Vadai Curry (Fried Lentil Dumplings in a Coconut and Fennel Spiced Curry)

Remember the fabulous coconut milk infused rice dish Brinji and the delicious golden crusted Roast Potatoes? Well this is another of MIL's specialities which I was introduced to after I got married - I have adapted it to my taste over the years and it remains a favourite at home though doesn't get made as often as we would like. It's not very time consuming, just that you need to remember to soak the lentils for the vadais beforehand. And these vadais are so tasty, I always make more vadais to eat on their own as a snack - either before lunch or at tea time.

The flavour of the curry as well as the vadais depend on the addition of fennel seeds (saunf). MIL roasts whole spices and grinds them into the spice paste, but that's too strong a flavour for me. I prefer tempering the curry with the whole spices instead and also adding a dash of garam masala powder.

Also, one could steam the vadais (and call them urundais - dumplings- instead of vadais!) and then put them into the curry - but really, since we don 't make this very often I find it worthwhile to have the fried vadais when I do make it. The taste of the crisp lentiil vadais soaked in the curry is absolutely amazing. Not to mention that we get to eat the crunchy vadais on their own for a snack!

I made this for lunch on a Saturday and served it with rice and then we had the leftovers with idlis the next morning. Idlis and vadai curry is a classic combination and hard to beat.

P.S I have made a few additions to the widgets on my blog - a long overdue Search button which many had been asking for. Also, a book list of the books I have been reading - I know there are many avid book readers out there and I know we are always looking out for some good recommendations. Feel free to mail me to check on any book you see in my list, I will be happy to share my impressions of the book. There are also widgets for some of the most popular posts on this blog as well as Subscribe via email button at the bottom. Do let me know if you have any feedback on the blog. Thank you!

Vadai Curry

Ingredients:

For the Vadai

Chana Dal (Bengal Gram Dal) - 1 heaped cup, soaked for 1.5 to 2 hours
Fennel seeds (saunf) - 1 tsp
Onion - 1 small, finely chopped
Curry Leaves - 8
Dried red chillies - 3-4
Salt
Oil to fry the vadais

For the Curry
Masala paste:
Coconut - 3/4 cup grated
Green chillies -2-3
Fennel Seeds (saunf) - 1 tsp

Cinnamon - 1 stick
Cloves - 4
Onion - 2 small chopped
Tomatoes - 2 chopped
Green chillies - 2 slit
Ginger Garlic paste - 1 tsp
Chilli powder - 1/2 tsp
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
Coriander powder - 2 tsp
Garam Masala powder - 1/2 tsp
Coriander leaves chopped - 2 tbsp
salt to taste
Oil - 1 tbsp

1. For the vadais, grind the chana dal along with the red chillies, saunf and salt. Grind to a coarse consistency adding minimal water and do not make into a fine paste. It is fine if there are pieces of lentil showing. Add the finely chopped onions and curry leaves into the batter and mix well.
2. Heat a deep wok with oil in it - enough to cover the vadais when they are fried. Shape the vadais into small balls and deep fry in batches on a medium high flame, till golden brown and crisp. Drain on absorbent paper and keep aside.
3. For the curry, grind the ingredients for the spice paste finely.
4. Heat oil in a pan and add the cinnamon and cloves followed by the chopped onions - fry till transparent and then add the ginger garlic paste and the green chillies and fry for 2 minutes.
5. Put in the chopped tomatoes, red chilli powder, turmeric powder, coriander powder and fry for 5-8 minutes till tomatoes are pulpy and the spices are fried.
6. Add the freshly ground spice paste, salt and one cup of water, bring to boil and then simmer gently for about 15 minutes.
7. Add the garam masala powder and some water if too thick, adjust salt and then add the fried vadais to the curry - simmer for 3-4 minutes and then turn off the heat. Garnish with coriander leaves.
8. Serve with rice or as an accompaniment to idlis or dosais.

If you would like to steam the lentil batter instead of frying them, simply shape into balls, place on an idli steamer and steam (in a pressure cooker without the weight or in a large vessel) for 15 minutes till they are cooked and look a little shiny on the outside. Add to the curry as mentioned in the recipe.

You could also use a  mixture of tur dal and chana dal in the lentil batter or only tur dal (pigeon pea lentils)

Kozhi Curry - Tamil Homestyle Chicken Curry

There seem to be so many ways to prepare a chicken curry - even in just one home. We generally like the South Indian style spicy curries - either tamarind or coconut based. Like this one here which has become a real favourite at home now - a real crowd pleaser. 

This one is similar in the sense it has khus khus (poppy) which imparts a slight creaminess, but there the similarity ends. It has saunf (fennel seeds) in it and that makes it taste quite different. Its actually more of a kozhambu style chicken curry and has the robustness of the whole spices which have been ground into it. It also makes it a little coarser in texture. It has coconut and tamarind and is a recipe I have grown comfortable with since I don't have to refer to any proportions - its how I makes these vegetarian kozhambus, for the most part, with coconut and khus khus in this one, added to temper it down - so its not as brown as a traditional kozhambu.

We like to have it with rice, but it goes well with rotis as well. Serve it with a stir fry of okra or a similar green vegetable.

Kozhi Curry - Tamil Homestyle Chicken Curry

500gm chicken cut into 8 pieces, marinated in
- 1/2 tsp turmeric (haldi)
- 1 tsp ginger garlic paste
- 1 tsp red chilli powder
- 2 tbsp yoghurt

Tempering:
- Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
- Fenugreek seeds(methi) - 1/2 tsp
- Fennel seeds (saunf) - 1 tsp
- Curry leaves (karipatta) - a handful

Masala paste: Roast all ingredients together and grind to a paste with a little water.
- 6 dried red chillies
- 1 tsp black peppercorns
- 1 tbsp coriander seeds (dhania)
- 1 tsp fennel seeds (saunf)
- 1 tsp khus khus (poppy seeds)
- 3-4 fenugreek seeds (methis)
- 1/2 cup grated coconut

Tamarind Pulp - 1/2 cup
Onion - 1 sliced
Tomato - chopped into 6 pieces
Oil - 1 tbsp
Salt to taste

1. Heat oil, add tempering ingredients (once the mustard pops, add the other ingredients)
2. Saute onions and then add marinated chicken and fry on high for 5 min browning on all sides.
3. Add the tomatoes, spice paste and salt and fry for another 3 minutes.
4. Add tamarind pulp, 2 cups of water and bring to boil. Simmer, covered, for 25 minutes or till the chicken is tender and cooked.
5. Check seasoning and add more water if required and simmer for another 5 minutes. Garnish with coriander leaves.

Idlis with Chicken Curry

The "Pure Vegetarian" tag for all South Indians is a misnomer - just like all South Indians are not Madrasis. (Yes, Mr Haldiram - please stop calling your product "Madrasi Mixture"?) Husband's maternal side for instance is quite the meat eating family (except for his mother who is a pure vegetarian and hence he - like me- was vegetarian growing up). In many families, meals are not complete with "atleast" an egg - thus leading to the queer combination of (for me) rice, sambar, rasam, porial and omelette!!
Sunday meals then, are usually the ones which have a variety of meat, chicken and fish dishes in . I didn't understand for a long time, why everyone from my in-laws side who used to call us up on a Sunday would enquire about the lunch menu - were they worried about my husband's diet?. I realised later, that it was a blanket question - a way of keeping in touch - if you know what's cooking, you can judge whether everything is fine....or something like that. Well, anyway, there never was meat at Sunday lunch for a very long time in our home (even now its probably just once or twice a month), so not sure what they thought about that.

Growing up, idlis in our vegetarian home, always went with sambar and chutney.  I was quite taken aback therefore when I moved to Chennai and learnt that chicken curry was an option too. I'm still quite happy with our largely vegetarian breakfasts but some Sundays, if I'm organised enough to have ground the batter for the idlis AND have chicken in my fridge at the same time, we have a nice, big breakfast of soft,steaming idlis with chicken curry.

The chicken curry however, can't be any generic curry - it has to be mild enough so that I'm not put off by too many spices in the morning. But it also has to be delicious and not just taste of the chicken in it. Enter a coconut based curry - more specifically, the restaurant style sidedish (try this for a vegetarian option which is equally delicious)I posted before. I had adapted it from Sailu's Kitchen in the first place and now its been modified some more. Its still delicious though and is the perfect accompaniment to idlis or even dosais.

 

  

Idli (feeds 4 for two days)

Parboiled Rice - 2 cup

Urad Dal (whole, skinned) - 1 cup

I usually make dosais on the second day from the same batter, so add a pinch of methi seeds to the rice while soaking 

Soak the rice and dal separately overnight or for 4-5 hours

Grind the rice, leaving it a little bit coarse. 

The urad dal needs to be ground till really smooth and fluffly. So grind slowly and adding water only as needed.

If grinding in a blender, grind in batches and give breaks so that it doesn't overheat.

Blend the rice batter and the urad dal batter together incorporating air into it while doing so. I usually use my hands to do this. Add salt to the batter to taste. 

Keep in a vessel double the volume of the batter, because it will double as it ferments. Leave overnight to ferment.

The next day, grease an idli stand and fill each mould 3/4ths of the way up with the idli batter (for idlis, I don't mix the batter and just skim from the top of the risen batter). 

Steam in a pressure cooker without the whistle or in an idli maker or any other big vessel which can accomodate the idli stand - 5 minutes on high and 5 minutes on a low flame. Rest for 5 minutes and then unmould.

Chicken Curry (with coconut and tomatoes)

 Ingredients
2 onions, sliced
3 medium tomatoes, in 4 pieces
Chicken - 300 gm, boneless, cut into 1" pieces. I like to marinate the chicken for about an hour in turmeric powder(1/4tsp), salt and ginger garlic paste (1 tsp) - a tbsp of yoghurt is great too

Dry roast and grind:
poppy seeds (khus khus) - 1 tsp (soaked in warm water for 15 minutes)
2-3 cashewnuts (soaked in warm water for 15 minutes)
1/4 cup grated coconut

Grind to a paste :
1 " ginger piece
3 green chillies
4 garlic cloves

1 tsp red chilli powder
1/2 tsp coriander powder (dhania)
1/4 tsp turmeric powder (haldi)
1/4 tsp cumin powder (jeera)
pinch of garam masala powder

1tbsp oil
curry leaves
1 cinnamon stick
3 cloves
2 cardamom pods (elaichi)

Method:
1 Heat oil in a pan and add cloves, cinnamon,curry leaves and cardamom. When they change colour (about 2 minutes) add onions and fry till transparent.
2.Add the ginger, garlic and green chilli paste, fry for 2-3 minutes. Add red chilli powder, turmeric,coriander and cumin powders and mix well.
3. Add the marinated chicken and stir fry on high for 5 minutes.
4. Add the chopped tomatoes and fry for 3 minutes. Put in the coconut-cashew paste and fry for 5 minutes on a low flame, stirring from time to time.
5. Add salt, 2 cups of water and bring to boil; lower flame and simmer for 20-25 minutes till the chicken is cooked and the curry turns creamy. Remove from flame and serve with idlis.

Kale Chanechi Amti - Black Chickpea Curry

Black Chickpeas are a regional speciality in Indian cooking - their preparation varies from one state to another. In Kerala, there is kadala curry with its distinctive coconut flavour, in Tamil Nadu, it is prepared as sundal - a lightly tempered savoury preparation of chickpeas tossed with grated coconut.

In Delhi, kala channa is a favourite accompaniment with kulchas which are sold as streetside fare. This is a popular cottage industry with the dish typically sold from the back of a bicycle - lightly baked flat breads are warmed up and served with a spicy semi-dry preparation of black chickpeas. My MIL was very taken with the idea when she visited us last year!

I have used these black chickpeas to make one of my favourite Maharashtrian dishes, amti - a spicy curry made with lentils or sprouted legumes. This reminded me a lot of Usal which is a spicy curry made with sprouts and is also used in making the popular snack misal - where the usal is mixed with other ingredients like boiled potatoes, peanuts, chopped onions, coriander, tamarind chutney, farsaan (fried snacks made out of chickpea flour) and even yoghurt to make a delicious filling snack.

I have used this recipe before for cooking black eyed beans to make chawlichi amti. For this version, I didn't sprout the chickpeas and used copra (dessicated coconut) and garlic to make a spice paste and added red chilli powder, cumin powder and coriander powder along with some tamarind pulp to the cooked chickpeas and cooked everything down to a delicious gravy. The only thing to remember for this dish is to soak the chickpeas overnight. It then has to be cooked till soft - in a pressure cooker that takes about 15 minutes and another 20 minutes of simmering with the spice paste.

This recipe is a heavily adapted version of Sanjeev Kapoor's recipe for amti made from sprouted black peas (kale watane) - but the amazing smell of coconut and garlic, mixed with the pleasure of biting into the plump chickpeas, brought back some pleasant memories.

This lovely, savoury curry goes to Susan's My Legume Love Affair #26 which is being hosted by Simona of Briciole.

(E of Evolving Tastes has kindly pointed out to me that kale watane (which is what I had called this earlier) is different from kale chane - so I have modified it accordingly)

Kale Chanechi Amti - Black Chickpea Curry

Black chickpeas (sprouted or plain) - 1 cup
Copra (Dessicated coconut) - 1/4 cup
Garlic - 5 cloves
Onions - 2 - 1 sliced, 1 finely chopped

Chilli pd - 2 tsp
Coriander pd - 1 tsp
Cumin pd - 1 tsp
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Hing - pinch
Tamarind - marble sized dissolved in 1/2 cup of water
oil - 2tsp
salt to taste
coriander leaves - 2 tbsp

1. Slice one onion and finely chop the other onion.
2. Heat 1 tsp oil and saute the sliced onions for 3-4 minutes, add the dessicated coconut and garlic cloves and roast for another 2-3 minutes. Cool and grind to a paste.
3. Heat 1 tsp of oil in a pan, add asafoetida and finely chopped onions; fry for 3-4 minutes.
4. Add the turmeric powder, chilli powder, coriander powder and cumin powder and fry well for 3 minutes.
5. Add the boiled chickpeas, salt and 2 cups of water and bring to a boil. Simmer, covered, on low for another 10 minutes.
6. Add the coconut-garlic-onion paste, tamarind paste and simmer for another 10 minutes.
7. Add coriander leaves for garnish and remove from flame.

Sig of Live to Eat has a giveaway on her blog - so if you want to win some goodies, take a peek!

Restaurant Style Biryani/Thali "Sideish"

This was the beautiful "sideish" which went with the rava idlis in my last post. The food blogging world is such a boon to foodies like me - you think of a remembered taste, an imagined flavour, a cherished dish and you can find out how to recreate it in your home. That weekend, I didn't want to make the usual sambar to go with the idlis, nor a kurma - which is usually my favourite. I wanted something more tangy and spicy - not a tomato chutney, can't drown the idlis in it! Puli Kozhambu is too fiery to have first thing in the morning, unless it has already been made a day before and has had some time to mellow.

With father and daughter out swimming, I had all the time to ponder such earth shattering issues on a Saturday morning. I switched on my laptop and started looking at some of my favourite blogs for inspiration. And I found it on Sailu's Kitchen - a recipe for the accompaniment to biryani which is served in restaurants. Its amazing that she has gone to the trouble to recreate this dish which is served in small portions (but one can ask for refills) in biryani joints and even more amazing that she has got it spot on!

I didn't add the thick coconut milk in the original recipe because I didn't want it too creamy (and well I didn't think the joints I had eaten at, had bothered to splurge on coconut milk!). It was still a very beautiful, slightly creamy gravy with just the right amount of spice and the tangy flavour of tomatoes finishing it. Once I made it I realised that this was also the dish which is served in small quantities with "NV meals" in small Chettinad style joints in Chennai - and which we end up asking for refills. We recently had lunch for two consecutive Sundays at Gunpowder - that amazing restaurant in Delhi which serves authentic Kerala cuisine at reasonable prices, such a rarity!-and the accompaniment served with the kotthu paratha was something we ate with our appams and rice as well! I think it something about the combination of whole spices, coconut, poppy seeds and tomatoes that does the trick.

This dish is a keeper - as my husband said appreciatively - write this one down!! We couldn't get enough of it and kept slurping it up long after the idlis were done with.

Recipe for Restaurant Style Biryani/Thali "Sideish" - from Sailu's Blog. This dish goes to the latest edition of Nupur's Blog Bites event - BB6 Potluck

P.S - I have received quite a few emails asking me to post the recipe I used (without coconut milk) so I am posting this here. Also, some people were not able to check the link included above.

Recipe

2 onions, sliced
3 medium tomatoes, in 4 pieces

Publish Post

Dry roast and grind:
poppy seeds (khus khus) - 1 tsp
2-3 cashewnuts
1/4 cup grated coconut

Grind to a paste: (or crush in mortar)
1 " ginger piece
3 green chillies
4 garlic cloves

1 tsp red chilli powder
1/2 tsp coriander powder (dhania)
1/4 tsp turmerice powder (haldi)
1/4 tsp cumin powder (jeera)
pinch of garam masala powder

1tbsp oil
curry leaves
1 cinnamon stick
3 cloves
2 cardamom pods (elaichi)

Method:
1 Heat oil in a pan and add cloves, cinnamon,curry leaves and cardamom. When they change colour (about 2 minutes) add onions and fry till transparent.
2.Add the ginger, garlic and green chilli paste, fry for 2-3 minutes. Add red chilli powder, turmeric,coriander and cumin powders and mix well.
3. Add the chopped tomatoes and fry for 3 minutes.
4. Put in the coconut-cashew paste and fry for 5 minutes on a low flame, stirring from time to time.
5. Add salt, 2 cups of water and bring to boil; lower flame and simmer for 10-15 minutes and turns creamy. Remove from flame and serve warm.

Fish Curry with Potatoes

This dish came about as an improvisation after making an assumption on what I had in the freezer. I usually buy fish or chicken about twice a month (we primarily eat vegetarian food), divide them into portions, marinate them in a couple of different types of marinade - lemon juice and salt, ginger garlic and red chilli etc - and then freeze the portions in zip lock bags. That way I take out one portion, thaw and cook as needed for the dish I have in mind.

So this one Sunday afternoon, when I opened the fridge, there were two ziplock bags in the freezer and I thought they were both fish pieces. So I got them out to thaw while I went ahead to prepare a simple fish curry. When I finally got around to opening the bag I realised that one had about 3 pieces of fish while the other was actually some boneless chicken! By then the masala for the fish curry had already been ground and the curry was simmering away waiting for the fish to be put in! Luckily I had a couple of boiled potatoes in the fridge, so I quickly peeled, chopped and put it into the curry to make up for the lack of fish. The chicken I cut up into small pieces and put into a kurma for my daughter for her meal. No harm done but maybe time to start labelling the packets before putting them away!

The fish curry is great with rice (isn't it always?!) and very easy to make. I used surmai (kingfish)- but its good with any firm fish - the potatoes aren't usually something I have in a fish curry, but as is usually with potatoes, they blended in very well.

Fish curry with potatoes

Surmai (king fish) fillets cut into two - 350 gms
1 tbsp oil

1 " pieced gingerfinely chopped
3 cloves garlic finely chopped
2 green chillies slit lengthwise
curry leaves - 5-6
1 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 tsp haldi
1 medium onion chopped
1 tomato chopped
2 small potatoes, boiled, peeled and chopped

Masala
1/2 tsp oil
4 red chillies
1 tbsp coriander seeds
1/4 tsp fenugreek seeds (methi)
Grated coconut - 1/2 cup

1 cup diluted tamarind extract
salt to taste

Method:

1. In one tsp of oil, roast the red chillies, coriander and fenugreek seeds till they give out a nice aroma; add the grated coconut and roast 3-4 minutes. Cool and grind to a paste.
2. Heat 1/2 tbsp of oil and fry the fillets for 2-3 minutes on both sides and keep aside.
3. In the same pan, add the other 1/2 tbsp of oil and put in the mustard seeds, when they pop add the curry leaves and then the turmeric, ginger, garlic and green chillies.
4. Add the onions and saute for 3-4 minutes; then put in the tomatoes and fry till pulpy.
5. Add the ground masala, tamarind paste, salt and one cup of water and bring to boil.
6. Cover and simmer for about 10-12 minutes till the raw smell goes away and the gravy thickens.
7. Put in the chopped potatoes and cook for another 5 minutes. Add some water if needed.
8. Then add the fish pieces, simmer for 5 minutes and then cover and remove from flame. Serve with steamed rice.

Moogachi Usal (Stir Fried Mung Sprouts) - Blog Bites #1

In India, the first loud sound that babies hear is probably the pressure cooker! I realised this when I saw the startled expression my daughter had when she was 9 months old and sitting in her high chair, when she heard the pressure cooker whistle (we had an open kitchen in that house). To make sure she didn't bawl in fear, we immediately laughed and said "cooker" - thats how one of the first words she spoke was "cookah".

The pressure cooker is also probably the first kitchen appliance we learn to cook with - rice and dal were the basics that I learnt when I was in college. On the days Mom was tired after a long day teaching at school, she would ask me to keep the rice and dal; she would then only have to complete the tempering and prepare a vegetable side dish, once she was rested.

Moong Dal and Rajma were the first non-South Indian dishes I learnt to cook (even before sambar and rasam!) - courtesy my Punjabi room mate when I was living on my own and doing my post-grad degree. It was so good that I used to polish off 2 bowls of dal even before dinner was ready. And this with our very limited kitchen facilities - we didn't even have a mixer/blender.

So, I just had to participate in Nupur's first edition of her new event Blog Bites which is dedicated to Cookers - Pressure cookers, Rice cookers and Slow cookers. There are so many of my own favourite recipes I make in the cooker that it was going to be even more difficult to pin down one from another of the many blogs I frequent.

Well I did and it was from one of my favourite browsing places when I am wracking my head for something to cook - Meera's Enjoy Indian Food - it is so evident that she does "Enjoy Indian Food"!. She is positively prolific in her posts and I love the wide variety of dishes she shared with us - especially the Maharashtrian and Gujarati dishes which I love and miss a lot.


So, I picked this recipe for Moogachi Usal - a traditional Maharashtrian stir fry made with sprouts - something I haven't made for a long time. I usually make sprouts into a salad - but since I tasted this recently on my trip to Kolhapur, I remembered that I really missed having this simple, nutritious dish. The only thing different from the recipe was that I used mixed sprouts - mung as well as moth beans (turkish gram).

Somaas / Karanji (Baked Turnovers)

Spring is here!! Winter is almost done with, time to wrap up the woollies and get the T-shirts out....this is the first year I'm not doing war whoops and actually quite wistful about winter going away. Enjoying the cool mornings and the beautiful beautiful flowers which have sprung up all over the city - in roundabouts, parks and balconies.

And of course spring has to be heralded in with the fun colours of Holi!! I played Holi every year till I was 22 (in Mumbai) and then didn't play for 11 years after that(since I moved to Chennai. Now once again, I have been celebrating Holi for the past two years since we moved to Delhi.

This year Holi is on March 1st, Monday - so a long weekend for us. Which is a good thing since I had a really hectic week - overseas director visit, lots of number crunching and reports, a mini show as part of my jazz dancing class which meant last minute rehearsals and a visit from my best friend. So we have been chilling this weekend - a lazy Saturday with a huge lunch and a nap, a great jazz performance outdoors by a Norwegian band.

And then Sunday, my neighbour A, suggested breakfast at their place - who can refuse an offer of puri aloo sabzi? I decided to make some gujiyas - the traditional North Indian sweet which is made for Holi. These are basically rounds of dough, filled with evaporated milk and dry fruits, shaped into crescents and deep fried. But then when I woke up in the morning I realised that one needs khoya (evaporated milk) for the filling - so a quick change to somaas or karanjis - which are like gujiyas but have a coconut-jaggery filling.

And then a further change - decided to go the baked way (I'm such a wuz when it comes to deep frying! Just the thought of pouring that much oil into the kadai is enough to make me chicken out). I unearthed the Sanjeev Kapoor recipe I had filed away for just such an occasion, made a few changes and voila - baked karanjis in an hour!

I was a bit worried they wouldn't turn out as good as the fried ones we are used to eating - but really, they were good. Tasty and crisp but light on the stomach - especially after that deliciously huge puri sabzi breakfast we gorged on!! Thanks A - it was so good to chat and eat and chat and eat and.....you get the picture! ;)

Somaas / Karanji (Baked Turnovers)

1 1/4 cup flour
Ghee - 2 tbsp
Milk - 5 - 8 tbsp
salt - pinch

Filling
Freshly grated Coconut - 1 cup
Jaggery - 1/2 cup
Elaichi powder - 1 tsp

1. Mix the coconut and jaggery and heat over a low flame for 5-7 minutes till dry and flaky. Mix in the cardamom (elaichi) powder and set aside to cool.
2. Mix the flour, ghee, salt and milk and knead to smooth dough; cover and keep aside for about 5 minutes
3. Pre heat the oven to 180C. Make coin sized portions of the dough and roll out to thin circle - place 2 teaspoonfuls of the filling towards one side of the circle but not too near the edge - fold the circle over into a crescent shape.
4. Cut out the excess (leaving a little space all around the filling) with a pastry cutter or a sharp knife. Press down the edges with the tines of a fork to make a crimped edge.
5. Grease an oven proof tray and place the karanjis on it; Brush the tops of the karanjis with ghee and bake for 16-17 minutes.
6. The tops won't turn brown, but they will be cooked to a crisp and the base will have turned lightly brown.

The karanji is light and flaky and the filling too is just right - not cloyingly sweet and at the same time substantial enough not to make one feel like we are eating just a shell!


Holi itself was a perfect day weather wise; we went over to a back lane 200mts away from our house. Its maintained by the houses which overlook the back lane - one of our friends lives there so all us common friends usually go over and play along with the rest of them - about 30 people at any given time with friends dropping in and out. Besides the colours, the water dunkings and the balloon fights there are usually a potluck of snacks and drinks all laid out - its great fun!

My contribution was this masala baati from Tarla Dalal - apparently I made something similar in 2008 but for the life of me don't remember the recipe. This one wasn't as good as the other one -which I am told was only baked (not boiled and baked like this one) and also had a moong dal filling inside. But I do remember that it was also a Tarla Dalal one, so if someone has the recipe, do forward it.

Banana, Pineapple and Coconut Muffins

These are delicious muffins full of flavour with a rich fruity flavour - one of those amazing treats you can find on Meeta's blog - What's for Lunch Honey!

She calls them Muffins Exotica - and exotic they are indeed, it has banana, pineapple and coconut and for good measure I added some honey as well! The kids who had come over for a playdate with my daughter wolfed them down in no time . I also replaced 1/2 a cup of flour with wheat flour (atta) and it made a good snack to take to work.

Udipi Sambar

One of the things I missed most when I moved out of Mumbai was something I had taken for granted all those years when I was growing up - Udipi restaurants. They dotted the landscape, especially the King's Circle and Matunga neighbourhood where we lived, and we loved the food they dished out. Clean, efficient and cheap - these were places we went to whether we wanted an early morning South Indian breakfast on a Sunday morning or a pav bhaji in the evenings. College saw us practically camped in one of these places as our burgeoning appetite never matched our wallets - we enjoyed their paper dosais and masala uttapams, their thick milkshakes and cold juices.
Anand Bhavan was a particular favourite of my Dad's for their rasam wadas, while I preferred the AC Udipi Cafe. Mom loved the South Indian "meals" at the Udipi place near Matunga station - unlimited food for Rs. 40!. Shree Sundars came much later when I had just started my degree in Podar and it became an instant favourite with our gang. Then there were the die hard fans of Mani's behind Ruia college where they literally drank the chutney! What is your favourite Udipi place to eat in Mumbai?

When I moved to Chennai and ate my first idli outside of home at Saravana Bhavan - I didn't like it! Because they didn't have the Udipi sambar to go with it, nor the flat, large, coarse idlis. The sambar at the eating places in Chennai were almost like what we made at home - there was no tantalising hint of sweetness at the edges nor was there coconut in the masala. The sambar at Udipi restaurants have their own fan following - on Sunday mornings in Anand Bhavan we found it amusing to see people coming and ordering plates of idlis and dosais as take away; they would bring those steel many-tiered dabbas to fill up extra "sambhur"!

It was then that I got hold of this recipe and whenever the urge struck, I would make Udipi Sambar at home. I love this sambar and often serve it with idlis or dosai or just with rice for lunch. Its the jaggery and the coconut which make all the difference. I used drumsticks and small onions - but feel free to substitute with pumpkin, ash gourd or even just small onions alone.

Everytime I go back to Mumbai, I make it a point to visit our old haunts. A visit to Udipi itself is on my travel list, but don't know when that will happen. This month though we are likely to have a virtual food tour of Udipi & Mangalore courtesy this month's RCI theme - Udipi & Mangalorean cuisine - being hosted by Sia of Monsoon Spice.
This event was originally the brainchild of Lakshmi of Veggie Cuisine.

Udipi Sambar

Ingredients:

Tur dal - 1/2 cup (cooked in 3-4 cups water in a pressure cooker till soft, then whipped or mashed till smooth)
Tamarind - small lime size ball soaked in 1 cup water and pulp extracted
Small onions - 10-12, soaked and peeled
1 tsp jaggery
1-2 drumsticks, chopped into 2-3" batons

Masala paste:
1/4 coconut grated (fresh)
1/2 tsp fenugreek seeds (methi)
1/2 tsp urad dal seeds
1.5 tsp coriander seeds (dhania)
dried red chillies -6
curry leaves - handful
1 tsp oil

Roast all ingredients, keeping the coconut and curry leaves to the last few minutes. Cool and grind to a paste

Tempering:
mustard seeds (rai) - 1 tsp
urad dal seeds - 1tsp
green chilli - 1 slit
curry leaves - handful
asafoetida (hing) - pinch
2 tsp oil

Method:
1. In a heavy pan, add the oil and when it is hot the tempering ingredients. Saute the onions and then add the drumstick pieces and cook in half a cup of water till just tender.
2. Pour in the tamarind pulp, salt to taste and jaggery - add 1.5 cups water and bring to a boil. Lower flame and simmer for about 10-15 minutes till the raw smell disappears.
3. Add the mashed dal and the masala paste and simmer for another 5 minutes, adding some more water if it is too thick.
4. Transfer to a serving dish and serve with idlis.

Chawlichi Amti

My love for amti has been much discussed in these posts - Kaatachi amti, Chincha goola chi amti, Ruchira' recipe for Amti - so you would definitely know how much I love this simple Maharashtrian based dish which has so many variations. This post is about yet another version of amti - but different from the others in the sense that it uses legumes instead of lentils and also that it has a very nice coconut based masala used in it.

The original recipe by Sanjeev Kapoor used sprouted black chickpeas (kala watana) - I am a bit puzzled about where I got this recipe from since it is in my book of handwritten recipes whereas I own most of SK's books. Maybe the Konkani cuisine cookbook he wrote (which I didn't buy because I though - and still do - that his forte lies in North Indian cuisine) has this recipe which I picked up from some magazine?

I adapted this recipe by using blackeyed peas to make it and we loved it the first time I made it - so I have continued doing this and it's become a regular part of our menu now. I alternate this recipe between the Punjabi lobia rassa and the Tamil Karamani kozhambu so that we don't get bored of having this bean. The use of fresh and dried coconut really differentiates this curry while garlic and tamarind round off the wonderful combination of flavours.

Sending this lovely bowl of goodness to this month's edition of My Legume Love Affair - the Twelfth Helping of the food event which is being hosted by Annarasa and was originally conceived by Susan - The Well Seasoned Cook.

Chawlichi Amti
(adapted from Sanjeev Kapoor's recipe for Kale Watanyachi Amti)

Cooked Black eyed peas (Chawli/lobia/karamani)- 1.5 cups
Masala
1 Onion - peeled and sliced
Copra (grated dry coconut) - 1/4 cup
Garlic - 5 cloves

Freshly grated coconut - 1/2 cup, ground to a paste
2 onions, finely chopped
Asafoetida (hing) - pinch
Chilli powder - 2 tsp
Coriander powder - 1 tsp
Cumin powder - 1 tsp
turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp

Tamarind - marble sized, soaked in 1/2 cup water and pulp extracted
Garam masala powder - 1 /2 tsp
salt to taste
jaggery - 2 tsp grated (optional)
coriander leaves - 1/4 cup, chopped

1. Heat 1 tsp oil, saute sliced onions till translucent (about 3-4 minutes), add the copra and garlic cloves and saute another 3-4 minutes. Cool and grind to a fine paste.
2. Heat 1 tbsp oil in a pan, add the finely chopped onions and hing and saute on high heat till the onions are golden.
3. Add the masala powders (except the garam masala powder) and the cooked black eyed beans and mix well.
4. Pour in some hot water to cover, add salt and bring to boil. Cover and cook on a low flame for about 8 minutes.
5. Add the copra onion paste, tamarind pulp,jaggery and the fresh coconut paste; cook another 5 minutes.
6. Add the garam masala powder, coriander leaves and serve with rice or rotis.

Carrot Coconut Muffins

A special family occasion always calls for something which warms the heart as well as the palate. And when we are talking about celebrating the joy that our little girl brings into our lives, her twinkling eyes and impish smile which make every day a new wonder - then it has to be something which screams "Sunshine"!


These carrot coconut muffins do just that - their warm orange colour seems to be a shade of happiness itself and their moist insides burst with the goodness of carrots and apples. I saw them first quite sometime back on the Joy of Baking website and later on Meeta's wonderful blog "Whats for Lunch, Honey".
These muffins are the easiest thing to bake and use ingredients which we usually have at hand. My daughter loved making it with me and couldn't wait for them to bake and then cool to see how they turned out - very much the way she pestered us that whole morning for mehendi and then as soon as it was on she wanted to take it off and see the colour "NOW"! :)

I didn't make the cream cheese frosting since I didn't think they were needed at all - warm them just a little in the oven and you're good to go. I used homemade unsalted butter instead of the oil in the original recipe and toned down the sugar a wee bit.These muffins are apparently also called "Morning Glory Muffins" - I can see why!

Carrot Coconut Muffins

1 1/2 cups maida
1/2 cup wheat flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1.5 tsp baking powder

3/4 cup unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
3 eggs

2 cups grated carrots
1 apple, peeled and grated (should be crisp and not the mushy kind)
1 cup grated coconut (I used fresh coconut)
1/2 cup walnuts, lightly toasted, peeled and chopped
1 tsp vanilla essence
1/2 tsp cinnamon powder (For some reason everytime I combine cinnamon and salt, the dish seems to get over salted, so this time I did away with the salt in the original recipe,completely)

Method:
1. Sift the flours and the baking powder,cinnamon powder and soda together.
2. Beat the eggs and keep aside. In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar together till creamy.
3. Mix in the eggs and vanilla essence into the butter and sugar and then add the flour, grated carrots, apples, chopped walnuts and coconut mixing just until combined.
4. The key to spongy muffins is not to mix the ingredients too much but just till they come together.
5. Spoon the batter into lightly greased muffin pans or you can line the muffin pans with muffin papers and then spoon the batter into them.
6. Bake in a pre heated oven at 180C (350F) for 22-25 minutes till a skewer inserted comes out clean. Rest for 10 minutes and turn out of the muffin pan and let it cool completely.

Vangi Bhaji (Eggplant cooked with spices and coconut)

I have often talked of my love for Maharashtrian food. Though the fare is simple and healthy, it never fails to please my palate. The minimal use of fat and spices allow the flavours of the ingredients themselves to come through without being overwhelmed.
Case in point - Shrikhand - hung curd flavoured with cardamom to make a really refreshingly, tangy dessert. Or Amti - made out of lentils which are eaten in other parts of India as well, but just a variation with tamarind / tempering / Goda masala /coconut makes all the difference.

Food blogging has allowed me to rediscover many of the favourites I grew up eating at my neighbour's house or even at home,when my mother tried replicating dishes she had tried outside. Not only are some of my favourite food bloggers Maharashtrians, but there have also been the food blogging events which brought so many regional dishes into the limelight.

So then, it was a matter of time before I heard of Ruchira - one of the earliest Marathi cookbooks written by Kamalabai Ogale and published when she was sixty. It is apparently in two parts and the more I read about how indispensable it was for a young bride's trousseau, the more it reminded me of Meenakshi Ammal's Samaithu Paar - the first Tamil cookbook which was equally cherished by a whole generation of young brides.

Like Samaithu Paar, Ruchira has also been translated into English - albeit in an abridged form. People seem to agree that many nuances of the original may have been lost in translation. But when I came across a copy of the English version, I had to grab it! The recipes are all simple and most of them are not more than a page long with about 10 ingredients - tops!. There are some places where some ingredients have been missed out and some measures are not very precise, but nothing which a cook with basic knowledge will not be able to assume correctly.

So, the immediate Sunday after I acquired this little gem of a book I tried out the amti and vange bhaji for lunch. Vangi means eggplant in Marathi and this particular recipe was simplicity personified. Onions, a couple of spice powders. a dash of tamarind juice and coconut to round it off. Perfect morsels of crunchy coconut covered slices of soft,spicy eggplant - delicious!

Vangi Bhaji (Eggplant cooked with spices and coconut)
Adapted from Ruchira by Kamlabai Ogale

Ingredients:

Brinjal (eggplant) - 1/2 kg small,tender brinjal
Chilli powder - 2 tsp
Jaggery - 1 tbsp grated
Fresh coconut - 1/2 cup
Goda masala - 3 tsp
Peanut powder - 1/4 cup
Tamarind extract - 1 tbsp
Oil - 1 tbsp

Tempering:
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Asafoetida (hing) - pinch
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp

1. Cut the brinjal into 4 pieces in lengthwise and immerse in salted water.
2. Meanwhile, heat the oil in a pan and add the mustard seeds, when they sputter add the hing and the turmeric powder.
3. Lower the flame and add the brinjal pieces. Fry on high for 5 minutes, then cook covered with a sprinkling of water if needed for about 10-12 minutes till tender.
4. Add the chilli powder, goda masala, salt, jaggery and tamarind juice and cook till soft but not mushy.
5. Add the coconut and the peanut powder, stir and remove from flame.

Kozhukattai - Steamed dumplings filled with coconut and jaggery

Growing up in Mumbai, I think there are few people who remain untouched by the singular devotion to Lord Ganesha - on display for a full 10 days with serpentine queues in front of the bigger "mandals" which compete to have the biggest idols. While the "sarvanjanik" part of the mandals have become very commercialised over the years, the fondness with which the smallest of idols are brought into homes and decorated and worshipped, has remained unchanged.

I remember this part and also the fun part which was a huge part of my childhood - the 10 day "culturals" our colony hosted. Dance, drama, music, fancy dress, film screenings, rangoli competitions - it was an amazing 10 days we looked forward the whole year. Some of the teenagers who used to put up a Marathi play (complete with three acts!) every year are now full fledged theatre actors and I am proud to have seen them first!

What has changed now is that I cringe at the sight of those huge idols going in procession for the immersion ritual and think of the polluted sea water at the end of it. There are many people who now buy only clay idols and shun the plaster of paris one with toxic colours, but unfortunately not too many of them as yet to really make a difference.

The Ganesh festival isn't very big in Delhi and I had to go into work since it wasn't a public holiday. Which meant that I had to finish the pooja by 9! Kozhukattais - which are steamed rice flour dumplings with a coconut-jaggery filling - are a traditional offering for this festival in Tamil Nadu. The Maharashtrian version is called "ukadiche modak". I also made "kunnuku" - deep fried fritters made from mixed lentils. Then there was idli, sambar and chutney - a filling breakfast and I'm sure Ganesha was as satisfied as we were :) Ganpati Bappa Morya!

Kozhukattai

Rice flour - 3/4 cup
Water - 1/2 cup
salt to taste

Filling:
Grated coconut - 1 cup
Grated jaggery - 1 cup
Cardamom powder (elaichi) - 1 tsp

1. Heat the jaggery in a heavy bottomed pan with 2 -3 tbsp of water and heat till it dissolves. Add the grated coconut and cook till it becomes a thick mixture but not completely dry (about 5 minutes). Add the cardamom powder and switch off the flame. Transfer to another bow and cool.
2. Heat the water in a heavy bottomed pan and add a pinch of salt and a few drops of oil. When it is just about simmering, add the rice flour a little at a time, constantly stirring to avoid lumps.
3. Keep some extra rice flour and hot water on hand to add to the pan in case either is needed. The consistency should be like that of a smooth dough which can be kneaded.
4. Allow it to cool a bit but not completely. As soon as you can handle it, break of bits of the dough, roll into a ball. Smear some oil on your hands, flatten the ball in the palm of your hands and with your thumb and index finger make a shallow cup. Fill it with a small ball of the coconut jaggery mixture and seal it into a conical shape. Break off any excess dough at the top and reshape into a cone. You can also use moulds available in the market.
5. The trick is not to have too much dough so that the dumpling becomes very thick but not so thin either that the filling oozes out. Keep some oil in a cup to dip your fingers so the flour doesn't stick. Reheat the filling if it hardens.
6. When all the dough and filling is used up, grease an idli plate or a steamer, arrange the kozhukattais on it and steam for just 5 minutes.

This goes to the Sweet Series - Deep Fried or Steam Cooked Sweets , being hosted by Paajaka Recipes.

Coconut Lemon Cake

I'm sure most of the Indian (and other) food blogging community knows about Meeta's fabulous blog What's for Lunch Honey - an incredible space for some brilliant recipes as well as breath taking photography.

I especially love her baking recipes and frequently find myself being drawn from one post to another marvelling at the ease which she puts together combinations of flavours and tastes, colours and textures.

One such unbeatable combination was Mum's Coconut Lemon Cake - I just had to try it out the moment I saw it. It also had some lovely memories of her childhood and the special bond she shares with her mother which made it a delightful post to read.

Well, I baked it in two moulds with the idea that I would take the larger one to a lunch at my friend's place and the other smaller one to keep at home. The larger one fell apart for some reason (maybe I turned it out too soon and it wasn't cool enough) and I was quite dismayed but I was in a hurry and just took it as it was - crumbs and all. I needn't have worried - the cake was so delicious that my friend asked if she could keep the rest!

The one at home was also very difficult to take out in one piece but I was more careful this time and managed better. But it got polished off really fast and I hardly had a couple of pieces left to click!

The taste of lemon along with the coconut was just pure brilliance - thanks Meeta (and Mum) for this lovely recipe! This goes to Monthly Blog Patrol (MBP) - Fruit Fare Yyes I know coconuts and lemons do not fit the usual concept of fruit - but they are fruits, so there! ;)

MBP was started by Coffee of The Spice Cafe and is being hosted this month by dear Aparna of My Diverse Kitchen

Nupur's Goan Egg Curry

The monsoon has set in 2 weeks earlier in Delhi and we are enjoying some glorious weather - temperatures in the 30s and even late 20s (celsius) and gentle morning showers - nothing like the furious monsoons I am used to in Mumbai.

With weather like this, it's quite normal for thoughts on a lazy Sunday morning to stray to some exciting food to eat. None 0f the light food we have been sticking to for the summer days, what we need is some spicy, chatpata food.

Egg curry is one of our favourite dishes and I love trying out new versions - always searching for the "perfect egg curry". Looks like I have found it now!

Nupur of One Hot Stove was one of the first food bloggers I came across and at that time her wonderful event A to Z of Marathi dishes was on and that's how I stumbled upon the wonderful world of food blogging! Each of the dishes on Nupur's blog is an individual effort to explore the wonderful world of food. Traditional Indian dishes are made simple and easy to understand while newer cuisines are also tried out and adapted with her usual eagerness to experiment and learn. The recipes are simple and she always talks to her readers - talking down is just not her style!

But behind that modest person, lies someone who has the gifted knack of getting her culinary creations just right. Whether its lip smacking street food like pav bhaji, a "crowd pleaser" like vegetable biryani (this is one dish which I have made on several occasions when we have had people over and its never failed to delight!), Perfect Sabudana or the light as air Vietnamese Summer Rolls, Nupur has been a prolific blogger with a wide variety of dishes on her blog and I am very thankful that not only does she take the time and effort to figure out the best way to make certain dishes, she then comes back and shares it with us!

So when I saw this delicious egg curry she posted for this month's edition of Click, I just knew I had to try it. I didn't have the Goan fish curry masala, so I ground my own from an approximation of what she suggested, using red chillies, coriander seeds, black peppercorns, coconut and garlic. Nupur used coconut milk and since I was using grated coconut I ground the paste really really smooth to make up for that ; while the final outcome may have been a little different from what she had made I must say its by far the most delicious egg curry we have had!

Definitely a keeper of a recipe and I am sending it in to the Tried and Tasted June event being hosted by dear Zlamushka of Burnt Mouth. This is a new event where every month one blog is chosen to be "Tried and Tasted" by trying out recipes.

I also made the Onion Cheese Kulcha, cut down the cheese in it and added a potato in the filling - it was absolutely delicious and made for a wonderful meal paired with the egg curry. Unfortunately, no pics because the dough took a long time to rise in this cool weather and by the time it was baked in the oven we were too hungry to wait and just dug into these hot, filling and absolutely flavourful breads!

Lemon Coriander Chicken with Coconut Mango Sauce

Mangoes have been trickling into the market for the past 3 weeks and they are getting sweeter and tastier. New varieties for me to taste now that I am in Delhi - I spent the first 22 years of my life eating only the luscious Hapoos - those delicious golden Alphonsos from Ratnagiri. Then I moved to Chennai and after one year * of holding out I finally gave into the Banganapallis (called Benishan in the North but different from the Safeda) and was pleasantly surprised.

After tasting some more varieties like the Rumani, Neelam and Imam Pasand and now hearing about the magic of the Langda, Dashehari and Chausa varieties, I figure there is no point debating which one is superior. They have such different textures and flavour, why bother nit picking? try them all one by one and have mangoes throughout the season!!

In fact I am going to start trying the little known ones too whenever possible - the ones which are known only locally - Himsagar from West Bengal, Cherukurasam from AP, Imam Pasand from AP and TN (also known as Himayuddin), Kesar from Gujarat, Mankurado (scary hairy!) from Goa, Raspuri from Karnataka.....so many mangoes, so little time!

Well, as you may have guessed by now, I love mangoes and after I finish eating the mangoes for the first 2 weeks of the season, I then start thinking about how I can include it some dish or the other. This dish is an outcome of that train of thought this year.

My best friend is Konkani and I used to practically live there during my graduation and PG.'
One of the dishes Sandhya Pacchhi (maternal aunt in Konkani) used to make was saasam - a creamy gravy which combined the sweet flavours of fruits like pineapple or mango with the spice of mustard and red chillis and a hint of sourness from tamarind. I used to love this dish and have been wanting to make it for a long time. I did finally, but with a twist to the recipe and used it to as a sauce to accompany some grilled chicken (I adapted this recipe from Sig's delightful blog Live to Eat).

Saasam is usually not cooked and the fruit pieces are left whole. I pureed three fourth of the mangoes with the coconut and spices, omitted the tamarind since the mangoes were slightly sour, gently heated the sauce for about a few minutes just before serving and folded in a spoonful of cream.

The combination of the grilled chicken marinated in coriander, mint and lemon juice and the spicy sweet mango saasam was just fabulous!

Marinated chicken before baking

The chicken was juicy and moist and had absorbed the flavours of the herbs and spices beautifully. The mango sauce complemented the chicken and was unlike anything I had made before.

Lime Coriander Chicken with Coconut Mango Sauce

Chicken - 3 skinless breasts (400gm) with the bone
Sliced onions - 2
oil - 1/2 tbsp

Marinade:

Juice of 2 limes
Ginger - 2" piece finely chopped
Garlic - 4 cloves minced
Black peppercorns - 5-6
Green chillies -2-3 chopped fine
Mint leaves - 1 cup
Coriander leaves - 1 cup
Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
Coriander seeds - 1 tsp
Salt to taste


Coconut Mango Sauce (Ambe Saasam)

Coconut - 1 cup chopped pieces
Mustard - 1/2 tsp
Red chillies -3-4 (tone this down to 2 if you don't like it too spicy)
Jaggery grated - 1 tsp
Mangoes - 2 peeled, seeded and diced (about 2 cups)
salt to taste
Cream - 1 tbsp


1. Wash and clean the chicken and keep aside.
2. Pound the ginger, garlic, pepper, cumin and coriander till coarsely crushed, add the mint and coriander leaves and pound again. Finally add the lime juice and salt and mix well.
3. Marinate the cleaned chicken in this mixture for about two hours in the refrigerator.
4. For the saasam, grind the coconut pieces, mustard, jaggery, red chillies and three fourth of rhe mango pieces to a smooth paste adding a little water if needed. Add salt and the rest of the mango pieces and keep aside.
5. Preheat the oven to 350C, heat oil in a pan and add the sliced onion and saute till a little browned - about 4 minutes.
6. Take a glass baking dish with a lid, put in the fried onions at the bottom and arrange the chicken breasts on top of the onions. Pour the remaining marinade over the pieces and cover with the lid.
7. Bake in the oven for 40 minutes till the chicken is cooked well.
8. Remove from the dish and pan fry each piece for a few minutes on high flame to brown them a bit.
9. Heat the mango sauce for a few minutes till it is just barely warm and gently fold in the cream. Remove from flame and transfer to a serving bowl.
10. To serve, put one piece of the chicken on a plate, a portion of steamed rice on the side and spoon the mango sauce over the chicken and the rice.

Vankaya Poornam - Stuffed Brinjal (Eggplant)

Stuffed vegetables are a big favourite at home and I have never thought of them as being difficult to make. So bitter gourd, capsicums, brinjals and tinda with stuffing are quite a regular on our menu - the fillings also change to make things different and they make a welcome addition to the regular sabzis and porials we have with our meals.

This Sunday lunch had a simple menu - peas pulao, mixed vegetable kadhi and stuffed brinjals. I wanted to try a different filling from the two I usually use - a well bhunaoed (roasted) tomato onion masala mixture and a Maharashtrian dry spice powder. I vaguely remembered a stuffed brinjal recipe I had written down from Femina a few years ago searched for it in my book.

If I remember correctly this is an Andhra recipe (vankaya in Telugu refers to eggplant and poornam means "filling") and was part of a delicious Andhra food feature - have no clue about the author now, so am not able to give due credit. I have adapted the quantities of the original filling ingredients since they seemed to be quite a lot.

Sesame(til) and dessicated coconut (copra) give the filling a distinctive nutty flavour and the tamarind balances it out beautifully.

Choose eggplants which are small, firm and have a glossy skin. Avoid those with spots or holes on them or those with shrivelled skin and soft spots. The stem should be green and fresh and not dried up. Fresh eggplants work best since they cook fast, have more flesh and less seeds than the mature ones.

While filling the eggplants, some people recommend keeping the stalk on, but I prefer cutting it off so that I can check inside the brinjal for any holes or black spots which mean they need to be thrown away.

A good non stick pan goes a long way in helping to cook the eggplant without much oil and without having to constantly stir it around - and this in turn helps prevent the brinjal pieces from falling apart. Other than that, this is quite a no fuss recipe and gets done while you are cooking the other items on the menu.

Vankaya Poornam - Stuffed Brinjal (Eggplant)

Ingredients:

Small size eggplants - 1/4 kg (around 5-6)
Mustard - 1 tsp
Curry leaves - 6-8
Oil - 1 tbsp

Filling:

Oil - 1 tsp
Sesame seeds (til) - 1.5 tbsp
Poppy seeds (khus khus) - 1 tsp
Coriander seeds (dhania) - 1/2 tbsp
Red chillies - 2

Dessicated coconut powder (copra) - 2 tbsp
Tamarind piece (imli) - 1 " piece
Onion - 1/2 cup chopped

Method:

1. Heat 1 tsp oil in a heavy non stick pan and add the sesame seeds(til), poppy seeds(khus khus), red chillies and coriander seeds (dhania) to it and roast over low heat for about 10 minutes till a nice aroma emerges, stirring frequently so it doesn't get burnt.

2. Add the onion, coconut and tamarind piece and roast for another 3 minutes. Remove and cool.

3. Grind the ingredients with a teaspoonful of water to a smooth paste adding salt to it. The mixture should taste a wee bit salty since the eggplant itself will not have any salt in it. It should also be as thick as possible so that it stays inside the eggplant and doesn't fall out.

4. Remove the stalk and make 2 slits in the shape of a cross mark, stopping just about halfway through. Don't carry on right till the end, else it will fall apart.

5. With your fingers, gently fill each eggplant with the prepared masala paste taking care not to separate the four portions too much.

6. In the same non stick pan, heat a tbsp of oil and temper with the mustard seeds and curry leaves (when the mustard seeds pop add the curry leaves and stir for half a minute).

7. Place the eggplant pieces one their side in the pan and let them cook uncovered on a low flame for about 5-7 minutes; then carefully flip them over to cook on the other side. Similarly keep rotating them till all the sides are cooked including the top and the bottom. The skin will change colour and shrivel a bit.

8. If all the sides except the top or bottom are well cooked and some spilled masala is starting to stick to the bottom, stand the eggplants on their top or bottom, sprinkle a few drops of water on the bottom of the pan and cover and cook for about 5 minutes.

Appam and Vegetable Stew - WBB - Balanced Breakfasts

Appams are something both of us love and when in Chennai, we hardly needed a reason to go out to the neighbourhood Kerala joint and feast on those lacy fluffy circles of heaven. I haven't been very successful making aapams at home, though to be honest I didn't really try too much - why bother with facing failure when we could just as easily eat out!

Then we moved to Delhi - if I thought Chennai needed Mumbai's Udipi restaurants when I moved there, then Delhi definitely needs any kind of South Indian restaurants (yeah sure, Saravana Bhavan is here with meals that cost a minimum of Rs 300 per head!!; Sagar Ratna restaurants are few and far between)

So we pined for our appams with chicken curry and vegetable stew......The last straw was when Hubby started travelling extensively to Cochin for a month and used to come back raving about the food. That's it - I decided that it was time to shake off the laziness and crack this thing!

I found a similar story to mine on Ginger and Mango and was quite inspired by Inji Pennu's success in making perfect palappams - they looked so delicious! The rice flour paste in her recipe was the one major difference between other recipes I have tried before, and also appears in Madhur Jaffrey's recipe for Appams.

Well, it did the trick and I was able to make fluffy appams for the first time. I was afraid that the batter wouldn't ferment enough since February in Delhi was still quite cold, so I left it out quite long and it became a tad sourer than needed. Easily remedied the next time round! And there is definitely going to be a lot of next times!


I served this with a vegetable stew (ishtoo) which is easily the dish for me, which has the simplest of ingredients and the richest of flavours!

I am sending this breakfast duo to Weekend Breakfast Blogging #20, the brainchild of Nandita of Saffron Trail which is being hosted this month by Mansi over at - Fun and Food. This month's theme is "Balanced Breakfasts" and Mansi makes it easy with this definition - "A balanced and wholesome breakfast is something that combines 2 or more of the food groups below to fulfill nutrition needs.

Fruits or vegetables (dried fruits are fine too)
Grains and Cereals (whole grains, oats, high-fiber foods)
Dairy (skim milk, low-fat yogurt, cheese, cottage cheese (paneer) )
Proteins (eggs/egg whites, peanut butter, beans, nuts, sprouts, protein isolates)"

With rice in the appam and vegetables in the stew, I think this breakfast is as balanced as they come...not to mention so so tasty!

Kerala Vegetable Stew

Ingredients:

Potatoes - 2 medium peeled and chopped
Carrots -1 medium peeled and diced
French beans - 8-10 diced
Green peas - 1/4 cup
Cauliflower florets - 1 cup
Coconut milk - 1 cup thin milk and 1 cup thick milk
(If using coconut powder, then just make 2 cups of coconut milk as per the instructions)
Onions - 2 sliced
Green chillies - 5-6 slit lengthwise
Ginger - 2.5 cm grated
Curry leaves - 10
Salt to taste
Coconut oil - 1 tbsp
Cinnamon stick - 1 "
Cardamom - 1
Cloves - 3-4

Method:

1. Heat the oil in a pan and add the whole spices to it (cloves, cinnamon, cardamom). Saute for 3-4 minutes
2. Add half of the curry leaves and the green chillies, all of the grated ginger and sliced onions. Fry till onions turn translucent and then add the chopped potatoes, 1 cup of water and 1 cup of thin coconut milk and salt.
3. In the meanwhile, boil the chopped vegetables in 3/4 th cup of lightly salted water till just cooked and keep aside.
4. When the potatoes are soft and well cooked, add the cooked vegetables, rest of the green chillies and curry leaves and the thick coconut milk. Gently heat through for about 5 minutes, take off fire and serve with hot appams.

Vendakkai Kozhambu (Okra in spicy tamarind gravy)

Kozhambu in Tamil usually refers to a gravy made without lentils (dal) in it. While it often refers to a tamarind based gravy like Puli kozhambu or Poondu kozhambu, it also includes the buttermilk based gravy - Mor kuzhambu. And though some think of it as sambar without dal, I prefer to think of sambar as kozhambu with dal in it - after all tur dal came to South India much later and it was tamarind which ruled the roost for a long time.

Depnding on what we are used to calling "kozhambu" at home, a thin spicy meen kozhambu (tamarind based fish gravy) may be what it recalls for some, while others will associate it with the thakali kozhambu (tomato curry) their mother used to make with idlis for breakfast.

My mother is an expert at the correct spices and tempering to be used for various kozhambus, while I am still learning as I go. But when I yearn for "something" after a particularly nasty bout of viral flu which seems to have deadened all your olfactory senses, then a nice spicy tangy kozhambu is just the ticket to open up that stuffed nose and heavy head!

And my favourite is the one made with okra in it; this vegetable which has an (undeserved I may add) reputation for stickiness when cooked on its own, somehow plumps up into juicy fingers which go squelch! in your mouth when you bite into them, spilling all the tangy goodness of the kozhambu it has absorbed.

Served with steamed rice, some plain tur dal with the simplest of tadkas and a lovely red potato "roast" - this really made our Sunday lunch a heartwarming affair!

Vendakkai Kozhambu (Okra in Spicy Tamarind Gravy)

Ingredients:

Okra (lady fingers/ vendakkai) - 6-8 tender small ones
Tamarind extract from one small lime sized ball of tamarind - 1/2 cup
Onion - 1 big chopped
Tomato - 1 quartered
Garlic - 3-4 cloves
Oil - 1/2 tbsp veg oil, 1/2 tbsp sesame oil

Tempering
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Fenugreek seeds (methi) - 1/4 tsp
Asafoetida (hing) - pinch
Curry leaves - 6-7

Masala:
Red chillies - 4-5
Coriander seeds (Dhania) - 1 tbsp
Fennel seeds (Saunf) - 1/2 tbsp
Fenugreek (Methi) - 1/4 tsp
Peppercorns - 1/2 tsp
Grated coconut - 1/4 cup
Method:

1. Wash and thoroughly dry the okra with a kitchen towel. Cut the tops and the ends of the okra, and chop into 1 " pieces.
2. Dilute the tamarind extract with 350 ml water and keep aside.
3. Roast all the ingredients for the masala in 1 tsp of oil (add coconut last) and when browned and aromatic, take off flame and cool. Grind to a smooth paste, adding a little water at a time.
4. Heat oil in a kadai, add mustard and when it pops, add the fenugreek seeds, asafoetida and curry leaves.
5. Put in the chopped onions and saute 5 minutes. Add the garlic and saute another 2-3 minutes.
6. Add the chopped okra and fry for about 8 -10 minutes on a low flame till it softens.
7. Add the tomatoes and pour in the tamarind extract; mix in half of the masala paste and salt to taste and bring to boil, reduce flame and simmer covered for about 10 minutes till the raw smell of tamarind goes away.
8. Add the remaining masala paste and some more water if needed, bring to a boil and simmer for another 5 minutes.