Bottle gourd - curd curry (surai kaai thayir pachadi)

Bottle gourd is a popular Indian vegetable .Village people believe that it has some property to reduce our body fat.
The Tamil meaning of Bottle gourd is surai kaai. Koottu means a watery side dish .

Bottle gourd is a watery vegetable and tastes somewhat similar to white pumpkin or cucumber. Mostly it is used in making sambar , dhal or a watery side dish called koottu . The most common way is to cook it with Thoor dhal or green gram dhal.
Cooking it with Curd belongs to South TamilNadu cuisine.

In Tamil nadu a grand vegetarian feast should be served on a Banana leaf (gently cut with its tip). The rice must be accompanied by a koottu (watery side dish), a poriyal (cooked and tempered vegetables with shredded coconut) , a varuval (deep or shallow fried vegetable ), a curry (a spicy side dish with some dry gravy), sambar (dhal based stew), vatha kulambu (tamarind based stew), more kulambu (curd based stew), rasam (a soup poured on rice.. good for digestion), Payasam (a rice or vermicelli based sweet ) and at last the Buttermilk on rice. The other dishes are a an appalam, vadai , some sweet. Oh , my God ...What an elaborate lunch menu .Isn't it?.Believe me , we people cannot take every day like this . But the very thought makes us nostalgic. Right?

Just because of my love for our native cuisines , I am eagerly collecting as many recipes as possible . And this curd based recipe is my favorite koottu .




Surai kaai Thayir pachadi koottu / bottle gourd - yogurt curry.

Ingredients:
Bottle gourd - 1/2 kg (1 small)
curd - 1/2 cup
onion - 1 (small)
olive oil - 1 tbsp
mustard seeds - 1 tsp
curry leaves - 1 brig
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
salt - to taste.
To grind:
ginger - 1 inch
green chilli - 3
channa dhal - 2 tbsp
shredded coconut - 2 tbsp
cumin seeds - 1/4 tsp

Method:
Soak the channa dhal for 30 minutes.
Peel the skin of the bottle gourd. Chop it into small cubes. Donot discard the seeds. Tender seeds tastes good.
Heat 1 cup of water and add the chopped bottle gourd, salt, turmeric powder and cook it .
Grind together the items given .
Pour the ground masala to the cooked bottle gourd.
Let it come to boil.
Now add the curd and switch off flame. Check for salt.
Heat oil in a separate pan. Add the mustard seeds , after it crackles , add the chopped onion, curry leaves and fry till the onion becomes red.
Add this tempering to the cooked bottle gourd.
Mix well.
Bottle gourd thayir koottu is ready.

Serving suggestions:
Serve as side dish with plain rice or rice and sambar or with chapathi.

Omelet

Omelet / Omelette / Muttai adai.

Just a very simple egg omelet. This is my mom's method. I love to make it with coconut oil only.As its flavor will fill the entire house with grace.
This oil is my secret ingredient for a successful omelet. But nowadays my health conscious brain dictates me to use olive oil instead:( Still the omelet stays good.
In my dad's house we prefer to have it with fish curry and plain steamed rice.

Ingredients:
Egg - 1
Red onion (finely chopped) - 2 tbsp
green chilli (finely chopped)- 1
Black pepper - 1/4 tsp
coconut oil - 1 tbsp (any oil)
salt- 1/8 tsp
cumin seeds - 1/4 tsp

Method:
Take a bowl and fork.
Break and pour the egg in to the bowl.
Chop the onion and green chilly very finely.
Add salt and cumin seeds to the egg and beat well.
Now add the chopped onion and chilly. Beat till the egg doubles its volume:)
Heat a tbsp of coconut oil in a pancake pan / dosa tawa / chapathi tawa . (I keep the omelet pan as separate and donot use it for other cooking. As it will emit an unwanted smell while cooking other recipes).
Pour the well beaten egg on the pan.
Reduce heat. Flip the omelet. Be more attentive, so that the omelet do not get charred.
Take it out.
Place on a serving saucer. sprinkle some freshly ground pepper over the omelet.
Egg omelet is ready !

Serving suggestions:
Serve hot either as breakfast or as side dish.

Sweet memories:
My 'packi anna - periyamma' and 'cook - Gnanamani' call it as Muttai adai in pure Tamil.

Parotta

The parotta , I am narrating here is entirely different from the North Indian parathas and frozen malaysian poratta.

Poratta or parotta , they tell in Tamilnadu and kerala is made of maida (All purpose flour). while the parathas of north India are made of whole wheat. The street side stalls in TamilNadu and kerala serve this parotta with a side dish called salna. Actually they call the parottas as 'veechu parotta'. That means the chef uses a style to spread the dough into a thin chapathi by swinging it in air. 'salna' means a watery gravy with few pieces of chicken or completely vegetarian. This parotta and salna combo is an unbeatable one .It has the potency to tempt even a strict diet conscious person. My weaker soul always craves for those parottas :(
Last week I got tempted a lot by Varsha and chams parottas. But the frozen parotta we get here cannot satisfy my crazy instincts. So I decided to make it my own in a different method.
Long time ago I learned to make this parotta from a cookery show in SunTV . A chef from a star hotel demonstrated this version to make parottas easily. We will get parottas of larger diameters and this can be a fool proof method for a novice like me . May be we can call this as the 'parotta for dummies'.

We may need:
Maida / All purpose flour - 2 1/2 cup
Rice flour - 1 tbsp
water - as per requirement
salt - 1 tsp
baking powder - 1/2 tsp
sesame oil - 1/2 cup
(The parotta stalls in Tirunelveli do not use ghee / butter).

A flat surface like clean kitchen counter top.
Rolling pin.
plastic sheets - 20
(I cut and used the plastic sheets used for filing. we can clean, preserve and use the plastic sheets given with frozen parotta also).

Method:
Mix Maida with salt and baking powder.
Then add water little by little to get a chapathi dough consistency.
Then add 3 tbsp oil to the dough and knead well.
Knead for 5 minutes with beating and punching to get a silky smooth dough.
Cover it with a cling wrap or wet towel and leave it for 4 hours in the room temperature.
Then divide the flour in to 10 equal size balls.
In a small bowl, mix the rice flour with 2 tbsp of sesame oil to get a ghee like paste.

Step 1:


Take one dough ball,apply some oil to it and flatten it on a clean kitchen top .
Flatten it till it tries to tear off. No need to get a smooth circle.
But a very thin disc should be achieved.
(Do not try to take it with hands, just flatten it to a big circle.)
Take a little rice flour + oil mix and apply it smoothly over the flattened disc.
The rice flour gives a flaky texture and also prevents the layers from sticking with one another.

step 2


Using a knife , slit the disc into long ribbon like strips.
Fold every strip once in a longitudinal manner like a paper. (see figure).

step 3


Apply little oil on a plastic sheet . Make concentric circles using all the folded ribbons to get the shape as shown.

step 4

Place another plastic sheet above the dough . No need to apply oil now. Press it gently with a rolling pin to get a perfect circle.


step 5

Make all the 10 parottas as described in the leisure time. keep them frozen in a freezer.

step 6


If you want to fry them immediately, then no need to freeze.
Heat a dosa tava. Apply a little oil over the surface.
Remove the top plastic sheet. Peel off the parotta . Place it on the hot tava.
Flip it again and again to get it cooked evenly.
Take out and serve hot.
Parotta is ready!

Serving suggestions:
Place all the cooked parottas one above other.
Using both the hands , pat them on the sides , to get a loose flaky texture.
Serve hot with any gravy or salna along with raitha.
Makes 10 bigger size parottas.
Increase the flour quantity to get more parottas.

Note: Even though the all purpose flour parottas are not that great for health, these home made ones will surely outwit the store bought 'ghee loaded frozen parottas'.
Try these 'southern style Parottas' and lemme know how it comes out.
You may be interested in 'scrambled parotta / Muttai kothu parotta' too.

From my friend.

Just now I got a sweet surprise from my very best friend
Malar of Kitchen Tantra.


I thank with all my heart to the blogger world and my friends like this who make my every single day a worthy one.
Thanks Malar for these wonderful moments and for your heartfelt friendship.
Actually through you I am seeing the world with a new brighter perspective and thanks for being my friend dear.

Channa Pulao

I prepared this Channa pulao for hubby's lunch box. Though it seems a lengthy process, a little preparation in advance will help us to cook fast. I guess the channa in the pulao will help to reduce the carbohydrate proportion in our lunch:) Even without coconut milk and ghee , this channa pulao will taste great. But I have narrated the complete recipe. The option is yours:)
Lets go to the recipe .

Channa pulav / kondakadalai satham / chickpea rice:




Ingredients:

Basmati Rice - 3/4 cup
White Channa - 3/4 cup
Coconut milk from 3 tbsp shredded cococnut with water - 1/2 cup
Onion - 1 (small)
Garlic - 3 pods
olive Oil - 2 tbsp
coriander leaves - a handful
mint leaf - a handful
Ghee - 1/2 teaspoon.
Fry and Grind:
Cinnamon - 1 inch piece
Cardamoms - 1
Cloves - 3
Onion (chopped) - 1 small
Red chillies - 10 Nos.
Tomato - 1 (big)
Cumin Seeds - 1/2 tsp
Garlic - 2 pods
ginger - 1 inch

Method:
1.Soak the white Channa overnight (10 hours). Pressure cook the Channa completely up to 5 whistles . I reduce the heat after a whistle and cook it in mild flame for 12 minutes. Just hate to wake up my neighbors with my cooker whistle:)

2.soak the Basmathi rice in water for 30 minutes. Drain the water completely.

3.Heat 1tbsp olive oil in a wok. Add everything given to roast and grind except tomato.
After the onions become tender, add the chopped tomato. Sprinkle a little water and cook the tomatoes to tender.
Cool them completely and grind into a fine paste in a mixie/ blender.

4.Again heat 1 tbsp oil in a wok. fry the chopped onion to golden brown. Add chopped garlic, cilantro and mint leaves.
After a while put the ground masala and cook till the raw smell goes. check for salt. The salt should be perfect now. This is the 'masala for channa pulav'.

5. Take 3 tbsp of shredded coconut and extract milk from it using 1/2 cup of water.(OR) Dissolve 1 tbsp store bought coconut milk in 1/2 cup water.

6. Take a heavy bottom vessel with lid. Pour 1 cup water and bring to boil.
Add the soaked rice , little salt.

7. Then add the coconut milk, prepared channa pulav masala and let it boil.
Then reduce the flame to minimum and close it with a tight lid. cook it for 20 minutes.
(OR) Transfer everything to a pressure cooker. After a whistle switch off the flame and open after the pressure is gone.

Channa pulav is ready.

Note:
Time taken to cook the channa pulao - 1 hour.
Actually we can cook the channa and prepare this masala in advance to make our job easy. Both will stay good for 1 day if refrigerated.
I dissolved 1 tbsp coconut milk in 1/2 cup water to get the coconut milk.
Immediately after cooking , the pulao may seem to have some excess gravy .
But that gravy will be absorbed by the rice in 30 minutes to one hour completely after switching off the flame.
We need not waste the left over water from cooked channa. I used it to prepare the rice.
Sprinkle and mix the ghee before serving.

Serving suggestions:
The above said quantity will be more than enough for 2 adults.
Serve it hot with boiled egg and Carrot-onion raitha.

A sweet award

Today morning my friend Malar of Kitchen Tantra surprised me with a lovely award called 'Good chat friends award'. Thanks Malar for considering me to this award.



I would like to pass this award to 5 of my friends.
It is really a difficult job to eliminate any one, as everybody of you qualify for this lovely award. Lets spread a good chat by our blogging .

Premy's Cake

Usha Nandhini

Chitra

SriHarivatsan

saraswathy Balakrishnan

Congrats and Happy blogging friends!

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