Safna's Cook Book

Ingredients Boiled Rice(Ukda rice) - 300 gram Cashew nuts - 200 gram Peanut - 100 gram Grated Coconut - 1 no Jaggery (Gud) - 300 gram Preparation Clean the rice in running water and drain it. Heat a kadai & roast it till golden brown in colour. Popping of the rice stops when it is ready. Similarly, dry roast cashews & peanuts. Remove peanut skin and allow this to cool. Grind cashews, rice & peanuts separately. Melt jaggery with 1/4 cup of water. Sieve rice powder to remove coarse pieces out. Add ground cashew,  peanut & coconut to this. Add melted jaggery and mix everything nicely. Take Modak mould and start shaping it. Our yummy jaggery modak is ready.

Ingredients Grated Coconut - 2 cups Dried Shrimps - handful Raw Mango -  3/4 cup Dried red chillies - 6 nos Curry leaves - few Salt - to taste Oil -  2 Tbsp   Preparation Wash dried shrimps to remove excess salt and remove impurities if any. Heat oil in a pan and add dries chillies.Fry for few seconds and keep it aside. In the same pan, add dried shrimps and fry for 5 minutes stirring continously and turn off the flame. Grind together coconut, red chillies, shrimp, raw mango, salt and curry leaves into coarse paste.  Unakka Chemmeen manga Chammanthi is ready. Serve with steamed rice or rice porridge.

Ingredients Jackfruit(Large) - 1 no (cleaned and deseeded) Coconut - 3 nos Jaggery - 150 g Rice flour - 2 Tbsp Water - 1 cup Preparation Take jackfruit with 1.5 cups of water in a pressure cooker. Cook for 3 whistles and simmer for 10 minutes. Turn off the flame. Put this to uruli and heat this mixture on high flame. Extract coconut milk from 3 coconuts and pour this to the cooked jackfruit. Take jaggery and 1 cup of water in a saucepan. Heat, so the jaggery is melted. Strain this and add to the jackfruit mix. Keep cooking this on high flame and keep stirring until the mixture becomes thick and oil starts to separate from the mixture. Mix rice flour with little water and pour this into jackfruit mix. It will get dark in color and very thick. Transfer this to a plate and let it cool. Cut this into small squares and keep it in the fridge.

Ingredients Egg - 4 nos Onion - 3 nos (thinly sliced) Tomato - 1 big (thinly sliced) Green chilli - 2 nos (finely chopped) Ginger - garlic paste - 1 tbsp Kashmiri chilli powder - 1 tbsp Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp Coriander powder - 1 1/2 tbsp Garam masala - 1 tsp Curry leaves - few Coriander leaves - 1 tbsp Coconut oil - 2 tbsp Preparation Boil eggs, remove shells and make a small cut on sides to get masala inside. Take a Kadai, pour coconut oil and add curry leaves, sliced onions. Saute it for 3 minutes. Add ginger - garlic paste, green chillies, tomatoes and mix well. When oil starts to separate, add all spice powders. Toss well till the raw smell of spice powder goes. Adjust salt and add water to the consistency of gravy needed. When gravy starts to boil, add boiled eggs. Cover and cook for another two minutes. Switch off the flame and garnish with coriander leaves. Serve with Appam, chapati.

Yam fry / chena fry is a spicy masala coated  fry that tastes so delicious and irresistible. This dish is my family favourite and I have learned it from my mother-in-law, who is a great cook.Very easy to make with few ingredients & everyone must try this out. Ingredients Yam / chena  - 500 g Red chilli powder - 2 tbsp Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp Pepper powder - 1/2 tsp Hing - a pinch cumin seed powder - a pinch Salt - to taste Curry leaves - 10 nos Oil - For frying Preparation Cut the yam into desired shapes but not too big. Add all masala powders into the yam and keep it aside for 1 hour. Heat oil in a pan and add curry leaves. Add the marinated yam to this and shallow-fry for about 10-15 minutes, saute occasionally. It has to be golden brown with cooked inside. Remove from heat and serve hot with rice.

Ada Pradhaman is a  dessert that is made especially during Onam and Vishu. It is a traditional Kerala dessert with rice, jaggery and coconut milk. A variation of this dessert is Palada Pradhaman with milk and sugar instead of coconut milk and jaggery. Ingredients Ribbon Ada - 200 g Coconut - 2 nos Jaggery - 500 g Ghee - 50 g Cardamom powder - 1/2 tsp Cumin seed powder - 1/2 tsp Cashew nut - 10 nos Raisins - 15 nos Preparation Clean the ribbon Ada in water.No need to cut, roast or soak it in water. Grind coconut in three stages. First, remove the thick coconut milk out of it. Second milk can be removed  by adding a little water. Cook the ribbon Ada in third stage coconut milk. Make jaggery syrup by boiling jaggery in a 1/2 cup water. When the ribbon Ada gets cooked,  add jaggery syrup to this.  After boiling it for some time, add the second stage milk and cook till it becomes a thick liquid. Add cardamom powder and cumin s...

Ingredients Mango - 3 nos ( take raw mango ) Fenugreek - 1/2 tsp Mustard seed - 2 tsp cumin seed - 1/2 tsp Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp Kashmiri chilli powder - 2 tsp Sugar - 1 tsp Garlic - 3 cloves Ginger - small piece Onion - 1 (finely chopped) Green chilli - 3 nos Curry leaves - 1 tbsp Oil - 1 1/2 tbsp Asafoetida - a pinch Preparation Cut the mango into long horizontal slices without peeling the skin. Place a Kadai on the flame and add oil. When the oil is hot, add mustard, fenugreek, cumin seeds, curry leaves. After 1 minute, add chopped onion, chopped ginger, garlic, green chillies and saute for 2 minutes. Now add turmeric powder, red chilli powder, salt, sugar and saute till the raw smell goes. Add one cup of water and close the Kadai with a lid. Let it cook for 10 - 15 minutes and reduce into a thick gravy. Switch off the flame and add asafoetida. Serve with plain rice.