Muddakura

I love the taste of this simple yet tasty, quick and easy to do item. This can be considered as dal or as a curry. Best combination for this is rice and pachi charu/chintapandu charu.Try it and let me know;



Ingredients
Chana Dal, Toor Dal - 1:1 ratio
Moong dal - just a pistful of it(optional)
Palak/Thotakura (Amaranth leaves)/Chaama kura(Taro leaves) - Chopped
Turmeric
Green chillies
Red chillies
Salt to taste
Besan/Senagapindi
Tamarind juice
Oil
mustard seeds
Cumin seeds (Jeera)
Asafoetida
Urad dal
Curry leaves
Coriander leaves

Method of preparation
1. Cook all the three dals until they are just done but not totally mushy or total soft. For example: if you are using pressure cooker, and in general you need 3 whistles for dal to be cooked then for this item, try switching off stove at 2 whistles.

2. Take a kadai and heat oil in it. Add mustard seeds and let them splutter.

3. Add cumin seeds, green chillies, red chillies, curry leaves asafoetida and at last add the green leafy vegetable you picked (Palak/ amaranth/taro leaves chopped).

4. Wait for two minutes or until the leaf is cooked and then add the cooked dals to it along with turmeric and salt.

5. Add tamarind juice extract (just enough to have a little bit of sour taste, lot of it will make the curry taste sour)

6. Wait for a minute and then add besan to it. The curry will become a little thick at this point. Turn off the stove.

7. Add tadka to the top of it, by heating oil and adding mustard seeds, cumin seeds, asafoetida, red chillies, curry leaves, urad dal.

Snakegourd Yogurt pickle

Potlakaya Perugu Pachadi ki true translation is Snakegourd yogurt pickle. This is another simple and easy to make and tasty sides. I feel its healthy too.

Ingredients
Snakegourd - 1 chopped round
Green chillies -3-4 chopped small(depending on your taste)
Yogurt
Salt to taste
Oil - 2-3 teaspoons
Mustard seeds
Jeera/Cumin Seeds
Urad dal
Asafoetida
Curry leaves
Coriander leaves

Method of preparation
1. Boil Snakegourd chopped pieces in water added with salt until the pieces are totally done/well cooked.

2. Drain the water and take the boiled snakegourd pieces in a bowl. Add salt, yogurt, green chillies, Coriander leaves.



3. Take small bowl for tadka and do tadka by heating oil and then adding mustard seeds, jeera, Curry leaves, Asafoetida and urad dal. Switch off when the urad dal turns lightly brown.

4. Add the Tadka to the mix done in Step 2. Mix everything and then serve it with Rice, roti or with any biryani.

Spring Onion Tomato Dal

This is one of my favourite. I never forget to get spring onions when I go for grocery shopping. Here is the recipe for it.

Ingredients:

Spring Onions chopped - 1 cup
Tomato - 1 medium
Turmeric - a pinch
Toor Dal - 1/2 cup
Red chilli powder - 1 table spoon or
Green chillies - 2
Jeera(Cumin Seeds) - 1 table spoon
Tamarind/Tamarind paste - small piece for sour taste or 1/2 table spoon (Optional)
Garlic cloves chopped - 2 (Optional)
Oil for tadka
Salt to taste

Method of Preparation:

1. Cook dal in your way after adding a pinch of turmeric and cumin seeds, tamarind piece (optional) and tomato also.
2. Take a vessel, add oil to it. After oil is heated add garlic (optional), green chillies. Then add the chopped and cleaned spring onions to it.
3. Let the spring onions be lightly fried. If we add dal before the spring onions are fried, the raw smell remains intact and does not go away. After the spring onions are fried, add the dal.
4. Then add salt, red chilli powder (if needed), stir it. After it is mixed thoroughly , your dal is ready to serve and eat.

Coconut Chutney

This is a simple recipe which can be made instantly but still tastes delicious. Ofcourse, the hardest part will be to cut coconut into pieces. I use the frozen ones sometimes to avoid that pain.

Ingredients
Coconut pieces (scraped or small pieces)
Green chillies
red chillies (optional)
Tamarind - little to get the sour taste
urad dal
Oil
Salt to taste

For garnishing:
Kothimeeru - Coriander leaves
Tadka (Oil heated and then add mustard seeds, jeera, urad dal, red chillies and curry leaves)

Method of preparation

1. Make the coconut pieces ready by either scraping the coconut or by cutting the coconut into small pieces.

2. Do the tadka now, by heating oil in a small bowl and add mustard seeds. After mustard seeds splutter, add Jeera, urad dal, red chillies, and tamarind also and switch off the stove.

3. Grind the coconut, green chillies, salt and half of the tadka(add all the tamarind in the tadka while grinding). If needed add water in between.

4. Take the coarsely grinded paste into a bowl, then garnish with remaining tadka and chopped coriander leaves. Your coconut chutney is ready.

This tastes good with all the south indian tiffins or with rice.

Brinjal/Eggplant Bhaji

I dont know what others call, but at our place because of influence of Maharastra we call it as Vankaya Bhaji. Following is hte recipe. Previously I published recipe by heating it in a kadai. This time I tried it with the burning on stove. The taste of original is marvelous. Nothing can beat it. So here is the recipe

Ingredients
American eggplant or any fat eggplant
oil
Onions chopped
Green chillies
Salt to taste
Tomato chopped - Optional
Tadka (oil, mustard seeds, cumin seeds, urad dal and red chillies)

Method of preparation
1. Apply oil to the brinjal and let it be on the stove. As the skin turns different color, slowly move the brinjal to other side. Do this until the whole brinjal skin turns different and it becomes soft.

2. Remove the skin of the brinjal and take out the gujju (inside part) in a bowl or serving dish.

3. Add chopped onions, tomatos green chillies and salt to taste.

4. Add tadka on top and mix all the above.


Terminology

Vankaya - Eggplant, Brinjal