From my kitchen to yours...

Chow Chow (Chayote Squash) Koottu

2011-01-04T18:33:00.002-05:00

A long time back, I had told a friend of mine how to make this koottu and the very next day he said he made it and liked it too. He asked me to post the recipe for the same so that he can refer to it whenever he wants to make it again. Since I was randomized a lot due to other things going on in my life last year, I had completely forgotten about it until last night when I saw this sitting in my drafts. Here you go Karthik, have at it! This post will also mark my return to blogging this year like I had promised in my previous post :-).

Ingredients (2 - 3 servings):

Chayote squash - 2 peeled and chopped
Sambar powder - 1 to 2 tablespoons (adjust this to suit your taste)
Channa dhal - 1/2 cup (using a measuring cup) fried in a drop of oil until it turns light golden brown in color

To grind in to a paste:

Grated/powdered coconut - 3 to 4 tablespoons
Rice flour - 1.5 to 2 tablespoons

For seasoning:

Cooking oil - 1 tablespoon
Mustard seeds - 1/2 teaspoon
Urad dhal - 1 tablespoon
Asafoetida - a couple of pinches
Fresh curry leaves - a few

Procedure:

1. Grind coconut and rice flour into a fine paste and set aside.
2. In a deep vessel, cook the chopped chayote squash along with sambar powder and the fried channa dhal until the chayote squash turns soft such that it can be mashed with your fingers.
3. In a pan, heat some cooking oil, pop mustard seeds, add urad dhal and asafoetida and fry until the urad dhal turns light golden brown in color. Add the curry leaves now and transfer the contents to step 2.
4. Add the paste from step 1 to step 2 and some salt, mix thoroughly, bring it to a boil and turn off the stove.

This will go well with vaththa kuzhambu, sambar, podi rice or tomato rasam.

Happy New Year!

2011-01-03T22:17:00.000-05:00

The past year has been a very eventful one for me - sister's wedding, new job, shifted base from one coast of the US to another (and still settling in) etc. - due to which I've not been able to keep up with blogging since February last year. I hope this year will be as much fun, happening and challenging. I plan on resuming blogging as well this year :-). Although I didn't post much last year, I've enjoyed many of your mouth-watering dishes that have helped grow my recipe diary by a considerable amount. I thank all my blogger friends for their wonderful friendship, awesome recipes and passion for cooking. I wish you all a very happy, prosperous, lovely, eventful and delicious 2011!

North Indian Kichchadi - My Way

2010-02-17T20:30:00.001-05:00

It was one of those "I don't want to cook; don't want to do any extensive cutting work; don't want to eat out (it had just stopped snowing, the roads were bad and snow ploughs just came out) either, but want a healthy, tasty and comforting home-cooked meal for dinner" days. And yes, agreed! I have way too many conditions, yet I managed to indulge in a very delicious and wholesome meal :-). Here goes my version of North Indian kichchadi...

Ingredients (2 - 3 servings):

Uncooked rice - 1 cup (using a measuring cup)
Masoor dhal - 1/4 cup (using a measuring cup)
Toor dhal - 1/4 cup (using a measuring cup)
Turmeric powder - a couple of pinches
Salt to taste

For seasoning:

Cooking oil - 2 to 3 tablespoons
Mustard seeds - 1/4 teaspoon
Cumin seeds - 1/2 teaspoon
Asafoetida - a couple of pinches
Green chillies - 3 to 4 finely chopped (adjust this to suit your taste)
Freshly grated ginger - 1 tablespoon
Garlic - a couple of cloves finely chopped
Fresh cilanto - a few strands finely chopped

Procedure:

1. Pressure cook rice, masoor dhal, toor dhal and turmeric powder with about 5 - 6 cups (using a measuring cup) of water until the rice and dhals get absolutely soft and easy to mash. Add salt and mash them with the back of a ladle once they are done.
2. In a pan, heat some cooking oil, pop mustard seeds, add asafoetida, cumin seeds, green chillies, grated ginger and garlic, mix everything well for a few seconds and transfer the contents to the pressure cooked rice and dhal from step 1 and mix well once again.
3. Garnish with chopped cilantro and enjoy with a side of plain yogurt.

Nothing could have beat this comforting meal that day!

Kaththirikkaai (Eggplant) Rasavaangi

2010-01-12T22:00:00.003-05:00

Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season and once again, wish you all a very happy new year! I had a great, relaxing holiday season myself and tried quite a few new recipes from many of your blogs (which will be featured in the upcoming posts :-)). It feels good to get back to the business though, after all the eating that I have done in the past few weeks. I haven't been able to keep up with your blog updates lately, but definitely hope to get there slowly. Let me start the first post for this year with one of my Mom's recipes that tried over the holidays.

Ingredients (3 - 4 servings):

Eggplant - 1 lb cut in to bite sized pieces
Toor dhal (optional, but I add it to make it more nutritional) - 1/4 cup cooked
Tamarind soaked in warm water - 1/2 inch ball
(If using paste, about 1/4 teaspoon of it)
Turmeric powder - a couple of pinches
Curry leaves - a few
Salt to taste

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

Grated/powdered coconut - 3 to 4 full teaspoons
Coriander seeds - 2 teaspoons
Dried red chillies - 4 to 5
Channa dhal - 3 teaspoons

For seasoning:

Coconut oil (a must) - 2 teaspoons
Mustard seeds - 1/2 teaspoon
Urad dhal - 1/2 teaspoon
Asafoetida - a couple of pinches

Procedure:

1. Extract the thick pulp of soaked tamarind and set aside.
2. Fry the ingredients to fry in oil, one after the other, grind them into a coarse paste and set aside.
3. Pressure cook toor dhal with turmeric powder until done and set aside.
4. Boil eggplants in water and turmeric powder until they are mostly cooked but not completely cooked.
5. Add the tamarind paste/pulp to step 4, mix it in and wait until the eggplant gets cooked thoroughly.
6. Add the ground paste, cooked toor dhal and salt to step 5, bring it to a boil and turn off the stove.
7. In a small pan, heat some coconut oil, pop mustard seeds, add the urad dhal and asafoetida and fry until the urad dhal turns light golden brown in color. Transfer the contents of the pan to step 6.
8. Garnish with curry leaves.

Note:
My Mom says that eggplant does not cook if the tamarind is added at the beginning of step 4.

Enjoy with piping hot steamed rice topped with a teaspoon of ghee or with sambar/rasam.

Happy Holidays!

2009-12-25T11:10:00.005-05:00

It has been a great pleasure knowing all of you, interacting with you and enjoying your delicious recipes. I hope to see more and more of your holiday recipes come through this holiday season. Here is wishing you all a merry Christmas and a very happy, prosperous, fun and love-filled New Year!

Thayir (Yogurt) Bread

2009-12-11T18:00:00.002-05:00

As soon as I spotted this recipe at Madhuri's blog, my dinner was decided instantly that day. On my way from work, I grabbed a freshly baked loaf of garlic and herbs bread and had a hearty meal. In addition to being very different from the traditional bread combos this was super easy to make. I also realized that this could be a very quick starter recipe when you are in rush to cook for a potluck party or something. I made it the traditional South Indian thayir vadai way without adding any chat seasonings (only because I ran out of them).

Ingredients (3 - 4 servings):

Fresh bread loaf - 1/2 if big or 1 if small (you can use any variety that you prefer)
Plain yogurt - 4 to 5 cups (using a measuring cup) whisked evenly with about a cup (using a measuring cup) of water
Salt to taste

To grind into a paste:

Grated/powdered coconut - about 2 cups (using a measuring cup)
Green chillies - 5 to 6 (vary this to suit your taste)

For seasoning:

Cooking oil - 2 teaspoons
Mustard seeds - 1/2 teaspoon
Asafoetida - a couple of pinches

Procedure:

1. Cut the bread loaf into 1 inch squares (you can trim the edges if you want to, but I didn't) and set aside.
2. Heat some oil in a small pan, pop mustard seeds, add asafoetida and transfer the contents to the whisked yogurt and mix well.
3. Mix the ground paste of coconut and green chillies with the whisked yogurt thoroughly along with some salt.
4. Pour 1/3rd of the yogurt mixture on to a flat and wide container and carefully arrange the cut bread squares from step 1.
5. Pour the remaining yogurt mixture on the bread covering every little exposed surface of the bread and garnish with freshly chopped cilantro.

Note:
Like Madhuri's says, you can add all the chat seasonings to it and garnish with grated carrots as well and that will be a nice twist from this preparation :-).

I couldn't wait to have it, so I had to eat it the instant I made it ;-), but you can serve it chilled. I thoroughly enjoyed every bit of it & even made this at a friend's place the week after.

Egg Dosa

2009-11-30T22:30:00.000-05:00

I came across egg dosa for the first time in Rohini's blog. Since I'm an ardent egg fan, I tried it the same day and just loved it :-). The dosas came out to be very soft.

Ingredients (makes 3 - 4 dosas):

Eggs - 2
Dosa batter - 2 cups (using a measuring cup)
Oil for making dosas
Salt to taste

Procedure:

1. Beat the eggs thoroughly in a bowl, mix in the dosa batter and adjust salt.
2. Make dosas the usual way and enjoy!

I had some left over potato masala and treated myself to awesome egg masala dosas :-).

If you are looking for a slight variation in dosas and if you are an egg lover, I strongly recommend this.

Simple Carrot Fry

2009-11-24T14:42:00.006-05:00

Carrot fry/curry is of the easiest ways to make something totally yummy out of carrots. Normally, I add carrots to almost all the mixed vegetable dishes I make as they add a little sweetness to the dish, but don't make anything just out of carrots itself. But this curry has a great flavor that it makes me forget that I'm eating carrots :-).

Ingredients (2 - 3 servings):

Fresh carrots - 4 to 5 washed, peeled and chopped
Cooking oil - a couple of teaspoons
Mustard seeds - 1/2 teaspoon
Urad dhal - 1/2 teaspoon
Asafoetida - a couple of pinches
Dried red chillies - a couple of them broken by hand
Grated/powdered coconut (optional) - about 2 teaspoons
Red chilli powder (optional) - 1 teaspoon (vary this to suit your taste)
Salt to taste

Procedure:

1. In a pan, heat some cooking oil, pop mustard seeds, add the urad dhal, asafoetida and dried red chillies and fry until the urad dhal turns light golden brown in color.
2. Add the chopped carrots to step 1, mix well, cover and cook on low heat for about 10 - 15 minutes or until the carrots get cooked.
3. Add some red chilli powder and salt to step 2 and fry the carrots on medium heat for another 5 - 7 minutes and turn off the stove. You can add some grated/powdered coconut now, but otherwise the carrot fry is ready to go.

This goes great with rice and sambar or rasam.

A Backlog Of Awards Presented!

2009-11-24T14:32:00.004-05:00

I've been intending to post this for a couple of weeks now, but never got to it. Blame it on my job!!! :-(. Even though I'm late, I wish to let all my blogger friends know that I have a whole new family here and I totally cherish this experience. Thank you for your constant encouragement and support :-).

Rohini has been kind enough to pass on these awards:

Babli has shared these awards:

Asha has showered me with these awards:

Sandhya has given me these awards:

The following blogger excellence award has been passed on to me by Aruna.

Thank you ladies for sharing the awards and keeping the spirits high in the blogosphere!

Now, it is my turn to share all of the awards from this post with Lata Raja, Mahimaa, Shanthi, Sanghi, Sangeetha, Pavithra and Parita. Please collect your awards and continue posting your mouthwatering recipes!

Simple Cauliflower Fry

2009-11-10T18:00:00.003-05:00

This is one of the easiest dishes to make except for the time to clean and cut cauliflower.

Ingredients (about 2 - 3 servings):

Cauliflower - 1 big, washed and cut into small florets
Cooking oil - 1.5 tablespoons
Mustard seeds - 1/2 teaspoon
Urad dhal - 1 teaspoon
Asafoetida - a couple of pinches
Red chilli powder - 1 teaspoon (vary this to suit your taste)
Salt to taste

Procedure:

1. In a wide pan, heat some cooking oil, pop mustard seeds, add the urad dhal and asafoetida and fry until the urad dhal turns light golden brown in color.
2. To step 1, add the cut cauliflower florets, mix everything well and fry on medium high heat for about 3 - 4 minutes with constant stirring.
3. Once the cauliflower starts browning, add some red chilli powder and salt and fry until it gets cooked and turns nice and crispy. Turn off the stove.

A good variation would be to add about a handful of chopped onions to step 1 and fry them until golden brown before moving on to step 2. You can also add some chopped potatoes along with the cauliflower florets.

Tip:
I have noticed that separating the florets by hand instead of chopping them using a knife keeps them intact during the cooking process and that way I can cut them to the size I desire.

This goes a side dish with rice and sambar/rasam/plain yogurt. I even have it as a snack sometimes.

My Mom's Style Vegetable Pulao

2009-11-03T21:05:00.001-05:00

When my sisters and I were little, vegetable pulao was always on our list of things to order at a restaurant. We would always ask our Mom to make it for us at home. Little did we know that she didn't know to make pulao type dishes. One fine day, she surprised us with this veggie pulao and we were really happy and pleased that she made such a tasty dish for us. Apparently, she learned it from one of her colleagues and also passed it on to my grand parents' family. Till date, whenever my grandma makes veggie pulao, she asks us if it tastes similar to my Mom's :-) as she thinks pulao type dishes are not her area of expertise. It is not that she cannot make it well but just that pulao was never in the list of things that she learned to cook from her mother (my grandma and Mom are experts in making traditional Brahmin style dishes though). And, having tried different types of pulaos myself, I have learned that this is not a very unique recipe, but definitely one that will bring back all those childhood memories that I cherish :-).

Ingredients (4 - 5 servings):

Basmati rice - 2 cups uncooked
Cooking oil - 3 to 4 teaspoons
Onions - 1/2 finely chopped
Tomatoes - 1/2 finely chopped
Veggies of your choice - about 2 cups (I always like using a lot of cauliflower and peas in my pulao and don't even bother with any other veggies)
Red chilli powder - 1 teaspoon
Garam masala (optional) - 1/2 teaspoon
Fresh cilantro - a few strands finely chopped

To grind into a fine paste:

Onions - 1 big
Tomatoes - 1 big
Ginger - 1 inch piece (roughly)
Garlic - about 3 to 4 cloves peeled
Fennel seeds - 1 teaspoon
Star anise - a couple (some blenders don't handle this well, so you might want to break it into pieces before putting them in your blender/mixer)
Cloves - 3 to 4
Cinnamon - 1 inch stick broken into small pieces
Bay leaves - 1 or 2
Green chillies - 5 to 6 (vary this to suit your taste)
Fresh cilantro (optional) - a few strands broken by hand
Grated/powdered coconut (optional) - 1 tablespoon

Procedure:

1. Grind the ingredients from the above mentioned list and set aside.
2. In a wide pan, heat some cooking oil (you can be a little generous here actually), fry the chopped onions first, followed by the chopped tomatoes and once the onions have turned light golden brown in color and the tomatoes have cooked well, add the paste from step 1, mix in well along with some salt, red chilli powder and garam masala and cook for about 5 minutes on medium heat with constant stirring.
4. Now add the veggies to step 3 (I don't usually boil the veggies beforehand, but just let them cook in the gravy instead so that they don't end up mashed in the end), put the lid on and cook for about 15 more minutes on low heat.
5. You can take the lid off now and cook the rest of gravy for 15 more minutes or until the oil leaves the sides, on medium to high heat with constant stirring. Turn off the stove.
6. Wash and cook the rice and once it is done, spread it in a wide pan or a dish with a wide base, add a couple of teaspoons of cooking oil and the finely chopped cilantro to the rice, mix it in gently and set aside for about 15 minutes.
7. Mix the contents from step 5 with the rice gently, exercising caution not to break the rice. Serve with the favorite raita of your choice and/or potato chips.

It does take a little long to prepare this meal, but every bit is worth it :-). Some of my relatives prepare this by cooking the veggies, rice and spices together and that has a whole different taste to it.

Moar Kuzhambu

2009-10-29T18:00:00.005-04:00

Moar kuzhambu is what I make when I don't have the enthusiasm to do any extensive cooking. I always have some kind of podi (instant spice powder to mix with rice) at hand and have podi rice with moar kuzhambu.

Ingredients (3 - 4 servings):

Plain yogurt - 2 cups (using a measuring cup)
Asafoetida - a couple of pinches
Turmeric powder - a couple of pinches
Salt to taste

To grind to a paste:

Green chillies - 2 to 3 (vary this to suit your taste)
Fresh ginger - 1/2 inch stick
Grated/powdered coconut - 2 tablespoons
Channa dhal soaked in warm water for about 15 minutes - 1.5 tablespoons

For seasoning:

Cooking oil - 2 teaspoons
Mustard seeds - 1/2 teaspoon
Dried red chillies - 1 broken into half
Fresh cilantro - a few strands broken by hand

Procedure:
1. Grind green chillies, fresh ginger, grated/powdered coconut and the soaked channa dhal with a little water into a smooth paste and set aside.
2. Churn the yogurt into buttermilk in a deep vessel with about 2 cups (using a measuring cup) of water, add asafoetida, turmeric powder, salt and the paste from step 1 to it, mix well and heat on the stove top on medium heat for about 5 - 10 minutes until the mixture gets warm and turn off the stove. Exercise caution lest it will curdle.
3. In a small pan, heat some cooking oil, pop mustard seeds, add the dried red chillies and transfer the contents immediately into the buttermilk mixture from step 2.
4. Garnish with a few strands of fresh cilantro.

Note:
1. If you have some sour yogurt left, this is the best dish to use that up. I add some sour cream sometimes to add that extra richness and creaminess to the dish :-).
2. You can add veggies and vadas to this dish instead of keeping it plain.
3. Another variation in taste and flavor could be brought about by using dried red chillies instead of green ones and adding about a teaspoon of cumin seeds while grinding. You can also omit the ginger.

Yet another easy dish is ready!!!

Paruppu Thogayal

2009-10-27T18:00:00.000-04:00

This is one absolutely simple thogayal that goes very well with poondu (garlic) rasam. Let me get straight to the recipe without blabbing much here ;-).

Ingredients (2 - 3 servings):

Cooking oil - a couple of drops
Toor dhal - 1/2 cup
Dried red chillies - 1 or 2 split into half
Salt to taste

Procedure:

1. Heat a couple of drops of cooking oil and fry the toor dhal first until it turns light golden brown in color followed by the dried red chillies.
2. Soak the fried toor dhal in water (just enough to cover the dhal) for about 15 - 20 minutes.
3. Grind the soaked toor dhal, fried red chillies along with some salt into a thick paste and your thogayal is ready.

You can mix the thogayal and ghee (clarified butter) with hot, steamed rice and it will take you to heaven.

Simple Semiya (Vermicelli) Upma

2009-10-19T08:00:00.001-04:00

This is a quick fix breakfast/snack item if you have semiya (vermicelli) at hand. I never get bored of it :-).

Ingredients (1 serving):

Semiya (vermicelli) - 1/2 cup (using a measuring cup)
Cooking oil - 1 full tablespoon
Mustard seeds - 1/4 teaspoon
Channa dhal - 1 teaspoon
Asafoetida - a couple of pinches
Dried red chillies - a couple broken into half
Curry leaves - a few
Water - 1 cup (using a measuring cup)
Salt to taste

Procedure:

1. Dry fry semiya in a pan until it turns light golden brown in color and set aside.
2. In a deep vessel, heat some cooking oil, pop mustard seeds, add the channa dhal, asafoetida, dried red chillies and curry leaves and fry until the channa dhal turns light golden brown in color.
3. To step 2 add 1 cup (using a measuring cup) of water (I use semiya:water in the ratio 1:2 and it comes out perfect every single time), some salt and bring it to a boil.
4. Add the semiya from step 1 to step 3, mix the contents well and keep stirring until the semiya gets cooked in the water.
5. Now, turn off the stove, put the lid on and let it stand for 5 minutes.

Optionally, you can add some chopped onions to step 2 and fry them until golden brown before proceeding with step 3. You can serve the hot upma as is or with sugar, plain yogurt or the favorite chutney of your choice.

Stuffed Italian Peppers

2009-10-09T11:45:00.002-04:00

When I first saw the Italian peppers at the grocers, the first thing that came to my mind was bajjis (an appetizer made by dipping the veggies in a spiced up batter and deep frying them). A while ago, I noticed a friend of mine using them to make stuffed pepper dishes. I thought it was a good way of using up the left over curries and turn them into a totally new and tasty dish. Btw, those peppers are no where close to hot. In fact, they have a slight sweetness to them and will be great for bajjis as well.

Ingredients (about 2 servings):

Italian peppers - 4 to 5
Any left over dry curry - about 3/4 to 1 cup (using a measuring cup)
(I make this often with left over potato curry, but you can use any dry curry that you have)
Cooking oil - a couple of teaspoons
Black pepper powder - a few pinches
Salt to sprinkle

Procedure:

1. Wash the peppers, slit around the cap and take the cap and seeds off. If you are filled with patience, you can use a small knife and take away the veins too and make more room for your curry filling :-).
2. Fill each pepper with the left over curry and set aside.
3. In a wide pan, heat a couple of teaspoons of cooking oil, place the peppers when the oil gets hot and sprinkle some salt and pepper. Now, turn and cook them uniformly until you see that nice brown char on them. This doesn't even take long since your stuffing inside is already cooked. Isn't it a really sweet makeover of leftovers??!! :-)

These taste great with chappathis and also parathas. Needless to say, you can also have them with rice dishes.

Kuzhi Paniyaaram

2009-10-08T20:30:00.001-04:00

I had not had kuzhi paniyaaram until I came across this in Mahimaa's blog. I asked my special friend to get the paniyaara kal (the cast iron pan used to make sweet and savory paniyaarams) from India and tried this really easy and yummy snack :-).

Ingredients (about 2 - 3 servings):

Dosa batter - about 3 cups (using a measuring cup)
Onions - about 1/4 cup (using a measuring cup) finely chopped
Ginger - 1 teaspoon finely chopped
Green chillies - 2 finely chopped
Oil - a drop for each hole in the paniyaara kal
Salt to taste

Procedure:

1. Mix the chopped onions, ginger, green chillies and salt to taste with the dosa batter.
2. Heat the paniyaara kal and add a drop of oil into each hole once it gets hot.
3. Spoon the batter from step 1 into the holes and cook both sides by flipping until golden brown in color.

This can be had as is or with any chutney/pickle of your choice. I had some puli inji in my refrigerator and it tasted good with it :-).

Dosas & Idlis

2009-10-08T20:28:00.005-04:00

I started making idlis and dosas from scratch only after I came to the US. Until then, I had only used the already made batter. Anyhow, a roommate who became a very good friend of mine, first taught me how to make dosa batter using just the regular rice instead of raw rice. She also taught me a little trick for the batter to ferment well as winter lasts for almost 4 - 5 months in the part of the US that I live. I'm going to jot that down here so that others could benefit from it.

Dosa

Ingredients:

Split white urad dhal - 1 cup (using a measuring cup)
Uncooked rice - 2.5 cups (using a measuring cup)
Cooked rice - 1/2 cup (using a measuring cup)
(Using cooked rice is the trick to quick fermentation)
Salt to taste

Procedure:

1. Soak the urad dhal and uncooked rice separately for about 5 - 6 hours.
2. Wet grind the urad dhal and rice (the soaked uncooked rice and the cooked rice) separately such that the batter falls easily but is not runny, mix them both in a container and let it sit outside for about 12 hours (this is variable) for it to ferment and rise.
3. Once the batter is well-fermented, add salt and refrigerate.

You can keep it for nearly 1 - 2 weeks and enjoy a whole variety of dosas with a wide range of chutneys and other side dishes.

Idli

Ingredients:

Split white urad dhal - 1 cup (using a measuring cup)
Coarse idli rava - 2 cups (using a measuring cup)
Salt to taste

Procedure:

1. Soak the urad dhal and idli rava separately for about 4 - 5 hours.
2. Wet grind the urad dhal, drain all the water from the soaked rava and mix the ground urad dhal with the rava.
3. Set it aside for about 12 hours (this is variable) for the batter to ferment and rise.

4. Add salt after the batter has fermented and refrigerate.

Even this batter keeps for about 1 - 2 weeks and you can enjoy different varieties of idlis :-)

Note:
1. My Mom says adding salt after fermentation has taken place helps keeps the batter from turning more sour.
2. Sometimes if it gets way too cold here, I heat the oven (conventional) for a couple of minutes, turn it off, wait for a few more minutes and place the batter inside the oven with a plate underneath so that the warmth enhances the fermentation process. You can also consider wrapping the batter container in a piece of woolen cloth.

Koththavarangaai (Cluster Beans) Fry

2009-10-06T20:05:00.004-04:00

Cluster beans, called koththavarangaai in Tamil, is one of my favorites. Frankly, I like this beans better than the other varieties. Here is one very simple fry with koththavarangaai.

Ingredients (about 2 servings):

Cluster beans - about 1/4 lb cut into about 1 inch pieces
Cooking oil - 2 tablespoons
Mustard seeds - 1/2 teaspoon
Urad dhal - 1 teaspoon
Asafoetida - a couple of pinches
Red chilli powder (optional) - 1 teaspoon (vary this to suit your taste)
Salt to taste

Procedure:

1. Wash, trim the edges, remove the veins from the sides and cut cluster beans into 1 inch pieces and set aside.
2. In a wide pan, heat some cooking oil, pop mustard seeds, add urad dhal and asafoetida and fry until the urad dhal turns light golden brown in color.
3. To step 2, add the cut cluster beans from step 1, mix everything well, put a lid on and cook on low heat for about 5 - 7 minutes until the beans becomes slighlty tender.
4. To step 3, add some salt and red chilli powder (if you need that little extra kick :-)) and fry it on medium heat until the beans gets cooked thoroughly. It roughly takes about 15 - 20 minutes.
5. Serve as a side dish with rice and sambar/rasam.

If you add a little chilli powder, you can have this even with chappathis.

Back With Awards!

2009-10-01T23:44:00.011-04:00

Life has been terribly busy for me lately and to top it off, I pinched my sciatic nerve on my left leg and was going for physical therapy for a couple of weeks in between. Although I couldn't get to blogging, I've been following all my dear blogger friends regularly and even tried out a few recipes from their blogs. Now that things have eased a little and my leg is feeling better, I thought I'd first thank Sanghi and Kitchen Queen (too bad that I don't know her actual name... sorry!) for their encouragement by passing on these awards which helped keep my spirits high over the last month :-). I apologize for the delay and thanks for thinking about me among your other friends!

Before I get to posting recipes, here is a picture of my rose bush with the last bloom for this season. I admired those flowers (they were as big as the size of my palm and were very fragrant) all through the summer and am happy that the plant survived the extreme summer that we had this year (I hope it survives the winter too, just like last year... we'll see...).

I'll see you guys soon in another post. Take care everyone.

My Style Dhal

2009-08-24T06:30:00.002-04:00

This may not be a unique recipe, but was so different to me about 5 years back (during my memorable student days), when I made this one fine day - just by following my instincts for the use of ingredients, as I got terribly bored of the plain dhal that I used to make. Later on I came to know that many people make dhal this way. Nevertheless, I'm going to have it here just for old times sake :-).

Ingredients (about 2 - 3 servings):

Uncooked toor dhal - 1 cup (using a measuring cup)
Cooking oil - 2 tablespoons
Mustard seeds - 1 teaspoon
Green chillies - 2 to 3 finely chopped
Urad dhal - 1/2 teaspoon
Cumin seeds - 1 teaspoon
Asafoetida - 1/4 teaspoon
Red chilli powder - 1/2 teaspoon (vary this to suit your taste)
Coriander powder - 1/2 teaspoon
Turmeric powder - 1/4 teaspoon
Onion - 1 medium sized finely chopped
Tomato - 1 medium sized finely chopped
Curry leaves - a few
Cilantro for garnish - a few strands finely chopped
Salt to taste

Procedure:

1. Pressure cook toor dhal with turmeric powder in 3 cups (using a measuring cup) of water (I normally use dhal and water in the ratio 1:3) for about 3 whistles and set aside.
2. In a pan, heat some cooking oil, pop mustard seeds, add cumin seeds, urad dhal, chopped green chillies, asafoetida and curry leaves and fry until the urad dhal turns light golden brown in color.
3. To step 2, add the chopped onions and fry until they turn golden brown.
4. Add the tomatoes to step 3 and fry until they get cooked.
5. Add red chilli powder, coriander powder and some salt to the contents of the pan from step 4 and fry for a couple of minutes.
6. Transfer the contents from step 5 to the pressure cooked dhal, mix well (you can add some water if the dhal is too thick), bring it to a boil and turn off the stove.
7. Garnish with chopped cilantro and serve with hot, steamed rice or rotis.

Sometimes, I add about a teaspoon each of finely chopped ginger and finely chopped garlic to step 2 for a variation in flavor.

Rita, an amazing friend of mine, makes this dhal regularly. She uses all kinds of lentils in her recipe and it tastes great! :-).

Cucumber Kosumalli or Kosambari

2009-08-23T21:00:00.006-04:00

Kosumalli or Kosambari (as it is called in Kannada), I hear, is a dish that gets its origin from Karnataka. There is no real cooking involved in making this and yet the ultimate result is this hell of a healthy dish. How sweet is that???!!! Now, a very dear friend of mine, Rita, had given me a couple of cucumbers from her garden and a few fresh basil leaves and I immediately thought of this nourishing salad to enjoy (yes, you heard me right and I DID say the words "salad" and 'enjoy") :-).

Ingredients (about 2 - 3 servings):

Cucumbers - peeled and finely chopped about 2 cups (using a measuring cup)
Moong dhal - 1/4 cup (using a measuring cup)
Salt to taste

For seasoning:

Cooking oil - 1 teaspoon
Mustard seeds - 1/4 teaspoon
Urad dhal - 1/4 teaspoon
Green chillies - 1 or 2 cut into small pieces
Asafoetida - a couple of pinches
Cilantro - a couple of strands finely chopped
Grated/powdered coconut (optional) - a couple of tablespoons
Fresh basil leaves (optional) - a couple finely chopped

Procedure:

1. Soak moong dhal in water in a bowl for about an hour, drain the water and set aside. Using warm/hot water will speed up the soaking process :-).
2. Add the finely chopped cucumber, cilantro, basil and grated/powdered coconut to the moong dhal and mix well.
3. In a small pan, heat some cooking oil, pop mustard seeds, add the urad dhal, asafoetida and green chillies and fry until the urad dhal turns light golden brown in color and pour the mixture over the contents of step 2, add some salt, mix well once again and bam!!!! What you've got is one tasty salad!!!!

This is very common in most of the South Indian Brahmin style wedding menu and also special religious functions and one such wedding was my first encounter with this salad. Btw, you can use grated carrots or be innovative and try other veggies in the place of cucumber :-).

Kreativ Blogger Award

2009-08-09T15:29:00.008-04:00

First of all, I wholeheartedly thank Ann @ Happy and Healthy Cooking for passing on this wonderful award. I'm so proud to have found friends like her and am only inspired more now :-).

The award calls for 7 interesting things about me and here they are, although I leave the "interesting" part to the interpretation of the reader :-).

1. I am a great fan of music - North/South Indian classical, melodies, folk, hip-hop and at times heavy metal. I've a passion for Carnatic music. Having been trained in the same for nearly 13 years, am now giving classes for the first time.
2. I am a vegetarian for the most part (I eat eggs and only Indian dry chicken dishes), but have a COMPLETELY non-vegetarian boyfriend who seems to like almost all the dishes that I make. I consider that a plus :-).
3. I cook what I crave and I mean it. On one of those extremely cold winter days during my master's days, my friends and I were sitting in the dorm lounge watching a late night movie and all through the movie I kept telling them that I crave hot bajjis. Once the movie got over (around 1 or 2 AM), I did make bajjis and we all went to bed after eating hot bajjis. How's that for craving?
4. I dress up the way I want to and do not care much about what others think of it. It doesn't mean my dressing sense is way off the chart, but sometimes I don't care much about the normal trend among people and do something different, especially when it comes to bright colored clothes (I love 'em).
5. I am a perfectionist and a neatness freak which might get those who live with me into trouble ;-). My Mom had a hard time when she came to visit me last summer and one fine day she asked me not to bother too much at least until the time she was here. Among my sisters (I have two younger sisters), I'm well-known as the one who shouts when things are not in place.
6. I have a thing for German cars and simply love my Volkswagen Passat.
7. Aside my passion for Carnatic music, my hobbies include painting, origami, blogging and gardening.

And now, it is time to pass on this award along with the rules to 7 other friends (although I would have loved to pass it on to everyone) and here they are:

Sunitha
Tina Noble
Tadakala Rakesh
Sweta
Justin
Preety
Ramya Vijaykumar

Here are the rules:
1. You must thank the person who has given you the award.
2. Copy the logo and place it on your blog.
3. Link to the person who has nominated you for the award.
4. Name 7 things about yourself that people might find interesting.
5. Nominate 7 other Kreativ Bloggers.
6. Post links to the 7 blogs you nominate.
7. Leave a comment on which of the blogs to let them know they have been nominated.

Karuveppilai/Milagu Kuzhambu

2009-08-07T16:30:00.008-04:00

This is a very traditional style dish and is considered to be full of medicinal value because of the curry leaves (karuveppilai in Tamil) and whole black pepper (milagu in Tamil) that is used in this. A little bit of this kuzhambu mixed with rice and sesame oil every other day for a week or 10 days is supposed to be really good for pregnant moms and also those who have already delivered :-) (I know about it because I've seen my Mom/Grandma make this whenever a friend/neighbor is pregnant or had just delivered).

Ingredients:

Curry leaves - 2 cups (using a measuring cup)
Tamarind soaked in warm water - about the size of a small lemon
(If using paste, about 3/4 to 1 teaspoon of it)
Sesame oil - about 3 to 4 tablespoons (you can even use regular cooking oil)
Mustard seeds - 1 teaspoon
Turmeric powder - a pinch
Asafoetida - 1/4 teaspoon
Salt to taste

To dry fry one after the other and set aside:

Dried red chillies - 4 to 5 broken into half
Coriander seeds - 2 full tablespoon
Toor dhal - 1 tablespoon
Channa dhal - 1 tablespoon
Whole black pepper - 1 teaspoon (the pepper corns actually burst when you fry them... beware!!!!)

Procedure:

1. Extract the juice from the soaked tamarind to yield about a cup (using a measuring cup) of it or dilute the paste to get a cup (using a measuring cup) of tamarind water and pour it into the blender.
2. Add the curry leaves and the dry fried ingredients to the blender in step 1 and grind into a smooth paste (can be a little liquidy as well).
3. In a deep vessel, heat the sesame oil (or regular cooking oil), pop mustard seeds, add the turmeric powder and asafoetida and immediately pour the paste/liquid from step 2 and mix in well. You might want to keep the heat on low when you pour the liquid into the oil to avoid getting hurt and a lot of splatter.
4. Add some salt to step 4 and cook on medium heat with constant stirring until the raw smell of the ingredients subside and the greenish color of the paste/liquid turns sort of brownish. It takes about 20 minutes roughly to get to that stage. Turn off the stove once done and you can refrigerate it in an airtight container for about a fortnight.

Note:
You can even dry fry the raw curry leaves quickly for about 10 - 15 seconds on medium heat and then grind them along with the other ingredients in step 2.

Even if you run short of curry leaves, you can use less of the curry leaves and still make an awesome kuzhambu. Moar kuzhambu and karuveppilai kuzhambu are an awesome combo and so is karuvadaam and karuveppilai kuzhambu. Enjoy!!!!

Guththi Venkaaya Koora

2009-07-27T21:04:00.010-04:00

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

2009-07-23T16:28:00.004-04:00

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

2009-07-21T22:04:00.008-04:00

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

2009-07-21T21:43:00.012-04:00

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

2009-07-21T21:18:00.011-04:00

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!

2009-07-21T21:11:00.006-04:00

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

2009-07-14T06:00:00.006-04:00

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

2009-07-08T15:42:00.002-04:00

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????!!!!

My Entries To Show Me Your Breakfast @ Dil Se...

2009-06-30T17:13:00.005-04:00

I'm sending the following recipes to Divya's Show Me Your Breakfast.

1. Aval Usili
2. Eggless Savory Toast
3. Thayir Oats

Kovakkaai Fry

2009-06-29T19:07:00.013-04:00

Kovakkaai, also called Ivy Gourd in English, was an unknown vegetable to me until a few years back when I had it at a friend's place. My Mom never used kovakkaai in her cooking and I didn't know how great it tasted. As a matter of fact, I made kovakkaai fry when my Mom visited me last summer and now she is making it on a regular basis. How sweet is that????!!!!! Anyway, getting back to business, this fry was the simplest that I've ever made (except for the cutting part, which takes too long), with very little variety of spices that go into it. Because of the limited spices, the flavor and taste of kovakkaai is well preserved.

Ingredients (about 2 servings):

Kovakkaai - 1/2 a pound cut into thin slices
Cooking oil - 1 tablespoon
Red chilli powder - 1 teaspoon (vary this to suit your taste)
Salt to taste

Procedure:

1. Wash kovakkaai, cut into thin slices and set aside.
2. In a wide pan, heat some cooking oil, add the kovakkaai and fry for about 5 minutes or until it gets a little soft, on medium heat.
3. To step 2. add some red chilli powder and salt and keep frying until the kovakkaai cooks thoroughly and becomes crispy.
4. Turn off the stove and serve as as side with rice or rotis.

Tip:
Soaking the cut kovakkaai in salt water for 10 minutes before cooking speeds up the cooking process, or so says my Mom :-).

My Entries To AFAM - Bell Peppers

2009-06-29T17:33:00.004-04:00

Here are my entires to AFAM - Bell Peppers, hosted this month by Priya, originally started by Maheswari @ Beyond The Usual.

1. Capsicum Rice
2. Capsicum Chicken Masala

Capsicum Chicken Masala

2009-06-29T17:10:00.008-04:00

After being an eggitarian for almost 23 years, when I started eating chicken, I was very picky and ate only specific dishes which looked good (oh yeah, looking good was the first and foremost criteria) and were spicy. Even now, I like only a very few, Indian varieties of chicken, which obviously, are not available in any of the Indian restaurants that are around in my area. So, I started making my own chicken dishes by following online recipes and tinkering them to suit my taste buds. This dish though, is a recipe which my youngest sister emailed me a few months back and is supposedly from one of her colleagues who cooks great chicken. And, how does my little sister know this colleague of hers makes great chicken? Yes, she eats them too!!! (now, don't you go and tell my Mom about that... he he). I gave it a try and just loved it :-).

Ingredients (about 2 - 3 servings):

Chicken - about a pound cut into bite-sized pieces
Onions - 2 to 3 medium sized ones finely chopped
Tomatoes - 2 medium sized ones finely chopped
Capsicum - 1 big cut into chunks
Cooking oil - 2 tablespoons
Ginger garlic paste - 2 to 3 teaspoons
Red chilli powder - 3 to 4 teaspoons (vary this to suit your taste)
Coriander powder - 3 teaspoons
Cinnamon stick - 1/2 inch stick broken into small pieces
Cloves - 2 to 3
Pepper powder - a couple of pinches
Turmeric powder - a big pinch :-)
Salt to taste

Procedure:

1. Wash the chicken pieces with turmeric powder, drain thoroughly and set aside.
2. In a wide pan, heat some cooking oil, add pepper powder, cinnamon sticks, cloves when the oil gets hot and then add the chopped onions and fry until they turn golden brown in color.
3. To step 2, add the tomatoes and fry until the get cooked.
4. Add the ginger garlic paste to step 3, fry for a few seconds and then add the washed chicken from step 1 and fry for about 5 minutes on low flame.
5. Add the chilli powder, coriander powder and salt to the chicken, sprinkle some water, put on the lid and cook on medium flame until the chicken gets soft. You might have to be careful when adding the water as the chicken itself leaves some water when it is cooked.
6. Open the lid when the chicken gets soft and let the contents of the pan to turn to a gravy consistency. This takes about 10 - 15 minutes on medium flame.
7. Now, add the capsicum chunks just 5 - 10 minutes before turning off the stove. Serve with steamed hot rice or rotis.

Since we add the capsicum at the very end and don't cook it for a long time, it gives the dish a little sweetness and a crunch. I made this for my colleagues at work (of course, with a little less red chilli powder :-)) and they all seemed to like it. Hope you will like it too!!!

My Entries To Monthly Mingle: Ravishing Rice Recipes

2009-06-14T17:47:00.003-04:00

Here are my entries to Monthly Mingle: Ravishing Rice Recipes, started by Meeta @ What's For Lunch Honey? and guest hosted this month by Nags @ Edible Garden. The theme of this event allows entries with any form of rice (flattened, puffed, rice flour etc), which was nice I thought :-).

1. Sunitha's Tomato Rice
2. Capsicum Rice
3. Simple Lemon Rice
4. Varutha Upma

Fresh Corn With A Spicy Rub

2009-06-01T21:40:00.007-04:00

When I went to the grocery store last week, I noticed this terribly fresh looking corn that was so inviting and hence bought a couple of those even though I didn't have the slightest clue as to what I was going to do with them :-). Back home, I used to love fresh corn when it is cooked over the flame and has that slight charred flavor to it. After coming to the US, I tried to do the same over an electric burner only to find out that I cannot get the same effect as the flame. Moreover, I had never made any dish with just corn alone although I use frozen corn along with other veggies in many dishes. Anyway, after I bought them, they were sitting in my refrigerator for about a week and finally I decided to try something really quick with them and it turned out great. I even had a couple of friends who came over for lunch last weekend and served this as an appetizer :-).

Ingredients:

Fresh corn - 2
Lemon juice - 1 tablespoon
Red chilli powder - 1/2 teaspoon (vary this to suit your taste)
Salt - 1/2 teaspoon

Procedure:

1. Microwave corn in a container with little water for about 10 - 15 minutes (the time might vary based on the power level of the microwave). You can even do this over the stove. Set it aside for it to cool down a bit.
2. In a small cup, mix lemon juice, red chilli powder and salt thoroughly and rub the cooked corn from step 1 with the mixture and serve :-).

How simple is that????? It makes for a really quick and healthy snack.

Varuththa Upma

2009-05-31T19:54:00.002-04:00

Varuththa upma is one great tasting snack that I love. It is very easy to make, but requires considerable amount of oil because of which I don't make it quite often :-).

Ingredients (1 - 2 servings):

Rice flour - about 3 cups
Tamarind soaked in water - about the size of a small lemon
(If using paste, about 3/4 teapsoon of it)
Cooking oil - 2 tablespoons
Mustard seeds - 1 teaspoon
Channa dhal - 1 tablespoon
Asafoetida - 1/2 teaspoon
Dried red chillies - 3 to 4 broken into small pieces
Curry leaves - a few
Turmeric powder - a pinch
Salt to taste

Procedure:

1. Extract the essence from the soaked tamarind to yield about a 3/4 cup (using a measuring cup) of tamarind juice. If using paste, dilute it with 3/4 cup of water and set aside.
2. In a bowl, mix rice flour with the tamarind extract from step 1, asafoetida and salt such that it is not watery but pours down from a spoon. Set the mixture aside.
3. In a pan, heat some cooking oil, pop mustard seeds, add the channa dhal, curry leaves, turmeric powder and dried red chillies and fry until the channa dhal turns light golden brown in color.
4. To step 3, add the rice flour mixture from step 2 and keep stirring it. The water slowly evaporates and the contents slowly solidfy. From this point forward, it is going to be a test for your arm and shoulder muscles ;-). Yes, you have to continuously stir it on medium heat until the mixture completely solidifies and begins to break into small pieces and gets fried well in the oil. It takes about 20 minutes to get there after which you will be done.
5. Serve as is or with puli inji.

This snack would definitely be on the menu whenever Grandma visited us :-).

Peerkkangaai (Ridge Gourd) Thogayal

2009-05-18T20:20:00.007-04:00

Ridge gourd, called peerkkangaai in Tamil and beerakaaya in Telugu, can be used in different forms. I personally like the thogayal made with this vegetable rather than the paal koottu or sambar or anything else. It is very simple and easy to make. One cannot go wrong!!!! Also, peerkkangaai after it is left to dry on its vine can be used as a natural loofah :-).

Ingredients (about3 - 4 servings):

Ridge gourd - 2 medium sized, washed, peeled and cut into small cubes
Cooking oil - 2 teaspoons
Dried red chillies - 3 to 4 (vary this to suit your taste)
Tamarind - 1/2 inch stick if fresh/about 1/4 teaspoon if using paste
Urad dhal - about 1/4 cup (using a measuring cup)
Asafoetida - 1/4 teaspoon
Salt to taste

Procedure:

1. Heat about a teaspoon of oil in a pan, fry red chillies first followed by urad dhal, tamarind and asafoetida, until the urad dhal turns light golden brown in color and set aside to cool down.
2. In the same pan from step 1, add another teaspoon of oil and fry the cubed ridge gourd until it becomes tender (this doesn't take too long). The ridge gourd leaves a lot of water during this process and drastically reduces in size. Set this aside to cool.
3. Grind the contents from step 1 and 2 with very little or no water to a paste. Peerkkangaai thogayal is ready (seasoning with mustard is optional)!

Peerkkangaai thogayal and moar kuzhambu make a wonderful combo. Enjoy!!!

Simple Peanut Chutney

2009-05-17T20:18:00.015-04:00

I was way too hungry the moment I finished making idlis today and had initially thought I'd have them with yogurt or sugar, but then I changed my mind and started craving for some chutney to go with my idlis and owing to the extent to which I was hungry, didn't want to make anything complicated that would take some time to prepare. While I was thinking of a really quick chutney to make, I saw this unopened can of lightly salted, roasted peanuts lying in my shelf and instantly knew what I was going to make. Having roasted peanuts at home came in handy today :-).

Ingredients (about 2 - 3 servings):

Roasted peanuts - a cup (using a measuring cup)
Green chillies - 2 to 3 cut into pieces (vary this to suit your taste)
Tamarind - 1/4 inch piece if fresh/less than 1/4 teaspoon if using paste
Salt to taste

For seasoning:

Cooking oil - 1 teaspoon
Mustard seeds - 1/2 teaspoon
Urad dhal - 1/4 teaspoon
Asafoetida - a pinch
Dried red chilli - 1
Curry leaves - a few

Procedure:

1. Grind the roasted peanuts, green chillies and tamarind to a paste along with salt and set aside. 2. In a small pan, heat some cooking oil, pop mustard seeds, add asafoetida dried red chilli, curry leaves and urad dhal and fry until the urad dhal turns light golden brown in color. Now, transfer the contents to ground peanuts from step 1, mix and serve.

Tip:

I usually have some seasoning (mustard, asafoetida and urad dhal) handy. It saved me the extra few minutes today!!!

To contribute more to the flavor, you can add a couple of cloves of crushed garlic in the seasoning or while grinding. You can serve this chutney with idli, dosai, chappathi and upmas.

This goes to 15 minute cooking @ Spices etc... hosted by Mahimaa.

Veggie Au Gratin With A Twist

2009-05-03T18:36:00.019-04:00

Au gratin refers to the French style of broiling breadcrumbs and butter on top of a casserole dish of any type until they are brown and crispy. The most popular au gratin recipes use a white sauce in which the main ingredient is cooked prior to baking it in the oven and finishing it the au gratin way. When I visited my dear friend Sunitha, she made au gratin in a different way and it immediately caught my attention. Ever since, it has been a regular in my kitchen too. The highlight is, there is absolutely no necessity to stand by the stove once the cutting and assembling is done. So, here it is, veggie au gratin with a twist!

Ingredients:

Note:
The number of servings depends on the size of the casserole and there is no strict measurements used here. You can add more or less of what you like or don't like :-). Isn't it very flexible???

Veggies of your choice (potatoes are a must though)
(I like to use potatoes, eggplant, peppers, tomatoes and carrots)
Store bought marinara sauce
Sour cream
Grated mozarella cheese (you can use any variety that you like or a blend of 2 or 3 different kinds)
Pickled jalapenos (for that little extra heat)
Minced garlic
Black pepper powder
Salt
Butter to grease the casserole

Procedure:

1. Slice all the veggies and set aside. You can even chop the pickled jalapenos so that you get a piece on two in each bite.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
3. Grease a casserole with some butter. Place a layer of potatoes first, sprinkle some salt and pepper on top, add a thin layer of grated cheese and throw in some minced garlic and pickled jalapenos. Add another layer of any veggie (or a mix of veggies) of your choice, sprinkle some salt and pepper again and coat the top with some marinara sauce followed by sour cream (I tend to mix the sour cream and marinara sauce ahead of time so that it is easy to layer) and cheese. Now, you can repeat the layering again based on the depth of your casserole, but make sure you save a lot of cheese for the topmost layer. The cheese will melt and brown on the top giving it that crunch on the outside.
4. Throw the casserole into the preheated oven and bake for about 50 minutes to an hour with the last 3 -5 minutes on broil (oh yeah, this is for that nice crispy cheese layer on the top). Make sure you keep a check on it during the last 10 - 15 minutes.

I simply loved it the very first time I had it. Oh my, I can't wait to have it again!!! Try it and let me know if you liked it :-).

My Entires To 15 Minute Cooking @ Spices Etc..

2009-04-30T20:27:00.017-04:00

This is my first time sending recipes for an event and I'm so excited about this :-). Here is my list:

Aval Usili
Thayir Oats
Moar Rasam
Avasara Rasam
My Mom's Style Vegetarian Salad
Simple Lemon Rice
Coconut Thayir Pachhadi
Puli Inji
Thaengaai(Coconut) Podi/Thogayal

All the above listings go to 15 minute cooking @Spices etc... hosted by Mahimaa.

Thayir Oats

2009-04-30T20:08:00.002-04:00

Oats is full of fiber that helps remove the bad cholesterol. Also, recent studies have shown that it has a specific type of antioxidants that reduce the risk of cardiovascular diseases. On top of all this, any dish which has oats as its primary ingredient is normally easy to prepare. If you have "moar milagai" (sun dried green chillies that are soaked in buttermilk prior to drying them), it tastes out of the world with this dish, but again, it is not a requirement. Since I don't quite like oats with milk and sugar, I use thayir/dahi/plain yogurt instead.

Ingredients (1 serving):

Oats (not oatmeal) - a handful
Plain yogurt (also called thayir in Tamil) - 3 to 4 tablespoons
More milagai - 3 to 4 (can vary this based on your taste)
(You can use dried red chillies or green chillies as well)
Cooking oil - 1 teaspoon
Mustard seeds - 1/4 teaspoon
Asafoetida - a pinch
Cilantro (optional) - a few strands finely chopped
(I use cilantro only if I don't have moar milagai)
Salt to taste

Procedure:

1. Microwave oats with water (just enough to cover the oats) in a bowl for about 1.5 minutes (could be a little more or less based on the power level of your microwave).
2. In a small pan, heat some cooking oil, pop mustard seeds, add dried red chillies or green chillies and asafoetida after the mustard pops and transfer the contents to the oats bowl from step 1. If using "moar milagai", after the mustard pops you can simply add the asafoetida, transfer the contents to the oats bowl and fry the "more milagai" in the same pan until it turns dark brown in color. Now, crush the "moar milagai" by hand and add it to the oats bowl.
3. Add plain yogurt and salt to the oats bowl, mix the contents well and serve :-).

Note:
The same item can be prepared with aval/poha. If using aval, just soak 1/2 cup (using a measuring cup) of aval in hot water (enough to cover it) for about 5 - 7 minutes and follow steps 2 and 3 from the above procedure.

This serves as a quick, healthy and tasty breakfast for me on most of the working days :-). It may look a little mushy, but trust me, it tastes great!

Avasara Rasam

2009-04-29T22:54:00.013-04:00

I've been down with a bad cold for the past few days and my Mom suggested this really quick and soothing rasam that I called "avasara rasam", meaning, "a really quick rasam to make when you are rushed". It didn't take more then 15 minutes to make this rasam. It has garlic and black pepper powder in it which treat cold well.

Ingredients (about 2 servings):

Tamarind soaked in water - 1/4 inch ball
Tomato - 1/2 medium sized cut into small cubes
(If you are using tamarind paste, about 1/4 teaspoon of it)
Cooking oil - 1 tablespoon
Mustard seeds - 1 teaspoon
Cumin seeds - 1/4 teaspoon
Asafoetida - a pinch
Turmeric powder - a pinch
Garlic - 3 cloves crushed
Dried red chillies - 2
Black pepper powder - 1/2 teaspoon
Cilantro for garnish - a few strands
Salt to taste

Procedure:

1. Extract about 2 cups (using a measuring cup) of the juice of tamarind soaked in water or dilute the tamarind paste with about 2 cups of water and set aside.
2. Heat cooking oil in a small pan, pop some mustard seeds, add the cumin seeds, asafoetida, dried red chillies, turmeric powder, garlic cloves and tomatoes and fry until the tomatoes get cooked.
3. Add the tamarind water from step 1, salt and black pepper powder and bring the mixture to a boil. Turn off the stove once it starts boiling.
4. Garnish with cilantro and serve hot as a soup or with cooked rice.

I didn't have all the energy to stand beside the stove, but this was so easy, tasty and soothing as it could get.

Eggless Savory Toast

2009-04-16T22:49:00.002-04:00

The moment I saw this recipe on Mahimaa's blog, I immediately wanted to try it and I did try it the same day :-). I started making it for an evening snack, but ended up having it as my dinner instead. It was that yummy, and the combination with the ketchup was just amazing. Thanks Mahi!!!

Ingredients:

Bread slices - 6
Sooji/rava (semolina) - 1/2 cup (using a measuring cup)
Plain yogurt - 1/2 cup (using a measuring cup)
Onions - about 1/2 cup (using a measuring cup) finely chopped
Tomatoes - about 1/2 cup (using a measuring cup) finely chopped
Green chillies - 1 or 2 finely chopped (vary this to suit your taste)
Turmeric - a pinch
Cilantro - 2 teaspoons finely chopped
Red chilli powder - a couple of pinches (for that extra kick ;-))
Salt to taste

Procedure:

1. Mix all the above ingredients (except bread) in a bowl and set aside.
2. Coat the bread slices on each side with the mixture from step 1 and shallow fry on a pan with a couple of drops of oil on both sides. Like Mahi had mentioned in her blog, you might want to use your hand to get the mixture on both sides of the bread slice.
3. Serve with ketchup. As simple as that!!!!

I strongly recommend all my friends to try this out as it is very very easy to make and also tastes great. I'm often having it for breakfast and snack these days. It tastes like some kind of cutlet when had with ketchup :-) and it feels good to be able to eat something different with bread.

My Dad's Style Side Dish

2009-04-16T21:54:00.004-04:00

My Dad is an excellent cook, although he doesn't usually make the regular stuff that my Mom makes. He is always into trying something different and that too his own ideas, and, more often than not, it will turn out into a great dish. Since he doesn't follow any recipe, it would be difficult for him to reproduce something that we liked a lot. Every single time, the same dish will come out with a slightly different flavor than the previous time. His rasams were always a disaster though ;-). Or may be, it could be that we were used to my Mom's rasams and were unable to adapt to the flavor change in my Dad's. Nevertheless, although my Dad cooks only when he is in the mood to do so, he displays great culinary skills each time, given that he hasn't had anyone teach/tell him how to cook. So, I asked my Dad one day the recipe for his side dish that goes very well with idli, dosai and chappathi and he gave me a whole bunch of variations. Of course, I decided to try those one at a time and here is the first one.

Ingredients (about 2 - 3 servings):

Onions - 2 medium sized finely chopped
Tomatoes - 1.5 medium sized finely chopped
Cooking oil - about 2 tablespoons
Mustard seeds - 1 teaspoon
Urad dhal - 1 teaspoon
Channa dhal (optional) - 1 teaspoon
Fennel seeds - 1/2 to 3/4 teaspoon
Curry leaves - a few
Green chillies - 2 to 3 cut into small pieces
Turmeric powder - a pinch
Red chilli powder - 1 teaspoon
Besan (chick pea flour) (optional) - 1 teaspoon mixed with very little water
Salt to taste

For seasoning:

Cilanto - 3 to 4 strands finely chopped

Procedure:

1. Heat oil in a deep vessel and pop mustard seeds. Add fennel seeds, urad dhal, channa dhal, green chillies, curry leaves and turmeric after the mustard pops and wait for the dhals to turn light golden brown in color.
2. Add the chopped onions to step 1, fry until they turn golden brown in color and then add the tomatoes and fry some more until they get cooked/mashed.
3. To step 2, add red chilli powder and salt and about 1/4 cup (using a measuring cup) or less of water and bring the mixture to a boil. Boil for about 5 - 7 minutes and if you feel it is watery, you can add a teaspoon of besan diluted with little water, boil for 2 more minutes and then turn off the stove.
4. Garnish with chopped cilantro.

The fennel seeds are the key ingredient to this dish. This can also be had with curd rice (it may sound weird, but it tastes good :-)). You could even throw in some finely chopped veggies to make it more nutritious.

Puli Inji

2009-04-04T22:06:00.001-04:00

Inji is ginger in Tamil and puli is tamarind in Tamil. Puli inji is the easiest pickle that I know of as it does not take more than 10 minutes. My Grandma says that including the right amount of giner in the diet helps keep the skin young. There you go ladies. A damn good reason for you to try this :-).

Ingredients:

Ginger (Inji) - about two 3" x 1" sticks peeled and chopped into small pieces
Fresh tamarind - 1 inch piece soaked in little warm water to get the juice out
Salt to taste

For seasoning:

Cooking oil - 1 teaspoon
Mustard seeds - 1 teaspoon
Asafoetida - 1/4 teaspoon
Green chillies - 1 cut into small pieces

Procedure:

1. In a bowl, mix the soaked tamarind, the chopped ginger and salt by hand, breaking the tamarind in the process (the friction from the salt and ginger makes it easier).
2. In a small pan, heat some oil, pop some mustard seeds, add asafoetida and cut green chillies and transfer the contents to the ginger bowl from step 1. Mix everything well and the puli inji is ready.

This not only makes for a quick and instant pickle, but also serves as a great side for varuthha upma and moar kili (once again, those are whole new posts themselves :-)). Tastes great with curd rice as well.

Simple Lemon Rice

2009-04-04T21:43:00.003-04:00

In my opinion, this is the easiest of all the variety rice dishes. I make it my Mom's way, which is nothing complicated, but I just like it for its simplicity. I have had one other variety of lemon rice though, which had a coarse ground powder of dried red chillies, coriander seeds, channa dhal and a few other ingredients that I don't remember now. I would love to try it if someone can pass me the recipe for that :-).

Ingredients (about 2 servings):

Rice - 1 cup (using a measuring cup)
Cooking oil - 3 tablespoons
Turmeric - 1/8 teaspoon
Mustard seeds - 1 teaspoon
Channa dhal - 1.5 teaspoons
Green chillies - 2 to 3 cut into visible pieces
Asafoetida - 1/4 teaspoon
Curry leaves - a few
Lemon juice - about 4 to 5 tablespoons (you can adjust it to suit your taste)
Salt to taste

Procedure:

1. Cook rice such that it is NOT mushy (you can add a few drops of oil to the rice and just mix it lightly so that it doesn't stick and break) and set it aside in a wide vessel.
2. Add turmeric and curry leaves to the rice, just on one spot, but don't mix it. Not yet!!!
3. Heat oil in a small pan, pop mustard seeds and add the channa dhal, asafoetida and green chillies and fry until the channa dhal turns light golden brown in color. Now pour the hot contents of the pan right on the turmeric in the rice container.
4. Add lemon juice and salt to the rice and mix everything well.
5. Set aside the rice mixture for about 30 minutes and it is ready to serve.

Note:
My Mom doesn't add turmeric to the oil, but pours the hot oil with its contents on the turmeric, for whatever reason, and I blindly follow that :-).

Whenever I long for variety rice dishes for lunch, this is the first thing that comes to my mind. Goes very well with any fry type sides, chips or raita.

My Mom's Style Potato Fry

2009-03-22T22:04:00.003-04:00

This was the very first item that I learned as a novice cook and my most favorite side dish (actually, I have it as a snack ;-)). It is also the ONLY item that my sister knows to make (she will probably kill me for letting out her little secret). There are 2 different variations here based on how you feel about cutting potatoes ;-).

Ingredients (about 2 - 3 servings):

Potatoes (I use yukon gold) - 4 to 5 medium sized ones cut into small, thin pieces (just like the picture :-))
Cooking oil - 2 tablespoons
Coconut oil (a must) - 2 to 3 teaspoons
Mustard seeds - 1 teaspoon
Urad dhal - 1 to 1.5 teaspoons
Asafoetida - 1/4 teaspoon
Red chilli powder - 1 to 2 teaspoons (vary this to suit your taste)
Salt to taste

Procedure:

1. Heat some cooking oil in a pan, pop mustard seeds, add the urad dhal and asafoetida and fry until the urad dhal turns light golden brown in color.
2. To the above step, add the finely cut potatoes and mix the contents well. Keep frying for a about 5 minutes on medium heat.
3. Add red chilli powder and salt and fry more until the potatoes get cooked and turn a little crunchy and turn off the stove.
4. Add the coconut oil (this is all that does the magic) now and mix everything well once again. That is it!!!!

Note:
1. You can add sambar powder instead of red chilli powder to give it a slightly different flavor, but don't forget the coconut oil at the very end :-).
2. If you don't want to do any cutting work, you can boil and mash the potatoes and follow the above procedure. I normally make the mashed version if I'm traveling and want to take chappathis with me. I simply roll the chappathi with the curry inside and it neatly fits into a ziploc :-). The picture below depicts the mashed version.

Both varieties make for a good snack as well as a side dish and taste extrodinary with curd rice.

Moar Rasam

2009-03-15T20:50:00.007-04:00

Buttermilk, which is called "more" (yes, it is pronounced like the English word "more") in Tamil, in very good to keep your body cool when it gets overheated. This rasam, which is made from moar, is the easiest of all rasams. I use ajwain in this for seasoning, which is a very uncommon spice that is found only in certain parts of Asia. Ajwain is also used as a home medication to treat digestive disorders, nausea, motion sickness and the like.

Ingredients (about 3 - 4 servings):

Plain yogurt - 1.5 to 2 cups (using a measuring cup)
Cooking oil - 2 teaspoons
Mustard seeds - 1/2 teaspoon
Asafoetida - 1 pinch
Ajwain seeds - 1 full teaspoon
Cilantro - a few strands broken by hand
Salt to taste

Procedure:

1. Take plain yogurt in a deep vessel, add about 3 to 4 cups (using a measuring cup) of water to it and churn it thoroughly into moar (buttermilk) so that it is free of lumps.
2. In a small pan, heat about a teaspoon of oil, pop some mustard seeds, add asafoetida to the oil and set aside.
3. In the same pan, heat another spoon of oil, add the ajwain seeds and set them aside.
4. Heat the buttermilk from step 1 on medium heat, until it gets warm (or a little more than warm, roughly about 5 minutes) and turn off the stove. DO NOT BOIL LEST IT WILL CURDLE.
5. Add the seasonings from step 1 and 2 to the buttermilk, some salt, a few strands of cilantro and your moar rasam is all done.

Tip:
To make it more easier, I heat some water in a kettle and use the hot water to make buttermilk so that I don't have to use the stove and don't have to worry about the container in which I'm making this. Just add the seasonings and salt and you are all set :-). It is that simple!!!

Whenever you feel like having some hot rasam on a cold/sick day, try this and see how easy, healthy and appetizing it is. You can drink it as such or mix with with some cooked rice.

Awards - A First Time Affair :-)

2009-03-15T20:49:00.000-04:00

Sanghi at http://sanghi-tastybites.blogspot.com was very kind to shower these awards on me. This is the first time that I'm receiving awards like this since I started my blog and am truly excited. Thank you very much Sanghi dear :-).

I take this opportunity to thank Mahimaa, an undergrad friend of mine, who introduced me in her blog. Thanks a lot Mahi :-).

Idli Upma

2009-03-11T21:47:00.010-04:00

During my primary school days, a colleague of my Dad used to pick me and his son from school on days when my Dad had to take evening classes at his college. I used to wait at that Uncle's place until my Mom came back from work and took me home. Almost always on such days, she would make idli upma or semiya (vermicelli) upma, as those were my favorites. This dish brings back fond memories of those days :-).

When you have some left over (or fresh) idlis and if you are bored of having them with chutney or sambar, you can turn them into this amazing upma. It is quick, easy and tasty.

Ingredients (1 serving):

Idlis (so called Indian rice cakes) - 4 to 5 just broken into small pieces by hand
Onions - 2 medium sized ones chopped finely
Cooking oil - 1 tablespoon
Mustard seeds - 1 teaspoon
Urad dhal - 1/2 teaspoon
Channa dhal - 2 teaspoons
Asafoetida - 1/4 teaspoon
Dried red chillies - about 3 of them (vary this to suit your spice level)
Curry leaves (optional) - a few
Salt to taste

Procedure:

1. In a pan, heat some cooking oil, add mustard seeds and wait for them to splutter. After the mustard splutters, add the urad dhal, channa dhal, asafoetida, red chillies and curry leaves and fry until the dhals turn light golden brown in color.
2. To the seasoning in step 1, add the finely chopped onions and fry until they turn golden brown in color.
3. To step 3, add the broken idlis, some salt, mix everything well, fry for 5 minutes and turn off the stove.

Note:
1. If you sprinkle a little water while breaking the idlis, it will be a lot easier and it won't stick to your hand much.
2. Beware while adding salt as the idlis already have some salt in them.

This makes for a quick and tasty breakfast/snack. Enjoy!!!!

Veppampoo (Neem Flower) Rasam

2009-03-10T22:20:00.029-04:00

Vembu is Neem in Tamil. Veppampoo is the flower of the neem tree. Every part of the neem tree is considered to be of medicinal value, let alone the flower. There are several anecdotes which say chewing a neem leaf every day cures diabetes. Back home, I've also seen people suffering from diabetes swallow the freshly ground paste of neem leaves. As much as it is full of medicinal value, every part of the neem tree is equally bitter. You can smell the bitterness I would say :-). I think that is the reason why there is a practice of using sundried veppampoo in cooking. This rasam does not taste bitter and has a unique flavor and taste, which even my roommate liked the very first time and now we make this rasam quite often. Also, a dish called veppampoo pachchadi, made from FRESH veppampoo, is always in the menu for Tamil New Year to signify and accept life's bitter side. Below is a picture of dry veppampoo for your reference.

Ingredients (about 3 - 4 servings):

Tamarind soaked in water - about the size of a small lemon
(If using tamarind paste, about 3/4 teaspoon of it)
Asafoetida - 1/2 teaspoon
Salt to taste

For seasoning:

I use two separate set of seasonings for this rasam, one that I add while the rasam is under its way and the other one at the very end.

1st set:

Cooking oil - 1 teaspoon
Mustard seeds - 1 teaspoon
Green chillies - 2 to 3 cut into small pieces

2nd set:

Cooking oil - 2 teaspoons
Veppampoo (sun dried) - 2 to 3 tablespoons
Cilantro - a few strands broken by hand

Procedure:

1. Extract about 3 cups (using a measuring cup) of the juice of tamarind water in a deep vessel or dilute the tamarind paste with 3 cups of water and set aside.
2. In a small pan, heat 1 teaspoon of cooking oil, add mustard seeds and wait for them to splutter. Add the green chillies after the mustard splutters and set aside.
3. In the same pan used in step 2, heat about 2 teaspoons of cooking oil and fry the veppam poo until it turns dark golden brown (but not burnt) in color and set aside.
4. Add asafoetida, salt and the seasoning from step 2 to the tamarind water from step 1 and boil it on medium heat for 10 -15 minutes, until the raw smell of tamarind goes away and turn off the stove.
5. Mix the fried veppampoo from step 3 with the rasam and garnish with cilantro.

Tip:
If your stomach is upset for some reason, you can simply fry a couple of tablespoons of sundried veppampoo in about a teaspoon of cooking oil, mix it with cooked rice along with little salt and have it for a couple of days. You will notice the difference for yourself :-).

Like I said before, this rasam has a very unique flavor to it and goes well with rice. I won't say that everyone will equally like it the very first time they try this rasam, but it is definitely worth a shot :-).

White Kurma

2009-03-06T12:18:00.026-05:00

I was going to make chappathis for dinner on Saturday and that got me into thinking about a different side dish to go with them. I was reminded of the white colored kurma (I call it white kurma just to differentiate it from the regular kurma :-)) that is usually served with aappam in most of the restaurants in Tamil Nadu. I used to like it with chappathis a lot more than with aappam. So, I googled for "hotel kurma" and got a lot of hits, of which I was tempted to follow this as I had a hunch that it would come out well (oh yeah, I get these visions at times ;-)). I used the same ingredients from that link, but changed the proportions to suit my taste. The end result was exactly what I had in mind and was simply superb :-).

Ingredients (about 3 - 4 servings):

Veggies of your choice - about 3 cups (using a measuring cup) cut into uniform size for them to cook evenly
(I used carrots, peas, potatoes, chayote squash (called chow chow), corn, lima beans and green beans)
Green chillies - 3 to 4 slit into half
Onion - 1 small finely chopped
Cooking oil - 2 tablespoons
Cumin seeds - 1/2 teaspoon
Fennel seeds - 1/2 teaspoon
Bay leaves - a few
Ginger garlic paste - 1 teaspoon
Plain yogurt - 2 tablespoons
Coriander powder - 1/2 teaspoon
Milk - 1/4 cup (using a measuring cup)
Chick pea flour (besan) (optional) - 1/2 teaspoon mixed with little water
Cilantro - 2 teaspoons finely chopped

To grind into a paste:

Grated/powdered coconut - 3 to 4 tablespoons
Cashews (raw or roasted... doesn't matter) - 2 to 3
Green chillies - 3 to 4
Poppy seeds - 1 teaspoon
Cinnamon - 1/4 inch stick
Cloves - 3
Cardamom - 1

Procedure:

1. Grind grated/powdered coconut, cashews, green chillies, poppy seeds, cinnamon stick, cloves and cardamom to a fine paste. Mix the paste with plain yogurt thoroughly so that there are no lumps in the yogurt and set aside.
2. Boil the veggies separately such that they become soft (but NOT too soft and mashed) and set aside.
3. In a vessel, heat some cooking oil, add bay leaves, cumin seeds, fennel seeds, sliced green chillies and chopped onions and fry until the onions turn light golden brown in color.
4. To the onions in step 3, add the ginger garlic paste and fry for 2 to 3 minutes.
5. Add the softened veggies to step 4 and mix everything well. Add the paste from step 1, coriander powder, some salt and bring it to a boil.
6. Once it starts boiling, you can add the milk to it and boil for about 7 minutes on medium heat. If you feel that the kurma is too thick, you can add some water to get it to the right consistency. If otherwise, you can add the chick pea flour mixed in water to thicken it.
7. Garnish with chopped cilantro and enjoy the white kurma.

Note:
Absolutely NO turmeric or chilli powder in this. The spiciness of this recipe is derived ONLY from the green chillies. Adding red chilli powder or turmeric will not yield the so called "white kurma" ;-).

The tanginess from the yogurt, the sweetness from the coconut and the spiciness from the green chillies gives it a good blend of flavor. This goes very well with aappam, paratha, idiappam and chappathi. Well, I just made it to go with chappathi and it tasted great! How about you try the rest and let me know your opinion, huh???? ;-)

Milagu (Black Pepper) Rasam

2009-03-06T08:42:00.001-05:00

Milagu rasam is a standard at our house when any of us fall sick. And, I can only say that it is soothing and at the same time tastes great even when you don't have an appetite. It was the very first item that I learned when I started cooking (in my 3rd year of undergraduate studies) and the only and only rasam that I knew to make until I came to the US.

Ingredients (about 2 - 3 servings):

Tamarind soaked in water - about the size of a 1/2 inch ball
(If using tamarind paste, 1/2 teaspoon of it)
Tomato - 1 medium sized cut into big chunks or finely chopped or just squished by hand
Asafoetida - 1/4 teaspoon
Salt to taste

To dry grind into a coarse powder:

Dried red chillies - 2
Whole black pepper - 2 teaspoons
Cumin seeds - 1 to 1.5 teaspoons
Coriander seeds - 1 teaspoon
Toor dhal - 1 tablespoon

For seasoning:

Cooking oil - 1 teaspoon
Mustard seeds - 1 teaspoon
Curry leaves (optional) - a few
Cilantro - a few strands broken by hand

Procedure:

1. Make a coarse powder of red chillies, whole black pepper, cumin seeds, coriander seeds and toor dhal and set aside.
2. In a deep vessel, extract about 2 cups (using a measuring cup) of the juice of fresh tamarind or dilute the tamarind paste with 2 cups of water, add asafoetida and salt to the mixture and bring it to a boil. When it starts boiling, add the tomato pieces and boil more until the tomatoes cook and the raw smell of tamarind goes away. This takes about 10 - 15 minutes on medium heat.
3. To the mixture from step 2, add the spice powder from step 1, 1 more cup of water and continue heating the contents until you see a frothy layer on the top and turn off the stove when you do.
4. In a pan, heat some cooking oil, add mustard seeds and wait for them to splutter. Immediately after they splutter, transfer the contents to the rasam from step 3.
5. Garnish with curry leaves and cilantro.

It is really comforting if you drink hot milagu rasam when you have a sore throat or cold. You can also have it with rice and ghee (clarified butter), as always :-).

Thaengaai (Coconut) Podi

2009-03-04T21:40:00.004-05:00

Podi, in general, is a spicy powder which can be used as follows:
1.) for seasoning
2.) to mix with rice
3.) as a spicy side to go with idli, dosai, adai and the like

There are different podis for each of the above mentioned categories. Any type of podi that can be mixed with rice is comfort food, according to me. If you stocked up on your podis, you need not worry about cooking on a day when you feel lazy or tired or just don't feel like cooking. You can have rice and podi with some chips or yogurt. It is that simple and easy. I had planned to make thaengaai thogayal (thogayal is a spicy paste that can be had with rice) last weekend but ended up making thaengaai podi instead.

Ingredients (2 - 3 servings when mixed with cooked rice):

Cooking oil - a couple of drops
Grated/powdered coconut - 2 cups (using a measuring cup)
Dried red chillies - 4 to 5 (vary this to suit your taste)
Urad dhal - 1/2 cup (using a measuring cup)
Asafoetida - 1/2 teaspoon
Tamarind - a very small piece
(I don't use tamarind paste in thogayals and podis)
Salt to taste

Procedure:

1. In a small pan, fry the coconut and urad dhal separately in a couple of drops of cooking oil, with constant stirring, until they turn light golden brown in color and set aside. In the same pan, fry red chillies and tamarind separately and cool them.
Note: You need not FRY tamarind. You can sort of heat the tamarind at the very end for a few seconds (just to sort of soften it) when the pan is still hot.
2. Grind the above mixture along with salt and asafoetida to a coarse powder and you have the thaengaai podi.

Note:
The procedure for thaengaai thogayal is the almost the same as above except that you don't have to fry the coconut and you have to grind everything to a coarse paste by adding little water to it. You can store the podi version for a longer time than the thogayal version. I store all the podis in the freezer and they stay fresh for about 6 months.

Like I said before, you can have this with rice and ghee (clarified butter) or a few drops of sesame oil, and it also goes well idli and dosai. I like this with plain curd rice as well :-).

Potato Podimaas

2009-03-03T18:14:00.009-05:00

Potato podimaas is the easiest potato curry that I know to make. The flavor of this curry comes from just the seasoning alone. No special masalas needed for this! I simply love to have it as a snack than as a side dish :-).

Ingredients (about 4 - 5 servings):

Potatoes - 4 to 5 small ones boiled, peeled and broken by hand
Ginger - 3/4 inch cut into small pieces
Green chillies - 3 to 4 cut into small pieces (vary this to suit your taste)
Cooking oil - 2 teaspoons
Mustard seeds - 1 teaspoon
Urad dhal - 1.5 teaspoons
Channa dhal - 1 teaspoon
Asafoetida - 1/4 teaspoon
Grated/powdered coconut (optional but tastes great if used) - 1 to 2 teaspoons
Curry leaves (optional) - a few
Juice from 1/2 a lime/lemon
Salt to taste

Procedure:

1. In a pan, heat some cooking oil, add mustard seeds and wait for them to splutter. After the mustard splutters, add the urad dhal, channa dhal, asafoetida, curry leaves, ginger and green chillies and fry until the the dhals turn light golden brown in color.
2. To step 1, add the broken potatoes and salt, mix the contents thoroughly, fry on medium heat for about 2 to 3 minutes and turn off the stove.
3. Mix in grated/powdered coconut while the curry is still hot and after it cools down a bit, add the juice from 1/2 a lime/lemon. Isn't it easy????

I use yukon gold potatoes (or yellow potatoes) in my cooking as the skin of that variety is very thin, it cooks easily and has a slight sweetness in it. You can try the same dish with steamed plantains as well.

I don't know of a specific main dish that would go well with this curry, but any type of sambar, rasam would do. Give it a shot and see if you like it :-).

Capsicum Rice

2009-03-02T21:27:00.018-05:00

I love peppers of different colors and try to use them at any given opportunity :-). I was searching for capsicum rice recipe one day and found a whole bunch of them. I combined the spices from a couple of them to suit my taste and it came out very well.

Ingredients (about 2 servings):

Basmati rice - 1 cup (using a measuring cup)
Capsicum (Peppers) - 3 small ones cut into thin slices
Onion - 1 small or 1/2 medium thinly sliced
Cooking oil - 2 tablespoons
Cumin seeds - 1.5 teaspoons
Cilantro - 3 teaspoons finely chopped
Salt to taste

To dry fry and grind into a fine powder:

Dried red chillies - 3 small (vary this to suit your taste)
Urad dhal - 3 teaspoons
Cinnamon - 1/2 inch stick
Cloves - 2 to 3
Cardamom - 1
Whole black pepper - 2 teaspoons (vary this to use your taste)
Roasted unsalted peanuts (optional) - 1 tablespoon

Procedure:

1. Cook 1 cup of basmati rice and set aside.
2. Dry fry dried red chillies, urad dhal, cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, whole black pepper and peanuts (if it is roasted, you need not fry them) SEPARATELY, grind them into a smooth powder and set aside.
3. In a wide pan, heat some cooking oil, add cumin seeds and onions and fry until the onions turn light golden brown in color.
4. Add the sliced peppers to the cooked onions in step 3, some salt and cook until the peppers turn soft (but not too soft).
5. To step 4, add the powder from step 2, mix the ingredients well, fry on medium heat for about 3 minutes and switch to low heat thereafter.
6. Add the cooked basmati rice to the pan, mix the contents thoroughly and turn off the stove. Garnish with chopped cilantro. Enjoy the capsicum rice!!!

Tip:
If you make more of the masala powder, you can save it for other curries as well.

For a slight variation in flavor, you can add finely chopped garlic to step 2 before adding the onions. For more flavor, you can also add a couple of teaspoons of ghee (clarified butter) to the rice.

The colored peppers enhance the color of the dish, add a little sweetness to it and also taste great :-). Serve this rice with your favorite raita or chips.

Cauliflower (Black)Pepper Fry

2009-02-28T13:07:00.005-05:00

I tried this recipe for the first time today and it came out very well. Actually, I was talking to one of my undergrad friends, Hamsika, about two weeks back and she told me about this dish. Since I had not heard of such a simple dish with cauliflower before, I got curious and took the recipe from her to try it out. I would encourage people who like cauliflower to try this and see if you like it.

Ingredients (about 2 - 3 servings):

Cauliflower - 1 small cut into small florets
Butter (if you are not a calorie freak) - 1 tablespoon (or more if you like it buttery)
(You can use the same amount of cooking oil as well)
Cumin seeds - 2 teaspoons
Black pepper powder - 3 teaspoons (vary this to suit your taste)
Salt to taste

Procedure:

1. Cook the cauliflower florets with water and some salt in a vessel until they get a LITTLE soft. You should be able to break them with a spoon, like, it should be tender but not mashed. This should roughly take about 7 - 10 minutes on the stove top on medium heat. Drain the water and set the half cooked florets aside.
2. In a pan, heat some butter (or cooking oil), add cumin seeds and the florets from step 1. Mix the contents well and fry for a minute or so.
3. To step 2, add some black pepper powder and salt, fry until the cauliflower turns light golden brown in color and turn off the stove. This should roughly take about 10 minutes on medium heat. There you go!

You can use freshly ground black pepper instead of the powdered version. I tried this as a side for rice and it was yum. Haven't tried this with chappathis yet, but I have a feeling that it will be good :-). Thanks to Hamsi!!!!

Aval Usili

2009-02-27T10:52:00.017-05:00

Aval, called poha in Hindi and flattened rice in English, is very easy to cook and aval usili is even more easier to make. If you like aval and if you have it at home, then you can make this dish in 5 minutes. No great masalas are used here, but the flavor is great (and so is the taste :-)).

Ingredients (2 servings):

Aval (thick) - 2 cups (using a measuring cup)
Black pepper powder - 1.5 teaspoons
Cumin powder - 1.5 teaspoons
Cooking oil - 1 tablespoon
Mustard seeds - 1 teaspoon
Urad dhal - 1 teaspoon
Asafoetida - 1/4 teaspoon
Dried red chilli - 1 cut into half
Curry leaves - a few
Salt to taste

Procedure:

1. In a bowl, wash and soak the aval with just enough HOT water to cover it and set it aside for about 5 - 7 minutes, after which the aval would have become soft (but not mashed... if you add more water while soaking, it gets mashed).
2. Take a small pan, heat some cooking oil, add mustard seeds and wait for them to splutter. After the mustard splutters, add asafoetida, urad dhal, dried red chilli and curry leaves and fry until the urad dhal turns light golden brown in color.
3. To the contents of the pan, add the softened aval, black pepper powder, cumin powder and salt, mix everything well and turn off the stove after 2 minutes. Aval usili is ready in 5 minutes.

Note:
1. If you have whole black pepper and cumin seeds, you can make a freshly ground powder out of it and use that in the usili. Anything fresh is always better, ain't it????
2. I use thick aval as opposed to thin aval as the latter gets mashed very easily.

This makes for a really quick snack (like I said before, only if you have aval at hand ;-)). Often, I make this for breakfast because, by the time I get up, soak the aval and get ready to go to work, it would have become soft and I can make the usili in 5 minutes and have a tasty, hot breakfast :-). I like it with plain yogurt, but it is good as is.

Cabbage Fry With Onions

2009-02-26T21:05:00.016-05:00

For a long time, my Mom used to make cabbage curry with coconut, which was mostly sweet and went well as a side dish with rice. Although that style of cooking cabbage tasted good, it was sort of boring. That was the only method that she knew to make a dry cabbage curry and it was always either that or the cabbage koottu. One fine day, she amazed us with this really yummy cabbage fry with onions, which she had learned from a colleague at work. She didn't ask us like she normally does, if we would like to try a new dish with cabbage since she knew we would be reluctant to try any dish with cabbage ;-). Whenever I cook cabbage, my first option would be the fry with onions and only very rarely do I make the other varieties.

Ingredients (about 2 - 3 servings):

Cabbage (any variety) - 1 small cut very finely (it should look like it has been grated into thin pieces)
Onion - 1 small or medium sized sliced into thin pieces
Green chillies - 2 slit into half (vary this to suit your taste)
Cooking oil - 2 tablespoons
Mustard seeds - 1 teaspoon
Asafoetida - 1/4 teaspoon
Urad dhal - 1 teaspoon
Curry leaves - a few
Red chilli powder - 1 full teaspoon (vary this to suit your taste)
Salt to taste

Procedure:

1. In a wide pan, heat some cooking oil, add mustard seeds and wait for them to splutter. After they splutter, add urad dhal, asafoetida, slit green chillies and curry leaves and fry until the urad dhal turns light golden brown in color.
2. Immediately after step 1, add onions and fry until they turn golden brown in color.
3. To step 2, add the cut cabbage, mix everything well, put a lid on and cook the contents on low heat until the cabbage get cooked half way through.
4. When the cabbage is half cooked, take the lid off, add red chilli powder and salt and keep frying the contents until the cabbage cooks well. This roughly takes about 15 minutes and the cabbage will turn light golden brown during the process. Turn off the stove and you have the yummy cabbage fry!

This goes very well with chappathis/rotis. The sweetness of the cabbage and onions together with the spiciness of the green chillies and red chilli powder gives it a great taste. I love it with plain curd rice as well.

Jeera Rasam

2009-02-19T16:07:00.009-05:00

Another rasam variety made with jeera (cumin seeds). Nothing can beat my grandmother's jeera rasam. Even my Mom's doesn't taste as good. Every time I visit my grandparents, jeera rasam will definitely be on the menu, sort of my grandmom's specialty. I miss her and her rasam!!!! :-( Anyhow, here is the recipe.

Ingredients (about 2 - 3 servings):

Tamarind soaked in water - about the size of a 1/2 inch ball
(If using tamarind paste, about 3/4 teaspoon of it)
Sambar powder - 2 full teaspoons
Asafoetida - 1/4 teaspoon
Salt to taste

To grind to a coarse paste (not very coarse but not fine either):

Toor dhal - 2 tablespoons
Cumin seeds - 1 tablespoon

For seasoning:

Cooking oil - 2 teaspoons
Mustard seeds - 1 teaspoon
Curry leaves (a must) - a few

Procedure:

1. Soak toor dhal and cumin seeds in little warm water (enough to cover them) for about 15 minutes, grind to a coarse paste and set aside.
2. In a deep vessel, extract about 2 cups (using a measuring cup) of the juice of soaked tamarind or dilute the tamarind paste with 2 cups of water.
3. Add sambar powder, asafoetida and salt to the contents from step 2 and bring the mixture to a boil. Boil for about 15 minutes on medium heat or until the raw smell of sambar powder and tamarind goes off.
4. Now add the paste from step 1 to step 3, 1.5 cups of water, mix everything well and heat the contents until you see a froth like layer forming on the top. That is the indication that you should turn off the stove. Boiling anything with jeera in it will add a slight bitterness to the dish, or so says my Mom.
5. In a pan, heat some cooking oil, add mustard seeds and wait for them to splutter. Transfer the contents of the pan to the rasam in step 4 immediately after the mustard splutters.
6. Garnish with curry leaves. Flavorful jeera rasam is ready!!!!

Jeera rasam and paruppu usili go hand in hand. Whenever there is jeera rasam in the menu in our family, we can be sure that paruppu usili is also in the menu :-).

Gottu Rasam

2009-02-17T12:33:00.026-05:00

The title may sound funny to some (or many) of you (in fact, my boyfriend calls it "goat rasam" ;-)) but this is supposed to be a ready-to-make rasam, as most of the time, people in India seem to have all the ingredients handy for this. Hot rasam and rice on a cold, rainy day (or night) is certainly comforting.

Ingredients (about 2 - 3 servings):

Tamarind soaked in water - about the size of a 1/2 inch ball
(If using tamarind paste, about 1/2 teaspoon of it)
Tomato - 1 medium sized cut into big chunks or just crush it by hand
(You can also chop the tomato if you would like it in every mouthful)
Toor dhal - 2 tablespoons
Asafoetida - 1/4 teaspoon
Sambar powder (or rasam powder) - 1.5 teaspoons
Black pepper powder - 1/2 teaspoon (you can add a bit more if you would like the pepper flavor to dominate)
Cumin powder - 1/2 teaspoon
Jaggery (optional, but I strongly recommend it :-)) - 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon
(You can use sugar if you don't have jaggery)
Salt to taste

For seasoning:

Cooking oil ( or ghee) - 2 teaspoons
Mustard seeds - 1 teaspoon
Cumin seeds - 1/2 teaspoon
Cilantro - 3 teaspoons finely chopped
Curry leaves - a few

Procedure:

1. In a deep vessel, extract about 2 cups (using a measuring cup) of the juice of soaked tamarind or dilute the tamarind paste with 2 cups of water.
2. Add raw toor dhal, asafoetida, sambar powder, little salt and tomatoes to step 1 and boil the mixture until the raw smell of tamarind and sambar powder go away and the tomatoes get cooked. This roughly takes about 15 - 20 minutes on medium heat.
3. After step 2, add pepper powder, cumin powder and jaggery and about 1 cup of water to the mixture, heat for about 5 more minutes and turn off the stove. My Mom says that boiling the rasam after adding pepper and jeera will introduce slight bitterness in it. We don't want that, do we??? So, we turn it off before it starts boiling.
4. In a pan, heat some cooking oil or ghee (clarified butter), add mustard seeds and wait for them to splutter. After the mustard splutters, add jeera, mix everything well and pour the contents into the rasam from step 3.
5. Garnish with chopped cilantro and fresh curry leaves.

For a slight variation in flavor, you can throw a couple of crushed garlic cloves in step 2 or even add the garlic in step 4, after the mustard has spluttered.

This tastes somewhat similar to the rasams that they serve at Brahmin weddings back home. The jaggery introduces a very light sweetness in the rasam, which tastes great. Cooked, nicely mashed rice mixed with ghee (clarified butter) and this rasam taste yum!!!! :-)

Lemon Rasam

2009-02-17T12:29:00.015-05:00

Rasam comes under the category of comfort food according to me. It is something that is light and can be made in a jiffy. Most Indians (or at least South Indians) think that rasam is something that people eat when someone is down with cold/fever and that it doesn't have any nutritional value, since most varieties of rasam are made with tamarind extract. But, rasam can me made with dhal, which is rich in protein. Lemon rasam does not have any tamarind and it does contain dhal. So, there you go.

Ingredients (about 2 - 3 servings):

Fresh lime/lemon - 1 big one
Toor dhal - 1/4 cup (using a measuring cup)
Turmeric powder - 1/4 teaspoon
Asafoetida - 1/4 teaspoon
Tomato - 1 small one cut into cubes or you just squeeze it with hand
(You can even chop the tomato if you would like it in every mouthful :-))

To grind with water:

Green chillies - 2 to 3 small ones (depending on how spicy you would like it)
Salt - about a teaspoon

For seasoning:

Cooking oil - 2 teaspoons
Mustard seeds - 1 teaspoon
Cilantro - 2 teaspoons finely chopped

Procedure:

1. Pressure cook toor dhal with turmeric powder, mash the cooked dhal and set aside. I take dhal and water in the ratio 1:3 and cook for 3 whistles.
2. Grind green chillies with salt and set aside.
3. In a vessel, add the ground green chillies, about 2 cups of water, asafoetida and tomatoes and bring it to a boil. Boil on medium heat until the raw chilli smell goes away and the tomatoes have cooked. This takes about 15 minutes.
4. To the mixture from step 3, add the mashed dhal from step 1, about 1 cup of water and bring it to a boil. Boil for 5 more minutes and turn off the stove.
5. In a small pan, heat some cooking oil, add mustard seeds and wait for them to splutter. After the mustard splutters, transfer the contents of the pan to the mixture from step 4.
6. Garnish with chopped cilantro. Squeeze the juice of a fresh lime/lemon and lemon rasam is done! You can add more salt at the end if needed and also more lime/lemon juice if you want it to be tangy.

Note:
1. My Mom says grinding green chillies with salt will grind them properly and that is true, because I once tried to grind them alone and they wouldn't grind well.
2. Please avoid reheating in the microwave as the rasam tends to get bitter because of the lemon juice in it. I usually keep it out about 30 - 45 minutes before eating. Mixing it with hot rice also works. Heat transfer baby!!!!

You can also add about 1/2 teaspoon of sambar powder in step 3 along with the other ingredients. If you do so, please be sure to reduce the green chillies to 1 as sambar powder itself is spicy. That gives it a slightly different flavor :-). This rasam goes very well with rice and ghee (clarified butter). It can also be had like soup.

Mahi's Dum Aloo

2009-02-17T00:06:00.010-05:00

I first tried dum aloo after Mahimaa (my undergrad friend) posted the recipe on her blog. I've tried quite a few of her dishes and they were great. Dum aloo was no exception. Today was the second time I tried it and it came out very well once again. I will jot down the recipe from Mahi's blog for my own reference, but for a prettier version, please click here to see Mahi's entry (she is an excellent photographer as well).

Ingredients (about 2 servings):

Potatoes - 3 medium sized ones
Cooking oil - 2 tablespoons
Turmeric powder - 1/4 teaspoon
Red chilli powder - 1 teaspoon (vary this to suit your taste)
Coriander powder - 1.5 teaspoons
Garam masala powder - 1/2 teaspoon
Kasuri methi (optional) - 1 teaspoon crushed
(Kasuri methi is dried fenugreek leaves)
Cilantro - 2 teaspoons finely chopped
Plain yogurt - 1 teaspoon
Lemon juice (optional) - 1 teaspoon
Salt to taste

To grind to a paste without adding water:

Onion - 1/2 of a medium sized one
Ginger - about an inch
Garlic - about 2 big cloves
Green chilli - 1 or 2

To grind separately to a paste without adding water:

Tomatoes - 2 small

Procedure:

1. Boil, peel and cut potatoes into bite-sized pieces and set aside.
2. Grind onion, ginger, garlic and green chilli to a fine paste without adding water and set aside.
3. Grind tomatoes to a fine paste and set aside.
4. In a pan, heat some cooking oil and add the paste from step 2. Fry the paste for about 5 minutes and then add the paste from step 3. Mix the contents well.
5. To step 4, add turmeric powder, red chilli powder, coriander powder, garam masala powder and salt, mix everything well once again, simmer and cook until the raw smell of the onions and tomatoes vanish. This takes about 25 - 30 minutes.
6. To the contents in step 5, add the potatoes, yogurt, kasuri methi, chopped cilantro and lemon juice, cook for 5 more minutes and turn off the stove.

Dum aloo goes very well with any kind of roti. I tried it with rice as well and it was pretty good I would say. The first time around when I made this dish, I didn't have any kasuri methi at hand and hence didn't know to what extent it would enhance the flavor, but believe me, when I added kasuri methi the second time, it was simply out of the world :-).

Seppankizhangu (Colacasia) Fry

2009-02-16T13:12:00.028-05:00

Seppankizhangu, called Colacasia scientifically (I remember the scientific name of it from my VIII standard botany class when we used to collect samples for tubers :-) Also, the way my botany teacher used to say Colacasia would sound really funny since she had a strong Telugu accent), is very tasty when fried. I don't know the Hindi or the common name for this, but I think it is also called taro root (not sure though). Here is a link to its image (Google is great!). It was a long lost dish for me until last summer when my Mom identified seppankizhangu in a local, Asian grocery store. I had been to that store many many times since I came to New Hamsphire but didn't have the faintest idea that that store carried seppankizhangu. So, now that my Mom found seppankizhangu, my happiness knew no bounds. It had been nearly 5 years since I had eaten my Mom's seppankizhangu fry. Ever since, this dish has entered my very own cuisine :-).

Ingredients (about 2 - 3 servings):

Seppankizhangu - 4 - 5 medium sized ones
Coconut oil (a must) - about 1/2 teaspoon
Cooking oil - 2 tablespoons
Mustard seeds - 1 teaspoon
Asafoetida - 1/4 teaspoon
Red chilli powder - 1.5 teaspoons (vary to suit your taste, but you have to be sure to add enough to balance the tamarind)
Tamarind soaked in very little water - about the size of a 1/2 inch ball
(If using tamarind paste, about 1/2 teaspoon of it)
Salt to taste

Procedure:

1. Pressure cook seppankizhangu (I normally cook for 3 whistles), peel, cut into small pieces and set aside.
2. Extract a very thick essence of the soaked tamarind and set aside. You need not worry about this step if using tamarind paste. Sometimes, seppankizhangu has a tendency to cause an itchy sensation on your tongue. Adding tamarind takes that off completely and you can enjoy your fry.
3. In a pan, heat some cooking oil, add mustard seeds and wait for them to splutter. After the mustard splutters, immediately add the asafoetida, cut seppankizhangu, tamarind extract or paste, red chilli powder and salt and mix everything well. Fry for about 15 minutes on medium heat until the seppankizhangu turns crispy. Turn off the stove.
4. Add the coconut oil, mix everything well once again and you are ready to eat!!!!

Recently, I figured that seppankizhangu fry goes well with chappathis, but once again, curd rice and seppankizhangu fry are an unbeatable combo (Btw, I know the picture doesn't look like this is a fry type side, but with the seppankizhangu that I get near my place, I HAVE to pressure cook them for a long time and they get mashed. Anyway, the taste is all that matters, at least to me ;-)). Try it and you will also love it :-).

Paagarkkaai (Bitter Gourd) Fry

2009-02-13T21:33:00.013-05:00

Paagarkkaai a.k.a karella a.k.a bitter gourd, is very good for health. Most people don't like it because, like its English name says, it IS bitter. My Mom makes paagarkkaai in such a way that the bitterness doesn't show. She deep fries paagarkkaai and also makes something called "pitlai" with it, which is somewhat similar to sambar (but paagarkkaai pitlai is a whole new post by itself). It is very easy to make paagarkkaai fry and here is the recipe :-).

Ingredients (about 2 - 3 servings):

Paagarkkaai - 4 medium sized ones cut into small pieces
(You can take the seeds out if they are too hard. Tender paagarkkaai seeds can be retained though)
Tamarind soaked in very little water - about the size of a small lemon
(If using tamarind paste, about 1/2 teaspoon of it)
Red chilli powder - 2 teaspoons (vary this to suit your taste, but be sure to add enough to balance the tamarind)
Asafoetida - 1/4 teaspoon
Cooking oil - 2 tablespoons
Mustard seeds - 1 teaspoon
Salt to taste

Procedure:

1. Take a bowl, add the cut paagarkkaai, asafoetida, red chilli powder, salt, the thick extract of the tamarind soaked in water (Yes, this time, the tamarind extract from the soaked tamarind should be very thick) or the tamarind paste, mix everything well and marinate the paagarkkaai in the mixture for about 30 minutes. You can finish the rest of the cooking during this time ;-). Marinating the mixture in tamarind extract/paste and salt is to take the bitterness from the paagarkkaai.
2. Heat some oil in a pan, add mustard seeds and wait for them to splutter. After the mustard splutters, add the marinated paagarkkaai and cook on low heat for about 10 minutes. You can throw the lid on during this time.
3. After the paagarkkaai has softened, deep fry it on medium heat and turn off the stove. It rougly takes about 20 more minutes.

I simply love this paagarkkaai fry with curd rice. That is an unbeatable combo :-).

Annapoorna Sambar

2009-02-12T14:47:00.014-05:00

Disclaimer: Annapoorna sambar powder, which is available only in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, is a MUST for this sambar.

There were this really cute couple, Sridevi and Thangavelu, who were from Coimbatore and who lived in my apartment complex. One day, I happened to stop by their house and they offered me some medhu vadas and sambar to go with it. The vadas were awesome and the sambar was just out of the world. I had tasted such sambar only in the hotels of Tamil Nadu. I got really curious to know how Sridevi made that sambar and guess what, the secret ingredient to making that sambar is Annapoorna sambar powder. Since they were from Coimbatore, they had a lot of that sambar powder at home and Sridevi was kind enough to offer a small pack of it for me to try, along with the recipe :-). Now, many of you might think what this hype about "Annapoorna" is and here I am to offer an explanation for the same. Annapoorna restaurant is one of the high-class, vegetarian restaurants that was first started in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu. The food there was heavenly and soon the restaurant became a popular chain in Coimbatore, popular to such an extent that on one of our family visits to Coimbatore, my Dad insisted that we eat at Annapoorna. We didn't know about the specialty of that place until that day. So, this sambar that Sridevi made tasted exactly like the sambar that they serve at Annapoorna. After I got that small pack of sambar powder from Sridevi, I was eager to know if it was available in the Indian grocery stores in the US so that I can get more after I had used it all and hence did my own research only to find that they don't have any distributors in Chennai, let alone the US. Since I went on and on about this sambar powder when I talked to my Mom, she had one of her friends from Coimbatore mail her about 1 lb of it and sent it to me :-). And, when my Mom visited me last summer, I made that sambar for her and she took back a sample of that sambar powder with her to India since it is not available in Chennai, where my parents live. Ain't that funny???????????? Anyway, getting back to business, it may not make much sense to listen to me blabber about that sambar but you will definitely understand what I'm talking about once you taste it.

Ingredients (about 2 - 3 servings):

Annapoorna sambar powder - 3 full teaspoons
Tamarind soaked in water - about the size of a 1/2 inch ball
(If using tamarind paste, about 1/4 teaspoon of it)
Toor dhal - 1/4 cup (using a measuring cup)
Turmeric powder - 1/4 teaspoon
Onion - 1 big finely chopped
Tomato - 1 medium sized finely chopped
Cooking oil - about 2 tablespoons
Mustard seeds - 1 teaspoon
Urad dhal - 1 teaspoon
Asafoetida - 1/4 teaspoon
Green chillies - 2 cut into pieces
Dried red chilli - 1 cut into half
Curry leaves - a few
Cilantro (a must) - 3 teaspoons finely chopped

Procedure:

1. Pressure cook toor dhal with turmeric powder and set aside. I normally take dhal and water in the ratio 1:3.
2. Extract about 1.5 cups of tamarind water from the soaked tamarind or dilute the tamarind paste to yield the same amount of water and set aside.
3. In a small, deep vessel, heat some cooking oil, add mustard seeds and wait for the to splutter. After the mustard splutters, add urad dhal, asafoetida, green chillies, dried red chillies and curry leaves and fry until the urad dhal turns light golden brown in color.
4. To step 3, add the onions and fry till they turn golden brown and then add the chopped tomatoes and wait for them to cook well.
5. After the tomatoes get cooked, add the tamarind water, cooked toor dhal and salt and bring the mixture to a boil. Once it starts boiling, add Annapoorna sambar powder and boil for about 10 minutes and turn off the stove.
6. Garnish with chopped cilantro. Yummy Annapoorna sambar is ready to dig in!!!!

It tastes like heaven with Idlis, Dosas, Vadas, Bondas, Upmas and any such tiffin items. I even like it with rice and ghee (clarified butter). Thanks a ton to Sridevi!!!!!

Kaara Kuzhambu

2009-02-12T12:30:00.017-05:00

I simply love the kaara kuzhambu that is served in most of the restaurants in the state of Tamil Nadu. It just takes you out of the world. My Mom never likes it much and hence did not take the effort to learn it (fair enough I think :-)). A few months back, I was craving for kaara kuzhambu and went online to look for recipes. I came across a ton of them and did not know which one would yield the taste I was looking for. So, I asked one of my undergrad friends, Mahimaa, an amazing cook, if she has a specific recipe that she can pass along (coming from Chennai herself, I knew Mahi would understand if I tell her what taste I'm expecting in my kaara kuzhambu). She did send me a link and after carefully thinking about the ingredients involved in that recipe, I decided to give it a shot. Thanks to Mahi for steering me in the right direction, for it turned out very well and carried the exact taste and flavor that I had in my mind :-). Below is the procedure from the link that Mahi had forwarded.

Ingredients (about 3 - 4 servings):

Tamarind soaked in water - about the size of a small lemon
(If using tamarind paste, about 3/4 teaspoon)
Onions - 2 medium sized finely chopped
Tomatoes - 1.5 medium sized finely chopped
Cooking oil - 4 to 5 tablespoons
Mustard seeds - 1 teaspoon
Garlic - 4 to 5 cloves peeled and crushed
Fenugreek seeds or powder - 1 teaspoon
Asafoetida - 1/4 teaspoon
Curry leaves - a few
Turmeric powder - 1/4 teaspoon
Red chilli powder - 2 to 3 teaspoons (vary this to suit your taste)
Coriander powder - about 3 teaspoons

To grind to a fine paste:

Poppy seeds (kasakasa) - 1.5 teaspoons
Grated/dry coconut - 3 to 4 tablespoons
Cashews - 4 to 5
(Note: Adding cashews while grinding gives the kuzhambu a rich, creamy texture but if you choose not to use cashews, you can use about 2 teaspoons of rice flour)

Procedure:

1. Grind poppy seeds, coconut and cashews to a fine paste and set aside.
2. Extract about 3 cups of tamarind water from the soaked tamarind or dilute the paste to yield about 3 cups of water and set aside.
3. Take a deep vessel, heat some cooking oil, add mustard seeds and wait for them to splutter. After the mustard splutters, add the fenugreek seeds (or powder), asafoetida, crushed garlic, turmeric powder, curry leaves and chopped onions and fry until the onions turn golden brown in color.
4. To the onions in step 3, add chopped tomatoes and fry until they get cooked.
5. To the mixture in step 4, add red chilli powder, coriander powder and salt, fry for about a minute, then add tamarind water and bring the mixture to a boil. Boil for about 10 - 15 minutes. If you want to add raw vegetables to the kaara kuzhambu, you can add it now. If adding something half cooked, add it after 10 - 15 minutes.
6. Finally, add the ground paste from step 1, boil for 5 - 10 more minutes and turn off the stove. Mouth-watering kaara kuzhambu is done!!!!

I've made kaara kuzhambu with okra, potatoes, blackeyed peas and boiled eggs so far and have liked them all. It goes very well with rice and potato chips or papad :-). Yum!!!!!

Potato Fry With Onions - My Maami's Style

2009-02-11T23:04:00.009-05:00

Who would not like potatoes??? Potato is one vegetable that people of all ages like. And, almost all the time, any dish with potatoes tastes good and also comes out well the very first time it is made. During my childhood days, our family used to go to Rukku Maami's (my Maami's name is Rukmani) place for lunch parties and the highlight of the lunch would be her potato fry with onions. I just love it. Even when my Mom tries to make it my Maami's way, we used to feel that it doesn't taste as good ;-).

Ingredients (about 3 servings):

Potatoes - 3 to 4 medium sized ones
Onion - 1 medium sized or 1/2 big one thinly sliced
Green chillies - 2 slit
Curry leaves - a few
Cooking oil - 2 table spoons
Coconut oil - 1.5 teaspoons
Mustard seeds - 1 teaspoon
Urad dhal - 1 teaspoon
Red chilli powder - 1 teaspoon (vary this to suit your taste)
Asafoetida - 1/4 teaspoon
Salt to taste

Procedure:

1. Boil, peel and cut potatoes into small cubes and set aside.
2. In a pan, heat some cooking coil, add mustard seeds and wait for them to splutter. After the mustard seeds splutter, add urad dhal, green chillies, curry leaves and asafoetida and fry until the urad dhal turns light golden brown in color.
3. To step 2, add the onions and fry until they turn light golden brown in color. To the fried onions, add some red chilli powder and salt and fry for 2 more minutes.
4. Add the boiled potato cubes to the onions and shallow fry the mixture from step 3 on medium heat. This takes about 5 - 10 minutes.
5. Just about 30 seconds before turning off the stove, add the coconut oil and mix everything well. Coconut oil gives it all the flavor and it is my Maami's potato only then.

I personally feel that potato fry of any kind goes very well with any rice variety and also roti variety. It is one universal dish that can pair up with anything ;-).

Vendhaya Keerai Pappu

2009-02-10T00:00:00.010-05:00

Vendhaya keerai a.k.a fresh methi a.k.a tender fenugreek stem with leaves, is very good for health, or so says my Mom ;-). She says it is a very good cooling agent and helps reduce body heat. My sisters and I never liked any dish where vendhaya keerai was the primary ingredient as we thought it would taste bitter, just like the fenugreek seeds. Although vendhaya keerai is slightly bitter, believe it or not, vendhaya keerai pappu does not even have a tinge of bitterness in it. Ever since I tasted this pappu, I have liked it and lately, have been making it at least once a month.

Ingredients (about 4 servings):

Vendhaya keerai - 2 small bunches cleaned and finely chopped
Tamarind soaked in water - about the size of a small lemon
(If using tamaring paste, about 1 teaspoon of it)
Toor dhal - 1/2 cup (using a measuring cup)
Sambar powder - 2 full teaspoons
Cooking oil - 3 teaspoons
Mustard seeds - 1 teaspoon
Urad dhal - 1 teaspoon
Asafoetida - 1/4 teaspoon
Green chillies - 2 slit
Dried red chilli - 1 split into half
Turmeric powder - 1/4 teaspoon
Salt to taste

Procedure:

1. Pressure cook toor dhal with 1.5 cups (using a measuring cup) of water and turmeric and set aside.
2. Extract about 2 cups of the juice of soaked tamarind or dilute the tamarind paste to yeild about 2 cups of juice and set aside.
3. In a deep vessel, heat some cooking oil, add mustard seeds and wait for them to splutter. After they splutter, add urad dhal, asafoetida, slit green chillies and dried red chilli and fry until the urad dhal turns light golden brown in color.
4. Add the finely chopped vendhaya keerai after step 2 and fry for about 10 minutes on medium heat with CONSTANT strirring.
5. To the mixture in step 4, add the tamarind water, sambar powder and salt and bring it to a boil. Boil for about 10 more minutes on medium heat.
6. Add the pressure cooked toor dhal from step 1 to the boiling mixture from step 5 and boil for 5 more minutes with constant stirring lest the dhal may settle down and stick to the container.
7. Garnish with curry leaves. Vendhaya keerai pappu is ready to be served with hot rice and ghee :-).

The number of green chillies and dried red chillies that go into this dish can be varied to suit your taste.

After coming to the US, vendhaya keerai pappu has become a rarity, as the keerai itslef is available only in the Indian grocery stores. Hence, I sow fenugreek seeds in a small pot inside my apartment and harvest the tender stem with leaves after about 4 weeks :-).

Egg Puli Kuzhambu

2009-02-05T19:45:00.018-05:00

In my opinion, this is a very tasty dish which is spicy, tangy and full of flavor. I first had this dish when my boyfriend's sister made it on one of her visits to see her beloved brother :-), back in our school days. It was simply amazing but extremely spicy. I was surprised that she could handle that much spice in her food :-). I have been making this dish since then.

Ingredients (about 3 - 4 servings):

Boiled, peeled eggs - 6
Onions - 1.5 finely chopped
Tomatos - 2 medium sized finely chopped
Tamarind soaked in water - about the size of a small lime
(If using tamarind paste, 1 full teaspoon)
Red chilli powder - 2 to 3 teaspoons (vary this to suit your taste)
Coriander powder - 6 teaspoons
Cooking oil - 4 to 5 tablespoons
Mustard seeds - 1 teaspoon
Salt to taste

Procedure:

1. Boil, peel and make light slits on the eggs and set them aside.
2. Extract about 2 cups of tamarind water from the soaked tamarind or dilute the paste with 2 cups of water and set aside.
3. In a deep vessel, heat cooking oil, add mustard seeds and wait for them to splutter. After the mustard splutters, add onions and fry until they turn golden brown in color. Then add tomatoes and fry until they get cooked nicely.
4. To the mixture in step 2, add red chilli powder, coriander powder, tamarind water and salt. Mix the contents well and bring them to a boil. The coriander powder acts as a thickening agent here and hence the 6 teaspoons of it :-).
5. After boiling the contents from step 4 for about 15 minutes on medium flame/heat, add the boiled eggs, put a lid on and boil for another 5 minutes.
6. Egg puli kuzhambu is all done.

I think, Nisha, my boyfriend's sister, used a small can of diced tomatoes with jalapenos when she made this dish (but with okra though) as we did not have tomatoes handy that day. May be, the jalapenos from the can added more heat, but it was way too tasty.

For a variation, this dish can also be made with cut okra (for the given proportions, about 1 pack of frozen cut okra would do), in which case, the okra needs to be added during step 4, after the contents start boiling. You can put the lid on while it boils so that the okra gets cooked. This goes very well with rice :-).

"My" Style Channa

2009-02-02T20:50:00.014-05:00

Oh yeah, that's right. It is Anu's style channa time now :-). May be, this is how a lot of people make channa, but I first made it without the help of any recipe. I was basically longing for a South Indian style channa gravy when I was in school and since I was new to cooking then, couldn't explain to the more experienced ones (ahem ahem) as to exactly what I was looking for in that dish. Hence, yours truly decided to make channa her own way and just threw in the spices that she felt would give her the flavor that she was craving for. I still make South Indian style channa this way just because I don't know any other method. So, here I go...

Ingredients (about 4 - 5 servings):

Cooking oil - 4 to 5 tablespoons
Cooked chick peas - 4 cups (using a measuring cup)
(You can use canned chick peas if you don't have raw chick peas)
Onions - 1.5 medium sized finely chopped
Tomatoes - 2 medium sized finely chopped
Green chillies - 3 to 4 cut into small pieces
Mustard seeds - 1 teaspoon
Urad dhal - 2 teaspoons
Asafoetida - 1/4 teaspoon
Red chilli powder - 1.5 teaspoons (vary this to suit your taste)
Channa masala - 3 to 4 full teaspoons
Garam masala (optional) - 1/4 teaspoon
Besan (chick pea flour) - 1 teaspoon
Curry leaves - a few
Cilantro - 4 teaspoons finely chopped
Salt to taste

Procedure:

1. Soak raw chick peas overnight if you want to make this dish the next day.
2. Pressure cook the soaked chick peas with just enough water for it to cook, drain excess water and set aside.
3. In a deep vessel, heat some cooking oil and add mustard seeds. After the mustard seeds splutter, add urad dhal, asafoetida, green chillies and curry leaves and fry until the urad dhal turns light golden brown in color.
4. After step 3, add onions and fry till they turn golden brown in color. Then add the tomatoes and fry until they get cooked.
5. Once the tomatoes get cooked, add some salt, red chilli powder, garam masala, channa masala and the cooked chick peas. Mix the spices well and add little water (not too much though) to bring it to a gravy consistency.
6. Bring the mixture from step 5 to a boil and let it boil for 5 minutes. Then add the chick pea flour mixed with water (just enough to wet the flour) to the mixture, boil for 3 more minutes and turn off the stove.
7. Garnish with chopped cilantro. Anu's style channa is ready to be paired with rice or chappathi :-).

It may not be the best channa dish in the world, but it is a very special dish to me at least. I have made it so many times when I was in school that I even got bored of it at one point and adopted my Mom's style of making channa, but that is another post by itself ;-).

Smita's Punjabi Style Dhal

2009-02-01T21:29:00.011-05:00

Smita, one of my many dear and trust-worthy friends, makes amazing Punjabi style dhal. A few months back, I had gotten really bored of the sambar and dhal that I usually make that I wanted to make some different kind of dhal (You see, being a vegetarian, I didn't want to compromise on the protein content in my diet :-). Ain't I a good girl????). That is when I remembered the dhal that Smita makes and asked her to email me the recipe. It came out very well and I'm making it on a regular cycle these days. Here is the recipe for the same. Thanks a lot Smits :-).

Ingredients (about 3 - 4 servings):

Whole moong dhal (with skin) - 1/2 cup (using a measuring cup)
Whole urad dhal (with skin) - 1/2 cup (using a measuring cup)
Channa dhal (split) - 0.3 cups (using a measuring cup)
Pepper powder - 3/4 teaspoon
Red chilli powder - 1 teaspoon (can add more later, if needed)
Coriander powder - 1.5 teaspoons
Turmeric powder - 1/4 teaspoon
Garam masala powder - 3/4 teaspoon
Cumin powder (optional) - 1/4 teaspoon
Salt to taste

To fry in about 6-7 teaspoons of oil:

Cooking oil - 6 to 7 teaspoons
Onion - 1 medium sized finely chopped
Tomatoes - 1.5 medium sized finely chopped
Green chillies - 2 to 3 finely chopped
Ginger - 1 inch finely choppped
Garlic - about the same quantity or more as ginger and finely chopped
Whole cumin seeds - 1/2 teaspoon
Asafoetida - 1/4 teaspoon
Curry leaves - a few
Cilanto - 4 to 5 teaspoons finely chopped

Procedure:

1. Pressure cook the 3 dhals (I generally use dhal and water in the ratio 1:3) and spice powders and set aside.
2. In a pan, heat some oil and add cumin seeds and asafoetida. After about 30 seconds, add chopped green chillies, ginger and garlic and fry for some time. Then, add the onions and fry until they turn golden brown in color.
3. To the onions in step 2, add chopped tomatoes and salt and fry until the tomatoes cook. In this step, you can add more red chilli powder if you feel the heat is not enough ;-).
4. Add the mixture from step 3 to the pressure cooked dhals, bring it to a boil and turn off the stove thereafter.
5. Garnish with curry leaves and chopped cilantro. Tasty Punjabi style dhal is ready to dig in :-).

To give it a South Indian touch, you can add about 1 teaspoon of mustard seeds and 1 teaspoon of urad dhal in the oil and then fry the other ingredients.

Smita said she liked whole dhals in this recipe to split dhals because whole dhals do not get mashed easily when pressure cooked. Having made this dhal so many times since I took the recipe, I totally agree with her. It does look, feel and taste good when the dhals are not mashed. Using a mixture of dhals makes this very nutritious. You can try this with different kinds of dhals as well. Enjoy it with rice and ghee or even chappathi!!!!

Coconut Thayir Pachhadi

2009-01-30T15:17:00.012-05:00

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

2009-01-29T19:15:00.024-05:00

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

2009-01-28T19:05:00.029-05:00

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

2009-01-28T09:27:00.025-05:00

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

2009-01-27T15:41:00.025-05:00

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.