Potato podimas

Potato/Urulai Kizhangu podimas/poriyal

This is a spicy potato dry dish famous in South India. This can be taken along with Rice or chapathi.

Ingredients

1.Potatoes -3-4 Big 

2.Green chillies - 4-5 slit length-wise

3. Dry Red chillies - 2 broken

4. Mustard - 1/2 tea spoon

5. Cooking Oil - 3 tea spoons

6. Channa dhal/yellow split lentils - 1/2 tea spoon

7. Urad dhal/Split black gram deskinned - 1/2 tea spoon

8. Curry leaves - around 10-12
9. Salt - To taste
10. Water - as required
11. Turmeric powder - 1/4 tea spoon
12. Red chilli powder - 3/4 tea spoon
13. Onion - If big, 1/2  onion or if pearl onions/shallots - 10 -finely chopped

Procedure

1. Wash the potatoes thoroughly and cut each of them into 4 quarters and boil them in a pan containing water along with 1 tea spoon of Salt.Keep the pan closed with a lid so that they get cooked well
2. Once they are cooked, remove them from water and allow them to cool in a separate plate.
3. Peel the skin from the potatoes and mash them into small pieces (Do not mash them into a fine paste. Just mash them enough to break the boiled potatoes into small pieces)
4. Add 3/4 tea spoon of salt, turmeric powder and red chilli powder to the potatoes and mix thoroughly till the pieces are fully covered with the powders.
5.Now take a frying pan and heat it. Add 3 tea spoons of cooking oil.
6. When the oil is hot, add the Channa dhal and Urad dhal and saute them till they turn golden color.
7. Add mustard , curry leaves and allow them to splutter
8. Add Red chillies , green chillies and onion and saute them well
9. Add the potato mix to the pan and mix well. Saute for a while till all the ingredients and mixed well. Cover the pan with a lid in a low flame for 5-10 minutes. Give it a gentle stir intermittently.
10. After 10 mins of cooking, the potatoes will start getting slightly roasted. Stir the mix and remove from the heat.

11. Serve this host and spicy potato podimas with Rice or Chapathi.

(A milder version of this podimas/poriyal for kids can be prepared by not adding the red chilli powder to this recipe)

Coconut Rice

Coconut Rice

Ingredients

Long grained Rice(Basmati preferable) - 1 cup

Water - 2 cups

Cooking Oil - 3 tea spoons

Grated Coconut - 1/2 cup ( or dessicated coconut/dry coconut powder)

Mustard seeds - 1 tea spoon

Channa dhaal/Split yellow lentils - 1 tea spoon

Urad dhaal/Black gram deskinned (whole or split)- 1 tea spoon

Onion - 1/2 cup diced into fine pieces

Green chillies - 5 - slit into halves/length-wise

Red Chillies(Optional) - 2 - cut into small pieces

Curry leaves - As required
Salt - To taste

Procedure

1. Cook the Basmati Rice with 2 cups of water.Add 1 spoon of Oil while cooking so that the rice grains don't stick after cooking

2. Spread the cooked rice on a plate to cool down

3. Heat a wide frying Pan/wok and add 2 spoons of Cooking oil.

4.When the Oil is hot, add the channa dhaal and Urad Dhaal to it.When the Channa dhaal turns golden brown and the raw smell goes off, add the mustard seeds and curry leaves to the oil and let them splutter.

5.Add the broken red Chillies and split Green chillies(length-wise) to the Oil and sauté them

6.Add the Onion and saute well.

7.When the onion turns golden brown add coconut and sauté well till the coconut turns to a light brown color.

8.Now lower the stove flame or put the stove in low heat mode

9.Start adding the Rice and also add salt as per tast and keep mixing the rice with the previously cooked mixture gently till it is evenly spread across the rice.Cover the mixed rice with a lid and cook in low flame for 5 minutes.

Serve it a plate with some pickles /Papad/Fryums.

 A yummy,great tasting dish is ready ! Enjoy !

Gulab Jamun/Gulab Jamoon

Gulab Jamun

Gulab Jamun is a milk-based dessert which is fried in oil and soaked in sugar syrup.

This is a famous dish in India and made at home during festivals.

Ingredients

1. Gulab Jamoon Mix - 1 Packet(500 g)

2. Sugar - 2 cups

3.Water - 3 cups

4.White Cardomam powder - 1/2 tea spoon (or crushed cardomam pods)

5. Saffron - a few strands (if available.This is optional)

6. Lemon juice - 1 tea spoon

7. Milk - 1/2 cup

8. Ghee/Clarified butter - 1/2 cup

9. Cooking Oil - for frying the Jamuns

Procedure

1. Take a big mixing bowl. Add the Gulab Jamun mixture which is readily available from the stores.

I had used 500 g of this powder.

2. To this , add 1/2 cup of milk, 1 tea spoon of ghee and knead into a soft dough. Add water as required. Adding too much water at the start would lead to a loose dough. Add water a few spoons at a time and keep kneading till the dough is soft and leave it aside for 15 minutes after covering the dough with a clean wet cloth.

3. After 15 mins, roll the dough into small equal sized dough balls and keep aside

4. Meanwhile, heat the remaining ghee and cooking oil in a wide frying pan/wok in medium heat.

Start using ladles with holes to strain the oil and place the dough balls in them and slowly dip them into the oil. 

Start frying the dough balls in batches till they get golden brown.

Once they reach this colour, remove them from the oil and keep them aside.

Check that the heat is low to medium and the jamuns are slowly fried till they turn colour. This will ensure that their insides are cooked as well, till the core. If you cook these at high heat, they will soon turn color but their inside dough will remain raw and uncooked.

5. To prepare the Jeera/Sugar syrup, take another wide pan and add 2 cups sugar and 2 cups of water and bring them to a boil until a string consistency. To check if the syrup has reached this consistency, you can follow either of these steps. a) Take a drop of sugar syrup and drop inside a cup of water. If the sugar syrup settles down inside the water it has reached this consistency. b) Similary, take a drop of sugar syrup and set in your thumb. Try to stick the fore finger and thumb together on the sugar syrup and remove. If this forms a fine strand, then the syrup is ready. Please be aware the syrup would be pretty hot. please take caution before checking.

6. Add the cardomom powder , saffron to give nice aroma and flavour to the syrup.

7. Add lemon juice and mix well so that sugar syrup does not crystallize. 

8. Add the fried Jamuns into the hot syrup and allow them to remain soaked for an hour or more so that the Jamoons are soft and absorb all the sugar syrup in them.

These can be served hot. But they taste best when allowed to be soaked in the sugar syrup for a long time.

9. Delicious Gulab Jamuns are ready to be served. Enjoy !!

Morkuzhambu or South Indian Kadi

Morkuzhambu or South Indian Kadi

This is a spiced up yoghurt based south indian dish - especially famous in Kerala and Tamilnadu.This is best taken with Rice or Sevai

Ingredients

1. Yoghurt - 1 cup

2. Desiccated or Fresh Coconut powder - 1/2 cup

3. Green chillies - 4 to 5

4. Methi/Vendhayam/Fenugreek seeds - 1/2 tea spoon

5. Red Chillies - 2 to 3

6. Curry leaves - 10 leaves

7. Salt - 3/4 of a tea spoon

8.Water - as required

9. Turmeric powder - 1/2 tea spoon

10.Hing/Asofoetida/Perungayam - a pinch

11. Jeera/Cumin seeds - 1 tea spoon

12. Mustard - 1/2 tea spoon

13. Cooking coconut oil - 2 tea spoons
14. Rice -1 tea spoon

15. Okra- 4 - 5 cut in 1/2 inch pieces fried well in oil

Procedure:

1. Grind the Coconut powder, Green chillies, half of the curry leaves, rice and Cumin seeds.

 2.  Take the yoghurt in a vessel and beat it thoroughly till all lumps are broken.

Add enough water , (usually I take  1 cup of water and 1 cup of yoghurt ) and  mix the salt and turmeric powder in it. Add the ground coconut mixture in yoghurt


3. Cut okra into 1/2 inch pieces. In a wok, add 2 spoons of cooking coconut oil and heat it.



When the oil is hot, fry the okra pieces till they slightly brown in color and till they become crispy. At this stage, take them in a separate plate and leave the oil behind in the wok/frying pan.



4. To the same oil, add in the mustard and allow them to splutter.Add the fenugreek seeds and fry till they brown.

5. Add the red chillies, asafoetida and curry leaves.

6. Add the yoghurt mixture and pour it in the wok.

7. Allow the mixture to heat till the yoghurt just starts to boil. Add the okra to this mix, at this stage. Don't let the mixture to boil well else it would curdle.

8. Turn off the stove and keep the vessel aside.



Yummy morkuzhambu is ready to be served with rice.