Sambaar / Spicy lentil soup with veggies

Sambaar / Spicy lentil soup with veggies

Sambaar is very popular dish of south India. It a important dish during festivals, wedding or parties too. It is eaten along side other dishes like rice, idli, dosa or vada. Many of the restaurants or eateries serve it with such tiffins.
In our house, sambaar is made on a regular basis to eat with rice, as a side dish. Many people make sambaar with lots of veggies or with few veggies. Carrots, beans, bottle gourd (anapakaya / kaddu/sorakai), bendi (bendakai), brinjal (eggplant), drumsticks (mulakaada) etc., are few which are regularly used. My favorites to use are bottle gourd, onions (is a must, I use pearl onions too sometimes), tomatoes (is a must too), brinjal, bendi and drumsticks.
Since we don't find fresh drumsticks, I used frozen ones. Using grated coconut  is also optional. I use which ever I have at home, fresh, frozen or dry coconut powder.
The recipe is to my taste and consistency, please adjust is to your taste and consistency.

Ingredients:

1 cup cook toor daal / kandhi pappu
almost 2 1/2 to 3 cups of water
1 tomato, chopped big
1 onion, chopped big (use whole pearl onions if you like)
5 green chillies, slit
10-15 pieces of bottled gourd / anapakaya
8-10 pieces of drumsticks
1 -2 tbsp frozen grated coconut (optional)
1 lemon size ball of tamarind (juices squeezed and keep aside)
1-2 tbsp sambaar powder(you can use homemade or store bought, I used MTR brand)
1/2 tsp chilli powder
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
salt to taste
1 tbsp coriander leaves

For Tempering:

4-5 cloves of garlic, crushed or chopped
1/4 tsp urad daal
1/4 tsp mustard seeds
1/4 tsp jeera
2 dry red chillies, broken
4-6 curry leaves
a pinc of hing
2 tbsp oil

Method:

Cook toor daal and keep aside.

In a pot, put about 2 tbsp of water and add the veggies like onion, green chillies, tomato, bottle gourd, drumsticks. Add some salt and let cook till they are soft but not mushy. Add the sambaar powder, chilli powder, turmeric powder and the tamarind juice. Let it cook for couple of minutes. Add the cooked daal and the required amount of water and let it come to a boil. In a tempering pan, heat oil, add garlic, urad daal, mustard seeds, jeera and let them brown and splutter. Then add the red chillies, curry leaves and hing and cook for few seconds before adding to the saambar. Let it come to a boil one more time befor eremoving from heat. Add the grated coconut and chopped coriander leaves. Serve hot with rice, idli, dosa or vada. Enjoy!!!

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Garlicky Spinach Stir fry

Garlicky Spinach Stir fry

A healthy and easy green dish to eat with hot rice. Nothing tastes better than hot rice with sauted spinach and garlic. This dish is filled with all good stuff.
If people have trouble eating spinach raw or in a salad, this is a good way to turn it eatable. It tastes more like a curry so its yummy with rice or roti.
I love puting lots of garlic in it for the extra garlicky flavor.
Back in India, this dish is made with 2, 3 or 4 types of greens mixed together. But here since its difficult to find the Indian greens, I make it with only spinach. I haven't tried using the greens we find here to make this curry. So if anyone does, let me know!!

Ingredients:

a big bunch of spinach leaves, cleaned, triple washed and roughly chopped
6-8 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 small onion, chopped
4 green chillies, chopped

1 tsp channa daal
1/2 tsp urad daal
1/4 tsp mustard seeds
1/4 tsp jeera
2 dry red chillies, broken
5-7 curry leaves
1 1/2 tbsp oil
salt to taste

Method:

Heat oil in a pan. Add channa daal, urad daal and brown them. Add the mustard seeds, jeera and let them splutter. Add the garlic, red chillies, curry leaves and saute. When the garlic starts to brown, add the washed and chopped spinach and saute. Add salt and fry it till it is cooked. Serve hot with rice or roti or eat plain. Enjoy!!!

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Kandi Podi / Lentil powder 1

There are many variations of powders or podis made to eat with idli or dosa and this is one of them.
My Mom has always made it this way from our childhood and we love it. This even tastes yummy with hot rice with oil or ghee. If eaten with oil its called 'powder-oil'.
My Mother-in-law makes it a little different from this. My kids call this podi white powder and eat it with idli or dosa. This is the only powder they eat with, they require no chutney. I try to give them mixed with little ghee because of the spice, but they rather eat it without the ghee. :)
When ever my Mom or Mother-in-law is here they have always made it for me and I never made it by my self. But I know how easy it is to make it, I can make it any time.
Just remember to dry roast the ingredients in the order it is given, separately.

Ingredients:

1 cup kandi pappu / toor daal
1/3 cup channaga pappu / channa daal

1 tsp jeera / cumin seeds
8 dry red chillies

1 tbsp dhaniya seeds / coriander seeds (not powder, 1-2 pulse of grinder / mixie)

salt to taste

6 cloves of garlic, crushed (last)

Method:

Dry roast kandi pappu / toor daal and channaga pappu / channa daal together in a kadai till light brown and keep aside.
Dry roast jeera / cumin seeds and dry red chillies together till fragrant and keep aside.
Dry roast dhaniya seeds / coriander seeds till fragrant and keep aside.
When everything is cool, grind the kandi pappu, channaga pappu, cumin and dry red chillies to a powder.
Only pulse the dhaniya seeds so that they are halved, not powdered.
Mix everything together well with enough salt.
Crush the garlic to small pieces and mix into the powder well.
Store in an air tight container. It will keep good for a very long time.
It's ready to eat!! Enjoy!!!

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Ravva Upma / Sooji Upma

Ravva Upma / Sooji Upma

This is one of the easiest morning breakfasts one can make. It goes well with pesarattu and the combo is called 'Pesarattu Upma'.
Some like the texture when it is grainy while some like it soft. I am softy type.
Some like it plain while some like it nutty. I am the nutty type. :)
Some like it with peanuts while some like it with cashew nuts. I like it with any nuts!!
Some like it just like that or some like it stuffed in pesarattu. I like it in or out. :)

We were short on cashew nuts so we used peanuts instead. You can dry roast the ravva prior to making the upma or not roast it too, its optional. We make it spicy to our taste. adjust spice level according to your taste.
I haven't clicked it stuffed in pesarattu, I will put up one when I do!!

Ingredients:

1 cup Ravva (dry roast or not, optional)
2 cups water
1 small onion, chopped
4-5 green chillies, slit and halved
1/4 cup peanuts
1/2 tbsp channa daal
1/2 tsp urad daal
1/4 tsp mustard seeds
1/4 tsp jeera
2 dry red chillies, broken
4-5 curry leaves
1 inch piece ginger, chopped
salt to taste
2 tbsp oil

Method:

Heat oil in pan. Add peanuts and let them brown. When they are about to brown add the channa daal, urad daal and let them brown together. Add the mustard seeds, jeera and let them splutter. Add the red chillies and curry leaves. Then add the ginger, onion and green chillies and saute. When they turn translucent, add the water and let it start boiling. Add salt and check to see if its enough. It should be slightly salty to taste. Add the sooji or ravva to the boiling water slowly stirring as to not allow any lumps to form. After completely adding the ravva, mix properly, lower heat to medium low and cover. All the water will be absorbed and the ravva get cooked on the low heat, covered. Serve hot with chutney, avakaya, lemon pickle or plain or stuffed in pesarattu. Enjoy!!!

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Karampoosa / Thin Sev

Karampoosa / Thin Sev

Another Kid's favorite dish which is easy to make. Thin sev or karampoosa as we call it is a instant winner in our house. The dabba (container) goes from full to 0 in less than 2 days. For this reason we make a lot :) We make it with more besan and some rice flour mixed together. It has some chilli powder, not too much and hing (inguva) for extra added taste and zing!
We made it less spicy, but you can adjust spice to your taste. I used a murruku press with thin sev achchu.

Ingredients:

4 cups besan or chanaga pindi, chana daal flour
1 cup rice flour
1 tsp hing or inguva
1 tbsp chilli powdersalt to taste
enough water to mix into soft dough
oil for frying

Method:

Mix all ingredients together to form a soft dough. Use the murukku press to press the dough into hot oil. When brown, remove onto paper napkin. Store in an air tight container for about couple of weeks. Serve plain or crunchy side for rice, raita, chaat etc.,. Enjoy!!!

Prep time: less than an hour

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Spicy buns

Spicy buns

As I said before I am not much of a baking person, and if I bake I rather bake something savory than something sweet.
The other day I baked these spicy buns for snack time. They came out yummy and spicy tho it took me half day to prepare for them but it was worth it. I used a recipe I found online, but tweaked it to make it spicier.
They came out soft inside and crunchy outside, but because of my oven temp, they slightly burned on the bottom, which was not that noticeable, but who cares if they are yummy to eat right!? They were good with chutney and cream cheese :).

Ingredients:

1/2 tsp active dry yeast with 1 tsp sugar and a pinch of salt with warm to hot water, soaked for 1/2 hour (for getting the yeast started)
3 1/2 cup all purpose flour
3 tsp sugar
salt to taste
4 tbsp butter
1-2 tbsp margarine
hot water to knead into dough

1/2 tsp curry powder ( I used Madras curry powder)
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp red chilli flakes
2 green chillies, chopped
1 tbsp coriander leaves, chopped

Method:

Add all the ingredients together in a bowl, except water and mix to get a grainy texture. Now add enough hot water to knead into a soft dough. Cover and keep aside in a warm area for atleast 2 hours. I ended putting mine aside for almost 4 hours. After 2 hours, it will rise to double its size. I kneaded it again a bit, not too much, made into small golf ball size balls and put them on a greased baking sheet. I left them in the oven for 1/2 hour to let them rise again. Pre-heat the oven to 375 deg F ( my 375 was a little to hot so I lowered it to 350) and bake them until they turn brown, about 1/2 hour. Just before taking them out I spread butter on top. Serve hot or warm. Enjoy!!!

This is going to the 'Bake Off event' hosted by Champa from Versatile Kitchen.

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Mukkala Avakaya / Mango Achaar (Tiny mango pieces in Tangy Mustard paste)

Mukkala Avakaya / Mango Achaar (Tiny mango pieces in Tangy Mustard paste)

Its very hard to find a good avakaya in any store. There is nothing better than home made avakaya. I have never tried making it at home. I always get mine from India or whenever my Mom is here she makes it here. But where do we get good green kachcha mangoes? For us here in Nashua, we don't get nice ones. We get some green mangoes, but they always end up being slightly yellow inside, which mean they are not totally kachcha or raw. This means that they would be slightly sweeter and not sour. For this reason my Mom adapted this way of making avakaya, that is by using amchoor powder to make it sour even if the mango is slightly sweet.
Usually avakaya is made by cutting the whole mango thru the seed, but since we didn't have any such sharp and big equipment to cut thru the seed, we cut it into small pieces. Also in India, special kind of oil is used, but here we used regular canola oil.
I always thought making avakaya is a very big work, but if you are making it in small quatity, its very easy. It will keep good for a few months if kept in the refrigerater. And also make sure that you don't let any water touch the avakaya. Always use a dry spoon or hand when touching the bottle outside or inside.
Always dry the bottle completely before putting the avakaya in the bottle.
We made it enough spicy for us, adjust spice according to your taste.
 
 

 
Ingredients:
 
2 green mangoes, chopped tiny with the peel on
1 tsp turmeric powder
1/2 cup red chilli powder
salt to taste
 
1/2 cup mustard seeds, ground to powder
1/4 cup amchoor powder
 
Tempering:
 
4-5 garlic cloves, crushed (optional)
1 tbsp urad daal
1 tsp methi seeds or menthulu
1 tsp jeera
1 tsp mustard seeds
4-5 dry red chillies, broken
1/2 tsp hing
a bunch of curry leaves
1cup oil
 
 

 

 

Method:
 
Chop mangoes and keep aside. Grind mustard seeds to powder. Add red chilli powder, turmeric, salt, mustard seeds powder and amchoor powder to the chopped mango. Heat oil in a pan, add garlic and saute for 10 seconds. This is optional tho. You can directly add urad daal, jeera, mustard seeds, methi seeds, hing, curry leaves and red chillies to the oil. When they start spluttering, remove from heat and let cool. When cooled, add it to the chopped mango and mix well. This can be enjoyed immediately or can be keep aside in a cool dark place overnite before eating it. Sometimes immediately you cannot see any juices, but after sitting aside for couple of days, you can see the juices. Serve with hot rice, but can also be eaten with chappati, idli, dosa, bajjis etc.,. Enjoy!!!
 
 

 
Tip: Make sure the oil is cool enough, otherwise it couple spoil the avakaya. Make sure that no water touches the avakaya, otherwise it could spoil.
 
Prep time: 1 hour

Sending it to Complete My Thali - Pickle...Hosted by Nivedita's Kitchen started by Jagruti of Joy of Cooking for a good cause!!

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