Bajra Khichdi

As I had mentioned in an earlier post, I am trying out alternative grains as food. As part of it, I tried Bajra Khichdi/Pongal.

Ingredients:

1. Bajra - 1 cup
2. Moong Dal - 1/2 cup
3. Bay leaf - 1
4. Jeera-Kalonji - 1 tsp
5. Pepper (coarsely crushed) - 1/2 tsp.
6. Ghee - 1 tbsp.
7. Asafoetida - 1/4 tsp.
8. Salt - to taste

Procedure:

1. Dry roast bajra and moong dal separately for a few minutes till they give out aroma, but do not brown them.
2. Coarsely grind (pulse) bajra in a mixie.
3. In a cooker, heat ghee, temper with jeera-kalonji. Add bay leaf, asafoetida.
4. Add in the bajra and moong dal and mix well. 
5. Add water (around 3 cups) and pepper&salt, stir well and pressure cook for 3-4 whistles. In case you fear that the khichdi might get burnt if cooked directly, perform the above 2 steps in a kadai, transfer it to a vessel and pressure cook it.
6. Serve steaming hot with a piece of jaggery.

Note: Bajra uses less water than rice for cooking. Initially, calibrating the right amount of water was a little difficult, but I got a hang of it after 2-3 times. After cooking, the khichdi should be pasty. If there is more water floating on top after cooking, the dal might not be cooked fully. In that case, drain the excess water and pressure cook again for 2 whistles till the dal grains are homogeneously mixed with the khichdi. Add the drained water back and stir well and cook uncovered for a few minutes.

Pumpkin sabzi

Its the pumpkin season and my mil got a huge pumpkin plucked from the village fields. After cooking parts of it for 2-3 times, my mil gave me a little with a recipe to make sabzi out of it. My mom generally only makes Parangikkai kozhambu and sabzi was a new dimension for me.

After preparing, the sabzi is comparable to the aloo sabzi used as filling in masala dosas. Hence it can be used as a side dish for dosas, rice and chapati.

There are a few variations to this recipe too which I will be mentioning at the end.

Ingredients:

1. Yellow Pumpkin - 250 g.
2. Onion - 1 large (optional)
3. Mustard - 1/2 tsp.
4. Curry leaves - 10
5. Red chilli powder - 1 tsp. or as per taste
6. Dhania powder - 1 tsp.
7. Salt - as per taste 
8. Oil - 1 tbsp.

Procedure:

1. Scrape out the pumpkin seeds from the inside, but do not peel the pumpkin. The sabzi can be prepared with the peel. Chop the pumpkin into small sticks radially. The sticks can be 1/2 cm by 1/2 cm with the height equal to the thickness of the pumpkin pulp.
2. Chop the onion finely or into thin long slices, as you desire. You can omit the onion if you want.
3. In a kadai, heat oil and add mustard seeds. When they crackle, add curry leaves. Add chopped onions and fry for 2-3 minutes. 
4. Add the chopped pumpkin, chilli powder, dhania powder and salt. This sabzi might taste better with a little extra chilli powder than we use for usual sabzis as it helps compensate for the slightly sweet taste of pumpkin. Mix well and cook covered on a low flame. Do not add water but keep stirring every 2 minutes. After around 10-15 minutes, the  sabzi will turn a little mushy. Switch off the flame.
5. Serve with rice or roti or dosa.

Variations:

1. Omit the red chilli powder and dhania powder. Instead chop around 4-5 green chillies length-wise and add it along with curry leaves and onions slit lengthwise in the beginning.
2. Before adding the pumkpin, add half a cup of hidkid avarekalu (dehusked hyacinth bean seeds) or green peas. Saute them and cook well before adding the pumpkin.