Kadapa / Mildly spiced dal and potato curry for dosa and idly

Since we all know Kattappa now (thanks to Bahubali movie!) how about we try a curry called Kadapa.
It is a great curry to enjoy with Dosa. I did not enjoy it much with Idly, but it is supposed to be the perfect combination.
This recipe is from Kumbakonam, the central heartland of Tamil Nadu.
It is very easy to make and is a great way to start your day. And I love the yellow color of this dish.

Note: The dish is very mild and non-spicy. Feel free to increase the number of green chilly in the recipe to suit your family's taste.

Ingredients:
Tur dal / Moong Dal - 1/2 cup
Potato - 2 medium
Onion - 1/2 medium
Green Chilly - 1 (or more), chopped fine
Oil - 2 tbsp
Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
Red Chilly - 1, broken
Curry leaf - 1 sprig
Salt
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Lemon juice - 2 tbsp (approximately)
Coriander leaf to garnish

To be ground into a fine paste:
Coconut - 5 tbsp
Khus Khus / poppy seeds - 1 tsp
Ginger - 1 inch
Garlic - 2 cloves
Fennel seeds / Perum jeerakam - 1/2 tsp

Method:
Pressure cook the dal and potato separately.
Mash the dal well and mash some of the potato and leave some as big pieces.
Heat the oil in a kadai.
Splutter the mustard seeds and red chilly.
Add the chopped onion, green chilly and curry leaf.
When the onion gets transparent, add in 1 cup water with salt and turmeric powder.
When the water boils, add the mashed dal and potato.
After boiling for 1 minute, reduce flame and add the ground paste.
Mix well and continue cooking on low flame for 5 more minutes.
Turn off heat, taste and add the lemon juice.
Garnish with Coriander leaf and serve hot with dosa / idly.

Tozzetti - Italian Biscuits

While watching TLC channel, a very pretty lady of Italian origin was doing a show and she was dunking some cookies into her Cappuccino. She said that Biscotti was not the only Italian biscuit. She talked about Tozzetti and when ahead making it. It had only 1 tablespoon of butter, but 2 egg yolks and 3 whole eggs. Oh, my! Too eggy.

Recipe search on Internet and Epicurious had a great recipe with 2 whole eggs. 

I have followed the recipe almost completely, but
1. I was too lazy to blanch the almonds. So I used unpeeled almonds.(:P)
2. Also the original recipe said 1-3/4 cup flour. But I had to add 1/3 cup more.

My husband, who travels often to Italy said the biscotti tasted 'like in Italian cafes'.

What I really liked about the recipe is you don't have to make individual balls. Just shape the dough into a log, bake and then cut into shape. Easy!

Ingredients:

Baking powder - 1 tbsp

Maida / All purpose Flour - 1 3/4 cup + extra for dusting 

Salt - 1/4 tsp

Butter - 1/4 cup

Sugar (powdered) - 3/4 cup

Egg - 2

Almonds - 1 cup

Method:

Preheat oven to 160 C for 10 minutes.

Sieve the flour, baking powder and salt together. Keep aside.

Mix the sugar and butter together and beat well till it becomes creamy.

Add eggs one at a time and beat well.

Into this butter-sugar mixture, add the sieved flour and bring it together.

Add more flour if necessary to make a stiff dough. (I added 1/3 cup more.)

Transfer to a floured surface and add the almonds. Mix well.

Make logs of 2 inch thickness and 1 inch radius. ( I made 4.)

Lay on silicon mat or baking sheet.

Bake for 25 - 30 minutes till golden.
Transfer to cutting board and slice the logs (while warm) using serrated knife in a slight slant into 1/2 inch cookies.

Arrange on cut cookies on a tray and bake again for 10 minutes.

Then flip over all the cookies and bake for 5 minutes.

Cool and transfer to air tight container.

Cauliflower-Ladies finger curry

Odd is it not.
Cauliflower and Ladies-finger? Gobi aur Bhindi?
Aloo Gobi, Gobi Mutter are all classics, but this is my Mother-in-law's creation. So it is a classic in it's own right!
When my father-in-law used to work (48 years in a firm, longest serving employee), he used to come home for lunch. But on certain days (audit, Head office inspection etc) he used to take packed lunch along.
And one day my mother-in-law, Mrs. Rajam Ganapathy was caught off-guard. He needed packed lunch but she had only a small piece of cauliflower, 5 ladies-finger and 1/2 a capsicum. So she let her imagination fly and made some curry! The curry tasted awesome. That same day we went to the market and bought 2 large cauliflowers, 4 capsicums and 1 kilo ladies finger to re-make the curry for family lunch!
That is the story behind the simple, amazing curry!

Ingredients:
Cauliflower / Gobi - 1 kilo
Ladies finger / Bhindi - 250 gms
Capsicum / Bell pepper / Shimla mirch - 1 large
Onion - 2 medium
Tomato - 2 medium
Green chilly - 2, slit
Salt to taste
Turmeric powder - 1 tsp
Chilly Powder - 1 tbsp (or more)
Vegetable oil - 4 tbsp
Jeera / Cumin seed -1/2 tsp
Oil - 3 tbsp

Method:
Clean and wash the cauliflower. Break into small flowerlets.
Cut the ladies finger into 1 inch pieces.
Cut the capsicum into 1 inch squares.
Cut the onion and tomato into large squares.
Heat oil in a thick bottomed vessel and splutter the jeera.
Add the green chillies and onions. Reduce flame and fry till transparent.
Now add the tomatoes and fry till the skin starts to peel off.
Then add in the ladies finger. Cook covered on low flame for 5 minutes.
Open and add in the cauliflower and capsicum. Increase flame and fry for a minute.
Add the salt, turmeric powder and chilly powder.
Mix well and cook covered till cauliflower softens.
Keep aside until serving time.
Just before serving, heat again and try to 'roast' / brown the cauliflower a bit on high flame.
Serve with chappathy.

Padavalangai / Snake-gourd Thogayal

Image source : Google images

In Kerala and Tamil nadu we try to make a dry spicy preparation as a 'side' to facilitate the enhancement of taste buds of spicy food lovers.
In the traditional joint family, the number of house members were large and cooking to satisfy everyone's taste-buds would have been a humongous task.

The old people at home would want less spice while some others would love spicy food.

The most ingenious solution, make a bland curry and compensate the spice content with this 'thogayal'.

I had written the recipe of  'Ridge gourd / peechinka thogayal' sometime ago. This thogayal is almost the same. Just replace the ridge gourd / peechinka with the young seeds of the snake gourd / padavalum.
No wasteage!

Ingredients:

Snake gourd seeds - 3 tbsp

Red chilly - 4 or more depending on your spice level

Urad dal / uzhundu - 1 tbsp

Tamarind - 1 cm radius

Jaggery - 1 tsp

Salt to taste

Asafoetida powder - 1 tsp heaped

Coconut - 3 tbsp

Oil - 1 tbsp

Method:

Dry fry the red chilly and urad dal seperately till they become light brown. Keep aside.

Heat the oil and add the snake-gourd seeds. Fry on low-medium flame till all the water evaporates. Remove from oil using a slotted spoon and keep aside.

In the left over add the coconut and fry till golden brown.

Cool all the ingredients to room temperature.

In a dry mixer, first grind the coconut, urad dal, red chilles with the salt, asafoetida, jaggery and  tamarind without any water.

Then add the fried seeds and grind into a smooth paste.

If you add water,  the shelf life reduces dramatically. Otherwise this thogayal stays well in room temperature for 2 days without going bad.

Enjoy with rice and/or dosa.

Chundal / Chick peas with spiced coconut

Chickpeas or any pulse are a great source of protein. We try to incorporate either the white chick peas (channa) or Black chick peas (kadala) or green gram dal or any other pulse like channa dal, green peas in our diet once a week.
During Navrathri or the 9 holy nights, chundal is served in almost all Tamil Brahmin households in the evening.
The recipe is easy and versatile. You can replace chickpeas used in this recipe with any other pulse. If you use sprouted pulses, your intake of protein increases exponentially.
Chundal can be had as an accompaniment for rice or as an healthy evening snack with your evening tea / coffee.

Ingredients:
Chickpeas / vella kadala / channa - 1 cup, soaked in water for minimum 4 hours
Grated coconut - 3/4 cup
Red chilli - 2 + 1 tsp
Jeera / cumin seeds- 1 tsp
Asafoetida powder - 1 tsp(optional)
Oil - 1 tbsp
Mustard seeds / kadugu - 1 tsp
Urad dal / uzhundu parippu - 1 tsp
Curry leaf - 2 sprigs
Salt to taste
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp

Method:
Soak the channa / dry pulse for 6 hours or preferably overnight.
Boil / pressure cook the soaked channa with some salt and turmeric powder until it softens. Do not throw away the water used to cook it.
Pulses like Green gram ( Channa dal / green gram dal), must not be pressure cooked, as they loose shape.
Grind the coconut with the 2 red chillies, jeera and peppercorns without any water.
Heat a heavy bottomed vessel or kadai with a tight lid.
Pour in the oil and splutter the mustard. Then add the urad dal and broken red chilly.
Reduce flame and tip in the ground coconut masala with the curry leaves and asafoetida powder (if using).
Saute for 30 seconds and add in the boiled channa with all the water.
Mix well and taste for salt. Add more if necessary.
Cook covered on a low flame for 15 minutes.
Then open lid and increase flame. Let all the water evaporate. Stir often to prevent burning.
Once chundal dries, transfer vessel.
Serve at room temperature.

Optional: add some lemon juice for extra taste.

Green gram Chundal

Kadala parippu / Channa dal Chundal

Other Recipes:
Channa for puri / Batoora
Black channa / Kadala kerala style