Sabudana Khichdi / Sago one pot dish

I love this dish....... I posted a simpler version of the same previously, which I'm thinking to re-do it again with better pictures. For now, here's another method to make sabudana/sago khichdi which can be had for breakfast, dinner or a 4 p.m snack.

Till the next post, happy cooking...

R.

Bitter gourd pickle/ Karele ka Achar/ Kakarakaya karam

 All of us in the family enjoy this recipe. I wouldn't say it is a healthy dish, but atleast the dish can be enjoyed once in a while.

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

I have taken 250 gms of bitter gourd.

Cut the bitter gourd into half circle pieces as shown in the picture below. Here, you can either directly fry these pieces or to remove the bitterness, you could sprinkle about a tablespoon of salt and mix well and leave it for half an hour. Then squeeze out the water from bitter gourd and then deep fry them. I usually don't squeeze out the water since the healthy part in bitter gourd is it's bitterness. So I leave it like that and at the end, you wouldn't find the dish that bitter anyways.

Add about 4-5 tablespoons of oil in a wok or pan and fry a handful of the cut bitter gourd pieces. I usually do it that way because the bitter gourd leaves it's bitterness into the oil and you cannot re-use the left over oil for any other dish. So if it's less oil, you can discard it if you cannot use it. You can keep adding oil as it gets used up.

Take about 9-10 peeled garlic cloves and add 4-5 teaspoons of red chilly powder, 2-3 teaspoons of salt and grind it without adding any water. The oil in the garlic will give it the consistency of somewhere between a powder and a paste.

The ground paste would look something like that in the picture above and the fried bitter gourd pieces should look like those in the picture below.

Add the paste to the fried bitter gourd when they are hot. Sometimes, the paste might not mix well with a laddle or spoon. So mix it with hand and add 2-3 teaspoons of hot oil used for frying the bitter gourd pieces to mix it well and accentuate the taste.

Serve with hot rice and butter. This dish can be stored easily for a week, but because of it's taste, it will definitely be consumed soon.

Happy Cooking!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

R.

Mango Rice ( Pulihora ).

Mango rice is my favourite among the raw mango recipes. You will need the following.

Let me know how you liked it. Leave a comment below. Have a great day !!!!!!!!!!!!

R.

Mamidikaya Pachi Pulusu / Mango Rasam

Raw Mango Dal

This is the season for raw mangoes and starting today, every week I shall post a raw mango recipe I make frequently in my house which my people love. So here is the first one.

Ingredients:

Cooking oil : 3 tablespoons ( I use refined sun flower oil, you can use any oil of your choice )

Urad dal/ white lentil/ minapappu : 2 tablespoons

Jeera/ cumin seeds/ jeelakarra : 1 tablespoon

Rai/ mustard seeds/ avalu : 1 tablespoon

Asafoetida/ hing/ inguva : a pinch

Curry leaves/ kari patta/ karivepaku : 8-10 leaves

Green chillies/ hari mirch/ pachi merapakayalu : 2 long chillies cut into 1-inch pieces

Raw mango/ kacha aam/ mamidikaya : 1 medium-sized, peeled and cut into pieces

Toor dal/ pigeon pea/ kandipappu : 1 small tea cup measure 

Haldi/ turmeric/ pasupu : 1 teaspoon

Lal mirch/ red chilly powder/ karam : 2 teaspoons or according to your taste

Salt/ namak/ uppu : 2 tablespoons or according to your taste

Procedure:

Cook toor dal in a pressure cooker by adding enough water ( for one measure dal, add 2 measures of water ) for 4-5 whistles. Remove from the cooker after it is cooled and mash it and keep aside ( dal would have cooked soft already. All you need to do is mix well so that it becomes a thick paste ). If there is any extra water in the cooked dal, drain it and keep the water aside. You can use the water to make rasam or you could just use it in this recipe itself.

Heat oil in a wok or kadai or pan. To it add asafoetida, urad dal, jeera, rai in that order.

 Once the dal turns golden brown, add curry leaves and green chillies and fry them till the leaves turn dark in colour.

Now add the cut raw mango pieces and mix well. You can also add the mango seed. I have used that to make liquid. So you won't find it in these pictures. Will share the recipe for the liquid / charu made with raw mango next week.

Add turmeric and salt ( I added only 1 teaspoon of salt at this point, only to make the mango soft ) and mix well.

Add water to the mixture. You could add the extra water you got from cooking the lentils. It will enhance the taste. Cover and cook till the mangoes are cooked soft enough to mash at the touch of the ladle. 

You can see in the below picture the mango pieces are cooked soft. At this point add the cooked dal and mix well.

To this add chilly powder, little more salt if you think the salt is less and mix well. Cover and cook for a minute.

Your dal is ready to be served.

This dal should be eaten with rice and raw onions and green chillies ( your preference ) or you could use challa mirapakayalu/ oora mirapakayalu/ majjiga mirapakayalu/ sun-dried chillies or you could also have it with vadiyalu.

Hope you liked the recipe. Let me know if you liked it. Leave a comment below.

R.