7 recipes from across the country to welcome the new year

New year is celebrated in different parts of the country

Sweet potato payesh

Cooking duration: Preparation time – 10 minutes | Cooking time – 30 minutes

Serving size – 6

Sweet potato payesh

Ingredients                       

• Grated sweet potato – 1 cup
• Milk (or soy milk)  – 3 cups 
• Sugar – 1 cup
• Cardamom powder – A pinch   
• Ghee (or vegan ghee) – 2 tbsp
• Broken cashew nuts – 7–8 pieces 
• Khoya – 40 gm

Preparation

1. Grate the sweet potato and put it into a thick-bottomed pan with one tbsp ghee. Sauté for a couple of minutes. 
2. Add the milk to the pan and continue cooking till the milk is reduced to almost three-fourth of the quantity. 
3. Add sugar and khoya to the pan and mix well till dissolved. Ensure that there are no lumps.
4. Heat the remaining ghee and fry the cashew nuts. Add ghee, nuts, and cardamom powder to the payesh.
5. Mix well and serve.

Recipe by  by Chef Ashutosh Nerlekar, executive chef, The Park, Chennai

Raw papaya vada

Cooking duration: Preparation time: 40 – 45 minutes | Cooking time: 10 – 15 minutes

Serving size: 15 – 20 vadas

Raw papaya vada

Ingredients

• Toor dal- 1/2 cup
• Channa dal – 1/2 cup
• Red chillies – 3
• Grated ginger – 1 tsp
• Garlic cloves – 3
• Fennel seeds – 2 tsp
• Turmeric powder – 1/2 tsp
• Salt – to taste
• Curry leaves – 1 sprig
• Shallots – 6, finely chopped
• Oil – for frying

Preparation

1. Wash and soak the dals for 30 minutes.
2. Drain the water and grind the soaked dals coarsely along with fennel seeds, garlic, ginger and red chillies.
3. To the coarsely ground dough add the grated raw papaya., turmeric powder, chopped shallots, curry leaves and salt.
4. In a pan, take oil for frying. Keep it on medium flame.
5. Tip: Frying on medium flame is important to ensure even cooking both inside and outside the vada. You can drop a small portion of the batter to see if the oil is the right temperature for frying. If the batter settles to the bottom of the pan, the oil is not hot enough and if it turns dark brown, the oil is too hot.
6. Mix the batter well, shape it into vadas and gently drop them into the hot oil.
7. Fry them on medium flame until they turn golden brown.
8. Best eaten when hot and crispy.

Curry leaves kheer

Cooking duration: 30 – 35 minutes

Serving size: 4

Curry leaves kheer

• Curry leaves – 2 cups
• Grated coconut – 2 cups
• Deseeded dates – 10
• Cardamom powder – 1/4 tsp
• Dry ginger powder – 1/4 tsp
• Powdered palm candy / pure jaggery – 3 tbsp
• Honey – 1/2 tbsp

Ingredients

Preparation

1. Wash and grind the fresh curry leaves with a cup of water and strain the curry leaves extract.
2. Grind the grated coconut with 2 cups of water and extract thick coconut milk by squeezing well.
3. Soak the dates in warm water for 10 minutes and grind it to a paste.
4. Mix curry leaves juice, coconut milk, dates paste, cardamom powder, dry ginger powder, palm candy powder and honey.
5. Stir well and refrigerate.
6. Serve chilled. 

Recipes by Devibala Chandrasekar, www.kitchendb.in

Carrot-sweet potato (Sakkarai valli kizhangu) sweet somas

Cooking duration: Preparation time: 10 – 12 minutes | Cooking time: 15 – 20 minutes

Serving size: 8-12 somas

Sweet potato somas

Ingredients

• Carrot grated – 1/2 cup
• Sweet potato mashed (Sakkarai valli kizhangu) – 1/2 cup
• Jaggery powdered – 1/2 cup
• Cardamom – 1 tsp
• Whole wheat flour (atta) – 1/2 cup
• Ghee – 1 tbsp
• Oil – for frying
• Salt- a pinch

Preparation

1. Mix the whole wheat atta, salt and ghee in a mixing bowl.
2. To it, add 1/4 cup of water and make into a stiff dough. Cover and keep aside.
3. In a kadai, add little ghee and sauté the sweet potato mash well for two to three minutes.
4. Add the finely grated carrots and mix well.
5. To the mix, add the jaggery powder and mix it in slowly on low heat. To this, add the cardamom powder and allow it to cool.
6. Take a small ball of dough and spread into a small poori.
7. Add one teaspoon of the carrot filling to the middle of the poori.
8. Fold the dough and apply little water to the edges, press it and seal it well.
9. Deep fry in slow heat until golden brown

Kiwi sooji appam

Cooking duration: Preparation time: 40 – 45 minutes | Cooking time: 10 minutes

Serving size: 15 – 20 appams

Kiwi sooji appam

Ingredients

• Kiwi fruit mash – 1/2 cup
• Rava – 1/4 cup
• Sugar – 1/4 cup
• Water – 1/4 cup
• Ghee – 2 tbsp
• Cardamom – 1/2 tsp
• Whole wheat flour (atta) – 1/2 cup
• Refined flour (Maida) – 1/2 cup
• Oil – 1/4 cup
• Salt – one pinch

Preparation

1. Fry the rava in ghee for three to four minutes.
2. Add water and cook on low heat till it completely absorbs the water and becomes dry.
3. To the rava mix, add sugar and continue to cook it for another three to four minutes.
4. Now, add the mashed kiwi fruit and cook for another two to three minutes. Set it aside and let it to cool.
5. In another bowl, mix both the flours, salt and add water gradually and make it into a smooth pliable dough . Soak this dough for five to ten minutes in oil .
6. Heat oil or ghee in a kadai on medium flame and ensure that it is not smoking hot.
7. Spread the dough on a plate, add a big marble size ball of the kiwi stuffing mix, encase this ball with dough and cover all sides.
8. Dip fingers in oil and pressgently to make the dough ball flat and less than 1/4 inches thick.
9. Slowly and carefully take it off the plate and slide into the oil.
10. Fry till golden brown and serve hot

Recipes by Nalina Kannan, proprietor, Thaligai Restaurant, Chennai

Atta kada

Cooking time: 15-20 minutes

Serving Size: Serves 2

Atta Kada

Ingredients

• Ghee – ½ cup
• Whole wheat flour – ½ cup
• Water – 1½ cup
• Sugar – ½ cup

Preparation

1. Heat ghee in a cauldron.
2. Add whole wheat flour in the vessel and cook while stirring till the ghee separates from the mixture and turns brown.
3. Take a pan and add water. When it heats, add sugar and stir till it dissolves in the hot water.
4. Slowly and carefully add the sugar-water syrup to the ghee and whole wheat flour mixture.
5. Stir till the ghee separates from the mixture.
6. Transfer to a bowl and garnish with chopped nuts

Paramjit Kaur, Chandigarh-based home cook and culinary enthusiast

Niramish mangsho

Cooking Duration: Marination time – Overnight | Cook time: 90 minutes

Serving size: 4-6

Niramish Mangsho

Ingredients

For marination

• Thick yogurt – 1/2 cup
• Mustard oil – 1 tbsp
• Ginger paste – 2 tbsp
• Turmeric powder – 1/4 tsp
• Red chili powder – 1/2 tsp
• Bengali garam masala powder- 1/2 tsp
• Salt to taste

For tempering

• Bay leaf – 2
• Cloves – 4
• Green cardamom – 4 pods
• Freshly grated ginger – 2 tbsp
• Kashmiri red chili powder – 1 tsp

For masala paste

• Kashmiri red chili powder – 1 tsp 
• Cumin powder – 2 tsp
• Coriander powder – 2 tsp
• Fennel powder – 1 tsp

Other ingredients

• Tomato 1
• Green chilies – 2-3
• Bengali garam masala – ¼ tsp 
• Nutmeg powder – 1 pinch
• Mace (Javitri) – 1 petal
• Sugar – 2 tsp
• Salt to taste
• Ghee – 1 tbsp
• Mustard oil – 2 tbsp
• Large potatoes halved – 4 (optional)

Preparation

1. Wash the mutton pieces and pat them dry. Add all the ingredients for the marination.
2. In a bowl, add the spices for the masala paste and a little lukewarm water. Let it marinate overnight.
3. Finely chop the tomato and keep it aside.
4. Peel the potatoes and cut them in half. Lightly fry in the mustard oil.
5. In the same kadai, temper the ingredients.
6. Add the masala mix and add little water when needed. Then, add the tomatoes and stir it well.
7. Next add the mutton pieces and stir fry over high heat.
8. After five minutes increase the heat and add the marinade. Fry till the mutton browns a bit.
9. Add the masala paste and mix for the next 10 minutes over medium heat.
10. Adjust the salt and add sugar and potatoes.
11. Cover and slow cook till the mutton is tender.
12. Once the mutton is cooked, add the garam masala, split green chilies, nutmeg powder, mace and finally ghee. Simmer till you have the desired consistency.
13. Serve hot with luchi and steamed rice

Recipe by Chef Sushanta Barui, head chef, Bayleaf, Chennai

(Poila Boishakh special menu is served at Bayleaf, Gopalapuram. Tel: 04428114557/9600094242)