Lemon Rasam

Wondering why I'm posting mostly liquids these days? I just have a great liking for them and since now it is winter and it is chilly outside, these liquids warm up the body.

Ingredients:-

• Toor dal : a handful
• Tomatoes : 2-3
• Curry leaves : 4-5
• Green chillies : 2-3, cut into half and slit along the length
• Ginger : a small piece, finely chopped
• Ghee or butter : 2-3 tablespoons ( for seasoning , you can limit the number of tablespoons to 1 or 2 as well )
• Urad dal, Cumin seeds, Mustard seeds, Asafoetida : one teaspoon each
• Rasam powder : 2 teaspoons ( you can use the multi-purpose powder, the recipe of which you can find in this blog )
• Salt : for taste
• Turmeric powder : half teaspoon
• Lemon juice : juice of 1 small lemon would be fine

Procedure:-

• Pressure cook toor dal.
• Mash the tomatoes with hand and add water to them and squeeze the juice.
• Now add that mixture of tomatoes and lemon juice to the cooked toor dal and add turmeric, salt and rasam powder and let the whole mixture boil for about 15 minutes. Add more water to tomatoes initially so that after the mixtures boils, you wont run out of water.
• Now heat butter/ghee in a pan and to it add asafoetida, urad dal, cumin and mustard seeds.
• After the mustard seeds start spluttering, add curry leaves, green chilles and finely chopped ginger.
• Now add this to the boiling mixture.

Garnish it with chopped coriander. I'm quite sure you will love this recipe.

Love

R

Avial - My style

Hey I'm back again with another recipe. This time it is one of my most favourites. My every recipe has a story attached to it and so has this too.

I first tasted this recipe during my friend's baby's naming ceremony. She is a Tamilian and they had this feast arranged for the lunch and one of the dishes was Avial. I liked it so much that I instantly tried it out the next day. I have made it quite a number of times and each time I made some additions to this dish. Finally, I think that this recipe is ready to be posted for all of you guys to enjoy it.

So here goes...........

Ingredients:-

• Vegetables : carrot, potato, beans
• Curry leaves : 6-7 leaves
• Green chillies : 3-4 split along the length ( depending on how spicy you want it, you can also skip this but then the dish would be very sweet, but again it is your choice )
• Yogurt : 4-5 tablespoons, made into thin consistency by mixing water ( pretty much like butter milk )
• Coconut : fresh, grated about a small cup
• Oil : for seasoning
• Asafoetida : half teaspoon
• Cumin and mustard seeds : 1 teaspoon each
• Urad dal : half teaspoon
• Salt : as per your taste , I put it about a table spoon
• Coriander leaves : for garnishing

Procedure:-

• Pressure cook the vegetables and keep it aside.
• Heat oil in a wok or pan and add asafoetida, urad dal, cimun and mustard seeds in that order and when the mustard starts sputtering, add curry leaves and split green chillies.
• Now add vegetables and add salt to it and mix well.
• Now add butter milk to the veegatbles and let the whole mixture cook for about 10 minutes.
• Now add coconut and and mix it well and let it cook for about 2 minutes, not more than that as that would let the taste of coconut ruin.
• Now garnish it with coriander.

Your Avial is ready. Eat it with rice or roti, however you would prefer it to have.

Let me know how you liked it.

Till the next post, Chao................

Love

R

Sambar

This is a sambar different from the Udidpi sambar that I posted previously. So here goes.......

Ingredients:-

• Toor dal : one small cup ( I took one handful ).
• Radish : cut in circles or rather slices.
• Bottle gourd : cut into pieces of medium size.
• Tamarind : about the size of lemon, soaked in 2 cups of water. If you are using readymade tamarind paste then take 2 teaspoons and mix it in 2 cups of water.
• Salt : as per your taste.
• Sambar powder : about 3-4 table spoons ( can be djusted according to your taste, I like it hot and spicy ).
• Coriander : for garnishing, finely chopped.
• Oil/Ghee : 2 tablespoons ( for seasoning ).
• Asafoetida : half teaspoon.
• Cumin seeds : 1 teaspoon.
• Mustard seeds : 1 teaspoon.
• Curry leaves : 2-3 strands.

Procedure:-

• Wash toor dal and pressure cook it along with the cut vegetables.
• Now squeeze the tamarind juice and add it to the cooked dal and vegetables.
• Add sambar powder and salt along with the coriander leaves and let the whole mixture boil till the liquid becomes semi-thick in consistency.
• Now heat oil/ghee in a small pan and add asafoetida, cumin and mustard seeds and once the mustard seeds start spluttering, add the curry leaves and add this seasoning to the boiled sambar.

Your sambar is ready. Have it with rice.

P.S :- I would prefer using butter/ghee for seasoning than oil. It tastes better and is also healthy.

Pumpkin Curry - Indian Style

The other day my Mother-in-law showed me how to make this wonderful dish. Ever since I've been trying to make it and finally did it today.

Try it and tell me how you liked it.

Ingredients :-

• Pumpkin - cut into small pieces.
• Oil - for seasoning , about a tablespoon.
• Urad dal, Cumin seeds, Mustard seeds and asafoetida - for seasoning, about a teaspoon each.
• Red chillies - 1 or 2 ( optional ).
• Ginger - 2cm in length.
• Coconut - raw, about one small bowl grated or cut into pipeces.
• Green coriander leaves - 2 bunches.
• Green chillies - 2 or 3 ( depending on how hot you want your dish ).
• Curry leaves - 2 strands.
• Salt - for taste.

Procedure :-

• Heat oil in a wok or kadai and add asafoetida, urad dal, cumin and mustard seeds, red cihllies and curry leaves in that order.
• Once the urad dal turns to golden brown, add the cut pumpkin and toss it well and then add salt to it and cook it covered till the pumkin is soft. Remember when cooked the pumpkin is soft but doesn't become paste.
• Now grind ginger, coconut, green chillies and coriander and add the paste to the cooked pumpkin pieces and mix well. Leave it on flame for about 2 minutes.

Your pumpkin curry is ready. Eat it with hot rice or chapathi or bread.

Palak / Spinach Dal

Hey guys I'm back and it is recipe time again........ I made palak dal last sunday and wanted to share this recipe with you guys ever since. So here comes.........

Ingredients :

1. Toor dal - 2 hand-fulls ( would serve 2 people, I know I use old methods for measurement, that is what is special about my cooking )
2. Onions - 2 small, thinly cut in long
3. Green chillies - 2 split in length
4. Palak/Spinach - one big bunch
5. Garlic - 2-3 cloves finely chopped
6. Salt - as per your taste
7. Turmeric - a teaspoonful
8. Red chilly powder - ( optional ) 1 teaspoonful
9. Curry leaves - 5-10
10. Besan/chickpea flour - 2 teaspoons made into paste of very thin consistency with water
11. Oil - 2 tablespoons for seasoning
12. Asafoetida - a pinch
13. Cumin seeds - half teaspoon
14. Mustard seeds - teaspoonful
15. Urad dal - half teaspoon

Procedure :

• Wash toor dal and take it in a pressure cooker with a cup of water added to it. To this add split green chilies, finely cut onions, curry leaves, spinach which is washed and finely chopped and pressure cook all of these together.

• Now add turmeric, red chilly powder, chickpea flour made into paste of thin consistency and salt to the pressure cooked mixture and the whole thing boil for about 5 minutes.
• Now heat oil for seasoning and add urad dal, cumin seeds, mustard seeds and gralic cloves which are finely chopped in that order and add the seasoning to the dal.
• Garnish it with coriander.

Eat this dal with rice and butter or with roti. Have a yummy time...............

Till the next post its chao from me...........