Karela Raita

Karela Raita is different from other sour or sweet raitas. People who like the flavour and bitterness of Karela will enjoy this variation immensely. It is also considered very healthy. It is also called Karela Pachadi...

Ingredients:

Bitter Gourd/Karela, deseeded and cut into small peices - 1 (Approx. 1 Cup)

Green Chilli - 1

Sour Curds - 1 Cup

Salt - per your taste

Oil - 1 Tbsp

Mustard Seeds - 1/2 Tsp

Curry Leaves - 10

Coriander Leaves/Cilantro, chopped - 1 /2 Tbsp

Hing/Asafoetida - a pinch

Jeera/Cumin Seeds (optional) - 1/2 Tsp

Preparation:

Heat a small pan with the Oil and add the Mustard Seeds.

After the Mustard Seeds splutter, add cut Chilli, Curry Leaves and fry them for a minute

Now add cut Karela peices and fry in medium heat for about 10 minutes OR till the Karela peices slightly turn dark from being fried

Add the Hing, Jeera and turn off the heat

Take the curds in a bowl, add salt to taste and add the fried and cooled Karela mixture

Stir the Raita and finally add the Coriander leaves

Notes:

This goes very well with steaming rice, papad and pickles. Enjoy this variation of the raita.

Classic Chutney Powder

Here is a recipe for Chutney Powder that goes amazingly well with Dosas, Idlis and even plain Curd Rice.

Ingredients:

Channa Dal - 1/2 Cup

Urad Dal - 1/2 Cup

Dhaliya/Puttani/Chutney Dal - 1/2 Cup

Dried Red Chillies - 25

White Sesame/Til - 2 Tsp

Jaggery - 1.5 Tbsp

Lime Juice - 1 Tsp

Salt - per your taste

Hing/Asafoetida - 1/4 Tsp

Cooking Oil - 2 Tsp

Preparation:

Heat a heavy bottomed tawa and roast the Til till it gets reddish

Keep the Til aside

Now, add Oil to the Tawa and when the Oil gets hot, add Channa Dal and Red Chillies

Roast the Channa Dal and Chillies for about 3 minutes - till the dal gets slightly red

Now add the Ural Dal, Daliya and roast till all Dals become Red

Finally add Hing, Lime Juice and roast for another minute

Take the tawa off the heat and transfer the roasted mixture to a plate and let the mixture cool

Once cooled, grind the mixture to a fine powder along with the Jaggery and Salt

Store the Chutney powder in a air-tight container

Notes:

This makes a little over 400 grams of Chutney Powder. The Chutney powder can be mixed in Til Oil / Ghee / Refined Oil and served with Dosas or Idlis. The colour of the Chutney may differ based on the type of the Red Chillies used. Enjoy!!

Karela and Black Channa Curry

Here is a recipe using Bitter Gourd (Karela). Bitter Gourd is considered good for a variety of ailments. This Curry has a sambhar taste and you could vary the Red Chilli, Tamarind, Jaggery spices based on your tolerance for the Karela bitterness.

Ingredients:

Karela/Bitter Gourd, deseeded and cut - 2 Cups (Approx. 3 Karelas)

Black Channa - 1.5 Cups

Channa Dal - 2 Tbsp

Red Chillies - 4

Toor Dal - 2 Tbsp

Coriander Seeds - 2 Tbsp

Hing/Asafoetida - a Pinch

Methi Seeds - 1/2 Tsp

Curry Leaves - 4 Leaves

Tomatoes, cut - 2

Tamarind Pulp - 2 Tsp

Turmeric Powder - 1 Tsp

Jaggery - 1/5 Cup

Red Chillies - 4 (or per your taste)

Salt - per your taste

Oil - 3 Tbsp

Coconut, grated - 1/2 Cup

Mustard Seeds - 1 Tsp

Pre-preparation:

Soak the Black Channa overnight and pressure cook it with 2 Cups of water - it takes about 10-15 minutes

Preparation:

Take a pan and add 1 Tsp Oil.

When the Oil gets hot, add Methi Seeds, Channa Dal and Red Chilli

Roast the above for a minute in medium heat

Then add Coriander seeds and roast it for a minutes

Finally add Toor Dal, Hing, Curry Leaves and roast the entire mixture till it turns reddish

Now, grind all the above roasted ingredients into a paste with cococut

Keep the Curry Masala aside

Take a deep bottomed pan and add 1 tbsp of Oil

When the Oil is hot, add the Mustard seeds

After the Mustard Seeds splutter, add the cut Karela and fry/cook for 10 minutes on medium heat

When the Karela is cooked, add the cut tomatoes and stir for 5 minutes

Now, add the cooked Black Channa, Haldi powder, Jaggery, Salt, Tamarind Pulp and the ground Curry Masala

Add 1/2 a cup of Water, the remaining Oil and cook till it becomes a thick gravy - it takes about 10 minutes

This can be eaten with plain white rice or Rotis

Notes:

We tried this with Green tomatoes. You could add Onions or other veggetables and with additional water, it will become very similar to a Karela Sambhar. This serves about 8-10 people. Serve with Ghee for an additional taste.

Carrot Halwa

It is our son-in-law's birthday today (Happy Happy Birthday!) and we decided to make a classic Indian dessert. Our neice also wanted the recipe so, we quickly prepared this Halwa this morning and enjoyed it through the day...

Ingredients:

Carrots (about 8 inches each) - 7 Pcs

Sugar - 1.5 Cups

Ghee / Clarified Butter - 4 Tbsp

Whole Milk - 1 Cup

Cardamom Powder - 1 Tsp

Almonds - 20 Pcs

Cashewnuts - 10 Pcs

Raisins - 2 Tbsp

Preparation:

Grate the 7 carrots - this measures close to 5 Cups

Heat a pan and cook the grated Carrots in Milk till soft

After the Milk evaporates, add the Sugar

Keep stirring and cook the mixture for 5 minutes in medium heat

Now add the Ghee and simmer the mixture for 10 minutes

When the carrot mixture separates from the pan add the cardamom powder, raisins and cashewnuts

Stir for a minute and your Halwa is done

After it is transferred to a serving bowl, garnish it with sliced Almonds

Notes:

You can substitute 2 Tbsp Ghee with refined oil if you want it to be lighter on the stomach. This can be eaten hot or cold. If hot, it can be eaten by itself or with any ice-cream of your choice - vanilla flavour is very popular. This dessert is very popular because it can be done quickly without any pre-preparation. Enjoy the Halwa!!

Chickpeas and Rajma in Mint sauce

This is not traditionally a South Indian Curry, but we decided to try something new with a mixture of Lentils we had at home. It turned out pretty tasty and so, we decided to share this with all of you.



Ingredients:
Chickpeas (Kabuli Channa) - 1 Cup
Rajma - 1/2 Cup
Channa Dal (Bengal Gram) - 3/4 Cup
Garlic, finely chopped - 1 Tbsp
Ginger, finely chopped - 1 Tbsp
Green Chilli - 3 (or per your taste)
Mint Leaves (Pudina), chopped - 1 Cup
Medium Sized Tomatoes, chopped - 3
Medium Sized Onions, sliced - 2
Salt - as per your taste
Coriander Leaves, chopped - 2 Tsp
Cumin Seeds, ground - 2 Tsp
Garam Masala - 2 Tsp
Lemon Juice - as per your taste
Vegetable Oil - 1/4 Cup
Mustard Seeds - 1 Tsp


Pre-preparation:
Soak the Chickpeas and Rajma overnight


Preparation:
Cook Rajma and Chickpeas together till soft
Cook Channa Dal till soft
Prepare the Mint sauce by grinding Mint leaves, Garlic, Ginger and Chillies to a fine paste


Heat the Vegetable Oil in a wide pan and when hot, put the Mustard Seeds
After the Mustard Seeds splutter, add the sliced Onions and cook till it gets soft and brown
Add the chopped Tomatoes and cook till this mixture too gets soft
To this, add the ground Mint Sauce and simmer for 10 minutes
Add Cumin Powder, Salt, Garam Masala, cooked Chickpeas, Rajma and Channa Dal to the Sauce mixture
Cook all ingredients in medium heat for 15 minutes
Finally add the Lemon Juice and Coriander Leaves


This can be served with Pooris, Parathas or Baturas


Note:
This serves 8-10 people. This can be done in advance and heated just before serving. We could do this Curry with just Chickpeas or just Rajma. Enjoy!!

Cucumber Sweet Dosa

When we visited our neighbour the other day, they gave us home grown cucumbers (Thank you P & A) and we thought of preparing something special. Then we remembered our mother's recipe of sweet cucumber dosa, a delicacy of South Kanara, Karnataka. We would like to share this recipe with our friends.

Ingredients:

Raw rice - 1 cup

Idli rice - 1 cup

Cucumber - peeled, deseeded and diced - 1 large (Approx.350 gms)

Jaggery powder - 250 gms (Approx. 1 cup)

Cardamom powder - 1/2 tsp

Grated coconut, fresh or frozen - 1 cup

Salt - 1/4 tsp

Pre-preparation:

Soak rice for 5 hours.

Preparation:

Grind all the above ingredients with very little water (this is because cucumber and jaggery leave out water while you grind) into fine batter.

Heat dosa tawa and make dosas like any other dosa on medium heat baking both sides applying ghee.

Serve hot dosas with honey or sweet syrup.

Notes:

This makes about 14 dosas. If you overcook or roast, the dosa may become hard.

Variation:

You can also make spicy cucumber dosas. For this do not put jaggery and cardamom powder. Instead put 1 tsp of grated ginger, 3 chopped green chillies, chopped curry leaves, little coriander leaves and salt to your taste. The Spicy dosa can be served with coconut chutney.

Methi Leaves Quick Dosa

We had some home-grown Methi leaves and wanted to make something different with those organic methi leaves :) So, instead of the regular parathas or dals, we decided to go with something quick, different and tasty - that lead us to Methi Leaves Dosa.


Ingredients:
Whole Wheat Flour - 2 Cups
Fine Rava - 4 tbsp
Rice Flour - 4 tbsp
Fresh Methi Leaves, washed and finely cut - 1.5 Cups
Curry Leaves, washed and cut - 1 tbsp
Coriander/Cilantro Leaves, washed and cut - 2 tbsp
Jeera/Cumin Seeds - 1 tsp
Salt - per your taste
Finely cut Green Chilli - per your taste
Water - 4 Cups

Oil - for cooking the dosas

Preparation:
Mix the flours and rava with water
Make sure there are no lumps in the batter
Add the rest of the ingredients and let the batter stay for 30 min (longer the better)
Heat a dosa tawa and make the dosas like any other regular dosa

Notes:
This makes around 10 delicious dosas. This can be eaten with any mild Chutney - you would want to savor the flavor of the fresh Methi leaves. Enjoy!

Ribbon Pakoda

This is a very quick snack made in South India. The ribbon pakodas don't need any pre-preparation and the ingredients used are common household ingredients which makes this a very quick preparation for rainy and cooler evenings.

The ribbon pakodas are also made for festivals in South India.

Ingredients:
Rice flour - 4 Cups
Besan (Gram flour) - 1.5 Cups
Unsalted Butter - 100 gms
Red Chilli powder - per your taste
Salt - per your taste
Asafoetida / Hing - A pinch
Oil - for deep frying
Ribbon Pakoda tool - similar to the picture

Preparation:
Mix the Rice flour, Besan, Chilli Powder, Salt and Hing evenly in a bowl
Add Butter and mix again till consistent
Add water and make a dough similar to Chapatti/Roti dough consistency
Keep it aside closed for 5-10 minutes

In the meanwhile, heat the oil in a fry pan
Take the pakoda tool and use the ribbon pakoda mould as the base (the one separated out in the picture)



Stuff some dough in the tool and thread the lid tightly

Check if the oil is hot enough by putting a small pinch of the dough in the oil - the pakoda should sizzle and float in the oil

Now take the tool and drop the dough in the shape of ribbon pakoda into the oil directly

The oil for every round of pakodas is kept at a high heat initially, but once the pakodas are overturned, the heat is brought down to medium


After the pakodas are done (make sure if it not overdone or burnt), remove it from the oil and keep it on absorbant paper to drain out any excess oil

Once cooled, store ribbon pakodas in an airtight container

Notes:
The pakoda making tool comes in various designs - one that has a thread, one which is a press etc. Use whatever is comfortable for you - I think the threaded one will be less stress on your hands.

Enjoy these pakodas as a light snack!!

Badam / Almond Burfi

This year for Janmashtami, we made Badam Burfi as one of the offerings for the pooja. Here is the recipe for the burfi. You could either keep the almond skin or choose to peel it out for the burfi. We decided to keep the skin. That gave the burfis a nice brown color and a lightly grainy texture.

Ingredients:
Badam / Almonds ---------------------------------------1 Cup
Fresh / Frozen Grated Coconut -----------------------1 Cup
Whole Milk / Half and Half -----------------------------1/2 Ltr
Sugar ------------------------------------------------------3 Cups
Ghee (Clarified Butter) for Burfi -----------------------1/2 Cup
Cardamom powder --------------------------------------1 tsp
Ghee (Clarified Butter) for coating the Burfi tray ---1 tsp

Pre-Preparation:
Soak Almonds in water for 10 hours

Preparation:
Grind the Almonds with Coconut and the Milk to make a fine paste
Mix the Sugar and Ghee with the ground Almond/Coconut paste
Heat a thick bottomed pan and put the above mixture into the pan
Continuously stir the mixture for about 30 - 35 minutes on medium heat till you have a thick batter consistency and the mixture leaves the sides of the pan
Take a tray and coat 1 tsp of Ghee in the tray on all sides
Put the mixture in the tray evenly
Cut into burfi shapes (squares etc) after the mixture in the tray has partially cooled down



Remove the burfi pieces and transfer into an airtight box after the mixture has completely cooled down
This recipe makes around 18-20 peices of burfi - depending on the size you cut

The burfis can be stored for 3 weeks. Enjoy!