Green Tomato / Pachathakkali Aviyal

Green tomatoes are rarely seen in markets. At home, we had access to them  when we had tomato plants growing in our garden. Those plants would have come up on their own from the rotten tomatoes discarded on the foot of the coconut tree or some other plants where vegetable wastes are usually dumped. When the plant comes up, it will be uprooted and planted in  a pot or some better place in the back yard.  Amma used to add them to the dal or make chutney/thogayl with it. I do try to pick some green ones from the vendors. But hardly I get the real green ones. Last month, while we were returning from our trip to BhimaShankar, we happened to see a way side market selling fresh produce. We stopped to buy some veggies. I was excited to find a lady with a basket full of green tomatoes. I don't remember if I have seen such green ones sold before. And while discussing various recipes using them, my friend told me about this aviyal. It sounded very simple and tried it. It was very tasty and I prepared it twice in a week's time.

Preparation time - 5 minutes

Cooking time - 10 minutes

Serves - 3

You need

• Green tomatoes - 3 nos
• Turmeric - a pinch
• Red chilli powder - 1/4tspn
• Salt to taste
• Coconut oil -1 tspn
• Curry leaves - 1 sprig

To grind

• Fresh grated coconut - 1/2 cup
• Green chilly - 1 no
• Cumin -1/4 tspn

Method

Slice the tomatoes. Grind the coconut with green chilly and cumin to a smooth paste.  Take the sliced tomatoes, turmeric, red chilli powder, salt and the ground coconut paste in cooking bowl. Add water to adjust the consistency. Cook the mix on slow fire for 10 minutes or till the tomatoes are cooked. Take care that the gravy doesn't boil and bubble. This will make the gravy watery.  Remove from fire. Add coconut oil and curry leaves. Close it and let the flavors mingle. Enjoy with hot rice and side of any veggie stir fir or papadam. no souring agent like tamarind/yogurt is added since the tang from the tomatoes is good enough.

Note: if you want to cook it as side dish then, saute the tomatoes in little oil and add the ground paste and cook. Also if you wish you can 2/3 shallots or madras onions while grinding. I did not add since I wanted the taste of tomatoes to be more prominent

Moogachi Usal~ Sprouted Moong Dish

Usal is a Maharstrian dish where sprouted beans such as moong or matki is used. It is generally a thick gravy cooked with onion, tomato and other spices. Matki is the popular bean used in this. I didnot have matki so decided to go for moong. Usal is a thick gravy almost like a stir fry. The addition of goda masala gives a new dimension to this dish. I referred the recipes here and here and came up on this. I always cook moong sprouts as gravy with some ground masala. I liked this quick dish which can be served as a side with rice and a gravy too.  If you have sprouts, on hand, this gets done pretty quickly.

You need

Sprouted moong - 2 cups

Onion - 1 no, chopped

Tomato - 1 no, chopped

Goda masala -  1 tspn ( I used store bought)

Coriander powder - 1 tspn

Cumin powder - 1/2 tspn

Red chilly powder - 1/2 tspn

Turmeric - a pinch

Salt to taste

To temper
Oil - 2 tspn
Mustard seeds - 1 tspn
Cumin - 1/2 tspn
Curry leaves - 1 sprig
Hing - few shakes

Method

 Pressure cook sprouted moong for 1 whistle. Just sprinkle water enough to moisten the sprouts. Else microwave for 5 minutes. Or you can add some water later while cooking the gravy and cook for few more minutes. 

Heat a tawa with 2 tspn of oil. Add mustard seeds. When it pops, add cumin , curry leaves and hing. Add chopped onions. Saute till the onion turns pink. Add chopped tomato. Add cumin powder, coriander powder, turmeric , red chilly powder and goda masala. When the tomatoes are cooked, add the cooked sprouts. Add salt. Mix gently and cook for 5 minutes for the flavors to blend. Garnish with coriander. You can serve with a wedge of lime and sliced onions.

Goda masala gives the curry the distinct flavor. Goda masala is the maharashtrian aromatic spice powder.

Do check here to know what my fellow marathoners have cooked for the day

Chavli Amti

This is the 7th edition of Blogging Marathon, organized by Srivalli. For the past few editions, every  month, the marathoners are grouped into two. I chose to join the Group 2. As usual, we were given a set of themes to choose and blog for the 7 days. My choice was Regional Specials and its Maharashtrian cuisine.  I wanted to try recipes that is generally cooked in a Maharastrian home. Also, these may not feature in a restaurant menu. I am taking this opportunity to explore more of the cuisine and I'm sure I can only touch upon few of the recipes here as part of the marathon. 

For a comprehensive read on Maharashtra cuisine, check the guest posts by Meera (Sweets and Snacks, Veg and Non-Veg Thali)  and Nupur's Summer Meal at Sailus Food..  And both Meera's and Nupur's blog are  a treasure trove of Maharashtrian cuisine.

To begin with, I chose Chavli Amti from Nupur's blog. The ingredients in the masala paste resembled that of the Arachuvitta Sambhar of Palakkad Iyer cuisine. The similarity ends there and the resulting dish is entirely different. I decided to stick to the recipe and did not tweak it in anyway since I wanted it to be authentic. I halved the recipe to serve two for a single meal.

Here it is 

You need

• Chavli/Black eyed beans - 1/2 cup
• Onion - 1 no, sliced
• Tomato - 1 no, finely chopped
• Kitchen King masala - 1 tpsn
• Salt to taste
• Sugar - 1/2 tspn

To Roast and grind

• Oil - 2 tspn
• Chana dal - 1/2 tspn
• Urad dal - 1/2 tspn
• Cumin seeds -1/2 tspn
• Coriander seeds -1/2 tspn
• Fenugreek seeds - 1/4 tspn
• Red chilly - 2 nos
• Onion - 1 
• Grated coconut - 2 tblspn

To temper

• Oil - 2 tspn
• Mustard seeds - 1 tspn
• Turmeric - 1/2 tspn
• Hing - few shakes
• Curry leaves - few

Method

Soak the chavli for 4-5 hours or overnight. If you don't have time to spare for soaking, soak it in hot water for an hour. Pressure cook till tender. 

Roast the ingredients under masala paste in 2 teaspoon of oil. Cool and grind to a smooth paste. 

Heat oil in a pan. Add mustard seeds. When it splutters, add curry leaves, turmeric and hing. Add sliced onions and saute till its almost brown. Add the finely chopped tomatoes and cook till it turns pulpy. Add the ground masala, kitchen king masala, salt and sugar. Fry the mix for a minute or two. Finally add the cooked chavli along with the water, used to cook it. Adjust the consistency. Bring to a boil and let it simmer for 5 minutes and the gravy will thicken. 

It was welcome change from the usual sambhar or other tamarind based gravies which is a regular fare at my home.

Do check the BM page to find out the themes and other marathoners

Lauki Whole Moong Curry

Today, I decided to make a gravy with bottle gourd. As I wrote before, I have been including bottle gourd in gravies as substitute veggie. For the first time, I cooked with kokum. I liked the subtle tanginess of kokum. I was hesistant to add more kokum since I did not have much idea about the sourness level of this.

You need

• Bottle gourd/Lauki/Sorakkai - cubed, around 1 cup
• Cooked whole moong - 1 cup
• Kokum rind - 1 whole
• Coriander powder - 2 tspn
• Red chilli powder - 1 tspn
• Salt to taste
• tumeric - 1/4 tspn
• Hing 1/4 tspn
• Tomato - 1 no, grated

Tempering

• Oil - 1 tspn
• Mustard seeds - 1/2 tspn
• Urad dal - 1/2 tspn
• Red chilli - 2nos, broken into two

• Curry leaves
• Coriander leaves

Method

Pressure cook whole moong till it is cooked and not too mushy. Peel, de-seed the bottle gourd. Cut the gourd into bite sized cubes. Take the chopped gourd in a vessel. Add two cups of water. Add turmeric, salt, red chilly powder, coriander powder and kokum. When the veggie is cooked, add the cooked whole moong.  Grate a tomato and add to the cooking gravy. I added tomato to give a body to the gravy.Simmer for few minutes. Add curry leaves and coriander leaves.

Heat oil in a seasoning ladle and add the tempering ingredients. When the mustard seeds crackle and urad dal starts browning, tip it to the gravy. 

The gravy is not very thick. If you want it to make it slightly thicker, add a teaspoon of rice flour to half cup of water and mix well. Add this to the gravy when it starts simmering.  I did not add this. The gravy was not too thin like rasam. 

Check out what my fellow marathoners are cooking today.

Low Fat Lauki Kofta Curry

I am part of the Blogging Marathon#6, organised by Srivalli.  I chose to blog recipes staring a main ingredient for 7 days. My choice is Bottle Gourd/Sorakkai/Lauki. Lauki is one vegetable, which was not used in my day-to-day cooking. During my hostel days, when this veggie was served, I never tasted it. And we were not allowed to waste any food, that is served on our plate. My room-mate was more than happy to take the lauki curry from my plate. She used to tell so much about the health benefits of lauki and somehow I could not bring myself to like this vegetable.  After moving to Pune, ash gourd/elavan was rarely found with the vegetable vendors in my area. And ash gourd is one of the inevitable veggie when it comes to Palakkad Iyer cuisine. So I started buying lauki to be used in place of elavan for molagootal, avial, morkootan- to name few dishes. So with the blogging marathon, I will try some new recipes where lauki is not used as replacement. 

You need

For Kofta

• Grated lauki - 1 cup
• Besan/Kadalamavu - 2 tspn heaped
• Rice flour - 1 tspn
• Red chilli powder - 1/2 tspn
• Salt
• Cumin powder - 1/2 tspn
• Amchoor powder -  a big pinch
• Oil - 1 tblspn

For Gravy

• Onion - 2 nos, chopped
• Ginger- 1 "
• Red chilly - 2 nos
• Coriander powder - 1 tspn
• Khus Khus/Poppu seeds - 1/2 tspn
• Tomato - 1, grated
• Oil - 1 tblspn
• Cumin - 1 tspn
• Curd - 2 tblspn, whipped.
• Kitchen King Masala - 1 tspn

Method

Mix all the ingredients under kofta in a bowl except oil. I did not squeeze the grated lauki to remove some juice. Divide the lauki mix into 12 balls. If you find it difficult to shape, can add some more besan.  Take the shaped balls on a greased thali and steam cook in pressure cooker for 10 minutes. Remove and cool the koftas. Take a broad based kadai and add a tablespoon of oil. When the oil is hot, place the steamed koftas. Shallow fry till the koftas turn golden brown. Remove the fried koftas. 

In the same kadai, add chopped onion and red chilly. When the onions turn translucent, remove. Grind the onion, red chilly, khus khus, ginger to a coarse paste.  Heat oil in the kadai. Add cumin seeds and when it crackles, add the ground paste. Add coriander powder, salt and grated tomato. Add half cup of water. Let it simmer and turn chick. Stir in the whipped curd and kitchen king masala. Boil for 2 minutes. 

Add koftas just before you serve. Heat the gravy and drop the koftas and serve hot.

Do check out what my fellow marathoners are cooking at the blogging marathon page.

Low Calorie Dum Aloo Benarasi

People who dislike potato are hard to find. Though potato is a much favored veggie, I don't cook them often in my kitchen. I  rarely cook potatoes on its own. Mostly, its paired with other veggies so that I need to use only one. I buy only half a kilo of potatoes at a time. And that might last formore than a week or so. Here the vegetable vendor will double check if I wanted only half kilo since people usually buy more than a kilo at a time. When I come across baby potatoes in the market, its hard to resist. I invariably buy them. I make dum aloo which uses curd in it. Once I came across this recipe at Tarladalal's and wanted to try it. I did not deep fry it as in the original. Though there is some work involved in it, with little planning, it can be done easily and is worth all the effort that goes in.

Ingredients

• Baby potatoes - 12 nos
• Oil - 2 tblspn for shallow frying 

For the gravy

• Garlic - 3 cloves
• Ginger -1 inch
• Dry chillies - 6 nos
• Cashew - 2 tblspn
• Cumin/jeera - 1 tspn
• Saunf/fennel seeds - 1 tspn
• Tomatoes - 3 nos
• Water - 1.5 cups

Seasoning

• Butter - 1 tblspn
• Cardamom powder - 1 tspn
• Kasuri methi - 1 tblspn
• Sugar - 1 tspn

For Garnish

• Fresh Cream - 1 tblspn (optional)
• Chopped Coriander leaves

Method

Wash and scrub the potatoes clean. Boil the potatoes till fork tender. You can pressure cook for one whistle. Also you can microwave for 5 minutes. Prick the potatoes with a fork. Heat oil on a non stick pan and add the cooked potatoes. Shall fry till the skin wrinkles. Keep it aside.

Heat oil in a kadai. Add all the ingredients for the gravy. Simmer till the tomatoes are cooked and turn pulpy. Cool and grind the mix to a smooth puree.

Heat butter. Add cardamom powder and the gravy.  Cook till the gravy simmers and the fat separates and floats on top. Then tip in the shallow fried aloo, kasuri methi and sugar.Cook till the gravy thickens and the potatoes have soaked in the flavors. Add a tablespoon of cream and garnish with coriander and serve hot with some phulkas/rotis.

P.S Though I have used 6 dried red chillies, the dish was not much on the spicier side. It could be the variety of the chilli. Adjust the chillies according to the variety you use and the spice levels that suit your palate.

Banana Blossom/Vazhai Poo - How to clean and a recipe -Vazhai Poo Pitla

All the parts of banana tree is useful in one way or the other- Bananas - raw or ripe, stem, flower, leaves,  strings taken out from the bark like for garland making. Banana blossom/flower has high nutritional value and is considered as an effective medicine for menstrual disorders. It relieves  painful menstruation and also helps in increasing the progesterone hormone there by reducing excess bleeding.

Though,many knows about the benefits of the flower, there is some reluctance when it comes to cooking them because of the cleaning work involved.  I don't mind the extra work and the resulting stain on my fingers and nails. While I was at Palakkad, I always made it to a point to cook banana stem or flower at least once in 10 days if not every week. But after moving to Pune, I did not find them initially. Later we discovered a Tamilian vegetable vendor, who is quite far the place we stay. Luckily, the shop is near to my husband's office. So I get them now not very frequently as I would have liked it to be.

Now on to the cleaning process. First oil your palm so that it doesn't stain your fingers.  Also keep a bowl of water with few teaspoons of buttermilk mixed in. The cleaned flowers will be added to this water to avoid discolouring. Also it helps to remove the stains in the flower. You can turmeric if you don't have buttermilk.

 

Remove the brown cover. You can find yellowish white florets inside. Pull the bunch out.

 

 

Take a flower and  slightly rub it between your fingers. You can see the stamens inside. There will be one which is very thick and has a black head. We call it 'Kallan' in Tamil. Pull that out. It has to be discarded. These hard ones will make the dish taste bitter.

 

 

 

 If you feel the outer covering very thick and plastic like, it can be discarded for first few layers. As you move to the inner layers, the outer covering of the flower will be soft.  Towards the innermost layers, the outer covering will be white and not very fibrous. At that stage, you can chop the remaining flower as it is. Take all the cleaned florets and chop it finely.

 

 

Vazhai poo vadai, paruppu usli are some of the recipes which can be made with this. I am sharing a pitlai using the flower. These flowers have a slight bitter taste to it. And cooking in tamarind, removes that bitterness.

  

Now on to the recipe

You need

• Finely chopped Banana flower - 1 cup, packed
• Tuvar dal - 1/2 cup
• Tamarind - lemon sized
• Turmeric - a pinch
• Salt to taste
• Grated coconut - 1/2 cup
• Curry leaves for garnish

 

To roast and grind

• Urad dal - 2 tspn
• Chana dal - 2 tspn
• Red chilly - 4 nos
• Hing - a tiny piece
• Oil - 1 tspn

 

To temper

• Oil - 1 tspn
• Mustard seeds - 1 tspn
• Red chilly - 1, broken into two

 

Method

 

Pressure cook tuvar dal till soft. Mash and keep it aside.  Soak tamarind in warm water for 10 minutes. Extract the pulp and add another cup of water. Take the tamarind water in a pot and add turmeric and salt to it. When the tamarind water starts boiling, add the chopped banana florets. Let it cook till the florets turn soft. Heat oil in a kadai. Add hing piece. When it is fried ,remove and add urad dal, chana dal. When it starts

browning, add the red chillies. When chillies change color, remove from fire. Cool and grind it along with the grated coconut to a smooth paste. Add water while grinding. If you are using hing powder, add it towards the end  else it will get burnt on roasting.

 

Add the cooked and mashed dal, ground coconut paste to the cooked tamarind mix. Adjust the salt and let it simmer for few minutes. Season with mustard seeds and red chillies and garnish with curry leaves.

 

Gujarathi Dal for Indian Cooking Challenge

Indian cooking challenge recipe for the month of February is an authentic Gujarati dal from the award winning cookbook Sukham Ayu, authored by the duo- Jigyasa Giri & Pratibha Jain. Thanks to Jigyasa and Prathibha for sharing the recipe for the challenge. The recipe may not fit the bill for a challenge but it surely gave an opportunity to recreate the authentic flavor at home. That's also a purpose behind this ICC, to know about the authentic, regional recipes.

Now coming to the recipe, this is a simple recipe with ingredients easily available in an Indian kitchen. I must say, from the list of the ingredients, you will not be able to guess the taste and flavor of the final dish. For this, you must try and experience yourself. I literally ate only this dal and forgot about my rice. Basically, I love spicy and tangy food. The flavor and taste won me over.

 

 

 

You need

• Tuvar dal/Split red gram - ½ cup
• Turmeric powder ½ tsp
• Tamarind pulp - 2 tbspn (or dry soft kokum 4-5 pieces)
• Jaggery - 1 tspn
• Dry dates - 4,halved (I used lion dates)
• Drumstick/Muringakkai - 4-5 pieces, 2 inch length
• Yam/Chenai - 4-5 pieces, 1 inch cubes
• Groundnuts - 1 tbsp
• Green chillies - 2, slit
• Ginger -1 inch piece, chopped fine
• Coriander powder - 2 tsp
• Cumin powder - 1 tsp
• Garam masala - ¼ tsp (Used Kitchen king)
• Salt to taste

 Coriander leaves to garnish

 

 For the seasoning

•  Ghee - 2 tsp
•  Mustard seeds - ½ tsp
•  Fenugreek seeds - ¼ tsp
•  Cumin seeds - ½ tsp
•  Dry red chillies - 2
•  Asafoetida/Hing powder -¼ tsp
•  Curry leaves 5-6

 Method

 Pressure cook the dal along with yam pieces. I find yam taking a long time to cook. So pressure cooked it along with the dal. Add a pinch of turmeric and enough water to cover the dal. The dal should be cooked soft. When the pressure is released fully, remove the yam pieces and mash the dal well.

Take the mashed dal, cooked yam pieces and rest of the ingredients in a thick bottomed pan. Don't add garam masala and coriander leaves. Add a cup of water and let it simmer over low flame for 10 minutes. Take care that the dal doesn't stick to the bottom of the pan. So stir occasionally.

Heat a seasoning ladle with ghee. Add mustard seeds. When it pops, add fenugreek, followed by cumin, red chillies hing and curry leaves. Pour the seasoning into the simmering dal. Allow to boil for another 3 minutes. Remove from heat and garnish with coriander leaves.

 

Hot dal with steaming rice topped with a dollop of home made ghee will be the ultimate comfort food. Next time, I want to try with kokum and also include drumstick. I'm sure drumstick will take it to the next level. The recipe, from Sukham Ayu,  is well written with detailed instructions and the measurements are perfect.

 

 

 

  

Corn Kurma

As soon as you hear the word - corn, I am sure this is the image that comes to most of your minds. Its hard to resist for me not to buy the corn when I see it roasted on the street side carts. Okay, this post is not about the roasted corn. Its a kurma using the fresh corn kernels.

I have noted down the recipe from a TV show, many years ago. Those days, the sweet corn was not very common. I had tried using the dried corn, which has to be soaked overnight. Still, the kernels were not cooked soft.  And with the sweet corn, flooded in the markets, things got easy.  Its an easy to make kurma and goes well with rotis,aappam or dosa too.

You need

Fresh corn kernels - 2 cup

Onion - 1 no

Chilli powder - 1 tspn

Turmeric - a pinch

Kitchen king masala - 1 tspn

Oil - 1 tblspn

Salt to taste

To grind

Grated Coconut - 1/4 cup

Curd/Yogurt - 1/4 cup

Poppy seeds/Khus Khus - 1 tspn

Green chilly - 2 nos

Tomato - 1 no, chopped

Method

Cook the corn kernels till soft in a pressure cooker for two whistles. I microwave it for 5 minutes. Chop onions.

Heat oil in a kadai. Saute onions till pink. Add chilli powder and turmeric. Then add cooked corn and salt. Let it cook for 5 minutes.

Meanwhile grind coconut, green chilly, khus khus and chopped tomato to a smooth paste. If you need to add water, add the curd. After grinding, mix in the remaining curd to the paste. Stir in the paste to the cooked corn. Adjust the consistency by adding water if needed. Bring it to a boil. Let it not simmer too much once it starts boiling since it curd and coconut is added, it will thin the gravy. Finally add kitchen king masala and remove from fire. Garnish with finely chopped coriander leaves.



Buttermilk sponge dosa and Peas Mint Wale

Buttermilk dosa is a spongy version of the verumarisi adai, for which only boiled rice is used. In this dosa, aval or beaten rice is also added and rice and aval is soaked in buttermilk. Since its soaked in buttermilk, no fermentation is required for the batter before making dosas. You get super soft dosa. This is a great hit among my relatives and friends who has tasted this at home.  Thanks to Mallika Bhadrinath for a super breakfast recipe.

 

 

 

You need

 

•  Idli rice /boiled rice - 2 cups 
• Aval/beaten rice - 1/4 cup
• Buttermilk - Around 3 cups, enough to soak the rice.
• Cooking soda - a pinch

Method

Wash and soak rice and aval together in buttermilk for 5 hours. I usually soak it overnight. The buttermilk will be almost absorbed by the rice and aval. You will not require to add extra water while grinding. Grind it to a smooth batter and add salt.The batter should be slightly thicker than the usual dosa batter. 

 

Before making dosa, add a pinch of  cooking soda and leave it for 5  minutes for it to act.  Heat the dosa tawa. Take a ladle of  batter and pour it on the tawa.  Slightly spread it and it will spread on its own.  The dosa should be slightly thick so that you get the pores well. Cover and cook for a minute. Flip and cook the other side also by covering. Enjoy hot with a spicy side.

 

 Peas mint wale

 

Peas mint wale is adapted from Nita Mehta's Mattar dhaniya wale.  The recipe calls for fresh peas. I think this should work with dried peas also. This is a one pot gravy except for grinding the paste, its a breeze. I liked this no-onion recipe. In the original, there was garlic flakes which I omitted.

 

 

 You need

 

• Fresh, shelled peas - 2 cups
• Tomato - 1 no, chopped into pieces
• Oil - 1 tbspn
• Hing - few shakes
• Cumin/Jeera-1/2 tspn
• Kalonji - 1/4 tspn

 For mint paste

•  Mint leaves - 2 cups
•  Ginger - 1" piece
•  Green chillies - 2 nos
•  Tomato - 1 tspn
•  Tamarind paste - 1 tblspn or juice of 1 lemon

 

 

 

 Method

 

Grind together the ingredients for the paste.  Heat 1 tbspn of oil in the pressure cooker. Add hing, jeera and kalonji. When jeera turns brown, add peas. Saute for 2-3 minutes. Add the mint paste to the peas and mix well.  Pressure cook for 2 whistles. Open the cooker when the pressure drops. Add salt and chopped tomato and cook for a minute or two.

 

Quick Cauliflower masala

Cauliflower is a versatile veggie that it can be paired with any veggie or can stand on its own too. This is a quickie adapted from the stable of Mallika Badrinath - A one pot side dish. Throw some cauliflower florets, onion and tomato paste with spices into your pressure cooker and cook for one whistle and the curry is ready.  

 

 

You need

 

• Cauliflower broken into florets - 2 cups
• Aniseed - 1/2 tspn
• Cinnamon - 1 inch piece
• Cloves - 3 nos
• Bay leaf - 1 no
• Oil - 2 tblspn
• salt to taste

 

 Dry roast and powder

 

•  Red chillies - 4 nos
•  Poppy seed - 1 tblspn
•  Dhania/Coriander seeds - 2 tspn
•  Roasted gram/Chutney dal - 1 1/2 tblspn

 Grind coarsely

 

• Onion - 1  
• Tomatoes - 2 nos

Method 

Chop onion and tomatoes. Dry roast red chillies, poppy seeds and dhania. Powder the roasted ingredients along with the chutney dal. To that add the chopped onions and tomatoes and grind coarsely.

 

Heat oil in a pressure cooker. Add the spices and then cauliflower. Fry for 3 minutes. Add the ground paste, salt and just enough water to cover the florets. Close the lid and pressure cook for one whistle. Switch off the heat and open the lid, when the pressure is fully released. Garnish with coriander leaves.

 

Maanga Vattakuzhambu ~ Sun dried mangoes in tamarind gravy AND a prelude to a giveaway

Remember I had hosted a promotional giveaway sometime back and Shoba of Anubhavati won the waffle maker. Its time for another giveaway. This time its going to different. Watch this space for the details which will be posted soon.


Now on to the recipe. Apart from pickling  raw  mangoes, I preserve them in the form of vathals/sun dried mangoes. Fresh mangoes which are sour and raw is chopped into pieces and marinated in salt and kept for a day. During the course, water will be released from the salt and mango juice. Next day, the mango pieces are squeezed and dried in the sun. The dried mangoes are put back in the squeezed salt water and this is repeated, till no water is left in the jar. A day more of drying in the sun leaves you with salted and dried mangoes. Store them in air tight container. It stays good for a year. This mango vattal is made into a vathakuzhambu.  In this kuzhambu, red chilly is used mnimally and heat is from peppercorns.

You need

Dried Mango pieces - 1/2 cup heaped

Tamarind - goose berry size

Turmeric - a pinch

Salt

To roast

Red chilly - 1 nos

Peppercons - 1/2 tspn

Urad dal- 2 tspn

Cumin seeds - 1/2 tspn

Curry leaves - few

Ghee/Oil - 2 tspn to roast

For Seasoning

Oil - 1 tspn

Mustard seeds - 1 tspn

Methi seeds -a pinch

Hing powder - few shakes

                 

Method

Soak the dried mango pieces in a cup of warm water for 20 minutes to soften. You can also microwave the mango along with water for a minute.  Extract tamarind juice. Roast the ingredients in ghee/oil till dal turns brown. Add the cumin seeds towards the end since it gets roasted faster.

Grind the soaked mango pieces along with the roasted ingredients to a smooth paste. You can use the soaked water to grind. Stir in the ground mixture to the tamarind extract. Add salt, tumeric powder and bring to a boil. Let it simmer for a while till the gravy thickens. Season with mustard, hing and methi seeds.

                           

Note:

Adjust the tamarind according to the sourness of the dried mangoes. Since the mangoes have salt in it, add salt keeping that in mind.

 

Puthucode Pulingari - A variation from the normal pulingari

Puthucode in the title is the name of a village in the district of Palakkad. The village is famous for its Anapoorneswari temple and the Navarathri celebrations. During Navarathri, feast/sadhya is there in the temple. The menu is fixed - Pulingari, Olan and Chadachadayam payasam. The pulingari served is different from the normal recipe and hence it is associated with the name of the village. To know more about this village, read Ammupatti's Thoughts.  During my childhood days, our family made it to atleast one day during the nine day celebrations. As kids, our main attraction was the sadya and the chance to taste the lip smacking pulingari. On one of our visits, we got the souvenir published as part of the festival and the recipe for the famous pulingari was given. From then on, amma made it at home too. It was reseved for special occassions. Not that its difficult to make, but to keep the novelty, its not made often as Sambhar is prepared. In olden days, the vegetable pieces added to the pulingari will be very big. Ash gourd, pumpkin and yam are the veggies added. It is told that after peeling the skin, the whole vegetable is dropped on the ground to break into pieces. The pieces, as is broken, is added to the gravy. During the time when I went, the pieces were not that big, but bigger than what we add in our homes. Just to get that feel, my amma also used to add big pieces. There is no dhanya added here and green chilli is used which is not common in pulingari. Usually pulingari will not have dal added to it. The recipe is simple and easy to make, but the taste is something different from the usual sambhar.

You need

Ash gourd/elavan/kumbalanga - 1/2 kg

Pumpkin/Mathan - 1/2 kg

Yam/chenai - 250 gms

Turmeric - 1/4 tspn

Chilli powder -1/2tspn


Salt to taste

Tamarind - lemon sized

Cooked tuvar dal - 1 cup



To roast

Raw rice -2 tblspn

Methi seed - 1 tspn


Roast raw rice and methi seeds separately till light brown. Powder them separately.

To grind

Grated coconut - 1/2 cup heaped

Green chilli - 2 nos


Seasoning

Oil - 1 tspn

Mustard - 1 tspn

Red chilli - 2 nos
Curry leaves

Method

Wash and peel the vegetables. Chop them into 2 inch cubes. Add two cups of water to the cubed veggies and cook. Add turmeric and red chilli powder and half the amount of salt. The salt is added only for the veggies. The remaining salt will be added to the end. Yam takes more time to cook. You can either cook yam alone in a pressure cooker to speed up the cooking.

When the vegetables are half cooked, extract the tamarind juice and add to it. When the veggies are cooked soft in the tamarind gravy, add cooked tuvar dal and roasted and powdered rice powder.

 Grind the coconut and green chilly to a fine paste by adding enough water. Adjust the amount of chillies according to your spice tolerance.

When the gravy starts boiling, add the ground coconut paste and adjust the thickness of the gravy by adding water. The dal, coconut paste and rice powder will thicken the gravy. Add salt and let it simmer for few minutes.

Remove from fire and do the seasoning with mustard seeds and red chillies. Finally add the powdered methi powder and garnish with curry leaves. The methi powder added at the end gives a nice aroma to the dish.

Enjoy with hot rice with a vegetable side dish and papad.

Mulakuvaruthapuli - Pearl onions in thin tamarind sauce

Mulakuvaruthapuli is to Keralites (atleast to those in Palakkad) as Vathakuzhambu to Tamilians. So you get the drift now. I am not sure if this dish popular in other parts of Kerala. I guess this more of a region specific food. This is one of the comfort foods. A handful of pear onions or shallots and one or two green chillies sauteed and cooked in a thin tamarind sauce and a seasoning of mustard seeds with curry leaves is all that this simple recipe asks for. with some roated papad and hot rice, you have a meal ready with in minutes. Now, this was not a regular at home. As I mentioned, we being Kerala Iyers, Vathakozhambu was more popular. During my growing up years, when we were living as joint family, the only dish cooked with pearl onion was Vengaya Sambhar. Other than that, it was not added to any other dish.

I was introduced to this from my neigbor V aunty. Aunty makes this often and the popular side at their home was egg fry. I have tasted this puli many times at her house. Many years later we moved to our own house in the same neighborhood. It was then Amma started making this at home. Preparing these kind of dishes takes me down the memory lane and its an opportunity for me to  relive those memories. Now a days, I don't make this very often. Last time when I made this after a long gap, I had to call V Aunty to share my memories of this and many other dishes indroduced to me by her.

You need

Pearl onions /Sambhar vengayam/Cheriya Ulli- 10 nos

Green chilly - 2 nos

Tamarind - gooseberry sized

Tumeric a pinch

Salt
 A tiny piece of jaggery (Optional)
Seasoning

Oil - 1 tblspn

Mustard seeds - 1 tspn

Curry leaves

Soak tamarind in 2 cups of warm water for 10 minutes. Soaking in warm water helps to extract the juice fully. Peel onions and slice it into two if they are slightly big in size. Heat a kadai with a tablespoon of oil. Add mustard seeds. When they crackle, add the green chllies slit into two and curry leaves. Then add the shallots. Saute till it is transparent. Add the extracted tamarind juice. Add salt and turmeric. If you are adding jaggery, you can add it. Jaggery will mellow down the tangy taste sinec no other spices are added. I usually don't add jaggery. Bring to a boil and simmer for few minutes.  Its ready to serve.

 
Usually its made with pearl onions. The slight hint of sweetness in these kind of onions complements the tanginess from tamarind.