Coconut Milk - Cooking Essentials

If you are from tamilnadu especially from chettinad you must prepare coconut milk for at least 4 or 5 times a week because coconut milk plays a significant role in your dish. I suggest coconut milk instead of coconut paste in my curries because it gives affluent aroma to our dish. We must choose mature coconut to make this milk.

Coconut Milk –Cooking essentials

Ingredient

1)    Coconut – 1

2)   Water as required

Preparation

Ø  Wash coconut and grate it.

Method

Ø  Add coconut to a mixer or food processor and grind it.

Ø  Strain the coconut in a cloth or strainer. Milk prepared here is thick milk.

Ø  Add the paste again to mixer and add little amount of water to it and grind it.

Ø  Again strain the paste in cloth and this is thin milk.

Note

Ø  If you are adding this milk to curry first add thin milk while the curry is cooking then before we take

Ø  The curry from flame we should add thick milk.

Tamil Nadu Style Curry Masala Powder

Ingredients

Black Peppercorns - 1 tsp
Ground Coriander - 1/3 cup
Ground Turmeric - 2 tbsp
Cumin Seeds - 2 tbsp
Black Mustard Seeds - 2 tbsp
Fenugreek Seeds - ½ tbsp
Split Urad dal or Yellow Split Peas - ½ tbsp
Dry chilli pods - 6
Methods

Toast the cumin, black mustard, and fenugreek seeds, the split dal, and the fresh curry leaves.
Add the peppercorns and chili pods and grind the mixture to a fine powder.
Add the coriander and turmeric and mix well.
Store in an air tight container.

Tandoori Masala

Ingredients

Cumin Seeds - 10 grams
Coriander Seeds - 3.5 grams
Cloves - 2 grams
Ginger powder -2 grams
Garlic powder - 2 grams
Orange food coloring - a pinch
Red chilli powder - 2 grams
Turmeric powder - 2 grams

Methods

Dry roast the cumin, coriander seeds, cloves in a pan on a low flame, till they begin to release their aroma.
Allow it to cool.
Grind all ingredients together with it.
Store it in air tight container.

Home made garam masala

Garam masala is secret ingredient for many indian vegetarian and non vegetarian recipes. We can make this garam masala with spices which are handy in our kitchen.

Garam Masala

Ingredients

Slno	Ingredients	Quantity
1	Coriander seeds	4 tbsp
2	Cumin seeds	1 tbsp
3	Peppercorns	1 tbsp
4	Cumin seeds	1 ½ tsp
5	Cardamom	2-4
6	Cinnamon	1
7	Bay leaves	2

Methods

à Dry roast all the ingredients in low flame.

à Allow it to cool.

à Grind all ingredients together in a processor to a powder.

à Store in air tight container.