Guththi Venkaaya Koora

This is another dish with small/baby eggplants and is similar in idea to the Yennai Kaththirikkaai Kuzhambu, but definitely tastes different. During my master's days, I was roommates with this wonderful lady from Andhra and she used to make these exotic Andhra specialties (this dish was one among them). I learned this from her and recently came to know that almost everyone from Andhra is a big fan of gutti vankaya koora.

Ingredients (about 2 - 3 servings):

Baby eggplants - about 8 to 10 cut into 4 quarters almost up to the stalks (the idea is to use the whole eggplant with the stalk so that the stuffing doesn't fall out)
Cooking oil - about 2 to 3 tablespoons
Jaggery/sugar - 1 teaspoon
Salt to taste

To fry in a teaspoon of oil and grind into a thick coarse paste:

Channa dhal - 2 tablespoons
Urad dhal - 2 tablespoons
Dried red chillies - 5 to 6
Coriander seeds - 1 tablespoon
Peanuts - about 2 tablespoons
(If using roasted peanuts, you need not fry them again)
Fenugreek seeds - about 4 to 5 just for the flavor (beware!!!! using more of this will turn the dish slightly bitter)
Curry leaves - a few
Garlic - 2 to 3 cloves
Asafoetida - 1/4 teaspoon
Cumin seeds - 1 teaspoon
Turmeric powder - a pinch or two
Tamarind - 1/2 inch stick
Salt - about 1 teaspoon

Procedure:

1. In a pan, heat a drop of oil, fry the red chillies first, add the channa dhal next, fry until it begins to brown slightly, add the urad dhal and wait for it to turn slightly brown, add the rest of the ingredients one after the other and fry until the dhals turn light golden brown in color. Use caution to not burn the dhals. After the ingredients cool down, make a thick coarse paste out of them and set aside.
2. Stuff the slit eggplants with the paste from step 2 and set the remaining paste aside.
4. In another wide pan, heat some cooking oil and place the stuffed eggplants neatly and cook evenly by turning them until they become soft. This roughly takes about 15 - 20 minutes on medium heat.
5. Once the eggplants are soft, add the remaining paste from step 3, a little water to get the gravy consistency and bring it to a boil. Boil until the eggplant is thoroughly cooked.
6. Add the sugar/jaggery to step 6, mix in well and turn off the stove.

Note:
1. As a variation, you can fry about 1/2 a medium sized onion that is finely chopped and then grind it along with the other ingredients in step 1. You can add some chopped tomatoes at the very end, like 5 minutes before turning off the stove and garnish with fresh coriander leaves.
2. If you want this as a dry dish, you can make a coarse powder of the ingredients in step 1, use the entire powder to stuff your eggplants and shallow fry them thoroughly until they are cooked.

This goes very well with steamed rice. Although it takes a little effort to make this, in the end, it is all worth it. This may not be the only version of gutti vankaya koora as there are many different variations that exist.

I'm sending this to Sanghi's Fall in Love - Brinjal event and Shanti Krishnakumar's State Specials event. I dedicate this to the person who I learned this from, a very good friend and ex-roommate, Bindu :-).

Payatham Paruppu Sundal

Payatham paruppu or moong dhal is very good for health and my Mom would make the sundal or paayasam with payatham paruppu once a week, for sure. This sundal is also there on one of the days during the 9 days of Navarathri celebrations at our house :-).

Ingredients (about 3 - 4 servings):

Uncooked split moong dhal - 1 cup (using a measuring cup)
Cooking oil - 2 teaspoons
Mustard seeds - 1/2 teaspoon
Urad dhal - 1 teaspoon
Asafoetida - a couple of pinches
Dried red chillies - a couple split into half (vary this to suit your taste)
Grated/powdered coconut - 2 to 3 teaspoons (vary this to suit your taste)
Curry leaves - a few
Salt to taste

Procedure:

1. Boil moong dhal in water along with a little salt (the dhal doesn't get cooked fast if you add more salt) until it gets cooked (but NOT mashed), drain the water and set aside. You can even microwave the moong dhal along with water if you find that approach easier.
2. In a pan, heat some cooking oil, pop mustard seeds, add urad dhal, asafoetida, dried red chillies and curry leaves and fry until the urad dhal turns light golden brown in color.
3. Add the cooked moong dhal from step 1 and some more salt to step 2, mix in well and fry for about 5 - 7 more minutes on medium heat with constant stirring.
4. Turn off the stove, add the grated/powdered coconut to step 3 while the contents are still hot and mix well.

Your sundal is ready to snack on!!!!

Instant Raw Mango Pickle

When I saw these utterly fresh raw mangoes at the Indian grocers, I instantly knew what I was going to make. My first thought was, "Oh my!!! I has been ages since I had that pickle with yogurt rice".

Ingredients:

Raw mango - chopped into small pieces
Red chilli powder - 1/2 teaspoon (vary this to suit your taste)
Cooking oil - 1 teaspoon
Mustard seeds - 1/2 teaspoon
Asafoetida - a couple of pinches
Salt to taste

Procedure:

1. Take a bowl, add the chopped mango pieces to it and some chilli powder, but DO NOT mix.
2. In a small pan, heat some cooking oil, pop mustard seeds, add asafoetida and immediately pour the hot oil right over the chilli powder in step 1.
3. Add some salt and mix everything well.

Your instant pickle is ready to go!!!!

Simple Eggplant Fry

I love eggplant fry when it is made from the small/baby eggplants. Personally, I feel that the big eggplants do not have as much flavor and taste. Whenever I go to the Indian grocery store, I would definitely grab some of the small eggplants and make this dish.

Ingredients (about 2 servings):

Small/baby eggplants - 1 lb cut into bite sized pieces
(Soak the cut eggplants in water so that they don't turn black)
Cooking oil - 1.5 tablespoons
Mustard seeds - 1 teaspoon
Urad dhal - 1 teaspoon
Asafoetida - a pinch
Turmeric powder - a pinch
Salt to taste

To fry in a drop of oil and grind into a coarse powder:

Channa dhal - 1.5 teaspoons
Dried red chillies - 1 or 2 (vary this to suit your taste)
Coriander seeds - 1 teaspoon

Procedure:

1. Fry channa dhal, dried red chillies and coriander seeds in a drop of oil, grind into a coarse powder and set aside.
2. In a wide pan, heat some cooking oil, pop mustard seeds, add the urad dhal, assfoetida and turmeric powder and fry until the urad dhal turns light golden brown in color.
3. To step 2, add the cut eggplant, mix the contents well, put on a lid and let it cook until the eggplant gets soft.
4. To step 3, add some salt and the spice powder mix from step 1 and keep frying until it cooks thoroughly and turns crispy and turn off the stove.

If you feel lazy to make the spice powder, you can add just a little (or more) chilli powder to step 4 or can do without any spices too. Alternately, you could even make large quantities of that spice powder and store it for later use. When I was little, my Mom and Grandma used to set aside a portion of this curry for me before adding the spice powder and I got so used to that taste that they still do it for me till date :-)

You can serve this as a side dish with rice.

I'm sending this to Sanghi's Fall in Love (FIL) - Brinjal event. Once again, I'm dedicating this to my boyfriend who learned it from me and actually makes it quite often these days :-).

Yennai Kaththirikkaai Kuzhambu

Kaththirikkaai is the Tamil name for eggplant/brinjal/aubergine. I first had this dish at my dear friend Bamini's place during my undergrad days (about 6 years back). Her Mom had made it along with a few other wonderful treats for lunch that day. I forgot all about this dish until a couple of weeks back. I immediately called Bamini's Mom and tried her recipe. It felt so good to have it after so many years with exact taste and flavor that I was looking for.

Ingredients (about 2 - 3 servings):

Small/baby eggplants - about 8 to 10 cut into 4 quarters almost up to the stalks (the idea is to use the whole eggplant with the stalk so that the stuffing doesn't fall out)
Cooking oil - about 2 to 3 tablespoons
Tamarind soaked in warm water - about the size of a small lemon
(If using paste, about 3/4 teaspoon of it)
Asafoetida - 1/2 teaspoon
Curry leaves - a few
Sugar or jaggery - 1 teaspoon
Salt to taste

To dry fry and grind into a coarse powder:

Channa dhal - 1.5 tablespoons
Urad dhal - 1.5 tablespoons
Dried red chillies - 4 to 5
Coriander seeds - 1 tablespoon

Procedure:

1. Extract about 1.5 cups (using a measuring cup) of tamarind juice from the soaked tamarind or dilute the paste to yield about 1.5 cups (using a measuring cup) of tamarind water and set aside.
2. Dry fry channa dhal, urad dhal, dried red chillies and coriander seeds one after the other, grind into a coarse powder, mix with asafoetida and some salt and set aside.
3. Stuff the slit eggplants with the powder from step 2 and set the remaining powder aside.
4. In a pan, heat some cooking oil, pop mustard seeds, add curry leaves and place the stuffed eggplants neatly and cook evenly by turning them until they become soft. This roughly takes about 15 - 20 minutes on medium heat.
5. Once the eggplants are soft, add the remaining powder from step 3 and saute for 2 minutes.
6. Add the tamarind water from step 1 to step 5, some more salt if necessary and bring it to a boil. Boil for 10 minutes on medium heat or until the rawness of the tamarind goes away.
7. Add the sugar/jaggery to step 6, mix in well and turn off the stove.

This goes very well with steamed rice and also yogurt rice. I hope you all like it :-).

This recipe goes to Sanghi's Fall in Love - Brinjal event. I dedicate this to my boyfriend who is a big time brinjal fan :-).

It's Award Time Again!

Lata Raja @ Flavors & Tastes has given me this beautiful award and I really appreciate it. Thanks a ton Lata, for the kind gesture. I pass this on to all my blogger friends. Please stop by and pick up the award. You guys deserve it!

Puli Pongal

Puli pongal is my Grandma's trademark dish. It is simply yummy each time she makes it. I got the recipe from her and tried it. It came out well and I'm happy to have tried it :-).

Ingredients (about 2 servings):

Uncooked rice - 1.5 cups (using a measuring cup)

Tamarind soaked in warm water (for about 15 to 20 minutes) - about the size of a small lemon

(If using paste, about 3/4 teaspoons of it)
Dried red chillies - about 6 t0 7, broken into two

Cooking oil (or sesame oil) - 2 tablespoons

Mustard seeds - 1 teaspoon

Channa dhal - 1 tablespoon

Turmeric powder - a pinch or two

Asafoetida - 1/4 teaspoon

Curry leaves - a few

Salt to taste

Prep work:

1. Soak the uncooked rice in water for about 30 minutes.

2. After 30 minutes, drain all the water from the rice, spread it on a thin cloth or tissue until all the water gets absorbed and the rice is completely dry. This roughly takes about 20 minutes.

3. Make a COARSE powder out of the dry rice from step 2 and set it aside.

Procedure:

1. Extract about 3 cups (using a measuring cup) of tamarind juice from the soaked tamarind or dilute the paste to yield about 3 cups (using a measuring cup) of tamarind water.

2. In a deep vessel, heat some cooking oil, pop mustard seeds, add the channa dhal, asafoetida and broken red chillies and fry until the channa dhal turns light golden brown in color.

3. To step 2, pour the tamarind water from step 1, add the curry leaves and turmeric powder and bring it to a boil. Boil for about 7 - 10 minutes on medium heat or until the raw smell of tamarind goes away.

4. To the contents of step 3, add the coarse rice and keep stirring to avoid any lumps. Half way through, add some salt and mix everything well. Wait until the rice gets cooked, turn off the stove and put the lid on for about 5 - 10 minutes.

5. Just before serving, drizzle sesame oil on the top and serve with fried papad.

Although this is the not the healthiest of the dishes, it does taste good and in my opinion, there is no harm in treating yourself to such items occasionally :-). Wouldn't you agree with me????

Fruit Salad

It's summer time here and I see a huge variety of fruits at the grocers. So, I buy one of each variety and treat myself to this simple yet tasty fruit salad :-).

Ingredients:

Fruits of your choice cut into bite sized pieces (be sure to include dates) - 2 to 3 cups (using a measuring cup) in total
Honey - about 2 to 3 tablespoons (vary this to suit your taste)
Vanilla extract (optional) - a couple of drops

Procedure:

1. Mix the cut fruits and honey in a bowl, chill and serve. I add honey so that even the fruits that are slightly sour by nature blend well with the others.

At times, when I don't care much about calories, I top the fruit salad with a scoop of store bought ice cream of my choice :-). How easy a dessert is it????!!!!