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

Jowar Laddu

Here is another quick and easy recipe using jowar grains. I remembered the laddu posted by Srivalli and checked it and found it suits my BM theme of cooking with five or less ingredients. Noted the recipe and went to the kitchen straight away and the laddus were ready in 15 minutes.  It makes a very healthy snack for kids and adults alike. There is very little ghee used in the recipe and is sweetened with jaggery.  This fits the bill as a nutritious sweet for your after meal dessert.

Time Taken : 15 minutes
Yields : 11 nos

You need

• Jowar grains - 1/2 cup
• Grated jaggery - 1/2 cup
• Cardamom - a pinch
• Ghee - 1 tablespoon
• Cashew - 5 nos, coarsely ground

Method

To prepare this laddu, jowar pops is ground and mixed with jaggery. Ghee is the binding agent.  First the pops are to be made. Heat a pan. When it is hot, add the jowar grains. Keep stirring it. After 2-3 minutes, the grains will start pop. For me, not even half of the grains popped and I stopped roasting further in the fear of  burning the grains.  

Pulse the jowar pops in the mixer grinder. Don't grind it to a fine powder. Add the grated jaggery to it. Pulse it further so that it makes a homogeneous mix. Take the mix to a bowl. Add cashews, cardamom powder and warm ghee to the mix. Mix well.  The mix may look dry but you will be able to make balls out of it. Make lemon sized balls. Press it tight so that it stays together. It is very tasty that its difficult to stop with one.

Check out what my fellow blogging marathoners have cooked for the last day of the marathon.

Jowar Idli using jowar grains

Food blogging has introduced me to many new grains/flours which  are not part of  my native Palakkad Iyer cuisine. During my grocery shopping, I tend to pick up new grain/flour to try in my kitchen. Most of the time, I will not have recipe in my mind. I had a big packet of jowar grains which I had picked during one of the shopping trips. I relied on Google to throw some recipe links on jowar grains. Most of the recipes used jowar flour. I decided to try idli starting with my usual idli recipe as the base recipe. I was very apprehensive of the outcome. Jowar is an new grain to me and its gluten free. I thought if the idli attempt do not meet success, there is always dosa to look forward.  After 10 minutes of steaming, I was surprised seeing very soft, off white idlis. 

You need

Jowar grains - 1 cup

Idli rice/parboiled rice - 1 cup

Urad dal - 1/2 cup

Methi seeds - 1/2 tspn

Method

Wash jowar, rice and urad dal separately. Soak jowar, rice and methi seeds together. Soak urad dal separately. I soaked it overnight. Jowar requires more soaking time than rice. Soak two hours more than what  you do for the regular rice for idli. 

Grind dal first till fluffy. Remove and grind jowar, rice and methi till it is ground fine. Mix the grain and dal batter with salt. Leave it to ferment for 5-7 hours, based on the weather in your place. 

Take the idli plates. Smear the depression with sesame oil. Spoon the batter and steam cook in a pressure cooker or idli steamer for 10 minutes. 

Remove the cooked idlis and serve with podi/sambhar or chutney.

I love to eat idlis dunked in a bowl of sambhar.

Check out what my blogging marathon friends have cooked for the day.

Rajgira Aloo Tikki

Rajgira flour is generally preferred as a fasting food since it is a non-cereal flour. The flour is prepared from the amaranth seeds. Mostly this flour is made as parathas. Being gluten free, it is suitable for gluten intolerant people.  I tried making tikkis with this flour. Used some mashed potatoes for binding. Very easy to make if you have cooked potatoes in hand.

Yield - 9 nos

Time Taken - 15 minutes

You need

• Rajgira flour - 1 cup
• Cooked and mashed potatoes - 1 cup ( I used 2 big potatoes)
• Ginger,green chilly paste - 1 tspn
• Seasoning ingredients - Salt, lemon juice, hing and chopped coriander
• Oil to shallow fry

Method

Take all the ingredients except oil in a bowl. Mix well. No need to add water. The moisture from potatoes will help to bind the mixture.  Pinch off lime sized dough and shape into tikkis.  If you want some crunch, you can roll the tikkis in sesame seeds. This step is optional.

Heat a tawa. Place the tikkis. Drizzle oil on the tikkis. When the bottom gets cooked, flip and cook the other side. Enjoy hot with some ketchup or chutney.

I am sending this tikkis to the Fasting Food event by MomChef at Sizzling Tastebuds.

Check out what my blogging marathon buddies have cooked for the day

Golpapdi - Wheat flour sweetened with jaggery

A quick look at my recipe index or the labels, will tell you my love for sweets. I have a special affinity to jaggery based sweets. I feel jaggery based sweets are generally healthy compared to the sugar ones. Jaggery is rich source of iron and sweets with this, doesn't call for loads of fat. Golpapdi is one sweet that caught my attention for the simple ingredients and the easier method of preparation. I have tried it few times and not once the jaggery melted from the heat of the flour mix. And every time, I will put the pan back to stove and melt it and then proceed further. The result was still good though it may not come close to the actual golpapdi.

Cut back to January and news paper carried articles on Makarashankaranthi festival and various delicious treats specially made for the festive season. In one of such articles, I read about a variety of jaggery which is soft and suits for til/ellu ladoo. It then dawned on me that such kind of jaggery is required to make golpapdi too.  I found that the jaggery block which I had purchased then was the soft kind. I had casually picked it from the grocery shop and did not find any difference. Then I tried again and finally met success. I followed Tarla Dalal's recipe. 

You need


Whole wheat flour/Atta - 1 cup
Grated Jaggery - 3/4 cup
Ghee - 4 tbspn
Poppy seeds - 1 tspn
Cardamom powder - 1/4 tspn

Method

Heat the ghee in  a pan/kadai. Add the wheat flour to the melted ghee. Keep stirring till the wheat flour turns into a brown color and the aroma of roasted wheat flour in ghee will fill your entire kitchen. Make sure, you don't burn the flour. Remove the pan from fire. The rest of the steps doesn't require any more cooking. Quickly add the grated jaggery and cardamom powder to the roasted wheat flour mix. Keep stirring.The jaggery will melt and it will comes to semi solid mass. Transfer the mix to a greased plate, sprinkled with poppy seeds.  Press and spread the mix evenly with a flat based cup/katori. Mark squares while warm. When cool, store in air tight container.

Please check what my blogging marathon buddies have cooked for the day.

Bittergourd/Parikkai Chips using Microwave ~ Crisp & Low Fat

When there are so many varieties of chips to choose from, why would any one think of chips out of bitter gourd. The name itself might bring unpleasant taste to many. I first tasted these chips when my co-sister got this from A1 chips, Coimbatore. It was very tasty that the bitterness could easily given a pass. I do make sun dried bitter gourd to use in vatha kuzhambu or deep fry them as occasional sides.  But its chips avatar really bowled me over. 

I have been thinking of trying it in microwave in the same way as masala peanuts is done. Every time I buy the bitter gourds, I remind myself that I should try with at least one. The theme of blogging marathon gave the final nudge and I made it yesterday. It came out very crisp and it was all done in 12 minutes.

You need

Bitter gourd, medium sized - 3 nos

Rice flour - 3 tspn

Red chilly powder - 1/4 tspn

Salt to taste

Oil - 1 tspn

Method

Wash and slice the bitter gourd into thin circles. Remove the seeds. If you find removing the seeds after slicing a bit tedious, you can cut the gourd into two halves, vertically. Remove the seeds and slice. Spread it on a newspaper for an hour or so. So it will dry out by then.

In a bowl, take rice flour, red chilli powder, salt and oil. Mix well. Add the sliced bitter gourd to the flour mix. Sprinkle few drops of water so that the masala coats all the pieces well.

Arrange the bitter gourd pieces on a microwave safe plate, in a single layer. Microwave high for 4 minutes. Take the plate out and flip the pieces. Microwave for 5 minutes. Check if it is crisp. Else MW in steps of 1 minute. After 10 minutes, you can drizzle few drops of oil and cook further.  It took 12 minutes for me. The time may vary according to the quantity and thickness of the slice. Store in an airtight container. It stays crisp for a long time.

Enjoy with your cup of tea/coffee or as a side for curd rice.

Variations
1) You can use sambhar powder or any other spicy podi
2) Add sesame seeds for crunch
3)Increase the amount of rice flour to get a batter fried effect


I am taking this to the MEC-Potluck hosted by Srivalli.

Do check out what my blogging marathon buddies have cooked for the day.