Coconut Thayir Pachhadi

I've always liked the thayir pachhadi that is served in a Brahmin style wedding feast. When I was little, I used to think that that kind of thayir pachhadi is served only at weddings. I was totally surprised when my grandmother made it on a festival day and only then did ignorant little Anu know that it was not just a wedding delight. But, here is what I think is a possible reason for making this sort of pachhadi on a festival day: since onion and garlic are not used in a festival/special occasion feast in a Brahmin family, they have found a workaround to make thayir pachhadis and such without the "banned veggies" and also without compromising the taste or flavor. Sounds reasonable, isn't it???? To make it more healthy, veggies can be added to this pachhadi. The veggies that I like in this dish are grated carrots, grated cucumbers, grated radish, chopped tomatoes and boiled, peeled and mashed potatoes.

Ingredients (2 - 3 servings):

Plain yogurt - 2 cups (using a measuring cup)
Veggies of your choice (optional) - 1/2 cup (using a measuring cup)
Salt to taste

To grind to a paste:

Grated/powdered coconut - 2 tablespoons
Green chillies - 3 (vary this to suit your taste)

For seasoning:

Cooking oil - 2 teaspoons
Mustard seeds - 1 teaspoon
Asafoetida - 1/4 teaspoon
Jeera (optional) - 1/4 teaspoon
Channa dhal (optional) - 1.5 teaspoons
Red chilli (optional) - 1
Cilantro - 1 teaspoon finely chopped

Procedure:

1. Grind the coconut and green chillies to a paste and set aside.
2. In a bowl, mix the yogurt, veggies, the ground paste from step 1 and salt.
3. In a pan, heat oil, add mustard seeds and wait for them to splutter. Immediately after they splutter, add jeera, asafoetida, channa dhal and red chilli and fry until the channa dhal turns light golden brown in color. Once that happens, transfer the contents to the yogurt mixture.
4. Garnish with finely chopped cilantro. Yummy thayir pachhadi is ready :-).

I like to have this as is but it also goes well with any kind of variety rice, like, puliyodharai (tamarind rice), lemon rice, coconut rice, sambar rice, tomato rice etc. Adding potatoes to this pachhadi was my friend Sunitha's idea and it tasted very good.

Sunitha's Tomato Rice

Sunitha, one of my dear friends, also a very good cook, made this when I visited her last year. It was nearly 1:30 AM by the time we got to her apartment from the airport (I flew into Columbus, OH and she lives in Cuyahoga Falls, OH, which is about 2 hours from Columbus). I was thinking on my way that I would probably crash once we get home and didn't have the energy to even think about food (I had not had my dinner before I boarded the flight that day). But, after we reached home, the aroma of the tomato rice that she had made just brought back my appetite. I enjoyed it a lot :-). I had made tomato rice many times the way my Mom makes and although my Mom's recipe was not entirely different from Sunitha's but for a few extra spices that Suni adds, hers had a different flavor and was very tasty too. I was amazed at how much difference adding a spice or two could bring to the entire dish :-).

Ingredients (about 2 servings):

Basmati rice - 1 cup (using a measuring cup)
Cooking oil - 4 to 5 tablespoons
Mustard seeds - 2 teaspoons
Channa dhal - 1 tablespoon
Fenugreek seeds - 1 teaspoon
Fennel seeds (optional) - 3/4 teaspoon
Asafoetida - 1/4 teaspoon
Turmeric powder - a little less than 1/4 teaspoon
Ginger garlic paste - 1.5 teaspoons
Green chillies - 2 to 3 cut into pieces
Curry leaves - a few
Tomato - 1 medium sized finely chopped
Tomatillos - 2 finely chopped
(If you want it to be a little sour, you can add more of the tomatoes or tomatillos)
Onion - 1 medium sized finely chopped
Red chilli powder - 1.5 teaspoons (vary the measure to suit your taste)
Salt to taste
Ghee (refined butter) - 2 tablespoons
(If you don't have ghee, you can cook using butter (about 4 teaspoons of it) instead of cooking oil)
Cilantro - 3 teaspoons finely chopped

Procedure:

1. Cook 1 cup of basmati rice and set aside.
2. Heat cooking oil (or butter if you don't have ghee) in a pan, add mustard seeds and wait for them to splutter. After they start spluttering, add channa dhal, fenugreek seeds, fennel seeds, green chillies, ginger garlic paste, asafoetida, turmeric powder and curry leaves and fry until the channa dhal turns light golden brown in color.
3. Add chopped onions to the above step and fry until the onions turn golden brown in color. Some people have the tendency to burn the onions while waiting for them to turn golden brown. Watch out!
4. After the onions turn golden brown, add the chopped tomatoes and tomatillos and fry for like 3 minutes. Then add red chilli powder, salt and mix well and wait for the tomatoes to cook. Once they tomatoes are done, turn off the stove. Note: Do not add water for the tomatoes to cook. The tomatoes leave some water while they get cooked and that is enough for this dish.
5. In a vessel, mix the cooked basmati rice with the gravy from step 4 and ghee. Add more salt if needed. Garnish with chopped cilantro. Mouth-watering tomato rice is ready!

I had never used tomatillos in my cooking before I started making this tomato rice. But, if you don't have tomatillos handy, you can just use tomatoes alone. Also, adding fennel seeds gives it a slightly different flavor. I add it when I crave for that flavor.

Potato chips, onion raita, plain yogurt or any fried vegetable like potato fry, okra fry etc, go well with this rice variety. I made this rice for a Christmas party at work last year and threw in a couple of chopped potatoes while cooking the gravy. It was a big hit!!!! :-). My roomie likes it a lot and this is one dish that she says she can eat any time :-). Since the time I learned this from Suni, I have passed along this recipe to many of my friends and they have all liked it very much.

My Mom's Style Vegetarian Salad

Generally, people don't like salad as they think it is boring and has raw vegetables for the most part. For the simplest salad on earth, just throw in some veggies, a store bought dressing, some salt and pepper and bam, the salad is done!!!! My Dad, sisters and I were under the same impression until one fine day when my Mom put together some salad and MADE us taste it. I must say that it was not bad at all. The second time she made it, we did not make a fuss and she didn't have to force us either. We wondered where this salad suddenly came from as my Mom had never made it before. Apparently, one of my Mom's colleagues had got salad for lunch one day and my Mom had taken the recipe from her. She always says that vegetables lose their nutrients if they are overly cooked and that salad is very good for health in that way. The reason we liked my Mom's salad was because it was really tasty and also spicy. Yes, I did say TASTY and SPICY. People must believe me when I say that my boyfriend, who I never thought could be persuaded to eat salad in his life, did actually eat my Mom's style salad that I had made and also asked his Mom to make it when he went to India ;-). Here comes "the recipe for salad".

Ingredients (about 2 servings):

Cabbage - 1 cup finely chopped (using a measuring cup)
Carrot - 1 cup grated (using a measuring cup)
Cucumber - 1 cup grated (using a measuring cup)
Onion - 1/4 cup finely chopped (using a measuring cup)
Tomato - 1 cup finely chopped (using a measuring cup)
Radish (white or red) (optional) - 1/4 cup grated (using a measuring cup)
(I like raw radish and hence I add it in my salad)
Cilantro - 2 tablespoons finely chopped
Salt to taste
Juice of 1/2 lime/lemon
Green chilli - 1/2 - 3/4 teaspoon very finely chopped
Black pepper powder - 1/4 teaspoon

For seasoning:

Cooking oil - 3 tablespoons
Mustard seeds - 1 tablespoon
Asafoetida - a pinch

Procedure:

1. Mix all the veggies (you can use your own choice of veggies as well) in a bowl with cilantro, green chillies, salt, pepper and lemon/lime juice.
2. In a pan, heat oil and add mustard seeds. After the mustard splutters, add asafoetida and pour the oil mixture to the veggies and mix well.
3. You can add more/less of the veggies that you like/don't like and also vary the proportion of green chillies and lemon juice to suit your taste.

During my undergrad days, I took salad for a snack almost every day and I never got more than a spoonful on any day :-). Even when friends came over to my house, they would ask my Mom to make the salad.

A colleague of mine, Chris, asked me for my Mom's salad dressing recipe a couple of days back :-). He is one guy that I know of, who takes salad for lunch almost on a daily basis. Impressive, ain't it????

Aviyal

Aviyal, a dish originally from Kerala, is also well-known among Tamil Brahmins. Vatha kuzhambu and aviyal are an inseparable pair :-). People who love coconut are sure to love aviyal :-). It is also good for health as a mixture of vegetables go into this dish. I've used murungaikkai (drumstick), potatoes, plantains, green beans, carrots, yams, pumpkins, flat beans, peas and lima beans in aviyal. A combination of veggies would be great for this.

Ingredients (4 servings):

Veggies - total of 4 cups (using a measuring cup)
Turmeric powder - 1/4 teaspoon
Sour cream - about 3/4 cup (using a measuring cup)
(If you don't have sour cream, you can use plain yogurt instead. The measure is the same. Personally, I prefer sour cream to plain yogurt since the former gives a creamy, rich texture to the dish.)
Salt to taste

To grind into a fine paste:

Channa dhal - 1 tablespoon soaked in warm water for 15 - 20 minutes
Coconut - 3 to 4 tablespoons
Green chillies - 2 to 3 (you can use less green chillies if you want the dish to be sweet)
Cumin seeds (optional) - 1/4 teaspoon (I use this sometime, when I want a slightly different flavor change)

For seasoning:

Cooking oil - 2 teaspoons
Mustard seeds - 1 teaspoon
Asafoetida - 1/4 teaspoon
Curry leaves - a few

Procedure:

1. Grind coconut, green chillies, channa dhal and cumin seeds (if using) to a paste and set aside.
2. Pressure cook the veggies with just enough water for them to cook and turmeric powder. Beware of the time that you cook them because some veggies cook faster than others and sometimes if you cook everything for a long time, they get mashed. I cut the veggies that cook fast into big pieces to somewhat solve this problem so that everything gets cooked evenly. And, I don't add salt while cooking them as some of them don't cook at all if salt is added WHILE they cook.
3. Add the ground paste and salt to the pressure cooker, mix the contents well and bring it to a boil. Turn off the stove after a minute or two.
4. Let the mixture from step 3 to cool down and add the sour cream/yogurt and mix well.
5. Add oil to a pan and after it gets heated, add mustard seeds and wait for them to splutter. Immediately after that, take the pan out of the flame/heat, add asafoetida and transfer the contents to the vegetables.
6. Garnish with curry leaves. Aviyal is ready to pair up with vatha kuzhambu ;-).

Note:
If I'm in the mood for some extra richness, I add about a couple of tablespoons of sour cream to the dish :-).

There are quite a number of dishes that aviyal goes well with, like, rasam, thogayal, adai etc but, the best, unbeatable combo till date is vatha kuzhambu with aviyal :-).

Vaththa Kuzhambu

Vathha kuzhambu is a well-known dish in any Tamil Brahmin family (no offense intended). It is tangy (may be, the reason why many guys don't like it much... I've heard from a lot of people that guys don't like tangy food) and spicy. It does not have any cooked dhal in it and hence my Mom says it is not good for health, if had often. But it tastes real good though and to me, that is all that matters ;-). A processed, sun-dried fruit called "manathakkaali vathhal" is often added while making vathha kuzhambu. A whole variety of vegetables can be used in this, like, murungaikkai (drumstick), shallow fried pieces of okra, eggplant (brinjal), pumpkin, shallow fried chopped onions or whole pearl onions etc. My Mom adds pieces of papad if she runs out of veggies at home. All the veggies are to be added after the mixture starts boiling.

Ingredients (about 4 servings):

Tamarind soaked in water - about the size of a small to medium lemon
(If using tamarind paste - 1 full tablespoon)
Sambar powder - 2.5 tablespoons
Cooking oil (a considerable amount) - about 4 to 5 tablespoons
Mustard seeds - 2 teaspoons
Toor dhal - 2 tablespoons
Fenugreek seeds - 1.5 teaspoon
Dried red chillies - 2 to 3
Vegetable of your choice - 1 cup
Asafoetida - 1 full teaspoon
Curry leaves - a few
Rice flour - 1 tablespoon
Salt to taste

Procedure:

1. Extract about 3 - 4 cups (using a measuring cup) of the juice of soaked tamarind or dilute the tamarind paste with about 3 - 4 cups of water and set aside.
2. Mix rice flour in little water and set aside.
3. Heat oil in a vessel and after the oil gets heated, add mustard seeds and wait for it to splutter. Immediately after the mustard splutters, add toor dhal, fenugreek seeds, dried red chilli, curry leaves and sambar powder and fry for a few seconds until the toor dhal turns light golden brown in color. The manathakkaali vathhal or the papad if used, should be added in this step. The reason for frying the sambar powder along with the spices is to speedup the cooking process. The sambar powder can also be added after adding the tamarind water to the spices.
4. So, taking off from where we left in step 1, after the toor dhal turns light golden brown in color, immediately add the tamarind water, asafoetida, salt and mix the contents well (you can turn down the heat during this step as adding water to oil tends to splash sometime). Bring the mixture to a boil.
5. After the mixture starts boiling, add the vegetables and boil for some more time. I boil the mixture until it reduces to about 3/4th (actually, between 1/2 and 3/4th should be good) of the quantity that was there to begin with. This roughly takes about 20 - 25 minutes.
6. Add the rice flour mixture to step 5, boil for 5 more minutes and turn off the stove. The rice flour just acts as a thickening agent. Amazing vathha kuzhambu is ready to go :-).

Note: You can even make vathha kuzhambu in sesame oil instead of cooking oil.

I've had this with rice and ghee or sesame oil for the most part (have never tried this with chappathi). It also goes well with idli, dosai, some varieties of upma etc.

Different Variations of Cabbage Koottu

Whenever my Mom cooked cabbage at home, we never used to go near the kitchen due to the pungent smell that came from it (I seldom took cabbage for lunch during my school days). But, after the dish was done, it tasted real good. I would call that the beauty of Indian cooking, to mask even the most repelling smell with the flavors of the spices used. My Mom makes cabbage koottu in 4 different ways and I'm going to jot down all the 4 methods here.

1st method

Ingredients (3 - 4 servings):

Cabbage - 1 small finely chopped
Sambar powder - 1 tablespoon
Salt to taste

To fry in 1 teaspoon of oil:

Channa dhal - 1/4 cup using a measuring cup

To grind:

Grated/powdered coconut - 3 tablespoons
Rice flour - 1 tablespoon

For seasoning:

Cooking oil - 2 teaspoons
Mustard seeds - 1 teaspoon
Urad dhal - 1 teaspoon
Asafoetida - 1/4 teaspoon
Curry leaves - a few

Procedure:

1. Grind coconut and rice flour to a smooth paste and set aside.
2. Fry channa dhal in oil until it turns light golden brown in color and set aside.
3. Pressure cook cabbage, fried channa dhal and sambar powder with just enough water for the cabbage to cook.
4. To the pressure cooked mixture from step 3, add the ground paste and salt and bring it to a boil. Boil for 3 minutes and turn off the stove.
5. In a pan, add oil and after the oil gets heated, add mustard seeds and wait for them to splutter. Immediately after that, add urad dhal and asafoetida and fry until the urad dhal turns light golden brown in color. Add this to the cabbage and mix well.
6. Garnish with curry leaves.

2nd method

Ingredients (3 - 4 servings):

Cabbage - 1 small finely chopped
Moong dhal - 1/2 cup using a measuring cup
Asafoetida - 1/4 teaspoon
Sambar powder - 1/4 tablespoon
Salt to taste

To grind to a paste:

Whole black pepper - 3 teaspoons
Cumin seeds - 1/4 teaspoon
Grated/powdered coconut - 3 tablespoons

For seasoning:

Cooking oil - 2 teaspoons
Mustard seeds - 1 teaspoon
Urad dhal - 1 teaspoon
Curry leaves - a few

Procedure:

1. Grind coconut, whole black pepper and whole cumin seeds to a coarse paste and set aside.
2. Pressure cook cabbage, moong dhal, asafoetida and sambar powder with just enough water for the cabbage and dhal to cook.
3. Add the ground paste and salt to the cabbage from step 2 and bring it to a boil. Boil for 3 minutes and turn off the stove.
4. In a pan, add oil and after it gets heated, add mustard seeds and wait for them to splutter. Immediately after that happens, add urad dhal and fry until it turns light golden brown in color. Add this to the cabbage.
5. Garnish with curry leaves.

3rd method

Ingredients (3 - 4 servings):

Cabbage - 1 small finely chopped
Moong dhal - 3 tablespoons
Asafoetida - 1/4 teaspoon
Salt to taste

To grind to a coarse paste:

Green chillies - 3 to 4 (based on how spicy you would want it to be)
Cumin seeds - 2 teaspoons
Dried red chilli - 1
Grated/powdered coconut - 3 tablespoons

For seasoning:

Cooking oil - 2 teaspoons
Mustard seeds - 1 teaspoon
Urad dhal - 1 teaspoon
Curry leaves - a few

Procedure:

1. Grind cumin seeds, green chilli, red chilli and coconut to a coarse paste and set aside.
2. Pressure cook cabbage, moong dhal and asafoetida with just enough water to cook the cabbage.
3. Add the ground paste and salt to step 2 and bring it to a boil. Boil for 5 minutes and turn off the stove.
4. In a pan, add oil and after it gets heated, add mustard seeds and wait for them to splutter. Immediately after that, add urad dhal and fry until it turns light golden brown in color. Add the mixture to step 4.
5. Garnish with curry leaves.

4th method

Everything is the same as the 3rd method except for the grinding part. Red chilli and urad dhal (1 teaspoon) fried in 1 teaspoon of oil together with raw cumin seeds, green chilli and coconut are to be ground to a paste and added to the mixture from step 2 in the 3rd method.

All the above 4 different variations of cabbage koottu go well with rice and chappathi. Enjoy!!!!!!!! :-)

Arai Puli Kuzhambu

This is a favorite in my house. An exotic, home-made item called "kuzhambu karuvadam", made of ground, spiced, sun-dried, black-eyed peas, that my Mom usually adds to this kuzhambu gives it all the flavor and taste that it would vanish in a jiffy once my Mom sets it on the table. Yum yum :-). But, even without the kuzhambu karuvadam, I liked it when I made it.

Ingredients (3 - 4 servings):

Tamarind soaked in water- about the size of a small lemon
(If using tamarind paste - 3/4 table spoon)
Sambar powder - 2 table spoons
Pumpkin cut into small cubes - about a cup
Asafoetida - 1 teaspoon
Whole dry black channa - about a handful
Toor dhal - 1/2 cup using a measuring cup
Turmeric - 1/4 teaspoon
Rice flour - 1.5 teaspoons
Salt to taste

To dry fry and grind to a coarse powder:

Channa dhal - 2 table spoons
Dried red chillies - 3
Coriander seeds - 2 teaspoons

For seasoning:

Coconut oil (this is a must) - 3 teaspoons
Mustard seeds - 1 teaspoon
Urad dhal - 1 teaspoon
Curry leaves (optional) - a few

Procedure:

1. Fry dried black channa in 2 teaspoons of oil, pressure cook it and set aside.
2. Pressure cook toor dhal with 1.5 cups (using a measuring cup) of water with turmeric and set aside. I generally use dhal and water in the ratio 1:3.
3. Dry fry channa dhal, dried red chilli and coriander seeds separately, grind them to a coarse powder and set aside.
4. Extract about 2 - 3 cups (using a measuring cup) of the juice of soaked tamarind or dilute the tamarind paste with about 2 -3 cups of water in a thick bottomed vessel. Place it on the stove top on medium heat.
4. Add sambar powder, asafoetida, salt and bring it to a boil.
5. Once the mixture starts boiling, add the pressure cooked black channa and pumpkin pieces and boil for some more time until the vegetables cook well and the raw smell of tamarind and sambar powder goes away. This normally takes about 20 minutes on medium heat.
6. After step 5, add the cooked toor dhal, the powder from step 3 and rice flour and boil for 1o more minutes.
7. In a small pan, add coconut oil and after the oil gets heated, add mustard seeds and wait for them to splutter. Immediately after that, add urad dhal and fry till it turns light golden brown in color. Transfer the contents to the mixture from step 6.
8. Garnish with curry leaves. Arai puli kuzhambu is ready :-).

This tastes excellent with rice, ghee (refined butter) and plain cooked toor dhal. The kuzhambu karuvadam fried in oil (only if you have it) and added to this kuzhambu at the very end, gives it an ecstatic touch.

Poritha Kuzhambu

As long as I was in India, I used to love this dish whenever my Mom makes it. This dish is made with moong dhal and my Mom says moong dhal is good for health and that it cools the body if overheated :-). This can be made with murungaikkai (also called drumstick) or spinach or any leafy vegetable or a mix of all.

Ingredients (about 3 servings):

Murungaikkai - about 15 three inch pieces
Moong dhal - 3/4 cups using a measuring cup
Sambar powder - 1/2 table spoon
Asafoetida
Salt to taste

To fry in 2 teaspoons of oil and grind:

Dried red chillies - 3
Urad dhal - 3 teaspoons
Grated/powdered coconut - 4 teaspoons

For seasoning:

Cooking oil - 2 teaspoons
Mustard seeds - 1 teaspoon
Urad dhal - 1 teaspoon
Curry leaves (optional) - a few

Procedure:

1. Fry dried red chilli, urad dhal and grated coconut in oil, separately, one after the other and add them to a blender. The coconut should only be fried for about 20 seconds just to bring out the flavors. Grind them to a paste and set aside.
2. Pressure cook murungaikkai or spinach or a mix of both together with moong dhal, sambar powder and salt.
3. Add the ground paste and asafoetida to the pressure cooked mixture and bring it to a boil. Turn off the stove after 3 minutes.
4. In a pan, add oil and after it gets heated, add mustard seeds and wait for them to splutter. Immediately after the mustard has spluttered, add urad dhal and fry till it turns light golden brown in color. Turn off the stove and transfer the contents of the pan to the cooked mixture from step 3.
5. Garnish with curry leaves. Poritha kuzhambu is ready :-).

This goes very well with rice as well as chappathi. It is very nutritious and easy to cook as well.

Beetroot Koottu

It has been a long time since I had had beetroot and somehow I started craving for beetroot dishes lately. That being said, I didn't want to try anything totally different with beetroot either. I wanted to try something that my Mom used to make back home and something that goes with rice or chappathi. So, I asked my Mom for her beetroot koottu recipe and tried it the past weekend. I must say that it came out very well :-). I'm happy.

Ingredients (3 - 4 servings):

Beetroots - 3 small fresh ones
Rice flour - 2 teaspoons
Salt to taste

To fry in 2 teaspoons of oil and grind:

Channa dhal - 3 teaspoons
Dried red chillies - 4
Coriander seeds - 2 teaspoons
Grated/powdered coconut - 4 teaspoons

For seasoning:

Cooking oil (I use refined peanut oil) - 2 teaspoons
Mustard seeds - 1 teaspoon
Urad dhal - 1 teaspoon
Asafoetida - 1/4 teaspoon
Curry leaves (optional) - a few

Procedure:

1. Fry channa dhal, coriander seeds, dried red chillies and coconut in oil, separately, one after the other and add them to a blender. The coconut should be fried only for about 20 seconds just to bring the flavor out. Grind them to a smooth paste.
2. In a bowl, add the ground paste from step 1 and rice flour, mix well and set aside.
3. Wash, peel and cut beetroot into small cubes.
4. Pressure cook the cut beets with just enough water for them to cook. Adding more water will make the dish too watery and the beets leave some water while they cook in the pressure cooker. So, use your own judgement :-).
5. Once the beets are cooked, add salt and the paste from step 2 and bring the mixture to a boil. Boil for about 5 minutes and turn off the stove.
6. In a pan, add some oil and when it gets heated, add mustard seeds and wait for them to splutter. Then add the urad dhal and asafoetida and fry until the urad dhal turns light golden brown in color. Turn off the stove and add the mixture to the cooked beets.
7. Garnish with curry leaves. Beetroot koottu is ready :-).

It can be served with rice or rotis. Many people don't like beets, may be because of the ir sweetness, but I like them a lot. If it is made the right way, it tastes real good.

Hi there...

This blog is going to serve the purpose of a recipe book. That way, it will be easy for me to maintain my list, readily refer to some recipe and also tell friends about a specific recipe :-). I hope to have the list of all my Mom's recipes, my own recipes, recipes from my friends etc etc., basically all that I cook irrespective of the cuisine that it belongs to. I hope to do a good job at it and not lose interest after a while ;-).