Pachcha Maanga Sambhar

Living in a gated community has, among other many benefits, the interaction with like minded people and more importantly, sharing experiences, ideas and food.  There are days when I am wondering what to cook for lunch or even breakfast, the solution comes from a neighbour who brings a bowl full of something, a variety rice or side dish. Sometimes the number of dishes are so many, that I save them in the refrigerator. As of now, inside my fridge are a variety of thokkus ,preserved chutneys and pickles from few of the people who put delicious food on their table everyday.

We have quite a few mango trees in the compound which are of different varieties of mangoes. Thus, come March, these trees yield fruits in different stages of ripening. One of our neighbours shared two tangy raw mangoes one day and asked me what I would be using those for, other than making a pickle. I requested her to suggest a recipe and she shared this Pachcha Maanga Sambhar. I made it the same day and we liked it very much.  The following is the quick recipe that is a good side dish to go with hot, steamed rice.

 

 

Pachcha Maanga Sambhar.

(vegan and seasonal recipe)

 

Ingredients:

Serves 2 people

1 medium raw mango (sour mangoes are best)(otherwise use a tablespoon of tamarind extract for sourness)

1/2 cup thur dhal (pressure cook to soft and mash)

2 teaspoons sesame oil (any cooking oil)

2 teaspoons sambhar powder

2 green chillis 

1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder

1/4teaspoon asafoetida powder

1/2 teaspoon fenugreek seeds (optional)

1 clove garlic crushed (optional)

Salt to taste

For tempering:

2 teaspoons sesame oil

1 teaspoon mustard seeds

2 sprigs of curry leaves

 

Method:

Cut the mango in big chunks. Use the stone also in cooking.

In a pan add 2 teaspoons of oil. When the oil is moderately hot, add turmeric powder, asfoetida powder, fenugreek seeds, garlic, slit green chillis and salt. Saute for a minute or two.

To the above add sambhar powder and 2 cups of water. Let it boil for about 10 minutes.

Once the raw  feel of ingredients has subsided, add the mango. Bring to a boil. Do not let it boil for long. The mango has to hold shape and let the  sourness blend with the liquid.

Add the cooked dhal and bring it all to a boil. Switch the heat off.

In another pan heat the oil for tempering.

Add the mustard seeds and let the crackle.

Switch the stove off and drop the curry leaves.

Add the tempering to the sambhar.

Serve with hot steamed rice.

 

Note: If the mango is not sour enough and you are adding tamarind extract, boil the extract in the first stage itself.

Poondu Mandi Kuzhambu - Spicy Garlic Gravy

On our recent visit to our daughter, we chanced to have lunch in an Indian restaurant that listed many Chettinad type of dishes in their menu. While we all ordered, the staff who served tried to detail to us about their dishes. I had then wanted to try their Poondu Kuzhambu that he suggested to have with steamed rice. That tasted very good and they willingly adjusted the spice level to our liking. Their serving portion was quite large and we packed the same with us.
This was a unique preparation that uses charred tomatoes as base and the water we usually discard after rinsing rice, the 'mandi' or 'kazhuneer' (as in rinsed starchy residue from cleaning rice) to tcook the gravy.
We liked it so much that we wanted to try making the same at home. I checked with a few friends who are from Chettinad, for the recipe. One of them guided me to a blog that had authentic Chettinad style poondu kuzhambu, but it was not the same. I found a video of the preparation, which was nearly the same; it had shallots in the recipe, which was not in the dish we had tasted. I then formulated my own recipe for the kuzhambu and tried to replicate the dish that we had tasted in the restaurant. I share that here today. This may not be an authentic recipe from the region, but a delicious dish, nonetheless.

Mandi is the residual water while rinsing and cleaning rice. Give one brisk rinse in the first round, not removing much starch away. Wash your second and third rinses thoroughly getting as much starch residue as possible. You need to collect this rinse in a bowl. The residue of rice starch will settle on the bottom of the bowl. You may not need all of the water. Carefully, strain some liquid without pouring away the 'mandi’. I will refer to this liquid (kazhuneer) as mandi in the recipe.

Poondu Mandi Kuzhambu

Ingredients:
(makes 400 ml medium thick kuzhambu/ served us 4 good servings)
15 cloves of garlic
3  medium tomatoes
(if possible, char the tomatoes over a low flame and remove the charred skin. Not compulsory, but the taste is enhanced. I used the roti jali as mine had small perforations) (otherwise sauté the tomatoes in a pan to a coarse pulp)
1 medium red onion sliced finely
1 &1/2 cup +1/4 cup mandi (divided)*
2 tablespoons gingelley oil / nallennai
1/2 tablespoon coriander powder
1/8 teaspoon turmeric powder
2 tablespoons raw peanuts (optional and you may replace by cooked chick peas)
Salt to taste

Grinding spices:
Soak in the *1/4 cup mandi the following for 10 minutes and then grind to a paste using the mandi (you may use some more from the 1&1/2 cups, if needed)
4 cloves garlic
4-5 dry red chillis (depending on heat of the chillis) (the kuzhambu is a slightly spicy dish)
1 small gooseberry size tamarind ( if the tomatoes are too sweet, up this a little)

While grinding, half way through, add the coriander powder and the tomatoes. Grind them to a smooth, thick liquid pulp. Keep aside.

Tempering:
 1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds and curry leaves ; no mustard seeds are added
(since the cumin seeds are added in the beginning, it does not require extra oil)
Method:
Heat the oil in a heavy bottom pan. Add the cumin seeds. Toss a bit and add the cloves of garlic and sliced red onion. Sauté until onions are  transparent.
Add the peanuts (or chick peas)
Stir the mandi to mix the sedimented rice starch to a uniform liquid.
Add salt , turmeric powder and 1 cup of the mandi, cover and cook until the garlic are soft.
Add the ground pulpy mixture, adjust the liquid by adding some more mandi.
Simmer the kuzhambu for about 15 minutes so the raw taste of garlic, tamarind and red chillis in the liquid subside. 
Add the rest of the mandi and cook further  until the kuzhambu has thickened.

Add the curry leaves and chopped fresh coriander leaves to garnish.
Serve with hot steamed rice or as a side dish for Dosais and Idlis. This kuzhambu can be kept over and had for another day also. If refrigerated it can be kept for up to three days. To reheat, you may add some more of the rice rinsed water or plain water which will thin the consistency a bit.

Ajwaini Aloo Mirch - With Love from Mother

Potatoes are a sure favourite vegetable; but, I do not cook them so often as my husband might like them to be. He would go 7 days a week, 365 days a year on potatoes. Moreover, I think potatoes are such versatile vegetable that anyone will cook no fail recipes with potatoes. I do not share many potato recipes for the simple reason that I may not be making them any differently, worthy to make a post.
This recipe is an exception to my above idea. The other day Niv had shared a photograph of a diary, her late mother had maintained, to write down recipes that might be of interest to her daughter. It was a touching gesture that her aunt and uncle had saved that over these years and handed it to her recently. The diary, Niv says, was a sort of record that her mother maintained when she was too weak to cook. She had copied recipes from everywhere, magazines, television and cookbooks that may interest her daughter.

Picture used with permission from Nivedita -Her mother's recipe diary.

The said photograph had an open page that had part of one recipe and only the list of ingredients of another. There was a tiny note above the list mentioning that it is a dry curry strongly flavoured with carom seeds. It caught my attention as I happened to have on hand all of the ingredients listed there. I had to just roughly work the procedure to make it a dish. I tried it on the same evening and made a mental note of the changes that I would make. Later again for lunch, while I made a single pot dish, this curry was made, this time with my take on it.

      
We liked the flavour of the carom seeds and the crunch from the part cooked bell peppers. Since I did not add garlic and also omitted the tomato ketchup, I added two green chillis and some chilli powder. It was a winner recipe with the potatoes absorbing the flavours and the tomatoes cooked until just about coating the potatoes. It is a must try recipe and a keeper at that.

Ajwaini Aloo Mirch - A Dry Curry
(Adapted from Niv's Mother's Diary)

Ingredients:
Serves 3
2 large potatoes
3 green bell peppers/ capsicums
2 tablespoons oil
1 teaspoon carom seeds/ ajwain
5-6 cloves garlic (optional)
1 teaspoon finely chopped ginger
3 tomatoes/ about 250 grams - grind to a puree
1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder
2 teaspoon coriander powder
1/2 teaspoon red chilli powder
2 slit green chillis (not in the above list found in the picture)
1/2 teaspoon garam masala
1 tablespoon tomato ketchup (optional; I have omitted)
Salt to taste
Fresh, chopped coriander leaves for garnish

Method:
Dice potatoes in slightly big chunks. Boil until you may be able to remove the peel. Toss the potatoes in some salt. Keep aside.
Cut the bell peppers in medium large pieces.
Puree the tomatoes and add to this the coriander powder, turmeric powder and garam masala powder.

Heat oil in a skillet and add the carom seeds. Then add the minced ginger and slit green chillis.
Drop the green peppers and toss them in oil for a few minutes. Do not over cook them so as to loose the crunch.
Add the potatoes and cook further so the carom seeds are coating the potatoes.
Pour the tomato puree in and adjust the salt to desired level. Cook the curry until the tomato puree has coated a dry layer over the vegetables.
I have not used garlic in this recipe. If you like to, you may add it along the chillis and ginger and toss them in oil. If using tomato ketchup, add it along with the puree and cook until almost dry.
Enjoy this as a side dish for rotis and phulkas.
I made a rice dish with chick peas masala and served this curry as a dry side dish for the same.

The above recipe makes a sumptuous serving for two and an extra serving for the potato loving man.

Chettinad Style Urulai Vadhakkal

 It is not as often as my husband would like it, that I cook potatoes. On most of my visits to the market, I find only a whole bag of wilting potatoes and the vendors are not willing to break the bag. I try not to buy them. They have to be consumed early to avoid rotting. And a big bag of potatoes are way too much for just the two of us.
Lately this has changed, there is improvement, in quality. The other day, a particular lady who sells me fruits had a crate of small size, clean looking, potatoes. Soon as we spotted it, my husband instructed the driver to buy from her a kilo and she dropped into my shopping bag just a little more. These were good size for the dum aloo recipe and I had a lot more. Some of those potatoes were a wee bit larger than the baby potatoes, which I used in this curry. I halved them and used in this recipe.

I am not sure if it is truly Chettinad style. I found the recipe in a cookbook which has titled the recipe thus. I have not adhered to the recipe from the book totally; lot of tweaks and shortcuts were done and added a few for my touch too. Nonetheless,  this is a spicy stir fried version of the potatoes that use a lot of aromatic spices that render a hint of extra heat to the potatoes. I kept making changes, as I was cooking and this recipe in the post is the result of all my whim and fancy.

Chettinad Style Urulai Vadhakkal - Stir Fried Potatoes in a Spicy Mix

 

Ingredients:

Serves 4 people

About 20 baby potatoes (or you may use small size potatoes cut in two, which is what I did)

2 large red onions sliced fine

1 or 2 tomatoes (depending on their size)

1 tablespoon oil for brushing on potatoes

1 tablespoon gingelly oil for cooking

3 pods of garlic minced(optional)

11/2” piece ginger minced

1 teaspoon red chilli powder

¼ teaspoon turmeric powder

10 black peppercorns crushed coarsely

Salt to taste

Spices (to be dry roasted and crushed in a mortor coarsely)

1” piece cinnamon

2 cardamoms

4 -5 cloves

1 teaspoon coriander seeds

1 red chilli

1 small piece of bay leaf

Some kalpasi (edible stone fungus)(Optional)

Tempering:

1 teaspoon oil

2 teaspoons mustard seeds

2 dry red chillis

2 sprigs of curry leaves

A little of the sliced onions (from the above sliced lot) can be reserved

Method:

If you have baby potatoes use them as whole. Otherwise, cut medium size potatoes  in big chunks.

Pressure cook/ boil just until you will be able to remove the peel.
Sprinkle some of the salt, turmeric powder and the red chilli powder on them and toss them in the one tablespoon cooking oil.

Spread them on a baking tray lined with aluminium foil and bake at 200 degrees C for 40 minutes.
While the potatoes are baking, dry roast the spices and make a coarse spice mix.

Remove the potatoes from the oven and keep them ready until the curry mix is cooked.

Heat the gingelly oil in a heavy bottomed pan. 

Saute’ the onion slices kept aside for tempering until they are crisp. Drain and remove from pan and keep aside.

In the same hot oil, saute the rest of the onion slices, ginger and garlic until the onions are transparent. Add the spice mix and toss to remove any lingering raw taste.

Chop the tomatoes and add to the above with required salt.

Cook until the tomatoes are pulped and the whole mix has thickened.

Add the potatoes, adjust the salt, if required and toss them in the pan until the spicy tomato onion mix coats the potatoes well.

Add the pepper corns powder and toss. Remove from heat.
Transfer to a serving dish.

Heat the oil for tempering in a pan, add the mustard seeds, broken red chillis and curry leaves. Allow the mustard seeds to crackle and the chillis and curry leaves are crisp.

Temper the cooked potato curry with this and add the crisp onion slices to garnish.

Serve with a meal as side dish.

Vaazhaipoo Parupparaichcha Kari

There was yet another banana tree in the backyard that has shown promise of bearing about 20 fruits. the blossom had shed a few layers and I decided to bring it down. The fruits will take a long time to ripen and become edible. This is not a variety that we can have raw bananas for cooking. The blossom and stump, however, are. I had plans to make the regular stir fry with just coconut and cooked thuvar dhal. Somehow the plans did not work and the blossom had already been kept a day long. That meant a few layers were to be shed off. The cut vegetable then was quite little for a sumptuous meal. So I decided to make this with the lentils and have a sufficient quantity.
Paruppu araichcha kari can be made like the paruppu usli by steaming the coarsely ground batter and cooking it with the vegetable. I chose to grind the lentils and cook them on heat with oil until they were dry to take on the vegetable and blend with it. This process needs a bit of arm wrestling exercise to stir and cook the lentil batter, removing the raw taste in the process and removing most of the moisture. While you may cook a variety of vegetables with the lentils in this manner, I like this one, where the insipid taste of the banana blossom is masked and the spices and lentils stand out. You may choose to make the lentil batter with just thuvar dhal or a mix of thuvar and channa dhals. I like to add the channa dhal and some coconut with one teaspoon of urad dhal to soften the lentil mix just a bit.

Vaazhai Poo Paruparaichcha Kari - Banana Blossom and Lentils Stir Fry

Ingredients:
Serves 4

One medium banana blossom
1/3rd of a cup thuvar dhal
2 tablespoons channa dhal
1 teaspoon urad dhal
1/8 cup grated coconut
5-6 dry red chillis
1 small piece of ginger
1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
1/4 teaspoon asafoetida
1/4 cup gingelly oil (or any cooking oil)

Salt to taste

For tempering:

2 teaspoons mustard seeds
2 teaspoons urad dhal

3 fresh green chillis cut in small pieces
2 sprigs curry leaves

Method:
Clean and prepare the banana blossom as found in my earlier post for blossom fritters.
Cook the cut blossom in sufficient water adding turmeric powder, when softened add salt and cook further. Remove excess water by squeezing the cooked vegetable by hand.
Soak the dhals after rinsing them. Grind to a coarse batter along with coconut, red chillis, ginger and just enough salt.
Add the turmeric powder.
Heat the oil in a heavy and rounded bottom pan.
Add the mustard seeds and let them crackle. Add the urad dhal, curry leaves and the green chillis and toss until the dhal is golden and chillis are done.
Drop the batter in. On low heat cook the dhal batter, stirring constantly until most of the moisture has evaporated and the dhal has a light brown tinge. Keep stirring to avoid lumps. Press down and break lumps if they form.
Add the drained banana blossom and cook further stirring well so that there are no big lumps. Add more oil in small quantities only if absolutely necessary.

The final dish should be slightly dry with little moisture.
Serve with steamed rice and kuzhambu/ rasam as a side dish.

Parangikottai paal koottu

I did not think it would be harder to get to the 'extras of routine' to fall in place once you have given it a break. While getting back to everyday life after nearly four months of whirlwind activities was necessary, to do more did not seem to happen. For instance, getting back to blogging;  I might happily  call it 'writer's block', which will be blatantly lying. It was not that I had anything more important or attention dividing task on hand; simply that I did not try. But here I am trying to get this blog back in action with a simple recipe.
In the past few weeks, we keep pressing our daughter for updates on her life in her new home. Through the conversations on many of the available sources, we discuss her cooking, other activities and add our inputs. It interests me that she is doing well on her own and wants to have more ideas with cooking certain vegetables and such. Thus I tell her, send her written recipes, through mails. During our last video chat, she told me that she purchased some squash, and wanted to use it. I suggested that she can use it in this koottu with milk. She insisted that I send her a mail. Instead, I hoped to make it at home, and share it here. I had a small pumpkin and this was an opportunity to use it up too.
The recipe is very simple and usually I go by eye-balling the ingredients as there aren't many. However, when I gave my daughter this, she told me that it might help if she knew near exact quantities while making it for the first time. So, I referred to the cookbook Samaiththu Paar by  S.Meenakshi Ammal, and reduced the recipe to suit my requirement. Slight alterations are deliberate to accommodate our taste.

Parangikottai Paal Koottu
(adapted from Samaiththu Paar volume 1 by S. Meenakshi Ammal)
Servings 2 to 3

Ingredients:
2 cups thinly sliced tender pumpkin pieces
1/3 cup milk

1/2 teaspoon rice flour (to mix with the milk)
1 tablespoon sugar
1 or 2 green chillis (according to heat level and taste)
Salt to taste


For tempering:
1 teaspoon cooking oil

1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds
1 green chilli 
1/2 teaspoon split urad dhal
fresh curry leaves

Method:
Cook the sliced pumpkin pieces adding sufficient water, slit green chilli and salt until soft, but not mushy.
If the water seems to be extra, drain a bit and add sugar. Cook for just about two minutes.
Dissolve the rice flour in the milk, and add this to the vegetable.
Stir the stewing vegetable and allow to boil for a few minutes.
Switch off the heat.
Heat the oil for tempering in a pan, add the mustard seeds. When they crackle add the urad dhal and green chilli. Toss until the dhal is golden.

Add this tempering to the stewed vegetable along with the curry leaves.
Serve as accompaniment with steamed rice and sambhar or rasam.
The milk can be partly replaced with coconut milk.
For a vegan version of the same, coconut milk will work well, only take care not to split this while boiling .

Aloo Kathliyaan

Potatoes are one of the much liked vegetables. They can be cooked with many variations. You can roast them, bake them or deep fry, mash them or saute' them and you will love them. That is the case in my home, especially with my husband. Just to add variety I look up recipes and try them.
Potatoes are easiest to adapt variety in cooking. The basic recipe with potatoes, once done,  gets incorporated in other dishes. It can be served as cutlets, chaat, side dish as baaji, filling in samosas and bondas. I make quite a few dishes like the herb accordion potatoes, baked potatoes and my husband's  famous potato nests apart from using in the salads and curries.
There are many recipes I pick up from cookbooks. When I picked up the Taj Vegetarian Fare book, there were few potato recipes. I chose to try all potato recipes from this book. These aloo kathliyan were the easiest to cook and the photo that was added to the recipe in the book, was too good to resist the dish. I have made it a few times since, but somehow had missed to share the recipe until now.

Recipe adapted from "Taj Vegetarian Fare" ( from their Masala Craft- Fine dining restaurant)

Ingredients:
500 grams large potatoes
Salt to taste
1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
2 tablespoons olive oil (or any cookig oil)
1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
1/2 teaspoon carom seeds
1/2 teaspoon crushed garlic (optional, I have omitted)
1 sprig fresh curry leaves
1/2 teaspoon fresh green chillis chopped finely
1/4 teaspoon crushed ginger
1/4 teaspoon red chilli flakes
1/4 teaspoon asafoetida
1/4 teaspoon chat masala (optional)
1/4 teaspoon red chilli powder
1 tablespoon chopped fresh coriander leaves
2 teaspoons juice of lime

Method:
Wash and peel potatoes. Slice them in thin rounds or slices.
Bring water to boil in a pan and add the cut potatoes and turmeric powder. Allow one boil and simmer for just about two more minutes. The potatoes have to be boiled but not too soft.
Alternately you may steam the potato slices until almost cooked.
 heat the oil in a heavy bottomed pan or griddle. Add the cumin and carom seeds.
Add the garlic if using and then the green chillis, ginger, chilli flakes, asafoetida and curry leaves. Toss them for a few minutes before adding the potatoes, salt. red chilli powder and the chaat masala.
Cook until the spices mix in the vegetable taking care not to break the slices.

When done, switch the fire off and add the lime juice.
Transfer to a serving dish and garnish with chopped coriander leaves.
Serve as starters in a party or as side dish for lunch.

Khurkuri Bhindi

Many a times I might read a recipe in some book and make a mental note to try that sometime. but there will be some constraint or the other and eventually I might totally forget the recipe and thus a dish goes to 'never tried at home' list. This one however, is something that I neither tasted nor read  anywhere.;  just seen a large picture in a restaurant in Chennai where we had been to drop my daughter off to meet her buddies. They had called it Bhindi Jaipuri or something as exciting. The crisp looking spice added deep fried okras were calling out to try. And this was some two years ago that I had spotted the picture.
How many times would one have purchased the vegetable in two years, especially okra being a commonly used vegetable in a South Indian cuisine? I just did not try the recipe though I had formed an idea as to how it could have been cooked. This week end when I was in my regular vegetable shack, as I was picking out the tender ones, the vendor's assistant passingly suggested that I am going to cook them in an awesome recipe, while I was just thinking in lines of a vadhakkal kari, a usual in my home!
Thus he put the idea in my head and soon the picture came zooming into my mind! And the result is this post on crisp fried bhindis.

It is such an easy recipe though the deep frying makes you rethink about making it often. I needed just 25 numbers of the vegetable for two huge servings.

Ingredients:
200 grams / 25 numbers fresh okra / ladies finger
1 heaped tablespoon gram flour
2 teaspoons red chilli powder
1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder
1/4 teaspoon asafoetida powder
1/4 teaspoon powdered carom seeds
Salt to taste

Oil for deep frying

Method:
Wash the bhindis and pat them dry. Snip the ends off and cut them in long horizontal strips.
Mix the rest of the ingredients but the oil to the vegetable and allow to coat the surface well.
Heat oil in a pan and deep fry the above mix in small batches until crisp.

Serve as side dish for lunch or as dry side dish with naan or parathas.

Senai Kizhangu Kara kari

I have often repeated that I love all vegetables. I do, yet there were a few that I used to try not to eat. As a younger child, there must have been a random day that I developed itches in my throat and mouth after eating senai kizhangu, the elephant yam. Then on, I would refuse to partake the same whenever it was cooked and in whatever recipe it was used.
Most of my father's clients were farmers and often brought produce from their fields and gardens for us. We have had freshly harvested groundnuts, tapioca, onions and more. Many a time some one will bring jackfruit, pineapple and farm grown veggies. Thus, I may have even be praying that nobody brings yam, lest I have to eat that. However, my parents were not very strict and it would be alright with them if any of us did not want to partake something on a particular day. but repeatedly refusing something was not permitted.
Later after my marriage, the months I spent with my parents-in-law were truly testing time as my mother-in-law uses only two vegetables in particular in her coconut based kuzhambu and one happens to be the senai, the other being brinjal! I could not avoid eating and even if I ventured to voice my distaste for this vegetable, she refused to heed and would drop quite a few pieces on my plate. Seeing no other alternative I would consume it too. Through all this, my allergy seemed to have gone or forgotten. To add to it all this is one of the few vegetables that my husband likes. So I learnt to eat and thus cook it in as many ways possible.
This is one very easy preparations and with a small amount of tamarind dropped in the pan while the vegetable is cooking, the itching can be taken care of.

This vegetable is not available here and so I had to cook while at my parents' home.
Ingredients;

350 grams elephant yam / senai kizhangu
1 teaspoon red chilli powder
Salt as per taste
A cherry size tamarind
1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder
1/8 teaspoon asafoetida
2 - 3 tablespoons oil
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
1 teaspoon split bengal gram / channa dhal
1 sprig fresh curry leaves

Method:
Clean the yam and cut in small cubes. Drop the cubes in some water.
Cook the yam in some water adding turmeric powder to it. cover and cook for about 7 minutes and then add the tamarind to the same and cook further until the pieces are tender yet holding firm when pressed between fingers.

Drain the water and add the salt and chilli powder to the cooked vegetable, thoroughly mixing them.
Heat the oil in a pan and add the mustard seeds. when the mustard seeds crackle add the channa dhal and the curry leaves.
Then add the vegetable and tossing frequently, shallow fry on a low flame until the pieces are crisp.


Serve as a dry vegetable kari with meals.

Ishtu - vegetables stewed in rich coconut milk

Lunch box sharing is a very interesting affair when you get to eat a little of many dishes. One does not heed to what exactly pairs with what when you just want to relish the food with friends. Lunch hours during my college and working years have been thoroughly enjoyable experience. While in college I had never paid attention to the preparation of the dish while it only mattered that we had a satisfying meal packed with love by moms at home and all we did was exchanging gossip with friends and gobbled everything down.
It just got just a little better while I worked. As many of us girls were working away from home and were put up in hostels, we did not look forward to the dubbawala bringing our lunch, for we knew that the food would be just not so good. However, we still survived on those. One of our officers, a lady manager was very kind to cook something special often and bring it for us whenever she had time to cook elaborately and in larger quantities.
It used to be a treat when one of us returned after visiting family who lived in the same city. On one such occasion a colleague had carried this Ishtu made by her aunt and needless to say that it had been the star dish for the day.
Years down, I had forgotten the taste of this dish until I spotted the recipe in the book "Vegetarian fare at the Taj". This book was available for guests in the rooms at The Gateway Hotel, Bangalore and the senior staff there were kind enough to let me carry a copy back.
The book details many recipes cooked and served in many of their fine dining restaurants and makes a very interesting read and has many simple recipes that can be recreated at home.


This recipe Vegetable Ishtew features in Vivanta by Taj - Kumarkom section. I am day dreaming of the bliss that would be when you are outdoors on a kettuvellam and are being served something exotic as this.
I made this preparation with kal dosai on a weekend. It was quite a filling breakfast and just enough reason to laze around!
Recipe fully adapted from Vegetarian Fare at Taj. I have rephrased the same.


Ingredients:
Serves two people
1 cup washed, cleaned and cut vegetables such as potatoes, carrots, beans and cauliflower
2 table spoons fresh green peas (or frozen peas)
200 millilitres coconut milk (use the first extract for a rich and creamy ishtu)
1/2 teaspoon black peppercorns
1 inch long stick of cinnamon
2 cloves
4 cardamoms
1 teaspoon ginger julienned
1 large red onion sliced finely
3-4 green chillis slit
a small piece of bay leaf
1 sprig curry leaves
2 tablespoons coconut oil
Salt to taste.

Method:
Heat coconut oil in a pan and saute the peppercorns, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves and bay leaf.
Add the curry leaves, ginger and onions. Saute until onions are translucent. Add the green chillis and a cup of water. (I used the second extract of the coconut milk as it yields more taste).
Drop the vegetables in and cook until they are tender.
Add the salt and finally the first extract of the coconut milk. Cook on a low flame until the stew thickens. Over cooking will break the coconut milk.
Serve hot with appams, idiyappam or like I did, with kal dosai.

Peerkangai masiyal

There are certain vegetables that one might enjoy consuming cooked in different methods. Many basic Indian vegetables are easily adaptable to suit such variations. The ridge gourd is one such vegetable. When Velamma was around and she would do the vegetable shopping for my mother, she would select tender vegetables that are abundant in season. The market will more often be having local farm produces and hence such vegetables will be regular in the menu.

While I have lately found that eating fresh tender ones raw with salt and pepper smeared is delectable, I might still love to have the heerekkayi bajji that my friend makes or the simple curry stewed with onions and tomatoes with rotis and most certainly my mother's porichcha kootu, this masiyal is also good to have with steamed rice as a side or to mix with the same. It is also my sister's favourite preparation. She is very fond of the vegetable stewed thus.

This is also a recipe that can be easily prepared without much of pre-cooking requirements; hence I am hoping that my daughter might find it quite suitable for her to cook and pack to work.

Ingredients:
400 grams tender ridgegourd
1 small lime size tamarind
3 tablespoons thoor dhal (masoor dhal and moong dhal will work excellently too)
3 numbers dry red chillis
3 numbers fresh green chillis
1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
1/4 teaspoon asafoetida
1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds
1 teaspoon split urad dhal
2 sprigs curry leaves
4 teaspoons cooking oil
1 heaped teaspoon salt (or as required)



Method:
Wash the vegetables clean and peel the skin lightly. Cut in small cubes.
Wash the thoor dhal clean and cook until soft. The dhal should be cooked soft enough to mash.
Soak the tamarind in water and extract the pulp.
Slit the green chillis in two.
Heat two teaspoons oil in a heavy pan. Drop the slit green chillis and saute' them for a few minutes. Add the cubed ridge gourd pieces and toss them for about three minutes.
Add some water, the turmeric powder and the salt. Cover and cook until the vegetable is tender.
Remove some of the cooked vegetable, mash the rest of the vegetable along with the cooked dhal.
Bring the tamarind extract to a boil in a pan and allow to simmer until the raw taste is lost.
Add the reduced extract to the cooked vegetables and the mashed dhal vegetable combination.
Cook all of these together until they blend well. add the asafoetida powder too.
Heat the remaining oil and add the mustard seeds. Allow them to splutter and add the split urad dhal. When it turns golden brown, remove from the stove and add it to the masiyal. Add the curry leaves.
Enjoy with hot steamed rice.
Other vegetables such as chow chow, bottle gourd and summer squash can be used in this preparation.
You can do away with the tamarind extract and squeeze the juice of a lime while serving

Stuffed potato floats

To say the least, this culinary experience of cooking and sharing recipes as made me more experimental and daring. Many times I fail to impress myself with an attempt and do not feel good about sharing, yet many other times, I feel it is all worth the experiment.
Isn't it true that if encouraged, one tries to do ordinary things extraordinarily? However limited my husband's choices were with vegetables, and I enjoyed most others too, he would add them to the shopping and will partake a miniscule spoonful of the end product. But I always combined such with his choicest potatoes and tomatoes that he was left with no option but to consume.
Then there was a phase that I cooked for friends who always had nice compliments that thrilled me and thus made me look for interesting things. Sharing recipes in my blog has taken it to newer dimensions. One such experiment is the recipe in this post.

I had tried making koftas with mashed potatoes and filling the core with different stuff, baked them and then stuffed the centres and some such dishes. Recently, I had some handsome looking potatoes that I scooped the centres out and filled with other stuff and floated them in a gravy. It was one dish that my guests were going for more helpings.

Ingredients: (serves for four people)
For floats:
6 medium to large, firm potatoes cut in halves

For the filling:
2 tablespoons almond meal
2 tablespoons raisins
2 green chillis chopped
1 large tomato chopped
1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder
2 teaspoons oil
Salt to taste

For the gravy:
1/3 cup moong dhal
2 teaspoons coriander seeds
2 teaspoons cumin seeds
2 teaspoons sambhar powder or rasam powder
2 medium tomatoes
1 large red onion
5 cloves garlic
3 dry red chillis
1 teaspoon garam masala powder
1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
1 tablespoon oil
Salt to taste

Other ingredients:
cooking oil required to saute' the potatoes

Method:
Preparing the potato floats:
Wash the potatoes and scrub them very clean. You may peel the jackets prior to scooping or choose to steam them with the skin on and then peel.
Cut the potatoes in half in the middle.
Using a sharp knife, scoop out carefully a sizable chunk of potato from the centre of each half, leaving a slightly thick wall on the sides.
Slice a small portion of the bottom for stability.
Keep the scooped centres aside and steam the cup like potatoes until just about tender and the peel comes off. Steam separately the scoops and mash them well.
Keep these aside until required.

Preparing the filling:
Heat the oil in a pan, add all the ingredients for the filling and toss them for a while.
Add the mashed potato and blend the filling well.



Fill the dents in the potato floats with the prepared filling. Heat oil in the kuzhi paniyaaram pan/ Aebleskiver pan. Place gently the filled potatoes with the filling showing upwards and shallow fry them until they are roasted.
Since the filling has already been cooked well, there is no need to turn them over and roast.
Once the potatoes are roasted remove from the pan and place them on absorbent tissues.

For the gravy:
Roast the moong dhal a bit until aromatic. Pressure cook the moong dhal with turmeric powder until very soft and mash the same. I run it in the blender and made it to a soup-like consistency.
Chop the onion, tomatoes and the garlic.
Heat oil and add the dry red chillis, coriander seeds and cumin seeds. Add the chopped onions first and few minutes later the garlic. Cook them well.
Allow to cool and blend well in a mixer adding the sambhar powder, garam masala powder. Blend the chopped tomatoes separately.


Add this to the mashed dhal and salt and bring to a boil.
Reduce the heat and allow to simmer and thicken to desired consistency.
Few minutes before removing from the stove, place the potatoes gently. Allow them to simmer in the gravy and absorb the flavours.
Switch the heat off and transfer the gravy to the serving dish. Add fresh coriander leaves for garnish. I had some grated carrots and fresh red chillis that I used also.


Serve hot with chappathis, naan , phulkas or rotis.

This dhal based curry is being sent to Priya's Cooking with seeds event currently running in her own blog with Moong beans.

Beetroot potato palya - when a man takes charge of the kitchen

I have not done guest posts yet. Though I have been meaning to ask people in the family to share their signature recipes here, the opportunity has not come up. So now I am thrilled that I have an unexpected guest post to share.
If I were to list the good years of my adult life, I may start my list with the three+ years we lived in Johor, for the sole reason that we made some lasting friendships. Now most of us are no longer living in the same country, but it has never felt that we have parted.

I have borrowed a part of a quote I came across recently:

" Even though we've changed and we're all finding our own place in this world, we all know that when tears fall or the smile spreads across our face, we'll come to each other because no matter where this crazy world takes us, nothing will ever change so much to the point where we're not all still friends"

Author unkown.
This puts it in a nutshell, so to say.

Coming to today's post, I am proud and happy to share a seemingly simple palya. Yet it is super delicious when your dad / brother/ friend / husband dishes it out for you, don't you think?
Not that any of my friends did not help out in the kitchen when needed, but it was not a norm that they will spring you a surprise meal.
So when Santosh shared a photo link on facebook, I was impressed. He had made this beetroot and potato palya and a sambhar with rice for himself and his daughter. I wanted him to share the recipe, though we were joking about it through the comments thread. As we chatted, the idea of making his recipe in a post developed.
I downloaded the pictures and tweeted his daughter to send me the recipe. She mailed me and the text below is a cut and paste of her mail.
I did not get beets here recently to try and make the same in my kitchen. However, I tried the same with carrots and potatoes. It tastes great, to say the least.

Recipe:


- wash and chop potatoes (3 medium sized) & beetroot (2 medium sized) into small cubes

- cook it in the microwave (autocook) (for those who want to cook on stove top, cook them until tender)

- pour a little oil into a flat bottom pan,
add mustard seeds,
1 chopped onion,
1-2 sliced green chili,
pinch of hing,
salt to taste

- fry until golden brown

- add one spoon garam masala powder

- mix cooked potatoes and beetroot

- add a little water and cook till done

- garnish with coriander, serve!


Simple, don't you think? If I were to write this post up I would not have made it in easy steps as this. That is the difference.
I think, men make simple and no fuss dishes, what do you say? It is time we put our feet up and let them do some work :)

I scheduled this post as part of my wishes to Santosh on his birthday! Happy birthday!!!!!!

Aloo Mutter in microwave

Potatoes cooked in any form will be consumed without complaint by my dear husband. Adding masala and onions only makes him happier. Only I find it mundane, to grind the same masala for the base and hence try to make a different base for the gravy once in a while. This recipe is result of one such experiment.
One evening, after I announced that I will make aloo mutter for chappathis, the gas cylinder let me down. I do have one electric option in the hob, which was convenient to make the chappathis. So I was left with no option but to microwave cook my aloo mutter masala. I had decided on a brown onion paste and was almost dropping the idea, when he suggested trying to saute' the onion also in the microwave. Instead, I slit the onion at four points, drizzled the oil and cover cooked in the microwave. Thus the paste was not very brown in colour but the effect of browning was achieved.
Having accomplished this, making the dish in the microwave was very easy and that is what I wish to share.

Preparation time: under 15 minutes
Cooking time: under 30 minutes
Servings: 4


Ingredients:

5 medium to large potatoes
1/2 cup shelled peas (or frozen peas)
2 medium onions
2 medium tomatoes (or ready to use tomato paste)
2 teaspoons coriander powder
1 teaspoons red chilli powder
1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
1 teaspoon garam masala powder
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
2 fresh green chillis (I had very red ones and used them)
2" piece ginger
1 teaspoon kasuri methi (dry fenugreek leaves)
4 teaspoons olive oil
1 teaspoon olive oil or any cooking oil to drizzle over the onions
Salt as required

Method:

Wash and cube the potatoes in medium to large cubes. (You may choose to peel them prior to cooking. I usually cook them and then remove skin.) Place them in a bowl of water until ready to cook.
Peel the onions. Remove the top and bottom edges. Make a cross like slit until 3/4ths deep.
Drizzle the 1 teaspoon oil inside the slit and on the surface of the onion. Place it in a microwave safe bowl. Cook on 100% power without covering for 4 minutes. Check at the end of 2 minutes and if the onion has shrunk and shriveled, reduce the power to 80% and continue to cook.
Remove and slice the onions.
In the jar of your blender, take the cut onions, red chilli powder, coriander powder and garam masala powder. Blend to a smooth paste.
Make a small cut in the tomatoes and place it in a microwave safe bowl. Sprinkle few drops of water. Cover with a lid and cook on 100% power for 2 minutes. Allow a standing tome of about 30 seconds.
The tomato might have cracked open and sometimes splattered over the wall of the bowl.
Remove all the contents to the jar of the blender and coarsely pulp the tomatoes. Again you can save this time and effort if using ready-made tomato paste.
Chop the chillis and slice the ginger finely.
Add two teaspoons of water to the potatoes, in a microwave safe bowl and cook, covered on 100% power for 5 minutes. Check if they are soft and the peel comes off. Otherwise cook for a further minute. If the potatoes are slightly old and soft to begin with, reduce the cooking time.
Remove potatoes from the bowl and cook the green peas in the same bowl. If using frozen peas, skip this step.
Cook peas covered with a cling wrap punching small holes in the wrap for 2 minutes on 100% power.
In another bowl (or if the above bowl is big and cleaned, use the same) take the olive oil and heat on 100% power for 1 minute. Add the cumin seeds, ginger strips and chillis. Heat this again on 100% power for another minute.
Add the potatoes, salt, turmeric powder, the crushed tomatoes and onion paste. Add 1/3 cup of water and cook without lid, for 4 minutes on 80% power.
Add the kasuri methi and the green peas and cook again for 2 minutes on 80% power.
If the gravy is not thick as desired, allow to boil for a few more minutes at 60% power.



Garnish with fresh coriander leaves, some sliced onions and a hint of lemon juice, if desired.
Serve hot with chappathis.

Srivalli's Microwave Easy Cooking event is being hosted by Sin-a-mon themed Potato Feast, to which I am sending this recipe.
And I would gladly share it with Radhika of Tickling Palates who says 'Let's Cook - Subzi's for Rotis'