Quickie Breakfast : Rava Dosa

As a child I remember having competition with my elder brother as to who would eat more rava dosas. I just love rava dosas and relive those days each time I make rava dosa for breakfast.

This time my hubby topped it up with making a heart shaped dosa for me making this dish even more special.

Rawa Dosa is very simple to make and with a simple spicy coconut chutney, can transport you to seventh heaven.

Preparation Time : 10 minutes
Cooking time : 5 minutes or less

Ingredient (Serves 4) :

1. Rawa - 1/2 cup
2. Maida - 1/2 cup
3. Rice flour - 1/2 cup
4. 1 medium onion chopped
5. jeera/cumin seeds - 2 tbsp
6. black pepper corns - 1 tbsp
7. cashew bits or halves - 3-4 tbsp
8. Coriander leaves - chopped optional
9. Oil - 1 tbsp
10. Salt to taste
11. Water

How I made it:

1. Mix the rawa, maida and rice flour with sufficient water such that the water is about 1 inch above the solids. Don't worry you don't need to get this right at first go. You will see as you read through.
2. Leave that aside for an hour or so. The solids would settle at the bottom. Ensure now that the water level is at least 1 inch above that of the solids. This adjusts the thickness of the dosa. More water makes it a paper thin roast.
3. Add the chopped onions, green chillies, chopped coriander, pepper corns. If the cashew bits are roasted, add them as is, else add them in the next step.
4. Heat oil in a takda pan
5. Put the jeera and cashew bits. 
6. Once the jeera is crachling and cashew bits are light brown, add to the dosa batter mix. 
7. Adjust the salt.
8. Now, heat a flat pan or tawa.
9. Pour a ladleful of the dosa mix and swirl it around on the pan, taking care not to let it drop off the sides of the pan/tawa.
10. Cook on high heat till it starts to brown. 
11. Flip it over and cook for about 30 seconds.
12. Serve hot.

Make sure you serve these with a spicy chutney.

Tips :

• If the dosas are sticky, could be that the maida is more so reduce the maida and replace the reduced quantity with rice flour. 

Jo's Yummy Prawn Curry

How can one not try the seafood options available when living on an island? And we've been eating only red meat as NZ is well known for its red meat. I went shopping on my own this weekend and hence decided to pick up some prawns. I did wanna pick up some clams as well but put that away for the next time.

I made this curry in a hurry and with readymade coconut cream. It was delicious nonetheless and a match made in heaven when had with kerala appams. I used the double horse brand ready mix for easy palappams.

Also, please do excuse the lazy me as I continue to take the pics either after we've eaten our fair share for the day and with my humble phone camera.

Preparation time : 5 minutes
Cooking time : 25-30 minutes

Ingredients ( Serves 4) :

1. 500g of prawns - cleaned and deveined
2. 1 large onion
3. 4 sambar/pearl/pickle onions
4. 4 cloves of garlic
5. 1 inch piece of ginger
6. 2 tsp red chilli powder
7. 1 tsp coriander powder
8. 400ml of thin coconut milk/cream (or) 200g of thick coconut cream diluted in water
9. 1/2 cup of water + more for the coconut milk
10. 1 tbsp tamarind paste
11. 4 tbsp oil
12. 1/2 tsp mustard seeds
13. A handful of curry leaves
14. Salt to taste
15. Chopped coriander to garnish

How I made it:

1. Grind the onions, pearl onions, garlic, ginger to a fine paste in the mixie.
2. Heat oil in a pan.
3. Add the mustard seeds when oil is hot.
4. When they stop spluttering, add curry leaves. 
5. Add the onion paste from step 1.
6. Fry on medium flame for 10-12 minutes till the fat separates. It takes longer for this step to complete as onion paste takes some more time as well as more oil to fry well. 
7. Add red chilli powder and coriander powder.
8. Fry for a minute and then add the tamarind paste in 1/2 cup of water. 
9. Let it boil for 3-4 minutes and add the coconut milk. 
10. Adjust salt. 
11. Once it comes back to a boil, add the prawns.
12. Cook until the prawns turn pink. Do not cook beyond this else the prawns tend to get rubbery in texture.
13. Turn off heat. Garnish with chopped coriander leaves and serve hot with rice or appams.

Now this is a keeper of a base for any kind of meat curry that needs to be made in a hurry.

Taste of South India - 3 recipes in one post

Horsegram also known as kollu is known to help with weight loss and is also supposed to be very good for women to keep their bones strong. It is generally considered to contribute to body heat.  The last time I had tried a rasam with this gram, it was quite a flop. This time I tried it differently and it came out awesome. What's more nothing is wasted. The boiled gram makes a palya and the water in which it is boiled is made into a rasam. On the side, I also made some beetroot palya.

Beetroot Palya :
Equipment Used : grater, coconut scraper

Difficulty : Medium

Time taken :
Preparation time : 10 minutes
Cooking time : 15 minutes

Ingredients : 

1. 2 medium beetroots grated
2. 1 tsp oil
3. 1 tsp mustard seeds
4. 1 green chilly chopped
5. Salt to taste
6. 2-3 tbsp fresh grated coconut

How I made it :

1. Grate the beetroot.
2. Heat oil in a pan.
3. Add the mustard seeds
4. Once they stop spluttering, green chillies and fry for a minute
5. Next add beetroot.
6. Adjust salt.
7. Cover and cook on low heat for 15 minutes, mixing once in a while.
8. Garnish with grated coconut and serve.

Horsegram/Kollu Palya :

Equipment Used : coconut scraper

Difficulty : Easy

Time taken :
Preparation time : Soaking time
Cooking time : 15 minutes to boil + 5 minutes

Ingredients : 

1. 1/2 cup horsegram soaked overnight
2. A pinch of turmeric powder
3. A pinch of asafoetida powder
4. 1 tsp oil
5. 1 tsp mustard seeds
6. Salt to taste
7. 2-3 tbsp fresh grated coconut

How I made it :

1. Boil the horsegram with salted water enhanced with turmeric and asafoetida powders. This takes about 15 minutes. One whistle on high and about 2 whistles on low.
2. When pressure releases, drain and reserve the water. It will be used to make rasam.
3. Heat oil in a pan.
4. Add the mustard seeds.
5. Once they stop spluttering, add the horsegram.
6. Fry for  minute.
7. Add grated coconut. Turn off heat and serve.

Horsegram/Kollu Rasam :

Difficulty : Easy

Time taken :
Preparation time : Soaking time of horsegram
Cooking time : 15 minutes to boil + 5 minutes

Ingredients : 

1. 1 country tomato roughly chopped
2. 1 lemon sized ball of tamarind
3. The reserved water from the boiling of the kollu.
4. 1 tbsp pepper powder
5. 1 tbsp cumin powder
6. 1 tsp oil
7. 1 tsp mustard seeds
8. 1 whole red chilly
9. 1 pod of garlic crushed (optional)
10. Salt to taste - be careful as the kollu water has some salt
11. Asafoetida - a pinch, be careful as some was added to the kollu water
12. Chopped coriander leaves

How I made it :

1. In a vessel, boil the tamarind and tomato in about 2 cups of water. Let that simmer away for about 10 -15 minutes till tomato is extremely soft.
2. Now, you can strain this liquid or you could just remove the tamarind pulp.
3. Add the reserved kollu water to this.
4. Heat oil. 
5. Add the mustard seeds and let them splutter.
6. Add asafoetida powder.
7. Add the whole red chilly and garlic and fry for 30 seconds
8. Pour in the water mixture.
9. Add salt, pepper powder and cumin powder.
10. Let this come to a boil. 
11. Turn off heat, add chopped coriander and serve hot with rice.

Vermicelli/Semiya Idli

I've been trying to empty out my kitchen and one thing that I had a lot of stock of was vermicelli. I made a sweet version of it last week and this morning I made vermicelli idli. I'd heard of vermicelli idli as my sister-in-law makes it sometimes. I've not tasted it but my mom has told me about it. The idli is similar to a rava idli and actally has some rava too.

Now this idli is a bit on the heavy side because it is full of curd. It can be served with coconut chutney or some podi.

Ingredients (Makes 6 idlis) :

1. 1 cup vermicelli
2. 1/2 cup rawa/semolina
3. 3/4 cup curd + extra as required
4. salt to taste
5. 1 tsp + 1 tsp oil
6. 1 tsp mustard seeds
7. 1 tsp channa dal
8. 1 tsp urad dal
9. 1 finely chopped green chilly
10. chopped cashew bits - as desired
11. chopped coriander leaves
12. finely grated coconut - skip this if serving with coconut chutney

How I made it :

1. Heat 1 tsp oil.
2. Fry rawa and vermicelli for 5 minutes. Keep stirring to ensure uniform roasting.
3. Once cooled, add curd and leave aside.
4. After 1 hour, add some more curd if too thick. I added 2 tbsp curd extra. I added 2 tbsp of water as well. 
5. In a pan, heat 1 tsp oil
6. Add the mustard seeds.
7. Once the mustard seeds stop spluttering, add the urad dal, channa dal and cashew bits. 
8. Fry for a minute. 
9. Add this seasoning to the batter. 
10. Add green chillies, coriander and coconut. 
11. Adjust salt.
12. Grease idli mould or small ramekins and steam for 10 minutes.

I don't have an idli stand. I make my idlis in katoris/stainless steel kinnams.

Karavapillai Podi

Our present neighbour has a mature curry leaves tree in their garden. Today they decided to prune it and hence we got a lot of curry leaves. To put it to good use, I decided to make a powder which could be eaten with hot rice and ghee. I zeroed in on this recipe on Rak's Kitchen and later I also stumbled upon the "Tried and Tasted" event by Nivedhanam. Honestly, this is a very nice way to promote a blog while giving due credit to the person behind all the effort. This event is the brain child of Zlamushka, which was taken over by Lakshmi from Kitchen Chronicles.

Since it is my first time making a Podi, I followed the recipe as mentioned in the original.

Ingredients (makes 1 medium sized jar):

1. 1 cup of curry leaves - washed and patted dry on a towel
2. 1/2 cup urad dal
3. 10 whole red chillies
4. 3 tbsp coconut
5. 1/2 tsp hing/asafoetida
6. Salt to taste

How I made it :

1. In the microwave, spread the curry leaves.
2. Microwave on high for 3 minutes. Leave it alone there until ready to grind.
3. In a kadai, dry roast coconut, hing powder and red chillies until the coconut gets a brownish color. This takes lesser time if you use coconut which has been in the frige for some time. Fresh coconut takes a longer time to brown. 
4. Allow that to cool.
5. In another pan, dry roast urad dal.
6. Grind the coconut mix and curry leaves.
7. Add salt and urad dal and grind to a coarse powder.
8. Spread on a newspaper to cool.
9. Once cool, use the newspaper to fill up a airtight jar.
10. Goes well with freshly cooked hot rice and ghee.

Mutton Kheema/Meat Balls in Coconut Gravy

This is one of my favorite recipes. The combination of meatballs with coconut is droolworthy and goes with rice and roti/chapatis. It is something that my mom makes whenever I visit home. I love to steal the meat balls as they are getting steamed atop the vessel on which rice is cooked.

Ingredients (Serves 6) :
Difficulty : Medium

1. 500g mutton minced
2. 4 medium onions - finely chopped
3. 3 medium tomatoes - finely chopped - preferably the country variety
4. 20 curry leaves
5. Salt to taste
6. 10 tsp oil

To grind :

1. 3 tbsp garlic paste
2. 3 tbsp ginger paste
3. 1/2 a small coconut scrapped - about 1 cup of coconut
4. 2 tsp red chilli powder - this won't be spicy so adjust accordingly
5. 1 tsp coriander powder
6. 1/4 tsp turmeric powder
7. Water as needed.

How I made it :

1. Grind the ingredients under the "To grind" section with as sufficient water.
2. Wash the mutton mince and drain all the water.
3. Run the mutton mince once through the mixie once. Keep in the fridge.
4. In a cooker, heat the oil.
5. Fry the onions till golden brown.
6. Add the ground paste and fry till the raw smell goes away. 
7. Add 2tbsp of the fried masala to the mutton mince. Let the masala continue to fry.
8. Add sufficient salt to the mutton mince and mix well.
9. Make balls out of the mutton mince mixture and place on a microwave safe plate.
10. Microwave on high for 1.5 minutes.
11. Turn the balls and microwave on high for another 1.5 minutes.
12. When the fat separates from the masala, add tomatoes and curry leaves.
13. Fry till fat separates. 
14. Add the steamed meat balls.
15. Adjust salt.
16. Add enough water to get sufficient gravy.
17. Pressure cook on high until 1 whistle.
18. Garnish with coriander leaves and serve hot.

I served it with both rice and chapatis. 

Khara Pongal/Venn Pongal - Happy Pongal

Here's the recipe for the Khara Pongal that I tried from here this pongal 2013.

Ingredients :

1. 1 cup sona masoori rice
2. 1/2 cup moong dal
3. 2 tsp cumin seeds
4. 2 tsp whole pepper corns
5. 1 inch ginger julienned
6. 3 cups of water
7. 2 tbsp ghee
8. 1/2 tsp cumin seeds
9. A handful of cashew nuts
10. A sprig of curry leaves
11. A pinch of hing
12. Salt to taste

How I made it :

1. Soak rice and dal together for 30 minutes. 
2. Pressure cook rice+dal+cumin seeds+ginger+pepper corns+salt to taste on low for 15 minutes.
3. In a pan, heat ghee.
4. Add cumin seeds, hing, curry leaves.
5. When cumin seeds crackle add cashew nuts and fry till light golden brown.
6. Add dal+rice mixture and serve with sambar or chutney.

I served mine with mom-in-law's arachavittu sambar.

Mom-in-law's Arachavittu Sambar

My mom-in-law makes sambar every other day and it is almost the same each time. My hubby hogs when he gets his mom's sambar. Today, I decided to make my mom-in-law's version of sambar to go with Venn Pongal. I find it a rather tedious process but it is all worth it when your husband says "The sambar is delicious, it's the best dish on the plate".

Ingredients :
To grind :

1. 1/2 cup grated coconut
2. 4-5 sambar onions
3. 4-5 pods of garlic
4. 1/2 tsp methi/fenugreek seeds
5. 4 whole red chillies
6. A large pinch of hing/asafoetida
7. 1/2 tsp coriander powder

For dal and veggie mix :

1. 1/2 cup toor dal 
2. 2 tbsp skinless masoor dal
3. Veggies - I used 2 carrots cut into bite sized pieces and 2 brinjals quartered. You could use ladies finger, white pumpkin or drumstick too
4. 1 potato (optional)
5. 1 medium onion chopped
6. 1 largish country tomato chopped
7. 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
8. 1 tsp coconut oil
9. 1/2 tsp mustard seeds
10. 1 sprig curry leaves
11. 2 slit green chillies
12. Salt to taste
13. Chopped coriander to garnish

How I made it :

1. Dry roast coconut, small sambar onion, garlic, methi seeds, whole red chillies, cumin seeds and hing. Add coriander seeds if you have. Else, add coriander powder in the end. This would take about 8 to 10 minutes with constant stirring to get a dark golden brown color on the coconut. 
2. Once the mixture cools, grind with enough water
3. Pressure cook the dal with turmeric for about 15 minutes on low flame.
4. In another pan, heat coconut oil.
5. Add mustard seeds and let them splutter.
6. Add curry leaves and split green chillies.
7. Add finely chopped onion.
8. When onion is  pink, add vegetables of your choice. I added carrot and brinjal.
9. When the veggies are half cooked, add chopped tomato.
10. Adjust salt and add the ground mixture. 
11. Add this to the dal and give one whistle on high.
12. When pressure releases, add chopped coriander.
13. Serve with rice or chapati or idli or dosa.

I served mine with Khara Pongal.

Sakkarai Pongal recipe - Happy Pongal!

Happy Pongal everyone.  Here's one of my favorite recipes. It is easy too. I always used to wonder why my sweet pongal

1. Did not have the semi solid like consistency that it is supposed to have
2. Did not have the dark color 

I found the answers to both these questions

1. Need to add enough milk/water when boiling the rice and dal mixture
2. Need to use the darker jaggery

I got the answer to 1 from here.

Ingredients :

1. 1 cup rice
2. 1/2 cup yellow moong dal
3. 2.5 cups of milk
4. 2.5 cups of water + 1 cup to mix the jaggery
5. 1/4 cup ghee
6. A pinch of salt
7. 3/4 to 1 cup jaggery
8. A handful of cashews
9. A handful of raisins
10. 1 tsp cardamom powder

How I made it :

1. In a pan, heat a tsp of ghee and roast the dal till fragrant.
2. Soak dal along with washed rice for about 30 minutes.
3. Pressure cook the dal+rice mix with 2.5 cups each of milk and water with a pinch of salt for 15 minutes on low flame.
4. Grate or break jaggery into small pieces. The smaller the pieces, the sooner it will take you to get a golden syrup saving energy. 
5. Add 1 cup of water to jaggery and boil till all the jaggery has melted. 
6. Pass this through a strainer and keep aside.
7. When the pressure from the cooker has lifted, add the jaggery syrup and mash the rice and dal mixture. 
8. In a pan, heat the ghee, add the cashews and raisins and fry till cashews are light golden brown. Mix in the rice, dal and jaggery mix. 
9. Sprinkle with cardamom powder and serve.

I like this cold but it does taste good warm too. Add a little milk when heating up as it has a tendency to lump up absorbing all the liquid.

As it is the festival today, I also made the khara version from Nag's blog and served it with my mom-in-law's sambar.

Thengai Poli/Ubittu

Whilst in Chennai, our company used to sponsor snacks, which used to be my dinner, for those staying back beyond 7pm at work. This was a real motivation for many to stay back until 7pm. One of my favorites was poli. Warm and sweet, these melt in the mouth stuffed rotis were never something that I stayed away from. I saw this recipe on Nag's blog and it reminded me of poli. I had some coconut on hand and so decided to make the poli with the coconut stuffing rather than the dal. This would also make Pras very happy as he is a keralite who loves his coconuts (wicked smile ;))

When I gave Pras the first one, he went "It tastes just like it does in the store brought ones." Well, what more would I want to hear :)

Ingredients (makes 5 polis): 

1. 1 cup of maida - you could use whole wheat if you like
2. 1/2 cup jaggery
3. 1/2 cup coconut grated
4. 2 pods of green cardomom crushed
5. Salt a pinch
6. 1 tbsp oil
7. 2 tbsp ghee
8. Water - 1/4 cup + enough to make a smooth dough

How I made it :

1. Add the pinch of salt to the flour and make a smooth dough. Ply the dough for about 2 minutes before letting it rest for about 1 hour.
2. In the meantime, use as little water as possible to melt the jaggery in. This can be done on the stove top with regular mixing. Cutting the jaggery into smaller pieces help this get done sooner. 
3. Sieve this melted jaggery syrup to remove any impurities.
4. Add the coconut to this and cook on the stove until the mixture becomes sticky and almost dry.
5. To this add the crushed cardamom powder.
6. Now rub some oil onto a plastic sheet. 
7. Take a ball of dough and flatten it out in your palm, making a well in the center.
8. Fill this with the coconut jaggery mixture. Try to put as much as possible. Don't be scared of it coming out as this will be a sticky mixture and wont ooze out or cause too much trouble when rolling out. 
9. Pull the ends of the dough so as to enclose the coconut jaggery mixture and roll this into a thin stuffed roti. You could alternately make it like making stuffed aloo paratha.
10. Cook on a hot tava until both sides brown. Apply ghee generously and take off the heat.

Nilam Special Uzhunnu Vada

Well, we all know how Sandy and Nilam struck at about the same time, except at different places. So it was one of those rainy holidays on which I had to sit at home. Pras was working and so we had no plans of going out. I woke up and soaked urad dal for making my favorite vada. It is the perfect accompaniment to tea on a cold rainy day or may be any day :)

Ingredients (For 10 vadas) :

1. 1 cup skinless white urad dal soaked in water for about 4 hours
2. 1 medium sized onion chopped
3. 2 green chillies finely chopped
4. chopped coriander leaves
5. 1 tsp whole pepper corns
6. Salt to taste
7. Oil for frying

Equipment needed: 

A grinder/food processor

How I made it :

1. Grind the soaked urad dal with as little water as possible to make a thick smooth paste.
2. To this ground batter add the chopped onions, coriander, green chillies, pepper corns and salt.
3. Heat up some oil in a deep pan/wok/kadai.
4. This step is all about frying but if you want to get the right shape of a vada, read on. Keep a bowl of water on the side. Dip the fingers of your right hand in the water. With the excess water wet the palm of your left hand. Now, using your right hand scoop out a sapota sized ball of batter. Flatten it out on your left palm. Now, dip your right index finger into the water and make a hole in the center of the flattened batter.Drop this into the hot oil. Fry until golden brown on both sides, about 3 minutes a side. 
5. Serve hot with a steaming cup of chai and coconut chutney

Tips :

1. Use as little water when grinding. The more water you use, grinding may be easy but getting the right shape and texture for frying will be tough.
2. If you have added a lot of water, you could add some rice flour to thicken the batter.
3. You could add pieces of coconut to the batter.
4. To test the oil, put in a small drop of the batter. If it rises immediately, the oil is hot. You don't want smoking hot oil either
5. Serve with sambar for breakfast

Vendakka Kara Kuzhambu/South Indian Ladies Finger/Okra curry - II

I have posted an earlier version of my south indian okra curry here. I was too lazy to refer my recipe and cook so today I tried a slightly different version based on the drumstick kara kuzhambu that I had tried last week. This has a more authentic taste with the sweetness of the fennel/saunf coming through. Do give it a try and let me know which one you prefer.

Ingredients (for 2 as a side dish) :

1. 30 ladies finger pieces - cut into 1 inch pieces
2. 1 medium onion finely chopped
3. 1 medium tomato finely chopped
4. 3 cloves of garlic
5. 1/4 cup coconut
6. 1 tsp fennel/saunf seeds
7. 1/2 tsp methi/fenugreek seeds
8. 5 dried red chillies - adjust as per spiciness desired
9. 1 tbsp coriander powder
10. Tamarind ball the size of a small marble soaked in water
11. 2 tbsp oil
12. 1 tsp mustard seeds
13. 1/2 tsp fennel/saunf seeds - apart from what is mentioned in 7.
14. 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
15. 1/2 tsp garam masala powder
16. Salt to taste

How I made it :

1. Grind ingredients 4 to 9 with enough water to make a smooth paste
2. In 1 tsp oil, fry the ladies finger pieces till the edges start to brown. Let them retain their crunch.
3. In a pan, heat the remaining oil.
4. Put in the mustard and fennel seeds. Once they completely splutter, put in the onions.
5. Fry till onions turn pink.
6. Add the ground paste.
7. Fry on low heat, mixing frequently to avoid sticking. Fry for about 8 minutes. 
8. Add in the tomatoes. 
9. At this point, I put this entire mixture into a pressure cooker, added about 1/4 cup of water and cooked until 5 whistles on low. 
10. To this, I added the tamarind water, turmeric powder, garam masala powder and salt to taste. 
11. Throw in the okra pieces. 
12. Add water to achieve desired consistency of gravy. Boil on low heat for about 10 minutes.
13. Garnish with chopped coriander and serve with rice.

Mixed vegetable kurma

I've decided that at least for now, most of the posts on the blog will be recipes of those dishes that I have grown up eating. I would love to be known as a good cook just as my mom, aunt and cook Sushila. And what better way than to master their own recipes. I've mastered mom's naans and butter panneer. Now, here's the recipe of mixed vegetable kurma made by Sushila. It goes well with parathas, naans and steamed rice. At home we usually have it with rice.

Ingredients (serves 4) :

1. 1 medium sized potato - cut into small cubes
2. 2 medium carrots - cut into shapes similar in size to the potato
3. 15 french beans - cut into 1 inch pieces
4. 1 small sized red onion - chopped
5. 5 small sambar onion - chopped
6. 1 tbsp oil
7. 1/2 tsp garam masala
8. 1 large tomato, preferable country variety - chopped
9. 1 tsp mustard seeds
10. 1 big slit green chilly
11. 1/4 tsp methi fenugreek seeds
12. A pinch of kasuri methi
13. Salt to taste
14. To grind : 

1. 1/4 cup coconut
2. 6 whole red chillies
3. 1 tsp coriander powder
4. 6 cloves garlic
5. 1 inch piece ginger
6. 5 small sambar onions
7. 1/2 tsp khus khus

How I made it :

1. Heat oil in a pressure cooker.
2. Add methi and mustard seeds. 
3. Add slit green chilly.
4. Add kasuri methi.
5. After a minute, add the onions - both small sambar onion and small red onion.
6. Fry till the onions start to brown.
7. Add the paste.
8. Fry on low for about 8 minutes.
9. Now add the chopped tomatoes.
10. Fry on low for another 5 minutes. 
11. Add garam masala. Adjust salt.
12. Put in the vegetables.
13. Pour enough water to just cover the entire mixture. Close cooker.
14. Give one whistle on high and one on low. 
15. Garnish with chopped coriander and serve.

We had it with naans

Brussels Sprouts Curry

I love brussels sprouts. Not only do they look cute but they taste lovely in this awesome curry. I picked some up during my trip to Ooty, fresh from one of the freshest markets in the world that I know.

Ingredients (serves 3):

1. 125g brussels sprouts - about 15
2. potato - 15 cubes of similar size as the brussels sprouts - this will ensure even cooking
3. 2 tbsp masoor dal - washe and kept aside to soak
4. 1/4 cup fresh coconut
5. 1 tsp coriander powder
6. 4 whole red chillies - adjust as per spiciness desired
7. 4 cloves of garlic
8. 1 inch of ginger
9. 5+5 small onions
10. 1 small sized red onion - chopped
11. 1 medium to large sized tomato chopped
12. 1/2 tsp red chilli powder - may not be needed as per spiciness desired
13. 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
14. 1/2 tsp mustard seeds
15. 1 spring curry leaves
16. 1 tbsp oil
17. 1 cup water
18. Salt to taste
19. coriander leaves for garnish

How I made it :

1. Grind together the coconut, garlic, ginger, whole red chilly, coriander powder and 5 small onions. Add a little water to bring it all together. 
2. Remove the outer dirty layers of the brussels sprouts. Halve them. Place in salted water until ready to cook. This will help get any worms out.
3. In a pressure cooker, heat oil.
4. Put in mustard seeds. Let them splutter.
5. Add the curry leaves followed by chopped onion and the remaining 5 whole small onions.
6. When the onion turns pink, add the ground paste from 1.
7. Fry till fat separates or the mixture moves as one mass without sticking to bottom of cooker.
8. Add chopped tomates. Fry on low for 5 minutes.
9. Add potatoes. Add 1/4 cup water and allow to cook for another 5 minutes on low.
10. Now, add the masoor dal and remaining water. Add turmeric powder. Boil away for 5 minutes.
11. Adjust salt. Add the brussels sprouts. Add red chilli powder if required.
12. Cover and give one whistle on high and one on low. 
13. Garnish with chopped coriander leaves and serve with rice. 

My take on the nippattu

My good friend gave me a sample of her baked nippattu one morning and I flipped. It was just so god damned good. I knew I had to give it a try.
Those of you who do know me very well, I am a sindhi who loves her koki. This dish reminded me so much of the koki. Koki is an onion and green chilli mixed paratha. It is a very famous breakfast across all Sindhi households, eaten with curds, pickle or white butter and sugar.
Now, the nippattu is similarly flavoured and hence the instant liking. The original recipe is here but I added my own twist to it. Instead of 2 cups of plain maida, I used just 1. To substitute the remaining 1 cup, I added 1/4 cup makki atta (cornmeal), 1/4 cup rava, 1/4 cup rice flour and 1/4 cup whole wheat flour. I also skipped the baking soda. I never buy baking soda cause it can be quite harmful for the body I hear. However, I also hear that it is a fabulous household cleaner.

I did follow this recipe and tried baking the nippattu. There were two things that went wrong
1. I lost patience as I was able to bake only two at a time in my oven.
2. Mine were quite crumbly in nature cause of the rava that I had added to the dough.

I left half of the dough back in the fridge and today on this cold rainy afternoon, I fried them as small vadas instead and they were yummy and gone in minutes.

Ingredients :
1 cup maida
1/4 cup makki atta - cornmeal
1/4 cup rice flour
1/4 cup rava/semolina
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1 large onion finely chopped
4 tsp white sesame seeds
1/3 cup oil
2 tsp sugar
Freshly chopped coriander leaves - as much as you like
1 tsp salt
4 tbsp melted butter - I used salted
3 finely chopped green chillies
1/4 cup warm water

How I made it :

1. Mix all the flours together. Add the salt, white sesame seeds, onion, green chillies, sugar and coriander leaves.
2. Make a well in the center. 
3. Pour in the melted butter and oil. Mix till the mix resembles coarse bread crumbs.
4. Now add the water cautiously. Add little by little until the dough comes together. You may not need to add the entire quantity. As the author of the original recipe suggests, the little water you use, the easier it is to roll out in the baked version.
5. Cover this with a damp cloth or cling film and keep aside for 30 minutes. 
6. Heat oil in a fry pan. 
7. Make small rounds out of the dough and when the oil is hot, drop these rounds in and fry till golden brown on both sides.

Serve hot. 

Ash gourd sambar

Sambar is a very versatile dish - made in different ways across homes of south india. The sambar that I most like is one with loads of dal, thick and mushy. That with crumbled fresh idlies is a delicacy in itself. Pras told me one morning that I was not a good wife in that I was not giving him idli samabar, dosa, etcetera for breakfast. Basically he was fed up with the quick IT breakfast of oats, cornflakes, bread butter, sandwiches, etcetera. We all have but one life to live and if I did not cook all the variety of dishes there are out there NOW I would always regret it later on, if one exists. So I decided to make Idli and Sambar with a coconut chutney for breakfast this morning. Here goes the recipe for the ash gourd sambar.

Ingredients :
250 gms ash gourd/white pumpkin - chopped into pieces. I retain the skin. You could remove it too.
1/4 cup toor dal/sambar dal
a tiny handful of skinless masoor dal - optional
4 cloves of garlic
1 teaspoon ghee
1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
2 pinches of hing
1 teaspoon of mustard seeds
1 twig of curry leaves
1/2 tsp red chilli powder
1 tsp coriander powder
1 1/2 tbsp MTR Sambar powder
1 small-medium sized onion
1 tomato
1 tiny lemon sized tamarind ball dipped in water
1tbsp oil
Salt to taste
Coriander leaves to garnish

How I made it :
1. In a pressure cooker, add the sambar dal, masoor dal, garlic, turmeric powder, hing and ghee. Give one whistle on high and 3 on low.Ensure that you have sufficient water in the cooker. I usually soak the dal for sometime to reduce cooking time and making it more efficient. So I soak the dals for about 15 minutes. I add water such that the dals are covered and are 1 inch above dal level.
2. In a pan, heat oil.
3. Drop in mustard seeds into hot oil. Once they splutter, put in the curry leaves.
4. Then add the onion - chopped into cubes. Once they begin to turn translucent, add the ash gourd pieces. Fry for 2 minutes.
5. Add 1/4 cup water and cover and cook on low for about 5 minutes.
6. Add the red chilli powder and coriander powder. Fry for a minute or so.
7. Add the choppped tomato.
8. Fry till tomato is soft and easily gets smashed.
9. Add the boiled dal.
10. Add sambar powder, tamarind water and adjust salt as per taste. Boil for 15 minutes. You could give it a whistle or two in the cooker instead.
11. Add coriander leaves and serve hot.

Note : You could use any other vegetable of your choice too. Remember that Sambar is a versatile dish :)

I served it with idli. You could serve this with rice or loon-mirch paratha (Salt-Chilli paratha) too.
I follow Nag's Murugan Idli Shop recipe for the idli batter. I make enough to get one batch of idlies for two and two batches of dosas. We've stopped buying readymade batter and this one is always a success. Pras loves his dosas and he loves the way the ones made from this batter turn out. 

Vendakka Kara Kuzhambu/South Indian Ladies Finger/Okra curry

For a long time I have been trying to master kara kuzhambu. Every time my friend Anitha would bring the same in her lunch box, I would say to myself "Now, this is one dish I need to master.". My aunt's maid in Coimbatore used to make really good Kara Kuzhambu/Vatha Kuzhambu. I miss that. Finally, today after viewing this link, and with a few modifications of my own, voila, I got the perfect kara kuzhambu. It was truly delicious certified by Pras as well as Latha, the owner of the house which we've rented. Latha is an excellent cook and she too, like me, keeps experimenting and trying out new dishes. We keep sharing our recipes and food :) I did borrow some tips that she had given me for this yummy kara kuzhambu.

This curry has the sweetness of the fennel seeds, the bitterness of the methi/fenugreek and the sourness of the tamarind - get the proportion right and you won't stop licking those fingers.

Ingredients
Ladies finger/okra - 20 cut into 1 inch sized pieces
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp fenugreek/methi seeds
1 tsp fennel seeds
3 tbsp oil
1 medium sized onion chopped
1 tomato chopped
1 and 1/2 cups of tamarind juice (soak a lemon sized tamarind ball in hot water and extract the juice)
2 tbsp sambar powder
1 red chilly
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
Salt to taste
Water as needed
1 country tomato (optional)
1/2 tsp garam masala powder

To grind into a fine paste after dry roasting:
10 shallots or 1 small sized onion chopped
5 cloves of garlic
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
3/4 tsp coriander seeds/powder - I did not have seeds to directly used powder at hand
1/2 cup of grated coconut
4 red chillies (adjust as per spiciness desired)

Steps to get that yummy kara kuzhambu:
1. Dry roast the ingredients which need to be ground into a paste. This takes some time and should be done on low heat until the coconut starts to brown. This adds to the colour of the dish. Cool and grind to a fine paste. Add water as needed. If you are one of those who do not like fenugreek seeds, please add them after about 5 minutes of roasting and powder along with the rest. I prefer adding them to the tadka.
2. Heat one tbsp of oil. Fry the okra pieces till you can see them beginning to brown and keep aside. Do this with care so as not to break the okra pieces.
3. Heat the other 2 tbsps of oil. Add the mustard and fenugreek seeds(Skip this if you've added it to step 1). Let the mustard splutter. Add the red chilly and fennel seeds.
4. Add the onions and fry till translucent.
5. Add the tomato and fry till cooked and mushy.
6. Add the paste and fry for about 5 minutes on sim.
7. Add turmeric powder, chilly powder and sambar powder.
8. Add in the tamarind juice and boil away - may be for about 15 minutes.
9. By this time the fat should've separated - you can see small rounds of oil floating on top. Add salt, the okra, garam masala powder. Adjust consistency. Add a little more water.If you do have the country tomato, chop it into 4 quarters and drop them in - this gives it a more restaurant look. Boil for 5 minutes and voila - it is ready.

I served it with hot rice and popadams.

Tips :
1. Wash the okra and wipe them dry with a cloth or tissue. Lesser the water on them, the lesser the sliminess while cooking, meaning easier cooking.
2. The longer this cooks the better.
3. You could replace okra with drumstick/brinjal/garlic.
4. Since this dish contains coconut, it may get less spicy, so I suggest not reducing the red chillies.
5. The basic trick is to get the tamarind to sambar powder ratio right. That makes all the difference. Keep adding sambar powder a little by little to the tamarind water and keep tasting, you will hit the G spot.