Rajeshwari Ganesh

A special educator by passion and profession Rajeshwari Ganesh shares her special recipes and cooking tips with us. Rajeshwari Ganesh - one woman who I have always admired for she have cooked in Viragaduppu and also uses the modern day kitchen gadgets. A small interview with that wonder lady who calls herself as gadget freak, will definitely give you all an insight as to how  she uses her cooking skills effectively to satisfy the tummys of her loved ones. I had a small chat with her to know more about

Me: At what age did you start cooking?

Raji : At the age of 10, I started helping my mom and my paati

Me: So you cooked using viragaduppu at that young age?

Raji: Not in viragaduppu but in pump stove. My mom will give me instructions and I have to cook all in front of mom's eyes, and at the age of 16 I can cook full fledged south Indian cooking without mom's guidance and instructions. But I cooked in Viragaduppu after marriage as my inlaws lived in a village and they are so used to cook in viragaduppu. As I have seen my paati cook in that I was able to do it with ease and when my elder son was just 4 years I did full fledged Srardha samayal using viragaduppu without mixer and grinder. 

Me: So you know to use ammi!!!!

Raji: Yes. I learnt making rotis at the age of 18. I could manage with making dals and sabjis but making roti was quite challenging. I used to pack lunch for my hubby after marriage as it will help in sustaining hunger and for the dinner when I make different south Indian dishes like kathirikkai podi potta curry, sambar etc, he used to praise me, that he is surprised that I can cook so much vareity at this young age. 

Though I learnt making rotis and was making it regularly, I made my first perfect phulka in the year 1995 with the help of a Gujarati neighbour. I stood beside her and watched her do it and it took almost 10 to 15 days for me to get it right and I mastered it within 3 months.

Me: Can you tell me about the modern gadgets you started using in your kitchen?

Raji: I had neighbours, who had relatives settled abroad and who used to talk about lots of kitchen gadgets, that made me look out for them whenever I go to out. They also used to get me small small kitchen accessories which I loved a lot. 

My first introduction to an electric gadget was water heater which made me think that I could keep the milk warm and my child too can have warm milk 24/7. 

When my kids became teenagers they started asking for varities like tandoori items and so my first kitchen gadget was sandwich maker. 

Me: Were you able to make Tandoori dishes using Sandwich maker (I was so surprised)

Raji: No No, I just used to make sandwiches but due to popular demand from kids, I got the electric tandoor which helped me make a lot of dishes for them like naan, pizza etc. I had an old cook book which taught me lots of recipes and I used to watch lots of shows of Tarla Dalal and Sanjeev Kapoor. I used to note down all the recipes in my mind (as in those days whatever we search for in our house we dont get it that easily so it is better to keep that in memory). My mind is my book. After a lot of convincing my husband got me a microwave in which I tried open toasts and pizzas which was a failure.

Me: But in some models we can actually do it is it not?

Raji: May be but in Microwave you wont get the crust formation. It is only for cooking and reheating not suitable for baking. 

Me: Thats interesting

Raji: My little ones have grown up by now and they used to look at the internet and will tell me mom for baking you need an OTG. By this time they also wanted Kebabs, Cutlets and other grilled items. OTG roasts the food that needs it pretty well. These items can not be done in Microwave but needs an OTG. 

For making kebabs and cutlets, I got a table top toaster and griller and started making bread bajjis, masala bread etc along with the other things. 

Me: Is the table top and OTG same or different?

Raji: Table top is open and you can turn whatever you cook on that like you turn dosa the heat produced is also less. In OTG it is a bit difficult to do that. Chances are there, that the cutlets could go dry or burn if you put that in OTG.

Me: Thats quite interesting. 

Raji: I learnt a lot about all these by lots of usage and learning. In OTG, there are two rods one on top and the other one in the bottom. Though you can choose the heat setting for both, still cutlets and toasts come out better in open toaster and griller. But I make baby potato roast, Cheppankizhangu roast in OTG with very minimum oil

Me: Oh thats news to me

Raji: I started a lot of experimenting in Microwave.

Me: What kind of?

Raji: I used to do all kinds of toasting and roasting for podis, sauteing for chutneys and thogayals in that. Mix onion, tomato, chilly and little oil and keep in high for 10 mins, you get the base ready for onion chutney. Grind it and use it. I started using a lot of gadgets to help my kids in their academics as my presence and need was required to them a lot. 


Now I am a proud owner of OTG too. You can call me gadget freak, especially kitchen gadget freak says this proud mom, who cooks all exciting dishes for her kids at home. 

A few recipes from Rajeshwari Ganesh:

Kalathu Podi

Rasam Using Kalathu Podi

Aingaya Podi

Manathakkali Vathal Pathiya Kuzhambu

Manathakkali Vathal Sadam

Sukku Thippili Maruthu

Paruppu Thogayal

Paruppu Thogayal by Rajeshwari Ganesh

Pathiya Samayal Contest entry by Rajeshwari Ganesh

Ingredients:

Thuvar dal - 2 teaspoon
Pepper - 1/2 teaspoon
Salt - To Taste
Gingelly oil - 1 teaspoon
Curry leaves - few

Method:
Heat oil in pan and thurdal, pepper and salt and fry till the dal turns golden brown color.
Grind this in a mixer along with curry leaves and serve with hot rice

Sukku Thippili Marunthu

Pathiya Samayal Contest entry by Rajeshwari Ganesh

Ingredients: 
Sukku Powder - 1/2 spoon
Kandathipili - 5 gms

Omam - 1 spoon

Milagu - 2 spoon

Jeera - 2 spoon

Virali manjal - 1 spoon

Dhania - 4 spoon

Jaggery - 1/4 cup

Ghee or Sesame Oil - 8 spoons

Method:
Dry fry and grind them. Dissolve jaggery in water and add the syrup to the above mixture. Now, add ginger juice and when the mixture got solidifies, add sufficient ghee or sesame oil.

Manathakkali Vathal Sadham

Pathiya Samayal Contest entry by Rajeshwari Ganesh

Ingredients:
Gingelly oil - 1 teaspoon
Manathakkali vathal - 2 teaspoon
Ghee - 2 teaspoon

Method:
Heat oil in pan, and fry the manathakkali vathal and take cooked rice and add fried manathakkali vathal along with ghee and mix well and eat

Manathakkali Vathal Pathiya Kuzhambu

Pathiya Samayal Contest entry by Rajeshwari Ganesh

Ingredients

Gingelly oil - 2 tablespoon
Tamarind - 1 gooseberry size
Mustard seeds - 1 teaspoon
Urdal - 1 teaspoon
Red Chilli - 2
Thur dal - 1 teaspoon
Manathakkali vathal - 1 teaspoon
Salt - To Taste
Ghee - 1 teaspoon
Curry leaves - few

Method:
Heat the tamarind in flame and soak in water and extract the tamarind juice and keep it aside
Heat ghee in a pan and fry the manathakkali vathal till it turns crisp. Take it in a plate and keep it aside
Heat oil in pan, add mustard seeds, when the mustard seeds starts to sputter, add urdal, broken red chilli, thur dal and fry till the dals turns golden brown color
To this add tamarind extract and salt and allow the vathakuzhambu to boil
When the raw smell of tamarind goes off, add the fried manathakkali vathal and curry leaves and remove from flame
Serve vathakuzhambu with hot rice and sutta appalam

Aingaya Podi by Rajeshwari Ganesh

Pathiya Samayal Contest Entry by Rajeshwari Ganesh

Ingredients :
Dhaniya (coriander seeds) - 2 tablespoon
Neem Flower - 2 teaspoon
Sundaikkai vathal - 2 teaspoon
Pepper - 1/2 teaspoon
Cumin seeds - 1/2 teaspoon
Salt - To taste

Method :
Heat a heavy bottomed pan, and add all ingredients and dry fry the ingredients
Grind all the ingredients in a mixer to a nice powder
Serve the angaya podi with hot rice and ghee. This powder is good for stomach.

Rasam Using Kalathu Podi

Pathiya Samayal contest entry by Rajeshwari Ganesh

Ingredients

Tamarind - 1 gooseberry size
Kalathu powder - 2 teaspoon
Mustard seeds - 1/2 teaspoon
Cumin Seeds - 1/2 teaspoon
Ghee - 1 teaspoon

Method:
Heat tamarind in flame and soak in water and extract the juice in a vessel.
Along with the tamarind juice add the kalathu powder, salt and allow the rasam to boil
Heat ghee in a pan and when the ghee is hot, add mustard seeds and cumin seeds and allow it to sputter and then add this seasoned ingredient to the boiling rasam and remove the rasam from flame.
Serve the rasam with hot rice.

Kalathu Podi

Pathiya Samayal contest entry by Rajeshwari Ganesh

This powder is generally used for all curry varieties and also for rasam.

Ingredients:
Pepper - 1/2 teaspoon
Urdal - 1/2 teaspoon
Hing - a pinch
Ghee - 1 teaspoon

Method:
Heat the ghee in a pan and fry all the above ingredients till the urdal turns golden brown color.
Grind this in a mixer to a nice powder.
Add this to poriyal or rasam along with curry leaves and salt.

Healthy dosai milagapodi using flax seeds

Make your Dosai milagapodi very healthy for the whole family by adding roasted flax seeds instead of sesame seeds. dry roast flax seeds equal to the amount of sesame seeds ,and add it along with other ingredients and powder it.keep a dabba of roasted powdered flaxseeds and keep adding to any dish u eat especially salads. this doesnt change ur taste of the original dish.flax seed oil too very gud for health.

Benefits of flax seeds are as follows.

Flaxseeds and flaxseed oil are popular among vegetarians vegertarians want a non-animal source of Omega-3 fatty acids.  Everyone can benefit from adding flaxseeds into their diet. flaxseed oil contains higher levels of Omega-3 than the seeds, the seeds actually have many benefits than just the oil. Here are 10 health benefits of flaxseeds and flaxseed oil.

1. Flaxseeds are great source of fiber and work as a natural laxative.

2. Flaxseed oil contains concentrated amounts of alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), an omega-3 fat. Vegetarians can  use this oil  as a substitute for fish oil,

3. Ground flaxseed help in lowering cholesterol.

4. Flaxseeds are a good source of magnesium.

5. Flaxseeds contain high levels of lignans.

Lignans  protect s against estrogen-dependent cancers such as breast cancer and works as anti-oxidents too.

6. An ounce of ground flaxseed per day  shows to regulate estrogen levels in post-menopausal women.

7. Flaxseeds  protect post-menopausal women from heart disease.

8. Flaxseed decreases insulin resistance and may protect against diabetes.

9. Preliminary research shows that flaxseeds may prevent or slow the spread of prostate.

10. Studies show that flaxseed may prevent or slow the spread of melanoma(skin cancer).

 Moderation is key to anything. Too much flaxseeds may cause negative effects. Just one tablespoon per day is enough in most cases.    How much is right for you, ask your doctor forrecommendation.