Sakkarai pongal (sweet pongal)

This is a yumm comfort food, one which takes me down memory lane to Amma's food. It was a happy moment when my sonny said its one of his favourites and asked to make it sometime.
This recipe is from my mother. Very simple. No frills.

Ingredients

Raw rice 1 cup

Crushed jaggery 1 and half cup

Ghee half cup

Cashews and raisins, cardamom powder

Milk 2 cups

payatham paruppu (moong dal) 1.4 cup

Method

• Roast rice and payatham parupu withour oil in a kadai till it turns slightly brown.

• Cool, wash well and drain water well.

• Add 5 cups of water to milk in a thick bottemed vessel. Add the rice and cook.

• Mix 1 cup of water in jaggery and heat till it dissolves.

• When it is almost cooked add the jaggery after straining for mud.

• Add the ghee and seasoning and cook till it becomes thick.

Note
water can taken less increasing the milk

Aloo tikki

My boy has been asking for this simple snack, and I was only too happy to find it in showmethecurry.com
I blindly followed their recipe and it was pretty good.

Here it is

Ingredients:
Potatoes – 2 large, boiled & peeled
Dried Fenugreek Leaves – 1 Tbsp (aka Kasoori Methi)
Roasted Peanuts – 2 Tbsp, roughly crushed (optional)
Onion – 1/4 medium, finely chopped
Green Chilies – to taste, finely chopped
Salt – to taste
Roasted Cumin Powder – 1/2 tsp
Chaat Masala – 1 tsp
Dried Mango Powder – 1/4 tsp (aka Amchur)
Cilantro – 2 Tbsp, finely chopped
Bread Crumbs – as needed for coating tikkis
Oil – for pan frying


Method:
1. Using a grater, grate boiled potatoes (big shred). Potatoes can also be mashed using potato masher.
2. Add Onions, Peanuts, Cilantro, Green Chilies and Dried Fenugreek Leaves. Mix gently.
3. Add Salt, Chaat Masala, Roasted Cumin Powder and Dried Mango Powder. Mix well.
4. Apply a little Oil to your hands and take a portion of the potato mixture into your hands. Roll it into a ball and flatten it out gently. Tikki can be rolled small for appetizers or larger for veggie burgers.
5. Roll out all of the tikkis.
6. Pour out some bread crumbs on a flat plate and dip and roll the tikkis to coat completely.
7. Heat a little oil in a non-stick skillet on medium heat and shallow fry the tikkis until they are crispy and brown. Both sides should be browned.
8. Serve hot with mint or coriander chutney and tamarind chutney.

Yumm biriyani

This is the Hyderabadi biriyani dish I made from Archana's kitchen. I made slight changes to her sequence, but the spirit remains the same. I have christened it to 'yumm biriyani'. Dont let the long list of ingredients scare you. Its not as difficult as it looks, and worth every minute of the effort.

Ingredients

• beans sliced to long pieces
• carrots sliced to long pieces
• potatoes sliced to long pieces
• cauliflower florets
• peas
• capsicum sliced to long pieces

Wet Ingredients

• 2 - 3 tablespoons of garlic + ginger + green chilli paste
• 1 cup sliced onions

Dry Ingredients

• 1 cloves
• 1/2 inch stick of cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon fennel seeds
• 1/4 teaspoon cumin seeds
• 2 whole cardamoms
• 1 bay leaves
• 1 teaspoon of turmeric powder
• 1 teaspoon red chilli powder
• 2 teaspoons of red chilli powder (or 3-4 whole red chillies)

Other Ingredients

• 2 cups of good quality basmati rice
• 1 cup of freshly chopped tomatoes
• 1 cup yogurt beaten well
• ½ cup freshly chopped mint leaves
• 1 pinch of saffron
• 1/2 cup of sliced and caramelized onions
• Salt to taste
• 1-2 tablespoon of Sunflower Oil/Vegetable oil

Method

• Cook the rice with 3 cups of water. The water added is less than is required, we don't want to rice to get fully cooked, as it will get cooked again with the biriyani masala, whose process follows below.

• Steam the vegetables until done and not over cooked.

• Heat oil in a big sauce pan; add the clove, cardamom, cinnamon, bay leaf, fennel seeds, jeera. Once done add the onions and saute. Add the grren chilli-garlic-ginger paste sauté on low/medium heat until it releases a nice aroma and also has changed color to a slight golden brown.

• Now add the chopped tomato, turmeric powder, chilli powder and saute until it has turned soft and almost like a paste.

• Add the yogurt, salt, saffron and mint leaves and the vegetables. Bring it to one boil.

• With this masala being at the bottom of the pan, add the almost cooked rice on top of this masala, don't mix it as yet. Now cover the pan with a lid and let it sit for 15 more minutes on low heat. Turn off heat and let the biriyani sit for another 15-20 minutes, covered.

• Finally add the add the caremelized onions and gently stir in the masala from the bottom into the rice. The flavors released are simply aromatic. Do not mix too thoroughly.

Note: Cooking Time and Water for each rice might vary. So at the end of the cooking process if you feel the rice is still a little hard, then add a little more water and cook on the lowest heat for a few more minutes.

Sweet potato subji

I want to explore the sweet potato, so bought a few. Lunch today is simple rasam and sweet potato subji. Here is how I made it.

Ingredients
Sweet potato 1 skinned and cubed
Mustard seeds 1/4 tsp
Urad dal 1/4 tsp
Asafoetida 1 pinch
Turmeric powder 1/4 tsp
Chilli-Coriander powder 1/2 tsp (I dry roast red chillies and coriander seeds in 1:1 proportion, grind and keep)
Salt to taste
Oil 1/2 tsp

Method

1. Heat oil in kadai. Once hot, burst mustard, urad dal. 
2. Add the sweet potato chunks, turmeric powder, chilli-coriander powder, salt to taste. Mix well.
3. Sprinkle some water and cook covered.
4. It should soften and feel like potatoes once cooked.
5. Give a good toss.  

Serve hot with rice and some curry of your choice.

Mushroom masala

We like mushrooms. Mushroom sandwich, mushroom subji, mushroom pulao and so on.
I should mention that showmethecurry.com, had shown a good way to precook mushrooms since its a little dicey to add them and cook like other veggies.
This is one way I do mushroom subji. Goes well with chapati.

Ingredients
Mushrooms 2 cups, washed well and chopped to bite size pieces.
Water 2 cups.
Salt to taste.
Onion 1 big chopped
Tomatoes 2 big chopped
Green chillies 2 chopped
Chilli powder 1 tsp
Turmeric powder 1/4 tsp
Coriander powder 1 tsp
Cumin powder 1/2 tsp
Ginger garlic paste 1 tsp
Coriander leaves for garnishing
Jeera seeds for seasoning.
Oil 1 tsp

Method

1. Boil the water with a bit of salt. Once its boiling, add the mushrooms, switch off the heat and cover. Keep aside for atleast 10 mins.
2. Heat oil in a kadai. Add jeera seeds. Once they splutter, add onions, green chillies and fry till onions are transparent.
3. Add tomatoes, all the powders, ginger garlic paste and fry till oil separates.
4. Drain the water from the mushrooms. Add the mushrooms to the masala and cook again. You can add the water from blanched mushrooms if you need a bit of gravy. Simmer for 5 mins.
5. Dress with coriander leaves.

Serve hot with phulkas.

Note
If you have tried cooking mushrooms before, you will know that they keep sweating water when salt is added and refuse to get cooked. Dunking them in salted boiling water takes away all this water and helps them to cook. You can use this water in other dishes. Courtesy showmethecurry.com

Egg curry

We love egg curry with chapiti, appam, nool puttu(which reminds me, I have to try this dish)... and so on...

I was kinda bored with the usual onion-tomato based gravy, and so decided to try my own gravy for the same. Here is how I did it.

Ingredients
Eggs - 3 - boiled well, shelled, and sliced to two halves each (for the three of us)
Onion 1 large chopped
Coriander seeds 1 tsp
Red chillies 2-3
Peppercorn 1/4 tsp
Saunf 1/4 tsp
Coconut grated 1/2 cup
Garam masala to taste
Turmeric powder 1/4 tsp
Salt to taste
Oil 1 tbsp
Mustard seeds, Curry leaves, Red chillies to season

Method

1. Heat part of the oil in a kadai. When its hot, add the saunf, coriander seeds, onion, pepper corn, red chilli and fry. Transfer to mixie when onion turns transparent.
2. Heat the kadai again and roast the coconut till it browns. Stay with it stirring continuously. Transfer to mixie.
3. Grind all this together with some water to make a smooth paste.
4. Heat oil in kadai, add the seasonings. Once they are done, add the ground masala, garam masala, turmeric powder, salt , water as needed and bring to one boil. Simmer for 5 mins or so. The thickness of the gravy depends on how much water you add.
5. In a wide, serving dish, arrange the eggs with the yellow side up. Pour the gravy over it and around it. This will help the eggs soak up the gravy.

Note

• You can garnish with cilantro leaves.
• Some people do not slice the eggs fully. They just slit it on one side and dunk the eggs into the gravy. My observation is that the eggs do not soak up as much gravy by this method.
• You can add some kasuri methi too for added flavour.
• The same gravy can be used to make kadala curry (which is an accompaniment to puttu).

Ulli theeyal

I love this close cousin of vetta kozhambu. Its the ulli theeyal of mallu-land. Pearl onions simmered in tamarind based gravy with select spices. I found the recipe on the internet. Unfortunately, I do not remember the website. And I have made a couple of additions to take the dish to another level.

Spicy and heavenly with hot white rice, the perfect accompaniment to it would be a non-sour dish like olan or ishtoo. And today's ishtoo was kappa ishtoo.

Here it goes

Ingredients

Small onions - 20 of them(peeled, washed and sliced)

Dry red chillies - 6 nos

Coriander seeds - 2 tbsp

Coconut - 1/2 of one grated finely

Fenugreek seeds - 1/4 tsp

Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp

Coconut oil - 1 tbsp

Tamarind extract of a gooseberry sized ball

Mustard seeds - 1 tsp

Dry red chillies - 2 - 3 nos for seasoning

Curry leaves - A few

Jaggery crushed 1-2 tsp

Rice powder as and if needed

Salt - As reqd

Method

 

1. Heat up a pan or a kadai.
2. Add fenugreek seeds and stir for a sec.
3. Add red chillies and coriander seeds and fry for a while, transfer to mixie.
4. Roast the coconut well, till it turns brown. Be careful to not let it burn. Stir constantly. This step may be a little exasperating since you will find bigger bits of the coconut refusing to brown. Its enough if most of the coconut is brown.Transfer to mixie.
5. Allow the above roasted mixture to cool.
6. Grind it in a mixer grinder along with enough water into a smooth paste.
7. Heat oil in a pan or a kadai.
8. Splutter mustard seeds and saute dry red chillies and curry leaves.
9. Add sliced onions and saute, till they turn golden brown in colour.
10. Add turmeric powder and saute again.
11. Add tamarind extract and mix well.
12. Allow it to boil.
13. When the first boil comes up, add the coconut paste and salt.
14. Mix well the whole contents.
15. Simmer it for a while.
16. Add the jaggery.
17. When the required consistency is reached (which is neither too thick nor too thin), remove from the flame.
18. If you find it a little too thin, add half a tsp of rice powder by first mixing it in a tbsp of the curry and then simmering for 10 mins.

  Serve hot with rice and porial and pappad.  Believe me its very tasty!!

Kappa Ishtoo (Tapioca stew)

As I had some tapioca, I wanted to try the tapioca stew, which is similar to the potato stew. Only thing to be careful is about the cooking time of tapioca. It takes much longer to cook than potatoes.
Take a look at the Potato stew recipe, and simply replace potatoes with chunks of tapioca.

Lunch was kappa ishtoo, ulli theeyal and cabbage thoran. All yumm!

Tapioca Mash (Kappa)

This is a native Kerala dish, which I encountered during my hostel days. It was so simple and tasty, the perfect snack with chai after coming back from college in the evening.

Tapioca(called kappa) is a tuber. I am sure there are ways to find out if the tapioca is fresh and good, but I am not aware. I got about half a foot of the tuber and was so happy, that I decided to cook it right away.

Ingredients
Tapioca 6 inches long, skinned, and chopped to big chunks. It should be white in colour.
Oil, mustard seeds, green chillies, curry leaves, turmeric powder for seasoning.
Salt to taste.

Method

1. Cook the tapioca in a pressure cooker with some water. It takes longer than potatoes to cook. 
2. Once cooked, mash it up well, keep the water aside.
3. Heat oil in a kadai, add the seasoning. Add the cooked tapioca , salt and mix well. Add little water if its too dry. Its ready!

The regular combination is kappa with fish. I have no clue as to how that will be.
Another good option is to have it with chammandi(coconut-onion chutney).  I can tell you that this combo is just yumm....

Remember, kappa in itself is a little bland, so the chutney gives it the tang.

Poricha kozhambu

This is another pepper based dish that my boys are fond of. They love it with parupu saadam and nei. :-) Did you get the aroma of simple parupu saadam and nei???

Credit to my chitti for the recipe.

Ingredients

Tur dal 1 cup
Asafoetida 1 pinch
Veggies cubed 1 cup (carrot, pumpkin, beans, drumstick any of these)
Turmeric powder 1/4 tsp
Sambar powder 1 tsp
Red chilli 1
Urad dal 1 tsp
Peppercorns 3/4 tsp
Coconut scraped 2 tsp
Oil 1/2 tsp
Oil, curry leaves, mustard for seasoning.
Salt to taste

Method

1. Cook tur dal with turmeric and asafoetida in 2 cups of water. Mash well. Keep aside.
2. Cook the veggies with sambar powder and salt in 1 cup of water.
3. Fry the urad dal, peppercorns,red chilli, coconut in oil. Grind to smooth paste.
4. Mix all the above three. Adjust salt and water and bring to boil.
5. Season with the seasonings.

Serve hot with rice and a nice sabji.

Note :
Pepper makes the dish very hot. Go easy on it at first.

Beetroot upperi

Upperi is a veggie dry side-dish.   A different treatment of beetroot from what I have grown up with, this dish is just another that I learnt from my mother-in-law.
You can even mix beetroot and carrot in this.

Ingredients
Beetroot 1 or 2, skinned and grated. The volume increases after grating.
Carrot grated 1 (optional)
Onion 1 chopped very fine. We do not want to see bigger pieces of onion in between the grated beetroot.
Green chillies 2-3 chopped
Curry leaves, oil, mustard seeds for seasoning.
Turmeric powder
Salt to taste.

Method

1. Heat oil(I use coconut oil for this dish), add seasonings. 
2. Once that is done, add beetroot, carrot, onion, turmeric powder, salt to taste and mix well.
3. Sprinkle some water and cook covered. Stir occasionally and sprinkle water as needed. The raw smell of onions should disappear and the beetroot should soften.
4. Serve hot with rice and any curry of your choice.

Beans thoran

Thoran is poriyal with coconut shavings and the specific veggie. Most common thoran in 'sadhyas' is cabbage thoran. My personal favourite is beans thoran done the below mentioned way.

Fresh french beans chopped very fine, cooked in coconut-onion-green chilli paste. This is something I learnt from my mother in law. I just love this way of cooking beans. The colour and flavour is awesome.

Ingredients
French beans chopped very fine. The slices should be as thin as possible.
Onion chopped 1 big
Green chillies 2-3
Coconut 3 tsp scraped
Mustard, curry leaves, oil for seasoning. (I use coconut oil for this poriyal)
Turmeric powder

Method

1. Grind the coconut, green chillies and onion to a fine paste. Add water just enough for grinding.
2. Heat oil, add the seasonings.
3. Once that is done, add the beans, turmeric, salt to taste, and the ground masala.
4. Cook covered till beans are soft and raw smell goes. Sprinkle some water to cook.

Enjoy with rice and any curry of your choice.

Khatta - Meetha karela (sweet and sour bitter gourd)

This is one bitter gourd dish that my son loves, so much so that he takes it to school for lunch with curd rice. :-)


This dish is inspired from Archana's Kitchen.

Ingredients
Bitter gourd 1-2 skinned, deseeded and chopped to small cubes. Salt and keep aside.
Oil 1 tsp
Salt to taste
Chilli powder 1 tsp
Coriander powder 1 tsp
Cumin powder 1/2 tsp
Aamchur 1 tsp (Dry mango powder)
Turmeric powder 1/4 tsp.
Curry leaves few.
Asafoetida a pinch
Jeera 1/2 tsp
Jaggery 1 tsp crumbled well

Method

1. Heat oil, once hot add jeera, asafoetida, curry leaves. 
2. Squeeze out the water from the bitter gourd and add to the tadka. Add all the spices(except the jaggery, which is anyway not a spice).  Add salt to taste. Mix well. 
3. Cook covered till cooked soft. Sprinkle just enough water for it to cook.
4. Once cooked, add the jaggery and mix well. The jaggery will caramelise.

It goes well with rice and sambar or any curry of your choice.

Methi - Masoor dal

Yeah, I know. I am guilty of cooking masoor dal way too often. Parrr.. mein kya karoon?? Its so easy and so delicious, I keep thinking up of variations of the dal.
Had a quarter bunch of fenugreek leaves(methi), wanted to see how the two go together. Well, it turned out delicious, creamy, and so on....

Here is how I made it. If you want, you can make it less spicy, go with the more basic and native ingredients. I am very sure it will come out delicious, creamy et all...

Ingredients
Masoor dal half cup
Moong dal 1 tbsp
Methi leaves chopped 1 cup
Onion 1 big chopped
Tomatoes 2 big chopped
Green chillies 2 chopped fine
Ginger-garlic paste 1 tsp
Chilli powder 1 tsp
Asafoetida 1 pinch
Turmeric powder quarter tsp
Coriander powder 1/2 tsp
Cumin powder 1/4 tsp
Garam masala 1/4 tsp
Jeera 1 tsp, Saunf 1/2 tsp for seasoning.
Oil for frying.

Method

1. Wash the methi well. Salt it, mix and keep aside.
2. Wash the dals together well. The water should run clear. Cook with 2 cups water, turmeric powder and asafoetida. The dals cook very quickly.
3. Heat oil in a kadai. Add the jeera, saunf. Once they are done add the onions and fry till transparent.
4. Once it is done, add the green chillies, ginger-garlic paste and fry till raw smell goes.
5. Add tomatoes, chilli powder, coriander powder, cumin powder, garam masala and mix well.
6. Once oil starts separating, rinse the salted fenugreek leaves and add them to the masala. Do not use the water which was sweated out by the methi. Pour little water and cook for 5 mins.
7. Add the cooked dal. Adjust salt and water. Simmer for a few mins. 
8. You can add a few drops of lemon juice just before serving.

Serve hot with phulkas. 

Paarkai pitlai (Bitter gourd sambar)

Lets face it, I hate bitter gourd, could never bring myself to eat it, and even now cant have more than a bite, of whatever preparation. However well it is made.
Lets also face it, my boys love it. So today I decided to make paarkai pitlai. Had a few stalks of thandu keerai, thought of throwing in that too to see how it goes.

Here is how I made it. I blindly followed my Amma's recipe (sub-junior chef that I am).

Ingredients
Bitter gourd 1 - skinned, deseeded and sliced to long pieces. Smear with salt and keep aside.
Extract of a lemon sized piece of tamarind
Sambar powder 1 and half tsp
Tur dal half cup
Asafoetida a pinch
Turmeric powder quarter tsp
Coriander seeds 2 tsp
Chana dal 1 tsp
Urad dal 1 tsp
Red chillies 2-3
Coconut scraped 2 tsp
Oil for frying and seasoning 2 tsp
Mustard seeds, Curry leaves, Red chillies for seasoning
Salt to taste

Method

1. Boil the tamarind extract with sambar powder. (I cooked the green stalks along with this).
2. Cook tur dal with turmeric powder, asafoetida and water in pressure cooker. Dal should be well cooked.
3. Cook/steam the sliced bitter gourd pieces. Discard any water that is left due to cooking.
4. Fry coriander seeds, chana dal, urad dal, red chillies, coconut in oil. Grind to fine paste.
5. Mix all the above four and bring to a boil. Adjust salt.
6. Season with the seasonings mentioned.

Erissery

Erissery is a tasty Kerala dish of two types, one with plantain or yam and the other with yellow pumpkin and red beans. I like the red beans waala, and tried it out.

Within this itself, I found many variations and many ingredients. Here is how I made it.

Ingredients

Red beans (glossary of bean varieties incase you are wondering what it is) - 1/2 cup
Yellow pumpkin cubed 1 cup
Red chilli powder 1 tsp
Salt to taste
Grated coconut 2 tsp
Jeera 1/2 tsp
Mustard seeds, red chillies, curry leaves, coconut scrapped for seasoning.
Oil for seasoning

Method

1. Cook the yellow pumpkin with salt, turmeric powder and chilli powder in 1/2 cup water. The pumpkin should be cooked but still firm, not mushy. Keep aside.
2. Cook the red beans with water in a pressure cooker. The red beans should be well cooked.
3. Grind coconut and jeera to a fine paste. Add it to the beans + pumpkin. Simmer for few minutes. Add half spoon sugar if there is no sweet taste at all. The dish should be slightly sweet.
4. Heat coconut oil, add mustard seeds, red chillies, curry leaves and season. Fry coconut separately and season.

Note
I have purposefully omitted the onion and garlic in my preparation, since I do not consider them to be 'sadhya' specific ingredients. Many recipies that I saw called for garlic and few pearl onions to be ground with the coconut.
I omitted green chillies too in my paste since the spice of the red chilli was sufficient.

This is a side dish. Consistency should be that of an avial or kootu.

Turia Muthia nu shaak

This dish is inspired from Archana's kitchen. I never knew anything about muthias, but now realise that there is a whole healthy world of muthia dishes out there. Will try more in the times to come.

And remember, I am still trying to finish my besan :-)

Ingredients
For the subji
Ridge gourd 2 cups
Oil 1 tsp
Jeera 1 tsp
Chilli powder 1 tsp
Ginger-green chilli paste 1 tsp
Asafoetida
Salt to taste
Sugar to taste

For the muthias
Fenugreek leaves chopped 1/2 cup
Besan 1 cup
Lemon juice 1 tbsp
Ginger-green chilli paste 1 tsp
Salt to taste
Sugar to taste
Soda (which I did not have and hence did not add)
Oil to fry (Muthias are ideally steamed, but I did not know it then you see??)

Method
Make the muthias

1. Mix all the muthia ingredients to make a soft dough. Make small rolls.
2. Fry in oil or steam in steamer.

Subji

1. Heat oil. Add jeera, asafoetida, ginger-green chilli paste and fry.
2. Once that is done, add the ridge gourd pieces, salt, chilli powder and cook covered till done.
3. Add sugar and mix well.
4. Crumble the prepared muthias coarsely and add. Cook covered again on sim for 10-15 mins.
5. Serve hot with phulkas.

Well, well, well.... Its tasty and am not sure that the steamed version will be as tasty as the fried version.  The original recipe did not call for crumbling the muthias. I felt the dumplings would blend better when crumbled than whole.

Jhatpat rice

Had to figure out a quick rice item for the man's lunch box, and decided to throw in everything that I could use. None of them were in sufficient quantity to able to own the dish, but the result was still tasty and interesting.

Ingredients

Cooked rice, half cup
Onions chopped 1 small
Green chillies chopped 1
Lemon juice (I just had a few drops)
Mint leaves (I just had very few of them on me) chopped
Jeera 1 tsp
Green peas frozen 1 tsp
Salt to taste
Oil 2 tsp

Method

1. Heat oil, add the jeera and fry.
2. Then add the onions, green chillies and fry. Once that is done, add mint leaves and fry. Add the green peas and cook till soft.
3. Add the rice, salt and mix well. Once it is mixed well, add the lemon juice and again mix.
4. Serve with raita. Khatham kahaani.

I can think of N number of variations to this. Adding curry powder, cashews, chopped veggies, whatever comes to mind. No hard and fast rule to this rice, you can have a field day with the ingredients.

Onion chutney

There are many versions of onion chutney. This is the one I make most often. The boys love the fiery, tangy flavours.

Ingredients

Pearl onions - 10-15, peeled
Onion big - chopped
Small piece of tamarind
Curry leaves - few
Red chillies - 4-5
Ginger - a small piece.
Salt to taste.
Coconut oil - 2 tsp

Method

Heat oil and fry all the ingredients. Grind to a smooth paste without adding too much water. Done-danaa-done!

Note
1. You can add tomato, and coconut to make a different version.
2. You can add tadka if the chutney is semi gravy. Do it as per your taste!!!

Potato stew (Ishtoo)

Potatoes cooked in coconut milk, spiced very selectively, it can't get simpler or tastier than this. Have it with idli, dosa, rice, bread or even phulkas.

My boys love it with dosa and onion chutney.


Ingredients

Potatoes 2-3 peeled, cubed to large pieces
Onion 1 big sliced to long pieces
Green chillies 2-3 slit lengthwise
Curry leaves a few
Ginger 1 inch piece
Coconut oil 1 tsp
Coconut milk 1 - 2 cups

Method

1. Mix the potatoes, onions, green chillies, curry leaves, ginger, salt to taste, a cup of water and cook covered. I cook in my favourite tiny hawkins pressure cooker. The potatoes should become mushy.
2. Mix well, mash up a few potato chunks with a spatula.
3. Add the coconut milk and simmer for a few mins. Add a few drops of coconut oil and mix well.

 Swadisht ishtoo tayyaar!!!!

Note

• We do not fry any ingredient in this.
• Do not cook for too long after adding coconut milk.
• Take care with the quantity of water. The dish should have consistency of that of a dal or sambar.

This is the most basic version of ishtoo. I have seen people add cloves, cardamom etc, add in a few more veggies like carrot, peas etc. But I am happy with the simpler, down-to-earth version.

Ridge gourd thohayal

Yeah I know, I am nuts about thohayal.

Ingredients
Ridge gourd 1. Skinned and chopped.
Oil 1 tsp
Red chillies 2-3
Asafoetida a pinch
Urad dal 1 tsp.
Tomato 1 chopped
Tamarind small piece
Ginger 1 inch

Method
1. Fry in oil red chillies, asafoetida, urad dal. Keep aside.
2. Fry the ridge gourd, tomato, tamarind and let it cook covered till soft and water is absorbed. Let it cool.
3. Grind the all the ingredients (omitting the urad dal) with salt. After it is done, add urad dal and grind very coarse.
Goes well with rice and even phulkas!!

Coconut thohayal

Yet another thohayal!! This recipe came from my lovely chitti....

Ingredients
Oil 1 tsp
Red chillies 2-3
Urad dal 2 tsp
Asafoetida a pinch

Coconut scraped 4-5 tbsp
Small piece of tamarind
Ginger 1 inch
Curry/coriander/mint leaves (entirely optional)


Method

1. Fry in oil, red chillies, urad dal and small piece of asafoetida. Keep aside.
2. Fry coconut till it becums slightly dry. 
3. Put the tamarind in the hot fried coconut. Let it cool.
4. Grind red chillies, asafoetida, ginger, coconut, salt to a fine paste.
5. Once ground, add the fried urad dal and grind just a bit. The urad dal should not be ground too fine.

For coconut thohayal, avoid wet ingredients as they will make the thohayal bad.

You can add fried curry leaves or green dhania or few leaves of mint to this to enhance taste.

Parupu thohayal

Thohayals can be best described as South Indian chutney. Had with rice, a yogurt based gravy, they are just delicious.
This thohayal is made out of lentils. The taste of the thohayal is in its fiery, tangy tones.


Ingredients
Half lemon sized piece of tamarind.
Tur dal - 2 tbsp
Red chillies - 5 to 6
Onion 1 chopped.
Ginger 1 inch piece.
Mint or curry leaves (for added flavour, this is optional)
Oil 1 tsp
Salt to taste.


Method

1. Soak small half lemon size imli in water
2. Fry the tur dal and red chillies in oil. Transfer to mixie and set aside.
3. Fry the onion and ginger. If you add mint/curry leaves, fry them too one the onion is fried.
4. Transfer to mixie. Add the soaked tamarind piece, salt and grind well. Do not add too much water.

Your parupu thohayal is ready!!

Palak - Masoor dal

I found the list of ingredients at Tarla Dalal's website and grew very intrigued. I have fallen in love with masoor dal and wanted to try this.

This is how I understood the recipe. And I sure did like the results.

Ingredients

½ cup masoor dal (split red lentils) 1 cup spinach (palak), chopped 1 teaspoon ginger-green chilli- garlic paste a pinch turmeric powder (haldi) 1 tablespoon tamarind (imli) pulp (I used imli - kajoor chutney) salt to taste

For the tempering

1/2 teaspoon saunf 1 teaspoon cumin seeds (jeera) 3 dry red chillies, broken 6 to 8 curry leaves   1 tsp oil Method

1. Wash the masoor dal well in water. It should run clear. 
2. Heat oil in a cooker, add jeera, saunf, red chillies, curry leaves and fry.
3. Once that is done, add the ginger-green chilli-garlic paste till raw smell goes.
4. Add the dal + palak, turmeric, salt, 2 cups of water. 
5. Cook till 1 in high heat whistle and 2 whistles in low heat.
6. Add water if dal is too thick.  Add the tamarind extract. Simmer for few mins.
7. Goes very well with phulkas. Light and healthy!

Mint rasam

Rasam with mint!!! I just tried this new rasam, courtesy my sister. I was pretty apprehensive while adding the final ground paste, and worried that the whole dish would have to be discarded. But somewhere I had faith in my sister, and if she says a dish is good, it has to be!!!

This is how I made it.

Ingredients
Tamarind extract - 1 cup
Tomato - 1 large
Sambar powder - 1/2 tsp
Rasam powder - 1/2 tsp
Dal water - 1 cup
Mint - 1/3 of a bunch.
Coriander leaves - a closed fistful.
Green chillies 2
Ginger 1/4 inch
Turmeric powder
Asafoetida - a pinch
Salt to taste.
Pepper - jeera roasted and crushed
Curry leaves
Mustard seeds
Ghee for tempering

Method

1. Boil the tamarind water, turmeric powder, asafoetida, chopped tomato, sambar and rasam powder with salt till cooked.
2. While it is boiling, grind the mint, coriander, green chillies and ginger to a fine paste.
3. Once the tamarind mix is cooked well, add the ground paste, dal water and simmer till the rasam froths. Adjust salt and water.
4. Heat ghee. Add mustard seeds, curry leaves, pepper-jeera powder. Temper onto the rasam.

Note: Since we add green chillies, add a little less of rasam powder and sambar powder than you usually would.

Masoor-Moong dal

Masoor dal is not a dal we make at my place. And when I came across several recipes which mentioned "delicious", "creamy" etc, I was intrigued. Bought a packet of orangish split masoor dal and after again going through several recipes, decided that I can safely try my ingenuity on this. And yes, it is 'delicious', 'creamy' and so on... Try it sometime. Very wholesome and simple (I managed to add two adjectives to it!!).

Ingredients
Masoor dal - 1 cup
Moong dal (split,yellow) - 1/2 cup or even lesser.
Onion - 1 chopped
Tomato - 2 chopped
Red chilli powder - 1 tsp
Cumin powder - 1/4 tsp
Coriander powder - 1/2 tsp
Jeera - 1 tsp
Oil - 2 tsp
Salt to taste
Coriander leaves chopped - handful

Method

1.  Wash the dals together in water well. The water should run clear. Soak in 2 cups of water.
2. Heat oil in a pressure cooker. I use my tiny hawkins.
3. Once it is hot, add jeera and let it crackle. Add onion and fry till translucent.
4. Add tomatoes, salt, chilli powder, cumin powder, coriander powder and cook till done.
5. Add the soaked dal along with the water. Mix well. Close the lid and on high heat bring it to one whistle. After that, reduce the heat to low and wait for two more whistles. Switch off the stove.
6. Once the pressure is released, open the cooker. Add coriander leaves. You can add a few drops of lime juice.
7. Serve hot with phulkas or lachchaa paranthas.

Note :

• The dal should be cooked and creamy. You should not see dal and water separately. If you do, you need to cook it more. 
• If the dal is too thick, add water, mix well and simmer on low heat.
• I added moong dal just to give it some body. Masoor dal alone can make the dish too creamy.
• You can add your own spices to your taste. The dal has a very native delicious flavour and goes well with most spices.

Mint chutney

My version of pudina chutney

Pudina - half bunch
Coriander leaves - quarter to half bunch
Curry leaves - few
Ginger to taste (Too much will make it very strong)
Green chillies
Coconut (a little to give it some volume)
Small piece of tamarind
Small piece of jaggery

Grind all this with salt and little water to make a smooth paste.

Can be used as an accompaniment to many snacks, filling for sandwiches, a side dish for rotis etc.

Besan ka dosa

I have a lot of besan at home, thanks to my over enthusiasm over some dishes. Now that the temporary insanity has blown over, I am left scampering with what I am to do with all this besan.

Got inspired by 'Besan ka puda' from Manjula's kitchen. Modified it to what I had in my pantry. So here goes.

Ingredients
Besan 2 cups
Rice powder 1/4 cup
Asafoetida a pinch
Onion chopped fine
Carrots grated
Green chillies chopped
Coriander leaves chopped
Salt to taste

Method
1. Mix all the ingredients well with water to a smooth batter. Take care to remove any lumps. Add water little by little so that you don't end up with too thin batter.
2. Heat a griddle and once hot, take a spoon of the batter and spread on the griddle. Take care to spread quickly, else it will stick to the griddle.
3. Add a few drops of oil/ghee around the edges. Cover and let it cook.
4. Turn the dosa. The cooked side should be brown. Cook the other side so that a few brown spots are formed.
5. Make dosas with the rest of the batter.

Serve hot with mint chutney and/or tomato ketchup.

I can think of more veggies to add in this - grated cabbage, grated tomato and so on.

It made for a quick, filling, healthy and tasty breakfast today.

Try it!

Mor kootu

Pudina thohayal, mor kootu and kovakka kari with white rice. Heaven!!!

Thohayal is a semi solid chutney of many kinds. My son loves Pudina thohayal the best. And with that goes pumpkin-carrots simmered in yogurt based gravy, mor kootu.

Here is how I made it, after asking for last minute instructions from Amma.

Ingredients
Pumpkin cubed - half cup
Carrot cubed - half cup
Slightly sour yogurt beaten well 1 cup
Grated coconut 3 tsp
Green chillies 2-3
Jeera 1/2 tsp
Rice powder 1/2 tsp
Mustard, red chilli, curry leaves for tadka.

Method

1. Cook the pumpkin and carrot in a cup of water with salt and turmeric. I like my mor kootu white, so I dont add turmeric.
2. Grind the coconut, green chillies, jeera, rice powder to a fine paste.
3. Add the paste to the simmering pumpkin-carrot and let it cook well till raw smell goes.
4. Then add the beaten yogurt, adjust salt and water and simmer for 3-4 mins.
5. Heat little oil and add the tadka items. Add this to the dish and its ready to serve. :-)

Note
1. After adding the ground paste, let it cook well.
2.  Ensure to have the yogurt beaten well, else it will curdle once you add it to the hot dish. And once you have added yogurt, do not cook for too long. Just simmer for a few mins.

Vazhakkai Podimas

This is a side dish I have most often seen at wedding feasts and hotel meals... Somehow my mother wouldn't make it this way, I generally decided to try it once and it came out like a lump of gooey stuff. I had over cooked it (I am notorious for under-cooking, not over-cooking), so this came as a shocker!

Try it out once, you will love it for its flavours.


Ingredients
Raw plaintain 2
Green chillies 2-3
Curry leaves
Asafoetida
Mustard and Urad dal for seasoning
Grated coconut for garnishing
Salt to taste
Oil - very little for seasoning.


Method

1. Cook the plaintains in water with the skin on. Take care to not over cook. It cooks very fast in a pressure cooker(stop even before the first whistle).
2. Dunk them in cold water, skin them, and grate them.
3. Heat the oil, and once its hot, add the mustard, urad dal, asafoetida, green chillies, curry leaves.
4. When they are done, add the grated raw plaintain, salt and mix well.
5. Add the coconut and mix again.

Serve with rice and any curry of your choice.

Green moong subji

Cooking dinner one day, I realized that the bhindi subji was not going to suffice for the three of us, and thought up of this tasty subji.

Ideally the moong should be soaked in water for 8 hours, steamed till cooked, and seasoned.

You can make this with your own spices to your taste.

Ingredients

Moong soaked in water for 8 hours 1 cup
Onion 1 finely chopped
Red chillies 2-3
Curry leaves
Mustard
Urad dal
Oil 2-3 tsp
Asafoetida 1 pinch
Turmeric powder
Grated coconut 3 tsp


Method
1. Cook the moong in a pan with a little water and salt till soft and easily chewable. If using a pressure cooker, take care to not over cook it.
2. Heat oil in a pan and when it is hot add mustard seeds, urad dal, red chillies(broken), asafoetida, curry leaves.
3. When the seasonings are done, add the onion and fry till done well.
4. To this add the cooked moong, turmeric powder and mix well till hot all through and the flavors have blended. Adjust salt.
5. Add grated coconut and mix well. Voilà you are done!

I add a wee bit of sugar to this and it makes it really yumm... This is entirely your choice, and so I have not added this in the recipe.

Serve with rice and sambar or any curry of your choice.

Aloo Capsicum

Found a couple of capsicums in the fridge and wanted a subji for our phulkas. Wanted it to have lots of tomatoes too... and so here I made Aloo Capsicum.


Ingredients
2-3 Potatoes peeled and cubed to big pieces.
2 Capsicum cut to big pieces
1 Onion grated (optional)
2 large Tomatoes grated
Oil
Salt to taste
Chilli powder
Coriander powder
Turmeric powder
Cumin powder
Jeera
Saunf

Method

1. Heat oil in a kadai or pressure cooker. I used my small pressure cooker.
2. Add jeera and saunf. Once they are done, add the grated onion and fry well.
3. Once done, add tomato paste, all the spice powders and fry for 3-4 mins.
4. Add the aloo and capsicum, salt, half a cup of water and mix well.
5. Close the lid and let it cook for 2-3 whistles. Take care not to over cook.
6. Open the pan and if you find too much water floating around, let it simmer for a while.
7. You can add chopped coriander leaves.

Serve with phulkas.

Milagu kozhambu

My boys are both fond of pepper, and though I don't care much for this spice, I end up incorporating some or the other pepper based dish often in our meals. I must say that I am beginning to develop a taste for this very versatile and powerful spice.

And since I am still learning, I wanted to try this milagu kozhambu which I used to avoid while at home. Took inputs from Amma, my sister(who is younger to me but is a great cook), and my chitti.

And this is how I made it finally.

Ingredients
Spices
Peppercorns 3 tsp
Tur dal 3 tsp
Coriander seeds 1 tsp
Red chillies 3-4
Chana dal 1/2 tsp
Urad dal 1/2 tsp
Curry leaves handful, washed,fresh,dark green.

For the gravy
Lemon size tamarind extract
Pinch of asafoetida
Turmeric powder
Salt to taste

Method
1. Fry the spices in a little oil till done.
2. Fry the curry leaves till crisp.
3. Powder these to a soft powder.
4. Heat oil in a kadai, add mustard seeds, methi seeds, asafoetida.
5. When mustard is done, add the tamarind extract, salt, turmeric powder, ground powder and bring to boil.
6. It is done when it has thickened a bit.

This is very spicy and has to be had in little quantities. Best served with tur dal and ghee with hot rice.

Do it right and it can stay for a week in the fridge.

And yeah, I kinda liked the combination of parupu saadam with milagu kozhambu. :-)

Do try it!

Rava kesari

Its Krishna Jayanti today and I took up courage to make some sweet, any sweet to mark it. And came upon the simplest of them all Rava Kesari. :-)

So here goes.....

Ingredients

Rava 1 cup
Sugar 1 cup
Ghee three quarters of a cup
Milk 2 cups
Cardamom, cashews, kismis, blanched and sliced almonds for garnishing

Method

1. Roast rava in the ghee till good smell comes. Do not let it burn. Keep stirring.
2. Add milk and let it cook well, stirring well. Take care to stir the rava when adding milk, else lumps will be formed.
3. Let it cook and get semi solid.
4. Add sugar and again stir till ghee begins to separate from the kesari.
5. Fry the garnishing in ghee and addand mix well.

You can increase the sugar based on your taste.

Yummmmm..........