Cucumber pachadi

To the routine question to my dental patients whether they are suffering from any systemic disease, from the past five or six years I find that many ladies are taking tablets for thyroid diseases. Even young girls of 25 years! Imagine taking allopathic medicine for all the remaining years of their lives.

It is advisable that a person afflicted with thyroid malfunctioning should go for salads made out of sprouts, cucumber and carrot. Cucumber is very effective for patients diagnosed with goiter- a disease resulting from hypothyroidism.

Pachadi is a Kerala preparation that is so soothing. It is made with the Kerala variety of cucumber.

Ingredients:

Cucumber, pealed and cut into small elongated pieces – 2 cups

Curry leaves    - a few

Curds     - ½ cup

Salt to taste

To grind ;

Scraped coconut            -1/2 cup

Cut onion (shallots preferable)    - 1 tsp

Coriander or coriander powder  - ½ tsp

Mustard seeds-  ½ tsp

Method:

Cover the cut cucumber with sufficient water, add curry leaves, salt and cook till done (they will look transparent when cooked).  

Meanwhile, grind coconut, cut onion and coriander with a little water. When it is smoothly ground, add the mustard seed and just run the mixi once so that the mustard seeds are just broken down, not ground to paste. Add the ground coconut paste to the cooked cucumber, stir and cook for a few seconds. Now add the beaten curd and stir well. Remove from fire. Goes well with rice. 

Venpongal

Green gram or moong dal is a favored food of sadhus because it is very sattwic. And I love it! I keep making different preparations with green gram so that I can have it more often. Once cooked, the green gram is sweet and soft in texture, and it is easily digested, so it doesn't produce flatulence like many other legumes. Because of the high amount of fiber, green gram is considered low-glycemic. It digests slowly and gradually releases glucose into your bloodstream, stabilizing your blood sugar. 

The green gram is popular as the perfect food for reducing weight. It is recommended as a food replacement in many slimming programs, as it has a very low fat content. It is a rich source of protein and fiber, which helps one to lower the high cholesterol level in the blood system.  It has been used for detoxifying purposes for thousands of years in both Ayurvedic and Traditional Chinese medicine.

Ingredients:

Rice     - 100 gms

Moong dal        -50 gms

Water   -3 ½ cups

Salt to taste

Ghee    - 2 tbsps

Jeera, roughly powdered           -1 tsp

Black pepper, roughly ground   - ½ tsp

Ginger finely cut            - 2 tsp

Cashew nuts     - 1 tbsp

 Method:

The moong dal has to be roasted in one tablespoon ghee. So I wash the dal and spread out on a plate for about half hour to let it dry. Pour one tablespoon of ghee into the pressure cooker, add the moong dal and roast it for some time. Add the washed rice, water, salt and pressure cook for six minutes. Cool and open the cooker.

Heat a tablespoon of ghee, add the cut ginger. After about half a minute, add the cashews, when they slightly brown, add the jeera and pepper powders. Stir, and pour over the cooked rice dal mixture. Mix well and serve with pickle, papad and curds.

Inchi (ginger) curry

Yaayyy Onam is here. And what is the most important item for Onassadya? Of course, the inchi curry. This is what will facilitate taking a little more of the payasam. When you drink that delicious payasam and reach a point when you want to have more, but the mouth is feeling so sweet that it looks impossible, inchi curry is there to help you. Just take a bit of the inchi curry and lick it. Its spicy tanginess will remove all the sweet taste from the mouth and you are ready for more payasam… hurrayyy.

Ingredients:

Ginger, preferably fresh ginger   - 250 gms

Green chilli       - 1

Oil        11/2 cups

Mustard seeds              - ½ tsp

Methi seeds      - 1/3 tsp

Red Chilli powder         - ½ tsp

Tamarind pulp              - 11/2 tbsps     

Jaggery syrup               - 11/2 tbsp

Salt to taste

Curry leaves     - 1 twig

Method:

Peel, wash and slice ginger. Cut the green chilli to small pieces. Fry the ginger slices in the oil. When it is half done, add the green chilli pieces. When the ginger is dark brown, drain and keep aside. When it is cool, grind with salt and water. I always prefer to grind this on my favorite Kerala stone ( Ammikkallu J)

Heat a tablespoon of oil in a pan and add mustard seeds. When they splutter, add the methi seeds and when they brown, add the curry leaves. Now mix in the ground paste, red chilli powder, tamarind pulp and jaggery syrup. Add some water to make it a little thin. Stir and keep on low flame for about 5, 6 minutes till the oil starts separating. Cool and bottle. It can stay in the refrigerator for as long as a month.

Starting to cook in your own kitchen

I remember the days when I started managing the kitchen. I used to cook from early days since I had a working mother. But it used to be shared work with my sister. After marriage I became the queen of my kitchen. But it was a gradual process because we were living in a hostel as a couple (doing post graduation) and I had to cook breakfast and Saturday dinners when the cook took time off.

It was a challenging period for me. Being a Malayali, I couldn’t think of gravy without ground coconut in it. Added to that, my North Indian husband is a vegetarian and he had extracted a promise from me before marriage that I wouldn't cook non veg at home. I got panicky thinking what I would serve him day after day with only vegetables to rely on!

Before moving into the hostel we had stayed for six months at his mamiji’s house and she taught me the basic North Indian cooking. Ok, that was a revelation to me. Only vegetables and without coconut- there are hundreds of lip smacking dishes!

The problems in the early days of cooking are many. One common thing that I have found is under-cooked dal. It helps to soak the dal for a few hours and pressure cook it for the specified time.. and don’t open the cooker immediately. Let the pressure cooker cool down and then only open.

For a working wife who is hard pressed for time, it is a common occurrence that the sabzi is kept on the stove and she thinks in five minutes she will check it, and starts some other work like sitting on the computer. Then it is the burnt smell that distracts her from the work she is attending. So, the first and foremost requirement in a kitchen is a timer. When you are leaving anything on the stove and going to do another chore, just wind your timer and take it with you. 

Basale Kadhi

Basale leaves are commonly used in Kannada cuisine. Usually they add the leaves to dal while cooking. They are not spinach, but are as nutritious. Basale plant is native to India and, in the rest of the world, it is known as Malabar spinach. Typical of leaf vegetables, Basale is rich in vitamins A, B and C, iron and calcium. It is low in calories and has a fair amount of most minerals. The succulent mucilage is a rich source of soluble fibre. Ayurveda recommends Basale in the treatment of several conditions such as anaemia, cough, dysentery and diarrhea.

Today I thought of making kadhi with basale leaves, and it turned out delicious!

Ingredients:

Large basale leaves       - 2, washed and chopped fine

Curds   - 2 cups

Water   - 11/2  cups

Besan   - 11/2 tbsps

Turmeric powder          - 1/3 tsp

Salt to taste

Oil        - ½ tbsp

Jeera    - ½ tsp

Methi seeds      - 1/3 tsp

Asafoetida        - a pinch

Method:

Whisk the curds, add the besan and turmeric powder, and mix well. Add the water, salt, and mix again. Heat the oil in a pan, add jeera and methi seeds. When they brown, add asafetida and pour in the curds besan mix. Stir it and bring to boil. Add the chopped basale leaves and reduce the flame. Cook for about ten minutes till the leaves are done. Don’t forget to stir in between. It is a good accompaniment for rice.

Kadhi with ajwain leaves pakode: Click here for recipe

Methi chana dal sabzi

This is one sabzi that my husband keeps reminding me to make, because he loves it! Its taste is enhanced when mustard oil is used, though you can use any medium.

Methi contains protein, fibre, vitamin C, niacin, potassium, iron and alkaloids. It also contains a compound diosgenin which has oestrogen-like properties, as well as steroidal saponins.

Despite the fact that methi is one of the oldest medicinal herbs, ongoing research in India and abroad is currently uncovering new possibilities for its potential role in the treatment of diabetes and high cholesterol levels associated with coronary heart disease. Methi helps flush out harmful toxins, relieves indigestion and treats constipation. . It also stimulates the immune system.

Ingredients:

Fenugreek (Methi) seeds          - ½ cup

Bengal gram (Chick pea) dal     - 1 cup

Water   - 11/2  liters

Mustard oil       - 1 tbsp

Jeera    -1/2 tsp

Turmeric powder          - 1/3 tsp

Chilli powder    - ½ tsp

Coriander powder        - 11/2 tsp

Dried mango powder    - ¾ tsp

Garam masala powder  - ½ tsp

Salt to taste

Method:

Soak methi seeds and Bengal gram dal together for about 6 hours. Pressure cook this in 11/2 liters of water for 3 minutes. Cool, drain and keep aside.

Heat the mustard oil in a pan (preferably a non- stick pan) and add the jeera, and all the masala powders. Toss in the cooked methi and chana dal. Stir for about 5 minutes on medium heat and remove from fire. Goes well with rice or chapattis.

Pumpkin green gram sabzi

This is a comfort food for me. In Kerala, we used to have Kanji (savory rice porridge) with this sabzi and it used to be heavenly. The sweetish taste of pumpkin, added to the spicy seasoning is what makes this so special

Ingredients:

Green gram      - ½ cup, soak for 6 hours

Pumkin, skinned and cubed       - 300 gm

Water   -3/4 cup

Salt to taste

Grind together:

Scraped coconut          - ¾ cup

Red chilli powder          -1/2 tsp

Turmeric powder          - 1/3 tsp

Jeera    - ¾ tsp

Garlic   - 5,6 flakes

To season:

Coconut oil       - 1tbsp

Mustard seeds  - ½ tsp

Red chilli pieces            - 5,6

Onion finely cut - 1 tbsp

Some curry leaves

Scraped coconut          - 1 tbsp

Method:

Pressure cook the soaked green gram and pumpkin pieces with salt and water for 4 minutes. Cool, open and add the ground masala. Mix well and keep on low fire for about five minutes. Meanwhile, heat coconut oil in a pan, add mustard. When it splutters, add the red chilli pieces, cut onion, and curry leaves.  After a while, add the scraped coconut. Stir well, pour over the sabzi, close immediately and remove from fire.