Rava unniappam (Sooji mini pancakes)

I can't take it any more. I am reading about so many recipes with this unniyappam pan and so many different names. But what happened to the sweet delicacy called unniappam (or unniyappam or sweet mini pancakes) which I love, made with the same pan?

Small tea-shops you find at every corner in Kerala smell of this in the evening tea-time. They make it and store in large glass cases to test small kids, I think.

You can be groomed to become a well-behaved child every single day, but you know, you can’t help but ask your parent to buy you this, when you pass the tea-shop and will end up crying because parents normally like to deny anything you ask, especially from a shacky tea-shop.

Since it is fried in oil, at home, my mom would make it only when there were like hundreds of people, so she wouldn’t have to ‘waste’ the oil. The end result being, you can get your hands on only one or two of these, while your ‘brutal’ cousins and other relatives are having unniyappam chaakara in their mouths.I made it with Sooji or Rava.(There is another version with Rice flour and coconut which I will post later sometime)

The first thing you need is a special skillet as you can see from Indira’s recipes. Don’t worry, you don’t have to go to India but you can buy the pan (Western version) here.

Recipe:Mix 1 cup of Sooji with 1 tsp of ghee.Add enough milk to make it a thick mixture. The mixtures should be of thick consistency, a little thicker than idli batter. Mix in 1/4 cup mashed small banana.Add 1/4 cup jaggery crumbs heated with ¼ cup water and strained - 1/4 cup
OR if adding sugar, add brown sugar -1/2 cup.Mix everything together (try to make the mixture fluffy with air bubbles) and let it sit for one hour.

We need to fry this in oil (Mostly at temples,they fry this in ghee). Use any vegetable oil. Pour oil into each impression. Fill oil upto 3/4th full in each impression. Heat the oil.

When it starts to smoke, pour the batter into each impression filled with oil. DO NOT COVER the skillet. After 5 or 6 minutes, flip the uniappam to the other side and cook. (I couldn’t take good pics, but follow the steps in the recipe, and make it the same way except we don’t cover and we pour oil filling half of each impression.)Serve with hot tea or coffee. The smell of jaggery in oil is heavenly. I used brown sugar i.e. why the light brown colour, if jaggery is used it will be dark brown in colour.

GBP Summer 2006 - May - Green Roma Tomatoes

After I posted about the Green Blog Project and when kind-hearted co-bloggers started to link the Project, I got nervous. Real nervous! I double, triple checked my plants every other day, checked my pots and soil to make sure I have them and they are okay and doing fine.

You know, I was nervous "What If none of my vegetables grow and I can’t post any?
"Well, I got nervous unnecessarily. They have no clue about the GBP for summer and they are all doing fine, healthy and happy (Now, touch wood!).
*Silence, Lights out********Tadang!!!! *Applause, All Lights*

For the month of May for Green Blog Project, I am introducing Garden Fresh Tomatoes.
Green Roma Tomatoes,grown in my garden from seeds, right from Italy…err…sorry from nearby Home Depot.I grow Roma Tomatoes, since they are medium shaped and the right amount for one batch of curry. Roma Tomatoes are heirloom variety from Italy, firm when ripe and very good for sauces and canning.
Tomato flowering in my yard

I got them as seeds (I normally don't like to buy plants, since I want to get that gardener’s satisfaction of starting my babies from seeds).Baby tomatoes starting to form from pollinated flowers

I collect plastic cups after a party, punch couple of holes at the bottom, fill it 3/4th with soil and compost, dig a hole with my finger through quarter way of the cup from top, put the seed in, cover with soil and water it regularly and give them good amount of sunshine. After the danger of frost, I plant them outside in the yard.Tomato ready to pluck for our dishI planted them on February end and now they are growing with vigor giving me a bunch of tomatoes to pick every other week. I pluck them before they turn ripe, for fear of tiny little birds that visit my garden and like to feast on them.Tomatoes are high in Lycopene content, though it is not advised to eat them raw regularly, since their skin can cause kidney stones.
Recipe for Green tomato fry:Green Tomatoes – 3 cups deseeded. Take out the seeds and the pulp after cutting them into half, seeds will make the dish mushy.Cut them into small pieces.Coarse grind or crush 2 pods of garlic, a pinch of cumin, a pinch of salt, ½ cup of coconut in a mortar pestle or without any water in a wet grinder.
Heat 1 tsp of oil, splutter ¼ tsp mustard seeds, sauté 1 sprig of curry leaves, one whole red chili split into two, ½ cup of red onions or shallots diced, 4 green chilies, a pinch of turmeric and salt – in that order.

Add the cut tomatoes, cover and cook for 10 minutes in low flame or until semi done. Now add the coconut paste in the middle, cover the coconut paste with the tomatoes and cover and cook again for 5 or 6 minutes. Open cover and in high flame, stir everything together continuously or until it becomes very dry.Serve it with rice or roti. Isint this a green green blog? :-). They taste similar to brinjal fry, but a little, a very little on the sour side. The coconut mixture actually balances the sourness of rawtomatoes.

Green Peas Gravy (in coconut milk)

I was reading the other day about protein content in vegetables at Indira’s blog. I don’t know why people think you have to eat non-veg for protein content. That’s not true at least for Indian people. Most legumes we eat have more protein content without the fat. Green Peas is one such legume.
Excerpt from the link, A 1 cup serving of peas contains more protein than a whole egg or a tablespoon of peanut butter yet has less than half a gram of fat.

My mom would make us eat every vegetable she can cook and especially legumes, declaring while pouring big spoons of curry on our rice laden plates, "this one spoon of legume is equal to 3 spoons of mutton". Well, we would have preferred 9 spoons of mutton then. ;-)
Sarah, I read somewhere you wanted to have this green peas curry? You are a doc, tell us about protein please.

Recipe for Green Peas Curry or Gravy:This curry uses coconut milk – a Kerala speciality for certain curries.

I don’t use canned coconut milk, but If you use canned coconut milk, scoop out the cream first, without shaking the can – this will be your thalappal or thick coconut milk. The rest of the liquid will be the thinner coconut milk.
OR
Coconut milk thicker – Thalappal in Malayalam. This is made just by grinding scraped coconut without the thin brown skin (not taking about the shell), sprinkling little or if fleshy coconut, no water for thicker milk consistency)

Coconut milk thinner – After squeezing out the thalappal, add I cup of water for 1 cup of scraped coconut, grind and then thinner milk is squeezed out.

Don’t throw away the squeezed out pulp. You can add this to vegetable fry mixing with fresh scraped coconut. i.e. for 1 cup of fresh grated coconut, you can mix the squeezed out pulp half and the fresh grated coconut half. That way, you are not throwing away the pulp. You can store the squeezed out pulp in the freezer.

Dried Green Peas soaked overnight– 2 cups. I don’t make curries with the frozen ones, since they are very sweet.

Ginger garlic crushed or diced thin – 2 tsp
Red Onions – ½ cup
Tomato - 2
Garam Masala Powder or Meat Masala Powder – 1.5 tsp
Red chili powder – 1 tsp
Green chilies - 4
Turmeric powder – ¼ tsp
Curry leaves.
Coconut milk thinner - 1.5 cup
Coconut milk thicker - 1/4 cup(You can add 1/2 cup diced potato, but this is optional)
Bay Leaf – 1 whole (Peas curry gives out an unpleasant odor sometimes, so to make it pleasant)

Cook the soaked peas next day in a pressure cooker with salt. Make sure you don’t over cook this, since the soaked peas is very soft.

Heat 2 tsp oil, splutter 1 tsp mustard seeds, sauté curry leaves, diced green chilies, onion diced, ginger and garlic paste, diced tomato in that order. Add turmeric and salt to the sauté. (Remember we have also added salt to the peas).

Add garam masala powder, red chili powder and sauté again for one or two minutes until the raw smell is gone. Add the peas (potato if you want), bay leaf and the thinner coconut milk. Boil the gravy for 6 or 7 minutes or until potato is done if you have added. Before taking out from heat, add the thick coconut milk, mix well and immediately take out from heat.Serve it with rice or roti. It is very nutritious and tasty gravy.

Guess the fruit?

Bursting through the roof in anti-oxidant content,I read in Newsweek, the juice of this is the current fad among health nuts. I am not sure whether it will really fruit this year, but it is producing lots of flowers.

Dry ginger coffee (chukku kaappi)

Please raise your hand, if you have never ever had chukku kappi or dry ginger coffee.
(I hope I don’t see any raised hands, since you have missed out something great in your life. :-))

I have a sore throat and nothing, let me tell you no over-the-counter medicines can even come near this one.You can buy dry ginger powder here in U.S Indian stores. Or you can get dry ginger (rarely seen) from a store here or can bring it from India. Dry ginger is called chukku in Malayalam. Fresh Ginger is sun dried to make chukku. Read about God's own coffee.

It has been raining here since morning, it stops to drizzle for an hour and then again it starts to rain heavily...and chukku kaapi is the best when rain plays hide-and-seek!

Recipe: (for one sore throat)
Dry ginger - 1/2 inch piece nicely ground or crushed Or 1/2 tsp of dry ginger powderWhole Peppercorns - 2Coffee powder (Instant also will do)Boil 1.5 cups of water, then add dry ginger and crushed peppercorn. Boil it again for 4-5 minutes. Take off from heat, add instant coffee powder and jaggery (Or can add sugar, usually back home instead of jaggery, 'karippetti' -- another form of jaggery, is added). Add good amount of sugar, since the coffee is spicy-hot.Hmm...Nice good medicinal coffee! And there…it has started to rain again....I think I am being transported back to good old Kerala. Try this during rainy season, if you want to visit Kerala without the tickets ;-)
I don’t know at what stage of cane sugar making process, this 'karipetti' is formed. If someone knows please let me know.

Kanji (Rice gruel)

People from Kerala are mockingly called “Kanji” by fellow Tamilians :). I think it all dates back to a story when Tamil Nadu had famine, we send them ‘kanji’. Now don’t get ideas and call me kanji L.G :-) (My tamilian friends always do that!!Grr)

Kanji is simple rice gruel which is enjoyed by the poor and the rich equally in Kerala. It is a comforting food which is eaten as breakfast/dinner. Normally people don’t have it for lunch since it is very light.(Even the Italians have a version of Kanji too! – called risotto. Elsewhere in the world, it is called congee.

I am happy to note that it is derived from the all Malayalee Kanji.)If you google for Kanji, you get this, which is completely different. :-)

Most homes in Kerala have it as dinner, though at my mom’s ancestral home they had it as 10 a.m. breakfast (Yeah, they had two breakfasts, a light one at 6 a.m. and kanji at 10 a.m.!! *snort*).

Kanji is a complete wholesome meal, easily digestible and very nutritious. Ayurveda, India’s ancient medicinal system attributes most of all ailments to the food we eat and the digestive system.

Kanji is one super healer for your digestive system, when you are sick, old, kids etc. Especially at night time when you are supposed to eat light. So mostly, old people have it as their dinner. Most ayurvedic physicians recommend kanji or kanjivellam for your diet when you are sick.

Kanjivellam (or Rice Water strained from par-boiled or double boiled rice) is our home’s standard remedy for everything from sore throat to flu. A little salt is added to the kanjivellam, that’s all.a pic of kanjivellam

Kanji can be had with a lot of accompaniments. Yesterday's fish curry gravy, mango-coconut chutney, a variety of other chutneys especially the grilled coconut chutney, pappadam, pickle especially whole mango pickle, a little shaved coconut etc. – it is up to your imagination for toppings. I love to have it with some left over gravy.

We eat everything else with our hands,but for kanji we need to have a 'spoon'.Before the invention of spoon, people in Kerala (or India?), used this as the use and throw spoon.Quite indigenous aren’t we? Even with all the spoons, my grandfather used to eat Kanji with this until he died. This is made from plavila or Jackfruit trees leaves.Yesterday for dinner we had kanji and I was taking pictures of it, when my husband declared, he is not going to have any more food which has already been photographed! Of course, he is teasing me. He picks up a banana peel or an onion skin and teases me saying, “Hey take a picture of this one, people would like to see this, I am sure.” I am learning to ignore!

To make kanji, par-boiled or double-boiled rice is best, since it should be of a creamy consistency. I use double-boiled red rice. There is also, another variety, broken double-boiled rice (called ‘podiyari kanji’) which is given mostly for fever or cold or for children, since you don’t have to chew on it.

Recipe for two people: ½ cup red double boiled rice (You can use any variety par-boiled rice)½ cup whole green moong beansCook it in minimal water until everything is of mushy consistency. I cook it in a pressure cooker with 3 cups of water. You don’t strain the water from the cooked rice, so make sure you don’t add too much water. Serve hot only.

Some people skip on the moong beans and add rice instead.Moong Beans is called 'kanjipayaru' in Kerala and is a typical addition in Kerala kanji’s (No pun intended!)Add your favorite toppings, a little salt and have a good wholesome meal! What I like best is, it is the quickest wholesome meal one can prepare and you don’t hear any complaints of any curries when they slurp their kanji! Now thats what I call a real Happy Meal!

Vanilla flavored shrimp

Yes, you read the title right.

Barabara's Spice is Right II challenge, was really interesting I put on my thinking cap, which I use very rarely.

I very much wanted to participate in Indira's JFI:Mangoes, but I was stupid. I thought I had to create the recipe on May 1st itself. And May 1st was such a bad day for me, if I got mangoes that day, I would have thrown at someone, instead of cooking with it.

So, this challenge I couldn’t just let it go. C'mon I said and I started to think of a spice. Yes! I hit on vanilla. I had some beans left from my last India trip.I am really hesitant to make a fool of myself and the last thing I like is to experiment with ingredients or 'create' recipes, since my past experiences haunt me still.

Vanilla is not native to Kerala. But it is now widely cultivated in Kerala for the past 15 or so years and it grows well in Kerala's climate. When Madagascar, the original world of Vanilla, flooded, Vanilla made many Malayalees instant millionaires.

It was pricier than Gold, and young men started to advertise in matrimonial columns as "Looking for bride, age 20-24, fair, brought up in a vanilla farm"(hehehe. Just kidding!)

Anyway I thought no one can even think of make something savory with vanilla. Well I was wrong as always. Just like I thought cinnamon can never be used as a sweet spice. I had to just google vanilla savory recipe and though not a lot, there were few I could find.

This recipe asked for king fish, I didn’t want to destroy an expensive king fish steak. I got shrimp for 5$.

And with shrimp I knew I couldn’t go wrong. If it doesn’t work, I know I can convert the shrimp to something else.So, here is the recipe I 'created'.2.5 cups of shrimp shelled, deveined and cleaned

Crushed dry red chilies - 8 dried red chilies or use as you prefer it (Don’t grind to a fine powder, just crush them in a coffee grinder)

Garlic pods diced thin - 4 tsp
Shallots diced thin - 4 tsp
Ginger diced thin - 1 tsp
Vanilla beans - 1 cut into pieces (Or use vanilla flavor – 1 tsp)
Balsamic Vinegar - 1/4 cup with 1/2 cup water
Tomatoes - 3 small diced
Heat 3 tsp olive oil, sauté garlic + ginger and shallot in that order.

Add tomatoes and vinegar and water. Cook the tomatoes. When tomatoes are cooked, add crushed chili and vanilla beans or flavor. Add shrimp and mix everything. Add salt.

Cover and cook until it boils and then open cover and let the vinegar water evaporate completely. This is a dry dish. Let everything get coated nicely on the shrimps.The thing is, the flavor of vanilla is so overpowering, the typical ginger garlic taste everything gets absorbed by the flavor of this vanilla, though I couldn’t find much taste difference.

It turned out real good. Hope you could see my delightful glee!This is an excellent appetizer or side dish. Serve with wine or some carbonated drink.Since I added a good amount of chili, it tasted hot, a little sweet and a little sour. The combination of balsamic vinegar and vanilla makes the aroma of vanilla a savory kind. (I think it is similar to cinnamon, how the aroma changes with sugar.)

The best part of the dish is the heavenly aroma which makes your husband get up from the couch and visit the kitchen (a rare thing!).

Aval nanachathu (Rice Flake Snack) and Egg Puffs

When Kuchelan visited Lord Krishna (his classmate) at Dwaraka, all he had was a little bit of aval.

When today I had unexpected visitors at tea time, all I had was little bit of aval too. I hope I get that mansion tomorrow.

Rice Flake Snack (അവല്‍ നനച്ചതു)
This is such a simple and quick snack, and certainly tastier than any "hip-hop" snacks, my mom would prepare it in the evening, for her hungry starving children from school. This is so filling, after eating this snack, we kids wouldn’t harass her with 'I-am-hungry' for the next two or three hours.I used to bring bags of these from back home, since we never used to get the red flake rice here. But nowadays everything is readily available; you only have to fill your suitcases with home-made eatables. It is written brown on the packet,it is the same.

1 cup red/brown rice flake (It is made from this)1/2 cup coconut powder1/2 cup jaggery1/4 tsp of cumin

Now mix everything, think about a person whom you hate most and crush the ingredients with your hand thoroughly. The rice flake should be smashed with your hand nicely. At least for 10 minutes, do this and keep aside for 10 minutes for everything to greet each other. Serve with ripe bananas.If you find it little hard, sprinkle some milk and mix it again.

Egg Puffs
I used to collect money (well, ’collect' it is, don’t ask) to buy this snack from the nearby bakery at school, since for some weird reason my parents believed, one should not eat stuff from outside.

So egg puffs would be a rare treat like on a Wedding or some occasion or from the bakery I sneak out to ;-). I can still remember the aroma of egg puffs that makes one weak and hungry, when you walk past those bakeries on your way to school. Do we think with our noses or what?

I don’t know whether pastry sheets are available in India. But in U.S, it is available and it is so easy to make a quick snack.

For 4 eggs,Masala: Heat 1 tsp of vegetable oil, sauté 1 diced onion, 1tsp of diced ginger, 3 green chilies, 2 sprigs of curry leaves, salt, 1/4 teaspoon of turmeric, add 1 diced tomato in that order. Take from heat and add 1/2 teaspoon of garam masala. Divide into 8 equal portions.Boil eggs hard. Take out the shell, and cut the egg into two halves.Roll out the pastry sheet like dough and cut into 4*4 inch square pieces.

If dough is sticking, sprinkle some all prupose flour on the sheet and roll again. On a pastry sheet, place the egg and put the masala portion on top.Roll and seal it like egg puffs, i.e. fold two ends of the pastry sheet and seal them.If you use your hand for putting the masala on top of the egg, your hand will be oily enough to seal both the ends of the sheet.

If you brush, beaten egg white on top, it will look good, but I don’t do it. Seal only two ends.

Dont seal the other two ends.

I dont know why, but the eggs peeking out makes it look good.

Bake for 20 minutes on 350 degrees, or until the pastry sheets are turning golden brown. The pastry will puff up and will turn flaky and crispy. Line your baking pan with parchment paper so that you don’t have to brush oil on the baking pan.Serve with tomato sauce. Kids just love it.

Red Fish curry (Kottayam Style)

Kottayam in Kerala is known as the land of lakes, letters and latex. To me, this beautiful town is all about ‘the red fish curry’ and Arundhati Roy.

This dish is a Kottayam or a central Kerala specialty. My mom however hates this fish curry. First reason is she doesn’t know how to make it, second we all love her 'special coconut fish curry' too much!

But, my dad loves this fish curry. He is nostalgic about it, since his mom used to make it and one time, one rare time, my mom tried this red curry but it flopped miserably. So I was on a mission to learn how to make this red fish curry to prepare it for my dad. Now, the hard part was, everybody makes it differently...add a little that too, they would say and it changes the fish curry completely.

Anyway I tested this fish curry umpteen times, I was brave enough to serve it to my dad, last time I went back home and he loved it! Well, that’s all it matters and that’s the recipe I am going to write. He told me “Just like my mom used to make" What more does a daughter need in life?

He wanted me to prepare it for next day lunch also. But, the next day something happened to our kitchen sink and the water had stopped. But my dad told me, "If you will make that fish curry one more time, I will carry the big syntex water tank to the kitchen"...Well...well...well...My envious sister is trying to learn how to make this now…hehehe...Red Fish curry Fish slices (Use fleshy ones like king mackerel/king fish, mackerel, pomfret, pompano, snapper etc). Cut into 3 inch pieces. (At our fish store here, they will cut into "curry pieces", yes, that’s what they ask, "steak or curry")

Wash the fish 5 or 6 times in water and rub with salt and keep aside for 15 or 20 minutes so the water will run from the fish pieces. Discard the water and wash the fish again. Some people take the skin out of every fish, but I don’t. I just rub it really really clean with a sharp knife and rub salt nicely on the pieces.

For 4 cup of fish pieces , (I got fresh pompano,which looks like a fatter version of pomfret)
Red chili powder - 1.5 tsp
Paprika - 1 tsp (Now don’t ever buy Laxmi brand paprika, it is a total waste). I don’t use paprika anymore, I get the Waynad brand red 'piriyan' chili which is bright red in color but is not that hot. Or grind to a fine powder, the outer skin of dried chilies without the seeds. This is for the bright red color for the curry.
Pepper – ¼ tsp
Fenugreek – ¼ tsp (Roast dry and powder)Kudampuli – 4 pieces sliced and immersed in 1/4 cup of water
Red onion – 1/2 cup diced thin and short
Ginger – 1 tsp
Garlic – 5 tsp
Curry leaves – 3 or 4 sprigs.

Slice and crush ginger and garlic. Mix together the chili powder, paprika, pepper powder, fenugreek and ¼ tsp turmeric and add little water to make it a thick paste.

Heat 2 tsp of coconut oil, sauté the onions well, sauté ginger and garlic, add the paste and in low flame, sauté the paste for 3 minutes. Add the kudampuli with the water; add the curry leaves and the fish pieces. Mix the pieces with the paste and the mixture. Add 1 cup of water. It is very important you prepare in a shallow pot or a mannchatti so that you don’t need to add water. Add salt and adjust.

Remember you have rubbed the fish pieces with salt,so dont add too much salt.

Cover and cook until the water boils, then simmer the heat until the fish pieces are done. There should not be much gravy for this curry. Rotate the pot once or twice, while cooking, so that fish pieces will be covered with the gravy.
Serve it with rice. Yummy! This curry actually tastes excellent the next day. So if you are planning for dinner, prepare it in the morning.

For that fishy smell in your hands,this is really good. I tried. It is available at Bed,Bath and Beyond too. I have no idea how it takes the stink out of your hands.

Guess the fruit? (Wax Jambu)

This fruit evokes strong memories for me. For summer vacation we would go to my dad’s ancestral home and the first thing I do is climb on this tree, fold my skirt like a bag, get as many pink ones as I can collect in my little bag, tuck as many story books (balarama, poombaataa) into my armpit and run to the nearest stream with my cousins…munch on them and read…until the supply is over.

I know this is an easy one. But it has so many different names every 2 k.m. Want to get all the names as possible.

It has just started to fruit in my garden, Waiting impatiently for it to mature! I don’t know whether it is those memories or the taste that makes me go and stare at it everyday.

Smelt or Anchovies with Coconut

Netholi is a very small fish and my mom being an ardent fish lover would buy this regularly even if it is a little time consuming to clean it up. Small fishes are supposed to be more nutritious and healthy.

Traditional Names: Netholi vattichathu/meen peera/നെത്തോലി വറ്റിച്ചതു/മീന്‍ പീര .
Smelt, which is readily available in U.S is another form of netholi. Netholi you get back home is actually much smaller in size, but in U.S everything is bigger. I buy the frozen ones which is cut and cleaned. I just have to defrost it and wash it.

Or if you get it fresh, cut off/pinch off the head and clean the inner sides. Cut off the tail portion also little bit. Clean thoroughly. Do the same if you have anchovies.

For 3 cups of smelt, crush together in a stone pestle, 1.5 cup of grated coconut,4 tsp of shallots diced,4 green chilies diced,5 red dry chilies cut into small piece, 5 garlic pods diced, one handful of curry leaves. Crush all of this nicely.

Soak kudampuli in 1/4 cup of water after washing and then cutting it into thin pieces.Now add the fish pieces,crushed coconut mixture, and the kudampuli with the water, add 1/4 tsp of turmeric and salt as needed. Mix all this together with hand.Cook the fish in medium flame. This fish cooks very fast. So add only little water. The water from the kudampuli would be enough. Close and cook until the water boils, then take off the lid and make the water evaporate completely. Add 1 tsp coconut oil when fish is done. Serve with rice. This can be made semidry or very dry. Actually very dry is more tasty.While cooking any fish, my mom never uses a ladle to mix the ingredients while cooking. She holds the pot on both sides,lifts the pot from the flame and rotates the pot both ways. Otherwise the fish pieces will break since it is soft. Sometimes I never get it right and I smash them. But this time I got it right.

Mixed Vegetable Curry/Sambar or Kerala Sambar

I have not tasted Kerala type sambar outside Kerala. In Kerala, mixed vegetables which are used for aviyal are put into sambar too. Normally I haven’t seen anyone making sambar with only one vegetable in Kerala.

My mom would keep small portions of different vegetables after using them up for some other curries, in the refrigerator, and finally would make sambar or aviyal in the weekend with the mix. At vegetable shops, you can ask for 1/2 kilo sambar pieces or 1/2 kilo aviyal pieces. They would give all vegetables in equal portions.

But let me tell you something, my mom has no clue to make sambar, even now. She would cook the drumstick to the shape of broomstick and the sambar powder will float like a ball on one side and every vegetable will stink with asafotedia. When she makes sambar, we call that "Sambar Attack" and to my horror, she made sambar when my husband came to see me for the traditional 'girl-seeing' before marriage.

Out of everything she made Sambar(!), she lovingly forced him to have lunch, but thankfully he didn’t. I was praying all the while he wouldn’t, otherwise he would have run all the way back. Now thinking back, maybe my sweet mom couldn’t even entertain the idea of giving up her daughter to someone. Maybe that’s why she made sambar to scare. :-)

Though I have cooked sambar in many ways before and have tried many recipes,Indira's blog actually made me perfect my sambar.

I do it a little different than her.

Hard vegetables - Snakegourd, Plantain, Drumstick, Carrot, Potato, Suran

Soft vegetables - Okra, Beans, Ash gourd, Pumpkin, Brinjal.You don’t need to have all these vegetables. Anything will do except like bitter gourd etc.)

Cook 1 cup toor dal with 2 cups of water in a pressure cooker with 1 tsp of oil and 1/4 tsp of turmeric. Mash the cooked dal. (If you add oil to the dal while cooking in a pressure cooker, the froth wont come out)Cut all the vegetables into one inch pieces.

For one cup toor dal, I would cut up around 4 cups of vegetables.

For the sambar powder I add, 1/2 tsp black peppercorns, 1 tsp cumin, 1 tsp corainder, 1/2 tsp urad dal, 1 tsp channa dal, 1 tsp fenugreek seeds, and 2 tsp grated coconut. First dry roast everything except the coconut. Fry coconut to a golden brown separate. Grind everything with little water to a smooth paste.

Sauté in 2 tsp oil, 1 diced onion, 1 diced tomato, 4 slit green chilies and then add the vegetables which are hard to cook first. Add the cooked toor dal, salt,1/4 tsp of turmeric and 1 tsp of chili powder mixed in little water. Add also the sambar powder paste along with 1 cup of tamarind juice (a 2 inch square piece tamarind soaked in 1/4 cup of warm water for 15 minutes,smash with hand and strain the juice).

Add enough water, cover and cook. The mixture should be runny. When the hard vegetables are done 3/4th, add the soft vegetables. Dont add any more water. Add a pinch of asafotedia to the cooked vegetables and mix. The sambar will thicken as it sits for some time.

After the vegetables are done, heat 1 tsp of ghee,splutter 1 tsp of mustard seeds, 2 sprigs of curry leaves, 2 red chilies whole split and add 1 tsp of diced shallot until brown in that order. Add to the sambar.Serve with rice, dosa, idly etc.

Green Blog Project

Indira’s beautiful pictures about methi seeds inspired me to start this Green Blog Project.

I love cooking as well as gardening. And someone famous once said, “A good cook always is a good gardener” (hehehe. I made that up!). But won’t it be nice, if we can host something every summer and winter, with the vegetables we grow in our garden?Ah! Are you thinking, “I live in an apartment with a 3*2 feet patio and she wants something from the garden?”

Everything grows in containers here. Yes, if back home someone told me curry leaves grows in container, I would have laughed my head off. But here I have seen giant Mango trees to Palm trees in 20 gallon containers…yes 20 gallon giant pots.

Won’t it be sweeter, if we cooked up something as the main ingredient, right from our garden without those harmful pesticides and fertilizers? Isn’t it nice to go back to those simple old days back home, where you grow almost everything and you do your little part in turning the planet green?How often there will be a round up? One round up for summer (April to September) and another round up (October to March).

So you know you have ample time to prepare. If you start something today, you can get something in one or two months. So, on September I will post all the round up recipes for summer vegetables and on March,the winter ones.

Okay, all fine. But I didn’t understand the main criteria?

Simple! Try to post a recipe with a picture of your plant and the vegetable as the main ingredient.If it is your neighbor’s plant also it is okay, as long as you didn’t buy the vegetable. :-)Well, how would you know?eh ;-)
Oh,C'mon I think I can trust anyone who loves to cook! Besides, it would be 'nice' to see your plants(Aha!)

Try growing one vegetable for summer and another one for winter and keep on trying a new vegetable every season, so it will be really interesting. And if you have kids at home, make sure you don’t tell them anything about the roots. My little brother used to pluck every plant every single day to see whether it had roots, after he was told by my mom, “we are waiting it to have good roots.”

“But, if I grow chickens, can I post those recipes too?”

Oh yeah, you are more than welcome, but please send us some pictures of your chickens first :-)

Okay, how about the fish in my fish tank? No, sorry, can’t do that. But if you really catch some live fish -- from a lake or the sea then you are more than welcome!

(But the hard part is going to be, I think my blog is visited by 2+3 = 5 people, so the hard part would be for me to publicize. But I hope the great cooks with hit blogs out there would help me in this. I will send you people cookies. I hope people are not going to think I am arrogant to start a blog project when I hardly started posting:-). Pardon me fellas, but I wanted to get this started as soon as possible, so we could get time to grow something out there.)

This is also a dedication for the ‘Garden Fresh Aunty’. I used to live in her basement as a tenant and she used to grow all kind of vegetables in her yard and she would cook them up (she was a great cook!) and would feed me her dishes, announcing with a big smile on her face and a spring in her step, ”Garden Fresh!”. We nicknamed her Garden Fresh aunty. She died two years ago of breast cancer. May her soul rest in peace!

Now the next question is what all can you grow? There are so many vegetables for the people with the yards out there, but for people with patios, here is a small list to start with.

For summer:
Methi
Corainder and all kinds of herbs
Curry leaves
Tomatoes
Oriental Spinach
Chilies
Okra
Brinjal

For winter:
Cabbage
Broccoli
Carrot
Beetroot
Spinach
Onion

Seems like little hard work than the usual, but trust me, nothing tastes better than your own garden grown stuff. And to watch those tiny little things fruit is extremely fulfilling.

Gardening Tips (For U.S):Get good potting soil for pots, and get cow manure dry (no, there is no smell) at Wal-mart, Home Depot etc. Mix 1:1.

Add the seeds or the plants (from Garden Center of Wal-mart /Home Depot/K-Mart/Lowes etc), follow instructions, water them regularly and just watch them grow. I will try my best to answer any gardening questions here.Want some more seeds?

Try evergreenseeds.comSo go ahead, soak your seeds and start your little garden out there and post your recipes as a comment here. This link is always going to be on the top.I hope all those food bloggers out there will participate and make the blog a greener place to be!

Send the entries to greenblogproject AT gmail DOT com or leave a comment here

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.

Julia Child of Kerala

Well, there were days when I used to think boiling water and making tea made me a good cook. I was in Bangalore staying in a house with a kitchen (earlier, kitchens never existed in a house, only the dining table) and had to learn to cook the hard-hard way.

I didn’t know sambar needed toor dal. I had seen vegetables floating in it and thought oh ok, sambar is easy - cut all vegetables, add water, cook. I thought the yellow tinge is from the turmeric. And I even had the guts to serve it to friends. They never came back, of course. Oh I could curdle the curd curry to shame. I would add 3 tsp of turmeric to 1 cup of curry, and I thought my mom was really stingy in using her spices. I could boil the curries to death until you see one big sorry mush. I could make egg curry in water. Yes, I would add 2 boiled eggs, 4 tsp of garam masala (No, I cannot be stingy like my mom) and 4 cups of water and had the audacity to call it egg curry. I didn’t even know sugar won’t dissolve in cold water. I would add sugar to tang with ice cubes and would serve the sour tang. I would splutter mustard seeds on every curry. If you just had a spoonful of curry in your hand too, I would splutter mustard on them. I liked the "sshhhh" sound of it and the smell. That sound was like lunch/dinner bell back home.

I would call up my mom and ask for recipes, and she would yell at me saying "Oh My God! Who told you to cook? I am scared you wont switch off the gas stove properly. Don't even go near the kitchen. It is dangerous."

My mom had told me she too learned cooking the hard way. As a new bride she made chicken, she put chicken on the stove and started chatting. Well, the chicken charred, but her friends stayed. They said carbon is good for the body and ate the charred chicken. My friends were not that nice. Well, like mother like daughter, eh? Well, my mean friends started teasing me like anything and I was adamant I will learn cooking. I went to a bookshop at Brigade Road in Bangalore and got the first book I saw.I started to cook, slowly. The hard part was to translate all the English to Malayalam. I knew the vegetables only by Malayalam names. But I learned. My friends returned slowly with a wide grin on their mean faces. They would eat my curries and laugh like anything. They didn’t leave abruptly like the first time.I had never even heard of a Mrs. K.M. Mathew then.Then, one fine day I found her and then I started to love cooking, started to cook in a better way. She even taught me how to bake delicious fruit cakes.Mrs. K.M. Mathew is without a doubt the Julia Child of Kerala. Mrs K.M Mathew has authored around 21 cook books starting from 1953 I guess.Her cooking style is Central Kerala.It is a known fact that, if you give even papaya skin to women in central Kerala, they would cook up delicious dishes in minutes. Well I am too from central Kerala,but there are exceptions for everything you know.

In U.S I was introduced to this frail old lady through my television set. She was honest and funny in her cooking shows without any airs. I loved her! If she drops something on the floor while cooking, she would say, “Oh, it doesn’t matter, just wash it and use it”. She would say, use real butter, we need flavor - not margarine or cheap imitations. She lived to 91. So I know it is not the butter or the so called fats, it is ‘moderation’ that is going to make you live healthy.

My friends came for a get together last year and I prepared lunch for them (I am good at heart you see, even when their mean laughter were ringing in my ears). After lunch, they said, “Hmm…you have learned to cook”. Well that’s the ultimate compliment I can get from those mean brutal hearts!

When my aunt visited us last time, she nearly had a heart attack seeing me cook. " Mole, you didnt even know a spoon from a fork, and look at you now" - Well,well..ahem..I put on a humble face even when my head was hitting the roof :-)