Vendakkai Kuzhambu

This is a sweet, sour, hot and tangy curry. My mommy used to make it during some festival. So I used to call it 'swamy kuzhambu'. This dish is served hot with white rice and appalams are the best combination for this. If anybody does this kuzhambu at home and know it's name please let me know too. So, here is the procedure for this dish.

Ingredients:

Vendakkai/okra - 10 to 15

onion- 1/2 (chopped)

tamarind- 1 1/2 tbsp (can add less or more depending upon one's taste. But the gravy has to be little tangy)

green chillies- 10 (cut into small bits)

coconut- 3 tbsp (shredded)

curry leaves- few

steamed toor dal- 1 cup

turmeric- 1/2 tsp

water- 2 cups

salt- as reqd

jaggery- a little less than 1 /2 tsp

mustard- 1/2 tsp

jeera- 1 tsp

Procedure:

Steam cook toor dal with some turmeric and a tsp of oil. Wash okra and trim of the ends and cut it into two. If the okra is big, cut it into 1 1/2 " size. Chop onions and green chillies. Heat oil in pan. Season with mustard seeds, jeera and channa dal. Then add onions, turmeric and green chillies. Now add okra and some salt. Cook until 3/4 th done. Then add tamarind and water. Combine well and bring to a boil. Now add toor dal and heat it up. Finally add curry leaves and coconut and jaggery. Bring it to a nice boil. check for salt and switch off gas. Serve hot with rice.

Vaangi Bhaat and kosambaris

It's been 5 months since I have participated in any event. Actually, this is the second event I'm participating. Most of the time, I come to know about an event after it's deadline only. But this time, Asha gave me lot of reminders and 'Thanks' to her for making me participate in this. so, here goes...

My contribution for RCI: Karnataka hosted by my dear friend Asha.

The dishes I chose are :Vaangi Bhaat, Carrot kosambari, cucumber kosambari and Uddin vade.

Vaangi Bhaat:

For this dish , I followed Asha's recipe exactly. But after doing 'step 2' I did not get a gravy. The masala powder I added absorbed all the liquid. After that I sauted the dry paste with the cooked brinjal for another 5 mins adding 1 tbsp of oil. Other than this, everything else was exactly from her recipe.

This is the first time I'm trying vaangi bhaat and believe me...this tasted so good and smelled awesome. The only thing I would do next time will be , adding a bit of turmeric . 'Thanks' to Asha for sharing her recipe.

Ingredients:

2 Cups Rice, cooked and cooled

2-3 Long purple or green Eggplants cubed

1/4 Cup Tamarind Juice,

Salt1/2 tbsp

sesame Seeds (Til)1/2 tsp

Fenugreek Seeds

Roast and Powder:

2 tbsp Dry Coconut

1 tbsp Coriander Seeds

1 tbsp Chana Dal

1 tbsp Urad Dal

2-3 Dry Red Chillies1/2 tsp Hing (asafoetida)

To season:

1 tbsp Oil and Ghee

1 tsp Mustard Seeds

1tsp Chana Dal

1 tsp Urad Dal

Curry Leaves

1-2 Dry Red Chillies

1 tbsp Peanuts slightly crushed (optional)

Method:

Fry eggplants with little oil and salt until almost cooked.Keep aside. Season,when peanuts are reddish add tamarind juice, cook until thickish and add in ground masala. Simmer until oil floats on top and add eggplants.Add sugar,salt. Cover and cook until eggplants are tender, you have a nice pasty gravy with a shine! Cool slightly. Mix with rice gently as not to break the eggplants.Adjust the salt.

Note: You can roast coconut and Til seeds seperately,pound slightly,add in the end to mix with rice.

Carrot Kosambari:

Ingredients:

Carrots-2 ( finely grated)

moong dal-1 1/2 tbsp(soaked for 30 mins)

green chillies- 2

corriander leaves- few

coconut- 2 tbsp(grated)

salt- as reqd

lemon juice- (opt)

Procedure:

Mix all the ingredients and season with mustard seeds, hing and curry leaves.

Cucumber Kosambari:

Ingredients:

cucumber- 1 (finely chopped)

moong dal-1 1/2 tbsp(soaked for 30 mins)
green chillies- 2
corriander leaves- few
coconut- 2 tbsp(grated)
salt- as reqd
lemon juice- (opt)

Procedure:
Mix all the ingredients and season with mustard seeds, hing and curry leaves.

Ok Guys. Here is a plate we had. Enjoy!!!
One more thing before I go. Actually today(sep 10th) is my wedding anniversary . Will update you guys soon about how I spent the day. Until the byeee!!!!

Tomato Chutney

This is the first time I'm entering the JFI event. After seeing my senior bloggers hosting and participating in these events, I too got excited to do something this time. So, here is my entry: Tomato chutney, Tomato Pulav and Tomato Thokku. I know, these are not the fancy items. Still, just wanted to participate in the event and get to know new friends. Hi All and Welcome to my blog.

Tomato Chutney:

Ingredients:
Onion- 1 (medium, rough chop)
Tomatoes- 2 (big, rough chop)
red chillies- 2 1/2
salt- as required

Procedure:
Saute onion in oil until transparent and soft. Then add red chillies and fry for 2 mins. Then add tomatoes and some salt. Cook till the tomato turns soft. cool and grind into a smooth paste.
Again heat 3 tsp oil in kadai and fry mustard seeds, split urad dal , red chilli and curry leaves. Now add the onion-tomato paste and fry until the color changes to a nice orange color.
Note:If you add more oil and fry for more time you can get a deeper color.
Variation:Here I did not add anything else because I wanted tomato to be the main ingredient. But the possibilities are endless. You can add mint, curry leaves, corriander or coconut.

Tomato Thokku

Another easy side dish that goes with any types of tiffen varieties. This is a very common dish in every household done with minor variations in each one.

Ingredients:
mustard seeds-1/2 tsp
urad dal- 1/2 tsp
jeera seeds- 1/4 tsp
onion-3/4 th (sliced)
green chillies- 4
Turmeric powder- 1/4 tsp
tomato-3 (chopped)

Procedure:
Heat oil in kadai and fry mustard seeds, urad dal and jeera seeds. Then add onions,chillies and turmeric powder. saute until soft. now put tomatoes and salt. Add 1/4 cup water and boil until tomatoes gets cooked. Open the lid from kadai and allow the gravy to dry to desired consistency.

Vadai Curry

Vadai curry is a popular side item for idllis and dosas in the South. It is basically a curry made from leftover vadas. Personally I like this with dosas more than idllis. Normally I follow the famous cook Mallika Badrinath's recipe. But today I did not have her cookbook as I loaned it to one of my friends. I followed my MIL's recipe and it turned out perfectly fine with less effort and less ingredients that what I used to do before. As I have already blogged the recipe for vada I'm going straight to the curry recipe.

Ingredients:
fried vadas- 6 or 7
onion- 1/2 (big,chopped)
ginger garlic paste- 1 tsp
tomatoes- 1/2(big,chopped)
chilli powder- 1/2 tsp
corriander powder- 1/2 tsp
cumin powder- 1/2 tsp
green chilli- 1 (slit)
curry leaves-few
corriander leaves- few
thin coconut milk- 1/4 cup

Procedure:

Break vadas into small pieces and set aside.Heat oil in kadai and fry onions and ginger garlic paste. cook till golden brown. Add tomatoes and all the masala powders and cook till oil seperates. Add enough salt and coconut milk. Pour 1 cup water and bring to a boil. Add vadas and cook the curry is semi-solid consistency.

Note: Before adding vadas , the gravy should be a little watery as the vadas will absorb all the water. If the gravy becomes thick , you can add somemore water to get it to the right consistency.

Coconut Chutney

Coconut chutney is my Dad's favorite dish. In India and especially in our town salem there is one hotel where they serve very good coconut chutney. I don't even remember the name of the hotel as we always called it as "chutney hotel". When we used to go out for dinner , my dad would always ask which hotel we wanted to go. Actually my sister and I would always crave for chinese items. But we would sometimes say ok to chutney hotel just to make our dad happy. My mom makes good chutney too...but according to my dad its never like the one at "chutney hotel". I always wonder what the secret ingredient is?

Chutney goes well with any south indian breakfat items like dosa,idlli,pongal or adai. It is the simplest of all chutneys.Anyway here is my version of coconu chutney...

Ingredients:
Grated coconut- 1 cup
pottu kadalai- 1/4 cup
green chillies- 4
salt- as required

Procedure:
Grind all with required water. The end mixture must be a smooth paste. Heat oil in kadai and fry mustard seeds, urad dal, red chilly and curry leaves. Pour this over chutney and mix well. You can add water according to your prefernce to make the chutney thick or thin.

Variations:
You can add curry leaves/ginger/red chillies when you grind chutney. Each produces a different flavor. But I like mine the usual way.

Appalams ,Mor milagai and vathal

Pappadams and Appalams are very good accompaniants to any rice and curry dish. Mor milagai is nothing but chillies soaked in salted butter-milk and dried to the appropriate stage. This is then fried in oil resulting in dark brown chillies. The colorful stars seen below are vathals. Any Indian would know about appalams. For those of you who do not know.....Here are some pictures.

Cucumber Raitha

Ingredients:

English cucumber-1

curd-1 1/2 cups

salt-as required

sugar- a pinch

corriander leaves

Procedure:

Remove skin from cucumber and cut it into very thin pieces. Add sugar and salt to curd and beat well. Add cucumber to curd and mix thoroughly. If needed add water. I did not add water in mine, as the cucumber itself gave away enough water.Sprinkle corriander leaves on top or mix with raitha.