Green Chutney

Green chutney goes with idlis, dosas, vadas even as a side with rice. Always tastes good when made fresh.
Ingredients:
A fist full grated coconut
1 hot green chilli
fistful cilantro leaves
salt to taste
1 pod garlic (optional)
few drops of lime (optional)
few leaves of mint (optional)

Grind very well, the above with very little water. Add a little water to losen the consistency if required. As a varient cant also give a tadka of mustard and curry leaves. The optional items can be tried as varients. Fresh green chutney is ready.

Paripu Vada

Paripu vada just like the quintessential bhajji of the north India is very popular in south India. A popular snack for tea time.
Ingredients:
1 cup chana dal soaked  for 2 hours and then drained
1/2 tsp sweet cumin or saunf
salt to taste
chopped half of an onion
chopped few sprigs of corriander
chopped curry leaves
 finely chopped ginger
3 green chillies
3 dry red chillies
Refined vegetable oil for frying
Coarsely grind the chana dal with some salt and the red and green chillies. Use the pulse option on the grinder. The dough will not be runny but not tough either. Mix the dough with the other chopped items and hing. Make small balls .Using your palms, flatten balls to make vadas with a hole/depression at the centre. Fry till golden brown on both sides. Take out with slotted spoons and keep on paper napkins to absorb excess oil. Serve hot with chutney or ketchup. Tastes good even without accompaniment. Enjoy!

Sadhya Sambar

Sadhya sambar also called varatharucha sambar is made in Kerala for feasts on special occassions like weddings or festivals. It is time consuming as it requires  quite a bit of preperation. But the result is worth the effort. This sambar is a hit with all my friends, Malayalis or not.
Ingredients:
To dry roast and then grind:
1 tbsp (heaped) corriander seeds
1 tbsp urad dal
1 tbsp chana dal
20 dry red chillies (but not the karshmiri kind)
1 1/2 cups grated coconut
2 green chillies
Remaining ingredients:
1/4 to 3/4 cup toor dal
2 large tomatoes
1 small fist of tamarind washed and soaked in water
1 fistful of red shallots roughly chopped.
2 pods garlic
1 tsp red chilli powder
salt per taste
cilantro leaves for garnish (optional)
2 cup of vegetables or your choice-ladys fingers, pumpkin, ash gourd, drum sticks, egg plant, green banana etc are the standard choices. Choose the ones you enjoy.
Tadka:
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp turmeric powder
1 pinch hing
1 pinch fenugreek powder
Curry leaves 1-2 strings
Oil for tadka (any refined veg oil is a good choice. You can try ghee for a special flavour or try 100% pure coconut oil for an authentic Kerala flavour)

Dry roast the ingredients  mentioned and grind to a fine powder. Take care to not burn the ingredients. The coconut should be roasted till its completely dry and brownish and the dals crunchy. If you dont have fenugreek powder, you can add 5-6 fenugreek seeds for dry roasting with other ingredients. Cook the dal with geen chillies and garlic and salt. Heat a pressure cooker and then splutter mustard seeds in it. Then add turmeric powder, hing , curry leaves. Once heated, add chopped shallots. Stir till slightly tender. Add the veggies and 1 tsp red chilli powder and coarsely chopped tomatoes. Stir to coat all veggies well. Heat and stir for about 1 min or so. Add the dal mix well, keep the flame on high. Add the freshly ground dry roasted powder.I Mix well. If you enjoy more sourness, add the juice of soaked tamarind. Add the fenugreek powder (if not in the dry roast ingredients). Check for seasoning.Then close the lid for 1 whistle on high flame. Switch off and after pressure cooker cools, its ready to be enjoyed with fresh steamed rice or idlis. Garnish with chopped cilantro

A varient on this is that you can make it simpler and faster and tasty nevertheless if you dry roast only coconut and dry red chilli (same quantity as above). Combine it with ready made sambar powder available in market while adding to veggies and dal in the cooker.

Another variation is as below:

1.Dal boil in double quantity of water

2.Fry masala;

Heat oil, dry red chillis-6, 3 tbsp coco-grated, small cup of chana dal, 1tsp of coriander seeds,1/2 tsp meethi seeds-saute and grind

Fry shallots , add tomatoes, then add above paste, 1 tsp red chilli pwdr and little turmeric, salt , water

3.Open cook the veggies till soft

Mix the items in above 3 steps in a pan and cook to combine.

Finally add a tadka of mustard, curry leaves with pinch of hing

Parippu payasam

1 cup parripu (yellow split moong dal)
1 block Jaggery
1 tbsp cashew nuts broken
1 tbsp ghee
Elaichi for flavour
Coconut milk of half a coconut
A pinch of salt to balance the taste

Cook the moong dal in some water. You can even pressure cook it. after its cooked, semi-mash it. The mixture should be a soup consistency. Melt jaggery with some water in a heavy pan. Add melted jaggery. Simmer it for 3 minutes or so.  Then add coconut milk and cook for some more for about 2 min or so. Keep stirring (without letting it boil -to prevent curdling). Meanwhile fry the cashews in ghee. Add the cashews with ghee and a pinch of salt into the mix. Flavour with powdered elaichi. Mix well and serve hot.

Chakkara Pongal

A sweet made of rice, moong dal and jaggery.
Ingredients:
1 glass raw rice
1/4 glass yellow split moong dal
1/4 glass ghee
1 tablespoon cashews
1 glass melted jaggery
5-6 pods Elaichi for flavour

Get a pan boiling with water (about 1 glass) , then add the rice and moong. Keep stirring (to prevent burning) till rice and moong are fully cooked and water evaporated . Then add the melted jaggery. Let it cook for 5 min. Meanwhile fry cashew with part of the ghee. Add the fried cashew and remaining ghee. Mix. Stop cooking. Add powdered elaichi last and mix well. Serve hot. Makes a great dessert. Enjoy
Tip: Its easier to powder elachi when mixed with sugar.

Very Easy Alu Subzi

serves 2
1 large potato
1 inch ginger
2-4 green chilli depending on required heat
A pinch asfoetida
A pinch turmeric
salt to taste
1 tsp mustard seeds

Grind green chilli and ginger and keep aside. Boil and cube the potato. Heat a wok  and add 2 tspns oil. Pop mustard seeds. Add hing and turmeric and salt.  Add ginger chilli paste and fry till rawness of ginger is out. Add chopped potato. Mix well and cook till flavours incorporate well. Garnish with 2 sprigs of corriander(optional). Goes very well with Indian puri.

Aloo Baingan- Indian Potato Eggplant Dish

I love potatoes in any form. Add egg plant to it, ..Ummm! I know there are thousands of aloo baingan recipes out there. Here's mine going out too.

Serves 3-4
1 large potato -chopped little large
3-4 medium size egg plants again chopped large
half of a tomato (optional)-chopped small
1 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 tsp jeera/cumin seeds
3/4 tsp aniseed/saunf
1/2 tsp ajwain
1 inch ginger
2 small garlic cloves
1 tsp red chilli powder
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
a pinch hing/asfoetida powder
1 heaped tbsp dry roasted coconut
1 tsp subzi masala- I used Everest brand
1/4 tsp garam masala- I used Mothers shahi garam masala.
1 tbsp oil
Salt to taste
Chopped cilantro leaves for garnish

To prevent darkening of the cut baingan and alu, you can put it in a bowl of water. But I prefer not to do that as some nutrients are lost in the water. You can time it so that you cut them just before adding them to the pan.
Heat oil in a thick bottom pan. Once hot add mustard seeds. Once it crackles, add jeera, sauf, ajwain. Add hing and then turmeric. Chop finely or grate ginger into the spice mixture and then add chopped potatoes. Stir it so its coated and cover it. While its cooking, grind the roasted coconut. Once ground add the coconut mixture to potatoes along with salt. Once again stir and cover. After potatoes are halfway done, add eggplants along with chopped garlic and red chilli powder and stir and cover it. After the egg plants have been cooking a while, add tomato and the readymade spices and stir and cover it. Tomato is optional. I like its tangy flavour. You wont need to add much or any water. It will cook in its own steam. When its ready, garnish with chopped cilantro leaves. Goes very well with rotis and phulkas. Enjoy it!

World Earth Day

April 22 . Celebrated as World Earth Day since last 40 years. I disagree with having only 1 day of 365 dedicated to a global looming crisis. I mean its better than having none at all. It does give an excuse to spread the message. However what I mean is that only 1 day of practising 'Green' isnt going anywhere! One must practise 'Green' 365 days of the year to support the planet. Anyway, coming back to practising 'Green' today, I would like to focus on gardening. While everyones talking about containing carbon footprint (which is very important) and all, we must also remeber a fun and creative we can help our planet. By planting more trees! Well need not be only trees. Any plant, shrub, herb that you grow is a part of the planet and helps it thrive. Big or small that patch of earth you garden is a part of our planet. Even if you dont have a big backyard, what you grow on your front step, roof top or balcony can help our environment and world thrive.
It is very rewarding to even just look at your creation. The beauty of gardening is that anyone can do it. When you invite children to garden with you, even the smallest project yields incredible rewards, from creating special memories to teaching life long skills that encourage healthy living and help environment. So lets come together to celebrate World Earth Day bycreating or adding to our garden. Pick native plants(they are sturdier, contain carbon footprint), conserve water, use  more organic fertilizers, less chemicals and we can work together to help our planet have many more Happy Earth days to come. Go Green Today.

Don't be a Part

Consumption by humans is on the rise. One report says that the way humans are consuming, we need nine more planets to meet our needs of land, steel, water etc. Consumption increases waste generated. That bring us to topic of plastic pollution. Currently so much plastic waste generated world over. Be it the number of plastic bags given out every time you go shopping or the packaging. Every time one goes shopping, one has a large garbage pile the next day. Take away food is another major contributor to garbage generation. Take away food being so popular leads to vast amount of plastic containers being generated as waste. So much plastic! All these plastic waste mean that many more pounds of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. And that much bigger our global warming and climate change problem!

Agreed that you as an individual are not a major contributor to climatic change and global warming problem. The carbon dioxide gas emissions of the industrialized developing countries are the reason we are facing this problem today. And the present greenhouse gas emissions by the developing countries are adding to the problem. We have had developed and developing countries contest on who should be capped and how much during the Copenhagen G8 Summit. So, coming back, individual contributions in separate may not seem to matter. But, individuals make communities. Communities make countries. And countries make up this world. Cumulative effect of the individual effort the world over will be significant.

Average plastic bag or bottle is used for a few minutes while it needs nearly 500 years to decompose. Statistics say that less than 6% of plastic generated is recycled. Majority end up in the landfills. The rest end up in the bellies of the sea turtles and other sea life. A walk along the Khaleed Lagoon, Buheira Corniche will prove it. Peer down the railings and you can see plastic in various forms. Bottles and bags. I feel sad for the fishes nibbling plastic thinking its food. I am sure they have atleast 1 course of plastic for every meal. Watch this video: http://gulfnews.com/gntv/news/turtle-rescue-1.616076

Around Sharjah emirate garbage isn’t segregated into plastic, glass and wet waste. How can recycling work without segregation?

Also, why aren’t people attempting to carry own bags while shopping? I do. I use the large reusable plastic bags sold at supermarkets for 50 fils. I find them convenient and saves on atleast 10 bags per trip. CLOTH BAGS are the BEST for environment to use. But it’s forgivable to use plastic bags if you are REUSING them. An average family uses nearly 100 plastic bags per month. One can avoid this waste by carrying own bags. It’s a good idea to keep a spare bag at hand and avoid accepting plastic bags from the stores as much as you can. You just need getting used to…. used to remembering to carry your own bags. And used to refusing unnecessary plastic bags from the stores. Once you start, you will start enjoying it. It’s definitely easier to carry few large sturdy bags than to carry multiple thin bags. The reusable bags look way more ‘COOLER’ and are good for your ‘GREEN’ conscious image.

Plus plastic bags and bottles lying around are such an eye sore!

Kerala Dishes

Recently we had few family friends over for dinner and I had served Kerala style kadala(black chana) curry and vegetable stew with appam. It was a great hit. So, posting the recepies for the same.

1. Kerala style Kadala (black chana) Curry
serves about 6
2 cups black chana soaked overnight
4 green chilies
curry leaves 1 sprig
Half of an onion- chopped
2-4 elaichi
4 cloves
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1 bay leaf
1 inch cinammon stick

For grinding:
2 table spoons grated coconut
4 shallots small ones
1 clove of garlic
1 tsp jeera

Tempering:
4-5 curry leaves
1 small tomato
coarse ground pepper power 1tsp
quarter of an onion cut into slivers



2. Kerala style Vegetable Stew
serves about 4
1 cup cauliflower cut into medium sized florets
1 large potato
1 medium onion cut lenghtwise
3-4 french beans cut into two inch pieces
2 green chilies
half tsp black pepper
half cup green peas
half of a tomato
Ginger garlic paste
5-6 curry leaves

Easy Homemade Soups

Winter! Just the time for heatwarming soups. Being fed a soup makes you feel so well cared for. This post is inspired by my Sister-in-law. She mentioned that an easy way to make soups was to boil our choice of few veggies (carrots, peas, spinach, tomatoes, beans etc) and after it has cooled, blend it. No straining. That avoids loss of any fibre; though I am not sure if the process of blending itself contributes to any nutrition loss. I tried the same and it was super. Thick and tasty.
So very simple.
Here are a few I tried.

1. Mixed Vegetable Soup (for 2)
5 leaves of Spinach
1 cup of frozen mixed veggies-carrot,peas,corn,beans
1/2 capsicum (optional-as not everyone may enjoy its taste)
1 large tomato
2 cups water
Garnish:
Green onion and pepper

Add the above ingredients (except garnish) in any small pressure cooker with salt and black pepper. Give it 1 whitle. Strain the water, keep aside. Cool the boiled veggies and blend it just enough to make it a smooth paste. Add the water kept aside and adjust water consistency and salt . Heat a pan add ghee or butter. Add 1/4 tsp black pepper, roast for about 30 secs and add 2 tsp chopped green onion. One can skip the green onion and add only fried black pepper. Or if one is calorie conscious, we can skip the garnish all together. But fried black pepper does give it a special warm flavour.

2. Pumpkin and Peas Green Soup
5 leaves spinach
1 cup peas
1 cup pumpkin
1/2 tomato
Garnish -optional

Follow the same instruction above. Boil the veggies with salt and pepper for one whistle and blend to a paste.

3. Healthy Tomato Soup
Tomatoes with its high Lycopene content is widely accepted as a prime ingrediant in anti-aging.
2 large tomatoes
1 cup pumpkin
Garnish ingredients.

Boil the above veggies with salt and pepper for one whistle and blend to a paste. Garnish with green onion and butter roasted black pepper. This soup tastes better with garnish.

The above are just a few. There is no limit to the number of vegetable combinations that can be tried. To make the soup thicker, add some squash (eg pumpkin), peas or carrots. Adding tomatoes to the combinations will add a nice tangy taste. Try all different kinds and make your family feel well loved and cared for.
Happy Souping! Happy New Year!