Bhindi Do Pyaaza

Ingredients:

1. Bhindi/Okra - 400 grams
2. Onions - 3 medium sized
3. Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp.
4. Red chilli powder - 1/2 tsp.
5. Dhania powder - 1 tsp.
6. Aamchur powder - 1/2 tsp.
7. Jeera powder - 1/2 tsp.
8. Jeera -  1/2 tsp.
9. Kalonji - 1/2 tsp.
10. Oil - 1 1/2 tbsp.
11. Salt - to taste

Procedure:

1. Cut the bhindi into 1 inch long pieces. You may also cut them into 2 inch long pieces and slit them vertically into 2 pieces each. Cut the onions length-wise.
2. Heat oil in a kadai and temper with jeera and kalonji seeds.
3. Add the onions and fry them till they turn light brown.
4. Add turmeric powder, chilli powder, dhania powder, jeera powder and amchur powder. Mix well.
5. Add bhindi and fry on medium-high flame for 10-15 minutes till the bhindi is cooked well. Keep stirring at regular intervals. The bhindi will not turn slimy due to the amchur powder.
6. Serve with rotis or rice.

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.

Palak Paneer

Ingredients:

1. Palak - 1 bunch, cleaned and stems trimmed
2. Paneer/Tofu - 200 g
3. Onion - 1 large (cut into large pieces)
4. Tomato - 1large (cut into large pieces)
5. Garlic - 5-6 pods
6. Green chillies - 2 or 3
7. Jeera powder - 1/2 tsp.
8. Kasoori methi - 1 tsp. (optional)
9. Salt - to taste
10. Oil/ghee - 1 tbsp.
11. Fresh cream - 1 tbsp.

Procedure:

1. Cut the paneer/tofu into half inch cubes.
2. Cook palak, tomato and green chillies in a covered  thick bottomed vessel with minimum or no water for 3-5 mins till the leaves becomes soft and shrink. Do not burn. Allow to cool.
3. In a kadai, heat oil/ghee and fry the onions and garlic till the onion turns translucent.
4. Grind together the onions, garlic, green chillies, palak and tomato to a smooth puree.
5. Heat the same kadai (which contains the remaining oil/ghee after frying the onions),  pour in the puree, add salt, jeera powder, kasoori methi and bring to a boil. Add the paneer cubes and mix in well. cook for another 2 minutes. 
6. Switch off and garnish with fresh cream.

Kambu adai

Adai is a multi-dal dosa. Recently, I got the fancy to try out some unconventional cereals in my food (for their nutritive goodness) and bought some bajra/pearl millet/kambu. My mother who had never seen kambu herself, suggested that we should try kambu adai, by just replacing rice with kambu in the regular adai recipe. It turned out pretty good.

Ingredients:

1. Kambu/Bajra - 1 cup
2. Toor dal - 1/4 cup
3. Chana dal - 1/4 cup
4. Urad dal - 1/4 cup (or even less)
5. Moong dal - 1/4 cup
6. Asafoetida - 1/2 inch piece
7. Curry leaves - 10
8. Red chillies - 2 or 3 ( you can 2 green chillies and 1 red chilli also)
9. Salt - to taste
10. Oil (preferably coconut oil) - for making adai

Procedure:

1. Soak the kambu and all 4 dals in water for 2-3 hours. I sometimes reduce the amount of chana dal and increase toor and moong dal.
2. Grind them with asafoetida, chillies, curry leaves and salt to make a batter. Do not add water initially. Add water slowly and adjust the amount to achieve batter consistency. The batter will not be as smooth as dosa batter, will be coarse, yet will be ok to flow when poured from a ladle.
3. On a tawa, pour one ladle of the batter and spread like dosas. Roast on one side on high flame by pouring a tsp. of oil on the sides. After a minute, turn over and cook on the other side for around 30 seconds on low flame. Remove and serve hot as and when you prepare with a piece of jaggery, butter or with avial or red chutney.

Ven Pongal

Traditional South Indian breakfast, regular recipe.

Ingredients:

1. Rice - 3/4 cup
2. Moong dal - 1/2 cup
3. Ghee - 2 tbsp.
4. Jeera - 1 tsp.
5. Peppercorns - 1 tsp.
6. Cashewnuts ( broken) - 1 tsp.
7. Curry leaves - 10
8. Ginger - 1 inch piece

Procedure:

1. Roast rice and moong dal separately over medium flame. It is better to use new rice for pongal as it turns mushy on cooking (probably that is the reason the harvest festival is celebrated as Pongal and not as Biryani). Basmati and other long grain varieties are not suitable as they remain as separate grains upon cooking.
2. Cook the rice and dal together in a pressure cooker for 3-4 whistles either directly or in a container. Use around 4 cups of water. Mash this up lightly by stirring after it is cooked.
3. Crush jeera and pepper coarsely using a hand pestle. Chop ginger very finely.
4. In a kadai, heat ghee. Fry the cashewnuts in this lightly. Add crushed jeera, pepper, ginger and currry leaves. Pour this into the cooked rice and dal and stir well.
5. Serve piping hot with gotsu.

Bombay Chutney

My sister-in-law's mother-in-law had made this chutney as a side-dish for idlis when we visited them for the first time. I was in the kitchen with her while she made it and was nonchalantly listening to the method of preparation. As soon as I tasted it, I wished I had paid a little more attention that could have saved me the time I spent on the internet digging out its recipe. As usual, I created an amalgamated version of the many recipes I found and also aunty's recipe and came up with this.
I have no idea why it is called Bombay chutney, for that matter why chutney at all. Nevertheless it makes a quick and tasty side dish and makes for a good change.

Ingredients:

1. Besan/Gram flour - 1/4 cup dissolved in a cup of water without lumps.
2. Onions - 1 large or 2 small thinly sliced
3. Oil - 1 tbsp
4. Mustard - 1/2 tsp.
5. Green chillies - 2 slit length-wise
6. Chana dal - 1 tsp.
7. Curry leaves - 5-6 chopped
8. Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp.
9. Ginger-garlic paste - 1 tsp.
10. Cinnamon powder (optional) - 1/4 tsp.
11. Salt - to taste

Procedure:

1. In a kadai, heat oil and temper with mustard seeds, chana dal and curry leaves. 
2. Add green chilies and ginger-garlic paste and saute well.
3. Add onions and fry till they are tender and turn golden brown.
4. Add turmeric powder, cinnamon powder and salt.
5. Add the besan solution to this and cook while stirring continuously on medium/high flame for 5-10 minutes till the raw smell of besan is gone. Add water as required while stirring to adjust the consistency. The thickness should be like aloo sagu.
6. Serve with idlis/rava idlis/dosas/pooris.