Preethi's online cookbook

My favourite vegetable. The best part is that I like both sepankazhangu roast and fry. We call this dish as our family symbol/trademark. Every Sunday, all our relatives make sepankezhangu compulsorily (preferably fry and roast). It is almost like a strict tradition!!

I remember the days in my uncle/aunt's house at Bangalore. I lived with them for about 2 1/2 years when I was in my Engineering college. The aroma of Sepankezhangu fry would be my wake up call (at about 10 am only). As soon as I have my coffee, my uncle would come running to my room to give me fresh sepankezhangu fry! My aunt and her mom (Moiamma) would meanwhile make mouth watering karuvepalai molagu kozhambu, avial and parupu rasam to go with it. Every Sunday was a big feast with the entire family on the dining table with my aunt, uncle and my aunt's parents :) :)


Sepankezhangu Roast:

Sepankezhangu Roast

Sepankezhangu Fry

Morkootu can be made with either vazhai thandu (banana stem), white pumpkin or chow- chow (chayotes). It is an acquired taste. Serve with rice and a tasy veggie...

1 cup chopped veggies (vazhathandu (banana stem), white pumpkin (pushnikai)or chow- chow (chayotes)).
1 tsp toor dal
1/2 tsp jeera
2 green chillies
3 tsp coconut gratings
1 sprig curry leaves
1 tsp mustard
1 tsp oil for garnishing
salt
3 cups sour curds/ home made yogurt

Cook the desired veggies in water with a little salt. Meanwhile soak 1 tsp toor dal for half an hour.
Grind this toor dal with jeera, green chillies and coconut to a fine paste with water. Add this paste to the cooked veggie and simmer for a few minutes.
Cool completely. Add curds and blend well. Add more salt. Again simmer for 2-3 minutes. Garnish with curry leaves and fried mustard seeds.

I am not a big fan of store bought mixes. However, the MTR rava idly mix is an exception :) This is a good option, if you like you can always do it from the scratch. Here is the recipe

Ingredients:

2 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp urad dal
1 tsp channa dal
2 tbsp broken cashews
2 tsp oil
3 sprigs curry leaves chopped
1/8 tsp cooking soda
salt, hing 4 dashes
1 cup rava
1 1/2 cups sour curds
3 finely chopped green chillies

Add oil in a kadai, splutter mustard seeds, add channa dal, urad dal roast till golden brown. Add curry leaves, green chillies and fry till the colour changes. Add rava, continue to roast till the colour slightly changes and the rava feels light. Add salt and hing and mix again. After it cools, stir in the cooking soda and mix. For 1 cup rava mix, add 1/2 cup curds, mix it well. Let it rest for 2 min. Then, add 1 cup curds and stir well. Make a smooth batter. Allow it to rest for 5 min. Pour into idly plates and steam like regular idlis for 12 min.

My favourite snack. My mom is an expert in making pakodas. Every time I visited home from my hostel at Bangalore for the semester holidays, amma would make pakodas, raw banana chips and gulab jamun.

Ingredients:

1 cup besan
1 cup rice flour
salt, turmeric 1/4 tsp
3 tsp chilli powder
hing 4 dashes
1 ladleful heated oil
1 pinch cooking soda (optional)
5-6 green chillies chopped (vary according to taste)
5-6 sprigs chopped curry leaves
3/4 -1 cup onions chopped

Mix all the above ingredients dry. Slowly sprinkle water and start mixing. The dough should not be as wet as a chappathi dough. It should be more powdery, however, you should be able to hold it. Hold some dough together and make a small ball.
In a kadai with hot oil, slowly pinch out small pieces of the dough in the form of pakodas and deep fry. It will take some time for a batch to cook. Once the pakodas in the oil feel light in weight and are golden brown, the oil lessens bubbling. At this point, remove and drain in a paper towel. Serve with ketchup or just eat it plain. Also, it stays good for about 2 weeks in an air tight container.

You can add broken cashews instead of onions and call it cashew pakoda.

Though the name is 'thavala' oothapam, this has nothing to do with a frog :) I guess it is the vessel!

Again, a fantastic recipe from my Kamala paati

Ingredients:

1 cup raw rice
1/2 cup channa dal
1/4 cup toor dal
1/4 cup urad dal
salt, hing 3 dashes
sour curds - to soak
1 tsp oil
oil for roasting
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 tsp urad dal
2 red dried chillies
1 sprig curry leaves

Soak washed rice and dals together for 1 1/2 hrs in sour curds. Grind to a coarse batter with salt and hing in a mixie. In a pan, add a little bit of oil, splutter mustard seeds, urad dal , curry leaves and red chillies for garnish. Toss the seasoning onto the batter. Mix well.
Take a kadai (preferably round bottom) add 4 tbsp of oil, pour 1 ladleful of batter and cook closed in medium flame. Once it cooks evenly and is brown on one side, flip it over and cook till brown on the other side. Serve with molaga podi/ chutney podi and oil or pulimolagai/ molaga thokku.

Vada, the boyfriend of Idly...or rather Indian savoury donuts! :) Every South Indian is sure to have his/her own version of making idly and vada. I am posting my mother's recipe. However, if you like the typical karnataka/ mysore style vadas/bondas, do visit http://www.tasteofmysore.com/

Ingredients:

1 cup whole urad dal
1 tsp toor dal
salt to taste
2 red chillies, 1 small green chilli (for grinding)
hing 2 dashes

Soak the dals for exactly 45 min. Grind to a smooth paste in a mixie/grinder. With wet hands, flatten out on oil smeared plastic sheets, make a hole in the centre like a donut and slide it into oil and deep fry in med flame till golden brown.. Serve with cutney and sambhar...

For a variation, you can also add either of the following:
1. chopped onions
2. cabbage chopped
3. coriander leaves / curry leaves chopped
4. chopped greens (keerai)
5. chopped cow pea (karamani) to the batter

If you want Mysore bondas, Add salt, pieces of coconut and black pepper into the batter roll out into balls and deep fry.
For sambhar vadas, dip into a bowl of sambhar
For rasa vadai, dip into a bowl of rasam
For dahi vada or thayir vadai, make a paste with 3 green chillies, 1 inch ginger, 2 tbsp coconut gratings. Add this to the bowl of curds.
Dip about 5 vadas in curds and top it off with grated carrot, boondhi, coriander leaves and fried mustard seeds!

Yumm!!! Enjoy!!!

A person who is not a big fan of Adai, may like kunukus. Though both adai and kunuku have similar ingredients, kunuku tastes better simply because it is deep fried!

Ingredients:

Boiled rice/ Puzhungal arisi- 1 cup
toor dal 1 cup
urad dal 1 tbsp
3-4 green chillies
2 red chillies
1 half of a fresh broken coconut
1 tbsp ghee
2 pinches cooking soda
salt, hing 4 dashes


Soak the rice and dals separately. Drain and grind rice such that each grain should break to 4 pieces- coarse paste. Grind the dals such that each dal unit should reak into 3 pieces- coarser paste. Grind together coconut and chillies and mix all the three pastes together. Add hing, salt, cooking soda and ghee. Mix well. Pick small balls of batter (in the size of a ping pong ball) and deep fry till golden brown. Serve with pulimolagai/ molaga thokku.

Photo courtesy: Aarthi (my sister)

3/4 cup raw rice

1/4 cup boiled rice

1 cup urad dal

4 tbsp oil, 2 tbsp ghee

1/2 tsp jeera

1/2 tsp peppercorns,

2 sprig curry leaves, thick curds (yogurt) to make batter

salt, hing 3 dashes,

2 inches ginger grated

Photo Courtesy: Padmini and Srinivasan (parents)

I love karnataka tiffin items. If you live in Bangalore, you must definitely try the Mangaluru bajji at Janatha Hotel, 8th cross, Malleswaram. The best hotel in Bangalore for vadas, bajjis, dosas!!
We have been making these bajjis at home, however, only of late, I have perfected it - thanks to http://www.tasteofmysore.com/ by Lakshmi.
Most often, mysore bondas are confused with this dish. However, as far as I know, Mysore bonda is just urad vadas rolled out in the shape of bondas :) Of late I find most people using these names interchangeably. Anyways, this is the recipe with maida flour- served in most Karnataka hotels.

Ingredients:

1 cup maida flour (all purpose flour)
1 tbsp rice flour
a pinch of cooking soda
salt to taste
green chillies 2- 3 finely chopped
coriander leaves chopped 2 tbsp
jeera seeds 1/8 tsp (optional)
home made sour curds /yogurt for mixing the batter
chopped onions- handful (optional)

Mix all the dry ingredients with enough sour curds/ yogurt till you achieve a urad vada consistency batter (it should be more watery than chappathy dough). Let it rest for 3 hrs. Roll out into balls with wet hands into the shape of bondas and deep fry in med-high flame till golden brown. Serve with coconut chutney/ ketchup.

If you are in the US and you don't have home made curds, add a little water to the store bought plain yogurt and use. However, the yogurt has to be very sour. More the sourness, better the taste.

Puli upma is an acquired taste... In most Tamil vegetarian homes, puli upma is made on a regular basis. This recipe requires a lot of oil as the rice flour being used in this recipe has to be well cooked.

Ingredients:

1 lemon sized ball of tamarind
1.5 cups water
1 cup rice flour
5-6 tbsp oil (gingely oil preferred)
mustard seeds 1 tsp
urad dal 1/2 tsp
channa dal 1/2 tsp
4-5 mor molagai (black salted dried chillies)
2 green chillies
curry leaves 1 sprig
salt to taste

Soak the ball of tamarind in water till soft. Extract juice completely. Filter the tamarind water and discard the waste. Mix this tamarind water with rice flour to make a smooth liquid batter. Keep aside.
In a kadai, add oil. Splutter mustard seeds, urad dal, channa dal, black chillies, green chillies, curry leaves. Once fried, add the liquid batter, salt and keep stirring in medium flame. Add more oil if needed as the rice flour absorbs it all. Keep stirring well till it is cooked. Keep closed and cook if required. Rice flour may take a long time to cook. The oil should separate and it should either come to a upma consistency or a kkali (solid ball mass like) consistency.

Serve with mango pickle!

My husband's favorite dish!!! I learnt this fantastic recipe from my mom, U must definitely try this... Im sure it will be a great hit!!!

Ingredients:

For the kofta:

Potato 1 medium size
100 gm paneer (about the same amount as the potatoes)
salt to taste
red chilli powder 1 tsp
cumin powder 1/4 tsp
coriander powder 1/2 tsp
kasuri methi 1.5 tsp
oil for frying

To make kofta:

Boil 1potato and mash it well. Take equal amount of grated paneer. Mix together with little salt, red chilli powder, kasuri methi, jeera/ cumin powder and dhaniya/ coriander powder. Roll out into balls and keep aside. Deep fry in medium high heat till golden brown. If the oil is not well heated, the balls will break in the oil.

Make the gravy:

4 tsp oil
1 inch ginger
1 clove garlic (optional)
1 onion ( Indian sized)
2 tsp khus khus/ poppy seeds
3 tbsp cashews
sugar 2 tsp
3 roma (bengaluru thakkali) tomatoes pureed or 6 oz Hunts tomato sauce (3/4 of a 8 oz tin)
1/4 tsp jeera powder
1/2 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp garam masala ( I use curry powder, coz my husband does not like the smell of garam masala)
1.5 cups milk
3 tbsp sour curds

Grind together 1 piece ginger, garlic, onion (onion can be roasted directly on fire prior to grinding. The onion flavour is enhanced), 2 sp khus khus, 3 tbsp cashews with curds. This is the white paste. Keep aside.
Grind tomatoes or use 3/4 of a 8 oz hunts tomato sauce can (available in the US). Keep aside. Add oil in a kadai, add 1 sp sugar. Allow it to caramelize. Add the white paste. Saute well. Make sure that it is completely dry and the oil separates before you move to the next step.
Add tomato sauce, saute. Add curry powder/garam masala, salt, red chilli powder, jeera powder, dhaniya powder, kasuri methi.
Saute till excess moisture is gone or oil separates. Add milk and bring to a smooth gravy consistency.
Add a tsp of sugar and curds again if required (to give the gravy a little more sweet taste).
Add kofta balls just before serving... Eat with chappathis/ rotis/ naan/ kulcha.