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..........

Simple Aloo Palak

Aloo chopped to small cubes
Palak chopped fine
Onions chopped(optional)

For tadka
Oil
Mustard
Urad dal
Red chillies
Curry leaves
Asafoetida.

Spices
Turmeric pow
Cumin powder
Dhania powder
Amchur powder

You can add your own spices to your taste.

I made a dry subji out of this, sprinkling just enough water to cook. Not too spicy since the only hot ingredient is the red chilli in tadka.

I wanted to do non-masala aloo palak and ended up with this.

Method

1. Heat a bit of oil and when its hot add the tadka and fry till they are done.
2. Add onions and fry till transparent and soft.
3. Add potato, palak, spices and salt to taste. Mix well and cook covered till cooked but not mushy. You can sprinkle a bit of water to help in the cooking.
4. Open the lid, stir it a bit to get an even look and you are done!!
5. Serve with roti or rice.