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Showing posts with label bachelor recipes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bachelor recipes. Show all posts

Hot breakfast in 5 minutes - I'm not kidding!

Hot breakfast in 5 minutes, and it's not cereal or toast or a fried egg! Or a smoothie for that matter. It's this amazing thing called 'dhideer sevai' or instant rice noodles which you absolutely must stock in your kitchen. Unlike Maggi or any other 2 minute noodles, you don't have to cook them. Immerse them for 2 minutes in hot water, drain and they are ready. These are the REAL 2 minute noodles. They make for the quickest lunchbox you can rustle up. Make a lemon sevai or mix with any ready pastes like Tomato pickle / thokku to make a tomato sevai. Add a tempering of curry leaves, mustard seeds, red chillies on the top and it's ready.




In my 5 minute recipe, there's no ready pastes involved. I quickly pulsed roasted peanuts, sesame seeds and black pepper in the mixer and that was the flavouring for this dish that went into my kid's lunchbox today.


For sneak peek into my kitchen and to get instant updates on my upcoming workshops - follow me on my Facebook Page
Photos from the Breaking Bread Workshop of 9 Nov in the Saffron Trail kitchen  


Tips

  • When you buy peanuts/groundnuts, roast them on the stove top / microwave or oven and keep in airtight jar. You can add them to a variety of dishes like salads, raitas, bhel etc.
  • When you buy a coconut, grate / scrape the whole coconut and keep it in a freezer safe box. Whenever you need a small bit of grated coconut, scrape it out using a sharp knife and use as required. 






Sesame-Peanut Instant Sevai (Rice Noodles)
serves 2

Ingredients
100-150 grams instant rice noodles (Dhideer Sevai)*
1 litre recently boiled water
3 tbsp roasted unsalted peanuts
2 tbsp sesame seeds
8 black pepper corns
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp fresh/frozen scraped coconut
2 tsp oil (I use cold pressed coconut oil)
pinch of asafoetida
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1 sprig curry leaves 
1 dried red chilli broken into pieces

Directions
Immerse the noodles in the hot water, cover and keep aside for 2-3 minutes. In the meanwhile coarsely powder the roasted peanuts, sesame seeds and black pepper corns in a small jar of the mixer. 
Drain the noodles using a colander, shake off all excess water.
Heat 2 tsp oil in a non-stick kadai / pan. Splutter mustard seeds, add curry leaves, dried red chilli and asafoetida, when the curry leaves crisp up, add the drained noodles, salt and coarse peanut-sesame powder. Toss well but gently until the noodles / sevai is well coated.
Garnish with fresh coconut.

You could use the same recipe for poha (beaten rice).
*I've used Anil brand Rice Sevai, 777 brand and found them to be good.

Hot breakfast in 5 minutes - I'm not kidding!

Posted by admin

Hot breakfast in 5 minutes, and it's not cereal or toast or a fried egg! Or a smoothie for that matter. It's this amazing thing called 'dhideer sevai' or instant rice noodles which you absolutely must stock in your kitchen. Unlike Maggi or any other 2 minute noodles, you don't have to cook them. Immerse them for 2 minutes in hot water, drain and they are ready. These are the REAL 2 minute noodles. They make for the quickest lunchbox you can rustle up. Make a lemon sevai or mix with any ready pastes like Tomato pickle / thokku to make a tomato sevai. Add a tempering of curry leaves, mustard seeds, red chillies on the top and it's ready.




In my 5 minute recipe, there's no ready pastes involved. I quickly pulsed roasted peanuts, sesame seeds and black pepper in the mixer and that was the flavouring for this dish that went into my kid's lunchbox today.


For sneak peek into my kitchen and to get instant updates on my upcoming workshops - follow me on my Facebook Page
Photos from the Breaking Bread Workshop of 9 Nov in the Saffron Trail kitchen  


Tips

  • When you buy peanuts/groundnuts, roast them on the stove top / microwave or oven and keep in airtight jar. You can add them to a variety of dishes like salads, raitas, bhel etc.
  • When you buy a coconut, grate / scrape the whole coconut and keep it in a freezer safe box. Whenever you need a small bit of grated coconut, scrape it out using a sharp knife and use as required. 






Sesame-Peanut Instant Sevai (Rice Noodles)
serves 2

Ingredients
100-150 grams instant rice noodles (Dhideer Sevai)*
1 litre recently boiled water
3 tbsp roasted unsalted peanuts
2 tbsp sesame seeds
8 black pepper corns
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp fresh/frozen scraped coconut
2 tsp oil (I use cold pressed coconut oil)
pinch of asafoetida
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1 sprig curry leaves 
1 dried red chilli broken into pieces

Directions
Immerse the noodles in the hot water, cover and keep aside for 2-3 minutes. In the meanwhile coarsely powder the roasted peanuts, sesame seeds and black pepper corns in a small jar of the mixer. 
Drain the noodles using a colander, shake off all excess water.
Heat 2 tsp oil in a non-stick kadai / pan. Splutter mustard seeds, add curry leaves, dried red chilli and asafoetida, when the curry leaves crisp up, add the drained noodles, salt and coarse peanut-sesame powder. Toss well but gently until the noodles / sevai is well coated.
Garnish with fresh coconut.

You could use the same recipe for poha (beaten rice).
*I've used Anil brand Rice Sevai, 777 brand and found them to be good.

Raw Banana & Paneer Kababs

Simple to make and delicious, these kababs were a part of dinner last night. Sufficiently pushed by the good folks who follow my blog's Facebook page, who asked me to share this recipe when I posted a picture - this quick post is for them :) These make a perfect starter, you could make these even smaller for bite sized pieces. I'm sure they'd taste good rolled up in soft phulka rotis.




Recipe for Raw Banana & Paneer Kababs
Makes 10 medium sized kababs

Ingredients
3 small raw bananas
1/2 cup paneer - finely crumbled or grated
fresh coriander leaves, chopped
2 tbsp of finely chopped onion
1 tsp coriander powder
1/2 tsp red chilli powder
1 garlic clove, grated
a pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 tsp of good garam masala powder (by good, I mean fresh and fragrant)
1 tbsp semolina / bread crumbs
3/4 tsp salt
2 tbsp oil or so to cook the kababs

How to make
Cut the bananas in half (length wise) and pressure cook with peel or boil them until very soft.
Once cool enough to handle, remove peels. These will slip off easily with a squeeze, if the bananas are well cooked. Mash with a fork. 
Add all other ingredients except oil. Pinch off 10 portions, flatten on palm and place in single layer on a plate. Refrigerate for at least 15 minutes or covered with cling film until you need to make them.
Grease a non stick tava / grill pan. Cook these on both side with little oil until golden. Serve hot with chutney or Tabasco sauce.

Note
You can use mashed potatoes instead of raw banana and tofu instead of paneer too! Don't use too much onion, i've deliberately used a couple of spoons only, just for flavouring and not as a vegetable.

Raw Banana & Paneer Kababs

Posted by admin

Simple to make and delicious, these kababs were a part of dinner last night. Sufficiently pushed by the good folks who follow my blog's Facebook page, who asked me to share this recipe when I posted a picture - this quick post is for them :) These make a perfect starter, you could make these even smaller for bite sized pieces. I'm sure they'd taste good rolled up in soft phulka rotis.




Recipe for Raw Banana & Paneer Kababs
Makes 10 medium sized kababs

Ingredients
3 small raw bananas
1/2 cup paneer - finely crumbled or grated
fresh coriander leaves, chopped
2 tbsp of finely chopped onion
1 tsp coriander powder
1/2 tsp red chilli powder
1 garlic clove, grated
a pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 tsp of good garam masala powder (by good, I mean fresh and fragrant)
1 tbsp semolina / bread crumbs
3/4 tsp salt
2 tbsp oil or so to cook the kababs

How to make
Cut the bananas in half (length wise) and pressure cook with peel or boil them until very soft.
Once cool enough to handle, remove peels. These will slip off easily with a squeeze, if the bananas are well cooked. Mash with a fork. 
Add all other ingredients except oil. Pinch off 10 portions, flatten on palm and place in single layer on a plate. Refrigerate for at least 15 minutes or covered with cling film until you need to make them.
Grease a non stick tava / grill pan. Cook these on both side with little oil until golden. Serve hot with chutney or Tabasco sauce.

Note
You can use mashed potatoes instead of raw banana and tofu instead of paneer too! Don't use too much onion, i've deliberately used a couple of spoons only, just for flavouring and not as a vegetable.

Watermelon Feta Salad : Super easy and super gorgeous


Tell me this picture doesn't want to make you grab a fork and have a go at it? And let me tell you this is a picture from my iPhone 3GS (yes, I'm slowly working towards the fund for an iPhone4S). I know this is not the perfect salad for winter, but with a bunch of other spicy, hot foods on the table, it goes beautifully. Handful of ingredients, no cooking involved, can easily make a BIG batch - it doesn't get easier than that.

This is my version and there are many variations to this. Some recipes use black or green olives, sliced onions, crushed dried herbs - somehow I don't like the taste of onions paired with watermelon and I like to keep this as minimalistic as possible.

The salty feta plus sweet watermelon plus sour balsamic is a drop-dead gorgeous combination that few people can resist. 

Recipe Watermelon Feta Salad
Printable version of recipe here

Serves 5
Takes under 15 minutes

Ingredients
Half a large watermelon, cubed (roughly 5 cups)
Handful of seedless grapes (optional)
200-250 grams feta cheese
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp honey (optional)
handful of freshly plucked and washed (and dried) mint leaves
1 cucumber, halve lengthwise, remove seeds and cut into half moons

Directions

  1. Take a large platter, scatter the watermelon chunks and grapes.
  2. Spoon small chunks of feta and scatter them evenly across platter.
  3. Do the same with the mint leaves and cucumber.
  4. Drizzle olive oil, balsamic vinegar and honey* around the entire platter.
  5. This is one salad that SHOULD NOT be tossed or the feta will become a paste and the salad will look all messed up. Let this sit in the fridge for 10-15 minutes and then serve as it is.


*If the watermelon is sweet, you don't need to use honey.
Also, it's not necessary to completely deseed the watermelon, which is a time consuming and next to impossible task. 


Top 4 tips for a great Watermelon-Feta salad:

  1. Fresh crisp watermelon
  2. Reasonably good feta and be generous with it
  3. Fresh mint leaves - this makes ALL the difference
  4. DO NOT TOSS

Watermelon Feta Salad : Super easy and super gorgeous

Posted by admin


Tell me this picture doesn't want to make you grab a fork and have a go at it? And let me tell you this is a picture from my iPhone 3GS (yes, I'm slowly working towards the fund for an iPhone4S). I know this is not the perfect salad for winter, but with a bunch of other spicy, hot foods on the table, it goes beautifully. Handful of ingredients, no cooking involved, can easily make a BIG batch - it doesn't get easier than that.

This is my version and there are many variations to this. Some recipes use black or green olives, sliced onions, crushed dried herbs - somehow I don't like the taste of onions paired with watermelon and I like to keep this as minimalistic as possible.

The salty feta plus sweet watermelon plus sour balsamic is a drop-dead gorgeous combination that few people can resist. 

Recipe Watermelon Feta Salad
Printable version of recipe here

Serves 5
Takes under 15 minutes

Ingredients
Half a large watermelon, cubed (roughly 5 cups)
Handful of seedless grapes (optional)
200-250 grams feta cheese
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp honey (optional)
handful of freshly plucked and washed (and dried) mint leaves
1 cucumber, halve lengthwise, remove seeds and cut into half moons

Directions

  1. Take a large platter, scatter the watermelon chunks and grapes.
  2. Spoon small chunks of feta and scatter them evenly across platter.
  3. Do the same with the mint leaves and cucumber.
  4. Drizzle olive oil, balsamic vinegar and honey* around the entire platter.
  5. This is one salad that SHOULD NOT be tossed or the feta will become a paste and the salad will look all messed up. Let this sit in the fridge for 10-15 minutes and then serve as it is.


*If the watermelon is sweet, you don't need to use honey.
Also, it's not necessary to completely deseed the watermelon, which is a time consuming and next to impossible task. 


Top 4 tips for a great Watermelon-Feta salad:

  1. Fresh crisp watermelon
  2. Reasonably good feta and be generous with it
  3. Fresh mint leaves - this makes ALL the difference
  4. DO NOT TOSS

The secret to a two minute 100% homemade pasta sauce



Are you curious to know this secret? Because I'm sure as hell excited to share it with you. 

This is truly magic and I'm not lying. I've struck gold with this two minute pasta sauce - just two ingredients, loads of flavour, loads of health and vegan to boot- perfect for kid lunchbox, your lunchbox or a quick weeknight dinner. 

And if you've made pasta for dinner, just cook a handful of extra pasta and save it in the fridge. With this sauce, your kiddie lunchbox can come together in less than 5 minutes. It's a promise. I even got myself a quick facial with the bits of leftover secret ingredient.

So, time to reveal the secret ingredient....
*drumrolls*
It's AVOCADO.

How to make two-minute pasta sauce from scratch?
Printable version here

Take your blender (or mixer) out.
Quarter one large ripe tomato. Halve a fully ripe avocado. Scoop out from skin. 
(Don't throw away skin*)
Blend the tomato (skin, seeds and all) and flesh from half avocado to a puree.
Heat 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil in a pan. Smash and finely mince 1 clove of garlic. 
Add the puree, 1/2 teaspoon salt and warm for one minute. Add salt and 1/2 teaspoon of dried basil, crushed between finger tips (or any other dried herb you fancy).

Coat pasta in this sauce and warm through.
Garnish with fresh basil if you like.

This makes enough sauce for a really saucy pasta for one or lightly coated pasta for two.
You can easily scale up the recipe using 1 large avocado + 4 large tomatoes, 2-3 cloves of garlic and 2 tbsp olive oil for four people. Add chilli flakes to the oil, if it's only for adults or if your kids don't mind the spice.

*Rub your face with the leftover bits of avocado inside and wash after 10 minutes for glowing baby-soft skin.

Avocado gives the sauce a mellow creaminess without adding any cream or dairy to the sauce whatsoever. Avocado is sold as butter-fruit in several parts of India.

You could even prepare this with your kids and teach them to warm the sauce in the microwave and they can toss the pasta in this. The best way to make your kids eat healthy food is to involve them in the cooking process. The next time you do your food shopping, make sure you buy an avocado, just to try this recipe out and you'll know that I'm not joking about this magical pasta sauce.

The secret to a two minute 100% homemade pasta sauce

Posted by admin



Are you curious to know this secret? Because I'm sure as hell excited to share it with you. 

This is truly magic and I'm not lying. I've struck gold with this two minute pasta sauce - just two ingredients, loads of flavour, loads of health and vegan to boot- perfect for kid lunchbox, your lunchbox or a quick weeknight dinner. 

And if you've made pasta for dinner, just cook a handful of extra pasta and save it in the fridge. With this sauce, your kiddie lunchbox can come together in less than 5 minutes. It's a promise. I even got myself a quick facial with the bits of leftover secret ingredient.

So, time to reveal the secret ingredient....
*drumrolls*
It's AVOCADO.

How to make two-minute pasta sauce from scratch?
Printable version here

Take your blender (or mixer) out.
Quarter one large ripe tomato. Halve a fully ripe avocado. Scoop out from skin. 
(Don't throw away skin*)
Blend the tomato (skin, seeds and all) and flesh from half avocado to a puree.
Heat 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil in a pan. Smash and finely mince 1 clove of garlic. 
Add the puree, 1/2 teaspoon salt and warm for one minute. Add salt and 1/2 teaspoon of dried basil, crushed between finger tips (or any other dried herb you fancy).

Coat pasta in this sauce and warm through.
Garnish with fresh basil if you like.

This makes enough sauce for a really saucy pasta for one or lightly coated pasta for two.
You can easily scale up the recipe using 1 large avocado + 4 large tomatoes, 2-3 cloves of garlic and 2 tbsp olive oil for four people. Add chilli flakes to the oil, if it's only for adults or if your kids don't mind the spice.

*Rub your face with the leftover bits of avocado inside and wash after 10 minutes for glowing baby-soft skin.

Avocado gives the sauce a mellow creaminess without adding any cream or dairy to the sauce whatsoever. Avocado is sold as butter-fruit in several parts of India.

You could even prepare this with your kids and teach them to warm the sauce in the microwave and they can toss the pasta in this. The best way to make your kids eat healthy food is to involve them in the cooking process. The next time you do your food shopping, make sure you buy an avocado, just to try this recipe out and you'll know that I'm not joking about this magical pasta sauce.

The secret to absolutely delicious Masala Aloo





I'd first seen this recipe in a cookery show, Khana Khazana, one of the longest running cooking shows in India by Chef Sanjeev Kapoor. What I remember about this one was that he was cooking some authentic Punjabi dishes with his mum. And what I remember from this recipe was one unique technique which I had never seen or read about before. To know what that is, you will have to go read through the entire post.

Potatoes, who doesn't love them? And you might think it is utterly impossible to mess up a potato dish. But look at these culinary competitions like Masterchef Australia and you realise how much thought and process goes into making a simple dish like mashed potatoes. Potatoes are the sponges of the culinary world. They absorb most flavours beautifully, go with any vegetable most amicably and you need to work really hard to make a potato taste BAD!

I think the make or break in most potato dishes is seasoning. They need adequate salt to taste good, or it's just a bland boiled chunk of a starchy vegetable.

I like to do a little teaser off and on, on my facebook page. If something turns out really delicious from the day's cooking, I'll post an Instagram pic of the dish and depending on the responses I get, it ends up featuring on the blog or not. When I posted the picture of this potato dish yesterday, it got many more oohs and aahs than I expected. This one is a recipe any beginner cook (or bachelor cook) can nail. All you need is to manage to cook the potatoes well in their skins. Pressure cooker works best here, but if you have a phobia to my favourite implement in the kitchen, you need some patience to boil the potatoes whole, in their skins, until they are well cooked right till the middle and then proceed with the recipe [Details on cooking potatoes in pressure cooker and pot given at the end of the post].

You could get more adventurous with this recipe using more spices like amchoor (dried mango powder) or crushed dried fenugreek leaves (kasoori methi) but before you go raid the spice aisle, try making this with the basic spices. I can promise you will be wowed!

For my readers from outside India, if you are new to Indian cooking, and you want to try a simple curry recipe, this is the perfect one for you. Few ingredients, simple technique and superb results :) 

All curries are not with gravies and do not require sautéing of onions-tomatoes-ginger-garlic. In fact, in most South Indian cuisines, a curry is a dry saute of vegetables! Potatoes was one of the first things I cooked as a 10 year old girl. My grandmom would keep boiled potatoes ready and I would make a simple potato roast. 





Recipe Masala Aloo - Spice coated potatoes
Printable version here
Serves 3-4
Ready in under 30 minutes
Vegetarian / Vegan side 

Ingredients
4-5 medium potatoes
1 tbsp rice flour or corn meal
2 tbsp vegetable oil

Fat pinch of asafoetida (optional, but really elevates the taste)
1 tsp cumin seeds
2 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp cumin powder
1/2 - 1 tsp red chilli powder
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp finely chopped coriander leave for garnish

Directions

  1. Pressure cook* or boil potatoes until they are well cooked.
  2. Once cool enough to handle, peel the skins and quarter each potato into 4 large pieces.
  3. In a large bowl, toss the pieces in rice flour coating well, and keep aside.
  4. In a large non-stick wok / kadai, heat the oil.
  5. Add asafoetida and cumin seeds. Once the seeds splutter, add the coriander powder, cumin powder, red chilli powder, turmeric powder and SALT to the oil.
  6. Stir well so that all the spice powder INCLUDING salt get cooked in oil.
  7. Do this on a low flame so that none of the spices burn. Immediately, throw in the rice flour tossed potato chunks, stirring gently to coat with the spices and oil.
  8. Cook them on a low flame until all the potato chunks get encrusted with spices, around 7-8 minutes, turning occasionally.
  9. Garnish with finely chopped coriander.


This makes an excellent accompaniment to rotis or sliced bread.
Perfect with steamed rice and any dal.
You could easily customize this recipe for kids by omitting the red chilli powder and following all other steps.

One secret to this recipe is the rice flour (easily available in supermarkets in India or Indian stores abroad). If you cannot find this, you could substitute with corn meal or makkai atta. This is a tip used in Tamil style potato roast, where the coarse rice flour gives the final dish a nice crunch.
The second secret is adding the salt to the oil, which was shown in the Khana Khazana cookery show, by Chef Sanjeev Kapoor's mum. It just makes the potatoes taste so much better seasoned!


How to pressure cook potatoes:
Place scrubbed whole potatoes in a container and place this inside a pressure cooker with an inch high water in the cooker. Do NOT add any water to the container in which the potatoes are kept.
Close pressure cooker lid with the whistle. Keep on high flame and allow two whistles, lower the flame to minimum and let this be on sim for 7 minutes or so. Keep for 10 minutes for bigger sized potatoes, or they will be raw inside.
Once pressure falls, let out excess steam by pulling up the whistle with a pair of tongs and open lid.
Insert a knife inside the potato to check if it is cooked all the way through. Peel when cool enough to handle. Do not wash with water to cool the potatoes quickly, they will become soggy.

No pressure cooker? Read this primer in The Kitchn on how to boil potatoes in a pot.

Details on my debut TV appearance in Twist of Taste / Fox Traveller this weekend here

The secret to absolutely delicious Masala Aloo

Posted by admin





I'd first seen this recipe in a cookery show, Khana Khazana, one of the longest running cooking shows in India by Chef Sanjeev Kapoor. What I remember about this one was that he was cooking some authentic Punjabi dishes with his mum. And what I remember from this recipe was one unique technique which I had never seen or read about before. To know what that is, you will have to go read through the entire post.

Potatoes, who doesn't love them? And you might think it is utterly impossible to mess up a potato dish. But look at these culinary competitions like Masterchef Australia and you realise how much thought and process goes into making a simple dish like mashed potatoes. Potatoes are the sponges of the culinary world. They absorb most flavours beautifully, go with any vegetable most amicably and you need to work really hard to make a potato taste BAD!

I think the make or break in most potato dishes is seasoning. They need adequate salt to taste good, or it's just a bland boiled chunk of a starchy vegetable.

I like to do a little teaser off and on, on my facebook page. If something turns out really delicious from the day's cooking, I'll post an Instagram pic of the dish and depending on the responses I get, it ends up featuring on the blog or not. When I posted the picture of this potato dish yesterday, it got many more oohs and aahs than I expected. This one is a recipe any beginner cook (or bachelor cook) can nail. All you need is to manage to cook the potatoes well in their skins. Pressure cooker works best here, but if you have a phobia to my favourite implement in the kitchen, you need some patience to boil the potatoes whole, in their skins, until they are well cooked right till the middle and then proceed with the recipe [Details on cooking potatoes in pressure cooker and pot given at the end of the post].

You could get more adventurous with this recipe using more spices like amchoor (dried mango powder) or crushed dried fenugreek leaves (kasoori methi) but before you go raid the spice aisle, try making this with the basic spices. I can promise you will be wowed!

For my readers from outside India, if you are new to Indian cooking, and you want to try a simple curry recipe, this is the perfect one for you. Few ingredients, simple technique and superb results :) 

All curries are not with gravies and do not require sautéing of onions-tomatoes-ginger-garlic. In fact, in most South Indian cuisines, a curry is a dry saute of vegetables! Potatoes was one of the first things I cooked as a 10 year old girl. My grandmom would keep boiled potatoes ready and I would make a simple potato roast. 





Recipe Masala Aloo - Spice coated potatoes
Printable version here
Serves 3-4
Ready in under 30 minutes
Vegetarian / Vegan side 

Ingredients
4-5 medium potatoes
1 tbsp rice flour or corn meal
2 tbsp vegetable oil

Fat pinch of asafoetida (optional, but really elevates the taste)
1 tsp cumin seeds
2 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp cumin powder
1/2 - 1 tsp red chilli powder
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp finely chopped coriander leave for garnish

Directions

  1. Pressure cook* or boil potatoes until they are well cooked.
  2. Once cool enough to handle, peel the skins and quarter each potato into 4 large pieces.
  3. In a large bowl, toss the pieces in rice flour coating well, and keep aside.
  4. In a large non-stick wok / kadai, heat the oil.
  5. Add asafoetida and cumin seeds. Once the seeds splutter, add the coriander powder, cumin powder, red chilli powder, turmeric powder and SALT to the oil.
  6. Stir well so that all the spice powder INCLUDING salt get cooked in oil.
  7. Do this on a low flame so that none of the spices burn. Immediately, throw in the rice flour tossed potato chunks, stirring gently to coat with the spices and oil.
  8. Cook them on a low flame until all the potato chunks get encrusted with spices, around 7-8 minutes, turning occasionally.
  9. Garnish with finely chopped coriander.


This makes an excellent accompaniment to rotis or sliced bread.
Perfect with steamed rice and any dal.
You could easily customize this recipe for kids by omitting the red chilli powder and following all other steps.

One secret to this recipe is the rice flour (easily available in supermarkets in India or Indian stores abroad). If you cannot find this, you could substitute with corn meal or makkai atta. This is a tip used in Tamil style potato roast, where the coarse rice flour gives the final dish a nice crunch.
The second secret is adding the salt to the oil, which was shown in the Khana Khazana cookery show, by Chef Sanjeev Kapoor's mum. It just makes the potatoes taste so much better seasoned!


How to pressure cook potatoes:
Place scrubbed whole potatoes in a container and place this inside a pressure cooker with an inch high water in the cooker. Do NOT add any water to the container in which the potatoes are kept.
Close pressure cooker lid with the whistle. Keep on high flame and allow two whistles, lower the flame to minimum and let this be on sim for 7 minutes or so. Keep for 10 minutes for bigger sized potatoes, or they will be raw inside.
Once pressure falls, let out excess steam by pulling up the whistle with a pair of tongs and open lid.
Insert a knife inside the potato to check if it is cooked all the way through. Peel when cool enough to handle. Do not wash with water to cool the potatoes quickly, they will become soggy.

No pressure cooker? Read this primer in The Kitchn on how to boil potatoes in a pot.

Details on my debut TV appearance in Twist of Taste / Fox Traveller this weekend here

Yard long beans curry : Karamani curry - Garden to plate

Yard long beans (Chauli / Karamani) have not been my most favourite vegetable, because they are often tough and stringy when bought from the supermarket. Ever since I started growing these in my garden, I've changed my opinion about this vegetable. 


Seeds from Auchan (formerly SPAR) Supermarket, Bangalore


For one, it is a hardy plant, producing a good yield once it starts flowering and fruiting. It's always fun to search for the green delicate long beans among the green leaves and there are a surprise few always hiding in the middle of the foliage. You can pluck them when still tender which means they cook in no time. The overlooked beans can always be used for the mature seeds inside, which you can use in a soup or a vegetable dish. 


I may have said this before, but to avoid any confusion, I must clarify that, 'Curry' in the tamil / Tambrahm cuisine parlance means a dry saute, where boiled or raw chopped vegetables are added to a hot oil after a simple tempering of curry leaves, mustard seeds, udad dal and dried red chillies. And once the vegetable is nearly cooked, a sprinkling of fresh coconut completes the dish. It is almost like a lightly cooked salad and not a gravy dish. Also, it is one of the easiest ways to prepare any vegetable, while retaining it's nutrition, taste and colour.


Karamani Curry / Yard long beans curry
Printable version here
Serves 2-3
Time taken : Under 20 minutes

Ingredients

1 tbsp of oil ( I used organic coconut oil)
Pinch of asafoetida
2 dried red chillies, broken
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1 tbsp udad dal
2 cups of chopped yard long beans
3/4 tsp salt
1 tsp sambar powder
2 tsp fresh coconut 

Directions
  1. In a large wok / kadai, heat the oil. 
  2. Add asafoetida, immediately adding red chillies, mustard seeds, udad dal. 
  3. Once mustard seeds splutter and dal turns golden, add the chopped beans, salt - stir well and sprinkle water, cover and cook for 8-10 minutes on a low flame. 
  4. Check on the beans every 3 minutes or so, sprinkling some water, if it is too dry or catching at the bottom of the pan.
  5. Once done (tender, but still retaining some crunch), sprinkle sambar powder, stir to mix well.
  6. Remove from flame and garnish with coconut.
  7. Serve with rasam-rice or sambar - rice.
Useful information about growing yard long beans on the USDA site. 

Yard long beans curry : Karamani curry - Garden to plate

Posted by admin

Yard long beans (Chauli / Karamani) have not been my most favourite vegetable, because they are often tough and stringy when bought from the supermarket. Ever since I started growing these in my garden, I've changed my opinion about this vegetable. 


Seeds from Auchan (formerly SPAR) Supermarket, Bangalore


For one, it is a hardy plant, producing a good yield once it starts flowering and fruiting. It's always fun to search for the green delicate long beans among the green leaves and there are a surprise few always hiding in the middle of the foliage. You can pluck them when still tender which means they cook in no time. The overlooked beans can always be used for the mature seeds inside, which you can use in a soup or a vegetable dish. 


I may have said this before, but to avoid any confusion, I must clarify that, 'Curry' in the tamil / Tambrahm cuisine parlance means a dry saute, where boiled or raw chopped vegetables are added to a hot oil after a simple tempering of curry leaves, mustard seeds, udad dal and dried red chillies. And once the vegetable is nearly cooked, a sprinkling of fresh coconut completes the dish. It is almost like a lightly cooked salad and not a gravy dish. Also, it is one of the easiest ways to prepare any vegetable, while retaining it's nutrition, taste and colour.


Karamani Curry / Yard long beans curry
Printable version here
Serves 2-3
Time taken : Under 20 minutes

Ingredients

1 tbsp of oil ( I used organic coconut oil)
Pinch of asafoetida
2 dried red chillies, broken
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1 tbsp udad dal
2 cups of chopped yard long beans
3/4 tsp salt
1 tsp sambar powder
2 tsp fresh coconut 

Directions
  1. In a large wok / kadai, heat the oil. 
  2. Add asafoetida, immediately adding red chillies, mustard seeds, udad dal. 
  3. Once mustard seeds splutter and dal turns golden, add the chopped beans, salt - stir well and sprinkle water, cover and cook for 8-10 minutes on a low flame. 
  4. Check on the beans every 3 minutes or so, sprinkling some water, if it is too dry or catching at the bottom of the pan.
  5. Once done (tender, but still retaining some crunch), sprinkle sambar powder, stir to mix well.
  6. Remove from flame and garnish with coconut.
  7. Serve with rasam-rice or sambar - rice.
Useful information about growing yard long beans on the USDA site. 

When life gives you sour mangoes - Make Mango Dal

The summer is coming to an end and not one mango post on the blog, or so I was thinking. And then life presented me a sour mango this morning...

You cut open a luscious looking mango anticipating sweet and juicy fruit, which is already making your mouth water. Sometimes, the mango lives up to your expectations (and taste buds) and sometimes it makes your screw your eyes shut because it is so sour, giving your taste buds a rude shock. Instead of fretting over sour mangoes, how about putting them to good use. This Mango Dal recipe is one of them. The sweet-sourness from the ripe mango, heat from chillies go beautifully with any cooked dal. Here, I've used masoor dal. You could well use chana dal, tur dal or a mix of all the three dals.

Mango Dal, Bhindi curry served with paratha - Lunch 


I think mango, ginger and coconut make a fantastic flavour combination. If you don't have coconut on hand or you are not especially fond of coconut, by all means leave it out.
This dal, made as per the recipe below is thick and creamy, with a great depth of flavour and yet so easy to make. Even a beginner in the kitchen can churn this out in no time. Also, masoor dal cooks even on stove top in no time, in case you are one of those grad students stuck in the US without a pressure cooker :)

I've used Banganapalli variety of mango here, but you could use any mango that is ripe but too sour to eat as it is. If you use a small Mango like Alphonso, you'll need 3-4 sour mangoes, as they don't come with much flesh, not unlike the popular size zero movie stars of Bollywood.

Does your family have a special recipe for Mango Dal, which is made when mangoes are in season? Come over and participate in this discussion on the Facebook page of Saffrontrail - https://www.facebook.com/SaffronTrail/posts/411255952252710




Recipe for Mango Dal
Serves 3-4
Time taken : Under 20 minutes

Ingredients
1/2 cup masoor dal
1 large mango (ripe but sour)
3 tbsp fresh scraped or frozen coconut (unsweetened)
1-2 green chillies (depending on how spicy they are)
1 tbsp ghee / oil
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
Fat pinch of asafoetida
1/2 tsp grated ginger
1 stick cinnamon (1")
1 sprig curry leaves
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
3/4 tsp salt

Directions
Wash the dal and pressure cook with 1.5 cups of water (2 whistles, 5 min on sim).
Peel and cube the mango roughly, scraping off any flesh around the seed (stone). This should make a generous cup to nearly a cup and a half in quantity to get full flavour of mango in the dal.
Place the cubed and scraped mango flesh, coconut, green chillis in the small mixer jar and grind to a paste.
In a pan / kadai, heat the ghee.
Add the asafoetida, cumin seeds - letting the seeds splutter.
Add grated ginger, cinnamon stick, curry leaves, turmeric powder. Saute for 30 seconds and then pour in the mango-coconut-chilli puree.
On a medium flame, stir this for 1-2 minutes.
Add pressure cooked dal, salt and up to 1/2 cup water to get the desired consistency of dal.

Serve hot with steamed rice or rotis.

The taste of this mango dal lingers on...over my tastebuds, as I say this, DO try this out. I guarantee you'll love it.



When life gives you sour mangoes - Make Mango Dal

Posted by admin

The summer is coming to an end and not one mango post on the blog, or so I was thinking. And then life presented me a sour mango this morning...

You cut open a luscious looking mango anticipating sweet and juicy fruit, which is already making your mouth water. Sometimes, the mango lives up to your expectations (and taste buds) and sometimes it makes your screw your eyes shut because it is so sour, giving your taste buds a rude shock. Instead of fretting over sour mangoes, how about putting them to good use. This Mango Dal recipe is one of them. The sweet-sourness from the ripe mango, heat from chillies go beautifully with any cooked dal. Here, I've used masoor dal. You could well use chana dal, tur dal or a mix of all the three dals.

Mango Dal, Bhindi curry served with paratha - Lunch 


I think mango, ginger and coconut make a fantastic flavour combination. If you don't have coconut on hand or you are not especially fond of coconut, by all means leave it out.
This dal, made as per the recipe below is thick and creamy, with a great depth of flavour and yet so easy to make. Even a beginner in the kitchen can churn this out in no time. Also, masoor dal cooks even on stove top in no time, in case you are one of those grad students stuck in the US without a pressure cooker :)

I've used Banganapalli variety of mango here, but you could use any mango that is ripe but too sour to eat as it is. If you use a small Mango like Alphonso, you'll need 3-4 sour mangoes, as they don't come with much flesh, not unlike the popular size zero movie stars of Bollywood.

Does your family have a special recipe for Mango Dal, which is made when mangoes are in season? Come over and participate in this discussion on the Facebook page of Saffrontrail - https://www.facebook.com/SaffronTrail/posts/411255952252710




Recipe for Mango Dal
Serves 3-4
Time taken : Under 20 minutes

Ingredients
1/2 cup masoor dal
1 large mango (ripe but sour)
3 tbsp fresh scraped or frozen coconut (unsweetened)
1-2 green chillies (depending on how spicy they are)
1 tbsp ghee / oil
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
Fat pinch of asafoetida
1/2 tsp grated ginger
1 stick cinnamon (1")
1 sprig curry leaves
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
3/4 tsp salt

Directions
Wash the dal and pressure cook with 1.5 cups of water (2 whistles, 5 min on sim).
Peel and cube the mango roughly, scraping off any flesh around the seed (stone). This should make a generous cup to nearly a cup and a half in quantity to get full flavour of mango in the dal.
Place the cubed and scraped mango flesh, coconut, green chillis in the small mixer jar and grind to a paste.
In a pan / kadai, heat the ghee.
Add the asafoetida, cumin seeds - letting the seeds splutter.
Add grated ginger, cinnamon stick, curry leaves, turmeric powder. Saute for 30 seconds and then pour in the mango-coconut-chilli puree.
On a medium flame, stir this for 1-2 minutes.
Add pressure cooked dal, salt and up to 1/2 cup water to get the desired consistency of dal.

Serve hot with steamed rice or rotis.

The taste of this mango dal lingers on...over my tastebuds, as I say this, DO try this out. I guarantee you'll love it.



Cold Pasta Salad from leftover pasta

Bite-Sized Post No. 3

When you boil pasta for a pasta dish, it's always nice to boil a handful extra and save it in the fridge. The leftover pasta is perfect for a chilled pasta salad when you want something light and refreshing for lunch or dinner. It's also a yummy lunchbox idea for your kids, no cooking required in the morning. Just don't add too much dressing that can make it soggy.

It's also a good idea to make this, when you are asking yourself 'what to do with leftover pasta' in case you cooked more pasta than required for dinner, which is always the case with me. I never know how much pasta to put to boil.

So here goes - quick, easy, light and refreshing, my version of the cold pasta salad.






Text only:
Recipe for Cold Pasta Salad
Serves 2
Time taken : Under 15 minutes
Recipe Type : Easy





In a large bowl, toss-
a cup of any leftover cooked pasta
a cup of diced pineapple
1 cucumber, diced
1 carrot, grated
1 red bell pepper, diced


dressing
Whisk in a small bowl-
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp dried crushed basil
Pinch of chilli flakes


Pour on salad and toss well.


Serve chilled.





Cold Pasta Salad from leftover pasta

Posted by admin

Bite-Sized Post No. 3

When you boil pasta for a pasta dish, it's always nice to boil a handful extra and save it in the fridge. The leftover pasta is perfect for a chilled pasta salad when you want something light and refreshing for lunch or dinner. It's also a yummy lunchbox idea for your kids, no cooking required in the morning. Just don't add too much dressing that can make it soggy.

It's also a good idea to make this, when you are asking yourself 'what to do with leftover pasta' in case you cooked more pasta than required for dinner, which is always the case with me. I never know how much pasta to put to boil.

So here goes - quick, easy, light and refreshing, my version of the cold pasta salad.






Text only:
Recipe for Cold Pasta Salad
Serves 2
Time taken : Under 15 minutes
Recipe Type : Easy





In a large bowl, toss-
a cup of any leftover cooked pasta
a cup of diced pineapple
1 cucumber, diced
1 carrot, grated
1 red bell pepper, diced


dressing
Whisk in a small bowl-
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp dried crushed basil
Pinch of chilli flakes


Pour on salad and toss well.


Serve chilled.





How to make paneer and the easiest dish with paneer : Paneer Bhurji



Paneer Bhurji is one dish that is good to have in your repertoire of easy, quick dishes that can be made in minutes if you stock store bought paneer. Also, a great vegetarian side to serve your guests, if you cook predominantly non-vegetarian dishes and you find it tough to handle vegetables.

Making paneer at home- you need
1 litre regular fat milk (3%)
You could also use a day old milk that you can't use in coffee / tea
2- 3 tbsp of white vinegar
A fine mesh sieve or a muslin cloth

Bring the milk to a boil.
As soon as it boils, lower the heat to minimum.
Add 2 tbsp of vinegar and stir it around. In 2-3 minutes, the milk will separate into solids and liquid (whey)- if the whey is not totally clear- then use the remaining tbsp of vinegar and stir for 2 more minutes.
Carefully hold the vessel with a pair of tongs or a thick tea towel and pour the contents through a sieve-collecting the whey in a large vessel.
Lightly press with the back of a ladle to remove excess whey from the solids.
What remains is the paneer.

For any other dish in which you need cubed paneer, you need to use a muslin cloth / clean cotton tea towel. Place the paneer in the middle, cover it on all sides, using the sides of the cloth as flaps.
Place this on a dish and place a heavy weight like a mortar pestle on top of this to flatten it out.
After 15 minutes, cube it and place it in the whey or warm water until you need to use it.

Paneer bhurji is a scramble made using paneer cheese, midly spiced with green chillies and the added texture of finely chopped onions and bell pepper.
For Paneer Bhurji, you don't need to do any of the earlier processes to get cubes. You don't even have to press out too much of the excess whey. This keeps the bhurji moist.




Recipe for Paneer Bhurji
Time taken: 15 minutes or so
Serves 3 people

Paneer from 1 L of milk 
2 tsp oil
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
Pinch of asafoetida (optional)
2 green chillies, finely sliced (or 1 if you want it mildly spicy)
1 medium onion - finely diced
1 medium green bell pepper- finely diced
Tiny pinch of turmeric powder

Directions
  1. Heat the oil in a large steel or non stick wok.
  2. Add the cumin and mustard seeds. Once they splutter, add the asafoetida, chillies, onion and bell pepper, with a pinch of salt.
  3. Saute on medium flame till onions are soft-roughly 7-8 minutes.
  4. Add the freshly made paneer. If you are using store bought paneer, crumble 200 grams and use it now.
  5. Sprinkle tiny pinch of turmeric powder over this and mix well.
  6. Add 1/2 tsp salt and saute well till all spices are mixed.
  7. Remove from flame and garnish with chopped coriander leaves.
  8. Serve with rotis or parathas or with toasted slices of bread.
Notes:
Use a mix of red, yellow and green bell peppers to make this dish super colourful.
You could also use crumbled tofu instead of paneer, although you need to use more chillies to make tofu taste as flavoursome as paneer.
Some people like to add boiled peas to the dish to make it more substantial and colourful.

If you are in Bombay, try the Punjab Dairy paneer or the Darshan dairy paneer. Though it has a whole lot of fat, it is one of the softest paneer I've tasted. In Bangalore, Nandini paneer is decent.

How to make paneer and the easiest dish with paneer : Paneer Bhurji

Posted by admin



Paneer Bhurji is one dish that is good to have in your repertoire of easy, quick dishes that can be made in minutes if you stock store bought paneer. Also, a great vegetarian side to serve your guests, if you cook predominantly non-vegetarian dishes and you find it tough to handle vegetables.

Making paneer at home- you need
1 litre regular fat milk (3%)
You could also use a day old milk that you can't use in coffee / tea
2- 3 tbsp of white vinegar
A fine mesh sieve or a muslin cloth

Bring the milk to a boil.
As soon as it boils, lower the heat to minimum.
Add 2 tbsp of vinegar and stir it around. In 2-3 minutes, the milk will separate into solids and liquid (whey)- if the whey is not totally clear- then use the remaining tbsp of vinegar and stir for 2 more minutes.
Carefully hold the vessel with a pair of tongs or a thick tea towel and pour the contents through a sieve-collecting the whey in a large vessel.
Lightly press with the back of a ladle to remove excess whey from the solids.
What remains is the paneer.

For any other dish in which you need cubed paneer, you need to use a muslin cloth / clean cotton tea towel. Place the paneer in the middle, cover it on all sides, using the sides of the cloth as flaps.
Place this on a dish and place a heavy weight like a mortar pestle on top of this to flatten it out.
After 15 minutes, cube it and place it in the whey or warm water until you need to use it.

Paneer bhurji is a scramble made using paneer cheese, midly spiced with green chillies and the added texture of finely chopped onions and bell pepper.
For Paneer Bhurji, you don't need to do any of the earlier processes to get cubes. You don't even have to press out too much of the excess whey. This keeps the bhurji moist.




Recipe for Paneer Bhurji
Time taken: 15 minutes or so
Serves 3 people

Paneer from 1 L of milk 
2 tsp oil
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
Pinch of asafoetida (optional)
2 green chillies, finely sliced (or 1 if you want it mildly spicy)
1 medium onion - finely diced
1 medium green bell pepper- finely diced
Tiny pinch of turmeric powder

Directions
  1. Heat the oil in a large steel or non stick wok.
  2. Add the cumin and mustard seeds. Once they splutter, add the asafoetida, chillies, onion and bell pepper, with a pinch of salt.
  3. Saute on medium flame till onions are soft-roughly 7-8 minutes.
  4. Add the freshly made paneer. If you are using store bought paneer, crumble 200 grams and use it now.
  5. Sprinkle tiny pinch of turmeric powder over this and mix well.
  6. Add 1/2 tsp salt and saute well till all spices are mixed.
  7. Remove from flame and garnish with chopped coriander leaves.
  8. Serve with rotis or parathas or with toasted slices of bread.
Notes:
Use a mix of red, yellow and green bell peppers to make this dish super colourful.
You could also use crumbled tofu instead of paneer, although you need to use more chillies to make tofu taste as flavoursome as paneer.
Some people like to add boiled peas to the dish to make it more substantial and colourful.

If you are in Bombay, try the Punjab Dairy paneer or the Darshan dairy paneer. Though it has a whole lot of fat, it is one of the softest paneer I've tasted. In Bangalore, Nandini paneer is decent.

Amma's Cauliflower Peas Koottu

I've separated the cauliflower into florets, kept the kadai on the flame and then, I call Amma.


"...Amma, how do you make that Cauliflower koottu that you serve with rotis for dinner?"
 Amma laughs. 
"But there is no recipe for it. It is the easiest thing ever!"


That's how I extract recipes from my family, often on a weekly basis. So I can taste the flavours of my childhood.


This is one dish that my granny used to make in the evenings, to go with chapathis / rotis. Usually, it would be rice with sambar / rasam and curds for an early lunch before 11 am, then a tiffin time - something light like idlis, dosai, upma etc at around 4 pm and then dinner at 8 pm. Dinner would be either rice or roti. And for rotis, there would be no fancy 'punjabi' side dishes, because on most days my grandparents wont eat onions and garlic and imagine making anything 'fancy' without these two star ingredients.


As a child, this boring stew like vegetable preparation would be no incentive for the rotis. But protesting against any food was unheard of when I was a kid, so I would quietly eat what was served, carefully avoiding any second servings. 






Nowadays, at mum's place, it is always rice (with various accompaniments) for lunch and roti for dinner, so when cauliflower is in season, this dish is almost always made. It is a zero-effort dish, no peeling, cutting onions or garlic, no tomatoes, no ginger even. A potato is usually added to this preparation. Heck, you don't even peel the potato for this recipe. You might wonder how boring this will taste. But there is one secret ingredient in this dish that keeps it far from boring and that is asafoetida. A much ignored and maligned seasoning, it subtly stands out in this dish, making up for the lack of more exciting flavours like onions or garlic.


This winter we got the most amazing, fresh cauliflowers in our local Hopcoms and what better thing to make than this minimalistic dish with simple ingredients. I chopped up the cauliflower into florets, cleaned them in salted water and then made a call to amma, asking her how she makes her cauliflower kootu for rotis. Technically, koottu has some kind of dal along with the vegetables. In this case, it's just easy to call it koottu as the preparation is not entirely dry like a curry. 


When cauliflower is not in season, the same recipe is prepared with cubed or quartered brinjals and potatoes.






Cauliflower Peas Potato Koottu
Serves 3-4
Under 30 minutes
A simple accompaniment for Rotis


Ingredients
2 cups medium sized cauliflower florets
1/2 cup shelled fresh peas or frozen peas
1 large potato, cubed
2 tsp oil
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
Fat pinch of asafoetida (LG asafoetida powder or Goldie's Pure Hing)
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
1-2 tsp sambar powder 
3/4 tsp salt
1 tsp rice flour (optional)


Directions

  1. In a big kadai, heat the oil. Pop the mustard seeds, add the asafoetida. 
  2. Within a few seconds, add the vegetables. Toss them in the oil.
  3. Add salt, 3/4 cup water, turmeric powder, sambar powder. 
  4. Cover with a tight fitting lid and cook on medium heat for around 8 minutes. The vegetables should be just tender and not mushy. If the water dries out in between, add 1/4 cup water to aid cooking.
  5. In the end there should be a few tablespoons of watery 'gravy' in the dish, not fully dry. So adjust water accordingly while cooking.
  6. If you find the end result too watery, then make a slurry of 1 tsp rice flour in a tbsp of cold water, add to the vegetables and bring to a simmer. Remove from flame and serve hot with phulkas.
Minimalistic recipes like these really bring out the flavour of the vegetables due to the use of very few spices. So it is important that the vegetables you use are a 100% fresh. Try it with eggplant and potato, which are in season all year round. If you don't have homemade sambar powder, borrow from a Tambrahm friend or if you rely on any brand that comes close to the authentic taste do share in the comments. You could try making your own sambar powder from our authentic tambrahm recipes blog.

Amma's Cauliflower Peas Koottu

Posted by admin

I've separated the cauliflower into florets, kept the kadai on the flame and then, I call Amma.


"...Amma, how do you make that Cauliflower koottu that you serve with rotis for dinner?"
 Amma laughs. 
"But there is no recipe for it. It is the easiest thing ever!"


That's how I extract recipes from my family, often on a weekly basis. So I can taste the flavours of my childhood.


This is one dish that my granny used to make in the evenings, to go with chapathis / rotis. Usually, it would be rice with sambar / rasam and curds for an early lunch before 11 am, then a tiffin time - something light like idlis, dosai, upma etc at around 4 pm and then dinner at 8 pm. Dinner would be either rice or roti. And for rotis, there would be no fancy 'punjabi' side dishes, because on most days my grandparents wont eat onions and garlic and imagine making anything 'fancy' without these two star ingredients.


As a child, this boring stew like vegetable preparation would be no incentive for the rotis. But protesting against any food was unheard of when I was a kid, so I would quietly eat what was served, carefully avoiding any second servings. 






Nowadays, at mum's place, it is always rice (with various accompaniments) for lunch and roti for dinner, so when cauliflower is in season, this dish is almost always made. It is a zero-effort dish, no peeling, cutting onions or garlic, no tomatoes, no ginger even. A potato is usually added to this preparation. Heck, you don't even peel the potato for this recipe. You might wonder how boring this will taste. But there is one secret ingredient in this dish that keeps it far from boring and that is asafoetida. A much ignored and maligned seasoning, it subtly stands out in this dish, making up for the lack of more exciting flavours like onions or garlic.


This winter we got the most amazing, fresh cauliflowers in our local Hopcoms and what better thing to make than this minimalistic dish with simple ingredients. I chopped up the cauliflower into florets, cleaned them in salted water and then made a call to amma, asking her how she makes her cauliflower kootu for rotis. Technically, koottu has some kind of dal along with the vegetables. In this case, it's just easy to call it koottu as the preparation is not entirely dry like a curry. 


When cauliflower is not in season, the same recipe is prepared with cubed or quartered brinjals and potatoes.






Cauliflower Peas Potato Koottu
Serves 3-4
Under 30 minutes
A simple accompaniment for Rotis


Ingredients
2 cups medium sized cauliflower florets
1/2 cup shelled fresh peas or frozen peas
1 large potato, cubed
2 tsp oil
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
Fat pinch of asafoetida (LG asafoetida powder or Goldie's Pure Hing)
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
1-2 tsp sambar powder 
3/4 tsp salt
1 tsp rice flour (optional)


Directions

  1. In a big kadai, heat the oil. Pop the mustard seeds, add the asafoetida. 
  2. Within a few seconds, add the vegetables. Toss them in the oil.
  3. Add salt, 3/4 cup water, turmeric powder, sambar powder. 
  4. Cover with a tight fitting lid and cook on medium heat for around 8 minutes. The vegetables should be just tender and not mushy. If the water dries out in between, add 1/4 cup water to aid cooking.
  5. In the end there should be a few tablespoons of watery 'gravy' in the dish, not fully dry. So adjust water accordingly while cooking.
  6. If you find the end result too watery, then make a slurry of 1 tsp rice flour in a tbsp of cold water, add to the vegetables and bring to a simmer. Remove from flame and serve hot with phulkas.
Minimalistic recipes like these really bring out the flavour of the vegetables due to the use of very few spices. So it is important that the vegetables you use are a 100% fresh. Try it with eggplant and potato, which are in season all year round. If you don't have homemade sambar powder, borrow from a Tambrahm friend or if you rely on any brand that comes close to the authentic taste do share in the comments. You could try making your own sambar powder from our authentic tambrahm recipes blog.

On how the monstrous zucchini got Tambrahm-ised

[Those who voted for me and got me into the final 6 Healthy Cooking Blogs, thank you! In the finals, my blog as of now is 5th. Feels kinda pointless asking to vote now as the better blogs lead by tons of votes, but if you've loved my work here, go ahead and vote for me. Directions here ]

My garden always surprises me. Which is why I like to take my morning tea up to my terrace garden, perch myself on one of the tiny stone benches and sharing that morning moment with the plants to the background music of the birds. While I try to get a few sips of my tea, a little fruit, a new flower and small shoot will beckon me to admire it. And I will go take a look at them while my tea sits on the bench going cold. Every morning, a new surprise, however little, that makes me smile and sets the mood for the rest of my day. It is an exercise in positivity. Many flowering plants that I assumed were dead, suddenly start showing signs of life as spring is round the corner. My lavender bushes, since 9 months didn't show one sign of flowering and I thought "Damn! The nursery fooled me with a non flowering variety!" And I was proved wrong when the prettiest lavender flowers bloomed this month. If there is a tiny bit of life left in the plant, come spring time and it will revive. What's more beautiful in life than hope, after all?

And then sometimes a garden makes you laugh out loud. Like this monstrously huge zucchini that had been hiding under the huge leaves for nearly a month, that had missed my keen scrutiny each morning only to be found by my driver a few days ago. He showed me this green thing nearly as big as a new born baby-and I shuddered! And then laughed so hard when I knew that it was indeed a zucchini that had hidden away from all prying eyes and grown so big~nearly 2.5 kilos.

Not to show off my (old) iPhone but to give you size perspective :)
This is after a third of the zucchini has been chopped off


I kept it on my table to admire it's beauty for the first 2 days, then it spent a few more days in the refrigerator. When other vegetables came in from the supermarket, this big fellow could no more occupy precious refrigerator real estate and he had to be brought out. 

The husband is not a big fan of zucchinis and though we had shared enough jokes about how big this sly vegetable had grown, his enthusiasm stopped there. When I was cutting it up this morning, he said, "Please, I don't want this for lunch." Since there are very few things he doesn't like, I usually indulge his whims, but this time, I just smiled and said "We will see."

Over the six years that I've been food blogging, I've seen several bloggers making Zucchini thogayal. But zucchini, in India, has always retailed at around Rs.100 a kilo. At that price, why on earth would I want to puree it to death in a blender. I wanted to see and enjoy this vegetable in salads, pasta and such. But thogayal, no way!

But when you have a 5 pounder zucchini sitting on your counter top, the thogayal did indeed seem like a good idea. And boy, did it taste good or what.

Zucchini Thogayal and Zucchini Curry (both recipes below)


For the uninitiated, thogayal or thuvaiyal is a Tambrahm style of converting mildly unpalatable vegetables (Chow-chow, pumpkins, ridge gourds, bottle gourds etc) into chutneys so Tambrahm uncles will mumble good things about the food even if they are eating some vegetable they don't like. Many blogs will say you can eat Thogayal on bread or with idli or dosai or chapathi or pasta or just about anything. I wont say they are lying. But there is only one way to really savour this. Hot rice, gingelly oil (yes, oil and NOT ghee) and thogayal and a roasted appalam on the side.

And the zucchini hating husband tasted some of it, hesitantly, after he had eaten beans curry-rice and rasam and said "Please keep some for me, I want to eat this for dinner."


I guess after this, I can well call this 5 pounder- 'Zucchini Iyer'.




Ingredients
2 medium sized green zucchinis 
1/4 cup scraped fresh or frozen coconut
a tiny piece of tamarind soaked in 2-3 tsp of water
2.5 tsp gingelly oil or any other cooking oil
2 tbsp + 1 tsp udad dal
4 medium dried red chillies
1/2-3/4 tsp salt
2 sprigs curry leaves
Fat pinch asafoetida
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1 green chilli

Directions

  1. Chop the zucchini into medium sized cubes. No need to peel the skin.
  2. Heat 1/2 tsp oil in a pan. Add 2 tbsp udad dal and red chillies and saute on medium heat until the udad dal is golden brown. Remove onto a plate and cool for few minutes.
  3. Heat the remaining 1 tsp oil in same pan. On high heat, scald the chopped zucchini by tossing it around for a minute or so.
  4. Reduce the flame, add 1/4 cup water, pinch of salt, cover and cook till zucchini is tender and fully cooked.
  5. In small mixer-grind the fried udad dal-red chillies, soaked tamarind and coconut to coarse paste. To this add the cooled cooked zucchini, salt and scrape the sides of the mixer and grind to a paste. Remove this into a bowl.
  6. Heat 1-2 tsp oil in a tempering ladle or small kadai. Add pinch of asafoetida, mustard seeds, once they splutter, add curry leaves and udad dal. Wait for dal to turn golden and transfer the tempering over the thogayal.

Notes
Traditionally a lot more coconut is used, so you could use as much as your health consciousness permits.
If you know this one recipe, you will have at least one way to deal with most of the vegetables that the world at large considers boring.


Another way to Tambrahm-ise Zucchini : Zucchini Curry

A small clarification here. In Tambrahm cooking, a curry is not a gravy dish that Brits seem to love. It's a simply prepared dry saute with minimal spices and the star being the tempering. I pressure cooked this for a bit as it was a mature zucchini, if your's is tender, you can simply add it raw and cover and cook till done.


  1. Place 1.5 cups of zucchini pieces (small) in a container in a pressure cooker. Don't add water to zucchini. Pressure cook for one whistle. 
  2. In a kadai, heat 2 tsp oil. Add pinch of asafoetida, 2 dried red chillies, 1 tbsp udad dal, few curry leaves, 1/2 tsp mustard seeds and saute till udad dal is golden. 
  3. To this add the cooked (or raw) zucchini, pinch of turmeric (optional), salt and toss gently to coat with tempering, on a low flame.
  4. Add a bit of fresh coconut and it's ready to serve. Those who find this very bland can add 1-2 tsp of sambar powder or rasam powder towards the end and give it another toss.
See what people on Twitter have to say:

On how the monstrous zucchini got Tambrahm-ised

Posted by admin

[Those who voted for me and got me into the final 6 Healthy Cooking Blogs, thank you! In the finals, my blog as of now is 5th. Feels kinda pointless asking to vote now as the better blogs lead by tons of votes, but if you've loved my work here, go ahead and vote for me. Directions here ]

My garden always surprises me. Which is why I like to take my morning tea up to my terrace garden, perch myself on one of the tiny stone benches and sharing that morning moment with the plants to the background music of the birds. While I try to get a few sips of my tea, a little fruit, a new flower and small shoot will beckon me to admire it. And I will go take a look at them while my tea sits on the bench going cold. Every morning, a new surprise, however little, that makes me smile and sets the mood for the rest of my day. It is an exercise in positivity. Many flowering plants that I assumed were dead, suddenly start showing signs of life as spring is round the corner. My lavender bushes, since 9 months didn't show one sign of flowering and I thought "Damn! The nursery fooled me with a non flowering variety!" And I was proved wrong when the prettiest lavender flowers bloomed this month. If there is a tiny bit of life left in the plant, come spring time and it will revive. What's more beautiful in life than hope, after all?

And then sometimes a garden makes you laugh out loud. Like this monstrously huge zucchini that had been hiding under the huge leaves for nearly a month, that had missed my keen scrutiny each morning only to be found by my driver a few days ago. He showed me this green thing nearly as big as a new born baby-and I shuddered! And then laughed so hard when I knew that it was indeed a zucchini that had hidden away from all prying eyes and grown so big~nearly 2.5 kilos.

Not to show off my (old) iPhone but to give you size perspective :)
This is after a third of the zucchini has been chopped off


I kept it on my table to admire it's beauty for the first 2 days, then it spent a few more days in the refrigerator. When other vegetables came in from the supermarket, this big fellow could no more occupy precious refrigerator real estate and he had to be brought out. 

The husband is not a big fan of zucchinis and though we had shared enough jokes about how big this sly vegetable had grown, his enthusiasm stopped there. When I was cutting it up this morning, he said, "Please, I don't want this for lunch." Since there are very few things he doesn't like, I usually indulge his whims, but this time, I just smiled and said "We will see."

Over the six years that I've been food blogging, I've seen several bloggers making Zucchini thogayal. But zucchini, in India, has always retailed at around Rs.100 a kilo. At that price, why on earth would I want to puree it to death in a blender. I wanted to see and enjoy this vegetable in salads, pasta and such. But thogayal, no way!

But when you have a 5 pounder zucchini sitting on your counter top, the thogayal did indeed seem like a good idea. And boy, did it taste good or what.

Zucchini Thogayal and Zucchini Curry (both recipes below)


For the uninitiated, thogayal or thuvaiyal is a Tambrahm style of converting mildly unpalatable vegetables (Chow-chow, pumpkins, ridge gourds, bottle gourds etc) into chutneys so Tambrahm uncles will mumble good things about the food even if they are eating some vegetable they don't like. Many blogs will say you can eat Thogayal on bread or with idli or dosai or chapathi or pasta or just about anything. I wont say they are lying. But there is only one way to really savour this. Hot rice, gingelly oil (yes, oil and NOT ghee) and thogayal and a roasted appalam on the side.

And the zucchini hating husband tasted some of it, hesitantly, after he had eaten beans curry-rice and rasam and said "Please keep some for me, I want to eat this for dinner."


I guess after this, I can well call this 5 pounder- 'Zucchini Iyer'.




Ingredients
2 medium sized green zucchinis 
1/4 cup scraped fresh or frozen coconut
a tiny piece of tamarind soaked in 2-3 tsp of water
2.5 tsp gingelly oil or any other cooking oil
2 tbsp + 1 tsp udad dal
4 medium dried red chillies
1/2-3/4 tsp salt
2 sprigs curry leaves
Fat pinch asafoetida
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1 green chilli

Directions

  1. Chop the zucchini into medium sized cubes. No need to peel the skin.
  2. Heat 1/2 tsp oil in a pan. Add 2 tbsp udad dal and red chillies and saute on medium heat until the udad dal is golden brown. Remove onto a plate and cool for few minutes.
  3. Heat the remaining 1 tsp oil in same pan. On high heat, scald the chopped zucchini by tossing it around for a minute or so.
  4. Reduce the flame, add 1/4 cup water, pinch of salt, cover and cook till zucchini is tender and fully cooked.
  5. In small mixer-grind the fried udad dal-red chillies, soaked tamarind and coconut to coarse paste. To this add the cooled cooked zucchini, salt and scrape the sides of the mixer and grind to a paste. Remove this into a bowl.
  6. Heat 1-2 tsp oil in a tempering ladle or small kadai. Add pinch of asafoetida, mustard seeds, once they splutter, add curry leaves and udad dal. Wait for dal to turn golden and transfer the tempering over the thogayal.

Notes
Traditionally a lot more coconut is used, so you could use as much as your health consciousness permits.
If you know this one recipe, you will have at least one way to deal with most of the vegetables that the world at large considers boring.


Another way to Tambrahm-ise Zucchini : Zucchini Curry

A small clarification here. In Tambrahm cooking, a curry is not a gravy dish that Brits seem to love. It's a simply prepared dry saute with minimal spices and the star being the tempering. I pressure cooked this for a bit as it was a mature zucchini, if your's is tender, you can simply add it raw and cover and cook till done.


  1. Place 1.5 cups of zucchini pieces (small) in a container in a pressure cooker. Don't add water to zucchini. Pressure cook for one whistle. 
  2. In a kadai, heat 2 tsp oil. Add pinch of asafoetida, 2 dried red chillies, 1 tbsp udad dal, few curry leaves, 1/2 tsp mustard seeds and saute till udad dal is golden. 
  3. To this add the cooked (or raw) zucchini, pinch of turmeric (optional), salt and toss gently to coat with tempering, on a low flame.
  4. Add a bit of fresh coconut and it's ready to serve. Those who find this very bland can add 1-2 tsp of sambar powder or rasam powder towards the end and give it another toss.
See what people on Twitter have to say:

Spinach Lentil Soup - Lunch for one


Spinach Lentil Soup
(Click for larger image)


Cooking for oneself can get extremely boring and uninspiring even for a food blogger. Sandwich, salad or soup is easily made for one person, without going through the bother of making a 3 part Indian meal like roti, vegetable and dal. It is also a good way to compensate a heavy dinner buffet of the previous night. A soup like this is a perfect alternative to skipping a meal. The latter, as a nutrition doctor, I will never advocate.

Any fresh greens can be used instead of spinach and I have used Masoor Dal which are one of the lightest and fastest cooking lentils around. The 1.5L Hawkins Pressure Cooker is a blessing when cooking for one or a small family of two or for making your baby's meals. Whether it is cooking dal or rice in a matter of minutes, or making a light gravy vegetable in the cooker itself - this is one piece of kitchen equipment that I find indispensable.



Printable Version of Recipe


  1. Wash 1/4 cup masoor dal well and place it directly in the smallest pressure cooker you have. To this add a cup of well washed spinach leaves, discarding the thicker stems. Also add 1-2 cloves of peeled garlic.
  2. Add a cup of water and pressure cook for 2 whistles and 5 minutes on sim.
  3. Once the contents have cooled, puree finely in a blender. Keep aside.
  4. In a small saucepan, heat 1/2 tsp oil or ghee.
  5. Add a tiny pinch of asafoetida, 1/4 tsp of cumin seeds and 1/4 tsp of ground black pepper. Once the cumin seeds splutter, add the pureed soup and required quantity of water to achieve the desired consistency. Bring to a boil. Season with salt and some more pepper if required. Remove to a bowl.

Serve hot with soup sticks, bread or a salad on the side.

This is a delicately flavoured soup that will also make a good option of stage 2 solid food for your baby. You can leave out the black pepper and take care to wash the spinach extra well, even if you buy pre-washed leaves. For an older baby, you can soak bread slice or roti pieces for more texture and a more filling meal.
Next time, I will add more cumin seeds, because the taste of the fried seeds and their crunchy texture was quite yummy!

And hey, my favourite Blogger is offering 4 Dynamic Views - Check out the links below and tell me which you like...I love all four and can't decide which one looks better.

Mosaic View
Flipcard View
Snapshot View
Timeslide View
Sidebar View

Spinach Lentil Soup - Lunch for one

Posted by admin


Spinach Lentil Soup
(Click for larger image)


Cooking for oneself can get extremely boring and uninspiring even for a food blogger. Sandwich, salad or soup is easily made for one person, without going through the bother of making a 3 part Indian meal like roti, vegetable and dal. It is also a good way to compensate a heavy dinner buffet of the previous night. A soup like this is a perfect alternative to skipping a meal. The latter, as a nutrition doctor, I will never advocate.

Any fresh greens can be used instead of spinach and I have used Masoor Dal which are one of the lightest and fastest cooking lentils around. The 1.5L Hawkins Pressure Cooker is a blessing when cooking for one or a small family of two or for making your baby's meals. Whether it is cooking dal or rice in a matter of minutes, or making a light gravy vegetable in the cooker itself - this is one piece of kitchen equipment that I find indispensable.



Printable Version of Recipe


  1. Wash 1/4 cup masoor dal well and place it directly in the smallest pressure cooker you have. To this add a cup of well washed spinach leaves, discarding the thicker stems. Also add 1-2 cloves of peeled garlic.
  2. Add a cup of water and pressure cook for 2 whistles and 5 minutes on sim.
  3. Once the contents have cooled, puree finely in a blender. Keep aside.
  4. In a small saucepan, heat 1/2 tsp oil or ghee.
  5. Add a tiny pinch of asafoetida, 1/4 tsp of cumin seeds and 1/4 tsp of ground black pepper. Once the cumin seeds splutter, add the pureed soup and required quantity of water to achieve the desired consistency. Bring to a boil. Season with salt and some more pepper if required. Remove to a bowl.

Serve hot with soup sticks, bread or a salad on the side.

This is a delicately flavoured soup that will also make a good option of stage 2 solid food for your baby. You can leave out the black pepper and take care to wash the spinach extra well, even if you buy pre-washed leaves. For an older baby, you can soak bread slice or roti pieces for more texture and a more filling meal.
Next time, I will add more cumin seeds, because the taste of the fried seeds and their crunchy texture was quite yummy!

And hey, my favourite Blogger is offering 4 Dynamic Views - Check out the links below and tell me which you like...I love all four and can't decide which one looks better.

Mosaic View
Flipcard View
Snapshot View
Timeslide View
Sidebar View

Chettinad Style Senai (Elephant Yam) Curry

Elephant Yam / Senai / Sooran is one of those vegetables that my mom always gets home from the market. The whole sooran weighs around 3 kilos, with a rough muddy exterior and smooth pink interior.

Simple yam curry with a sprinkle of fresh coconut is their comfort food with rasam sadam (rasam-rice). However, my skin gets all red and itchy if I happen to touch this in the raw form, which is why I can never buy it from a market, where a piece is cut off the large vegetable and sold by weight.
In supermarkets, it is a different deal. Cut pieces are neatly wrapped in several layers of plastic wrap.
I have seen yam peeled and cubed, sold frozen in some Indian stores in the US.

Here, when I get home this itchy vegetable, it is usually the plastic wrapped variety from the supermarket, which my househelp cleans and cuts into cubes, ready to be used. If you are handling yam for the first time, make sure you wear sturdy gloves because a large number of people I know have skin allergy to the raw vegetable. Some experience itchy tongue and throat after eating the cooked vegetable too.

Yam like any other starchy vegetable, when pressure cooked without its skin, can turn into a mush pretty quickly and in a closed cooker it is a process that can easily get out of control. Which is why, although i am a big advocate of pressure cooking, I make an exception here, to boil the pieces in water with salt and turmeric, remove them when they are just tender and proceed with the curry.

In a traditional Tambram style, once the pieces are cooked in salted water, they are drained. Mustard seeds, asafoetida, udad dal and dried chillies are tempered in hot oil and then the boiled yam cubes added with any required salt and a little bit of sambar powder for taste. It is finished off with a light garnish of freshly scraped coconut.

The Chettinad style is slightly spicier and more fragrant because of use of fennel seeds (saunf/sombu). You can also add crushed garlic to the tempering for more punch, which I have avoided.
This is a very simple recipe, the only thing is to get the yam cubes boiled to the right degree, so it does not turn mushy and pasty.



Recipe for Chettinad Style Senai Curry
Serves 2-3 
Time taken: Under 20 minutes

Ingredients
250 grams yam, skinned and cut into roughly 2 cm cubes
2 cups water
1/2 tsp salt
Pinch of turmeric powder

1/2-1 tsp red chilli powder
1 tsp of coriander powder
1/2 tsp salt
2-3 tsp of desiccated or fresh coconut
Handful of mint leaves (optional)

For tempering
2 tsp oil
Pinch of asafoetida
2 sprigs curry leaves
3 dried red chillies, broken
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 tsp fennel seeds
2 tsp chana dal
1 tsp udad dal

Directions
In a vessel, place 2 cups of water with 1/2 tsp salt and pinch of turmeric powder. Bring it to a rapid boil.
Add the cubed yam to this, cover with a lid, leaving a small opening for the steam to escape.
Check with a knife to see when it is nearly tender. This should take around 6-8 minutes depending on the variety of yam.
Remove this in a colander / sieve and allow to drain well.
Meanwhile, prepare the tempering. Heat the oil in a non stick kadai (wok). Add all tempering ingredients one after the other, and stir on medium flame till the udad dal and chana dal turn golden brown.
To this add the drained yam cubes, red chilli powder, coriander powder, coconut and mint leaves. Toss gently to coat well. Add the remaining 1/2 tsp salt as per taste. On a low flame, let this crisp up a bit.
Serve hot with roti or with any sambar or mor kozhambu and rice.


Variations
Most starchy vegetables like colocassia (seppankizhangu), potatoes, sweet potatoes, plantains (vazhakkaai) or a mix of these can be prepared in this manner.

Chettinad Style Senai (Elephant Yam) Curry

Posted by admin

Elephant Yam / Senai / Sooran is one of those vegetables that my mom always gets home from the market. The whole sooran weighs around 3 kilos, with a rough muddy exterior and smooth pink interior.

Simple yam curry with a sprinkle of fresh coconut is their comfort food with rasam sadam (rasam-rice). However, my skin gets all red and itchy if I happen to touch this in the raw form, which is why I can never buy it from a market, where a piece is cut off the large vegetable and sold by weight.
In supermarkets, it is a different deal. Cut pieces are neatly wrapped in several layers of plastic wrap.
I have seen yam peeled and cubed, sold frozen in some Indian stores in the US.

Here, when I get home this itchy vegetable, it is usually the plastic wrapped variety from the supermarket, which my househelp cleans and cuts into cubes, ready to be used. If you are handling yam for the first time, make sure you wear sturdy gloves because a large number of people I know have skin allergy to the raw vegetable. Some experience itchy tongue and throat after eating the cooked vegetable too.

Yam like any other starchy vegetable, when pressure cooked without its skin, can turn into a mush pretty quickly and in a closed cooker it is a process that can easily get out of control. Which is why, although i am a big advocate of pressure cooking, I make an exception here, to boil the pieces in water with salt and turmeric, remove them when they are just tender and proceed with the curry.

In a traditional Tambram style, once the pieces are cooked in salted water, they are drained. Mustard seeds, asafoetida, udad dal and dried chillies are tempered in hot oil and then the boiled yam cubes added with any required salt and a little bit of sambar powder for taste. It is finished off with a light garnish of freshly scraped coconut.

The Chettinad style is slightly spicier and more fragrant because of use of fennel seeds (saunf/sombu). You can also add crushed garlic to the tempering for more punch, which I have avoided.
This is a very simple recipe, the only thing is to get the yam cubes boiled to the right degree, so it does not turn mushy and pasty.



Recipe for Chettinad Style Senai Curry
Serves 2-3 
Time taken: Under 20 minutes

Ingredients
250 grams yam, skinned and cut into roughly 2 cm cubes
2 cups water
1/2 tsp salt
Pinch of turmeric powder

1/2-1 tsp red chilli powder
1 tsp of coriander powder
1/2 tsp salt
2-3 tsp of desiccated or fresh coconut
Handful of mint leaves (optional)

For tempering
2 tsp oil
Pinch of asafoetida
2 sprigs curry leaves
3 dried red chillies, broken
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 tsp fennel seeds
2 tsp chana dal
1 tsp udad dal

Directions
In a vessel, place 2 cups of water with 1/2 tsp salt and pinch of turmeric powder. Bring it to a rapid boil.
Add the cubed yam to this, cover with a lid, leaving a small opening for the steam to escape.
Check with a knife to see when it is nearly tender. This should take around 6-8 minutes depending on the variety of yam.
Remove this in a colander / sieve and allow to drain well.
Meanwhile, prepare the tempering. Heat the oil in a non stick kadai (wok). Add all tempering ingredients one after the other, and stir on medium flame till the udad dal and chana dal turn golden brown.
To this add the drained yam cubes, red chilli powder, coriander powder, coconut and mint leaves. Toss gently to coat well. Add the remaining 1/2 tsp salt as per taste. On a low flame, let this crisp up a bit.
Serve hot with roti or with any sambar or mor kozhambu and rice.


Variations
Most starchy vegetables like colocassia (seppankizhangu), potatoes, sweet potatoes, plantains (vazhakkaai) or a mix of these can be prepared in this manner.

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