Broccoli Usili

Usili is a side dish made with dal, which can be compared to a dry form of dal fry.  It is one of the traditional foods that can be seen in many households of Tamilnadu. Any fibrous vegetable like carrot, beans, cabbage can be turned into usili. It is a great recipe to enrich the simple vegetables with proteins.

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The top 6 healthiest vegetables for everyday are : BroccoliKaleSpinachCarrotBell pepperBeetroot.
Today we are going to make a delicious protein rich side dish using broccoli and dal. I have used channa dal in this recipe, but we can use any combo of dal like 'toor dal, moong dal and channa dal'. This tastes good as an evening tea time snack too.

Ingredients:

Broccoli - 1 lb
Sesame oil - 2 tbsp (any oil)
mustard - 1 tsp

Urid dal - 1 tsp

curry leaf - 1 sprig
To grind:
Channa dal  - 1/2 cup
dry red chilly - 3
sea salt - 1 tsp, to taste
hing - 1/8 tsp

தேவையான பொருட்கள்:

ப்ரோக்கலி - 1/4 kg 

நல்லெண்ணெய்  - 2 tbsp

கடுகு  - 1 tsp

உளுந்து  - 1 tsp

கறிவேப்பிலை - 1 sprig

அரைக்க :

கடலைப்பருப்பு  - 1/2 cup

வரமிளகாய் - 3

தூள் உப்பு - 1 tsp, to taste

பெருங்காயத்தூள் - 1/8 tsp

Method:
Soak dal for 1 hour and grind without water along with the other items to a fine paste.
Scoop the dal into idly plates and steam cook for 10 minutes.
Let it get cool completely.
Put it in the mixie again and pulse gently for a few times, so that the cooked dal looks loose.
In the mean time wash the broccoli and peel the carrot. cut them into small pieces.
Heat oil in a wok and let mustard splutter.
Then add the curry leaves, chopped broccoli and stir fry it.
Cook covered along with little salt for 5 minutes.
Then add the prepared dal mixture and stir fry it in high flame for few minutes.
Switch off.
Broccoli usili is ready!

Serving suggestions:
Serve with kara kulambu + rice or rasam + rice.
Tastes good with chapati also.
I like it as snack too:)

Pongal Puli curry

Puli - Tamarind; curry - a side dish. 

Pongal - Indian Thanks giving festival or Farmer's festival . It comes on the first day of 'Thai month'. or January 14 or 15 th every year. This is a 4 day long celebration, that starts with the cleaning day 'Bogi', Pongal day , the important day 'Pongal day' then comes the 'Cow's Pongal day' the 'Mattu Pongal' and visiting the  family or nearby tours,  'Kanum Pongal'

On Pongal day, we Tamilians prepare a lot of vegetarian foods using almost all the vegetables.

Today's recipe was handed over by my mom to me. Mom used to make this Puli curry on Pongal morning along with Aviyal, dal, white rice and the much awaited 'sweet Pongal'. 

The previous day mom and myself would do a lot of kolam, rangoli paintings in front of our house. Also we used to paint the clay stoves using a red color , white color combo.

Mom used to get up by 3.30 Am or 4 Am, would take bath, cladded in her gorgeous pattu sarees wearing lot of jewelry  and would start preparing these yummy dishes as Pongal offering to the Sun God. While I was a preteen , we used to do this in the front yard of our house. Thatha and appa would help amma by minding the cooking process using palm leaves as fuel and in poojai.

Later on getting palm leaf was not easy in my home town, (even though we own a lot of palm trees), that process seemed laborious. So we started making 'pressure cooker Pongal'. 

I love this festival very much , as it brings back a lot of happy memories for me. So hubby and myself , we together celebrate this Pongal with lot of happiness.

This Puli curry is amma's signature dish.  We make this a lot and would use it as left over sundacurry the next day (mixed with all left over spicy curries).

Click to see my video on 'Pongal Puli curry'.

Root vegetables:

Yam / senai kilangu / suran - 200 gm

Potato / urulai kilangu / aloo - 1

siru kilangu / chiru kizhangu - 5

Sembu / taro root/ colocasia / arbi - 5

pidi karunai kilangu / yam - 1 (small)

other ingredients:

Tamarind - 1 small lime size
Red chilli powder - 1 tsp
coriander powder - 3 tsp
turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
water - 2 cups
salt - 2 tsp (to taste)

To grind:

shredded coconut - 1/2 cup
shallot onion - 5
cumin seeds - 1 tsp

To temper:

mustard - 1 tsp
fenugreek seeds- 1 tsp
curry leaves - 1 sprig
Sesame oil - 2 tbsp
asafoetida - 1 pinch

கிழங்கு வகைகள் 

உருளை கிழங்கு  - 1

சேனை கிழங்கு  - 200 gm

சிறு கிழங்கு - 5

சேப்பங்கிழங்கு - 5

பிடி கருணை கிழங்கு - 1 

புளி சிறிய எலுமிச்சை அளவு 

மிளகாய் தூள் - 1 tsp

மஞ்சள் தூள் - 1/2 tsp

மல்லி தூள்- 3 tsp 

உப்பு - 2 tsp

அரைக்க :

தேங்காய் - 1/2 cup

நாட்டு வெங்காயம் - 5 

சீரகம் - 1 tsp

தாளிக்க:

கடுகு - 1 tsp

வெந்தயம் - 1 tsp

கறிவேப்பிலை - சிறிதளவு 

நல்லெண்ணெய் - 2 tbsp 

பெருங்காயம் - 1 சிட்டிகை

Method:

Wash and peel the root vegetables. Cut them into 2 inch size cubes.
(Take care while handling the yams).
Cook them together till soft (10 minutes). Discard the water and keep aside.

Soak the tamarind in hot water and extract the juice thrice with 2 cups of water.
Add the chilly powder, coriander powder, turmeric powder, salt to the tamarind extract and start boiling with the cooked roots.

Grind coconut, onion and cumin seeds with little water and add it to the boiling curry. let it get thick.

Heat oil in a pan. Crackle mustard seeds , add fenugreek seeds , curry leaves and asafoetida. Pour over the boiling thick curry. Switch off.

Pongal puli kulambu is ready!

Serving suggestions:
Serve as side dish with sweet pongal.
Can be used as kulambu / curry over plain rice or with chapati.