Manathakkali Vathal

Manathakkali Vathal
Scientific name of Manathakkali is  Solanum nigrum.  It is usually called as black nightshade in English.  In Tamilnadu  it is known as manathakkali or milagu thakkali. As  its ripe berries  look like pepper (milagu).  It has more medicinal values. This plant's leaves are used to treat mouth ulcers that happen during winter periods of Tamil Nadu. It controls stomach problems and ulcer. You can take it with curd rice.

In this recipe i used unripe fruits of manathakkali plant. These unripe fruits also have more medicinal value.

Now we shall see how to make manathakkali vathal.
Manathakkali Vathal Ingredients:
Manathakkali vathal - 2 cups
Thick Curd - 3/4 cup
Salt         - 1 tsp
Manathakkali Vathal Method:
Clean and wash manathakkali .

Add salt to the curd and stir till it dissolves.  Add manathakkali   in the curd and mix well and soak it for overnight.

Next day take manathakkali from curd and spread it in the plate and dry under the sun. In the evening you put manathakkali in the remaining curd and soak it for overnight. Repeat the process till the curd is completely absorbed.

Then store it in the container and use.Heat little oil or ghee in a small frying pan and add the vathal.

Take it immediately or else it will splutter.

Note:
You can fry manathakkali vathal in ghee or oil and mix it with hot rice and ghee and take for stomach ulcer.
You can take it with curd rice also.
You can make  vatha kolambu using this vathal.
You can use it as a tempering of any vatha kulambu.
Low the flame while frying.
Home made manathakkali vathal is good. But the store bought ones have slight bitter taste. They do not add enough curd.

Colour Javvarisi Vadam

Colour Javvarisi Vadam

I made this vadam last year but I completely forgot this recipe to post. I saw this recipe this year only in my vadam draft.
Last year I posted vegetable colour vadams. In this recipe I used food colours.

Now let us see how to make colour javvarisi vadam

Colour Javvarisi Vadam Ingredients:


Javvarisi (sago)          - 1 cup
Water                 - 1 ½ + 3 ½
Rock salt             - 1 tsp
Green chilli             - 4 – 5
Curd                           - ¼ cup
Asafoetida           - ¼ tsp
Green colour                    - 2 pinch
Pink colour                       - 2 pinch

Colour Javvarisi Vadam Method:

Soak javvarisi in 1 ½ cup of water overnight and keep it in the fridge. Next day morning boil 3 ½ cups of water. When it starts to bubble add soaked javvarisi and salt and stir continuously till done. For one cup it will take 10 to 15 minutes to cook. Add green chilli paste, curd and asafoetida and mix it well.

Divide the mixture into three parts. Add green food colour in one part and pink colour in another part and mix it well. The third one is natural white colour.

Spread plastic sheet or white cloth in the open terrace under the sun and put the vadam mixture into mini round shapes with spoon or hand (using hand will be faster than using spoon).  Next day you may sprinkle little amount of water in the reverse side of cloth and peel. Spread it in the plate and dry it in the sun for at least two days.

Heat oil in a frying pan and add little bit, when they pop up the oil is ready for frying. Then fry vadams and serve with rice. Store the remaining vadams in the air tight container for later use.

Note:

Use milk white javvarisi for this vadam.

Fry javvarisi vadam in the evening and munch it with tea in the winter season. 

If you want you can add the lime juice. If you add lime juice, vadam will stick on the mouth.

Add 2 tblsp rice flour while cooking the javvarisi, the vadam will not stick on the cloth, and it will come out easily.

If you dry well you can store this vadam in air tight container and use for a year or two.


If you add curd, the vadams will be bright white in colour.  

Elai Vadam / Rice Appalam

Three weeks before we went to the petrol bunk to fill petrol. I saw one vadham tree in that bunk. Suddenly elai vadam recipe came to my mind. So I requested the worker in that bunk to get me some leaves. He plucked one branch and gave it to me. The next day I tried elai vadam in both vadham and vazha elai. Vadam is very easy and came out very well.

Let us see the recipe

Elai Vadam Ingredients:
Raw rice - 1 cup

Cumin (jeera) - ¾ tsp
Salt - ½ tsp
Vadham elai - 4- 6


Elai Vadam Method:
Soak raw rice for about 2 hours. Grind it in the mixie or grinder finely with salt.  Add cumin seeds and mix it well.

The batter is little watery than the dosa batter.

Spread the batter in the vadham elai or vazha elai (plantain leaf).

 Steam cook in the idli pan. It will get cooked in a few seconds.

Peel the vadam from the leaf and dry it in the white cloth under the fan.

Next day dry it in the sun light for 3 hours and store it in the air tight container.
Heat oil in a frying pan. Put little bit of vadam in to the oil, it will pop up then the oil reaches the frying stage. Fry the vadam and serve it with rice or variety rice. I served with beet root poriyal and murungakkai sambar.

Note:
Batter consistency is very important for this vadam.
If the batter is thick, the vadam will be hard. So make the batter to right consistency.
I make this vadam in the idiyappam plate. So the plate’s round mark is in every vadam.
Now vadam stand is available in the market.
You can ferment the batter over night and make the vadam in the morning also.
You can break the vadam in to small pieces and fry it in the little oil also.
Sun light is not necessary for this vadam.

Javvarisi Vadam / Sago Vadam

Javvarisi vadam recipe is an easy recipe and every one can make easily.  If there is no veggies in the house you can make rasam and fry vadams and eat the lunch without disturbing the stomach. Every summer i love to make this vadam. This summer I tried artificial color also. After a few days I shall post that also. For this vadam we need not prepare anything in advance.

Here is the quick video

Let us see the recipe.

Javvarisi Vadam Ingredients:
Javvarisi (sago) - 1 cup

Water - 1 ½ + 3 ½
Rock salt         - 1 tsp
Green chilli - 4 – 5
Curd               - ¼ cup
Asafoetida - ¼ tsp
Lime juice          - 2 tsp (optional)
Beetroot            - 1 small
Tomato - 1 ½
Kashmiri chilli powder- ½ tsp
Coriander or mint    - ½ bunch

Javvarisi Vadam Method:
Soak javvarisi in 1 ½ cup of water overnight and keep it in the fridge. Next day morning boil 3 ½ cups of water. When it starts to bubble add soaked javvarisi and salt and stir continuously till done. (There are so many snaps for this recipe so I skipped the water boiling snap).

  For one cup it will take 10 to 15 minutes to cook. Add green chilli paste, curd, asafoetida and lime juice and mix it well.

Peel beetroot and cut in to cubes. Grind coriander, beetroot and tomato separately without adding water in the mixie.

  In the tomato pulp add kashmiri chilli powder and mix it well. Divide vadam mixture into 4 equal amounts. Add coriander paste in one and add beetroot paste in another and add tomato pulp in the third one and mix it well.

Spread plastic sheet or white cloth in the open terrace under the sun and put the vadam mixture into mini round shapes with spoon or hand (using hand will be faster than using spoon).

 Next day you may sprinkle little amount of water in the reverse side of cloth and peel. Spread it in plate and dry it in the sun for at least two days.
Heat oil in a frying pan and add little bit, when they pop up the oil is ready for frying. Then fry vadams and serve with rice.

Store the remaining vadams in the air tight container for later use.

Note:
Use milk white javvarisi for this vadam.
Add vegetable mixture when it is hot. So you need not cook further.
Fry javvarisi vadam in the evening and munch it with tea in the winter season.
If you want you can add the lime juice. If you add lime juice, vadam will stick on the mouth.
Add 2 tblsp rice flour while cooking the javvarisi, the vadam will not stick on the cloth, and it will come out easily.
If you dry well you can store this vadam in air tight container and use for a year or two.
If you add curd, the vadams will be white in colour.

Vengaya Kari Vadagam / Small onion

Vengaya Kari Vadagam (Chettinad)
Small onion is good for health. It cools down the body. It can cure the digestive problems. Small onions are antiseptic and antibiotic. Onions can cure common fever, cold and dry cough. If you have dry cough, chop few small onion and sauté in the ghee with two teaspoon of palm sugar and eat, the cough will go.
Kari vadagams are time consuming to make but good to eat. It tastes like onion pakodas. To Peel the small onion (shallots) and chop is a tedious job, but if it tastes good then we will forget all the difficulty. Let us see how to make

Vengaya Kari Vadagam Ingredients:
Small onion (shallots - 750 gms

Urad dal - 200 gms
Red Chilli - 15
Garlic - 10 cloves
Cumin seed - 1 tsp
Fennel seed - 1 tsp
Mustard - ¾ tsp
Curry leaves - few
Turmeric powder - ½ tsp
Fenugreek - ½ tsp
Salt - 3 ½ tblsp
















Vengaya Kari Vadagam Method:
Soak urad dal for one hour and grind it to a smooth batter. Don’t add more water while grinding. Sprinkle water and grind it to a smooth batter.

Soak fenugreek for about 4 hour. Add red chilli, fenugreek, cumin, fennel and salt in a mixie and grind coarsely.

 Peel small onion and garlic and chop finely. Chop curry leaves finely.

Add urad dal batter, Ground powder, turmeric powder, mustard, curry leaves, chopped onion and garlic in a broad bowl and mix it well.

Take this batter in the hand and put small amount in the plain white cloth and dry it in the sun. Next day sprinkle little water on the back side of cloth and peel. Spread it in the plate and again dry it in the sun. Dry it for at least four days. Store it in the air tight container.

Heat oil in a frying pan .When the oil comes to the frying stage you slow down the flame and fry. Or else it will be burnt.

Note:
Always slow down the flame and fry.
If you make more vadagams, you can store half the quantity in the fridge. First you can consume the outside vadagam.
As I was lazy, I ground small amount of onion in the mixie, so my batter became watery, hence my    vadagams are flat.
If you find difficult to chop small onion you can use finely chopped big onion.
Add green chillies instead of red chillies.

Kanji Vathal / Rice Vadam

Kanji Vathal (Chettinad)
Some amount of rice was left, as we suddenly went out for lunch. I didn’t like to throw it. So I decided to make rice vadam (kanji vathal) out of it. This is the best season for making vadams and vathals. This is one of the best way to utilize the left over rice. In olden days left out rice was known as kanji. So this is called as Kanji vathal.

Kanji Vathal / Rice Vadam Ingredients:

Left out rice - 2 Cup

Red chilli powder - 1 tsp
Salt - to taste
Asafoetida - ¼ tsp
Cumin seed - 1 tsp














Kanji Vathal / Rice Vadam Method:
Add left out rice, salt, redchilli powder and asafetida in a mixie and grind.

Add cumin seed and mix it well. Place white cloth in a plate and put this mixture into tiny bits. Dry in the sun light.

Next day peel the vadam from the cloth and put in the plate and dry it in the sun for 2 to 3 days.

 After drying store it in the airtight container. Heat oil in a frying pan add little bit, when it pops up the oil is ready to fry. Add the vadams in the hot oil and fry all the sides well. Serve with all rice varieties.

Note:
If the vadam is not dried well it will stick to the teeth.
So you can dry it well in the direct sunlight 3 to 4 days.
Add green chilli instead of red chilli powder.