Brinjal Biryani/Kathirikai Biryani Recipe

Actually I wanted to finish my Sunday Lunch Recipes series this week by posting an interesting biryani recipe.But suddenly I changed my plan and postponed the conclusion of this series to next weekend as I came across this yummy biryani recipe using my favorite vegetable, Brinjal . I have tried brinjal gravy as a side dish for biryani but never thought of making a biryani adding whole brinjals.When Valarmathi shared this Kathirikai biryani,I was so excited & bookmarked it immediately to try this one.In Andhra,people call this as Vankaya biryani but its method & ingredients are slightly different. I made few additions to the original recipe and tried it yesterday.It came out very well.Being a big brinjal fan,I loved this rice to the core.I am so happy to add this biryani recipe in my Sunday Lunch Recipes Series and this is my 35th recipe in this series!Lets see how ro make this yummy & delicious Brinjal Biryani/Kathirikai Sadam recipe.I am dedicating this post to all brinjal lovers like me .

Brinjal Biryani Recipe

How to make birnjal biryani / Kathirikai sadam

Cuisine: Indian

Category: Biryani

Serves: Serves 2

Prep time: 10 Minutes

Cook time: 20 Minutes

Total time: 30 Minutes

INGREDIENTS

1 cup = 200 ml Raw Rice OR Steamed Rice - 1 cup Cooking oil or ghee -  2tbsp Small brinjals - 6 nos Big onion - 1 no Ripe tomato - 2 nos Curd – 2 tbsp Green chillies – 2-3 nos Whole Garam masala - 1 each ( cinnamon,2 cloves,cardamom,black stone flower,bayleaf) Fennel seeds – 1/2 tsp Mint leaves – few Coriander leaves - few Water - 2.5 cups To stuff & marinate brinjals Ginger & garlic paste - 1 tbsp Red chilli powder - 1 tsp Dhania powder –1 tsp Garam masala powder - 1/2 tsp Lemon juice - as needed

METHOD

Wash and slit the brinjals into 4 pieces without removing the stem. Keep them immersed in water till use to avoid discoloration.Mix all the masala powders & ginger,garlic paste with lemon juice given under “to marinate & stuff brinjal”.Stuff this paste inside the brinjal and let it marinate for 20 minutes. In a pressure cooker base, heat oil and saute the whole garam masala & fennel seeds.Do not burn the fennel seeds.Add onions & slitted green chillies immediately.Saute until transparent.Add the tomato pieces & saute until mushy. Now add the marinated brinjal and mix well until it shrinks slightly. Add mint leaves +coriander leaves.Mix well and then add curd.Stir it well & add water with required salt. Add the rice,mix well & pressure cook in low flame for one whistle.Open & fluff it with a fork.Serve hot with raita!

Note

Adjust the quantity of spices as per your taste. You can replace brinjal with mixed vegetables or mushroom.In that case u don’t need to marinate.Instead add the paste after sauting onions & mix well till its raw smell leaves off I din’t use basmati rice or jeera rice for this biryani.You can use them if you wish.For 1 cup of basmati rice,u should add 2 cups of water after soaking the rice for 20 minutes.for jeera rice, use 1:2 water without soaking the rice.

Try this easy,yummy biryani recipe if you are a brinjal fan.U will fall for its taste !

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Baby Potato Fry (Small Potato Curry) Recipe

This is my second recipe for baby potato curry.Earlier I have shared a madurai style small potato curry.After that,I din’t get a chance to make baby potato recipes other than biryani and pulao.So this time I reserved few baby potatoes to make an easy,spicy curry recipe for rice.It’s a no grinding roast recipe that takes less preparation time if you have cooked & peeled small potatoes ready in hand.This recipe is apt for Bachelors and working women who look for easy side dish for rice.Yesterday morning I tried this along with paruppu rasam for Sendhil & Raksha’s lunch box.They loved it a lot.It ‘s a good side dish for sambar rice,rasam and even curd rice.So friends,try this easy and spicy small potato curry for your lunch and share your feedback with me.

Baby potato fry recipe

Small potato curry/Baby potato fry recipe for rice

Cuisine: Indian

Category: Side dish for rice

Serves: Serves 3

Prep time: 15 Minutes

Cook time: 10 Minutes

Total time: 25 Minutes

INGREDIENTS

Baby potato - 15 nos Big onion - 1 no ( finely chopped) G&G paste - 1/2 tsp Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp Red chilli powder - 1.5 tsp ( use 1 tsp for less spice) Dhania powder - 1 tsp Garam masala powder - 1/2 tsp Lemon juice - few drops Coriander leaves – to garnish(optional) Salt & water - as needed To temper Cooking oil - 2 tbsp Mustard seeds – 1/2 tsp Urad dal – 1 tsp Cumin seeds/Jeera – 1/2 tsp Curry leaves - few

METHOD

Wash and pressure cook potatoes adding 1/4 tsp of turmeric powder.Peel the skin and set aside.You can prick the potatoes with a fork if you wish. Heat oil in a kadai and splutter mustard seeds,urad dal,cumin seeds. Add finely chopped onions & curry leaves.After onion turn transparent,add the g&g paste.Saute till raw smell goes offf.Then add red chilli powder,turmeric powder,dhania powder,garam masala powder and salt.Lower the flame and saute for few seconds.Lastly add the peeled small potatoes and mix well. Saute for few minutes & after the masala is well coated over the potatoes,switch off the flame.Sprinkle some lemon juice.Garnish with coriander leaves if you wish.Serve hot with rice !

Note

Adjust the quantity of chilli powder as per your taste. For no onion no garlic version,skip onions and g&g paste.Instead add finely chopped ginger while sauting. Lemon juice can be skipped if you want the curry to be more spicy. You can also garnish it with coriander leaves after switching off the flame.

Easy,spicy baby potato curry,Paruppu rasam with banana chips was our lunch yesterday

It was yummm !! You too give a shot !

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Ginger Carrot Soup Recipe Without Coconut Milk - Indian Vegetarian Soup Recipes

Ginger carrot soup recipe is a perfect, soothing, Indian vegetarian soup recipe for Winter season. I have never imagined a soup recipe beyond tomato soup and sweet corn soup so far. Other than this, I have tried Veg clear soup with wontons in a Chinese restaurant and tomato shorba in a North Indian restaurant. Last week when I was talking with my friend Shalini, she was suggesting me to try this healthy ginger carrot soup by sharing her recipe. This recipe is without coconut milk and milk. So Vegans can try this recipe adding olive oil instead of butter. Even weight watchers can have this soup as it is prepared with ginger.  I have heard about this soup but I had no idea of how it tastes & looks. I thought this soup might be having a sweet taste because of carrot and I was hesitant to try it. On the same day, I got a mail from the editor of Daily thanthi newspaper asking me to share some interesting soup recipes for Monsoon. I tried this soup with a 50-50 mind set. But to my surprise, it came out extremely well. Sendhil & Raksha were full of praises😄. The smell of butter and spices with the mild ginger flavor were awesome. For Vegan version, replace butter with olive oil. Non-vegetarians can use chicken stock instead of vegetable stock. I happily clicked the picture of this soup and shared the recipe with the editor. It was published on last Sunday Chennai edition. I was waiting for Karthigai deepam celebrations get over to post this yummy & rich, creamy carrot ginger soup recipe in my blog. So here you see how to make this easy,creamy and healthy ginger carrot soup recipe ! It’s a perfect n soothing soup recipe for this rainy season.

Check out my tomato soup & sweet corn soup recipes if interested !

Ginger Carrot Soup Recipe

Ginger Carrot Soup Recipe - Healthy soup recipe

Cuisine: Indian

Category: Soup

Serves: Serves 2

Prep time: 10 Minutes

Cook time: 20 Minutes

Total time: 30 Minutes

INGREDIENTS

Butter - 1 tbsp (Olive oil for Vegan version) Carrot - 1 Big sized Ginger - 2 inch piece Big onion - 1/2 no Garlic cloves - 5 small Bay leaf - 1 no Cinnamon - 1 inch piece Salt - as needed Water  or vegetable stock - 2 cups ( adjust) Sugar - 1/4 tsp Pepper powder - as needed Fresh cream - 1 tbsp (optional)

METHOD

Wash and chop the carrots into slices. Chop onions,ginger and garlic cloves. Heat a pressure cooker base adding 1 tbsp of butter (Use butter for best taste,Vegans can use olive oil).Saute bayleaf and cinnamon for a second.Add the chopped onions,ginger,garlic and carrot pieces.Saute for a minute.   Lastly add 2 cups of water and required salt.Pressure cook in low flame for 2 whistles till carrots are done. Open the cooker after the steam is released.Drain the excess water in a bowl. Take out the bay leaf and cinnamon from the cooked mixture and add it to the drained water. Let the carrot mixture cool down.Grind them into a smooth paste adding reserved water.Strain the ground paste using a metal strainer.Use a spoon & mix well to strain it thoroughly.It will look like a paste while you strain.Add it to the reserved water and boil the soup for few minutes adding sugar,salt and pepper powder. Add little water if necessary. Lastly add the fresh cream,mix well and switch off the flame.Serve Hot !! Enjoy this flavorful,soothing Carrot Ginger Soup with your family:)

Note

Adjust the quantity of pepper powder as per your taste. You can skip cinnamon if you don’t want more spices. This soup can be had directly without straining to get a creamier taste. Instead of carrot,u can use pumpkin. Fresh cream is completely optional.But don’t skip butter if you are not a vegan.It gives a great flavor to this soup.

Try this easy,healthy Carrot Ginger Soup during this monsoon season.You will enjoy every sip of it !

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Maida Appam Recipe With Sugar - Karthigai Deepam Recipes

Maida sweet appam - Sweet maida maavu paniyaram recipe with step by step photos and video !

Sweet appam can be made using different ingredients.It can be prepared with maida,wheat flour or raw rice.I have already shared two versions using wheat flour & raw rice.Here is my third version of sweet appam using maida,banana &sugar.This is the most easy to make version among all the three.My Mil makes this appam for our surprise guest along with a bajji variety. My MIL makes deep fried version whereas I used paniyaram pan here.If you feel maida & sugar are unhealthy,u can replace it with wheat flour & jaggery.Lets see how to make this easy sweet appam recipe using maida & sugar for Karthigai deepam festival !
Please click HERE to check my other recipes for Karthigai Deepam.

Maida appam with sugar

Sweet appam with maida,banana & sugar

Cuisine: Indian

Category: Sweet

Serves: 8 nos

Prep time: 5 Minutes

Cook time: 10 Minutes

Total time: 15 Minutes

INGREDIENTS

1 cup = 200ml 

Maida/All purpose flour - 1/2 cup Rice flour – 1 tbsp Small banana - 1 no ( I used yelaki) Sugar - 1/4 cup Cardamom powder - 1/8 tsp ( 2 seeds) Water - as needed Cooking soda - A pinch Salt – a pinch

METHOD

Take the ripe banana and mash it well with your  hands or grind in a mixie. To this, add maida, sugar, rice flour, cooking soda, salt and cardamom powder. Mix well without water. Add water little by little and make a smooth, lump free batter. Batter should be thick but pourable. If the batter is too thin, appam may become flat. If its too thick, appam would be hard. So take care. Heat a paniyaram pan adding oil in each hole. After the pan is heated,pour a small ladleful of batter in each hole.Keep the flame medium and cover cook for sometime.Flip it & cook for the other side too.Remove in a bowl. I tried few appam by deep frying them.I used oil till 1/4 of the pan and deep fried one at a time.It came out well with golden brown color as u see in the picture below.So if you wish to deep fry,u can go ahead. But remember to deep fry the appam in less oil to get a good shape. I used my mini tadka pan. You can use any kadai. Enjoy !

Note

Replace maida with wheat flour & sugar with jaggery for healthy substitute.

Try this quick and easy maida appam for this festival.Happy Karthigai Deepam !

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Karthigai Deepam Pooja Procedure, Date, Recipes - How to celebrate Karthigai deepam at home

In this post, lets see how to celebrate Karthigai deepam pooja at home. Karthigai Deepam is a festival of lights, celebrated in the Tamil month of Karthigai. It is celebrated on the full moon day of the Karthigai month (November-December) which coincides with Karthika star. 

This year 2023, Thirukarthigai deepam falls on Sunday November 26th. Pooja should be done in the evening around 5.30 to 6pm (After 6pm if Sunday). Actually One must light deepam every evening near the entrance door and do the pooja on all the 30 days of this month. On the Thirukarthigai day, the entire house is decorated with the oil lamps. This festival of lights indicates the removal of darkness (Ignorance) and enhancing of light (Intelligence). Karthika Month is the only month in which both Lord Shiva and Lord Vishnu are worshipped. 

Karthika Pouranmi or Karthika Purnima is also one of the days when the temples of Lord Shiva and Lord Vishnu are full with the devotees wanting a darshan of their deities. 

The other names of Karthika Pournami are Deva Diwali or Tripurari Purnima. Generally people observe vratham/fasting during 30 days of Karthigai month. On those days, people avoid eating Non-veg foods. They take head bath daily and read one chapter in Kanda puranam book. They must take meal only once per day either it can be a lunch or dinner. Most of the people observe this kind of Vratham on auspicious days like Karthika poornima/ pournami, Karthigai somavaram etc. In this month, Karthigai Deepam is the most important festival for Hindus.

Story behind this festival

This festival is celebrated in a special manner in Thiruvannamalai. Lord Shiva asks Lord Brahma and Lord Vishnu to find out the exact location of his head and his feet. Since Lord Shiva takes a gigantic form, they are not able to find out anywhere. Then Lord Shiva takes the form of a jyothi (light of fire) on the hill of Thiruvannamalai. Therefore, this festival is also known as Annamalai Deepam. Here, a special torch / jothi is lighted on the zenith of the hill and it is believed that Lord Shiva's jothi will be visible on this day.

Lord Muruga took the form of six babies in a lake called "Saravana Poigai". On this day, all his six forms were united by Parvathi (his mother) and this way, he had six faces. Special poojas are performed to Lord Muruga.

On this day, people clean the houses. In the evening, they draw kolams (Rangoli, Please visit my in-laws kolam blog "Learn Kolam" for Rangoli ideas.) in the front of the house and also place some lamps on it. The lamps(Agal vilakku) are placed in the pooja and lighted. Then the naivedyam & deeparadhanai is done after which the lamps are moved to different places in the house. The lamps are arranged near the doors and windows and also in the balconies. A lamp should be kept in Rice containers & Salt box too. In this way, people of Tamil Nadu celebrate Karthigai Deepam for three days.

Source: 

http://www.yadtek.com/karthika-pournami-festival-story-and-its-significance/

http://klavanya.wordpress.com

Significance of Karthigai Deepam

Karthigai Deepam is an auspicious time to experience the light & power of divine. The auspicious combination of the Full Moon in the month of Karthigai (November – December in English) and the dazzling star Krithika allows the light of divine consciousness to enter into the world.

On this day, Arunachala deepam in Thiruvannamalai, the Mountain of Light (fire) is said to represent the divine, Shiva in his form as the element of Fire. He comes alive and radiates a unique energy that enables you to move from human intelligence to divine intelligence.

Furthermore, Krithika (Karthigai) is the birth star associated with Muruga. So Karthigai Deepam is one of the blessed times of the year where the divine energies can burn your karmic sufferings and help you experience inner transformation.

Source : http://www.astroved.com/us/specials/karthigai-deepam

Ingredients for Pooja & Neivedyam

For Pooja

• Lamps/Agal vilakku – as needed ( Click HERE for homemade lamps using rice flour)
• Wicks/threads
• Oil & ghee
• Betel leaves/Betel nut ( Vetrilai,paaku)
• Banana/Vazhai pazham
• Flowers
• Incense stick,Dhoop & camphor
• Coconut

For neivedyam

• Aval pori (or) Nel Pori (or) Arisi pori/Puffed rice
• Dark colored jaggery ( pagu vellam, for making paagu)
• Raw rice Or Wheat flour Or maida for making appam
• Sugar ( If using for appam)
• Coconut
• Raw rice & moong dal for making payasam
• Raw rice or store bought rice flour for making Maavilakku

Please visit my in-laws kolam blog "Learn Kolam" for Rangoli ideas.

How to perform Karthigai Deepam Pooja

• In Tamil nadu, Karthigai Deepam is celebrated for 3 days. The Previous day to karthigai is called as Barani deepam. So we keep 5-7 lamps in the entrance on Barani deepam day.

Prepreparatory works

• Two days before the karthigai deepam, you should finish all the shopping and keep all the ingredients ready. Every year we used to buy one new lamp/Agal vilakku. If you have this practice, buy one. While buying the lamps, make sure there are no cracks on it.
• One day prior to the festival, clean the house & wash all the lamps, pooja vessels at home & agal vilakku you used in the previous years. For washing agal vilakku, take water in a big bowl adding soap powder/Detergent. Soak the lamps for 15 minutes and then wash it. This helps to remove the oil greased in the lamps. If you are using new lamps, you don’t need to soap wash them. Just wash it in plain water. Spread the lamps in a wide plate and let it dry till afternoon. After its dried, keep turmeric and kumkum on three sides of lamp.
• On that day evening,take 5 or 7 lamps, put oil & wicks. Draw some rangoli in the entrance & light the lamps after doing naivedyam preparations. You can make any payasam with jaggery. While lighting the agal vilakku, you should not light the lamp inside the house and take it outside. Instead you should light the lamps only after keeping them outside. It’s a sentiment we follow. You can also do it if you like. 

On Karthigai deepam day

• The next day i.e on Karthigai deepam day morning, observe fasting and prepare all the neivedyam recipes. Soak the rice for making Maavilakku & appam. Make pori urundai and store in a box. Grind the batter and keep it ready for appam. Mix jaggery and homemade rice flour for maavilakku. Make a ball, put a dent. Keep turmeric & kumkum dots. Set aside. No need to add ghee now. You can roast rice n dal for making payasam and keep aside. Apart from these recipes, I also make salt less kozhukattai & rice flour lamps following my mom. I do this every year for the well being of my family members. In the below picture, you can find the homemade lamps and kozhukattai. If you wish you can try them too. Please check this link for the recipe & procedure.

  

  
  
• Prepare the lunch and have it. After having lunch, at around 4 pm, prepare the payasam. Make appam. Put the wicks for all the washed lamps and pour oil. Pour ghee for maavilakku and put the wick.Wash the entrance and draw Rangoli/Kolam. Please visit my in-laws kolam Youtube channel "Learn Kolam" for Rangoli ideas. At around 5 pm, decorate the pooja room by keeping flowers.Take a plate and keep betel leaf, nut, banana and broken coconut. Arrange all the neivedyam recipes in another plate. Keep the maavilakku in front of the God.
• First light the maavilakku & the lamps/Vilakku in pooja room. Do not light the agal vilakku now. By 5.30 pm you can start the pooja and by 6 pm you can light the lamps outside. Most of you must be watching Thiruvannamalai Karthigai Deepam thiruvizha in TV channels. You can also light the lamps around your house by the time they lit the jothi in temple. 
• While lighting the lamps, you can chant the slokhas given below in the next section. Do the neivedyam, dhoopam and dheeparadhanai. After doing the pooja, first light two lamps. Keep one inside the rice container and the other one inside the salt container. Keep one near Thulasi plant if you have. 
• Keep the containers open. Remember all the vilakku should face only EAST. 
• Now take the remaining lamps and arrange them in the entrance as you wish. Light them using a match stick. You should not light the lamp inside the house and take it outside. Instead you should light the lamps only after keeping them outside. It’s a sentiment we follow. Please remember this point and follow if you wish. (Actually I asked my MIL on why to follow this. She replied that if we light the lamps and take it outside, sometimes it may blow off due to wind. We may feel bad on this auspicious day. To avoid this, we are keeping the lamps outside and then we light them. My husband's paati i.e my MIL's mother in-law followed this :))
• Now light the remaining lamps and keep them in entrance of each room. Please be careful after you keep the lamps inside the house. Warn your kids about them. Let the lamps glow all around your house. Decorate your house with lamps as you like. Once they turn off automatically, you can remove them after 9 pm. Arrange them in the plate. 
• Repeat the same on the next day evening too. Some people make batchanams like adhirasam & milagu jeeraga adai for next day neivedyam. But we just keep some fruits or dry grapes or sugar candy/kalkandu and do the neivedyam. Keep some lamps in odd number the next day. No need to keep lamps inside the house for every room. So totally it’s a three days celebration.

Karthigai Deepam Slokas

“Shubham Karoti Kalyaannam-Aarogyam Dhana-Sampadaa
Shatru-Buddhi-Vinaashaaya Deepa-Jyotir-Namostute”

“Deepa-Jyotih Para-Brahma Deepa-Jyotir-Janaardanah
Deepo Haratu Me Paapam Deepa-Jyotir-Namostute”

Karthigai deepam recipes

Below you can find the collection of Karthigai Deepam recipes like appam, pori urundai, maavilakku and payasam recipes from my blog. Please click on the images to see the respective recipe. I have also a shared a video on how to make pori urundai. I hope you will find these recipes easy to make & useful.

Please check THIS LINK to view my full collection of Karthigai recipes :)

  
   
  
 

Friends, the procedure I have shared here is completely based on my family’s tradition. This may differ for from place to place. So please take the advice from an elderly woman who is regularly performing the puja and change it. Thanks for visiting this page. Please write a few words in the comment section if you find this post useful.

Have a happy Karthigai Deepam Celebration !! See you all in my next post. Bye for now.

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