Thengai Thogayal

Whenever I ask my hubby the thogayal he wants, his first choice is always thengai thogayal, the spicy and tangy thogayal goes well literally with everything just hot rice or tangy rasam or curd rice. The perfect mixture of dals and coconut makes the taste of this thogayal liked by every one. One of my hubby's friend prefer to eat it just like that in a cup with a spoon. Though he drinks water every other spoon he still relishes it. 

Ingredients:
Grated coconut - 1 cup
Thuvar dal - 3/4th cup
Tamarind paste - 1 tbsp
Salt to taste
Curry leaves a few
Red Chillies - 8 nos
Gingely Oil - 2 tbsp

Method:
In a pan add gingely oil and when hot add thuvar dal and when it starts turning brown add curry leaves red chillies. When the red chillies get fried add the grated coconut and mix well. Switch off the flame and add the salt and the tamarind paste. Let it cool and grind it to a coarse paste adding very little water. 
Serve it with hot rice and gingely oil. It can also be served with dosa or chappati.

Coconut Ladoo

One another sweet that can be made using Coconut is Coconut Ladoo. Simple and easy to make sweet with very basic ingredients. 

Ingredients

Rawa - 1 cup

Grated Coconut - 1 1/2 cup (fresh)

Condensed Milk - 1 tin

Powdered Sugar - 1 cup

Method:
Roast Rawa in a dry pan, till it turns golden brown. Add one cup of grated coconut and mix well. Dry roast the remaining 1/2 cup of coconut and grind it to a fine powder.  Mix in the powdered sugar and add 1/2 tin of the milk maid and mix well. Make small balls of the mixture and roll in the ground coconut. Place it in the refrigerator. 

Red Garlic Chutney - A spicy side dish recipe for Idly and Dosa

Ingredients:
Grated Coconut - 1 cup
Garlic - 8 cloves
Red Chillies - 4 (round vareity)
Tamrind Paste - 1 tsp
Oil - 2 tsp
Mustard Seeds - 1/2 tsp
Hing - a pinch
salt to taste

Method:
Heal 1 tsp of oil in a pan and saute the red chillies along with garlic for a minute. Add the coconut to the pan and fry till it turns golden brown. Let it cool and grind it to a paste along with tamrind paste and salt. Add little water, to make it a paste.

Heat oil in a seasoning laddle and add mustard seeds to it, when it splutters add asafodeita(hing) and pour it on top of the chutney.

This can be served with Idly or Dosa. (Especially for dosa that is made on the very day when the batter is prepared).

Thengai Saadam (Coconut Rice)

Coconut Rice is always a favourite in our family. It also happens to be one of the dishes for Aadi Perukku.

Ingredients:
Cooked Rice - 1 cup
Coconut - 1/2
Red Chilly - 2 nos
Green Chilly - 1 small
Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
Broken Urad Dal - 1 tbsp
Bengal Gram Dal - 1 tbsp
Cashew Nuts - 12 nos
Curry Leaves - A few
Salt to taste
Ghee or Oil - 1 tbsp

Method:

   In a pan add ghee or oil and add mustard seeds and let it splutter. Add urad dal, bengal gram dal and cashew nuts and fry it till it becomes golden in colour.  Add the green and red chillies and fry it for a few minutes. Add the grated coconut and fry till it become red in colour. Add curry leaves and salt and mix thoroughly. Remove from flame and add the cooked rice to it. (Check for slat after mixing the rice and add if needed).

Recipe for coconut Burfi

Ingredients:
Grated Coconut - 1 cup
Sugar - 2 cups
Ghee - 1 cup
Cashewnuts - 12 cut into small pieces and fry it in 1 tbsp of ghee.

Method:
     In 1/2 cup of water dissolve sugar and let it boil, Bring it to thick one string consistency. Add the grated coconut to it slowly. Keep stirring and add the ghee little by little. Both the sugar and coconut should get mixed up well and should get hardened. Bubbles should form on the top and the mixture should leave the sides of the vessel. Before removing from flame add the cashewnuts and mix well. Remove and pour it in ghee greased plate. When warm cut into pieces. When cold remove the pieces and store in a clean dry container.

How to extract coconut milk?

Coconut milk form one of the main ingredient for many of the Kerala dishes. Coconut milk is not the water that is found inside when it is broken, but it is the extract of the fluid that is obtained by grinding the white pulp.

Coconut milk is served as a side dish for Appam and Idiyappam as a side dish. It is also used to make curries and Biriyani to give an enhanced taste.

Ingredients:
Whole matured coconut - 2 no
Warm water - 6 cups

Method:
Break the coconut into two. Cut the white flesh into small pieces using a knife. Grind the pieces . Add 1 1/2 cups of water and grind for about 3 to 4 mins. It will be better if a juicer extractor is used to grind them if not it have to strained using a strainer. Keep it seperately.

Put the extracted pulp again into the grinder and add 2 cups of water and grind it again. Strain the milk again. Grind the remaining pulp again in the blender adding another 2 cups of water and strain it again.

Keep all the 3 milk extracts separately. Do not mix. The 2nd and 3rd extract are used as an ingredients in soups, curries etc. The first milk  extract acts as a side dish.

Never grind the coconut more than thrice and throw away the waste.

Coconut Chutney Recipe - 2

Ingredients:
Grated Coconut - 1 cup
Roasted gram dhal(Pottu kadalai) - 1/2 cup
Red Chillies - 3
Curry leaves - 1/2 cup
Tamarind - little and salt ot taste
oil - 2 Teaspoons
Mustard Seeds
Asafodeita - 1 pinch
Black gram dhal - 1 teaspoon

Method:
Grind coconut, pottu kadalai, red chillies, curry leaves. In a kadai heat oil and saute mustard seeds, black gram dal, Heat the oil. Fry the mustard seeds, Black gram dal, asafodeita. Add this to the ground paste

Recipe for Coconut Chutney

Be it Idly or be it Dosa, comes next the Adai, Vadai or Chappati, every dish needs a side dish and an easy to make side dish is Coconut Chutney.
Ingredients:
Grated Coconut - 1 cup,
Roasted gram dhal (Pottu kadalai) - 1/2 cup,
Green Chillies - 3 to 4
Curry leaves- 1/2 cup
Coriander leaves - 1/2 cup
Salt ot taste
oil - 2 Teaspoons
Mustard seeds
roken Urad dal - 1 teaspoon

Method:
Grind coconut, pottukadalai, green chillies, half of the curry leaves and coriander leaves, salt. Heat the oil. Fry the mustard seeds, broken urad dal and curry leaves. Add this to the ground chutney and serve.