Paneer Corn Capsicum

Ingredients:

1. Paneer - 100g cut into 1/2 inch cubes
2. Capsicum - 1 medium sized, cut into 1/2 inch squares
3. Sweet corn - boiled and separated from cob, 1/2 cup
4. Onion - 1 chopped finely
5. Tomato - 1 chopped finely
6. Panch Poron - 1 tsp. or 1/4 tsp Saunf, 1/4 tsp. Jeera, 1/4 tsp. Kalonji, 1/4 tsp. Methi.
7. Oil - 1 tbsp.
8. Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp.
9. Chilli powder - 1/2 tsp.
10. Dhania powder - 3/4 tsp.
11. Jeera powder - 1/4 tsp.
12. Salt - to taste

Procedure:

1. Heat oil in a kadai. When oil is hot, temper with Panch Poron or the mixed spices.
2. Add onions and fry till they turn light golden.
3. Add capsicum and sauté till they are half cooked.
4. Now add the tomatoes. Sauté for 2-3 minutes. cover the lid and let cook on a low flame for 5 - 10 mins. Open the lid and check once or twice in between. Tomato leaves water for its cooking. In case the water evaporates and the curry gets stuck to the pan or burns, add 1/4 cup of water, stir well and continue cooking on low flame with lid covered.
5. When the tomatoes are completely cooked ( when you cannot make out the individual pieces) and the capsicum is tender, add in the corn and paneer cubes.
6. Add the powdered spices - turmeric powder, chilli powder, dhania powder and jeera powder. Add salt.
7. Paneer and corn take some time to absorb the spices and salt. So keep covered and continue to cook on low flame for 5 more minutes, stirring in between, adding very little water if required.
8. When all the water is evaporated and the curry looks somewhat homogeneous and dry, switch off the flame.
9. Serve with chapatis.

Togari Kaalu Saaru

Togari Kaalu is the fresh whole form of Tuvar Dal, also known as Pigeon Peas. It is quite common to find it in the markets during the winter months. They can be shelled and stored in the fridge for a week.
The grams are greenish with red spots on them.
This saaru is made from the pigeon peas and the recipe source is my m-i-l.
The saaru can be mixed with rice and eaten and it  also serves as a side-dish for chapati and dosas.

Ingredients:

1. Togari Kaalu - 2 cups
2. Onions - 3
3. Garlic - 8-10 pods
4. Peppercorns - 1 tsp.
5. Tomato - 1 large or 2 small
6. Grated coconut - 3-4 tsp.
7. Coriander leaves - 4-5 sprigs
8. Curry leaves - 1 sprig
9. Sambhar powder - 1 tsp.
10. Oil - 6 tsp.
11. Mustard - 1/2 tsp.
12. Rock salt - 1 tsp.

Procedure:

1. Boil the pigeon peas with a little more than enough water to submerge them, in a pressure cooker with salt added, for 3-4 whistles.
2. Chop the onions length-wise.
3. In a mixie, puree together tomatoes, pepper, garlic, coconut, coriander and curry leaves till it forms a smooth paste.
4. In a kadai, heat oil and add mustard seeds.
5. When the mustard seeds splutter, add the chopped onions and fry well for around 5 mins.
6. Add the boiled peas with the water, the ground masala  paste and sambhar powder.
7. Stir well and boil for around ten mins till the gravy thickens and the raw smell of tomato is gone.
8. Switch off the flame when the desired consistency is reached.
9. Serve with chapatis or rice.

Sathu maavu

Sathu means nutrition and maavu means flour.
This is a nutritious powder used to make porridge. This porridge is usually given to infants (6+ months), although it can be equally enjoyed by adults too.

Ingredients:

1. Parboiled rice/Parboiled Red rice 200g
2. Broken Samba wheat 200g
3. Fried gram/Pottu kadalai/Kadle pappu 100g
4. Green gram 100g
5. Ragi/Kezhvaragu/Finger millet 200g
6. Bajra/Sajje/Kambu/Pearl millet 100g
7. Harka/Varagu/Kodo millet 100g
8. Saame/Saamai/Little millet 100g
9. Jowar/Jola/Cholam/Sorghum 100g
10. Makka cholam/maize/corn 100g
11. Barley 50g
12. Sago 50g
13. Groundnuts - 2 tsp.
14. Almonds - 2 tsp.
15. Cashews - 2 tsp.

Roast all above ingredients separately and grind together in mill.

Note:
All millets other than ragi (6-10) and barley and sago are optional. The more, the better. In case you do not find a variety of millets, you can compensate for them by using ragi in a higher quantity, say 500g.
You might also want to germinate and dry the ragi before grinding it.
Also groundnuts, almonds and cashews are optional and not to be added if you want a longer shelf life. You can grind only the nuts separately at home and add them as and when you prepare the porridge.
You may add around 50-100 grams of sprouted soya bean also, but I don't prefer it personally, since it is not a native bean.

To prepare the porridge add 2 heaped spoons of the powder to half a cup of cold water and dissolve such that no lumps are formed. Add milk and any sweetener (sugar or jaggery or fruit pulp) and stir again till no lumps are seen. Heat it slowly on stove and keep stirring continuously so as not to form any lumps. When it boils ( when you can see it bubbling lightly), switch off.

Radish leaves chutney

As part of our amatuer gardening efforts, G and I grew radish in our balcony. After 2 months of nurturing, we decided to harvest them. The radishes are stowed away for Sambhar, while I turned the leaves into chutney.

This is a recipe given by my m-i-l. Radish leaves are supposed to be beneficial for recovery from jaundice. If you are finicky about taste, a bit of warning: Do not expect this to be yummy. It tastes a little coarse and leafy, but makes for a good change from the regular chutneys.

Ingredients:

1. Radish leaves - 20-25
2. Chana Dal - 5-6 tsp.
3. Urad Dal - 5-6 tsp.
4. Red chillies - 3
5. Garlic - 8 pods
6. Jeera - 1 tsp.
7. Tamarind - a small 1/2 inch piece
8. Grated coconut - 5-6 tsp.
9. Oil - 3-4 tsp.
10. Salt - to taste

Procedure:

1. Wash the radish leaves and chop them coarsely.
2. In a kadai, heat oil and roast the chana dal and urad dal on low-medium flame till they turn lightly golden.
3. Throw in the red chillies, garlic pods and jeera and sauté for ten more seconds on low-medium flame.
4. Transfer the contents in the kadai to a mixie and grind to a powder.
5. Meanwhile in the kadai which is smeared with the oil used for roasting, sauté the radish leaves. If required, add one or two more spoonsful of oil to the kadai before that. After sautéing the leaves will shrink and give out water.
6. Add the sautéed leaves, tamarind, salt and grated coconut to the powder in the mixie and grind again to make a slightly coarse, but homogeneous paste. Add very little water if required to achieve the required consistency.

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.