Morkali - Rice flour cooked in Buttermilk - A Tambram recipe

Tambrams or Tamil Brahmin community from different parts of the state have different speciality dishes. Being brought up in Kolkata, I wasn't too much into the tambram food beyond those made by my mother (My mom is a Tambram brought up in Kerala, so her  cooking is influenced a lot by that cuisine). After getting married to Swami, I got introduced to the cooking style of tambrams from Tanjore. 'Morkali' is a very popular item with folks from this part of the country and the first time I ate this dish, I was totally floored by the yumm quotient of this very simple dish.

It so happens that both my FIL and hubby love eating this, so I learnt the art of making this from my hubby's maternal granny, who is an expert in making this.

So here is my granny's recipe, may bliss be all yours while cooking and eating this.

Ingredients:

• 250 gms Rice Flour
• Buttermilk( a little sour is good) 4 tumblers(glasses)
• salt - as per taste
• Green Chilli - 1, finely chopped
• Mor Molagai - 3 (Small), finely chopped
• Mustard - 1 tsp
• Urad Dal - 2 tsp
• Channa Dal - 1 tsp
• Hing (Asafetida) - 1 tsp
• Ghee - 1tbsp
• Oil - 1 tbsp
• Curry leaves - 10-15 leaves

Preparation time - 15 mins; Cooking time 20 Mins

Serves - 4

Method - The most tedious part of the dish is to mix the rice flour in the butter milk without any lumps. This would easily take 10-12 mins. Once the mix is ready, add the salt to this mix and keep it aside.

In a Big Kadai, add the Ghee and Oil and once its hot add the Urad dal and Channa dal. Once this starts to turn brown, add the hing and mustard seeds. Once the mustard seeds start to splutter, add the curry leaves, Green Chilli and Mor Mulagai. Wait till the mor mulagai is fried and then add the rice flour - butter milk mix to this by slowly stirring it in the kadai. Once u have add the whole mix, u have to keep stirring the mix till the rice flour is cooked well and all the dish become like Upma.

Serve hot with Curd or Pickle, although I like it without any sides.

The 15 Mins Carrot Payasam

It happens to be my FIL's bday today and b'day Lunches are incomplete without the payasam, espcially when it happens to be the bday of a sweet lover. So Me decided to make my special 'Carrot Payasam' the quick easy way, in just 15mins :)

Ingredients:

• Delhi Carrot (The red long carrot) -1 big, grated
• 1/2 litre Milk
• Cardamom powder - 1/2 tsp
• Sugar - 6 tbsp
• Cashewnuts - 6 pcs
• Kismis - 6 pcs
• Ghee - 2 tbsp
• Love - unlimited

Preparation time: 10 mins

Serves: 4 ppl

Method:

     In a pan or kadai, add the Ghee. Once the ghee is warm, add the carrot and cashewnuts and fry them for couple of minutes. Now add the Kismis and once it starts to swell, add the milk. Once the milk starts to boil, reduce the flame of the gas. Now add Sugar and cardamom powder and allow it to cook well. When the quantity of the milk becomes 3/4th of the original quantity, the carrot would have cooked too and ur Payasam is ready to be consumed/served.

Serve it either hot or cold (place it in the freezer if u like it like ice-cream).