Dosa with upma rava

Ingredients:

2 cups upma rava

2 tbsps beaten rice (avalakki or poha)

1 ½ tsps dried yeast

1 tsp sugar

Water

2 tbsps sugar

A pinch of salt

Instruction

-          Soak the upma rava, and beaten rice with water that is about 1 inch above the rava, for two hours.

-          Grind this with yeast and 1 teaspoon sugar. Leave for about 5 hours to ferment.

-          Add salt and 2 table spoons of sugar and mix well.

-          Make dosas on hot thava, keep medium flame. You need to cook only from one side.

-          Serve with chutney. 

Dosa made with fermented batter of ground upma rava and poha, mango chunda ( with jaggery), mango launji annd hadjod chutney.

Arbi leaves sabzi

Arbi plant can be easily grown at home and the leaves can be cooked into a variety of dishes.

Ingredients

2 cups of finely cut arbi leaves, afte removing their thick veins

1 tbsp peanuts

1 tbsp cashew nuts

1 tbsps oil

1/3 tsp fenugreek seeds

1 green chilli

2 tbsps grated coconut (optional)

2 tbsp gram flour (besan)

2 tsp tamarind pulp (soak a small ball of tamarind in water for 10 minutes and extract the pulp)

1 tsp jaggery

1/3 tsp turmeric powder

1/3 tsp red chilli powder

1 tsp coriander powder

1/3 tsp garam masala powder

3 cups water

Salt to taste

To temper

1 tbsp oil

1/3 tsp mustard seeds

1/3 tsp cumin seeds (jeera)

A pinch of asafoetida

A few curry leaves

Instruction

-          Soak the peanuts and cashew nuts for 1 or 2 hours

-          Heat oil in a kadai and add fenugreek seeds. When they crackle, add the cut leaves and sauté.

-          When the leaves are wilted, add the green chilli, soaked peanuts and cashew nuts, mix well. Add one cup water and salt. Cover and cook for about 8 minutes

-          Now add all masala powders, more water, sprinkle the gram flour slowly, add the tamarind pulp and jaggery. Simmer for about 6 minutes, stirring in between.

-          For tempering, heat the oil, add mustard seeds. When they splutter, add jeera, asafoetida, and curry leaves. Pour it over the sabzi, close the lid.

-          Open, mix well and serve with rice or chapati. 

Corn kees (Bhutte ki kees)

 This is a yummy street food of Indore. The moment I tasted it, I was hooked. Thought it must be so complicated to make at home, but a friend told it is just like making uppittu. So, here’s how to prepare this awesome dish. This serves as a snack and a breakfast dish. 

Ingredients

2 ½ cups separated corn kernels

1 ½ cups milk

1 tbsp oil

1/3 tsp mustard seeds

1/3 tsp cumin seeds (jeera)

A pinch of asafoetida

¼ tsp cut ginger

1 green chilli cut

A few curry leaves

1/3 tsp turmeric powder

1/3 tsp red chilli powder

1 tsp coriander powder

Salt to taste

¾ tsp sugar

1 tbsp cut coriander leaves to garnish

1 tbsp grated coconut to garnish (optional)

Instruction

-          Grind the corn kernels

-          Heat oil in a pan, add mustard seeds. When they splutter, add cumin seeds, asafoetida, curry leaves, and cut ginger and green chilli.

-          Stir for a while, now add turmeric powder, red chilli powder and coriander powder. Mix well and add the ground corn kernels.

-          Stir for a few seconds and add milk. Mix well, cover and cook on low flame, stirring in between.

-          Add salt and sugar and let it become thick.

-          Remove from fire and serve hot, garnished with cut coriander leaves and grated coconut (optional)

Breadfruit Mezhukkuperatti (Kerala style)

 I am in love with this preparation as it tastes so much like boiled, seasoned tapioca and tapioca is my favourite!

Ingredients

3 cups cut breadfruit pieces after skinning and removing the inner core

1 cup water

1 tbsp oil

½ mustard seeds

½ tsp udad dal

A few curry leaves

½ tsp turmeric powder

Salt to taste

2 tbsps grated coconut

Instruction

-          Keep the cut breadfruit in water so that they don’t get darkened

-          Heat oil in a pan, add mustard seeds. When they splutter, add udad dal. When they brown slightly, add curry leaves and cut breadfruit pieces. Stir for a while.

-          Add the turmeric powder, salt, water, cover and cook. Keep stirring in between and add more water if needed. It will take about 8 to 10 minutes to be cooked.

Add grated coconut, mix well and remove from fire.

Bun Dosa

 Sometimes I wonder how many types of dosas are there, each one with a signature taste. Today I made bun dosa for the first time and loved it!

Ingredients

2 cups dosa rice (for 8 dosas)

1 cup poha (beaten rice)

2 tsp fenugreekseeds

1 cup grated coconut

Salt to taste

Instruction

-          Wash and soak rice, poha, and fenugreek seeds for about 6 hours.

-          Grind with grated coconut and enough water to make into a smooth, thick batter. Keep covered in a warm place overnight to allow it to ferment and rise.

                                                        Fermented, well risen batter

-          Add salt and mix well, add a little water if needed.

-          Smear oil (this is done only once) in a kadai and put on medium fire. When it becomes hot, reduce the flame and pour a ladleful of batter.

-          Cover it and when the sides are cooked, pour oil along the periphery and cover again.

-          When the surface is cooked, turn it upside down and cover again.

-          Take it out when the lower side is also cooked.

-          Serve with coconut chutney.

Carrot Cake

This is my family’s favourite cake and to whomever I have served this, theirs too.

Ingredients

 2 cups refined flour

2 tsp baking powder

2 cups sugar

1 ½ cups oil

2 cups grated carrot

4 eggs

1 tbsp vanilla essence

Cashews and kismis mixed with a little dry refined flour

Instruction

-          Sieve the refined flour and baking powder together and keep aside.

-          Take oil and sugar in a deep pan and beat them together for about 5 minutes.

-          Add eggs one by one and beat and mix it in well.

-          Gradually mix in grated carrot, two tablespoons at a time.

-          Now mix in the flour, baking powder mix, adding two tablespoons at a time.

-          Stir in the vanilla essence, and fold in the cashews kismis refined flour mix.

-          Take a baking vessel (keep in mind the cake will rise double its initial height during baking), oil it or line with baking paper and pour in the cake batter.

-          Bake in a preheated oven at 170 degrees for 45 minutes to one hour. A tooth pick inserted deep into the center of the cake should come out clean to confirm it is fully baked.

-          Let it cool completely before cutting into pieces. On the second day it becomes moist and tastes better. 

Turkey Berry (Pea Eggplant) preparations

 Turkey berry or pea eggplant (Solanum torvum), is a bushy, erect and spiny perennial plant used in horticulture as a rootstock for eggplant since they are very vigorous and tolerate diseases affecting the root system. Turkey berries grow in clusters of tiny green spheres (about 1 cm in diameter) that look like green peas. These berries are believed to be full of iron and are consumed when one is low in iron.

They are called chundakkai in Malayalam and in my childhood my mother had told that they are edible but its processing is time consuming. Since she was a working woman, it was never cooked at home. While doing my Siddha Medicine course I learned that extract of this berry is used to improve digestion.  

When we saw a Turkey berry plant loaded with berries in the backyard, I decided to try cooking it. Searched the net to find how to clean it because it contains lots of tiny seeds, which need to be removed.  For this, the berries are gently crushed in a mortar with pestle, and then washed 3 or 4 times, when the seeds get washed off.

1.     Turkey berry curry

Ingredients

2 cups of cleaned, deseeded and washed Turkey berry

1 green chilli

2 tbsps oil

¼ tsp mustard seeds

A pinch of asafoetida

¼ tsp fenugreek seeds

1 red chilli broken to pieces

6 flakes of garlic

A few curry leaves

A small ball of tamarind, soak in water and take out the pulp

1 tsp sambar powder

Salt to taste

½   tbsp jaggery

1 ½ cups water

Instruction

-           Heat oil in a pressure cooker; add mustard, fenugreek seeds and red chilli pieces.

-          When mustard splutters, add garlic, curry leaves, asafoetida and fry well.

-          Put in the cleaned Turkey berries, green chilli, and salt.

-          Stir well on low flame for a couple of minutes. Then add tamarind pulp, sambar powder, jaggery, and water.

-          Pressure cook for 5 minutes. Cool and open, simmer for two minutes.

-          Serve with hot steamed rice. 

2.     Turkey Berry Dry Sabzi

Ingredients

2 cups of cleaned, deseeded and washed Turkey berry

½ cup water

Salt to taste

2 tbsps oil

½ tsp cumin seeds (jeera)

6 flakes of garlic cut fine

1/3 tsp turmeric powder

1/3 tsp red chilli powder

1 tsp coriander powder

½ tsp dry mango powder

1/3 tsp garam masala powder

Instructions

-          Pressure cook the cleaned, deseeded Turkey berries with water and salt for 5 minutes. Cool and open.

-          Heat oil in a pan, when it is hot, add jeera, cut garlic and sauté it.

-          Add the cooked Turkey berries (along with any water if it remains), all the masala powders. Reduce the flame and cook for 4 to 5 minutes, stirring occasionally., till any remaining water evaporates.

-          Serve with steamed rice or chapatis

                            Peas pulao with Turkey berry dry sabzi, lemon pickle and boondi raita

Curd Rice

 Curd rice is a very soothing comfort food. I make it in different ways. One recipe I got from a friend in Manipal way back in 1980.

Ingredients

2 cups cooked rice

Salt to taste

2 cups beaten curd

To Temper

1 tbsp oil

¼ tsp mustard seeds

A pinch of asafoetida

1 red chilli broken to pieces

I tbsp cut onion

Instruction

-          The rice should not be hot when you make curd rice. I usually cook rice in the morning and make curd rice at lunch time.

-          Make sure the curd is not sour if you want to enjoy awesome taste.

-          Add salt to the beaten curd, and mix in the cooked rice.

-          Heat oil in a pan, add mustard seeds. When they splutter, add asafoetida, red chilli pieces, cut onion and curry leaves. When the onion browns, pour it over the curd rice and close immediately.

-          Serve with pickle and roasted papad.

 

Curd Rice -2

This recipe I got from another friend a decade back. I had it at her house, just loved it and took the recipe. It looks so creamy because of the added malai.

Ingredients

2 cups cooked rice

Salt to taste

2 cups beaten curd

2 tbsps milk

1 tbsp malai (milk cream)

12 flakes of garlic

Instruction

-          Make sure the cooked rice is not hot when you make this.

-          Add salt and 6 flakes of garlic cut fine to the cooked rice and mix well.

-          Add the milk, milk cream and the remaining garlic lightly crushed to the beaten curd. Pour this into the rice and mix well. It tastes better if you can leave it covered for 5 minutes and then serve.

Cucumber Pachadi

 I love this Kerala dish, which is so yummy with red rice. It is very cooling for the body.

Ingredients

1 cup of peeled, deseeded cucumber cut into small pieces.

1 ½ cup water

1 green chilli

Salt to taste

1 cup beaten yoghurt

To grind

½  cup grated coconut

½ tbsp cut onion

½ tsp mustard seeds

¼ cup water

To temper

1 tbsp oil

¼ tsp mustard seeds

1 red chilli broken to piece 

1 tsp cut onion

A few curry leaves

Instruction

-          Put the cut cucumber in a pan with the green chilli, salt and water on fire.

-          Grind the coconut and onion. Keep adding water little by little and grind it smooth. Now add the mustard seeds and just run the grinder only once, to break, but not grind the mustard.

-          The cucumber pieces look transparent when cooked.

-          Add the ground coconut paste, then the beaten yoghurt. When it starts boiling, remove from fire and add the tempering.

-          Serve with steamed rice and dal.

Raw Mango Chunda

This is one thing I look forward to in the mango season. Easy to prepare, goes well with chapatis and steamed rice. And it can stay for a few months when refrigerated.

Ingredients

2 kgs raw mangoes

1 kg sugar or jaggery

1 Bay leaf

1 cinnamon stick

10 pepper corns

½ tsp turmeric powder (optional)

½ tsp red chilli powder (optional)

A pinch of salt (optional)

Instruction

-          Clean and wash the mangoes, then peel and grate them

-          Put the grated mangoes, sugar, bay leaf, cinnamon stick and pepper corns in a kadai and keep on medium flame

-          When it starts bubbling, reduce the flame and let it cook, stir in between. If you are adding turmeric powder, red chilli powder and salt, add at this stage.

-          When it thickens and the sugar syrup forms, remove from the fire.

-          Cool and bottle. 

And here I made with jaggery:

7 March 2023- Raw mango nuggets

Got the first raw mango of the season,going on vacation tomorrow. So while making chunda, I kept it on low flame for longer time, till one thread developed. The slightly cooled it and made them into small balls. We ate them during the travel and my daughter said that she liked it better than chunda. 

Uppittu with puffed rice

 This is a very light and delicious breakfast item.

Ingredients

8 cups of puffed rice – for 2 servings

2 tbsps oil

½ tsp mustard seeds

A pinch of asafoetida

2 tbsps roasted peanuts

1 large tomato finely chopped

Some curry leaves

Salt to taste

1/3 tsp turmeric powder

1/3 tsp red chilli powder

¼ tsp garam masala powder

2 tbsp grated coconut (optional)

Instructions

-          Take the puffed rice in a pan, pour water over it. Mix with hand for a few seconds and drain off the excess water. Cover and keep aside for half hour.

-          Heat oil in a kadai and add mustard seeds. When they splutter, add asafoetida, roasted peanuts, the cut tomatoes, and curry leaves.

-          When the tomatoes are cooked, add all the masala powders, salt and mix.

-          Finally add the soaked puffed rice, mix well and remove from fire and sprinkle grated coconut.

Horse gram and kozhuppan cheera sabzi

Kozhuppan cheera, Talinum fruticosum, Spinach cheera, Ceylon Spinach or sambar cheera, also known as water leaf, is a plant that is seen very commonly in Kerala and I have eaten its thoran with jackfruit seeds since childhood. 

I had brought one plant to Belgaum and it is a sturdy plant that grows easily.  It is a rich source of vitamins (Vitamin A and Vitamin E) and minerals (iron and calcium). It has some medicinal properties and antidiabetic property. 

The left over horse gram after making the rasam can be made into a sabzi with spinach cheera.

Ingredients

1 ½ cups cooked horse gram left after making the rasam

A big bunch of spinach cheera, cleaned, washed and cut

1 onion finely chopped

¼ tsp turmeric powder

¼ tsp red chilli powder

1 tsp coriander powder

¼ tsp garam masala powder

Salt to taste

1 tbsp oil

1/3 tsp mustard seeds

Instruction

-          Heat oil in a pan, add mustard seeds. When they splutter, add the cut onion. Stir and when the onion turns transparent, add the cut spinach cheera.

-          Keep stirring in between and when the leaves are cooked, which may take about 5 to 7 minutes, add all the masala powders and the cooked horse gram.

-          Check and adjust the salt (the horse gram was pressure cooked with salt). Mix well and remove from fire.

-          Serve with steamed rice and dal, or with chapatis

Horse gram (Kulthi or Kollu) rasam

Horse gram is called hurali in Kannada and muthira in Malayalam. 

Though not as popular as black gram, red gram and green gram, horse gram is still one of the most nutritious legumes (Macrotyloma uniflorum), being the maximum protein-rich lentil found on the planet. Besides being intrinsically vast in carbohydrate and protein content, it abounds in essential trace minerals like iron, molybdenum and calcium. These ensure optimal energy, muscle strength, regulated red blood cell synthesis and fortified bones.

It also supplies ample amounts of the B vitamins, guaranteeing the normal metabolic functioning of cells, and is the traditional elixir for ailments like diabetes, heart disease, kidney stones, asthma, obesity, and many more. It has a quick effect on common fever and cold, which basically happen when the body is attacked with various viruses that damage the immune system. When consumed during fever and cold, it opens the nasal tracts and softens the mucous membrane, relieves congestion, and boosts metabolism and immunity.

Horse gram lentils are also helpful for cough, asthma, bronchial issues and much more. Lipids in horse gram have been shown to have anti-ulcer activity due to the presence of phytosterol esters.

Ingredients

Broth: 2 cups of water left from 1 cup cooked horse gram

Salt to taste

¼ lemon sized tamarind, soak in water

1 tsp jaggery

1 tbsp cut coriander leaves to garnish at the end

To make the Paste:

1 tbsp sesame oil.

5 pepper corns

½ tsp jeera (cumin)

4 cloves of garlic sliced

1 medium sized tomato cut fine

¼ cup cooked horse gram

To temper:

1tbsp sesame oil

¼ tsp mustard seeds

¼ tsp fenugreek seeds

¼ tsp jeera

A few curry leaves

Instruction

-          Soak one cup of horse gram overnight, pressure cook with 2 ½ cups of water and salt for 8 minutes. Cool, drain, keep the water and horse gram separately.

-          Take out the tamarind pulp

-          Heat sesame oil in a pan, add cumin, pepper and sliced garlic. Then add cut tomato, stir and cook.

-          Add ¼ cup of cooked horse gram, mix well and remove from fire. Let it cool and then grind to a fine paste, adding a little water if needed.

-          Heat oil in a pan, add mustard seeds, jeera, and fenugreek seeds. When they pop, add the tamarind pulp, the ground paste and curry leaves. Simmer on low flame for two minutes.

-          Add  the broth from cooked horse gram, mix well and let it cook for five minutes.

-          Add the jaggery, mix, adjust the salt if necessary, and remove from fire. Add the cut coriander leaves.

-          Serve hot with steamed rice.

The cooked horse gram can be made into thoran, dry sabzi, or sabzi with spinach cheera .