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.

Maravalli kizhangu Dosai

Years before Namakkal was into poultry farming, most of my father’s clients were into agriculture. Tapioca cultivation was one of the mainstream farming. Dad’s clients used to bring us bag loads of tapioca and other stuff that my mother could bring some deliciously cooked meals to the table. She and our then maid, Velamma Aaya,  would team and work on the produce, cleaning, cooking mostly and distributing the excesses. We have watched them work together and cook up some stuff that we relished.

Once the tapioca has been taken out and the bag has been returned, Velamma will drop the tapioca in a big drum-like utensil filled with water. She would rub them hard that along with the sticking soil, some skin of the tapioca will peel off. Then, a discussion will follow as to how many recipes to make, portion the vegetable accordingly and send the rest to neighbours.

With tapioca, especially, they never tired to make crisps, dry curries and other stuff. One of those were dosais that needed tapioca to be grated and ground along with rice and dhal to make the batter. They would get to work together grating the tapioca and grind the soaked ingredients for dosai or adai. She will also make vadai occasionally as an evening snack. She could make dry vegetable roast kari, mashed podimas and some more.

I had mentioned to amma that I intended to buy tapioca and make dosai. She shared her recipe with me. During the course of the next week, she dropped a few reminders that I should try the dosai. Then I picked up about a kilogram of tapioca from a vendor the other day. The root was farm fresh and both the skins came off easily with thorough washing. I made three dishes, dosai, roast kari and vadai over the next few days. Dosai turned out soft as that is how we like. I am sharing the recipe for the same.

Maravallikizhangu Dosai

Ingredients:

Makes 10 dosais

Cup measures are 200ml

1cup of idli rice

1cup of cleaned and grated tapioca

1/2 cup urad dhal

2 teaspoons fenugreek seeds

Salt to taste

Oil to drizzle over the dosais

Chutney of choice to serve with

How to go about:

Wash rice clean and soak for about 5 hours

Soak fenugreek seeds along with the rice.

Clean and soak the urad dhal for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, prepare the tapioca ready and grated.

Grind the soaked rice, dhal and tapioca to a smooth batter, add the salt and leave it overnight or 8 hours to ferment.

Place the dosai tawa on the stove and when it is hot , pour a ladle of batter and spread. Drizzle oil and cook. Flip over and cook well until both sides are well done.

Repeat the process with the rest of the batter.

Serve hot dosais with chutney of your choice or sambhar.

Mangalore Pundi

The other day, I watched a cookery show where the host was making this dish, though she mentioned it as Undi, and a side dish to eat it with. I thought it was very similar to the pidi kozukkattai or the Arisi upma kozukkattai I make often. She ground some soaked rice with coconut and cooked the dish with that. I was mentioning that to my husband and he said that at home they used to make pundi or pundi gatti. I told him that I have never had it at his parents' home in all of these years. He said that I would not know, because his mother thought it was a huge effort to make these for breakfast. He also mentioned that they will taste good only if the texture is right. Many times they have ended up with somewhat hard pundis that will refuse to soak in the side dish, the gravy they make.
It is curious that I have lived in Mangalore, have had friends who taught me a few simple specific Mangalore dishes, but nobody suggested this. So, I launched my "operation pundi" and went to read recipes/ watch vidoes of making this recipe. The search got me more confused because each person suggested different rice, different ratios of the two main ingredients.
I decided to go with the video that set me on this project and made the dish.  It turned out well and my husband gave his validation. I wanted to convince myself that this was indeed the recipe. We messaged my husband's uncle requesting his wife to share the recipe. She called me and over the conversation suggested using pounded rice or store bought coarse rice powder and what not. In the course of our chat, she suddenly decided to tell me exactly how she makes them. Wasn't I waiting for this only? It was a simple recipe that I did not have to write it down, but thought of having a record lest I do not make it for another n number of years.

MANGALORE PUNDI

Ingredients:
(Makes 15 dumplings)
1/4 cup (heaped) Idli / dosa rice
!/4 cup raw rice (Sona mansuri/ Kolam rice)
1/3 cup fresh grated coconut
2 tablespoons of coconut oil
Salt to taste

For tempering:
(pundis can be made plain also without any extra condiments)
2 teaspoons mustard seeds
1 teaspoon urad dhal
1/8 teaspoon asafoetida powder
3-4 Byadagi variety (or any mildly spiced) dry red chillis broken in bits

Few fresh curry leaves

Method:
Wash both the rice clean and soak them together in water for a few hours.
Drain the soaked water and add them to the grinding jar. Add the coconut and grind them together to a coarse, thick paste. Add little water  during the grinding process.
Transfer to a bowl, rinse the grinder jar with about 1/2 cup of water and add it to the ground batter.
Add the salt and mix well.
Heat the oil in a heavy bottom pan. If you are tempering the pundis, add the mustard seeds. When they crackle add the rest of the items listed under tempering, saute until the urad dhal is fried to a golden shade.
Add the batter to the pan, lower the heat to a minimum and cook the batter stirring constantly.
The batter will cook and gather in a dough like mass.
Wet the tips of your fingers, take a small amount of the dough and roll between fingers to test the consistency.
If you are able to roll well in a smooth looking ball, the batter has been done.
Switch the fire off and prepare a steamer ready to steam the dumplings.
Divide the cooked dough in small portions and roll them in desired shapes. Some make cylindrical shape and some make them rounded balls or, you may shape them as I did, slightly thick discs with a dent in the middle.
Place them in the steamer separator and steam the dumplings for 12-15 minutes.
Remove from the steamer to the serving dish.

Serve them hot with coconut chutney, some vegetable stew or chutney of choice.

Some points to have in mind for perfect pundis:
The rice and coconut have to be ground only coarsely, more like large semolina. Grinding it to a smooth batter will make the pundis hard.
The mixed proportions of the idli rice and raw rice work well. Originally, the aunt asked me to use raw rice; I tried making the ratio that worked well for me.
The pundis can be made without adding any other tempering ingredients and they will look beautifully white.
Do not over soak the rice or steam longer than necessary.

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.

Spiced Mango Jam

Every time we visit my daughter and son-in-law, she packs with us something for my parents. When we visited in Portland, strawberries were in season and she sent strawberry jam, then. This year, they waited for us, to go and buy a full crate of mangoes that their local Indian store had stocked.

We had bought a book of jams and preserves, from which we adapted the recipe. The original was a mango cardamom jam, which used jamming sugar. Since we don't get that here in the US, we opted to use pectin along with granulated sugar. We also added to the cardamom, some nutmeg and saffron, along with chilli flakes to enhance the flavour.



Spiced Mango Jam



Yield - 3x8oz jars 

Ingredients

1 kg mangoes (peeled and stone removed weight)
450 grams granulated sugar
1 tbsp. whole fruit pectin
6 pods green cardamoms
1/3 of a whole nutmeg
a generous pinch of saffron
1/2 tsp chilli flakes


Method

Put a ceramic plate into the freezer, ready for testing.
Set a deep pan of water to simmer on the stove, ready to sterilize and process the jam jars.
Pulp the peeled and stoned mangoes coarsely.
Put it into a heavy bottom dutch oven, along with the rest of the ingredients, expect for the pectin.

On a medium heat, cook till the sugar dissolves and bring to a boil. Simmer for a further 15 minutes or so, till the fruit softens.
Once the mangoes have cooked down, add the pectin, and stir it in.
Boil rapidly for about 10 minutes, till the jam begins to thicken.
As it gets up to a jam like consistency, put a little dollop of jam on the plate that you put in the freezer. If it is set, the jam shouldn't run.
By now, the jam jars in the water should be ready to fill.

Once you fill the bottles, seal them while the jam is still hot.
Once you open a bottle, put the jam in the fridge, and use a dry spoon to serve.
Enjoy with hot toast, or straight out of the jar!