Katrikai Gotsu

Katrikai Gotsu

This can be made in different ways. But this one is my mom's way of doing it. I love the smell & the taste of it & its very simple.
Ingredients
Big Brinjal
Oil

Mustard seeds - 1 spoon

Red Chillies (2)

Asafoetida - a pinch

Tamarind paste - 1 1/2 spoons.

Curry leaves

Sambar powder - 2 spoons

Salt

Preparation
The brinjal has to be roasted. The tradiational way of doing it is to apply oil on the brinjal & directly keep it on the flame & keep turning the brinjal until all the skin is burnt enough. Then peel off the skin.
I tried to use the conventional over to make it. Preheat the oven for 400 for 5 mins, then apply oil and keep it in the oven. Occasionally flip it. It took me half an hour to get it done. This may vary depending on the oven.

Dissolve the tamarind paste in 1 cup of water.
In a kadai take oil. When it is hot, add mustard seeds, red chillies, a pinch of asafetida, curry leaves, half a tea spoon of sambar powder. Roast it a bit until the raw smell is gone. Then add the tamarind extract & salt. Let it boil for some time. Then mash the brinjal and add it to the boiling mixture and bring it to a boil.

Its done. Garnish it with coriander leaves. Lovely to take it with upma kuzukatai & aruci upma.

Human Race.....what to say about it...

Apart from the usual recipes.......

I happened to watch a a movie "The Island" from the director Micheal Bay. The same guy who did Transformers, Armageddon, etc.

LIFE INSURANCE,,...What are we assured about..?

Eternity has always been man's dream. BUt at what cost? Are we ready for this kind of of assurance...May be we'l welcome it...but is this the right way to go?

It was quite an insight. I often used to think anout Us as humans being the dominant race among the other species that lodge the earth. The survival of the fittest is what we define "us" to be. As we royally proclaim to be the rightful owners of Earth. Thus we...the so called most evolved of all species, consider our existence to be of prime priority as opposed to all the others. We destroy a lot of things around us.

Our evolution has evolved so much that we are ready to recreate & destroy so much of ourselves for our own survival.

......I know the above statment doesn't quite make a lot of sense immediately....but sadly enough we are just being like tat.

I 've been quite scrappy about my thoughts......a must watch movie.

Rice Upma/ Aruci Upma

Rice Upma/ Aruci Upma

Ingredients

Rice - 2 tumblers

Urad Dal

Channa Dal

Mustard

Red Chilli

Salt

Asafoetida

Curry Leaves

Pepper

Cumin seeds

Water

Preparation

Take two tumblers of rice, wash and keep aside.

Take one handful each of Toor dall, Channa dal, pepper(10), cumin seed (1/2 spoon) and grind them in mixie lightly. Add washed rice and grind coarsly to just break the rice without making it into flour.

In a kadai, take 2 or 3 ladles of oil. Add mustard and after sputtering, add udad dhall(1 spoon), bengal gram (1 spoon), red chilli (2), asafoetida, curry leaves. Roast them till the dals are golden brown. Add salt and water. (Rice:water - 1:2 1/2)

When the contents in the kadai boil, add the ground items, mix thoroughly and let cook by keeping the heat in medium flame and finally simmer for 10 to 15 minutes (to get “Kandhal”). Remove from oven.

Yes its done. Its yummy when taken with cocconut chutnet or Katrikai Gotsu/ Brinjal Gotsu (similar ot baingan burta).

Another traditional recipefor us to relish.

Do Click on this for Katrikai Gotsu

Venn Pongal

Venn Pongal

Ingredients

Rice - 3 cups

Green gram dal - 3/4 cup

Pepper

Jeera

Salt

Asafoetida

Curry leaves

Ginger

Ghee

Take 3 cups of rice, ¾ cup of green gram dhall, wash them together, then add pepper (10), cumin seeds (1 spoon) and asafoetida and pressure cook them by adding 9.5 cups of water.

In a kadai heat 5 spoons of ghee and add cashew nuts (10), fry till it they are slightly brown & remove, add powdered pepper (10) and cumin seed(1/2 spoon), add curry leaves, minced ginger and then add the cooked rice and dhall, add salt, mix thoroughly and cook for 5 minutes and remove from stove.

A very yummy pongal is ready to eat. Conconut chutney goes very well with it. Also Vatha Kuzambu is good combination.

Vendaikai Thalar. (Bendi/ Okra Masala)

Vendaikai Thalar

Ingredients

Okra - 1/2 kg

Mustard Seeds

Toor Dal 1 1/2 cup

Channa Dal

Urad Dal

Peanuts

Red Chillies

Green Chillies

Ginger

Asafoetida

Turmeric Powder

Tamarind

Oil

Preparation

Pressure cook 1 cups of Toor dal. Keep it aside.

Take the tamarind, prepare the extract & keep it aside.

Cut Okra into small rounds.

Take little oil, when it's hot, add Mustard, when it spurts add Channa Dal, Urad Dal, Peanuts,

Red Chillies, Green Chillies, Ginger, Asafoetida.

Then add the cut okra, when its half cooked, add the tamarind extract. Allow it to cook fully, then add the cooked toor dal.

The peanuts add a special flavor to this dish. So do make sure to experience that.

That is all. A yummy dish is ready

Idli Sambar Recipe

Ingredients

Toor Dal - 1 cup

Green Gram less than 1/4 cup

Tomato - 2 chopped

Small Onions/Shallots - - cut into half

Ginger 1 chopped

Green chilli

Turmeric - 1/2 spoon

Chilli Powder 1/4 spoon

Sambar powder

Salt

Seasoning

Cumin Seeds (Jeera) = 1spoon

Asafoetida

Mustard

Curry leaves

Oil

Preparation

Soak the toor dal & green gram in hot water for half an hour.

In a cooker, add onions, tomato, green chillies, ginger, the dal, add little water, salt, chilli powder, sambar powder, turmeric powder. Pressure cook well upto 5 whistles.

When done. In a kadai, take oil, when its hot, add mustard seeds, when it spurts, add cumin seeds, asafotida & curry leaves.

Sambar is done. Its awesome with idli, dosa, vada. Yummy

Tomato Rasam, How to make Fresh Masala

This Rasam is called Arachu vitta rasam.

Ingredients

Toor Dal - 1 1/2 cup

Tomato - 2 chopped

Tamarind - a small lemon sized

Turmeric - 1/2 spoon

Corriander seeds (Dhania) - 2 spoons

Pepper corns - 15

Cumin Seeds (Jeera) = 1spoon

Asafoetida

Corriander leaves

Ghee - 1 spoon

Mustard

Curry leaves

Green chilli

Salt

Oil

Preparation

Cook 1 cup of toor dal in pressure cooker.

In a kadai, toor dal (2 spoons), corriander seed (2 spoons), pepper corns (15), asafoetida and fry in 2-spoon oil. When it is almost done, add Jeera and transfer it to a plate to cool. Then grind it adding water sparsely.(Consistency - not too coarse not to fine).

The Rasam fresh masala is ready.

Soak tamarind and obtain the extract and dilute it to 1½ cups. Add salt, cut-tomato, turmeric powder and bring it to boil.

Add paste to boiling tamarind water, boil further (10 minutes), add pre-cooked toor dhall, add water if needed, reduce heat, wait till it froths completely, then add coriander leaves and karuveppilai and remove from oven.

Add fried mustard. [If some special flavour is needed fry mustard, cumin seed (1 spoon) and 2 split green chilli in ghee plus oil and add to the rasam.

Voila...delicious rasam to go.

How to makeTomato Rasam

First we'l see how to make rasam podi. This is made and  stored, so that its easy to use we want to make rasam. The freshly ground rasam is the tastiest I would say.

There may be lot of varities of rasam, this one is my favourite. This recipe is my mom -in-law's. I adhere to her method. Lets make the podi 1st then the rasam.

How to make Rasam Podi

Ingredients

Toor Dal - 1 cup

Corriander seeds (Dhania) - 3 cups

Pepper corns - 3/4 cups

Red chillies - 4 to 5

Cumin Seeds (Jeera) = 1/2 cup

Preparation

In a kadai, dry roast coriander seeds, Chillies, Pepper, Toor dal. When it is almost done, add Jeera and transfer it to a plate to cool. Then grind this. (Consistency - not too coarse not to fine).

This is Rasam Podi.

How to make the Rasam

Ingredients

Tomato - 2 chopped

Tamarind - a small lemon sized

Turmeric - 1/2 spoon

Asafoetida

Toor dal - 1/2 cup

Corriander leaves

Ghee - 1 spoon

Mustard

Curry leaves

Salt

As the 1st step, wash the 1/2 cup of toor dal, pressure cook it by addling little turmeric. When that is done, take a spoon and mash it well by adding a little water. Keep this aside.

Then in a small bowl, take the tamarind &1 1/2 glass warm water, extract the juice well & throw the residue. To this tamarind add, a little turmeric, salt, a pinch of asafoetida and; bring it to boil.

Add the tomatoes. When the skin of the tomatoes peel away & the mixture boils up, add 3 spoons of rasam podi and bring it to boil. When the mixture rises up, stir well. The aroma of the rasam will rise.

Now, add the cooked & mashed toor dal into this. Also add the corriander leaves. And when it boils and rises up, take it off the gas.

If its over cooked, the rasam give a burnt taste. So make sure you dont over heat it.

The rasam is almost done.

Now we have to season it. In a skillet, heat ghee add mustard seeds, when its spurts, add some cumin seeds, a pinch of asafoetida and then the curry leaves. When done add this to the rasam.

Delicious Rasam is done.

Few tips: If ghee is not available, we can use oil.

When the curry are added, it will spurt out. So, we can have a lid handy. So when we add these curry leaves to the kadai, we can immediaely close it. This avoids spill overs of the mustard seeds on the gas & spurting out of the ghee/oil on our hands.

Rasam can be mixed with rice and taken. It can be eaten with any Kariamudhu (curry).

The Ingredients in the rasam actually helps in enhancing digestion.

How to make Usili Karamudu. (Paruppu Usili/ Beans Lentils Curry)

How to make Paruppu Usili

Ingredients
Toor dal : 1/2 cup

Channa dal : 1/2 cup

Red Chilli : 2

Salt to taste

Turmeric

Mustard seeds

Urad dal : 1/4 spoon

Asafoetida : a pinch

Oil

Usili can be done with one of the following vegetables : Potalankai (Snake gourd), Beans, Banana flower (vazhai po), Broad beans (avaraikai), kothavarankai (cluster beans).

Preparation

Cut the vegetables and pressure cook them after adding salt and turmeric.

Soak Toor dal, Channa dal for half an hour. Then, grind them coarsly with minimum water after adding salt, red chilli , asafoetida.

Heat 6 spoons of oil in Kadai. When it fumes, add mustard and then udad dal, when they are roasted untill golden brown add the dal mix, stir thoroughly, close the kadai with a plate and allow it to cook (10 to 15 minutes). Keep stirring every 3 minutes.

After the dal gets cooked, add the cooked vegetables, mix well, fry for 5 minutes and remove.

Its ready.

Combination

Mostly taken with Mor Kuzambu. Also good with araicha sathumudhu (Tomato Rasam)

How to make Milagu Kuzambu/ Pepper sambar

Hi,

All of the traditional recipes that I shall be posting, descends either from my mom or my mom in law. I thank both of them for their patience to teach me. I salute them for the passion they hold to make lovely food.

Milagu Kuzambu

Making time : 20 mins

Serves : 2

Ingredients

Tamarind - A small lemon sized

Turmeric - 1 spoon

Urad Dal - 1 spoon

Peppercorns - 20 nos (add more if you want it more spicier)

Asafoetida - 2 pinches

Curry Leaves - A small cup

Grated Coconut - 2 spoons

Oil

Rice Flour - 1 spoon

Sundaikai vattral- 4/5 (called as Turkey berry) - optional

Mustard - a little for seasoning

Salt to taste

Preparation

Soak the tamarind in water & get the extract.

Take oil in a kadai, heat it a bit. Then add the peppercorns, urad dal, curry leaves & Asafoetida fry till the urad dall is golden brown.Add coconut to it & grind it into a paste.

In the tamarind extract, add turmeric & salt & boil it for 10 mins, then add the paste add bring it to boil for 5 mins. You can a smell a very nice Aroma of the curry leaves & pepper.

To make the consistency of the kozambu lil thick, mix a spoon rice flour in cold water till you see no lumps. Then add it to the kozambu. Then remove the kozambu off the heat after you have stirred it well.

Take little oil in kadai, heat it well, and add mustard & sundaikai vattral. Fry it till it turns dark brown or nearly black. Then add this on top of the Kozambu.

Tip: If you feel it is little spicy, you can add some jaggery.

Voilà.... a delicious Mulagu Kuzambu.

Combination: It should be taken with Paruppu Thugayal.

Goodness of pepper

Pepper is very good for health. It improves digestion & the pepper stimulates the breakdown of fat cells, keeping you slim while giving you energy to burn. It is very good in curing common colds & body aches.