My grandaunt's recipe for Mango Moar Kuzhambu : Tamil style Ripe Mango Kadhi

Last week I was in Chennai, I had the good fortune to eat at my grandaunt's place. She is my father's Maami, around 75 years of age and she is one of the best cooks in our family and even a simple weekday meal at her place will pretty much end up being a feast because of the number of dishes on the table.

I remember when as a newly married girl, I went for lunch at her place with my husband, he nearly fell asleep on the table after that grand lunch. Last week, the menu at her place was Maambazham (ripe mango) moar kuzhambu, beans usili, yellow pumpkin olan, pumpkin peel thogayal, keerai masiyal along with rice. Among all the dishes, the mango moar kozhambu was a surprise for me and such a delight for the taste buds. Big chunks of ripe Banganapalli mango steeped in buttermilk mixed with freshly ground spices, mixed with rice was a new kind of high for me. I immediately asked her how she made it and Maami was generous enough to share the recipe with me. Of course she didn't give me exact quantities because they don't measure out ingredients using spoons in our homes. I assumed it would be a handful of this and a bit of that and it turned out beautifully for today's lunch. See that big mango slice intact on my lunch plate below? That's how it should turn out in the end - cooked but intact :-)

Lunch is served

A couple of weeks ago, I made another kadhi using ripe mangoes. That one was Fajeto, a Gujarati style kadhi where ripe mango is ground to a puree and added to buttermilk thickened with chick pea flour. But this recipe keeps the whole mango slice intact and it absorbs the flavours of the curry so beautifully that I'd happily cast my vote for the Moar Kuzhambu over the Fajeto. You must try this recipe while the mangoes are in season. This keeps well in the fridge for a couple of days, so you could make in advance and keep refrigerated for week night dinners as well. 

Mango Moar Kuzhambu (Ripe mango - yogurt curry)
Serves 4
Takes less than 30 minutes

Ingredients
4 dried red chillies
2 tsp cumin seeds (jeera)
2 tbsp dry tur dal
1/4 cup coconut scrapings
3 large Banganapalli mangoes roughly 500 grams each
2 cups water
1 tsp salt (or to taste)
2 cups sour yogurt whisked with 1 cup water

For tempering
2 tsp coconut oil or vegetable oil
1/4 tsp fenugreek seeds (methi / vendhayam)
2 sprigs curry leaves
2 dried red chillies broken into halves
1/2 tsp mustard seeds 

Soak the 4 red chillies, cumin seeds, tur dal in some warm water for 30 mins-1 hour and grind to a fine paste along with the coconut, using up to half cup of water or so.

In a wide pan, bring 2 cups of water to a boil. Cut each mango into two halves, very close to the stone. No need to peel the fruit. Place all 6 mango chunks in the boiling water gently, adding the ground masala to this along with the salt. Bring to a simmer and let this cook for roughly 10 minutes, until mango flesh is soft and cooked but not falling apart.
Add the thinned yogurt to this. Stir gently and bring to a simmer on medium to low flame. Remove from flame and keep aside.

For tempering, heat the coconut oil in a tempering ladle or small kadai. Add the fenugreek seeds, curry leaves, red chillies, mustard seeds. Once mustard seeds start spluttering, transfer this over the moar kozhambu. Serve hot with rice.


Notes:
I'm sure you can do this with any ripe mango, but banganapalli being a variety with generous flesh suits this dish well. Also, it holds it shape well and does not turn into mush on simmering in the curry.


What people who tried this have to say!

@saffrontrail made and ate this:D romba super! The proportions u've told is just perfect... :)
— sowmya (@vishalsowmya) May 30, 2013

Other varieties of Moar Kuzhambu / Mor Kozhambu
The regular one
Morkeerai - a variety with spinach in it

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Molaga Maanga - an instant raw mango pickle

This was the only pickle I liked as a kid, which I had fondly christened- 'square maanga' because it was cut in a square dice. In the hot summers of Bombay, curd rice would taste divine anyway. A tiny bit of this square maanga with the curd rice would always take it to another level of divine. Often, my granny would mash the rice and curds until smooth and give one big spoonful of this in my hand with a small bit of this pickle on top of it, all ready to be gobbled up. No chewing required. I can guarantee you that using the above tactic, a small mountain of thairsaadam (curd rice) can be easily demolished even by someone who claims to hate this Tamil comfort food.

In weddings, this pickle is usually made fresh on the morning or the previous day and when served with the wedding meal, it is still crunchy. The caterers often give the leftover pickle to the family and it actually tastes a lot better after 4-5 days of soaking in the spices, gets a lot more softer with more rounded flavours.

For this, use fresh, raw mangoes, with a very firm flesh. No need to peel the skin. I've used mangoes from the tree in our Chennai house. I don't know the exact variety, but this one has a very small stone and plenty of flesh. 3 mangoes yielded roughly 10 big ladles of finely chopped pieces- I'd assume this would be roughly 7 cups in terms of metric units. I'm sure different families have different recipes for this, but this one is from my amma & chithi, joint instructions provided over the phone. Make sure all the utensils used for pickling and throughly clean and dry or the pickle has a tendency to spoil quickly.


Wash and dry well 3-4 raw mangoes. No need to peel the mango. Chop the flesh into a fine dice. I've cut them into thin strips this time, but I prefer them to be cut into tiny cubes. Remove as much flesh as you can from the stone and dice it. Collect this in a large bowl.

Use a dry ladle, katoris or measuring cups to check the quantity of diced mangos. You can use any such utensil to measure the diced mango, just that you need to use the same utensil to measure out salt, red chilli powder and other spices. The main measurements are those for salt and red chilli powder, the rest can be adjusted easily.

10 ladles of finely diced raw mango ( 3 big raw mangoes ~roughly 1.2kg~7 cups of diced mango)
1 and 1/4 ladle of salt (roughly 3/4 cup iodized salt)
1/2 ladle red chilli powder (roughly 1/3 cup)
1.5 tsp turmeric powder
3 tsp mustard powder (take mustard seeds, lightly roast and powder in small jar of mixer or with a rolling pin, measure out 3 tsp)
1.5 tsp fenugreek powder (similar method as above)
1/2 tsp asafoetida powder
1/2 cup gingelly oil or regular rice bran / sunflower oil

Heat the oil. Just before it starts smoking, remove from heat. Add the salt, chilli powder, turmeric powder, mustard powder, fenugreek powder, asafoetida. Stir well with a dry spoon.
Place the diced raw mango in a nicely dried large bowl. Pour the oil with the spices on top of this and stir well to mix with a dry spoon.
If you have an earthen pot, keep it in the sun or microwave it until it is thoroughly dry and sterilised. If you dont have an earthen pot, use a glass bowl or ceramic bowl.
Add the raw mango dice with spices into this. Cover with a tight fitting lid and then tie a muslin cloth around this (optional).
Keep this in a clean, dry place in the kitchen. Once everyday, give it a good stir and mix up for the next 3-4 days.
No need to keep in sun. After 4-5 days, fill into 4-5 clean and dry glass bottles or ceramic jars. Place the pickle in refrigerator, where it should last for 2 months or so. Always use a clean, dry spoon while serving.

{i know you want to ask me where I got that cute barani (pickle jar) from. I got it from Grand Sweets, Adayar- they sell it for INR 50 a piece}

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A Jammy Weekend: Recipes for Strawberry-Balsamic & Fig-Vanilla-Black Pepper Jam

A little cafe surrounded by a kitchen garden - windows with fluttering lace curtains - a big oven on one side - cinnamon, yeast, vanilla scents in the air - sounds of happy chatter - the aroma of fresh coffee brewing - people waiting in anticipation of a simple good time - a cup of good coffee or choice of tea with a scone or a muffin topped with some homemade jam - A girl can day dream right?

On Thursday, I ordered more fruit than I usually do for a week, especially strawberry and figs, with the intention of making jam. I'm not much of a jam sandwich person. Give me a Mumbai style coriander-mint chutney and cucumber sandwich any day. But when you have a little boy at home who'll say 'I'm hungry' at the most unpredictable times of the day, it is good to have a loaf of bread and some spreads handy to make a snack in 2 minutes. He likes my 'Chocolate coconut Peanut Butter' - well, I like it a lot myself and each batch gets over in a matter of 2-3 days. So I decided to make some jams anyway. What better way to preserve the goodness of seasonal fresh fruit for a couple more months?

There's a lot more I'd like to write about on 'jamming' but the weekend chores beckon and I promised a few people that I'll be sharing the recipe on my blog before the end of the weekend, so here are the recipes for the two jams.

 If you always wondered what the difference was between jelly, jam and preserve, read this. 

I'd say my recipes are in between a jam and preserve, because while they do have a chunky texture, it is not 'that' chunky because the fruit was fairly finely chopped to begin with. Contrary to popular belief that jam making is the job of old matronly housewives who wish to slave in the kitchen all day and night, these jams don't take more than 30-45 minutes each, including fruit chopping time, especially because we're making only a small quantity at a time. Also, in both these jams, we don't need any added pectin because both fruits are full of seeds inside them which are a natural source of pectin. As for fig jam, most recipes from international websites don't ask for the fruit to be peeled, but Indian figs are very thick skinned, therefore better off peeled.

Strawberry Balsamic Preserve
Recipe adapted from Epicurious

Ingredients
750 grams strawberries (washed, patted dry and tops removed- I bought 1 kg and this was what I got after eating a few and removing the tops)
3 tbsp balsamic vinegar
3 tbsp water
1 cup sugar
1/2 tsp butter

Directions

1. Finely chop the strawberries-you'll get roughly 2 1/2 cups of chopped fruit
2. In a heavy bottomed steel or anodised pan, put all the ingredients together, on a medium flame, bring this to a simmer.
3. The butter prevents the mixture from foaming and splattering too much. In fact, mine didn't splatter at all. 
4. Simmer for 20-25 minutes, until the mixture is thick and translucent. Keep stirring off and on. Don't worry if it's still a bit flowy and it will thicken further on cooling. So, switch off before the jam turns thick.
5. Remove pan from heat and cool thoroughly.
6. Meanwhile place two empty clean and dry glass jam jars  bottles without their lids in the microwave for one minute. This is to quick sterilise the bottles.
7. Once cooled to room temperature, spoon the jams into the two jars. I'd say I got roughly two jars of 300-350 grams each.
8. Close them tight and keep in fridge. Use within a month.

Recipe for Fig-Vanilla-Black Pepper Preserve
Adapted from Taste

Ingredients
Roughly 1 kg fresh figs
1 cup sugar
half a vanilla pod (or use a cinnamon stick + 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon)
1 tsp coarsely ground black pepper
3 tbsp apple cider vinegar or lemon juice or balsamic vinegar
1/2 tsp butter

Directions

1. Wash, dry and remove stems of figs. Peel and chop finely.
2. Slice the vanilla pod and scrape the seeds with the end of the knife, add this to the chopped figs. 
3. In a large bowl, add all the ingredients, including the scraped vanilla pod, cover and keep overnight. [at this stage you could either keep the bowl of ingredients covered in the refrigerator overnight and proceed with jam making in the morning or proceed with the process immediately. I left it in the fridge overnight] 
4. After the mixture has sat in the fridge overnight, transfer them to a heavy bottomed steel pan or anodized pan, bring to a simmer on medium flame.
5. Keep stirring off and on so that the sugar does not stick to the bottom and burn.
6. In around 20 minutes, the mixture will start to thicken. Remove from flame. Cool thoroughly. 
7. Meanwhile place two empty clean and dry glass jam jars  bottles without their lids in the microwave for one minute. This is to quick sterilise the bottles.
8. Once cooled to room temperature, spoon the jams into the two jars. I'd say I got roughly two jars of 300-350 grams each.
9. Close them tight and keep in fridge. Use within a month.

P.S. Sorry for the longish title. I didn't want you to think that my jammy weekend had anything to do with Rahul Dravid.

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Khatti Meethi Kaddu Subzi : Punjabi style red pumpkin curry

There are some side dishes that make the calories of a poori worthwhile. Aloo subzi and Chole have always been my favourite accompaniments to this deep fried bread and this pumpkin subzi (curry) is a recent discovery. Tangy, spicy and sweet at the same time, it is a great way to make use of red pumpkin which is in season now. In Bangalore, we find the Disco pumpkin which are smaller in size, the Ironbark or the Japanese, all of which have a deep orange flesh. For this preparation, the former varieties are preferred over the yellow flesh pumpkin used for Olan like Koottu.

This is a Punjabi recipe shared by my friend, Kishi Arora of Foodoholics and this is the way her mom makes it. I think I have more or less followed the recipe she dictated to me on phone. We prepared this with Aaloo Bhaaja, Chole, Halwa and Poori for a perfect Navratri dinner. 

Khatti Meethi Kaddu Subzi / Sweet and sour red pumpkin / butternut squash
Time taken : Under 30 minutes
Serves 4 people

Ingredients
750 grams red pumpkin 
1 tbsp mustard oil 
Fat pinch of asafoetida
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1/4 tsp fenugreek seeds (methi seeds)
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1 tbsp amchoor powder (raw mango powder)
1 tsp red chilli powder
1-2 tsp coriander powder
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
1 tbsp crushed jaggery (or brown sugar)
1/2 tsp garam masala powder
1 tsp salt or more to taste
Finely chopped coriander for garnish

Directions

1. Peel pumpkin and scrape out seeds. Cut into even sized cubes, about 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch big.
2. In a wide wok / kadai, heat the oil. Add the asafoetida, mustard seeds, fenugreek seeds, cumin seeds. Once the mustard splutters, add the pumpkin cubes and toss well to coat with oil and whole spices.
3. On medium flame, cook the pumpkin for 5 minutes or so, then add all remaining powdered spices, including crushed jaggery, add 1/2 cup of water, cover and cook on low flame. This will take at least 15-20 minutes to cook. Keep checking every 5 minutes, if any additional water is required, adding 1/4 cup at a time, if necessary.
4. When cooked, you should be able to crush the pumpkin with the thumb with light pressure but the shape should be retained, and the whole dish should not turn into mashed pumpkin. 
5. Adjust the red chilli powder, jaggery and amchoor to suit your taste such that it is a good balance of spicy, sweet and sour. If the pumpkin is inherently quite sweet, you don't have to add much jaggery.
6. Garnish with finely chopped coriander.

Serve hot with pooris or rotis.

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When life gives you sour mangoes - Make Mango Dal

The summer is coming to an end and not one mango post on the blog, or so I was thinking. And then life presented me a sour mango this morning...

You cut open a luscious looking mango anticipating sweet and juicy fruit, which is already making your mouth water. Sometimes, the mango lives up to your expectations (and taste buds) and sometimes it makes your screw your eyes shut because it is so sour, giving your taste buds a rude shock. Instead of fretting over sour mangoes, how about putting them to good use. This Mango Dal recipe is one of them. The sweet-sourness from the ripe mango, heat from chillies go beautifully with any cooked dal. Here, I've used masoor dal. You could well use chana dal, tur dal or a mix of all the three dals.

Mango Dal, Bhindi curry served with paratha - Lunch 

I think mango, ginger and coconut make a fantastic flavour combination. If you don't have coconut on hand or you are not especially fond of coconut, by all means leave it out.
This dal, made as per the recipe below is thick and creamy, with a great depth of flavour and yet so easy to make. Even a beginner in the kitchen can churn this out in no time. Also, masoor dal cooks even on stove top in no time, in case you are one of those grad students stuck in the US without a pressure cooker :)

I've used Banganapalli variety of mango here, but you could use any mango that is ripe but too sour to eat as it is. If you use a small Mango like Alphonso, you'll need 3-4 sour mangoes, as they don't come with much flesh, not unlike the popular size zero movie stars of Bollywood.

Does your family have a special recipe for Mango Dal, which is made when mangoes are in season? Come over and participate in this discussion on the Facebook page of Saffrontrail - https://www.facebook.com/SaffronTrail/posts/411255952252710

Recipe for Mango Dal
Serves 3-4
Time taken : Under 20 minutes

Ingredients
1/2 cup masoor dal
1 large mango (ripe but sour)
3 tbsp fresh scraped or frozen coconut (unsweetened)
1-2 green chillies (depending on how spicy they are)
1 tbsp ghee / oil
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
Fat pinch of asafoetida
1/2 tsp grated ginger
1 stick cinnamon (1")
1 sprig curry leaves
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
3/4 tsp salt

Directions
Wash the dal and pressure cook with 1.5 cups of water (2 whistles, 5 min on sim).
Peel and cube the mango roughly, scraping off any flesh around the seed (stone). This should make a generous cup to nearly a cup and a half in quantity to get full flavour of mango in the dal.
Place the cubed and scraped mango flesh, coconut, green chillis in the small mixer jar and grind to a paste.
In a pan / kadai, heat the ghee.
Add the asafoetida, cumin seeds - letting the seeds splutter.
Add grated ginger, cinnamon stick, curry leaves, turmeric powder. Saute for 30 seconds and then pour in the mango-coconut-chilli puree.
On a medium flame, stir this for 1-2 minutes.
Add pressure cooked dal, salt and up to 1/2 cup water to get the desired consistency of dal.

Serve hot with steamed rice or rotis.

The taste of this mango dal lingers on...over my tastebuds, as I say this, DO try this out. I guarantee you'll love it.

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On growing strawberries and recipe for Eggless Strawberry Yogurt Cake

My three year old son and me have a morning routine nowadays. After his drink of milk, we go to the garden and check if there's any red peeking out of the strawberry patch. If we didn't do this, the squirrels and ants, who have been blessed with a better foraging sense than us human beings, will get to the juicy berries before we do. We don't get too much, but a small handful a day, to add to cereal or to make a couple of muffins, or to eat as it is. The latter doesn't happen often as I am not very tolerant to acidic fruits and I'm yet to taste lusciously sweet strawberries grown in India. Here, strawberry needs sugar as a partner to make it more palatable. 


But, however little, that sense of joy we get from having watched something grow for nearly eight months, and finally bearing fruit, is such a fulfilling one. These strawberry saplings were planted in June and they quickly propagated and covered the ground, but there was not a single flower in sight even after six months. The newbie gardener that I am, I quickly lost hope. Patience is clearly not one of my virtues, hence I stand to benefit a lot from gardening. I am slowly learning that nature doesn't work at the speed of a 4Mbps internet connection. It takes its own sweet time. And what sweeter time than spring time? I don't need my neighbours to drench me in permanent colours (albeit organic) and hose me with tons of water, to announce the arrival of spring (I'm talking about the one festival I dread, Holi). The new blooms and fruits in my garden had already whispered to me a few weeks ago that spring is not far away...

Just plucked strawberries basking in the morning sun

A few years ago, if someone told me that I could grow strawberries in India, I would have laughed it off. But Bangalore weather is somehow to conducive to growing almost anything. Like my friend @abithaanandh tweeted this morning -

 "Am willing to overlook 11pm deadlines,bad infrastructure,forever 90s music loop- all 4 those few precious hrs in the garden! Tk U #Bangalore"

It is so true. I'll continue to grow strawberries next year too. I'm told they bear better fruit in the 2nd and 3rd year. Only, I'll be growing them in hanging baskets, so I dont have to compete with the ants to pluck the fruit!


I've been wanting to bake a strawberry cake for a while now. Not the types where the fruit is pureed in, but stands out like red jewels, slightly mushy from the baking and a burst of flavour in the mouth, when you bite into it. And somehow, I wanted to pair it with yogurt as I couldn't use eggs in this. A Foodblogsearch didn't find me the kind of recipe I had in mind, so I did my own improvisation. Yesterday afternoon, just before the baking session, I found a bottle of strawberry essence at Nilgiri's, so the fruit, the essence and the jam made the taste pretty intense, but not in the cloying sort of way.


The recipe I'm sharing with you seems to be the most low-fat and healthiest version among all those that I went through as a result of my various searches.

Pin It

This is a tea cake or a weekend breakfast cake. I'm not asking you to believe that it's dessert. Umm...may be with ice cream, yes :)


The texture was very moist and delicate despite not using eggs or butter.
Do give it a try before the strawberry season bids us a goodbye.

Recipe for Strawberry-Yogurt Cake
Eggfree / Eggless / Lowfat
Tea time or breakfast cake
Makes 1 tall 8" cake

Ingredients

¾ cup yogurt
¼ cup milk (skimmed or toned, as you prefer)

¼ cup rice bran oil (or any cooking oil)
¾ cup sugar
2 generous tablespoons of strawberry or mixed fruit jam
1 tsp Strawberry essence or mixed fruit essence (gives a more fruitier flavour, if you don’t have either, use vanilla extract 1 tsp)

1.5 cups all purpose flour OR 1 cup AP flour + ½ cup whole wheat flour (atta)
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
Pinch of salt

Roughly 1 cup finely diced strawberries
Handful of tutti-frutty (optional)

Directions

1. Preheat oven at 180 C
2. Grease an 8” round cake tin. If using silicon pan, no need to grease.
3. In one bowl, whisk the oil, yogurt, milk, sugar and jam.
4. In another big bowl, sieve the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Make a well. Add the whisked wet ingredients. Fold until they come together. Over enthusiastic beating / whisking is better avoided.
5. Towards the end, fold in chopped berries and tutti-fruity.
6. Scrape the batter into the greased tin / silicon mould and bake at 180 C for around 45-55 minutes, checking with a tester if it comes out clean.
7. After 10 minutes, unmould and cool on a wire rack.
8. Cut into wedges, dust with icing sugar and serve with tea.

The same recipe will work with raspberries or blueberries to make a blueberry yogurt cake or a raspberry yogurt cake.

See what people have to say about this cake! (via Twitter)

Dear @saffrontrail i tried your strawberry yogurt cake recipe and it came it out so well. Thanks :) — Marie Gold (@OyeMaria) March 11, 2012

@saffrontrail Love your blog.Just baked your eggless strawberry yogurt cake ,its superb!wanted to thankyou.Hope you wud reciprocate!:)
— nitisha kashyap (@nitishakashyap) March 11, 2012

Cake done. Waiting to cool ! @saffrontrailI can't find you on FB so the update is here! twitter.com/thingyimajig/s…— MushyPeas (@thingyimajig) March 10, 2012

@saffrontrail hey, just made the strawberry yoghurt cake.. came out amazing! I just wished my strawberries weren't so sour though :-( — Priya A (@priya_arun) March 9, 2012

@saffrontrail Yeah... Sounds like a healthy cake. Will probably make it before the strawberry season ends. — LoveFoodEat (@chinmayiebhat) March 11, 2012

Tempted to bake @saffrontrail's strawberry yoghurt cake tonight. But waistline concerns are there : — S (@wastrelette) March 11, 2012

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Mango Paneer Cake or how we make the HOT summers bearable

So how have you been? It's been quite hot in my neck of the woods, so I have nearly giving up on cooking and also, my outdoor runs. Any sliver of training that was falling in place for the marathon next year has been abandoned until the weather gods turn kinder or until I move to cooler climes. Oh yes, a move is in the offing. I started this food blog when I was in Bombay, then we moved to Hyderabad in November 2008 and it's time to move again. This time, hopefully a permanent move, to Bangalore.

I'm looking forward to this move, more than anything else for the vegetables I will be growing in our terrace garden, the beautiful kitchen with a space for a table where I can chop vegetables, drink tea (or wine, depending on time of the day) and write while looking out from the kitchen window and of course a *big* oven in which lots of baking will happen. I am also happy to report that I have rounded up some enthusiastic food bloggers in the vicinity of my new home and we are going to have some fun food times together. Nandini, Archana, Monika, I hope you girls are gearing up!

Ooh and as some of my friends are teasing me, I am now a "posh girl" after Roshni Bajaj featured me in her story on The Food Network in the Vogue magazine (May 2011) along with friend Madhu Menon. Check the PDF version of the story here (Page 1 and Page 2).





Getting back to the recipe I want to share with you today, it is a seasonal modification of the paneer cake that I blogged about sometime ago, a recipe I found in an old-fashioned cookbook while browsing through a little bookshop in Pondicherry. If you are a mango lover (like a certain Ms. Katrina Kaif, in the literal sense), you can add mango to any dish, be it rice, dal, veggies, brownies, cake and you'll be sure to love it. I'm not crazy for mangoes, in the sense that I wont feel lost at sea if I do not eat mangoes every single day of the mango season. Believe me when I tell you, I know people like that. They cannot go one day without eating a mango or half a dozen of them when they are in season. But yes, I do love the flavour boost a ripe, fragrant mango adds to simple dishes and takes them to another level. So here is the recipe for you. I do hope you get access to beautiful, ripe mangoes wherever you are and when you are tired of eating them as it is, use one of them to make this simple cake.

Mango Coconut Paneer Cake

Low-fat teatime treat

Printable Version of recipe here

This is a variation of the Paneer Cake, using the mangoes that are in season.

Grease three 450 ml aluminium foil tins or an 8-9” round tin.

Preheat oven at 180C.

Make paneer from 500 ml cow’s milk. Reserve the whey water.

Grind to a puree

-pieces from one large mango

-½ cup paneer or than from ½ L milk.

-¾ cup sugar

Remove to a large bowl. Whisk in in ¼ cup oil, 2 tbsp vinegar and ½ cup whey water.

Add ½ tsp mango essence or vanilla extract

In a large bowl, sift 1 cup all purpose flour, ½ cup whole wheat flour (atta), 1 tsp baking powder, ½ tsp baking soda and pinch of salt. Mix in ¼ cup dessicated coconut with a fork.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet. 

Add handful of pumpkin seeds or flaked almonds, a few spoons of colourful tutti-frutti and mix until combined. 

Thin with some reserved whey water if batter is too thick.

Divide batter into the three foil tins or one round tin.

Sprinkle some coconut flakes on the top.

Bake at 180C for 20-40 minutes (20 for the smaller foil tins and 40-45 mins for single large tin) until a tester comes out clean.

Serve warm with honey or marmalade if you want it sweeter. It is a very flavourful cake but low on sugar, perfect accompaniment to tea or coffee.

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Traditional cooling food - Panakam and Kosumalli for Sri Rama Navami

The more I dig into our traditional foods, I'm amazed at how intelligently and seasonally our ancestors ate. Panakam and Cucumber Kosumalli that are offered as Neiveidyam on the occasion of Sri Rama Navami which falls in the summer season. 

As a kid, I would happily glug the Panakam prepared by my granny on these occasions, but today I like it more as I drink it mindfully, realizing how good it is for us. This ayurvedic drink is naturally sweetened using jaggery, spiced with ginger, cardamom and black pepper and a squeeze of lemon juice for that balance in taste. This sweet-spicy-tangy drink can be had all around summer. It's nice if kids develop a taste for these kind of natural drinks instead of reaching out for the fizzy drinks. Having a sip of this after quite some years, I realised how much I have missed this taste!

Kosumalli is another very simple, cooling, no-cook dish except for the tempering of mustard seeds and asafoetida for a delicate yet distinct flavour. While it is a neiveidyam dish, it can be easily had on a regular basis in summers as a salad with a bowl of yogurt for a light lunch. In the salad version, you can toss finely chopped onions, peppers, carrots and tomatoes along with the soaked moong dal. However, the dish in it's simplest version here is also a masterpiece and a great example as to how delicious, simple food can be.

How to make Panakam

For 4 cups or 6 small glasses

In a large vessel or bowl, take 4- 5 tbsp of crushed or grated jaggery. This will vary depending on the sweetness of your jaggery. Stir in 3-4 cups of drinking water until completely dissolved. Filter through a muslin cloth or a fine mesh in case you see any impurities in the liquid.

To this, add -

1/4 tsp dried ginger powder (sonth powder)

1/4 tsp black pepper powder

1/4 tsp salt

Juice of one large lemon (2 tbsp or so)

Seeds from 2 cardamom pods shelled and pounded or one fat pinch cardamom powder

Stir well and serve chilled.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Cucumber Kosumalli

for 4 servings

1/2 cup moong dal

1 large or 2 medium cucumbers, peeled, finely diced*

Juice of 1 lemon

1/2 tsp salt

Few sprigs of coriander leaves, washed and finely chopped

1 tsp oil or ghee

1/2 tsp mustard seeds

pinch of asafoetida granules

1-2 tbsp of fresh coconut scrapings for garnishing

Wash and soak 1/2 cup yellow moong dal (husked and split moong) in 2-3 cups of water for 1 hour. Drain in a mesh strainer for 15 minutes or so.

In a medium bowl, mix the chopped cucumber, lemon juice, salt, coriander leaves and toss well.

In a small tempering ladle, heat 1 tsp ghee or oil - splutter the mustard seeds, add the asafoetida, stir for a few seconds and toss this on the kosumalli.

Garnish with fresh coconut scrapings.

*Do check for bitterness in the cucumber before mixing with the other ingredients.

The same recipe can be used to prepare Carrot kosumalli by substituting two grated carrots instead of chopped cucumber.

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Double beans with Amaranth greens

Beans and greens are a classic combination in many of the world cuisines. When I went shopping for veggies in our fresh supermarket nearby, I saw a lady shelling these huge green beans and what came out were the cutest pink and white smooth beans - and absolutely huge in size. The colours reminded me of a Johnson baby bottle, what else can you expect from the mom of a little one. Here in Hyderabad, I'm trying to eat local - trying out stuff that we didn't usually find in Bombay. The southern states usually have a wider variety of greens - and in Chennai the green-vendors usually pop by early morning so that the stuff can be cooked fresh for lunch. I haven't yet sourced someone like that here, but I try and get my fix of a variety of greens at least thrice a week.
This time it is Thotakoora or Amaranth greens which is quite a pleasant tasting thing. I have used this in Sambar, along with tomato-onions as a stir fry and this time in a sundal like preparation with cooked double-beans, which I laid my hands on for the first time.

Fresh double beans are the cutest looking - baby pink in colour stippled white, very pretty indeed and tasty too. I'm sad I did not take a pic of the shelled beans - next time around I intend to do so and update here.
Since they were fresh, there was no soaking involved - just pressure cooking for five minutes until they were buttery soft with shape intact. These are also called 'butter-beans' I guess. Cooked and mashed, these will make a delicious hummus too - will reserve this experiment for next time.

Double beans with amaranth greens

Serves 3-4

Cooking time - under 30 minutes

Ingredients

1 heaped cup of shelled double beans (fresh or frozen)

2 cups of amaranth leaves (or any other greens)

1 tsp cooking oil

1 tsp udad dal

1/2 tsp mustard seeds

pinch asafoetida

1 dried red chilli - broken into bits

1 sprig curry leaves

salt to taste

1 tbsp fresh scraped coconut

Directions

Pressure cook the double beans for 3-4 minutes with 1 cup water. Drain and keep aside. (I cook them directly in a small cooker. After one whistle, left it on sim for 4-5 minutes and then switched off the flame)

In a cup of water,  boil the leaves till tender - drain and keep aside. You can use a bit of this water to moisten the sundal in the end or use it as a stock for soup or sambar.

Heat the oil in a wok. Add the udad dal, once this is golden, add the next four ingredients.

Wait till the seeds splutter and the curry leaves crackle - add the greens and drained beans. Season with salt. Stir well to coat with seasonings. Remove from flame and garnish with fresh coconut.

This can be had as a snack or as an accompaniment to rotis or rice.

This combination was so hearty and filling, and I'm sure any other greens and beans combination can be made into a sundal, adding the nutritional benefits of green leafy veggies to the protein-rich beans.

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Fresh green peas parathas

'Tis the season of fresh green peas and while I always have on hand large packet of frozen peas, the taste of fresh green peas is something else.

There is an extremely simple recipe - which my friend had shared with me last season, where if you buy large quantities of peas, say 2 kilos or so, you shell them and grind with chillies, ginger and salt, then on a slow flame with a tadka of some cumin, saute this paste with some amchoor powder till quite dry. Store in freezer in small containers and use as a stuffing for parathas to make instant lunches or dinners when required. My version is a slight modification on this as I had just a cup of shelled peas on hand, so I ground them, sauteed and mixed in the flours directly to make these green parathas. These are lovely for a hearty weekend breakfast or your kiddie's lunch box.

Recipe for Green Peas Parathas

Makes 4

Under 30 minutes

Ingredients

1 cup fresh shelled peas

3 green chillies

1 largish knob of ginger

1 tsp or so salt

2 tsp oil

1 tsp cumin seeds

pinch of asafoetida (hing)

1 tsp amchoor powder (dried mango powder)

1/2 cup atta

1/2 cup makkai atta (corn meal) [you can use just 1 cup atta instead of a mix of atta and makkai atta]

some flour for dusting

Directions

• In a mixer, grind the first four ingredients to a coarse paste.
• Take the oil in a non-stick kadai (preferably), heat on medium flame, splutter the cumin seeds, add a pinch of asafoetida to this.
• Transfer the pea paste to the oil and saute on medium flame with the amchoor powder till nearly dry. The amchoor not only adds a tangy taste but also helps in drying out the mixture faster - due to its astringent quality. For this quantity, the process will take 7-10 minutes.

For preparing large quantity of peas-masala to freeze, the procedure is same up to this stage. Just add more chillies, ginger and adjust spices / seasonings.

• Transfer the ready masala to a bowl. Add the flours and some salt if required and knead to a dough sprinkling some water if needed to bind ( I had to use just a tsp of water of so).
• Make four balls and roll out gently into thick parathas, using some flour for dusting.
  
• Heat a skillet, cook the parathas on both sides on medium flame till golden spots appear, brush with butter or ghee if you like once the sides are cooked.
  

If you'd like the masala as a stuffing, then use whole wheat atta for the outer cover and prepare like you would any other stuffed paratha.

Serve hot with a chilled raita and pickle of your choice.

I love these chunky parathas which have equal quantities of peas and flour, so its a cross between a hara-bhara patties and a paratha. You could substitute other shelled veggies like fresh green tuvar or fresh green garbanzo instead of peas.

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