Festive Lunch Menu ~ Contd from last post

This is in continuation of my previous post.
Lunch menu
Morukootan, Kootu curry, Payar thoran, thakkali (Tomato) thayir pachadi, dal (paruppu), ghee and curd


Morukootan

Vellarikkai, cubed - 1 1/2 cups
Grated coconut - 3/4 cup
Green chilli - 2 nos

Buttermilk/beaten curd - 1 cup

Turmeric

Salt

To Roast
Chana dal - 1 tblspn
Red chilli - 2 nos
Methi seeds - 1/4 tspn

Seasoning
Oil - 1 tspn
mustard seeds -1/2 tspn
curry leaves - few
methi seeds - 1/4 tspn
red chilly - 2 broken

Vellarikka is a kind of cucumber which is kept for Vishu kani. Wash and peel the skin of Vellarikkai. dice into 1/2 inch cubes. Cook on stove top or MW with enough water, salt and turmeric added, till fork tender.

Roast chana dal, red chilli and methi seeds in a teaspoon of oil till dal turns brown. Add methi seeds when dal starts browning else it might get burnt. Cool and grind along with grated coconut and green chillies. Add water to get a smooth paste.

Mix the ground paste in buttermilk / beaten yogurt. Stir the mix into the cooked veggies. Adjust the consistency by adding water. Check the salt and bring it a boil. Don't let it to rolling boil. Stop when it is foamy on the top. Season with mustard, red chillies, curry leaves and methi seeds.

Kootu curry

Kootu curry is yam and ash gourd cooked along with chana dal, flavored with ground coconut and spices with a seasoning garnish of roasted coconut and the usual tempering ingredients. This is one of the items served as part of the sadhya/feast.

Ash gourd/elavan chopped into cubes - 1 1/2 Cups

Yam/Chena cubed = 1/2 cup

Chana dal - 1/4 cup

chilli powder - 1/2 tspn

turmeric - a big pinch

salt

To grind

grated coconut - 1/2 cup

cumin/jeera - 1/2 tspn

Seasoning

Oil preferably coconut oil - 1 tblspn

mustard seeds

Urad dal - 1 tspn

Cook the chopped ash gourd, yam and chana dal with turmeric and chilli powder added. I usually pressure cook for 2 whistles. Drain the excess water. If pressure cooked,be gentle when u mix the veggies else it will turn mushy. Add salt and cook for 5 minutes for the veggies to soak in the salt. I don't add salt while pressure cooking since yam might not get cooked properly.

Ground grated coconut and cumin seeds to a coarse paste. Don't add water. If required sprinkle few drops of water. Stir in in the ground paste and check the salt. I always add salt in two stages. Cook for few minutes, till it turns dry. Do the seasoning and fry till coconut is brown. Pour the seasoning over the curry.


Payar thoran (chowpeas stir fry)

Cowpeas - 250 gms

Turmeric - a pinch

Salt

Grated coconut -1 tblspn

Green chilly - 2nos

Seasoning

Oil, Mustard,Red chilly,Urad dal

Wash and trim the edges of the cowpeas. Finely chop them. Add salt and turmeric. Sprinkle some water. Microwave for 7 minutes. Alternatively, you can cook on stove top too.Coarsely grind the coconut and green chilly with out adding water. Stir in the ground coconut and cook for a minute. Season with mustard, urad dal and broken red chilly and mix into the cooked cowpeas.

Thakkali (Tomatoe) Thayir pachadi

Medium sized tomato- 1
curd - 1 cup
salt

To grind

Grated coconut - 2 tblspn
Green chilly - 1 nos
mustard seeds - 1/2 tspn

Seasoning

Oil
mustard seeds
red chilly

Finely chop the tomatoes. Heat a kadai. Do the seasoning, add the chopped tomatoes. Stir fry. Grind the coconut, green chilly and mustard seeds together with little water. Mix in the fried tomatoes and ground paste into the beaten curd. Add salt just before you serve. Else salt will release water and make the pachadi thinner.


I will just outline the order in which the menu is to be served on leaf with the items I made for the day.




1) Little of Payasam/kheer is served on the bottom right.
2) the vetables are served on the upper part of the leaf, starting from the
right.Pachadi, Curry, and thoran (These are the three I have served)
3) Dal along the middle of the leaf to the right of payasam (Tuvar dhal is cooked and mashed with little salt added. )
4) Uppittu/Vadai on the left end of the leaf
5) Rice followed by ghee/clarified butter.
6) Finally morkootan.

Molagootal & Vazhathandu Pachadi ~ Lunch Series#2

The next in my lunch series is again Molagootal. But this one is different from the Keerai molagootal blogged earlier. When it is said only molagootal, then it refers to the one which I am posting here. If any greens take the place of veggies, then it is specifically referred as keerai molagootal. The basic method is same for both. Veggies/leaf cooked in dal,coconut gravy. The common veggies used are ash gourd(elavan/puzhinikkai),vellarikkai, raw banana, yam, snake gourd,koorka and the like. Ash gourd is a must. Rest of the veggies are just add-ons to increase the taste. Most of the times its elavan/ash gourd only molagootal. Sometimes, depending on the veggies availability and time, I add few pieces of those.

Ingredients
Ash gourd/elavan chopped into small cubes - 2 cups

moong dal - less than 1/2 cup

salt

turmeric - 1/4 tspn

For grinding

grated coconut - 1/2 cup

red chilly - 1 no

cumin seeds/jeera - 1 tspn

Method

Pressure cook chopped veggies, dal and turmeric with enough water. Grind coconut, red chilly and jeera to a smooth paste by adding required water. Take the cooked dal veggie combo . Mix salt and stir in the ground paste. Adjust the thickness of the gravy by adding water. Bring to a boil and simmer for few minutes. Season with mustard seeds and garnish with curry leaves. This is a bland dish. But it makes a wholesome nutritious soup if u make the consistency thinner. While serving molagootal with rice, add a teaspoon of ghee to the hot rice. Its really yummy.

Usually the side preferred to molagootal is spicy/tangy one. Here it is Vazhathandu/banana stem pachadi. It is very fibrous and is known to remove kidney stones. Drinking vazhathandu juice is highly recommended for kidney stone problem. The outer layer of the stem is removed and then chopped into round pieces. While chopping each pieces, remove the fibre by rolling the finger around the thandu. Put the pieces in water mixed with some buttermilk, to retain the color. Take 3/4 round pieces and chop them into tiny cubes and put them back in water. Use a skewer and rotate it in the bowl of chopped banana stem along with water to remove any left out fibre. Cleaning and chopping the stem is time consuming, but its qualities makes the effort worth.

Chopped banana stem - 2 cups

tamarind - gooseberry sized

turmeric

salt
For grinding
grated coconut - 1/2 cup

green chilly - 2

red chilly - 1

mustard seeds - 1/4 tspn

Soak tamarind in a cup of warm water for 10 minutes. Extract juice and add turmeric and salt to it. Bring the tamarind water to boil. Add the chopped banana stem and let it cook till soft. Grind the coconut,green chilly,red chilly and mustard seeds to a smooth paste. Add to the cooked tamarind mixture. Adjust the consistency by adding water to get a medium thick gravy. Bring to a boil and garnish with curry leaves. Season with tablespoon of oil and mustard seeds.

Usually rasam is also prepared whenever molagootal is made. If it is only for two of us, then I omit rasam, since my husband is not very keen on having rasam.

Keerai Molagootal and Nellikkai Archukalakki ~ Lunch Series #1

I have been planning a lunch series featuring the ordinary lunch menu at my home, which most of the time is traditional dishes. I took few pictures also. It ends there. I kept on procastinating the posting part. Finally I have come around to posting stage.I didnot want to stop it after 2/3 posts and leave it there. I wish to feature atleast the most common recipes in this series. Hope I will do minimum justice to it. A normal lunch consists of a gravy/kootan as referred in Palakkad Iyer lingo, upperi/dry curry, rasam(not everyday), mor/buttermilk and pickle. I had not doubt to what will be my first post in this series. What else other than Molagootal, the signature dish of Palakkad Iyers, to kick start the series.

Keerai molagootal (Spinach in dal and coconut gravy)

Arakeerai/Amaranth leaves (the one with small leaves) is the best variety for molagootal. Palak/Spinach is also good. Most of the times I end up buying palak since it is easy clean, where arakeerai takes quite some time to separate the leaves and tender stem.

Roughly chopped keerai - 3 cupssaltturmeric
Tuvar dal - 1/2 cup
Cumin Seeds/Jeers - 1 tspn
Grated coconut - 1/2 cup
For roastingUrad dal - 1 tspnRed chilly - 1 no

Seasoning

Oil - 2 tspn

Mustard seeds - 1 tspn

Method
Ccook the spinach leaves in 1 cup of water till the leaves are withered. Alternatively Mw for 3 minutes. Leave it to cool . Pressure cook tuvar dal till soft. Mash the dal well. Roast urad dal and red chilly in a tspn of oil till dal turns light brown.

Pulse the keerai in the mixer for few seconds. It should be pureed but not too smooth.Grind the coconut,roasted dal and chilly and jeera to a fine paste.
Coimbine spinach puree, mashed dal and ground paste. Bring to a boil. Season with mustard seeds.

The preferred sides for molagootal is puli pachadi (tamarind based), thayir pachadi(with yogurt base) thogayals (chutney) or arachukalakki.

Now I am posting the recipe for nellikkai arachukalakki. Arachukalakki literally translates as Ground and Mixed.Here it is grounded gooseberry and coconut with chilly mixed with yogurt. Chenai/yam, kanni manga (salt pickled small mangoes ) are generally used for preparing arachukalakki.

Gooseberries pickled in salt - 10 nos.

(Usually these berries would have turn soft on soaking in salt water. If you find them firm, u can steam cook/MW for few minutes to make them soft. )
Grated coconut - 1/2 cup

green chilly - 3 nos

whipped curd - 1/2 cup

Seasoning

oil - 2 tspn

mustard seeds - 1 tspn

red chilly - 1 no

methi seeds - 1/4 tspn
Remove the seeds from the berries. Grind together GB, coconut and green chillies.
Heat oil in a pan. Add mustard seeds, followed by red chilly broken into two. Finally add methi seeds. When methi starts turning brown, add to the ground mixture. While the pan is hot, add the whipped curd to the pan and pour over the seasoning. Mix well. Since salt in the gooseberries will be enough, additional salt will not be required. Though check if needed.

Keerai molagootal is going Sunshinemom's FIC: Green

Nellikkai Arachukalakki is my entry for AFAM:Gooseberry hosted by Illatharasi.