Koulouri, Greek Politiko Simiti

          This month's challenge for the Eggless Baking Group is a type of bread, Koulouri/ Greek Politiko Simiti, it was suggested by Priya of Priya's Versatile Recipes. It's a common street food and snack in Greece and Turkey, the bread is in the shape of a ring, Koulouri meaning small round shaped bread ring. Traditionally eggs are used in the bread dough and the rings of dough are dipped in Petimezi ( grape must syrup which is basically grape juice boiled till it reaches a thick syrup consistency), then rolled in toasted sesame seeds and baked. I have replaced the egg with flax seed powder, and since we don't get Petimezi in India and also, since making it from scratch is a very lengthy process, I replaced it with a blueberry mixture. Also, since I was not sure about the taste, I made just four rings. We had it with some orange marmalade and finished it the same day, if you like the nutty taste from the sesame seeds and like crunchy and chewy bread, then this is for you..

Vazhaikkai Poriyal, Raw Plantain Curry

          I rarely cook raw plantains, the reason being when we were back in the US, I didn't like the big plantain variety that we got there, they were more suited for chips than for a curry. After coming to India also, might be because of habit, I hardly buy this vegetable. Apart from using in avials, chips and frying them, my favorite is this poriyal, but whenever I made it, I felt that the vegetable stuck together and didn't have the poriyal look. When my mom came and stayed with me for a couple of weeks, she made this poriyal and it was then that I noted the mistake. I used to do the seasoning, add the vegetable and water, cooked till the water was gone and then added the coconut, whereas she cooked the vegetable separately with water, drained it and then did the seasoning, the poriyal came out very well, like, as we say in Tamil, 'polpolana', the vegetable was not sticky. This curry goes well with rice and sambar or even better with rice and vathakuzhambu..

Nellikkai Saadam, Gooseberry (Amla) Rice

          Nellikkai/ Gooseberry/ Amla is widely known for its medicinal values, especially in India where it's used a lot in Ayurvedic Medicine, you can find a lot of information about it on the web. There are 2 varieties of it as far as I have seen, a smaller variety which is more sweeter and less sour and the big ones which are very sour. The bigger ones are used a lot in Indian cooking, we make pickles, chutneys and raithas, today I have made a rice with it. It's in fact a very simple preparation, very similar to the way we prepare lemon rice. Depending upon the sourness of the nellikkais, you add more or less, I started with 3 and ended with 5. Since I didn't find the rice sour enough, I just grated a couple more and added to the rice and mixed it. Eating the big nellikkais as such might not be liked by many of us, I find this rice or chutney or raitha is a tasty and healthy way of adding these berries in our diet..

Chow-Chow Pattani Curry, Chayote And Peas Curry

          After a couple of Pongal recipes, adai and dhokla, today I am back with a curry, well, for day to day cooking, it's always some kind of sambar or curry or dal to go with rice or rotis. For today's dish I have cooked chow-chow/ chayote and peas along with some fresh ground masala. Since I have to cook a curry, almost daily and with vegetables repeating themselves, I try to bring some variation to the curry by changing the masalas that is added to it, so that at the end of the day, we don't get bored of eating the same curry repeatedly. This tasted very good and you can serve it as a kootu to go with rice and vathal kuzhambu or as I did, as a side dish to go with rotis..