3 C BURFI by Mrs Jyothe Rao.

3 C BURFI.

This sweet is “something I came across and I changed a little. I tried it and it turned out good”. This is what Jyothe Rao from Jalna wrote when she sent this recipe and on my request agreed to share. Looks very simple and easy to do.:

Ingredients:

Grated Coconut – 1 cup; Grated Carrot – 1 cup, Powdered Cashewnuts – ½ cup; Sugar –1 cup; Ghee – 2 tsps. Powdered

Cardamom seeds – ½ tsp.

Method:

 Heat ghee in a Kadai and add grated carrot; fry for 5 minutes or until cooked. Now add powdered cashewnuts and

Grated coconuts and fry for 3 more minutes. Then add sugar and keep stirring till it looks like it is leaving the sides and

all water content is gone. Sprinkle some powdered cardamom.  Transfer it now to a large greased plate and flatten and

smoothen it.    Cut it with a greased knife into suitable sized pieces when still warm. Serve or store after it cools.

                        

3C BURFI, cut and ready to serve.

Preparation time: Initial preparation of ingredients – 5-7 minutes. Cooking time about 20 minutes. Final setting 5 minutes.

Serves 15 to 20 persons (30 to 40 pieces).

Contributed by Mrs Jyothe Rao, Jalna.

Thakka Thokku Biriyani.

The name Thakka Thokku Biriyani is a Twist of the Thakkali Thokku Biriyani, which I learnt from a TV programme called "Aahaa Enna Ruchi" in 2013. It is a quick and easy method of making delicious biriyani with a nice aroma of ghee.

Ingredients:

Rice – one cup; Ghee – 2to 3 tsps; Dry Chillies – 5-6; Patte – 2 pieces; Clove/Lavanga – 2; Cardamom/Yelakki – 2; Bay leaves – 2 pieces; Cashew nuts full or half – few; Tomatoes-2to 3; Red Chilli powder- 1 to 1 ½ tsp; Salt as needed; Coriander leaves – few sprigs.

                            

Ingredients including 2 Tomatoes to right of plate.

Method :

 Wash rice and cook it in Electric Rice Cooker or Pressure cooker – takes about 15 minutes.

At the same time in a Kadai – heat 2-3 tsps of ghee and add cut dry chillies, patte , lavanga , yelakki- just split open, bay leaves and  cashew nuts full or split. Fry in medium flame for about 3 minutes. Now add long thin slices of tomato and saute for  about 3-4 minutes till tomato becomes soft like Thokku. Add 1 to 1 ½ tsps. of red chilli powder and required quantity of salt and mix well. By this time cooked rice would be ready; add rice little by little and mix well and cook for 2 minutes on low flame. Finally transfer to serving dish and sprinkle coriander leaves. Serve hot and eat with cucumber and onion raitha and papad.

                                            

Biriyani ready to serve with Raitha.

Time :Initial preparation time – 5 minutes. Cooking rice and masala – 15 minutes; Final Cooking – 5 minutes.

Serves 3-4 persons.               

My bragging board - all about my adventure!

Early experiments started around 2000. 

Became single in early 1999, both son and daughter married already and away from home in Chennai & Uma (my wife) suddenly left me. Staying in a large duplex apartment just behind our new Hospital on P.H.Road, I was somewhat busy with own surgery practice, managing the Hospital and also being a home maker. Interested in cooking since my childhood, opportunity knocked heavily on my doors and I threw open all doors! My first “Guru” in cooking (after my mother and my wife) was Prabhakar Bhat, who was running the canteen in our Hospital and became my partner in cooking adventure.

My routine during those busy days.
                                                   

Our new hospital at Chennai, and our Duplex Flat behind.

Up by 5 a.m., I used to be ready for my morning surgery, after making bed coffee, some substantial breakfast like Idli Chutney, Dosas, Adai Dosa or  Uppittu or bread and butter. Surgery starts just around 7.30 a.m. on most days and before that on Mondays because of Rahu Kalam. Back home by 11 or 11.30 0r rarely even 1 or 2 p.m. if any emergency comes up, I would quickly prepare one or 2 dishes like Sambar, Chutney, Palya  etc for noon and night and rice in rice cooker. A brief siesta and evening coffee by 3.30, back to the grind till 7 – 7.30 or rarely late. Have to see patients, look into accounts and take charge of any cash and then only back home. Night dinner would be left over dishes and some fresh rice. If rushed for time either at lunch or dinner, I would manage with some readymade Podies like Dal podi or uddina hittu or cucumber tomato raitha and my favourite curd rice and mango pickles. I managed like this till my Son and Daughter in law joined me in 2001. Then a full time cook was employed and I had to miss my hobby of cooking! My whole routine changed for better or worse.

The retirement bug bit me!

Soon retirement bugs bit me and I started looking for suitable city and place to retire. It was my dream to retire in a large farmhouse with plenty of trees and plants. It is in fact this dream which led me to buy properties here and there and many costly misadventures.  Finally I chose 4 plots of 120X80 feet each in Mysore in 2003 and built a “farm house” as per my plans and retiring from practice moved to Mysore in December, 2004.

The Mysore experience with Periasamy.

                                                 

Periasamy, my man Friday & his guests in Retreat.

                                    

                                              

                                       Grand children Avni & Abhinav visited me in Mysore.

Daughter & family on one of  the visits.

My next culinary adventures were in Mysore with my man Friday, Mr Periasamy as my partner. He was good in making many Tamil recipes, particularly “molagu rasam”, some sambars and kootus. He was a quick learner and soon mastered many Udupi dishes like all kinds of Tamblies, Kattu saaru, Kudu Saaru, many chutnies, Goli baje, adai, nice Kai Huli (Mor Kolambu) and even some sweets like Payasams, Hayagriva Maddi etc. We also started by trying out various dishes from  Kalaigner, Jaya and some other TV channels. Generally Periasamy and me would discuss the recipe, try it out and if necessary modify it next time. If reasonably satisfactory our next guinea pigs were my daughter and son-in-law. They used to come once a month to Mysore for a stint of free medical service in a tribal hospital in Sargur. If these 2 also liked it, that dish is standardized and offered to other guests in future. We learnt and experimented with many kinds of recipes and tried quite a few twists and turns, some of which were Periasamy’s own ideas. His Beans Kai Huli, several Pulavs, many tamblies were fantastic.

My present/ Final destination at Suvidha.

                                       

That is my cottage 114 at Suvidha.

Some other cottages at Suvidha.

To make the story short, I moved out of Mysore for good in mid 2013 and after a period of uncertainty settled in a nice Senior Citizens’ Colony, called Suvidha in Bangalore. I have a 2 bed room row villa with a mini kitchen having an Induction stove, a microwave oven (rarely used) and electric rice cooker; no cooking gas. We residents have the option of getting all or some of our food from the canteen or cook whatever and whenever we felt like cooking. This was again another great opportunity for me to try out my cooking skills and also share and learn from other neighbours. Our canteen at Suvidha had many problems including financial, apart from the basic menu and preparing methods. Few friends and myself offered to improve the canteen affairs. It was another opportunity to interact with our canteen cooks as well as some experts in Andhra and Gujarathi cuisine. We standardized and regularized the menu, introduced some new dishes and a Sunday special lunch and some more. Happy to say that canteen food is far better, services improved also financially also making a small positive impact.

Having a free hand, I experimented more and more and some new twists turned out to be good. This Blog is to share some of my experiments to not only enhance taste but also make food healthier. An online course on Nutrition for Health and disease prevention also helped me improve my perspectives and culinary skills.