Plantain podimas - Thanjavur style

This is again one of my favourite receipe. In my mom's place, I haven't seen her making podimas with platain (vazhakkai). But in my In-laws place, they make this plantain podimas. The main ingredients are as follows:
Ingredients:-

1. Plantain(vaazhakkai) - 2
2. Oil - 2 tbsp
3. Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
4. Urid dal - 1/2 tsp
5. Fresh coconut - 1 tbsp
6. Green chillies - 2
7. ginger - a small piece
8. Lemon juice - 1 tbsp
9. Salt to taste
10. Curry leaves - 10 nos
11. Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
12. Asafoetida powder -

There are two ways of cooking vazhakkai here, one is remove the skin, cut it into small cubes, pressure cook it adding salt and turmeric powder, upto 2 whistles ( do not mash the cubes). The other method is, cut the vazhakkai into two pieces (after removing the edges), pressure cook it adding salt to it upto 2 whistles. After taking it out from the pressure cooker, remove the skin(it will be easier) mash it. You can choose either one.

Now take a wide pan, pre heat the oil, add mustard seeds, when it splutters add urid dal, green chillies, curry leaves, asafoetida powder, turmeric powder (if you choose the second method of cooking), ginger and try it till golden brown. Now add the vazhakkai pieces or mashed vazhakkai to it and mix everything thoroughly. Turn off the stove and let it cool. After 10 mts add the lemon juice to it and mix it. Sprinkle the fresh coconut on top of it. Vazhakkai podimas is ready to serve. This shoule be a wonder side dish for vatha kozhambu or any kind of kozhambu.

Dal Makhani

I just love this Dal Makhani.  Gravy with so nutritious lentils.  When we were in Delhi, we had a chance to live in Intercontinental Hotel for more than a month.  They have a restaurant inside called Singh Sahib and they make this dal makhani  and Dahi wali Bindi so nicely that we literally fell in love with this dish.  Even though I like this dish, I have never tried it personally at home.  This time I wanted to try this at home and finally I had a chance last week to try this dish and luckily it came out good...
Here goes the recipe.

Ginger Garlic Rasam

Rasam is one of the most comforting food.  My MIL is an expert in making so many varieties of Rasam.  I learned a few from her and you can check it out a few from here.  We make rasam using garlic occasionally. But this is something I tried here recently when my kiddo got sick with stomach upset and she started throwing up suddenly.  Because of that her throat became sore.  Ginger is good for throat and garlic is good for digestion.  Here goes the recipe.

Chena Mezhukkupuratti / Yam Curry

Chena Mezhukkupuratti / mezhukkuvaratti is a famous simple side dish in most of Palghat Iyer families. We call it Upperi.  I just love this simple curry with a generous sprinkle of coconut oil. My patti is an expert in making this curry and I just love the way she makes it so crispy with less oil.

Malai Kofta

 Malai Kofta - Nobody can say no to this creamy side dish. I love this dish so much.  Yesterday I made this dish for our dinner.  We had it with store bought naan (that was not a good idea though). It was little bit time consuming as I had to make few stuff all by myself like cashew paste, tomato puree etc.  But after tasting it, we thought that the time spent cooking this dish is all worth it.

Homemade Salsa

My kids just love Nachos.  I recently found another way to make them eat cheese. I am making them eat extra servings of vegetables as well because of Nachos. Instead of buying salsa from store, I thought of making at home.  I made a whole big bowl of them yesterday for making Nachos.  Here goes the recipe.

Ingredients:

1. Tomato - 2 Nos (big)
2. Onion - 1 (big- I used Pink Onion)
3. Bell Pepper - 1
4. Green Chilli - 1 (remove seeds from it)
5. Coriander leaves - 1/4 cup
6. Lemon Juice - 2 tbsp
7. Salt to taste.

Salsa

Chop the vegetables into tiny small pieces.  Put everything in a bowl.  Chop coriander leaves finely and add it.  Add lemon juice and salt and mix everything well.  My friend also suggested that we can add a teaspoon of cumin powder to it.  I have not tried that yet personally.  This salsa tasted so refreshing and the good part is its home made.

Idly/Dosa Molagapodi

Even though I like to have molagapodi as side dish with almost all of my dishes (including thayir saadam), I didn't know how to make it until last week.  My MIL used to make it in large quantity and give it to us.  But this time while coming back from India, I forgot to ask her.  We ran out of molagapodi last week.  So I had to make it here.  I asked my MIL the recipe for making it and tried it here.  It came out pretty good.  I put little less chilli than her.  Here goes the recipe.

Ingredients:

1. Channa Dhall / Kadala paruppu - 1 cup
2. Red Chillies - 3/4 cup (acc to taste)
3. Salt to taste
4. White Sesame Seeds -  1 tsp
5. Sesame Oil - 1 tbsp
6. jaggery/Vellam - 1 tsp

Molagapodi

Preheat oil in a kadai/pan.  Add the red chillies and fry it in low/medium flame until it becomes dark red color.  Don't burn the chillies.  Take the chillies out when it is done and keep it in a wide plate for cooling.  Now add channa dhall to the same kadai and fry it until it becomes golden brown.  A nice aroma will come when it is done.  Take it out of the flame and put it along with the chillies and let it cool.  Turn down the flame to low and put the sesame seeds in it and fry it until it becomes pink color.  Add it along with chilli and dhall.  Once it is cool, grind it coarsely adding salt and jaggery to it. Enjoy with Idly, dosa, adai etc

Bittergourd Thokku/ Paavakkai Thokku

I have tasted this thokku somewhere in a restaurant when we were in Chennai.  I am not able to recollect the name of the restaurant. I tried this couple of days back and it came out very well.  Here goes the recipe.

Bottlegourd Curry

When it comes to weird combinations of side  dishes, no body can beat our very own Hotel Saravana Bhavan.  We attended a baby shower function last month and the host  ordered food from HSB. This was the side dish in the menu. First I thought this was snake gourd curry but then one of our friend's mom said its bottle gourd. In our family, people never use this bottle gourd for cooking.  I came to know about the goodness of this vegetable when we were in Delhi for one year. I started using this bottle gourd in my cooking atleast couple of times a month. This time, after seeing this very new side dish, immediately I wanted to try this at home. Here goes the recipe.


Ingredients:-

1. Bottle gourd - 2 cups (chopped)
2. Onion - 1 chopped
3. Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
4. Oil - 2 tsp
5. Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
6. Urad dhall - 1 tsp
7. Red chillies - 1
8. Hing -  a pinch
9. Salt to taste
10. Coconut - 1 1/2 tbsp
11. Green chillies - 2 (medium sized- acc to taste)
12. cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp

Chop bottle gourd into a bite sized pieces. Take a pan, pre heat oil, splutter mustard seeds, fry urad dhall, red chilly & hing. Now saute' chopped onion to golden brown. Add the chopped bottle gourd to it, add turmeric powder, required amount of salt and sprinkle hand full of water to it and cover it with a lid for  5 minutes. Now grind coconut, green chillies & cumin seeds together without adding water. Keep it aside. Check the bottle gourd  in between because it takes very less time to cook. When its 3/4th done, now add the grounded coconut mix. Mix evenly and let it cook for another 3 minutes in low flame. When the raw smell of green chilly goes away, turn off the stove. Garnish it with curry leaves. Serve it hot.

Mattar paneer 2

I made this side dish couple of weeks back. My girls hate eating paneer, but luckily they liked this side dish. I made this as a very rich and creamy side dish. Here goes the recipe.

Ingredients:-

1. Paneer pieces - 1 cup (cut it into small cubes)
2. Green peas - 1/4 cup (I used frozen)
3. Tomato - 1 medium sized
4. Onion - 1/2 (if its big)
5. Cashews - 5 or 6
6. Coriander seeds -  1/2 tsp
7. Cardamom - 1
8. Clove - 1
9. Green chillies - 2 (acc to taste)
10. Salt to taste
11. Shredded coconut - 2 tsp
12. Fat free yogurt - 1 tbsp
13. Whole milk - 1/4 cup
14. Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
15. Red chillies  powder - 1/2 tsp (optional)
16. Ghee - 1 1/2 tbsp
17. Cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp
18. coriander leaves - 2 tsp (chopped)

Thaw the green peas.  Chop tomato and onion. Now take the chopped tomato, onion, cashew, green chillies, coconut, clove, cardamom, coriander seeds and grind it into fine paste.  Pre heat a teaspoon on ghee in a pan, fry paneer pieces to golden brown and keep it aside. In the same pan, preheat remaining ghee, splutter cumin seeds to golden brown, add the grounded masala paste to it. Add 1/4 cup of water, turmeric powder, salt and red chillies powder and let it boil. When the raw smell goes, add the fried paneer pieces along with the green peas and let it cook for another 3 minutes. Now add the whole milk and yogurt and let it bil for 5 to 7 minutes. Adjust water according to the required consistency. Add the finely chopped coriander leaves and enjoy it with hot chapathi/poori.

Bottlegourd Molagootal

Molagootal is a very common dish in a Kerala Iyer family.  In my mom's house, people prefer molagootal than Sambar or rasam. Even now my mami makes this twice or thrice a week. I like molagootal with some thogayal. This is bottle gourd molagootal I made couple of days before. I started using bottle gourd when we were in Delhi last year. Here goes the recipe.

Ingredients:-

1. Bottle Gourd - 1 1/2 cups (chopped into small cubes)
2. Toor dhall - 1 cup
3. Turmeric powder - 1/2 + 1/4 tsp
4. salt to taste

To Grind:-

1. coconut - 1/4 cup
2. Green Chillies - 4 or 5 (acc to taste
3. Cumin Seeds - 1/2 tsp

To Temper:-

1. Oil - 2 tsp
2. Mustard seeds - 1/4 tsp
3. Curry leaves - few
4. Urad dhall - 1/2 tsp
5. Hing -  few pinches
6. Red Chillies - 1 (optional

Pressure cook toor dhall with 1/4 tsp of turmeric powder and keep it aside. In the mean time, take a pan, put the bottle gourd pieces and required amount of water, salt & turmeric powder and let it cook for 5 to 7 minutes. Bottle Gourd usually takes less time to cook.  Grind the ingredients given "To Grind" to a fine paste and keep it aside. When vegetable is half done,  add the grounded paste to it and let it boil for 5 more minutes or till the raw smell of green chillies go away. Now add the cooked toor dhall to the ingredients and add required amount of water to adjust the consistency. Now the molagootal/bottle gourd dhall is ready to serve.  Take a small pan, pre heat oil, splutter mustard seeds, fry urad dhall curry leaves, red chillie & hing to golden brown and pour it on top of the molagootal.  Serve it hot. It goes well with steamy rice or even with rotis/chapathis.

CauliflowerMasala Curry

I made this curry last week along with drumstick sambar. It came out pretty good. My girls felt it was little bit spicy. Here goes the recipe.

Ingredients:-

1. Cauliflower Florets - 2 cups 
2. Onion - 1 medium sized chopped
3. Tomato - 1 medium sized chopped
4. Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
5. Rasam Powder - 1/2 tsp
6. Red chillies - 1/4 tsp
7. Salt to taste
8. Oil - 1 tbsp
9. mustard seeds - 1/4 tsp
10. urad dhall - 1/2 tsp
11. curry leaves - for garnishing
12. Hing - few pinches

Take the cauliflower florets in a microwave safe bowl, add required amount of salt & turmeric powder and microwave it adding required amount of water, for about 5 to 7 minutes. In the mean time, pre heat oil in a pan, splutter mustard seeds, fry urad dhall to golden brown. Add chopped onion along with curry leaves and saute till it becomes transparent. Now add the chopped tomato to it. Add required amount of salt it along with turmeric powder to it and saute for couple of minutes. Now add the cooked cauliflower to it along with rasam powder, red chilli powder to it and let it cook till the excess water evaporates. Cauliflower curry is ready to serve with hot steaming rice.

Aloo Bindi

I made this yesterday as a side dish for our dinner. It was really good and my girls loved. I had to combine potatoes with okra because the available quantity of okra in my fridge was not enough for four of us..It was so simple to make. Here goes the recipe.

Ingredients:-

1.  Potato - 1 cup (chopped into cubes)
2. Okra - 1 cup (chopped into 1" sized)
3. Onion - 1 medium sized chopped
4. tomato - 1 chopped
5. Turmeric powder - 1/2 tso
6. Chilli powder - 3/4 tsp (acc to taste)
7. salt to taste
8. Oil - 1 tsp
9. Ajwain - few pinches
10. Coriander leaves & curry leaves - to garnish

Microwave potato cubes adding required amount of water,salt(enough for potato) & turmeric powder, in a microwave safe bowl, for 3 to 5 minutes or till its done.  In the mean time, preheat oil in a pan, splutter ajwain seeds, add chopped onion, saute for a minute. Add chopped tomato and mix it and let it cook in low flame for couple of minutes. Now add the chopped Okra/vendakkai/bindi pieces to the ingredients along with turmeric powder, chilli powder and required amount of salt and sprinkle a hand full of water and let it cook for 3 to 5 minutes. When the Okra is 3/4th done, add the cooked potato to it and mix it well and sprinkle  few spoons of water and let everything cook well for couple of more minutes or till its fully done. Garnish it with coriander leaves. 

We can always add garam masala powder to it if we need to.

Zuchini Mixed Vegetables Kootu

I made this kootu last week. It came out pretty good and it went well with rice an also with Roti. Here goes the recipe.


Ingreients:-

1. Zuchini - 1 cup (chopped)
2. tomato - 1 (chopped into cubes)
3. Mixed Vegetables - 1 cup (frozen)
4. Moong dhall - 1/2 cup
5. Toor Dhall - 2 tbsp
6. Turmeric powder- 1/2 tsp
7. Salt to taste
8. Oil -1 tsp
9. Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
10. Urad dhall - 1/2 tsp
11. Hing -  a pinch
12. curry leaves - for garnishing

To grind :-

1. Coriander seeds - 3/4 tsp
2. channa dhall - 1/2 tsp
3. red chillies - 2 or 3 (acc to taste)
4. Coconut - 2 tsp (shredded) **
5. fenugreek seeds - 1/4 tsp

Pressure cook moong dhall & toor dhall adding required amount of turmeric powder.  Keep it aside. Thaw the frozen vegetables and keep it aside.  In the mean time, fry the ingredients given for grinding, to golden brown and let it cool. Grind it into a fine paste and keep it aside. In a wide pan, put the zuchini pieces and chopped tomato pieces, add required amount of water & turmeric powder and let it cook for about 5 to 7 minutes. If both the veggies are 3/4th cooked, add the thawed frozen veggies & salt to it and let it boil for another 3 to 5 minutes. Now add the coconut paste to it and boil it for another 3 minutes. Add the cooked dhall to it. Let it boil for another 3 to 5 minutes.  Now kootu is ready. In a small pan, pre heat oil, splutter mustard seeds, fry urad dhall to golden brown, add hing and pour it on top of the kootu. Garnish it with curry leaves.

** - If you are allergic to coconut, then try using almonds in the place of coconut. For 2 tsp of shredded coconut, you can use 4 almonds.

vaazhakka podimas

The original recipe is from Lataji's Flavours & Tastes. Instead of shredding the vazhakkai, I just scrambled it. It tastes super good.

Baingan Barta

This is my husband's favorite dish.  This is a dish which we eat whenever we go to Royal Taj, a north Indian restaurant, in San Jose.  I was very hesitant to try this recipe because I didn't want to spoil his taste buds.  But after seeing these Barta Baingans available in the markets here, I was so curious to try this today. Followed the recipe from Manjula's Kitchen. I made couple of changes to the original recipe.

Ingredients:-

1. Eggplant/Barta Baingan - 1 (big)
2. Onion - 1 medium sized (finely chopped)
3. Tomato - 2 (medium sized finely chopped)
4. Green Bell Pepper - 1 (medium sized) (finely chopped)
5. Garlic - 5 pods (chopped finely)
6. Ginger -  a small piece (finely chopped)
7. Oil - 2 tsp
8. cumin seeds - 1 tsp
9. Green chillies - 1
10. turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
11. red chillies powder - 1 tsp (acc to taste)
12. salt to taste
13. Garam masala powder - 1/2 tsp (optional)
14. coriander leaves - for garnishing
15. Milk - 2 tbsp

Apply oil on top of egg plant. Take a microwave safe bowl and microwave the oil applied egg plant for 9 minutes in high (mine is 900W). Let it cool.   In the mean time, pre heat oil, splutter cumin seeds, add finely chopped ginger & garlic, green chillies and saute for a minute.  Now add finely chopped onions & green bell pepper to it. Cook it for 3 to 4 minutes or till it becomes half cooked. Now add finely chopped (or grind it into a paste) tomato to it. Let everything cook.  Meanwhile, peel the skin off from the eggplant and mash it with a fork.  When the ingredients starts boiling, add the mashed eggplant, turmeric powder, red chillies powder, salt & garam masala powder and mix it well. Sprinkle a hand full of water and let everything cook for 5 minutes. Now add the milk and mix it well. Garnish it with coriander leaves. This goes really well with rotis, chapatis or with rice(I had it with rice as side dish).

Dhall with Mixed sprouts

Long long ago, so long ago, I myself have no clue how long ago, I made this dhall.  It was lying there in the drafts for so long time. Finally I managed to write this today. I made this dhall when my husband was out of town. Here goes the recipe.

Ingredients:-

1. Moong dhall - 1/4 cup
2. Toor dhall - 1/4 cup
3. Channa dhall -  2 tsp
4. Mixed sprouts - 1/2 cup
5. turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
6. Sambar powder - 1 tsp (acc to taste)
7. Tomato -  1 (chopped)
8. Salt to taste
9. Asafoetida - a pinch
10. oil- 1 tsp
11. mustard seeds- 1/4 tsp
12. Urad dhall - 1/2 tsp
13. red chillies - 2
14. Coriander leaves -  for garnishing.

Wash both moong, channa & toor dhall nicely. Take a pressure cooker, put the dhall, sprouts, chopped tomato, add required amount of water, add turmeric powder, sambar powder and let it cook for 2 whistles.  When the pressure is released, add required amount of salt and let it cook for another 3 minutes. Turn off the stove when u get the required consistency.  In a small pan, pre heat oil, splutter mustard seeds, fry urad dhall and red chillies to golden brown and pour it on top of the dhall. Add a pinch of asafoetida and garnish it with coriander leaves.  This goes well with hot steaming rice & ghee, rotis & pooris..

Dahi Wali Bindi

When we were staying in hotel for a month, we used to eat this dahi wali bindi very often. Some how I couldn't get that taste anywhere after that. Thought of trying it by myself. I got the recipe for Dahi Wali Bindi from Pari's Blog. Wanted to give it a try. I almost followed the same except I added tomato and onion before cooking Okra. Here is my Dahi Wali Bindi Picture.

Masala Okra dry curry

I made this curry last week. It was so boring to make the regular okra curry every time. So thought of giving it some change and tried this dry curry using some masala ingredients.

Ingredients:-

1. Okra - 2 cups (chopped in an inch size)
2. Onion - medium sized 2
3. Tomato - Medium sized 2
4. salt to taste
5. Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
6. Oil - 3 to 4 tsp
7. Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
8. Cumin seeds -1/2 tsp

To Roast & Grind:-

1. Coriander seeds - 1 tbsp
2. Channa dhall - 2 tsp
3. Urad dhall - 1 tsp
4. Red chillies - 3  nos (acc to taste)
5. Coconut - 1 tsp
6. White Sesame seeds - 1 tsp
7. Ajwain seeds - 1/2 tsp
8. Cumin seeds = 1/2 tsp
9. Peanuts -  2tbsp

Pre heat a pan with a teaspoon of oil, splutter mustard seeds, cumin seeds, fry onion till it becomes transparent. Add chopped tomato and saute for few minutes. Now add the chopped okra to it, sprinkle required amount of water, add turmeric powder, mix well and let it cook for 5 to 7 minutes. In the mean time, take a pan, pre heat a drop of oil, fry the given ingredients in "To Roast & Grind" and grind it into a fine powder. Keep it aside. When the vegetables are nicely cooked, add the required amount of masala powder and required amount of salt. Mix it well and let it cook for another 5 minutes. Add the remaining oil in between. It tastes really good with rice and I am sure it will taste good with rotis too.

Aloo Paneer Sabji

My girls like to eat chapathis for dinner.This aloo paneer sabji I made last week along with chapathis.  It took just 15 mts to finish this and my girls loved it cos i always use less amount of chillies. I just made this for me and the girls cos my husband was out of town that day. Here goes the recipe.

Ingredients:-

1. Potato - 2 Medium sized (chopped into cubes)
2. Paneer - 1/4 cup (cubed)
3. Tomato - 1 medium sized
4. Onion - 1 medium sized
5. garlic - 1 pod
6. cashew - 4
7. poppy seeds - 1/2 tsp
8. turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
9. Green chillies - 1 (acc to taste)
10. red chillies powder - 1/2 tsp
11. coriander seeds - 1 tsp
12. cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp
13. salt to taste
14. Ghee - 1 tsp
15. Cumin seeds - 1/4 tsp
16. Ajwain - 1/4 tsp

Microwave cubed potato in microwave using a microwave safe bowl for 4 to 6 mts or until its 3/4th done.  In the mean time, fry paneer pieces adding a drop of oil to golden brown and keep it aside. Also grind onion, tomato, garlic, cashew, poppy seeds, green chillies, coriander seeds and 1/2 tsp cumin seeds to a fine paste.  Now take a pan, pre heat ghee, splutter 1/4 tsp cumin and ajwain to golden brown. Add the grounded onion tomato paste, turmeric powder, red chillies powder, salt and required amount of water. Let it boil for 3 minutes. Now add the cooked potato and fried paneer pieces to the mixture and let everything cook for another 5 minutes. Adjust water according to the required consistency. Garnish it with coriander leaves and serve it hot.

I am sending this entry also along with mixed vegetables dry curry to Letz Relishh - Paneer Event.

and to BSI weekly event hosting by Ruchika and this time its BSI - week 95 - Paneer.