Keerai masiyal / Pureed Spiced Spinach

Spiced Pureed Spinach. This is the South Indian way of making a spicy gravy out of spinach.

North Indian's usually have spinach gravy like in palak paneer. Very rich but a little hard to make.
This South Indian curry has all the goodness of spinach intact, but is not too rich. And the cooking process is minimal. The onion and green chilly are added directly into the spinach. There is no tamarind or tomato added to the curry. Oil is also less. This is another great way to eat the leafy green.

We use a certain variety of spinach called 'ara keerai' to make this recipe. But it tastes just as good with other leaves like palak and ordinary cheera / keera

Arakeerai

Ingredients:
Spinach - 1 bunch
Salt
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Shallot / small onion - 3
Garlic - 2 cloves (optional)
Green chilly - 1 (add more or less to suit your family's taste)

For garnish:
Oil (preferable coconut / refined) - 2 tbsp
Mustard - 1 tsp
Urad dal - 1 tsp
White rice - 1 tsp (optional)
Red chilly - 2, broken

Method:
Wash the leaves well to remove all grime.
Place in a pressure cooker with little salt, turmeric powder, onion, garlic and green chilly. Pour in 1/2 cup of water.

Pressure cook for 3 whistles and turn off flame.

Mash / puree well.

Give it one boil and turn off flame.
Heat oil in a kadai and splutter the mustard. Then add in the urad dal, white rice and red chilly. Once dal turns red, add on top of the pureed spinach.
Serve at room temperature with hot rice and ghee.

Khara Bhaat

Mixed Vegetable Rava Upma with tomato.
Another great breakfast dish with all the right ingredients to make your day.

Ingredients:

Rava / Sooji - 1 cup
Ghee - 1 tbsp + 1tbsp
Oil - 2 tbsp
Mustard - 1 tsp
Urad Dal - 1 tsp
Dry red chilly - 2, broken
Cashewnuts - 12
Green chilly - 2, split
Curry leaf - 1 sprig
Ginger - 1 tsp
Onion - 1 medium
Tomato - 1 medium
Carrot, beans, green peas, potato - 1 cup
Coriander leaf - 2 tbsp
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Salt to taste
Boiling water - 2 1/2 cups

Method:
Boil the potato and carrots (covered) in just enough salted water till it gets half cooked. Then add the beans, green peas and cook till all the vegetables are nearly done and all the water gets evaporated.
Heat a heavy bottomed vessel / kadai and add 1 tbsp ghee.
Fry the cashewnut until golden brown. Remove using a slotted spoon and keep aside.
Now fry the rava in the same ghee till good smell comes. Transfer to another vessel.
Heat the oil in the same kadai and splutter the mustard seeds.
Then add the urad dal, red chillies and fry till dal turns golden brown.
Now add the onions, green chilly, curry leaf and ginger.
Fry till onion turns translucent.

Add the tomato, salt and turmeric powder to this and fry till the skin of the tomato starts peeling and it becomes mushy.

Add the cooked vegetables to this and mix well.

Add the fried rava and mix well.

Add the boiling water and mix it into the rava, vegetable mix.
Lower flame and cook covered for 2 minutes till all the water gets absorbed.
Now add 1 tbsp ghee and mix it in.

Serve hot garnished with fried cashewnuts and chopped coriander leaf.
Serve with coconut chutney.

Tengoil / Thenkuzhal / Crispy Savoury from Tamil Nadu

College admissions......That time of the year when you are fretting over the cut-offs, different academic streams, different cities and very tense.... as first off your child is leaving you and second you are never really sure if the choice you made is right!

Bangalore had Mount Carmel College...
So, we went to Bangalore. There we stayed at my husband's cousin's house and his amazing family made sure that we were very comfortable.
Inspite of us flitting in and out of their house at odd hours, Kavita was always smiling and serving us hot meals. She knows that a full tummy always makes decision-making easier!

One evening after a particularly heavy session of Paying Guest accomodation search, we landed up at their house exhausted. She served us tea and this crunchy tasty snack. We had one bowl and slowly the whole 'dabba' / storage vessel was brought forth!

You should also try this crunchy evening snack. And I think you MUST make it in large quantity.
It is great 'make ahead' snack and it can be stored for long...like butter murukku, cheedai and thattai.

Recipe source : Mrs. Kavita Raj 

Ingredients:
Rice flour - 4 parts
(either make at home with recipe below or use 'appam' flour available in the market)
Urad dal flour - 1 part
Pottu Kadala flour - 1/4 part
Til seeds / pepper / jeera powder - 1/8 part
Butter - 1/4 part
Salt to taste
Oil for deep frying

Method for preparing rice flour:
Wash and soak the rice in water for 10 minutes.
Spread the drained rice on a clean white cotton towel and place under the fan for 10 minutes.
Powder well and sieve through the smallest hole of your arippai / chalni.
Powder and keep sieving until all the rice gets used up.
Throw away the non-fine particles.
Heat a heavy bottomed vessel and add the flour to this.
Stir for 2 minutes and turn off flame.
Keep stirring till the vessel reaches room temperature.
Measure 4 cups of rice flour for this recipe.

Method to make Pottu kadala flour:

(image source : google images)

Dry roast the pottu kadala in a heavy bottomed vessel on a low flame till it gets heated through , but does not lose colour.
Cool, powder and sieve.
Use 1/4 cup of this in this recipe.

Method to make Urad Dal Flour:
Dry fry the urad dal on a VERY low flame till good smell comes and dal starts turning golden brown.
Turn of flame and continue stirring till vessel cools.
Cool the dal and powder.
Sieve well, using the same sieve as the one used to sieve the rice flour.
Use 1 cup for this recipe.

Method:

Mix together the dry ingredients and add in the butter.
Mix till it gets well incorporated.

Add enough water to make a smooth dough.
Keep the oil for frying on a medium heat.
Use a press and make desired shape with the dough and drop directly into the hot oil.
Fry until golden brown.
Remove from oil using a slotted spoon.
Cool to nearly room temperature and store in an air tight container.

Carrot Chutney

My mother-in-law had a pace-maker fixed to her 15% working heart and is recuperating.
I am on the look-out for healthy recipes which will help her heal and be light on her system. Taste is paramount as her taste-buds are almost off because of all the antibiotics and medicines cruising her system.

This chutney's recipe is from a naturopathy doctor.
It uses a variety of green chilly - kandari or bird's eye chilly. Small, but spicy and excellent for diluting blood.
No Tamarind, but green mangoes. Again great for thinning blood.
Carrot = High in carotene.
Coconut. Easy to digest with the right oil.

Ingredients:

Coconut - 4 (heaped) tbsp
Green Mango - 2 tbsp
Carrot - 2 tbsp
Green chilly (pref. Kandari / bird's eye chilly) - 4
Shallot - 1
Salt to taste
Ginger - 1 tsp (optional)

Method:
Grind together the Mango, green chilly, shallot, carrot and salt.
Now add the coconut and just enough water to grind everything into a smooth paste.
Serve with steamed idly or rice.

Easy Pasta with Tomatoes

You MUST make this. Especially on a holiday. When the whole family relaxes, you can make this dish in minutes and get so many 'wows'!
So easy, so tasty.
Just 3 main ingredients. Nothing fancy. Just tomato, garlic and cheese. It takes longer to cook the pasta than to make the tomato base! So you might want to start cooking the pasta before you start off with the tomato.

Serves - 2

Ingredients:
Pasta - 200 gms
Cherry tomato / tomato - 1/2 kg
Garlic - 6 cloves , chopped fine
Salt
Parmesan cheese - 1 cup
Olive oil - 5 tbsp

Method:
Boil the pasta in ample salted water till nearly cooked. Drain and toss in 1 tbsp olive oil.
If you are using ordinary tomato, cut them into large cubes. If you are using the cherry tomato, use them as they are.
Heat the rest of the olive oil and add the garlic.
Once it starts changing colour, add the whole tomato and salt.
Mix and cook covered.
Once it gets cooked, mash with the spoon and wait for more juice to ooze out.
Now add the pasta to this.
Toss and mix well and heat until the pasta gets heated through.
Add 1/2 cup parmesan and mix. Once well incorporated, turn off heat and serve topped with more cheese.
You can always garnish with some greens like basil, parsley or even celery.

Eggplant and Tomato Sauce With Israeli Couscous Recipe

This is an experimental recipe which was a success.
I have never cooked nor tasted couscous before, but after watching all those cookery shows on TV, I was very familiar with it. It is a moroccan staple and usually served with a gravy dish.
So when we went to Italy, I bought a packet of 'couscous', with absolutely no idea of what to do with it.
Thus started my recipe hunt!
Then I found an incredible recipe (which made the taste buds in my head salivate....yup! I have those) from the website 'seriouseats' and the end result was great. It's taste reminded me of tomato rice with brinjal.
What I was amazed was the way the couscous fluffed up.
I took one cup of dry couscous and it was more than sufficient for 3. I had leftovers, which I had the next day. So be careful with the quantity.

Recipe source : Seriouseats

Serves - 4

Ingredients:
Couscous - 1 cup
Garlic - 4 cloves , grated
Onion - 1 medium , chopped fine
Tomato - 4 medium , chopped fine
Brinjal / aubergine - 1/2 large , cubed
Salt to taste
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Chilly powder - 1 tsp
Pepper powder - 1 tsp
Olive oil - 3 tbsp
Water* / broth - 1 cup

* Mix 1 Maggi magic cube with the water to get extra taste.

Method:
Take couscous in a bowl and add 1/2 tsp salt. Mix well.
Boil 1 cup water or broth and pour over the couscous. Mix well and keep covered.
Heat the olive oil and add the onion and garlic.
Fry on a low flame till transparent.
Add the Brinjal and mix well.
Cook covered, stirring often till the brinjal gets cooked.
Now add the tomatoes, salt, pepper, turmeric and chilly powder.
Mix and cook covered till tomato turns mushy / pulpy.
Open the lid and give a thorough mix.
Now add the couscous and cook till all the water in the gravy gets absorbed.
Serve hot, garnished with parsley.

Kovakka / Tindora / Ivy gourd dry fry with coconut and spices

Many years ago (1997) while we had a short sujourn in UAE, we used to visit Woodlands in Sharjah.
Here they used to serve this particular thoran (if we were lucky, as the menu kept changing) and I was not interested in cooking at all then and did not bother getting the recipe.

Years later I stumbled on a preparation made with spinach (cheera thoran) by my neighbor. I used the same base and substituted the spinach with ivy gourd / kovakkai and the end result tastes quite similar to Woodland's kovakkai.

Recipe courtesy : Jesamma Boban

Ingredients:
Kovakka(i) / Ivy gourd / tindora - 300 gms
Salt to taste
Coconut oil - 4 tbsp
Mustard - 1 tsp
Red chilly - 2, broken
Curry leaf - 1 sprig

To be ground into a coarse paste without water:
Coconut - 1/3 cup
Curry leaf - 1 sprig
Red Chilli - 4
Small onion - 5
Turmeric powder - 1 tsp
Garlic (opt) - 1 pod
Asafoetida - 1/2 tsp
Jeera - 1 tsp

Method:
Wash the ivy gourd well and cut into thin slices.
Heat the coconut oil and add the mustard seeds and red chillies.
Once it crackles, add the coarsely ground paste and salt. Saute on a medium flame, stirring continuously for 1 minute.

Now add the ivy gourd. Mix well. Reduce flame and cook covered for 10 minutes.
Open, mix well and cook on a medium flame till all water evaporates and it starts getting fried.

It is better to not brown the vegetable too much, as this means the coconut will blacken.
The thoran is ready!