Curry Leaves Chutney Powder

 

Curry leaves are highly valued in traditional medicine for their rich profile of antioxidants, alkaloids, and essential minerals. They are primarily used to promote healthy digestion, regulate blood sugar, support cardiovascular health, and nourish hair and skin. Here is the recipe for curry leaves chutney powder which can be stored in air tight bottle to be used for weeks.

Ingredients

1 cup chana dal (Bengal gram dal)

1 cup udad dal (black gram dal)

A few pepper corns

A gooseberry sized ball of tamarind

2 tbsps sesame seeds

2 tbsps gingelly oil

2 red chillies broken to pieces

4 handfulls of curry leaves

¼ tsp asafoetida

Salt to taste

Instruction

-          Wash, drain, and spread the dals in a plate to dry

-          Clean and wash the curry leaves and separate the leaves, spread them to dry

-          Dry roast the dals and sesame seeds separately till they turn slightly red and nice aroma comes.

-          Roast the tamarind and the salt

-          Fry the broken chilli pieces in a little oil

-          Fry the curry leaves in the remaining oil till they become crisp

-          Let all of them cool down, add the asafoetida and grind to a slightly coarse powder

-          Cool and store in an airtight bottle. It can be mixed with either curd or ghee while serving with boiled rice or dosa/idli.

Courtesy Recipe : Nisha Sridhar

Bitter gourd Potato Sabzi

 

After making the bitter gourd scramble, two bitter gourds were still lying in the refrigerator. For two days, it almost felt as though they were silently calling out to me, guiding me toward a new preparation.

A clear image of the dish had already formed in my mind—I could almost see how it would look once cooked. Strangely, I could even sense its taste beforehand, as though the flavors had already touched my tongue.

On the third day, I finally decided to prepare a sabji using bitter gourd and potatoes. And when the dish was ready, it looked exactly the way I had visualized it in my mind’s eye. Even more surprising, it tasted precisely the way I had imagined. It was such a beautiful and almost magical experience.

So, here is the recipe.

Ingredients

2 bitter gourds, washed, cleaned and slit longitudinally and sliced, Remove any hard seeds

1 large potato, cleaned, peeled and cubed

1 onion finely cut

1 tomato cut into small pieces

1 tbsp oil

A few mustard seeds

¼ tsp Turmeric powder

¼ tsp red chilli powder

½ tsp coriander powder

½ tsp dried mango powder

Salt to taste

½ cup water

Instruction

-          Heat the kadai with oil, ad mustard seed. When they splutter, add the potato cubes           

          

       Stir for a few seconds, add the cut onion, stir.

-          When the onion becomes transparent, add the cut tomato and the bitter gourd, salt and the masala powders.

-          Mix well for a few seconds, add water, reduce the flame, cover the vessel and let it cook for ten minutes. Check in between and add more water if needed. When the potatoes are cooked, remove from fire.

-          Serve with chapatis, or with rice and dal.

Onion Tomato Raita with a Tadka

 

                                                      Raita servd with vegetable pulao

We had just been to Kerala and my brother in law gave us this delicious raita with tadka, my husband became a fan of this dish and I have already made it thrice for him.

Ingredients

1 cup beaten curd

1 tomato cut fine

3,4 shallots (or half onion) cut fine

1 green chilli cut

Salt to taste

For tadka

1 tbsp oil

¼ tsp mustard seeds

A few curry leaves

Instruction

-          Mix a tsp of beaten curd with salt and cut onions with fingers nicely

-          Add this to the curd along with cut tomatoes and green chilli

-          Heat oil in a kadai, add mustard seeds. When they splutter, add curry leaves. When the leaves are done, switch off the flame.

-          After a couple of seconds, pour the raita into the kadai, stir well and transfer it back to the bowl

Banana Flowerets Pakoda

 

This was eaten on a road side shack in Chennai where our friend took us to. I just loved it managed to get the recipe.

Ingredients

-          2 cups banana flowerets

-          Oil for frying

For the batter

-          ½ cup besan

-          ½ cup rice flower

-          Salt to taste

-          ¼ tsp red chilli powder

-          Water

Instruction

-          Take the besan, rice flower, salt and chilli powder, slowly add water and mix well to make a thick batter

-          Heat oil in a pan. When it starts smoking, reduce the flame to medium and slowly put the flowerets Smeared with the batter.

-          Turn them and let cook till golden color.

-          Drain and serve with tomato ketchup for evening tea. Enjoy!

Banana Flower Thoran

 

Ingredients

-          One Banana flower

-          Salt to taste

-          ½ cup dried lobia soaked overnight and pressure cooked with ¾ cup water for 4 minutes

To grind

-          1 cup grated coconut

-          1/3 tsp turmeric powder

-          1/2 tsp cumin seeds

-          A few flakes of garlic

-          ¼ tsp red chilli powder

To temper

-          1 tbsp oil

-          ¼ tsp mustard seeds

-          2 red chillies broken

-          1 tbsp finely cut onion

-          A few curry leaves

Instruction

-          Peel off the outer layers of the banana flower till you see light colored skin. Now cut into very small pieces

-          Heat oil, add mustard seeds. When they splutter, add broken red chillies, cut onion,  and curry leaves

-          When the onions brown, add the cut banana flower, stir well, sprinkle some water, close and let cook for about five minutes. Open and check in between whether it needs more water.

-          Add the cooked lobia, and the ground coconut with masala powders.

-          Mix well and remove from fire.

-          Serve with boiled rice and dal.

Yam Fry

 

Yam or suran fry is a great accompaniment for lunch, also it can be a good snack for tea/coffee.

It is very simple to prepare.

Ingredients

2 cups skinned, washed and yam sliced into small thin pieces

Oil for frying

Salt to taste

1/3 tsp red chilli powder

Instruction

-          Heat the oil till it smokes.

-          Slide in the sliced yam pieces, reduce the flame to medium. Keep stirring and let the yam pieces cook and become brownish in color.

-          Drain and put on tissue paper.

-          Sprinkle salt and red chilli powder and mix well .

-          Serve hot

Yam fry served with sago khichdi and salad.

Raw Banana Pulissery

One day when my husband brought home raw bananas, suddenly I remembered that in childhood I have had raw banana pulissery. It is easy to prepare and tasty with boiled rice.

Ingredients

1 raw banana

2 ½ cups curd

½ cup water

½  tsp turmeric powder

Salt to taste

To season:

1 tbsp coconut oil

¼ tsp mustard seeds

¼ tsp cumin seeds

¼ tsp fenugreek seeds

1 tsp finely cut onion

1 tsp ginger, garlic cut fine

1 green chilli cut into three

A few curry leaves

Instruction

-          Peel the raw banana, cut into cubes, Put them in boiling water with a pinch of turmeric powder and salt for five minutes. Drain and keep aside

-          Beat the curd nicely, add water, turmeric powder, salt and mix well.

-          Heat oil in a thick bottomed vessel, add mustard seeds. When they splutter, add cumin seeds, fenugreek seeds, cut onion, ginger and garlic, curry leaves and cut green chilli. When they brown, remove the vessel from fire.

-          Let it cool for a couple of seconds and slowly add the prepared curd. Keep stirring and keep on low flame.

-          When frothing appears along the sides, add the boiled raw banana pieces. Keep stirring and remove from fire after a minute. Don’t let it boil, or the curd will curdle.

-          Serve with boiled rice. 

Boiled rice served with raw banana pulissery and boiled seasoned green gram.

Peanut Butter

 

Ingredients

1 cup Roasted peanuts – Can use with skin, skin fully or partially removed

4 tbsps coconut oil

Salt to taste

Jaggery or Honey to taste.

-          Grind peanuts to powder in a blender.

-          Now slowly keep adding coconut oil or peanut oil and running the blender till it becomes liquidy.

-          Add jaggery or honey (I prefer jaggery), a pinch of salt and run the blender.

-          Check the taste and adjust jaggery and salt and tun the blender.

-          Store in air tight bottle. It will stay upto a month.

Sauteed Morning Glory (with Ceylon Spinach)

 

Years ago, during our visit to Vietnam, we fell in love with the local preparation of morning glory. Also known as water spinach or 空心菜 (kōng xīn cài) in Chinese—meaning “hollow heart vegetable”—this leafy green is named for its crisp, hollow stems. Native to Southeast Asia, morning glory should not be confused with the British plant of the same name, which can actually be toxic.

More recently, while we were in Thailand, morning glory became a staple at our lunches—served daily, without fail. After returning home, I found myself missing its distinct flavor and texture, and my mind began searching for a substitute closer to home. That’s when I remembered the kozhuppan cheera (also known as spinach cheera, sambar cheera, or Ceylon spinach) growing in our kitchen garden. I decided to experiment.

To my delight, the dish turned out wonderfully—so much so that my husband remarked, “It’s almost the same as what we had in Thailand.” A simple but satisfying success!

Ingredients

A big bunch of sambar cheera, cleaned thoroughly. Very thick stems are discarded as they are fibrous. Thinner stems are sliced vertically and cut into 3 inch long pieces. Leaves are also cut first vertically and then into 3 inch long sections

2 tbsps oil

¼ tsp mustard seeds

6 garlic cloves crushed

2 green chillies sliced

Salt to taste

1 tbsp soya sauce

1 tsp powdered sugar

Instrution

-          Heat the oil and add mustard seeds. When they splutter, add the green chillies and crushed garlic. Keep medium flame.

-          When the garlic browns slightly, add the cut leaves and stir well. Add salt and mix, it will be cooked in a couple of minutes.

-          Pour in the soya sauce and sugar mix.

-          Stir well and serve hot.

Morning glory served for breakfast, Ambali with Foxtail millet and fruits

Tender Jackfruit Sabji Sri Lankan Style

 

This is a very delicious accompaniment for chapatis, also  good with boiled rice.

Ingredients:

2 cups of skinned, pressure cooked (for 4 minutes), and shredded tender jackfruit

1 medium sized onion thinly sliced

1 twig of curry leaves
2 dried red chillies, broken into two
2 tbsps of mustard oil
1 bay leaf
½ tsp cumin
½ tsp fenugreek seeds
¼ tsp crushed pepper
¼ tsp red chilli powder
Salt to taste

Instruction:

• Heat the oil, when it starts smoking, add the bay leaf, jeera, fenugreek seeds, and crushed pepper
• Add the sliced onion and curry leaves, reduce the flame and keep stirring.
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• When the onion lightly browns, add the shredded jackfruit, salt and red chilli powder.
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• Keep stirring till it turns brown and crispy.

 

Ragi Drink

 

This is a very healthy and soothing drink. It is taken hot during cold season and cold during summer. A very popular drink of Karnataka. 

Ingredients

2 tsps ragi flour

4 tbsps butter milk

1 tsp grated ginger

500 ml water

Salt to taste

Instruction

-          Mix the ragi flour and grated ginger in the butter milk and leave it overnight.

-           Boil 500 ml of water, now add the ragi mix and stir nicely.

-          Let it boil on low flame for about ten minutes, when nice aroma spreads. Remove from fire. It will stay for two days at room temperature.

-          Can garnish with cut coriander leaves.

-          Serve hot if it is cold season and refrigerate and serve cold in summer.