Basale Soppu Koddel, Malabar Spinach Sambar

          Every week, on alternate days, I used to get three types of leafy vegetables home delivered and I had opted for a bunch of spinach, methi and amaranth leaves. But on a couple of days, when methi was not available, they had sent me this Nela Basale Soppu ( soppu means greens in Kannada ), a local leafy vegetable. Verdolaga is the botanical name of these greens and you can check here to know more about the health benefits of it. The first time, I made a simple stir fry with it along with onions and tomatoes, but the second time, I tried out this Basale Soppu Koddel, a Mangalorean style sambar with them. We don't use sambar powder for this sambar, instead we make a fresh paste with coconut, chillies and other spices and we also add peanuts and small onions, This gives a nice taste to this sambar and it goes very well with white rice..

Vazhaipoo Kuzhambu, Banana Flower Gravy

          Vazhaipoo Kuzhambu, gravy with banana flower, I had seen this on a cookery show, long time back, but never got to try it, until now. I remembered the recipe very vaguely, so then I saw this recipe video and followed it. They also call this gravy as ' Saiva Meen Kuzhambu ', which means Vegetarian Fish Gravy', the reason might be that, the ingredients added and the way it's cooked is all similar to that of a Fish Gravy. The kuzhambu is tangy and spicy and goes very well with some plain white rice..

Palakottai Poricha Kuzhambu, Jackfruit Seeds Gravy

          Jackfruit season is back, at least I am seeing it in Bangalore, but I am yet to buy them. This Palakottai Poricha Kuzhambu, I have done it during the last season, but didn't get a chance to post it then, so now since the season is coming back, I am posting it now. Usually I add jackfruit seeds to sambar, especially along with drumsticks and last year I had also tried out Palakottai Vadai, Palakottai Cutlets and Jackfruit Seeds And Raw Mango Curry. Coming back to today's Kuzhambu, it's very simple and tastes great with rice with a nice flavor of coriander and peppercorns..

Mysore Sambar

          Mysore Sambar, just like Mysore Rasam or Mysore Pak I really don't know why we have 'Mysore' in the name of this dish. This a recipe from the cookbook Dakshin by Chandra Padmanabhan, I can say that, this is one of the first cookbooks that I started following after my marriage. Back then, I had written down all the recipes from this book, which I had borrowed from the library,  and to this day, I follow many of her recipes for day to day cooking. I have made this sambar so many times and it had always received good reviews from all those who had tasted it. The sambar is very simple to make and it gets its unique flavor and taste from the ground paste that we add to it. It goes well with plain rice and can also be served with idlis and dosas too, do try this when you want to have a change from the regular sambar..

Manathakkali Kai Masiyal, Mashed Black Nightshade Berries Curry

          Manathakkali/Black Nightshade, till now I have cooked with only the keerai/greens, of course a few berries would be there with the greens, but this is the first time, I have made a dish with the berries alone. These berries are green when raw and turn blackish purple when they ripen, for today's dish we are using the raw green berries. Whenever we go to Chennai, I always remember to buy sundakkai ( turkey berries ) and fresh green peppercorns as I don't find them in Bangalore. This time, my husband had bought these manathakkali kai, mistaking these berries for the green peppercorns. Since I had never cooked these berries, I had to call my co-sister for a recipe and she asked me to do this masiyal with it. Since these berries have a bitter taste, I was not sure about this dish till I tasted it and, to my surprise, the curry tasted so good, didn't have the bitter taste at all. I am not going to say anything about the health benefits of these berries ( there's a lot of information on the net ), but do try out this masiyal, the next time you get these berries. Serve the Manathakkali Kai Masiyal with plain rice along with a vegetable curry and papads for a simple and delicious meal..

Varutharacha Sambar, Kerala Style Sambar, Sadya Recipes

       
            As I had mentioned in my earlier post, this whole week till Onam is going to be only Sadya recipes from Kerala. So next in line is Varutharacha Sambar which literally means Roast and Ground Sambar, we have our own Tamilian version of Araichuvitta Sambar, this is Kerala style. As in most of the Kerala dishes, the cooking oil used here is coconut oil and that itself gives a different flavor to this sambar. I have adapted the recipe from here and the sambar tasted really good with both rice and dosas..

Beetroot Moru Kuzhambu

          Moru Kuzhambu/Yogurt Stew is a favorite at home, mixed with rice and along with some paruppu usili, it tastes simply too good. Usually we add okra/vendikkai, ash gourd/pusinikkai, chayote/chow-chow or even vadas to the moru kuzhambu. Since I love the combination of beets with yogurt as in beets thayir pachadi/raitha, I wanted to try it out in Moru Kuzhambu. I have a couple of versions of Moru Kuzhambu in the blog, you can check out the links at the end of this post and I wanted to try out another version. I followed this recipe from here and used beets as the vegetable. The dish turned out really good with the nice pink color from the beets and we loved it with some methi/fenugreek leaves paruppu usili..

Hitikida Avarekalu Saaru, Hyacinth Beans (Field Beans) Curry

          Like I had mentioned in an earlier post, this Avarekalu season, I had bought a few pounds of it and had tried a couple of dishes with them. Today's dish is the most common dish that's made during the season, Avarekalu Saaru. It's a simple and delicious gravy and it goes very well with rice, rotis, idlis, dosas or if you like Ragi Mudde ( Ragi Balls, post coming soon ), then, this is the best combination with it. We use the beans after removing the skin, so it's known as Hitikida Avarekalu Saaru. Though the season is almost done for this year, if you are in the US, you can still make this dish with frozen surti papdi lilva, or even with dry beans..

Onion Tomato Gothsu, Side Dish For Pongal, Idlis And Dosas

          Pongal ( both sweet and spicy ) is a favorite at home. As much as we like ven pongal with sambar and chutney, I like it much better when I serve it with this Onion and Tomato Gothsu. Since there is no dal/lentils in this Gothsu, you don't end up feeling heavy after eating pongal with it. It's very light and the slight sourness from the tomatoes goes very well with Ven Pongal, do try this Gothsu, the next time you make Ven Pongal, of course this goes very well with idlis and dosas too..

Chettinad Poondu Kuzhambu, Garlic Gravy

          Wishing all of you a Very Happy New Year, back to blogging after almost a month. It's been a long time, since I had made anything special, in fact, this past month, I haven't even cooked that much. Today's post, Chettinad Poondu Kuzhambu, is something that I had made couple of months back. I had tasted this Poondu Kuzhambu in a restaurant as a side for soft dosas, it tastes spicy, tangy and sweet at the same time and goes very well with both rice and idlis and dosas too. I already have a recipe for Garlic Gravy on my blog, but this one is a little different from that one. I followed the recipe from here, made a few changes and left out the coconut. This would go well with Paniyarams too, in fact we had it with rice in the afternoon and I served it as a side dish for Paniyarams in the evening for dinner, do give it a try, you'll love it..

Olan ( Kerala Style Stew With Ash Gourd And Black Eyed Peas )

          We love Kerala food at home, both the husband and I love the Sadya served during Onam, in fact I want to cook a complete sadya, at least once. I don't know when that's going to happen, might be by next Onam, but I do make Kerala dishes once in a while, especially the moru kuzhambu. Olan had been on my do list for a long time, and finally I made it, a couple of weeks back. I don't know why it took me so long to try it, this being such an easy dish, the only major task, might be extracting the coconut milk, even that I wouldn't say is a big task. Anyway, this is a mild stew with pusinikkai or ash gourd/ winter melon and black eyed peas and the seasoning is done with coconut oil which gives a wonderful flavor to the dish. It goes very well with plain rice, but I think it might also taste good with dosas and adais too..

Kongu Nadu Keerai, Spinach Pachadi

          Kongu Nadu Keerai, this is a recipe that I had jotted down many years back and I had tried it once then. After that, when I wanted to do it, I thought I had lost the piece of paper, then finally after so many years, I found it back, all neatly jotted down in a notebook. I had taken it from a TV show, and I think it's a kind of spinach preparation done in Kongu Nadu region ( Coimbatore, Erode,Salem, Tiruppur and some more places in Tamilnadu, India belong to this region ). The recipe is very simple and different, it's like a Pachadi kind of dish and it goes very well with plain rice, give it a try next time when you make spinach..

Green Grapes Gojju/Curry

           Couple of weeks back, I had bought some green grapes, but they turned out to be too sour that we couldn't eat them as such. I had to do something with it or it would finally find its way to the garbage bin. I have tasted grapes along with pineapples in pachadis, but I had never tasted anything with just grapes alone. Somehow, even before I started searching the web, the word gojju got stuck in my mind, so I browsed only for grapes gojju, and finally settled down with this recipe here, of course I made a few changes to suit our taste. The gojju tasted sweet, sour and spicy at the same time and went very well with white rice..

Murungakkai Palakottai Sambar, Drumstick Jackfruit Seeds Sambar

          I like jackfruit seeds as much as I like the fruit itself, though it's a pain to peel these seeds, they taste delicious. We can make curries with the seeds alone, but I like this sambar made with these seeds and murungakkai/drumsticks more than the curries. The flavor from the murungakkai and also the tamarind added in the sambar adds more taste to the seeds. Serve it with rice and any vegetable curry..

Karuvepillai Kuzhambu, Curry Leaves Curry/Gravy

          Curry Leaves/Karuvepillai, I can't imagine South Indian cooking without this, we season most of our dishes with it and use it in chutneys, podis, we just love the flavor of these leaves. This kuzhambu has been on my do list for so long, I have followed Mallika Badrinath's recipe, it's simple and delicious. We can serve this kuzhambu with rice, idlis and dosas, it's spicy tangy and very flavorful..

Sundakkai Vathal Kuzhambu, Dried Turkey Berries Curry

          Today's dish is Sundakkai Vathal ( Dried Turkey Berries ) Kuzhambu, this is a recipe that I had jotted down so many many years back and it's a favorite till now. We're not using any fresh vegetables in this kuzhambu, just these dried and preserved sundakkai vathals ( the fresh turkey berries are prepared in a special way, so that they can be stored year around ). This is a tangy and spicy curry and I serve it with plain white rice along with some paruppu thogayal ( lentil chutney ), will post that recipe next. It's such a simple and flavorful kuzhambu, but tastes so delicious when mixed with the chutney and rice. Serve it along with some poriyal/stir fried vegetables and pappads for a complete and satisfying meal..

Thakkali Kurma, Tomato Kurma

          Today's dish is going to be a simple and delicious Tomato Kurma, this comes in handy when you are running out of time or on those days you don't feel like chopping vegetables. The gravy is rich, flavorful and delicious from the coconut and cashew paste and goes well with rotis, idlis, dosas, as a side dish for pilafs and briyanis or even mixed with some plain white rice..

Mampazha Moru Kuzhambu, Mango Buttermilk Stew

          I wanted to try out a number of recipes with mangoes, while they were still in season, one of them is this Mampazha Moru Kuzhambu. I knew that mangoes go very well with yogurt/ curd, but had a slight doubt about how it would taste in a moru kuzhambu and then I saw this recipe at Saffron Trail. Since I had all the ingredients in hand, I made it the same day, I have followed the original recipe, with only very few changes. It's a very easy dish, takes very little time and tasted really good with rice..

Gujarati Kadhi, Spicy Yogurt

          I have never been a big fan of kadhi, until I tasted it at my friend's place, in fact I have tasted some of the best Gujarati dishes at her place, best homemade dhoklas, kachoris, and other curries. I got this recipe from her only, we simply love this with the khichdi that I had posted earlier. It's a very simple recipe, calls for very few ingredients and can be done in minutes..

Moong Dal/ Payatham Paruppu/ Green Gram Sambar

          When I make idlis or dosas, the standard side dish that I make with it, is either some kind of a chutney or sambar. The sambar that we make for tiffins is slightly different from the ones that we make for rice, we add very little or no tamarind at all. I make two varieties of sambar, the one using tuvar dal/ split pigeon peas is here and the other one is, using moong dal/ husked, split green gram, which is today's post. Both are equally delicious and when had with idlis and dosas make a complete meal. I don't add any sambar powder to this sambar, it gets its taste and flavor only from the fresh green chillies, coriander leaves and curry leaves, it has a fresh taste and very easy to make too..