Guar Beans Thoran

I was so happy today. I finally found a seed I was looking for. I didn’t know the name of the beans since my mom called it sambaar payar, just because she puts it in sambaar. I knew that can’t be the name and then somehow like other things I never could find the name and even I missed blogs posts on other blogs that mentioned the name.

And finally I knew it was called Guar beans. I searched and searched but didn’t think anyone would carry the seeds, since it was too indianish. But yippee, I found it here and right I went and ordered those. The best part is it is an upright plant, unlike other varieties and you could grow it in a pot too without any trellis. That’s neat for apartment people with patios.

There is a tinge of bitterness in these beans, but not like bittergourd. The slight tinge of bitterness gives it an edge when you make thoran.

String the beans, dice them very thin so you just need to steam them.

For 3 cups diced beans, heat 2 tsp pf oil, splutter ¼ tsp mustard seeds, sauté 2 whole red chilies, 1 sprig of curry leaves, 5 diced green chilies, 1 pod of garlic diced and ¼ cup shallots. Add the beans, sprinkle 1 tsp of water, add ¼ tsp if turmeric powder and enough salt. Cover tightly and steam in low flame until done.

Then add ¼ cup of shredded coconut, mix and sauté dry for 4 minutes.

Serve with rice. Serving size – 3.

Pindi Thoran

My writing has gone rusty. I stare at a Word document for minutes and nothing comes to my head. Too much of a break from blogging makes you so out of league from everything. There are great food events going here and there and there is a big event FAHC, yet I feel completely disconnected. Not that I used to write great stuff earlier, but something which took me a maximum of 15 minutes to write a post is now a humongous job for me.

I am sure that’s what has happened to a lot of other bloggers too who were regulars, their blogs now look abandoned and lonely. Their mamas are having starting trouble to write something. So this is a warning dears, do not go out of league and take a long break….

You might find this post squeaky squeaky with all that rust, but I know all you darlings out there is worried only about the food. :)

Kerala has this big fascination for banana stems. We use all portions of a banana plant. The fruit is used in cooking and eating, leaves as organic throw away plates and the stem and the flower after a fruit is matured in cooking. After the fruit is matured, you cut the fruit from the plant and hang it in a warm place for ripening. A single banana plant has only onetime fruiting capacity and should be removed. When you cut off the stem, you peel away the greenish layers and there you get a creamy white round part. This is known as unnippindi.

Poets describe a woman’s hands as round and slim and smooth like an unnipindi where unni means small. It is also known as vaazhappindi, where vaazha means banana. Essentially pindi is the name without any metaphors added.

I shake my head and grin when I hear about all the fiber talks in television and health magazines. They talk as if this is the new invention. Hello, this was there long existing...this fiber thingie in vegetables and you missed it all this while is what I want to say to them.

Pindi is fiber. Simple! You can get all the vegetables that claim to have fiber, add them up but a small piece of pindi can shame them all.

What does it mean? That it is a little hard to cut and clean it. First wash it and cut into round thin pieces. From each round, brush over a small stick to catch all the fiber. Yeah don’t be surprised, I was talking about fiber right? Do this to all pieces and discard the fiber ball.

Cut into small pieces; immerse it in water with a little turmeric added to prevent discoloration. This actually will feel like sugarcane pieces. Wash and strain

Splutter mustard seeds, one sprig of curry leaves and split red chilies. Sauté ¼ cup onion then add the cut pindi(1 cup), add little salt, add 1 tsp red chili powder, ¼ tsp turmeric powder and cover and cook in low flame. When half done, add grated coconut if needed, mix well and cook until done.

Serve with rice or roti. It tastes so good!

There it is, I have finally written a post and not bad took me only 20 minutes. :-)

Jackfruit Seeds and Drumstick Leaves Thoran

A JFI Event started by our dear Indian Food Blog Queen Indira and the super cool ingredient choice by our cutest Bee – and you thought I would have only one entry?

Jackfruit Seeds are edible portions of the jackfruit. They have a nutty taste. I had some left over Jackfruit Seeds and some drumstick leaves. Jackfruit seeds which bee roasted are of ripe jackfruit. You roast only ripe jackfruit seeds. With the raw jackfruit, you don’t normally do that.

This is a simple delicious thoran. Acutally it tasted so good, I snacked on it than eating it with rice :)

Scrape jackfruit seeds, slice it into long pieces and cook them with salt and turmeric. – 1 cup

Crush ½ cup coconut, 1/3 cup shallots, 5 green chilies, 1 sprig of curry leaves, 1 tsp cumin seeds, 3 pods of garlic, salt and turmeric.

Mix this with the cooked jackfruit and add the washed and squeezed drumstick leaves.

Cover and cook in low flame until the drumstick leaves are cooked.

Serve with rice or roti.

Artichoke Thoran

What will Americans do to a foreign vegetable? They would add cheese slices on it and put in between two breads.
British? They would make it a tikka or fry it in batter and serve with chips.
A malayalee woman? Add some coconut shavings and make it a thoran.

That’s exactly what I do when I see all these alien looking vegetables like Asparagaus, Artichokes etc. I used to read in story books about asparagaus, artichokes etc and wanted to see these vegetables at least once. That time there was no Internet and now anyone in any corner of the world can easily see a picture of anything. Exciting isn’t it? A child sitting under a table (supposedly study time), reading a story book, munching a mango with some salt, wondering what this vegetable would look like that keeps on coming up on her story book pages, can now just click on the mouse and can get every information she needs.

She grows up, gets married, lands in a small town at an alien land, where the most familiar vegetable you get is a cabbage. Rest everything looks completely out of this world. With a deep sigh, with the memories of all those veggies she told her mama she hates while at home, floods in with a deep hurtful taste, she picks up one of these alien vegetables and make a thoran and voila…home…now seems a little more nearer.

Recipe for Artichoke Thoran.

How to clean?
First wash thoroughly in between the leaves and then cut off the stalk and two inches from the top.
Then pluck out all the outer leaves until you reach the leaf where it is half yellow and half green. The outer leaves are hard and chewy. For thoran, you need to take only the soft inside leavesCut it into two. Dip the cut portions in ½ tsp turmeric water since artichokes turn black immediately. Now take out the violet colored leaves and the small hairy portion which holds the violet leaves.
Dice it small (two artichokes prepared like this would yield 1 cup).
I had one cup of moong dal sprouts too. Blanch the sprouts.

Small onion – ¼ cup

Heat 1 tsp oil, splutter mustard seeds, 1 sprig of curry leaves, 1 whole red chili split into two, add diced onion and 1 crushed garlic, 3 green chilies, sauté until onion is translucent, add diced artichoke and the blanched sprouts, add salt and turmeric cover and cook in low flame. After 10 minutes, add ¼ cup of grated coconut and mix and cook for another 5 minutes.
Keep the fire in maximum and open cook for one or two minutes until dry.
Serve as a side dish for rice or roti.

Now don’t you want to know what it really tastes like? It tastes like banana flower. Yes! Ditto! Missing banana flower thoran? Make with artichokes!

Note: The leaves you pluck out from the artichoke can be put into sambar. It would be like drumstick sambar. You eat artichoke the same way you eat drumstick. The outer leaves you discard for a thoran are chewy. You just suck on it like you do for drumstick and discard the harder skin.

Vaazhakkoombu Thoran or Banana Flower Fry

There are a lot of blog posts by fellow bloggers for this banana flower side dish. But is there one with a banana flower plucked from your own banana plant? :-)

Well, this is my first entry of the GBP Summer 2007, hosted by dear Deepz at LetzCook.

A banana flower side dish from my garden. Vaazhakkoombu thoran. Vaazhakkoombu is Malayalam for banana flower.

Remember this Odissi dancer? It has grown and become a big banana plant. I had some honey from the same.

When the bananas start to mature, you can break off the flower from the banana bunch(?).

Banana flowers are without a doubt extremely nutritious with all that fiber content. It is a very tasty dish when prepared properly. The main thing one need to take care is the outer violet or res skin. Do not include that. It will taste bitter. Peel the skin until you reach the crème colored inside.

Cut of the stalk or the end-portion, dice them very small. If you have only one banana flower the amount will be very less when you cook it. So, I add whole moong beans.

Banana Flower diced and immediately immersed in water with a little turmeric. This keeps the color intact or the diced pieces will turn black. – 2 cups
Cooked whole mong beans (Cook this in a pressure cooker) – 1 cup
Shallots – ½ cup
Green chilies slit – 4
Garlic with skin crushed – 2 pod

Heat 3 tsp oil, add ½ tsp mustard seeds. When they splutter, add one whole red chili, add 1 sprig of curry leaves, and add the garlic. When garlic turns slight brown, add shallots and sauté them until translucent.

Add banana flower, add ½ tsp turmeric powder, enough salt, mix and cook covered in low flame for 5 minutes. Add moong beans and ½ cup coconut and cook covered for another ten minutes.

Cook in high heat for tow or three minutes uncovered to dry the dish.

Serve with roti or rice.

Okay, how are your plants doing? Are they all getting ready to enter GBP 2007?

Cabbage Thoran

What is in a simple cabbage thoran? It is the simplest thing anyone can do. Why blog about it then?

There might be one new wife out there, a new student out there missing home and mama terribly, frantically looking and searching and thinking what to do with this whole cabbage he or she just bought it from the shop. She/he would have tasted the cabbage thoran umpteen times, but never thought of cooking it until now. These simple recipes, as simple as they might seem, always are a help to the new little chefs out there.

I always encourage people to blog about these simple dishes which we normally don’t get in restaurants and it doesn’t matter if there is a hundred posts about the same cabbage. That’s what blogs are all about. No matter how many homes you visit or no matter how many times you eat the same food, each time, each home makes it a little different. To me, food blogs are a celebration of that to be precise.

That’s why food blogging is so much fun. You create, you serve the food at home and then you share the experience with your virtual friends. Sharing is the most beautiful thing in this World. Take off two or three leaves off the cabbage and wash thoroughly. Cut a portion of it without the stalk in the middle. The hard stalk in the middle and the base of the cabbage should be discarded.

I have never been able to replicate my moms cabbage dicing. She makes small cuts like tak tak tak and then dices it very thin. I have never been able to do that, so I cut off a seven inch large piece and then dice it small like I do with onions.

For 4 cups of diced cabbage,
Heat 2 tsp oil, splutter 1/2 tsp mustard seeds, sauté 1 red chili split, 1 sprig of curry leaves, add 3 tsp of whole urad dal until light brown and add ½ cup diced onion and sauté well until the onion is translucent.

Add ¼ tsp turmeric powder and add the diced cabbage and lower the heat to minimum. Add salt and mix well and cover tightly and cook for 10 minutes.

Coarse grind 3 pods of garlic and ½ cup of grated coconut, 4 green chilies and ½ tsp cumin seeds. Keep this mixture in the middle of the cabbage and then cover the mixture with the cabbage.

Cook closed for another 10 minutes in low flame. Mix well and sauté until dry.Serve with rice or roti.

Kovakka Thoran

Kovakka, Tindora, Ivy gourd – This vegetable has many names, but the fact remains is that it doesn’t taste as good as the other vegetables. Yes, Yes, I am on an honesty trip here.

Kovakka is malayalam for Ivy gourd.

First of all, ivy gourd when cut has a light film of sap (?) which makes it a little bitter/tough to munch on, fresh. Even if you bombard it with all your spices your hands can get, kovakka doesn’t absorb the flavors and would still taste a little bland.

But why eat it then? It is so good for you, there are even claims it is good for diabetes patients. It is a good source of beta carotene as well. In Thailand, this vegetable is promoted to grow in homes to control the vitamin A deficiency.Ivy gourd is termed an invasive weed in U.S. One of our friends tried to sneak in the plant from India and the customs got him. So he acted as if he doesn’t understand English when the U.S customs officer questioned about the plant.

Customs officer being an Indian himself, told him straight to his face, “Until now, I heard you speaking good English to your wife Sir, how soon you got amnesia?” hehehehe

So, there you are, don’t sneak in the plant to U.S territory. :-) . Don’t ask me, whether I have it, then you would have to explain and define the word “is” (Courtesy: President Clinton).

Anyway, one friend gave me this wonderful recipe which will make any kovakka-haters swoon over it.

Wash the kovakka thoroughly in running water, cut off both the tips. Make two lengthwise cuts and then cut the kovakka into half making it eight pieces.

For 3 cups of cut kovakka,

Crush together, kudampuli or tamarind (1 inch size), ½ cup coconut, 6 shallots diced, 3 garlic pods diced, 4 green chilies, 1 sprig of curry leaves, ½ tsp turmeric powder and enough salt. Don’t grind it, just crush them in a pestle.

Mix this with the kovakka and add ¼ cup of water and keep in medium flame. When it is half cooked, add 2 cups of cooked small shrimps, mix it and cook again in low flame.

You can completely avoid the shrimp part if you are vegetarian, but non-vegans out there, the shrimp makes it too good :-)

When the mixture is dry, heat 2 tsp pf coconut oil, splutter ½ tsp of mustard seeds and add to this.Serve with rice.

Moong Bean Thoran

If you haven't yet read about the March 5th Protest Event against Yahoo! India for plagiarizing, please do visit this link.

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What is a food blog (mainly listing Kerala food) without a moong bean thoran?
Or in other words, I don’t know why I didn’t yet blog about the cherupayar thoran from Kerala.

Now I always write it as Moong, but actually it is spelled Mung Beans. ‘Mung’ is derived from Hindi word ‘mung’ says Wikipedia. That would also mean we can be sure it originated in India. Mung bean is cultivated in most places in South Asia and is very much a part of the cuisine in South Asia.

Ayurveda is very partial to mung beans.

Excerpt:
Of the most usable pulses, moong is one that has been described as the best for day-to-day use. Acharya Charaka has written that in both the green and yellow forms, it is astringent and sweet in taste, dry, light and cold in potency and has pungent post-digestive effect. It alleviates the vitiated kapha and pitta and is recommended to be served as soup during illness and convalescence. Due to its easily digestible properties moong dal is a dish of choice for people suffering from weak digestion, diarrhoea and dysentery and for those who are bed-ridden due to any prolonged illness. Sprouting makes the mung bean very nutritious adding Vitamin C to its list of nutrients. But be careful of buying the sprouted beans from shops. The link says, Commercial Mung Beans are grown with chemicals and gasses in huge 500 gallon machines. I have always wondered about that!

Whole Mung bean - 2 cups pressure cooked with 1 cup water for 15 minutes. It is ideal that the bean should retain its shape, so don’t cook it to death. (Yeah, I have done that many a times)

Heat ¼ cup oil; splutter 1 tsp mustard seeds, 1 split red chili, 1 sprig of curry leaves. Crush 4 pods of garlic with skin, ½ tsp cumin seeds, and 5 green chilies and add to this. Roast the garlic until brown. Then add 6 shallots diced and sauté. Add 1/4 tsp turmeric powder.

Add the cooked mung bean to this and ½ cup of coconut, enough salt and mix well. Cover and cook until dry.Serve with rice.

Drumstick Leaves Fry (Muringa ila thoran)

Did you all see how Kitchenmate grew her own drumstick tree in a pot? I was so excited to see that. Because that definitely meant everybody can grow it in a pot even if you live in a place with 6 months of winter, just like a curry leaf plant. Now, I don’t know whether it will fruit in a pot, but it doesn’t matter. We can eat the leaves!
Those tiny pretty oval shape leaves holds so much nutrients, your body will thank you for that nutrient laden pot-of-gold. For that reason, it is called The Tree of Life.

I have a drumstick tree in my backyard. But it always had yellow leaves. I was going crazy because yellow leaves normally meant nitrogen deficiency and as soon as I feed them ( Organic Nitrogen fertilizer like Blood Meal etc) and turn, it would have yellow leaves. The soil we have here is beach type sandy soil and it means not even 1% of nitrogen. We have to buy and feed tons and tons of good soil for plants to grow. Still it had yellow unhealthy leaves.
I then asked a virtual blogger friend Mr. Chandra Shekar, and he advised me to feed it Magnesium. I did and Voila! It never had another yellow leaf (touch wood!).

For people who are planning to grow this in pots, you don’t have any worries like this. Since, you can control the soil nutrients easily.

This grows very fast; it can reach up to seven or more feet in a single year. You can trim the top of the tree when it reaches a certain preferred height like 4 or 5 feet. It will grow back soon.So, if possible try to grow a drumstick tree. A sunny window is all you need. You can germinate from seeds or get a tree from TopTropicals.com.
Okay, now roll up your sleeves for some real work:-).

The stems taste very bitter if added. So you need to really pluck the leaves from the tiny stems. Inspect and wash the leaves thoroughly under running water. Now pluck the leaves from the stems.

For 3 cups of leavesHeat 2 tsp of oil, splutter ½ tsp mustard seeds and two dried red chilies and a sprig of curry leaves. Add 2 tsp of urad dal or chana dal and sauté them. Add 1 cup of diced onion or shallots along with 5 green chilies diced. When onions are sautéed well, add the leaves and mix everything with some salt and turmeric powder. Close and cook for 6 or seven minutes. This cooks very fast. Now, add ½ cup of shredded coconut to the mixture, mix well and close and cook for another 3 minutes.That’s it. Pot of Gold is ready. Serve with rice or chapathi.If you know Malayalam, check out this wonderful malayalam article about Muringa Leaves, by a dear blogger Devan.

Moong Dal Curry and Chinese Bittergourd Fry

Moong Dal is one dal which doesnt make you bloat.
I think all other dals give you that hydrogen balloon feeling. Moong Dal is so widely used in Kerala from curries to sweets. Malayalees already have 'airs' so they don’t need other dals to give them that. :-)

Today I had an unexpected guest, so as usual had to clean out a bedroom (or used as 'safety box') in super fast mode. I can work so quickly I can clean an entire house in 10 minutes flat if I hear someone is coming home. Otherwise It will take years.

Moong Dal Curry
Roast 1 cup moong dal split. Ah? Whats moong dal split? Well, I didn’t know about moong dal-split until I came to U.S. It is prepared from the green moong dal after frying and peeling the skin. No don’t worry, you dont have to do all that. You get moong dal split in ready packets everywhere.

So, roast 1 cup moong dal into light golden brown colour and cook in a pressure cooker by adding 3 cups of water. Grind 1/4 cup coconut, 1 tsp cumin seeds, 4 green chilies, 1/2 tsp pepper, 1/4 tsp turmeric powder, and 1 tsp of garlic to a smooth paste. Add to the cooked dal.Add salt. Heat 2 tsp of ghee, splutter mustard seeds, 2 red chilies split, shallot 1 diced or onion until brown and curry leaves in that order and add to the curry. This is the first item for Sadya after rice is served. I was too embarassed to click pictures since my guest had arrived.

Chinese bittergourd fry
When I used to live in one remote corner in U.S, I craved for our bittergourd. I used to hate it back home. But when you know you cant get it, you get cravings. I just wanted to touch it atleast. And I discovered a fairer cousin of our bittergourd. The chinese bittergourd. She is not that bitter, is fairer than her cousin, and holds lots of water.It is very easy to prepare this upperi. Cut into small slices and remove the seeds from inside.

Heat oil, mustard spluttering, saute onions and the usual stuff like you prepare for any upperi/fry/mezhukkupuratti. But dont cover this vegetable while cooking. It has lots of water. So It will become mushy very quickly. Keep in high flame too, so the water evaporates quickly. This is very tasty with morukaachiyathu or buttermilk curry due to its slight bitter taste.

Snake Gourd Fry

Names: Padavalanga Thoran / പടവലങ്ങ തോരന്‍

My mom is very scared of this vegetable. It is a very long vegetable, very nutritious and delicious. Due to its shape, it is called snake gourd. My mom would never make this, since she was scared of it :-).

I love this vegetable. It is sooo very hard to get it fresh in U.S. But I got it last week at our vegetable vendor. The dish is called Padavalanga thoran back home. I forgot to click a picture of the snake gourd vegetable as whole.

For 3 cup snake gourd cut into very tiny pieces. Scrape lightly the skin before cutting.

Grated coconut - 1/2 cup, cumin seeds - 1/2tsp, garlic - 1 pod, 1/4 tsp turmeric powder - coarse grind or better just crush everything together.

Heat 1 tsp e.v olive oil, splutter 1 tsp mustard seeds, whole chili broken into two, curry leaves,5 shallots diced - Sauté in that order.

Add the cut gourd and sauté for 5 minutes. Sprinkle 1 tsp water, add salt and cover tightly and cook in low flame. After 6 or 7 minutes or so or until 3/4th cooked (it should be crunchy),add the coconut mixture in the middle and cover the mixture with the gourd pieces and cover and cook again for 5 more minutes or until soft and done. This is a dry side dish for rice with some gravy.My mom makes excellent sauté vegetables. She won’t add any water and cooks vegetable very nutritiously. All her pots are S shaped. So it is easy to cook without any bit of water. I have to sprinkle some water, since all my pans are flat. The less water added to the vegetables, the better. So always only sprinkle water to these kinds of vegetables, cover tightly and cook in the steam. If not cooked, sprinkle water again. Remember always to keep in very low flame...not even medium,but low flame.