Cucumber Kosumalli or Kosambari

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 :-).

Coconut Thayir Pachhadi

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

Ingredients (2 - 3 servings):

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

To grind to a paste:

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

For seasoning:

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

Procedure:

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

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

My Mom's Style Vegetarian Salad

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

Ingredients (about 2 servings):

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

For seasoning:

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

Procedure:

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

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

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