Dhal chutney / Paruppu thovaiyal

Ingredients:
Thoor dhal / red gram - 1 tbsp
Bengal gram/channa dhal - 3 tbsp
red chillies - 4
shredded coconut- 1 tbsp
tamarind - 1/4 of the size of gooseberry.
salt - 1/4 tsp
curry leaves - 1 brig
cumin seeds - 1/4 tsp
garlic - 1 pearl.

Method:
Heat 1 tsp oil in a pan and fry channa dhal to golden brown color.
Then in the remaining oil roast the red chillies and coconut separately to almost crispy state.
After they get cool, grind every thing in Indian mixer or any blender without water for 20 seconds.
Then add very little water and grind coarsely to get a thick chutney.

serving suggestions:
Goes fine with tamarind rice, lemon rice, urid dhal rice and coconut rice.
Tastes good for 24 hours without refrigerator.
My mom always packs tamarind rice with this paruppu thovaiyal for picnics.

Urid dhal rice (Ulunthu Saadham)

Urid dhal rice or ulunthu saadham or ulunthan kanchi or Black gram rice is a simple protein rich main course meal served in southern villages of Tamil Nadu.
This is suggested as dinner for people with heart problems.

Ingredients:
Urid dhal (unsplit dhal with outer black skin)- 1/2 cup
Any Indian rice - 1/2 cup
water - 3 cups
salt - 1/4 tsp
Garlic - 10 pearls

Directions:
Wash and Soak the urid dhal for 6 hours.
Wash the rice.
Add the urid dhal , water, salt and garlic to the rice.
Pressure cook it for 3 whistles .
If you are cooking this without a pressure cooker then add salt after the Black gram gets cooked.


Serving suggestions:
Serves 2 people.Taste heavenly with a spoon of sesame oil (Nallennai) over each serving. It can be served as a simple main course meal for lunch or dinner.
serve hot with horse gram chutney (Kollu thuvaiyal) and Paruppu thovaiyal (Dhal chutney)

Thakkali pazha kuruma (Type 1)

Tomato kurma / tomato kuruma.
This is not so common, but tastes excellent and an attractive alternative to the usual (e.g., my tomato kuruma type 2).



Main Ingredient:
Ripe vine tomato - 4 (1 lb/ 500 gms)

To dry roast(without oil):
Kuskus (poppy seeds) - 1 tbsp
cashew - 6
cardamom- 2
cloves - 3
cinnamon - 1 inch long
Kadal paasi/sea weeds-1/2 tsp
coriander seeds - 1 tbsp
red chilli -1
Black pepper - 1/2 tsp

To roast with 1 tsp oil:
Red onion- 1/2
garlic cloves - 2
ginger - 1 inch
shredded coconut - 1 tbsp

Others:
Red onion- 1/2
green chillies- 4
turmeric powder - 1 pinch
curry leaves - 1 brig
cilantro - 1 tbsp (chopped)
Bay leaves - 2
Fennel seeds (perun jeeragam)- 1 tsp
cooking oil - 2 tbsp

Directions:
Bring to boil 2 cups of water.
Halve the tomatoes and boil them.
Peel off the skin and puree it.
In a frying pan dry roast all the ingredients given to do so.
Then add a tsp of oil and fry the onion, ginger, garlic and coconut.
cool all roasted/ fried items and grind them to a fine paste.
Cop the green chillies, onion, curry leaves and cilantro.
Heat 1 tbsp oil in a pan.
Add the fennel seeds and after it becomes red, add bay leaves.
Then goes the onion, curry leaves, cilantro and green chillies.
After sauting them for a while add the finely ground masala.
Then add the tomato puree, turmeric powder and salt.
After the raw smell of tomato and masala turns in to a pleasant curry smell, turn off the stove.

Serving suggestions:
Makes 3 cups of Thakkali kuruma.
Serve as a dipping for Idly ,dosai, chapathi, roti or even with rice.

How to clean the banana flower?

Banana flower is otherwise called banana blossom or plantain flower or banana heart .The tamil name is Vaazhai poo (vaalai poo).In addition to the fruit, the flower of the banana plant is used in Southeast Asian, Tamil, Bengali and Kerala (India) cuisine, either served raw with dips or cooked in soups and curries.
Cleaning the banana blossom is a challenging task for every beginner.
So I am explaining it with images.



Wash the entire flower under running water.Apply some oil on your hands to avoid discoloration of skin.
Remove and discard the red bracts.
Gather all the small flowers inside. If not used they would have grown into individual sweet bananas.
You can peel up blossom to certain limit only, then leave the cone as it is.
carefully open each white blossom. You may see a plastic textured petal and a hard stamen. Just remove both.






Discard the above and collect the soft flowers.




Take 2 cups of water and mix 1 tablespoon of yogurt to it.
Immerse the cleaned banana flowers in to the solution.,
This is done to prevent the oxidation of the flower.
Chop the cleaned plantain flowers and the inner cone.
This chopped banana flower can be used to make curry, fry, vazhai poo vadai, soup etc.


Image shows the typical Indian style Plantain flower poriyal

wedding feast sambar

Sambar is the most common curry cooked in almost every house in South India. It is served with main course rice in almost all the South Indian marriages.The main ingredient of sambar is Toor dhal or Tuvaram paruppu or red gram lentil. Among Tamil people
there is an old saying - "Paruppu Illama Kalyanama?" which means Is there any marriage feast without red gram lentil?By this proverb we can understand the importance of sambar in Indian dishes.
I am narrating below the recipe for this famous "wedding feast sambar".


Ingredients:
To pressure cook:
Toor dhal/red gram lentil - 1/2 cup (100 gms)
water- 2 cups
turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
asafoetida - 1/8 tsp
sesame oil- 1 drop
vegetables:
Tomato - 1
Unripe green mango - 1 very small (150 gms)
Drumstick - 1 (100 gms)
white Brinjal/Indian Egg plant- 2 (50 gms)
other items:
shallot onion- 50 gms/ 4 numbers(peel them but dont cut it)
Tamarind - small gooseberry size
cumin seeds- 1/2 tsp
cooking oil - 1 tbsp
ghee - 1 tbsp
curry leaves- 1 brig
cilantro/ coriander leaves (chopped)- 1 tbsp
mustard seeds-1/2 tsp
fenugreek -1/2 tsp
jaggery- 1 tsp (crushed)
salt - 1 tsp
sambar powder - 2 tbsp
Red chillies- 2

Method:
Soak the tamarind in 1 cup water for 20 minutes. Squeeze it and get the extract.
Wash and clean the Toor dal .soak it for 30 minutes.Pressure cook the items mentioned .
(If you do not have pressure cooker then boil 2 cups of water and add the dal, water,turmeric powder ,asafoetida and oil.Close it and cook till the dhal becomes soft.)
Then mash it coarsely along with cumin seeds.
In a separate pan, heat the cooking oil and add the peeled but uncut Shallot onions and saute it to golden bown.
Add it to the cut vegetables and add tamarind extract .Cook the vegetables with sambar powder and salt.
(If you dont have sambar powder , just add 1 tsp chilli powder, 2 tsp coriander powder.Even though it is not equal to sambar powder , but it will do fine.)
After the vegetables get cooked , add the mashed dhal .
In the frying pan add ghee , mustard , fenugreek. After the mustard crackles add curry leaves, red chillies and pour it to the dhal-veggie mixture.
As it starts boiling add the jaggery and put off fire.
Garnish with chopped cilantro and serve hot.

Serving suggestions:
makes 750 ml of sambar.
Serve with rice or dosa or chapathi.

Paruppu kulambu

Paruppu Kulambu is an another version of sambar.This is a less spicy lentil curry served with rice in southern villages of Tamilnadu and Kerala .I guess this curry was invented by our ancestors before sambar powder sachets made their route to villages.Even today this is the daily menu in most of the houses in my father's native place, Uvari .So we call it as "Uvari Paruppu kulambu".They use the vegetables grow in their kitchen garden to make paruppu kulambu.And it is the most yummiest sambar i have ever had.

INGREDIENTS:
To pressure cook:
Toor dhal (red gram/ pigeon pea) - 1 cup
shallot onion- 3
garlic- 3 pearls
green chilli - 5
asafoetida- 1/4 tsp
turmeric powder- 1/4 tsp
sesame oil - 1 tsp
water 2 cups
vegetables to cook separately:
Indian Eggplant/brinjal (cut into big chunks)- 2 (small size)
Tomato - 1 (chopped)
drumstick(cut into 2 inch length pieces)- 1
Green unripe mango - 3 small pieces (optional)
You can substitute the brinjal ,mango and drumstick combo by white pumpkin/winter melon.
other items:
tamarind - 1 inch length.
cumin seeds - 1/2 tsp
oil - 1 tsp
mustard seeds- 1/2 tsp
currry leaves - 1 brig
chopped onion - 1 tsp
salt - 1 1/2 tsp

Method:
Soak the toor dhal for 1/2 an hour.
Cook all the items given to pressure cook in a pressure cooker with weight for 5 whistles.
In another vessel add the tamarind extract and boil the other vegetables till tender.
Add salt to taste.
Mash the toor dhal with cumin seeds and add it to boiled vegetables.
Heat a pan with 1 tsp oil.
Add mustard seeds . After the mustard seeds crackle, add the chopped onions and curry leaves and fry them till they become crispy.
Immediately add this to the dhal mixture.
Put off fire as the curry just begins to boil.
Add a tbsp of shredded coconut to get the authentic taste.
Do not over heat the Paruppu kulambu, otherwise it will not taste good.

Serving suggestions:
serve hot with rice. Goes fine with Kerala's big red grain rice.
Any vegetarian fry or non vegeatarian fry can be served as side dish.

Sweet Pongal.

Sarkarai pongal or sweet pongal is a dish usually made during sankaranthi festival or on many auspicious days in India.

Ingredients:
Basmathi rice/Unboiled rice- 1 cup
green gram dhal- 1/2 cup
Jaggery (crushed)- 1 1/2 cup
Ghee (clarified butter) - 2 tbsp
water- 4 cups
2% milk - 2 cup
raisins - 10
cashew nuts - 10
cardamom - 3 (crushed)
ginger - 1 inch (chopped)

Method:
Wash the rice and dhal 2 times in water.
Add 4 cups of water and pressure cook it for 4 whistles.
Take out after the steam gets released.
Mash the rice and dhal .Keep aside.
Add 1/2 cup water to jaggery and boil it. Then filter the clear jaggery solution , leaving behind the sand.
Take a thick bottom vessel and boil the milk.
Add the mashed rice-dhal mixture and let it become thick .
Now slowly add the jaggery solution too.
In a frying pan heat the ghee and roast the cashews, raisins to golden color.
Garnish the sweet rice with this hot ghee, cashews and raisin.
Add chopped ginger and cardamom and serve hot.
If you add more ghee , this sweet pongal will be more tasty.

Serving suggestions:
Makes 4- 5 cups.
Mostly this sarkarai Pongal is done for poojas or festivals.It is served with ulunthu vadai in Hindu Temples as prasatham.