Swings & Roundabouts

Lunch is served - Tomato rice with onion raita and appalam

Ingredients

Rice, cooked, 1 cup

Tomato thokku, 2 tbsp

Sunflower oil, 2 tsp

Urad dal, channa dal, 1 tsp each

Freshly ground chilli powder*, to taste

Gingelly oil, 1 tbsp

Curry leaves (optional), for garnish

Cook the rice with just enough water so the grains separate easily.

Spread on a plate and allow it to cool.

In a kadai, heat the oil and fry the urad and channa dal till they turn golden. Keep aside.

Add a dollop of tomato thokku to the rice, along with a spoonful of gingelly oil and mix slowly with the tips of your fingers. Gradually work in the thokku to the rice till the rice turns an even red colour and the mixture is totally incorporated into the rice.

Just before serving, add the crunchy dals to the rice, garnish with the curry leaves and serve hot.

Serving suggestion: Serve hot with a cool raita and appalam (pic)

Tomato thokku

Ingredients

Tomato, chopped, 1 can

Onions, diced, 1

Green chillies, diced, 1-2 (or as required)

Oil, 2 tbsp

Mustard seeds, urad dal, chana dal, 1 tsp each

Asafoetida, turmeric powder, a pinch

Salt, to taste

Chopped fresh coriander, to garnish

In a thick bottomed kadai, heat the oil. Add the dals and fry golden. Next, add the mustard seeds and allow it to splutter. Add asafoetida and fry for a few seconds before adding the chopped onions and chillies. Fry till it turns clear.

Next, add a can of chopped tomatoes, mix well along with salt and turmeric powder. Cover and cook on a low flame.

Stir the mixture on a regular basis, till the oil glistens on top and separates from the mixture.

Take off the flame, cool and store in an air-tight container.

A classic Tambram item, this is a top favourite of mine.

Vathal Kuzhambu

Ingredients

Tamarind, a lemon-sized ball

Dried vathal, 1-2 tbsp

Sesame oil, 2 tbsp

Mustard seeds, fenugreek seeds, chana dal, urad dal, 1 tsp each

Asafoetida, a pinch

Turmeric powder, a pinch

Dried red chillies, 2-3

Sambhar powder, 2 tbsp

Salt, to taste

Soak the tamarind in hot water for 15 minutes to soften it. Keep aside.

To start, heat the oil in a thick-bottomed kadai. Once it is hot, toss in the chana dal and urad dal. Saute them for a couple of minutes. Next, add the dried red chillies and the mustard and fenugreek seeds. After the mustard finishes popping, add asafoetida and the dried vathal of your choice and fry them nicely. Next, add the sambhar powder and enough salt and fry well till it takes on a dark note.

Now, mash the tamarind in the water it was soaking, strain the liquid and add the water carefully to the kadai. Add some more water to the tamarind pulp and repeat process once more. Mix well. Add salt and turmeric powder and let it boil well for 20 minutes or so.

Vathal Kuzhambu on the boil

Once the mixture is thick and the oil starts floating over the top, the vathal kuzhambu is ready. Take it off the flame and serve hot with rice and any ‘soft’ vegetable dish, like cabbage, okra etc. The kuzhambu’s taste deepens as it steeps – taste it the next day for a mind-blowing flavour.

Serves 4

Kalakhand

Am back after a year long break. Apologies re the shoddy blogging!! Have tons of recipes so sit back and enjoy!

To kick-start, here’s a quick-n-easy sweet you can whip up in a jiff.

Things you need:

Ricotta cheese, 500 g

Condensed milk, 1 tin

Butter, 25 gm

Lemon juice, 1 tablespoon

Elaichi 2 pods, powdered

Heat the butter in a thick-bottomed pan, over a medium flame till it melts evenly. Now, add the cheese and keep stirring it till it becomes a smooth paste. Keep stirring whilst adding a tin of condensed milk until everything’s well mixed. After five minutes of this, add the lemon juice slowly without letting up stirring.

The mixture will curdle and slowly become thicker. As you continue to stir, you’ll notice it coming off the edges of the pan. The sweet is ready when it easily rolls into a ball as you stir.

Add powdered elaichi to it, mix well and transfer to a well greased plate.

Spread the mixture evenly, cut into squares / diamond shapes and allow it to cool. Transfer to an air-tight container.

Makes about 30 pieces.

[Yes it is that easy! And it is thanks to Cee Kay and Dottie that this recipe came into being.]

Time was, I used to hate this veg with a passion. My dad loved it so it featured with irritating regularity in the house menu. Turns out the pater’s body sided with me all those years. One fine day, it decided enough it had silently borne this brinjal overdose long enough but now it was time to put the foot down. So it did with a vengeance the next time he popped a few down the gullet and that was the end of that.

As luck would have it, the lack of the ubiquitous veg invoked a craving in me and I developed a liking for it. Soon enough, I had no less than five entertaining ways of cooking the once damned vegetable. So I decided to make up with this former enemy in the best way possible – by filling a whole blog post about it.

The featured recipe is known as ‘ennai kathirikkai’ in Tamil and ‘guthi vankaya’ in Telugu. First is ennai kathirikkai, the way my mum and gran make it.

Ennai Kathirikkai Karamadhu

Brinjals, small – 250 gms

Red chillies – 5
Dhaniya – 1 tbsp
Peppercorns – 1 tbsp
Channal dal – 1 tbsp
Dessicated coconut – 1 tbsp

Mustard seeds – 1 tsp
Curry leaves – a few sprigs

Salt – to taste
Oil – 3 tbsp

To make this very simple preparation, first wash the vegetables well in water and dry them free of water. Make + shape slits into them and dunk them into salted water.
Next, roast red chillies, dhaniya, peppercorns and channa dal in half a tablespoon of oil for a few minutes. Add the dessicated coconut last and allow them to cool for a while. After a few minutes grind them coarsely, add salt and stuff them inside the cut brinjals, taking care not to break the vegetables.
In the same kadai, take couple of tablespoons of oil and toss some mustard seeds and curry leaves in. Once the seeds stop spluttering, add the spice-coated brinjals to the kadai and mix well in the oil. Cook in a slow fire, tossing the shiny vegetables every so often till it is well cooked.
Serve hot with rice and onion sambhar.

The next one is how my MIL makes it. It is as different to the previous way of preparing the same veg as the proverbial chalk and cheese.

Guthi Vankaya

Brinjals – 250 gms
Onion – 1, chopped finely
Channa dal – 3 tsp
Urad dal – 1 tbsp
Dhaniya – 1/2 tbsp
Methi seeds, mustard seeds, jeera and mustard seeds – 1 tsp each
Dried red chillies – 6
Dessicated coconut – 1 tbsp
Tamarind – as needed
Oil – 4 tbsp
Salt – to taste
Jaggery – tiny piece

Soak a big lime-sized ball of tamarind in warm water for 15 minutes, till it tenderises completely. Strain and keep aside.
Fry all the masala ingredients (except for onions, brinjal and coconut) in a tablespoon of oil.
Once it is cooled, grind in a dry jar along with the grated coconut. Mix with the tamarind pulp.
Add finely diced onions to this paste and season with salt.
Make + shaped slits into the fleshy part of the brinjal, taking care to retain the green stem and stuff with the paste.
Heat the oil in a kadai and gently drop in the stuff veg one by one. Coat in oil and cook for a few minutes. Pour the rest of the paste over this, dilute with water, cover with a tight lid and cook over a slow fire.
After 15 minutes, add some powdered jaggery and cook some more.
Check seasoning and take off the flames.
Serve with rice.

Vankaya Masala

I learnt of this Hyderabadi way of preparing the same dish from a friend’s visiting MIL. This is slightly fiery compared to the former, tamer versions. Avoid if you have asthma or peanut allergy.

Brinjals – 500 gms
Onion – 2, medium
Methi seeds – 1/4 tsp
Jeera – 1/2 tsp
Dhaniya powder – 1 tsp
Sesame powder – 2 tsp
Roast groundnut powder – 1 tbsp
Cloves – 2
Red chillies – 6
Ginger-garlic paste – 1 tsp
Salt – to taste
Turmeric powder – a pinch
Tamarind – a lime-sized ball
Jaggery – a small piece
Oil – 3 tbsp

In a dry jar, powder finely the jeera and methi seeds.
Make the now famous + shape cuts into the brinjals and put them in salted water.
Cut the onions into rough pieces and fry them in oil till they are translucent.
Grind along with jeera-methi powder, dhaniya powder, sesame powder, groundnut powder, red chillies, cloves, ginger-garlic paste, turmeric and salt.
Fry the brinjals in two tablespoons of oil till they are partially cooked. Add the masala paste to the vegetables and mix well. Let it cook for a couple of minutes. Now add the strained tamarind and cover and cook for 15 minutes.
Add some powdered jaggery, check for seasoning and cook for couple of minutes.
Serve hot with rice.

Submitted a day late to JFI: Brinjals, hosted by Sangeeta of Ghar Ka Khana

This is a typical Tambram recipe – though I am not a massive fan of raw plantain, I can gulp down every single morsel if it is made this way. Using the same method, you can substitute potato for plantain and make yummy urulai podimaas (????? ????????)

First, gather around these important items:

Raw plantain – 2
Toor dal, parboiled – 2 tbsp

Urad dal – 1 tsp
Channa dal – 1 tsp
Mustard seeds – 1 tsp
Green chillies – 1-2
Ginger – 1 inch piece
Dessicated coconut – 1 tbsp
Curry leaves – a handful
Salt, asafoetida and turmeric – a pinch
Oil – 2 tbsp

To start with, cut a plantain roughly into 3 small chunks and drop it in salted, boiling water. Do not peel the skin now. Once it is cooked, drain the hot water and keep the veg aside.
Cook the toor dal till it is half done.
In a non-stick pan, heat the oil. Drop the channa and ural dals in it and saute till golden. Next, add the slit green chillies and continue sauteing. Add grated ginger, dessicated coconut and torn curry leaves and fry for a minute or two. Finally, add some mustard seeds and allow it to splutter.
Strain the parboiled toor dal so no water remains and mix with the ingredients of the pan and let it all cook together.
Meanwhile, peel the skin off the cooked plantains and mash the chunks roughly, using the back of a fork. Season it with salt.
Add the mashed plantains to the non-stick pan and mix well. Add asafoetida and turmeric, check the salt and mix well.
Serve hot with rice.

Adai is a traditional Tamil dinner dish that is quite healthy too. Having a really dodgy digestive system, I was always restricted to just one adai for most of my life, till I hit my 20′s. It was never my favourite dish though.

A few years back, the dietician at my brother’s gym gave him a new recipe for it that made it positively lip smacking! This is a dieter’s delight and as it fills you up, you can just have two of these and die happy.

Things you need are:
1/2 cup channa dal
1/4 cup toor dal
1/4 urad dal
1 cup idli rice
4-5 crushed red chillies
1 cup grated veg – carrots, cabbage
1 tbsp dessicated coconut (optional)
1 red onion, sliced finely
a sprig of curry leaves
a pinch of asafoetida
salt to taste

To start with, soak the rice and dal for about four hours. After that, grind them coarsely, along with the dried red chillies and the dessicated coconut.
Season with salt, asafoetida and torn curry leaves.
Now, your batter is ready.
Take some of it in a clean bowl, sprinkle the onions and the grated veg and mix well. Mixing the veg and onions with the whole of your batter would make the veg go soggy and the batter would not last for long.
Heat a tawa till it is very hot.
Take a ladleful of the doctored batter (!), pour it in the tawa in a circle and spread it thin, just like you would make a dosa.
Flip it over after it has cooked on one side. Cook till well done.

You can eat it with that delectable medley of vegetables, aviyal.

This is a favourite of my family’s – and mine. My friend Rashmi once made it many moons back and I loved it. And I hate cauliflower! This is the only way I can have that vegetable and I make it at least once a month. This was also the first dish I made at my in-laws place soon after I got married. S’s nainamma loved it and had two helpings!

I am also submitting this for this month’s Jihva for Tomatoes food event. I did not know there was a word called Jihva till I read about it in Indira’s blog. I am really hoping that I could be a part of this month’s Jihva and even possibly, ‘host’ one at a later date.

Enough waffle – now for the recipe:

Gather around these things:

Cauliflower – 1, cut into florets
Tomato – 1, canned or 500 gms, blanched and pureed
Onions – 1, sliced
Green chillies – 3-4, slitted
Green peas – a tablespoonful
Coriander – for garnishing
Oil – 5 tbsp
Cumin seeds, masala ingredients – as per your preference
ginger/garlic paste – 1 tsp
Turmeric – 1 tsp
Dhania powder – 1 tsp
Jeera powder – 1 tsp
Garam masala – 1 tsp
Salt – as per your taste

Firstly, we have to cook the cauliflower. For this, boil a saucepan full of water, add some salt to it and drop in the florets once the water starts bubbling. Let it cook so for about 3-4 mins. Drain the florets in a colander and pat dry so you take all the excess water off. This is important as otherwise, it will start spluttering once you move on to the next step.
Heat oil in a kadai. In small batches, shallow fry / saute the florets till they become lightly crisp. Drain on kitchen towels so it isn’t too oily.
Once you are done cooking the cauliflower, reduce the oil so only 2 tbsp or so remains in the kadai. Add cumin seeds, cloves, cinnamon and bay leaves and saute for a minute or so. Now, add the sliced onions and saute till the onions turn pink.
Next, add the ginger-garlic paste and saute for another minute.
Now you are ready to add the tomatoes. I generally prefer them in cans, chopped and swimming in their own juice, as that gives the curry a lovely colour. You can get fresh tomatoes, blanch and puree them as well. Add this to the kadai ingredients. Let it cook well till the fat seperates. Add a pinch of turmeric to the gravy.
Now add the cooked florets to the it along with some peas and let it all simmer for five – ten minutes. Add salt, dhaniya- jeera powder and garam masala and let it steep for a minute.
Take off the flame and garnish with chopped coriander.

Serve hot with chapati or pulao / fried rice.