Simple and Delicious !

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What about a lunch with rice, curd, green chillies, mashed tomatoes and little salt? It tastes wonderful and it is H's favourite! Some times when getting bored of our usual curries, I prefer taking the tomato,green chilly, curd plus salt mixture with well cooked rice. So some one loves those ingredients may surely love this pachadi too..!



Ingredients
Tomatoes 3
green chillies 3
salt

Crush,
small onions 4
ginger 1/4 " piece

Blend,
coconut grated 3/4 cups
curd 2 or 3 Tbsp
mustard seeds 1/2 tsp

Garnish,
curryleaves few
mustard seeds
red chillies
coconut oil



How to prepare
Chop tomatoes. Crush them with hand. Cook this with chopped green chillies , salt , crushed ginger and shallots with enough water to cover it.
Blend coconut with curd to a smooth paste. In the end add mustard seeds and just crush it.
Pour this solution to cooked hot tomato gravy. Mix well and remove from fire.
Season with curry leaves, mustard seeds, and red chillies in coconut oil.

Thoran / stir fry is a common side dish for a Kerala meal. The red cabbage thoran is little different, since I have added egg in that. You can try both recipes for both types of cabbages.



Cabbage stir fry / thoran Ingredients and method
Cabbage 1/4 kg
onion 1
coconut grated 2 tbsp
green chillies 2
curry leaves few
ginger 1/4 inch piece
turmeric powder 1/4 tsp
mustard seeds
coconut oil
salt

Clean and chop cabbage finely. Chop onion into very finely. Cut green chillies length wise into two. Crush ginger. Mix coconut, green chilies,ginger, turmeric and salt together.
Heat oil, allow mustard seeds to splutter. Then saute onion for few seconds.Add the mixture and stir well. Add cabbage too and mix. Cook on a low flame, keeping the pan closed. Stir occasionally. If needed sprinkle little water. You can add egg in this too if you like.. :)
See more about cabbage here.

Ingredients
Vazhappindi / banana stem 1
horse gram / muthira or red cow peas 1 cup
dried red chillies 3 or more
small onions / shallots 1/2 cup peeled
garlic cloves 2 big
mustard seeds
curry leaves
coconut oil
salt

Method
Remove the outer coverings of the stem and take out the edible part. Cut them into rings. Then again chop them into small pieces. Remove the fibers (naaru). (You can remove them while cutting into rings.)

Wash and cook vanpayar or muthira. when it is nearly cooked, add chopped pindi pieces. Cook till done. Add salt while cooking.Reduce water.

Crush dry red chillies, small onions, garlic cloves together. Heat coconut oil, splutter mustard seeds, saute the crushed ingredients with few curry leaves. Satue until the raw smell of the ingredients go, and about to get a little brown color. Add the above cooked mixture and check for salt. Mix very well. The banana stem / pindi I used was about a forearm length. You can prepare this using coconut also. Will post it later insha Allah.



A simple and delicious green peas saagu from Asha. Please visit foodies hope for the recipe..

My sister has a great collection of magazine recipes. Last time when I visited her she gave me a book made with some of her collections. I haven't bought a cook book yet except the one which I brought from home which is really a simple one with only 5o pages.. :) That one they bought just to help an old man who was selling it..I plan to try out some recipes from sis' collection and to post them here for my readers. I have few special readers , some newly wedded girls who do not know much cooking and would send lovely messages for helping them.
I prepared this for lunch and when DH came home, I told him to guess what is the main veg in the dish. He said many vegetable's names except the real one. That time a friend phoned him and so he said to him that he couldn't understand what is the veg in the dish. The friend R said - just say Chena (chumma chenannu parayeda.. :D) ...and it was correct!

Yam / Chena Undhiyu ( A Gujarathi dish )
Yam / chena 250 gm
shallots / chuvannulli 10
green chilly 4
curry leaves 1 fig
garlic cloves 2
coconut grated 1/2 cup
mustard seeds 1 tsp
coconut oil 2 tbsp
salt

Peel,chop and wash yam. Peel shallots and garlic. Crush them together.Crush or pound yam, green chillies, curry leaves and coconut together. The original recipe says to pound them in a mortar.Mix with salt.I just chopped them in the food processor. Heat coconut oil, allow mustard seeds to splutter.Saute small onion-garlic mixture in this for a while. Add the pounded mixture into this and stir. Keep covered on a low flame stirring occasionally. Have with rice or kanji..!!
Recipe from - Aramam magazine
Recipe by - Mrs. Shareefa.
Sent to RCI Gujarat hosted by Orugallu.net

How to prepare Chena Muthira erissery
Chena / elephant yam 2 1/2 cups
horse gram 3/4 cup
coconut grated 1 cup
small onions/ chuvannulli 4
cumin seeds / jeerakam 1/2 tsp
turmeric powder 1/2 tsp
pepper powder or chilli powder 1 tsp
curry leaves few
dried red chillies 1 or 2
mustard seeds
coconut grated 1 tbsp
coconut oil
salt

You can cook this in two methods.
Boil horse gram with little salt until half cooked.
Cut and clean yam. Add to the half cooked horse gram with turmeric and chilli powders and enough salt. Cook until done.

Heat little coconut oil. Roast the grated coconut with chopped small onions , cumin seeds until the coconut is slightly brown. Don't roast for too long. Blend this with little water and pour to the cooked yam - horse gram mixture. When it begins to boil remove from fire.

Heat coconut oil, splutter mustard seeds, saute curry leaves and dried red chillies and 1 tbsp grated coconut. Do this for a while until the coconut changes color and pour the mixture into the curry.

You can do this without roasting coconut. For that recipe follow the Pumpkin/red cow peas - Mathanga payar Erissery recipe..

Bittergourd mango dry curry / Manga kaippakka vattichathu

Ingredients and Method
Bittergourd 1
raw mango / pachamanga 1
tomato 1/2
small onions 10 or onion 1
crushed garlic cloves 2
green chillies 2
curry leaves few
turmeric powder 1 tsp
chilli powder 2 tsp
coconut oil
mustard seeds
salt

Clean and cut bitter gourd into small pieces. Chop small onions, tomato and green chillies. Peel and cut mango. Cook everything together expect oil, curry leaves and mustard seeds in water enough to cover it. Cook and reduce water. Season with mustard seeds and curry leaves in oil. Dark green bitter gourd may taste more bitter than the light green one. So choose light green if you don't like more bitterness.If the mango is too much sour avoid adding the whole mango pieces.
Other bitter gourd recipes
Kaipakka Curry
Kaipakka varutharacha curry
Pavakka Pachadi
Pavakka Achar

Manga vellarikka pachadi
Raw mango 1 peel and chop into very small pieces.Cook it with salt and little water.

To grind,
coconut grated 1 cup
mustard seeds 1/2 teaspoon
cumin seeds 1/4 teaspoon
green chilly 1
ginger a small piece crush and add to the cooked mango.

Grind them together using little water. Pour this solution into the cooked mango when it is hot. Mix well. Heat coconut oil, splutter mustard seeds, add curry leaves,dry red chillies and pour it into the mango pachadi.


manga pachadi

For making manga vellarikka pachadi, chop cucumber / vellari into small pieces. Add this too mango pieces and cook together. You can make vellari pachadi using curd / thairu instead of mango.
My third entry to RCI Kerala hosted by Currybazar

Brinjal / Egg plant / Vazhuthananga / Kathirikkai

Ingredients and method
Brinjals 3 medium size
small onions 4
garlic cloves 2 small size
ginger 1/2 inch
green chilly 2 or 3
coconut oil
curry leaves few
tamarind 1 small gooseberry size or as desired
salt

Cut brinjals into small pieces. Heat coconut oil, saute small onions and garlic cloves until small onions are transparent(don't think about garlic). Take them out and keep aside. Saute the brinjal pieces till they are cooked. Crush green chillies, small onions and fried brinjals. Grind garlic and ginger with curry leaves and tamarind. Mix them with the above crushed preparation. Add salt. Mix well and pour little fresh coconut oil over it.

Don't discard your pumpkin peels next time, just cook a delicious side dish..

Ingredients
Pumpkin skin 1 cup
Dry red beans 1 cup
Turmeric powder 1 tsp
Small onions chopped 4
Coconut grated ½ cup
Garlic cloves crushed 2 big
Green chillis 2
Curry leaves
Salt
Coconut oil
Mustard

Ingredients
Cauliflower 1 medium size
onion 1
ginger 1/2 inch piece julienned
green chillies 2 slit
pepper powder 2 tea spoons
garam masala 2 pinches
tomato sauce 2 table spoons
soya sauce 2 1/2 table spoons
chilli sauce 2 tea spoons
garlic and ginger paste 2 teaspoons
coriander leaves few chopped
egg 1 optional
cornflour 1/4 cup
salt

How to prepare
Remove cauliflower florets and soak them in boiled water for ten minutes. Mix cornflour,egg, garlic ginger paste, 2 table spoon soya sauce, chilly sauce, pepper powder, salt and garam masla in a bowl. Add little water to make a thick batter. Put the cauliflower florets in this and mix very well. Keep this for half an hour. Deep fry them.
Chop onion as big pieces. Take little oil from the remaining oil that we used for frying cauliflower. Heat oil, saute onion for few seconds. Don't saute too much as we do for curries. then saute ginger and green chillies, for few seconds too. Add fried cauliflower, tomato sauce and remaining soya sauce into this. Stir very well. Check salt. Garnish with coriander leaves.You can add capsicum and spring onions too.

HAPPY ONAM!
Here is a simple side dish for Onasadya.

Ingredients
Pumpkin ½ kg
Small onions 4
Garlic 1 clove (avoid if you don’t like)
Coconut grated 1 cup
Curry leaves few
Green chilly 3 chopped finely
Cumin seeds ½ tea spoon
Mustard to grind 1 tea spoon
Curd ¾ cup
Salt
Coconut oil

How to prepare
Peel and cut pumpkin.
Cook with chopped green chilies in water just enough to cook.
Grind small onions, garlic, mustard, cumin seeds, coconut grated etc with little curd.
Make a smooth solution.
Mix this with cooked pumpkin.
Heat it, don’t boil.
Add remaining curd and salt.
Mix well.
Heat oil, splutter mustard seeds, add curry leaves, pour in to the curry.

Ingredients
Brinjal(Khathirikka) - 4 nos
(purple coloured)
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Chilly powder - 1 tsp
Salt - As reqd
Grated coconut - 1 tea cup
Curd - 1 cup
Mustard seeds - 1/4 tsp
Coconut oil - As reqd
Small onions(Kunjulli) - 2 nos





Method of preparation
1)Cut brinjal in thin round pieces.
2)Mix turmeric, chilly and salt together.
3)Marinate brinjal pieces in this.
4)Fry them in coconut oil.
5)Grind together coconut, mustard seeds, small onion and curd :- No need to add water.
6)Pour this into a pan.
7)Add enough salt.
8)Put fried brinjals in it and place on fire.
9)When it starts to boil, remove from fire. :- Do not let it boil.
10)Heat 2 tsp of coconut oil in a small frying pan.
11)Splutter mustard seeds.
12)Add curry leaves and green chillies and pour this into the above.:- You have another easy method. Mix the fried brinjals with curd. Add salt. Goes well with rice or chappathi .

Ingredients
Jack fruit seeds / Chakkakkuru - 1 cup,
chilly powder - 2 tea spoon,
turmeric powder - 1/2 tea spoon,
tamarind water - made with one lemon size tamarind in two cup water,
curry leaves - few,
salt,
mustard seeds,
coconut oil -1 table spoon. (Instead of tamarind we can use raw mango, here mango - 1 is enough)

Method
Uncover and peel the seeds.
Cut into two. Cook with tamarind water , powders and salt.
Pressure cook till done.
Mash the seeds to make a semi thick solution.
Add little more water if needed.
Boil again.
Heat oil ,splutter 1 tea spoon mustard seeds , add curry leaves, pour into the solution.
Goes well with rice and chapati.
A moru curry or other yellow curries plus rice will be a good combination with this curry.

INGREDIENTS
Bittergourd(Pavakka) - 2 medium sized ones
Tamarind(Puli) - A lemon sized ball
Onion - 1 no
Small onions(Kunjulli) - A handful
Tomato(big) - 1 no
Green chillies - 2 nos
Curry leaves - A few
Coconut oil - 1 tbsp
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Chilly powder - 1 tsp or as reqd

METHOD
1)Cut bitter gourd into thin square pieces.
2)Cook with salt, turmeric powder, chilly powder, green chilly, chopped onion and tomato in tamarind juice.
3)Cook till done.
4)Reduce water and bring to a thick consistency.
5)Heat oil in a pan.
6)Splutter mustard seeds.
7)Add curry leaves and pour this into the curry.:- If you need this curry to make ozhichukoottan type, don`t reduce water.

INGREDIENTS

Curd - 2 cups

Onion - 1/2 of one or Shallots(Kunjulli) - 4 - 5 (finely chopped)

Cucumber - 1 no(peeled and cut into very thin pieces)

Curry leaves - A few

Ginger - 1 small piece (finely chopped)

Tomato - half of one(finely chopped)

Green chillies or dry chillies - 2 nos

Salt - As reqd

Coconut oil - 1 tbsp

Mustard seeds - 1 tsp

METHOD

1)Heat a little coconut oil in a pan.
2)Splutter mustard seeds.
3)Add green chillies, onion, curry leaves, ginger and fry for a min.
4)Add tomato, cucumber and salt.
5)Fry for a min and remove from the fire.
6)Add curd beaten with little water. :- Serve with rice.