Mor/ Buttermilk

I have given the process of preparing home made butter in my early post. After removing the butter we have a large bowl full of buttermilk left. You can just add salt to it and drink it. It is a great cooler and perfect for a sunny day.

We use this buttermilk instead of curd along with rice. As the butter is removed it is completely fat free and guilt free. You can also use it in bakes, as an egg substitute. Mom also used to prepare a hot drink using this buttermilk. The preparation is very simple but it is delicious. I made a cup of this spicy mor and had it with cucumber slices. 

Ingredients:
Butter Milk-1cup
Chopped Coriander Leaves-2tbs
Salt-to taste
Green Chilly-1/2(finely chopped)
Hing-a pinch.


Mix all the ingredients well and serve. In villages even today this butter milk is served for visitors. There is also a drink called oorugai mor. I heard about this from my hubby. When he visited a chettinad home, they offered him this type of butter milk. It is nothing but the regular butter milk mixed with a tsp full of pickle. He said that it was very tasty. I haven't tried it yet. 

Bottle Gourd/ Suraikkai

Bottle gourd also called as calabash, opo squash, suraikkai, lauki, dudhi or long melon is a vegetable grown in vines. When harvested young, it is used as a vegetable but when allowed to mature, it can be used as a utencil or bottle. This vegetable has a great water content. The skin is little harder and the flesh is soft and white. 

There are so many recipes in which lauki can be incorporated. Lauki can be cubed or grated and used in dishes . This is also used in halwas.

Remove the stalk and cut the gourd into two.

Remove green coloured skin.

Cut each half into quarters.

Remove the seeds.

Cut each quarter into thin stripes.

Cut the stripes into cubes.

You can also grate the quarters to use it up in halwas and kheers.

Vegetable Stock

Vegetable stock is the vegetarian equivalent of chicken stock and can be used to replace it in any given recipe. If used in soups it enhances the flavour of the soup. You can add any vegetable of your choice. I read in a blog that adding mushrooms gives the soup a nice flavour. I usually prepare it in bulk and store in refrigerator for 3-4days. Once you have the stock ready it is very easy to prepare any soup.

Ingredients:
Onion-2
Garlic-10pods
Carrot-1
Beans-10
Radish-1
Coriander Leaves-1/4cup
Button Mushrooms-4-5
Water-5 1/2cups
Black Pepper-20


Procedure:
1. Chop the vegetables into small rounds.
2. In a pressure cooker add water and the vegetables. Add the pepper corns.
3. Cover and wait for a whistle.
4. Switch flame to low and let it cook for 5minutes.
5. Switch off flame and let the cooker cool.
6. Strain the liquid and discard the pulp.
7. Add it according to the recipe. You can also store it in fridge for 3 days.

Candy Clay

Candy clay is used in decorating cakes and pastries. It is made of chocolate. It some what resembles the play dough and it is very pliable. You can be very creative with this clay. It hardens when air dried and so it can be prepared before 1 or 2 days and can be stored until the day of decoration. Bitter sweet, milk or white chocolate can be used. When using white chocolate, it is very easy to colour it. This can also be refrigerated in a zip lock bag. While making figures, thaw it and use it.

I prepared these candy clay diyas for my Pongal Pot Cake. It is very easy to prepare and it needs a whole night for maturing. So prepare it the day before. 

I used 500gm Marco cooking chocolate.

Chop it to small pieces with a knife.

In a double boiler, melt it until creamy.

Remove from the boiler and add 1/4cup liquid glucose and mix well.

The chocolate will become grainy and hard.

Line a plate with a butter paper, transfer the chocolate to it. Press with the back of a spoon to smoothen the top. Allow it to cool for 2-3hours. It will become a hard block. Place it in a zip lock and leave it on the counter over night.

Next day, chop it into small pieces.

Run it in a mixer grinder to get crumbs.

Start by adding 1 tbs milk and knead it. If required add one more tbs. Divide into small portions and kn ead to make a soft pliable candy clay. Take a smaller quantity and place the others in zip lock until further use. Be creative and make any shape or figure you want.

I placed the diyas in the middle of a cup cake decorated with butter cream. 

Fresh Turmeric/ Manjal Kothu

Fresh Turmeric is available during Pongal festival. I came to know that fresh turmeric can be used to prepare pickle only after I started blogging. Last year I prepared pickle and this year I prepared thokku with this fresh turmeric. Turmeric is a root and it is related to ginger. The cleaning process is the major part in preparing it for any recipe. As this is the root, it will be fully encrusted in mud. And there will be lots of tiny roots dangling from the turmeric. 

First remove the individual turmeric pieces from the kothu. Remove the tiny but strong roots with a sharp knife.

Wash it twice or thrice to completely get rid of the mud.

With a knife scrape the skin completely.

Cut the scraped turmeric into small pieces and use it in the recipe.


The recipe of Pickle can be read by clicking the link.
The recipe of thokku can be read by clicking the link.

Home Made Butter

It is very economical to use home made butter. It is also a satisfying experience. This butter can be used to prepare ghee, in cakes and other sweets. I don't use this butter in making puff pastry. The home made butter usually has a large quantity of water when compared to store brought one. It is impossible to remove that water when doing at home. So don't use it when the recipe calls for butter without water. If you get fresh milk from the local milk man consider yourself lucky. I am so lucky to get nice creamy fresh milk. If you are planning on making your own butter, then while boiling milk, you need to take the first step. After the milk comes to boil, simmer it for 10minutes before switching it off. After cooling the cream will have formed a flaky layer on top of milk. Transfer this cream with 2tbs milk to another bowl. Add 2 drops of curd and keep it covered until set. From the next day, start collecting the cream from milk to the bowl. Refrigerate the cream until the day of preparing butter.

The night before preparing butter, remove the bowl with the cream from fridge and place it on your counter. Leave it over night to ferment. 

Next day the whole cream will become creamier curd. This is the base for a nice butter and delicious buttermilk.

Transfer this curd to a bigger vessel.

With the help of hand mixer, churn the cream on medium speed. My mom used to do it with a wooden churner called as the mathu. Even I used it until I brought home the hand mixer.

The butter will separate from the buttermilk. Chunks of butter will start sticking to the mixer. At this stage add 2-3cups of water. 

Remove the mixer and from now on use only one churner from the mixer. With the help of the churner, slowly bring the butter together.

After bringing together, the butter will float in the butter milk. After removing the buttermilk, you can add salt to the butter milk and relish it. This also goes very well with rice. You can also use this to prepare mor kulambu.

Remove butter from the butter milk and drop it into a bowl containing water. Leave it for 20minutes. Then you can store it in jar and refrigerate it.

Melting Chocolate

While preparing chocolate based sweets, it is very important to melt the cooking chocolate before you start preparing the sweet. Cooking chocolate is available in thew form of bars. So first chop[ it up with a sharp knife on a chopping board. Chocolate should not be kept directly on flame because it is very delicate. The flame will spoil the chocolate. So always use a double boiler.

Keep a vessel filled to 1/2 with water. Bring it to boil. Switch flame to low. Transfer the chopped chocolate to another bowl which fits tightly into the vessel with water. The chocolate should never come in contact with the steam other wise it will seize. Then it will become completely useless. The bowl should not touch the water. It should be above the water level. 

After some time the chocolate will start melting. Stir it with a spoon. When 75% done, remove the chocolate bowl from the vessel and place on a dry towel to get rid of water. Continue stirring until it becomes smooth and is of pouring consistency. Use as per the recipe. The chocolate will start hardening when the temperature drops. If it starts hardening in the middle of work, place it again on the boiler and melt it.

Inji Chaaru ( Ginger Juice)

Ginger has a lot of medicinal properties. I usually prepare this chaaru when suffering from severe cold. The addition of honey compensates the hot taste of ginger. While drinking this, you will get pricking sensations in your mouth. It is very fierce. But after a while you will feel very much better. 

When my daughter suffers from cold, it is very hard to make her drink this. So I still make her drink from sangu ( a small shell like cup used to give medicines for kids)

I use 50gm of ginger to get 1cup of juice. Wash the ginger thrice to get rid of mud.

Grind it with 1/4cup of water and then add 3/4cup water and mix well

Strain the liquid and discard pulp

Keep the juice aside for 30 minutes and transfer the clear juice to another bowl.

There would be a whitish sediment which you have to discard.

Add honey and serve

Fried Spinach Crumbs

I saw this method of preparing spinach/ palak in a old Woman's Era. The idea of frying spinach was quite interesting and I tried it yesterday. The swirls of spinach looked beautiful and I used some for garnish. The crumbs had a lot of oil but when used in the recipe it gave a nice colour to the dish which is impossible to get when blanched. You can use this in koftas, cutlets and flat breads. Go creative with these lovely crumbs.

For 1 bunch of spinach, I got 1/4cup of crumbs. Remove the stalks of spinach and wash them thoroughly. Spread the leaves on a clean cotton cloth and allow it to dry.

Stack 4-5 leaves on a cutting board or your counter.

Roll the leaves into a tight log.

Slice the log into juliennes.

Finish with the entire batch.

Deep fry the cut julienne in oil until crisp.

When cool, grind it in a mixer grinder to make crumbs.

Reserve some spirals for garnishing.