Get full with fibre : Plantain pith curry

We tend to ingore things that are in abundance around us. I'm not talking of any grave issues affecting the nation, but about the humble banana. India is blessed with a rich variety of this tropical fruit - rich in potassium, - and this is the first to be banned from your life by most dieticians and weight loss experts. I do understand with the sugars and calories that a banana brings in, it can be of some concern for someone who wants to lose weight. But surely it can be better than a packet of chips, when hunger strikes! 

The banana tree is not called the Kalpavriksha without reason - and while most of us might have written essays in school, it nice to remember how each and every part of this plant is useful in day to day life. The leaves make for ecofriendly plates on which one can eat a five course meal. (well, almost!) The fruit of course needs no introduction - being one of the first things we learn to eat as humans while being weaned from the breast. The raw bananas (plantains) can be cooked into koftas, used as a substitute for potatoes by Jains, fried into the widely-loved chips. The flower whose intricate design is a true miracle of nature, is used to adorn the entrance of auspicious events like marriage, while also being cooked into delicacies in many Indian cuisines. The stem (which is actually a false stem, as it is a collection of leaf stalks) is full of fibre and when the outer shiny layers are pulled off, the inner pith is edible and that's what this post is about. 

Fibre is too important component of our diet to be ignored - some of it's key benefits put simply -

-It provides satiety or the fullness experienced after a meal, so you don't end up consuming too many calories to feel sated.

-It binds with the bad cholesterol preventing it from getting deposited in the walls of the blood vessels causing heart attacks and strokes.

-It protects from cancer of the large intestine and of course...

makes your mornings hassle free :)

Eating whole grains, beans, lentils, vegetables and fruits with their skins wherever possible, adds up to provide the 25 odd grams of daily recommended fibre intake. 

This recipe is one sure shot tasty way to get some of that daily fibre.

Vazhaithadu curry

Serves 4

Ingredients

1 kg stem or a cylinder 8 inches long

2 cups thin buttermilk (old and sour buttermilk is better)

1/4 tsp turmeric powder

For tempering:

2 tsp oil

Pinch of asafoetida

2 sprigs curry leaves

1 tsp mustard seeds

1 tsp udad dal

2 broken red chillies

1 tsp sugar

1/2 cup moong dal soaked in water for at least 2 hours

1 tsp sambar powder (optional)

salt to taste

Fresh coconut scrapings for garnish (optional)

Directions

Oil hands before handling the stem as it stains the hands. 

Peel off the satiny outer layers with a knife until the inner rough part is exposed. This could be 2 layers or more depending on how thick the stem was to start with.

Keep a big bowl of diluted sour buttermilk on the side to immerse the chopped stem pieces. This prevents them from darkening.

To cut the plantain stem, slice it thinly - 4-5 slices at a time, place them in a stack and then finely dice it, immersing the chopped pieces in the buttermilk immediately. Do this until you have chopped the entire length of the stem into small bits. Any tough fibres that come in your way, peel them off and discard. Small fibre bits will remain and that's what will make this dish extremely healthy.

Once you are ready to cook, drain the chopped plantain stem and place in a vessel with 1/4 cup water and turmeric powder mixed well.

Place 2-3 cups of water in a pressure cooker large enough to hold the vessel containing the chopped stem.

Pressure cook this for 3 whistles and 3-4 minutes on sim. Once cool, remove and drain if required. You can also boil this in very little water until almost soft.

In a wok, heat the oil, saute the udad dal till light golden, put in the remaining tempering ingredients. After a quick stir, put in the drained moong dal and cooked plantain pith. Add sugar and salt, plus sambar powder if using. The pinch of sugar is offset the slight bitterness in the stem.

Sprinkle water and cook covered for 10 minutes with occasional stirring, so that the dal is quite done.

Check for salt and adjust, remove from flame. Sprinkle fresh coconut and serve hot with rice and mor kozhambu.

P.S.

I was wondering if cutting off the stem of the poor banana tree, caused it to die a premature death. A bit of research reveals that the banana tree yields only once after which it is anyway cut off and fed to the cattle, or to banana-stem eating folks :)

P.P.S.

Plantain pith, plantain stem, vazhaithandu, vazhaipindi, musa pseudostem are all the various terms of endearment of the banana stem.

Some interesting links:

How to cook a Musa Psedostem- this one is a must read by CY Gopinath

Celebrate the Banana republic - Ratna Raman

Manglorean style plantain pith curry

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Karela with kachori masala - Bitter gourd made better

As a child, I didn't have the choice to avoid any foods. Whatever was made at home, I had to eat - and while at that time I hated the rules, I now realise that thanks to this, I appreciate all kinds of foods today.

Bitter gourd was one exception though at that time, where I would have the option to eat something else instead. My grandmother didn't have the heart to force a kid to eat this bitter vegetable. So when I started cooking myself, I would not be interested in buying it in the first place. However in the last few years, this one, like eggplant has gotten added to my weekly shopping list. Whether it's Pavakkai pitlah, Bitter gourd and ripe mango Ayurvedic curry or a dry spice-rich curry like the one below, it's really not that bad, especially when made with all kinds of spices. I usually don't like to drown a vegetable's original taste in spices, but something like bitter gourd really needs that kind of treatment - as the only bitter thing i like to eat as it is, is dark chocolate.

Bitter gourd is very very good for you. Especially if you want to control your blood sugar levels or you are after that flat belly. Here's what longevity expert Dr.Maoshing Ni has to say about bitter gourd -

A melon for natural weight loss
A traditional remedy for losing weight and helping treat diabetes is bitter melon, also known as bitter gourd or balsam pear. Looking a bit like a zucchini with a bumpy surface, its cleansing and mildly laxative properties flush the system of toxins and promote weight loss. Bitter melon contains vitamins A, B1, B3, and C as well as several phytonutrients—including antioxidants like lutein, lycopene, and zeaxanthin. It is a good source of dietary fiber, plus it has two times the beta-carotene of broccoli, twice the calcium of spinach, and double the potassium of bananas!

Surprisingly, only Indians and some other Asians are familiar with this melon / gourd. Indians do have a fascination for all kinds of gourds it looks like :)

For those of you who need an intro with this super vegetable - read about Bitter melon / gourd on Wiki
A more authentic source of info on the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center about it's anti cancer properties.

This is one recipe guaranteed to make you scratch karela from your hate list :) After all who doesn't like kachories, so any vegetable prepared this way will remind you of the beloved snack.

Kachori-masalewala Karela
Serves 3-4

Ingredients
3 medium sized bittergourds (bitter melon / karela / pavakkai)
1/4 cup moong dal soaked in hot water
1 - 2 tsp rice bran or any light cooking oil
Whole spices for tempering
1/2 tsp each of
Mustard seeds (rai)
Cumin seeds (jeera)
Fennel seeds (saunf)
Carom seeds (ajwain)
1/4 tsp of fenugreek seeds

Spice powders
Pinch of pure asafoetida
1 tsp of coriander powder
1 tsp cumin powder
1 tsp or more of red chilli powder
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1 heaping teaspoon of dried mango powder (amchur) or 1 tsp of tamarind paste or 1 tbsp of lemon juice

Others
1 tsp of sesame seeds (optional)
1 tbsp of crushed jaggery
Salt to taste
Fresh coriander to garnish
Freshly scraped coconut for garnish (optional)
Directions

1. Scrub and wash bitter gourds well. Top and tail them. Cut them open vertically. Scoop out all seeds and membranes inside. Slice them under a cm thin. If necessary, cut once more vertically to give smaller sized slices. I like to pressure cook them in a vessel without extra water for 7 minutes under pressure for fast, nutrient-loss free cooking. You can either microwave or boil the pieces in salted water. Once the cooker has cooled, remove and keep aside.
2. In a non stick kadhai, heat oil and add asafoetida first. Immediately, throw in all the whole spices for tempering. Stir just until they start spluttering and changing colour, don't brown / burn any spices. Add the sesame seeds last if using, stir for a minute, until it starts spluttering.
3. Add the moong dal soaked for about 15 minutes in hot water as it is, or coarsely ground. Stir along with the spices on medium heat for about 5 minutes. Add 3/4 cup water to this along with all remaining spice powders/ pastes. Stir around for a minute. Cover and less the dal cook for around 5 minutes. We don't want it to turn mushy, just soft.
4. Next add the cooked slices of bitter gourd, salt and jaggery. Stir well to coat with spices. Cover and cook for another 5 minutes. Adjust salt and red chilli powder after tasting.
5. Garnish with fresh coriander. Serve hot with dal & rice or with chapatis / parathas and a bowl of yogurt or kadi (that's what I had for lunch).

Options
You could substitute the moong dal with 1/2 cup of dry roasted gram flour (besan / kadalaimaavu) to make it faster. In that case, just add it when you add the karela slices.
Same method works superbly with snake gourd (pudalankai)- will convert all gourd haters in one bite!
Another method to prepare this is to fill the cavity of one inch sized pieces of either gourd and shallow fry in oil. I don't have the luxury of the time nor the excess oil that the above method uses, so I stick to the low-oil sliced up one.

How to make bitter gourd less bitter

There are a variety of methods here. While I use none of this, as I believe draining the gourd of its bitter jucies reduces its healthful properties, you could use this, especially if you are a first timer with karela.

1. Slice the gourd as described above the previous night and soak overnight in buttermilk or thinned yogurt with a pinch of salt. Cook next morning after draining well. Take care while you add the salt while cooking as the vegetable would have retained some amount of salt in the soaking process.
2. Salt the slices with a tsp of salt and leave in a colander for half to one hour. Wash lightly before cooking to remove excess salt.
3. There's another theory that says soaking in the water in which rice has been washed (starchy water) for a few hours will also remove the bitterness. I haven't tried this one though.
   

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The Great Indian Vegetable Biryani

There are some recipes that escape even a voracious cook - and for me Biryani has been one of them. In most friends' house parties this is one dish that unfailingly features as the main course - a pot of vegetable biryani for the non meat eaters and a mutton biryani for the others. Besides it is commonly ordered in our favourite Punjabi restaurant Urban Tadka (UT) which you must have heard from me pretty often on this blog. In UT, the biryani is made in individual clay pots sealed with dough and baked in the tandoor - and in all my biryani encounters, I can easily rate theirs as the best. One evening when DH suggested vegetable biryani with raita for dinner - it struck me that this is one dish that has eluded me all these years and why not try my hand at it.

Of all the recipes I found on food blogs and general food websites, I found this video by Vah Chef Sanjay Thumma very educative. Only problem with his video that he doesn't mention how much of each ingredient to use. So here's my version of his recipe.
Since there quite a lot of ingredients, I will include them along with the directions.

Special apparatus
A large pot along with a wide pan or pot in which the first one will sit comfortably in case you plan to finish off the final stage on stove stop, or else you can bake it off in the oven.

Preparation

1. Wash 2 cups long grained basmati rice gently and soak for an hour in a large bowl.
2. Slice 4 medium onions very finely, separate. You can either deep fry these or bake them in the oven till brown or shallow fry them on a non stick pan coated with oil on a very low flame (around 15 minutes or so)
3. Vegetables for the biryani - 1 small cauliflower broken into large florets
   2 medium carrots, scraped and cut into large pieces
   3 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into large wedges
   1/2 - 1 cup fresh or frozen green peas
   2 large capsicums, deseeded cut into large squares
4. Fry 3 tbsp cashews and then 2 tbsp of raisins in hot ghee on a low flame, drain and keep aside.
5. Chop roughly 1/2 cup mint leaves and 1/2 cup coriander leaves. Keep aside.
6. Soak a large pinch of saffron strands in 1/2 cup of warm milk. Keep aside.
   

Directions

1. Heat 2 tbsp ghee in a large non stick pot.
2. Add to the hot ghee, 3 bay leaves, 3 sticks of cinnamon 1" each, 2 black cardamoms, 2 green cardamoms, 4 cloves, 2 tsp cumin seeds and toss on a low flame.
3. Next, add 2 tbsp of ginger garlic paste and saute for a minute till cooked.
4. Throw in all the chopped vegetables, 2 tsp of salt, 2 tsp of red chilli powder, 1 tsp turmeric powder, 2 tbsp of coriander powder, 1 tbsp cumin powder, 2 tsp garam masala powder, 3 slit green chillies, handful of mint leaves and saute well to coat all the vegetable chunks evenly. On a low flame let the vegetables cook till they are 60-70% done, sprinkling some water at intervals if necessary. To this finally add 200 grams paneer cut into large cubes and toss well.
   
5. Once the vegetables are in the nearly done stage, add 3 cups of thick homemade / Greek yoghurt and stir on a low flame till the veggies are well coated with the spicy yoghurt sauce. Check for salt and adjust as per taste. Keep this aside.
6. Meanwhile bring to a boil around 3-4 Litres of water in a large pot - add around a tsp of salt, 2 bay leaves and 1 tbsp ghee / oil and add the drained soaked rice grains. Let this boil for around 5-7 minutes and check if nearly done. At the 75% done stage drain the rice out in a colander. Turn this onto a large plate, spread it out gently with forks and let it cool.

Assembly (for the stove top method)

1. In the large pot (that fits inside of another pan), first layer the half the rice. Add half of the vegetable-paneer-yogurt mix. Top with half of the browned onions, fried nuts-raisins and chopped herbs.
2. Add a cup of beaten yogurt on top of this.
3. Top with rest of the rice and repeat the remaining onion-nuts-herbs layer over the rice.
4. Cover the pot with 2-3 layers of thick aluminium foil. Cover with a fitting lid.
5. Place 2-3 cups of water in the larger pan. Keep over high heat. Place the covered pot with biryani in this pan and let the water simmer for 15 minutes.
6. Remove the pot from the pan and keep aside for 30 minutes or so for the flavours to develop fully before serving.
7. Serve with any vegetable / fruit raita that is chilled.

For those of you who would like to bake off in the final stage, layer as above in a oven proof deep pan and seal well with foil. Bake for 15-20 minutes. Serve as above.



Although this was not as good as my favourite restaurant's biryani, this is mighty good for a first attempt and I would give all credit to Chef Sanjay's video, which you might check out for a quick recap. I hope the quantified ingredients here make it a tad simpler for those of you wanting to try out the Great Indian Vegetable Biryani.

This recipe serves around 6-8 people for a main course along with raita made from 1 Litre yogurt.
I understand that the list of ingredients runs pretty long, but really you'll find most of the stuff in your pantry. The paneer is optional here, but it adds a nice variation to the texture of vegetables. You could also try boiled chickpeas as a protein addition instead of paneer.
(all ingredients for this recipe are marked in bold in the various stages of description)

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Cracked wheat with tons of veggies

This dish is modeled after the excellent Vegetable Baath that my mom makes. Baath is nothing to do with bathing, but this is a rice dish, that has loads of vegetables that are finely chopped, sauteed with whole spices and spice powders. The cooked rice is then cooled and delicately hand-mixed with the spiced vegetables. My favourite accompaniment to this is a ripe banana pachchadi (raita), the recipe for which I must share with you once I manage to capture a picture of this. This darn thing is so delicious that waiting to take a pic is an ultimate test of resolve.

Here, I have not bothered to cook the veggies and wheat separately but cooked the wheat in a sort of stock where the vegetables have been half cooked. Next time, I intend to do it the way mom does it for the 'baath' and will update the results here.

The result of the dish below is a cross between an upma and a pulao, which could have been due to some confusion in my head. The dals, ginger and curry leaves are the seasoning that are done in case of upmas and the whole spices are from the pulao end of the spectrum. You could use either one or both of them.

Ingredients
3/4 cup cracked wheat, medium sized
1/2 tsp ghee / butter

5-6 cups of finely chopped vegetables
I used-
Fresh green peas
Green beans
Carrots
Cauliflower
Cabbage
Spinach
Fenugreek greens
Capsicum

2 tsp olive oil
2 bay leaves
4-5 cloves
1-2 sticks of cinnamon
2 green cardamoms
1 tsp cumin seeds

1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp udad dal
1 tsp chana dal
1 tsp chopped green chillies
1/2 tsp finely grated ginger
1-2 dried red chillies, broken

1/4 tsp turmeric powder
1 tbsp sambhar powder
1 1/2 tsp salt

Directions

In a large wok, heat the ghee / butter and saute the cracked wheat for 3-4 minutes on medium flame till fragrant. Remove in a bowl. Cover with 3 cups of boiling hot water, cover and keep aside.

In the same wok, heat the olive oil and add the whole spices (bay leaves, cloves, cumin, cardamom). After 30 seconds, add the mustard seeds. Let them crackle, and follow it with the udad dal and chana dal. These need to be sauteed for 1 minute on low to medium flame to turn them golden brown.

Next, add the green chillies, ginger, curry leaves, red chillies. Stir them around for a minute or so, and transfer all the chopped veggies and greens into the wok. Add half the salt, sprinkle with water and cover with a tight fitting lid. Give it a stir every 2 minutes with more sprinkles of water. OR Place a thali (a dish with a rim) with one cup water in it to cover the wok and let the veggies cook for 6-8 minutes till almost tender.

At this point, tip the bowl with the cracked wheat in hot water, into the wok. Add the spice powders (turmeric powder, sambhar powder), remaining salt, stir well and cover until the cracked wheat is cooked till tender. This will take around 6-8 minutes depending on size of the grains. Adjust salt and spiciness. Fluff with a fork and remove into a serving bowl.

Serve hot with a bowl of chilled raita.

This is perfect when I don't want to fuss over making dinner. This one pot dish is nutritious, filling and tasty as well, and it is just right to send over to Meeta's Monthly Mingle : One dish dinners.

Latest on The Feel Good Blog: Gift yourself a 10 minute facial

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Announcing my other blog and the Aunt inspired soup series

Heartfelt thanks to your warm, kind and soothing words. I do feel glad I shared my feelings with my blog sisters - you are a wonderful bunch of people. And now I keep my promise of sharing with you my positivity blog - I've called it The Feel Good Blog. Every little thing that makes me feel good, everything I'm grateful for will go in here. It's just two posts old, so you haven't missed too much. Please bookmark this site and I would love you to share with me all things that make you smile. It's my little endeavor to share happiness and the feel-good feeling that we can all do with.


So much for my health conscious cooking, I wonder why I was so step-motherly to soups until now. It's just like when you never get down to doing something, it's so out of your mind anyway. My soup reminder came when I was at my mom's place for a while. My mom gave me the gossip that Aunt G has been making soup each evening at 6 - and each day it's a new soup, something like Soup of the Day in those nice little cafes. This was enough to spike my interest. And when she said yesterday's Soup of the Day was Cucumber soup, I told her let's go, check on Aunt G now!

My mom's sister and my granny live a couple of buildings away, and it goes without saying that when I'm there, I drop by my aunt's house in the evenings to catch up on what's happening (what's cooking rather). She's one of the most innovative cooks in the family and she's always upto something interesting in the kitchen. At least most the times, lets say! So that evening, it was a tomato-carrot-lentil soup. OK, so I stole the lentil idea for my soup from her, but hey mine is a more exotic combination. See below.

By the way, if you end up trying my recipe below, please tell me if you didn't go WOW on seeing the colour of the soup, when it came out of the blender! Do NOT forget.

Just to show you the colour - Yeah I know the photo is terrible, but blame it on the lack of practise, the steam and the shaky hand.

Soup of the Day - 1
Category - Soup, Quick dinner, No fat
Time to table - Under 20 minutes
Serves - One greedy person

Ingredients
1 cup packed spinach leaves, washed thoroughly
1 medium beet, peeled and cubed
1 small carrot, cubed
1/2 cup cooked yellow lentils (tur dal)
1 medium tomato, quartered
Seasonings - see below


Directions

1. In a pan, place 1/2 cup water. Bring to a boil, throw in the beets and carrots. Cover and cook for 10 minutes, till the veggies are nearly tender. Then add in the spinach leaves and tomatoes, covering and cooking for another 2-3 minutes.
2. Drain the veggies and let cool. Reserve the drained liquid.
3. In a blender, puree the tender veggies, cooked lentils till very smooth.
4. Remove this in the same pan with the reserved liquid, add some water to thin out the soup if you wish. Bring to a simmer.
5. Serve into a large soup bowl. Season with lots of pepper, pinch of salt and some lemon zest (and a dot of Amul butter too)

Nutrition notes

• My aunt likes to add some milk in the end to most soups, to give them a creamy taste and also to get an interesting colour. However I am against mixing dairy with green leafy vegetables as it makes iron absorption difficult.
• The lentils gave a nice body and an different dimension of mellowed out taste to the soup. You can use any leftover cooked lentils, or anything you've reserved in the freezer.
• In my opinion, lemon zest gives a nice flavour when beets are used, as they give a sharp edge to the metallic taste of beets and spinach.
• A trial proved that people who start their meal with a low cal soup, ended up consuming 20% less in the entire meal. This kind of reduced food (calorie) intake over a period of time, can help reduce weight or maintain lost weight. This is actually true in my case. I had this soup for dinner with two slices of whole wheat bread, toasted, and I had no appetite to eat any more.

Coming up soon are more healthy soups. I've already made 3 different types this week - yoohoo!!!

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Kerala Vegetable Stew / Ishtew and Aapam

Whenever I visit a new city in our out of the country, I make it a point to visit the local supermarkets. Nothing reflects the local culture, food habits and buying preferences of people in that city as much as the local supermarket. You might find that crazy but major of my shopping ends up being from the food section of these stores, be it in London, or my trip to Kuala Lumpur last year...I even enjoyed doing the same during my week's stay in Hyderabad end of last year.

In Mumbai, although I regular shop in a couple of stores closer to home, sometimes it is just convenient to stop by a large store if you are on the way from somewhere to save time and fuel. That's how I chanced upon this really huge store that carries almost everything under the sun. It was fun to see them carry a whole range of south Indian 'bhakshanam' (snacks), papads and even interesting mixes like aapam mixes, puttu mixes, instant sevai etc. Being located close to south Indian localities, we find regional variations in what is stocked by these stores.



Since I had never tried making aapam before, I decided to try out this pack of Rice Paalaapam mix, which required not much effort to get it right. This packet has been lying in my 'extra groceries' shelf for over 4 months and last night I realised it is high time I brought it out, also since I had run out of aata (doesn't speak much for my housekeeping skills does it?) the aapams were a good substitute for rotis.

Kerala cuisine has a variety of aapams, all made with nearly the same basic ingredients - ground rice, coconut, yeast or toddy for fermenting, salt and sugar. The fermentation gives the final product a soft spongy texture that is perfect for mopping up gravies or liquids such as the stew. Although I used a ready mix this time over, I will most surely give the homemade aapam batter a try next time, especially since this combination received a double thumbs up from the husband. He loved every bit of the stew aapam combo and I have another quick dinner idea to cheer him after a hard day at work!

The stew took hardly 15 minutes of effort (I use either powdered or packaged coconut milk, that explains it) and the aapams are made walking around between the dining and kitchen, amidst conversations and TV and it is no effort at all. We both eat as they are getting made, hot off the pan, so this can never be a sit-down dinner for us!

This is the first time I tried something proper Keralite in my kitchen, if you minus the kootans, avials, araicha sambars we make as a part of our Iyer recipes. After going through a few stew recipes online and on the food forum, on a whim I decided to omit the shallots / onions, and use a pinch of turmeric and sambar powder. The sambar powder added a nice flavour without making the stew taste 'sambary' at all. Turmeric was just to turn the stew to a light golden yellow as I am not a big fan of milky white curries. And while we were nearly 3/4 of the way to finishing the stew I remembered reading about RCI Kerala, so managed to take a quick pic of the quickly diminishing stew :)




Vegetable Stew - Kerala style with Aapam
Category - Quick dinner, Stew, Regional Cuisine of India
Time Taken - Under 20 minutes for stew and over a minute per aapam
Stew serves 2-3 people generously

Ingredients:
2 potatoes, boiled, peeled and cubed
2 cups small cauliflower florets
1/2 cup fresh / frozen green peas

1 tsp oil
3-4 cloves
2 green cardamoms
1" stick cinnamon
1 - 2 green chillies, sliced
1/2 tsp ginger shredded
2 sprigs curry leaves

a pinch of turmeric powder
1/2 tsp sambar powder (optional)
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup coconut milk

Directions

In a pan, place over 1/2 cup water with the cauliflower florets and green peas. Cover with tight fitting lid and boil for 4-5 minutes, until both veggies are tender yet crisp. Keep aside.

In a wok, heat the oil. Stir in the whole spices and then the chillies, ginger and curry leaves. After 30 seconds, add the cubed potatoes, peas and cauliflower along with the water used for boiling. Season with salt, turmeric powder and sambar powder. Stir well. Once this comes to a simmer, add a cup of coconut milk. Let this come to a gentle simmer and then remove from flame.


For Aapams - I used the ready Rice Palaapam mix (Fine rice flour with yeast) to be reconstituted with water, salt and a pinch of sugar.

Keep this covered for over an hour.

Grease a tsp of oil on a rounded aapam pan or any non stick pan. Wipe with a tissue to spread the oil all over the surface. On a moderately hot pan, pour a ladle of the batter, and rotate the pan around to spread the batter into a circle. Cover and cook on medium flame. Aapams are cooked only on one side unlike dosas that are flipped over and cooked on both sides. Remove and serve hot with stew.



Variation: You can also break an egg in the center portion of the aapam while its cooking and cover for over 1-2 minutes. The white gets cooked fully and the yellow is slightly jiggly. Crack some pepper and salt into this and you can dip the edges of the lacy aapam into the soft egg before taking a dig into the stew.

This is my submission for RCI Kerala hosted by Jyothsana at Curry Bazaar

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Cabbage curry with Bengali spices

Inspirations come in different ways. The inspiration to cook Bengali vegetarian food came after my visit to Oh! Calcutta - one of the more authentic Bengali cuisine restaurants in Bombay. S and I actually wrote down all that we had ordered in detail so that one of us could blog about it. We even fought over who'd write about it first. And then like how it happens sometimes, the paper got pushed inside a drawer and neither of us wrote about that brilliant meal that proved that Bengali food is not all 'phish' We had started with an amazing hyacinth beans patties steamed in banana leaves with tomato-khajurer chatni. The flavour was very unusual and just the perfect start to the meal. For the main course it was a chorchori - a mixed vegetable dish in mustard-green chilli gravy and a Alu-Pulkopi Daalna - Cauliflower and potatoes in a spicy gravy. We had this with plain rotis and ended the meal with Rosogulla in Payesh.Will you believe it if I told you we'd done this dinner almost 4-5 months ago and I still remember every single taste of that evening? That's how good it was.

The next step was to try and replicate some of these beauties in my kitchen for which I had to get hold on one special ingredient called Kalonji - Nigella seeds to make the Paach Phoron, since I had the other four ingredients in my pantry.
Paach Phoron is a typical Bengali whole spice mix made using 5 spices in equal proportion, namely-

Cumin seeds
Fennel seeds
Nigella seeds
Mustard seeds
Fenugreek seeds

You might have tasted all these spices individually, but mix them up and you will discover and entirely new zone of flavour, something heavenly that you have to taste to understand. The first time I'd got hold of some ready made Paach phoron that my friend got for me from Kolkotta, I was so addicted to this taste that I used to add it to any vegetable dish. This simple cabbage saute I made yesterday is truly Bengal inspired. It uses both paach phoron in the tempering and mustard powder for extra flavour, some slivers of green chillies and that's all there is to it.

Cabbage curry with Bengali Spices
Time taken: 20 minutes
Serves: 2-3 people
Category: Indian side, Vegetables

---

Ingredients
3 cups shredded cabbage - tightly packed
1-2 tsp vegetable oil or mustard oil
1 tsp paach phoron [see above]
2 light green chillies, deseeded and diagonally sliced
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
1/2 tsp coarsely ground mustard powder
1/2 tsp salt

Directions
In a heavy based wok, take 1 tsp oil. Once moderately hot splutter the spice mix (paach phoron). Saute the chillies for a few seconds.
Add the shredded cabbage with salt and turmeric powder - on a low flame, saute every 2 minutes or so, until the cabbage is almost cooked buy maintaining slight crispness.
At this stage, sprinkle the mustard powder and saute for a minute or so.
Serve hot with rotis or a bowl of curd for a light / low-cal lunch.


Check what Haalo has to say about Paach Phoron and she has some eye-catching pics of the spices there too.



This one goes to Sunita's event - Think Spice: Think Mustard

Tags: paach phoron, bengali spices, cabbage curry, low cal indian curry, Oh Calcutta, Bengali cuisine, Bengali restaurant, Bombay, Saffron Trail, Recipe, Food, Indian food blog, Healthy eating, Healthy living, Mumbai, India

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Instant Mushroom Methi Curry with Onion Rice

Last week we had a pre-Independence day party at home. The night before the party, since I was already busy with all preparations, I was in no mood for any elaborate cooking. We generally do not have rice on a week night, because we both prefer to have rotis or pasta / noodles. Rice comes to rescue when I want to get out of the kitchen in 15 minutes and my tiny Hawkins pressure cooker helps me to do just that. Mushrooms, apart from the few extra minutes it takes to clean them, are a breeze to cut and cook. Chunky and full of taste, they are one of my favourite vegetables (not calling them Fungi, because I really don't care for any other fungi than the edible ones).

This meal is one such perfect hurried meal, where when you sit down to eat, you forget that it was made in a hurry. The rich flavours of the curry balanced by the delicately flavoured rice makes it a perfect weekday curry-in-a-hurry meal!!

Instant Mushroom Methi Curry

Ingredients
1 pack button mushrooms 12-15 pieces
1 tbsp kasuri methi (dried fenugreek leaves)
1 tsp cooking oil
1/2 tsp mustard seeds


1 tsp cooking oil
For curry paste:
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
3 cloves garlic, peeled and mashed
1/2" piece of ginger, sliced
4-5 shallots, sliced or 1 small onion sliced
1 medium tomato sliced
1 tsp coriander seeds
2 dried red chillies

1 heaped tbsp besan (gram flour)
1/2 cup buttermilk or 2 tbsp yogurt whisked with water to make 1/2 cup
1/2 tsp salt


Directions
1. Scrub the mushrooms clean and chop them into bite sized pieces. In a wok, heat 1 tsp oil, splutter mustard seeds, add the chopped mushrooms and dried methi leaves. Saute till the mushrooms are nearly cooked - this takes about 3-4 minutes. Remove from wok and keep aside.

2. In the same wok, heat 1 tsp oil. Put in all ingredients for curry paste except tomatoes and saute till shallots are soft. Towards the end put in the tomato slices and stir till they are almost soft. Remove and cool for 5 minutes. Grind to a fine paste.

3. Whisk the besan (gram flour) in buttermilk and keep aside.

4. Place the sauteed mushrooms in the same wok you started with. Put in the curry paste along with the buttermilk mix. Let this simmer for 3-5 minutes till thick. Add the salt at this stage, simmer for a minute more and remove from flame. Garnish with fresh coriander (optional).

Note:
This goes perfectly well with chapatis or rice. You can make this curry with boiled and chopped soya nuggets to make it a high-protein curry.

For the quick meal, I served this with some Quick onion rice pressure cooked with whole spices.

Quick onion rice
1 cup Basmati or any other fragrant rice
1 tsp ghee
1 tsp cumin seeds
2 bay leaves
1 small piece cinnamon
1 star anise
3-4 cloves
1 small onion, thinly sliced
1/2 tsp salt

Directions
1. Wash the rice in plenty of water, drain and keep aside.

2. In a pressure cooker, heat 1 tsp ghee. Add all the whole spices. Stir for 30 seconds. Add the sliced onions, stir for a minute till somewhat soft. I do not brown the onions, but you can do so if you like the taste.

3. Add the washed rice with 1 1/2 -2 cups of water, depending on the instructions that come along with the brand of rice you use. Since pressure cooking is very fast, adding more water will make the rice soggy. Salt the water and pressure cook on medium flame till you get one whistle. Switch off the cooker and let it cool for the next 15 minutes or so and the excess water will be absorbed by the rice making it fluffy. Open the cooker after it has cooled and remove the pilaf into a bowl. Fluff with a fork if necessary and serve with any curry or dal.

Note: The green chilli pickle is made using Anita's recipe, the only change I've made is to add mustard oil instead of peanut oil.

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Poori Kizhangu

Poori, Kizhangu and Anita's Green Chilli Pickles in mustard oil

When Anita, one of my favourite people among the food bloggers called out to us to make pooris, I could not bear to refuse. And let me confess, this is the first time I've ever made them. They puffed up beautifully and were a great colour, but I did not want to handle the camera with oily hands, hence don't have the proof of any puffy pooris.

Just today, I saw a Pictorial in Poori making on Mahanandi. Indira has explained in simple terms - How to make pooris that I don't feel the need to explain. I have seen my people add some rava (semolina) in the poori dough, I did that too. It gives the pooris a slightly crispier texture.

The traditional Tambram accompaniment to pooris is potatoes in gravy and this combination is called poori-kizhangu in Tamil, kizhangu short for urulaikizhangu, which means potato. This was included in my earlier post dedicated to potatoes - Potato in Tambram cuisine.

I have fond memories of my granny preparing this occasionally, as a special tiffin (a 4 o' clock mini meal). She would place the smaller one-burner stove on the floor and sit down to deep fry the beautiful pooris and the potato gravy simmering on the other stove would be lovingly ladled into kinnams (small bowls) as she served out the pooris as soon as they came out of the frying pan.



Poori-Kizhangu
Serves 4 people

Ingredients
4-5 medium sized potatoes (boiled and peeled)
2 tbsp oil
1 tsp mustard seeds
2 sprigs curry leaves
2 tsp udad dal
1 tsp chana dal
4 green chillies, slit or finely chopped
1" knob of fresh ginger, slivered
Large pinch of asafoetida
2 medium onions, peeled and finely sliced
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
3 tbsp gram flour (besan)
1 1/2 cups water
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sambar powder (optional)

For garnish
Juice of 1 lime
Fresh coriander, chopped

Directions
Dice half the potatoes and roughly mash the other half. Keep aside.
Heat the oil in a heavy bottomed wok. Splutter the mustard seeds and curry leaves. Put in the lentils (udad and chana dal) and fry till golden. Add a pinch of asafoetida powder, slivered ginger and green chillies - saute for 30 seconds.

Next, put in the sliced onions, a pinch of salt and saute the onions of medium flame till they are soft. Add the mashed and diced potatoes, 1/2 tsp turmeric powder and blend well with spices for about a minute.

Mix the gram flour in 1 1/2 cups water with 1 tsp with a fork/whisk so that there are no lumps.
Pour in this mixture over the potatoes and let it come to a simmer. The gram flour will thicken the gravy in about 5 minutes. Check for salt and add the sambar powder and lime juice at this stage.

Garnish with fresh coriander leaves.

Note:
The gravy should not be runny. If it is, then mix a tbsp or so of gram flour in 3 tbsp water, add it to the gravy and simmer for 3-4 minutes, till thick.

You can increase or decrease the spice level by adding more or less green chillies, as per your tolerance. The kizhangu will taste as good even without the sambar powder- it just adds some depth to the flavour.

This can be served with plain rotis too, but is a perfect accompaniment with pooris. Serve with your favourite pickle.

Other potato posts on Saffron Trail
Simply Delicious Potato Wedges
Potato in Tambram Cuisine
Potato Rosemary Focaccia Pugliese

Tags: puri, poori, Indian fried bread, kizhangu, poori kizhangu, tamil brahmin style potatoes, Saffron Trail, Recipe, Food, Indian food blog, Healthy eating, Healthy living, Mumbai, India

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Chargrilled Eggplant in Yoghurt

Update: Do check out the WBB # 13 - Oats for breakfast round up at Madhuli's Foodcourt for 20 delicious ways to make your breakfast healthier!

-----------------------

Kathrikkai Pacchidi

Chargrill an eggplant and you have a whole host of options. I can list 4 right away.

i. Prepare a gravy with onions, tomatoes, ginger garlic paste and spice powders like red chilli powder, coriander powder and turmeric and you can make a delicious Baingan ka Bharta.

ii. Blend it with some garlic, tahini, yoghurt and it turns into Baba Gannoush

iii. Blend it with some sauteed onions, flavour with saffron strands and pine nuts and it turns into a Badenjan dip

iv. Whisk in some fresh yogurt and do a traditional South Indian tadka and what you get is a Sutta Kathrikkai Pacchidi

This is a traditional South Indian Pacchidi (Raita). You could use small green chillies to make it fierier and garnish with fresh coriander. The eggplant pacchidi goes well with most South Indian rice preparations like lemon rice, coconut rice or even tamarind rice.



Kathrikkai Pacchidi
Category: Side, accompaniment, Low Carb
Time Taken: Under 15 minutes
Serves: 2 -3 people

Ingredients

1 medium sized eggplant
1 1/2 cups natural yoghurt
1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp vegetable oil or olive oil
2 dried red chillies ( I use Kashmiri red chillies), snipped into pieces
1 tsp udad dal
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1 sprig curry leaves

Directions

1. Char grill the eggplant on a flame, rotating it every minute or so, until the entire surface is blistered and charred, and the eggplant is cooked right till its center. A medium sized eggplant will take not more than 7-8 minutes. You can also do this over a grill or in the oven. Place this in a bowl and place a lid over it until it is cool enough to handle and peel.

2. Discard the peels and large chunks of seeds (if any). In a bowl, mash the eggplant pulp till soft with fingers or a whisk. You can even make it into a paste in the blender, but I like the rustic, uneven texture.

3. Beat in the yoghurt with salt.

4. In a small pan, heat the oil. Put in the mustard seeds. Once they pop, add the snipped red chillies, udad dal, curry leaves. Wait until the dal turns golden brown. The Kashmiri chillies colour the oil red and gives it a smoky, mildly spicy flavour. Transfer the content of the pan over the eggplant-yoghurt mix, give it a stir. Serve chilled.

Health note

If you want to cut calories you can use fat-free yoghurt, but make sure you use homemade Indian style or Greek yoghurt that is fresh. Since this recipe has only two main ingredients, both need to be of the best quality.

For a vegetarian low-carber, eggplant is a great choice. Yoghurt provides the proteins and probiotics that play a great role in many aspects of well being.

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Kovakkai Paruppu Usili - Ivy Gourd with steamed lentils

Usili is a popular Tamil Brahmin vegetable preparation where soaked, ground and steamed lentils are mixed with vegetables like cluster beans, French beans, Capsicum, Carrots and even Ivy Gourd. The first two are made regularly in my family, but until I saw Sheela write about this one with Kovakkai (ivy gourd) I hadn't know about this possibility. When I asked mum whether we make this kind in our family, she confirmed that they do and it is delicious.

Ivy Gourd is an interesting vegetable, mainly used in dry curries in Tam Bram cuisine - it is either sauteed in tempered oil and garnished with a bit of fresh coconut shavings or a spicier version is made with potatoes. For both these recipes, kovakkai can be cut into slender strips or into roundels. This is low carb, high in fibre and fast to cook. It is an excellent vegetable choice for diabetics too. Read this report for more details on Ivy Gourd and Diabetes.



Ingredients

1/2 cup toor dal
2 tbsp chana dal
2 dried red chillies
1/4 tsp asafoetida powder / hing
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp salt
1 sprig curry leaves
1 tbsp oil

2 cups length-wise slit kovakkai
1 tsp oil
2 dried red chillis and 1/2 tsp mustard seeds for tempering
Salt to taste


Preparation for Usuli:

Soak 1/2 cup toor dal with 2 tbsp chana dal, either overnight or for 3 hours in warm water. Grind this to a coarse paste with 2 broken dried red chillies, 1/4 tsp of asafoetida powder, pinch of turmeric powder, 1 tsp salt and a few curry leaves without adding any water.
Steam this paste in an idli-steamer or a regular steamer for 10-15 minutes until the lentil paste is cooked. Remove to a bowl once cooled and crumble into small pea-sized pieces. Keep aside.


Directions:

Place the slit pieces of kovakkai in microwave safe bowl, sprinkle some water and cook them on high for 5 minutes. Keep aside.

In a non stick pan, heat 1 tbsp oil, and put in the crumbled usili. Stir them around on medium flame till golden and slightly crispy. This will take around 5-7 minutes. Keep this aside.

In the same pan, take 1 tsp oil, put in the mustard seeds and broken red chilli pieces. Once they crackle, put it the cooked kovakkai, salt to taste, stir around for 2 minutes.

Add the stir fried usili and stir together for 2 minutes until they have come together.
Serve hot with Mor Kozhambu and rice along with some appalams (Tamilian Papads)


Notes:

• You could make double the batch, and freeze the lentil 'idlis' for the next time you are making this. Making the Usili is the only time consuming part of this recipe.
• You can also pressure cook the ivy gourd pieces in a cooker-vessel, after sprinkling some water for one whistle to cook them for this recipe.
• Mor kozhambu is the best combination with Usuli as this dish is already heavy with lentils. Combining this with sambhar, which is again made with lentils, makes it a very tough to digest combination. Mor Kozhambu is a Tamil style Kadi made with sour buttermilk and a paste of raw rice, coconut, cumin seeds and red chillies, boiled together with the buttermilk, and a tempering of curry leaves & red chillies.

A Maharashtrian style Ivy Gourd recipe - Tondlichi bhaji with Goda masala
Sheela's Mor Kozhambu with Opo Squash

This goes out to Nupur's A-Z of Indian Vegetables for the letter U (Usili)

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Pudalankaai Kootu - Snake Gourd with Lentils

Slit open snake gourds

Kootu is a lesser known part of TamBram cuisine. While the Sambhars and Rasams have been immortalised by the flourishing Udipi restaurants, kootu is something you will only find in a household and rarely ever in a restaurant.

From Wikipedia: Kootu is a Tamil dish, common in both Tamil Nadu and South India. Kootus are essentially vegetable and lentil dishes which are semi-solid, i.e., less aqueous than sambhar, but more so than dry curries. Rice and kootu is a common and simple Tamil meal. In Tamil cuisine kootus are considered substitutes for both curries and sambhar.

All kootus by default have some vegetables and lentils, but many variations of kootu exist:

* Puli Kootu: Puli is the Tamil word for tamarind and puli kootu refers to a kootu made with tamarind.

* Poricha Kootu: A kootu made with moong beans and cocunut.

* Araichivita Kootu: A kootu which has a ground (freshly powdered) masala in it, where the word araichivita in tamil literally translates to 'the one which has been ground and poured'.

Many other regional variations exist.

By the above definitions, this Snake Gourd Kootu would fall under category 2 and 3 as it has moong dal, coconut and the masala is freshly ground.

While Tamilians have a fondness for all gourds, even some of those that other cuisines wont touch, snake gourd is one of the popular ones. In addition to this preparation, it is also made in dry curry form, where udad dal, dried red chilli pieces and mustard seeds are tempered in oil, the slices of gourd are cooked till tender by sprinkling some water, seasoned with salt and garnished with fresh shavings of coconut.

Steaming hot kootu ready!

Snake Gourd Kootu
Category: TamBram Cuisine, Rice accompaniment, Low-fat
Time taken: Under 30 minutes, if dal is cooked, then under 15 minutes
Serves 2


Ingredients
2 cups sliced snake gourd
Pinch of turmeric powder
1 cup water
1/2 cup cooked moong dal, beaten
Salt to taste
To grind to a fine paste: 1/4 cup fresh coconut pieces or shavings + 1 tsp cumin seeds + 2 green chillies
For tempering: 1 tsp oil, 1/2 tsp mustard seeds, 1 tsp udad dal, 1 sprig curry leaves

Preparation:
Cut open the snake gourds along the length and run your fingers along the pith to clear off the insides. Place the gourds bunched together and slice them into pieces of 1 cm thickness or so.

Directions:
In a deep pan, place the gourd slices, water with pinch of turmeric. Bring the water to a boil and let it simmer until the gourd is tender (for about 5 minutes). Keep a watch so that gourd slices are not mashed.

Once the vegetable is cooked, add the finely ground coconut-spice paste, 3/4 tsp of salt and let the gravy simmer for 2 minutes. Add a little water if the gravy gets too thick while simmering.

In a small pan, heat a tsp of oil, and put in the mustard seeds. Once they splutter, add the udad dal, saute till golden and lastly throw in the curry leaves. Transfer the tempered oil to the gourd in coconut gravy.

Notes:

Honestly speaking, I have never found kootu to be a good accompaniment for chapatis, but mix it into steaming hot rice, with a lime pickle on the side, a fresh yogurt raita and I can guarantee that it'll be your gateway to heaven.

You can make a variety of kootu using any other vegetable like bottle gourd (dudhi), ridge gourd, pumpkins, a mixture of vegetables (Poricha kootu) and even spinach.

Timesaver tip: To make kootu in a jiffy, I grind a chutney grinder full of the coconut masala, pour it into an ice tray, and remove the cubes into a ziploc bag which is stored in the freezer. Just throw 2-3 cubes of the masala into the veggie-lentil mix and all you have to do is the tempering.

This is an on-time submission for Nupur's A-Z of Indian Vegetables - S , to make up for all the events I have missed when my internet was down for almost 2 weeks, including my own baby WBB at Padmaja's.

Padmaja at Spicy Andhra has done a beautiful round up of WBB-Summer Fruits and now it's over to Trupti's where you have to crank up the heat on breakfast.

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Dudhi ki sabzi - Bottle gourd in gravy

Dudhi ki sabzi

There are some vegetables that never make it to our favourites' list. Most gourds, especially the bitter gourd for obvious reasons, and also the bottle gourd for being so tasteless. DH is absolutely a non-fussy eater but gourds deter him too. When I tried out an experiment with the bottle gourd for my lunch, inspired by what our friend in Bangalore had made for us, it turned out so good, that it was entirely report-worthy and repeat-worthy. I made an effort to spare some for dinner, and when I gingerly served some to DH, he said - "Is there more of that??". That moment, the poor dudhi had recorded it's place in the annals of our household.

I must give due credit to an Andhra recipe which our friend had shared with me verbally. Since I couldn't recollect much of it, what went into this recipe, were ingredients thrown in by intuition, in my own approximations. The idea of dudhi in a thick gravy is her traditional recipe though.

Before I share this zero-oil, tasteful wonder with you, I must announce that a good friend Manasvi has started his own food blog called - From the Bachelor's Kitchen. As good ladies we must encourage a man's efforts in the kitchen, shouldn't we ;)


DUDHI / LAUKI KI SABZI
Bottle gourd in gravy - a zero oil recipe

Category: Vegetable, low-carb, zero-oil, diabetic recipe
Time taken: Under 15 minutes
Serves: 2
Source: Adapted from a friend's recipe

Ingredients
1 small dudhi -peeled cut into cubes (to make 2 cups of cubes)
pinch of turmeric powder and asafoetida each, 1 tsp salt
1/2 cup water

For masala
2 red chillies - broken into small pieces
1 heaped tablespoon sesame seeds (white ellu)
1 tbsp tur dal
1 tsp coriander seeds
1 tsp saunf or fennel seeds (substitute with jeera if you dont have this, but good to use fennel)
2 peeled garlic pods (optional)
PLUS
1/4 Cup roasted peanuts

Coriander leaves for garnish

To prepare masala
Dry roast the ingredients - red chillies through garlic.
Once the tur dal turns golden, remove, cool and dry grind in small mixer with handful of roasted peanuts. If you dont have roasted peanuts, then first roast peanuts separately as it takes longer than other ingredients. Grind to a coarse powder, keep aside.

Directions
Heat 3/4 cup water in a heavy pan. Bring to a boil with turmeric, salt and hing. Add the dudhi cubes and boil for 5-7 minutes until the pieces are soft but retain shape. They may be some water left over, but do not drain it.
OR
Microwave for 3 min on high

Add masala powder to the cooked gourd pieces in the same pan. On a low flame, mix the cooked gourd with the masala. The excess water will be absorbed by the powder. Add a little more water if necessary.

Check for salt and garnish with coriander. This dish with pair fantastically with chapatis or even dosai, may be even bread.


Note
You wont miss the oil at all here, for the natural oils in sesame seeds and peanuts give it a rich taste
You can try this with any other squash or gourd, for eg. Zucchini
Bottle gourd is low-carb as are many others from this family, this makes an excellent diabetic recipe as well as a low-carber's recipe.
You can use the saved bottle gourd peels to make a chutney by sauteeing it with spices and dried lentils, and pulsing it in the blender.

Tags: Indian, vegetable, vegetarian, lowcarb vegetarian, zero-oil, bottlegourd, dudhi, lauki, squash, Indian curry, Saffron Trail, Recipe, Food, Indian food blog, Healthy eating, Healthy living, Mumbai, India

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Potato in Tamil Brahmin Cuisine

Potato wedges - a global favourite | Recipe coming up soon

Regulars on Saffron Trail would have realised that I have been unfair to the global favourite - the potato by never having openly expressed my love for this humble vegetable. To clear a few things, I too like all others, love this vegetable dearly. My all time favourite home food is Urulaikizhangu Curry and Vengaaya saambaar with rice, which is potato roast and onion sambhar. This is my soul food. If I could choose my last supper, this would be it.

Potatoes are made in several ways in our Tamil brahmin household and none of them that I know use garlic as a spice. I am happy to share with you some simple authentic Tambram potato recipes.

The recipe source is my mom (Amma), who cooks mostly traditional food with the exception of a pav bhaji or pulao etc. to meet my sister's demands.

Recipe 1
Urulaikizhangu Roast - This is had with a traditional Sambhar, rice, salad and fried appalam & vettal (rice flour crackers) whichforms the menu of a typical Sunday lunch in most of our households.

Amma says "Boil the potatoes. Peel, cube and dry marinate them for 10 minutes in turmeric powder, red chilli powder, salt and rice flour (for crispiness). Splutter mustard seeds in oil, and then roast the marinated potato cubes until roasted and crisp. A variation of this recipe is one in which sliced onions are stir fried in the oil before the potato cubes go in.

Among all traditional recipes, most tambrams would rate this as numero uno, including yours truly. By using a little more oil, this can be roasted to a golden brown perfection, but while making on a regular basis, not more than a tbsp of oil would be used for two servings.

Recipe 2
Urulaikizhangu Podimaas - This is the other end of the spectrum of potato dishes. Neither crispy nor very spicy, this is a very flavourful recipe that used crumbled potatoes.

Podimaas

Amma says, "Boil the potatoes. Peel, crumble and salt them. Heat oil and pop some mustard seeds. Put chopped green chillies, ginger pieces, curry leaves, chana dal and udad dal into the oil and fry until the lentils are golden brown. Add the crumbled potatoes to the above, bring it all together by stirring well and in the end garnish with freshly grated coconut. "

No turmeric used in this dish, neither red chilli powder - the potatoes have their pale yellow colour and the aromatics turn this dish in another simple marvel. The fried lentils go ka-tak, ka-tak in your mouth like firecrackers and it is fun. May not be so much fun if they get stuck inside one of your cavities :) This dish goes well with yogurt based curries like Mor Kozhambu and rice.

Recipe 3
Smashed potatoes in gravy as in Puri-Kizhangu - This is usually made as a tiffin ( a 4 o' clock meal) item. However, being a fried dish and quite heavy, my granny used to make this just 5-6 times a year. And needless to say, I have NEVER made puris in my life. Not because of the fried bit, but because I have never learnt the technique. Here, the potatoes are in a spiced gravy base thickened by chick pea flour and this is what the crispy Indian fried breads (puris) are dipped into. The flavour is mellow and the gravy is creamy.

Amma says - "Boil, peel and roughly crumble the potatoes into medium pieces. In oil, splutter mustard seeds, and then fry chopped ginger, green chillies, curry leaves, chana dal, udad dal with a pinch of asafoetida and some sliced onions. Once onions are done, add the crumbled potatoes, with enough water to make a gravy. When this comes to a boil, add the salt, turmeric powder and some chick pea flour dissolved in water to thicken the gravy slightly. Garnish with chopped coriander."

As I am talking to my mom, getting the exact method for this dish, my dad is asking me when I am going to make this for him. I am trying to evade this by saying ' It's only for my blog readers that I'm noting all this down' and he's trying to threaten me that he'll complain about this in the comments section :P, to which my answer is comment moderation

Recipe 4
Potato slices roast with skins - My mom usually makes this for dinner, when she is not in a mood to pressure cook and boil potatoes, or if she has forgotten to boil them in the morning pressure cooking session, along with rice and dal.

Amma says "Scrub and wash the potatoes. Halve them and slice into semicircles. Splutter some cumin seeds in hot oil, and then put in the sliced potatoes with some salt, turmeric and chilli powder. Srit everything together and sprinkle water to aid fast cooking. Cover the wok with a lid and stir the slices occasionally with a sprinkle of water and remove when done.

This one tastes best with rasam saadam (rasam-rice) dotted with some home-made ghee and a roasted appalam (papad). I'd call this perfect food while recuperating from an illness.

Some common tips while cooking with potato:

• Asafoetida (perungaayam) or hing is used in most potato dishes in our cuisine. Potato is known to cause bloating and hing is the best gas-buster there is. There are two ways to add hing to the recipe. Hing powder is either added to oil along with the tadka keeping a low flame so as not to burn this powder. Alternatively, a small piece of asafoetida is broken off the block and dissolved in some hot water and a few drops of this infused water in sprinkled in the dish while cooking.
• Most of our recipes call for boiled potatoes except for some like No.4 and potatoes are usually pressure cooked with their peels on, which are peeled off after the potatoes cool. Medium sized potatoes cook to perfection when pressure cooked for 3 whistles and then flame kept on sim for another 5 minutes. If you don't have a pressure cooker, you could boil them with their peels on for 10 minutes or so, a tester poked through them suggests that they are done.
  

That's a record for me, four recipes in one post. Finally this post was to be all about this fantastic, finger licking potato wedges I made today. But my love for our traditional cuisine and the guilt of not writing enough about it, completely overtook my mind and fingers and what you see is this. The potato wedges recipe will come by soon, now that my guilt pangs have been appeased.

Some interesting reads

• The madisar sari - the traditional nine-yard sari worn by Iyer women of yore. I wore one during my wedding too :)
• An Iyer wedding - the vedic ceremonies
  

I am glad that I have managed a worthwhile post for Lakshmi's event on Regional Cuisine of India, which starts with Tamil Cuisine this April.

Tags: Potato, Tamil brahmin recipes, urulaikizhangu, mom's recipes, Saffron Trail, Recipe, Food, Indian food blog, Healthy eating, Healthy living, Mumbai, India

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