Chinna Vengayam Pulikaichchal

Few days ago I picked up a big bunch of shallots, yes you heard it right, bunch - because the vendors gather them with lot of their dried stem roots still attached to the bulb and make a bunch. That is how they are sold in the local markets here. The shallots made a very colourful subject to photograph. I had just then got a wood carving man to make me a small container of sorts with a piece of broken tree branch. They both made a vibrant combination in the picture.

I shared the same on my Instagram feed and many suggestions were there to use them in delicious dishes. I cooked them in a few and was left with a rather large batch that I cannot finish before leaving for my holiday. I ended up making this pulikaichchal that is more preserve like and would stay fresh for days if refrigerated. It was reminded of this by my sister, who does not like and will not have onions and garlic; she would smell it however much we mask the taste.
My father's clients would bring produce from their farms and crops like groundnuts, tapioca and shallots used to be brought soon as they have been harvested. They will still be wet and soil soaked and fresh. My mother would then simply spread them on a newspaper in the corner of a room and use them in batches. She cleaned them as and when she was cooking them. She would often make this dish because it works well as a side for dosais, idlies, pongal and also rice. Painful as it may seem to peel and cut those fresh pungent shallots, the taste of the dish makes it all worth the effort.
When we did not have a refrigerator also, this dish used to keep good for days together, provided we are not careless in the use of utensils and serving spoons. Cooking it in some stoneware utensil will add to the flavour and one might simply store in the same too. I have, with me here, a very heavy bottomed stainless steel pan that is ideal to cook on even heat and slow cooking happens easily.




Chinna Vengayam Pulikaichchal 
 

Ingredients:
Makes 300 ml of pulikaichchal
200 grams of shallots/ Madras onions/chinna vengayam
2&1/2 tablespoons tightly packed tamarind bits
1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
1/4 teaspoon asafoetida powder (or a 1/2 centimeter square of asafoetida dissolved in little water)
1 heaped tablespoon coarse crystal salt (I use pink Himalayan salt) (adjust to taste)

1/4 cup gingelly oil (divided - to saute the onions and for cooking)

For the spice powder:
7-8 dry red chillis (adjusting to the level of heat tolerance and the heat of chillis)
(+3 Kashmiri chillis for the colour, because my red chillis are very brown)
3 &1/2 teaspoons coriander seeds
1 teaspoon channa dhal
2 teaspoons sesame seeds (white or black, cleaned)

For the tempering: 
1 teaspoon gingelly oil
2 teaspoons mustard seeds
1 teaspoon channa dhal
1 teaspoon urad dhal
2 dry red chillis broken in small bits
15 curry leaves washed clean

Method:
Soak the tamarind in water for about 20 minutes and extract the pulp. I repeat the process to extract all the pulp and the last batch of water does not even get the colour.
Dry roast the ingredients given for the spice powder, each separately and on low heat so they are evenly done. Cool them and make a coarse powder. Keep aside.
Peel the shallots and cut them in small pieces.
Heat a few spoons of the gingelly oil and add the onions. Saute them until they are translucent, not very brown.
Add the tamarind extract, turmeric powder and salt. Top up the water just a little more and cook on low heat, to remove the raw taste of tamarind.

When this is simmering, heat the oil for tempering in another pan and add the ingredients listed under there. Once the mustard seeds have crackled and the dhals are golden, transfer this to the simmering mix.
Add the rest of the oil and the spice powder.
Cook for some more minutes blending them well.
Allow it to simmer and the oil will separate forming a layer over the pulikaichchal.
Remove from the stove and let it cool.

Transfer to clean glass bottles or bowls with lids for storing.
Serve as a side dish with dosais, idlis, pidi kozukkattais and arisi upma. You can mix with steamed hot rice and eat as a dish by itself too.

Narthangai Gojju

At home, along with other pickles we had a stock of salt soaked and sun dried citron pickle, always in store. This was because, the fruit is said to have among many health benefits, high vitamin C content. Citrons are used to treat sickness, nausea and many more minor ailments. A small piece of the dry pickle is given with directions to chew and suck the juice in. This pickled citron pieces were dark brown in colour and leather like in texture. They preserved well as they were dry. So keeping stock of them was easy.

We were home in December when all my paternal uncles and aunts were also with us for ceremonies held at home. One aunty from the extended family had sent a few pickles and preserves for my mother sometime ago. Some powdered curry leaves that were added to other spices and rolled, Indian sarasaparilla root pickle and narthangai gojju/ citron preserve were all in bottles on the table handy. With every meal, I watched my aunts enjoying generous servings of the narthangai gojju. My curiosity was piqued and I tasted a small spoon of it. The blend of tangy tamarind, the slight bitterness from the citron rind, heat from the chillis and the sweet from the jaggery were all quite favourable.

My aunts were asking my sister to fetch the recipe as she was visiting the person who sent it. She relayed the recipe to all of us and I had a mental note of it.
When I returned to Accra, where you can pick citrons from every street vendor, I bought just one, medium fruit to try this recipe. I have used only part of the fruit in this recipe because we rarely consume pickles. I have used mostly the zest and rind having removed most of the pulp and all of the seeds.

Gojju is a dish in which certain vegetables like ladies finger/ okra, capsicum, onions, tomatoes and even green chillis. When I picked up loads of green chillis from my home garden I made the milagai gojju.
Gojju is a sweet-sour and spice blend dish with any of these vegetables and few others too in it. It is often had as a side dish and goes well with kozukkattais, adai, dosais and also steamed hot rice with a generous spoonful of ghee or gingelly oil.

Narthangai Gojju 

Ingredients:
Makes 1 and 1/2 cups gojju

1 cup finely chopped citron
7-11 dry red chillis (depending on the heat and level of spice required)
3 green chillis
1 tablespoon tightly packed tamarind
4-5 teaspoons of powdered jaggery
1 &1/2 teaspoons coarse sea salt (I use Himalayan salt. You may use table salt also.)(adjust to taste)
1/4 teaspoon asafoetida powder
1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
5 tablespoons gingelly oil

For tempering:
1 teaspoon gingelly oil reserved from the above
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
10-12 fresh curry leaves

Method:
Wash the citron fruit well and pat it dry. Cut and squeeze out the juice which can be used in other cooking or making a drink. Remove seeds and some of the juice sacs. Chop the rest of the fruit finely to get 1 cup full of zest and rind.
Reserve one teaspoon of gingelly oil for tempering later.
Place a heavy bottomed utensil on heat and add 2 tablespoons of oil. When the oil is hot, drop the citron pieces and cook them, tossing them at regular intervals until they are soft and you are able to crush a piece to almost a pulp between fingers. Add the tturmeric powder and asafoetida powder.
While the narthangai is getting cooked, pulse the tamarind, salt, dry red chillis and the green chillis to a fine powder in a spice blender.When the narthangai is soft, the oil might separate. At this point add the powdered spices blend and top up with another tablespoon of oil. Cook this for a further 7 - 10 minutes in the oil. Then add half a cup of water and cook on low heat allowing it to simmer. The raw taste of the spices should go.

Meanwhile, dissolve the jaggery in little water and strain out the impurities.
Add this jaggery water to the cooking narthangai.
If required, add some more water, just so not to burn the mass.
When the gojju has thickened, add the rest of the oil and cook until oil separates and floats on the top.
Remove from the heat.
In another bowl, heat the reserved one spoon of oil. Add the mustard seeds and when they crack, add the curry leaves. Toss them a bit and transfer this tempering to the gojju.
Allow the gojju to cool down and transfer to a clean storing bottle or bowl.

This gojju stays well outside of refrigeration for a fortnight to 20 days and inside the fridge for longer.
Enjoy this hot, sour and sweet gojju just as you would any chutney or pickle.

Not quite the same, Sepen - Tibetan Hot Sauce

In one of the food discussions, in a group, on facebook, someone suggested the Sepen, a very hot Tibetan sauce. It is interesting to know that while Tibetan cuisine is mild in spices and it is very common that the Tibetans partake many of their dishes with a generous dollop of hot sauces. The sauce counters the otherwise nearly bland taste. In the comments thread under the same discussion, someone also shared two links to recipes. They got me hooked to try the sauce.
Both of the recipes were similar because one was adapted from the same author as the other. One used just chillis and Sichuan / Szechuan Peppercorn while the other had tomatoes and celery added. Now I was in a fix as neither did I find the right peppercorn nor the celery. I decided it was to try my own take on the recipe with tomatoes, chillis and the mighty black pepper. Thus the emerging dish was not authenic sepen, just quite near imitation of the original. However, the taste of the sauce and colour were really good. That is reason enough to share a recipe, isn't it?

Tibetan Hot Sauce -Sepen

(Adapted from NYTimes 
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/22/dining/sepen-or-tibetan-hot-sauce-recipe.html?_r=2 
and,
Experience the joys of Tibet culture
http://www.yowangdu.com/tibetan-food/tibetan-hot-sauce-tomato-based.html

Ingredients:
Makes 250 millilitres medium thick textured sauce
8 medium size tomatoes
3-4 dry red chillis
5 fresh green chillis
1/2 tablespoon black pepper corn crushed coarsely
7 pods of garlic crushed
1" piece ginger chopped very fine
2 table spoons oil
Salt to taste
2 tablespoons fresh coriander chopped (optional)/ few leaves for garnish

Method:
Wash the tomatoes clean and drop them in very hot water for a minute.
Remove the peel, cool and puree in a blender.
Grind both the chillis together to a coarse paste. Let the seeds of the chillis remain whole. Add to this, the crushed garlic, peppercorns and the ginger.
Heat oil in a heavy pan. Add the combined paste and saute'  for a few minutes on low heat to remove the raw taste.
Add the pureed tomatoes adjusting the water and the salt. Bring to one boil and simmer for 30 minutes, very slowly so the flavours come out strong.
Continue to simmer to achieve desired thickness of sauce.
Just before removing from the heat, add chopped coriander.

Remove from heat. Allow to cool and transfer to storing jar.
This sauce can stay outside of refrigeration up to three days and in the fridge for about ten days if stored well.

As is evident from the above picture, my sauce was not very thick while it was neither of runny texture. I cooked it to this level of thickness as I was cooking noodles with the sauce later.
Serve small portions of the very hot sauce with milder dish like momos and noodles and to dunk other stuffed breads in.
We relished this with steamed rice noodles.

Koththumalli Thokku

Some herbs I might always want to keep stock are ginger, mint and coriander leaves. There are months through which coriander becomes rare to find in the market and I miss them then. I had a lush growth of mints in my back yard in Bur Said and noticed that my Egyptian neighbours will dry them and store the dried mints to use in many dishes. I have also done so and now I have a small quantity of dry mint in my pantry through the year. It keeps well like the fenugreek leaves and comes handy when you want to use them in tea or marinades. But I am not in luck with coriander leaves that way. however, whenever, they are in season I make sambharapuli, the dry chutney or the thokku and store for a good few months.
The years I lived in Egypt, many Indian groceries were hard to find, that I used to carry bulk quantities from home. Whoever visited would bring groceries for us. My sister brought with regular supplies a few Grand Snacks thokkus and podis also to use when we were out of home for a period. Reading the ingredients labelled therein we attempted to recreate them at home and with much success. I have tried, the karuveppilai thokku, thakkali thokku and the koththumalli thokku and stored them well also for a few months.
Coriander has many nutritional benefits, rich in antioxidants and  is good in cholesterol control. It is a store house of potassium,calcium, iron and more. They are rich in vitamin A, B and K also. They possess anti arthritic and anti rheumatic properties.

Now I find ample supply of fresh coriander leaves and purchase them so much that I have an excess supply of these than I will use in my day to day cooking. I made this thokku and have stored it. It stores well for upto three months. I store this in the fridge as I cook with lesser oil than usual. If a good volume of oil is added to the cooking, this stores well off the fridge also.

Ingredients:
2 cups fresh coriander leaves
3 tablespoons/ 30 grams tamarind
15 - 20 dry red chillis (depending on the heat they impart and required)
salt to taste
1/3 cup gingelly oil
1 1/2 teaspoon roasted and powdered mustard seeds
1 1/2 teaspoon roasted and powdered fenugreek seeds
1/2 teaspoon asafoetida
1 teaspoon mustard seeds



Method:
Wash the coriander leaves clean. Remove the leaves from stems. It will be better to use the tender of the stems that will enhance the flavour.
Spread the cleaned leaves on a cloth and allow to dry in the air for a few hours.
Tear the tamarind in small pieces and break the dry chillis in small pieces.
Place a fairly heavy bottom pan on the stove and on medium heat dry roast the fenugreek seeds until they turn a tinge of reddish brown. Cool and powder them.
Similarly dry roast the mustard seeds and powder them.
Then dry roast the salt and keep aside.
In the same pan, heat one tablespoon oil and roast the chillis well. Likewise, roast the tamarind pieces.
Allow all of these to cool and blend them along with the coriander leaves to a paste adding as less water as possible.
Remove the paste from the blender and with little water clean the adhering paste also.
In the same pan, heat the rest of the oil. Add the mustard seeds and allow them to crackle. Add the asafoetida and the paste. Cook this on a very low flame for a while. The oil will mix well in the paste initially and cook until the oil separates.

At this point, the thokku will leave the walls of the pan with ease and come off in a mass.
Switch off the stove and allow the thokku to cool.
Store in clean jar and use as required.
I mix this with rice and make coriander rice or mix it in shavige to make koththumalli sevai like the thengai sevai or the elumichcham pazham sevai.
This thokku also makes a good side for arisi upma or aval upma.

Siri is hosting the Haalo's Weekend Herb Blogging event Week 352 this week. This thokku is off to this event.

Milagai gojju

When we were in school, we had rice three times a day. A typical morning would start with a glass of milk and just before leaving for school, since part of cooking would be ready, we ate rice with the vegetable and rasam and thayir (curds). Lunch was again a repeat of the breakfast with an additional vegetable dish and sambhar, rasam and curds if you came home during lunch hour. Else your lunch box would have been packed with the dishes you had for breakfast.
Tea time snacks were sometimes heavy that most nights we ate just rice with buttermilk.
It was much later during my college years that we had a 'tiffin' in the morning, and most likely carried the same for lunch. And the lunch box invariably was raided during the second hour of class by friends. Many days I have found an empty box in my desk and sometimes few friends were generous to buy us something from the canteen.
Holidays at our grand parents' place was a mandatory 'pazhaya sadham' and thayir with choice of sides. They would see to that there was rice left over when they cooked for the night. The choices of sides for the curd and rice were pickles galore and thenga podi, some thogaiyal etc. One of those were this milagai gojju, always cooked in the kachchatti and saved in the same. The gojju is a blend of flavours, the heat from the green chillis taking the prominance in the tamarind sauce with a hint of sweetness from some jaggery added to it.

It was not one of my favourites though, because I would opt for the thogaiyal or podi usually.
I was reminded of this gojju when I spotted nice and healthy looking green chillis at the vegetable shop, as it is  rare to find such fresh produce. Most days I may have to sift through the basket to pick passable as good chillis. I picked just about 50 grams of the chillis and made this gojju.
It tastes great as a side dish for dosais and adai or with arisi upma and such.

Ingredients:

50 grams/ 15 in number fresh green chillis
30 grams / 1/4 cup (loosely packed) tamarind
15 grams/ 1 tablespoon powdered jaggery
1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder
1/4 cup sesame seeds oil
Salt to taste
1/4 teaspoon asafoetida powder
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
2-3 sprigs curry leaves
1/2 teaspoon rice flour

Method:

Wash the green chillis and cut them in fairly long pieces.
Soak the tamarind in water and extract a thick pulp. I usually soak the tamarind and run it in the blender and strain it.
Heat 2 teaspoons oil and add the mustard seeds. Allow them to splutter and then add the cut chillis and curry leaves. Sauté the chillis  for a few minutes and transfer to a dish. I think it is usually cooked in the tamarind during the whole process. That makes it very hot and spicy. So I kept the chillis in reserve to be added after reducing the tamarind pulp to a thick sauce - like consistency. If you can take the heat, try cooking the chillis along with the tamarind.
In the same pan, add a few more teaspoons of oil and pour the tamarind extract. Add the salt, turmeric powder and the asafoetida. Cook on a low heat until the tamarind cooks well and the pulp is thick. Add the rest of the oil in intervals so the sauce does not stick to the bottom and walls of the pan.
Add the powdered jaggery and cook further until the raw taste subsides.
Add the sauté-ed chillis and curry leaves.
To thicken the sauce, mix the rice flour with a little amount of water and add to the simmering pulp.
Allow them to come together and switch off the heat.
Transfer to a clean bowl.

This will stay at room temperature for four days and if refrigerated and handled carefully will stay good for over a week. Beyond that the taste will vary.


Serve this gojju with dosai, adai and upma. It tastes great with arisi upma kozhukkattai or with curd rice.

Gongura Chutney - Pulichcha Keerai thogaiyal

I do not remember having cooked gongura leaves before. It was not so commonly found green in my hometown and even during the few years in Madras, I may have come across them but was ignorant to recognise them. Though I may have tasted the very famous gongura chutney sometime, I cannot recall the taste.
The many cookery books that I have collected list a recipe of this with many of them making it sound very flavoursome with added ingredients. I might just read those and let them be. However, there came a day when I had to spot them and not just pass it on, but buy and try making the chutney! Finally!!!!
 
Last week when I had already loaded my green grocer shopping bag with fruits that I might need for the Varalakshmi poojai at home and a few random vegetables, I had to wait for my driver, who had gone looking up a florist's address for me.
I was next to the greens aisle in the shop where I found some fresh amaranth and as I requested the assistant to pick me one bunch, he said that they were GONGURA GREENS. I was wondering that he used the Indian name for the red sorrel leaves, and corrected him that the greens he gave me were amaranth. He still insisted that he had the gongura and showed me those in the other section, which indeed were the gongura leaves. I bought them also.
At home they were washed, patted dry and rolled inside a cloth bag and off they went into the crisper tray of the refrigerator and forgotten until the beginning of this week. As luck would have it, they had not wilted and where in good condition to be cooked. Thus my chutney was to be cooked and tasted at my own kitchen.
I chose to make the simple form of the chutney with just basic ingredients and no flavours. Only while trying to take pictures did I feel that the chutney looked plain and brown and that some onions and garlic may give it a boost both looks wise and in taste. Nonetheless the chutney tasted great and I consumed it with dosai, rice and anything I could pair it with.

Ingredients:


2 cups red sorrel leaves / pulichcha keerai / gongura
8 to 10 dry red chillis
4 green chillis
1 tablespoon coriander seeds
1/2 tablespoon fenugreek seeds
1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder
1/4 teaspoon asafoetida powder
Salt to taste
3 tablespoons sesame seeds oil (or any cooking oil)

Tempering:
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
Few dry red chillis

Method:
Wash the greens, pat them dry and remove the petiole and the midrib, if necessary and dry them well spread on a cloth.
Dry roast the fenugreek in a heavy pan until a pink - red tinge forms. Keep aside.
In the same pan heat half of the required oil, add the chillis and coriander seeds. Toss them until they are well roasted and add the salt, turmeric and asafoetida. Remove from the fire after a few seconds of this addition.
Transfer these to the jar of the blender along with the fenugreek.

In the same pan toss the gongura leaves until they wilt to a brown colour.
Allow them to cool.
Grind the roasted ingredients initially to a slightly coarse powder and then add to the jar the gongura leaves.
Blend well until a thick paste is achieved. No water is to be added and the chutney will blend well with the moisture in the cooked leaves only.
Heat the rest of the oil in the pan and add the mustard seeds. When they pop add the chilli and finally add the chutney. Toss the chutney in the hot oil for about three minutes and switch the heat off.

 Cool the chutney and store in clean containers.
This chutney keeps well for a week.
If you desire to store this as a pickle, you may dry the leaves in the sun and increase the quantity of oil. Cook the chutney for a longer period in the final step until the contents are well reduced and the oil forms a layer over the surface. This way it can be stored for as long as six months too.

Thakkali vengayam chutney - Tomatoes and onions chutney

I have been wanting to write this recipe for quite a while now. Though I often make an elaborate sambhar and chutney combination to go with idlis and dosais, the tomato onion chutney is the best loved one. Given a choice, my husband would opt to have the thakkali vengaya chutney.
The other day, when I was chatting online with Madhuri, she was making her post on the chutney and urged me to post mine also. I put it in drafts and had forgotten about it all together amidst the house shifting and such.
Today, when I was planning to schedule a post for a later date I found this in my drafts and hence, I am sharing here.
You can actually get very versatile with this chutney. There is no set number of tomatoes or onions that have to go into it and such. What I have given can be used as a base to build on. I drop a few spoons of urad dhal and channa dhal sometimes and other times add some fresh coriander leaves or mint as I work on it in the kitchen.




Ingredients:
3 medium tomatoes
1 large/ 2 medium onions
4 dry red chillis
1 tablespoon urad dhal
1 tablespoon channa dhal
A thumb nail size tamarind
Salt to taste
1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder
2 tablespoons oil

For the tempering:
Use 1/2 teaspoon oil from the above and 1 teaspoon mustard seeds

Method:
Chop the onions and the tomatoes.
Heat oil in a pan retaining 1/2 teaspoon for tempering.
Add the chopped onions and saute them until they are slightly done. Add the red chillis and channa dhal and allow it to roast until golden. Add the urad dhal and roast it also to a golden colour.
Add the salt, turmeric powder, and the tamarind while on a low flame.
Finally add the chopped tomatoes and cook until the tomatoes cook in a soft pulp.
Cool this mixture and grind to a paste in a blender.
Heat the reserved oil in a pan and add the mustard seeds. Allow them to splutter and add this to the chutney.



The consistency can be adjusted to your preference. I usually grind it to a smooth paste a habit that my husband cannot shake off. A slightly coarse textured chutney goes well with dosais and the smoother paste like chutney can be had with idlis.

Hummus - a nutritious dip

Hummus is one simple, easy to make at home delicious dip. It can be served as an appetizer dip with breads. In Egypt, it is served with pita bread and typically, you may cut the bread open and fill the hummus inside and partake the same.
It is a creamy mixture of soaked and cooked Garbanzo beans (chick peas) ground along with thahini and olive oil, seasoned with generous amounts of garlic and juice of lime.
According to Egyptians, it is an ancient recipe that dates centuries back.
The recipe I am sharing here today is one of the simple recipes known. The recipe is diabetic friendly, iron rich, dietary fibre rich and is vegan diet too.
Usually the canned peas are pureed along with thahini (recipe given under). I have however, soaked chickpeas and cooked it until soft to use in this recipe. You may remove the skin of the chick peas to obtain a smooth texture. I have not done so and hence the texture is slightly coarse, but does not compromise the taste.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup chick peas, cleaned and soaked overnight
1 and 1/2 tablespoon thahini paste (check recipe below)
2 or 3 tablespoons lemon juice (you may increase if you like the sour taste)
3 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 whole garlic (about 8 healthy cloves of garlic)
1 teaspoon ground pepper (entirely optional)

Thahini recipe:
1/4 cup sesame seeds evenly roasted until aromatic
2 tablespoons olive oil or sesame seeds oil
Salt to taste
1/3 cup lukewarm water



Run the sesame seeds and the salt in a spice mixer adding gradually the oil. When it blends, add the tepid water also gradually and grind until a smooth paste is obtained.

This is the basic thahini recipe.
You may dilute this and make thahini sauce. This paste keeps well for many days. It can be used in many ways as an ingredient in main recipes.



Method for preparing hummus:
Drain the water from the chick peas. Add fresh water to the chickpeas and pressure cook until it is soft and breaks when pressed between fingers.
Drain the chickpeas from the cooked water and reserve the water for later use while grinding.
Allow the chick peas to cool. If you desire to remove the skin, peel it off gently. (I recommend you retain the skin, for it has sufficient dietary fibre.)
Place the chick peas in the jar of a blender. Add the garlic, thahini, pepper and salt. blend at a medium speed initially. Add the oil and the lemon juice while blending them.
Gradually add required quantity of the reserved water and blend further until a creamy mixture is obtained.
Remove from the blender and transfer to storing jars. Add more oil and store for a few weeks too.
This keeps well for a few days while refrigerated.
serve as a dip with breads, crisps and such. Or you may serve with vegetable salad as a topping too. Add some cooked chickpeas to the hummus and serve.
Some variations are that you can grind without pepper, add chilli peppers and so on. However, adding chilli peppers will reduce shelf life.