Nei appam recipe / Kuli appam recipe is a traditional sweet made from rice, jaggery, cardamom, coconut and ghee. In this nei appam recipe, I have used mashed banana which gives softness and a nice taste to the appam.This nei appam is a easy sweet recipe prepared during festival occasions like karthigai deepam, onam and krishna jayanthi. This kuli appam recipe was soft and delicious and we loved it very much. So do try this nei appam recipe and enjoy :-):-)

Happy Karthigai Deepam !!!!!

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Preparation Time : 1 Hr
Cooking Time : 20 mins
Makes : 11 Appam

Ingredients

• 1/2 Cup of Rice Flour
• 1/2 – 3/4 Cup of Jaggery
• 2 Tbsp of Grated Coconut
• 3 Cardamom
• 1 Banana (Puvanpalam)
• Pinch of Salt
• Pinch of Baking Soda (optional)
• Ghee/Oil as Needed

Method

• Peel the banana, grind it to a smooth paste along with cardamom in a mixie(blender).
• In a mixing bowl, add rice flour, salt, mashed banana and coconut
• Heat 1/4 cup of water in a pan, add the jaggery to it. Mix well until the jaggery melts completely. Filter this in a strainer to remove the dirt. Pour this into a rice mixture. Add enough water and mix well until you get smooth batter consistency, little thicker than dosa batter.
• Keep the batter untouched for 30 – 60 mins. After 1 hr, add baking soda, mix well.
• Heat ghee / oil in a paniyaram pan, pour spoonful of batter into each hole of the pan. Fry until it turns golden brown color on one side, flip it to other side and cook for few mins.
• Fluffy, soft appam is ready to serve.

Tips

• You can deep fry the sweet appam in oil or ghee.
• You can use maida or wheat flour in place of rice flour.
• Banana gives soft texture to the appam.
• You can even add coconut bits instead of grated coconut.
• You can grind jaggery along with banana.
• If you don’t want banana, just skip it.
• Baking soda gives softness to appam.

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Keerai  Kootu recipe is a dal based curry, cooked with greens. Here I used chinese spinach/Amaranth Greens / Thandu keerai to make this kootu. This is a authentic simple and delicious Tamil recipe which requires very less oil and it is a easy recipe for bachelors to cook keerai kootu recipe. From childhood, I love to eat greens(keerai). But I miss a lot of keerai variety in US like ponnaganni keerai, sirukeerai, agathi keerai and murangakeeerai. Both Me and my husband love keerai kootu a lot. I make this kootu everyweek for lunch. Very satisfying and comforting food to enjoy for lunch along with some kara kuzhumbu or sundal kulambu, rice and appalam.  You can follow the same recipe for mulaikeerai kootu, sirukeerai kootu or ponnakannikirai kootu.Try this thandu keerai kootu recipe with moong dal for lunch and stay healthy.

Ingredients for keerai kootu recipe

1 Bunch (2 Cups) of Red Spinach / Pasalai Keerai
5 Small Onions (Shallots)
1 Tsp of Sambhar Powder
1/2 Tsp of Black Pepper Powder
Salt and Water as Needed

To Pressure Cook

1/2 Cup of Yellow Moong Dal
1/2 Tsp of Turmeric Powder
Pinch of Asafoetida(Hing)
1/2 Tsp of Oil
1/2 Tsp of Salt

To Grind

2 Tbsp of Freshly Grated Coconut
1/2 Tsp of Whole Cumin

To Temper

1.5 Tsp of Oil
1 Tsp of Mustard Seeds
3/4 Tsp of Urad Dal
1/8 Tsp of Fenugreek Seeds
1/2 Tsp of Whole Cumin
1 Red Chilly
1 Sprig of Curry Leaves

Method for thandu keerai kootu recipe

• Wash the greens and chop them into finely.
• In a mixie (blender), add coconut and cumin, grind it to a smooth paste.
• Soak the moong dal for 30 mins. Wash and drain the water. In a pressure cooker, add all the ingredients listed under “To pressure cook”, close the lid and cook it for 2 whistles. Keep it aside.
• Heat oil in a pan, add all the ingredients listed under ” To Temper” list add one by one, after mustard seeds sizzles and urad dal and red chilly changes color, add chopped onion, fry until it turns golden brown, then add chopped keerai, fry them for a min, add 1/4 cup of water, cover and cook it for 2 mins. Add the ground mixture, sambhar powder and pepper powder, fry well with keerai for 1-2 mins. Finally add the cooked moong dal and required salt, mix well. Cover and cook it for 5 mins in a medium flame until semi -thick in consistency.
• Serve hot with steamed rice and ghee.

Tips

• Use any type of keerai like araikeerai, thandukeerai or ponnagani keerai.
• Use toor dal or chana dal in place of yellow moong dal.
• You can use big red onion in place of small onions.

Health Benefits of Amaranthus Leaves / Thandu Keerai

• Rich source of vitamin A, C and folate.
• It has good source of amino acid like lysine, which is limited in other grains.
• Prevents hair loss and greying.
• Reduces cholesterol and prevents the risk of cardiovascular disease.
• It boosts the immune system.

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Puran poli / paruppu poli recipe /  Kadalai Paruppu Poli / obbatu is a traditional sweet (dessert) prepared during auspicious occasions and important festivals like diwali, vinayagar chaturthi, ugadi and holi. This is a first time I prepared paruppu poli recipe in my life and I made this puran poli for diwali celebration conducted in nearby library in US. Everyone tasted my puran poli and said it was awesome and tasty.
Coming to the recipe, the stuffing is called puran and the outer cover is called poli. The filling is prepared with chickpea lentils, toor dal, jaggery and coconut. The outer cover is prepared with maida, oil, turmeric powder, salt and water. Here comes the puran poli recipe with step by step pics….Try this paruppu poli recipe  and enjoy :-):-)

For Outer Dough

Ingredients for puran poli recipe

• 1 and 1/4 Cup of All Purpose Flour(Flour)
• 1/2 Tsp of Turmeric Powder
• 6 Tbsp of Cooking Oil
• Salt to taste
• Water as needed

Method for puran poli

• Take a mixing bowl, add flour, turmeric powder, salt and oil, mix well with hand. Add water little by little, mix it and knead it to a soft and smooth dough. Pour some oil over the dough until the dough is completely soaked in oil. Cover the bowl with a plastic wrap and let the dough rest it for 4 hrs.

For Inner Dough

Ingredients for paruppu poli recipe 

• 1/2 Cup of Toor Dal
• 1/2 Cup of Bengal Gram (Chana Dal)
• Pinch of Turmeric Powder
• 1 and 1/2 Cup of Jaggery
• 3 Tbsp of Grated Fresh Coconut
• 3 Whole Cardamom
• Pinch of Salt
• 1 Tbsp of Ghee (Clarified Butter)

Other Ingredient (To make Poli)

           3 Tbsp of Oil or Ghee

Method

• Soak both the dal in water for 30 mins, wash it in a tap water and drain it. Keep it aside.
• In a pressure cooker add both the dal, turmeric powder and enough water about (2.5 cups) close the lid and pressure cook for 2 whistles. Open the lid, drain the water using colander. In a mixie(blender), add both the dal, grind it for few mins, add jaggery, cardamom and grind it to a smooth mixture. [Note : If your mixture has extra moisture like mine, just fry it in a pan until it becomes thick.]

• Heat a pan with ghee, add grated coconut, fry it for a min, keep it aside. To the same pan, add the ground dal mixture, keep stirring in a medium flame, until the moisture goes off and mixture thickens. Add the roasted coconut, fry well for few minutes. Once it done, turn off the flame.
• Filling is ready. Let it cool down completely.

 
    To Make Puran Poli

• Make lemon sized balls out of the outer dough(maida)
• Make small sized balls out of the inner dough (Dal-jaggery mixture)
• Take a ziplock bag or flat wooden base, grease it well with oil,  place the maida ball, slowly apply pressure with your fingers over the dough or roll it with a rolling pin and make it like a small chapathi (patty). Now place the inner dough ball(pooranam) in the middle of the patty, slowly bring all the outer edges together in the center and seal it, to prevent the leakage of pooranam . Now again slowly apply pressure with your fingers or roll it with rolling pin and make it like a circular thick patty. Repeat the same procedure for the rest of the dough.
• Heat a tawa (griddle), in a medium heat, apply some oil or ghee, carefully place the poli, You will see tiny bubbles rises on the surface of poli. Now it’s time to flip the poli with a spatula. Once first flip is done, apply oil or ghee on the upper surface and spread it. Cook until you get brown spots on both sides.

• Yummy hot puran poli is ready to serve. Serve with a dollop of butter or ghee.

Tips

• It stays good for 2-3 days.
• You can use chiroti rawa in place of maida or you can use whole wheat flour or mix of maida and chiroti rava to make outer dough of poli.
• You can use toor dal or chana dal or mix of both the dal to make this poli.
• Do not comprise with the amount of oil and ghee. Otherwise it won’t taste good.
• You can cook the dal either in pressure cooker or in a heavy bottomed pan.
• You can make poli either thick as mine or thin as chapathi.

Health Benefits of Lentil, Jaggery and Spices

• Jaggery acts as a digestive agent, used to cleanse the bodyand provide a good amounts of minerals.
• Cardamom improves digestion and prevents cancer.
• Lentils are high in fiber and protein, and low in fat. Eating lentils and other foods that are rich in soluble dietary fiber can help decrease high cholesterol
• Toor dal is useful in the treatment of internal organ swelling.
• Toor dal contains folic acid, good for women health.

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