
Onion - 1 big cut fine
Kuttu tul - 1 tbsp
Coconut - half a nut, extract first milk
Oil - 250 ml
Sugar - 1tsp
Tamarind - size of a lemon, extract pulp
Vadavam - 1 tsp
Salt

Method: In a frying pan, heat oil and fry brinjals till cooked. Remove brinjals from the pan and keep aside. In the same vessel, fry vadagam, onions curry leaves. Add brinjals, kuttu tul, coconut milk, salt, sugar and tamarind pulp. Bring to a boil. This dish can be cooked the previous day and will keep for several days.

Kuttu tul

Kuttu tul (spices ground together) constitutes the base for many delicious curries in Pondicherry. It can be preserved for months if stored properly.

Ingredients

Dry chillies - 50 gm
Coriander seeds - 100 gm
Black pepper - 50 gm
Turmeric - 10 gm
Cumin seeds - 50 gm
Fenugreek seeds - 5 gm
Chick peas - 50 gm
Urad dal - 50 gm
Toovar dal - 50gm

Method: Sun dry the spices and roast them without oil and grind them in a mixer to a fine powder. Store the powder in an airtight container.

Vadagam

Vadagam is a mixture of onions, garlic, gingili oil and spices, dried in the sun and preserved. It is an indispensable ingredient in many curries.

Ingredients

Onions (sambar variety) - half kg
Garlic whole - quarter kg
Cumin seeds - 50 gm
Mustard seeds - 50 gm
Fenugreek - 25 gm
Turmeric powder - half tbsp
Urad dal (white broken) - 25 gm
Curry leaves - a handful
Salt - half tbsp

Method: Cut onions and crush garlic with the peel; in a big vessel mix together all the ingredients and keep covered with a thin cloth for three days. Dry the mixture in the sun for two days. Add gingili oil to the mixture and roll it into small balls (size of table tennis balls). Dry in the sun for at least two weeks. This vadagam can be stored for many months. The more it is dried in the sun the better it keeps. The vadagam is used in Pondicherry in many dishes and some chutneys too.

KETHARI SRIVANJIAM

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail