Masala Kuzhambu- Version 2!
Posted in: Vathakozhambu | Comments (4)
What comes after Thursday? Friday. And if you were following this post, you’d know that weekends in Middleeast start on Thursdays so my sis makes loads of appetizers, snacks etc., But on Fridays though it will be something ordinary and home made but delicious and finger licking food- it will be some sort of kuzhambu with the seppenkizhangu roast(family favorite) or dum biryani.
This is one of those recipes that is a twist to the same old kuzhambus. Every one at home loves Milaghu Kuzhambu. Especially when we have over loaded our tummies. But on days I make milaghu kuzhambu, I am stuck because my son does not like kuzhambus which comes with no veggies in them. So, when I saw this one on Zee tamil, I tried it with slightly modified ingredients and it was finger licking good. It is easy to make and can be stored for about 10 -12 days in an air tight container in the fridge.
Ingredients:
Garlic – 2 whole pods – peeled
Ginger – 1/4″ piece
Small onion/shallots – a handful
Red onion – finely chopped – 1 cup
Tomato – 1 finely chopped
Drumstick- 6 pieces
Vathal/fresh manathakkali- 2 tbsp
Curry leaves – washed – a handful
Pepper -1/2 to 3/4 tsp
Cumin – 1 tsp
Red chilies- 2
Fenugreek seeds – 1/4 tsp
Tamarind pulp mixed in water – 1 and 1/2 cup to 2 cups
Gingerly oil – 3 tbsp
Mustard seeds- 1/2 tsp
Salt to taste
Method :
Heat a tsp of the gingerly oil in a pan. Add fenugreek seeds, cumin, pepper, red chilies and roast till golden brown in color. Add the shallots, half of the peeled garlic, ginger and half of the chopped tomato and saute. Add 3/4th of the curry leaves. Remove from heat and cool. Grind to smooth paste will required amount of water in a blender.
In a kadai, heat the remaining oil and add mustard seeds. Once they splutter, add the onions, remaining garlic and curry leaves. Stir fry well. Add the vathal, drumstick and remaining tomatoes. Saute well. Add the ground paste and fry well. Add the tamarind water and salt and let it cook till the raw smell of the kuzhambu disappears and it thickens up(15 minutes on a low-medium flame). Switch off. Serve with rice, any curry and papad.
Just like the HSB style vathakozhambu this does not use any powder so if you need it more spicy add more chilies/pepper and more tangy add more tamarind/tomato.
ruchikacook @ May 16, 2012
Chili Paneer Sizzler
Posted in: Paneer | Comments (3)
This is one recipe that I ask my Sis to make when she visits home. This is also a favorite with our mom, Sis’s Mom in Law and all our friends. This sizzler is also a “must have” for their weekend get togethers. As I keep saying her recipes are simple and since my Jijaji is a roti/chappati lover she comes up with all sorts of dry subzis and gravies to make through out the week. Over to her then!
Living in Dubai means the weekend starts on Thursday. It is only on thursdays that I get the opportunity to try out new snacks in the kitchen as this is the one day of the week that hubby is at home in the evenings. Most of the time, his friends come home to dinner and being bachelors they expect a full dinner from appetizers to desserts. That means I get to try out new things and bask in the compliments from guys who have been eating out all week. Along with a new spicy vegetable wedges, this week I made this usual paneer dish and as platters are emptying I wish I had made more 
This is a recipe that you can make depending on what you have in the refrigerator. If you have baby corn instead of peppers add it in, if nothing is there just make it with onions, tomatoes and paneer. For more color you can add yellow or red peppers too.
Ingredients:
Paneer cubes – thawed – 1 cup
Garlic – 1 clove – chopped fine
Red Onion – - cubed-( 1″ cubes)
Green pepper(capsicum)- 1 – cubed or Cauliflower florets- 1 cup
Tomatoes (not too ripe) 2 tomatoes – cubed
Chilli powder – 1/2 to 3/4 tsp depending on your spice preference
Ketchup – 2 table spoons
salt to taste
Oil – 3 tbsp
Green onions to garnish
Method:
The entire recipe should be cooked in high flame so that the veggies are cooked yet they are crisp. Also, the kadai should not be flat but deep and thick bottomed. Make sure that all veggies are chopped to the same size as their cooking time will be the same.
I used frozen cauliflower and frozen paneer and I just thawed them in the microwave for 90 seconds.
Heat oil in a kadai/wok. Add the garlic and onions and saute till the onions turn pink in color. Add the capsicums/cauliflower and saute. Add the paneer. Saute till golden. Add the red chilli powder and saute. Add the tomatoes and salt. Keep tossing till tomatoes are cooked. Tomatoes should not be mashed, but tossed. Due to the high heat you can see it getting cooked without getting soggy. Add the ketchup and toss again. Switch off. Garnish with green onions. Serve piping hot as an appetizer or as a dry subzi for rotis.
ruchikacook @ May 13, 2012
Gazebo Dal
Posted in: Gravies, Lentils | Comments (2)
As I sit and slurp my maggie noodles(comfort food for my sinus) and look around the house to see the chores I still have to do, there is one thing that has been well taken care of – sharing recipes. Thanks to my Sis, my inbox is full of recipes and pictures. Following with the hotel style vathakozhambu this is another one of her specials that I make when I run low on veggies/pantry ingredients.
Before I share the recipe, two things I forgot write about in the previous posts are:
Picture of the avakkai -mango channa pickle I made two weeks ago, recipe is here.
Activities I have been doing with the Lil one the past week- Visit to the zoo, a fun playscape, stomping grounds playplace, swimming, playgroup date and last but certainly not the least my lil boy and I had fun dancing together in a “Zumba” class Our dancing may not be the perfect zumba dance moves that you’d expect but all that matters is that we had a good time, right?
Recipe time then! This dal is very tasty and just melts in the mouth and a special recipe in the restaurant Gazebo(in Dubai). I learnt it from my sis and made it loads of times when I was expecting R as it was easy, almost a one pot dish and was loaded with protein. Mostly I drank it like a soup with some kind of bread to dunk into it.
Ingredients:
Serves 3-4
Moong dhal – 3/4 cup
Toor dhal – 1/4 cup
Spinach – a small bunch – leaves only – sliced thin
Onions, finely chopped- 3 tbsp
Tomato -One small size,finely chopped
Garlic – 1 clove
Ghee/Butter – 3 tea spoons
cumin seeds – 1/4 tea spoon
red chillies – 3
Salt to taste
Turmeric power- 1/8 tsp
Method:
Wash and pressure cook the dhals with the garlic,onions,spinach and tomato adding a little extra water for a mushy consistency. You can even go for 3 whistles to achieve that consistency. Let it cool down, mash the contents well.
Heat the ghee/butter in a kadai. Temper with cumin and red chili. Lower the flame add the cooked dal and veggie mixture, adding turmeric powder and salt to taste. Lower the flame and let it cook for 10 minutes till the dal mixture looks thick. You can add lemon juice to taste if needed. Serve with rotis,pooris,jeera rice or naan.
You do not need any spices as the red chili itself is enough.
Another way to make this dal: Let the dals cook in the pressure cooker directly for 4-5 whistles, then do the tadka in a small tadka pan and pour it over the dal.
Sending this Gazebo dal to MLLA-47 guest hosted by Priya, an event started by Susan.
ruchikacook @ May 10, 2012
Vathakozhambu with a twist(Saravana Bhavan style)
Posted in: Vathakozhambu | Comments (8)
My sister whose recipes I have tried here like these kebabs, stuffed uthappams,cabbage puttu and who taught me the art of making briyanis in a clay pot is on a mission these days- to keep me in the kitchen all day. She keeps sending me pictures of recipes she has been cooking for her family(well I do it all the time too, but since I am younger I get to complain 
). I had two choices, accept my defeat and beg her for the recipe or just look at the pictures and drool. I took route 1 mainly(ahem!!) because I am busy with taking R to various classes and activities and do not have the energy to follow her instructions. Apart from that I have handed over the job of finding and providing interesting recipes for this blog for the next couple of days. After all what are big sisters for? She does all the work and I get all the credits as usual So, coming to you live from Dubai for the next month will be my sister Sowmeya’s recipes starting with this HSB style kozhambu. As you know, you cannot separate the combination- Iyers and Vathakozhambu and also aloo kari and vathakozhambu!!
Besides, the day she sent me this recipe something hilarious happened that I am sure N is not going to forget it for a long time. It was our anniversary(6 years!!) and I woke up early as usual, looked around for flowers, cakes, gifts- this n that..nothing was there in the kitchen or in the living room. I marched to the garage to see if he has placed anything in my car. Nope. I was fuming and I just sat down waiting for him to wake up(This means war as you know) and when he came to the kitchen I started
ranting like” How could you” and “After all I do for you and R”…and so on and so forth..He listened to it for a good 15 minutes and said, “Actually our anniversary is tomorrow”
I ended up making this the very same day to sort of say sorry because I know he loves Hotel Saravana Bhavan recipes very much and we were the sort of people who drove from Utah to California to eat at HSB during grad school. We go to HSB when we go to Seattle or Vancouver and to the East coast. I wonder why there is no HSB in Houston!
So I can honestly say that, if you are looking for the HSB style vathakozhambu- the looks, the aroma, the taste- people this is it. Go for it.
Over to you sis…
At home while growing up, I loved vatha kuzhambu so much that my mom used to say that I had vatha kuzhambu in my veins. (It was rasam in my sis’s veins). Thankfully, the tradition of vathakuzhambu love continues with both hubby and son Aryan loving the taste of it. Ary in fact, can identify what I have cooked when he enters the house and grins ear to ear if he smells his fav vatha kuzhambu. Hubby loves the vatha kuzhambu served at restaurants (mainly Saravan Bhanvan) and has been asking me to replicate the same, (High hopes). When we visited his cousin living here, his mom made this vatha kuzhambu. Since this tasted divine I wasted no time in getting the recipe from her. I make it often as the demand is very high for this.
Ingredients :
Drumstick – 6-7 pieces
Sundaikkai, Manathakkali vathal ( any vatthal will do )- 2-3 tbsp
Big Red onion – 2 ,finely chopped
Tamarind pulp – 1 cup(about 300ml water and 1/4 tsp tamarind paste)
Salt to taste
To grind:
Small onions/shallots – 4
Garlic – 2 cloves
Coriander seeds – 1 tsp
Coconut grated – 3 table spoons
Tomato – 1 (chopped)
Red chilies- 3 to 4
For tempering:
Mustard seeds- 1/2 tsp
Fenugreek seeds- 1 pinch
curry leaves-few
Gingelly oil – 3 teaspoons
Method :
Grind the tomato, garlic, shallots, coconut, red chilies and coriander seeds to a smooth paste with a little amount of water. There is no need to roast the ingredients. It has to be raw.If you like you can also grind it with coconut milk instead of adding coconut.
Heat the oil in a kadai. Add the mustard seeds, fenugreek seeds and curry leaves. When they splutter, add chopped onions, the vathal and drumstick. Saute till oinons are translucent. Add the ground paste and saute for a good 3-4 minutes . Add the tamarind water and salt. Cover and simmer for a good 15 minutes on a medium flame till the drumstick is fully cooked and the oil floats on top.
If you think it is very thin and watery, can add rice flour paste. Mix 1 tbsp of rice flour in water just enough to make a thick paste, add this to the boiling kozhambu and simmer for another 2-3 minutes. It will be thick as there is coconut in the paste and it will thicken up as it sits.
Switch off. Serve this with any of this : coconut thogayal, achari aloo kari, aloo kari with coconut, kootu or morekootu.
The above said quantity will be enough for 2 people. If you need your kozhambu spicy or tangy, adjust the ratio of chilies and tamarind accordingly.
ruchikacook @ May 2, 2012
