Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Curry leaves raita

I found this recipe on this blog. It has never occurred to me that one can use ground curry leaves in raita, especially considering that I love the curry leaf flavor. So, trying out the recipe was a no brainer. The raita is delicious.

Here is my slightly modified take on the original recipe:

Curry leaves raita
Curry leaves raita

Ingredients (enough for two):
3 sprigs tender curry leaves (the mature ones could taste a little bitter)
A small piece of ginger
6 pepper corns
A few pinches asafoetida
A small piece green chili (only for flavor)
1 tbsp grated coconut
1 cup curd, beaten smooth
Salt

For tempering:
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 tsp urad dal
1 broken red chili
5 curry leaves
Oil


Method:
1. Wash the curry leaves.
2. Grind the curry leaves with ginger, pepper, asafoetida, chili and coconut to a smooth paste. Add just enough water to help with the grinding.
3. Mix the above paste with the beaten curd. Add salt to taste. The mixture can be refrigerated at this point if you plan on serving later.
4. Just before serving, add oil to another small pan and place on medium heat. Add the broken red chili and the urad dal. When the urad dal changes color, add mustard seeds. When the mustard pops, add the asafoetida and the curry leaves in quick succession.
5. Add the entire tempering mixture to the curd mixture and mix well.

Serve hot with rotis and a side dish or with pulao

Notes:
1. Do not add so much green chili to the raita that it becomes spicy. Raita usually helps in taking the heat off the other dishes and you probably don't want to be in the position of having to make another raita to take the heat off this one!

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Chettinad chicken pepper kuzhambu

Recipes from Solai's blog has been featured several times in this blog before and for a tasty reason. I visited her blog after a gap and was pleasantly surprised to find a whole bunch of new recipes on it.

But one particular recipe caught my eye: http://solaiachiskitchen.blogspot.in/2012/05/chettinad-milagu-kozhi-kuzhambu.html

Because, any recipe with the words "chicken" and "pepper" in them makes me want to run to the kitchen and cook the dish asap. Besides, this recipe sounded very promising.

I made it and it was delicious. Both S and I could even slurp the kuzhambu without any accompaniment.

I did not make any change at all to the recipe. Follow it as is for a wonderful pepper chicken dish.

Chettinad chicken pepper kuzhambu


Friday, May 18, 2012

Potato tomato peas curry

This recipe has it's base in the recipe in the Bedmi ki aloo subzi recipe here. I wanted to add some more vegetables, so made some modifications. The end result was a spicy tangy delicious curry.

Potato tomato peas curry

Potato tomato peas curry

Ingredients (enough for 2-3):
1 medium. 2 small potatoes
2 medium tomatoes, finely chopped
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
3/4 cup frozen peas (if fresh peas are used, boil for 5 minutes in microwave before adding)
1 tsp ginger, grated
1/2 tsp turmeric
1 heaped tsp coriander powder
1 tsp red chili powder
1 tsp kashmiri red chili powder
1 tsp aamchur (dry mango powder)
3 pinches of jeera powder
1/2 tsp garam masala powder
Salt to taste
2 tbsp fresh, chopped, coriander leaves
Water

For seasoning
1/2 tsp jeera
5 whole methi seeds
A pinch hing
2 tsp sesame oil  (or any oil)

Method:
1. Boil the potatoes and peel. Mash potatoes with fingers and set aside.
2. Heat oil in a pan. Add the jeera. When it sizzles, add the hing, methi seeds and the grated ginger. Stir fry for 10 seconds.
3. Add in the sliced onions and a little salt and fry till the onions change color.
4. Add in the chopped tomatoes and the turmeric and coriander powder. Cover and cook for a few minutes till the tomatoes turn mushy.
5. Add in the chili powders and stir till mixed well with the onions and tomatoes.
6. Add in the rest of the spice powders (aamchur, jeera powder, garam masala powder) and mix well.
7. Add in the mashed potatoes and 3-4 cups of water. As the original recipe says, the consistency should be soupy.
8. Now add in the frozen peas and mix well. Bring the entire mixture to a boil. Then, cover the pan, lower the heat to medium and cook for 15 minutes or till the mixture has reached a semi-gravy consistency. Adjust for salt.
9. Mix in most of the coriander leaves and garnish with the rest.

Serve hot with rotis and raita on the side. Delicious.

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Idli/dosa sambhar

This is my favorite home-made idli sambhar recipe. This recipe is heavily adapted from Dad's sambhar recipe (dad makes the most amazing idli sambhar, even outshining mom) and for all its simplicity tastes awesome with idlis. Of course, you can have it with dosas too but how do you soak up mouths full of sambhar with every bite then?

Idli/Dosa sambhar

Idlis dunked in sambhar


Ingredients (makes enough for 3-4, depending on how much of dunkers your eaters are)
1/3 cup tur dal
1/4 tsp turmeric
2 medium tomatoes, roughly squeezed into pieces with hands (yes, it somehow *is* tastier this way. I usually wash the dal, add water and then squeeze the tomatoes into this water)
1 medium onion, sliced
1 medium potato, peeled, cut into cubes
1 medium carrot, peeled, cut into cubes
1 heaped tsp red chili powder
3 heaped tsp coriander powder
1 tbsp fresh, chopped, coriander leaves
Oil
Water
Salt

For tempering:
1 generous tsp ghee
1 tsp oil, preferably sesame oil
1 broken red chili
1 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 tsp jeera seeds
A pinch hing
1 sprig curry leaves

Method:
1. Pressure cook the dal along with water, the squeezed tomatoes, turmeric and a few drops of oil for 10 minutes after the first whistle sounds. Mash well with a dal-masher/back of a flat spoon and set aside.
2. Add a little quantity of oil to a pan and add in the sliced onions. Fry them.
3. When the onions change color, add in 3 cups of water and bring to a boil. Lower flame, cover and cook for 5 minutes. This onion water forms the base for the sambhar.
4. Add in the coriander powder and the cut potato and carrot pieces. Bring to a boil, lower flame, cover and cook for 10 minutes.
5. Add in the chili powder. The veggies should be almost done at this point. Else, cover and cook for a few more minutes.
6. Add in the mashed dal. Bring to a boil, cover and then simmer for about 10-15 minutes. Add salt
7. To temper, add the ghee, sesame oil and broken red chili to a small pan. Add in the jeera and wait for it to crackle a bit, then add in the mustard. When it splutters, add in the hing and the curry leaves in quick succession. Add the entire mixture to the bubbling sambhar.
8. Top the sambhar with coriander leaves, cover the pan and turn off heat.

Let rest for at least 10 minutes before serving with hot idlis and/or dosas.

Notes:
1. Other veggies like ladies finger/brinjal/beans etc can be added. In case of "sticky" vegetables fry it along with the onions before adding water.
2. More water can be added after adding in the dal to bring the sambhar to the consistency you like. I like my sambhar medium thick.
3. Adjust red chili powder quantity to your taste.
4. Yes, there is no need to add separate sambhar powder. You can add in some if you want when you add in the chili powder (adjust chili powder quantity accordingly) but it really is not necessary.
5. No tamarind either. The tomatoes add in sufficient sourness.
6. Don't skip the ghee. It adds a wonderful flavor to the sambhar.

Monday, March 19, 2012

Kerala Sambhar

I recently visited my husband's native place in Kerala. I fell in love all over again with the place (Kerala is so beautiful!) and with the cooking as well - yummm! Though it was fresh fish-galore at most meal times, sambhar also made an appearance at times. I really liked the sambhar - it was like a cross between the normal Tamil sambhar and arachuvitta sambhar and so asked for the recipe. Here it is, as gleaned by me through an interpreter (some of S's relatives only speak Malayalam).

Kerala Sambhar

Ingredients
(Try to use coconut oil wherever the recipe calls for oil if you like the taste. It really adds to the dish)

For the masala paste:
2 peppercorns
1 pinch methi seeds
1 pinch jeera seeds
10 curry leaves
2-3 shallots, peeled and chopped
2 cloves garlic
1.5 tbsp grated coconut
A few pinches asafoetida

Roast all the above ingredients in a little oil and grind to a fine paste with a little water.

Extract 1 small lemon-sized ball of tamarind  in 2 cups water.

Add the masala paste to the tamarind extract and set aside.

For the sambhar:
1 medium onion, sliced thin
1 medium tomato, chopped fine
1.5 cups chopped sambhar veggies (okra, pumpkin, carrot etc - Kerala sambhar can include *any* vegetable including raw bananas)
1 slit green chili
3 heaped tsp coriander powder
1 heaped tsp chili powder
1/2 cup tur dal
1/4 tsp turmeric
Water
Oil
Salt

For tempering:
1 tsp mustard seeds
A pinch asafoetida
5 torn curry leaves
Oil

Method:
1. Pressure cook the tur dal with 1.5 cups water and the turmeric. When it cools down, mash completely and add 1 more cup water. Set aside.
2. In a wide bottomed pan, add a little oil and toss in the slit green chili and onions. Once the onions change color, add in the tomatoes and salt. Cook well till tomatoes are mashed.
3.  Add in the chopped sambhar veggies, coriander and chili powder and mix well. Cover and cook till the veggies are almost cooked.
4. Now add in the dal-water mixture to the cooked veggies.  Bring to boil and then reduce flame. Cover and cook for 7 minutes.
5. Add in the tamarind-masala mixture. Mix well, bring to a boil and then reduce flame. Cover and cook for 10 minutes.
6. In a different small pan, add in oil and the mustard seeds. When they pop, toss in the hing and the curry leaves. Mix well and add to the boiling sambhar liquid.
7. Turn off heat and cover the sambhar dish with the lid. Let it rest for at least 10 minutes.
8. Adjust for salt and server hot with rice or idlis or dosa.

Like I said, yummy!

Thursday, March 1, 2012

Pav Bhaji

S is usually not a fan of north Indian food (I am). However, pav bhaji (pav is the bread and bhaji refers to the veggie side dish) is an exception. Both of us enjoy it. I picked up a lovely recipe from here. The prep time is on the higher side since there is so much chopping to do. But the delicious end result and the high veggie quotient of the dish makes it worthwhile.

Here is my slightly adapted version of the recipe.

Pav Bhaji 

Pav Bhaji

Ingredients (enough for 5-6 people):
1 medium capsicum, minced
4 medium tomatoes, boiled, peel discarded, and pureed in a mixer
1 medium cauliflower, roughly chopped into florets
3 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into cubes.
1 medium carrot, peeled and cut into cubes
15 green beans, stringed and chpped into small pieces
1/2 cup green peas, (cooked for 5 mins if raw, or just defrost if frozen)
1.5 tbsp pav bhaji masala
1/2 tsp red chili powder
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp garam masala
1 tbsp ginger-garlic paste
1.5 tbsp butter (add more if you are up to it - the end result will taste even better)
1 long green chili, slit and chopped into six pieces
Oil
Salt to taste

Method:
  1. Pressure cook the cauliflower, potatoes, carrot and green beans with turmeric and just enough water to cover. Once the pressure comes down, mash the veggies using a dal masher (or the back of a wide serving spoon).
  2. In a wide pan, add enough oil to coat. Add in the green chili pieces and the ginger garlic paste. Stir fry till the ginger-garlic paste starts losing its raw smell.
  3. Add in the capsicum pieces, salt and continue to stir fry till the capsicum is cooked through. You can use a dal-masher to mash the pieces if you would like the bhaji's consistency to be very smooth smooth
  4. Add the peas and mix well.
  5. Add in the pav bhaji masala, red chili powder and garam masala and stir fry for a few seconds.
  6. Add in the tomato puree and butter, mix well. Close the dish and let it cook for 5 minutes till the raw smell of tomatoes is gone.
  7. Now add in the mashed veggies from step one and mix well. Add a little water if necessary (the bhaji should not be runny so take care)
  8. Cover and cook for about 25 minutes, stirring occasionally.
  9. Adjust for salt and serve hot with toasted pav.

Notes:
1. Cauliflower,capsicums and potatoes are the only "must have" vegetables. You can omit the rest if you don't have them.
2. To toast pav, heat butter (or olive oil or butter substitute - basically, some kind of fat, else the pav bhaji Gods will curse you :-P) on a skillet, place the pav so that it is coated with butter and toast.
3. Before serving the bhaji, you can add chopped onions as a garnish. A lemon wedge can also be served on the side.
4. The bhaji reheats very well. So feel free to cook it beforehand. It also survives overnight in the fridge and tastes great the next day.
5. If you like the bhaji to be spicier increase the amount of pav bhaji masala you use.

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Masala pori (Spicy puffed rice)

This is a light and tasty snack for the times when your mouth feels jobless (this is a direct translation of the Tamil phrase "vaai chumma irukuthu") and wants something to munch on.

Masala pori (spicy puffed rice)
Masala Pori


Ingredients
Puffed rice (pori) 6-8 cups
12 big cloves garlic, crushed
1/2 cup peanuts, roasted without oil
1/2 cup fried gram (pottukadalai), roasted without oil
1/2 tsp turmeric
4 sprigs of curry leaves
12 dried red chillis, broken (do not discard the seeds)
Oil
Salt to taste

Method
1. Place a big pan on medium heat and add just enough oil to roast the red chilis and garlic.
2. Add the chilis and garlic and fry lightly till the garlic just begins to change color.
3. Add in the curry leaves and continue frying till the curry leaves turn crisp (do not let the garlic burn).
4. Add in salt, fried gram and peanuts. Mix well.
5. Add in the turmeric and fry for a couple of seconds (be careful, turmeric burns easily and tastes bitter when burnt).
6. Immediately start adding in the puffed rice a little at a time, mixing well after each addition.
7. When all the puffed rice has been added in, stirring every minute or so, continue heating on medium till the puffed rice has turned crispy and is coated well with the turmeric (you should be able to see the yellow tinge).
8. Adjust for salt.
9. Cool completely and store in an air-tight container. It will stay crisp for a couple of days.

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Ginger apple cucumber salad

This recipe is adapted from here. Though the picture below does not look all that appealing, the salad was pretty tasty (and yeah, my usual refrain, healthy too). The lightly fried onion forms a wonderful contrast with the raw ingredients and the flavors come together nicely in your mouth.

Ginger apple cucumber salad


Ingredients (enough for two as a starter, or for one as the entree at lunch)

2 medium sized cucumbers, peeled
1 medium apple, peeled
1" ginger piece, grated
1 medium onion, sliced thin
1/2 tsp turmeric
2/3 tbsp vinegar diluted with 1/3 tbsp water
1 tbsp honey
1 tbsp sesame seeds, toasted without oil
1.5 tsp sunflower oil (or any other flavorless oil)
Salt to taste

Method
1. Vertically cut the cucumbers into four pieces each. Deseed them and slice into thin pieces using a mandolin slicer or a knife. Do the same for the apple. Mix both and set aside in a bowl.
2. Add the grated ginger, honey and salt to the vinegar and mix well.
3. Add the above dressing to the cucumber and apple. Mix well. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
4. When ready to serve the salad, add the oil to a pan. add the onion and saute well till the onion starts to look cooked..
5. Now add in the turmeric and a little salt and continue sauteing the onion till the tips begin to change color. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.
6. Remove the cucumber-apple mixture from the refrigerator and drain any accumulated liquid.
7. Mix the onion with the rest of the salad ingredients. Adjust for salt.
8. Top with the toasted sesame seeds and serve immediately.

Notes
1. You can substitute toasted sesame seeds with sliced almonds.
2. Raisins added in should also be good.

Friday, February 3, 2012

Stuffed Eggplant (Brinjal / Kathirikkai)

Here is a super-duper easy  version of stuffed eggplant:

http://kowthas.wordpress.com/2011/09/06/stuffed-eggplant-andhra-style/

All you need is the stuffing powder, a microwaveable dish and as many minutes as the number of egg-plants. Cool! Be very careful when you remove the clingwrap off your dish though - getting burns from the escaping steam is a very real possibility.

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Nine beans kuzhambu (or kurma perhaps)

So, I bought this packet of 9 beans (combination of beige garbanzo, dark brown garbanzo, green garbanzo, green vatana, yellow vatana, rajma etc) because I liked the concept. Well, liking concept is one thing, but coming up with recipes is another. So the packet adorned my shelf for quite some time till I spotted it a couple of days ago and decided to soak it . Recipe ideas will come on its own, no?

Well, when the time to cook came, I still had no idea what to do once I had boiled the beans. So I decided to add ingredients as I went. To my surprise, the end result was surprisingly tasty. Only complaint, if any, was that it had a taste that would complement rice based tiffins (like dosa, idli, appam etc) better than wheat based (like rotis, parathas etc) ones. Oh well, I just had the kuzhambu with dosas. Yumm.

Nine beans kuzhambu

Ingredients (makes enough for 4-5 people):
Nine beans - 1 cup (soak them in water for at least 24 hours since they have rajma, notoriously hard to soften).
2 Big (black) cardamoms, crushed (omit if unavailable - do not substitute with green cardamom unless you like the flavor)
A few pinches hing
1.5 tsp salt

Pressure cook the beans with cardamom, hing, salt and water for 18 minutes after the first whistle sounds. Drain and set aside.

Seasoning
1 tbsp ginger paste
1 tbsp garlic paste
2 green chillis (grind it into a paste along with the ginger and garlic)
4 medium onions, chopped fine
2 tomatoes, ground into a paste
1/2 tsp chili powder
2 heaped tsp coriander powder
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1.5 tbsp kuzhambu chili powder (I like the Aachi brand)
2 tbsp Coriander leaves, chopped
Water
Salt



For tempering
1 tsp fennel seeds (sombu)
3 sprigs of curry leaves
1 pinch hing
Oil

Method:
1. Add enough oil to coat the bottom of a pressure cooker (or any other wide bottom vessel). Add in the fennel seeds. When they sizzle, add in the hing and the curry leaves. Let it crackle.
2. Toss in the ginger-garlic-green-chilli paste and stir fry for 15 seconds or till lightly cooked. Take care to not let it burn.
3. Add in the onions and salt and stir fry till onions turn pink.
4. Add in the ground tomatoes and mix well.
5. Add in the masala powders and stir till well-mixed with the onions and tomatoes.
6. Add in the cooked beans and 3.5 cups water. Mix well.
7. Cover the pressure cooker (if using) with lid and pressure cook for 5 minutes after the first whistle. If using a pan, simmer for 15 minutes or until the kuzhambu has reached the consistency you like.
8. Once pressure has come down, open the cooker, check the kuzhambu for salt. Garnish with fresh coriander leaves.

Serve hot with dosa or idli or appam or any rice-based tiffin item.


Notes:
1. Adjust the quantity of green chilis, red chili powder and kuzhambu chili powder based on your spice tolerance level.
2. I suppose the kuzhambu will taste fine with lesser than nine beans also :-).
3. If the kuzhambu is too liquidy after it comes out of the pressure cooker, boil it again till it reaches the consistency you like.

Raw Banana Stir fry

 This recipe is adapted from cookdtv. Ingredients 1 raw banana or 2 small bananas 2 tbsp sesame oil 1/2 tsp mustard 6 cloves crushed garlic ...