Drumstick Sambar

I know each one of you are going to laugh your lungs out reading this post.  The first disastrous dish I prepared for my FIL & hubby.  When I read the event hosted by Rafeeda  I though it was the perfect time for me to post this. Thank you Rafeeda.

Sambar is one of the very  most important and simple curry which is prepared in any South Indian house. Goes very well with rice, idli, dosa, vada the list is never ending.

I was out from college and the next day I picked up a job, so helping mom with household work was my job, never ventured into the kitchen for cooking as mom never wanted us to do it. 

I was 23 when I got married,  after few days my FIL  said  why don’t you make sambar for lunch.  First  entry to the kitchen as so many days my FIL cooked for us as I was not lucky enough to see my MIL as she was not alive.  My FIL at his 70’s was  pretty good in cooking.  I could not say NO to him and  I thought it was a very simple task to make the sambar,  with little bit of doubts  I wanted to call and ask mom  but no  phone and no mobile, no internet also those days.  All I remembered was seeing the plate in which  mom gave the masala to grind at home, so I remembered all  the ingredients although not perfectly the right proportions.  

I planned to make sambar with drumstick and ladies finger. I fried all the masala and kept aside to let it cool so that I could grind to a fine paste.

On the other side I  cut the drumstick and started to boil, put the fried ladies finger and  cooked with salt.  Then added the masala at this time I realized the sambar is still watery.  Then I realized that I had forgotten to put  the tur dal, just took a bit of the daal, washed it well and put it into the sambar. Now the sambar is boiling on and on, wondering why the daal is not getting cooked and instead the sambar was becoming thick, so all I did as to  add water and again boil, you know what had happened the drumsticks and ladies finger  got over cooked and mashed and invisible of the vegetables except the thread like sticks of the drumstick, in between the daal uncooked worrying me.  Finally it was time for lunch  now no more time to cook. So I just put the tadka and set it on the table for lunch.

My FIL comes to the table and starts his lunch at that time he just put the sambar on rice all he saw was sticks and mashed ladies finger and sambar so gooey and finally the great daal uncooked. All he said was to me you don’t know cooking right. That’s all, poor thing ate a bit of  rice with great difficulty. 

Green Peas Kachori With Spicy Dum Aloo (Koraishutir Kochuri R Aloor Dam) - SNC Challenge # 5

 

Its so wonderful to be a part of the 'South Vs North Challenge’ family. SNC is the brain-child of Divya Pramil of You Too Can Cook. This month for the 'South Vs North Challenge', the North team Sanoli has challenged the South team with GREEN PEAS KACHORI WITH SPICY DUM ALOO .

This wonderful delicacy is a Bengali dish and is made with green peas kachori and dum aloo. I have made and ofcourse had dum aloo several times. However, loved the flavour and the beautiful look of the green peas stuffed into the kachori and then accompanied with the baby potatoes, it was awesome and loved it so much.

 We at home enjoyed this Bengali dish so much. Thank you Sanoli for this wonderful recipe.

I am part of the South team

Paneer Tawa Masala

Paneer in any form is welcome for all, I luv this spicy version of the tawa masala. It’s a thick gravy and goes well with any Indian breads.  I made simple  chapathi and served this dish with salad and kimchi (a pickled vegetable), I love this so much J  

Serves : 4 pax

Time : 45 minutes

Recipe Source : Tarla Dalal

Ingredients

Paneer cubed – 1 ½ cups
Onion chopped roughly -  1 large
Tomato puree  - ½  cup
Oil - 4 tbsp
Fresh cream  - 1 tbsp
Garlic paste - 1 tbsp
Green chilies chopped fine – 2 tsp
Turmeric powder  - ¼  tsp
Cumin seeds ½  tsp
Kasoori methi dried -  1 tbsp * crush it with your hands and use
Coriander powder  - 1 tsp
Chili powder  -  ½  tsp
Punjabi garam masala – ½  tsp *
Chaat masala 1 tsp
Coriander leaves – 2 sprigs

I made the  Punjabi garam masala from  here

Misal Pav

This is  a very famous street side food of Maharashtra, specially Mumbai. A thick and spicy gravy made with peas called the usal is served with Indian bread known as Pav Buns. This recipe was this month's SNC challenge for Southern team, from Meenu of Random Ramblings, on behalf of the Northern team.

This is my first post in participating the  SNC challenge. I am so happy to be a part of the team through  SNC.  I got new friends and  also good opportunity to learn more  recipes from the North. My sincere thanks to Divya  Pramil for all her excellent support in helping me join this challenge, also would like to thank all the members of the SNC for giving me such wonderful  learning opportunity here and for all their kind support.

We at home loved this dish, infact I made little more spicy and a bit tangy otherwise just followed the recipe what Divya  Pramil had posted. Truly I have never tried this recipe from outside, although I have heard about this dish but never made it at home. During my next visit to Pune I want to try this from an authentic center and see how close was my dish to their taste.

  

Serves 3 people
Total Preparation Time - 40 minutes (Apart from soaking peas overnight)

White peas - 200 grams 

Big onion - 4 

Tomatoes - 2 

Garlic pods - 2 

Ginger - 1/4 inch piece 

Green chillies - 2 

Coconut - 1/4 cup (grated) 

Cumin seeds - 1/2 spoon

Red chilli powder - 1 spoon (use 1/2 soon if you don't want it to be spicy)

Coriander powder - 1/2 spoon 

Garam masala - 1/2 spoon 

Turmeric powder - 1/4 spoon 

Dry mango powder / Amchoor powder - 1/2 spoon powder 

Salt - As per taste 

Oil - 5 spoons 

Palak Paneer

Its been a while that I wanted to post this recipe and somehow it got moved on as I had some baked recipes to post. Hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas. Now looking forward for the New Year.  One way its nice that we have something or the other to look forward right.

Holidays got over and back to the routine again. 

Ingredients:

Spinach – one big bunch

Paneer - 1 cup cubed

Cumin seeds – ½

Asafoetida - a pinch

Oil - 2 tbspns

Onions - 1 medium, finely chopped

Ginger garlic paste - 1 tsp

Tomato - 1 small finely chopped 

Garam masala – ½  tsp

Cumin powder - 1 tsp

Coriander powder - 1 tsp

Red chili powder - 1 tsp or to your spice level

Salt -  to taste

Turmeric powder – ¼  tsp

Evaporated milk or cream  - ½ cup (you can  reduce to few spoons or skip upto your taste)

Rajasthani Daal with mixed lentils

Lentils or Daal is a common dish in most of the houses. Very simple and healthy to have right? I have mixed 3 types of dal and it really tastes good and goes with any Indian breads.

Finally we have reached the weekend here and just looking forward to it.

Serves :  4                                                                                                                                             Recipe source :  Maayeka

INGREDIENTS

Yellow lentils-2 tbsp

Split whole green lentils- ¾  cup

Bengal gram- 2 tbsp

Turmeric – ¾  tsp

lemon juice - 1 tbsp

Fresh coriander- ¼  cup

METHI MATAR

I love the combination of peas with fenugreek leaves. Goes very with any Indian bread.  Infact I made some mooli theplas and some chopped vegetable salad to with it and it was a fab dinner last evening.

Cooking time: 20 min

Serves: 3 

Ingredients

Onion – 1 medium

Fresh fenugreek leaves chopped – 1 cup *

Green peas – I have used the frozen, thawed

Yoghurt - ¼ cup

Cumin seed - ½ tsp

Coriander seeds – ½ tsp

Coriander powder – ¼ tsp

Red chilli powder – ¼ tsp or to your level of spice

Garam masala – a generous pinch

Cooking oil – 1 tbsp

Coriander leaves – for garnish

Fresh Cream - 1 tbsp (Optional )

·         Added some salt and keep for 15 minutes, after that squeeze and added the leaves. This way the fenugreek leaves wont be bitter.

Pachadi with Aamla or Nellikkai or Indian Gooseberry

The taste of Indian gooseberry is sour, bitter and  quite fibrous. One cannot eat many Aamla’s at a time but this way in this pachadi you can ensure  the intake of some, you wont even know that its Aamla in this dish. The ginger  and asafotida with methi enhances the flavour of this dish. Very simple  and very healthy and perfect to go with a bowl of steemed rice.

The Aamla fruit contains more than 80% of water. It also has protein, carbohydrate, fibre, minerals and vitamins and rich source of Vitamin C.  Studies says 100 Gms of Aamla contains - 700 mg Vitamin C. They say if Aamla is dried in the shade then much of the vitamin C is retained. To get the maximum out of Aamla it should be taken raw with very little salt.  

Even today I love to have this with salt and chillie powder mix, however they say you are not supposed to drink water after eating Aamla. But I love to have a sip of water because   a kind of nice sweetness  you get. Also we used to break the seed and find another tiny seed in the inner layer of the seed  – it was real fun to munch that. Aamla, mangoes, Guava, tamirind ……oooof takes me to my childhood days and stories associated with these are too many and are never ending. Love my childhood days.  

I always like to make this a bit spicy and goes very well with steamed rice, papad fried in oil or even the one roasted on fire  is a must and some nice side dish like potato fry or nice mizhukuparati. Infact I served this for lunch with rice, papad and beeetroot kutu.

Less spoken about this wonder fruit on the health benefits as its endless.  Let me move on...

Erissery

You can find this dish in the Kerala sadhya, you can make this with pumpkin along, or elephant yam with pumkin. The original way to make erissery for sadhya is with raw banana and elephant yam which I have here.

When you make this dish to one level till you add the tempering the masala is nice yellow, the moment we add the tempering the entire curry changes its colour. The flavor of the fried coconut in coconut oil enhances the dish so much and it tastes good.

Try this recipe you all will love it.

Vegetable kurma

Serves (4 - 5 Adults)

Ingredients

Mixed vegetables chopped to small cubes  - 2 cups (like potatoes, carrots, green peas or any vegetables you like)

Onions medium sized-  2 nos

Chopped ginger and garlic - 1 tbsp

Turmeric powder -  ½  tsp

Coriander powder - 2 tsp

Curd – ¼  cup

Garama masala whole (like cardamom – 2 nos, cloves 2 nos, cinnamon stick a small piece

Tomato large -  1 no

Green chillies - 5 nos split length wise

Red chilly powder -  1 tsp

Chopped coriander leaves & curry leaves – 2 sprigs

Salt

Oil

For Masala (grind these) 

Grated coconut -  1 cup

Cashew nuts -  5 Nos

Raisins  -  1 tbsp

Fennel seeds – ¼  tsp

Olan

Olan is a typical Kerala dish served in any Kerala sadhya. This is a less spicy dish so everyone including children can enjoy it. The main ingredients are black-eyed bean, Pumpkin or ash gourd and coconut Milk. This is served with rice.

Ingredients

Black eyed beans - 1/4 cup

Pumpkin  - 1 cup

Green chillies - 4 nos.

Coconut milk (thick) - 1/2 cup

Curry leaves - 2 sprigs

Coconut oil - 1 tsp

Salt to taste

Kootu Curry

This is one of the best classic Kerala dish to serve in for Sadhya. Kootu means  a combination of vegetable and lentil mixed and prepared, you can make this with  brown channa dal or chick peas and combination of vegetables like ash gourd, raw plantain, elephant yam.  Fresh ground coconut and spices make this dish yummy. As usual  its prepared in many varieties as you go to different parts of Kerala. I feel for sadhya I like to prepare this dish with brown channa dal and with elephant yam and that too I make it as  a dry preparation and we all at home love this way.

Ingredients :

Elephant Yam -  1 ½ cup cubed *
Black Chickpeas /Kadala : ¼  cup
Turmeric powder :  a pinch
Red chilly powder : ¼ or ½   tsp (keep your spice level)
Jaggery : 1 tbsp
Salt to taste

Mushroom Masala

Ingredients

Mushrooms - 2 cups (sliced)

Coriander seeds/powder - 2 tbsp 

One piece of whole garam masala (Cardamom, Cinnamon Stick small, Cloves)

Dry red chillies/powder – 3 Nos

Onions medium finely chopped - 1 No
Garlic and ginger paste - 1 tbsp
Tomato small -  1 No
Turmeric powder  ¼  tsp
Curd – ¼  cup
Oil
Salt 

Rice Idiyappam and potato stew

Ingredients

Idiyappam Rice flour - 2 cups

Water - 3 cups (approx)

Grated coconut ( garnishing )

Salt to taste

A dash of oil

Method

·         First boil water by adding salt.

Beetroot Pachadi

Ingredients

Beetroot -  1 no medium size, peeled and grated

Dry red chilli -  3 no

Turmeric powder – ¼  tsp

Grated coconut – ¼  cup

Ginger 1 a very small piece

Green chillies - 4 nos

Mustard seeds  - ¼ tsp for grinding and  ½ tsp for seasoning

Salt to taste 

Curry leaves few sprigs

Thick curd – ¾  cup  (you can use this as per your sour requirement)

Oil  - 1 tbsp

Pineapple Pachadi

A sweet and sour dish with mild flavour of the chillie and mustard is absolutely divine. This is one the the dish served in most of the Kerala sadhya, loved by all as the flavour of the pineapple is so good in this recipe.

Ingredients

Pineapple – one small pineapple
Grated coconut – 4 tbsp
Cumin seeds – ¼ tsp
Chilly powder – ½  tsp
Turmeric powder - ½ tsp
Salt -  to taste
Mustard seeds - ½ tsp
Dry red chillies- 3 nos
Cooking/Coconut oil - 2 tbsp
Curry leaves – 2 sprigs                                                                                                                      Fenugreek – ¼ tsp                                                                                                                                  Sugar – about 2 tbsp – if you feel the pineapple is sour then you may need to add sugar
Thick curd (not sour) - 1 glass

Dum Aloo – Banarasi Style

Have  not been posting any vegetarian dish for sometime. Infact I have made some small changes to the original recipe as  per my taste, anyways  here another delicious dish which goes very well with  aany Indian bread or even jeera rice.

Adapted from   Tarla Dalal 

Ingredients:

15 baby potatoes
oil for deep-frying                                                                                                                                       8 pods of powdered cardamom                                                                                                                 1 tbsp kasturi methi                                                                                                                                   1 tbsp honey (the dish will turn out little sweetish)                                                                                       3 tbsp cream                                                                                                                                            A small bunch chopped coriander leaves for garnish                                                                                   2 tsp butter or oil                                                                                                                                   Salt to taste

For the gravy:

2 large ripe tomatoes  roughly chopped
1 tsp ginger garlic paste
4 dry red chillies (use dry Kashmiri red chillies)
2 tbsp broken cashew nuts *
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp fennel seeds
2 ½  cups water

·         Don’t add more cashew as the curry will be too thick

Puttu & Green Kadala Curry

Puttu….. is a very popular South Indian  breakfast at Kerala. I have used here the matta rice flour (boiled rice) and fresh coconut. One  need  to have a puttu maker to get the cylindrical and round shapes. You can make with rice flour, ragi, wheat, multi grains with many variations in the stuffing and choice are unlimited.

Paneer Butter Masala

I have seen many of them love  paneer in any form, infact at my place my daughter loves it. Me n my hubby take only the gravy part and enjoy this dish as we make it for her sake.

One more quick and simple dish, infact there are so many versions of making this dish. However this is how I like to make my PBM J

Ingredients

Paneer – 250 gms

Peas – 3 tbsp

Cumin whole – 1/4tsp

Sugar – 1 tbsp

Tomato sauce – 2 tbsp

Big Onions – 1 big size 

Cashew – 4 nos.

Red chilli powder -  as per your taste

Coriander whole – 1 tsp

Garlic  whole – 3 pcs

Garam masala – ½ tsp

Ginger  paste –  ½ tsp

Tomatoes – 1 big size

Salt – to taste

Oil/butter  – about 2 tbsp

Red food colour – very little just to get the colour

Kasturi methi – 1/4tsp

Coriander  chopped for garnish

Cream – 2 tbsp