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

Read More...

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}

Read More...

Yard long beans curry : Karamani curry - Garden to plate

Yard long beans (Chauli / Karamani) have not been my most favourite vegetable, because they are often tough and stringy when bought from the supermarket. Ever since I started growing these in my garden, I've changed my opinion about this vegetable. 

Seeds from Auchan (formerly SPAR) Supermarket, Bangalore

For one, it is a hardy plant, producing a good yield once it starts flowering and fruiting. It's always fun to search for the green delicate long beans among the green leaves and there are a surprise few always hiding in the middle of the foliage. You can pluck them when still tender which means they cook in no time. The overlooked beans can always be used for the mature seeds inside, which you can use in a soup or a vegetable dish. 

I may have said this before, but to avoid any confusion, I must clarify that, 'Curry' in the tamil / Tambrahm cuisine parlance means a dry saute, where boiled or raw chopped vegetables are added to a hot oil after a simple tempering of curry leaves, mustard seeds, udad dal and dried red chillies. And once the vegetable is nearly cooked, a sprinkling of fresh coconut completes the dish. It is almost like a lightly cooked salad and not a gravy dish. Also, it is one of the easiest ways to prepare any vegetable, while retaining it's nutrition, taste and colour.

Karamani Curry / Yard long beans curry
Printable version here

Serves 2-3

Time taken : Under 20 minutes

Ingredients

1 tbsp of oil ( I used organic coconut oil)

Pinch of asafoetida

2 dried red chillies, broken

1/2 tsp mustard seeds

1 tbsp udad dal

2 cups of chopped yard long beans

3/4 tsp salt

1 tsp sambar powder

2 tsp fresh coconut 

Directions

1. In a large wok / kadai, heat the oil. 
2. Add asafoetida, immediately adding red chillies, mustard seeds, udad dal. 
3. Once mustard seeds splutter and dal turns golden, add the chopped beans, salt - stir well and sprinkle water, cover and cook for 8-10 minutes on a low flame. 
4. Check on the beans every 3 minutes or so, sprinkling some water, if it is too dry or catching at the bottom of the pan.
5. Once done (tender, but still retaining some crunch), sprinkle sambar powder, stir to mix well.
6. Remove from flame and garnish with coconut.
7. Serve with rasam-rice or sambar - rice.

Useful information about growing yard long beans on the USDA site. 

Read More...

Masala Vadai from a tea shop in Mannargudi : Guest post by Bharath M.

A few days ago, Nandini & Ajit, Bharath and me decided to cook up a mega Tambrahm feast for dinner. The menu was:

Cucumber Salad
Masala Vadai
Seppankizhangu Roast
Cabbage Koottu
Radish arachuvitta Sambar
Jeera Rasam
Vetthakozhambu
Arisi Appalam
Banana Chips (from Hot Chips)
Curds
Rice
Semia Payasam

Out of this list of delicious items, it was Bharath's Masala Vadai that stood out. He got the batter ready at his place in the morning, refrigerated in his office and got it to my place by evening, where he fried the vadai fresh and served it with drinks. Such delicious vadais, I've never tasted. I pestered him enough to share the recipe, so I may do the first guest post ever, on my blog, in six years!

Bharath in the kitchen 

Bharath is a train enthusiast, an impulsive traveller, amazing photographer and a most evocative writer. Go through his blog Puri Subzi and you will know what I mean. And more than anything, he has grown to be a friend I can always depend on. And in his own words, he is a "Photographer of faces, writer of bus travels, driver of trains, lover of pongal, purveyor of seedy bars."


So here's Bharath's Masala Vadai for you, written in his own words...

Masala Vadai - Freshly fried

"...but this is against TamBrahm culture. How can you put onions and garlic in an aamavadai?", my amusement disguised as a protest.

"Sssh, this is not aamavadai. It's a masala vadai. The inspiration comes from some tea shop in Mannargudi", my mother's indignant voice peaking.

"You had masala vadai from a tea shop in Mannargudi?", I bait

"Please don't be so righteous. Everyone eats from weird places once in a while. Now shut up and tell me how it tastes"

Crisp. Light. Golden brown and d-e-l-c-i-o-u-s. "I am sold, ma, I am sold". That chubby grin finally shows itself.

It may be against TamBrahm way of life, but by god, this vadai is brilliant. Goes well with beer. Or a single malt.

Here's how you put it together (I've made a few changes to the basic recipe from my mother's original)



Ingredients

For the batter:
2 1/2 cups channa dal (soaked in slightly salted water for a good 4-5 hours)
1 teaspoon saunf (fennel seeds)
1/4 inch ginger
3 cloves of garlic
A generous pinch of black pepper powder

For the flavouring mix:
1/4 inch ginger, finely cut
2 cloves of garlic, finely cut
2 largish green chillis, finely cut
A handful of coriander and mint, coarsely cut
1 large red onion diced finely (2 if they are small to medium)
Salt to taste
A small pinch of red chilli powder (if you need the extra kick)

For the frying:

Some groundnut oil or rice bran oil.

Method

1. Drain the water completely from the soaked channa dal. Dunk the, by now slightly soft, dal into a mixer along with the fennel seeds and the rest of batter ingredients. Add a tablespoon of water and start grinding. Initially for about 20 sec and then pulse 3 times for about 5 sec each. The batter by now should be quite coarse and the fennel, garlic, ginger and pepper incorporated. If the batter resembles a gooey paste, then you've gone too far. The ideal batter should have a mix of pulped dal, coarse dal and almost whole dal. Scoop out a bit in your hand - if it feels grainy and stony, then it's perfect.
2. Transfer the batter to a large mixing bowl and refrigerate for 30 min.
3. Chop all the flavouring mix ingredients according to the instructions above.
4. Remove the batter from the fridge and all the flavour mix, except for the onions and salt. Let this now rest until you are ready to fry them up.
5. 2-3 min before you ready to fry, add the onions and salt and give everything a thorough swirl.
6. Heat the oil and drop a small roundel of the batter to test. If it raises to the top, the temperature is right and you can start.
7. If you are comfortable patting the batter nice and thin, please do so, else shape it into small roundels. The later is much easier if you are doing all of this on your own!
8. Fry until a nice golden brown.

Serve with either coconut or coarse coriander chutney.

Read More...

Morkeerai or Spinach and yogurt stew : Garden to plate

TamBrahm cooking or the recipes from Tamil Brahmin households could well vary from house to house. While I've eaten Tambrahm food all through my growing years (albeit sometimes reluctantly) - when this recipe for Morkeerai came to me for posting in Tambrahmrage Cooks - I was surprised I've never eaten this. I'd never even heard my grandmum, aunts or mum mention this ever. 

Spinach patch

Chilli Plant

Plucked and ready for the recipe

Spinach seeds

Since we have having a good crop of spinach and chillies currently in our small terrace garden, this seemed like the perfect way to use freshly grown produce. The procedure to make this Mor-Keerai (more:buttermilk and Keerai:spinach in Tamil) seemed to be like that for Mor-Kozhambu. Grind fresh spice paste with coconut, add it to sour yogurt / thick buttermilk and bring to a simmer. Spinach was an addition to the regular mor-kozhambu recipe.

I loved the subtle flavours of this stew. You can use any seasonal fresh greens such as amaranth, water amaranth, agathi keerai or Bathua. I have promptly passed this recipe on to my mom.

 More Keerai served with Carrot Curry and Brown Rice

Recipe for Mor Keerai
Spinach and yogurt stew
Serves 3-4 
Originally posted on our other blog 


Ingredients
2 tbsp chana dal
1 tbsp raw rice
1/3 - 1/2 cup coconut scrapings
2 sprigs curry leaves
Handful of coriander leaves
4-6 green chillies
2 cups thick yogurt
3 packed cups of finely chopped spinach leaves
1 tsp oil
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
2 tsp udad dal
pinch of asafoetida
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp pure coconut oil (optional)


Directions

1. Soak 2 tbsp chana dal and 1 tbsp rice for about half hour.

2. Grind to a fine paste: 

1/3 - 1/2 cup coconut scrapings 2 sprigs curry leavesHandful of coriander leaves4-6 green chillies-depending on how spicy they are& the soaked chana dal and rice.

3. Mix this paste into roughly 2 cups of thick sour yogurt

4. Wash and finely chop spinach leaves to get 3 cups packed

5. In a kadai, heat 1 tsp oil-temper 1/2 tsp mustard seeds, 2 tsp udad dal and pinch of asafoetida. Add chopped spinach with a pinch of salt. Saute for a few minutes until wilted. Sprinkle some water and let the spinach cook thoroughly. 

6. Add the curds with spice paste to the cooked spinach and salt as required. Once this starts frothing, remove from flame and garnish with pure coconut oil. Dont let the curds boil or it will split.

Serve with hot rice and a vegetable curry.

Read More...

Oatmeal Prune Cookies spiced with Chai Masala

Hello! The line "I'm finally back after a long break" seems to be my opening line for every post in the last few months. A new kitchen, a big oven, nurturing my own little vegetable patch and still I am looking for the inspiration to be blogging regularly.

Last month, Aparna was in Bangalore and some of the Bangalore food bloggers met up over a scrumptious buffet lunch. Much fun was had. Lots of pictures taken. And of course the food critic role played.

Sweet Potato Cupcakes

For our first Diwali in the new house, I made the 7 cup cake, a shortcut mixture and Bakerella's sweet potato cupcakes with chocolate ganache. My version of shortcut mixture was puffed rice (pori) crisped up with tempering of chillies, curry leaves, asafoetida, mustard seeds, peanuts and fried gram dal. To this I added store bought shankarpala, khara boondi and omapodi (sev). This is the best I could manage when my mildly over-inquisitive son didn't even have the school to keep him engaged.

Last weekend, I cooked for a crowd of 9 people (umm okay, not crowd but group). While I was toying between a Mexican and a Lebanese menu, the friends 'demanded' Tambrahm food, politely put as 'food you cook regularly' or 'food you cook well'! So I set aside all my hopes of winning compliments as a truly world-class vegetarian chef and sat down to draw out a Tambrahm menu, as many items as I can possibly make all by myself with a 3 year old hanging around me dangerously!

The menu finally turned out to be :

Kosumalli / Kosumbari (with grated carrot, cucumber, gooseberry)

Crispy Bhindi Raita (crisped in the oven, no deep frying)

Arachuvitta sambar with small onions & carrots

Baby Potato roast Chettinad style flavoured with fresh dill

Yennai Kathrikkai - stuffed baby eggplants ( Google docs link to a friend's recipe notes) 

Vazhakkai Podimaas

Store bought Banana Chips

Rice

Mini chocolate cupcakes with chocolate ganache - Adapted from Dan Lepard's Easy chocolate cake recipe

Now that I'm done updating you, here's what today's blogpost is about. My friend Preethi sent me a few baking trays that included this beautiful cookie mould tray in which one can bake x-massy snowflake imprint cookies. I couldn't wait to try baking cookies in this one. The recipe is adapted from the cover of on of the Wilton cookie trays. These imprint cookies will be better with all purpose flour or whole wheat flour rather than chewy oatmeal cookies, so by all means you can bake these cookies on a plain cookie tray dropping spoonfuls of dough or flattening balls of dough on your palm and baking them until golden. The addition of oats makes these chewy and somewhat soft, perfect for your teething babies or aged parents who can't bite very hard biscuits. If you want these crisper, you can pat them thinner and bake for a few minutes more.

The addition of chai masala is my own twist to a traditional American recipe for the only way I eat cookies is with my chai, and this way they will complement each other beautifully. You could substitute ground cardamom, ground cinnamon or a mix of your favourite spices.

Printable version of recipe


Oatmeal Prune cookies spiced with Chai Masala

Makes 12-14 cookies

Time taken Under 30 minutes

3/4 cup oats

1 cup all purpose flour + a few tbsp on the side in case required to bind dough

1/2 tsp baking powder

Pinch of salt

1 tsp Chai Masala ( Everest or any other brand)

1 tsp instant coffee powder (optional)

1/4 cup butter

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 egg

3 tbsp finely chopped prunes or use raisins

Handful of finely chopped walnuts (optional)
2 tbsp milk

Preheat oven at 180C.

In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugars until light and fluffy.

Add the vanilla extract and egg. Beat some more.
Run the oats for a few seconds in the small jar of your mixer until coarsely powdered.

Add the oats, flour, salt, baking powder and chai masala.

Stir well it all the dry ingredients are incorporated into wet ingredients. Add the nuts and prunes in the final stage of mixing.

Line a cookie sheet with grease proof paper.

Divide dough into 12-14 balls adding some of the reserved flour to the dough if too sticky and tough to handle.

Flatten using fingers dipped in milk and place on cookie sheet leaving adequate space in between cookies as they will expand while baking.

Bake for 10-12 minutes. Remove and cool on a wire rack. Store in airtight container once cooled.

I used a cookie sheet with moulds, so I pressed the dough balls into each of the shape-moulds to get pretty snowflake imprints on them.


Thank you Preethi for this sweetest housewarming gift. Check out her food blog here

P.S.
If you like reading my blog and you are on Facebook, please show some love to my blog page there : http://www.facebook.com/SaffronTrail

P.P.S
It will be nice to meet up the Bangalore Foodbloggers, over food (what else?!) and discuss food (no surprises there) this Saturday once again as we have our first ever Mega Bangalore Food Bloggers' meet up. We have a group on Facebook, so if you are a foodblogger who blogs from Bangalore and you aren't  a part of the group yet, please leave a note in the comments, so we can send you an invite.

Read More...