Guest Post - 34 : Today's Guest - Brindha

Today's guest is one of the regular readers of Nithu's Kitchen. Brindha and her hubby Vivek are our relatives. Brindha is such a wonderful cook. She used to treat us with her delicious dishes often. The first dish, I tasted was her Bisibelahbath. The moment, I tasted it, I started to nag her to give me a guest post. But, it took all these while for both of us and finally, we chose today, as it is their wedding day. Friends, let us all wish them both on this very special day. Now, let us hear from Brindha...

Nithu's Kitchen : Tell us about you Brindha.

Brindha : I am a chennaite... Got married and now residing in US. Did BE in Electronics and Comm. Worked for 2yrs in a company and left it after marriage. On coming here, I was helping out my Brother in his business works.

Nithu's Kitchen : What are your interests.

Brindha : I am interested in reading fiction books... all time favorite Ayn Rand's "The Fountainhead". Yet to explore other Genre :)

Nithu's Kitchen : What was the very first dish you cooked.

Brindha : First dish ever tried was Kesari with my mom beside me. Basically it was like, my mom was cooking through my hands :) So, obviously it turned out good. In retrospect my mom was so happy as if I made the sweet :) After marriage I did kaara kuzhambu and carrot poriyal. Practically, I would call this to be my first ever dish tried, as I did it without any help or assistance.

Nithu's Kicthen : What did your husband say after tasting your dishes.

Brindha : He liked it. Till date he never complains about my cooking (even if its not up to the mark:) ), but he just recalls how slow I was earlier and how much my speed had had increased. Seriously, thanks to my MIL, on seeing her speed I improved a little.

Nithu's Kitchen : Share us one of your unforgettable kitchen mishaps.

Brindha : Unforgettable cooking mishap happened on my first Pongal with my in-laws, thatz when I added Daal to Aviyal...

I know I was so naive to do so :)

The only lame excuse I could give myself was 'Hello I am a beginner' :)

On that day my MIL cooked avial and daal in a cooker with separate container.

I thought both has to be combined together and did so.

Then my MIL told me in Aviyal, daal will not be used. She was so sweet and took it sportively.

Everyone ate it saying this is just Aviyal with daal :) So nice of them.

So now, not even in my wildest dream, I would combine daal and Aviyal... :)

Nithu's Kitchen : :-) Guess, our friends here have got a new recipe for avial to try. What do you have today to share with us. Do you have any special reason to select this specific dish today?

Brindha : I'm sharing the recipe for Poli. Its my favorite sweet dish and my hubby's too. I would always crave for it when I was in Chennai. So this is an attempt to bring the feel of being back at Home.

Ingredients :

Channa Dhal – ½kg (3cups)

Jaggery – 3cups

Coconut – 1 cup

Maida or All purpose flour – 3½cups

Oil – ½ cup

For the stuffing :

Soak Channa dhal over night. Drain out water. Pressure cook dhal without water, in an uncovered container. Grind the cooked dhal in mixer without adding water, to a powdered consistency. Dilute the jaggery and filter it to remove dirt. In a wok sauté coconut and then add the diluted jaggery to this. After stirring for a minute or two add the ground dhal and powdered cardamom. Stir well till it forms a semi-dried consistency.

For the dough :

To Maida add little salt and required water to make dough. After mixing well start adding oil in small increments and mix well till all the oil are added. This will form soft dough. Let it rest for 2~3 hrs.

Take little dough and stuff channa mix into it. Roll out into flat bread, like Roti. In a heated pan, cook Poli on both sides with little Ghee.

Nithu's Kitchen : Thank you so much Brindha. Enjoyed talking to you. Hope to see you often here:-)

Friends, hope you all love Brindha's traditional and yummy Poli. If you are interested to be featured as Nithu's Kitchen's Guest, please drop a mail to nithuskitchen[at]gmail[dot]com.