Saffron Trail

Traditional Lunch Series - Day 6 (Mor Kozhambu, Vazhakkai Curry)

2008-06-08T17:18:00.009+05:30

Sorry for the two day break in series...not that i did not cook, but the weather has been too glorious to sit and blog. I have been lingering around in the balcony watching from the heights as the monsoons sweep over the landscape, clicking photos of the grey clouds with silver linings, and generally lazing around in the pleasant turn in the weather scene. It was so hot and sultry beginning June that I was fervently praying for an early monsoon - and it has started in full force from the middle of last week. The plants in my balcony are enjoying it and so am I :) Here's the pending two days account one after the other. I also have a wonderful bread coming up for you, called the Tassajara bread that we baked yesterday. Will find some time to sneak the baking notes somewhere in the middle of the traditional lunch series.

Day 6 Menu - Mor Kozhambu & Vazhakkai curry

Mor Kozhambu is a buttermilk based Tamil 'kadhi', which can have fried or sauteed okra pieces, chunks of cooked white pumpkin, or fried colocassia pieces. Even plain, it is delicious, very easy to make with the minimum of ingredients. It is also a delicious accompaniment to dosas and idlis which no hotel will ever serve you. There are two varieties of this buttermilk based kozhambu, one made with green chillies, which is pale green in colour and one made with red chillies, which is a pale pink in colour. The recipe varies in the masala that is ground for each.

Mor Kozhambu along with onion uthappam is truly mouth watering. When had with rice, it is usually accompanied by a vegetable-paruppu usili which is cooked veggies like beans / tendli mixed with crumbled steamed lentil paste, so that the proteins from the lentil usili make up for the lack of dal in the mor kozhambu. However, I made this with a simple plantain saute, which is also an equally superb combination.

Recipe for Mor Kozhambu (Pink variety)
Serves 4

Ingredients
3 cups thick buttermilk, slightly sour is better
1 cup water
To saute: 1/2 tsp fenugreek seeds, 1 tbsp raw rice grains, 3 dried red chillies
1/4 cup fresh coconut
1 tsp salt
Tempering: 1 tsp oil, 1/2 tsp mustard seeds, 1 sprig curry leaves, 1 dried red chilli

Directions
1. Whisk the buttermilk and water in a heavy bottomed pan.
2. In a wok, heat 1/2 tsp oil, saute the fenugreek seeds, raw rice and dried chillies till the seeds turn darker (not brown though), and the rice becomes opaque. Remove, cool and grind with the coconut into a fine paste, using upto 1/4 cup water.
3. Add this paste to the buttermilk. Season with salt.
4. Place this mix on low heat, stirring all the while . This is the most important step, as even a minute of leaving this on the gas will make the buttermilk separate into whey and curd, which will render this dish useless.
5. Gentle heat and constant stirring until this comes to a simmer, will cook the paste keeping the buttermilk intact.
6. In the wok, heat a tsp of oil. Temper with the ingredients given and transfer it over the mor kozhambu. Keep covered until ready to serve.

Note
If adding vegetables, chunks of cooked white pumpkin, or boiled, sliced and fried colocassia slices, or fried okra slices can be added to the kozhambu during step.5 (simmering stage)

Recipe for Vazhakkai curry
Serves 3-4

Ingredients
4 medium sized slim plantains (do not choose the short thick variety for this recipe)
1 tbsp oil
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp red chilli powder
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp salt

Directions
1. Tail and top the plantains. Lightly peel them. Cut through vertically into two and then slice to get semi circular slices of medium thickness. This is the only effort involved in this recipe.
2. Heat the oil in the wok. Splutter mustard and cumin seeds, add the plantain slices.
3. Add the turmeric, red chilli powder, salt, stir to mix well.
4. Sprinkle water, cover and cook for 5 minutes, stirring around 1-2 times in between until the plantain is soft and cooked.
5. If you want a crisper curry, add a tbsp of oil at this stage and let the curry crisp on a low flame without stirring for up to 5 minutes.

Lunch Series so far

Day 1 - Vengaya Sambar, Vendakkai curry, Potato Roast
Day 2 - Peerkangai thuvaiyal, Red Chauli
Day 3 - Keerai Milagoottal, Cabbage Curry
Day 4 - Capsicum Baath, Pumpkin pachidi, Thair saadam
Day 5 - Carrot Sambar, Avaraikkai Curry
Day 6 - Mor Kozhambu, Vazhakkai Curry

Traditional Lunch Series - Day 5 (Carrot Sambar, Avarakkai Curry)

2008-06-05T19:36:00.008+05:30

Here's wishing my dear friend Sig and her partner of 10 years Siv a very Happy Anniversary! Here's to many many more decades of togetherness, love and warmth sweetheart.

Nothing much to ramble or 'show' today. The menu was an attempt to clear up the Sword beans (English equivalent of Avaraikkai ) my help had chopped up yesterday. The fat sweet carrots found themselves sliced and being thrown into the Carrot sambar...where they swam until they were devoured by us.

Recipe for Avaraikkai Curry (Dry Sword Beans Saute)
Serves 3

Ingredients
3 cups finely sliced beans (first top, tail and remove the stringy fibre if any from the sides)
1 tsp oil
1 pinch asafoetida
1 long dried red chilli
1 tsp udad dal
fat pinch turmeric powder
salt to taste
1 tbsp scraped coconut

Directions
1. Pressure cook the chopped beans in one of the separators of the pressure cooker, for two whistles and on sim for another 4-5 minutes. Take care not to add water to the container in which you are cooking the beans or they will get mushy on pressure cooking. Cooking them dry is akin to steaming and they get soft yet hold their shape at the end of the cooking process.
2. In a wok, heat the oil. Put in the asafoetida, then splutter mustard seeds.
3. Add the udad dal, saute till golden. Throw in the cooked beans with salt and turmeric. Stir to mix well and garnish with fresh coconut.

Recipe for Carrot Sambar
Serves 4

Ingredients
3/4 cup tur dal pressure cooked in 2 cups water, mashed well
3 medium carrots, scrubbed and thickly sliced
1/2 cup thin tamarind puree or 1 tbsp tamarind paste
3 tsp sambar powder
1 tsp oil
Tempering: asafoetida, 1/2 tsp mustard seeds, fresh curry leaves
Salt to taste

Directions
1. Pressure cook the carrots in the other separator while cooking the beans with a sprinkling of water and pinch of salt.
2. In a heavy bottomed pan, heat oil, temper with asafoetida, mustard seeds, curry leaves.
3. Add the cooked carrot slices. Saute for a few seconds. Add the mashed dal and tamarind puree / paste. Bring to a simmer.
4. Make a slurry of the sambar powder in 1/2 cup water, add it to the pan, simmer for 2-3 minutes. Season with salt, taste and adjust.
5. Serve hot with steamed rice and a dry curry.

Notes
You can also add raw carrots in stage 3, add some water, cover and let the carrots cook in the pan itself. Pressure cooking makes this very quick, and you can save over 8 minutes while waiting for the carrots to cook in the pan. You can leave the sambar thick or thin it with some water to get a desired consistency.

Making a variety of sambars using the same technique
Sliced radish, beetroot chunks, bitter gourd slices, pumpkin chunks can be similarly used as a substitute to carrot to get radish, beetroot, bitter gourd, pumpkin sambar respectively. Capsicum squares can also be used, but these can just be sauteed in stage 3 instead of being pressure cooked.

Traditional Lunch Series - Day 4 (Capsicum baath, Pumpkin Pachidi, Thair Saadam)

2008-06-04T15:57:00.008+05:30

Capsicum baath is something I tasted in Mysore in one of the several feasts during my cousin's wedding. This was served on the day after the wedding where just the family members from both the bride's and the groom's side gathered for a final farewell. And what a meal it was...the taste of this rice preparation lingered on and on...well after we boarded the train to come back home. Some of them were lucky enough to get a 'packet' of this to eat on the journey back...

The next time I tasted this was some weeks ago when Geetha Chithi made this 'on-demand' and I ate this for 4 continuous meals without tiring (she had prepared quite a quantity) . Yesterday evening when she called me, she gave me the idea of making this for lunch, and why not I though, as I had a bag of fresh capsicums (green bell peppers) waiting just to be made into a Capsicum Baath. A word of clarification regarding 'baath' - while it is pronounced just as you would the English word 'bath', it has nothing to do with it. It simply means a 'kalandha saadam' or a mixed rice preparation, which can be eaten as it is or with a 'pachidi' (raita). The same recipe can be used to make Kathrikkai Baath by just substituting the capsicums with eggplants. I suppose this recipe is of Hebbal Iyengar origins. Please correct me if I am wrong. The spices used in this are quite similar to my favourite Bisi Bele Baath recipe blogged by Saakshi, which she says is an authentic Hebbal Iyengar recipe.

Recipe for Capsicum Baath - A perfect showcase of Indian spices
(Bell Pepper Spice Rice)
Serves 4-6 people as the first course of the meal, which is concluded by Thair Saadam :)

Please do not be afraid of the long list of spices that is going to follow. This is virtually a spice garden of a recipe, but the end result is a beautiful amalgam showcasing how seamlessly Indian spices can blend with each other....and most of these will be easily found in an Indian kitchen, or your nearest Indian grocery.

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups normal grain rice ( I used Doobraj)
5 large green bell peppers, cut into medium squares (no seeds)
1/4 cup peanuts
1 tbsp oil
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
2 tsp salt

For Spice Mix
1/2 tsp ghee / oil
4 large dried red chillies
2 tbsp chana dal (Split skinned Bengal gram dal)
1 tbsp udad dal
handful of coriander seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp whole black pepper corns
4 one inch long cinnamon sticks
5-6 cloves
1 green cardamom
2 bay leaves
2 tbsp sesame seeds
1/4 cup grated coconut (fresh or dried)

1 tbsp jaggery (optional)
1 tbsp tamarind soaked in water for 10 minutes

Step I - Cooking the rice
Pressure cook the picked and washed rice with 3 cups water, for 2-3 whistles. Switch off and cool.

Step II - Preparing the capsicum
In a wok, heat a tbsp of oil. Splutter the mustard and cumin seeds. Add the peanuts. Saute for 2 minutes till they change colour. Then add in the diced capsicum, on a low-medium flame, stir fry till the capsicum is softened but still a little crisp.

Step III - Preparing the spice mix
While the capsicum is cooking on a low flame, heat another wok on the other burner. Add the spices (red chilli through bay leaves - reserving the coconut and sesame seeds). Continuously saute on a low flame till the dals turn lightly golden and everything begins to release its aroma (around 7 minutes) . Remove and cool.
In the same wok, lightly toast the grated coconut till fragrant - around 2 minutes. Remove onto the above dish.
Next toast the sesame seeds. When they start popping (in around 2 minutes), remove them too.
In a mixer, pulse all the above toasted items along with the soaked tamarind and jaggery, till you get a coarse powder.

Step IV - Assembling the baath
In a large deep dish, remove the cooked rice and cool for 10 minutes, separating with a fork if necessary.
Over this add the capsicum-peanut mix as well as the coarsely powdered spice mix, with adequate salt (around 2 tsp). Toss lightly with clean fingertips, until the rice is uniformly coated with the spices and the vegetable mix. Check for salt and adjust accordingly.

Notes
This is best prepared 3-4 hours in advance of the meal, as the flavours are at their very best after few hours of sitting around.

Our accompanying raita was made from golden pumpkin, finely chopped, microwave cooked, mashed and mixed with yogurt and a standard mustard-curry leaf tempering. You can also do a ripe-banana raita or a simple cucumber raita. Take care to keep the raita simple and spice-free as the rice is already brimming with spices.

That was a longish recipe and I'm feeling pretty exhausted!

Next and final course was Thair Saadam, which needs no introduction to any Indian. The quintessential yogurt and rice without which no traditional meal ends in Tamil-land. For a daily meal, rice and yogurt are mixed with deft fingers and eaten with a pickle or sambar (if leftover from the first course). On some special days, yogurt rice is brought pre-mixed to the table with a delicate tempering.
I used half broken wheat and half rice for this preparation today (no special reason). Mash with plenty of yogurt (half milk and half yogurt if you are going to leave it out to sour, or lots of milk and tiny bit of yogurt if it is going to be consumed after several hours as the milk will set to curd along with the rice, and our Tamil grannies know how to time this to perfection).
Season with salt.
In a tadka ladle or small wok, heat a tsp of oil. Add bits of minced green chillies, bits of minced fresh ginger, mustard seeds, curry leaves and a pinch of asafoetida. Turn over into the yogurt rice. Give a stir.
Serve chilled with your favourite pickle. (My current favourite is Tomato Thokku from Grand Sweets)

Lunch Series so far

Day 1 - Vengaya Sambar, Vendakkai curry, Potato Roast
Day 2 - Peerkangai thuvaiyal, Red Chauli
Day 3 - Keerai Milagoottal, Cabbage curry
Day 4 - Capsicum Baath, Pumpkin pachidi, Thair saadam

Traditional Lunch Series - Day 3 ( Keerai Milagoottal, Cabbage Curry )

2008-06-03T11:15:00.007+05:30

Yesterday I managed to get some fresh spinach at my local grocery shop. Cabbage is another thing I always pick up on my visits. It is a useful thing for making simple saute curry for lunch, or koottu. For dinners, it adds crunch to our noodles / fried rice - and I even use it to add bulk to left over dosa batter to make crunchy uthapams for breakfast.

Spinach is best used on the same day or at max the following day. That's how Keerai Milagootal managed to feature on today's menu. The ideal partner to this would be a potato roast (always ideal for everything :) or a sliced plantain roast. Since I rarely find the slender plantains suited for this curry, cabbage seemed the next best option.

Milagoottal or Kootan is a Kerala derivative into Tamil cuisine and since my roots are in Tirunelveli which is almost close to the Kerala border, some of our dishes have the 'ubiquitous to Kerala' coconut ground in the gravy of the vegetables. Aviyal is as much our cuisine as much as it is a part of the Keralite sadya. So is the milagoottal, which we call Keerai Kootan at home. This goes well with a mangai pachidi, in which the tender mangoes that have been used to make the vadumangai pickle are removed from the spicy brine, washed and ground to a coarse paste, which is then mixed into yogurt.

For me, there is no better way to consume spinach. Mashed fresh spinach leaves mixed with mashed cooked paruppu (tur dal) and spiced with a mix of fried red chillies-udad dal - black pepper-rice grains is the perfect way to get my dose of iron, protein and comfort for the day!

Recipe for Keerai Kootan
Serves 3-4

Step I - Preparing the spinach
Take 2 bunches spinach. Pluck the leaves and tender stems. Washed thoroughly in bucket of sink full of water, several times. Chop finely. In a heavy pan, place the chopped spinach with a pinch of salt and 1/4 cup water. Boil the spinach till wilted and mash with back of a round ladle. Do not cover while cooking to retain green colour.

Step II- For spice paste
Fry the following in 1/2 tsp oil in a wok till dal turns golden-
1 tbsp udad dal
3 medium dried red chillies
1 tsp whole black pepper
1 tbsp rice (uncooked raw grains)

Grind the above with 1/4 cup of fresh grated coconut, using upto 1/4 cup water into a fine paste. Remove from blender and keep aside.

Step III - Paruppu (dal)
Take under 3/4 cup of tur dal, wash well, pressure cook till very soft with 2 cups water. (2 whistles and on sim for 5 minutes)
Mash this well with a ladle. Keep aside.

Step IV - Assembling all 3 parts and tempering the kootan
In a pan with the mashed spinach, add the mashed dal and the ground spice paste. Stir to mix well. Add salt to taste. Bring to a simmer. Remove from flame.
For tempering - heat 1 tsp oil, to this add 1/2 tsp mustard seeds, 1 tsp udad dal, few curry leaves. Once seeds splutter and dal turns golden, transfer this tempering over the prepared kootan.

Serve hot with rice.

This is the simplest possible preparation of cabbage which my mom makes often and beautifully well. Readers will be aware that I keep ranting about how Tamil Brahmin cooking keeps things basic, utterly simple and yet superb to taste. No over cooking, no over spicing and not much oil either - all working towards bringing out the true flavour of vegetables. As I say, we are not afraid to taste the real vegetable in the dish :)

Recipe for Cabbage Curry
Serves 3

Ingredients
4-5 cups finely chopped cabbage
1 tsp oil
2 dried red chillies
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp udad dal
1/2-1 tsp salt
2 tbsp fresh grated coconut

Directions
In a large wok, heat the oil. Splutter mustard seeds, fry the broken red chillies and udad dal for 30 seconds.
Add the finely chopped cabbage, salt and stir for a few seconds.
Sprinkle some water, cover and cook for a total for 8-10 minutes taking care to open, sprinkle water and stir every 2 minutes so that the cabbage does not burn.
Once cooked, remove from flame, garnish with fresh coconut and serve hot.

Lunch Series so far

Day 1 - Vengaya Sambar, Vendakkai curry, Potato Roast
Day 2 - Peerkangai thuvaiyal, Red Chauli
Day 3 - Keerai Milagoottal, Cabbage curry

Traditional Lunch Series - Day 2 (Peerkangai thuvaiyal and Red chauli in gravy)

2008-06-02T16:34:00.004+05:30

While one is a traditional recipe, the other is not. Both were had with rice, but I'm sure it will taste good with rotis too.

Menu
Peerkangai (Ridge gourd) thuvaiyal
Red Chauli beans
Served with rice, yogurt, sweet Kesar mango slices, Lime pickle

Thuvaiyal is a kind of Indian pesto, consisting of a vegetable and a mix of sauteed spices best served with rice. This also works great as an unusual sandwich spread with some cheese / cream cheese.

Recipe for Peerkangai Thuvaiyal
Earlier version
This time I adapted from the Meenakshi Ammal Cook and See

Ingredients
3 medium ridge gourds
1 tsp oil
fat pinch asafoetida powder
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tbsp udad dal
4-5 dried red chillies, broken into pieces
small ball of tamarind, soaked in water (marble sized)
1/4 cup fresh grated coconut
1 tsp or more salt

Directions
1. Wash the ridge gourd, light peel the ridges (optional) and dice.
2. In a wok, heat the oil, add the mustard seeds, red chillies, udad dal and fry till the dal turns golden. Remove from heat and keep aside.
3. In the same wok, throw in the diced ridge gourd with a pinch of salt and turmeric, saute for 2 min, add 1/4 cup water, cover and cook till soft.
4. Grind the cooled spice mix (mustard, red chillies, udad dal) with the coconut and softened tamarind to a coarse powder. Remove from mixer and keep aside.
5. Grind the cooled cooked ridge gourd to a coarse paste, in the final pulse, add the earlier ground masala to this, with enough salt to taste and blend.

Remove in a bowl and serve with steaming rice. Rice and thuvaiyal are mixed with some gingelly oil for the perfect combination. Ghee also works fine.

Red Chauli
These dried lentils are the red version of black eyed peas, which make an appearance off and on in the supermarket. This time, I brought a pack of these red chauli beans home. The recipe is for a kootu kind of preparation that can be mixed with rice, or had with rotis or even soft dosais.

Ingredients
1 cup dried chauli beans, soaked overnight or for at least 4-6 hours
2 tsp oil
pinch of asafoetida
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1 sprig curry leaves
2 large tomatoes, finely chopped
1 tsp coriander powder
1/2 tsp garam masala powder
1 tsp red chilli powder
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp salt or to taste
Lemon juice, coriander leaves

Directions
1. Pressure cook the soaked beans with 2 cups of fresh water for two whistles. Switch off cooker and cool until the masala is prepared.
2. Heat the oil in a wok. Start with asafoetida, splutter the mustard and cumin seeds. Add curry leaves, saute till they crackle.
3. Add the chopped tomatoes and all the spice powders & salt. Stir for 4-5 minutes on a low flame till the tomatoes are mushy.
4. Open the cooled cooker and add the cooked beans to the tomato paste. Stir in up to one cup of water to adjust consistency. If you want more gravy, add extra water and a slurry of rice flour / gram flour in water in the final stage and bring to a simmer.
5. Adjust the salt. Add lemon juice or tamarind juice for tanginess and garnish with fresh coriander leaves.

[Pictures shall be uploaded later]

Day 1 - Vengaya Sambar, Vendakkai Curry, Potato Roast
Day 2 - Peerkangai Thuvaiyal, Red Chauli

Traditional Lunch Series - Day 1 ( Vengaya sambar, Vendakkai curry, Potato Roast )

2008-06-01T11:11:00.011+05:30

For the next few days - we are going to be having traditional Tambram food for lunch. When it's just me, I usually make one-pot meals which have a fair balance of carbs, proteins and loads of vegetables. Now that I have company for the next couple of weeks, proper lunch it is!

I'm just doing this for fun to chronicle how many such traditional (read non-fusion) recipes I can cook :) Anyway it is also a great way to share authentic (almost) recipes from my heritage with anyone who may be interested.

All items are accompanied by rice / broken wheat and with lots of yogurt to end the meal and serve 3-4 people

Day One - Sunday

Menu

Vengaya Sambar
Potato Roast
Vendakai Curry
Special add on: Fried vadam

Recipe for Vengaya Sambar (Onion sambar)

Ingredients
3/4 cup tur dal (pressure cooked with pinch of hing and mashed)
5 medium sized onions, peeled & quartered
2 tsp oil
fat pinch asafoetida
1/4 tsp fenugreek seeds
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
2 sprigs curry leaves
1 dried red chilli broken
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
2 tsp ready tamarind paste or 1 large lemon sized ball soaked in water and extracted
3 tsp sambar powder
1 tsp salt or to taste

Directions

1. In a heavy pan, heat the oil. Temper with asafoetida, fenugreek, mustard, curry leaves, dried chilli and saute for a few seconds.
2. Add the quartered onions, turmeric, pinch of salt, saute on medium heat for 1-2 minutes.
3. Add a glass of water, cover and cook till onions are soft.
4. In a bowl, make a slurry with sambar powder, tamarind paste and 1/2 cup water.
5. Add this slurry to the softened onions, bring to a simmer.
6. Next add the mashed dal, salt, bring to a simmer.
7. Check for salt and sourness, adjust and bring to a simmer again.

Remove from flame and keep covered until ready to serve with rice.

Notes
This tastes better after 1-2 hours of making it, as the flavours improve with time.
You can use chinna vengayam (Madras onions / Shallots) instead of regular onions.
I will share with you the recipe for homemade sambar powder in a later post, you can use MTR sambar powder instead.

Recipe for Potato Roast

Ingredients
5 medium potoes, boiled, skinned and cubed
2 tbsp oil

For the dry marinade:
1 tbsp fine rice flour
1/4-1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp red chilli powder
2 tsp coriander powder

Tempering ingredients:
fat pinch asafoetida
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp fennel seeds
1 tsp Bengal gram dal (chana dal)
1 tsp udad dal
2 sprigs curry leaves

1 tbsp finely chopped coriander for garnish

Directions

1. Sprinkle the ingredients for the dry marinade on the boiled potato cubes, coat using light hands and keep aside for 15 min - half hour.
2. Heat oil in a heavy bottomed pan, add all the tempering ingredients, stir around till the dals turn golden.
3. Add the spiced potato cubes, toss well to coat with whole spices. Let the potato brown on a low flame. For this it is necessary that you don't keep tossing them around, keep them on a low flame and turn around after 10 minutes, to brown the other sides.
4. Once ready, garnish with coriander and serve hot.

Notes
The udad dal, bengal gram, fennel seeds and curry leaves are not added in a typical Iyer style roast, I have incorporated some Chettinad flavours in this. So you can avoid them to make a simpler roast.

Recipe for Vendakkai Curry (Dry okra / lady's finger / bhindi saute)

A curry in Tamil Brahmin cuisine is a dry sauteed preparation, not involving any gravy. Most 'curries' are prepared in the similar manner using a variety of vegetables.

Ingredients

2 cups thickly sliced okra
(Preparation: Wash okra well, wipe completely dry, top, tail and slice with a dry knife)
1 tbsp oil
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
2 broken dried red chillies
1 tsp udad dal
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp salt

Directions
In a wok, heat oil. Splutter the mustard seeds, fry the red chillies and saute the udad dal till golden. Add in the sliced okra, tumeric and salt and saute on medium flame off and on for 7-8 minutes till okra is cooked yet lightly crunchy.
Do not cover while cooking.

Serve with rice and rasam / sambar / mor kozhambu.

Mango Jam starring in Saturday Morning Breakfast for One

2008-05-24T10:00:00.005+05:30

THE MAGICAL MILLION
While I was waiting for the magic one millionth hit to happen, it came and went without my knowledge and now it is a million plus some 7000, but thank you my dear readers, friends, family for encouraging me and keeping me going at this blog.
Here's to a million more :)

(My posts don't seem to be appearing on the Taste of India feed list, so please subscribe to the feed on your favourite reader or by email)

I'm back home, after spending two weeks with my parents. They live in the same city as me, an hour's drive at most times. But I have rarely stayed this long. One week's stay got extended by another week thanks to a nasty cold which they didn't want me to nurse myself as DH was out traveling. Needless to say, I hardly cooked in the last two weeks, ~~had~~ hogged a lot of traditional lunches, and just lazed and lazed. Since I was getting back to an empty house last afternoon, I had planned for two of my friends to come over and spend the night. No cooking involved, just ordered in a couple of pizzas!

This morning, I was looking forward to having a relaxed breakfast with my favourite Saturday newspaper - Lounge (Mint). Having purchased some luscious Kesar mangoes yesterday, I thought of making some instant mango jam in the microwave, just while the bread slices were toasting on the tava and the Amul butter sitting near the stove to soften.

Initially I did think of searching some blogs for a recipe, but then the laziness of a Saturday morning prevented me from even starting my laptop. It is a mango after all, and nothing much can go wrong - so saying, I put together one chopped mango, pinch of salt, fat pinch of black pepper and a spoonful of organic jaggery powder in a glass bowl, and started nuking at high power starting with 2 minutes, kept giving 2 minute increments, and after the 6th minute it was nearly done. The jam had firmed up and yet some of the pieces held their shape, which is how I like it.

In a total of seven minutes, I had a delicious jam, bursting with flavours ready to spread itself over nicely crisped up toast spread with Amul butter.

If you still want a proper recipe, here it is.

Instant Mango Jam
Serves 2 - or enough for 5-6 pieces of toast
Time taken - Under 10 minutes

You need
1 sweet mango like Kesar - fine diced (almost a cup of cubes)
1 generous tsp jaggery powder or brown sugar ( I used Fabindia's Desi Sakkar - Organic Jaggery)
1 pinch salt
1/4 tsp ground black pepper

Combine all the above in a microwave safe glass bowl.
Nuke at high for a total of 6-7 minutes, giving it a stir 3-4 times in between.
The jam is ready when it comes together and most of the liquid has dried up.

Notes:
You can add cardamom powder or cinnamon powder instead of black pepper. I liked the salt and pepper combo going with the sweet mango taste.
If your mango doesn't have that tangy edge, you can also squeeze a few drops of lime.
You can try this with larger quantities, since this is my first try, I used just one mango. Since it is ready in a jiffy, it can be made as and when you need it.
A thinner version of this will taste yummy on some plain pancakes.

This is my entry to May Mango madness edition of Weekend Breakfast Blogging (#22) which Arundati is hosting at Escapades. Send in your entries to her by the 31st :)

Meme : Table Talk

2008-05-18T10:23:00.007+05:30

When one of my favourite bloggers, Usha, tagged me for this meme, there was no way to refuse :)

What’s your favourite table?

My dream table - Picture courtesy Ebay store

Currently we have a small IKEA four seater that came along with us when we moved to Bombay. Soon, on moving to our dream house that has a huge dining area and my favourite is a large, dark, solid rectangular wooden table. I’ve spotted one in Fabindia and one on Ebay (picture above). I think we’ll do okay with a 6 seater, but DH being the way he is, is gunning for an 8 seater. You’re welcome for dinner!

What would you have for your last supper?
- Chinna vengaya araicha sambar, potato roast, rice and vethal OR
- Penne in simple basil pesto topped with grated parmesan along glass of Sula Chardonnay
- To end the meal, a scoop of my favourite Natural’s Icecream (Fresh Mango or Papaya Pineapple depending on the season)

What’s your poison?
Tea in all its variations– Masala chai, Earl Grey, Tetley’s Green tea, Moroccan mint tea, Tea flavoured with orange rind

Name your three desert island ingredients.
Amul cheese cubes
Yellow banana chips
Murukku from Grand Sweets
(I’m on a desert, so don’t have to bother about counting calories !)

What would you put in Room 101?
I'll skip this.

Which book gets you cooking?
They get me sleeping, they sit on my bedside table.

What’s your dream dinner party line-up?
No such line up in mind, but surely people who appreciate good food!

What was your childhood teatime treat?
Britannia’s Bourbon, but cream biscuits were a treat in the real sense, I wasn’t allowed to eat them on a daily basis.

What was your most memorable meal?
Almost a year ago, when DH and me went for dinner at Oh! Calcutta. It was a first time for both us, and we oohed and aahed at how yummy simple ‘vegetarian’ Bengali food could be. The memories of that evening are enough to make our mouths water even today.

What was your biggest food disaster?
Overdoing the pasta, by leaving the kitchen while its boiling and forgetting about it
Making milk boil for over half hour and then fretting over all the gas wasted
I don’t know if these are my biggest disasters, but they mostly happen if I don’t hang around the food while it’s cooking, due to my absent-mindedness.

What’s the worst meal you’ve ever had?
There have been quite a few, but you can read my recent experience here.

Who’s your food hero/food villain?
There are not many to choose from the food shows in India, but two of them are fighting tooth and nail to wear the crown of food villain –
One of them who is a famous (?) Indian cookshow hostess of British origin. Her show Cooking is no rocket science is bad enough to make me (with the steeliest of stomachs) puke! I’m talking about Manju Malhi. Her recipes are something I wouldn’t want to cook for my worst enemies and her style of presenting – less I say about it, the better it is. Besides I can’t stand people using the word ‘my’ as a universal prefix…my tomahtoes, my onions, my bacon, my BUNS…you get the drift??
The other is also a cookery show host from the same channel – Marut Sikka. Luckily the show is off air now….No one would miss the show except some of the super specialty cardiac hospitals in the country, as the number of coronary bypass surgeries would have drastically gone down, thanks to this show going off air. Every recipe would have minimum one cup of ‘nice’ desi ghee, plus more ‘nice’ oil or ghee for frying, plus more for tadka! Even if he were cooking for the farmers burning 3000 calories a day on the field, this would be sacrilege. His universal adjective is NICE, nice onions, nicely chopped tomatoes, nice desi ghee! Gosh, I’m already feeling stressed out thinking about these two!

Nigella or Delia?
Have watched Nigella only. While I like her ability to really eat what she cooks, unlike some of the reed thin cookshow people, I can’t stand that pigging out scene in front of the fridge that ends each episode.

Vegetarians: genius or madness?
Neither. I was born into it!

Fast food or fresh food?
Fast food for those times when craving hits without a warning, fresh food at all other times.

Who would you most like to cook for?
DH for sure…he has never discouraged me or complained over a single meal I have served him since we got married.

What would you cook to impress a date?
Wont cook.

Make a wish.
I would like to share a meal with some food bloggers who are also my very close friends (don’t want to take names, but I guess you know who you all are), a kind of potluck where we all cook for each other.

I’d like to tag Anjali, Arundati, Desi Girl, Gardenia, Raaga, Sig, and Suganya to hear about their table tales.

Awards and Mentions

2008-05-13T19:35:00.006+05:30

Recently, some blogger awards have been coming my way :) Instead of doing several posts to cover them, I have decided to dedicate this one page to all the dedications that have come my way...Until now, I have not mentioned or displayed any of the badges.

For one, since I am not too up to date on Technorati, I don't even realise that someone has linked up to me, or mentioned my blog. Secondly, I appreciate each one of you who think of me to say something nice, and I really value those nice vibrations coming my way, even if it is only via the internet.

If I had to select any particular blogger to pass on the awards to, it is a tough task for me, as I feel each one is doing their best in their own way - Cooking and caring for their family, taking the trouble to photograph the dishes with husband and hungry kids waiting to be served, the blogger herself/ himself resigning to cold food or microwave warmed food as it would have gotten cold while taking the time to capture it on the camera, and then taking time to write about it, responding to comments....it is clearly no mean task. Hence I do not consider myself in any position to judge who is a Yummy Blogger or who deserves an award of Excellence, or who is a Nice blogger....each one is yummy, excellent and nice in their own way!

However, with deep gratitude I display all the badges (and occasional press mentions) on this page :)

Mentions

Mid-Day - Mumbai's Daily Tabloid
Gauravnomics - Desi Blog of the day
Interview on Cooking Goddess

Awards

In case I have missed your award, please leave a link in the comments, and I shall update the page promptly.

From Shaheen of Malabar Spices & Shubha of Chukti Bhar Pyaar

From Deeba of Passionate About Baking

Happy Mother's Day

2008-05-11T09:59:00.002+05:30

To all Mothers, Soon-to-be Mothers, Mother-in-laws,
Happy Mother's Day.

I am spending the day at my mom's place today, eating Keerai Kootan for lunch.

Recommended reading for today:

Usha's It's Mother's Day at every meal - which completely reflects my own thoughts

Shilpa's Black Forest Cake for Mother's Day

Also, would like to congratulate my friend Raaga, her blog The Singing Chef has got rave reviews in yesterday's Hindu.

General stuff and junky dinners

2008-05-08T19:58:00.006+05:30

OK, my two dear friends know how I attended my family wedding in Chennai sitting in Mumbai yesterday morning...but I still haven't gotten over the thrill of it, so had to share it with my larger audience out here. So that's where technology in India is taking us.

Last week we managed to catch one of those rare Tamizh movie releases in Bombay - Vellithirai, in one of those multiplexes we don't usually visit. When I was booking our tickets online, I was pleasantly surprised to notice that I can book my large caramel popcorn, coffee and samosa online too with my tickets and they will be delivered to my seat number whenever I'd like them to....now that's what I call spoiling the customers! Another example how technology is transforming our lives. I don't mean to say I want to be waited on hand and foot when I'm watching a movie, but I like to be given the choice :)

The last few days I've been on a junk food spree. Last week we were in the Tamizhland of Bombay, Matunga on the way back from town. We had a quick weekday lunch at the Madras Cafe, which is a functional eatery that Matunga masses of the last few decades swear by. I love their Raagi- Masala dosa and filter kaapi. They also serve stuff that very few eateries in Bombay would serve, stuff like Ragi Sevai, Rasam Vadai, Neer Masala dosa, and though we are made to share tables with total strangers because of the lack of space, when the food is so good, I don't really care if we are made to sit on a table for four where there is one stranger already slurping his sambar. Post-lunch we stopped by Venkateshwara stores close to the flower-market, picked up a big bag of Nendram Varuval (quartered plantain chips), some traditional 'mixture', a pack of thattai and a block of Tirunelveli Halwa. While I am not too interested in mixture, the plantain chips are quite irresistible and while the hubby is at work, i have been slowly working towards finishing off the contents, albeit a little at a time, with my afternoon tea.

Veggie Crescents ( I like to call them pillows)

Since the husband has been extremely busy at work this whole week and having a working dinner for most of the past few days, I have been making extremely junky choices for my dinners...well, except for one day when I gathered a lot of inspiration to shrug off my increasing laziness at cooking dinner for one, and made these Vegetable Crescents. The combination of stuffing was very finely chopped red cabbage, spring onion greens, onion, cauliflower, capsicum, paneer and cheese, and somehow these vegetable flavours mingled brilliantly together, giving a super end result. The dough asked for milk, but the lazy me had none at home, and used water instead.

Inside a pillow

The original was blogged by Sunita and then tried by Arundati, who made sure she kept egging me about this delicious thing she kept making every other day, or so it seemed. I must say it was such a treat. The hubby managed to taste one despite coming home late, and I used the yeasty dough and stuffing for making parathas the next day for lunch. With so many vegetables used, the stuffing mix was still left over, and today was promptly mixed into idli-batter to make lovely pink uthapams.

Yesterday's junky dinner was jhaal mudi, a Bengali style bhel, where mustard oil adds a whole new zing. And today I just ordered some Pairi aam-ras (mango puree) from the shop across the road, mixed a part of this with a part of milk to get some delicious mango milk shake, the last few drops of which I have just cleared off with my fingers. This was today's dinner.

Green bean-tomato salad

Talking about junky dinners, I must admit I made salad for dinner one of these days, a first experience with using green beans in salads which is quite common in American and European cuisine. For me green beans means Paruppu Usili or Pulaos. I used a salad recipe from a blog, Smitten Kitchen that I found on food blog search while searching for 'green bean salad'. Here it is, I just substituted cherry tomatoes with quartered regular tomatoes and red wine vinegar with balsamic vinegar. I wasn't too excited with the flavours, the tomatoes and vinegar combining to give quite a sour taste that I'm not fond of. May be next time I'll omit the tomatoes altogether. This is my entry for Raaga's MBP - Soups and Salads.

Ajwaini Arbi ke Tikkey (Colocassia with carom seeds)

2008-05-05T10:58:00.009+05:30

Arbi ke Tikkey

Arbi / Colocassia or seppankizhangu (in Tamil) can be an ugly looking vegetable...but lends itself to some delicious dishes. Ask those good Tamil boys who pester their wives to make Seppankizhangu roast for Sunday lunches, just the way their Amma makes it :) Even cricketer Srikkanth admits to being a "ghee-seppankizhangu roast-paruppu sadam freak". Seppankizhangu roast can be a topic for another whole post, but this one is dedicated to the Punju way of glorifying an ordinary muddy arbi.

A little note of warning, there are people who are allergic to some of these root vegetables, so please to check with your families if you are unleashing this fellow on them for the first time. If while handling this vegetable, your fingers itch, then you yourself may be allergic to this - anywhere from mild to severe. This is something extremely hilarious I read on one of my favourite blogs on allergic tendencies to vegetables from the yam family.

The inspiration for this recipe comes from our favourite Punju restaurant in the vicinity - Urban Tadka. This place does not take reservations and the only way to get a seat is to go there, put your name down on their long waiting list and be prepared to wait from anywhere between half hour to two hours. And its been some 3-4 years since they started, and people continue to WAIT with salivating tongues and rumbling tummies. That speaks for the yumminess quotient of the food they serve. So coming back to the Ajwaini Arbi Tikkas, this is one of our favourite starters here. Having eaten it a few times it was easy to figure out what went into it, well almost, two of the main ingredients already revealed in the name itself. My addition to this is sesame seeds which i did not find used in the restaurant version.

Arbi like some of its starchy cousins can produce considerable gas in your GIT (Gastro-Intestinal Tract) and ajwain or omam / carom seeds is an excellent spice to counteract the bloating, so these do make a perfect synergistic pair.

Ajwaini Arbi Ke Tikkey (Colocassia with carom seeds)
Category: Appetizer / Finger food / Roti accompaniment
Time taken: Active time: 10 minutes, Inactive time : 40 minutes
Serves 2

Preparation

This recipe uses 250 g or 1/2 Lb of colocassia. When you buy the arbi, try and choose the ones of a similar size so that they can cook uniformly.
First scrub the muddy bits from the arbi very well. I use the pressure cooker to cook them through.

Place the arbis in a cooker vessel with a little water (1/2 cup or so), more water in the cooker, after two whistles, place on sim for 5 minutes. This should do to cook medium sized arbis without turning them to mush, in which case, you really cannot progress further.

One the cooker has cooled, open, and remove the arbi to a plate and cool for 10 minutes till comfortable to peel.

Once peeled, place them in a single layer in a large dish. With your palms or a wooden masher, lightly flatten each piece until oval / round, but not with so much force that it crumbles.

Spices and other stuff

Over the arbi, sprinkle -
1 tsp coarsely crushed ajwain
1 tsp of red chilli powder (like degi mirch)
1 tbsp of coriander powder
1 tbsp of sesame seeds
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp rice flour (for crispiness)
plenty of finely chopped coriander

With a gentle hand, coat the spices over the arbi and let this sit for 15 minutes minimum. You could also refrigerate the dish covered with cling wrap until the time you want to shallow fry and serve.

Final step

In a cast iron or any suitable skillet, heat 2 tbsp of vegetable oil. Place the well marinated arbi pieces in a single layer. Let these acquire a golden brown crust on one side (takes around 7-10 minutes) after which turn them over and crispen for 10 more minutes.

Serve hot with green chutney or a date tamarind chutney. We had it with store bought Date Tamarind Chutney (Kitchens of India, ITC) and it went superbly along with some slices of cool cucumber.

This is my entry to Meeta's Monthly Mingle - Bollywood Cooking.

Do check out another yummy sounding recipe for Colocassia posted by Raaga, we do have some kind of telepathy going. I received her mouthwatering and melt-in-your-mouth Nankhatais, along with a cooking paste and Mungodis from her in a courier that made my weekend. Needless to say the Nankhatais have been promptly devoured. Now i am so addicted to their taste, that I have to make some from her recipe this week. Thank you so much for the delicious stuff Raaga :)

Click Au Naturel - Carrots and Thyme

2008-04-29T10:23:00.002+05:30

Camera: Canon Digital IXUS 800 IS

Entry for Click - Au Naturel

Handwo - a steamed savoury cake

2008-04-25T09:03:00.006+05:30

Grains soaking for handwo

Handwo is a Gujarati steamed delicacy. The batter is made from soaked rice and a mixture of lentils, fermented, mixed with vegetables and steamed / microwaved. A delicious tadka of sesame seeds, mustard seeds is poured on the top, the cake cut into wedges and served with a tangy green chutney.

You can do several things with this batter and each one is as tasty as the other
-Cook it in a deep non stick pan on the stove top
-Steam in pressure cooker
-Cook in microwave
-Make thick 'adais' or thin dosais on a skillet

I've blogged about the recipe in May 2006 here.

The two changes in this recipe are that I've used red unpolished rice instead of white rice and masoor dal instead of moong dal (see soaked grains picture above).

Here, I have slightly browned the microwaved wedges on a lightly oiled skillet till a little crispy on the outside. You can easily omit this step if you are short on time.

Don't have a microwave at home? No problem! Pour ladle full of batter into an oiled non stick skillet, do not spread and let it cook on sim, till golden brown on both sides. Serve with chutney or milagai podi.

Skillet cooked Handwo 'scones'

This is my entry for WBB 21 - Microwave breakfasts at 100% Microwave Cooking
This savoury cake is also my entry to Srivalli's MEC - Cakes event.